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added, " And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." And 60 in Gal. v. 14-``For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." And the same seems to be stated in James ii. 8, '`If ye fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture sure, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well." Hence love appears to be the sum of all the virtue and duty that God requires of us, and therefore must undoubtedly be the most essential thing-the sum of all the virtue that is essential and distinguishing in real Christianity. That which is the sum of all duty, must be the sum of all real virtue.
3. The truth of the doctrine' as shewn by the Scripture appears from this, that the apostle teaches us (Gal. v. 6) that "faith works by love." A truly Christian faith is that which produces good works; but all the good works which it produces are by love. By this, two things are evident to the present purpose:-
First, That true love 28 an ingredient in true and living faith, and is what is most essential and distinguishing in it. Love is no ingredient in a merely speculative faith, but it is the life and soul of a practical faith. A truly practical or saving faith, is light and heat together, or rather light and love, while that which is only a speculative faith, is only light without heat; and, in that it wants spiritual heat or divine love, is in vain, and good for nothing. A speculative faith consists only in the ascent of the understanding; but in a saving faith there is also the consent of the heart; and that faith which is only of the former kind, is no better than the faith of devils, for they have faith so far as it can exist without love, believing while they tremble. Now, the true spiritual consent of the heart cannot be distinguished from the love of the heart. He whose heart consents to Christ as a Saviour, has true love to him as such. For the heart sincerely to consent to the way of salvation by Christ, cannot be distinguished from loving that way of salvation, and resting in it. There is an act of choice or election in true saving faith, whereby the soul chooses Christ its
Saviour and portion, and accepts of and embraces him as such; but, as was observed before, an election or choice whereby it so chooses God and Christ, is an act of love-the lore of a soul embracing him as its dearest friend and portion Faith is a duty that God requires of every one. We are commanded to believe, and unbelief is a sin forbidden by God. Faith is a duty required in the first table of the law, and in the first command of that table; and therefore it will follow, that it is comprehended in the great commandment, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,', &c. and so it will follow that love is the most essential thing in a true faith. That love is the very life and spirit of a true faith, is especially evident from a comparison of this declaration of the apostle, that " faith works by love," and the last verse of the second chapter of the epistle of James, which declares, that " as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." The working active, and acting nature of anything, is the life of it; and that which makes us call a thing alive, is, that we observe an active nature in it. This active, working nature in man, is the spirit which he has within him. And as his body without this spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. And if we would know what the working active thing in true faith is, the apostle tells us in Gal v. 6, "Faith worketh by love." So that it is love which is the active working spirit in all true faith. This is its very soul, without which it ; is dead as, in another form, he tells in the text, saying that faith, without charity or love is nothing, though it be to such a degree that it can remove mountains. And when he says, in the seventh verse of the context, that charity " believeth all things, and hopeth all things," he probably refers to the great virtues of believing and hoping in the truth and grace of God, to which he compares charity in other parts of the chapter, and particularly in the last verse, " Now abideth faith, hope, charity,,' &c. For in the seventh verse he gives the preference to charity or love, before the other virtues of faith and hope, because it includes them; for he says, "charity believeth all things, and hopeth all things; " so that this seems to be his meaning, and not merely, as it is vulgarly understood, that charity believeth and hopeth the best with regard to our neighbours. That a justifying faith, as a most distinguishing mark