diligent Execution of his Apostleship Feed my Sheep And the Method which our Lord here prescribes to Peter must be observed also by us in advancing the Kingdom of God When thou art converted says he strengthen thy Brethren We must first set up the Kingdom of God in our own hearts before we attempt to erect it in others As he is unfit to be a Teacher that is not first well instructed himself So he is not fit to be a Reformer that is not first reform'd himself for his Evil Manners will certainly defeat his Sermon and instead of making others righteous by his preaching he will render himself ridiculous 'T is a Noble Undertaking to bring others to the fear of God but 't is an indispensable Duty to serve God our selves says S t James He that converteth a Sinner from the Error of his ways shall save a Soul from death that 's an Heroick Action and shall hide a multitude of Sins that 's a necessary Concern Self-reformation is the most Effectual Step we can make to promote God's Glory 't is such a Giantly Step as I may say as reaches from the Setting out of the Course to the End of it 't is like the first Step of the Sun above the Horizon which darts Rays to the furthest Circumference of it and fills the whole Hemisphere with Light and Vigour which these Words of our Lord seem to allude to Let your Light so shine before men that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Nothing so illustrates the Gospel nothing so powerfully converts Sinners and brings them to glorifie God as the Holy Lives of the Faithful But I urge not this to exclude other Endeavours to propagate Righteousness but to shew the great Force and Prevalence that Righteousness has to produce Righteousness I proceed to the Objects of our Love which are two God and our Neighbour 1. God Saint John speaks as if there were some difficulty in this Part of our Duty Our loving God says he He that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Implying though the Ear be Janua Scientiae the Gate of Knowledge the Eye is Janua Amoris the Gate of Love and that to excite this Passion 't is requisite some Visible Beauty be display'd But we may say to this Though we do not see God yet we may love him by what we see and hear of him nay with good reason we may be the more enamour'd on him because his Perfections transcend not only our mortal Senses but even all humane Conception and thus we may fall in love as Blind Men often passionately do by report and hear-say But more particularly there are three Motives why we should love God comprehended in the very Object The Lord thy God 1. Because he is God For that 's the Name of the highest Excellence and Perfection and they are only Glorious and Illustrious things that stir Love and Admiration in us we run not out to gaze upon Common Persons but upon those that are famous for Greatness Learning Beauty Prowess and the like Now there is nothing Rare or Admirable of any kind but 't is in God in its Fullness and Perfection and for this reason Epicurus though he believed no Providence or that Men received any Good or Evil from the Gods yet he adored them and sacrificed to them merely because they were Glorious Beings Had we no other Cause to love God but for the Stupendous Perfections that are in him it were sufficient But we have greater reason to love him from the Second Motive Because we have the Honour of Relation to him he is The Lord Our God The Psalmist thought it a high Obligation to praise him because he was created by him I will praise thee because I am fearfully and wonderfully made But we have not only the Obligation upon us of Creation and Conversation which is a kind of continual Creation in common with all Creatures to love God but other Extraordinary and Distinguishing Favours viz. his calling us to the Knowledge of the Faith and the Blessed Consequences attending it and this ought to tune our Harps yet higher and to be the Subject of many Hymns and Psalms more But then Thirdly Our greatest Motive of all to love him is Because he Redeem'd us after we were lost restor'd us when by our Sins we were in a manner uncreated again when we had defac'd the Image of God in us our Innocence and Righteousness forfeited all our Felicity and were become the Bond-slaves of Satan then he rescued us from Eternal Damnation and made us again the Children of God So that as he is Deus or God to all Mankind to Christians he is also over and above Dominus a Lord i. e. a Redeemer and Saviour There is nothing so much obliges as Love and Benefits Celsus the Physician speaking of Philtres or Love-potions says Amor est naturale Philtrum Love is a Natural Love-potion and more powerful than those that are compounded of Drugs and by Incantations The most stupid of Creatures the dull Oxe and Ass the wildest and fiercest the Lion and Tyger are brought to love by good Usage though they know not the Nature of a Man they know if they receive Meat at his hands and be well treated by him and will love him and be obsequious to him And men were more insensible than the Brutes if when they have received of the Riches of God's Bounty and Goodness they refuse to love him because they have not seen his Person and cannot comprehend his Essence And God Isai. 1.3 complains of this stupid Insensibility in Israel The Oxe says he knoweth his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib but Israel doth not know my people do not consider We love God as S t John says because he loved us first he began with us and our Love to him is at best a Gratitude or Retaliation if therefore the innumerable and inestimable Benefits of God work no return of Love in us to him we deserve not only to have our Names rased out of the Number of Men but to be allowed no place among the better natur'd Beasts but to be rang'd with Devils who are the only Enemies of God for his Goodness and Haters of him for that which is Excellent and Amiable in him The next thing I am to shew is In what Measure or Degree we are to love God The Words of the Commandment are Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul with all thy heart and with all thy mind On which three Expressions Commentators have many Observations and Criticisms but more nice than profitable for as Saint John says of the three that bear witness on Earth the Spirit the Water and the Bloud these three are one so I may say of these three Expressions in the Commandment however diversify'd that in importance they are but One and may be summ'd up
among the Jews to repulse those that moved any thing to them unseasonably or unworthy of them to do in their Opinion and also to express their Resentment if they thought themselves hardly dealt with The Widow of Zerephath used it this last way to the Prophet Elijah when she conceiv'd the Cohabitation of so holy a Person with her and his near Inspection into her Life was the Cause of her Childs death What have I to do with thee says she O thou Man of God! art thou come unto me to call my Sins to remembrance and to slay my Son And David used it the first way 2 Sam. 19. to Abishai urging him to put Shimei to death upon the Day of his Restoration to the Kingdom because he had Curs'd him in his Flight from Jerusalem Says he What have I to do with you ye Sons of Zerviah And notwithstanding the great Dislike and Offence this Phrase exprest our Lord forbore not to use it to his Mother intermedling in his Divine Employment Woman says he What have I to do with thee I confess it was durum Dictum a harsh Speech considering the Person to whom 't was spoken but 't was also if rightly weighed frugiferum Dictum a Speech full of good Instruction and Profit For it shews Christ's equal and impartial Deportment as he is a Lord and Saviour to all Persons whatsoever without Consideration of Country Acquaintance or Kindred The very Womb that bare him in an Unadvis'd Action shall not go away without a Rebuke if his Mother does that which is Dishonourable to his Office she shall hear that which is less honourable to her Relation if she forgets her Duty he will forget her Name and Title A good Lesson for those Favourites of Christ in these our Days who call themselves his Elect and his Darling Children however they live in Disobedience to his Laws and fansie he can see nothing in them that displeases him whatever wickedness they commit Though Propinquity in Grace be more in Christ's account than Propinquity in Bloud yet if even those that are ally'd to him by Grace sin presumptuously against him they will find him but a rough Kinsman Though Coniah were as the Signet upon my Right hand says God yet would I pluck him thence And if Peter the most Zealous of the Apostles shall take upon him to tempt Christ he shall bear the Name of Adversary Get thee behind me Satan If the Provocations of the Servants of God be Great however near and close their former Relation to him was they will find him as far Estranged from them and in Case their Provocations be of a less and meaner Allay they will receive a Check as the Blessed Virgin here did And so I proceed to the Reason why Christ reprov'd her Because she unseasonably interpos'd in what she ought not to have meddled prompted him to work a Miracle before his Time was come My Time says he is not yet come These and the foregoing Words Woman what have I to do with thee utterly o'erthrow all the vain and false Glories which the Church of Rome Superstitiously Idolatrously and injuriously rather than Devoutly heap upon our Lady ascribing to her impeccability and being born without Sin the Title of Queen of Heaven and a perpetual Regency over her Son c. But as Stout and resolute Souldiers where the Works are weakest shew the greatest Valour So those of that Church shrink not for all the Assault they receive from my Text but the ruder the Shock is the more obstinately they maintain their Post. They affirm that the Action of the Blessed Virgin here was not only without Blame but full of Faith Charity Humility Prudence c. and that Christ was so far from being angry with her or having any Cause given him to be so that he took up a feigned and dissembled Dislike to have an Occasion only to teach the World and not her neither That the Power by which a Prophet works Miracles is not derived from his Parents nor to be governed by them but wholly by the Spirit of God says Cornelius à Lapide In ipsa nulla fuit culpa ergo non vera fuit Christi reprehensio reprehendere tamen illam videtur ut non ipsam sed nos doceret in operibus theandricis parentes nihil habent juris and so forth Thus the Jesuite is not asham'd to make our Lord Jesuitize i. e. falsifie and dissemble but the time would be ill spent to confute such gross Follies and Blasphemies which chuse rather to find a Miscarriage in Christ than in his Mother to make him angry without a Cause or to feign an Unjust Anger than to allow it possible for her to give him a Just Cause to be angry But the Explanation of these Words my hour is not yet come will more plainly shew wherein our Lady deserv'd a Reprehension The Hour of Christ is sometimes understood of the Hour of his Death as 't is said They could not lay hold of him because his Hour was not yet come But here it is to be understood of his Season or Opportunity to do a thing as when he answered his Brethren that ask'd him to go up to Jerusalem to the Feast Your Time says he is always but my Time is not yet come But here by the way we must not conceive any thing of the Hours assign'd to Christ of that nature which the Arrians and Priscillians did who said He was subject to Fate and Necessity and bound up to the Observation of Times and could not therefore be the Eternal Son of God Christ's Death was not impos'd on him by any Fatal Necessity as himself declares Chap. 10. and 18. of our Evangelist No man taketh my Life from me says he but I lay it down of my self I have Power to lay it down and I have Power to take it up But when 't is said The Hour of his Death was not yet come it means no more than this That he had not yet finish'd the Work for which he came into the World he had not fully preach'd the Gospel accomplish'd the Prophecies that were of him confirm'd his Disciples c. i. e. the Hour by his own Eternal Wisdom chosen was not yet come the Hour as S t Augustine speaks non Necessitatis sed Voluntatis the Hour not of his Necessity but his Will not of his Constraint but of his Counsel And the like may be said of the Hour of his working Miracles he attended no Critical Minute or favourable Conjuncture of the Stars to assist him as to his Power he could have wrought them when he would every Hour was the Hour of his Power but every Hour was not the Hour of his Opportunity he could have turned the Water into Wine at the time his Mother spoke to him as well as at any other but the End for which he did it would not have fallen out so Easily and Naturally at one time as at another and though
of this Pretended Messiah this bold Reprover of our Vices and Confuter of our Traditions no less by Miracles than by Reason and then we shall continue to sit in Moses's Chair lead the People as we please and none will dare to contradict us If we will not shew our selves such Friends to Christ as my Text speaks of who stain'd their hands in his Bloud let us with all Submission of Soul and Singleness of Heart embrace his Doctrines and pay Obedience to his Precepts whether they relate to Faith or to Manners and suffer neither Pleasure nor Profit Reputation among Men or any By-Respect whatsoever to disaffect us to him For the things of this World are at Enmity with Christ and if we set our Affections upon them they will lead us from the Worship of the True God as the Canaanitish Wives did the Israelites to worship Idols and the worst of Idols even themselves Christ himself will appear to us a Deceiver and we shall sooner rescue Barabbas from the Cross than him And let none in these days who have received the Knowledge of the Truth and after extinguisht the Grace of God in their Hearts by fulfilling the Lusts of the Flesh flatter themselves as the Jews did who said If we had lived in the Days of Old we would not have been Partakers of the Bloud of the Prophets So if we had liv'd in Christ's days we would not have used him as the Jews did for this is but a Pharisaical Deception those that hate Christ's Gospel would have shew'd but little Kindness to his Person who crucifie him now by their Wicked Lives would not have spared his very Life if they had liv'd in his days Idem qua idem semper efficit idem the same thing dispos'd in the same Manner will produce the same Effect the same Corruption in the Heart will always bring forth the same Wickedness in the Hands The second Reflection I shall make upon Christ's being wounded in the House of his Friends Is the Part which God performed after the Jews added this Great Wickedness of murdering the Messiah to all their former Impieties For if we look on the Reverse of the Coin as I may say the Vengeance God sent upon them we shall find it stampt in as deep and legible Characters as their Wickedness was engraved on the other Side it being no less than the utter Rejection and Ruine of their Nation and with such Tragical Circumstances as are in no Story to be parallell'd but they are so generally known that I shall spend no time to dilate on them but rather exhort all such who after the manifold Admonitions and frequent Warnings of God still persist in their Sins and are deaf and incorrigible to all his Invitations to Repentance to consider How for the like Refractoriness and Hardness of Heart God suffered his Own People to proceed from Wickedness to Wickedness till they arriv'd at last in profundum malorum into such a Gulph of Perdition that if the most Desperate among them had seen the End of their Rebellious Ways at their first setting-out in the Course of them they would have started back with Horrour at the Prospect The 2 d Kings 5. we read that when the Prophet Elisha foretold to Hazael yet a Private Person and unacquainted with his own Temper what Immanities and Cruelties he would commit when he came to be King of Assyria that he would butcher Men rip up Women with Child dash Infants against the Stones c. He answer'd But what is thy Servant a Dog that I should do these things And the very Scribes and Pharisees who were the Chief Actors in this Days Tragedy when our Lord insinuated to them in the Parable I late mentioned of the Husbandmen consulting to kill the Heir that they would be his Murderers and by it pull certain Destruction on their Nation they reply'd God forbid Not only deprecating the Punishment but detesting the Crime The raw Novice-Sinner knows not at first to what a Villain to what a Devil he will grow Men ought therefore to fear the first Motions of Sin and to suppress the Beginnings of Wickedness if for no other Reason but this Lest they become Worse than they could have imagined it possible for them to have been Who allows himself at first only to Over-reach his Brother by degrees will take from him by Violence or Open Robbery who makes no Scruple to be Factious and Seditious will hardly stop till he arrives at Rebellion and Treason who indulges himself at first in a Negligent Irreverent Performance of God's Service and makes the Church the Scene of his Vanity and not of his Devotion is in the ready Path to proceed from Prophaneness to Atheism But as Sin encreases we have heard that Vengeance also ripens and Encreases says our Lord Whoever falls on this Stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to Powder The first Sins a man commits dangerously wound his Soul they dash against Christ as an Earthen Vessel does against a Rock but Presumption and Obstinacy in Sinning causes Christ to fall upon the Sinner as a Rock upon an Earthen Vessel which is sure to crush it to Dust. To conclude Though we that are here present are not of the House of Christ's Friends i. e. of his Kindred and Nation yet we have a Nearer and more Excellent Relation to him in that we are of the Houshold of Faith and of the Family of his Church as himself declared when he stretcht forth his Hand to his Disciple saying Behold my Mother and my Brethren for whoever shall do the Will of my Father which is in Heaven the same is my Mother my Sister and my Brother Now if we in our Spiritual Relation shall by our Sins crucifie Christ in his Glory as his Kindred according to the Flesh nail'd him to the Cross when he liv'd on Earth our Wickedness will far exceed theirs as the Wickedness of a Disciple far exceeds that of an Unbeliever the Wickedness of Judas did that of Pontius Pilate and Caiaphas It is our Unspeakable Happiness that Christ was Wounded for us but it will be our Unexcusable Impiety if he be wounded by us 't is again our Strange Felicity that when Others slew him we reap the Benefit of his Death when the Husbandmen Kill'd the Heir that we inherit the Vineyard And if we make that faithful Use of Christ's Death which we ought while the Jews bear the Guilt of his Bloud we shall be purged by it from all our Transgressions and while Eternal Infamy and Wrath cleaves to them Eternal Glory and Felicity shall be our Portion which God of his Infinite Mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ grant to us And to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory c. Amen The Sixth Sermon ROMANS viii 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up
fansies him also Wicked as those words spoken in the Person of God Psal. 50. do shew Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self And in the last place it concludes him to be Nothing at all The fool hath said in his heart There is no God Infidelity first entertains Mean thoughts of God doubts of his Attributes and afterwards of his very Being Infidelity moved God to send upon the Israelites in the Wilderness almost as many and grievous Plagues as he had sent upon the Egyptians And many Christian Professors are so possest against this Sin that they have not doubted to aver That as there is no Vertue that justifies but Faith so there is no Sin that condemns but Infidelity And that the Jews were highly guilty of this Sin in reference to Christ there is no question for though he had wrought so many Miracles among them as the Evangelist says they believed not on him They might have known who he was if they had not been wilfully blind by the Rule given them by Moses Deut. 18.12 to discern a True Prophet from a False and again at the 18 th ver to distinguish the Messiah from other Common Prophets yet blinded with Pride Malice Envy and the like the Great Council it self of the Sanhedrim condemned the Lord of Life for an Impostor and crucified him affirmed That by a Confederacy with the Devil he cast out Devils So that this their Unbelief and perverse Proceeding might be a very just Cause of the Descent of the third Person in the Trinity to vindicate the Injury and Outrage done to the second after a Judicial Manner to arraign and convince the World of Sin i. e. of Infidelity and Injustice to the Son of God But though there was Infidelity in the Case I conceive they do exactliest hit the meaning of the place who make not our Lord's Words point so much at any particular determinate Sin after his Coming as at the General Sin wherein all the World lay before his Coming viz. the Sin of Adam in which both Jew and Gentile were concluded and from which 't is said He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Now the Holy Ghost when he came into the World to bear Testimony to all that Christ did reproved and convinced it that is all Unbelievers that they lay still under the Old Condemnation of the First Man seeing they embraced not the Means of Grace and Pardon offer'd by Christ in the Gospel nay and that their Infidelity added a new and worse Guilt to the former they lay under the Guilt of refusing Offer'd Redemption which would make their Condemnation yet heavier For though Hell be the ultimum Supplicium the utmost Punishment the Divine Vengeance can inflict yet as there are Degrees of Sins so there are Degrees of Torment and as 't is said Hell shall be a second time heated for those that leave their first Station so we may say it shall be a second time heated for those that refuse the Salvation offer'd by Christ. The second Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of is of Righteousness But how must this be understood Shall he convince the World of Sin and of Righteousness both Yes de Peccato proprio Justitia aliena as S t Augustine distinguishes of its Own Wickedness and of an Others Righteousness the Spirit shall convince the World that 't is sinful and that Christ was Righteous And thus our Lord afterwards interprets his own Words He will convince the World of Wickedness because I go to my Father The World spared not while Christ was on Earth to spend their rash Judgments of him He is a Good Man say some Nay say others but he deceiveth the People Others again He is a Samaritan and hath a Devil and the like But his going to the Father stopt the Mouth of all Slander For as this was an approv'd Maxim which was utter'd by the Man that was born Blind God heareth not Sinners So this was a Truth likely to find a more Easie and General Admittance God translateth not Sinners miraculously and visibly to Heaven Enoch and Elias were thus translated but 't is testified of the first That he pleased God and of the last That his Zeal for God's Glory exceeded Christ therefore being translated to Heaven it was an irrefragable Proof of his Righteousness But how did the Holy Ghost convince this Why by his very coming into the World had he born no other Testimony For Christ had said in the Verse before my Text If I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you The Descending of the Holy Ghost was the Consequent of Christ's Ascending But then the Righteousness which the Spirit shall here convince the World of must be understood in a greater Latitude than only of the Inherent Righteousness in Christ's Person it comprehends also the Transient Righteousness that past from him to others As S t John says in another place That he was not only a Glorious Light in himself but the Light of the World and the Light of Men. A Righteousness of greater Concern and Importance than his Inherent Righteousness for that made his Person only Illustrious but this brought Utility and Benefit to Mankind and as the first spoke him the Son of God the last also the Saviour of the World Christ's Righteousness is therefore here to be understood Causativè that he was the Author or Cause of Righteousness not only that he was Righteous but Righteousness unto others and that two Ways First In respect of his Doctrine that was Righteousness the very Rule and Standard of it the perfect Will of God able to conform us to his Likeness and the World rejected it only because their Deeds were Evil. And this the Holy Ghost when he came convinc't the World of viz. of the Desperateness of its Condition that it had refused the True Light and for no other reason than for that which was named Because their Deeds were Evil and they hated to be reform'd Secondly Christ was Righteousness in respect of the Justification of the World as he was Justitia nostra the Lord our Righteousness as the Prophets had foretold And indeed this was the Chief Office and Business of the Holy Ghost at his coming to convince Men That there was no other Name under Heaven by which they could be sav'd but only by that Name That neither the Contemplation of things Divine together with the Practice of Moral Vertues which was the Gentiles Way nor the Plea of being Circumcised and descended from such and such Parents which was the Jewish Way avail'd any thing towards the obtaining of Justification without the laying hold of Christ's Righteousness The third Particular the Spirit shall convince the World of is of Judgment S t Bernard understood the Words Actively viz. That the Spirit shall convince the World of its
the Swords of those whose Relations he had murthered So let no Man after a Wicked Life hope to find a Place so remote obscure or fortify'd as to protect him from God's Vengeance 'T is said That Kings have long arms and can reach Delinquents at a great Distance but the King of Kings has much longer and if the Offenders against him could take Refuge even in the Centre of the Earth obtain of the Rocks to shelter them or the Mountains to fall upon them the Angels would fetch them from thence to Judgment There are none that shall escape none that shall be dispens'd with from appearing before the Tribunal of God and receiving their Doom at the Last Day Only it is now in our power while we are yet in this Life to make it a happy or unhappy Doom a Doom that adjudges us to Crowns and Scepters or to Chains and Everlasting Torments Repentance and a Holy Life will turn that Day of Terrour into a Day of Rejoicing make the Ominous Portents the dreadful Thunders and other amazing Concomitants of it but as the loud Musick cheerful Acclamations and Solemnities which attend a Triumph or Coronation I say which attend our own Triumph and Coronation as S t Paul assures us 2 Tim. 4 8. I have finisht my Course says he I have kept the Faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them that love his appearance However the Predictions of the Last Day cause Consternation and Distraction of Mind in Wicked Doers to the Righteous they are altogether Gospel or Good Tidings they that keep God's Laws cannot chuse but love and delight in his Appearance Let the Heavens rejoice and the Earth be glad says the Psalmist Let the Field be joyful and all that is therein before the Lord And why all this Joy For he cometh for he cometh to judge the World and the People with Equity And Luke 21.28 says our Lord When these things come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your Redemption draweth nigh To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory c. The Eighteenth Sermon 1 PETER iv 8 And above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity covereth the multitude of Sins THE Commandment of Charity if we look to the Birth and Cradle of it is as ancient as Adam for this Natural Law Deal so with others as you would have them deal with you which is the radical and original Precept out of which this Gospel one did immediately issue Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self sprung-up with Nature and is as old as it mutual Love beginning with mutual Society and affection to one another being exercised as soon as there was a Pair in the World to keep it up But the Practice of the Jews in our Saviour's time much thwarted this Precept Sect was against Sect the Pharisee against the Sadducee and the Sadducee against the Pharisee and both against Christ Professions and Offices were made Crimes Publicans the Receivers of Tribute were counted Sinners again Revenge was held as lawful as Punishment Extrajudicial Righting of a man's self as Judicial Censures Do Good to those that do Good to you and Evil to those that do Evil was good Ethicks among them and the Moral Man esteem'd to appear as eminent in practising the last part of this Maxime as the first So that the Precept of Charity was in a manner wholly extinguish'd among them so overwhelmed with the Rubbish of ill Customs and worse Traditions that to clear it and make it shine out again was a Work as hard as to introduce something that never before was Which caus'd our Lord to call this Commandment a New one I give you a New Commandment says he That ye love one another New not as if it then first entred the World but because it was then renew'd to them as things redeem'd from the injury of Age and Oblivion appear fresh and new when they are brought into Use and Fashion again But we may admire that the World has so much agreed in all Times to abrogate this Law brought in at first by General Interest and of so Universal Benefit that we may say with Tully Non aquâ non igne non aëre pluribus locis utimur quà m amicitiâ we stand not more in need of water fire or air in every turn of our Lives than of Friendship or the mutual Offices of Love And if this Law were entertained it would render all other Laws useless it would disannul the Commandments by fulfilling them it would remove heaps of Legal Cautions and Provisions the two Tables would be no more necessary to Men than to Angels private Grudges open Wars Rebellions Factions Schisms would all vanish every Person would be not only more holy in himself but would cause others to be more holy many Sins would be amended by a fair Example many would be extenuated by a candid Interpretation many overcome by a kind and amicable Usage Therefore as the Apostle advises in the foregoing Verses mortifie your Lusts be sober and watch unto Prayer neglect not necessary Duty But above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity shall cover the multitude of Sins In the Words we may observe these four things I. The Habit or Grace that is enjoin'd Love Not that Passion which is born with all Sensitive Creatures and is common to Men and Beasts but that Theological Vertue which is infus'd into Man only 't is not simply Love but Christian and Brotherly Love Have Charity II. The Degree of this Habit the Intenseness of this Divine Quality and that is Fervency it is not enough to have a remiss lukewarm Charity it must burn and glow in us Have fervent Charity III. The Object of this Vertue that which bounds and terminates it and is adequately commensurate to it and that is All Men in general the Object is as large as Humane Nature our Charity is not to be ty'd to Families or Tribes to Sects or Nations or whatever Partitions else Policy or Passion have made use of to distinguish and estrange men from one another but it is to be extended to all not to this or that Man but to Mankind as 't is indefinitely express'd in my Text Among your selves IV. The Inforcement of the Practice of this Quality and that is by the Recommendation of it from its Operation or Effect it covers Sins together with the Extent of that Effect not one or two but many and many Sins For Charity shall cover the Multitude of Sins I begin first with the Habit or Vertue it self contain'd in these Words Have Charity The Charity or Love here enjoined us is not I say that melting Passion that is common to Men and Beasts an affection awaken'd in us by the beholding of outward Beauty the comely