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
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
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
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
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
And the point will bear you out in it for you have such a love as is not to be found in all the world beside Having the love of Christ you have that love which passeth knowledge And surely beleevers if the men of the world think they have good ground to glory in this that they enjoy the Low love though of some seeming great creatures you have much more ground to rejoyce who enjoy this high love of him who is indeed greater than all the creatures Jesus Christ Do men think they have just ground to sit and glory in that they sip the puddle drops of creatures loves Have not you more ground and that juster and truer to sing and glory in this that you drink in the pure love of Jesus Christ which is so sweet so excellent and so transcendent as that it passeth knowledge Thirdly in as much as Christ loveth beleevers with a transcendent love then see here the rise and ground of all that which Christ doth for them You wonder beleevers at least you might and that justly whence it is that Christ doth so much for you One while he is filling you with his unsearchable riches another while he is crowning you with his own glory Now you have him giving you choice gifts and anon you have him bringing of you choyce graces In this duty you have him imbracing of your souls in his arms And in that duty you find him kissing you with the kisses of his lips and you are ready to cry out Whence is it that Christ doth all this for me One while thou art sick and Christ visiteth thee and maketh thy bed and sitteth by thy bed side other whiles thou goest abroad and Christ walketh with thee and thou leanest upon him as upon thy beloved Now thou art in the wildernesse it may be under some banishment and Christ commeth to thee And anon it may be thou art in prison under some restraint and Christ visiteth thee there too And all this maketh thee cry out Whence is it that my Lord should thus come to me Why see the Point and in that see the cause He loveth thee O beleever and he loved thee with a transcendent love And hence it is that he doth all that he doth for thee and giveth all that he bestoweth on thee You wonder why Christ should sanctifie such unsanctified hearts as yours are cleanse by the washing of water and by the word such impure spirits as yours be And you are ready to say Whence is it that the Lord of glory should stoop to wash such a creature as I am Whence is it that he at whose feet Angels fall and bow should come wash the feet of such a creature as you be Hence it is beleevers Christ hath loved you and that with a transcendent love Wonder not therefore henceforth unlesse it be with the wondring why Christ doth any thing or all things for you there is a reason yea great reason though not in you yet in himself It is this we have been speaking of i. e. the transcendent love he beareth to you Fourthly let this inform beleevers that sith Christ loveth them with a transcendent love at all times they have then a just ground to act their faith upon him in any case Why is it O beleever that thou doubtest whether Christ will do this for thee or give that to thee when as thou considerest he loveth thee with such a transcendent love upon all occasions act your faith O ye children of faith in your beloved what ever it is that you want and he hath what ever it be that thou wouldest have and he can give Beleeve that Christ will not let thee goe without it for why he loveth thee with a transcendent love In three cases more particularly this truth will inform you of the sure ground that beleevers have to act their faith on Jesus Christ First in case of hearing of their prayers These things I touched at in the first Ser. mon but not so fully Surely he that so transcendently loveth their persons will without doubt hear their prayers Thou sayest O beleeving soul thou hast great necessities and they force thee to make many prayers Thou sayest that Christ can help thee at all hands and therefore thou art calling upon him at all times But thou sayest will hee hear mee Why shouldest thou not beleeve that he will when thou considerest the transcendent love he beareth to thee The love that is in his bosome towards thee will open his ears to hear the breathings that come from thee Indeed sometimes hee may seem to be deaf and not hear thy prayers and sometimes also he may seem harsh and not accept of thy person But it is to try thy faith For notwithstanding hee will hear thee and accept of thee in what thou desirest according to his will for thy good that he may declare his transcendent love You know Christ called the woman of Canaan Dog and seemed to speak harsh to her and yet even all the while that hee looked as it were sourly upon her and spake as it were sadly against her yet even then did his bowels roule for her and even then was there love in his bosome to her And therefore though for a while he seemed to deny that hee might try the sincerity of her faith yet afterwards he granted her requests that he might declare the reality of his own love In this case therefore you have a sure ground of faith O beleevers Christ will not reject your prayers because he loveth your persons and the more transcendent his love is towards the one the more sure may you be that he will hear the other Secondly In case of obtaining counsell from Christ and knowing the mind of Christ This Point will inform us in a sure ground of faith and love O beleever love will open Christs bosome and let thee see the counsels that are there Surely hee will counsel thee in case of doubts because he loveth thee as he doth Thou sayest here is a Scruple and there is a question and I would fain know the mind of Christ concerning this or that But how can I hope that ever he will open his mind to me either in the one or about the other Why sayest thou so O beleever is not his transcendent love a good ground for the acting of thy faith in this case Verily because his heart is to thee therefore it will be with thee That I may allude to that phrase of Judges 16. v. 15. How ever Dallilah said to Sampson How canst thou say I love thee when thine hart is not with me thou hast no reason to say as she said in such a way as she did Thou mayest beleeve that his heart will be with thee because thou hearest that he loveth thee I would fain perswade my own heart and yours also in these times of doubting and of darknesse in which wee need counsell and would bee glad to
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
you too if I could but prevail with you to bee drawn to Jesus Christ with these cords of love However you are strangers to it now yet if you would but come in you should know the love of Christ and know the truth of this point Your own experience should bee forced to witnesse to this That Jesus Christ loveth beleevers with a transcendent love passing knowledge SERMON V. EPHES. 3. ver 19. And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge THere is nothing of greater force to allure men than the desire of knowledge Iob tells us Job â—â— 12 Vain man desireth to bee wise though man be born like a wilde Asses colt Albeit it is our fate that since the fall we are subject to folly and in that sense we are vain yet there remaines at least so much wit in us as to approve of knowledge and to desire to be wise onely here is our misery that there is a great deal of vanity in our desiring knowledge Wee are all of us apt either to desire the knowledge of that that is above us and so unattainable or else beneath us and in that respect not so much desirable It was this golden apple of knowledge which was so taking and tempting with our Grandmother Eve that albeit the best that shee got by eating that apple was but the knowledge of evill which wee had all been better without yet shee was drawn to eat of the Apple Not onely as perswaded of its being pleasant to the taste but because it was desirable to make one wise And surely as our Grandmother did eat those sowre grapes so we all her children have ever since had our teeth set on edge with the same desire Hence it is that too too often out of an eager desire and affectation of knowledge we are apt upon the one hand for to five too high and to pry into those hidden secrets which God hath not revealed or else on the other hand wee are apt to stoop too low and to dive into niceties and vanities at least into the knowledge of such things in which we are not concerned but as the Apostle doth say I shall shew you a more excellent way by declaring how you may poise your desire of knowledge so as that you should be neither too high nor too low in the pursuit thereof Doe not say therefore who shall ascend to bring down Jesus Christ from above and to reveale the knowledge of hidden glories and unconceiveable mysteries Neither say who shall descend to raise him up from beneath but remember the word the Scripture is nigh even the Gospel which we preach Labour to know it and you shal know enough not only as to salvation but even as to the perfection of your knowledge Christ who is the Wisdome of God and in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge is fully and clearly revealed in the Gospel and by the study and the knowledge of it wee shall come to the knowledge of him Now of all knowledge the knowledge of Christ as it is most sacred so it is most satisfactory And of all things in Christ the knowledge of his love And as that is most satisfactory so it is most sweet It is this knowledge which the Apostle here prayeth that the Ephesians might obtain and by consequence that knowledge which all Christians ought to desire and labour for It concerneth you not so much to know Arts and Sciences though in themselves and their way they are necessary and of worth neither doth it concein you at least so much to be acquainted with other truths of the Scriptures which in their place are very precious But this is that which doth so mainly concern you viz. That you know the love of Christ passing knowledge Our third Point in order taken up and to bee spoken to from these words is this That it is a thing of necessary concernment for every Christian to know the transcendent love of Iesus Christ We have already endeavoured to hold out at least a beame of light towards the discovery of that bosome-love that is in Christ towards his And at this time my desire is to hint something which may at least put you on to endeavour to make a further discovery of the riches and the glory and the transcendency of that love For my designe is to make it appear That the study for the knowledge thereof is of very choice speciall and necessary concernment for you all Explication what knowledg we should labour for The subject of the point you see Is the knowledge of the love of Christ Now when I say That the knowledge of the love of Christ is of necessary concernment 1 A clear and full 1 I do mean not simply the bare beleeving of this truth but a clear and full understanding of it the substance and circumstances thereof There are divine and infinite dimensions in the love of Christ and it is our duty to labour for the knowledge of all these We should strive to be able to measure both the length and the breadth yea and also to take the height and to sound the depth of the love of Christ Christs bosome is a very glorious Mine of love and it concerneth us to dig very deep into it and not content our selves with a bare discovery of that Golden Oare or vein of love which is upon the superficies or top of the same Mine and in which we may easily discover as it were in the very letter of the Gospel but it doth concern us to endeavour to attain unto the deep and mysteriall discoveries thereof which Saints by the light of the Spirit come to attain 2 A spirituall and experimentall 2 Yea and not only so but also to endeavour to get an experimentall knowledge of this love That as the Painter curiously painted love by drawing the type of it out of his own bosome So we in like manner may be able by our Christian discourses to paint forth and to declare what the love of Christ is taking especially the grounds thereof out of our own bosomes our own experiences Divines observe that the Scriptures own not any thing for knowledge at least saving which is not experimentall And certainly that knowledge of the love of Christ whereof we shall now speak ought to be not only a bare head knowledge but especially a heart knowledge an experimentall knowledge This I thought good to adde for the explication of the subject of the Proposition Now for the predicate or the thing that we do affirm of this knowledge of the love of Christ you may do well for the clearer apprehending thereof to take it in these particulars First This knowledge is of concernment There are many things the knowledge whereof may be expedient but not of such concernment But this knowledge whereof we speak is such a knowledge as not onely may be expedient for us to know but also of concernment for us that
discoursed exactly concerning this subject viz. the transcendency of the love of Christ I have heard that that precious Divine Dr. Preston was wont to complain of the great defect this way Surely it is very sad to think that the knowledge of the love of Christ being of such necessary and high concernment hath been so little inquired into O what a gallant Gospel-designe were it for some one who is acquainted with the Spirit in a large measure to goe over the whole history of the Gospel and to observe the glorious shinings of the love of Christ to beleevers in all It would bee precious if some would take it in hand and perfect it to the purpose But it is sad to think it hath been neglected so long Secondly we may lament not onely to think this knowledge hath been but little advanced by the labours of any but especially that it is such that after all labour it can be but little gained We may weep to think how little of the love of Christ it is that those who have most knowledge of it doe or can know We read of a Book which was sealed and John wept much saith the Text because no man was found worthy in heaven or in earth that was able to open the Book or to look thereon Beloved the heart of Christ may be compared to a glorious Book in which the mysterious history of his transcendent love is written But alas who is there not onely in earth but in heaven that is able to open this Book and to discover the mysteries thereof Beloved when we shall come to heaven wee shall then be in a capacity of more perfect knowledge of the love of Christ But alas even then wee shall never be able to comprehend the love of Christ in the perfection thereof that is so fully as it may be known Then indeed we shall apprehend it in the perfection of our knowledge i.e. so far as it can bee known by the finite knowledge of creatures but yet then we shall not know it so full as it is The Schoolmen speak of knowledge as they doe of seeing Duplex plenitudo scientioe visionis viz Plenitudo 1 Subjecti 2 Objecti There is a twofold fulness of knowledge First a fulnesse in regard of the object i.e. such a fulness as regards the thing it self Secondly a fulnesse of knowledge in regard of the subject in which it is Now for mine own part I incline at least for present to conclude that although without doubt there shall be a fullnesse of knowledge of Christ in respect of our knowledge i.e. according to the utmost bounds or extents which our knowledge when it is perfected to the highest is capable of yet notwithstanding in regard of the fulnesse of knowledge as it relates to the thing it self viz. The love of Christ quoad essentiam virtutem intensivam extensivam i.e. when it is considered so far forth as it may be had unto all the effects and purposes whereunto that knowledge doth extend it self this I say I think wee shall not have but to all eternity wee shall be admiring and adoring of this love of Christ which passeth knowledge Wherefore then wee must needs lament to consider that although the knowledge of the love of Christ be of such necessary concernment yet it hath been but little searched after by many and when wee shall make the greatest search after it we shall never be able fully to attain it Use Secondly it may be a use of Reproof unto those who neglect this study of the knowledge of the love of Christ altogether Many there are who are little in the study of the Bible lesse in the study of the Gospel but least of all in this which is the light and lustre and glory of all the Gospel the love of Christ to beleevers And I cannot chuse but think those blame-worthy and to be reproved who in these times speak much of their parts and abilities in the beating out of some truths merely controversall which yet I speak not against in its place and yet neglect this knowledge which is of such necessary concernment I doe not altogether blame those who study this headship of Christ I mean this Government it being I think this present truth which is most controverted in these times yet notwithstanding to study so far the head of Christ as to neglect his heart so far to mind his government as to neglect his love is without doubt a thing to bee reproved But much more are those to bee reproved who study neither the one nor the other but spend all their time their pains and their parts in controversies and niceties prying either into unrevealed positions or being busied about needlesse questions neglecting in the mean time this one necessary thing viz. the knowledge of the love of Christ How many are there that may as one said of the Schoolmen bee like unto Travellers or men in a journey who have good bread about them but goe gnawing and biting upon hard stones so indeed some men who have at least means to have the bread of life Christs love but they neglect it and spend their time in gnawing upon hard trivialls at least not usefull questions Be reproved O all ye who so far spend your selves about the obtaining of any knowledge when in the mean time you doe neglect the study of this knowledge the love of Christ which is of necessary concernment Lastly we shall adde a word of Exhortation to stir up all to the study of the love of Christ You who have spent or rather mispent many a precious hour in reading of Romanses and fond histories of feigned loves yea you who spend all your time though it be about some matters of concernment but neglecting this be stirred up now to lay out your selves in the study of that which is sweet and necessary viz. the study of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge you must conceive that as I hinted in the explication my desire is that you would labour to be well versed and to be exact students in this businesse I would not have you content your selves in some generalls but labour to make a particular discovery of the love of Christ in its substance in its circumstances and in its sundry actions and declarations O remember that this knowledge includeth in it all that knowledge which is necessary to be known for salvation When you have studied it well you shall find that there is nothing in the whole doctrine of salvation which is not comprehended in this love of Christ as Calvin hath well observed upon the place This knowledge is both safe and sweet it is not such knowledge as wil puffe up the head but it will purifie the heart I doe not doubt that any can grow wanton who attaineth to any spirituall saving degree of this knowledge The love of Christ will constrain to duty and restrain from sin therefore betake your selves to
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
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
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