4. There is indeed another way of understanding it; and I will not withhold it too. The mammon of iniquity is all the riches of this world, from whatever source they come. For howsoever they be heaped together, they are the mammon of iniquity, that is, the riches of iniquity. What is, "they are the riches of iniquity"? It is money which iniquity calls by the name of riches. For if we seek for the true riches, they are different from these. In these Job abounded, naked as he was, when he had a heart full to Godward, and poured out praises like most costly gems to his God, when he had lost all he had. [3507] And from what treasure did he this, if he had nothing? These then are the true riches. But the other sort are called riches by iniquity. Thou dost possess these riches. I blame it not: an inheritance has come to thee, thy father was rich, and he left it to thee. Or thou hast honestly acquired them: thou hast a house full of the fruit of just labour; I blame it not. Yet even thus do not call them riches. For if thou dost call them riches, thou wilt love them: and if thou love them, thou wilt perish with them. Lose, that thou be not lost: give, that thou mayest gain: sow, that thou mayest reap. Call not these riches, for "the true" they are not. They are full of poverty, and liable ever to accidents. What sort of riches are those, for whose sake thou art afraid of the robber, for whose sake thou art afraid of thine own servant, lest he should kill thee, and take them away, and fly? If they were true riches, they would give thee security.
5. So then those are the true riches, which when we have them, we cannot lose. And lest haply thou shouldest fear a thief because of them, they will be there where none can take them away. Hear thy Lord, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where no thief approacheth." [3508] Then will they be riches, when thou hast removed them hence. As long as they are in the earth, they are not riches. But the world calls them riches, iniquity calls them so. God calls them therefore the mammon of iniquity, because iniquity calls them riches. Hear the Psalm, "O Lord, deliver me out of the hand of strange children, whose mouth hath spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity. Whose sons are as new plants, firmly rooted from their youth. Their daughters decked out, adorned round about after the similitude of a temple. Their storehouses full, flowing out from this into that. Their oxen fat, their sheep fruitful, multiplying in their goings forth. There is no breach of wall, nor going forth, no crying out in their streets." [3509] Lo, what sort of happiness the Psalmist has described: but hear what is the case with them whom he has set forth as children of iniquity. "Whose mouth hath spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity." Thus has he set them forth, and said that their happiness is only upon the earth. And what did he add? "They are happy the people that hath these things." But who called them so? "Strange children," aliens from the race, and belonging not to the seed of Abraham: they "called the people happy that hath these things." Who called them so? "They whose mouth hath spoken vanity." It is a vain thing then to call them happy who have these things. And yet they are called so by them, "whose mouth hath spoken vanity." By them the "mammon of iniquity" of the Gospel is called riches.
6. But what sayest thou? Seeing that these "strange children" that they "whose mouth hath spoken vanity," have "called the people happy that hath these things," what sayest thou? These are false riches, show me the true. Thou findest fault with these, show me what thou praisest. Thou wishest me to despise these, show me what to prefer. Let the Psalmist speak himself. For he who said, "they called the people happy that hath these things," gives us such an answer, as if we had said to him, that is, to the Psalmist [3510] himself, "Lo, this thou hast taken away from us, and nothing hast thou given us: lo, these, lo, these we despise; whereby shall we live, whereby shall we be happy? For they who have spoken, they will undertake to answer [3511] for themselves. For they have called' men who have' riches happy.' But what sayest thou?" As if he had been thus questioned, he makes answer and says, They call the rich happy: but I say, "Happy are the people whose is the Lord their God." Thus then thou hast heard of the true riches, make friends of the mammon of iniquity, and thou shalt be "a happy people, whose is the Lord their God." At times we go along the way, and see very pleasant and productive estates, and we say, "Whose estate is that?" We are told, "such a man's;" and we say, "Happy man!" We "speak vanity." Happy he whose is that house, happy he whose that estate, happy he whose that flock, happy he whose that servant, happy he whose is that household. Take away vanity if Thou wouldest hear the truth. "Happy he whose is the Lord" his "God." For not he who has that estate is happy: but he whose is that "God." But in order to declare most plainly the happiness of possessions, thou sayest that thy estate has made thee happy. And why? Because thou livest by it. For when thou dost highly praise thine estate, thou sayest thus, "It finds me food, I live by it." Consider whereby thou dost really live. He by whom thou livest, is He to whom thou sayest, "With Thee is the fountain of life." [3512] "Happy is the people whose God is the Lord." O Lord my God, O Lord our God, make us happy by Thee, that we may come unto Thee. We wish not to be happy from gold, or silver, or land, from these earthly, and most vain, and transitory goods of this perishable life. Let not "our mouth speak vanity." Make us happy by Thee, seeing that we shall never lose Thee. When we shall once have gotten Thee, we shall neither lose Thee, nor be lost ourselves. Make us happy by Thee, because "Happy is the people whose is the Lord their God." Nor will God be angry if we shall say of Him, He is our estate. For we read that "the Lord is the portion of my inheritance." [3513] Grand thing, Brethren, we are both His inheritance, and He is ours, seeing that we both cultivate His service [3514] and He cultivateth us. [3515] It is no derogation [3516] to His honour that He cultivateth us. Because if we cultivate Him as our God, He cultivateth us as His field. And, (that ye may know that He doth cultivate us) hear Him whom He hath sent to us: "I," saith He, "am the vine, ye are the branches, My Father is the Husbandman." [3517] Therefore He doth cultivate us. But if we yield fruit, He prepares for us His garner. But if under the attention of so great a hand we will be barren, and for good fruit [3518] bring forth thorns, I am loth to say what follows. [3519] Let us make an end with a theme of joy. "Let us turn then to the Lord," etc.
[3499] Matt. xxv. 35, etc.
[3500] Matt. xxv. 40.
[3501] Lucrum.
[3502] Eructuasti.
[3503] Ps. iv. 4, Sept.
[3504] Ps. li. 9.
[3505] Luke xix. 2, etc.
[3506] Luke xix. 9.
[3507] Job i. 21.
[3508] Matt. vi. 20; Luke xii. 33.
[3509] Ps. cxliv. 11, etc., Sept.
[3510] Psalmo.
[3511] Recipient.
[3512] Ps. xxxvi. 9.
[3513] Ps. xvi. 5.
[3514] Colimus.
[3515] Colit. Quia et colimus eum, et colit nos. Vide Serm. xlvii., xxix., xxvii., ii.; Conf. B. xiii. 1.
[3516] Injuria.
[3517] John xv. 1.
[3518] Frumento.
[3519] See John xv. 2 and 6.
Sermon LXIV.
[CXIV. Ben.]
On the words of the Gospel, Luke xvii. 3, "If thy brother sin, rebuke him," etc., touching the remission of sins.
Delivered at the Table of St. Cyprian, in the presence of Count Boniface.
1. The Holy Gospel which we heard just now as it was being read, has admonished touching the remission of sins. And on this subject must ye be admonished now by my discourse. For we are ministers of the word, not our own word, but the word of our God and Lord, whom no one serves without glory, whom no one despises without punishment. He then the Lord our God, who abiding with the Father made us, and having been made for us, re-made us, He the Lord our God Jesus Christ Himself says to us what we have heard just now in the Gospel. "If," He saith, "thy brother shall sin against thee, rebuke him, and if he shall repent, forgive him; and if he shall sin against time seven times in a day, and shall come and say, I repent, forgive him." [3520] He would not have "seven times in a day" otherwise understood than "as often as may be," lest haply he sin eight times, and thou be unwilling to forgive. What then is "seven times"? Always, as often as he shall sin and repent. For this, "Seven times in a day will I praise thee," [3521] is the same as in another Psalm, "His praise shall always be in my mouth." [3522] And there is the strongest reason why seven times should be put for that which is always: for the whole course of time revolves in a circle of seven coming and returning days.
2. Whosoever then thou art that hast thy thoughts on Christ, and desirest to receive what He hath promised, be not slow to do that which He hath enjoined. Now what hath He promised? "Eternal life." And what hath He enjoined? That pardon be given to thy brother. As if He had said to thee, "Do thou, O man, give pardon to a man, that I, who am God, may come unto thee." But that I may pass over, or rather pass by for a while, those more exalted divine promises in which our Creator engages to make us equal with His Angels, that we may with Him, and in Him, and by Him, live without end; not to speak of this just now, dost thou not wish to receive of thy God this very thing, which thou art commanded to give thy brother? This very thing, I say, which thou art commanded to give thy brother, dost thou not wish to receive from thy Lord? Tell me if thou wishest it not; and so give it not. What is this, but that thou shouldest forgive him that asks thee, if thou require to be forgiven? But if thou have nothing to be forgiven thee, I dare to say, be unwilling to forgive. Though I ought not even to say this. Though thou have nothing to be forgiven thee, forgive.
3. Thou art just on the point of saying to me, "But I am not God, I am a man, a sinner." God be thanked that thou dost confess thou hast sins. Forgive then, that they may be forgiven thee. Yet the Lord Himself our God exhorteth us to imitate Him. In the first place God Himself, Christ, exhorteth us, of whom the Apostle Peter said, "Christ hath suffered for us, leaving you an example that ye should follow His steps, who did no sin, neither was guile, found in His mouth." [3523] He then verily had no sin, yet did He die for our sins, and shed His Blood for the remission of sins. He took upon Him for our sakes what was not His due, that He might deliver us from what was due to us. Death was not due to Him, nor life to us. Why? Because we were sinners. Death was not due to Him, nor life to us; He received what was not due to Him, He gave what was not due to us. But since we are speaking of the remission of sins, lest ye should think it too high a thing to imitate Christ, hear the Apostle saying, "Forgiving one another, even as God in Christ hath forgiven you." [3524] "Be ye therefore imitators of God." They are the Apostle's words, not mine. Is it indeed a proud thing to imitate God? Hear the Apostle, "Be ye imitators of God as dearly beloved children." [3525] Thou art called a child: if thou refuse to imitate Him, why seekest thou His inheritance?
4. This would I say even if thou hadst no sin which thou mightest desire to be forgiven thee. But as it is, whosoever thou art, thou art a man; though thou be righteous, thou art a man; be thou layman, or monk, or clerk, or Bishop, or Apostle, thou art a man. Hear the Apostle's voice, "If we shall say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." [3526] He, that famous John and an Evangelist, he whom the Lord Christ loved beyond all the rest, who lay on His breast, he says, "If we shall say." He did not say, "If ye shall say that ye have no sin," but "if we shall say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." He joined himself in the guilt, that he might be joined in the pardon also. "If we shall say." Consider who it is that says, "If we shall say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we shall confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity." [3527] How does He cleanse? By forgiving, not as though He found nothing to punish, but as finding something to forgive. So then, Brethren, if we have sins, let us forgive them that ask us. Let us not retain enmities in our heart against another. For the retaining of enmities more than anything corrupts this heart of ours.