HATE

To hate is not always to be understood rigorously, but frequently signifies merely a le degree of love. “If a man have two wives, one beloved and another hated,” Deut. xxi, 15; that is, le beloved. Our Saviour says that he who would follow him must hate father and mother; that is, he must love them le than Christ, le than his own salvation, and not prefer them to God. “Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated;” that is, have deprived of the privileges of his primogeniture, through his own profanity; and visited him with severe judgment on account of his sins.