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wherein none but excellent persons shall rival you, Learn to adore your nature: and think it not below you to stand in awe of him who can rend the heavens, and make the foundations of the earth shake; who needs but to withdraw his mercies to make you miserable, or his assistance to reduce you to nothing, Study to ennoble your souls with solid knowledge and true wisdom; with an eminent greatness of mind, and contempt of the world; a great liberty and freedom of spirit; an undaunted magnanimity and courage; and extensive charity and goodness; a venerable temper and purity; an amiable meekness and humility; so shall you render yourselves honourable, and more excellent than your neighbours in this world; and be partakers of immortal honour and glory in the world Amen.

to come.

THE INDISPENSABLE DUTY OF LOVING OUR ENEMIES.

LUKE, vi. 27.

But I say unto you which hear, love your enemies. WHILE we travel through the wilderness of this world, much of the comfort of our pilgrimage depends on the good correspondence, and mutual-services and endearments of our fellow-travellers. Therefore, our blessed Saviour, whose precepts are all intended for our perfection and felicity, fitted to procure to us both the good things of this world, and that which is to come, has taken especial care to join and unite the minds of men in the strictest bonds of friendship and love. He hath been at great pains by his precepts and by his example, by earnest persuasion and powerful motives, to smooth our rugged humours, and calm our passions, and take off the

roughness and asperity from our natures, which hinders us from joining and cementing together. Now, were we to converse with none but such as are Christians in earnest, we should find it no hard matter to live in concord and love; we should meet with no occasion of quarrel and contention; and should only be obliged to love our friends, because all men would be such. But well did our Saviour know that his part was to be small in the world; that many would oppose the profession, and many more would neglect the practice of that religion which he taught; and that his followers, besides common injuries incident to others were to meet with much enmity and hatred for their master's sake, and therefore, that amidst all these storms, they might maintain that constant serene tranquillity, that amiable sweetness and benignity of spirit, without which they could neither be like him, nor happy in themselves, he was pleased to enjoin such an ardent affection and charity towards all men, as no neglect can cool, no injury can extinguish. To love those who have obliged us, is that which nature might teach, and wicked men practice; to favour those who have never wronged us, is but a piece of common humanity: but our religion requires us to extend our kindness even to those who have injured and abused us, and who continue to do and wish us mischief: and that we never design any other revenge against our most bitter and inveterate enemies, than to wish them well, and do them all the good we can, whether they will or not: for unto those that hear him our Saviour saith, love your enemies.

But, alas! how little is this minded by the greater part of those who call themselves Christians. Other precepts are broken and slighted, but this is industriously baffled and discredited by us. In other cases we acknowledge our fault, but study to qualify and excuse it by the frailty of our nature, or violence of

a temptation: (we are all sinners; it is a fault indeed; but who can help it?) Now, though these excuses, God knows, are very frivolous, and will be of no force in the great day of our accounts; yet they imply something of modesty and ingenuous ac knowledgment, and men may repent and forsake what they already condemn. But in the instance of loving enemies, and pardoning offences, many are so bold and impudent, that, instead of obeying, they quarrel with the law as impossible and unjust; passing sentence upon that by which themselves must be judged. How unreasonable is it (say they) that we should love those that hate us? What congruity between that act and those objects! Can cold snow produce heat, or enmity beget affection? Must we be insensible of the injuries we meet with, or reward him that offers them? Must we dissolve the principles of our nature, and cease to be men, that we may become Christians? These, and such like, are either the expressions or thoughts of too many among us! and either Christ must come down in his offers, and remit somewhat of the rigour of his laws, or else all the promises of the Gospel; all the pleasures of the other world, shall not engage them to his obedience. They will rather chuse to burn in eternal flames of fury and discord, than live at peace with those that have wronged them.

It can therefore never be unseasonable to press a duty so very necessary, yet so much neglected. The text I have chosen for this purpose is very plain and clear: Love your enemies. But, because many do strain the precept to some such sense as may suit with their own practice, we shall first search into the importance of it, and then persuade you to perform it. The full meaning and importance of the precept will appear, if we consider, first, Who they are whom we are commanded to love; and secondly, Wherein the love we owe them does consist.

The persons whom we are commanded to love, are called our enemies. And lest we should mistake them, they are clearly described in the following words:-The fountain of their enmity is within. They are those who hate us; who envy our happiness; who wish our misery, and abhor our persons and society. But, were this fire kept within their breast, it might well scorch themselves, it could not prejudice us: but out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh; their malice does sharpen their tongues. They are farther described as those that curse us; they vent their wrath in oaths and imprecations, secret calumnies, and open reproaches. Nor are their hands always bound up; they use us despitefully, and procure us mischief. Now, if our love must be extended to all these, we shall hardly find any whom we dare safely exclude. Of our private enemies there can be no question. But what shall be said of the enemies of our country, I see no warrant to exclude them from our charity. We may indeed lawfully oppose their violent invasion, and defend our rights with the sword, under the banner of the public magistrate, to whom such authority is committed: but all this may be done with as little malice and hatred as a judge may punish a malefactor; the General may be as void of passion as the Lord Chief Justice; and the soldier, as the executioner. But charity will oblige a prince never to have recourse to the sword, till all other remedies fail: to blunt the edge of war, by sparing as much as may be the shedding of innocent blood, with all other barbarities that use to accompany it; and to accept of any reasonable capitulation.

We come next to the enemies of our religion : and indeed there are many who are so far from thinking them to be among the number of those whom they are obliged to love, that they look upon it as a part of their duty to hate and malign them.

Their zeal is continually venting itself in fierce invectives against Antichrist, and every thing they are pleased to call Antichristian; and they are ready to apply all the prophecies and imprecations of the Old Testament, in their very prayers, against those that differ from them. And ordinarily the animosities are greatest where the differences are least; and one party of a reformed church shall be more incensed against another, than either against the superstition and tyranny of Rome, or the carnality of the Mahometan faith. Yea, perhaps you may find some who agree in opinion, and only differ in several ways of expressing the same thing, and yet can scarce look on one another without displeasure and aversion. But, alas! how much do these men disparage that religion for which they appear so zealous; how much do they mistake the spirit of Christianity! Are the persons whom they hate, greater enemies to religion, than those who persecuted the Apostles and martyrs for professing it? And yet these were the persons whom our Saviour commanded his disciples to love and himself did pray for those that crucified him; and severely checked the disciples, when, by a precedent brought from the Old Testament, they would have called for fire from heaven on those who would not receive them; telling them, They knew not what spirit they were of: i. e. They did not consider by what spirit they were prompted to such cruel inclinations; or, as others explain it, they did not yet sufficiently understand the temper and genius of Christianity; which is pure and peaceable; gentle and meek; full of sweetness, and full of love. If men would impartially examine their hatred and animosity against the enemies of their religion, I fear they would find them proceed from a principle which themselves would not willingly own. Pride and self-conceit will make a man disdain those of a different persuasion; and think it a disparagement

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