The life of those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High may be called a Hidden Life, because the animating principle, the vital or operative element, is not so much in itself as in another. It is a life grafted into another life. It is the life of the soul, incorporated into the life of Christ; and in such a way, that, while it has a distinct vitality, it has so very much in the sense, in which the branch of a tree may be said to have a distinct vitality from the root.

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Love Rests on Faith

 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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