[So far is love to the saints from being the common dis- position of mankind, that almost all are rather filled with hatred against them : and where candour prevails over the enmity of the human heart so as to subdue its workings, there yet is a total want of that disinterested, sympathizing, beneficent, and self-denying love, which characterizes a true Christian ]
2. What reason have even the saints themselves to be ashamed before God !
[Let the most zealous and active Christian compare his love with that of Christ ; how poor and defective will his best efforts appear ! Alas ! alas ! how often are things found among professing Christians that are not only defective, but directly contrary to love ! Beloved brethren, let us study more carefully St. Paul's description of love p : and above all, let us contemplate more the love of Christ to us : so shall we feel its constraining influence, and be stimulated to the exercise of this delightful duty.]
p 1 Cor. xiii.
Christ's followers his friends.
John xv. 15. Henceforth I call you not servants ; for the ser- vant knoweth not what his lord doeth : but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you3-.
KNOWLEDGE of every kind is excellent and useful ; but that of religion far transcends all other. Hence we are commanded to pay a peculiar respect to those who labour in the word and doctrine b. Hence also our Lord himself, having revealed to his Disciples the whole will of God, adduces his fidelity in this respect as one of the strongest tokens of his affection for them. I. In what light Christ regards his followers —
The state of believers under the Gospel differs widely from that of those under the Mosaic dispensa-
a See another Discourse on this text, made to illustrate a part of Claude's Essay. Claude, p. 43, in the fifth and improved edition, b 1 Thess. v. 12.
1696.] Christ's followers his friends. 73
tion. They were in the condition of servants, but we of friends. Christ assures us that from " henceforth" his people should be regarded by him in that light.
He has taken away from us the yoke of the cere- monial law —
[This was an exceedingly heavy burthen0 ; but Christ has delivered his people from itd. He has imposed only two rites, and those easy and instructive6: his service is perfect freedom f.]
He has delivered us from a sense of guilt — [The offerings of a Jew afforded no assurance that God had accepted him g ; they were rather so many remembrances of his sinh: but Christ has freed us from the pains of a guilty conscience1.]
He has set us at liberty also from a servile spirit — [The Jews could not enter into the most holy place ; none could go there but the high-priest, and he only on one day in the year, and then not without blood k : but now all believers are priests1. The vail which separated the most holy place was rent at the death of Christ™: all therefore may enter thither without fear11.]
' He has put us into the state of adult sons —
[Believers under the law were like minors, or children under age0; but we are brought to the full possession of our privileges p.]
Our Lord proceeds to prove his assertion : II. What evidence we have that he does so regard us — He still carries on the comparison between servants and friends. He points out one particular wherein he has eminently distinguished us, and exalted us above all the Jewish saints.
He has revealed to us the perfections of God — [These were but little known to the Jews ; but Christ has
c Acts xv. 10. d Gal. v. 1. e Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
f 1 John v. 3. Matt. xi. 30. e Heb. ix. 9. h Heb. x. 1—3.