Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of Jesus as carrying on the great work of mans salvation from first to last / by Isaac Ambrose ...

SECT. VI. Of loving Jesus in that respect.

6 WE must love Jesus, as carrying on this great work of our Salvation in a way of Covenant. I know Love is reckoned as the first and fundamental Passion of all the rest; some call it the first springing and out-going affection of the Soul; and therefore I might have put it in the first place, before Hope or Desire; but I chuse ra∣ther to place it in this Method, as (me thinks) most agreeing (if not to the order of Nature, yet) to the Spiritual workings, as they appear in my Soul. When a Good is propounded' first I desire, and then I hope, and then I believe, and then I love. And some describing this spiritual love, they tell me, it is an holy disposition of the heart, arising from Faith. But to let these niceties pass for a Spiders web (curious, but thin) certain it is that I cannot believe all these transactions of God, by Christ in a Covenant-way for me, but I must needs love that God, & love that Christ who hath thus firstly & freely loved my soul;

go on then O my Soul, put fire to the harth, blow on thy little spark, set before thee God's Love, and thou canst not but love; and therein Consider, 1. The Time. 2. The Properties. 3. The Effects of Gods love. 1. For The Time; He Loved thee before the World was made: hast thou not heard? and wilt thou ever forget it? were not those ancient Loves from all eternity admirable, astonishing, ravishing Loves? 2, He Loved thee in the very beginning of the world: was not the promise expressed to Adam in∣tended for thee? as thou sinnedst in his loins, so didst thou in his loins receive the Pro∣mise, It shall bruise thy head: And not long after, when God established his Covenant with Abraham and his Seed, wast not thou one of that Seed of Abraham? If ye are Christs, then are ye Abrahams Seed, and heirs according to the Promise. 3. He loves thee now more especially, not only with a Love of benevolence, as before; but with a love of complacency: not only hath he struck Covenant with Christ, with Adam, with Abraham in thy behalf, but particularly and personally with thy self; and O what Love is this? If a woman lately conceiving, love her future fruit; how much more doth she love it when it is born and embraced in her Arms? So if God loved thee before thou hadst a being, yea before the world or any Creature in it had a being, how much more now? O the height, and depth, and length and breadth of this immeasurable Love! O my Soul, I cannot express the Loves of God in Christ to thee; I do but draw the Picture of the Son with a coal, when I endeavour to express Gods love in Christ.

2. For the properties of this Love: 1. Gods Love to thee is an eternal Love. He was thinking in his eternity of thee in this manner, At such a time there shall be such. Man and such a Woman living on the earth: in the last times such a one (I mean thou that readest, if thou believest) and to that Soul I will reveal my self, and communicate my loves; to that soul I will offer Christ, and give it the hand of Christ to lay hold on Christ; and to that purpose now I write down the Name in the Book of Life, and none shall be able to blot it out again. Oh eternal Love! Oh the blessed transactions between the Father and the Son, from all eternity to manifest his Love to thy very Soul!

2. Gods love to thee is a choice Love; it is an elective, separating Love: when he passed by and left many thousands, then, even then he sets his heart on thee: Was not Esau Jacobs brother? saith God, yet I loved Jacob, and hated Esau. So, wert not thou such an ones Brother, or such an ones Sister that remained wicked and ungodly? wert not thou of such a Family; whereas many, or some are passed by, yet God hath loved thee, and pitched his Love on thee: Surely this is choice Love.

3. Gods Love to thee is a free Love: I will love them freely, saith God, And the Lord did not set his Love upon you, and chuse you, because ye were more in number than any people, — but because the Lord loved you; there can be no other reason why the Lord loved thee, but because he loved thee. We use to say, this is a womans reason, I will do it because I will do it; but here we find it is Gods reason, though it may seem strange arguing; yet Moses can go no higher, he loved thee, why? because he loved thee.

Gods love to thee is the Love of all relations: look what a friends Love is to a friend, or what a Fathers Love is towards a Child, or what an Husbands Love is towards a Wife; such is Gods Love to thee; thou art his Friend, his Son, his Daughter, his Spouse; and God is thy All in All.

3. For the Effects of his Love: 1. God so Loves thee, as that he hath entered into a Covenant with thee. O what a Love is this? tell me, O my soul, is there not an infi∣nite disparity betwixt God and thee? He is God above, and thou art a Worm below: He is the High and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose Name is Holy: and thou art less than the least of all the Mercies of God: O wonder at such a condescention! that such a Potter, and such a Former of things should come on terms of bargaining with such clay as is guilty before him! Had we the tongues of Men and Angels, we could never express it!

God so loves thee, as that in the Covenant he gives thee all his Promises? Indeed what is the Covenant but an accumulation, or heap of Promises? As a cluster of stars makes a Constellation; so as a mass of promises concurreth in the Covenant of Grace; where-ever Christ is, clusters of divine promises grow out of him; as the motes, rayes and beames are from the Sun. I shall instance in some few. As, —

1. God in the Covenant gives the world. All is yours, whether Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas or the World, 1 Cor. 3.22. First seek the Kingdom of God, and his righteous∣ness, and all these things shall be added unto you. These temporary blessings are a part of the Covenant which God hath made to his People; It is he that giveth thee Power to

get wealth, that he may establish his Covenant which he sware unto thy Fathers. Others, I know, may have the World, but they have it not by a Covenant-right; it may be thou hast but a little, a very little of the world; well, but thou hast it by a Covenant-right, and so it is an earnest of all the rest.

2. As God in the Covenant gives thee the world, so in comparison of thee and his other Saints, he cares not what becomes of all the world. I loved thee, saith God, there∣fore will I give men for thee, and people for thy Life: If the case be so, that it cannot be well with thee, but great evils must come upon others, kindred, people and nations, I do not so much care for them, saith God, my heart is on thee, so as in Comparison of thee, I care not what becomes of all the world: O the love of God to his Saints!

3. God in the Covenant pardons thy sins; this is another fruit of Gods love: Ʋnto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins by his own blood; it cost him dear to pardon our sins; even the heart-blood of Christ: such were the transactions betwixt God and Christ: if thou wilt take upon thee to deliver souls from sin (saith God to his Son) thou must come thy self, and be made a Curse for their Sin: Well (saith Christ) thy will be done in it; though I lose my Life, though it cost me the best blood in my heart, yet let me deliver them from sin: This exceedingly heightens Christs Love, that he should fore∣see thy sin, and that yet he should Love. Many times we set our Love on some outward unthankful Creatures, and we say, could I but have foreseen this untowardness, they should never have had my Love: but now the Lord did foresee all thy sins, and all thy ill requitals for love, and yet it did not once hinder his love towards thee, but he puts this in the Covenant, I will forgive their Iniquities, and remember their sins no more.

4. God in the Covenant gives thee Holiness and Sanctification. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your Idols will I cleanse you: this Holiness is our excellency in the eyes of Men and Angels: this is the Crown and Diadem upon the heads of Saints: whence David calls them by the name of excellent ones. Holiness is a Spirit of Glory, 1 Pet. 4.14. it is the delight of God: as a Father delights himself in seeing his own Image in his Children, so God delights him∣self in the Holiness of his Saints: God loved them before with a love of benevolence and good-will, but now he loves them with a love of complacency: The Lord takes pleasure in those that fear him; the Lord takes pleasure in his People. Holiness is the very Essence of God, the Divine Nature of God: O what is this, that God should put his own na∣ture into thee? You are partakers of the Divine Nature. O what a love is this that God should put his own Life into thee? that he should enable thee to live the very same life that he himself lives? remember that piece of the Covenant, I will put my Law into their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.

5. God in the Covenant gives thee the knowledg of himself: it may be thou knew∣est him before: but 'tis another kind of knowledg that God now gives thee than thou hadst before. When God teaches the Soul to know him, it looks on God with another eye: it sees now another beauty in God than ever it saw before: for all that knowledg that it had before, bred not love: only Covenant-knowledg of God works in the Soul a true Love of God. But how doth this Covenant-knowledg work this Love? I shall tell you my own experiences: I go through all the Virtues, Graces and Excellencies that are most amiable: and I look in the Scriptures, and there I find them in God alone: if ever I saw any excellency in any man, or in any Creature, I think with my self, there is more in God that made that Creature: He that made the Eye, shall not he see? And so he that made that Loveliness, is not he Lovely? Now when by these Mediums I have presented God thus lovely to my Soul, then I begin to feel my heart to warm. As when I conceive such an Idea of a man, that he is of such a carriage, behaviour, disposition, that he hath a mind thus, and thus framed, qualified and beautified, why then I love him; so when I apprehend the Lord aright, when I observe him as he is described in his Word; when I observe his doings, and consider his workings, and learn from all these together a right Idaea, opinion or apprehension of him, then my will follows my under∣standing, and my affections follow them both; and I come to love God, and to delight in God. O here's a sweet knowledg! surely it was God's Love in Christ to put this blessed Article into the Covenant of grace; They shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.

6. God in the Covenant of grace gives thee his Son. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever∣lasting life. Nay more, as God hath given thee his Son, so he hath given thee

himself. O my Soul, wouldest thou not think it a marvellous love, if God should say to thee, Come Soul, I Will give thee all the World for thy Portion; or that I may give thee a testimony that I love thee, I will make another world for thy sake, and I will make thee Em∣perour of that world also. Surely thou wouldst say, God loves me dearly; ay but in that God hath given thee his Son, and given thee himself, this is a greater degree of Love. Christi••ns! stand amazed; Oh what love is this to the Children of men! Oh that we should live to have our ears filled with this sound from Heaven! I will be a God to thee and to thy Seed after thee, I am the Lord thy God; I will be their God, and they shall be my Peo∣ple. O my Soul, where hast thou been? rouze up, and recollect, and set before thee all these passages of Gods Love in Christ; are not these strong atractives to gain thy love; what wilt thou do? canst thou chuse to love the Lord thy God? shall not all this love of God in Christ to thee constrain thy love? It is the expression of the Apostle, The Love of God constrains us: God in Christ is the very Element of Love, and whither should Love go but to the Element? Air goes to Air, and Earth to Earth, and all the Rivers to the Sea: every Element will to its proper place: Now God is Love, and whither should thy Love be carried, but to this Ocean, or Sea of Love? Come my Beloved (said the Spouse to Christ) let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the Vines flourish, whe∣ther the tender grapes appear; there will I give thee my Loves: The flourishing of the Vine, and the appearing of the tender grapes are the fruits of the graces of God in the Assemblies of his Saints; now wheresoever things appear, whether in Assemblies, or in secret Ordinances, then and there (saith the Bride) will I give thee my Loves; when thou comest to the Word, Prayer, Meditation, be sure of this, to give Christ thy Love: What? doth Christ manifest his presence there? is there any abounding of his graces there? O let thy Love abound: by how much more thou feelest Gods Love towards thee, by so much more do thou love thy God again: many sins being forgiven, how shouldst thou but Love much?

Notes

• Dr. Preston of Love.
• Gal. 3.29.
• Mal. 1.2, 3.
• Hos. 14.4. Deut. 7.7, 8.
• Mat. 6 33.
• Deut. 8.18.
• Isa. 43.4.
• Rev. 1.5.
• Ezek. 36.25.
• Psal. 16.3. 1 Pet. 4.14.
• Psal. 47.11. Psal. 149.4.
• John. 13.6.
• 1 Cor. 5.14.
• 1 John. 4.16.
• Cant 2.12.