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goodness warm your frozen hearts? What will it do then, when you shall live<br />
in love, and have all in Him, who is all? Surely love is both work and wages.<br />
What a high favor, that God will give us leave to love him! that he will be<br />
embraced by those who have embraced lust and sin before him! But more<br />
than this, he returneth love for love; nay, a thousand times more. Christian,<br />
thou wilt be then brim-full of love; yet, love as much as thou canst, thou<br />
shalt be ten thousand times more beloved. Were the arms of the Son of God<br />
open upon the cross, and an open passage made to his heart by the spear; and<br />
will not his arms and heart be open to thee in glory? Did not he begin to love<br />
before thou lovedst, and will not he continue now? Did he love thee, an<br />
enemy? thee, a sinner? thee, who even loathedst thyself? and own thee, when<br />
thou didst disclaim thyself? And will he not now immeasurably love thee, a<br />
son? thee, a perfect saint? thee, who returnest some love for love? He that in<br />
love wept over the old Jerusalem when near its ruin, with what love will he<br />
rejoice over the new Jerusalem in her glory!<br />
Christian, believe this, and think on it: thou shalt be eternally embraced<br />
in the arms of that love which was from everlasting, and, will extend to<br />
everlasting; of that love which brought the Son of God's love from heaven to<br />
earth, from earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to<br />
glory; that love which was weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged,<br />
buffeted, spit upon, crucified, pierced; which did fast, pray, teach, heal,<br />
weep, sweat, bleed, die; that love will eternally embrace thee. When perfect<br />
created love and most perfect uncreated love meet together, it will not be like<br />
Joseph and his brethren, who lay upon one another's necks weeping; it will<br />
be loving and rejoicing, not loving and sorrowing. Yes, it will make Satan's<br />
court ring with the news that Joseph's brethren are come, that the saints are<br />
arrived safe at the bosom of Christ, out of the reach of hell for ever. Nor is<br />
there any such love as David's and Jonathan's, breathing out its last into sad<br />
lamentations for a forced separation. Know this, believer, to thy everlasting<br />
comfort, if those arms have once embraced thee, neither sin nor hell can get<br />
thee thence for ever. Thou hast not to deal with an inconstant creature, but<br />
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