Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/156

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[ 148 ]

DOING GOOD:


A


SERMON,


ON THE


OCCASION OF WOOD'S PROJECT[1].


WRITTEN IN 1724.


GALATIANS vi, 10.


As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men.


NATURE directs every one of us, and God permits us, to consult our own private good, before the private good of any other person whatsoever. We are indeed, commanded to love our neighbour as ourselves, but not as well as ourselves. The love we have for ourselves, is to be the pattern of that love we ought to have toward our neighbour; but, as the copy doth not equal the original, so my neighbour cannot think it hard, if I prefer myself, who am the original, before him, who is only the copy. Thus,

  1. "I never," said the dean in a jocular conversation, "preached but twice in my life: and then they were not sermons, but pamphlets." Being asked on what subject; he replied, "They were against Wood's halfpence." Pilkington, vol. i, p. 56.

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