THE LAW, EVEN IN CORRECTING AND PUNISHING, AIMS
AT THE GOOD OF MEN.
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,
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’s art of wickedness; and shall we not similarly submit,
for the soul’s sake, to either banishment, or punishment, or bonds,
provided only from unrighteousness we shall attain to righteousness?
For 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.
But 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. “Being judged by the Lord,” says the
apostle, “we are chastened, that we may not be condemned with the
world.”[1062] For the prophet had said before, “Chastening, the Lord
hath chastised me, but hath not given me over unto death.”[1063] “For
in order to teach thee His righteousness,” it is said, “He 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.”[1064]
And to prove that example corrects, he says directly to the purpose: “A
clever man, when he seeth the wicked punished, will himself be severely
chastised, for the fear of the Lord is the source of wisdom.”[1065]
But 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 falls into any
incurable evil,--when taken possession of, for example, by wrong or
covetousness,--it 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 to live temperately and justly, it
conducts to immortality. To know the law is characteristic of a good
disposition. And again: “Wicked men do not understand the law; but they
who seek the Lord shall have understanding in all that is good.”[1066]
It is essential, certainly, that the providence which manages all,
be both supreme and good. For it is the power of both that dispenses
salvation--the 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.
But when “charity covers the multitude of sins,”[1067] 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, “Let
the Lord be my God.”
The beneficent action of the law, the apostle showed in the passage
relating to the Jews, writing thus: “Behold, 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.”[1068] 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. “Blessed is the
man that hath found wisdom, and the mortal who has seen understanding;
for out of its mouth,” manifestly Wisdom’s, “proceeds righteousness,
and it bears law and mercy on its tongue.”[1069] For both the law and
the gospel are the energy of one Lord, who is “the power and wisdom of
God;” and the terror which the law begets is merciful and in order to
salvation. “Let not alms, and faith, and truth fail thee, but hang them
around thy neck.”[1070] In the same way as Paul, prophecy upbraids the
people with not understanding the law. “Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace have they not known.”[1071] “There is
no fear of God before their eyes.”[1072] “Professing themselves wise,
they became fools.”[1073] “And we know that the law is good, if a man
use it lawfully.”[1074] “Desiring to be teachers of the law, they
understand,” says the apostle, “neither what they say, nor whereof they
affirm.”[1075] “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure
heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned.”[1076]