Answ. 1. Every true christian loveth a godly man as such, and therefore loveth all such, if he take them to be such. 2. No godly man doth habitually and impenitently live in such malice or enmity, as will not suffer him to see the godliness of a dissenter or adversary, when it hath sufficient evidence. 3. But ill education and company, and want of opportunity, may keep a true christian from discerning the godliness of another, and so from loving him as a godly man. 4. And error, and faction, and passion may in a temptation so far prevail as at present to pervert his judgment, and make him misjudge a godly man to be ungodly, though when he hath opportunity to deliberate and come to himself, he will repent of it.
Quest. XV. What is that love to the godly which proveth a man's sincerity, and which no hypocrite or unregenerate person doth attain to?
Answ. It hath in it these essential parts: 1. He loveth God best, and his servants for his sake. 2. He loveth godliness, and the person as godly, and therefore would fain be such himself; or loveth it for himself as well as in others. 3. He loveth not one only, but all the essential parts of godliness (our absolute resignation to God our Owner, our absolute obedience to God our Ruler, and our highest gratitude and love to God our Benefactor and our End). 4. He loveth godliness and godly men, above his carnal, worldly interest, his honour, wealth, or pleasure; and therefore will part with these in works of charity, when he can understand that God requireth it. These four set together make up that love which will prove your sincerity, and which no hypocrite doth perform. Hypocrites either love the godly only as their benefactors with a self-love; or they love them as godly to themselves, but would not be like them, and love not godliness itself to make them godly; or they love them for some parts of godliness, and not for all; or they love them but in subjection to their worldly love; with such a dry and barren love as James rejecteth, James ii. as will not be at any great cost upon them, to feed, or clothe, or visit, or relieve them.
Tit. 2. Directions for Loving the Children of God.
Direct. I. Once get the love of God, and you cannot choose but love his children. Therefore first set your hearts to that, and study the directions for it, part i. God must be first loved as God, before the godly can be loved as such; though perhaps this effect may sometimes be more manifest than the cause: fortify the cause and the effect will follow.
Direct. II. Get Christ to dwell in your hearts by faith, Eph. iii. 17; and then you will love his members for his sake. The study of the love of God in Christ, and the belief of all the benefits of his love and sufferings, will be the bellows continually to kindle your love to your Redeemer, and to all those that are like him and beloved by him.
Direct. III. Cherish the motions of God's Spirit in yourselves. For he is a Spirit of love; and it is the same Spirit which is in all the saints; therefore the more you have of the Spirit, the more unity and the more love will you have to all that are truly spiritual. The decays of your own holiness, containeth a decay of your love to the holy.
Direct. IV. Observe their graces more than their infirmities. You cannot love them unless you take notice of that goodness which is their loveliness. Overlooking and extenuating the good that is in others, doth show your want of love to goodness, and then no wonder if you want love to those that are good.
Direct. V. Be not tempters and provokers of them to any sin. For that is but to stir up the worser part which is in them, and to make it more apparent; and so to hide their amiableness, and hinder your own love. They that will be abusing them, and stirring up their passions, or oppressing wise men to try if they can make them mad, or increasing their burdens and persecutions to see whether there be any impatience left in them, are but like the horseman who was still spurring his horse, and then sold him because he was skittish and unquiet; or like the gentleman that must needs come as a suitor to a beautiful lady, just when she had taken a vomit and purge, and then disdained her as being unsavoury and loathsome.
Direct. VI. Stir up their graces, and converse much with them in the exercises of grace. If Aristotle or Socrates, Demosthenes or Cicero, stood silent by you among other persons, you will perceive no difference between them and a fool or a vulgar wit: but when once they open their lips and pour out the streams of wisdom and eloquence, you will quickly perceive how far they excel the common world, and will admire, love, and honour them. So when you converse with godly men about matters of trading or common employments only, you will see no more but their blamelessness and justice; but if you will join with them in holy conference or prayer, or observe them in good works, you will see that the Spirit of Christ is in them. When you hear the longings of their souls after God, and their heavenly desires and hopes and joys, and their love to piety, charity, and justice, express themselves in their holy discourse and prayers, and see the fruits of them in their lives, you will see that they are more than common men.