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Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy
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Some other advantages of goodwill are here enumerated.
173. Good-will also is wont to remove the sword of anger. It is also good-will that makes the wounds of a friend to be better than the willing kisses of an enemy.231 Prov. xxvii. 6. Goodwill again makes many to become one. For if many are friends, they become one; in whom there is but one spirit and one opinion.232 Cic. de Off. I. 17, § 57. We note, too, that in friendship corrections are pleasing. They have their sting, but they cause no pain. We are pierced by the words of blame, but are delighted with the anxiety that good-will shows.
174. To conclude, the same duties are not owed to all. Nor is regard ever paid to persons, though the occasion and the circumstances of the case are generally taken into consideration, so that one may at times have to help a neighbour rather than one’s brother. For Solomon also says: “Better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.”233 Prov. xxvii. 10. For this reason a man generally trusts himself to the good-will of a friend rather than to the ties of relationship with his brother. So far does good-will prevail that it often goes beyond the pledges given by nature.
CAPUT XXXIV.
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Alia nonnulla benevolentiae commoda memorantur.
173. Benevolentia etiam gladium iracundiae extorquere consuevit. Benevolentia facit ut amici vulnera utilia quam voluntaria inimici oscula sint (Prov. XXVII, 6). Benevolentia facit, ut unus fiat ex pluribus; quoniam si plures amici sint, unus fiunt, in quibus unus spiritus et una sententia est. Simul advertimus etiam correptiones in amicitia gratas esse, quae aculeos habent, dolorem non habent. Compungimur enim censoriis sermonibus, sed benevolentiae delectamur sedulitate.
174. Ad summam, non omnibus eadem semper officia debentur, nec personarum semper, sed plerumque causarum et temporum praelationes sunt, ut 0074B vicinum quis interdum magis quam fratrem adjuverit. Quoniam et Salomon dicit: Melior vicinus in proximo, quam frater longe habitans (Ibid., 10). Et ideo plerumque amici se benevolentiae quisque committit, quam fratris necessitudini. Tantum valet benevolentia, ut plerumque pignora vincat naturae.