Again, he is the peculiar object of the love of the Father, of the love of God, as he is incarnate — as he hath taken on him, and hath now discharged, the work of mediation, or continues in the discharge of it; that is, the person of Christ, as God-man, is the peculiar object of the divine love of the Father. The person of Christ in his divine nature is the adequate object of that love of the Father which is " ad intra" — a natural necessary act of the divine essence in its distinct personal existence ; and the person of Christ as incarnate, as clothed with human nature, is the first and fall object of the love of the Father in those acts of it which are " ad extra," or are towards anything without himself So he declares himself in the prospect of his future incarnation and work, "Behold my servant, whom I uphold ; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth," Isa. xlii. 1. The delight of the soul of God, his rest and complacency — which are the great effects of love — are in the Lord Christ, as his elect and servant in the work of mediation. And the testimony hereof he renewed twice from heaven afterward. Matt. iii. 17, "Lo, a voice from heaven, saying. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; " as it is again repeated. Matt. xvii. 5. All things are disposed to give a due sense unto us of this love of God unto him. The testimony concerning it is twice repeated in the same words from heaven. And
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146 THE PEESON OF CHELST.
the words of it are emphatical unto the utmost of our comprehension : " My Son, my servant, mine elect, my beloved Son, in whom I rest, in whom I delight, and am well pleased." It is the will of God to leave upon our hearts a sense of this love unto Christ ; for his voice came from heaven, not for his sake, who was always filled with a sense of this divine love, but for ours, that we might believe it.
This he pleaded as the foundation of all the trust reposed in him, and all the power committed unto him. " The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand," John iii. S5. " The Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth," John v. 20. And the sense or due apprehension of it is the foundation of Christian religion. Hence he prays that we may know that God hath loved him, John xvii. 23, 26.
In this sense, the person of Christ is the 'irfurov dsxrixov — the first recipient subject of all that divine love which extends itself unto the church. It is all, the whole of it, in the first place fixed upon him, and by and through him is communicated unto the church. What- ever it receives in gTace and glory, it is but the streams of this foun- tain— love unto himself. So he prays for all his disciples, " that the love," saith he, " wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them," John xvii. 26. They can be partakers of no other love, neither in itself nor in its fruits, but that alone wherewith the Father first loved him. He loveth him for us all, and us no other- wise but as in him. He makes us " accepted in the Beloved," Eph. i. 6. He is the Beloved of the Father xar' e^o^nv, as in all things he was to have the pre-eminence, Col. i. 18. The love of the body is derived unto it firom the love unto the Head ; and in the love of him doth God love the whole church, and no otherwise. He loves none but as united unto him, and participant of his nature.
Wherefore the love of the Father unto the Son, as the only- begotten, and the essential image of his person, wherein the ineffable delight of the divine nature doth consist, was the fountain and cause of all love in the creation, by an act of the will of God for its repre- sentation. And the love of God the Father unto the person of Christ as incarnate, being the first adequate object of divine love v/herein there is anything " ad extra," is the fountain and especial cause of all gracious love towards us and in us. And our love unto Christ being the only outward expression and representation of this love of the Father unto him, therein consists the principal part of our reno- vation into his image. Nothing renders us so like unto God as our love unto Jesus Christ, for he is tlie principal object of his love; — in him doth his soul rest — m him is he always Avell pleased. Where- ever this is wanting, whatever there may be besides, there is nothing of the image of God. He that loves not Jesus Christ, let him be
ANGELS UPHELD BY LOVE TO THE PEESON OF CHRIST. 147
Anathema Maranatha; for he is unlike unto God, — his carnal mind is enmity against God.
(2.) Among those who are in the image of God, the angels above are of the first consideration. We are, indeed, as yet much in the dark unto the things that are " within the veil." They are above us as unto our present capacity, and hid from us as unto our present state ; but there is enough in the Scripture to manifest the adhesion of angels unto the person of Christ by divine love. For love proceeding from sight is the Ufe of the church above ; as love proceeding from faith is the hfe of the church below. And this life the angels them- selves do hve. For —