Worthiness

Meaning

Worthiness governs disclosure, reception and use in the First Response. The speakers oppose demands for gold to fund pride and other sins to personal diligence and zeal through and in God. They deem both correspondents worthy of an answer before many thousands, on the basis of their biblical zeal. Their claim that the treasure could tinge the whole world remains conditional: if this were possible and pleasing to God, and if the world were worthy. In the final charge, those deemed worthy must remain faithful to the fraternity and appointed guide, and must disclose the matter to no unworthy person without that guide’s permission. They are told not to rely on themselves and to thank God for grace. Thus worthiness is a judgement of suitability and favour, not automatically a synonym for humility, a quantified merit system or an entitlement. These are the response’s own claims about its speakers, recipients and fraternity, not independent evidence that the organisation existed. They must not be imported without qualification into the main treatise’s free, unmerited gift to the whole human race in Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 6.