Section 12

The 2nd sort of motives to excite your love to Christ may be drawn from the consideration of Christ's love to true Christians. If you are Christians indeed, Christ loves you: 1. with the freest love; 2. with the truest love; 3. with the strongest love; 4. with the surest love.

1. Consider that Christ loves you with the freest love: There are many motives and attractives for your love to Christ, but Christ's love to you is most free; nothing in your selves to draw and engage his love, except deformity and enmity to him, except filthiness which he loathes, and wickedness which his soul hates be motives. There is no man in the world that loves you but he finds or fancies some loveliness in you, something to be a motive to draw his love to you; wit is a motive to some, wealth to others, beauty to some, strength to others, near relation to some, dear love to others, liberality to some, service to others; greatness to some, goodness to others; likeness whether it be in good or evil is a motive to the love of the most. But Christ's first love to you is altogether free; that which is a motive to men and induces their love to you is no motive to incline the love of Christ: the sin which you brought into the world with you, and the many sins which since you came into the world have been committed by you, are enough to shut out all motives of love in Christ, to whom all sin is so odious and abominable. Whatever motive induced Christ to love you, it was not drawn from your selves, but it was drawn from his own bowels. And will not this free love of Christ incline you to love him? Does he love you most freely, and will not you love him most dearly? Did Christ love you without any motive to draw his love? and will not you love Christ in whom there are so many motives to draw your love? Did Christ begin to love, and will not you make a return? Did Christ love you under your deformity, and will not you love him in whom there is such perfect beauty? If you now have any spiritual beauty, it is through the comeliness which Christ has put upon you, but Christ's first love was free, which is matter of the greatest admiration, and should be a motive to the greatest affection.

2. Consider that Christ loves you with the truest love: There is little true love in the world, you have many that truly hate you, few that truly love you: and there is much dissimulation in the pretended love and affection of some; all that flatter you do not truly love you; love in show and outward appearance, in good words and fair speeches is common, but love in deed and in truth, that evidences itself in real offices of love, where there is the greatest need, this is rarely to be found. Job complains (Job 6:15-17): My brethren have dealt deceitfully like a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away; which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid; what time they wax warm they vanish, when it is hot they are consumed out of their place. In the prosperity of Job he had many friends, and their love and friendship did seem to have some strength and consistency, like the ice upon the brook; but when heat of trouble and calamity came upon Job, then the love of his friends did melt and vanish away like ice and snow before the warm beams of the sun. The love of the most is selfish, for their own ends, and therefore when their love is not like to be beneficial, but rather create trouble and prejudice to themselves, it comes to nothing. True Christianity does teach another kind of love, and those that are powerfully religious have a true love, which is ready to show itself most in an adverse estate. But none do or can love you with such a true love as Jesus Christ; there is no flattery or dissimulation in his love, his love is not in the least counterfeit, it is not in the least selfish and for his own ends; he does not love you to receive good from you, but that he might do good to you. He loves you not only in prosperity, but chiefly he does evidence his love in affliction and adversity. He is a present help in the time of trouble, and then does give the most tender demonstrations of his love; he is touched with the feeling of your infirmities when you are tempted, and sympathizes with you in your sorrows when you are afflicted. He shows his love in visiting you under your troubles, in supporting you, in relieving you, and in delivering you. Oh! what love should you have to the Lord Jesus Christ, who loves you with such a true love?

3. Consider that Christ loves you with the strongest love. His love is more strong than death, more ardent than the fire, which has a most vehement flame. The strength of Christ's love to you does show itself in the activity of his love, in his doing for you; and this will appear in three things: 1. In what he has done for you, 2. In what he is doing for you, 3. In what he will do for you.

1. The strength and activity of Christ's love to you does show itself in what Christ has done for you; I shall briefly name some particulars. 1. It was the strong love of Christ which brought him down from heaven for you, to assume your nature — what manner of love was this that God should become man! That Spirit should become flesh, that he who made the world should be born of a mean virgin, and all for your sakes! 2. It was the love of Christ which made him to fulfill all righteousness for you; he yielded perfect obedience to the law both moral and ceremonial, that you might have the benefit of it. It was the love of Christ which made him submit himself to the temptations of the Devil for you, that he, suffering being tempted, might be able to help you when you are tempted. 4. It was the love of Christ which made him endure the contradictions of sinners for you; he bore many affronts, contumelies, envyings and blasphemies of wicked men, that he might give you an example how to carry yourselves under the like circumstances. 5. It was the love of Christ which made him lay down his life for you (John 15:13-14): "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend: you are my friends." That such a person as Christ, so excellent, so innocent, should undergo death, and such a death as that of the cross, so disgraceful, so painful; that he should submit to such ignominy, and endure such agony, such tearings in his flesh, such pressures in his spirit, and that with such resolution and willingness, with such submission and patience, and that for such as you, although now his friends, yet while in a state of nature strangers and enemies — here was love stronger than death! Oh the height! Oh the depth of this love! There are such dimensions in this love of Christ, as the longest line of your most extended thoughts and imaginations can never be able to reach and measure. 6. It was the love of Christ which raised him again from the dead for you (Romans 4:25): "Who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification." 7. It was the love of Christ which carried him up from earth to heaven, where he was before, for you (John 16:7): "Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart I will send him to you."

2. The strength and activity of Christ's love to you does show itself in what he is doing for you. 1. He is interceding for you at the right hand of God (Romans 8:34): "Who is he that condemns? it is Christ that died, yes rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." It is through love that Christ does plead for you in heaven, that your persons may be accepted, your sins pardoned, your prayers answered, and that the Holy Ghost may be sent down to you to teach, sanctify and comfort you. 2. He is preparing a place for you (John 14:2): "In my Father's house there are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you." It is through love that Christ as your forerunner is for you entered into the glorious palace that is above, to take possession of it for you, and to prepare places there for your reception.

3. The strength and activity of Christ's love to you does show itself in what he will do for you. 1. He will keep you in his hand that none shall pluck you from there (John 10:28): They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Because you are received into the arms of his love, therefore you shall be kept by the hand of his power, and therefore you shall never either finally or totally fall away. 2. Christ will make all things work together for your good (Romans 8:28): And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Christ has an endeared love to all you that love God, your love being the fruit of his; and when men and devils conspire together to do you mischief, Christ's love will turn it to your spiritual advantage. 3. Christ will stand by you in trouble and at death (John 14:18): I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. When affliction does arise, especially if it be for his sake and you are bereaved of all outward comforts, Christ will not leave you comfortless; when friends fail, and flesh fails, and heart fails, indeed and life fails, Christ will not fail, but will stand by and strengthen you, and be a light to you in your darkest hours, a stay to your spirits when they are ready to sink within you. 4. After death Christ will take care of your souls; he will not suffer them to wander they know not where, he will not suffer the devil to seize on them as his prey, but he will send his Angels to conduct and convey them into the heavenly paradise, that where he is there they may be also (Luke 16:22): And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom (2 Corinthians 5:8): We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. 5. Christ will raise up your bodies at the last day; if your bodies should be consumed by fire, or drowned in the water, or rot in the earth, whatever becomes of them, the Lord Jesus at his second glorious appearance will find them and raise them, and transform them into the likeness of his most glorious body (John 6:40): And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that every one which sees the Son and believes on him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day (Philippians 3:20-21): For our citizenship is in Heaven, from where we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body. 6. Christ will send forth his Angels to gather you into the society of the elect that have lived in all ages and all parts of the world, and to convey you into his presence, to meet him in the air when he comes to judge the world (Matthew 24:31): And he shall send his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of Heaven to the other (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17): For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. 7. Christ will own you, and crown you, and admit you into the Kingdom of Heaven, which he has prepared for you (Matthew 25:34): Then shall the King say to them on his right hand, Come you blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Here is strong and active love indeed! And shall not the consideration of this love of Christ raise and heighten your love to him? Shall it not provoke and excite you to activity of love, to the lively and most vigorous exercise thereof? Has Christ united himself to your nature? And shall not your hearts be united to his person? Has he fulfilled all righteousness for you? And will not you fulfill his command of love? Has he endured such temptations, contradictions, and sufferings upon your account and given himself to die for you? And will not you give your hearts to him? Has he risen from the dead, and ascended into Heaven for you? And will not your affections arise from the earth and ascend into Heaven, where Jesus Christ is? Does he plead in Heaven with the Father for you? And will not you hearken to his pleadings, by his Word and Spirit with you for your love? Is he preparing a glorious mansion for you in his Father's house? And will not you prepare a place for him and entertain him in the inner room of your chiefest affections? Does and will he keep you in his hand? And will not you embrace him in your bosoms? Will he make all things work together for your good? And will not your affections work towards him? Will he stand by you in trouble and at death? And will not this put life into your love? Will he send his Angels to convey your souls into his presence, when separated from our bodies? And shall not your hearts get to him and lodge with him before? Will he raise up your bodies at the last day? And will not the hopes of this raise up your affections? Shall you be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and will Christ there own and crown you? And will not the believing fore-thoughts of this ravish your hearts with love to Christ, and transport you with unspeakable joy? The strength of Christ's love to you should engage your love for him, not only in the truth of it, but also in the strength of it.

4. Consider that Christ loves you with the surest love. Some friends may love you a while with some kind of strength and ardency, but such differences may arise between you, as shall soon weaken and cool their love, and of friends they shall prove strangers, indeed become enemies to you: or if their love does abide, it is not sure, because they may not abide; if their love does not die while they live, they may soon die, and then their love is at an end: but the love of the Lord Jesus Christ to you is the most sure love. If he begin to love you he will continue to love you; if he love you once he will love you to the end — or rather without end; the love of Christ is not subject to mutations and changes like to ours; if you [reconstructed: fail] in your love, he will not fail in his love, and though you offend him, he is not irreconcilable; he may indeed upon unkindness on your side withdraw the manifestations of his love for a while, but he will never wholly remove his love from you, the love of Christ admits of no changing, knows no ending. Christians, what motives can you find in any person, or any thing in the world which you have seen, comparable to those which you have in this Lord Jesus Christ, though you have never seen him? He is a person most amiable in himself, his greatness, his holiness, his wisdom, his faithfulness, his fullness, his kindness do make him shine with an admirable luster; his relation to the Father, and the love which the Father bears to him, his relation to you, being your shepherd, your captain, your teacher, your advocate, your sovereign, your benefactor, your brother, your husband, your redeemer, all these do commend him to your love, but when matchless beauty and loveliness do meet in a person that does bear matchless love to you, when this most amiable Lord Jesus does love you with such a free love, such a cordial love, such a strong and active love, such a sure and constant love; when his love is incomparable, surpassing all other love, and incomprehensible surpassing all knowledge. O with what activity, ardor and constancy, should you love so suitable an object!