beating, it will still be workiDg and running out to the person beloved. True love will not fawn upon a Christian when high, and frown upon him when low ; it will not kiss him upon the throne and kick him upon the dunghill. The grounds and causes of their love are constant, viz., God's commands, their spiritual relations, and the truth of grace in their souls ; and therefore their love cannot but be constant. ' A friend,' saith Solomon, ' loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity,' Prov. vii. 17. Euripides hit it when he said, ' That a faithful friend in ad- versity, is better than a calm sea to a weather-beaten mariner.'^ He that truly loves, will love in adversity as well as in prosperity, in storms as well as in calms, in winter nights as well as in summer days. He that sincerely loves the saints, he will love them as well when men frown upon them, as when they «mile upon them ; as well when men strike them, as when they stroke them ; as well when men cast them down, as when they lift them up ; as well when men cry, ' Crucify them, crucify them,' as when they cry, ' Hosanna, hosanna,' to them. Consalvus, a Spanish bishop and inquisitor, wondered how the Christians had that command- ment, ' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,' so indehbly printed in their hearts, that no torture could blot it out, and make them confess and betray one another, or cease from loving one another. I have read of one [in Jerome] Ursinus, a Christian physician, who being to suffer martyrdom for the gospel of Christ, began to waver and faint; which, when Vitahs, a holy man, saw, he stepped to him, and though he knew it would cost him his hfe, yet he thus comforted and encouraged him, saying, What ! have ye been heretofore so industrious to preserve men's bodies, and will you now shrink at the saving of your own soul ? Be courageous, fear not, &c. For which faithful counsel, he also was con- demned to death, and suffered accordingly. A true friend is neither known in prosperity, nor hid in adversity. True love is like that of Ruth's to Naomi, that of Jonathan's to David, permanent and constant. Many there be whose love to the saints is Hke Job's brooks, which in the winter, when men have no need of them, overflows with tenders of service and shows of love ; but when the season is hot and dry, and the poor thirsty traveller stands in most need of water to refresh him, then the brooks are quite dried up. They are like the swallow, that will stay by you in the summer of prosperity, but fly from you in the winter of adversity. It is observed by Josephus of the Samaritans, that when- ever the Jews' affairs prospered, they would be their friends, and profess much love to them ; yea, they would vaunt of their alliance, saying, that they were near akin, and of the race of Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph. But when the Jews were in trouble and affliction, and brought to an under, then they would not own them, nor have any thing to do with them ; yea, then they would set themselves with all their might against them, as the same historian tells us.^ This age is full of such Samaritans ; yet certainly, such as truly love, they will al- ways love ; such as truly love the people of God, they will love them to the end. In the primitive times it was very much taken notice of by
' Christian friendship makes such a knot, that great Alexander cannot cut, &c, [Allusion to the Gordian knot. — G.]
* Joseph Antiq. lib. xi. (Ois) lib. xii., lib. xiii. {lis). [Cf. Sibbes, vol. iii. pp. 536, 537, note eeee. — G.]
380 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. II.
the very heathen, that in the depth of misery, when fathers and mothers forsook their children, Christians, otherwise strangers, stuck close one to another. Their love of religion and one of another, proved firmer than that of nature. They seem to take away the sun out of the world, said the orator,^ who take away friendship from the life of man ; for we do not more need fire and water than constant friendship. Though wicked men may pretend great love to the saints, yet their love is not constant. God sometimes indeed overrules their spirits with a very strong hand, as he did Laban's and Esau's, or as he overruled the spirits of the lions to preserve Daniel ; and of the ravens to feed Elijah, Gen. xxxi. 24, 29, xxxiii. 1-5 ; Dan. vi. ; but so soon as that overruling pro- vidence is over, they are as they were before. God for a time gave the Israelites favour in the eyes of the Egyptians, but before and after they were their utter enemies. But now a gracious soul, he loves the saints at all times, his love to them is constant. But,
[14.] Fourteenthly, That soul that dares not say that he has grace, yet can truly say before the Lord, that he prizes the least dram of grace above ten thousand thousand iwrlds, certainly that soul has true grace in him. Doubtless there are none that can prize grace in their understandings and judgments above all the world, but such as are first taken out of the world by grace, Micah vi. 6, 7 ; Philip: iii. 18, 19; Mat. xix. 16-25 ; Ps. ii. 21. There is no man on earth vt^hose heart is void and empty of grace, but sets a higher value and price upon his lusts, or upon his relations, or upon his honours, or riches, or pleasures, or upon this or that worldly enjoyment, than he does upon grace, or the fountain of grace ; yea, how many thousands are there that set a higher price or value upon a hound, a hawk, a horse, a harlot, a good trade, a fair estate, a rich inheritance, yea, upon the very toys and trifles of this world, than they do upon God, or Christ, or grace ! It was never yet known in the world, that ever God sent such a man to hell, who prized grace above heaven itself, who had rather have grace and holiness with- out heaven, than heaven itself without grace and holiness.