The Book of Nature Translated and Epitomized, Chapter 16
CHAP. XV.
Concerning hatred.
MAn's obligation extend's to hatred as well as love. The right knowledg then of hatred and love, is the same. All that hath bin proved of love, may be proved of hatred. As the will can love, so can it hate. Hatred alway's follow's love. If man be bound by the law of nature, to love the lord with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, he is consequently bound by the same law, to hate every thing that's against God, with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength; and that, continually and incessantly. Theres the same obligation upon man, to hate all that's contrary to the will of God, as to love God above all. The first and principal thing he ought by the law of nature to hate, is his own private self-will, and that with all his heart, as most contrary to God. And forasmuch as our own honour, praise, glory, and bodily pleasur's, do necessarily follow the love of our own will, in opposition to God's, we ought to hate our own honour, praise, and bodily delights, and consequently all the vices subservient thereunto, covetousnes, envy, wrath, and the rest. As from one principal love, many secondary, subordinate loves do arise; so from one principal hatred, many secondary hatreds. Every man ought to hate and oppose whatever is contrary to God, to the true good of himself, or any other man, on the same account that he is bound to love the lord his God with all his heart, and his neighbour as himself. Luk. 10. 27.
SECT. II.
The nature, force, properties, and fruit of hatred.
THe principal power and property of love, is the transforming of the will into the thing chiefly loved, or the uniting it most intimately therewith. The principal force and property of hatred then, is to divide, separate, alienate, and elongate a man from what he hates. The greater the love, the stronger is the union of the will with the thing loved: the stronger, and deeper the hatred, the greater is the division and distance of the will from the thing hated. And neither love nor hatred can be compelled, but are free, voluntary things.
SECT. III.
Two chief hatreds.
AS there are two principal loves, so two principal hatreds; the hatred of God and his will, or of ourselvs and our own will. And as the two chief loves, so are the two principal hatreds capital enemies to each other. The love of God and hatred of God are opposite; so are the love of self and hatred of self, as also the hatred of God and hatred of self. But the love of God and hatred of self, agree well together in the same will: So do the love of self and hatred of God. He that loves God and his will, hates himself and his own will. He that loves himself and his own will, hates God and his. There's no middle state or way.
SECT. IV.
The different fruits of these two hatreds.
LOve has the primacy of hatred. For hatred arises from love. From the love of God, and of all things in conjunction with him and his will, does necessarily arise the hatred of self, and of all things in combination with our own, private, selfish will. In like manner, does the hatred of God and of all things in conjunction with his will, arise from the love of self and its interests. If the love of God be good, holy, most orderly and just, according to the law of nature; then is the hatred of God most wicked, disorderly unjust, and contrary to the law of nature. In like manner, if the hatred of our own will be good, orderly, just, and according to the law of nature; then is the love of it wicked, disorderly, unjust, and contrary to the law of nature. The good hatred of self, arises from the good love of God: the evil hatred of God, arises from the evil love of self. The fruits, above-specified, that arise from a good love, arise secondarily from a good hatred, which alway's followeth such a love: and the fruits that naturally flow from an evil love, the love of self, do flow secondarily from an evil hatred, the hatred of God. So much of love and hatred.