the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil them This he performed partly by doing and suffering all that the Prophets had foretold concerning him and by accomplishing what was fore-shewn by the Types and Shadows of the Law partly by his divine Discourses and Sermons giving new life and authority to those Rules of Good Living they had been taught by Moses adding to and improving them where they were defective and restoring them to their primitive sense and purity where they were either obscurely delivered or by the misinterpretation of their Doctors were generally misunderstood and this he did suitably to the different nature of those Commands which they had received in Moses's Law some whereof consisted of Rites and Ceremonial Observances which were a Shadow of things to come and were upon the accomplishment of those things presently to have an end Others contained the necessary Rules of Good Living and were of an absolute and unchangeable nature Now so it came to pass that the Jews a People infinitely prone to Superstition were very nice and curious in the observance of those outward Circumstances and Ceremonies of the Law even to the neglect of the greater duties of Righteousness Judgment and Mercy which they ought chiefly to have done though not to have left the other undone The blame of this practice is by our Saviour frequently laid upon the Scribes and Pharisees who then were the great pretenders to the Righteousness of the Law yet in truth the greatest corrupters of it by laying the chief stress upon the outward and less material circumstances and evacuating the moral parts of it by too nice and narrow interpretations Our Saviour therefore having declared that he came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets in pursuance of that design at the 20. v. he forewarns his Hearers of this practice and doctrine of the Scribes and Pharisees I say unto you Except your Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven And that they might not be ignorant in what particulars they ought to exceed what the Pharisees taught in the continuance of his Sermon he gives them several instances wherein the Law of Moses partly by its own obscurity partly by their misinterpretations was generally misunderstood Among other parts of the Moral Law which were not well understood by the Jews there was none to which they were greater strangers than this in the Text of Loving Enemies They had received Levit. xix 18. this precept Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Now the Jews understanding the word Neighbour only of the children of their People of men of their own Tribe and Country of men that kept mutual correspondence and agreement with them they took it for granted that as for other men who were strangers and aliens to them they were at full liberty to exercise what revenge they pleased as appears by the Verse before the Text Ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy But this latter clause and hate thine Enemy was an additional interpretation no where to be found in the Law and was in truth contrary to the true intent and meaning of the former precept of Loving our Neighbour as appears by our Saviours explication of it Ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy but I say unto you love your Enemies c. Having thus far shewn the Connexion of these words with the foregoing and with the design of the whole Chapter I shall now consider them by themselves and shall endeavour to set before you 1. The Nature and Extent of the Duty enjoined 2. Our Obligation to the practice of it I begin with the Nature and Extent of this Duty Love your Enemies c. The word Love is of a very large signification and in the language of holy Scripture is generally used to express the whole duty of man Thus our Saviour useth it in the Summary of Religion which he taught the Lawyer telling him that the whole Law was comprised in these two things the love of God and of our Neighbour Thou shalt love the Lord thy Matth. 22. 37. God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind this is the first and great Commandment and the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self on these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets By which use of the word it is plain that the love of our Neighbour includes all the Duties and Offices which one man can owe to another and so it is here to be understood when applied to Enemies as appears by the connexion of these words with the former Verse Ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy but I say unto you Love your Enemies Where it is plain our Saviour altered not the comprehensive signification of the word only enlarged the object of it viz. that whereas they had been before taught to confine their Love that is the several offices of Justice and Charity onely to their Neighbours that is as they understood it only to their Friends and Countrymen they should now extend the same offices to Enemies likewise as well as to them not onely to Strangers and Aliens but to those also that profest hatred to them and did them injury This he prescribes first generally by the name of Love I say unto you Love your Enemies and then left they should make too narrow an interpretation of the word he further explains it by the most obliging instances can be given of it and that in opposition to the contrary practice of their Enemies Bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you But not to insist upon this large signification of the word I shall now onely take notice of those offices which are peculiarly due to our Enemies as such over and above what can be due to the rest of our Neighbours and those are referred usually to these three general Heads 1. That we do not return those evils upon our Enemy which he hath done us 2. That we forgive him from our hearts 3. That we recompense good to him when he stands in need of our assistance 1. If we are commanded to love our Enemies it is easie to understand that we are hereby forbidden all practices towards him that are inconsistent with Love and Charity and therefore that we must forbear all acts of revenge and hostility towards him all recompensing evil for evil This branch of our duty our Saviour particularly teaches at the 38 39. verses of this Chapter Ye have heard that it hath been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I say
is not in the power of any mortal eye though never so impartial to discern rightly of him or his actions Besides there are few men so impartial in their judgment as to take in all circumstances even of outward appearance we too frequently pass censure according to our own preconceived opinions and prejudices and are often biassed by our zeal interests or affections which do usually as much mis-represent persons and actions to our understanding as coloured Mediums do objects to the eye Thence arises the great difference between the several judgments men make of the same things Nay so deceitful is the heart of man so hardly to be searched into that we are not competent Judges of our own actions We have many arts to deceive our selves many secret evasions and false pretences to beget an opinion of our own worth and righteousness and to hide our selves if I may so say from our own souls and then how can we hope to make a right judgment of other men But now the Lord who is to come is of infinite knowledge and 't is his Prerogative alone to understand the thoughts of man and the counsels of his heart This God testifieth of himself Jer. xvii 9. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it I the Lord search the heart I trie the reins even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings Again Prov. xxiv 12. If thou sayest behold we knew it not doth not he which pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth thy soul doth not he know it The all-seeing eye of God can discern those inwards acts of piety which a good man is imployed in though they meet with censure and reproach among men and can as easily unmask all the false pretences of the Hypocrite since all things are naked and open before him Now the consequences of these considerations to dissuade us from judging before the time is easie and obvious For what more reasonable motive to restrain our curiosity in prying into and censuring the actions of others than that the exact knowledge of those things is too wonderful for us and that we cannot attain to it and withall that there is a judgment to come when if we make a false and uncharitable judgment we shall be plainly convinced of it before God and all his holy Angels and then who can persuade himself that it will not be a matter of great shame and confusion of face to see those men whom we had unjustly censured and reviled receive praise from the unerring judgment of God and for those very actions which we here condemned made partakers of the reward of Righteousness the Crown of Glory and Immortality 2. A further consideration to dissuade from all uncharitable judgment is that the Lord who is to come and he alone hath power and authority to judge That Lord whose Creatures we are and on whom we depend daily for our support and well-being hath onely absolute right and dominion over us and except in those cases where he hath delegated his authority to Princes Parents and other Governours to judge of and determine those outward actions that concern Society he hath reserved the power of giving Laws to mankind and of judging according to them to himself onely And therefore besides the presumption which while we judge others we are guilty of our selves by boldly intruding into those things which we know not we do withall sacrilegiously invade the royal Prerogative of God to whom alone judgment belongeth This is St. James's argument James iv 12. There is one Law-giver able to save and to destroy who art thou that judgest another And S. Paul to the same purpose Rom. xiv 4. Who art thou that judgest anothers servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth But to conclude Thirdly and lastly we ought not to judge before the time because the Lord cometh who will be the severe avenger of all uncharitable judgment of our brethren This he himself assures us S. Matt. vii 1 2. Judge not that you be not judged for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again And from this ground S. Paul argues Rom. ii 1. Therefore thou inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same things Verse the third And thinkest thou this O man that judgest them that do such things and dost the same that thou shouldest escape the judgment of God Now I conceive the Apostles Argument is equally cogent whether he be understood here to speak of the same sins in specie or rather of other sins of equal guilt Since the unreasonableness of judging our Neighbour for some particular sins when we are guilty of others as heinous is altogether as evident as though we did the same things we condemn him for And therefore S. Paul himself in the latter part of that Chapter when he pursues the same argument makes his instances not only in sins of the same kind but of equal degree Verse 22. Thou that abhorrest Idols committest thou Sacriledge And now let any man consider how dreadful his condition must needs be at the judgment of the great day if the Lord who is to come should be extreme to mark what he hath done amiss and should deal with him according to the utmost rigour of the Law and then he cannot want sufficient arguments to persuade him to a meek and candid interpretation of the faults of others especially if he call to mind that God hath declared that he shall have judgment without mercy which hath shewed no mercy which shewing of mercy doth not consist barely in the relieving the wants of those that are in misery but in an universal charity as well in our thoughts and judgments of others and in an humble forbearance of their faults and infirmities as in other acts of bounty and liberality It remains now since we all believe and are assured that our Lord will certainly come to judge the World that we behave our selves as men that wait for his coming as by all other Exercises of Holy Living so more particularly by Meekness and Charity towards others that laying aside all rash and uncharitable censures of other men we may be in some measure capable of receiving the promise of our Saviour Luke vi 37. Judge not and ye shall not be judged condemn not and ye shall not be condemned SERM. III. JOHN vij 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self HE that considers with himself the great variety of Opinions in matters of Religion which have prevailed in the Christian World and the great zeal and animosities wherewith men of different persuasions are wont to maintain the distinguishing opinions of their Party scarce
and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sister yea and his own life also cannot be my Disciple and whosoever doth not bear his cross and follow me cannot be my Disciple Now the hating these things in the literal sense can then onely be our duty when the love of them is inconsistent with our profession of Christianity for otherwise they ought to be most dear to us but this is a case which very seldom happens The taking up the Cross therefore and denying our selves which is required of all Christians must be interpreted of laying aside our irregular lusts and desires which is agreeable to this interpretation called crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts and is expressed in the Text by laying aside every weight nay possibly if it were not beside my present design it would be no difficult task to make it appear that denying our selves and taking up the Cross in this sense I am speaking the mortifying and subduing our fleshly appetites the freeing our minds from evil habits and inclinations and from the darling sins we have delighted in may be a greater trial of our obedience and love to God and our desire to please him than even the laying down our lives for the testimony of the truth of the Gospel Many men can be prodigal of life and die with great bravery and resolution when they would think it a very hard and laborious imployment to endure the severities of mortification and to wean themselves from some long accustomed pleasure and temptation But to return to the business in hand Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us I shall not pretend to give a Catalogue of those particular lusts and desires which by the force of this Exhortation we are to forsake and lay aside The variety of them is infinite according to the several ways of living men are engaged in according to the difference of their temper and constitution and other outward circumstances I shall onely take notice of two general rules in this matter which the Text suggests to us 1. That our care in this affair be universal and impartial that according to our knowledge and ability we lay aside every weight It is not sufficient that we abstain from this or that particular habit of sin if at the same time we wilfully indulge our selves in others Though a man be able to say with the Pharisee and to say truly that he is not an extortioner unjust adulterer nor as this and that particular man whom he may observe in his neighbourhood that is worse than himself yet all this while he may cherish in his bosom other darling lusts and habitual practices which may exclude him from the kingdom of Heaven notwithstanding his caution and abstinence in other things For alas a man may abstain from many kinds of temptation which others are betrayed by and yet be guilty of no great vertue in so doing For not onely Vertue and Vice but even several Vices themselves are at enmity with and mutually destroy one another and therefore it is no vertue in a covetous man that he abstains from profuseness and luxury nor is it praise-worthy in the prodigal that his heart is not set upon riches If the Hypocrite give alms to be seen of men if the ambitious man be courteous and affable though these things be the proper matter of Vertue yet inasmuch as they proceed not from from any principle of obedience or love to God they are no part of that duty and allegiance we owe him nor will they be accepted by him nay certainly he that abstains from some kinds of Vice onely to indulge himself in the contrary extream is so far from laying aside those weights which hinder him in his Christian course that he rather loads himself the heavier and is still more unfit for so great an undertaking and indeed so necessary it is that we should be impartial in this affair that we should lay aside every weight that unless our diligence extend thus far any single habit of evil that we indulge our selves in is sufficient to defeat us of our victory and to bereave us of our Crown and Triumph because in Gods account he who wilfully harbours in his bosome any one habitual lust which he is not willing to forego for Gods sake is as guilty as though he broke all his laws So S. James tells us Chap. 2. v. 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all And he adds the reason of it in the next verse because the same authority of God is equally concerned in all his laws and is therefore equall contemned in the wilful breach of one as of all or any For he that said do not commit adultery said also do not kill and certainly he who picks and chooses the sins he will forbear and what not is determined in his choice not by any respect he bears to the will of God but by his own temper and inclination For if he abstained from any one sin out of pure obedience to the Will of God because God did forbid it this reason would equally hold against all kind of transgression because they are all abominable in the sight of God nor could we have a reason to forbear one more than others Again further unless our care in this business be universal and impartial to lay aside every weight to free our minds from all affections and desires that may hinder us in our duty we are not entirely at our own dispose and are not therefore in a fit capacity to render to God that obedience which is due to him and which he expects from us He who gave us our being and endued our souls with so many excellent perfections and abilities may justly expect and require of us that they be entirely devoted to his service and he hath accordingly declared that he will accept no less Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength But this cannot be done while we cherish in our bosom any inordinate desire any lust or passion which claims an interest in our affections a share in our service Mat. vj. 24. No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other we cannot serve God and Mammon What is there particularly said of the love of riches is as true of any other habitual inclination to evil which we indulge our selves in If we cannot serve God and Mammon neither can we serve God and our Lusts we cannot serve God and our Ambition we cannot serve God and the Devil 2. Besides this universal care exprest here by laying aside every weight we have here in the Text another rule of direction suggested to us which may render us yet
unto you that ye resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also Where by the way we may observe that our Saviour doth prevent the most plausible Argument men are wont to use to justifie their revenge Veterem ferendo injuriam invitas novam was always a pretence for it and many men who would otherwise be thought good Christians are still apt to urge it as a sufficient reason to return evil upon their adversaries because otherwise they may by too much forbearance be encouraged to go on in the same practice of doing injuries and offering affronts Now the case here mentioned by our Saviour is very plain in opposition to that pretence Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also The meaning of which words is that in matters of less moment as the instance there given is the good Christian ought rather expose himself to further injuries than return the same usage to his adversary that he hath suffered from him or be guilty of any revengeful act So patient must the Servant of the Lord be toward all men not rendring evil for evil nor railing for railing 1 Pet. 3.9 This duty will I know seem very difficult to men of this generation who are usually so far from being satisfied with an equal return of evil upon their adversaries that their revenge seldom ends with less then the death or ruine of their brethren and that often upon very slight or no provocation It is indeed a sad thing to consider that in a Christian Commonwealth Point of Honour and Gallantry should be so often pleaded as a just pretence for Bloudshed and Slaughter that a rash word or a contumelious expression should be thought a sufficient provocation to engage life and soul too in pursuance of our revenge and that in contradiction to so plain a precept which by the profession of Christianity we stand obliged to But how dangerous a choice these men make I shall have occasion to discourse by and by In the mean time we are to know that the forbearing Revenge is but the first and lowest degree of that Charity which the Gospel requires towards our Enemies and is exprest hereby the name of Love 2. It is not sufficient that we abstain from outward acts of Hostility and Revenge towards our Enemies but we must lay aside all thoughts and desires of it We are not to wish the same evil to our Neighbour that he hath done to us we are not to retain any angry or malicious thought no grudge or animosity no secret hate or envious design against the person of any man how much soever he hath been our Enemy We may have other reasons that may oblige us to refrain from outward acts of Revenge sometimes we may be too weak to do it and want power or opportunity to execute our designs of evil sometimes it may be against some other interest of ours which we prefer before it and to forbear Revenge onely in such circumstances is no part of our obedience to this precept of our Saviour which extends it self to the inward motions and dispositions of our soul and requires that our forgiveness be from the heart And indeed the primary intention of all the divine Law is to regulate the inward thoughts and habitual inclinations of the Soul and to bring them into subjection and conformity to the will of God Nor can we be said to obey any one precept of the Gospel onely by abstaining from the visible acts of sin unless we do likewise mortifie and subdue the secret lusts and inordinate desires of our heart which are the inward principles and seeds of our outward actions according to which the good or evil of them will be measured To be sure the word Love is of all other most properly to be understood of the inward affections of the Soul and therefore we are obliged by this precept to lay aside and restrain all those black passions which any ways prompt us to seek revenge or rejoice in the hurt that befalls our Neighbour To this purpose is S. Pauls direction Ephes iv 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Nay the Scripture is so positive in this case that though we should forbear to return evil upon our brother that hath offended us though our hand be not upon him to kill him or do him hurt yet if we nourish in our bosom any angry and malicious thought against him if we wish harm to him or rejoice over those evils that befall him this would be as direct a breach of the Law of forgiveness as though we our selves had been the executioners of our Revenge upon him So S. John tells us 1 John iii. 15. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer 3. There is yet a further degree of Charity towards our Enemies We must not onely forbear the return of evil we must not onely forgive them heartily and wish them no evil but we are obliged also to exercise acts of mercy and goodness to them we must be ready to do them good whensoever they may need it from us If thine Enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink But possibly he needs no such assistance possibly his malice is such that he would scorn thy offer yet still thou mayest do him good whether he will or no thy Prayers are in thy own power he cannot refuse the assistance of them he cannot defeat the design of this Charity Offer therefore thy prayers to God for him that the wickedness of his heart may be forgiven him and that he may be indued with the spirit of Peace and Charity This last branch of duty is the perfection of the other two and is chiefly intended in this place But I say unto you Love your Enemies c. And thus much may suffice briefly to explain the nature of this duty I come now to consider the extent of it For it may be demanded How oft and to what degree shall my Brother sin against me and I be bound to forgive him and love him must I always yield to Injuries and Reproaches Can no wound be so deep as to remove my brother from my affection and to justifie my revenge Must there be no end of my forbearance and suffering In answer to these Queries there are these two things to be considered 1. As to the number and multitude of our Brothers injuries against us we may remember that S. Matth. xviii 21. it is recorded of S. Peter that he came to Jesus and said Lord how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times Jesus saith unto him I say not unto thee untill seven times but untill seventy times seven Now by this manner of speech