Hugo Grotius · 43 of 132

SECT. XII. Concerning those duties of humanity which owe to our neighbour, though he has injured us.

THE duties towards our neighbour, required of us, are also of the like sort. The Mahometan religion, which was bred in arms, breathes nothing else; and is propagated by such means only. Thus, Aristotle takes notice of, and blames, the laws of the Laconians, (which were so highly commended above any other in Greece, even by the oracle of Apollo), because they tended directly to force of arms. But the same philosopher affirms, that war against barbarians was lawful: whereas the contrary is true amongst men, who were designed by nature for friendship and society. For, what greater iniquity can there be, than to punish single murders, but expose to public view, in their triumphs, whole nations whom they had slain, as a glorious exploit? And yet that most celebrated city of Rome, how did it procure that title, but by wars, and those many times very unjust; as they themselves confess concerning the wars against Sardinia and Cyprus? And in general, as the most famous compilers of annals have related, very many nations did not account it infamous to commit robberies out of their own bounds. Executing of revenge is, by Aristotle and Cicero, made a part of virtue. The gladiators tearing one another to pieces was one of the public entertainments amongst the heathens: and to expose their children was a daily practice. The Hebrews, indeed, had a better law, a more holy discipline; but yet there were some things overlooked or allowed in that people, whose passion was ungovernable; such as the giving up to their power seven nations, though indeed they deserved it: with which they not being contented, persecuted with cruel hatred all that differed from them; the marks of which remain even to this day, in their prayers uttered against Christians: and the law itself allowed a man to revenge an injury by the punishment of retaliation, and that a man-slayer might be killed by the private hand of the next relation. But the law of Christ forbids requiting any injury that hath been done us, either by word or deed; lest, by imitating that malice we condemn in others, we should on the contrary approve it. It would have us do good, in the first place, to those that are good; and then to the bad also, after the example of God, from whom we receive, in common with all other men, such gifts as the sun, the stars, the air, the winds, and the rain.