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| Chapter VI. Abbot Chæremon's statement that faults can be overcome in three ways.
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Chapter VI.
Abbot Chæremon’s statement that faults can be
overcome in three ways.
Then the blessed
Chæremon: There are, said he, three things which enable men to
control their faults; viz., either the fear of hell or of laws even now
imposed; or the hope and desire of the kingdom of heaven; or a liking
for goodness itself and the love of virtue. For then we read that the
fear of evil loathes contamination: “The fear of the Lord hateth
evil.”1691
Hope also shuts out the assaults of all faults: for
“all who hope in Him shall not fail.”1692
Love also fears no destruction from sins,
for “love never faileth;”1693
and again: “love covers a
multitude of sins.”1694
And therefore
the blessed Apostle confines the whole
sum of salvation in the attainment of
those three virtues, saying “Now abideth faith, hope, love, these
three.”1695
For faith is what
makes us shun the stains of sin from fear of future judgment and
punishment; hope is what withdraws our mind from present things, and
despises all bodily pleasures from its expectation of heavenly rewards;
love is what inflames us with keenness of heart for the love of Christ
and the fruit of spiritual goodness, and makes us hate with a perfect
hatred whatever is opposed to these. And these three things although
they all seem to aim at one and the same end (for they incite us to
abstain from things unlawful) yet they differ from each other greatly
in the degrees of their excellence. For the two former belong properly
to those men who in their aim at goodness have not yet acquired the
love of virtue, and the third belongs specially to God and to those who
have received into themselves the image and likeness of God. For He
alone does the things that are good, with no fear and no thanks or
reward to stir Him up, but simply from the love of goodness. For, as
Solomon says, “The Lord hath made all things for
Himself.”1696
For under cover
of His own goodness He bestows all the fulness of good things on the
worthy and the unworthy because He cannot be wearied by wrongs, nor be
moved by passions at the sins of men, as He ever remains perfect
goodness and unchangeable in His nature.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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