Use 2. To persuade to this love. Directions —
1. Choose one that is amiable, evils are best prevented by a prudent choice, and errors in the first concoction are hardly mended in the ^^econd. Now the motive of our choice should not be only riches and beauty, for these are fading things, and what is fading cannot be the ground of a lasting love : Prov. xxxi. 30, ' Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain ; but a woman that feareth the Lord shall be praised.' Beauty is but skin-deep, but godliness is rooted and increased by con- tinuance.
2. Marry not till you be sure you can love entirely, for otherwise you enter into a covenant with a mind disposed to break it. As in religion : James i. 8, ' A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways ; ' so by proportion in marriage, all your days you lie open to temptations.
3. Love will in time beget love, as fire kindleth fire : 1 John iv. 19, ' We love him, because he loved us first.'
4. Love not as bare husbands, but as christians ; partly because this is to love as Christ. The love of Christ doth not only enforce the duty as an argument, but direct the manner as a pattern. Christ's love is holy as well as sincere and great. Partly because this will be most effectual to continue peace, both because of God's blessing ; and partly because to the civil bond there is added the conscience of our duty to God ; and besides, holy spiritual love is most exemplary.
5. All offences must be studiously avoided, for these strike at the fundamental duty, or cool your love ; and when that is gone, you are chained to endless calamities. And then you must labour for a humble, meek, and quiet spirit ; for when you open the floodgates to pride and passion, which let in the waters of strife, that will over- whelm all : Prov. xvii. 14, ' The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water ; therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with.'
6. When God sends infirmities, then is a time to show love and patience ; love to the diseased part}^ patience and submission to God, who hath laid this burden upon you ; and in both your self-denial and sincerity for this your trial ; and it will not want its reward. It is odious to be weary of our relations because God hath laid his hand upon them. True love is to be seen at all times, but especially in
476 SERMONS UPON EPHESIANS V. [SeR, XXX.
adversity : Prov. xvii. 17, 'A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.' Make conscience of your duty, and God will give you strength.
Secondly , Now I come to Christ's love; in which we have — (1.) The person that loveth, viz., Christ. (2.) The persons loved, 'The church.' (3.) The fruit of his love, ' He gave himself for it/ to a painful and ignominious death. There are solemn notions by which Christ's death is set forth — a ransom and a sacrifice.
1. A ransom : Mat. xx. 28, ' And gave his life a ransom for many,' \vTpov dvrl TToXkcov, dvriXvTpov : 1 Tim. ii. 6, ' Who gave himself a ransom for all.' Tiiis relateth to our misery, or captivity and bondage under sin and death, and belongeth to Christ under the notion of a surety.
2. As a sacrifice, a mediatorial sacrifice : Isa. liii. 10, ' When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin ; ' Eph. v. 2, ' As Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.' This relateth to the appeasing and pro- pitiating of God, and is done by Christ under the notion of a priest. Now this giving himself for us is sometimes spoken of as an act of obedience, sometimes as an act of love.
[1.] Of obedience, with respect to his Father's command : Kom. V. 19, ' By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous ; ' and Phil. iii. 8, ' He humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.'
[2.] It is an act of love : Gal. ii. 20, ' Who loved us, and gave him- self for us ; ' Eom. v. 1, ' Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.' And so it is spoken of here.
Doct That the Lord Jesus did freely and willingly, out of his great love, give himself to die for his people.
Great love it was, if we consider —
1. The giver, Jesus Christ, God over all, blessed for ever, to whom nothing can accrue from us: Isa. liii. 11, *It pleased the Lord to bruise him ; he hath put him to grief. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied.' When he foresaw what it would cost, and what he should give, he said, ' It is enough.'
2. The gift ; he gave himself : 1 Peter i. 18, * We are not redeemed with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Son of God.'