ourselves, because he is as ourselves, or really in all considerable respects the same with us: this explained.

2. It is just that we should do so, because he really no less deserves our love. Justice is impartial, and regards things as they are in themselves; whence if our neighbor seem worthy of affection no less than we, it demands accordingly that we love him no less: this topic enlarged on.

3. It is fit that we should be obliged to this love, because all charity beneath self-love is defective, and all self-love above charity is excessive.

4. Equity requires it, because we are apt to claim the same measure of love from others.

5. It is needful that so great charity be prescribed, because none inferior to it will reach divers weighty ends designed in this law; viz. the general convenience and comfort of our lives in mutual intercourse and society.

6. That intire love which we owe to God our Creator, and to Christ our Redeemer, exacts from us no less a measure of charity than this.

7. Indeed the whole tenor and genius of our religion imply an obligation to this pitch of love on various accounts: these laid down.

8. Many conspicuous examples, proposed for our direction in this kind of practice, imply such a degree of charity as required of us. Instances quoted of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Jonathan, David, Elias, Jeremiah, and the other prophets, as well as the holy Apostles: the life of these last surveyed in this respect.

Finally, our Lord himself in our nature exemplified this duty; yea, by his practice he far outdid his precept: his great example dilated on to the end.

SERMON XXV.

OF THE LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR.

MATTHEW, CHAP. XXII.-VERSE 39.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

THE essential goodness of God, and his special benignity toward mankind, are to a considering mind divers ways very apparent; the frame of the world, and the natural course of things, do with a thousand voices loudly and clearly proclaim them to us; every sense doth yield us affidavit to that speech of the holy psalmist, 'the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord' we see it in the glorious brightness of the skies, and in the pleasant verdure of the fields; we taste it in the various delicacies of food, supplied by land and sea; we smell it in the fragrances of herbs and flowers; we hear it in the natural music of the woods; we feel it in the comfortable warmth of heaven, and in the cheering freshness of the air; we continually do possess and enjoy it in the numberless accommodations of life, presented to us by the bountiful hand of nature.

Of the same goodness we may be well assured by that common providence which continually doth uphold us in our being, doth opportunely relieve our needs, doth protect us in dangers, and rescue us from imminent mischiefs, doth comport with our infirmities and misdemeanors; the which, in the divine psalmist's style, doth hold our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet

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to be moved;' doth redeem our life from destruction;' doth

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crown us with loving-kindness, and tender mercies.’

The dispensations of grace, in the revelation of heavenly truth, in the overtures of mercy, in the succors of our weakness, in the proposal of glorious rewards, in all the methods and means conducing to our salvation, do afford most admirable proofs and pledges of the same immense benignity.

But in nothing is the divine goodness toward us more illustriously conspicuous, than in the nature and tendency of those laws which God hath been pleased, for the regulation of our lives, to prescribe unto us, all which do palpably evidence his serious desire and provident care of our welfare; so that, in imposing them, he plainly doth not so much exercise his sovereignty over us, as express his kindness toward us; neither do they more clearly declare his will, than demonstrate his good-will to us.

And among all divine precepts this especially, contained in my text, doth argue the wonderful goodness of our heavenly Lawgiver, appearing both in the manner of the proposal, and in the substance of it.

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'The second,' saith our Lord, is like to it; that is, to the precept of loving the Lord our God with all our heart:' and is not this a mighty argument of immense goodness in God, that he doth in such a manner commend this duty to us, coupling it with our main duty toward him, and requiring us with like earnestness to love our neighbor as to love himself?

He is transcendently amiable for the excellency of his nature; he, by innumerable and inestimable benefits graciously conferred on us, hath deserved our utmost affection; so that naturally there can be no obligation bearing any proportion or considerable semblance to that of loving him yet hath he in goodness been pleased to create one, and to endue it with that privilege; making the love of a man (whom we cannot value but for his gifts, to whom we can owe nothing but what properly we owe to him) no less obligatory, to declare it near as acceptable as the love of himself, to whom we owe all. To him, as the sole author and free donor of all our good, by just correspondence, all our mind and heart, all our strength and

endeavor, are due: and reasonably might he engross them to himself, excluding all other beings from any share in them; so that we might be obliged only to fix our thoughts and set our affections on him, only to act directly for his honor and interest; saying with the holy psalmist, Whom have I in hea ven but thee? and there is none on earth that I desire beside thee:' yet doth he freely please to impart a share of these performances on mankind; yet doth he charge us to place our affection on one another; to place it there, indeed, in a measure so large, that we can hardly imagine a greater; according to a rule, than which none can be devised more complete or certain.

O marvellous condescension, O goodness truly divine; which surpasseth the nature of things, which dispenseth with the highest right, and foregoeth the greatest interest that can be! Doth not God in a sort debase himself, that he might advance us? Doth he not appear to waive his own due, and neglect his own honor for our advantage? How otherwise could the love of man be capable of any resemblance to the love of God, and not stand at an infinite distance, or in an extreme disparity from it? How otherwise could we be obliged to affect or regard any thing beside the sovereign, the only goodness? How otherwise could there be any second or like to that first, that great, that peerless command, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart?'

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This indeed is the highest commendation whereof any law is capable for as to be like God is the highest praise that can be given to a person; so to resemble the divinest law of love to God is the fairest character that can be assigned of a law: the which indeed representeth it to be vóμos Baoiλikòs, as St. James calleth it; that is, a royal and sovereign law; exalted above all others, and bearing a sway on them. St. Paul telleth us, that the end of the commandment (or, the main scope of the evangelical doctrine) is 'charity out of a pure heart, and á good conscience, and faith unfeigned;' that charity is the sum and substance of all other duties, and that he that loveth another hath fulfilled the whole law;' that charity is the chief of the theological virtues, and the prime fruit of the divine Spirit ;' and the bond of perfection,' which combineth and consum

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mateth all other graces, and the general principle of all our doings. St. Peter enjoineth us that to all other virtues we' add charity,' as the top and crown of them: and, Above all things,' saith he, have fervent charity among yourselves.' St. John calleth this law, in way of excellence, the commandment of God;' and our Lord himself claimeth it as his peculiar precept, 'This,' saith he, is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you;' 'A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another:' and maketh the observance of it the special cognisance of his followers, By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another.'

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These indeed are lofty commendations thereof, yet all of them may worthily veil to this; all of them seem verified in virtue of this, because God hath vouchsafed to place this command in so near adjacency to the first great law, conjoining the two tables; making charity contiguous, and, as it were, commensurate to piety.

It is true that in many respects charity doth resemble piety; for it is the most genuine daughter of piety, thence in complexion, in features, in humor much favoring its sweet mother: it doth consist in like dispositions and motions of soul: it doth grow from the same roots and principles of benignity, ingenuity, equity, gratitude, planted in our original constitution by the breath of God, and improved in our hearts by the divine Spirit of love; it produceth the like fruits of beneficence toward others, and of comfort in ourselves; it in like manner doth assimilate us to God, rendering us conformable to his nature, followers of his practice, and partakers of his felicity: it is of like use and consequence toward the regulation of our practice, and due management of our whole life: in such respects, I say, this law is like to the other; but it is however chiefly so for that God hath pleased to lay so great stress thereon, as to make it the other half of our religion and duty; or because, as St. John saith,This commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also;' which is to his praise a most pregnant demonstration of his immense goodness toward us.

But no less in the very substance of this duty will the benig nity of him that prescribeth it shine forth, displaying itself in the rare beauty and sweetness of it; together with the vast