Love is not a passion, which can properly be called accidental.
In any and every being, that has the capacity of loving, this
benevolent affection will arise, and increase, and decline according to
its own laws of origin and progress. And if we have a right view of the
subject, it is one of the laws of its origin, that love always rests
upon faith as its basis. If we have faith in the creature, exclusive of
faith in God, then our affections will centre in the creature. If we
have faith in God, then our affections, either in whole or in part, will
take a different direction; attaching themselves to God as their
object, and being more or less strong, according to the degree of our
faith.
Faith
subdues that selfishness, which is the great evil of man’s nature, in
part at least, by an indirect action; viz., by giving origin to love. The
natural tendency of love to God is to regulate and restrain all
unregulated and unrestrained love of that, which is not God.
— The Life of Faith, Part 2, Chapter 4.
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