for them all thefe do challenge our more efpecial regard and confideration.

IV. We will confider our obligations to this duty, not only from our Saviour's authority, but likewife from our own nature, and from the reasonableness and excellency of the thing commanded. This is the commandment of the Son of God, who came down from heaven with full authority to declare the will of God to us. And this is peculiarly his commandment, which he urgeth upon his difciples fo earneftly, and fo as if he almoft required nothing else in comparison of this: John xv. 12. This is my commandment, that ye love one another; and y 17. Thefe things I command you, that ye love one another: as if this were the end of all his precepts, and of his whole doctrine, to bring us to the practice of this duty. And fo St. John, the loving and beloved disciple, fpeaks of it as the great meffage which the Son of God was to deliver to mankind: 1 John iii. 11. This is the message which ye have heard from the beginning, that we should love one ano ther; and y 23. This is his commandment, that we Should believe on the name of his Son Jefus Chrift, and love one another, as he gave us commandment; and chap. iv. 21. This commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother alfo.

But befides the authority of our Saviour, we have a precedent obligation to it from our own nature, and from the reasonablenefs and excellency of the thing itself. The frame of our nature difpofeth us to it, and our inclination to fociety, in which there can be no pleasure, no advantage, without mutual love and kindness. And equity alfo calls for it; for that we ourfelves with and expect kindness from others, is conviction enough to us that we owe it to others. The fulfilling of this law is the great perfection of our natures, the advancement and enlargement of our fouls, the chief ornament and beauty of a great mind. It makes us like to God, the beft, and moft perfect, and happiest being, in that which is the prime excellency, and happiness, and glory of the divine

nature.

And the advantages of this temper are unspeakable and innumerable. It freeth our fouls from thofe unruly, and troublefome, and difquieting paffions which are the great Ff3

torment

It

torment of our fpirits; from anger and envy, from malice and revenge, from jealoufy and difcontent. makes our minds calm and chearful, and puts our fouls into an cafy posture, and into good humour; and maintains us in the poffeflion and enjoyment of ourselves: it preferves men from many mischiefs and inconveniencies, to which enmity and ill-will do perpetually expose them it is apt to make friends, and to gain enemies; and to render every condition either pleasant, or eafy, or tolerable to us. So that to love others, is the truest love to ourselves, and doth redound to our own unspeakable benefit and advantage in all refpects.

It is a very confiderable part of our duty, and almost equalled by our Saviour with the firft and great commandment of the law. It is highly acceptable to God, most beneficial to others, and very comfortable to ourselves. It is the easiest of all duties, and it makes all others eafy; the pleasure of it makes the pains to fignify nothing, and the delightful reflexion upon it afterwards is a most ample reward of it. It is a duty in every man's power to perform, how ftrait and indigent foever his fortune and condition be. The poorest man may be as charitable as a prince; he may have as much kindness in his heart, though his hand cannot be fo bountiful and munificent. Our Saviour instanceth in the giving of a cup of cold water, as a charity that will be highly accepted and rewarded by God. And one of the most celebrated charities that ever was, how fmall was it for the matter of it, and yet how great in regard of the mind that gave it? I mean the widow's two mites, which the caft into the treasury. One could hardly give lefs, and yet none can give more; for fhe gave all that she had. All these excellencies and advantages of love and charity, which I have briefly recounted, are so many arguments, fo many obligations to the practice of this duty.

V. We will confider the great inftance and example which is here propounded to our imitation: As I have loved you, that ye alfo love one another. The Son of God's becoming man, his whole life, his bitter death and paffion, all that he did, and all that he suffered, was one great and continued proof and evidence of his mighty love to mankind. The greatest instance of love among

men,

men, and that too but very rare, is for a man to lay down. his life for another, for his friend; but the Son of God died for all mankind, and we were all his enemies. And fhould we not chearfully imitate the example of that great love and charity, the effects whereof are fo comfortable, fo beneficial, fo happy to every one of us? Had he not loved us, and died for us, we had certainly perished, we had been miserable and undone to all eternity.

And to perpetuate this great example of charity, and that it might be always fresh in our memories, the great facrament of our religion was on purpose instituted for the commemoration of this great love of the Son of God, in laying down his life, and shedding his precious blood, for the wicked and rebellious race of mankind. But I have not time to enlarge upon this noble argument as it de→ ferves.

VI. The last thing to be confidered is, the place and rank which this precept and duty holds in the Chriftian religion. Our bleffed Saviour here makes it the proper badge and cognisance of our profeffion: By this fhall all men know that ye are my difciples, if ye love one another. The different fects among the Jews had fome peculiar character to distinguish them from one another. The fcholars of the feveral great Rabbi's among them had fome peculiar fayings and opinions, fome cuftoms and traditions, whereby they were feverally known: and fo likewife the difciples of John the Baptift were particularly remarkable for their great aufterities. In allufion to thefe diftinctions of fects and fchools among the Jews, our Saviour fixeth upon this mark and character whereby his difciples fhould be known from the disciples of any other institution, a mighty love and affection to one another.

Other fects were distinguished by little opinions, or by fome external rites and obfervances in religion; but our Saviour pitcheth upon that which is the most real and fubftantial, the moft large and extenfive, the most useful and beneficial, the most humane and the most divine quality of which we are capable.

This was his great commandment to his difciples before he left the world; this was the legacy he left them,

and

and the effect of his laft prayers for them; and for this end, among others, he inftituted the facrament of his bleffed body and blood, to be a lively remembrance of his great charity to mankind, and a perpetual bond of love and union amongst his followers.

And the Apoftles of our Lord and Saviour do upon all occafions recommend this to us, as a principal duty and part of our religion; telling us, that in Chrift Jefus, that is, in the Christian religion, nothing will avail, no not faith itfelf, unless it be enlivened and infpired by charity; that love is the end of the commandment, Téños τῆς παραγγελίας, the end of the evangelical declaration, the first fruit of the Spirit, the fpring and root of all thofe graces and virtues which concern our duty towards one another; that it is the fum and abridgment, the accomplishment and fulfilling of the whole law; that without this, whatever we pretend to in Christianity, we are nothing, and our religion is vain; that this is the greateft of all graces and virtues, greater than faith and hope; and of perpetual ufe and duration : Charity never fails.

And therefore they exhort us above all things to endeavour after it, as the crown of all other virtues: Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves, faith St. Peter. And St. Paul having enumerated most other Chriftian virtues, exhorts us above all to strive after this : And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfection. This St. John makes one of the most certain figns of our love to God, and the want of it an undeniable argument of the contrary: If a man fay, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he who loveth not his brother whom he hath feen, how can he love God whom he hath not feen? This he declares to be one of the best evidences that we are in a state of grace and falvation Hereby we know that we are passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.

:

So that well might our bleffed Saviour chuse this for the badge of his difciples, and make it the great precept of the best and most perfect inftitution. Other things might have served better for pomp and oftentation; and have more gratified the curiofity, or enthufiafm, or fuperftition of mankind: but there is no quality in the

world

world which, upon a fober and impartial confideration, is of a more folid and intrinfick value.

And in the first ages of Christianity, the Chriftians were very eminent for this virtue, and particularly noted for it. Nobis notam inurit apud quofdam : 66 It is a "mark and brand fet upon us by fome," faith Tertullian; and he tells us, that it was proverbially faid among the Heathen, 66 Behold, how thefe Chriftians love one an"other! Lucian, that great fcoffer at all religion, acknowledgeth in behalf of Chriftians, that this was the great principle which their master had inftilled into them. And Julian, the bittereft enemy that Christianity ever had, could not forbear to propound to the Heathen for an example the charity of the Galileans; for fo, by way of reproach, he calls the Chriftians; "who (fays he) gave

up themselves to humanity and kindness; which he acknowledgeth to have been very much to the advantage and reputation of our religion. And in the fame letter to Arfacius, the Heathen High Priest of Galatia, he gives this memorable teftimony of the Chriftians, that their charity was not limited and confined only to themselves, but extended even to their enemies; which could not be faid either of the Jews or Heathens. His words are thefe: "It is a fhame, that when the Jews fuffer none "of theirs to beg, and the impious Galileans relieve

not only their own, but thofe alfo of our religion, "that we only fhould be defective in fo neceffary a "duty." By all which it is evident, that love and charity is not only the great precept of our Saviour, but was in those first and best times the general practice of his difciples, and acknowledged by the Heathens as a very peculiar and remarkable quality in them.

The application I fhall make of this difcourfe fhall be threefold.

1. With relation to the church of Rome.

2. With regard to ourselves, who profess the Protestant Reformed religion.

3. With a more particular respect to the occafion of this meeting.

I. With relation to the church of Rome; which we cannot chufe but think of whenever we fpeak of charity, and loving one another; efpecially having had fo late a

discovery