The True Christian's Love of the Unseen Christ — Section 3

Use 3. For reproof.

1. Of all such as have no love at all to this unseen Christ; and will not the use of Information, together with the use of trial leave a conviction upon many of you that you are without this love? Suffer then the word of reproof; what, are you creatures made by Christ, and made for Christ, and yet have no love to him? Are you rational creatures, have you souls capable of knowing him and loving him, and yet have no love? Are you Christians and not love Christ? Baptized in Christ's Name, and yet have you no love to Christ's person? Are some of you professors, and yet not love Christ? Make a show of devotion, and yet without any true affection to the object of your worship? Sinners though you have not seen Christ, yet have you not heard of him? And have you not heard enough to engage and draw forth your love to Christ. What do you think? Is there such a person as Jesus Christ, or is there not? Have you no Bibles? And if you have, have you not read therein the history concerning Jesus Christ? And what do you think of that history, is it true or is it false? Do you think the Gospel to be a cunningly devised fable? Are not the Scriptures which contain this Gospel, the very word of the true God who cannot lie? Are there not such characters of divinity upon them, as are sufficient to prove their divine origin to any that search into them, and do not willfully shut their eyes against the light which there does shine? And if it be so that there is indeed such a person as Jesus Christ (as there is nothing more true) how is it that you have no love to him? Do not the Scriptures reveal and set forth Christ, as the most excellent and amiable person? And yet do you not love him? Can you love persons and things that are but imperfectly lovely, and not love Jesus Christ who is altogether lovely? Can you love one of great honor that has but some inferior power and authority, and not love Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of Glory, who has all power and authority both in heaven and earth? Can you love such as have wisdom and learning though it be earthly, and not love Jesus Christ who is the wisdom of the Father, who knows all things, and whose wisdom is divine? Can you love such as are liberal and bountiful, and not love Christ whose bounty is superlative, and whose gifts are most rich and transcendent? Can you love friends that are kind, and not love Jesus Christ who is the best friend that ever the children of men had? Can you love a benefactor that feeds you, and clothes you, and gives money to you, and yet not love Christ who offers to feed your hunger-starved souls with the bread of life, to clothe your naked souls with the robes of His Righteousness, and to give the spiritual riches of grace to you, the least dram of which is of more worth than all the riches of the earth? Can you love riches and not love Christ in whom there are treasures, and by whom you may have not only spiritual riches here, but also the heavenly inheritance hereafter? Can you love honors, and not love Christ by whom you may have the highest dignities, the honor of children to the King of Heaven now, and a crown of glory in the other world? Can you love liberty and not love Christ by whom you may be made free from the slavery of the Devil and your own lusts? Can you love safety and not love Christ who is the only Savior of mankind, and who alone puts you in safety from the reach of the worst of enemies, and the worst of evils? Can you love peace and not love Christ by whom you may have peace with God, and peace in your own conscience? Can you love pleasures and delights, and not love Christ by whom you may have joys unspeakable and full of glory, besides those everlasting pleasures which are to come? Without love to Christ you are under the guilt of all your sins; neither your original sin, nor any of your actual sins are pardoned, they all lie upon your own score, and you must answer for all your selves, and how fearful is your account like to be! Without love to Christ you are under the curse, not only under the curse of the Law for your breach of the Law, but also under the curse of the Gospel for disobedience to this command of the Gospel which requires you to love the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 16:22). If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha, that is, let him be cursed, till the Lord come, and when the Lord comes will he take off the curse from you? No, he will come in flaming fire to take vengeance upon you, having threatened then to punish all such with everlasting destruction, as shall be [reconstructed: found] to have disobeyed the Gospel; and what then is like to become of you? Sodom and Gomorrah those wicked cities will then be punished dreadfully, with a worse fire than that which was rained down from heaven, and consumed their persons and habitations together; I mean, with the fire of Hell, which will be kindled and kept alive to eternity by the breath of the Almighty; but you who do not love the Lord Jesus Christ notwithstanding all discoveries of him, invitations to him, and proffers of kindnesses by him, you will be punished more dreadfully than the wicked Sodomites. It will be more tolerable in the day of Judgment for them than for you; the torments of Hell will be intolerable by any, but they will be most intolerable by Gospel-sinners; the fire of Hell will burn upon you the most fiercely, and the scourge of conscience will lash you the most furiously. Consider this all you that have no love to Christ, otherwise when he comes to judgment he will tear you to pieces and there will be none to deliver you: if you have not the sweet fire of love to Christ enkindled in your hearts here, you will be thrown into the dreadful fire of Hell which will burn you everlastingly.

2. This reproves such of you as have some love, but it is very little love to Jesus Christ; you that love Christ, is not your love very small, not only in comparison with the love to you, but also in comparison with the love which some Christians have attained to? How strong was the love of the Apostles to Christ when they left all and followed him — especially after the resurrection of Christ and his Ascension into heaven, when the Holy Ghost was sent down and sat in the likeness of fiery tongues upon them: O! what a fire of love to Christ was there then enkindled within them. Hence that bold profession which they make of Christ before the chief priests and elders (Acts 4). Hence their rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ, when they were beaten for their owning and preaching of him (Acts 5:41). The love of Peter and John was great to Christ, and the love of Paul was not inferior to the love of the chiefest Apostles; hence it was that he took such pains to preach the Gospel in so many parts of the world even from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum (Romans 15:19). See also how he approves himself to be a minister of Christ, and gives evidences of his strong love to his Master (2 Corinthians 11:23-29): "Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft: of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one: three times was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned, three times I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep, in journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren: in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things which are without, that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches; who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended and I burn not?" And (2 Corinthians 12:10): "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake." The ground of all which was the love of Christ which did constrain him (1 Corinthians 5:14). He had such a love to Christ that he professes (Philippians 1:21): "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Christ was his life, and his life was wholly at Christ's devotion.

But where is such love now to be found? I might speak also of the love of some ancient Fathers, Ignatius, Polycarp, Jerome and others: take one instance in Jerome, who thus expresses his love to Christ, If my Father were weeping on his knees before me, my Mother hanging on my neck behind me, my Brethren Sisters and kindred howling on every side, to retain me in a sinful course; I would sling my Mother to the ground, run over my Father, despise all my kindred, and tread them under my feet, that I might run to Christ. How little is your love in comparison with the love of those famous heroes, I mean those eminent Martyrs, who have despised the flames, and endured such racking and torturing deaths, for the love which they have borne to Jesus Christ; the fire of their love burning stronger within them, than the fire without them in which their bodies were consumed? Is not your love also small in comparison with the love of our late Reformers, which fired them with such courage and resolution, as to withstand a whole world of Antichristian fury and opposition? Is your love comparable to that of many eminent divines, and private Christians of our own nation, of the age immediately going before, who are now asleep in their graves; but how few are there come up in their rooms? It is observed, and it is greatly to be lamented, that there is of late years, a great decay in the power of godliness, among those that are sincere; and is it not evident in the great decay of love, even in true Christians to Jesus Christ? Are not you dwarfs in comparison with others? Are not you babes in Christ, and weaklings in your love to Christ? Is it not evident, that you have but little love to Christ, when he is but little in your thoughts and meditations? The thoughts are the handmaids of the love; where the love is strong and ardent, there many thoughts will be attending upon it: but will not your hearts tell you, that your thoughts of Christ are very few? You can think often of your food, but how little do your thoughts [reconstructed: feed] upon Christ, who is the Bread of Life? You can often think of your clothing, but how little do you think of the robes of Christ's righteousness? You can think often of your earthly friends, but how little do you think of Jesus Christ, your friend in heaven? Objects of sense are often not only in your eyes, but also in your thoughts; but how little is Christ entertained in your thoughts, who is the object of faith? Moreover, does it not argue little love to Christ, that you speak so little of him and for him, in your converse one with another? If you had much love to Christ, would not this love breathe forth more in your discourses? You can readily speak of yourselves, and do often either directly or obliquely commend yourselves, which discovers your great self-love; how little do you commend your Lord and Master, and extol his excellencies with your lips? And does not this evidence that you have but little love to him in your hearts? You can readily discourse of news and public occurrences (which is lawful and needful, so that due limits be observed) but when you leave Christ quite out of your discourse, it shows that you have not abundance of love to him, because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. Such as have much love to the world, will speak of their riches; such as have much love to pleasures, will be often speaking of that subject; such as love their friends much, will be often speaking and commending of them, when they are in company; and when you speak but little of Christ, it is a sign that you love him but little. Does not the little zeal which you have for Christ's honor in the world, argue that you have but little love to him? Where is your activity for Christ to promote his interest among those relations and friends, that you have acquaintance with? Do you labor all you can, to bring others into the ways of God, and into acquaintance with Christ? Besides, will not your little secret devotion, argue your little affection to Christ? Will not your closets or other retiring places witness how little you are in secret prayer and converse with Christ there? Brief and straitened prayer in secret, does argue a heart straitened in love to Jesus Christ. Does not your backwardness to the exercise of this love to Christ, show the weakness of your love? How slow of heart are you to the love of Christ? How hard to be persuaded? You need not be persuaded to love your wives, if they be kind and helpful; you need not be persuaded to love your children, if they be pretty and hopeful; you need not be persuaded to love your friends, if they be friendly and faithful: and yet whatever attractions of love, the most strong of any, be in Jesus Christ, you are backward to this love.

Need I say more to convince you, that you have but little love to Christ? Will not your own conscience from these clear evidences sufficiently witness the thing? And now Christians think what a sin, what a shame, what a folly it is, that you should have so little love to Jesus Christ: if it be so great a sin for such as are strangers to Christ, to have no love at all to him, that it brings them under the most dreadful curse; surely it cannot be a small sin, that you (who are his true disciples) should have but little love to him. Is it not very displeasing to the Father, that you should have but little love to his Son? If he does not hate you because of your relation to Christ; yet, is he not angry with you, for the lukewarmness of your affection to Christ? Which sin is aggravated by the nearness of your relation. Is it not dishonorable to Christ, that you should have so little love to him? Don't you in effect say, there is no great worth or amiableness in him, when you have no great love to him? Are you not thereby ungrateful to Christ, beyond what can be paralleled by any ingratitude to the most obliging earthly friend? Is it not your shame, that you should have so little love to Christ, when he does so much deserve your love? Besides the infinite excellencies and perfections which are in his person; does not his infinite kindness to you, call for (not only the truth, but also) the strength of your love? Think what he has done for you; think what he has suffered for you; think what he has purchased for you; think what he has promised to you; think what he has laid out for you; think what he has laid up for you; and yet to have but little love to Christ? Yet to make such poor returns! Moreover, is it not your folly to have but little love to Christ? Don't you thereby bereave yourselves, or debar yourselves of such peace as passes all understanding; of such sweetness and comfort both in the strength of your love, and in the sense of his love, as is inconceivable? Is not injury and mischief to yourselves, the consequent of your little love to Christ? Must you not draw on heavily in the ways of God, as Pharaoh when his chariot-wheels were taken off? Love to Christ is like wheels, in your motion for Christ, and like oil to the wheels, which makes you ready to any good work which he does call you to; but when you have but little love to Christ, you must needs be more slow in your motions, more sluggish in Christ's service; you will not, you cannot take that pains in the work of the Lord, and be so zealous as you might and should be for your Master's glory.

To conclude, if you have but little love to Christ, you will be apt to faint in the day of adversity, to shrink when you are called to take up his cross and suffer for his sake. Lesser sufferings will discompose you, greater sufferings will frighten and amaze you, and you will be in danger of turning fearful apostates in time of great trials. There is need of great love to Christ, as well as great faith, to carry you through sufferings with courage that you may persevere to the end.