A64995:102
The true Christians love of the unseen Christ, or, A discourse chiefly tending to…
The true Christians love of the unseen Christ, or, A discourse chiefly tending to excite and promote the decaying love of Christ in the hearts of Christians with an appendix concerning Christs manifestation of himself to them that love him / by Thomas Vincent.
London: printed by J.R. for Samuel Sprint, 1677
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.
6. Consider Christs kindness and mercy. All the kindness of Men is unkindness compared with the kindness of Christ, all the Mercies of Men are Cruelty, compared with the Mercies of Christ. He is all kindness, all bowels, all compassion, all pity, all grace, all mercy to miserable lost mankind; I shall not enlarge here because this will fall under the second head of Arguments, taken from the consideration of Christs Love. And if you add the kindness and mercy of Christ to all his other excellencies and perfections, surely he will appear to have incomparably the greatest attractives in him for Love, unto any that have not a very thick veil of unbelief before their Eyes to hide him from their view.
Secondly, Consider what Christ is to the Father. 1. He is most nearly related to him. 2. He is most dearly beloved by him.
1. Christ is most nearly Related, and with all most perfectly like unto the Father. All the Creatures are related to God ⟨p. 71⟩as their Maker, but Gods Children are more nearly related; the Saints are nearly related to God, who are his Children by Adoption and Regeneration; the Angels are more nearly related to God who are his Sons by Creation, and never were separated from him by sin; but the Lord Jesus Christ is most nearly related unto God who is his Son by Eternal Generation: thus Christ is the only Begotten Son of God, and doth bear his Image most perfectly, being the brightness of his Fathers Glory, and the express Image of his Person. This near Relation of Christ, and his likeness to the Father doth call for your strongest love; if you have reason to honour the Father, on the same account you have reason to honour the Son; if you have reason to love the Father, you have the same reason to love the Son. You will love the Sons of Princes, and will you not love the Son of God? you will love your own Children who bear your Own Image, and will not you love Christ who is the express Image of God? we read of Christ,