A39696:818
Two treatises the first of fear, from Isa. 8, v. 12, 13, and part…
Two treatises the first of fear, from Isa. 8, v. 12, 13, and part of the 14 : the second, The righteous man's refuge in the evil day, from Isaiah 26, verse 20 / by John Flavell.
London: printed by H.H. for Robert Boulter, 1682
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. And first you will find it an ancient love, whose spring is in eternity it self. Believer, God is thine ancient friend, who foresaw and loved thee, before thou, yea, before this world was in being; the fruits and effects thereof thou gatherest in time, but the root ⟨p. 253⟩that produces them was before all times, Prov. 8. 22, 23. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. Thus was the love of God contriving, and providing the best of mercies in Christ for us; while as yet there were no such creatures in the world, nor a world prepared to receive us.
2 The love of God to his people is a free, and altogether undeserved love; it must needs be so seeing it prevented our very being, which had it not done, yet no motives had been found in us, to allure it to us more than others, Deut. 7. 7. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people, (for ye were the fewest of all people) but because the Lord loved you. So that we cannot find one stone of our own merit in the foundation of this love; for those whom it embraceth in its arms are, Immerentes, & malè merentes, ill deserving as well as undeserving, we were loved of God, before we were lovely in our selves; it is freely pitched upon us, not purchased by us, Isa. 43. 24.
2 The love of God to his people is a free, and altogether undeserved love; it must needs be so seeing it prevented our very being, which had it not done, yet no motives had been found in us, to allure it to us more than others, Deut. 7. 7. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor chuse you, because ye were more in number than any people, (for ye were the fewest of all people) but because the Lord loved you. So that we cannot find one stone of our own merit in the foundation of this love; for those whom it embraceth in its arms are, Immerentes, & malè merentes, ill deserving as well as undeserving, we were loved of God, before we were lovely in our selves; it is freely pitched upon us, not purchased by us,