Church of England -- Sermons; Ethics; Sermons, English
There is indeed frequently an inconsistence or interfering between self-
love or private interest and the several particular appetites, passions,
affections, or the pursuits they lead to. But this competition or
interfering is merely accidental, and happens much oftener between pride,
revenge, sensual gratifications, and private interest, than between
private interest and benevolence. For nothing is more common than to see
men give themselves up to a passion or an affection to their known
prejudice and ruin, and in direct contradiction to manifest and real
interest, and the loudest calls of self-love: whereas the seeming
competitions and interfering, between benevolence and private interest,
relate much more to the materials or means of enjoyment than to enjoyment
itself. There is often an interfering in the former when there is none
in the latter. Thus as to riches: so much money as a man gives away, so
much less will remain in his possession. Here is a real interfering. But
though a man cannot possibly give without lessening his fortune, yet
there are multitudes might give without lessening their own enjoyment,
because they may have more than they can turn to any real use or
advantage to themselves. Thus the more thought and time any one employs
about the interests and good of others, he must necessarily have less to
attend his own: but he may have so ready and large a supply of his own
wants, that such thought might be really useless to himself, though of
great service and assistance to others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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