124 SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN IH. [SeR. XXI.
cruelty. The best objects are worthy of our best love, and our respect to the inferior relations must not be a snare to us.
2. There is a hatred of the sins and evil courses wherein our brother walketh,and notof hisperson; aswe must not love the sin forthe person's sake, so we must not hate the person for the sin's sake. We may cross his sin, but we must wish well to the person. It is hatred to the person to let him alone in his sin : Lev. xix. 17, ' Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart ; thou shalt in any wise rebuke him, and not suffer sin upon him.' We cannot but hate what we see evil in him ; this is not a mischievous, but a holy and perfect hatred. When we reprove the person, seek to oppose and disappoint him in his way of living in sin, this may be the greatest love we can express to him ; and when- ever his conscience is awakened, he will thank us for it.
3. There is odium abominationis and odium inimicitice, the hatred of abomination and the hatred of enmity ; the one is opposite to the love of good-will, the other to the love of complacency : Prov. xxix. 27, ' The righteous is an abomination to the wicked, and the wicked is an abomination to the righteous.' The righteous man hateth not the wicked with the hatred of enmity, so as to seek his destruction, but with the hatred of abomination or offence, so as not to delight in him while wicked. In opposition to the love of complacency, we may hate our sinful neighbour, as we must hate and abhor ourselves much more ; but, in opposition to the love of benevolence, we must neither hate our enemy, nor our neighbour, nor ourselves ; so we are to love ourselves without desiring mischief to them. So David : Ps. xxi. 5, ' I hate the congregation of evil-doers, and will not sit with the wicked.' Surely we cannot delight in them as suitable to us, nor frequent their company, unless it be in order to their cure. God, that distinguished the seeds, Gen. iii. 15, never intended to make men of contrary dispositions to holiness to be our bosom friends and the objects of our delight. Therefore this hatred is not intended neither. Only we must take heed lest our abomination of them for their evil practices do not degeneiate into a destructive enmity to them. We have a nature con- trary to theirs, but we must not have a heart set to do them evil.
Object. But what will you say of Paul's wish, Gal. v. 12, ' I would they were even cut off that trouble you ? ' I answer —
[1.] He speaketh of prime seducers, and wisheth they were cut off from the church by the sentence of excommunication; and incorrigible and obstinate offenders are cut off from the body and society of the faithful ' for the destruction of the flesh, that their spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord,' 1 Cor. v. 5, 6, and the church be not infected by the contagion of their sin. So the words signify in the ancient use of it.
[2.] That malicious and obstinate perverters of the faithful come imder another consideration, of which I shall now speak. We must distinguish of those who are enemies, not only to us, but to God him- self, and that not out of ignorance, but malice, implacable enemies ; we may desire their destruction, but with great caution, and using much lenity and forbearance ere we make use of this liberty : so David : Ps. cxxxix. 21, 22, 'Do not I hate them that hate thee? and am I not grieved with them that rise up against thee ? I hate them with a per- fect hatred; and count them mine enemies.' This is but zeal in God's
YeR. 15.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN III. 125
cause, to pray for their destruction in any undertaking against God. But then we must be sure we are not inspired with a false zeal, and that this fire be enkindled from a coal taken from the altar, not from any private hearth and kitchen ; and that it be against the irrecon- cilable enemies of Christ's interest in the world, and that it be not animated with private revenge. Surely all this must be excepted out of this heavy charge.
II. Let us state the sin here mentioned. (1.) Consider the object, ' Our brother ; ' (2.) The affection or passion forbidden, ' Hatred.'
First, For the object, ' Our brother,' which may be taken —
1. In a general sense, for any of mankind, for by right of nature they are our brethren. They are called our own flesh, Isa. Iviii. 7, and we all come of one blood and stock : Acts xvii. 26, ' He hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth.' And we are all made by one God : Mai. ii. 10, ' Hath not one God created ns ? and have we not all one Father ? ' Now we are not to hate any in our hearts, but by all ways and means to seek their good and welfare. We must love in them that which is of God, though we hate in them that which is of the devil.