He is no Christian who lives not much in the meditation of the mediation of Christ, and the especial acts of it. Some may more abound in that work than others, as it is fixed, formed and regular; some may be more able than others to dispose their thoughts con- cerning them into method and order; some may be more diligent than others in the observation of times for the solemn performance of this duty; some maybe able to rise to higher and clearer apprehen- sions of them than others. But as for those, the bent of whose minds doth not lie towards thoughts of them— whose hearts are not on all occasions retreating unto the remembrance of them — who embrace not all opportunities to call them over as they are able — on what grounds can they be esteemed Christians? hoAv do they live by the faith of the Son of God? Are the great things of the Gospel, of the mediation of Christ, proposed unto us, as those which we may think of when we have nothing else to do, that we may meditate upon or neglect at our pleasure — as those wherein our concernment is so small as that they must give place unto all other occasions or diversions whatever? Nay; if our minds are not filled with these things — if Christ doth not dwell plentifully in our hearts by faith — if our souls are not possessed with them, and in their whole inward frame and constitution so cast into this mould as to be led by a natural com- placency unto a converse with them — we are strangers unto the life of faith. And if we are thus conversant about these things, they will engage our hearts into the love of the person of Christ. To suppose the contrary, is indeed to deny the truth and reality of them all, and to turn the Gospel into a fable.
Take one instance from among the rest — namely, his death. Hath he the heart of a Christian, who doth not often meditate on the death of his Saviour, who doth not derive his life from it? Who can look into the Gospel and not fix on those lines which either immediately and directly, or through some other paths of divine grace and wis- dom, do lead him thereunto? And can any have believing thoughts concerning the death of Christ, and not have his heart affected with ardent love unto his person? Christ in the Gospel "is evidently set forth, crucified" before us. Can any by the eye of faith look on this bleeding, dying Redeemer, and suppose love unto his person to be nothing but the work of fancy or imagination? They know the con- trary, who " always bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus," as the apostle speaks, 2 Cor. iv. 10. As his whole " name," in
LOVE TO CHEIST PROMPTED BY HIS LOVE TO US. IGo
all that he did, is " as ointment poured forth," for which " the virgins love him," Cant. i. 3, — so this precious perfume of his death is that wherewith their hearts are ravished in a peculiar manner.
Again : as there can be no faith in Christ where there is no love unto him on the account of his mediatory acts; so, where it is not, the want of it casteth persons under the highest guilt of ingi'atitude that our nature is liable unto. The highest aggravation of the sin of angels was their ingratitude unto their Maker. For whereas, by his mere will and pleasure, they were stated in the highest excellency, pre-eminence, and dignity, that he thought good to communicate unto any creatures — or, it may be, that any mere created nature is capable of in itself — they were unthankful for what they had so received from undeserved goodness and bounty ; and so cast themselves into everlasting ruin. But yet the sin of men, in their ingratitude towards Christ on the account of what he hath done for them, is attended with an aggravation above that of the angels. For although the angels were originally instated in that condition of dignity which in this world we cannot attain unto, yet were they not redeemed and recovered from misery as we are.
In all the crowd of evil and wicked men that the world is pestered withal, there are none, by common consent, so stigmatized for unworthy villany, as those who are signally ungrateful for singular benefits. If persons are unthankful unto them, if they have not the highest love for them, who redeem them from ignominy and death, and instate them in a plentiful inheritance, (if any such instances may be given,) and that with the greatest expense of labour and charge ; — mankind, without any regret, doth tacitly condemn them unto greater miseries than those which they were delivered from. What, then, will be the condition of them whose hearts are not so affected with the media- tion of Christ and the fruits of it, as to engage the best, the choicest of their affections unto him ! The gospel itself will be " a savour of death " unto such ungrateful wretches.
2. That which the Scripture principally insisteth on as the motive of our love unto Christ, is his love unto us — which was the principle of all his mediatory actings in our behalf