{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/002/0020320.htm","path":"chr/ecf/002/0020320.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020320.htm","text":"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\u2019s art of wickedness; and shall we not similarly submit, for the soul\u2019s sake, to either banishment, or punishment, or bonds, provided only from unrighteousness we shall attain to righteousness?\nFor 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.\nBut 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. \u201cBeing judged by the Lord,\u201d says the apostle, \u201cwe are chastened, that we may not be condemned with the world.\u201d 2115 For the prophet had said before, \u201cChastening, the Lord hath chastised me, but hath not given me over unto death.\u201d 2116 \u201cFor in order to teach thee His righteousness,\u201d it is said, \u201cHe 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.\u201d 2117\nAnd to prove that example corrects, he says directly to the purpose: \u201cA clever man, when he seeth the wicked punished, will himself be severely chastised, for the fear of the Lord is the source of wisdom.\u201d 2118\nBut 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,\u2014when taken possession of, for example, by wrong or covetousness,\u2014it 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 p. 340 to live temperately and justly, it conducts to immortality. To know the law is characteristic of a good disposition. And again: \u201cWicked men do not understand the law; but they who seek the Lord shall have understanding in all that is good.\u201d 2119\nIt is essential, certainly, that the providence which manages all, be both supreme and good. For it is the power of both that dispenses salvation\u2014the 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.\nBut when \u201ccharity covers the multitude of sins,\u201d 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, \u201cLet the Lord be my God.\u201d\nThe beneficent action of the law, the apostle showed in the passage relating to the Jews, writing thus: \u201cBehold, 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.\u201d 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. \u201cBlessed is the man that hath found wisdom, and the mortal who has seen understanding; for out of its mouth,\u201d manifestly Wisdom\u2019s, \u201cproceeds righteousness, and it bears law and mercy on its tongue.\u201d 2122 For both the law and the Gospel are the energy of one Lord, who is \u201cthe power and wisdom of God;\u201d and the terror which the law begets is merciful and in order to salvation. \u201cLet not alms, and faith, and truth fail thee, but hang them around thy neck.\u201d 2123 In the same way as Paul, prophecy upbraids the people with not understanding the law. \u201cDestruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known.\u201d 2124 \u201cThere is no fear of God before their eyes.\u201d 2125 \u201cProfessing themselves wise, they became fools.\u201d 2126 \u201cAnd we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.\u201d 2127 \u201cDesiring to be teachers of the law, they understand,\u201d says the apostle, \u201cneither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.\u201d 2128 \u201cNow the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.\u201d 2129\n[So, the Good Physician. Jer. viii. 22.]\n339:2115 339:2116 339:2117 339:2118\nProv. 22:3, 4.\n340:2119 340:2120 340:2121 340:2122\nProv. 3:13, 16.\n340:2123 340:2124 340:2125 340:2126 340:2127 340:2128 340:2129","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Chapter XXVII.\u2014The Law, Even in Correcting and Punishing, Aims at the Good of Men.","type":"page"}