Heaven Collection BV4831 .B4 1765

THE SAINT'S REST. when you shall live in love, and have all in him, who is all ? Surely love is both work and wages. What a high favour that God will give us leave to love him ! that he will be embraced by those who have embraced w.lust and sin before him ! but more than this, he return- eth love for love; nay, a thousand times more. Christian, thou wilt then be brimful of love ; yet, love as much as thou canst, thou shalt be ten thousand times more beloved. Were the arms of the Son of God open upon the cross, and an open passage made to his heart by the spear, and will not arms and heart be open to thee in glory ? Did he begin to love be- fore- thou lovedst, and will he not continue now ? Did he love thee, an enemy ? thee, a sinner? thee, Who even loathedst thyself? and own thee, when thou didst disclaim thyself? And will he not now immeasureably love thee, a son ? thee, a perfect saint? thee, who returnest some love for love? He that in love wept over the old Jerusalem when near its ruin, with what love will he rejoice over the new Jerusalem in her glory! Christian, believe this, and think on it ; thou shalt be eternally embraced in the arms of that Love, which was from everlasting, and will extend to everlasting ;of that Love, which brought the Son of God's love from heaven to earth, from earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to glory ;that Love, which was weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, buffeted, spit upon, crucified, pierced ; which did fast, . pray, teach, heal, weep, sweat, bleed, die ; --that Love will eternally embrace thee. When perfect created love, and most perfect untreated love, meet together, it will not be like Joseph and his brethren, who lay upon one ano- ther's necks weeping; it will be loving and rejoicing, not loving and sorrowing ; yet it will make Satan's court ring with the news, that Joseph's brethren are come, that the *saint's are arrived rafe in the bosom of Christ, out of the reach of hell for ever. Nor is there any such love as David's and Jonathan's breathing out its last and sad lamentations fbr a forced .separation. Know this, believer, to thy everlasting comfort, that

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