I. What is this love to one another ? There are two branches of it : 2 Peter i. 7, ' And to brotherly kindness, charity.'
88 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SeR, XVII.
First, There is contained in it brotherly kindness, a grace wrought in us by the Holy Spirit, inclining us to love all those without excep- tion as brethren who are made partakers of like precious faith with us. In which description note —
1. The author of this grace, and that is the Holy Spirit renewing the heart : 1 Peter i. 22, ' Seeing ye have purified your hearts through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren ; see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.' Naturally there is in us pride, self-love, wrath, strife, which dispose us only to please ourselves and love ourselves, without any regard to others ; and besides, till our souls be purified and sanctified, we shall never love purity and holiness iu others, but the upright will be an abomination to us : Prov. xxix. 27, ' He that is upright iu the way is an abomination to the wicked.' They are unsuitable to them, and they are objects reviving guilt. Whatever good nature men have yet in their natural condition, they are enemies to the godly. Naturally we hate God because he is a holy God, and we hate his law because it is a holy law, and we hate his children because they are a holy people ; but when the soul is purified, its love and inclinations and aversions are altered, both as to persons and things. We love God for his holiness, Ps. ciii. 1 ; we love his law because it is pure, Ps cxix. 140 ; and we love his people because they are holy : Ps. XV. 4, ' In whose eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honoureth them that fear the Lord.' The new creature loveth what God loveth, and hatetli what God hateth.
2. There is a propension or inclination in the new nature to this love, with all the acts and fruits of it, though no outward respects invite us thereunto : 1 Thes. iv. 9, ' Concerning brotherly love, ye need not that any should write unto you, for ye are taught of God to love one another.' Instruction and persuasion doth not put us upon it so much as inclination, and the tendency of the new nature : 1 John iv. 7, ' Every one that loveth is born of God ; ' and 1 John v. 1, ' He that loveth him that begat, loveth also those that are begotten by him.' Those that have the new nature in any degree of strength and preval- ency are mclined and disposed by it to love others, who are partakers of the same nature ; so that it is a duty kindly and natural to the regenerate, flowing from an inward propension and inclination, and needeth not much outward excitement. All the saints have a new heart of one and the same making >and nature, and propound unto themselves one and the same end and scope, and so their hearts are suited to one another, and take pleasure in one another.
3. The acts and fruits of this love are these —
[1.] An esteem of them, and complacency in them, as having more of God in them than other men. They are said to be partakers of the divine nature, 2 Peter i. 4. We love God's natural image in all men ; we love his spiritual image in the saints ; and therefore the bond is stronger than the bond of common love : Ps. xvi. 3, ' My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight ; ' Prov. xii. 26, ' The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour,' therefore a greater object of love ; as Austin said of himself and his friend Alypius, that their friendship grew more entire when they both became acquainted with Christ, and
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were cemented together with the blood of Christ. Eodem sanguine Christi filutinati.
[2.] By an affectionate desire of their good and spiritual happiness. The philosopher telleth us to love any is to wish well to them, to desire them all the good we can ; and we cannot desire a greater good to others than spiritual good, than the best good ; not to wish them health and strength of body, and greatness and worldly accommodations, but grace, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and light, life, and eternal happiness : Col. i. 9, ' We cease not to pray for you, and to desire that you may be filled with all wisdom and spiritual understanding ; ' Phil, i. 8, ' God is my record, how greatly I long after you all, in the bowels of Jesus Christ.' God knoweth the secret motions and inclinations of our inward affections. Now, when wecan appeal to God for the fervency, sincerity, and spirituality of our love, and have in some measure as hearty a good-will to them as Christ had to souls when he died for them, then we have this Christ-like love which is called brotherly kindness.