7. I know you will rejoin that you possess nothing. Why, then, if you are so well prepared for battle, do you not take the field? Perhaps you think that you can wage war in your own country, although the Lord could do no signs in His? [215] Why not? you ask. Take the answer which comes to you with his authority: "No prophet is accepted in his own country." [216] But, you will say, I do not seek honor; the approval of my conscience is enough for me. Neither did the Lord seek it; for when the multitudes would have made Him a king he fled from them. [217] But where there is no honor there is contempt; and where there is contempt there is frequent rudeness; and where there is rudeness there is vexation; and where there is vexation there is no rest; and where there is no rest the mind is apt to be diverted from its purpose. Again, where, through restlessness, earnestness loses any of its force, it is lessened by what it loses, and that which is lessened cannot be called perfect. The upshot of all which is that a monk cannot be perfect in his own country. Now, not to aim at perfection is itself a sin.
8. Driven from this line of defence you will appeal to the example of the clergy. These, you will say, remain in their cities, and yet they are surely above criticism. Far be it from me to censure the successors of the apostles, who with holy words consecrate the body of Christ, and who make us Christians. [218] Having the keys of the kingdom of heaven, they judge men to some extent before the day of judgment, and guard the chastity of the bride of Christ. But, as I have before hinted, the case of monks is different from that of the clergy. The clergy feed Christ's sheep; I as a monk am fed by them. They live of the altar: [219] I, if I bring no gift to it, have the axe laid to my root as to that of a barren tree. [220] Nor can I plead poverty as an excuse, for the Lord in the gospel has praised an aged widow for casting into the treasury the last two coins that she had. [221] I may not sit in the presence of a presbyter; [222] he, if I sin, may deliver me to Satan, "for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved." [223] Under the old law he who disobeyed the priests was put outside the camp and stoned by the people, or else he was beheaded and expiated his contempt with his blood. [224] But now the disobedient person is cut down with the spiritual sword, or he is expelled from the church and torn to pieces by ravening demons. Should the entreaties of your brethren induce you to take orders, I shall rejoice that you are lifted up, and fear lest you may be cast down. You will say: "If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." [225] I know that; but you should add what follows: such an one "must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, chaste, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker but patient." [226] After fully explaining the qualifications of a bishop the apostle speaks of ministers of the third degree with equal care. "Likewise must the deacons be grave," he writes, "not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; then, let them minister, being found blameless." [227] Woe to the man who goes in to the supper without a wedding garment. Nothing remains for him but the stern question, "Friend, how camest thou in hither?" And when he is speechless the order will be given, "Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." [228] Woe to him who, when he has received a talent, has bound it in a napkin; and, whilst others make profits, only preserves what he has received. His angry lord shall rebuke him in a moment. "Thou wicked servant," he will say, "wherefore gavest thou not my money into the bank that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?" [229] That is to say, you should have laid before the altar what you were not able to bear. For whilst you, a slothful trader, keep a penny in your hands, you occupy the place of another who might double the money. Wherefore, as he who ministers well purchases to himself a good degree, [230] so he who approaches the cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. [231]
9. Not all bishops are bishops indeed. You consider Peter; mark Judas as well. You notice Stephen; look also on Nicolas, sentenced in the Apocalypse by the Lord's own lips, [232] whose shameful imaginations gave rise to the heresy of the Nicolaitans. "Let a man examine himself and so let him come." [233] For it is not ecclesiastical rank that makes a man a Christian. The centurion Cornelius was still a heathen when he was cleansed by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Daniel was but a child when he judged the elders. [234] Amos was stripping mulberry bushes when, in a moment, he was made a prophet. [235] David was only a shepherd when he was chosen to be king. [236] And the least of His disciples was the one whom Jesus loved the most. My brother, sit down in the lower room, that when one less honorable comes you may be bidden to go up higher. [237] Upon whom does the Lord rest but upon him that is lowly and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at His word? [238] To whom God has committed much, of him He will ask the more. [239] "Mighty men shall be mightily tormented." [240] No man need pride himself in the day of judgment on merely physical chastity, for then shall men give account for every idle word, [241] and the reviling of a brother shall be counted as the sin of murder. [242] Paul and Peter now reign with Christ, and it is not easy to take the place of the one or to hold the office of the other. There may come an angel to rend the veil of your temple, [243] and to remove your candlestick out of its place. [244] If you intend to build the tower, first count the cost. [245] Salt that has lost its savor is good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of swine. [246] If a monk fall, a priest shall intercede for him; but who shall intercede for a fallen priest?
10. At last my discourse is clear of the reefs: at last this frail bark has passed from the breakers into deep water. I may now spread my sails to the breeze; and, as I leave the rocks of controversy astern, my epilogue will be like the joyful shout of mariners. O desert, bright with the flowers of Christ! O solitude whence come the stones of which, in the Apocalypse, the city of the great king is built! [247] O wilderness, gladdened with God's especial presence! What keeps you in the world, my brother, you who are above the world? [248] How long shall gloomy roofs oppress you? How long shall smoky cities immure you? Believe me, I have more light than you. Sweet it is to lay aside the weight of the body and to soar into the pure bright ether. Do you dread poverty? Christ calls the poor blessed. [249] Does toil frighten you? No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his brow. Are you anxious as regards food? Faith fears no famine. Do you dread the bare ground for limbs wasted with fasting? The Lord lies there beside you. Do you recoil from an unwashed head and uncombed hair? Christ is your true head. [250] Does the boundless solitude of the desert terrify you? In the spirit you may walk always in paradise. Do but turn your thoughts thither and you will be no more in the desert. Is your skin rough and scaly because you no longer bathe? He that is once washed in Christ needeth not to wash again. [251] To all your objections the apostle gives this one brief answer: "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory" which shall come after them, "which shall be revealed in us." [252] You are too greedy of enjoyment, my brother, if you wish to rejoice with the world here, and to reign with Christ hereafter.
11. It shall come, it shall come, that day when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. [253] Then shall that servant be blessed whom the Lord shall find watching. [254] Then at the sound of the trumpet [255] the earth and its peoples shall tremble, but you shall rejoice. The world shall howl at the Lord who comes to judge it, and the tribes of the earth shall smite the breast. Once mighty kings shall tremble in their nakedness. Venus shall be exposed, and her son too. Jupiter with his fiery bolts will be brought to trial; and Plato, with his disciples, will be but a fool. Aristotle's arguments shall be of no avail. You may seem a poor man and country bred, but then you shall exult and laugh, and say: Behold my crucified Lord, behold my judge. This is He who was once an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and crying in a manger. [256] This is He whose parents were a workingman and a working-woman. [257] This is He, who, carried into Egypt in His mother's bosom, though He was God, fled before the face of man. This is He who was clothed in a scarlet robe and crowned with thorns. [258] This is He who was called a sorcerer and a man with a devil and a Samaritan. [259] Jew, behold the hands which you nailed to the cross. Roman, behold the side which you pierced with the spear. See both of you whether it was this body that the disciples stole secretly and by night. [260] For this you profess to believe.
My brother, it is affection which has urged me to speak thus; that you who now find the Christian life so hard may have your reward in that day.
[174] See Ep. lxxvii. 9.
[175] Matt. vi. 33.
[176] Rev. i. 7.
[177] Rev. i. 16.
[178] A reminiscence of Tertullian.
[179] Matt. xii. 30.
[180] Nepotian, afterwards famous as the recipient of Letter LII., and the subject of Letter LX.
[181] Phi. iii. 20, R.V.
[182] Virg. A. iv. 367.
[183] Pers. iii. 18.
[184] Virg. A. xii. 59.
[185] Eph. vi. 1.
[186] Matt. x. 37.
[187] Luke ix. 59, 60.
[188] Matt. xvi. 23.
[189] Acts xxi. 13.
[190] Luke viii. 21; Matt. xii. 50.
[191] Matt. viii. 22.
[192] 1 Pet. v. 8.
[193] Ps. x. 8, 9.
[194] Phi. iii. 19.
[195] 1 Cor iii. 17.
[196] Virg. A. vii. 337.
[197] Eph. v. 5.
[198] So Jerome, although the Vulg. has "is."
[199] Col. iii. 5, 6.
[200] Matt. xxvi. 15.
[201] Publicarum libidinum victimæ; words borrowed from Tertullian, de C. F. II. 12.
[202] Rom. xii. 1.
[203] Acts v., Ananias and Sapphira.
[204] Luke xiv. 33.
[205] Matt. iv. 18-20.
[206] Matt. ix. 9.
[207] Matt. viii. 20.
[208] Rom. viii. 17.
[209] Matt. xix. 21.
[210] Matt. xix. 12.
[211] Wisd. i. 11.
[212] Luke xvi. 13.
[213] Luke ix. 23.
[214] 1 Joh. ii. 6.
[215] Matt. xiii. 58.
[216] Luke iv. 24.
[217] Joh. vi. 15.
[218] In the sacrament of baptism.
[219] 1 Cor. ix. 13, 14.
[220] Matt. iii. 10.
[221] Luke xxi. 1-4.
[222] Cf. Letter CXLVI.
[223] 1 Cor. v. 5.
[224] Deut. xvii. 5, 12.
[225] 1 Tim. iii. 1.
[226] 1 Tim. iii. 2, 3.
[227] 1 Tim. iii. 8-10.
[228] Matt. xxii. 11-13.
[229] Luke xix. 23.
[230] 1 Tim. iii. 13.
[231] 1 Cor. xi. 27.
[232] Rev. ii. 6.
[233] 1 Cor. xi. 28.
[234] Susannah 45 sqq.
[235] Amos vii. 14.
[236] 1 Sam. xvi. 11-13.
[237] Luke xiv. 10.
[238] Isa. lxvi. 2.
[239] Luke xii. 48.
[240] Wisd. vi. 6.
[241] Matt. xii. 36.
[242] Matt. v. 21, 22.
[243] Matt. xxvii. 51.
[244] Rev. ii. 5.
[245] Luke xiv. 28.
[246] Matt. v. 13.
[247] Rev. xxi. 19, 20.
[248] From Cyprian, Letter I. 14 (to Donatus).
[249] Luke vi. 20.
[250] From Cyprian, Letter LXXVII. 2 (to Nemesianus).
[251] Joh. xiii. 10.
[252] Rom. viii. 18.
[253] 1 Cor. xv. 53.