Mayhew:

Now, what unparalleled Love is this to self-destroying Sinners, to whom God may truly say, as in Hosea 13. 9. Oh Israel, host destroyed thy self; but in me is thine Help. This Love of God is very much celebrated in the holy Scriptures. Give me Leave to recite a few of the Passages wherein it is so. John 3. 16. For God so loved the World, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting Life, 1 John 4. 9,10. In this was manifested the Love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World, that we might live thro’ him. Herein is Love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins. 2 Cor. 5. 18, 19, 20. God—hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the Ministry of Reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself, not imputing their Trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the Word of Reconciliation. Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ, as tho” God did beseech you by us: We pray you in Christ’s Stead, be ye reconciled unto God. Matth. 23. 37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy Children together, even as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings, and ye would not! Rom. 2.4. Or despiseth thou the Riches of his Goodness, and Forbearance, and Longsuffering; not knowing that the Goodness of God  leadeth thee to Repentance. Hosea 11. 4. I drew them with Cords of a Man, with Bands of Love; and I was to them as they that take off the Yoke on their Jaws; and I laid Meat before them.

I am not ashamed to say, (if I were I should be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, contrary to Rom. i. 16.) that the Love of God thus manifested towards Sinners, has not a Relation to the Elect only, (tho’ principally unto them) but extends itself to the whole World, as in the mentioned John 3. 16. and in i John 2. 2. Mark 16. 15, 16, and 2 Cor. 5. 19, as I will, if I am put upon it, and God gives me Liberty, more fully show.

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Sarcerius:

The effects of
God. Rom. 1.

The effects and works of God be these: to create and maintain that he has created.

For the power and divinity of God (says Paul) is everlasting. Now, the power and devinity of God to be everlasting, is nought else, but that God creates, governs and maintains his creatures everlastingly [Ac. 17, Psalm. 146] In him (as it is said in the Acts) we live and move, and we have our being. He gives (says the prophet) escam omni carni, meat to every creature. Also his effects be: To love his creatures because he maintains them. To be merciful, patient, pitiful. To bear his humbles suiters[?], for (Prope est deus inuo cantibus eun) God is at hand to them that call upon him. To forgive sins, for only God by himself is righteous.

Erasmus Sarcerius, Common Places of Scripture (Imprinted at London by Nycolas Hill for Abraham Vele, dwelling in Pauls church yarde at the signe of the Lambe, 1553),  folio 2. [Some spelling modernized, marginal references cited inline; verse and folio notation modernized; and, underlining mine.]

[Note: Erasmus Sarcerius is not to be confused with Desiderius Erasmus.]

Shedd:

THE TRUE PROPORTION IN A CREED BETWEEN THE UNIVERSAL AND THE SPECIAL LOVE OF GOD

IT is objected that insufficient emphasis is laid in the Westminster Confession upon the universal offer of mercy, and the common call to faith and repentance, and some even contend that these are not contained in it. Advocates of revision [of the Westminster Confession] demand that them doctrines shall be more particularly enunciated than they now are, and complain that more is said concerning electing love of God in the effectual call than his upon his indiscriminate love in the outward call. In reply to this, mention the these following reasons why the Westminster Confession, in common with all the Reformed creeds, is more full and emphatic regarding the special love of God toward his church than regarding his general love toward the world.

1. The Scriptures themselves are more full and emphatic in the first reference than in the last. A careful examination of the Old and New Testaments will slow that while the universal compassion of God toward sinful men is plainly and frequently taught, yet it is the relation of God as the Savior of his people that constitutes the larger proportion of the teachings of the Prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels, and the Epistles. These parts of Scripture are full of God’s dealings with his covenant people, instructing them, expostulating with them, rebuking them, comforting them, helping them–expressing in these and other ways his special love and affection for them, as those whom he has chosen before the foundation of the world. Throughout the Bible men universally are both invited and commanded to believe and repent. No one disputes this. This is God’s universal love. But, whenever the love of God is particularly enlarged upon, carefully delineated, and repeatedly emphasized, in the great majority of instances it is his electing love. The Savior’s last discourses with his disciples, and his last prayer, have for their principal theme the “love of his own which were in the world,” whom “he loved unto the end.” For these he specially supplicates. “I pray for them: I pray not [now] for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine.” The Epistles of Paul also are like the Redeemer’s discourses. So full are they of expanded and glowing descriptions of the electing love of God that the charge of a narrow Jewish conception of the Divine compassion is frequently made against them. The Confession therefore follows the Scriptures in regard to the proportion of doctrine, where it puts the mercy of God toward his people in the foreground. And to object to this proportion is to object to Divine Revelation.

2. The electing love of God and his special grace naturally has the foremost place in the Confession as in Scripture, because it is the only love and glace that is successful with the sinner. The universal love of God in his outward call and common grace is a failure, because it is inadequate to overcome the enmity and resistance with which man meets it. While therefore the sacred writers represent the common call as prompted by the compassion of God toward the sinner, and expressive of his sincere desire that he would hear it, and as aggravating his persistence in the sin of which a free pardon is offered, yet inasmuch as it yields no saving and blessed results, they we see no reason for making it the principal and prominent part of the Divine oracles. But that electing love in the effectual call and irresistible grace, which overcomes the aversion of the sinner and powerfully inclines his hostile will, inasmuch as it is tile principal work of God in the human heart, becomes the principal subject of discourse for ” the holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” They dwell rather on the special grace that triumphs over human depravity, than on the common grace that is defeated by it.

William G.T. Shedd, Calvinism Pure and Mixed (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1893), 107-109. [Underlining mine.]

Swinnock:

First, I commend you to his special favour and affection. The good-will of God is such a lump of sugar as will sweeten the bitterest cup; it hath a virtue in it which will turn the smallest liquor into cordial water. The little bird in her small down nest sings pleasantly, when the great birds in their large thorny nests have but harsh voices. The saint in the soft bed of God’s special love sleeps comfortably, when the wicked in their high places, great preferments, for want of this are in little ease. His general love is like the ordinary beams of the sun, which convey light and heat for the refreshment of all the world. So the Lord is good to all; his mercy is over all his works; but his special love is like the beams of the sun united in a glass, which, passing by others, fires the object only. God’s love to his new creatures in Christ is burning love; he hath choice good, and good-will too, for his chosen ones: ‘Let me se the good of his chosen. Look upon me and be merciful to me, as thou art to them that fear thy name.’ It is said of Socrates, he prized the king’s countenance above his coin.

George Swinnock, “The Pastor’s Farewell,” in The Works of George Swinnock (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1992), 4:81-81. [Some spelling modernized, underlining mine.]

[Credit to Tony for the find.]