I JOHN 4. 16

I JOH 4. 16 BY SAMUEL EYLES PIERCE

And we have known arid believed the love that God hath to us. God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. — 1 John iv. 16. These words most undoubtedly unite with what went before. The apostle had in the beginning of this chapter, given cautions against giving heed to every one who pretended to be a preacher of Christ ; and shewing how such as were, and such as were not sent by the Holy Ghost might be distinguished, he enters on the subject of brotherly love. This he very powerfully enforces on such as were saints, from the consideration of the love of God and Christ towards us. Then he enters on the subject of the love of God towards us, in its origin, and fruits and effects ; and seeing we cannot see God, nor know his love to us but by

134 1 JOH IV. 16. its effects, so he most rightly infers, we cannot prove our love to Him, but by the effects of the same ; which he would have to be manifested by our loving his image in saints, and thereby giving proof, that God dwell■eth in us, and his love is perfected in us. He shews how we have a clear and full evidence of our union and communion with God the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in us. Then our apostle most freely declares, joining himself with the other ■apostles who had been eye-witnesses of Christ in his incarnate stato, that he and they were witnesses and did in their office and preaching testify concerning Christ, His ministry, miracles, sufferings, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, that the Father sent Him, that is Jesus of azareth the Saviour of the world. This they bore testimony of, upon infallible evidence and certainty : to this John adds, Whosoever, in these

very severe times of persecution, and in this day of errors and heresy, shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He hath been manifested in the flesh, and hath finished salvation work, and that the Christ, or Messiah rejected by the Jews is He whom the Father hath sent, and is the Saviour of Jews and Gentiles, and of all that believe on Him, is this one alone Saviour, God divelleth in him, and he in God. This confession is the true and undeniable evidence of the truth of all contained in this. Such as have by the light and teaching of the Holy Ghost, these true, scriptural and spiritual apprehensions of Christ, hereby it is fully evinced and by the same it is manifested, that God dwells in them by his Spirit, and that they dwell in God by faith and hope, in the Person of the glorious Mediator, the God-Man, Christ Jesus. Then the apostle adds — And we have seen and in our own minds have had all these most divine and important truths realized, and recite the same for your present, increasing, and future benefit: And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love ; and he that divelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. These words seem to be the ocean into which all contained in the verses going before, I mean from the 7th, seem to empty themselves, and here they are swallowed up. I will here recite them, that you may see and judge for yourself if it be not so ; Beloved, let us love one another : for love is of God ; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoiveth not God; for God is love. In this ivas manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, hut that he loved tis, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. o man hath seen God at any time. If ive love one another, God divelleth in us, and his love is p>erfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour •of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And lue have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. ow I shall leave it with yon to judge, if this last verse, which is my present text, be not the

great and grand vortex which swallows up the other. I conceive it is : if so, then this is the sum-total of what is here declared by our apostle, in his own name, and that of the rest of the apostles. We have known

1 JOH IV. 16. 135» and believed the love that God hath loved tlicm, and the wliole church with in Christ — That God's love was one present and perpetual act — Tliat such as knew it, rested in the full knowledge and belief thereof — That this is the blessed fruit and effect of the right spiritual knowledge and belief of the same; He that dwelleth in love awelleth in God, and Cod in him. As the apostle makes use of the plural number, including others beside himself, and then makes use of the singular number and closes with the same, it seems to imply as if he designed the whole of the verse for himself, the apostles, and all saints : and as the glorious truth herein declared doth and cannot but belong to the whole church and liousehold of God, I will therefore consider the same in their most extensive latitude. I will accordingly set them before you, and divide them thus, hoping it may be for your profit and satisfaction. 1. I will consider these words. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. Under this head, I will observe, the knowledge of God, is here expressed before our believing it, and that which is contained in the same: And we have knoivn and believed the love that God hath to ns. The whole subject is thus applied : it is we, it is us, who are the subjects of this love ; the knowledge and belief of which brings its divine consolation into the mind : this is very clearly manifest in the expressions used here. 2. Here is a most solemn and important assertion, God is love. It is not God hath loved, neither is it God will love ; but it is, God is love, in the present tense. This we shall endeavour to enter into, and give an account how, and why it is thus expressed, as the Lord may be pleased to assist. 3. The blessedness which flows into the mind of saints herefrom. God dwelleth in such, and such dwell in him. This is here expressed

in the singular number : He dwelleth in God, and God in him. I hope in going through these particulars, we shall have the essence and substance of the words. And we have knoiun and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. May the Lord guide me in this present explanation, to the praise and glory of his most holy ame. I am 1. To consider these words, And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. Whilst I may consider this, as it belongs ta the apostles, ministers, and all the saints, yet this will be my observation thereon, that the knowledge of God, and his love to us, are here expressed as going before our believing the same : we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. Surely the apostles must be included in the we, and us: and why not all the true ministers of Christ, in that day, together with them ? asthey all preached one and the same Jesus, and held him forth in their ministrations, as the Son of God : by their public profession of which, it was fully and clearly evidenced, that God dwelt in them, and that they dwelt in God. It must also be the same with all those hearers of the gospel, who abode in and stood fast in this truth : so that our text is a& thus considered expressive of the faith and knowledge of real saints, in all ages, and throughout all generations. Knowledge goes before believing : we must know God before we can believe in Him : we must know God's love before we can believe the same. We must know the love that God hath to us, or we can neither believe it nor enjoy it ; for all true

136 1 joiiT^ IV. 16. failh and enjoyment, proceed from a true and clear apprehension of tliat which our spiritual minds are exercised on : and the apostle saith, " ow faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Heb. xi. 1. All the riches and treasures of everlasting love are set open in the everlasting gospel. Christ is the Pearl of inestimable value which is hidden, treasured up and contained in this Cabinet. The Holy Ghost unlocks it, and shews us Christ the glorious Mediator, who is the power of God, and the wisdom of God : hereby we are brought to tlie knowledge of the Father in Him ; and by the word and by the Spirit we are led to scriptural views and apprehensions of what He is in Christ to us — of what his heart is towards us — of the love wherewith he loves us; yea, that He is love, and nothing but love, to us in the Son of his love ; and this knowledge is the foundation of the whole of our faith in this great and incomprehensible mystery of grace. As it respects we and us, who are the children of the Most High God, who are not so immediately taught the knowledge of God as the apostles were ; for none of us pretend to such immediate tuition and irradiation of the Holy Ghost as the apostles had — we are taught by the same Spirit they were, we have the same scripture : and in our measure we are partakers of the same blessings and benefits. So that we are as truly enlightened and taught the same truths, and by the same Spirit the apostles themselves were; but not so immediately and so fully; yet as truly. Our light, knowledge, and apprehension of God, are from the revelation he hath most graciously given us of Himself in the Scriptures. It is from tliem, and by them, we are brought to know the Lord. This knowledge is formed in our minds : so that what we read in the word concerning the Father's love to us, we know the truth and reality of the same in our hearts. We believe it as we know and receive God's testimony concerning it : and hereby, and herefrom we can say for ourselves, as it is here said in the words before us. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. The love in God's heart hath shone forth in Christ. He hath shone into our hearts, so as to reflect the glory, grace, and blessed effects within us and on our minds : the whole is a full revelation of the same in all its glory and perfection. He hath spoken therein and said. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I draivn thee. The Lord himself witnesses to this. We therefore being led by the Holy Spirit into the knowledge of Jehovah's love to us, from the revelation Himself hath given thereof, we know it : from thence we believe in those acts of it which passed in the infinite mind of God in Christ, respecting us in

Him. Thus the knowledge of God's love is brought into our minds, from the revelation made of the same therein : and we are led in reading the scriptures, to believe in the revealed account thereof. This the Holy Ghost opens to us more and more by his ov;n intuitive teaching, and He opens our minds in a gradual and imperceptible way to understand it, to exercise our minds on it, and also to enjoy it in our own hearts; so as that we say, And ive have known and believed the love that God hath to us. It would be of very great advantage to liave right views of this. Whilst we have in our true and gospel experience, the blessed effects of God's love in our hearts, yet that is not the foundation of our knowing and believing the love of God to us. This is most assuredly a very blessed evidence of God's love to us, and may be made use of, as a

1 JOH IV. 16. 137 proof and demonstration of the truth of his having manifested the same to us; yet it is only so to our faith. Our knowledge that God is love — That he hath manifested liis love to us in Christ, must originate out of ourselves entirely : it must spring from the word of revelation : it must g'o beyond all the acts, gifts and graces of the same : it must be known as it is in God himself; it being from this love, all the grace of God flows forth towards us. God is pleased so to speak of his love to us, and set it before us in the scriptures as to give us to understand that his love is to us, inherent in Himself; and that the bringing us to the knowledge of this, exceeds in blessedness, all the gifts of it ; and all our enjoyments of it ; yea, all the communion we can ever have with God in it even in Heaven and Glory. This hath led me many years past to say, I had rather know God's love than enjoy it. There can be no knowing and believing the love that God hath to us, but there must be an enjoyment of the same; yet the real spiritual knowledge of the subject infinitely exceeds the enjoyment of the same, be it either on earth or in heaven. So that the right meaning of the expression, or sentence, call it which you may, does by no means sink the subject, but exalt it. All our true believing the love God hath to us, proceeds from the knowledge we have of it : so that the one is the foundation and support of the other ; from whence this follows, that the word of God is the foundation both of the

one, and the other. What we know of God's love, that we believe of the same. Then as our true knowledge of the love of God to us, must proceed from the revelation he hath been pleased to make known of it to to us in his most holy word, so all our faith in it, and belief concerning it, must be founded on the same word of inspiration. If this be not the language of the text, then I do declare I do not understand the same. I would observe, the words And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us, are expressive of love immutable and unchangeable. It is, as one expresseth it, love past, it is love present, and a love which is to come. This agrees with his ame, which is incommunicable, / AM THA T I AM. God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. This is a truth, which when received into tlie mind, and dwelt upon in the real exercise of faith thereon, is all-sufficient to swallow up the mind to all eternity; for nothing can exceed it; no; not in heaven. To see and know the love that God hath, in all his Persons unto us; and to see it to be the foundation of all the counsels and thoughts of his own free grace towards us, this appears to me to be the essence of our text. And these saints in Johns time knew it to be so : hence he could say for himself, and his fellow apostles, and for all other saints also. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. It is now what it was from eternity. There is no increase, nor can there be any decrease therein. He can never love us, beyond what he doth : nor can he ever more fully reveal it, or give us greater evidences thereof. His love is an essential perfection in his ature : and as it hath pleased him to exercise it towards us, it is an act of his will ; and it is the good pleasure of his will, to love us, for ever: the whole why and wherefore is in Himself. He hath declared the truth of it in the word. We have been brought to know it from the word : We having received the knowledge of this into our minds, we believe it : in the belief of it we see ourselves are the objects and subjects of God's everlasting love. We thereVOL. II. T

138 1 JOH IV. 16. fore boldly profess and declare what we know and believe of die same ; and it is all declared in this sentence, And ive have knmvn and believed the love that God hath to us. He will ever continue his loving kindness unto us, so long as we have existence ; be we in the body or out of it ; let us be in a time, or in an eternal state : He will never cease to love us : nor will he ever cease to delight in us, and to rejoice in us, and over us to do us good. Let me observe, that the knowledge and belief of God's love to us, is that which alone can support and bear up a spiritual mind, and carry it on in the exercise of holy vigour and delight towards the Lord. As love begets love ; and it is God's love known and believed which only can beget and draw forth love from us towards the Lord ; so it is our knowing God's love to us, and our believing the same, as an immutable act in his own vast mind towards us, which, it is the act of his own will never to cease from for evermore — it is the true knowledge of it, keeps up and maintains in our minds the belief of this : and it is the continual belief of this, supports our hearts and minds at all times. So that the Lord in our own views, and also in our declarations of Him, and faith in him, is our shield, defence, and the strength of our confidence. I would further observe, the whole of this great subject, is thus brought home and applied unto saints, by our apostle : ive and us : that is to saints in this very easy way and manner ; Aiid we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. This was bringing the wliole subject upon them. If they thus received it, their minds were opened to know and understand it, and their faith most freely to be exercised in the free and full belief and reception of the same. Beloved, to be among tlie number of the xve and the us to whom the apostle here says. And we have known and believed the love of God to us, must be to be amongst the elect of God : and also, we must be such as those to whom the Lord has revealed himself in the exceeding riches of his grace: therefore let us not ignorantly cry down this passage, nor cry out there is no experience in it, lest we proclaim our own ignorance, which may redound to our own shame ; for most assuredly the whole of the text contains, the whole essence, grace, and blessedness of all contained in the real, inward knowledge and enjoyment of God, either in the church militant, or the church triumphant. I proceed to my next head, whicli is to observe,

2. That we have in our text, a most solemn and important assertion, God is love. It is not that God shall, neither is it God will ; but it is God is love ; in the present tense. This I shall endeavour to enter into, and give an account how, and why it is thus expressed, as the Lord may be pleased to assist. I will here again recite my text, that we may thereby see, where we are now in it : And loe have knoivn and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love ; and he that divelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Yet our present portion of the text is, God is love: but reading the whole, even now, may cast liglit, lustre, and majesty on the same. As I am fully persuaded I cannot fully enter into, and open the glory of the words ; if I only drop a word which may lead your minds to and fix them on the words, it is all I can desire. This sentence is a full declaration of all that God is : it is as the magnet set in steel which draws all to it : here, like the diamond in a ring, it reflects its glory on all which went before, and on all which follows after : it had been uttered at the 8th verse ; but it is here expressed to add particular weight and emphasis on the subject which had

1 JOH IV. 16. 139 been just declared. Before, it was to express the original from wlicnce all g-race and blessings spring; here, it is to shew what God is in Himself — In his own ature, Blessedness, and Glory. God is what He is, of Himself, and from Himself: and of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. He is Holiness itself — Glory itself — Blessedness itself. He is the ever lilessed God. He is the Holy God. He is the God of Salvation : yet as though this was the only thing in God, the apostle here says of Him, God is' love. This, God is : it is his Essence : it is his Will : it is the whole of what He is in his Being, Existence, Blessedness and Glory. This is his Perfection in the most exalted view, revelation, and display of the same, by the which he hath made himself known to his people — In Christ — In his acts of grace towards them — In his word of grace unto them — In his gifts bestowed upon them — In the relation in which he stands in unto them. This He is in his will and

michangeable purposes of his good will in Christ Jesus towards them. God is love. " It is," says Dr. Goodivin, " the greatest thing in God. It," says he, " commands all in God." I suppose he means, that it hath pleased the Lord to display himself in this essential perfection of his nature to us, so as all the rest of his glorious attributes are displayed in consort with this : lue have known and believed the love that God hath to tis. God is love. He does not say what God was, or what God will be. He uses the present tense, God is love: implying God's immutability : what God is in his ature, that He is in his Love. So that it includes all tenses ; past, present, and to come : there is no succession in it. o ; from all everlasting, all through time, and the ages of eternity which are to come, it is an everlasting ow, just as the immensity of the Divine ature is. Whilst love is essential to the ature of God, yet God's love wherewith He loves us, is an act of his will : it is wholly free and sovereign. And as God hath loved us from everlasting, we must have existed in Christ from everlasting : He must therefore have had Christ our eternal Head, and us as members in Him our Head, in his will, thoughts and view from before all time. It is an astonishing thought for you and me to conceive and ruminate over in our minds : that the infinite and vast mind of God, conceived such an act of love for us in his vast understanding, as will continue in Him towards us for ever : so that He might as soon cease to be, as cease to love the persons of his elect. It is an overwhelming thought, to consider, that the infinitely and everblessed God feeds with ineffable delight, in the reiterating in his vast mind, his own love towards us : aiid his views of Christ, God-Man, and of us in Him, feed and satiate the infinite mind, and, as it were, keep up the vast mind of God with increasing pleasure and delight in us. These words, God is love, are a most solemn assertion of the apostle, and the whole Bible bears its testimony to the Truth' — In all revealed of the will of God towards Christ and the elect — In all set forth concerning the counsels and thoughts of God from everlasting — In all expressed in his giving Christ for us, and his giving Christ unto us — His sending the Holy Ghost into our hearts, and by Him, forming us for his praise — In the consummation of the glorification of the whole church in her final perfection at the last day ; together with the eternal glory the church will have and enjoy in the vision of Christ, and personal communion with

Him in the ew Jerusalem state, and in the state of ultimate glory for ever— -All this proceeds from the love of God : it therefore seems, as if

140 1 JOH IV. 16. the apostle knew not what to say of all the acts of God in Christ, of all the will of God in Christ, of all the blessings of God in Christ which had been manifested to the people whom he had loved in Christ with an everlasting love, but this — God is love. Tiie love of God is wonderful in all his Persons. Behold (saith our apostle,) iv hat manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God ! It is equally as wonderful in the Son, that He should become Christ for us. It is equally as great in the co-equal and co-eternal Spirit, that He should become the Comforter of the elect. The love of God is the glory of his grace. It is free. It is absolute. It is unchangeable. It is love from everlasting. It is manifested in time, and hereby it is made known who are the objects and subjects thereof. I would fain speak, so as that our souls, under the immediate influence of the Holy Ghost, might have an heart-refreshing sense thereof: yet I would not here go over, nor mention any particular acts, manifestations, gifts and blessings of this love ; because I would avoid repetition as much as possible, and also because we have had some of these mentioned in the past Sermons. And I really view the apostle here, coming in with this his assertion as if he would hereby swallow up the whole mind with the subject, and have the saints swallowed up in God himself; who is Himself the fountain of love. He would have all the streams lead them to the fountain, God : and he would that their mind should be swallowed up in God the fountain. God is love. He loves your persons now, with the same love he did from everlasting. He loves you now with the same love he did, when he so loved, as to give his only begotten Son, to bear the sins of many, to make his soul an offering for them. God is love. He loves you now, with the same love He did, when he beheld Christ in his soul-travail ; and beheld him purging away your sins by his bloody-sweat, and most precious

oblation. He loves you now, as He did, when he sent his Holy Spirit into your hearts, to cry out Abba, Father ; as when he sent his Holy Spirit to shed abroad a sense of his everlasting love in your hearts. He loves you now, with the same love, he will love you with in heaven, throughout the ages of eternity. God is love. This subject is suited for spiritual minds to contemplate on. As the spiritual mind is exercised on the same, there are blessings and benefits enjoyed by such persons, as are thus engaged, as the world can neither give, neither can it take away. Yea, the joys contained in this exercise of the spiritual mind on this most essential truth of the everlasting gospel, that God is love, are such, as none but the spiritual mind renewed and enlightened by the Spirit of the living God, can have the least conception of. This therefore brings me to my next particular, which is this : 3. To take notice and express the blessedness which flows into the mind of saints herefrom: it consists in this, God dwelleth in such, and such dwell in God. This is expresvsed in the singular number ; the former was all in the plural. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love. This is the former part of the verse. ow it is, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. The substance of this must most assuredly concern the communion of real saints with God, and God's real communion with them, and this in the knowledge of his free communicating unto them the knowledge of his love. Yet here their communion with him is first mentioned, and

1 JOH IV. 16. 141 then liis communion with them ; And he that dwelleth in love dwellcth in God, and God in hiin. So that here it is altogether personal fellowship the apostle is speaking of. Surely none amongst the beloved of God, but will confess, the subject as it respects the saints' communion with God, in the true knowledge and belief of Him, as he hath been pleased to reveal Himself unto them in Christ, in the revelation of the everlasting gospel, is most truly glorious and divine: more especially in his love: which most certainly is the subject here. I would ask, wlio can unfold the mystery of real,

inward, personal communion with God in his love? I cannot: yet I profess to know what it is, and wherein it consists. But whilst I can say something concerning the truth and blessedness of the same, yet it is wholly out of my power, and beyond me ; it exceeds my stature and ability in Christ, to enter fully into the same. It is a personal blessing : it is a particular one : it belongs to all saints ; and they each and every one of them, have their share in this high and glorious privilege; yet they all have not the same full and free enjoyment of this grace, equally and alike for themselves. According to what is expressed in our text, it is a most blessed fruit and eftcct, which follows on knowing and believing the love which God hath to us : we have knowyi and believed the love which God hath to 7(s. This operates on the spiritual mind : it is led out to consider what is contained, in what it is brought to know and believe of the love of God: this knowledge being quite different from a mere speculative and notional one : it is such an one as the believer by it apprehends the subject which he is enlightened into the knowledge of: it leads to an apprehension concerning the fixation of God's love on the persons of the elect — of its fixation on their persons in the Person of Christ — on the immutability of this love; by this means, the mind of a believer is led on, and led out to apprehend what is contained in this wonderful expression, God is love. Here he stops and makes a full pause. This, God is love, this fills the minds of saints, with wonder and astonishment : and it cannot but be so, as the Holy Ghost is pleased to let in upon the mind, such great and glorious conceptions of the subject, as are altogether suited to the subject itself. And together with this, the Holy Ghost is pleased to open to an individual saint, in his own mind, and enlighten into such discoveries of what is contained in these words, God is love, and sheds abroad in the heart of a saint, such a sense of God's love as no words ever did, or can describe. As these words, God is love, are the greatest, the richest, and best throughout the whole word of God, so when the Holy Ghost is pleased to let in upon the mind with them, such sense and enjoyment of the same, as are agreeable with them, the believer is filled with the profundity of grace contained therein : and he goes out in the exercise of his whole soul after God. I consider this text, with all contained in it, the experience of a saint — of one favoured with clear knowledge and believing views of the

whole mysteries of godliness : as being well grounded in the truths of the everlasting gospel ; and as taught by the Divine Spirit how to walk with God and hold communion with Him, in a way of believing. And such saints are at seasons, admitted to enjoy God's love in an especial intuitive way and manner : this I conceive must be the case here, as it respects the meaning of the words before us. The apostle having said, God is love, he adds, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

142 1 JOH IV. 16. What more suitable, and exactly as an inference from the assertion could have been drawn, than that such as knew and believed tlie love that God hath to them ; that such who actually received this truth, and also what is contained in the same, would be swallowed up in their minds, in spiritual contemplations thereon : in the which they would be, as it were in God, and God would be in them : that is, they would be exercised in the knowledge and enjoyment of his love, and God himself would so possess their minds, with the enjoyment of the same, that there would be a mutual indwelling' and communion of the believer with God, and of God with the believer. If the least and weakest saint in the church of God were asked, if it could be other than so, when the believer lives or is living in the apprehensions and believing views of the love of God, and taking into his own mind what the apostle here says, God is love ! he would answer. o ; it could not ; nor can it be otherwise with any saint when and whilst he is thus most spiritually and divinely engaged. Let us spend a few thoughts on this, as it may lead us into right views and apprehensions of the subject before us, concerning the blessedness spoken of in these words, God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. I ask, how can this be but as follows ? When the believer at any time hath his conversation in heaven, and his spiritual mind and the faculties thereof, are so swallowed up in the contemplations of this immense subject that God is love, and he is filled inwardly with a real sense and enjoyment of the same, what

is this but fellowship with God ? Surely it is. And what does this consist in ? Is it not in a real dwelling in God in the real engagements and exercise of the mind on Him ? And what is that in God the mind is fixed and engaged on ? It is his love. So says our text, God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. As it is the best subject for the believer to have his mind wholly and intensely engaged in, so it is the subject God himself also delights in unfolding, and refreshing the spiritual mind with renewed views and discoveries of : hence it follows, a7id God dwelleth in him. And how can this be, but by the inward and open discoveries and manifestations of his love, so as to possess the whole mind of the believer with the same? This is blessedness indeed: such as we may conceive of, and we may express somewhat of it, but we can never fully explain or utter it. The very blessedness of Heaven will consist, in God's filling and possessing the minds of his saints with the knowledge and enjoyment of his love, to the fullest extent of their capacities, and to the uttermost enjoyment of the same. I will, as I can say no more, the subject being beyond my capacity, close with the text ; yind we have knoiun and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. May the Holy Ghost open to you the blessedness contained in this, in your own spiritual experiences. Amen.

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