|
59. But whatever may be the majesty of the style, the life of the
speaker will count for more in securing the hearer's compliance. The
man who speaks wisely and eloquently, but lives wickedly, may, it is
true, instruct many who are anxious to learn; though, as it is
written, he "is unprofitable to himself." Wherefore, also, the
apostle says: "Whether in pretence or in truth Christ is
preached." Now Christ is the truth; yet we see that the truth can
be preached, though not in truth, that is, what is right and true in
itself may be preached by a man of perverse and deceitful mind. And
thus it is that Jesus Christ is preached by those that seek their
own, and not the things that are Jesus Christ's. But since true
believers obey the voice, not of any man, but of the Lord Himself,
who says, "All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that
observe and do: but do not ye after their works; for they say and do
not;" therefore it is that men who themselves lead unprofitable lives
are heard with profit by others. For though they seek their own
objects, they do not dare to teach their own doctrines, sitting as
they do in the high places of ecclesiastical authority, which is
established on sound doctrine. Wherefore our Lord Himself, before
saying what I have just quoted about men of this stamp, made this
observation: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat."
The seat they occupied, then, which was not theirs but Moses',
compelled them to say what was good, though they did what was evil.
And so they followed their own course in their lives, but were
prevented by the seat they occupied, which belonged to another, from
preaching their own doctrines.
60. Now these men do good to many by preaching what they themselves
do not perform; but they would do good to very many more if they lived
as they preach. For there are numbers who seek an excuse for their own
evil lives in comparing the teaching with the conduct of their
instructors, and who say m their hearts, or even go a little further,
and say with their lips: Why do you not do yourself what you bid me
do? And thus they cease to listen with submission to a man who does
not listen to himself, and in despising the preacher they learn to
despise the word that is preached. Wherefore the apostle, writing to
Timothy, after telling him, "Let no man despise thy youth," adds
immediately the course by which he would avoid contempt: "but be thou
an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity,
in spirit, in faith, in purity."
|
|