BOOK 3. THE PROMISE.
CHAPTER 2.
3.2.6. Of Loving Jesus in that Respect.
Of Loving Jesus in that Respect.
We must love Jesus, as carrying on this great work of our salvation in a way of covenant. I know love is reckoned as the first and fundamental passion of all the rest; some call it the first springing or outgoing affection of the soul: and therefore I might have put it in the first place before hope or desire, but I choose rather to place it in this method, as, methinks, most agreeing, if not to the order of nature, yet to the spiritual workings, as they appear in my soul: when a good is propounded, first I desire, and then I hope, and then I believe, and then I love. And some describing this spiritual love: they tell me. It is an holy disposition of the heart, arising from faith." Dr. Preston, of love. But, to let these niceties pass for a spider's web, curious but thin, certain it is, that I cannot believe all these transactions of God by Christ in a covenant-way for me, but I must needs love that God, and love that Christ, who hath thus firstly and freely loved my soul: Go on then, O my soul, put fire to the earth, blow on thy little spark, set before thee God's love, and thou canst not but love, and therein consider, 1. The time. 2. The properties. 3. The effects of God's love.
1. For the time; he loved thee before the world was made; hast thou not heard, and wilt thou ever forget it? Were not these ancient loves from all eternity admirable, astonishing, ravishing loves?
(a). He loved thee in the very beginning of the world, was not the promise expressed to Adam, intended for thee? As thou sinnedst in his loins, so didst thou not in his loins receive the promise, "It shall bruise thy head?" And not long after, when God established his covenant with Abraham and his seed, wast thou not one of that seed of Abraham? If ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise," Gal. iii. 29.
(b). He loves thee now more especially, not only with a love of benevolence, as before, but with a love of complacency: not only hath he struck covenant with Christ, with Adam, with Abraham in thy behalf: but particularly and personally with thyself; and O what a love is this? If a woman, lately conceiving, love her future fruit; how much more doth she love it when it is born and embraced in her arms? So if God loved thee before thou hadst a being; yea, before the world, or any creature in it had a being, how much more now? O the heighth, and depth, and length, and breadth of this immeasurable love! O, my soul, I cannot express the loves of God in Christ to thee; I but draw the picture of the sun with a coal, when I endeavour to express God's love in Christ.
2. For the properties of this love.
(a). God's love to thee is an eternal love. He was thinking in his eternity of thee in this manner, "At such a time there shall be such a man, and such a woman living on the earth, in the last times such a one (I mean thou that readest, if thou believest) and to that soul I will reveal myself, and communicate my loves; to that soul I will offer Christ, and give it the hand of faith to lay hold on Christ; and to that purpose now I write down thy name in the book of life, and none shall be able to blot it out again." Oh, eternal love! Oh, the blessed transactions between the Father and the Son, from all eternity, to manifest his love to thy very soul!
(b). God's love to thee is a choice love: it is an elective, separating love; when he passed by, and left many thousands, then, even then he sets his heart on thee; "Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith God? Yet I loved Jacob, and hated Esau," Mal. xii. 3. So, wert not thou such a one's brother, or such a one's sister that remained wicked and ungodly? Were not thou of such a family, whereas many, or some, are passed by, and yet God hath loved thee, and pitched his love on thee? Surely this is choice love.
(c). God's love to thee is a free love; I will love them freely," saith God, Hos. xiv. 4, "And the Lord did not set his love upon you, and choose you, because ye were more in number than any people, -- but because the Lord loved you." Deut. vii. 7, 8. There can be no other reason why the Lord loved thee, but because he loved thee; we use to say, This is a woman's reason; "I will do it because I will do it." But here we find it is God's reason, though it may seem strange arguing, yet Moses can go no higher; he loved thee. Why! Because he loved thee.
(d). God's love to thee is love of all relations; look what a friend's love is to a friend; or what a father's love is towards a child or what an husband's love is towards a wife, such is God's love to thee; thou art his friend, his son, his daughter, his spouse: and God is thy all in all.
3. For the effects of his love,
(a). God so loves thee, as that he hath entered into a covenant with thee. O what a love was this? Tell me, O my soul, is there not an infinite disparity betwixt God and thee? He is God above, and thou art a worm below: "He is the high and lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy," and thou art less than the least of all the mercies of God; O wonder at such a condescension! that such a potter, and such a former of things should come on terms of bargaining with such clay as is guilty before him! had we the tongues of men and angels, we could never express it.
(b). God so loves thee, as that in the covenant he gives thee all his promises; indeed what is the covenant but an accumulation, or heap of promises! As a cluster of stars makes a constellation, so a mass of promises concurreth in the covenant of grace: wherever Christ is, clusters of divine promises grow out of him; as the motes, rays, and beams, are from the sun. I shall instance in some few. As --
(i). God in the covenant gives the world. "All is yours, whether Taul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world," 1 Cor. iii. 22. "First seek the kingdom of God; and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you," Matth. vi. 33. These temporary blessings are a part of the covenant, which God hath made to his people, "It is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore unto thy fathers," Dent. viii. 18. Others, I know, may have the world, but they have it not by a covenant right; it may be thou hast but a little, a very little of the world; well, but thou hast it by a covenant-right, and so it is an earnest of all the rest.
(ii). As God in the covenant gives thee the world, so in comparison of thee and his other saints, he cares not what becomes of all the world. "I loved thee, saith God, therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life," Isa xliii. 4. If the case be so, that it cannot be well with thee, but great evils, must come upon others, kindred, people, and nations, "I do not so much care for them, saith God, my heart is on thee, so as in comparison of thee, I care not what becomes of all the world." O the love of Cod to his saints.
(iii). God in the covenant pardons thy sins, this is another fruit of God's love, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins by his own blood," Rev. i. 5. It cost him dear to pardon our sins, even the heart-blood of Christ, such were the transactions betwixt God and Christ. If thou would take upon thee to deliver souls from sin, saith God to his Son, thou must come thyself and be made a curse for their sin: Well, saith Christ, Thy will be done in it, though I lose my life, though it cost me the best blood in my heart, yet let me deliver them from sin, this exceedingly heightens Christ's love, that he should foresee their sin, and that yet he should love; many times we set our love on some untoward unthankful creatures, and we say. Could I have but foreseen this untowardness, they should never have had my love; but now the Lord did foresee all thy sins, and all thy ill requitals for love, and yet it did not once hinder his love towards thee, but he puts this in the covenant, "I will forgive their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
(iv). God in the covenant gives thee holiness and sanctification, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean, from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you," Ezek. xxxvi. 25. This holiness is our excellency in the eyes of men and angels: this is the crown and diadem upon the heads of saints; whence David calls them, by the name of "excellent ones," Psal. xvi. 3. Holiness is a "Spirit of glory" 1 Pet iv. 14. It is the delight of God; as a father Relights himself in seeing his own image in his children, so God delights himself in the holiness of his saints; God loved them before with a love of benevolence and good will, but now he loves them with a love of complacency, "The Lord takes pleasure in those that fear him; the Lord takes pleasure in his people" Psal. cxlvii. 11. and cxlix. 4. Holiness is the very essence of God, the divine nature of God. O! what is this that God should put his own nature into thee? You are partakers of the divine nature, O what a love is this. That God should put his own life into thee? That he should enable thee to live the very same life that he himself lives? Remember that piece of the covenant, "I will put my law into their inward parts, and write it in their hearts."
(v). God in the covenant gives thee the knowledge of himself: it may be that thou knewest him before, but it is another kind of knowledge that now God gives thee than thou hadst before: when God teaches the soul to know him, it looks on him with another eye, it sees now another beauty in God than ever it saw before, for all that knowledge that it had before bred not love, only covenant-knowledge of God, works in the soul a true love of God. But how doth his covenant-knowledge work this love? I shall tell you my own experiences? I go through all the virtues, graces, and excellencies that are most amiable; and I look in the scriptures, and there I find in God alone; if ever I saw any excellency in any man, or in any creature, I think with myself there is more in God that made that creature; "he that made the eye, shall not he see?" And so he that made that loveliness, is not he lovely? Now, when by these mediums I have presented God thus lovely to my soul, then I begin to feel my heart to warm. As, when I conceive such an idea of a man, that he is of such a carriage, behaviour, disposition; that he hath a mind thus and thus framed, qualified, and beautified, why then I love them, so when I apprehend the Lord aright, when I observe him as he is described in his word, when I observe his doings, and consider his workings and learn from all these together a right idea, opinion, or apprehension of him, then my will follows my understanding, and my affections follow them both, and I come to love God, and to delight in God; O here is a sweet knowledge! surely it was God's love in Christ to put this blessed article into the covenant of grace, "they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord."
(vi). God in the covenant of grace gives thee his Son, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life," John iii. 16 . Nay more, as Gcd hath given thee his Son, so he hath given thee himself. O my soul, wouldst thou not think it marvellous love, if God should say to thee, "Come, soul, I will give thee all the world for thy portion; or that I may give thee a testimony that I love thee, I will make another world for thy sake, and will make thee emperor of it also." Surely thou would say, God loves me dearly; ay, but in that God hath given thee his Son, and given thee himself, this is a greater degree of love, Christians, stand amazed! Oh what love is this to the children of men? Oh that we should live to have our ears filled with this sound from heaven? "I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee, I am the Lord thy God, I will be their God, and they shall be my people." O my soul? where hast thou been? Rouse up, and recollect, and set before thee all the passages of God's love in Christ; are not these strong attractives to gain thy loves? What wilt thou do? Canst thou choose to love the Lord thy God? Shall not all this love of God in Christ to thee constrain thy love? It is the expression of the apostle, "The love of Christ constrains us," 2 Cor. v. 14. God in Christ is the very element of love, and whether should love go but to the element? Air goes to air, and earth to earth, and all the rivers to the sea: every element will to its proper place. Now, "God is love," 1 John iv. 16. And whether should thy love be carried but to the ocean or sea of love, "Come my beloved (saith the spouse to Christ) let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the vine flourish, whither the tender grapes appear, there will I give thee my loves," Cant. vii. 12. The flourishing of the vine, and the appearing of the tender grapes, are the fruits of the graces of God in the assemblies of his saints: now, wheresoever these things appear, whether in assemblies, or in secret ordinances; then and "there (saith the bride) will I give Christ my loves." When thou comest to the word, prayer, meditation, be sure of this, to give Christ thy love: What? Doth Christ manifest his presence there? Is there any abounding of his graces there? O let thy love abound; by how much more thou feelest God's love towards thee, by so much more do thou love thy God again. Many sins being forgiven, how shouldst thou but love much.