Was made for God and all that is of God's side; hatred, for sin, viii. 155.
Of God to Christ as God, xi. 74; as mediator, ib. ; to the saints, 76 ; between these two there is a disparity, 77 ; yet a likeness, 78 ; like grounds, nearness and likeness, ib. ; like properties, 79 ; both are free, ib.; tender and affectionate, ib. ; eternal, 80, 109 ; unchangeable, 80 ; fruits and effects, 81 ; communication of secrets, ib. ; spiritual gifts, ib. ; sustentation and gracious protection, ib. ; acceptance of service, 82 ; reward, ib. ; chiefly to be measured by his spiritual bounty, 83 ; importance of a sense and comfortable apprehension of, 85 ; means of ensuring this, ib. ; comfort to those who have the effects, but not the sense of, 86 ; evidences of concernment in, 87.
God's, in Christ, is the ground of all other favours and graces whatsoever, xi. 136 ; all the goodness that is in us coraeth from, ib. ; the love of God in us is from his love to us, 137 ; his love to us is in us in the effects, and in the sense and feeling, ib.
To Christ, preferring a public good before our own personal eternal interest, an undoubted evidence of, xii. 2.
Of God, nothing so worthy of our love, xii. 273 ; cannot reign where the love of the world reigneth, ib. ; the comfort by which we are supported in all our distresses, ib. ; there are two acts in this love, desire after and delight in God, 274.
Of God, what it is in its object, act, and properties, xii. 276 ; in the object there is a double motive to excite us to love God, because he is good and doeth good, ib. ; and this goodness is threefold, essential, moral, and beneficial, ib.; the act, what it is and what it implies, 278 ; tlie properties of this love, what they are and what they are not, 279 ; why love to God is made the evidence of our interest in the privileges of the sons of God, 281 ; love of God a sure and sensible note of effectual calling, 283 ; exhortation to love of God, 285.
Is of invincible force, xii. 400 ; is accompanied by desire, hope, and delight, ib. ; this ariseth partly from the real worth of the privilege, and partly from their esteem and value of it, 414 ; nothing can separate us from the fruition of this love, ib. ; we ought to be firmly persuaded of this, 415 ; means whereby this persuasion is bred in us, ib. ; the advantage those christians have above others who make it their business to love God and count it their happiness to be loved by him, 418.
Of Christ, the power which secures believers in their conflicts, and makes them triumph over all temptations, xii. 405 ; proof from scrip- ture and the properties of Christ's love, 407 ; it is a transcendent, tender, and constant love, ih. ; it is an operative and effective love, 408.
Of God in Christ, what it is, xii. 413 ; the people of God apprehend it a blessed and comfortable position when assured of this love, ib.
Of .-Christ, the root and principle of all sincere desires after the glory of God, xiii. 122.
The strongest arguments and the greatest terrors inoperative without, xiii. 139.
INDEX. 265
Love of God largely taken for the duties of the first table, xiii, 140 ; more particularly for our complacency and delight in him, ib.
Of Christ, what it is, xiii. 140 ; the love of God distinguished, ih. ; the general nature of it, 141 ; the special object of it, 142 ; its singular effects, ib. ; the influence it hath upon our duties and actions, 143 ; whence this love to Christ cometh to have such force upon us, or is wrought in us, 146 ; the worth of the object and the consequent benefits of it, 147 ; the manner how it is considered by and applied to us, 148 ; several degrees of, distinguished, 149 ; love to Christ for worldly advantages or carnal motives bewrays a sinful respect to the benefits and rewards of religion, 152.
What it is, xiii. 143, 174, 178.
Cases of conscience — (1.) Whether God is to be loved for his beneficial goodness only, and not for his essential and moral perfections % xiii. 149 ; (2.) As to the actual persuasion of God's love to us, 154; (3.) As to the intensity and degree of love in us, 156 ; (4.) As to the decay of love, 159 ; (5.) As to loving God with all the heart, 169 ; (6.) As to how we shall get or increase love, 175.
Several degrees of, distinguished, xiii. 149 ; a particular persuasion of God's love to us very comfortable, but not absolutely necessary, 154 ; God's love to us the reason of our love to God, ib. ; assurance the fruit of love, rather than love of assurance, 155 ; comparison the best way to discover love, 156 ; not to be measured so much by the lively act as the solid esteem and settled constitution, 157 ; the effects of solid esteem, 158 ; leaving our first love a disease not only incident to hypocrites, but God's children, 159 ; though the disease be common to both, there ia a difference as to the event and issue, ib. ; decay of love a great and common evil, 162 ; many that are surprised with it are little sensible of it, 163 ; this decay is seen in two things, the remission of degrees and the intermission of acts, ib. ; the causes and remedy of this decay, 166 ; how loving God with all the heart is to be reconciled with love to husband, wife, children, friends, and rela- tions, 169 ; considered as an exaction of the law and as a rule of the gospel, 170 ; how far we are obliged to love God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, if we would not forfeit our covenant claim of sincerity, 171 ; God doth not require that we should think of nothing but himself, but must have all the heart so far that nothing be loved against, above, or equally with him, 172 ; how we may know we have the love of God in us, 173 ; the standing evidence of love is obedience, or a universal resolution and care to please God in all things, 174 ; this obedience must be active, constant, and pleasant, ib. ; in the course of our obedience God ordereth special trials of the sincerity of our love to him, 175 ; what we must do to get or increase love to God, ib. ; though we pray, we must not neglect to use the means, 176 ; in what the means of exciting our love consist, ib. ; ex- hortation to the love of God, 177 ; the sad consequences of not hav- ing this love, 178 ; the advantages we have by it, 179.