arms into the hands into the shoulders c. so that every motion in every one of them will be easie and delightful It is the setting about duties without love which makes them so heavy How can that be done without love which is only to be done with love This is the great difference between our motions now adays and the motions of the primitive Christians theirs did issue from a Spring we go about to force out ours with artificial engines They had love kindled in them and love drawn forth in them by vertue of the same life which kindled it We reason love into our hearts and reason out the practises of it and alas how weak is this But had we of a truth love enough enough of that love and the art of proportioning out love enough to every duty we should fail in none nor complain of any Thus exceedingly profitable to our selves is love exercised by us toward the brethren Where by the way we may take notice of the strength of Christs love to us It is love in him to us which maketh him so strictly to lay this Commandment upon us of loving one another He knew how useful it would be for us and therefore in a more then ordinary manner he enjoyneth it unto us And thus we see the Reason why Christ beateth so much on this subject why his heart is so much in it why he maketh it his Commandment It is a thing which his Father much desireth and is much for his Fathers honour It is exceedingly useful to his Saints both them that practise it and all to whom they practise it and can you blame Christ in laying so much weight upon it To propose now a little Application of all this Is the heart of Christ so much in this thing is this his especial Commandment his peculiar Commandment the Commandment of his choyce which his Soul so thirsteth after to have observed by us That we should love one another as he hath loved us Then 1. What shall we say to our Lord Jesus Christ when we come to stand before him and his Father in the presence of all his Saints and Angels for our so gross neglect of this duty When this Law shall be read before us This is my Commandment that ye love one another c. and the often pressings of it by Christ himself and by his Apostles throughout all the New Testament and when our hearts and actions shall be looked into and so little of it found in either When the Saints in the Apostles times shall rise up and their hearts shall be opened which were so full of love and entireness that they could spend and be spent one for another When the Saints under the ten Persecutions shall arise whose love is reported to have been so firm and large that the very Persecutors themselves did bear witness unto it and were amazed at it When the hearts of worldlings shall be ripped up and stronger love appear there towards their fellow-worldlings then in the Christians of this generation towards their fellow-Christians When men directly-wicked shall appear to have loved the image of the Devil better in one another then we the image of God and of Christ Yea when our own hearts shall be ripped up and the actings of our natural affection being made visible it shall appear concerning our selves that we gave scope to that but the new nature and the powers of love in it have been rather choaked in us then drawn forth towards one another What shall we say in our own behalfs We can blame one another very sorely now in cases of far inferior consequence but how shall we answer this our selves before the Judg We own the life of Christ in one another but alas where is our love to that life We say Christ is our Lord why this is his great Commandment that wherein his very heart and soul and spirit is where is our obedience who can answer this in his own spirit now and if not now how will he be able to acquit himself then when the light shall be perfectly clear and all the fig-leaves wherewith we now so cunningly cover the evil of our hearts ways motions and actions from our own eyes quite taken away and made altogether unable from affording any shelter to us 2. It may occasion an enquiry why love should be so barren so dead among Christians so backward in its growth so prone to decay That little life and vertue which it had among us once where is it I shall not prosecute this enquiry so far as it lieth open to me but mention only these two causes from whence it may very well arise 1. From a decay of grace in us from our decay in love to Christ or at least from the weakness of it where it is not decayed Were grace strong were love to Christ strong we could not chuse but love those that are Christs more If we did not fail in love towards him who doth beget we should better love those who are begotten by him 2. From a carelessness in acting the duty We are not careful to draw out a spiritual affection and a natural affection will not do it and upon spiritual grounds and with a spiritual fervency and in a spiritual manner but we go to love Saints as we do other men We do not simply love grace in them There must be somewhat besides grace to draw forth and continue our affections or else they warp Our love goeth forth in flesh and not to the pure life but partly towards flesh which it many times missing of there presently groweth a faintness and decay of love If love were more pure in us and were drawn forth more purely from us towards its own pure object it would be more lasting 3. It speaks out a very strong Exhortation of it self inviting and vehemently perswading Christians to press hard after this duty and never to give their spirits rest till this duty be as much in their hearts and lives as it is in the heart of Christ concerning them For the prosecution of this Exhortation I shall propound some few Motives to it some Directions concerning it and likewise some Helps towards it To begin with the Motives Though all that hath been said be of a stirring attractive nature yet it may not be amiss at last cast to drive in two or three nails again First then Consider this well that this is the way which Christ himself hath appointed us to express our love to him in If ye love me keep my Commandments and what Commandments This is my Commandment that ye love one another Peter lovest thou me feed my Lambs If thou lovest me shew it and if thou wilt shew it shew it in thy love and care of my Lambs what thou dost to them thou dost to me Our goodness cannot reach God or Christ but the Saints Psal 16.2 2. Remember that this will yeeld unto Christ matter of joy in you He
and they fall out afterwards as they did before and so their end prove worse then their beginning A. No for Christ undertaketh to preserve them to keep them safe from all evils and dangers in so much as they shall not fall upon them further then shall be for their good to work in them and for them all their works to keep off wrath that it shall seize no further upon them then he himself in wisdom and love seeth good to let it out In a word God shall never have more to say to them but from him nor they never have more to do with God but through him who loveth them perfectly and who as he began so he will continue meerly from the strength of his own love to perfect his own work in them which though his wisdom may cause him to carry on very mysteriously yet his love will not let him fail doing of it very safely Q. What must he do who is instated in this Salvation in and for whom this Redemption is begun by Jesus Christ A. He must be continually sacrificing himself by the Spirit of the Lord in which he that is in Christ lives and moves and acts until he become an whole burnt-offering unto the Lord until all his light all his life all his will be swallowed up and perfectly lost in the Light in the Life in the Will of the Lord. Not only until his corruption be dissolved and consumed but till his very nature and being in all the powers motions and operations of it be changed into the Nature and Being of the Lord until the new creature hath wholy spred it self all over him and he be become wholy a new lump This he who is not truly changed cannot do and he who is truly changed cannot but do A Postscript about Religion THere have always been two kinds of Religions in the world besides the several strains in each and the several ways of jumbling each together which the vain heart of man hath invented to entangle and vex it self withall The one Heathenish or Devilish The other Heavenly or Divine The one wrought out of the Earth by the assistance of Satan The other let down into the Earth by the Spirit of the Lord. The whole Earth is still taken up about Religion It is both natural and artificial and that about which the whole strength of Nature and Art is most employed There hath not been any part of the Earth so barbarous wherein there have not been some strains of devotion found There is every where where the nature of man appears where the art of man is exercised and where there is any breath either of God or Satan stiring some kind of seed and some kind of culture of Religion The main end of Religion in reference to us is Salvation Not only present relief and protection in our present feeble estate but Salvation in a future estate which the very nature of man pointeth him unto and teacheth him to look after We are at present involved in misery we feel it Every creature feeleth it according to its kind and we according to our kind There is some future estate of things unto which we all are passing And this present estate though it be wholy vain in reference to us as we now are yet it cannot be at all vain in reference to that but that which is perfect must of necessity order every thing perfectly to its end so that nothing be lost not any one motion of any creature in any kind Now this is most evident That though all men almost expect Salvation yet the attainment of it will be very rare The common paths of Heathenish Worship will not lead to it and in the midst of the Dispensations of God there are few who truly walk to it How few of the Jews under the Dispensation of the Law did truly walk towards Salvation And how many Disciples under the Gospel ran so as they could not obtain Many shall say Lord Lord open to us but the Lord shall answer them Verily I know you not They shall speak like persons well acquainted with the Lord and very sure of entrance but the Lord will disown them and tell them publiquely Of a truth I know you not Doth it not then behove every one to look about him It is very ill trifling about Eternity Thou wilt one day be ashamed O confident Soul who hast sought for the treasure in the wrong field who hast layd out thy mony for that which is not bread and thy pains for that which will not satisfie Wouldst thou but consider how unable thou art to justifie thy Religion now I speak to the most strict to the most exact persons living I say bring thy Religion to that touchstone which may now be held forth how wilt thou manifest it to thine own spirit to be weighty Thou knowest thou beleevest thou lovest thou obeyest Very good But how wilt thou justifie any of these I dare boldly affirm that unless thou hast seen the stamp of God with the eye of a true understanding 1 Joh. 5.20 thou canst not be able to say that these are of his stamp and unless they be of the stamp of God and have the very Nature and Life of God in them I am sure they shall not save thee Ah foolish man Because thou hast lighted upon the Scriptures and readest and hearest and prayest and conformest thy life as well as thou canst to the directions thereof yea prayest for the help of the Spirit acknowledging thine own weakness and unprofitableness c. dost thou think to be saved Dost thou not know that the root of all this is rejected by the Lord and can any of the fruit be accepted I can assure thee the spirit of man will do this and the spirit of man in thee may do this The Lord hath written this in the nature and present state of man and when he pleaseth he may draw it out And seeing with God it is all one to will as to do the spirit of man which is universally willing unto this shall be as well accepted herein as thine He who would have been wrought upon to do this is as justifiable before God as thou who hast been wrought upon and hast done it And thou who art uncircumcised in heart for that which thou callest the circumcision is no more it then that which the Jews called so art as loathsom before God as those who are uncircumcised in their outward practises and professions Let me plead a little further with thee Dost thou know what the spirit of man can do when his whole nature when all his understanding his affections and passions are purified and heightened It is a dull frothy stupified spirit which can please it self in this drossy world a spirit a little sublimated a little enlightened a little quickened cannot but mind things of another nature even such as are suitable to its inward part and the future estate thereof And what
would not a natural spirit throughly sensible do to avoyd its perfect misery and attain its perfect life rest and happiness Again Dost thou know how near thou mayst approach to the Truth and yet remain short of it how far thou mayst walk in a way like the strait way and yet it not prove the way how high thou mayst ascend on the ladder which seemingly to thee leads up to Heaven and yet that not prove the ladder There is no Christ can save but the Lords anointed nor can he save any otherwise then by his anointing thee in the Name and with the Nature of the Lord He shall save because of the anointing Thou mayst have all the similitudes of Truth and Salvation in every kind and yet not one spark of Truth in any kind Thou mayst have light great light which thou mayst confidently beleeve to be the light of the Lord and yet it may not prove so Thou mayst have fresh and vigorous life and yet not that life prove the life of the Spirit neither And if so then all the motions of this life all thy steps in this light will not lead thee towards but further from the Lord. Thou mayst offer sacrifices and yet those sacrifices not be the Lords though in thine appearance instituted by him and by thee dedicated to him Thou mayst season them with salt and offer them up with fire on that which thou takest to be the Lords altar and yet neither that salt that fire nor that alter be the Lords To come yet nearer Thou mayst have faith in God through Christ love to God and the Saints peace in thine own spirit rest and joy in beleeving and obeying the voyce of the Lord and all these very pure and spiritual in thine own view and yet not so before the Lord who knoweth things and cannot be deceived with vain appearances In a word Thou mayst come from a Land of bondage through a wilderness into a state and condition of rest and yet this may not be the child of the Lord whom he called out of Egypt out of Egypt have I called my Son nor this Egypt the Egypt out of which he calleth his Son nor this state of rest Gods Canaan Gods holy Land unto which he leads his son There are Egypts states and places of bondage for the spirit of man There are wildernesses thousands of wildernesses as there were many wildernesses in the world besides that which Israel passed through in which the spirit of man may be entangled and through which he may travel and after his passage through them may find a condition of rest But yet the Lords Egypt the Lords Wilderness the Lords Canaan are different from these as they are prepared for a different end namely the subjection the correction and enlargement of his son There is a threefold state of persons standing for life There are three sorts of Runners all which make account to obtain but only one of them can 1. There is the pure extract of this Earth the natural man him I mean not whom thou art apt to call so but he who notwithstanding all his Religion all his devotion his reading the Scripture his praying hearing beleeving c. in the eye of God is so and by his tryal will be found so This man though he be very zealous yet he hath no more Religion in him then the spirit of man by serious consideration with himself and by solid meditations on the Scriptures may attain to This man finding a necessity of beleeving and just ground for it cannot but beleeve cannot but love cannot but strive after obedience in the midst of all incumbrances and hangings back his spirit thus lighted convinceth perswadeth and thus directeth him This man makes no question of acceptance here and of enjoying God hereafter Of this sort is the greatest part of Religious persons upon the face of the Earth though because the spirit of man is more enlightened and heightened in some then in others therefore some are apt exceedingly to justifie themselves and condemn others calling the Religion of others formal and earthly little suspecting that their own is so not only in its most sublime out-goings but even in its very root 2. There is an heavenly kind of birth from an heavenly gift from a gift of a new life as it were from a light let from God into the Soul which shining about it and quickening it which shewing it the world to come and letting in the powers of it must needs make great changes in it and beget an higher faith love and obedience then the former These make no question but that theirs is the Kingdom and yet these may fall away and miss of it as is testified Heb. 6. and what if they had kept their standing can a nature subject to change inherit Eternity In rewards appertaining to Dispensations there may be loss or gain but in eternal life there comes in no consideration of the motions of the creature but it is the free gift of God through Jesus Christ which he that well understandeth can unfold many riddles wherein the spirit of man must needs be entangled and lost 3. There is a birth from a new nature from the life of God sown and springing up in the Soul which seed contains in it and brings forth faith and love and every other spiritual thing Joh. 1.12 13. This man is not changed either by outward Reason or inward impressions from Nature or Scriptures or by a gift of light let into his spirit but by the true Nature of God shed into him and swallowing him up into it and bringing him forth anew in it This is the only change for all other changes will return again to their principles The others make real changes in their kind but this alone is the perfect kind of change this only is true full lasting consisting of the very Nature and Life of God and therefore must of necessity abide with it and admit of no change but what it is also capable of Now what is thy Religion what image what superscription beareth it How rare is it to find the natural Religion of the spirit of man fairly improved and well grown Alas the Religion now abroad cannot justly satisfie the plain honest spirit of natural man but where shall we find the second kind and if we be put to it for the second where shall we seek for the third The present estate of Religion is exceeding sick and weak Religion hath lost its first light its first life its first strength and vigor True Religion eats out the life and strength of man bringing forth a life of another nature but where is there any Religion now which floweth out from the nature of man which would easily be acknowledged were the nature of man rightly measured and understood We have indeed a great deal of humane knowledg of the things of God a great many fleshly fabricks but who can produce one spiritual building The best
symptomes that I find of Religion are its sickness its languishing That which flourisheth and boasteth it self so much savoreth too strongly of the flesh to pass for currant But alas who is truly sick We want a Physician but who is prepared for the Physician what work were there as yet for him should he come but to wound for who among the wounded hath his wound upon him I do not delight to afflict the spirits of men but I confess it much grieves me to see them so greedily run after vanity kindling such sparks and walking in the light of such a fire as serves only to lull themselves asleep at present with but will not secure them from the bed of abiding sorrow Read that place Isai 50.11 Behold all ye that kindle a fire that compass your selves about with sparks Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled This shall ye have of mine hand ye shall lie down in sorrow I am assured in my Soul that the Religion abroad will not save men that under their professions and practises of holiness there is a root of wickedness which must to Hell and they in whom it is found It is not all the knowledg of Christ nor faith nor love nor all the exercises of Religion of the common kind that will save but a new life a new spirit a renewed nature which is a rarer thing then we commonly think for Being thus wounded being thus afflicted for you will ye think much that I speak a little to you because it sounds somewhat harsh in your ears because it strikes at the foundation not of your outward worship which ye cannot bear neither but the very life and hope of your Souls I am jealous over you I would not have you cozened of eternal life I would not have you trifle away your Souls in a dream I would have you saved therefore do I tell you of a deeper wound which your sickness requires then ye have yet been acquinted with I would have you found for ever therefore do I tell you of your lost estate therefore do I strive to heave up that vail of seeming safety and happiness which covers your true misery from your eyes and makes you run dancing into your own utter ruine Look upon the primitive Christians ye pretend to be successors to them where is the truth of that life which they once had It is true they had spots as well as you but as your life is not their life so your spots are not their spots Ye confess ye want many circumstantial tending to the outward glory of that state which they had but do ye not want the inward substance of that life which tends to the very Being of that state O Sirs consider it All the wit of man All the art of man All the serious industry of mans spirit can never lay one stone in this building I will mention a few differences between us and them and consider ye of what force they be If any shall contend that there is no such difference but his Religion is the same in these respects I have nothing further to say against him I have but given in my testimony which is only so far valid as my spirit hath in true judgment searched and weighed this thing nor doth it positively conclude against all Religion No It rather beleeveth that there is a seed of Truth somewhere though deeply hid The especial differences or at least some of them which I have observed between Religion in its first birth and growth and now in its state of depravation or weak restitution by mans endeavors are these or in these respects 1. It differs in its descent That came down from God The sacrifices therein were appointed by God The fire which kindled their sacrifices was let down from Heaven The Religion now extant is generally of the Earth of mans pumping up from thence which man is not able to justifie to be the same with the former though every sort would fain have theirs acknowledged to be so There is indeed some kind of likeness in some respects in every way of Doctrine and Worship which man formeth out of the Scripture but it is not the life the substance the truth the Religion which the Lord once formed and which the Lord alone can form again 2. It differs in its nature or principle That as it was from Heaven so it was heavenly There was a seed of God a seed of life which was sown and sprang up then Now there is much natural much artificial devotion but it hath not this nature in it The repentance the mortification the self-denyal c. of this age beareth not the image of the former It is such a kind of things as may deserve such a name here in this world but not being set by the other I do not say there is no such thing now as the former principle I rather beleeve the contrary but I confess I think it very rare and hardly visible so much as to it self 3. It differs in its guide That life had a guide It had the Spirit of life to guide it The life now where it may be best supposed to be is at a loss And though it may be given to the Spirit to be preserved yet the Spirit is not given to it to make use of No life now runs so high and pure as to be entrusted with the Spirit It may be secretly led into faith into love into prayer into obedience by the Spirit but it knoweth not that it is so or its own motions when they are so We are fain to take it for granted that our prayers and motion are such And when the natural or artificial fire burns in us any thing warmly much more if our spirits be much heated we readily take it for granted without through searching without true discerning which is too difficult and costly whether this be the heat the warmth the life of the Spirit or no 4. It differs in its light They had a light suitable to their nature suitable to their eye suitable to the divine Spirit in them We have a light suitable to our nature suitable to our eye suitable to our humane spirit We see things just as other men see them We reason our selves into truths and practises as any other man might do I do not say that this should not be done for the humane spirit is to go along and to have its own light with it too but I cannot but say that this is not enough 5. It differs in the things conversed with They were led into and did walk in the substance of things They felt the nature the truth the power of Salvation The life in them tasted and enjoyed the life of God in Christ They did not take it for granted that God was a Father and that Christ was a Saviour and was set up by God to dispense eternal life but they were in his Fatherhood
The LIFE of a CHRISTIAN WHICH IS A Lamp kindled and lighted from the Love of Christ and most naturally discovereth its Original by the purity integrity and fervency of its motion in love to its fellow-partners in the same life Briefly displayed in this its peculiar and distinguishing strain of Operation As also some few Catechistical Questions concerning the way of Salvation by CHRIST Together with a Post-script about Religion By ISAAC PENINGTON junior Esq John 13.34 35. A new Commandment I give unto you That ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another LONDON Printed by John Macock for Lodowick Lloyd and Henry Cripps and are to be sold at their shop in Popes-head Alley neer Lumbard-street 1653. The Preface THe most excellent kind of things is hid and those kinds which appear in their greatest worth and excellency are but vails to that life wherein lieth our happiness Miserable were the estate of man could he enter into that estate of life which he desireth and seeketh to enjoy but more miserable is his condition in that he is not only fallen short of that glory which is perfectly satisfactory in God but of that glory which belongs to him to adore and solace himself in in his estate and condition All Truth is a shadow except the last except the utmost yet every Truth is true in its kind It is substance in its own place though it be but a shadow in another place for it is but a reflection from an intenser substance and the shadow is a true shadow as the substance is a true substance But this is the exceeding great misery of man he meets not with Truth either in substance or shadow but that which the world is full of vanity a lye a fiction of his own heart and the Devils in imitation of the Truth of God A Doctrine of his own framing out of the Scriptures Graces of his own forming in his Soul and a Worship and Ordinances of his own creating for his publique or private Devotion And yet such hath always been the thick darkness of man that he could never see the lye though never so palpable in his right hand When the light shineth we shall all see where we are but in the dark who is it that doth not mistake We are all justifying our selves and condemning one another but who is it that shall be found able to stand before the righteous Judgment of God who is it in whom the true light and life of God is sown and in whom doth it truly spring up and shoot forth Surely if ever there was need of provoking one another to love and good works the season is now proper Religion is grown so outward and hath spread forth into such various forms pleasing it self so much in that dress which it most affects that the inward substantial part viz. the life and power of it is almost lost in the varieties of shapes and shadow The excrescencies of Religion are become so exuberant that the vigor of it is much drawn from the heart I profess I can hardly blame men for growing out of love with Religion both it and the Professors of it being grown so unlike what it and they once were and still pretend to be The worth of Religion consisteth not in a name or profession but in such a life power righteousness and holiness as the spirit of man with all the art and strength of man cannot attain Where this is and appears in truth it will gain esteem in the spirits hearts and consciences of men whereas a name and profession of Religion falling short of the truth and substance of that common righteousness and good-will which is found in man cannot but most deservedly become a reproach Love true love the love of Christ sown and springing up is the life of true Religion which as it is like the love in Christ so it will appear and act like it This love being of a deep intense and most pure nature goeth forth with mighty strength and entireness towards the fountain of life from which it came and towards all the branchings forth of this life into such as are changed and renewed by it nay it extends it self to all men even the greatest enemies blessing them that curse and wishing well to them that use the subjects of it in the most despightful manner nay to all creatures expressing it self in sweetness meekness tenderness pity mercifulness and in what way else soever it can vent it self in doing good to any sorts of things persons or creatures This love in its way of acting according to the pattern to the houshold of faith is in part here described and exposed for the view of such as may stand in need of such an help and shall find hearts to make use of it And now Sirs ye that profess Christianity look to your spirits Watch and keep your garments close about you lest the Lord discover your nakedness and men see your shame Little do ye think what the Lord is in doing This great noise which ye have heard is not for nothing Life is sunk into the root The branches are withered and a purifying fire will not now serve the turn God as he can embrace where it may seem impossible even that which was utterly cast off and lost for ever so he can throw away that which seemeth saved he can cast off that which seemeth united to him in a link of perpetuity God can both rais up from among the stones children unto Abraham causing them to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom and likewise keep out the children of the Kingdom nay thrust them out of that Kingdom whereof they have already possession in part Ye have had the experiment of this already in the Jews take heed of it the second time But ye will say the natural people were but a type or shadow and stood upon other terms then the spiritual seed did and therefore that might very well befall them which cannot befall these This is very true in it self though not true as it is understood and applyed They are not the spiritual seed which account themselves so but those whom God maketh so by the generating vertue of his own Spirit and yet those that are the spiritual seed or rather they in whom the spiritual seed is may fall in their outward station and so lose that life and sweetness which they had in their standing But I shall not at this time dispute the case All that I shall now say to you is Look to your feet Look to your standing Look well to the Rock whereupon ye bottom your Souls and look that ye be well bottomed on that Rock lest either your bottom fail under you or the boisterousness of a wind ye have not yet been acquainted with shake you from it He who is not
drives at concerning them and this is the reason why he begs so much the care and protection of God over them in the foregoing part of the Chapter that they all may at length come to a perfect union in God and in him Indeed the station of Beleevers here is in Christ they are graffed into him planted into him seated in him in him to abide and in him to grow as the branch is in the Vine But this is not the perfect kind of union or at least not perfect in its kind they are not all thus in him nor are any that are but thus in him perfectly in him There is a sweeter a fuller a compleater being and abiding in him which he longeth and prayeth for to fill him to be his fulness to be all to him and suck all from him 3. Nay thirdly This will not serve his turn neither but he must also be in them They must be with him and in him and he with them and in them They must live in his Kingdom in his Spirit within his Life and he must be live dwell in their Spirits in their country Now this is such an union as was never heard of for one to be in that which is in him But Christs love is a strange kind of love and therefore may well produce a strange kind of union even so strange as he that is not acquainted with this love cannot apprehend possible For that to be the continent which is contained to be in that which it doth contain in it self how can this be Yet the Scripture is express for it Joh. 17.23 I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one And again Vers 26. That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them He cannot be satisfied only to have them lie in his heart though that liketh him very well but he must also lie in their heart He must have the same place in them that he giveth them in himself As he prepares a bosom for them so he cannot be content unless he find a bosom in them They must be his house his home his Tabernacle his dwelling yea his resting place as he is theirs I in them No where must they be but in Christ no where will Christ be but in them He can be no where else He can live no where else He can rest no where else He can enjoy himself no where else What Christ is to God we are to Christ we come from him and yet he cannot be without us As we cannot live but in him so he cannot live but in us He doth not reckon his life as life until he come to enjoy us His life doth as it were wither while it is banished from us it lives alone it doth not bring forth fruit nay it doth not enjoy it self But when it cometh to be set up in us then it will be life indeed and then it will live indeed 4. Neither will all this serve but that nothing might draw him from them and he might have full and only content in them he must have all of God all that ever he can need to look after or desire in them As he placeth all that they shall need or can desire of God he placeth all this in himself that they shall not need to seek for any thing out of him So he placeth all that he can desire in them that he may have no temptation to move his eye or spirit any further in the least The fullest enjoyment of God that ever his heart shall meet with he desires to have in them That he may have no cause of stirring out from them to seek any thing of God he will have all of God in them He doth as it were let go God as he himself grew out of him to cleave to God as he that is God groweth up in them This is the great Mystery the Mystery of that spiritual affection which is between Christ and the Church They forsake God to enjoy one another They can delight no where in nothing of God but in one another Ephes 5.31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they two shall be one flesh This is a very mysterious thing That a man should leave that tye and relation which is natural to make up another which is artificial That a man should loosen himself from that which is nearest to him to unite himself to that which is far off from him That a man should leave his own father who begat him and his mother which bare him and go cast all his love upon a wife which was a meer stranger to him Yea saith the Apostle but I speak concerning Christ and the Church This is a great Mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the Church vers 32. There 's a Mystery indeed That Christ should leave his Father as it were that no communion of Christ with his very Father will serve him but in his Church that what ever sweetness God will give him to taste of he must put it into his Church and let him taste it there that he is not satisfied with his Fathers house and presence in any other way of enjoyment but in his Spouse and will leave it every other way but as he can have it and enjoy it in her This is wonderfully mysterious and is a little shadowed out in that common relation between man and wife where we find such a kind of passage as this is And this may be the reason why Christ desireth that the love of God may be in them even that very love wherewith God had loved him Joh. 17.26 That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them I would fain be in them and yet I would lose nothing of thee by it therefore I would have that very love wherewith thou hast loved me be in them that I may find it there As God hath placed all his love in Christ for us and there we come to it So Christ would have God place all his love in us for him that he need not go any further then us for any thing of God Christ knoweth that if he hath the love of God he hath all and that he would have in us because he would constantly and perfectly be centred in us Because he would be fixed there he would have every thing there that his heart can desire and that only is the love wherewith God loved him which he was contented to part with that he might take it up again This is the second thing wherein the strength of Christs love appears His desire of union which being so vast what is the spring which nourisheth it 3. The strength of Christs love appeareth yet further in his readiness to do any thing for them Love is active it is ever in doing for that it loves according to the degree of it Now the greater and
not want of love in us There is life enough in God and were there but love enough in us we could not but draw out and take in enough of it The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord and thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayst live Deut. 30.6 There would be no want of spiritual life in us or of the motions of this life in and towards God were there not a want of love unto him Now loving of the brethren will teach us to love God both because there is that more abundantly in God which we love in them and because in him it is pure without that imperfection which attends and soils it in them If we love the image though so full of spots how can we chuse but love the substance which is without any spots much more He that loveth him which begets loveth that which is begotten and by loving that which is begotten he groweth more and more in love with that which did beget The frequent practise of love towards that which is weak and imperfect will advantage it both in skill and strength towards that which is perfect and compleatly able to receive and answer all the touches of it 2. It will teach them to interpret things well from God This one thing doth us most harm of any thing our harsh interpretations of the good ways of God towards us It is not only very unnatural and unkind in us and most irksom to the heart of God but it is also most prejudicial to us for in a degree so far as it goeth it withdraweth our spirits from the fountain of our life and strength It puts a stop to our spirits in our drawing of that which at that time we most want Now love to the brethren will teach us otherwise for this ever accompanieth love namely a good interpretation of the actions of those we love Let any one tell us of what an ill turn our friend hath done us Surely he did it not saith Love or If he did it it was with no ill intent towards me Though it hath proved ill he intended it wel Love thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13.5 yea vers 7. It beleeveth all things it hopeth all things Though sense and experience say otherwise yet if saith or hope can put a good interpretation upon it it will receive it if it can but find any ground to beleeve otherwise or to hope otherwise it is glad of it and it is a very hard case wherein there is room neither for faith nor hope Love it very incredulous of any ill though God continually found the Jews a lying generation whose heart was not right with him neither were they ever stedfast in his Covenant yet his love made him upon all occasions say and think concerning them Surely they are children that will not lye Isai 63.8 Where we are so apt to surmize or beleeve surmises there must needs be great want of love But how doth this teach us to interpret things well of God Why thus A man that accustometh himself to interpret things well concerning his brother shall find very great benefit in it He shall find himself delivered from many harsh and evil thoughts of his brother which otherwise would attend him He shall find many times how he had wronged his brother if he had judged otherwise and though his brother should prove faulty at length yet it will be time enough to judg it so then Why now hath he not much more cause of interpreting things well from God Cannot a man repent of interpreting things well of his brother and shall he ever repent of interpreting things well of God Besides the practise of this duty towards his brothers will enforce him to observe it in the same degree at least if not further towards his God also Shall a man not dare to beleeve any thing ill of his brother until it evidently appear and shall he judg his God so soon as Satan puts him upon it 3. It will teach them to bear any thing from Gods hand We shall have enough to bear from our brethren and yet love will not refuse to bear be it never so much Love beareth all things 1 Cor. 13.7 We shall never have that to bear from God which we dayly meet with and have reason to expect from our brethren We have ground to expect from them unkind froward injurious actings towards us besides their prejudicial actings to their own Souls which will wound no more then the former if we be spiritual all which we must bear and yet proceed on in every act of love towards them We shall find none of these things in God but only pure wise actings for our good And can a man bear the weaknesses of men and yet grumble at the wisdom of God 4. It will teach a man to look the better to his own heart The observing and helping to cure the evils of other mens hearts will teach us to espy and prevent the evils of our own This is the great benefit which attends the practise of all the duties of love to the brethren namely that what we do but endeavor to do to them we do to our selves insensibly While we are teaching them we are imprinting truths on our own hearts while we are watching over them we are looking to our selves c. So that though others should reap no benefit by our care and pains yet we our selves shall have no cause to repent of it 5. It will make us very feelingly to admire the wonderful strength and vertue of the love of God and that will be a very profitable thing to us for as our stability the certainty of our state is in the love of God by its laying hold of us and comprehending us so our sweetness our rest our content our satisfaction is by beholding it and reposing our selves in it Now the practise of this duty of love to the brethren cannot chuse but very effectually work up the sight and admiration of this in us when we shall continually see so many failings and loathsom things in our selves and in others as this will draw us to do and yet God notwithstanding all these to entirely so fully so constantly so perfectly still loving us all 6. It will make all duties of one towards another easie Love is a quickening ingredient which putteth life into the spirit and maketh every thing light with which we have to do What made Jacobs hard servitude so easie but his love to Rachel What made Christ so lightly trip through those intricate thorny paths through which he passed but his entire love to his Saints The weightiest service of love is easier then the largest liberty in the very kingdom of enmity That which is a great load to a weak back alas what is it to him who abounds with strength Strength of love in the heart will put strength into the feet into the