Augustine, Sermones 172-178 (Classis I, de Scripturis)

He comes, let Him be propitiated; before He is present, let Him be appeased. For you have a priest through whom you can appease your God, and He Himself is God with the Father towards you, Who is man for your sake. So you will shout for joy in psalms, coming before His face in confession. Shout for joy in a psalm: coming before His face in confession, accuse yourself; shouting for joy in a psalm, praise Him. Accusing yourself, and praising Him Who made you; He will come Who died for you, and He will give you life.

Chapter VI. — 6. Varied and inconstant doctrine is a leprosy of the mind. Hold to this, persist in this. Let no one be varied, let no one be leprous. Inconstant doctrine, not having one colour, signifies leprosy of the mind: and this Christ cleanses. Perhaps you varied in something, and you looked into it, and changed your opinion for the better; and what was varied has become of one colour. Do not attribute it to yourself, lest you be among the nine who did not give thanks. One gave thanks: the others were Jews: he was a foreigner, he signified the foreign nations; that number gave a tithe to Christ. To Him, therefore, we owe that we are, that we live, that we understand: that we are men, that we have lived well, that we have understood rightly, we owe to Him. Nothing is ours except the sin that we have. For what have you that you have not received (1 Cor. 4:7)? You therefore, especially you who know what you are hearing, lift up on high your heart, to be healed of sickness, cleansed of variegation, and give thanks to God.

Sermon 177. On the words of the Apostle, We brought nothing into this world, but neither can we carry anything away, etc. 1 Tim. ch. 6, vv. 7-19.

1. Avarice is condemned by all in words, not in deeds. The subject of our sermon is the apostolic reading. We brought nothing, he says, into this world, but neither can we carry anything away: having food and covering, let us be content with these. For those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and into a snare, and into many and harmful desires, which plunge men into ruin and perdition. For the root of all evils is avarice: which some, desiring it, have strayed from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows. A matter worthy to make you attentive to hear, and us ready to speak. By these words avarice is set before our eyes: it is accused, let it not be defended; nay rather, once accused, let it be condemned, lest its defender be condemned along with it. But I know not in what way avarice brings it about in the hearts of men that all, or, to speak more truly and more cautiously, nearly all, set it up as guilty in words, and wish to have it taken under their protection in deeds. Many have said many things against it, both great and grave and true; and poets and historians and orators and philosophers, and every kind of letters and professions, have said much against avarice.

And it is a great thing not to have it, and it is much more not to have it than not to be silent about its vices.

2. What teaching about fleeing avarice is handed down to Christians. But what difference is there between the philosophers, for example, who accuse avarice, and the apostles who accuse that very same thing? What difference is there? If we pay attention, we learn something which nothing has as its own except the school of Christ. Look: what I have just mentioned, We brought nothing into this world, nor can we carry anything away: having food and covering, let us be content with these, many have said. This too, The root of all evils is avarice, there were those who said. What follows, none of them said: But you, man of God, flee these things; and pursue justice, faith, charity, with those who call upon the name of the Lord from a pure heart. Such things none of them said. The solidity of piety is far from noisy mouths. Therefore, dearly beloved, since there are those outside our fellowship who have both accused and despised avarice, let them not seem great to us or to men of God; that is why [it says], But you, man of God. If they are compared in any way at all, we must first discern and hold fast that we do what we do for God's sake. For if the worship of the true God is brought forward, any lover of avarice is rejected. Nevertheless, the rule of piety ought to strike greater concern into us. For it is shameful, and exceedingly to be ashamed of and grieved over, if worshippers of idols have been found to be tamers of avarice, while the worshipper of the one God is subjugated by avarice and becomes the slave of avarice, he whose price is blood. The Apostle added, and said to Timothy: I charge [you] before God, Who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, Who bore witness under Pontius Pilate to a good confession (see how far this is from them), that you keep the commandment irreproachable until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: Whom in His own times the blessed and only Mighty One shows, the King of kings and Lord of lords; Who alone has immortality and dwells in light inaccessible; Whom no one among men has seen, nor can see; to Whom be honour and glory for ages of ages. Of His household we have been made, into His household we have been adopted; His sons we are, not by our own merits but by His grace. It is exceedingly grievous and exceedingly horrible that avarice should hold us fast on earth, when we say to Him, Our Father, Who art in heaven (Matt. 6:9), in desire for Whom all things grow cheap; nor were the things among which we were born born for us, since we have been born again on His account. Let these things serve the use of necessity, not the affection of love: let them be like a traveller's inn, not like an owner's estate. Refresh yourself, and pass on. You are on a journey; consider to whom you have come; for he who has come to you is great. By departing from this life you make room for the one who is coming: such is the condition of an inn: you will withdraw, so that another may come in. But if you wish to reach the safest place, let God not withdraw from you, to Whom we say, Thou hast led me along the paths of Thy justice, for Thy name's sake (Ps. 22:3): not for the sake of my merit.

3. Let the things necessary for the journey of this life be had without cupidity. So the journey of mortality is one thing, another the journey

of godliness. The journey of mortality is common [to all]; for thither all who are born walk: thither, none but the reborn. To the former belong being born, growing, growing old, dying. For this, food and covering are necessary. Let the provisions for this journey be sufficient. Why do you weigh yourself down? Why do you carry so much on a short road, not that by which you may be helped to finish this road, but rather that by which you may be more heavily burdened in finishing this road? Exceedingly strange indeed is what you wish to happen to you: you burden yourself, you carry much, money presses you down on this road, and along this road avarice presses you down. For avarice is the uncleanness of the heart. You take nothing out of this world, which you have loved: but you take out the vice that you have loved. If you persist in loving the world, He Who made the world does not find you clean. If, then, for temporal use, money for the journey is moderate, with that limit fixed which is written, Without love, he says, of money, a sufficient measure is with things present (Heb. 13:5). See what he set first of all: Without love, he says: so put out your hand that you loose your heart from it. For if you will bind your heart to money through love, you thrust yourself into many sorrows: and where will be, But you, man of God, flee these things? For he does not say, Leave and abandon; but, Flee, as from an enemy. You were seeking to flee with gold; flee gold: let your heart flee, and it is your servant. Let there be no covetousness, yet let godliness not be lacking; there is something you may do with gold, if you are master of gold, not its servant. If you are master of gold, you do with it what is good: if a servant, it does with you what is evil. If you are master of gold, the one clothed by you praises the Lord: if you are a servant of gold, the one stripped by you blasphemes. Now covetousness makes you a slave, charity makes you free. Hence a slave, if you do not flee. But you, man of God, flee these things. In this matter, if you do not wish to be a slave, be a fugitive.

4. Inner riches are to be pursued. You have heard what you should flee; you have also what you should pursue. For you do not flee in vain, nor do you so leave behind that you do not lay hold. Pursue, then, justice, faith, godliness, charity. Let these make you rich. Let these riches be within: the thief does not approach them, unless an evil will has given him room. Fortify the inner chest, that is, the conscience. These riches no robber, no enemy however powerful, no invading foe or barbarian, finally no shipwreck will be able to take from you, so that if you go out naked, you go out full. For he was not truly empty, although outwardly he seemed to have nothing, who said: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has been done: blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). Praiseworthy is that fullness, vast the riches; empty of gold, full of God; empty of every transitory means, full of the will of his Lord. Why do you seek gold with such great labours and journeyings abroad? Love these riches, and be filled now: their source is not hidden, if the heart is open: the key of faith opens the heart, and it both opens and cleanses the place where you may put them. Do not think yourself cramped: your riches are your God; when He has entered, He Himself has enlarged [you].

5. The inept excuse of those wishing to lay up treasure here. The heart on high. Therefore, Without love of money, the sufficient measure is with things present: why with things present? Because, We brought nothing into this world, nor can we take anything away: therefore with things present, not with things to come. But what thing deceives a man into the reckoning of avarice? "What if I live long?" He Who gives life gives that by which life may be sustained. Finally, let there be revenues; why is a treasure also sought? Something comes in from trade, something comes in from a craft, something comes in from a fee: let it suffice, let it not be hoarded as treasure; lest where you put your treasure, there your heart also remain, and you hear in vain that it should be on high, and answer falsely. For when you respond to that most sacred word and subscribe to it with your voice, are you not accused inwardly by the heart itself? However pressed down and oppressed your heart is, does it not say to you within, "You put me under the earth; why do you lie?" Does it then not say to you: "Am I not there, where your treasure is?" Therefore you lie. Or does He lie Who said: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matt. 6:21)? You say: It will not be there. Truth says: It will be there. "But it will not be there, because I do not love it." Prove it by deeds. You do not love it, but you are rich. You pay attention well indeed, and you distinguish yourself: from him who is rich you distinguish him who wants to be rich. Between being rich and wanting to be rich a just distinction cannot be denied. There is means, here is cupidity.

6. The craving for riches is insatiable. For the Apostle himself also does not say, Those who are rich; but, Those who want to become rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many and harmful desires: by wanting to become so, not by being so. That is why he says, desires. For desire is in a man for that which he wants to reach. For no one desires what he has. Avarice is indeed insatiable; and yet even in those who have much, the desire must not be said to be for the thing which they have, but for that which they want to add. He has this estate; he desires to have that one too which he does not have; but when he has it, he will desire another; yet he will not desire what he has had, but what he has not had. By wanting therefore to be rich, he desires, burns, thirsts; and as in the disease of dropsy, the more he drinks, the more he thirsts. Wonderful is this likeness in the disease of the body; the avaricious man is altogether a dropsy in the heart. For the dropsy in the flesh is full of fluid, is endangered by fluid, and is not satisfied by fluid: so the dropsy in the heart, the more it has, the more it lacks. When he had less, he wanted lesser things, rejoiced in fewer things, was cheered by small morsels: but since he has been filled, distended, he has become most abundant of inheritance. Daily he drinks, comes and thirsts. "If I have this, I shall be able to do that; I can do little, because I have little." When you have this too, you have more to want: need is increased, not power.

7. Riches, if they are held without cupidity, are not to be blamed. The poor man must beware of cupidity for riches. The rich man must beware of pride. "But I do not love what I have," you say, "so that I may have my heart on high." I quite agree; if you do not love it, your heart can be on high. For why should there not be on high

a free heart? But see whether you do not love; report it faithfully to yourself, not accused by me, but questioned by yourself. Plainly, you say, I do not love: I am indeed rich, but because I already am; I do not, however, wish to be, so as to fall into temptation and a snare, and into many and harmful desires, which plunge a man into perdition. A grave evil, dreadful, perilous, ruinous. I am already rich, you say; I do not wish to be. You are already rich; already, you say, you do not wish to be. No, you say. If you were not, would you not wish [to be]? I would not wish it, you say. Now therefore, since you are, and the word of God found you rich outwardly and has made you rich inwardly, receive what has been said to the rich. For what was being said in these words, We brought nothing into this world, nor can we carry anything away: having food and covering, let us be content with these. For those who wish to become rich fall into temptation, and the rest. Those who wish, he says, to become rich; they were spoken as if to the poor. Did these words of the Apostle find you poor? Say them, rich as you are: say in your heart, from your heart, I brought nothing into this world, nor can I carry anything away: having food and covering, I am content with these. For if I wish to become rich, I shall fall into temptation and a snare. Say it, and stand firm where you were found. Do not thrust yourself into many sorrows, lest when you wish to strip yourself free of them you be torn. But were you found rich? There are other words too, which let us recite: let him who was found rich not suppose that nothing has been said to him. To the same Timothy he speaks, the same Apostle speaks, but he speaks to Timothy, a poor man: for Timothy was poor, as Paul was. What then is he about to say to Timothy on this matter, to a poor man, that might concern those who were found rich? Hear what: Charge, he says, the rich of this world: for there are also the rich of God; and the true rich are none but the rich of God, such as Paul himself was, who says, For I have learned, in whatever [state] I am, to be sufficient (Phil. 4:11). But to the avaricious man it is not sufficient. Therefore, Charge, he says, the rich of this world. What shall I say to them? Do not wish to be rich? They have already been found rich: let them hear what was said to them, where the head of it is, not to be high-minded. Riches are still held, and greatly loved. A nest is gathered for pride, where it may be nourished and grow; what is worse, it will not fly off, but stays. Therefore before all things, not to be high-minded. Let him understand, let him be wise, let him reflect that he is mortal, and that the poor are mortals, his equals. For the earth received both naked, death awaits both, fever fears neither. The poor man has it on a bed of earth, but neither does the rich man frighten it off as it comes, with a bed of silver. Therefore, Charge the rich of this world not to be high-minded. Let them acknowledge their poor: the poor are men, and men too; unlike in clothing, but alike in skin: and if a rich man when dead is embalmed with spices, there will not be no rot, but late rot; he rots later, does he not rot? But let us suppose that both do not rot: yet do they not both alike cease to feel? Charge the rich of this world not to be high-minded. Let them not be high-minded; and

they will truly be such as they wish to seem to be; without love they will possess, they will not be possessed.

8. Hope is not to be placed in riches. To enjoy and to use. But see what follows: Not to be high-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches. You love gold; make it, if you can, certain, so that you do not fear to lose it. You have amassed wealth; give yourself, if you can, security. Nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches. Take your hope away from the place where you fixed it. But in the living God. There fix your hope, there the anchor of your heart, so that the storm of the world may not tear you away from there: in the living God, Who furnishes us with all things abundantly to enjoy. If all things, how much more Himself? And truly He Himself will be all things to us for enjoyment. For it does not seem to me that "Who has given us all things abundantly to enjoy" is said of anything other than Himself. For it seems that to use is one thing, to enjoy another. For we use out of necessity, we enjoy out of delight. Therefore He gave these temporal things for using, Himself for enjoying. If then Himself, why is it said "all things", unless because it is written, That God may be all things in all (1 Cor. 15:28)? Therefore there is the heart for enjoying, that the heart may be on high. Loose yourself from here, but bind yourself there: it is dangerous for you to remain amid these temptations without a bond.

9. God alone suffices for man. The crime and penalty of avarice. Not to hope in the uncertainty of riches: yet not nowhere; but in the living God, Who furnishes us with all things abundantly to enjoy. What is so much all things as He Who made all things? For all these things would not be made by Him, unless He knew them. Who would dare to say, God made this, which He did not know? What He knew, He made. He had them, therefore, before He made them: but He had them in wondrous ways, not as He made them, as He made them temporal and passing, but as a craftsman makes. He has within what He works out without. There, therefore, are all things excellent, immortal, unfailing, abiding, and God Himself is all things in all: but to His saints He Himself will be all things in all. He therefore suffices, He alone suffices, of Whom it was said, Show us the Father, and it suffices us. But, So long a time, He says, have I been with you, and you have not known Me? He who has seen Me has seen the Father too (John 14:8–9). God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all things. Rightly He alone suffices. If we are avaricious, let us love Him. If we desire wealth, He alone will be able to satisfy us, of Whom it was said, Who satisfies your desire with good things (Ps. 102:5). Does this not suffice for the sinner? does this so great, so great a good not suffice for the sinner? By wishing to have all things, he has lost all things the more: because, Avarice is the root of all evils. Rightly through the prophet He rebukes the sinful soul that commits fornication away from Him, and says: You thought that if you departed from Me, you would have something more. But like that younger son, see, you have fed swine (Luke 15:15): see, you have lost everything; see, you have been left in want, and late and weary you have returned. Now understand that what your father was giving you, he himself was keeping more safely. You thought that if you withdrew from Me, you would have something more. O sinful soul, filled with fornications, made foul, made discoloured, made unclean, and yet so loved! Return, then, to the beautiful one, that you may return to beauty: return, and say to Him Who alone suffices you:

Thou hast destroyed everyone who commits fornication away from Thee. What then suffices, except what follows, But for me to cleave to God is good (Ps. 72:27–28)? Therefore the heart upwards, not on earth, not in a most lying treasure, not in a place of rottenness. For avarice is the root of all evils. And in Adam himself avarice was the root of all evils. For he wanted more than he received, because God did not suffice for him.

10. Riches to be spent on pious works. With riches the true life is to be bought. What then you are to do with these things which you have, rich man, attend. Now you are not high-minded: rightly so. You do not hope in the uncertainty of riches, but you hope in the living God, Who furnishes us all things abundantly to enjoy: praiseworthily so. Do not then be slothful in the things which will follow. Let them be rich in good works. Let us see this; and what we do not see, let us believe. You were saying, I have gold, but I do not love it: but your not loving is within; if I deserve anything of you, prove it to me also; what you do not hide from your God, prove to your brother also. From what, you say, shall I prove it? From what follows, Let them be rich in good works, that they may give readily. Be rich for this, that you may give readily. For the poor man wishes to give, and cannot: with him is difficulty, with you is ease. Let this profit you, that you are rich, because when you wish to do it, you do it at once. Let them give readily, let them share. Do they lose? Let them treasure up for themselves a good foundation for the future. And lest we should desire even there that very gold and silver and estates, and those things which seem beautiful among the possessions of men, when it is said to us, Migrate there, place your treasure there: he warned us against carnal thoughts, and added: That they may lay hold of the true life: not gold, which has remained in the earth, not possessions of rottenness, not passing goods, but the true life. In a certain manner therefore we migrate, when this passes over there, and yet we shall not have there this which we transfer from here. In a certain manner the Lord our God wishes us to be merchants; He makes an exchange with us: what abounds here we give, what abounds there we receive: just as many people deal in goods shipped across the sea: they give one thing in one place, and where they arrive they receive another. For example, a man says to his friend, Take gold from me here, and give me oil in Africa: and he migrates and does not migrate; he has already received what he desires. Such as this exchange is, my brothers, such is our trading. What do we give, and what do we receive? We give that which we cannot carry away with us, even if we wished. Why then does it perish? Let what is less be given, that what is greater may be found there. We give earth, and receive heaven; we give temporal things, and receive eternal things; we give things that rot, and receive immortal things: finally we give what God has given, and we receive God Himself. Let us not then be slothful in this exchange of things, in this best and ineffable trading. Let it profit us that we are here, let it profit us that we were born, let it profit us that we are pilgrims. Let us not remain needy.

11. The moth of evil thought calling one back from giving alms. Let not the moth of evil thought enter the chest of the heart: let it not be said, I will not give, lest tomorrow I should not have.