The City of God

Athe Apostle said, "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." 1 Timothy 6:6-10 For those whose earthly riches perished in that devastation, if they held them as they had heard from that man who was poor outwardly but rich inwardly—that is, if they used the world as though they used it not—they could say what that man who was heavily tested and not at all overcome said: "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; as it pleased the Lord so is it done; blessed be the name of the Lord." Job 1:21 As a good servant, he held great wealth to be the very will of his master, to whom he was a follower, becoming rich in his mind, and was not saddened by leaving behind those living things which he was soon to leave behind anyway as he died. But those who were weaker, who clung to these earthly goods with some greed, although they did not prefer them to Christ, felt in losing them how much they had sinned by loving them. For they grieved as much as they had pierced themselves with sorrows, as I mentioned above the Apostle said. For it was necessary that the discipline of experience be added to those who had so long neglected words. For when the Apostle said, "They that will be rich fall into temptation," he surely reproved greed in riches, not the possession of them, which he commanded elsewhere, saying: "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." 1 Timothy 6:17-19 Those who did this with their riches solaced light losses with great gains, and they were more joyful for the things they had safely preserved by distributing them easily than they were saddened by those things which they had lost more easily by retaining them fearfully. For that could perish on earth which they were too stingy to transfer from there. For those who received the counsel of their Lord saying, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also," Matthew 6:19-21 proved in the time of tribulation how rightly they had acted by not despising the most truthful teacher and the most faithful and invincible guardian of their treasure. For if many rejoiced that they had their riches where the enemy could not reach, how much more certainly and securely could they rejoice who, by the warning of their God, had migrated to where it could not be reached at all. Whence our Paulinus, bishop of Nola, from a most opulent rich man, by his own will a very poor man, and most copiously holy, when the barbarians devastated Nola itself and he was held by them, prayed thus in his heart, as we afterwards learned from him: "Lord, let me not be tormented because of gold and silver, for where all my things are, You know." For he had all his things where He who had predicted that these evils were coming to the world had warned him to store and treasure them. And thus, those who had obeyed their Lord warning them where and how they ought to treasure did not even lose their earthly riches when the barbarians were invading. But those who regretted not having obeyed, if they had not learned beforehand by wisdom, they certainly learned by the following experience what ought to be done with such things. But some good Christians were tormented so that they might betray their goods to the enemy. Truly, they could neither betray nor lose the good by which they themselves were good. If, however, they preferred to be tormented rather than to betray the mammon of iniquity, they were not good. But those who suffered so much for gold ought to have been admonished as to how much they should endure for Christ, so that they might learn to love Him who would enrich those who suffered for Him with eternal happiness, rather than gold and silver, for which it was most miserable to suffer, whether it was hidden by lying or betrayed by speaking the truth. For among the torments, no one lost Christ by confessing Him, and no one saved gold except by denying Him.