Love

"We know," saith the apostle, "that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren." If, then, thou art a true lover of the children of God, thou hast entered into this, as well as other graces, "by the strait gate": And it hath cost thee a sharp struggle to get into it. Say, then, didst thou ever feel in thyself an entire want of all good, and a fullness of all evil; and consequently a real reigning opposition of heart to God and his people? Feeling thyself thus, didst thou ever groan as one utterly helpless, in extreme misery? Didst thou ever, with a trembling heart, condemn thyself, as one worthy to be cast forth into the lowest hell? Thus, self-condemned, and unable to move towards Christ, unable to spin faith, like the spider, out of thine own bowels, hast thou waited on the sovereign God for a saving pull of his arm? And hast thou found a new, supernatural power opening thy heart, changing thy inmost powers, and drawing thee with a sweet violence to the glorious Savior? Having come to Jesus, hast thou received from him the spirit of love? Hast thou found that spirit kindling in thy breast a new celestial warmth of affection? Dost thou habitually esteem these divine influences, and the holy affections thereby produced, far above gold and silver, and all the best things of this world? Is thy love to the saints kept alive, cherished, and revived, from time to time, by power not thine own? Dost thou bewail the imperfection of thy love, and humbly renounce all dependence thereon in the matter of justification? Deal faithfully with thyself: and if thou canst give a fair answer to those questions, I will undertake to prove by Scripture that thou art no hypocrite, but one who doth sincerely love God and his children. For this purpose, I briefly rehearse the following Scripture expressions: "The Lord hath anointed me, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they who mourn. Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness. The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. The fruit of the Spirit of love. Ye are taught of God to love one another."

But if, after all, any person here present will deceive himself, "his blood be upon his own head": I hope the Lord will not require it at my hand.

On the contrary, if any one now begins to fall under a well-founded conviction of hypocrisy, I entreat that person not to resist or stifle that conviction. Consider that you may yet be pulled up out of the horrible pit. The outlines of the way in which an unrenewed sinner may be brought into a gracious state have been marked out in the questions which I just now proposed.