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The Sadducees being put by Christ to silence, the Pharisees again encounter him; they send to him a lawyer, that is, one of their interpreters and expounders of the law of Moses, who propounds this question to him, Which is the great commandment of the law? Our Saviour tells them, It is to love the Lord with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind. That is, with all the powers, faculties, and abilities of the soul, with the greatest measure and highest degrees of love. This is the sum and substance of the duties of the first table.
And the second is like unto it, not equal with it, but like unto it. The duties of the second table are of the same authority, and of the same necessity with the first. As a man cannot be saved without the love of God, so neither without the love of his neighbour.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets: that is, the whole duty of man, required by Moses and the prophets, is comprehended in, and may be reduced to, these two heads, namely, the love of God and our neighbour.
From the whole, Note, 1. That the fervency of all our affections, and particularly the supremacy of our love, is required by God as his right and due. Love must pass through and possess all the powers and faculties of the soul; the mind must mediated upon God, the will must choose and embrace him, and the affections must take complacency and delight in him; the measure of loving God, is to love him without measure. God reckons that we love him not at all, if we love him not above all.
1. We must love him above all, appreciative, so as to prize him in our judgment and esteem above all, and before all things.
2. We are to love God above all things, comparative, preferring his favours above all things, comparatively hating whatever stands in competition with him.
3. We are to love God above all things intensive. That is, our longing desires must run out after him, we must pant and thirst for the enjoyment of him.
4. We must love everything in subordination to God, and nothing co-ordinately, or equal with God.
Note, 2. That thus to love God is the first and great commandment. Great, in regard of the object, which is God the first cause and the chief good. Great, in regard of the obligation of it. To love God is so indispensible a command, that God himself cannot free us from the obligation of it; for so long as he is God, and we his creatures, we shal lie under a natural and necessary obligation to love and serve him. Great, in regard of the duration of it, when faith shall be swallowed up in vision, and hope in fruition; love will then be perfected in a full enjoyment.
Note, 3. That every man may, yea, ought to love himself, not his sinful self, but his natural self, and especially his spiritual self, the new nature in him. This it ought to be his particular care to increase and strengthen. Indeed there is no express command in scripture for a man to love himself, because the light of nature directs, and the law of nature binds and moves every man so to do. God has put a principle of self-love and of self-preservation into all his creatures, but especially into man.
Note, 4. As every man ought to love himself, so it is every man's duty to love his neighbour as himself.
1. Not as he does love himself, but as he ought to love himself.
2. Not in the same degree and measure that he loves himself, but after the same manner, and with the same kind of love that he loves himself. As we love ourselves freely and readily, sincerely and unfeignedly, tenderly and compassionately, constantly and perseveringly; so should we love our neighbour. Though we are not commanded to love our neighbour as much as we love ourselves, yet we are to love him like as we love ourselves.
Note, lastly, That the duties of the first and second table are inseparable. The love of God and our neighbour, must no be parted. He that loveth not his neighbour whom he hath seen, never loved God whom he hath not seen. A conscientious regard to the duties of both tables, will be an argument of our sincerity, and an ornament to our profession. Let it then be our prayer and daily endeavour, that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, and our neighbour as ourselves. For this is the sum of the law and the substance of the gospel.