Mit .rejpeEls the Perfon of [/,rift. 185 fent condition is the proper Objeer of our Love. Where· as · therefore this is done only in Chrift, there can be no true Love of the Di-vine Goodnefs, but in and through him alone. The Goodnefs of God as a Creator, Preferver and Re– warder, was a fufficient, ·yea the adequate O/;jeEt of all Love antecedentli unto the.entrance offin and mifery.. In them, in God under thofe confiderations might the foul ofman find fnll fatisfacrion as unto its prefent and future Ble!fednefs~ But fince the pailing of fin mifery and death upon us, our Love can find IJO am1ablenefs in any Good.Qefs, no rett, compla– cency and fatisfafrion in any, but what is effefryal in that grace and mercyby Chrift·,which we fl:and in t)eed of,for our prefent Res0very ahdrfuture Reward. Nor cloth God require 1!/L· of us that we fhould love him otherwife but,as he i5 in Chrifl reconciling the world unto himfelf. So the Apoftle fully de– cl~res it. In. tiJis ··wa; manifefled the:Lo·ve ofGod towards us, becaufe that ·Godftnt his only ·begotten Son into the world, that we mig,ht live-throug,h him :·· Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and[e11t his Son to be the Propitiation for our fins. And we ha·ve known and believed the Lo·ve · that God·bath to uP: God is Love, and he ' that dwelleth in Love, dwelleth in God, and G(J"d in him, I John 3· 9, ro, r6. God is Love, of a nature infinitely good and gracious, fo as to be the only ObjeCl: of all Divine Love. But this Love can no way be known, or ·be fo manifefied unto ·us, as that we may and ought to love him, but by his Love in ·Chri]l, his fending of him, and loving us in him. Before this, without this, we do not, wecannotlove Go~. For herein is Lo·ve, not that we lo·ved God, but that he lqved ur, and (ent his Son tobe the Propitiation fo'\ our fins. This is the cau1e,the fpring · anc;i fountafn ofall our L~ve unto·him ~ They are but em}Jty 2notions and imaginations, which fome fpeculative perfons ·B b pleafe
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