himself For what saith our Saviour 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 As if he should have said Get thee gon and be Honest before thâ—…u talk'st of being Godly Now together with this compare S. Iohn's way of reckoning In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his Brother And we know that we have passed from Death unto Life because we love the Brethren Nor does our Saviour say thus by this shall all men know ye are my Disciples if they see ye love God but by this they shall know it is ye love one another Because our love of one another does presuppose we love God which 't is impossible that we do in case we love not one another For he that hateth his Brother is a Murderer and abideth in Death 1 John 3. 14 15. Thus we see how this Scripture is profitable for Doctrin Sect. 3. And as for Doctrin so also for Reproof Because it serves to convince us of the small proportion of Christianity which is to be found amongst men who are commonly call'd Christians How much there is of the word and how little of the thing When the son of man cometh shall he find Faith on the Earth Yes store of that Faith which will ever be common to men with Devils But when the Son of man cometh shall he find Iustice shall he find Mercy shall he find Love upon the Earth shall he find that Faith which worketh by Love and which worketh by such a Love as is the mother of Obedience and the mother of such obedience as is impartially due to the Law of Christ Alas how frequent a thing is it for Christians to persecute their fellow-Christians and then to reckon it as the character of their Discipleship under Christ As if they read the Text backwards or understood it by an Antiphrasis supposing Christ had meant thus By this shall all men know ye are my Disciples if ye Hate one another It is a Crime the more enormous to hate and persecute a Neighbour under colour of Devotion and zeal to God because it breaks the Commandments against each other For if the same God who saith Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart does also say in the same instant Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self It cannot but follow that to persecute or hate a Neighbor in pretense of affection and zeal to God is to take up the Second Table in anger and to dash it in pieces against the first And what is that in effect but to make the Law it s own Transgressor The character of a Christian recommended here to us by Christ himself is not certainly such a praedatorie and ravenous love of one another as was that of the Scribes and Pharisees wherewith they lov'd widdows Houses so far forth as to devour them and eat them up Nor such a cruel kind of love as that of the Canibals in Herodotus who glutted themselves with the flesh of men because they lov'd it as well as Ven'son For when Professors are transported with such an unnatural kind of love as gives them an appetite to bite and devour each other as the Apostle speaks to the Ephesians or to eat up God's people as if they would eat Bread as the Psalmist thought fit to phrase it it hath a tendency to nothing but mutual Ruin No the note of distinction whereby to know a sincere and a solid Christian is such a divine kind of love as tends to Unity and Peace and so by a consequence unavoidable to mutual safety and preservation If we are rooted and grounded in such a love to one another as that of Christ unto us all we shall be known by the fruit we bear to have been grafted into him who is indeed the true vine We shall not only do to no man what we would that no man should do to us which was the Motto an Heathen Prince would needs have carved in all his Plate But what we wish that all men would do to us we shall earnestly endeavour to do to all men we shall love them for God's sake whom for their own sakes we cannot love If we are mearly weak brethren we shall manifest by our weakness we are not wilful And if strong we shall bear the Infirmities of the weak We shall walk in wisdom towards them that are without I mean the Enemies of Christ both Iewes and Gentiles that we may neither be in danger of being corrupted by their secular and sensual baits nor heighten their prejudice to the Gospel by any matter of scandal in our converse Will it not be a very sad and a shameful thing if Iewes and Gentiles shall rise in judgment against a great part of Christendom whilst Christendom shall justifie both Iewes and Gentiles First for the Jews they are so much at unity amongst themselves that however covetous in their particulars and however cruel to us Christians yet they are kind to one another and full of good works too They suffer not the needy to go without his relief nor the Captive without his ransom Nay the Esseni amongst the Jewes had all things in common and living Virgins themselves bestow'd their cost and their care in breeding other solks children This was one of the Jewish Maximes as the most elegant of their Writers hath set it down that Godliness and Honesty or the love of God and the love of men are a kind of Twin-sisters which every Creature is to espowse who is not so wedded to the world as to admit of a Divorce from the caelestial Bride-groom 'T was never allow'd unto the Jewes to abhor an Edomite or an Egyptian or to count any man as an Enemy although he were scaling the City-walls till he had absolutely refus'd their solemn offers of Reconcilement Then secondly for the Gentiles Homer describes the love of Enemies The Pythagoreans gave it in precept and Antius Restio's brave servant reduc't the doctrin into practice Whilst some of the Heathens do love their Enemies were it not well if some Christians would love their Friends What a scandal is it at this day to the Disciples of Mahomet that grand Impostor that the Spirit of Division should seem to reign more amongst Christians than amongst them Nay are there not diverse great Potentates who profess to be the followers and friends of Christ and yet are ready at any rate to buy peace of the Turk to the end they may break it with one another Or not to go so far from home how little is there of Christianity except the syllables and the sound even in
will receive us with an Euge well don good and faithful servants What heart has a servant to do his work when he neither loves the Master nor has pleasure in his Commands And yet what hope has a servant to earn his wages who for want of affection neglects his work It is therefore for our Interest the most that may be to love our Saviour and our Prince to whom it belongs to reward or punish and so to love him as to keep his Commandments Sect. 5. But suppose it were not useful to love this Saviour and that nothing were to be got by being loyal to this Prince yet he being so lovely as well as great that whilst he awes us with his Commands he seeks to melt us with his Intreaties methinks we should be so charm'd as still to love him only to love him And shall we niggardly put him off with such a mercenary love as with which Diana's Silver-smiths did love their Idol or as the Daughters of the Horse-leech are wont to love Blood rather because we live and thrive by the love we bear him than because he is so lovely as to make us dy for him with ease and pleasure Those words of Iob were the most suitable to a Lover although he kill me yet will I trust in him And as in those words of Iob speaking them heartily as he did consisted the Triumph of his Faith to wit that Faith which overcometh the world So for us to be able to say as heartily of Christ that we would love him though he should hate us This alone would be of force to shew the Triumph of our Affection And sure we ought to love our Saviour seeing pure love indeed hath eyes behind it rather because he hath already deserv'd our love than to the mercenary end that he may reward it Indeed 't is most for our Interest as well as honour to love him simply for what he is and not for what he brings with him by way of Dowry because in the conduct of our love the less we look on our Advantage the more advantageous our love will be Sect. 6. I confess this is more than He does rigidly exact Because he is an High Priest who has a feeling of our Infirmities and as in his Person he once did bear them so for that very reason he does the rather with them He does not look for such a perfect and disinteressed love as stands in need of no helps for its Improvement or support Carry's not water in the one hand wherewith to extinguish the Flames of Hell nor a Firebrand in the other whereby to burn up the Ioys of Heaven like the woman so met by Bishop Ivo in the streets to the end that we may love him the more sincerely without fear of the first and without hope of the second He knows that Hell is very useful for the driving us off from the love of Evil and that Heaven is as useful for the drawing up our love to the Soveraign Good And as he desires that we will love him upon any rational Terms So would he have our love cherisht by any means to be imagin'd even the hope of Reward in case we do and fear of Punishment if we do not He would have us to reflect on our own advantage and afford him some love for the love we bear unto our selves Sect. 7. 'T is true indeed if we consider that in Him is all goodness and that goodness is Beauty in its Perfection and that Beauty is not the Common but the more proper object of Love as Colours are of sight and Sounds of hearing And that Beauty in its Perfection is Loves last object and resort the very Center wherein it rests and wherein when it rests it cannot possibly go astray all extravagance of desire being quite lost into Fruition and by consequence that there is nothing more natural to a Christian than to place his whole Love upon Jesus Christ if I say we consider such things as these it may be matter of some Amazement how a true member of Christ can make a shift not to love him and not to love him for Himself too And yet we see by Christ himself 't is but indefinitely propos'd it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if ye love me Though Jesus Christ is the Head and we do hope we are his members and 't is natural for the members to love the head though Jesus Christ is the Vine and we conceive we are the Branches and 't is natural for the Branches to cleave in love unto the vine yet it seems a thing questionable whether we love him or love him not And since 't is impossible for a true member not to love its own Head we may know by this Token whether we are members of Christ or not S. Paul saith expresly that as many as are members of Jesus Christ are members of his Body his Flesh and Bone and that no man yet did ever hate his own Flesh. So that if it is a question whether or no we love our Saviour it must be also another question whether or no we are his members Whether members of his mystical or 〈◊〉 of his visible Church only whether genuine and natural or counterfeit Branches of the Vine And herein lyes the sadness of our condition so far forth as we fail in our love to Christ that if we suspect we are not his members we can yet be so well satisfied or unconcern'd in our unhappiness as not to take any great thought what shall happen to us hereafter and if we think we are his members that we can seek out occasions of slacking our love towards a Saviour in loving whom we must confess our endless happiness does consist Sect. 8. In the beholding of an Interlude or in the reading of a Romance men will be often so affected with the lively representation of some incomparable Lover and of his Admirable sufferings for the dear object of his Love as to let fall Tears at the Solemnity Now what other reason can be given why men should thus be real Lovers of an Imaginary vertue and unfeignedly concern'd in another man's Fiction whilst they know and consider 't is but a Fiction but that it is in the nature of man as man before he degenerates into a Brute both to love the vertuous and to compassionate the miserable To espouse the cause of the best-deserving and to side with Innocence in her Afflictions From whence it follows unavoidably that he who cannot love goodness without any reference to himself his private Interesses and ends hath deerly bought that disability which he could never have got at a lower rate than that of parting with his Humanity and plucking up by the Root those Flowers of Paradise which the God of good nature had planted in him And if these things are so Lord how strange is the Impiety and how mysterious the unhappiness to be less affected with the Beauty and
effect of discharging his duty and so 't is our duty to be happy and therefore an happiness to do our Duty The summ of our duty towards our Neighbour is to love him as our selves and the effect of this duty is full contentment and satisfaction For we are neighbours unto all for whom Christ dyed and he dyed for our enemies as well as Friends and if we love all the world for which Christ dyed with such a singleness of love as we love our selves with we cannot fail of observing that other Precept of our Saviour Matth. 7. 12. which is the doing unto others as we would that others should do to us And then by a consequence unavoidable we shall not covet another mans goods because we would not that another should covet ours And coveting nothing that is anothers we cannot choose but be satisfied and contented with our own And in contentment or satisfaction which are Synonymous it will be granted by all the world that real happiness does consist Sect. 20. Now if the loving of one another even as Christ hath loved us and as our selves do love our selves does infer our loving God with all our heart as S. Iohn does clearly intimate 1 Ioh. 4. 20. And if the Commandments of our Lord do amount all to this that we love one another with such a love as our Lord does clearly intimate in the 13 14 15 and 17. chapters of S. Iohn's Gospel then we discern the great reason of those expressions of S. Paul He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law And all the law is fulfilled in this one word thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And if these things are so then all the moral law of Moses which is withal the law of Christ does make it our Duty to be content and by consequence to be happy and by consequence an happiness to do our Duty For he that saith in plain terms thou shalt not only not rob or defraud thy neighbour of his life his wife his goods or his good name but thou shalt also not coveâ—… any thing that is anothers doth clearly say in effect and substance thou shalt be satisfied with thine own thou shalt not be in any want of the things without but shalt have happiness within thee all thy desires shall be fulfill'd thou shalt have absolute contentment and satisfaction and the Angels of Heaven can have no more This is the precept which I command and this the Duty thou art obliged to perform Thou shalt not covet what is not thine that is to say in other words Thou shalt be as happy as I would have thee And thus at last I have proceeded unto the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or thing proposed to be prov'd Sect. 21. Another way whereby to prove it will be to argue from that Trichotomie in the 6. chapt of Micah at the 8. verse where the whole Body of the Commandments is compendiously divided into these three members to do Iustice to love Mercy and to walk humbly with our God The first of which bestows upon us a full Serenity of mind the most desirable felicity of being satisfied with our selves and so by consequence it yields us the greatest pleasure The second is not only to make our Donor to become our Debtor but to lend him our Riches upon Increase nor that for ten in the hundred but for an hundred-fold the Principal Mat. 19. 20. and by consequence it yields us the greatest gain The third is that which speaks us masters of our selves by speaking us servants to a master whose service is not only Freedom but Empire too Illi servire est regnare saith Espensaeus And giving us the advantage of that most honourable subjection which in Tacitus his judgment does place the Subjects above their Prince makes us Favorites in the Court of the King of Heaven and by consequence it yields the greatest Honour So that unless we are professedly Platonick Lovers of Disobedience all our Duties are conformable to the very unruliest of our Desires The doing of Iustice does comply with our Sensuality the loving of Mercy with our Avarice and to walk humbly with our God is very agreeable to our Ambition Sect. 22. Lest this should seem at first hearing to be but a phansiful way of arguing I shall shew it once more by a clearer light As for the first the doing of Iustice it entertains its entertainers with peace of Conscience which in the wise man's Judgment is a continual Feast It is so acceptable and pleasant to reflect in a mans Thoughts upon his having don well having wronged no man defrauded no man but dealt righteously with all that any man whose understanding hath not quite lost its Tast may make as pleasant a meal on a mess of Honesty I speak of likeness and not equality as if he had din'd that day in Paradise and taken his Supper in Heaven it self Sect. 23. The second the loving of Mercy is the giving our selves a Right to what we have by our parting with the possession For non videtur cujusquam id esse quod casu auferri potest saith Caius the Lawyer Nothing is properly our own which can possibly cease to be so by being entrusted unto a Treasurie where rust and moth can corrupt or where thieves break through and steal From whence it follows that 't is the Thrift if not the Avarice of a merciful man to make Heaven his Coffer and to Inventory his Goods by the number of the persons to whom he hath been a Benefactor For in propriety of speech we are worth no more than we have wisely given away And that the parting with our possession is no infringing of our Right appears not only by Gods but Iustinians Law For eum habere dicimus qui Rei dominus est aeque ac eum qui Rem tenet saith Ulpian And this Rule of the Civilians you may interpret out of S. Paul For when saith he we are poor by making many rich we are as having nothing and yet possessing all things Sect. 24. Lastly for the Third the walking humbly with our God it is not only the safest but noblest temper not only the most christian but the most hansome quality And thence is call'd by S. Peter not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is profitable or gainful in relation to God of whom it looks for its Reward but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too that is hansome or comly in the sight of men 1 Pet. 3. 4. Where having said wherein comliness does but negatively consist not in the plaiting of the hair or putting on of our apparel he proceeds to inform us wherein it positively consists to wit in the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the Ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit 'T is this that makes us like the Queens Daughter all glorious within And therefore when Celsus upbraided Origen with that degenerous modesty of the Christians for
so it was in his Accompt their withdrawing themselves from publick Business and refusing the honours of the Court or the Commonwealth Origen answers that they did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as keeping themselves for a diviner and a more honourable employment For seeing Christ was the Master whom 't was their Pride and their Glory and their Happiness to serve they were most ambitious of that Quality which made them fittest for their obedience Sect. 25. Thus have I shew'd in some particulars how the Goodness of every Action is very sufficient for the Reward too And how obedience to the Commandments were it not itself an abundant Recompense hath enough of Heaven in it to give us happiness without one In so much that our Saviour might well have said not if ye love me but If ye love your own selves keep my Commandments even because the keeping of them can add no otherwise to His than as it makes for Our advantage And having hitherto consider'd our Saviours Precept touching the keeping of his Commandments as the greatest expression of his love to us I am next to consider the keeping of them as the greatest expression of ours to Him And so by consequence am to proceed to the third Inference I propos'd CHAP. III. That as the greatest expression of Christ's Love to us is his taking it as a kindness that we be kind unto ourselves so the greatest expression of ours to him is to do those things which he enjoyn's us Sect. 1. ANd sure the Truth of this Inference will not need much labour to make it evident For all expressions of our Love however many or great in point of number or degree are comprehensively reducible unto one of these Heads either Formal or Real In shew or in substance in word or deed And in respect of these two our Blessed Saviour does distinguish betwixt his flatterers and his Friends We have an example of the former Luke 6. 46. Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things that I say We have an example of the later 1 Iohn 15. 14. Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you And an example of both together Mat. 21. 28 29 30 31. Where the servant that said he would not go but went is more justified than the other who said he would but went not Our Saviour's flatterers then are they who make Profession of their Love who give him very good words who in their Prayers and Predications breath out nothing less than kindness and Admiration but not proceeding any farther than the bare wording and professing and breathing out of their Affection they cannot challenge a better character than that they love him from the teeth outwards and this because their Expressions are meerly verbal Whereas the Friends of Christ are they who add the Proof of Love to the due Profession study to live by his Example and in obedience to his Commands espowse a Fellowship with his Death and a conformity to his Sufferings are rather for Christ though at the Barr than for a Pilate though on the Bench very much rather for the oppressed than for the persecuting side Which evinceth that their Love must needs be Real and from the Heart because they are sturdily at the cost and the pains to prove it Sect. 2. That this indeed is the difference betwixt the flatterers and Friends of Christ as betwixt a meer verbal and Real Love we have a full confirmation from the words of S. Iohn My little children saith he Let us not love in word neither in Tongue but in Deed and in Truth That is let our Love be without dissimulation let it be legible in our Actions not only audible in our Voice Let us demonstrate our love to Christ by shewing our love unto his Members Nor that by speaking them fair and paying Civility to persons But by opening the Bowels of our compassion to their needs S. Iames in his Epistle hath set it out to the life If a brother or sister saith he be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto him depart in peace be ye warmed and filled but ye give him not those things which are needful to the Body what doth it profit There we have in S. Iames by way of Instance what we found in S. Iohn by way of Advice and Exhortation For he that saith go in Peace be ye Warm or full he expressly is the man that loves in word and in tongue But he that gives those things which are needful to the Body he is properly the man that loves in Deed and in Truth Sect. 3. Now that which is the greatest proof of our Love to Christs Members does carry with it the greatest Proof of our Love to Christ. Who what is don unto his Members does take as don unto Himself He that persecutes and plunders his Fellow-Christian does persecute and plunder his Master Christ. And Christ hath said what he will say to such as these in the Day of Judgment In as much as ye have don it unto one of the least of these ye have don it unto me Mat. 25. 40. So that the reason is very evident why S. Paul sets out our Love as the fulfilling of the Law And summ's up all the Commandments into this one Precept Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Because the Proof of our obedience to the Commandments of the Law is our doing unto others in Acts of Justice and works of Mercy as we would that others should do to us In a word so very strict is the Connexion betwixt the Love we have to God and our love to one another as well as betwixt the Love of Both and the keeping of the Commandments that S. Iohn sets them down as the Marks and Tokens of one another 1 Iohn 5. 1 2 3. The Love of our Neighbour is a sign of our Love to God v. 1. Our Love to God is a sign that we love our Neighbour v. 2. And our keeping his Commandments is the clearest Diagnostick and Sign of Both. v. 3. Sect. 4. To make it yet more apparent that our Obedience is the best Argument and highest Expression of our Love let us compare the way of reckoning by our Saviour in the Text with that most general way of reckoning which we observe amongst our selves Do we not ever reckon Him the lovingst Subject to his Soveraign whom we find the most exact in keeping the Oath of his Allegiance And who in reverence to his Loyalty despiseth his Livelihood and his Life too Do we not worthily reckon Him the lovingst Son unto his Parents who obey's them in all things without Exception And conforms to their will however cross unto his own Do we not justly reckon Him the lovingst Servant to his Master who goes as soon as he is sent and comes as soon as he is call'd and does exactly as he is bid And does not our Saviour in the Text take the
very same measure of our Affection Does he not send us to our obedience as the manifestation of our Love He does not say If ye love me believe the Truth of my Promises and strongly rely upon my Merits Be sure to honour me with your lipps and call your selves by my Name But If ye love me do the things that I say If ye love me perform my Will If ye love me keep my Commandments Men may talk what they please of their Love to Christ and praise themselves as they do Him as far as words and phrases come to But if they are Lovers of the World and make it their Business to get its Favour if they either defraud or persecute and seek to build their own Greatness upon the Ruins of other men if they are Servers of the Times and lick themselves for that Cause into every shape and have mens persons in admiration because of Advantage they are as far from loving Christ as from keeping his Commandments And so they are as distant from it as Sincerity is from Dissimulation Which may be farther made appear by the Rule of contraries For Sect. 5. That must needs be granted to us as the greatest Expression of our Love the contrary to which is the greatest expression of our Hatred And suppose we hated Christ as much as a Iulian or a Iew could we do him a greater Injury than that of breaking his Commandments we cannot whip him at a post or nail him again unto a cross or thrust a Launce into his Side for which we are not thankworthy because we cannot His Body being out of our reach and lifted up above our malice at the right hand of God But that which is dearest to him on earth is the whole Body of his Commandments Which whosoever breaks wilfully would be as ready to break his bones too had he but Power and Opportunity as well for the one as for the other His Commandments at the worst can be but voluntarily broken And the Devil himself can do no more And yet how many are call'd Christians who do no less Now what are all his Commandments but Exhibitions of his Will And therefore to violate the former what less can it be than to make Head against the later And sure when Christians are Antichristians by living in absolute opposition to the declared will of Christ they do not only labour to put him privately to the Blush but they paradigmatize him and cast a publick disgrace upon him or in the words of the Apostle they even tread him under their feet and put him to an open shame And this being clearly the greatest expression of their Hatred 't is plain the contrary to This is the greatest expression of their Love Sect. 6. Shall I then give you the character of one that truely Loves Christ that we may judge of our selves in relation to him The truest character I can give him is briefly this He who does not so profess and own the Godhead of Christ in words as to deny it in his works with the antient Gnosticks he who does not fall down and worship the Idols and Images of opinion which either Haeresy or Schism would have ingraven within his Head he who takes not his name in vain either by preaching for a pretence or by the Hypocrisy of his Prayers He who breaks not the Sabbath by his preferring Acts of Sacrifice to works of Mercy or by the cheap and easy way of appearing Righteous unto men He who honoureth his parents both publick and private Ecclesiastical and Civil and cannot swallow the least Rebellion though in pretence of the greatest liberty He who commits not any Murder under pretense of an Holy war but is so very far from that as not to be angry with his Neighbour without a just cause and an equal measure he who commits not an Adulterie no not so much as in his eye nor admits of any whoredom with his Inventions He who neither screws himself into another mans Right by secret Fraud nor breaks in upon it by open violence But chooses rather to be defrauded and tamely delivers up his Coat to him that takes his Cloak from him He who instead of being an anxious heaper up against hereafter contents himself with his daily bread and trusts Providence for the morrow He who does not smite his Neighbour no not so much as with the Tongue does not invade his Neighbours Goods no not so much as in his wish but does in all things to others as he would that others should do to him 't is he that truly loves Christ because 't is he that truly keepeth his Commandments Sect. 7. But here perhaps an Antinomian may thus object If the case does stand thus that none can truly love Christ who do not keep his Commandments and that his Friends are they alone who do impartially perform WHATSOEVER he does Command them to use the words of Christ himself Ioh. 15. 14. None by consequence are the Friends and the true lovers of Christ but such an irrational sort of Creatures as Wind and Water For whilst the best men on earth are a kind of Rebels either by doing what he forbids or by omitting what he requires These irrational things are doing WHATSOEVER he Commands them We know the Waters at his Command did very readily drown the world and as readily at his Command did they retreat into their Channels At his Command they stood up and made a Wall of Defence on either side of his People Israel yet at his contrary Command too they over-ran and swallow'd up the Aegyptian Host. When he said unto the Wind which threatned an Hurrican in the sea Peace be still whereupon the wind ceased and there was a great calm Mar. 4. 39. What manner of man is this said his Disciples in a Fright that even the wind and the sea obey him v. 41. Sect. 8. The Answer to this is extreamly obvious For Christ directed those words Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you and if ye love me keep my Commandments to Creatures capable of Friendship because indued with a principle of choice and Reason Not only subjects of a natural but of a voluntary obedience an obedience sweetly streaming from the generous Fountains of Love and Gratitude But to the Wind and the Sea he could not speak in such language Because however they were punctual in whatsoever he did command them yet it was not out of choice but out of meer Necessitation And so their punctual obedience was but an Argument of their weakness 'T is true indeed that in respect of our Saviours speaking unto the sea with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peace be still we may by a figure at least aver he gave it a Law or a Commandment And in as much as that sea did do exactly as he had bid it we may figuratively call it the sea 's obedience But in as much as our blessed Saviour did bring to
Shall we convert that noble liberty which he hath given us into looseness And take occasion to be Rebellious from His leaving us to be free Shall we so very ill requite him for his great Favour and Partiality as to become the very worst of all his Creatures under Heaven because He made us the very best Methinks it should melt us into Obedience that God is pleas'd to deal with us as noble Creatures as Creatures capable of Friendship as Creatures made of the most liberal and most ingenuous Constitutions That he is pleased to persuade where he hath power to Compel and so far forth to command us as still to leave us Free-men That he is pleas'd to speak to us as here he does not in the stile of an absolute Soveraign If ye cannot resist me nor in the stile of an Angry Iudge If ye stand in fear of me but rather in the stile of a zealous Bridegroom If ye love me keep my Commandments This is most for our Glory as well as His that we be not only punctual but cheerful also in our duties and that we give him our Obedience as the natural Issue of our Love It being a bravery of Devotion and a generous nobleness of Spirit to be afraid of Disobedience to the Lord Jesus Christ not so much because a Iudg able to terrifie and drive us from our Corruptions as because he is a Saviour who rather draws us to himself by the Bands of Love But now 't is time that I proceed to another Emphasis of the words from whence will arise another Inference That having shew'd how our Obedience is the greatest Expression of our Love I may prove it in the next place an unavoidable Effect too And that as it appears already to be the best and the most solid so it may also be found to be the most Inseparable instance of our Affection CHAP. IV. Of Love and Obedience in a Christian as two inseparable Companions every whit as inseparable as the Cause and the Effect or whatsoever else they are whereof the one doth of necessity infer the other Sect. 1. AND first because there is a Fallacy which many impose upon themselves whilst they think it as possible to love their Saviour without the keeping of his Commandments as to know or apprehend him without the keeping of his Commandments I shall begin with the great Difference betwixt the two natures of Love and Knowledge The end of Knowledge is to possess that which is True but the end of Love is to possess that which is Good Knowledge is an act of the Understanding but Love a motion of the Appetite Knowledge is seated in the Head but Love especially in the Heart Both are possessed of their objects by way of union but the union of Knowledge seems meerly passive as being made in the understanding which being possest of its object is quite at Rest. Whereas the union of Love is wholly Active as being made in the Appetite and by consequence in the Heart which being possessed of its object by an Intentional union is so very far from resting content with That that it employs every Faculty to gain the object that is belov'd not only by an intentional but real union So great and wide is the difference 'twixt Love and Knowledge that knowledge is but an idle unfruitful thing till it is quickned by the Industry and Heat of Love Our Knowledge of Christ as we are taught by sad experience is often Barren But 't is as evident by experience that the Love we bear to him is ever Fruitful and the Fruit it brings forth is ever the keeping of his Commandments For Sect. 2. Secondly This we are taught by the light of Nature That to perfect our union with what we love by our Injoyment of its possession we are to use the best means whereby to make ourselves lovely that so the person whom we love may himself be a Lover as well as we And sure the most effectual means whereby to make our selves lovely is our Conformity to the Humour and Disposition of what we love For a reciprocated love implyes a Harmony and Concord between two parties whereby each object is Agent too and each person lov'd becomes a Lover by the Conformity which he finds unto all his own humours in That which loves him Nor need we labour after this as a thing gainable by Art for nothing but flattery can stand in need of such help and flattery is no more than the Ape of Love just as Art is no more than the Ape of Nature But if indeed we do intensely and truely Love it will not be an artificial but a most natural issue of it To frame our manners and Conversations in proportion to the temper of our Beloved Now if Christ is the object we truely love we shall long after an union and earnestly labour to possess him by being first possessed by him Because till he stoops to our embraces we cannot possibly rise to His. And being convinc t he will not have us until he finds us worth the having or at least in a capacity of being Had how shall we search after the means whereby to be fitted for his Acceptance we shall incessantly cast about which way to please him and frame the course of our Lives to what we think He loves best We shall strive and contend after the knowledge of his Will with this intent only that we may do it And having found that his Commandments are the Transcriptions of his Will we shall compose our whole selves to the keeping of them And having don all we can shall never think we have don enough for that our Love being Infinite can never satisfie itself with any expressions which are not such So that if we love Christ with the whole Treasure of our Affection our obedience will know neither end nor measure but will be coveting to demonstrate itself as Infinite as is that object which doth attract it And this will farther appear by a Third way of arguing For Sect. 3. Whatsoever 'tis we love we love as Beautiful and Good Goodness is Beauty in its perfection The Soveraign beauty then of Goodness does by an absolute kind of Empire command Affection at least from as many as have eyes whereby to behold it as it is And seeing that which is so strong as to command our Love must needs predominate over all that our Love Commands Therefore to love is to be subject and as being in subjection to pay Obedience The truth of this universally may be the better understood by a few particulars For whâ—…soever loves Honour or worldly greatness does live a Feudatorie or Vassal to his Ambition Whosoever loves mony is basely a servant unto his Avarice and to that is most ready to pay obedience He who loves the hansom outside of dust and ashes lives in subjection to his Lust and does but go in those Errands on which It sends him So whosoever he
is that loves to live a sober and righteous and godly life is most affectionately a servant to the Lord Iesus Christ and does bestow his whole Time in doing the things that he Commands Let the object of our Love be what it will whether God or the World the Flesh or the Spirit still the Rule of the Apostle will be unalterably true That to whom we yield our selves servants to obey His servants we are to whom we obey whether of Sin unto Death or of Obedience unto Righteousness Love is ever so sure to beget obedience that when our Saviour would give a reason why no one man can serve two masters meaning those two call'd God and Mammon he made his reason to stand in this that no one man can love two Masters For either he will hate the one and love the other or will hold to the one and despise the other So that if we love God we shall be sure to hate Mammon and if again we hold to Mammon we shall rebel against God Whereas if it were possible to love them Both it would also be as possible to serve them Both because by the persons whom we love we cannot but love to be employ'd The love of Christ doth constrain us saith our Apostle to his Corinthians And as Christ's love of us so ours of Him doth even press upon us and urge us to keep his Commandments and to do those things which are pleasing in his sight But let us farther make it appear by a fourth way of arguing For Sect. 4. Whatsoever we love the most is either present or absent And as when it is present we most delight in it so whilst it is absent we do long the most after it But the Apostle tells us expresly that whilst at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by Faith and not by sight So that if we love Christ we shall long after his presence and if we truly long for it we shall indeavour its attainment And if we indeavour to reach the end there will be nothing more natural than to inquire after the means And finding the means to be obedience we shall undoubtedly obey The Helkesaitae prov'd nothing but that themselves were stupid sinners in conceiving it possible to deny Christ with the Mouth and yet to love him with the Heart For the Heart in a Man like the Spring in a Watch is that that sets all on work both Tongue and Eyes and Hands and Feet too If with the heart a man believeth unto righteousness 't is very certain that with the mouth he will confess unto Salvation He will obey his dear Master in every kind both by speaking and living and dying for him If he is but once mounted on the wing of pure Love he cannot choose but be transported by the wing of desire too and will incessantly be flying in every errand upon which his Beloved shall please to send him Which may once more appear by a fifth way of arguing For Sect. 5. Carnal fear is the greatest and strongest Barr to our Obedience But there is no fear in love perfect love casteth out fear 1 Iohn 4. 18. And as it casteth out fear so it establisheth a Hope too And Hope is evermore a Spur by which we are urged to our Obedience from its expectance of our Reward It was this Love and Hope which made S. Paul follow Christ through every rough passage by sea and land He was so amorous of his Saviour and so piously ambitious of the Glory to be reveal'd that he rejoyc'd in his afflictions and was readier to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus than to fail in any point of yielding Obedience to his Commands Nor is it truer of S. Paul than of all the meanest Souldiers in the Army of Martyrs That neither distress nor persecution nor nakedness nor famin nor peril nor sword nor life nor death nor any other Creature had any power to step in betwixt their Love and their Obedience The reason of it is obvious as t is to say that they were Members of Jesus Christ not only reputed but real members And 't is natural for a member as to love its own Head so to live in Obedience to its Direction Sect. 6. Thus I seem to my self to have made it evident that Love is ever that cause of which Obedience is the most natural and most inseparable effect 'T is still as ready to obey as water is to wet or fire to Burn. Nor can it better be represented than by the nature of that active and subtle Element Knowledge we may say is a kind of light but Love is more properly a sort of Fire and with that when the Heart is once sufficiently inflam'd it cannot but send up those sparks of Zeal and devotion to its Beloved which do inkindle a special Pleasure in doing the things that he commandeth The Psalmists Heart was hot within him so hot that he tells the fire was kindled and though he long held his Peace yet his love did so burn he was not able to suppress it and so at last he spake with his Tongue We may say therefore of Love what the spowse in the Canticles doth say of Iealousie which is but one of Loves Daughters The Coals thereof are Coals of Fire which hath so vehement a Flame that many waters cannot quench it neither can the flouds drown it Love indeed is such a flame as must evaporate or expire or burn out its way through all that labours to keep it in A thing so busie and industrious as that in truth it can no longer be called Love than it is doing somewhat or other in complaisance and compliance with its Beloved Sect 7. Having now passed through the Proof proceed we briefly to the use we are to make of this Inference And first of all let us consider that if Love and Obedience are two inseparable Companions the former as the Cause and this later as the Effect It concerns us as much as our Souls are worth to take a care that our Love be rightly fixt and directed For it transforms us into the Image of whatsoever thing it is that we love the most And according as our object is good or evil It either put 's us upon the noblest or meanest offices in the world If its object is right we are the best sort of men but if it is wrong the worst of monsters It being with love as it is with fire which in proportion to the matter on which it feeds doth send up the sweetest or noysom'st vapours If it feeds on such matter as Grass and Tallow it cannot choose but have a noxious and stinking breath if on Cinnamon and storax it fills the Air with a perfume And just thus it is with the flame of Love If it fixes upon Christ it breaths forth nothing but pure obedience and so abounds with good works which are
of my undertaking which hath been only to discover how we must not examin our love to Christ and which is not the true Touch-stone whereby our state is to be try'd I am next in the Affirmative to recommend that authentick and only warrantable Touch-stone which is approv'd for the purpose in holy writ And first the words of my Text may serve to be their own proof Because our Saviour did not say as he was going out of the world if ye love me make it appear by being sorry for my departure for they might easily be sorry meerly in love unto themselves Nor if ye love me make it appear by your inward perswasion that ye love me for such a perswasion is often false and when it is true is not also Scientifical Nor if ye love me make it appear by your outward perswasion that ye love me for every Hypocrite is a Professor and every one that hates him can love in Tongue They who crucified their Saviour did give him very fine words too Hail King of the Iews when yet they cloathed him in the Purple of his own Heart bloud But the saying of our Master was briefly this If ye love me keep my Commandments which is as if he should have said make it appear by your Obedience Let me see the solid Issue let me feel the good effects and taste the fruits of your Affection We may know the true Test of our love to Christ by what we find to be the tryal of one mans love unto another which cannot possibly be made by an inward perswasion in the one or an outward profession in the other But he who gives us the richest presents and is readiest to do us the greatest good is most unweariedly delighted in our converse and most sensibly toucht in our Reputation joys the most in our welfare and most condoles in our affliction is not sparing of cost or care when he thinks he can spend them to our Advantage and is ambitious to indear us on all occasions although it be at the hazard of Life and Fortune He is the person of all the world whom we do reckon as our truest and solidst Friend And by the very same measures are we to judge of that love which we bear to Christ. If the beauty of his Goodness is really enter'd into our Souls and hath ingraven in our Breasts the Image of him it does not only inkindle in us the fire of Love but rouzeth it up into Desire too and apply's it to the Object which the fair Image does represent thence we are fixed with Attention in contemplation of his beauty and take such pleasure in that attention as to distaste the very things with which we were wont to be delighted and that for this reason because they offer to divert and as it were pluck us from our injoyment For we are pleas'd with his presence in every thing that represents him be it the strictest of his Praecepts the poorest of his Members the most despised of his Messengers We love to think and speak of him when we consider him as he is absent The very Remembrance of him is sweet and therefore frequently recurr's And this our Love is still improv'd by him by whom it is begun For we love him still the more the more we love him At last the soul is set on fire which burns up all the dross in us devours our love of the Creature becomes Praedominant and unquenchable the loss of our Bloud cannot extinguish or make it cooler It makes us sick of a pleasant Feavour that is of Love as the spowse in the Canticles sets forth her love unto the Bridegroom Being once sick of love we are sick of life too and therefore desire to be dissolv'd that we no longer may believe in but be with Christ. The desire of this Union makes us to go out of our selves as 't were ejaculating our Souls by fervent Prayers and Thanksgivings and all other acts of our obedience expressed here in one word by the keeping of Commandments These I say are the Fruits and therefore the tryals of our Affection and as well of its nature as its degrees This is that natural kind of Dialect in which our love of Christ speaks and makes probation of it self where there is not such obedience there cannot be possibly such a love for an affectionate Rebel is a contradiction in adjecto Let the profession of our Religion be as right as it will and our Iudgment as Orthodox as any can be yet all is nothing without obedience And this I take to be the meaning of S. Pauls words to the Corinthians Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments That is something to the purpose and with our Saviour all in all For being told by the company that his Mother and his Brethren stood without to speak with him He immediately return'd who is my Mother and who are my Brethren even He that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven and 't is the Will of the Father that we keep the Commandments of the Son the same is my Brother my Sister and Mother Nay by the keeping of the Commandments we do not only know our love but we know our very knowledge our affinity to the Truth our being in Christ and Christ in us And last of all it is by this continued in unto the end that we make our Election and Calling sure The first of these is very evident from Iohn 14. 21 23. and 1 Iohn 2. 5. The second is as plain from 1 Iohn 2. 3 4. The third is as plain from 1 Iohn 3. 19. The fourth is so too from 1 Iohn 3. 24. Where we have two wayes of knowing whether Christ abideth in us and we in Him To wit by our keeping his Commandments and by the Spirit which he hath given us Not by this without that because it is no longer in us than we keep his Commandments The first and last is most conspicuous in the 2 Pet. 1 5 6 7 8 9 and 10 verses where the Apostle does exhort us to give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure How then can our diligence and all our diligence be employ'd unless in the keeping of the Commandments and in the keeping of them all too For so he seems to explain himself in the very next words If ye do these things ye shall never fall And what is meant by these things but that long chain of Moral and Theological Graces in the 5 6 and 7 verses of that chapter which in effect are nothing else but several Habits of Obedience to the Commandments of Christ And by these S. Peter teacheth us how we must judge of our condition For if these things be in us and abound they make us fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ. v. 8. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see a farr off and hath forgotten that
less the greatest which he requires Our obedience unto Christ like Christ's obedience unto the Father must not only be paid to some but to all his Commandments without exception All that Abigail could but say Christ Jesus acted For she desir'd to wash the feet of the servants of her Lord but He de facto did wash the feet of the servants of Himself who yet was their Lord and Davids too So very low went our Saviour in the Active part of his Obedience but his passive was lower yet not only to the Death which is the wages of disobedience but to the Death of the Cross too the worst of Deaths and the most terrible whether we consider its shame or torment By such incomparable Obedience both active and passive did the love of our Saviour express it self And shall not our love to Him express it self in our being clean In the keeping of our selves unspotted from the world Shall we adventure to be the worse for his goodness to us or violate his precepts with peace and comfort because we know he dyed our Sacrifice and is our Advocate with the Father and the propitiation for all our Sins No let us strive against sin though we resist it unto Bloud And resist it so much the rather because obliged to it by Him who is a God ready to pardon If He was prodigal of his life when he could spend it to our advantage why should we niggardly keep our Lives when 't is the thrivingst course to lose them That there is a certain case wherein we may save them to our loss and that again there is a case wherein we may lose them to our advantage is the peremptorie assertion of Christ himself He that will save his life shall lose it and he that will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it Now till we come to this pitch of being able in time of trial to lose a life for Christ's sake we have not satisfied the Text in its full Importance and by consequence till we have we stand in need of being taught from another Topick I mean we ought to be persuaded by seeing the terrors of the Lord or at least to be frighted by them And considering that S. Paul hath comprehended them all at once in that short pandect of Imprecations his dreadful Anathema Maranatha as also considering that the sins by which those Curses are all incurr'd do all arise from this Fountain a most unnatural want of love to the Lord Iesus Christ I cannot think of a fitter Text whereon to continue my Meditations than that Sentence of S. Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha And this I mean shall be the subject of the second part of my Design THE INTRODUCTION TO The Second Part. Sect. 1. AMongst the many obliging Titles which God in reference to Man vouchsafes to take upon Himself there is not any so apt to melt us as that of Eridegroom For whilst in other Relations to us he is the object of our Fear our Adoration our Admiration and the like still in the quality of a Bridegroom all he draws from us is Love And if we weigh the chief ingredients which are prescrib'd to make up and compound a Christian every grain of pure love will go as far as many pounds of our Awe and wonder Faith and Hope are great vertues but Love is greater And that as for many other reasons so in particular also for This that God was never yet said to be Faith or Hope nor is it possible for him to be so but S. Iohn hath said plainly that God is Love And therefore Love of all Graces makes us most to resemble the God that made us 'T is true indeed that Faith and Hope must help to carry us into Heaven But holy Love besides that will keep us company when we are there Our Love indeed shall there be perfected but only perfected into Love that though it shall cease to be incomplete it shall not cease to be it self Whereas our Faith and our Hope shall be for ever don away For that shall dy into experience and so shall this into Fruition Sect. 2. To fear and honour Him that made us is a most acceptable service Mal. 1. 6. But very passionately to love him does please him far beyond both It being absolutely in vain that we do honour him as a Father or that we fear him as a Lord unless we Love him as a Bridegroom who hath betrothed us to Himself Take away Love and Fear hath Torment Or take away Love and Honour degenerates into Hypocrisy Both are servil in themselves until our Love does manumit them and make them free Our Fear and our Honour are only welcom for our Loves sake whereas our sole or single Love is welcome to him for its own Sect. 3. Nor may you think that I have nam'd the utmost privilege of Love above other Graces For Love alone is that Motion or Affection of the Soul by which we render back to God though not ex aequo yet de simili a noble kind of Retaliation If he is Angry we are to Tremble not to be angry with him again If he Commands we must obey and if he censures we must adore him But by no means presume to return the like Nay if he saves us or sets us free we cannot thank him for it in kind we cannot make him a Retribution either of safety or of deliverance But when he condescends to love us we can and must love him without the Arrogance of taking too much upon us For to this very end does he begin to us in Love that though we never can requite yet at least we may pledge him with Love for Love Sect. 4. Again of all the Emanations or Affections of the Soul the Love of God is that alone which carries with it its own Reward I mean a Pleasure and Satisfaction which cannot admit of an allay by either Repentance or Satietie Indeed to love him for somewhat else is to receive no greater Pleasure than somewhat else has the luck to affect us with But to love him for himself is to possess the very end because the object of our Love For the greatest injoyment of such a Lover is still to love what he injoyes Hence it was that S. Austin did argue thus in his Confessions Thou hast commanded me Lord to love thee and dost threaten me with Hell if I love thee not Whereas 't is Hell enough to me that I cannot love thee enough For to love thee as I ought as thou deservest and I desire would be at once the greatest Duty and highest Reward to be imagin'd It would not only be my Task but my Heaven to love thee Sect. 5. Now when Interest and Honour conspire with Pleasure and Satisfaction to make us kind may it not seem a great wonder
lovely but loathsom too when abstracted from the part which is immaterial and for this reason it is that the zealousest Lover of what is worldly and who hath nothing in him of Christ whereby to qualifie and inable him for Spiritual love He I say would not be able to love the Body above the Soul if the Beauty of the Soul did not shine through the Body And if we do not only hear this but lay it up in our Hearts too nor only assent to it as True but consider it also as useful it will be sure of great moment first for the raising of our Thoughts and after that of our Affections from the things that are seen which are temporal to the things that are not seen which are eternal And then believing with S. Paul for without such Belief no such love can be imagin'd That our Life is hid with Christ in God we shall be still making thither to find it out Our Love of Christ will not leave him for being but gon out of our sight but will rather soar up in pursuit of him as far as Heaven and find him out pleading for us at the right hand of God And there beholding him as he is full of Grace and Truth and unimaginable Glory such as eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath ever enter'd into the heart of man to conceive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What Loves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What Longings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plotinus what Exiliencyes of Soul will then transport us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with what weightiness of Bliss shall we then be smitten whilst we love him as he is Good we shall desire him as he is lovely and never cease from desiring till we enjoy him as he is Blessed I mean as the Fountain of Bliss and Glory If any man shall here ask by what means he may behold the unspeakable Beauty which is above that so beholding he may be ravish't with the sweet violence of its Attractions the answer to it may be had from the same Plotinus No man saith he can see true Beauty but by casting the sight of his eyes behind him And again saith that learned and pious Heathen we are to fly from those Pleasures which are but common to us with Brutes as once Ulysses from the charms of Circe and Calypso which if he had not wisely don he had never gone back to his native Countrey And we must do exactly like him if we are bound for that Countrey from whence we came and would fain see the place of our first extraction Now what but Heaven is our Countrey there dwels our Father from thence we came and what we commonly call our life is indeed our Pilgrimage For in the words of the Psalmist we are but strangers upon Earth So as the way to go thither from whence we came in a kind of Exile is to leave both our Horses and Feet behind us saith the Platonist And swiftly mounting up ourselves on the wings of Love and Desire guide we our course with those Eyes which are not without us but within us and with which if any of us are not accustomed to see it is not because we want such Eyes but only because we will not use them Unless we are got into their Classis in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds in which case only our eyes are darkned that we not only will not but cannot use them But this is so wilful a Disability that whatsoever are the occasions we ourselves are the Causes of it For when a people are abandon'd to vile affections and severely given over to a reprobate mind it is because of their refusing the fear of the Lord and because of their not liking to retain God in their Knowledge Rom. 1. 26 28. where S. Paul's expression is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They did not think good to have God in their acknowledgment But till then the Apostle tells us the invisible things of God are clearly seen v. 20. not indeed with those eyes we carry outwardly in our Heads but with those other more Angelical which we have inwardly in our Hearts To sum up all in a word Our affections in themselves are indifferent things apt to be cleaving to any object whether evil or good as they shall happen to be directed by carnal Appetite or Reason And if it were not in our power to set our love upon the world in despight of God's Grace or to take it from off the world by making use of its assistance the Apostle would never have exhorted us with so much earnestness as he does To love neither the world nor the things in the world To set our Affections on things above and not to set them on things below To mortifie in our selves our earthly members To cast off the old man to put on the new To cloath our selves with Love as with the bond of Perfection To let the Peace of God reign in our Hearts To afford the word of God an Habitation and Dwelling within our selves From all which together 't is very natural to inferr that if we have not yet wasted the Talent of Grace which God hath given us which undoubtedly of itself is sufficient for us and does competently arm us with Ghostly strength we can see and we can love and can delight in the Lord Jesus and by consequence if we will we can escape the sad effects of being Anathema Maranatha But now 't is time that after the first we put in practice a second instrument whereby to raise up our Love to the Lord Iesus Christ. That is as much as in us lyes we must provoke our selves to jealousie and a religious Aemulation by considering how others have lov'd our Saviour to whom he could not be a Saviour with more obligingness than he is ours We find S. Paul was so inflam'd with the love of Christ who yet a little while before had been a virulent Blasphemer and Hater of him and did so long after a time of being admitted into his presence that in comparison of Christ he counted all things but loss and all things Gain on the contrary which might any way help him in his approach That though there is nothing in the world which Nature hates more than the terrible Face of a Dissolution yet there was nothing which that Apostle did so much long for Not at all for the love of a Dissolution which he detested in one sense whilst he desir'd it in another but for the love of that Christ from whom he was absent in the Body and could not so well be present with as by the favourable Help of a Dissolution That indeed was his Cordolium There it was his shoo pinch't him 'T was his most passionate aspiring to be with Christ which made him groan so very earnestly under the Burden of
are to argue à minori ad majus For if our Love must extend thus to Enemies how much more to such as are friends friends to our Persons and to our God too The love of Christ had degrees and so must ours As the Apostle tells us of Christ he is the Saviour of all but especially of them that believe so the very same Apostle does also tell us of our selves we must do good unto all men but especially to them who are of the houshold of faith And even of those that are faithful a primary care is to be taken for them that are of our own Countrey It was not only for Gods sake that David was kind unto Ierusalem but for his Brethren and Companions sake he prayed to God for her and did his utmost to do her good Psal. 122. 8. Our Saviour being himself an Israelite did ‖ prefer the lost sheep of the House of Israel How kind was Moses to His Countreymen when he became for their sakes extremely cruel unto Himself Lord saith he if thou wilt forgive their Sin and if not blot me I pray thee out of the book which thou hast written Exod. 32. 32. As if salvation it self could hardly please him unless his Countreymen might have it as well as He. Nor was the passion of S. Paul inferiour to it who for the love he bare unto His Countreymen whom he calls his brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh was ready to wish himself accursed and utterly c̄ut off from the body of Christ. Rom. 9. 2. As if he car'd not what became of him so that his Countreymen might be sav'd Sect. 12. But many times our neerest Countreymen may become our worst Neighbors and in respect of their Religion dwell farthest off too To a man born in Iudaea a good Samaritan ought to be dearer than an hard-hearted Iew. S. Paul and the Christians of Thessalonica were never us'd with more rigour than by the men of their own Countrey And our Saviours words are very remarkable that except it be in his own Countrey a Prophet is never without honour Matt. 13. 57. But let him be in his own Countrey and he hath no honour at all John 4. 44. Christ himself had least there and there he did the fewest Miracles but that he did not more there than in other places the only Cause was their unkindness Sect. 13. This is therefore the firmest Bond whereby to hold us together in peace and love not that we are of one Countrey but that we are of one Christ And can say of our selves with better reason than it was anciently said of the Lomnini that in all our bodies there is no more than one soul or to express it with S. Paul that we have all but one Faith one Baptism one Spirit one Lord one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in us all Eph. 4. 4 5 6. If we will manifest to the world and prove convincingly to our selves that we are really the Followers and Friends of Christ. It must be by a burning and shining Love A love of men and not of God only And a Love of men it must be in which the true Love of God is not excluded but presuppos'd Not a love of our selves only condemn'd so much by the Apostle but a Love of others as our selves if not as much yet as well if not in that measure yet in the very same manner in which we are obliged to love our selves And it must be Dilectio Amoebaea a mutual Love a giving and taking of affections Indeed rather than fail we must pledge them in Love who do begin to us in hatred But to make up such a Love as is especially here requir'd such as with which the blessed Apostles did once adorn both the Doctrin and the Discipleship of Christ It must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love interchanged with one another For in how many things soever there may be a seemingness of Religion S. Iames assures us that it's Purity does consist in these two the relief of the needy in their Afflictions and the keeping our selves unspotted from the world Nor can we be told a better course either for brevity or clearness whereby to be possessed of both together than that of measuring and dealing our love to others by such a natural proportion as we have commonly for ourselves For this is perfectly the scope of that Law to which as Christians we must be subject I say we must so much the rather because what soever a man soweth that shall he reap And with what measure we mete it shall be measur'd to us again As 't is the mercy of good men which is said to triumph over Gods Iudgment so there is Iudgment without mercy for them that shew little or none Sect. 14. The chiefest requisites of our Love must be Sincerity and Fervour As S. Paul speaks to the Romans we must be kindly affectioned one towards another so as our love may be brotherly and without dissimulation Rom. 12. 9 10. we must not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 double-sould men Jam. 1. 8. but carry our meaning in our foreheads and hold our hearts in our hands Not love in word neither in Tongue but in deed and in Truth We must not look every man at his own things only but every man at the things of others Phil. 2. 4. If we are owners of such a love as is a Testimony and proof of our real Discipleship under Christ The same mind will be in us which was in Christ Iesus Phil. 2. 5. And if so we shall be ready to stoop as he did to the meanest offices of love even to wash and to wipe the very feet of our Inferiors we shall willingly bear one anothers burdens Gal. 6. 2. by love serving one another Gal. 5. 13. And in honour preferring one another Rom. 12. 10. Nay if the same mind be in us which was in Christ Jesus as S. Paul tells us it ought to be our love will be so Intensive as to make us lay down our lives for the Brethren And so S. Iohn tells us we ought to do 1 Iohn 3. 16. Sect. 15. If no diviner love of one another were meant by our Saviour under the Gospel then what was so frequently exacted under the paedagogie of Moses our Saviour certainly would have said An Old Commandment I give unto you it having been said to them of old Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Levit. 19. 18. But here he calls it a New Commandment which we cannot imagin he would have don had there been nothing in its subject but what was old No he might very well call it a New Commandment not only for that reason which I find given by S. Austin because it prescribes us such a love as by which we cast off the old man and put on the new but because it prescribes
us such a love as never was thought upon before much less deliver'd under precept to any Sect or Society of Iewes or Gentiles Had his Commandment been no more than that we love one another it had been old with a witness no doubt I may say as old as Adam But because he added a Sicut Ego that we must love one another even as he hath loved us which was with such a new Love as till he came into the world was never heard of he had reason to call it a New Commandment 'T was said by Moses to the Iewes Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self But our Saviour saith farther that we must love one another even as He hath loved us which was not only as but beyond Himself For his loving us to the Death was in the comparative sense of Scripture to hate his own life for the love he bare us And although S. Iohn saith Brethren I write no New Commandment but an old Commandment which ye had from the Beginning he means no more by that last word than the first Beginning of Christianity which was with the preaching of the Gospel by Iesus Christ. Remember we therefore what Love this is which is the Badge and Cognisance of our profession the mark of difference betwixt the Sheep and the Goats and which is not exacted from Men as Men but from Christians as they are Christians We must not love as They do who corrupt one another as S. Austin speaks with a meerly seditious or schismatical Love nor must we love as they do who only love one another for filthy Lucre much less as They do who love one another for filthy Lust Nor must we love as They do whose love consisteth only in this that they agree in the hatred of some third Party Nor must we only love as they do who love one another as they are Men only that is as they are sociable and civil Creatures But we must love one another as being Lovers of God and as being such whom God loves as being Children of the Highest and younger Brothers of our Redeemer as being all made Consorts of the very same Hope and all Co-heirs of the very same Kingdom Our Love must imitate both the manner and the Degree of Christs Love For we must venture our Lives for the good of others and even in spight of all Dangers which may happen to the Body we must own and propagate and defend the Doctrines of the Gospel which is the utmost we can do for the good of other mens Souls and that which makes us most like a Saviour The Gospel I may say is the Christian School thither it is we go to learn Christ is the Master of it in chief all Christians are School-fellows or Condisciples The Love I have hitherto describ'd is the highest lesson which there is taught Those Titular Christians who do not attain to this Love are so many Dunces and Truants fit to be turn'd out of the School It is indeed an hard Lesson for us to love one another even as Christ hath loved us a Lesson only to be found in the School of Christ. But yet how Difficult soever 't is not impossible to be learn't For God is faithful and expects not to reap but after the measure that he hath sown He will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able If there is in us a willing mind He accepts according to what we have and not according to what we have not The Grace of Christ is sufficient for us And we can do all things through him that strengthens us And therefore let us not despair of getting the Mastery over our Lesson For we are all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Paul speaks to the Thessalonians immediatly taught it by God himself Sect. 16. Now the more largely I have discover'd both what it is not and what it is to love one another as Christ requires the fewer words will suffice to make it clear as the Sun at Noon that by this we must be known to be Christs Disciples For such a Love as This is is the fulfilling of the Law So saith the Law-giver himself Matt. 22. 40. and so his principal Apostle Rom. 13. 8 9 10. where he speaks of Love in a Christian as Demosthenes did of Pronunciation in an Orator As if it were not only the first Thing but also the second and the third and so indeed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the All in All of a Christian. For mark the words of that Apostle whom we cannot accuse of vain or needless Repetition He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law v. 8. All the Commandments of the Law are comprehended even in this Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self v. 9. Love worketh no evil to his Neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling of the Law v. 10. Three times in a breath without so much as a Parenthesis love is reckon'd to be the Pandect of all things requisite to make a Saint Sect. 17. Nor let any man say within himself How can this be Since Gods word tells us that so it is And yet I think it is easie to shew you How too For the whole Body of the Law moral doth consist of ten Members which are commonly call'd the Decalogue or ten Commandments of the Law The Lord Jesus hath reduced those Ten to these Two Thou shalt love thy God with all thy Heart And thy Neighbour as thy self On these two Hinges the very Door of Salvation doth clearly turn For on these two Precepts hang all the Law and the Prophets Matt. 22. 40. But S. Paul hath reduced them all to One. For thus he speaks to the Galatians All the Law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self The reason is because the Love of our Neighbour in the high degree I here speak of does carry along with it the Love of God Either of them saith Austin is inferr'd by either for if we really love God we shall obey him when he commands us to love our Neighbour and if we really love our Neighbour it is for the Love which we bear to God Observe the Logick by which S. Iohn argues both backwards and forwards By this we know we love the Children of God when we love God and keep his Commandments 1 Joh. 5. 2. There he argues from the first Table to the second Now observe how he argues from the second to the first and that two waies both in the Negative and the Affirmative In the Negative thus He that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen 1 John 4. 10. He that shutteth up his Bowels of Compassion from his brother how dwelleth the Love of God in him 1 John 3. 17. Again he argues it in the Affirmative We know that we have passed from death unto life if
that part of Christendom where Christ is most talkt of Amongst the many who are followers of the name of Christ how few are followers of his Example how far are they from giving all to the poor who grind their faces as it were meal and eat them up as it were Bread how unlikely are they to indure the bearing of the Cross who lay it so heavily upon other mens shoulders how do They leave all and follow Christ who take away all from them that follow him how do they wrestle against powers and principalities who flatter and syncretize with every thing that is mightiest how do they abstain from all appearance of evil who have nothing of good but in appearance Where are those pieces of Christianity which are the grand characteristicks whereby a Christian should be distinguisht from Iew and Gentile I fear the places are very few though God be thanked some there are where Christ may be known by solid Love to have real Disciples upon the earth Thus we see how this Scripture does furnish matter for Reproof Sect. 4. And as for Reproof so withal for correction and instruction in righteousness Because it serves to reduce such as are wandering out of the way and to build up such as have begun or as it were set out in the way of righteousness Whereby it brings me neerer and neerer to the principal end of this Discourse which we are not only concern'd in as a people born in the very same Countrey but as a people brought up too in the very same School and deservedly dear to one another not so much by being Countrey-men as Condisciples Not Disciples under the Law which was a rigid School-master to drive us on unto Christ but Disciples under Christ who was a gracious Schoolmaster to lead us on unto God Sect. 5. Our Saviour's last Will and Testament a part of which I am upon was certainly made for the behoof as well of us and of our children upon whom the ends of the world are come as for that dozen of Disciples to whom 't was given by parole and with whom the Depositum was left in Trust. They were the Witnesses Overseers and Executors in chief But we the remotest of the Legataries have equal Right with the most Immediate For this Testament like the Sun is so communicated to All that every Christian in partiticular hath a full right unto the whole The reason of it is briefly this The true intent of the Testator was to make us rich in good works rich towards God and to one another But I may say of Right in such a Legacy what Aristotle saith of the soul of man that the whole is in the whole and the whole in every part too Nor is it left as other Legacies to be accepted or refused without offence For what is allowed to be our priviledge is also injoyned to be our duty In such a Legacy as this we are not only permitted but strictly obliged to claim our portions For so run the words A new COMMANDMENT give I unto you His Command of our Acceptance was one part of the the Gift and made his Testament of force not only after but before his death Sect. 6. Thus we see our obligation to fulfil the intent of the Testator And to the end we may see it the will is registred by S. Iohn in this indelible Record It lies upon us as we are Christians to give a proof unto the world of our Discipleship under Christ. Every man of us must endeavour as S. Paul exhorts his son Titus to shew himself a Pattern of good works Our love as well as our moderation must be known unto all men Our light of love like the Sun must cast a glory round about it though not to this end that men may see us and glorifie us yet at least to this end that men may see our good works and glorifie our Father which is in heaven Or that all men may know we are Christs Disciples We must not walk after them who open their meeting with a Sermon and shut it up with a Surfet But as often as we begin with Acts of Sacrifice so often should we end in works of mercy very far from being followers either of Herod or the Israelites who sate down like Brutes to eat and drink and then like wantons rose up to play Exod. 32. 6. our way to pass the time away merrily must not be by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or heathenish Feast of good fellowship but by a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feast of love Sect. 7. If we will know what that means we must consult the second Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles where we shall find in the conclusion that they did not only continue daily in the Temple but they did also break bread from house to house They did injoy their merry meetings of love and charity for so it follows in the Text They did eat their meat with gladness as well as with singleness of heart From whence I take out this Lesson That Christianity is not a sullen thing making every mans life a continual Lent as the Heretick Montanus would fain have had it There is a difference very sufficient betwixt the Church of a Christian and a Stoick ' s Porch But withal let us ruminate on the two Verses going before where they had all things in common the rich distributing to the poor to every man his proportion just according as they had need Sect. 8. Neither was it upon a sudden that charity grew to that coldness in which we find it For Tertullian tells us that in his dayes they had all things in common except their wives I do not press for an equality I think the Age will not bear it I only plead for a similitude with what we find was the practice of better times I do not urge our being liberal beyond your power like the Primitive Christians of Macedonia nor our parting with our Riches in exchange for deep Poverty that through our poverty poorer men may grow Rich as S. Paul speaks of our Saviour v. 9. For when the Age is all Iron we cannot hope to find ourselves of such golden Humours as to admit of being purged of so much Dross Sect. 9. All I press for is but this That we will be but as ingenuous as the Heathen Emperor Severus that is that we will do as we would be don by and at least be liberal to our power and that we will so shew mercy as we hope to find it We cannot call any a Feast of Love where some are drunk whilst some are hungry as it seems at Corinth some such there were A true Feast of Love must be for all comers as well for the poor as for the rich or rather for the poor before the rich For mark the words of our Saviour to one who invited
provoke us unto obedience by a redoubled Reflexion on our Advantage What can be more for our Advantage or more agreeable to the Ambitions both of the Flesh and of the Spirit than to have our own wills and to be masters of all we have a mind to even all that we are able to want or pray for yet this is every mans portion who does so really love Christ as to keep his Commandments For so saith the Oracle which cannot ly or prevaricate Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do v. 13. and in the very next words If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it v. 14. A promise sufficient to make us startle unless we consider it long enough to grasp the whole of its Importance For we see 't is universal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if any thing and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever we shall have what we ask without exception And universal as it is it is inculcated and insorc't by a sacred kind of Tautology From whence 't is obvious to inferr as it is useful to observe that although vain Repetitions are worthily blam'd by our blessed Saviour yet there are many Repetitions which are not vain It is so farr from being vain for our Lord here to tell us the same thing twice that 't is to rivet it in our memories and to imprint it in our minds And what is that which he desires may take so deep an Impression in us but that we shall have our own asking if we will but so love him as to keep his Commandments Compare the Text with the Context the condition of the promise with the promise it self and you will find that the scope of the whole is this If you will do my will I will not fail to do yours If ye will but hear me speaking to you in my Precepts I will be sure to hear you speaking to me in your Prayers Give me the little that I ask and you shall have your own asking Put your selves into a capacity of injoying as much as you can desire Apply your selves to such a course as by which ye may make me your own and have all my Mercies at your disposal For on condition that ye love me and keep my Commandments I will do what ye will have me setting no bounds unto my grant but what ye do to your Petitions That this is here our Saviours meaning will undeniably appear from those parallel words 1 Iohn 3. 22. Whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandments Not whilst but because Not at that time but for that reason Compare this again with those other expressions of Christ himself Iohn 15. 7. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be don which is as if he should have said do you but keep my Commandments and ye shall have me at your Command for so run the words ask what ye will and it shall be don Let us be perfect in this point before we leave it For besides that there is nothing which more closely concerns the Text I mean as it stands in relation to the Context by how much the longer we think upon it we shall admire it so much the more Admit that we were to make the greatest promise to be imagin'd to Christ himself we could not go beyond this Lord ask what thou wilt and it shall be don And yet the very same thing saith He to us ask what ye will and it shall be don if ye will but so love me as to keep my Commandments Sect. 13. Where now lyes the difference betwixt God's doing our will and our doing His since he is pleas'd to bind himself by such an astonishing kind of promise no less than 4 times repeated in the very same Sermon that all we ask shall be don ask what we will Certainly the difference is only this that God does satisfie our wills by way of answer to our Petitions and we do Homage unto His by way of Answer to his Commands His compliance with us is an act of Grace and ours with Him an act of Duty God reveals his will to us by way of Empire and Exaction because he is our Creator and we the work of his Hands We exhibit our wills to Him by way of Intreaty and Supplication because he is as our Potter and we his clay In this then we differ that we intreat whilst he Commands but in this we agree that we would have our wills don He by us and we by Him Nay what will ye say if he intreates us too as earnestly as we do him It is the saying of S. Paul 2 Cor. 5. 20. We are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled unto God Here is God ye see beseeching us and Jesus Christ praying to us for what he does by his Embassadors he truly does that having don him all the wrong we will admit of a Reconcilement that is to say that we will love him and keep his Commandments Herein then consisteth the great Advantage of our obedience that whilst 't is doing God's will it moveth God to do ours Which must not be accus'd as a bold expression because we are taught it by God himself For if we keep his Commandments we shall abide in his love Iohn 15. 10. And if we abide in his love all we ask shall be don ask what we will Iohn 15. 7. Sect. 14. But here it may easily be objected to all that hath hitherto been spoken that however our Saviour hath made this Promise yet not one of his Disciples hath ever seen its Performance For where is he in all the world who can say his Petitions have all been granted how many sick and poor Christians have pray'd to Christ for health and honour who yet have dyed of their diseases in perfect beggary and dropt unregarded into a grave of forgetfulness and obscurity Sect. 15. The Answer to this will be short and obvious That the great and precious promise is not absolute but conditional Had the promise been absolute the objection brought to it had not been capable of an Answer it would not lye in our power to clear our Saviour from breach of Promise But the promise being conditional is more or less to be perform'd by him that made it as the condition shall be observed by them on whom it is injoyn'd Now thus stands the Case betwixt our Saviour and our selves In the two next verses before my Text and Iohn 15. 7. we have a general promise bestowed on his part and in the words next after we have a reasonable condition requir'd on Ours The promise is on his part that we shall have what we ask ask what we will The Condition is on ours that we abide in him and that his words abide in us that we love him so farr as to
he was purged from his old Sins v. 9. Which is as much as to say that the keeping of the Commandments is all in all for if we keep them we are happy and if we break them we are undon I say we are happy in case we keep them because by keeping them we make our Election sure I do not say we make our selves infallibly sure of our Election and that by ordinary means too without immediate Revelation as an Assembly of Divines have made profession of their Belief For as Faith is a good man's so infallible assurance is God's peculiar And it implyes a contradiction to say a man may be infallible in what he does but yet believe For as infallibity implyes a knowledge in perfection so belief implyes strongly a knowledge only in part that is in some measure a want of knowledge Which infers a fallibility in him that wants it When we say we do believe we shall never fall and that we do believe we are vessels of Election our meaning is we do not doubt it not at all that we cannot or may not err When Adam stood in a state of Innocence he did believe without doubt he should so continue When Lucifer stood in a state of Glory he did not doubt in the least of his being safe But the event does shew plainly in Him and Adam the possibility of their falling before they fell So as long as we stand in a state of Grace and do so love our Saviour as to keep his Commandments we have reason to be confident of our Election but not infallibly assur'd because we are not omniscient yea do not know our own Hearts and cannot tell what a Day or what an hour may bring forth Whilst we are militant here on Earth we do Hope for Heaven but shall then only be sure when we shall take it into possession They who urge S. Peter's words for an infallible assurance 2 Epist. chap. 1. ver 10. where the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and notes the sureness of the Election not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implying assurance in the Elect do prove no more from that Text than that they quite mistake its meaning Not through an Ignorance of the original but a forgetfulness to consult it It may suffice for our comfort that God himself is infallible though we may err And though we know not what we are much less what we shall be yet this we know surely That all the paths of the Lord are Mercy and Truth unto such as keep his Covenant and his Testimonies Psal. 25. 10. We are infallible in our knowledge that God is faithful so as he cannot fail possibly to make good his promise if we shall manfully persevere in our performance of the condition And sure the sum of the Condition is briefly this that we love him so farr as to keep his Comandments Again that this is the Test of our Love to Christ and the means whereby to make our Election sure may be as easily collected from Heb. 6. 10 11 12. Where the Apostle having premis'd the work and labour of their love which they had shew'd to Christ's Name in their ministring to the Saints v. 10. He does immediately desire them to shew the same diligence to the full assurance of Hope unto the end v. 11. And not to be slothful but followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the promises v. 12. From which words of the Apostle we are to gather four things First that he does not say infallible but full assurance of Hope Nor is it He but our Translation which saith so much For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is but a fulness of Hope not at all a full assurance unless by full assurance is mean't a fulness and nothing else Next a diligence is requir'd for the attainment of this Hope and this must be unto the end The promise that we shall reap is on condition that we faint not We must therefore so run that we may obtain Thirdly Our diligence must be shew'd too that men may see it and be the better and glorifie God in our behalf It must be shew'd in a laborious and working Love a Love exhibited to Christ by being employ'd upon his Members The Love of Christ if it is true will be shew'd in this that instead of being idle or empty-handed it hath its work and its labour is ever diligent and industrious in the keeping of his Commands Lastly the promises are not inherited through Faith alone which S. Iames calls a dead and a worthless Faith but through Faith mixt with patience which is not a barren but a fruitful not an idle but working Faith Such as worketh by Love impartial obedience to the Commandments And such as worketh by patience with perseverance unto the end Thus we prove by our obedience the real solidity of our Love and by our Permanency in both make our Calling and Election sure It were easie for me to argue from a very great number of such like Topicks of which the old and new Testament afford much plenty But that the proof of this Doctrin may not keep us too long from the Application I shall conclude with what I find in the 8 th chapter to the Romans And thence the Point I am upon may be irrefragably evicted For they are true lovers of Christ and real vessels of Election to whom there is no condemnation There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus v. 1. They alone are in Him who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And what other can they be than such as keep his Commandments That this indeed is the evidence of our being in Christ does farther appear by the three Ifs in the 10 11 and 13 verses of that chapter If Christ be in you the Body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of Righteousness And if the Spirit of Him who raised up Iesus from the Dead dwell in you he also shall quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit which dwelleth in you And if ye live after the Flesh ye shall dye but if through the Spirit ye mortifie the Deeds of the Body ye shall live Now by the Deeds of the Body are meant the Breaches of the Commandments And how are they mortified but by obedience We have the same in S. Iohn but a little more plainly Hereby we know that we know him even by keeping his word 1 John 2. 5. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as he walked v. 6. Now we know that Christ Jesus was so subjected to the Law that that was constantly the Path wherein he walked And when 't is said by S. Paul that the end of the Commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned The Heart is imply'd to be impure the Conscience evil and the Faith but hypocritical which is not
all things for himself Next when he see 's that of himself he cannot be or be happy and that he depends upon his maker not more for his being than for his bliss he then begins to love God though yet 't is only for himself and his private Interest But when in time upon occasion of his several exigences and wants he is compell'd to seek God for several comsorts and supplies his conversation with the Almighty becomes so customary and natural by his frequenting God's house by his addresses to God in Prayer by getting knowledge out of God's word and by admiring him in his works that what was hitherto but easy does now grow pleasant And so at last having tasted how good and gracious his Maker is he does advance to love God for God's sake only So as nothing does now remain but that degree of perfection in loving God at his being bid to enter into the joy of his Lord when 't is for God's sake alone that he loves Himself And though 't is hard if not impossible whilst we are in this world to love ourselves for God only and not at all for ourselves yet 't is a duty indispensable to love Him especially for himself and far above the consideration that 't is our interest to love him The Reason of it does stand in This that whosoever loves God not especially for God but more especially for himself does by a necessary consequence love himself above God Because in such a case as that God is only one of the objects and himself the final cause or the end of love For if God were that end he would rather love himself for God than God for himself And that for which we love any thing must needs be lov'd by us the most of any because it is the very cause meritorious or final for which we love it For propter quod unumquodque tale illud magis is the maxim made use of by S. Austin himself upon this occasion And therefore he that loves God not so much for Gods sake as for the sake of somewhat else which either comes from or depends upon him such as the comforts of this life or the Promises of the next does indeed but use God and injoy the Creature And how much soever he may appretiate or put a value in his judgment on what he uses yet no doubt he loves most what he most injoyes Bonaventure made it a wonder how 't was possible for a man not to love that Creator with all his Heart who when he might have left him without a being or have made him either a Toad or any other sort of Animal was rather pleas'd to make him capable to understand and to love and injoy his Maker yea and when man had even forfeited all his Interest in God by an abuse of those Favors conferred upon him was farther pleas'd to reconcile and appease himself not by accelerating our miserie but by providing for our Amendment suppose saith Bonaventure thou hadst but lost one of thine Eyes which is a very small part of thy outward man couldst thou abstain from loving Him with a perfect love who should not only find it out but put it again into thine Head too and not only so but make it as useful to thee as ever How then canst thou forbear to love the Lord Iesus Christ with an equal Love who when thou hadst lost thy whole self both Soul and Body had both the kindness and the skill to find thee out and to restore thee and to make thee as much as ever a Vessel of Honour and Immortality Certainly nothing can make thee able not to love him for himself and with all thy soul unless thy want of converse and Acquaintance with him For as the Fire of thy Affection if fed with any unclean Fewel produces nothing with its ardour but smoak and stentch so if the fewel it feeds upon shall be pure and spiritual it will yield both a bright and refreshing Flame And if the love converts the Lover into the Nature of the thing that is dearly lov'd 't is plain that such as is the object such must also be the Act and the Agent too To fix thy love upon the world is ipso facto to be a worldling To fix thy love upon Christ is ipso facto to be a Christian. And to be really a Christian is to be such a one as Christ. For both he that Sanctifieth and they that are Sanctified are all of one And thence He is not ashamed to call them Brethren Heb. 2. 11. Nay he is not asham'd to own them in a more intimate Relation than that of Brethren For by vertue of that unitive and inebriating love which our mystical Theologists are wont to speak of real Christians and Christ do interchangeably inhabit the one the other They do dwell and abide not only with but in each other They in Him and He in Them as both Himself and S. Iohn that Disciple of his Bosom do oft assure us And since 't is so that our Bodies are call'd his Members 1 Cor. 6. 15. Sure our Souls cannot want much of being transfus'd into Himself For S. Paul saith expresly to shew how Christ is to the Christian just as the Bridegroom to the Bride that as the Husband and the wise are made one flesh so he that is joyned to the Lord is ipso facto one spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. The Apostles word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that is caemented or solder'd ferruminated or glued that is to say he that cleaveth to the Lord Iesus Christ as fast as one board of Firr cleaves to another to which 't is glued in so much that you may burn them but can never break them asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is one and the same spirit as his own Blessed spirit is pleas'd to phrase it that is he minds the same things which his beloved Lord minds desires the same things that his Lord desires Injoyes and suffers after the measure that his Lord suffers and Injoyes In a word he hath such an union as is expresst by an Identity since he that cleaveth to the Lord is not only said to have but to B E one spirit S. Bernard speaks it more than once in a very bold Paraphrase Divino ebriatus amore animus oblitus sui factusque sibi ipsi tanquam vas perditum totus pergit in Deum adhaerens Deo unus cum eo spiritus fit The mind saith he being drunk with the love of God and grown forgetful of itself yea wholly lost unto itself and all its secular concernments does so pass over into God as to become one spirit not only one in itself but one with God 'T is true the Father there speaks touching that last degree of Love whereby the Soul is so transported with the converse of its beloved as to be emptied out of itself and in a manner quite annull'd
are thirdly to observe the important Lesson which here is Taught and which is now of all Lessons the most worth learning especially if we reflect on the Times we live in by what certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or way of proof we may make men to know we are Christs Disciples This is deliver'd in the first and last words of the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall know it even by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If ye bear love to one another From these three parts there are as many Propositions into which the whole Text is very naturally resolv'd That all who are Auditors of Christ or all to whom he is reveal'd do stand oblig'd by that means to be really his Disciples That their Discipleship if it be real will be eminent also and exemplary so far forth as to be known and taken notice of by All. That the surest Testimony and Proof of sincere Discipleship under Christ and the principal Instance or effect wherein its eminence doth consist and that which by Christ is here pronounced as an unerrable mark or Criterion of it is this Divine Qualification of mutual Love And this alone must be the Subject upon which I am to fasten the following part of my Design because it seems to comprehend I say not only the prime but whole Importance of the Text as we may judge by comparing the proposition with the fourfold Emphasis which may be put upon the words For first our Saviour does not say Men shall guess or conjecture that ye are mine but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall know it Nor secondly does he say Your Discipleship shall be known as a special Secret to very few but as the Sun in his Meridian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All men shall know it Nor thirdly does he say All men shall know ye seem to be by a Disguise but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ye are my Disciples without a fiction Last of all he does not say Your Discipleship shall be known by such deceivable Tokens as your Assembling your selves in the House of Prayer your crying Lord Lord your doing wonders in my name your being Orthodox in Judgment and jumping together in Opinions but by This it shall be known as by a Token which never fails 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If ye have Love for one another CHAP. I. Sect. 1. THE Proposition to be consider'd though last in order is first in dignity And being as the Heart of the whole Body of Christianity deserves to be like the Heart in the body of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first thing that lives and the last that dyes in our consideration For can there be any thing in the world of greater consequence than This which gives us a Token whereby to know we have an Interest in Christ and such a sure token too as cannot possibly deceive us yet even such is that Love of which I am now about to treat and which if we take into our hearts as well as into our memories It will I doubt not carry with it that peace of Conscience which is to all that feed on it an endless Feast Sect. 2. But since there is hardly any word that is more equivocal than this I must Anticipate an Objection by shewing what Love it is which our Saviour meant when he appointed it for the measure by which his Scholars are to be scann'd Sect. 3. And to shew the better what it is I must first shew what it is not For all sorts of men pretend to Love not only Christians but the professed Enemies of Christ and the nominal as well as real Christians Nay in one kind or other they all have Love in their possession and many times the worst in the greatest measure For greater Love than this our Saviour tells us there is none that a man lay down his life for his friend And plentiful store of this Love we commonly find in our reading amongst the Heathen Their great Philosophers did prescribe it and not a few of their people obeyâ—…d the Precept Sect. 4. To save a Friend ready to perish we find Episthenes in Xenophon ready to lay down his life And such was the love of Artapates to Cyrus Iunior that he perfectly hated his own life as soon as Cyrus had quitted His. Nor would Lucius Petâ—…onius out-live his friend Pomponius Laetorius dyed a couple of Martyrs for Caius Graâ—…chus And Titus Volumnius followed Lucullus into his grave Terentius preferrâ—…d the life of Brutus by many degrees before his own And Valerius tells us of divers servants who for the saving of their Masters destroyed themselves What transcendent lovers of one another were Menedemus and Hipsides Cleonymus and Archidâ—…mus Agasias and Xenophon Bagooâ—… and Mentâ—…k Hippoclides and Polystratus Asclâ—…piodotus and Soranus 'T were easie to name as many more as would make a man weary to heart them nam'd Nor do I speak only of Couples but of Societies and Sects whose astonishing Love to one another hath rais'd them Monuments in story will last as long as the Sun and Moon Such as the Cimbri and Celtiberians in Valerius Maximus the friends of Cyrus in Xenophon the Athonians in Thucydides the Megalopolitans in Polybius the men of Saguntum and Petellia the many Societies reckon'd up by Alexander ab Alexandro who had all things in common of every kind and as well their Sufferings as their Injoyments Insomuch that if one did lose a limb by any accident all the rest were to cut off theirs that in every Circumstance of Adversity they might all be equall and alike Sect. 25. Thus there were multitudes of men who lov'd each other unto the Death and some beyond it as far as Hell Yet very far were those Pagans from being known by such love to have been either the Disciples of Christ or Moses 'T was little better than the love of King Porus his Elephant and other generous beasts which have expos'd their own lives to save their Rider's There is a natural kindness and Generosity which is common to men with the meanest Creatures and so hath nothing of affinity with what is intended in the Text. Sect. 6. Nay if we reflect upon our selves upon whom the name of Christ is call'd we must not imagin we have attain'd unto that excellent Love which is here requir'd because we find upon inquiry that we are loving to our friends or because we have often our solemn meetings or stand fast to one another as drivers-on of a design For as there are many sorts of love which are not rational and pure as not proceeding from a right principle so there are many things too which are but the Counterfeits of love and yet are call'd by that Name because they look extremely like it The Devils themselves have their combination are still
at agreement among themselves but from a principle of Policy and not of Love Even Rebells and Schismaticks the greatest enemies of Church and state are wont to hold together and keep themselves close but from a principle of Faction and not of Love We read of Pilate and Herod that they were solemnly made friends but from a principle of Hatred to an innocent Christ not of love to one another The world is full of such Merchants as keep a good correspondence and are punctual Dealers with one another but from a principle of Traffick and not of true love The friends of Ceres and Bacchus have their times of Feasting and good-fellowship their times of injoying the Creature-Comforts but from a principle of loosness and not of Love Many love the merry meeting but not the men whom they meet Or if they are Lovers of the men 't is from a principle of Nature and not of Grace It being a meer Self-love which makes them so to love Others Nay farther yet a man may do the very things which are the principal offices and works of Love for which not his Love but only his vanity is to be thank't He may bestow his whole substance to feed the poor and yet may perish for want of Love May dare to dye a pretended Martyr by giving his body to be burnt and yet may be frozen for want of Love So I collect from the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. 3. Sect. 7. It concerns us therefore to know what love this is having seen what it is not by which a man may be known to be Christs Disciple And the shortest way to know this is to reflect a little while on the Love of Christ. For such as was his Love to us such must ours be to Him and to one another We have his word for it in several places If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love And this is my Commandment that ye love one another even as I have loved you Now we know the Love of Christ was both Extensively and Intensively great and proposed in both respects not more to our Wonder than Imitation First it was so Extensively Great as as that it reached to all in general 1 Tim. 4. 10. to every man in particular Heb. 2. 9. not to a world of men only as that may signifie a part but to all the whole world without exception 1 Ioh. 2. 2. without exception of the ungodly Rom. 5. 6. without exception of enemies Rom. 5. 10. without exception of them that perish 2 Pet. 2. 1. And so Intensively great was the Love of Christ that it made him empty himself of glory and become of no reputation it made him a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief indeed an Intimate Acquaintance of the most heart-breaking grief that ever was suffered on this side Hell It put him upon the vassalage of washing and wiping his servants feet It made him obedient unto the Death and to seek the lives of his Enemies whilst his enemies sought his He in order to their safety as they in order to his Ruin It made him once our Priest after the order of Aaron and our Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck For us he descended into Hell for us he ascended into Heaven for us he maketh intercession at the right hand of God Rom. 8. 34. Sect. 8. Thus Christ as our Master hath set us a Copy of His Love to the end that we as his Disciples might do our utmost to take it out Our Love must be so extensive that it must reach even to All. It must reach unto our Enemies and of them to all sorts too not only to those without the pale of the Church who do us little or no hurt even Iews Turks Infidels and Hereticks for whom we pray once a year in our English Liturgy but to our Crueller sort of Enemies within the Church our particular Persecutors and Slanderers for whom we pray in our Liturgy three times a week Sect. 9. Indeed the Hypocrites of the Synagogue did constrain the word Neighbor to signifie nothing but a Friend esteeming it Godliness and Zeal to hate an Enemy And some there are even in Christendom who feigning God from all Eternity to have hated more than he lov'd think they acquit themselves fairly and look upon it in themselves as a God-like property if they are much less inclinable to Love than Hatred They know they need not love more than the Saviour of the world was pleas'd to dye for and easily taking it for granted that he dyed only for some they think they need not exhibit their love to all Sect. 10. Such men must be minded that even our Enemies are to be treated as one sort of friends and that the Scripture-word Neighbor extends to both 'T was so extended even by Moses and so by Solomon if by Moses and Solomon much more by Christ who having first commanded us to love our Enemies to bless them that curse us to oblige them that hate us and to pray for them that are spiteful to us gives us his reason in these words because God also is kind to the unthankful and to the evil Which is as much as to say that in the Extension of our kindness we must be Imitators of God For so he tells us in the very next words be ye merciful as your Father in Heaven is merciful And when a Jew askt the Question Who is my Neighbor Our Saviour answer'd him by the Parable of a Iew and a Samaritan not of a Iew and a Iew. Whereby we are given to understand that all are our Neighbors who stand in Need. Let that need be what it will a need of our Pardon or of our Purse we must not only forgive them in case they reduce us to want of Bread but we must give them our Bread too in case they want it We must pray for them and pity them and labour to melt them to reconcilement must do them all the good offices within our power excepting such as are apt to hurt them we must shew them such favours as may help to raise them out of the Pit not such as may sink them the faster in we must not be so rudely civil so discourteously complaisant as to suffer their sins to be upon them without disturbance but must rather oblige them with our rebukes lest for want of such favours they go down quietly to destruction For so runs the precept Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart on the contrary thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy brother and shalt not suffer Sin upon him Although a man be so scandalous as to be shut out of our company by the direction of the Apostle yet the same Apostle tells us we must not count him as an Enemy but admonish him as a Brother 2 Thes. 3. 15. Sect. 11. And from hence we