We are now dealing with the "Nature, operations, and Causes of Divine Love, as it respects the person of Christ." (p. 150) God has given us an ability to love him, though many know this, they do not know how they are to love him. This divine love is more central to the mind of man than any other love, For:
1. God created us with the ability to love so that we would love him first and foremeost, not so we would turn to love created things. So "the placing of our love on anything before God, or above him, is a formal expression of our apostasy from him." (p. 151).
2. The only thing which perfectly commands our love are the "divine excellencies" (p. 151) anything else we will not be able to love absolutely, but the divine excellencies we will. If it was not for sin we would love God all of the time, and recognise him as worthy of such love.
3. God's goodness is the foremost object of divine love as it is comprehensive "of all that mercy, grace, and bounty, which are suited to give us the best relief in our present condition and an eternal future reward." (p 151-152). Since sin we have been unable to love God apart from that love and merfcy shown to us in Jesus Christ.
4. The nature of divine love: a) A desire in the soul to be united to the divine excellencies which we discover. God will not rest till he has brought us to him for our enjoyment of him, and we will not rest until he gets us there. When we sin on this journey we hate it. b) A desire to be like God, according to how much we are able. To be like God in outward form only is to make an idol of God, we are to be like him from our love of him. c) It will contain the giving of praise, honour, glory and thanks to God - "an outward expression of the inward complacency of our hearts in the divine perfections and their operations" (p. 155) AND it will contain an inclining of our minds unto the things which concern the glory of God. d) this love is a friendship love. And seperates those who are merely servants in the house from those who are servants and friends - to be a friend is to have been revealed the secrets of Christ's mind (John 15:15). God dwells in them and they in God.
Some things to note concerning divine love: 1. "The formal object of this love is the essential properties of the divine nature - its infinite goodness in particular." (p. 156). 3. The incarnation only adds to the reasons for our love to God.
The portrait of Jesus Christ in Scripture is to lead us to faith in and love for him. The Spirit so graphically describes Christ unto us for the express purpose that we might set our affections on him, love him.
All of God's goodness was made manifest in the person of Jesus Christ such that it is him we should love "above all, and cleave unto" (p. 158) Those that love God in Christ, no matter what there lot have more glory in the eyes of God than any throne of any monarch anywhere in the world. But some are not content with the picture of Christ in the Scriptures and so invent pictures and images to excite themselves. But "It is the eye of faith alone that can see this King in his beauty." (p. 160)
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