Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XXVII.—The Law, Even in Correcting and Punishing, Aims at the Good of Men.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter XXVII.—The Law, Even in Correcting and Punishing, Aims at the Good of Men.
Let no, one then, run down law, as if, on account
of the penalty, it were not beautiful and good. For shall he who drives
away bodily disease appear a benefactor; and shall not he who attempts
to deliver the soul from iniquity, as much more appear a friend, as
the soul is a more precious thing than the body? Besides, for the
sake of bodily health we submit to incisions, and cauterizations,
and medicinal draughts; and he who administers them is called saviour
and healer,2114
even though amputating parts, not
from grudge or ill-will towards the patient, but as the principles of the
art prescribe, so that the sound parts may not perish along with them,
and no one accuses the physician’s art of wickedness; and shall we
not similarly submit, for the soul’s sake, to either banishment,
or punishment, or bonds, provided only from unrighteousness we shall
attain to righteousness?
For the law, in its solicitude for those who obey,
trains up to piety, and prescribes what is to be done, and restrains
each one from sins, imposing penalties even on lesser sins.
But when it sees any one in such a condition as to
appear incurable, posting to the last stage of wickedness, then in its
solicitude for the rest, that they may not be destroyed by it (just as
if amputating a part from the whole body), it condemns such an one
to death, as the course most conducive to health. “Being
judged by the Lord,” says the apostle, “we are
chastened, that we may not be condemned with the world.”2115
For the prophet had said before, “Chastening, the Lord hath chastised me, but
hath not given me over unto death.”2116
“For in order to
teach thee His righteousness,” it is said, “He chastised
thee and tried thee, and made thee to hunger and thirst in the
desert land; that all His statutes and His judgments may be known
in thy heart, as I command thee this day; and that thou mayest know
in thine heart, that just as if a man were chastising his son, so the
Lord our God shall chastise
thee.”2117
And to prove that example corrects, he says directly to
the purpose: “A clever man, when he seeth the wicked punished,
will himself be severely chastised, for the fear of the Lord is the
source of wisdom.”2118
But it is the highest and most perfect good, when
one is able to lead back any one from the practice of evil to virtue
and well-doing, which is the very function of the law. So that, when
one fails into any incurable evil,—when taken possession of, for
example, by wrong or covetousness,—it will be for his good if he
is put to death. For the law is beneficent, being able to make some
righteous from unrighteous, if they will only give ear to it, and by
releasing others from present evils; for those who have chosen
to live temperately and justly,
it conducts to immortality. To know the law is characteristic of a good
disposition. And again: “Wicked men do not understand the law; but
they who seek the Lord shall
have understanding in all that is good.”2119
It is essential, certainly, that the providence which
manages all, be both supreme and good. For it is the power of both that
dispenses salvation—the one correcting by punishment, as supreme,
the other showing kindness in the exercise of beneficence, as a
benefactor. It is in your power not to be a son of disobedience, but to
pass from darkness to life, and lending your ear to wisdom, to be the
legal slave of God, in the first instance, and then to become a
faithful servant, fearing the Lord God. And if one ascend higher, he is
enrolled among the sons.
But when “charity covers the multitude
of sins,”2120
by the consummation of the blessed hope, then
may we welcome him as one who has been enriched in love, and received
into the elect adoption, which is called the beloved of God, while he
chants the prayer, saying, “Let the Lord be my God.”
The beneficent action of the law, the apostle showed in
the passage relating to the Jews, writing thus: “Behold, thou art
called a Jew and restest in the law, and makest thy boast in God, and
knowest the will of God, and approvest the things that are more
excellent, being instructed out of the law, and art confident that thou
thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them who are in darkness,
an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, who hast the form of
knowledge and of truth in the law.”2121
For it is admitted that
such is the power of the law, although those whose conduct is not
according to the law, make a false pretence, as if they lived in the
law. “Blessed is the man that hath found wisdom, and the mortal
who has seen understanding; for out of its mouth,” manifestly
Wisdom’s, “proceeds righteousness, and it bears law and
mercy on its tongue.”2122
For both the law and
the Gospel are the energy of one Lord, who is “the power and
wisdom of God;” and the terror which the law begets is merciful
and in order to salvation. “Let not alms, and faith,
and truth fail thee, but hang them around thy neck.”2123
In the same way as Paul, prophecy upbraids the people with not
understanding the law. “Destruction and misery are in their
ways, and the way of peace have they not known.”2124
“There is no fear of God before
their eyes.”2125
“Professing themselves wise,
they became fools.”2126
“And we know that the law is good, if a man
use it lawfully.”2127
“Desiring to be teachers of the law,
they understand,” says the apostle, “neither what they
say, nor whereof they affirm.”2128
“Now the end of the
commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and
faith unfeigned.”2129
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
