morality in the obfervance of this precept. Love therefore is the fulfilling of the law. But he only copies the original his great Mafter left him. For indeed our Saviour has promulged this law with fuch an emphafis, that he feems to have defigned it for the distinguishing mark of his religion. In the first place, he commands us to love God; in the second, our neighbour; and if that takes the first place of all the divine and natural precepts, this takes the second.

And that his followers may be perfuaded to live up to the very height of the precept, he first propofed his heavenly Father's example, who divides with an equal hand, the common benefits of nature, between his friends and enemies, commanding the fun to pour down his benign influence on the finner, as well as on the faint; and then concludes with this exhortation, Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. As if the obfervance of this law alone comprifed the fum of Chriftian perfection.

St. Paul feems to have understood our Saviour in this fenfe. For, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou fhalt not bear false witness, &c. And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this faying, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy felf: And St. John continually held forth on this fubject; Brethren, love one another; and when fo frequent a repetition difgufted his audience, he stopped their complaints, with telling them, It was our Saviour's own command. Without brotherly love you cannot discharge the duty of a Chriftian, nor fall fhort of your obligation, with it. The primitive Chriftians were fo nicely fcrupulous in the practice of this virtue, that one heart feemed to enliven all their bodies, and ore foul to prefide over all their actions: They were of one heart and one foul, fays the text. Acts iv. 32.

So

So that the very heathens, who hated their religion, admired their union; and the moft judicious among them were forced to confefs, that nothing but a divine hand was able to ftrike fuch a heavenly concord out of fuch a jarring difcord of complexions, conftitutions, and interefts. But this golden age foon vanifhed, to make room for another of fteel. For fcarce was the name of Chriftian taken up, but that of brother was laid afide. Meum & tuum, mine and thine, Frigidum illud verbum, that cold word, as St. Chryfoftome terms it, conjured up from hell difputes (till then) unknown in the Church thefe drew in parties, and then hatched factions; and then fuch a deluge of vice broke in upon the Church, that the only vifible difference between the infidels and the faithful, was, that these profeffed a more pure and holy religion, and thofe practifed lefs blameable vices. And when Christians thus changed their manners, the idolaters altered their judgment, and inferred from the praEtice of Chriftians, that their profeffion was rather a mystery of iniquity than of godlinefs. Thus the infamy of our lives ftigmatizes the fanctity of our faith, and Chrift himself receives infult and outrage from those who adore him, as well as from thofe who blafpheme him.

But however, tho' Christendom blush with the blood (not of martyrdom) but of war; tho' private families are rent with feuds and enmities; tho' the royal law, Love thy neighbour as thy felf, be repealed in life and practice; yet it stands in force in fcripture; nor can either numbers or custom juftify the breach of it; Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy foul, with all thy ftrength and thy neighbour as thy felf. As your Maker's excellence exceeds all bounds, fo your love to him muft furpafs all measure. Nor muft the kindnefs you owe your neighbour be confined

I 3

confined to a lefs compass, than that you bear your felf. You must not indeed forfeit your peace with God to buy his friendship, nor damn your foul to fave his it is not love, but madness, to fend a neighbour to heaven, and ourselves to hell. And left the devil and paffion might reftrain the word neighbour, as the Jews did, to friends and relations; -our Saviour has extended it to the whole race of mankind whoever bears the imprefs of God on his forehead, tho' he carries the image of the beaft in his foul, is ftill our neighbour : neither diftance of place, nor length of time, can wear off the relation, nor affronts or injuries annul the obligation.

Some pretend, this precept only forbids hatred; but this is an error that bids defiance to the text. Love certainly is not a mere negative; to wifh a neighbour well, implies fomething more than not to wish him ill; and there is a very material difference between doing a good turn, and not doing an ill one. St. John, in his first epiftle, chap. iii. 14. tells us, that not only he, who hates his brother, fins mortally; but also he, who refufes his love ; nor must this love only dwell on the tongue, or fit on the lips; forms of courtship, vain offers of fervice, or empty promifes, cancel not the debt; it muft lodge in the heart, and ftand the trial of actions.

You must cloath the naked, Ifaiah lviii. 7, feed the hungry, affift the widow, and protect the orphan; and, when you cannot avert a misfortune, you must affwage the pain firft by liberality, and then by counsel and compaffion; and, if the wound be too deep to admit of human remedies, apply divine; perfuade him to bear his cross like the good thief, with refignation to the orders of providence, not like the bad one, with defpair and blafphemy. No man's ftation raifes him above this obligation,

and

and no man's misery flings him below it. The inequality of birth, title, and equipage, makes none in nature: the prince and peafant are of the fame fpecies: the fovereign on the throne is both neighbour and brother to the beggar on the dunghill.

Now, because this precept runs high against the ftream of flesh and blood, Chrift promises to receive the obfervers of it among the number of his favourites; By this fhall all men know, that ye are my difciples, if ye have love one to another, John xiii. 35. To this he adds a beatitude; Blessed are the peace-makers, Matth. v. 9. and then declares them fons of the Moft High, and heirs apparent of heaven for they shall be called the children of God. Then he turns to threats, that thofe, whofe stubborn hearts will not bend to allurements, may at least be broken by menaces; fo that all men may be drawn into love, either by the hope of reward, or fear of punishment. It is therefore our interest, as well as our duty, to love our neighbour, not only if he be our friend (which is at beft a Jewish virtue) but also if he be our enemy; Love your enemies; for without this there is no falvation: for our Saviour commands us to facrifice all refentment to love, before we make our offering at his altar; otherwise, tho' we invoke him in our prayers, we shall call down upon our heads (what Jacob only apprehended) a curfe in the place of a bleffing: And for this reason, in that very prayer Chrift was pleased to teach us, he orders us to implore God's mercy, with this provifo, that we fhew mercy to our neighbour. So that to beg his pardon, and refuse ours, is in reality, tho' in terms of refpect, to play with his mercy, and irritate his juftice. In how dangerous a fituation therefore is their falvation, whofe very repentance deferves chaftisement, and whofe endeavours to appease 1 4

God's

God's anger, ferve only as new provocations to inflame it!

But the fear of hell is too low a motive for a Christian virtue: he, who can only be scared into his duty, by the fight of fire and brimftone, has more of the beaft than of the man. If Chrift died for our fins, he lived three and thirty years for our example; and this we muft imitate, if we intend to be his difciples. Now, if we caft one tranfient glance upon his whole conduct, we fhall find he practised this virtue as ftrictly himself, as he comm...ded us. With one 1 will, he might have closed up the breach our fins had made between heaven and earth. His heavenly Father could not refuse what he had the goodness to ask. But he refolved on a more ftupendous method; he would affume the very nature of his Father's enemies, and of his own, to mediate their pardon, and to give them his life for a model, and his blood for a ranfom. The greatness of his love overpowered the juftice of his refentment. He laboured for his enemies, as if his happiness depended on theirs, and that he could not enjoy peace himself, till he had made up theirs with God. He walked through towns and villages, doing good, dropping as many favours as he took fteps, and receiving affronts in the fame proportion. Yet, to demonstrate, that his love furpaffed man's malice, he pardoned all their barbarity was able to commit. And, tho' he knew his readiness to forget past offences would tempt his enemies to new infults; yet he drew motives of love from their very hatred, and refolved either to tire their malice by patience, or to win their hearts by importunity, or to lose his life by their fury. The preffing invitation of Abgarus to Edeffa, where he would have been adored as God, could not withdraw him from Judea, where he was contemned as the laft of men. All motives of