that loveth is born of God and knoweth God." He is a child of God, because he loveth his heavenly Father, and loveth all his Father's children; which doctrine the same apostle maintains in these words, I. John, v. 1-" whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God, and every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him." Here the apostle discovers the true cause, from which arises our love to God and to man. It is through faith apprehending and laying hold of Christ that we are made the children of God, and therefore we lovi the Father, of whom we are begotten, and the breth ren, who are begotten of him, and who have obtained like precious faith with us. Believers who are thu born again of God, and adopted into his family, ar closely connected and joined together in the bonds & love. Love flowing from the head into all the mem bers unites them in affection to their heavenly Father, and in affection to all his children: for, being mem bers of the same body, they have the same care one for another; and if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

It is certain then, from these scriptures, that no man can love his neighbour as himself, unless he be taught it of God. There are things called universal benevolence, and the moral sense, and the patriot spirit, which pretend to teach brotherly love upon the principles of moral philsophy; but these are false bastard kinds of love, arising from selfish motives, and directed to selfish ends. And let them appear ever so refined and exalted, yet they are not sanctified affections, because they spring not from faith in Jesus Christ; and without faith in him it is impossible to please God. Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God. You may do many seeming acts of love, you may be the foremost in all charitable subscriptions, you may be very kind to your needy relations, and very good to the poor; nay, you may build

hospitals, and leave your estate to endow them, yet, if these things be not done in faith, they have in them the nature of sin, and are not acts of brotherly love, but acts of your own proud selfish spirit. God looks at your heart: he sees upon what principle you are working, and if your principles be wrong, your actions cannot be pleasing in his sight. Make the tree good, and its fruit will be good; but a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit. This is the main point with respect to brotherly love, and this comes to be considered in the

Fourth place, under the practical observations upon the doctrine of the text. The doctrine is this: whoever keeps the first table will keep the second. If the love of God be in his heart he will give proof and evidence of it by his unfeigned love of his neighbour, and he will love him as himself, not with that vicious self love which influences the views and actions of all natural men, but with that holy sanctified affection which springs from, and is guided by, the love of God. If this brotherly love was in every heart, it would turn the world into a paradise. If all men had true heart love to their neighbour, earth would be heaven; for so much love as there is on earth, so much of heaven is brought down upon it. The hateful and selfish tempers of mankind make the world what it is: these are the cause of all the miseries in society, and these are in all men by nature. Their love centers in self, and seeks not another's good, but its own. One great design of Christianity was to reform their love, by giving them that faith which worketh by love, by love to God for his inestimable mercies, and by love to men for the sake of God; by which means the old selfish heart becomes a loving heart, and is ever prepared to do all the good it can to the bodies and souls of men. This is the true character of a Christian. He wishes well to all men, speaks evil of no man, and is ready to every good work. In thought, word and deed he is influenced by unfeigned love to his neighbour, whether he

be a stranger, a friend, or an enemy. Is this your character, my brethren? Have you the true love of your neighbour in your hearts, and are you constantly manifesting it in your lives? How many persons have we among us that make great professions of brotherly love, even of universal benevolence, and yet they divide the two tables, and make religion consist in keeping the duties of the second. All our moralists act upon this plan. They speak and write very prettily about moral duties, but they lay the founda tion of them upon sand. They neither build them upon the love of God, nor upon faith in Christ Jesus, and other foundation can no man lay for the love of God than upon the grace of the Holy Spirit disposing and enabling them to love God, and then to love their neighbour. Thus these men put asunder what God hath joined together. The love of God and the love of man cannot be separated: for there can be no true brotherly love but what springs from the love of God. Let it spring from any other cause, there will be something in it selfish; it will arise from private, narrow views, and will be directed to mean ends; and be it ever so refined and patriot-spirited, yet it will be unsanctified; because whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Without faith the sinner is under guilt, and under sentence of death, and is as incapable of doing any legal act which is good and valid in the court of heaven, as a condemned criminal is of doing any legal act which would be allowed to be valid in a court of justice. The law of God has attainted him of high treason, and found him guilty; upon which justice has a right to inflict the deserved punishment, and to put the sentence of the law in force against him; but if he own the sentence to be just, and sue for mercy, and seek it through Jesus Christ, relying on his grace and righteousness, then by faith he is pardoned; his attainder is reversed, and he is capable of doing acts well pleasing unto God, through Jesus Christ his Lord. The moral works done by such a person are acceptable, because his person was first accepted, and

he was what they call rectus in curia, but without faith it was impossible that his moral works should please God: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin."

But I need not enlarge upon this point. Perhaps there may be none of those persons here. By our presence we declare ourselves to be professors of Christianity, and as such we are nearly concerned in what has been now said. The scripture has drawn our character, before we receive the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit, and has painted in very expressive colours the inward lineaments of our hearts. It not only describes every fallen man to be without any true love of God, or of his neighbour, but also represents him to be at enmity with God, and to be under the power of corrupt inclinations, which are opposite to God's will, and of selfish views, which are destructive of brotherly love. But while the scripture thus describes our malady, it offers us a remedy, which faith receives, and then works by love to God and to man; by love to God, in loving him and his will, and by unfeigned love to the brethren, showing itself in every good word and work. There are great complaints in the world of the want of this brotherly love; and indeed there is very little of it to be found any where. But what is the reason? Is it not because there is a great want of the love of God? For since brotherly love springs from this, as from its only fountain, how can there be love abundant in the streams, if it fail in the fountain? If love does not operate in your life, how can love be in your heart? And if it be not there, what are you? Not a Christian. What the sun would be without light, such is a Christian without love. He has none of the life and spirit of Christ, and wants the very mark and badge of Christ's disciples: "By this," says he, "shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love to one another." O Lord, where are thy disciples at present! Hast thou not said, ye shall know them by their love to one another? But upon whom is this nark found? Upon all nominal Christ

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ians? No, they are distinguished by a contrary temper. But is it not among professors? What professors? We have professors of so many denominations, and of so many different parties, that it is hard to say who has the narrowest views, or the most party spirit; but it is easy to see at first sight that brotherly love is the peculiar character of none of them. Alas! alas! they have lost their proper mark by which they were to be known to be Christ's disci ples, and thus the scripture is fulfilled which saith, "in the latter days the love of many shall wax cold.” It is cold indeed with many-thank God, not with all! There are some, (although but few) perhaps, of every denomination, who have still unfeigned love for the brethren. May the God of love increase their number!

Since there is so little brotherly love in the world, let each of you, my brethren, examine yourselves, and see whether you be Christ's disciples more than in name and profession. Are you known to belong to the household of faith, by your love to one another? Do you love your neighbour as yourself, with a well regulated holy love, arising from a right motive, and directed to a right end? If you think you have this love, how did you attain it? Were you taught it of God? Have you been humbled before him, under a sense of your guilt, and have you felt the misery of being enslaved to your own wicked and selfish tempers? And did you apply to Christ for deliverance? Did he take guilt out of your conscience, and give you that faith which worketh by love to your reconciled Father, and by love to your brethren for his sake? If you have been thus taught of God, you will also be enabled of God to love one another. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more

and more.

But if this be not your experience, then you cannot have the true brotherly love; and without it what are you? You are not a Christian: for this commandment have we from Christ, that he who loveth God