1. This phrase imports divers things. 1. That, there is no savin r/ Jove to any out of the church, which is his love. It is, as it were, confined in the church, as if all the beams of his love met in that centre, as we see when the beams of the sun meet in a glass, they burn, because many are there united. So in the church all his love doth meet.
2. Then the church is his love also, because whatsoever she hath or hopes for is from his love, and is nothing hut his love. The church, as it is a
church, is nothing but the love of Christ. That there is a church so en- dowed, so graced, so full of the hope of glory, it is out of his love.
And for the properties of it. (1.) It is a, free love, a preventing love. He loved us before ever we could love him. He loved us when we resisted him, and were his enemies.
(2.) Itis a, most toider love, as you have it inlsa. xHx. 15, * Can a mother forget her sucking child ? If she should, yet will not I forget thee. Thou art written on the palms of my hands,' &c. He hath us in his heart, in his eye, in his hand, in a mother's heart, and beyond it. He hath a tender eye and a powerful hand to maintain his church, Deut. xxxiii. 3.
(8.) It is a most transcendent and careful love. All comparisons are under it.
(4.) And it is a most intimate invincible love, that nothing coidd quench it.
74 BOWELS OPENED. [SeEMON VI.
As we see bere the chureli droopeth, and had many infirmities, yet she is Christ's love. So that the love of Christ is a kind of love that is uncon- querable ; no water will ever quench it ; no sin of ours ; no infiiTnity. So aa it is very comfortable that the church considered under infirmities is yet the love of Christ. ' I sleep, but my heart waketh,' yet Christ comes with ' My love, my dove,' &c.
Quest. But what, cannot Christ see matter of weakness, sinfulness, hatred, and dislike in the church ?
Ans. Oh yes, to pity, help, and heal it, but not at all to diminish his love, but to manifest it so much the more. His love is a tender love, sen- sible of all things wherewith we displease him, yet it is so invincible and unconquerable, that it overcomes all. Again, he sees ill indeed in us, but he sees in us some good of his own also, which moves him more to love, than that that is ill in us, moves him to hate. For what he sees of ours, he sees with a purpose to vanquish, mortify, and eat it out. The Spirit is {IS fire to consume it. He is as water to wash it. But what he sees of his own, he sees with a pm-pose to increase it more and more, and to perfect it. Therefore he says, ' my love,' notwithstanding that the church was asleep.
Use. This therefore serves greatly for our comfort, to search what good Christ by his Spirit hath wrought in our hearts ; what faith, what love, what sanctified judgment, what fire of holy afiections to him, and to the best things. 0 let us value ourselves by that that is good, that Christ hath in us. We are Christ's love notwithstanding we are sleepy. If we be dis- pleased with this our state ; that as Christ dislikes it, so if we by the Spirit dislike it, the matter is not what sin we have in us, but how we are afiected to it. Have we that ill in us, which is truly the grief of our hearts and souls, which as Christ dislikes, so we abhor it, and would be purged, and rid of it ; and it is the grief of our hearts and souls, that we cannot be better, and more lovely in Christ's eye ! then let us not be discouraged. For Christ esteems of his church highl}^, even as his very love, even at that time when she was sleepy ; and may teach us in time of temptation not to hearken to Satan, who then moves us to look altogether upon, that which is naught in us, thereby to abate our love to Christ, and our apprehension of his to us. For he knows if we be sensible of the love of Christ to us, we shall love him again. For love is a kind of fire, an active quality, which will set us about glorifying God, and pulling down Satan's kingdom. As we say in nature, fire doth all ; (what work almost can a man work without fire, by which all instruments ai'e made and heated? &c.). So grace doth all with love. God first doth manifest to our souls his love to us in Christ, and quicken us by his Spirit, witnessing his love to us, wherewith he warms our hearts, kindles and inflames them so with love, that we love him again; which love hath a constraining, sweet violence to put us upon all duties, to sufier, to do, to resist anything. If a man be in love with Christ, what will be harsh to him in the world ? The devil knows this well enough ; therefore one of his main engines and temptations is to weaken our hearts in the sense of God's love and of Christ's. Therefore let us be as wise for our souls as he is subtle, and politic against them ; as watchful for our o^^Tl comfort, as he is to discomfort us, and make us despair. Let us be vdse to gather all the arguments of Christ's love that we can.