{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030363.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030363.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030363.htm","text":"Chapter XIX.\u2014The Minute Prescriptions of the Law Meant to Keep the People Dependent on God. The Prophets Sent by God in Pursuance of His Goodness. Many Beautiful Passages from Them Quoted in Illustration of This Attribute.\nBut even in the common transactions of life, and of human intercourse at home and in public, even to the care of the smallest vessels, He in every possible manner made distinct arrangement; in order that, when they everywhere encountered these legal instructions, they might not be at any moment out of the sight of God. For what could better tend to make a man happy, than having \u201chis delight in the law of the Lord?\u201d \u201cIn that law would he meditate day and night.\u201d 2922 It was not in severity that its Author promulgated this law, but in the interest of the highest benevolence, which rather aimed at subduing 2923 the nation\u2019s hardness of heart, and by laborious services hewing out a fealty which was (as yet) untried in obedience: for I purposely abstain from touching on the mysterious senses of the law, considered in its spiritual and prophetic relation, and as abounding in types of almost every variety and sort. It is enough at present, that it simply bound a man to God, so that no one ought to find fault with it, except him who does not choose to serve God. To help forward this beneficent, not onerous, purpose of the law, the prophets were also ordained by the self-same goodness of God, teaching precepts worthy of God, how that men should \u201ccease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment, judge the fatherless, 2924 and plead for the widow:\u201d 2925 be fond of the divine expostulations: 2926 avoid contact with the wicked: 2927 \u201clet the oppressed go free:\u201d 2928 dismiss the unjust sentence, 2929 \u201cdeal their bread to the hungry; bring the outcast into their house; cover the naked, when they see him; nor hide themselves from their own flesh and kin:\u201d 2930 \u201ckeep their tongue from evil, and their lips from speaking guile: depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it:\u201d 2931 be angry, and sin not; that is, not persevere in anger, or be enraged: 2932 \u201cwalk not in the counsel of the ungodly; nor stand in the way of sinners; nor sit in the seat of the scornful.\u201d 2933 Where then? \u201cBehold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity;\u201d 2934 meditating (as they do) day and night in the law of the Lord, because \u201cit is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man; better to hope in the Lord than in man.\u201d 2935 For what recompense shall man receive from God? \u201cHe shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.\u201d 2936 \u201cHe that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not taken God\u2019s name in vain, nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbour, he shall receive blessing from the Lord, and mercy from the God of his salvation.\u201d 2937 \u201cFor the eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy, to deliver their souls from death,\u201d even eternal death, \u201cand to nourish them in their hunger,\u201d that is, after eternal life. 2938 \u201cMany are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.\u201d 2939 \u201cPrecious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.\u201d 2940 \u201cThe Lord keepeth all their bones; not one of them shall be broken.\u201d 2941 The Lord will redeem the souls of His servants. 2942 We have adduced these few quotations from a mass of the Creator\u2019s Scriptures; and no more, I suppose, are wanted to prove Him to be a most good God, for they sufficiently indicate both the precepts of His goodness and the first-fruits 2943 thereof.\nEdomantis, cf. chap. xv. sub fin. and xxix.\n312:2924 312:2925 312:2926\nQu\u00e6stiones, alluding to Isa. i. 18: \u03b4\u03b5\u1fe6\u03c4\u03b5 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03bb\u03b5\u03c7\u03b8\u1ff6\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd, \u03bb\u03ad\u03b3\u03b5\u03b9 \u039a\u03cd\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2.\n312:2927\nAlluding to Isa. lviii. 6: \u201cLoose the bands of wickedness.\u201d\n312:2928 312:2929\nA lax quotation, perhaps, of the next clause in the same verse: \u201cBreak every yoke.\u201d\n312:2930\nIsa. lviii. 7, slightly changed from the second to the third person.\n312:2931 312:2932\nComp. Ps. iv. 4.\n312:2933 312:2934 312:2935 312:2936 312:2937\nPs. 24:4, 5. He has slightly misquoted the passage.\n312:2938\nPs. 33:18, 19, slightly altered.\n312:2939 312:2940 312:2941\nPs. xxxiv. 20, modified.\n312:2942 312:2943","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part II: The Mi...","type":"page"}