Now, in order that a man may live well, it is necessary first of all that he die to the world before he dies to the life of the body. For all who live to the world are dead to God; nor can it in any way come about that a man begins to live to God unless he first dies to the world. Moreover, this truth is preached in Holy Scripture with such evidence that it cannot be called into doubt except by infidels and unbelievers. And that "in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand," I will bring forward the holy Apostles John, James, and Paul, witnesses beyond all exception, inasmuch as in them the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth, spoke most plainly. Thus, then, writes John the Apostle and Evangelist, presenting Christ Himself as speaking: "The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not anything" (John 14), where by the prince of the world he understands the devil, who is the prince of all the wicked, and by the world he understands the company of all sinners who love the world and are loved by the world. The same says a little further on: "If the world hate you, know that it hath hated Me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love what was its own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15). And in another place: "I pray not for the world, but for those whom You have given Me" (John 17), where Christ plainly declares that under the name of the world are meant those who, together with their prince the devil, will hear at the judgment: "Depart, you cursed, into everlasting fire." The same Apostle adds in his Epistle: "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him; for all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the concupiscence thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." James likewise speaks thus in his Epistle: "Adulterers, know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of this world becometh an enemy of God." Finally, let us hear Paul, the fellow Apostle of them both, that vessel of election: writing in his First Epistle to the Corinthians to all the faithful, he says, "Otherwise you must needs go out of this world" (1 Cor. 5); and in another place in the same Epistle, "But while we are judged, we are chastised by the Lord, that we be not condemned with this world" (1 Cor. 11). Here the Apostle plainly teaches that the whole world will be condemned at the last day. Yet by the world are not meant heaven and earth, nor all who live in it, but only those who love the world. For the just and devout, in whom reigns the love of God and not the concupiscence of the flesh, are indeed in the world, but not of the world; the wicked, however, are not only in the world but also of the world, and therefore in their hearts there reigns not the love of God but the concupiscence of the flesh — that is, lust — and the concupiscence of the eyes, which is avarice, and the pride of life, which is the esteeming of oneself above others; and so they imitate the arrogance and pride of the devil, not the humility and meekness of Jesus Christ. Since, then, this is so, if we wish to learn the art of dying well, it is our bounden duty to go forth from the world in earnest — not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth — nay, to die to the world, and to cry out with the Apostle, "The world is crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6). And this is no light matter, but a business of the greatest difficulty and importance: for our Lord, when asked, "Are they few that are saved?" answered, "Strive to enter by the narrow gate" (Luke 13); and still more clearly He speaks in St. Matthew: "Enter ye in at the narrow gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait the way, that leadeth to life, and few there are that find it" (Matt. 7). Now, to live in the world and at the same time to despise the pleasures of the world is very difficult: to look upon beautiful things and not love them; to taste sweet things and take no delight in them; to despise honours and seek out labours; willingly to take the lowest place, and to yield the highest to all others; in fine, to live in the flesh as though one had no flesh — this seems to belong to angels rather than to men. And yet the Apostle, writing to the church of the Corinthians, in which nearly all were living with their wives, so that they were neither clerics, nor monks, nor hermits, but, in the phrase now current, seculars; yet he thus addresses them: "This therefore I say, brethren: the time is short. It remaineth that they also who have wives be as if they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as if they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they bought not; and they that possess, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as if they used it not; for the fashion of this world passeth away" (1 Cor. 7). The meaning of these words is that the Apostle exhorts the faithful, who are lifted up by the hope of heavenly happiness, to be as little moved by earthly things as if those things did not concern them; that they should love their wives, but with a love so moderate as if they had them not; that if they must weep over the loss of children or of fortune, they should weep so moderately as if they were not sorrowful and did not weep; that if joy presents itself on account of some gain or honour obtained, they should rejoice so temperately as if they did not rejoice — that is, as if the joy did not belong to them; that if they buy a house or a field, they should be so little attached to such things as if they did not possess them. In a word, the Apostle bids us sojourn in the world as though we were strangers and pilgrims, not citizens — as the Apostle Peter teaches still more plainly when he says: "I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires, which war against the soul" (1 Pet. 2). For this most blessed Prince of the Apostles wills that even in our own city and our own house we should live as though we dwelt in the house and country of another, troubled very little whether things in that place are wanting or abound. And he gives this command precisely that we may so abstain "from carnal desires, which war against the soul" — for carnal desires do not easily arise when we look upon things that do not belong to us. This, then, is what it means to be in the world and yet not of the world; and it belongs to those who, being dead to the world, live to God alone, and who therefore do not fear the death of the body, which brings them not loss but gain, according to that word of the Apostle Paul: "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. 1).
But how many, I ask, shall we find in our times so dead to the world that they have already learned even to die well to the flesh, and thereby to place their salvation in safety? For my part, I do not doubt that in the Catholic Church there are to be found not a few holy men, truly dead to the world, who have learned the art of dying well — not only in monasteries and among the clergy, but even in the world. Yet I see that this also cannot be denied: very many are to be found who are not only not dead to the world, but bound to it beyond measure, and the most ardent lovers of pleasures, honours, and riches; and unless these resolve to die to the world, and in very deed die to it (1 Cor. 11), they will without doubt perish by an evil death and, with the world itself, as the Apostle says,
But perhaps the lovers of the world will say that it is too difficult to die to the world while we are living in it, and to neglect those good things which God created for men to enjoy. To them, therefore, I answer that this is not what God wills or commands — that riches, honours, and the other goods of the world should be utterly neglected or despised: for Abraham was a friend of God above all, and he possessed immense riches. David also, and Hezekiah, and Josiah, are read of as kings who were exceedingly rich and at the same time most dear to God; and we could say the same of many Christian kings and emperors. Therefore the goods of this world — riches, honors, pleasures — are not utterly forbidden to Christian men; but the immoderate love of the things of this world is, which the Apostle John calls the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life. Abraham was certainly very rich, but not only did he use his riches with moderation; he was also most ready to pour out everything at once at God's nod (Gen. 22). For he who did not spare his only son, his best and most beloved, when God commanded that he be sacrificed by his own father — how much more easily would he have poured out all his wealth at the Lord's nod? Thus Abraham was rich in possessions, but richer still in faith and charity; and for that reason he was not of this world, but rather was dead to the world. The same can be said of the other holy men who, though endowed with riches, power, and glory, and even with kingdoms and empire, were poor in spirit and dead to the world, living to God alone, and learned the art of dying well most thoroughly. It is not, then, the abundance of riches, nor the height of honor, nor kingdom or empire that makes a man to be of the world or to live in the world, but the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life — which in one word is called cupidity, and is opposed to divine charity. Accordingly, if anyone begins, with God inspiring him, truly to love God Himself for His own sake, and his neighbor for God's sake, he will begin to go out of the world; and as charity grows, cupidity will diminish, and he himself will begin to die to the world. For charity cannot grow without cupidity being diminished. And so it will come about that what seemed impossible while cupidity reigned — namely, that a man living in the world should not be of the world — is rendered most easy as charity grows and cupidity is lessened; for what is to cupidity an unbearable and harsh burden is to charity a sweet yoke and a light burden.
What we said above, therefore — that to go out of the world and to die to the world is not children's play, but a very great and most difficult thing — was most truly said of those who have not known the power of God's grace and have not tasted the sweetness of charity, and who are sensual, having not the Spirit; for once the Spirit has been tasted, all flesh loses its savor. Let everyone, then, who earnestly desires to learn thoroughly the art of dying well — the art on which eternal salvation and all true happiness depend — not put off going out of the world and dying utterly to the world; since it can in no way happen that anyone should live both to the world and to God, or enjoy both earth and heaven.