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The Union Of Love To God And Love To Man: A Masonic Sermon.
THE UNION OF LOVE TO GOD AND LOVE TO MAN : A MASONIC SERMON .
[ Concluded from p . 113 . 3 III . T ¥ 7 E cannot love God , unless we Jove our brethren also . * v The love of God and the love of our brethren do both proceed from the same principle , and the same state of the heart . As , therefore , a fountain cannot send forth both sweet waters and bitter ,
so , from the heart , there cannot possibly proceed both love to God and hatred to men . A relig ious principle cannot be divided by its being half good and half bad , or by it ' s having quite opposite and contradictory objects . Our Saviourtells us , that we . " cannot serve both God and Mammon ; " that is , the bent ofthe mind cannot be directed to two perfectly opposite objects at the same time : so , lie whose heart is false , and is bent on malice and injustice toward his brother , cannot love God . As both duties proceed from the same principle , the one cannot exist separately from the other .
Besides , it requires a less exertion ofthe spiritual or reli gious principle , to love our brethren whom we see , than to love God whom , we have not seen . We see God , indeed , through the medium of faith , arising from the view of his works and dispensations , and . espesially from those discoveries which he has made of himself , in ' the person of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and therefore he is altogether without excuse who does not love God : but we see men with our
bodily eyes . But the impressions made on the mind , by the strongest acts of faith , are less lively and ardent than those which arise from immediate vision . Therefore , if the reli gious principle be not so strong as to make us love our fellow men , whom we daily see and . converse with , it cannot possibly be in such a degree of strength as to make us love Godwhom we see only by the eye offiith . The
, , apostle reasons in this way in the verse immediately preceding the text : — "If a man say , 1 love God , and hateth his brother , he is a liar : for he that loveth not his . brother , whom he hath seen , how can he love God , whom he hath not seen ?"
Fins hi gh authority of one who spoke by the immediate direction of the Spirit of God , may convince us , that the love of God , and the love of man , must always go together ; and that he who is void of the one principle , will want the other also . —This declaration ofthe apostle serves to set the duty of love to . our brethren before us in its true and important light . How great pains ought we to take to understand this duty in all its branches ! and how careful ought we to be
to practise it , since the God of truth hath laid so much stress upon it , in that revelation of the things necessary to salvation , with which he has been graciously pleased to favour us ! We ought to consider it with the seriousness due to a matter upon which our salvation itself depends . For , he assured , O man I that without a benevolent and forbearing spirit toward your brother , you cannot love God . With " VOL . V . A a
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Union Of Love To God And Love To Man: A Masonic Sermon.
THE UNION OF LOVE TO GOD AND LOVE TO MAN : A MASONIC SERMON .
[ Concluded from p . 113 . 3 III . T ¥ 7 E cannot love God , unless we Jove our brethren also . * v The love of God and the love of our brethren do both proceed from the same principle , and the same state of the heart . As , therefore , a fountain cannot send forth both sweet waters and bitter ,
so , from the heart , there cannot possibly proceed both love to God and hatred to men . A relig ious principle cannot be divided by its being half good and half bad , or by it ' s having quite opposite and contradictory objects . Our Saviourtells us , that we . " cannot serve both God and Mammon ; " that is , the bent ofthe mind cannot be directed to two perfectly opposite objects at the same time : so , lie whose heart is false , and is bent on malice and injustice toward his brother , cannot love God . As both duties proceed from the same principle , the one cannot exist separately from the other .
Besides , it requires a less exertion ofthe spiritual or reli gious principle , to love our brethren whom we see , than to love God whom , we have not seen . We see God , indeed , through the medium of faith , arising from the view of his works and dispensations , and . espesially from those discoveries which he has made of himself , in ' the person of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and therefore he is altogether without excuse who does not love God : but we see men with our
bodily eyes . But the impressions made on the mind , by the strongest acts of faith , are less lively and ardent than those which arise from immediate vision . Therefore , if the reli gious principle be not so strong as to make us love our fellow men , whom we daily see and . converse with , it cannot possibly be in such a degree of strength as to make us love Godwhom we see only by the eye offiith . The
, , apostle reasons in this way in the verse immediately preceding the text : — "If a man say , 1 love God , and hateth his brother , he is a liar : for he that loveth not his . brother , whom he hath seen , how can he love God , whom he hath not seen ?"
Fins hi gh authority of one who spoke by the immediate direction of the Spirit of God , may convince us , that the love of God , and the love of man , must always go together ; and that he who is void of the one principle , will want the other also . —This declaration ofthe apostle serves to set the duty of love to . our brethren before us in its true and important light . How great pains ought we to take to understand this duty in all its branches ! and how careful ought we to be
to practise it , since the God of truth hath laid so much stress upon it , in that revelation of the things necessary to salvation , with which he has been graciously pleased to favour us ! We ought to consider it with the seriousness due to a matter upon which our salvation itself depends . For , he assured , O man I that without a benevolent and forbearing spirit toward your brother , you cannot love God . With " VOL . V . A a