my voice, I will call upon him so long as I live," as if it had
never loved before. They will love much to whom much is forgiven. Love,
without such a faith, is full of jealousies and suspicions, but when faith
hath brought in Christ to dwell in the heart, then it is rooted and built
up in love, (Eph. iii. 17) and then perfect love casts out fear, 1 John
iv. 18. Love before such an assurance, is but a tormenting love, and hath
much fear in it, saying, "Oh I may want him, and then I will be more
miserable than if I had not known him." But faith, giving the answer of a
good conscience, casts out horror and fear, and then perfects love, and
the soul then closes with Christ as a Mediator and friend, and closes with
God as a merciful Father, now reconciled unto him through Christ, and not
any more as a stern or severe Judge. But,

Thirdly. When faith hath purified the heart, and cleansed the affections,
then the soul burns with a purer flame of affection and zeal to God, and
is, as it were, delivered from the earthly weight put upon it. When the
heart is purified, love is like the flame, whereas, if he be not so
purged, there may be some heat and fire latent in the ashes, covered with
corruption. But a pure heart is a spiritual heart, and minds spiritual
things, (Col. iii. 1) and it is a heart going back unto its own place,
Christ hath touched it with his own heart, and with his salvation, and it
looks aye(481) sure to him in the heavens. The love of the world is
inconsistent with the love of the Father, 1 John ii. 15. The love of the
world plucks the heart downward, and the lusts of the flesh are so many
weights upon the believer, that he can not mount up in a spiritual cloud
of divine affection to Jesus Christ. But the pure and spiritual heart is
now more refined, and delivered from these impediments, and it is like a
pure lamp of oil burning upward. When a man's heart is engaged to any
thing of this world, love cannot be perfect. For love is a man's master,
and no man can serve two masters.

Sermon XV.

Matt. vi. 33.--"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness," &c.

This is a part of Christ's long sermon. He is dissuading his disciples and
the people from carnal carefulness and worldly mindedness. The sermon
holds out the Christian's diverse aspects towards spiritual and external
things. What is the Christian's disposition in regard to the world, how
should he look upon fo