For he who abounds in his own goods does not seek the treasures of this world. For a man's own goods—honesty, sobriety, mercy, chastity—are more precious than all gold; that you may know that beside them the very metals are baser. Talents of gold can be dug up, vessels of silver can be procured, but honesty alone cannot be dug up; for honesty is not unearthed but acquired, since it depends not upon price but upon virtue. You therefore who possess gold, if it please you, let us compare our goods with one another. When you set out abroad, your treasures remain at home; and while they lie far from you, you are always anxious and always uncertain, lest, when you return home, you should not find what you had.
And so, while you always fear their loss, in your own conscience you are naked and poor. But I, wherever I go, my riches follow me, nor can my goods be separated from me, since they are kept not in an earthly cave but in the treasury of the heart. You, when you depart from this world, have lost your riches by leaving them behind; but I, when it befalls me to migrate from this world, carry my riches with me to paradise. Your riches, after death, fire and darkness follow, as in the example of that purple-clad rich man; my riches, as in the example of Lazarus, the bosom of Abraham and blessedness shall receive. Now, since two sermons on Pentecost had been omitted in the drafts, and at page—
521 were indicated, and finally found, and were to be added, it happened that, on the very threshold of completing the edition, those excerpts from the works of Saint Maximus which had long been awaited from the manuscript codices of the library of the King of the Gauls at last arrived. We wish, however, to forewarn our readers concerning, first, the two sermons to be added (which were to be the seventh and eighth on Pentecost): both of these we now bring to light for the first time from the very ancient codex of Saint Dalmatius, so often praised, to which is added the testimony of the Turin codex, in which are homilies 16 and 17 with the heading: Likewise on Pentecost. But concerning the Gallic codices, in the preface, page 24, we said that we hoped for more from them; yet, although the most diligent and most learned P.—
Petrus Paulus Drudn of the Benedictine Congregation of Saint Maur, chosen for this task by the most excellent prelate Joseph of Auria, Archbishop of Seleucia, papal legate at the court of the King of the Gauls, spent very much time and labor in examining almost innumerable manuscript volumes, yet the fruit did not altogether correspond to his great cares and solicitude. Of the sermons therefore sent by him, some have already been printed in this our collection; several in the body, and in the appendix of the works of Saint Augustine; others are read in all the editions of Saint Leo the Great. What remains is utterly remote from the eloquence of Maximus, the prelate of Turin, as will be evident from certain excerpts.