6. Yea, and as this love is peculiarly to be eyed in him, so it is to be looked on as the fountain of all following gracious dispensations. Christians walk oftentimes with exceedingly troubled hearts, concerning the thoughts of the Father towards them. They are well persuaded of the Lord Christ and his good-will; the difficulty lies in what is their acceptance with the Father, — what is his heart towards them? “Te quod attinet non sumus solliciti, — illud modo desideramus, ut patrem nobis vel semel intueri concedatur.” — Cartwright Har. in John xiv. 8. “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” John xiv. 8. Now, this ought to be so far away, that his love ought to be looked on as the fountain from whence all other sweetnesses flow. Thus the apostle sets it out, Tit. iii. 4, “After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared.” It is of the Father of whom he speaks; for, verse 6, he tells us that “he makes out unto us,” or “sheds that love upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.” And this love he makes the hinge upon which the great alteration and translation of the saints doth turn; for, saith he, verse 3, “We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.” All naught, all out of order, and vile. Whence, then, is our recovery? The whole rise of it is from this love of God, flowing out by the ways there described. For when the kindness and love of God appeared, — that is, in the fruits of it, — then did this alteration ensue. To secure us hereof, there is not any thing that hath a loving and tender nature in the world, and doth act suitably whereunto, which God hath not compared himself unto. Separate all weakness and imperfection which is in them, yet great impressions of love must abide. He is as a father, a mother, a shepherd, a hen over chickens, and the like, Ps. ciii. 13; Isa. lxiii. 16; Matt. vi. 6; Isa. lxvi. 13; Ps. xxiii. 1; Isa. xl. 11; Matt. xxiii. 37.