the rate, and the working thus of our passions. Wherefore our
love, as we are natural, is weak, unorderly, fails and miscarries,
either by being too much or too little; yea, though the thing which
is beloved be allowed for an object of love, both by the law of
nature and grace. We therefore must put a vast difference betwixt
love, as found in us, and love as found in Christ, and that, both
as to the nature, principle, or object of love.

Love in Christ is not love of the same nature, as is love in us;
love in him is essential to his being (1 John 4:16); but in us
it is not so, as has been already shewed. God is love; Christ is
God; therefore Christ is love, love naturally. Love therefore is
essential to His being. He may as well cease to be, as cease to
love. Hence therefore it follows, that love in Christ floweth not
from so low and beggarly a principle, as doth love in man; and
consequently is not, nor can be attended with those infirmities
or defects, that the love of man is attended with.

It is not attended with those unruly or uncertain motions that ours
is attended with: here is no ebbing, no flowing, no going beyond,
no coming short; and so nothing of uncertainty. "Having loved his
own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end" (John
13:1).

True, there is a way of manifesting of this love, which is suited
to our capacities, as men, and by that we see it sometimes more,
sometimes less (Song 7:11,12): also it is manifested to us as we
do, or do not walk with God in this world (John 14:23). I speak
now of saints.