Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

Of the first sort, whereof not the least guess and imagination can enter into the heart of man but only by Christ, are Love, and pardoning Mercy.

Of the first sort, whereof not the least guesse and imagination can enter into the heart of man but only by Christ, are Love, and pardoning Mercy.

1. Love: I mean Love unto sinners. Without this man is of all creatures most miserable; and there is not the least glimpse of it that can possibly be discovered but in Christ: the Holy Ghost says, 1 John 4. 8, 16. God is Love: that is not only of a loving and tender nature; but one that will exercise himself in a dispensation of his Love, Eternal Love towards us: one that hath purposes of love for us from of old, and will fulfil them all towards us in due season. But how is this demonstrated, how may we attain an acquaintance with it? he tells us v. 9. in this was manifested the love of God, because God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. This is the only discovery that God hath made, of any such Property in his nature, or of any thought of exercising it towards sinners, in that he hath sent Jesus Christ into the world that we might live by him; where now is the wise, where is the Scribe, where is the disputer of this world, with all their wisdom? Their voice must be that of the Hypocrites in Zion, Isa. 33. 14, 15. That ⟨p. 91⟩wisdom which cannot teach me that God is Love, shall ever pass for folly. Let men go to the Sun, Moon & Stars, to showers of rain & fruitful seasons, & answer truly, what by them, they learn hereof? Let them not think themselves wiser or better then those that went before them, who, to a man, got nothing by them, but being left unexcusable.

1. Love: I meane Love unto sinners. Without this man is of all creatures most miserable; and there is not the least glimpse of it that can possibly be discovered but in Christ: the Holy Ghost says,