Be you faithful to his interests, and he will be careful of yours. It would be arrogance in me to counsel so wise a body in matters political. I shall make it my business to beg help and counsel from God for you ;—and shut up this first duty with minding you of that famous example of the two statesmen in Plutarch, who, being jointly sent abroad upon public service, laid down all their private differences at the city gate; and went, with united resolutions, to prosecute the ministry entrusted with them.

Now followeth the second duty, τὴν αὐτὴν ἀγάπην ἔχοντες, "Having the same love."

1. The same in object, to love the same things: for the love of different objects, doth naturally divide the minds of men into divers studies and judgements.

2. The same in truth, love unfeigned; (1 Pet. i. 22) without dissimulation. (Rom. xii. 9) Of all affections, love is the most naked and open-hearted.

3. The same in measure, to love ad ultimum virium:' for love is strong as fire. "Amor meus pondus meum :" it is the weight, the wing of the soul, which carries it swiftly to its proper object.

Now this duty of love is very naturally subjoined unto that of minding the same things; for it serves both to limit it, and to strengthen it, and to excite it. "

1. It limits it. For Turks consent in the same impure religion; devils are of one mind in the same cursed designs. But the object of our consent must be 'Res per se diligibilis,' that which is in itself amiable and lovely. Such is Christ to believers, precious, their hope, their desire, their love; as Ignatius called him, "the chiefest of ten thousand, altogether lovely." Such the word of Christ, unsearchable riches. Such the church of Christ; beautiful as Tirzah, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with banners. (Cant. vi. 4, 10) Such are country, law, liberty, property, dignity, safety, to true patriots: they look on these, as most desirable things. b

• Περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν οὐ τὰ αὐτὰ, φίλοι τε ὄντες, καὶ μὴ γινώσκομεν. Greg. Νaz. Orat. 14. • Μηδείς οἰέσθω με λέγειν, ὅτι πᾶσαν εἰρήνην ἀγαπητέον· οἶδα γὰρ ὥσπερ στάσιν τινὰ βελτίστην, οὕτω καὶ βλαβερωτάτην ομόνοιαν, &c. Greg. Naz. Orat. 12. 1 Pet. ii. 7. Col. i. 27. Hag. ii. 7. Cant. v. 10, 16. Ephes. iii. 8.

2. It strengtheneth our unity. For though things may be put close together, and joined one to another, yet if there be not a bond to fasten them, they will easily fall asunder. And this bond is love: so the apostle calleth it, Col. iii. 14. It is as the mortar, which fasteneth the stones of the building to one another. Apostasy from the truth proceedeth from want of love unto it; as the apostle saith of such, that "they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” (2 Thess. ii. 10) For when God himself doth inwardly teach by his spirit those who are called according unto purpose, he doth it with ineffable sweetness: "Ita ut non ostendat tantummodo veritatem, verum etiam impertiat caritatem."

3. It exciteth and acteth it. Love is a working and painful grace; laborious to remove difficulties; victorious to conquer them; of a healing nature to close up breaches; of a uniting nature, to endear the hearts of men unto one another.

d

And here is added the basis and foundation of this love; and that is σuuluxía, to have the same soul, to be animated by the same spirit of Christ; as it is said of believers, that they were" of one heart, and of one soul." (Acts iv. 32) This the apostle calls, "Christ living in us:" (Gal. ii. 20) for, "by one spirit, we are all baptized into one body." (1 Cor. xii. 13) This is the ground of that love which is in believers one to another; (the heathen took notice of it, "Vide ut se diligunt Christiani") because they are all members of that body, which is actuated by the same common spirit; so that they weep together, and rejoice together, and have the same care one of another. As some philosophers have affirmed a universal intellect; and a general soul which actuateth the whole frame of nature, Totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet;' so, in the universal church, it is most certain, that the head in heaven, and the members on earth, are all animated and enlivened by the same spirit. (Ephes. iv. 16)

You see the great duties of the text, unanimity and love. I shall but name the manner of the apostle's pressing them;

Aug. de Grat. Christi. 1. 1. cap. 13.

· Γίνεται ἀμφότερα ἓν εἰς ἕνα Χριστὸν, ὑπὸ τοῦ αὐτοῦ συναρμολογούμενα καὶ συντιθέμενα πνεύματος. Greg.

Naz. Orat. 26.

and that it is marvellous, earnest, and pathetical. I told you, it had a threefold efficacy.

1. By way of prevalent insinuation, and most rhetorical obtestation. As if he should have said, "O ye Philippians, I your apostle, your father that begat you unto Christ, who am willing to abide in the flesh, to continue in bonds, for your furtherance and joy, that your rejoicing may abound; I adjure you by the choicest of all your endearments; if you have ever had any sense of the consolations of Christ; if you have ever felt sweetness in his love to you, or in yours to him; if you have ever been ravished with the communion of saints, and with the glorious joys of the spirit of grace; if you have any mercy and bowels for a poor prisoner in bonds, who could with joy be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith; if you would minister any joy to your father in Christ, to revive and comfort him in the midst of his afflictions;-this, this is the way to express it all, by your being "like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." He might, by his apostolical authority, have commanded and charged them; but he rather beseecheth and obtesteth them. The duty is a duty of love; and therefore he useth no expedients but those of love and sweetness, to move them unto it. As he said unto Philemon, "I might enjoin thee; yet for love's sake, I rather beseech thee; being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I beseech thee;" (Phil. viii. 9, 10) so to the Romans, Chap. xvi. 17. So to the Corinthians, in the present case, "I beseech you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Cor. i. 10. The apostle doth, as it were, melt his heart into theirs, that theirs may be soldered and united together. O the tenderness, and gentleness, and meekness of soul, which should be in spiritual pastors towards their people; to win them, and to prevail with them unto the love of peace and truth! Mutato nomine,' you may look on all this as spoken unto you.

2. By way of rational argumentation. He takes principles, which their own hearts could not choose but grant, having tasted the truth of them; and from them he infers the duty.

1. Εἴ τις παράκλησις ἐν Χριστῷ. If any exhortation: so Ambrose and others render it. "If you have any regard to the

advice and counsel of Christ, he commands you, as you would be esteemed his disciples, to love one another: and he prays for you, that you may be one. (John xiii. 35. xvii. 21)

If any consolation."] O where have we any consolation, but in and by Christ? He is called the Consolation of Israel,' Luke ii. 25. And wherein is this consolation in Christ? Surely in this, that he is our great peace-maker. I. He hath made peace and accord between God and us. A sad thing it is for a weak and sinful creature, to be exposed to the wrath and displeasure of a righteous God, who is a consuming fire, and into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall. And therefore it must needs be an abundant comfort, to be by Christ reconciled unto his favour, and adopted into his family. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath shewed unto us, that we should be called the sons of God!" -2. He hath made peace "between us and ourselves." A sad thing it is for a man, who can never be out of his own company, to be (as the prophet Jeremiah said unto Pashar) 'a terror to himself:'--and therefore it must needs be a great comfort to have the conscience so calmed, the love of Christ so shed abroad into the heart, and the joys of salvation and peace of God so fill the soul with sweetness and spiritual pleasures, as that it can, with unspeakable delight, retire into itself, and rejoice in no company more, than in the company of God and itself.-3. He hath made peace between man and man.' It is a sad thing for men to be like thorns and briers one unto another, hateful and haters of one another, as naturally we are. (Tit. iii. 3, 4) And therefore it must needs be a great comfort to have this enmity removed, or at least restrained: for when a man's ways please the Lord, his very enemies are at peace with him. covenant for them, with men and beasts. principal branch of the consolation of Christ, in reconciling our hearts to God, and to one another. Therefore saith the apostle, "Be alike-minded; have the same love," or else you deprive yourselves of a very great part of the consolation of Christ. How can you expect comforts from him, when you minister discomforts unto one another?

He maketh a Herein is one

If any comfort of love."] If you ever received comfort by my love to you; if desire to return any comfort back by your love to me; if you

you

have ever found sweetness in the

love of God, in the love of Christ, in brotherly love; shew. the power of that love, which is, to unite the minds, hearts, souls, judgements, affections of brethren one unto another. When you are divided and broken one from another, you deprive yourselves of one of the sweetest comforts of Christianity, that light and easy yoke of love.

"If any fellowship of the Spirit."] The spirit of God is 'vinculum' and 'vehiculum' of that holy communion, which the members have with God the Father, with Christ their head, and with one another. Communion with one another in the same duties, to edify one another; communion in the same ends, to further one another; communion in the same privileges, to enjoy one another. They are acted by the same principles, animated by the same soul, mind the same interests, promote the same ends. By this communion of saints it is, that we have all one Father, one head, one hope, one common salvation. And communion is ever found in a preceding union of the members to the head, and to one another. Discords amongst brethren do quench the communion of saints.

you

If any bowels and mercies."] In Christ towards you;' If his tender heart have been wide open to refresh you.-In you towards me; if you have any sympathy with a suffering apostle, with a father in bonds.-In me towards you: if have ever found in me the compassions of a Father.-In you towards your brethren; if you will not be like Judas, a disciple without bowels, whose bowels gushed out; a brother without natural affections, shew this tender-heartedness in being like-minded one to another. The bowels are wrapped round, as it were, in one another; and so should the hearts and affections of believers be.

"Fulfil ye my joy."] "Afflictions I have enough already; you need not by your dissensions add more. A prisoner in bonds, expecting the sentence of death, the sword of persecution; but these things trouble me not: I can rejoice in dungeons, in bonds, in deaths, if it go well with the church of Christ. I prefer Jerusalem above liberty, and life, and my chiefest joys. This would accumulate and complete my afflictions; this would be heavier than my chain, darker than my prison, sharper than my sword, worse than a Nero unto me, if you my children should wound my soul with your