And these considerations are taken from all that he did for us, with the reasons and grounds why he did it. We love him princi- pally and ultimately for what he is; but nextly and immediately for what he did. What he did for us is first proposed unto us, and it is that which our souls are first affected withal. For they are originally acted in all things by a sense of the want which they have, and a desire of the blessedness which they have not. This directs them unto what he hath done for sinners; but that leads immediately unto the consideration of what he is in himself And when our love is fixed on him or his person, then all those things wherewith, from a sense of our own wants and desires, we were first affected, become motives unto the confirming and increasing of that love. This is the constant method of the Scripture; it first proposeth unto us what the Lord Christ hath done for us, especially in the discharge of his sacer- dotal office, in his oblation and intercession, with the benefits which Ave receive thereby. Hereby it leads us unto his person, and presseth the consideration of all other things to engage our love unto him. See Phil. ii. 5-11, with chap. iii. 8-11.
Motives unto the love of Christ are so great, so many, so diffused through the whole dispensation of God in him unto us, as that they can by no hand be fully expressed, let it be allowed ever so much to enlarge in the declaration of them ; much less can they be repre- sented in that short discourse whereof but a very small part is allotted unto their consideration — such as ours is at present. The studying, the collection of them or so many of them as we are able, the medi- tation on them and improvement of them, are among the principal
THE ACTS OF CHRIST MOTITES TO THE LOVE OF HIM. 1 63
duties of our whole lives. What I shall offer is the reduction of them unto these two heads : 1. The acts of CJuHst, which is the substance of them ; and, 2. The spring and fountain of those acts, which is the life of them.
1. In general they are all the acts of his mediatory office, with all the fruits of them, whereof we are made partakers. There is not any thing that he did or doth, in the discharge of his mediatory office, from the first susception of it in his incarnation in the womb of the blessed Virgin unto his present intercession in heaven, but is an effec- tual motive unto the love of him ; and as such is proposed unto us in the Scripture. Whatever he did or doth with or towards us in the name of God, as the king and prophet of the church — whatever he did or doth -with God for us, as our high priest — it all speaks this language in the hearts of them that believe : O love the Lord Jesus in sincerit}^.
The consideration of what Christ thus did and doth for us is inse- parable from that of the benefits which we receive thereby. A due mixture of both these — of "what he did for us, and what we obtain thereby — compriseth the substance of these motives : " Who loved me, and gave himself for me" — " Who loved us, and washed us in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God " — " For thou wast slain, and hast bought us unto God with thy blood." And both these are of a transcendent nature, requiring our love to be so also. Who is able to comprehend the glory of the mediatory actings of the Son of God, in the assumption of our nature — in what he did and suffered therein? And for us, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart, of man to conceive, what we receive thereby. The least benefit, and that obtained by the least expense of trouble or charge, deserveth love, and leaveth the brand of a crime where it is not so entertained. What, then, do the greatest deserve, and those procured by the greatest expense — even the price of the blood of the Son of God?
If we have any faith concerning these things, it will produce love, as that love will obedience. Whatever we profess concerning them, it springs from tradition and opinion, and not from faith, if it engage not our souls into the love of him. The frame of heart which ensues on the real faith of these things is expressed, Ps. ciii. 1-5, " Bless the Lord, 0 my soul ; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities ; who healeth all thy diseases ; who redeemeth thy life from destruction ; who crowneth thee with loving- kindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things ; so that thy youth is renewed Hke the eagle's." Let men pretend what they will, there needs no gxeater, no other evidence, to
164 THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
prove that any one dotli not really believe the things that are reported in the Gospel, concerning the mediatory actings of Christ, or that he hath no experience in his own soul and conscience of the fruits and effects of them, than this — that his heart is not engaged by them unto the most ardent love towards his person.