16. But neither let the consideration, dearest brethren, restrain and recall the Christian from good and righteous works, that any one should fancy that he could be excused for the benefit of his children; since in spiritual expenditure we ought to think of Christ, who has declared that He receives them; and not prefer our fellow-servants, but the Lord, to our children, since He Himself instructs and warns us, saying, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”47    Matt. x. 37. Also in Deuteronomy, for the strengthening of faith and the love of God, similar things are written: “Who say,” he saith, “unto their father or mother, I have not known thee; neither did they acknowledge their children, these have observed Thy words, and kept Thy covenant.”48    Deut. xxxiii. 9. For if we love God with our whole heart, we ought not to prefer either our parents or children to God. And this also John lays down in his epistle, that the love of God is not in them whom we see unwilling to labour for the poor. “Whoso,” says he, “hath this world’s goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”49    1 John iii. 17. For if by almsgiving to the poor we are lending to God—and when it is given to the least it is given to Christ—there is no ground for any one preferring earthly things to heavenly, nor for considering human things before divine.

XVI. Sed nec illa res, fratres charissimi, a bonis operibus et justis refraenet et revocet Christianum, quod excusari se posse aliquis existimet beneficio 0614A filiorum, quando in impensis spiritalibus Christum cogitare , qui accipere se professus est, debeamus, nec conservos liberis nostris sed Dominum praeferamus, ipso instruente et monente: Qui diligit, inquit, patrem aut matrem super me, non est me dignus; et qui diligit filium aut filiam super me, non est me dignus (Matth. X, 37). Item in Deuteronomio, ad corroborationem fidei et dilectionem Dei, paria conscripta sunt: Qui dicunt, inquit, patri aut matri, Non novi te, et filios suos non agnoverunt, hi custodierunt praecepta tua, et testamentum tuum servaverunt (Deut. XXXIII, 9). Nam, si Deum toto corde diligimus, nec parentes nec filios Deo praeferre debemus. Quod et Joannes in Epistola sua ponit , charitatem Dei apud eos non esse quos videamus operari in pauperes nolle: Qui 0614B habuerit, inquit, substantiam mundi, et viderit fratrem suum desiderantem , et clauserit viscera sua, quomodo charitas Dei manet in illo (Joan. III, 17)? Si enim Deus eleemosynis pauperum foeneratur, et cum datur minimis Christo datur, non est quod quis terrena coelestibus praeferat nec divinis humana praeponat.