{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/008/0081098.htm","path":"chr/ecf/008/0081098.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/008/0081098.htm","text":"Chapter III.\u2014God Both Good and Just.\nAnd Simon said: \u201cI said once for all, \u2018Every lawgiver, looking to justice, is just.\u2019\u201d And Peter said: \u201cIf it is the part of him who is good not to lay down a law, but of him who is just to lay down a law, in this way the Framer of the world is both good and just. He is good, inasmuch as it is plain that He did not lay down a law in writing from the times of Adam to Moses; but inasmuch as He had a written law from Moses to the present times, 1373 He is just also.\u201d And Simon said: \u201cProve to me from the utterances of your teacher that it is within the power of the same man to be good and just; for to me it seems impossible that the lawgiver who is good should also be just.\u201d And Peter said: \u201cI shall explain to you how goodness itself is just. Our teacher Himself first said to the Pharisee who asked Him, 1374 \u2018What shall I do to inherit eternal life?\u2019 \u2018Do not call me good; for one is good, even the Father who is in the heavens;\u2019 and straightway He introduced these words, \u2018But if thou shalt wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.\u2019 And when he said, \u2018What commandments?\u2019 He pointed him to those of the law. Now He would not, if He were indicating some other good being, have referred him to the commandments of the Just One. That indeed justice and goodness are different I allow, but you do not know that it is within the power of the same being to be good and just. For He is good, in that He is now long-suffering with the penitent, and welcomes them; but just, when acting as judge He will give to every one according to his deserts.\u201d\nThe text seems corrupt here. Literally it is, \u201cfrom Moses to the present times, as has been written, He is just also.\u201d\n325:1374\nLuke 18:18, Matt. 19:16, ff.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VIII: Pseudo-Clementine Literature.: Chapter III","type":"page"}