The safety of appearing at the day of judgement, in the righteousness of Christ

For the removal of this Discouragement,

Consider, 1.

The only reason why God sets his love on one man and not upon another is, because he pleases: he acts the sovereignty of his own will in it: it is his own will that makes the difference between men, 1 Cor, 4.7. who maketh this to differ from another, and what hast thou that thou hast not received, Rom 9.15. I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy: God in loving of men acts arbitrarily, he acts as the Potter in forming his Vessels to divers uses out of the same lump: the with of God is sufficient to move him to choose one and refuse another, he can bestow his love upon men where there is nothing in them to draw it, the will of God can act independently, and indeed it cannot have a dependence upon any other thing: there is nothing out of God that can incline the will of God; all those things that men are apt to suppose to have an influence upon the will of God, have indeed a dependence upon ⟨p. 326⟩his will: there is nothing in any man to sway the will of God any way: there is nothing in any man to be an argument with the Lord to love him; nothing that can work upon the affection of God to make God love him: he has no excellency that can persuade the Lord to love him: whatever beauty, understanding, good nature he has, those things can't sway God: God is not taken with those excellencies and accomplishments that are in men, as to have his heart fastened and allured to them thereby: and on the other hand, there is nothing in man that can hinder God from loving of him if the man be weak in understanding, of contemptible and wicked Parents, and his outward condition mean, yet God can set his heart upon him: there is nothing in this and that man that can have any efficacy upon the Lord to make him hate him: there is nothing in man that can bias the will of God either way, to love him or hate him; but God herein acts from his mere pleasure.