ing seven commandments of the Decalogue. [1] This order of the commandments is very apposite, for by it their nature and object are also distinguished: whatever is commanded or prohibited in Scripture by the divine law springs from one of two principles, the love of God or of our neighbour: and in the discharge of every duty we must be actuated by this love. The three preceding commandments teach us the love which we owe to God, and the other seven, the duties which we owe to domestic and public society. The distinction, therefore, which refers some to the first, others to the second table, is not without good ground: in the three first, God, the supreme good, is, as it were, the subject matter, in the others, the good of our neighbour: the first propose the supreme, the others the proximate object of our love: the first regard the ultimate end, the others those duties which refer to that end. [2]
Again, the love of God terminates in God himself, for God is to be loved above all things for his own sake; but the love of our neighbour originates in, and is to be referred to, the love of God. If we love our parents, obey our masters, respect our superiors, our ruling principle in doing so should be, that God is their Creator, and wishes to give pre-eminence to those by whose co-operation he governs and protects all others; and as he requires that we yield a dutiful respect to such persons, we should do so, because he deems them worthy of this honour. If then we honour our parents, the tribute is paid to God rather than to man; and accordingly we read in the tenth chapter of St. Matthew, which, amongst other matters, treats also of duty to superiors; " He that receiveth you, receiveth me;" [3] and the Apostle in his Epistle to the Ephesians, giving instruction to servants, says: "Servants, be obedient to them that are your lords according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the simplicity of your heart, as to Christ: not serving to the eye, as it were pleasing men, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart." [4]
Moreover, no honour, no piety, no devotion can be rendered to God, worthy of him towards whom love admits of infinite increase, and hence our charity should become every day more fervent towards him, who commands us to love him " with our Note. whole heart, our whole soul, and with all our strength:" [5] but the love of our neighbour has its limits, for we are commanded to love our neighbour as ourselves; and to outstep these limits, by loving him as we love God, were a crime of the blackest enormity. "If any man come tome," says our Lord, "and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and
- ↑ Vid. Clem. Alexan. lib. 6. Strom, satis ante finem, Aug. in Exod. q. 71. D. Thorn. 1.2. q. 100. art. 4.
- ↑ Vid Aug. in Ps. xxxii. serm. 1. D. Thorn. 2. 2.q. 122. art. I et 2. et in opusc 7. cap. de primo preecepto.
- ↑ Matt x. 40.
- ↑ Ephes. vi. 5, 6. Vid. Aug. lib. 3. de doct. Christ, c. 12. et lib. 4. Conf. c. 9 12. Prosper, lib. 3. de vita contempl. c. 13. Bernard, de diligendo Deo.
- ↑ Deut. vi. 5. Luke x. 27. Matt. xxii. 37 - 39.
