Barton St. David's, Feb. 13,1781

Dear Friend,

Though the good hand of my God upon me, I got safe to my journey's end on Saturday last. As I long to give you an evidence of my sincere love and regard for you, on account of the truth which dwelleth in you, and shall be with you for ever, I therefore take the first opportunity of writing to you.

I hope the love of God in Christ Jesus, together with the glorious fruits and consequences of it, is your daily meditation, the delight of your heart, and the joy of your soul.

The love of God is the fountain of all the happiness that saints enjoy, either in earth or heaven: indeed, all that the great Jehovah has done, and all that He has promised, and all that He has revealed of Himself in His word to His dear people, is only manifesting and displaying His love to His elect. God is eternal and incomprehensible, and such is His love to His church. "I have," says the Lord, "loved thee with an everlasting love." The love of God in election, which pitcheth itself upon the individual persons, even upon all the persons of the elect, is so great, 'that the scriptures themselves do not know how to express it; and therefore are fain to do it by the effects.' From all eternity, God chose His people in the Person of His co-equal and co-eternal Son, set His love upon them in Christ, and the love He bore towards the persons of His people from eternity, was as great as all transient acts can express to eternity. Having chosen the elect, the Father presented them in the glass of His eternal decrees and purposes unto His co-equal and co-eternal Son. And the Son of God beholding them in all that beauty and majesty which they were to be adorned with, fell in love with their persons, and asked them at the hands of the Father, that they might be His bride and spouse; and God the Father gave them unto Him, and gave Him for them. "He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest it Him, even length of days, for ever and ever." The Father has chosen the elect in the Person of His Son, and having given their persons into His hands, he, as the Father of His people, blessed them in Christ with all spiritual blessings; and foreseeing the fall, He, in His infinite wisdom, and out of the riches of His love and grace, formed the scheme of salvation, entered into covenant with His co-equal Son, Who, blessings on Him! engaged to become the Surety of His people, and assume their nature into union with His divine Person, to bring in for them an everlasting righteousness, and to die in their stead, bearing their sins in His own body on the tree, and to suffer all curse of the broken law. Glory be rendered to the eternal Spirit, who covenanted to quicken the elect from a death of trespasses and sins, and to reveal the Lord Jesus, and shed abroad the Father's love in the hearts of the elect, by faith in the finished salvation of the Son. Let us take a view of three acts of God love toward His people. The first is His love towards them from eternity; the second is, His giving Jesus Christ for them, and the third is, when He call them by the eternal Spirit, and turns, and converts them to Himself. the love which God did first take up in the first act of it, says Dr. Goodwin, is as great as all that God doth to eternity. They are but (all of them) mere expressions of that love which he first took up. Christ and heaven, and whatever else He shows you of love and mercy in this world, or in the world to come, they did all lay in the womb of that first act of that love He took up, wherewith He loved us. God was not drawn out to love you, as a man is, who first begins to love one, and to set his heart upon him; and then his heart being engaged, he is drawn on beyond what he thought, and is enticed to do thus beyond what he intended. No, God is not as a man herein. But, as known unto God are all His works from everlasting, so is all His love tHat He means to bestow. And He took up love enough at first, as He should be venting all sorts of ways that He hath taken to do it, to eternity; for there is no new thing with God. If there should be any one thought, or degree of love, rise up in His heart afterwards, which was not there at first, than there should be some new thing with God; and the reason is clear by this too, that He doth love us out of His own love, therefore His love at the first dash of it was as perfect as it will be in heaven, when we are there. When Adam fell, God was not drawn out to give His Son. No, we are not so to conceive of it. God had all before Him from everlasting. And this, I say, is easily manifested; for the first act of God's was the womb of His giving Christ. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son." Therefore the Scriptures make all grace which ever we shall have to be given to us at the very first, when God loved us. 'My brethren', says Dr. Goodwin, 'when God first began to love you, He gave you all that ever He meant to give you in the lump, and eternity of time is that in which He is retailing it out. "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious." And then all the goodness He means to communicate to them to whom He is thus gracious, is a passing before them even to eternity. First the giving of His Son. He came first in the train, and then giving the Spirit, and then grace and glory.' The second act of God's love, was His giving Jesus Christ for us, the richest jewel in the cabinet of heaven, for with Christ the Father gives us all things. The third act of God's love is, when He calls us at first, and converts and turns us to Himself. 'What is the reason,' says Dr. Goodwin, 'that we should account it,(i.e. effectual calling) so graet a work?' 'The reason,' says he, 'is, because then we are quickened with Jesus Christ. Let the principle of life be ever so small, it is the seed of God that shall rise to eternal life. Therefore he that believeth, hath eternal life. When God calls a man, all the thoughts of love which God had from eternity, all the thoughts of love He had when Christ came into the world, all that He means to do for the man is before Him, and He states this man in all that God hath done, or will do; all are in this act concentrated, when he quickens him, for then a man hath possession and right to all. And this shall go on, till it come to the height of perfection, even to sit with Christ in heavenly places.'

Let us behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we, sinful and abominable as we ourselves are in our Adam-nature, should be called the sons of God. Let us consider the nature of that love, how free, full, and sovereign it is! It passeth knowledge, transcends the brightest understanding, puzzles the very angels of heaven, and perplexes those spirits of light and glory. View we the wonderful acts and effects of this love. The Lord Jesus delighted in the persons of His people before the foundation of the world, and in the fullness of time assumed our nature into union with His Divine Person and by His most perfect obedience to His Father's holy law, He magnified it and made it everlastingly honorable; and by the sacrifice of Himself upon the tree, He put away sin. He made peace by the blood of His cross, put away sin for ever out of the sight of His father, and opened a way into the Holiest of All for poor sinners. Oh! that God the Holy Ghost may enlighten our understandings into a clearer view of the riches of divine grace.

The great love of God, and the unsearchable riches of Christ, are revealed and testified of in the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit bears the same witness in our hearts of Jesus and His perfect salvation, that He does in the word.

Oh! let us consider ourselves as the beloved of God from all eternity, as united to the Person of the Son of God from everlasting, as appearing always before God in the glorious spotlesss robe and garment of our elder brother's righteousness, and as perfectly cleansed before the Lord from all our sins, through the most precious blood-shedding of the God-man Christ Jesus, and as represented by Him before His Father complete in His adorable person. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ loves all the elect with the same love wherewith He loves Christ Himself, looks upon them in Christ with everlasting complacency and delight, and He rests in His love towards them. Glory be to God! We may well bless ourselves in the God of truth. We, as the members of Christ, are always the objects of the Father's ineffable delight. We are eternally secured from the curse of the law, and may enter with boldness at all times within the vail. Oh! tis heaven begon to know Jesus to be our Lord by the Holy Ghost, and to enjoy the Father's love in Him. My hearty prayer for you, and all your dear friends with you, is, that ye may know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and be filled with all the fulness of God. Look not a moment off Christ. Look wholly and only to Jesus. Make use of His blood, and plead it against all accusations. Plead it in the court of your own conscience against all law charges, and you will be more than a match for all your spiritual enemies. beg the Holy Spirit to enable you to honour Christ daily and momently by believing. And surely as God Himself is perfectly satisfied with the work of Jesus, your conscience may rest most perfectly satisfied therewith. Jesus Christ is our Head, and He is to supply us out of His fullness. He does not leave us to do something for ourselves. No. But we are called upon to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.

SEP