Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Commodianus/The Instructions of Commodianus/Chapter 65

LXIV.&#8212;Of the Zeal of Concupiscence.

In desiring, thence thou perishest, whilst thou art burning with envy of thy neighbour.&#160; Thou extinguishest thyself, when thou inflamest thyself within.&#160; Thou art jealous, O envious man, of another who is struggling with evil, and desirest that thou mayest become equally the possessor of so much wealth.&#160; The law does not thus behold him when thou seekest to fall upon him.&#160; Depending on all things, thou livest in the lust of gain; and although thou art guilty to thyself, thou condemnest thyself by thy own judgment.&#160; The greedy survey of the eyes is never satisfied.&#160; Now, therefore, if thou mayest return and consider, lust is vain&#8230;whence God cries out, Thou fool, this night thou art summoned.&#160; Death rushes after thee.&#160; Whose, then, shall be those talents?&#160; By hiding the unrighteous gains in the concealed treasury, when the Lord shall supply to every one his daily life.&#160; Let another accumulate; do thou seek to live well.&#160; And when thy heart is conscious of God, thou shalt be victor over all things; yet I do not say that thou shouldest boast thyself in public, when thou art watching for thy day by living without fraud.&#160; The bird perishes in the midst of food, or carelessly sticks fast in the bird-lime.&#160; Think that in thy simplicity thou hast much to beware of.&#160; Let others trangress these bounds.&#160; Do thou always look forward.