." There is evidently
here an intense feeling of the universality of sin; and in order to
express it, the Apostle hurries his words confusedly together, little
caring about their order, as knowing all the vices to be indissolubly
connected one with another. It would be utterly vain to endeavor to
arrange his expressions as if they had been intended for the ground of
any system, or to give any philosophical definition of the vices.[140]
So also hear him speaking of virtue: "Rejoice in the Lord. Let your
moderation be known unto all men. Be careful for nothing, but in
everything let your requests be made known unto God; and whatsoever
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are
pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good
report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on
these things." Observe, he gives up all attempt at definition; he leaves
the definition to every man's heart, though he writes so as to mark the
overflowing fulness of his own vision of virtue. And so it is in all
writings of the Apostles; their manner of exhortation, and the kind of
conduct they press, vary according to the persons they address, and the
feeling of the moment at which they write, and never show any attempt at
logical precision. And, although the words of their Master are not thus
irregularly uttered, but are weighed like fine gold, yet, even in His
teaching, there is no detailed or organized system of morality; but the
command only of that faith and love which were to embrace the whole
being of man: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets." Here and there an incidental warning against this or that
more dangerous form of vice or error, "Take heed and beware of
covetousness," "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees;" here and there a
plain example of the meaning of Christian love, as in the parables of
the Samaritan and the Prodigal, and His own perpetual example: these
were the elements of Christ's constant teaching; for the Beatitudes,
which are the only approximation to anything like a systematic
statement, belong to different conditions and characters of individual
men, not to abstract virtues. And all early Christians taught in the
same manner. They never cared to expound the nature of this or that
virtue; for they knew that the believer who had Christ, had all. Did he
need fortitude? Christ was his rock: Equity? Christ was his
righteousness: Holiness?