SERM. his friends and relations, his servants, his children, XXV. with most entire affection? Matt. v. 45. If in God's judgment they are equal to us, if in his affection and care they have an equal share, 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 conspire with him in the same measures? 7. Indeed the whole tenor and genius of our religion do imply obligation to this pitch of charity, upon various accounts. It representeth all worldly goods and matters of private interest as very inconsiderable and unworthy of our affection, thereby subtracting the fuel of immoderate self-love. It enjoineth us for all our particular concerns entirely to rely upon Providence; so barring solicitude for ourselves, and disposing an equal care for others. It declareth every man so weak, so vile, so wretched, so guilty of sin and subject to misery, (so 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 himself before others: we need not cark, or prog, or scrape for ourselves, being assured that God sufficiently careth for us. In its account the fruits and recompenses of love to others in advantage to ourselves do far surpass all present interests and enjoyments: whence in effect the more or less we love others, answerably the more or less we love ourselves; so that charity and self-love become coincident, and both run together evenly in one channel. It recommendeth to us the imitation of God's love XXV. and bounty; which are absolutely pure, without any SERM. regard, any capacity of benefit redounding to himself. It commandeth us heartily to love even our bitterest enemies and most cruel persecutors; which cannot be performed without a proportionable abatement of self-love. 16. It chargeth us not only freely to impart our sub- 1 John iii. stance, but willingly to expose our lives, for the good of our brethren in which case charity doth plainly match self-love; for what hath a man more dear or precious than his life to lay out for himself? It representeth all men (considering their divine extraction, and being formed after God's image; their designation for eternal glory and happiness, their partaking of the common redemption by the undertakings and sufferings of Christ, their being objects of God's tender affection and care) so very considerable, that no regard beneath the highest will befit them. John xvii. It also declareth us so nearly allied to them, and so greatly concerned in their good, (we being all one Gal. iii 28. in Christ, and members one of another,) that we 21. ought to have a perfect complacency in their welfare, 1 Cor. xii. and a sympathy in their adversity, as our own. Rom. xii. 5. 26. John xiii. ITim.iii.2. Rom. xv. I. 1 Cor. x. 24. xiii. 5. It condemneth self-love, self-pleasing, self-seeking, 35 as great faults; which yet (even in the highest ex- 2 Pet. ii. 10. cess) do not seem absolutely bad; or otherwise culp-Phil. ii. 4. able, than as including partiality, or detracting from that equal measure of charity which we owe to others: for surely we cannot love ourselves too much, if we love others equally with ourselves; we cannot seek our own good excessively, if with the same earnestness we seek the good of others. XXV. SERM It exhibiteth supernatural aids of grace, and conferreth that holy spirit of love, which can serve to no meaner purposes, than to quell that sorry principle of niggardly selfishness, to which corrupt nature doth incline; and to enlarge our hearts to this divine extent of goodness. 8. Lastly, many conspicuous 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 swaying to those degrees of self-love which charity can nowise reach. This exception (would time permit) I should assoil, by shewing how far, and by what means we may attain to such a practice; (how at least, by aiming at this top of perfection, we may ascend nearer and nearer thereto :) in the mean time experience doth sufficiently evince possibility; and assuredly that may be done, which we see done before us. And so it is, pure charity hath been the root of such affections and such performances (recorded by indubitable testimony) 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 selfishness, and sacrificing private interest to public benefit, hath not been a main ingredient. For instance 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 pass his days in a wandering pilgrimage, upon no other encouragement Chrys, in than an overture of blessing on his posterity? 1 Cor. Or. xxv.in Eph. Or. vii. Did not the charity of Moses stretch thus far, when for the sake of his brethren he voluntarily SERM. did exchange the splendors and delights of a court XXV. for a condition of vagrancy and servility; choosing Heb. xi. 24. rather, as the apostle speaketh, to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin? did not it overstretch, when (although having been grievously affronted by them) he wished that rather his name should be expunged from Exod. God's book, than that their sin should abide unpar- Bo doned ? xxxii. 32. μετ ̓ ἐκείνων ἀπολέσθαι, is inti σώζεσ μανία, ὄντως Did not Samuel exercise such a charity, when being ingratefully and injuriously dismounted from his au- far thority, he did yet retain toward that people a zeal-siyas. ous desire of their welfare, not ceasing earnestly to Eph.Or.vii. pray for them? Chrys, in 1 Sam. xii. 23. 30. Did not Jonathan love David equally with himself, 1 Sam. xx. when for his sake he chose to incur the displeasure of his father and his king; when for his advantage he was content to forfeit the privilege of his birth, and the inheritance of a crown; when he could without envy or grudge look on the growing prosperity of his supplanter, could heartily wish his safety, 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 70. 17. his subject, one raised from the dust, one taken from Psal.lxxviii. a sheepcote; so that unrepiningly and without disdain he could say, Thou shalt be king over Israel, and 1Sam.xxiii. I shall be next unto thee?—are not these pregnant evidences, that it was truly said in the story, The Sam.xviii. soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and he loved him as his own soul? I. XX. 17. SERM. Did not the Psalmist competently practise this XXV. duty, when in the sickness of his ingrateful adverPsal. xxxv. saries he clothed himself with sackcloth, he humbled 12. his soul with fasting; 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 such pains, when they ran such hazards, when they endured such hardships not only for them, but from them; being requited with hatred and misusage for endeavouring to reclaim them from sin, and stop them from ruin ? May not the holy apostles seem to have loved mankind beyond themselves, when for its instruction and reformation, for reconciling it to God, and procuring its salvation, they gladly did undertake and undergo so many rough difficulties, so many formidable dangers, such irksome pains and troubles, such extreme wants and losses, such grievous ignominies and disgraces; slighting all concerns of their own, and relinquishing whatever was most dear to them (their safety, their liberty, their ease, their estate, their reputation, their pleasure, their very blood and breath) for the welfare of others; even of those who did spitefully malign and cruelly abuse them? Survey but the life of one among them; mark the wearisome travels he underwent over all the earth, the solicitous cares which did possess his mind for all the churches; the continual toils and drudgeries sustained by him in preaching by word and writing, in visiting, in admonishing, in all pastoral employ |