7. Then what a state of things it is, what a holy condition of affairs, that, if a noble begins to be converted to God, he at once loses his noble rank! What honor is paid to Christ among a Christian people in whose eyes religion makes a man ignoble? For as soon as a man has made an attempt to improve himself, he meets the abusive scorn of worse men, and thus all are compelled to some degree of evil living that they may not be considered contemptible. Not without cause did the apostle cry out: "The whole world lieth in wickedness." He spoke truly, for it is right to say that the whole world is lying in wickedness when the good cannot hold their place in it. Indeed, everything is so full of iniquity that either all who live are evil, or the few who are good are tortured by the persecution of the many. Therefore, as I said, if any man of honorable rank devotes himself to religion, he at once ceases to be honored. For when a man has changed his garments, forthwith |111 he changes his rank; if he has been of high degree, he becomes contemptible; if he has been most glorious, he becomes the vilest of the vile; if he has been altogether full of honor, he becomes altogether wretched in aspect.
Yet certain worldly men and unbelievers wonder why they endure the wrath of God and his hatred, when they persecute him in the persons of all his saints; for all things are perverse and at variance with the ways of the past. If there is any good man, he is scorned as though he were evil: if a man is evil, he is honored as though he were good. Is it then strange that we who daily grow worse, endure worse tortures daily? For men daily invent new evils and do not forsake the old; fresh crimes spring up, but the old are not abandoned.
8. Is there any room for further discussion? However hard and bitter our lot, we still suffer less than we deserve. Why should we complain that God deals harshly with us? We treat him much more rudely. We anger him by our impure acts and force him, unwilling though he is, to punish us. And although the spirit and majesty of God are such that he is not moved by any passion or anger, yet such is the aggravation of our sins that they drive him to wrath. |112 If I may say so, we subject his loving kindness to force, and seem to lay violent hands on his mercy. For although he is so gentle that ho would like to spare us constantly, our perversity compels him to punish our sins. As those who blockade well-fortified cities or attempt to capture and undermine their mighty strongholds, customarily lay siege to them with all sorts of machines and weapons, so we attack the mercy of God with every kind of frightful sin as if we, too, were using siege engines. Then we think God injures us, though we are acting most injuriously toward him. Indeed every fault of all Christians is an insult to his divinity. "When we perform those acts that are forbidden by God we trample underfoot the orders of him who forbade us. It is impious to blame God's severity for our misfortunes: we should instead accuse ourselves. For when we commit the sins that cause our torture, we are ourselves the authors of our torments. Why then do we complain of the bitterness of our punishments? Each one of us punishes himself.
This is why the prophet said to us: "Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that have added fuel to the flame; walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled." For the whole human race is rushing headlong into eternal punishment by the very course that the Scriptures describe. First we kindle the fire, then add fuel to the flames, and lastly enter the flames that we have prepared. When does man first kindle eternal fire for himself? Surely when he first begins to sin. But when does he add fuel to the flames? When he heaps up sins upon sins. When shall he enter the everlasting fire? When he has already completed the irrevocable account of wickedness by the increase of his sins, as our Savior said to the leaders of the Jews: "Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers," The men whom the Lord himself told to fill up the measure were not far from completing the full number of their sins. Because they were |113 no longer worthy of salvation, they filled up the number of iniquities by which they were to perish. Whence also, when the ancient Law recalled that the sins of the Amorreans were fulfilled, it is said that the angels spoke to the blessed Lot, saying: "Whomsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord hath sent us to destroy them." For a long time, truly, that most sinful people had been kindling the fires by which they perished, and so when the tale of their iniquities was completed they burned in the flames of their own crimes. For they deserved so ill of God that they suffered in this world the Gehenna that is to come in the later judgment.
9. But, you say, none now deserve the end of those men, for none are to be compared with them, in evil doing. Perhaps that is true, still what do we make of the fact that the Savior himself said that all who have spurned his Gospel are worse than they? And at Capernaum he said: "If the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee." If he said the people of Sodom are less to be condemned than all who neglect the Gospels, then we who in most of our actions show our neglect of the Gospel teachings are in graver danger, especially since we are not willing to be content with crimes long familiar, that seem a part of our daily life. Many are not satisfied with the customary vices, with litigation, slander and rapine, with drunkenness and gorging at feasts, with forgeries and perjury, with adultery and homicide. Finally, however inhuman the atrocities involved, all the crimes involving injury to their fellow men are not enough for them, but they must needs turn the blasphemous violence of their |114 mad minds against the Lord also. For it is written of the wicked: "They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. . . . And they say, 'How doth God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High?' " And again: "The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it."
To such men this prophetic saying may well be applied: "The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God.' " For they who declare that nothing is seen by God are very near to denying his actual substance, as they deny his sight, and when they say that he sees nothing they deny his very existence.
Although no evil deed has any rational foundation, since there is no bond between reason and wickedness, yet no blasphemy, in my opinion at least, is more irrational than this or more insane. What is so mad as for a man, who does not deny that God created the whole world, to deny that he governs it? How can one admit that God is its maker, and deny that he takes any care of what be made? As if his intention in creating the universe was to neglect it when completed! I say that he cares so much for his creatures that I can prove that he cared for them even before their creation; indeed, the very act of creation makes this clear. He would not have created the world, if his care had not preceded the act, especially since we know that in our human kind there is scarcely a man so stupid that he would carry an undertaking through to completion without the intention of taking care of it when finished. For a man who tills a field does so in order to keep it for his own use after it is cultivated; he who plants a vineyard means to take care of it when he has planted it; he who gathers the nucleus of a herd means to exercise his skill in increasing it. He who builds a house or lays its foundations, even though he has as yet no finished |115 dwelling-place, still embodies in the building he is trying to erect the hopes of a future home.
Yet why should I speak of man alone, when even the smallest sorts of animals do all things with a view to future use? Ants, hiding various sorts of grain from [the fields] in underground storerooms, drag away and store their hoards because they cherish them in their desire to live. Why do the bees, when they lay foundations for the honeycomb or pluck their young from flowers, search out thyme except from their eager desire for honey, or certain other flowerets but from love of the young they are to find there?
Has God then instilled this love of their own functions into even the least of living things, and deprived himself alone of the love of his works? Have you considered that all our love of good things has come down to us from his good love? He himself is the fount and source of all our benefits, and since, as it is written: "In him we live and move and have our being," from him surely we have received all the affection we give our offspring; for the whole world and the whole human race are the offspring of their creator.
Therefore by that very love he has caused us to feel for our sons he wished us to know how greatly he loved his own. For we read, just as "the invisible things of him are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made," even so he wished his love for us to be known by the love that he gave us toward our own kindred. As it is written that he wished all fatherhood in heaven and in earth to be named after him, so he wished us to recognize |116 his fatherly love. Yet why do I say fatherly? for his love is far more than a father's. This is proved by the words of the Savior in the Gospel, when he said: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son for the life of the world." But the apostle also says: "God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. How hath he not with him also freely given us all things?"
10. This confirms my former statement, that God loves us more than a father loves his son. It is clear that his love surpasses a man's love for his sons, since for our sake he did not spare his own child. Nay, I add more, he did not spare his righteous Son, his only begotten Son, his Son who is himself God. What more can be said? And this was done for us, that is for wicked, unjust and most irreverent men. Who can justify this love of God toward us, save that his justice is so great that no shadow of injustice can fall on him? As far as human reason is concerned, any man would have acted most unjustly if he had had his good son put to death for his worst slaves. But for this very reason the love of God is the more surpassing and his goodness the more marvellous, that, as far as human weakness is concerned, the greatness of his justice almost bears the appearance of injustice. Therefore the apostle, to indicate as far as he might the boundless mercy of God, said: " For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die." Certainly in this one sentence he showed us the love of God. For if scarcely any one undertakes to die for the greatest righteousness, Christ dying for our iniquity proved what love he bore us. Why God should have done this, the apostle tells us at once in the words that follow, saying: "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now |117 justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." He commends his love to us, in that he died for sinners; for a benefit is of greater worth that is given to men unworthy of it.
So he says: "God commends his love toward us." How does he commend it? Surely in that he bestows it on the undeserving. If he had given it to holy men who deserved well of him, he would not seem to have given what was not due, but what he owed them.
What then have we given in return for this great boon, or what return ought we to make for it? First of all, what the most blessed prophet testifies that he owes and will give, saying: "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord." This is the first repayment, that we return death for death, and all die for him who died for us, even though our death is of much less account than his. Whence it comes that even if we take death upon us, we cannot by this means repay our debt. But since we cannot requite him more fully, we seem to be paying the whole, if we return him all that we can. This, therefore, as I said, is our first payment.
The second is, if we do not pay our debt by death, to pay it by love. The Savior himself, as the apostle says, by his death wished to commend his love to us all, to lead us by the example of his loving care to make a fitting return for such great affection. And just as certain marvellous natural gems, when one brings them into contact with iron, though it be of the hardest kind, hold it in suspense by an attraction that seems actually possessed of life, so also he, the greatest and most glorious gem of the heavenly kingdom, wished to come down from heaven to approach more closely to us, to draw us, in spite of our hardness, to his care as if by the hands of his love, that recognizing his gifts and benefits we might come to know what it befitted us to do for so good a master when he had |118 done so much for his wicked servants. Then should be fulfilled the words of the apostle, that we should be killed all the day long for his love, and neither tribulation nor distress nor persecution nor famine nor nakedness nor the sword should be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus the Lord.
11. Since our indebtedness to God is clearly established, let us see what return we make him for all that we owe. What return, indeed, but all the actions of which I have spoken before, namely, whatever is indecent, whatever is unworthy, whatever leads to injury of God, wicked deeds, disgraceful habits, drunken feasts, bloodstained hands, vile lusts, mad passions and whatever else can better be reckoned up by the conscience than in words! "For," said the apostle, "it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret." Nor is this all, for it is an old charge, and belongs no more to the present time than to the past. More serious and lamentable is the fact that we are adding new sins to the old, sins not only new but of a monstrous and heathen sort, such as have not before been seen in the churches of God. We blasphemously revile the Lord, saying that he is a God who does not care for us, a God who pays us no attention, a God who neglects us, who does not govern us, and hence he is pitiless and obdurate, inhuman, harsh and cruel. For, since he is described as not regarding us, as careless and neglectful, what remains but to call him harsh and cruel and inhuman? What blind impudence! what sacrilegious boldness! It is not enough for us, that, bound in our countless sins, we are in all things guilty before God, unless we are also his accusers. Yet what hope, I ask, shall a man have, who, while facing judgment himself, brings accusation against his judge?
12. If God does regard human affairs, some one may say, if he cares for us, loves and guides us, why does he allow us to be weaker and more miserable than all nations? Why does he suffer us to be |119 conquered by the barbarians? Why does he permit us to be subject to the rule of our enemies? To answer very briefly, as I have already said, he suffers us to endure these trials because we deserve to endure them. Let us consider the disgraceful habits, the vices and crimes of the Roman people, as we have described them above, and we shall then understand whether we can have any claim on his protection when we live in such impurity. If we examine in this light our customary argument that our misery and weakness show God's neglect of human affairs, what do we really deserve? If he permitted us, living in such vice and wickedness, to be exceedingly strong, prosperous and completely happy, then perhaps there might be some ground for suspicion that God did not see the evil-doing of the Romans, if he allowed such wicked and abandoned men to be happy. Since instead he bids such vicious and evil men to be most abject and wretched, it is perfectly evident that we are seen and judged by God, for our sufferings are fully deserved.
We, of course, do not think we deserve them, and consequently are the more guilty and blameworthy for failing to recognize our deserts. The chief accusation of wrongdoers is their proud assertion of innocence. Among a number of men charged with the selfsame crime none is more guilty than he who does not acknowledge his guilt even in his own thoughts. We have, therefore, this single addition to make to our wrongdoings, that we consider ourselves guiltless.
But, you may object, grant that we are sinners and wicked men, certainly you cannot deny that we are better than the barbarians, and this alone makes it clear that God does not watch over human affairs, because we, who are better, are subject to men worse than ourselves. Whether we are better than the barbarians, we shall now consider; certainly there can be no doubt that we ought to be better. And for this very reason, we are worse than they, unless we |120 are actually better, for the more honorable position makes any fault doubly blameworthy. The greater the personal dignity of the sinner, the greater is the odium of his sin. Theft for example is a serious crime in any man, but a thieving senator is doubtless far more to be condemned than one of the lower classes. Fornication is. forbidden to all, but it is a much more serious vice in one of the clergy than in one of the people. So also we, who are said to be Christians and catholic, if we are guilty of vices like those of the barbarians, sin more seriously than they, for sins committed by men who claim a holy name are the more abominable. The more lofty our claim to honor, the greater is our fault; the very religion we profess accuses our faults, A pledge of chastity increases the sin of lewdness; drunkenness is more loathsome in one who makes an outward show of sobriety. Nothing is more vile than a philosopher who pursues a vicious and obscene life, since in addition to the natural baseness of his vices, he is further branded by his reputation for wisdom. We therefore, who out of the whole human race have professed the Christian philosophy, for this reason, must be believed and considered worse than all other nations, since, living under so great a profession of faith, in the very bosom of religion, we still sin.
13. I know it seems to most men intolerable that we should be called worse than barbarians. What possible good does it do us to have this seem intolerable? Our condition is made so much the more serious if we are worse than they and yet insist on believing ourselves better. "For if a man think himself to be something," the apostle said, "when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work." We ought to put our trust in our works, not in our opinion; in reason, not lust; in truth, not in our will alone.
Since, then, some men think it unsupportable that we should |121 be adjudged to be worse, or even not much better than the barbarians, let us consider in what way we are better, and in relation to which of the barbarians. For there are two kinds of barbarians in the world, that is, heretics and pagans. To all of these, as far as the divine law is concerned, I declare that we are incomparably superior; as far as our life and actions are concerned, I say with grief and lamentation that we are worse. However, as I said before, let us not make this statement of the whole body of Romans without exception. For I except first of all those men who have devoted themselves to a religious life, and then some laymen who are equal to them; or, if that is too much to say, at least very like them in their upright and honorable actions. As for the rest, all or practically all are more guilty than the barbarians. And to be more guilty is to be worse.
Therefore, since some men think it irrational and absurd that we should be judged as worse, or even not much better than the barbarians, let us see, as I said, how we are worse, and in relation to which barbarians. Now I say that except for those Romans alone, whom I mentioned just now, the others are all or almost all more guilty than the barbarians, and more criminal in their lives. You who read these words are perhaps vexed and condemn what you read. I do not shrink from your censure; condemn me if I do not succeed in proving my words; condemn me if I do not show that the Sacred Scriptures also have said what 1 now claim. I myself who say that we Romans, who judge ourselves far superior to all other nations on earth, are worse in many respects, do not deny that in certain ways we are superior. For while we are, as I have said, worse in our way of life and in our sins, yet in living under the catholic law we are incomparably superior. But we must consider this, that while it is not our merit that the law is good, it is our fault that we live badly. Surely it profits us nothing that |122 our law is good, if our life and conversation are not; for the good law is the gift of Christ, whereas the faulty life is our own responsibility. On the contrary, we are more blameworthy if the law we worship is good and we who worship it are evil. Nay, we do not worship it, if we are evil, for an evil worshipper cannot be properly said to worship at all. He who does not worship sacredly that which is holy does not worship at all, and hereby the very law we hold accuses us.
14. Disregarding, therefore, the privilege of the law, which either does not help us or even brings just condemnation upon us, let us compare the lives, the aims, the customs and the vices of the barbarians with our own. The barbarians are unjust and we are also; they are avaricious and so are we; they are faithless and so are we; to sum up, the barbarians and ourselves are alike guilty of all evils and impurities.
Perhaps the answer may be made: if we are equal to them in viciousness, why are we not also equal to them in strength? Inasmuch as their wickedness is like ours and their guilt identical, either we should be as strong as they, or they as weak as we. That is true, and the natural conclusion is that we who are weaker are the more guilty. What proof have we? The proof is, of course, inherent in my demonstration that God does everything in accordance with judgment. For if, as it is written: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good:" and in the words of the apostle: "The judgment of God is according to truth against all wicked men," we, who do not cease to do evil, see that it is by the judgment of a just God that we endure the penalties for our evil-doing. But, you object, the barbarians commit the same sins, and yet are not as wretched as we. There is this difference between us, that even if the barbarians do the same things that we do, our sins are still more grievous than theirs. For our vices and |123 theirs can be equal without their guilt being as great as ours. All of them, as I said before, are either pagans or heretics. I shall discuss the pagans first, since theirs is the older delusion: among these, the nation of the Saxons is savage, the Franks treacherous, the Gepids ruthless, the Huns lewd ---- so we see that the life of all the barbarians is full of vice. Can you say that their vices imply the same guilt as ours, that the lewdness of the Huns is as sinful as ours, the treachery of the Franks as worthy of accusation, the drunkenness of the Alemanni as reprehensible as that of Christians, the greed of an Alan as much to be condemned as that of a believer?
If a Hun or Gepid is deceitful what wonder is it in one who is utterly ignorant of the guilt involved in falsehood? If a Frank swears falsely, what is strange in his action, since he thinks perjury a figure of speech, and not a crime? And why is it strange that the barbarians have this degree of vice, since they know not the law and God, when a majority of the Romans, who know that they are sinning, take the same attitude?
Not to speak of any other type of man, let us consider only the throngs of Syrian merchants who have seized the greater part of all our towns---- is their life anything else than plotting, trickery and wearing falsehood threadbare? They think words practically wasted that do not bring some profit to their speaker. Among these men God's prohibition of an oath is held in such high esteem that they consider every sort of perjury actually profitable to them. What wonder is it, then, that the barbarians, who do not know that falsehood is a sin, practice deception? None of their actions are due to contempt of the divine ordinances, for they do not know the precepts of God. A man ignorant of the law cannot act in defiance of it. This is our peculiar guilt, who read the divine law and constantly violate its terms, who say that we know God and yet |124 walk roughshod over his commands and precepts; and therefore, since we despise him whom we believe and boast that we worship, the very appearance of worship is an injury to him.