UPON THE RIGHT

LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR.

DISCOURSE IX.

MARK Xii. 28, 29, 30, 31.

And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, which is the first commandment of all. And Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely, this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; there is none other commandment greater than these.

In these words our blessed Saviour has given us the sum and substance of all practical religion. He has reduced it to two short rules, which yet are so full and copious, that they comprehend all the law and the prophets. The whole scripture was to lead us to the right knowledge of the Lord God, that we might pay him the love and obedience which are his due, and might love our neighbour as ourselves.

I have already discoursed of the two parts of the first commandment, and have endeavoured to explain and to enforce the right knowledge and the right love of the

Lord God, and I come now to the second commandment, which is contained in these words of the text: "And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love "thy neighbour as thyself." The second is like unto the first, because it treats of the same subject, is enforced by the same authority, and is enacted for the same wise and gracious purposes; and the second is farther like, because it arises and branches out of the first, since if any man has the true love of God in his heart, it will evidence and prove itself to be there, by enabling him to love his neighbour as himself. The right love of our neighbour is the fruit and effect of our love of God, and can spring from no other root, especially in the perfect degree here required, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. This is an abridgment of the whole moral law, and comprehends all the duties of the second table. As he who loves God keeps the first table, so he, who loves his neighbour as himself, keeps the second. May the Lord incline all our hearts to keep it, and may his good Spirit render useful and profitable what shall be said,

First, Concerning the inseparable connection between the two commandments, the love of God and the love of our neighbour.

Secondly, Concerning the nature and extent of the second commandment-Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Thirdly, Concerning the scripture method of enabling us to keep this commandment. And then,

Fourthly, I shall make some practical observations upon these particulars.

As to the first of these points, I lay this down for an evident truth; that the man can have no real love for his neighbour, who has not first the love of God in his heart, such a true experimental sense of God's love to him in Christ Jesus, as was treated of in the last discourse for the love of our neighbour stands upon the love of God. It has no other foundation. Build it upon what you please but this, you will find nothing

else strong enough to act against the opposition of a man's own selfish heart. But as we have many pretended master-builders, who lay another foundation than that is laid, and as some of the most dangerous mistakes in religion, arises from building upon these men's foundation, I will therefore bring some arguments to prove the inseparable connection between the two commandments, the love of God and the love of our neighbour. And

First, a man cannot love his neighbour aright, until he be endued with the love of God; because he has no principle of love in his heart. Man, in his natural state, or as our church expresses it, man, before he receives the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit, has no holy pure love of any kind. All his affections are placed upon wrong objects and directed to wrong ends. They are turned from God, and placed upon those objects, the love of which he has forbidden, and they are directed to the pleasing of self, and not to the glory of God. This is the scripture-character of fallen man. He has no brotherly love; and how should he have any? for he has no natural affection. He acts contrary to those very instincts by which the brutes act invariably. With all his boasted reason, and dignified facul ties, he is in social life lower than a brute: for are there not parents who have no love for their children, and children who have no love for their parents? Is it not a common thing to find a family divided against itself, and Cain persecuting Abel unto death? And what principle of love can he have in his heart, who is thus without natural affection? Natural affection ties men together with the strongest bonds of love, but all these he breaks asunder; and therefore it is just as possible that any brotherly love should be in him, as that a fountain should send forth at the same time sweet water and bitter. But

Secondly, The natural man is not only without a principle of love, but is also described by that God who created his heart, and knows it intimately to be

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actuated by a principle of hatred. Until he has some of the love of God shed abroad in his heart, he cannot have any true love for his neighbour: because he is absolutely under the influence of vicious self love, and while this reigns in the heart, brotherly love can have no place; nay, it will be absolutely shut out, as the apostle shews, Titus iii. 3. "We ourselves also (as well as others) sometimes lived in malice and envy, hate"ful and hating one another." When did he, as others, live in this malicious, envious, hateful state? He was, he says, a slave to these base tempers, until the kindness and love of God our Saviour was manifested to him; and therefore until this be manifested to any man, he must be a slave to the same tempers. not be delivered from them by any human means. knowledge, no power of philosophy, no system of morality, no stretch of genius, nor refinements of polite life, can make a man less hateful in himself, or less disposed to hate others. Had not the Romans all these advantages, and yet we have this character of them drawn by an infallible pen. They were filled with all unrighteousness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, disobedient to parents, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. Thus were they hateful, and hating one another? and such is every man before he receives the grace of Christ. He has all these evil tempers in him, which the Romans had.

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But some perhaps may ask, What is the cause of this universal depravity of man's affections? The corruption of his nature is the true cause: for all our evil tempers spring from the corrupt heart. The fountain is polluted, and therefore the streams run foul. Out of the heart, says our Lord, proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, with the other abominable deeds of the flesh, some of which the apostle mentions by name, Gal. v. 20. such as hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, envyings. These are in every heart: for