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SERMON XXV.

OF THE LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR.

MATTH. xxii. 39.

And the fecond is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

THE effential goodness of God, and his special benig- SERM. nity toward mankind, are to a confidering mind divers ways very apparent; the frame of the world, and the natural course of things, do with a thousand voices loudly and clearly proclaim them to us; every fenfe doth yield

us affidavit to that speech of the holy Pfalmift, The earth Pfal. xxxiii. is full of the goodness of the Lord: we fee it in the glo- 5. cxix. 64. rious brightness of the skies, and in the pleasant verdure of the fields; we taste it in the various delicacies of food, supplied by land and fea; we smell it in the fragrances of herbs and flowers; we hear it in the natural mufic of the woods; we feel it in the comfortable warmth of heaven, and in the cheering freshness of the air; we continually do poffefs and enjoy it in the numberlefs accommodations of life, prefented to us by the bountiful hand of nature.

Of the fame goodness we may be well affured by that common providence which continually doth uphold us in our being, doth opportunely relieve our needs, doth protect us in dangers, and rescue us from imminent mischiefs, doth comport with our infirmities and mifdemeanours;

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SERM. the which, in the divine Pfalmift's style, doth hold our foul XXV. in life, and fuffereth not our feet to be moved; doth redeem Pfal.lxvi. 9. our life from deftruction; doth crown us with loving-kindIvi. 13. ciii. nefs, and tender mercies.

4. cxlv. 16.

The difpenfations of grace, in the revelation of heavenly truth, in the overtures of mercy, in the fuccours of our weakness, in the propofal of glorious rewards, in all the methods and means conducing to our falvation, do afford most admirable proofs and pledges of the fame immenfe benignity.

But in nothing is the divine goodness toward us more illustriously confpicuous, than in the nature and tendency of those laws which God hath been pleased, for the regulation of our lives, to prescribe unto us, all which do palpably evidence his serious defire and provident care of our welfare; so that, in impofing them, he plainly doth not so much exercise his fovereignty over us, as express his kindness toward us; neither do they more clearly declare his will, than demonftrate his good-will to us.

And among all divine precepts this especially, contained in my text, doth argue the wonderful goodness of our heavenly Lawgiver, appearing, both in the manner of the propofal, and in the substance of it.

Luke x. 27. The fecond, faith our Lord, is like to it; that is, to the precept of loving the Lord our God with all our heart: and is not this a mighty argument of immense goodness in God, that he doth in fuch a manner commend this duty to us, coupling it with our main duty toward him, and requiring us with like earneftness to love our neighbour as to love himself?

92 He is tranfcendently amiable for the excellency of his nature; he, by innumerable and inestimable benefits gracioufly conferred on us, hath deserved our utmost affection; fo that naturally there can be no obligation bearing any proportion or confiderable semblance to that of loving him yet hath he in goodness been pleased to create one, - and to endue it with that privilege; making the love of a man (whom we cannot value but for his gifts, to whom we can owe nothing but what properly we owe to him)

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