7. This alone is religion, truly so call’d: this alone is in the sight of God of great price. The apostle sums it all up in three particulars, _righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost_. And first, _righteousness_. We cannot be at a loss concerning this, if we remember the words of our Lord describing the two grand branches thereof, on which _hang all the law and the prophets. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.[22] This is the first and great commandment_, the first and great branch of Christian righteousness. Thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord thy God; thou shalt seek and find all happiness in him. He shall be _thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward_, in time and in eternity. All thy bones shall say, _Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee!_ Thou shalt hear, and fulfil his word who saith, _My son, give me thy heart_. And having given him thy heart, thy inmost soul, to reign there without a rival, thou mayest well cry out, in the fulness of thy heart, _I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my strong rock and my defence: my Saviour, my God, and my might, in whom I will trust; my buckler, the horn also of my salvation, and my refuge._
8. And the second commandment is like unto this; the second great branch of Christian righteousness is closely and inseparably connected therewith, even _Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Thou shalt love_――Thou shalt embrace with the most tender good-will, the most earnest and cordial affection, the most inflamed desires of preventing or removing all evil, and of procuring for him every possible good. _Thy neighbour_――that is, not only thy friend, thy kinsman, or thy acquaintance; not only the virtuous, the friendly, him that loves thee, that prevents or returns thy kindness; but every child of man, every human creature, every soul which God hath made: not excepting him whom thou never hast seen in the flesh, whom thou knowest not either by face or name: not excepting him whom thou knowest to be evil and unthankful, him that still despightfully uses and persecutes thee. Him thou shalt _love as thyself_; with the same invariable thirst after his happiness in every kind: the same unwearied care to skreen him from whatever might grieve or hurt either his soul or body.
9. Now is not this love _the fulfilling of the law_? The sum of all Christian righteousness? Of all inward righteousness; for it necessarily implies _bowels of mercies, humbleness of mind_ (seeing _love is not puffed up_) _gentleness, meekness, long-suffering_, (for love _is not provoked_ but _believeth, hopeth, endureth all things_) and of all outward righteousness; for _love worketh no evil to his neighbour_, either by word or deed. It cannot willingly either hurt or grieve any one. And it is zealous of good works. Every lover of mankind, as he hath opportunity, _doth good unto all men_; being (_without partiality and without hypocrisy_) _full of mercy and good fruits_.
10. But true religion, or a heart right toward God and man, implies happiness as well as holiness. For it is not only _righteousness_, but also _peace and joy in the Holy Ghost_. What peace? _The peace of God_, which God only can give and the world cannot take away: the peace which _passeth all understanding_, all (barely) rational conception; being a supernatural sensation, a divine taste of _the powers of the world to come_: such as the natural man knoweth not, how wise soever in the things of this world: nor indeed can he know it, in his present state, _because it is spiritually discerned_. It is a peace that banishes all doubt, all painful uncertainty; the Spirit of God _bearing witness with the spirit_ of a Christian, that he is _a child of God_. And it banishes fear, all such fear as hath torment; the fear of the wrath of God, the fear of hell, the fear of the devil, and in particular, the fear of death: he that hath the peace of God, _desiring_ (if it were the will of God) _to depart and to be with Christ_.