SERM. inftances it is very feasible to love our neighbour no lefs XXVI. than ourselves.

1 Tim. i. 6. We may love our neighbour truly and fincerely, out of a pure heart and a good confcience, and faith unfeigned, as

St. Paul doth prescribe; or according to St. Peter's in1 Pet. i. 22. junction, from a pure heart love one another fervently: and (Rom. xii. in this refpect we can do no more toward ourselves; for truth admitteth no degrees, fincerity is a pure and complete thing, exclufive of all mixture or alloy.

9.)

And as to external acts at least it is plain that charity toward others may reach felf-love; for we may be as ferious, as vigorous, as induftrious in acting for our neighbour's good, as we can be in pursuing our own defigns and interefts for reafon eafily can manage and govern external practice; and common experience fheweth the matter to this extent practicable, seeing that often men do employ as much diligence on the concerns of others, as they can do on their own, (being able to do no more than their best in either cafe :) wherefore in this refpect charity may vie with selfishness; and practifing thus far may be a step to mount higher.

Alfo rational confideration will enable us to perform fome interior acts of charity in the highest degree; for if we do but (as without much difficulty we may do) apply our mind to weigh the qualities and the actions of our neighbour, we may thence obtain a true opinion and just esteem of him; and, fecluding grofs folly or flattery of ourselves, how can we in that respect or instance be more kind or benign to ourselves?

Is it not also within the compafs of our ability to repress those paffions of foul, the eruption whereof tendeth to the wrong, damage, and offence of our neighbour; in regard to which practice St. Paul affirmeth, that the law may be Rom. xiii. fulfilled: Love, faith he, worketh no evil to his neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law? And what more in this respect can we perform for ourselves?

10.

3. We may confider, that commonly we fee men inclined by other principles to act as much or more for the fake of others, as they would for themselves.

Moral honefty hath inclined fome, ambition and po- SERM, pularity have excited others, to encounter the greatest XXVI. dangers, to attack the greatest difficulties, to expofe their safety, to facrifice their lives for the welfare of their country a.

citia. Sen.

Ep. ix.

Common friendship hath often done as much, and brutish love (that mad friendship, as Seneca calleth it) Infana amicommonly doeth far more: for what will not a fond lover undertake and achieve for his minion, although the really be the worst enemy he can have? yet for such a fnake will he not lavish his eftate, prostitute his honour, Chryf. in Eph. p. abandon his cafe, hazard his fafety, fhipwreck his conscience, forfeit his falvation? What may not a Delilah obtain of her Samfon, a Cleopatra of her Anthony, how prejudicial foever it be to his own intereft and welfare?

Why then may not a principle of charity, grounded on fo much better reason, and backed by fo much stronger motives, be conceived able to engage men to the like practice? why may not a man be difpofed to do that out of a hearty good-will, which he can do out of vain conceit, or vicious appetite? why fhall other forces overbear nature, and the power of charity be unable to match it?

Let us confider, that thofe difpofitions of foul which usually with so much violence do thwart the observance of this precept, are not ingredients of true felf-love, by the which we are directed to regulate our charity; but a fpurious brood of our folly and pravity, which imply not a fober love of ourselves, but a corrupt fondness toward an idol of our fancy mistaken for ourselves.

A high conceit of our worth or ability, of our fortune or worldly state, of our works and achievements; a great complacence or confidence in fome endowment or advantage belonging to us, a stiff adherence to our own will or humour, a greedy appetite to fome particular interest or base pleasure; these are those, not attendants of

• Αληθὲς δὲ τὸ περὶ τῷ σπυδαία, κ τὸ τῶν φίλων ἵνικα πολλὰ πράττειν καὶ τῆς πατρίδα, και δίη υπεραποθνήσκειν. Arif, Eth. ix. 8.

797.

SERM. natural felf-love, but iffues of unnatural depravedness in XXVI. judgment and affections, which render our practice so exorbitant in this regard, making us feem to love ourselves fo immoderately, fo infinitely; fo contracting our fouls, and drawing them inwards, that we appear indifpofed to love our neighbour in any confiderable degree: if these (as by ferious confideration they may be) were avoided, or much abated, it would not be found fo grievous a matter to love our neighbour as ourselves; for that sober love remaining behind, to which nature inclineth, and which reafon approveth, would rather help to promote than yield any obftacle to our charity: if fuch perverfe selfishnefs were checked and depreffed, and natural kindness cherished and advanced, then true felf-love and charity would compose themselves into near a juft poife.

5. Indeed (which we may farther confider) our nature is not so abfolutely averse or indisposed to the practice of fuch charity, as to those may feem who view it slightly, either in fome particular inftances, or in ordinary practice: nature hath furnished us with strong inftincts for the defence and fuftenance of our life; and common practice is depraved by ill education and cuftom: these some men poring on do imagine no room left for charity in the conftitution of men; but they confider not that one of these may be fo moderated, and the other fo corrected, that charity may have a fair fcope in men's hearts and practice; and they flip over divers pregnant marks of our natural inclination thereto.

Man having received his foul from the breath of God, and being framed after the image of his most benign parent, there do yet abide in him fome features resembling God, and relics of the divine original; there are in us feeds of ingenuity, of equity, of pity, of benignity, which being cultivated by fober confideration and good use, under the conduct and aid of heavenly grace, will produce noble fruits of charity.

The frame of our nature fo far difpofeth us thereto, that our bowels are touched with fenfible pain upon the view of any calamitous object: our fancy is difturbed at

the report of any difafter befalling any perfon; we can SERM. hardly fee or read a tragedy without motions of com- XXVI. paffion.

The practice of benignity, of courtefy, of clemency at first fight, without any difcurfive reflection, doth obtain approbation and applause from us; being no less grateful and amiable to the mind than beauty to our eyes, harmony to our ears, fragrancy to our fmell, and sweetness to our palate and to the fame mental fenfe malignity, cruelty, harshness, all kinds of uncharitable dealing are very disgustful and loathfome.

της ἐπαιν

There wanteth not any commendation to procure a 09 respect for charity, nor any invective to breed abhorrence of uncharitablenefs; nature fufficiently prompting to . Arift. favour the one, and to deteft the other.

The practice of the former in common language hath ever been styled humanity; and the difpofition from whence it floweth is called good-nature: the practice of the latter is likewise termed inhumanity, and its fource ill-nature; as thwarting the common notions and inclinations of mankind, divefting us of our manhood, and rendering us a fort of monsters among men.

No quality hath a clearer repute, or is commonly more admired, than generofity, which is a kind of natural charity, or hath a great spice thereof: no difpofition is more despised among men than niggardly felfifhnefs; whence commonly men are afhamed to avow felf-interest as a principle of their actions, (rather fathering them on some other caufe,) as being conscious to themselves that it is the bafeft of all principles b.

Whatever the cenfurers and detractors of human nature do pretend, yet even themselves do admire pure beneficence, and contemn felfishness; for, if we look to the bottom of their intent, it is hence they are bent to flander mankind as void of good nature, because out of

ὁ Ἐπιτιμῶσι γὰρ τοῖς ἑαυτοὺς μάλιτα ἀγαπῶσι, καὶ ὡς ἐν αἰσχρῷ φιλαύτους konak. Arift. ix. 9.

Ονῳ ἂν βελτίων ᾖ, μᾶλλον διὰ τὸ καλὸν, κ, φίλου ἵνικα, τὸ δὲ αὐτῷ παρίησι. Ibid.

Eth. viii. 1.

SERM. malignity they would not allow it a quality so excellent XXVI and divine.

Wherefore, according to the general judgment and conscience of men, (to omit other confiderations,) our nature is not fo averfe from charity, or destitute of propenfions thereto; and therefore cherishing the natural feeds of it, we may improve it to higher degrees.

6. But fuppofing the inclinations of nature, as it now standeth in its depraved and crazy state, do so mightily obftruct the practice of this duty in the degree specified, so that however we cannot by any force of reafon or philosophy attain to defire so much or relifh fo well the good of others as our own; yet we must remember, that a subsidiary power is by the divine mercy difpenfed, able to control and fubdue nature to a compliance, to raise our practice above our natural forces. We have a like averseness to other spiritual duties, (to the loving God with all our hearts, to the mortifying our flefh and carnal defires, to the contempt of worldly things, and placing our happiness in spiritual goods;) yet we are able to perform them by the fuccour of grace, and in virtue of that omnipotency which St. Paul affumed to himself when he said,

Phil. iv. 13. I can do all things by Chrift enabling me.

ἐν τῷ ἐνδυ ναμάντι.

If we can get the Spirit of love, (and affuredly we may 2 Tim. i. 7. get it, if we carefully will seek it, with constant fervency imploring it from him, who hath promifed to bestow it on those that ask it,) it will infufe into our minds that light, whereby we fhall difcern the excellency of this duty, together with the folly and baseness of that selfishnefs which croffeth it; it will kindle in our hearts charitable affections, difpofing us to with all good to our neighbour, and to feel pleasure therein; it will render us partakers of that divine nature, which fo will guide and urge us in due measure to affect the benefit of others, as now corrupt nature doth move us unmeasurably to covet our own; being fupported and elevated by its virtue, we may, furmounting the clogs of fleshly fenfe and conceit, foar up to the due pitch of charity; being Deodidantoi, 1 Theff. iv. taught of God to love one another; and endowed with