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| Chapter XV.—On the Different Kinds of Voluntary Actions, and the Sins Thence Proceeding.
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Chapter XV.—On the Different Kinds of Voluntary Actions, and the Sins Thence Proceeding.
What is voluntary is either what is by desire, or what
is by choice, or what is of intention. Closely allied to each other are
these things—sin, mistake, crime. It is sin, for example, to live
luxuriously and licentiously; a misfortune, to wound one’s friend
in ignorance, taking him for an enemy; and crime, to violate graves or
commit sacrilege. Sinning arises from being unable to
determine what ought to be done, or being unable to do it; as doubtless
one falls into a ditch either through not knowing, or through inability to
leap across through feebleness of body. But application to the training
of ourselves, and subjection to the commandments, is in our own power;
with which if we will have nothing to do, by abandoning ourselves wholly
to lust, we shall sin, nay rather, wrong our own soul. For the noted
Laius says in the tragedy:—
“None of these things of which you admonish me have escaped me;
But notwithstanding that I am in my senses, Nature compels me;”
i.e., his abandoning himself to passion. Medea, too,
herself cries on the stage:—
“And I am aware what evils I am to perpetrate,
But passion is stronger than my resolutions.”2294
| 2294 Eurip., Medea, 1078. |
Further, not even Ajax is silent; but, when about to
kill himself, cries:—
“No pain gnaws the soul of a free man like dishonour.
Thus do I suffer; and the deep stain of calamity
Ever stirs me from the depths, agitated
By the bitter stings of rage.”2295
| 2295 These lines, which are not found in the Ajax of Sophocles, have been amended by various hands. Instead of συμφοροὺσα, we have ventured to read συμφορᾶς—κηλὶς συμφορᾶς being a Sophoclean phrase, and συμφοροῦσα being unsuitable. |
Anger made these the subjects of
tragedy, and lust made ten thousand others—Phædra, Anthia,
Eriphyle,—
“Who took the precious gold for her dear husband.”
For another play represents Thrasonides of the comic
drama as saying:—
“A worthless wench made me her slave.”
Mistake is a sin contrary to
calculation; and voluntary sin is crime (ἀδικία);
and crime is voluntary wickedness. Sin, then, is on my part voluntary.
Wherefore says the apostle, “Sin shall not have dominion over
you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”2296
Addressing those who have believed, he says, “For by His stripes
we were healed.”2297
Mistake is the involuntary action of
another towards me, while a crime (ἀδικία)
alone is voluntary, whether my act or another’s. These
differences of sins are alluded to by the Psalmist, when he
calls those blessed whose iniquities (ἀνομίας)
God hath blotted out, and whose sins (ἁμαρτίας)
He hath covered. Others He does not impute, and the rest He forgives.
For it is written, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, and in whose mouth
there is no fraud.”2298
This blessedness came on those
who had been chosen by God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For “love
hides the multitude of sins.”2299
And they are blotted
out by Him “who desireth the repentance rather than the death
of a sinner.”2300
And those are not reckoned that are not the
effect of choice; “for he who has lusted has already committed
adultery,”2301
it is said. And the illuminating Word
forgives sins: “And in that time, saith the Lord, they shall seek for the iniquity of
Israel, and it shall not exist; and the sins of Judah, and they shall
not be found.”2302
“For who is like Me? and who shall stand
before My face?2303
You see the one God declared good, rendering
according to desert, and forgiving sins. John, too, manifestly teaches
the differences of sins, in his larger Epistle, in these words: “If
any man see his brother sin a sin that is not unto death, he shall ask,
and he shall give him life: for these that sin not unto death,”
he says. For “there is a sin unto death: I do not say that one
is to pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin not
unto death.”2304
David, too, and Moses before David, show the
knowledge of the three precepts in the following words: “Blessed
is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly;” as the
fishes go down to the depths in darkness; for those which have not scales,
which Moses prohibits touching, feed at the bottom of the sea. “Nor
standeth in the way of sinners,” as those who, while appearing
to fear the Lord, commit sin, like the sow, for when hungry it cries,
and when full knows not its owner. “Nor sitteth in the chair of
pestilences,” as birds ready for prey. And Moses enjoined not to eat
the sow, nor the eagle, nor the hawk, nor the raven, nor any fish without
scales. So far Barnabas.2305
| 2305
Ps. i. 1 (quoted from Barnabas, with some additions and omissions). [See
vol. i. p. 143, this series.] | And I heard one skilled in such
matters say that “the counsel of the ungodly” was the heathen,
and “the way of sinners” the Jewish persuasion, and explain
“the chair of pestilence” of heresies. And another said, with
more propriety, that the first blessing was assigned to those who had not
followed wicked sentiments which revolt from God; the second to those who
do not remain in the wide and broad road, whether they be those who have
been brought up in the law, or Gentiles who have repented. And “the
chair of pestilences” will be the theatres and tribunals, or rather
the compliance with wicked and deadly powers, and complicity with their
deeds. “But his delight is in the law of the Lord.”2306
Peter in his Preaching
called the Lord, Law and Logos. The
legislator seems to teach differently the interpretation of the three
forms of sin—understanding by the mute fishes sins of word,
for there are times in which silence is better than speech, for
silence has a safe recompense; sins of deed, by the rapacious and
carnivorous birds. The sow delights in dirt and dung; and we ought not
to have “a conscience” that is “defiled.”2307
Justly, therefore, the prophet says,
“The ungodly are not so: but as the chaff which the wind
driveth away from the face of the earth. Wherefore the ungodly
shall not stand in the judgment”2308
(being already condemned,
for “he that believeth not is condemned already”2309
),
“nor sinners in the counsel of the righteous,” inasmuch
as they are already condemned, so as not to be united to those
that have lived without stumbling. “For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; and
the way of the ungodly shall perish.”2310
Again, the Lord clearly shows sins and transgressions to
be in our own power, by prescribing modes of cure corresponding to the
maladies; showing His wish that we should be corrected by the
shepherds, in Ezekiel; blaming, I am of opinion, some of them for not
keeping the commandments. “That which was enfeebled ye have not
strengthened,” and so forth, down to, “and there was none
to search out or turn away.”2311
For “great is the joy before the
Father when one sinner is saved,”2312
| 2312 These words are not in Scripture, but the substance
of them is contained in Luke xv. 7; 10. | saith the Lord. So
Abraham was much to be praised, because “he walked as the Lord
spake to him.” Drawing from this instance, one of the wise men
among the Greeks uttered the maxim, “Follow God.”2313
“The godly,” says Esaias,
“framed wise counsels.”2314
Now counsel is
seeking for the right way of acting in present circumstances, and good
counsel is wisdom in our counsels. And what? Does not God, after the
pardon bestowed on Cain, suitably not long after introduce Enoch,
who had repented?2315
| 2315
Philo explains Enoch’s translation allegorically, as denoting
reformation or repentance. | showing that it is the nature of
repentance to produce pardon; but pardon does not consist in remission,
but in remedy. An instance of the same is the making of the calf by the
people before Aaron. Thence one of the wise men among the Greeks uttered
the maxim, “Pardon is better than punishment;” as also,
“Become surety, and mischief is at hand,” is derived from the
utterance of Solomon which says, “My son, if thou become surety for
thy friend, thou wilt give thine hand to thy enemy; for a man’s
own lips are a strong snare to him, and he is taken in the words of
his own mouth.”2316
And the saying, “Know thyself,”
has been taken rather more mystically from this, “Thou hast seen
thy brother, thou hast seen thy God.”2317
| 2317 Quoted as if in Scripture, but not found there. The
allusion may be, as is conjectured, to what God said to Moses respecting
him and Aaron, to whom he was to be as God; or to Jacob saying to Esau,
“I have seen thy face as it were the face of God.” |
Thus also, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself;” for it is
said, “On these commandments the law and the prophets hang and are
suspended.”2318
With these also agree the following: “These
things have I spoken to you, that My joy might be fulfilled: and this is
My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”2319
“For the Lord is
merciful and pitiful; and gracious2320
| 2320 χρηστός
instread of χριστός
which is in the text. | is the Lord to all.”2321
“Know thyself” is more clearly and
often expressed by Moses, when he enjoins, “Take heed to
thyself.”2322
“By alms then,
and acts of faith, sins are purged.”2323
“And by the
fear of the Lord each one
departs from evil.”2324
“And the fear of the Lord is instruction
and wisdom.”2325
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