Love, the master-affection in God and man

I am reading through Gurnall, and was struck by this passage:

The dear love he beareth to his saints engageth his power. He that hath God’s heart cannot want his arm. Love in the creature commands all the other affections, sets all the powers of the whole man on work; thus in God, love sets all his other attributes on work; when God once pitched his thoughts on doing good to lost man, then wisdom fell on projecting the way; almighty power, that undertook to raise the fabric according to wisdom’s model. All are ready to effect what God saith he likes. Now the believing soul is an object of God’s choicest love, even the same with which he loves his Son, John 17:26.

[William Gurnall and John Campbell, The Christian in Complete Armour (London: Thomas Tegg, 1845), 15.]

Then, being Gurnall, he goes on to develop this in three sub-points:

1. God loves the believer as the birth of his everlasting counsel
2. God loves his saints as the purchase of his Son’s blood
3. God loves the saints for their likeness to himself

It's all worth reading, as is the book (also available in a paperback set).

Tweet