the end is at hand ye are not in the beginning of your journey and therefore you must not rest onely in Ceasing from sin for the end is at hand therefore you must do good and holy duties of Sobriety and Piety verse 7. Be sober and watch unto prayer of Love ver 8. Ahove all things have love or charity of Hospitality verse 9. Be harborours one to another of ministring mutual Consolation and Instruction verse 10. As every man hath received the gift so let him minister as good Stewards of the manifold grace of God and verse 11. If any speak let him speak as the Oracles of God that God in all things may be glorified of Constancy under persecutions from verse 12. to the end of the Chapter Think it not strange concerning the fiery tryal verse 16. If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed verse 17. Judgement must begin at the house of God c. And lastly of the ultimate resignation even of their soules in suffering for Gods cause verse the last Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit their soules to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator And thus you have seen how this Chapter containes an exact platform of a Christians race in which my Text points at one of those good duties which the Apostle requires of them that are not onely to cease from sin but to work righteousness and that not of the least account neither for after duties of sobriety and piety it comes in with a But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But above all things have fervent charity among your selves Which if we may make Divisions in a Text of Love may be divided into Four Parts 1. Here is the Duty it self enjoyned and that is Love or Charity Have Charity 2. Here is the Importance of that Duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above all things have charity 3. Here is the Qualification or Complexion of that Duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated Fervent Charity 4. Here is the Reciprocation of that Duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Among your selves But above all things have fervent charity among your selves First the Duty it self enjoyned is Love or Charity Have Charity which is not in this place 1. That Cardinal Grace as I may so call it so highly extold by S. Paul 1 Cor. 13. which abideth in Heaven even after Tongues and Prophesies and Knowledge shall fail and which is preferr'd before Hope and Faith it self which in that place is a comprehensive name including in it the perfection of all Graces and Duties both towards God and towards our Neighbour in which respect it is said Ro. 13.10 That Love is the fulfilling of the law Neither Secondly is this Love onely and meerly a Moral Love arising from a complacency in a present good found in Heathens and Unbelievers and meer Natural Men mentioned by our Saviour Matth. 5.46 If ye love them that love you what reward have you do not even the Publicans the same which is a Natural affection and not a Christian grace a Humane passion and not a Religious duty Neither Thirdly is this Charity a bare Eleemosynary Charity of Almes and Good deeds which in a strict sense is usually called Charity by attributing the inward affection of the minde to the outward action of the hand mentioned 3 John 6. But this Charity in my Text is a Divine grace and a Religious duty whereby we are to extend our bowels of love and Christian compassion one towards another not under the narrow relations of Kindred Friends or Benefactors but unto all in the common capacity of Religion and that not upon any humane or natural designes which love is meerly a moral passion but onely for Pious and Christian ends and considerations which turns Nature into Grace and a Humane Passion into a Christian Affection Which being thus described unto us from the Original the Object and the End by treating briefly of each of them apart you will know sufficient of the whole duty it self And First for the Original of Christian love It is the grace of Gods holy Spirit Indeed Love 1. As it is a passion of the Soul ariseth meerly from Nature which is an affection placed originally in Man by the great Creator whereby he takes complacency and content in the good things of the Creature which God hath made for him without which all the blessings of this life were but in vain created and were no more delicious to Man then to a Stock or Stone That the pleasant acceptation therefore of all Gods good things might not be lost did he indue Man with this natural affection of Love But Love as it 2. is an inordinate passion ariseth not from Nature Qua talis but as corrupted and depraved by Sin whereby the soul is Praeter institutum naturae carried beyond the mediocrity of natural appetite towards the creature and created blessings While Man only loved the Creature according to the Law of Nature and God according to the Law of God then he loved it in a mean and in a moderate subordination to the love of God who was to be loved with all our Might Heart and Strength But when as by sinne Mans heart forsook his God then that earnest and zealous love Ad ultimum posse before bestowed upon the Almighty was irregularly added to that mean and moderate Fountain of love of the Creature according to the Law of Nature which great addition coming to the force of natural love makes the soules of all corrupt unregenerate men run over their old banks towards the Creature in a most inordinate measure and a most irregular manner loving the Creature from two violent inforcements one from Nature the other from Lust Wherefore to endeavour to reform this violent passion only by Precepts of Morality or Rules of Depraved Reason or the like Philosophick aides will prove as great a folly as to set obstacles in the midst of a strong torrent to prevent Inundation they may perhaps give a check for a time and make lust suspend a while the actual exercise of her inordinacy but in the mean while she gathers strength and will as soon as ever those violent restraints be remitted which cannot be perpetual overflow our soules with the greater flood of concupiscence and carry our hearts without possibility of resistance down the stream from God towards the World So that there is no means left to weaken this torrent and to keep it within its due limits but by dealing with the Fountain the Heart must be changed and renewed and the inclinations and desires of our soules must be altered which thing is neither in the power of Nature nor Reason but only of the grace of Gods Spirit to effect which is able to re-inkindle that religious love in our hearts with which Man at first loved both God and his Brother which was the ground of S. Johns exhortation 1 Ep. 4.7 8. Let us love one another for
that loveth another man any Man It is not private interest party nor faction that can impound Christian charity within any particular state or condition of Men but it loves all in the capacity of God and Religion swallowing up into its immensity all the lesser and limited chanels of love arising from the narrow endeerments of nature or conversation such as are Kindred Friends or Benefactors c. But Thirdly if you would see both Doctrine and Practice in one instance you may finde them in Matth. 12. where when it was told Christ that his Mother and Brethen after the flesh stood without to speak with him he answered vers 48. Who is my mother and who are my brethren alas you speak after the manner of Men and make an enclosure of that affection within the limits of Nature which I intend should be a Campaigne and a Common Field even for the benefit of the whole world through the universality of grace and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text yes and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also he stretched forth both his Hand and his Heart towards his Disciples saith S. Matthew towards the whole multitude saith S. Mark and said even of this multitude Behold my mother and brethren why and how so Whosoever doth the will of my Father the same is my Brother Sister and Mother there is little question but in that croud there were some of very different and remote conditions and perhaps of different climates seldom a croud in Christs time but was such by reason of the mixture of other nations with the Jewes under the Regency of the Romans yet whether they were Barbarian or Scythian Bond or Free Jew or Gentile Christ is all to and in all Col. 3.11 That spiritual relation in which they stand to his heavenly Father by an upright life and due obedience to his will adopts Christians of the most remote conditions to be his Mother and Brethren There being very little question but Christs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place is of the same latitude as S. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore if we will either obey the command of Christ or imitate the practice of Christ our charity must be universal and extended according to his who hath required us to love one another even as he hath loved us We read of somewhat a strange argument which the Apostle useth to the Hebr. 13.2 to perswade them to a common hospitality of strangers For thereby he saith some have entertained Angels unawares If we consider our neighbour in that condition he stands towards God even so all Men are strangers unto us and unlesse we had the perusal of the Book of Life we know not who will make a vessel of Honour or who of Dishonour Let me therefore exhort you in the Apostles phrase to entertain into your affections all those that are so much strangers to you lest you chance to shut out of your charity one of Gods Angels one that hath the secret signature of election upon him and then Christ come at last to you and say as to those unkinde and uncharitable wretches in the Gospel Matth. 25.45 In as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me Therefore let your charity be in the first place an extended charity Secondly if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must be a deep intense and fervent charity such as proceeds from the very bottom of the Heart and the integrity of our Souls which being the main part of the duty and withal the expresse language of the Text it will be necessary that we insist longer upon this construction then upon either of the other two I confesse I finde this word not often used in this sence elsewhere in holy Writ But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an Adverb of the same Verb is frequent in Greek Authors signifying Impensè vehementer totis viribus to do a thing Earnestly Vehemently and with utmost Industry which is in effect the same with Fervently in the Text expressing that true zeal and sincerity of affection which one Man ought to have to another True Christian charity is neither a cold neighbourhood nor a formal courtship nor a vainglorious beneficence but it is the intire and zealous affection of the very soul Expressed by S. Paul Rom. 12.10 in a phrase beyond the reach of our English tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he requires that one Man should love another with the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the same natural tendernesse as a Mother loves the childe of her own bowels which in our translation we call a kinde affection Be kindly affectioned one towards another with brotherly love which though it fall far short of the Original yet speaks enough to tell us that the Heart is the principal Requisite in charity and that that Philosophers compassion was no better then Stoical hypocrisie who whilest he allowed his friend to contribute sad lookes and language to the distressed and miserable restrains him with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epicter Be sure take heed lest thou suffer any inward compassion for him turning this most tender affection of the heart into a formal counterfeit compliance of the outward behaviour clear contrary to the nature of Christianity which is of such a pure and spiritual extraction that although we read of rewards upon the performance of no duties more then for works of Charity such as relieving the oppressed feeding the hungry clothing the naked bewailing and comforting the miserable and other the external acts of charity yet is neither this nor any other duties of Religion accepted or rewarded by God for their own sakes but only according to the inward affection of the soul from whence they proceed Indeed a man might think that if there were any outward acts of obedience accepted for themselves they should be the outward offices of Charity towards our Brethren and the plausible reason might be Because how ever they may proceed from a wrong Ayme yet they do unfallibly hit the right marke and fulfil the immediate and indeed the principal end of those acts and that is the relief of our needy Brother For doubtless the Bread and Wine and Sheep c. would have yielded David and his men as wholsome refreshment had they come from the hand of Churlish Nabal 1 Sam. 25.18 as they did coming as the present of a chearful and generous Abigail So that operative Charity consisting in that order it beares to our Brothers good if our needy brother be benefited by the outward act it is accidental as to the End of Charity whether that act proceed from an inward principle of Grace Nature or Lust wherefore I say if any outward acts of obedience were of themselves acceptable one might think they should be those of Charity towards our Brother For as for those of piety and worship towards God such as Watching Fasting
spirits before we first allay the stormes of variance discord and injustice towards our Brethren Patience and Temperance and Meeknesse and Humility and Contentation and the like are all Domestick graces that constantly keep house in ordering the private and particular affairs of our soules Justice and Charity are publick graces that walk abroad in ordering our affections and conversations towards our Brethren and truly if we practice instead of Justice and Charity Oppression Malice and Revenge towards our Brethren our soules can enjoy no more inward and domestick peace in respect to the other graces of Sobriety under such publick oppressions and revenges then a private family can expect in the midst of a Civil War the publick blood and violence and rapine upon the innocent in City and Countrey take away all the quiet and security from a mans own house and it is no otherwise with a mans soul in respect to his Brother if he once raiseth the stormes of wrath in his heart he must expect Fluctuations and Fomings upon the waters and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do as Christ did First rebuke the windes and then the Sea will soon be calm First allay thy tempestuous spirit towards thy Brother by the duty of Love and Charity and then thou maist expect all the tranquil graces of sobriety in thy own soul Patience Meeknesse Temperance Contentation and Humility are gentle graces that grow only under the Wind and Sun the tempests and blusterings between Brethren soon wither them How did Ahabs choler against Naboth turn his own stomach 1 Kings 21.4 He could not eat bread saith the Text he was sick because he was angry and he lost his love and his health together And truly as was this natural effect of wrath in him such is the spiritual effect of it in every Man it turns the uncharitable Mans soul into a distemper and as to those private and personal graces of sobriety his constitution is thereby clearly altered being truly as we may say soul-sick verifying the Wise mans Proverb in a spiritual sence Prov. 14.30 That envie is the rottennesse of the bones so was it with Ahab naturally so is it with every malicious Man spiritually it rots his soul and corrupts and poysons all his domestick graces of sobriety that whilest he endeavours to work vengeance on his Brother by the violence of his own impetuous spirit he disquiets and distempers and therefore destroyes his own soul As the Philosopher said of Charybdis that it was Ipsius maris naufragium quis ibi salvus ubi ipsum mare perit a Gulf where the waters moved with such violence that it seemed to be a shipwrack of the Sea it self and what ship can be safe there where the Sea it self is drownd and truly such is the violence of the malicious spirit it is Ipsius animae naufragium a torrent so violent that it is a shipwrack to it self shattering and destroying him that would destroy his Brother if therefore thou wouldest have thy own soul prosper in the personal graces of sobriety let thy spirit glide gently in all Offices of Love and Charity towards thy Brother This is the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before all things that is Before all duties of Sobriety have Charity Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before all things that is Before all duties of Piety watch unto prayer verse 7. But before all things have charity I need name no other place of Scripture for proof but that very expresse doctrine of our Saviour in his Sermon upon the Mount Matth. 5.24 If thou bring thy gift to the altar and there remember thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the Altar and go thy way First be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy gift Forbear to tread in Gods Sanctuary and to approach his Altars until thou comest with feet shod with peace all sacrifices without this grace are like Cains that slew his Brother a stink in Gods nostrils It s a proper trophy to bring Goliahs sword into Gods house 1 Sam. 21.9 The spoyles of Gods and his Churches incorrigible enemies are matter of triumph and praise to God in the great Congregation But to hang our Brothers sword over Gods Altar and to bring evil dispositions of malice and revenge against our Brother when we come to crave mercy for our selves what an unwarrantable presumption is this and how expresly and sadly do we sue for our own condemnation whilest we pray that God would forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us First therefore be reconciled then come and offer thy gift And in the Apostles order Heb. 12.14 Follow peace and then holinesse first Peace with thy neighbour then Holiness to thy God Malice is such a Sowre Leaven that it sowres the whole lump of Religious Duties purge out first therefore that Old Leaven and then thy Hearing and Reading thy Meditations and thy Prayers and all will be according to the preparation of the Sanctuary Which is the reason S. Peter 1 Pet. 3.7 exhorts Husband and Wife to that degree of mutual love correspondence and cohabitation That their prayers be not hindred And if I should say that even Martyrdom it self were but a vainglorious blaze and a fruitlesse fool-hardinesse without Love I should say no more then S. Paul hath said before me 1 Cor. 13.3 If I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing God spake the same thing in Analogy to holy David 1 Chron. 22.8 9 10. when he told him that he should not build Gods house because he had shed much blood and made great warres but his son shall be a Man of peace his name shall be Solomon peaceable and he must build Gods house If God would not esteem his material Temple well built by hands dipt in blood can we imagine he will accept of the spiritual and most sacred Duties of Religion and Divine Worship performed with a heart stained with malice and revenge He that is acceptably conversant in these holy things must be a Solomon a Man of peace and love towards his Brethren therefore again first be reconciled before thou buildest Gods house Watch unto prayer but before this and before all things have Charity Thus you have seen how Charity goes before both duties of Sobriety towards our selves and duties of Piety towards God which is the first part of the importance of the duty to wit the Precedency of it gathered from the Latine translation of the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before all things have charity Secondly come we to the other part of its Importance to wit its preheminence drawn from the English Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above all things have Charity or if you think this Good greek but ill translated in this sence take the same doctrine in indubitable words from St. Paul Col. 3.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above all things put on Charity when