I.

VOL. they are caft into focieties one with another; but morality muft needs run through the whole law of GOD. Every commandment of his law, which he hath distinguished from all other laws by vouchfafing himself to fpeak it by an audible voice, in ten words, to a vast affembly of men, we ought furely to account moral; and not elevate the authority or obligation of one part, by ufing terms with an intention to leffen or diminish another part of the fame law.

BUT as to the thing itself, waving the name (as it is pity there fhould be fo much logomachy, or contention about the ufe or misapplication of bare words) it is I fay the thing it self, wherein the religion of Chriftians hath been so very deficient, and by which it hath been fo much flurred, that a great many have learned in their practice, not to care what their deportments are to men, fo they can but keep up a continued profeffion of, and courfe of pretence to, fanctity, piety, and devotion towards GOD. And therefore the exigence of the cafe fo much requiring it, and the text fo plainly inviting to it also, it will be very fit to fay fomewhat of the duty of loving our brother in this latitude, as comprehenfive of all the duty we owe to men as men. Though what I fhall fay at present will be in general. What is particular I'fhall refer to be enlarged upon in the ufe or application. And here I must hint to you that a twofold extreme is carefully to be avoided, that when we speak in this latitude of loving our brother we do not,

1. By that love to our brother fo intend the SER M. inward principle of that love, as to cut off the ex- XIII. ternal acts of it: Nor

2. So confine the notion of this love to the ex

ternal duties of the fecond table,

fhut out the internal principle.

as to exclude or

These are two

extremes which men are very propense to run into, either into the one or the other of them. On the one hand,

1. SOME are very apt to fatisfy themselves that they are blameless, and not liable to exception, if their external deportment be fair and candid, juft and equal, and also charitable now and then as occafion offers; though, in the mean time there be no fuch thing as the inward root and principle of this love in their hearts. It would be as great an abfurdity for any one to fay, that this love doth virtually include and comprehend in it all the external duties that flow from fuch a principle, as it would be to state those duties fo abftractly, as to exclude the principle itself whence they are to proceed. They no way answer the intention and defign of the Holy Ghost in this matter who only comply with the external part and letter of thefe laws, when, in the mean time, the spring and fountain of all these duties hath no place in the foul, namely love itself. For the external acts may proceed from another principle. A man may carry himself juftly to others, for the fake of his reputation; and from the fame motive may do many acts that carry in them mercy, pity and compaffion to thofe that are in diftrefs: but

the

VOL. the principle from whence all this proceeds is felf-
I. love, and not love to his brother. Thus a man

may do fuch and fuch an act of justice, fuch and
fuch charitable actions, as the occafions of them are
administered, merely because he would gain the
reputation of being a moft unexceptionably just
man, a good-natured man, a charitable man.
And many apprehend that they are greatly con-
cerned to do fo upon the account of prudence,
out of a prudential refpect, I fay, to their own
intereft and advantage; fuch efpecially whofe
way of living in the world depends upon trade
and commerce with men. They know, if they
do not obtain and preferve the reputation of juf-
tice, none will have to do with them; every one
will fhun them; they will be thought unfit for
any kind of commerce whatsoever. This is one
extreme therefore that is carefully to be avoided
in this matter. When we fay that love to our
brother includes all the duties of the fecond table,
yet we must not fay it excludes the inward princi-
ple whence those external duties flow; that is,
fuch a love to our neighbour, as that which we
bear, and owe unto our felves, as we know our
Lord refolves it, in the forementioned Scripture.
The other extreme is,

2. THAT we lay not the whole ftrefs of the
bufinefs upon the internal principle, without the
external acts and expreffions: that is, that none
fhould content themfelves with the imagination
and conceit, that they have in their own hearts
and bofoms the principle of love to their brother;

but

!

but in the mean while never exprefs it nor let it SER M. be seen. No, that must be a great fecret to them--XIII. felves, and kept close in their own confciences; they have love in their breasts, but they can find no time or occafion to let it be feen: that is, they can, it may be, give him a good word, or as the Apostle James expreffes it, fay to one in diftress that wants food, or raiment, Depart in peace, be you warmed and filled, but give them nothing for the body. They fay that they pity fuch and fuch perfons; and perhaps there may be fome low degree of pity, but not fuch as exerts itself and commands the confonant act which is agreeable to compaffion, and should be confequent or ought to follow thereupon.

BUT we must understand this duty of loving our brother fo as to comprehend the internal principle, and external expreffions of it together. It is neceffary that there be a fincere love in the heart, and that it demonftrate its own fincerity by fuch expreffions and discoveries, from time to time, as the providence of Go D gives us opportunity. As occafion offers we should, as the Apoftle exhorts, do good to all men, but especially to them who are of the houshold of faith ".

AND if love to man is to be taken in fuch a latitude as hath been said, if it gathers within the compass of it both the principle and all the actions that properly belong to it, we are not then to think we have a mean, low, ignoble object for our love. There is an image of Go D that man as man doth

James 11, 16.

• Gal. vi. 10.

bear

VOL, bear upon him. It is true, there is an image that I. hath been loft, but there is one ftill that is not capable of being fo. The fpiritual fupernatural image wherein man did resemble GoD in holiness was banished from the nature of man univerfaily, till he was pleased to renew it, and make us his own workmanship created in Chrift Jefus unto good works. But there is befides that a natural image of Go D, which man still bears, in as much as he partakes of a spiritual, intellectual nature, refembling that of Go D. So that it is a noble object of love we have. We are to love men, even as Go D's own offspring, his fons, as he is the Father of Spirits. There is in every man a fpiritual nature, of which GoD owns himself to be the great Parent and common Father. Therefore to have a heart univerfally inspired with love to men as men, which flows even as far as the nature of man reaches and extends it felf, even to all mankind, this, I say, we must understand to be the fum of the duty given us in charge under the expreffion of love to our brother.

WE are to be lovers of mankind under one common notion; that is, to love upon an universal reason, which reaches to man as man, and so consequently to every man. "This is one of my own fpecies whom I am required to love; of that "rank and order in which GOD hath fet me in "the creation, and who all of us bear the image "of the common LORD upon us." And you know it is the thing we find fuperadded, as the inforcement of one of the great precepts of the

fecond