to love their Neighbour meaning their brethren and those of their own Nation But our Saviour by commanding us to love our enemies hath in the most emphatical manner that can be commanded us to love all men For if any were to be excluded from our Charity none so likely to be so as our Enemies So that after a command to love our Enemies it was needless to name any others because men are naturally apt to love those that love them I say unto you love your enemies here the inward affection is requir'd Bless them that curse you here outward Civility and Affability are requir'd in opposition to rude and uncivil Language for so blessing and cursing do in Scripture frequently signify Do good to them that hate you here real acts of kindness are commanded to be done by us to our bitterest and most malicious Enemies Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you These are the highest expressions of Enmity that can be calumny and cruelty and yet we are commanded to pray for those that touch us in these two tenderest Points of all other our Reputation and our Life And to secure the sincerity of our Charity towards our Enemies we are requir'd to express it by our hearty Prayers to God for them To God I say before whom it is both impious and dangerous to dissemble and from whom we can expect no mercy for our selves if with feigned Lips we beg it of Him for others You see what is the Duty here required That we bear a sincere affection to our most malicious and implacable Enemies and be ready upon occasion to give real testimony of it And because this may seem a hard duty and not so easy to be reconciled either to our Inclination or our Reason I shall endeavour to shew that this Law is not only reasonable but much more perfect and excellent and the practice of it more easy and delightful and upon all accounts much more for our benefit and advantage than the contrary And that upon four Considerations which I shall endeavour to represent with their just advantage and so as may I hope not only convince our Judgments of the reasonableness of this Precept but likewise bend and sway our Wills to the obedience and practice of it I. If we consider the nature of the act here requir'd which is to Love which when it is not a mere Passion but under the government of our Reason is the most natural and easy and delightful of all the Affections which God hath planted in Humane Nature Whereas ill will and hatred and revenge are very troublesome and vexatious Passions Both the devising of mischief and the accomplishment of it and the reflection upon it afterwards are all uneasy and the consequences of it many times pernicious to our selves The very design of Revenge is troublesome and puts the Spirits into an unnatural fermentation and tumult The man that meditates it is always restless his very soul is stung swells and boiles is in pain and anguish hath no ease no enjoyment of it self so long as this Passion reigns The execution of it may perhaps be attended with some present pleasure but that pleasure is unreasonable and brutish momentany and short like a flash of Lightning which vanisheth in the twinkling of an Eye It is commonly said that Revenge is sweet but to a calm and considerate mind Patience and Forgiveness are sweeter and do afford a much more rational and solid and durable pleasure than Revenge The Monuments of our Mercy and Goodness are a far more pleasing and delightful spectacle than of our Rage and Cruelty And no sort of thought does usually haunt men with more terror than the reflection upon what they have done in way of Revenge Besides that the consequences of this Passion do commonly prove very prejudicial to our selves For the Revenge of one injury doth naturally draw on more and will oblige us for the same reason to a new Revenge of them and this brings on a perpetual and endless circulation of Injuries and Revenges So that whoever seeks Revenge upon another doth commonly in the issue take it upon himself and whilst he thinks to transfer the injury which he hath receiv'd upon him that did it he doubles it upon himself Such and so great are the troubles and inconveniences of a malicious and revengeful temper but there is no torment in Love as St. John excellently says To be kindly affection'd towards all to bear no grudge or ill-will no thought of displeasure or revenge towards any man is the easiest posture the most pleasant state of the Mind So that if not for their sakes yet for our own we should Love our Enemies and do good to them that hate us because to be thus affected towards all men is as great a kindness to our selves as it is charity to others II. If we consider the qualification of the Object it is our Enemy whom we are requir'd to Love In whom though there be something that is justly disgustful yet there is something also that is lovely and if we persist in our kindness to him notwithstanding his enmity to us the enmity may wear off and perhaps at length be chang'd into a sincere and firm friendship 'T is true indeed that with regard to our selves personal enmity towards us is one of the most inconvenient qualities that a man can have but not therefore the worst in it self If we could be impartial and lay aside prejudice we might perhaps discern several very lovely qualities in him who hates us And Vertue is to be own'd and prais'd and lov'd even in an Enemy And perhaps his enmity towards us is not so great and inexcusable a fault as we apprehend he is not perhaps our Enemy to that degree nor so altogether without cause as we imagine possibly we have provok'd him or by his own mistake or through the malicious representation of others he may be induc'd to think so And are not we our selves liable to the like misapprehensions concerning others of which we are many times afterwards convinc'd and asham'd and so may he and then his enmity will cease if we will but have a little patience with him as we always wish in the like case that others would have with us At the worst though never so sore and causeless an Enemy though never so bad a Man yet he is a Man and as such hath something in him which the blindest Passion cannot deny to be good and amiable He hath the same Nature with our selves which we cannot hate or despise without hatred and contempt of our selves Let a man's faults be what they will they do not destroy his Nature and make him cease to be a Man The two great Foundations of Love are Relation and Likeness No one thing says Tully is so like so equal to another as one man is to another What difference soever there may be between us and another man yea though he be
our Enemy yet he is still like us in the main and perhaps but too like us in that for which we find so much fault with him a proneness to offer affronts and injuries And there is an essential Relation as well as Likeness between one man and another which nothing can ever dissolve because it is founded in that which no man can divest himself of in Humane Nature So far is it from being true which Mr. Hobbs asserts as the fundamental Principle of his Politicks That men are naturally in a state of War and enmity with one another that the contrary Principle laid down by a much deeper and wiser man I mean Aristotle is most certainly true That men are naturally akin and friends to each other Some unhappy accidents and occasions may make men Enemies but naturally every man is friend to another and that is the surest and most unalterable reason of things which is founded in Nature not that which springs from mutable accidents and occasions So that whoever is recommended to us under the notion of a Man ought not to be look'd upon by us and treated as an Enemy Consider farther that an Enemy even whilst he is exercising his enmity towards us may do us many acts of real advantage which though they do not proceed from kindness yet in truth are benefits The malicious Censures of our Enemies if we make a right use of them may prove of greater advantage to us than the Civilities of our best friends We can easily afford nay the wisest Men can hardly forbear to love a Flatterer to embrace him and to take him into our bosom and yet an open Enemy is a thousand times better and less dangerous than he It is good for many men that they have had Enemies who have many times been to them the happy occasion of reforming those faults which none but an Enemy would have taken the freedom I had almost said would have had the Friendship to have told them of But what if after all this Enemy of ours this hated man prove to be one of our best Friends For so reconciled Enemies usually are And if any thing will reconcile an Enemy Love and Kindness will An obstinate goodness is apt to conquer even the worst of Men. It is hardly in the nature of man to withstand the kindness of one whom by all that we could do we have not been able to make our enemy After a man hath done the greatest injury to another not only to find no revenge following upon it but the first opportunity taken to oblige him is so very surprizing that it can hardly fail to gain upon the worst disposition and to melt down the hardest temper So that we should love our Enemies if not for what they are at present yet for what they may be and in hope that by these means they may in the time become our Friends III. If we consider the Excellency and Generosity of the thing it self To love our enemies and to do good to them that hate us is the perfection of goodness and the advancement of it to its highest pitch It is the most excellent and perfect act of the greatest and most perfect of all Graces and Vertues I mean Charity which by St. Paul is call'd the bond of perfection and by St. James the perfect and the Royal Law because it inspires men with a greatness of Mind fit for Kings and Princes in whom nothing is more admirable than a generous Goodness and Clemency even towards great Enemies and Offenders so far as is consistent with the Publick Good Love for love is but Justice and Gratitude Love for no love is favour and kindness but Love for hatred and enmity is a most Divine Temper a steddy and immutable Goodness that is not to be stirr'd by provocation and so far from being conquer'd that it is rather confirm'd by its contrary For if Hatred and Enmity do not extinguish Love what can This is Goodness indeed not only without Merit and Obligation without Invitation or Motive but against all reasonable expectation and in despite of all Temptation and Provocation to the contrary So that to return good for evil and love for hatred is one of the greatest arguments of a great Mind and of deep wisdom and consideration For naturally our first inclinations and thoughts towards our Enemies are full of Anger and Revenge but our second and wiser thoughts will tell us that Forgiveness is much more generous than Revenge And a more glorious Victory cannot be gain'd over another man than this that when the Injury began on his part the Kindness should begin on ours If both the ways were equally in our power yet it is a much more desirable Conquest to overcome evil with good than with evil By this we can only Conquer our Enemy and may perhaps fail in that but by the other we certainly Conquer our selves and perhaps our Enemy too overcoming him in the noblest manner and walking him gently till he be cool and without force effectually subduing him to be our Friend This as One fitly compares it is like a great and wise General by Art and Stratagem by meer dint of Skill and Conduct by Patience and wise delay without ever striking a stroke or shedding one drop of blood to vanquish an Enemy and to make an end of the War without ever putting it to the hazard of a Battel Revenge is blind and rash and does always proceed from impotency and weakness of Mind 'T is Anger that spurs men on to it and Anger is certainly one of the foolishest Passions of Humane Nature and which commonly betrays men to the most imprudent and unreasonable things So Solomon observes He that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly and again Anger resteth in the bosom of Fools But to be able to bear provocation is an argument of great Wisdom and to forgive it of a great Mind So the same Wise-man tells us He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a City It is a greater thing in case of great Provocation to calm a mans own spirit than to storm and take a strong City Whereas the Angry Man loseth and lets fall the government of himself and lays the Reins upon the neck of the Wild Beast his own brutish Appetite and Passion which hurries him on first to Revenge and then to Repentance for the folly which he hath been guilty of in gratifying so unreasonable a Passion For it very seldom happens that any man executes an act of Revenge but the very next moment after he hath done it he is sorry for it and wisheth he had not done it Whereas Patience and Forgiveness do wisely prevent both the mischief to others and the trouble to our selves which is usually consequent upon Revenge IV. If we consider the perfection and prevalency of the Examples which the Gospel proposeth to us to
allure and engage us to the practice of this Duty And they are the Examples of God himself and of the Son of God in the Nature of Man 1. The Example of God himself The Scripture doth frequently set before us the goodness of Gods common Providence to Sinners for our Pattern And this is the Argument whereby our Blessed Saviour presseth the Duty in the Text upon us in the Verse immediately after it That ye may be the children of your heavenly Father who maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and the good and his Rain to fall on the just and the unjust The same Argument Seneca also urgeth to the same purpose How many says he are unworthy of the light and yet the Day visits them And speaking of the Gods They bestow says he their benefits upon the unthankful and are ready to help those who make a bad construction and use of their kindness And almost in the very words of our Saviour Etiam sceleratis Sol oritur c. The Sun riseth even upon the most vile and profligate persons and the Seas are open to Pirates Thus is God affected towards those who are guilty of the greatest provocations towards Him He bestows upon them the gifts of his Common Providence and not only so but is ready to forgive innumerable Offences to them for Christ's sake This Pattern the Apostle proposeth to our imitation Be ye kind tender-hearted forbearing one another forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you Be ye therefore imitaters of God as dear children This temper and disposition of Mind is the prime excellency and perfection of the Divine Nature and who would not be ambitious to be like the most perfect and best of Beings And so our B. Saviour concludes this Argument in the last Verse of this Chapter Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect which St. Luke renders Be ye therefore merciful as your Father which is in Heaven is merciful So that in that very thing which we think to be so hard and difficult you see that we have Perfection it self for our Pattern And this Example ought to be of so much greater force with us by how much greater reason there is why we should do thus to one another than why God should do thus to us Our Offences against God are more and greater than any man ever was or could be guilty of towards us Besides that there are many Considerations which ought to tye up our hands and may reasonably restrain us from falling furiously upon one another which can have no place at all in God We may justly fear that the consequence of our Revenge may return upon our selves and that it may come to be our own case to stand in need of Mercy and Forgiveness from others And therefore out of necessary caution and prudence we should take heed not to set any bad example in this kind lest it should recoil upon our selves We who stand so much in need of Forgiveness our selves ought in all reason to be very easy to forgive others But now the Divine Nature is infinitely above any real injury or suffering God can never stand in need of pity or forgiveness and yet of his own meer Goodness without any interest or design how slow is he to anger and how ready to forgive And which comes yet nearer to us there is also the Example of the Son of God our Blessed Saviour who in our Nature and in case of the greatest Injuries and Provocations imaginable did practise this Vertue to the height And all this for our sakes as well as for our Example So that he requires nothing of us but what he himself submitted to with the greatest Patience and Constancy of Mind in our stead and wholly for our advantage He render'd good for evil to all Mankind and shew'd greater Love to us whilst we were Enemies to Him than ever any man did to his Friend He pray'd for those that despitefully used him and persecuted him And this not upon cool consideration after the injury was done and the pain of his Sufferings was over but whilst the sense and smart of them was upon him and in the very Agony and bitterness of Death In the height of all his anguish he pour'd out his Soul an Offering for the Sins of Men and his Blood a Sacrifice to God for the expiation of the Guilt of that very Sin whereby they shed it pleading with God in the behalf of his Murderers the only Excuse that was possible to be made for their Malice that is their Ignorance and spending his last breath in that most charitable Prayer for them Father forgive them for they know not what they do The last Declaration which he made of his mind was Love to his Enemies and the last Legacy he bequeath'd was an earnest Request to God for the Forgiveness of his Persecutors and Murderers So that if any Example ought to be dear to us and effectually to engage us to the imitation of it this of our Blessed Saviour should since the Injuries which he suffer'd have saved us from suffering and the greatest Blessing and Happiness that ever befel Mankind is due to this excellent Example And then with what Confidence nay with what Conscience can we pretend to share in the Benefits of this Example without imitating the Vertues of it Can we seriously contemplate the excessive Kindness and Charity of the Son of God to the sinful Sons of Men after all our bitterest Enmity towards him and most cruel and injurious Usage of him and all this Charity exercis'd towards us whilst he was under the actual sense and suffering of these things and yet not be provok'd by an Example so admirable in it self and of such mighty advantage to us to go and do likewise But notwithstanding the power of these Arguments to perswade to this Duty I must not dissemble some Objections which are I believe in many of your minds against it and to which for the full clearing of this matter it will be fit to give some satisfaction And they are these 1. That this Precept in the Text does not seem so well to agree with another of our Blessed Saviour's in another Evangelist If thy brother trespass against thee rebuke him and if he repent forgive him And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him Here our Blessed Saviour seems not to require Forgiveness unless he that hath done the Injury declare his Repentance for it but the Text plainly requires us to forgive those who are so far from repenting of their Enmity that they still pursue it and exercise it upon us Thus our Lord teacheth us and thus He himself practised towards his Persecutors But this appearance of Contradiction will quickly vanish if we consider that Forgiveness is sometimes taken chiefly
for abstaining from Revenge and so far we are to forgive our Enemies even whilst they continue so and though they do not repent And not only so but we are also to pray for them and to do good offices to them especially of common Humanity and this is the meaning of the Precept in the Text. But sometimes Forgiveness does signify a perfect Reconciliation to those that have offended us so as to take them again into our Friendship which they are by no means fit for till they have repented of their Enmity and laid it aside And this is plainly the meaning of the other Text. 2. It is further objected That this seems to be a very imprudent thing and of dangerous consequence to our selves because by bearing one Injury so patiently and forgiving it so easily we invite more and not only tempt our Enemy to go on but others also by his Example to do the like Which will make ill natur'd Men to provoke us on purpose with a crafty design to wrest benefits from us For what better Trade can a man drive than to gain Benefits in exchange for Injuries To this I answer three things First It is to be feared that there are but few so very good as to make this kind return for Injuries Perhaps of those that call themselves Christians not one in a hundred And he is not a cunning man that will venture to make an Enemy when there is the odds of a hundred to one against him that this Enemy of his will take the first opportunity to take his Revenge upon him Secondly It is also on the other hand to be hoped that but very few are so prodigiously bad as to make so barbarous a return for the unexpected kindness of a generous Enemy And this is encouragement enough to the practice of this Duty if there be a probable hope that it will have a good effect and however if it should fall out otherwise yet this would not be reason enough to discourage our goodness especially since the kindness which we do to our Friends is liable almost to an equal Objection that they may prove ungrateful and become our Enemies it having been often seen that great Benefits and such as are beyond requital instead of making a man more a Friend have made him an Enemy Thirdly Our Saviour never intended by this Precept that our goodness should be blind and void of all prudence and discretion but that it should be so managed as to make our Enemy sensible both of his own fault and of our favour and so as to give him as little encouragement as there is reason for it to hope to find the like favour again upon the like provocation Our Saviour commands us to do the thing but hath left it to our prudence to do it in such a manner as may be most effectual both to reclaim the Offender and likewise to secure our selves against future and further Injuries 3. Lastly It is objected What can we do more to our best Friends than to love them and bless them than to do good to them and to pray for them And are we then to make no difference betwixt our Enemies and our Friends Yes surely and so we may notwithstanding this Precept For there are degrees of Love and there are Benefits of several rates and sizes Those of the first rate we may with reason bestow upon our Friends and with those of a second or third rate there is all the reason in the World why our Enemies should be very well contented Besides that we may abstain from Revenge yea and love our Enemy and wish him and do him good and yet it will not presently be necessary that we should take him into our bosom and treat and trust him as our intimate and familiar Friend For every one that is not our Enemy is not fit to be our Friend much less one that hath been our Enemy and perhaps is so still There must be a great change in him that hath been our Enemy and we must have had long experience of him before it will be fit if ever it be so to take him into our Friendship All that now remains is to make some Inferences from the Discourse which I have made upon this Argument by way of Application And they shall be these four I. If we think it so very difficult to demean our selves towards our Enemies as the Christian Religion doth plainly require us to do to forgive them and love them and pray for them and to do good offices to them then certainly it concerns us in prudence to be very careful how we make Enemies to our selves One of the first Principles of Humane Wisdom in the conduct of our Lives I have ever thought to be this To have a few intimate Friends and to make no Enemies if it be possible to our selves St. Paul lays a great stress upon this and presseth it very earnestly For after he had forbidden Revenge Recompence to no man evil for evil As if he were very sensible how hard a matter it is to bring men to this he adviseth in the next words to prevent if it be possible the occasions of Revenge If it be possible and as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men That is if we can avoid it have no Enmity with any man And that for two weighty Reasons The first I have already intimated because it is so very hard to behave our selves towards Enemies as we ought This we shall find to be a difficult Duty to Flesh and Blood and it will require great Wisdom and Consideration and Humility of Mind for a Man to bring down his Spirit to the Obedience of this Command For the fewer Enemies we have the less occasion will there be of contesting this hard Point with our selves And the other Reason is I think yet plainer and more convincing because Enemies will come of themselves and let a man do what he can he shall have some Friendship is a thing that needs to be cultivated if we would have it come to any thing but Enemies like ill Weeds will spring up of themselves without our care and toil The Enemy as our Saviour calls the Devil will sow these Tares in the night and when we least discern it will scatter the Seeds of Discord and Enmity among men and will take an advantage either from the Envy or the Malice or the Mistakes of Men to make them Enemies to one another Which would make one wonder to see what care and pains some men will take to provoke Mankind against them how they will lay about them and snatch at opportunities to make themselves Enemies as if they were afraid to let the happy occasion slip by them But all this care and fear surely is needless we may safely trust an ill natur'd World that we shall have Enemies enough without our doing things on our part to provoke and procure them But above all it concerns
very fit and reasonable The Question is In what Cases by the general Rules of Scripture and right Reason we are warranted to say the evil of others that is true In general we are not to do this without great reason and necessity as for the prevention of some great evil or the procuring of some considerable good to our selves or others And this I take to be the meaning of that advice of the Son of Sirach Whether it be to a friend or a foe talk not of other men's lives and if thou canst without offence reveal them not that is if without hurt to any body thou canst conceal them divulge them not But because this may not be direction sufficient I shall instance in some of the principal Cases wherein men are warranted to speak evil of others and yet in so doing do not offend against this Prohibition in the Text. First It is not only lawful but very commendable and many times our duty to do this in order to the probable amendment of the person of whom evil is spoken In such a case we may tell a man of his faults privately or where it may not be so fit for us to use that boldness and freedom we may reveal his faults to one who is more fit and proper to reprove him and will probably make no other use of this discovery but in order to his amendment And this is so far from being a breach of Charity that it is one of the best testimonies of it For perhaps the party may not be guilty of what hath been reported of him and then it is a kindness to give him the opportunity of vindicating himself Or if he be guilty perhaps being privately and prudently told of it he may reform In this Case the Son of Sirach adviseth to reveal men's faults Admonish a friend says he it may be he hath not done it and if he have done it that he do it no more Admonish a friend it may be he hath not said it and if he have that he speak it not again Admonish a friend for many times it is a slander and believe not every tale But then we must take care that this be done out of kindness and that nothing of our own passion be mingled with it and that under pretence of reproving and reforming men we do not reproach and revile them and tell them of their faults in such a manner as if we did it to shew our authority rather than our charity It requires a great deal of address and gentle application so to manage the business of Reproof as not to irritate and exasperate the person whom we reprove instead of curing him Secondly This likewise is not only lawful but our duty when we are legally called to bear witness concerning the fault and crime of another A good man would not be an accuser unless the publick good or the prevention of some great evil should require it And then the plain reason of the thing will sufficiently justifie a voluntary accusation otherwise it hath always among well-manner'd People been esteemed very odious for a man to be officious in this kind and a forward Informer concerning the misdemeanours of others Magistrates may sometimes think it fit to give encouragement to such persons and to set one bad man to catch another because such men are fittest for such dirty work But they can never inwardly approve them nor will they ever make them their friends and confidents But when a man is call'd to give testimony in this kind in obedience to the Laws and out of reverence to the Oath taken in such Cases he is so far from deserving blame for so doing that it would be an unpardonable fault in him to conceal the truth or any part of it Thirdly It is lawful to publish the faults of others in our own necessary defence and vindication When a man cannot conceal another's faults without betraying his own innocency no charity requires a man to suffer himself to be defamed to save the reputation of another man Charity begins at home and though a man had never so much goodness he would first secure his own good name and then be concern'd for other men's We are to love our neighbour as our selves so that the love of our selves is the Rule and Measure of our love to our neighbour And therefore first otherwise it could not be the Rule And it would be very well for the World if our Charity would rise thus high and no man would hurt another man's reputation but where his own is in real danger Fourthly This also is lawful for caution and warning to a third person that is in danger to be infected by the company or ill example of another or may be greatly prejudiced by reposing too much confidence in him having no knowledge or suspicion of his bad qualities But even in this case we ought to take great care that the ill character we give of any man be spread no further than is necessary to the good end we designed in it Besides these more obvious and remarkable Cases this Prohibition doth not I think hinder but that in ordinary conversation men may mention that ill of others which is already made as publick as it well can be Or that one friend may not in freedom speak to another of the miscarriage of a third person where he is secure no ill use will be made of it and that it will go no further to his prejudice Provided always that we take no delight in hearing or speaking ill of others And the less we do it though without any malice or design of harm still the better because this shews that we do not feed upon ill reports and take pleasure in them These are the usual Cases in which it may be necessary for us to speak evil of other men And these are so evidently reasonable that the Prohibition in the Text cannot with reason be extended to them And if no man would allow himself to say any thing to the prejudice of another man's good name but in these and the like Cases the tongues of men would be very innocent and the World would be very quiet I proceed in the III d place to consider the evil of this Practice both in the Causes and the Consequences of it First We will consider the Causes of it And it commonly springs from one or more of these evil Roots First One of the deepest and most common Causes of evil-speaking is ill-nature and cruelty of disposition And by a general mistake Ill-nature passeth for Wit as Cunning doth for Wisdom though in truth they are nothing a-kin to one another but as far distant as Vice and Vertue And there is no greater evidence of the bad temper of Mankind than the general proneness of men to this Vice For as our Saviour says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And therefore men do commonly incline to the censorious and