one thing which happily may be an occasion of doubt and that is the seeming unreasonablenesse of this part of Pauls prayer Doubt For may some say what reason is there that Paul should pray for that which he hints is impossible Why should he pray that the Ephesians might know that which he expresly saith was above knowledge The love of Christ which passeth knowledge There bee three things which may satisfie this scruple Satisfaction and demonstrate the reasonablenesse of this request 1 Admit the love of Christ be above knowledge yet 't is not unreasonable to desire to know it For look as albeit the fulfilling of Divine precepts be above our power yet notwithstanding it is to be in our endeavour In like manner albeit the knowledge of Christ of Christs love though it s above our intellectuals yet it may bee in our desires The same infiniteness which Grace puts in the Will making it endeavour to fulfill that which it cannot nay yea and doth also put on the desire for the obtaining of that which cannot be obtained But 2 To know the love of Christ may be said to be above knowledge with reference to men as men not unto Saints as such Indeed the spirit of man is not able to know or search into the love of Christ that is above its knowledge But the Spirit of Christ is able both to search into and to reveal his love And though Christians as men cannot attain to the knowledge of the love of Christ by the light of reason yet as Saints by the light of faith they may especially the Holy Ghost in the mean time shedding it abroad in their hearts as it is Rom. 5.5 3 The love of Christ may be said to be above knowledge in regard of its perfection of degrees not simply inregard of its parts 'T is true the perfect knowledge of Christs love passeth the understanding of men and Angels which is its glory But yet in some measure it may be known the which is our duty For that which cannot bee known perfectly in the highest degree may yet be known partially and in some measure Thus the Text may bee cleared from the doubt propounded Now there are four ways in which I shall look upon this Scripture and so speak unto it 1 As it includes the truth and reality of Christs love to the Saints Division of the word 2 As it concludes the height and royalty or transcendency of that love 3 As it holds out the Apostles desire that the Ephesians might know both 4 As it contains the ground of keeping up the Ephesians hearts from fainting at Pauls tribulations which is the drift and scope that Paul drives or aimes at in them And thus there will be four Doctrines which I shall take up and speak unto from these words I. There is love in Christs bosome towards all beleevers Doctrines from the words II. That love which Christ beareth to beleevers is a transcendent love III. It is a thing of necessary concernment for every Christian to know the transcendent love of Christ IV. The Spiritual knowledge of the transcendent love of Christ towards Beleevers is of special efficacy to keep up ther hearts from fainting under any trouble I begin with the first which however it might more fully be gathered from another Text yet because it will be a good foundation for the following Discourse and is clear enough in this place I shall briefly speak unto it now viz. There is love in Christs bosome towards all Beleevers I suppose it is clearly couched at least in these words Science supposes ens Paul would not doubtlesse pray that the Ephesians might know that which was not things must be ere they can be known Nothing falls under the understanding till it first bee in being I shall briefly open the Point Point opnened and then prove it and apply it How love may be said to be in Christ How love may be said to be in Christ as any other affection I shall not need to inquire though happily love may bee said to be in Christ as God for as hee is man there is no doubt of it in far more proper sense then any other passion may because it is as it were his essence God being as John saith love 1 Joh. 4.16 What Christs love is What the love of Christ is I shall not curiously define The Moral'sts have so many definitions of love that indeed it is hard among them as the Proverb is to finde this wood for trees i. e. to know what love is among their various definitions therof Passing by therefore their nicities I shall content my self with this plain description of love It is the commanding affection of the Soul Love described consisting in the expansion or going out of the heart towards a person or thing in wishings and workings for its good Cunctorumque Deum primum quaesivit amorem I call it an affection and the commanding one it being indeed on all hands assented unto Love is Queen regent in the Soul and it sits upon the Throne commanding all It is the Centurion in the bosome and hath the same power over all the affections which the Centurion hath over all his servants I say it consists in the expansion or stretching out of the heart Look as hatred contracts and gathers in so love opens and dilates the heart I adde that it consists in the general in wishings and workings for good I do not specifie the end for that describes and denominates the particular kinds of love therefore only in the general I say it consists in the going out of the heart in wishing and working for the good of the person or thing loved So that now when I say that there is love in Christs bosome towards all beleevers I mean that the commanding affections of Jesus Christ is set upon them that his heart is open and stretched out unto them and that the wishings and workings of his Soul are towards them for good Beleevers who they are described By Beleevers in a word I understand all those who close with Christ as tendred in the Gospel However there be difference between them in the degrees of their faith the ways of their light yet all agreeing in this that they see themselves lost without Christ and that God the Father doth freely tender him in the word of grace they do thereupon go our in the strength and sincerity of their souls to imbrace him as hee is tendred They are beleevers all of them and in this thing Christ puts no difference as it is Act. 15.9 between them but burns in his bosome with real love towards them all For proof Point proved I should but darkeâ— the point if I should bring all that cloud of witnesses which would gladly come and set seal to this sweet truth Ask John and he will witness that Christ loved him He was indeed a bosome-beloved Beleever
here Beleevers look upon your Saviour in the Garden See him when his soul began to be sorrowfull and very heavy and listen a little to what he saith My soule is exceeding sorrowfull even unto the death Matth. 26.38 you experienced Saints Tell mee what manner of love is this For your Lord to be sad unto the death that he might remove those clouds which have sometimes kept your soules in the shadows of death and darknesse But go on and listen to your Lords cry to the father once again when he begged that the cup might passe from him Surely the wrath in the bottom of the cup was very bitter which made him desire to be delivered from it But as surely the love in Christs besome was very sweet which yet prevaileth with him to submit his will to the Fathers and to drink it up for your sake Did you hear ever of sweating in a cold night and that upon the cold ground in an open Garden Surely you will say hee must be hot within that can or could do so Why the heat of your Saviours love was such as that it supported him to bear the heat of Gods wrath than as cold as the night was and t was a winters night as is rationally conjectured and as open as the place was a garden yet then and there he did sweat and that clods of blood his veines issuing out freely and the air congeling it presently and this in the beginning of his sufferings beleevers for your sakes I presume you are not blind and yet certainly you are if you cannot read matchlesse love in this Some have been so weak reports reiterated tell us so as to write letters to their beloved with their blood If it be true you will say it is much and I le say 't was mad But yet let me tell you it s no simple tale but a sweet truth Christ in the garden bled enough to write a large letter of love to you And if you read spiritually you read such love as yet when you read you cannot expres it while you read the story of Christs agony in the garden The greatnesse of Adams folly is not so legible in his eating the forbidden frult in the garden which was the shutting or us out of paradise As the transcendency of Christs love is in his agony in the garden which was to re-instate beleevers in a happyer state than Paradise was or could bee But le ts follow our Lord from the garden to the High Priests hall and here let 's hear a little the hideous out-cryes of the rude rabble against him Ah Lord what was that stopped our Saviours ears so that hee would not regard and silenced his tongue that hee would not reply was 't not love when you read how some spit upon and others railed at Christ How some blasphemed him and others buffetted him how many scoffed how many scorned how many accused how all cryed out against him I say when you read this cannot you as sweetly read the transcendent love of Christ to you as the transcendent malice of the Jews against Christ But not to stay here goe out with Christ to Calvary As hee ascends the Mount doth not the demonstration ascend too See him nailed to the Crosse for your sakes and tell mee if that sight doth not clear this truth as a nail fastened by the masters of assomblies such as Paul was viz. That the love of Christ passeth knowledge Surely beleevers Christs hanging on the Crosse and then breathing out his last breath and powreing out his hearts blood in a shamefull cursed and tormenting way for your sakes is enough to make you cry out O the depth of his love 'T was well said by one that Mount Calvary was Loves Academy and he is worse than a Dunce that cannot learn the transcendency of Christs love to beleevers here The blood of the Crosse speaks love in strength and no such Sermon of love in the Bible nor in the Creation as the blood of the Crosse saith a fine pen. Greater love than this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friends Joh. 15.13 Indeed man hath no greater nay scarce so great a love as that But Jesus Christ had and shewed as great nay a far greater love than this for hee laid down his life for his foes such beleevers you were 'T was but a brag of Peter his words were greater than his love when hee said hee would dye for Christ But 't was a reality in Christ when speaking of the baptism of his death hee said How am I streightened till it bee accomplished Certainly it was large love that streightened his soul till he tasted of death for you The Scriptures record it as the character of the transcendency of the Martyrs love to Christ that they loved not their lives unto the death for his sake But alas their death for Christ was but their duty they were bound to it because Christ loved them Whereas Christs love to us is grace for hee loved us first Ask a condemned Malefactour what if the Prince's Son should go to his father and say Father I confesse the wretch is deservedly to dye but I see a willingnesse in thee that hee should live only I perceive it sticks with thy Justice Thou wouldest magnifie thy mercy in his pardon couldest thou also satisfie thy justice why for that Father here I am and I will dye my self to satisfie thy justice onely let the poor wretch live to the glory of thine and my free grace and having thus said should goe to the place of execution and dye indeed Ask I say the Malefactor what kind of love hee counts and calls this Beleevers ask your own hearts for you were the Malefactors and tell mee what word is great enough to expresse the great love of Jesus Christ which hee lively expressed to you in his death for you Surely you will say the thought of the love is too big for your mouth you cannot through your narrow expressions let out your large conceptions of Christs love in his death I must professe if you can I cannot This head of demonstration is fitter for meditation than expression And yet when wee have meditated the most of it wee shall never bee able to reach the height of it The thoughts of Christs life are swallowed up by the thoughts of his death His death doth set out his love most to the life I will wind up this head with this conclusion You are no Scholars in Christs School if you cannot read a large and long lecture of love upon Christs Crosse Let it passe as an aphorism The love of Christ expressed in his death transcends so high above our thoughts that wee shall never bee able to come to the height thereof all our life His love transcends our expressions confounds our conceptions yet it must be believed and applyed At present I shall offer but three words to help you in the application of
the transcendency of Christs love to beleevers First stand and wonder O beleeving soules at this love Indeed it 's fitter for wonder than words Think upon this that I have said and let your thoughts dwell upon the meditations hereof and when in the working of your thoughts you haveascended to some height then in the wonderment of your soules cry out O the depth of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Wonder and say Lord Jesus what is man by sin the worst of creatures and what am I by unbelief the worst of men that thou shouldest thus minde me as to bee born for me to live yea to dye to declare love to me O that you would live and lose your selves in the thoughts of your Saviours love And when you have lost your selves which you may interpret found your soules in the bottomlesse gulf of your Lords love then recover your spirits again and cry out Oh the dazling heights Oh the confounding yet comfortable depths Oh the divine yet immensurable dimensions of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge 2 Lament O lament beleevers when you consider that notwithstanding Christ doth thus love you yet you are too too apt to neglect the consideration thereof and too too poor in it's requitall That holy man Mr. Welch wept because he saw his heart so dull that hee could not consider the love of Christ as he should and would And truly who can with a dry eye consider the neglect of the thought of the transcendent love of Christ what O soul doth Christ love thee much and dost thou think on it but little Canst thou spend daies and weeks in reading the fond fancies of feigned loves And hast not thou an houre to meditate on the real royall love of the Lord Jesus And as thou mindest it but seldome so thou requitest it but sorrily What small returns of love hath Christ had from thee for this vast expence of love upon thee He loves us richly but alas we love him poorly His love passeth knowledge none can understand it and our love in a sad sense passeth knowledge too for none can perceive it How little alas do wee will wee forsake for Christ And yet hee forsook much for us Hee forsook Heaven and came into the world for us and wee will not forsake earth although it be to goe to Heaven for him hee did much for us and counted it but little hee liv'd from first to last for us but wee doe but little for him and yet wee count it much grudging to give him the last and least though Satan hath had the first and most part of our life Hee as you have heard suffered for us even death it self but which of us is willing to taste of suffering for him True some have said If they had a thousand heads they would lose them all for Christ yet these some are but few For who of us would lose one head for him Ignatius in former times said hee was willing to endure fire crosse butcheries and all for Christ but these are the latter dayes and though his love was hot ours is grown cold wee can scarce endure a word a jeer a scoff for Christ Well I beseech you sit and sigh and say Oh! how meanly do we requite the love of Christ He was born lived died out of love to us But we are so far from dying for Christ that we scarce are willing to live to Jesus Christ Thirdly in as much as Christ thus loves you O beleevers with a transcendent love Be you satisfied herewith and be content if it must be so to want the love of men It s a shame that any who are the beloved of Christ should mourn for not being loved of the creature Why should the Kings daughter who hath or at least should forget her kindred and her fathers house Why I say should she i.e. the beleeving soul weep because the scullion scorns her when the King himself embraceth her It s but meet that you should rest satisfied in the love of Christ sith it s so transcendent Wherefore drink waters out of thine own cistern O Christian and as Solomon saith rejoyce with the wife or rather with Christ the husband of thy youth let him be as the loving Hinde and pleasant Roe let his breasts satisfy thee at all times Do not erre in mourning for the want or hunting after the enjoyment of creature-love but erre alwaies or as wee render it be ravished alwaies with his love Bathe thy self Oh beleever alwaies in Christs bosome live upon and be contented with his love Let others sip and drink if they 'l be so weak of the puddle waters of the creatures love while thou as wise neither enviest nor desirest to partake with them Surely did you but remember this that the love of Christ towards you passeth knowledge you would not be discontented at the want of the love of any or all the creatures considering therefore that it is such be you contented with it It s a sign that the love of Christ passeth thy knowledg in the transcendent worth thereof If in the midst of the absence of all other loves thou canst be content and satisfied with this SERMON IV. EPHES. 3. ver 19. And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge WEE are yet upon the consideration of the transcendency of Christs love to Beleevers And oh how sweet is it to lose our selves in this consideration How loath am I to leave a point of such infinite necessity and sweetnesse How gladly could I not only live but die in the declaration of the love of Christ to beleevers I doubt not but the very mention of the point That the love of Christ to beleevers is a transcendent love maketh the hearts of you to leap for joy Tell me O beleever couldest thou not wish to have thine cares ever followed with this sound That Christ loveth thee with a love passing knowledge Something we have already hinted and something more wee shall adde at this time yet because when I have said all that I can about the transcendency of Christs love to beleevers I shall come many thousand steps short of its height I am resolved to say all that I intend to this point at this time Therefore a little more to demonstrate this That the love of Christ passeth knowledge I shall intreat you to view First His command over them Secondly His care for them Thirdly His endeavour not only to declare to but to perswade beleevers of this love Christs Commands speak love First If we do consider the command which Christ exerciseth over beleevers we shall see the transcendency of his affection even in that It is Christs glory that he is the King of the Saints in a peculiar manner and it is his grace that he exerciseth that Kingly power in a sweet way How ever he ruleth the Nation with a rod of iron yet he ruleth the Saints with a golden Scepter Hence it
know the Mind of Christ more I would I say perswade mine own heart and yours also to this Point to act faith upon Christ in this case whatever the truth of such a Scripture be as you would know or of such a question as you would fain be resolved in Sith Christ loveth you with a transcendent love act faith in this case That in due time hee will reveal even the one and the other to thee Thirdly Christs transcendent love giveth a sure ground of faith in the case of raising up of the saints out of suffering Verily O you children of faith and love beleeve it Jesus Christ who loveth you in such a transcendent manner as you have heard will not let you alwaies be under those great sufferings which you doe His great love for the present maketh him sympathize with you in all your afflictions he is afflicted Men that persecute you they persecute him that loveth you He looketh upon your sufferings as his own And because heeloveth you so transcendently hee will ere long tell those that persecute you the same terribly beleeve it Christ that hath appeared to you in this saying I have loved you with an everlasting love and therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you out of the state of sin will also say unto you I do love you with a transcendent love therefore with the same loving kindness will I draw you out of the state of sufferings I say Act faith O beleevers upon this ground of Christs transcendent love even a sweet and a singular faith in the case of delivering you out of sufferings As he will not alwayes strive himself with you so neither alwayes wil he suffer wicked men to trample on you because hee knoweth and his love maketh him afraid lest your spirits should fail as under the one so under the other Use Secondly It may be a word of Reproof This point that Christ loveth his with a transcendent love may justly reprove the world yea and the Saints themselves also First It may reprove the world who are ready not only to think but to say as hee in the Parable that Christ is an austere man Luke 19.21 No my brethren Christ you see is not austere but sweet As his name is so is his nature love and that in a transcendent manner Be reproved wretches in entertaining unkind or reviling thoughts of Christ You wrong him in his love and your selves in the truth while you think or say that hee is not a loving Lord you shall ere long not onely see that hee loveth but that hee loveth all his with a love passing knowledge But secondly It reproveth the Saints also who are ready very often to question if not the reality yet the transcendency of Christs love Be reproved for saying Christ loveth you not at all or if hee doth but very little for you hear that he loveth even all his with a transcendent love I professe it is sadde to see upon what petty poor occasions even beleevers themselves are ready to question at least the greatnesse of Christs love If hee denieth them though but a vanity yet because their hearts are set upon it so much they think that his heart is not set upon them at all such is their weaknesse they are ready to think that Christ loveth them but a little because hee doth not give them happily a knife which hee seeth they would use to cut their own throat with Your bosomes O beleevers will hint you the particulars in this case and therefore I passe them by Onely let the word of reproof fall upon you who for any occasion whether great or small dare to question the transcendency of Christs love when as you see it to be a clear truth written as with a Sun-beam upon your souls and bosomes that the love he loveth you with is passing knowledge Use Thirdly This point is a word of Exhortation to exhort beleevers upon the consideration of this transcendent love which Christ beareth to them to doe at least these four things First Tremble to think that ever you should sin against him who loveth you so much View thy sins O beleever in the light of thy Saviours love and when thou seest the transcendency of that love which is in his bosome towards thee then sit down and bleed to behold thy great sinnings against him Then indeed hath transcendent love a sweet working upon thy spirit when as the thoughts of it can make thee mourn for thy sinnes How sweetly did love work upon that woman who was a sinner when she tasted the transcendent love of her Saviour The sight of the great love which was in his bosome towards her makes her sit at his feet and weep bitterly at the thoughts of her sins For the present I will not dispute the point whether mourning for sin before closing with Christ can bee sincere Sure I am of this that after closing with Christ and tasting of his love then mourning for sin is most sweet And though nothing in the world melt the heart for sinne yet the thoughts of the love of Christ will Well beleevers let in then have such a work in your bosomes O let his transcendent love which you may read written with the blood of his heart dissolve thine adamantine heart And let it make thee mourn for thy sinnes greatly They shall see him whom they have peirced and mourn saith the Scripture Zach. 12.10 Why beleevers doe you see him whom you have peirced with your sinnes Do not you mourn especially when you see him in the light of love I say no more but this either you have not tasted this transcendent love of Christ or else your spirits are very much hardened if the sense and thoughts thereof do not cause you to mourn for sinne Therefore let this word of Exhortation sinke deeply into your hearts O beleevers weep and weep teares of blood to think that ever you should sinne against Jesus Christ who hath writen in his own blood this truth that he loveth you with a love passing knowledge Secondly Be exhorted to be ambitious to answer this transcendent love of your Saviour with the like Let this love of thy Lord be the loadstone of thy love Let it constrain thee to love him transcendently who loveth thee so I know it is impossible that thou shouldest parallel it which is the glory of Christs love yet strive at least to imitate it which will be the glory of thine Do not content thy self to love him little that loved thee much Sith Christ hath loved thee richly bee ashamed to love him but poorly Ambition in this respect will be a grace if so be that the sire of Christs love to thee set thee in flames of great love to him O! be ambitious to declare as much as in thee lyeth the exceeding greatnesse of thy love to thy Lord. Mirandula notes it as a badg of love that it maketh the person willing yea desirous to suffer
as the last thing observed from these words viz. to let you see how efficacious the love of Christ is unto the supporting of beleevers in any tribulation SERMON VI. EPHES. 3. Ver. 19 And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge HE that is but little skilled in the knowledge of the face of times may very well see that these times wherein wee live are very sad Calamity lyeth upon every Creature and woe hath as it were entred upon the Stage of the World and acts a very bloudy part to the terrour of all even beleevers themselves some put on black and walk disconsolately yea almost all the sonnes of men are clad in mourning as being sensible of the misery under which most of the world at this day groans In these times therefore what can be more suitable to our thoughts than to consider of that which may serve to support our spirits It is the wisdome of such as are weak and lyable to faintings to carry about them some cordiall or other to revive them And it should bee doubtlesse the wisdome of beleevers who are liable alwayes to tribulations to lay in something which may keep them from fainting under these tribulations Indeed our Lord Jesus out of the riches of his mercy hath prepared and provided rich and glorious cordials to support the souls of his And it is our duty especially who are the Ministers of the Lord Jesus to help beleevers with these cordials which our Lord and their Lord hath prepared And therefore while others forgetting not onely the Saints but themselves take leave to presse and urge great things as matters of faith upon poor souls as if they had dominion over their faith I shall endeavour to imitate the great Apostle Paul rather to shew my self a helper of your Joy 2 Cor. 1. ult than a Lord of your faith It was this indeed which Paul was much upon viz. the furtherance of the joy and comfort of beleevers And it is this which he drives at in these words in the behalf of the Ephesians for fearing lest the newes of these troubles in which hee was should so far trouble the Ephesians as to make them faint he therefore boweth his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would be pleased to give them the knowledge of the love of Christ that so by it their spirits may be kept from fainting either at the news of his or fear of their own tribulations This being therefore the end why Paul prayeth to God in the behalf of the Ephesians that they might know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge I did observe this Doctrine from it viz. That the spiritual knowledge of the transcendency of Christs love towards his is of special efficacy to keep our hearts from fainting under any troubles I suppose you easily see both the foundation and the proof of this point in this place yet that you may see both the clearer let mee hint these three things First consider it That the Apostle supposeth that the Ephesiant hearts were apt to faint at their tribulations At the 13 verse his desire that they might not faint doth clearly intimate this that they were apt to faint Indeed the children of faith are not onely prone to fear but are apt to faint in those fears Secondly observe how upon this fear of the Apostle lest they might faint or if you will upon his desire that they might not faint he falleth to prayer and maketh it his request to God whose alone royalty is to support the fainting spirits of all the creatures that be would be pleased to keep them from fainting For saith hee for this cause I how my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus that is upon this desire of mine that you might not faint I bow my knee to him who alone is able to support your spirits Thirdly Consider that among the rest of those things which he prayeth to God for in their behalf that they might not faint hee prayeth for this in the Text as in the last place that they may know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge And indeed the very spirit and strength of all that which the Apostle had prayed for in the former verses in their behalf lyeth in this last And happily therefore it was that hee bringeth in this as the last particular being as it were that last cordiall which he prayed for in their behalf and if it had failed hee knew not as it were what to ask of God for them This is as it were the last Dosis of the Doctor which if it help not the patient the Doctor is at a stand and is puzled and knoweth not what else to give so that I suppose you may easily see not onely the footing that this Text affords for this truth but also a great and solid proof of the truth thereof in it And yet that you may see this truth more clearly from this place I will in a word shew you how that the very spirits and strength of the other cordialls which hee here prayeth for are as it were wrapped up in this viz. The knowledge of the love of Christ For consider First hee prayeth that they might bee strengthened in the inward man by his Spirit verse 16. Now what is that strength of the inward man by the Spirit but that divine and spirituall joy which is through him The joy of the Lord doth give strength Nehem 8.10 Now it is easie to demonstrate that the chief ground upon which the Holy Ghost doth build that joy which through him is in the hearts of beleevers is this viz. the shedding abroad of the love of Christ in them Christ having promised to send the spirit as a comforter to beleevers he saith that he i.e. the spirit shall take of mine and shew unto you John 16. ver 14 15. Now what is there in all Jesus Christ of sweeter efficacy and power which the spirit can take and declare to beleevers than the knowledge of his love which passeth knowledge So that if the strengthening of the inward man by the holy Ghost bee that which helps to support thy soul from fainting And if that working of the holy Ghost bee by a creation of divine joy or bringing of divine comfort And that bringing of comfort in the spirit depends upon revealing something of the heart of Christ to the soul then it must needs bee that the spirit of this cordiall lyeth in the knowledge of the love of Christ which alone the Spirit is able to bring in as it were from Christs heart and shed it into the hearts of beleevers for the strengthening of the inward man Secondly the Apostle doth pray as a means to keep the Ephesians from fainting that Christ may dwel in their hearts by faith ver 17. Now a very few thoughts will discover that the strength of this comfort doth lye in the knowledge of Christs love For whereas the soul may