Book II, Part 2, Chapter 3. Of Mart's Duty towards his JYeig/ibor

1. The second point of justice is, for a man to behave himself as he ought to do towards his neighbor, and to show him the mercy and charity that God has commanded. None but he that nas read the Holy Scriptures can believe how great a duty this is, and how earnestly recommended to us : read the Prophets, the Gospels, the sacred Epistles, and you will admire to see how strictly this is enjoined. God, in the prophet Isaias, makes a part of justice to depend on charity, and on using our neighbors well. So that, when the Jews made their complaints, saying, "Why have we fasted, O Lord, and thou hast taken no notice of us? Why hast thou not regarded us when we humbled our souls?" his answer to them was, " Because on the day of your fast you follow your own wills, and not mine, and wreck your debtors : behold you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Is not this the fast I have chosen ? to lose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burden, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke ? to distribute your bread to the hungry, and to receive strangers and the poor into your house ? When you see the naked, cover him ; and hide not yourself from your own flesh." Isa. lviii. 3, 4, 6, 7. Then it is, that I will bestow such favors on you which the prophet reckons up throughout the remaining part of the chapter. See here wherein God places a great part of true justice, and how much it is his desire we should be charitable to our neighbors.

2. What shall I say of St. Paul, who recommends no virtue more earnestly to us throughout all bis epistles than this ? 1 Cor. xiii. What is there he does not say in commendation of •charity ? How highly does he cry it up ? How particular is he in giving us all its excellences? How far does he carry it beyond all other virtues ? He tells us, " There is no better way to heaven than this " (Rom. xii. 20) ; and, not thinking this enough, he assures us, in another place, " That charity is the tie of perfection" (Colos. ui. 14) ; and elsewhere, " That it is the end of all the commandments ;" and again, " That he who loves his neighbor, has fulfilled all the law ;" Rom. xii. 8. Could a man say more in praise of any virtue than the apostle has done of this ? And can any man, after this, who desires to know what kind of works are most acceptable to God, choose but admire and be enamored with this

2F virtue ? Can he any longer choose to refer or direct all his actions to the acquiring of it ?

3. Besides this, we have St. John, the beloved disciple's canonical epistle, wherein he repeats nothing so often, praises nothing so much, and recommends nothing so earnestly as he does this virtue. And the history of his life says, " That as long as he lived, he made it the perpetual subject of his discourse, as wTell as the practice of his actions. And being asked one day why he repeated the same thing over and over again, he made answer, ' Because, this duly complied with, was alone sufficient for salvation.' " St. Hierom. in cap. 5. Ep. Galat.

§ T. Of the Duties of Charity. — 4. He, therefore, that sincerely desires to serve God perfectly, ought to understand, that one of the things which contribute most to this end is the observance of this precept of love. Yet so, that this love is not to be dry and barren, but must have all those effects which proceed from a true love, for otherwise it will not deserve so much as the name of love ; if we will believe the same evangelist, when he says, "If any man is rich in this world, and should see his brother in want, and should shut up his bowels against him, how does the love of God dwell in him? My little children, let us not love in words and in expressions only, but in deed and in truth." 1 John iii. 17. According to this, besides many other things, there are six particularly comprised under this name of love, to wit, to love, to advise, to assist, to bear with, to pardon, and to edify. There is so great a connection between these words and charity, that the more or the less a man has of those, he has the more or the less of this. For some say they love, but then this love goes no further ; others love their neighbors, and give them good advice and instruction, but will not put their hands into their pockets to relieve their necessities ; some will do all these three, yet have not patience enough to suffer an affront or injury, or to bear with the infirmities of others, not following the advice of the apostle, who says, " Take one another's burthens upon you, and by this means you will fulfil the law of Christ;" Gal. vi. 2. Some persons twill make no difficulty of putting up with an affront patiently, but cannot pardon it freely ; and though they have no malice in their hearts, yet they cannot give their neighbor so much as a good look. These, it is true, comply with the first condition, but at the same time neglect the second, and so are far enough from perfect charity. There are others, in fine, that will perform every one of these duties, who yet cannot edify their neighbors, either by their words or actions ; and yet this is one of the principal duties of charity. Let every man, then, examine himself on this, that he may see how short he comes of the perfection of this virtue, or how near it reaches to it. For we mav say, that he who loves is in the first degree of charity ; he tha loves and advises, in the second ; he that assists, in the third ; he that can bear an injury, in the fourth ; he that can forgive it, in the fifth ; and he that, besides all this, edifies his neighbor by his good life and conversation, which is the duty of perfect and apostolical man, is come to the perfection of it.

5. These are the positive or affirmative acts, that are included in charity ; by which we see what we are to do for our neighbor. There are yet, besides these, others that are negative, which show us what we should not do ; such, for example, as not judging any body, not detracting, not meddling with another man's goods, his honor and his wife ; giving nobody scandal either by abusive or bad words, or by an uncivil and impertinent behaviour ; but, most of all, by bad advice or example. Let a man be careful in avoiding these things, and he will fulfil the duty of this divine command.

6. If, for the more easy remembering of all this, you would have me give it to you in short, endeavor to carry yourself towards your neighbor with the tenderness of a mother, and you will not fail of complying perfectly with all I have said above. Consider how a kind and careful mother loves her child, how she advises him against dangers, how she assists him in his necessity ."..... . .

ties, how she deals with him in his failings, sometimes putting up with them with patience, other times correcting him for them with justice, and, as occasion requires, passing them over, and winking at them with prudence : for charity, the queen and mother of all the virtues, makes use of these. Consider how glad she is at his prosperity, and how concerned for his adversity ; how she looks on his misfortune as her own, how zealous she is for his honor and interest, with what devotion she prays for him to Almighty God, and, in conclusion, how much more careful she is of him than of herself, and how hard she is to herself, that she may be the more tender and kind to him. If your love of your neighbor is such as this, you are arrived already to the height of this virtue : but, putting the case, that you cannot attain this pitch, you must at least aim at it in desire, and refer all the actions of your life to it, for it is certain that the higher you endeavor to climb, the further you will be from being low.

7. But perhaps you would ask me, How can I have such an affection for a stranger? I answer, that you are not to look upon any man as such, but to esteem him as an image of God, as the work of his hands, as his child, and as a living member of Jesus Christ ; since St. Paul so often tells us, " That we are all of us members of Christ Jesus ; and that to sin against our neighbor is consequently the same as to sin against Christ, and to do good to the one is to do good to the other;" 1 Cor. xii. 28 ; Ephes. v. 20. So that you should not consider your neighbor as a man in general, or as such a man, but as Christ himself, or as a living member of him ; and though he is not such as to the body, that matters not, since he is so as to the participation of the spirit, and the greatness of the reward ; our Saviour himself assuring us that he will requite this favor as if it had been done to him.

8. Consider also what we said above, in commendation of this virtue, and how much Jesus Christ himself recommends it to us ; so that, if you have any true desire of pleasing God, you may omit no care nor pains requisite for the procuring of a thing that is so acceptable to him. Consider also what a love relations have for one another, upon no other account but the communication of a little flesh and blood ; and blush that grace should not have as much power over you as nature, or the spiritual alliance as the carnal. If you should say, that this is a union and participation from the same root and the same blood, which is common to both parties, consider how much more noble those alliances are, which the apostle has put between the faithful; since they have all one father and one mother, one Lord, one baptism, one faith, one hope, one nourishment, and one spirit that enlivens them; they have all one Father, which is God ; one mother, which is the church; one Lord, which is Jesus Christ; one faith, which is a supernatural light, of which we all partake, and which distinguishes us from the rest of mankind; one hope, which is the same inheritance of glory, in which we shall all have but one heart and but one soul ; one baptism, by which we have been all adopted for the children of one and the same father, and consequently made brothers to one another ; one nourishment, which is the most adorable sacrament of the body of Christ, by which we are all united to and made one and the same thing with him ; just as of several grains of corn is made a loaf, and the same wine of a great many bunches of grapes. And besides all this, we partake of the same spirit, which is the Holy Ghost, who resides in all the souls of the faithful, either by faith alone, or by grace and faith joined together, enlivening them and supporting them in this life. Now if the members of one body, notwithstanding the difference of their employments and of their forms, have such a love for one another, because the same rational soul animates them all, how much more consonant to reason must it be, to have the faithful to do the same, as being all animated by this divine Spirit, who, the more noble he is, the greater power must he have to unite those things in which he himself remains ? If, then, the bare union of flesh and blood be enough to make relations love one another so entirely, how much more force ought so many and such straight unions and alliances have over us !

9. But, above all, cast your eyes upon the singular and unparalleled love Jesus Christ had for us ; he loved us so passionately, so tenderly, so constantly, so far from any interest of his own, or any desert of ours, that, encouraged by so great an example, and obliged by such a favor, you should dispose yourself to love your neighbor as much as possibly you can, after the same manner, that so you might faithfully comply with the precept, which he himself, upon his leaving the world, gave you, with such a particular caution about the observing of it. His words are, " I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you ;" Jo. xiii. 34. He that would, besides what has been said, know how great a virtue that of alms-deeds, and of compassion for his neighbor is, and how excellent and meritorious, may read a Treatise of mine upon this subject, at the end of my Book of Prayer and Meditation.