SERM. fcrambling with them for what may be had, and clamXXV. bering to get over them in power and dignity: whence all the paffions annoying our fouls, and all the mischiefs disturbing our lives, muft needs enfue.

6. That entire love which we owe to God our Creator, and to Chrift our Redeemer, doth exact from us no less á measure of charity than this: for feeing they have so clearly demonftrated themselves to bear an immenfe love to men, and have charged us therein to imitate them; it becometh us, in conformity, in duty, in gratitude to them, to bear the highest we can, that is, the fame as we bear to ourselves: for how can we love God enough, or with all our foul, if we do not accord with him in loving his friends and relations, his fervants, his children, with most entire affection?

If in God's judgment they are equal to us, if in his affection and care they have an equal fhare, if he in all his dealings is indifferent and impartial toward all; how can our judgment, our affection, our behaviour be right, if they do not confpire with him in the fame measures?

7. Indeed the whole tenor and genius of our religion do imply obligation to this pitch of charity, upon various

accounts.

It reprefenteth all worldly goods and matters of private interest as very inconfiderable and unworthy of our affection, thereby fubtracting the fuel of immoderate felf-love.

It enjoineth us for all our particular concerns entirely to rely upon Providence; fo barring folicitude for ourselves, and difpofing an equal care for others.

It declareth every man so weak, fo vile, fo wretched, fo guilty of fin and subject to misery, (fo for all good wholly indebted to the pure grace and mercy of God,) that no man can have reason to dote on himself, or to prefer himfelf before others: we need not cark, or prog, or scrape for ourselves, being affured that God fufficiently careth for us.

In its account the fruits and recompences of love to

others in advantage to ourselves do far surpass all present SERM. interefts and enjoyments: whence in effect the more or XXV. lefs we love others, anfwerably the more or lefs we love ourselves; fo that charity and felf-love become coincident, and both run together evenly in one channel.

It recommendeth to us the imitation of God's love and Matt. v. 45. bounty; which are abfolutely pure, without any regard, any capacity of benefit redounding to himself.

It commandeth us heartily to love even our bitterest enemies and moft cruel perfecutors; which cannot be performed without a proportionable abatement of selflove.

It chargeth us not only freely to impart our fubftance, 1 John iii. but willingly to expofe our lives, for the good of our 16. brethren in which case charity doth plainly match selflove; for what hath a man more dear or precious than his life to lay out for himself?

It representeth all men (confidering their divine extraction, and being formed after God's image; their defignation for eternal glory and happiness, their partaking of the common redemption by the undertakings and fufferings of Chrift, their being objects of God's tender affection and care) so very confiderable, that no regard beneath the highest will befit them.

It also declareth us fo nearly allied to them, and fo greatly concerned in their good, (we being all one in Gal. iii. 28. Chrift, and members one of another,) that we ought to have John xvii. a perfect complacency in their welfare, and a sympathy in Rom. xii. 5. their adverfity, as our own.

21.

1 Cor. xii. 26.

as John xiii. do Ti

35.

1 Tim. iii. 2.

as 2 Pet. ii. 10.

Rom. xv. 1.

It condemneth felf-love, felf-pleafing, felf-feeking great faults; which yet (even in the highest excefs) not seem abfolutely bad; or otherwise culpable, than including partiality, or detracting from that equal mea- Phil. ii. 4. fure of charity which we owe to others: for furely we 1Cor. x. 24. cannot love ourselves too much, if we love others equally with ourselves; we cannot feek our own good exceffively, if with the fame earnestnefs we feek the good of others.

It exhibiteth fupernatural aids of grace, and conferreth

VOL. II.

xiii. 5.

XXV.

SERM. that holy spirit of love, which can serve to no meaner purposes, than to quell that forry principle of niggardly selfishness, to which corrupt nature doth incline; and to enlarge our hearts to this divine extent of goodness.

Chryf, in

xxv. in

8. Lastly, many confpicuous examples, proposed for our direction in this kind of practice, do imply this degree of charity to be required of us.

It may be objected to our discourse, that the duty thus understood is unpracticable, nature violently fwaying to thofe degrees of felf-love which charity can nowise reach. This exception (would time permit) I should affoil, by fhewing how far, and by what means we may attain to fuch a practice; (how at least, by aiming at this top of perfection, we may afcend nearer and nearer thereto :) in the mean time experience doth fufficiently evince poffibility; and affuredly that may be done, which we see done before us. And fo it is, pure charity hath been the root of fuch affections and fuch performances (recorded by indubitable teftimony) toward others, which hardly any man can exceed in regard to himself: nor indeed hath there scarce ever appeared any heroical virtue, or memorable piety, whereof charity overbearing felfishnefs, and facrificing private intereft to public benefit, hath not been a main ingredient. For inftance then ;

Did not Abraham even prefer the good of others before his own, when he gladly did quit his country, patrimony, friends, and kindred, to pafs his days in a wandering pilgrimage, upon no other encouragement than an overture of bleffing on his posterity?

Did not the charity of Moses stretch thus far, when for 1 Cor. Or. the fake of his brethren he voluntarily did exchange the Eph. Or.vii. fplendors and delights of a court for a condition of vaHeb.xi. 24. grancy and fervility; choofing rather, as the Apostle fpeaketh, to fuffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of fin? did not it overftretch, when (although having been grievously affronted by them) he wifhed that rather his name fhould be expunged from God's book, than that their fin fhould abide unparμετ' εκάνων doned ?

Exod.

xxxii. 32.

Βέλομαι

oxidas, ἢ χωρὶς ἐκάσα των σώζεσα

s

Eph. Or.vii.

1 Sam. xx.

Did not Samuel exercise such a charity, when being in- SERM. gratefully and injuriously dismounted from his authority, XXV. he did yet retain toward that people a zealous defire of their welfare, not ceafing earnestly to pray for them? Did not Jonathan love David equally with himself, when for his fake he chofe to incur the difpleasure of his vi, s Ο έρως μέγας. father and his king; when for his advantage he was con- Chryf. in tent to forfeit the privilege of his birth, and the inherit- 1 Sam. xii. ance of a crown; when he could without envy or grudge 23. look on the growing profperity of his fupplanter, could 30. heartily with his fafety, could effectually protect it, could purchase it to him with his own great danger and trouble: when he, that in gallantry of courage and virtue did yield to none, was yet willing to become inferior to one born his fubject, one raised from the duft, one taken from Pfal.lxxvii. a fheepcote; fo that unrepiningly and without disdain he 70. could fay, Thou shalt be king over Ifrael, and I shall be 1Sam.xxiii. next unto thee?—are not these pregnant evidences, that it was truly faid in the ftory, The foul of Jonathan was 1 Sam.xviii. knit to the foul of David, and he loved him as his own foul 1. xx. 17.

Did not the Pfalmift competently practise this duty,

17.

when in the fickness of his ingrateful adversaries he Pfal. xxxv. clothed himself with fackcloth, he humbled his foul with 12. fafting; he bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother?

Were not Elias, Jeremy, and other prophets as much concerned for the good of their countrymen as for their own, when they took fuch pains, when they ran fuch hazards, when they endured fuch hardships not only for them, but from them; being requited with hatred and mifufage for endeavouring to reclaim them from fin, and stop them from ruin ?

May not the holy Apoftles feem to have loved mankind beyond themselves, when for its inftruction and reformation, for reconciling it to God, and procuring its falvation, they gladly did undertake and undergo fo many rough difficulties, fo many formidable dangers, fuch irksome pains and troubles, fuch extreme wants and loffes, fuch grievous ignominies and disgraces; flighting all concerns

SERM. of their own, and relinquishing whatever was moft dear to XXV. them (their safety, their liberty, their ease, their estate,

23. iv. 8.

1 Cor. iv.

11.

their reputation, their pleasure, their very blood and breath) for the welfare of others; even of those who did fpitefully malign and cruelly abuse them?

Survey but the life of one among them; mark the wearifome travels he underwent over all the earth, the folicitous cares which did poffefs his mind for all the Churches; the continual toils and drudgeries fuftained by him in preaching by word and writing, in vifiting, in admonishing, in all paftoral employments; the imprisonments, the fripes, the reproaches, the oppofitions and perfecutions of every kind, and from all forts of people, which he fuffered; the pinching wants, the desperate 2 Cor. xi. hazards, the lamentable diftreffes with the which he did ever conflict: peruse those black catalogues of his afflictions registered by himfelf; then tell me how much his charity was inferior to his felf-love? did not at least the one vie with the other, when he, for the benefit of his Phil. i. 24. disciples, was content to be abfent from the Lord, or fufpended from a certain fruition of glorious beatitude; rest2 Cor. v. 1, ing in this uncomfortable state, in this fleshly tabernacle wherein he groaned, being burdened, and longing for enlargement? Did he not fomewhat beyond himself love Rom. ix. 3. those men, for whose falvation he wished himself accursed from Chrift, or debarred from the affured enjoyment of eternal felicity; thofe very men by whom he had been. ftoned, had been scourged, had been often beaten to extremity, from whom he had received manifold indignities and outrages?

&c.

2 Cor. xi. 1 Theff. ii.

24, 25.

15.

Acts iv. 34. Did not they love their neighbours as themfelves, who fold their poffeffions, and diftributed the prices of them for relief of their indigent brethren? Did not most of the ancient faints and fathers mount near the top of this duty, of whom it is by unquestionable records testified, that they did freely bestow all their private estate and substance on the poor, devoting themselves to the fervice of God and edification of his people? Finally,

Did not our Lord himself in our nature exemplify this