(1.) The kind of the love; it was a love to souls. If Christ gave himself as a propitiatory sacrifice to reconcile and recover them to God, we should have a higher value and esteem for them. Before Christ died, men could not sufficiently understand of what precious account souls were ; but now, unless we shut our eyes, we may see plainly that the redemption of the soul is precious : Ps. xlix. 8, ' The redemption of the soul is precious, and ceaseth for ever.' If a man find a pearl of great price, and, not knowing what it is, maketh no more esteem of it than of a piece of glass or a common bead, and is ready to sell it for a few pence, but upon the offer of it to a skilful lapidary, who at first sight biddeth two or three thousand crowns for it, would he not cliange his mind, and think this jewel is of greater value than he took it to be? So here ; man knows not the value of the soul, and did not greatly set by it. Adam lost his own soul and the souls of all his posterity for an apple, and we sell the birthright for a mess of pottage; but when Christ, who made souls, and knoweth the value of them, came to recover lost souls, he gave himself for us ; hereby he taught us to set a higher price upon them, for nothing but his precious blood could redeem them ; and therefore we should not despise our own souls, so as to forfeit them for base unworthy trifles. So for the souls of others ; if any of us be induced to show cliarity to the bodies of others, but little regard their souls, I should think ill of them. We pity a man that should be famished to death for want of Avhat we can give him, but we do not pity a man that is going to hell, and is ready to perish eternally. There is little of the bowels of Christ found among most christians. Or if we pity them, and wish it were otherwise with them, yet we do little or nothing to pull them out of the fire ; yea, though many times they are nearly related to us, we are loath sometimes to be at the trouble of a little serious exhortation, or hearty and christian advice ; the ease of the flesh checketh us. Is this to walk in love as Christ loved us ? Or it may be we will not venture the hazard of a scorn or mock, or the displeasure of a carnal friend. Christ gave up himself and all the interests of that life he had assumed for the good of souls. We shall never do any great things, nor honour God in our relations, till we have a love to souls fixed in our hearts, till we have
VeR, 3.] SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. 189
the bowels of Christ : Phil. i. 8, Tor God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.' Christ thought the gain of souls recompense enough for his ignominious death.
(2.) The next thing is the greatness and degree of this love. Let us be ready to lay down our lives for the church of God : 1 John iii. 16, ' Hereby we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.' We must imitate Christ in this, in his dying to reduce men to God. It is not left arbitrary ; we must and ought.
{1st.) There must be a venturing and hazarding life. That may be done in many cases, as for the conversion of the carnal world, in which we may carry our lives in our hands : Phil. ii. 17, ' Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all.' Or though it involve you in great trouble to relieve their necessities, visit them in prison ; or to rescue the life of another from an assassin, or when another is assaulted by thieves and ruffians, to prevent murder.
{2d.) There must be certain death ; as when a single person dies for a community, a private person for a more public or more useful person, as a subject to save his prince; or when we lose a temporal good for another's eternal good; as the apostle : Rom. ix. 1-3, ' I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness, and continual sorrow in my heart ; for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh.' Some will not hazard a scorn, a check, or frown, or scoff for them.
Use 1. This love of Christ must be firmly believed. Let us not look on the death of Christ only as a tragical story and the sufferings of an innocent person, or only believe the history of his death ; but let us believe that he died a sacrifice for us, out of love to our souls, to redeem us to God, and save us from wrath.