The Power of Godliness, Book 3 · Chapter 4
CHAP. IV. Wherein the Sanctified Exercise of Hatred standeth, and why it is necessary. How this Hatred may be stirred up in us. Of the severall Kinds of Hatred that are to be shunned, or corrected; And who they are that are most subject to this disordered Passion.
Question, WHerein stands the Sanctified Exercise of Hatred?
A. In that it is obedient to the Law of faith, and truely,Prov. 8.13. Psal. 97.10. Amos 5.15. Rom. 12.9. Apoc. 2.6. Psal. 101.3. Psal. 119.163.128. v. Psal. 45.7. Psal. 26.5. sincerely, constantly turneth from all known evil with detestation, according to the nature and degree of evil. As good is the object of love; so, evil is the object of Hatred. To understand this, we must remember, that whether it be in the mind, or in the body, there is a befitting estate and sweet harmony, which makes us to abhorre that which may dissolve this consort. This harmony considered in the body, is no other thing then the good constitution, by meanes whereof we enjoy perfect health; the which being impaired, our nature receives paine, as when we endure great hunger and thirst, or when we receive any hurt or wound. As for the soul, this same harmony may be considered: first in the senses, as well externall as internall, and consisteth in the proportion they have with their objects; which is such, as they hate whatsoever puls them away, or which divert them by any kind of violence. As for example the eyes hate darkness and obscurity, and our imagination is terrified, and troubled by the fearfull apprehensions of Dreames, which it frameth during our rest. The same harmony considered in reason, either it regards the simple knowledge of the truth, which our understanding conceives with pleasure, or the use and execution of things which depend on wisdom, which we do with content. In regard of the first, our spirit is enemy to lying, although at some times it takes delight in the art wherewith they colour a thing to give it some shew of truth. And as for the second, there is such diversity of judgment in humane actions which are as it were the element of prudenee, as it is a thing in a manner incredible As for that which concernes the will, her harmony consists in the proportion and love which she beares to the good, which makes her detest and abhorre whatsoever presents it self unto her, under the shew of evil, as pernicious and hurtfull to her content and rest. The harmony of the sensitive appetite consists in the familiarity and concurrence it hath with the good of the senses, which causes it to abhorre whatsoever shall offend them; as whips, tortures, punishments, hunger, thirst, wounds, and such like. The harmony of the intellectuall affections consists in the familiarity and concurrence, they have with the good of the mind and will, which causeth an irreconcileable Hatred to those things which the mind apprehendeth as spiritually evil, and the will renounceth as hurtfull to her spirituall estate. Now when Hatred is moved truely according to the direction of sound judgment, and abhorreth all evil according to the nature and degrees thereof, sc, that most, which is most opposite to spirituall happiness and contentment, and others as they have reference unto it, then is it exercised as it ought to be. It is here to be considered, that Divines and morall Philosophers distinguish two sorts of Hatred, the one they call Hatred of abhomination, the other Hatred of enmity. For as in love, we affect the person and wish him well; so in Hatred of enmity, we detest the person, and wish him evil: as if I love my friend, I wish him health, wealth and prosperity: If the Judge hate the Thief, he wisheth him the Gallowes: But in this they differ; that love respecteth both the person and the good desired, and is intire and compleat: but Hatred detesteth the Malefactor, loveth the punishment as an evil deserved by the offendor. Contrariwise, as in Hatred of enmity, the person stained with vice moveth me to detest him, so in Hatred of abhomination, for the love I bare any person, I hate all evils which may befall him: for example, a man loveth his Child, and therefore abhorreth death as evil of the Child; a just man God, and therefore detesteth sinne, as an injury done to God; a man loveth his own health, and therefore hateth diseases, or what else may cross his health. So that here we have three things; Hatred of evil in respect of the person we love: love of evil, in respect of the person we hate; Hatred and love combined in one respect of perfect enmity and compleat Hatred.
Q. Why is the Sanctified Exercise of Hatred necessary?
A. 1. This Passion was ingraft in us by nature, to the end that at the first approach, at the first taste and imagination of evil, we may retire our selves, and fly it, lest we runne into ruine. 2. Hatred of evil, is a preservative against allurements and temptations.Mat. 6.24. The world is full of baits, whereby Satan endeavoureth to catch and ensnare us: But so long as the Hatred of sinne doth burne in our breasts, his practises shall take none effect to hurt us. As he shall lay ginnes to entrap, we shall be circumspect to decline his malice. 3. The most universall, the most operative, and the most durable passions of the soul, are Love and Hatred: they spread farthest, they pierce deepest, they last longest: and therefore great cause we should look to the right ordering of them. 4. No perswasions can move, no examples draw, nor difficulties compell men to embrace what is evil, if there hearts be carried with a true Hatred and detestation of it. For, as likeness is the cause of love, and that, of Union: so dissimilitude is the cause of Hatred, and that again, of separation. That which we hate, we suffer not to come, or at least not to abide near us: but either we remove it from us, or our selves from it. If we hate vanity more then affliction, and judge the evil of sinne more hurtfull then outward misery, we shall not entertain sinne, to escape the lesser danger. I hate the works of them that fall away, it shall not cleave unto me, Psal. 101.3. The latter is an effect of the former: for what we hate in others, we cannot embrace and entertain in our selves. 5.Psal. 119.113.163. v. Love is the Fountain of Hatred; and in what measure we love truth, we hate falshood. To love good and hate the opposite evil in the same kind, are inseparably linked. If our soul thirst after God as a drie Land where no water is, if his favour be better unto us then life it self; it cannot be, but our Hatred must answer in proportion to that which is opposite to Gods Law, and derogatory to his glory. And from hence it followes, that Love and Hatred are so conjoyned, that if both be not ordered aright, neither is exercised as it ought.
Q. How may this Hatred be stirred up in us?
A. To move this Hatred, two things specially are diligently to be observed. First, The person beloved, and all those reasons which may stirre up his love: then the hurt of the evil, and all the harms it bringeth with it. For example, we ought for the love of our souls, and the souls of our neighbours, detest and abhorre sinne and the offence of God: now all those inducements which move us to love our souls,Lev. 19.17. strike in our hearts a horrour of sinne, which is the death and destruction of souls. And all those reasons which shew the deformity of sin, stirre up a detestation thereof. The general Motives alledged above, applied to this Particular, wlll suffice to perswade us to love our souls: the nature and harms consequent unto sinne and all other evils, may be gathered out of the holy Scriptures, and from Christian experience.
Q. What are the Severall Kinds of Hatred that are to be shunned or corrected?
B. 1. Blind Hatred, when we detest what is presented unto us, out of some superstitious conceit, not according to knowledge;Gal. 4.19. Mat. 15.9. Prov. 26.24, 25, 26. Mat. 5 44. … S m. 13 22. Mat. 24.10. 1 Pet. 4.8. Tit. 3.3. Prov. 10.12. Prov. 1.22. Psal. 9.13. 1 King. 22.8. Joh. 3 20. Psal. 7 4. Psal. 38.20. Ioh. 7.7. Psal. 35.19. Ioh. 15.25. Gal. 4.16. Psal. 25.29. Rev. 2.6. as the Pharisees hated to eat meat with unwashen hands. 2. Carnall hatred, secret or manifest, when we hate our enemies that have some way wronged us in word, or deed: the effect whereof is, contention, upon the renewing of the memory of former faults, now buried in forgetfulness, or the upbraiding of secret sinnes. 3. Wicked, bruitish, and perverse, when we hate good, and love evil; hate the harmless and innocent, love the prophane and dissolute; love falshood, hate the truth. 4. Devilish, when we hate them that seek to do us good; as them that admonish, rebuke, exhort to repentance and amendment of life, or that live uprightly themselves, and follow that which is good. The world hateth me, because I testifie of it, that the works thereof are evil. They hated me without a cause. Am I become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? 5. Partiall Hatred, when some sinnes are hated, but others liked and practised; as the Angel of the Church of Ephesus hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans, when he inclined to luke-warmness; many men detest theft, that love covetousness; abhorre whoredom, that like irreligiousness. 6. Sleight disordered Hatred, when dislike of sinne is subordinate to our worldly projects, pleasures, or matters of commodity: which causeth that it is neither sound, set against sinne because God condemneth it; nor uniforme, rising in detestation according to the nature of the offence; nor constant without flitting or starting. To this Head is referred, the affection that men bare to their friends, when they will not adventure the loss of their favour, to rid their souls from sinne.
Q. Who are most subject to this disordered passion?
A. 1. Faint and base minds are sooner moved then generous spirits. The reason is, for that cowards fear every thing, so as their Hatred is inflamed against all such as they think may hurt them, be it in their person, in their goods, or in regard of their friends. Hence it is that great men which have no courage are commonly cruell. 2. The proud and envious are also subject to the motions of Hatred. The first, for that they think they are not honoured as they should, or should be debased more then is fit by the practice of obedience; the latter, for that all the prosperities of their equals offend them. 3. They that love themselves too much, are wonderfull apt to the same motions, for that they take every thing as an injury, and are so nice as they cannot endure to be crossed.