Page images
PDF
EPUB

IX.

230

To go hence is going home.

TREAT. rescuing us hence, and ridding us of the chains of earth, places us back in Paradise, and in the heavenly kingdom. What man that is journeying abroad, doth not patriam, hasten backward to his native land? Who that is speeding a voyage toward them he loves, longs not with more ardour for a prosperous wind, that so he may embrace his friends the sooner? Paradise we are to reckon for our native land; Patriarchs are now our parents: wherefore not haste and run, to behold our Country, to salute our Parents? It is a large and loving company who expect us there, parents, brothers, children, a manifold and numerous assemblage longing after us, who having security of their own immortality, still feel anxiety for our salvation. What a common gladness, both to them and us, when we pass into their presence and their embrace! and O sweet heavenly realms, where death can never terrify, and life can never end! Ah, perfect and perpetual bliss! There is the glorious company of the Apostles; there is the assembly of Prophets exulting; there is the innumerable multitude of Martyrs, crowned after their victory of strife and passion; there are Virgins triumphant, who have overcome, by vigour of continency, the concupiscence of the flesh and body; there are merciful men, obtaining mercy, who fulfilled the works of righteousness by dealing food and bounty to the poor, and in obedience to the instructions of the Lord translated the inheritance of earth into the treasuries of heaven. To these, dearest brethren, let us with eager longings hasten: let it be the portion which we desire, speedily to be among them, speedily to be gone to Christ. God behold this thought of ours! This purpose of our mind and faith may the Lord Christ witness!-who will make the recompenses of His glory the larger according as man's longings after Him have been the stronger.

c Patriam; this is the ordinary term
for the unseen world.
E. g. in the

Hymn,

Quicunque ut horas noctium
Nunc concinendo rumpimus
Ditemur omnes affatim
Donis beatæ patriæ.

TREATISE X.

ON WORKS AND ALMS.

[The following was written about A.D. 254, while the Church was in peace. The Homily on alms-deeds supports its own doctrine by it. Bp. Fell observes, that it "seems to have been providentially written, to prepare the Christians of Carthage, to succour certain Numidians who about this time were taken prisoners by the Barbarians."]

MANY and great are those divine bounties, dearest brethren, wherein the plentiful and abundant mercy of God the Father and of Christ, both hath been, and ever continues to be, exercised for our salvation; in that the Father sent His Son, in order to preserve and quicken us, and thereby to restore us, and in that the Son was sent, and willed to be called the Son of man, that He might make us sons of God; humbled Himself, that He might upraise a race which before was fallen; was wounded, that He might heal our wounds; served, that He might ransom to liberty them that were in servitude; endured to die, that He might give to mortal men the boon of immortality. These are manifold and great exercises of divine mercifulness; but beyond this, what care for us is it, and how great lovingkindness, that by a saving method it is provided, that further means should ut plebe appointed for securing man's salvation, after he has received redemption. For when the Lord at His coming had healed those wounds which Adam brought, and had cured the poisons of the old serpent, He placed a law on him who was made whole, and commanded him to sin vid. John no more, lest some worse thing should come unto him. 5, 14. We were closed in a narrow bound, we were shut up in straits, by the ordinance of innocency: nor would the weak

nius con

sulatur.

X.

232 Alms and works washoutsinsdoneafter thewashingof Baptism.

TREAT. ness and insufficiency of human frailty have had whereto to betake itself, had not divine pity, again succouring it, pietas. opened some way of securing salvation, by directing it to works of righteousness and mercy; so that whatsoever defilements we contract afterwards, we may wash away by alms.

6.

41.

2. The Holy Spirit speaks in the divine Scriptures and Prov. 16, says, By alms and faith sins are cleansed away; not, that is, those sins which had been contracted before, for those are cleansed by Christ's blood and sanctification. Likewise Ecclus. again He saith, As water quencheth fire, so alms quencheth sin. 3, 30. Here too it is shewn and laid down, that as in the Laver of salutary water the fire of hell is quenched, so by almsgivings and righteous works the flame of offences is set at rest. And because in Baptism remission of sins is given once operatio. for all, diligent and unintermitting deeds of charity, following the similitude of Baptism, dispense the mercifulness of God a second time. This also the Lord teaches in the Gospel; for when His Disciples were observed upon, for that they eat, nor Luke 11, first washed their hands, He answered and said, He that made that which is within, made that which is without also: but give alms, and, behold, all things are clean unto you: teaching that is and shewing, that the hands are not, but the breast is to be washed; that uncleanness must be removed from within, rather than from without; but that he that cleansed that which is within, cleansed also that which is without, and that he whose mind is cleansed, has begun to be clean also in flesh and body. And next admonishing and pointing out to us, by what means we may become clean and purified, He gives the further charge of exercising almsdeeds. He in His mercy teaches and admonishes us to exercise mercy; and because He seeks to save those, whom He bought with a great price, He teaches that they who after the grace of Baptism have grown unclean, may be purged a second time. Let us acknowledge therefore, dearest brethren, this saving gift of divine indulgence, and since without some wound of conscience we cannot be, let us, for the cleansing and purging of our sins, by spiritual remedies obtain healing for our wounds".

This passage is referred to in the
Homily on Almsdeeds. (Part II.) After

quoting Luke xi.41. Tob.iv.10.Ecclus.iii. 30. the writer proceeds. "And thereupon

No one must trust in his own sinlessness.

233

9.

8.9.

3. Let no man so flatter himself with purity and spotlessness of heart, as, from reliance on his innocency to think that his wounds have no need of medicine; since it is written, Who shall boast that he hath a pure heart? Or who shall Prov.20, boast that he is clean from sins? And again in his Epistle John sets forth and says, If we say that we have no sin, we 1 John1, deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, the Lord is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But if no man can be without sin, and whosoever says he is faultless is either proud or foolish; how needful, how bountiful is the divine compassion? which, as knowing that they who are made whole still are not free from wounds in a measure afterward, gave saving remedies, by which wounds may again receive cure and healing.

4. Never in fine, dearest brethren, has the divine instruction been wanting, never has it failed, whether in the Old or New Scriptures, always in every place to provoke God's people to works of mercy; and by the tones and exhortations of the Holy Spirit, every one that is instructed in the hope of the heavenly kingdom, is commanded to give alms. The God of Isaiah requires and ordains; Cry in strength, He saith, and Is. 58, 1.

that Holy Father Cyprian taketh good occasion to exhort earnestly to the merciful work of giving alms and helping the poor, and there he admonisheth to consider how wholesome and profitable it is to relieve the needy, and help the afflicted, by which we may purge our sins, and heal our wounded souls. But some will say unto me, If almsgiving and our charitable works towards the poor be able to wash away sins, to reconcile us to God, to deliver us from the peril of damnation, and make us the sons and heirs of God's kingdom, then are Christ's merits defaced, and His blood shed in vain; then are we justified by works, and by our deeds may we merit heaven; then do we in vain believe that Christ died to put away our sins, and that He rose for our justification, as St. Paul teacheth. But ye shall understand, dearly beloved, that neither those places of the Scripture before alleged, neither the doctrine of the Blessed Martyr Cyprian, neither any other godly and learned man, when they, in extolling the dignity, profit, fruit, and effect of virtuous and liberal alms, do say that it washeth away sins,

and bringeth us to the favour of God,
do mean that our work and charitable
deed is the original cause of our ac-
ception before God, or that for the
dignity or worthiness thereof our sins
may be washed away, and we purged
and cleansed of all the spots of our
iniquity; for that were indeed to deface
Christ, and to defraud Him of His
glory. But they mean this, and this is
the understanding of those and such
like sayings, that God of His mercy
and special favour towards them, whom
He hath appointed to everlasting sal-
vation, hath so offered His grace
especially, and they have so received it
fruitfully, that although, by reason of
their sinful living outwardly, they
seemed before to have been the children
of wrath and perdition, yet now the
Spirit of God mightily working in them,
unto obedience to God's will and com-
mandments, they declare, by their out-
ward deeds and life, in the shewing of
mercy and charity, (which cannot come
but of the Spirit of God and His
special grace,) that they are the un-
doubted children of God appointed to
everlasting life."

234 Alms prevail more than mere prayers and fastings.

TREAT. spare not; lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare to X. My people their transgressions, and to the house of Jacob their

1-9.

sins. And when He had ordered that they should be reproached for their transgressions, and had exposed their sins in the full force of His wrath, and had said, that not though they used supplications and prayers and fastings, could they make satisfaction for their offences; nor though they rolled in sackcloth and ashes, could soften the anger of God; yet in the end of His words, pointing out that God can Is. 58, be appeased by only alms, He adds, saying, Break thy bread to the hungry, and bring the poor that are homeless into thy house; if thou seest the naked, clothe him, and despise not the household of thine own seed. Then shall thy light break forth in season, and thy garments shall arise speedily, and righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of God shall surround thee. Then shalt thou cry, and God shall hear thee; whilst thou art yet speaking, He shall say, Here I am. The remedies of propitiating God, are given in the words of God Himself; what sinful men ought to do, the divine lessons opera have taught; that God is satisfied by exercises of righteoustionibus. ness, that sins are purged by the merits of mercy. And Ecclus. in Solomon we read; Shut up alms in the heart of the poor, 12. and these shall intercede for thee from all evil. And again: Prov.21, Whoso stoppeth his ears not to hear the weak, he also shall call on God, and there will be none to hear him. For he can never engage the mercy of the Lord, who has not himself been merciful; or obtain any thing from the divine kindness in prayer, when he has been without clemency towards the prayer of the poor. This likewise in the Psalms Ps. 40, the Holy Spirit makes manifest and assures, saying, Blessed [41,] 1. is he that considereth the poor and needy; the Lord will deliver him in the day of evil. Daniel, mindful of these precepts, when King Nebuchodonosor was in trouble, being affrighted with an evil dream, for the averting of harm, gave Dan. 4, him remedies for obtaining the help of God; Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and redeem thy sins by almsdeeds, and thine iniquities by shewing mercies to the poor, and God will be patient to thy sins. Because the king obeyed him not, he underwent those adverse and dreadful things which he had seen; which he might have

29,

13.

27.

« PreviousContinue »