A25470:809
The Morning exercise [at] Cri[ppleg]ate, or, Several cases of conscience practically resolved
The Morning exercise [at] Cri[ppleg]ate, or, Several cases of conscience practically resolved by sundry ministers, September 1661.
London: printed for Joshua Kirton and Nathaniel Webb, 1661
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
We may know it by its Concomitants. Sincere love goes not but in the company of every other grace; It either presupposeth, or strongly implieth and inferreth the whole duty of a Christian. [Diligere Christum (saith Aquinas) est Christo in omnibus se subjicere, 1& regulam Praeceptorum ejus in omnibus sequi, or] to love Christ, is to fulfil the whole Law of Christ; 'tis a most comprehensive grace; 'tis the abstract of the New Creature, the whole Image of God in one word; 'tis the substance of the Divine Workmanship upon the soul. They are but Ciphers, and signify nothing in Christianity, who are without it. Briefly, to love Christ, it is in some measure to partake of every grace, and to be a Christian altogether.
Wee may know it by its Concomitants. Sincere love goes not but in the company of every other grace; It either presupposeth, or strongly implieth and inferreth the whole duty of a Christian. [Diligere Christum (saith Aquinas) est Christo in omnibus se subjicere, 1& regulam Praeceptorum ejus in omnibus sequi, or] to love Christ, is to fulfil the whole Law of Christ; 'tis a most comprehensive grace; 'tis the abstract of the New Creature, the whole Image of God in one word; 'tis the substance of the Divine Workmanship upon the soul. They are but Ciphers, and signifie nothing in Christianity, who are without it. Briefly, to love Christ, it is in some measure to partake of every grace, and to be a Christian altogether.
These are the Characters, some I have omitted, and in others I have been brief, because I would reserve a little room for the second Case: Give me leave but briefly to suggest a few things for satisfaction of one doubt, and I shall presently come to that. Will some say, If this be love in sincerity, who then loves him aright? It is no less dangerous to draw out the description of a grace, so as none can find it, than to leave it so, as none may suspect the want or absence thereof in themselves; and upon that Rock, they will tell me I have splitted in the decision of this Case, there being hardly any one that can go from Character to Character, and say after a thorough search, Now I know that I am a lover of Christ in sincerity: For answer to which scruple, I shall barely suggest a few Considerations.