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
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
whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so unto them Amoris tui erga proximum mensura es tu ipse singulos sic dilige quomodo tu ab iis diligi velles si esses illorum loco Camero Thou art thy self become the measure of thy love towards thy Neighbour as Camero hath it so love thou others as thou wouldest be loved by them if thou wert in their place and stead i. e. Love thou others with the same sincerity wherewith thou lovest thy self and give proof of this love by doing the same to them as thou wouldest desire they should do to thee in the like condition The Law refers us to our selves because we are naturally inclined to self-love and in our own interest and concerns plerunque rectiùs videmus quid aequum sit Grot. in loc we do for the most part see more rightly what is equal at least we are not apt to wrong our selves Salust Nemini suae injuriae leves videntur No man thinks his own injuries light Camerarius Sua quisque maxima esse judicat mala Every one judgeth his own evils greatest every one is concluded truest to his own interest and concerns So then to love our Neighbour as our selves is the soul and life of this Precept to do to our Neighbour as we would be done by our selves And thus the Rule before us prescribes not only to our outward actions but to our inward affections also There must be an agreement between our heart and practice our will and doings What we are to do to our Neighbours the same we are to wish intend love desire chuse resolve upon and what we ought not to effect we may not inwardly covet or delight in without transgression Quid refert mala non facere quae affectu concupiscis Quid refert bona foris agere quibus diversa fiant intus Erasm Euchir Mil. Christ p. 119. The Laws of Christ reach to the Principles of our Actions as well as to the Actions themselves to the hidden and invisible as well as to the open and visible part of them to the fountain as well as to the streams to the cause as well as to the effects Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self and All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so unto them have the same reference each to other as the cause and the effect as the fountain and the strram as the inside and outside of one and the same Duty 2. We may farther enlarge our conceptions by viewing together this Affirmative Precept and the Negative that is deducible from it and as hath been said before to be referr'd unto it for every positive Precept includes a double Prohibition in it 1. Of the omission of the duty required And 2. Of the commission of the contrary evil Whoever commands the doing of any good forbids at the same time the neglect of that good and the evil opposite unto it He that injoyns us to do well doth as certainly bid us cease to do evil and includes withal somewhat more in his Injunctions than if he had nakedly bid us cease to do evil A negative Religion only will not serve our turns we must be also positively good and yet so we cannot be without ceasing first to be evil this being the beginning of our wisdom stultitiâ caruisse The positive Precept then is the more perfect and intire as including both the Prohibition and Command in it self And thus we are to interpret the Rule of the Text by supplying it with its Negative that is the advice of Tobit to young Tobias Do that to no man which thou hatest what thou wouldest not that men should do unto thee do not thou thy self that unto them 3. To prevent all mistakes and misapplications of this Rule to Practice there are two or three things farther to be noted by way of caution about it 1. In the general we must remember that this Rule may never be so understood or applied as to contradict or subvert any other of the more particular Laws and Appointments of Christ Quod tibi bonum praestari velles idem debes ipse alteri praestare in eisdem circumstantiis quoad fieri potest citra tertii alicujus injuriam Quod malum tibi fieri nolles à faciendo illud alteri ipse debes abstinere quoad fieri potest absque tertii alicujus injuriâ Dr. More Enchir. Eth. p. 22. or the Order established and approved by him We are to conclude that it is not at odds with any particular Laws of Charity and Justice being indeed designed only for a brief and universal comprehension of them and as a fence and security to them that we transgress not at any time through inordinate love of our selves but since we are every one presumed to be hearty prosecutors of our interest and concerns we make this our pattern example and square in our dealings with others as sincerely to have respect unto their good as our own that we have not a measure and a measure unjust balances one for our selves and another for our neighbours it having been generally observed in the World Homo in se aliud fert in alterum aliud cogitat Laberius that men have one judgement for themselves and another for their neighbours so as to condemn others at the same time and in the same things wherein they acquit and justifie themselves and deem that evil in others towards them which they continually practice themselves towards others and that good in others towards them which they deny continually unto others To prevent now this undue bias of self-love and self-seeking Christ requires us to use the same measure to others as to our selves as sincerely to love others as our selves and do for them as we desire they should do for us To sell as we would buy for Prov. 20.10 Divers weights and divers measures are both of them alike an abomination unto the Lord. This now being the purpose of the Rule to prevent or remove that grand prejudice which makes us swerve and decline from the particular Precepts of Order Justice and Charity towards our Neighbour we cannot we must not at any time so understand or apply it as to cross and oppose any of those Precepts 2. Therefore when our Blessed Saviour saith All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you he must be understood only de voluntate regulatâ ordinatâ of a well-ordered and regulate Will a Will following the dictates of right Reason and Religion and consequently onely conversant about things truly good and meet to be done and therefore whether we add the word bona or no as some Latin Versions have done quaecunque bona Whatsoever good things ye would that men should do unto you 't is most certain that we are so to understand and conceive of it as to exclude omne maleficium every
evil work or thing from being the object of our will 'T is S. Augustines Observation De Civ Dei l. 14. c. 8. that Voluntas non est propriè nisi in bonis in malis cupiditas dicitur Will is proper to good objects but we call it Lust in evils And Hoc loco modo quodam proprio voluntas posita est quae in mal◠accipi non potest In this place saith he Will is to be taken in that proper manner as not to be conceived of that which is evil None in his right mind wisheth to himself what is evil and inconvenient we must not imagine that our Saviour refers us to our corrupted and vitiated Wills but he supposeth them according to their natural and true state and temper not according to what they may prove by degeneracy evil habits and customs as they should be as they were made by God and appointed to be and not as they are through our default and corruption as they are in the best of men and not in the worst for specimen naturae capiendum ex optimâ naturâ and as Bishop Andrews somewhere observes the Scripture often speaks of things not as they are corrupted but as they ought to be The sense of the Rule then is clearly this ut aliis praestemus ea Grot. in S. Mat. 7. quae ratio dictat non iniquè nos ab aliis postulaturos That we do unto others such things as reason dictates we should not unjustly desire from others our selves Whatsoever ye would i. e. reasonably and regularly 3. There must be considerata personarum mutatio a considerate change of persons that is we must suppose other men in our condition rank and place and our selves in theirs and so deal with every one as if we had exchanged persons and conditions with them Vt rectè judicemus persona mutanda est idemque statuendum in altero quod in nobis aequum simus existimaturi Id. ibid. as Grotius speaks That we may judge aright the Person must be changed and we must determine the same for another which we would judge equal for our selves were we in his room If 't is bitter unto thee to bear an injury saith Lactantius and he that does it seems unjust in thy account Lactant. l. 6. transfer in alterius personam quod in te sentis in tuam quod de altero judicas remove that by way of supposition to another person which thou feelest in thy self and that to thy own person which thou judgest of another and thou wilt presently understand tam Te injustè facere si alteri noceas quam Alterum si tibi That thou thy self dost as much unjustly in injuring of another as another in hurting thee We should therefore as he speaks in aliis hominibus nos ipsos cogitare cap. 10. in nobis alios think of our selves in other men and of others in our selves a due respect being had to the several circumstances and distinctions of our qualities and conditions That is So obedient should we be to our Governours as we desire and expect those under our Government should be unto us so are we to honour our Parents as we would desire our Children should honour us be so respective to our Inferiours as we desire our Superiours should be to us Of which with many other Instances hereafter Lastly The scope and meaning of the Rule will be as clear and full as may be if we add one Observation more to what hath been said The learned Dr. Hammond notes Pract. Cat. p. 299. That Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you by an Hebraism imports Whatsoever ye would have done to you i. e. by whomsoever and so by God or Christ as well as Man We may observe indeed many instances in the New Testament wherein the third person Plural is put to express a passive sense Thus S. Luke 6.38 S. Luk. 6.38 Give and it shall be given unto you good measure pressed down and shaken togerher shall men give into your bosom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall they give into your bosom is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be given unto you Again ch 12.20 ch 12.20 where we read not amiss in the English Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee 't is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this night do they require thy soul of thee Again ch 16.9 ch 16.9 where it is said Make to your selves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations 't is probably no more than that ye may be received into everlasting habitations And to name but one place more ch 23.31 ch 23.31 when 't is said If they do these things in a green tree what shall be done in the dry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more in sense than If these things be done in a green tree And thus now if we read also the third person Plural in the Text in a passive sense the words will run thus All things whatsoever ye would have done to your selves or to be done to your selves And accordingly the Latin Style of this Precept generally runs Quod tibi fieri vis which if we follow it extends as hath been said to whatsoever we desire or wish to our selves from God or Christ as well as from Men that to the utmost of our power we be ready also to do the same unto others Whether the Hebraism will enforce it here or no the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men being expressed before the Verb Plural which I find not in the original of any of the other Instances sure I am the Illative Particle ushering in the Text whereof I have before discoursed fairly suggests this sense unto us inferring this our duty towards men from our expectation of good things from God as hath been shewed The general Inforcement of those particular Precepts of Charity and Mercy wherewith S. Luke conjoyns this of the Text and which are easily to be deduced from this is the Divine Pattern towards us Be ye therefore merciful even as your Father is merciful S. Luk. 6.36 And 't is the Petition of our daily Prayers Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And of all Petitions in the Lords Prayer our Blessed Saviour bestows a Comment upon none but that to fix and engage our thoughts the rather upon it For S. Mat. 6.14 15. saith he if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses And we are given more than once to understand that we must expect the same measure from God our selves as we mete to others Of which more hereafter This sense we may the rather embrace Optimè hoc exemplum Principi constituam ad quod formetur ut se talem