God vs Self

What, exactly, is your foundation?

The saint's affections begin with God; and self-love has a hand in these affections consequentially, and secondarily only. On the contrary, those false affections begin with self, and an acknowledgment of an excellency in God, and an affectedness with it, is only consequential and dependent. In the love of the true saint God is the lowest foundation; the love of the excellency of his nature is the foundation of all the affections which come afterwards wherein self-love is concerned as a handmaid: on the contrary, the hypocrite lays himself at the bottom of all, as the first foundation, and lays on God as the superstructure; and even his acknowledgment of God's glory itself depends on his regard to his private interest.

Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections

The Self-Sufficient Glory of God

Jonathan Edwards, from A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections:

The first objective ground of gracious affections, is the transcendently excellent and amiable nature of divine things as they are themselves; and not any conceived relation they bear to self, or self-interest.

There is a huge difference between being able to say "God is excellent" and "God is excellent to me." Edwards refers to the God-given revelation that God is and would continue to be excellent even if I did not exist, or the creation itself did not exist. God's glory, beauty, holiness, and joy are not contingent upon anything He has created.

True vs Counterfeit Love

From A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards:

As from true divine love flow all Christian affections, so from a counterfeit love in like manner naturally flow other false affections. In both cases, love is the fountain, and the other affections are the streams.