The Morning exercise [at] Cri[ppleg]ate, or, Several cases of conscience practically resolved

5. Proposition.

Love, as it is an Act or habit of the will, and hath Christ for its object, is not properly the Evangelical grace of love to Christ, unless it have respect to him, according to the various Excellencies of his person, and the several distinct Relations, which are by God invested in him: Or thus, The gospel grace of love, is not the Intensive ⟨p. 223⟩willing a Naked Christ, but Christ as represented with his peculiar personal Excellencies, and with his various offices and relations unto us in the Gospel. This proposition undeniably follows from the third before laid down: But yet, because it gives some special light to help us to discover the true nature of this grace; and is Intended, as the foundation of some of those Characters, that will afterwards come to be insisted on, I must crave your patience, while I offer something farther, for the confirmation thereof. That certainly is no true Moral Act, which is not suited to the nature of the object; Thus, for a man to love his friend, no otherwise, than he loves his beast, would not be a true Moral act of love? And again, as plain a truth it is, that where the act of love doth not bear some gradual proportion, to the various excellencies of the object, that it is conversant about; neither can that Act have any Moral truth or goodness in it: For Instance, to love God, or Christ, with no higher love, than we love inferior persons, whether Friends, Relations, or Superiors in the world; This were not Sincerely to love either of them. See 1 John 2.15, and Matth. 10.37. and Luke 14.26. — I add in the last place (which is no less evident, than either of the former) that where there are relations, or offices Necessarily Invested in, and Inseparable from the person beloved, then if our love doth not respect the object, as under those relations, and offices, it will be far from being love in Sincerity. Some Instances will clear this also beyond Contradiction; Suppose a Woman, that hath a Husband, and she loves him no otherwise, than one friend loves another; And the Case is the same between a Scholar and his Master, a Servant and his Lord, a Subject and his Prince, If the affections be without reverence, obedience, and loyalty, will either of these be reputed true love? Why, no more are such to be accounted the sincere lovers of Christ, who do not bear an affection to him, in all his offices and relations: