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a sense of the constraining power of Christ, it comprehends all others, 1 John v. 3, " His commandments are not grievous." When a soul works out of love, what it doth is " not grievous." And the inward and outward commands of Christ will be grievous to all that are not under the constraining power and efficacy of his love.
I have no more to say, but only to tell you that we should labour to have our hearts affected with the love of Christ in this ordinance. I have showed you the danger if it be otherwise; and given you some ways to examine your hearts, whether they are so affected or not. The Lord grant that where they are, it may be increased; and where they are not, that God would renew it by his Spirit in us.
DISCOUESE XXI.1
We have had, through the providence of God, so good and so sea- sonable a word unto the present occasion, that there is no need, as well as but little time, to offer any thing farther unto you; yet a few words, in compliance with what we have heard, may not be alto- gether unseasonable or unuseful.
'Our business and duty is, to set forth the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therein principally to call to mind his love. What you have heard may very well occasion us to think of that passage of the apostle wherein he earnestly prays for them, —
Eph. iii. 19, — " And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge."
This is a peculiar kind of expression. The meaning is, that we may know that experimentally, which we cannot know comprehensively ; — that we may know that in its poiver and effects, which we cannot comprehend in its nature and depths. A weary person may receive refreshment from a spring, who cannot fathom the depths of the ocean from whence it doth proceed. And if we would have our hearts, in this ordinance, and at other times, affected with the love of Christ, which is the thing we are to aim at (to know his love, and to expe- rience the power of it), it is of great advantage to us to consider that it is such a love as passes knowledge ; that our faith concerning it must issue in admiration, not comprehension.
I shall name two or three things that may give a little sense of this love as it passes knowledge.
1. The love of Christ is the fountain and spring of all the glory
1 Delivered October 29, 1676. VOL. IX. 39
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that is in heaven, or shall be there unto all eternity. God's eternal glory is eternally the same, " From everlasting to everlasting thou art God ;" but all the created glory that is in heaven, or that ever shall be there, springs out of the love of Christ. It is true, the angels w ere not redeemed by him ; but they w ere confirmed by him. They were not recovered out of a lost estate by him ; but they were con- tinued in their first estate by him. Hence it is that God gathered all things in heaven and earth unto a head in him, Eph. i. 10. And there is a great deal to the same purpose in that expression of the apostle, when he had mentioned " principalities and powers/' Col. i. 17, " By him all things consist ; " they have their consistence in him. All would dissolve and fall to nothing, if they had not their consistence in Jesus Christ. Certainly this is a love that passes knowledge, that is the fountain and spring of all the glory that is in heaven. If God help us by faith to look within the vail, and to take a view of all those glories wherewith the holy God is encompassed, we shall see that this love is the fountain and spring of them. The interposition of Christ saved the creation, and brought in that everlasting glory that shall dwell in heaven. God knows this love, — God understands the way of it ; but as to us, it passes knowledge.
Again : 2. This love of Christ passes the comprehension and know- ledge of angels; and therefore Peter tells us, 1 Epist. i. 12, speaking of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that followed, "Which things," says he, " the angels desire to" bow down and "look into."1 The angels in heaven live in an admiration of the love of Christ unto sinners ; that is, that love he expressed in suffering, and in the glory that did ensue. And, oh ! what thoughts ought we to have of this love, who have all the benefits of it? The angels had no benefit by the suffer- ings of Christ ; but their benefit and advantage ensued on the assump- tion of the human nature to bring the creation into a consistence, and m his interposition between God and all his creatures. They admire and adore it. What ought such poor creatures as we are to do? It may well be said to pass our knowledge, for it passes the knowledge of all the angels in heaven.
3. It passes knowledge, in that the effects of it in Christ himself pass all our knowledge and comprehension.