2. Comfort when we meet with ill-usage in the world. Our Lord Jesus prayeth that the world may be convinced that God loved them as he loved Christ. When the world entreated Christ ill, how was the world convinced that God loved him ? There was an eclipse at his death, which was a monument of God's displeasure : Mat. xxvii. 54, ' When the centurion, and they that were with him watching; Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things which were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.' So when Clirist's members are evil-entreated, there are public monuments of God's displeasure, the courses of nature are altered, droughts, inun- dations, pestilences, famines, unseasonable weather, confusions, &c. If this be not, when God smileth, though the world frowneth,you will convince them by bearing up with courage and confidence. The more the world is set against us, the more do the fruits of his love appear before men.
3. Confidence in the midst of dangers and temptations. When once we are assured of God's love, what shall separate us from it ? Rom. viii. 38, 39, ' For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Can anything alienate God's love in Christ ? If it were God's love in us, that were an uncertain ground of hope ; but it is God's love in Christ. Get but an assurance of his love, and you will never be ashamed. What can alienate the heart of God from you, while you are faithful to him, and have the sure pledge of his love, his Spirit in your heart ? Love or hatred is not known by anything that is before us. But if you have a heart to seek him, fear him, obey his laws ; this is the favour of his people, and this was his love to Christ.
Use 2. Direction.
1. Whereby chiefly to measure God's love ; by his spiritual bounty: John iii. 34, 35, ' God giveth not the Spirit by measure to him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hands.' So tlie gifts and graces of the Spirit are the special eflects of his love;
84 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR, XL.
for he loved us as he loved Christ, and thus he manifested his love to Christ : Ps. cvi. 4, ' Kemember me, Lord, with the love that thou bearest to thy people/ When one gave Luther gold, he said, Valde protesiaius sum, me nolle sic a Deo satiari. Be not satisfied till God love you with such a love as he loved Christ. Inward excellences, though with outward crosses, these are the best fruits of his love ; a heart to seek him, to fear his name, to obey his laws, an understanding to know his will. God's love is best known by the stamp of his Spirit, that is his mark set upon us. Let us leave outward things to God's wisdom. Love or hatred is not known by all that is before us. Let us labour for a share in his peculiar love : Ps. cxix. 132, * Look thorii upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.' Lord, I do not ask riches, nor glory, nor pre- ferment in the world ; I ask thy love, thy grace, thy Spirit. Doth our Saviour care for outward things ? Other things are given pro- miscuously, these to his favourites. God's love is conveyed through Christ : Kev. i. 5, ' To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.' He loved us, and sanctified us : Eph. v. 25, 26, 'Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.' Nothing more worthy, nothing more suitable to Christ's love.
2. It directeth us what to do when we are dejected through our own unworthiness. Look upon God's love in Christ. If God did take arguments and grounds of love from the creature, where would he have found objects of love ? God hath proclaimed it from heaven : Mat. iii. 17, ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ;' and ' We are accepted in the beloved,' Eph. i. 6. Jesus Christ is worthy ; desire * to be found in him, not having thine own righteous- ness.' Lord, for the merits of thy blessed Son, accept of me. Christ, being beloved of the Father, is the storehouse and conduit to convey that love to his people.
Use 3. Exhortation, to endeavour after the sense and apprehension of this love in our own hearts. Surely this is our duty ; for Christ afterward saith, ver. 26, ' That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.' There is a love of God towards us, and a love of God in us ; so Zanchy, citing the text. His love, ergo nos, towards us, is carried on from all eternity ; but nondum in nobis, it is not in us, but in time. He loved us before the foundation of the world, though we know it not, feel it not ; but now this love beginneth to be in us when we receive the eff'ects, and God is actually become our reconciled Father in Christ. God's love from everlasting was in pur- pose and decree, not in act. God's love in us is to be interpreted two ways — both in the effects and the sense. In the efiects, at conver- sion : Eph. ii. 4, 5, ' But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.' In the sense, when we get assurance, and an intimate feeling of it in our own souls. Both are wrought in us by the Spirit : Kom. v. 5, ' And hope maketh us not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, that is given to us.' A man may have the eflfects,