2 Judas was kin to the bag, he was not kin to Christ ; and he in Clement was not his, but his riches', kinsman. Christ hath many such kinsmen. A Christian cares not for anything that hath not aliquid Christi, something of Christ in it. He says with him, Sine Deo omnia copia est egestas, without Christ, all plenty is scarcity. Austin prays : Lord, saith he, whatever thou hast given, take all away ; only, only give me thyself. God gave him himself, and cast in many other mercies, as paper and packthread, into the bargain. — [Confessions. — 6]
' Suetonius : Vespasian, — G.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on earth. 479
loveth/ speaks the spouse's love to be hot and burning towards Christ,' So in Isa. xxvi 8, 9, ' The desire of our souls is towards thee, and to the remembrance of thy name. With my soul have I desired thee in the night, yea, with my spirit within me, will I seek thee early.''' This affectionate, this passionate form of speech, 'Witb my soul have I desired thee,' and that, ' with my spirit within me will I seek thee,' does elegantly set forth the vehement and ardent love of the church to Christ ; so doth that pathetical exclamation of the church, * Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love,' Cant. ii. 5. The betrothed virgin cannot shew more strong and vehement love to her beloved, than by being sick and surprised with love-qualms, when she meets him, when she enjoys him. It was so here with the spouse of Christ. The love of Christ to believers, is a vehement love, an ardent love — witness his leaving his Father's bosom, his putting upon us his royal robes, his bleeding, his dying, &c. And it doth naturally beget vehement and ardent love in all the beloved of God. Where Christ loves, he always begets somewhat like himself. Amor semper habet, quid sui eimile.^ That love that is flat, lukewarm, or cold, will leave a man to freeze a-this side heaven, it will fit him for the warmest place in helL DiA'es's love was very cold, and he found the flames of hell to be very hot. That love that accompanies salvation is full of heat and fire.
(5.) The fifth property. Fifthly, That love that accompanies salva- tion is lasting love, it is permanent love. The objects of it are lasting, the springs and causes of it are lasting, the nature of it is lasting. The primitive Christians loved not their lives unto the death. Rev. xii. 11. Persecutoi-s have taken away the martyrs' lives for Christ, but could never destroy their love to Christ : Eph. vi. 24, ' Grace be with all that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity,' or, ' in in corruption,' as the Greek word signifies ; whereby the apostle gives us to understand, that true love to Christ is not liable to corruption, putrefaction, or decay, but is constant and permanent, lasting, yea, everlasting.*
That love that accompanies salvation is like to the oil in the cruse , and the meal in the barrel, that wasted not ; it is like the apple-tree of Persia, that buddeth, blossometh, and beareth fruit every month ; it is like the lamp in the story, that never went out ; it is like the stone in Thracia, that neither bumeth in the fire, nor sinketh in the water :* Cant. viii. 6, 7, 'Love is stronger than death, many waters cannot quench it, nor the floods cannot drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be contemned.'^ Love will outlive all enemies, temptations, oppositions, afflictions, persecu- tions, dangers, and deaths. Love's motto is .tlulli cedo, 1 jdeld to none. Love is like the sun; the sun beginning to ascend in his circle, never goes back till he comes to the highest degree thereo£
* Anitna est ubi amat, non ubi animat, the soul ia where it loves, not where it lives.
* ^SIpS, in the midst of me. It is an emphatical phrase. 3 Amor non nisi donum amantis. — Gul. Par.
* 1 Cor. xiii. 8. Love never faileth, or as it is in the Greek, oviWan tK^itTu, never falleth away, but shall last for over in heaven ; in which respect the apostle lifts it up above faith, hope, and all the common gifts of the Spirit, in the same chapter.
6 ^TIZl'' T13, contemning, it would be contemned. Omnia vincit amor, love rides in her chariot of triumph over all calamities and miseries, and cries, Victory, victory !
480 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIIL 32-34.
True love abhors apostasy, it ascends to more perfection, and ceases not until, like Elijah's fiery chariot, it hath carried the soul to heaven.
Many men's love to Christ is like the morning dew; it is like Jonah's gourd, that came up in a night and vanished in a night. But that love that accompanies salvation is like Ruth's love, a lasting and an abiding love, Ruth i. It is love that will bed and board with the soul, that will lie down and rise up with the soul, that will to the fire, to the prison, to the grave, to heaven with the soul.
(6.) The sixth property. Sixthly, that love that accompanies salva- tion, is an abounding love, an increasing love. Love in a saint, is like the waters in Noah's time, that rose higher and higher. The very nature of true love is to abound and rise higher and higher. Philip, i. 9, ' This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more.'^
The longer a believer lives, the more eminent and excellent causes of love he sees in Christ. Christ discovers himself gradually to the soul. Now a believer's love to Christ rises answerable to the causes of love that he sees in Christ. The more light the more love. Knowledge and love, like the water and the ice, beget each other.