felves, we fell alfo from the Love of others to our felves: The individuate creature was contracted in himself, and all together fet upon Propriety, and forgot his relations to God and man: And when grace deftroyeth this felfish privateness o f fpirit, it fetteth us again in love with God and man together; and the better any man is, the more publick spirit he is of, and the lefs difference he maketh between his neighbours intereft, and his own (when God and his intereft make not a difference.) And this is to Love our neighbour as our felves; that is, without the vice of partial felfishness; not fetting up our own intereft against his, but equally meafuring both by Gods; and referring them thereunto, Levit. 19. 18,34. Matth. 19. 19. Gal. 15.4.

Direct. 10. Remember that loving others as our felves is our own interest and benefit, as well as our duty.

And a notable inftance it is, how much our duty is our own intereft and good, and how merciful God is in his firiccft Laws. As the Love of God is Heaven it felf, and finners that love bim not, do damn themselves, and put themselves from Heaven and happiness (and to pardon them, is to fandifie them) even fo it is an unfpeakable lofs and mifery which finners draw upon themselves, by not loving their neighbours, as themselves, but only in a fubordination to themselves, and for their proper private ends. I pray you mark but thefe few particular inAtances.

1. If I love my neighbour as my self, my very love is my delight and cafe. The form of Love confifteth in complacency or pleafedness; and therefore it muft needs be pleasant to every one that ufeth it (However bad Love hath bitter fruits.) And whenever wrath, or envy, or hatred, comes inftead of Love, it is my fickness, I feel my felf difeafed by it.

2. If I love others, others will love me. They are fearce free to do otherwife. You may almost constrain any man to love you, if you love him heartily, and shew it plainly, and were within his view to make him fee it. All men love a loving nature; but especially if they be loved by fuch themselves..

3. If I love my neighbour as my felf, to do good to him will be as cafie and pleasant as to my felf. I can ride, and run, and labour contentedly for my felf: I can floop to the moft fordid

employment

employment for my felf: And fo I fhould as cafily do for others: Whereas want of Love doth make all tedious that I do, and maketh my duty a continual burden,and too often tempts me to omit it. Eove made both Chrift and his Apoftles to do fo much for fouls with eafe and pleasure, which elfe they could not have undergone, John 15.13.9. 2 Cor. 12. 15. Ephef. 3.17. & 5. 2. Col. 2. 2.

4. If I love my neighbour as my felf, I can as easily suffer any thing from him, as from my felf. I can cafily bear that in my felf, as to fight or fmell; the loathfomest fores or ulcers, which others cannot bear. I am eafily brought to forgive my felf, and to forbear felf-burting, and felf-revenge, and fo fhould I do to others, if I thus loved them. And then how eafie would my life be among all the injuries of the world!

5. If I loved my neighbour as my felf; if my flesh did want, my mind (which is my felf) could never be in want: Because all that my neighbours bave i mine, as to my comfort and content. My boufe is homely, but my neighbours is comely and convenient; and to my mind that is as comfortable, as if it were my own: My Land is small, but my neighbours is large: my grounds are barren, but my neighbours fruitful: my corn is bad, but bi proves good my cattel die, or profper not, but his do well: I am low and defpicable, and no man careth for me; but others are Lords, and Princes, and honourable and if I love them as my self, their corn, their cattel, their houses and lands, their Kingdoms and honours, are as much my comfort, as if they were my own. I know thefe are Paradoxes to da praved felfish nature; but thus it would be if Love were perfect; and thus it is in that mealure that we love. And fhould that duty be taken for a burden, which as to my comfort maketh all the wealth, and honour, and Kingdoms of others to be my own?

Obj. If you love your neighbours as your felves, you must mourn with them that mourn; and all the calamities and forrows of the world must be yours; which will overcome your joyes.

Anf. 1. I am not to forrow as much as they do forrow, but as much as they rationally ought to do. And men are not to think that a loving correction, which worketh for their good and falvation, is worse than the fnares of profpority: The brother of

high

high degree mult rejoyce when be is made low, as well as the brother of low degree must rejyce when he is exalted, Jum 19.10. And why thould that be my forrow, which is be benefit, and hould be bis joy? If Paul and Silas fing in the flocks, why Thould not Iling with them? Patience and rejoycing are the duty of all Believers in afflation.

2. The mercies and happiness of every one that feareth God is far more than his mifery: Therefore his joy and gratitude fhould be more than his forrows and complaints. If a mans tooth do ach, and all the reft of his body be well, fhould not he and I be more thankful for the health of all the reft, than troubled for a tooth? A Believer hath alwaies the Spirit of God, and a part in Chrift, and the pardon of fin, and a right to Heaven: And then how much greater fhould bit joy be than his forrows, and mine alfo on his behalf?

3. The Goodness and Love of God is manifefted to the world more abundantly than his justice and feverity. We know of no afflicted Saints but on this fpot of earth: And we know of no damned ones, but Devils and wicked men: Bat we know that the worlds above us are incomparably more vaft than this, and that the glory of the celeftial Spirits, is far greater than our fufferings and forrows here: Therefore our joy which Love procureth, should be a thousand-fold greater than our forrows.

4. And as for the wicked, as the confequent Will of God layeth by compaffion fo confequently, confidering them as the obftinate final refufers of grace, they are not thofe neighbours whom we are bound to love as our felves: For they are enemies to God,and deprived of his Image; and therefore our obligations to mourn for them, are abated (as Samuels for Saul, when he knew that God had rejected him (1 Sam. 15. 35. & 16. 1.) And we are obliged to rejoyce in the declarations of the Juft ce and Holiness of God, and the univerfal benefit which redoundeth from his Judgments, Rev. 18. 20. & 12. 12. Esther 8. 15. So that it fill remaineth clear, that loving our neighbours as our felves, doth entitle us to the comforts of all mens health,eftates, profperity, honours; yea and their holiness and wisdom too and this without any fuch participation of their forrows, as fhould be any confiderable ecclipfe of our delightss

if we do it all regularly, as God requireth us.

6. If I love my neighbour as my felf, I am freed from all the trouble of cross interefts; in buying and felling, in trefpaffing, in Law fuits; It will comfort me as much if be get by me, as if I get by bime: If bi bargain prove the better, as if mine did, if be have the better at Law, as if it were judged to my felf. Yea all his fucceffes, prosperity, and whatever good betalleth any that I know of in the world, will all be mine.

7. And I shall never be loth by death to leave the world (while I have no caufe to fear the miffing of falvation) because whatever I leave behind me, will be poffeffed by fuch as I love as my felf. They will have life, and time, and bealth, and comforts, and whatever my nature is loth to leave: Therefore whileft I live, why fhould it not be as comforting to me to think that fo many shall live and profper, whom I love as my felf, as if I were my felf to live and profper.

8. Yea, more than fo, I have by Love a part in the Foyes of Heaven, before I am actually there. For the Joyes of all thofe bleffed fouls, and of thofe holy Angels, are mine by participa tion, so far as to cause me to rejoyce in their felicity, as if it were my own, as far as I can now apprehend it.

Yea the Glory of the Lord Jefus, and the eternal bleffedaefs of God himself, would rejoyce us more than our own felicity, if we loved him as much above our felves, as we ought to do, we should partake of our Masters joy.

And now judge whether loving God as God, and our neighbeurs fincerely as our felves, would not cure almost all the calamities of our minds, and give us a kind of Heaven, and be a cheap and certain way, to have what we can with in all the world, and even to make all the world our own. And whether it be not fin it felf, which is the first part of all mens helt and mifery?

ObjeЯ. But my neighbours meat will not fill my belly; nor bia health doth not ease my pain; nor his fire keep me warM.

Anfw. The flesh hath got the dominion indeed, when men cannot diftinguish between foul and body, between the pain and pleafures of the body and of the mind. I do not fay that Love will change the pain or pleasure of your bodies, but of your minds. Your appetites will not be fatisfied with your neighbours

1

food, but your minds may be comforted to fee his welfare. Your pain is not eased by your neighbours health; but your minds may be pleafed by it, as much as if it were your own, if you loved him as much as you do your felf. And therefore many in a danger have faved the life of a Prince, a Captain, a Parent, a Child, a Friend, with the voluntary lofs of their

own.

Object. This is all true; but who is there in the world that. doth it, or findeth it poffible to love another as himself? And how can that be a duty, which is to nature it self an impoffibility?Therefore let us first know what this duty is, of loving cur neighbours as our felves.

Anf. Doubtless if it be the fumm of the Law, all true Chri-. ftians do it in fincerity, though not in perfection. And as to the fenfe of it, 1. You must diftinguish between that sensitive and paffionate affection, which is in the foul as fenfitive, and is common to beasts with men, and that rational appetite, which doth will, and chufe, and is pleased according to the conduct of pure reason. The first we doubt not will be ftill more to our Felves than others; and it is not the ufe of grace to destroy it, but to rule and moderate it.

2. You muft diftinguish between Love and outward allions, which are the expreffions of it. When our Love is due as much to one, as to another, yet our outward actions may be under a particular Lam, which obligeth us to do that for one, which we are not bound to do for others. As to maintain our own children, families, fervants, and fo our selves rather than others. And the reafon is, because the difference ofindividuals maketh that fit for one, which is not fit for another; and fo maketh every man the fittest chufer for bimfelf, and thofe that are neereft to bim; and nature inftigateth him to the greateft care in doing it: And all good must be done in a regular order, or elfe confufion will defroy it. And nature maketh this moft orderly As every Parish muft keep their own poor, and yet muft love other poor as well.

3. You must know that Love is formally nothing but complacence (as aforefaid) but Love joyned with a will and purpofe to do good to another, is called Love of benevolence; when yet the Love there is one thing, and the doing good, or purpose to

do