{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Benevolence is the wishing of good things to another for his sake. For\r\nHe needs nothing; and the beneficence and benignity which flow from\r\nthe Lord terminate in us, being divine benevolence, and benevolence\r\nresulting in beneficence. And if to Abraham on his believing it was\r\ncounted for righteousness; and if we are the seed of Abraham, then\r\nwe must also believe through hearing. For we are Israelites, who are\r\nconvinced not by signs, but by hearing. Wherefore it is said, “Rejoice,\r\nO barren, that barest not; break forth and cry, thou that didst not\r\ntravail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than of\r\nher who hath an husband.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_60\" id=\"FNanchor_60\">[60]</a> “Thou hast lived for the fence of the\r\npeople, thy children were blessed in the tents of their fathers.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_61\" id=\"FNanchor_61\">[61]</a>\r\nAnd if the same mansions are promised by prophecy to us and to\r\nthe patriarchs, the God of both the covenants is shown to be one.\r\nAccordingly it is added more clearly, “Thou hast inherited the covenant\r\nof Israel,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_62\" id=\"FNanchor_62\">[62]</a> speaking to those called from among the nations,\r\nthat were once barren, being formerly destitute of this husband, who\r\nis the Word,—desolate formerly,—of the bridegroom. Now the just\r\nshall live by faith,“<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_63\" id=\"FNanchor_63\">[63]</a> which is according to the covenant and the\r\ncommandments; since these, which are two in name and time, given in\r\naccordance with the [divine] economy—being in power one—the old and\r\nthe new, are dispensed through the Son by one God. As the apostle also\r\nsays in the Epistle to the Romans, “For therein is the righteousness\r\nof God revealed from faith to faith,” teaching the one salvation which\r\nfrom prophecy to the Gospel is perfected by one and the same Lord.\r\n“This<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_19\">[19]</span> charge,” he says, “I commit to thee, son Timothy, according to\r\nthe prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest\r\nwar the good warfare; holding faith, and a good conscience; which\r\nsome having put away, concerning faith have made shipwreck,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_64\" id=\"FNanchor_64\">[64]</a>\r\nbecause they defiled by unbelief the conscience that comes from God.\r\nAccordingly, faith may not, any more, with reason, be disparaged in\r\nan offhand way, as simple and vulgar, appertaining to anybody. For,\r\nif it were a mere human habit, as the Greeks supposed, it would have\r\nbeen extinguished. But if it grow, and there be no place where it is\r\nnot; then I affirm, that faith, whether founded in love, or in fear,\r\nas its disparagers assert, is something divine; which is neither rent\r\nasunder by other mundane friendship, nor dissolved by the presence\r\nof fear. For love, on account of its friendly alliance with faith,\r\nmakes men believers; and faith, which is the foundation of love, in\r\nits turn introduces the doing of good; since also fear, the pædagogue\r\nof the law, is believed to be fear by those, by whom it is believed.\r\nFor, if its existence is shown in its working, it is yet believed\r\nwhen about to do and threatening, and when not working and present;\r\nand being believed to exist, it does not itself generate faith, but\r\nis by faith tested and proved trustworthy. Such a change, then, from\r\nunbelief to faith—and to trust in hope and fear, is divine. And, in\r\ntruth, faith is discovered, by us, to be the first movement towards\r\nsalvation; after which fear, and hope, and repentance, advancing in\r\ncompany with temperance and patience, lead us to love and knowledge.\r\nRightly, therefore, the Apostle Barnabas says, “From the portion I\r\nhave received I have done my diligence to send by little and little to\r\nyou; that along with your faith you may also have perfect knowledge.\r\nFear and patience are then helpers of your faith; and our allies are\r\nlong-suffering and temperance. These, then,” he says, “in what respects\r\nthe Lord, continuing in purity, there rejoice along with them, wisdom,\r\nunderstanding, intelligence, knowledge.” The forementioned virtues\r\nbeing, then, the elements of knowledge; the result is that faith is\r\nmore elementary, being as necessary<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_20\">[20]</span> to the Gnostic,<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_65\" id=\"FNanchor_65\">[65]</a> as respiration\r\nto him that lives in this world is to life. And as without the four\r\nelements it is not possible to live, so neither can knowledge be\r\nattained without faith. It is then the support of truth.</p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","BOOK II.","CHAPTER VI. THE EXCELLENCE AND UTILITY OF FAITH."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_63","paragraph_id":"pg73020-paragraph-40"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"20707f1452bb0153866d0b17cbd11fe8e4d1f217af2a21d45c293c9da66de29f","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"ROM","chapter":1,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Rom. i. 17","verse":17,"verse_end":17}],"headings":[],"id":"pg73020-Footnote_63","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1869 English translation; translator died 1875. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"Footnote_63","source_ebook":73020,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_63\" id=\"Footnote_63\">[63]</a> Rom. i. 17, etc.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"c35077683d75abe553cc6ef5d3ef5a1a978f07dfbcf4bad5c3d56302ad03dc19","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/73020/pg73020-images.html#Footnote_63","text_sha256":"818a05ca2d23842c4bf56055f3d7878a3af269a465ee9e5293cebc9f4960a204","verified":false,"work_id":null}