531 DIVINE LOVE IS TIIE COMMANDING PASSION. supposes there is a just reason for every stroke of his Father's rod: " Either, says he, my sins have deserved his correcting hand, or these sorrows are sent to examine what grace there is in my heart, and tomake trial of my faith : Still I am persuaded there is love at the bottom of all these troubles, and it is the hand of love that smites me ; for my Saviour bath said it. Rev. iii. 19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten ; and the holy apostle assures us; Heb. xii. 6. that Godcorrects every Son whom he receives. 2. Divine love mortifies and subdues our disorderly and sin- ful passions toward our fellow-creatures : Wrath, revenge, ma- lice, envy, are all subdued and kept under by this sovereign prin- ciple of divine love. That soul in whom this sacred passion keeps a 'constant flame, is not easily roused to a wrathful or resenting temper, by the affronts and injuries we sustain from men. The lover of God is meek and gentle under many insults and reproaches: He can forbear and forgive, for he knows that his God bath borne long with him, and forgiven him ten thou- sand provocations. Thus the sovereignty of divine love appears, in that it can suppress as well as raise the other passions. X. Where divine love reigns in eminent degrees, therewill be a humble holy desire to pass even through death itself to meet with God, the supreme object of love, and to dwell for ever in his presence. If faith be not too feeble, or the frailties of animal nature too prevalent, the divine lover will encounter death with courage, and with sacred joy, because it will bring him to the enjoyment of his God. When the dust returns to the earth, the soul of every man returns to God as a judge, and the soul of a good man to God as a friend, and Father; and rewarder ; Eccl. xii. 7. If we are absent from the body, we shall be present with theLord; 2 Cor. v. 8. In this view of things, the holy lover is ready to say, What is there in death so terrible that the presence of Christ and the enjoyment of my God, has not something in- finitely more delightful to overbalance it ? Love is stronger than death. The love of God has been found stronger ina holy soul than all the pangs and terrors of death, even a death of violence and martyrdom : The one influences and impels toward heaven more powerfully than the other can terrify or discourage : 'United faith and love have passed through fires of torment, and seas of blood, in order to see God, and dwell with him in his heavenly habita- tion. This leads to thenext particular. In the last place, I add, that as hell will be matter of utmost aversion and holy fear to a sincere lover of God, because it is an everlasting separation from God, so heaven will be the object of desire and joyful hope, because, there Godmanifestshim - self to all that love him in his highest glory and his richest grace.
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