SERM. that holy fpirit of love, which can ferve to no meaner XXV. purposes, than to quell that forry principle of niggardly selfishness, to which corrupt nature doth incline; and to enlarge our hearts to this divine extent of goodness.

XXV. in

8. Laftly, many confpicuous examples, proposed for our direction in this kind of practice, do imply this degree of charity to be required of us.

It may be objected to our difcourfe, that the duty thus understood is unpracticable, nature violently swaying to thofe degrees of self-love which charity can nowise reach. This exception (would time permit) I fhould affoil, by fhewing how far, and by what means we may attain to fuch a practice; (how at least, by aiming at this top of perfection, we may ascend nearer and nearer thereto :) in the mean time experience doth fufficiently evince poffibility; and affuredly that may be done, which we fee done before us. And so it is, pure charity hath been the root of fuch affections and fuch performances (recorded by indubitable teftimony) toward others, which hardly any man can exceed in regard to himself: nor indeed hath there scarce ever appeared any heroical virtue, or memorable piety, whereof charity overbearing felfifhnefs, and facrificing private interest to public benefit, hath not been a main ingredient. For inftance then;

Did not Abraham even prefer the good of others before his own, when he gladly did quit his country, patrimony, friends, and kindred, to pass his days in a wandering pilgrimage, upon no other encouragement than an overture of bleffing on his posterity?

Did not the charity of Mofes ftretch thus far, when for Chryf. in 1 Cor. Or. the fake of his brethren he voluntarily did exchange the Eph. Or.vii. fplendors and delights of a court for a condition of vaHeb. xi. 24. grancy and fervility; choofing rather, as the Apoftle fpeaketh, to fuffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of fin? did not it overstretch, when (although having been grievously affronted by them) he wifhed that rather his name fhould be expunged from God's book, than that their fin fhould abide unparμετ' ἐκείνων doned ?

Exod.

xxxii. 32.

Βέλομαι

Did not Samuel exercise fuch a charity, when being in- SERM. gratefully and injuriously difmounted from his authority, XXV. he did yet retain toward that people a zealous defire of their welfare, not ceafing earnestly to pray for them?

oxia, ἢ χωρὶς ἐκεί των σώζεσα

ἔρως μέγας.

Eph. Or.vii.

1 Sam. xx.

30.

Did not Jonathan love David equally with himself, dar vrs when for his fake he chose to incur the difpleafure of his father and his king; when for his advantage he was con- Chryf. in tent to forfeit the privilege of his birth, and the inherit- 1 Sam. xii. ance of a crown; when he could without envy or grudge 23. look on the growing profperity of his fupplanter, could heartily with his fafety, could effectually protect it, could purchase it to him with his own great danger and trouble : when he, that in gallantry of courage and virtue did yield to none, was yet willing to become inferior to one born his fubject, one raised from the duft, one taken from Pfal.lxxviii. a Sheepcote; fo that unrepiningly and without difdain he 70. could fay, Thou shalt be king over Ifrael, and I fhall be 1Sam.xxiii. next unto thee?-are not these pregnant evidences, that it was truly faid in the ftory, The foul of Jonathan was 1 Sam.xviii. knit to the foul of David, and he loved him as his own foul ? 1. xx. 17.

12.

Did not the Pfalmift competently practise this duty, when in the fickness of his ingrateful adversaries he Pfal. xxxv. clothed himself with fackcloth, he humbled his foul with fafting; he bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother?

Were not Elias, Jeremy, and other prophets as much concerned for the good of their countrymen as for their own, when they took such pains, when they ran fuch hazards, when they endured fuch hardships not only for them, but from them; being requited with hatred and mifufage for endeavouring to reclaim them from fin, and ftop them from ruin?

May not the holy Apoftles feem to have loved mankind beyond themselves, when for its inftruction and reformation, for reconciling it to God, and procuring its falvation, they gladly did undertake and undergo fo many rough difficulties, fo many formidable dangers, fuch irksome pains and troubles, fuch extreme wants and loffes, fuch grievous ignominies and disgraces; flighting all concerns

SERM. of their own, and relinquishing whatever was most dear to XXV. them (their safety, their liberty, their ease, their estate, their reputation, their pleasure, their very blood and breath) for the welfare of others; even of those who did fpitefully malign and cruelly abuse them?

23. iv. 8.

1 Cor. iv.

11.

Survey but the life of one among them; mark the wearifome travels he underwent over all the earth, the folicitous cares which did poffefs his mind for all the Churches; the continual toils and drudgeries fuftained by him in preaching by word and writing, in vifiting, in admonishing, in all pastoral employments; the imprisonments, the stripes, the reproaches, the oppofitions and perfecutions of every kind, and from all forts of people, which he fuffered; the pinching wants, the desperate 2 Cor. xi. hazards, the lamentable diftreffes with the which he did ever conflict: peruse those black catalogues of his afflictions registered by himself; then tell me how much his charity was inferior to his felf-love? did not at least the one vie with the other, when he, for the benefit of his Phil. i. 24. disciples, was content to be abfent from the Lord, or fufpended from a certain fruition of glorious beatitude; reft2 Cor. v. 1, ing in this uncomfortable state, in this fleshly tabernacle wherein he groaned, being burdened, and longing for enlargement? Did he not fomewhat beyond himfelf love Rom. ix. 3. those men, for whose salvation he wished himself accursed from Chrift, or debarred from the affured enjoyment of eternal felicity; thofe very men by whom he had been ftoned, had been scourged, had been often beaten to extremity, from whom he had received manifold indignities and outrages?

&c.

2 Cor. xi. 1 Theff. ii.

24, 25.

15.

Acts iv. 34.

Did not they love their neighbours as themselves, who fold their poffeffions, and diftributed the prices of them for relief of their indigent brethren? Did not most of the ancient faints and fathers mount near the top of this duty, of whom it is by unquestionable records teftified, that they did freely bestow all their private estate and substance on the poor, devoting themselves to the fervice of God and edification of his people? Finally,

Did not our Lord himself in our nature exemplify this

8, 10.

Col. ii. 13.

in 1 Cor.

duty, yea by his practice far outdo his precept? For, he SERM. who from the brightest glories, from the immenfe riches, XXV. from the ineffable joys and felicities of his celeftial kingdom, did willingly ftoop down to affume the garb of a fervant, to be clothed with the infirmities of flesh, to become a man of forrow and acquainted with grief: he who for our fake vouchfafed to live in extreme penury and difgrace, to feel hard want, fore travail, bitter persecution, moft grievous shame and anguish: he who not only did contentedly bear, but purposely did choose to be accused, to be flandered, to be reviled, to be mocked, to be tortured, to pour forth his heart-blood upon a cross, Rom. v. 6. for the fake of an unprofitable, an unworthy, an impious, 1Pet. iii. 18. an ingrateful generation; for the salvation of his open Eph. ii. 1. enemies, of base apostates, of perverse rebels, of villainous Chryf. in tràitors: he who, in the height of his mortal agonies, did Eph. Or.vii. fue for the pardon of his cruel murderers; who did fend or. xxxii. his Apostles to them, did cause so many wonders to be done before them, did furnish all means requifite to convert and fave them: he that acted and fuffered all this, and more than can be expreffed, with perfect frankness and good-will; did he not fignally love his neighbour as Heb. xii. 2. himself, to the utmost measure? did not in him virtue conquer nature, and charity triumph over felf-love? This he did to feal and imprefs his doctrine; to fhew us what we should do, and what we can do by his grace; to oblige us and to encourage us unto a conformity with him in this refpect; for, Walk in love, faith the Apostle, Eph. v. 1. as Chrift hath alfo loved us, and hath given himself for us; 16. and, This, faith he himself, is my commandment, that ye John xv. love one another as I have loved you: and how can I better conclude, than in the recommendation of fuch an example?

1 John iii.

12. xiii. 34.

16.

Now, our Lord Jefus Chrift himself, and God even 2 Theff. ii. our father, who hath loved us, and hath given us everlafting confolation, and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and ftablish you in every good word and

work.

SERMON XXVI.

OF THE LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR.

XXVI.

MATTH. xxii. 39.

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

SERM. I HAVE formerly difcourfed on these words, and then fhewed how they do import two obfervable particulars : first a rule of our charity, or that it should be like in nature; then a measure of it, or that it should be equal in degree to the love which we do bear to ourselves. Of this latter interpretation I did affign divers reafons, urging the obfervance of the precept according to that notion: but one material point, fcantinefs of time would not allow me to confider; which is the removal of an exception, to which that interpretation is very liable, and which is apt to discourage from a ferious application to the practice of this duty fo expounded.

If, it may be faid, the precept be thus understood, as to oblige us to love our neighbours equally with ourselves, it will prove unpracticable, such a charity being merely romantic and imaginary; for who doth, who can love his neighbour in this degree? Nature powerfully doth refift, common fenfe plainly doth forbid that we should do fo: a natural inftinct doth prompt us to love ourselves, and we are forcibly driven thereto by an unavoidable fenfe of pleasure and pain, refulting from the conftitution of our body and foul, fo that our own leaft good or evil are very fenfible to us: whereas we have no fuch potent inclination to love others; we have no fenfe or a very