A64995:76
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.
can you love friends that are kind, and not love Jesus Christ who is the best friend that ever the children of men had? can you love a Benefactor that feeds you, and clothes you, ⟨p. 46⟩and giveth money to you, and yet not love Christ who offereth to feed your hunger-starved souls with the bread of life, to cloth your naked souls with the robes of His Righteousness, and to give the spiritual Riches of Grace to you, the least dram of which is of more worth than all the riches of the Earth? can you love Riches and not love Christ in whom there are treasures, and by whom you may have not only spiritual riches here, but also the heavenly inheritance hereafter? can you love honours, and not love Christ by whom you may have the highest dignities, the honour of children to the King of Heaven now, and a Crown of Glory in the other world? can you love liberty and not love Christ by whom you may be made free from the Slavery of the Devil and your own lusts? can you love safety & not love Christ who is the only Saviour of mankind, and who alone puts you in safety from the reach of the worst of Enemies, & the worst of Evils? can you love peace and not love Christ by whom you may have peace with God, and peace in your own conscience? can you love pleasures and delights, and not love Christ by whom you may have joys unspeakable and full of glory, besides those everlasting pleasures ⟨p. 47⟩which are to come? without love to Christ you are under the guilt of all your sins; neither your original sin, nor any of your actual sins are pardoned, they all lye upon your own score, and you must answer for all your selves, and how fearful is your account like to be! without love to Christ you are under the curse, not only under the curse of the Law for your breach of the Law, but also under the curse of the Gospel for disobedience to this command of the Gospel which requireth you to love the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha, that is, let him be cursed, till the Lord come, and when the Lord cometh will he take off the curse from you? no, he will come in flaming fire to take vengeance upon you, having threatened then to punish all such with everlasting destruction, as shall be •ound to have disobeyed the Gospel; and what then is like to become of you?