Upon all these occasions I consider the words of our Saviour as
expressing precisely the same thing as what I have put into the mouth of
the moral philosopher. Nor do I think that it detracts much from the
merit of the answer, that these precepts are extant in the Mosaic code:
for his laying his finger, if I may so say, upon these precepts; his
drawing them out from the rest of that voluminous institution; his
stating of them, not simply amongst the number, but as the greatest and
the sum of all the others; in a word, his proposing of them to his
hearers for their rule and principle, was our Saviour's own.
And what our Saviour had said upon the subject appears to me to have
fixed the sentiment amongst his followers.
Saint Paul has it expressly, "If there be any other commandment, it is
briefly comprehended in this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself;" (Rom. xiii. 9.) and again, "For all the law is fulfilled in
one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Gal.
v. 14.)
Saint John, in like manner, "This commandment have we from him, that he
who loveth God love his brother also." (1 John iv. 21.)
Saint Peter, not very differently: "Seeing that ye have purified your
souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of
the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently."
(I Peter i, 22.)
And it is so well known as to require no citations to verify it, that
this love, or charity, or, in other words, regard to the welfare of
others, runs in various forms through all the preceptive parts of the
apostolic writings. It is the theme of all their exhortations, that with
which their morality begins and ends, from which all their details and
enumerations set out, and into which they return.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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