On the Christian Life

That I, a sinner and the least of all, more foolish than the rest and more unskilled than everyone, should dare to admonish you by frequent letters to pursue the way of holiness and righteousness, it is not confidence in my own righteousness, nor skill in wisdom, nor the glory of knowledge that compels me, but only the love for you which I have conceived in heart and mind according to God. It so urges and provokes me, a sinner and ignorant, to speak that, though I do not know how to speak, I cannot keep silent. I would wish, then, and would gladly desire, that you had the acquaintance of those whose wisdom is more abundant, whose eloquence is greater, whose knowledge is richer, and whose conscience is freer from every contagion of sins, who could rightly instruct you by words and by examples. For besides the fact that the darkness of folly and ignorance has so blinded our mind that it cannot perceive or say anything divine, the conscience of all our sins also convicts us besides, so that even if it could have some light it hides it; and so it comes about that, besides having nothing to say, we cannot confidently bring forward even what we have, because conscience forbids. Yet do you, until someone more skilled and better can appear to you, be content meanwhile with our rough admonitions, and pardon love, whose way is not to consider what it offers, nor to seek what it does not have, but gladly to bestow all that it has. Look not so much at the appearance of its gift as at the willingness of its mind, and consider carefully what that love could deny you which could give all that it had. It would have offered even what it did not have, if it could, since it could offer all that it had. He thirsts, then, but little, who cannot be content meanwhile with the water of a running stream until he comes to a richer and purer spring. Nor do I think that he is very hungry who, when he has common bread, waits for fine white loaves. So you too, dearest sister, whom I am sure greatly hunger and thirst for heavenly things, eat common bread meanwhile, until you find loaves white with fine flour; drink the water of a small and muddy stream, until you draw purer water from a richer one. And meanwhile let not our bread displease you, though it seems rustic. For rustic bread seems rougher, but it is stronger, and satisfies a hungry stomach and strengthens a weary one more quickly than the bread that seems fine and white. Now, then, I will speak as well as I can, and explain, as I am able, what it befits a Christian to do. I find no more fitting place to begin than first to discuss the very name "Christian" and to explain why anyone is called a Christian. HERE BEGINS THE BOOK.

None of the wise and faithful is unaware that "Christ" means "anointed." It is plain that the anointed were always only holy men, fully worthy of God, and none other than prophets or priests or kings. And so great was the mystery of that anointing that among the Jewish people not all, but quite few out of very many, deserved to receive it; and this until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God anointed with the oil of gladness, that is, with the Holy Spirit, above his fellows. From that time those who believe in him and have been cleansed by the sanctification of his baptism are anointed, not some, as it had been under the Law, but all, as prophets and priests and kings. By the example of this anointing we are admonished what we ought to be: that in those in whom the anointing is so holy, the way of life may be no less holy. For from the sacrament of this anointing comes the name and title both of Christ and of all Christians, that is, of those who believe in Christ: a name which he takes in vain who does not imitate Christ. For what does it profit you to be called what you are not, and to usurp a name that is not yours? But if it delights you to be a Christian, do the things that are Christ's, and take the name of Christian for yourself deservedly. Or perhaps you desire not to be, but to be called? That is quite shameful and wretched, to want to be called what you are not. For no one passes over to Christ in such a way as to be called a Christian and not be one. He who is called a Christian professes that he has Christ as Lord. And he truly has him, if he obeys and serves him in all things. If not, he who calls himself the servant of one whom he will not serve is not Christ's servant but his mocker and derider. Hence a double judgment is kept for him: for mocking God, whom he called Lord without cause, and for the quality of his sin.

But the long patience of the merciful God makes many unbelieving, shameless and faithless people sin without fear, so that they do not think God the avenger of their sins because he does not wish to punish sinners at once. Wretched and ungrateful, careless of their own salvation, they impute even this to God, that their destruction is deferred, not knowing that the providence of God is maintained for a double reason: that the human race may be served by his long patience, and that he may not be judged impatient if he willed to condemn sinners immediately. For if he were not so patient, the human race would long ago have ceased from its origin; nor would we have righteous people from among sinners, if God wished to punish at once those who sin. For we know and read of some who formerly, deceived by the blindness of ignorance or by faithlessness or by the vanity of youth, were held liable to many and various kinds of sins, and afterwards, through the most merciful patience of God who bore with them, were converted from error and did even greater works of righteousness than the sins they had committed before. For God does not forgive sins but defers them; nor does he free a persevering sinner from death, but waits patiently that he may be converted, even late, and live; as the blessed apostle Peter says: "The Lord does not delay his promises, but acts patiently for your sake, not wishing any to perish, but all to be turned to repentance." He, as one devoted, kind and merciful, does not strike you at once, so that you may recognize how great his goodness toward you is and how great his mercy, he who would rather wait for you, a sinner and ungodly, and save you when converted, than punish you as you sin; as the Lord himself speaks through the prophet, and shows with the kindness of his own voice how much mercy and goodness he wishes to bestow on man, saying: "And if the wicked man turns from all the iniquities he has done, and keeps my commandments, and does judgment and righteousness and mercy, he shall surely live and shall not die; all his transgressions which he has committed shall not be remembered; in the righteousness which he has done he shall live." And: "Do I at all desire the death of the unrighteous, says Adonai the Lord, rather than that he turn from his evil way and I make him live?" And elsewhere: "The iniquity of the wicked shall not harm him, on whatever day he turns from his iniquity." And again: "Turn, sons, turning, and I will heal your brokenness." See how God warns and calls you to turn from your sins, even late, so that you may be saved. See how he urges one already liable to death to live, how gently, how mercifully he invites, so that he does not deny a father's love even to sinners; and he still calls them sons who by sinning have lost God as Father; as he himself testifies elsewhere, with a tearful voice and a pitiable lament, that he has lost sinners, saying: "I have become childless; I have lost my people because of their sins." Know from this, then, how God loves you, whom he would rather have live than perish. And do you despise and look down on him who loves you more than you love yourself, who wills that you live when you desire to die? "I do not will," says the Lord, "the death of sinners, but that they be converted and live." You, then, willed to die by sinning; he wills you to live by turning. O fool, O irreverent and ungrateful one, who do not consent even in this to God, who wishes to have mercy on you, who would rather save you by his goodness than have you perish by your sin!

Let none of us, then, flatter ourselves on this account; let no one deceive himself with a foolish and vain supposition; let no one sin securely and freely because the wrath and judgment of God do not come upon sinners at once, so as to think from this that he has sinned with impunity because he is not immediately destroyed; but let him know that God defers rather than overlooks, and that his wrath, rather than pardon, will come upon sinners suddenly and unexpectedly; as it is written: "Do not say, I have sinned, and what sad thing has happened to me? For the Most High is a patient repayer." And elsewhere: "Do not delay to turn to the Lord, and do not put it off from day to day; for his wrath will come suddenly." This is fulfilled in many on whom, for their excessive sins, the wrath of God both comes in the present and is kept for the future. But no one understands this, no one recognizes it; nor does anyone suffering adversity think it inflicted for his own evils, but supposes that what he has endured belongs to ordinary experience rather than to his crime. And so God does not seem to punish sinners in the present, because when he punishes it is not recognized. For there are many, whom no one perceives, who because of the multitude of their sins are judged even in the present, before the day of judgment. Or let anyone say whether he has been able to see a sacrilegious man, a man of blood, a robber, a forger, a murderer, a thief, a cheat, an adulterer, or one guilty of other crimes, live long even in the present time? For we have seen the examples of very many, by which we can prove that the wicked and ungodly, when the end of their sins has been completed, are judged even in this time, and that the present life is denied them no less than the future. But he can understand this more easily who has watched, through various times, the destruction of various judges who lived ungodly and wicked lives. The more exalted their power, the greater their boldness for sinning, which believes that everything it can do is lawful for it; and while those who judge others do not fear another's judgment, they are headlong in sin. So it comes about that those who do not fear the judgment of man in doing wrong feel God as judge and avenger. Of these, some who had often shed the blood of innocent souls so felt the wrath and judgment of God that they themselves were afterwards forced to shed their own blood, who had gladly shed another's. Others who had committed similar things were so struck down by God's indignation that they lay unburied and became food for wild beasts and the birds of the sky. Others again, who had unjustly slain an innumerable multitude of people, were cut to pieces limb by limb, so that the cutting of their limbs was no less than the number of those they had caused to be killed. And those by whose judgment many women were made widows when their husbands were unjustly slain, and many orphans left when their fathers were killed, on whom besides bereavement beggary and nakedness were brought (for they added to impiety and cruelty what was lacking, by despoiling also the children of those they had caused to be killed): now their own wives are widows and their sons orphans, and daily need the bread of others. Does it not seem to you that the testimony of God was fulfilled in them, threatening and saying: "You shall not afflict the widow and the orphans. If you afflict them and they cry out to me, I will hear their cry, and I will be angry in my mind, and I will slay you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows and your sons orphans"? O unworthy wickedness! O criminal deed! O excessive and unbearable cruelty! Two most savage and atrocious things are done at one time: murder is done that robbery may follow; husbands are killed, fathers are killed, so that widows and orphans may be despoiled more easily; and so each rejoices in another's death as if he himself were not to die some day. Rightly, then, is God moved by such cruelties and impieties. Rightly he shows his judgment in some even before the time. Rightly neither present nor future life is granted to such people. By their example we are admonished not to think that the wicked and ungodly can escape the judgment of God even in the present. But it befits us rather to hold this: that each person is borne by the patience of God so long as he has not yet filled up the limit and end of his sins; when this is completed, he is struck at once, and no pardon is any longer kept for him.

That there is a fixed measure and limit of sins is declared by the testimony of God himself. And that each is judged sooner or later, as he has filled up the measure of his sins, is most plainly shown when God speaks to Abraham about the destruction and burning of the Sodomites and Gomorrhaeans, who had already filled up their sins, saying: "The cry of the Sodomites and Gomorrhaeans is full, and their sins are very great and full." But what does he say of the Amorites, who had not yet finished their sins, who are known to have been destroyed many years after the aforesaid cities were burned? "The sins of the Amorites are not yet full until now." By this example we are most plainly instructed and taught that each is brought to an end according to the fullness of his sins, and is borne with, so that he may be converted, as long as he has not reached the full heap of his offences. Let no one deceive himself, I say, let no one mislead himself: God does not love the wicked; he does not love sinners; he does not love the unjust, the rapacious, the cruel, the ungodly; but he loves the good, the righteous, the devout, the humble, the innocent, the gentle; as it is written: "For you are not a God who wills iniquity. The wicked shall not dwell beside you, nor shall the unjust remain before your eyes. You hate all who work iniquity; you will destroy all who speak a lie."

But someone says: Why is it that we see the good also perish with the wicked? They do not perish but escape, who are freed from the company and persecutions of the wicked and transferred to rest. Those indeed die and perish whom, as they leave this world, the torment and punishment of a still greater judgment awaits. For the good are called before their time, so as not to be troubled longer by the harmful; but the wicked and ungodly are taken away, so as not to persecute the good any longer. The righteous are called from pressures, tribulations and straits to rest; but the ungodly are snatched from luxuries, riches and delights to punishment. For the former go to judge, the latter to be judged; the former to be avenged, the latter that vengeance may be executed on them; as it is written: "But the righteous, if he is overtaken by death, will be in refreshment." And again: "Living among sinners, he was taken away." And again: "For his soul was pleasing to God; therefore he hastened to take him out of the midst of iniquity." And again: "With the ungodly the journey is to death; but they are in peace." You see, then, that this dissolution of the body is rest for the righteous and the worshippers of God, not punishment; and that when they are dissolved they are freed rather than perish. And therefore the faithful neither fear nor dread that dissolution, but rather desire and long for it to come, through which they understand that rest, not punishment, is given them. But the wicked and ungodly, conscious of their crimes, rightly dread it with natural foresight, knowing well that through it they are judged. Therefore, with this reason given and accepted, we ought not to sin at all, especially since we know that judgment for sinners is both in the present and kept for the future.

Nor let us flatter ourselves in this, merely in the name, that we are called Christians; but let us believe that we shall be judged for this too, if we claim for ourselves in vain a name that is not ours. Or if anyone is so unbelieving, so faithless, so stubborn, so obstinate, so bold, that he does not fear the wrath and indignation of God the judge, which will one day come, let him at least blush at human custom; and let him see how stupid, how foolish, how senseless he is judged even by the gentiles themselves, whose vanity and madness are so great that he takes for himself a name that is not his. For who is so vain and wretched as to dare to profess himself an advocate when he does not know letters? Who is so insane and senseless as to profess himself a soldier, not knowing how to bear arms? For no one obtains any name without cause. To be called a shoemaker, one must make shoes; that someone be called a smith or craftsman, skill in the craft brings it about; that someone be called a merchant, he sells dearer what he bought cheaper. By such examples we recognize that there is no name without an act, but every name comes from an act. How, then, are you called a Christian, in whom there is no act of a Christian? "Christian" is a name of righteousness, goodness, integrity, patience, chastity, prudence, humility, kindness, innocence and devotion; and how do you defend and claim it for yourself, in whom of so many things not even a few remain? He is a Christian who is one not in name only but in deed; who imitates and follows Christ in all things; who is holy, innocent, undefiled, untouched; in whose breast malice has no place, in whose breast only devotion and goodness abide; who knows not how to harm or injure anyone, but to bring help to all. He is a Christian who, after Christ's example, knows not how to hate even enemies, but rather to do good to those who oppose him, and to pray for his persecutors and foes: for whoever is ready to injure or harm anyone lies when he says he is a Christian. He is a Christian who can say with a just voice: "I have harmed no one; I have lived justly with all."

But lest anyone think or believe that I speak from my own mind, or suppose that he can easily despise me because I speak by my own will rather than by the authority of the law, I will now begin to bring forward examples from that law itself, old as well as new, by whose precepts the way to life is opened to us, and to show what God commanded the human race to observe from the first state of the world, and in what he was always pleased or offended. For I read that after Adam, who was the first formed by God (of whose case I need not speak now), at the beginning of the world Cain and Abel were full brothers; of whom one pleased God because he was innocent and righteous, while the other, because he was unjust and guilty, could not please God. Then, after some time had passed, Scripture shows that Enoch was very righteous, to whom righteousness brought so much that he did not even know present death, but was singularly caught up to immortality out of the midst of all mortals. By his example it is shown that one righteous person is dearer to God than very many sinners. Noah too was righteous, and we know what the merit of righteousness gained for him: that life was given to him alone with his family, while the whole world was condemned by the flood. What Abraham obtained by the merit of faith and righteousness Scripture testifies: that at that time he alone was the friend of God on earth, since he alone had been found righteous. And that Lot, when all were perishing, was set free from the burning of the Sodomites, what else was it than the merit of righteousness? It would be long to go through them one by one and review the merits of all.

It befits us to know how God taught the Jewish people, whom he chose to belong to himself first, from the seed of Abraham, above the other nations; what he commanded them to do and observe in order to please him. In the first place, that he made them migrate into a foreign province, that is, into Egypt, leaving the region in which they had always wished to dwell and deserting their homeland, I think was done not without cause nor without the providence of God. I think the reason was this: God, wishing to train his people, whom he had chosen, in mercy, devotion, righteousness and the other good works, willed that they should for a time be strangers and captives in a foreign country, so that they might learn the misery of captivity and of exile and of toil, and might afterwards more readily know how to have mercy on strangers and toilers, having first learned the miseries of exile themselves. For no one has pity on a stranger and newcomer so willingly as one who knows the hardships of exile. No one so brings a guest without a roof into his own lodging as one who has needed another's. No one so feeds the hungry, no one so gives drink to the thirsty, as one who has suffered thirst and hunger. No one so readily covers the naked with his own clothes as one who knows the harm of nakedness and cold. No one so helps the afflicted, wretched and toiling as one who has experienced the chances of afflictions, miseries and toils. Rightly, then, God, the teacher of mercy and devotion, who was afterwards to give the law through which he would hand on to his people the precepts of mercy and devotion and all good works, willed that they should first suffer all pressures, tribulations and straits in a foreign land, so that afterwards they might more readily have mercy on those suffering such things, and obey his commands. So you may think of him as a good farmer, who before he sows the seed tames the earth for a long time with ploughs and rakes, lest the seed he is going to entrust to it perish: so too God first long softens and tames his people before he imparts to them the seed of saving commands. Finally, so that it may be plainer that they endured these things for this reason, let us look at the commands of the Lord himself, saying: "You shall not afflict the stranger, nor oppress him, for you too were strangers in the land of Egypt." And again we read: "God is great, who does not accept persons nor take gifts, doing justice for the proselyte, the orphan and the widow. Love to give bread and clothing, for you yourself were in the land of Egypt." And elsewhere he says: "When you reap the harvest in your field and forget a sheaf, you shall not go back to take it; it shall be for the proselyte and the orphan and the widow, that God may bless you in the works of your hands; and you shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you this word." From this it is easily seen and recognized that that people was afflicted with all miseries for this reason, that it might be taught by its own example to have mercy on others; as it is written: "For you taught your people by such works that the righteous must be humane." What kind of people he wishes his own to be is, I think, widely evident; and by what works it can please him is proved by very many examples. But lest what we have said seem too little to show his will, let us add the precepts of the Law and the Prophets, and prove by the testimonies of the old as well as the new law what pleases God and always has pleased him, and what he has commanded most often to be done and observed. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength"; and "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." That this is the chief command of the Law and the Prophets is proved by the testimony of our Lord and Saviour, who says: "On these two commands hang the whole law and the prophets." This cannot be annulled or changed: that every precept both of the Law and of the Prophets consists in these two commands, and that he has fulfilled the law who has been able to fulfil these; for nothing else is sought in the old law than that you love God and your neighbour. And truly he is the fulfiller and doer of the law who sins neither against God nor against his neighbour,

But what it is to love God and what to love one's neighbour I ought by no means to pass over or conceal. He loves God who obeys him in all his commands. He loves God who keeps his laws and precepts. He loves God who, as God is holy, also sanctifies himself, as it is written: "Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy." He loves God who fulfils also the saying of the prophet: "You who love the Lord, hate evil." He loves God who thinks nothing but heavenly and divine things. For God is a lover of nothing but holiness and righteousness and devotion; and he loves God who does nothing other than what God is seen to love. What it is to love God, the teaching of our Lord and Saviour declares, saying: "He who hears my words and does them, he it is who loves me." If, then, he loves God who does what God commands, he who does not do it does not love him. And everyone who does not love, hates. Hence it is clear and plain that God is hated by those who do not keep his commands; of whom I think the prophet said: "Did I not hate those who hated you, Lord, and pine away over your enemies? I hated them with perfect hatred, and they became my enemies." The righteous prophet hates sinners, adulterers and the unjust, and those who spurn God's commands; as he says in another place: "I saw the transgressors of the covenant, and I pined away." And again: "I have hated the wicked, and loved your law." See, then, how righteous, how upright and holy we ought to be, for whom not only is it unlawful to live wickedly, but even to keep acquaintance with those who live wickedly. The blessed apostle too shows this plainly, who commanded that bread should not even be broken with sinners, saying: "If anyone named a brother among you is a fornicator, or greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a robber, do not even eat with such a one." God wished his people to be holy and a stranger to every contagion of injustice and iniquity. He wished it to be such, so righteous, so devout, so pure, so spotless, so simple, that the gentiles would find nothing in it to reproach, but something to admire, and would say: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he has chosen as his inheritance." Such ought the worshippers and servants of God to be: gentle, grave, prudent, devout, blameless, untouched, spotless; so that whoever sees them is amazed and marvels and says: "Truly these are men of God, whose way of life is such." The man of God ought so to show himself and act that there is no one who does not wish to see him, who does not desire to hear him; that no one, when he sees him, does not believe him to be a son of God; so that the prophetic saying may truly be fulfilled in him: "His mouth is sweetness, and he is altogether desire." For if a Christian shows himself such, if a servant of God shows himself such, that by his way of life he becomes equal to those who serve demons and idols, God will begin to be blasphemed through him, and it will be said: "What a Christian servant of God! Whose acts are so evil, whose works so base, whose way of life so worthless, whose life so ungodly, so criminal, so luxurious, so sordid!" And he will be guilty of that prophecy: "For the name of God is blasphemed through you among the gentiles." But woe to those through whom the name of the Lord has been blasphemed. For God desires and requires nothing more from us than that his name should be magnified by all through our acts; as it is written: "Offer the sacrifice of praise." For this is the sacrifice which God seeks and loves above all victims: that through the works of our righteousness his name may be praised everywhere, and that he may be proved to be the true God by the act and work of his servants. Those, then, love God who practise nothing but what glorifies his name.

We have said, as well as we could, how God ought to be loved; now let us explain, as we can, what it is to love one's neighbour as oneself; although the explanation of this matter is set out briefly in another place, where it is said: "What you do not wish done to you, do not do to another." Our Lord and Saviour too says: "Whatever you wish people to do to you, do likewise to them." For there is no one who wishes evil to be done to him by anyone. He, then, loves his neighbour as himself who wishes nothing evil to be done to him, since he wishes none to himself; but if there is anything good, as he himself wishes to receive and obtain from all, he gladly imparts it; for it is not only asked of a Christian that he refrain from evil, but that he practise good. Even if one has done nothing evil, but also nothing good, he is not admitted to the reward of eternal life but is handed over to the fires of Gehenna; as we read that the Lord said in the Gospel of those who do nothing evil yet do nothing good: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not clothe me; sick, and you did not visit me; in prison, and you did not come to me." They are condemned not because they did evil, but because they did not do good. From this let every prudent and wise person recognize what hope can be had by those who live in evils, when life is denied even to those who have done nothing evil, unless they have also done something good. For God does not ask this only of us, that we not be evil, but that we become good. For as people are called evil from evil works, so on the contrary they are called good from good ones. And there are two whom the good and the evil are seen to serve: the good God, whom all who live well serve; and the evil devil, whose servant is everyone who does evil. For it is not only asked of us that by not living badly we cease to be the devil's servants, but that by living well we be seen to serve God. For whoever is seen to do neither evil nor good, I do not know whose servant he is seen to be, or how he can hope for eternal life from God, which he has not earned by doing good. Let no one, I say, deceive and delude himself by his own opinion; let no one lead himself astray by a vain estimate. Whoever has not been good does not have life. Whoever has not done works of righteousness and mercy cannot reign with Christ. Whoever has not been humane, devout, hospitable, kind, merciful will not escape the fire of Gehenna. God does not love the wicked; he does not love sinners. Whoever does evil is God's enemy. Whoever is not without guile cannot have part with Christ. For nothing more is to be sought by a Christian, nothing more desired, nothing more striven for with all his strength, than to shut malice out of his heart, not to admit wickedness within the conscience of his breast, to hold to goodness, keep righteousness, guard purity of mind. Be innocent, if you wish to live with God. Be simple, if you wish to reign with Christ. What does malice profit you, which drags you to death? What does wickedness profit you, which prevents you from reigning with Christ, which destroys the one who has it? As it is written: "For a wicked soul will destroy him who has it." If you wish to live, hear what the prophet says; if you love the kingdom of Christ, hear how you may deserve to obtain it. "Who is the man," he says, "who wants life and longs to see good days? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it." Such people God honours and loves, who know no evil, who know not how to lie, whose lips do not speak deceit, in whom nothing but goodness and purity is seen. It is innocence that commends us to God; it is simplicity that makes us reign with Christ. That God loves only the innocent and wishes them to be joined to him is declared by very many testimonies, as it is written in the Psalms: "The innocent and upright have clung to me." And elsewhere it is commanded and said: "Keep innocence, and look on equity, for there is a remnant for the peaceful man." How much innocence affords and confers on a person, even if kept late, is proved by the testimony of the prophet David, who, though he had sinned gravely before, afterwards did not fear to be judged, from the time he began to know innocence; as he himself says: "Judge me, O God, for I have walked in my innocence." He knew, then, that judgment was no longer to be feared by him, because he had come to know innocence, though late. And in another place he says: "But you have upheld me because of my innocence." God afterwards upheld, because of innocence, the one whom he had before rejected because of malice. That the innocent cannot be put to shame before God is plain when it is said: "As long as the innocent keep righteousness, they shall not be put to shame." For nothing can be worthier or dearer to God than that innocence be held with all observance. Though someone appear devout in other works, if he does not have innocence he flatters himself in vain about his devotion. If even the Jews living under the old law, when it was still lawful for them to hate an enemy, were commanded to observe innocence, what is it fitting for you to do now as a Christian, who are commanded to love your enemy? For when will you not be innocent, or to whom can you be evil, who are commanded to be good to your enemies? But perhaps you even hate your neighbour, who are not allowed to hate even a stranger; and you persecute your brother, who are commanded to love your enemy; and you believe yourself a Christian, who keep the precepts of neither the New nor the Old Testament? But lest you think yourself a Christian without cause and flatter yourself on the name alone, hear the apostle say what you ought to be: "Let him who stole steal no more, but rather labour, working with his hands what is good, so that he may have something to give to one in need. Let no evil word come out of your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of faith, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and anger and indignation and clamour and blasphemy be put away from you, with all malice. Be kind and merciful to one another, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Be imitators of God, as dearest children; and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant odour. But let unchastity and all uncleanness or greed not even be named among you, as befits saints, nor filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor jesting, which is not fitting, but rather thanksgiving. For know this, that no unchaste or unclean or greedy person, which is idolatry, will be an heir in the kingdom of Christ and of God." He rightly judges himself a Christian who keeps these precepts, who is holy, humble, chaste and righteous, who lives in works of mercy and righteousness.

Do you think him a Christian in whom there is no act of Christianity, in whom there is no righteous way of life, but wickedness, ungodliness and crime? Do you think him a Christian who oppresses the wretched, who burdens the poor, who covets others' goods, who makes many needy so as to make himself rich, who rejoices in unjust gains, who takes his food from others' tears, who grows rich by the ruin of the wretched, whose mouth is constantly defiled by lies, whose lips speak only unworthy, obscene, criminal and base things, who, when he is commanded to distribute his own goods, seizes those of others? And such a man boldly approaches the church, and rashly and shamelessly spreads out his impious hands, defiled by unlawful seizure and the blood of the innocent, and with that polluted and sacrilegious mouth with which he had shortly before spoken false or base things he pours out prayers to the Lord, as if conscious of no evil. What are you doing, shameless and wretched man? Why do you load yourself with the burden of greater sins? Why do you inflict injury on God besides contempt? Why, to provoke his wrath more quickly, as a witness to your punishment, do you stretch out to God your criminal hands, which he does not regard, who commanded that only holy and spotless hands be offered to him? Why do you entreat God with that mouth with which you spoke evil a little before, whose prayers he abhors though they be multiplied? As it is written: "When you stretch out your hands, I will turn my face from you; and if you multiply prayers, I will not hear; for your hands are full of blood. Wash, be clean, take away wickedness from your souls." He ought to be well aware and sure, and confident in his innocence, who stretches out and lifts his hands to God, since the apostle says: "I wish men to pray in every place, lifting up pure hands." He rightly lifts his hands to God, he pours out prayers with a good conscience, who can say: "You know, Lord, how holy, how innocent, how pure from all fraud and injury and robbery are the hands I spread out to you; how just, how spotless and free from every lie are the lips with which I pour out prayers to you, that you may have mercy on me." Such a one deserves to be heard quickly, and can obtain what he asks before he has fully poured out his prayers. For I know there are those whom the deep darkness of wickedness and greed has so blinded that, when they have succeeded in binding a poor man by their power, or overwhelming an innocent man with false testimony, or overcoming a weak man by strength, or committing theft or robbery, they give thanks to God, by whose help they believe they did such things, and judge God so unjust as to think him a partner in their crimes.

Foolish and wretched people, so blinded by their iniquities that they do not understand that what God forbids cannot please him; and as if one crime were not enough, unless another is added by thinking wrongly of God. Others think they are justified because they give a small alms out of the substance of the poor; and out of what they have taken from very many, they bestow some very small thing on one. One is fed from what makes many hungry, and scarcely a few are clothed from the spoils of many. God does not seek such alms, nor does he wish kindness to be shown to one out of cruelty to another. For it is better for you not to give alms than to make many naked from the source from which you clothe a few, and to strip many who are clothed so as to clothe one. God approves the alms that are given from just labours, as it is written: "Honour God from your just labours, and offer him the first of the fruits of your righteousness." But he abhors and rejects the alms given from others' tears. For what does it profit if one blesses you from the same source from which very many curse you? Or what does that alms profit you which is given from another's substance? Truly, it is to be feared that God would have nothing with which to feed his poor unless you plundered other people's goods!

But I know others whom the dark ignorance of folly and imprudence so misleads and deceives that they think the faith which they pretend to have will profit them before God without works of righteousness; and by this kind of error they commit unspeakable crimes without fear, believing that God is the avenger not of crimes but only of faithlessness. And such people are not content to have perished themselves, but try to entangle others too in their snares, in whom there is no light of divine knowledge. And in them is fulfilled the saying of our Saviour: "If the blind leads the blind, both fall into the pit." For if no crime, but only faithlessness, is condemned, then we sin securely and freely. And God gave the commands of righteousness without cause, if faith alone profits without the works of righteousness. Where so ungodly, so criminal, so faithless an error of ignorance crept in from, we cannot know, unless perhaps from those who in the old law led the people astray by this pattern and handed them over with themselves to eternal death and perpetual destruction, of whom it is written: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, for they are vain, and speak visions from their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord. For they say to those who reject the words of the Lord, You shall have peace; and to all who walk in their own wills, to everyone who walks in the error of his heart, they say: No evils shall come upon you." We had at hand many testimonies, indeed those of the whole law, by which we could destroy and bury so pernicious an error; but lest we weary the reader longer, let a few out of many suffice. Let him who holds this view answer me: Adam, made by God the first man in the first state of the world, was he condemned because of faithlessness or because of sin? In him I find no unbelief at all, but only disobedience, for which he was condemned, and all are condemned by his example. Cain too was condemned not because of faithlessness, but because he had killed his brother. Why say more? That this whole world perished by the flood, I read, was because not of faithlessness but of crimes. That Sodom and Gomorrah were burned by sudden fire, I find no cause of unbelief, but of sins and crimes; as Scripture most plainly shows, saying: "The men of Sodom were evil and sinners before God, exceedingly." That the Jewish people were seen to perish and be chastised so often, was it not because of sins? But someone says: "I do not accept the testimonies of the old law alone, unless you bring me examples from the New Testament too." Take Ananias and Sapphira, whom the apostolic sentence condemned not for the crime of faithlessness, but because of theft and lying. Perhaps you will say to me: "What then does the apostle say: For they hold that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law?" I read that the very one who says this condemned, even in his absence, a man because he had taken his father's wife. Scripture must be understood, which is seen by those who know it to agree in all things, and to disagree only for those by whom it is not understood. The apostle says that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law; but not without those works of which I hear the other apostle say: "Faith without works is dead." For the apostle Paul spoke of the works of the law, that is, of fleshly circumcision, the new moon, the sabbath and other such things, which the law had formerly commanded to be done and which were no longer necessary in the time of Christ; but James speaks of the works of righteousness, and whoever has not done them is dead, though he pretends to be faithful. But someone cites that saying of the apostle: "For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Fool, this is fulfilled at the time of baptism, when, for someone to be baptized, only confession and faith are required. For what does the washing of baptism itself profit you, if faith alone without righteousness is sought? For the faith of all holds that sins are washed away in baptism. If one must sin afterwards, what is the use of having been washed? Hear what the Lord says to a man once healed: "See, you have been made well; sin no more, lest something worse befall you." The blessed apostle Peter too teaches this most plainly, that something worse befalls one who sins after knowing the way of righteousness, when he says: "For if, having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to know the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them. For there has happened to them what the true proverb says: The dog returned to its own vomit, and the sow, washed, to wallowing in the mud." The blessed apostle Paul too testifies and says that a man who after the sanctification of baptism sins with his former error is not saved without great repentance, saying: "For it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and have fallen away, to be renewed again to repentance, crucifying again the Son of God for themselves and holding him up to contempt." The evangelist testifies that a certain man came to the Saviour and asked what he should do to receive eternal life, and the Lord answered him: "If you wish to have life, keep the commandments." He did not say, keep faith only. For if faith alone is required, it is superfluous to command that the commandments be kept. But far be it from me to say that my Lord commanded anything superfluous. But those say this who by sinning have already become sons of perdition; and they believe they have this only consolation, if they can deliver others with themselves to perpetual death. For if God does not punish the sinner, where is that prophetic saying: "If the righteous will scarcely be saved, where will the sinner and the ungodly appear?" And elsewhere: "For sinners will perish." And again: "Let sinners and the wicked fail from the earth, so that they are no more." And again: "As smoke vanishes, let them vanish; as wax melts before the fire, so let sinners perish before the face of God." Here I hear that not only the unbelieving and faithless are condemned, but sinners. And I read that our Saviour said in one place: "Not all who say to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven." Certainly they believed in Christ who even called him Lord; and yet the door of the heavenly kingdom is not opened to them for this, because they confess with their mouth him whom they deny by their deeds. That God is denied by deeds no less than by words the apostle said: "They profess to know God, but deny him by their deeds." And the Lord in the Gospel: "Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? And I will say to them: I never knew you; depart from me, all you who work iniquity." These are said to have believed so far as even to work mighty works in the Lord's name; and yet faith will not profit them, because they did not do the works of righteousness. So, if faith alone profits, why are those handed over for ever with the angels of Satan to the fires of Gehenna, who are judged not because of faithlessness but because they had done nothing good? As it is written: "And the King will say to those on his left: Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal Gehenna, which my Father prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat," and so on. He certainly did not say, "because you did not believe in me"; from which it is given to be understood that they are to be condemned not because of unbelief, but because of the barrenness of good works.

Let no one, then, deceive another; let no one lead another astray. Unless one is righteous, he does not have life; unless one has kept Christ's commands in all things, he cannot have part with him; unless one has despised earthly things, he will not receive divine ones; unless he has scorned human things, he cannot possess heavenly ones. Nor let anyone judge himself a Christian except one who both follows Christ's teaching and imitates his example. But do you think him a Christian by whose bread no hungry person is ever filled, by whose drink no thirsty person is refreshed, whose table no one knows, under whose roof no newcomer or stranger ever comes, by whose clothes no naked person is covered, by whose help no poor person is supported, whose goodness no one feels, whose mercy no one knows; who imitates the good in nothing, but rather mocks and derides them, and does not cease to persecute the poor? Far be this from the minds of all Christians; far be it that such a one be called a Christian; far be it that one who is such could be called a son of God. He is a Christian who follows the way of Christ, who imitates Christ in all things; as it is written: "He who says he abides in Christ ought himself to walk as he walked." He is a Christian who shows mercy to all, who is not at all moved by injury, who does not allow a poor man to be oppressed in his presence, who relieves the wretched, who helps the needy, who mourns with those who mourn, who feels another's pain as his own, who is moved to tears by the tears of others; whose house is common to all, whose door is shut to no one, whose table no poor person is unaware of, whose food is offered to all, whose goodness all know, and from whom no one suffers injury; who serves God day and night, who meditates on and ponders his precepts unceasingly, who becomes poor to the world so as to become rich to God; who is held without glory among men so as to appear glorious before God and the angels; who seems to have nothing feigned or false in his heart; whose soul is simple and spotless, whose conscience is faithful and pure, whose whole mind is on God, whose whole hope is in Christ; who desires heavenly rather than earthly things, who scorns human things so as to be able to have divine ones. For to those who love this world, and who glory and take pleasure in the present time, hear what is said: "Do you not know that friendship with this world is enmity with God? And whoever wishes to be a friend of this world is made an enemy of God."

These things, dearest sister, I have explained to you as well as I could: what it befits a Christian to do. If, then, all who are generally called Christians ought to be such, it is now for your prudence to judge what kind of widow you ought to show yourself, who ought to be an example to all who live well. I believe you are not unaware that there are three kinds of widows. One, which is the most perfect, is destined for the heavenly reward, which, after the manner of that widow in the Gospel, serves God with prayers and fasting day and night. Another is said to have the care of children and of a household: not worthy of so much, yet not liable to sins. But the third kind is in feasts and delights, and is kept for eternal death and punishment; as it is written: "Honour widows who are truly widows." These are the first, who are called also true, and whom Timothy, so great a bishop, is commanded to honour. The second are those to whom honour is no longer commanded to be shown, yet life is not denied; of whom it is said: "But if they have children or grandchildren, let them learn first to manage their own household devoutly, and to make a return to their parents." But the third are those of whom it is written: "But the widow who lives in pleasures is dead while she lives." From this it is given to be understood that not all widows are equal, nor do those please God who seem to be widows only in body, not in deed. What a widow of Christ ought to be, the apostle says: "She who is truly a widow hopes in the Lord and continues in prayers night and day." Nor do I wish you to pass over this: that when the apostle names true widows, he shows that there are also false ones, that is, in act, mind and way of life, not in body. And elsewhere the same apostle describes the deeds and way of life of a true and chosen widow, saying: "Let a widow be chosen who has a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children" (which is understood: for God), "if she has received strangers, if she has washed the feet of the saints, if she has relieved those in tribulation, if she has followed every good work." He judged her to be a true widow whose works are such. But how does she call herself a widow of Christ who has never done any such thing? But there are some women, rich, noble and powerful, to whom it seems perhaps unworthy either to bring up their children for God and not for the world, or to receive a stranger in hospitality, or to wash the feet of the saints, weary, muddy and rough, and touch them with their delicate and elegant hands. But neither will such women be worthy in the time to come to be companions of the saints whom they so despised in the present, nor will they be able to have part with Christ, whom they refused to receive and whose feet they shrank from handling: for whoever despises his servants despises Christ, as he himself says: "He who despises you despises me." Mary had tears in abundance with which to wash Christ's feet; but the women of our time lack even water with which to wash the feet of strangers. Do you, then, most holy and most prudent woman, not wish to imitate such women, who, though they boldly do evil, blush to do good; who are ashamed to live justly, though they were not ashamed to sin; who, having offered themselves to death of their own accord, do not return to life even when invited; who fear the laughter, mockery and gossip of men more than the judgment of God; and to whom it is dearer to please wretched men than Christ. But be such as the Lord commanded you to be, such as the apostle bids you show yourself to Christ. Be a widow holy, humble and quiet; practise works of mercy and righteousness unceasingly. And whoever holds you in reproach, whoever mocks and derides you, may you only please God and do the things that are Christ's. Above all, meditate unceasingly on the commands of your Lord; apply yourself diligently to prayers and psalms; so that, if possible, no one ever finds you except reading or praying. And when you are such, remember us, who love you so much that what we cannot render present we confer absent.