constant and true to this principle of self-love Whoever then is a lover chuser and embracer of sin though set off with the greatest outward allurements and conveniences is really an hater and wronger of himself And whoever hates abandons and forsakes his sins though never so much to his outward loss and damage is in truth a lover of himself He that is unwilling to leave his sins to be disturbed in his sins to be reproved for his sins so far wants love to himself He that is willing to be tempted to sin to be flattered in sin to be gratified and farthered in a course of sinning is in like manner so far wanting in a true love to himself And he that loves not himself is not yet prepared for doing unto others what he would have others do unto him because he wills such things from others which are indeed prejudicial and hurtful to himself Some there are who take pleasure in the corrupting and debauching of each other se invicem turpitudine illicitae voluptatis oblectare as S. Augustine speaks De Civ Dei l. 14. c. 8. to gratifie each other in some base aund unlawful delights Now the Rule before us cannot be so understood as to warrant their wickedness because they do unto each other as they would be done by themselves inasmuch as their Wills are not set upon such things as are truly good and reasonable but really prejudicial and hurtful to themselves Corrupted man may not thus reason I desire not my self to be check'd for my sins and therefore I will not blame or reprove any others I desire my self to be served and accommodated with all means and opportunities for the accomplishing of my lusts and therefore I will also farther others in the like I love my self to drink to excess and therefore I will make others drunken also c. Remarkable is that Precept in the Law Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart Levit. 19.17 thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Vide Ainsworth in loc Some of the Jewish Writers 't is true expound it to this purpose That when one man sinneth against another he should not inwardly hate him hereupon but make it known to the Offender and say Why hast thou done thus to me tell him freely plainly and roundly of it And so 't is much-what the same with that of our Blessed Saviour S. Luk. 17.3 If thy Brother sin against thee rebuke him and if he repent forgive him But then others as warrantably take the words in a greater extent He that seeth his Neighbour sin saith Maimonides or walk in a way not good is commanded to admonish him to do better and to certifie him that he sinneth against himself by his evil deeds as it is written Rebuking thou shalt rebuke thy Neighbour which is the Original of this Law in Leviticus The Hebrew word is noted to signifie to rebuke with conviction of argument by words to shew what is right and refel the contrary But that which I chiefly observe here is that this is injoyned as an Office of Love to our Neighbour Thou shalt not hate thy neighbour in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sin upon him or as it may be rendred lest thou bear sin for him i. e. become guilty of his sin and so partake of his punishment To keep others from sin is to keep them from doing the greatest mischief to themselves and so an undoubted office of the truest love and on the other side to sollicite persons unto sin or to sooth them up in their sins is to do them the greatest injury and so to hate them in our hearts Thus therefore we may not do to others though we should vitiously covet that others should do so unto us because this will of ours ariseth not from a true love to our selves but from a perverted love a blind and mistaken love a love which is really and effectually the greatest hatred Such a false love as this deceiveth many and is too common in the world Erasmus intending to shew how men abuse the words of Love and Hatred Jam amoris odii vocabulis vide quam mundus abutatur Cum adolescens insanus puellam deperit id vulgus amorem appellat cum nullum verius sit odium Verus amor vel suo dispendio commodis alienis consulere cupit Ille quo nisi ad suam voluptatem spectat Igitur non illam sed semetipsum amat quanquam ne se quidem amat nemo enim alium amare potest nisi se prius amarit sed rectè nemo quenquam odisse potest nisi se prius oderit verum bene amare nonnunquam bene odisse est rectè odisse amasse est c. Erasm Enchirid. Mil. Christiani p. 135 136. discourseth thus When a Youth is mad of a young Maid that the common people call Love when as there is not a truer hatred True love consults anothers benefit though with his own loss But what doth this fond Youth look at save his own pleasure He loves not her therefore but himself nay he loves not indeed himself for none can love another unless he first love himself and that aright none can hate another unless he first hate himself But then to love well is sometimes to hate well and to hate well is to love well Therefore he that for so small an advantage by his flatteries and gifts lays snares for the Maid that he may deprive her of that which is her best to wit her integrity her modesty her simplicity her good mind her fame does this man think you hate or love her Certainly there can be no hatred more cruel than this So when foolish Parents indulge their Childrens Vices men say commonly How tenderly do these Persons love their Children But rather how cruelly do they hate them who whilst they give way to their own affections neglect their Childrens salvation For what other thing doth our most envious enemy the Devil wish us than that here sinning with impunity we should fall into eternal punishment Again Men call him a gentle Master and a merciful Prince who either connives at or favours certain wickednesses that they may sin the more licentiously being left without the dread of punishment But what else doth the Lord threaten by his Prophet to those whom he thinketh unworthy of his mercy And I will not visit upon your daughters saith he when they commit fornication c. And what did he promise to David I will visit saith he with the rod their iniquities and with stripes their sins but my mercy will I not take away from them In Christ all things are made new and the names of things are changed He that loves himself amiss doth bear a deadly hatred to himself He that misplaceth his mercy is cruel Well to take care of a mans self is to neglect himself
all those sins whereby our Neighbours Soul as well as our own may be eternally ruined Yet how often alas do men offer this greatest of wrongs and injuries to others under pretence of Good-fellowship Love and Kindness Nor will it boot any here to alledge that they are willing others should do as much by them I have before prevented this Exception and they have certainly neither a right Judgment nor a regular Will nor any true love for themselves who profess themselves willing to sin and unwilling to leave sin i. e. willing to damn themselves 2. We may not wrong or injure the Body of our Neighbour viz. either by Stripes or Wounds maiming of it or hurting of its Senses by drawing men to such courses as are prejudicial to their Health and Strength and in the highest degree of all by Murder that crying sin of dispatching our Neighbour by violent hands our selves or the employment of bloody Assassinates or some more secret means and conveyances Now in all these cases we may take a true and impartial estimate of the wrong and injury accruing to another by supposing our selves in his place rank and condition We are here capable to be sure of judging uncorruptly for we seldom fail in loving of our Bodies or in valuing the injuries inflicted upon them What a rate do we set upon our bodily health and ease upon any of our Limbs and Senses How much are we readily willing to part with either to secure or to recover them But then we stake all to save our Lives Skin for skin Job 2.4 yea all that a man hath will he give for his life Who is there willing to be put to pain himself to lose an Eye an Hand a Leg c. himself to be mangled or murdered himself And therefore in all these and the like cases we have a Principle within us rebuking us for the wrongs of this nature which we offer to our Neighbour and telling us plainly that we ought not so to do Secondly We are farther instructed hence not to wrong or injure another in his near Relations which are indeed a part of himself suppose the Husband or Wife of another and the Children of another Apparent wrong and injury is done to the Husband or Wife of another by Adultery bringing of them thereby to the guilt of that horrid sin of Perjury and breach of their Marriage Vow and Covenant taking away that which Husband or Wife concern'd do or should esteem most precious viz. the Love and Faithfulness of each other and it may be robbing of the right Heirs of their due by a Bastard and unlawful Brood the Children of the Adulterer or Adulteress besides many other inconveniences Nor will it here excuse the adulterous Wife that possibly her Husband might be consenting or the adulterous Husband that his Wife possibly might yield thereto and so they do no more than they are willing to suffer for in this case their Wills are irregular This their willing speaks their corruption the more but the wrong and injury no whit the less No man disposed as he should be is willing that another should wrong him in assaulting the Chastity of his Wife no man rherefore should attempt anothers in that kind No Woman disposed as she should be is willing that another should draw aside her Husband to unlawful Embraces and therefore she should not entice or allure or admit of the Husband of another Next as to the Children of others I will instance in two Particulars The former respects those who have the care and charge of the Nursing and Education of Children committed to them they are to take great heed that they wrong not those committed to their care by denying or withholding from them any thing fit or convenient Food or Lodging Instruction Correction or Encouragement by negligence or indiscretion These should ask themselves what care and conscience they would desire and expect in others towards their own Issue and so deal with the Children of others left to them Believe it 't is a great and considerable wrong that is often done both to Children and Parents in those Children by the ignorance or sloth or baseness and dishonesty of Nurses Guardians School-masters and others that over-look them in their Infancy and younger years who are concerned in their Education and the forming of their Minds and Manners or training them up to some Trade and way of Life The later shall be of the Children of others grown up and ripe for Marriage I mean the stealing or forcing away of such without the privity and consent of their Parents Musculus in his Comment upon S. Matthew's Gospel makes this very application of the Rule 'T is saith he Muscul in S. Mat. c. 7. 12. disputed sometimes about clandestine and stoln Marriages such to wit as are made without the knowledge and against the will of Parents whether they be just and valid and here some demand a clear word of God whereby they are forbidden and that out of the New Testament for neither the Law of Moses nor the Law of Caesar will satisfie them Now therefore for their resolution interrogent illi seipsos num velint sibi tale quid fieri Let them ask themselves impartially whether they would have any such thing done to themselves whether they are willing their own Daughter should be fraudulently and against their liking taken away by one whom they would by no means admit of for their Son-in-Law Certè nequaquam hoc volunt Assuredly saith he they would in no wise Why therefore do they not see according to our Saviours Rule that it is unlawful for them to do so to others Why do they not see that here is a Word of the Lord a Law of the Lord the sum to wit of the Law and Prophets whereby such a thing is forbidden Is not this plain Scripture Is not this the Word of God which Christ here avoucheth to be the Law and the Prophets That we should do unto others as we would our selves in a like case be dealt with Thirdly By the same Rule we must not wrong or injure our Neighbour in his Goods and Possessions either openly by force or covertly by fraud being our selves unwilling to be so served We should neither rob nor defraud our Neighbour Levit. 19.13 if we observed this Precept We all censure this wickedness in other men we say to our Neighbour Thou shalt not steal and give the name of Thief as an Epithet of reproach Nathan therefore took this wise course with King David to make him in the issue accuse condemn and sentence himself in the person of another whose case he had first propounded in a Parable 2 Sam. 12.1 2 3 c. There were two men saith he in one City the one rich and the other poor the rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds but the poor man had nothing save a little Ew-lamb which he had bought and nourished up and
thou mightest have known that God had commanded thee by thy Pastor unless thy bad desires and corrupt affections had made thee blind But neither shall theirs nor thy ignorance herein help for ignorance which is bred of bad desires corrupt affections or greedy appetites brings forth hardness of heart and infidelity so that seeing thou shalt not see and hearing thou shalt not hear nor understand the warnings for thy peace because thou hast formerly shut thine ears at thy Pastor's Admonitions or raged at his just Reproof and the Law of God binds thy Soul upon greater penalties and better hopes than all the Laws in the World beside could bind thy Body even upon the hope of everlasting life and the penalty of everlasting death to lay aside all carnal self-self-love and all worldly desires for the finding out of the true sense and meaning of it as well as to obey it when thou hast known it and when any point of Doctrine or Practice in general or particular is commended to thee by thy Pastor God's Word doth bind thee to search with all sobriety and modesty the truth and force of all the motives and inducements which he shall suggest unto thee all private respect laid aside lest thou become a partial Judge of evil thoughts and if thou canst not find better Resolution it binds thee to rely upon his Authority and that so much the more as thou hast more perswasion of his fidelity and sincerity also I have digressed the rather in this point because I look on this as a chief and principal reason why we so much beat the air why the Labourers in Gods Harvest do gather the wind why Paul doth plant and Apollo water to no purpose viz. We are not believed and received as the Stewards and Dispensers of the Mysteries of God as the Messengers and Embassadors of God sent and appointed by him to teach his Will and press his Commands to reprove and admonish and exhort in his Name No more is allowed to a Minister by the generality of People than what they would to a stranger to any inconsiderable person in the World who ought to be believed and observed by them in whatever carries the express face and stamp of a Divine Command visible in its Countenance But that whereby I am to press this Obedience here is the Rule of our Blessed Saviour Were you in our stead had you as we have the care of instructing informing and admonishing others committed to you did you watch for their souls as they that must give account were you appointed the Ministers and Vicars of Christ among them you would certainly expect they should reverence your Authority they should hearken obediently to your Doctrine they should never dare to reject or slight it but upon clear evidence to the contrary they should set themselves about the doing those good things in particular which in the Name of God you recommend to them in order to their eternal Good and decline those evil and vicious courses in particular which you reprove them for and admonish them to leave and forsake You would not take it well that ignorant Persons should give you the lie in Points whereof they are no capable Judges 'T is true both of Scholars and Christians Oportet discentem credere Learners must at first believe and receive on trust what is delivered to them till they are able themselves to gainsay upon knowledge and evince the contrary What School-master would not severely rebuke and chastise the sawciness of that Child who should oppose the Rules he understands not in stead of receiving and admitting of them on his Teachers Authority What Pilot would not condemn and chide those pragmatique Passengers who having themselves no skill in Wind and Weather in Stars or Compass should yet boldly intrude into his place and teach him how to steer the Ship Men do not certainly as themselves would be done by were they in their Ministers stead when in a doubtful and ambiguous matter which themselves are not able to examine or look into his Authority may not determine or at least move them to an impartial weighing of those Arguments and Motives and Considerations which in Gods Name he propounds to them when his Reproofs and Counsels can find no entrance when they will not so much as draw near to the place appointed for their instruction by him or if they are there trifle away their time in other matters than a diligent attention to what is spoken to them by the Messenger and Embassador of the Living God Prov. 25.12 As an ear-ring of gold and an ornament of fine gold so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear saith Solomon But 't is the disobedient ear that renders all Reproofs impertinent and misplaced makes them lose their grace and efficacy Why do we preach if not to be believed and obeyed by our Hearers And wo is to us if we preach such things as are not fit to be believed and obeyed by you But obeyed we cannot be unless we are first believed and believed we cannot be understandingly unless we are first heard and attended to So then you must give proof of your Obedience first by coming to Gods House where you may be instructed and when you are there by reverent attending on the Teacher and not rejecting what he offers to you from God without full and clear evidence to the contrary and when you are gone home by an impartial examination of that which seemed at the hearing of it most doubtful to you and a practice according to whatever goodness you have been perswaded and directed to And all this is no more than what is most just and equitable in order to your own good and salvation a due you owe to the Authority of your Ministers Place and Office and what if you could once suppose your selves but in his room and stead you would judge most fitting to be done Were the Ministers of God obeyed and reverenced by us as by vertue of this Rule they ought to be the disorders and exorbitances of private spirits would soon be reduced to an humble compliance with all good useful or innocent Appointments and the highest Censures of the Church would strike more dread on People than they now do Men would be afraid of being sentenced by the Ministers of Christ as cut off from the Communion of Saints and so all visible Title unto Heaven 5. I will instance a little in the Superiority and preeminence of the Ancient above the Younger according to that Law of God given to the Israelites Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head Levit. 19.32 and honour the face of the old man These are in a special manner the Image of God as he is the Ancient of Days their long life hath learnt them much experience and that experience is the way to wisdom There is wisdom with the Ancient Job 12.12 and in multitude of years is understanding And therefore some veneration
maimed by giving money to the poor or lending freely to those who are reduced to extremities by standing up on the behalf of the Orphan and Widow for these are the things thou wouldest desire of others in a like case these are the good turns thou wouldest wish for from other men And see thou do them with the same chearfulness and bounty proportionably to thy condition as thou wouldest wish like well of and commend in any other towards thy self 'T is an excellent admonition of Lactantius touching Charity Lactant. l. 6. Quoties rogaris tentari te à Deo crede an sis dignus exaudiri As often as thou art asked and entreated of others believe that thou art tried whether or no thou art worthy thy self to be heard of God nay and of others also in a like estate The through practice of this Rule would make us all in our places as famous for the works of Mercy as Job's Character who was able to speak thus of himself Job 29.12 c. I delivered the poor that cried and the fatherless and him that had none to help him The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me and I caused the widows heart to sing for joy I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the lame I was a father to the poor and the cause which I knew not I searched out and I brake the jaws of the wicked and pluck'd the spoil out of his teeth He that could do the least would yet help somewhat as I said before by his comfortable Words and Prayers the afflicted and necessitous To be sure he would by no means add to their burthen sorrow and vexation like Job too in this particular whose reply to his miserable Comforters was Job 16.4 5. I also could speak as you do if your soul were in my soul's stead I could heap up words against you and shake mine head at you But I would strengthen you with my mouth and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief The poor and afflicted would need no other Advocate than this in the breasts of those whom they apply to for relief to answer all their Objections against Charity and to draw forth the chearful Contributions of their Liberality and Bounty Do but to us as you would desire your selves to be dealt with in our condition and make no other excuses for the withholding or maiming your Charity towards us than you would have others make to you in a like estate There can be no question but this Precept enjoyns us all the acts of Love Charity Benevolence Mercy and Liberality towards others The only doubt to be resolved further is Whether it exact our love also to our Enemies For that you know is the Gospel-Command That we should love our Enemies that is an Instruction S. Paul takes out of Solomon If thine enemy hunger feed him Rom. 12.20 Prov. 25.21 if he thirst give him drink That was a Precept also in the Law Exod. 23.4 5. to bring back an enemies ox going astray and to help up his ass lying under a burthen Now many are so nobly resolved as we are apt to speak that they disdain to receive a Courtesie from an Enemy they will rather starve than be fed by an Enemy rather die than be preserved by an Enemy It may therefore seem questionable whether this Rule will oblige to Love and Goodness and Charity towards an Enemy doing to him as we would our selves receive from him But the resolution is easie and clear enough For who doth not commend the nobleness and generosity of an Enemies kindness who doth not praise and extol this in an Enemy and therefore must needs adjudge himself obliged to imitate what he admires the excellency and loveliness of To do good to others as Men is good and commendable in it self and so to whomsoever the good be done friend or foe But to do good to ones Enemy heightens the degrees of Charity for if it be a more blessed thing to give than to receive according to our Saviours Axiom our Reason must needs infer that it is still the more blessed and praise-worthy to do good to those from whom we have received evil our selves And as for what was principal in the Objection the unwillingness of some to receive kindnesses from their Enemies I question not but some deep degrees of suffering and extremity would quickly tame and subdue that pride and haughtiness of their Spirits Besides the Rule of our Blessed Saviour as Reverend Dr. Jackson well observes is That we do that for every man which we would have any man do for us and not only that to this or that man which we expect from them alone Nor yet merely so but as was noted in the Explication That we do that to every man according to our Abilities which we desire to receive our selves at God's hands and wo were our case if he had not loved us whilst we were Enemies loved us so then as to preserve us in our Being till by his Grace we were made friends and so admitted unto greater Blessings It is not therefore to be wondred that S. Luke S. Luke 6. placeth this Golden Rule amidst the other Commands of Love as I suggested in the beginning and that Love to Enemies whereby we may become merciful as our Father also is merciful And thus now as briefly as the copiousness of such a Subject would well allow I have run through the chief Heads of those Vertues we are engaged by this Rule to be zealous followers of and intimated by the way those contrary Vices we are to shun and abhor And I think I may well conclude this Induction with S. Paul's heap of Universals Finally Phil. 4.8 Brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest or venerable whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue and if there be any praise think of these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reason your selves into these things and that from the Premises already laid down SECT XIII I Pass to the second part of the Words where my stay will be much shorter the Enforcement of this Golden Rule of this General and Comprehensive Precept For this saith Christ is the Law and the Prophets Hoc lex vatésque docent Castalio in loc haec legis vatúmque summa This is that which the Law and Prophets teach and this is the sum of the Law and Prophets This Rule is established by the Authority of the Law and the Prophets and it is in it self a fruitful Epitome of the several Precepts delivered in the Law and Prophets Quae in illâ aut ab istis dicta The things contained in the Law or spoken by the Prophets are summarily comprised in this Saying The Law and the Prophets stand for all the Old Testament for which also sometimes is put Moses and
before our eyes whilst our own are behind our back Thence it is that the Father who is himself worse than his Son doth yet chastize the Son's seasonable Banquets He will give no pardon to anothers Luxury who denies none to his own The Tyrant is angry at the Murtherer and he that is himself sacrilegious punisheth Thefts in others A great part of Men there is who are not angry so much at the Sins as the Sinners Now a respect to our own selves will make us more moderate to others if we shall debate the Case with our selves to this purpose Have not we also our selves sometimes committed a like offence Have not we so erred Is it expedient for our selves that these things should be condemned and punished in others His discourse all along turns upon this hinge That we ought not to afford that measure to others which we our selves will not admit of He speaks yet more expresly in the third Book Let us saith he Eo loco nos constituamus quo ille est cui irascimur nunc facit iracundos iniqua nostri aestimatio quae facere vellemus pati nolumus Lib. 3. c. 12. Omnes inconsulti improvidi sumus omnes incerti queruli ambitiosi Quid lenioribus hulcus publicum abscondo Omnes mali sumus Quicquid itaque in alio reprehenditur id unusquisque in suo sinu inveniet Quid illius pallorem illius maciem notas Pestilentia est Placidiores itaque invicem simu Mali inter malos vivimus cap. 26. suppose our selves in his place and stead whom we are angry at Whereas now an unequal esteem of our selves makes us wrathful against others and those things which we would do we will not suffer And to the same purpose he adds afterwards We are all heady and improvident all fickle querulous ambitious Why do I hide a Publick Sore with too gentle Words We are all bad Whatsoever therefore is reprehended in another that may every one find in his own bosom Why dost thou set a mark on this mans paleness and the others leanness 'T is a common Plague Let us therefore be more favourable one to another upon this account We are bad our selves living among bad Neighbours Yet once more the same Seneca in his 47 Epistle commending Lucilius for using of his Servants in a familiar manner enlargeth on that occasion to this effect Servi sunt imò homines Servi sunt imò contubernales Servi sunt imò humiles amici Servi sunt imò conservi Si cogitaveris tantundem in utrosque licere fortunae Vis tu cogitare istum quem servum tuum vocas ex iisdem seminibus ortum eodem frui coelo aequè spirare aequè vivere aequè mori Tam tu illum ingenuum videre potes quam ille te servum Marianâ clade quam multos splendidissimè natos Senatorium per militiam auspicantes gradum fortuna depressit Alium ex illis pastorem alium custodem casae fecit Contemne nunc ejus fortunae hominem in quam transire dum contemnis potes Haec praecepti mei summa est sic cum inferiore vivas quemadmodum tecum superiorem velles vivere Quoties in mentem venerit quantum tibi in servum liceat veniat in mentem tantundem in te Domino tuo licere At Ego inquis nullum habeo Dominum Bona aetas est forsitan habebis Senec. Epist 47. Servants do we call them yea they are Men Companions humble Friends Fellow-servants if we bethink our selves that we are alike exposed to the power of Fortune Do but consider that he whom thou stylest thy Servant or Slave hath the same Original with thy self lives and breathes under the same Heaven and at last dies like thy self and thou mayst change Names and Titles with him How many Noble Persons hath the fortune of the Wars depress'd and turn'd into Shepherds and Cottagers Go now and despise a man of that Rank and Condition which thou thy self maist pass into even while thou art despising of him The sum of my Instructions is this That thou so live with thy Inferior as thou wouldest thy Superior should live with thee and as often as thou shalt think * Vide Eccles chap. 7. ver 21 22. what power thou hast over thy Servant think also that thy Lord and Master hath the same power over thee But thou replyest it may be I have no Lord or Master 'T is well but thou knowest not how soon thou maist have one The Reader may see more to this purpose Epistle 95. where he delivers this as the Summary of our mutual duty each to other formula humani officii to consider that we are all Members of one great Body akin by Nature having the same Rise and End and therefore obliged to mutual love and sociable demeanour to all equity and innocence and helpfulness and to retain that Golden Saying in our Hearts as well as Mouths Homo sum humani nihil à me alienum puto i. e. I am a Man and therefore neither think my self free from any accident that befalls other men nor desire to be excused in any duty which becomes humanity The Stoicks indeed generally in their Writings have many things of this nature and determine it to be proper unto man from his heart to love other men and wish them well as allied to him by Nature both in Body and Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Vide quae Gatakerus noster in suo ad M. Antoninum praeloquio é Stoicis congessit ipsum Antoninum passim and made for a mutual subserviency each to other And take this farther tast out of some others Pliny in the 12 Epistle of his 9 Book Heus tu nunquámne fecisti quod à patre corripi possit fecisti dico Non interdum facis quod filius tuus si repente pater ille Tu filius pari gravitate reprehendat Cato in his excellent Precepts De Moribus which are learnt commonly by Children but worthy the most serious consideration of Men hath these remarkable Sayings that touch upon the Point in hand In his short Precepts this Patere legem quam ipse tuleris i. e. as Erasmus Scholles upon it Whatever Condition thou prescribest to others use the same thy self towards others And in his Disticks these Quae culpare soles ea tu ne feceris ipse Turpe est Doctori cum culpa redarguit ipsum L. 1. Dist 30. i. e. By no means do the thing thou art wont to blame 'T is a disgrace to a Teacher to reprove himself by a contrary practice Alterius dictum aut factum ne carpseris unquam Exemplo simili ne te derideat alter L. 3. Dist 6. i. e. Carp not at anothers words or doings lest thou instruct him to deride thy self by a like example Cum fueris servos proprios mercatus in usus Et famulos dicas homines tamen esse memento Dist 44. i. e. When thou hast bought
Well to hurt himself is to profit himself Well to destroy himself is to preserve himself Thou wilt then shew a care to thy self if thou shalt contemn the desires of the flesh Thou wilt do that man a courtesie whose vices thou shalt be cruel against if thou shalt slay the sinner thou shalt save the man if thou shalt destroy what Man hath done amiss thou shalt restore what God made Thus far Erasmus whose words I have translated hither as a pertinent illustration both of that pretended love which is so common among men and that genuine and sincere love to our selves which the Rule I am speaking of presupposeth and is built upon 2. This Rule presupposeth farther a continual converse with our selves a living in the daily exercise of consideration and self-reflection that we may not act towards others rashly and unadvisedly but upon a true understanding and compare of anothers condition with our own that we may know what we should expect from other men and so what they in like manner may reasonably challenge and require of us The Rule is wholly and altogether in vain if men never give themselves to consider or live at such a rate that they are indisposed for the exercise of self-reflection It is in vain as I said to prescribe to any that they would do unto others as they would others should do unto them if they never reflect upon their own thoughts and desires if they never take time impartially to suppose themselves in anothers state and make anothers case their own This Prescription therefore of our Blessed Saviour supposeth men to live a sober and temperate life in the free exercise of their reasonable and deliberate thoughts not so to immerse themselves in the cares of the world or a multitude of imployments not so to drown and besot themselves with sensual entertainments to make their souls heavy with drunkenness and excess not so to transport themselves with passion and lust as to indispose themselves wholly for consideration or the unbyassed and unprejudicate application of it for the squaring and direction of their actions God having made us reasonable Creatures and written certain Laws of equity upon the Tables of our Conscience expects from us that we should find time to reflect and consider with our selves and keep our selves in a temper capable of inferring from our own thoughts the Principles of our doings that we may even of our selves judge that which is right and we shall never act according to this Rule of doing as we would be done by unless our thoughts continually hold a looking-glass before our eyes or present a balance to our hands for the due pondering and weighing of our own state and condition and other mens together that so our own rational desires and expectations from others may regulate our actions towards them This Law of Christ you see clearly presupposeth much of self-converse and such a way of life as may dispose us thereunto that we never so devote our selves to any drudging Imployment as to hinder the making of a pause now and then with our own thoughts and that we lead not such a brutish course as to be left uncapable of consideration to any good effect or purpose never to understand what is fitting for our selves to desire of others never to mind and observe the case of others or never to be like Men or Christians affected therewith like those mentioned in the Prophet Amos Amos 6.1 3 4 5 6. who are at ease in Sion and secure in the Mountain of Samaria who put far away the evil day and cause the seat of violence to come near that lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches and eat lambs out of the flock and calves out of the midst of the stall that chant to the sound of the viol and invent to themselves instruments of musick like David that drink wine in bowls and annoint themselves with the chief ointments but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph That is Who lay to heart no more the troubles of the Posterity of Joseph than his Brethren did his in particular when they cast him into the Pit and sold him to the Merchants never minding or careing what became of him but indulge themselves in the mean while to all excess of riot even whilst other of their Brethren languish under want and oppression Such persons as these who live in jollity and spend their time in pleasure to the satisfaction of the flesh do usually cast off all thoughtfulness about others who are in misery and adversity that is they never consider the hardships and calamities that others undergo and so what they would look for at others hands were they in their case These two are the more general Suppositions which the Rule of the Text buildeth upon to wit our natural and genuine love to our selves and our living in the due exercise of thoughtfulness and consideration self-converse and reflection that we may know upon every occasion what we should reasonably desire of others for our selves SECT VI. THere are yet three things farther which do more particularly declare the Foundation and reasonableness of this Precept to us viz. 1. See Dr. Jackson's excellent Sermons on the Text l. 11. c. 32. 33. The actual equality of all Men by Nature and of Christians by Grace 2. The possible equality of Condition in all And 3. The immovable Standard and Rule of Justice which gives all to expect from God and Men here or at least from God hereafter accordingly as they have measured unto others We all stand upon equal terms by Nature as we are Men of the same kind and by Grace as Christians Possible it is we may our selves be in the very same condition with others And Certain it is that we shall our selves either here or hereafter receive the same measure we mete to others with And therefore In all these laid together we have a firm ground for the Precept now considered of that whatsoever we would should be done to us we do the same to others Of each of these Heads briefly 1. All men have an equality by Nature Nihil est unum uni tam simile tam par quam omnes inter nosmet sumus Cicero de Leg. l. 1. Though they differ much from each other in their places and stations in the world yet 't is but as so many Figures of the same denomination would do in different places one suppose in the Unites another in the Tens another in the Hundreds another in the Thousands c. We are all of the same kind partakers of the same reasonable and religious nature We are all consanguinei descended from one common Parent We are all originally of the same dust and shall be resolved into the same again We are all made and preserved by one and the same God Omnibus ille idem pater est I may here well demand with the Prophet Have we not all
be so unfaithful to their God For how saith he will they be ever faithful to their Prince 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb ibid. who have been found so persidious and unconstant to their God whom they ought to esteem much better and above their Prince Of these Hypocrites therefore he cleared his Court and advanced the other Confessors to places of the highest consequence There is no gilding or varnish which can make treacherousness and perfidiousness appear lovely Now 't is easie to infer hence that we should not be that in this particular unto others which we can by no means approve they should be to us Rom. 12.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let love be without dissimulation saith S. Paul And S. Peter to the same purpose Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth 1 S. Pet. 1.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the Brethren see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently or durably That which is counterfeit is not at all valuable nay when once it appears as Cheats seldom deceive long Shews and Colours will wear off Lies are but for a short continuance most detestable and odious The love we bear to our selves is uncounterfeit and sincere such therefore should be that we bear to others We do unfeignedly prosecute our own interest and concerns so therefore should we do other mens That was the commendation S. Paul gave Timothy in his Epistle to the Philippians Phil. 2.20 21. I have no man like-minded saith he who will naturally care for your state for all seek their own none the things that are Christs They seek their own heartily and sincerely the things of Christ and Christians in pretence and shew only but good men such as Timothy was do naturally care for the concerns of Christ's Members as for their own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 genuinely and without dissimulation True indeed men do sometimes through their folly and ignorance and depraved affections flatter and deceive themselves impose upon and delude themselves but who would do so upon design and wittingly who consonantly and agreeably to the Principle of Self-love We desire others should be to us really what they seem to be so therefore should we our selves be to others This sincerity I am speaking of is not so much any single Vertue as the ground-work and life of all without which they are not that they are taken for Counterfeit Gold is not Gold Counterfeit Pearl is not Pearl In like manner counterfeit Goodness is not Goodness but Vice becomes the more vicious by hiding of her self under the garment of Piety Simulata sanctitas duplex iniquitas We have no love to our Neighbour at all if it be not sincere yea saith Solomon He that hateth Prov. 26.24 25 26 28. dissembleth with his lips and layeth up deceit within him when he speaketh fair believe him not for there are seven abominations in his heart Whose hatred is covered by deceit his wickedness shall be shewed before the whole Congregation A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it and a flattering mouth worketh ruine Salvian gives us this pertinent description of false Friends and dissembling Mourners Ad Eccles Cathol l. 3. that often surround the Beds of dying Persons waiting like Eagles for a Carcass to prey upon Thou seest saith he their forced Tears their counterfeit Sighs their feigned Trouble not inwardly desiring thy recovery but expecting when thou wilt be gone Vide defixos in te quasi accusantes tui obitus tarditatem omnium vultus See all their Countenances fixed upon thee and accusing as it were the slowness of thy departure Non te sed patrimonium tuum diligunt 'T is not thee but thine Inheritance which they love And therefore he cautions us well against the flatteries and blandishments of such Gladii sunt jugulatores tui quidem ferreis atque hostilibus gladiis tetriores They are saith he killing swords and worse by far than the iron weapons of Enemies For these are open and seen by every one but unwary ones see not the other These being seen are more easily avoided but the other slay by their treacherous secrecy These none are willing to be hurt by but many are ambitious of the other loving to be flattered These whoever is assaulted with suffers both fear and grief the other kill men with delight and do in a manner tickle them to death They die as 't is said of some laughing But most certain it is That all deceit and flattery and hypocrisie would soon vanish out of the world did men observe this Golden Rule to do to others as they should chuse to be done by did they once love their Neighbour as themselves Secondly The same Rule reads us a Lecture of Humility and gives a fair occasion to declaim against Pride and Arrogance For who is there that allows and approves of the proud mans carriage towards himself Who is there to whom high looks insolent answers contemptuous neglects a lofty and scornful carriage in other men are not burthensom and grievous Who is there to whom the humanity courtesie and respect of the humble is not grateful and acceptable Pride is a most unsociable Vice No man cares for bearing the proud man company He must set Laws to all he converseth with He must be pleased and observed and humoured or 't is impossible to preserve quiet and no man loves to be confin'd to so much observance He can be content to abuse and deride others to make a mock and jest of them but will not endure the least reflection upon himself He will contradict every one but none may gainsay him And if any cross or offend him he becomes inexorable nothing will suffice but revenge and that in the highest degree A word misplaced shall forfeit the mans life Pride is made up of self-admiration and despising or disdaining of others an over-weening esteem of a mans own excellency and a supercilious undervaluing of others And both these dispositions are at great odds with that temper which is fitted for comfortable and delightful Society with other men So far is every one in love with himself that he cannot endure to be trodden under foot nor will he patiently suffer another to insult over him 'T is irksom unto every body to converse with such who are continually boasting of themselves and disparaging or detracting from others Terent. Qui nisi quod ipsi faciunt nihil rectum putant who like nothing but what they do themselves and are continually blaming or finding fault with other men The proudest man that lives is yet a professed enemy to his Brother Pride treads on Pride with greater pride and cannot endure his darling and beloved sin in another Vide Casaub ad Theoph. Charact. p. 353. Pride I find was a vice of so odious and ignominious a name of old that Tarquin for many Vices together received the Title
Reason A Scripture should be more to us than any Reason provided only that we mistake it not that we misunderstand it not that we misapply it not for we can have no greater confirmation than Divine Authority We must therefore take heed lest at any time we prove irreverent Rejecters of the Word of God or any thing propounded to us out of the Holy Scriptures Abraham prefers the voice of Moses and the Prophets before the testimony of one arising purposely from the dead for the warning of the living S. Luk. 16.31 If they hear not Moses and the Prophets saith he neither will they be perswaded though one arose from the dead But if once the Law and the Prophets Moses and the Prophets find credit the Old Testament will usher in the belief of the New as well as the New confirm and strengthen the belief of the Old Had you believed Moses sayings S. John 5.46 you would have believed me saith Christ for he wrote of me Why what wrote he of Christ This expresly God shall raise up unto thee a Prophet like unto me Deut. 18.15 of thy Brethren according to thy desire and I will put my words into his mouth and whosoever will not hearken unto the words which he shall speak in my Name I will require it of him I urge the venerable estimation and reception of the Holy Scriptures from the force of our Blessed Saviour's Argument For this is the Law and the Prophets He backs his Golden Rule and Precept with that Divine and Infallible Authority which whoever are found despisers and contemners of will be sentenced as rejecters of the Testimony and Commands of God himself for the Holy Scripture is no other than his Voice who hath the most absolute Authority over both our Faith and Obedience And were there no other Reason or Account to be given of this Prescription of Christs it were abundant proof That it is Gods peremptory Command made known in the Law and Prophets But then Secondly We may further paraphrase the meaning of our Blessed Saviour's Argument thus This is the sum of all that the Law and the Prophets require at our hands To that purpose S. Chrysostom See Sect. 1. p. 1. as I noted in the beginning The whole Law in S. Paul's language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 13.9 is sum'd up into this Sentence as into an Head Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self To this Head he refers expresly all the Commands of the Second Table that respect our duty to others For this saith he Thou shalt not commit Adultery Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness Thou shalt not covet and if there be any other Commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this namely Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self which I have shewed before to be the inward and vital Principle of our Saviour's Rule Sect. 4. To this Second Table therefore some limit and confine the Text. Intelligendum est de lege monitis spectantibus mutua inter se hominum officia Grot. in loc Videtur autem hoc praeceptum ad dilectionem proximi pertinere non autem ad Dei cum in alio loco duo esse praecepta dicat in quibus tota lex pendet prophetae cum autem hic non addit tota lex quod ibi addidit fervavit locum alteri praecepto quod est de dilectione Dei S. Aug. de Serm. Dom. cit in Cat. D. Tho. 'T is to be understood saith Grotius of the Law and those Monitions in the Prophets which concern the mutual Offices of men one towards another S. Augustine in like manner This Precept seems to belong to the Love of our Neighbour only and not the Love we owe to God since that in another place Christ saith that there are two Commandments upon which hang all the Law and the Prophets Now since he addeth not here the whole Law or all the Law which he addeth there expresly he hath left room for the other Precept of the Love of God to be supplied The Text he refers to is that of S. Mat. chap. 22. where our Saviour being asked S. Matth. 22.36 40. Which is the great Commandment of the Law answers Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind This is the first and great Commandment And the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self On these Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They conspire and meet together in these two to these two they are reducible The Jews themselves called these Summas magnas Vniversalia magna the great Sums and the great Universals The first of the Love of God can by no means be omitted for our Obligations to him are antecedent to all other and most considerable We must therefore have a special respect to the first and great Commandment But yet the second too saith Christ is like unto it being as universal and extensive as the former Quia actus non externos tantum sed in ternos praecipit vim suam quam latissime extendit priori necessario nexu cohaeret propter quam cohaerentiam à Paulo dicitur de posteriori quod Christus de duobus dixit Grot. in loc reaching both the inward and outward man and inseparably connected with the former for which coherence or connexion sake saith Grotius that is spoken by Paul of this later which Christ said of them both For so far may that Phrase of his reach in his Epistle to the Romans chap. 13. And if there be any other Commandment viz. not only of the Second but of the First Table Ut sit vivum ac sensibile corpus agnitio Dei necessaria est quasi caput omnes virtutes quasi corpus Vide Lactant. l. 6. It must needs be granted that these two great Commandments have that mutual dependence and tye each to other that the one necessarily as it were includeth and carrieth the other along with it The love of God includeth the love of our Neighbour and the love of our Neighbour presupposeth the love of God 1 S. John 4.20 If a man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a liar saith S. John for he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen ch 3.17 How dwelleth the Love of God in him The love of God then includes the love of Man and the love of Man is used by the same Apostle as a plain demonstration of our love to God Beloved ch 4. v. 7 8. let us love one another for Love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is Love S. Augustine therefore
in another place gives a Comment upon the Text different from his former and indeed in his former we may observe that he spake but dubiously and by way of conjecture with a Videtur only Therefore saith he Ideò Scriptura tantum delectionem proximi commemorat cum dicit Omnia quaecunque quia qui proximum diligit consequens est ut ipsam praecipuè dilectionem diligat Deus autem dilectio est consequens est ergo ut praecipuè diligat Deum S. Aug de Trin. cit in Cat. D. Tho sup Evang. the Scripture commemorates only the love of our Neighbour when it saith All things whatsoever ye would because he that loveth his Neighbour by consequence must love especially Love it self But God is Love And therefore 't is consequent from hence that he love God especially All the Law Gal. 5.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul to the Galatians is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Here is tota Lex all the Law in answer to S. Augustine's former scruple The whole Law and that fulfilled in this one word or sentence Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self To this Precept then of the Text we may in a sort refer all the Commands of the Law and Prophets even totum hominis the whole Duty of Man The Precepts in the Law and Prophets concern either our Duty to our Neighbours to our selves or unto God Now the Offices which respect our Neighbours are here most expresly injoyned as hath been declared in Particulars And then The Duties respecting our selves are here necessarily presupposed in as much as we are presumed to love our selves aright to be rightly disposed our selves that so we may become fit measures of Love and Duty towards others And then The Duties we owe to God must needs be in like manner included because we can neither love our selves nor our Neighbour aright without the love of God But besides this the disposition which this Rule calls for and works us up to naturally leads to the Duties of the First as well as the Second Table For 1. The scope and intendment of it is that we be as ready to do good as we are desirous to receive good and consequently we must needs be as ready to do that for God which he requires of us as we desire God should be ready to do for us that which we expect from him as ready to obey his commands as we are to desire a blessing from him 2. The meaning of the Rule is that we would do to others whatsoever we would judge reasonable our selves to be done to us were we in their place whatsoever we judge befitting their state quality and condition and consequently we are necessarily obliged from hence to do all that towards God which our Reason and Understanding rectified by Divine Light judgeth becoming Creatures towards their Creator Preserver Redeemer and continual Benefactor Creatures so related unto God as we are according unto every relation wherein we stand whatsoever becomes us as Subjects to our Heavenly Sovereign as Servants to our Heavenly Master as Children to our Heavenly Father 'T is reasonable all men being Judges that the chiefest Good have our chiefest love and delight that Truth it self have our firm belief that Omnipotence have our chiefest fear and trust that he from whom we are and upon whom we depend be glorified by us in every capacity in Body and Soul which are his and that we offer not any such lazy unbecoming and irreverent Devotions and Services to him which we would blush to bring before our Earthly Governour The Prophet Malachi argues upon this foundation Mal. 1.6 8 14. Deus quoniam utramque personam sustinet Patris Domini amare eum debemus quia filii sumus timere quia servi Lactant. l. 4. A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master If then I be a Father where is mine Honour and if I be a Master where is my Fear saith the Lord of Hosts And if ye offer the blind for Sacrifice is it not evil And if ye offer the lame and sick is it not evil Offer it now to thy Governour will he be pleas'd with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of Hosts And then he concludes But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his Flock a Male but voweth and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing for I am a great King saith the Lord c. He that sits down and considers with himself what God is and how he is related unto God what God hath done for him and what he expects from God will forthwith find within himself an indispensible obligation to all the acts of Love and Religion towards God as unquestionably due by the common and natural Laws of Justice and Gratitude to that excellent Being and Majesty from which he hath received so much and expects so much This Rule then will plainly oblige us to hate all hypocrisie and double dealing towards God which we abominate in men towards our selves and to be sincere and upright before him especially to whose all-seeing eye all things are dissected naked and open To humble our selves in the presence of so Glorious a Majesty and not to be vainly puffed up in our minds since we loath Pride in others and in those chiefly whom we have raised to that degree of excellency which they partake of when they exalt themselves against us To detest in our selves that disobedience towards God which we cannot our selves endure in our Servants and Inferiors If we weak men saith devout Salvian Si nos qui homunculi imbecilli sumus contemni tamen à servis nostris omninò nolumus quos etsi nobis servitutis conditio inferiores humana tamen sors reddit aequales quam iniquè utique coelestem Dominum contemnimus qui cum homines ipsi simus contemnendos tamen nos à nostrae conditionis hominibus non putamus Nisi tanti fortasse consilii ac tam profundae intelligentiae sumus ut qui pati injurias servorum nolumus subditum injuriis nostris Deum esse velimus quae ipsi toleratu humano indigna credimus Deum à nobis digna haec tolerare credamus Salv. p. 79. will not suffer our selves to be despised by our Servants who though inferiour to us in their condition are yet in a sort equal with us by Nature how unjustly do we despise our Heavenly Lord who being men do yet think that we ought not to be contemn'd by men of our own nature Unless it may be we are of so profound an understanding that we who will not suffer the injuries of our Servants would yet have God subject unto ours and can believe that God will take that well of us which we think unworthy and unfit to be born with among men And then since God is before-hand with us in doing of us good and we are not able
esse civibus quales sibi Deos velit Expedit ergo habere inexorabilia peccatis atque erroribus numina Expedit usque ad ultimam infesta perniciem Ecquis regum erit tutus Cujus non membra Aruspices colligant Quod si Dii placabiles aequi delicta potentium non statim fulminibus persequuntur quanto aequius est hominem hominibus praepositum miti animo exercere imperium cogitare utrum mundi status gratior oculis pulchriorque sit sereno puro die an cum fragoribus crebris omnia quatiuntur ignes hinc atque illinc micant Atqui non alia facies est quieti moderatÃque imperii quam sereni coeli nitentis Crudele regnum turbidum tenebrÃsque obscurum est inter trementes ad repentinum sonitum expavescentes nec eo quidem qui omnia turbat inconcusso Sen. de Clem l. 1. c. 7. because even the Heathen Seneca hath mounted to this pitch also Speaking of that mercy which becomes a Prince he thus proceeds I may very well set this Example before a Prince to imitate viz. That he shew himself such to his Citizens as he would have the Gods to be unto himself Is it therefore desirable or expedient saith he for him to have the Deities inexorable as to his sins and errors and so provoked to and resolved upon the utmost destruction Who among Kings would then be safe If therefore the Gods are placable and equal and do not presently persecute the faults of those in Power with Thunderbolts how much more is it reasonable that a man set over men should exercise his power with a meek mind and think with himself whether the state of the world be not more grateful to the eyes and beautiful in a serene and clear day than in Thunder Storms and Tempests c. Thus that Morallist excellently And there is a Proverb that hath much in it expressing the good temper that ought to be in men towards others of their own kind Homo homini Deus such a man is a God to another We should all study then to be such our selves towards others as we desire to find God to our selves The result of all is this That our desires of doing good and not evil unto others be such as may fitly become an equipoise to our desires of receiving good and not evil from God or others That we be disposed to wish and do the same good unto other men which we piously desire from God or reasonably expect from other men in a like condition our selves Calvin cit in Expos Eccles in S. Mat. 7. Regnaret perfecta aequitas si activae charitatis tam fideles essemus discipuli quam acuti sumus passivae doctores as Calvin well phraseth it Perfect equity would obtain in the World were we once as faithful Disciples of active Charity as we are acute Teachers of the Passive i. e. Were we as ready to do good as we are to receive it and as unwilling to wrong others as we are to suffer injuries our selves I have said what may suffice for the explaining of this Rule I am engaged SECT V. SEcondly To an Inquiry into those Grounds and Foundations which support it Those Truths I mean which it presupposeth and relies upon And them I shall refer to the following Heads 1. Every man is here presupposed to have an entire love and regard to himself He must needs first love himself who is obliged to love his Neighbour as himself and 't is a man's love to himself that makes him to will good and not evil from others to himself which is here made the pattern and measure of his demeanour towards others We need not any Precept from God for the loving of our selves which is a Principle that Nature hath taught every Creature viz. a self-love and desire of its own preservation and happiness and thereupon an inclination and appetite towards what is good agreeable and convenient with an aversation and declination from whatsoever appears otherwise And yet so it is that man oftentimes mistaking himself hates himself indeed instead of loving himself Men look upon their Bodies as themselves which are little more than the case and outside of themselves and these they love inordinately and hereby prove real haters of and enemies to their Souls the better and chiefest part of themselves for 't is the Mind and Soul and Spirit which is principally the Man and whosoever loves not that loves not himself Eph. 5.29 No man ever hated his own flesh saith the Apostle but nourisheth and cherisheth it No man to be sure in his right wits no man unless he were mad and distracted alienated and estranged from himself And yet 't is too common a sight which we have every where almost before our eyes to behold men that hate their own Souls instead of nourishing and cherishing of them though the truth is of these persons too we must say they are not themselves Gal. 3.1 they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fools and besotted they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bewitched and whenever they do return to themselves when they do resipiscere grow wise again they will lament and exclaim against their own madness Who understanding and loving of himself would continually stab and wound and injure himself Yet so doth every sinner by his transgressions Prov. 8.36 He that sinneth against me saith the Divine Wisdom wrongeth his own soul all they that hate me love death There is no such injury and hurt to a mans self as sin True it is Christ commands all his Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Mat. 16.24 to deny themselves to abandon and disown themselves in some cases as Parents are wont to serve their ungracious Children and they that are Christ's Gal. 5.24 saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts Nay saith our Saviour S. Luk. 14.26 If any man come after me and do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hate his own soul i. e. his own life he cannot be my Disciple But all these and the like expressions import no more than not to sin to mortifie sin to abandon the occasions and temptations of sinning to lay down our lives and part with our temporal conveniencies rather than to sin And this is enjoyned us that we may not in the truest sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Mat. 16.26 damnifie and injure our souls lose our own souls wrong our own souls so that no more is here call'd for but what the most real love of our selves engageth us to He that submits to some present pain and grief in order to the recovery and continuance of a long health and pleasure doth certainly therein discover not an hatred but a love of himself And he that is willing to undergo some temporal damage yea and the loss of his own life in order to an eternal and glorious happiness keeps most undeniably