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| Of the engagement made in baptism, and of those who have given themselves to the life in common.
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VI.
Of the engagement made in baptism, and of those who have
given themselves to the life in common.
And in exhorting you, we also admonish all who have
embraced the faith of Christ, and who have taken from Christ the name
of Christian, that ye make your Christianity vain in no respect, but
keep stedfastly the engagement which ye took upon yourselves in
baptism, so that ye may be found not reprobate, but worthy in His
presence. And if any one of you has entered the life which has
all things common, and has taken the vow to hold no private property,
let him see to it that he make not his promise vain, but let him keep
with all faithfulness this engagement which he has made to the Lord, so
that he may acquire for himself not damnation, but a reward; for it is
better for a man not to take a vow at all than not to discharge to the
best of his ability the vow that he has made. For they who have
made a vow, or taken on them the faith, and have not kept their vow, or
have carried out their life in things evil, are punished more severely
than those who have carried out their life without a vow, or have died
without faith, but not without doing good works. For to this end
have we received a reasonable mind by the gift of nature, and the
renewal also of the second birth, that, according to the apostle, we
may discern (sapiamus) rather things above, and not things
on the earth;2772
for the
wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.2773
For to what, most dearly
beloved, does the wisdom of this world urge us, but to seek things that
are hurtful, and to love things that are to perish, and to neglect
things that are healthful, and to esteem as of no value things that are
lasting? It commends the love of money, of which it is said, The
love of money is the root of all evil;2774
and which has this evil in especial,
that while it obtrudes the transitory, it hides from view the eternal;
and while it looks on things that are outside, it does not look in upon
things that lurk within; and while it seeks after strange things, it is
an evil that makes itself strange to him who does it.2775
| 2775
“Sectatori,” for which read “factori.” | Behold, to what does the wisdom
of this world urge a man? To live in pleasures. Whence it
is said: A widow that liveth in pleasure, is dead while she
liveth.2776
It
urges a man to feed the flesh with the softest delights, with sins, and
vices, and flames, to press the soul with intemperance in food and
wine, and to check the life of the spirit, and to put into his
enemy’s hand the sword to be used against himself. Behold,
what is the counsel which the wisdom of this world gives? That
those who are good should choose rather to be evil, and that in error
of mind they should be zealous to be sinners, and should not bethink
themselves of that terrible voice of God, when the wicked shall be
burned up like grass.2777
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