XXVI. the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, gentleness, goodness, SERM. meekness; and created according to God in Chrift Jefus to the practice of answerable good works. Gal. v. 22. Col iii 12. 7. There are divers means conducible to the abatement Eph. v. 9. of difficulty in this practice, which I fhall propofe, re- Eph. iv. 24. ferring the matter to iffue upon due trial of them. 1. Let us carefully weigh the value of those things which immoderate felf love doth affect in prejudice to charity, together with the worth of those which charity doth fet in balance to them. Ariftotle himself doth obferve, that the ground of culpable felf-love, fcraping, fcrambling, fcuffling for particular intereft, is men's high esteem and paffion for, and greedy appetite of wealth, of honours, of corporeal pleafures: whereas virtuous perfons, not admiring those things, will conftantly act for honefty fake, and out of love to their friends or country; wherein although they most really benefit and truly gratify themselves, yet are they not blamed for felfifhnefs. And fo indeed it is: if we rightly did apprehend the infinite vanity of all worldly goods, the meanness of private concerns, the true despicableness of all those honours, thofe profits, thofe delights on which commonly men do fo dote, we should not be fo fond or jealous of them, as to scrape or scuffle for them, envying or grudging them to others; if we did conceive the tranfcendent worth of future rewards allotted to this and other virtues, the great confiderableness of public good at which charity aimeth, the many advantages which may accrue to us from our neighbour's welfare, (entertained with complacence, and wifely accommodated to our use,) we should not be fo averse from tendering his good as our own. 2. Let us confider our real state in the world, in de ii. 10. · Οἱ μὲν ἦν εἰς ὄνειδῷ ἄγοντες αὐτὸ, φιλαύτους καλᾶσι τὰς ἑαυτοῖς ἀπονέμοντας τὸ πλεῖσον ἐν χρήμασι, καὶ τιμαῖς, καὶ ἡδοναῖς ταῖς σωματικαῖς· τέτων γὰρ οἱ πολλοὶ ὀρίγονται, καὶ ἱσπουδάκασι περὶ αὐτὰ, ὡς ἄρισα ὄντα· διὸ κ περιμάχητά ἐσιν· οἱ δὲ περὶ ταῦτα πλεονέκται χαρίζονται ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις, καὶ ὅλως τοῖς πάθεσι, καὶ τῷ ἀλόγῳ τῆς ψυχῆς δικαίως δὴ τοῖς ἔτω φιλαύτοις ονειδίζεται, Arif. Eth. ix. 8. Vid, tot. SERM. pendance upon the pleasure and providence of Almighty XXVI. God. it If we look upon ourselves as fubfifting only by our own care and endeavour, without any other patronage or help, may thence prove hard to regard the interefts of others as comparable to our own; feeing then, in order to our living with any convenience, it is neceffary that we should be folicitous for our own prefervation and sustenance, that will engage us to contend with others as competitors for the things we need, and uncapable otherwife to attain: but if (as we ought to do, and the true state of things requireth) we confider ourselves as fubfifting under the protection, and by the providence of God, who no lefs careth for us than for others, and no lefs for others than for us; 'Ousias di (for, as the Wife Man faith, he careth for all alike ;) who προνοεῖ περὶ recommendeth to us a being mutually concerned each for other, and is engaged to keep us from suffering thereby ; who commandeth us to difburden our cares upon himself; who affuredly will the better provide for us, as we do more further the good of others: if we do confider thus, it will deliver us from folicitude concerning our subsistence and perfonal accommodations, whence we may be free to regard the concerns of others, with no lefs application than we do regard our own. πάντων. Sap. vi. 7. As living under the fame government and laws (being members of one commonwealth, one corporation, one family) difpofeth men not only willingly but earnestly to ferve the public intereft, beyond any hopes of receiving thence any particular advantage answerable to their pain and care; fo confidering ourselves as members of the world, and of the Church, under the governance and patronage of God, may disengage us from immoderate respect of private good, and incline us to promote the common welfare. 3. There is one plain way of rendering this duty poffible, or of perfectly reconciling charity to self-love; which is, a making the welfare of our neighbour to be our own: which if we can do, then eafily may we defire it more seriously, then may we promote it with the greatest zeal and vigour : for then it will be an instance of SERM. felf-love to exercise charity; then both these inclinations XXVI. confpiring will march evenly together, one will not extrude nor depress the other. It may be hard, while our concerns appear divided, not to prefer our own; but when they are coincident, or confpire together, the ground of that partiality is removed. Nor is this an imaginary course, but grounded in reafon, and thereby reducible to practice: for confidering the manifold bands of relation (natural, civil, or spiritual) between men, as naturally of the fame kind and blood, as civilly members of the fame fociety, as fpiritually linked in one brotherhood; confidering the mutual advantages derivable from the wealth and welfare of each other, (in way of needful fuccour, advice, and comfort, of profitable commerce, of pleafant converfation;) confidering the mifchiefs which from our neighbour's indigency and affliction we may incur, they rendering him as a wild beast, unsociable, troublesome, and formidable to us; confidering that we cannot be happy without good nature, and good humour, and that good nature cannot behold any fad object without pity and dolorous refentment, good humour cannot fubfift in prospect of fuch objects; confidering that charity is an inftrument, whereby we may apply all our neighbour's good to ourselves, it being ours, if we can find complacence therein; it may appear reafonable to reckon all our neighbour's concerns to our account. That this is practicable, experience may confirm; for we may obferve, that men commonly do thus appropriate the concerns of others, refenting the difafters of a friend or of a relation with as fenfible difpleasure as they could their own; and anfwerably finding as high a fatisfaction in their good fortune. Yea many perfons do feel more pain by compaffion for others, than they could do in fuftaining the fame evils; divers can with a ftout heart undergo their own afflictions, who are melted with those of a friend or brother. Seeing then in true judgment SERM. humanity doth match any other relation, and ChriftiXXVI. anity far doth exceed all other alliances, why may we not on them ground the like affections and practices, if reason hath any force, or confideration can any wise sway in our practice? 4. It will greatly conduce to the perfect obfervance of this rule, to the depreffion of felf-love, and advancement of charity to the highest pitch, if we do ftudiously contemplate ourselves, ftrictly examining our confcience, and seriously reflecting on our unworthinefs and vileness; the infirmities and defects of nature, the corruptions and defilements of our foul, the fins and mifcarriages of our lives which doing, we shall certainly be far from admiring or doting on ourselves; but rather, as Job did, we Job ix. 20. fhall condemn and abhor ourselves: when we see ourselves fo deformed and ugly, how can we be amiable in our own eyes? how can we more esteem or affect ourselves than others, of whose unworthinefs we can hardly be fo conscious or fure? What place can there be for that vanity and folly, for that pride and arrogance, for that partiality and injuftice, which are the fources of immoderate selflove? xlii. 6. 5. And lastly, we may from many confpicuous experiments and examples be affured that such a practice of this duty is not impoffible; but these I have already produced and urged in the precedent discourse, and shall not repeat them again. SERMON XXVII. THE NATURE, PROPERTIES, AND ACTS OF EPHES. V. 2. And walk in love. ST. Paul telleth us, that the end of the commandment (or SERM. the main scope of the evangelical doctrine) is charity, out XXVII. of a pure heart and a good confcience, and faith unfeigned ; 1 Tim. i. 5. that charity is a general principle of all good practice'; Gal. v. 14. (let all your things be done in charity ;) that it is the fum 1 Cor. xvi. and abridgment of all other duties, fo that he that loveth 14. another, hath fulfilled the whole law; that it is the chief Rom. xiii. of the theological virtues; the prime fruit of the divine, Spirit, and the band of perfection, which combineth and 13. confummateth all other graces. 1 Cor. xiii. Gal. v. 22. St. Peter enjoineth us that to all other virtues we should 2 Pet. i. 7. add charity, as the top and crown of them; and, Above 1 Pet. iv. 8. all things, faith he, have fervent charity among your felves. St. James ftyleth the law of charity vóμov Baoλxòv, the Jam. ii. 8. royal, or fovereign, law. St. John calleth it, in way of excellence, the command- 1 John iii. ment of God; This is his commandment, that we should 23, 11. iv. love one another. 21. xiii. 34. Our Lord claimeth it for his peculiar law; This is my Johnxv.12. commandment; and a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. And he maketh the obfervance of it the special badge and cognizance of his followers; |