peak not of the crowd, I speak
not of the vile multitude of _the children of this world_:[105] I would
have you lift up your eyes upon the very _pillars_[106] of the Church.
Whom can you show me, even of the number of those who seem to be _given
for a light to the Gentiles_,[107] that in his lofty station is not
rather a smoking wick than a blazing lamp? And, says One, _if the light
that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness_![108] Unless
perchance, which I do not believe, you will say that they shine who
_suppose that gain is godliness_;[109] who in the Lord's inheritance
_seek not the things which are_ the Lord's, but rather _their own_.[110]
Why do I say _their own_? He would be perfect and holy, even while he
seeks his own and retains his own, who should restrain his heart and
hands from the things of others. But let him remember, who seems to
himself to have advanced perhaps thus far, that the same degree of
holiness is demanded even of a gentile.[111] Are not _soldiers_ bidden
to _be content with their wages_ that they may be saved?[112] But it is
a great thing for a doctor of the Church if he be as one of the
soldiers; or, _if_, in truth (as the prophet speaks to their reproach),
_it be as with the people so with the priest_.[113] Hideous! Is it so
indeed? Is he rightly to be esteemed highest who, falling from the
highest rank can scarce cleave to the lowest, that he be not engulfed in
the abyss? Yet how rare is even such a man among the clergy! Whom,
likewise, do you give me who is content with necessaries, who despises
superfluities? Yet the law has been enjoined beforehand by the Apostles
on the successors of the Apostles, _Having_ food _and_ raiment, _let us
be therewith content_.[114] Where is this rule? We see it in books, but
not in men. But you have [the saying] about the righteous man, that _the
law of his God is in his heart_,[115] not in a codex. Nor is that the
standard of perfection. The perfect man is ready to forgo even
necessaries. But that is beside the mark.[116] Would that some limit
were set on superfluous things! Would that our desires were not
infinite! But what? Perhaps you might find one who can achieve this. It
would indeed be difficult; but [if we find him] see what we have done.
We were seeking for a very good man, a deliverer of many; and lo, we
have labour to discover one who can save himself. The very good man
to-day is one who is not utterly bad.

2. Wherefore, _since t