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It is, therefore, doubtless far better to resist this desire than to
yield to it, for the purer one is from this defilement, the liker is
he to God; and, though this vice be not thoroughly eradicated from
his heart, for it does not cease to tempt even the minds of those who
are making good progress in vi-tue, at any rate, let the desire of
glory be surpassed by the love of righteousness, so that, if there be
seen anywhere "lying neglected things which are generally
discredited," if they are good, if they are right, even the love of
human praise may blush and yield to the love of truth. For so hostile
is this vice to pious faith, if the love of glory be greater in the
heart than the fear or love of God, that the Lord said, "How can
ye believe, who look for glory from one another, and do not seek the
glory which is from God alone?" Also, concerning some who had
believed on Him, but were afraid to confess Him openly, the
evangelist says, "They loved the praise of men more than the praise
of God;" which did not the holy apostles, who, when they proclaimed
the name of Christ in those places where it was not only discredited,
and therefore neglected, according as Cicero says, "Those things
are always neglected which are generally discredited,", but was even
held in the utmost detestation, holding to what they had heard from the
Good Master, who was also the physician of minds, "If any one
shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who
is in heaven, and before the angels of God," amidst maledictions and
reproaches, and most grievous persecutions and cruel punishments, were
not deterred from the preaching of human salvation by the noise of human
indignation. And when, as they did and spake divine things, and
lived divine lives, conquering, as it were, hard hearts, and
introducing into them the peace of righteousness, great glory followed
them in the church of Christ, they did not rest in that as in the end
of their virtue, but, referring that glory itself to the glory of
God, by whose grace they were what they were, they sought to kindle,
also by that same flame, the minds of those for whose good they
con-suited, to the love of Him, by whom they could be made to be
what they themselves were. For their Master had taught them not to
seek to be good for the sake of human glory, saying, "Take heed that
ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of them, or
otherwise ye shall not have a reward from your Father who is in
heaven." But again, lest, understanding this wrongly, they
should, through fear of pleasing men, be less useful through
concealing their goodness, showing for what end they ought to make it
known, He says, "Let your works shine before men, that they may
see your good deeds, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."
Not, observe, "that ye may be seen by them, that is, in order that
their eyes may be directed upon you,", for of yourselves ye are,
nothing, but "that they may glorify your Father who is in heaven,"
by fixing their regards on whom they may become such as ye are. These
the martyrs followed, who surpassed the Scaevolas, and the
Curtiuses, and the Deciuses, both in true virtue, because in true
piety, and also in the greatness of their number. But since those
Romans were in an earthly city, and had before them, as the end of
all the offices undertaken in its behalf, its safety, and a kingdom,
not in heaven, but in earth, not in the sphere of eternal life, but
in the sphere of demise and succession, where the dead are succeeded by
the dying, what else but glory should they love, by which they wished
even after death to live in the mouths of their admirers?
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