Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

NEOSTOICISM AND THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 93system. Now charity in theology is the representativeof grace. And so Seneca's expression, " One singlevirtue underlies all other virtues," is in very exactanalogy with St. Paul's, " Let all your works be donein charity ;" and, (< If I have all knowledge, and allfaith, and bestow my goods on the poor, and give mybody to be burned, and have not charity, it profitethme nothing."3. But inasmuch as the rational activity of themind is virtue, which is the only good, it follows thatthe pursuit of knowledge, and the attainment of it,which is science, are subordinate to virtue. It is tobe pursued, not for its own sake, but for the sake ofvirtue. All knowledge of the laws of the world isvaluable, because it will serve i to establish the solesupremacy of virtue. " Not knowledge as such, butthe obedient following of the divine order of nature,is our supreme duty." l Thus a moral purpose runsthrough the logic, the physics, and the metaphysicsof the Stoic, and binds them together. As it is thepurpose of the Stoic to live according to the laws ofnature, it is of great importance to him to know them.Hence his study of them, which has a moral originand a moral determination. He has no other meansof knowing them but by studying them. He cantherefore give himself up to earnest study both in thefield of matter, of abstract thought, and of mentalscience, but throughout he will have a moral purpose.It was Zeno's guiding thought to attempt to found thesupremacy of virtue on the scientific knowledge of theworld's laws.2 And in the last age of Stoicism thispurpose comes out most strongly. Seneca, Musonius,Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius disregard any logical,1 Ueberweg, p. 200. 2 Zeller, iv. 326.