Prologue.
Who is a faithful and wise servant? His reward is
pointed out in the case of Peter, as also in the case of Paul.
Ambrose, being anxious to follow Paul’s guidance, wished this
book to be added to the others, for it could not be included in the
preceding one. The subject for discussion is then stated, and the
reason for such a discussion given. He must needs be pardoned,
for usury is to be demanded from every servant for the money which has
been entrusted to him. Their faithfulness is the usury desired in
his own case. He will be happy if he may hope for a reward; but
he does not look so much for the recompense of the saints, as for
exemption from punishment. He urges all to seek to merit
this.
1. “Who,
then, is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler
over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is
that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so
doing.”2504
Not
worthless is this servant: some great one ought he to be.
Let us think who he may be.
2. It is Peter, chosen by the Lord Himself
to feed His flock, who merits thrice to hear the words:
“Feed My little lambs; feed My lambs; feed My
sheep.”2505
And so, by
feeding well the flock of Christ with the food of faith, he effaced the
sin of his former fall. For this reason is he thrice admonished
to feed the flock; thrice is he asked whether he loves the Lord, in
order that he may thrice confess Him, Whom he had thrice denied before
His Crucifixion.2506
3. Blessed also is that servant who can
say: “I have fed you with milk and not with meat; for
hitherto ye were not able to bear it.”2507
For he knew how to feed them.
Who of us can do this? Who of us can truly say: “To
the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak”?2508
4. Yet he, being so great a man, and chosen
by Christ for the care of His flock, so as to strengthen the weak and
to heal the sick,—he, I say, rejects forthwith after one
admonition2509
a heretic from the
fold entrusted to him, for fear that the taint of one erring sheep
might infect the whole flock with a spreading sore. He further
bids that foolish questions and contentions be avoided.2510
5. How, then, shall we act, being but
ignorant dwellers set amongst these fresh tares in the old-standing
harvest field?2511
If
we are silent, we shall seem
to be giving way; and if we contend against them, there is the fear
that we too shall be held to be carnal. For it is written of
matters of this sort, which beget strife: “The servant of
the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all, apt to teach,
patient, with moderation instructing those that oppose
themselves.”2512
And in
another place: “If any man is contentious, we have no such
custom, neither the Church of God.”2513
For this reason it was our
intention to write somewhat, in order that our writings might without
any din answer the impiety of heretics on our behalf.
6. And so we prepare to commence this our Fifth
Book, O Emperor Augustus. For it was but right that the Fourth
Book should end with our discussion on the Vine, lest otherwise we
should seem to have overloaded that book with a tumultuous mass of
subjects, rather than to have filled it with the fruit of the spiritual
vineyard. On the other hand, it was not seemly that the gathering
of the vintage of the faith should be left unfinished, whilst there was
still all abundance of such great matters for discussion.
7. In the Fifth Book, therefore, we speak of
the indivisible Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost
(omitting, however, a full discussion on the Holy Ghost), being urged
by the teaching of the Gospel to let out on interest to human minds the
five talents2514
of the faith
entrusted to these five books being as it were the principal; lest
perhaps when the Lord comes, and finds His money hidden in the earth,
He may say to me: “Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou
knewest that I reap where I do not sow; and gather where I have not
strawed; thou oughtest therefore to have put My money to the
exchangers, that at My coming I might have received Mine
Own,”2515
or as it stands in
another book: “And I,” it says, “at My coming
might have received it with usury.”2516
8. I pray those to pardon me, whom the
boldness of such a lengthy address displeases. The thought of my
office compels me to entrust to others what I have received.
“We are stewards of the heavenly mysteries.”2517
We are ministers, but not all
alike. “But,” it says, “even as the Lord gave
to every man, I have planted; Apollos watered; but God gave the
increase.”2518
Let each
one then strive that be may be able to receive a reward according to
his labour. “For we are labourers together with God,”
as the Apostle said; “we are God’s husbandry, God’s
building.”2519
Blessed
therefore is he who sees such usury on his principal; blessed too is he
who beholds the fruit of his work; blessed again is he “who
builds upon the foundation of faith, gold, silver, precious
stones.”2520
9. Ye who hear or read these words are all
things to us. Ye are the usury of the money-lender,—the
usury on speech, not on money; ye are the return given to the
husbandman; ye are the gold, the silver, the precious stones of the
builder. In your merits lie the chief results of the labours of
the priest; in your souls shines forth the fruit of a bishop’s
work; in your progress glitters the gold of the Lord; the silver is
increased if ye hold fast the divine words. “The words of
the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the fire; proved on the
earth, purified seven times.”2521
Ye
therefore will make the lender rich, the husbandman to abound in
produce; ye will prove the master-builder to be skilful. I do not
speak boastfully; for I do not desire so much my own advantage as
yours.
10. Oh that I might safely say of you at
that time: “Lord, Thou gavest me five talents, behold I
have gained five other talents;”2522
and that I might show the precious talents of your virtues!
“For we have a treasure in earthen vessels.”2523
These are the talents which the
Lord bids us spiritually to trade with, or the two coins of the New and
the Old Testament, which that Samaritan in the Gospel left for the man
robbed by the thieves, for the purpose of getting his wounds
healed.2524
11. Neither do I, my brethren, with greedy
desires, long for this, so that I may be set over many things; the
recompense I get from the fact of your advance is enough for me.
Oh that I may not be found unworthy of that which I have
received! Let those things which are too great for me be assigned
to better men. I demand them not! Yet mayest Thou say, O
Lord: “I will give unto this last, even as unto
thee.”2525
Let the man
that deserves it receive authority over ten cities.2526
12. Let him be such an one as was Moses, who wrote
the Ten Words of the Law. Let him be as Joshua, the son of Nun,
who subdued five kings, and brought the Gibeonites into subjection,
that he might be the figure of a Man of his own name Who was
to come, by Whose power all
fleshly lust should be overcome, and the Gentiles should be converted,
so that they might follow the faith of Jesus Christ rather than their
former pursuits and desires. Let him be as David, whom the young
maidens came to meet with songs, saying: “Saul hath
triumphed over thousands, David over ten thousands.”2527
13. It is enough for me, if I am not thrust
out into the outer darkness, as he was, who hid the talent entrusted to
him in the earth so to speak, of his own flesh. This the ruler of
the synagogue did, and the other rulers of the Jews; for they
employed2528
,2529
| 2529 i.e., either
‘used to their own earthly advantage’ or ‘explained
in a carnal earthly sense.’ |
the words of the Lord, which had been
entrusted to them, on the ground as it were of their bodies; and,
delighting in the pleasures of the flesh, sunk the heavenly trust as
though into the pit of an overweening heart.
14. Let us then not keep the Lord’s
money buried and hidden in the flesh; nor let us hide our one talent in
a napkin;2530
but like good
money-changers let us ever weigh it out with labour of mind and body,
with an even and ready will, that the word may be near, even in thy
mouth and in thy heart.2531
15. This is the word of the Lord, this is
the precious talent, whereby thou art redeemed. This money must
often be seen on the tables of souls, in order that by constant trading
the sound of the good coins may be able to go forth into every land, by
the means of which eternal life is purchased. “This is
eternal life,” which Thou, Almighty Father, givest freely, that
we may know “Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou
hast sent.”2532
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
