Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Commodianus/The Instructions of Commodianus/Chapter 66

LXV.&#8212;They Who Give from Evil.

Why dost thou senselessly feign thyself good by the wound of another?&#160; Whence thou bestowest, another is daily weeping.&#160; Dost not thou believe that the Lord sees those things from heaven?&#160; The Highest says, He does not prove of the gifts of the wicked.&#160; Thou shalt break forth upon the wretched when thou shalt have gained a place.&#160; One gives gifts that he may make another of no account; or if thou hast lent on usury, taking twenty-four per cent, thou wishest to bestow charity that thou mayest purge thyself, as being evil, with that which is evil.&#160; The Almighty absolutely rejects such works as these.&#160; Thou hast given that which has been wrung from tears; that candidate, oppressed with ungrateful usuries, and become needy, deplores it.&#160; Besides having obtained an opportunity for the exactors, thy enemy for the present is the people; thou consecrated, hast become wicked for reward.&#160; Also thou wishest to atone for thyself by the gain of wages.&#160; O wicked one, thou deceivest thyself, but none else.