[2.] When we have a carnal notion of the true rewards of godliness. Carnal men look upon heaven as a place of ease and pleasure. When Christ had spoken of the bread that will make men live for ever : John vi. 34, they cried out, ' Evermore give us of this bread of life.' They thought no more tlian of an everlasting continuance in the present earthly estate. Such carnal notions have men of heaven, as of a Turkish paradise ; but to know God and love God, and have the sold filled up with God, to be with Christ and to be perfected in
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holiness, these things work little upon them. The heaven of christians is to enjoy an everlasting communion with God. To live in the belief and hopes of such a heaven, and to delight our souls in the forethought of the endless sight and love of God, this is a true act of sincere love to Christ, seeking its full satisfaction. Here we see him but as in a glass, there face to face. We shall behold the glory of God in heaven, and the delights of love will then be perfect. But usually men have a carnal notion of heaven, by a voluptuous life, without labour, and pain, and trouble, and this tainteth their hearts ; their apprehensions of benefit by Christ are feculent, earthly, and drossy.
[3.] When our respects to benefits are disorderly, not in the fi'ame wherein God hath set them. As, for instance, when we desire some benefits, and not others, or hate his ways and love his benefits : Num. xxiii. 10, ' Oh that I might die the death of the righteous.' They love him as a redeemer, but hate him as a law-giver. A carnal man would sever the benefits from the duties ; as Ephraim is as a heifer not taught, which v/ould tread out the corn, but not break the clods, Hos. X. 11. Their threshing was by the feet of oxen shod with iron. Now the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn was not to be muzzled. But harrowing, and breaking the clods, was a mere labour, and no privilege ; they would do the one, but not the other. If you love Christ's benefits, you must love them altogether ; not taking one, and leaving out another ; you shall not have pardon without sanctifi- cation, nor the comforts of his Spirit without his quickening and purifying influence ; nor freedom from hell, without freedom from sin. Christ must guide you and rule you, dwell in you, and bless you, and justify you, and whatever he is made of God, that he -must be to you, 1 Cor. i. 30. He will not give you any such grace as shall discharge you from duty, and be a kind of license and privilege to sin.
[4.] When we rest in the lowest acts of love, and do not go on to perfection. The first acts have more of self-love in them than love to God ; you must go on from them to gratitude, and from gratitude to adoration, an humble adoration of the divine excellences ; for the divine excellences are lovely in themselves, as well as his benefits are comfortable to us ; and by an acquaintance with God in Christ, we must settle into a more entire friendship with him, and delight as much in praising him for his excellences, as we do in blessing him for his benefits. The angels and blessed spirits that are above do admire and adore God, because of the excellences of his nature ; not only for the benefits they have received from him. They are represented as crying out, Isa. vi. 3, ' Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts,' by admiring, and being affected with his holy nature and sovereign majesty and dominion ; and are we no way concerned in this ? Sui'cly God must be lauded and served on earth as he is in heaven, and though we cannot reach to their degree, yet some kind of this respect belongeth unto us. In the Kevelation the four living wights, and twenty-four elders, are brought in : Rev. iv. 8, ' Saying, Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.' Now by the four beasts, or four living wights, and the twenty-four elders, the interpreters generally understand the gospel church, who are
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coiitinuall}^ praising God for the unity of bis essence, the trinity of peisons, together with his eternity, omnipotency and hohness, to show we shoukl love these things, and be affected with these things, as well as his bounty and goodness to us. Indeed a christian is like a river ; when it first boileth up out of the fountain, it contenteth itself with a little hole, but afterwards it seeketh for a larger channel, but is still pent within banks and bounds ; but when it emptieth itself into the ocean, it expatiateth and enlargeth itself, and is wholly mingled with the ocean.
Second case is about the actual persuasion of God's love to us. For since this love of gratitude ariseth from a sense or apprehension of God's love to us in Christ ; therefore God's children are troubled when they cannot make particular application, as Paul, and say, ' He loved me, and gave himself for me,' Gal. ii. 20.