A64995:184
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.
2. Show your love to Christ in the Willingness. of your Obedience; some will obey Christ, but it is with great Backwardness they will perform Duties, but they are burdensome, a weariness, and toilsome, and the Commandments of Christ are grievous unto them; they are scarce ready unto any Duty, but when they are scourged unto it by the Rods of Affliction, or spurred and pricked forward by the goads of Conscience; O the listlessness and indisposition in the most, unto the most spiritual part of the Service of Christ! which is an evident proof of the defect of love, either in the truth of it, or at least in the measure and degree of it. Let your love show it self in the willingness of your Obedience, serve the Lord with a willing ⟨p. 150⟩and ready mind, with alacrity and cheerfulness of spirit, looking upon the Service of Christ as your Honour, and esteeming every Duty to be your Privilege: If you have any constraints unto Obedience, let them be the constraints of love; as 2 Cor. 5. 14. If you be forced to obey Christ, let there be no violence but the violence If love; if you be dragged to Duty, let it be with no other cords than the cords of bove; let love be the Spur and Goad to prick you forward, that you may not only walk but run in the ways of Christs commandments with an enlarged heart.
2. Shew your love to Christ in the Willingness. of your Obedience; some will obey Christ, but it is with great Backwardness they will perform Duties, but they are burdensome, a weariness, and toilsome, and the Commandements of Christ are grievous unto them; they are scarce ready unto any Duty, but when they are scourg'd unto it by the Rods of Affliction, or spurr'd and prickt forward by the goads of Conscience; O the listlesness and indisposition in the most, unto the most spiritual part of the Service of Christ! which is an evident proof of the defect of love, either in the truth of it, or at least in the measure and degree of it. Let your love shew it self in the willingness of your Obedience, serve the Lord with a willing ⟨p. 150⟩and ready mind, with alacrity and chearfulness of spirit, looking upon the Service of Christ as your Honour, and esteeming every Duty to be your Priviledge: If you have any constraints unto Obedience, let them be the constraints of love; as