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| Chapter III. Of the three kinds of things there are in the world; viz., good, bad, and indifferent.
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Chapter III.
Of the three kinds of things there are in the world;
viz., good, bad, and indifferent.
Altogether there are three
kinds of things in the world; viz., good, bad, and indifferent. And so
we ought to know what is properly good, and what is bad, and what is
indifferent, that our faith may be supported by true knowledge and
stand firm in all temptations. We must then believe that in things
which
are merely human there
is no real good except virtue of soul alone, which leads us with
unfeigned faith to things divine, and makes us constantly adhere to
that unchanging good. And on the other hand we ought not to call
anything bad, except sin alone, which separates us from the good God,
and unites us to the evil devil. But those things are indifferent which
can be appropriated to either side according to the fancy or wish of
their owner, as for instance riches, power, honour, bodily strength,
good health, beauty, life itself, and death, poverty, bodily
infirmities, injuries, and other things of the same sort, which can
contribute either to good or to evil as the character and fancy of
their owner directs. For riches are often serviceable for our good, as
the Apostle says, who charges “the rich of this world to be ready
to give, to distribute to the needy, to lay up in store for themselves
a good foundation against the time to come, that” by this means
“they may lay hold on the true life.”1371
And according to the gospel they are a
good thing for those who “make to themselves friends of the
unrighteous mammon.”1372
And again,
they can be drawn in the direction of what is bad when they are amassed
only for the sake of hoarding them or for a life of luxury, and are not
employed to meet the wants of the poor. And that power also and honour
and bodily strength and good health are indifferent and available for
either (good or bad) can easily be shown from the fact that many of the
Old Testament saints enjoyed all these things and were in positions of
great wealth and the highest honour, and blessed with bodily strength,
and yet are known to have been most acceptable to God. And on the
contrary those who have wrongfully abused these things and perverted
them for their own purposes are not without good reason punished or
destroyed, as the Book of Kings shows us has often happened. And that
even life and death are in themselves indifferent the birth of S. John
and of Judas proves. For in the case of the one his life was so
profitable to himself that we are told that his birth brought joy to
others also, as we read “And many shall rejoice at his
birth;”1373
but of the
life of the other it is said: “It were good for that man if he
had never been born.”1374
Further it is
said of the death of John and of all saints “Right dear in the
sight of the Lord is the death of His saints:”1375
but of that of Judas and men like him
“The death of the wicked is very evil.”1376
And how useful bodily sickness
sometimes may be the blessing on Lazarus, the beggar who was full of
sores, shows us. For Scripture makes mention of no other good qualities
or deserts of his, but it was for this fact alone; viz., that he
endured want and bodily sickness with the utmost patience, that he was
deemed worthy of the blessed lot of a place in Abraham’s
bosom.1377
And with
regard to want and persecution and injuries which everybody thinks to
be bad, how useful and necessary they are is clearly proved by this
fact; viz., that the saints not only never tried to avoid them, but
actually either sought them with all their powers or bravely endured
them, and thus became the friends of God, and obtained the reward of
eternal life, as the blessed Apostle chants: “For which cause I
delight myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in
persecutions, in distresses for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am
strong, for power is made perfect in infirmity.”1378
And therefore those who are exalted
with the greatest riches and honours and powers of this world, should
not be deemed to have secured their chief good out of them (for this is
shown to consist only in virtue) but only something indifferent,
because just as to good men who use them well and properly they will be
found to be useful and convenient (for they afford them opportunities
for good works and fruits which shall endure to eternal life), so to
those who wrongfully abuse their wealth, they are useless and out of
place, and furnish occasions of sin and death.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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