He yet proceeds, first to evert this love which I asserted,
and then to declare his own apprehensions concerning the love of Christ.
The first in the ensuing words, p. 210, “But, methinks this is a very odd
way of arguing from the divine nature; for if the love of Christ as God be
so infinite, eternal, unchangeable, fruitful, I would willingly understand
how sin, death, and misery came into the world. For if this love be so
eternal and unchangeable, because the divine nature is so, then it was
always so; for God always was what he is, and that which is eternal could
never be other than it is now: and why could not this eternal, and
unchangeable, and fruitful love, as well preserve us from falling into sin,
and misery, and death, as love life and holiness into us? For it is a
little odd, first to love us into sin and death, that then he may love us
into life and holiness: which, indeed, could not be, if this love of God
were always so unchangeable and fruitful as this author persuades us it is
now; for if this love had always loved life and holiness into us, I cannot
conceive how it should happen that we should sin and die.”