Charity · 2 of 12

The Second of Charity: To Do Goods as Uses

13.II THE “SECOND” OF CHARITY IS TO DO GOODS BECAUSE THEY ARE USES. To be expounded in this order: (1) Doing no evil to the neighbour is of charity. (2) Wishing to do good to the neighbour is of charity. (3) A man may be doing good, which he believes to be of charity, and all the while not be shunning evil; and yet every evil is contrary to charity. (4) In proportion as a man does not wish to do evil to the neighbour, he wishes to do good to him; but not the reverse. (5) Before the good a man does is the good of charity, evil must first be put away, because it is contrary to charity; and this is done by looking to the Lord, and by repentance. (6) Such as the recognition of evil is, and its consequent putting away by repentance, such is the good which is of charity. (7) Hence it follows that the “first” of charity is to look to the Lord and shun evils as sins; and that the “second” of charity is to do goods.

14.Not wishing to do evil to the neighbour is of charity. Everyone sees that charity does not do evil to the neighbour, because charity is love towards the neighbour, and he who loves someone is afraid of doing evil to him. There is a conjunction of minds between them. It is because of this that, when he does evil to him to whom he is conjoined by love, it is perceived in his mind as though he were doing evil to himself. Who can do evil to his children, wife, or friends? - For doing evil is contrary to the good of love.

15.Who does not see that anyone hating another, acting against him with hostility and animosity, burning with revenge, and desiring his death, is not loving the neighbour? that anyone who would commit whoredom with someone else’s wife, who would deflower virgins and abandon them, or violate women, is not loving the neighbour? that he who would plunder and upon one pretext or another steal his goods, who injures another person’s reputation by slandering and so bearing false witness, is not loving the neighbour? Nor, indeed, he who covets his house, his wife, or the many other things that are his neighbour’s? From which it is evident that not wishing to do evil to the neighbour is of charity.

16.Concerning this Paul writes thus, “Loving the neighbour is fulfilling the law,” in two places. And elsewhere from the Word:

17.2. Wishing to do good to the neighbour is of charity. This is well known, for it is believed that giving to the poor, succouring the needy, assisting widows and orphans, benefiting ministers, contributing to churches, hospitals, and various pious uses, is of charity ; again, that feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the stranger, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, going to those bound in prison, and many other things, are good works of charity. But yet they are good only in so far as a man shuns evils as sins. If the man does these good works before shunning evils as sins, they are external, even merit-seeking, because they spring from an impure fountain, and things issuing from such a fountain are inwardly evil. There is the man in them, and the world in them.

18.That doing Christian good works is of charity is well known; and many people believe that good cancels out evil, and that so there are not [any] evils with a man, or that they are not regarded; but good does not cancel out evil unless the man thinks about the evils with himself, and repents of them.

19.There are many who have so believed, and have supposed that there was no evil with them. When examined, they have confessed that they were full of evils, and that unless they were kept in external things, they could not be saved.

20.3. A man may be doing good, which he believes to be of charity, and all the while not be shunning evil; and yet every evil is contrary to charity. It is evident that to shun evil [and to do Christian good] are two distinct things; for there are people who do every good of charity from piety and from thinking about eternal life, and all the while they do not know that hating, bearing revenge, committing whoredom, plundering and injuring, slandering, and so bearing false witness, and many [other things, are to be shunned]. There are judges who live piously, and yet do not count it a sin to make their judgments on a basis of friendship, relationship, or with a view to honour and gain; and even if they do know they are evils, they confirm themselves in the belief that they are not. So also do others. In a word, there are two distinct things, shunning evils as sins, and doing Christian good. He who shuns evils as sins does Christian goods, but they who do good and do not shun evils as sins, do not do any Christian good; for evil is contrary to charity, and is therefore to be abolished first before the good which anyone does is accompanied with charity, that is, is of charity. No one is able to do good and at the same time to do evil, or to will good and also evil.

21.Every good that in itself is good proceeds from the interior will. From this will, evil is removed by repentance. The evil into which a man is born resides there also. Unless, therefore, he repents, evil remains in the interior will, and the good proceeds from the. exterior will, and so his condition is a perverted one. The interior qualifies the exterior, and not the exterior the interior. The Lord says : “Cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter.”

22.Man has a twofold will, interior and exterior. The interior will is purified by repentance; and then the exterior does good from the interior. Exterior good does not remove the evil of lusting, or evil’s root.

23.4. In proportion as a man does not wish to do evil to the neighbour, he wishes to do good to him; but not the reverse. There is civil good, there is moral good, and there is spiritual good. Good, before a man shuns evils as sins, is civil and moral good; but as a man shuns evils as sins, the good, both civil good and moral good, becomes spiritual as well, but not before.

24.Lusting lies hidden within, and its delight is outside. When, therefore, a man thinks from lusting and its delight, either he confirms evil and believes it to be allowed, and so is in evil; or he does not think about any evil with himself, and so believes himself to be sound.

25.It is true that a man ought to confess to being a sinner, and that from the head to the sole of the foot there is no soundness in him. This he can say, and say from knowledge; but still he cannot inwardly believe it unless he knows it through investigation. Then he can say these things, and then he first discerns that there is no soundness in him. In this and in no other way is the ulcer opened and healed. In any other way it is palliative curing.

26.Did not the Lord preach repentance; the disciples also; and John the Baptist? Isaiah says that the first thing is to cease from evils, and that then one learns to do good. Nor does one know, before that, what is good, or of what quality good is. Evil does not know what is good; whereas good, from knowing what is good, knows evil.

27.Before the good a man does is the good of charity, evil must first be put away, because it is contrary to charity; and this is done by repentance. Since evil must first be known for the reason that it is to be put away, the Decalogue was the “first” of the Word, and in the whole of Christendom is also the “ first “ of the doctrine of the Church. All are initiated into the Church through knowing evil, and, because it is against God, not doing it.

28.Therefore this “first” was so holy, for the reason that no one is able to do Christian good before.

29.That good follows, is clearly evident from this: A judge says, I do not intend to pass judgment from evil, for various reasons, but justly; and he does good.

30.A farmer says, I do not intend to do my work except justly and faithfully; so he does good work.

31.So in a thousand other instances; when anyone does not do evil he does good.

32.It can therefore be taken as a maxim, that to shun evil as sin is to do good.

33.6. Such as the recognition of evil is, and its consequent putting away by repentance, such is the good which is of charity. According as a man knows what is more or less evil. According as he knows the evils of faith and also the evils of life. And how he desists from them; And desists from them as he looks to the Lord and believes in Him.

34.Examples can teach. Whether he is such inwardly; then the purer he is; then of better water is the fountain from which his good flows.

35.In a word, good to anyone is good in the same degree and of the same kind as evil to him is evil. The one cannot be separated from the other.

36.In so far as any one puts off the old man, he puts on the new.

37.In so far as anyone crucifies the flesh, he lives in the spirit.

38.No one can serve two masters at the same time.

39.Recognition involves that what is true and what is false has to be known. Putting away is of the will. Both are of the life.

40.7. Hence it follows that the “first” of charity is to look to the Lord and shun evils because they are sins; and that the “second” of charity is to do goods. An evil man, as well as a good one, can do good. He can help someone in need, can do him many good offices, from goodwill, kindness, friendship, or compassion. But nevertheless these things are not of charity with the one who does them, but with the one to whom the charity is exercised. To outward appearance it is charity.

41.When anyone has shunned an evil as a sin several times, then there appears to him only the good that he is doing; and they [that is, the prior shunning of evil and the subsequent doing of good] are with him together. But nevertheless the one must be prior; and the one really is prior and interior.