to the E PH E S I A. N S; which our Salvation depends upon, ( tho upon that alto,) is tHis, That an aB: S~ of Love hatli determined this Mercy, engaged thts Mercy. • , , ~ I !hewed you likewite, that it is rather an aCl: of love, than of merey. That firft act of Election, it is indeed to iliew mercy; but not fo properly out of mercy. . . . . .· . · Then thirdly ; Love ts f:nd to be the caufe for thts rea\on alto, becaute that love is it which directs mercy to the Perfons; love fingles out the Pertons, and fo they become Velfels of mercy. The next thing I explained and obfetved in the !aft Difcourte was, the drcum• ftanceofTime here. He doth not fay,God tbatiloth love us,ashe that began to love us when be firft called us, or loveth us now be bath called us; but, God that bath fi11Jed "'· I gave you ~like Scripture for it, in jer. 31·_3· 11"'-:edthee with an everla.fling LOve. Whtcb, .I t<;>ld you, bath two _tht~gs prmctpally in ir, and both are intended here m thts [bath loved UJ,] wbtcb ts a love before Con– verfion, and caufeth Converfion: r. For the time, for the beginning of it, it is ri love from ever!afting. , And, 2. It is alove continued all the \vhile, from ever– lafting, even till the time of one's calling. The !all: thing I came to in the !aftDifcourfe,is this, [Vs,] Bath loved UJ. He liath not only put forth anaa: or purpofe oflove at random, indefinitely, that be \Vould rove Come of us, Or that he would love Mankmd; but [us] determinatively; As it was not mecrly the natural difpofition of love and mercy in God, that was the caufe of our Salvation, but an actof his Will put forth; fo is it not an aa of meer velliety, or an indefinite :(Cl:, that he would fave fomc, but it is [zu,] he tefolv·ed upon the Perfons whom he would fave, be refolved upon tb.em diftina:Jy and nakedly: loved them difiina:Jy, by name; and nal;:edly, that is, loved their Perfons, without the confideration of any qualification wbatfoever. And fo now I have done the explanation of tbefe words, in a plain and brief manner. I referved two things to be handled, ( which I !hall now difpatch ) ; The one is, the Greatnefs of this Love ; and the other is, the Riches of this Mercy. · I made Obfervations from the words thus explained in the iaft Difcourte. There is only one Obfervation, which I !hall at this time handle, and that is this : That the foundation of our Salvation, it is an act of love, it Is out Qf 1ove: Obferv, For the Love (faith he) wherewith he loved m. I !hewed it iri the !all DiCcourfe, in difiinction from mercy; that it was rather an aB: of love ( the primitive aa:) than of mercy: . which I will not now profecute. My Brethren; Election, it is an aa: of love. I mention this, becaufe it is fundamental to what fhall afterwards follow. The Apofl:le in the former Chapter, had exprefs'd Election to be an aCl: of God's Will : Being prcdejlinated accm·ding to the coHt'.fel of hir Will, faith he, v. 1 r. And he calls it allo an aCl: of God·s goo,d pleafure; According to his good pleafore, that be jmrpofed in himfelf. So verJ 5, and 9· But to take their hearts the more, when he comes to make application to them of the Mifery they lay in, he terms it now an act of love. To make it an act of his Will and good pleafure, it was but a more general thing ; for by his Will he! worketh all things, his Will is pitched upon every thing ; and that it is an aCl: of his good-pleafure, imports rather the Sovereignty and Majefty of God, but of which be did it, and aiming at himfelf therein : but Love is a condefcending virtue. When a King will fpeak as a King, he laith, it is his pleafure,and he makes it an aCl: of his Will ; but wheti he calls it Love, his Majefiy comes down theri 1 Love cloth import not fo much the Sovereignty of God in it, ( tho it was joined With an acr of So~ereignty, aimi~g at his owh Glory,) but it imports efpecially arefpeCl:mg us m 1t ; for a/Jiare, ts to commumcate good thmgs tbr th"' fake of h1m we love, rather than our own. Now I find, that Election is efpecially ex- ·~rets'd unr_o us by Love; indeed the one is put for the other ufually in the Scri[lture, both m the OldTeftament; and in the New. Take the Old Teft:imeni, when ; " s ~ he
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