11. This you have in the Gospel; for the same wages are paid to all the labourers in the vineyard; but few attain to the prize, to the reward; few say, _There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness_. For the gift of bounty and of grace is one thing; another the wages of virtue, the recompense of labour. Sidenote: S. Matt. xvii. 27. Sidenote: S. John i. 29. Sidenote: Phil. ii. 7. 12. Therefore a shekel is our ransom, nay half a shekel. He has redeemed us from death, redeemed from slavery, that we may not be subject to the world, which we have renounced. Whence in the Gospel our Lord bids Peter _go to the sea, and cast an hook_, and _take the stater which he will find in the fish’s mouth_, and _give it to them_ who required of the Lord and of himself a shekel. This then is that shekel which was exacted by the Law, nevertheless it was not due from the King’s Son, but from strangers. For why should Christ ransom Himself from this world, when He came _to take away the sin of the world_? Why should He redeem Himself from sin, Who came down that He might remit to all their sins? Why should He redeem Himself from servitude, Who _emptied Himself_ that He might give liberty to all? Why should He redeem Himself from death, Who took flesh, that by His Death He might obtain for all a resurrection? Sidenote: S. Matt. iii. 15. Sidenote: Rom. x. 4. Sidenote: Ps. xii. 6. 13. Truly the Redeemer of all had no need of a redemption; but as He received circumcision that He might fulfil the Law, and came to be baptized that He _might fulfil righteousness_, so also did He not refuse to pay those who required of Him the shekel, but straightway commanded the stater to be given as the tribute for Himself and Peter. For He chose rather to give beyond the Law than to deny the Law’s due. At the same time He shews that the Jews acted contrary to the Law, in exacting a shekel from one person, whereas Moses had ordained that half a shekel should be required. On this account He commanded as it were single pieces to be paid both for Himself and for Peter in the stater. Good is the tribute of Christ, which is paid by the _stater_, for justice is the _balance_[14], and justice is above the Law. Again, _Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth_. This stater is found in the fish’s mouth, of that fish which the fishers of men take, of that fish who weighs his words that they may be tried by the fire before they are uttered. Sidenote: Exod. xxi. 5.