attends it and the contrary thereunto must needs be most uncomely O how comely is it for brethren to live together in unity for Jews for true Jews who are brethren in Christ to live together in the union and love of Christ who can express how comely how sweet how pleasant it is 3. It is a profitable duty As it is of the most excellent nature of all graces so it is the most profitable bringing forth fruit answerable to the excellency of its nature It is profitable to others It is profitable to themselves It is profitable to others and that to all sorts of men whatsoever whether a friend or an enemy whether in an unconverted estate or in what condition soever being converted 1. To men in an unconverted estate There is a double profit may arise unto them from the actings of love 1. It will make them take more notice of Christ and of his ways This kind of love exercised among the Saints will make the world begin to perceive that their life is more sublime and weighty then the life which is in the world is it will help to convince them and force them to see what their eyes are shut against namely the reality of the life and power of Christ and the truth of their relation to him By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another Joh. 13.35 2. If exercised towards the world as it cannot but break forth that way also it cannot but melt them Harsh ways harden but sweet ways melt Passion breaking forth seldom doth good but acts of affection are very powerful This is an heaping coals of fire upon their head which will assuredly melt them at last Rom. 12.20 for none is able to stand before the inchantments of the truth and power of love Yea this the very worlds sight of the exercise of love of the brethren among themselves may in a great degree produce though not so fully as if it were exercised much and several ways towards the world it self 2. To men in a converted estate There is nothing more useful to them in what condition soever they be then love What ever faith it self can do for them love must quicken and give vent to Faith worketh by love Love as it is generally serviceable and profitable so especially to fellow-Saints and to them it cannot but be profitable what ever they be where ever they be how ever it be with them Be they weak or strong standing or falling sweet or sullen in their spirits any other way rightly tempered or distempered how ever inclined or acted love rightly going forth towards them is very fit to do them good which will easily appear if we consider these few properties in love 1. It hath an edifying property The great use both of offices and gifts in the Church is the edification of the Church but love is more profitable to edification then all gifts whatsoever The Apostle setteth up prophecying above all other gifts in this respect and yet layeth that also flat before love 1 Cor. 13. We do not take a right course so much to bewail the loss of gifts we should first and chiefly bewail the loss of love We might do well enough without gifts if we had but love enough but we could not possibly edifie without love had we never so many gifts They are not gifts simply but grace which edifieth which love is whereas gifts are not so And gifts when they do edifie must be subordinated under and ordered by grace It is not thy gift but the grace of Christ in thy brother which maketh him edifie by thy gift Therefore though thy gift be never so large and never so well improved and employed yet if the heart of thy brother be not in a gracious frame he is not edified thereby Yea further it is not the learning more of the knowledg mysteries of Christ which is the proper end of gifts but love which edifieth A man may be swelled up by knowledg but it is love whereby he both edifieth and is edified Knowledg puffeth up but love edifieth It is not simply the use of a gift but the gracious use of it the use of it in love which edifieth in so much as that a little delivered in a sweet gracious manner will edifie much more then a great deal delivered by vertue of a gift Gifts without grace dispose us rather to slight and cast off persons then to take that pains which is necessary to edification the will whereunto and skill wherein only love hath 2. It hath an assisting property Love is ever ready to aid and assist Love will set its shoulder to every burden lend its hand to every work What is there or can there be to be done which love will not help to do 3. It hath an encouraging and strengthening property Love delighteth to be encouraging and strengthening the faint and the weak Weak Saints may make much use of a Soul where there is much love Thus Christ taught Peter by the exercise of his own love to him When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren 4. It hath a recovering property What made God recover sinners but his love Had he not loved them he would have let them lie for ever in their lost estate And he who hath the same love in him cannot rest till he hath raised and restored his fallen brother Into what traveling pangs did love put Paul in for the Galatians towards the recovery of them 5. It hath a communicative property and that in a sweet distilling way Love is ever communicative it will reserve nothing but impart every thing God loving his can withhold nothing from them This maketh love so edifying because it cannot but impart whatsoever it hath that may tend to edification or to the good of another in any kind And it doth not barely impart but in the sweetest way It doth distill and drop into another making insensible impressions stealing into the heart and overcoming it before the party is aware Love hath every property suitable to communicativeness and to a sweet way of communication as in the Apostles description of it in 1 Cor. 13. may easily be Thus useful and profitable to others is love And it is also profitable unto themselves The practise of this duty of love to the brethren is very profitable to them in whom it is and from whom it issueth which may evidently appear in these several particulars following 1. It will teach them to love both God and Christ in the fullest manner Our happiness consisteth in loving of God The knowledg of God is but a means to make us love him It is not either Gods bare knowing of us or our bare knowing of him which most advantageth or satisfieth either but the meeting of our affections together which all the discoveries and knowledg of each other do but make way for And there would be no want of any thing to us were there
arms into the hands into the shoulders c. so that every motion in every one of them will be easie and delightful It is the setting about duties without love which makes them so heavy How can that be done without love which is only to be done with love This is the great difference between our motions now adays and the motions of the primitive Christians theirs did issue from a Spring we go about to force out ours with artificial engines They had love kindled in them and love drawn forth in them by vertue of the same life which kindled it We reason love into our hearts and reason out the practises of it and alas how weak is this But had we of a truth love enough enough of that love and the art of proportioning out love enough to every duty we should fail in none nor complain of any Thus exceedingly profitable to our selves is love exercised by us toward the brethren Where by the way we may take notice of the strength of Christs love to us It is love in him to us which maketh him so strictly to lay this Commandment upon us of loving one another He knew how useful it would be for us and therefore in a more then ordinary manner he enjoyneth it unto us And thus we see the Reason why Christ beateth so much on this subject why his heart is so much in it why he maketh it his Commandment It is a thing which his Father much desireth and is much for his Fathers honour It is exceedingly useful to his Saints both them that practise it and all to whom they practise it and can you blame Christ in laying so much weight upon it To propose now a little Application of all this Is the heart of Christ so much in this thing is this his especial Commandment his peculiar Commandment the Commandment of his choyce which his Soul so thirsteth after to have observed by us That we should love one another as he hath loved us Then 1. What shall we say to our Lord Jesus Christ when we come to stand before him and his Father in the presence of all his Saints and Angels for our so gross neglect of this duty When this Law shall be read before us This is my Commandment that ye love one another c. and the often pressings of it by Christ himself and by his Apostles throughout all the New Testament and when our hearts and actions shall be looked into and so little of it found in either When the Saints in the Apostles times shall rise up and their hearts shall be opened which were so full of love and entireness that they could spend and be spent one for another When the Saints under the ten Persecutions shall arise whose love is reported to have been so firm and large that the very Persecutors themselves did bear witness unto it and were amazed at it When the hearts of worldlings shall be ripped up and stronger love appear there towards their fellow-worldlings then in the Christians of this generation towards their fellow-Christians When men directly-wicked shall appear to have loved the image of the Devil better in one another then we the image of God and of Christ Yea when our own hearts shall be ripped up and the actings of our natural affection being made visible it shall appear concerning our selves that we gave scope to that but the new nature and the powers of love in it have been rather choaked in us then drawn forth towards one another What shall we say in our own behalfs We can blame one another very sorely now in cases of far inferior consequence but how shall we answer this our selves before the Judg We own the life of Christ in one another but alas where is our love to that life We say Christ is our Lord why this is his great Commandment that wherein his very heart and soul and spirit is where is our obedience who can answer this in his own spirit now and if not now how will he be able to acquit himself then when the light shall be perfectly clear and all the fig-leaves wherewith we now so cunningly cover the evil of our hearts ways motions and actions from our own eyes quite taken away and made altogether unable from affording any shelter to us 2. It may occasion an enquiry why love should be so barren so dead among Christians so backward in its growth so prone to decay That little life and vertue which it had among us once where is it I shall not prosecute this enquiry so far as it lieth open to me but mention only these two causes from whence it may very well arise 1. From a decay of grace in us from our decay in love to Christ or at least from the weakness of it where it is not decayed Were grace strong were love to Christ strong we could not chuse but love those that are Christs more If we did not fail in love towards him who doth beget we should better love those who are begotten by him 2. From a carelessness in acting the duty We are not careful to draw out a spiritual affection and a natural affection will not do it and upon spiritual grounds and with a spiritual fervency and in a spiritual manner but we go to love Saints as we do other men We do not simply love grace in them There must be somewhat besides grace to draw forth and continue our affections or else they warp Our love goeth forth in flesh and not to the pure life but partly towards flesh which it many times missing of there presently groweth a faintness and decay of love If love were more pure in us and were drawn forth more purely from us towards its own pure object it would be more lasting 3. It speaks out a very strong Exhortation of it self inviting and vehemently perswading Christians to press hard after this duty and never to give their spirits rest till this duty be as much in their hearts and lives as it is in the heart of Christ concerning them For the prosecution of this Exhortation I shall propound some few Motives to it some Directions concerning it and likewise some Helps towards it To begin with the Motives Though all that hath been said be of a stirring attractive nature yet it may not be amiss at last cast to drive in two or three nails again First then Consider this well that this is the way which Christ himself hath appointed us to express our love to him in If ye love me keep my Commandments and what Commandments This is my Commandment that ye love one another Peter lovest thou me feed my Lambs If thou lovest me shew it and if thou wilt shew it shew it in thy love and care of my Lambs what thou dost to them thou dost to me Our goodness cannot reach God or Christ but the Saints Psal 16.2 2. Remember that this will yeeld unto Christ matter of joy in you He
rejoyceth in working this love in you and he will rejoyce more in the continuance growth and exercise of this love These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you saith he in the very next words to this Text vers 11. of the 15 Chapt. It will continually administer joy to the Spirit of Christ to find love flourishing in you one to another 3. Remember also that it will be an occasion of filling your own spirits with joy so it is also expressed in that vers 11. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full It is incredible what fulness of joy streams along in the sweetness of love besides it is the delight of Christ to fill his spirit with joy whose spirit he hath already filled love Quest But how may I attain this duty I find my spirit much inflamed with it O that I might be a little guided to it Ans If thou beest not better provided apply thy self to the observation of these few Directions 1. Set this duty clearly before thine eyes Consider well what kind of love it must be upon what grounds it is to be fastened and carried on in what degree what must be the actings of it and in what manner it is to act Christians commonly do not understand what they do when they buckle to this duty nor how purely and firmly this affection must move notwithstanding all manner of discouragements from them we love which cannot but cause them much to falter in the performance of it 2. Be working up thy heart to it dayly Be working it up to a spiritual love be working spiritual grounds into thy heart that thy spirit may be engaged and move spiritually Thou must be a kind of husbandman to the seed of the life of God in thee thou must receive it thou must cherish it and thou must provoke it unto motion This thou must be doing though thou canst not do this nor any thing else that is spiritual Wonderfully strange and mysterious is the operation of God in the Gospel He works all in us of his own pleasure and yet so as if we moved and wrought all our selves The Lord lieth hidden in all the motions of our spirits and by an unseen strength vertue and influence doth all there yea even that which we seem to do our selves and yet we must up and be doing every thing though we can do nothing 3. Intreat God to write this Law in thy bowels God wrote it in Christs heart and he must also write it in thine if ever it be found there Therefore pray to God to write it there and to write it there abundantly that as he hath bid thee love all Saints so he would give thee love large enough to go forth fully towards all Saints We must be taught of God to love one another if ever we learn this Lesson 4. Intreat God to draw forth this love when ever thou art to act it If we see a thing to be duty we presently set about it and blame our hearts if they fall short in it This we should do indeed but we should also when this is done or rather while this is in doing go to God in whom all our strength lies to perform it in us And this we might do at first if we were but sensible enough of our own weakness without a practical experiment but therefore God puts us continually upon endeavoring our selves because we forget how weak and unable we are to do any thing any longer then we find it in our utmost strivings Go therefore to God who hath promised not only to write his Law in our hearts but to cause us to walk in his ways What ever way of God there is God will not only write the Law of it in the hearts of his people but he will make them walk in it He will put such affections and strength into them that they shall not be able to forbear walking therein Quest But are there no Helps which may further me herein Those which are skilfully practical know how to lead another into that path wherein they themselves have walked If you have met with any knowledg or experience in this kind O do not hide it from us but help us a little in this track which is so auk and difficult to the spirit of man Ans What I have found most beneficial unto and powerful with my self herein I shall very willingly impart unto you in whom this desire is kindled Therefore from my own proof and experience I shall commend unto you these four Helps 1. Would you love the Saints as Christ hath loved both them and you Then in the first place Look upon them in Christ and there thou shalt ever see them full objects for thy love Thus God looketh upon us in our wretched estate even in Christ or he could never continue loving us O how lovely are the Saints in Christ They are imputatively perfect in him at present God reckons so and why shouldst not thou reckon so and they shall be absolutely perfect ere long They shall be made perfectly like Christ and have all those spots taken away which now thou espiest in them which are left upon them at present not to make them unlovely in thine eyes but for a design which God hath for his own glory the good of all Saints and thine in particular If a pure spiritual eye were always thus fastened upon them a pure spiritual heart would always love them 2. Expect all manner of weaknesses and imperfections in them Look for distempers upon them and all manner of evil breaking forth and taking its swinge in them so far as God leaves them Dost thou not find it so in thine own heart This is another means whereby God strengthens his heart in loving us He expects no manner of good from us but what he himself works in us He expects all manner of evils and distempers which he himself doth not prevent And all the evil that issueth forth he attributeth not to us but to sin that dwelleth in us Why go thou and do likewise and thou wilt love as God loveth Paul doth thus concerning himself The good I would do I cannot nor avoyd the evil which I would not do but what I hate that do I oh wretched man c. I can expect no good from my self I can hinder no evil in my self but yet 't is not I but sin that dwells in me It is the unlovely part that which I am to hate not that which I am to love which doth this There are two great faults in us We do not labour enough to be holy our selves and we expect it too much in others If we did look for holiness more in our own hearts and expect it less in others this duty would be far easier then it is But when we expect much what ever falleth short of our expectation displeaseth us and
so much in this thing why of all Commandments Christ picketh out this Command as his and driveth it home in such a forcible manner upon them as here he doth Ans It is not for nothing or upon no consideration that the Spirit of Christ is thus earnest for there is a weight in the spirit of the thing which draweth him The practise of this is of mighty concernment in this dispensation of life which God is pleased to minister by him and that both in respect of God and in respect of the duty it self In respect of God There are some considerations in reference to him which cannot but incline Christs heart very much unto it as 1. Christs heart is set so much upon this thing because the heart of God is so much in it Christ came but as Gods Minister and gave Commandments in Gods Name The words which he spake and the commands which he gave were not his own primarily but his that sent him as he often saith Now the Apostle who lay in Christs bosom and was continually searching into his heart and learning the mind of God there expresly telleth us that this is Gods Commandment This is his Commandment that we should beleeve on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment 1 Joh. 3.23 There were two things which Christ especially applyed himself unto first to bring men to beleeve on him and afterwards to love one another and the reason was because these were the especial things which God required They were first Gods chief Commandments and then Christs chief Commandments 2. Because it is so much for the honour of God To have his children his family full of love living in love acting love in strength one towards another is greatly for his honour It is a dishonour to a Master of a family to have his servants quarrelling and his children falling out It doth not become the God of Love to have his children destitute of or short in love especially one among another Hatred becometh the Devil and the men of this world but it is a dishonour to God to have it found in his children towards one another Christ came with love and Christ came to give and teach love and it is an honourable badg of them who are taught by him to know God and his Gospel It is an honour to them an honour to him who hath thus dignified and qualified them In respect of the duty it self There are some considerations there too which were great attractives in the eye and to the heart of Christ to move him vehemently to desire it in them and so strictly to enjoyn it to them as namely Its excellency in its own nature its comliness in them and its profitableness both to them and others Christ loving them so much cannot but much desire to find in them that which is exceeding excellent that which is so wondrous comely and that which cannot but be so richly profitable wheresoever it is 1. It is a duty of a most excellent nature Love is the most excellent of all graces the Apostle ranks it in the first place of the most choyce graces the greatest whereof he affirmeth to be love 1 Cor. 13.13 therefore the actings of love must needs be the most excellent of all actings That grace which is of the most excellent nature and which hath the strongest influence into all the work we are to do for God is love and answerably the actings of love have the most noble and lively operations in them It is both the most quickening and most mortifying grace having least of self most of God in it Faith goeth out much for self for its own safety and salvation for the supply of its own wants but love always for another And in loving one another the clearest purest and excellentest acts of love do shoot forth because there often appeareth that in this object which would take away or at least stop love in its current if it were not very clear pure and excellent There are always infirmities there at least if not corruptions and perhaps unkind actings towards us also which have too too much influence upon the best in damping their love God is such an object of love that even the eye of Nature seeth loveliness in him and calleth for love towards him and that so strongly that it hideth the natural enmity that is in men against him from their own eyes in so much as they think they love him and cannot but love him though in truth they hate him but as for the Saints there are abundance of unlovely things in them hardly any thing lovely but the grace of Christ and commonly that also covered with much unloveliness There is likewise usually that in this object of love which most setteth off the actings of faith What is it most commends the actings of faith but its duration and activity in the midst of that which is contrary and dangerous to it As when God distresseth the Soul appearing as an enemy seeming even to kill faith it self taking away all visible ground of hope in him for faith now to continue yea and act still in strength exceedingly commends the vertue and excellency of its nature Why love hath this tryal very frequently It hath still almost somewhat or other in the Saints to slacken it if not quite to eat it out much unloveliness of their own appearing amidst a little loveliness of grace yea and perhaps that little grace hid too and nothing but corruption visible So that love towards this object thus held on is an excellent duty indeed 2. It is a comely duty O how comely is it for brethren to live together in unity to love and cherish one another There are two things which much adorn Religion obedience to God and love to our brethren It is an uncomely thing to see men fall out because they are of one nature which is a strong bond of agreement yea stronger and more extensive then is in the rest of the creatures but O how uncomely is it to see Saints fall out who meet in the bonds of so excellent a nature as theirs is To see the world hate them and make a prey of them is no more wonder then to see a Wolf persecute and prey upon a Lamb yet if they were of the world the world would love them If ye were of the world the world would love its own Joh. 15.19 It is such a piece of uncomeliness as the world is ashamed to be guilty of not to love its own do ye not see every thing throughout the world tender of its own how much more uncomely is it for you who have a closer union then this world knoweth of to hate one another Every nature hath a love proportionable suited to it which is comely and the contrary whereof is uncomely This is the most excellent nature and therefore hath the highest love suited to it and the greatest comeliness
not want of love in us There is life enough in God and were there but love enough in us we could not but draw out and take in enough of it The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord and thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayst live Deut. 30.6 There would be no want of spiritual life in us or of the motions of this life in and towards God were there not a want of love unto him Now loving of the brethren will teach us to love God both because there is that more abundantly in God which we love in them and because in him it is pure without that imperfection which attends and soils it in them If we love the image though so full of spots how can we chuse but love the substance which is without any spots much more He that loveth him which begets loveth that which is begotten and by loving that which is begotten he groweth more and more in love with that which did beget The frequent practise of love towards that which is weak and imperfect will advantage it both in skill and strength towards that which is perfect and compleatly able to receive and answer all the touches of it 2. It will teach them to interpret things well from God This one thing doth us most harm of any thing our harsh interpretations of the good ways of God towards us It is not only very unnatural and unkind in us and most irksom to the heart of God but it is also most prejudicial to us for in a degree so far as it goeth it withdraweth our spirits from the fountain of our life and strength It puts a stop to our spirits in our drawing of that which at that time we most want Now love to the brethren will teach us otherwise for this ever accompanieth love namely a good interpretation of the actions of those we love Let any one tell us of what an ill turn our friend hath done us Surely he did it not saith Love or If he did it it was with no ill intent towards me Though it hath proved ill he intended it wel Love thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13.5 yea vers 7. It beleeveth all things it hopeth all things Though sense and experience say otherwise yet if saith or hope can put a good interpretation upon it it will receive it if it can but find any ground to beleeve otherwise or to hope otherwise it is glad of it and it is a very hard case wherein there is room neither for faith nor hope Love it very incredulous of any ill though God continually found the Jews a lying generation whose heart was not right with him neither were they ever stedfast in his Covenant yet his love made him upon all occasions say and think concerning them Surely they are children that will not lye Isai 63.8 Where we are so apt to surmize or beleeve surmises there must needs be great want of love But how doth this teach us to interpret things well of God Why thus A man that accustometh himself to interpret things well concerning his brother shall find very great benefit in it He shall find himself delivered from many harsh and evil thoughts of his brother which otherwise would attend him He shall find many times how he had wronged his brother if he had judged otherwise and though his brother should prove faulty at length yet it will be time enough to judg it so then Why now hath he not much more cause of interpreting things well from God Cannot a man repent of interpreting things well of his brother and shall he ever repent of interpreting things well of God Besides the practise of this duty towards his brothers will enforce him to observe it in the same degree at least if not further towards his God also Shall a man not dare to beleeve any thing ill of his brother until it evidently appear and shall he judg his God so soon as Satan puts him upon it 3. It will teach them to bear any thing from Gods hand We shall have enough to bear from our brethren and yet love will not refuse to bear be it never so much Love beareth all things 1 Cor. 13.7 We shall never have that to bear from God which we dayly meet with and have reason to expect from our brethren We have ground to expect from them unkind froward injurious actings towards us besides their prejudicial actings to their own Souls which will wound no more then the former if we be spiritual all which we must bear and yet proceed on in every act of love towards them We shall find none of these things in God but only pure wise actings for our good And can a man bear the weaknesses of men and yet grumble at the wisdom of God 4. It will teach a man to look the better to his own heart The observing and helping to cure the evils of other mens hearts will teach us to espy and prevent the evils of our own This is the great benefit which attends the practise of all the duties of love to the brethren namely that what we do but endeavor to do to them we do to our selves insensibly While we are teaching them we are imprinting truths on our own hearts while we are watching over them we are looking to our selves c. So that though others should reap no benefit by our care and pains yet we our selves shall have no cause to repent of it 5. It will make us very feelingly to admire the wonderful strength and vertue of the love of God and that will be a very profitable thing to us for as our stability the certainty of our state is in the love of God by its laying hold of us and comprehending us so our sweetness our rest our content our satisfaction is by beholding it and reposing our selves in it Now the practise of this duty of love to the brethren cannot chuse but very effectually work up the sight and admiration of this in us when we shall continually see so many failings and loathsom things in our selves and in others as this will draw us to do and yet God notwithstanding all these to entirely so fully so constantly so perfectly still loving us all 6. It will make all duties of one towards another easie Love is a quickening ingredient which putteth life into the spirit and maketh every thing light with which we have to do What made Jacobs hard servitude so easie but his love to Rachel What made Christ so lightly trip through those intricate thorny paths through which he passed but his entire love to his Saints The weightiest service of love is easier then the largest liberty in the very kingdom of enmity That which is a great load to a weak back alas what is it to him who abounds with strength Strength of love in the heart will put strength into the feet into the
was come from God and went to God He riseth from supper c. He had not forgot how great he was before this Ministration how great he was in this Ministration and how great he should be immediately again but his eye was fixed upon his glory and greatness in and from and with God when he did this to them 2. There was not only example but precept added to example and that again and again and that in a very sweet way telling them that they ought to do it and that his doing of it was but to teach them their duty It was not necessary for him to do it only he chose this way of imprinting his instruction the better upon them 3. He adds a forcible reason that he being their Lord and Master and having made known to them his pleasure and that both by his own command and pattern they cannot be excused if now they neglect it Vers 13 14 15 16. Ye call me Master and Lord c. 3. For his vehement pressing of it He doth not only lay it before them but he presseth it home upon them 1. He shews them that it is their duty Vers 14. Ye ought also to wash one anothers feet 2. He tells them that the meaning of this piece of service in this abased manner was to commend it to them so closely that they might not avoyd it or think much of it Vers 15. For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you 3. By enforcing the reason of his example Vers 16. Verily verily I say unto you The servant is not greater then his Lord neither he that is sent greater then he that sent him The greatest among the Saints are such as are sent by Christ and yet they are not greater then Christ who sent them and therefore need not think much of that as of an inferior piece of work which Christ did 4. By pronouncing blessedness upon them according as they did observe it Vers 17. If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them Happy are ye if ye learn from this pattern if ye take out this copy if ye practise the duties of this Law of Love according to it The happiness of the Disciples of Christ consisteth much in knowing and practising the duties of love even in the meanest offices of it one towards another Thus he drives home this duty here He urgeth it again in this same Chap. v. 34. where he calleth it a new Commandment to set their spirits more eager upon it A new Commandment I give unto you And what is this new Commandment That ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another He had been telling them of his departure from them and that very affectionately in the foregoing Verse Little children yet a little while I am with you Ye shall seek me c. My little children I must leave you Poor sweet babes poor little brats I must be gone I cannot stay with you But when I am gone remember this Commandment ye little think what sweetness ye will find in it that ye love one another with the same love and after the same manner as I have loved you performing the same services of love with the same willingness and delight And then in the following Verse he knocks in another nail to drive it yet more home By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another He makes it the badg of Discipleship that whereby men should be distinguished to appertain to him to be retainers to him By this shall all men know c. It is a great priviledg and dignity to be known to be a Disciple to Christ to be taken notice of by men as a retainer to Christ as one who doth not meerly pretend but hath indeed learned of him And love to the Brethren such love as Christ expressed is an unquestionable character a distinguishing badg such as the world cannot but acknowledg to be a peculiar property of a Disciple which you have had from Christ and which none else can attain In the 14 Chapter he perswadeth them very affectionately to keep his Commandments Vers 15 21 24. and so again Chap. 15. 10. If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love c. declaring unto them in the next Verse that his intent in this vehement Injunction Exhortation and Perswasion of his was entirely for their good Vers 11. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full And then immediately in the very next words vers 12. sheweth what Commandment he did chiefly mean all this while This is my Commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you These things I speak I thus vehemently press obedience upon you for your own good that I might have joy of you which will be very profitable for you and your hearts might be full of joy But this is the Commandment which I principally intend and which I most especially expect obedience unto This is the Commandment which is peculiarly and properly mine which my joy will be greatest in seeing observed and the observation of which will conduce most towards the filling of your hearts with joy This is my Commandment that ye love one another c. How he proceeds yet further to fix it upon their spirits by very close considerations in the following part of the Chapter as vers 14. and 17. I shall not need to make mention of it being already so fully and clearly evidenced Out of the abundance of the heart out of the vehemency of his desire in this particular hath his mouth uttered all these things For the further opening of it these two particulars following are to be enquired into 1. How Christ loved his Saints with what kind of love what his love was and how it went forth towards them and so we shall see the rule whereby our love is to be squared one towards another 2. Why the heart of Christ is so much set upon this to have his Disciples thus love one another why of all other he maketh this his especial Commandment Touching the former What the love of Christ to Saints was or how Christ loved his Saints Love we know is that glue which unites things together or at least makes them desire study and endeavor union causing them both to wish well and do well one for another according to the nature and degree of it As hatred is that which dissevers things and makes them wish ill and do ill one to another according to the nature and strength of it So love which is contrary to it doth the clean contrary What maketh God to hold a kind of union with all his creatures and to wish well to them and do good for them according to their several ranks but his love to them in its several degrees It is from Gods love
about the Temple but because it was his Fathers house which though expiring and growing out of date was as yet his Fathers and therefore more worthy then to be so prophaned The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up Yea the very end for which he desired his own glory was that he might be the more able to glorifie his Father Father glorifie thy Son that thy Son also may glorifie thee And for the people of God Christs heart goeth forth in wonderful love towards them He loved them all his life long even to the very last Joh. 13.1 Having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the last His heart was ever working towards them He never thought any thing too good for them yea he layd down his very life freely for them and while he was doing it his thoughts ran more upon them then upon himself God had expressed perfect love to them in that he had chosen them as his peculiar treasure which he would enrich suitably to himself and enjoy in himself and make happy with himself for ever He chose Christ but to bring this about who in that respect is beneath them though as he is the chiefest part of this treasure and the head of it to them he is far above them Now Christ having just such an heart as his Father had could not chuse but entirely love that which his Father so loved before him Having the same love with his Father he could not chuse but act towards the same object as his Father did The love in Christ is the same still in him as it was first in God and therefore cannot but behave it self as the same Christ doth what he seeth the Father do Now seeing the Father do this so eminently he cannot but do it as eminently also His love is a copy of the Fathers love and his actings forth of it are a draught of the Fathers actings This ground Christ himself intimates Joh. 17.20 That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them Christ desires perfect union with them to be perfectly in them that is the prime and compleat operation of love yea but what is the rule whereby what is the attractive which he desires might draw him into them why that he himself tells you is the Fathers love Let thy love the same love wherewith thou hast taken possession of me take possession of them also and then I will immediately come after and dwell in them too It is from thy love that I love them and therefore I must first see thy love go before and then I will soon follow And for this cause take I such pains with them that I might make them a fit habitation for thy love and then that I my self might dwell and enjoy them in the same love and the same love in them 2. Another ground of Christs love to them is his Fathers will His Father gave them him to love and commanded him to love them yea and gave him that love wherewith he should love them As the Father giveth Christ to us to love so he gave us to Christ to love And as there are a great many duties we owe Christ but love is the main So of all the duties Christ did owe us as to leave all his glory and come into this world and seek us out and to dye for us to arise for us to ascend for us to take possession of our life and inheritance for us in Heaven and to take care of us here on Earth love was the main and that which fitted him for all the rest even as it fitteth us for all our duties both towards God towards Christ and towards one another Yea as this was the especial command which Christ gave us to love one another so it was the especial command God gave Christ to love us In this 15 Chapter of this Gospel of John Christ telleth his Disciples That if they keep his Commandments they shall abide in his love even as he kept his Fathers Commandments and abode in his love And of all his Commandments he picks out one presently in the 12 Verse following as if he would commend it unto us as that which will have the most especial influence of all to keep us in his love which is this of loving one another Now how cometh Christ to pick out this of all the rest but that his Father had set him such an example he had picked it out for him it was the main thing he had given him in charge and the main thing he expected from him as he intimates in the 10 Chapt. of this Gospel vers 17. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again He had been speaking vers 15. of laying down his life for the sheep from his knowledg of the Father from his knowledg of the heart and will of the Father As the Father knoweth me even so know I the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep The Father knoweth me whom he hath entrusted and I know him who hath entrusted me and want neither love to him nor them but lay down my life for them And other sheep he had to take care of besides those of this fold which he would take care of also vers 16. Now says he therefore my Father loves me because I lay down my life that I might take it again This is that act of love in me this is that act of obedience from me to the will and command of the Father which draweth and engageth the heart of the Father so exceedingly to me Therefore my Father loveth me because I lay down my life so readily in such a way of love in such strength of love to my sheep that I might take it again to perfect their Salvation So that God gave Christ this especial command as well as Christ giveth it us and his heart was so much in it that his love went out towards Christ as Christs heart went out in love towards his sheep This was the motive the attractive of the Fathers love to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore or for this my Father loveth me because I lay down my life c. And could God do less then give Christ a command to love them when he gave them him to this very end and therefore gave them unto him in all such relations as might draw love as as his brethren wherefore he is not ashamed to call them brethren as his own children behold I and the children which thou hast given me as his own most proper Spouse as the very natural members of his own body What could his meaning be in all this but that he should exceedingly love and cherish them And surely his Father would never have given them him unless he had had very good assurance that he would love them well And therefore to put that out of doubt he gave him love first before
dampeth our affections 3. Be ever stirring up their graces in them and mark the workings of their graces in the midst of their distempers This will still keep thine eye upon their loveliness at all times and so will still draw forth love towards them 1. Be ever stirring up their graces in them Grace is the proper attractive of spiritual love the sight whereof cannot but kindle it Thus Christ makes the flowers and spices in his garden to yield their savour and then falls in love with their scent We think it is the duty of others to give forth their light and discover their graces to us but we are apt to forget that it is also our duty to be drawing forth their light and stirring up their graces This was Pauls practise that great Lover of the Saints Rom. 1.11 12. For I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end you may be established That is that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me This was his design and course when ever he came among Saints to see what grace they had in them to search out and stir up grace that he might draw forth his own love in enjoying of them in delighting in them and in adding somewhat to them suitable to their state and condition 2. Observe the workings of their graces in the midst of their distempers We are usually exceedingly faulty in this We never consider the distempers in Christians but look they should always act as if they were in a right temper though we expect they should consider our distempers And then in their distempers we mark the stirrings of their corruptions but though grace strive and help much to the keeping of them down we take little notice of that Whereas God considers the least distempers in us and cherisheth and is delighted with the least motions of grace in us in our distempers If it were otherwise what would become of us 4. Consider thine own weaknesses and sins Doth any evil befall thy brother which thou canst avoyd Doth thy brother neglect any good which thou canst do He hath fallen into this or that evil who hath kept thy heart How long wilt thou keep out of the same evil into which thy brother is fallen if God leave thee to the same temptation Consider therefore the breakings forth of thine own heart in sin where God doth suffer it and how far it would break forth if God did not hinder it And take heed of murmuring against thy brother as one that falls into sins breeds troubles hinders mercies interrupts the sweetness of communion c. There is a very notable place to this purpose Jam. 5.9 Groan not one against another Brethren lest ye be condemned behold the Judg standeth before the door Our spirits will be very apt to groan one against another O such an one hath hindred much good if it had not been for him things might have gone well Take heed the Judg stands at the door who will come and rip open thy heart and thy ways and shew thee somewhat which thou little thoughtst of and so thou who groanest against another wilt be condemned thy self Nay though thou hast spoken to them in the Name of the Lord as he carrieth it vers 10. and they may seem to have despised thy message nay have really both despised thee and the Lord in whose Name thou hast spoken yet take heed of so much as groaning against them lest the Judg also find matter against thee It is not fit for one guilty person to breathe out complaints against another Therefore consider thine own heart well and observe the failings there Are there not more there then in thy brothers all things considered And consider if thou wouldst be willing to have Christ withdraw his heart from thee or whether thou wouldst have him take occasion hereby to exercise towards thee such acts of love as thy need now requires as to pity thee to stand ready to help thee to take that course which may best help thee c. If so go and do so to thy brother If thou wouldst have him keep that Law of Love which God hath given him concerning thee do thou by his strength improve his grace to the keeping of that Law of Love which he hath given thee concerning thy fellow-Saints and this is his Commandment that we love one another as he hath loved us Now for a close that he that readeth may understand All this is but an exercise by way of Discipline to the seed in its childhood as indeed all other things also are The threatnings the rewards the promises the comforts the enjoyments c. in every dispensation are suited to the state of the child When the day dawns the shadows will fly away When Truth appears that which did represent it as an image of it must give place Yet these images or representations are not such as either Satan or the mind of man frames which are vanity and a lye but true and substantial representations of Truth But though they are truth in their kind yet they must not stand for ever but only their appointed season which is till Truth of a deeper kind come or at least till the night before the day of Truths discovery It were good for every one that he knew his dispensation and what is proper for him in it that he might both bear the yoke and enjoy the sweetness of it not leaping out of it before he be led This over-much haste will cost him dear for all the ground he treads after this rate he must traverse back again before he can come to that forwardness wherein he was even under that dispensation out of which he thus slightly passed There is a true death in and to a dispensation which there is no redemption from There is no more life to be had in or under that dispensation by him whom God hath truly slain in and unto it But there are deadnesses in and under ministrations which are not so much as degrees of this death nay there are deaths also which are not this death which the life in those that are under those ministrations is to recover out of or they must suffer loss thereby In the most lively ministration among Christians Love hath still been the life and in that way wherein they yet are these things may be useful But yet there is a more excellent way and more excellent things then are now thought of which will be manifested in due time But it is very dangerous striving to ascend up to them aforehand the sweetest and safest way is to wait the season of their descent The deep sense of the want whereof with an assured expectation and quiet waiting and groaning for is the best strain of Religion of the purest stamp of any I know extant Life is now wrapped up coming very little forth yet most in these motions to the sence