ON HOSEA XIV.- VERSES 2, 3. 97 God what he gives unto him. If he be angry with me, I must not be angry again with him, but fear and tremble, and beg for pardon. If he reprove me, I must not reprove but justify him : if he judge me, I must not judge but adore him. But if he love me, I must take the boldness to love him again, for there- fore he loves that he may be loved. And this love of ours unto Christ makes us ready to do every thing which he requires of us, because we know that he bath done much more for us than he requireth of us. " The love of Christ," saith the apostle, " constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead ;" that is, either dead in and with him in regard of the guilt and punishment of sin, so as to be freed from the damnation of it, or " dead by way of conformity unto his death," in dying unto sin, and crucifying the old man, so as to shake off the power and strength of it. And the fruit of all, both in dying and in loving, is this, " That we should not live unto ourselves, but unto him that died for us and rose again." Thus love argues from the greater to the less, from the great - ness of his work for us, to the smallness of ours unto him. If he died to give us life, then we must live to do him service. Fear produceth servile and unwilling performances, as those fruits which grow in winter, or in cold coun- tries, are sour, unsavoury, and unripened ; but those which grow in summer, or in hotter countries, by the warmth and influence of the sun, are sweet and whole- some : such is the difference between those fruits of obedience which fear and which love produce. The most formal principle of obedience is love, and the first beginnings of love in us unto God arise from his mercies unto us being thankfully remembered ; and this teacheth the soul thus to argue ; " God bath I
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=