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WHEREFORE we ought to know that we from whom the requirements of the
law are no longer exacted, but in whose ears the word of the gospel daily
sounds: "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast and give
to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come follow Me,"
when we offer to God tithes of our substance, are still in a way ground
down beneath the burden of the law, and not able to rise to those heights
of the gospel, those who conform to which are recompensed not only by
blessings in this present life, but also by future rewards. For the law
promises to those who obey it no rewards of the kingdom of heaven, but only
solaces in this life, saying: "The man that doeth these things shall live
in them." But the Lord says to His disciples: "Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;" and: "Everyone that leaveth
house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or
field for My name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit
eternal life." And this with good reason. For it is not so praiseworthy
for us to abstain from forbidden as from lawful things, and not to use
these last out of reverence for Him, Who has permitted us to use them
because of our weakness. And so if even those who, faithfully offering
tithes of their fruits, are obedient to the more ancient precepts of the
Lord, cannot yet climb the heights of the gospel, you can see very clearly
how far short of it those fall who do not even do this. For how can those
men be partakers of the grace of the gospel who disregard the fulfilment
even of the lighter commands of the law, to the easy character of which the
weighty words of the giver of the law bear testimony, as a curse is
actually invoked on those who do not fulfil them; for it says: "Cursed is
everyone that does not continue in all things that are written in the book
of the law to do them." But here on account of the superiority and
excellence of the commandments it is said: "He that can receive it, let him
receive it." There the forcible compulsion of the lawgiver shows the
easy character of the precepts; for he says: "I call heaven and earth to
record against you this day, that if ye do not keep the commandments of the
Lord your God ye shall perish from off the face of the earth." Here the
grandeur of sublime commands is shown by the very fact that He does not
order, but exhorts, saying: "if thou wilt be perfect go" and do this or
that. There Moses lays a burden that cannot be refused on those who are
unwilling: here Paul meets with counsels those who are willing and eager
for perfection. For that was not to be enjoined as a general charge, nor to
be required, if I may so say, as a regular rule from all, which could not
be secured by all, owing to its wonderful and lofty nature; but by counsels
all are rather stimulated to grace, that those who are great may deservedly
be crowned by the perfection of their virtues, while those who are small,
and not able to come up to "the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ," although they seem to be lost to sight and hidden as it were
by the brightness of larger stars, may yet be free from the darkness of the
curses which are in the law, and not adjudged to suffer present evils or
visited with eternal punishment. Christ therefore does not constrain
anyone, by the compulsion of a command, to those lofty heights of goodness,
but stimulates them by the power of free will, and urges them on by wise
counsels and the desire of perfection. For where there is a command, there
is duty, and consequently punishment. But those who keep those things to
which they are driven by the severity of the law established escape the
punishment with which they were threatened, instead of obtaining rewards
and a recompense.
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