Or what can we have more than they, except it be given us fr(nn above? Know then, tliat, if God would burn with indignation against them for such pride and ingratitude, so will he against its, if we refuse to give him the glory due to his name. If Herod was made a monument of wrath for ac- cepting from others a tribute due only to his God, much more shall wc, if we, reversing what he has spoken, shall presume to say, " Herein is love, not that God loved us, but that lue loved him, and earned by our love an interest in his favour."]
We conclude with some suitable advice :
1. Contemplate frequently this love of God to you — [The angels are not interested in the wonders of redemp- tion as we are, and yet are ever " desiring them to look mto them." Shall we then be regardless of them ? Shall we not search into them ; and meditate upon them ; and speak of them ; and glory in them ; and make them " all our salvation, and all our desire ?" Shall we not especially consecrate to tlie contemplation of them this season which has been set apart ])y our Church for that express purpose ? O make not this a time for carnal feasting, but for holy meditation, and for de- light in God !]
2. Get your hearts filled with love to him —
[If our love be not the cause, it nevertheless shonld be the consequence of his love to us. Of this, none can entertain a doubt. Who that is in the smallest degree impressed with the Saviour's love to us, does not see the reasonableness of that awful denunciation, " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha""?" Yes, on whom soever that curse may fall, we must all acknowledge the justice of it ; and in the day of judgment, when it shall be yet more awfully denounced on the enemies of Christ, there will not be a saint or angel in the universe who >vill not add his Ameu to it, O let us now muse on his love to us, till the fire of Divine love kindle in our hearts, and we speak Avith our tongues the high praises of our God !]
3. Seek to abound in love to each other — •
[This is the improvement which the Apostle suggests in the words following our text\ In the love of Christ to us is both the reason, and the models for our love to each other. AV^as his love to us unmerited ? we also should freely exercise love even to the evil and luithankful. Did his love lead him to forego the glory and felicity of heaven, and to sulnnit to the accursed death of the cross for us ? such should be our love to our fellow-creatures: there should be no measure of labour
or
' 1 Cor. xvi. 22. « ver, 1 1 .