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2. Secondly, Christ is a King that loves his subjects with a distinguishing love and a separating love; the general love of Christ is scattered and branched out to all the creatures in the world, but his special love is exceeding great, and rich love is only settled upon his Church. Now if you ask me what Christs distinguishing love is, I shall name it, and but name it to you. First, ’Tis ..read more

But touching the words of St. Peter, is the main doubt, whether they are to be referred unto Christ’s preaching by the ministry of Noah unto the world of the ungodly, or unto his own immediate preaching to the spirits in hell after his death upon the cross. For seeing that it was the spirit of Christ which spake in the prophets, as St. Peter (1 Pet 1:11) sheweth in this same epistle, and among ..read more

For in this respect, Christ was a scandal to the Jews and folly to the Greeks [1 Cor. 1:23], but if we carefully and rightly weigh within ourselves that Christ suffered everything He suffered, not out of constraint or any other necessity or external force, but out of the obedience of love towards the human race so that He might exhibit to us the most perfect model of obedience in His own person ..read more

12. What is the relationship between the operations of common grace and the special grace of the Holy Spirit? To understand correctly the difference between these two in connection with the preceding distinction, we must move out of the sphere of nature into the sphere of revelation. This revelation is itself the product of a wholly supernatural act of grace. The announcement of the truth of God ..read more

The Love of God Love is an essential attribute of God by which the Lord delights Himself in that which is good, it being well-pleasing to Him, and uniting Himself to it consistent with the nature of the object of His love. The love of God by definition is the loving God Himself, for which reason John states that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). When we view the love of God relative to its objects ..read more

4. The love of Christ appears by what he has given us; his love-tokens. Whatever we have, for being or well-being, spring from his love. It is love that opens those infinite treasures of goodness, which had else been eternally locked up from the creatures. And though, in these showers of mercy, some drops fall upon the wicked, and so seem common, yet the fountain of love, from whence they issue ..read more

The Gospel Offer, Common Grace, and God’s Universal Love Knox’s strong articulation of double predestination was accompanied by a belief in a gospel offer genuinely made to all who hear it, and a love and grace of God that was common to all. He clearly stated that the gospel offer extends beyond the elect.96 He noted that the word of God works ‘diversly in the heartes of those to whom it is ..read more

I will continue to fill this out further and add more sources (such as material from Thomas Manton) as time permits, but here are some quick references: 2. It is allowed, by those who deny the extent of Christ’s death to all men, as to what concerns their salvation, that it may truly be said, that there are, as the consequence of Christ’s death, some blessings redounding to the whole world, and ..read more

English Translation by Cathedralulus:When love is attributed to God in Scripture, it does not mean a passion or an affect, for God is dispassionate [ἀπαθής], the freest, the most blissful, the most blessed, the most perfect. Nothing slavish happens to Him, nothing lowly, and finally nothing that indicates any imperfection. But God’s love denotes three completely, perfect things: eternal ..read more