so loved us, and given himself for us. Without this, all endeavour in religion is labour and sorrow, and is disappointing and unsuccessful. True love to the Redeemer, the love of God in Christ in the heart, makes duty easy, religious exercises pleasant and delightful, and all the service of God to be perfect freedom. And this, I say, the Bible does very plainly declare to be the very being and life of that gracious change, which the Holy Spirit produces, by the Gospel, in all the children of God: "I drew them with bands of love:" "Neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love:" "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever else be his character, let him be Anathema Maranatha:" "God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." And so it is said to those who have "left their first love," "Remember from whence thou art fallen, and repent, or else I will come to thee quickly.' Indeed, what is religion but the love of God, implanted again in the heart of his fallen creature; man coming back to that proper state, that holy state of Creator and creature love, from which he fell by transgression to love his own self, to love iniquity and a sinful world ? What is holiness but the love of a holy God, and so delighting to do his will? What is the enjoyment of religion here, but a personal experience of that assurance, "I have loved thee with `an everlasting love, and therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee?" And what will heaven itself be, but "love perfected," the perfect exercise of love? The song of the redeemed in glory is a song of love, “Unto him that hath loved us, and given himself for us."

ور

My dear brethren, it is very important to have a clear and a simple view of this ;-that nothing but the conscious experience of the love of Christ constraining

*Hos. xi. 4. Gal. v. 6. 1 Cor. xvi. 22. 1 John iv. 16. Rev. ii. 4.

us, is a true test of religious principle. When we come to look into our own hearts, that we may know what spirit we are of, it is of infinite moment, to come close to the point in this matter. Let this be the principal enquiry;-not so much, What sins have I abstained from? What secret duties have I observed or neglected? What have I been hearing, or reading, or praying, or performing? These things are well in their place; but rather let it be the enquiry, Where do they all proceed from? Why have I cared for these things, and thought and laboured so much about them? Are they because of the love of Christ constraining me? Do they spring from that love as the principle? Have I the love of my Lord and Saviour, implanted and fixed in my heart? Is there really that love of Christ abiding in me, which is the work of the Holy Ghost, as the result of my discovery of my need of a Redeemer, and then the result of the firm belief, and understanding, and cordial receiving, that Christ has become that Redeemer, and has died for all men, when all were dead? Nothing short of the conviction that this is indeed the case will ever give real peace to an upright, seeking soul.

II. For observe, brethren, secondly: that the statement made in the text, of this particular experience of believers, viz. that the "love of Christ constraineth them," is at once a doing away with every other dependence, a total exclusion to every false confidence. I mean that if a man cannot feel this state of experience, if he cannot truly take up these words and say, "The love of Christ constraineth me," then whatever else be his experience, whatever be his character, however sincere his endeavours, however strict his life and conversation, he has no real ground of assurance or pledge of safety.

There are many false dependences. There is a

legal dependence ;-the man who trusts in his own works and uprightness, and throws himself upon God's justice. God forbid we should any of us be so bold as to stand upon such a ground-work in the great day! There is a partial dependence ;-those who purpose to do their best, to make sincere endeavours both to know and do the Divine will, and, relying much on their own sincerity, look for the rest to God. There is a careless dependence ;-that of the sinner that slumbers on in sin, and wears his life away in it, hoping that some how or other, he knows not how, all will be well at last he shall do as well as other men do, and rather than have such mental anxiety, and keep such strictness of life, he will take his chance for it. There is a doctrinal dependence ;-persons that have been instructed in the features of Gospel truth, and are looking to Christ as a Saviour; but still, at the same time, only knowing the truth in the head, not enjoying its power and experience in the heart: as if Christ were to prove a Saviour to them, merely because they know of him by the outward ear, without either loving or obeying him. With part of these last, it is an Antimonian dependence ;—a relying for safety, while actually living in sin; and even with the rest of them, it is a formal dependence :-a trusting to knowledge instead of grace, to light instead of conversion. then still one step higher in the scale of self-deception, there is an experimental dependence ;-I, says such an one, have felt it as well as known it, I have had my frames and feelings, I am often very uneasy and conscience-smitten,-I remember such a time when I heard this, and such a time when I felt that, and such a time when so and so, and I saw a light, and a word came to me, and I felt lightened, and we know not what besides.-There may be something sometimes in this, brethren; once, perhaps in a thousand cases; but speaking for the most part, it is gross delusion.

And

Now to trust to any of these things, where the love of Christ constraining is not the basis, is a false confidence. It is a refuge of lies. It is to lean on a broken reed; to stand on a sandy foundation, amidst the storm and tempest of a coming judgment. It is to build a superstructure of hay, and straw, and stubble, as fuel for the fire of the judgment-day. Even the best of these things,-suppose, we will say, an earnest, conscientious desire to do the will of God, and to please him, and to have a right knowledge of his revelation,— —even a continual self-exercise to give up the world, and abstain from its lust and pleasures for the sake of the kingdom of heaven,—yet what is all this, if it is not a service of love, if it does not proceed from the love of Christ in the heart? If there is not there, in the heart, the real Christian motive, what can be the possible use of an outward resemblance to the Christian character? Surely it is cleansing the streams, when the fountain is bitter from which they flow! Surely it is pruning the branches, while the root of the tree is corrupt and bad! It is healing a wound that is still uncured! It is putting a fair and a lovely mask upon a radical deformity! It is whitening the face of a sepulchre, full of corruption and dead men's bones !*

None of these sorts of dependence, believe it, brethren, will stand for one single moment in the judgment-day. Nothing but the love of Christ in the heart will then make for the sinner. Love is the mind of Christ himself, the image of Christ, imprinted on the souls of his believers, that "as he is, so they may be in this world." And therefore it is said of it, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world."+ When the Saviour does return in the clouds of heaven to judge the world, there will * James iii. 11. Matt. vii. 17, 18. —xxiii. 27. † 1 John iv. 17.

be a people found waiting for him, elected and gathered from every generation and nation, and there will be a mark by which they will be known; and that mark will be the mark of our text, his love constraining them to a holy, saintly life ;-the mark which he gave of his people to the ancient Jews, "If God were your Father ye would love me.' ** All the doings of men, the works, the righteousness of all mankind must in that day be as filthy rags: but those who have loved the Saviour, those who have believed that he came out from God, those who have washed their robes and made them white in his blood, and have lived their life unto him, dwelling in love, and walking with him in white, and, now that he is gone from this world, are waiting for his glorious appearing ;-those who are found in this state, whenever he comes to judgment, will surely receive that welcome, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

When David, the type of the Lord, was banished from Jerusalem, in the time of his humiliation, and went up, weeping, up the Mount of Olives, there were some that exulted against him,-Absalom that raised the rebellion,—Ahithophel that gave his counsel, and Shimei, that cursed him; but there were others that were true and faithful to his cause,-Ittai the Gittite, that would not leave him, Barzillai and Shobi that ministered unto him, and many in Israel that waited for him, and spoke at last to “bring back the king." And while these were promoted to honour, the others were visited with disgrace and death. And so will it be, and so it is, with the spiritual David, with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in this world, it is the time of his humiliation, the dispensation of the cross; the time of his banishment also, by the usurpation of evil spirits and evil men, from his own created world. He

* John viii. 42.