The Measures of Christian Obedience, Book 1 · Chapter 7
CHAP. VII. Of Pardon promised to the love of God, and of our Neighbour.
The CONTENTS.
Of Pardon promised to the love of God, and of our Neighbour. Of the fitness of an universal love to produce an universal obedience. That pardon is promised to it for this Reason. The Conclusion.
EIghthly, That condition which the Gospel indispensably requires of us to our pardon and happiness, is sometimes called Love. For of this St Paul says plainly, that it is the fulfilling of the Law, Rom. 13.10. It is the great condition of Life, the standing Terms of mercy and happiness. We have the same Apostles word for it of our love of God. Those things which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, neither have entred into the heart of man to conceive, are prepared for them who LOVE God, 1 Cor. 2.9. And again, Chap. 8. If any man love God, the same is known or accepted of him, vers. 3. And St John says as much of the love of our Neighbour. Beloved, let us LOVE one another, for LOVE is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God, 1 John 4.7. And again, God is Love, and manifested his Love in giving Christ to dye for us. And if we love one another, God dwells in us. For hereby, by this mark and evidence, we know that we dwell in him, and he in us; because he hath given us of this loving temper and Spirit of his, ver. 8, 9, 12, 13. And to the same purpose he speaks fully in the third Chapter of that first Epistle, We know, says he, that we have passed from death unto life; because we LOVE the BRETHREN, ver. 14.
Now our hearty love both of God and men, is a most natural and easie Principle of an intire service and obedience. For the most genuine and proper effect of Love, is to seek the satisfaction and delight of the persons beloved. It is careful in nothing to behave it self unseemly, but to keep back from every thing that may offend, and forward in all such services as may any ways pleasure and content them. If they rejoyce, it congratulates; if they mourn, it grieves with them. If they are in distress, it affords succour; if in want, supply; in doubts, it ministers counsel; in business, dispatch. It is always full and teeming with good offices, and transforms it self into all shapes whereby it may procure their satisfaction, and render their condition comfortable and easie to them. So that it exerts it self in pity to the miserable, in protection to the oppressed, in relief to the indigent, in counsel to the ignorant, in encouragement to the good, in kind reproof to the evil, in thanks for kindnesses, in patience and forbearance upon sufferings, in forgiveness of wrong and injuries: In one word it is an universal Source and Spring of all works of Justice, Charity, Humility and Peace. Now the Body of our Religion is made up of these Duties. For what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, O man, saith the Prophet Micah, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God, Mic. 6.8. Those things which God has adopted into his Service, and made the matter of our duty towards one another, are nothing else but these natural effects of love and kindness, and expressions of good nature towards all men. All the Precepts of Religion only forbid our doing evil, and require our doing good to all the World. And since, as the Apostle argues, love seeketh all things that are good, and worketh no evil to our Neighbour; therefore Love must needs be the fulfilling of those Laws which concern them. This Commandment, for instance, as he illustrates it, Thou shalt not commit Adultery; thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt not covet: all these, and if there be any other Commandment relating to our Brethren, it is briefly comprehended in this Saying, Thou shalt LOVE they Neighbour as thy self. For LOVE worketh none of all these ills to our Neighbour, therefore LOVE is the fulfilling of the Law, Rom. 13.9, 10.
Thus doth our Love of our Neighbour fulfil all those particular Laws which contain our Duty towards them: and in like manner our Love of God fulfils all those other Precepts which comprehend our Duty towards him. For all that he requires of us towards himself, is neither more nor less than to honour and worship him; to do nothing in all our behaviour that savours of disrespect towards him; nor by any thought, word or action to disgrace or contemn him. But now nothing renders any person so secure from contempt, as our love and affection for him. Affront and reproach are a great part of enmity and despite, and so can never proceed from us towards those whom we love and value. But this is always certain, that if we are kindly affected towards any person, we shall not fail to express a due honour of him, and bear him a just respect and veneration. So that if we do indeed love God, he is secure from all affront; and disobedience being a most consummate reproach, since our Love will not permit us to dishonour, it can never suffer us to disobey him.
Thus mighty and powerful, easie and natural a Principle of an universal obedience, both towards God and men, is an universal Love: it doth the work without difficulty, and carries us on to obey with ease; in as much as all the particular Precepts and Instances of obedience, are but so many genuine effects, and proper expressions of it. The effects of our love are the parts of our obedience; the products of our Duty and Religion, as well as of our passion. So that it is a most natural Spring of our obedient service, because it prompts us to the very same things, to which God has bound and obliged us by his Precepts.
But besides this way of an universal love's influencing an universal obedience, through this coincidence of the effects of Love and the instances of Duty; our Love of God, who is our King and Governour, were a sure principle of our obedience to him, were his Precepts instanced, not in the same things which are the effects of a general Love, which is the true Case; but in things different from them. For although our love would not prompt us to perform them by its natural tendency towards them, and for their own sakes: yet it would through submission and duty, and for his sake who enjoyn'd them. It would make us deny our selves to pleasure him; and produce other effects than our own temper enclines us to, to do him service. For as Love is for doing hurt to none; so least of all to Governours: it will give to every one their own, but to them most especially. Now Duty and Service is that which we owe to our Rulers; and the proper way of Love's exerting it self in that, is by obedience. If we love, we shall be industrious to please; and the only way of pleasing them, is by doing what they command us. For there is no such offence to a Governour, as the transgression of his Laws; no injury like that of opposing his Will, and despising his Authority. To do this is to renounce all subjection, and to cast off his Yoke; and so is not to express love, but to declare enmity; not affectionately to owne, but in open malice to defie him. But if any man would contribute to his delight, there is no way for that but by a performance of his pleasure: it is nothing but our obedience that can add to his contentment, or evidence our Love. For disobedience to our Governours is clearly the most profest hatred, as the observance of our Duty is the most allowed instance of friendship and good will.
So that Love is a Spring and Principle of our Obedience, not only because the Commandment and it run parallel, and the instances of Gods Laws are the same with the effects of a general Love; but also because our love of God would make us obey him, even in such instances of Duty as differ from them. For all that aversion which we have to the thing commanded, would be outweighed by our desire to please him who commands it: and although we should neglect it upon its own; yet for his sake we should certainly fulfil and perform it.
And because our Love of God and men is so natural a Spring, and so sweet and easie a Principle to produce in us a perfect and intire obedience to all those Laws which concern either, or to any other: therefore has God promised so nobly to reward it. He never intends to crown an idle and unworking love; but such only as is active and industrious. For when he says that he who loves God and men is known of God, and accepted by him, and born of him; and that God dwells in him, and has prepared Heaven for him: he speaks metonymically, and means all the while a love with these religious effects, a love that is productive of an entire service and obedience.
And to this Point the Scriptures speak fully. For as for our love of God himself, and of our Saviour Christ; that is plainly of no account in his judgment, but when it makes us keep his Commands, and become industriously obedient. If ye LOVE me, saith Christ, keep my Commandments; for he that hath my Commandments, and KEEPETH them, he it is that loveth me; and he only who so loveth me, in obeying me, shall be beloved of my Father, and I will love him, John 14.15, 21. Whoso keepeth Gods Word, saith St John, in him verily is the love of God made perfect: and hereby it is, by this perfection of Love in Obedience, that we know we are in him, 1 John 2.5. But if we have only a pretended verbal love, or an inward passion for God, and shew no Signs or Effects of it in our obedient works and actions: we shall be as far from being accepted by him, as we are from any true and real service of him. He will look upon all our Professions only as vain speech, and down-right flattery: but will not esteem it as having any thing of sober truth and reality. For whosoever hath this Worlds goods, and seeth his Brother hath need, and obeys not Gods Command of shewing mercy (and the Case is the same in other Instances) but shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him; how dwells the love of God in him? 1 John 3.17.
And then as for our love of our Brethren; it doth not at all avail us unto Mercy and Life, unless it make us perform all those things which are required of us, by the Laws of Justice, Charity and Beneficence towards them. My little Children, saith St John, let us not love only in word, and in tongue; but in deed also and in truth. For it is hereby, by this operative love, that we know we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts in full confidence of his mercy before him, 1 John 3.18, 19. Our love to them is to be manifested as Christs was to us, viz. in good effects and a real service; yea, when occasion requires it, and their eternal weal may be very much promoted, and their Faith confirmed by it, in giving up our selves to Martyrdome, and laying down our own lives for their advantage. Hereby, says this same Apostle, perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. And if we would be reputed to have that love which, as we are told at the fourteenth Verse, wafts us over from Death unto Life; we ought, upon a fit occasion, not to flinch from the most costly service, but even to lay down our very aSt Clemens Retells us of these hights of Charity, which were practised in his Time, foreign, 1 Ep. ad Cor. c. 55. And the Parabolani or men who hazarded their own lives to redeem the lives of others, were very numerous among the Christians in the first times. Which Office St. Paul tells us Priscilla and Aquila, and E…aphroditas had done for him, Rom. 16.3, 4. Phil. 2.30. This practice is a most excellent Comment upon this Text.lives for the Brethren, 1 John 3.16. It is only this obedient and operative love of men which will be owned by Christ our Judg, and confer a just claim to Life and Pardon at the last Day. Our Love will not be rewarded as a thing that is absolute in it self, but only as an Instrument; in as much as it makes us, as St Paul says, to fulfil the whole Law which makes any thing an instance of Duty towards them, Rom. 13.8. But if we only profess love to them in kind words and tender expressions, but shew none in our works and actions; this idle, useless love will be of no account to us, nor benefit us more than it profits them. For if a Brother, or a Sister, says St James, be naked and destitute of daily food; and one of you gives them only some good words, and says unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warm'd with Cloths, and filled with Food; but notwithstanding all this affectionate language, ye give them not in the mean while those things which are needful for the Body; what doth it profit? Nothing at all surely, nor will it ever advantage your selves as an instance of that mercy which rejoyceth against judgment, Verse 13. more than it profits them, James 2.15, 16.
So that when Christ comes to Judgment at the last Day, we see plainly that no love either of God or men will avail us; but only that which has kept the Commandments; we shall never be acquitted at that Bar upon a pretence of love without obedience: for all that can possibly stand us in any stead there, is a loving service, a love which has made us careful and diligent to obey.
And thus at last we have fully seen, that as for all those other things besides obedience, whereunto the Gospel promises pardon and happiness; they are by no means available to our bliss when they are separate from obedience, but then only when they effect and imply it. They all aim at it, and end in it, and are of no account in Gods Judgment further than they produce it. It is not either our knowing Christ, or our believing Christ, or our being in Christ, or our trusting in Christ, or our loving Christ, or our fears of God, or our confessions of sins, or our pouring out many prayers; or any thing else that will save us whilst we disobey. No, at the last Day we shall certainly be damned notwithstanding them, if the obedience of our works is wanting. It is only a working service that will please our Judge, and which can possibly secure us: if we are able in that Court to produce that, it will clear us, but without it nothing else will. Christs Gospel, whereby all of us must stand or fall at that Day, has fully declared this already; and Christ himself will then confirm it. So that 'tis in vain to cast about for other marks, and to seek after other Evidences for our title to bliss and happiness; nothing less than our Repentance and Obedience will avail us unto life, and through the merits of Christ, and the Grace of his Gospel it shall.
And now at last we see clearly what that Condition is which the Gospel indispensably requires of us, and which is to mete out to us our last doom of bliss or misery; that in the general it is nothing else, neither more nor less than our obedience.