Tuesday, May 30, 2006
from 'Christolgia' by John Owen
Our goodness extends not unto God; we cannot profit him by any thing we are, or can do. Wherefore, his love unto us hath not respect originally unto any good in ourselves, but is gracious, free act of his own. He doeth good for no other reason but because he is good. Nor can his infinite perfections take any cause for theri originial actings without himself. He wants nothing that he would supply by the enjoyment of us. But we have indigency in ourselves because our love to seek an object without outselves. And soh his goodness- with the mercy, grace, and bounty included therein- is the cause, reason, and object of our love. We love them for themselves; and because we are wanting and indigent, we love them with a desire of union and enjoyment- wherein we find that our blessdness doth consist. Love in general unites the mind unto the object- the person loving unto the thing or person beloved. So is it expressed in an instance of human, temporary, changeable love, -namely, that of Jonathan to David. His soul "was knit with the soul of David, and he loved him as his own soul," 1 Samuel 18:1. Love had so effectually united them, as that the soul of David was as his own. Hence are those expressions of this divine love, by "cleaving unto God, following hard after him, thirsting, panting after him," with the like intimations of the most earnest endeavours of our nature after union and enjoyment. p 153
