^ ' Eadem velle et nolle, ea demum vera est amicitia. ' — Sallust.
86 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 2.
and the love of the world nphvaid you with your love to God, as if you were a fool to stand so nicely upon terms of conscience, &c., when they encroach and allow Christ no room but in the conscience, it is time to thrust them out of doors, that the Lord alone may have the pre- eminence in our souls.
2. This love must be demonstrated by solid effects, such as are : —
[1.] A hatred of sin : Ps. xcvii. 10, ' Ye that love the Lord, hate evil' With love to the chief est good, there will be a hatred of the chiefest evil. Friends have common loves, as I said, and common aversations. Upon every carnal motion doth thy heart recoil upon thee, and say, ' How can I do this wickedness, and sin against God ? ' Gen. xxxix. 9 ; or else, ' Is this thy kindness to thy friend ? ' or ' after such a deliverance as this,' &c., Ezra ix. 13. Love to God will be in- terposing and crossing every carnal motion.
[2.] 13y a delight in obedience : 1 John v. 3, ' This is love, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.' Nothing is difficult and tedious to him that hath any affection to his work. As the prophet cured the bitterness of the wild gourds by casting in meal, so mingle but a little love with your work, and the l)itterness is gone. Shechem yielded to be circumcised for Dinah's sake, because he loved her ; and Jacob endured his seven years' service for Eachel's sake: so will love make us obey God cheerfully in things contrary to our natural inclination. Love and labour are often coupled in scripture, 1 Thes. i. 3 ; Heb. vi. 10 ; and those that left their first works had lost their first love, Rev. ii, 4, 5.
[3.] Delight in God's presence, and grief for his absence; or a holy sensibleness both of his accesses and recesses, to and from the soul. Can a man love God, and be content without him ? If you lose but a ring which you aftect, how are you troubled till it be found again ! ' Ye have taken away my gods (saith he), and do you ask, What aileth thee ?' Judges xviii. 24. So when God is withdrawn, all visits of love and influences of grace are suspended, and they have no communion with him in their duties, should they not mourn ? See Mat. ix. 15. Is spiritual love without all kind of passion ? or are they Christians that are stupid and insensate, and never take notice of God's coming and going ?
These are the evidences. I shall only now suggest two helps to keep up and increase this love to God, and I have done with this argument.
1, Prize nothing that cometh from God unless thou canst see his love in it. God giveth many gifts to wicked men, but he doth not give them his love. The possession of all things will do us no good unless we have God himself ; other mercies may be salted with a curse. God's children are not satisfied till they can see him and enjoy him in every comfort and mercy. Esau was reconciled to Jacob, and there- fore Jacob saith. Gen. xxxiii. 10, ' I have seen thy face as the face of God.' It was a token and pledge of the gracious face of God smiling on him. Hezekiah was delivered out of a sickness, and then he doth not say. Thou hast delivered me from the grave ; but, ' Thou hast loved me from the grave,' Isa. xxxviii. 17.
2. Prize nothing that thou return to God unless there be love in it. We accept a small gift where the party loveth, and otherwise the
VeR. 2.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 87
greatest is refused : ' If I give my body to be burned, and have not love,' &c., 1 Cor. xiii. 3. Love is an act of grace by itself ; other duties are not acts of grace unless they come from love ; as alms, fasting, prayer, martyrdom, &c., they are all nothing ; ovSev elfjut (saith the apostle), ' I am' not only little, but ' nothing.' On the other side, small things are made great by love ; as a cup of cold water, a poor woman's mite, they are accepted as coming from love.
So much for the matter of the prayer. We come now to the man- ner or degree of enjoyment, be multiplied ; from whence note: —
Docf. That we should noti seek grace at the hands of God, but the increase and multiplication of it. In managing this point, I shall first give you reasons to press you to look after growth in grace ; secondly, I shall give you some observations concerning it ; and so, thirdly, come to some application.
First, the reasons are these : —
1. Where there is life there will be growth ; and, if grace be true, it will surely increase. A painted flower keepeth always at the same pitch and stature ; the artist may bestow beauty upon it, but he cannot bestow life. A painted child will be as little ten years hence as it is now. So a pretence of religion always keepeth at the same stay ; yea, when their first heats are spent, they are fearfully blasted. But now they that have true grace are compared to a living plant, which in- creaseth in bulk and stature, Ps. xcii. 12, 13, and to a living child, which groweth by receiving kindly nourishment, 1 Peter ii. 2. There- fore it is not enough to get peace and love, but we must get them multiplied.