{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050476.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050476.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050476.htm","text":"Chapter 21 [XX.]\u2014Love the Root of All Good Things; Cupidity, of All Evil Ones.\nThe \u201ccapacity,\u201d then, of which we speak is not (as he supposes) the one identical root both of good things and evil. For the love which is the root of good things is quite different from the cupidity which is the root of evil things\u2014as different, indeed, as virtue is from vice. But without doubt this \u201ccapacity\u201d is capable of either root: because a man is not only able to possess love, whereby the tree becomes a good one; but he is likewise able to have cupidity, which makes the tree evil. This human cupidity, however, which is a vice, has for its author man, or man\u2019s deceiver, but not man\u2019s Creator. It is indeed that \u201clust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world.\u201d 1831 And who can be ignorant of the usage of the Scripture, which under the designation of \u201cthe world\u201d is accustomed to describe those who inhabit the world?","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on the...","type":"page"}