But, secondly, if we cannot be incited to a charitable disposition by the pleasure attending it in this life, let us be stirred up to it by the apprehension of the judgment to come, which is the argument of the text.

Judge not, that ye be not judged." We shall have enough to answer for at that awful period. Our imperfect devotion; our irregular lives; our constant attachment to the fashion of this world, which passeth away, --such habitual deficiencies, with many other particular sins, will then rise up against us, and can only be blotted out by the merits of our Redeemer. Let us not add to the shameful catalogue, dark and malignant judgments concerning each other; but, as we hope on that day to be saved by love, let us now show that we have some feeling of the principle which alone can then be our protection.

SERMON XVIII.

ON CHRISTIAN CHARITY, AS IT INFLUENCES
CONDUCT.

ST. JOHN, xiii. 34.

"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love

one another."

IT may seem somewhat extraordinary that this should be called a new commandment, or that any revelation should be requisite for the purpose of bringing home to the human heart those principles upon which the love of mankind depends. That the principles of piety cannot be well inculcated without some sort of divine discipline, may appear sufficiently plain; but nature, we may imagine, surely leaves us at no loss respecting those affections which ought to prevail between man and man. The seeds of justice and humanity are sown in our frame; and although we may very often be defective in our practice of those virtues, yet we can scarcely, it may be thought, remain blind to their obligation.

It is this view which seems to have misled several philosophical inquirers in modern times, who, while they have enlightened the world with many excellent obser

vations on social duty, have not, however, perceived that they are at all indebted to Christianity for the principles upon which they proceed. Yet it would be deserving their consideration, whence it has happened that they are so much better instructed in these particulars than the wise men of the heathen world; or why, among errors and extravagancies of their own, they have yet scarcely advanced one solid position, the prototype of which is not to be found in the gospel?

The peculiar advantage of the law of Christian charity consists in the universality of its application. · In the first place, the whole system of fair and equitable dealing is comprehended in the maxim, that we should do to others whatsoever we would that they should do to us. It is impossible that we should ever injure a fellow-creature if this rule were carefully observed. Considering what, in his circumstances, we should have a right to expect as our due, we cannot but perceive the monstrous injustice of refusing it to him. The observation of this maxim would at once banish every thing like wrong out of the world; and the whole conduct of mankind would be regulated by principles of the strictest justice.

In the second place, the maxim that we should love our neighbour as ourselves, carries us much farther. By this we are not only prohibited from doing wrong, or commanded to fill up the measure of equity, but we are excited to acts of extensive beneficence. Our Saviour's answer to the question, Who is my neighbour? shows very plainly how far this commandment reaches, and points out, in the most touching manner,

T

that wherever we can find an opportunity of doing good, there our neighbour is also to be found.

The third maxim, which completes this system of benevolence, carries us as far as it is possible to go, and much farther than men conceived their duty required before the gospel was introduced into the world. "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." In this rule of enlightened morality, we are taught to overlook, in some degree, the distinctions in the characters of men; to disregard the accidental variances and oppositions into which we may happen to be thrown in this world; and, amidst all the vices and follies which may be prevalent around us, and amidst all the hostility which it may be our lot to encounter, still to contemplate, with affectionate regard, that common bond of human nature by which every one man is united to every other.

It has been justly objected to some modern systems of benevolence, that while they inculcate an unaccountable regard for the interests of the human race in general, and make that the only principle of action, they in a great degree tend to extirpate all those private feelings and affections by which alone human society is maintained. But while the charity inculcated in the gospel is as comprehensive as can be conceived, it is by no means liable to this objection. Every good affection of the heart, love to parents, and benefactors, and friends, is encouraged and promoted by it. It is most assuredly

our duty to befriend virtue, and to oppose vice: while we have enemies we must resist them, nor can we avoid feeling the natural sentiments of resentment and indignation: Christianity supersedes not any one of those principles of our nature, though it regulates and restrains them all: it has always protected, never unhinged the established order of the world; the general interests of mankind, it instructs us, are in higher hands than ours; and every man promotes them best while he keeps the station in which Providence has placed him. Yet, amidst all this attention to every private feeling natural to man, amidst all its regard for the order, and even for the prejudices of society, Christianity teaches us a still higher lesson; and, leading us at times to forget that we ourselves are actors in this busy and distracted scene, it lifts us to that serene eminence from which we may contemplate all the conduct of man with the temper and benevolence of Heaven. It is perhaps in our meditations alone that we can reach those feelings of extensive charity; yet these meditations are not without their influence on our practice, and restore us to the intercourse of men, with the wish and resolution to "love much," "to suffer long," "and to hope all things."

Such, my brethren, is a very faint exposition of Christian charity, or of those affections which our religion inculcates, as due from man to man. The system commonly prevalent in the world, it is evident, is of a very different nature. Men are, in general, very partial in their affections, indulgent to some, and quite inattentive to the feelings of others; few are disposed to engage heartily and perseveringly in the practice of beneficence; hatreds and animosities, of the most irreconcileable na