{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4149","native_reference":{"book_number":250,"chapter_from":5,"chapter_to":5,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":4,"verse_to":4},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Caesarius of Arles</b>: It does a person no good to say that he possesses faith if he neglects to fulfill in deed what he promises in word. As the Scriptures say, \"If you have vowed anything to God, defer not to pay it. For an unfaithful and foolish promise displeases him. It is much better not to vow than after a vow not to perform the things promised.\" In order that we may understand these facts clearly from our relations with our servants, let someone tell me whether it is enough for him if his servant says all day that he is his lord and ceases not to commend him with praises but refuses to do what has been commanded. Therefore, if words without deeds do not please us, how much more can faith without works fail to benefit us in the sight of God? Above all, we must fear lest someone believes so strongly that he will receive God's mercy that he does not dread his justice. If a person does this, he has no faith. Likewise, if he dreads God's justice so much that he despairs of his mercy, there is no faith. Since God is not only merciful but also just, let us believe in both. Let us not despair of his mercy because we fear his justice or love his mercy so much that we disregard his justice. Therefore we should neither hope wrongly nor despair wickedly.<br/><i>— SERMON 12:5</i></p><p><b>John Cassian</b>: This will be fulfilled in this way by each one of us. We pray when we renounce this world and promise that being dead to all worldly actions and the life of this world we will serve the Lord with full purpose of heart. We pray when we promise that despising secular honors and scorning earthly riches we will cling to the Lord in all sorrow of heart and humility of spirit. We pray when we promise that we will always maintain the most perfect purity of body and steadfast patience, or when we vow that we will utterly remove from our heart the roots of anger or sorrow that bring about death. And if weakened by sloth and returning to our former sins we fail to do this, we shall be guilty as regards our prayers and vows, and these words will apply to us: \"It is better not to vow than to vow and not to pay,\" which can be rendered in accordance with the Greek: \"It is better for you not to pray than to pray and not to pay.\"<br/><i>— CONFERENCE 9:12</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"c92ab0e8c661561bbc2e3aeea6117d67f491a2a160ffddbeb4708da5a6b8dd9b","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4149,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"b57175c6c0cb1186c02cb7f535d0228c712710c4d3b282a7f74762e5d34345a0","translator":null,"work":null}