{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But it is clear to every one that piety, which teaches to worship and\r\nhonour, is the highest and oldest cause; and the law itself exhibits\r\njustice, and teaches wisdom, by abstinence from sensible images, and\r\nby inviting to the Maker and Father of the universe. And from this\r\nsentiment, as from a fountain, all intelligence increases. “For the\r\nsacrifices of the wicked are abomination to the Lord; but the prayers\r\nof the upright are acceptable before Him,”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_174\" id=\"FNanchor_174\">[174]</a> since “righteousness is\r\nmore acceptable before God than sacrifice.” Such also as the following\r\nwe find in Isaiah: “To what purpose to me is the multitude of your\r\nsacrifices? saith the Lord;” and the whole section.<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_175\" id=\"FNanchor_175\">[175]</a> “Break every\r\nbond of wickedness; for this is the sacrifice that is acceptable to\r\nthe Lord, a contrite heart that seeks its Maker.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_176\" id=\"FNanchor_176\">[176]</a> “Deceitful\r\nbalances are abomination before God; but a just balance is acceptable\r\nto Him.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_177\" id=\"FNanchor_177\">[177]</a> Thence Pythagoras exhorts “not to step over the balance;”\r\nand the profession of heresies is called deceitful righteousness; and\r\n“the tongue of the unjust shall be destroyed, but the mouth of the\r\nrighteous droppeth wisdom.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_178\" id=\"FNanchor_178\">[178]</a> “For they call the wise and prudent\r\nworthless.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_179\" id=\"FNanchor_179\">[179]</a> But it were tedious to adduce testimonies respecting\r\nthese virtues, since the whole Scripture celebrates them. Since, then,\r\nthey define manliness<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_48\">[48]</span> to be knowledge<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_180\" id=\"FNanchor_180\">[180]</a> of things formidable,\r\nand not formidable, and what is intermediate; and temperance to be a\r\nstate of mind which by choosing and avoiding preserves the judgments\r\nof wisdom; and conjoined with manliness is patience, which is called\r\nendurance, the knowledge of what is bearable and what is unbearable;\r\nand magnanimity is the knowledge which rises superior to circumstances.\r\nWith temperance also is conjoined caution, which is avoidance in\r\naccordance with reason. And observance of the commandments, which\r\nis the innoxious keeping of them, is the attainment of a secure\r\nlife. And there is no endurance without manliness, nor the exercise\r\nof self-restraint without temperance. And these virtues follow one\r\nanother; and with whom are the sequences of the virtues, with him\r\nis also salvation, which is the keeping of the state of well-being.\r\nRightly, therefore, in treating of these virtues, we shall inquire into\r\nthem all; for he that has one virtue gnostically, by reason of their\r\naccompanying each other, has them all. Self-restraint is that quality\r\nwhich does not overstep what appears in accordance with right reason.\r\nHe exercises self-restraint, who curbs the impulses that are contrary\r\nto right reason, or curbs himself so as not to indulge in desires\r\ncontrary to right reason. Temperance, too, is not without manliness;\r\nsince from the commandments spring both wisdom, which follows God\r\nwho enjoins, and that which imitates the divine character, namely\r\nrighteousness; in virtue of which, in the exercise of self-restraint,\r\nwe address ourselves in purity to piety and the course of conduct\r\nthence resulting, in conformity with God; being assimilated to the\r\nLord as far as is possible for us beings mortal in nature. And this\r\nis being just and holy with wisdom; for the Divinity needs nothing\r\nand suffers nothing; whence it is not, strictly speaking, capable of\r\nself-restraint, for it is never subjected to perturbation, over which\r\nto exercise control; while our nature, being capable of perturbation,\r\nneeds self-constraint, by which disciplining itself to the need of\r\nlittle, it endeavours<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_49\">[49]</span> to approximate in character to the divine\r\nnature. For the good man, standing as the boundary between an immortal\r\nand a mortal nature, has few needs; having wants in consequence of his\r\nbody, and his birth itself, but taught by rational self-control to want\r\nfew things.</p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","BOOK II.","CHAPTER XVIII. THE MOSAIC LAW THE FOUNTAIN OF ALL ETHICS, AND THE SOURCE FROM WHICH THE GREEKS DREW THEIRS."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_180","paragraph_id":"pg73020-paragraph-80"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"3dd46b6da89f0c75eff3615e8858f87e163f55c0568d938e3caf4c83a5e546e1","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg73020-Footnote_180","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_180","source_ebook":73020,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_180\" id=\"Footnote_180\">[180]</a> For the use of knowledge in this connection, Philo,\r\nSextus Empiricus, and Zeno are quoted.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"c35077683d75abe553cc6ef5d3ef5a1a978f07dfbcf4bad5c3d56302ad03dc19","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/73020/pg73020-images.html#Footnote_180","text_sha256":"6ee8c65d15b2af6d7a1ab62fbd6342d4a9242dc34b29c519c2bc513fb38a3e6d","verified":false,"work_id":null}