You give therefore your goods to the rich man and deny them to the needy, you give to the wanton and deny to the saints, you give to any lost man perhaps and deny to Christ. As therefore you have judged, so shall you be judged; as you have chosen, so shall you receive: you shall have no part with Christ, whom you despised; you shall have your part with those whom you preferred. VIII. But perhaps someone from the number of the unbelievers says that it is no worthy cause that should either move God or drag men into eternal peril.
I know indeed that all guilty men always think their own offences pardonable, for thefts are light faults to thieves, and to drunkards drunkenness seems harmless, and among the unchaste fornication is no crime, because there is absolutely no crime so great but that it is made lighter in the judgment of the one by whose deed it is committed. But if any among sinners wishes to know how gravely great crimes are to be esteemed by God, let him learn how the saints punish in themselves even light sins—being conscious, that is, already from God's own words, of the judgment to come, and scrutinizing through their Lord's words even the judgments, and therefore always set in God's work, always in compunction, always upon the cross.
Blessed are they who, though they have mercy on all, never inwardly pardon themselves, sparing themselves in nothing but expending themselves wholly upon God, and therefore worthy of reward in the judgment to come, because here they hold themselves continually as guilty. For what shall I say of their mercy and generosity, that virtue which among them is, as it were, the initiator of all virtues? For very many of them have this as, so to speak, the beginning and cradle of their conversion, that before they enter the threshold of the holy profession, they leave nothing of their own resources to themselves, according to that saying of our Lord in which he says: 'Sell all your goods and give to the poor, and come, follow me.' And so they too, about to follow God who calls them, first sell all things before they follow.
For reckoning riches to be in the place of burdens and hindrances, they do not think themselves unencumbered for following, unless they first cast off all the impediments of carnal baggage—just as, after the manner of men migrating, they first transfer their goods to the place of their destined dwelling before themselves, so that, when they have transferred everything that pertains to them, they may then themselves migrate into a home full and stocked with immortal goods, their wealth having been sent on ahead, secure beyond doubt that nothing shall thereafter be lacking to them, since they who are about to depart from a mean and contemptible dwelling, one on the very point of collapse, have left nothing at all of their own there that might perish. This, then, is the hope of the saints, this is their confidence:
thus by a rich transmission of goods they provide for themselves, so as to enjoy fully the eternal abundance of immortal resources. But you, whoever you are, man or woman, who, forgetful of your own soul and salvation, despoil yourself of your very little goods, how shall you find in the future, as though stored up and prepared, what here you have assigned either to those not in need or even to the wealthy? How do you believe that things will be repaid to you by God, which you yourself do not entrust to God? Finally, how do you wish to be repaid what you do not wish to be lent? For no one wishes to have paid back to himself what he does not lend out, nor is anyone so foolish as to think that what he has not put out at interest ought to be repaid. And therefore you can by no means hope for anything as it were to be repaid by God, which, since you do not entrust it to God, you yourself have been unwilling that God should repay to you.
Whence there is fulfilled upon you the divine saying: 'because you have left your riches to others or to strangers, your tomb shall be your house forever.' And that too which the Saviour speaks to one like you: 'because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will begin to spew you out of my mouth.' And you say: 'I am rich and have riches and need nothing'—and you do not know that you are wretched and poor and blind and naked? Let no one therefore, preferring a man to God in his testament, flatter himself with anything on the strength of the prerogative of his life or profession. Deadly to a man and pernicious is false security; the hopes of a presumed burden are guilt; a usurped absolution prepares condemnation. Whoever excuses himself to himself accuses himself before God, according to that saying:
'For whoever thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, deceives himself.' Let no one therefore think his own cause an easy one: none escapes with more difficulty than he who has presumed that he will escape. IX. These things perhaps seem hard and harsh. Why not? For all discipline, as the divine word says, is not of joy but of sorrow. These things are hard and harsh. But what are we to do? It is not permitted to change the natures of things, and the truth cannot be uttered otherwise than the very force of truth demands. Some think these things hard: I know it, and I am quite certain of it. But what are we to do? Only by hard ways is one brought to the kingdom. 'For strait,' says the Lord, 'and narrow is the way that leads to life.'
And the Apostle: 'I reckon,' he says, 'that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which shall be revealed in us.' He says that every human work is unworthy of comparison with the glory to come. And therefore nothing ought to seem hard or harsh to Christians, because however much they offer to Christ for everlasting blessedness, what is given is worthless where what is received is so great. Nothing great is paid on earth by man to God, where what is compared is the greatest in heaven. It is hard for the greedy to be generous with their own. What wonder? Everything is hard that is commanded to the unwilling. Nearly every divine utterance has its own opponents. As many kinds of precepts as there are, so many kinds of adversaries.
If the Lord bids that there be generosity among men, the greedy man is angered; if he demands frugality, the prodigal execrates it. The wicked count the sacred words as their enemies. Robbers shudder at whatever is written of justice; the proud shudder at whatever is enjoined concerning humility; drunkards oppose it where sobriety is prescribed; the unchaste detest it where chastity is commanded. Either, then, nothing must be said, or whatever is said will displease each one of the aforesaid men. Any wicked man prefers to execrate the law rather than amend his mind, prefers to hate the precepts rather than his vices. Amid these things, what are those to do to whom the duties of speaking are entrusted by Christ? They displease God if they are silent, and men if they speak.
But, as the apostles answered the Jews, it is more expedient to obey God than men. Yet I give counsel to all to whom the law of God is heavy and burdensome, if they do not refuse to receive it, how the things that God commands may be able to please them. For all who hate the sacred commandment have the cause of their hatred in themselves. Every loathing is not in the precepts of the law but in their own morals; for the law is good, but their morals are evil. And therefore let men change their purpose and disposition. If they make their morals approvable, nothing that the good law prescribes will displease them. For when anyone has begun to be good, he cannot but love the law of God, because the holy law of God has within itself that which holy men have in their morals.