A Practical Commentary on the Epistle of Jude

And so he denieth to dispense the knowledge of times and seasons, because the Father had kept it in his own Power, Acts 1. 7. So that now 'tis an engaging Consideration to remember that the Father, whose Will is absolute, who hath an original Fullness of all grace, that he himself loveth us, and is first in all acts of blessing. 2. In the Fathers acts you have the purest and freest apprehension of love; he began and first broke the business of our Redemption: God the Son can have an higher motive, the Fathers Will; but God the Father can have no higher motive then his own love; his elective love was the first rise and spring whence all that love that passeth out to the creature issueth forth, and therefore here we have the freest apprehension of love: there was a love of the Father anteceding the merit of Christ; John 3. 16. God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son; there was the most independent and free act of love.

And so he denyeth to dispense the knowledg of times and seasons, because the Father had kept it in his own Power, Acts 1. 7. So that now 'tis an engaging Consideration to remember that the Father, whose Will is absolute, who hath an original Fulness of all grace, that he himself loveth us, and is first in all acts of blessing. 2. In the Fathers acts you have the purest and freest apprehension of love; he began and first broke the business of our Redemption: God the Son can have an higher motive, the Fathers Will; but God the Father can have no higher motive then his own love; his elective love was the first rise and spring whence all that love that passeth out to the creature issueth forth, and therefore here we have the freest apprehension of love: there was a love of the Father anteceding the merit of Christ; John 3. 16. God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son; there was the most independent and free act of love.