A Heart to Love the Lord

“Tur Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul,” Deut. xxx. 6. Love is the soul of the new creature; the closure of the soul with God. He that hath most

of God, is most a christian; and he that hath most

of love, hath most of God. God is love.

In the opening of this love to God, we shall consider its object and its act.

I. Its object. ‘The object of divine love is God. God is good, and good is amiable. God is all good: there is none good but one, that is God. God is essentially good, goodness in the abstract; he is infinitely excellent, he is all perfection. In this one attribute all the rest of the attributes of God are included, and this in each of them. However, the scriptures speaking to our capacities, describe God and his glorious attributes, in several and distinct notions; yet in each one all are included; each one is infinite, and infinite perfection is essentially all perfection. God is originally good, the fountain

and pattern of all that moral good which is in the creatures; he is bountiful and gracious, ready to do

them good; and he is the felicitating end, or the blessedness of the soul. The goodness of God to his creatures, according to its different respects to them, hath its different and various appellations. As it is freely bestowed, it is grace; as it respects them as needy, so it is bounty; as in misery, so it is mercy and compassion; as provoking, so it is patience; as it intends their good, so it is love; as it answers both their necessities and capacities, so it’ is all-sufficiency.. All these, his bounty, mercy, compassion, patience, love, all-sufficiency, all these are in one word his goodness, and goodness calls for love. The object of this love is God, particularly, 1. God in himself; 2. God in Christ; 3. God in all the things of God.

1. God in himself, as he is infinitely excellent, (as before,) and so worthy of all love. God is to be loved in himself, and for himself, for his own worthiness; God is good in himself, and therefore to be loved for himself.

2, God in Christ. In whom alone, considering us as sinners, he can be said to be good to us.

There is a four-fold incentive of love : — Percep- * tion — Proportion — Propriety — Possession.

(1.) Perception; or the apprehension or understanding of the object to be loved. We must know before we can love; now God cannot immediately be seen by mortals; he dwelleth in light, but that light is to.us invisible. Christ is the glass, in which this glory may be seen. We cannot see God but through a vail of flesh, in the face of Jesus Christ, 2 Cor. iv..6. “No man hath seen God at any time,

but the only begotten of the Father,” who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him. J ohn i.18.

(2.) Proportion. And there isa double proportion requisite. 1. In respect of quantity, there must be sufficiency; 2. In respect of quality, there must be suitableness. God himself is proportioned to us, consider us as rational creatures, and m our state of innocency; is both a sufficient and a suitable good; but God in Christ only, being considered as lapsed creatures, in a state of sin.; God in Christ, is a God of pity and compassion to us; a God of patience, a God of mercy, with whom is plenteous redemption. A God, pardoning

iniquity, and passing by transgression; loving us in our low estate, loving us and pitying us, loving us and pardoning us, loving us and washing us, loving us and saving us from our sins, and from the’ wrath to come. And such love is the great flame that kindles love; love breaking forth out of a cloud of wrath, and fury, and displeasure; abused love,

‘provoked love, and yet forgiving love; to whom much is forgiven, they will love much.

(3.) Propriety. What is good, good for us, and our own good, that carries our hearts. We must love our own good, because we most love ourselves.

- Our love to God is heightened from our due self- love; there is a sinful self-love; when either we love that for a self, which is not ourself; when we love our flesh and fleshly interest; or when we love

ourselves: inordinately, more’ than God, and God

only for ourselves: and there is a lawful self-love; ’ when we love ourselves, in the Lord, and for the

Lord. And the more we thus’ love ourselves, the

more is the Lord loved by us; and the more he is our

own, the more love he hath. Now in Christ the Lord

is our God. Our own God; even our own God. “O

God, thou art my God, and I will praise thee. Thou art my God, and [ will love thee,” Psa. exviil. 25.

The Lord is God, and we therefore love him; the

‘Lord is good, gracious, merciful, and we therefore

love him, yea, and ought to love him, whether he

be ours or not; but when both imeet, he is God,

- and our God; he is good and our good; gracious,

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tt merciful, all-sufficient, and all this to us: hence is our love made perfect in us.

(4.) Possession. We can love a distant, an absent good; a good that is only possible; there is. love in hope; but by how much the nearer good is to us that is really so, by so much the more attractive and acceptable it is. It is then most in our hearts, when it is most in our hands. Indeed those things which are fancied good; or those things that are finite good; and good over-rated; that are judged better than they are, are loved most at a distance; because when they come to hand, we see aur mistakes. But that which is what it seemed; much more, that which is above our thoughts, beyond our expectations infinite good; by how much the nearer, it is ever the dearer to us. All worldly good is most valued, at least by carnal hearts, at a distance; they promise themselves more contentment in it, than it hath to pay them; their possession is their disappointment. While they lusted, they idolized, they adored; but when they have tasted and eaten, it comes out at their nostrils. Or else they sit down with the shame of the disappointed; they are either surfeited, or hungry still. Is this all? all you can do for me? all the pleasure, and comfort, I shall have of you? is all my expectation of delight and satisfaction come to no more than this? Miserable comforters are you all! possession and fruition is the proof of all things. And vanity proved, is the less loved. But God being an all-sufficient, incomprehensible good; by how much the nearer to us, by how much the more he is ours, by so much the more we prize and love, because now we find (when we have him, we enjoy him) that before, the one half was not told us,

Now in Christ, we have not only a propriety in God, but in some degree a present possession. “He that hath the Son, hath the Father also.” We see his light, we feel his love, we taste of his goodness,

we enjoy his presence, we have God with us, we

have God in us, we have fellowship with him, he dwelleth in us and we in him, and hence we love, and herein we rejoice.;

3. In all the things of God; in his word, ordinances, sabbaths, saints, in graces, duties, in all his ways, the saints love God, and love his word; it is God in the word they love; they love God, and they love ordinances, and sabbaths, and saints: it is God in all these they love; they love the ways, and works, and all the dispensations of God, and it is God in them all they love, they see God in every thing, and they love God wherever they see him. They look on all these things with another eye, and therefore embrace them with another heart than other men. - The saints’ love to the things of God, is their love to God: for it is God in them, as was said, that they love; their love to them is founded either on their participation of God, or relation to God.

Or else you may say they love the things of God, because they are, 1. The offspring; 2 The images; 3. The chariots of God.

(1.) The things of God are the offspring of God; as the saints are born from above, so all the things

of God come down from above, and therefore may

also be called, as the apostle styles them, things above; ‘If ye be risen with Christ, seek those

things that are above, set your affection on things

above,” Col. iii. 1,2. Things above, and the things of God, come all to one; whatsoever is from God and belongs to his heavenly kingdom, is divine and heavenly; and he that loveth him that begets, therefore loveth those which are begotten, and whatsoever proceedeth from him.

(2.) The word and the saints are the images of God, the character and impression of God are upon them, the grace in the saints, and the holy truths in the word, are the very face of Christ, who is full of: grace and truth, and this is their rule, love God, and Jove his image.

(3.) The things of God are the chariots: of God. He that makes the clouds~his chariots, makes also: his word, and his ordinances, and his ministers his: chariots, wherein he rides down imto those lower. parts to give the world a meeting. When ministers: come, and the word comes down, God comes down: in them to visit his people; as it was said of Paul,: so it is true of Apollos, and Cephas, and all the dispensers of the gospel, they are chosen’ vessels toi bear his name, before the sons of men; and as they are the chariots in which God comes down, so are they also the wagons which he hath sent them, to fetch them up to himself. The saints send up their hearts in their duties, their hearts’ in’ their prayers, in their praises unto God. Old Israel’s heart leaped when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent. Oh what love doth the psalmist express to the house and court of the Lord! “Oh how amiable are thy tabernacles! I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go up into the house of the Lord.” He was glad to go thither, because thence he’ hoped to be carried higher, from the mountain to the mansion; from mount Zion here below, to Jerusalem, which is above.

It is the duty and the delight of the saints to be ascending heavenwards; they are dead with Christ, they are risen with Christ; and it is not as they would with them, but when they are ascending up with Christ; they are dead with Christ, by repentance and humiliation; they are risen with Christ, by

faith and sanctification; and they ascend with Christ by love and holy affection: this is their chariot of fire, a chariot within a chariot, that through duties and ordinances rides up in its own flames to the God of love.

Or, if you will, the ordinances of God are our Jacob’s ladder reaching from heaven to earth; by which angels descend, and souls ascend. God comes down and hearts go up, praises go up and blessings come down. Thou hast not proved what an ordinance is, what prayer means, or preaching means, or sacraments mean, who hast not seen God coming down, nor felt thine heart ascending by them; he that hath felt this will say, Here let me dwell, let others be where they will, amongst their flocks, amongst their herds, upon their beds, or at their cups, their pleasures, or in their houses; “It is good for me to be here.”

No wonder, christians, that carnal hearts are such strangers to the word, can so well set out at duties, and can want ordinances; preaching, and praying, and sabbaths, they can spare, and not feel their want; what wonder? What is heaven to earth? What is God to flesh? These chariots would carry them -away from their.gods, carry them out of their own country, into a strange land, where they have neither possession nor acquaintance. But oh! what a sad wonder is it, that saints should go up so often into the chariots, and yet get no nearer home; that they should be still so much on the earth, that have been so often mounted for heaven; that those hearts should still be on the dunghills, whose feet are so often on the mountain of the Lord; that the wagons should be so often sent down, and go up empty; scarce a heart sent up in them; yea, that they should be so far from God, when God is among them. Where is your love, christians? how is it that it is still below? what have you here? your city is above, your home is above, your God, your Jesus, your treasure is above. Oh how is it, that where your treasure is, your hearts are not also? hear from God, and not God with the messenger? send up to heaven your eyes, your hands, your prayers, your complaints, your promises, and still leave your hearts below? send up hearts to heaven, and let them return again down to this earth? remain earth, and flesh, and filth, and vanity, after so much converse or pretence to it, with the holy God of spirits? Lovest thou God, when thou canst so often go where he is, and not care to see him? or if thou meet him, canst let him go without a blessing? or if he bless thee, canst go presently and exchange thy Father’s. blessing for a mess of pottage? canst lose a duty in a dinner, the comforts and revivings of a sermon, of a sacrament, of a sabbath, in an hour’s carnal converse in the world? Did we love our God more, certainly we should be more with him, and to better purpose. His meetings would be more precious, and the fruits of them more lasting. We should neither go away without his blessing, nor throw it away’ when we had got it.

Thus much for the object of love.

II. Itsact. Love isa natural affection. The love of God is the soul’s clasping or closing with the

.A HEAR? TO LOVE THE LORD. 161

Lord. It is the expansion or going out of the heart, in its strength, after God, the uniting or knitting of the soul with God, with a complacency and acqui- “escence in him. There are three things included .in this love. 1. The strength of the heart making out after God. This is that which is commonly called our love of desire, the breathing, or thirsting, or pant-Ing of the heart after God, Psa. xlii. 1. The heart’s -working Godwards with its might; loving him above all :things; desiring him above all things, and that both intensive with the greatest vigour and inten- ‘tion, and adequate as its complete and adequate object. God is its all.“Whom have I in heaven -but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.” 2. The uniting of the soul.with God. Our cleaying to him. By love heart cleaves to heart, soul cleaves to-soul, It is said of Shechem, Gen. xxxiv. 3. that his heart clave unto Dinah. He loved her with his heart, she was gotten into his heart, and there his heart holds her. Barnabas exhorts the ‘church, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord, Acts xi. 23. It,is the knitting of the soul-with God. It is:said, 1 Sam. xviii. 1. hat the soul of Jonathan was knit with:the -soul of * Dayid, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And of Jacob, Gen. xliv 30. to express his tender ‘love to Benjamin, it is said, his life was bound up in |the lad’s life. Of the multitude of believers we read, Acts:iv. 32. that they were all of one heart, and of one soul. Theirlove had knit them up all into one. By love we are one with God, and he with us. It is the soul’s willing of God, as I may so speak, Willing of God to itself, and willing itself and all to God. All praises, all honour, all blessedness to him. Be thou mine, Lord; nothing less, nothing else. Be thou mine, I need no less, I desire no more. Let me be thine, be to thee, be for thee, thy servant, thy sacrifice, or what thou wilt; and let all mine be thine; my heart, and my hand, and my tongue, and my time, and my interest. Let all thine be to thee; thy heavens and thy earth, with every person, with every creature in them. Let every heart, every mouth, every limb, every creature, be a praise to the Lord. Let the Lord live, and blessed be my rock; let the God of my salvation be exalted. Let every knee bow, let every tongue confess unto God. This is our love

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of union, as it is called. And it is the heart, the —

very essence of saving love, wherein are included both our accepting God, and our surrender or resignation of ourselves unto God: and our wishing and willing all glory, dominion, and blessedness to him. And so here also is our love of benevolence. All these may be included in that opening of the heart mentioned Acts xvi. 14. It is there said, that the Lord opened Lydia’s heart. The heart is then savingly opened, when it freely lets out itself upon God, all its streams-run in to the Lord; and when it takes in, and takes down God into the depth of the soul. The heart thus opened to the Lord, when God is come in, will close upon him. Abide with me; thou hast entered upon thy habitation. O let this be thy dwelling for ever. Only this must be further added, that with God it takes in all things of God; his word, his ordinances, his ways, and all his dispensations. With his love, his laws; with his comforts, his counsels; with his counsels, his corrections

with thee, I accept of all that is thine; both thy

J yoke and thy cross, thyself, Lord, thy love, Lord, and what thou wilt with thee.

3. The soul’s taking pleasure, and taking up ite rest in him.. This is called our love of complacency Where we love, there will be a delightful stay of the

mind upon God. The object dwells in the eye; we are still looking where we love. When I awake, I am still with thee; there his thoughts are, of him is his meditation all the day long.

My meditation of him shall be sweet. He that loves, dwelleth in God; ‘‘ I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” And why there? why there his God dwells, and therefore there his soul takes up its dwelling. There is also an acquiescence of the heart in him. ‘“Return unto thy rest, O my soul.” But this is not felt, till love hath obtained, till the soul feels itself to love, and to have what it loves; to love, and to be beloved; to accept, and to be accepted of God. When it comes to this, then I have enough, “Iam my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” And here is the sweetness. of religion, the marrow and fatness of godliness, the pleasure of love. When I love, I can rest; when I can rest, J can rejoice; when I feel myself to love, I know Iam beloved; and then what is there wanting? Where love is a stranger, joy is not known; we can never take comfort in anything, but in that which we love. When take we pleasure in eating, but when we have meat that we love? What is a friend, or a wife, or a child, when we love them not? What is society or communion, where love hath not first made a union? Can two walk together except they be agreed? with little comfort sure; they would be better pleased, were they parted asunder. It is

love that is the pleasure of our lives — It is love that makes heaven sweet, there we shall have our fill of joy, because there we have our fill of love. Heaven would be no heaven, God himself could not be the joy, if he were not :the love of his saints. What bitter draughts will love sweeten! Sin, ana lusts, and all the filth of the flesh, are sweet morsels to carnal ‘hearts; it is meat they love; God is nothing, Christ is nothing to them. What is thy beloved more than other beloveds? religion is a ‘bondage to them, holiness a weariness; not the. labours only, but the joys of the saints are empty ‘and unsavoury things; there are no feasts but love-feasts. Love is both the best dish, and the only sauce to every dish; it is the best dish; he that feeds on divine love will never complain of a short meal: and it is the only sauce for every dish; it is but unsavoury meat that is not seasoned with love; we may a little change the proverb, ‘Love is the best sauce. Be the meat ever so excellent, it will not relish if it be not loved. Love will make any ‘thing relish. When it puts such a sweetness into sin, that even death and hell will go down with carnal hearts for its sake, oh what a feast will love — make of holiness and glory! Get love to Christ, love to religion, and you will never demand, Where — is the blessedness? where is the sweetness?

Love will sweeten both ‘the comforts and the exercises of religion; it will make duties sweet, yea, and sufferings sweet: there are two things that are naturally sweet to love, — To please — To praise.

(1.) He ‘that. loves, will please; and observe ‘whom he loves: how careful are such to watch themselves, that they grieve not their friend! what study does love put them upon, to find out what is grateful and acceptable! acceptable looks, acceptable language, acceptable entertamment; what wilt thou, Lord? what wilt thou have me to be? a servant? a door-keeper? a servant of servants for thee? I will be nothing but what thou wilt, anything that thou wilt have me. What wilt thou have me to do,

Lord? let me know thy will, appoint me my work.

O that my ways were so directed, that I might keep thy statutes. What wilt thou have of me? wilt thou have mine idols, mine ease, or my honour, or my - pleasure, or my house, or my estate? wilt thou have mine Isaacs? is there anything dearer to me than another, that might be an offering to the Lord? wilt thou have my liberty or my life? Behold all is at thy feet; I can keep back nothing thou callest for. Hence love is said to be the fulfilling of the law; there is in this good will, radically every good work. - It would walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work. Love is generous, it would do great things, noble things; what shall I do for him whom my soul honours? O for a gift that might be worthy of him! but I have nothing, my goodness extendeth not to thee; it would - give more than it owes; but where it cannot do so, where it cannot be generous, yet it would be just; it would level all accounts, and pay all debts; love would have nothing but love owing. It would give to all their due; it would not die in the debt of a servant, of a stranger, much less (could it help it) would it take away from the God of glory. That is the daily charge of love, Pay what thou owest. Its receipts and returns are a pleasure to it; anything that comes down from heaven, and every present it has to send thither, is a joy to love. This is the message that both speak, Happy soul, thou lovest, and art beloved. It catches at all opportunities to send up messages of love, and knoweth no fitter messenger to send by, than by the hand of duty: every duty is dispatched with this superscription, The tribute of love.

Love is the spring that sets all our wheels a going, the womb in which all our works are formed; the fire in the heart, that vents itself in our words and ways. “The fire kindled, then spake I with my tongue.” Love is toa saint what malice is to Satan; that which gives force to all his actings. Satan’s temptations are called fiery darts, and this, not only because they are headed and barbed with fire; as poisoned arrows, they burn where they hit; they set sin on fire, they set the soul on fire, burning with lust and wickedness; but because they are winged with. fire, and forced with fire; the bullet is fired out of the gun, and thence it flies so fiercely. It is the malice of Satan’s heart, that fires out all his darts. What malice doth with Satan, that doth love with saints. It-sets the heart ina flame of holy zeal and activity for God; ‘Thy word was in me as fire, (it hath ‘kindled a fire there,) I was weary with forbearing,” Jer. xx. 9, A heart of love is weary, not of action, but of idleness: weary with forbearing, not with doing; never weary of doing much, ever weary of doing nothing. ‘O God, my heart is fixed, my heart is fixed,” saith the psalmist, “I will sing and give thanks.” Love will add, O God, my heart is fixed, my heart is fixed; there is a flame kindled; my heart burneth in holy desires and zeal for thee; and where love hath set the heart a burning, the heart will set the hand a working, and the feet a running.

(2.) He that loves, will praise him whom he loves.

‘Praise is comely, and praise is a pleasure to the upright in heart. It is the delight of love,to be speaking — of the perfections, of the virtues, of the beauties, of the excellences of her beloved. The spouse in the book of Canticles, whose whole language is all love,. her heart is so full, that her lips overflow with the mention of the excellences: of Christ: “My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten

thousand.” His head is fine gold, his eyes dove’s eyes, his cheeks a bed of spices, his lips are lilies, his hands are gold rings, his legs pillars of marble, his countenance excellent, his mouth sweet ;~ yea, he is altogether lovely; this is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem, Cant. v. ‘ Who is a God like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful - - in praises, doing wonders? Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God. Thy ’ mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, thy faithfulness reacheth into the clouds. Thy righteousness is like

the great mountains, thy judgments area great deep. How excellent is thy loving kindness, O Lord!

therefore the sons of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works. The Lord is gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger, and of greatmercy. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. Let all thy works praise thee, O Lord; let the saints bless thee; let them speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; let them abundantly utter the memory of thy goodness, and sing of thy Yighteousness.” O’ my God, thou art all love, all good-

ness, all grace, all glory. Olet thy servant be all praise’ - Let this heart be an altar, and every service a sacrifice; Tet this mouth be a trumpet, and every word a psalm; Yet my breath be as incense, and every member a censer. Let all that is within me, my soul, with all 168 A HEART TO LOVE THE LORD a

its powers; let all that is without me, my body, with all its members, shout for joy, and sing forth the high praises of God. This is the voice of love.

‘And now you have another excellency of the new heart Jaid open to your view; love: a heart to love.

Christians, prize this precious grace, prize it, and you will write down this word also, among the great and precious promises; and if you would prize it aright, take your estimate of it from its worth, and its want; as we use to prize jewels from their excellency and rarity.

[1.] Prize it according to its worth and excellency. Why, what is the worth? ‘“If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be contemned,” Cant. viii. 7. The whole world is not of that value, to be a price for love; no, it must come by gift, it is not to be bought for money; love is worth as much as a soul, and that is more than all the world. “What shall it profit-a man to win the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Love is as much worth as all religion; it is the soul and the substance of all religion; all the graces, the duties and exercises of it, are only valued according to the love that is in them. What is knowledge, faith, hope, patience, without love? what is prayer, fasting, alms, without charity? They are worth nothing, shall I say? nay, they are nothing; if I had all

knowledge, and all faith, and were all prayer, and —

all labour, and all suffering, and had not charity I were nothing. Love is worth as much as heaven is worth, as Christ, as God is worth to us. God is love, and God is not, if love be not in us. — Dost thou prize thy substance? Is thy house, or thy money, or thy lands, any thing to thee? Dost thou value thy soul? Is religion, is heaven, is Christ, is

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A HEART TO LOVE ‘THE LORD. ‘169°

God himself, of any account to thee? Then prize

the love of God. - Without love, God is no God to

thee, Christ is no Christ to thee, heaven is no hea-

- ven for thee; better thou hadst no soul, no being, - than no love. O prize the love of God, prize and

seek, prize and pray; pray as for thy life, as for thy soul, as for thine everlasting kingdom; Lord, let me love thee. Get love, and get all; love, and thou wilt be holy; love, and thou wilt be humble; love, and

thou wilt be fruitful; love, and thou wilt please,

praise, and enjoy thy God; love, and thou wilt fear, serve, suffer and die for him; love, and thou shalt live. Prize love, prize it according to its worth. And, [2.] Prize it according to its rarity. Things excellent are rated something the more for their scarcity; scarcity raises the market; the word of God was precious in those days, 1 Sam. iii. 1. that is, when there was a famine of the word, when there was no open vision. O were the love of God as precious as it is rare! What a spiritless carcass is the religion of many professors! what has become of the soul of it? Oh! we freeze in our duties, we freeze in our devotions, we are almost frozen out of them all; if we have a sacrifice left, what fire is there to offer it up? ‘“‘The God that answereth by fire, let him be God,” saith Elijah; the heart that asketh by fire, that ascendeth in fire, let that be the heart for God: ‘ Behold the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice 7” We may say, Behold the wood and the sacrifice, but where is the fire to offer it up? our spirits have taken a cold, the chill of them appears in all our duties: Rabbi, where dwellest thou? Love, where dwellest thou? Zeal of God, where is thy abode? how many houses must we search! how many hearts P must we walk through, ere we we find thy habitation! The apostle tells the Romans, “That they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge,” Rom. x. 2. We have the knowledge of God, but, oh! where is the zeal? “The zeal of thine house,” saith the psalmist, “hath eaten me up;” but is not that eater eaten? The house hath burnt up. the

fire, or if there be any fire left, is it not strange:

fire? not the fire of love, but of lust, of pride, or covetousness, or that wild-fire of envy and contention that heats our spirits? Jehu was also on fire against the house of Ahab; ‘‘ Come, see my zeal for the Lord of hosts.” That fire was fury, not love; or if it was love, it was self-love; not the love of God that made all that flame; such hearts are like the evil tongue, “Set on fire of hell,” Jam. iii. 6. Such heats are not from above, but are earthly, sensual, devilish; we freeze still, while we thus fry; our preternatural heats have extinguished the supernatural. Oh!’ how little kindly warmth do we find in our spirits! do we feel our hearts working upwards, ascendingin our flames? We all pretend to love, but consider, are our hearts making out in their strength after God? We wish well to his name and interest, we wish he were ours; we wish ourselves his: O! if wishing were loving, what christians should we be! But doth the kingdom of God suffer violence? Who are they that so run, as if they would take God

by force, take heaven by force? The kingdom of

heaven may offer violence if it will, and take us by force; but how little violence doth it suffer! We say, we love God; but is there not something else we love more? We desire to be holy, but is there not something else we desire more?

Oh how few hearty friends hath Christ in the

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A HEART TO LOVE THE LORD. AE

world! and how little love from these few! so little, that we cannot tell ourselves whether it be any thing or nothing; how hard are we put to it! What ‘a marrow search must we make! how many argu

ments must we consult! how many marks must we

consider, ere we can prove we love him! :and yet at Jast are still in doubt whether we love him or not.

When we love our carnal friends, our wives, our children, we can feel that we love them; when we ‘love our ease, or our.estates, or our liberties, we can feel that we love them; but.our-God, we cannot tell whether we love him or not. How few of us can boldly make our appeal to him; ‘‘ Lord, thou knowest that I love thee!”

Oh how many wounds doth Christ receive in the ‘house of his friends! how many slights must he put up with !| how often when he hath sat down in his own (in the highest) room, have we said to him, Give this

‘man place, give this friend, or this business place,

and so made him take the lower room!

How hath he, when he hath come to our doors, (his love hath often brought him thither,) how often hath he stood, and knocked, and called; “Open to me, my love, mysister;”’ and there been made to ‘stand and wait, when strangers have been gotten in, and taken up all’the rooms! The:world ‘can never gome out of season, but Christ is fain to wait his sea-

‘sons, when he can find us at leisure; if there be any other guest with us,our Lord must wait; “Go thy

way for this time, when I have a convenient season I will send for thee.” How often have we agreed

and appointed to meet the Lord at:such an hour, in

our chamber, in our closet, to have converse and

communion with him in duty, and if any thing come

in to carry us another way,’then presently, “I pray P2 thee have me excused!’ or, if we do keep our time, and shut in ourselves with the Lord, and sit down to duty, what a multitude of thoughts presently fall a knocking at our doors! and away our hearts go presently with them to the ends of the earth, and leave nothing but our carcasses behind with the Lord. O were our love stronger, our cries would be louder, and would drown. the noise of these knockings, that they would not be heard nor heeded, it would command silence to every impertinent thought. I charge you, O daughters, that you stir -not, that you disturb not my beloved, and my soul; more love would command their attendance upon the work of the Lord, would gird up the loins of the mind, and gather in all its scattered messengers. Come, all ye powers of my soul, come and do your homage, come and help in the service of my God. Oh! at what distance are we content to live from the Lord, sometimes for many days together! Our souls and our God are grown strange, and yet we can be merry and quiet; we can be without the presence of God, and yet never miss it; not a smile from his face, nor a look of love from us to him, and yet no trouble follows. The sun may be eclipsed, or under a cloud, and yet no darkness upon our spirits; we do not walk in darkness when we have no light; sorrow and sadness is as far from us, as God is from us; we can warm ourselves at our own fires, and rejoice in the light of our own sparks, as if these were the sun. We can do as well in a mist, as in the sunshine; day and night are both alike to us. The children of the bride chamber do not fast, but can feast and make merry when the bridegroom is taken from them; their carnal contentments they can make a shift with, to supply the room of their Lord.

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Can we not sometimes go where our Lord feeds, and -hever’find him? Go to pray, or go to hear, or go

‘to a sacrament, and the Lord never meet us there,

and yet can return well enough satisfied? When

-we thus want communion with ‘God, and can want it; where is our love? what love is that which can

“so well bear the absence of her beloved? Call me

no more Naomi, pleasant, but call me Marah, bitter; “IT went out full, but I return empty:” Full of grace, full of joy, because full of the Lord, but behold all is gone, my husband is lost, my God ‘is departed

‘from me. Call me no more ‘Naomi, but call me

Marah, for the Almighty hath dealt bitterly with me, ‘hath hid his face from me; for these things I weep;

mine. eyes,’mine eyes run down with tears, ‘because

it he Comforter that should relieve my soul is far from ‘me; such are the tears of love for her absent Lord.

Oh how ‘little conscience is there made of bestowing that on the ‘Lord, which we have bestowed on him! We give and take; we pretend to have given all to God, but are we not often taking away what ‘we have given, and bestowing it elsewhere? Love would have all we have, running into God, and would have nothing run besides; but, oh, what waste is

‘there made of our time, of our parts, and ‘other

talents, which, were they well husbanded, would come

‘to much, and be given to the Lord! When so

many days and hours run out, and/no account taken

- -of them, on what, or on whom they are consumed; “when our eyes, and our ears, and hands, and tongues, which were:made for God, ‘the devil and lust must ‘so often have’the using of them; when ‘back, and

belly, and friends, and companions, must carry away

‘what should be spent on God and souls; when

what should be allowed for religion, and charity to have the spending of, must be at the disposal of pride, prodigality, and gluttony; when our prayers, our fasting, our preaching and hearing, all our duties, must become sacrifices to our lust, our idols are suffered to devour the sacrifices of the Lord; when our pride and fleshly ends must have the offering, and eating of our sacrifices, this must make our prayers, and preach our sermons, and keep our fasts, and give our alms, and wear the credit and honour of them as its own crown; when God is thus robbed, and we let the thief run away with all, and is never pursued or questioned: oh! where is our love?

Oh! how little pleasure do we take in the Lord! What a weariness is it to us to wait upon him! how glad are we when we come back from the house of

‘the Lord! When we come off our knees, come out of our closets! When the sabbaths are gone, and the new moons are over, and we make our returns from heaven to earth! how much work have we to keep our hearts near the Lord! how do they slink away ere we are aware! and whilst we are in his presence, how seldom do we rejoice in his presence! What hungry meals, what jejune feasts do we make before the Lord! We relish not his dainties; his wine is but lees, his marrow and his fat things are but leanness to our souls; a little love would sweeten every drop, would season every morsel that comes from his table; would make our very fasts to be pleasant bread. We feed upon the dish or the trencher, and not the meat; on the bone, and not the marrow; ordinances, and the external exercises of religion, are but the bone, or the shell, or the dish, it is God that is the kernel, the marrow, and fatness. How little communion have we with the Lord, in

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our approaches to him! and how little sweetness do we find in the little we have! Communion is the pleasure of love, and love is the sweetness of communion. Now I am where I would be. Oh! how

- amiable are thy tabernacles! Very pleasant art thou

to me, O Lord; that is the voice of love. Had we more love, we should be more spiritual; and spiritual things would be more grateful to spiritual hearts. Divine love is like the fire, it rarifies and changes

hearts into its own likeness, and then there is sweetness. Oh, we are carnal, and that is enough to evidence that there is little of the love of God abiding in us.

Consider these things, and you will see that love is a rarity, there is but little true love in the world. O ‘prize the love of God, let its want make it prized; shall it be so rare, and yet so cheap? prize it, and press on after it.

What do these hearts below? are they not still below? so cold, such clods of clay, and yet above? so carnal, so sensual, and yet in heaven? so hungry, and so greedy in sucking the juice of this earth, in taking in its pleasures; so busy in digging out the wealth of the earth, and searching for its treasures, hearts so busy this way, and yet not here? how canst thou say, I am walking with the God or glory, when thou art still worshipping the gods of the earth? How canst thou say, This heart is risen, it is not here; when it may be said to thee, ‘ Behold the place where it lies?” it is still in the field, in the ridges and furrows thereof; it is still in the mines, in the heart of the earth; see the place where it lies. We sow our hearts with our seed; we send them down to dig in the heart of the earth.

But what do these hearts below? Get you up, get you up; leave nothing but the mantle here, your carcasses; earth to earth, dust to dust. Come, heave these souls heavenward; let them take the wing and be gone, O that I had the wings of a dove, that I might fly up, and be at rest; be lower than ever by humility, but let love be on high. ‘

Behold those cords of love, that are let down in every ordinance, in every providence; there is a — cord let down to gather up hearts; hearken to those -calls of love, come up hither, come up hither. We come, Lord, thou bidst us come, O lend us thy hand, and lift us up.

Come on, christians; come, let us be happy; ‘if we love, we are happy: come, let us rejoice, if we love -we joy: come, let us live; we die, we die, while we linger on this earth; if we love we live; let us live, and let our life be love; let our works be labours of love, our sufferings seals of love, our sorrows the sorrows of love, our wounds love’s scars, our. prayers the cries of love, our praises love songs to our Lord and’God. Let every duty, every exercise, let every member, every power, let our bodies, let our souls be ‘love’s sacrifices; as we see in all his, so let the Lord see love in all our ways.

Canst thou not love? look till thou canst; look up to thy God, send up thy thoughts thither; let thy meditations be of him; ‘these will not be long before the throne ere they fetch up’thy heart. Look on thy Jesus, behold his hands and his feet, come and put thy finger into the print of the nails, and thrust thy heart into his side, and there let it lie till thou feel it warm. Look up to thy Jesus, lift up a prayer, Lord let me love thee; if thou lovest, let me love thee; I will seek, till I can see; let me see, till I can love. What have I here, Lord? My all is with

thee, my help, my hope, my treasure, my life is hid with Christ in God. And yet behold, this all is nothing to me, while my heart is no more with

thee; take it, Lord, take it up; where my treasure is,

there let my heart be also.

Doubting christian, who because thou lovest so little, fearest thou lovest not at all; cry for more, but be thankful for what thou hast; be ashamed

’ thou lovest no more, but be not dismayed; thou complainest thou canst not love God, but dost thou love. his’image, his saints, -his word, his works, his ways? Whilst thou sayest thou lovest not God, dost thou love godliness? If thou canst not love, canst thou grieve, canst thou lament after him? Hast thou chosen? dost thou hang upon, trust in the Lord? If thou canst not love, canst thou fear and follow the Lord? If he be not sensibly in thy affection, is he

in thy thoughts, in thy mouth, in thineeye? Is he

thine aim and thy scope? Doth thy course bend towards him? Comfort thy heart in these things; thou mayest see, though thou canst not feel thou lovest.