|
The great friend of God, Abraham, had by Sara his
chief wife a most dear only son, Isaac, who also was
his sole heir: and though he had Ismael by Agar, and
several other children by Cetura, who were wives of a
servile and inferior condition, yet he bestowed upon
these only certain presents and legacies whereby to
put them off and disinherit them, because not being
acknowledged by his chief wife, they could not
succeed him: now they were not acknowledged, because,
with regard to the children of Cetura, they were all
born after Sara's decease; and as for Ismael, though
his mother Agar had at first acted by the authority
of Sara her mistress, yet afterwards she despised her
mistress, and would not allow Sara's rights over the
child.Now, Theotimus, it is only the children,
that is the acts, of most holy charity, and the
children or acts which the other virtues conceive and
bring forth under her commandment and direction, or
at least under the wings and favour of her presence,
which are heirs of God, and joint heirs with
Christ.(1)
But when the moral virtues, or even the
supernatural virtues, produce their actions in the
absence of charity, as they do amongst schismatics,
according to S. Augustine, and sometimes amongst bad
Catholics, they are of no value towards Paradise, not
even alms-giving, though it should lead us to
distribute all our goods to the poor, nor yet
martyrdom, though we should deliver our body to the
flames to be burnt. No, Theotimus, without charity,
says the Apostle, all this profiteth nothing; as we
show more amply elsewhere.
Further, when in the production of moral virtue
the will proves disobedient to her mistress, which is
charity (as when by pride, vanity, temporal interest,
or some other bad motive, virtues are turned from
their own nature), then those actions are driven out
and banished from Abraham's house and Sara's society,
that is, they are deprived of the fruit and of the
privileges of charity, and consequently are left
without worth or merit. For those actions, thus
infected by a bad intention, are in fact more vicious
than virtuous; they have virtue only on their
outside; their interior belongs to vice, which serves
them for a motive; witness the fastings, offerings,
and other actions of the Pharisee.
But finally, besides all this, as the Israelites
lived peaceably in Egypt during the life of Joseph
and of Levi, and directly after the death of Levi
were tyrannically reduced to slavery whence arose
that proverb of the Jews: One of the brothers being
deceased, the others are oppressed: [as is related in
the great Chronology of the Hebrews, published by the
learned Archbishop of Aix, Gilbert Genebrard, whom I
name for honour and with consolation, having been his
disciple, though an unworthy one, when he was Royal
Reader at Paris, and was explaining the Canticle of
Canticles] - so the merits and fruits, as well of
moral as of Christian virtues, most sweetly and
tranquilly subsist in the soul while sacred love
lives and reigns therein; but as soon as divine love
dies, all the merits and fruits of other virtues die
at once. These are the works which divines call
killed (mortifies), because, having been born alive
under the protection of charity, and, like Ismael, in
the family of Abraham, they afterwards lose life and
the right of inheritance by the disobedience and
rebellion of the human will, which is their mother.
Alas! Theotimus, what an evil! If the just man turn
himself away from his justice, and do iniquity
according to all the abominations which the wicked
man useth to work, shall he live? All his justices
which he hath done shall not be remembered: in the
prevarication by which he hath prevaricated, and in
the sin which he hath committed, in them he shall
die, says Our Lord in Ezechiel.(2)
So that mortal sin ruins all the merit of virtues:
because, as for those which are performed while sin
reigns in the soul, they are born so dead that they
are for ever useless towards eternal bliss; and as
for those which were performed before the sin was
committed, that is, while sacred love lived in the
soul, their value and merit perish and die as soon as
sin comes, not being able to preserve their life
after the death of charity which had given it to
them.
The lake which profane authors commonly call
Asphaltites, and sacred authors the Dead Sea, has so
heavy a curse upon it, that nothing that is put into
it can live: when the fish of the Jordan come near it
they die, unless they speedily return against the
stream; the trees upon its shore produce nothing that
lives, and although their fruits are in appearance
and outward show like the fruits of other places, yet
when gathered they are found to be only skins and
rinds full of ashes, which are blown away by the
wind: - a sign of the infamous sins, in punishment of
which, this country, which contained four populous
cities, was of old converted into an abyss of
corruption and infection: and nothing, methinks,
could better represent the evilness of sin than this
abominable lake, which had its origin from the most
execrable crime human flesh can commit.
Sin, therefore, as a dead and mortal sea, kills
all that comes near it; nothing has life of all that
is born in the soul which sin possesses, or of all
which grows round about. Alas! Theotimus, nothing.
For sin is not only a lead work, but is moreover
so infectious and pestilential, that the most
excellent virtues of the sinful soul produce no
action of life: and although the acts of the sinner
have oftentimes a great resemblance to those of the
just man, yet are they in reality but rinds filled
with wind and dust, regarded indeed, by the divine
goodness, and even rewarded with temporal presents,
which are bestowed upon them as upon the children of
servants; but rinds which neither are nor can be of
so agreeable a relish to the divine justice as to be
rewarded with eternal reward.
They perish on the trees, and cannot be preserved
in the hand of God, because they are void of true
worth, as is said in the Apocalypse to the Bishop of
Sardis, who was considered to be a living tree by
reason of divers virtues which he practised, and yet
was dead,(3) because he was in sin; his virtues were
not true living fruits, but dead rinds and pleasing
only to the eye, not savoury apples good for food.
So that we may all utter this true saying, in
imitation of the holy apostle: Without charity I am
nothing, nothing profiteth me; and that of St.
Augustine: "Put charity in a heart and everything
profits, take charity away and nothing profits." I
mean that nothing profits for eternal life, for as we
say elsewhere, the virtuous works of sinners are not
useless for temporal life. But, my dear Theotimus,
what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world
temporally and suffer the loss of his soul(4)
eternally.
|