Looking Unto Jesus, Book 3 · Chapter 2 · Section 6
SECT. VI. Of loving Jeſus in that reſpect.
6 WE muſt love Jeſus, as carrying on this great work of our Salvation in a way of Covenant. I know Love is reckoned as the firſt and fundamental Paſſion of all the reſt; ſome call it the firſt ſpringing and out-going affection of the Soul; and therefore I might have put it in the firſt place, before Hope or Deſire; but I chuſe rather to place it in this Method, as (me thinks) moſt agreeing (if not to the order of Nature, yet) to the Spiritual workings, as they appear in my Soul. When a Good is propounded' firſt I deſire, and then I hope, and then I believe, and then I love. And ſome deſcribing this ſpiritual love, they tell me, it is an holy diſpoſition of the heart, Dr. Preſton of Love.ariſing from Faith. But to let theſe niceties paſs for a Spiders web (curious, but thin) certain it is that I cannot believe all theſe tranſactions of God, by Chriſt in a Covenant-way for me, but I muſt needs love that God, & love that Chriſt who hath thus firſtly & freely loved my ſoul; go on then O my Soul, put fire to the harth, blow on thy little ſpark, ſet before thee God's Love, and thou canſt not but love; and therein Conſider, 1. The Time. 2. The Properties. 3. The Effects of Gods love. 1. For The Time; He Loved thee before the World was made: haſt thou not heard? and wilt thou ever forget it? were not thoſe ancient Loves from all eternity admirable, aſtoniſhing, raviſhing Loves? 2, He Loved thee in the very beginning of the world: was not the promiſe expreſſed to Adam intended for thee? as thou ſinnedſt in his loins, ſo didſt thou in his loins receive the Promiſe, It ſhall bruiſe thy head: And not long after, when God eſtabliſhed his Covenant with Abraham and his Seed, waſt not thou one of that Seed of Abraham? If ye are Chriſts, Gal. 3.29.then are ye Abrahams Seed, and heirs according to the Promiſe. 3. He loves thee now more eſpecially, not only with a Love of benevolence, as before; but with a love of complacency: not only hath he ſtruck Covenant with Chriſt, with Adam, with Abraham in thy behalf, but particularly and perſonally with thy ſelf; and O what Love is this? If a woman lately conceiving, love her future fruit; how much more doth ſhe love it when it is born and embraced in her Arms? So if God loved thee before thou hadſt a being, yea before the world or any Creature in it had a being, how much more now? O the height, and depth, and length and breadth of this immeaſurable Love! O my Soul, I cannot expreſs the Loves of God in Chriſt to thee; I do but draw the Picture of the Son with a coal, when I endeavour to expreſs Gods love in Chriſt.
2. For the properties of this Love: 1. Gods Love to thee is an eternal Love. He was thinking in his eternity of thee in this manner, At ſuch a time there ſhall be ſuch. Man and ſuch a Woman living on the earth: in the last times ſuch a one (I mean thou that readeſt, if thou believeſt) and to that Soul I will reveal my ſelf, and communicate my loves; to that ſoul I will offer Chriſt, and give it the hand of Chriſt to lay hold on Chriſt; and to that purpoſe now I write down the Name in the Book of Life, and none ſhall be able to blot it out again. Oh eternal Love! Oh the bleſſed tranſactions between the Father and the Son, from all eternity to manifeſt his Love to thy very Soul!
2. Gods love to thee is a choice Love; it is an elective, ſeparating Love: when he paſſed by and left many thouſands,Mal. 1.2, 3. then, even then he ſets his heart on thee: Was not Eſau Jacobs brother? ſaith God, yet I loved Jacob, and hated Eſau. So, wert not thou ſuch an ones Brother, or ſuch an ones Siſter that remained wicked and ungodly? wert not thou of ſuch a Family; whereas many, or ſome are paſſed by, yet God hath loved thee, and pitched his Love on thee: Surely this is choice Love.
Hoſ. 14.4. Deut. 7.7, 8.3. Gods Love to thee is a free Love: I will love them freely, ſaith God, And the Lord did not ſet his Love upon you, and chuſe you, becauſe ye were more in number than any people, — but becauſe the Lord loved you; there can be no other reaſon why the Lord loved thee, but becauſe he loved thee. We uſe to ſay, this is a womans reaſon, I will do it becauſe I will do it; but here we find it is Gods reaſon, though it may ſeem ſtrange arguing; yet Moſes can go no higher, he loved thee, why? becauſe he loved thee.
Gods love to thee is the Love of all relations: look what a friends Love is to a friend, or what a Fathers Love is towards a Child, or what an Husbands Love is towards a Wife; ſuch is Gods Love to thee; thou art his Friend, his Son, his Daughter, his Spouſe; and God is thy All in All.
3. For the Effects of his Love: 1. God ſo Loves thee, as that he hath entered into a Covenant with thee. O what a Love is this? tell me, O my ſoul, is there not an infinite diſparity betwixt God and thee? He is God above, and thou art a Worm below: He is the High and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whoſe Name is Holy: and thou art leſs than the leaſt of all the Mercies of God: O wonder at ſuch a condeſcention! that ſuch a Potter, and ſuch a Former of things ſhould come on terms of bargaining with ſuch clay as is guilty before him! Had we the tongues of Men and Angels, we could never expreſs it!
God ſo loves thee, as that in the Covenant he gives thee all his Promiſes? Indeed what is the Covenant but an accumulation, or heap of Promiſes? As a cluſter of ſtars makes a Conſtellation; ſo as a maſs of promiſes concurreth in the Covenant of Grace; where-ever Chriſt is, cluſters of divine promiſes grow out of him; as the motes, rayes and beames are from the Sun. I ſhall inſtance in ſome few. As, —
1. God in the Covenant gives the world. All is yours, whether Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas or the World, Mat. 6 33.1 Cor. 3.22. Firſt ſeek the Kingdom of God, and his righteouſneſs, and all theſe things ſhall be added unto you. Theſe temporary bleſſings are a part of the Covenant which God hath made to his People; It is he that giveth thee Power to get wealth, that he may eſtabliſh his Covenant which he ſware unto thy Fathers. Others,Deut. 8.18. I know, may have the World, but they have it not by a Covenant-right; it may be thou haſt but a little, a very little of the world; well, but thou haſt it by a Covenant-right, and ſo it is an earneſt of all the reſt.
2. As God in the Covenant gives thee the world, ſo in compariſon of thee and his other Saints, he cares not what becomes of all the world. I loved thee, ſaith God,Iſa. 43.4. therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy Life: If the caſe be ſo, that it cannot be well with thee, but great evils muſt come upon others, kindred, people and nations, I do not ſo much care for them, ſaith God, my heart is on thee, ſo as in Compariſon of thee, I care not what becomes of all the world: O the love of God to his Saints!
3. God in the Covenant pardons thy ſins; this is another fruit of Gods love: Ʋnto him that loved us, and waſhed us from our ſins by his own blood; Rev. 1.5.it coſt him dear to pardon our ſins; even the heart-blood of Chriſt: ſuch were the tranſactions betwixt God and Chriſt: if thou wilt take upon thee to deliver ſouls from ſin (ſaith God to his Son) thou muſt come thy ſelf, and be made a Curſe for their Sin: Well (ſaith Chriſt) thy will be done in it; though I loſe my Life, though it coſt me the beſt blood in my heart, yet let me deliver them from ſin: This exceedingly heightens Chriſts Love, that he ſhould foreſee thy ſin, and that yet he ſhould Love. Many times we ſet our Love on ſome outward unthankful Creatures, and we ſay, could I but have foreſeen this untowardneſs, they ſhould never have had my Love: but now the Lord did foreſee all thy ſins, and all thy ill requitals for love, and yet it did not once hinder his love towards thee, but he puts this in the Covenant, I will forgive their Iniquities, and remember their ſins no more.Ezek. 36.25.
4. God in the Covenant gives thee Holineſs and Sanctification. I will ſprinkle clean water upon you, and ye ſhall be clean from all your filthineſs, and from all your Idols will I cleanſe you: this Holineſs is our excellency in the eyes of Men and Angels: this is the Crown and Diadem upon the heads of Saints: whence David calls them by the name of excellent ones. Holineſs is a Spirit of Glory, 1 Pet. 4.14. it is the delight of God:Pſal. 16.3. 1 Pet. 4.14. as a Father delights himſelf in ſeeing his own Image in his Children, ſo God delights himſelf in the Holineſs of his Saints: God loved them before with a love of benevolence and good-will, but now he loves them with a love of complacency:Pſal. 47.11. Pſal. 149.4. The Lord takes pleaſure in thoſe that fear him; the Lord takes pleaſure in his People. Holineſs is the very Eſſence of God, the Divine Nature of God: O what is this, that God ſhould put his own nature into thee? You are partakers of the Divine Nature. O what a love is this that God ſhould put his own Life into thee? that he ſhould enable thee to live the very ſame life that he himſelf lives? remember that piece of the Covenant, I will put my Law into their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.
5. God in the Covenant gives thee the knowledg of himſelf: it may be thou kneweſt him before: but 'tis another kind of knowledg that God now gives thee than thou hadſt before. When God teaches the Soul to know him, it looks on God with another eye: it ſees now another beauty in God than ever it ſaw before: for all that knowledg that it had before, bred not love: only Covenant-knowledg of God works in the Soul a true Love of God. But how doth this Covenant-knowledg work this Love? I ſhall tell you my own experiences: I go through all the Virtues, Graces and Excellencies that are moſt amiable: and I look in the Scriptures, and there I find them in God alone: if ever I ſaw any excellency in any man, or in any Creature, I think with my ſelf, there is more in God that made that Creature: He that made the Eye, ſhall not he ſee? And ſo he that made that Lovelineſs, is not he Lovely? Now when by theſe Mediums I have preſented God thus lovely to my Soul, then I begin to feel my heart to warm. As when I conceive ſuch an Idea of a man, that he is of ſuch a carriage, behaviour, diſpoſition, that he hath a mind thus, and thus framed, qualified and beautified, why then I love him; ſo when I apprehend the Lord aright, when I obſerve him as he is deſcribed in his Word; when I obſerve his doings, and conſider his workings, and learn from all theſe together a right Idaea, opinion or apprehenſion of him, then my will follows my underſtanding, and my affections follow them both; and I come to love God, and to delight in God. O here's a ſweet knowledg! ſurely it was God's Love in Chriſt to put this bleſſed Article into the Covenant of grace; They ſhall all know me from the leaſt of them unto the greateſt of them, ſaith the Lord.
6. God in the Covenant of grace gives thee his Son.John. 13.6. God ſo loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoſoever believeth in him ſhould not periſh, but have everlaſting life. Nay more, as God hath given thee his Son, ſo he hath given thee himſelf. O my Soul, wouldeſt thou not think it a marvellous love, if God ſhould ſay to thee, Come Soul, I Will give thee all the World for thy Portion; or that I may give thee a teſtimony that I love thee, I will make another world for thy ſake, and I will make thee Emperour of that world alſo. Surely thou wouldſt ſay, God loves me dearly; ay but in that God hath given thee his Son, and given thee himſelf, this is a greater degree of Love. Chriſti…ns! ſtand amazed; Oh what love is this to the Children of men! Oh that we ſhould live to have our ears filled with this ſound from Heaven! I will be a God to thee and to thy Seed after thee, I am the Lord thy God; I will be their God, and they ſhall be my People. O my Soul, where haſt thou been? rouze up, and recollect, and ſet before thee all theſe paſſages of Gods Love in Chriſt; are not theſe ſtrong atractives to gain thy love; what wilt thou do? canſt thou chuſe to love the Lord thy God? ſhall not all this love of God in Chriſt to thee conſtrain thy love? It is the expreſſion of the Apoſtle, The Love of God conſtrains us: 1 Cor. 5.14.God in Chriſt is the very Element of Love, and whither ſhould Love go but to the Element? Air goes to Air, and Earth to Earth, and all the Rivers to the Sea:1 John. 4.16. every Element will to its proper place: Now God is Love, and whither ſhould thy Love be carried, but to this Ocean, or Sea of Love? Come my Beloved (ſaid the Spouſe to Chriſt) let us get up early to the vineyards, Cant 2.12.let us ſee if the Vines flouriſh, whether the tender grapes appear; there will I give thee my Loves: The flouriſhing of the Vine, and the appearing of the tender grapes are the fruits of the graces of God in the Aſſemblies of his Saints; now whereſoever things appear, whether in Aſſemblies, or in ſecret Ordinances, then and there (ſaith the Bride) will I give thee my Loves; when thou comeſt to the Word, Prayer, Meditation, be ſure of this, to give Chriſt thy Love: What? doth Chriſt manifeſt his preſence there? is there any abounding of his graces there? O let thy Love abound: by how much more thou feeleſt Gods Love towards thee, by ſo much more do thou love thy God again: many ſins being forgiven, how ſhouldſt thou but Love much?