Letters 157.22–157.41

We have said much on these questions in other little works of ours and in sermons in church, since there were also among us certain people who, wherever they could, scattered these new seeds of their error; some of them the Lord's mercy has healed of that plague through our ministry and that of our brothers. Yet I think that some are not lacking here, especially at Carthage; but now they mutter secretly, fearing the most firmly founded faith of the church. For one of them, named Caelestius, had already begun to creep into the honor of the presbyterate in the church of that same city, but by the most faithful freedom of the brothers, because of these very disputations against the grace of Christ, he was brought to episcopal judgment. Nevertheless, because of the baptism of little ones, he was compelled to confess that redemption is necessary for them too. Although he did not wish to say anything more explicit there about original sin, yet by the very word "redemption" he bound himself not a little. For from what are they to be redeemed if not from the power of the devil, in which they could not be except by the bond of original sin? Or at what price are they redeemed if not by the blood of Christ, of which it is most plainly written that it was poured out for the forgiveness of sins? But because he went away convicted and detested by the church rather than corrected and reconciled, I feared that perhaps he himself is there trying to disturb your faith; therefore I thought his name should be mentioned. But whether it is he or others sharing his error (for there are more of them than we could hope, and where they are not refuted they lead others into their sect too and so multiply that I do not know where they will break out), we nevertheless prefer that they be healed within the fabric of the church rather than cut off from its body as incurable members, if necessity itself permits it. For it is to be feared that more may rot while the rotten are spared. But the mercy of our Lord is powerful, and may it rather free them from this plague. This it will undoubtedly do, if they faithfully heed and hold what is written: "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Hear now a few things about the rich, which is the next point to be inquired into in your letter. For you reported that they say that a rich man who remains in his riches cannot enter the kingdom of God unless he has sold all he has, and that it cannot profit him if he has kept the commandments with those riches. Our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob escaped these people's disputations, having departed this life so long before. For all these had no small riches, as most faithful Scripture testifies; yet he himself who for our sake became poor, though he was truly rich, foretold with most truthful promise that many would come from the east and the west and recline, not above them or outside them, but with them in the kingdom of heaven. And although the proud rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted splendidly every day, was tormented after death in the underworld, yet if he had had pity on the ulcerous poor man who lay despised before his door, he too would have obtained mercy. And if that poor man's merit had been his poverty and not his righteousness, he would certainly not have been carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham, who had been rich here. But to show us that neither was poverty in itself honored by God in the one nor riches condemned in the other, but that godliness in the one and ungodliness in the other had their outcomes, the torment of fire received the ungodly rich man in such a way that the bosom of a rich man received the godly poor man. That rich man, indeed, while he lived here, so held his riches and valued them so little in comparison with God's commands that he was unwilling to offend God's command even by sacrificing his son, whom he both hoped and wished to be the heir of his riches.

Here, no doubt, they say that the ancient fathers did not sell all they had and give to the poor because the Lord had not commanded it of them. For since the New Testament had not yet been revealed, which was to happen only in the fullness of time, neither was their virtue to be revealed, by which virtue God knew in their hearts that they could very easily do this; he bore them so remarkable a testimony that, though he is the God of all the saints and righteous, he deigned to say, as of his special friends: "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob; this is my name forever." But after the great mystery of godliness was manifested in the flesh, and the coming of Christ shone forth to call all the nations (in whom those fathers too had believed, but they kept the olive of this faith, to be manifested in its time, as in the root of that tree of which the apostle speaks), it was said to the rich man: "Sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."

If they say this, they seem to say something reasonable. But let them hear the whole, heed the whole, and not open their ears to part and go deaf to part. For to whom did the Lord give this command? Surely to that rich man who sought to receive counsel on obtaining eternal life; for he had said to the Lord: "What shall I do to obtain eternal life?" But he did not answer him: "If you wish to come to life, go, sell all that you have," but: "If you wish to come to life," he said, "keep the commandments." When the young man said he had kept the commandments of the law which the Lord recalled to him, and asked what he still lacked, he received the answer: "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor." And lest he think he was losing in this way the things he greatly loved, he said: "And you will have treasure in heaven." Then he added: "And come, follow me," lest anyone think that doing this profits him anything if he does not follow Christ. But he went away sad (let others see how he had kept those commandments of the law; for I think he answered that he had kept them more arrogantly than truthfully). Yet the good Teacher distinguished the commandments of the law from this more excellent perfection; for there he said, "If you wish to come to life, keep the commandments," but here, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have," and the rest. Why, then, do we deny that the rich, though they are far from that perfection, nevertheless come to life if they have kept the commandments and have given that it may be given to them, and forgiven that they may be forgiven?

For we believe that the apostle Paul was a minister of the New Testament when, writing to Timothy, he said: "Command the rich of this world not to be haughty, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who provides us all things richly to enjoy. Let them do good, be rich in good works, give readily, share, store up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of true life," of which it was also said to that young man, "If you wish to come to life." I think the apostle, in giving these commands, was instructing the rich, not deceiving them; he did not say, "Command the rich of this world to sell all they have, give to the poor, and follow the Lord," but "not to be haughty, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches." It was this pride, and this hope in the uncertainty of riches, by which he thought himself happy because of purple, fine linen, and splendid feasts, not riches themselves, that brought that rich man, who despised the righteous poor man lying before his door, to the torments of the underworld.

Or perhaps, because the Lord added and said, "Amen I say to you, a rich man will enter the kingdom of heaven with difficulty; and again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven," these people think that a rich man cannot enter the kingdom of heaven even if he does what the apostle wrote must be commanded to the rich? What, then? Does the apostle speak against the Lord, or do these people not know what they are saying? Let the Christian choose which of these to believe. I think it better for us to believe that they do not know what they are saying than that Paul speaks against the Lord. Further, why do they not listen to the Lord himself in what follows, saying to the disciples who were saddened by the plight of the rich: "What is impossible with men is easy with God"?

"But this was said," they say, "because it was going to happen that, after hearing the gospel, rich men would sell their patrimony, distribute it to the poor, follow the Lord, and enter the kingdom of heaven, and so what seemed difficult would come about: not that, remaining in their riches and keeping the apostle's precepts, that is, not being haughty nor hoping in the uncertainty of riches but in the living God, doing good, giving readily and sharing with the needy, they would lay hold of true life, but that they would fulfill even these apostolic precepts by selling all their possessions."

If they say this (and I know that they do say it), they do not first notice how the Lord preached his grace against their doctrine. For he did not say, "What seems impossible to men is easy for men, if they will," but "What is impossible with men," he says, "is easy with God," showing that when these things are done rightly, they are done not by human power but by the grace of God. Let these people notice this, then, and if they rebuke those who glory in their riches, let them beware of trusting in their own strength; for both are rebuked together in the psalm, those who trust in their own strength and those who glory in the abundance of their riches. Let the rich hear, then, "What is impossible with men is easy with God," and whether they enter the kingdom of heaven remaining in their riches and doing good works with them, or having sold them and distributed them to meet the needs of the poor, let them attribute their good to the grace of God, not to their own powers. For what is impossible with men is easy not with men but with God. Let these people hear this too, and if they have already sold all they had and given to the poor, or are still doing and arranging it, and in this way are preparing to enter the kingdom of heaven, let them attribute this not to their own strength but to the same divine grace. For what is impossible with men is easy not with them, since they too are men, but with God. For the apostle too says this to them: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Certainly they say that they received from the Lord the counsel of perfection about selling their possessions in order to follow the Lord, since there it was added: "And come, follow me." Why, then, in the good things they do, do they presume only on their own will, and not listen to the Lord, whom they say they follow, rebuking and testifying: "Without me you can do nothing"?

But if the apostle said, "Command the rich of this world not to be haughty nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches," in the sense that they should sell all they possess and, by distributing the proceeds to the needy, do what follows, "give readily, share, store up for themselves a good foundation for the future," and does not believe that they can enter the kingdom of heaven otherwise, then he deceives those whose households he orders so carefully with sound doctrine, admonishing and commanding how wives ought to behave toward husbands, husbands toward wives, children toward parents, parents toward children, slaves toward masters, masters toward slaves. For how can these things be done without a house and without some household property?

Or does what the Lord said move them: "Whoever has left all his things for my sake will receive a hundredfold in this world and in the world to come will possess eternal life"? "Left" is one thing, "sold" another. For among the things he commanded to be left a wife is also mentioned, whom no human laws permit to be sold, and the laws of Christ do not permit to be dismissed, except for the cause of sexual immorality. What, then, do these precepts mean (for they cannot be contrary to one another), except that sometimes a moment of necessity arises when either the wife must be left or Christ? To pass over other cases, suppose a Christian husband has displeased his wife herself and she puts before him the choice of divorce either from her or from Christ. What should he choose here but Christ, and leave his wife, laudably, for Christ's sake? For to spouses who are both Christians the Lord commanded that no one dismiss his wife except for the cause of sexual immorality. But where one of the two persons is an unbeliever, the counsel of the apostle is heeded, that, if the unbelieving wife consents to live with a believing husband, the husband should not dismiss his wife; likewise also the believing wife her husband, if he consents to live with her. "But if the unbeliever departs," he says, "let him depart; for a brother or sister is not subject to bondage in such cases"; that is, if the unbelieving spouse does not wish to be with the believing spouse, let the believer here recognize his freedom, so as not to think himself so subject to bondage as to abandon the faith itself in order not to lose the unbelieving spouse.

This is understood also of children and parents, and of brothers and sisters: that all are to be left for Christ's sake when this condition is put forward, that one must leave Christ if one wishes to keep them. This, then, is to be taken in this passage also of house and fields, and of the things possessed by right of money. For at the same time he does not say of these either, "Whoever has sold for my sake," things which certainly may lawfully be sold, but "Whoever has left." For it may happen that some power says to a Christian: "Either you will not be a Christian, or, if you wish to remain one, you will have no house or possessions." Then indeed even those rich men who had resolved to remain in their riches so as to win God by good works done with them should leave these things for Christ's sake rather than Christ for these things' sake, so that they may receive in this world a hundredfold, by the perfection of which number all things are signified (for "to the faithful man the whole world is wealth," and in this way they become "as having nothing and possessing all things"), and in the world to come possess eternal life, lest, having left Christ for these things, they be cast headlong into eternal death.

By this law and condition, indeed, not only those who by excellence of mind have received the counsel of perfection, to sell their goods, distribute them to the poor, and with shoulders freer of every burden of this world bear the light burden of Christ, but also anyone weaker and less fit for that most glorious perfection, who nevertheless remembers that he is truly a Christian, when he hears it put to him that unless he leaves all these things he is going to leave Christ, will rather take hold of the tower of strength against the face of the enemy; because, when he was building it in his faith, he counted the cost by which it could be completed, that is, he came to the faith with the intention of renouncing this world not in words only; because, even if he bought anything, he was as one not possessing, and if he used the world, he was as one not using it, not hoping in the uncertainty of riches but in the living God.

For since everyone who renounces this world undoubtedly renounces all that is his, so that he may be Christ's disciple (for he himself, when he had first given the comparisons of the cost needed to build a tower and of preparing for war against another king, added: "Whoever does not renounce all that is his cannot be my disciple"), he certainly renounces also his riches, if he has any, either in such a way that, not loving them at all, he distributes them all to the needy and is relieved of superfluous burdens, or in such a way that, loving Christ more, he transfers his hope from them to him and so uses them that, giving readily and sharing, he stores up treasure in heaven and is ready to leave them too, in the same way as parents, children, brothers, and wife, if such a condition is put to him that he cannot have them except by leaving Christ. For if he renounces this world otherwise when he comes to the sacrament of faith, he does what blessed Cyprian laments concerning the lapsed, saying: "renouncing the world in words alone and not in deeds." For of him, when at the coming of temptation he fears to lose these things more than to deny Christ, it is said: "Behold a man who began to build and could not finish." He is also the one who, while his adversary is still far off, sends envoys seeking peace; that is, when temptation is not yet afflicting him but still impending and threatening, he consents to leave and deny Christ so as not to be deprived of those things he loves more. And there are many such people, who even think that the Christian religion ought to support them in increasing their wealth and multiplying earthly delights.

But such are not the Christian rich who, though they hold these things, are not so held by them as to prefer them to Christ, because with a truthful heart they have renounced the world so as to place no hope in such things. These train their wives, children, and whole households with sound discipline to hold fast to the Christian religion; their houses, fervent in hospitality, receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man, so as to receive a righteous man's reward; they break their bread to the hungry, clothe the naked, ransom the captive, store up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of true life; and if perhaps they must suffer financial losses for the faith of Christ, they hate their riches; if this world threatens them with the bereavement or separation of their own for Christ's sake, they hate parents, brothers, children, wives; finally, if they must bargain with the adversary over the very life of this body, lest Christ desert them if they desert him, they hate even their own soul. For concerning all these things they have received the command that otherwise they cannot be Christ's disciples.

Yet, because they have been commanded to hate even their own souls for Christ, they do not hold them as things to be sold or to be poured out by laying hands on themselves, but they are ready to lose them by dying for Christ's name, lest, dead, they live by denying Christ. So too riches, which they were not ready to sell at Christ's counsel, they ought to be ready to lose for Christ, lest they perish with them, having lost Christ. We have from this source rich persons of both sexes and of the highest rank exalted by the glory of martyrdom. Thus many who before had been reluctant to be perfected by selling their goods were suddenly perfected by imitating Christ's passion; and those who, through some weakness of flesh and blood, had spared their riches suddenly contended against sin for the faith even to blood. But those to whom the crown of martyrdom has not come, and who have not received that counsel of perfection, so splendid and so great, about selling their goods, yet, free from damnable crimes, have fed Christ when he was hungry, given him drink when thirsty, clothed him when naked, and taken him in when a stranger, will not indeed sit with Christ on high to judge, but will stand at his right hand to be judged mercifully; for "blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy," and "judgment without mercy to him who has shown no mercy; but mercy triumphs over judgment."

So let these people stop speaking against the Scriptures, and in their exhortations let them rouse people to greater things in such a way as not to condemn the lesser. For they cannot persuade people to holy virginity by exhortation otherwise than by condemning the bonds of marriage, whereas, as the apostle teaches, "each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and another of another." Let them walk the way of perfection, then, having sold all their possessions and distributed them mercifully; but if they are truly Christ's poor and gather not for themselves but for Christ, why do they punish his weaker members before they have received the seats of judgment? For if they are to be such as those to whom the Lord says, "You will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel," and of whom the apostle says, "Do you not know that we shall judge angels?", let them rather prepare to receive into the eternal dwellings rich people, not criminal but religious, by whom they have been made friends out of the mammon of iniquity. For I think that some of those who chatter these things shamelessly and imprudently are supported in their needs by Christian and godly rich people. For the church has in a way its soldiers and in a way its provincials, which is why the apostle says: "Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense?" It has a vineyard and planters, a flock and shepherds, which is why he goes on to say: "Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not get the milk of the flock?" Although to dispute as these people dispute is not to serve as a soldier but to rebel, not to plant a vineyard but to uproot it, not to gather people to be fed but to separate them from the flock to be destroyed.

But just as these men, who are fed and clothed by the religious services of the rich (for they do not receive what they need only from those who sell their goods), are nevertheless not judged and condemned by the more excellent members of Christ who, by a greater virtue which the apostle strongly commends, support themselves with their own hands; so they too ought not to condemn Christians of lesser merit by whose means they are supported, but rather, by living rightly and teaching rightly, say to them: "If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?" For the servants of God who live by selling the honest works of their hands would condemn those from whom they receive nothing with much less shamelessness than these men, who, unable to work with their hands because of some bodily weakness, condemn the very people on whose resources they live.

I who write this have greatly loved the perfection of which the Lord spoke when he said to the rich young man, "Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me," and I have done so, not by my own powers but with his grace helping. Nor will it be counted the less to me because I was not rich; for neither were the apostles themselves, who first did this, rich. But he leaves the whole world who leaves both what he has and what he wished to have. How far I have advanced in this way of perfection I indeed know better than any other human being, but God knows better than I. And to this way of life I exhort others with all the strength I can, and in the name of the Lord I have companions who have been persuaded of it through my ministry; yet in such a way that sound doctrine is held above all, and that we do not judge with vain stubbornness those who do not do this, telling them that it profits them nothing that they live chastely though in marriage, that they rule their houses and households in a Christian way, that they store up for themselves for the future by works of mercy, lest by such disputing we be found not expounders of the holy Scriptures but their accusers. I have mentioned this because these people, when they are forbidden to say such things by those who have not taken up this counsel of the Lord, answer that these do not want such things discussed because they favor their own vices and refuse to fulfill the Lord's precepts. As if (to say nothing of those who, though weaker, use their riches religiously) even the greedy and avaricious, who use them badly and fix their earthen heart on earthly treasure, whom too the church must bear until the end, as those nets bore the bad fish to the shore, were not more tolerable in it than these people, who, by talking and spreading such things, so want to seem great because they have sold their riches or their patrimonies, however small, by the Lord's precept, that by this unsound doctrine they strive to disturb and overturn his inheritance, which is spread and extended to the ends of the earth.

Since, then, on this occasion but now briefly, I have said what I also think about the church of Christ in this world, namely that until the end of this world it must bear good and evil (for this too you asked among your questions), I shall now at last conclude this long letter. As for swearing, avoid it as much as you can. For it is better not to swear even what is true than, by the habit of swearing, often to fall into perjury and always to be close to perjury. But those people, as far as I have heard some of them, are altogether ignorant of what swearing is; for they think they are not swearing when they have on their lips "God knows," and "God is witness," and "I call God as witness upon my soul," because "by God" is not said, and because such things are found in the apostle Paul. But there is also found there, against them, one which they admit to be an oath, where the apostle says: "I die daily, by your glory, brothers, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord." For in the Greek manuscripts it is found that this is altogether an oath, lest anyone in the Latin language should understand "by your glory" as said in the way "by my coming to you again" is said, and many similar expressions, where "by" something is said and it is not an oath. But just because the apostle, a man most firm in truth, swore in his letters, swearing ought not to be a game for us. For it is much safer, as I said, as far as we are concerned, never to swear, so that there may be in our mouth "Yes, yes; no, no," as the Lord warns; not because it is a sin to swear what is true, but because it is a most grievous sin to swear falsely, into which one who is accustomed to swear falls the more quickly.

You have received what I think; let better men expound these things better, not these people, whose opinion I already know must be rejected, but others who can do so truthfully. For I too am readier to learn than to teach, and you will confer a great kindness if you do not leave me ignorant of what is argued there by the holy brothers against the empty talk of these people. May you live rightly and happily in the Lord, most beloved son.