1 Mt. xvi. 24. 2 Lk. xiv. 26 civ before uxdyrh>.
3 For another definition see, and cf. 324. 4 Cf. 2 Cor.-i. 9. 5 Lk. xiv. 26. § Acts v. 29.
1 Phil. iii. 4 omit &doc*; 5 CHAov for CHAog K; 6, 7, 8 omit ve K, judy for wov*.
2 ike xiv. 33. 3 Mt. xix. 21 omit toic¢ before rrwyoic K.
4 Mt. xiii. 45, 46 6¢ ebpdy for ededv 8¢ K, éxdadnos for mémpaxe*.
5 Mt. vi, 24. 8 Mt. vi. 21 %otm after cov**,
IX. — Should the Man who Joins those who are Consecrated to the Lord Relinquish his Property to his Relations without Distinctions, even to the Bad among Them?
Since the Lord said: “Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me”; and again: “Sell that ye have, and give alms”; I consider that the man who leaves his family with such an end in view ought not to feel contemptuously towards his possessions, but to make an accurate survey of them all, as consecrated henceforward to the Lord, and dispose of them with all care, either personally if he has the power and necessary experience, or through men who have been chosen for the work after careful testing and have given proof of their powers of faithful and wise administration. He must realise that it is dangerous either to leave them to his relations or to dispose of them through any chance-comer. For if the man who is entrusted with the care of the King’s property, though often he has filched nothing from the store but only lost by neglect the interest he might have gained, is not absolved from blame; what condemnation must we expect them to undergo who have been slothful and negligent in the administration of possessions already dedicated to the Lord? Will they not be subject to the condemnation of the negligent? As it is written: “Cursed is every one that doeth the works of the Lord negligently.” We must be always on our guard lest under pretext of keeping one commandment we be found breaking another. For it is fitting that we should neither fight nor spar with bad men, since “the Lord’s servant must not fight”; but he that is badly treated by his kinsmen according to the flesh must remember the Lord’s words: “There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands”—not just left them but “for my sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundred-fold in this time, and in the world to come eternal life.” Certainly we should warn the bad men of the sin of sacrilege, according to the commandment of the Lord: “If thy brother sin, go, show him his fault etc.”; but to engage in litigation with them before secular tribunals is forbidden by the word of piety, when it says: “If any man would go to law with thee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.” And, “Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbour, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the Saints?” And let us summon them to appear before the latter, paying more heed to our brother’s salvation than to the abundance of possessions. For the Lord having said: “If he hear thee,” added, “thou hast gained” not thy money, but “thy brother.” But it often happens that to make the truth plain we condescend to plead, when the originator of the ill deed challenges us to arbitration; we do not take the initiative, but obey the summons, not to satisfy our private feelings of anger or strife, but to reveal the truth. For thus we shall liberate even the aggressor, unwilling though he be, from evil, and shall not ourselves transgress the commandments, as ministers of God free from strife and covetousness, firmly insisting on the manifestation of the truth, and in no way transgressing the prescribed limits of zeal.
(Re 5)?
© Ps? xx 10; 2 Phil. iii. 20. 2-2) Cor. vii 9.4 4 Lk. vii. 14 ** (loosely cited).
5 Rufinus renders: Si oportet eum qui seruis Dei sociari uult relinquere indifferenter propinquis suis portionem facultatum suarum?
6 Mt. xix. 21 omit toig before rrwyois K.
? Lk. xii. 33.
1 For B.’s teaching on property see B. 85, 92, 94, 187, 304, 305, 308; Mor. xxxi; cf. Clarke p. 82f. for a discussion of apparent inconsistencies.
lik 6} as\ Kf. 6-4. 8 3 Jer. xviii. 10 Sw. (B) omits mé&c.
4 2 Tim. ii. 24 Y.
5 Mk. x. 29 ob% gotw Sori for od8eig got bc **, matéox before untéox K, add 7 yovaixa K, omit 2nd égvexev; 30 (shortened) ¢ od for édy, omit viv *,
6 Mt. xviii. 15 gunet7 for ducerhon *, omit etc ce.
7 Mt. v. 4U oe for oo. **,
X. — Should All who Come be Received? Or if Not, which Persons? And Should they be Admitted at Once or after Probation? If after Probation, of What Sort?
Since our loving God and Saviour Jesus Christ proclaims: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” it is perilous to reject those that come to the Lord through us and wish to take upon them His kindly yoke and the burden of His commandments that raises us to heaven. Yet we must not allow any to tread the hallowed ground of these precepts with unwashed feet. But just as our Lord Jesus Christ asked the young man that came to Him about his former life, and having learned that it was good, bade him fulfil what was still lacking to perfection and then allowed him to follow, so, obviously, it befits us to learn the former life of applicants. If they have already led a good life we shall deliver to them the more perfect precepts; but when they are turning from an evil life or have set out from a state of indifference towards the strict life of the knowledge of God, then we must examine their characters, whether they are unstable and prone to sudden decisions.
For we must suspect the shiftiness of such men as these, who in addition to their failing to benefit themselves actually cause harm to others, by producing reproaches and falsehoods and slanders about our work. But since all things are rectified by care and the fear of God masters every defect of the soul, we must not despair straightway even of these, but induce them to submit to an appropriate course of training, testing their decision by time and laborious exercises, so that we may accept them safely if we find in them stedfastness, and otherwise send them away while they are still outside the community; the test will then involve no risk to the brotherhood. We must find out whether a man who has been involved in sins confesses the hidden things of shame despising the same, and becomes his own accuser; by which he both puts to shame and renounces his companions in evil doing, according to the words of the Psalmist, “Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity,” and makes his future life secure from a further fall into like sins. One method of testing may be applied to all, whether they are completely humble and devoid of false shame, so as to accept the lowliest tasks, if it be reasonably decided that their work at such tasks would be useful. And when each man, after full examination by those who are competent to make skilful investigation, has been accepted as a vessel serviceable unto the Master and ready for every good work, then let him be numbered with those who have dedicated themselves to the Lord. When a man from the higher ranks of society aspires to humility after the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is especially necessary to prescribe some task which is distasteful to worldlings, and to watch whether with full conviction he presents himself to God as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.
tCor wil. 2 Mt. xviii. 15. 3 For the treatment of novices cf. F. 15, B. 97, 112; Cass. Inst. iv. 3; Ben. Reg. lviii. 4 Mt. xi. 28.
XI. — Concerning Slaves
When slaves who are under the yoke flee to the brotherhoods, they should be admonished and made better, and then restored to their masters. So doing we imitate the blessed Paul, who, though he had begotten Onesimus through the gospel, yet sent him back to Philemon, persuading the servant that the yoke of slavery borne in a manner well pleasing to the Lord renders him worthy of the Kingdom of heaven, and exhorting the master not only to forbear his threats against Onesimus, remembering the words of his true Master: “If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive your trespasses,” but also to have kinder feelings towards him—writing thus: “For perhaps he was therefore parted from thee for a season, that thou shouldest have him for ever, no longer as a servant, but more than a servant, a brother beloved.” Should, however, the master be evil, giving unlawful commands and constraining the slave to transgress the commandment of his true Master our Lord Jesus Christ, then it is necessary to take energetic measures to prevent the name of God being blasphemed by that servant’s doing anything displeasing to God. The measures will consist in preparing that slave to endure the sufferings that will be inflicted upon him if he is “to obey God rather than man,” or in the acceptance by those who have received him of the troubles that may come upon them on his account, as it pleases God.