[1.] A knowledge of our necessity, and the excellency and worth of Christ and his beneficialness to us: John iv. 10, ' If thou knewest the gift.' We love little, because we know little ; saints and angels, who know him most, love him best ; in heaven there is complete love because there is perfect knowledge ; that the apostle's prayer showeth, how we are rooted and grounded in love, Eph. iii. 17-19.
[2.] Serious consideration ; the more you lay out your thoughts in the serious consideration of these things which most tend to feed and breed love. Objects and moving reasons, kept much upon the mind by serious thoughts, are the great means and instruments appointed both by nature and grace to turn about and move the soul of man. Consideration, frequent and serious, is God's great instrument to con- vert the soul : Ps. cxix. 59, ' I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies ;' and to get, keep, and increase grace: witness this text, ' For we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead.' Therefore the total want of love, or the weakness of love, comes for want of consideration. Oh then, think often of God's goodness,
VeR. 1-i.J SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. 177
amiableness, and kindheartedness to miserable and unworthy sinners, what he is in himself, a pardoning God ; none like him, Mic. vii. 18 ; what he hath done for you from your youth upward. Every one should be his own historian : Ps. cxxxix. 17, ' How precious are thy thoughts to me, 0 God ! how great is the sum of them ! ' Every morning come to a new account and audit- — what he is willing yet to do for you in Christ, to pardon all your sins, to sanctify you by his Spirit, and to give you eternal life, and a portion among his people.
[3.] You must increase love by a constant familiarity and communion with God. Strangeness dissolveth friendship, but our hearts settle to- wards them with whom we frequently converse : Job xxii. 21, ' Acquaint thyself now with him, and be at peace.' When men neglect prayer, their hearts set loose from God. Therefore upon all occasions main- tain a constant commerce between God and you.
[4.] If there be a breach, be soon reconciled again. If a man was unclean, he was to wash his clothes before even : Eph. iv. 26, ' Let not the sun go down upon thy wrath.' As between man and man, so be- tween God and man ; ' forgive us this day,' as well as ' give us this day.' When discontents settle they are hardly removed : Jer. viii. 4, ' Shall they fall, and not arise ? turn away, and not return ? ' It is spoken to backsliding Israel. A candle newly put out sucketh light again, if you kindle it before it stiffeneth and groweth cold ; so the sooner we recover ourselves, the less breach is made by it.
[5.] Mortify love to the world. This is baneful to the love of the Father : 1 John ii. 15, ' Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world ; if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.' When the soul is filled with one object, it cannot attend upon another, though more excellent. The love of the world is that which first kept us from God, and still it dulleth the edge of our affections, and diverteth us from him ; therefore watch against the enticements of the flattering world, and love the creature in subordi- nation to God.
Now let me exhort you to the love of Christ.
1. The genius and disposition of love showeth it is fit for nothing but God. As he that looketh upon an axe will say it is fit to cut, so he that looketh upon love will say it was made for God. Love is for that which is good ; it is the motion of the soul to what is good for us ; good is the object of love. The more good anything is, the more it must be loved ; this is the disposition of nature, and grace doth direct it and set it aright. Now who is so good as God, who hath all good- ness in himself ? All that goodness which is in the creature is derived from him, and dependeth on him ; he hath given us all the good which we have received, and that out of mere love ; yea, he hath given us love itself. Now whom will you love, if he that is love itself seem not lovely to you ? All loveliness is in him and from him ; the creature hath none of itself nor for itself. Is sin such a thing, that for the love of it you will fly from God and goodness ?
2. Love is but for one object. The affection is weakened by dis- persion, as a river divided into many channels. In conjugal society, which is the highest instance of love : Mai. ii. 15, ' And did not he make one ? Yet had he the residue of the Spirit. And wherefore one ?