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CHA P. XV.

Of the loving of Enemies.

MATTH. V. 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48.

Te have heard, that it hath been faid, Thou fhalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine

enemy.

But I fay unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curfe you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully ufe you, and perfecute you.

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for he maketh his fun to rife on the evil and on the good, and fendeth rain on the just, and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the fame?

And if ye falute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans fo?

Be

ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

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HE foregoing paragraph, it may be thought, has drawn out the duty of forgiving of injuries to a mighty length : It obliges us to abstain from all retaliations of evil in private; it forbids all violent and angry profecutions in courts of law, and juftice; it charges us to run the hazard of fuffering many injuries one after another, rather than fence our felves against them, by a fpirit of revenge; nay, it enjoins us fo far to forget the evil that has been done us, as to relieve the injurious perfon, if he fhould afterwards fall into diftrefs. One would apt to think, that whofoever can do all this, acquits himself fufficiently as a generous Chriftian: And yet there is fomething more and higher expected from us, which the prefent paragraph requires. 'Tis not enough, it feems, that we forget what is paft, and be ready to do good to an adverfary hereafter, as it may lie in our way: But even now, while the injury is a doing, while his malice has us actually in chafe, while our good name lies bleeding fresh by his vile and venomous reflections, and we are fuffering every day by all the mischiefs he can do to our other interefts; nay, and if his power and cruelty extend fo far, even while our bodies are tormented, or our lives expiring by them; we muft love and bless him, pray for him, and do him good; and this is the true ftandard of Chriftian's perfection in charity. Our Saviour takes occafion the rather to urge this, because of a popular and prevailing error amongst the Jews; who having read that their ancestors were commiffioned by God, as minifters of his juftice, utterly to deftroy the feven nations, that poffeffed the land of Canaan before them; to blot out the remem

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* Deut. vii. 12, OC. Deut. xxv. 19. Deut. xxiii. 3, 4. brance

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brance of Amalek under heaven, and were difcharged from fecking the peace and profperity of the Ammonites, and the Moabites, confidered not that thefe were special cafes, fixed by the divine command, and grounded upon reafons both of ftate and religion; but drew an inference very falfly from them to their own private and perfonal quarrels, and advanced it into a maxim, that though in general, they were to love their neighbours, yet they not only might, but ought to hate their enemies, efpecially fuch as were enemies to their law and worfhip. This their doctors taught with much aflurance, and the people received it with a malicious readiness, as being naturally violent and revengeful, But our Saviour here corrects their mistake; and requires his followers, on the contrary, to behave themselves with the greateft meeknefs and beneficence to all that injure them, to pray for their enemies converfion, and to do them good, even tho' they are defpitefully abused, and perfecuted by them at that inftant, whether for religion, or for any private or perfonal cause.

"YE know (fays he) that by the law, ye are "commanded to love your neighbours, a word, "which in its due extent and latitude comprises all "mankind, and all mankind in general is really in"tended in it. But your doctors have distinguished cc away the force of the precept, and narrowed "the fignification of the word, to a fellowship

in the fame religion, civil polity, or private "friendfhips, and in this fenfe teaching you to "love your neighbours, have falfly form'd an anti"thefis, that you may hate your enemy. On the

contrary, I tell you, that even the worst enemy "ye have is your neighbour, and whatever his re"ligion, his country, or his ufage of you be, ye "are bound to love him, even at the time that he

is moft injurious and abufive. Does he curfe, or

❝ rail

ye
in re-

"rail at you, and fpeak evil of you? Do ἐσ turn with well to him, and fay all that ye can "justly fay in commendation of him. Does he

purfue you with implacable hatred, is he daily "doing you all the mischief in his power, or does "he perfecute you for the teftimony of a good "confcience, with all the fury and cruelty that hell

can infpire? Do all the perfonal good offices ye “ can to him upon all occafions; contrive to bene"fit him, as he does to injure you; pray earnestly "and every day to God for his good estate in this "world, and fuch a thorough converfion as may "bring him happily to the next. By this ye will ma"nifeft your felves to be the fons of God, whose pro"vidence is equally exercised over all his creatures, "not differencing in this present ftate of things, "the righteous from the wicked, but making his "fun to fhine on the evil and on the good, and "fending rain on the juft and on the unjuft. For "if your love reaches only to your friends, to "those who are, or may be beneficial to you, what "reward can ye expect for this? Nature and felf"interest prompt you to it, and even the Publiσε cans ye fo much defpife, can practise it. And if ye be only respectful to thofe of your own fa "mily or neighbourhood, common civility and "good manners oblige to this, and it is no more "than the worst of men attain. But I would have ແ you Chriftians, who are the fons of God by a"doption, to imitate your heavenly Father in a "more extended charity and univerfal benevo"lence.

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OUR bleffed Saviour here not only gives his Disciples the true meaning of that precept, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy felf, extending neighbourhood to all the world, and love to the most exalted degrees of kindness; but what we may obferve to be ufual with him, when the duty goes much

against

against the grain of human nature, and the common practice of mankind (as in this of loving our enemies, and in that of not laying up treasures upon earth) he condescends to give reafons for our obedience, from the usefulness and excellence of what is commanded. Let us therefore confider,

I. THE duty it felf of loving our enemies.
II. THE motives and arguments by which our
Lord has condescended, to urge and encourage
us thereto.

I. THE duty it felf of loving our enemies. The meaning of the word love, in this place, is beft explain'd by our Saviour himself, in those three intances of friendship and affection, bleffing, doing good, and praying for them; as the contrary inftances of curfing, bating, and defpitefully ufing and perfecuting, explain what is here to be understood by

an enemy.

(1.) FIRST then, We are obliged to blefs them: The word ufed here is uλoyate, which implies both the Speaking them civilly to their faces, and Speaking well of them behind their backs. Tho they reproach, revile and flander us, treat us, when prefent, with the moft contemptuous and infulting, the most fcurrilous and bitter language; and when we are abfent, make it their bufinefs daily to leffen and defame us, and to fay all the ill things of us, they can either hear, imagine, or invent: Our conduct is to be directly the reverfe of this; we must answer them in the moft civil and courteous, the moft obliging and good-natured terms; and whenever we have occafion to speak of them in company, we must labour to conceal their faults, where charity and juftice do not require us to discover them; we must put the best conftruction upon their actions, and the faircft glofs upon their characters,

that

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