Corpus-Paul

[Jim West <jwest AT Highland.Net>]

Finally, I send along this little excerpt from Augustine (Civ. Dei) for your
consideration on the topic we have been discussing.


Chapter 14.-Concerning the Eradication of the Love of Human Praise, Because
All the Glory of the Righteous is in God.

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 virtue,-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?"24 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;"25 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,"26 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 consulted, 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."27 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."28 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?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD
email- jwest AT highland.net
web page-  http://web.infoave.net/~jwest