1 9671'Box of pi °Rama Or Rom./ t. q. 't Pec.I. az I John 3, lg. PfaI. 13. Prat lc. 4. Dan. 9. st. John at ..3.0 lute thofe Saints whole faces they have never feen, nor are like to fee in this Norld, and from whofe hands they have not re- ceived the leaft civility ; and all upon the ferious reports that they have had of the grace of God that has been fpark- ling and finning in them, whole habitations are at a great dillance from them. A fincere love, an unfeigned love, ,a hearty love will be running out, towards thofe that live moil remote from uz, if we .do but understand that God is in them and with them of truth. But, Fifthly, Our love to the Saints is right, when we love them bell, and moll in whom the fpiritual and fupernatural caufes of love are moil fparkling and shining ; where grace drat s the aileaions, there the more grace we fee, the more we lhall love, Pfd. 16. 38 My goodnefs ex;endeth not to thee, but to the Saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is-all my delight. There are Saints, and there are excellent Saints. The Hebrew word that is here rendred excellent fignifi es magnificent ones, noble ones, glorious ones, wonder- ful ones. 0 Sirs 1 there are fome Saints that are magnifi- cent in grace, noble in grace, glorious in grace, wonderful in grace. Now this is certain, if grace be the true reafon why we love any, then the more excellent, the more magnificent any are in grace, the more,highly we (hall prize them, and the more dearly we shall love them , and the more abundantly in our hearts we shall honour them. Look, as grace riles higher and higher in the fame perfon, fo we fhall rife higher and higher in our love to the fame perfon ; Daniel was greatly beloved, and /uhn was fingularly beloved ; and why?but becaufe they were more eminently gracious than others were. Where there is moil grace, there God is moll honoured, and there Chrift is molt exalted, and there the Spirit is bell pleafed, and there Religion is moll adorned, and there Satan is molt dethroned, and there the world is molt conquered, and there fin is moil fubdued, and there du- ties are moil exaaly performed ; and therefore, there, the gracious foul can't but love bet and moil. There are fome that feem to love filch and each -godly men, whofe judgments are,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=