Charity (Whitehead) n. 20

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20. (III.) A man may do good which he believes to be of charity, and still not shun evil; and yet all evil is against charity. It is plain that to shun evil and do good are two distinct things; for there are those who do every good of charity from piety and from thought of eternal life, and yet do not know that to cherish hatred and revenge, to commit whoredom, to despoil and injure, to slander, and thus bear false witness, and many other things, are evils. There are judges who live piously, and yet do not regard it as a sin to adjudicate from friendship, from relationship, and with a view to honor and gain; yea, if they know, they confirm within themselves that they are not evils. And so with others. In a word, to shun evils as sins, and to do Christian good, are two distinct things. He who shuns evils as sins does Christian good; but those that do good and do not shun evils as sins, do no Christian good. For evil is against charity, and must therefore first be abolished, before the good that a man does is with charity, that is, of charity. No one can do good who at the same time wills to do evil, or who wills good and also evil.


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