Chrift: It is not a Gofpel-Love to him as a Lar-ful filler, but a legal Love to him as only a Law-giver, and as if he was still standing upon the old Covenant Terms with them. Or, 4b, If it it be not a legalLove, it is a looje and licentious Love they have to him: It is Love with a Latitude, allowing as much Room for the Devil as for Chrift, as much Room for the World as for Chrift, and as much Room for Lufts: Surely they that have no other Love to Chrift, but fuch an eafy, idle, legal, loofe or licentious Love, they are not true Lovers; nay, they are true Haters of him, and Enemies to him. Let them fay as they will, that they love Chrift, yet they think nothing of him. But, Believer, What think you of Chrift? When the Meaning of the Queftion to you is, Simon Son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? O, can you answer it with an Appeal, Thou that knoweft all Things, knoweft that I love thee? or at least, can you anfwer it with a Sigh Wo's me that I cannot love him as I ought? Surely, if you have not a Love of Delight rejoicing in him, ye have a Love of Defire lamenting after him. Sometimes the loving Soul goes to a Communion, and the fecret Grone is, O let me find Christ at this Occafion! OI must have him, I muft have him? Why must you have him? Even because he must have you, John x. 16. Other Sheep L 'have, which are not of this Fold; thefe alfo I MUST 'bring, and they fhall hear my Voice.' He hath faid first, I must have you; and that hath brought you to fay, I must have him. Here are two Neceffities meeting, his Neceffity and your Necefity; his Neceffity indeed is a pure Neceffity of Love, but your firft Neceffity was the Neceffity of Want: But, fince he from Love hath a Need of you, as well as you from Want have a Need of him, you muft of Neceflity meet together in Love. You love him, because he first loved you; you seek him, because he first fought you: Therefore henceforth, as he feeks you from Love, fo do you not only feek him from Want, that is too felfish; but alfo let your Way of feeking him grow

up

up to more Conformity to his Way of seeking you, namely, from Love, faying, Saw ye him whom my Soul loveth? Tell him that I am fick of Love. what think ye, what love ye of Chrift? Again,

(4.) What think ye of Chrift? That is, What esteem ye of Chrift, or what Eflimate and Valuation have you for him? This is plainly imported in the Question here. Why, might Chrift fay, ye Pharifees are fhewing your ignorant Efteem of the I aw, by all the Queftions you are propofing about it; but what think ye of Chrift, who is the Lord of the Law, as well as David's Son and Lord? You have an ignorantly high Opinion of Mofes, but what think ye of Chrift? what Honour and Refpect do you put upon him? Surely, to them that believe he is precious; or, as the Word imports, he is honourable. Where there is true Knowledge of Chrift, there is Faith; where there is Faith, there is Love; and where there is Love, there is a high Efteem. Some Things, the more they are known, the lefs they are esteemed: But it is not fo with Chrift; they that know him moft, do esteem him moft; God the Father knows him beft, and he esteems him most highly, Ifa.xlii. 1. Saints and Angels in Heaven know him next beft, and how they esteem him, you may fee, Rev, v. 8, 10, 11, 12. The more that any on Earth knows him, the more do they efteem him; and only these that do not know him, do not esteem him, 1 Cor. i. 21, 22, 23, 24. They that are beft Judges, think highly of Chrift. What judge ye, what Efteem have ye of him? There is a fourfold Lodging or

Room that the Efteem of Chrift hath in the Souls of them that duly esteem him. 1. In their Intellective Faculty, that is, in their Understanding this Efteem lodges, faying, O I determine to know nothing but Chrift! O Sirs, if a Man had the Knowledge of all the Universities in the World concentred in him, and yet know not Chrift, he is but a poor filly Sot. Paul, brought up at the Feet of Gamaliel, had a great deal of Knowledge and human Literature; but whenever he came to know Chrift, O, fays he, I count all but

Dung

Dung for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Chrift FeJus my Lord, 2. In their Elective Faculty, that is in their Choice does this Efteem lodge. O they that efteem Chrift, they felect and fingle him out for a Head and Husband, with whom they refolve to live and die, faying, 'Whom have I in Heaven but thee? and there is none upon the Earth that I defire befides 6 thee.' 3. In their Profecutive Faculty, that is, in their Affections does this Efteem lodge, thefe do ardently and vehemently purfue after him: As nothing can fatisfy a hungry Man but Food, fo nothing fatiffies fuch a Soul but Chrift; hence proceeds their Industry in the Use of Means and Ordinances. 4. In their Retentive Faculty, that is, in their Memory will this Efteem alfo lodge; while their Efteem of him makes them remember him, and their Meditation of him to be fweet. When I remember thee upon my Bed, and meditate on thee in the Night-watches, my Soul fhall be fatisfied as with Marrow and Fatnefs, and my Mouth fhall praise thee with joyful Lips, Pfal. lxiii. 5, 6. What we love and efteem, will have a Lodging in our Minds and Thoughts. And where does the Strain of our Thoughts and Meditations run? is, no doubt, implied in this Question, What think ye of Chrift? What Room do you give him in your Heart and Thoughts? Now these four Particulars, namely, 1. What know ye, 2. What

believe ye, 3. What love ye, 4. What esteem ye of

Chrift? are here implied.

The Third Thing here propofed was, to fhew the Import of this Queftion formally confidered, with refpect to the Quality of the Act. I have fhewed what may be implied in this Queftion, with relation to the Object, and alfo the Act of Thinking: Now the interrogative Particle What, pointing at the Quality of this Act, may furnish us with fome further Thoughts anent the Import of the Question, formally confidered. It is the What in the Text that now I am efpecially upon; and befides the General, What is your Opinion of Chrift, What is your Judg

F

ment

ment about Chrift? there is a fourfold What here implied. (1.) What Good do you think of him: You Pharifees think much Good of yourselves; Who' but you, and your Righteousness, your Alms, your Sacrifices, your Temple, your Zeal for Mofes and the Law? But, What think ye of Chrift? Is hé no more in your View than a mortal Son of a mortal Man? No wonder then, in this Cafe, you think little Gocd of him. Can you afcend no higher in your Contemplation to apprehend him as the Immortal Son of the Immortal God, the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father, the Righteousness of God, the Gift of God, the true Sacrifice, the true Temple, the Antitype of all the Types, the Substance of all the Shadows, the Fulness of all the Prophecies and Promises? What, do you think him good for nothing, but to be defpifed, debafed, and trampled upon? What Good do you think of him? (2.) What Glory do you think to be in him? Do you not darken his Glory, when you look upon him only to be the Son of David, and not alfo to be the Lord of David, and the Lord of Glory, the Root and Offfpring of David; not only the Offspring of David as Man, but the Root of David as God? What think ye of him as the Glory of God, and the God of Glory, bringing in a Difpenfation much more glorious than that of Mofes, which Glory was to be done away, 2 Cor. iii. 7, 8, 9. Chrift, as the Sent of God, being anointed with the Spirit for that End. If the Miniftration of Death written and engraven on Stones was glorious, how fhall not the Ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? If the Miniftration of Condemnation be Glory, much more does the Miniftration of Righteoufnefs exceed in Glory. And what Glory do you think to be in Chrift, who is the Glory of all this Glory? Do you fee Chrift to be thus glorious, and me to be the Chrift? Tho' now, might he fay, this Glory is under a Vail of Flesh, a Vail of Exinanition and Humiliation; yet this mean Appearance that I'm making now, as if I were no more but a frail mortal Man, was clearly foretold to you by the Pro

phets

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phets concerning Chrift, even that he should be a Man, and a Man of Sorrows: Can you fee nothing of my Glory and Excellency under this Vail? Is there no Glory in the Sun, because there is a Cloud betwixt you and it? 3. What Use do you think he is of? for, if he were only the Son of David, he could be of no great Usefulness to a perifhing World of Sinners: But, do you think and confider, that herein is the Mystery of Divine Grace? God fo loved the World, that he 'fent his only begotten Son, that whofoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlafting Life. If the Brafen Serpent, which was but a Type of Chrift, was of Use to the ftung Ifraelites, what think you of Chrift? Can any Thing in the World be fo useful to Sinners as Chrift? Of what Ufe is the Law, whereof you're boafting? It is but a dead Letter, a killing Word, a Sentence of Condemnation, a Death-fummons, a dead Warrant against them without Christ, who is the End of the Law for Righteoufness. Who but Chrift can reconcile God to Man, and ingratiate Man with God? Who but he can fulfil the Law and fatisfy Juftice for them, pay their Debts, heal their Difeafes, juftify, fanctify, and fave them, vanquish Sin, Death and Hell for them, and at last raise the mouldered Carcafe from Corruption to Incorruption, and inveft it with a State of everlafting Glory in the highest Heaven, with Fulness of Joy, and Pleasures for evermore at his Right-hand? Is he an ufeless Chrift to you, tho' he fills All in all, and alone can give abundant Satisfaction to the immortal Soul, whereas all Things elfe are but dry and empty without him, and leave Men deftitute? Odry Means, dry Minifters, dry Ordinances, dry Sacraments, dry Sermons and dry Prayers, if Chrift be away! O dry Breafts, if he be not the Milk; dry Branches, if he be not the Sap dry Clouds, dry Wells, if he be not the Water! O what Ufe think ye he is for? what Work and Service have ye for him? 4. What Worth do you think he is of? Your Thoughts are employed, might Chrift fay, how to tempt me with your Questions about the Law,

un