degenerate state, can perform. Indeed, though many traces of the law still remain upon the heart, and are discoverable by the light of reason, there are depths in it which unaided reason could never have fathomed, and a breadth and length which it could never have explored. Amongst the precepts which we consider as known only through the medium of Revelation, we would particularly specify that which is contained in the text. Human nature would itself approve of love to friends ; but our Lord commands us to love our enemies.
In discoursing on the text, we shall be led to consider,
I. The duty inculcated —
The Jewish teachers in general sanctioned the
indulgence of hatred towards enemies —
[We must, in justice to them, acknowledge that they had some shadow of reason for their opinions : for God had com- manded the Jews entirely to extirpate the Canaanites : and, though some little favour was to be shewn to the Edomites and Egyptians % the Ammonites and Moabites and Midianites were never to be treated with kindness*"; and " the very remem- brance of the Amalekites was to be blotted out from under heaven ^" Moreover, the duty of love seemed to be restricted to those of their own nation*^: and in case even a Jew should accidentally kill any person, the man who was the nearest re- lative of the deceased was at liberty to kill the man-slayer, in case he could overtake him before he could enter into a city of refuge, or should be able afterwards to find him without the gates of that city ^.
But these mistaken teachers did not consider that a com- mandment given in relation to those devoted nations was not intended to be made a rule of conduct between individuals : nor did they recollect, that, whilst they restricted the word " neighbour" to those of their own nation, the Decalogue itself had taught them to comprehend the whole universe under that name^: (for a Jew was no more at liberty to " covet the wife" of a Heathen, than he was of a Jew.) Nor, lastly, did they reflect, that the ordinance relative to the man-slayer was alto- gether typical of Christ and of his salvation^.]
^ Deut. xxiii. 7. *> Deut. xxiii. 3, 6. and Numb. xxv. 16 — 18. <^ Deut. xxv. 17—19. d Lev. xix. 17, 18.
*" Numb. XXXV. 26, 27. ^ Exod. xx. 17.
e Heb. vi. 18.