There are three kinds of taking bribes by which human vanity wars against justice, that is: the favor of friendships, the flattery of praise, and the bodily taking of a gift. But the mind is more easily perverted by the gift of a bodily thing than by the favor of goodwill and praise. In four ways human judgment is perverted: by fear, by cupidity, by hatred, by love. By fear, when through dread of someone's power we are afraid to speak the truth; by cupidity, when we are corrupted by the reward of someone's gift; by hatred, when we contrive to oppose anyone; by love, when we strive to favor a friend or kinsmen. For by these four causes equity is often violated, innocence is often injured. LIX. On Witnesses.
If a lie is told even without payment, how much more if it is sought for a price? For there will not be lacking a manifold assembly of false witnesses, if only there be the presence of money. A false-speaking witness is liable to three persons. First to God, whom by perjuring he despises; next to the judge, whom by lying he deceives; last to the innocent man, whom by false testimony he injures. Both he who utters falsehood and he who suppresses the truth have almost one and the same crime, because the one wishes to do harm, and the other is unwilling to do good. Worse is the witness who injures than he who is unwilling to help, for the one is malignant, the other useless. When false witnesses are joined together, the falsity of the lie is late in being discovered. But if they be separated, they are quickly made manifest by the examination of the one judging.
For just as in the unity of the depraved there is great strength, so in their separation there is greater weakness. The lie of fraudulence is quickly detected, for the testimony of false-speakers does not agree with itself. Both he who utters falsehood and he who suppresses the truth have almost one and the same crime, because the one wishes to do harm, and the other is unwilling to do good. Worse is the witness who injures than he who is unwilling to help, for the one is malignant, the other useless. An unjust witness, although by his falsehood he hinders body and possessions, yet brings no loss to the soul. But that man shall be condemned before God who either speaks false testimony against an innocent man, or believes those who speak it.
For not only is he guilty who utters falsehood about another, but also he who quickly lends his ear to accusations. He who through fear of power conceals the truth provokes upon himself from heaven the wrath of that very truth, because he dreads man more than he trembles at the divine indignation. Blessed is he by whose testimony the innocent is cleared from the crime charged against him; wicked is he by whose betrayal even the guilty is destroyed. For it is not fitting for a Christian to betray one liable to death, and to lend the voice of testimony to the shedding of the blood of the unhappy. For the word of a just man ought to be only for the ministry of salvation: 'For anger of indignation and of tribulation, and sendings by evil angels.' LX. On Advocates.
Those who pursue forensic affairs ought, for the love of their neighbor, to abandon worldly business; or at least, with love of neighbor remaining, let them pursue earthly business. But because it is very rare that charity should remain between those who quarrel, the pleading of a case is to be set aside, that love may persevere. The ancients used to call forensic eloquence 'canine oratory,' because advocates in the contests of causes, neglecting what they are about, like dogs tear one another to pieces, and turn the quarrels of causes into their own injuries. LXI. On Oppressors of the Poor. Let the oppressors of the poor know that they are then worthy of a graver sentence, when they have prevailed against those whom they wished to harm.
For they are to be condemned to future punishment all the more atrociously, the more strongly they have here prevailed against the life of the wretched. Let the judges hear, and those who preside over the peoples, that for the temporal molestations which they inflict upon the peoples, they shall be burned with eternal fire, as the Lord testifies through the prophet Isaiah: 'I was angry,' he says, 'over my people, and I gave them into your hand; you showed them no mercy, you made your yoke exceedingly heavy; go down into the dust; sit, be silent, and enter into darkness; evil shall come upon you, and you shall not know it, and calamity shall rush upon you which you cannot expiate; misery shall come upon you suddenly which you do not know.' We ought to grieve more for those who do evil than for those who suffer evil.
For the former, by doing wicked things, advance in evil, while the latter, by suffering, are corrected from evil. But God through the evil wills of some works many good things in others. The will of malignant men can by no means be fulfilled unless God has given the power. For while men, by God's permission, accomplish the evil which they covet, He who permits is said to do it. Hence it is that it is written through the prophet: 'Shall there be evil which the Lord has not done?' Nevertheless, though the wicked seek evils out of their own will, God for this reason gives the power of accomplishing them through His own good will, because out of our evil He Himself works many good things. Some, when they resist God's will, unwittingly do God's counsel;
whereby you may know that all things are so subject to God, that even those who oppose His disposition fulfill His will. Therefore in this life the good are judged by the evil, so that again in that life the evil may be judged by the good; or so that there may be here for the good a temporal affliction, and there an eternal recompense. For this reason the evil are necessary, that as often as the good offend, they may be scourged by them. Hence it is that the Lord testifies Assyria to be the rod of His fury; but as often as this happens, it proceeds from God's indignation, so that God through them may rage against those whom by scourging He desires to amend. But He acts with a most just will, while they often act with a cruel intention, as it is said through the prophet concerning that same Assyria:
'But he does not so judge, and his heart is prepared to crush.' A fearful divine fury is to come upon those who prove to be persecutors and violent toward the faithful. For in consoling His people through the prophet, God promises so to judge: 'Against those,' he says, 'who have judged you, I will judge; and I will feed your enemies with their own flesh, and they shall be inebriated with their own blood as with new wine.' The iniquity of the evil also has some use, in that it lacerates God's elect by its ways, and through this the life of the impious perishes for itself, but the life of the just does not perish but advances, while the evil, through the exercise of tribulation, train them to hate the present life and to desire the life to come.
For sometimes the wickedness of the perverse serves the profit of the righteous, when by their malice they instruct them and by temporal affliction drive them to seek after the kingdom of heaven. This is proved by the example of the people of Israel, who were then more harshly treated in Egypt precisely when it was fitting for them to be called through Moses to the land of promise, to depart from the evils they were suffering in Egypt, and to hasten to the promised homeland. 57.11. The wicked, when they behold the steadfastness of the righteous man amid their persecutions, waste away in the confusion of their mind. And while they display their hostility yet do not conquer, they are at last thrown into confusion by the madness of their own perversity. 57.12. Fools ever take up zeal against the good;
for so long as prosperity shines upon them, they boast arrogantly of their own merits and disparage the afflictions of the good and the righteous; but when adversity befalls them, they are soon turned to blasphemy through the faint-heartedness of their soul. 57.13. Certain of the simple, not knowing God's dispensation, are scandalized at the successes of the wicked, saying with the prophet: 'Why doth the way of the wicked prosper? It is well with all them that transgress and do iniquitously.' Let those, then, who say this not marvel that they behold the temporal and fleeting felicity of depraved men, but rather let them attend to their end, how great eternal torments are prepared for them thereafter, as the prophet says: 'They spend their days in good things, and in a moment they go down to hell.' LVIII.
On the tribulation of the righteous. 58.1. Let the righteous man know that in adversities he is being tested, not cast down. 58.2. Holy men dread prosperity more than adversity, because prosperity casts down the servants of God, whereas adversity instructs them. Therefore the steadfastness of the holy man ought so to bear adversities that it cannot be broken. 58.3. Then are God's eyes the more upon the righteous, when the supernal providence permits them to be afflicted by the wicked; for then are eternal joys being appointed for them, when they are tested by present tribulation. 58.4. All the tribulations of this life are compared to passing waters, because, if any tribulation befall in this life, it does not stand but swiftly passes away. 58.5.
He who diligently ponders the rewards of the life to come bears with an even mind all the evils of the present life, since from the sweetness of that life he tempers the bitterness of this one, and from the eternity of that he despises the transitory brevity of this. 58.6. For those burdened by diverse temporal evil it is for their benefit that they endure the evils of this life, because, while they are weighed down in pain, they do not crave the evils of covetousness, luxury, and the other vices. 58.7. The temptations of this world profit salvation more than its prosperities, for from prosperity one goes to worse, whereas from the pain of temptation one advances to better. 58.8. Each one ought to prepare his soul for temptation. For temptation, so long as it is not expected, weighs the less;
but it presses hard if it comes unexpected. 58.9. It belongs to the wise man to meditate beforehand against all adversities, nor ought any misfortune to find him which his forethought has not anticipated. LIX. On the lovers of the world. 59.1. The lovers of the world are guilty not only in that they seek the lowest things in place of the highest, but are also wretched in this, that they attain to the very things they desire with grievous toil. 59.2. The wicked man is more grievously tormented in heaping up the goods of the world than the righteous man in enduring adversities. For he who loves the goods of the world, whether he will or no, succumbs to the punishment of fear and grief; and those who love transitory things more than they ought bring upon themselves a greater grief at the thing taken away than the love they brought forth for the thing possessed.
For with grievous grief are lost those things which are held with great love. But we grieve the less at lacking those things which we love the less in possessing. 59.3. Let those who pursue the gains of the age know how vain, or rather how hostile, are the things they love, which even in this age they do not acquire without grievous distress, and for which in the age to come they shall pay penalties in torment. 59.4. To those who persist in the will of worldly desires the testimony of the prophet is well applied: 'Ephraim was made a cake baked under the ashes, that is not turned' — that is, they are so overwhelmed by the blindness of worldly love that they never come to their senses so as to turn back the love of their mind to God. 59.5. To many the world is dead, yet they in turn are not dead to the world.
For they love the goods of the age, and yet the very things they love they do not attain; empty in both respects, for they lose the things to come and do not acquire the things present. 59.6. It is the poverty of the elect that they sojourn away from the everlasting goods and linger the longer in this exile. It is the poverty of the reprobate that they abound in riches yet are emptied of virtues, and know not that they are destitute. This is proved by the Apocalypse of John, who thus speaks against the lovers of this world: 'Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.' 59.7-8. The followers of temporal glory, though outwardly they gleam with the splendor of power, are yet inwardly empty through the elation of pride;
just as reeds outwardly indeed gleam, but inwardly are hollow. On this account the reprobate are outwardly, like a reed, shining, inwardly empty; but the elect are outwardly, as it were the barks of trees, unsightly, yet inwardly solid. 59.9. Let those who go about in costly attire hear how the prophet detests their bodily adornments, and what outcome their composed dress and ornament shall have: namely, for a sweet odor a stench, and for a girdle a rope, and the rest. 59.10. Let the rich, whose hope is in opulence, read the prophet and hear him saying: 'Woe unto you that are wealthy'; for the less power any man has, the freer he is from sin. For a great patrimony is a temptation. 59.11.
Men are honored in this age more for temporal power than for reverence of holiness. For they welcome men the more because they are rich, and they utterly despise them because they are but men. 59.12. There are certain righteous men who use their possessions without injury to anyone. Likewise there are certain humble rich, whom the pride of possessions does not puff up, such as were many of the saints of the Old Testament, who both abounded in riches and yet excelled in humility. But on the contrary, abundance of goods makes certain proud rich men elated; whose wealth is not in fault, but their will. For the offense is not in things, but in the use of the one acting. 59.13. There is an elation of the poor, whom riches do not exalt, and in them the will alone is pride.
These, though they lack wealth, are yet condemned on account of the swelling of their mind more than the proud rich. 59.14. The rich man wishes to be free of care; he does not wish to be poor. But how shall the rich man be tranquil, whom his very possessions, lest they be lost, ever keep restless with their goads? And so covetousness chooses that the rich man be restless and fearful, rather than that he be free of care, content with little expense, and poor. 59.15. They use good things well who enjoy to the full the riches granted them upon wholesome ends. They use good things ill who either judge righteousness for the sake of temporal gain, or do any good thing for the appetite of vainglory. They use evil things ill who carry out harmful thoughts in depraved works.
They use evil things well who restrain the luxury of the flesh by the honorableness of marriage. But as to use an evil thing well is good, so to use a good thing well is better; and as to use a good thing ill is evil, so to use an evil thing ill is worst. LX. On the lovers of mercy. 60.1. They grievously offend against God who use the riches granted by God not upon wholesome things but in depraved uses. For they know not how to share with the poor, they disdain to succor the oppressed, and thence they rather increase their offenses, whence they ought to have redeemed them. 60.2. The possession of present things has this good only, if it restores the life of the wretched; apart from this, worldly gain is a temptation, and they shall give the greater torments in the future, the greater the gains themselves are:
for the mighty shall be mightily tormented. 60.3. All earthly things we lose by keeping, and by bestowing we keep; for a patrimony retained perishes, but one dispensed abides. For we cannot endure together with our goods, since either we by dying forsake them, or they while we yet live forsake us. 60.4. According to the diversity of use, some perish because of worldly things, which they seize the more greedily; but others are saved, while in the beauty of these things they marvel, praising the most beautiful providence of the Creator; or while through the work of mercy they purchase from them heavenly goods. 60.5. Mercy has taken its name from suffering-with (compassion for) another's misery. But no one can be merciful toward another who by living depravedly is not merciful toward himself:
for he who is worthless to himself, to whom is he good? 60.6. No crimes can be redeemed by alms, if anyone remains in his sins. But then is pardon granted by the fruit of alms, when one ceases from the work of crimes. It is true that all sins are cleansed by the works of mercy, but let him who dispenses mercy now beware of sinning. For otherwise there is no pardon of the offense, when mercy so precedes that sins follow after it. 60.7-9. That is not alms which is bestowed with a view to glory rather than mercy. For with whatsoever intention it is bestowed by each one, so likewise is it received before God. He, therefore, who here seeks present praise from a good deed loses his hope and receives not the glory of reward in the future.
For while the poor man is fed for the sake of self-display, even that very work of mercy is turned into sin. 60.10. So far do the works of alms extinguish sins, and so far do they profit toward the kingdom of the age to come, that even the heavenly Judge, coming at the future judgment, shall say to those standing at His right hand: 'I was hungry and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty and ye gave me to drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked, and ye covered me.' To whom also He fittingly premises, saying: 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you.' But to those whom no preceding deeds of alms follow, it is thus said by the voice of the eternal Judge: 'I was hungry and ye gave me not to eat; I was thirsty and ye gave me not to drink.'
To whom it is justly said: 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels.' 60.11. He who imparts not mercy here finds not the fruit of compassion there, after the example of the burning rich man who in hell was constrained to beg for the smallest things, who here was eager to deny the smallest things. What could be more subtly, what more strictly requited? He begs, while burning, for a drop of water, who denied crumbs of bread. Too late did the rich man open his eyes, when he saw poor Lazarus at rest, whom lying before his gates he disdained to look upon. 60.12.
Not only he who bestows the benefit of liberality upon one hungering and thirsting and naked, or grants anything else to one in need, but also he who loves an enemy, and he who imparts the affection of compassion and consolation to one mourning, or gives counsel in any necessities whatsoever, doubtless performs an act of alms. For the good of doctrine also is alms, and it is more eminent than carnal mercy. 60.13. Whosoever, being needy, begs, even if he feigns his need, must be pitied with the whole heart. And although he perhaps presents a false appearance of neediness, yet he who imparts in singleness of heart does not lose the fruit of mercy. 60.14.
Although anyone be needy, yet none can put forward the excuse of poverty as to whence he might give to the needy, since by the precept of the Savior we are commanded to offer even a cup of cold water to the needy. For if, having nothing else, we bestow that very thing kindly, we doubtless do not lose the reward. But if we can give more and, by feigning want, bestow less, we deceive not the needy man but God, from whom we cannot hide our conscience. 60.15. There are two kinds of alms: one bodily, to give the needy whatever you can; the other spiritual, to forgive him by whom you have been injured. Of these the first is to be applied to the wretched, the second to the wicked. There shall therefore be that which you may always impart, if not money, at least good will. 60.16.
Alms are not to be offered with murmuring, lest, with sorrow accompanying it, the reward that is dispensed should perish. But then is it well bestowed, when it is offered with cheerfulness of mind. Whence also the Apostle says: 'God loveth a cheerful giver.' It is therefore to be feared lest the poor man either receive what is offered together with our reluctance, or, being wholly passed over, depart grieving and sorrowful. 60.17. To give alms from the plunder of others is not the office of compassion but the profit of crime; whence Solomon also says: 'He that offereth sacrifice of the substance of the poor is as one that sacrificeth the son in the sight of his father.' For he who unjustly takes never justly distributes, nor does he well bestow upon one what he wickedly extorts from another. 60.18.
It is a great crime to bestow the property of the poor upon the rich, and from the resources of the destitute to purchase the favors of the powerful; to take water from parched earth, and to irrigate rivers that have no need. 60.19. Sometimes the prodigal liberality of the rich is poured out not for utility but for ostentation: they are likened to hypocrites who teach their hearers not for edification but for the heightening of their own glory. 60.20. The superfluous outpouring of liberality is reprehensible: for he who keeps a measure is miserly toward none, but is liberal toward all. 60.21. A dispenser ought not to be prodigal, but discerning; for he ought to give as much as is fitting, so that, keeping the measure in one thing, he may suffice for very many. LXI. On the brevity of this life. 61.1.
For it is only permitted to work good in this life; for there no work is any longer awaited, but the recompense of merits. 61.2. This life is long and pleasing to the wicked, but in the eyes of the righteous it is bitter and brief. And although this life be brief, yet it is believed to make delays for itself; because, however brief the span of time may be, yet even if to one living it is too little, to one loving it is doubtless long. 61.3a. He who considers the length of the present life not by its span but by its end, how wretched and brief it is, weighs the matter usefully enough. For the present life is brief, because it fails by its very increases; for it perishes by its own growth, while that which seems to advance in the future fails in the past. 61.3b.
Likewise the present life is shown to be brief from the very fact that it does not abide but is ended. For a web is completed by its threads, and the life of man is fulfilled by its several days. 61.4. As to living long in this life, it is asked whether it should be called an increase or, more rightly, a diminution. But how can that be rightly called an increase which, through the measurings of the ages, tends toward the diminution of death? 61.5. You who seek a long life, tend toward that life for which you are a Christian, that is, the eternal, not toward this life from which, to rescue you, the eternal Life descended, that is, Christ the Word joined to flesh. For that is the vital Life; this our life is mortal. 61.6. A man must die to the world in the flesh, lest he die in the soul to Christ.
For then is anyone believed to live, if, dying according to the age, he delights to live in God alone. 61.7. The righteous man suffers weariness at the delay of this life, both because he comes late to the desired homeland, and because he lays down the toil of the present life too late. LXII. On the departure. 62.1. Although the saints desire to be freed from the toils of this life, willing to depart quickly from the body, yet by God's disposition they are for the most part long detained in this life, so that by a long trial of endurance their patience may be more solidly strengthened. 62.2. Many hold life in hatred and yet fear to die: which is wont to happen to very many in anguish, and thus by contrary affection they have both weariness of living and dread of dying. 62.3.
Each one ought to live carefully and ever to consider the term of his life, so that, from the contemplation of it, he may beware of the flatteries of this world. For it is written: 'In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.' 62.4. Ignorance of the coming departure is uncertain, and, while one thinks not to die, he is taken away; whence let each one hasten lest he be snatched away in his iniquities and his life together with his guilt be at once ended. For the devil, the instigator, strives to drag suddenly to torments, dying, those whom, living, he had kindled to vices. 62.5.
Often the rich in this deceitful life, while they exult in the glory of power or the abundance of goods, are suddenly, at an hour they know not, snatched away by an unforeseen departure, and, the deep swallowing them up, are consigned to be tormented in the eternal fires of Gehenna. Of whom it is well said through the prophet: 'They spend their days in good things, and in a moment they go down to hell.' 62.6. The wicked man in dying, who by his imitation had drawn many to guilt by the delight of sin, recalls many from guilt by the terror of torment. This the psalmist also attests, saying: 'The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance of the wicked; he shall wash his hands in the blood of sinners.'
For in the blood of dying sinners the righteous wash their hands, because, while their punishment is beheld, the life of the beholder is cleansed. For whoever's such cruel departure is seen, not only does he who has seen it flee from it, but he also restrains others, with whatever exhortation he can, from the imitation of it. 62.7-9. At the departure of life the souls of the elect are terrified with exceeding fear, uncertain whether they pass to reward or to punishment. But certain of the elect are, at their end, purged of certain light sins; while certain others at their very end grow glad through the contemplation of eternal goods. For however righteous anyone may be in this life, yet when he goes forth from this body, he is greatly afraid lest he be worthy of punishment. For there is no man without sin;
nor can anyone be secure concerning God's judgment, since even for idle words an account must be rendered. 62.10-11. A tranquil summons commends the end of the righteous as the best, so that from it they are understood to have the fellowship of the holy angels, from the fact that they are taken from this body without harsh vexation. But apostate angels receive wicked men as they die, so that they who had been persuaders in vices may themselves be their tormentors in punishments. 62.12. Although piety may bid us weep for the faithful departed, yet faith forbids us to mourn for them. For those are to be bewailed in death whom hell, wretched, receives from this life, not those whom the heavenly court encloses to be gladdened. Here ends the third book.