Matthew 5:45 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

That ye may be the children, &c.— Our blessed Saviour enforces the doctrine of loving our enemies, so far as to do them good, from the noblest of all considerations, that it renders men like God, who is good even to the evil and unthankful. "Being thus benevolent towards all, the bad as well as the good, you shall be like God, and so prove yourselves his genuine offspring; for he maketh his sun common to them who worship, and tothem who contemn him; and suffers his rain to be useful both to the just and to the unjust; alluring the bad to repentance, and stirring up the good to thankfulness, by this universal and indiscriminate benignity of his providence." "If you would imitate the gods," says Seneca, "do services even to the ungrateful; for the sun shines even upon the wicked." "To conquer one's passion, to refrain from revenge, not merely to raise but even to assist and dignify a fallen enemy," says Cicero, "is not only to be like the greatest men, but like to God himself." Haec qui faciat, non ego eum summis viris comparo, sed simillimum Deo judico. See his oration for Marcellus.