Love's Tendencies List
1) That love will dispose to all proper acts of respect to both God and men.
This is evident because a true respect to either God or men consists in love.
If a man sincerely loves God it will dispose him to give him all proper
respect.
2) Men need no other incitement to show all proper respect but love.
3) Love to God will dispose a man to give honor to God.
4) Love will dispose to worship and adore him, heartily to acknowledge his
greatness and glory and dominion.
5) So love will dispose to all acts of obedience to God. The servant who loves his
master, and the subject who loves his prince, will be disposed to proper
subjection and obedience.
6) Love will dispose a person to behave towards God as a child to a father.
Under difficulties, to resort to God for help and to put their trust in him.
It is natural for persons in cases of need or affliction to go to those whom
they love for pity and help.
7) They who love God will be disposed to give credit to his work and to put
confidence in him. Men are not apt to suspect the veracity of those for whom
they have entire friendship.
8) So love will dispose men to praise God for the mercies they receive from
him. Men are disposed to gratitude for any kindnesses they receive from those
they love.
9) Love will dispose the heart to submission to the will of God.
Persons are more willing that the will of those whom they love should be done
than that of others. They naturally desire that those whom they love should be
pleased, and things should be agreeable to them.
10) A true love and esteem of God will dispose the heart to acknowledge God's
right to govern, and that he is worthy of it; and so will dispose it to submit.
11) Love to God will dispose to walk humbly with God. For he that loves God
will be disposed to acknowledge the distance there is between God and him. It
will be agreeable to him who loves God to exalt him and set him on high above
all, and to lie low before him. A true Christian delights to have God exalted
in his abasement, because he loves God. He is willing to own that God is
worthy of this; and it is with delight that he casts himself in the dust
before God, because he loves God.
12) So a due consideration of the nature of love will show that it will dispose
men to all duties towards their neighbors.
13) If men have a hearty love to their neighbors, it will dispose them to all
acts of justice towards them. Men are not disposed to wrong those whom they
truly love.
14) Real love and friendship will dispose persons to give others their due.
Rom. 13: 10, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor."
15) Love will dispose to truth towards neighbors, and will tend to prevent all
lying, fraud and deceit. For men are not disposed to treat those with fraud
and treachery whom they sincerely love. To treat men so is to treat them
like enemies. But love destroys enmity. Thus the Apostle makes use
of the oneness, which there ought to be among Christians, as an argument to
induce them to truth between man and man. Eph. 4:25, "Wherefore putting away
lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor; for we are members one of
another."
16) Love will dispose to walk humbly among men. For real and dear love
will dispose men to high thoughts of them; and Christian love disposes men to
think others better than themselves.
17) Love will dispose men to honor one another. For we are naturally inclined
to think honorably of those whom we love, and to give them honor. So that those
precepts in I Pet. 2:17 are fulfilled by love, "Honor all men." And Phil.
2:3, "In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."
18) Love will dispose to contentment in the station in which God hath set him,
without coveting anything which his neighbor possesses, or envying him any good
thing which he has.
19) Love will dispose men to meekness and gentleness in their carriage towards
their neighbors, and not to treat them with passion or violence, but with
moderation and calmness.
20) Love checks and restrains a bitter spirit. For love has no bitterness in it.
It is altogether a sweet disposition and affection of the soul.
21) Love will prevent broils and quarrels, and will dispose to peaceableness.
22) Love will dispose men to forgive injuries, which they receive
from their neighbors. Prov. 10:12, "Hatred stirreth up strifes; but love
covereth all sins."
23) Love will dispose men to all acts of mercy towards our neighbor who is
under any affliction or calamity. For we are naturally disposed to pity those
whom we love when they are afflicted. This would dispose men to give to the
poor, and bear one another's burdens, to weep with those that weep, and
rejoice with those that rejoice.
24) Love would dispose to those duties which they owe one another in their
several places and relations. It would dispose a people to all the duties
which they owe their rulers, to give them all that honor and subjection which
is their due. And it would dispose rulers to rule the people over whom they
are set justly, sincerely seeking their good. It would dispose a people to all
proper duty to their ministers, to hearken to their instructions and counsels,
and submit to them in the house of God, and will to support them. And it would
dispose ministers faithfully and earnestly to seek the good of the souls of
their people.
25) Love would dispose to all suitable carriage between husbands and
wives; and it would dispose children to obey their parents; parents not to
provoke their children unto wrath; servants to be obedient to their masters,
not with eye service, but in singleness of heart; and masters to exercise
gentleness and goodness towards their servants.
26) And in fine, love would dispose men to do to others as they would that
others should do to them, if they were in their neighbor's circumstances, and
their neighbor in theirs.
27) Thus love would dispose to all duties, both towards God and towards men.
Conclusion
==========
And if love will dispose to all duties, then it follows that love is a root
and spring, and, as it were, a comprehension of all virtues. It is a principle
which, if implanted in the heart, is alone sufficient to produce all good
dispositions; and every right disposition towards God and men is, as it were,
summed up in it.
No comments:
Post a Comment