NOTES

NOTES

NOTES

49. Closets: small and private rooms.

50. Matilda regards "patching" as too important to leave to her daughters. The patch itself was usually a small piece of black silk worn on the face to conceal a blemish, or else to show off by contrast the fairness of the complexion.

5 1. Vapored ... spirits: inclined to depression because of a lack of normal energy. Matilda will not allow the girls a proper diet for fear of their growing

"coarse," that is, looking well fed and plump.

52. Twitched so straight: drawn tightly and made erect.

53. Becomes: is becoming to.

54. Abroad: out into the world.

55. Carriage: here signifying comportment or bearing.

was ... were: Law frequently writes "was" where we would prefer "were." Here he first thinks of "you" as being one group or unite influenced by "family," and he uses the singular 11 was;" but the "ancestors" of the next clause affects the choice of "where," even though in both instances the plural "you" is actually the subject of the verb.

Chapter XX

Recommending devotion at twelve o'clock, cal ed in scripture the sixth hour of the day. This frequency of devotion equally desirable by all orders of people. Universal love is here recommended to be the subject of prayer at this hour. Of intercession as an act of universal love.

It will perhaps be thought by some people that these hours of prayer come too thick, that they can only be observed by people of great leisure and ought not to be pressed upon the generality of men who have the cares of families, trades, and employments, nor upon the gentry, whose state and figure in the world cannot admit of this frequency of devotion. And that it is only fit for monasteries and nunneries or such people as have no more to do in the world than they have.

To this it is answered:

First, that this method of devotion is not pressed upon any sort of people as absolutely necessary, but recommended to all people as the best, the happiest, and most perfect way of life.

And if a great and exemplary devotion is as much the greatest happiness and perfection of a merchant, a soldier, or a man of quality as it is the greatest happiness and perfection of the most retired contemplative life, then it is as proper to recommend it without any abatements to one order of men as to another, because happiness and perfection are of the same worth and value to all people.

The gentleman and tradesman may and must spend much of their time differently from the pious monk in the cloister or the contemplative hermit in the desert. But then, as the monk and hermit lose the ends of retirement unless they make it all serviceable to devotion, so the gentleman and merchant fail of the greatest ends of a social life, and live to their loss in the world unless devotion be their chief and governing temper.

It is certainly very honest and creditable for people to engage in trades and employments; it is reasonable for gentlemen to manage well their estates and families and take such recreations as are proper to their state. But then every gentleman and tradesman loses the greatest happiness of his creation, is robbed of something that is greater than all employments, distinctions, and pleasures of the world, if he does not live more to piety and devotion than to anything else in the world.

Here are therefore no excuses made for men of business and figure in the world. First, because it would be to excuse them from that which is the greatest end of living and be only finding so many reasons for making them less beneficial to themselves and less serviceable to God and the world.

Secondly, because most men of business and figure engage too far in worldly matters, much farther than the reasons of human life or the necessities of the world require.

Merchants and tradesmen, for instance, are generally ten times further engaged in business than they need, which is so far from being a reasonable excuse for their want of time for devotion that it is their crime and must be censured as a blamable instance of covetousness and ambition.

The gentry and people of figure either give themselves up to state employments or to the gratifications of their passions in a life of gaiety and debauchery; and if these things might be admitted as allowable avocations from devotion, devotion must be reckoned a Poor circumstance of life.

Unless gentlemen can show that they have another God than the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, another nature than that which is derived from Adam, another religion than the Christian, 'tis in vain to plead their state and dignity and pleasures as reasons for not preparing their souls for God by a strict and regular devotion.

For since piety and devotion are the common unchangeable means of saving all the souls in the world that shall be saved, there is nothing left for the gentleman, the soldier, and the tradesman but to take care that their several states be, by care and watchfulness, by Meditation and prayer, made states of an exact and solid piety.

If a merchant, having forbore from too great business that he might quietly attend on the service of God, should therefore die worth twenty instead of fifty thousand pounds, could anyone say that he had mistaken his calling, or gone a loser out of the world?

If a gentleman should have killed fewer foxes, been less frequent at balls, gaming, and merry meetings, because stated parts of his time had been given to retirement, to meditation and devotion, could it be thought that when he left the world he would regret the loss of those hours that he had given to the care and improvement of his soul?

If a tradesman, by aspiring after Christian perfection and retiring himself often from his business should, instead of leaving his children fortunes to spend in luxury and idleness, leave them to live by their own honest labor, could it be said that he had made a wrong use of the world because he had shown his children that he had more regard to that which is eternal than to this which is so soon to be at an end?

Since, therefore, devotion is not only the best and most desirable practice in a cloister, but the best and most desirable practice of men, as men, and in every state of life, they that desire to be excused from it because they are men of figure and estates and business are no wiser than those that should desire to be excused from health and happiness because they were men of figure and estates.

I can't see why every gentleman, merchant, or soldier should not put these questions seriously to himself:

What is the best thing for me to intend and drive at in all my actions? How shall I do to make the most of human life? What ways shall I wish that I had taken when I am leaving the world?

Now to be thus wise and to make thus much use of our reason seems to be but a small and necessary piece of wisdom. For how call we pretend to sense and judgment if we dare not seriously consider and answer and govern our lives by that which such questions require of us?

Shall a nobleman think his birth too high a dignity to condescend to such questions as these? Or a tradesman think his business too great to take any care about himself?

Now here is desired no more devotion in anyone's life than the answering these few questions requires.

Any devotion that is not to the greater advantage of him that uses it than anything that he can do in the room of it, any devotion that does not procure an infinitely greater good than can be got by neglecting it, is freely yielded up; here is no demand of it.

But if people will live in so much ignorance as never to put these questions to themselves, but push on a blind life at all chances in quest of they don't know what nor why, without ever considering the worth or value or tendency of their actions, without considering what God, reason, eternity, and their own happiness require of them, it is for the honor of devotion that none can neglect it but those who are thus inconsiderate, who dare not inquire after that which is the best and most worthy of their choice.

It is true, Claudius, you are a man of figure and estate and are to act the part of such a station in human life; you are not called as Elijah was to be a prophet, or as St. Paul to be an Apostle.

But will you therefore not love yourself? Will you not seek and study your own happiness because you are not called to preach up the same things to other people?

You would think it very absurd for a man not to value his own health because he was not a physician, or the preservation of his limbs because he was not a bone-setter. Yet it is more absurd for you, Claudius, to neglect the improvement of your soul in piety because you are not an Apostle or a bishop.

Consider this text of scripture, "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if through the spirit ye do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of GoW (Rom. 8:13, 14). Do you think that this scripture does not equally relate to all mankind?

Can you find any exception here for men of figure and estates? Is not a spiritual and devout life here made the common condition on which all men are to become sons of God? Will you leave hours of prayer and rules of devotion to particular states of life when nothing but the same spirit of devotion can save You or any man from eternal death?

Consider again this text: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (2 Co'r. 5:10). Now if your estate would excuse you from appearing before this judgment seat, if your figure could protect you from receiving according to your works, there would be some pretence for leaving devotion to other people. But if you, who are now thus distinguished, must then appear naked amongst common souls, without any other distinction from others but such as your virtues or sins give you, does it not as much concern you as any prophet or Apostle to make the best provision for the best rewards at that great day?

Again, consider this doctrine of the Apostle: "For none of us," that is, of us Christians, "liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.. for whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living" (Rom. 14:7-9).

Now are you, Claudius, excepted out of the doctrine of this text? Will you, because of your condition, leave it to any particular sort of people to live and die unto Christ? If so, you must leave it to them to be redeemed by the death and Resurrection of Christ. For it is the express doctrine of the text that for this end Christ died and rose again, that none of us should live to himself. 'Tis not that priests or Apostles or monks or hermits should live no longer to themselves, but that none of us, that is, no Christian of what state soever, should live unto himself.

If, therefore, there be any instances of piety, any rules of devotion which you can neglect, and yet live as truly unto Christ as if you observed them, this text calls you to no such devotion. But if you forsake such devotion as you yourself know is expected from some particular sorts of people, such devotion as you know becomes people that live wholly unto Christ, that aspire after great piety; if you neglect such devotion for any worldly consideration that you may live more to your own temper and taste, more to the fashions and ways of the world, you forsake the terms on which all Christians are to receive the benefit of Christ's death and Resurrection. Observe further, how the same doctrine is taught by St. Peter: "As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation (1 Pet. 1: 15).

If therefore, Claudius, you are one of those that are here called, you see what it is that you are called to. It is not to have so much religion as suits with your temper, your business, or your pleasures, it is not to a particular sort of piety that may be sufficient for gentlemen of figure and estates, but it is, first, to be holy as He which hath called you is holy; secondly, it is to be thus holy in all manner of conversation; that is, to carry this spirit and degree of holiness into every part and through the whole form of your life.

And the reason the Apostle immediately gives why this spirit of holiness must be the common spirit of Christians as such is very affecting and such as equally calls upon all sorts of Christians. "Forasmuch as ye know," says he,

"that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation ... but with the precious blood of Christ," etc.

As if he had said, forasmuch as ye know ye were made capable of this state of holiness, entered into a society with Christ, and made heirs of His glory, not by any human means, but by such a mysterious instance of love as infinitely exceeds everything that can be thought of in this world, since God has redeemed you to Himself and your own happiness at so great a price, how base and shameful must it be if you don't henceforth devote yourselves wholly to the glory of God and become holy, as He who hath called you is holy?

If therefore, Claudius, you consider your figure and estate, or if in the words of the text, you consider your gold and silver and the corruptible things of this life as any reason why you may live to your own humor and fancy, why you may neglect a life of strict piety and great devotion; if you think anything in the world can be an excuse for your not imitating the holiness of Christ in the whole course and form of your life, you make yourself as guilty as if you should neglect the holiness of Christianity for the sake of picking straws.

For the greatness of this new state of life to which we are called in Christ Jesus to be forever as the angels of God in Heaven, and the greatness of the price by which we are made capable of this state of glory, has turned everything that is worldly, temporal, and corruptible into an equal littleness, and made it as great baseness and folly, as great a contempt of the blood of Christ, to neglect any degrees of holiness because you are a man of some estate and quality, as it would be to neglect it because you had a fancy to pick straws.

Again, the same Apostle saith, "Know ye not, that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, and ye are not your Own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:19, 20).

How poorly therefore, Claudius, have you read the scripture, how little do you know of Christianity, if you can yet talk of your estate and condition as a pretence for a freer kind of life?

Are you any more your own than he that has no estate or dignity in the world?

Must mean and little people preserve their bodies as temples of the Holy Ghost by watching, fasting, and prayer, but may you indulge yours in idleness, in lusts and sensuality, because you have so much rent or such a title of distinction? How poor and ignorant are such thoughts as these?

And yet you must either think thus, or else acknowledge that the holiness of saints, prophets, and apostles is the holiness that you are to labor after with all the diligence and care that you can.

And if you leave it to others to live in such piety and devotion, in such selfdenial, humility, and temperance as may render them able to glorify God in their body and in their spirit, you must leave it to them also to have the benefit of the blood of Christ.

Again, the Apostle saith, "You know how we exhorted, comforted, and charged every one of you, that you would walk worthy of God, who hath called you to His kingdom and glory" (1 Thess. 2:11, 12).

You perhaps, Claudius, have often heard these words without ever thinking how much they required of you. And yet you can't consider them without perceiving to what an eminent state of holiness they call you.

For how can the holiness of the Christian life be set before you in higher terms than when it is represented to you as walking worthy of God? Can you think of any abatements of virtue, any neglects of devotion, that are well consistent with a life that is to be made worthy of God? Can you suppose that any man walks in this manner but he that watches over all his steps, and considers how everything he does may be done in the spirit of holiness? And yet as high as these expressions carry this holiness, it is here plainly made the necessary holiness of all Christians. For the Apostle does not here exhort his fellow Apostles and Saints to this holiness, but he commands all Christians to endeavor after it. "We charged," says he, "everyone of you, that you would walk worthy of God, who hath called you to His kingdom and glory."

Again, St. Peter saith, "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability that God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified in Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 4:11).

Do you not here, Claudius, plainly perceive your high calling? Is he that speaketh to have such regard to his words that he appear to speak as by the direction of God? Is he that giveth to take care that he so giveth that what he disposeth of may appear to be a gift that he hath of God? And is all this to be done that God may be glorified in all things?

Must it not then be said, has any man nobility, dignity of state, or figure in the world? Let him so use his nobility or figure of life that it may appear he uses these as the gifts of God for the greater setting forth of His glory. Is there now, Claudius, anything forced or farfetched in this conclusion? Is it not the plain sense of the words that everything in life is to be made a matter of holiness unto God? If so, then your estate and dignity is so far from excusing you from great piety and holiness of life that it lays you under a greater necessity of living more to the glory of God, because you have more of His gifts that may be made serviceable to it.

For people therefore of figure or business or dignity in the world to leave great piety and eminent devotion to any particular orders of men or such as they think have little else to do in the world is to leave the Kingdom of God to them.

For it is the very end of Christianity to redeem all orders of men into one holy society, that rich and poor, high and low, masters and servants, may in one and the same spirit of piety become a "chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that are to show forth the praises of Him, who hath called them out of darkness, into His marvellous light" (1 Pet. 2:9).

Thus much being said to show that great devotion and holiness is not to be left to any particular sort of people but to be the common spirit of all that desire to live up to the terms of common Christianity; I now proceed to consider the nature and necessity of universal love Which is here recommended to be the subject of your devotion at this hour. You are here also called to intercession as the most proper exercise to raise and preserve that love.

By intercession is meant a praying to God and interceding with Him for our fellow creatures.

Our blessed Lord hath recommended His love to us as the pattern and example of our love to one another. As, therefore, He is continually making intercession for us all, so ought we to intercede and pray for one another.

"A new commandment," saith He, "I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another."

The newness of this precept did not consist in this, that men were commanded to love one another; for this was an old precept, both of the law of Moses and of nature. But it was new in this respect, that it was to imitate a new and till then unheard-of example of love; it was to love one another as Christ had loved us.

And if men are to know that we are disciples of Christ by thus loving one another according to His new example of love, then it is certain that if we are void of this love we make it as plainly known unto men that we are none of His disciples.

There is no principle of the heart that is more acceptable to God than a universal fervent love to all mankind, wishing and praying for their happiness, because there is no principle of the heart that makes us more like God, who is love and goodness itself and created all beings for their enjoyment of happiness.

The greatest idea that we can frame of God is when we conceive Him to be a Being of infinite love and goodness, using an infinite wisdom and power for the common good and happiness of all His creatures.

The highest notion, therefore, that we can form of man is when we conceive him as like to God in this respect as he can be, using all his finite faculties, whether of wisdom, power, or prayers, for the common good of all his fellow creatures, heartily desiring they may have all the happiness they are capable of and as many benefits and assistances from him as his state and condition in the world will permit him to give them.

And on the other hand, what a baseness and iniquity is there in all instances of hatred, envy, spite, and ill will, if we consider that every instance of them is so far acting in opposition to God and intending mischief and harm to those creatures which God favors, and protects, and preserves, in order to their happiness? An illnatured man amongst God's creatures is the most perverse creature in the world, acting contrary to that love by which himself subsists and which alone gives subsistence to all that variety of beings that enjoy life in any part of the creation.

"Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them."

Now though this is a doctrine of strict justice, yet it is only a universal love that can comply with it. For as love is the measure of our acting toward ourselves, so we can never act in the same manner toward other people till we look upon them with that love with which we look upon ourselves.

As we have no degrees of spite or envy or ill will to ourselves, so we cannot be disposed toward others as we are toward ourselves till we universally renounce all instances of spite and envy and il will even in the smallest degrees.

If we had any imperfection in our eyes that made us see any one thing wrong, for the same reason they would show us a hundred things wrong.

So if we have any temper of our hearts that makes us envious or spiteful or ill natured toward any one man, the same temper will make us envious and spiteful and ill natured toward a great many more.

If, therefore, we desire this divine virtue of love, we must exercise and practice our hearts in the love of all because it is not Christian love till it is the love of all.

If a man could keep this whole law of love and yet offend in one point, he would be guilty of all. For as one allowed instance of injustice destroys the justice of all our other actions, so one allowed instance of envy, spite, and ill will renders all our other acts of benevolence and affection nothing worth.

Acts of love that proceed not from a principle of universal love are but like acts of justice that proceed from a heart not disposed to universal justice.

A love which is not universal may indeed have tenderness and affection but it hath nothing of righteousness or piety in it; it is but humor, and temper, or interest, or such a love as publicans and heathens practice.

All particular envies and spites are as plain departures from the spirit of Christianity as any particular acts of injustice. For it is as Much a law of Christ to treat everybody as your neighbor and to love your neighbor as yourself as

'tis a law of Christianity to abstain from theft.

Now the noblest motive to this universal tenderness and affection is founded in this doctrine, "God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God."

Who, therefore, whose heart has any tendency toward God, would not aspire after this divine temper which so changes and exalts our nature into a union with Him?

How should we rejoice in the exercise and practice of this love which so often as we feel it is so often an assurance to us that God is in us, that we act according to His Spirit who is love itself? But we must observe that love has then only this mighty power of uniting us to God when it is so pure and universal as to imitate that love which God beareth to all His creatures.

God willeth the happiness of all beings though it is no happiness to Himself. Therefore we must desire the happiness of all beings though no happiness cometh to us from it.

God equally delighteth in the perfections of all His creatures; therefore, we should rejoice in those perfections wherever we see them and be glad to have other people perfect as ourselves.

As God forgiveth all and giveth grace to all, so we should forgive all those injuries and affronts which we receive from others and do all the good that we can to them.

God Almighty, besides His own great example of love, which ought to draw all His creatures after it, has so provided for us and made our happiness so common to us all that we have no occasion to envy or hate one another.

For we cannot stand in one another's way, or by enjoying any particular good, keep another from his full share of it.

As we cannot be happy but in the enjoyment of God, so we cannot rival or rob one another of this happiness.

And as to other things, the enjoyments and prosperities of this life, they are so little in themselves, so foreign to our happiness and, generally speaking, so contrary to that which they appear to be, that they are no foundation for envy or spite or hatred.

How silly would it be to envy a man that was drinking poison out of a golden cup? And yet who can say that he is acting wiser than thus when he is envying any instance of worldly greatness?

How many Saints has adversity sent to Heaven? And how many poor sinners has prosperity plunged into everlasting misery? A man seems then to be in the most glorious state when he has conquered, disgraced, and humbled his enemy, though it may be that same conquest has saved his adversary and undone himself.

This man had perhaps never been debauched but for his fortune and advancement; that had never been pious but through his poverty and disgrace.

She that is envied for her beauty may perchance owe all her misery to it, and another may be forever happy for having had no admirers of her person.

One man succeeds in everything and so loses all. Another meets with nothing but crosses and disappointments and thereby gains more than all the world is worth.

This clergyman may be undone by his being made a bishop, and that may save both himself and others by being fixed to his first poor vicarage.

How envied was Alexander when, conquering the world, he built towns, set up his statues, and left marks of his glory in so many kingdoms!

And how despised was the poor preacher St. Paul when he was beaten with rods! And yet how strangely was the world mistaken in their judgment! How much to be envied was St. Paul! How much to be pitied was Alexander!

These few reflections sufficiently show us that the different conditions of this life have nothing in them to excite our uneasy passions, nothing that can reasonably interrupt our love and affection to one another.

To proceed now to another motive to this universal love.

Our power of doing external acts of love and goodness is often very narrow and restrained. There are, it may be, but few people to whom we can contribute any worldly relief.

But though our outward means of doing good are often thus limited, yet if our hearts are but full of love and goodness we get, as it were, an infinite power because God will attribute to us those good works, those acts of love and tender charities, which we sincerely desired and would gladly have performed had it been in our power.

You cannot heal all the sick, relieve all the poor; you cannot comfort all in distress nor be a father to all the fatherless. You cannot, it may be, deliver many from their misfortunes or teach them to find comfort in God.

But if there is a love and tenderness in your heart that delights in these good works and excites you to do all that you can, if your love has no bounds but continually wishes and prays for the relief and happiness of all that are in distress, you will be received by God as a benefactor to those who have had nothing from you but your good will and tender affections.

You cannot build hospitals for the incurable; you cannot erect monasteries for the education of persons in holy solitude, continual prayer, and mortification; but if you join in your heart with those that do and thank God for their pious designs, if you are a friend to these great friends of mankind and rejoice in their eminent virtues, you will be received by God as a sharer of such good works as, though they had none of your hands, yet had all your heart.

This consideration surely is sufficient to make us look to and watch over our hearts with all diligence, to study the improvement of our inward tempers and aspire after every height and perfection of a loving, charitable, and benevolent mind.

And on the other hand, we may hence learn the great evil and mischief of all wrong turns of mind, of envy, spite, hatred, and ill will. For if the goodness of our hearts will entitle us to the reward of good actions which we never performed, it is certain that the badness of our hearts, our envy, ill nature, and hatred will bring us under the guilt of actions that we have never committed.

As he that lusteth after a woman shall be reckoned an adulterer, though he has only committed the crime in his heart, so the malicious, spiteful, ill-natured man that only secretly rejoices at evil shall be reckoned a murderer, though he has shed no blood.

Since, therefore, our hearts which are always naked and open to the eyes of God give such an exceeding extent and increase either to our virtues or vices, it is our best and greatest business to govern the motions of our hearts, to watch, correct, and improve the inward state and temper of our souls.

Now there is nothing that so much exalts our souls as this heavenly love. It cleanses and purifies like a holy fire and all ill tempers fall away before it. It makes room for all virtues, and carries them to their greatest height. Everything that is good and holy grows out of it and it becomes a continual source of all holy desires and pious practices.

By love, I don't mean any natural tenderness which is more or less in people according to their constitutions, but I mean a larger principle of the soul, founded in reason and piety, which makes us tender, kind, and benevolent to all our fellow creatures as creatures of God, and for His sake.

It is this love that loves all things in God as His creatures, as the images of His power, as the creatures of His goodness, as parts of His family, as members of His society, that becomes a holy principle of all great and good actions.

The love, therefore, of our neighbor is only a branch of our love to God. For when we love God with all our hearts, and with all our souls, and with all our strength, we shall necessarily love those beings that are so nearly related to God, that have everything from Him, and are created by Him to be objects of His own eternal love. If I hate or despise any one man in the world, I hate something that God cannot hate, and despise that which He loves.

And can I think that I love God with all my heart whilst I hate that which belongs only to God, which has no other master but Him, which bears His image, is part of His family and exists only by the continuance of His love toward it?

It was the impossibility of this that made St. John say, "That if any man saith he loveth God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar."

These reasons sufficiently show us that no love is holy or religious till it becomes universal.

For if religion requires me to love all persons as God's creatures that belong to Him, that bear His image, enjoy His protection and make parts of His family and household; if these are the great and necessary reasons why I should live in love and friendship with any One man in the world, they are the same great and necessary reasons why I should live in love and friendship with every man in the world, and consequently I offend against all these reasons and break through all these ties and obligations whenever I want love toward any one man. The sin therefore of hating or despising any one man is like the sin of hating all God's creation, and the necessity of loving any one man is the same necessity of loving every man in the world.

And though many people may appear to us ever so sinful, odious, or extravagant in their conduct, we must never look upon that as the least motive for any contempt or disregard of them, but look upon them with the greater compassion as being in the most pitiable condition that can be.

As it was the sins of the world that made the Son of God become a compassionate, suffering Advocate for all mankind, so no one is of the Spirit of Christ but he that has the utmost compassion for sinners. Nor is there any greater sign of your own perfection than when you find yourself all love and compassion toward them that are very weak and defective. And on the other hand, you have never less reason to be pleased with yourself than when you find yourself most angry and offended at the behavior of others. All sin is certainly to be hated and abhorred wherever it is, but then we must set ourselves against sin as we do against sickness and diseases, by showing ourselves tender and compassionate to the sick and diseased.

All other hatred of sin which does not fill the heart with the softest, tenderest affections toward persons miserable in it is the servant of sin at the same time that it seems to be hating it.

And there is no temper which even good men ought more carefully to watch and guard against than this. For it is a temper that lurks and hides itself under the cover of many virtues, and by being unsuspected does the more mischief.

A man naturally fancies that it is his own exceeding love of virtue that makes him not able to bear with those that want it. And when he abhors one man, despises another, and can't bear the name of a third, he supposes it all to be a proof of his own high sense of virtue and just hatred of sin.

And yet one would think that a man needed no other cure for this temper than this one reflection:

That if this had been the Spirit of the Son of God, if He had hated sin in this manner, there had been no redemption of the world; that if God had hated sinners in this manner day and night, the world itself had ceased long ago.

This, therefore, we may take for a certain rule, that the more we partake of the divine nature, the more improved we are ourselves, and the higher our sense of virtue is, the more we shall pity and compassionate those that want it. The sight of such people will then, instead of raising in us a haughty contempt or peevish indignation toward them, fill us with such bowels of compassion as when we see the miseries of a hospital.

That the follies, therefore, crimes, and ill behavior of our fellow creatures may not lessen that love and tenderness which we are to have for all mankind, we should often consider the reasons on which this duty of love is founded.

Now we are to love our neighbor, that is, all mankind, not because they are wise, holy, virtuous, or well behaved; for all mankind neither ever was, nor ever will be so; therefore, it is certain that the reason of our being obliged to love them cannot be founded in their virtue.

Again, if their virtue or goodness were the reason of our being obliged to love people, we should have no rule to proceed by because, though some people's virtues or vices are very notorious, yet generally speaking we are but very ill judges of the virtue and merit of other people.

Thirdly, we are sure that the virtue or merit of persons is not the reason of our being obliged to love them because we are commanded to pay the highest instances of love to our worst enemies; we are to love and bless and pray for those that most injuriously treat us. This therefore is demonstration that the merit of persons is not the reason on which our obligation to love them is founded.

Let us further consider what that love is which we owe to our neighbor. It is to love him as ourselves, that is, to have all those sentiments toward him which we have toward ourselves; to wish him everything that we may lawfully wish to ourselves, to be glad of every good and sorry for every evil that happens to him, and to be ready to do him all such acts of kindness as we are always ready to do to ourselves.

This love, therefore, you see, is nothing else but a love of benevolence., it requires nothing of us but such good wishes, tender affections, affections, and such acts of kindness as we show to ourselves.

This is all the love that we owe to the best of men, and we are never to want any degree of this love to the worst or most unreasonable man in the world.

Now what is the reason why we are to love every man in this manner? It is answered that our obligation to love all men in this is founded upon many reasons.

First, upon a reason of equity, for if it is just to love ourselves in this manner, it must be unjust to deny any degree of this love to others, because every man is so exactly of the same nature and in the same condition as ourselves.

If, therefore, your own crimes and follies do not lessen your obligation to seek your own good and wish well to yourself, neither do the follies and crimes of your neighbor lessen your obligation to wish and seek the good of your neighbor.

Another reason for this love is founded in the authority of God who has commanded us to love every man as ourself

Thirdly, we are obliged to this love in imitation of God's goodness, that we may be children of our Father which is in Heaven, who willeth the happiness of all His creatures and maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good.

Fourthly, our redemption by Jesus Christ calleth us to the exercise of this love, who came from Heaven and laid down His life out of love to the whole sinful world.

Fifthly, by the command of our Lord and Savior who has required us to love one another as He has loved us.

These are the great, perpetual reasons on which our obligation to love all mankind as ourselves is founded.

These reasons never vary or change, they always continue in their full force, and therefore equally oblige at all times and in regard to all persons.

God loves us, not because we are wise and good and holy, but in pity to us, because we want this happiness. He loves us in order to make us good. Our love, therefore, must take this course, not looking for or requiring the merit of our brethren but pitying their disorders and wishing them all the good that they want and are capable of receiving.

It appears now plainly from what has been said that the love which we owe to our brethren is only a love of benevolence. Secondly, that this duty of benevolence is founded upon such reasons as never vary or change, such as have no dependence upon the qualities of persons. From whence it follows that it is the same great sin to want this love to a bad man as to want it to a good man. Because he that denies any of this benevolence to a bad man offends against all the same reasons of love as he does that denies any benevolence to a good man, and consequently it is the same sin.

When, therefore, you let loose any ill-natured passion, either of hatred or contempt toward (as you suppose) an ill man, consider what you would think of another that was doing the same toward a good man and be assured that you are committing the same sin.

You will perhaps say, "How is it possible to love a good and a bad man in the same degree?"

Just as it's possible to be as just and faithful to a good man as to an evil man. Now are you in any difficulty about performing justice and faithfulness to a bad man? Are you in any doubts whether you need be so just and faithful to him as you need be to a good man? Now why is it that you are in no doubt about it? 'Tis because you know that justice and faithfulness are founded upon reasons that never vary or change, that have no dependence upon the merits of men but are founded in the nature of things in the laws of God and therefore are to be observed with an equal exactness toward good and bad men.

Now do but think thus justly of charity or love to your neighbor, that it is founded upon reasons that vary not, that have no dependence upon the merits of men, and then you will find it as possible to perform the same exact charity as the same exact justice to all men, whether good or bad.

You will perhaps further ask if you are not to have a particular esteem, veneration, and reverence for good men? It is answered, Yes. But then this high esteem and veneration is a thing very different from that love of benevolence which we owe to our neighbor.

The high esteem and veneration which you have for a man of eminent piety is no act of charity to him. It is not out of pity and compassion that you so reverence him but it is rather an act of charity to yourself that such esteem and veneration may excite you to follow his example.

You may and ought to love, like, and approve the life which the good man leads, but then this is only the loving of virtue wherever we see it. And we don't love virtue with the love of benevolence as anything that wants our good wishes, but as something that is our proper good.

The whole of the matter is this. The actions which you are to love, esteem, and admire are the actions of good and pious men, but the persons to whom you are to do all the good you can in all sorts of kindness and compassion are all persons whether good or bad.

This distinction betwixt love of benevolence and esteem or veneration is very plain and obvious. And you may perhaps still better see the plainness and necessity of it by this following instance.

No man is to have a high esteem or honor for his own accomplishments or behavior; yet every man is to love himself, that is, to wish well to himself; therefore, this distinction betwixt love and esteem is not only plain but very necessary to be observed.

Again, if you think it hardly possible to dislike the actions of unreasonable men and yet have a true love for them, consider this with relation to yourself.

It is very possible, I hope, for you not only to dislike but to detest and abhor a great many of your own past actions and to accuse yourself of great folly for them. But do you then lose any of those tender sentiments toward yourself which you used to have? Do you then cease to wish well to yourself? Is not the love of yourself as strong then as at any other time?

Now what is thus possible with relation to ourselves is in the same manner possible with relation to others. We may have the highest good wishes toward them, desiring for them every good that we desire for ourselves, and yet at the same time dislike their way of life.

To proceed: All that love which we may justly have for ourselves, we are in strict justice obliged to exercise toward all other men, and we offend against the great law of our nature and the greatest laws of God when our tempers toward others are different from those which we have toward ourselves. Now that self-love which is just and reasonable keeps us constantly tender, compassionate, and well affected toward ourselves. If therefore you don't feel these kind dispositions toward all other people, you may be assured that you are not in that state of charity which is the very life and soul of Christian piety.

You know how it hurts you to be made the jest and ridicule Of other people; how it grieves you to be robbed of your reputation and deprived of the favorable opinion of your neighbors. If therefore you expose others to scorn and contempt in any degree, if it pleases you to see or hear of their frailties and infirmities, or if you are only loath to conceal their faults, you are so far from loving such people as yourself that you may be justly supposed to have as much hatred for them as you have love for yourself. For such tempers are as truly the proper fruits of hatred as the contrary tempers are the proper fruits of love.

And as it is a certain sign that you love yourself because you are tender of everything that concerns you, so it is as certain a sign that you hate your neighbor when you are pleased with anything that hurts him.

But now, if the want of a true and exact charity be so great a want that, as St. Paul saith, it renders our greatest virtues but empty sounds and tinkling cymbals, how highly does it concern us to study every art and practice every method of raising our souls to this state of charity? It is for this reason that you are here desired not to let this hour of prayer pass without a full and solemn supplication to God for all the instances of a universal love and benevolence to all mankind.

Such daily constant devotion being the only likely means of preserving you in such a state of love as is necessary to prove you to be a true follower of Jesus Christ.

Chapter XXI

Of the necessity and benefit of intercession, considered as an exercise of universal love. How all orders of men are to pray and intercede with God for one another. How naturally such intercession amends and reforms the hearts of those that use it.

That intercession is a great and necessary part of Christian devotion is very evident from scripture.

The first followers of Christ seem to support all their love and to maintain all their intercourse and correspondence by mutual prayers forgone another.

St. Paul, whether he writes to churches or particular persons, shows his intercession to be perpetual for them that they are the constant subject of his prayers.

Thus to the Philippians, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy" (Phil. 13, 4). Here we see not only a continual intercession but performed with so much gladness as shows that it was an exercise of love in which he highly rejoiced.

His devotion had also the same care for particular persons as appears by the following passage. "I thank my God, whom I serve from my forefathers, with a pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day" (2 Tim. 1: 3). How holy an acquaintance and friendship was this, how worthy of persons that were raised above the world and related to one another as new members of a Kingdom of Heaven!

Apostles and great Saints did not only thus benefit and bless particular churches and private persons, but they themselves also received graces from God by the prayers of others. Thus saith St. Paul to the Corinthians, "You also helping together by prayer for us,that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons? thanks may be given by many on our behalf" (2 Cor. 1: 11).

This was the ancient friendship of Christians, uniting and cementing their hearts, not by worldly considerations or human passions, but by the mutual communication of spiritual blessings, by prayers and thanksgivings to God for one another.

It was this holy intercession that raised Christians to such a state of mutual love as far exceeded all that had been praised and admired in human friendship. And when the same spirit of intercession is again in the world, when Christianity has the same power over the hearts of people that it then had, this holy friendship will be again in fashion and Christians will be again the wonder of the world for that exceeding love which they bear to one another.

For a frequent intercession with God, earnestly beseeching him to forgive the sins of all mankind, to bless them with his providence, enlighten them with his spirit, and bring them to everlasting happiness, is the divinest exercise that the heart of man can be engaged in.

Be daily therefore on your knees in a solemn, deliberate performance of this devotion, praying for others in such forms, with such length, importunity, and earnestness as you use for yourself; and you will find all little, ill-natured passions die away, your heart grow great and generous, delighting in the common happiness of others as you used only to delight in your own.

For he daily prays to God that all men may be happy in Heaven, takes the likeliest way to make him wish for and delight in their happiness on earth. And it is hardly possible for you to beseech and entreat God to make anyone happy in the highest enjoyments of his glory to all eternity, and yet be troubled to see him enjoy the much smaller gifts of God in this short and low state of human life.

For how strange and unnatural would it be to pray to God to grant health and a longer life to a sick man and at the same time to envy him the poor pleasure of agreeable medicines?

Yet this would be no more strange or unnatural than to pray to God that your neighbor may enjoy the highest degrees of His mercy and favor, and yet at the same time envy him the little credit and figure he hath amongst his fellow creatures.

When, therefore, you have once habituated your heart to a us performance of this holy intercession you have done a great deal to render it incapable of spite and envy and to make it naturally delight in the happiness of all mankind.

This is the natural effect of a general intercession for all mankind. But the greatest benefits of it are then received when it descends to such particular instances as our state and condition in life more particularly require of us.

Though we are to treat all mankind as neighbors and brethren as any occasion offers, yet as we can only live in the actual society of a few and are by our state and condition more particularly related to some than others, so when our intercession is made an exercise of love and care for those amongst whom our lot is fallen, or who belong to us in a nearer relation, it then becomes the greatest benefit to ourselves and produces its best effects in our own hearts.

If therefore you should always change and alter your intercessions according as the needs and necessities of your neighbors or acquaintance seem to require, beseeching God to deliver them from such or such particular evils, or to grant them this or that particular gift or blessing, such intercessions, besides the great charity of them, would have a mighty effect upon your own heart as disposing you to every other good office and to the exercise of every other virtue toward such persons as have so often a place in your prayers.

This would make it pleasant to you to be courteous, civil, and condescending to all about you, and make you unable to say or do a rude or hard thing to those for whom you had used yourself to be so kind and compassionate in your prayers.

For there is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him; and when you can once do this sincerely for any man, you have fitted your soul for the performance of everything that is kind and civil toward him. This will fill your heart with a generosity and tenderness that will give you a better and sweeter behavior than anything that is called fine breeding and good manners.

By considering yourself as an advocate with God for your neighbors and acquaintances, you would never find it hard to be at peace with them yourself. It would be easy to you to bear with and forgive those for whom you particularly implored the divine mercy and forgiveness.

Such prayers as these amongst neighbors and acquaintances would unite them to one another in the strongest bonds of love and tenderness. It would exalt and ennoble their souls and teach them to consider one another in a higher state as members of a spiritual society that are created for the enjoyment of the common blessings of God and fellow heirs of the same future glory.

And by being thus desirous that everyone should have their full share of the favors of God, they would not only be content but glad to see one another happy in the little enjoyments of this transitory life.

These would be the natural effects of such an intercession amongst people of the same town or neighborhood, or that were acquainted with one another's state and condition.

Ouranius is a holy priest, full of the spirit of the gospel, watching, laboring and praying for a poor country village. Every soul in it is as dear to him as himself, and he loves them all as he loves himself because he prays for them all as often as he prays for himself.

If his whole life is one continual exercise of great zeal and labor, hardly ever satisfied with any degrees of care and watchfulness, 'tis because he has learned the great value of souls by so often appearing before God as an intercessor for them.

He never thinks he can love or do enough for his flock because he never considers them in any other view than as so many persons that, by receiving the gifts and graces of God, are to become his hope, his joy, and his crown of rejoicing.

He goes about his parish and visits everybody in it, but visits in the same spirit of piety that he preaches to them. He visits them to encourage their virtues, to assist them with his advice and counsel, to discover their manner of life and to know the state of their souls that he may intercede with God for them according to their particular necessities.

When Ouranius first entered into holy orders he had a haughtiness in his temper, a great contempt and disregard for all foolish and unreasonable people, but he has prayed away this spirit and has now the greatest tenderness for the most obstinate sinners, because he is always hoping that God will sooner or later hear those prayers that he makes for their repentance.

The rudeness, ill nature, or perverse behavior of any of his flock used at first to betray him into impatience, but it now raises no other Passion in him than a desire of being upon his knees in prayer to God for them. Thus have his prayers for others altered and amended the state of his own heart.

It would strangely delight you to see with what spirit he converses, with what tenderness he reproves, with what affection he exhorts, and with what vigor he preaches, and 'tis all owing to this, because he reproves, exhorts, and preaches to those for whom he first prays to God.

This devotion softens his heart, enlightens his mind, sweetens his temper, and makes everything that comes from him instructive, amiable, and affecting.

At his first coming to his little village, it was as disagreeable to him as a prison and every day seemed too tedious to be endured in so retired a place. He thought his parish was too full of poor and mean people that were none of them fit for the conversation of a gentleman.

This put him upon a close application to his studies. He kept much at home, writ notes upon Homer and Plautus, and sometimes thought it hard to be called to pray by any poor body when he was just in the midst of one of Homer's battles.

This was his polite, or I may rather say, poor, ignorant turn of mind before devotion had got the government of his heart.

But now his days are so far from being tedious or his parish too great a retirement that he now only wants more time to do that variety of good which his soul thirsts after. The solitude of his little parish is become matter of great comfort to him because he hopes that God has placed him and his flock there to make it their way to Heaven.

He can now not only converse with, but gladly attend and wait upon the poorest kind of people. He is now daily watching over the weak and infirm, humbling himself to perverse, rude, ignorant people wherever he can find them, and is so far from desiring to be considered as a gentleman that he desires to be used as the servant of all; and in the spirit of his Lord and Master girds himself and is glad to kneel down and wash any of their feet.

He now thinks the poorest creature in his parish good enough and great enough to deserve the humblest attendances, the kindest friendships, the tenderest offices he can possibly show them.

He is so far now from wanting agreeable company that he thinks there is no better conversation in the world than to be talking with poor and mean people about the Kingdom of Heaven.

All these noble thoughts and divine sentiments are the effects Of his great devotion; he presents everyone so often before God in his prayers that he never thinks he can esteem, reverence, or serve those enough for whom he implores so many mercies from God.

Ouranius is mightily affected with this passage of holy scripture, "the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" James 5:16).

This makes him practice all the arts of holy living and aspire after every instance of piety and righteousness that his prayers for his flock may have their full force and avail much with God.

For this reason he has sold a small estate that he had and has erected a charitable retirement for ancient, poor people to live in prayer and piety, that his prayers being assisted by such good works may pierce the clouds and bring down blessings upon those souls committed to his care.

Ouranius reads how God himself said unto Abimelech concerning Abraham,

"He is a prophet; he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live" (Gen. 20:7).

And again, how he said of job, "And my servant job shall pray for you; for him will I accept" (job 42:8).

From these passages Ouranius justly concludes that the prayers of men eminent for holiness of life have an extraordinary power with God; that he grants to other people such pardons, reliefs, and blessings through their prayers as would not be granted to men of less piety and perfection. This makes Ouranius exceeding studious of Christian perfection, searching after every grace and holy temper, purifying his heart all manner of ways, fearful of every error and defect in his life lest his prayers for his flock should be less availing with God through his own defects in holiness.

This makes him careful of every temper of his heart, give alms of all that he hath, watch and fast, and mortify, and live according to the strictest rules of temperance, meekness, and humility that he 'nay be in some degree like an Abraham or a job in his parish and make such prayers for them as God will hear and accept.

These are the happy effects which a devout intercession hath produced in the life of Ouranius.

And if other people in their several stations were to imitate this example in such a manner as suited their particular state of life, they Would certainly find the same happy effects from it.

If masters, for instance, were thus to remember their servants in their prayers, beseeching God to bless them and suiting their petitions to the particular wants and necessities of their servants, letting no day pass without a full performance of this part of devotion, the benefit would be as great to themselves as to their servants.

No way so likely as this to inspire them with a true sense of that power which they have in their hands to make them delight in doing good and becoming exemplary in all the parts of a wise and good master.

The presenting their servants so often before God, as equally related to God and entitled to the same expectations of Heaven as themselves, would naturally incline them to treat them, not only with such humanity as became fellow creatures, but with such tenderness, care, and generosity as became fellow heirs of the same glory. This devotion would make masters inclined to everything that was good toward their servants, be watchful of their behavior and as ready to require of them an exact observance of the duties of Christianity as of the duties of their service.

This would teach them to consider their servants as God's servants, to desire their perfection, to do nothing before them that might corrupt their minds, to impose no business upon them that should lessen their sense of religion or hinder them from their full share of devotion, both public and private. This praying for them would make them as glad to see their servants eminent in piety as themselves and contrive that they should have all the opportunities and encouragements, both to know and perform all the duties of the Christian life.

How natural would it be for such a master to perform every part of family devotion, to have constant prayers, to excuse no one's absence from them, to have the scriptures and books of piety often read amongst his servants, to take all opportunities of instructing them, of raising their minds to God and teaching them to do all their business as a service to God and upon the hopes and expectations of another life?

How natural would it be for such a one to pity their weakness and ignorance, to bear with the dullness of their understandings or the perverseness of their tempers, to reprove them with tenderness, exhort them with affection, as hoping that God would hear his prayers for them?

How impossible would it be for a master that thus interceded with God for his servants to use any unkind threatenings toward them, to damn and curse them as dogs and scoundrels and treat them only as the dregs of the creation.

This devotion would give them another spirit and make them consider how to make proper returns of care, kindness, and protection to those who had spent their strength and time in service and attendance upon them.

Now if gentlemen think it too low an employment for their state and dignity to exercise such a devotion as this for their servants, let them consider how far they are from the Spirit of Christ who made Himself not only an intercessor but a sacrifice for the whole race of sinful mankind.

Let them consider how miserable their greatness would be if the Son of God should think it as much below Him to pray for them as they do to pray for their fellow creatures.

Let them consider how far they are from that spirit which prays for its most unjust enemies if they have not kindness enough to pray for those by whose labors and service they live in ease themselves.

Again, if parents should thus make themselves advocates and intercessors with God for their children, constantly applying to Heaven in behalf of them, nothing would be more likely, not only to bless their children, but also to form and dispose their own minds to the performance of everything that was excellent and praiseworthy.

I don't suppose but that the generality of parents remember their children in their prayers and call upon God to bless them. But the thing here intended is not a general remembrance of them but a regular method of recommending all their particular needs and necessities unto God, and of praying for every such particular grace and virtue for them as their state and condition of life shall seem to require.

The state of parents is a holy state, in some degree like that of the priesthood, and calls upon them to bless their children with their Prayers and sacrifices to God. Thus it was that holy Job watched over and blessed his children, he

"sanctified them, he rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings, according to the number of them all" (Job 1:5).

If parents, therefore, considering themselves in this light, should be daily calling upon God in a solemn, deliberate manner, altering and extending their intercessions as the state and growth of their children required, such devotion would have a mighty influence upon the rest of their lives; it would make them very circumspect in the government of themselves, prudent and careful of everything they said or did lest their example should hinder that which they so constantly desired in their prayers.

If a father was daily making particular prayers to God that he would please to inspire his children with true piety, great humility, and strict temperance, what could be more likely to make the father himself become exemplary in these virtues? How naturally would he grow ashamed of wanting such virtues as he thought necessary for his children? So that his prayers for their piety would be a certain means of exalting his own to its greatest height.

If a father thus considered himself as an intercessor with God for his children to bless them with his prayers, what more likely means to make him aspire after every degree of holiness that he might thereby be fitter to obtain blessings from heaven for them? How would such thoughts make him avoid everything that was sinful and displeasing to God, lest when he prayed for his children God should reject his prayers?

How tenderly, how religiously would such a father converse with his children whom he considered as his little spiritual flock, whose virtues he was to form by his authority, nourish by his counsel, and prosper by his prayers to God for them?

How fearful would he be of all greedy and unjust ways of raising their fortune, of bringing them up in pride and indulgence or of making them too fond of the world lest he should thereby render them incapable of those graces which he was so often beseeching God to grant them?

These being the plain, natural, happy effects of this intercession all parents, I hope, who have the real welfare of their children at heart, who desire to be their true friends and benefactors and to live amongst them in the spirit of wisdom and piety, will not neglect so great a means both of raising their own virtue and doing an eternal good to those who are so near and dear to them by the strongest ties of nature.

Lastly, if all people, when they feel the first approaches Of resentment, envy, or contempt toward others, or if in all little disagreements and misunderstandings whatever, they should, instead of indulging their minds with little low reflections, have recourse at such times to a more particular and extraordinary intercession with God for such persons as had raised their envy, resentment, or discontent, this would be a certain way to prevent the growth of all uncharitable tempers.

If you was also to form your prayer or intercession at that time to the greatest degree of contrariety to that temper which you was then in, it would be an excellent means of raising your heart to the greatest state of perfection.

As for instance, when at any time you find in your heart motions of envy toward any person, whether on account of his riches, power, reputation, learning, or advancement, if you should immediately betake yourself at that time to your prayers and pray to God to bless and prosper him in that very thing which raised your envy, if you should express and repeat your petitions in the strongest terms, beseeching God to grant him all the happiness from the enjoyment of it that can possibly be received, you would soon find it to be the best antidote in the world to expel the venom of that poisonous passion.

This would be such a triumph over yourself, would so humble and reduce your heart into obedience and order, that the Devil would even be afraid of tempting you again in the same manner when he saw the temptation turned into so great a means of amending and reforming the state of your heart.

Again, if in any little difference or misunderstandings that you happened to have at any time with a relation, a neighbor, or anyone else, you should then pray for them in a more extraordinary manner than you ever did before, beseeching God to give them every grace and blessing and happiness you can think of, you would have taken the speediest method that can be of reconciling all differences and clearing up all misunderstandings. You would then think nothing too great to be forgiven, stay for no condescensions, need no mediation of a third person, but be glad to testify your love and good will to him who had so high a place in your secret prayers.

This would be the mighty power of such Christian devotion; it would remove all peevish passions, soften your heart into the most tender condescensions, and be the best arbitrator of all differences that happened betwixt you and any of your acquaintance.

The greatest resentments amongst friends and neighbors most often arise from poor punctilios and little mistakes in conduct. A certain sign that their friendship is merely human, not founded upon religious considerations or supported by such a course of mutual prayer for one another as the first Christians used.

For such devotion must necessarily either destroy such tempers or be itself destroyed by them.

You cannot possibly have any ill temper or show any unkind behavior to a man for whose welfare you are so much concerned as to be his advocate with God in private.

Hence we may also learn the odious nature and exceeding guilt of all spite, hatred, contempt, and angry passions; they are not to be considered as defects in good nature and sweetness of temper, not as failings in civility of manners or good breeding, but as such base tempers as are entirely inconsistent with the charity of intercession.

You think it a small matter to be peevish or ill natured to such or such a man, but you should consider whether it be a small matter to do that which you could not do if you had but so much charity as to be able to recommend him to God in your prayers.

You think it a small matter to ridicule one man and despise another, but you should consider whether it be a small matter to want that charity toward these people which Christians arc not allowed to want toward their most inveterate enemies.

For be but as charitable to these men, do but bless and pray for them as you are obliged to bless and pray for your enemies, and then you will find that you have charity enough to make it impossible for you to treat them with any degree of scorn or contempt.

For you cannot possibly despise and ridicule that man whom your private prayers recommend to the love and favor of God.

When you despise and ridicule a man, it is with no other end but to make him ridiculous and contemptible in the eyes of other men, and in order to prevent their esteem of him. How, therefore, can it be possible for you sincerely to beseech God to bless that man with the honor of his love and favor whom you desire men to treat as worthy of their contempt?

Could you out of love to a neighbor desire your prince to honor him with every mark of his esteem and favor, and yet at the same time expose him to the scorn and derision of your own servants?

Yet this is as possible as to expose that man to the scorn and contempt of your fellow creatures favor of God in your secret prayers.

From these considerations we may plainly discover the reasonableness and justice of this doctrine of the gospel, "Whosoever shall say unto his brother, Racha, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire" (Matt. 5:22).

We are not, I suppose, to believe that every hasty word or unreasonable expression that slips from us by chance or surprise and is contrary to our intention and tempers is the great sin here signified.

But he that says "Racha" or "Thou fool" must chiefly mean him that allows himself in deliberate, designed acts of scorn and contempt toward his brother, and in that temper speaks to him and of him in reproachful language.

Now since it appears that these tempers are at the bottom the most rank uncharitableness, since no one can be guilty of them but because he has not charity enough to pray to God for his brother, it cannot he thought hard or rigorous justice that such tempers should endanger the salvation of Christians. For who would think it hard that a Christian cannot obtain the favor of God for himself unless he reverence and esteem his brother Christian as one that bears the image of God, as one for whom Christ died, as a member of Christ's body, as a member of that holy society on earth which is in union with that triumphant church in Heaven?

Yet all these considerations must be forgot, all these glorious privileges disregarded, before a man can treat him that has them as an object of scorn and contempt.

So that to scorn or despise a brother or, as our blessed Lord says, to call him

"Racha," or "fool," must be looked upon as amongst the most odious, unjust, and guilty tempers that can be supported in the heart of a Christian and justly excluding him from all his hopes in the salvation of Jesus Christ.

For to despise one for whom Christ died is to be as contrary to Christ as he that despises anything that Christ has said or done.

If a Christian that had lived with the holy Virgin Mary should, after the death of our Lord have taken any occasion to treat her with contempt, you would certainly say that he had lost his piety toward our blessed Lord. For a true reverence for Christ must have forced whom you recommend to the him to treat her with respect, who was so nearly related to him.

I dare appeal to any man's mind whether it does not tell him that this relation of the Virgin Mary to our blessed Lord must have obliged all those that lived and conversed with her to treat her with great respect and esteem. Might not a man have justly dreaded the vengeance of God upon him for any scorn or contempt that he had shown to her?

Now if this be plain and obvious reasoning, if a contempt offered to the Virgin Mary must have been interpreted a contempt of Christ because of her near relation to him, then let the same reasoning show you the great impiety of despising any brother.

You cannot despise a brother without despising him that stands in a high relation to God, to his Son Jesus Christ, and to the Holy Trinity.

You would certainly think it a mighty impiety to treat a writing with great contempt that had been written by the finger of God, and can you think it a less impiety to condemn and vilify a brother who is not only the workmanship but the image of God?

You would justly think it great profaneness to condemn and trample upon an altar because it was appropriated to holy uses and had had the body of Christ so often placed upon it, and can you suppose it to be less profaneness to scorn and trample upon a brother who so belongs to God that his very body is to be considered as the "Temple of the Holy Ghost" (1 Cor. 6:15)?

Had you despised and ill treated the Virgin Mary, you had been chargeable with the impiety of despising her of whom Christ was born. And if you scorn and despise a brother you are chargeable with the impiety of despising him for whom Christ laid down his life.

And now if this scornful temper is founded upon a disregard of all these relations which every Christian bears to God and Christ and the Holy Trinity, can you wonder or think it hard that a Christian who thus allows himself to despise a brother should be in danger of hell fire?

Secondly, it must here be observed that though in these words, "Whosoever shall say, thou fool," etc., the great sin there condemned is an allowed temper of despising a brother, yet we are also to believe that all hasty expressions and words of contempt, though spoken by surprise or accident, are by this text condemned as great sins and notorious breaches of Christian charity.

They proceed from great want of Christian love and meekness, and call for great repentance. They are only little sins when compared with habits and settled tempers of treating a brother despiteful y, and fall as directly under the condemnation of this text as the grossest habits of uncharitableness.

And the reason why we are always to apprehend great guilt and call ourselves to a strict repentance for these hasty expressions of anger and contempt is this: because they seldom are what they seem to be, that is, mere starts of temper that were occasioned purely by surprise or accident, but are much more our own proper acts than we generally imagine.

A man says a great many bitter things. He presently forgives himself because he supposes it was only the suddenness of the occasion or something accidental that carried him so far beyond himself.

But he should consider that perhaps the accident or surprise was not the occasion of his angry temper showing itself.

Now as this is, generally speaking, the case, as all haughty, angry language generally proceeds from some secret habits of pride in the heart, so people that are subject to it, though only now and then as accidents happen, have great reason to repent of more than their present behavior to charge themselves with greater guilt than accidental passion and to bring themselves to such penance and mortification as is proper to destroy habits of a haughty spirit.

And this may be the reason why the text looks no further than the outward language, why it only says "Whosoever shall say, Thou fool," because few can proceed so far as to the accidental use of haughty, disdainful language but they whose hearts are more or less Possessed with habits and settled tempers of pride and haughtiness.

But to return. Intercession is not only the best arbitrator of all differences, the best promoter of true friendship, the best cure and preservative against all unkind tempers, all angry and haughty passions, but is also of great use to discover to us the true state of our own hearts.

There are many tempers which we think lawful and innocent which we never suspect of any harm, which, if they were to be tried by this devotion, would soon show us how we have deceived ourselves.

Susurrus is a pious, temperate, good man, remarkable for abundance of excellent qualities. No one more constant at the service of the church, or whose heart is more affected with it. His charity is so great that he almost starves himself to be able to give greater alms to the poor.

Yet Susurrus had a prodigious failing along with these great virtues.

He had a mighty inclination to hear and discover all the defects and infirmities of all about him. You was welcome to tell him anything of anybody, provided that you did not do it in the style of an enemy. He never disliked an evil speaker but when his language was rough and passionate. If you would but whisper anything gently, though it was ever so bad in itself, Susurrus was ready to receive it.

When he visits, you generally hear him relating how sorry he is for the defects and failings of such a neighbor. He is always letting you know how tender he is of the reputation of his neighbor, how loath to say that which he is forced to say, and how gladly he would conceal it if it could be concealed.

Susurrus had such a tender, compassionate manner of relating things the most prejudicial to his neighbor that he even seemed, both to himself and others, to be exercising a Christian charity at the same time that he was indulging a whispering, evil-speaking temper.

Susurrus once whispered to a particular friend in great secrecy something too bad to be spoke of publicly. He ended with saying how glad he was that it had not yet took wind and that he had some hopes it might not be true, though the suspicions were very strong. His friend made him this reply:

You say, Susurrus, that you are glad it has not yet taken wind, and that you have some hopes it may not prove true. Go home therefore to your closet and pray to God for this man in such a manner, and with such earnestness, as you would pray for yourself on the like occasion.

Beseech God to interpose in his favor to save him from false accusers and bring all those to shame who by uncharitable whispers and secret stories wound him, like those that stab in the dark. And when you have made this prayer then you may, if you please, go tell the same secret to some other friend that you have told to me.

Susurrus was exceedingly affected with this rebuke and felt the force of it upon his conscience in as lively a manner as if he had seen the books opened at the day of judgment.

All other arguments might have been resisted, but it was impossible for Susurrus either to reject or to follow this advice without being equally selfcondemned in the highest degree.

From that time to this he has constantly used himself to this method of intercession, and his heart is so entirely changed by it that he can now no more privately whisper anything to the prejudice of another than he can openly pray to God to do people hurt.

Whisperings and evil speakings now hurt his ears like oaths and curses, and he has appointed one day in the week to be a day of penance as long as he lives to humble himself before God in the sorrowful confession of his former guilt.

It may well be wondered how a man of so much piety as Susurrus could be so long deceived in himself as to live in such a state of scandal and evil speaking without suspecting himself to be guilty of it. But it was the tenderness and seeming compassion with which he heard and related everything that deceived both himself and others.

This was a falseness of heart which was only to be fully discovered by the true charity of intercession.

And if people of virtue who think as little harm of themselves as Susurrus did were often to try their spirit by such an intercession they would often find themselves to be such as they least of all suspected.

I have laid before you the many and great advantages of intercession. You have seen what a divine friendship it must needs beget amongst Christians, how dear it would render all relations and neighbors to one another, how it tends to make clergymen, masters. and parents exemplary and perfect in all the duties of their station, how certainly it destroys all envy, spite, and illnatured passions, how speedily it reconciles all differences and with what a piercing light it discovers to a man the true state of his heart.

These considerations will, I hope, persuade you to make such intercession as is proper for your state, the constant, chief matter of Your devotion at this hour of prayer.

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