Archive for July 15th, 2008
Swinnock:
Hast thou never beheld a condemned prisoner dissolved into tears, upon the unexpected and unmerited receipt of a pardon, who all the time before was as hard as a flint? The hammer of the law may break the icy heart of man with terrors and horror, and yet it may remain ice still, unchanged; but when the fire of love kindly thaws its ice, it is changed and dissolved into water it is no longer ice, but of another nature. Where the sun is most predominant, there are the sweetest spices, the richest mines, and the costliest jewels. Do thou therefore meditate much on the love of God and Christ to thy unworthy soul: think what love is it that still spares thee, notwithstanding all thy God-daring and soul damning provocations, and that when others, probably better than thyself, are every day and night sent to that place, where God hath large interest for his long patience. What love is it, not only to forbear thee, but also to do thee good! Thou his enemy art hungry, he feeds thee; thou art thirsty, he gives thee drink. If a man find his enemy, will he let him go? 1 Sam. xxiv. 19. But lo, God finds thee every moment. As all thy sins are within the reach of his eye, so thou thyself art continually within the reach of his arm ; he can as easily turn thee into hell, as tell thee of hell: and yet he lets thee go, and more than that, does thee good. Thou spends every hour upon the stock of mercy. God is at great charge and much cost in continuing meat and drink, and health and strength, and time which thou dost ravel out, and wanton away unprofitably.
What love was that in the Father which sent his own Son to die, that thou might live! Well might the beloved disciple say, God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life, John iii. 16. In this the bowels of divine love are naked, as in an anatomy : in other things the love of God is as the beams of the sun scattered, which are warm and comfortable; but in this it is as the beams of the sun united in a burning glass, hot, fiery, burning love. God so loved the world, so dearly, so entirely, so incomparably, so infinitely: it is a sic without a sicut, as one observes a pattern which can never be paralleled. In this God commended his love towards us, in that when we were sinners Christ died for us, Rom. v. 8. When God sent his Son into the world, he did, as it were, say to him, My dear Son, thou Son of my chief love and choicest delight, go to the wicked, unworthy world, commend me to them, and tell them, that in thee I have sent them such a love-token, such an unquestionable testimony of my favor and good-will towards them, that hereafter they shall never have the least color of reason to suspect my love, or to say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Mal. i. 2.
What love was that in the Son of God, which moved him to be come the Son of man, that thou might become the son of God! What love was that which made him so willingly undergo the scorns, and flouts, and derisions of wretched men, the rage, and malice, and assaults of ravenous devils, the wrath and fury of a righteous God; such pangs and tortures in his body as no mouth can express, such sorrows and horror in his soul as no mind can conceive; and all that thou might escape such misery, and obtain everlasting mercy! Greater love than this hath no man, that a man lay down his life for his friend, John xv. 13. The passion of Christ was the greatest evidence of his affection. The laying down of life did abundantly proclaim his love. His love before was like wine in a cask, hardly seen; but oh how did it sparkle and cast its color in the glass of his sufferings! This diamond, before hid in the shell, doth shine radiantly in the ring of his death. If his tears did so much speak his love to Lazarus, that the Jews who saw him weeping, cried out, Lo, how he loved him! surely his heart-blood doth far more demonstrate his love to his members. They that beheld him bleeding in the garden, had far more reason to say, Look, lo how he loved his!