munion with him in it, and be no more troubled about it. Yea, as your great trouble is about the Father's love, so you can no way more trouble or burden him, than by your unkindness in not believing of it." So it must needs be where sincere love is questioned.

4. The apostle teaches the same, Rom. v. 5, "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy, Ghost, which is given unto us." God, whose love this is, is plainly distinguished from the Holy Ghost, who sheds abroad that love of his; and, verse 8, he is also distinguished from the Son, for it is from that love of his that the Son is sent: and therefore it is the Father of whom the apostle here specially speaketh. And what is it that he ascribes to him? Even love; which also, verse 8, he commendeth to us,-sets it forth in such a signal and eminent expression, that we may take notice of it, and close with him in it. To carry this business to its height, there is not only most frequent peculiar mention of the love of God, where the Father is eminently intended, and of the love of the Father expressly, but he is also called "The God of love," 2 Cor. xiii. 11, and is said to be "love:" so that whoever will know him, 1 John iv. 8, or dwell in him by fellowship or communion, verse 16, must do it as "he is love."

5. Nay, whereas there is a twofold divine love, beneplaciti and amicitiæ, a love of good pleasure and destination, and a love of friendship and approbation, they are both peculiarly assigned to the Father in an eminent manner:

(1.) John iii. 16, " God so loved the world, that he gave,” etc.; that is, with the love of his purpose and good pleasure, his determinate will of doing good. This is distinctly ascribed to him, being laid down as the cause of sending his Son. So Rom. ix. 11, 12; Eph. i. 4, 5; 2 Thess. ii. 13, 14; 1 John iv. 8, 9.

(2.) John xiv. 23, there is1 mention of that other kind of love whereof we speak. "If a man love me," saith Christ," he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." The love of friendship and approbation is here eminently ascribed to him. Says Christ, "We will come, even Father and Son, "to such a one, and dwell with him;" that is, by the Spirit: but yet he would have us take notice, that, in point of love, the Father hath a peculiar prerogative: “My Father will love him."

6. Yea, and as this love is peculiarly to be eyed in him, so it is to be looked on as the fountain of all following gracious dispensations. Christians walk oftentimes with exceedingly troubled hearts, concerning the thoughts of the Father towards them. They are well per

"Diligi a patre, recipi in amicitiam summi Dei; a Deo foveri, adeoque Deo esse in deliciis."-Bucerus in loc.

suaded of the Lord Christ and his good-will; the difficulty lies in what is their acceptance with the Father,—what is his heart towards them?1 "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us," John xiv. 8. Now, this ought to be so far away, that his love ought to be looked on as the fountain from whence all other sweetnesses flow. Thus the apostle sets it out, Tit. iii. 4, "After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared." It is of the Father of whom he speaks; for, verse 6, he tells us that "he makes out unto us," or "sheds that love upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour." And this love he makes the hinge upon which the great alteration and translation of the saints doth turn; for, saith he, verse 3, "We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." All naught, all out of order, and vile. Whence, then, is our recovery? The whole rise of it is from this love of God, flowing out by the ways there described. For when the kindness and love of God appeared,-that is, in the fruits of it,-then did this alteration ensue. To secure us hereof, there is not any thing that hath a loving and tender nature in the world, and doth act suitably thereunto, which God hath not compared himself unto. Separate all weakness and imperfection which is in them, yet great impressions of love must abide. He is as a father, a mother, a shepherd, a hen over chickens, and the like, Ps. ciii. 13; Isa. lxiii. 16; Matt. vi. 6; Isa. lxvi. 13; Ps. xxiii. 1; Isa. xl. 11; Matt. xxiii. 37.

I shall not need to add any more proofs. This is that which is demonstrated:-There is love in the person of the Father peculiarly held out unto the saints, as wherein he will and doth hold communion with them.

Now, to complete communion with the Father in love, two things are required of believers:-(1.) That they receive it of him. (2.) That they make suitable returns unto him.

(1.) That they do receive it. Communion consists in giving and receiving. Until the love of the Father be received, we have no communion with him therein. How, then, is this love of the Father to be received, so as to hold fellowship with him? I answer, By faith. The receiving of it is the believing of it. God hath so fully, so eminently revealed his love, that it may be received by faith. "Ye believe in God," John xiv. 1; that is, the Father. And what is to be believed in him? His love; for he is "love," 1 John iv. 8. It is true, there is not an immediate acting of faith upon the Father, but by the Son. "He is the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by him," John xiv. 6. He is the

"Te quod attinet non sumus solliciti,-illud modo desideramus, ut patrem nobis vel semel intueri concedatur."-Cartwright Har. in John xiv. 8.

merciful high priest over the house of God, by whom we have1 access to the throne of grace: by him is our manuduction unto the Father; by him we believe in God, 1 Pet. i. 21. But this is that I say,—When by and through Christ we have an access unto the Father, we then behold his glory also, and see his love that he peculiarly bears unto us, and act faith thereon. We are then, I say, to eye it, to believe it, to receive it, as in him; the issues and fruits thereof being made out unto us through Christ alone. Though there be no light for us but in the beams, yet we may by beams see the sun, which is the fountain of it. Though all our refreshment actually lie in the streams, yet by them we are led up unto the fountain. Jesus Christ, in respect of the love of the Father, is but the beam, the stream; wherein though actually all our light, our refreshment lies, yet by him we are led to the fountain, the sun of eternal love itself. Would believers exercise themselves herein, they would find it a matter of no small spiritual improvement in their walking with God.

This is that which is aimed at. Many dark and disturbing thoughts are apt to arise in this thing. Few can carry up their hearts and minds to this height by faith, as to rest their souls in the love of the Father; they live below it, in the troublesome region of hopes and fears, storms and clouds. All here is serene and quiet. But how to attain to this pitch they know not. This is the will of God, that he may always be eyed as benign, kind, tender, loving, and unchangeable therein; and that peculiarly as the Father, as the great fountain and spring of all gracious communications and fruits of love. This is that which Christ came to reveal,-God as a Father, John i. 18; that name which he declares to those who are given him out of the world, John xvii. 6. And this is that which he effectually leads us to by himself, as he is the only way of going to God as a Father, John xiv. 5, 6; that is, as love: and by doing so, gives us the rest which he promiseth; for the love of the Father is the only rest of the soul. It is true, as was said, we do not this formally in the first instant of believing. We believe in God through Christ, 1 Pet. i. 21; faith seeks out rest for the soul. This is presented to it by Christ, the mediator, as the only procuring cause. Here it abides not, but by Christ it bath an access to the Father, Eph. ii. 18,—into his love; finds out that he is love, as having a design, a purpose of love, a good pleasure towards us from eternity,—a delight, a complacency, a good-will in Christ,-all cause of anger and aversation being taken away. The soul being thus, by faith through Christ, and by him, brought into the bosom of God, into a comfortable persuasion and spiritual perception and sense of his love, there reposes and rests itself. And this 1 Eph. ii. 18.

is the first thing the saints do, in their communion with the Father; of the due improvement whereof, more afterward.

(2.) For that suitable return which is required, this also (in a main part of it, beyond which I shall not now extend it) consisteth in love.1 God loves, that he may be beloved.' When he comes to command the return of his received love, to complete communion with him, he says, “My son, give me thine heart,” Prov. xxiii. 26,—thy affections, thy love. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind," Luke x. 27; this is the return that he demandeth. When the soul sees God, in his dispensation of love, to be love, to be infinitely lovely and loving, rests upon and delights in him as such, -then hath it communion with him in love. This is love, that God loves us first, and then we love him again. I shall not now go forth into a description of divine love. Generally, love is an affection of union and nearness, with complacency therein. So long as the Father is looked on under any other apprehension, but only as acting love upon the soul, it breeds in the soul a dread and aversation. Hence the flying and hiding of sinners, in the Scriptures. But when he who is the Father is considered as a father, acting love on the soul, this raises it to love again. This is, in faith, the ground of all acceptable obedience, Deut. v. 10; Exod. xx. 6; Deut. x. 12, xi. 1, 13, xiii. 3. Thus is this whole business stated by the apostle, Eph. i. 4, " According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." It begins in the love of God, and ends in our love to him. That is it which the eternal love of God aims at in us, and works us up unto. It is true, our universal obedience falls within the compass of our communion with God; but that is with him as God, our blessed sovereign, lawgiver, and rewarder: as he is the Father, our Father in Christ, as revealed unto us to be love, above and contrary to all the expectations of the natural man; so it is in love that we have this intercourse with him. Nor do I intend only that love which is as the life and form of all moral obedience; but a peculiar delight and acquiescing in the Father, revealed effectually as love unto the soul.

That this communion with the Father in love may be made the more clear and evident, I shall show two things:-[1.] Wherein this 1 Deut. vi. 4, 5.

2 "Amor supernè descendens ad divinam pulchritudinem omnia convocat."Proclus lib. de Anima. et Dæm.

3" Unio substantialis est causa amoris sui ipsius; similitudinis, est causa amoris alterius; sed unio realis quam amans quærit de re amata, est effectus amoris."– Thom. 12, q. 28, 1, 3.

4 Josh. xxii. 5, xxiii. 11; Neh. i. 5.

Ps. xviii. 1, xxxi. 23, xcvii. 10, cxvi. 1; 1 Cor. ii. 9; James i. 12; Isa. lvi. 6; Matt. xxii. 37; Rom. viii. 28.

5

love of God unto us and our love to him do agree, as to some manner of analogy and likeness. [2.] Wherein they1 differ; which will

farther discover the nature of each of them.

[1.] They agree in two things:

1st. That they are each a love of rest and complacency.

(1st.) The love of God is so. Zeph. iii. 17, "The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing.” Both these things are here assigned unto God in his love,-REST and DELIGHT. The words are, in "He shall be silent be

cause of his love." To rest with contentment is expressed by being silent; that is, without repining, without complaint. This God doth upon the account of his own love, so full, so every way complete and absolute, that it will not allow him to complain of any thing in them whom he loves, but he is silent on the account thereof. Or, "Rest in his love;" that is, he will not remove it, he will not seek farther for another object. It shall make its abode upon the soul where it is once fixed, for ever. And COMPLACENCY or DELIGHT: He rejoiceth with singing;" as one that is fully satisfied in that object he hath fixed his love on. Here are two words used to express the delight and joy that God hath in his love, and . The first denotes the inward affection of the mind, joy of heart; and to set out the intenseness hereof, it is said he shall do it n,-in gladness, or with joy. To have joy of heart in gladness, is the highest expression of delight in love. The latter word denotes not the inward affection, but the outward3 demonstration of it: ayaλλığv seems to be formed of it. It is to exult in outward demonstration of internal delight and joy;—“ Tripudiare,” to leap, as men overcome with some joyful surprisal. And therefore God is said to do this 79,-with a joyful sound, or singing. To rejoice with gladness of heart, to exult with singing and praise, argues the greatest delight and complacency possible. When he would express the contrary of this love, he says oùx ɛùòóxŋoɛ,—“ he was not well pleased," 1 Cor. x. 5; he fixed not his delight nor rest on them. And, "If any man draw back, the Lord's soul hath no pleasure in him,” Heb. x. 38; Jer. xxii. 28; Hos. viii. 8; Mal. i. 10. He takes pleasure in those that abide with him. He sings to his church, "A vineyard of red wine: I the LORD do keep it," Isa. xxvii. 2, 3; Ps. cxlvii. 11, cxlix. 4. There is rest and compla

1 *Ανάλογον δ ̓ ἐν ἁπάσαις ταῖς καθ ̓ ὑπεροχὴν οὔσαις φιλίαις, καὶ τὴν φίλησιν δεῖ γίνεσθαι, etc.-Arist. Eth., lib. viii. cap. 7.

"Effectus amoris quando habetur amatum, est delectatio."-Thom. 12, q. 25, a. 2, 1. "Amor est complacentia amantis in amato. Amor est motus cordis, delectantis se in aliquo."-August.

3 “Externum magis gaudii gestum, quam internam animi lætitiam significat, cum velut tripudiis et volutationibus gaudere se quis ostendit."-Pagnin."; lætitiâ gestiit, animi lætitiam gestu corporis expressit, exilivit gaudio."-Calas.