II. How God hath recommended it to our obedience.
1. It is a precept and a commanded duty, and not bare counsel and advice only. There is a great deal of difference between allowing and commanding; where a thing is allowed, licet, it may be done; but where a thing is commanded, oportet, it must be done, a necessity is laid upon us ; and therefore none must look upon love as an indifferent thing, which we may practise or forbear at our own pleasure. No ; it is a debt or duty by virtue of Christ's express command, a duty to Christ, a debt that we owe to God more than to our neighbour ; we owe love to them as our fellow-creatures, but chiefly ujwn the injunction of our Creator.
2. It is a special command which Christ hath adopted into his new law. Christ calleth it his new commandment: Jolm xiii. 34, 'A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.' How new, since it was as old as the moral law or the law of nature ? Because it was so solemnly renewed by him, and commended to their care. Laws, when new, are more regarded and obeyed. Christ would ratify it afresh.
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that the law of love might never be out of date, but be looked upon as a statute in force and newly enacted, and fresh in the remembrance of his people. Or a new commandment, because pressed upon a new ground and pattern : before it was ' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself ; ' now it is, ' As I have loved you.' The great love of Christ discovered in the gospel must leave a suitable impression on us. He came from heaven not only to represent the holy and amiable nature of God, but to propound us a pattern of love and charity. Once more, the scripture is impatient of being denied when it calleth for love to the brethren ; therefore it applieth itself to our dispositions either way. Some prize old things, others new ; therefore it telleth us, 1 John ii. 7, 8, ' I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which ye had from the beginning,' Again, 'A new commandment write I unto you ; ' 2 John 5, ' Not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which ye had from the beginning, that ye love one another.' It is old and not old, new and not new ; thus it plieth us on all hands, that we may look upon ourselves as deeply concerned. Some novelty is suspected, therefore he telleth them of an old command- ment ; it is the same which was commanded in the law, yet solemnly reinforced in the gospel. There are some commands which are new and not old, such are the sacraments of the new testament ; some are old and not new, as the ceremonies of the law now antiquated; some both old and new, as the precepts of the moral law, and in particular this command of love, which, though it were enjoined before, yet it is revived by Christ, and renewed and recommended by him to his disciples as a chief and singular duty.
3. It is his dying charge : John xv. 12, ' This is my commandment, that ye love one another.' He appropriateth it, and challengeth it as his commandment, which, though given by God before, yet he would make his own by an express charge : If my authority be of any force with you, do not entertain it with a careless indifferency, as a thing which you may neglect without any great inconvenience. The season is to be observed when those things were spoken by Christ, when he was departing from his disciples, and preparing them for his departure. Speeches of dying men are received with much reverence, especially the charge of dying friends. The brethren of Joseph, fearing he should remember old injuries, came to him with this plea, Gen. 1. 16, 'Thy father did command us before he died, saying,' Let us fulfil the will of the dead. Our Lord commanded us when he died, saying, ' Love one another.' Christ foresaw how his disciples would quarrel in their Master's absence, how his work would thereby be interrupted, and tlieir own peace ; how his religion would be exposed to reproach and obloquy by the contention of his followers; therefore he left this charge, ' See that ye love one another,'
4. It is a comprehensive command ; for to love one another implieth all those things which concern our duty to our neighbour ■ John xv. 17, ' These things I command you, that ye love one another.' These things, and yet but one thing pressed, and that is to love each other. But love containeth many duties in the bosom of it: Gal. v. 14, 'All the law is fulfilled in one word. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' How is that to be understood ? There are other precepts
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besides this ; tlieve are respects of love due to God, and there is justice due to our neighbour, as well as love. But love Grod, and we love our neighbour for God's sake ; and the acts of justice which we perform to them are the fruits and products of love, and must flow from love ; yea, the acts of charity, how pompous and plausible soever they be, yet if love be not at the bottom, they are not right : 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3, ' Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understood all mysteries and all knowledge ; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have no charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.' So that all the law is fulfilled in this one word. Therefore love is called the ful- filling of the law, Kom. xiii. 8.