2. Use, Let me press this rule upon you; Live by it, in all your carriage and dealings with men, let it be present to you. Ask your selves upon every occasion, would I that another should deal thus with me, and carry himself thus towards me? But I shall press this chiefly, as to justice and righteousness in our Commerce. It is said that Severus the Emperor caused this Rule to be written upon his palace,1 and in all public places; let it be writ upon our houses, and shops, and exchanges. This exhortation is not altogether improper for this Auditory; you that frequent these exercises seem to have a good sense of that part of Religion, which is contained in the first Table; do not by your violations of the second, mar your obedience to the first; do not prove your selves Hypocrites in the first Table, by being wicked in the second; give not the World just cause to say, that you are ungodly because they find you to be unrighteous; but manifest your love to God, whom you have not seen, by your love to your Brother whom you have seen; and if any man wrong his Brother, he cannot love him. Do not reject or despise this exhortation, under the contemptuous Name of Morality. Our Saviour tells us, this is a chief part of that which hath ever been accounted Religion in the World, It is the Law and the Prophets; and he by enjoining it hath adopted it into Christianity, and made it Gospel. We should have an especial love to this precept, not only as it is the dictate of nature, and the Law of Moses, not only as it is a Jewish, and Gentile principle, but as it is of the household of Faith. When the young man told Christ, that he had kept the Commandments from his youth, it is said Jesus loved him; 2where-ever we have learned to despise morality, Jesus loved it; when I read the Heathen writers, especially Tully and Seneca, and take notice what precepts of morality, and Laws of kindness are every where in their writings, I am ready to fall in love with them. How should it make our blood to rise in many of our faces who are Christians, to hear with what strictness Tully determines Cases of conscience,3 and how generously he speaks of equity and justice towards all men. Societatis arctissimum vinculum est magis arbitrari esse contra naturam, hominem homini detrahere sui commodi causâ, quàm omnia incommoda subire;
2. Use, Let mee press this rule upon you; Live by it, in all your carriage and dealings with men, let it bee present to you. Aske your selves upon every occasion, would I that another should deal thus with mee, and carry himself thus towards mee? But I shall press this chiefly, as to justice and righteousness in our Commerce. It is said that Severus the Emperour caused this Rule to bee written upon his palace,1 and in all publick places; let it bee writ upon our houses, and shops, and exchanges. This exhortation is not altogether improper for this Auditory; you that frequent these exercises seem to have a good sense of that part of Religion, which is contain'd in the first Table; do not by your violations of the second, marre your obedience to the first; do not prove your selves Hypocrites in the first Table, by being wicked in the second; give not the World just cause to say, that you are ungodly because they finde you to bee unrighteous; but manifest your love to God, whom you have not seen, by your love to your Brother whom you have seen; and if any man wrong his Brother, hee cannot love him. Do not reject or despise this exhortaton, under the contemptuous Name of Morality. Our Saviour tells us, this is a cheif part of that which hath ever been accounted Religion in the World, It is the Law and the Prophets; and hee by injoyning it hath adopted it into Christianity, and made it Gospel. Wee should have an especial love to this precept, not only as it is the dictate of nature, and the Law of Moses, not only as it is a Jewish, and Gentile principle, but as it is of the household of Faith. When the young man told Christ, that hee had kept the Commandements from his youth, it is said Jesus loved him; 2where-ever wee have learned to despise morality, Jesus loved it; when I read the Heathen writers, especially Tully and Seneca, and take notice what precepts of morality, and Lawes of kindness are every where in their writings, I am ready to fall in love with them. How should it make our blood to rise in many of our faces who are Christians, to heare with what strictness Tully determines Cases of conscience,3 and how generously hee speaks of equity and justice towards all men. Societatis arctissimum vinculum est magis arbitrari esse contra naturam, hominem homini detrahere sui commodi causâ, quàm omnia incommoda subire;
- 1Lampridius.
- 2Mark 10.20, 21
- 3Offic. Lib. 3.
