That We Must Not Prefer the Affairs of This Life to Those Which Concern the Worship of God.
LXI. But if any one allege the pretence of his own work, and so is a despiser, "offering pretences for his sins," let such a one know that the trades of the faithful are works by the by, but the worship of God is their great work. Follow therefore your trades as by the by, for your maintenance, but make the worship of God your main business; as also our Lord said: "Labour not for the meat which perishes, but for that which endureth unto everlasting life." [2846] And again: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." [2847] Endeavour therefore never to leave the Church of God; but if any one overlooks it, and goes either into a polluted temple of the heathens, or into a synagogue of the Jews or heretics, what apology will such a one make to God in the day of judgment, who has forsaken the oracles of the living God, and the living and quickening oracles, such as are able to deliver from eternal punishment, and has gone into an house of demons, or into a synagogue of the murderers of Christ, or the congregation of the wicked?--not hearkening unto him that says: "I have hated the congregation of the wicked, and I will not enter with the ungodly. I have not sat with the assembly of vanity, neither will I sit with the ungodly." [2848] And again: "Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, and hath not sat in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law will he meditate day and night." [2849] But thou, forsaking the gathering together of the faithful, the Church of God, and His laws, hast respect to those "dens of thieves," calling those things holy which He has called profane, and making such things unclean which He has sanctified. And not only so, but thou already runnest after the pomps of the Gentiles, and hastenest to their theatres, being desirous to be reckoned one of those that enter into them, and to partake of unseemly, not to say abominable words; not hearkening to Jeremiah, who says, "O Lord, I have not sat in their assemblies, for they are scorners; but I was afraid because of Thy hand;" [2850] nor to Job, who speaks in like manner, "If I have gone at any time with the scornful; for I shall be weighed in a just balance." [2851] But why wilt thou be a partaker of the heathen oracles, which are nothing but dead men declaring by the inspiration of the devil deadly things, and such as tend to subvert the faith, and to draw those that attend to them to polytheism? Do you therefore, who attend to the laws. of God, esteem those laws more honourable than the necessities of this life, and pay a greater respect to them, and run together to the Church of the Lord, "which He has purchased with the blood of Christ, the beloved, the first-born of every creature." [2852] For this Church is the daughter of the Highest, which has been in travail of you by the word of grace, and has "formed Christ in you," of whom you are made partakers, and thereby become His holy and chosen members, "not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but as being holy and unspotted in the faith, ye are complete in Him, after the image of God that created you." [2853]
That Christians Must Abstain from All the Impious Practices of the Heathens.
LXII. Take heed, therefore, not to join yourselves in your worship with those that perish, which is the assembly of the Gentiles, to your deceit and destruction. For there is no fellowship between God and the devil; for he that assembles himself with those that favour the things of the devil, will be esteemed one of them, and will inherit a woe. Avoid also indecent spectacles: I mean the theatres and the pomps of the heathens; their enchantments, observations of omens, soothsayings, purgations, divinations, observations of birds; their necromancies and invocations. For it is written: "There is no divination in Jacob, nor soothsaying in Israel." [2854] And again: "Divination is iniquity." [2855] And elsewhere: "Ye shall not be soothsayers, and follow observers of omens, nor diviners, nor dealers with familiar spirits. Ye shall not preserve alive wizards." [2856] Wherefore Jeremiah exhorts, saying: "Walk ye not according to the ways of the heathen, and be not afraid of the signs of heaven." [2857] So that it is the duty of a believer to avoid the assemblies of the ungodly, of the heathen, and of the Jews, and of the rest of the heretics, lest by uniting ourselves to them we bring snares upon our own souls; that we may not by joining in their feasts, which are celebrated in honour of demons, be partakers with them in their impiety. You are also to avoid their public meetings, and those sports which are celebrated in them. For a believer ought not to go to any of those public meetings, unless to purchase a slave, and save a soul, [2858] and at the same time to buy such other things as suit their necessities. Abstain, therefore, from all idolatrous pomp and state, all their public meetings, banquets, duels, and all shows belonging to demons.
[2831] Deut. xxvii. 9.
[2832] Deut. v. 31.
[2833] Deut. xxiii. 1. "And in the temple of God" is omitted in one V. ms.
[2834] One V. ms. inserts, "and pity thee: the Lord lift His countenance upon thee."
[2835] Num. vi. 24, etc.
[2836] Ps. xxviii. 9; Acts xx. 28; 1 Pet. i. 19, ii. 9.
[2837] [Note all this as bearing upon the ceremonial of the Latin Mass, which reverses these primitive precepts in divers points.]
[2838] Luke iv. 24; John iv. 44 .
[2839] Matt. xii. 30.
[2840] Matt. xxviii. 20. [Compare vol. i. pp. [270]185, 186, this series.]
[2841] Ezek. xvi. 52.
[2842] Ezek. v. 7, xvi. 47.
[2843] Jer. iii. 11.
[2844] One V. ms. inserts here, "and elsewhere through another."
[2845] Jer. ii. 11, 10.
[2846] John vi. 27.
[2847] John vi. 29.
[2848] Ps. xxvi. 5, 4.
[2849] Ps. i. 1, 2.
[2850] Jer. xv. 17.
[2851] Job xxxi. 5, 6.
[2852] Vid. Acts xx. 28; Col. i. 15.
[2853] Eph. v. 27.
[2854] Num. xxiii. 23.
[2855] 1 Sam. xv. 23, LXX.
[2856] Lev. xix. 26; Deut. xviii. 10.
[2857] Jer. x. 2. [Slaves were bought to be baptized. Elucid., p. 425.]
[2858] Jer. x. 2. [Slaves were bought to be baptized. Elucid., p. 425.]
Sec. VIII.--On the Duty of Working for a Livelihood.
That a Christian Who Will Not Work Must Not Eat, as Peter and the Rest of the Apostles Were Fishermen, But Paul and Aquila Tentmakers, Jude the Son of James an Husbandman.
LXIII. Let the young persons of the Church endeavour to minister diligently in all necessaries: mind your business with all becoming seriousness, that so you may always have sufficient to support yourselves and those that are needy, and not burden the Church of God. For we ourselves, besides our attention to the word of the Gospel, do not neglect our inferior employments. For some of us are fishermen, some tentmakers, some husbandmen, that so we may never be idle. So says Solomon somewhere: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways diligently, and become wiser than she. For she, having neither field, overseer, nor ruler, prepareth her food in the summer, and layeth up a great store in the harvest. Or else go to the bee, and learn how laborious she is, and her work how valuable it is, whose labours both kings and mean men make use of for their health. She is desirable and glorious, though she be weak in strength, yet by honouring wisdom she is improved, etc. How long wilt thou lie on thy bed, O sluggard? When wilt thou wake out of thy sleep? Thou sleepest awhile thou liest down awhile, thou slumberest awhile, thou foldest thy hands on thy breast to sleep awhile. Then poverty comes on thee like an evil traveller, and want as a swift racer. But if thou beest diligent, thy harvest shall come as a fountain, and want shall fly from thee as an evil runagate." [2859] And again: "He that manageth his own land shall be filled with bread." [2860] And elsewhere he says: "The slothful has folded his own hands together, and has eaten his own flesh." [2861] And afterwards: "The sluggard hides his hand; he will not be able to bring it to his mouth." [2862] And again: "By slothfulness of the hands a floor will be brought low." [2863] Labour therefore continually; for the blot of the slothful is not to be healed. But "if any one does not work, let not such a one eat" [2864] among you. For the Lord our God hates the slothful. For no one of those who are dedicated to God ought to be idle.
[2859] Prov. vi. 6, etc., LXX.
[2860] Prov. xii. 11.
[2861] Eccles. iv. 5.
[2862] Prov. xix. 24.
[2863] Eccles. x. 18.
[2864] 2 Thess. iii. 10.
Elucidation.
(To purchase a slave, and save a soul, [271]p. 424.)
The calm and patient course of the Church in gradually obliterating slavery has been well defended by the pious Spanish Ultramontane writer Jacques Balmès. [2865] Of course, he imagines that "the Catholic Church," which wrought the change, was his own Tridentine Communion, [2866] Lecky's remarks on the gladiators and slavery as the product of famines and distress are worthy of note, and even he is forced to recognise the ameliorating influences of Christianity from the beginning. [2867] He says:--
"Christianity for the first time made charity a rudimentary virtue, giving it a foremost place in the moral type and in the exhortations of its teachers. Besides its general influence in stimulating the affections, it effected a complete revolution in this sphere, by representing the poor as the special representatives of the Christian founder, and thus making the love of Christ rather than the love of man the principle of charity. Even in the days of persecution, collections for the relief of the poor were made at the Sunday meetings. The agapæ, or feasts of love, were intended mainly for the poor; and food that was saved by the fasts was devoted to their benefit. A vast organization of charity, presided over by the bishops, and actively directed by the deacons, soon ramified over Christendom, till the bond of charity became the bond of unity, and the most distant sections of the Christian Church corresponded by the interchange of mercy. [2868] Long before the era of Constantine it was observed that the charities of the Christians were so extensive--it may perhaps be said so excessive--that they drew very many impostors to the Church; and, when the victory of Christianity was achieved, the enthusiasm for charity displayed itself in the erection of numerous institutions that were altogether unknown to the pagan world."
[2865] See his chapter (xvii.) Moyens employés par l'église affranchir les esclaves, Civilisation Européene, vol. i. p. 222, Paris, 1851.
[2866] The countrymen of Balmès, on the contrary, were the authors of the negro slavery of modern times.
[2867] History of European Morals, vol. ii. p. 84.
[2868] See also Elucidation XII. vol. v. p. 563.
constitutions of the holy apostles