Hilary is not content with setting a standard which his flock must strive to reach. He would have them attain to a higher level than is commanded, and at the same time constantly remember that they are failing to perform their duty to God. This higher life is set before his whole audience as their aim. He recognises the peculiar honour of the widow and the virgin Ib. cxxxi. 24, cxxvii. 7, and especially cxviii., Nun, 14., but has singularly little to say about these classes of the Christian community, or about the clergy, and no special counsel for them. The works of supererogation—the word is not his—which he preaches are within the reach of all Christians. They consist in the more perfect practice of the ordinary virtues. King David ‘was not content henceforth to be confined to the express commands of the Law, nor to be subject to a mere necessity of obedience.’ ‘The Prophet prays that these free-will offerings may be acceptable to God, because the deeds done in compliance to the Law’s edict are performed under the actual compulsion of servitude Tr. in Ps. cxviii., Nun, 13, 15. It is in this passage that Hilary gives his views most fully. His antithesis is between legitima and voluntaria..’ As an instance he gives the character of David. His duty was to be humble; he made himself humble exceedingly, thus doing more than he was legally bound to do. He spared his enemies so far as in him lay, and bewailed their death; this was a free service to which he was bound by no compulsion. Such conduct places those who practice it on the same level with those whose lives are formally consecrated; the state of the latter being regarded, as always in early times, as admirable in itself, and not as a means towards higher things. Vigils and fasts and acts of mercy are the methods advocated by Hilary for such attainment. But they must not stand alone, nor must the Christian put his trust in them. Humility must have faith for its principle, and fasting be combined with charity. l.c. Nun, 14, Comm. in Matt. v. 2. In the latter passage there is a piece of practical advice which shews that public fasts were generally recognised. Hilary tells his readers that they must not take literally our Lord’s command to anoint themselves when they fast. If they do, they will render themselves conspicuous and ridiculous. The passage, Comm. in Matt. xxvii. 5, 6, on the parables of the Virgins with their lamps and of the Talents cannot be taken, as by Förster, as evidence that Hilary rejected the later doctrine of the supererogatory righteousness of the Saints. He is speaking of the impossibility of contemporaries conveying righteousness to one another in the present life, and his words have no bearing on that doctrine. And the Christian must never forget that though he may in some respects be doing more than he need, yet in others he is certainly falling short. For the conflict is unceasing; the devil, typified by the mountains in the Psalm, has been touched by God and is smoking, but is not yet burning and powerless for mischief Tr. in Ps. cxliii. 11.. Hence there is constant danger lest the Christian fall into unbelief or unfruitfulness, sins equally fatal Ib. li. 16.; he must not trust in himself, either that he can deserve forgiveness for the past or resist future temptations E.g. ib. lxi. 6, cxviii., He, 12, Nun, 20, Koph, 6.. Nor may he dismiss his past offences from his memory. It can never cease to be good for us to confess our former sins, even though we have become righteous. St. Paul did not allow himself to forget that he had persecuted the Church of God Ib. cxxxv. 4.. But there is a further need than that of penitence. Like Cyprian before him and Augustine after him, Hilary insists upon the value of alms in the sight of God. The clothing of the naked, the release of the captive plead with God for the remission of our sins Ib. li. 21.; and the man who redeems his faults by alms is classed among those who win His favour, with the perfect in love and the blameless in faith Ib. cxviii, Lamed, 15. Similar passages are fairly numerous; e.g. Comm. in Matt. iv. 26..