22. And that the indolent and the barren, and those, who by their covetousness for money do nothing in respect of the fruit of their salvation, may be the more ashamed, and that the blush of dishonour and disgrace may the more strike upon their sordid conscience, let each one place before his eyes the devil with his servants, that is, with the people of perdition and death, springing forth into the midst, and provoking the people of Christ with the trial of comparison—Christ Himself being present, and judging—in these words: “I, for those whom thou seest with me, neither received buffets, nor bore scourgings, nor endured the cross, nor shed my blood, nor redeemed my family at the price of my suffering and blood; but neither do I promise them a celestial kingdom, nor do I recall them to paradise, having again restored to them immortality. But they prepare for me gifts how precious! how large! with how excessive and tedious a labour procured! and that, with the most sumptuous devices either pledging or selling their means in the procuring of the gift! and, unless a competent manifestation followed, they are cast out with scoffings and hissings, and by the popular fury sometimes they are almost stoned! Show, O Christ, such givers as these of Thine59    Some editors add here, “warned by Thy precepts, and who shall receive heavenly things instead of earthly.”—those rich men, those men affluent with abounding wealth—whether in the Church wherein Thou presidest and beholdest, they set forth a gift of that kind,—having pledged or scattered their riches, yea, having transferred them, by the change of their possessions for the better, into heavenly treasures! In those spectacles of mine, perishing and earthly as they are, no one is fed, no one is clothed, no one is sustained by the comfort either of any meat or drink. All things, between the madness of the exhibitor and the mistake of the spectator, are perishing in a prodigal and foolish vanity of deceiving pleasures. There, in Thy poor, Thou art clothed and fed; Thou promisest eternal life to those who labour for Thee; and scarcely are Thy people made equal to mine that perish, although they are honoured by Thee with divine wages and heavenly rewards.

XXII. Atque, ut pigros et steriles et cupiditate nummaria nihil circa fructum salutis operantes magis pudeat, ut plus conscientiam sordidam dedecoris ac turpitudinis suae rubor caedat , ponat unusquisque ante oculos suos diabolum cum servis suis , id est cum populo perditionis ac mortis, in medium prosilire, plebem Christi , praesente et judicante ipso, comparationis examine provocare dicentem: «Ego 0618B pro istis quos mecum vides nec alapas accepi, nec flagella sustinui, nec crucem pertuli, nec sanguinem fudi, nec familiam meam pretio passionis et cruoris redemi; sed nec regnum illis coeleste promitto, nec ad paradisum restituta immortalitate denuo revoco; et munera mihi quam pretiosa, quam grandia, quam nimio et longo labore quaesita, sumptuosissimis apparatibus comparant, rebus suis vel obligatis in muneris comparatione vel venditis; ac nisi editio honesta successerit , conviciis ac sibilis ejiciuntur, et furore populari nonnunquam pene lapidantur. Tuos tales munerarios, Christe, demonstra, illos divites , illos copiosis opibus affluentes, an in Ecclesia praesidente et spectante te ejusmodi munus edant, oppignoratis vel distractis rebus suis, immo ad coelestes thesauros 0618C mutata in melius possessione translatis. In istis muneribus meis caducis atque terrenis nemo pascitur, nemo vestitur, nemo cibi alicujus aut potus solatio sustinetur. Cuncta inter furorem edentis et spectantis errorem prodiga et stulta voluptatum frustrantium vanitate depereunt. Illic in pauperibus tuis tu vestiris et pasceris, tu aeternam vitam operantibus polliceris; et vix tui meis pereuntibus adaequantur. qui a te divinis mercedibus et praemiis coelestibus honorantur.