there are which belong to the true behever exclu- sively, and which will assuredly issue in his ever- lasting happiness. Wherever there is genuine love to the saints for Christ's sake, there is salvation.
But to speak more particularly —
It must be a love to the saints as saints —
[There may be a strong attachment both to individuals and collective bodies, without any thing beyond the workings of nature. A great variety of considerations may give rise to the emotions of love, and the heart be as far from God as ever. Of course the bare existence of this feeling towards our fellow-creatures can be no just ground for concluding ourselves to be in a state of grace. Even love to the saints may exist on grounds which do not prove it to be of divine origin. We may love them because they are amiable in themselves, or kind to us, or an ornament of the party to which they belong. But when we love them purely because they are beloved of the Lord, and belong to him; when we love them as members of our own body ; as partakers of the same divine nature with ourselves; and as heirs of the same glory; then we possess a grace which no hypocrite ever did possess ; and which is inse- parably connected with the salvation of the soul.]
But this love must be operative and laborious —
[Our love must " not be in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth:" it must be such as " works and labours in ministering" to the welfare of the objects beloved. Love of any kind is regarded as a mere pretence, if it exert not itself in such a way as to evince its reality by a corresponding practice : and much more will our pretensions to so hisfh a principle as Christian love be deemed nugatory, if we labour not to display its efficacy by a suitable conversation. The temporal and spiritual comfort of the saints must be promoted by us to the uttermost. We are not to be indifferent to the welfare of any: but, whilst we " do good unto all men, we must do it especially unto the household of faith." Nor must we do it merely occasionally, when more urgent circumstances arise to remind us of our duty : we must make it, as it were, our business to promote to the uttermost the edification of the body of Christ in general, and of all its members in particular. Nor must we shrink back from any " labour" that may be conducive to this end ; or any sacrifice that may be requisite to the attainment of it. And it is only when our love is thus operative, that it approves itself to be a sure evidence of grace, and a certain pledge of glory.]