“Since thou wast precious in Mine eyes, thou becamest honorable.…”
-- Isaiah 43:4
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Christopher Love (1618 - 22 August 1651) was a Welsh Protestant preacher and advocate of Presbyterianism at the time of the English Civil War. In 1651 he was executed by the government, after it was discovered that he had been in correspondence with the exiled Stuart court. He went to his death as a hero and martyr of the Presbyterian faction which had petitioned in vain for his pardon. To read Love’s Wikipedia article click here. |
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Christopher Love, minister of St. Laurence-Jewry in London, was beheaded at the age of 29 for treason during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. Thomas Manton preached his funeral sermon. Among others accused, but not convicted or executed, were Thomas Watson and several other prominent London ministers. Love declared his innocence to the very end. The letters written between Christopher and his wife Mary, as he sat in the Tower of London awaiting his death in August, 1651, are full of love and poignant affection. If it pleases God to allow it, Soli Deo Gloria will begin work shortly be reprinting some of Love’s writings. This abridgement is from the 1806 edition.
I will show you the eight particular properties of a man without Christ.
1. Every man without Jesus Christ is a base man.
2. He is a bondman.
3. He is a beggarly man.
4. He is a blind man.
5. He is a deformed man.
6. He is a disconsolate man.
7. He is a dead man; and
8. He is a damned man.
These are the eight properties of a man without Jesus Christ. First, every man without Jesus Christ is a base man. Though you are born of the blood of nobles, and though you are of the offspring of princes, yet if you have not the royal blood of Jesus Christ running in your veins, you are a base man.
In Daniel 11:21 and Psalm 15:4, you read of vile persons. Such is every man without Christ, and he must be so, because it is only Christ who can take off that baseness wherein every one is by nature. In Isaiah 43:4, God says, Since thou wast precious in Mine eyes, thou becamest honorable. And, in 1 Peter 2:7, Unto you who believe, Christ is precious. It is Jesus Christ who puts a diamond of honorand glory upon men. They are all base men who are out of Jesus Christ, and that in these three respects:
1. They come from a base origin.
2. They commit base actions; and
3. They aim at base ends.
Every man who is out of Christ comes from a base origin. He does not have his origin from the Spirit, but from the flesh. He does not proceed from God who is the Father of lights, but from the devil who is the prince of darkness.
He is base because he commits base actions. All the actions and services of a Christ-less man, at best, are but as filthy rags and dead works. A man, in his unconverted state, is the slave and drudge of the devil, a worker of wickedness, still fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, being given over to vile affections.
He is a base man who is without Christ because he aims at base ends in whatever he does, and that two ways. (1) In this world he aims at base ends in his hearing, reading, praying, and profession of religion. He minds himself and his own ends in all that he does. (2) All his actions tend to base ends in another world. As the actions of a man in Christ tend to salvation, so the actions of a Christ-less man tend to damnation.
Second, a man without Christ is not only a base man, but a bondman. This Christ tells you in John 8:36, If the Son shall make you free, then are you free indeed, intimating that if you do not have an interest in Christ to free you from the slavery of sin and Satan, you are slaves indeed. This bondage and slavery, likewise, consists in three particulars: 1. they are slaves to sin; 2. to the devil, and 3. to the law.
1. Every Christ-less man is a slave to sin. In John 8:34, Jesus says, Verily I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin, and in 2 Peter 2:19, While they promise them liberty, they themselves are servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome, of the same he is brought into bondage. Every man, by nature, is a slave to his lusts, a slave to sin, and to the creatures. God made man over all the creatures, but man has made himself servant to all the creatures.
2. He is not only in bondage and slavery to sin, but to the devil, too. The last two verses of 2 Timothy 2 say, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance, to the acknowledging of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
3. He is in bondage to the law, that is, he does nothing in obedience to the law; and this is the great misery of a man without Christ. He is bound to keep the whole law of God. There is a very strange expression in Revelation 18:13. Saint John tells there that all those who did worship the beast shall cry, ‘Woe and alas,’ for Babylon is fallen, and shall cry for the slaves and souls of men. All wicked men are slaves to antichrist, to sin and to the law, and this is the great misery of an unregenerate man.
Third, you are not only a base and a bondman, but a beggarly man, too, without Jesus Christ; for all the treasures of grace and mercy are hid and locked up in Christ as in a common magazine or storehouse. Colossians 2:13, In Him are hid all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge. If you are out of Christ, you have nothing. As it says in Revelation 4:17, Thou sayest thou art rich and increased in goods, and hast need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art poor, and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked. You will grant that he is a poor and beggarly man that lacks these four things: meat for his belly, clothes for his back, money for his purse, and a house to put his head in. Why, in all these respects, every man who is out of Christ is a beggarly man.
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Christopher Love (1618-1651), Welsh Protestant preacher and martyr
Christopher Love was the son of a merchant of Cardiff in Glamorganshire. Encouraged by his father, he gained a reputation as a gambler during his early life, but in 1633 he heard a sermon by the radical Welsh preacher William Erbery that persuaded him to renounce his sinful ways and devote himself to godliness. Love’s conversion to Puritanism caused a breach with his father who confined him to the top room of the family house, yet Love escaped by climbing down a rope to attend sermons. For more information click here. |
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