ticipates, with us, the common nature of humanity. Our Lord, therefore, gave this express command to His disciples- love your enemies; bless them that "curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray "for them that, despitefully, use you, and persecute

you." Descended, as we are, from the same common parent, we should, therefore, "be kindly affec❝tioned one towards another," as branches nourished all by the same sap, and proceeding all from the same root. It was the will of our Blessed Lord, that "none ❝ should perish, but that all should have everlasting "life" He loved His enemies, He prayed for their conversion, and died for their sins: teaching us, hereby, to cultivate, in our hearts, benevolent affections; to suppress wrath, to extirpate hatred; to establish a principle of love towards all men, and to live, invari ably, under the influence of it. We receive, it may be, insults from one man, and injuries from another. But they profess the same faith, participate the same Sacraments, believe in the same God, and rely on the same Redeemer, We meet in the house of God, if not as personal friends, yet, as fellow Christians; we offer our joint prayers and praises at the throne of Grace; we walk in the same path to heaven; it, therefore, becomes our bounden duty to encourage, assist, and support each other in the way. "We are mem❝bers one of another," being united in the mystical body of Christ. Are we, further of the same communion? We have, then, the same common religious interests; we pray for the same common mercies; we return thanks for the same common blessings; and have, therefore, additional arguments to plead for the exercise of our love towards those who may have injured

H 4

jured us, besides their being men by nature, and Christians by Adoption.

The necessity, and the use, of this doctrine will, further, appear, when we consider the example of our Saviour's love to us. "This is my commandment, "that ye love one another, as I have loved you."

65

Our Blessed Redeemer, in these words, not only enjoins His disciples to love one another, because He loved them; but He, further, instructs them how, and in what degree, they should love one another; and then proposes His love towards them as their measure of duty, and standard of excellence. How great His love was towards them, they could not, possibly, be ignorant: He, therefore, impressed upon them "His ❝ own example, that they should follow His steps." Instructive was that example, and cogent must have been the arguments, which occurred to their minds, to persuade them to treasure it up in their hearts, and pursue it in their conduct. Should they be exalted to high stations, and endowed with worldly riches and dis tinguished honors, and their brethren stand in need of their assistance, they were not to overlook the necessities of the unfortunate with indifference, or treat them with contempt, but were to be, strictly, observant of the glorious pattern, which their Master had set before them. He was God from all eternity," far above all "dominions, or principalities, or powers." But, for the sake of man, "He emptied Himself of His glory, "was made of no reputation, and took upon Him the "form of a servant, being made in the likeness of Such was His love; healing, thereby the diseases of our souls, redeeming us from sin and death, and revealing to us the whole will of his Father.-Thou

hast

hast been redeemed from everlasting destruction by the mercy of thy Saviour, wilt thou refuse shewing mercy to thy distressed brethren, the representatives of Him, who reconciled thee to God? What lesson does He teach thee by humbling himself so far as to become

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," as to take upon Him thy sins, and bear thy infirmities, and to submit Himself to death, even the death of the cross -and all this at the very time, when thou wert an utter enemy to Him? Thy goodness extends not to Him— shew then thy sense of His abundant love by the exercise of kindness to the distressed, and of good-will to the offending.

In order to enforce, more powerfully, the precept contained in the text, I shall, in conclusion, lay down some of those motives we have to the practice of this duty.

The heathen philosophy aspired no higher than to continue to do good to those, who had requited kindnesses with indifference, and obligations with contempt. But to love our enemies, and to entreat heaven with our supplications in favor of them that persecute us, is the command of Christ, and the practice of Christians only, by means of which we resemble Him from whom our being is derived; "who maketh His sun to shine 66 on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the "just and on the unjust." God the Father, desirous of being reconciled to His rebellious creatures, proposed the means of our Salvation; God the Son cheerfully undertook, and affectionately accomplished, the gracious purpose; God the Holy Ghost co-operates with our wills, enabling us, thereby, "to make our calling and election sure." What acknowlegement

do

do such mercies demand? The only one we can offer is," to love one another." For, as St. John argues, "he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen,

how can he love God, whom he hath not seen? "And this commandment have we from Him, that he ❝ who loveth God, love his brother also." The most punctual attendance on public worship, the invariable celebration of private prayer, and the uniform obser. vance of the Gospel-ordinances, without kindness and affection to our fellow-creatures, will all be unaccept> able in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. When we shall be assembled "before the Judgment-seat of "Christ, to receive according to what we have done ❝in the body," the kindnesses we have shewn to those who needed them, will not be forgotten. "Verily, I

say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto 66 one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

A second motive to the practice of this duty, is the consideration that our interest is implied in it. Interest, it must be allowed, usually, preponderates in all our transactions. And to neglect it, when it is not inconsistent with our duty, is accounted, by wise and good, men, not merely a want of wisdom, but a proof of folly. Our interest is in this command so greatly concerned, as to threaten us with such consequences, as will far outweigh any imaginary advantage we might propose to ourselves by the violation of it. The forgiveness of injuries done to us, is made by God an indispensable condition of the obtaining remission of our sins committed against Him. In the Lord's Prayer we are taught to supplicate, and to expect, pardon of God, upon the express condition of our forgiving

others

others-forgive us our sins, as we forgive every one that is indebted to us." And our Saviour, after the recital of the whole prayer, gives us this reason for it→ "for, if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly

Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive แ not men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses." Compare ye the greatness of the reward promised to the performance of the duty of loving our brethren, and forgiving their offences, with the supposed advantages arising from the contrary practice, and then say what you shall lose by the violation, what you shall gain by the observance, of the precept? In the one case, you may feel a mean gratification from your neighbor's distresses-which will soon be followed with remorse of conscience, and agony of mind; and, in the words of our Blessed Saviour, by exacting one hundred pence of your fellowservant, you yourself will lose the forgiveness of ten thousand talents at the hand of God.

The last motive I shall mention to the observance of this duty is, that it is the special command of our Lord himself.

There is not one precept of the Gospel more frequently repeated, and more earnestly inculcated, than this of loving one another. We call Christ our "Lord and Master: and we do well; for so He is." But then we are to pay that reverence, and obedience, to His commands which constitute the essential parts of the duties of servants. We have enlisted under the banners of Christ. The word Christian implies a servant, and disciple of Christ, of whom He hath made this duty the token by which He is known to be our Master, and we to belong to His family.

By this

"shall