II. What he hath done for us, ' He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.' And there we begin —
First, With the fountain and bosom cause of all, and that is Christ's love : ' To him that loved us.'
1. Christ's love is the ground of man's redemption ; that stirred all the causes, and set them a-work, that concurred to this end. Other attributes were manifested in the redemption of mankind, as God's wisdom, power, justice, holiness ; but they are all subservient to love : but love is at the upper end of all causes, subservient to nothing but itself. If you ask a reason of other things, it may be assigned ; but if you ask a reason of his love, that cannot be given but from itself If the question be, Wherefore did God discover such riches of wisdom, goodness, and power, for the saving poor worthless creatures ? He loved us : John iii. 16, ' God so loved the world, that he. gave his only- begotten Son.' Wherefore did Jesus Christ submit to such bitter agonies, such an accursed death ? He loved us : Ei)h. v. 2, ' Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour ; ' Eph, v. 25, ' Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it ; ' and Gal. ii. 20,
84' SERMONS UPON REVELATION I. 5, 6.
' Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.' But now put the question. Wherefore did he love us ? Love only is the reason of itself ; he loved us because he loved us : Deut, vii. 7, 8, ' The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you, because ye were more in niuiiber than any people, &c., but because the Lord loved you.'
2. As it is the fountain cause, so it was that property that shined forth most conspicuously in the work of redemption : Rom. v. 8, ' God com- mendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' And therefore this is that which we should most admire and be ravished with in our thoughts. Here, next to the description of the excellency of Christ's person, the first thing mentioned in the doxology itself is this, ' To him that loved us.' This is a comfortable word, as if Jesus would be described and known by nothing so much as by his love. What was the Son of God but love incarnate, love born of a virgin, love conversing in the world, and preaching salvation to poor sinners ; love going about and doing good ; love relieving the diseased and the possessed, curing the deaf, and the dumb, and the blind, and the lame ; and finally, love dying and hanging on the cross ? * God is love/ 1 John iv. 8. iThe angels in heaven adore this love, though spectators, not parties interested ; he came not for their sakes, but ours only. We have a little notional knowledge of it, but could we once find the saving effects of God's love in Christ, impressed upon our hearts by the Spirit, how would you be melted and ravished, and evv^r be thinking what glory and honour you might bring to him that thus loved you ? You and 1 may discourse of it ; it is not a few cold thoughts of the love of Christ will work on us, but ' the shedding of this love abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost,' Rom. v. 5. There is no knowledge like the experimental knowledge which ariseth from the felt and known eff'ects of this love ; this would awaken your hopes, fill you with solid comfort, excite j^ou to your duty: 2 Cor. v, 14, ' For the love of Christ constraineth us.' However, till you have this, the means you must use are sound belief and serious consideration.
[1.] Embracing by faith the love of God in Christ, and the good things prepared by it, as they are revealed and offered in the gospel ; that is the way to get this fuller insight and experimental knowledge and feeling of this love ; for so the apostle prayeth, Eph. iii. 17-19, * That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and de])th, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge;' 1 John iv. 16, 'We have known and believed the love which God hath to us. God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.'
[2.] The serious contemplation and meditation of it. It is your duty to study it with the deejiest, serious, and most ponderous thoughts you can use : Eplo. iii. 18, ' That we may comprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of it.' We are not to content ourselves with a superficial view of God's love in Christ, but must take an accu- rate inspection of it, in all the dimensions thereof, upward, downward, on the right hand and left. Nairow thoughts and shallow apprehen- sions do little good, either as to God's glory, or our solid comfort, and