A64995:73
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.
Section III.
Use 3. For reproof.
Vse 3. FOr reproof.
1. Of all such as have no love at all unto this unseen Christ; and will not the use of Information, together ⟨p. 44⟩with the use of trial leave a conviction upon many of you that you are without this love? Suffer then the word of reproof; what, are you Creatures made By Christ, and made For Christ, and yet have no love to him? are you Rational Creatures, have you souls capable of knowing him and loving him, and yet have no love? are you Christians and not love Christ? baptized in Christ's Name, and yet have you no love to Christ's person? are some of you Professors, and yet not love Christ? make a show of devotion, and yet without any true affection to the object of your worship? Sinners though you have not seen Christ, yet have you not heard of him? and have you not heard enough to engage and draw forth your love unto Christ. What do you think? is there such a person as Jesus Christ, or is there not? have you no Bibles? and if you have, have you not read therein the History concerning Jesus Christ? and what do you think of that History, is it true or is it false? do you think the Gospel to be a cunningly devised fable? are not the Scriptures which contain this Gospel, the very word of the true God who cannot lye? are there not such characters of Divinity upon them, as are sufficient to evince ⟨p. 45⟩their divine original to any that search into them, and do not wilfully shut their eyes against the light which there doth shine? And if it be so that there is indeed such a person as Jesus Christ (as there is nothing more true) how is it that you have no love unto him? do not the Scriptures reveal and set forth Christ, as the most excellent and amiable person? and yet do you not love him? can you love persons and things that are but Imperfectly lovely, and not love Jesus Christ who is Altogether lovely? can you love one of great honour that hath but some inferior power and authority, and not love Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of Glory, who hath All power and authority both in Heaven and Earth? can you love such as have Wisdom and Learning though it be terrene, and not love Jesus Christ who is the wisdom of the Father, who knoweth all things, and whose wisdom is divine? can you love such as are liberal and bountiful, and not love Christ whose bounty is superlative, and whose gifts are most rich and transcendent?