Ralph Erskine (Preventing Love), Sermons 1:439:
There is a special love, whereby the whole soul is carried out towards the Lord as the chief, present, and only good, and whereby the soul sees nothing in heaven or earth desirable in comparison of him; and that acts towards a present Christ in rejoicing in him, and towards an absent Christ by lamenting after him. It acts by cleaving to him when they have the greatest temptations to go away, and it appears most when Christ threatens to depart; and it cleaves most to him when many are departing from him: “To whom shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life.” It counts all but loss and dung for him. Christ gets the throne of their hearts, the cream of their affections, the very soul of their souls, their most vehement love. Whatever other things they love, it is but in a subordination to him. Whatever other things they rejoice in, he is their chief joy: “I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy,” Ps. 43:4. Their joy in him exceeds the joy that they have in any thing else in a world.
There is a special love, whereby the whole soul is carried out towards the Lord as the chief, present, and only good, and whereby the soul sees nothing in heaven or earth desirable in comparison of him; and that acts towards a present Christ in rejoicing in him, and towards an absent Christ by lamenting after him. It acts by cleaving to him when they have the greatest temptations to go away, and it appears most when Christ threatens to depart; and it cleaves most to him when many are departing from him: “To whom shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life.” It counts all but loss and dung for him. Christ gets the throne of their hearts, the cream of their affections, the very soul of their souls, their most vehement love. Whatever other things they love, it is but in a subordination to him. Whatever other things they rejoice in, he is their chief joy: “I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy,” Ps. 43:4. Their joy in him exceeds the joy that they have in any thing else in a world.
