Chapter VII.—The Utility of Fear. Objections Answered.

Those, who denounce fear, assail the law; and if the law, plainly also God, who gave the law. For these three elements are of necessity presented in the subject on hand: the ruler, his administration, and the ruled. If, then, according to hypothesis, they abolish the law; then, by necessary consequence, each one who is led by lust, courting pleasure, must neglect what is right and despise the Deity, and fearlessly indulge in impiety and injustice together, having dashed away from the truth.

Yea, say they, fear is an irrational aberration,417    Instead of ἔκκλισις, it has been proposed to read ἔκλυσις, a term applied by the Stoics to fear; but we have ἔκκλισις immediately after. and perturbation of mind. What sayest thou? And how can this definition be any longer maintained, seeing the commandment is given me by the Word? But the commandment forbids, hanging fear over the head of those who have incurred418    According to the correction and translation of Lowth, who reads τῶν οὔτῶ ἐπιδεχομένων instead of τὸν οὔτως, etc., of the text. admonition for their discipline.

Fear is not then irrational. It is therefore rational. How could it be otherwise, exhorting as it does, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Than shalt not bear false witness? But if they will quibble about the names, let the philosophers term the fear of the law, cautious fear, (εὐλάβεια) which is a shunning (ἔκκλισις) agreeable to reason. Such Critolaus of Phasela not inaptly called fighters about names (ὀνοματομάκοι). The commandment, then, has already appeared fair and lovely even in the highest degree, when conceived under a change of name. Cautious fear (εὐλάβεια) is therefore shown to be reasonable, being the shunning of what hurts; from which arises repentance for previous sins. “For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; good understanding is to all that do it.”419    Ps. cxi. 10. He calls wisdom a doing, which is the fear of the Lord paving the way for wisdom. But if the law produces fear, the knowledge of the law is the beginning of wisdom; and a man is not wise without law. Therefore those who reject the law are unwise; and in consequence they are reckoned godless (ἄθεοι). Now instruction is the beginning of wisdom. “But the ungodly despise wisdom and instruction,”420    Prov. i. 7. saith the Scripture.

Let us see what terrors the law announces. If it is the things which hold an intermediate place between virtue and vice, such as poverty, disease, obscurity, and humble birth, and the like, these things civil laws hold forth, and are praised for so doing. And those of the Peripatetic school, who introduce three kinds of good things, and think that their opposites are evil, this opinion suits. But the law given to us enjoins us to shun what are in reality bad things—adultery, uncleanness, pæderasty, ignorance, wickedness, soul-disease, death (not that which severs the soul from the body, but that which severs the soul from truth). For these are vices in reality, and the workings that proceed from them are dreadful and terrible. “For not unjustly,” say the divine oracles, “are the nets spread for birds; for they who are accomplices in blood treasure up evils to themselves.”421    Prov. i. 17, 18, “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird, and they lay wait for their own blood.” How, then, is the law still said to be not good by certain heresies that clamorously appeal to the apostle, who says, “For by the law is the knowledge of sin?”422    Rom. iii. 20. To whom we say, The law did not cause, but showed sin. For, enjoining what is to be done, it reprehended what ought not to be done. And it is the part of the good to teach what is salutary, and to point out what is deleterious; and to counsel the practice of the one, and to command to shun the other. Now the apostle, whom they do not comprehend, said that by the law the knowledge of sin was manifested, not that from it it derived its existence. And how can the law be not good, which trains, which is given as the instructor (παιδαγωγός) to Christ,423    Gal. iii. 24. that being corrected by fear, in the way of discipline, in order to the attainment of the perfection which is by Christ? “I will not,” it is said, “the death of the sinner, as his repentance.”424    Ezek. xxxiii. 11, xviii. 23, 32. Now the commandment works repentance; inasmuch as it deters425    Adopting the conjecture which, by a change from the accusative to the nominative, refers “deters,” and “enjoins,” to the commandment instead of to repentance, according to the teaching of the text. from what ought not to be done, and enjoins good deeds. By ignorance he means, in my opinion, death. “And he that is near the Lord is full of stripes.”426    Judith viii. 27. Plainly, he, that draws near to knowledge, has the benefit of perils, fears, troubles, afflictions, by reason of his desire for the truth. “For the son who is instructed turns out wise, and an intelligent son is saved from burning. And an intelligent son will receive the commandments.”427    Prov. x. 4, 5, 8. And Barnabas the apostle having said, “Woe to those who are wise in their own conceits, clever in their own eyes,”428    Isa. v. 21. added, “Let us become spiritual, a perfect temple to God; let us, as far as in us lies, practice the fear of God, and strive to keep His commands, that we may rejoice in His judgments.”429    [See vol. i. p. 139. S.] Whence “the fear of God” is divinely said to be the beginning of wisdom.430    Prov. i. 7.

Οἱ δὲ τοῦ φόβου κατηγοροῦντες κατατρέχουσι τοῦ νόμου, εἰ δὲ τοῦ νόμου, δῆλόν που ὡς καὶ τοῦ δεδωκότος τὸν νόμον θεοῦ. τρία γὰρ ταῦτα ἐξ ἀνάγκης ὑφέστηκεν περὶ τὸ ὑποκείμενον, ὁ διοικῶν, ἡ διοίκησις, τὸ διοικούμενον. εἰ γοῦν καθ' ὑπόθεσιν ἐξέλοιεν τὸν νόμον, ἀνάγκη δήπου ἕκαστον ὃς ἄγεται ὑπὸ ἐπιθυμίας, ἡδονῇ χαριζόμενον ἀμελεῖν μὲν τοῦ καλῶς ἔχοντος, ὑπερφρονεῖν δὲ τοῦ θείου, ἀσεβεῖν δὲ ἅμα καὶ ἀδικεῖν ἀδεῶς ἀποσκιρτήσαντα τῆς ἀληθείας. ναί, φασίν, ἄλογος ἔκκλισις ὁ φόβος ἐστὶ καὶ πάθος. τί σὺ λέγεις; καὶ πῶς ἄν σοι ἔτι σῴζοιτο οὗτος ὁ ὅρος διὰ λόγου δοθείσης μοι τῆς ἐντολῆς; ἐντολὴ δὲ ἀπαγορεύει, τὸν φόβον ἐπαρτῶσα διὰ παιδείαν τῶν οὕτως ἐπιδεχομένων νουθετεῖσθαι. οὐ τοίνυν ἄλογος ὁ φόβος, λογικὸς μὲν οὖν· πῶς γὰρ οὔ, παραινῶν οὐ φονεύσεις, οὐ μοιχεύσεις, οὐ κλέψεις, οὐ ψευδομαρτυρήσεις; ἀλλ' εἰ σοφίζονται τὰ ὀνόματα, εὐλάβειαν καλούντων οἱ φιλόσοφοι τὸν τοῦ νόμου φόβον, εὔλογον οὖσαν ἔκκλισιν. ὀνοματομάχους τούτους οὐκ ἀπὸ τρόπου ὁ Φασηλίτης ἐκάλει Κριτόλαος. ἀστεία μὲν οὖν ἤδη καὶ καλλίστη πέφηνε τοῖς ἐγκαλοῦσιν ἡμῖν ἡ ἐντολὴ ὀνόματος ἐναλλαγῇ νοηθεῖσα. ἡ οὖν εὐλάβεια λογικὴ δείκνυται, τοῦ βλάπτοντος ἔκκλισις οὖσα, ἐξ ἧς ἡ μετάνοια τῶν προημαρτημένων φύεται. ἀρχὴ γὰρ σοφίας φόβος κυρίου, σύνεσις δὲ ἀγαθὴ πᾶσι τοῖς ποιοῦσιν αὐτήν. τὴν σοφίας λέγει ποίησιν, ἥ ἐστι φόβος θεοῦ ὁδοποιῶν εἰς σοφίαν. εἰ δὲ ὁ νόμος φόβου ἐμποιητικός, ἀρχὴ σοφίας γνῶσις νόμου, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄνευ νόμου σοφός. ἄσοφοι τοίνυν οἱ παραιτούμενοι τὸν νόμον, ᾧ ἕπεται ἀθέους αὐτοὺς λογίζεσθαι. παιδεία δὲ ἀρχὴ σοφίας. σοφίαν δὲ καὶ παιδείαν ἀσεβεῖς ἐξουθενήσουσιν, λέγει ἡ γραφή. Τίνα δὲ τὰ φοβερὰ ὁ νόμος καταγγέλλει, θεασώμεθα. εἰ μὲν τὰ μεταξὺ ἀρετῆς καὶ κακίας, οἷον πενίαν καὶ νόσον καὶ ἀδοξίαν καὶ δυσγένειαν καὶ ὅσα παραπλήσια, ταῦτα μὲν καὶ οἱ κατὰ πόλιν νόμοι προτείνοντες ἐπαινοῦνται, καὶ τοῖς ἐκ Περιπάτου τρία γένη τῶν ἀγαθῶν εἰσηγουμένοις καὶ τὰ τούτων ἐναντία λογιζομένοις εἶναι κακὰ ἁρμόνιος ἥδε ἡ δόξα· ἡμῖν δὲ ὁ δοθεὶς νόμος τὰ τῷ ὄντι κακὰ ἀπο φεύγειν προστάττει, μοιχείαν, ἀσέλγειαν, παιδεραστίαν, ἄγνοιαν, ἀδικίαν, νόσον ψυχῆς, θάνατον, οὐ τὸν διαλύοντα ψυχὴν ἀπὸ σώματος, ἀλλὰ τὸν διαλύοντα ψυχὴν ἀπὸ ἀληθείας· δειναὶ γὰρ καὶ φοβεραὶ τῷ ὄντι κακίαι αὗται καὶ αἱ ἀπὸ τούτων ἐνέργειαι· οὐ μὴν ἀδίκως ἐκτείνεσθαι δίκτυα πτερωτοῖς λέγουσιν οἱ χρησμοὶ οἱ θεῖοι, αὐτοὶ γὰρ αἱμάτων μετέχοντες θησαυρίζουσιν ἑαυτοῖς κακά· πῶς οὖν ἔτι οὐκ ἀγαθὸς ὁ νόμος πρός τινων αἱρέσεων λέγεται ἐπιβοωμένων τὸν ἀπόστολον λέγοντα διὰ γὰρ νόμου γνῶσις ἁμαρτίας; πρὸς οὕς φαμεν· ὁ νόμος οὐκ ἐποίησεν, ἀλλ' ἔδειξεν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν· προστάξας γὰρ ἃ ποιητέον ἤλεγξε τὰ μὴ ποιητέα. ἀγαθοῦ δὲ τὸ μὲν σωτήριον ἐκδιδάξαι, τὸ δὲ δηλητήριον ἐπιδεῖξαι, καὶ τῷ μὲν χρῆσθαι συμβουλεῦσαι, τὸ δὲ ἀποφυγεῖν κελεῦσαι. αὐτίκα ὁ ἀπόστολος, ὃν οὐ συνιᾶσι, γνῶσιν εἶπεν ἁμαρτίας διὰ νόμου πεφανερῶσθαι, οὐχὶ ὑπόστασιν εἰληφέναι. πῶς δ' οὐκ ἀγαθὸς ὁ παιδεύων νόμος, ὁ παιδαγωγὸς εἰς Χριστὸν δοθείς, ἵνα δὴ ἐπιστρέψωμεν διὰ φόβου παιδευτικῶς κατευθυνόμενοι πρὸς τὴν διὰ Χριστοῦ τελείωσιν; οὐ βούλομαι φησίν, τὸν θάνατον τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ ὡς τὴν μετάνοιαν αὐτοῦ. μετάνοιαν δὲ ἐντολὴ ποιεῖ, κωλυτικὴ μὲν τῶν μὴ ποιητέων, ἐπαγγελτικὴ δὲ τῶν εὐεργεσιῶν. θάνατον, οἶμαι, τὴν ἄγνοιαν λέγει· καὶ ὁ ἐγγὺς κυρίου πλήρης μαστίγων· ὁ συνεγγίζων δηλονότι τῇ γνώσει κινδύνων, φόβων, ἀνιῶν, θλίψεων διὰ τὸν πόθον τῆς ἀληθείας ἀπολαύει· υἱὸς γὰρ πεπαιδευμένος σοφὸς ἀπέβη, καὶ διεσώθη ἀπὸ καύματος υἱὸς νοήμων, υἱὸς δὲ νοήμων δέξεται ἐντολάς. καὶ Βαρνάβας ὁ ἀπόστολος οὐαὶ οἱ συνετοὶ παρ' ἑαυτοῖς καὶ ἐνώπιον αὐτῶν ἐπιστήμονες προτάξας ἐπήγαγεν· πνευματικοὶ γενώμεθα, ναὸς τέλειος τῷ θεῷ. ἐφ' ὅσον ἐστὶν ἐφ' ἡμῖν, μελετῶμεν τὸν φόβον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ φυλάσσειν ἀγωνιζώμεθα τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ, ἵνα ἐν τοῖς δικαιώμασιν αὐτοῦ εὐφρανθῶμεν. ὅθεν ἀρχὴ σοφίας φόβος θεοῦ θείως λέλεκται.