Perfect love

Second. With respect to the degree of their love, it is perfect. 

The love which is in the heart of God is perfect, with an absolute, infinite and divine perfection. 

The love of the angels and saints to God and Christ is perfect in its kind, or with such a perfection as is proper to their nature, perfect with a sinless perfection, and perfect in that it is commensurate with the capacities of their natures. 

So it is said in the text, when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. Their love shall be without any remains of a contrary principle. 

Having no pride or selfishness to interrupt or hinder its exercises, their hearts shall be full of love. 

Pure love

Thus having spoken of the fountain and subject of this love, I proceed

IV. To say something of the principle, or the love itself, which fills the heavenly world. And of this I would take notice, first, of the nature, and second, the degree of it.

First. As to its nature. It is altogether holy and divine. Most of the love which there is in this world is of an unhallowed nature. But in heaven, the love which has place there is not carnal, but spiritual; not proceeding from corrupt principles, not from selfish motives, and to mean and vile purposes; but there love is a pure flame. 

The saints there love God for his own sake, and each other for God's sake, for the sake of that relation which they bear to God, and that image of God which is upon them.

Christ loves his saints

Christ loves all his saints in heaven. His love flows out to his whole church there, and to every individual member of it; and they all with one heart and one soul, without any schism in the body, love their common Redeemer. 

Every heart is wedded to this spiritual husband. All rejoice in him, the angels concurring. 

And the angels and saints all love one another. All that glorious society are sincerely united. 

There is no secret or open enemy among them; not one heart but is full of love, nor one person who is not beloved. As they are all lovely, so all see each other's loveliness with answerable delight and complacence.

Everyone there loves every other inhabitant of heaven whom he sees, and so he is mutually beloved by everyone.

The eternal Father

As God has given the saints and angels love, so their love is chiefly exercised towards God, the fountain of it, as is most reasonable.

They all love God with a supreme love. There is no enemy of God in heaven, but all love him as his children.

They all are united with one mind to breathe forth their whole souls in love to their eternal Father, and to Jesus Christ, their common Head. 

Love flows out

But it [divine love] does not remain in such exercises only, but it flows out in innumerable streams towards all the created inhabitants of heaven; he loves all the angels and saints there. 

The love of God flows out towards Christ the Head, and through him to all his members, in whom they were beloved before the foundation of the world, and in whom his love was expressed towards them in time by his death and sufferings, and in their conversion and the great things God has done for them in this world, and is now fully manifested to them in heaven. 

And the saints and angels are secondarily the subjects of holy love, not as in whom love is as in an original seat, as light is in the sun which shines by its own light, but as it is in the planets which shine by reflecting the light of the sun. And this light is reflected in the first place and chiefly back to the sun itself.

Love is in God

Love is in God as light is in the sun, which does not shine by a reflected light as the moon and planets do; but by his own light, and as the fountain of light. And love flows out from him towards all the inhabitants of heaven. 

It flows out in the first place necessarily and infinitely towards his only begotten Son, being poured forth without measure, as to an object which is infinite, and so fully adequate to God's love in its fountain. Infinite love is infinitely exercised towards him. 

The fountain does not only send forth large streams towards this object as it does to every other, but the very fountain itself wholly and altogether goes out towards him. And the Son of God is not only the infinite object of love, but he is also an infinite subject of it. He is not only the infinite object of the Father's love, but he also infinitely loves the Father. 

The infinite essential love of God is, as it were, an infinite and eternal mutual holy energy between the Father and the Son, a pure, holy act whereby the Deity becomes nothing but an infinite and unchangeable act of love, which proceed? from both the Father and the Son. Thus divine love has its seat in the Deity as it is exercised within the Deity, or in God towards himself.

The Light of Christ part 5

4. As the sun revives the plants and trees and fruits of the earth, so Christ Jesus by his spiritual light revives the soul and causes it to bring forth fruit. 

In the winter, the trees are stripped of their leaves and fruit, and stand naked, cease growing, and seem to be dead; the grass and herbs are killed, and all things have the appearance of death upon them. 

But when the sun returns, then all things have the appearance of a resurrection: things revive again, the trees and fields put on their green livery and begin to bud forth, anew, and flourish and grow. The grass and herbs begin to peep forth out of the ground, and all things look green and flourishing: the fields, meadows, and woods seem to rejoice, and the birds sing a welcome to the returning spring. The fields and trees are adorned with beautiful and fragrant flowers.

Just such an alteration is made in the soul at conversion by Jesus Christ, only far more glorious:

My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away (Canticles 2:10–13).

In conversion, graces do spring forth in the soul which are like the sweet flowers that adorn the face of the earth in the spring, and like the sweet melody of singing birds. 

The soul of one upon whom Christ has shined differs as much from the souls of the wicked as the earth, beautified with the vernal sunbeams, and, when covered with ice and snow, and vexed with storms in the dead of winter.

5. And lastly, as the sun by his influences causes the fruits of the earth to grow and increase, fit for the harvest, so Christ by his spiritual influences increases graces and fits for glory. 

All the fruits of the earth are brought to perfection by the sun; so all the graces of the soul do continue to be increased and ripened by the light that Christ gives, till at length all is perfected in glory. 

Thus, as the sun is the light of the corporeal world, the great light by which the whole earth is enlightened and enlivened, so Jesus Christ is a far more glorious light of the spiritual world, by which all that are saved are enlightened and quickened. 

This is a sun by whom the sun in the firmament is created and upheld, to whom our bodily sun is but a shadow, is but as darkness to this infinite fountain of glorious light, and the great light of the world.

The Light of Christ part 4

2. As the sun by his returning influences causes clouds and storms and cold to fly before it, so doth Jesus Christ, the cold, tempests, and clouds of the soul. 

In the winter season, the heavens are frequently overcast with clouds that hide the pleasing light of the sun; the air is disturbed with winds, storms and tempests, and all things are chilled with frost and cold. The rivers and streams are shut up with ice, the earth is covered with snow, and all things look dreadful; but when the sun returns with its warming influences, the heavens are cleared of dark clouds and the air stilled from tempests, the ice and snow and cold are fled. 

So the souls of men in their natural state are like winter, perpetually disturbed with the storms of lust and vice, and a raging conscience; their souls are all beclouded with sin and spiritual darkness. But when Christ comes with his warming influences, things are far otherwise: their minds are calm and serene, warmed with holiness and religion, and the clear sunshine of spiritual comfort.

3. As when the sun returns in the spring, the frozen earth is opened, mollified and softened, so by the beams of the Sun of Righteousness the stony, rocky, adamantine hearts of men are thawed, mellowed and softened, and made fit to receive the seeds of grace. 

In the winter, the face of the earth is closed and shut up as a stone, unfit for anything to be sown in it, but is loosened in the spring by the warm beams of the sun; so [is] the heart in its natural state frozen and like the stony ground, so that the seeds of God's Word take no rooting in it, but is as if we should cast seed upon the bare rock. 

But when Christ melts the heart by shining upon it, the seed then sinks into it and takes root and begins to germinate and spring forth.

The Light of Christ part 3

Third. And lastly, light is of a quickening, reviving, and refreshing nature. It revives one that hath been long in darkness again to behold the light; so Christ Jesus revives the souls that come unto him by faith. 

Here you may run a parallel between the sun and Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness.

1. As the sun, when it rises, all things are thereby revived and awakened out of sleep and silence, so when Jesus Christ shines into the souls of men, they are revived out of their deep and dead sleep of sin. 

When the sun arises, the world that before was all still and silent, and seemed to be dead, now is revived and raised up by the light thereof, and all things begin to stir and move: things seem to have new life put into them; man rises out of his sleep and sets about his business; the husbandman goeth forth to his labor, the beasts come out of their dens, the birds begin to sing and chant forth their notes, and the world is again put into motion. So it is in spiritual matters with respect to Christ. 

Before he shines into men's souls, they are dead and dull in a deep sleep, are not diligent at their work, but lie still and sleep and do nothing respecting their souls. All their affections are dead, dull and lifeless; their understandings are darkened with the dark shades of spiritual night, and there is nothing but spiritual sleep and death in their souls.

But when Christ arises upon them, then all things begin to revive, the will and affections begin to move, and they set about the work they have to do. 

They are now awakened out of their sleep: whereas they were still before, now they begin to be diligent and industrious; whereas they were silent before, now they begin to sing forth God's praises. Their graces now begin to be put into exercise, as flowers send forth a fragrancy when the sun shines upon them.

The Light of Christ part 2

Second. Another property of light is to be beautiful and pleasant to behold. How dreadful is it to be in horrid darkness, how horrible is it to nature; and how pleasing is the light, how agreeable is it to the eyes. 

Men manifest it as soon as they are born: how glorious and beautiful is the sun to behold; what a dismal, gloomy, dreadful place would this world be if it were not for the light. What is more beautiful and glorious that can be beheld with bodily eyes than the light?

So, likewise, Jesus Christ is infinitely the most beautiful and glorious object in the world. 

When the soul is enlightened by Christ to behold him, the soul is greatly delighted with the sight of him, as a little infant is delighted when gazing at the light. 

'Tis a far more pleasant thing to behold Jesus Christ than to look on the sun in his meridian glory, for Jesus Christ is an infinite excellency and beauty.