Use 1. Comfort against present defects. Though you are ignorant of some mysteries of religion, do not despond ; Christ doth not give you all at once. There is a double comfort ; God will accept our weakness, and we have a head in whom is all fulness. As our life is
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hidden in Christ, so is our wisdom hidden. In the text you see Christ hath undertaken for our growth ; we have a teacher that will carry us on from one degree of knowledge to another. Therefore let us not be discouraged, though we know little, and our parts be weak and insufficient.
Use 2. It presseth us to grow in knowledge : 2 Peter iii. 18, ' But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ' There is more to be learned. Do not say, I know as much as they can tell me ; we never know so much but we may know more ; there is no stint to knowledge. If there be a measure of grace beyond which we cannot pass, the apostle would not say, ' Grow in grace and knowledge.' Therefore be conscionable and careful in the use of means. We must not rest in our low and imperfect measures, nor always keep to our A, B, C. We must grow till we come to heaven, and then there will be no more growing. A formal man is where he was (as a picture), doth not increase in stature. The way to keep what we have is to increase our store. Gifts that lie idle and inactive suffer loss and decay ; an active nature, such as man's, must either grow worse or better. It is an ill sign when we are contented with a little. Light groweth to the perfection of glory ; our reward is in- creased in the other world : Col. iii. 16, ' Let the word of God dwell in you riclily in all wisdom.' It is the worst of poverty to have a poor understanding. Grace is multiplied through knowledge : 2 Peter i. 2, ' Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.'
Fourth point, Christ maketh one mercy to be the pledge of another. I liave declared, and I will declare. He is never weary of well-doing ; his love is infinite, and cannot be wearied, and his grace is infinite, and cannot be spent. Men waste by giving, their drop is soon spent ; but the oftener we come to God, the more welcome we are. Our faith is sooner tired than God's bounty, for he doth not waste by giving. I AM, is God's name ; he is where he was at first, he is never at a loss ; what he hath done, he can do, and will do : God's providence is new and fresh every morning : * God is one,' Gal. iii. 21 ; he is always like himself. The creatures soon spend their allowance, but he is where he was at first. But it chiefly holdeth good in spiritual mercies ; the least drop of saving grace is an immortal seed ; it will grow, it will increase ; it is a spark that cannot be quenched, it is the pledge of more grace. Therefore where Christ hath begun to work for thee in some sparks of saving grace and knowledge, he will go on in his work ; where he is the Alpha, he will be the Omega; where he is an author, he will be a finisher : Heb. xii. 2, ' Looking unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith.' The apostle would have us confident of this : Phil. i. 6, ' Being confident of this very thing, that lie that hath begim a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ.' God's first work is an earnest, and God will not lose his earnest ; it is the very fiist-fruits of the Spirit, and he gives it as a pledge of more grace to follow.
' That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.' In the whole verse Christ showeth what he had done, what he would do, and with what aim. His end was twofold — to
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make way for application of Grod's love and his own presence as a vital principle in their hearts ; God's love and union with himself.
I shall speak now of the first. Whence —
Observe, that one great end why God's name is mamfested in the gospel is that his love may be in us.
First, I shall inquire what it is to have his love in us. I shall give you several observations upon the phrase.
• 1. Observe, ' That the love,' &c. He doth not say, that they may have pardon, sanctification, or grace, or comfort in them, but love in them. Ohs. God's love in Christ is the ground of all other favours and graces whatsoever. The spring of all is love, and the conveyance is by union, which containeth two truths : —
[1 .] That all the goodness that is in us cometh from the love of God in Christ. We are loved into holiness, loved into pardon, loved into grace : Isa. xsxviii. 17, ' Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption,' or thou hast loved me from the pit. He loved his church, and sanctified it : Eph. v. 25, 26, ' Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it it with the washing of water by the word ;' Eev. i. 5, ' To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.' Our holiness is not the cause of love, but the fruit and effect of it. There can be no other reason for anything we receive. So 2 Thes. ii. 16, ' Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, who hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace,' &G. There was no other cause, there could be no other cause ; not necessity of nature, moral rule, or any former merit and kindness. Not necessity of nature ; God hath always the same love ; not bound by any external law and rule ; who can prescribe to him ? Not by any merit or debt, because of the eternity of his love, antecedent to all acts of the creature. There should be no other reason for the honour and majesty of God and our comfort.