before men. Give them clear proof of thy love to God by thy love to them: let them feel the blessed fruits of it, that they may see thy good works, and glorify thy Father who is in heaven. Love in thy heart will show itself. It will communicate its gracious rays, and the Father of lights will have the praise. This should be thine end, as it is his. He aims at his own glory in all his mercies: this aim should be thine also. Thy Father calls upon thee to do good to others, that he may be glorified thereby. O what an high calling is thine! What an honour does God put upon thee. Thou art to bring him glory from men-from his own children: for their bowels are to be refreshed by thee--and from others, that whereas they would speak against thee as an evil doer, they may by thy good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Aim at this. Look at no motive to do good to men below the glory of God. And remember, thy doing it may be the means of his visiting them, as he visited thee, with his great salvation. blessed fruit of brotherly love! may it be the happy effect of thy light shining before men. May God be daily honoured by it, and the comfort, and if it please him, the salvation of his people be thereby promoted. Yea, Lord, this is my prayer. My heart says, Amen. If thou findest it very difficult to live in the constant practice of brotherly love, meditate, O my soul, upon the gospel motives for an increase of faith, and seek for the promised assistance to enable thee to love others as God hath loved thee. Above all, expect the effectual teaching of the holy Ghost. He only can write this delightful law upon the heart -the fair impression of it is kept by his power and the exercise of it in thy tempers and walk, is the work of his grace. O pray then for a constant supply of the Spirit, that in all thy dealings with mankind it may appear thou hast been with Jesus. Set his most amiable life before their eyes. Give them reason to honour his beneficence, from thy copying it legibly after him. Let his love to thee be glorified from thy labour of love to them. Study to show forth his praises, and go about doing good, as he did. And hereby convince the world, that Jesus Christ was the greatest moralist, and that his disciples come the nearest to the perfect pattern of their master; as a poet of our own observes Talk they of morals? O thou bleeding love! The grand morality is love of thee. The love of Jesus teaches and enforces the love of the brethren. The Spirit of Jesus writes it upon the heart, and makes it practical in the life. And thus the two tables are joined together and love to him that begat produces love to them that are begotten of him. When the happy believer is walking in this love to his Father, and to his family, then he will live in the observance of the duties, which relate to himself: for he was taught them, when he returned in his heart to God. And every step he walks with God is in the practice of them. The first temptation was an offer of independence-" Ye shall be as God's"-man was drawn away by it, and fell from his high estate. Still this mother-sin is fruitful in fal len man. In great mercy there is a pardon provided, and in the way of receiving the pardon, there is a remedy for it. The infinite wisdom of God so contrived the way of our recovery, that without Christ we can do nothing. His salvation undertaken and finished for us; his salvation applied to us; the blessings of his salvation enjoyed by us in time, and in eternity, are the free gifts of his He is the author. He is the free grace. finisher. He carries it on from first to last. All our sufficiency is of him. We cannot without him, so much as think a good thought. Therefore his redeemed people are brought off from all trust in any other object, and are taught to place their whole dependence for salvation, and for every thing that accompanies it, upon the Lord Jesus Christ. To this end the holy Spirit, the great convincer of sin, had made them acquainted with themselves. He had awakened them to a right knowledge of their state, of which they had not been sensible before; and they found that they were fallen and apostate crea tures. He showed them sin in its exceeding sinfulness, and they tasted some of the bitter fruits of it: they felt in what a dreadful condition their departure from God had left them -so ignorant that they could not by any human means attain to the least saving knowledge of God-so guilty, that let them do all they could, still the condemning sentence of the law stood out against them-so unholy, that soul and body were sold under sin, and ready to every unholy word and work-so utterly helpless, that it was impossible they should of themselves attain true happiness, or escape deserved misery. The holy Spirit taught them these lessons practically. His conviction carried demonstration with it. He not only made them feel their guilt and their danger; but he also opened a way for pardon and safety. He led them to Jesus, and in him they found every thing needful for their salvation—treasured up for them by the free covenant love of the Father-secured to them by the fulfilling of all covenant conditions in the life and death of the God-manand received by the faith of the operation of |