1 54 ~ Serm.XH. An Expofition of the Epijlle There is but one thing more, and it is •.great tbing, and I confer. I did n t ~ obferve it a long while inthe Text, but lhll took the words to hav; run th:s For the great Lovewherewtlh he loved 111; but I find tt ~s, For [his] great Love: >vherewilh he""'" loved us. There IS a great emphajis 111 that word [Hir.] He C1ith not fimply, (as he might have done) Becaufo that God greatly loved 11 s 0 'Bec.mfo of a great Love /.>e bore us; but he doubles it, For the great Love wher:nvi;h /.>c loved 11s; and not only fo, but, For [lm] great love, wherewilb he loved us My Brethren, there is a Love proper to God, which is a differing kind of Lov~ fi·om that in all the Creatues; [His] love, as the Text hath it here. As hisGood– nets is ~nother kind of Goodnefs, than what is in the Creatures; [o is his Love. There IS none that bath ta(\ed of thts Love of hts, but fay, that it is a differing Love from the Love ofall the Cre~t~res; and the d!fference is found more by taf1mg, and by feelmg of tt, than It IS by fettmg of It forth ; as it is in Wines 7hy Love iJ bel/er tha~t Wi11e, and thy loving-Ajndnefs is better t!Jan lift: · Both which are better difcerned ?Y ta(\e andfeelin~, than fet out by any expreffion. Indeed God cloth compare hts Love to what IS m the Creature, to fet it out to us, becaufe we apprehend it by fuch companfons; as when he fatth, Li~ as a Father pitieth (or, lovetb) his Children; fo the Lord loveth the"! that fear him : And, If a Mo– ther jiJ>-get ler Child, &c. But yet notwtthihndmg, the Love wherewith he loved us, it is of another kind from all thefe. In I John 3· t. 'Behold, (faith the Apo(\le) >vhat tJwmer of Love the Father hath beflowed rtpon us; (he [peaks in refptil: of one fruit of it,) fuch a Love for the kind of it, as no Man no Crea– ture could bellow upon us. lnHofit.9. where givingtherea[on, why,that he lo– ving his People, they are not de(\royed, he faith, 1am God, and nf)f Man. It is !poken in refpeil: of his Love clearly, for it comes in there upon a conlliil: with himfelf; when he had been provoked, beyond the bounds and meafure of Par– don, yet when he comes to punilli, he finds his Love not to be as the Love of a Man : My Heart is turned within me, ( faith he, v. 8.) my repmtings are rolled to– gether : I will11ot return to deftroy ; for I am God, and not Man: My love is of another extent, ofanother kind, than the love of Man. And [o when he [peaks of Mercy, in lfo. 55· 8, 9· :il1y thoughts are not your thoiJghts, neither are your "''9's my lV'9's, foith the Lord: For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth, fo are my >vays higher than your ways, and nty thoughts than your thoughts. It is [his] Love, [o f.11th the Text here. Now to lpeaka Ji~le of this, for it lies in the way in the Text. Fir(\; His Love, it is a love fqr nothing in us. The Love .that one Creature bears to another, it is llill for fofllething in th.em; but the love of God, if it be [his Lov.e, J a love that is proper unto him, it mull needs be free, and that not only for this reafon, which is ufua)ly given; and is a true one too, becaufe that his love is fi·om everlafling, and nothingin the Creature in time can be the cau[e of wl>at is in God from cve.rla(\ing ; but for this reafon ··likewife, becaufe that only God can be moved by what is in himfelf, he can love no other– wife but from himfel£ The CreatureS', they love, becaufe things are lovtly, aud there mull: be Motives tq draw out that Love that. is in them; but when God loves, he loves as from hisown heart. There is nothing in us, no, 1101; in Chrill, tbat llioulq move God to love us, tho indeed to bellow thofe things that God be(\ows upon us, fo Chrifl i~ the moving caufe.. Jacob hove I loved, C1ith he, and that before he had done any good or evil : So that as no evil in him did put God off from loving him, [o no good did move God to love him. In 2 Tim. I. 9· there is one little particle that I foun..d this upon, Who hath Joved 11 s, and called 1/S with an holy calling, not according to our Worl{s, but according to [his own pmpofe] a11d grace, w.hich was g!ven 1ts in C/Jrijl before the World began. Mark, according to his own p11rpo[e, ( whtch IS the thmg l p>tch UJ?On tn that place,) that is, as the Apo(lle explains it, J!.ph. t. 9· Wmcb hep~trpoftd in himfelf,. or, pom himfelf, a purpofe meerly taken up mor from htmfelf. And therefore you !ball find the Phrafe in Scripture to run, that as he loves us out of hts own purpofe, fo for his own fake: Not (or your fa~s do I this, but for my own Name's fol<f. . My
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