Human nature is so constituted that every good affection implies the
love of itself, i.e., becomes the object of a new affection in the
same person. Thus, to be righteous, implies in it the love of
righteousness; to be benevolent, the love of benevolence; to be
good, the love of goodness; whether this righteousness, benevolence,
or goodness be viewed as in our own mind or another's, and the love
of God as a being perfectly good is the love of perfect goodness
contemplated in a being or person. Thus morality and religion,
virtue and piety, will at last necessarily coincide, run up into one
and the same point, and LOVE will be in all senses THE END OF THE
COMMANDMENT.


O Almighty God, inspire us with this divine principle; kill in us
all the seeds of envy and ill-will; and help us, by cultivating
within ourselves the love of our neighbour, to improve in the love
of Thee. Thou hast placed us in various kindreds, friendships, and
relations, as the school of discipline for our affections: help us,
by the due exercise of them, to improve to perfection; till all
partial affection be lost in that entire universal one, and thou, O
God, shalt be all in all.



SERMON XIII., XIV.
UPON THE LOVE OF GOD.
MATTHEW xxii. 37.