"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God and every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is love." For this haughty pretence of superior knowledge of God, the apostle here rebuked them by declaring that it was a vain boast, whilst they cherished a contempt of, or entertained hatred and ill-will to, other christians. The subject leads us to treat of the necessary connexion between the love of God and of our fellow-creatures: and in doing this, I shall not enter into any abstract reasoning upon it, but confine myself chiefly to those grounds of it laid forth by our apostle in this part of his epistle, and in the words before us. I. The apostle asserts that it is owing to a total ignorance of God, if we pretend to love him, and do not, at the same time, love and show kindness to our brethren of mankind. And he declares, in the most express terms, (ver. 8.) "He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is love." And it will be proper and edifying to us to consider the character of of the great God here held forth to us, and then the duty of loving our fellow-creatures, which he deduces and infers from it. "God is love," says he; love and goodness in the abstract as it were, without any defect or mixture of real evil. From this principle of love, all things took their rise. It was with a view to the happiness of the things he made, that their kind Creator gave them a being. For this, all his designs were planned: every thing tends to it, and will finally terminate in it. So far the apostle's declaration concerning the great parent of our being, that "God is love," may seem justly to lead us to conclude. But will not some say, that this interpretation of it is all refined speculation? for, alas! man still is miserable, and evil abounds in this system of ours. This might be a just objection to God's being all love and goodness, if perfect goodness in God required that his creatures should be made complete in virtue, and put in possession of unmixed happiness all at once. But if it be consonant and agreeable to it, as it truly is, that we should arrive at these by degrees, and in the use of our own endeavours, and, and, perhaps, in no other way could we become fixed in virtue, and truly and permanently happy; all objection vanishes, and the world we live in, notwithstanding the vice, ignorance, imperfection, and misery that are seen in it, is worthy of infinite goodness. And though there is misery abroad in the world, all equal judges will confess that happiness greatly prevails: our hours of enjoyment far exceed those of suffering; and the heaviest pains we endure are owing to general laws, which it would be much worse for us to have interrupted, and would destroy our happiness more in proportion. Natural evil also, pain, is generally the parent of greater pleasure, and in its extremest degree tends to produce the greatest good: to recall men from the ways of sin to sobriety and virtue. And notwithstanding that some are more disadvantageously placed for virtue and happiness at present than others, this is no argument of their being less loved and more neglected by their Maker; who can make it up to them, and who has great and unknown ends of good to serve by such various and unequal distributions. Indeed, to clear up entirely these these doubts and perplexities, we must wait our great change, when mortality shall be swallowed up of life. And this, though reason, nature's light, could but dimly teach, our apostle taught, and doubtless had in view those endless scenes in futurity which will then be opened, when he declared, "God is love:" that this present life is so far from being the whole of our existence, that it is but, as it were, the first moment of it; and that we are intended for an everlasting happiness! The mind is overwhelmed with the thought, that such should be the design of divine goodness, for such creatures as we are. More astonishing still is it, that many are so little moved or influenced by it, and can squander away so lavishly and unprofitably that short uncertain moment of the present life, given to prepare them for it by habits of piety and virtue. Such is that love of God which the apostle here holds forth for a pattern to us; and the inference he would have us draw from it with respect to the argument, and the mention made of it, is, that, when God is so kind and loving to all, it must be an impudent pretence for any any to say they love and regard that most benevolent being, while they encourage themselves in the dislike and hatred of any of his creatures. For, if they were sincere in their professions, that would assuredly lead them to endeavour to please, and to resemble the object of their worship and highest affections; to cherish and befriend those whom he so dearly loves and befriends. Would such persons put the thoughts and dispositions of their hearts into a prayer, (and we ought never to entertain any settled purpose which we cannot beg of God to bless,) it might sooner lead them to see the falsehood of their boasts of having any love to God, and the sad deformity of their minds. For, how shocking would it sound to hear a man on his bended knees utter; "Lord, I hate these men, and am resolved to do so always; assist, and carry me forward in this my And yet this must be the desire of every one who bears hatred to any one of mankind on such accounts. ill-will towards them." And II. The connexion betwixt the love of God, and of our brethren of mankind, is further seen |