XXVI.

James iv.

8.

SERM. assures; Draw near, saith he, unto God, and he will draw near to you,) and thereby we partake more fully and strongly of his gracious influences; therein indeed he most freely communicates his grace, therein he makes us most sensible of his love to us, and thereby disposeth us to love him again. I add, that true (fervent and hearty) prayer doth include and suppose some acts of love, or some near tendencies thereto; whence, as every habit is corroborated by acts of its kind, so by this practice divine love will be confirmed and increased. These are the means, which my meditation did suggest as conducing to the production and growth of this most excellent grace in our souls.

III. I should, lastly, propound some inducements apt to stir us up to the endeavour of procuring it, and to the exercise thereof, by representing to your consideration the blessed fruits and benefits (both by way of natural causality and of reward) accruing from it; as also the woful consequences and mischiefs springing from the want thereof. How being endued with it perfects and advances our nature, rendering it, in a manner and degree, divine, by resemblance to God, (who is full thereof, so full that he is called love,) by approximation, adherence, and union, in a sort, unto him : how it ennobles us with the most glorious alliance possible, rendering us the friends and favourites of the sovereign King and Lord of all, brethren of Heb. xii. the first-born, whose names are written in heaven; enriches us with a right and title to the most I Cor. ii. 9. inestimable treasures, (those which, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man to conceive, which God hath prepared for

23.

20.

28.

XXVI.

them that love him,) a sure possession of the supreme SERM. good, of all that God is able to bestow, all whose wisdom and power, whose counsel and care it eternally engageth for our benefit; how all security and welfare, all rest and peace, all joy and happiness attend upon it; for that, The Lord preserveth all Ps. cxlv. them that love him, (preserveth them in the enjoyment of all good, in safety from all danger and mischief,) and that, To those who love God all things Rom. viii. co-operate for their good: how incomparable a sweetness and delight accompany the practice thereof, far surpassing all other pleasures; perfectly able to content our minds, to sustain and comfort us even in the want of all other satisfactions, yea under the pressure of whatever most grievous afflictions can befall us. How contrariwise the want thereof will depress us into a state of greatest imperfection and baseness, setting us at the greatest distance from God in all respects, both in similitude of nature, and as to all favourable regard, or beneficial communication from him; casting us into a wretched and disgraceful consortship with the most degenerate creatures, the accursed fiends, who, for disaffection and enmity toward God, are banished from all happiness; how it extremely impoverisheth and beggareth us, divesting us of all right to any good thing, rendering us incapable of any portion, but that of utter darkness; how it excludeth us from any safety, any rest, any true comfort or joy, and exposeth us to all mischief and misery imaginable; all that being deprived of the divine protection, presence, and favour, being made objects of the divine anger, hatred, and severe justice, being abandoned to the malice of hell, being driven into

B. S. VOL. II.

19

XXVI.

SERM. utter darkness and eternal fire doth import or can produce. I should also have commended this love to you by comparing it with other loves, and shewing how far in its nature, in its causes, in its properties, in its effects, it excelleth them: even so far as the object thereof in excellency doth transcend all other objects of our affection; how this is grounded upon the highest and surest reason; others upon accounts very low and mean, commonly upon fond humour and mistake; this produceth real, certain, immutable goods; others at best terminate only in goods apparent, unstable, and transitory; this is most worthy of us, employing all our faculties in their noblest manner of operation upon the best object; others misbeseem us, so that in pursuing them we disgrace our understanding, misapply our desires, distemper our affections, misspend our endeavours. I should have enlarged upon these considerations; and should have adjoined some particular advantages of this grace; as, for instance, that the procuring thereof is the most sure, the most easy, the most compendious way of attaining all others; of sweetening and ingratiating all obedience to us; of making the hardest yoke easy, and the heaviest burden light unto us. In fine, I should have wished you to consider, that its practice is not only a mean and way to happiness, but our very formal happiness itself; the real enjoyment of the best good we are capable of; that in which alone heaven itself (the felicity of Saints and Angels) doth consist; which more than comprehends in itself all the benefits of highest dignity, richest plenty, and sweetest pleasure. But I shall forbear entering upon so ample and fruitful subjects of

meditation, and conclude with that good Collect SERM. of our church:

O Lord, who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass man's understanding; pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

XXVI.

SERMON XXVII.

OF THE LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOUR".

SERM.
XXVII.

5; cxix. 64.

MATT. XXII. 39.

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

THE

HE essential goodness of God, and his special benignity toward mankind, are to a considering 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 sense doth yield us affidavit to that Ps. xxxiii. speech of the holy Psalmist, The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord: we see it in the glorious 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 sea; we smell it in the fragrances of herbs and flowers; we hear it in the natural music of the woods; we feel it in the comfortable warmth of heaven, and in the cheering freshness of the air; we continually do possess and enjoy it in the numberless accommodations of life, presented to us by the bountiful hand of nature.

a

[This is most probably the sermon, of which the following mention is found in Evelyn's Diary. "1675, April 25. Dr Barrow, that excellent, pious, and most learned man, divine, mathematician, poet, traveller, and most humble person preached at Whitehall to the Household on Luke x. 27, 'Of love and charity to our neighbour."" In the MS. of the sermon there are two texts prefixed: Matt. xxii. 39, Luke x. 27.]