Thii-dly, The means to avoid it.
1. Keep up the love of all men. He is not godly that loveth not all men with the love common to Christianity, and tiiose that fear God with a 8[)eciiil love; the one is the preservative from dashing against the other. Free the mind from malice, and you will free it from
102 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. [SeR. XIX.
hatred to the power of godliness, for malice blindeth men that they cannot see the good in those they hate. You are at the greatest dis- tance from this yin when you take heed of the hatred of any man. We should love all with the love of good-will, though our delight should be in the excellent ones of the earth. Live in enmity and malice with none, though you take just offence at their sins. Lot's righteous soul was vexed from day to day, 2 Peter ii. 8, yet he lived peaceably in Sodom. They are an abomination for caution to ourselves, but not with a mischievous hatred.
2. Take heed of an uncharitable impropriating of Christ ; this is the readiest way to confine your love, and hate all the world besides ; but love the gifts and graces of God in any party and sort of men, for God's interest lieth not in one party ; do not therefore impale the common salvation, 'theirs and ours,' 1 Cor. i. 2. If God hath received him, though weak, we should own him. The devil hath a great hand over those that enclose all religion within the lines of their communion, either because their party is the best, or greatest, or uppermost, or chief in the house, city, or kingdom ; they are all the church. Alas ! often it is so, but God will not reckon his children by the opinion of an angry brother.
3. Do not think evil of any without constraining evidence, for ' charity thinketh no evil,' 1 Cor. xiii. 5, 6. Charity doth not force and wrest things by a strained interpretation. For our caution, if they be as bad as malice can imagine, and you certainly know any fault by them, take warning to avoid it ; and consider what need there is of watch- fulness, when they that set their faces heavenward do so fall and stumble in their way thither ; and see what need you and others have to be better. This is to improve the failings of others, not to censure them.
4. Cherish those that invite you to love, as messengers from the God of love: ' For this is the message we have from the beginning,' But those censurers, backbiters, and slanderers, that make the worst of other men's actions, look upon as Satan's messengers inviting you to hate your brother, as if they said, I pray hate such a one ; for he that speaketh evil of another without a just cause and call doth but entice you to hatred and mischief, at least to abate your love ; for to per- suade you another is bad is to persuade you to hate him.
SEEMON XIX.
Marvel not, my brethren, if the luorld hate you. — 1 John iii. 13.
In these wokIs you have an application of the instance of Cain — (1.) For the support of present believers ; (2.) As a new motive to brotherly love.
1. For the support of present believers. The world is of the same spirit that Cain was; he envied his brother and slew him, to presignify
VeK. 13.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 103
to tbe world what the corrupt nature of man would prove, and how opposite the carnal and wicked would be to the sanctified ; what the holy seed, who are accepted of God, must look for in the world, and patiently endure for the hope of an everlasting blessedness with God. The world was of the same spirit that Cain was ; and if we be up- right, the same causes of hatred do continue still.
2. As a new motive to brotherly love. The children of God should love one another the more fervently, because they are all exposed to the hatred of the world. The same connection you may observe, John XV. 17, 18, ' These things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hate you, you know it hated me before it hated you.' The world's hatred to believers is a strong argument to persuade them to love one another. You are sure to meet with hatred from them, and therefore you must be more careful to maintain mutual love between one another. Usually when love decayeth, God doth enkindle and blow it up by the storms of persecution. Eusebius said that before the tenth persecution the church was rent and torn by intestine broils, pastors against pastors, and people against people. Ease and pride beget wantonness, and that maketh way for contention. We warp like green timber in the sunshine, and rend from one another ; the dog is let loose that the sheep may run together. Nazianzen was wont to call the enemies of the church the common reconcilers : it is well when it proveth so. To this end is this spoken.
Doct. That there is no cause of perplexing wonder at the world's hatred.