the offence of one saith he judgment came upon all men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of One the free-gift came upon all men to Iustification of Life viz. the gift of the new Gracious Covenant And the Author to the Hebrews chap. 2. 9. tells us that Christ tasted death for every man Now if our Saviour loved all men loved all so as to put them into a Reconcilable state so that it must be their own Personal fault and long of their Wilfulness and Obstinacy if the worst of Sinners be not actually reconciled to God then since he hath commanded us to love others as He hath loved them our Love is to extend to all without exception And well might our Lord call this a New Commandment for no such is to be found in the Law of Moses or in the Prophets 2. This farther appears from those other words of our Saviour Mark 12. 31. Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self You may say the word Neighbour seems to be Limiting and Confining But we must understand this word as our Lord himself hath Explained it Luke 10. 29. Here is a Question put by a Lawyer to Him Who is my Neighbour Now see His Answer in the following words A Certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped him of his Rayment and wounded him leaving him half dead and by chance there came a certain Priest that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side and likewise a Levite when he was at the place came and looked on him and passed by on the other side But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came where he was and when he saw him he had Compassion on him c. Now saith our Saviour v. 36. Which of these three thinkest thou was Neighbour to him that fell among thieves And the Lawyer answering He that shewed mercy on him Our Lord replyed Go thou and do likewise Which is as if he had said Thou hast now answered thy self every Person that needs thy relief tho' he be unto thee as Iews and Samaritans are to one another tho' he be of a different Religion from thee nay tho' he be thine Enemy as the Iews and Samaritans were to each other he is thy Neighbour and therefore thou art obliged to love him as thy self to do to him when in an afflicted state as thou wouldst be done unto in the like Condition Again 't is Evident 3. That we are not to confine our Love and Charity to some particular Persons in that we are farther required by our Saviour to imitate our Heavenly Fathers Love and Charity Be Perfect saith he as your Heavenly Father is perfect Mat. 5. 48. That is as appears from what goes before let the exercise of your Charity extend as far as God ' s extendeth For as it follows v. 45. He maketh His Sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good and sendeth Rain on the Iust and on the Vnjust And as the Psalmist declareth His mereys are over all his works The Lord is good to all and His tender mercys are over all His works But 4. Express Texts enjoyn this If any are to be excluded from our Love they must be our Enemies but what saith our Lord of these Mat. 5. 44 But I say unto you Love your Enemies bless them that curse you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven And v. 46. If you love them which love you what Reward have you Do not even the Publicans the same And if you Salute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 embrace your Bretheren only what do you more than others Or what Excellent thing do you Do not even the Publicans the same And Gal. 6. 10. The Apostle saith Let us do good unto all men and the next words shew that tho' we ought to love all without exception as that word signifies Benevolence yet we are not to shew neither this kind of love to all alike For it follows Especially to them who are of the Household of Faith That which makes our Brother a Member of Christ's Church doth give him a Title to our greater Affection in both the foresaid Senses And here let me mind you that we ought to have a higher degree of love for all that own Christ for their Lord and Saviour than for Infidels and such as are Enemies to his Religion and those that own him most in their Practice we are obliged to have a greater love for than for mere Professors of Christianity or such as whose lives are less Conformable thereunto 'T is highly Reasonable that the most Lovely Persons should have most of our love There is nothing so Amiable as true Goodness and according to the degree thereof in any Person should be the degree of our Love to him God is to be the Object of our Highest Love because He is Perfectly and Originally Good and according as Men are more or less like to God the greater or less Complacency ought we to take in them and more or less ardently to Desire and Endeavour their Wellfare The true Christian Love doth chiefly consist in loving His Image from whom we are call'd Christians And where there is most of that whether the Persons are in all things of our minds or no we do not Love as becomes Christians if there we do not most love I speak now of Christian Love as I said such a love as is the effect of our own choice directed and Governed by our Saviour's Laws I speak not of a Natural Love which is necessary and not the effect of Choice This love do we what we can will ordinarily flow most freely towards our Yoke-Fellows Children Brethren and Sisters as being parts of our selves And so for those that are Naturalized to us by a long Acquaintance we cannot in that respect but love them better than such as are less known to us and those that have greatly obliged us we naturally love with a greater Passion than those to whom we are not at all or less beholden But tho' Scripture Nature and Reason do enjoyn us to love one another with a different kind and degree of love yet it hath been fully made to appear that 't is our duty to extend our love to all to wish well to and desire and endeavour as we are able and have opportunity the happiness of every man Fourthly I proceed to shew what Qualifications our love to each other ought to have Our Text tells us that we ought to love one another as Christ hath loved us and the other Text in S. Mark that we are to love our Neighbour as our selves And that is 1. Most Heartily and Sincerely My little Children saith S. Iohn Let us not love in word neither in tongue but in Deed and in Truth Let love be without dissimulation saith S. Paul I need not say that Christ's love to
are reduced to such Streights especially of late years as to want a Competent Subsistence for themselves and Families And 't is very sad to Observe what Contempt is by this means brought upon their Holy their Honourable Function Necessitas cogit ad turpia And this puts me in mind to wish that the Condition of the Clergy were better Considered in the Taxes and other impositions than it lately hath been What I have now suggested I am too well Confirmed in the belief of by the sad Informations I have received and Observations I have made up and down in my own Diocese Which yet I think is not the poorest in the Nation In the next place I would mind you my Brethren not only that the Clergy as such are most concerned of all Persons to be Exemplary in the Virtue of the Text and all other but the Sons too of the Clergy are in an Especial manner obliged here to upon the account of their coming out of the Loyns of such Parents and their having generally had so Religious Educations as they are to be supposed to have Next to the Faults of the Clergy those of their Children are exceeding Scandalous Nothing being more common than for Prophane People and such as catch at all Opportunities to cast Dirt upon our Excellent Religion and Church to charge the Sins of such upon their Parents loose Education of them Nor is any thing more Ordinary than for People to Encourage themselves to do Evil by the bad Examples of the Children of their Teachers as well as of their Teachers themselves These two things it is likely the Apostle had a Special regard to in making it a necessary Qualification of an Elder to have faithful Children not accused of Riot or unruly as well as to be blameless himself and the Husband of one Wife Titus 1. 6. But in reference to this duty of Love I will repeat what I now said viz. What remains but that we Endeavour to practise it with all our might That All bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil-speaking be put away from us with all malice And that we be kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us According to the earnest Advice of the Apostle Eph. 4. 31 32. That we be kindly Affectioned one to another notwithstanding any differences of Opinion with Brotherly love in Honour preferring one another As the same Apostle Exhorts Rom. 12. 10. Oh how many pressing and powerful Motives to this duty of Love Vniversal Love Catholick Charity doth the New Testament and Natural Reason too present us with But I will now onely Observe to you that what Nerves and Sinues are to our Natural Bodies that is Love in all Bodies Politick 'T is Love above all things which Cements and holds together Societies and Communities And therefore another short and sad Digression is here too Seasonable viz. 'T is a Wonderfull thing that this Church and Kingdom should not long since have been utterly Broken to pieces as they hath both been miserably shattered by means of our most Vnchristian and indeed Inhumane Breaches by means of our having so banished Love Not onely Christian but Natural Love in a very great measure Not onely Vniversal Love but Love to one another taking that Phrase in the most restrained Sense We should before now have been Wofull Examples of the Truth of that observation of our Blessed Saviour A City or Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand but is brought to Desolation had it not been prevented by a Series a long Train of such Providences as have scarcely been much short of Miracles Desolation is the Natural Consequent of great Divisions of Divisions not greater than Ours have long been If ye bite and devour each other take heed ye be not Consumed one of another said S. Paul to the divided Galatians ch 5. 15. But especially is it so as Divisions give a mighty Advantage to a Common Enemy And therefore nothing can hinder their produceing this Effect but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signal interpositions of the Divine Providence Which I say you need not be told it we have from time to time had Oh what a History of such Interpositions have these five last years given us And never had we a more Eminent one than this last Spring But what a Dangerous Condition are those People in who have little to Encourage their hopes with but the Continuance of Extraordinary Providences And especially when they have no other Reason still to Expect them but because they have had so many of them But alass we of all People have the least cause still to depend upon them because no Visible good Effect upon us hath been produced by them We will not be Reformed in any One instance And particularly we will still Obstinately persevere in our Old Emnity to one another which daily Encreaseth too instead of abating Let God Almighty do what He will and a Formidable Enemy do what he can to make us Friends But I must not lengthen out any father so Melancholy a Digression since we are now met upon so Pleasant an Occasion And therefore I add that Love is the main thing that makes such Meetings as these and our Eating and Drinking together a true Pleasure Better saith King Solomon is a Dinner of green Herbs where love is than a Stalled Ox and Hatred therewith And as Love makes Meetings of this nature very pleasant Diversions so the professed Design of them being to Encrease Friendship and to Express Love by shewing Mercy it makes them highly Commendable and Praise-worthy And of All Works of Mercy there is no one more Acceptable to our Heavenly Father and Blessed Saviour as is Evident from what hath been said than that of Comforting distressed Widows and making their Hearts to sing for joy and Taking Care of poor Orphans and Enabling them to live Comfortably and usefully in the World And the Relief of the poor Widows of Clergy men and providing for their helpless Children being the onely Design of our being Incorporated let their Names be had in Everlasting Remembrance who first set on foot this Noble Project and next to them theirs who have chiefly Contributed to the Encouragement of it And the Latter of these Charities viz. That which relates to the poor Children of deceased Ministers being the Special Design of these Annual Assemblies may This at least Equalize each of the former ones in this Excellent Work Our Courts of Assistants and Stewards of these Feasts have ever been made too sensible of what I but now observ'd of the miserably streight Circumstances of Abundance of our Clergy by the Vast Number of their Widows and Children whose deplorable Condition is year after year laid before them And tho' the Bounty which Worthy persons have from time to time deposited in our Treasurers hands be very Considerable yet 't is grievous to see how little falls to the Share of particular Supplicants by reason of their Excessive Number Nor is the Parade which makes such a noble shew on these days in our Streets any Objection against what I have sadly observed to you since it would be very strange if so many Thousands of Ministers as our Church consists of should not always produce a very great Number whose Natural parts and Liberal Educations have Enabled them to improve the Advantages put into their hands by the Good providence of God to the Arriving at very plentifull Fortunes And upon a just Computation I doubt not but it will be found That there are Extremely Few of the Sons of the Clergy whose large Circumstances in the World are owing to their Patrimony in Comparison of those who are inriched by the Blessing of God upon their own Industry I hope I need not tell such how much they are Obliged in Gratitude to their Great Benefactor for making such a difference between them and most of their Brethren To be Liberal in their Contributions towards the Relief of the Necessitous part of them And this is the most Effectual Course you can possibly take to secure Gods Blessing to your Posterity and to prevent their Ever Coming into the Number of Petitioners for Charity And which is a far greater Consideration being Compassionate towards Widows and the Fatherless is such a sort of Charity as will make those who are in love with it the Happy Objects of Gods Special Love Be as a Father to the Fatherless saith the Son of Syrach and instead of an Husband unto their Mother so shalt thou be as the Son of the most High and He shall love thee more than thy Mother doth THE END
Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell DR TENISON now Lord Bishop of Lincoln His Sermon of Doing good to Posterity His Sermon concerning Discretion in giving Alms. His Sermon against Self-Love before the House of Commons Iune 5. 1689. His Conference about Religion with Pulton the Jesuite His Sermon before the Queen concerning the Wandring of the Mind in God's Service Feb. 15. 1690. His Sermon before the Queen of the Folly of Atheism February 22. 1690. Dr. FOWLER now Lord Bishop of Gloucester his Sermon before the Queen March 22. 1690. The Bishop of Sarum's Sermon at the Funeral of the Lady Brook Feb. 19. 1690. His Fast Sermon before the King and Queen April 29. 1691. Dr. FREEMAN now Dean of Peterborough his Sermon at the Assizes at Northampton before the Lord Chief Justice Pollexfen Aug. 26. 1690. His Thanksgiving Sermon before the House of Commons November 5. 1690. Some Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of PIEDMONT By PETER ALLIX D. D. A Vindication of their Majesties Authority to fill the Sees of the deprived Bishops in a Letter out of the Country occasioned by Dr. B 's Refusal of the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells 4to V. CL. GVLIELMI CAMDENI Tâ—â—strium Virorum ad G. Câ—â—ndenum EPISTOLAE Cum Appendice varii Argumâ—nti Accesserunt Annalium Regni Règis Iacobi I. Apparatus Commentarius de Anâ—â—â—ate Dignitate Officio Comitis Marescalli Angliâ—â— Pramittitur G. Camdeni 〈…〉 Scriptore Thoma Smitho S. T. D. Ecclesiae Anglicanae Presbytero 4to MEMOIRS of what past in Christendom from the War begun 1672. to the Peace concluded 1679. 80. Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of the ALBIGENSES By PETER ALLIX D. D. Treasurer of the Church of Sarum 4to will be shortly published A Sermon Preached at White-Hall on the 26 th of November 1691. being the Thanksgiving-Day for the Preservation of the King and the Reduction of Ireland By GILBERT Lord Bishop of SARVM 4to A Thanksgiving Sermon before the Lords on the 26 th of November 16â—0 for the Preservation of their Majesties the Reducing of Ireland and the King 's safe return By SYMON Lord Bishop of ELY ADVERTISEMENT PROPOSALS will be shortly published by Richard Chiswell for Subscription to a Book now finished Intituled ANGLIAE SACRAE PARS SECVNDA sive Collectio Historiarum antiquitus Scriptarum de Archiepiscopis Episcopis Angliae à prima Fidei Christiane Susceptione ad annum MDXL. Plures antiquas de Vitis Rebus gestis Praesulum Angliâ—orum Historias sine certo ordine congestas complexa A SERMON Preach'd at the Meeting OF THE Sons of the Clergy IN S. Mary-le-Bow Church On Tuesday the Sixth of December 1692. By EDWARD Lord Bishop of Gloucester LONDON Printed by T. M. for B. Aylmer at the Three Pidgeons over against the Royal Exchange and A. and I. Churchil at the Black Swan in Pater-noster-row 1692. To his Honoured Friends the Stewards of the late Feast OF The SONS of the CLERGY Viz. Sir Salathiel Lovel Recorder of London Thomas Paske Esq Mr. Thomas South Mr. Iohn Reeve Mr. Samuel Knowles Mr. Iohn Thresher Capt. Iohn Willimott Capt. Abraham Robarts Mr. Robert French Mr. Francis Sedgwick Mr. Robert Sedgwick Mr. Thomas Granger Capt. Theoph. Blechynden Alexander Duncomb Esq Mr. Iohn Dillingham Gentlemen THo' I was not difficultly perswaded to comply with your Request that I would be your Preacher as little Time as I truly foresaw I should be Master of to prepare a Discourse proper for the Occasion yet I could not consent to your desire of having this which you heard Printed as really not thinking it worthy to be made more publick till you were pleased to back it with such Importunities as I could not withstand without the imputation of Incivility I therefore here Present you with it most earnestly wishing and humbly praying it may do that Service which your Zeal for the promoting of Love and Good Works induced you to think it fitted for and remain GENTLEMEN Your Affectionate Brother and Humble Servant E. G. JOHN 13. 34. A New Commandment I give unto you That ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another THE Design of this Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy being to promote Love and Amity among our selves and to exercise Christian Charity I think these Words are no improper Subject to be discoursed on upon this Occasion A New Commandment I give unto you That ye love one another A New Commandment Was Love to each other no Duty before the coming of our Blessed Saviour Was it never injoyned under the Old Law Our Lord himself assures us of the contrary Mark 12. 31. As in the foregoing Verse he saith that the Love of God comprehends the whole first Table so in this that the Love of our Neighbour is the Sum and Substance of the Second The Second is like namely this Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And we find the Duty of loving our Neighbour often repeated and inculcated in the Old Testament The New Commandment therefore was not that we should merely Love one another but that we should Love one another as Christ hath loved us A New Commandment I give unto you That ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another We have in the Words First A Duty enjoyned viz. Loving one another Secondly The Pattern we are to follow in so doing As I have loved you And in the handling of them I shall observe this Method I. I shall shew What it is to Love one another II. The Necessity of so doing III. How far this Phrase One Another is to extend IV. What Qualifications our Love to each other ought to have V. In what Instances it ought to be expressed First What it is to Love one another The Word Love signifies either Complacency or Benevolence and Good Will And it is our Duty to Love one another according to both these Acceptations of the Word though not every individual Person according to both Some we are obliged to Love Complacentially to take Delight and Pleasure in them but there are others whom we are not bound so to Love nay whom we are bound not so to Love Some we can not so Love though we would and there are others whom we may not so Love though we could For instance Churlish Nabals People of Sour Morose or Captious Tempers to whom scarce a free Word can be spoken without danger of Offence We cannot Love these with a Love of Delight though we would never so fain To whom may be added Narrow-soul'd People who have no Concern for any but their own dear Selves and much more such as make no Conscience of injuring others to serve themselves As Good natur'd People can take no satisfaction in such as these so can hardly any of these be pleased with the Society of one another Especially Proud or Envious or Churlish or Testy
and Waspish People are no Company for one another and much less for those who are of contrary Qualities Similitude being the Foundation of all Love of Complacency Tho' where there is Similitude there may be no such Love viz. when it lyeth in unlovely and troublesome Qualities yet wheresoever there is such a Love there must be more or less Similitude And according to the degree of Similitude will be the degree of Complacential Love Again if such a Person be sensible that such a one Hates him and watcheth all Occasions to do him Mischief he cannot have this kind of Love for him Now when I say that some we can take no Complacency in I suppose that therefore we are not obliged to it Nemo tenetur ad impossibile Nor is it agreeable to the Divine Goodness to impose unnatural things on Men. There are again Others whom we may not Love with this Love of Delight though we could Namely Prophane or Debauched People those who tho' they may have the Form of Godliness deny in their Practice the Power thereof The Apostle admonisheth his Son Timothy to withdraw himself from such as these To be pleased with the Conversations of such People is to express a liking of their Ways at least it argues a very Luke-warm Temper and a great Unconcernedness for the Honour of God and the Interest of Religion But no Man can be of so Unlovely a Temper or so wicked a Wretch as that it should not be our Duty to love him in the Second Sense of the Word viz. to wish well to him and endeavour as we have Opportunity his Welfare and Happiness Which supposeth I need not say a Change of his Nature without which he cannot be capable of Happiness And therefore this Change of his Nature is in the first place to be desired and endeavoured Secondly As to the Necessity of Loving each other there is no Duty more plainly enjoyned or more vigorously urged in the Holy Scriptures Especially by our Blessed Saviour and his Holy Apostles And therefore those who are better acquainted with the Christian Religion than with the Spirits and Behaviour of those who profess it may think it needless to spend any time upon this Argument But because the Religion of too too many who are called Christians and that Religion which our Saviour brought into the World are very unlike it will not be amiss to give a short Account what this is in reference to the Point before us As our Blessed Lord calls it His New Commandment That we Love one another as He hath Loved us so in the Words following he makes this the distinguishing Character of his Disciples By this saith he shall all men know that you are my Disciples if ye have Love one to another And so desirous was he that they should not be defective in Love that above all the excellent Petitions he puts up for them Iohn 17. this of Love is the only Grace he particularly prays for in their behalf viz. ver 21. That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they may be united in Love have one Heart and one Soul And the Reason for which he thus prayeth doth mightily Commend this Grace viz. That the World may believe that thou hast senâ— me Which is as much as to say that Christian ex 〈…〉 ing in the Grace of Love will be a great Conviction to the World of the Execllency and therefore of the Truth of the Christian Religion And again Verse the last I have declared saith he to them thy Name and will declare it that the Love wherewith thou hast Loved me may be in them And his Beloved Disciple S. Iohn thought he could never enough extol this Grace He makes Love the very Essence of the Deity 1 Ep. 4. 16. God is Love and adds that he who dwelleth â—n Love dwelleth in God and God in him And v. 7. he saith that Love is of God and every one that Loveth is born of God and knoweth God Knoweth him practically and experimentally And Ch. 3. 14. We know saith he that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren We know that we are Regenerate Christians by our Love and Charity He that loveth not his Brother abideth in Death He is certainly an Unregenerate Man a wicked Creature And ver 15. Whosoever hateth his Brother is a Murtherer and ye know that no Murther hath Eternal Life abiding in him Nor is S. Paul wanting in Recommending and pressing this Duty Owe saith he no man any thing but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law Or this is the Christian Perfection of the Law as it relates to our Neighbour And in what follows he sheweth that the whole second Table is herein implyed And in short this great Apostle preferreth Charity before all other Endowments and Accomplishments Before the speaking with the Tongues of Men or Angels before 〈…〉 all Mysteries before all Knâ—â—â—â—â—â— and 〈◊〉 all Faith too even the Faith of Miracles nay before the greatest Zeal nay such a zeal as will make men give their Bodies to be burnt 1 Cor. 13 chapter He there tells us that Charity is so much above all these that they are none of them worth any thing without Charity Much more may be said to shâ—w what a mighty Figure this Duty of Loving each other makes in the Religion of our Saviour Thirdly I come to shew how far this duty of loving one another is to extend or what we are to understand by one another in the Text. In a word it takes in all Men whatsoever Not only our Friends and Acquaintance Not only our own Party and those that say as we say and think as we think Not only those that oblige us and do us good turns but all the World all that partake of the same common Nature with our selves be they who or what they will 1. This is apparent from the Text. A new Commandment I give unto you That you love one another as I have loved you Now the Love of Christ was Vnlimited He dyed for all mankind S. Iohn saith that He is the Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World S. Paul calls him The Saviour of all Men That is so their Saviour as to exclude none from Salvation who will comply with the Terms on which He offereth it He hath shut out none from having benefit by what he did and suffered in the behalf of Sinners nor ever will he any who shall not reject the Counsel of God against themselves And lest we should think that by the World and the whole World and all Men we are only to understand some of all sorts this same Apostle assures us that this Phrase all Men is to be taken in the same Latitude in referrence to the Remedy brought by Christ that 't is to be taken in in reference to the Mischief done by Adam Therefore as by
us was most hearty nor that our love to our selves is so Indeed if our Love be not hearty as we love not like Christians so we do not love at all Love is seated in the Heart only so that Professions of love and love it self are no more the same thing than are Shadows and Substances Realities and mere Appearances 2. We ought to love Ingenuously as well as Heartily To love Men Ingenuously is to delight in them or wish well to them for their own sakes without respect to our own Interest So you need not be told our Saviour loved Mankind next to the Glory of God and the Advancement of Righteousness and Universal Goodness in the World He was acted by a vehement desire of Our happiness He did not Love Men as men love their Horses and too commonly their Servants only or mostly for his own Advantage Now as I said that to Pretend to love is not to love so to love others merely with respect to our own good is rather mere self love than a love of them And to love others principally for our own sakes is more to love our selves than them And that such a love is far from deserving to be called Christian Love will appear by what a Pagan saith of it Tully tells us in his Laelius that Ipse se quisque deligit non ut aliquam a seipso mercedem exigat Charitatis suae sed quod perse sibi quisque Charus est c. Every man loves himself not that be may obtain a reward from himself for so doing but because he is for his own sake dear to himself And except as he proceeds men so love one another they cannot be true Friends And this saith he farther is seen in the very Brutes how much more then ought it to be found among Men. But many Impudently desire that others should be such Friends to them as they will be to none and expect that love from others which they will not bestow on others That is they expect that others should love them purely upon their own account and not that their love to them should Ultimately Terminate in themselves And as the Example of our Saviour so that of God the Father obligeth us thus to love one another For Man cannot be profitable to God as he that is wise may be profitable to himself Is it any Pleasure or Courtesy to the Almighty that thou art Righteous c. Iob 22. 2 3. And therefore he cannot desire that Sinners should turn from their Wickedness and live for any gain to himself If therefore we would be the Children of God we must love each other not only sincerely but generously and ingenuously And indeed if we consider the Nature of Mankind we shall find that this as well as the Commands of God and our Saviour doth oblige us to such a love of all Men. And this indeed is the reason why they have obliged us hereunto by their Commands They Command it because it is fittest in it self and best And therefore are we required to love and wish well to all for their own sakes because every man is in himself considered and as abstracted from Vicious Habits and from what is Preternatural an Excellent and therefore a Lovely Creature Every man as to his pure Naturals bears God's Image and consequently 't is most reasonable to love every man and desire his greatest happiness for his own sake Nay we ought to bear such a sort of Good-will to God's whole Creation thus to love Brutes as well as Men tho' in a far lower degree and to desire for them all that Happiness their Natures are Capable of without as well as with respect to our own Advantage and the service they may do us I say we ought to desire the well-being of all Creatures whatsoever for their own sakes I mean so far as it is consistent with the Well-being of Men because all God's Works are good and whatsoever is so hath a Right to our Benevolence as such A mercifull man saith K. Solomon Is merciful to his Beast And not only is he so because by his ill usage of his Beast he will disable him from being serviceable for this would not speak one a Merciful Man but a Man that considers his own interest but because the poor Creature has a Right to good Usage And if such a Love as this be due to Beasts much more is it so to Man-kind By the way what an ill-natured Principle is that of the Malmsbury Philosopher viz. That our Need of each other is the only Cause of our entring into Societys and the Ground of all Friendship He might judge so by himself but every one whose Nature is not miserably depraved knows by but reflecting on himself that this is wretched Doctrine 3. We are obliged to have such a degree of Love for one another as will make us most Prompt and Ready to the Performance of all Offices of Mercy and Kindness as shall be shewn presently And so to love the Souls of our Brethren as to be willing even to lay down our Lives for the procuring of their Eternal Happiness if it be necessary Hereby saith S. Iohn Perceive we the Love of God because He laid down his Life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren And thus to love one another as Christ hath loved us is not only o love our Neighbour as our selves but even better than our Selves that is than one part of our selves our viler part And as severe as this may seem nothing is more highly Reasonable than that we should prefer our Brethrens Souls before our own Bodies than that we should be more solicitous for their Eternal than for our own Temporal life This appears so Reasonable at first sight that such a Man as Tully had it come into his Mind would certainly have asserted it to be our duty This Love I might shew S. Paul professed to have for his Unbelieving Country-Men and he gave the greatest Demonstrations of the sincerity of that his Profession and so did the other Apostles too of the like Love And the same ought we all to aspire after Fifthly I come in the last place to shew in what Instances our Love to one another ought to be expressed Many I might lay before you but I cannot insist on above two or three 1. It ought to be Exprest by Sympathizing with each other in Afflictions and Rejoicing in each others Prosperity Rejoice saith the Apostle with them that Rejoice and Weep with them that Weep And look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Not that he would have us be Busy-bodies in other folks matters this we are elsewhere Cautioned against by the same Apostle But he would have us enquire after and be affected with the State of others if it be good not to Envy them but to be Glad for their sakes and if bad to Compassionate them This was
the Temper of our Blessed Lord when on Earth We again and again read that upon the sight of People in Calamity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Bowels yerned towards them And this we must have a special care to be like Him in as we profess to be His Followers Love as Brethren saith S. Peter be pitiful But then 2. To our Affecting Sense of the Condition of others we must add our Relief of all Objects of Pity according to our Ability And our Nature is indued with such a Passion as this of Pity for this reason only that we may be the more strongly thereby excited to Relieve our Afflicted Brethren so that 't is for this end that we ought to cherish this Affection And to be affected with the sufferings of others without administring what help we can is so poor and low an expression of love as to be of no Account at all with God If a Brother or Sister saith S. Iames be Naked and destitute of daily Food and one of you say unto them Depart in Peace be ye warmed or filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful for the Body what doth it profit That is if you be so little Affected with the Condition of your poor Indigent Brethren and Sisters as only to bestow good Wishes on them it will neither profit them nor your selves I will present you with two or three Texts which if we will Consider we cannot think our selves sincere Christians while we live in the neglect of this duty of Charity The first shall be that of S. Iohn Whoso hath this Worlds Goods and seeth his Brother hath need and shutteth up his Bowels of Compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 1 Iohn 3. 17. He hath no more love for God than he hath for his Brother The second shall be that of S. Iames Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction and to keep ones self unspotted from the World Iames 1. 27. The third shall be that of the Prophet Micah He hath shewed thee O man what is Good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love Mercy and to walk Humbly with thy God Mich. 6. 8. And so great a number of Texts of the like nature may be produced as you must needs be satisfied are more than enough to overthrow all the Hopes of a Covetous Hard-hearted Professour of Christianity let him have built his hopes upon never so many other Evidences 3. Another Expression of Love to each other should be wholesome Advice and Counsel As Oyntment and Perfume says the Wise Man rejoice the heart so does the sweetness of a mans Friend by hearty Counsel And if in our Temporal Concerns the good Advice of a Friend is to be valued How highly valuable is it in our Spiritual And therefore How much more should our Love prompt us to give it in such Concerns Exhort one another daily says the Apostle While it is called to day left any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works Can I be a Friend to any man and not be so to his better Part his Soul And can I be Friend to his Soul and decline giving him that Advice which I am sensible he needs either for the Taking him off from some sinful Course or prevention of his falling into some Sin or of his Continuance in the neglect of some necessary duty And to encourage us to this great Instance of Friendship let us consider those words with which S. Iames concludeth his Epistle Brethren if any of you do Err from the truth and one Convert him let him know that he who Converteth a sinner from the Errour of his way shall save a Soul from death and shall hide a multitude of Sins Or this will be a prevailing Motive with God to pardon his own many sins But yet as Noble and necessary an instance of Charity as this is and as great a Reward as is Promised to it there is no duty more neglected in this Luke-warm nay most Prophane Age in which such an Expression of Friendship too generally passeth for a Piece of Fanaticism But Honest Heathens have had a much more honourable Opinion of it And I will conclude this Argument with this saying of Cicero Consilia Sermones Cohortationes Consolationes interdum etiam Objurgationes in Amicis vigent maxime Good Counsel wholesome Admonitions Instructions and Consolations and severe Reproofs too when there is Occasion for them do most take place in Friendship I might proceed to other Instances of Love to which we are necessarily obliged As a Readiness to forgive offences A Forwardness to make up differences Putting the most Candid interpretations we reasonably can upon each others Actions Concealing each others Faults except when it is necessary to make them Publick And Condescention to each others infirmities But I may not do more than Mention these lest I trespass too much upon your Patience The Application NOw what remaineth but that we put in practice with all our might this Great this New Commandment of loving one another as Christ hath loved us And we of this Society who are many of us Clergy-men and all Sons of the Clergy are in these respects under a special Obligation of Excelling in this with all other Christian Virtues Those of us who are Clergy-men are strictly bound as S. Paul tells us in the Person of Timothy to be Examples to the Flock and so to demean our selves in all respects as to be able to say as that Apostle did Walk as ye have us for an Example As it is our great Business to Teach others their duty and to press them thereto by the most persuasive Arguments so must we make great Conscience of it our selves as we would not lose our labour nay as we would not do more hurt than good And those ought to Expect at least to have their labour lost upon their People whose Examples do not back and inforce their Doctrine If we are not such our selves as we tell them as they hope to be saved they must be each of them will be ready to make this shamefull Reflexion upon our Sermons and good Admonitions Cur verba audio cum facta non videam And particularly as to this duty of loving one another it will be in vain to use Arguments with our Flocks to stir them up hereunto while they perceive us wanting in any of the Necessary instances and Expressions of Love I mean such as are within our own power And I say this because a Multitude of our Clergy are God knows in very sorry Circumstances to be Exemplary in that great Expression of Love Alms-giving I much doubt that the far greater Part have not wherewith to be so Nay 't would pity any good Man to see how many of them