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Paley, William, 1743-1805

"Evidence of Christianity"

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.
And that this temper, for some time at least, descended in its purity to
succeeding Christians, is attested by one of the earliest and best of
the remaining writings of the apostolical fathers, the epistle of the
Roman Clement.


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