John xv. 12. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
THE law and the Gospel are in perfect unison with each other : the law, as a covenant, sends us to the
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Gospel, that we may obtain mercy with God ; and the Gospel sends us back again to the law, as a rale of life, that, by obeying its commands, we may honour and glorify our God. The loving our neigh- bour as ourselves was enjoined by the law, and indeed was a summary of all the duties of the second table3. Our blessed Lord, enjoining the same duty from new considerations, calls it " a new commandment," and emphatically his commandment; that so we may be led to examine it with stricter attention, and to regard it with deeper reverence : he says, in effect, Labour constantly to fulfil that old commandment of the law; and, that you- may never want either a directory to guide, or a motive to animate you in your exertions, take my love to you as the reason and pattern of your love to each other.
To elucidate his words, we shall shew, I. How Christ has loved us —
We must, of course, content ourselves with a few hints only of a subject, which has a height and depth, and length and breadth that can never be compre- hended, never explored. Consider then the love of Christ to us :
1. How free!
[Who ever did any thing to procure it ? It exerted itself towards us long before we had any existence in the world. Who can do any thing noio to merit it ? We deserve to forfeit it every day and hour ; but to earn an interest in it is beyond the power of man. We have nothing of our own but sin; and that would be a strange price to pay for the love of Christ. Indeed, if we deny the freeness of his grace, we rob him of the brightest jewel in his crown.]
2. How tender !
[There is not one of his people, however weak and afflicted, whom he does not watch over with more than parental tender- ness, " carrying the lambs in his bosom, and gently leading them that are with young." Yes; " we have not an High- priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmi- ties:" " in all our afflictions He is afflicted :" if we are stricken by the hand of persecution, He feels the blowb: "Whoso
■ Compare Lev. xix. 18. with Rom. xiii. 8 — 10. and Gal. v. 14. b Acts ix. \.