To love a man’s neighbour in God is a sure rule to know that we love God: and not to love him is a sure token that we love not God; and to hate our neighbour is to hate God. For to love God is to do his commandments; as Christ saith, Ye are my lovers, if ye do those things which I have como manded you.” And the commandment is, to love our neighbours: then he that loveth not his neighbour loveth not God. And likewise to hate the commandment is to hate God that commanded it: and the commandment is to love our neighbours: he then that hateth his brother, whom God biddeth him love, hateth God.
The Fifth Chapter
All that believe that Jesus is Christ are born of God. And all that love him which begat, love him that is begotten of him. In this we know that we love the sons of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.
Tuis is a sure conclusion, that we be born of God through faith. And that faith maketh us God’s sons, in that we believe that Jesus is Christ: as the first chapter of John also testifieth, He gave them power to be the sons of God, in that they believed in his name.”
What it is to believe that Jesus is Christ, may be understood by that which is above rehearsed. It is a far other thing than as the devil believed it, against his will and to his great pain; or as they believe it, which, to fulfil their sin, envy the glory of Christ, and persecute his gospel, forbidding to preach it or to read in it. To believe that Jesus is Christis to believe in Christ: that is, to believe earnestly, and to put all thy trust therein, and to lay the price of thy soul thereupon; that the son of Mary, whom the angel commanded to be called Jesus, because he should save his people from their sins, is that Christ, that Messias, and that anointed, which God promised the fathers should come and bless all.:.: oa. nations, and anoint them with the oil of his Spirit and with mercy and grace, and to deliver them from death of their souls, which is the consenting to sin, and to make them
alive with consenting unto the law of God, and in certifying them that they be the sons of God; and to put thy whole trust in all that he suffered in his flesh for thy sake, and in all promises of mercy that are in him; and that thou be full: persuaded that there is none other name under heaven, given — — unto men to be saved from sin by, or to purchase forgiveness — of the least sin that ever was committed or ever shall be in this world. love Another conclusion is this, Whosoever loveth God loveth all that believe in God. For all that love him that begetteth, love them that are begotten of him: and all that believe in God are begotten of God through that belief, and made his sons: then all that love God love all that believe in God. E! Another conclusion is this, When we love God and his Jaw, then we love the sons of God. Which is this-wise i proved: The love of God is to keep the law of God: by the text, before and after, the law of God is to love our neigh- bours; and therefore if we love God, in keeping his laws, we must needs love the sons of God. € But John should seem to be a very negligent disputer to — many men, in that he here certifieth us of the love of our Fi neighbours by the love of God, when above he certifieth us that we love God because we love our neighbours. He E seemeth to do as I heard once a great clerk in Oxford stand 1 half an hour in a pulpit, to prove that Christ was a true prophet by the testimony of John Baptist; and another half hour to prove John the Baptist a true prophet by the authority of Christ: as we say, Claw me, claw thee; and as every thief ὁ might lightly prove himself a true man, in bearing record to another as false as he, and taking record of the same again. 3 Which kind of disputing schoolmen call Petitio principii, 1 the proving of two certain things, each by the other; and is no ἡ proving at all: as our holy father proveth the authority of 1 scripture by his decrees, (for the scripture is not authentie, E but as his decrees admit it;) and to make his decrees shine P and appear glorious, and to obtain authority, he allegeth the scripture, after his juggling manner, to make fools stark mad. E But it is not so here: for both the demonstrations are f certain, both the proof of the love of God and his law by the love of my neighbour, and the proof of the love of my J [1 So P. C. L., in D. the paragraph ends with committed.]!
neighbour by the love of God and his law. For when two things are so joined together that they cannot be separated, then the presence of the one uttereth the presence of the other, whethersoever thou first seest: as if I see fire, I am sure that something doth burn; and if I smell burning, I am certified of fire. Even so the love of God is the cause why I love my neighbour; and my love toward my neighbour is the effect of the love of God. And these two loves are ever inseparable; so that whethersoever I feel first, the same certifieth me of the other.