The love of Christ passeth knowledge. 65 concerns in his hand, and commit them to his care and management; he knows the fittest time to prefent them, and to fend me an anfwer. In the facrament i fwear allegiance to thee, as my Sovereign Lord and King, over iny broken body and fhed blood; 1 engage to be a true and faithful foldier in thy ar my, and to take the field against thy enemies. Many pieces of furniture do I need for this warfare; I need the girdle of fincerity, the fhield of faith, the helmet of hope, the fword of the fpirit, the breastplate of righteoufnefs, and to have my feet fhod with the preparation of the gofpel of peace. But glory to thy name, my Redeemer and Captain of falvation hath provided a noble armoury and ftorehouse to answer all thefe my neceffities and wants. Lord fupply all my needs out of thy infinite fulness, and furnish me with every thing requifite and neceffary for the work and warfare thou calleft me unto. Oh, my enemies are lively, and they are ftrong: But I lock to my glorious Captain, to gird me with ftrength for the battle, and to teach my hands to war. MEDITATION XIII. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth WE knowledge. HERE fhall I begin my thoughts upon this fubject of the love of Chrift to men? And when begun, how shall I make an end? It bath a breadth and length, a depth and height that paffeth knowledge. If the apostle Paul, that had the brighteft difcoveries of this love, owned this much more may I. I may fooner find out the height of heaven, the breadth of the earth, or the depth of the fea, than measure Chrift's love. It is an unfathomable ocean that hath neither bank nor bottom. O whither did his love carry him! From the height of glory to the depth of mifery. How low and deep was our fall, that nothing could recover and raife us up, but the low abasement of the Son of God, the King of glory! flow low was the ftep he made to help us up; even to put on our nature, and fuffer himself to be pierced for our tranfgreffions, and bruifed for our iniquities! blefs'd Lord, thou took'st not on thee the nature of angels, but the feed of Abrabam; these are faft bound up from thee with chains of darkness, whilst thou draweft us to thee with cords of love! How diftinguifhing was thy love to man, that brought thee from heaven to earth, from the throne to the manger, from the manger to the wilderness, from the wilderness to the garden, from the garden to the judgment hall, from the judg ment-hall to the crofs, from the crofs to the grave; yea, from the glory of heaven to the very torments of heil, and all for creatures that were fit objects for hell! How wonderful is the fight thou calleft me to fee at the Lord's table! Even to fee him fuffering for fin that never committed fin? To fee him made fin for us who knew no fin, that we who knew no righteoufnefs, might be made the righteousness of God in him! An amazing fight indeed. Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him! O what is he that thou fhouldft magnify and fet thy heart on him! And what am I, the worst of men, and vileft of finners, that thou fhouldit ftoop fo low to exalt me! That thou shouldft endure the poverty of this world, that might enjoy the riches of hea ven! Be conte in the form of a fervant that I might have the adoption of fons! Be willing to bow thyself unto death, to raise me to eternal life! content to be numbered among tranfgreffors, that I might have a room among the bleffed! To be crown'd with thorns, that I might be crown'd with glory! To be condemned before men, that I might be juftified before God? To drink the bitter cup of wrath, that I might drink the pure river of life? To cry out in forrow upon the crofs, that I might triumph with joy upon the throne! To ftand before the mouth of hell-furnace, to keep its flames from breaking out on ine? O Lord Jefus, thy love hath overflown all banks, and thy compaffion knew no bounds! Can I think on it, and my heart not burn? Can 1 fpeak of it, and not be overcome, fo as to feek, with Jofeph, a fecret place to weep in? O Love that paffeth knowledge! How fhall ! think of it and not stand amazed! that the general fhould die for the foldier, the phyfician for the pati ent! That the righteous judge of heaven fhould come to the bar, put himfelf in the male factor's clothes, and be condemned for him! That the bleffed fon of God fhould interpofe his innocent breaft to receive the mortal ftroke for us! That God all-fufficient fhould be expofed to hunger and thirst, to grief and wearinels, and the vileft reproaches and indignities for worms like us! Behold the creator of the world wounded, mangled and killed, by ungrateful creatures whom he came to fave! Behold his bowels yearning toward them who pierced them with their bloody hands! Behold his heart burning with af fection toward them that cruelly pierced it! farely a believing view of this love of Chrift is fufficient to mollify a heart more cold and frozen than ice itfelf? O love unfathomable! Who can meafure its dimenfions! It hath a height without a top, a dép without a bottom, a breadth without a fide, a length without end! Aftonishing love! that my exalted Lord fhould ftoop fo low as to become a man; nay, a poor man, a man of forrows, a deserted man, a dying man, and also a dead man, for fuch a wretch as me! Nay, more, that he should stoop to be made a curfe, and endure a dreadful load of wrath upon his innocent foul, infinitely more heavy than what is laid upon any damned foul in hell! O what a fea of wrath did my loving Jefus fwim thro', to fave me from perifking! Behold how that raging fea wrought, and was tempestuous, roared most terribly, and threatned to fwallow me up with the rest of the elect world; till once my Redeemer ftept in, and undertook to be the facrifice and calining the fea! Take me up (faid he like Jonab) and throw me into the fea, ard ye fhall be all fafe. In this red fea our bleffed Jonah was content to fwim for thirty-three years, without feeking deliverance, till once the fea was perfectly calm, and every elect foul out of danger. Marvellous loving-kindness! Oh that I could, with a fuitable fiame of heart both remember and admire redeeming love, and redeeming blood, when I go to fit down at my Redeemer's table. O that I may there get faith's fight of the various inftances of his love, that paffeth knowledge. Let me there view Chrift in the womb, and in the manger; in his weary fteps and hungry bowels; in his proftrations in the garden, and clotted drops of bloody fweat. Let me view his head with a crown of thorns, and his face befmeared with the foldier's fpit. Let me view him in his march to Calvary, and his elevations upon a painful crofs, with his head bowed down, and his fide streaming blood! O unparalleled love! It had been wonderful love to have fent one of the lofty fera phims to fuffer for us; but to give him whom all the feraphims ferve and adore, is love that passeth knowledge! Let me view the fcripture-delignations and titles of bim that loved us, and gave himself for us, that he might wash us in his blood. He is our Immanuel, the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of peace, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the Prince of the kings of the earth, the Lord of glory, the Rose of Sharon, the plant of renown, the brightness of bis Father's glory, the express image of bis perfon, the bright and morning far, the fun of righteousness, the light of the world, the bead of the Churcb, the beginning and first born from the dead, the appointed heir of all things. This is be that loved us, and gave bimfelf to die for the redemption of a crew of rebels, grace-abufing and gofpel-flighting finners! Oh, what am I that thou fhouldft fpare, yea rapfom and feast me in fuch a manner! Long ago might'ft thou have fhaken off the hand of thy providence fuch a viper as I am into fire un. quenchable; and there made me to know, to fad expe. rience, what it is to abufe free grace, by the lofs of eternal glory. But, inftead of that, thou haft pitied me, loved me, become my furety, to appeafe juftice for my heinous fins, by thy blood, when no other facrifice would do. Lord, I welcome thy love-feaft; I lay my hand on the head of the facrifice, and reft upon it I believ, Lord, belp my unbelief. O that I may henceforth live under the continual fenfe of my infinite obligations to my glorious furety, that world make his soul an offering for sin. O what return fhall I give him for all his foul-travel and agonies for me? O that I could spend my whole life, and each day of it, in magnifying his love, and living to his praife. Now, bleed be bis glorious |