seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and, when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation."

I come now to prove that none but the children of God, and such as favour the Lord's cause, are the objects of the saints' charity. Christ tells his disciples that they all have one Father, even God; and tells them that all they were brethren; and his command is, That ye love one another, as I have loved you; he extends it no further than to one another. The subjects of God's grace, therefore, are the only objects of this charity: "He that loveth him that begat, loveth him that is begotten of him." Here John makes the image of God the object of a believer's charity; and so Peter also: "But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer: And, above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves; for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.' Here Peter tells them to have perfect charity among themselves. "We are bound to thank

God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth." This abounding charity was toward each other. Hence it appears that charity is sovereign and discriminating, even in God, Father, Son, and Spirit; and strictly speaking, that the saints of God, and those that favour his righteous cause, are the proper objects of the saints' charity. And it will be hard work to prove, from God's word, that all mankind are the objects of a saint's love, according to this new commandment. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the

and the lust of the not of the Father,

world, the lust of the flesh, eyes, and the pride of life, is but is of the world." These evil things were not in the world when God made it; all that he made was very good. These came into the world by Satan, who alone brought sin. Nor are these evil things to be found now in the world, abstractedly considered. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, reign in no creature but men and devils. He, therefore, that loves the company, and can feel union with wicked men, is in love with all these lusts and corruptions. Gospel charity will embrace a child of God upon the first sight, if he was a stranger before: "Ye are taught of God to love one another." The bowels of charity will move and sound toward every soul that is un

der real concern about his state; the simple, the sincere seeker, and all that favour the cause of God, the truth of God, and the saints of God. And, on the other hand, charity will damp, grow cold, and in the end be entirely quenched, toward the object it one embraced; at the appearance of apostasy, at the appearance of an attachment to heretics, or to any damnable heresy; and at the appearance of any alienation from Christ; or, to be more plain, charity will forsake that professor that forsakes Christ. When men have done with Jesus, charity has done with them. When Judas was pointed out to be the traitor the apostles had done with that withered branch, and the priests and pharisees gathered him into their company.

In this business the devil often displays the quintessence of infernal wisdom; for, when God discovers a hypocrite, and makes him fully manifest, so that in your private judgment you cannot hold him, justify him, or even judge favourable of him in any one thing, insomuch that charity has refused him and done with him; even then comes Satan, transforming himself into an angel of light, and works with all deceiveablenes in the natural affections of the saint, in order to keep his tares among the wheat; and under this deceptive influence of Satan natural affections become inordinate, as may be seen in Samuel: "And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?" I myself have paid dear for this. Under

this influence the false brethren got into the church at Jerusalem; and under the same, Arius, though once condemned and cast out of the church, got in again, and kept his standing in it to the destruction of thousands and millions of souls; and by this, whole congregations of hypocrites are kept together to this day, who have not a breath of divine life in them. Natural affections love nature and natural men; but real charity respects a person not as a man, but as a saint; nor can it, nor will it, embrace a man unless it feels a savour of Christ in his conversation, or discovers some feature of Christ's image in the person. Even our Lord Jesus Christ himself, as man, wept with pity and compassion over Jerusalem, when at the same time, as God, the day of vengeance was in his heart. Natural affections and divine love are two things; they were so even in Christ. But it may be objected, Does not God say, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; and if he thirst, give him drink?" In these things God himself is set before us as our example, even by Christ himself; and he is the best example: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." "God loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye, therefore, the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." God's love here extends itself to the stranger no further than giving him food and raiment; for all that die strangers to God will in the great day be sent away with Depart from me;

I know ye not. Love ye the stranger, and even thy enemy: if he hunger, feed him; and if he thirst, give him drink; for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, Prov. xxv. 22; and if we heap not live coals from the altar we shall heap coals of juniper. This rule our Lord himself enforces: "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." And now mind what follows: "That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Be ye therefore perfect," &c. Matt. v. 44, 45. We are here commanded to pray for our enemies: for it is of ten seen that the elect, before they are called, are the worst enemies, as may be seen in Paul, and in some at the crucifixion of Christ, for whom Christ prayed, Luke xxiii. 34, compare Acts ii. 36, 37. And I believe that the greater part of the best friends that I now have in this world were once my greatest enemies. And sure I am that it will appear in the great day that none have abounded, even in this work, like the real lovers of God. There is a wide difference between the love of God to the stranger in clothing him and feeding him, and the love of God to the saints, by which they are saved. There is also a difference between divine charity and natural affections: the former embraces the image of God, the latter relieves a