CHAPTER IV.

CHRISTIAN PRECEPTS CONCERNING DUTIES OF THE AFFECTIONS.

598. THE Christian Precepts concerning Duties of the Affections include the Moral Precepts formerly given (273-282); but carry the teaching farther, both as to its requirements and its motives. Beginning from the obligation to abstain from all violence, these precepts inculcate the duty of controlling and repressing all intention of violence, and the affections which give rise to such intentions: they inculcate also the duty of fostering and exercising affections of good-will with corresponding intentions and actions. They enjoin the virtues which consist in the habits of such affections, intentions, and actions. These duties and these virtues are enforced by motives depending upon religious truths. Some of these Precepts are the following.

599. In Matth. v., 21, Christ says, Ye have heard it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. This is the command of law; but the precept of duty goes much further: Whosoever shall be angry with his brother man without a cause, or who shall use reviling and contemptuous words to him, shall be in danger of the judgment of God and the fire of hell. And again, ver. 24, Leave thy gift before the altar, and go thy way: first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift, and hope for -the favour of God. And these duties extend to adversaries as well as to friends. Thus, ver. 25, Agree with thine adversary quickly whiles thou art in the way with him. Be ready to dismiss thine enmity, and to disclaim it on the first occasion. It is a duty to dismiss from our hearts all desires of revenge and

retaliation. Thus, ver. 38, Ye have heard that it hath been said (in the Law of Moses), An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you, that ye make not any such rule the measure of your affections. Instead of retaliating evil, be ready to submit to it. Resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Suppress all emotions of anger, even such as are excited by personal violence, so far as your personal resentments are concerned. Not only is anger to be thus suppressed, but the opposite affection of love is to be entertained instead. Thus, ver. 43, Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies. Bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. These precepts are also recorded in St. Luke vi., 29-35, where they are summed up with this (verse 36), Be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

600. The like precepts against revenge and anger are given by the Apostles of Christ. Thus St. Paul says to the Romans (xii., 19), Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath (either, give way to the wrath of an adver. sary, or rather leave the punishment of wrong to God; according to what follows:) for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. In like manner he writes to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. v., 14), Be patient toward all men: see that none render evil for evil to any man. And St. Peter (1 Pet. iii., 9) says the same thing, Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise, blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called that

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should inherit a blessing. St. James (i., 19) says, Let every man be slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. St. Paul says to the Ephesians (Eph. iv., 31), Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour be put away from you, with all malice. He gives the same injunction in nearly the same words to the Colossians (Col. iii., 8). To the Corinthians he says (1 Cor. xiv., 20), In malice be ye children, but in understanding be ye men. He calls the angry affections carnal (1 Cor. iii., 3; so St. James iv., 1); and speaks of the works of the flesh (Gal. v., 19), among which he mentions hatred, variance, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders. The forgiveness of injuries is inculcated. Christ taught his disciples (Matt. vi., 14), If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And accordingly, St. Paul says (Col. iii., 12), Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

601. The opposite affection, Love, is inculcated by Christ, at first as including in its spirit our obligations towards men: as in Matth. xix., 19, and xxii., 39. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: on these commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. So Mark xii., 31. Yet in referring to the nature and extent of the affection which he enjoined, he called it a new commandment. (John xiii., 34), A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another: which again is repeated John xv., 12, and again xv., 17. Accordingly St. John often repeats such injunctions in his Epistles; as 1 John

iii., 11. This is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love another. And so, 2 John 5, and 1 John ii., 7. Though the commandment was old, the light which Christ had brought into the world made it new. 1 John ii., 8, A new commandment I write unto you, because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness. Again, 1 John iv., 7, Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. And after referring to the love of God for us as shown in his sending his Son to be the propitiation for our sins, he adds, ver. 11, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

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St. John extends his injunctions to actions (1 John iii., 18, 17, 16), My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. In the same manner, St. Paul says (Rom. xiii., 8, 9, 10, and Gal. v., 14), that all the commandments are comprehended in this one saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: that he that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law: for he adds (Rom. xiii., 10), Love worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. To the Ephesians he says (Eph. v., 2), Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us. To the Thessalonians (1 Thess. iii., 12), The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards another and in many other places St. James calls the precept above referred to a Royal Law, as governing all our duties. James ii., 8, If

ye fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well.

602. The affection here inculcated is described also by other names, as brotherly love (padedpía) (Heb. xiii., 1). The term particularly used by the Apostles, and especially by St. Paul, is that which we usually translate charity (ùyánŋ, translated in the Latin charitas, from charus or carus, whence charity). St. Paul (1 Cor. xiii., 4) describes this affection; Charity suffereth long, and is kind; envieth not; vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up; doth not seek her own; is not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; [beareth all things návra oriye;] hopeth all things; endureth all things. And this virtue he describes as a proper object of Christian pursuit (1 Cor. xiv., 1), Follow after Charity. (Col. iii., 14), Above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. So 1 Tim. vi., 11, 2 Tim. ii., 22, where the word is the same, though translated love in the former place. So Peter (2 Pet. i., 7), Add to brotherly kindness, charity (ἐπιχορηγήσατε...ἐν τῇ φιλαδελφίᾳ ἀγάπην) as an additional step in Christian virtue. And this is the word which is translated love in many of the passages above quoted, as 1 John iv., 8, å Ösòs àyúnn

ἐστίν.

Other terms are also used for the affections of this kind. Thus, Matth. v., 7, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (¿λeńpoves: but in Luke vi., 36, the Greek word is oixrippoves). Enλayxva oikTippwv, bowels of mercies, are enjoined (Col. iii., 12). In 1 Pet. iii., 8, we have a similar expression translated pitiful (evondayxvoi); but Eph. iv., 32, tender-hearted. Compassionate, ovpraleis (1 Pet. iii., 8), is a term also used.

603. The word for pity (èdenμocúvn) came to signify the evidence of pity which is given by bounty to the poor. It had this signification among the

Jews. So Matth. i., 1, Take heed that ye do not