It will be seen that this distinction which I am making coincides,
roughly at all events, with the distinction which is often expressed
as the distinction between rules which tell you what you ought to
_be_ and rules which tell you merely what you ought to _do_; or as
the distinction between rules which are concerned with your inner
life--with your thoughts and feelings--and those which are concerned
only with your external actions. The rules which are concerned with
what you ought to _be_ or with your inner life are, for the most part
at all events, "ideal" rules; while those which are concerned with what
you ought to do or your external actions are very often, at least,
rules of duty. And it is often said that one great difference between
the New Testament and the Old is its comparatively greater insistence
on "ideal" rules--upon a change of heart--as opposed to mere rules of
duty. And that there is a comparatively greater insistence on ideal
rules I do not wish to deny. But that there are plenty of ideal rules
in the Old Testament too must not be forgotten. I have already given an
example from the Ten Commandments: namely the rule which says you ought
not to covet anything which belongs to your neighbour. And another
is supplied by the Old Testament commandment, "Love thy neighbour as
thyself," if by "love" is here meant a feeling which is not within our
own control, and not merely that the Jew is to _help_ other Jews by his
external actions. Indeed, however great may be the difference between
the Old Testament and the New in respect of comparative insistence on
ideal rules rather than rules of duty, I am inclined to think that
there is at least as great a difference, illustrated by this very rule,
in another, quite different, respect--namely in the kind of rules,
_both ideal and of duty,_ which are insisted on. For whereas by "thy
neighbour" in the Old Testament there is plainly meant only other Jews,
and it is not conceived either that it is the duty of a Jew to help
foreigners in general, or an ideal for him to love them; in the New
Testament, where the same words are used, "my neighbour" plainly is
meant to include all mankind. And this distinction between the view
that beneficent action and benevolent feelings should be confined to
those of our own nation, and the view that both should be extended
equally to all mankind,--a distinction which has nothing to do with
the distinction between being and doing, between inner and outer, but
affects both equally--is, I am inclined to think, at least as important
a difference between New Testament and Old, as the comparatively
greater insistence on "ideal" rules. However, the point upon which I
want at present to insist is the distinction between ideal rules and
rules of duty. Both kinds are commonly included among moral rules,
and, as my examples have shown, are often mentioned together as if no
great difference were seen between them. What I want to insist on is
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