7. It dilateth and enlargeth the heart, and so it is liberal to the thing loved. ' I will praise him yet more and more ;' ' I will not serve the Lord with that which cost me nothing.' Other things will not go to the charge of obedience to God. It will be at some cost for God and Christ, and maketh us obey God against our own interest, and carnal inclination. It was against the hair, but the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob's daughter, Gen. xxxiv. 19.
8. It is an invincible and unconquerable affection : Cant. viii. 6, 7. ' Love is strong as death : jealousy is cruel as the grave ; the coal» thereof are as the coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love ; neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.' There is a vehemency and an unconquerable constancy in love, against and above all afflictions, and above all worldly baits and profits. The business is, of whose love this is to be interpreted ; of Christ's, or ours. If we understand it of Christ's love, then it is really verified. Christ's love was as strong as death, for he suffered death for us, and overcame death for us ; he debased himself from the height of all glory to the depth of all misery for our sakes. Phil. ii. 7, 8, and 2 Cor. viii. 9 ; overcame all difficulties by the fervency of his love, enduring the cross, and despising the shame, on the one hand, Heb. xii. 2 ; on the other, refusing the offers of prefer- ment : Mat. iv. 9, 10, The devil maketh an offer of all the world to Christ. Of ease : Mat. xvi. 22, 23, * And Peter began to rebuke him, saying. Be it far from thee, Lord.' Of honour ; Mat. xxvii. 40, 43, ' Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself, if thou be the Son of God. He trusted in God : let him deliver him now, if he will have him ; for he said, I am the Son of God.' But
VOL. XIII. K
146 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeR. XXIII.
it is also verified of christians in their measure, who love not their lives to the death, and overcome all difficulties : Acts xxi. 13, ' Willing to die at Jerusalem ;' endure all afflictions ; Ps. xliv. 17, ' AH this is come upon us, yet we have not forsaken thee : ' and suffer the loss of all worldly comforts; Mat. xix. 27, 'Behold we have forsaken all, and followed thee ; ' and Luke xiv. 26, 'If any man come to me, and hate not father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.' But rather I apply it to the latter, for it is rendered as a reason, why they beg a room in his heart ; the love that presseth us is of such a vehement nature, that it cannot be resisted, no more than death, or the grave, or fire can be resisted. Nothing else but Christ can quench it, and satisfy it; such a constraining power it hath, that the persons that have it are led captive by it. An ardent affection and love to Christ is of this naturfe, and when it is strong and vigorous, it will make strong and mighty impressions upon the heart ; no opposition will extinguish it. Waters will quench fire, but nothing will quench this love : Kom. viii. 37, ' Nay, in all those things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us.' There are two sorts of trials that ordinarily carry away souls from Christ ; the first is from the left hand, from crosses ; these carry away some, but not all ; though the stony ground could not, yet the thorny' ground could abide the heat of the sun : yet the second sort of trials, the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and voluptuous living, which are the temptations of the right hand, will draw away unmortified souls and choke the word. Pleasures, honours, riches, are a more strong and subtile sort of temptations than the other ; but yet these are too weak to prevail with that heart which hath a sincere love to Christ planted in it. They will not be tempted and enticed away from Christ. If a man would give all the substance of his house, such a soul will be faithful to Christ, and these offers and treaties 'are in vain. If love be true and powerful, it is not easily ensnared, but rejects the allurements of the Avorld and the flesh, with a holy disdain and indignation; all as dung and dross that would tempt it from Christ, Phil. iii. 9. And these essays to cool it, and divei't it, and draw it away, are to no purpose. Well then, this warm love to Christ is the hold and bulwark that maintaineth Christ's interest in the soul. The devil, the world,, and the flesh, batter it, and hope to throw it down, but they cannot ; nothing else will serve the turn in Christ's room.