Fifty Godly and Learned Sermons (The Decades)

God alone doth minister to man ability to live well and blessedly: and therefore God deserveth to be loved alone, and that too before and above all other things. This love of God doth bless all the haps and chances of men, and turneth them to their profit, according to that saying, To them that love God all things work for the best This love of God also containeth this, that it suffereth us not to honour, worship, reverence, fear, or call upon any, neither to trust in, obey, or stick to any other, but to the one and only God, to whom all glory is due.

God alone doth minister to man abilitie to liue well and blessedly: and therefore God deserueth to be loued alone, and that too before and aboue al other things. This loue of God doth blesse all the haps and chances of men, and turneth them to their profite, according to that saying, To them that loue God all thinges worke for the best This loue of God also conteineth this, that it suffreth vs not to honour, worship, reuerence, feare, or call vpon any, neyther to trust in, obey, or sticke to any other, but to the one and onely God, to whome all glory is due.

But now before we speak of the ¹love of our neighbour, it is requisite that we first show who it is that is our neighbour, touching which I see some men to doubt and stick uncertainly. For some there are that t•ke their kinsfolks to be their neighbours. Other some there are that think that their benefactors are their neighbours, & judge them strangers that do them any harm. But our Lord Jesus Christ telleth us, that every one, yea, though he be our enemy is nevertheless our neighbour, if he stand in need of our aid or counsel. For he imagineth that a Jew, lighting among thieves and lying on the high way half dead, and covered with wounds and swelling dry blows, was not regarded of his own country men, a Levite, and a Priest that passed by him, but at last was taken up and healed by a Samaritan. Now there was a deadly enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans: yet notwithstanding this Samaritan doth good to the Jew because he saw that the case and necessity of the afflicted man did so require. Now therefore the Lord applying this to his own purpose demanded of him, that desired to learn who was his neighbour, and saith, which of these three seemeth to thee to have been this mans neighbour? He answered, He that showed mercy, Then said the Lord, Go thou and do the like. As if he should have said, like as the Samaritan judged even his enemy to be his neighbour, and dealt friendly with him when he stood in need of his friendship: so see that thou take every one that needeth thy help to be thy neighbour, and do him good. Aurelius Augustine therefore, according to the right sense of the scripture said, we take him to be our neighbour, to whom we show mercy when need requireth, or to whom we should show mercy, if at any time he should need. We Switzers do most properly express it, when we call our neighbour, Den nachsten menschen,