496 SER ream of a fleeting nature love confiant. The Cup of Blef ing. ro lave his life he will doe it : Take a c him be on the racke, he will be ready t but yet the man is the fame : And fo fora man to doe much for Chrifr, to doe as we are ready to doe in the time of extremity, when death comes, when fickneffe comes, when we are under fome great croffe that is up- on us, when confcience is troubled, I fay, in thefe cafes to doe it, the Lord regards it not : This therefore is the Condition that is required to be done out of love ; it is a rule in the CivilI -law, CentraUm qui ftper mineu,nul- lru of ; The contracts that are gotten by threatnings, are no contras at all , but if a Virgin confent , when fhee is free , when it is done without compulfaon that makes the match ; So it is betweene Chrift and us, for us to take him and to keepe his Commandements, and to doe it out offeare and other refpeets, this Chrift re- gards not, it is love that makes the match : If wee take him out of love, if all wee doe, be done out of love, then there is a match betweene us, otherwife not, And there is good reafon for that, becaufe feare is ofa fleeting nature, it foone paífes and vanifhes away but when it is rooted and grounded in love, when that which we doe,comes from this principle,then we holà out and cleave to Chrift , wi hout leparating againe; when that proceeds from feare, we doe it not with de- light , we doe it not with propenfeneffe, with proclivi- ty of minde, with an inward willingneffe. Now the Lord fo loves a cheerefull giver, a cheerefull fervanr, and a cheerefull performer, that he loves no other : And therefore that Condition is required to Delight in the law, in the inward man that wee doe not onely keepe his Commandements, but that they be nor grie. vous ovetous man, Ì o doe any thing,
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