1 [Fire or power ?]
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another. Whatever duties you do perform, be they never so great and glorious, never so useful one to another, to any of the members of Christ ; if they are not quickened and animated by this love, they are of no value to thy communion with Christ, and edification of the church. And men may perform many things that appear to be duties of love, without love. In the two verses before the text, saith the apostle, " Put on therefore, as the elect of God, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. But above all these things put on love." So that all these things may be, yet not love. Those which seem to be the greatest and most effectual fruits of love whatever, yet they may be all without love. We may forbear without love, forgive without love, be kind to one another without love; and all this of no use, if above all these things, over and upon them, we do not superinduce love, — if we be not quickened and acted by love. The truth is, he that shall read over the New Testament, especially those things which we have most reason parti- cularly to consider in it, — which are the special instructions and com- mands that Christ left unto his disciples when he was going out of this world, — would think this same love, whatever it be, is the sum and substance of all that Christ required of us; as indeed it is. And the apostle John, who lived long, and lived to see the Christian reli- gion much propagated in the world, and very probably saw a decay of love, wrote his First Epistle almost to this very end and purpose, — to let us know, that there was neither truth of grace, nor evidence of the love of God to us, nor of our love to God, unless there was fervent and intense love towards the brethren. Whatsoever we think of our profession, if there be not an intense love unto the brethren, we have neither the truth of grace, nor evidence of God's love to us, or of our love to God.
But you will say, then, " What is this love?"
I answer briefly, It is a fruit of the Spirit of God, an effect of faith, whereby believers, being knit together by the strongest bonds of affec- tion, upon the account of their interest in one head, Jesus Christ, and participating of one Spirit, do delight in, value, and esteem each other, and are in a constant readiness for all those regular duties whereby the temporal, spiritual, and eternal good of one another may be promoted.
I will a little open the description I have given of it, and so pro- ceed : —
1. This love, concerning which I speak, is a fruit of the Spirit, Gal. v. 22, " The fruit of the Spirit is love." There may be, and is im- planted in some natures, a great deal of love, kindness, and tender-
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ness, in comparison of others that are froward ; but that is not the love here intended. That which renders it peculiarly gospel love is its being the product of the Spirit of God in our hearts. Truly, I cannot turn aside to every particular, to show how we may know whether love be a fruit of the Spirit, or arising from our own natural inclination ; but you must inquire into it upon those general rules that are given to discern and distinguish such things. This only I say, it is a fruit of the Spirit, a product of the Holy Ghost in us, or it belongs not to our work.
2. It is an effect of faith. So saith the apostle, " Faith worketh by love." How doth faith work by love? how doth faith set love on work? When it respects God's command requiring this love, his promise accepting it, and his glory, whereunto this love is directed, — then doth faith work by love. And it is not the love we aim at, which we design and press upon you, if it proceed upon any other account but this, — because Christ commands it, and promises to accept it, and because it lies in a tendency to his glory. Self may work by love sometimes, — flesh, interest, or reputation may work by love ; that is, by the fruit of it : but it is that love which faith worketh by that we alone intend.
S. It is that love which doth knit together the hearts and souls of believers with entire affection one unto another. For the apostle tells us, Eph. iv. 16, speaking of that communion which the church hath by love, " The whole body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint and part supplieth." Now, we can supply nothing to one another but by love; and from thence issues delight and esteem. " All my delight," saith he, " is in the saints," Ps. xvi. 3, " and in them that excel in the earth." And there is that valuation, that we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren ; that is, to be willing to expose ourselves to difficulties and dangers, our lives to hazard, yea, to lay them down, if the edification of the church so require. The martyrs of old did not lay down their lives for Christ personally only, but for Christ mystical; they not only laid them down in faith, but in love,— love to the church. The apostle saith of all his afflictions, " 1 fill up the measure of the afflictions of Christ, for his body, which is the church." He bore his afflictions out of love to the church, as well as out of faith and love to Christ personally, that there might be no offence, scandal, or temptation befall the church. That their faith might be confirmed and strengthened was a great reason why the martyrs laid down their lives. And it should be so with us, if we come to be called thereunto. This is that love which the Scripture speaks of; and not that careless, negligent, car- nally-influenced love which the world, I had almost said, nay, I will say it, which too many professors abound withal, and no more. And