that when we make such vows we fall into what Paul calls ἐδελοϑρησκεία [will-worship], Col. 2:23. For this is nothing else than a worship got up of our own will, and that is nothing but hypocrisy and contempt of the divine law. No one thus far has fulfilled what the Lord has commanded. Why, then, do we who have not attained to the divine commands make up new ones? I will say openly what is true: These vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience are an avoidance and evasion of the divine law, as will be evident presently when I have spoken of poverty and obedience. What is the use of vowing poverty? The Christian heart is not Christian unless it is poor; for “Blessed are the poor in spirit” [Mt. 5:3]. According to the law, therefore, we ought all to be poor; and those who are not fail to obey the law. Why, then, do they make a vow of the law itself, as if they could keep it better having vowed than by obeying the commandment of God? But if they vow poverty and want of material things, again they act foolishly. For why do you vow what is not in your power? First, if you are rich, it is not necessary for you to vow poverty, but, according to the words of Christ, to sell all you possess and give to the poor [Mt. 19:21]. This the Lord enjoins. Why do you vow what the Lord enjoins? If, on the other hand, you are poor, why do you vow poverty, which you have to bear whether you willor not? Suppose you vowed that you would be deformed, when you were so before vowing! Next, if God wishes you to be very rich, a king, for instance, or a prince, but to the end that you faithfully dispense what has been entrusted to you, will you vow poverty? Again, when the Lord has refused you riches, but given you a patient heart, so that you can endure cheerfully, and you then vow poverty, are you not more likely to ascribe your bearing a very hard situation with equanimity to your vow than to the grace of God? For if you credited all things to the grace of God, you never would make the vow, but would constantly accommodate yourself to His will.

Now, obedience we all owe to all, for “if anyone shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two,” Matt. 5: 41; and, Love seeketh not her own,” I Cor. 13:5, but is eager to help others; and, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also the same to them,” Matt. 7:12. “The

church of Christ is one body, Rom. 12:5, and this body requires before all things that none of its members shall be at variance. Therefore, those who are members of the church of Christ, from the very fact that they are members of one body, ought honorably to direct or to obey each other as the case may be. What need, then, that you should promise obedience, when you owe it so completely that unless you give it you will find an ungracious judge? And as to the emphasis certain persons so arrogantly put upon what is written in I Sam. 15: 22, “To obey is better than sacrifice,” I answer briefly that, as a rule, it comes to pass by the will of God that if any one iries to abuse His word to serve his own desires he defeats his own ends. And that is the ease here. Samuel said to Saul: “Obedience is better than sacrifice”; but of what obedience was he speaking? Of that by which a man binds himself to some party? Not at all, but of that by which he obeys God in spite of all the schemes of man, however fair and good these are in appearance. Saul had been ordered to destroy everything that belonged to the Amalekites [I Sam. 15: 3, 9, 21-22]; but he, thinking it better that things should not perish uselessly, saved many sheep for a burnt offering unto the Lord. The Lord is angry at this, and says by the mouth of His Prophet, that it is better for you to obey the voice of God than your own counsel. Obedience, therefore, is preferable to sacrifiee, but obedienee to God. How necessary to salvation that is has been abundantly said already.

Now I will show, as I promised, that these vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience are an avoidance and evasion of the divine law and will.

Take chastity first. They vow this, which is not in their own power, and on account of it they scorn marriage, and when they ought to be begetting and bringing up children, they defend themselves with their vows; but see how nicely! They go a-whoring more shamelessly than dogs. And if you advise them to abandon the monastery and marry, since they see that continence is denied them, they reply that they are bound by the terms of their vow. See, now, whether this be not overriding the law of God on account of human tradition. I will say nothing of those vile and filthy things that the majority

of monks secretly devise from uncontrollable passion, so that it is quite plain that their hearts, and sometimes their bodies also, are defiled with fouler lusts than those living in wedlock; nay, are so vile that they cannot even be compared with respectable marriages. But, however filthy and foul they are, they fail to obey the law of God on account of their vow.

Their poverty is such a no-poverty that nowhere can you find greater riches along with greater peace and quiet than in the monasteries. If you live in the world, even though you are very rich, you have to attend to many things, to run about from place to place, to fear rain, hail, and other inclemencies of weather. These friends of ours neither fear nor trouble themselves about any of these things, but without sweat l and blood all things come to them; they toil not, neither cleave the soil with the ploughshare, yet when no market has any pheasants or pigeons, hares or goats, there is nothing in the way of stockfish, sole, mullet and eels that is not brought to them. Truly it is a great achievement to bear their want! Why should 1 speak of raiment? In winter they keep themselves so warm with skins and wool and fires that they sometimes have to sweat in spite of themselves; in summer their robes are so open to the breeze, they lay aside so completely all heavy clothing, that you might think they could live on air.

Further, their obedience is such that if a parent is in want they are not allowed to help her, even if she has spent all her substance in getting this cuckoo into that nest. If she is ill, they are not allowed, in consequence of this obedience, to go out and to nurse, to relieve, and to help, in this illness. (I say nothing of the rest of the poor.) When the government demands contributions, they are exempt; when it assigns posts of duty, they object that, bound by their allegiance to God, they cannot fill these. Why continue? They have nothing in common with their toiling neighbors and fellow-countrymen. If war breaks out, they sleep not under the sky, but snoring peacefully in the pleasantest habitations, so that Solomon in all his glory [Mt. 6:29] could not have enjoyed the delights of this world in such peace and quiet. They owe nothing to anyone but themselves, they look out for no one but themselves. And

[Her own son. The cuckoo is proverbial for ingratitude.]

the most outrageous thing of all is that the more wealth they heap up, the more they lavish upon their own pleasures; the more unyieldingly they have resisted the government in bearing the common burdens, the more they expect to be looked up to and to be considered lords of all. They are adored, worshipped, made gods of. You will never see them forbid that being done to them which ought to be rendered unto God alone. Such are these impious vows, which to these fellows, nay to us fools also, seem so fine. They promise chastity, but are content with having promised, and are more lascivious than goats; poverty, though the King himself has greater lack than they; obedience, which is manifest disobedience to God and foreign to all Christian love. Therefore they betray Christ who bind themselves by these vows. They revolt from the law of God, for they follow their own laws, scorning and rejecting the divine, and they lay aside humanity towards their kin and neighbors. For who is more cruel in commands than they, who holds on more greedily to his own than they? No one can help seeing that this kind of life has been sown by the enemy, that is, Satan, like tares among the wheat of the Lord, Matt. 13:25. Paul, that most watchful bishop, had zealously tried to guard against this evil, Acts 20: 29 and Col. 2: 18, but we have kept a poor lookout. Now, however, since God has opened our eyes again, let us walk in the light [I John 1:7], asit were. Let us do away with these evils, but with sense and order, lest the last state become worse than the first [II Pet. 2: 20].

---

← 54. Commentary on True and False Religion · Contents · 56. Commentary on True and False Religion →