Sermons & Tracts 4 part 15/28

Truly I say, brethren, that he who does not rise from the sleep of avarice under such thunder is to be believed not to be sleeping, but dead. 4. The necessity and the manner of fleeing to God's mercy. He who does not give the superfluous invades another's goods. And therefore, brethren, because on account of this fleshly frailty we are continually disturbed and pricked by many sins, as though by flies swarming about us, let us hasten to the harbour of God's mercy amid the storms and tempests of this world. Perhaps someone asks how he may be able to reach this harbour. Let him hear Christ saying, 'Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy' (Matthew V, 7): and again, 'Give alms, and behold, all things are clean unto you' (Luke XI, 41).

Therefore this saying of the Apostle, if we wish to escape from the sea of this world, we ought always to have before our eyes. Let it suffice us to have food and clothing, not pompous, not luxurious: and whatever more God shall have given, let it not be denied to the uses of the poor; because through us it is proved to have been transmitted to them. And if we do not give that which is superfluous to us, we have invaded another's goods: and how many poor, with our knowledge, shall have died of hunger, so many causes will they plead against us before the tribunal of Christ. 5. The two kinds of almsgiving. Without one another they profit nothing.

And because there are two kinds of almsgiving, one which we distribute to the poor, the other which, as often as our neighbours or brethren have sinned against us, we forgive them: let us, with God's help, do both; because one without the other profits nothing. If you hold out alms to the poor, and do not grant pardon to him who sins against you, it profits you nothing. Just as, on the contrary, if you forgive those who sin against you, and are unwilling to give to the hungry as much as you are able; as I said, one virtue without the other cannot profit you.

But let us, brethren, prepare for ourselves these two kinds of almsgiving as it were the oars of spiritual wings, that to our principal fatherland and that heavenly Jerusalem, being freed and unencumbered from all earthly desire, we may on the feathers of virtues, as spiritual doves, be able happily to fly and to come: according to that which the Psalmist desires, and beseeching says: 'Who will give me wings like a dove? and I will fly, and be at rest' (Psalm LIV, 7). 6. To lay aside worldly business now and then. It is certain, brethren, that unless each one shall have striven to free the wings of his soul from the glue of sins and the excessive impediments and snares of this world, he can never come to true rest.

But let us, brethren, with God's help, if we cannot wholly withdraw ourselves from the impediments of this world, at least so temper them as far as our strength avails, or cut away something from them, that some spaces of hours may remain to us, in which we may be free for reading or prayer. For if earthly occupation withdraw the whole from us, it is to be feared lest there come upon us that which is written: 'The impediments of the world had made them wretched.' Rather, therefore, with the Lord's help, let us labour, that in us too, at least in some part, may be fulfilled that which is written concerning the blessed man: 'In the law of the Lord he shall meditate day and night' (Psalm 1, 2).

Which thing may the Lord, in His mercy, deign to grant to your holy Charity, to whom is honour and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen. SERMON 277. On the paying of tithes. 1. The offering of tithes profits us. Tithes are the tribute of the needy. They are to be paid from the fruit of one's labour. Christ being gracious, dearest brethren, the days are now near at hand in which we ought to gather in the harvests: and therefore, giving thanks to God who gave, let us think about offering, nay rather about paying, tithes. For our God, who has deigned to give the whole, deigns to require the tenth from us, doubtless to profit not Himself, but us. For thus He Himself promised through the prophet, saying:

'Bring in,' He says, 'the whole tithe into my storehouses, that there may be food in my house; and prove me in this, says the Lord, whether I will not open to you the floodgates of heaven, and give you fruit even unto abundance' (Malachi III, 10). Behold, we have proved how tithes profit us rather than Him. And therefore it is written elsewhere: 'The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell therein' (Psalm XXIII, 1). If therefore the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; we are alike the servants of the Lord and His tenants: and I know not how it is that we do not all acknowledge our Possessor. For He says: 'The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel has not known me, and my people has not understood me' (Isaiah I, 3).

O foolish men, what evil does God command, that it should not be gladly heard? For thus He says: 'The firstfruits of thy threshing floor and of thy winepress thou shalt not delay to offer to me' (Exodus XXII, 29). If to give too tardily is a sin, how much worse is it not to have given at all? And again He says: 'Honour the Lord thy God with thy just labours, and give to him of the firstfruits of thy justice; that thy barns may be filled with corn, and thy presses may overflow with wine' (Proverbs III, 9 and 10). You do not bestow this for nothing, since you quickly receive it back with great interest. You ask perhaps whom it profits, that which God receives, being about to render it back. You ask again whom it profits, that which is given to the poor. If you believe, it profits you: if you doubt, you have lost it.

For tithes are the tribute of needy souls. Render therefore the tribute to the poor, offer the libations to the priests. But if you have no tithes of the fruit of the earth, which the farmer has; whatever skill feeds you is God's: and He requires tithes from that whence you live. From military service, from trade, from craft, render tithes. For we pay one thing for the land, we render another for the interest of life. Render therefore, O man, because you possess; render, because you were counted worthy to be born: for thus says the Lord, 'Each one shall give the ransom of his soul, and there shall be no plagues nor calamities among them' (Exodus XXX, 12).

Behold, you have in the holy Scriptures the bond of your Lord, by which He has promised you that if you give tithes, you shall not only receive abundance of fruit, but shall also obtain health of body. 'Thy barns,' He says, 'shall be filled with corn, and thy presses shall overflow with wine; and there shall be no plagues nor calamities among them.' Since therefore by giving tithes you can merit both earthly and heavenly gifts; why through avarice do you defraud yourself of a double blessing? 2. God reduces to the tithe alone the one who denies the tithe. It is an indulgence that He does not exact the nine parts. Hear therefore, undevout mortality. You know that all things which you receive are God's, and do you not lend of His own to the Creator of all things?

The Lord God has no need, He demands no reward, but honour; He exacts nothing of your own that you should repay. He asks the firstfruits of things and the tithes, and you refuse? Miser, what would you do if, having taken the nine parts for Himself, He had left you the tenth? Which indeed has already been done, when your harvest, the blessing of rains being withdrawn, failed and went hungry, and either the hail struck your vintage, or the frost seared it. What is it, greedy reckoner? Nine parts have been withdrawn from you, because you were unwilling to give the tenth. It is certain indeed that you did not give it; and yet God exacted it. For this is the most just custom of the Lord, that if you do not give Him the tenth, you shall be reduced to the tenth:

for it is written: 'Thus says the Lord: Because the tithe of thy field and the firstfruits of the land are with you. I see you, and you thought to deceive me; within, in your storehouses and in your houses, there shall be plundering. You will give to the wicked soldier what you are unwilling to give to the priest. Be converted to me, says the Lord almighty' (Malachi III, 7), 'that I may open to you the floodgates of heaven, and pour out upon you my blessing from above: and the fruits of the earth shall not be corrupted for you, nor shall the vine languish in your field, and all nations shall call you blessed' (Malachi III, 11 and 12). God is always ready to do good; but He is hindered by the malice of men: because He wills that all things be given to Him by the Lord God, and does not wish to offer Him anything of those things which He seems to possess.

What if God should say: Surely you are mine, O man, whom I made; mine is the land which you till, mine are the seeds which you scatter, mine the animals which you weary, mine are the showers and the rains, mine are the blasts of the winds, mine is the heat of the sun: and since all the elements of living are mine, you who are fed by my dutiful hand, omnipotent God bestows the amplest wage on the one who labours less; claiming for Himself only the tenth, He has granted us all things. 3. Here we must do well with our goods. In vain is this care kept for others. He who does not give tithes invades another's goods. The use of the other nine parts. Ungrateful defrauder and faithless one, I confront you with the divine voice. Behold, the year is now ended; render to the Lord who sends rain His wage. Redeem yourself, O man, while you live; redeem yourself, while you can;

redeem yourself, while you have the price in your hands; redeem yourself, lest, when bitter death shall have overtaken you, you lose at once both life and price. Without cause you leave this to a wife, who perhaps will have another husband. Without cause you leave this to a husband, O woman, who perhaps desires without delay to have another wife. In vain you enjoin your care upon parents and kinsmen: no one will faithfully redeem you after your death; because in life you were unwilling to redeem yourself. Lay down now from your neck the burden of avarice, despise that most cruel mistress; who, while she presses you with a most hard yoke, does not permit you to take up the yoke of Christ. For as the yoke of avarice is wont to press down into hell, so the yoke of Christ is wont to lift up into heaven.

Tithes are required of all as a debt, and whoever is unwilling to give them has invaded another's goods. And as many poor as, in the places where he dwells, shall have died of hunger through his not giving tithes, of so many homicides he will appear guilty before the tribunal of the eternal Judge: because he has reserved for his own uses a thing delegated by the Lord to the poor. Whoever therefore desires either to procure a reward for himself, or to merit the pardon of sins, let him render tithes, and of the nine parts let him strive to give alms: yet in such a way that of those very nine parts, whatever remains over and above a modest food and reasonable clothing, be not reserved for luxury, but be laid up in the heavenly treasury through almsgiving to the poor.

For whatever God has given us beyond what is needful, He has not given to us for ourselves alone, but has passed it through us to be distributed to others; and if we do not give it, we have seized upon what belongs to another. 4. That one must prepare for the feast of St. John. That on this day heathen bathings are to be avoided. And because we desire to celebrate with joy the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, as we do the other festivals that come upon us, so, with this so illustrious solemnity now at hand, let all without exception, for many days beforehand, guard chastity and honesty, so that all may be able to celebrate this festival with joy, and may be worthy to approach the altar of the Lord with a free and sincere conscience.

This also I beseech, and by the dreadful day of judgment I adjure you: that you admonish all your neighbours, all and every one belonging to you, and with zeal for God most severely chastise them; that no one on the festival of Saint John should presume to wash himself, whether in springs, or in marshes, or in rivers, at the nightly or morning hours; for this unhappy custom still remains from the observance of the pagans. For since in that sacrilegious washing not only souls, but, what is worse, bodies too very often perish, let those at least fear death of the body who take no thought for their soul.

But we trust in the mercy of God that, when you administer this correction, few—or perhaps none—will henceforth dare to commit this evil. This also admonish, brethren: that your household utter not from their mouths base and lewd songs, hostile to chastity and honesty; for it is not right that from that mouth into which the Eucharist of Christ enters, a lewd or amorous song should be uttered. For if, according to your custom, you willingly hear these things, and, with Christ's help, strive to fulfil them,

then in this present age you shall celebrate the solemnities of the saints with joy, with a pure heart and a chaste body, and in the age to come you shall happily come into their fellowship, by the gift of Him to whom is honour and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 278. On Auguries. 1. The author's earnest effort to call the people away from soothsayers. He who resorts to these loses his Baptism. Superstitious observances. Dutiful ones. You know well, most dear brethren, that I have often entreated you, and with fatherly solicitude admonished you, and likewise called you to witness, that you should by no means keep those sacrilegious customs of the pagans; but, as far as has reached me by the report of many, among some my admonition has profited little.

For if I do not tell you, I shall render an evil account both for myself and for you on the day of judgment, and it will be necessary for me together with you to endure eternal torments; but I acquit myself before God, since again and again I admonish and likewise call you to witness, that none of you should seek out soothsayers, or diviners, or fortune-tellers, nor question them about any matter or infirmity whatsoever. Let no one call in enchanters for himself; for whoever does this evil at once loses the sacrament of Baptism, and immediately becomes sacrilegious and pagan; and unless he is helped by great almsgiving and a hard and prolonged penance, he will at once perish forever.

Likewise, do not observe auguries, nor, when you are on a journey, heed any little birds singing, nor presume to announce diabolical divinations from their song. Let none of you observe on what day he goes out of the house, on what day he returns again; for God made all days, as Scripture says: and there was made the first day, and the second day, and the third, likewise the fourth, and the fifth, and the sixth, and the sabbath (Gen. 1); and that: God made all things very good (ibid. 31). And do not consider or observe those sneezings, which are not only sacrilegious but even ridiculous:

but as often as, in whatever place, you have need to hasten, sign yourselves in the name of Jesus Christ, and faithfully saying the Creed or the Lord's Prayer, set out on your way secure in the help of God. 2. That the devil, scorning his frauds, is provoked. Hence God proves those who truly cleave to Him. And because, when—by God's inspiration—you begin to despise or scorn all the aforesaid sacrileges, the devil will take it ill, since he sees you departing from his friendship and fellowship and despising the sacrileges by which he deceived you, he will do you some mischiefs, or send upon you some infirmity, or will carry off some animal, either through disease or through its straying:

for God permits this to be done in order to prove you, that He may know whether you come to Him faithfully, and whether His love has more worth with you than the loss of any animal. But if, once or twice, with your whole mind and full faith, you despise the mischiefs that the devil has sent, then God will thereafter deign to drive him from troubling you, so that he can never deceive you by his cunning. For negligent and easygoing men, who have feeble desires and a slothful faith (and therefore, even if they make a beginning, do not long persevere in the works of God;

but as soon as they have abstained from the aforesaid sacrileges, and have endured even a single mischief of the devil, they at once repent of having turned to the Lord and of having forsaken the devil's machinations), they turn back again to the observance of auguries, like dogs to their vomit. But you, upon whom God has bestowed both wisdom and given true faith, thus quickly despise in your heart the wiles of the devil, and faithfully turn yourselves to God, and whatever the devil may wish to send, bear it patiently and bravely: that with blessed Job you may be able to say, The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away;

as it pleased the Lord, so it was done (Job 1:21); and likewise, with the Apostle, may you say with a firm and whole heart: Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? Tribulation? or persecution? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or the sword? or peril (Rom. 8:35)? For good Christians are not separated from Christ even by torments; but the lukewarm and negligent are sometimes separated by idle tales; and if they have suffered even a slight loss, they are at once scandalized, and presume to murmur against God, and return to the wicked and detestable auguries. 3. Why the diviners frequently announce true things. Why, except through them, peril is often not avoided. That it is a grave sin to employ these. But perhaps someone says:

What are we to do, seeing that those auguries themselves, and the soothsayers or diviners, frequently announce true things to us? Concerning this matter Scripture testifies to us and warns us, saying: Even if they tell you some true things, do not believe them; for the Lord your God is testing you, whether you fear Him or not (Deut. 13:3). But again you say: Sometimes, if there were no enchanters, many are in peril, whether from the bite of a serpent or from some other infirmity, almost to the point of death. It is true, most dear brethren, that God permits this to the devil, as I have already said above, for the proving of the Christian:

so that when, at times through those sacrileges, they are able to receive some remedy in that infirmity and to learn something true, they may on that account more easily believe the devil. But whoever desires to keep the whole Christian religion ought to despise all these things with the entire strength of his soul, fearing that which the Apostle says, rebuking: You observe days, and months, and seasons; I fear lest I have laboured among you in vain (Gal. 4:10-11). Behold, the Apostle says that whoever observes auguries will receive his teaching in vain: and therefore, as much as you can, flee the wiles of the devil. 4. But the devil cannot even harm unless permitted. For two reasons God permits this.

And know this above all, brethren: that neither you yourselves, nor those who belong to you, nor your animals, nor the rest of your substance even in the smallest matters, can the devil harm, except in so far as he has received power from God; even as he did not dare to overthrow holy Job's fortune, except with the Lord permitting. And, as we read in the Gospel, when the demons were driven out of men, they begged that they might at least be allowed to go into the swine (Matt. 8:31). If the demons did not dare enter even into swine unless they received permission from God, who will be so faithless as to believe that they can harm good Christians unless God permitted it by His own dispensation? But God permits this for two reasons:

namely, that either we who have patiently borne the Lord's dispensation, and, as I have already said, when we have lost something, have said: The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it was done: blessed be the name of the Lord—for this patience pleasing to God, receive either a crown, if we are righteous, or pardon, if a sinner. And attend to this, brethren: that when the devil had overthrown all the substance of blessed Job, Job did not say, The Lord gave, the devil hath taken away, but, The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away. For the holy man would not give the devil that glory, as though he could take away anything that the Lord had not permitted to be taken.

Since, then, the devil could not harm the sons, the servants, the camels, or the asses of blessed Job before the Lord permitted it, why do we believe that he could do anything more against Christians than what the divine power has permitted by His godlike and secret judgment? 5. That to believe diviners, soothsayers, and the like is mortal sin. Relics of heathen superstitions. And therefore, most surely believing that we can lose nothing except in so far as God permits it to be taken from us, let us go with our whole heart to His mercy, and, faithfully forsaking the sacrilegious observances, let us always trust in His help.

For whoever believes in the aforesaid evils—that is, in soothsayers and diviners, in soothsaying priests or amulets, and in any other auguries whatsoever—even if he fasts, even if he prays, even if he continually hastens to the Church, even if he gives generous alms, even if he tortures his poor body in every affliction, it will profit him nothing, so long as he has not forsaken those sacrileges: because that impious observance of sacrilege overwhelms and overturns all these good things. And those who, together with these evils, wish also to perform some good works, cannot profit thereby at all: for it is true what the Apostle said, A little leaven corrupteth the whole lump (1 Cor. 5:6); and that: You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils.

You cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord and of the table of devils (1 Cor. 10:20-21); and the Lord in the Gospel: No one can serve two masters (Matt. 6:24). For this reason Christians ought not to pay their vows to trees, nor to pray at a spring, if they wish to be freed through the grace of God from eternal punishment. And therefore whoever has on his land, or in his estate, or near his estate, any trees, or altars, or any vain things whatsoever, where wretched men are wont to pay certain vows: if he does not destroy and cut them down, he will without doubt be a partaker in those sacrileges which are there committed.

For what sort of thing is even this, that when those trees where vows are paid have fallen, no one brings wood from those trees for his fire? And behold the wretchedness or folly of the human race: for they render honour to a dead tree, and despise the commandments of the living God; they dare not put the branches of the tree into the fire, yet by their sacrilege they cast themselves headlong into hell. And therefore let him who thus far does not keep this evil rejoice, and give thanks to God, and strive faithfully to persevere in good works:

but let him who up to now has in these diabolical matters surrendered himself to be led captive by the devil do penance with his whole heart, and flee and despise with all horror the aforesaid sacrileges; that God may deign to grant him pardon also, and, for the glory of His name, may cause him to come to eternal blessedness. 6. That those who eat things sacrificed to idols slay their soul. And because this too has reached me, that some, whether through simplicity, or ignorance, or, what is more to be believed, through gluttony, neither fear nor blush to eat of those sacrileges, or sacrifices, or the sacrilegious food which are still made according to the custom of the pagans;

I call you to witness before God and His Angels, and I proclaim, that you should not come to those diabolical banquets which are held either at a shrine and springs, or at certain trees. And if anything from thence should be sent to you, as though you saw the devil himself, shudder and reject it, and so repudiate it that you do not even allow anything of that sacrilegious banquet to be brought into your house: on account of that word of the Apostle already mentioned, You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils; neither be partakers of the table of the Lord and of the table of devils. And because some are wont to say, I cross myself, and so I eat: let no one presume to do this; for he who crosses himself and eats anything of the sacrilegious food

is like one who signs his mouth and thrusts a sword into his own breast: for just as the body is slain by the sword, so is the soul slain by that sacrilegious food. But we trust in the Lord's mercy that He will deign to inspire you to do the things that are holy; and that never, either in auguries or in the other sacrilegious observances mentioned above, or in the divinations of the devil, may his wickedness be able to creep upon you: but that, setting your whole hope in the Lord, you may never return to those wicked evils which are set forth above; by the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 279. On the Martyrs, or on Amulets. 1.

On the various tortures of the martyrs. We have heard through the apostolic reading how the servants and friends of God—of whom the world was not worthy—endured with the virtue of faith evils unworthy indeed, yet glorious, as the divine Word says: Others had trial of mockeries and stripes, moreover also of bonds and prisons; they were stoned, they were cut asunder, they died by the slaughter of the sword (Heb. 11:36-37). We read, then, that some were tormented in prisons, others, when persecution grew strong, were destroyed by the whirlwind of an impious tempest and pelted with the hard hail of stones, others had their heads struck off by an enemy's sword consecrated by the sacrilegious, but were exalted in the kingdom of the eternal Head. They were stoned, he says, and cut asunder;

the bite of savage teeth dragged them through delays; the countless bites of the teeth of wild beasts ran through their triumphant vitals: and thus, their faith persevering, an unheard-of novelty of pains brought forth a weight of merits. 2. Why the saints are handed over to the impious. Here we can conquer evils, not avoid them. The palm of martyrdom can even now be won. But perhaps someone thinks within himself and says: How is it that good and holy men are handed over into the hands of the impious? Do you ask what this is? Because man's life upon earth is a warfare (Job 7:1). Toiling therefore in the contest of this world, they are tempted that they may be proved; they are proved that they may be rewarded.