Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_000.lzh/D_057.TXT

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CHAP. XII.                                      OF THE LOVE OF GOD.                                                                S7
"iII. It may be proper next to consider the properties made with them, in which, grants of grace, and prompts

of the love of God towards chosen men, which will lead
more. into the nature of it. And,
1. There is no cause of it out of God; there is no
motive or inducement to it in them, no loveliness in them
to excite it; all men by nature are corrupt and abomina-
ble; rather to be loathed than loved; and those that are
loved, are no better than others, all being under sin; and
are, "by nature, children of wrath, as others;" as de-
serving of that as those that are not loved, Rom. iii. 9.
Eph. ii. 3. what loveliness or beauty is in saints, is owing
to the righteousness of Christ, imputed to them; which
is that comeliness that is put upon them, whereby they
are made perfectly comely; and to the sanctifying grace
of the Spirit, whereby they are all glorious within, and
appear in the beauties of holiness: so that all this is the
fruit of the love of God, and not the cause of it. Nor
can it be any love in them to God, that is the cause of
his to them; for they had no love in them when Christ
died for them; nor until regenerated by the Spirit of
God; and when they love him, it is because he first loved
them, 1 John iv. 10, 19. and though Christ is said to love
them that love him, and the Father is said to love them
too; yet this must not be understood of the first love of
God and Christ, unto them, nor of the first display of it;
but of further and larger manifestations of it to them;
and is descriptive of the persons who are most certainly
and evidently the objects of their love; but not as being
the cause of it, Prov. viii. 17. John xiv. 21, 23. and xvi.
27. New are good works the cause of this love; for this,
at least, in one instance of it, was before either good or
evil were done, Rom. ix. 11, 12. and in other instances
it broke forth towards them, and broke in upon them while
they were yet in their sins, and before they were capable
of performing good works, Rom. v. 8. Tit. iii. 3, 4. Eph.
ii. 2, 3, 4. and how can it be thought, that since the best
works of men are so impure and imperfect as to be
reckoned as filthy rags, that these should be the cause of
God's love to men ? no, even faith itself is not; that "is
the gift of God," and flows from electing love, and is a
fruit and evidence of it, Eph. ii. 8. Acts xiii. 48. Tit. i. 1.
God loves men, not because they have faith; but they
have faith given them, because God loves them; it is
true indeed, that " without faith it is impossible to please
God ;" that is, to do those things which are pleasing in
his sight; but then the persons of God's elect, may be,
and are, well-pleasing to God, in Christ, before faith,
and without it. In short, the love of God purely flows
from his good will and pleasure; who "is gracious to
whom he will be gracious," Exod. xxxiii. 19. it is that
pure river that proceeds out of the throne of God, and
of the Lamb, as an emblem of sovereignty, Rev. xxi. 1.
as God loved the people of Israel because he loved them,
or would 'love them; and for no other reason, Dent.vii. 7, 8.
in like manner he loves his spiritual and mystical Israel.
2. The love of God is eternal, it does not commence
in time, it is without beginning, it is from eternity: this
is evident from the love of God to Christ, which was be-
fore the foundation of the world; and with the same love
he loved him, he loved his people also, and as early, John
xvii. 23, 24. and from various acts of love to them in
eternity; as the election of them in Christ, which sup-
poses the love of them, Eph. i. 4. the covenant of grace

of glory, were made before the world began; and Christ
was set up as the Mediator of it from everlasting: all
which are strong proofs of love to them, 2 Tim. i.9.
Tit. i. 2. Prov. viii. 22, 23.
3. The love of God is immutable, unalterable, and
invariable; it is like himself, the same to-day, yesterday,
and for ever: and, indeed, God is love; it is his nature;
it is himself; and therefore must be without any variable-
Hess, or shadow of turning. It admits of no distinctions,
by which it appears to alter and vary. Some talk of a
love of benevolence, by which God wishes or wills good
to men; and then comes on a love of beneficence, and
he does good to them, and works good in them: and
then a love of complacency and delight takes place, and
not till then. But this is to make God changeable, as
we are: the love of God admits of no degrees, it neither
increases nor decreases; it is the same from the instant
in eternity it was, without any change: it is needless to
ask whether it is the same before as after conversion,
since there were as ,great, if not greater gifts of love,
bestowed on the object loved, before conv. ersion, as after;
such as the gift of God himself, in the everlasting cove-
nant; the gift of his Son to die for them when in their
sins; and the gift of the Spirit to them, in order to re-
generate, quicken, and convert them; .heaven itself,
eternal life, is not a greater gift than these '; and yet they
were all before conversion. There never were any stops,
lets, or impediments to this love; not the fall of Adam,
nor the sad effects of it; nor the actual sins and trans-
gressions of God's people, in a state of nature; nor all
their backslidings, after called by grace; for still he loves
them freely, Hos. xiv. 4. for God foreknew that they
would fall in Adam, with others, that they would be
transgressors from the womb, and do as evil as they
could; yet this hindered not his taking up thoughts of
love towards them, his choice of them, and covenant
with them. Conversion makers a change in them; brings
them from the. power of Satan to God, from darkness to
light, from bondage to liberty; from fellowship with evil
men to communion with God: but it makes no change
in the love of God; God changes his dispensations and
dealings with thenei, but never changes his love; he some-
times rebukes and chastizes them, but still he loves them;
he sometimes hides his face from them, but his love
continues the same, Psalm lxxxix. 29--33. Isa. liv. 7--
10. the manifestations of his love are various; to some
they are greater, to others less; and so to the same per-
sons, at different times; but love in his own heart is
unvariable and unchangeable.
4. The love of God endures for ever; it is an ever-
lasting love, in that sense, Jer. xxxi. 3. it is the bond of
union between God and Christ, and the elect; and it can
never be dissolved; nothing can separate it, nor separate
from it, Rom. viii. '35, 38, 39. The union it is the bond
of, is next to that, and like it, which is between the three
divine persons, John xvii. 21, 23. The ,union between
soul and body, may be, and is dissolved, at death; but
neither death nor life can separate from this; this loving
kindness of God never departs; though health, and wealth,
and friends, and life itself may depart, this never will,
Isa. liv. 10. whatever God takes away, as all the said
things may be taken away by him, he will never take
H