Chapter 12: Of the Passion of Hatred — Its Fundamental Cause and God's Secret and Revealed Will

The next in order is Hatred: of which the Schoolmen make two kinds; a Hatred of Abomination or loathing; which consists in a pure aversion or flight of the appetite from something apprehended as evil, arising from a dissonancy and repugnancy between their natures: and a Hatred of Enmity, which is not a flying, but rather a pursuing Hatred, and has ever some love joined with it, namely a love of any evil which we desire may befall the person or thing which we hate.

I shall not distinctly handle these asunder, but shall observe the dignities and corruptions of the passion in general, as it implies a common disconvenience, and natural unconformity between the object and the appetite.

The object then of all Hatred is evil; and all evil implying an opposition to good admits of so many several respects as there are kinds of opposition.

And there is first an evil of Contrariety, such as is in the qualities of Water to Fire, or a Wolf to a Sheep, occasioned by that Destructive Efficiency, which one has upon the other.

Secondly, an evil of Privation, which we hate formally and for itself, as implying nothing but a defect and absence of good.

Thirdly, an evil of Contradiction in the not being of any creature, opposed to its being. For being and immortality is that which Aristotle makes one of the principle objects of love; annihilation then, or not being is the chiefest evil of things, and that which nature most abhors.

Lastly, an evil of Relation; for as things in their own simple natures evil, may have in them a Relative goodness, and so to be desired; as the killing of beasts for the service, and the death of malefactors for the security of men: so things in their absolute being good may have in them a Relative, or Comparative evil, and in that sense be by consequence hated; as our Saviour intimates He that hates not father and mother, and his own life for me, is not worthy of me: when they prove snares and temptations to draw us from the love of Christ, they are then to be undervalued in comparison of him. And therefore we find in the Law if a man's dearest brother or child, or wife, or friend should entice him from God to idolatry, he was not to conceal, pity, or spare him, but his own hand was to be first upon him. And thus the Poet has elegantly expressed the behavior of Aeneas toward Dido, who being inflamed with love of him, would have kept him from the expedition, to which by divine guidance he supposed himself to be directed.

— Quanquam lenire dolorem Solando cupiit, et dictis avertere curas, (Multa gemens magnoque animum labefactus amore) Iussa tamen Divum exequitur. — Though he desired with solace to appease, And on her pensive soul to breathe some ease, (Himself with mutual love [reconstructed: made faint]) yet still His purposes were fixed to obey God's will.

So then we see what qualification is required in the object of a just Hatred, that it be evil, and some way or other offensive, either by defiling or destroying nature: and the passion is ever then irregular when it declines from this rule.

But here, in as much as it is evident that the being of some evil comes under the Will of God; (Is there any evil in a City, and the Lord has not done [reconstructed: it]?) and our will is to be conformable to his; it may seem that it ought to fall under our Will too, and by consequence to be rather loved than hated by us, since we pray for the fulfilling of God's Will.

For resolution of this, we must first consider, that God does not love those evils which he thus wills, as formally, and precisely considered in themselves. And next we will observe how far the Will of God is to be the rule of our will; from which will arise the clear apprehension of that truth which is now set down, that the unalterable object of man's Hatred is all manner of evil, not only that of deformity and sin, but that also of destruction and misery.

First then for the Will of God, we may boldly say what himself has sworn, that he will not the death or destruction of a sinner: and by consequence neither any other evil of his creature, as being a thing infinitely remote from his mercy; he is not delighted in the ruin, neither does he find pleasure or harmony in the groans of anything which himself created: But he is said to will those evils as good and just, for the manifestation of his glorious power over all the creatures, and of his glorious justice on those, who are voluntarily fallen from him. But now because it is left only to the wisdom of God himself to know and ordain the best means for glorifying of himself in and by his creatures, we are not here hence to assume any warrant for willing evil to ourselves or others, but then only when the honor of the Creator is therein advanced. And so the Apostle did conditionally wish evil to himself, if thereby the glory of God's mercy toward his countrymen the Jews might be the more advanced.

Secondly, it is no good argument, God wills the inflicting of such an evil, therefore it is unlawful for my will to decline it: for first the Will of God, whereby he determines to work this or that evil on particular Subjects, is a part of his secret counsel. Now the Revealed, and not the Hidden Will of God is the rule of our Wills and Actions: from which it comes to pass, that it is made a part of our necessary obedience to God in our wishes or aversations to go a cross way to his unrevealed purpose. Perhaps in my sick bed it is the purpose of God to cast my body into the earth, from where it was taken; yet for me herein to second the Will of God by an execution thereof upon myself, or by a neglect of those ordinary means of recovery which he affords, were to despise his mercy, that I might fulfill his Will. Perhaps in my flight a sword will overtake me, yet I have the warrant of my Saviour's example and precept to turn my back rather than my conscience in persecution: always reserved, that though I will that, which God wills, yet my will be ever subordinated to his. We owe submission to the will of God's purpose and counsel, and we owe conformity to the will of his precept and command; we must submit to the will, whereby God is pleased to work himself, and we must conform to the will, whereby he is pleased to command us to work. And therefore

Secondly, though the will of God were in this case known, yet is not our will constrained to a necessary inclination, though it be to a humble submission and patience in bearing that which the wisdom and purpose of God has made inevitable; for as the promises and decrees of good things from God do not warrant our slackness in neglecting, or our profaneness in turning from them; so neither does the certainty and unavoidableness of a future evil (as death intended upon us by God) put any necessity on our nature to deny itself, or to love its own distresses.

Of which, that we may be the more sure, we may observe it in him, who as he was wholly like us in nature, and therefore had the same natural inclinations and aversions with us; so was he of the same infinite essence with his Father, and therefore did will the same things with him, yet even in him we may observe (in regard of that, which the Scripture says, was by the hand and counsel of God before determined) a seeming reluctance and withdrawing from the divine decree. He knew it was not his Father's will; and yet, Father, if you are willing, [reconstructed: let] this cup pass from me: he was not ignorant that he was to suffer, and that there was an [reconstructed: Oportet], a necessity upon it, and yet a second and a third time again, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Consider it as the destruction of his temple, and anguish of nature, which he could not (being in all things like to us) but love; and then Transeat, let it pass: but consider it as the necessary means of procuring precious blessings for mankind, and of fulfilling the eternal decree of his Father's love, and then, Not as I, but as you will.

The same may be applied in any manner of human evils, notwithstanding we are with an armed patience to sustain them, or with an obedient submission to divine pleasure to wait for them; yet in regard of that pressure of nature, which they bring with them (on which the God of nature has imprinted a natural desire of its own quiet and integrity) so far forth all evil, not only may, but must be hated by every regular will, upon pain of violating the law of its creation.

And indeed in all this there is not any deviation from the will of God, intending that which we abhor: for as it stands not with the nature of man to hate himself, or any good thing of his own making; so neither does it stand with the goodness of God to hate his creature, or to delight barely in the misery or afflictions thereof; but only in that end of manifesting his glory and righteousness, to which he in the dispensation of his wisdom and justice has wonderfully directed them. And therefore, as to murmur at the wisdom of God in thus ordering evils to a good end, were a presumptuous repining; so on the other side, not to entertain those natural desires of a straitened mind after deliverance from those evils, were to be in Solomon's phrase too righteous, and out of a purpose to answer the ends of God's wisdom, to cross the law of his creation.

So then it is evident that the object and fundamental cause of hatred, is all and only evil: which (however in respect of the existence of it, it be in some cases good; for as it is in the power of God to educe out of confusion order, light out of darkness, his own honor out of man's shame; so is it his providence likewise to turn to the great good of many men those things which in themselves do only hurt them) yet I say this notwithstanding, as it works the deformity and disquiet of nature, it is against the created law and inborn love, which each thing bears to its own perfection; and therefore cannot but be necessarily hated.

As on the other side, those ordinary and common goods, which we call, in respect of God, blessings, as health, peace, prosperity, good success, and the like; notwithstanding they commonly prove to men, unfurnished with those habits of wisdom and sobriety, whereby they should be moderated, occasions of much evil and dangers; so that their table has become their snare (as the experience of those latter Roman ages proves, wherein their victories over men has made them in luxury and vileness so prodigious, as if they meant to attempt war with God.) Notwithstanding I say all this; yet for as much as these things are such as do quiet, satisfy, and bear convenience to man's nature, they are therefore justly with thankfulness by ourselves received, and out of love desired to our friends.

I now proceed from the object or general fundamental cause of hatred, to some few which are more particular, and which do arise from it.