(3.) Because our love to God should put us upon loving his people and making them our intimates ; for religion influenceth all things — our relations, common employments, friendship, and converse : 1 tJohn V. 1, ' Every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him.^ The new nature incliueth to both : there is an inward propension and inclination needing no outward provocation and allure- ments : 1 Thes. iv. 9, ' As touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you, for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another.' God's teaching is by effectual impression or inclining the heart. It is a smart question that of the prophet, 2 Chron. xix. 2, ' Shouldest thou hate the godly, and love those that hate the Lord ?' Surely a gracious heart cannot take them into his bosom : he loveth all with a love of good will, as seeking their good, but not with a love of complacency, as delighting in them. Our neighbour must be loved as ourselves — our natural or carnal neighbour as our natural self, with a love of benevolence, and our spiritual neighbour as our spiritual self, with a love of complacency. We have hated our sinful neighbour
Mat. XVII. 1.] Christ's transfigueation. 343
as we hate ourselves ; much more as to love of benevolence — we must neither hate ourselves, our neighbour, nor our enemy. But it is com- placency we are speaking of, and so ' the wicked is an abomination to the righteous,' Prov. xxix. 27. The hatred of displacency is oppo- site to the love of complacency, as the hatred of enmity to the love of benevolence. We cannot enter into a confederacy and intimate kind- ness with them.
(4.) Because that love which is built upon holiness is the most dura- ble and lasting. There is a confederacy in evil, as between drunkards with drunkards, and robbers with robbers : Prov. i. 14, ' Cast in thy lot amongst us, let us all have one common purse.' Or when men conspire against the truth and interest of Christ in the world ; as Gebal and Ammon and Amalek leagued themselves against God's people, divided in interests but united in hatred ; as the Pharisees and Herod- ians agreed together to tempt Christ ; and Herod and Pilate, though otherwise no very good friends, agreed to mock him. This is imitas contra unitatem, as Austin ; ov consortium factionis, a, bond of iniquity. Now this friendship is soon dissolved, for these men, though they agree in evil, yet have contrary lusts and interests ; and besides, partners in evil are usually objects reviving guilt ; their very presence upbraids the consciences of one another with the remembrance of their past sins; and sin, though it be sweet in the committing, yet it is hateful and bitter in the remembrance of it. Again, there is a civil friendship built on natural pleasure and profit. Certainly men are at liberty to choose their company as their interests and course of employments leads them. This may be a society for trade or civil respect ; it cannot be a true and proper friendship, for riches, which are so frail and slip- pery, can never make a firm tie and bond of hearts and minds : Prov. xiv. 20, ' The poor is hated even of his own neighbour, but the rich hath many friends ;' Prov. xix. 6, ' Many will entreat the favour of a prince, and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts : all the brethren of the poor do hate him,' &c. And as it is a fluid, so it is a base and sordid friendship that is built upon riches, for that concerneth the estate rather than the soul. Well, then, religious friendship, which is built upon virtue and grace, and is called ' the unity of the spirit,' Eph. iv. 3, is the most firm bond of all. Sinful societies are soon dissolved, and the profane, though they seem to hold together, yet upon every cross word may fall out and break ; and civil friendship, which is only built upon pleasures and profit, standeth upon a brittle foundation. Certainly the good and the holy are not so changeable as the bad and the carnal. Besides, that friendship which is built upon honesty and godliness, is amicitia per se, the other is amicitia peraccidens. It cometh from constitution of soul and likeness of spirits, and the good we seek may be possessed without envy ; the friends do not straiten and intrench upon one another. Again, there is a vir- tuous friendship, which consists in a harmony of minds, or an agree- ment in some common studies. This is more noble, and more like true friendship than society for trade and temporal interests ; but yet this friendship is not so durable, for at last it must be broken off by death ; but the godly are everlasting companions. Besides, self-love and envy are more apt to invade other friendships ; but the godly, if they be true
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to the laws of spiritual friendship, they seek the good of one another as much as their own, and rejoice in the graces of one another as much as in their own.