A guide to godliness or a Treatise of a Christian life showing the dutiesA guide to godlynesse or a Treatise of a Christian life shewing the duties

But let us come to speak of this duty of charity, as in our Saviour Christs words it is propounded unto us out of the Law of God; Thou shalt ¹love thy neighbour as thy self. Wherein we are to consider two things: the duty commanded, and the manner of doing it; In the duty, we are to consider the act of loving, and the object of our love, which is our neighbours and our selves, the first plainly expressed, the other necessarily implied in the manner, when as we are commanded to love them as we love our selves. The duty of love containeth in it, First, an affection or motion of the heart, wherewith we are affected and inclined towards that we love. Secondly, an earnest and longing desire that we may enjoy it, by being (as it were) united unto it. Thirdly, joy and delight in the fruition of it, and a contentation, whereby we rest according to the measure of our love ⟨p. 137⟩and fruition, satisfied with it. The properties of it are principally two; the first, that it be sincere and unfeigned. So the Apostle requireth that our love be without dissimulation, and unfeigned; and the Apostle John dissuadeth ²us from lip-love, which is only in profession, but fruitless and ³uneffectuall in action: Little children (saith he) let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. The other, that it be fervent and effectual, according to that of the Apostle, Above all things, have fervent charity among your selves. And this is that sincere and fervent love, which is so much and often commended and commanded in the Scriptures. So our Saviour Christ; This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have