Joh. 13.23 19.26 and of him it is often said he was the Disciple whom Jesus loved yea and John will witness for more than himself He saith Jesus loved him and all Beleevers besides him For speaking to them he saith He i. e. Christ hath loved us Apoc. 1.5 Call in Paul and he will prove that Christ loveth Beleevers for Christ loved him and such was the love that Christ bare to Paul that he professeth that he could nay did live upon it I live saith he by the Son of God who loveth me Gal. 2.20 Nay Paul further bears record to this truth and witnesseth that Christs love stretcheth forth it self to every beleeving Soul We are saith he more than conquerers through him that loveth us Rom. 8.37 I shal adde no more testimonies to prove this truth Even the least Beleever though but a babe is able to lisp in the language of this love and tell you that there is a divine fire of love in Christs bosome burning brightly towards Beleevers I shall hint three Demonstrations of the Doctrin taken from the behaviour of Christ towards Beleevers which will evidently clear cordial love unto them Châ—ists love demonst ated Oculus amoris index 1 Christs eye is always on Beleevers and he takes delight to look there where they are The eye is the Index of love It is a sweet starre alway shining over the hearts and houses of those whom we love The Proverb tells us where we love there we look Ubi amor ibi oculus Now it is easie to observe the rowlings of Christs eyes how that still they are towards Beleevers Wil you listen to Christs love in its language this way Let me sethy countenance saith he to the Beleever for it is lovely Cant. 2.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e. Thy appearance Such is the pleasure that Christ takes in beholding of beleevers that he seems to live upon their looks and speaks as if hee were ravished with their sight Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e Thou hast heartened me Cant. 4.9 He speaks once and again as if he did suck sweetness from the speech thou hast ravished my heart with thy sight How can we question Christs love to beleevers when his eyes are thus fixed on them that their sight doth ravish his soul Build upon it O beleeving soul Christs delight in looking on thee doth demonstrate his love to thee He peeps through the Lattesses to declare his love Cant. 2.9 Nay as if he were over-powred as indeed such an effect doth a look of love produce while he beholds beleevers he saith Turn away thine eyes from me for they have overcome me Cant. 6.5 The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it signifies have made me proud or as our Margent hath it have puft me up Christ seems to pride himself in the looks of beleevers his eye is on them and his heart is taken up if their eye be on him 2 Christs tongue speaks his love to beleevers Lingua amori tuba The tongue is loves trumpet the breathings of the Heart fill the Lips with sounds of love Love that is secret in the bosome sounds sweetly in the breath Speech as a Silver trumpet loudly sounds love It is said of Shechem the Son of Hamor that his Soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob and the Text saith he loved her and his tongue spake it for it is added that he spake kindly to the Damosell Gen. 34.31 Beleevers Christs tongue bewrays him his lips speak his love to you Oh how oft hath Christ spoke sweetly to thy Soul O beleever Canst not thou gather by his speaking to thy heart for that is the Hebrew phrase for speaking kindly the love of his heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How near thy heart O foul do those words of thy Saviour go If any thirst let him come and drink freely Doth not his heart open as a fountain of love in this speech And speaks hee not to thy heart i. e. very kindly when he saith If thou do but thirst come and drink Ask the poor Woman that had the bloudy issue Mark 5. whether or no Christ did not speak to her in the language of love when he said Daughter thy faith hath made thee whole Poor heart she had touched him as she thought at unawares and when she heard him speak of it she trembles as if she expected words of wrath But while she touched his garment secretly love touched his heart sweetly and his tongue bespeaks it when he called her Daughter And as Christs tongue trumpets out love when he speaketh to so when he speaketh of beleevers O the high Epithites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apâ—a Hermog i. e. that which he addes to beleevers names when he speaketh of their persons how rhetorical how encomiastical is the language of his love when he speaks of his Spouse Thou art faire saith he thou art fair thou hast Doves eyes thy hair is as a flock of Goats thy teeth are like a flock of Sheep thy lips are like a thread of scarlet thy neck like the tower of David c. Cant. 4.1 2 3 4. As beleevers declare their love to Christ by speaking highly of him so Christ declares his love to beleevers by speaking highly of them If beleevers call him the Lilly of the vallies he calls them the Lilly among the thorns Christs love will not permit him to speak of them in low language Thus the lips of your Lord O beleevers are a demonstration of his love to you 3 Christs actions seal to the truth and strengthen the demonstration of the Doctrin If there were nothing but the eye or the tongue it might bee feared lest the love expressed by them were but either feigned or fond But actions following these seal it up that the love is not complemental but cordial If love be only in the lip it is without life and it may be suspected as counterfeit But when men not only speak Act iâ— amoris ancillâ— but act love then love lives and is love indeed Indeed where love is in truth it will bee seen in act every action being only Loves Lackey to go of its errands and Loves servant to do its work Now should we take a view of the actions of Jesus Christ we shall see that they strive to excel and exceed his words in the declaration of his love to beleevers I shall only hint at some as intending the larger Discourse of them in the next Doctrin 1 Consider Jesus Christ manifesting himself and his secrets to beleeving souls and this will demonstrate the truth of his love Dalilah questions the truth of Sampsons love from the concealment of his secrets from her How canst thou say I love thee when thy heart is not with me saith she Judg. 16.15 Thus she seems to argue Where there is love
description of this love of complacency and a demonstration also of the thing in hand Zeph. 3.17 The Lord thy God which I understand of Christ in the middest of thee God is only ours in Christ Christ is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. God with us or our God is mighty he will save he will rejoyce over thee with joy he will rest in his love he will joy over thee with singing It is the nature of the love of complacency to rest in its self and to rejoyce in its lettings out unto its object as it were with singing Thus doth Christ to beleevers He first loves them and then rests in that love and after solaceth himself in their souls rejoyceth with singing while he rests in his love with them over them in them Look as the Father did from all eternity by his love of complacency rest in the Son and took his delight in him as it is Prov. 8.30 So doth Jesus Christ rest in beleeverss and he solaceth himself in their persons for as it is there added ver 31. His delights were in the sons of men Thus doth Christs love to beleevers you see comprehend in it this highest kinde or rather degree of love viz. that of complacency So that now to wind up the demonstration Look as the Sea doth transcend all other Rivers because that they all come and empty themselves into it In like manner doth the love of Christ excel all loves whatsoever and is transcendent In as much as all the kindes acts or degrees of love which run up and down among the creatures as it were in several Chanels do all meet and empty themselves in Christs bosome as into the vast ocean of love and thence flow forth into the bosomes of Beleevers as the sole choyce peculiar Cisterns of the same great high transcendent love But because my design is a little to lose my self in this Discourse of love I shall for the further making out and discovery of the transcendency of Christs love to Beleevers Speak to it more particularly And at this time I shall touch at the substance and circumstances of this love and in both shew how it doth transcend and passe all knowledge 1 For the substance of the love of Christ to Beleevers It is such as if rightly i. e. spiritually considered will appear to be transcendent There are to omit others but four things which I shall touch upon briefly as the substantial declarations of the Hyperbolical excellency of this love viz. 1 The nature 2 The degrees 3 The duration 4 The operation of this love 1 To begin with the Nature of Christs love to Beleevers It is transcendent it being of the same nature that the Fathers is to him Jesus Christ loves beleevers with the same kind or nature of love with which the Father loves himself His love to them and his Fathers love to him for nature are all one And if there be transcendency in the one viz. the Fathers love to Christ there must needs be also in the other viz. Christs love to Beleevers for they are in their nature both the same Christ himself bears record to this truth As the Father hath loved me so I have loved you Joh. 15.9 That you may fully feel the weight of this demonstration take it in these three Conclusions briefly 1 Of all love that is the most transcendent love which is in God For God as the Spirit saith is love 1 Joh. 4.16 Water in the Fountain is the sweetest and love in like manner in God is clearest for he is the God of love 2 Cor. 13.11 Look as light in the Sun is the most transcendent So love in God must needs transcend because love is in him as light is in the Sun i. e. In its primo and proper orbe or seat And indeed as every beam of light is but the irradiation of the Sun so all the love which is in the bosomes of Creatures is but like some little drops of dew which first fell from the Heaven of love Gods bosome 2 Of all the love which is in God that is the most transcendent which he lets out to Christ It is Christs glory that he is crowned with the flower beauty and glory of the fathers love Jesus Christ was he who is still not only the beloved but the wel-beloved of the Father in whom he was well pleased i. e. In whom the Father did rest in the highest degree of his love And apparent it is by all the actions of God that he loyed Christ with the most transcendent kind of love In as much as that he made all things for him gives all things to him and lets not out so much as a drop of love to any creature but that it first runs into his bosome and so through him to the Creature The very spirits and quintessence of that love which is in Gods bosome was let out and that without measure into Christs Now 3 That love which Christ bears to beleevers is the same which he had from the Father As it flowed from the Fathers bosome into his so it flows from his bosome into beleevers It is the same love for nature and quality As every drop of the Sea is the same for quality that all the water in the Sea is So every drop of love which falls in upon the bosomes of Beleevers from Christs is of the self-same nature and is the same for quality which the Father bears to him Indeed there is difference in the quantity And the reason is because our Cisternes are not so capacious as Christs Cistern And yet so much as we can contain we shall have as I shall shew by and by So that now herein is the first thing wherein the transcendency of Christs love to Beleevers appeareth It is the same for nature with that which the Father shews to himself Hence it was and is that Christ both did doth and will declare the Fathers name to beleevers that as it is Joh. 17. ult the love wherewith the Father loved him may be in them as he himself is in them 2 If we consider the degrees in which or the measure according to which Christ lets out his love to Beleevers we shall see it is transcendent in that also Christ fils the bosome of beleevers with is much love as they can hold The creature when enlarged to the utmost is not capable neither can it contain more then they have So that as the nature of the love is high in like manner the degree is full The Prophet Jeremiah speaking of Gods wrath against sinners useth a Metaphor in which he compares Gods wrath unto Wine as also the Psalmist doth Psal 75.8 and sinners unto bottles and setting out the degree of that wrath He saith every bottle is full of wine Jerem. 13.12 Beloved Christs love is compared to Wine also Cant. 1.4 And if you compare the bosomes of Beleevers unto bottles as you may then certainly know every
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
in truth there will be a communication of secrets But this I finde not in thee therefore I question whether thou indeed dost love me How ever Dalilah did or might argue thus against her Sampson Beleevers cannot argue so against their Saviours love The Lord Jesus unbosometh himself to Beleevers the secrets of his heart are with them Christ tells his Disciples that hee would manifest himself unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. lny himself open Joh. 14. The men of the world are strangers to Christs affections and therefore they are so to his secrets Carnal people do not know the minde of the Lord because hee doth not love them But we saith Paul that is we who are beloved by Christ we have the minde of Christ 1 Corint 2.16 Look as the Father loveth the Son and declares it by this that he sheweth him all things which himself doth Joh. 5.10 In like manner the Son loveth beleevers and actually demonstrates it by this that he declares all things i. e. all these secrets which were needful for them to know that he heard of the Father Joh. 15.15 The secrets of Christs Cabinet-councel are with those whom hee loves 2 Christ often takes Beleevers to his house and feasts them Thus wee deal with our friends and thus we declare to them our loves Christ deals so with his The King hath brought me into his Chamber Cant. 1.4 Nay he hath brought me into his banqueting house Cant. 2.4 When David would declare his love to Barzillai he said Come thou over with me and I will feed thee with me at Jerusalem 2 Sam. 19.23 thus Christ often speaks and declares his love to beleevers Come thou to me poor soul and I will feed thee with me in Jerusalem Nay Christ declares his love not only by inviting and bringing beleevers to his house but also by coming to theirs He doth stand at their door and knock and if they will but open he will enter Apoc. 3.6 if they love him so much as to let him in hee will come and declare his love by dwelling with them Joh. 14.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. make out abode or long stay with And he will feast with them in their house i. e. their hearts And because he will declare hee comes to shew love he will make the feast at his own cost He hath gathered his myrrhe with his spice for this purpose as it is Cant. 5.1 3 Christ unites himself to beleevers and in that demonstrates that hee loveth them Affection begets union Austin long ago defined Love to be the juncture of two in one Amor est junctura duo copulans Love it makes one of two It is said of Jonathan and David that their souls were knit together 1 Sam. 18.1 Christ and beleevers are knit together it is Christs love which makes the knot It s a more than moral union which is between Christ and beleevers they are not only his friends and brethren but his Spouses and Members If he bee a Head they shall be the body and if he be a Vine they are the branches Nay the union between Christ and Beleevers is nearer than that of the vine and branches of no branch can it bee said properly that it is in the vine and the vine in it But of Beleevers it is said Christ is in them and they are in him This union demonstrates also the truth of Christs love to beleeving souls I shall now make a word of Application and conclude this point There be but three uses unto which I will speak viz. a use of Information Comfort and Counsel Use I. The point informs us of the sweetness of Christ to all the Saints O how sweet how kind how gracious is Jesus Christ to beleevers thus to minde then thus to set his heart upon them Beleevers the Lord loves you Is he not in this sweet unto you Ruth at the consideration of Roaz his love falleth on her face and faith Why have I found grace in thine eyes that thou shouldest take knowledge of me seeing I am a stranger Fall on your faces Beleevers you were once strangers to Jesus Christ but you have found grace in his eyes your names are written upon his heart in letters of love well may you say that Christ is sweet seeing he loves such strangers as you were The King of Israel is surely sweet in setting his love upon you who were strangers unto Israel O how happy art thou O poor beleever in being the object of thy Lords love The meanest beleever may raise up a very high structure of happinesse upon this corner stone Christs love O how blessed art thou in thy beloved poor soul and how sweet is hee to thee that hath alway a fire of love burning in his bosome towards thee II. This point is very comfortable to beleevers It is a cordial to you is it not O beleever that Christ doth love you doth it not revive your hearts my brethren to hear that hee who is the Lord of Life and glory in himself is a Lord of grace and love to you Jesus Christ who hath written upon his Garments Lord of Lords hath also written upon his bosome love to beleevers Certainly Beleevers could you but see how near you are to Christ how highly he prizeth you how dearly he loves you I should not need to bid you rejoyce or be glad or be of good comfort Object No will the soul say Indeed you need not if I could but see that Christ loved me but I doubt that Res Doubt it not O beleeving soul but be confident and in that confidence bee comforted Christ loves you and that as wee shall shew hereafter with a transcendent love Object But it is good to have a ground of confidence and in vain shall you comfort me if I see no reason in your words Why what reason is there that Christ should love mee Res Christs love is its own reason He therefore loves because he will It may be the vanity of our wanton love that we love meerly because we love But it is the glory of Christs love that he doth so ☜ Mark and mind this The reason why Christ loves thee O poor soul is in his own bosome If thou look in thine thou wilt not finde it because it is not there but look up into Christs bosome and there it is He will have mercy upon whom he will Christ will love thee and doth love thee O Beleever because he will Do not therefore stand questioning why he should but be comforted and rejoyce in this that he doth love thee even thee O poor soul Though it may bee thy faith be little yet Christs love to thee is true Q. But though he love me now will he love me still Will not Christ dislike me hereafter and upon that dislike desert me Sure I am I shall give him cause and I fear he will take it And certainly if Christ desert I dye I
cannot live longer than I have his love A. Neither dye nor doubt poor soul Thy Lord so loves thee that he will not leave thee or if he do for a time he will not alway Christs ☞ bowels burn with love and that fire however smothered for a time will break out in a flame at last Christs love is like himself immutable and unchangeable Love is Christs life as well as thine He will not surely kill himself by deserting thee Thou canst not live except Christ do love neither can Christ You Lord hath sworn and surely if he break his oath he dyes that the Mountains shall be removed but his love shall not leave thee Obj. Oh! But though Christ do love me yet men hate me I cannot be so cheerful in Christs love because I meet with the creatures wrath Rep. I pity thee poor Creature thou hast the love of the Potter and thou fearest the wrath of the Potsherd Why art thou so weak as to sink under the Creatures wrath while thou hast the Creators love Be of good comfort Christ can break in peeces all thy enemies with his Iron rod while in the mean time he will comfort thee with his Shepherds-crook Why dost thou droop at the hatred of him who dwelleth in a Tabernacle of clay and not rather triumph in the love of him who is set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high Look up Beleever Heaven is clear over thy head though the earth be dirty under feet though thou be in a storm among the creatures yet the Sun of love shines on thee from Christ He smiles and loves thee what though men frown and hate thee Fear not him who hates thy body and at worst can but destroy that rejoyce rather in him who loves thy soul and at the last will raise up thy body from the Grave and give thee a glorious body like unto his own and fill thy soul with eternal joy in the enjoyment of his everlasting love The last use of the point is-for counsel Sith Christ loves his Saints I would surely the point might and doth counsel both the world and beleevers First you men of the world If you have an ear to hear hear Christ loves beleevers be yee counselled to do the like Certainly Christ will take it well at your hands if you love them who are beloved by him His friends are sometime strangers in your Land use them well shew them love put it upon Christs score he loves them and he will reward you Jesus Christ doth so love beleevers as that he will not let a cup of cold water given to them in his name that is because hee loves them go unrewarded I say it again sith Christ is gracious and loves beleevers be ye wise and love them also However take heed that yee do not wrong them If you will not do them good beware you do them no hurt Beleeve it if you do Christ loves them and he will not bear it Tremble lest while you lift up your hand against beleevers that Jesus Christ who loves them dash you in peeces Beware of persecuting Christs beloved ones under pretences It will be but a poor excuse to say they were Schismaticks Christ knows them to be Saints Beleeve it the bloud of beleevers is very precious and as he will punish Antichristian wretches under what names or titles soever distinguished So also will he be avenged upon all those who dare touch beleevers under what nick-names soever disgraced Therefore if you will not be so wise as to love yet be not so mad as to hurt those whom Christ loves But secondly let this counsel beleevers sith the Lord Jesus loves them that they would walk worthy thereof Beleevers live as the objects of Christs love Advance his Kingdom imbrace his counsels love all his members be abundant in his work and service In all things shew that Christs love to you hath a constraining power in you at least be yee counselled to love Christ who loves you and that so much the rather because Christ deserves thy love though thou do not deserve his O let not the love of Christ plead against you and say I ranne out to them but they returned not in to me Let not Christ say I gave you counsel and you did reject it In love I gave you Commandements and you did transgresse them No but sith Christ loves you love him and if you love him keep his Commandements Rouse up your selves O beleeving souls and considering that Christ loveth you demean your selves accordingly If he call come If he bid you go go If his Kingdom be advancing joyn in the work it is the Kingdom of him that loves you If his Spirit counsel take it for it comes from love In a word in all things live as those who indeed are beloved of Christ And let your carriage be exactly obedient kinde and loving unto him who doth stoop so low as to love such poor creatures as you be And if any ask why you love and labour for Jesus Christ tell them it is because you love him And adde withall that did they but know how Christ loves you they would rather ask why you love him so little or do for him no more But if they demand how doth Christ love you Tell them that question is unanswerable Indeed say he loves you and that truly but withall transcendently That Christ loves you tell all the world of you know but how he loves tell them that passeth your knowledge yea and the knowledge of every creature for it is a love passing knowledge And this is the next thing and the chief thing which we shall speak of SERMON II. EPHES. 3. ver 19. And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge CHRISTS love is the Saints life Paul tells you he was dead to the Law that he might live to God And the ground thereof was this that hee lived by faith in Christ who loved him Galath 2.20 As the life so likewise the comfort of the Saints is wrapped up in the love of Christ A beleever can neither live nor rejoyce if the Lord Jesus smile not upon his soul But if Jesus Christ wil but smile and shine in the light of love Beleevers know not only how to live but also how to rejoyce in all even the worst of times Hence it was that this Apostle praying to the Father of our Lord Jesus for the Ephesians that they might not faint at his tribulations He intreats that to this purpose they might know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Having briefly touched at the reality of Christs love to beleevers as it is included in this place I shall now speak more largely to the royalty thereof as it is set out in this phrase that it passeth knowledge Whence our second point was this viz. That love which Christ beareth to beleevers is a transcendent love You see how fully this point lies in these words It must needs bee
bosome is full of the wine of Christs love The Justice of the Father is not more exact to fill the bosome of sinnets with his wrath than the grace of the Son is free to fill the bosomes of Beleevers with his love Hence it is that he saith Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it Psal 81.10 You read a Box of Oyntment which when it was opened the whole house was filled with the odour thereof Joh. 13.3 such a Box of Oyntment is the bosome of Christ as may bee gathered from Cant. 1.3 which being opened in the houses i. e. the hearts of beleevers fills them full with the sweet favour thereof And indeed as Christ bids beleevers ask the Father that their joy might be full So hee is as bountiful himself as he would have his Father to be and therefore without their asking for he loveth first he lets out yea and fills them with his love In this life beleevers have at least might as much love as faith can let in and if the soul be not full it is only because the mouth is narrow as the bottle with the narrow neck in the Ocean And hereafter as much as vision it self can swallow So that now the transcendent fulnesse of that degree in which Christ lets out his love to beleevers doth evidently declare the love to be transcendent also 3 Adde to both these the consideration of the duration of Christs love to beleevers and this will further demonstrate its transcendency As the nature is high and the degree full so the duration is constant and perpetual Having loved his own he loved them els 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e to the end it may be to the perfection Joh. 13.1 Christs love is once and ever It is of the same nature with himself unchangeable As nothing in Beleevers was so good as to make him to set his love upon them so nothing is so bad as doth make him take it off again Indeed sometime the visible actings or demonstrations may be concealed but still the love it self remains sure and is never violated That look as Divines say of Christ upon the Crosse The beatifical vision was suspended but the hypostatical union was not dissolved In like manner though the light of Christs love may be for a time obscured yet the life thereof is still preserved The love may be dark sometime but dyes never There is nothing no not sin that can totally and finally separate between Christs love and a beleevers soul Paul asketh the question to this day it is unanswered yea and unanswerable What shall separate Rom. 8.35 The mountains shall depart and the hills shall be removed saith Christ but my kindnesse shall not depart Isa 54.10 Beleevers those high Hills which you sometimes see at whose sight ye wonder And the mighty mountains which you behold sometime and are amazed at their vastnesse those very hills and mountains not only may but shall depart But yet the love of Christ towards you is so transcendently high and sure that it shall not nay cannot depart So that as the very heavens themselves wax old like a garment and yet the person of Christ remaineth even so shall heaven earth every creature wax old decay and dye But still the love of Christ towards beleevers shall continue young fresh and flourishing Such is its duration such shall be its continuance Indeed the very life of Christ must depart and he dye again ere his love to his can decay For his love is not only the Beleevers life but his own as was hinted formerly O the transcendency of this love which shall thus last 4 Consider now in the last place the operation of Christs love to beleevers and you shall see its transcendency answerable to its nature degree and duration We guesse at the transcendency of things by the noblenesse of their operations It is a certain rule the more noble any thing doth operate the more noble it is in its self Love of all the affections being the most noble answerably it hath the most noble operations Christs love will easily appear to be transcendent if we consider how much more nobly it operates than any other love in the world From the first point of time untill this yea and till time shall be no more the operations of Christs love to beleevers have been are and shall bee transcendently glorious and noble I shall not in this place so curiously search into all actions of Christ because I shall more particularly speak to them by themselves to let them therefore passe I shall only instance in five particulars and in them you shall see the transcendent operations of the love of Christ to beleevers 1 There was no condition so low unto which Christ did not condescend to declare that his love did transcend High love stoops low and the higher still the love is the lower still it stoops You may take loves elevation by its condescention and the lower still that you observe love condescendeth the higher alway you must conclude it is elevated I think it was but a fancy which one reporteth of a great Prince who it is said took upon him both the habit and imployment of a Days-man working to build a House in which his beloved was that he might visit her Yet let me tell you it is no fancy but a reality in Jesus Christ that out of the height of his love to beleevers hee took upon him both the form and the imployment of a Days-man which some think though I do not to be intended in that of Job 9.33 to declare not only his obedience to his Father but his love to beleevers He emptied himself or made himself vain for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be translated and took upon him the form of a Servant c. Phil. 2.7 Christ became of no reputation that his love to Beleevers might bee of high reputation O how nobly did Christs love operate towards beleevers when he stooped so low for their sakes 2 There was no action so mean which he did not cheerfully undertake to declare his love to beleevers Royall love doth as it were debase the Soul to any though the meanest service to declare it self Jacob will bee a Servant and keep Sheep in the heat of Summer and the cold of Winter rather than not shew his love to Rachel And Jesus Christ will wash his Disciples feet a mean imployment and though he be Lord of all will be a servant unto all his Disciples that hee may not only teach them humility and love one unto another but also that he may declare the height and transcendency of love unto them all 3 There is no failing so foul which he doth not passe by to declare the surpassing greatness of his love to beleevers Great love passeth by and pardoneth great faults And the greater the faults are which be committed the greater is the love by which they are pardoned Peter failed grosly when
when it was first declared The Prophet tels us it was at such a time as in which we were most unlovely when we lay in our bloud and were not so lovely as to provoke any eye to pity us Then did Christ passe by and it was the time of his love and then did his love break forth with the light of Life for then he said Live as it is Ezek. 16. Surely hee did shew wit who fancied the feigned beloved all besmeared with a poysoned hand and made leprous thereby and yet stories that the Love was as constant in love as ever But we shall shew only the truth and the transcendency of Christs love to Beleevers if we affirm from Scripture History When beleevers were all poysoned with the leprosie of sin and lay as Lepers by the way side then Jesus Christ came and took them by the hand and opened the love of his heart in letting out a stream of bloud to wash them and make them clean Now that before ever the fountains of the deep were laid a fountain of love should spring up in Christs bosome to beleevers and that it should be opened in his side at such a time as they lay in their filth What doth this declare but that Christs love to beleevers is transcendent and as it is in the Text passeth knowledge it being set and declared at or in such a time Yet Lastly take in the consideration of that end which Christ aimes at in his love to beleevers and this will declare it also to be transcendent Christs love to beleevers is its own end He loves that he may love and this makes the love glorious Jesus Christ Beleevers in all the love which hee lets out to you aimes not at himself but at you Hee loves you now that he may love you ever The end which he drives at in declaring love in a lesser measure here is that he may declare love to you in a greater measure hereafter He makes you vessels of Grace in this world that you may be vessels of Glory in that which is to come All the glory which hee aimed at for himself was the glory of his Grace and that shall be towards you Christ delights to set the golden apple of his glory in the silver picture of your good He being Love only aims that men may see the light thereof and he chose your bosomes beleevers as the golden Candlesticks to set up the glorious light of his love to shine in Now then that so infinite a Majesty as Christ is should love such mean Worms as beleevers be And that he should set his love before the first of the times and let it out in the worst of times and that only for their good as the end Oh! who can consider this but must sit down and wonder and cry out O the transcendency of Christs love How how doth it passe knowledge Having thus demonstrated a little I would now apply this point at present in three uses viz. 1 Of Consolation 2 Of Conviction 3 Of Counsel 1 In as much as Christ loveth beleevers with a transcendent love How may this comfort Beleevers at all times Thou complainest O beleeving Soul that the World doth not love thee nay thou sayest it doth hate thee Why be of good comfort though the World hateth Christ loveth and the World cannot hate thee so much as hee will love thee His love doth transcend the Worlds hatred What the Angel told Daniel that say I to every beleeving soul who groaneth under the hatred of the World Dan. 10.19 Fear not O man greatly beloved Why complain you O beleevers for want of the puddle drops of the Creatures love you have the pure spring of Christs love what weaknesse is it to cry for want of the light of the Stars so long as you have the light of the Sun Thou hast the Creators love beleever be not sad therefore in wanting the love of the creature especially considering what a transcendent love it is Comfort your selves O my brethren with these thoughts Jesus Christ loves you and that love of his which he bears to you passeth knowledge 2 Let this be a word of Conviction unto sinners Wretches be ye convinced that however you say no body regardeth Beleevers yet there is one who is greater than all who regards them and that in a high manner know that Christ loves them with a transcendent love You break their souls in peeces you slay them and you murther them and yet you say the Lord doth not see neither doth the God of Israel regard it Psal 94.7 But be convinced now to the contrary The Lord Jesus doth see and he doth regard them and ere long he will make you know that however you deal with them they are dear unto him though you love them not at all yet he loves them highly Were you not afraid saith God to speak against my servant Moses Num. 12.8 God wonders that they were not afraid to speak against a man whom he loved so much And who can chuse but wonder that ever any wretches should be so vile as to speak and act against those cruelly whom Christ loves transcendently But I pity yee poor Creatures It may be you think that Christ slights them as you do yet be convinced now and take heed hereafter what you do certainly whoever they bee whom you oppose if they be beleevers be convinced that the Lord Jesus loveth them all with a transcendent love 3 This Doctrin might be a Counsellor and it counsels all to look after and prize a part in the love of Christ above all the loves of the world O friends I why do you spend your selves and lay out your souls in the pursute of that which is not love at least not transcendent love I wish you would now bewise you who court the creature court them now no more I shew you a more excellent way of love Consider the transcendent love of the Lord Jesus and be ye counselled to labour to get a share in it O that the hearing of this that Christ loveth beleevers with a transcendent love might make you sick in your souls till you participate of this love When one heard of the great love which was between two choyce friends he said Utinam tertius essem i. e. O that I were but a third that I might share with them in their great love Consider it you have heard of the high transcendent love which is between Christ and beleevers Be on fire therefore and burn with desire that you may partake of that love and that at least you may enjoy that love which those that have most are not able to expresse or conceive it being a transcendent love passing knowledge SERMON III. EPHES. 3. ver 19. And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge WE are lanched out into the great depth of our Saviours love wherein our souls may swim very sweetly and although I can neither sound ground nor see
shoar yet I am loath to desire to be from this Sea for it were delight in the highest manner to be drowned here The love of Christ is so surpassing sweet in it self and so infinitely necessary for our souls as that it is my desire at least to make some further discovery of its transcendency You see what an Hyperbole the Apostle useth to express the greatness of Christs love by viz. That it passeth knowledge The last time wee gave out the meaning of the expression and entred upon the proof of it in the prosecution of this point of Doctrine viz. That the love which Christ beareth to Beleevers is a transcendent love This being the main thing which I eye in the Text and indeed the main thing which every soul ought to eye and live upon I shall proceed further in the prosecution thereof All which I spake the last time for the demonstration of the truth of the Doctrin was but in a general way I shall therefore now go on to demonstrate the love of Christ to be transcendent from a brief survey of the course of his life Indeed Christs Life was as it were but one great act of love begun at his Birth and carried on even to the time of his Death If we follow this Lamb in the whole tract of his Life we shall see that from his Cradle unto his Crosse the whole way was paved as the bottom of Salomons Chariot was with love There be three Heads or demonstrations which I shall now touch upon that the transcendency of Christs love to Beleevers may appear yet more full and glorious They are these 1 His Birth and Incarnation 2 His Life and Conversation 3 His Death and Passion Each of these seriously considered will abundantly demonstrate the love of Christ to beleevers to be transcendent First consider his Birth and Incarnation How doth Christs love transcend in this act The low condescension of Christ in becoming Man doth evidently declare the high transcendency of his love to beleevers Had it not been great love in the Lord Jesus to have taken upon him the Angelical nature Sure it had If Christ would have come into the World with tidings of love and life he might have came as an Angel of glory not as a pe ce of clay and such a condescension as that had been much But he passed by the nature of Angels and took upon him the nature of man that in this act he may declare love to beleevers The Apostle tells us that he took not upon him the nature of Angels Heb. 2.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in no wise at no hand would he take upon him the Angelical Nature but he took upon him the seed of Abraham to declare his love to the Children of Abraham That we may see a little more clearly how the love of Christ doth transcend in his birth I shall speak to this head in some particulars and by all of them you shall see how Christs love unto beleevers did appear and shine gloriously in this act of his when he became man and was born for their sakes Here I shall consider therefore particularly under this Head these four things 1 Whence Christ came 2 Where Christ came 3 How Christ came 4 Why Christ came when he was incarnate And out of all these you will see the transcendency of Christs love 1 Consider whence he came Christ was in the bosome of the Father where hee lay and lived in his Fathers love hence he came to declare love to beleevers John tells us hee came down from Heaven Joh. 6.38 Jesus Christ from all eternity was in Heaven There he had his Fathers company There he enjoyed his Fathers love There he was blessed in his Fathers bosome for so the Scripture saith he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 1.18 He was living in the light of the Fathers love And being with God he solaced himself in God In that very light and glory in which God himself was in that same light and glory did Christ triumph And yet from this from this he came for beleevers sakes He forg at as it were his Kindred and Fathers house to bee born for beleevers To undertake a long journey and from a rare place for any doth declare much love to them O how long a Journey did Christ undertake and from what a Paradise of pleasure did hee come unto beleevers when he was born Surely great was his affection transcendent is his love who came at least for a time from the house of Love his Fathers bosome to open to Beleevers the fountain of love his own bosome 2 But where did Christ come when he came from Heaven was it into some Goshen some land of light was it into some Paradise some land of life was it into some Elysium some place of pleasure Nothing lesse The place to which he came was Aegypt where beleevers sat in darknesse It was the Wildernesse where beleevers were in the shadow of death It was into this World where nothing is but vanity and vexation Here it was that Christ came for beleevers sakes And on what transcendent love was it that brought Christ here His eyes saw that his beloved ones were in a defiled place which therefore could not be their rest as it is Micha 2.10 his love therefore prevailed with him to come here to fetch his beloved hence It was great love which Ebedmelech the Aethiopian shewed unto Jeremiah when hee came to the brink of that filthy Dungeon in which the Prophet was and put down cords to draw him thence But what great love had it been if Ebedmelech had not only come to the brink of the Dungeon but come down into the Dungeon and not only drew him up with ropes but carried him up in his arms this had been love indeed Why let me tell you beleevers you were in this World in a worser Dungeon than Jeremiah was in which you were ready to dye for hunger and to be drowned in the mire thereof And the Lord Jesus Christ came when hee was born not only to the brink of the Dungeon with cords to draw you up but into the Dungeon it self to take you up in his very bosome and to bring you out from perishing here I came forth from the Father saith Christ that was great love but he addeth I came into the world Joh. 16.28 Here was love indeed For Christ to come from Heaven the Fathers Throne into the world Satans Kingdom For Christ to come from the place in which glory shines Heaven unto a place which lies in evil the world For Christ to come out from the presence of the Father who always smiled upon him and to come into the place of men who ever frowned upon him For him to come from thence where he always heard the Hallelujahs of Angels to come here where his ears were filled with the revilings of sinners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the height and the depth O the
was to unite himself more clearly and convincingly unto beleevers Union is an effect of affection and love desires to unite And if union be designed as the end of any act we may safely say Love was the Agent in that design Christ indeed unites himself to Beleevers by communicating unto them his own Divine Nature but that hee might make the Union more firm he was born to take upon him their Human nature Beleevers Christ is nearer united to you than unto the Angels his love to you did in this respect transcend his love to them hee took not upon him their nature and so was not united to them that way but he took upon him your nature and was for this end born that hee might be united to you this way Say is not this love Yet 5 Christ had another end of love for which hee was born viz. That he might be fitted in a more familiar manner to condescend to the capacities yea and to sympathize with the infirmities of beleevers Christ desires to converse with them sweetly and to sympathize with them seriously neither of which he could so clearly do as God therefore it was he would be born man As he was God and had only the divine nature beleevers were not able in so free a manner to converse with him his glory was so amazing that their weak eyes could not behold it his Majesty was so overpowering that then frail spirits could not converse with it Hee was therefore pleased to take our nature and be born that they might converse familiarly with his grace and not dye who could not behold fully his glory and live Had Jesus Christ took upon him the nature of Angells and so have come into the world unto his alas his presence like that of the Angells had been terrible Beleevers could not have borne it For this end therefore the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us as 't is John 1.14 That so we might behold the glory of God in the only begotten son the divine glory can now more safely bee contemplated by beleevers while it is in the tent that I may allude to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of flesh then it could bee by it self Now Beleevers may look upon the luster of his Deity more sweetly while they can behold it as it were through the love-hood of humanity Besides Christ being born he is now fitted to sympathize with the infirmities of his It behoved him saith the Holy ghost in all things to be made like and this is spoken of his becomming man unto his Brethren that hee might bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. one that can shew tender mercy or pity Heb. 2.17 Christ by his being born and so actually experiencing the infirmities of the humane nature knows now the better how to sympathize with his Now tell me is not this great love that Jesus Christ who might if he would have solaced himself in the contemplation of his own glory and never have stoopt to the sence of our infirmities yet that he would be born that so we might behold his glory and he might sympathize with us he by his birth condescending to our capacities and making himselfe sensible of our infirmities 6 Adde to all these ends this in the last place That Christ by his nativity hath raised our humane nature the dignity of which was another end of it Oh! how might I shew the love of Christ to transcend in this end of his nativity Certainly beleevers Christ by uniting your nature to his own did mightily dignifie it How doth the humane nature shine in the luster of the divine How doth the peble mans nature glister in the golden I should say the glorious ring of the divine nature O the transcendency of Christ love that hee would stoop so low as to be born for this end that thereby he might raise high the nature of his beloved ones i.e. beleevers So that thus you see how the birth of Christ throughly viewed giveth a bright discovery of the transcendency of his love Certainly if you spiritually contemplate all that love which shines in the birth of the Lord Jesus you will easily conclude that his love to beleevers passeth knowledge The second head from which I said I would demonstrate the transcendency of Christs love was the life of Christ And now a little to speak to this you must not imagine that I dare undertake the whole History of his life and demonstrate his transcendent love from every Act thereof No this were too large a field to walk in I shall hint something in the generall of it and then I shall in a more particular manner speak to some remarkable passages thereof all speaking transcendent love to beleevers Generally the life of Christ was a perfect myrrour of his love every action of it was full of love and if wee put all the actions of his life together we may conclude that he was born not so much to live as to love There was not a word which dropped from his lips but it was full of love and for his works which he did they all spake love so loud as that the deafest eare might hear it So that we may say as the Psalmist in another case There is no speech nor language where the voyce of his love was not heard the line thereof went through every act of his life Should we begin at the Temple where he disputed with the Doctors and follow him to the mount where he was crucified by the souldiers we should see all the way strewed with love-roses And as there is no beam in the Sunne in which there is no light so there was no Act in the life of Christ but to a spirituall eie shines with the light of love But omitting others I shall instance only in five particulars and shew how Christ in the actions of his life did declare the transcendency of his love 1 Jesus Christ did run for beleevers sakes through all the miseries of this life You cannot bee in any misery which is humane but Christ was in it for you to sweeten it unto you Art thou hungry he was Mat. 4.3 Art thou thirsty hee was Art thou weary hee was John 4.6 Meetest thou with scoffings scornings derisions blasphemies buffettings Why thy Lord Christ out of his transcendent love runned through all these in his life for thee Beleevers I beseech you mind it when ever you meet with any of the miseries of this life your beloved met with them for your sakes and that for this end that hee might sweeten them to your souls And therefore when you meet with and are pressed by the miseries of this life in any kind then think upon your Saviours love who lived a life sensible of these miseries out of his love to you And I doubt not but you will say O transcendent love 2. The Lord Jesus submitted to all the duties of religion which was not only to fulfill the righteousness of the
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
is that although in wrath his iron rod break the Nations in peeces yet his golden Scepter is still stretched out in love to entertain the Saints You read in Cant. 3. that Solomon made a Chariot of the wood of Lebanon he made the pillars thereof of silver the bottome of gold the covering of it of purple the middest being PAVED WITH LOVE Cant. 3. v. 10. That Chariot which Solomon made for himself and in which hee rode might well set out the Chariot in which Christ rideth up and down the world of beleevers whom he governs Indeed it is very glorious and it glitters with beams of light but withall it is very gracious as being paved with stones of love Love is the throne in which he sits love is the Scepter with which hee ruleth and all his government is managed in such a way as that beleevers may say that he is the Lord of love even in his ruling of them Absolom did but flatter when hee stood by the way of the gate and kissed all that passed by and by it insinuated how sweetly hee would govern if he came to the Kingdome but that which was flattery in Absolom is reality in Christ When any of the spirituall pilgrims come as beleevers do to do him obeysance as they ought to doe being under his commands hee putteth forth his hands and taketh them and kisseth them and doth not only promise but perform transcendent love in all his commands over them But to read this more particularly you will see the transcendency of Christs love discovered in his command over beleevers if you consider three things First Christ layeth no commands upon beleevers but such as are full of love sweetnesse He reduceth all the Decalogue to these two heads Thu shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with al thy mind and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Mat. 22.37.39 Well might John say That his Commandements are not grievous 1 Joh. 5.3 the word is burthensome and indeed what burthen is there in the commands of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a weight unlesse love be a burden Indeed he might have commanded which is his peculiar Prerogative what he pleased but he commanded nothing but what is pleasant in it self and will be so to a sanctified soul which is the transcendency of his love A new Commandement saith he do I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another Joh. 13. v. 34. Well may the Commandement be called New it being such as was never given by any King besides himself And surely there was great love in his bosome to beleevers when hee only laid a burthen or a command of Love upon their shoulders All her ways are ways of pleasantness Prov. 3.17 The waies of Christ which are his Commands are waies of pleasantnesse for I take it The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used for the pleasantnesse of a life of love 2 Sam. 1 26. that Solomon there by wisdome understandeth Christ Beleevers if you could but live in love you would fulfill the Law of your Lord for hee being a Lord of love to you Love is the fulfilling of the Law he layeth upon you Yea such is the transcendency of his love to beleevers that hee layeth no Commandement upon them to do any thing which hee did not himself Flesh and Blood may think it a hard and a harsh Command to wash the feet of a poor beleever a fellow servant But grace will see the Command to be sweet and lovely and Jesus Christ to be loving in laying this Command because it is no other than what himself hath done before Ask the servant whether his Lord be loving who layeth no Commandement upon him but that which is sweet in its self and sweet in its fruit and no worse than his Lord himself will undertake Beleevers it is your case all the Commands of your Lord Christ are sweet in themselves and sweet in their fruit and they are such as he himself while hee lived stooped unto Doth not this declare transcendent love Secondly Christ layeth all his commands in a way of love that which he biddeth beleevers do who are under his command it is in a loving way As the command is so is the manner of its imposing i. e. sweet and loving It is possible that a sweet thing may be injoyned in a harsh way An easie commandement in it self may be burthensome in the way of its imposall To command with a bended fist and a frowning forehead is not to command in a loving way but now Jesus Christ when ever he commandeth hee commandeth sweetly and smilingly he doth not lift up his voyce and cry as some understand that place Esa 42. v. 2. Hee doth not speak in an austere rough rugged manner But as the Lord is so is his language loving Observe with what love he layeth his commands on beleevers You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you Joh. 15 14. He doth not threaten and say I will be your Foe if you will not obey but if you do you shall bee my Friends And so again If you love me keep my Commandements It is worth the noting that grace may be said to come in this respect by Christ He gave not his Law as Moses did with thundring and lightning in a dreadfull manner But he gave the Law to his Disciples himself in a sweet and loving way Hee beginneth his Sermons with Blessed are ye And all his commands drop from him like the drops of dew upon the tender grasse He shall come down saith the Psalmist Psal 72. v. 6. like rain upon the mown grasse as showers that water the earth i. e. Hee shall come down both softly and sweetly this is spoke of Christs comming as a King so that you may see the transcendency of Christs love unto you in the manner in which hee layeth his Commandements on you Thirdly Consider the end that Christ doth aim at in all his Commandements and that will also discover the transcendency of his love to beleevers Hee seeks not himself but them in all his Commands Hee biddeth the beleever work not that he may reap any thing himself but that the beleever may get all hee putteth them to labour in his Vineyard that they may have all the harvest As it is inconsistent with his Deity to have any thing added to him so also it is inconsistent with his love Hee putteth his servants to reap that they may have all the corn and hee setteth them to work rather that he may give them wages than that himself shall get any thing by their workings Take my yoke upon you saith hee and you shall finde rest unto your soules Christ layeth a yoke upon their necks not to burthen them but to ease them not to break their backs but to refresh
their bosomes Many Kings and Rulers aim at themselves in their commands and they seek too too often rather their own greatnesse than their Subjects good But beleeve it Jesus Christ your King is not such an one All that he aims at in his government is your good The end of his Commandements are your comfort As his government increaseth over you so his peace increaseth in you This is the effect and fruit of all his Commandements not so much that others may take notice of his glory in commanding as that you may find his grace in obeying Indeed love is the work and wages of his Commandement hee therefore bids you do so that he may love you therefore it is that though you are frail and weak and cannot obey hee will be kind to love you notwithstanding all So that now the Commands of Christ being as it were love materially in the substance and love formally in their imposals and love finally in their aim what can you conclude from all this but that the love of Christ even to beleevers is declared to be transcendent in the exercise of his command over them Christs care speaks love Secondly consider the care that Christ hath of them O the transcendent love that Christ expresseth to beleevers in the care that hee taketh of them for all necessities He is not only a Lord to command and to set them on work but he is a Father to take care and provide for his And it is easie to observe transcendency of love in the transcendent care that Christ hath to provide for his Food and rayment and lodging are the least things that can be taken care for and yet you shall see Christ doth not only take care for them but he doth take care for other things also yea and as he doth take care that beleevers have food to eat so it is of the finest the kidnys of the wheat and the finest flower Rayment and glorious rayment a house a brave one too First Christ taketh care that beleevers may have food to eat Hee knoweth they must have bread and therefore hee hath provided bread of life hee knoweth they must have drink and therefore hee hath opened the sealed fountain of the water of life The care that God hath to feed his people in the Wildernesse did demonstrate his love unto them that he gave them quails and mannah c. Beleevers while you are in the wildernesse of this world your Lord hath declared his love in making rich provisions of spiritual food for you Hee hath prepared the hidden mannah which hee will give unto you A feast of fat things full of marrow of wine on the Lees well refined as it is Esay 25.6 Nay even in the middest of your enemies he hath prepared a table for you And not only that you may be sure of food but that the food might be surpassingly sweet Hee hath made himself to be meat for you If it be true that the Pelican feedeth her young ones with her own blood then that Bird may be a type of your beloved His flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed and this doth hee give for the life of your souls O beleevers Cleopatra that shee might outvie Marke Antonies love caused as the History relateth a pearl of great price to be dissolved that he might drink thereof Christ beleevers hath done more for you and hath outvied her love to him Gold and silver pearls are but corruptible things in comparison of this precious blood and yet that blood he hath prepared for beleevers to drink that they might live for ever Secondly Christ hath provided not only food for the belly but rayment for the back too And as the food so also the rayment do transcend in love A garment of needle-work Psal 45.14 rich and costly attire Christ hath provided for beleevers When thou wast naked beleever and hadst no cloaths to cover thee but the filthy rags of thine own works which did defile thee then even then he cloathed thee in broidered work Ezek. 16.10 11 12 13. and shod thee with badgers skins and covered thee with fine linnen and decked thee with ornaments and put bracelets on thine hands and a chain on thy neck a jewel on thy sorehead ear-rings on thine ears a beautifull Crown upon thine head c. Thus did he adorn thee and thus did he array thee and thou wast exceeding glorious with the garments he put on thee Greater love can none declare than this to give another as good garments as himself doth wear why this doth Jesus Christ In the mount of Transfiguration Matth. 17. v. 2. it is said his rayment was as white as the light And when the Saints appeared to John in his vision they appeared in garments of the same colour it is said They were arrayed with white robes Rev. 7 13. Righteousnesse is his garment and so it is beleevers too It was an act of great love to Mordecay and Haman thought the King could expresse no greater that the Royal apparrel should be brought which the King used to wear and to be put on him Why beleevers such is the transcendent love of Christ to his in his care for your apparrel that the royal apparrel which he weareth himself is brought to you and is put on your souls Now and you are all glorious within here and it shall be put on your bodies hereafter even that body which is now vile Phil. 3. last shall be made glorious like to his glorious body And when Christ shall come and appear in his garments of glory Col 3.4 1 Joh. 3.3 you shall appear with him in the like And then he shall be admired not only in himself 2 Thes 1.10 but in you O transcendent love that Jesus Christ should provide such cloathing for us poor creatures Thirdly as for lodging Christ hath provided that likewise for beleevers Indeed himself had no house here on earth not so much as a hole wherein to lay his head and therfore beleevers fare no worser here than he did they have as good a lodging as their Lord In this world indeed they have not a house to be in nor a bed to lye on as their own But as to hereafter he hath provided a hous and that not a mean one but a mansion house and the building thereof is brave It is a building of God and the bravery of it appeareth in this which was the bravery of Christs body Heb. 9.11 that it is a house not made with hands The Shunamite did declare her love to the man of God by making of him a litle chamber and by setting a bed therein and a table and a stoole and a candlestick for him 2 King 4.10 Jesus Christ sheweth greater love than this in having provided a better room for beleevers not a little Chamber but a great Mansion a bed of glory Abrahams bosome not a stool but a Throne not
a candlesticke no nor the Sunne but himself to be as a light this not on the wall as it were without his own Palace but even within where himself is in his own presence Joh. 17. 24. Father saith he I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am Consider this beleevers Christ hath prepared as good a house for you as for himself and when he was as it were in the entry thereof he stood at the door and did in a manner agree with the Father before hand that you should come in as well as himself and therefore it was he said he went to propare a place for them So that now here is rich provision of necessaries food and rayment and lodging And what doth this declare but rich love in Christ that he should take such care of beleevers Wee might adde not onely that Christ hath prepared these things which are the necessaries but hee hath prepared other things which are glorious But oh who shall bee able to declare all the gracious provision which Christ hath made for his When as eye hath not seen neither hath ear heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive those things we will therefore break out with the Psalmist O how great is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up as a secret treasure for so the word signifieth for them that love thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and beleeve in thee To hide as a treasure hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a treasure Psal 31.19 Thus you see the transcendent love of Christ in his care for as well as his command over beleevers Thirdly and lastly we might abundantly demonstrate the transcendency of Christs love to beleevers Christs endeavour to perswade beleevers of his love speaks its greatnesse in his indeavour to declare and perswade the hearts of beleevers of all this love That Christ should love at all and love so much is transcendent But that he should take paines to perswade the hearts of beleevers to beleeve this is an addition to the transcendency of the love Christ saw how backward we would be to beleeve and how hardly we would be brought to perswade our selves that indeed he did love us at all therefore it is he took such care and made such provision for the perswading of the hearts of beleevers to close with the truth of this that he loved them I have saith he declared thy name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them This is the great work which he did himself when he was on earth and which his Ambassadors now doe in his name now he is in Heaven viz. To perswade the hearts of his that he loveth them What a great deal of love was there in that cry of his when he was on earth That if any came to him he would in no wise cast them out And if they did but thirst they might come to him and drink How did he declare the strength of his love in perswading soules to come to him that they might taste and see how he loved them It had been much if Jesus Christ would have given a poor soul leave to love him and would have accepted it upon his seeking to him but that he should love and wooe us to love him and take paines to make us beleeve that he doth love us This is transcendent love O beleevers such is the strength and transcendency of the love of Christ towards you that when he was upon earth himself he made it his great work not onely to tender love freely but to perswade you to beleeve it fully And now he is gone to Heaven he hath taken care to appoint Ambassadors and they alwayes in his name doe beseech you to beleeve that he doth love you And it is the great longing of his soul to fill you not onely with his own love but with his Fathers love too wheresoever the Gospell of free grace doth sound the summe thereof is this That God so loved the world that hee sent his Son And that Jesus Christ himself so loved poor soules that he came himself that if any would but beleeve they might have him and in him everlasting life and love To all this I might adde the consideration of the easie price that Jesus Christ setteth upon his love which he tendereth It is but acceptation If any man will but come to his bosome the fountain of love he may take the waters thereof freely that fountain is not a sealed but an open fountain And this is the transcendency thereof that it is open even for those in whom there was a fountain of wrath and enmity flowing up and that against himself O my brethren if you did but consider that the love of Christ passeth knowledge that in its nature it is every way full and in its tender free And that he profereth rich love to those who by nature were the children of wrath and that all this is in a beseeching way Certainly you must conclude that the love of Christ is a transcendent love and that it passeth knowledge It was the tendernesse of the love of Jonathan and David that it passed the love of women Thy love to me saith David was wonderfull passing the love of women 2 Sam. 1. v. 26. Surely beleevers the love of Christ to you is wonderfull transcendently wonderfull passing the love of women passing the love of Jonathan and David comprehending as formerly hath been hinted yea and surmounting any or all the loves of all the creatures whatsoever Neither man nor Angels could or ever did expresse so much love as Jesus Christ hath not onely expressed and declared but doth even tender and besceeh beleeving soules to accept of I shall adde no more for the demonstration thereof but onely this That when I have said all that I can though I had all the tongues both of Men and Angels of the love of Christ you that finde it in your bosomes will have reason to tell me that the one half was not told you For the love of Christ is such as all the Saints who do in the fullest measure injoy it are not able to expresse it but must be fain to cease speaking and so wrap up their soules in wondring at it and cry That it is a love passing knowledge Before I come to the Application I shall briefly answer two Objections which may come in and be made against the truth of this Doctrine Ob First it will be objected If the love of Christ be so transcendent to beleevers Whence then cometh it to passe that he permits them oftentimes to lye so low that their enemies triumph and insult over them Surely will some weak for weaknesse is the around of the Objection beleever say If Christ love me so highly why doth he permit me to lye so low If I be so near to his heart how is it that he suffereth wicked men to tread upon
me If he layeth me in his bosome why is it that he suffereth me to lye at the worlds feet Answ 1. This may consist with love tell me thou weak soul was not Christ the dearly beloved of the Father and yet did not the father permit wicked men to persecute him Canst thou be reviled buffeted scourged or crucified worse than he yet notwithstanding all he was beloved of the Father and that in a transcendent manner in like manner thou mayest be the beloved of Christs soul and yet be delivered into the hands of thine-enemies as it is Jer. 12.7 Nay this is not onely consisting with love but 2 It is an act of love for while Christ permits these sufferings of thine hee maketh thee like unto himself It is desired of Paul as it makes him conformable unto Christ Phil. 3.10 Even a mourning garment is glorious when it is the same that Christ weareth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. We boast in a glorying manner What soul is there that may not as it were be proud and glory in its tribulations as the word signifieth Rom 5.3 when he considereth in them he is made like to Christ yea a suit of sackcloth is to a spirituall soul brave and fine when the Lord of glory goeth in the same fashion Object 2 But some will object further and say I do not question whether Christ loves me transcendently because of the sufferings I lye under but rather because of the desertions in which I am Alas I question whether he loveth me at all because he withdraweth himself from me so long much more reason have I to question whether be loveth me transcendently while I see him altogether deny me his company Indeed in a sense I think that the love of Christ passeth knowledge for I know but little of Christ Methinks I see him withdrawn I will not deny but he hath sweet smiles but I am a stranger to those smiles Time was when I thought hee loved me transcendently but now I fear hee loveth me not at all for hee deserteth me Answ To such a soul as objects thus I would say but three words First These withdrawings of Christ whereof thou complainest are but in shew not in substance The Sun is but absent in shew when it doth not shine it is prerent still though behind a cloud I have often thought that Christs withdrawing in this respect may be called rather his concealed presence Note this than his real absence He was close by Mary although she did not see him He was in the company of his Disciples though they knew it not His presence was not manifest not because his person was not there but because their eyes were held that they should not know him Luke 24 v. 16. Secondly These withdrawings whereof thou complainest are not total Christ never so withdraweth from the beleever but he leaveth something behind he putteth in his hand before he goeth as it is Cant. 5. v. 4. And surely his hand was never empty ☞ Mind this If he be absent in shining he is present in strengthning though he doth not appear rich in love yet he is still present upholding thy life The very breath that thou breathest poor deserted creature doth declare that Christ is present in some measure It were impossible that thou shouldest breath if Jesus were not within thy bosome thy weepings after him are demonstrations that in some measure he is with thee Thirdly Christs departure will not be final hee will be found again though he be not felt now And when he cometh he will make rich amends for his absence This said Mr. Peacock after this desertion The Sea is not more full of water nor the Sun more full of light than my heart is full of joy the joy that I feel in my heart is incredible Ah said another poor soul that had cryed Christ was gone He is come he is come he hath kissed me with the kisses of his lips his love is better than wine he hath not deceived me neither will he deceive any I shall therefore retort the Argument thus Though beleevers give Christ occasion to goe away very often yet Christ never goeth away altogether but even in his conceived absence vouchsafeth a concealed presence and at his sensible return maketh rich amends for his staying and going away What doe these declare but that his love is transcendent and as the Text saith passing knowledge Four words I shall adde by way of Application viz. A word of 1 Information 2 Reproof 3 Exhortation 4 Perswasion First for Information in as much as it is thus clear that Christ loves his with transcendent love then it may inform us of these four things First in the deservednesse of that great and dreadfull curse which Paul denounceth against those who love not Christ 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be Anathema Maranatha That is let him be cursed with the highest and greatest degree of cursing that may be possible for of those three degrees of cursing which the Jews used in their threefold excommunication this of Anathema Maranatha was the highest and it includes as much as this Let the Lord come and strike this person with eternall perdition And tell me do not those deservedly expose themselves to this dreadfull curse who do not love such an one as Jesus Christ is who loveth all his with a transcendent love Mind this wretches you who love not the Lord Jesus what can you say for your selves that you should not lye under this curse Why do not you love Jesus Christ what reason have you for it Is not he lovely fairer than the sons of men Is not he loving Doth not his love to his pass the love of women Were Christ unkind you might with some pretence plead that you have reason not to love him but being so kind so loving as that he openeth his bosome and letteth out transcendent love to all that are his Certainly you may expect and that justly to be accursed in this high degree for not loving Christ Secondly See here the true ground of a beleevers glory Is it not a ground of glory to be beloved of Christ with such a transcendent love as you have heard Well may beleevers make their boast of Christ all the day long and well may they glory in the love that they enjoy for why that love is transcendent passing knowledge None of all the sonnes or daughters of men have any such just ground of glory though they should enjoy the love of all the creatures as beleevers have who do enjoy only the love of Christ For that love they have in him transcends and excells and that infinitly all that love which any can have from all the creatures Let the world falsly and fondly brag of their creature-loves and pity them Oh beleevers when you see them do so But rejoyce your selves in the mean time with joy exceeding great and full of glory
for the party beloved Beleevers Christs love to you had such a work as that and if your love to him hath not yet risen so high as to desire to suffer for him yet let it at least rise thus high as to be willing to suffer any thing for him if hee call thee to it It will be a sweet and a sure character of love As Christ wrote a letter of love to thee in his own blood So do thou upon occasion write a letter of love back to him in the same rubrick The love of Christ saith Paul constraineth us because saith he we thus judge c. 2 Cor. c. 5. v. 14. the consideration of Christs love had a constraining power upon Pauls spirit he could not chuse but judge this that if Jesus Christâ— dyed for him hee should be willing to dye for Christ Then is a Christian sweetly exercised when as the Golden ball of divine love is tossed too and again between Christs bosome and his Let this therefore sink into your spirits labour to answer O beleevers this transcendent love of Christ towards you which passeth knowledge Thirdly upon all occasions have recourse to this transcendent love Populus me sibilat c. as the miser saith people deride mee abroad but I comfort my selfe when I come home he meant by looking into his boxes and there seeing his gold Beleevers though the world deride you abroad yet you may have recourse to this love of Christ and comfort your selves when you come home To look as it were into the glorious box Christs bosome and there see that which I am sure to thee is better than gold id est his grace Weak people are thus farre wise as they have their little bottles of spirits and cordials to carry about with them to refresh them when they are faint Beleevers you especially you that are weak imitate their wisdome Let this bottle of Christs transcendent love alwayes be in thy bosome and have recourse to this Refresh thy spirits upon all occasions especially when thou beginnest to faint and without doubt there is a refreshing power in this transcendent love of Christ to keep up your hearts from fainting under troubles as we shall see in the next point when we come to it Jesus Christ in his trouble had recourse to his fathers love why then in any trouble have not you recourse to Christs love Fourthly In as much as Christ loveth all his with a transcendent love let it be your care O beleevers to imitate your Saviour Love all his as he doth with such a transcendent love Ephes 5.2 1 Joh. 4.11 Beloved if Christ have loved us we ought then to love one another At least O beleevers be perswaded to have salt in your selves and to love one another and that very dearly sith Jesus Christ doth the like Be ye followers of Christ in this as deaâ— children and be you walkers in love one to another as Christ hath loved you all who ever they bee that are beleevers Christ loveth them very dear because they are his He doth so why should not you O that where ever you see the light of Christs love shining upon any bosome that there you would cause your love to shine also upon the same Especially take heed that you do not frown upon those on whom Christ doth smile You have heard and therefore mind it that Christ loveth all his with a transcendent love therefore take in this exhortation also who ever they be that belong to Jesus Christ though in many things they differ from thee yet let them have thy love for this one thing viz. Christ in them At least learn to love them really because you hear Christ loveth them transcendently Christ loveth different Saints with the same love sure I am that beleevers of all or any opinions are the object of Christs affection and though they are unhappily it may be erring about some truths yet they are all of them happy in the injoyment of this truth that Jesus Christ loveth them all with a love passing knowledge Sad it is to see those look strangely one upon another who are yet all beloved of Jesus Christ But sadder it is to see any Saint look upon another with a frowning countenance when as Christ looketh upon him as well as upon himself with a smiling face Who doth not bleed to see one beleever to write a book of revilings against another when as you look upon the Gospell as a glorious book of love writted by Christ to them all Tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streets of Askelon O! let not the daughters of the unbeloved triumph to see you who are the highly beloved ones of Iesus Christ traducing and reviling one another I say no more but this sith Jesus Christ doth love al the Saints and every believer with a transcendent love do you who are beleevers and so share in the sweetnesse of this truth do the like Fourthly I shall adde but a word of perswasion and let it be to perswade all those who as yet are strangers to Iesus Christ to come in unto him O that you could behold the glorious beames of transcendent love towards all beleevers doubtless such a sight as that could not chuse but work upon your hearts and strangely draw your spirits to close with him who is so lovely in himself and so loving unto his wandring soules that erre up and down the Wildernesse of the world Return yee sinners unto holds of love kisse the Son imbrace Jesus Christ know hee is the Lord of love One who imbraceth all that come to him freely and then loveth them all transcendently I fear you are ignorant of this truth that Christ loveth his with a love passing knowledge And it may be your ignorance of this keepeth you from closing with him But know it now and be perswaded to come to Christ to close with him to imbrace his Gospell to love his truth to be conversant in his ordinances as knowing if you be you shall have love from him which passeth knowledge Bee contented now to break off from the wayes of sinne and vanity and come into the wayes of righteousnesse Bee contented to bid the creature adieu and now be willing to imbrace Christ do not say if you take up Christ in his Gospell and in his wayes Friends will leave you and the World will loath you and the Devill will stirre up the Sonnes of Belial against you It matters not though the creatures leave you Christ will imbrace you Though they loath you Christ will love you And what need you fear the rising up of the Sonnes of Belial when you shall enjoy the loves of Christs bosome Heare and give eare O ye children of folly bee wise at least once and you shall taste love Christ calleth you all whoever you bee come to him imbrace him cordially and you shall find him loving you transcendently I have said all and happy I were and
of the love of Christ of the Son of God who loveth me As Moses pressed the Israelites to the sincere keeping of the Law for it is saith he your life In like manner may we presse Christians to the serious knowledge of Christs love because it is our soules life Fourthly The knowledge of Christs love is the foundation of a soules joy and Christians comfort and therefore of such necessary concernment The reason why the Saints are sometimes so sad is because they doe not know the love of Christ at least in all the dimensions thereof Hence it is that Peace is joyned with love somtimes in the Gospell Peace saith Paul bee to the brethren but from whence from this as it is added and love from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ Ephes 6.23 the hearts of beleevers would be at Peace if so be they did but fully understand the love of Christ O saith the soul of that beleever and of this beleever indeed they live sweetly upon Christs love because they have it but I go sadly in the want of Christs love because I think there is none for me The soul is sad because it seeth not the fulnesse of the love of Christ I saith another soul such an one who hath more grace than I and such an one who hath lesse sinne than I have he may live joyfully because of Christs love but I must goe sadly because I fear hee will not love me The reason of this soules sadnesse is because it knoweth not the fullnesse of love that is in Christ and the freenesse thereof without doubt did we but know the love of Christ better than we do wee should not be so sad so often as we are That bosome Disciple John who knew much of the love of Jesus and had declared the knowledge of it unto others he saith it was for this end these things write I unto you saith hee that your joy might bee full Sith therefore the joy and the comfort of our soules is built upon the love of Christ as its foundation it doth necessarily concern us to get the knowledge thereof Fifthly the knowledge of Christs love is of necessaay concernment because it is the rise of Christian thankfullnesse Hence it is that thankfullnesse springs it is from this fountain whence it floweth Those soules will bee most thankfull for the love of Christ that understand is most Ignorance begets ingratitude but knowledge maketh thankfull Blesse the Lord O my soule and forget not all his benefits Men will not be thankfull for that which they do forger neither can men remember that which they do not know All that Christ looks for from the Saints is this that they should acknowledge the transcendent love he beareth unto them Wee will never be able to sing glory and dominion be to him who hath loved us except wee know how hee loved us Look as a Lark at the discovery of the light of the day ascends chirping and chirping and the lighter the Heavens appear the higher she ascends and the sweeter shee sings In like manner the soul who knoweth the love of Christ and seeth the light thereof mounteth and singeth and the more bright the beames of Christs-bosome love shines in upon them the higher is the soul elevated and the sweeter it doth chirp and chant that spirituall song of thankfulnesse unto Christ You are bound beleevers to thank Christ for his love but you will never to purpose go about to cancell that bond if so be you doe not know the transcendency of that love with which hee hath bound you Sixtly Christs love is all the legacy he hath left Christians Surely it is of necessary concernment for Christians to know that which Christ left them in his will He hath not left them ample possessions nor brave buildings in this world his father though he loved him left him not a house to put his own head in here but dear love rich love transcendent love love passing knowledge this Christ hath left to beleevers as his father left him as the father hath loved me so have I loved you Joh. 1.5 ver 9. Aske the widdow whether it doth not necessarily concern her to know that which her husband left her Aske the child whether there lie a necessity upon him to know that which his father left him both the one and the other will say yes Why beleevers your everlasting father and your soules husband Jesus Christ hath left you nothing but his love surely it is necessary that you should know it Seventhly As the soul is filled with the knowledge of the love of Christ so it is filled with the fulnesse of God You empty creatures doth it not concern you and that necessarily to be filled with the divine fulnesse the fulnesse of God surely you will say yes then know it doth as necessarily concern you to bee acqainted with the love of Christ without that you cannot be so filled Some have thought that knowledge is nothing but an union between the thing known and the understanding Hence it is that they say and conclude that by how much any partake of knowledge by so much they partake of fulnesse God is love and if the knowledge of Gods love be the union thereof with the soul then certainly by how much we know the one by so much wee partake and are filled with the other Observe how the Apostle therefore joyneth this in the Text To know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge saith he that you may bee filled with all the fullnesse of God Every drop of this knowledge of the love of Christ tendeth towards the filling of the soul with the fulnesse of God surely therefore to be filled and to be filled with God and to bee filled with the fulnesse of God yea with all the fulnesse of God being so necessary for every soul as it is and the knowledge of Christs love being so advantagious to this It must needs bee a thing of speciall concernment for every Christian to labour to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Briefly now for application First it may serve for a use of Lamentation that notwithstanding the knowledge of the love of Christ is thus necessary yet First that this knowledge hath been little studied Secondly though it should be much studied yet it can be little obtained First I say it hath been but little studied Men have been very swift in searching after other truths but they have been slow in searching after this An ample exact discovery of this love of Christ may well be set down among the desiderata i.e. the desirables of Divines it having been so little handled by any Indeed much of the Law in the point of duty hath been discovered but little of the Gospel especially in this point of Christs love hath been inquired into I doe not know any one Authour of eminency indeed as yet I have met with none at all who on purpose hath handled or
doth greatly rejoyce the heart of a beleever more than wine doth the heart of any carnall creature So that this shall suffice as to the first particular viz. the declaration wherein the knowledge of the love of Christ as it is efficacious to keep the heart from fainting in troubles doth consist Now in the next place wee shall shew wherein the efficacie of such a knowledge as this is of the love of Christ doth appear for the supporting of fainting souls and this wee shall shew in two branches First generally The knowledge of the love of Christ will appear in its effecting of five things which are of great vertue to bear up the heart that it faint not in any troubles as now First in that it freeth the soul from those doubts and fears in which it is about its eternall condition There is a great deal of vertue in such a freedome as this is to keep up the soul from fainting in troubles usually even those that are faithfull when they are in any troubles are fearfull of their eternall estate and doe much question it But when that fear is removed and that great question is resolved they are exceedingly inabled to bear up not onely in regard of fainting under but also cheerfully to goe through all their troubles The example of that Martyr Mr. Glover is famous for this hee much doubted his condition a little before hee suffered and there were a great many despondencies in his Spirit and a great many faintings as it were so that hee did not carry himself so cheerfully as hee would but afterwards when God was pleased to shine in with the assurance of his love and to free him from this doubt under which hee did saint then was hee inabled not only to bear out from fainting but to go out and suffer with a great deal of joy and cheerfulnesse Now it is easie to shew how the love of Christ serveth to free the soul from those doubts in which it is about its eternall condition He that knoweth the transcendency of Christs love will bee easily freed from doubting about his condition The knowledge of Christs love in this respect casteth out fear And indeed the chief ground of this doubting is the want of the knowledge of the love of Christ when once the beleever is able to say I know the love of Jesus Christ and I know it not onely for others but my self then hee will bee able to resolve What should I doubt Or who should I fear Sith Jesus Christ loveth mee with such a transcendent love And thus being freed from his fears hee is also freed from his faintings Secondly An assurance of a rewards after all sufferings and tribulations this doth mightily support the soul from fainting under them therefore it was that Moses did not faint though hee were in afflictions with the people of God because hee was assured of the recompence of reward Therefore it was that Paul notwithstanding his great tribulations was kept from fainting because hee was assured of a Crown of life which was laid up for him Therefore it was that Jesus Christ himself was inabled to endure without fainting because of the joy that was set before him Now the knowledge of the love of Christ doth effect and produce this assurance The soul that knoweth how dearly Jesus Christ doth love him and what transcendent affection hee beareth unto him will with a little pains bee brought to beleeve that certainly hee will fully and gloriously reward him for all the tribulations hee endureth for him O! saith the beleever that knoweth the love of Jesus Christ albeit what I feel be sore and what I fear be sadder though my tribulations bee many yea and heavy too yet I know I shall have a reward for all after all because Jesus Christ loveth mee with a love passing knowledge And thus the beleever will bee sweetly supported from fainting Thirdly a full acquiescence for rest in Christ is very efficacious to keep the soul from fainting under troubles That which causeth the heart to despond and to bee apt to faint is because it is apt to bee tossed up and down An unstable soul is like to the vessell in the storm without an anchor tossed up and down with every wave and every wind therefore it is that souls are apt to fret and to faint because they doe not and cannot rest in God Hence is that exhortation Psal 37. v. 7. Rest in the Lord fret not thy selfe Men do fret and faint because they doe not rest in the Lord whereas if they could doe the one they would bee free from the other Now the knowledge of the love of Christ doth bring the soul to such a resting and quiescance on Christ O saith the beleever when I consider how Christ loveth mee how out of that love to mee hee will plead my cause for me and will one day make those by whom I now suffer tribulation to come and worship before mee that they may know that hee loveth mee Apoc 3.9 When I consider this saith the soul then am I enabled quietly to rest my heart in Christ and to solace my soul in him and to bee so far from fainting under or fretting at my tribulations as that I am able in my patience to possesse my self and to rejoyce in Christ Thus the knowledge of the love of Christ worketh a resting upon him and that rest keepeth from fainting Fourthly Strength of love to Jesus Christs person serveth to support the soul from fainting under tribulations Jacobs love to Rachel kept him from fainting under any hardnesse which hee did indure for her And the spouse being sick of love to Christ was made strong by that sicknesse to endure much for Christ without fainting The Watch-men smite her and wound her the keepers of the wall take her and abuse her taking away her veil from her yet shee holds out yet shee faints not at all this trouble and why because shee was sick of love for the Lord Jesus Thus strength of â—ove to Christ keepeth a soul from fainting under sorrow Now the knowledge of Christs love doth very facily and freely work this Hee that knoweth how transcendently Christ doth love him cannot chuse but at least really love Christ again yea and strongly too Beleevers cannot chuse but love him whom they know loved them first Hence it is that Phoenix like gathering together all the spicy actions of Christs love and sweetly meditating upon them they can fetch fire out of all and sweetly dye in the flames of that fire and never faint O how easily can the soul support it self from fainting under tribulations for Christ while it burneth with love to Christ And how easie also is it for a soul not only to fetch fire to kindle but even to inflame How also when it considereth the transcendent love of Christ to him Fifthly Adde to this in the last place this consideration that divine joy is ever efficacious to keep the
soul from fainting under trouble There is a strengthening power in spiritual joy to keep the souls of beleevers from fainting fits as was hinted in the beginning Now the knowledge of Christs love is that which is able to produce that divine joy and that divine joy keeping the heart from sinking under sadnesse it is easie to gather up this conclusion that the knowledge of Christs love is of speciall efficacy for keeping the soul from fainting under troubles Now you have seen in a generall way the efficacy of the knowledge of Christs love to support the spirit from fainting in times of trouble If you will see the summe of these five things reduced into one argument take it thus If freedom from fear about a mans eternall condition If assurance of a reward after all tribulations If resting upon Christ in a time of trouble If strength of love to Christ and also of divine joy through the Spirit be efficacious to keep the heart from fainting under troubles then the knowledge of the love of Christ must needs be efficacious because it produceth all these But now we have seen that freedom of the soul 1 From doubts about the eternall condition And 2 assurance of a reward after all tribulations And 3 an acquiescence or resting on Christ in time of trouble together with 4 strength of love to Christ And 5 divine joy is ever efficacious that way therefore c. But now more particularly I shall shew the efficacy of this cordiall the knowledge of this love to keep the heart from fainting under troubles in these four things First In that the knowledge of the love of Christ doth especially in such a nature as hath been described go to the heart and refresheth the Spirits of a beleever Therefore is any thing cordiall and refreshing because it goeth to the heart and hath a power on the Spirits As now wine hot water Spirits and quintessences c. doe therefore cherish because they warm the heart and revive the Spirits Thus now the knowledge of the love of Christ because it goeth to the very heart and reviveth the Spirits of the Saints which if revived there is no fainting therefore it must needs bee so efficacious as it is As now the fear of God is most soveraign to keep from evill because as the phrase is it is put into the heart so likewise the knowledge of the love of Christ is most soveraign and efficacious to support from fainting under trouble because it goeth to the heart and cheareth the Spirits Hence is that phrase of the shedding abroad the love of God in your hearts Secondly This knowledge of the love of Christ doth appear to bee efficacious to keep from fainting under troubles in that it maketh the faculties of the soul so intense Intension maketh insensible and so freeth from fainting Saul though hee were opposed and much mocked of the sonnes of Belial yet being newly lifted up to the kingdome was so intense upon that that hee did not at all mind the sonnes of Belial much lesse did hee faint at their fordid carriage 1 Sam. 10.27 Some conceive that therefore men in a frenzie doe not faint at any thing as others doe because of their intensivenesse what was it that kept the Apostle from fainting in affliction but the intensivenesse of his Spirit about everlasting and eternall objects For which cause saith he I doe not faint while wee look not at things which are seen but things which are not seen 2 Cor. 4. c. 16 18. Paul was so intense upon higher objects that hee did not faint at his tribulations Now the knowledge of the love of Christ maketh the soul very intensive in the contemplations of all its sweet dimensions Thus saith the soul that knoweth the love of Christ O the height and depth and length of the love of Christ O that so great a person as Christ is should love so mean a creature as I am Oh that one who is not onely man but God should set his heart upon mee who am not onely a man but a worm And thus now being intense in that contemplation of Christs love it is kept from fainting under tribulations Thirdly it appeareth that the knowledge of Christs love is efficacious c. because it maketh the soul to forget all the loves of men The reason why we are apt to faint under tribulations is because wee are apt to overprize the love of men Did wee not set our hearts so much on the love of men wee should not faint for the want of that love What though men yea all the sons of men shall hate and oppose so long as I doe not prize their love nor fear their hatred I shall never faint Now the contemplation of the love of Christ to the soul doth work this effect upon the heart It maketh a man to forget all love of men Peter forgat the earth when hee saw but a glimpse of glory in the Mount Mans glory is not seen when Christs glory doth appear the light of the Stars is not seen when the light of the Sun doth shine And while the soul is taken up in the meditation of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge hee doth not mind the loves of men and therefore hee is free from fainting at the want of them Fourthly and lastly the efficacy of the knowledge of Christs love c. will appear in that it hath a power to make a man forget all those tribulations which hee lieth under we give wine saith King Lemuel to them that be of heavy hearts strong drink to him that is ready to perish Prov. 30.6 let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more A soul that can make application and meditation of the love of Christ drinketh as it were that wine that maketh him forget his sorrows and remember his troubles no more Hence it is you shall have the poor beleever say I was so taken up with the remembrance of the love of Christ that I forgot I was in prison As Paul when hee wrot this Epistle being a prisoner at Rome yet was so taken up with the love of Christ as forgetting in a manner his imprisonment Note this he prayeth not for himself lest hee should faint at tribulations but hee powreth out his heart that way in the behalf of the Ephesians that they might not So that there is a divine spirituall intoxicating power in the love of Christ to cause a man not to mind or to remember the tribulations under which hee lyeth and surely the soul doth never faint under that which it doth forget Thus now wee have gone over the second thing and shewed you both generally and particularly wherein the power of the knowledge of the love of Christ as it helps in keeping the heart from fainting under troubles doth consist wee will wind up all in a word of Applition Now Use first for Information This point That the knowledge of
Christs love is of such speciall efficacy to keep up the heart from fainting under troubles lets us see what great need we have to study the love of Christ Men have much studied the nature of some Plants and Mineralls because they are of special use for cordials you hear of what speciall use for spirituall cordialls the knowledge of the love of Christ is have not you ground then to study it Paracelsus concluding all to lye within the compasse of his Sol Sulphur and Mercury spentall or most of his study in the search and knowledge of them The love of Christ is the most catholicall cordiall not onely including all other cordialls but the life that the soul doth find in all other Look as Gods love is put for all causes Joh. 3.16 when hee gave his Son So Christs love is put for all cordialls when the Saints get comfort Tribulation distresse persecution famin nakednesse perils sword neither any nor all these can bear down when the soul knoweth the love of Christ that loves him And as it is the most Catholicall cordiall so it is the most Homogeneall Those cordialls are of most efficacy which are most naturall and most suiting to the Spirits why love is our life Gal. 2.20 Christs love falls in with the life of a Christian it is most suitable to it and therefore most sovereign Verily if there bee need of studying that which may bee a cordiall to any condition there is necessity of studying of the love of Christ which is such a Catholicall and Homogeneal cordiall as it doth suit with the Spirits and as it fitteth all the troubles that any beleever may meet withall Secondly this Doctrine speaketh lamentation also How sad is it to see that though this love of Christ bee such a cordiall to beleevers in any trouble yet either First they neglect it and make no use of it such is their folly that they have this precious price in their hands and they doe not know it so as to make use of it what a sad thing is it for the fainting man to see a cordiall at the beds head and not to use it Secondly in stead of using this they use other cordials Who laments not to see beleevers in these times of trouble one while eying counsells another while eying Armies and in the mean while not eying the love of Christ which alone is able to comfort when all other things fail It is lamentable to see how beleevers leave this fountain of living comforts and seek after yea and dig for cisternes yea broken cisternes that neither have nor can hold any comfort in them Thirdly which is worst of all when Christ offers this cordial they put it by and will not take it How often doth Christ open his bosome to the beleever and le ts him see love written in the golden letters of Free grace and beseecheth the beleever to look and live to contemplate it and to take comfort from it How often doth Christ say Soul I love thee I love thee with an everlasting love therefore have I drawn thee into this wildernesse of trouble that here I might speak comfort unto thee where none can help thee And yet lamentable it is to hear beleevers saying that they will not beleeve it though their souls might bee comforted by it Thus beleevers this cordiall point may set you all a weeping that notwithstanding the love of Christ bee so comfortable you use it not but instead thereof use other cordialls That when Christ openeth this cordiall you will not open your mouths widely that hee may fill them with it Use Thirdly be reproved you children of faith for this fault Hath Christ provided such a cordiall for you and do you neglect it Is there such refreshing for your souls in his love and will not you use it Doth hee as it were bring it home to your hearts and will not you take it be reproved for your folly O yee of little faith suppose the Mother should provide some cordiall for the weak fainting child and bring it to the child beseeching the little one to take it that it might live were not the child much to bee reproved if forgetting all the Mothers care and cost it should put it by It is your folly and your blame O beleevers who notwithstanding all the care yea and the cost of Christ too in preparing and bringing this cordiall his love unto you yet too too often you put it by and Rachel-like because your children creature comforts are not you will not bee comforted with this cordiall of Christs love Use Fourthly let it bee a use of direction to direct beleevers whither to go for a cordiall in time of trouble What have you to doe with the waters of Sehor Run you to the bosome of your Saviour why doe you spend your selves to goe after the pudled streams of creature sweetnesse goe you to the running river of your Lords love drink thereof and bee refreshed and bee comforted in any case Object I saith some soul I would goe thither as being indeed in a sad case needing comfort but how shall I doe to draw out the water of life that is in Christs love Rep. Why what is thy case poor heart what is thy case in which thou needest comfort and for which thou wouldest goe to Christs love Answ My case is spirituall my soul is troubled within I see much sin but little grace and this goeth to my heart filling it with trouble how shall I improve Christ love in this case for a cordiall Answ For that beleever know Christ loveth thee notwithstanding all this I beeleeve you think that Christ doth not affect you because your sinne is so much and your grace is so little Know soul though the woman was a sinner in the City and so full of sin yet Christs love passed by her sin and pardoned her Christs love took the advantage of her many sins to shew much love to her soul And it is his custome where sins abound there to make love superabound Therefore thou maist comfort thy self O sad soul with the thoughts of Christs love This love made him to suffer for sin and this love maketh him every day to pardon sin yea and hee will shew the transcendency of his love in passing by the transcendency of sin Object O but I have not only much sin but little grace A. Bee it so O beleever yet the love of Christ may comfort thee notwithstanding it Thou thinkest that grace is the cause of love but thou art deceived it is the effect of love Christ loveth not because there is grace but because hee loveth hee giveth grace Grace is given in a time of love Love is not shewn because of grace therefore comfort thy self O beleeving soul at the consideration of the transcendency of Christs love It is the glory thereof that it pardoneth much sin and that is loveth little grace and it will work so that in time sin shall
A Discovery of GLORIOUS LOVE OR The Love of Christ to Beleevers Opened In the Truth thereof In the Transcendency and thereof In the Sweetnesse thereof Together with the necessity that lyes upon every Beleever to strive after the Spirituall and Experimentall knowledge of it Being the sum of VI Sermons Preached upon Ephesians 3.19 By JOHN DURANT Preacher of the Gospel in the City of Canterbury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. Wee will make thy love to be remembred more than wine Cant. 1.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. He brought me into the house of wine his banner over me was love Cant 2.4 London Printed for R. I. to be sold by W. Gilbert son at the Bible in Guilt-spur-street without New-gate 1655. To the Right Honourable Robert Earl of Warwick c. My Noble Lord I Presume your Lordship well knows that Christs love is our soul and therefore sole life Then and indeed not till then do wee live when wee injoy divine love Our bosomes cannot breath forth the breath of life before Christ breaths in the breath of love Indeed it s the misery of most that they are strangers to this truth To speak to many of the Lord Jesus and to tell them of a life in love above what sence feels and of a comfort a glory a happinesse flowing from thence far surmounting what sight fees is a mystery which they cannot perceive nor indeed beleeve for t is foolishnesse unto them Not onely the News-mongers at Athens counted this News which they never heard of But even the Philosophers there themselves accounted Pauls preaching of these things a strange doctrine But I hope I may without either falsenesse or flattery say your Honour is well acquainted with these things As experimentally knowing that all your honour joy felicity lyes in this that you know the love of Christ passing knowledge And this is one ground of this dedication of these ensuing Sermons But it s not the onely ground For I desire by this also to declare to the world and your self how sensible and mindfull I am of those obligations which your Honour hath laid upon mee not onely by your owning of and respect unto my person but which I prize most my Ministry His person is above my praise whose pen hath blotted the common way of dedications Quia laudatur â—laudatoviro est la is vera But his ground was because for the most part they only flatter And yet hee allows of dedications when the argument of the Book agrees with the person whom its dedicated to Sir Francis Bacon de augment sâ—en lib. 1. page 19. The considâ—ration of which I hope as hath been hinted will secure mee from his or others censure Besides I know there is a difference between flattery and gratitude though the one bee odious as a vice yet the other is amiable as a vertue And t is at this which I have aimed in this dedication I know that the bare remembrance how gratefull soever of favours received is no requital But yet though it serves not to remunerate the favour yet 't will to vindicate the benefactor that hee hath not ill bestowed his benefits My Lord If I say that I cannot requite all your favours it s no more than all know And if I say that Christ can it s no more than I know you beleeve and I desire T will bee no over-exalting of Christs love nor any diminution unto your favours If I say that the least grain of love from Christ to you will abundantly compensate all the weight of your love to mee And this My Lord is not onely my prayer but my beliefi in your behalf I shall not trouble your Lordship with many words Onely let mee have leave â—o sound in your ears two words of the Lord Jesus the one was a word of Prophecie the other of Advice 1. His word of Prophecie was The love of many shall wax cold It s your duty to search Mat. 24.12 and t will bee your honour to find that there is no fulfilling of that in your soul But alas who can say that hee sees not too great a fulfilling of this in himself Oh! the decay of love zeal activity appearance c. in the things of Christ that is every where It s a thing that calls for bloody tears that besides the abounding of iniquity in enemies there is such waxing cold of love in friends I have sometimes thought Christ spake this Prophecie as Paul did his rehearsall Phil. 3.18 viz weeping II. Christs word of advice was this Strengthen the things that remain that are ready to dye Apoc. 3.2 It s well that under spirituall decayes wee have any thing that remains happy they who have not lost all It s wisdome to strengthen that which languisheth holy they that strive to do thus and the following Sermons may bee helpfull herein If the Spirit lay this truth upon our hearts That Christ loves us with a transcendent love 't will at once make us bleed for coolings and burn yea blaze a fresh with the fire internally and flames externally of love to Christ his people his truths his designes c. But I have gone beyond my intentions though I hope not beyond your acceptation If you will permit mee to adde that I am in the number of those who both praise and pray for you and professe to bee much obliged to you I shall trouble you no further save with the sincere subscription that I am My Lord. Your Honours singularly obliged Soules servant JOHN DURANT To his beloved friends the godly Inhabitants of the Town and Port of Sandwich Particularly The Congregation over which the Holy Ghost hath made my reverend Brother Mr. Francis Prentice Overseer Beloved in Christ HOwever those who are in the world may account the insuing Sermons riddles and paradoxes yet to you whom I hope Christ hath taken out of the world they are experienced truths It s true yee know them already for I have preached them to you But that you might have them in remembrance I have been willing to Print them for you And yet not for you only but for as many as beleive in the Lord Jesus It was Peters care to perpetuate those things by writing which hee had preached by word That so albeit his hearers knew yet they might bee established * in the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. rooted or setled as upon a firm foundation Certainly next to the knowing of truths is the establishment in them which some wanting are gone aside after airy vanities T is true your establishment primarily and causally depends on the Spirit But yet secondarily and instrumentally it is attained unto by the word For therefore it was that Peter writ as hee sayes 2 Pet. 1.12 and surely his writings were words And yet the words of Christ were not bare letter No they were Spirit and Life And the truths of Christ held forth by any according to the
be like unto the Deity God is Light and Knowledge and the more we partake of it the more like wee are to him Now by how much the likelier Note wee are unto God by so much the nearer we come up to perfection Knowledge is exceeding precious It must needs be so sith it tends to perfection Indeed as Aquinas saith of seeing Though the object of sight be mean in it self yet the very act of seeing is sweet So also hee determines of Knowing that however the object be low and poor yet the very act it self of knowledge is high and precious Now of all knowledge there is none so precious nor so perfecting as that which is Divine Other Knowledge viz. Human can make us perfect only as men This knowledge viz. Divine gives us a perfection as Saints But Of all Divine knowledge the knowledge of Jesus Christ in the light of love as most precious as tending most to the perfection of our souls As ther are degrees of lustre in the heavenly lights so there are degrees of glory in Divine truths Every Star in the Firmament hath a glorious light but yet the light of the Sun exceeds them all in glory And every truth which is as a Starre in the heaven of Divinity hath a peculiar excellency in it and the knowledge thereof is precious But Jesus Christ who is as the Sunne in Divinity 's heaven hath a transcendent excellency in him and to know him doth sarre more tend to the perfecting of our souls than the knowledge of any or all Divine truths else besides Therefore it is that Paul accents this knowledge with an excellency Phil. 3.8 Yea doubtlesse saith he I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And certainly Paul might well say thus for albeit he had attained the knowledge of other things yet without this he had been at a losse in point of Soul-sacred perfection So that however other knowledge as being some way perfecting and precious be desirable yet there is no knowledge which is so to be desired at least by Saints as the knowledge of Jesus Christ But yet as although the Sun be the most glorious of the heavenly Lights yet Mortals receive more comfort by its heat than by its light In like manner though the knowledge of Jesus Christ bee the most transcendent of divine truths yet our souls receive more sweetnesse by the warmth of his love than by the lustre of his light Look as Moses could not see the glory of God and live and yet must dye except he saw his grace Even so our souls cannot see the lustre of the bright beams of Christs glory and live wee must dye ere we can behold that yet notwithstanding we must see the light of the bosome-bosome-love of Jesus or else we dye If this light dawn not upon our bosoms if this knowledge shine not into our hearts we shall sink and dye in our souls especially if wee are in fear of any troubles Hence it was that the Apostle Paul among the rest of those precious Petitions which he puts up to the Father of our Lord Jesus in the behalf of the Ephesians lest they should faint at his tribulations hee adds this that they might know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge I shal briefly give you the context that it may give some light to the text The Apostle having hinted in the first verse of this Chapter Context that hee was a prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Ephesians who were Gentiles and having also upon that spoken something of the excellency of the Gospel and the warrant which hee had to preach the same unto them which two things were as two great supporters of him in his sufferings hee comes in the fourteenth verse to pray for the Ephesians that they might not faint at his tribulations Now there might be a double ground of the Apostles fear why the Ephesians might faint at news of his tribulations 1 Sympathy It is usual with Saints to sympathize each with other in their tribulations And Paul upon this ground might rightly think that the tidings of his imprisonment would be sad to these Ephesians and happily he might fear that out of their tender love both to his person and preaching they would be over-sad by sympathy to understand that now their Preacher was in prison 2 Fear lest themselves might meet with the like sufferings For what might they think Is Paul in prison for Preaching the Gospel then sure may we fear the like for receiving the Gospel It is commonly seen that the receivers of Gospel-truths suffer as well as the revealers Note And certainly the Ephesians might say we shall be accounted as faulty for our faith in as Paul is for his Preaching of the Gospel This peradventure they might argue and fear and faint Therefore the Apostle bendeth his knees to him who alone is able to keep from and support in faintings i. e. To the Father of our Lord Jesus And three things he beggeth in the behalf of the Ephesians that they might not upon any ground faint at his tribulations 1 Divine strength That he would grant according to the riches of his glory that they might be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man ver 16. The spirit of man the Apostle knew was weak and so would faint unless God did strengthen it therefore he begs the Spirit of God which is the power from on high for their strengthening in the inner man that they might not faint in their outward man 2 Christs inhabitation That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith saith he v. 17. If any thing will keep up the heart from fainting Note it is the indwelling of Christ with the soul Christs presence creates comfort and there is no such fence against fainting under any fears as Christ in the soul The inhabitation of Christ within will support the soul from its faintings at tribulation for Christ without 3 The knowledge of Christs love That they might know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge as it is in the text Paul well knew the power of Christs love and the efficacy thereof this way So that now you may gather up the Apostles Petitions into one Prayer and you may conceive him pouring out his heart after this manner Thou Father of our Lord Jesus sith thou art the God of all comforts and comfortest thine in all their tribulations so that they faint not vouchsafe to grant according to the riches of thy grace that the Ephesians may not faint at my tribulations And to this end strengthen them by thy Spirit of power in their inner man fill them by the glorious presence of Christ dwelling in them but above all let them know the love of Jesus Christ which passeth knowledge Thus you see by the Context the drift and scope of the Text. But before I speak any further to it I must clear
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
transcendent sith the Apostle saith it passeth knowledge I shall indeavour to open the point and give you the meaning thereof by bringing you to the top of this high hyperbolical expression in three steps or staires First The love of Christ to Beleevers is transcendent it being above expression Those who enjoy Christs love they know not how to expresse it such is the transcendency of the love that it passeth their knowledge how to expresse it in any Language The Scripture sets out the height of things by this that they are unspeakable So when it would heighten and declare the transcendency of that rapture in which Paul was when wrapped up to the third heavens and the glory of that which he then heard it sets it down by this that it was unutterable He heard unspeakable words which may be an Hebraism for things word and thing being in the Hebrew convertible which it was not possible for a man to utter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Hebraeos est verbum res 2 Cor. 12.14 In like manner when the Scripture speaks of the transcendent joy which Beleevers rejoyce withall by beleeving It useth this phrase that it was unspeakable 1 Pet. 1.8 Yee rejoyce with joy unspeakable And it must not be passed by in silence that the joy of which Peter speaks is that which Beleevers have by faith which certainly is founded upon Christs love So that if the joy in the faith of Christs love be unspeakable the love it self is much more For quod efficit tale est magis tale as the Logicians speak i. e. That which makes any thing so or such is much more it self so or such This may be the first step to ascend the height of the expression and to declare the transcendency of Christ love to beleevers It passeth knowledge in this that no man no though he had the tongues of men and Angles knows how to expresse it 2 Christs love is transcendent and may be said to be above knowledge in that it is above apprehension As the Language of Beleevers cannot expresse so neither can their knowledge apprehend the height of their Saviours love Men often can apprehend more than they can expresse when the tongue is silenced the understanding may be comprehensive But now in the love of Christ there is that which poseth and confoundeth the very intelectuals of men and Angels It is so high as that there is no reaching of it so deep as that there is no sounding of it so long as that it exceeds measuring and so broad that there is no comprehending it The most Spiritual Mathematician is not able to commensurate Christs love in all its dimensions It is as possible for that little Crevise of the body the Eye to let in all the light of the Sun as it is for that great eye of the Soul knowledge to let in the lustre of Christs love The Holy Ghost when hee would set out a thing as transcendent he useth this phrase that it is such as cannot be comprehended As now speaking of the great things which God doth it is said they are such as wee cannot comprehend Job 37.5 Without doubt as the operation of the Fathers hand so the expansion of the Sons heart is such as cannot be comprehended In this the Fathers works and the Sons loves do equally transcend that they passe knowledge and are not able to be apprehended 3 Christ bears to beleevers a transcendent love it passeth knowledge in this that it is above conception Fancy can conceive that which Reason cannot comprehend The Understanding being bounded by Reason cannot go beyond its limits and therefore where Reason cannot suggest the Understanding cannot apprehend But now fancy is winged and it will fly It doth as Scaliger speaks Aspernare caeterorum finium praescriptionem It scorneth to be bounded though by Reason it self It flyeth high and will guesse at least at the transcendent height of that which reason cannot reach Yet such my beloved is the love of Christ It is so high so superlatively-transcendent that let fancy loose and let it fly as high as it can it is not able to soare to the top thereof As the understanding going to its utmost bounds So fancy flying beyond all bounds is not able to conceive what is the love of Christ to Beleevers So that now when I say the love which Christ Bears to Beleevers is transcendent and when you read in the text that it passeth knowledge You may take the meaning thus That it is above the expression of the finest Oratory the comprehension of the deepest Theory and the conception of the sublimest Fancy In so much as let Oratory speak Wisdom study Fancy fly yet neither the one nor the other nor all are able to express apprehend or conceive what is the love of Christ to beleevers Indeed the love of Christ is such as heaven it self though it be the state of sight doth not as hereafter we shal shew exalt the Saints so high as to make them able to comprehend that love in the fields whereof they do walk and live It is with the Saints in Heaven as with the Fishes in the Sea they swim up and down the mighty waters but yet they do not cannot comprehend that watry world in which they live In like manner the Saints above though they swim up and down the infinite Ocean of love which is in their Saviours bosom yet they can no more comprehend that vast sea of love in which to eternity they shall bathe and blesse their souls than the little Fish can comprehend the great Sea in which it swims Wherefore ere I proceed further let me premise this That it is not in my thoughts nor dare I presume this neither would I have you expect that by any thing which I shall or can say I shall be able to set out the infiniteness of that love of which we shal treat according to his full Latitude and worth No this I despair of only I desire to let you see some of the glimmering beams of that transcendent love which is in Christs bosome towards beleevers so as that you may wonder at it and set about the exacter study of it And look as a Painter when he intends to draw out the Sea or the World in a Map hee maketh only some little shadows of the Earth and Sea that so the beholder may be inabled to guesse at the vastnesse thereof In like manner I shall draw before you in my Discourse some little shadowy pricks or lines of Christs love that thereby I may help you somewhat to imagine what is that infinite transcendent love which neither Saints nor Angels are able in all its lustre and dimensions to paint out or discover For the proof I shall not need to adde more Scriptures it being clear enough by what the Apostle speaks in this place of Christs love that it is transcendent In the verse before this the Apostle hints that
there are all the dimensions in Christs love which may serve to declare any thing vast and infinite There is a breadth and length and depth and height in the love of Christ And it is worth the noting the Apostle doth not tell how great those dimensions were He doth not say how broad or how long or how deep or how high but as if the dimensions of Christs love did transcend his knowledge he passeth it by and only adds this that this love passeth knowledge I finde not this phrase to my best remembrance but once more in the New Testament and that is Philip. 4.7 where Paul speaking of the transcendency of the Peace of God he saith it passeth understanding Certainly it is the glory of Christs love as well as of his Fathers peace that it also passeth understanding If at your leasure you read and reading spiritually consider what is presented to faith in the Book of the Canticles you will see this truth that the love of Christ to beleevers is transcendent in the glory and convincing power and proof thereof It may be in your time you have mis-spent some hours in reading of some Romances And you have wondred at some strange Stories of Love which you have met withall But alas should you compare the highest love that ever you read of with the love of Christ to Beleevers you wil be forced to confess that that love in comparison of this is but like the story it self i. e. a meer fancy If ever strength of affection were set out in sweetness of expression It is in that Book to a Spiritual eye when I do but consider the fourth Chapter only of that Song I cannot chuse but wonder at the high transcendency of Christs love to beleevers Surely I conclude the affections are sweet strong glorious unconceivable when the expressions thereof are so ravishing so great so high as in that Chapter they are I shall give one general demonstration to let you see the truth of the Doctrin that Christs love to beleevers is transcendent The demonstration take thus That love which includeth in it and comprehends all kindes acts or demonstrations of love whatsoever must needs be a transcendent love But such is the love of Christ to Beleevers c. Therefore c. I suppose the Major is clear enough and needs no proof The Painter took the direct and undeniable way to make the Picture of Minerva transcend and excel all other Beauties when he epitomized or contracted all the several rays and particular beauties that were scattered up and down in other Persons or Pictures in that one pecce It is upon this ground an axiome indubitable and beyond or above Dispute That the Sun doth farre transcend in Light any or all the other Lights Moon or Stars c. because in its Light all theirs is contained and that in an eminent manner All the question is about the Minor whether that Christs love be such to beleevers as that it includes and contains in it all other kindes or acts of love whatsoever Now this I shall put out of question by an Induction or enumeration of the several kindes or acts of love Amongst other how exactly I will not determine the Moralists tell us of these four kindes of love as the chief viz. 1 A love of Friendship 2 A love of Pity 3 A love of Sympathy 4 A love of Complacency In these four only I shall instance which I had rather call several demonstrations or degrees of one and the same passion of love than particular kindes distinct and shall shew that Christs love to Beleevers includes and contains in it all of them and that therefore it must needs be transcendent 1 The love of friendship is so called not as if it were the habit of friendship it self but because it is that kinde or act of love whereby we prosecute or follow one whom we look upon and love as a friend and to whom we wish good Now this kinde or rather degree of love is in the love of Christ to beleevers Christ looks upon and loves all beleevers as friends hence it is that he counts and calls them all by that name ye are my friends Joh. 15.14 And that this is real appears by his dealing with them Therefore it is added Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of the Father I have made known unto you ver 15. Those whom we love as friends wee open our minds unto and it is their privilege wee communicate to them secrets which we have heard Christ dealeth thus with beleevers and thus dealing doth not he declare to them the love of friendship 2 The love of pity This falleth in and followeth upon the former for as Job saith To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed by his friend Job 6.14 This also is included in Christs love to beleevers For upon that love of friendship which he bears to them he acteth this of pity still towards them when no eye pitied them his eye did When sinners and Satan rather laugh at their misery and say Aha Aha so would wee have it Christ he as it were sighs to see their sorrows and indeed pities their souls Hence it is said Isa 63.9 In his love and in his pity hee redeemed them it was real pity it did work and he bare them and carried them all the days of old 3 The love of Sympathy which in truth is but a high degree of pity is also contained in the love of Christ to beleevers Men sympathize with those whom they love when they do as it were take up their miseries upon themselves and be as if they were in their Friends case Thus doth Jesus Christ when hee sees any beleever groan either under sin or sadness he comes and by a sympathy doth afflict himself For in all their afflictions saith the Prophet he was afflicted Isa 63.9 as if he himself was in their sadness and under their sin The Author to the Hebrews tells us Wee have not an high Priest who cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. sympathize with our infirmities cha 4.15 His meaning is that indeed our high Priest Jesus Christ doth sympathize with beleevers in their sorrows And in Chap. 5.2 it is said of Christ that he can have compassion of the ignorant that word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it signifies as much as Hee knoweth how to pity according to the measure of our misery Let the misery be never so great for with reference to great measure I beleeve the Metaphor is used Jesus Christ knows how to measure out as great a measure of sympathy as is needful So that Christs love to Beleevers you see contains in it also the love of sympathy Lastly For the love of complacency which indeed is the highest degree of love this also is in Christs love contained You have a
he denied and forswore his Master But love operated transcendently when it passed that by What failing more grosse against the bed of love than Adultery Surely the Sons of men will not passe it by this fault doth transcend their love yet though men will not Christ will as it is Jer. 3.1 His love transcends this fault Christs love to beleevers is far greater and doth much transcend the love of men to their Wives and therefore he doth that which they will not i. e. Passe by the foul failing of Adultery I take the Prophet clearly and precisely to speak this of Christ for it is he alone who as it is verse 14. is married unto beleevers It is the glory of mans love and then doth love operate nobly when he passes by an offence It is much more the glory of Christs love and that shews it self transcendently glorious in its operation by passing by the grosse and greatest failings which are in beleevers 4 There was no gift so great which Christ did not bestow upon Beleevers Love produceth gifts Isaacks love to Rebecca was seen to be great by the great gifts he sent her A golden earing of half a shekel weight and two bracelets of ten shekels weight of gold Gen. 24.22 Christ gives Grace which is far more precious than gold to beleevers Out of his fulnesse we receive grace for grace Joh. 1.16 Nay so great was his bounty and so large were his gifts That he became poor for our sakes that was by giving that by his poverty we might be made rich 2 Cor 8.9 But what greater gift than himself yet such is the transcendent operation of Christs love that hee gave himself for Beleevers sakes and to their souls 5 Adde to all these this also that such is the transcendent love of Christ to beleevers that there is nothing almost so mean in them but he highly prizeth it Love prizes every thing in the party beloved Christ doth both prize and praise mean things in beleevers because his love towards them is mighty Their voyce though inarticulate for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies is sweet Cant. 2.10 Their love though faint is fair with him Cant. 4.10 Their gifts though small are so prized that where-ever the Gospel of his love shall be preached the gifts of their love shall also be divulged Mark 14.9 Thus you see all along how transcendently glorious and noble the love of Christ operates towards beleevers And what doth it declare but this that the love of Christ is indeed transcendent passing knowledge Having thus briefly touched at some demonstrations of the transcendency of Christs love to beleevers substantially I shall now adde but a word or two to demonstrate the same yet clearer from some considerable circumstances about Christs love to beleevers There be four Circumstances which I shall but mention viz. The consideration 1 Of the Person loving 2 Of the Persons beloved 3 Of the time of this love 4 Of the end thereof 1 Consider the Person loving i. e. Jesus Christ He being a transcendent Person his love is like himself transcendent also Persona est amoris mensura According to the dimension of the Person so are the dimensions of the affection The height of the lover is the height also of the love As the Moralists judge of the magnitude of Crimes by the persons against whom committed So we may also conclude the greatnesse of the love from the greatness of him by whom it is declared A little wrath revealed by God is great because he himself is great And a little love let out by Christ must be great love also because hee is great Fire is by so much the greater and hotter by how much the fuel or matter in which it is is the more combustible Love is fire and the flames thereof transcend and exceed according to the vastness of the bosome in which it burns Fire in Wood makes a great flame and gives a great heat but Fire in Brimstone flames more and burns hotter Love being in Christ it is as fire in Brimstone or rather as fire in a Mount of Spices it must needs therefore give a great heat and make a great light and that light will discover his love to be transcendent As the man is so is his strength said they of Gidcon Judg. 8.11 As the Lord is may we say of Christ so is his love He is wonderful and his love must needs bee so too Because wee are but little therefore our love cannot be great and because Christ is great his love cannot be little The love of the Lord Jesus cannot chuse but bee transcendent passing knowledge because himself is such But 2 Consider the Persons beloved and this especially joyned with the former will indeed demonstrate that the love of Christ is transcendent Who are beleevers that are thus beloved Are they of any note or name nothing lesse Worms they are and not Men. Nay not bigge but poor Worms For so Jacob is stiled Isa 41.14 Hee that knoweth their frame remembreth well they are but dust Psa 103.14 But this is not all for as they are Worms so worthless ones and as they are but dust so defiled dust too Now that the rich Jesus should love poor Jacob That he who is so mighty should affect beleevers so mean That he who is so pure that hee is without spot or blemish should open his heart to such as are spotted all over and whose very beauty without him is but a blemish This heightens the love indeed this declares that it doth transcend He that knows how mean worthlesse contemptible Creatures beleevers are without Christ will quickly if he consider that Christ loveth them conclude that the love passeth knowledge 3 If wee take into our thoughts the time of love either when it was first set or first drawn forth we shall see by this also that it is transcendent For the beginning therefore when it was first set it bears date before time Before time had either beginning or being Love had both in Christs bosome towards beleevers Christs love to beleevers is an antienter building than the world for when the one had no foundations the other had Surely if as it is Proverbs 8.31 his delights were in the Sons of men that is Beleevers for you may call all the rest of the World Sons of Sathan rather than Sons of men if I say his delights were with the Sons of men before the fountains of the deep were strengthened or the foundations of the earth were appointed Then certainly his love was also towards them before that time for his love was the ground of that delight Indeed the first words which Christ wrote was Love to beleevers and this was written with glory for it was before Gold was upon his bosome for then other Books were not And if the love were begun time out of minde as we say then certainly the love is passing knowledge as the Text saith And for the time
breadth and length O the transcendency of Christs love to beleevers 3. But how came Christ here Came he in pomp with glory Came hee with the sound of a Trumpet that all might know that though hee did come into a cottage yet he was a Prince No but rather in a poor mean way Indeed when Christ was born an heavenly Hoast appeared praising of God and singing But that was rather to discover unto the World that the Saints lover was come into their Country than any way to dignifie him who indeed was above all glory Some expound that place Isa 42.12 He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voyce to be heard in the streets c. As if it did mean that Christ should not carry the matter about which he came in an outward glorious manner with pomp but that in a silent way he should both come and do all that unto which his Fathers love and his own did design him And if you consider the History of his Nativity you will say that Christ came not with any great show hee was born not the Son of some great Queen but the Infant of a poor Virgin His reputed Father was not a mighty Monarch but a mean Carpenter This was it with which he was twitted in the teeth as disgraceful Is not this the Carpenters Son O how mean did Christ come into the World when he was born in an Inne and that happily none of the best for there were not many Lodgings in it and therefore his travelling Mother was fain to lye in the stable and there was hee brought forth And how did hee lye when being swadled with some homely Cloaths his Mother laid him in the Cratch He that was wont to sit upon the Throne amidst the Cherubims was content to bee found in the Cratch among Brutes Verily while we consider this we must needs conclude that Christs love was surpassing great in that he would vouchsafe to seem at least yea and in a Human way to be so little and to lye so low for your sakes But 4 Joyn to all these the end of Christs coming into the World and this will exceedingly heighten the demonstration and evince that indeed the love of Christ passeth knowledge Why for what did he come upon what design came the King of glory from Heaven to Earth in so mean a way came he to take the Crowns off from the heads of Kings and to put them upon his own Indeed Herod feared this but without ground for Christ came for no such end But the end for which he came was love His design was to declare make known that love which lay hid from eternity in his own and Fathers bosome unto beleevers Therefore it was that he was born in time viz. that beleevers might see and know that love which hee bare to them from before time I will in a word mention omitting others six particular ends for which Christ was born and came into the world and you will see them like so many several lines in a Compass meet all in love as in their alone center 1 The first end for which he was born was to redeem the precious souls of beleevers from that slavery in which they lay yea and their bodies also from that vanity unto which with the rest of the Creatures they were subjected Christ saw his beloved Captives in Sathans Kingdom bound with chains and made slaves unto his will This sight went to his Soul and his love could not contain it self but he must come that his beloved might bee set free That this was the end of his Nativity the Apostle witnesseth Gal. 4.4 When saith he the fulnesse of time was come God sent his Son and he readily came made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that wee might receive the adoption of sons You were once slaves beleevers and Christ was born that you might be sons And a part of that adoption to which you were redeemed is not only the redemption of your souls though that bee the chief but also the redemption of your bodies as it is clear Romans 8.23 This was the end why Christ was born and I think I need not say it was an end of love for you cannot consider this but you must confess that 2 Another end which Christ aimed at in his Nativity was to be fitted to suffer for Beleevers sakes As Christ was God and shined with the glory and Majesty of the Deity buffetings spittings binding c. could not durst not take hold upon him when he spake but that word I AM HEE the glory of his God-head shining through it as through a crevise it is said they that came to seize him went backward and fell to the ground Joh. 18.6 Christ knew that as hee was God he could not suffer and yet a necessity he saw of suffering for beleevers sakes therefore he was contented to cloud the glory of his Deity with the mantle of the seed of Abraham that so he might be fitted to suffer for them When Codrus saw that his death would profit his Country and that while he had on his Imperial robes none durst slay him the Historian saith Depositis imperii insignibus famularem cultum induit c. i. e. He laid aside the royal robe and put on an homely habit that he might be fit to dye in that disguise My beloved the Lord Jesus saw that the bloud of Bulls and Goats could not take away sins he saw also that yet if ever beleevers lived it must be by bloud And therefore the Father having prepared him a body as it is Heb. 10.5 his heart had this law of love written in it that he took the Body that thereby he might bee fit to bleed Surely you are blind if you see not love in this end viz. That Christ was born to be fit to dye 3 A third end why he was born was that hee might bee like beleevers Love tends to likenesse Christ because he loved would bee born that he might be like to them in all things whom he loved above all things He was made saith the spirit in the likenesse of man Phil. 2.7 He beheld his beloved in the form of servants and he would bee born that he might be in their form Christ saw his dear ones cloathed with the sackcloth of Human Nature for that compared with the Angelical is but as hair to silk and therefore stoopt to a Nativity that he might be in the same fashion and appear in the same suite Though the Human Nature especially cloathed with infirmities were but a very mean array yet his Divine love made him esteem it above the Angelical Therefore passing by the nature of Angels he took upon him the nature of man and was born that he might be like unto beleevers Surely this was love But 4 Christ in his Nativity aimed at another end as like in love the former as might be and that
law but to declare the infinitnes of his love for by it beleevers may see he requires of them at no time more than he did himself The yoak of Christ by this is made smooth and easie Now his commandements will appear not to be grievous because hee did obey them first himself There is no duty O beleeving soul unto which thou canst be called in the whole course of thy life but thy Saviour in his life did the same The child may well say he hath a loving father when as he can see him first doing that himself in his own person which hee commands it to do Your everlasting Father Jesus Christ O ye children of faith in his life went through in his own person all those performances which you are to do in Religion And is not this transcendent love 3. Our Lord â—n the whole course of his life was ever carefull to provide and use all possible means for the strengthning of beleevers graces Knowledge Faith are the two great graces for the sweetning of the life of beleevers and Christ was very carefull to strengthen them Therefore it was that hee spake chiefly to those things which might strengthen these graces For knowledge how lovingly did hee speak that which his Disciples were able to bear And if he thought they did not well understand what he said how lovingly did he expound all things to them when they were alone as t is Mark 4. 33 34. Yea when they asked him of any Parable what its meaning might be How lovingly did hee satisfie their desires telling them that it was their privilege and to them it was given to know the mysterys of the kingdome of God Luke 8.9 10. nay when Jesus had spoke any thing which they understood not and did but perceive their reasoning among themselves about it he did voluntarily not being asked inform them as in that Mat. 16.7 8 9. And for faith its easie to observe how ready Christ was to strengthen it Did he not rejoyce when he had an oportunity so to do Mark that in Job 11. when Lazarus was dead and hee knew how his raising of him would conduce to the confirming of their faith hee professeth speaking of it that he was glad for their sakes that hee was not there when he dyed to the intent they might beleeve vers 15. Now my beloved what doth this care of Christ to strengthen your graces declare but the transcendency of his love to your souls 4 Jesus Christ in his life aimed more at and rejoyced more in Beleevers comforts than his own When he heard that great voyce from heaven saying I have glorified it i.e. his name and I will glorifie it He said This voice came not for his sake but for his Disciples It seems his end in that request for that voyce was an answer to his prayer was not his glory but their good And therefore not rejoycing himself in the excellent glory of that voice from heaven hee speaks to them and applies it to them professing it was for their sakes Joh. 12.30 Hence it is also that hee when hee was to die and knew that his houre was come and so one would think should have retired and spent his time for himself hee set himself to comfort his Disciples that in so doing he might declare that having loved them he loved them to the end with a transcendent love Joh. 13.1 Tell me my beloved should you see one going to the Stake or Scaffold to dye and should you observe him spend all his time breath and eloquence in comforting some one dear beloved would not you say his love did transcend in making him forget himself to comfort her why so it was with your Saviour There were but few houres ere he was to be taken and to suffer And yet as if he minded as indeed he did the comfort of his Disciples more than his own he improves all that time and spent as it were all his eloquence upon them labouring to silence their dispairings and sorrows not minding his owne death and sufferings Oh transcendent love Lastly it must be also minded that Jesus Christ being to pray to his Father the last action as it were of his life he in that prayer declared the transcendency of his love by putting up more requests in the behalf of beleevers than of himself You know the prayer in Joh. 17. And if you observe it you shall finde that albeit in the beginning he prayes for himself in that Father the houre is come glorifie thy Son yet having but as it were mentioned this in the 1 vers and reiterated it in vers 5. he doth in a manner shut himself out of all the rest of the prayer and spendeth it wholly for beleevers And oh what glorious things did he beg in their behalf That the Father would keep and preserve them ver 15. That he would own and sanctifie them ver 10 17. That they might be one with the Father as he was one ver 21 22. And in the close of all how doth he intreat the Father to admit them to be ther where he was and to behold his glory and how strongly doth he argue for this doth he not use the cogent motive of love for thou lovest me ver 24. As if he should say Father I know thou lovest me thou didst so before ever the world was now I beseech thee by that love as if ever thou wouldest declare that thou dost love me own preserve sanctifie make one with thyself mine as I am for this is the argument to the whole prayer and let them whom I loved in the world bee with me when they leave the world O Father as thou lovest me hear grant this as my last request for my beloved ones Tell me now how transcendent is Christs love and how near do beleevers lye to his bosome who being now as it were to pray and dye forgets himself and breaths out his last requests in so many so transcendent particulars in their behalfs Thus you see how easie it is to runne through the life of Christ and yet running to read all along transcendent love to beleevers But I must now speak a word to the death of Christ and you shall see this also as lively demonstrating as either or both the other branches the truth of the point viz. That the love of Christ to beleevers passeth knowledge The third head of demonstrations being the death of Christ I shall speak to it a little distinctly though briefly But where shall we begin his passton and at what part of it shall we enter upon this demonstration shall we goe with him into the Garden indeed there it began or shall wee ascend Mount Calvary how upon it it ended or shall we speak of what he suffered in the high Priests hall I think it not amisse to mention each To begin therefore at the Garden in which Christ was taken O how transcendently sweet is the smell of his love
wee should know Secondly I say it is of necessary concernment some knowledge may bee of accidentall concernment to be known which is not of necessary concernment some things indeed as being accidentall to some greater truth and the discovery thereof are in that respect of concernment to be known and so may concern a man to endeavour for the knowledge thereof But now this knowledge hath a necessity laid upon it and woe be to every soule that knoweth not the love of Christ Thirdly I adde it is of necessary concernment for every Christian some truths there are which albeit they may be of necessary concernment for some persons who are as it were anointed with an higher anointing and imployed in a more speciall way as officers in the Church c. may yet not bee of such necessary concernment to all But now this knowledge whereof we are speaking is of necessary concernment for every soule that is named by the name of Christ and so pretends to be a Christian but especially every soul that is united to Jesus Christ and so is indeed a Christian ought to labour for a solid knowledge of the love of Christ As the Fathers in Christs School are not above this knowledge so neither the babes and children in Christs School are beneath it but all even the one and the other are bound and it lyeth upon them as that which doth concern them very near and very necessary to know this love of Christ which passeth knowledge One word I shal only adde by way of Caution I do not speak neither would I have you understand mee as if this were the only knowledge to bee laboured for Indeed it is the sovereign but not the sole knowledge which Christians should desire and endeavour to obtain In all that therefore I shall speak I desire to be understood not exclusively shutting out other truths but as inclusively and eminently driving at this in a peculiar manner And as Christ said with reference to doing Those things you ought to have done that is especially and not leaving the other undone i.e. altogether neglect I say in like manner of knowing the knowledge of the love of Christ you ought especially to labour for as a thing of more choice and speciall and necessary concernment but you are not altogether to neglect the knowledge of other Gospell-truths as if they were of no necessity or of no necessary concernment at all For the Proof I shall not need to adde many places it being so fully laid down in this Certainly this wise Apostle Paul would never have so earnestly and particularly begged of God that the Ephesians might know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge if it were not of speciall and necessary concernment for them I shall only adde to this his desire for the Ephesians that determination of his for himself which he expresseth to the Corinthians I am determined saith he not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified Now the knowledge of Jesus Christ crucified as I hinted once before is the knowledge of Christ in his love Though the whole life of Jesus Christ was but as it hath been shewed like one great Sermon of love yet the death of Christ was as it were a longer and clearer Sermon of love than all his life was Never did Christ speak love more fully and more freely than when he was as it were in that Pulpit the Crosse Now then if certainly Paul did determine to know nothing but this wee may safely conclude both from his determination for himself and his desire for the Ephesians that the knowledge of Christs transcendent love especially in a clear experimentall way is of necessary concernment for every Christian I shall offer some reasons to make this point yet clearer First The knowledge of the love of Christ contains in it the summe of the Gospell Christ being the sum of the Gospell and love the sum of Christ God so loved the World that hee gave Christ and Christ so loved the world that hee gave himself containes in it the morrow and pith of all the Gospell This little word love written in the golden letters of free-grace upon the bosome of Jesus Christ is an epitomy of the Gospell Look as O love the father is the fulfilling of the Law so Christs love to us is the fullnesse of the Gospell You have done the Law if you love God sincerely and you understand the Gospel if you know Christs love soundly Secondly The knowledge of Christs love is of necessary concernment because it containeth in iâ— the chiefest motive to duty You will never doe duty at least with that sweetnesse in your own spirits which you should and with that acceptation of God which you would if you do not act from a principle of love Now the love of Christ known to us is that which chiefly enflameth our love to him what was the reason that notwithstanding that love that God shewed to Israel when he was a child taught him to goe taking him by the armes had not that impression upon Israel which it should have the Prophet hinteth the reason because Israel knew it not Hos 11.3 God shewed but Israel did not understand his love and therefore it was that Israel would not walk answerable thereunto In like manner wee shall never walk answerable by doing our duty for I take duty to be at least an answer of love in case wee doe not know what the love is wherewithall Christ hath loved us Paul was more abundant than all â—he rest of the Apostles were in his â—abours And surely this might be â—he reason that happily hee understood more of the love of Christ than the rest did Hence it may be that it is that you have that expression in the 2 Cor. 4.14 The love of Christ constraineth us The consideration of Christs love which Paul came to have by the knowledge thereof it was as it were a whole croud or throng of Arguments or like to a whole siedge of motives for the word will bear both metaphors unto Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see Luk. 8.45 and Luke 19.43 both to dye and to suffer for Jesus Christ There is no soul but needeth a spurre to duty being dull in himself Now the knowledge of the love of Christ being of such speciall efficacy this way must needs also be of necessary concernment for every Christian Thirdly Christs love is a fountain of a beleevers life and therefore it must needs bee of necessary concernment for a beleever to know it in as much as he cannot live without it verily this is life eternall to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge If it bee of necessary concernment for the soul to live it must be also of necessary concernment to know Christs love in as much as without the one hee cannot enjoy the other I live saith Paul but how by the faith now faith is but a higher degree of knowledge
this study above all others Now I shall offer something as meanes to help you and as motives to encourage you Onely by way of caution learn to take heed of promising your selves too much Doe not think that you shall ever come to perfection of knowledge in this point at least while you are in this life It is a point which may take up the study of all the Saints happily so much may bee couched in the 18 verse of this chapter that you may bee able to comprehend with all Saints He speaketh as if it were a Text about which not onely every Saint is to set himself but as which doth require all the abilities of all the Saints Look as some great point doth require the abilities of many Scholars and all little enough when joyned together to make a good discovery thereof such is the love of Christ as that all the Saints may well spend themselves in the study of it and when they have brought all their notes together and added all their studies together they will bee able to make at least in this life but a very little discovery thereof Therefore take heed of promising your selves perfection in this study Now I adde this caution not to deter you from the study but to make you the more serious in it and also to keep you from casting of it off after you have begun to understand it It is with some Saints as with Scholars who having set about some study and after some progresse find the business so hard and high as that they can never come to the perfect knowledge thereof they begin to slack in their indeavours and to cast it off But now beloved consider it beforehand that you may not afterwards cast off the study of the love of Christ when you have spent your selves to the uttermost you shall never come to a perfection Yet let me adde this the least beames of the love of Christ have so much light in them as that they will bee very sweet and every peece or part of this knowledge will be of very speciall worth yea the low and imperfect knowledge of the love of Christ if experimentall and spirituall is of infinite more value than the high and perfect knowledge of Tenne thousand things besides Yea and one thing more let me adde it is possible for you to attain to a very sweet and satisfactory degree of this knowledge Qu. But what shall I do to attain a satisfactory degree of this knowledge of the love of Christ so as that albeit I cannot attain to the knowledge thereof fully yet I may be able to attain so much as may make me at least say as it is in the Text The love of Christ passeth knowledge Answ For that I shall offer some directions as concerning the means and helps how you may obtain the knowledge of the love of Christ And also as concerning the manner how wee should carry our selves in that study First For the meanes I shall name these particulars First Be much conversant in reading of the Gospel How ever the Bible in general doth give testimony concerning the person of Jesus Christ and also in some measure concerning his affection to the Saints yet the Gospel of all parts of the Bible doth in a more ample clear and satisfactory Way hold out the love of Christ to beleevers That which all the Prophets spake of him or of his love is so allegoricall and so darkly as that it is not easie at least for every one to observe the light of Christs love so clearly shining in them Indeed the sun shine of Christs love is in the firmament of the old Testament but as it is there it is much clouded much veiled But in the Firmament of the new Testament it shineth in its full brightnesse luster and glory And therefore bee most coversant in reading of it And while you read the Gospel be sure to carry this along with you that all that which you shall read there either ther in the life or death of Christ is still to be understood as a demonstration of his love to beleevers Secondly If thou wouldest know the love of Christ be sure to labour to get into the bosome of Christ that Soul knoweth little of Christs love in the power and sweetness and Spirituality thereof who knoweth only Christ in his head as being without him and is a stranger to the knowledge of Christ in his heart as being in him Labour therefore to have Christ revealed in thee as Paul speaks of himself otherwise all that knowledge which thou hast of the love of Christ will be to little or no purpose Look as Jesus Christ did therefore know the Father most because as the Scripture saith he lay in the Fathers bosome In like manner do thou labour to be in the bosome of Jesus Christ that thou mayest the better know what is his love to beleevers Thirdly Consule with Beleevers Ask those objects of love concerning the love of Christ to them They that have had experience of his love can best inform thee I make no question but that a poor beleever who hath tasted of the love of Christ and in some measure experienced the transcendent sweetnesse thereof is farre better able to helpe thee in this great study of the love of Christ than the greatest Scholar in the world is who it may bee hath read or heard something of his love but yet hath no experience thereof in his soul Fourthly Study thine own experiences Consider the carriage of Christ particularly towards thy soul Remember how long hee bare with thee whilst thou wast in the state of nature I and an enemy unto him How long did hee stand knocking at the door ere thou didst open How long did he come wooing of thy soul ere thou didst imbrace him How many ways did hee take to work upon thee to open thine heart to let him in that hee might love thee How freely did hee tender love to thy soul was there any other condition on which hee tendred himself to thee than thine acceptance of him Said he not when he came and knocked at thy door if thou wilt open I will come in and sup and thy heart shall be at no cost to prepare I have brought that with me that shall feast thee Said hee not if thou doe but thinst come and drink and if thy heart bee but willing eat the good things of my bosome and live for ever Thus mind those experiences of Christs acting towards thee Remember all the Feasts of love which hee hath given thee and by these thou wilt come to see how good how kind how loving he is Lastly Adde prayer to all these It is the choycest wisdome to be wise in the knowledge of Christs love And if you lack this wisdome James giveth you his advice ask it of God and if you ask of God a wise heart in this particular doubtless he will not deny thee for he giveth
liberally to those that ask and upbraideth no man Then ask of him much Beg of him a wise and an understanding heart to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Intreat God that thou mayest be taught of him to know what is the love of himself and of his Son As Christ saith Every man that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to me So every Soul that the Father teacheth will quickly learn to know what is the love of Christ to beleevers And that thou mayest bee able to know the love of Christ in its luster beg of God to bestow upon thee his Spirit Christ hath said The Father will give the Spirit to him that asketh him And the Apostle saith As no man knoweth the things of a man but the spirit of a man which is in him so none can know the things of Christ but the Spirit of Christ Go to the Lord Jesus and remember him of his promise Tell him he hath promised to send his Spirit and that when the Spirit is come he shall take of Christ and shew it unto the Soul Intreat him therefore to shew his Spirit and intreat him also that his Spirit would come with the shedding abroad of his love Say O! that the Spirit would take of thy love and shed it into me and O! that he would shed it abroad into mine heart that I may be able with all Saints to comprehend the height and the depth and the length and the breadth of the love of Christ and that I may be able also to know that love which passeth knowledge Having thus hinted a few words as concerning the means how we may attain the knowledg of Christs love I shall now adde a word or two concerning the manner how we should behave our selves in the use of this means while we study the knowledge of Christs love and for this take these directions First Be very exact Exactness is requisite in all studies but especially in this Gather up O Beleever all the crumbs and filings of this gold Christs love When thou readest any thing concerning Christ be exact to observe the smiles of his countenance the words of his lips the gesture of his hands the turning of his eye love doth thus observe them Sic oculos sic ille manus sic ora ferebat Observation was made of eyes and of hands and of countenance so doe thou observe be very curious â—o study this love in all its circumstâ—â—ces in all its doings in all its demonstrations If ever you would shew exactnesse in any study shew it in this Doubtlesse the exacter you are in this study the clearer you will be able to comprehend Christs love Secondly be loving Those know most of Christs love to them who abound most in love to him John seemeth to be most loving of all the Disciples and therefore hee seemeth to have the greatest knowledge of Christs love he was so happy as to lean on the bosome of the Lord Jesus and to him was revealed more than to the rest of the Apostles Look as that man doth but in vain expect mercy of God who is without mercy himself so doth that soul in vain desire to know Christs love who is without all love himself you may doe well to observe the context here in this 3 Ephes 17 18 19. v. The Apostle saith that you Being rooted and grounded in love may bee able to comprehend with all Saints what is the length breadth and depth and height of the love of Christ c. To be grounded in love is an excellent way to comprehend love And doubtless Christ will bee very kind in the revelations of his love to those in whom hee observes the workings of love Thirdly bee very admiring in all the study let all your reading bee mixed with admiration at every love-passage of Christ sit and meditate at every word of love stay and wonder adore the glory of that light which appeareth in any beam of love And in the admiration of that love which doth appear cast thy self at the feet of Christ and cry out O the depth of love in thee O the riches of the love of thy bosome that shouldest thus let out thy self to beleevers Lastly when thou comest as it were at a stand and canst not comprehend the transcendency of this love Imitate the Philosopher and cast thy self into that sea of love which thou wouldest fain fathome or sound and art not able Let that love comprehend thee which thou canst not comprehend thy self Emerge and drown thy self in that vast Ocean of thy Saviours bosome and because thou art not able with any line of thine to sound the depth sink thy very Soul that it may be able to taste that which thy study will not help thee so much as to see I shall now adde but a word to stir you up in the use of these means and in this manner hinted seriously to prosecute the sweet study of the love of Christ First I might tell you That all the time that you spend in this study will be very delightful and very profitable and you will have no reason to repent thereof Those who have spent or rather mis-spent their time in reading of the fine Histories of feigned Loves have at last been forced to confess their follies in so doing That well-deserving person Sir Philip Sidney is reported to have lamented upon his Death-bed the mis-spending of those parts which God had given him in the penning of that well-penned peece his Arcadia But surely beleevers to lye upon a Death-bed and to consider that although all thy time were every hour thereof spent in the study of Christs love you will bee so farre from repenting of it as that you will have just cause to rejoyce in it But not to urge this doe but Secondly consider the times in which we live How little love is there in these dayes surely the love of many is waxen cold though it bee pressed much yet it is but little practised Though all pretend to complain of the want of love and seem to presse the exercise of love Yet where is the man that maketh it the sweetnesse of his life to let others tast the sweetnesse of his love Surely while there is such little love among men it is but meet that we should study the love that is in Christ But Thirdly especially consider the sweetnesse that the knowledge of the love of Christ will bring to thy soul in any case Little do you know what comfort is wrapped up in the knowledge of Christs love How oft doth but a thought of this revive the spirits of the fainting Saints With what a composure of spirit is a beleeve able to behave himself in any tribulation when he knoweth that the love of his Saviour is without knowledge Without the knowledge of this love nothing will bee sweet but with the knowledge of this love nothing can be bitter And this is that which we shall come unto
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
say ah but will Christ dwell in my heart I would fain beleeve it but what ground have I for such a beleef Hee is the high and the lofty one and I am mean and a poor creature Hee is not only the brightnesse of his fathers glory but the fulnesse of the fathers holinesse And will such a pure person as hee is come and dwell in such a polluted house as I am Thus the soul would or might reason but now all this reasoning is quieted and this doubting will bee easily resolved by the knowledge of Christs love for hee that knoweth the love of Christ knoweth how willing Christ is to come into the heart of a poor beleever and how that daily and hourely hee doth stand at the door knocking for entrance So that I say the very Spirits of the other cordials and as it were their quintessence lying in this the knowledge of the love of Christ It is very plain That the knowledge of the love of Christ is of speciall vertue and efficacy to keep the hearts of beleevers from fainting under tribulations But I shall a little more demonstrate this point First By opening wherein this knowledge of the love of Christ doth consist Secondly By shewing wherein the speciall efficacy of that knowledge doth appear for the supporting of the soulâ— from fainting fits in the time of trouble And then in the cloze of all I shall make some Use and Application For the first Wherein doth the knowledge of Christs love consist or what kind of knowledge of the love of Christ is it which keepeth the heart from fainting In the generall I hinted it in that expression the spirituall knowledge of the love of Christ That is such a knowledge of Christs love as the soul hath by the revelation of the Spirit acting by the shedding abroad of that love even upon the spirit of a beleever Look as the carnall knowledge of Christs person the knowledge of him after the flesh as the Apostles phrase is is not saving neither is it sweet So neither is the carnall knowledge of his love It is the spirituall knowledge of his person and the spirituall knowledge of his love which furthereth the everlasting happinesse of a soul hereafter and the sweetnesse and comfort of a soul here But more particularly I shall hint two words for the explication of the knowledge of Christs love what it is First Negatively It consisteth not in the bare notion of it All divine knowledge whatsoever it bee is without any efficacy if it bee but barely in the notion Look as in reference to duty knowledge is not effectually imperative to put the soul upon doing unlesse it sink deep into the soul for the word falling among stones and wanting root did not arise up in fruit In like manner with reference unto joy knowledge is no way efficaciously restorative although it bee the knowledge of Christs love unlesse it sink down from the head into the hearts of beleevers But as the Apostle putteth the knowledge of the glory of God the father as to salvation in this viz. that God who commanded the light to shine out of darknes had shined into their hearts 2 Cor. 4.6 In like manner hee putteth the vertue of the knowledge of the love of God in making the soul patient in its waitings and by consequence not fainting in his troubles in this that the Lord would direct the Thessalonians hearts into the love of God the Lord saith he direct your hearts into the love of God 2 Thes 3.5 wherefore then this is the first thing by way of negation that you may know wherein the knowledge of the love of Christ doth not consist it is not the bare notion or apprehension thereof in the head Secondly and positively The right knowledge of the love of Christ in reference to the matter in hand I conceive chiefly doth consist in two things First In a particular application of the love of Christ to the soul by faith i.e. that the soul should be able to lay home that to himself in particular which he understandeth to be in the heart of Christ to every beleever in generall The soul should bee able to say of the love of Christ it is mine for else as hee said quid haec mihi nisi mea what is all this to me if it bee not mine In like manner will the soul say what is it to mee if there be a transcendent love in the bosome of Christ to beleevers if I have not a share in it Look as the preaching of the word doth not profit them in whom it is not mixed with faith i.e. in the particular application thereof to themselves In like manner neither doth the love of Christ comfort any if it bee not mixed with faith i.e. particularly applyed to their own souls this is a faithfull saying saith Paul that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of which I am chief 1 Tim. 1.15 Herein was the truth of the saying that Christ came to save sinners but herein was the joy and comfort of Paul that hee could say I am chief It is most clear that the knowledge of the love of Christ is comforting but the efficacy of it doth lye in the application Just as now how choyce soever the cordiall bee that is prescribed by the Doctor it is of no comfort to cure the patient if it bee not taken In like manner though the knowledge of the love of Christ bee one of the choisest cordialls which is revealed yet it is of no vertue to the soul unlesse it bee taken i.e. particularly applyed by faith This is the first thing wherein the right knowledge of the love of Christ as it is efficacious to comfort in troubles doth consist But secondly It consisteth not only in the particular Application but in a serious Meditation thereof being applyed Application taketh the cordiall as it were in the mouth and lets it down into the stomach But meditation sucketh out the sweetness thereof And therefore it is said my Meditation on him shall bee sweet Psal 104.4 Not only the knowing and beleeving of it to bee the souls but also the meditation is that which maketh it more sweet if the cordiall which the patient taketh bee never so sweet yet if it be spit out again and not chewed as it were or swallowed down it affords but little refreshing In like manner though the love of Christ bee surpassing sweet yea and albeit it bee as it were applied in the generall If it bee not meditated upon it will bee but of little efficacy to keep the heart from fainting Wee will bee glad and rejoyce in thee saith the Spouse Cant. 1. v. 4. yea but wherein would they find them joy it followeth in thy love But how would they find out the sweetnesse of that joy out of that love it is hinted in this I will remember thy love more than wine The remembrance or the meditation upon the love of Christ
bee little and grace much Ob. O but saith the poor soul I have lost Christ I think there was a day in which I saw that his love was my life and the consideration thereof was my comfort but I have lost the one and so cannot solace my self in the other A. Why yet beleever the consideration of Christs love may bee a choice cordiall here Didst thou consider the very nature of Christs love aright thou wilt know this to bee the glory thereof that once had it can never bee lost It may bee the Sun may bee in a cloud and thou not see it but it will appear again But the Sun shall sooner leave the Firmament than Christs love shall leave thee Didst thou but also consider the transcendency of Christs love thou wouldest know that though Christ seemeth to withdraw himself a while yet his love will not permit his withdrawing to bee long yet a little while and you shall not see mee It is but a little while that Christ is seemingly lost and yet a little while and you shall see mee again Christ knoweth your Spirits would faile if hee should bee long away Love therefore looks to it that it shall never bee so long as in the losse thereof thou shouldest faint and dye Didst thou know the transcendent nature of Christs love thou wouldest know this that though thou mayest faint a little yet thou shalt not dye Love will come and revive thee yea didst thou but consider the love of Christ aright it will bee a cordial in other particulars also in that it maketh a large amends for a little tarrying for a moments withdrawing it lets out everlasting kindnesse and it therefore departed for a season that thou mightest have it for ever O.b. O but saith the soul I faint to think that I have lost Christ through mine own defect I have been so base as to drive him out of my bosome and I faint to think that hee will never come again A. Why poor soul thou art ignorant of the nature of Christs transcendent love Couldest thou but know it thou wouldest easily resolve thy soul in this case and support it with a sweet cordial such is the nature of transcendent love that though you have been foolish to drive Christ away yet it is so powerfull to bring Christ again It was the folly and the fault of the spouse that though her beloved was knocking at her door till his locks were wet with the dew of the night yet she sluggishly lay in her bed and would not let him in Indeed hee went away that shee might see her folly but hee came again that hee might shew loves transcendency Ob. Nay saith the soul with all this I have violated and wronged conjugall love and the thoughts of these sink my Spirit I faint and dye to think of this for fear that Christ will not passe by these Answ Still I say beleever didst thou but know the nature of the transcendent love of Christ it would afford thee a cordial in this case also This is the glory of this love that it passeth by such violations Indeed the love of men will not but the love of Christ will passe by this foul transgression because that Christs love transcendeth mens love Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers yet return to mee Jerem. 3. ver 1. and surely saith hee as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband so have you dealt with mee O house of Israel yet return you back-sliding people and I will heal your backslidings O transcendent love which is in Christs bosome which knoweth how to pardon the defilement of the bed of love Indeed there is no failing so great but didst thou know the transcendency of Christs love thou wouldest see it to be greater than any failing of thine can conquer so that now in case this fear should bee able to disturbe thy comfort and to make thee faint yet the consideration of Christs love may support thy soul and bee a cordial unto thee even in this case Object But yet I hear others cry out and say how shall wee doe to draw out joy out of this well of salvation How shall wee make the consideration of Christs love a cordial to us in our troubles Quest Why what are your troubles poor souls which make you stand in need of the comfort of this consideration Answ I have lost much nay all for Christ because I stood to his cause I have lost all the creatures lands and livings too yea and house and houshold too c. I have lost all Answ But yet consider Christs love and it will comfort thee in the middest of this losse It is the nature of transcendent love to repair all losses that double in your land you shall possess double Isa 61.17 And there is no man that hath left for Christ Parents Brethren house or children but love will make up all that as Luke 18. ver 29. Transcendent love scorns to let any bee a loser by it May not this comfort thee Ob. O but saith another I have not onely lost all but am still opposed they have stripped mee to my change for Christs sake and yet oppose my very skin How shall I comfort my self with the consideration of Christs love now A. Why thus poor soul consider Christ will comfort as fast as men oppose transcendent love giveth the soul answerable consolation to any tribulation in which the soul can bee In the world you shall have tribulation saith Christ but bee of good cheer I have overcome the world and in mee you shall have peace Transcendent love giveth a smile for every frown a kisse for every buffet an imbrace for every blow this is the nature thereof consider it and bee of good comfort Ob. O but saith the soul I have not onely lost all and been stripped to the change but am brought to the stake how shall I fetch comfort out of Christs love now A. Consider thou dying soul Christs love hath provided a comfort for it It saith you shall have your life by thus losing of it You are in the way to secure your life by this you shall not dye but live thus saith transcendent love because I live you shall live also Joh. 14. v. 19. After one blast into Christs bosome It is but a wink with the eye and into the land of the living presently Thus you see whither to goe for comfort in any tribulation viz. to Christs bosome and there you may find in his love a cordial suitable to any tribulations whether within or without spirituall or corporal Be directed therefore upon all occasions O you beleevers to run to Christs love and to comfort your selves in the consideration thereof Use Fifthly it may bee an use of Terror to Christlesse creatures you hear the consideration of Christs love is a cordial able to support in any trouble but wretches that you are you have no right to it tribulation is for every soul that
sinneth Rom. 2.9 you will meet with tribulation Christlesse creatures ere long divine wrath will come and visit you surely and what wil you doe in the day of the visitation thereof Whither wll you runne for consolation in the hour of your trouble Will you runne to men alas miserable comforters will they bee and so thou wilt find them to bee Men of a high degree are vanity and men of a low degree are a lye Whither will you go in the anguish of your souls for a drop of sweetnesse Will you goe to duties alas without Christ they are but dry and you that are Christlesse will not know how to manage duties so as to suck comfort through them Wil you say you are in Christ the Scriptures will confute you you are told but if any bee in Christ hee is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Do not say I am baptised Many are baptised into Christs name who are not baptised into his person you will say you have heard him preaching in your streets that you have eat in his presence been as you say at the Sacrament alas poor creatures all this may bee and yet you have no right to Christ Tremble therefore you Christlesse creatures his love is the cordial in trouble the consideration thereof may support the soul from sinking in any tribulation but woe to you woe to you you have no part in that what will you doe what will become of you when Christ shall appear in wrath It will bee in vain for you to call to the mountains to hide you from the wrath of the Lamb It will bee in vain for you to think upon the creatures nothing nothing will bee able to support your souls Indeed beleevers when hee shall appear in flames of fire will bee able to comfort themselves with the knowledge of his transcendent love but alas you who have no right to Christ what will you doe in that day you must doubtesse if you remain as you are sink in despair and dye under his wrath Use Lastly I shall adde one word of exhortation and conclude In as much as the knowledge of the love of Christ is of such speciall efficacy as you have heard to support your souls under tribulations then bee exhorted First to labour to be wel acquainted with the love of Christ in the substance thereof in the circumstances thereof and especially in the fulnesse and freenesse thereof Read study pray doe what you can that you may bee acquainted with this love the knowledge and consideration of which is a cordial in any trouble Secondly labour to clear it up to your selves that you have a share in this love and a right to it This is the cordial of this cordial of Christs love viz. for the soul to see that it is this so much I hinted in the explication thereof Especially strive poor souls to clear up this know you once had no part in it you were born children of wrath without Christ Let it bee your constant care therefore to make it appear that now you have a share in that transcendent love which is in Christ Thirdly upon all occasions run to this fountain of love Draw out of it suitable Cordials for any troubles You have heard that it will comfort and a word was hinted to direct you Now up and bee doing and in all occasions labour that the love of Christ may keep your Spirits from fainting Consider what times you are fallen in you may expect to meet with tribulation I cannot assure you of sweet and loving dealing from the world neither can I assure you of kind dealing from those who call themselves by the name of Brethren But this I can assure you If upon the words of grace you act faith and come to Christ that hee will sweeten your troubles You have heard There is love in his bosome for every beleever and that love is of a transcendent nature You have also heard how that It concerneth you all to labour and study for the knowledge of it And now you hear That if you attain the right and spirituall knowledge thereof it will bee very comfortable to you in any trouble I beseech you therefore as you prize your soules as you prize comfort in tribulations Beleeve and labour to get a part in Christ and then know that let your condition bee what it will bee however the World shall goe well or ill with you yet you shall still find a Friend of Christ hee will still follow you with a full a free a cordial and a transcendent love I have no more but this Let the consideration of the love that is in Christ to Beleevers and of all the comfort that is in that love in any troubles prevaile with you to look after it and to lay hold upon Jesus Christ Then shall you know experimentally That the love of Christ passeth knowledge FINIS