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But, say they, the catholic Christians have Christ for a
foundation, and they have not fallen away from union with Him, no
matter how depraved a life they have built on this foundation, as
wood, hay, stubble; and accordingly the well-directed faith by which
Christ is their foundation will suffice to deliver them some time from
the continuance of that fire, though it be with loss, since those
things they have built on it shall be burned. Let the Apostle James
summarily reply to them: "If any man say he has faith, and have not
works,. can faith save him?" And who then is it, they ask, of
whom the Apostle Paul says, "But he himself shall be saved, yet so
as by fire?" Let us join them in their inquiry; and one thing is
very certain, that it is not he of whom James speaks, else we should
make the two apostles contradict one another, if the one says,
"Though a man's works be evil, his faith will save him as by
fire," while the other says, "If he have not good works, can his
faith save him?"
We shall then ascertain who it Is who can be saved by fire, if we
first discover what it is to have Christ for a foundation. And this
we may very readily learn from the image itself. In a building the
foundation is first. Whoever, then, has Christ in his heart, so
that no earthly or temporal things, not even those that are legitimate
and allowed, are preferred to Him, has Christ as a foundation. But
if these things be preferred, then even though a man seem to have faith
in Christ, yet Christ is not the foundation to that man; and much
more if he, in contempt of wholesome precepts, seek forbidden
gratifications, is he clearly convicted of putting Christ not first
but last, since he has despised Him as his ruler, and has preferred
to fulfill his own wicked lusts, in contempt of Christ's commands and
allowances. Accordingly, if any Christian man loves a harlot, and,
attaching himself to her, becomes one body, he has not now Christ for
a foundation. But if any one loves his own wife, and loves her as
Christ would have him love her, who can doubt that he has Christ for
a foundation? But if he loves her in the world's fashion, carnally,
as the disease of lust prompts him, and as the Gentiles love who know
not God, even this the apostle, or rather Christ by the apostle,
allows as a venial fault. And therefore even such a man may have
Christ for a foundation. For so long as he does not prefer such an
affection or pleasure to Christ, Christ is his foundation, though on
it he builds wood, hay, stubble; and therefore he shall be saved as
by fire. For the fire of affliction shall burn such luxurious
pleasures and earthly loves, though they be not damnable, because
enjoyed in lawful wedlock. And of this fire the fuel is bereavement,
and all those calamities which consume these joys. Consequently the
superstructure will be loss to him who has built it, for he shall not
retain it, but shall be agonized by the loss of those things in the
enjoyment of which he found pleasure. But by this fire he shall be
saved through virtue of the foundation, because even if a persecutor
demanded whether he would retain Christ or these things, he would
prefer Christ. Would you hear, in the apostle's own words, who he
is who builds on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones? "He
that is unmarried," he says, "careth for the things that belong to
the Lord, how he may please the Lord." Would you hear who he is
that buildeth wood, hay, stubble? "But he that is married careth
for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
"Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare
it,", the day, no doubt, of tribulation, "because," says he,
"it shall be revealed by fire." He calls tribulation fire, just as
it is elsewhere said, "The furnace proves the vessels of the potter,
and the trial of affliction righteous men."4 And "The fire shall
try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide
", for a man's care for the things of the Lord, how he may please
the Lord, abides, "which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive
a reward, ", that is, he shall reap the fruit of his care. "But
if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss,", for what
he loved he shall not retain:, " but he himself shall be saved,",
for no tribulation shall have moved him from that stable foundation, "
yet so as by fire;" for that which he possessed with the sweetness of
love he does not lose without the sharp sting of pain. Here, then,
as seems to me, we have a fire which destroys neither, but enriches
the one, brings loss to the other, proves both.
But if this passage [of Corinthians] is to interpret that fire of
which the Lord shall say to those on His left hand, "Depart from
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," so that among these we are to
believe there are those who build on the foundation wood, hay,
stubble, and that they, through virtue of the good foundation, shall
after a time be liberated from the fire that is the award of their evil
deserts, what then shall we think of those on the right hand, to whom
it shall be said, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you," unless that they are those who have built
on the foundation. gold, silver, precious stones? But if the fire
of which our Lord speaks is the same as that of which the apostle
says, "Yet so as by fire," then both, that is to say, both those
on the right as well as those on the left, are to be cast into it.
For that fire is to try both, since it is said, "For the day of the
Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the
fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." If,
therefore, the fire shall try both, in order that if any man's work
abide, i.e., if the superstructure be not consumed by the fire, he
may receive a reward, and that if his work is burned he may suffer
loss, certainly that fire is not the eternal fire itself. For into
this latter fire only those on the left hand shall be cast, and that
with final and everlasting doom; but that former fire proves those on
the right hand. But some of them it so proves that it does not burn
and consume the structure which is found to have been built by them on
Christ as the foundation; while others of them it proves in another
fashion, so as to burn what they have built up, and thus cause them to
suffer loss, while they themselves are saved because they have retained
Christ, who was laid as their sure foundation, and have loved Him
above all. But if they are saved, then certainly they shall stand at
the right hand, and shall with the rest hear the sentence, "Come,
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you;" and
not at the left hand, where those shall be who shall not be saved, and
shall therefore hear the doom, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire." For from that fire no man shall be saved, because
they all shall go away into eternal punishment, where their worms shall
not die, nor their fire be quenched, in which they shall be tormented
day and night for ever.
But if it be said that in the interval of time between the death of
this body and that last day of judgment and retribution which shall
follow the resurrection, the bodies of the dead shall be exposed to a
fire of such a nature that it shall not affect those who have not in
this life indulged in such pleasures and pursuits as shall be consumed
like wood, hay, stubble, but shall affect those others who have
carried with them structures of that kind; if it be said that such
worldliness, being venial, shall be consumed in the fire of
tribulation either here only, or here and hereafter both, or here that
it may not be hereafter, this I do not contradict, because possibly
it is true. For perhaps even the death of the body is itself a part of
this tribulation, for it results from the first transgression, so that
the time which follows death takes its color in each case from the
nature of the man's building. The persecutions, too, which have
crowned the martyrs, and which Christians of all kinds suffer, try
both buildings like a fire, consuming some, along with the builders
themselves, if Christ is not found in them as their foundation, while
others they consume without the builders, because Christ is found in
them, and they are saved, though with loss; and other buildings still
they do not consume, because such materials as abide for ever are found
in them. In the end of the world there shall be in the time of
Antichrist tribulation such as has never before been. How many
edifices there shall then be, of gold or of hay, built on the best
foundation, Christ Jesus, which that fire shall prove, bringing joy
to some, loss to others, but without destroying either sort, because
of this stable foundation! But whosoever prefers, I do not say his
wife, with whom he lives for carnal pleasure, but any of those
relatives who afford no delight of such a kind, and whom it is right to
love, whosoever prefers these to Christ, and loves them after a human
and carnal fashion, has not Christ as a foundation, and will
therefore not be saved by fire, nor indeed at all; for he shall not
possibly dwell with the Saviour, who says very explicitly concerning
this very matter, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is
not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is
not worthy of me." But he who loves his relations carnally, and yet
so that he does not prefer them to Christ, but would rather want them
than Christ if he were put to the proof, shall be saved by fire,
because it is necessary that by the loss of these relations he suffer
pain in proportion to his love. And he who loves father, mother,
sons, daughters, according to Christ, so that he aids them in
obtaining His kingdom and cleaving to Him, or loves them because they
are members of Christ, God forbid that this love should be consumed
as wood, hay, stubble, and not rather be reckoned a structure of
gold, silver, precious stones. For how can a man love those more
than Christ whom he loves only for Christ's sake?
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