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THIS then is that humility towards God, this is that genuine faith of
the ancient fathers which still remains intact among their successors, And
to this faith, the apostolic virtues, which they so often showed, bear an
undoubted witness, not only among us but also among infidels and
unbelievers: for keeping in simplicity of heart the simple faith of the
fishermen they did not receive it in a worldly spirit through dialectical
syllogisms or the eloquence of a Cicero, but learnt by the experience of a
pure life, and stainless actions, and by correcting their faults, and (to
speak more truly) by visible proofs, that the character of perfection is
to be found in that faith without which neither piety towards God, nor
purification from sin, nor amendment of life, nor perfection of virtue can
be secured.
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