Do To Other Sentient Creatures What You Would Have Them Do To You! Ed. Dr. Chapman Chen
- Chapman Chen
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12 NIV), “that great law of doing unto all creatures as a man would be done unto…cannot admit… any violences or injuries…unto God's creatures.” ~ Thomas Tryon (1697:247).
English merchant and writer Thomas Tryon (1634-1703) is the first Christian theologian in the last 400 years to make veganism a faith-and-compassion-based mandate for all (Tryon 1697/1683), declaring that “killing, violence, and oppression whatsoever, either of man or beast … is all contrary to the spirit of Jesus Christ” and God’s principle of eternal love (Tryon 1697: 247) (Tryon is also the first person in history to use the term “animal rights [Tryon 2022/1684]).
Below please find an excerpt related to the golden rule in Matthew 7:12 from Tryon’s 1697/1683 book The Way to Health, Long Life and Happiness.
No man did ever strike, oppress, use violence to, or kill either man or beast from the excitement and power of this friendly principle, for all contention, strife, and cruelty is as contrary to the nature and operation of this principle as light is to darkness, but from this divine fountain in man does proceed that great law of doing unto all creatures, as a man would be done unto, which cannot therefore admit that any violences or injuries should be done unto God's creatures, either superior or inferior. This our great and blessed Law-giver, Jesus Christ did demonstrate whilst he was in the human property; for all his practices, examples, discourses, and preachings unto mankind were tending to lead them into peace, meekness, and unity (Tryon 1697:247).
Article link: https://www.vegantheology.net/post/do-to-other-sentient-creatures-what-you-would-have-them-do-to-you-ed-dr-chapman-chen
Primary Sources:
Tryon, Thomas (1697/1683). The Way to Health, Long Life and Happiness. London: Unknown Publisher. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Way_to_Health_Long_Life_and_Happines/cQ83AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 ; https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A63817.0001.001/1:4?rgn=div1;view=fulltext
Tryon, Thomas (2022/1684). “The Complaints of the Birds and Fowls of Heaven to their Creator, for the Oppressions and Violences most Nations on the Earth do offer unto them, particularly the People called Christians, lately settled in several Provinces in America.” In Thomas Tryon, The Planter’s Speech to his Neighbours & Country-Men of Pennsylvania, East & West-Jersey, and to All Such as Have Transported Themselves into New-Colonies for the Sake of a Quiet Retired Life. To which Is Added, the Complaints of our Supra-Inferior-Inhabitants, ed. Deborah Taylor Pearce, London: Andrew Sowle. https://roses.communicatingbydesign.com/history/ePubs/Tryon-PlantersSpeech.html
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