LX. manner and measure; so that we set ourselves in our es- SERM. teem and affection before God; we prefer our own conceits to his judgment and advice; we raise our pleasure above his will and authority; we bandy forces with him, and are like the profane Belshazzar, of whom it is said, Thou hast Dan. v. 23. lifted up thyself against (or above) the Lord of heaven. From hence particularly, by a manifest extraction, are derived those chief and common vices, pride, ambition, envy, avarice, intemperance, injustice, uncharitableness, peevishness, stubborness, discontent, and impatience. For, We overvalue ourselves, our qualities and endowments, our powers and abilities, our fortunes and external advantages; hence are we so proud, that is, so lofty in our conceits, and fastuous in our demeanour. We would be the only men, or most considerable in the world; hence are we ambitious, hence continually with unsatiable greediness we do affect and strive to procure increase of reputation, of power, of dignity. We would engross to ourselves all sorts of good things in highest degree; hence enviously we become jealous of the worth and virtue, we grudge and repine at the prosperity of others; as if they defalked somewhat from our excellency, or did eclipse the brightness of our fortune. We desire to be not only full in our enjoyment, but free and absolute in our dominion of things; not only secure from needing the succour of other men, but independent in regard to God's providence; hence are we so covetous of wealth, hence we so eagerly scrape it, and so carefully hoard it up. We can refuse our dear selves no satisfaction, although unreasonable or hurtful; therefore we so readily gratify sensual appetites in unlawful or excessive enjoyments of pleasure. Being blinded or transported with fond dotage on ourselves, we cannot discern or will not regard what is due to others; hence are we apt upon occasion to do them wrong. SERM. Love to ourselves doth in such manner suck in and swalLX. low our spirits, doth so pinch in and contract our hearts, doth according to its computation so confine and abridge our interests, that we cannot in our affection or in real expression of kindness tend outwards; that we can afford little good-will, or impart little good to others. Deeming ourselves extremely wise and worthy of regard, we cannot endure to be contradicted in our opinion, or crossed in our humour; hence upon any such occasion our choler riseth, and easily we break forth into violent heats of passion. From the like causes it is, that we cannot willingly stoop to due obeisance of our superiors, in reverence to their persons, and observance of their laws; that we cannot contentedly acquiesce in the station or portion assigned us by Providence; that we cannot patiently support our condi tion, or accept the events befalling us. In fine, if surveying all the several kinds of naughty dispositions in our souls, and of miscarriages in our lives, we do scan their particular nature, and search into their original causes; we shall find inordinate self-love to be a main ingredient and a common source of them all: so that a divine of great name had some reason to affirm, that original sin (or that innate distemper from which men generally become so very prone to evil and averse to good) doth consist in self-love, disposing us to all kinds of irregularity and excess b: St. Paul therefore might well set this in the front of all those sins, which depraved the age he spake of; they having all such a dependence on it. It is therefore very requisite that we should well understand this fault, that we may be the better able to curb and correct it; to which purpose I shall endeavour, by God's help, somewhat to declare its nature. Est ergo ista ad peccandum amore sui propensio, peccatum originale, &c, Zuingl. apud Bell de Amiss. grat. iv. 2. LX. The word self-love is ambiguous; for all self-love is not SERM. culpable; there is a necessary and unavoidable, there is an innocent and allowable, there is a worthy and commendable self-love. There is a self-love originally implanted by God himself in our nature, in order to the preservation and enjoyment of our being; the which is common to us with all creatures, and cannot anywise be extirpated; for no man, as St. Paul Eph. v. 29. saith, ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it; every man living, by a natural and necessary instinct, is prompted to guard his life, shunning all dangers threatening its destruction; to purvey for the support and convenience of it; to satisfy those natural appetites, which importunately crave relief, and without intolerable pain cannot be denied it; to repel or decline whatever is very grievous and offensive to naturec; the self-love that urgeth us to do these things is no more to be blamed than it can be shunned. Reason farther alloweth such a self-love, which moveth us to the pursuance of any thing apparently good, pleasant, or useful to us, the which doth not contain in it any essential turpitude or iniquity; doth not obstruct the attainment of some true or greater good; doth not produce some overbalancing mischief; doth not infer harm to the world, or wrong to other mend. Reason dictateth and prescribeth to us, that we should have a sober regard to our true good and welfare; to our best interest and solid content; to that, which (all things being rightly stated, considered, and computed) will in the final event prove most beneficial and satisfactory to us: a self-love working in prosecution of such things common sense cannot but allow and approve. e Panis ematur, olus, vini sextarius; adde Queis humana sibi doleat natura negatis. 'Hor. Serm. i. 1. 4 Τὸν μὲν ἀγαθὸν δεῖ φίλαυτον εἶναι· καὶ γὰρ αὐτὸς ὀνήσεται τὰ καλὰ πράττων, τ τοὺς ἄλλους ὠφελήσει· τὸν δὲ μοχθηρὸν τὰ δεῖ, βλάψει γὰρ καὶ ἑαυτὸν καὶ τοὺς πέλας, φαύλοις πάθεσιν ἑπόμενος. Arist. Eth. ix. 3. • Πᾶς γὰρ νοῦς αἱρεῖται τὸ βέλτισον ἑαυτῷ, ὁ δὲ ἐπιεικής πειθαρχεῖ τῷ νῷ. Ibid. SERM. certissima ese, sibi quisque God himself hath to these suggestions of nature, and dictates of reason, adjoined his own suffrage, having in various ways declared it to be his will and pleasure, that we should tender our real and final good. He, as the author of nature, and fountain of reason, may be supposed to ordain that, unto which nature doth so potently incline, and Quia tutela which reason so clearly prescribeth. He plainly hath to ex proximo every man committed himself in charge, so as to preserve his being from ruin, and to enjoy it with comfort. He, by commissus making so rich a provision for the sustenance of our lives, est. Sen. and satisfaction of our appetites, by framing our bodies to Ep. 121. relish delight, and suiting so many accommodations in wondrous correspondence to our senses, hath sufficiently intimated it to be his pleasure, that we should in reasonable measure seek them and enjoy them; otherwise his care would have been vain, and his work useless; yea, he might seem to have laid an ill design to tempt and ensnare us; he certainly had no such intent; but as he made us out of goodness, as he made us capable of tasting comfort, as he hath furnished us with means of attaining it, so he meaneth that we should partake thereof. He also expressly hath commanded us to love all men, not excluding ourselves from the number; to love our neighbour, and therefore ourselves; who of all are nearest to ourselves; who occur as the first objects of humanity and charity; whose needs we most sensibly feel; whose good is in itself no less considerable than the single good of any other person; who must first look to our own good before we can be capable to love others, or do any good to our neighbour. He therefore hath made the love of ourselves to be the rule and standard, the pattern, the argument of our love to others; imposing on us those great commands of loving our neighbours as ourselves, and doing as we would be done unto; which imply not only a necessity, but an obligation of loving ourselves. He doth enforce obedience to all his commands, by promising rewards, yielding immense profit and transcend- SERM. ent pleasure to us, and by threatening punishments griev- LX. ous to our sense; which proceeding is grounded upon a Matt. xvi. supposition that we do and ought greatly to love ourselves, 26. or to regard our own interest and pleasure. He doth recommend wisdom or virtue to us, as most agreeable to self-love; most eligible, because it yieldeth great benefit to ourselves; because, as the Wise Man saith, he that getteth it doth love his own soul; he that keepeth it, Prov. xix.8, shall find good. 16. xi. 17. Aristotle saith of a virtuous man, that he is the greatest self-lover ; Δόξειε δ ̓ ἂν ὁ τοιοῦτος εἶναι μᾶλλον φίλαυτος· ἀπονέμει Eth. ix. 8. γὰρ ἑαυτῷ τὰ κάλλισα, καὶ μάλιςα ἀγαθὰ, καὶ χαρίζεται ἑαυτῷ τῷ κυριωτάτῳ. He dissuadeth from vice, as therefore detestable, because the embracing it doth imply hatred of ourselves, bringing mischief and damage to us; because, as the Wise Man doth express it, he that sinneth, wrongeth his own Prov. viii. soul; he that despiseth instruction, despiseth his own soul; xxix. 24. he that committeth injury, hateth his own soul. 36. xv. 32. &c. He commendeth his laws to our observance, by declaring Deut. x. 12. them in their design and tendency chiefly to regard our Neh. ix.13. good and advantage; made apt to preserve the safety and Prov. iii. iv. quiet, to promote the wealth and prosperity of our lives; to bring ease and comfort to our minds, grace and ornament to our names, salvation and happiness to our souls. In fine, God chargeth and encourageth us to affect and pursue the highest goods whereof we are capable; most ample riches, most sublime honours, most sweet pleasures, most complete felicity; He, saith St. Paul, will render to Rom. ii. 7. them, who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life; to seek such things is the highest instance, is the surest argument of self-love that can be; he therefore who obligeth, who encourageth us thereto, doth plainly shew his approbation of a self-love. So it appeareth that all self-love is not culpable, but that some kind thereof is very commendable; how then |