"For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not
26 ON cnniSTiAN doctrine. [book i.
boiir ^vhom it is our duty to help in liis need, or \vhom it Avoiild be our duty to help if he ^ve^e in need. AVhence it follows, that he whose duty it would be in turn to help us is our neighbour. For the name "neighbour" is a relative one, and no one can be neighbour except to a neighbour. And, again, who does not see that no exception is made of any one as a person to whom the offices of mercy may be denied when our
Lord extends the rule even to our enemies ? " Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you."^
32. And so also the Apostle Paul teaches when he says: "For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet ; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour."^ Whoever then supposes that the apostle did not embrace every man in this precept, is compelled to admit, what is at once most absurd and most pernicious, that the apostle thought it no sin, if a man wxre not a
Christian or were an enemy, to commit adultery with his wife, or to kill him, or to covet his goods. And as nobody but a fool would say this, it is clear that every man is to be considered our neighbour, because we are to work no ill to any man.
33. But now, if every one to whom we ought to show, or who ought to show to us, the offices of mercy is by right called a neighbour, it is manifest that the command to love our neighbour embraces the holy angels also, seeing that so great offices of mercy have been performed by them on our behalf, as may easily be shown by turning the attention to many passages of Holy Scripture. And on this gi'ound even (.Jod Himself, our
Lord, desired to be called our neighbour. For our Lord Jesus
Christ points to Himself under the figure of the man who brought aid to him who was lying half dead on the road, wounded and abandoned by the robbers. And the Psalmist says in liis prayer, " I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother."^ Lut as the Divine nature is of higher excellence than, and far removed above, our nature, the command to love God is distinct from that to love our neighbour.
'Matt. V. 44. » lloin. .xiii. 9, 10. ' Ts. x.xxv. 1 4.