As to the Most High God, our blessed Saviour hath forewarned us," to love Him with all our heart, with all our Matt.22.37. soul, with all our might, and with all our mind," " to fear ch. 10. 28. Him," and none but Him, " to believe and trust on Him," John 14. 1. "to seek His Kingdom, and the righteousness thereof in Matt. 6. 33. the first place," and "to worship Him in spirit and in truth," John 4. 24. and the like.

ch 22. 21.

ch. 5. 20.

And as to men, He hath enjoined "not to judge others," Matt. 7. 1. "not be angry or passionate with one another, especially ch. 5. 22. without a just cause," but " to love one another as He hath John 15. 12. loved us;" yea, "to love our very enemies ;"" to be obedient Matt. 5. 44. to magistrates:" "to be charitable to the poor;" "to be just ch. 5. 42; and righteous unto all." Indeed, whatsoever duty it is that ch. 25. 35. we owe to one another, He hath somewhere or other in His Gospel most clearly described it to us. And that we may always keep ourselves within the bounds of equity and justice, He hath given us here in the words of my text a short and comprehensive rule, easy to be kept always in our minds, whereby to order all our actions towards one another, saying, "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the Law and the Prophets."

Which words we must not look upon only as containing good advice, and wholesome counsel and direction for the ordering of our lives and conversations, but we are to esteem them to be what really they are, even an express command which Christ enjoins all His disciples punctually to observe, as the standard of all our civil actions; and that whereby He will examine and weigh them all at the day of judgment. So that all our actions to one another shall be either approved of, or condemned, according as they are, or are not conformable to this rule. For this, our Saviour Himself here tells us," is the Law and the Prophets;" that is, not only, as some would have it, what the Law and the Prophets teach, but it is the sum and substance of whatsoever is required in the Law and Prophets, as to our carriage and behaviour to each other; it being the same, in effect, with that general precept of the Law, "Thou shalt love thy Lev. 19. 18 neighbour as thyself," which St. Paul tells us "is the ful- Rom. 13. filling of the Law;" that is, the second table of the Law, or

8-10.

SERM. CXXIX.

[Dial. c. Tryphon. Jud. 93.

so far as it respects our duty to our neighbour. And so our Saviour Himself elsewhere saith, that all the Law and the Matt.22.40. Prophets hang upon these two commandments, "Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself." So that as all the duties which we owe to God are comprised under our loving Him above all things, so whatsoever it is that we are bound to perform unto our neighbour is briefly comprehended in our loving him as ourselves; which it is impossible for us to express in any other ways than by doing unto others whatsoever we would that they should do to us. For if I love my neighbour as myself, I cannot but desire the same good things for him which I do for myself. And if I desire the same good things for my neighbour which I do for myself, I must needs do to him whatsoever I would that he should do to me; for I would that he should do all the good he can for me; and unless I do the same to him, I do not desire his good as I do mine own, nor by consequence love him as myself. And therefore Justin Martyr long ago observed, that i tòv tànciov is ἑαυτὴν ἀγαπῶν, ἅπερ αὐτῷ βούλεται ἀγαθὰ, κἀκείνῳ βουλήσεται, He that loves his neighbour as himself, the same good things which he wills unto himself, he wills them also to his neighbour.' But all men in the world are to be reckoned as our neighbours, whom by consequence we are to love as we do ourselves, and do to them as we would have them do to us. But ourselves would willingly be hurt by none, but be done good to by all; and therefore if we follow this rule, we shall neither do any hurt unto others, nor neglect any good which we can do for them, and by consequence must needs fulfil all the Moral Law as it respects our neighbour. And hence it is that our Saviour saith, that "this is the Law and the Prophets;" because there is no duty which we owe unto our neighbour, but it may be referred to, and is really comprised under this one general rule, which St. Hierome therefore rightly calls, Totius justitiæ breviarium, an abstract or compendium of all justice and [Epit. Div. equity. And before him, Lactantius to the same purpose Inst.cap.lx. p. 49, t. . said, Radix justitiæ et omne fundamentum æquitatis est illud, ut ne facias ulli, quod pati nolis; sed alterius animum de tuo metiaris, The root of justice, and the whole found

p. 190. D. ed. Bened.]

ed. Par. 1748.]

(

ation of equity is this; that thou dost not do what thou wouldst not suffer, but measure another's mind by thine own.' So as still to remember that what thou thinkest to be evil for thee, another thinks to be evil to him; and therefore thou shouldst not do that to him which thou wouldst not he should do to thee.

This, therefore, being so excellent and comprehensive a duty, that, according to our blessed Saviour's Own assertion, it contains whatsoever either the Law or Prophets require of us to one another, there is none of us that truly mind our future happiness, but must needs be very desirous clearly to understand the full meaning and purport of it; especially considering how great an help it will be in all our civil actions to one another, that if we do but still walk according to this one short rule rightly understood, we cannot fail in our conversing with one another, but shall still perform to one another whatsoever the Law or Prophets, I may say the Gospel too, requires to be performed by us; yea, so as that we may know within ourselves, and in our own consciences, whether we do good or evil to our neighbour, by considering whether it be according to what we would have done unto ourselves or no; and so pass judgment upon our own actions, and upon what we do to others, only by observing our own will, and what we would have others do to us, and so we may be a Law unto ourselves, as the Apostle saith the Rom. 2. 14. Gentiles were; which, that you may all be by the right understanding and using of this rule, I shall endeavour to give you the true sense and notion of it, which is not so easily done as said, there being more in it than we commonly are aware of, insomuch that though it be an ordinary saying among us, "Do as ye would be done by," yet I fear it is not so generally and truly understood as it ought to be, nor so easy to be explained, as it may seem at first sight, by reason of its extent and comprehensiveness: howsoever, I shall endeavour to explain it as fully and clearly as I can; first, by opening the true meaning of the words in general; and secondly, by shewing how they are to be applied to our particular actions.

I. As for the first, though the words be but few, they are very significant, every one, as well as all, having its weight,

CXXIX.

t.vii. p.291,

SERM. and therefore deserving to be considered apart, in order to the right understanding of the whole; and therefore I shall take them in order as they lie. But the particle ov,' therefore,' whether it infer these from the preceding words, as [Hom. in St. Chrysostom expounds it, or be redundant here as others Matt. xxiii. would have it, it not being any ways material to the true A.] meaning of the words, I shall pass it by, and begin with these words, "All things whatsoever ye would." Which words must be understood with caution, otherwise they may be perverted to a bad sense, and a wrong use made of this excellent and divine rule; for our wills being corrupt, we may sometimes will what is evil to ourselves, and, by consequence, think ourselves bound to do the same to our neighbour. As, for example, a man that doth not much care for being a rational creature, and therefore delights to be some time deprived of the use of his reason by intoxicating liquors, he desires that others would make him drunk, and therefore, according to this rule misunderstood, he must make them so too; for he must do to them as he would have them do to him. But this is a horrible perversion of the rule; to prevent which, St. Augustine observes, that in Mont.lib. ii. the old Latin translation used in his time, the word 'bona' c.xxii.§74.] was put in, and the words read, Omnia quæcunque vultis ut faciant vobis homines bona, All good things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you." And long before St. Augustine, St. Cyprian reads the words so too, and doubtless this is the true meaning of them. But there is no necessity ed. Bened.] of making any addition to the Greek text, or our translation of it, to make it bear this sense; for when our Saviour here saith, Πάντα οὖν ὅσα ἂν θέλητε, All things whatsoever you would,' He is plainly to be understood of all such things only which men can properly be said to will. But, as St. [Ibid.] Augustine again observes, Voluntas non est nisi in bonis, 'we properly will only what is good,' evil not being the object of our will, but only of our lust. Or howsoever, our Saviour here supposes that our wills be so regulated by the principles or dictates of reason and religion, that we will nothing to ourselves but what is just in itself, and good for us. And what we thus will that men should do to us, we are also bound to do to them, according to this rule of our

[Serm. Dom. in

[Cyp. de Örat. Domin. p. 213,

6

6

Saviour. And therefore the Persian translation gives us the true meaning of these words, rendering them, by "Whatsoever you think it just and equitable that men should do to you, do ye even the same to them."

Now, the true meaning of these first words of this rule or canon being thus stated, we may see into the falsehood not only of the former, but likewise of many other conclusions which may be drawn from this rule falsely interpreted, as proceeding mostly from the mistake of these first words of it. For seeing our Saviour's saying, “ all things whatsoever ye would," is not to be understood of such things as our corrupt and depraved wills lust after, but only of such things as our wills, guided by right reason and true religion, choose as really good for us; hence it follows, that whatsoever we will unreasonably or unjustly to ourselves, we cannot be bound by this rule to do the same to others, as being bound beforehand not to do it. As for instance; a judge sitting upon the bench hath a malefactor convicted of some capital crime standing at the bar before him, upon whom he is ready to pass sentence of death, according as he hath justly deserved; but before he pronounceth the sentence, he bethinks himself of this rule, whereby he is bound to do to the prisoner as he would have the prisoner do to him, supposing himself was at the bar in the prisoner's condition, and the prisoner upon the bench with his commission : and considers, that if he was the prisoner, he would willingly be released, and therefore thinks that by this rule he is obliged to release the prisoner. But this doth not at all follow from this rule, not only because the judge is preobliged to act according to law and justice, but also because the prisoner cannot, in reason and justice, will to be released, as being pre-supposed to have justly deserved death, and so cannot without injustice, or at least without the obstruction of justice, be released from it; though thus far questionless the judge is bound by this rule, even to be as just to the prisoner in his cause, as he would the prisoner should be to him, was he in the prisoner's, and the prisoner in his place.

Another instance may make the thing still plainer: supposing, any of you being walking in the streets, there comes an indigent person to you, and desires you to give him a