2. From this love enemies and persecutors are not excepted : Mat. V. 44, ' Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and perse- cute you.' For this is to be like Grod, who is kind to the unthankful and the evil : Luke vi. 35, ' But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again ; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the highest ; for he is kind unto the un- thankful, and to the evil.'
3. The fruits of this love are not only seen in bestowing temporal benefits, but to the uttermost of our power (because they are capable of eternal blessedness) making it our unfeigned desire and prayer to God, that they may be saved : Rom. x. 1, ' Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they may be saved.' And our earnest endeavours should be to procure their spiritual good : James v. 19, 20, ' Brethren, if any one of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins.'
Secondly, The reasons.
1. Why we should love all men. The reasons that may induce us are —
[1.] Equality, the actual equality of all men by nature, who were all made by the same God, and all made of one blood. Diversity of rank doth not take away identity of nature : Mai. ii. 10, ' Have we not all one Father ? hath not one God created us ? why do we deal treacher- ously every man against his brother ? ' So Job xxxi. 13-15, ' If I did despise the cause of my man-servant, or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me : what then shall I do when God riseth up ? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him ? Did not he that made me in the womb, make him ? and did not one fashion us in the womb ? ' So Neh. V. 5, ' Our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, and their chil- dren as our children.' Why is more due to you than them ? And the possible equality of all men, as to their condition and state of life : Heb. xiii. 3, ' Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves in the body.' Before we go out of the body there may be strange changes in the world, and God may make us as low as others.
[2.] We are to imitate God, as children do their father, Mat. v. 45. Now God loveth all his creatures, and hateth none ; the more we imi-
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tate God, the more we know we are children of our Father Avhlch is in heaven.
[3.] God hath so cast the world, that sometimes we need the help ot others, as they need ours, that, by mutual necessities and a combination of interests, the world may be upheld. As in the body natural, no member can say to any, I have no need of thee ; so also hath God dis- posed it in the great frame of mankind, that we may have a mutual care of one another, 1 Cor. xii. 25. As he requireth from every man a lespect to the world of mankind, so he hath turned all the respects of the world of mankind upon one man. We would be glad to be loved of all the men in the world, if we could bring it to pass ; and surely we may the better expect it if we have this love to all the world.
2. Why we are to love strangers : Heb. xiii. 2, ' Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for hereby some have entertained angels unawares.' By ' strangers ' he meaneth those that are far from home, in another place and countr}', where they have few friends, and are not well known, especially when exiled for the gospel. We find this in Abraham's and Lot's instances, who were kind to the angels, and had their recompense. Abraham's barren wife had a promise of bearing a son to him. Lot had benefit also, being saved from the flames that destroyed Sodom. Surely such a work of mercy shall not go unrewarded.
3. Why enemies ? Partly because there is more reason to love them than hate them, because there are some relics of God's image in them ; and God hath forgiven us greater wrongs : Eph. iv. 32, ' And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.' We commit a sin against God, or else, upon the apprehension of the injury done us by man, we are deeper in danger than our enemy ; we daily trespass against God more than they can trespass against us. God forgiveth talents, we cannot forgive pence ; God forgiveth a hundred thousand, we cannot one hun- dred, Mat. xviii. We look that God should forgive us, and we will not forgive others. In short, though it be more comfortable to love a friend, it is more honourable to love an enemy : Prov. xix. 11, ' It is the glory of a man to pass by a transgression.'