[3.] It must be pleasant : 1 John v. 3, ' For this is the love of God, that we keep his commamdments, and his commandments are not grievous ; ' and Ps. cxii. 1, ' Blessed is the man that delighteth greatly in his commandments.' When we cheerfully practise all that he requireth of us, love sweeteneth all things ; it is meat and drink to do his will ; the thing commanded is excellent, but it is sweeter as com- manded by him. A man is never thoroughly converted till he delighteth in God and his service, and his heart is overpowered by the sweetness of his love. A slavish kind of religiousness, when we had rather not do than do our work, is no fruit of grace, and cannot evidence a sincere love.
5. In the course pf our obedience, God ordereth some special seasons for the discovery of our sincere love to him. As Abraham had his trial, so we : Heb. xi. 17, ' By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac' And God trieth, non ut ipse Iwminem inveniat, sed ut homo se inveniat ; Gen. xxii. 12, ' For now I know thou fearest God.' That is a document, a sensible proof of the reality and sincerity of grace, as under sore trials, God doth most manifest himself to us : upon these occasions, when put upon great self-denial, we have a sensible occasion to see Avhicli we love most ; it was a nice case before. When faithful- ness to God's interest is dearer to us than our own credit, liberty, life, then is a special sensible occasion to improve the sincerity of our love. Such things are pleaded, Ps. xliv. 17, ' All this is come upon us, yet have we not forsaken thee, nor dealt falsely in thy covenant.' God's choicest comforts are for them that overcome temptations.
Sixth case of conscience. But how shall we do to get or increase this love to Christ ? Is there anything that man can do towards it, since love is of God, and a fruit of his Spirit ?
Ans. 1. It is true that a man in his natural estate cannot by his own power bring his heart to love God. Partly, because men naturally are lovers of themselves, that is, of their carnal selves, and so lovers of pleasure more than God, 2 Tim. iii. 4. So addicted to vain and sensual delights, the flesh and world have intercepted their love and delight : John iii. 6, ' That which is born of flesh is flesh.' Will a nature that is carnal resist and overcome the flesh ? and can men be brought by their own inclination to abhor the sin they dearly love, and a worldly mind overcome the world ? Therefore till grace heal our natures, we cannot love God or Christ. First, the carnal love must be mortified : Dent. xxx. 6, ' The Lord thy God shall circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy
176 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS Y. [SeR. XXVI.
heart, and all thy soul, that thou mayest live.' Till God pare away our foreskin, and mortify our carnal love and inordinate passions, there can be no love to God or Christ raised or enkindled in our hearts. And partly, because men are haters of God, Eom. i. 30, enemies to him, as standing in the way of their desires, and keeping them by his laws from things which they affect,, as forbidden fruit: Col. i. 21, * And you that were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your minds by evil works ; ' and Kom. viii. 7, ' Because the carnal mind is enmity to God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be ; ' and James iv. 4, ' Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.' There is a mixture of love, palpable and evident by nature, and though men might be imagined to have some kind of love to God as a creator, and preserver, and benefactor, yet they hate him as a law-giver and a judge. Therefore till this enmity be broken, tliere is no hope of bringing the heart to love God.
2. Since God worketh it, it must be in the first place begged of him. As the apostle prayeth for others, so do you for yourselves : Eph. iii. 17, 18, ' That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and lengtli, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and be filled with all the fulness of God.' We have but light appre- hension of the love of God in Christ ; it leaveth no impression upon lis: 2 Thes. iii. 5, 'And the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God,' set straight your hearts, KaropOvvai ; they are fluttered abroad to all manner of vanities, and therefore the psalmist prayeth, Ps. Isxxvi. 11, ' Unite ray heart to thy fear.'
3. Though we pray to God, yet we must not neglect to use the means. For God will meet with us in our way, in a way proportion- able to our reason, and we are to meet with him in his way, in a way of duty and means. God doth not overrule us by a brutish force, nor raise an inclination in our wills, but in the way of understanding ; the ordinary way of working upon man is by the understanding, and so upon the will. What are the means of raising our love ?