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| Chapter IX.—The Connection of the Christian Virtues.
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Chapter IX.—The Connection of the Christian Virtues.
Such a fear, accordingly, leads to repentance
and hope. Now hope is the expectation of good things, or an expectation
sanguine of absent
good; and favourable circumstances
are assumed in order to good hope, which we have learned leads on to
love. Now love turns out to be consent in what pertains to reason,
life, and manners, or in brief, fellowship in life, or it is the
intensity of friendship and of affection, with right reason, in the
enjoyment of associates. And an associate (ἑταῖρος)
is another self;2243
| 2243 ἑτερος
ἐγώ, alter
ego, deriving ἑταῖρος
from ἕτερος. |
just as we call those, brethren, who are regenerated by the same
word. And akin to love is hospitality, being a congenial art devoted to
the treatment of strangers. And those are strangers, to whom the things
of the world are strange. For we regard as worldly those, who hope in the
earth and carnal lusts. “Be not conformed,” says the apostle,
“to this world: but be ye transformed in the renewal of the mind,
that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect,
will of God.”2244
Hospitality, therefore, is occupied in what is useful
for strangers; and guests (ἐπίξενοι)
are strangers (ξένοι); and
friends are guests; and brethren are friends. “Dear
brother,”2245
| 2245 φέλε κασἰγνητε, Iliad, v. 359. | says Homer.
Philanthropy, in order to which also, is
natural affection, being a loving treatment of men, and natural
affection, which is a congenial habit exercised in the love of
friends or domestics, follow in the train of love. And if the
real man within us is the spiritual, philanthropy is brotherly
love to those who participate, in the same spirit. Natural
affection, on the other hand, is the preservation of good-will,
or of affection; and affection is its perfect demonstration;2246
| 2246 ἀπόδεξις
has been conjectured in place of ἀπόδειξις. |
and to be beloved is to please in behaviour, by drawing and
attracting. And persons are brought to sameness by consent,
which is the knowledge of the good things that are enjoyed
in common. For community of sentiment (ὁμογνωμοσύνη)
is harmony of opinions (συμφωνία
γνωμῶν). “Let your love
be without dissimulation,” it is said; “and abhorring
what is evil, let us become attached to what is good, to brotherly
love,” and so on, down to “If it be possible, as much as
lieth in you, living peaceably with all men.” Then “be
not overcome of evil,” it is said, “but overcome evil
with good.”2247
| 2247
Rom. xii. 9, 10, 18, 21. | And the same apostle owns that
he bears witness to the Jews, “that they have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of God’s
righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they have
not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.”2248
For
they did not know and do the will of the law; but what they supposed,
that they thought the law wished. And they did not believe the law
as prophesying, but the bare word; and they followed through fear,
not through disposition and faith. “For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness,”2249
who was prophesied by the
law to every one that believeth. Whence it was said to them by Moses,
“I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are not a people;
and I will anger you by a foolish nation, that is, by one that has
become disposed to obedience.”2250
And by
Isaiah it is said, “I was found of them that sought Me not;
I was made manifest to them that inquired not after Me,”2251
—manifestly previous to the coming of the Lord; after
which to Israel, the things prophesied, are now appropriately spoken:
“I have stretched out My hands all the day long to a disobedient and
gainsaying people.” Do you see the cause of the calling from among
the nations, clearly declared, by the prophet, to be the disobedience
and gainsaying of the people? Then the goodness of God is shown also in
their case. For the apostle says, “But through their transgression
salvation is come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy”2252
and
to willingness to repent. And the Shepherd, speaking plainly of those who
had fallen asleep, recognises certain righteous among Gentiles and Jews,
not only before the appearance of Christ, but before the law, in virtue
of acceptance before God,—as Abel, as Noah, as any other righteous
man. He says accordingly, “that the apostles and teachers, who had
preached the name of the Son of God, and had fallen asleep, in power
and by faith, preached to those that had fallen asleep before”
Then he subjoins: “And they gave them the seal of preaching. They
descended, therefore, with them into the water, and again ascended. But
these descended alive, and again ascended alive. But those, who had
fallen asleep before, descended dead, but ascended alive. By these,
therefore, they were made alive, and knew the name of the Son of God.
Wherefore also they ascended with them, and fitted into the structure
of the tower, and unhewn were built up together; they fell asleep in
righteousness and in great purity, but wanted only this seal.”2253
| 2253 Hermas, [Similitudes, p. 49,
supra.] | “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law,
do by nature the things of the law, these, having not the law, are a law
unto themselves,”2254
according to the apostle.
As, then, the virtues follow one another, why need
I say what has been demonstrated already, that faith hopes through
repentance, and fear through faith; and patience and practice in these
along with learning terminate in love,
which is perfected by knowledge? But that is necessarily
to be noticed, that the Divine alone is to be regarded as naturally
wise. Therefore also wisdom, which has taught the truth, is the power of
God; and in it the perfection of knowledge is embraced. The philosopher
loves and likes the truth, being now considered as a friend, on account
of his love, from his being a true servant. The beginning of knowledge
is wondering at objects, as Plato says is in his Theætetus;
and Matthew exhorting in the Traditions, says, “Wonder at
what is before you;” laying this down first as the foundation
of further knowledge. So also in the Gospel to the Hebrews it is
written, “He that wonders shall reign, and he that has reigned
shall rest. It is impossible, therefore, for an ignorant man, while he
remains ignorant, to philosophize, not having apprehended the idea of
wisdom; since philosophy is an effort to grasp that which truly is,
and the studies that conduce thereto. And it is not the rendering of
one2255
| 2255 This clause is hopelessly corrupt; the text
is utterly unintelligible, and the emendation of Sylburgius is adopted
in the translation. | accomplished in good habits of conduct,
but the knowing how we are to use and act and labour, according as one
is assimilated to God. I mean God the Saviour, by serving the God of the
universe through the High Priest, the Word, by whom what is in truth
good and right is beheld. Piety is conduct suitable and corresponding
to God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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