grounds ofour true love to aria .../x...-.....* negle&ofGodsordinances would haply be diCquieted, or thecredit of bearing conformity to Ecclefiaflicall or- ders,and the eflablifhed ferviceofGod in his Church,or come other the like finiaer refpea may hold a man to Inch an external' fairecorrefpondence, as by a deceiLfii11 heart may eafily be milconarued a love ofGodsordi- nances. Nay further, a man may externally glory in the priviledge ofGods oracles, hee maydiainelly beleeve, and fubicribe to the truth ofthem, he may therin heare many things gladly , and efcape many pollutionsofthe world, andyet here henceconclude no cleerer evidence ofhis love to Chria in his word, than the unbeleeving Iews,or Herod,or Ahab,orSimon Magn ,or the foolifh Virgins and apoflates (all which have attained to fome of thefe degrees) could have done.. For the cleering then of this great cafetouching the evidence ofa mans love to Chrifi , wee mull firfi know that this is not a flower of our owne garden, for every manby nature is an enemie toChrift and his Kingdome, ofthe Iews minde , wee willnot have this man to raigne over ; and the reafon is becaufe the image of the old Adam which we Beare, is extremely contrary to the hea- venly imageofthefecond Adam , lento which wee are not borne kit mitftbee renewed. And this is certaine,our love is according toour likeneffe,hewho hath not thenature and Spirit ofChria , can never love him or move to- wardshim. For love is like fire, congregat homozenea, it carrieth things ofa nature tooneanother. Our love then untoChria mull bee of a fpirituall generation : and it is grounded upon twocaufes; Fira, upon the Proportion which is in him unto all our defires or capacities , upon theevidence ofthat unfearchableandbottornleffe good_ neffe which is in him, whichmakes him thefaireft often tboufand , even altogether lovely. For that heart which batha fpirituall viewofChria , will bee able by faith to obferve more dimenfionsoflove, and fvveetneffe in him F 3 than S E I Ier.7.4. Rom.217-2o. Flora. 2,3. Mark.6.zo. King.2 I. 27-- 29. Aft.8.13 2 Pet.z.zo. Ephel:3.0,19.
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