Commentary on 1 John, Commentary · Chapter 4 · Verse 16
1 JOHN 4.…
God is love, and he that … in …
1. The … contain a … thoſe … one …, as he … ſaid down, …, and ther… … words … parts, …
1. The …
2. The … conſtant …; dwell … one an another … God obſerve …
… part of him whoſely … it is called it, that is the object … Chriſt …, the object of … Pſalm 7…. In the … not; but it's … to in … there … lovely.
2. God is love effect … he is the … of love, 1 … Chriſt is called Wiſdome, becauſe he gives …; ſo God … if there be a … to … 1 John 4.… and ſo if any ſhew love to ….
3 God is love … God full of love and mercy, we … is wiſdome it ſelfe, or love it ſelfe, without a … Aco… deus non predicatur de … man wiſdome, or a … but …re God tranſcends all … abſtracts, God is love, from where may be … it's of the divine Eſſence, we may … God is a Spirit, that is, it's not a … but love is eſſential and natural to him, … and wiſdome.
2. It implyes the ſimplicity of Gods nature … but free without mixture he is without all cauſes … himſelf, from himſelf, and by himſelf, and … compounded of cauſes, ſo … not compounded … ſubjec… … is one thing, and his … wiſedome are … is no reaſon of this … works, but not of …
Ʋſe 1. This may exhort us all … forgot … the world for the love of God; many … becauſe they ſhall loſe the … by … may be …, for if a mans wayes pleaſe … make … be at … with him, and then much more … loſe the love of all thy friend, … more by Gods love, then … of love is nothing to the God of … but God is love it ſelfe, and in injoying of God … injoy… … of love, love paſſing knowled… …, you never met with love in the world, but you might …, but Gods love is like a bottomleſſe depth without bounds or bottom… you can neither know the beginning nor end of therefore … in … ſay more truy, then Medea did of Jaſon, Non magna relinquam, …, I ſhall not loſe great love, but follo… great love.
Ʋſe …. To teach all … is God is, … cannot be ſo …, as to be … ſtrive to … love, Let all … he dont in love … and …, Be yo… … your … Father is perfect▪ Matth. … us be kin… … injurie upon …, Luke 1…3, 4. …, and … would … be ſo. As Chriſt argue… …, and … us reaſon, God is love, and …fore they that worſhip … him in love, Matth. 5.22, 2… … any unkindneſſe betwixt … in his …. God … in your hearts, … that we can perform righteouſly, … 14. let all d… be per… … had power to ſave any, but … ▪
3. If God be love then the …, and therefore the more we live we hatred, the more we walk in … our ſelves firebrands of all.
Doct. …. …, entire and conſtant …
Conſtancy … abiding in … he not only dwels with God, …, which implyes intireneſſe and … ▪
… of God … Apoſtle infers it, God is love, …, all the well placed love in that … Chariot of God, whereby he convey … when he ſhe is abroad his love in our hearts, and … which extend as well to the ſoule as the … Carnall love is neither of God, nor from Go… … love, which is indeed called charity, whe… that … God com…cates himſelfe to ſuch a ſoule, as the root to the … the groun… of it is, from the immediate preſence of God where … ſuch a preſence as whereby the holy Ghoſt lives in the …, Gal. 5.22. Love … a fruit of the Spirit, John 1….34. …
… and aptneſſe that … ſuch a ſould to grow up by … Love is of an edifying nature, 1 Cor. … admoniſh, …, it edifiers much; eſpecially if it be … there … on both ſides, both in ſpeaker and … you … ſavingly: it's love that puts life into ….
3. From the … to … his love there more aboundantly, where he finds … walking in love; no creature partakes of the boundleſſe love of God, … are grounded … love, Eph. 3.17, 18, 19. Let but ſaith towards Chriſt, … our brethren abound in us, and we ſhall have a large … to us. According to the capacity of the receiver, ſo is the thing received: … no grace is of ſo inlarging a nature as love is; ſo that if we abound in love, then we become of a fathoming and comprehending nature, ſo that we comprehend the height, and breadth, and length, and depth of Gods love towards us.
Ʋſe 1. It exhorts us all not only to the love, but the conſtant love of our brethren, this is the benefit of it, you ſhall have conſtant and abiding fellowſhip with God; we ſhould not only grow in love, but grow rooted in love, let no grace be ſo eminent in you as love; if God had ſaid he dwels in wiſedome, how ſhould it have provoked men to ſtudy for wiſdome; but God doth not ſay he dwels in knowledge, for what then ſhould the ignorant do? He dwels not in honour and riches; for what then ſhould poor men do? But he dwels in ſuch an houſe as the pooreſt may build to God, an houſe of love, therefore above all indowments and gifts of ſoul or body, have a ſpeciall care, to grow rooted in love; a man may have a world of wit, and yet God not dwell in that wit; a man may have abundance of wealth, honours, and beauty, and yet God not in them; but if you ask where God dwels, I anſwer, God dwels in love.
There are four places wherein God is ſaid to dwell;
1 In the higheſt holy place.
2 In an humble heart, Iſa. 57.15.
3 Chriſt dwels in our hearts by faith, Epheſ. 3.17.
4 God dwels in a loving heart; ſo that if you would know where God dwels, it's one of theſe three graces, humility, in faith, or love. How ſhould this provoke us as David ſaith, never to give ſleep to our eyes, or ſlumber to our eyelids, till we have built God an habitation of love in our hearts? Pſal. 132.3, 4, 5. Set up a loving heart, and there will God dwell for ever; whereas if your hearts be envious, and hateful and bitter, little doe you know what an evill ſpirit dwels there, and inſtead of comfort, you ſhall find ſuch horrour and anguiſh, that you may plainly diſcern, ſurely God is not in this place, Epheſ. 4.26. if you ſleep in wrath, the Devil reſts with you.
Ʋſe 2. Of conſolation to every loving heart, if God hath given you an heart to love our brethren, with true ſpirituall love, take God home with you, God dwels in thy heart, and more then that, thou dwelleſt in Gods heart; ſo that hadſt thou teſtimony of no other grace, yet canſt thou find an hearty love in thee? thou haſt a Tabernacle for the moſt High to dwell in.