Use 3. It is caution. If peace be a privilege of the gospel, let us
72 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 2.
take care that we settle upon a riglit peace, lest we mistake a judgment for a blessing. It is the greatest judgment that can be, to be given up to our own secure presumptions, and to be lulled asleep with a false peace. When the pulse doth not beat, the body is in a dangerous estate ; so when conscience is benumbed, and smiteth not, it is very sad. The grounds of a false and carnal peace are — (1.) Ignorance of our condition. Many go hoodwinked to hell ; a little light breaking in would trouble all, Rom. vii. 9. Sluttish corners are not seen in the dark. Things are naught that cannot brook a trial ;^ so you may know that it is very bad with men when they ' will not come to the light,' John iii. 20, or cannot endure to be alone, lest conscience should return upon itself, and they be forced to look inward ; their confidence is supported by mere ignorance. (2.) Sensuality. Some men's lives are nothing else but a diversion from one pleasure to another, that they may put off that which they cannot put away ; there is bondage in their consciences, and they are loath to take notice of it : Amos vi. 3, ' They drink wine in bowls, and put far away the evil day.' This is to ' quench the spirit ' without a metaphor. All their pleasures are but ' stolen waters, and bread eaten in secret ; ' frisks of mirth when they can. get conscience asleep. Cain's heart was a trouble to him, therefore he falleth a-building of cities. Saul, to cure the evil spirit, ran to his music ; and so usually men choke conscience either with business or pleasures. (3.) From formality and slightness in the spiritual life. First, either they do not seriously perform duty ; that w^ill make men see what carnal, unsavoury, sapless spirits they have. He that never stirreth doth not feel the lameness of his joints. Formal duties make men the more secure ; as the Pharisee thought himself in a good case, because, &c., Luke xviii. 11 ; but spiritual duties search us to the purpose, as new wine doth old bottles. Or else, secondly, they do not exasperate their lusts, and seriously resist sin. Tumult is made by opposition. When a man yieldeth to Satan, no wonder that Satan lets him alone : Luke xi. 21, ' The goods are in peace,' because the devil's possession is not disturbed ; he rageth most when his king- dom is tottering, Rev. xii. 12. Please the worst natures, and they will not trouble you. There is no tempest where wind and tide go together. You let Satan alone, and he lets you alone ; this is a peace that will end in trouble.
I now come to speak of the third thing prayed for, and that is love, which, being taken here, not for God's love to us, but our love to God, may be thus defined : — It is a gracious and holy affection, which the soul, upon the apprehension of God's love in Christ, re- turneth back to God again by his own grace. The grounds and causes of it are two ; the one worketh by way of argument and suasion, the other by way of efficacy and power.
1. It ariseth from the sense and apprehensions of God's love in Christ. Love is like a diamond, that is not wrought upon but by its own dust: 1 John iv. 19, 'We love him, because he loved us first,' Love is like an echo, it returneth what it receiveth ; it is a reflex, a reverberation, or a casting back of God's beam and flame upon himself. The cold wall sendeth back no reflex of heat till the sun shine upon
^ ' Iniqua lex est quae se exquinari non patitur.' — Tertul. Apol,
VeR. 2.] UFON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 73
it, and warm it first ; so neither do we love God till the soul be first filled with a sense of his love. And as radius reflejsiis languet, rays in their reflection are more faint and cold, so our love to God is much weaker than God's love to us. Valdesso saith, God loveth the lowest saint more than the highest angel loveth God. Once more, the more direct the stroke and beam is upon the wall, or any other solid body, the stronger always is the reflection ; so the more sense we have of the love of God, the stronger is our love to him.
2. The next cause of love is the grace of God. There is not only an apprehension of love, but the force of the sjiirit goeth along with it. Our thoughts, our discourses upon the love of God to us in Christ, nay, our sense and feeling of it, is not enough to beget this jrrace in us. Love is a pure flame, that must be kindled from above, as the vestal fire by a sunbeam : 1 John iv. 7, ' Love is of God ; ' that is, of a celestial or heavenly original. There is in the soul naturally a hatred of God, Eom. i. 30, deoarvyeU, and a proneness to mingle with present com- forts, which can only be cured by the Spirit of grace. Our naked apprehensions will not break the force of natural enmity ; and it is God that must cu'cumcise and pare away the foreskin of the heart before we can love him, Deut. xxx. 6. There is a natural proneness to dote upon the creature and hate the Creator. Base creatures neglect God, and pollute themselves with one another ; and there is no help for it till the heart be overpowered by grace. Thus for the causes of love.