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with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;" and the other, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself?"132 Or if they dare not deny this, from the light of truth being too strong for them,
let them deny that these precepts are salutary; let them deny, if they can, that they teach the
best morality; let them assert that it is not a duty to love God, or to love our neighbor; that
all things do not issue in good to them that love God; that it is not true that the love of our
neighbor worketh no ill (a two-fold regulation of human life which is most salutary and
excellent). By such assertions they cut themselves off not only from Christians, but from
mankind. But if they dare not speak thus, but must confess the divinity of the precepts, why
do they not desist from assailing and maligning with horrible profanity the books from
which they are quoted?
58. Will they say, as they often do, that although we find these precepts in the books,
it does not follow that all is good that is found there? How to meet and refute this quibble
I do not well see. Shall I discuss the words of the Old Testament one by one, to prove to
stubborn and ignorant men their perfect agreement with the New Testament? But when
will this be done? When shall I have time, or they patience? What, then, is to be done?
Shall I desert the cause, and leave them to escape detection in an opinion which, though
false and impious, is hard to disprove? I will not. God will Himself be at hand to aid me;
nor will He suffer me in those straits to remain helpless or forsaken.
132 Deut. vi. 5; Lev. xix. 18; Matt. xxii. 37, 39.
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On Doing Good to the Soul of Our Neighbor. Two Parts of Discipline, Restraint…