Gospel-love, heart-purity, and the flourishing of the righteous being the last sermon of the…

Use. 2. Now upon that, let me take up a second use by way of Lamentation. If this be a truth, then 'tis to be Lamented that the Religious duties, and charitable Acts of many who bear the name of Christ, flow merely from a natural principle, and doing so, they are not the fulfilling of the Commandment. The most of men Love one another with affection no more spiritual than Damon and Pythias, and Pilades and Orestes, ⟨p. 27⟩or any other who are most memorised, or admired among the Heathens for Love. Yea I may say; they worship God and Jesus Christ with a devotion no more raised, and spiritual, than the old Romans did worship their Jupiter, or the Ephesians their great Goddess Diana. And surely this is to be Lamented, that Christian Acts should be done, and not from a principle spiritual, or not from a Christian principle. It is very possible, and very ordinary to follow Christ, yea to call upon Christ, merely with human affections, with Carnal affections. Jesus Christ did find it so. In John 6. 26. Ye seek me, saith he, not because ye saw the Miracles, but because ye did eat of the loves and were filled. To follow Christ, was an excellent work, but they did it merely upon a humane principle. Yea, that prayer of theirs in Verse 34. may well be Judged to come merely from a carnal spirit. When Christ had discourse of the ⟨p. 28⟩bread that came down from Heaven, and giveth life into the World, say they, Lord, evermore give us of this bread, and yet this was but from a Carnal desire, not knowing what that bread meant spiritually. And it appears clearly to be so, for in the close of the Chapter, many of his Hearers went quite away, they forsook him. Now certainly to do these excellent things, and to do them but with Carnal principles, this is a thing to be Lamented. Solomon doth report it as a thing to be lamented, that often in this world it is done to good men according to the works of the wicked, and it's done to wicked men, according to the works of the righteous: Eccles. 8. 14. This is a thing to be lamented, but I now shall show you two sights more, much more to be lamented.

Use. 2. Now upon that, let me take up a second use by way of Lamentation. If this be a truth, then 'tis to be Lamented that the Religious duties, and charitable Acts of many who bear the name of Christ, flow meerly from a natural principle, and doing so, they are not the fulfilling of the Commandment. The most of men Love one another with affection no more spiritual than Damon and Pithius, and Pilades and Orestes,