[3.] As it is described by those who applaud it, it is not suited unto the sober, sedate actino;s of the rational faculties of our souls. For whereas all that God requireth of us, is that we love him with all our souls and all our minds, these men cry up a divine love by an immediate adhesion of the will and the affections unto God, without any actings of the mind and understanding at all. Love, indeed, is the regular acting of our whole souls, by all their faculties and rational powers, in an adherence unto God. But these men have fancied a divine love for them whom they would admire and extol, which disturbs all their regular actings, and renders them of little or no use in that which, without their due exercise, is nothing but fancy. And hence it is that, under pretence of this love, sundry persons among them — yea, all that have pretended unto it— have fallen into such ridiculous excesses and open delusions as sufficiently discover the vanity of the love itself pretended by them.
Wherefore we plead for no other love unto the person of Christ but what the Scripture warrants as unto its nature ; what the Gospel requireth of us as our duty ; what the natural faculties of our minds are suited unto and given us for ; what they are enabled unto by grace ; and without which in some degree of sincerity, no man can yield acceptable obedience unto him.
These things being premised, that which we assert is, that there is, and ought to be, in all believers, a religious, gracious love unto the person of Christ, distinct from, and the reason of, their obedience unto his commands; — that is, it is distinct from all other commands; but is also itself commanded and required of us in a way of duty.
That there is in the church such a love unto the person of Christ,
144 THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
the Scripture testifies, botli in the precepts it gives for it and the examples of it. And all those who truly believe cannot apprehend that they understand any thing of faith, or love of Christ, or them- selves, by whom it is called in question. If, therefore, I should enlarge on this subject, a great part of the doctrine of the Scripture from first to last must be represented, and a transcript of the hearts of believers, wherein this love is seated and prevalent, be made, according to our ability. And there is no subject that I could more willingly enlarge upon. But I must at present contract myself, in compliance with my design. Two things only I shall demonstrate : 1. That the person of Christ is the object of divine love; 2. What is the nature of that love in us; what are the grounds of it, and the motives unto it, in them that do believe.
In reference unto the first of these, the ensuing position shall be the subject of the remainder of this chapter.
The 'person of Christ is the principal object of the love of God, and of the whole creation participant of his image. The reason why I thus extend the assertion will appear in the declaration of it.
(1.) No small part of the eternal blessedness of the holy God consisteth in the mutual love of the Father and the Son, by the Spirit. As he is the only-begotten of the Father, he is the first, necessary, adequate, complete object of the whole love of the Father. Hence he says of himself, that from eternity he was " by him, as one brought up with him : and was daily his delight, rejoicing ahvays before him," Prov. viii. 30 — which place was opened before. In him was the ineffable, eternal, unchangeable delight and complacency of the Father, as the full object of his love. The same is expressed in that description of him, John i. 18, " The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father." His being the only-begotten Son declares liis eternal relation unto the person of the Father, of whom he was begotten in the entire communication of the whole divine nature. Hereon he is in the bosom of the Father — in the eternal embraces of his love, as his only-begotten Son. The Father loves, and cannot but love, his own nature and essential image in him.
Herein oiiginally is God love : " For God is love," 1 John iv. 8. This is the fountain and prototype of all love, as being eternal and necessary. All other acts of love are m God but emanations from hence, and effects of it. As he doeth good because he is good, so he loveth because he is love. He is love eternally and necessarily in this love of the Son ; and all other workings of love are but acts of his will, whereby somewhat of it is outv/ardly expressed. And all love in the creation was introduced from tins fountain, to give a shadow and resemblance of it.
Love is that which contemplative men have always almost adored.
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CHRIST THE OBJECT OF THE FATHER S LOVE. 145
Many things have they spoken to evince it to be the light, life, lustre, and glory of the whole creation. But the original and pattern of it was always hid from the wisest philosophers of old. Something they reached after about God's love unto himself, with rest and compla- cency in his own infinite excellencies ; but of this ineffable mutual love of the Father and the Son, both in and by that Spirit which proceeds from them both, they had neither apprehension nor con- jecture. Yet, as herein doth the principal part (if we may so speak) of the blessedness of the holy God consist, so is it the only fountain and prototype of all that is truly called love ; — a blessing and glory which the creation had never been made partaker of, but only to express, according to the capacity of their several natures, this infinite and eternal love of God! For God's love of himself — which is natural and necessary unto the Divine Being — consists in the mutual complacency of the Father and the Son by the Spirit. And it was to express himself, that God made any thing without himself He made the heavens and the earth to express his being, goodness, and power. He created man " in his own image," to express his holiness and righteousness ; and he implanted love in our natures to express this eternal mutual love of the holy persons of the Trinity. But we must leave it under the veU of infinite incomprehensibleness ; though admiration and adoration of it be not without the highest spiritual satisfaction.