Christ is the first gift to the Church. When God hath given Christ, then comes the Spirit, and works in the heart a gracious acceptance of mercy ofiered. The Spirit works an assurance of the love and mercy of * Qu. ' melted '?— Ed.
VOL. VI. 0
84 THE TENDER HEART.
Gotl. Now loYC and mcrc}' felt, ^York upon the tender heart a reflective love to God again. What, hath the great God of heaven and earth sent Christ into the world for mo ? humhled himself to the death of the cross for me ? and hath he let angels alone, and left many thousands in the world, to choose nie ? and hath he sent his ministers to reveal unto me this assurance of the love and mercy of God ? This consideration cannot but work love to God again ; for love is a kind of lire which melts the heart. So that when our souls are persuaded that God loves us from ever- lasting, then we reflect our love to him again ; and then our heart says to God, ' Speak, Lord ; what wilt thou have me to do ?' The soul is i:»liable for doing, for suflering, for anything God will have it. Then, * Speak, Lord, for thy servant hearcth,' 1 Sam. iii. 9.
And when the heart is thus wrought upon, and made tender by the Spirit, then afterward in the proceeding of our lives, many things will work tenderness : as the works of God, his judgments, the word and sacraments, ■when they are made effectual by the Spirit of God, work tenderness. The promises of God also make the heart tender, as Rom. xii. 1, *I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, offer up your souls and bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.' There is no such like argument to persuade men to tenderness of heart, as to propound the love and mercy of God. And so the fear of any judgment will work tenderness. This made Josiah's heart to melt, but yet this did not work first upon him ; for he having a tender heart before, and being sure of God's love, when he heard the judgment that should come upon his people, out of love to God and to his people, his heart melted, not so much for fear of judgment, but to think that God should be provoked by the sins of his people.
And thus we have seen how tenderness of heart is wrought. Now I come to shew,
2. Second, The means hov ire may preserve this tenderness of heart , because it is a disposition of God's children. How then shall we preserve ourselves in such a perpetual temper ? The way to preserve a tender heart is,
1. First, To he under the means wherebi/ God's Spirit will icork ; for it is he by his Spirit that works upon the heart, and doth preserve tenderness in us ; and he will work only by his own means. All the devices in the world will not work upon the heart. Therefore let us be under the means that may preserve tenderness, and hear what God's word says of our estate by nature, of the wrath and justice of God, and of the judgment that will shortly come upon all the world. This made Paul to cry, though he knew that he was the child of God, and free from the law. ' Therefore,' saith he, * knowing the terror of the law, we admonish you.'
2. And then, go into the house of mourninfj, and present before yourselves the miserable and forlorn estate of the church of God abroad. It was this that broke Nehemiah's heart. When he heard that the Jews were in great affliction and reproach, that the wall of the city was broken down, and the gates thereof burnt with fire, he sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Neb. i. 4. This made this good man Nchemiah to mourn, so that all the princes of the court could not comfort him. This also made Moses's heart to melt, when he looked on his brethren's affliction in Egypt. So wo might keep our hearts tender if we did but set before our eyes the pitiful estate of God's church abroad, and that we may come to be in such an estate ourselves ere long.
3. And if thou wilt preserve tenderness of heart, labour for a leyal and evanyelical faith. We must believe that all the threatenings of God's
THE TENDEE HEART. 35
vengeance against the wicked shall come to pass. Faith doth make those things present before our eyes ; for it is the nature of faith to set things absent as present before us. What makes the malefactor to tremble and be cast down, but when he sees that he is read}^ for to die, is going to the place of execution, and sees death look him in the face ? So faith setting the day of judgment before our eyes, will make us to tremble. Therefore Paul doth so often adjure Timothy by the coming of the Lord Jesus to judgment, 2 Tim. iv. 1 ; and Enoch set the day of judgment before him, at the beginning of the world, as we may see in Jude 14. He had a faith, that set things to come as present, and made him to walk with God. So if we had an evangelical faith to believe the goodness of God, pardon from him, and everlasting life, this would preserve tenderness of heart.