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The Matchless Love and In-Being of God - by Richard Sibbes (A sermon in two parts)

Here is a copy of the 2 sermons preached under the title of The Matchless Love and In-Being of God by Richard Sibbes. The text is taken from a text conversion of the pdf so there are numerous typos. I hope they don't put you off. A real struggle you may have is can you trust a man dressed in napkins, a struggle indeed. Still, I wonder how we'll look to the 400 year futurites.

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND IN-BEING

NOTE. 

' The Matchless Love and Inbeing ' appeared in the first edition of The Saint's 

Cordials, 1G29. It will be observed from the full recapitulation in the commence- 

ment of the first of these sermons, that the two so designated formed part of a series, 

expository, in all probability, of the whole chapter. These not having been preserved, 

accounts perhaps for the withdrawal of ' The Matchless Love and In-Being' from 

the after editions, of 1G37 and 1658, of the ' Cordials.' The title page will be found 

below.* G- 

* THE 

MATCHLES LOVE, 

AND IN-BEING. 

In two Sekmons. 

Whcreiti is shewed, 

' That we may be Assured of Gods loue vnto vs : 

Helpes for Weake Cliristians how to attaine vnto this loue : 

Helps how to know that we haue it in vs : 

That Christ is in all beleeuers : 

j How to know that Christ is in vs : 

I How in a seeming absence he is discouered to be in the Soule : 

1^ How to keepe Christ there, and how to recouer him being lost, &c. 

[Woodcut here, as described in Vol. IV. page 60.] 

Vpeightnes Hath Boldnes. 

Ephes. 3. 17, 18, 19. 

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in loue. 

May be able to comprehend with all Saints, what is the bredth and length, and depth 

and height : 

And to hioio the loue of Christ, which imsseth knowledge, that ye might be filled with 

all the fulnesse of God. 

LONDON, 

Printed in the yeare 1629. 

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 

SEKMON I. 

I have declared unto them thy name, and Iicill declare it ; that the love where- 

with thou hast loved me may he in them, and I in them. — John XVII. 26. , 

The dependence we have heard heretofore, when I entered upon the first 

part of this verse. Our Saviour intending to have committed his disciples 

to the love of his Father, that they might be the fitter objects of his love, he sets down here his own care for the present, and for -the time to come ; 

for it is hypocrisy in prayer when we pray for that that we endeavour not. 

For as he prays the Father to take them into his charge, so he sets down 

his own care about them : * I have manifested thy name, and I will,' &c. 

The verse contains this blessed act of Christ. 

1. What he hath done. 

2. What he will do. 

3. The end of it. 

' I have declared thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith 

thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.' ' I have declared, 

and will declare.' This I unfolded at large the last day. Among many 

other things, this one I observed, that we are in a jierpetaal projiciencij in 

this life. We never know so much, but we may know more, and we ought 

to know more. So that by consequence there is a perpetual necessity of 

Christ's prophetical ofiice. ' I have declared, and I will declare,' &c. We 

see the church in general f/rew to knowledge h>j degrees, till Christ, the Sun 

of righteousness, came gloriously in the flesh ; till John pointed at him with 

the finger, ' This is the Lamb of God,' &c., John i. 29. And as the whole 

body mystical, so every member ; we grow to knowledge by degrees. ' I 

have declared,' &c. Christ doth fit his work to our exigents. We need 

further knowledge, and he is bountiful to promise a further declaration. 

' I have, and I will.' He is never weary of ivell-doing. As his love is 

infinite, so his expression is unwearied that comes from his love. A ground 

of special comfort, as we shewed, to all Christians, especially to the labouring, 

weak Christians, that their beginnings are pledges of further degrees. For 

Christ, where he is Alpha, he will be Omega ; and where he is the author, 

he will be the finisher of our faith ; where he hath laid the first stone, he 

will set up the roof at length. ' He hath declared, and he will declare.' 

VOL. VI. B b 

886 THE MATCULESS LOVE AND INHEING. 

He is not such an unwise builder as will leave his work. He knows what 

he can do, and therefore we may enter upon all the means of saving know- 

ledge, with this confidence, that we have a teacher that will cari'v us along 

from one degree of knowledge to another. And let us never despair for any 

insufficiency of parts. It is no matter what the capacitij or the incripacity of 

the scholar he, ulwn there is such a teacher. When God is the teacher, it is 

no matter how dull the learner is, for Christ doth not only hring doctrine, 

but he brings wit, grace, and abilit}' to the inward man ; that is, not only 

a declaration, as man doth teach the outward man, but he unlocks and 

opens the heart, the ears of the inward man, as he opened Lydia's heart, 

&c., Acts xvi. 14. Let none distrust if they be conscionable* and careful 

in the use of good means. Many other things, I observed hence, which I 

will not be large in unfolding. ' I have declared to them thy name,' &c. ; 

that is, that whereby thou mightest be known. Now in the covenant of 

grace, God would be known by the sweet name of Father, by the attributes 

of mercy and love. That whereby he will be known is his name, his mercy 

in the covenant of grace in condescending to be our Father in Jesus Christ, 

together with the sweet attributes of love and mercy, from whence all 

spring. This is his name. Now he will not be known only to be the God 

of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; the God that brought them out of the land 

of Egypt, or out of the North ; but he will be known by the name of ' the 

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' and our Father ; to be the Father of 

mercy, and the God of all comfort. Thus we must labour to present God 

to us now in his right name. This name makes all other names sweet 

that he hath. For being once gracious and merciful, and a Father in 

covenant, his power is ours, his wisdom is ours, and all is ours. Then this 

name of God is .set forth at large : 'Jehovah, Jehovah, merciful, forgiving 

iniquity,' &c., Exod. xxxiv. 7, ' I have declared thy name,' &c. But this I 

stood at large on. 

What was the end of our blessed Saviour in this his gracious dealing ? 

* That the love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them, and I in them,* 

In unfolding of which words, I propounded these general heads, to omit 

other things. First, That God doth love Christ, because he is the first object 

of his love, his own image ; for he represents God's attributes, and whatsoever 

is good in him, every way exactly. He is the Jedidiah, the beloved of the 

Lord. He is the true Isaac, the true matter of joy. He is the first Son, 

the first beloved. This was the first thing we unfolded and made use of. 

The second was this, lltat after Christ, God loves all that are Christ's with 

that love ivhcreivith he loves Christ. There is a former love, indeed, of God, 

to give us unto Christ ; but I speak of the carriage of our salvation, all 

which is in Christ, He loves Christ, and he loves us in Christ, and not 

otherwise. There is a love that moved him to give Christ, but this love 

must concur with the other attributes. It must be such love and mercy, 

and so apprehended, as must be without offering violence or wrong toother 

attributes. His justice and his holiness must not be wronged. And there- 

fore though he bare love to those whom he knew before all worlds ; yet 

in the carriage of salvation he intended actually so to set his love upon 

them, as that it should be in one that should make satisfaction for them, 

being considered as sinners in themselves. And God would have, in our 

salvation, the glory, as of infinite love to man, so of infinite hatred of sin, 

and likewise of infinite wisdom, in reconciling these together. His infinite 

hatred to sin, how could he shew it more, than that rather than he would 

* That is, ' conscientious.' — G. 

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INCEING. 887 

not have it punislied, liis Son must become incarnate, to bo a surety for 

sin and to take it away ? How could he shew his infinite love more, than 

by giving such a gift as Christ, and his infinite wisdom, than to devise such 

a way as to bring these two together, justice and love, to reconcile them ? 

So though God loved a certain company whom he foreknew to everlasting 

life, yet he intended, in the carriage of their salvation, to do it with the 

manifestation and glory of his attributes, that no attribute might be wronged 

nor complain, and that justice might fully be satisfied ; but especially that 

his mercy and love miglat triumph. For what in God stirred up a fatherly 

heart ? What stirred him up to reconcile justice and mercy, but love, that 

set on work all other attributes, his mercy, and love, and goodness ? God 

loves us in Christ therefore, and only in Christ ; because in Christ only 

his wrath is satisfied. Christ only is the mediator, the only treasury of 

the church to convey all to us. The adopted sons have their excellency, 

and all that they have, in the virtue of the natural Son. But this I have 

unfolded at large heretofore, and shewed the use of it last day ; this was 

the second thing. 

The third general thing out of the text is this, that the love of God to 

us is ill Christ, loving us in him, as electing us, and doing all good to us in 

him. It is the ground of all other favours and graces whatsoever. And 

therefore he sets it here for all in all, ' I have declared, &c., that the love 

wherewith thou lovest me may be in them,' &c. What ! doth he not say, 

that I might be merciful to them and pitiful, and that they may have 

other graces that love me ? What needs all this ? He sets down the 

spring of all, ' I have manifested thy name,' thy gracious name, that in the 

apprehension of that they may find my love. And so", when we feel the 

love of God and of Christ, know that all other graces flow from thence ; 

for indeed all graces wrought in us issue from God's love to us first. 

Whence comes pity, and mercy, and love, but from God's shining in our 

hearts first by his love, that doth mould and frame the heart to all duties 

and graces whatsoever, and to the first grace to love God ? For how can 

we love him unless we have an apprehension of his love first ? You know 

iron, and stones, and things that are cold of nature, if they have any heat, 

we say it is the sun that hath heated them, or the fire that hath warmed 

them, because intrinsecally they have no heat. So when there is any good- 

ness in the creature, any pity, mercy, or love to God, or to those that are 

his, it implies, that there hath been first the fire, the light of God's love 

to us. And therefore, saith Christ, ' I have manifested thy name to them, 

that thy love may be in them.' This love in them will be enough to set 

them on fire on all good things whatsoever. ' We love him, because he 

loves us first,' 1 John iv. 19. We know him, because he knows us first, 

Gal iv. 9, and we choose him, because he chooseth us first. We joy and 

delight in him, because he joys and delights .in us first. All is a reflex 

from him, whatsoever of good comes from us. This was the third thing. 

We made thence use of it, and so brake off. To go on. The fourth thing 

■which I propounded to speak of out of the words is this, that this love of 

God to 7is mag he knoivn, and ought to he known of us. 

It may be known with an experimental and with an applicatory know- 

ledge. The next was, that the tcay to knmv God's love to us, is the mani- 

festing of his name in the gosjiel: that follows by the connection of them 

two together ; and the last is, Christ heing in us, which I cannot come to 

at this time. So then now, to clear this point, that ice mag, and it is our 

duty to do it, to labour to know God's love to us. We ought to labour that 

388 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 

God's love may bo in us, and that we may know it, not generally that he 

loves us, but that his love is in us, that it is incorporate and invested into 

us, to have a taste and be sensible of it. For this is the end of Christ's 

prayer, ' That the love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them,' &c. 

And the next way to know it, which we shall speak of at this time among 

the rest, it is this, ' The manifesting of God's name by Christ.' For the 

first then. 

Doct. 1. That we ina]i, and ouf/Jit to k)ioiv God's love to lis in Christ. 

That we ought to know it ; what need I be large in the point ? I will not, 

because it is so clear. For if it be, as I shewed the last day at large, the 

spring of all duties, of all other graces, which sets all on work, then surely 

we ought to labour for that which may make us good, and not only good, 

but comfortable. Now all our goodness, and comfort, it comes from this 

original, the knowledge of God's love to us, when that is in us, for we have 

no love to him until we know that we are beloved of him. 

1. We cannot he thankful to God till we know that he loves lis in Christ. 

I speak of his peculiar love as a child. Who can be thankful for that 

which he knows not ? It overthrows all thankfulness and denies it. We 

ought to labour for the assurance of the love of God in Christ. For it is 

a duty to joy in the Lord as our portion. Now we must be certain of his 

love first. How else can we practise this duty of rejoicing in the Lord 

alway ? What joy and cheerfulness can come without the love of God 

shining upon us and enlarging our hearts to joy ? As the shining of the 

sun enlargeth the spirit of the poor creatures, the birds, in the spring time, 

to sing, so proportionably the apprehension of the sweet love of God in 

Christ enlargeth the spirit of a man, and makes him full of joy and thanks- 

giving. He breaks forth into joy, so that his whole Hfe is matter of joy 

and thanksgiving. 

2. Again, In suffering any cross, any oj^iwsition, ivho icill endure to lose 

his temporal goods, Ids life and liberty, to he restrained any ivay, that knows 

not God's love? Who will abide anything for him that he loves not? 

What doth set us to sufier all things that may be for God ? The appre- 

hension that he loves us. What makes a man willing to end his life, and 

to yield up his soul to God ? He knows he shall yield his soul to him as 

to a father that loves him, that will save his soul. Can a man be willing 

to leave his home here, when he knows not whether he shall have a better 

or no ? Can a man commend his soul to one that he knows not to be his 

friend ? No. Can he commend such a jewel to one that he knows not 

but to be an enemy ? Can he say wdth Simeon, ' Lord, let thy servant 

depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation ' ? Luke ii. 29. 

Doth not all joy and comfort come from the love of God in Christ? What 

should I enlarge the point? We can neither have grace, nor joy, nor 

sufier anything with thankfulness, nor end our days with joy and comfort, 

till we get assurance that we are in the covenant of grace, and that God's 

love is in us. 

And therefore it is clear to anybody that knows anything in religion, or 

desires anything, that we ought to labour that God's love may be in us. 

I beseech you, therefore, make use of it to see the abominable doctrine of 

popery — I cannot speak too hardly of it — which teacheth that we ought to 

doubt of God's love. It cuts the sinews of endeavour. Who will endea- 

vour after the attaining of the love of God, and this assurance, when this 

is laid in the way, that we ought not to do it ? Ai-e we not prone enough 

to disti'ust, but we must be taught it ? Is not Satan malicious enough, 

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 389 

but we must light a candle to him, and ai-m his malice with this doctrine, 

that we ought to doubt ? He is the master of doubtings ; for the works 

of darkness, and all the discomfort and sin that he brings on us is in dark- 

ness, in this particular darkness, that we know not whether we be the 

children of God or no. And therefore, say some, why should we leave our 

gain, our profit, and our present pleasures that we have ? And what doth 

he aim at by the sins he tempts us to, but to shake our assurance of God's 

love ? Well, they teach the doctrine of devils in divers things, amongst 

which this is one that strengthens the kingdom of Satan much, that people 

ought to doubt, and that there is no way or means to get assurance of God's 

love. This is to overthrow the intent of Christ's prayer. Wherefore doth 

he pray here, and what doth he promise in his prayer ? That God would 

shew them his love, and that he may do it: 'I have declared thy love,' &c. 

So it is clear that we ought to answer Christ's aim. Why doth Christ 

declare his Father's name ? And why are all the means of salvation, but 

that we may have God's love in us ? Is it not our duty, then, to answer 

Christ's course, and his promise, and his love ? Taking that, then, for a 

ground, that we ought to labour to have God's love to be in us, we will shew 

that we may attain to it, and come to know that God loves us. I will not 

be long in it, it is a clear point, which heretofore, upon another occasion, 

I have spoken of. 

We may attain to it. Here is the way, as I shall shew in the next point, 

* By the declaration of God's name.' For what is faith, which is the work 

of the gospel and grace of the new covenant, but the apprehension of the 

love of God in Christ ? It is nothing else ; and therefore we may attain 

to it in the covenant of grace. Faith is nothing but the act whereby we 

apprehend this effectual love of God to us in Christ. Therefore we that 

are Christians may attain to it, because we have the Spirit of God, which 

* searcheth the deep things of God,' 1 Cor. iii. 10. Our spirit knows what 

is in us, and God's Spirit knows what is in God, and we have the Spirit of 

God to shew us the things of God, and all the benefits and fruits of his 

love, with the affection itself. The Spirit searcheth the deep things of God, 

as it is in 1 Cor. ii. 10. It is a point I have heretofore followed at large. 

A Christian in the covenant of grace, he knows that God loves him. There 

is no truth in the world so illustrious, so gloriously and apparently* true, 

as this. Would you have a better pledge of his love than Jesus Christ, 

the Son of his love, to be given for us, the dearest thing that God hath ? 

He would not have us doubt of his love that hath given such an invaluable 

thing as his own Son to assure us of it, besides all that comes from this ; 

for if he have given him once, he gives all things with him. He that hath 

given us his Son for our Eedeemer and Saviour, he gives us heaven for our 

inheritance, and his Spirit for our conduct, guide, and sanctifier, Rom. 

viii. 32. He hath given angels for our attendants. He gives us peace, 

and joy, and all things. In Christ, we have all. But here, because it is 

a main point, I will enlarge myself a little, and speak as familiarl}- as I can 

to every conscience. 

Quest. 1. How shall a sinner, that is not yet converted, be persuaded of 

God's love to him ? 

Quest. 2. And how shall we, in the time of temptation, deal with sinners 

in the state of grace ? I speak of the ordinary course, how a Christian may 

be persuaded of it. For the first, which is, how those that are unconverted 

may be drawn to the sense of the love of God, to find that they have any 

* That is, ' manifestly.' — G. 

yOO THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 

portion in it at all, that they may havo it for tho time to como, though they 

feel not yet any goodness in them. 

Ans. 1, I answer, We must draw them to a sense that they are not yet in 

the love of God, by those things, that their corniptions suyyest to them to mea- 

sure the love of God by. As, for example, you have a company that think 

their case is good, because God hath given them outward blessings, and 

accompanies his blessings with patience and long-suffering ; gives them 

parts and gifts, and preferments in the church ; gives them place, great 

estimation, and such things. Hereupon they begin to reason. Certainly 

God is in love with me ; though, if a man should search their lives and 

examine them, you shall find that there is no act, no evidence of God's 

special love to them at all. Such, therefore, must bo convinced, that they 

must not measure God's love by these things ; that that which is common 

to castaways cannot bo a character and sign of God's love ; but these things 

are common to castaways. Did Abraham give Ishmael, and the rest of 

his children, moveable things ? but Isaac had the inheritance, Gen. xxv. G, 

seq. Esau had his portion in the things of this life, but Jacob goes away 

with the blessing. The blessings of the left hand, castaways and repro- 

bates may have in abundant measure, God fills their bellies with abun- 

dance of outward things, whose hearts he never fills with his love, as in 

Dives, Luke xvi. 25. Not to enlarge myself, look on such instances. 

What tend they to, but to shew that these outward things are no evidences 

of God's love ? and for God's patience in enduring me in such a state as I 

am in, that is no argument. For God in his patience endures the vessels 

of wrath, who treasure up ' wrath against the day of wrath,' Rom. ii. 4, 5, 

God sufiering them to prolong their days in judgment, that so he may pour 

tlie full vials of his wrath upon them. He suffers them, to lead them unto 

repentance ; and they, not making a right use of it, God after justifies his 

vengeance and judgment the more, when he pours it upon them, so that 

plenty in outward things, accompanied with patience, is no true sign of 

God's love. 

Like think of parts and gifts. Had not Judas excellent parts? Nay, 

the devil himself, who comes near him in the depth of understanding and 

policy ? &c. Judas had a place in the church, he was an apostle. And 

for gifts, Ahithophel and Saul had gifts of government. All these are no 

evidences of the love of God to be in us as yet, or that he hath any interest 

in us. The way, therefore, to 'bring those that have not the love of God 

to love God, is to shew them their vain confidence, that they trust to a 

broken reed, and to that which in the time of sickness, the hour of death, 

and the day of judgment, will deceive them, seeing they trust unto a cracked 

title. Well, if the consciences of such as are not yet in the state of grace 

be once awaked, we may thus draw them to be within the compass of the 

love of God. Otherwise, when they see the vanities of other things, and 

likewise that there is sin in them, somewhat that lays them open to the 

wrath of God, then Satan will help their conscience, Satan and their con- 

science will tell them ofttimes all, and make them reason. As for such a 

wretch as I, there is no hope ; I had as good go on in a sinful course, and 

have somewhat in this world, as to want heaven and the comforts of this 

life too. And so Satan keeps them in darkness, because they think it is to 

no purpose to go about another course, and that it is impossible they should 

come to assurance. Such kind of conceits he hath. 

But we must know, that in the covenant of grace now in the gospel, this 

is not put as a bar of God's love, that I am a sinner, that I have committed 

TUE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INKEING. 

891 

any degree of sin wliatsoever. None are shut out but those that will be as 

they are. And therefore all objections are taken away in the promulgation 

of the gospel. Ay, but I am guilty, and Oh, I am laden witla sin ! ' Be 

of good comfort, thou art called, thou art the man. Come unto me all 

ye that are weary and heavy laden,' Mat. xi. 28. Oh that I might find 

mercy, says one. Why, ' Blessed are the hungry and thirsty ; blessed are 

the poor in spirit ; blessed are the mourners,' Mat. v. 3, 4 ; and ' Ho, 

every one that thirsteth, come,' Isa. Iv. 1. There is hope for thee. He 

keeps open house for every one. He shuts out none but those that shut 

out themselves, that think these things are too good to be true, and there- 

fore will enjoy their pleasures, and go on still and daub with their con- 

science. But if their hearts be awakened, if they will go to God and cast 

themselves upon his mercy, whosoever is weary, whosoever is athirst, who- 

soever is heavy laden, God is no accepter of persons, but at ' what time 

soever any sinner whatsoever repents of any sin whatsoever,' God will 

shew mercy, if he come in and accept of the proclamation of pardon, 

Ezek. xviii. 22. If he come in, and will not continue in his rebellion still, 

but cast himself upon his mercy, and resign, and yield himself to God and 

to Christ's government, to be ruled by him, as a subject should be, he shall 

find mercy. Let the devil, therefore, keep none in bondage, in the dun- 

geon of ignorance and unbelief, for the end of the gospel is to bring in all 

such, if they will. 

But to come more particularly to such as have true goodness in them, 

and yet the devil takes all advantages to hinder the apprehension of God's 

love to them in Christ. 

Quest. 2. How shall ice in divers states and cases Iriiifj men to be persuaded 

of God's love in Christ, when conscience and Satan, together with some out- 

ward occurrents, nrge them to unbelief aiid to staf/r/er ? 

For instance, a sinner that is converted and in the state of grace, he 

may ofttimes fall into some great sin ; hereupon Satan, taking advantage of 

the sin, together with conscience, which always helps Satan in this case, 

speaks bitter things. 

Ans. 1. Thus we must answer such as are drawn by Satan to sin, and after 

accused by Satan for sin, and to whom God is presented as a hateful God, 

&c., that notnithstandinr/ theij should not be discouraged. We have many 

examples in Scripture : ' If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 

Christ Jesus,' &c., 1 John ii. 1 ; and he is the propitiation for our sins. 

We ought not, therefore, to be discouraged from going to God, humbled as 

we ought to be. Here is place for humiliation, but there is no place for 

base discouragement, and calling God's love into question. A son under 

anger is a son ; and therefore, though Satan presents to him an angry God 

for sin — for this temptation is then sharpened indeed, when it is made a 

weapon by Satan, by reason that God accompanies the sinner that is fallen 

into sin, with some judgment as a punishment — yet he ought to lay hold on 

the rich mercies of God in Christ. What should he else do ? Shall he 

run away from God ? No. A bastard, a slave, will do so ; but he runs to 

God. Even as a child, when he hath ofi'ended his father, doth not run 

away from him ; but, knowing that his father is merciful and loving, 

though he have offended him, and that he is now a son, though under his 

wrath, he goes and studies to appease his father, casts himself upon his 

favour and mercy, and will endure his correction gently. Thus ought w^e 

to do. Satan, when he hath gotten us to sin, he saith. Now you had as 

392 THE MATCULESS LOVE AND INBEING, 

God, and there is no hope for jou. So he keeps us without comfort, and 

God without service, by that means ; whereby we run deeper and deeper 

into God's books. Oh come in betimes, and repent. It will be easier. 

Thy comfort will be stronger. God will be sooner pacified. Thy heart 

will not be so hardened. Do not call in question God's love to thee ; for 

Satan tempts, and corrupts, and draws thee to sin, for that end, to call it in 

question. God may love thee, though he follow thee with shows of anger ; 

for he may be angry, and yet love thee too, as we shall see afterwards. 

Ans. 2. Again, Satan doth use as a weapon, to shake our sonship or 

adoption, and our estate in God's love, manifold temptations and crosses, 

and such like, to discourage us. He comes with * If.' ' If thou wert in 

the love of God, and the love of God in thee, and did belong to thee any 

■way, would God follow thee thus and thus, with these declarations of wrath 

and anger ?' 

I answer, A man may retort that upon Satan the tempter, and upon his 

own heart. The spirit retorts that upon the flesh : ' God corrects every 

son, and he is a bastard that hath not correction,' Heb. xii. 8. In this 

world, to thrive in a course of sin, when a man hath offended God, it is a 

sign of reprobation rather than otherwise. Every child God corrects ; and 

for poverty, shame, and the like, we must not measure God's love by these, 

for God loves us as he loved Christ. Mark here Christ's prayer : ' That 

the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.' 

Quest. How was God's love in Christ ? To fence him from poverty, 

from disgrace, from persecution, from the sense of God's wrath ? No. 

But the first-begotten Son, the natural Son, he was persecuted as soon as 

he was born ; he was disgraced, calumniated, slandered, and abused to 

the death. Nay, and he felt the wrath of God. ' My God, my God, why 

hast thou forsaken me ? ' Mat. xxvii. 46. We then may be in the love of 

God if we be no otherwise than the natural Son was, in whom the love of 

God was when he was at the worst. In the lowest degree of his abase- 

ment, God loved him then as much as at any other time, even when he 

was accompanied with the sense of the wrath of God. And therefore reject 

and beat back all temptations with this invincible argument, It is no other- 

wise with me than it was with his natural Son. Shall I desire to be loved 

any otherwise of God than Christ was loved ? His love to Christ did not 

exempt him from slander, from disgrace, from abasement, from the sense 

of his wrath, when yet he was' the Son of God always ; and I, being in this 

case, shall I doubt of my adoption ? Shall I dishonour God ? Shall I 

add this sin to the rest of my sins ? 

Satan is wonderful prone to take these weapons, to sharpen them, as I 

said before, of sin, desertions, sometime of temptations and outward afilic- 

tions; and so he comes with his ' If,' ' If thou wert the Son of God, would 

he deal thus and thus with thee ? ' It was alway his course. We must 

therefore have present, to repel all such temptations, that God loves us as 

he loves his Son, that he chastiseth every son ; and that God's love is not 

always and only manifested in exempting of us from these things. Let us 

measure God's love that he bears to us in Christ, by the best fruits of his 

love. What are those ? An heart to seek him ; to fear his name ; love 

to his majesty ; love to his children ; delight in good things ; hatred of 

that which is evil. None but his can esteem and value his love by these 

things. By these therefore, and the like peculiar marks and stamps of the 

Spirit that are in us, let us judge of his love, and not by any outward thing 

whatsoever ; for all outward crosses whatsoever befell his own Son. And 

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING, 393 

can we desire that he should love us otherwise than he loved him ? We 

are predestinate to be conformable unto him, Kom. viii. 29, and why should 

we refuse to be conformable to him in abasement, with whom we hope to 

be conformable in glory ? Let faith therefore plead against all the sugges- 

tions of Satan and accusations of conscience. By faith in the word of God 

persuade we ourselves that we are in the love of God. If we find any 

evidences of his love in our spirits, we shall come to them by and by. But, 

first, I will name one or two directions how we may come to have God's 

love in us, and how to know that his love is in us. 

1. "We may come to have his love in us, if ice he careful to preserve our- 

selves under tlie means of salvation, and if so ive do x>i'esent God to ourselves, 

as he is piresented in our glorious gospel. When we are convinced of sin 

first (I speak of such as are convinced thoroughly of a sinful state, such may 

come to the knowledge of God's love in Christ by the gospel, and by pre- 

senting God to their souls as he is presented in the gospel, to be the Father 

of mercy and the Father of Christ. The devil he puts other colours upon 

God : he presents him as a tyrant, as a judge, as a revenger, as one that 

hates him. 

2. Again, Labour to be such as God may love us. God loves his own 

image. Wherefore doth he love Christ, but because he perfectly repre- 

sents him ? If we would come to have God's love in us, beg of him, that 

by his Spirit he would stamp his likeness in us ; that as he is light, we 

may be light ; as he is love, so we may have love ; as he is pitiful, so we 

may have our hearts enlarged ; as he is free in love, so we may be free in 

love ; and that we may be holy, as he is holy ; that as he hates sin, so 

we may hate it ; that we may joy in him, affect what he doth affect, hate 

that which he hates ; that so he may look upon us, as his own image, and 

delight in us, as the representation of his own likeness. 

3. Again, We may come to have God's love, by more and more sequester- 

ing ourselves and our affections from conformity xvith his enemies ; for this 

helps the other. If we would be like to God, and so come to have him 

delight and solace himself in us, we must withal labour to be unlike the 

world and wicked persons, that are yet in the state of corruption and dan- 

ger of damnation. Let us labour not to conform ourselves to them, but to 

frame ourselves clean of another fashion ; for you know, if we fashion our- 

selves to the world, the world is not of God, but it is God's enemy. How 

shall God delight in us, when we delight in courses that are sinful, wretched, 

and worldly ? The world must perish, be condemned, as Paul saith, 

' God afflicts us that we should not be condemned with the world,' 1 Cor. 

xi. 32. The world lies in mischief. Our especial care, therefore, must be, 

that we have no correspondency with it. 

4. But especially, to come to that which I intend to make a distinct 

point, by the Spirit, and Christ's manifesting of -God himself in the gospel: 

* I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love 

wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.' 

Exhortation. Beg of Christ, therefore, the spirit of revelation, as it is 

Eph. i. 17, that you may know what is the exceeding love of God in Christ ; 

and see the height, and breadth, and depth of God's love in him. Beg of 

Christ to shew the Father to us. You know what that holy man said in 

the gospel, ' Shew us the Father, and it is sufficient,' John xiv. 8. So 

desire we no more but to see the Father once. We must go to Christ, that 

he would shew us the Father ; and we must go to God the Father to dis- 

cover his Son. For either or both discover the other. God draws us to 

894 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INnEINO. 

Christ. * There is none come to me,' saith Christ, ' but the Father 

draws them.' And Christ opens and discovers the Father to us, and 

the Holy Ghost discovers them both ; for as ho proceeds from both, so 

he shews us the love of both. He shews us the love of the Father and 

the Son. 

Labour, therefore, for the manifestation of Christ, that Christ would 

manifest his Fathei''s love to us, and that God would manifest Christ by 

his Spirit : that the Father would give us his Spirit, and the Son would 

give us his Spirit, which is his love. For God's love is always with God's 

Spirit, This Spirit comes from him, and his love is always with his Spirit. 

The same Spirit that sanctifieth us, that witncsseth, is the Spirit of love. 

Now Christ doth manifest this. We must not only pray, but we must 

know how Christ manifests himself. 

Christ doth manifest God's name to us, as I said before, which is his 

truth. He opens the understanding by his Spirit^ and then he speaks to 

every man's particular soul by his Spirit. ' I am thy salvation ;' he gives 

faith, &c., Luke xxiv. 45. All knowledge of God's love is from the know- 

ledge of the gospel, together with his Spirit. For how can I know 

that God loves me, but by his own word and Spirit, by his own Son, 

Christ ? I say, the Spirit and the word, which are divine, they persuade 

me of God's love. That must be above nature, above Satan, and above 

all opposition whatsoever, that convinces my heart of God's love in Christ. 

The arguments must be divine, taken out of God's truth ; and those truths 

must be set on by the Spirit of God, which is above my spirit, and by 

Christ, God and man, who sends his Spirit. This will silence all objections 

whatsoever that the heart can make, as indeed our hearts are full of cavils 

against the love of God. God's Spirit will do it by Christ, together with 

the truth, the word and Spirit going together. And therefore, because I 

cannot enlarge myself, beg the Spirit of revelation ; and because the Spirit 

and word go together, attend always upon the word, and think the pro- 

mises are God's promises, and desire that Christ would set the promises 

upon our hearts, that we may know the things that belong to us in par- 

ticular. 

Use. Well, if this be so, that the declaring of God's favour and mercy is 

the way that his love may be in us, as it is, then what shall we think of those 

that are enemies to the declaration of the name of God, the preaching of the 

gospel, to the reading of Scripture '? They are enemies of our comfort 

and of God's glory. For how shall I know that God loves me, but by 

declaring his name by the word, and by the Spirit ? Christ by the Spirit 

and by the word declares his Father's name, and so I come to know the 

Father's love to me. How pitiful is the estate of those souls that live 

where there is no means, no word of God, no declaring of God's name ? 

Can the love of God be in them ? No ; this manifesting of God's love, it 

is with the manifestation of the truths of the gospel. ' I have manifested 

thy name in the teaching of the word, that thy love may be in them.' Let 

us therefore be persuaded to attend upon the means of salvation, and upon 

the Spirit of God, together with the means. God will work together with 

the means of salvation, and persuade our hearts of his love to us in Christ, 

if we attend meekly upon them, at one time or other. 

Ohj. Oh, but I have attended long upon the means, and have prayed, and 

yet I cannot find the love of God to me. 

Ans. 1. Wait, wait a while ; all are not called at one hour. Josias was 

called when he was young, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 2 ; and so Timothy, 2 Tim. 

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 895 

iii. 15, and Joseph when they were young ; Paul when he was old. Those 

that were converted at Peter's sermon were men of years, Acts ii. 38. 

Wait ; the good hour will come. God perhaps will have thee under the 

law a little longer hefore thou come under grace. He will convince thee 

of thy cursed estate thou art in by nature, make thee see thyself more 

vile ; and when he hath wrought and perfected the work of humiliation, 

then in time call thee. Leave not the porch of wisdom's house, leave not 

the manifestation of God's truth ; for in time God will speak to thee, and 

will say to thy soul that he is thy salvation. To come to an evidence or 

two of this estate. 

1. We may know that we have the love of God in us, among other 

things, if ive come by this love by the manifestation of God's name, the mani- 

festation of the truth of God, which is his name revealed in the gospel ; if 

we have the love that we pretend we have of God in us, we can say it came 

by the declaration and manifestation of God's truth with his Spirit ; from 

thence I came to know God's love to me. 

2. I may know it likewise in that I love God again freely. He hath 

loved me, and therefore I love him. I will not ofiend him, if it were to 

save my life. I love his truth so, I value it as a pearl, above all things. 

I could sell all, I could part with all, rather than with that. Therefore 

God's love hath been heretofore certainly made known to me, in that I so 

love God and value his truth. 

3. Seasonable afflictions (which the devil moves us to think evidences of 

God's hatred), they are evidences of his love, if they be sanctified, to make us 

jealous of our ways, and to see the depth of our corruptions the more, that 

we can never see sufficiently in this life. They are arguments of God's love. 

But especially this, 

4. If our love to God come from the word and Spirit, and from good things, 

that are manifested from thence. When thou dost find God's love in thee 

in regard of some beginnings of faith, hope, love, hatred of evil, and that 

there is peace, and joy, and such like things in thee, which are peculiar, 

then comfort thyself in thy portion, whosoever thou art, whatsoever estate 

thou art in for outward things. St Paul, we see, for outward matters, 

what a kind of man he was. He reckons up his own afflictions and abase- 

ments ; but how full of thankfulness was he, because he knew that God 

loved him in Christ, that God's love was in him ! 2 Cor. xi. 26. Our 

Saviour, Christ, what did he care for all these outward things ? He knew 

his Father loved him. Let us therefore labour to have our part and por- 

tion in this peculiar love of God, and to be assured that God's love is in 

us ; and for other matters, let us leave them to God's wisdom, who knows 

what is good for us, and beg of God thus : Lord, I do not ask of thee riches, 

I ask not glory, I ask not preferment in the world, I ask none of these : I 

ask thy love, in which all is that is good. For the love of God it is a rich 

love, as that love that he bears to his Son. If he love me once, he loves 

me as he loves his Son. Now, he loves him freely, and richly, and un- 

changeably, and with an incomparable love. God's love both to him and 

us, it is an incomparable love. For what is the love of a father but a 

drop from his love ? And what is the love of a mother ? ' Can a mother 

forget her child? Yet if she could, I would not forget thee,' saith God, 

Isa. xlix. 15. So David, 'When my father and mother forsook me, God 

took me up,' Ps. xxvii. 10. Behold the incomparable love of God to us ! 

And therefore if we have that, we have all that is good. 

The love of God, though with afflictions, with crosses, with whatsoever 

396 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 

in the world is contrary, yet it is the most desirable estate ; for one 

glimpse of God's fatherly countenance in Christ, it will make us in such 

a case as we shall not care for any affliction whatsoever. Paul in the 

dungeon, God gave him a taste of his love, and -what did he care for 

whipping ? for the darksomeness, for the nastiness and noisomeness of 

the prison ? Acts xvi. 25. He was, as it were, in paradise. God's love 

was in him. If God's love he in us, if we be with Daniel in the lions' 

den, the den shall be a kind of paradise. I say, where God is, there ia 

paradise ; yea, indeed, where God's love is, there is heaven itself. So we 

have God's love, it is no matter what we want ; nay, it is no matter in what 

state of misery we arc in this world. 

If God have kindled love in us, there is no such sweet estate. If it 

come from God, it will make us digest anything. Love it will put such 

life in us, that we shall want or suffer anything quietly. When we feel 

the love of God in us, that he loves us to immortality, that he loves us to 

life everlasting, to an inheritance immortal and undefiled, that he loves us 

in things that accompany salvation, peculiar blessings, this will swallow up 

all discouragements whatsoever, it will make us be in heaven before our 

time. The sense of the love of God, when it is shed into our hearts, as it 

is Rom. V. 5, what will it do ? It will make all tribulations, afflictions, 

crosses, and wants sweet unto us. ' The love of God,' saith he, * is shed 

into our hearts by the Spirit.' AVhen the Spirit of Christ Jesus is shed 

into our hearts, and witnesseth to us the love of God and of Christ, it 

makes us rejoice under hope, triumph in all tribulation, in all estates 

w^hatsoever, as he saith excellently, Rom. v. 3-5. But now to add one 

thing. 

Quest. When doth Christ manifest his Father's love most to us by the 

Spii-it ? 

Ans. I answer. This is not at all times alike. For it is with a Christian's 

soul as it is with the days of the year, or the seasons of the day. There is 

foul and fair, there is darkness and light, there is an intercourse, not always 

an even apprehension to us of God's love in Christ at all times. God sees 

reasons why it should not be bo. Among many there are these, 

1. To sharpen our desires of heaven, which is a constant, immutable, 

unchangeable estate. 

2. And likewise to make iis ivatchful, that when we have tasted of God's 

love we do not lose it. 

3. To make its observe how we lose it at first, that so we may recover it 

again. 

4. To be a correction to us liken-ise for our boldness to sin, and keeping 

carnal company, dc. Many ends God hath to withhold the taste and sense 

of his love to us, that we may fear him at one time as well as at another. 

Quest. But when is it most of all ? 

Ans. God's love is in us most u-hen ire stand most in need of it, in 

extremities. When no creature can help us, when we stand most in need 

of the manifestation of God's love, we have it. When do parents shew their 

love most of all ? Is it not in the extremities of their children ? Then 

they [bejmoan them, and pity them, whom before in the time of health 

they corrected sharply. But now they see the child is sick and distempered, 

now they shew all love to it. So when all comforts are taken away, then 

God's comforts come in place, and then especially ; for then they are known 

to be God's, who doth all things as shall be most for his glory. Then it is 

most for his glory to help when none else can, and then it is most for the 

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 397 

comfort of a poor distressed Christian ; for then God comes, as it were, 

immediately, and doth help even to the ravishing of the soul. If a prince 

or a king, not sending any messenger, should come to a man immediately, 

in his own person, and should say to him, Fear not, you shall want nothing, 

you shall have the best encouragement I can, &c.. Oh what a comfort would 

it be to any man ! Yet what are all these to the sweet report of God's love 

in Jesus Christ ? When nothing else can help us, then God's Spirit comes 

immediately to us, and tells us. Be of good comfort, heaven is yours, God 

is yours, Christ is yours : all is yours to work for your good. And he doth 

not only feed them with promises, but enlargeth the soul with present 

comfort. 

Who would therefore be discouraged from enduring anything for God's 

name, being cast into extremity, when that is the time specially to feel 

God's love more than at other times ? the sense and feeling whereof in 

Christ is the best estate in the world. There is no estate comparable to 

the sense of God's love. What makes heaven heaven, as it were, but the 

sense of his love ? of his sweet fatherly face in Christ shining upon us in 

his Son, and persuading of us that we are his sons ? Why, this divine 

comfort that comes from the favour of God, it is that that makes all nothing, 

commands all the creatures, rebukes all, Satan and all. The beams of 

such a rich and gracious God is above all discouragements ; for they are 

human or diabolical ; they go no higher ; and if they be discouragements 

from the sense of the wrath of God, from divine desertion, when God shews 

himself an enemy, yet when he discovers himself a friend and a father in 

Christ, they all vanish, even as a cloud, as a mist, before the sun. What 

are all earthly discouragements to the sense of God's" love in Christ ? 

Thus we see how God's love is manifested to us by manifesting of God's 

name by Christ, and when especially, and to what end : ' That thy love may 

be in them,' saith Christ. 

Use 1. Do but raise these thoughts in your meditations, irhat a compre- 

hensive tliincj this is that Christ aims at in his 'praycr, and in his endeavour ; 

' I have declared thy name, and I will,' &c. 

Is not this therefore a main thing that we should aim at, that Christ 

aims at ? Must not this needs be an excellent state, to have the love of God in 

us? Let us therefore, to conclude all for this time, have it in our thoughts, 

and in our aims, that God's love may be in us. It is no matter who hates 

us, if God loves us; if God and his love be present with us, it is no matter 

what troubles be present. Though we be in the valley of the shadow of 

death, if God be with us, and the assurance of his love to our hearts, it is 

an heaven upon earth. Rejoice in your portion, whosoever you be, that 

find the love of God to you in regard of the best things. 

We see it is the aim of Christ's prayer, and of his endeavour. It is the 

aim of the declaration of the gospel, that God's, love may be in you ; that 

when God, in regard of his Spirit, and grace, and comfort, is in you, you 

may have a rich portion. Would you have more than God himself, and 

his love ? What if you want a beam ? You have the sun itself, God's 

love. You want perhaps riches or friends ; ay, but you have God's love, 

which is a wise love. If he saw it were for your good, you should not want 

them. If you want a stream, you have the spring itself. Eejoice there- 

fore in this your portion ; let it be an argument to comfort you, and an 

argument and motive of endeavour to us all, to labour to find this love of 

God in us ; and to root and purge out of your souls all other things that 

cannot stand with the love of God. Desire God by his Spirit to subdue 

898 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INnEING. 

in us, and to work out of us mightily, by the strong operation of his blessed 

Spirit, whatsoever cahnot stand with his love in Christ ; that he would 

reign and rule in us by his blessed Spirit ; that he would make us such, 

that he might, as it were, keep his court in us ; that he would make our 

hearts, as it were, an heaven for himself to dwell in ; that he would cast 

down all high and proud thoughts whatsoever ; that his love may be in us. 

Use 2. And ivhcn ice ivant any r/race, pitiful hearts, love to men or God, 

we must take the method here laid down. I know all this comes from the 

want of the feeling of God's love to me ; for if God's love were rooted in 

my heart, if it were as hard as steel, it would make it flexible, pliable, piti- 

ful, and tender to others, and I should love God again. My heart is cold 

and dead ; what is the reason of it ? I feel not God's love, and therefore 

it should edge our prayers thus : ' Lord, let me feel thy love in Christ ; I 

cannot love holy duties without the manifestation of thy love ; and there- 

fore manifest thy love to my soul.' ' I give you a new commandment,' saitb 

Christ, * that ye love one another,' John xiii. 34. 

Quest. Why, whence comes this commandment of love to the brethren 

in the gospel to be a new commandment ? 

Sol. Because the declaring of the name of God, of his mercy, and of his 

love in Christ, gives us new hearts ; and where there is more manifestation 

of God's mercy, there is more love to others ; and therefore, because there 

is a new enlargement of God's love in Christ, therefore it is a new com- 

mandment. The heart is set on fire now with the love of God, which is 

manifested in Christ, which was not declared before. 

And therefore, if we would have nevv hearts for this new commandment, 

this love to God and to others, let us labour to have the declaration of the 

name of God ; more of the mercy of God in Christ ; more declaration by 

his word and Spirit; that so by his sanctified' means, having his love in us, 

we may have new hearts, new love, and new afi'ections to one another. 

This is the way, in the want of grace, to come to get the love of God in 

Christ ; desire him that he would by his Spirit reveal himself, and reveal 

Christ to us ; and that we may see the dimensions of his love, ' the height, 

and breadth, &c., of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,' Eph. 

iii. 19, and then all our grace and comfort will follow. 

When we are in darkness we are glad to come into the light of the sun ; 

so when we have anj^ distemper in our souls, let us come to this light of 

God's love in Christ, and by' oft meditation of God's word, see there how 

he presents himself to us a father in covenant ; not only a friend, but a 

father, a gracious father; beg with all means, with reading, with hearing, 

with conference, with God's Spirit, to reveal his fatherly affection in Christ, 

and for other things they will be easy. 

I speak this the rather, because men go plodding upon duties, and take 

not a right method. When we find any distemper and deadness of spirit, 

search what is the cause of it. If it be negligence, irreverence, or any such 

thing, let us repent, and do the first works. But let us always take this 

in : ' Lord, shew thyself, shew thy love ; thy pardoning love first, and then 

thy curing love ; thy forgiving love, and then thy giving love. I am in a 

sinful state, forgive that which is amiss, and give me that which I want ; 

shew thy large love every way, both in giving and forgiving ; heal me and 

cure me ; let me feel this thy love in the sweetest peculiar fruits of it ;' and 

then reformation will follow upon all, then our care will be continual, when 

we have the love of God so to walk as that we may abide in that love, and 

that love in us, that we do not displease him, nor give occasion of distaste. 

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 399 

Therefore there must be a great deal of reverence and love, much humility 

and watchfulness, if we would preserve ourselves in the love of God. For 

when one hath once tasted of his love, it is his desire alway to taste it, to 

taste how gracious the Lord is, Ps. xxxiv. 8. If we therefore would so do, 

let us watch narrowly, as he that would keep his acquaintance and love 

with a great person. For we must know the distance between the great 

God and us. There must be humility. Humble thyself, and walk with 

thy God, and ' make an end of your salvation with fear and trembling,' 

Philip, ii. 12. With a fear of jealousy, especially that we grieve not the 

Spirit, that ' seals us to the day of redemption,' Ephes. iv. 30. And there- 

fore, if we have the Spirit witnessing this love, which is the cause of all 

comfort and all grace, grieve not the Spirit, quench not the Spirit. When 

the motions of it come, resist not th§ gracious Spirit with carnal delights ; 

let the Spirit have a full work ; let us lie open to the Spirit of God. God's 

love reigns in us then, when we will do nothing contrary to it. 

Now the sweetest fruit of it in us is his Spirit. Let us not quench nor 

resist the Spirit, but cherish it by all duties, and by all holy means. One 

day led thus by a Christian, though with some conflict with corruption, in 

the taste and sense of God's love to him in Christ, is worth all contentment 

that this world can afford. And therefore David knew well enough what 

he wished, Ps. iv. 6, when he desires * neither corn, nor wine, nor oil.' 

Let them, saith he, desire what they will, but, ' Lord, shew me the light of 

thy countenance,' and in it I shall have all that I desire to have; and without 

that I care neither for corn, nor wine, nor oil, nor any thing. 

So let it be our prayer that God would shew his love and mercy, that 

he would shew his love to us in Christ, which is better tlia"n life itself. And 

then for other things, be at a point, be indifferent. We see the apostles' 

prayers in their epistles, all of them being led by the same Spirit. They 

pray for grace, and mercy, and peace. Why do they not pray for all other 

things ? To shew if they had grace, and mercy, and the love of God, they 

have all. If we have not that, it is no matter what we have. But some 

other things there are to be unfolded, which must be referred till another 

time. 

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 

SERMON II. 

That the love ivherewlth thou hast loved me may he in them,, and I in them. — 

John XVII. 26." 

I HA\^ spoken at sevei'al times of this verse. We propounded formerly 

out of it these points to be handled : 

First, That the love wherewith God loves his own Son is the love where- 

with he loves those that be in him. 

Secondly, That God loves his own Son best and first. 

Thirdly ,"^ That the love of God is the cause of all good to us. 

Fourthly, That this love of God may be known. 

Fifthly, That one way and ground to know that God loves us with that 

love he loves his own Son, is the manifestation of God's name : the mani- 

festation of God's truth in the gospel. By that we come to know that God 

loves us ; for this is the coherence of the text, ' I have manifested thy name 

to them, that thy love may be in them.' So then, the scope, as we see 

hence, of the gospel, and the manifesting of it, is to lay open the riches of 

God's love to us, that we may know that God loves us in his beloved Son 

Christ Jesus. Indeed, so it is. For we have a throne of grace discovered 

to us in the gospel — God reconciled in Jesus Christ. All is love and mercy 

to those that are in Christ. ' I have manifested thy name, that thy love 

may be in them.' The more, therefore, God's name is manifested, God's 

truth and the covenant of grace, his love and mei-cy, his name whereby he 

is now known in the gospel, the more, I say, it is discovered and laid open, 

surely the more we know God's love, which is as a banner. Cant. ii. 4, 

* displayed over us' in the gospel. The use of a banner, you know, was to 

draw swords under it. Now God's love in the gospel is displayed as a 

banner ; and therefore it hath an attractive, drawing force, to bring us 

under the sweet government of God in the gospel, because there we are 

under God's love ; and his love, where it is displayed, is like a banner. 

But this I shall have occasion to touch hereafter. 

The point that I am now to take in hand is this : That Christ doth mani- 

fest his Father's name, his love, his mercy, his goodness and truth, ' that 

God's love may be in them, and himself in them.' 

We see, then, that God's love and Christ do go together. Wheresoever 

THE MATCHLESS LOTE AND INBEING. 401 

his love is in the best things, there it is in Christ, and with Christ : ' That 

thy love may be in them, and 1 in them. ' This is eternal life, to know 

thee, and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ,' John xvii. 3. All comes 

from God's love to us, together with Christ and in Christ. "Where Christ 

is not, there is not the love of God ; and where the love of God is, there 

is Christ. The sweet combination of the Trinity is not only a pattern of 

love and agreement to us, that we should love one another, but a main 

ground of comfort likewise ; for they join in love for our good. The Father 

loves us as he loves his Son, and with his Son. Where Christ is, there is 

his Father's love ; and where his Father's love is, there is Christ. ' I am 

in the Father, and the Father in me,' John x. 38. All that the Father hath 

is mine, and all that I have is the Father's. 

I say, it is not only a pattern of agreement, that we should labour to 

agree as the Trinity, which is an exact form of unity, but it is a ground of 

special comfort; they agree in our good and eternal salvation. The Father 

looks upon us as we are in his Son ; as he hath given us to him to bring 

us to salvation by his merit and passion. Christ looks on us as we are in 

the Father's love. ' Thou gavest them me ; ' and we look on ourselves, 

first, in Christ, and then in God's love, when we see ourselves in Christ. 

So that there is this mutual interview, God loves us as we are in his Son : 

he is in the Father, and we in Christ. We see ourselves in Christ, know 

ourselves in him, and love ourselves in him, as having our being and living 

in him, and we are known by him, and his love is known by us, because 

they go both together. ' That thy love may be in them, and I in them.' 

' And I in them.' 

We are in Christ, as the branch in the vine, as the members in the head, 

knit to it in the body ; and he is in us as the vine is in every particuhu' 

branch ; as the head is in the members by his influence, imparting unto 

them life, regiment,* and motion. ' In them ; ' that is, for the explication 

of the term, ' that I may be in them,' and dwell in them as in a temple, 

in a house ; that I may infuse strength into them, as the vine into the 

branches ; that I may impart spiritual life into them, as the head into the 

members. This is tlae end of my manifesting thy name, that I may be ia 

them, that so thy love may be in them. I might hence observe — I will 

but touch it — that whosoever knows not Christ, nor hath a being in him, 

hath nothing to do Avith the Father, by combining of these two parts to- 

gether, ' That thy love may be in them, and I in them.' 

' I in them.' 

Doct. The end of Christ's manifestinf/ his Father s name is, that he may be 

in them, and that his Father's love may he in them. To unfold the connec- 

tion a little. 

Quest. How doth this hang together, ' I have manifested thy name to 

them, that I may be in them ' ? 

As thus : 

Sol. God's mercy and truth in the gospel, the covenant of grace, are all 

in Christ, and for Christ. This being discovered and manifested to the 

soul, the soul sees the love of God in the gospel. There it is opened and 

discovered. There is offered God's love and mercy in forgiving sins, and 

in giving all privileges in Christ, not only discovered, but offered to all 

believers that will receive Christ. Thus all the good in him being dis- 

covered and ofiered to the soul, hereupon it comes to lay hold upon Christ, 

* That is, ' government.' — G. 

VOI^. VI. c c 

402 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 

and to embrace him, as oflcrcd of the Father, and presented unto it by the 

Spirit of God, given together with the gospel and the manifestation of it. 

The Spirit works faith and behef in the heart, which closeth with Christ 

thus ofi'ered ; so Christ dwells in the heart by faith. Faith ascends to 

heaven, and lays hold on Christ ; faith goes back to Christ crucified, and 

Christ dwells in the heart by faith, Eph. iii. 17. Upon the manifestation 

and discovery of the Spirit, it being given with manifestation, faith is 

wrought, by which Christ dwells in the heart. ' I have manifested thy 

name, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them,' &c. 

Now, for some observable points, observe this, 

Doct. 2. Christ is in all believers. 

His further dwelling and discovering himself to believers is the end of 

this manifestation of God's name in the gospel. Christ is in them, as 

the vine is in the branches ; as the head is in the members, Christ is in 

them all. 

Christ is in all believers. 

Here is a notable bond of union between them, Christ by his Spirit is in 

them all, therefore they should all labour to be one. Christ is one in them 

all, not divided ; his Spirit is the same spirit in them all. It were an excel- 

lent thing, if all the men in the world had the same thoughts, the same 

religion, the same aims, the same affection to good things, all as one man. 

How strongly would they then be carried against any opposition whatso- 

ever ! And how comfortable would they be in themselves, if all had one 

heart, one afl'ection, one aim ! This should bo, and this is the end of 

Christ's prayer. It is the end of all, to bring us all to be one in ourselves, 

to be one in him and in the Father. Now here is one argument to enforce 

it, that all may agree in good things, in our aims, love, and affections. 

There is one Christ, there is one head of all the members. ' I in them.' 

We must take heed that we do not think this phrase to be a shallow phrase, 

as it is in common life. We say of two friends, there is one soul in two 

bodies, because the soul lives in the party loved ; and so to make it nothing 

but a matter of affection.* No ; ' I in them ;' that is, I dwell in them, 

because I love them ; so it would be, that we are in Christ because we love 

him ; and so Christ and we make one soul in two bodies, as though it were 

nothing but an unity, a dwelling in regard of the affection he bears to us. 

No ; I am in them, and I have manifested thy truth, that I may be further 

in them. It argues more than union in affection, as in marriage there is 

more than the union of love, there is the bond that interesteth the wife in 

all the goods of her husband. Christ is in us more than in love, for he is 

in us indeed. 

Quest. Ay, but is he in us body and soul, and Godhead, and all ? What 

need this, as the papists will have him in the sacrament ? 

Sol. No ; but he is in us in regard of his human nature, because his 

Spirit is in us, and the same Spii'it that sanctified that nature, the same 

Spirit sanctifieth us. So there is an union between us and his human 

nature, though it be in heaven. As I said, the last day, of the sun ; the 

sun is in the house when the beams of the sun is there ; so when we find 

the efficacy of Christ, that Christ dwells in us by his Spirit, though his 

human nature be not there, yet, notwithstanding, the power of the grace of 

Christ is there, because the same Spirit that sanctified his human nature 

sanctifies and comforts us, and doth all. It is a wonderful working and 

operative being when Christ is said to bo in us. Even as the vine doth 

* Cf. uote b, Vol. II. p. 194.-G. 

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 403 

transfuse juice and life to the branch, whereupon it comes to be fruitful, 

so we must conceive deeply of this phrase, ' I in them.' To omit other 

things ; 

Quest. How shall we know that Christ is in us ? 

Sol. 1. This is one way, if Christ be born in us once. If he be in us 

by his Spirit, he will work f/reat matters in us, there will presently he tumults 

in the soul. For Christ when he is in us, he comes not to friends, but he 

finds all in rebellion and in opposition ; when he is in us therefore, pre- 

sently there are stirs in the soul. Even as, as soon as ever he was born 

into the world, you know Herod was mightily troubled and all Jerusalem 

with him. Mat. li. 3. Herod had little cause, but much troubled he was. 

He thought one was born that would have dispossessed him, and therefore he 

was jealous, much troubled, and labours to kill him if he could. So it is 

when Christ is born in the soul, there are tumults. Those lusts that bare 

sway before, those desires, down they go, they plead prescription, and are 

loath to yield. Natural desires, that have been from before, are loath to 

yield to Christ, a new comer. He is as a new conqueror that comes with 

new laws, fundamentally new. He overturns all the laws of lust and of 

the flesh. He comes in more strongly ; and thereupon in conversion, 

wheresoever Christ is born, there is first a strife, the soul doth not presently 

yield to him. This is spoken of those that have not been converted from 

the beginning. There are some now in the bosom of the church, that have 

no violent conversion from a wicked estate to a good. But from a less 

degree to a greater, they grow more and more. They have the Spirit of 

Christ from the beginning. They are not much troubled with such inward 

oppositions. 

2. Where Christ is, he will drive out all that is contrary. As when he 

entered into the temple, he drave out the money-changers, and whipped 

out those corrupt persons there. Mat. i. 12, so, as soon as ever he 

comes into the soul by his Spirit, out go those lusts, those desires that were 

there before, worldliness, profaneness, fury, and rage, wherewith the 

soul was transported before, that possessed the habitation that God should 

dwell in. When Christ comes in, he scourgeth out all. Where these there- 

fore are in any force, there certainly Christ is not. 

3. Again, Where Christ is, he doth ride ; for he takes the keys of the 

house himself, and governs all in some measure. He gets into the heart, 

rules, and sets up a throne there. For I make account* if he go no deeper 

than the brain and tongue ; that is, to give him no better entertainment 

than he had when he was born, to be put in a manger. No ; where he is — I 

mean, where he is in the heart and affections — there he rules ; and where he 

takes not his lodging in the affections and in the heart, in the joy, desire, 

and delight, he is not at all to any purpose. To have him in the brain to 

talk, and in the tongue to discourse, and to keep the heart for worldly lusts 

and such things, I account not this an inbeing of Christ to any purpose, 

to any comfort. Where Christ is comfortably, he takes his throne and 

lodging in the heart, he dwells in it by faith. By heart, I mean, especially, 

the will and affections. He draws the will to cleave to him, to choose him 

for the best good. And therefore where (Jhrist dwells, there is an admiring 

of the excellencies, and of the good things that are in him, and contentment 

in him above all things in the world. For he dwells in the heart and affec- 

tions, especially in the will. The will chooseth him to be an head and 

husband. It cleaves to him as the chief good. The affection of joy, it 

* Qu. ' no account ' ? — Ed. 

404 THE MATCHLESS LO^'E AND INBEING. 

joys in him above all tilings. The afTection of love and desire, of zeal in 

his cause, is strong against those that oppose him and his truth. Thus 

he takes up his seat and his throne in the heart wheresoever he is in truth. 

4. And, therefore, this follows upon that too. Where Christ is in the 

heart by faith, and takes up the all'ections, there is a base esteem of all the 

excellencies in this tcorhl whatsoever. Moses did but see afar off the excel- 

lency that came by Christ, and he accounted all the pleasures of sin for a 

season to be nothing, Heb. xi. 27, and took upon him the rebuke of 

Christ rather. St Paul accounted all but dung and dross, Philip, iii. 8 ; 

all his former works, all his pharisaical excellency, and all things else ho 

accounted as nothing, and of no value, having in his heart and soul an 

admiration of the all-sufliciency and excellency in Christ. Zacchcus, as 

soon as ever Christ came once into his house —but he was in his heart 

before he was in his house, or else he had never done it — he grew liberal : 

' Half my goods,' saith he, ' I give unto the poor,' Luke xix. 8. He loved 

extortion and base courses before, but now down they go, he will be no base 

dealer, no oppressor any more. No ; the half of his goods he gives to the 

poor, and he satisfies those whom he had wronged. 

And so the disciples, howsoever they were busied before, when Christ 

once took up his lodging in their hearts, and opened their spirits by his 

Spirit, to see wherefore he came into the world ' to save sinners,' and 

opened their eyes to see the excellency that was in him, away goes all the 

trash that they were exercised in before, that they might follow Christ. 

Matthew follows him presently, Luke v. 27 ; and so the rest. It is impos- 

sible that the heart which entertains our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ into 

it, should have in over-much admiration any earthly excellency whatsoever. 

For it is the nature of the soul, upon the discovery of better things, to let 

the estimation of other things of less value to fall down presently. As we 

see in civil things, children, when they come to be men, they are ashamed 

of childish toys. So it is with a man that is converted : when Christ enters 

he so opens the understanding, and enlargeth the heart to see and admire 

better things, that presently it begins to care nothing for this world in com- 

parison. Thus we see how we may know whether Christ hath taken his 

scat and lodging in us or no. 

5. To go on a little further. If Christ be in us, he doth frame its to him- 

self. He doth transform us to his own likeness, where he rules by the 

Spirit ; for he is such a head fts changeth his members, such an husband as 

changeth his spouse, 2 Cor. iii. 18. Moses could not change the com- 

plexion of his Ethiopian wife : she was black, and he left her black. But 

Christ renews and changeth his spouse. He is such a head as quickens 

his members ; such a vine as puts life in the branches. And therefore yoa 

may know by this altering, changing, transforming power, whether heb6 in 

you or not. He alters and changeth us to his own likeness, that as he is 

set down in the gospel in his life, conversation, and disposition, so, if we 

have entertained him and he be in us, we should have the same disposition, 

the same mind, and the same will with him ; for he will alter us to him- 

self, that ho may take the more delight in us. We shall judge of things as 

he judgeth of them, we shall judge meanly of outward things. There will 

be a delight to do our Father's will, as it was his meat and drink to do his 

Father's will, John iv. 3-1. AVe shall have a spirit of obedience, as he had, 

to look to our Father's glory, and to his commandment in all things. We 

shall have compassion and melting hearts to the misery of others, as he had 

bowels yearning to see sheep without a shepherd. We shall have humble 

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 405 

and meek hearts, as he had. ' Come, learn of me, for I am humble and 

meek,' Mat. xi. 29. For where he dwells, I say, and takes up his throne, 

he alters and changes the disposition in all things to be like his own. For 

when he comes to the soul, he takes up all the parts thereof, and keeps out 

all that may hinder his work. He takes up the eyes, the ears, the under- 

standing, and the affections ; and even as we shut up the doors and windows 

against all that is contrary to us, so the Spirit of Christ, where he is, shuts 

the door of the senses both to Satan and all his suggestions, and whatso- 

ever else might hurt us. 

6. Where he enters likewise, lie possesseth the whole inivard and outward 

man to hunsclf. He changeth it like to himself; he rules the eyes, the 

ears, the hands ; he renews all, that our delights are clean other than they 

were before. If there be such a" power in his truth, that, like a scion 

engraffed, it doth change us into itself, certainly where Christ dwells, he 

hath as much power as his word. His word is like leaven, which alters 

the whole lump to be like itself. For the word engraffed makes the soul that 

beheves it heavenly like itself, 1 Cor. v. 0. How is this ? Because Christ 

comes with his word, leavens, alters, changeth, and turns the soul. Christ 

by his Spirit and word is said to do it, because the Spirit of Christ comes 

with the word, which doth all. Those therefore whose dispositions are 

contrary to Christ, Christ is not begotten in them. For certainly he doth 

alter and change and fit his temple for himself, and drives out and chaseth 

thence, as I said before, all that is contrary ; and keeps the door of the 

senses, and possession against all. He useth every member as an instru- 

ment of the Spirit and weapon of defence. 

7. Again, You may know who dwells within, hy what servants come out 

of the house, and icho comes in. Would you know who dwells in the soul ? 

See what comes from within the house : filthy thoughts, blasphemous 

words, oaths, rotten discourse ; eyes full of adultery, ears open to receive 

that which may taint the soul. Who dwells here ? Christ ? No ; where 

nothing but filth comes out, the devil dwells there. These two are imme- 

diate opposites ; there is no third ; either Christ or the devil dwells in us. 

Now when nothing comes out of a man but scorning of goodness, and that 

which is rotten and offensive — if there be other things, they come from the 

brain, and not from the heart ; they have no seat there — the devil is there ; 

Christ and his messengers are not there. There come no good thoughts, 

no good desires, no good speeches ; and is Christ there ? Is Christ in the 

heart, that drinks in corruption at all the senses ? that lets open all the 

senses to all that is naught,* to hear all kinds of things that may cherish 

corruption, that will be at these corrupting exercises, that will see all that 

may blow up the flesh ? What is this within that is thus cherished ? Is 

Christ fed with filthy discourse, with filthy spectacles ? Doth Christ, in us, 

delight in these things ? Oh no ! Who dwells there, then, that is thus 

fed ? Sure the spirit that is there fed is the devil. The devil dwells in 

our spirits, and in our corruptions, which are like the devil, in that pro- 

portion that he dwells in us, and stirs us up to feed him with these things, 

to the destruction of the soul. No, no, from the heart where Christ ia 

proceed often prayer, sighs, and groans to God, and fruitful discourses to 

others ; and all the senses and passages of the body arc open for good 

things. He hath desires to see that which is good, which may edify. He desires to speak, and to have others to speak, that which may feed the soul. 

The lips of the wise feed many,' saith Solomon, Prov. x. 21. So where 

* That is, 'naughty,' wicked.— G. 

406 THE MATCULTiSS LOVE AND INBEING. 

Christ is, Christ's Spirit is thus fed. Thus familiarly have I discovered to 

you how you may know whether Christ he in you or no. 

Quest. What if he be not ? 

Sul. He must be, or else you are reprobates. So saith the apostle, 

2 Cor. xiii. 5, * Ivnow you not that Christ is in you, except you be repro- 

bates ?' He means not eternal reprobates, but this, If Christ be not in you, 

the devil and cori'uption are. Anatomise a carnal man, and what is in 

him ? In his brain, a company of wicked plots and devices of the world ; 

in his heart, a deal of love of the world, and of money ; in his memory, 

matter of revenge ; in his conscience, that which will stare upon him at the 

day of death, and that which will damn him unless he repent. Examine 

yourselves, therefore. If Christ be not in you, you are reprobates ; and he 

that hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. I beseech you, there- 

fore, take a trial, aud enlarge the point in your own meditations. Examine 

what spirit is in you. If we find the Spirit of Christ to be in us, as, indeed, 

he is in all his in some measure, what a comfortable state is this ! Ho is 

the best guest that ever we could entertain in this w^orld, for he doth that 

to the soul that the soul doth to the body. What doth the soul to the 

body ? Whence hath the body the beauty that it hath ? whence the vigour 

that it hath to work with ? to move from place to place ? whence hath it 

government to rule itself ? whence all that is excellent, good and useful ? 

From the guest that dwells in it, the soul — the reasonable, understanding 

soul. For as soon as the soul is out of the body, the body is an ugly, 

deformed thing, a dead creature, unfit for anything. It cannot stir itself, 

a loathsome thing ; it cannot rule itself, a mere lump of earth. Now, as 

the soul is to the body, so is Christ to the soul, if he dwell there. For he 

gives beauty and loveliness unto it. He transforms it to his own like- 

ness and image, that it may be the object of God's love ; that he may love 

us, not only because we are in his Son, but because his Son's image is in us. 

We have not only beauty from Christ dwelling in us, but where he is he 

w-orks and stirs us to all holy and heavenly duties. 

8. Where the Spirit is, there is often prm/er, as Christ often prayed ; a 

perpetual endeavour of doing good, as his Spirit in him stirred him to go 

from place to place to do good. Where his Spirit is, there is holiness. If 

we consider what a sweet guest Christ is, where he is there is all beauty, 

work, comfort, strength, and all. And where he is, he is for ever. He 

never forsakes his lodging, he never forsakes his house and temple. He 

had two temples built with stone ; one by Solomon, and another after the 

captivity. Both lie now in the rubbish, and are demolished for ever, and 

shall never be repaired again. But his spiritual temples he never leaves 

wholly ; for whose souls he now dwells in, he will take them by that Spirit 

that dwells in them, and carry them to heaven, to be where he is. The 

divine Spirit, that dwells in our souls now, shall quicken our dead bodies, and 

make them like to his glorious body. 

What an excellent honour and happiness is this, to entertain such an one 

as will rule, govern, and adorn our souls while we live, and carry them to 

himself and to his Father in heaven, and will quicken our bodies likewise ! 

An everlasting inhabitant he is. If Christ be in us, therefore, wo may com- 

fort ourselves. But here must be an objection answered. 

Ohj, Christ doth seem oftentimes to be absent from the soul to which he teas 

present before ; he seems to leave his house and his temple sometiines. 

Sol. I answer. He is said to leave that soul into which, shutting the 

door to his knocks, and resisting the sweet motions of his Holy Spirit^ he 

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 

407 

never actually entered. But he never leaves that soul into which he is 

once entered to dwell. Indeed, sometimes he conveys himself into a cor- 

ner of the soul ; for when he does not entertain him and respect him as he 

should, and preserve the motions, comforts, and graces of his Spirit, but 

give way to the suggestions and temptations of the devil and ill company, 

&c,, then he retires himself; but he is still in the soul. For even as God 

the Father, when he would have his own beloved Son Christ Jesus to be 

abased on the cross, withdrew not his divinity, but the sense and comforts 

thereof from Christ's human nature, that he might suffer for us on the 

cross. Matt, xxvii, 46 — loving him still notwithstanding, so that the divi- 

nity did not forsake him, but only did rest and cease to support and com- 

fort him at that time, that he might perform the work of satisfaction for 

our sins — so it is with us, though ft be a different case, when God humbles 

us for our rashness, want of reverence, of careful walking before God, and 

preserving the sweet work of his Holy Spirit : then Christ hides himself 

only, takes not himself away. 

Christ was God on the cross, but the comfort was withdrawn, that he 

might suffer. So the comfort of Christ's presence is withdrawn, that he 

may humble us for our former sins ; that we might make more of this guest 

than we did before ; that we may be stirred up to entertain him better, and 

might be more careful for the time to come, to cleave closer unto him. So 

much for the answer of that, that Christ is oftentimes in the soul, when he 

discovers not himself to be there ; as he was near unto Mary, though her 

eyes being full of tears, she could not discern him, John xx. 15. 

Quest. But how shall I know that he is there by any discovery at all, 

that he hath any being at all in the soul at such a time ? 

Sol. 1. Yes ; a man may know he is there. There will be some pulses, 

some beating of the soul. Where Christ and the love of God is, they ever 

go together. Is there any love of God, any love to him ? Again, Is there 

a longing after Christ's presence ? Is there a grieving, when we feel not 

the comfort we had before ? Oh this is a sign he hath been there. He 

hath left somewhat there by his Spirit. Though he be retired into a cor- 

ner of the soul, yet he hath left somewhat behind him to work a desire of 

further communion and fellowship with him. As it is Cant, v. 5, when 

he left knocking at the door, when the spouse would not open, he left some- 

what behind, the droppings of his fingers, that drew the love of the spouse 

to him. So that he never leaves us, no, not for to humble and abase us 

for our bold walking, but he leaves somewhat in the soul, some desires, 

some sense of his love, that they think their estate is not good till they 

have recovered their former estate. They linger after him, they are never 

pleased with earthly contentments in this temper of the soul. In deser- 

tion they are not themselves, they are not quiet, because they think Christ 

is lost. As Christ's mother, when she thought he was lost, was full of 

woe, Luke ii, 48, so a Christian soul, when it conceits that it hath lost 

Christ, it is never quiet till it have found him again. 

Sol. 2. Again, Christ may be veiy near, and dwell in us sometimes, and 

we see him not : because we may so dwell upon corruption, and be so full 

[of] grief in affliction, that we forget Christ ; as Mary, who, though Christ 

was near her, yet could not discern him, her eyes were so full of tears, 

John XX. 15 ; and as Hagar, who was so full of grief, that she could not 

see the fountain appear, Gen, xxi, IG, There may be, I say, in desertion 

of soul such grief for our other things, crosses, losses, fears, &c,, that a 

man may forget Christ, till he recover himself by meditation, prayer, and 

408 THE MATCIILKSS LOVE AND IN13EING. 

conference with others that are more skilful than himself, that can tell 

what is in him hy his pulses, discourse, and desires. Sometimes we must 

trust the judgment of others better than our own, to know what is in us. 

But I will not enlarge myself in this. Thus we may know that Christ is 

in us, which is a point of especial comfort. 

Ohj. But the soul thinks. Is the Spirit of Christ in us ? Will such an 

Holy Spirit, as that we cannot conceive him in the height of his holiness 

and greatness, vouchsafe to dwell in such sinful spirits ? We cannot con- 

ceive how the Spirit of Christ should dwell in us, that are so corrupt as 

we are. 

Sol. Indeed, I must needs say, it is an argument of wonderful love, that 

infinite holiness should be joined with such corruption, that greatness will 

be in such narrow straits, that glory will be in such an obscure place and 

habitation as our souls. Here is a wondrous condescending ; admirable 

mercy it must needs be. But let us not be discouraged ; Christ by his 

Spirit is in us, notwithstanding our corruption, because he cannot be a 

whit corrupted by it. The Spirit is an active thing, it suifers nothing. 

The spirit is as fire, which endures nothing : it is always doing, always in 

action, it is an active element. So the Spirit of Christ in us, though 

it be in us, yet it joins not with our corruptions. As the sunbeams are 

pure still, though they shine upon impure and filthy places, so Christ's 

Spirit, it is a working, fiery thing. As fire consumes dross, so the Spirit, 

being like fire, though it be where corruption is, yet it is there, as an enemy 

to it, opposing, consuming, and wasting it by little and little. 

Quest. But why doth he not do it all at once ? 

Sol. There are divers reasons : God^will have us to have matter of abase- 

ment here, to make us desire to be with him. Yet in the mean time Christ 

will be so in the Church his spouse, cleansing and fitting her for himself, 

as that by his Spirit dwelling in her she shall daily oppose, and by little 

and little subdue and bring under all corruption whatsoever, till at last she 

have gotten a full and perfect conquest and triumph over all. All the ima- 

ginations, desires, and lusts, that exalt themselves against the Spirit of 

Christ, shall be brought down at last ; the Spirit will subdue all. 

Stronger is the Spirit that is in us, than the spirit that is in the world, 

1 John iv. 4, though it be in never so little a measure ; and therefore by 

little and little will conquer all. within us, without us, the devil and all at 

the last. Thus much to answer that doubt. 

Use 1. That which further ariseth from hence, that Christ is in us, is 

not only matter of comfort, but likewise it shews and directs us how to look 

on other C'Inistians ; to look upon them as the temples and, houses where Christ 

dwells. Why should we not reverence and respect Christians for the guest 

that is in them, the Spirit of Christ ? If Christ vouchsafe to dwell in such 

a man, shall he not dwell in our love ? Shall not one place contain us 

here, that heaven must contain ere long ? We shall be all together in 

heaven, and shall we not be loving together here ? Thus considering that 

Christ is in all his, how should we respect Christians, that are the habita- 

tion of Christ, the second heaven ? For Christ hath but two heavens ; the 

heaven where he is, and the heart of a believing Christian, where Christ 

is, and rules in a comfortable measure, and will rule more and more. How 

should we value such ! Not as many cursed devilish spirits, that dis- 

grace and oppose Christ in his members. That which they do to his 

image in his children, that they would to him himself, if they had him in 

their power. 

THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 409 

Use 2. The last use sliall be an use of direction, Itow to keep Christ, and 

to preserve him, and the sense of his beiiig in us with co^nfort, seeing it is so 

comfortable an estate to have Christ in us, and that yet ofttimes we want 

the sweet comfort of his presence. In a word, mark here the dependence, 

' I have manifested thy name, that thy love may be in them and I in them.' 

Christ is in us then, by manifesting of divine truth. He conveys himself 

into our hearts, by our understandings ; he manifests his truth, the means 

of salvation, by his ordinance ; he manifests divine truths to the under- 

standing by his Spirit, which goes together with his word. From the 

understanding he goes to the heart, and there he dwells ; for manifesting 

of divine truths, and Christ being in us, go together. 

1. Those that care not for the discovery and manifesting of Christ's truth 

in the [lospel, let them never think to 'entertain Christ into their hearts, for he 

will come with his word and with his own ordinance ; his word and Spirit 

always go together. Therefore let this be one chief direction. If we will 

have Christ to be in us, to fill our hearts, and remain with us, let us attend 

upon the blessed means of salvation, and be where he is, and then he will 

be with us. He is in the church, and he is in every particular member; 

but especially where his ordinance is, there is he with the Spirit. God the 

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are all there if we have Christ in us. And 

therefore oft attend upon the ordinances of God, and communion of saints, 

and then you shall find experience of Christ. Christ joined with the two 

disciples when they were talking of him, as they were going to Emmaus, 

Luke xxiv. 15; so let us oft stir up the grace of Christ in us by conferring 

of good things, and Christ will be with us, joining with- good company, &c. 

2. Again, Would we preserve Christ's presence in us ? Labour then 

that he may dwell largely in our hearts. Now that which enlargeth the soul 

is humility. For it empties the soul, and makes it large. ; Pride swells the 

soul up, and drives out Christ. God gives grace to the humble ; Christ 

dwells in the humble soul. You know he was born in an humble virgin's 

womb, and he is new born in the womb of an humble soul. Preserve 

therefore humble, base conceits of ourselves ; that in us there is nothing 

that is good, nothing worthy to be respected, that so Christ may dwell 

largely in our hearts. Let us have no wit, no reason of our own, contrary 

to Christ, Let us have no wills, no desires contrary to his. Let us even 

give up the keys and the regiment* of our souls to him, and then he will 

dwell largely there. Humility keeps him there. If his word be our 

reason, his commandment our will, and his comfort our joy and delight, 

then he will dwell largely in us, for there is nothing in us to oppose him. 

But if we have several states of soul, distinct from his government, it is no 

wonder we banish him, when we will not live by faith in him, but by our 

wits, shifts, tricks, lusts, the examples of others, and by the spirit of the 

world. It is no wonder, I say, that we savour only of earthly things if we 

live thus. It is no wonder that Christ is not preserved in us if we be not 

ruled by his Spirit. It is no wonder that he departs from us when we set 

ourselves contrary to him, and have wills and reasons of our own repugnant 

and disagreeable to his, and ways to get wealth, and to raise ourselves con- 

trary to his gospel and truth. Will Christ rule in such a soul? No. He 

subdues all. The Spirit of Christ is like a mighty wind, as it is compared 

by Christ to Nicodemus, John iii. 8, that beats all down before it. If we 

cherish contrary desires and contrary delights to Christ, it is no Wonder if 

he delight not to dwell in such a soul. 

* That is, ' government.' — G. 

410 TUE M.VTCHLESS LOVE AND INDEING. 

3. Berj of Christ Jikeirise that he ivoiihl stai/ with jts; as tliey in the gospel, 

when ho made as if ho would have gone forward from them, Luke xxiv. 29, 

constrained him to sta}', saying, ' Abide with us : for it is towards evening, 

and the day is far spent ; ' and he went in to tarry with them. So, lay we 

hold on Christ, by the means of salvation ; stay him with us by prayer and 

importunity, especially when the night of death, and error, and superstition 

comes. Say, * Lord, night is near, stay with us, depart not from us.' Lay 

an holy violence upon God, as Jacob did: ' Thou shall not go hence.' Lay 

hold on him by prayer, and do not leave him till we have drawn virtue and 

got some blessing from him ; he must be kept by entreaty. 

4. And then desire him to perfume our souls for his dwellinff, as the church, 

Cant. iv. 16, 'Arise, north wind ; and blow, south ; that my beloved 

may come into his garden.' Desire Christ by his Spirit to blow upon us, 

that our beloved may come into his garden, that he may find somewhat 

there to solace himself wuthal — humility, love, pity, large and loving 

hearts, as himself had, to do all good. Desire him to plant those blessed 

spices of grace in our hearts, and that he would blow upon them by his 

Spirit, that they may prosper and thrive, that so he may come into his 

garden and solace himself. Let us still desire further and further com- 

munion with him; never be content. As the church. Cant. i. 1, ' Let him 

kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.' He hath been familiar, but I desire 

more still. So every Christian soul that hath once entertained Christ is 

never content till it be with Christ in heaven, but still desires a fuller 

measure of comfort, grace, strength, and assurance. And why doth the 

soul thus desire after him ? ' Oh his love is better than wine,' Cant. i. 2. 

So saith the church, having had a sense and feeling of his love. ' Thy love 

is sweeter than wine,' and therefore ' let him kiss me with the kisses of his 

mouth.' Desire therefore a more nearer communion in his love ; for it is 

sweeter than wine, being once tasted. 

5. And having got enjoyment of communion with God, shut the soul to 

other things. The comfort of his presence is a heaven upon earth, sweeter 

than wine, and above all other things to be desired. Take we heed there- 

fore that we grieve not his good Spirit, and force him to retire himself; that 

■we quench not his sweet motions by anything contrary to him. Those that 

have guests which they respect will do nothing that may be offensive to 

them. So let us watch over our souls, that nothing come in that may grieve 

Christ, nor anything come forth to grieve his Spirit in us. Let us not 

thrust ourselves into such occasions and company as may do or speak such 

things as may grieve the Spirit of God in us. Let us neither grieve the 

Spirit in ourselves, by cherishing that which is evil in our own hearts, nor 

by thrusting ourselves into the company of those whom we know by 

experience will grieve the Spirit. A man cannot go into bad compan}', but 

he must either be grieved, or tainted, and corrupted. Who would redeem 

familiarity and favour with them ? exchange comfort and sense of Christ's 

Spirit for the favour of such men as grieve the Spirit in us ? No ; a soul 

that walks in the strength of the comfort of Christ's dwelling in him must 

be watchful and jealous over himself, and preserve heavenly motions, cherish 

them, and make them strong, and banish all that is contrary. 

Qitest. But how shall I recover him again, if I have grieved the Spirit, 

and lost the sense of his being in me ? 

Sol. I will name but one means. Observe how thou lost it, and recover 

him b)j the contrary. If thou wilt renew the experience of his love, and his 

dwelling in thee comfortably, consider how didst thou lose him ? Was it 

THE JIATCHLESS LOVE AND INCEING. 411 

by negligence ? by omission of duties ? Didst tliou not read when tliou 

migbtest, or bear wben tbou migbtest ? or gavest tbou tby tbougbts liberty 

to range ? or didst tbou not walk witb God as tbou sbouldst ? didst tbou 

cast tbyself into ill company, or cberisb carnal desires ? Take a contrary 

course tben ; converse witb tbose tbat are good ; stir up tbe gi-ace of God 

in tbee by meditation, and by renewing tby purposes and resolutions ; bear 

as mucb as tbou canst ; speak to God as mucb as tbou canst ; maintain 

communion witb saints, &c. As tbou lost it, so endeavour tbe recovery by 

a contraiy way, and tben Cbrist will come again to tbe soul. We see, 

Cant, V. '6-Q, tbat after Cbrist bad stood knocking and calling to bis 

spouse, * Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled,' till 

bis bead was filled witb dew, and bis locks witb tbe drops of tbe nigbt, 

but found no enti'ance, be retired," and withdrew himself, because she 

would not rise and put on her coat. But afterward, when she endeavoured 

herself, and used contrary means to her former sluggishness, seeking him, 

and saying, 'What is become of my beloved?' &c., then Christ came 

again into bis garden, returned to his spouse, and forgat the former 

nnkindness. 

We deal witb such a Saviour, tbat though we lose the sense of bis presence 

for a time, yet if we use contrary means, and knit ourselves to bis ordi- 

nances, at last we shall refind bis love to our souls. Nay, he is so loving, 

so indulgent, tbat be never upbraids us with our former sins ; as we see in 

Peter, whom he upbraided not witb his former denial. Who would not 

maintain love, respect, and communion with such a Saviour as this, 

especially considering what a sweet estate it is to have .Christ witb us at 

all times, and in all estates, and so to have the love of God, for both go 

together ? And what are all discouragements where the love of God in 

Christ is ? What are all the creatures to God's love, to Cbrist ? Where 

the soul is persuaded tbat it is in covenant and peace witb God through 

Christ, and when it knows tbat Christ's Spirit is in it, this is a comfort 

above all discouragements whatsoever. Discouragements are carnal, out- 

ward things ; tbe comforts are tbe presence of divine things. The Spirit 

of Christ, whose presence drowns all things, it is precious above all 

creatures, strength, beauty, wit, &e., yea, and prevalent above all tbe 

afflictions and sufferings in the world. 

All afflictions cannot hinder the life of reason, and can they binder tbe 

life of grace ? No. Paul saith excellently, tbe more ' our outward man 

decays,' the more we suffer in our outward man, ' the more the life of Cbrist 

is manifest in us,' 2 Cor. iv. 16. So far are we from being hurt by any 

outward sufferings in tbe world, or discouraged by them, tbat the life and 

presence of Christ in us is thereby made more glorious, Christ triumphs 

and rules tbe more, by bow mucb the more outward opposition we have. 

If God's love, and consequently Christ, be in' us, what if all the creatures 

were against us ? Is there not more in God and Christ, than in all the 

creatures ? Made be not all things of nothing ? What made the martyrs 

in the primitive church to sacrifice their blood so willingly and cheerfully ? 

Because the love of God was manifested to them in Cbrist Jesus. His 

name was manifested and declared as a sweet ointment poured forth, which 

caused those virgins to follow him. The sense and apprehension of tbe love 

of God, manifested by the Spirit of Christ, begat in them such a love to God 

again, that was strong even to death. It engendered such an heat within, 

that made them endure all tbe heat and flame without ; so tbat all tbe tor- 

ments which the mabce and wit of persecutors could devise, could not daunt 

412 THE MATCHLESS LOVE AND INBEING. 

their iuvinciblc spirit ; but in all these things they were more than con- 

querors, through him that loved them. A sweet state it is. 

I beseech you, therefore, every day examine whether Christ be in you, 

and in what measure he is in you ; and labour to give him more room in 

your hearts. Will not the contrary daunt us ? else we are reprobates, refuse 

creatures, and the devil is in us. But contrariwise, if he be in us, he will 

fit us to bo with him. He comes to us, that we may come to be with him ; 

for why doth he dwell in us ? One main reason is, to fit us for heaven. 

Let us labour, then, that he may be in us, that he may lit us for himself, 

to dwell with him in heaven. Labour that none may rule us but his Spirit. 

In death, what a comfort will it be, that Christ is in us. The Spirit of 

Christ, that hath ruled me all my life, shall carry my soul to heaven, and 

shall raise my dead body. If Christ be in us, what need we fear judg- 

ment ? Will the head condemn the members ? Christ is in us while we 

live, and therefore joyfully we may expect judgment. Why ? Our Redeemer, 

our Saviour, our Head, our Husband, will be our Judge. Therefore, of all 

estates in the world, get into Christ, and labour by all means to get Christ 

into us, by prayer, by getting grace, &c., that he may delight and solace 

himself in us. It is the best estate in the world. 

Out of Christ, a man is as a branch cut from the vine, subject to the fire. 

Out of him, a man is as a member cut from the head, cut from the body, good for nothing, neither lively nor fruitful. Get into Christ : it is a state 

of all grace, for all grace is derived to us from him. It is a state of com- 

fort in life and death, and for ever. He is the ' second Adam ;' and as all 

our misery is derived and communicated by being born of the first, from 

whom sin and corruption is derived, and misery with sin, mortal diseases, 

and all other misery, so, as soon as the ' second Adam,' Christ, is got into 

us, his Spirit reigns to glory with us : he never leaves us till he have made 

us as himself. It should be our main endeavour in this world, therefore, 

to get out of the cursed estate we are in by nature, and to get into Christ, 

the ' second Adam,' and then we are safe. For there is more comfort in 

him than there was sin and misery in the first.