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| Chapter XII.—Twofold Faith.
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Chapter XII.—Twofold Faith.
Faith as also Time being double, we shall find
virtues in pairs both dwelling together. For memory is related to past
time, hope to future. We believe that what is past did, and that what
is future will take place. And, on the other hand, we love, persuaded by
faith that the past was as it was, and by hope expecting the future. For
in everything love attends the Gnostic, who knows one God. “And,
behold, all things which He created were very good.”2274
He both knows and admires. Godliness adds length of
life; and the fear of the Lord
adds days. As, then, the days are a portion of life in its progress,
so also fear is the beginning of love, becoming by development faith,
then love. But it is not as I fear and hate a wild beast (since fear is
twofold) that I fear the father, whom I fear and love at once. Again,
fearing lest I be punished, I love myself in assuming fear. He who fears
to offend his father, loves himself. Blessed then is he who is found
possessed of faith, being, as he is, composed of love and fear. And faith
is power in order to salvation, and strength to eternal life. Again,
prophecy is foreknowledge; and knowledge the understanding of prophecy;
being the knowledge of those things known before by the Lord who reveals
all things.
The knowledge, then, of those things which
have been predicted shows a threefold result—either one that has
happened long ago, or exists now, or about to be. Then the extremes2275
| 2275 i.e., Past and Future, between
which lies the Present. | either of what is accomplished or of
what is hoped for fall under faith; and the present action furnishes
persuasive arguments of the confirmation of both the extremes. For
if, prophecy being one, one part is accomplishing and another is
fulfilled; hence the truth, both what is hoped for and what is passed
is confirmed. For it was first present; then it became past to us; so
that the belief of what is past is the apprehension of a past event,
and a hope which is future the apprehension of a future event.
And not only the Platonists, but the Stoics,
say that assent is in our own power. All opinion then, and judgment,
and supposition, and knowledge, by which we live and have perpetual
intercourse with the human race, is an assent; which is nothing else
than faith. And unbelief being defection from faith, shows both assent
and faith to be possessed of power; for non-existence cannot be called
privation. And if you consider the truth, you will find man naturally
misled so as to give assent to what is false, though possessing
the resources necessary for belief in the truth. “The virtue,
then, that encloses the Church in its grasp,” as the Shepherd
says,2276
| 2276 Pastor of
Hermas, book i. vision iii. chap. viii. vol. i. p. 15. |
“is Faith, by which the elect of God are saved; and that
which acts the man is Self-restraint. And these are followed by
Simplicity, Knowledge, Innocence, Decorum, Love,” and all
these are the daughters of Faith. And again, “Faith leads the
way, fear upbuilds, and love perfects.” Accordingly he2277
| 2277 See Pastor of Hermas,
book ii. commandt. iv. ch. ii. [vol. i. p. 22], for the sense of
this passage. | says, the Lord is to be feared in order to
edification, but not the devil to destruction. And again, the works of
the Lord—that is, His commandments—are to be loved and done;
but the works of the devil are to be dreaded and not done. For the fear
of God trains and restores to love; but the fear of the works of the
devil has hatred dwelling along with it. The same also says “that
repentance is high intelligence. For he that repents of what he did, no
longer does or says as he did. But by torturing himself for his sins,
he benefits his soul. Forgiveness of sins is therefore different from
repentance; but both show what is in our power.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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