is always ready in our needs and at our desire to employ what is in him of ability for our good and advantage we may be said to own such a person to possess and enjoy him to be tyed as it were and joined to him as 't is said the soul of Ionathan was knit to the soul of David so that he loved him as his own soul And such a propriety in such a possession of such an alliance and conjunction to himself God vouchsafes to them who are duely qualified for so great a good He was not ashamed saith the Apostle concerning the faithfull Patriarchs to be called their God to be appropriated in a manner unto them And He that acknowledgeth the Son saith Saint John concerning good Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath or possesseth the Father also and to seek to find to draw near to to cleave unto to abide with to abide in and such other phrases frequently do occur in Scripture denoting that near relation which good men stand in toward God implying that he affords them a continual liberty of access and coming into his especial presence that he admits them to a kind of converse and communion with himself full of spiritual benefit and delight that bearing an especial good will and favour toward them he is disposed to exert his infinite wisedom and power in their behalf is ready to impart all needfull and convenient good unto them help in their needs supply in wants protection in dangers the direction assistance and comfort of his Holy Spirit pardon of sins and peace of conscience all the blessings of grace here and all the felicities of glory hereafter such an interest as it were in God and a title unto him such a possession and enjoyment of him we are capable of obtaining and as that enjoyment is in it self infinitely above all things desirable so if we love God we cannot surely but be earnestly desirous thereof a cold indifferency about it a faint wishing for it a slothfull tendency after it are much on this side love it will inflame our heart it will transport our mind it will beget a vigorous and lively motion of soul toward it for Love you know is commonly resembled unto yea even assumes the name of Fire for that it warms the breast agitates the spirits quickens all the powers of Soul and sets them on work in desire and pursuance of the beloved Object you may imagine as well fire without heat or activity as love without some ardency of desire Longing and thirsting of soul fainting for and panting after crying out and stretching forth the hands toward God such are the expressions signifying the good Psalmist's love by so apt and so pathetical resemblances doth he set out the vehemency of his desire to enjoy God I need not add concerning Endeavour for that by plain consequence doth necessarily follow Desire the thirsty soul will never be at rest till it have found out its convenient refreshment if we as David did do long after God we shall also with him earnestly seek God nor ever be at rest till we have found him Coherent with this is a 3. Third property of this Love that is a great Complacence Satisfaction and Delight in the Enjoyment of God in the sense of having such a propriety in him in the partaking those emanations of favour and beneficence from him and consequently in the instruments conveying in the means conducing to such enjoyment for joy and content are the natural fruits of obtaining what we love what we much value what we earnestly desire Yea what we chiefly love if we become possessed thereof we easily rest satisfied therewith although all other comforts be wanting to us The covetous person for instance who dotes upon his wealth let him be pinched with the want of conveniencies let his body be wearied with toil let his mind be distracted with care let him be surrounded with obloquy and disgrace at mihi plaudo ipse domi he nevertheless enjoys himself in beholding his beloved pelf the ambitious man likewise although his state be full of trouble and disquiet though he be the mark of common envy and hatred though he be exposed to many crosses and dangers yet while he stands in power and dignity among all those thorns of care and fear his heart enjoys much rest and pleasure In like manner we may observe those pious men whose hearts were endewed with this love by the present sense or assured hope of enjoying God supporting themselves under all wants and distresses rejoycing yea boasting and exulting in their afflictions and no wonder while they conceived themselves secure in the possession of their hearts wish of that which they incomparably valued and desired above all things which by experience they had found so comfortable and delicious O taste and see exclaims the Psalmist inspired with this passion O taste and see that the Lord is good How excellent is thy loving kindness O Lord they they who enjoy it shall be abundantly satisfyed with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures A day in thy courts is better than a thousand my soul shall be satisfyed as with marrow and fatness so did those devout practisers of this Duty express the satisfaction they felt in God and in those things whereby he did impart the enjoyment of himself unto them So did the light of Gods countenance cheer their heart so did his loving kindness appear better than life it self unto them Hence do they so frequently enjoin and exhort us to be glad to delight our selves to glory to rejoyce continually in the Lord in the sense of his goodness in the hope of his favour the doing so being an inseparable property of love to which we adjoin another 4. The feeling much displeasure and regret in being deprived of such enjoyment in the absence or distance as it were of God from us the loss or lessening of his favour the subtraction of his gracious influences from us for surely answerable to the love we bear unto any thing will be our grief for the want or loss thereof it was a shrewd argument which the Poet used to prove that men loved their moneys better than their friends because majore tumultu plorantur nummi quà m funera they more lamented the loss of those than the death of these Indeed that which a man principally affects if he is bereaved thereof be his condition otherwise how prosperous and comfortable soever he cannot be contented all other enjoyments become unsavoury and unsatisfactory to him And so it is in our case when God although onely for trial according to his wisedom and good pleasure hides his face and withdraws his hand leaving the soul in a kind of desolation and darkness not finding that ready aid in distress not feeling that cheefull vivacity in obedience
direct our eyes and settle our affections upon somewhat more excellent in it self or more beneficial to us that seems better to deserve our regard and more able to supply our defects And if all other things about us appear alike deformed and deficient unworthy our affection and unable to satisfie our desires then may we be disposed to seek to find to fasten and repose our soul upon the onely proper object of our love in whom we shall obtain all that we need infallible wisedom to guide us omnipotent strength to help us infinite goodness for us to admire and enjoy These are the chief Obstacles the removing of which conduce to the begetting and increasing the love of God in us A soul so cleansed from love to bad and filthy things so emptied of affection to vain and unprofitable things so opened and dilated by excluding all conceit of all confidence in its self is a vessel proper for the divine love to be infused into into so large and pure a vacuity as finer substances are apt to flow of themselves into spaces void of grosser matter that free and movable Spirit of divine grace will be ready to succeed and therein to disperse it self As all other things in nature the cloggs being removed which hinder them do presently tend with all their force to the place of their rest and well being so would it seems our souls being loosed from baser affections obstructing them willingly incline toward God the natural centre as it were and bosome of their affection would resume as Origen speaks that natural philtre that intrinsick spring or incentive of love which all creatures have toward their creatour especially if to these we add those positive Instruments which are more immediately and directly subservient to the production of this love they are these 1. Attentive consideration of the divine Perfections with endeavour to obtain a right and clear apprehension of them 2. The consideration of God's Works and Actions his works and actions of nature of providence of grace 3. Serious regard and reflection upon the peculiar Benefits by the divine Goodness vouchsafed to our selves 4. An earnest resolution and endeavour to perform God's Commandments although upon inferiour considerations of reason upon hope fear desire to attain the benefits of Obedience to shun the mischiefs from Sin 5. Assiduous Prayer to Almighty God that he in mercy would please to bestow his love upon us and by his Grace to work it in us But I must forbear the prosecution of these things rather than farther trespass upon your patience Let us conclude all with a good Collect sometimes used by our Church O Lord who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth send thy Holy Ghost and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity the very bond of peace and of all vertues without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee Grant this for thine onely Son Jesus Christ his sake Amen The Second Sermon MATT. 22. 37. Jesus said unto him Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart WHich is the great Commandment was the question in answer whereto our Saviour returns this Text and that with highest reason discernible by every man for that of necessity the love of God is the principal duty we owe unto him the great duty indeed as being largest in extent and comprehending in a manner all other duties of piety as that which exceeds in proper worth and dignity employing the noblest faculties of our souls in their best operations upon the most excellent object as that which communicates vertue unto and hath a special influence upon all other duties in fine as that which is the sum the soul the spring of all other duties in discoursing whereupon I did formerly propound this method first to declare the nature thereof then to shew some means apt to beget and improve that excellent vertue in us lastly to propose some inducements to the practice thereof The first part I endeavoured to perform by describing it according to its essential properties common to love in general and more particularly to this of duly esteeming God of desiring according as we are capable to possess and enjoy him of receiving delight and satisfaction in the enjoyment of him of feeling displeasure in being deprived hereof of bearing good will unto him expressed by endeavours to please him by delighting in the advancement of his glory by grieving when he is disserved or dishonoured The next part I also entred upon and offered to consideration those means which serve chiefly to remove the impediments of our love to God which were 1. The suppressing all affections opposite to this all perverse and corrupt all unrighteous and unholy desires 2. The restraining or keeping within bounds of moderation our affections toward other things even in their nature innocent or indifferent 3. The freeing our hearts from immoderate affection toward our selves from all conceit of and confidence in any qualities or abilities of our own the diligent use of which means I did suppose would conduce much to the production and increase of divine love within us To them I shall now proceed to subjoin other Instruments more immediately and directly subservient to the same purpose whereof the first is 1. Attentive consideration upon the divine Perfections with endeavour to obtain a right and clear apprehension of them as counterfeit worth and beauty receive advantage by distance and darkness so real excellency si propius stes Te capiet magis the greater light you view it in the nearer you approach it the more strictly you examine it the more you will approve and like it so the more we think of God the better we know him the fuller and clearer conceptions we have of him the more we shall be apt to esteem and desire him the more excellent in himself the more beneficial to us he will appear Hence is the knowledge of God represented in holy Writ not onely as a main instrument of Religion but as an essential character thereof as equivalent to the being well affected toward God O continue saith the Psalmist thy loving kindness unto them that know thee that is to all religious people And This saith our Saviour is life eternal to know thee the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent knowledge of them implying all good affections toward them as on the other side ignorance of God denotes disaffection or want of affection toward God Now the sons of Eli 't is said were sons of Belial they knew not the Lord And He that loveth not saith Saint John doth not know God the want of love to God is an evident sign a natural effect of ignorance concerning him indeed considering the nature of our mind and its ordinary method of operation it seems impossible that such perfection discerned should not beget answerable reverence and
nature and to whose will it renders us conformable for as doing ill breeds a dislike to goodness and an aversion from him who himself is full thereof and who rigorously exacts it of us as bad conscience removes expectation of good from God and begets a suspicion of evil from him consequently stifling all kindness toward him so doing well we shall become acquainted with it and friends thereto a hearty approbation esteem and good liking thereof will ensue finding by experience that indeed the ways of wisedom vertue and piety are pleasantness and all her paths are peace that the fruits of conscientious practice are health to our body and to our soul security to our estate and to our reputation rest in our mind and comfort in our conscience goodness will become pretious in our eyes and he who commends it to us being himself essential goodness will appear most venerable and most amiable we shall then become disposed to render him what we perceive he best deserves entire reverence and affection 5. But I commend farther as a most necessary mean of attaining this disposition assiduous earnest prayer unto God that he would in mercy bestow it on us and by his grace work it in us which practice is indeed doubly conducible to this purpose both in way of impetration and by real efficacy it will not fail to obtain it as a gift from God it will help to produce it as an instrument of God's grace Upon the first accompt it is absolutely necessary for it is from God's free representation of himself as lovely to our minds and drawing our hearts unto him although ordinarily in the use of the means already mentioned or some like to them that this affection is kindled our bare consideration is too cold our rational discourse too faint we cannot sufficiently recollect our wandring thoughts we cannot strongly enough impress those proper incentives of love upon our hearts our hearts so dampt with sensual desires so clogg'd and pester'd with earthly inclinations so as to kindle in our souls this holy flame it can onely be effected by a light shining from God by a fire coming from heaven As all others so more especially this Queen of graces must proceed from the father of lights and giver of all good gifts he alone who is love can be the parent of so goodly an off-spring can beget this lively image of himself within us it is the principal fruit of God's Holy Spirit nor can it grow from any other root than from it it is called the love of the Spirit as its most signal and peculiar effect in fine the love of God as Saint Paul expresly teaches us is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto us given but that not without asking without seeking a grace so excellent God we may be assured will not dispense a gift so pretious he will not bestow on them who do not care to look after it who will not vouchsafe to beg it if we are not willing to acknowledge our want thereof if we refuse to express our desire of it if we will not shew that we regard and value it if when God freely offers it and invites us to receive it he doth so by offering his holy Spirit the fountain thereof unto us we will not decently apply our selves to him for it how can we expect to obtain it God hath propounded this condition and 't is surely no hard no grievous condition if we ask we shall receive he hath expresly promised that He will give his Spirit his Spirit of love to them who ask it we may be therefore sure performing the condition duly to obtain it and as sure neglecting that we deserve to go without it Prayer then is upon this accompt a needfull means and it is a very profitable one upon the score of its own immediate energy or vertue for as by familiar converse together with the delights and advantages attending thereon other friendships are begot and nourished so even by that acquaintance as it were with God which devotion begets by experience therein how sweet and good he is this affection is produced and strengthened As want of entercourse weakens and dissolves friendship so if we seldom come at God or little converse with him it is not onely a sign but will be a cause of estrangement and disaffection toward him according to the nature of the thing prayer hath peculiar advantages above other acts of piety to this effect therein not onely as in contemplation the eye of our mind our intellectual part is directed toward God but our affections also the hand of our soul by which we embrace good the feet thereof by which we pursue it are drawn out and fixed upon him we noâ— onely therein behold his excellencies but in a manner feel them and enjoy them our hearts also being thereby softned and warmed by desire become more susceptive of love We do in the performance of this duty approach nearer to God and consequently God draws nearer to us as Saint James assures Draw near saith he unto God and he will draw near to you and thereby we partake more fully and strongly of his gracious influences therein indeed he most freely communicates his grace therein he makes us most sensible of his love to us and thereby disposeth us to love him again I add that true fervent and hearty prayer doth include and suppose some acts of love or some near tendencies thereto whence as every habit is corroborated by acts of its kind so by this practice divine love will be confirmed and increased These are the means which my meditation did suggest as conducing to the production and growth of this most excellent grace in our souls III. I should lastly propound some Inducements apt to stir us up to the endeavour of procuring it and to the exercise thereof by representing to your consideration the blessed fruits and benefits both by way of natural causality and of reward accruing from it as also the wofull consequences and mischiefs springing from the want thereof How being endewed with it perfects and advances our nature rendring it in a manner and degree divine by resemblance to God who is full thereof so full that he is called Love by approximation adherence and union in a sort unto him how it ennobles us with the most glorious alliance possible rendring us the friends and favourites of the Sovereign King and Lord of all brethren of the first-born whose names are written in heaven enriches us with a right and title to the most inestimable treasures those which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man to conceive which God hath prepared for them that love him a sure possession of the supreme good of all that God is able to bestow all whose wisedom and power whose counsel and care it eternally engageth for our benefit how all security and welfare all
then peaceable living it being as Solomon saith an honour to a man to cease from strife and consequently also a disgrace to him to continue therein That rage and fury may be the excellencies of beasts and the exerting their natural animosity in strife and combat may become them but reason and discretion are the singular eminencies of men and the use of these the most natural and commendable method of deciding controversies among them and that it extreamly misbecomes them that are endowed with those excellent faculties so to abuse them as not to apprehend each others meanings but to ground vexatious quarrels upon the mistake of them not to be able by reasonable expedients to compound differences but with mutual dammage and inconvenience to prorogue and encrease them not to discern how exceedingly better it is to be helpfull and beneficial than to be mischievous and troublesome to one another How foolishly and unskilfully they judg that think by unkind speech and harsh dealing to allay mens distempers alter their opinions or remove their prejudices as if they should attempt to kill by ministring nourishment or to extinguish a flame by pouring oyl upon it How childish a thing it is eagerly to contend about trifles for the superiority in some impertinent contest for the satisfaction of some petty humour for the possession of some inconsiderable toy yea how barbarous and brutish a thing it is to be fierce and impetuous in the pursuit of things that please us snarling at biting and tearing all competitors of our game or opposers of our undertaking But how divine and amiable how worthy of humane nature of civil breeding of prudent consideration it is to restrain partial desires to condescend to equal terms to abate from rigorous pretences to appease discords and vanquish enmities by courtesy and discretion like the best and wisest Commanders who by skilfull conduct and patient attendance upon opportunity without striking of stroke of shedding of bloud subdue their Enemy 3. How that peace with its near alliance and concomitants its causes and effects love meekness gentleness and patience are in Sacred Writ reputed the genuine fruits of the Holy Spirit issues of Divine Grace and off-springs of heavenly Wisedom producing like themselves a goodly progeny of righteous deeds But that emulation hatred wrath variance and strife derive their extraction from fleshly lust hellish craft or beastly folly propagating themselves also into a like ugly brood of wicked works For so saith Saint James If you have bitter zeal and strife in your hearts glory not nor be deceived untruly This wisedom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish For where emulation and strife are there is tumult and every naughty thing but the wisedom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle obsequious full of mercy or beneficence and of good fruits without partiality and dissimulation And the fruit of righteousness is sowed in peace to those that make peace and from whence are wars and quarrels among you Are they not hence even from your lusts that war in your members Likewise He loveth transgression that loveth strife and A fools lips enter into contention and his mouth calleth for strokes saith Solomon That the most wicked and miserable of creatures is described by titles denoting enmity and discord the hater Satan the enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the accuser 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the slanderer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the destroyer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the furious dragon and mischievously treacherous snake and how sad it is to imitate him in his practices to resemble him in his qualities But that the best most excellent and most happy of Beings delights to be styled and accordingly to express himself The God of love mercy and peace and his blessed Son to be called and to be the Prince of peace the great Mediatour Reconciler and Peace-maker who is also said from on high to have visited us To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet in the ways of peace That lastly no devotion is pleasing no oblation acceptable to God conjoined with hatred or proceeding from an unreconciled mind For If thou bring thy gift to the altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee Leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift saith our Saviour I close up all with this Corollary that if we must live lovingly and peaceably with all men then much more are we obliged to doe so with all Christians to whom by nearer and firmer bands of holy alliance we are related by more precious communions in faith and devotion we are endeared by more peculiar and powerfull obligations of divine commands sacramental vows and formal professions we are engaged Our spiritual brethren members of the same mystical body temples of the same Holy Spirit servants of the same Lord subjects of the same Prince professors of the same truth partakers of the same hope heirs of the same promise and candidates of the same everlasting happiness Now Almighty God the most good and beneficent Maker gracious Lord and mercifull preserver of all things infuse into our hearts those heavenly graces of meekness patience and benignity grant us and his whole Church and all his Creation to serve him quietly here and in a blissfull rest to praise and magnify him for ever To whom with his blessed Son the great Mediatour and Prince of peace and with his Holy Spirit the ever-flowing Spring of all love joy comfort and peace be all honour glory and praise And The peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his Son Jsesus Christ our Lord And the blessing of God Almighty the Father Son and Holy Ghost be among you and remain with you for ever Amen FINIS Books writ by the Learned Dr. Isaac Barrow and printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill TWelve Sermons preached upon Several Occasions In Octavo being the First Volume Ten Sermons against Evil Speaking In Octavo being the Second Volume Eight Sermons of the Love of God and our Neighbour In Octavo being the Third Volume The Duty and Reward of Bounty to the Poor In a Sermon much enlarged preached at the Spittal upon Wednesday in Easter Week Anno Dom. 1671. In Octavo A Sermon upon the Passion of our Blessed Saviour Preached at Guild-Hall Chapel on Good-Friday the 13th day of April 1677. In Octavo A Learned Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy To which is added a Disourse concerning the Unity of the Church In Quarto The said Discourse concerning the Unity of the Church is also printed alone In Octavo All the said Books of the
ISAACUS BARROW S.T.P. REG. MATI. A SACRIS COLL. S.S. TRINI CANTAB PRAEFEC NEC NON ACAD EIUSDEM PROCANC 1676. OF THE LOVE of GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOUR In Several SERMONS By ISAAC BARROW D. D. Late Master of Trinity College in Cambridge and one of His MAJESTY'S Chaplains in Ordinary The Third Volume LONDON Printed by Miles Flesher for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1680. TO The Right Honourable HENEAGE Lord FINCH Baron of DAVENTRY Lord High CHANCELLOUR OF ENGLAND AND One of His MAJESTY'S most Honourable Privy Council THOMAS BARROW the Authour's Father Humbly Dedicateth these SERMONS THE CONTENTS SERMON I and II. S. Matthew 22. 37. Iesus said unto him Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart SERMON III and IV. S. Matthew 22. 39. And the Second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self SERMON V. Ephesians 5. 2. And walk in love SERMON VI. Hebrews 10. 24. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works SERMON VII and VIII Romans 12. 18. If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men The First Sermon MATT. 22. 37. Jesus said unto him Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart THIS Text is produced by our Saviour out of Moses his Law in answer to a question wherewith a learned Pharisee thought to pose or puzzle him the question was which was the great and first commandment in the Law a question which it seems had been examined and determined among the Doctours in the Schools of those days for in Saint Luke to the like question intimated by our Saviour another Lawyer readily yields the same answer and is therefore commended by our Saviour with a rectè respondisti thou hast answered rightly so that had our Saviour answered otherwise he had we may suppose been taxed of ignorance and unskilfulness perhaps also of errour and heterodoxie to convict him of which seems to have been the design of this Jewish trier or tempter for he is said to ask 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trying or tempting him But our Saviour defeats his captious intent by answering not onely according to truth and the reason of the thing but agreeably to the doctrine then current and as the Lawyer himself out of his memory and learning would have resolved it and no wonder since common sense dictates that the Law enjoyning sincere and entire love toward God is necessarily the first and chief or the most fundamental Law of all Religion for that whosoever doth believe the being of God according to the most common notion that Name bears must needs discern himself obliged first and chiefly to perform those acts of mind and will toward him which most true and earnest love do imply different expressions of love may be prescribed peculiar grounds of love may be declared in several ways of Religion but in the general and main substance of the duty all will conspire all will acknowledge readily that it is love we chiefly owe to God the duty which he may most justly require of us and which will be most acceptable to him It was then indeed the great commandment of the old or rather of the young and less perfect Religion of the Jews and it is no less of the more adult and improved Religion which the Son of God did institute and teach the difference onely is that Christianity declares more fully how we should exercise it and more highly engages us to observe it requires more proper and more substantial expressions thereof extends our obligation as to the matter and intends it as to the degree thereof for as it represents Almighty God in his nature and in his doings more lovely than any other way of Religion either natural or instituted hath done or could doe so it proportionably raises our obligation to love him it is as S. Paul speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last drift or the supreme pitch of the Evangelical profession and institution to Love to love God first and then our neighbour out of a pure heart and good conscience and faith unfeigned it is the bond or knot of that perfection which the Gospel injoins us to aspire to 't is the first and principall of those goodly fruits which the Holy Spirit of Christ produceth in good Christians It is therefore plainly with us also the great Commandment and chief Duty chiefly great in its extent in its worth in its efficacy and influence most great it is in that it doth eminently at least or virtually contain all other Laws and Duties of Piety they being all as Branches making up its Body or growing out of it as their Root Saint Paul saith of the love toward our neighbour that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full performance of the laws concerning him and that all commandments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are recapitulated or summ'd up in this one saying Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self and by like or greater reason are all the Duties of Piety comprised in the Love of God which is the chief of those two hinges upon which as our Saviour here subjoins the whole law and the prophets do hang. So great is this Duty in extent and it is no less in proper worth both as it immediately respects the most excellent and most necessary performances of Duty employing our highest faculties in their best operations and as it imparts vertue and value to all other acts of Duty for no Sacrifice is acceptable which is not kindled by this heavenly Fire no Offering sweet and pure which is not seasoned by this holy Salt no Action is truly good or commendable which is not conjoined with or doth not proceed from the Love of God that is not performed with a design to please God or at least with an opinion that we shall do so thereby If a man perform any good work not out of love to God but from any other principle or for any other design to please himself or others to get honour or gain thereby how can it be acceptable to God to whom it hath not any due regard And what action hath it for its principle or its ingredient becomes sanctified thereby in great measure pleasing and acceptable to God such is the worth and value thereof It is also the great Commandment for efficacy and influence being naturally productive of Obedience to all other Commandments especially of the most genuine and sincere Obedience no other principle being in force and activity comparable thereto fear may drive to a complyance with some and hope may draw to an observance of others but it is Love that with a kind of willing constraint and kindly violence carries on cheerfully vigorously and swiftly to the performance of all God's Commandments If any man loves me saith our Saviour he will keep my word to keep
his word is a natural and necessary result of love to him this is the love of God saith Saint John that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous 't is the nature of that Love to beget a free and delightfull Obedience Such then is the Subject of our Discourse even the sum the soul the spring of all our Religion and Duty And because it is requisite both for our direction how to doe and the examination of our selves whether we doe as we ought that we should understand what we are thus so far obliged to that we may be able to perform it and that we be effectually disposed thereto I shall use this method I will first endeavour to Explain the nature of this Love commanded us then to shew some Means of Attaining it lastly to propound some Inducements to the Purchase and Practice thereof I. For the first part we may describe Love in general for it seems not so easy to define it exactly to be an Affection or Inclination of the Soul toward an Object proceeding from an Apprehension and Esteem of some Excellency or some Conveniency therein its Beauty Worth or Usefulness producing thereupon if the Object be absent or wanting a proportionable desire and consequently an endeavour to obtain such a propriety therein such a possession thereof such an approximation or union thereto as the thing is capable of also a regret and displeasure in the failing so to obtain it or in the want absence and loss thereof likewise begetting a complacence satisfaction and delight in its presence possession or enjoyment which is moreover attended with a good-will thereto sutable to its nature that is with a desire that it should arrive unto and continue in its best state with a delight to perceive it so to thrive and flourish with a displeasure to see it suffer or decay in any wise with a consequent endeavour to advance it in all good and preserve it from all evil Which Description containing the chief Properties of Love in common do in some sort not to insist upon abstracted Notions or in Examples remote from our purpose all of them well agree to that Love which we owe to God according to the tenour of this Law and in the degree therein expressed that is in the best manner and highest degree for even of this Divine Love the chief Properties prerequisite thereto or intimately conjoined therewith or naturally resulting from it I conceive are these 1. A right apprehension and firm persuasion concerning God and consequently a high esteem of him as most excellent in himself and most beneficial to us for such is the frame of our Soul that the perceptive part doth always go before the appetitive that affection follows opinion that no object otherwise moves our desire then as represented by reason or by fancy good unto us what effect will the goodliest beauty or the sweetest harmony have upon him who wants sense to discern or judgment to prize them This is our natural way of acting and according to it that we may in due measure love God He must appear proportionably amiable and desirable to us we must entertain worthy thoughts of him as full of all Perfection in himself as the Fountain of all Good as the sole Author of all that Happiness we can hope for or receive as He in possession of whom we shall possess all things desirable in effect and vertue all riches all honours all pleasure all good that we are capable of and without whom we can enjoy no real Good or true Content Which Esteem of him how can it otherwise then beget Affection toward him If the faint resemblances or the slender participations of such Excellencies of that incomprehensible Wisedom that uncontrollable Power that unconfined Bounty that unblemished Purity which are united in him and shine from him with a perfect lustre if I say the very faint resemblances and imperfect participations of these Excellencies discerned in other things are apt to raise our Admiration and allure our Affection toward them if the glimmering of some small inconsiderable benefit the shadow of real profit discovered in these inferiour empty things is able so strongly to attract our eyes and fix our hearts upon them why should not from a like but so much greater Cause the like Effect proceed whence can it be that the apprehension of an Object so infinitely lovely so incomparably beneficial if not passing cursorily through our fancy but deeply impressed upon our mind should not proportionably affect and incline us toward Him with all that desire that delight that good will which are proper to Love If we think as the Psalmist did that there is none in heaven or in earth comparable to God comparable in essential Perfection comparable in beneficial Influence why should we not be disposed also to say with him Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Such a reverent Esteem is the proper foundation upon which true Love is built and which upholds it whence as the Love of God doth commonly denote all the Duties of Religion so doth Fear or Reverence to him likewise in Scripture style comprehend and express them all it being the Root from whence Love doth sprout and by which it is nourished it being the beginning of that true Wisedom by which we embrace and fasten our affection upon the Sovereign Good Hence we may observe that those devout persons whose hearts were fullest of this Love their minds were most employed in meditation upon the Divine Excellencies and upon the beneficial Emanations from them in Bounty and Mercy upon the Creatures their Tongues being tuned by their Thoughts and their inward Esteem breaking forth into Praise Every day all the day long at all times did they bless God praise his name speak of his righteousness shew forth his salvation as the Psalmist expresses his practice arising from Love enlivened by the esteem of God and the apprehension of his excellent Goodness from whence also that strong Faith that constant Hope that cheerful Confidence they reposed in him that hearty Approbation of all his Counsels and Purposes that full Acquiescence of Mind in his Proceedings that entire Submission of their Understanding to his Discipline and Resignation of their Will to his good pleasure that yielding up themselves their Souls and Bodies their Lives and Goods to his disposal with all the like high effects and pregnant signs of Love did flow but 2. Another property of this Love is an earnest desire of obtaining a Propriety in God of possessing him in a manner and enjoying him of approaching him and being so far as may be united to him When we stand upon such terms with any person that we have a free access unto and a familiar entercourse with him that his conversation is profitable and delightfull to us that we can upon all occasions have his advice and assistance that he
not tasting that sweet relish of devotion which have been usually afforded thereto if love reside in the heart it will surely dispose it to a sensible grief it will inspire such exclamations as those of the Psalmist How long Lord wilt thou hide thy face hide not thy face from thy servant for I am in trouble turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it Even our Saviour himself in such a case when God seemed for a time to withdraw the light of his countenance and the protection of his helpfull hand from him or to frown and lay his heavy hand upon him had his soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extreamly grieved and full of a deadly anguish neither surely was it any other cause than excess of love which made that temporary desertion so grievous and bitter to him extorting from his most meek and patient heart that wofull complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But especially when our iniquities have as the Prophet expresseth it separated between our God and us and our sins have hid his face from us when that thick cloud hath eclipsed the light of his countenance and intercepted his gracious influences when by wilfully offending we have as the Israelites are said to have done rejected our God cast him off and driven him from us so depriving our selves of propriety in him and the possession of his favour then if any love be alive in us it will prompt us with those good men in their penitential agonies to be grievously sensible of and sorely to bewail that our wretched condition there will not if we so heartily love God and value his favour as they did be any soundness in our flesh or rest in our bones our spirit will be overwhelmed within us and our heart within us desolate Our heart will be smitten and withered like grass upon the consideration and sense of so inestimable a loss Love will render such a condition very sad and uneasie to us will make all other delights insipid and distastfull all our life will become bitter and burthen some to us neither if it in any measure abides in us shall we receive content till by humble deprecation we have regained some glimpse of God's favour some hope of being reinstated in our possession of him Farther yet 5. Another property of this Love is to bear the highest good will toward God so as to wish heartily and effectually according to our power to procure all good to him and to delight in it so as to endeavour to prevent and to remove all evil if I may so speak that may befall him and to be heartily displeased therewith Although no such benefit or advantage can accrue to God which may increase his essential and indefectible happiness no harm or dammage can arrive that may impaire it for he can be neither really more or less rich or glorious or joyfull than he is neither have our desire or our fear our delight or our grief our designs or our endeavours any object any ground in those respects yet hath he declared that there be certain interests and concernments which out of his abundant goodness and condescension he doth tender and prosecute as his own as if he did really receive advantage by the good and prejudice by the bad success respectively belonging to them that he earnestly desires and is greatly delighted with some things very much dislikes and is grievously displeased with other things for instance that he bears a fatherly affection toward his creatures and earnestly desires their welfare and delights to see them enjoy the good he designed them as also dislikes the contrary events doth commiserate and condole their misery that he is consequently well pleased when piety and justice peace and order the chief means conducing to our welfare do flourish and displeased when impiety and iniquity dissension and disorder those certain sources of mischief to us do prevail that he is well satisfied with our rendring to him that obedience honour and respect which are due to him and highly offended with our injurious and disrespectfull behaviour toward him in commission of sin and violation of his most just and holy commandments so that there wants not sufficient matter of our exercising good will both in affection and action toward God we are capable both of wishing and in a manner as he will interpret and accept it of doing good to him by our concurrence with him in promoting those things which he approves and delights in and in removing the contrary And so surely shall we do if we truly love God for love as it would have the object to be its own as it tends to enjoy it so it would have it in its best state and would put it thereinto and would conserve it therein and would thence contribute all it is able to the welfare to the ornament to the pleasure and content thereof What is it saith Cicero to love but to will or desire that the person loved should receive the greatest good that can be Love also doth reconcile conform and unite the inclinations and affections of him who loves to the inclinations and affections of him who is beloved Eadem velle eadem nolle to consent in liking and disliking of things if it be not the cause if it be not the formall reason or essence as some have made it 't is at least a certain effect of love If then we truly love God we shall desire that all his designs prosper that his pleasure be fulfilled that all duty be performed all glory rendred to him we shall be grieved at the wrong the dishonour the disappointment he receives especially we shall endeavour in our own practice with Holy David to perform 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that God wills desires or delights in to eschew whatever offends him Our desire our delight our endeavour will conspire with and be subordinate to his for it would be a strange kind of love that were consistent with the voluntary doing of that which is hurtfull injurious or offensive to that we love such actions being the proper effects the natural signs of hatred and enmity If any man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a liar saith Saint John and If any man seeth his brother need and shutteth his bowels toward him how doth the love of God abide in him He that in his affections is so unlike so contrary unto God he that is unwilling to comply with God's will in so reasonable a performance he that in a matter wherein God hath declared himself so much concerned and so affected therewith doth not care to cross him to displease and disappoint him how can he with any shew of truth or with any modesty pretend to love God Hence it is that keeping of God's Commandments is commonly represented to us as the most
proper expression as the surest argument of our love to God shewing mercy to thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments they are joined together as terms equivalent or as inseparable companions in effect He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me Ye are my friends that is not onely objects of my affection but actively friends bearing affection unto me if you doe whatsoever I command you saith our Saviour And whoso keepeth his word in him is the love of God truly perfected he hath the truth and sincerity he hath the integrity and consummation of love without it love is wholly false and counterfeit or very lame and imperfect so the loving and beloved Disciple teaches us For by doing thus as we signifie our esteem of God's wisedom which directeth us our dread of his power and justice that can punish us our hope in his goodness and fidelity to reward us our regard to his majesty and authority over us so especially thereby if our obedience at least be free and cheerfull we express our good will toward him shewing thereby that we are disposed to do him all the good and gratifie him all we can that his interests his honour his content are dear and precious to us And were indeed our hearts knit unto God with this bond of perfection we could not in our wills and consequently in our practice be so severed from him we should also love heartily all vertue and goodness the nearest resemblances of him and which he chiefly loves we should doe what David so oft professes himself to doe love his law and greatly delight in his commandments With our Saviour we should delight to perform his will it would as it was to him be our meat and our drink to doe it his yoke would be easie indeed and his burthen light unto us his yoke so easie that we should wear it rather as a jewel about our necks than as a yoke his burthen so light that we should not feel it as a burthen but esteem it our privilege We should not be so dull in apprehending or so slack in performing duty for this sharp-sighted affection would presently discern would readily suggest it to us by the least intimation it would perceive what pleaseth God and would snatch opportunity of doing it we should not need any arguments to persuade us nor any force to compell us love would inspire us with sufficient vigour and alacrity it would urge and stimulate us forward not onely to walk in but even as the Psalmist expresseth it to run the ways of God's commandments But let thus much serve for explication of the nature of this Duty in order as was before said to the direction of our Practice and examination thereof The particular Duties mentioned being comprehended in or appertaining to the love of God if we perceive that we practise them we may to our satisfaction and comfort infer that proportionably we are endewed with this Grace if not we have reason such as should beget remorse and pious sorrow in us to suspect we abide in a state of disaffection or of indifferency toward him If we find the former good disposition we should strive to cherish and improve it if the second bad one we should as we tender our own welfare and happiness as we would avoid utter ruine and misery endeavour to remove it II. To the effecting of which purposes I shall next propound some means conducible some in way of removing Obstacles others by immediately promoting the Duty Of the first kind are these ensuing 1. The destroying of all loves opposite to the love of God extinguishing all affection to things odious and offensive to God mortifying all corrupt and perverse all unrighteous and unholy desires It agrees with souls no less than with bodies that they cannot at once move or tend contrary ways upward and downward backward and forward at one time it is not possible we should together truly esteem earnestly desire bear sincere good will to things in nature and inclination quite repugnant each to other No man ever took him for his real friend who maintains correspondency secret or open who joins in acts of hostility with his professed enemies at least we cannot as we ought love God with our whole heart if with any part thereof we affect his enemies those which are mortally and irreconcileably so as are all iniquity and impurity all inordinate lusts both of flesh and spirit the carnal mind the minding or affecting of the flesh is Saint Paul tells us enmity toward God for 't is not subject to the law of God nor can be 't is an enemy even the worst of enemies an incorrigibly obstinate rebell against God and can we then retaining any love to God or peace with him comply and conspire therewith And The friendship of the world that is I suppose of those corrupt principles and those vitious customs which usually prevail in the world is also Saint James tells us enmity with God so that he adds if any man be a friend to the world he is thereby constituted he immediately ipso facto becomes an enemy to God Saint John affirms the same If any man love the world the love of the father is not in him explaining himself that by the world he means those things which are most generally embraced and practised therein the lust or desire of the flesh that is sensuality and intemperance the lust of the eyes that is envy covetousness vain curiosity and the like the ostentation or boasting of life that is pride ambition vain-glory arrogance qualities as irreconcileably opposite to the holy nature and will of God so altogether inconsistent with the love of him begetting in us an aversation and antipathy towards him rendring his holiness distastfull to our affections and his justice dreadfull to our consciences and himself consequently his will his law his presence hatefull to us while we take him to be our enemy and to hate us we shall certainly in like manner stand affected toward him this indeed is the main obstacle the removal of which will much facilitate the introduction of divine love it being a great step to reconciliation and friendship to be disengaged from the adverse party we should then easily discern the beauty of divine goodness and sanctity when the mists of ignorance of errour of corrupt prejudice arising from those gross carnal affections were dissipated we should better relish the sweet and savoury graces of God when the palate of our mind were purged from vitious tinctures we should be more ready to hope for peace and favour in his eyes when our consciences were freed from the sense of such provocations and defilements But 2. If we would obtain this excellent Grace we must restrain our affections toward all other things however in their nature innocent and indifferent The
young Gentleman in the Gospel had it seems arrived to the former pitch having through the course of his life abstained from grosser iniquities and impurities so far that our Saviour in regard to that attaiment of his conceived an affection for him he loved him 't is said yet was not he sufficiently disposed to love God being in one thing deficient that he retained an immoderate affection to his wealth and worldly conveniencies with which sort of affections the love of God cannot consist for we much undervalue God and cannot therefore duly love him if we deem any thing comparable to him or considerable in worth or usefulness when he comes in competition if we deem that the possession of any other thing beside him can confer to our happiness or the want thereof can prejudice it and make us miserable no other love should bear any proportion to the love of him no other object should appear as indeed none really is simply good desirable or amiable to us What value Saint Paul had of his legal qualifications and privileges the same should we have concerning all other things in appearance pleasant or convenient to us they ought in regard to God to seem dammage and dung not onely mean and despicable but even sordid and loathsome to us not onely unworthy of our regard and desire but deserving our hatred and abhorrency we should I say even hate the best of them so our Saviour expresseth it If any man doth not hate his father and his mother his wife and his children his brothers and sisters and even his own soul or his own life he cannot be my disciple that is if any man retain in his heart any affection not infinitely as it were less than that which he bears to God if any thing be in comparison dear and precious to him he is not disposed to entertain the main point of Christ's discipline the sincere and entire love of God To love him as he requires with all our heart implies that our heart be filled with his love so that no room be left for any other passion to enter or dwell there And indeed such if we observe it is the nature of our soul we can hardly together harbour earnest or serious affections toward different objects one of them will prevail and predominate and so doing will not suffer the other to remain but will extrude or extinguish it No heart of man can correspond with two rivals but as our Saviour teacheth us it will hate and despise one will love and stick to the other whence he infers that we cannot serve that is affectionately adhere to both God and Mammon If we have according to the Psalmist's phrase set our hearts upon wealth and will be rich are resolved to be as Saint Paul expresseth it if we eagerly aspire to power and honour with the Pharisees preferring the applause of men before the favour of God if any worldly or bodily pleasure or any curiosity how plausible soever hath seised upon our spirits and captivated our affections if any inferiour object whatever with its apparent splendour sweetness goodliness convenience hath so inveagled our fancy that we have an exceeding esteem thereof and a greedy appetite thereto that we enjoy it with huge content and cannot part from it without much regret that thing doth at present take up God's place within us so that our heart is uncapable at least in due measure of divine love but if we be indifferently affected toward all such things and are unconcerned in the presence or absence of them esteeming them as they are mean and vain loving them as they deserve as inferiour and trivial if according to Saint Paul's direction we use them as if we used them not 't is another good step toward the love of God the divine light will shine more brightly into so calm and serene a medium a soul void of other affections will not be onely more capable to receive but apt to suck in that heavenly one being insensible in any considerable degree of all other comforts and complacencies we shall be apt to search after and reach out at that which alone can satisfie our understanding and satiate our desires especially if we add hereto 3. The freeing of our hearts also from immoderate affection to our selves I mean not from a sober desire or an earnest regard to our own true good for this as nature enforces to so all reason allows and even God's command obligeth us to nor can it be excessive but a high conceit of our selves as worthy or able a high confidence in any thing we have within us or about us for this is a very strong bar against the entrance as of all other charity so especially of this for as the love of an external object doth thrust as it were our soul outwards towards it so the love of our selves detains it within or draws it inwards and consequently these inclinations crossing each other cannot both have effect but one will subdue and destroy the other If our mind be Ipsa suis contenta bonis satisfied with her own taking them for her own endowments abilities or fancied perfections if we imagine our selves wise enough to perceive good enough to chuse resolute enough to undertake strong enough to atchieve constant enough to pursue whatever is conducible to our real happiness and best content we shall not care to go farther we will not be at the trouble to search abroad for that which in our opinion we can so readily find so easily enjoy at home If we so admire and dote upon our selves we there by put our selves into God's stead and usurp the throne due to him in our hearts comparing our selves to God and in effect preferring our selves before him thereby consequently shutting our that unparallel'd esteem that predominant affection we owe to him while we are busie in dressing and decking in courting and worshipping this Idol oâ— our fancy we shall be estranged from the true object of our devotion both we shall willingly neglect him and he in just indignation will desert us But if as all other things so even our selves do appear exceedingly vile and contemptible foul and ugly in comparison to God If we take our selves to be as truly we are meer nothings or some things worse not onely destitute of all considerable perfections but full of great defects blind and fond in our conceits crooked and perverse in our wills infirm and unstable in all our powers unable to discern unwilling to embrace backward to set upon inconstant in prosecuting those things which are truly good and advantagious to us If we have I say this right opinion and judgment of our selves seeing within us nothing lovely or desirable no proper object there of our esteem or affection no bottom to rest our mind upon no ground of solid comfort at home we shall then be apt to look abroad to
a true friend to us if we be not wilfull enemies to him and desirous of our welfare if we do not perversly render our selves incapable thereof so withall jealous of his own honour resolute to maintain and vindicate his just authority carefull to uphold the interests of right and truth and to shew the distinction he makes between good and evil if we have I say such conceptions of God agreeable to what his word and his doings represent him to us how can we otherwise than bear a most high respect a most great affection unto him A Prince surely endewed with such qualities wise and powerfull good and just together tendering the good of his people yet preserving the force of his Laws designing always what is best and constantly pursuing his good intentions tempering bounty and clemency with needfull justice and severity we should all commend and extol as worthy of most affectionate veneration how much more then shall we be so affected toward him in whom we apprehend all those excellencies to concur without any imperfection or allay especially if by attention we impress those conceptions upon our hearts for how true and proper soever if they be onely slight and transient they may not suffice to this intent if they pass away as a slash they will not be able to kindle in us any strong affection But if such abstracted consideration of the divine perfections will not alone wholly avail let us add hereto as a farther help toward the production and encrease of this divine grace in us 2. The consideration of God's Works and Actions his works of nature his acts of providence his works and acts of grace the carefull meditating upon these will be apt to breed to nourish to improve and augment this affection Even the contemplation of the lower works of nature of this visible frame of things upon which indeed many perspicuous characters of divine perfection of immense power of admirable wisedom of abundant goodness are engraven hath in many minds excited a very high degree of reverence and good affection toward God the devoutest persons the holy Psalmists particularly we may observe frequent in this practice enflaming their hearts with love and elevating them in reverence toward God by surveying the common works of God by viewing and considering the magnificent vastness and variety the goodly order and beauty the constant duration and stability of those things we see in remarking the general bounty and munificence with which this great pater-familias hath provided for the necessary sustenance for the convenience for the defence for the relief for the delight and satisfaction of his creatures even in the contemplation of these things being ravished with admiration and affection how often do they thus exclaim O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisedom hast thou made them all The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord the earth O Lord is full of thy mercy Great is our Lord and of great power his understanding is infinite All thy works shall praise thee O Lord With such reflections I say upon those common yet admirable and excellent works of God which we perhaps with a regardless eye unprofitably pass over did those good men kindle and foment pious affections toward God The same effect may also the considering the very common proceedings of divine providence beget in us such as are discernible to every attentive mind both from history and daily experience considering God's admirable condescension in regarding and ordering humane affairs both for common benefit and for relief of particular necessities his supplying the general needs of men relieving the poor succouring the weak and helpless protecting and vindicating the oppressed his seasonable encouraging and rewarding the good restraining and chastising the bad Even such observations are productive of love to God in those who according to that duty intimated by the Prophet do regard thâ— works of the Lord and consider the operations of his hands They who are wise and will observe these things they aâ— the Psalmist tells shall understand thâ— loving kindness of the Lord understand it practically so as to be duly affected thereby and so accordingly we find the consideration of these things applied by the great guides and patterns of our devotion But especially the study and contemplation of those more high and rare proceedings of God in managing his gracious design of our Redemption from sin and misery wherein a wisedom so unsearchable and a goodness so astonishing declare themselves are most proper and effectual means of begetting divine love if the consideration of God's eternal care for our welfare of his descending to the lowest condition for our sake of his willingly undertaking and patiently undergoing all kinds of inconvenience of disgrace of bitter pain and sorrow for us of his freely offering us mercy and earnestly wooing us to receive it even when offenders when enemies when rebels against him of his bearing with exceeding patience all our neglects of him all our injuries towards him of his preparing a treasure of perfect and endless bliss and using all means possible to bring us unto the possession thereof if I say considering those wonderfull streins of goodness will not affect us what can do it How miserably cold and damp must our affections be if all those powerfull rays so full of heavenly light and heat shining through our minds cannot enflame them how desperately hard and tough must our hearts be if such incentives cannot soften and melt them is it not an apathy more than Stoical more than stony which can stand immovable before so mighty inducements to passion is it not a horridly prodigious insensibility to think upon such expressions of kindness without feeling affection reciprocal But if the consideration of God's general and publick beneficence will not touch us sufficiently let us farther hereto adjoin 3. Serious reflections upon the peculiar personal or private benefits by the divine goodness vouchsafed unto our selves There is I suppose scarce any man who may not if he be not very stupid and regardless have observed beside the common effects of God's universal care and bounty wherein he partakes even some particular expressions and testimonies of divine favour dispensed unto him by God's hand apt to convince him of God's especial providence care and good-will to him particularly and thereby to draw him unto God both in relation to his temporal and to his spiritual state in preventing and preserving him from mischiefs imminent in opportune relief when he was pressed with want or surprised by danger in directing him to good and diverting him from evil Every mans experience I say and suppose will inform him that he hath received many such benefits from a hand invisible indeed to sense yet easily discernible if he do attend to the circumstances wherein to the seasons when they come it is natural to every man being in distress from which he cannot by any present or visible
means extricate himself to stretch forth his hand and lift up his voice toward heaven making his recourse to divine help and it is as natural for God to regard the needs to hearken to the crys to satisfie the desires of such persons for The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him he openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing He will be a refuge to the oppressed a refuge in times of trouble He satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing Look at the generations of old and see did ever any trust in the Lord and was forsaken or whom did he ever despise that called upon him This poor man this and that any poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles since then no man in all likelihood hath not some occasion of God's especial favour and assistance and God is always so ready to afford them we may reasonably presume that every man doth sometime receive them and is thereby obliged to return a gratefull affection to him not onely as to a common benefactour but as to his particular friend and patron However there is none of us who may not perceive himself singularly indebted to God's patience in forbearing to punish him to his mercy in pardoning and passing over innumerable offences committed against him the renowned Penitent in the Gospel did love much because much was forgiven her And who is there of us that hath not the same reason to love much who is there that at least according to God's inclination and intention hath not had much forgiven him whom have not the riches of divine goodness and long-suffering attended upon in order to his repentance who hath not been in so great degree ingratefull unfruitfull and improfitable that he hath not abundant reason to acknowledge God's especial grace in bearing with him and to confess with Jacob that he is lesse than the least of all God's mercies if any such there were he should have no less cause to be affected with the abundance of that grace which so preserved him from sins and provocations For if we stand it is he that upholdeth us if we fall it is he that raiseth us it is his especial favour that either we avoid sin or sinning escape punishment Now then God having by many real evidences declared such particular affection toward us can we considering thereon do otherwise than say to our selves after Saint John Nos ergò diligamus Deum quoniam prior dilexit nos Let us therefore love God because God first loved us surely in all ingenuity according to all equity we are bound to do so the reason and nature of things doth require it of us all other loves even those of the baser sort are able to propagate themselves to continue and enlarge their kind are commonly fruitfull and effectual in producing their like how strangely then unnatural and monstrous is it that this love onely this so vigorous and perfect love should be barren and impotent as it were If you love those that love you saith our Saviour what reward have you what reward can you pretend to for so common so necessary a performance do not even the publicans doe the same the Publicans men not usually of the best natures or tenderest hearts yet they do thus And again saith he If you love those who love you what thank is it for even sinners love those that love them sinners men not led by conscience of duty or regard to reason but hurried with a kind of blind and violent force by instinct of nature do so much go so far If thus men both by nature and custom most untractable the least guided by rules of right of reason of ingenuity yea not onely the most barbarous men but even the most savage beasts are sensible of courtesies return a kind of affection unto them who make much of them and do them good what temper are we of if all that bounty we experience cannot move us if God's daily loading us with his benefits if his crowning us with loving-kindness and tender mercies if all those showres of blessings which he continually poureth down upon our heads doth not produce some good degree of correspondent affection in us It cannot surely proceed altogether from a wretched baseness of disposition that we are so cold and indifferent in our affection toward God or are sometimes so averse from loving him it must rather in great part come from our not observing carefully not frequently calling to mind not earnestly considering what God hath done for us how exceedingly we stand obliged to his goodness from our following that untoward generation of men who were not 't is said mindfull of the wonders which God did among them who remembred not his hand nor the day that he delivered them rather following I say such careless and heartless people so they are termed than imitating that excellent Person 's discretion who constantly did set God's loving-kindness before his eyes who frequently did thus raise his mind and rouse up his affections Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases c. It is not for want of the like experience or the like obligation but for want of the same wisedom of the same care of the same honest consideration and diligence that we do not the like To these means I add that 4. A special help to breed in us this holy disposition of soul will be the setting our selves in good earnest with a strong and constant resolution to endeavour the performance of all our duty toward God and keeping his commandments although upon inferiour considerations of reason such as we are capable of applying to this purpose regards of fear of hope of desire to avoid the mischiefs arising from sin or attaining the benefits ensuing upon vertue If we cannot immediately raise our hearts to that higher pitch of acting from that nobler principle of love let us however apply that we can reach unto practice striving as we are able to perform what God requires of us exercising our selves as to material acts in keeping a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man the doing which as it may in time discover the excellency of goodness to our mind so it will by degrees reconcile our affections thereto then by God's blessing who graciously regards the meanest endeavours toward good who despiseth not the day of small things who will not quench the smoaking flax nor break the bruised reed from doing good out of a sober regard to our own welfare we shall come to like it in it self and consequently to love him unto whose
rest and peace all joy and happiness attend upon it for that The Lord preserveth all them that love him preserveth them in the enjoyment of all good in safety from all danger and mischief and that to those who love God all things co-operate for their good how incomparable a sweetness and delight accompany the practice thereof far surpassing all other pleasures perfectly able to content our minds to sustain and comfort us even in the want of all other satisfactions yea under the pressure of whatever most grievous afflictions can befall us How contrariwise the want thereof will depress us into a state of greatest imperfection and baseness setting us at the greatest distance from God in all respects both in similitude of nature and as to all favourable regard or beneficial communication from him casting us into a wretched and disgracefull consortship with the most degenerate creatures the accursed fiends who for disaffection and enmity toward God are banished from all happiness how it extreamly impoverisheth and beggereth us devesting us of all right to any good thing rendring us incapable of any portion but that of utter darkness how it excludeth us from any safety any rest any true comfort or joy and exposeth us to all mischief and misery imaginable all that being deprived of the divine protection presence and favour being made objects of the divine anger hatred and severe justice being abandoned to the malice of hell being driven into utter darkness and eternal fire doth import or can produce I should also have commended this love to you by comparing it with other loves and shewing how far in its nature in its causes in its properties in its effects it excelleth them even so far as the object thereof in excellency doth transcend all other objects of our affection how this is grounded upon the highest and surest reason others upon accounts very low and mean commonly upon fond humour and mistake this produceth real certain immutable goods others at best terminate onely in goods apparent unstable and transitory this is most worthy of us employing all our faculties in their noblest manner of operation upon the best object others misbeseem us so that in pursuing them we disgrace our understanding misapply our desires distemper our affections mispend our endeavours I should have enlarged upon these considerations and should have adjoined some particular advantages of this grace as for instance that the procuring thereof is the most sure the most easie the most compendious way of attaining all others of sweetning and ingratiating all obedience to us of making the hardest yoke easie and the heaviest burthen light unto us In fine I should have wished you to consider that its practice is not onely a mean and way to happiness but our very formal happiness it self the real enjoyment of the best good we are capable of that in which alone heaven it self the felicity of Saints and Angels doth consist which more then comprehends in it self all the benefits of highest dignity richest plenty and sweetest pleasure But I shall forbear entring upon so ample and fruitfull subjects of meditation and conclude with that good Collect of our Church O Lord who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass man's understanding pour into our hearts such love toward thee that we loving thee above all things may obtain thy promises which exceed all that we can desire through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The Third Sermon MATT. 22. 39. And the Second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self THE essential goodness of God and his special benignity toward mankind are to a considering mind divers ways very apparent the frame of the world and the natural course of things do with a thousand voices loudly and clearly proclaim them to us every sense doth yield us affidavit to that speech of the Holy Psalmist The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord we see it in the glorious brightness of the skies and in the pleasant verdure of the fields we taste it in the various delicacies of food supplied by land and sea we smell it in the fragrancies of herbs and flowers we hear it in the natural musick of the woods we feel it in the comfortable warmth of heaven and in the cheering freshness of the air we continually do possess and enjoy it in the numberless accommodations of life presented to us by the bountifull hand of nature Of the same goodness we may be well assured by that common providence which continually doth uphold us in our being doth opportunely relieve our needs doth protect us in dangers and rescue us from imminent mischiefs doth comport with our infirmities and misdemeanours the which in the divine Psalmists style doth hold our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved doth redeem our life from destruction doth crown us with loving-kindness and tender mercies The dispensations of grace in the revelation of heavenly truth in the overtures of mercy in the succours of our weakness in the proposal of glorious rewards in all the methods and means conducing to our salvation do afford most admirable proofs and pledges of the same immense benignity But in nothing is the divine goodness toward us more illustriously conspicuous than in the nature and tendency of those Laws which God hath been pleased for the regulation of our lives to prescribe unto us all which do palpably evidence his serious desire and provident care of our welfare so that in imposing them he plainly doth not so much exercise his Sovereignty over us as express his kindness toward us neither do they more clearly declare his will than demonstrate his good-will to us And among all divine Precepts this especially contained in my Text doth argue the wonderfull goodness of our heavenly Law-giver appearing both in the manner of the proposal and in the substance of it The Second saith our Lord is like to it that is to the Precept of loving the Lord our God with all our heart and is not this a mighty argument of immense goodness in God that he doth in such a manner commend this duty to us coupling it with our main duty toward him and requiring us with like earnestness to love our neighbour as to love himself He is transcendently amiable for the excellency of his nature he by innumerable and inestimable benefits graciously conferred on us hath deserved our utmost affection so that naturally there can be no obligation bearing any proportion or considerable semblance to that of loving him yet hath he in goodness been pleased to create one and to endew it with that privilege making the love of a man whom we cannot value but for his gifts to whom we can owe nothing but what properly we owe to him no less obligatory to declare it near as acceptable as the love of himself to whom we owe all To him as the sole authour and free donour
of all our good by just correspondence all our mind and heart all our strength and endeavour are due and reasonably might he engross them to himself excluding all other beings from any share in them so that we might be obliged onely to fix our thoughts and set our affections on him onely to act directly for his honour and interest saying with the Holy Psalmist Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none in earth that I desire beside thee Yet doth he freely please to impart a share of these performances on mankind yet doth he charge us to place our affection on one another to place it there indeed in a measure so large that we can hardly imagine a greater according to a rule than which none can be devised more compleat or certain O marvellous condescension O goodness truly divine which surpasseth the nature of things which dispenseth with the highest right and forgoeth the greatest interest that can be Doth not God in a sort debase himself that he might advance us doth he not appear to wave his own due and neglect his own honour for our advantage how otherwise could the love of man be capable of any resemblance to the love of God and not stand at an infinite distance or in an extream disparity from it how otherwise could we be obliged to affect or regard any thing beside the Sovereign the onely goodness how otherwise could there be any second or like to that first that great that peerless command Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart This indeed is the highest commendation whereof any Law is capable for as to be like God is the highest praise that can be given to a person so to resemble the divinest Law of love to God is the fairest character that can be assigned of a Law the which indeed representeth it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint James calleth it that is a Royal and Sovereign Law exalted above all others and bearing a sway on them Saint Paul telleth us that the end of the commandment or the main scope of the Evangelical doctrine is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned that charity is the summe and substance of all other duties and that he that loveth another hath fulfilled the whole law that Charity is the chief of the Theological vertues and the prime fruit of the divine Spirit and the bond of perfection which combineth and consummateth all other graces and the general principle of all our doings Saint Peter enjoineth us that to all other vertues we add charity as the top and crown of them and Above all things saith he have fervent charity among your selves Saint John calleth this Law in way of excellence the commandment of God and our Lord himself claimeth it as his peculiar Precept This saith he is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another and maketh the observance of it the special cognizance of his followers By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another These indeed are lofty commendations thereof yet all of them may worthily veil to this all of them seem verified in virtue of this because God hath vouchsafed to place this command in so near adjacency to the first great Law conjoining the two Tables making Charity contiguous and as it were commensurate to Piety It is true that in many respects Charity doth resemble Piety for it is the most genuine daughter of Piety thence in complexion in features in humour much favouring its sweet mother It doth consist in like dispositions and motions of soul It doth grow from the same roots and principles of benignity ingenuity equity gratitude planted in our original constitution by the breath of God and improved in our hearts by the divine Spirit of love It produceth the like fruits of beneficence toward others and of comfort in our selves It in like manner doth assimilate us to God rendring us conformable to his nature followers of his practice and partakers of his felicity It is of like use and consequence toward the regulation of our practice and due management of our whole life In such respects I say this Law is like to the other but it is however chiefly so for that God hath pleased to lay so great stress thereon as to make it the other half of our Religion and duty or because as Saint John saith This commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also which is to his praise a most pregnant demonstration of his immense goodness toward us But no less in the very substance of this Duty will the benignity of him that prescribeth it shine forth displaying it self in the rare beauty and sweetness of it together with the vast benefit and utility which it being observed will yield to mankind which will appear by what we may discourse for pressing its observance but first let us explain it as it lyeth before us expressed in the words of the Text wherein we shall consider two Particulars observable First The Object of the Duty Secondly The Qualification annexed to it The Object of it Our Neighbour The Qualification As our selves I. The Object of Charity is our Neighbour that is it being understood as the Precept now concerneth us according to our Lord's exposition or according to his intent and the tenour of his Doctrine every man with whom we have to doe or who is capable of our love especially every Christian. The Law as it was given to God's ancient people did openly regard onely those among them who were linked together in a holy neighbourhood or Society from which all other men being excluded were deemed strangers and foreiners aliens as Saint Paul speaketh from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise for thus the Law runneth in Leviticus Thou shalt not bear any grudge against the children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self where plainly Jews and Neighbours are terms equivalent other men being supposed to stand at distance without the fold or politick enclosure which God by several Ordinances had fenced to keep that Nation unmixt and separate nor can it be excepted against this notion that in the same Chapter it is enjoined But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you and thou shalt love him as thy self for by that stranger as the Jewish Masters well interpret it is meant a Proselyte of righteousness or one who although a stranger by birth was yet a brother in Religion having voluntarily submitted to their Law being engaged in the same Covenant and thence admitted to the same Privileges as an adopted Child of that Holy
to our person or condition are we not extreamly glad to find our selves thriving and flourishing in wealth in reputation in any accommodation or ornament of our state especially if we be sober and wise doth not our spiritual proficiency and improvement in vertue yield joyous satisfaction to us are we not much comforted in apprehending our selves to proceed in a hopefull way toward everlasting felicity this may instruct us what content we should feel in our neighbours prosperity both temporal and spiritual Do we not seriously grieve at our own disasters and disappointments are we not in sad dumps whenever we incur any dammage or disgrace do not our diseases and pains sorely afflict us do we not pity and bemoan our selves in any want calamity or distress can we especially if we are our selves without grievous displeasure apprehend our selves enslaved to Sin and Satan destitute of God's favour exposed to endless misery hence may we learn how we should condole and commiserate the misfortunes of our neighbour Do we not eagerly prosecute our own concerns do we not with huge vigour and industry strive to acquire all conveniencies and comforts to our selves to rid our selves of all wants and molestations is our solicitous care or painfull endeavour ever wanting toward the support and succour of our selves in any of our needs are we satisfied in meerly wishing our selves well are we not also busie and active in procuring what we affect especially if we are well advised do we not effectually provide for the weal of our soul and supply of our spiritual necessities labouring to rescue our selves from ignorance and errour from the tyranny of sin from the torture of a bad conscience from the danger of hell this sheweth how ready we should be really to further our neighbours good ministring to him all kinds of assistance and relief sutable to his needs both corporal and spiritual Are we so proud or nice that we disdain to yield attendance or service needfull for our own sustenance or convenience do we not indeed gladly perform the meanest and most sordid offices for our selves this declareth how condescensive we should be in helping our neighbour how ready even to wash his feet when occasion doth require Do we love to vex our selves or cross our own humour do we not rather seek by all means to please and gratifie our selves this may warn us how innocent and inoffensive how compliant and complacent we should be in our behaviour toward others endeavouring to please them in all things especially for their good to edification Are we easily angry with our selves do we retain implacable grudges against our selves or do we execute upon our selves mischievous revenge are we not rather very meek and patient toward our selves mildly comporting with our own great weaknesses our troublesome humours our impertinencies and follies readily forgiving our selves the most heinous offences neglects affronts injuries and outrages committed by us against our own interest honour and welfare hence may we derive lessons of meekness and patience to be exercised toward our neighbour in bearing his infirmities and miscarriages in remitting any wrongs or discourtesies received from him Are we apt to be rude in our deportment harsh in our language or rigorous in our dealing toward our selves do we not rather in word and deed treat our selves very softly very indulgently Do we use to pry for faults or to pick quarrels with our selves to carp at any thing said or done by us rashly or upon slight grounds to charge blame on our selves to lay heavy censures on our actions to make foul constructions of our words to blazon our defects or aggravate our failings do we not rather connive at and conceal our blemishes do we not excuse and extenuate our own crimes Can we find in our hearts to frame virulent invectives or to dart bitter taunts and scoffs against our selves to murther our own credit by slander to blast it by detraction to maim it by reproach to prostitute it to be deflowred by jeering and scurrilous abuse are we not rather very jealous of our reputation and studious to preserve it as a precious ornament a main fence an usefull instrument of our welfare Do we delight to report or like to hear ill stories of our selves do we not rather endeavour all we can to stifle them to tie the tongues and stop the ears of men against them hence may we be acquainted how civil and courteous in our behaviour How fair and ingenuous in our dealing how candid and mild in our judgment or censure we should be toward our neigbour how very tender and carefull we should be of any wise wronging or hurting his fame Thus reflecting on our selves and making our practice toward our selves the pattern of our dealing with others we shall not fail to discharge what is prescribed to us in this Law and so we have here a Rule of Charity But farther 2. Loving our neighbour as our selves doth also import the Measure of our love toward him that it should be commensurate and equal in degree to that love which we bear and exercise toward our selves Saint Peter once and again doth exhort us to love one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an outstretched affection and how far that affection should be stretched we are here informed even that it should reach the farthest that can be or to a parity with that intense love which we do bear in heart and express in performance toward our selves so that we do either bring down our self-self-love to such a moderation or raise up our charity to such a fervency that both come to be adjusted in the same even level this is that pitch at which we should aim and aspire this is that perfection of charity which our Lord recommendeth to us in that injunction Be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect That this sense of the words is included yea chiefly intended divers reasons will evince For 1. The most natural signification and common use of the phrase doth import thus much and any one at first hearing would so understand the words 2. It appeareth by comparing this Precept with that to which it is annexed of loving God with all our heart and all our soul which manifestly designeth the quantity and degree of that love consequently the like determination is intended in this Precept which is expressed to resemble that or designed in like manner to qualifie and bound our duty toward our neighbour 3. If the Law doth not signifie thus much it doth hardly signifie any thing not at least any thing of direction or use to us for no man is ignorant that he is obliged to love his neighbour but how far that love must extend is the point wherein most of us do need to be resolved and without satisfaction in which we shall hardly do any thing for as he that oweth money will not pay except he can tell how much it is so to know the Duty
we must ascend toward the perfection of them and strive to conform our practice to their exactness If what is prescribed be according to the reason of things just and fit it is enough although our practice will not reach it for what remaineth may be supplied by repentance and humility in him that should obey by mercy and pardon in him that doth command In the prescription of duty it is just that what may be required even in rigour should be precisely determined though in execution of justice or dispensation of recompence consideration may be had of our weakness whereby both the authority of our Governour may be maintained and his clemency glorified It is of great use that by comparing the Law with our practice and in the perfection of the one discerning the defect of the other we may be humbled may be sensible of our impotency may thence be forced to seek the helps of grace and the benefit of mercy Were the Rule never so low our practice would come beneath it it is therefore expedient that it should be high that at least we may rise higher in performance than otherwise we should doe for the higher we aim the nearer we shall go to the due pitch as he that aimeth at heaven although he cannot reach it will yet shoot higher than he that aimeth onely at the house top The height of duty doth prevent sloth and decay in vertue keeping us in wholsome exercise and in continual improvement while we be always climbing toward the top and straining unto farther attainment the sincere prosecution of which course as it will be more profitable unto us so it will be no less acceptable to God than if we could thoroughly fulfill the Law for in judgment God will onely reckon upon the sincerity and earnestness of our endeavour so that if we have done our best it will be taken as if we had done all Our labour will not be lost in the Lord for the degrees of performance will be considered and he that hath done his duty in part shall be proportionably recompensed according to that of Saint Paul Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own work Hence sometimes we are enjoined to be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect and to be holy as God is holy otherwhile to go on to perfection and to press toward the mark which Precepts in effect do import the same thing but the latter implyeth the former although in attainment impossible yet in attempt very profitable and surely he is likely to write best who proposeth to himself the fairest Copy for his imitation In fine if we do act what is possible or as we can do conform to the Rule of Duty we may be sure that no impossibility of this or of any other sublime Law can prejudice us I say of any other Law for it is not onely this Law to which this exception may be made but many others perhaps every one Evangelical Law are alike repugnant to corrupt nature and seem to surmount our ability But neither is the performance of this task so impossible or so desperately hard if we take the right course and use proper means toward it as is supposed as may somewhat appear if we will weigh the following considerations 1. Be it considered that we may be mistaken in our accompt when we do look on the impossibility or difficulty of such a practice as it appeareth at present before we have seriously attempted and in a good method by due means earnestly laboured to atchieve it for many things cannot be done at first or with a small practice which by degrees and a continued endeavour may be effected divers things are placed at a distance so that without passing through the interjacent way we cannot arrive at them divers things seem hard before trial which afterward prove very easie it is impossible to fly up to the top of a steeple but we may ascend thither by steps we cannot get to Rome without crossing the Seas and travelling through France or Germany it is hard to comprehend a subtle Theoreme in Geometry if we pitch on it first but if we begin at the simple principles and go forward through the intermediate propositions we may easily attain a demonstration of it it is hard to swim to dance to play on an Instrument but a little trial or a competent exercise will render those things easie to us So may the practice of this duty seem impossible or insuperably difficult before we have employed divers means and voided divers impediments before we have inured our minds and affections to it before we have tried our forces in some instances thereof previous to others of a higher strein and nearer the perfection of it If we would set our selves to exercise charity in those instances whereof we are at first capable without much reluctancy and thence proceed toward others of a higher nature we may find such improvement and taste such content therein that we may soon arise to incredible degrees thereof and at length perhaps we may attain to such a pitch that it will seem to us base and vain to consider our own good before that of others in any sensible measure And that nature which now so mightily doth contest in favour of our selves may in time give way to a better nature born of custome affecting the good of others Let not therefore a present sense or experience raise in our minds a prejudice against the possibility or practicableness of this duty 2. Let us consider that in some respects and in divers instances it is very feasible to love our neighbour no less than our selves We may love our neighbour truly and sincerely out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned as Saint Paul doth prescribe or according to Saint Peter's injunction from a pure heart love one another fervently and in this respect we can do no more toward our selves for truth admitteth no degrees sincerity is a pure and compleat thing exclusive of all mixture or alloy And as to external acts at least it is plain that charity toward others may reach self-self-love for we may be as serious as vigorous as industrious in acting for our neighbours good as we can be in pursuing our own designs and interests for reason easily can manage and govern external practice and common experience sheweth the matter to this extent practicable seeing that often men do employ as much diligence on the concerns of others as they can do on their own being able to doe no more than their best in either case wherefore in this respect charity may vie with selfishness and practising thus far may be a step to mount higher Also rational consideration will enable us to perform some interiour acts of charity in the highest degree for if we do but as without much difficulty we may do apply our mind to weigh the qualities
to endure pinching wants and sore distresses to taste death for every one We may ask with Saint Paul Why dost thou set at nought thy brother Is it for the lowness of his condition or for any misfortune that hath befallen him but are not the best men are not all men art not thou thy self obnoxious to the like hath not God declared that he hath a special regard to such and are not such things commonly disposed by his hand with a gracious intent Is it for meanness of parts or abilities or endowments but are not these the gifts of God absolutely at his disposal and arbitrarily distributed or preserved so that thou who art so wise in thy own conceit to day mayest by a disease or from a judgment deserved by thy pride become an Idiot to morrow have not many good and therefore many happy men wanted those things Is it for moral imperfections or blemishes for vicious habits or actual misdemeanours these indeed are the onely debasements and disparagements of a man yet do they not expunge the characters of Divinity impressed on his nature and he may be God's mercy recover from them And are not we our selves if grace do not uphold us liable to the same yea may we not if without partiality or flattery we examin our selves discern the same within us or other defects equivalent And however is not pity rather due to them than contempt whose character was it that they trusted they were righteous and despised others That the most palpable offender should not be quite despised God had a special care in his Law for that end moderating punishment and restraining the number of stripes If saith the Law the wicked man be worthy to be beaten the Judge shall cause him to lye down and to be beaten before his face according to his fault by a certain number forty stripes he may give him and not exceed lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes then thy brother should seem vile unto thee We may consider that the common things both good and bad wherein men agree are far more considerable than the peculiar things wherein they differ to be a Man is much beyond being a Lord or a Wit or a Philosopher to be a Christian doth infinitely surpass being an Emperour or a learned Clerk to be a Sinner is much worse than to be Begger or an Idiot The agreement of men is in the substance and body of things the difference is in a circumstance a fringe or a shadow about them so that we cannot despise another man without reflecting contempt on our selves who are so very like him and not considerably better than he or hardly can without arrogance pretend to be so We may therefore and reason doth require that we should value our neighbour and it is no impossible or unreasonable Precept which Saint Peter giveth us to Honour all men and with it a charitable mind will easily comply it ever will descry something valuable something honourable something amiable in our neighbour it will find somewhat of dignity in the meanest somewhat of worth in the basest somewhat hopefull in the most degenerate of men it therefore will not absolutely slight or scorn any man whatever looking on him as an abject or forlorn wretch unworthy of consideration It is indeed a point of charity to see more things estimable in others than in our selves or to be apprehensive of more defects meriting disesteem in our selves than in others and consequently in our opinion to prefer others before us according to those Apostolical Precepts Be kindly affected one toward another with brotherly love in honour preferring one another In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves Be subject one to another II. Loving our neighbour doth imply a sincere and earnest desire of his welfare and good of all kinds in due proportion for it is a property of love that it would have its object most worthy of it self and consequently that it should attain the best state whereof it is capable and persist firm therein to be fair and plump to flourish and thrive without diminution or decay this is plain to experience in respect to any other thing a horse a flower a building or any such thing which we pretend to love wherefore charity should dispose us to be thus affected to our neighbour so that we do not look upon his condition or affairs with an indifferent eye or cold heart but are much concerned for him and put forth hearty wishes for his interests we should wish him adorned with all vertue and accomplished with all worthy endowments of soul we should wish him prosperous success in all his designs and a comfortable satisfaction of his desires we should wish him with alacrity of mind to reap the fruits of his industry and to enjoy the best accommodations of his life Not formally and in complement as the mode is but really and with a cordial sense upon his undertaking any enterprize we should wish him good speed upon any prosperous success of his endeavours we should bid him joy wherever he is going whatever he is doing we should wish him peace and the presence of God with him we should tender his health his safety his quiet his reputation his wealth his prosperity in all respects but especially with peculiar ardency we should desire his final welfare and the happiness of his soul that being incomparably his chief concern Hence readily should we pour forth our prayers which are the truest expressions of good desire for the welfare of our neighbour to him who is able to work and bestow it Such was the charity of Saint Paul for his Country-men signified in those words Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved such was his love to the Philippians God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Iesus Christ and this I pray that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgment Such was Saint John ' s charity to his friend Gaius to whom he said Beloved I wish above all things that thou maist prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth Such is the charity which we are enjoined to express toward all men by praying for all men in conformity to the charity of God who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth Such is the charity we are commanded to use toward our enemies blessing those who curse us and praying for those who despitefully use us and persecute us the which was exemplified by our Lord by Saint Stephen by all the Holy Apostles III. Charity doth imply a complacence or delightfull satisfaction in the good of our neighbour this is consequent on the former property for that joy naturally doth result from
affect their amity and by obliging means to procure it Hence is that Evangelical Precept so often enjoined to us of pursuing peace with all men importing that we should desire and seek by all fair means the good will of men without which peace from them cannot subsist for if they do not love us they will be infesting us with unkind words or deeds VIII Hence also Charity disposeth to please our neighbour not onely by inoffensive but by obliging demeanour by a ready complaisance and compliance with his fashion with his humour with his desire in matters lawfull or in a way consistent with duty and discretion Such charity Saint Paul did prescribe Let every one please his neighbour for his good to edification Such he practised himself Even as I please all men in all things not seeking mine own profit and I have made my self a servant to all that I might gain the more Such was the charity of our Lord for even Christ pleased not himself He indeed did stoop to converse with sorry men in their way he came when he was invited he accepted their entertainment he from the frankness of his conversation with all sorts of persons did undergo the reproach of being a wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners It is the Genius and complexion of charity to affect nothing uncouth or singular in matters of indifferent nature to be candid not rigid in opinion to be pliable not stiff in humour to be smooth and gentle not rugged and peevish in behaviour It doth indeed not flatter not sooth not humour any man in bad things or in things very absurd and foolish it would rather chuse to displease and cross him than to abuse to delude to wrong or hurt him but excepting such cases it gladly pleaseth all men denying its own will and conceit to satisfie the pleasure and fancy of others practising that which Saint Peter injoined in that Precept be of one mind be compassionate love as brethren be pitifull be courteous or as Saint Paul might intend when he bid us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to gratifie to indulge one another IX Love of our neighbour doth imply readiness upon all occasions to do him good to promote and advance his benefit in all kinds It doth not rest in good opinions of mind and good affections of heart but from those roots doth put forth abundant fruits of real beneficence it will not be satisfied with faint desires or sluggish wishes but will be up and doing what it can for its neighbour Love is a busie and active a vigorous and sprightfull a couragious and industrious disposition of soul which will prompt a man and push him forward to undertake or undergo any thing to endure pains to encounter dangers to surmount difficulties for the good of its object Such is true charity it will dispose us to love as Saint John prescribeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in work and in truth not onely in mental desire but in effectual performance not onely in verbal pretence but in real effect Hence charity will render a man a General benefactour in all matters upon all occasions affording to his neighbour all kinds of assistance and relief according to his neighbours need and his own ability It will make him a bountifull dispenser of his goods to the poor a comforter of the afflicted a visiter of the sick an instructour of the ignorant an adviser of the doubtfull a protectour of the oppressed a hospitable entertainer of strangers a reconciler of differences an intercessour for offenders an advocate of those who need defence a succourer of all that want help The practice of Job describeth its nature I saith he delivered the poor that cried and the fatherless and him that had none to help him The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widows heart to sing for joy I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame I was a father to the poor and the cause which I knew not I searched out And I brake the jaws of the wicked and plucked the spoil out of his teeth If I have held the poor from their desire or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail Or have eaten my morsel my self alone and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof If I have seen any perish for want of cloathing or any poor without covering The stranger did not lodge in the street but I opened my doors to the traveller Such is a charitable man the Sun is not more liberal of his light and warmth than he is of beneficial influence He doth not spare his substance being rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate And where his estate faileth yet the contribution of his endeavour will not be wanting he will be ready to draw and press others to beneficence so doing good not onely according to his power but in a manner beyond it making the ability of others to supply his own weakness and being liberal with their wealth The description of Cimon is a good character of a charitable man Nulli fides ejus nulli opera nulli res familiaris defuit Thus may the poorest men be great benefactours so the poor Apostles who had nothing yet did enrich many not onely in spiritual treasure but taking care for supply of the poor by their precepts and moving exhortations and he that had not where to lay his head was the most bountifull person that ever was for our sake he became poor that we by his poverty might be made rich In all kinds charity disposeth to further our neighbours good but especially in the concerns of his soul the which as incomparably they do surpass all others so it is the truest and noblest charity to promote them It will incline us to draw forth our soul to the hungry and to satisfie the afflicted soul to bring the poor that are cast out to our house to cover the naked to loose the bands of wickedness to undoe the heavy burthens to let the oppressed go free to break every yoke to supply any corporal indigency to relieve any temporal distress but especially it will induce to make provision for the soul to relieve the spiritual needs of our neighbour by affording him good instruction and taking care that he be informed in his duty or conducted in his way to happiness by admonition and exhortation quickning encouraging provoking spurring him to good works by resolving him in his doubts and comforting him in his troubles of conscience lifting up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees by seasonable and prudent reproof by all ways serving to convert him from the errour of his way and so saving a soul from death and hiding a multitude of sins which is the
be contentious so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports we have no such custom nor the Churches of God But yet much more is peaceable conversation impeached by disobedience to established Laws those great bulwarks of Society fences of Order and supports of Peace which he that refuses to obey is so far from living peaceably with all men that he may reasonably be presumed unwilling to have peace with any man since in a manner he defies all mankind vilifies its most solemn Judgments endeavours to dissolve those sacred bands by which its union is conteined and to subvert the onely foundations of publick tranquillity He declares himself either to affect an universal tyranny over or an abhorrency from society with other men to be unwilling to live with them upon equal terms or to submit to any fair arbitration to desire that strifes should be endless and controversies never decided who declines the verdict of Law the most solemn issue of deliberate advice proceeding from the most honourable most wise most worthy and select persons and involving in it the consent of the whole Commonwealth Saint Paul directing that prayers should be made for Princes and those in Authority assigns the reason that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty And certainly if we are to pray for we are also obliged to obey them in order to the same end which to do is absolutely in our power and more immediately requisite to that purpose For as no peace can be preserved without the influence of authority so no authority can subsist without obedience to its sanctions He that is desirous to enjoy the privileges of this happy estate of peace must in reason be content to perform the Duties injoined and bear the common burthens imposed by those who are the protectours of it Thus as plainly as I could have I described what it is to live peaceably and what the means are that principally conduce thereto I should now proceed to consider the Object of the Duty and the Reasons why it respects all men As also whence it comes that sometimes we may fail in our endeavour of attaining this desirable condition And lastly to propound some Inducements persuasive of its practice But I must not farther encroach on your patience and shall therefore reserve these things to the next opportunity Now The peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord and the blessing of God Almighty the Father Son and Holy Ghost be among you and remain with you always Amen The Eighth Sermon ROMANS 12. 18. If it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men I Have very lately considered what it is to live peaceably and what are the Duties included therein and what Means conduce thereto II. I proceed now to consider the Object thereof and why the duty of living peaceably extends to all men that is why we are bound to bear good-will and doe good offices and shew civil respects to all men and to endeavour that all men reciprocally be well affected toward us For it might with some colour of reason be objected and said Why should I be obliged heartily to love those that desperately hate me to treat them kindly that use me despitefully to help them that would hinder me to relieve them that would plunge me into utter distress to comfort them that delight in my affliction to be respective to and tender of their reputation who despise defame and reproach me to be indulgent and favourable to them who are harsh and rigorous in their dealings with me to spare and pardon them who with implacable malice persecute me why should I seek their friendship who disdainfully reject mine why prize their favour who scorn mine why strive to please them who purposely offend me or why should I have any regard to men void of all faith goodness or desert And most of all why should I be bound to maintain amicable correspondence with those who are professed enemies to piety and vertue who oppugn truth and disturb peace and countenance vice errour and faction How can any love consent of mind or communion of good offices intercede between persons so contrarily disposed I answer they may and ought and that because the obligation to these ordinary performances is not grounded upon any peculiar respects special qualifications or singular actions of men which are contingent and variable but upon the indefectible score of common humanity We owe them as the Philosopher alledged when he dispensed his alms to an unworthy person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to the men but to humane nature resident in them There be indeed divers other sorts of love in nature and object more restrained built upon narrower foundations and requiring more extraordinary acts of duty and respect not competent to all men as a love of friendship founded upon long acquaintance sutableness of disposition and frequent exchanges of mutual kindness a love of gratitude due to the reception of valuable benefits a love of esteem belonging to persons endued with worth and vertue a love of relation resulting from kindred affinity neighbourhood and other common engagements But the love of benevolence which is precedent to these and more deeply rooted in nature more ancient more unconfined and more immutable and the duties mentioned consequent on it are grounded upon the natural constitution necessary properties and unalterable condition of humanity and are upon several accompts due thereto 1. Upon account of universal cognation agreement and similitude of nature For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All men naturally are of kinn and friends to each other saith Aristotle Et fratres etiam vestri sumus jure naturae matris unius We are also your brethren in the right of nature our common mother said Tertullian of old in the name of the Christians to the Heathens We are but several streams issuing from one primitive source several branches sprouting from the same stock several stones hewed out of the same quarry One substance by miraculous efficacy of the divine benediction diffused and multiplied One element affords us matter and one fire actuates it kindled at first by the breath of God One bloud flows in all our veines one nourishment repairs our decayed bodies and one common aire refreshes our languishing spirits We are cohabitants of the same earth and fellow-citizens of the same great Common-wealth Vnam Remp. omnium agnoscimus mundum said the forementioned Apologist for Christianity We were all fashioned according to the same original Idea resembling God our common father all endowed with the same faculties inclinations and affections all conspire in the essential and more notable ingredients of our constitution and are onely distinguished by some accidental inconsiderable circumstances of age place colour stature fortune and the like in which we differ as much from
they impeach And so S. Paul warns us not to mingle or consort not to diet or common 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with men of a dissolute and disorderly conversation And to mark them which cause seditions and scandals contrary to Christian doctrine and to shun or decline them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to repudiate deprecate the familiarity of Hereticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And S. John forbids us to wish joy or to allow the ordinary respects of civil salutation to Apostates and Impostours lest by such demonstration of favour we communicate with them in their wicked works None of which Precepts are intended to interdict to us or to disoblige us from bearing real good-will or dispensing needfull benefits to any but to deter us from yielding any signal countenance to vice and impiety and to excite us to declare such dislike and detestation of those heinous enormities as may confer to the reclaiming of these and prevent the seduction of others So Saint Paul expresly 2 Thess. 3. 14. But if any man obeyeth not our injunction by epistle do not consort with him that he may by shame be reclaimed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And account him not an enemy but admonish him as a brother Nor ought lastly the love of peace and desire of friendly correspondence with any men avert us from an honest zeal proportionable to our abilities and opportunities of promoting the concernments of truth and goodness though against powerfull and dangerous opposition I say an honest zeal meaning thereby not that blind heady passion or inflammation of spirit transporting men beyond the bounds of reason and discretion upon some superficially plausible pretences to violent and irregular practices but a considerate and steady resolution of mind effectually animating a man by warrantable and decent means vigorously to prosecute commendable designs like that S. Jude mentions of striving earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints For this zeal may be very consistent with yea greatly conducible to the designs of peace And 't is not a drousiness a slack remissness a heartless diffidence or a cowardly flinching from the face of danger and opposition we discourse about or plead for but a wise and wary declining the occasions of needless and unprofitable disturbance to our selves and others To conclude this point which if time would have permitted I should have handled more fully and distinctly though to preserve peace and purchase the good-will of men we may and ought to quit much of our private interest and satisfaction yet ought we not to sacrifice to them what is not our own nor committed absolutely to our disposal and which in value incomparably transcends them the maintenance of truth the advancement of justice the practice of vertue the quiet of our conscience the favour of Almighty God And if for being dutifull to God and faithfull to our selves in these particulars any men will hate vex and despite us frustrate our desires and defeat our purposes of living peaceably with all men in this world we may comfort our selves in the enjoyment of eternal peace and satisfaction of mind in the assurance of the divine favour in the hopes of eternal rest and tranquillity in the world to come Now briefly to induce us to the practice of this duty of living peaceably we may consider 1. How good and pleasant a thing it is as David saith for brethren and so we are all at least by nature to live together in unity How that as Solomon saith better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith then a house full of sacrifices with strife How delicious that conversation is which is accompanied with a mutual confidence freedom courtesy and complacence how calm the mind how composed and affections how serene the countenance how melodious the voice how sweet the sleep how contentfull the whole life is of him that neither deviseth mischief against others nor suspects any to be contrived against himself and contrariwise how ingratefull and loathsom a thing it is to abide in a state of enmity wrath dissension having the thoughts distracted with solicitous care anxious suspicion envious regret the heart boiling with choler the face overclouded with discontent the tongue jarring and out of tune the ears filled with discordant noises of contradiction clamour and reproach the whole frame of body and soul distempered and disturbed with the worst of passions How much more comfortable it is to walk in smooth and even paths then to wander in rugged ways overgrown with briars obstructed with rubs and beset with snares to sail steadily in a quiet then to be tost in a tempestuous Sea to behold the lovely face of Heaven smiling with a chearfull serenity then to see it frowning with clouds or raging with storms to hear harmonious consents then dissonant janglings to see objects correspondent in gracefull symmetry then lying disorderly in confused heaps to be in health and have the natural humours consent in moderate temper then as it happens in diseases agitated with tumultuous commotions How all senses and faculties of man unanimously rejoyce in those emblems of peace order harmony and proportion Yea how nature universally delights in a quiet stability or undisturbed progress of motion the beauty strength and vigour of every thing requires a concurrence of force cooperation and contribution of help all things thrive and flourish by communicating reciprocal aid and the world subsists by a friendly conspiracy of its parts and especially that political society of men chiefly aims at peace as its end depends on it as its cause relies on it as its support How much a peacefull state resembles Heaven into which neither complaint pain nor clamour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Apocalypse do ever enter but blessed souls converse together in perfect love and in perpetual concord and how a condition of enmity represents the state of Hell that black and dismal Region of dark hatred fiery wrath and horrible tumult How like a paradise the world would be flourishing in joy and rest if men would chearfully conspire in affection and helpfully contribute to each others content and how like a savage wilderness now it is when like wild beasts they vex and persecute worry and devour each other How not only Philosophy hath placed the supreme pitch of happiness in a calmness of mind and tranquillity of life void of care and trouble of irregular passions and perturbations but that Holy Scripture it self in that one term of peace most usually comprehends all joy and content all felicity and prosperity so that the heavenly consort of Angels when they agree most highly to bless and to wish the greatest happiness to mankind could not better express their sense then by saying Be on earth peace and good-will among men 2. That as nothing is more sweet and delightfull so nothing more comely and agreeable to humane nature