to the . E P H E S I A N S; 147 thefe parts of Europe fell off lfom Antichri£1: : It is becaufe God bath here multi- S'~ .tudcs of Men, whofi Names are written in the Boo/z of Life of the Lamb. ~ Now that God doth thus fet his Love upon Come, and not on others, ofpur– pofe to fct off his Love, and make it greater, I'Je give you a !'lace for it, Deut. 10. 14. 'Behold, the Heaven, and the Heaven of Heavens is the~ Lord's thj God ; t/>e Earth alfo, witb all that is therein: Onlj the Lord had a delight in tby Fa– thers to love tbem; and he chofl their Seed after them, even you above aU People, M it;, ihis d·'J· If I would chufe, faith God, I have choice enough, I have the Hea– ven of Heavens, I could have fjll'd all thofe with Creatures; and there were An– gels that fell, I might have chofen thofe, and fixed them as Stars, never to have f. 111en, but I let multitudes of them tumble down to Hell : And I had all the Earth alfo, and all the Nations thereof, before me ; but to !hew my Love in a fpecial manner 1have chofen you, above all the People of the World. So that I tay, the grea'tnefs of his .Love is fet off by the fpecialnefs of it. Therefore h; cloth call the People of God upon all fuch occafions, to confider the one with the other, that their Love of God may be greatned alfo. Rom. 11. 22. 'Behold, to thenz Severity, to thee Goodnefs: He would 'have them to eye both at once; why bath he !hewn fevcrity to others? That his goodnefs to thee might the more appear. Ho calls them to behold it, Behold, f:lith he, to them ftverity, and to thee goodnefs ; the one fetteth offthe other. And I might !hew you, that God bath !hewn his fpecial Love, not only in chufing you out of all the re£1: of Mankind, and Angels, and the like, whom he refufed, and threw down to Hell, but out of all Creatures poffible, or which he could have made. Believe it, Brethren, there came up before him in his Idea, infinite millions of Worlds; all that his Power could make, were as make– able as we were, and he chofe us out of all that he could make, and not only out of all that he did make, or did decree to make.~ And let me C1y this, The grea'tnefs of his love, in refpeCl: of the fpecialty of it, is mightily enhanced to us, the Elect, m the latter Ages of the World, in this re– fpefr, That God had all the gre•t Heroes of all Ages, that are pafs'd before him the great Worthies ofthe World, all the wife, gallant, brave Men, in Rome, and Greece, and in all Nations, in all the Ages before; he might have fill'd up thy room in Heaven with fome of thofe ; there were Men enough among£1: them, that might have had pbces in Heaven, and thou mightell have been let alone: No, all thefe could not win his love away from thee, that live£1: in this Age; he pa£1: over all them, fuffered them to walk in their own ways, they are perilbed, they are gone; and, as the Phrafe is in I Pet. I. 5· he hath referved Heaven for thee. The love of God to thee, I C1y, is not only magnified by thofe out of whom he bath chofen thee in thl! Age, but in all Ages pafl:; and when all Mankind !ball meet together, it will infinitely greateri the love of God to that Remnant, whom he hath chofen out of all the re£1: of the World. It is fpecial Love, that makes his Love great Love. I I will give you this Obfervation, which I find. in the Scriptnre: He calls his Obfcrv. Church, his Love; fo Cant. 5· 2. And he himfelf terms himfelf by the name of the Love>"; fo Rom. 8.37. and Re-u. I. 5· It is h1s Title, and became his Stile. The Church is his Love, fo as he hath no Love but the Church, it is notfcattered to other Objeers ; therefore, Rom. 1 I. they are taid to be beloved according to Elet!ion, even as they are faid to be called according to his p11rp'ofl. It is by way ofdifiinClion, noting out a fpecialty of Love, that accompanies Election. And then if you add to this, in the third place, the fewnefs of thofe upon whom this Love is pitch'd, it cloth exceedingly greaten it; for the fewer that all ~he Love of the great God is pitch'd upon, the greater the Love is. And this; m the Coherence, rho not in exprefs words, we find in the Text; for the reft, whom thefe [ Vs J were called out of, were the World, the World ljing in Wtc~dnefl: .Amo11g,whom we had 011r Converfotion, according to the co11rfl of this Wor/d. When God bath betaken h1mfelf to a few, to love them, 0 how will he love them ! He will be lure to lofe none of thofe, becaufe they are fo few. When a great rich Man !ball have but one Heir, or a few in his Will, to divide .. T 2 his
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