The End of Righteousness

Cavete facere iustitiam vestram coram hominibus, ut videamini ab eis. Numquid hoc voluit dicere, ut quaecumque bona facimus, abscondamus ab oculis hominum, et timeamus videri? Si times spectatores, non habebis imitatores: debes ergo videri. Sed non ad hoc debes facere ut videaris. Non ibi debet esse finis gaudii tui, non ibi terminus laetitiae tuae, ut putes te totum fructum consecutum esse boni operis tui, cum visus fueris atque laudatus. Nihil est hoc. Contemne te cum laudaris: ille in te laudetur, qui per te operatur. Noli ergo ad laudem tuam operari quod bonum agis, sed ad laudem illius a quo habes ut bonum agas. Abs te habes male agere, a Deo habes bene agere. Contra perversi homines videte quam praeposteri sint. Quod faciunt bene, volunt sibi tribuere: si male faciunt, Deum volunt accusare. Converte hoc distortum nescio quid et praeposterum, faciens illud quodammodo capite deorsum: quod susum, faciens iusum: quod deorsum, faciens sursum. Iusum vis facere Deum, et te susum? Praecipitaris, non elevaris: ille enim semper sursum est. Quid ergo? tu bene, et Deus male? Imo hoc dic, si vis verius dicere: Ego male, ille bene; et quod ego bene, ab illo bene: nam a me quidquid ago male. Ista confessio firmat cor, et facit dilectionis fundamentum. Nam si opera nostra abscondere debemus bona, ne videantur ab hominibus; ubi est illa sententia Domini in eo sermone quem habuit in monte? Ubi hoc dixit, ibi et illud paulo ante dixit: Luceant opera vestra bona coram hominibus. Et non ibi cessavit, non ibi finem fecit; sed addidit: Et glorificent Patrem vestrum qui in coelis est. Et Apostolus quid ait? Eram autem ignotus facie Ecclesiis Iudaeae, quae in Christo sunt: tantum autem audientes erant quia qui nos aliquando persequebatur, nunc evangelizat fidem quam aliquando vastabat; et in me magnificabant Deum. Videte quemadmodum et ipse, quia sic innotuit, finem non posuerit in laudem suam, sed in laudem Dei. Et quantum ad ipsum pertinet, vastator Ecclesiae, persecutor invidus, malignus, ipse confitetur, non nos conviciamur. Amat Paulus dici a nobis peccata sua, ut glorificetur ille qui talem morbum sanavit. Magnitudinem enim vulneris manus medici secuit, et sanavit. Vox illa de coelo prostravit persecutorem, et erexit praedicatorem; occidit Saulum, et vivificavit Paulum. Saul enim persecutor erat sancti viri 6; inde nomen habebat iste quando persequebatur Christianos: postea de Saulo factus est Paulus. Quid est Paulus? Modicus. Ergo quando Saulus, superbus, elatus: quando Paulus, humilis, modicus. Ideo sic loquimur, Paulo post videbo te, id est, post modicum. Audi quia modicus factus est: Ego enim sum minimus Apostolorum; et: Mihi minimo omnium sanctorum, dicit alio loco. Sic erat inter Apostolos tamquam fimbria vestimenti: sed tetigit Ecclesia Gentium tamquam fluxum patiens, et sanata est. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, In Epistolam Ioannis Ad Parthos Tractatus Decem, Tractatus VIII

'Take care that you do not your righteousness before men, that you be seen by them.' 1 Did He wish to say this, that whatever good things we do, we should hide them from the eyes of men and fear to be seen? If you fear spectators you will not have imitators; you should therefore be seen. But you must not do it to the end you may be seen. Not there should be the end of your joy, not there the goal of your happiness, that you should think to have obtained the whole fruit of your good work when you are seen and praised. It is nothing. Despise yourself when you are praised, let Him be praised in you who works through you. Therefore do not work the good you do for your own praise, but to the praise of Him from whom you are able to do good. From your self you have the ability to do evil, from God you can do well. On the other hand, look at perverse men, how preposterous they are. What they do well, they delight to ascribe to themselves; if they do badly they delight to accuse God. Turn around this distorted and preposterous thing, which puts the thing, as one may say, head downward, which makes that lowest which is highest, and that which is downwards makes upward. Do you want to make God the lowest and yourself the highest? You fall headlong, you do not lift yourself up, for He is always above. What then? You do well, and God does badly? Rather say this, if you would speak more truly, I do badly, He does well, and what I do well from Him I do well, for from myself whatever I do is bad. This confession strengthens the heart, and makes a foundation for love. For if we should hide our good works lest they be seen by men, what becomes of that sentence of the Lord in the sermon which He gave on the mount? Where He said this, there He also said a little before, 'Let your good works shine before men.' 2 And He did not stop there, He did not there make an end there, but added, 'And glorify your Father which is in Heaven.' And what does the Apostle say? 'And I was unknown by face to the Churches of Judea which were in Christ, for they heard only that he who once persecuted now preaches the faith which once he destroyed. And in me they glorified God.'  3 And see how he, becaming well known, did not turn it to his own praise but to the praise of God. And as regards him as a devastator of the Church, an envious persecutor, a man malignant, it is he himself who confesses this, not we that reproach him for it. Paul loves to have his sins spoken of by us, that He may be glorified who healed such a disease. For the greatness of the wound the hand of the physician cut and healed. That voice from heaven prostrated a persecutor and raised up a preacher, slew Saul and gave life to Paul. For as Saul was the persecutor of a holy man, so this man had his name when he persecuted the Christians. 4 Afterward Saul became Paul. What does Paul mean? In Latin little. Therefore when he was Saul he was proud, lifted up; when he was Paul, he was humble, little. Thus we say, I will see you ' paulo post,' that is, after a little while. Hear that he was made little: 'For I am the least of the Apostles,' 5 and, 'To me the least of all saints,' 6 he says in another place. So was he among the Apostles as the hem of the garment, but the Church of the Gentiles touched it, like she who suffered a flow of blood, and was healed. 7 Saint Augustine of Hippo,Ten Tractates on the Epislte of John to the Parthians, Tractate 8 1 Mat 6:1 2 Mt 5:16  3 Gal 1:22-24 4 1 Sam 19 5 1Cor 15.9 6 Eph 3.8 7 Mt 9:20-22