·Book 111. Looking unto :Jefm. Chap.zSett. 6 SECT. VI. Of loving {rfm in tl111t rrfPeEt. 6. We nuifi love Yefft!, ascarrying on this great work ofour falvation in a way of covenant. I know love is reckoned as the firft and fundamental paffion, ofall the reft; fome call it the firfr fpringing or out-going affect-ion ofthe foul;and therefore I might have put it in the firfi piace before hope or defire, but I cboofe rather to place it in th~ method as (met hinki) mofi agreeing (if not to the order ofnacure, yet) to the fpiritual workings as they appeare in my foul: when a good is p opounded,firft I dejirr , and then I hope, and then I beleevr, and then I love. And fome defcrib- .· • ing this JPiritut~llove; they tell me, it ii an ho/7 difpojition of the ·pr. Prtfton of heart, arijing from faith. But to let thefc nicetyes palfe for a {pi· ' ov~. d~:rs web (curious, bl'!t thin) certaine it is that I cannot beleeve all thefe tranfaCl:ions ofGod,by Chrift in a covenant-way for me, but I muft needs love that God, and love that Chrift who hath thus firftly and freely loved my foul; go on then 0 my foul, ?ut fire to the hearth , blow on thy little fpark, fet before thee Gods love, and thou canft not but love, and therein confider, 1. the .time.z.The properties.;.The effeCl:s ofGods love. z.For the time; He loved thee before the world was made:haft thou not heard? & wilt thou ever forget it.<were not thofe ancient loves from all e- ,tern~ty admirable,afioni!hing,ravifhing loves? 2.He loved thee in .the very beginning ofthe world,was not the promife expreffed to Adam, intended for thee? as thou finnedft in his Joynes, fo,didft thou not in his loynes receive the promife, it fhall bruife thy head? and not long after when God eftablifhed his covena.nt with A6r.tham and his feed, wafl: thou not one of that feed of Abraham? , , if ye art (hrijfs, then are ye Abraham• feed, and heires according tGal. 3· ~9· h H 1 b fi . 11 I tot epromife. 3. e oves t ee now more e pecta y, not on y with a love of bcnevolence,.as before, but with a love of compia- .. cende: not only hath he f.l:ruck covenant with Chriil:, with Adam, with Abraham in thy behalf, but particularly and perfonally with thy felf;and 0 what a'love is this? if a woman lately conceiving, love her:future fruit; how much more doth {he love it ,when it is borne and impraced in her armes? fo if God loved the :-.-~
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