Library of the Theological Seminary 
 
 PRINCETON " NEW JERSEY 
 
 From the Library of 
 Professor William Henry Green 
 
 BS2.418.4 .T79 1844 
 Trench, Richard Chenevix, 1807-1886. 
 Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount d 
 Irom the vvrilini^ of Si. Aususline, with ot 
 

 %fef>. If^f 
 
EXPOSITION 
 
 SEEMON ON THE MOUNT, 
 
 DRAWN FROM THE 
 
 WRITINGS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, 
 
 OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, M.A. 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 NOTES ON THE PARABLES. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. 
 
 M.DCCC.XLIV. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY C. BOWORTH AND SONS, 
 BELL YARD, TFMPLE BAR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This little volume is not, as a glance at any page 
 will show, a translation of St. Augustine's Com- 
 mentary on the Sermon on the Mount,' but an 
 attempt to draw from the circle of his writings, 
 (that one of course included,) what of most impor- 
 tant he has contributed for the elucidation, or the 
 turning to practical uses, of this portion of Holy 
 Scripture. 
 
 Yet I am conscious, from the very plan upon 
 which the book is written, that it may be open 
 to a charge, at least from an unfriendly critic, of 
 something like presumption. It may be said that 
 there is in it a continual passing of judgment, — 
 an allowing and a disallowing, — a selecting and a 
 putting aside, — an approving and condemning; 
 and this in regard of one whom the Church has 
 ever recognized among the very chiefest of her 
 teachers. A friend, to whom the manuscript, 
 when nearly prepared for press, was shown, — and 
 whose counsel and judgment that 1 am able at all 
 
 ' In the Benedictine Edition, torn. iii. pars 2*, pp. 162 — 236. 
 
 a2 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 times to profit by, is one of the chief happinesses 
 of my hfe, — has warned me that it will hardly 
 escape a charge of the kind. Yet I have not 
 therefore been persuaded to alter my scheme, as 
 indeed I could not have altered it, without re- 
 nouncing the work altogether. For the plan 
 which is now finding favour among us, of pre- 
 senting in the mass, unsifted and untried, the old 
 expositions of Scripture, often placing side by 
 side explanations which, in their minor details at 
 least, exclude one another, and this with no at- 
 tempt to judge or discriminate between them, — 
 no endeavour to separate the accident of one age, 
 the superfluous, it may be the injurious, excres- 
 cence from the eternal truth, which is of all and 
 for all ages, — seems to me profitable for little, and 
 not likely to lead us into any deeper, or clearer and 
 more intelligent knowledge of Scripture. More- 
 over, when we confine ourselves merely to the 
 giving back the old, and this with well nigh a 
 suspension of all judgment about it, what is this 
 but saying, that the productive powers of the 
 Church have ceased ; that her power of educing 
 from God's Word, by that Spirit which is ever 
 with her, the truth in those forms in which it will 
 best meet our present needs, exist no longer ; 
 that henceforth the Scripture shall be for us a 
 cistern, clear it may be, and full, but no longer a 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 spring of water springing up as freshly and newly 
 for our lips, as for the lips of any generation 
 which has gone before : — and as her productive, 
 so also that her discriminative power is gone ; she 
 may no longer discern that which is akin to, and 
 will assimilate with, her true life, and claim that 
 and that only for her own ? 
 
 Neither seeiiis there any genuine humility in 
 forgoing or denying our advantages ; — they may 
 be slight ones compared with those which other 
 ages enjoyed for entering into the meaning of 
 God's Word; but, if slight, therefore to be hus- 
 banded the more. And, not to speak of the accu- 
 mulation of merely critical and external helps, 
 some such we plainly have. To deny this were to 
 deny to the Church, — to her who, according to her 
 truest idea, is ever teacher and ever taught, — that 
 she has been learning any thing in the eighteen 
 hundred years of her troubled warfare with the 
 evil within her and the evil without. Yet some 
 things surely she has found out : some practices 
 which promised well, which she anticipated would 
 further piety, her own life and history have taught 
 her do inevitably sooner or later run to seed, and 
 hinder that holiness which they were meant to set 
 forward ; that, tolerably safe in the hands of the 
 earnest few, they are most unsafe when they de- 
 scend, as by inevitable progress they must descend, 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 to the more careless many. Some language which 
 for a while she held, or did not at least absolutely 
 exclude, she has now discovered not to be the 
 most adequate expression of the doctrines which 
 she has always held, and therefore she will use 
 no longer, and will disclaim, though she find it 
 used by the most honoured of her teachers, even 
 as she is sure they would disclaim it now. Before 
 the false teaching of Eutyches had compelled her 
 clearly to represent to herself the relation of the 
 two natures in Christ, it impeached no man's 
 orthodoxy, though he spoke of our blessed Lord 
 as God mingled with man ; but who, that meant 
 right, would have used this language after ? Be- 
 fore the order of our justification had been brought 
 out with that distinctness, in which a doctrine only 
 can be brought out through an earnest contend- 
 ing for it against some that would obscure or deny 
 it, men might put the first last, and speak of sins 
 " expiated with alms," or " washed out with tears." 
 We there recognize a loss, while all lack of dis- 
 tinctness is such, but not a denial upon their 
 parts who used this language then, that " we are 
 justified by faith only." It were another thing to 
 seek to revive and return to that language now. 
 
 The consciousness, moreover, that we, too, in 
 our age, have our errors, — most of them, like some 
 inner vest, worn so close, as to be invisible even 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 to ourselves, — that we, too, have our mistaken ten- 
 dencies, our superstitions, our fauUy statements 
 of the truth, which we are handing down to the 
 Church of a later age, slowly to discern, painfully 
 to get rid of,— this, while it may well hinder that 
 boastful self-exalting spirit, which is more fatal 
 than any thing beside to a profiting by the past, 
 yet must not hinder from a respectful using, even 
 as regards our great forefathers in the faith them- 
 selves, whatsoever since their time the Church has 
 won. Such a freedom they used with one another, 
 such they demanded should be used in regard of 
 themselves ; ^ and such we must use in regard of 
 them, if we would obtain from their writings the 
 large blessing which they are capable of yielding ; 
 if these are to help to lead us into liberty, and not 
 into bondage ; if they are to be indeed our riches, 
 and not, under that name, truly our poverty. 
 
 For myself, in regard of this little volume, 
 which is in every way so slight, that it is hardly 
 worth making an apology about it, and yet which 
 I would not willingly leave exposed to this charge 
 
 '■ I will quote Augustine's own words on this very subject. He 
 says, (Ep. 148, c. 4,) Xeque enim quorumlibetdisputationes, quamvis 
 Catholicorum et laudatorum hominum, velut Scripturas canonicas 
 habere debemus, ut nobis non liceat salva honorificentia quae illis 
 debetur hominibus, aliquid in eorum scriptis improbare atque respuere, 
 si forte invenerimus quod aliter senserint quatn \'eritas habet, divine 
 adjutorio vel ab aliis intellecta, vel a nobis. Talis ego sum in scriptis 
 aliorura, tales volo esse intellectores meorum. 
 
via PREFACE. 
 
 of presumption, I can only say that it was begun 
 in a thankful admiration, which has gone on ever 
 increasing and deepening, for the infinite spiritual 
 and intellectual riches which are contained in the 
 writings of St. Augustine, All added acquaint- 
 ance with these more and more has explained to 
 me the mighty influence, the spell which he has 
 exerted over so many among the strongest spirits 
 of all ages, — the great purposes which God in his 
 providence has made him to fulfil for his Church. 
 
 For first, if one accurately regards the earlier 
 theology of the Christian East, one cannot fail to 
 be struck with this, that it was prevailingly a 
 metaphysic of the divine Being, a contemplation 
 of the divine attributes and perfections. It was 
 with these, most needful indeed to be fixed and 
 to be first fixed, that the Church was mainly 
 occupied for more than the first three centuries of 
 her existence. But in Augustine the theolooy of 
 the West, and of the modern world, — the theology 
 which relates not merely to God, but to the God 
 of men, — first came out into its full importance. 
 St. Paul had now his rights no less than St. John. 
 Theology was no longer the science of God merely 
 or mainly as he is in himself, but in his relation 
 to us. It is not any more the objective know- 
 ledge of God which is all, but with this the sub- 
 jective knowledge of sin, and knowledge of grace; 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 no longer predominantly a God revealing, but 
 also a God communicating, himself; — not Christ 
 the God-man only, but Christ the Redeemer as 
 well. And now, too, man first appears in his true 
 worth and dignity : that which shows him to be 
 nothing, shows him also to be much ; for in him 
 all these counsels of grace centre ; round him these 
 purposes of eternity revolve ; he appears as the 
 meeting-place of two worlds ; the personal signifi- 
 cance of every man comes out, and the free modern 
 western world begins, — the germs of it at least 
 are securely laid. And believing this, one cannot 
 sufficiently admire the manner in which St. Augus- 
 tine's appearance was timed ; for it was the last 
 moment at which he could have lived to share the 
 fulness of the culture of the ancient world ; since 
 from that moment that whole world was daily be- 
 coming more incoherent, and going more rapidly 
 to pieces. He in fact himself survived it in Italy : 
 it hardly survived him a few months in Africa. At 
 the same time he thus lived the nearest to, and in 
 the most favourable position for influencing, that 
 new world, in forming of which he was so greatly 
 to aid. 
 
 How much he did form it, how he ruled the 
 middle ages, either in his own name, or by mould- 
 ino- the men who in their turn ruled their oenera- 
 tion, is known to every student of Church History. 
 Nor is it hard to understand how this should have 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 been : for the two great tendencies of those ages, 
 the mystic and scholastic, are both lying, in much 
 more than their first elements, side by side in his 
 writings.^ There is in them, on the one hand, a 
 rare dialectic skill, with the keenest delight in its 
 exercise, and in all speculative inquiry; a desire 
 ever, where it was possible, to justify to the rea- 
 son what had first been received by faith, with a 
 confidence that what was humbly received by this 
 would afterwards commend itself to that. Yet 
 with all this there is borne by him a continual 
 witness against the excesses of the dialectic and 
 speculative tendencies : he evermore summons to 
 a more excellent way of knowing, one not mediate, 
 but intuitive and immediate,- a knowing which is 
 first loving ; he evermore would have us remember 
 that we shall sooner enter into the deepest mys- 
 teries of the faith by praying than disputing. 
 Nor did his dominion end with the middle ages. 
 
 ' In remarkable confirmation of this view of him, as one who 
 united and anticipated all that was best and noblest in these two 
 tendencies, is the fact that Hugo de Sancto Victore, on whom 
 Liebner has written a work (Hugo von St. Victor, Leipzig, 1832), 
 as the first in whom the scholasticism and mysticism of the middle 
 ages, hitherto hostile and intolerant of one another, were reconciled 
 and harmoniously atoned, should have borne the title from his con- 
 temporaries of alter Augustinus, lingua Augustini. 
 
 ^ Thus (which is the very heart of mysticism) he says, on the 
 power in the human mind by which ideas are contemplated (De 
 Civ. Dei, 1. xi. c. 3), Quia et ipse rectissime setisus dicitur. Cf. De 
 Quaest. Ixxxiii. qu. 46 j De Lib. Arb. 1. ii. c. 16. 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 On the contrary, that work for which we owe him 
 the greatest thanks was yet to be accompHshed. 
 The Reformers felt and found that he was emi- 
 nently their Doctor, The issue of their later con- 
 troversy in the matter of justification lay in fact 
 wrapped up in the issue of his controversy with 
 the Pelagians. This last being won, that was 
 implicitly won also, while it was only the same 
 question at a later stage of its development, the 
 necessary carrying out of the truths which he then 
 asserted. The contest concerning the extent of 
 the corruption of human nature did most truly 
 involve the question concerning the nature of the 
 remedies which would be equal to meet that cor- 
 ruption, — the conditions under which it was pos- 
 sible that the sick man could recover his health ; 
 whether aught, in short, could be the remedy, ex- 
 cept that faith which should place him in imme- 
 diate relation with Christ, and thus be the channel 
 whereby the uninterrupted streams of an healing 
 life should flow into his soul. And in the Romish 
 Church itself, whensoever any of her children, a 
 Baius or Jansenius, without desiring absolutely to 
 forsake her communion, have yet longed to make 
 these doctrines of grace more or less their own, 
 they have ever sheltered themselves under the 
 authority of Augustine, — they have ever pleaded 
 that they were but holding what he had held long 
 before. 
 
XU PREFACE. 
 
 When we feel thus concerning him, — when we 
 have this thankful recognition of the greatness of 
 his work, which has extended through so many 
 ages, so much of which we are inheriting now, — 
 which has indelibly stamped itself on the very 
 form of our Catechism and our Articles, — there 
 can be little reason why we should shrink from 
 expressing, with exactly the confidence which we 
 feel in the matter, any occasional dissent from 
 the details of his Scriptural interpretation : more 
 especially when in this matter also we know, that 
 after every drawback which the truth may require 
 is made, our obligations to him, whether as re- 
 gards scientific or popular exposition, the laws of 
 interpretation, or the practical application of those 
 laws, are probably greater than to any single In- 
 terpreter of God's Word. A glance at his popular 
 exposition, as it finds place in his Sermons and 
 Discourses, is sufficient to explain the proverb of 
 the Spaniards, No hay Sermon sin Augustino, — so 
 full are they of the richest homiletic treasures, of 
 happiest illustration, the homeliest as the highest: 
 so does he make all daily life, and all men's com- 
 mon words^ and ways, to witness for truths greater 
 than before they guessed of themselves; with such 
 genial tact does he ever know how to plant himself 
 
 ■ As he himself says, Ipsa lingua popularis, plerumque est doc- 
 triiia salutaris. 
 
PREFACE. XIU 
 
 at the central point of that truth which he desires 
 to illustrate, and from thence securely to un- 
 fold it ; so skilled is he to reconcile, and that even 
 for the popular apprehension, Scriptures that may 
 seem contrary, showing them one at their root; 
 with such a forceful brevity does he concentrate 
 the whole truth which he desires to impart into 
 some single phrase, some polished shaft, at once 
 pointed to pierce, and barbed that it shall not 
 lightly drop from the memory. ^ Examples of 
 his rare merits in all these kinds, if I have not 
 
 ' Clausen, a living Dane, who in his work Augustiuus Sacrae 
 Scripturae Interpres, Berl. 1828, certainly does not spare to bring 
 forward the shadow-side as well as the light-side of his character as 
 an expositor, yet, p. 267, sums up his excellences thus: — Mira Au- 
 gustini eral ingenii profunditas, ardens et cordata pietas ; ut animum 
 ad ea, quae intus quaeque in sublimi sunt, totum conversum haberet : 
 satis egisse se non pnus arbitratus, quiim sibi usibusque suis religiosis 
 satisfactum esset, veritates ex sacro idearum fonte elicere, ad interna 
 conscientiae oracula revocare studio generoso annisus est. Hinc 
 egregiae multae interpretationis virtutes ortae sunt : soHicitudo reli- 
 giosa, gravitas verecunda, pia sinceritas : quum litteras sacras fidei 
 regulam, lucem pietatis, vitae magistram positas esse sciret, neque 
 igitur nisi ad doctrinam et vitam usus redundaret, docto labori 
 laudeni preiiuraque constare. Et quanta Nostri in vestigiis ad metam 
 hancce dirigendis constantia erat ! quanta in sententiis multis dog- 
 maticis vel etbicis efferendis construendisque diligentia, sagacitas, 
 sapientia vere Christiana ! ut non tam argutando dixeris eum intel- 
 lexisse, quid scripserint auctores sacri, quam impetu interno ductum, 
 quid senserint ipsum sensisse ; ita in expositionibus nihil deest, nihil 
 superest, nihil claudicat : cardinem rei acu quasi tetigit feriitque, ut 
 veritate tibi persuasum, pietate te commotum, simplicitate delectatum 
 sentias. 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 made my selections very ill, this little volume 
 will frequently supply. 
 
 And not less valuable are the laws and prin- 
 ciples of Scriptiiral Hermeneutics, as laid down 
 by him, whether in his formal treating of the sub- 
 ject,^ or scattered here and there with a rich and 
 careless hand through his other writings. Many 
 of them relate to the moral conditions under which 
 alone the interpreter of God's Word can hope to 
 arrive at the truth, the temper in which he shall 
 encounter difficulties, and knock at the door of 
 mysteries ; " that the true order is not. Know and 
 
 ' As mainly in his work, De Doctriua Christiana. 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. cxlvi. 6. Ideo quid debeas facere in difficultate 
 intelligendi, ostendit tibi, cum consequenter dicit, Suscipiens man- 
 suetos Dominus. Verbi gratia, Non intelligis, parum intelligis, non 
 consequeris : honora Scripturam Dei, honora Verbum Dei, etiam 
 non apertum : differ pietate intelligentiara. Noli proteivus esse 
 accusare aut obscuritatem aut quasi perversitatem Seripturae. Per- 
 versum hic nihil est, obscurum autem aliquid est; non ut tibi negetur, 
 sed ut exerceat accepturum. Ergo quando obscurum est, medicus 
 illud fecit, ut pulses. Voluit ut exerceris in pulsando, voluit ut 
 pulsanti aperiret. Pulsando exerceberis; exercitatus, latiorefficieris; 
 latior factus, capies quod donatur. . . . Noli recalcitrare adversiis 
 obscura, et dicere. Melius diceretur, si sic diceretur. Quando enim 
 potes tu sic dicere aut judicare, quomodo dici expediat? Sic dictum 
 est, quomodo dicit debuit. Non corrigat seger medicamenta sua ; 
 novit ea medicus modificare ; ei crede, qui te curat. And elsewhere, 
 on the end which these obscurities serve, Si nusquam aperta esset 
 Scriptura, non te pasceret ; si nunquam occulta, non te exerceret. 
 And once more, De Doct. Christ. 1. ii. c. 6 ; Magnifice igitur et 
 salubriter Spiritus Sanctus ita Scripturas sacras moditicavit, ut locis 
 apertioribus fami occurreret, obscurioribus autem fastidia detergeret. 
 Again, Latere te aequitas potest, esse ibi iniquitas non potest. 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 believe, but, Believe and know ; ^ and this is a 
 subject to which he often returns, for, as he is 
 forward to confess, he himself had knocked once 
 in a temper in which it was inevitable that he 
 should knock in vain.^ Or else they are technical 
 rules ; and these almost always such as are ser- 
 viceable now, and will be profitably laid up in the 
 mind of any who may undertake the expounding 
 of the Word of God.^ For with the deepest sense 
 
 ' Serm. xliii. c. 3. Dlcit mihi homo, Intelligam ut credam. Ego 
 ei respondeam, Immo crede ut intelligas. And elsewhere, Credat 
 in Christum, ut possit intelligere Christum. 
 
 ' Loquor vobis aliquando deceptus ; quum primo puer ad divinas 
 Scripturas ante vellem afferre acumen discutiendi, quam pietatem 
 quaerendi, ipse ego contra me perversis manibus claudebam januam 
 Domini mei : . . . superbus enim audebam quaerere, quod nisi humilis 
 non potest invenire. 
 
 * This, for instance, on the dramatic character of much in the 
 Psalms and Prophets and elsewhere ; Enarr. in Ps. xliv. 3. Mu- 
 tationes personarum repentinae et omnino ex improvise inveniuntur 
 in Sanctis Scripturarum libris, et si quis advertat, plenaa sunt paginae 
 divinae. On the perversion of Scripture by the forcible rending 
 away a passage from all its context, he notes, Con. Adim. c. 14, 
 Islorum fraus, qui particulas quasdam de Scripturas eligunt, quibus 
 decipiant imperitos, non connectentes quae supra et infra scripta 
 sunt, ex quibus voluntas et intentio scriptoris possit intelligi. Again, 
 on the importance of the historic letter of Scripture being left to 
 stand fast, whatever allegorical interpretation may be superinduced j 
 Ante omnia tamen, fratres, hoc in nomine Dei admonemus . . . ut 
 quando auditis exponi sacras Scripturas narrantes qua gesta sunt, 
 prius illud quod lectum est credatis sic gestum, quomodo lectum est, 
 ne subtracto fundamento rei gestae, quasi in aere quaeratis eedificare. 
 Thus again, on the allegories of Scripture, Serm. xxxii. c. 6 ; Non 
 enim semper in Scripturis eadem significantur rebus certis. , . . Non 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 that nothing but the Spirit can interpret that which 
 was given by the Spirit, he is as far as possible from 
 that enthusiasm which despises outward helps and 
 appliances, as though they too were not gifts of 
 his grace ; on the contrary, he would have, where 
 it was possible, the man of God to be largely 
 equipped with these, — exercised, where it may be, 
 with all liberal discipline of his powers. If he has 
 been in Egypt, let him come out of it as amply 
 laden with its gold and silver and precious stuffs 
 as he can. Let him, if it lie within his reach, 
 compare manuscripts, recur to the original tongues 
 in which Scripture was written, acquaint himself 
 with the customs, manners, institutions, natural 
 history of that Eastern world in which mainly the 
 Scripture moves : ^ for in all these he will find 
 frequent profit and help. 
 
 semper mons Dominum significat, non semper lapis Dominum sig- 
 nificat, non semper leo Dominum significat, non semper bonum, non 
 semper malum : sed pro locis Scripiurarum, quo pertinent ciEtera 
 circumi?tantia ipsius lectionis. Queraadmodum litterae in tot millibus 
 verborura atque sermonum ipsae repetuntur, non augentur ; . . . 
 quum una littera variis in locis ponitur, et pro loco valet, non unam 
 rem valet. 
 
 ' See his work, De Doct. Christ. 1. ii. c. 11 — 42. He proposes 
 (c. 19) that some one who could do it should undertake a Biblical 
 Dictionary, such as since has often been done. Ut non sit necesse 
 Christiano in multis propter pauca laborare, sic video posse fieri, si 
 quem eorum qui possunt, benignam sane operam fraternae utilitati 
 delectet impendere, ut quoscumque terrarum locos quaeve animalia 
 vel herbas atque arbores, sive lapides vel metalla incognita, speciesque 
 
PREFACE. XVU 
 
 But because we owe to St. Augustine this large 
 debt, shall we also count ourselves bound to say 
 that, in his practical application of his principles, 
 he is always true to his own laws ? or that he had 
 himself the same external helps at command as 
 an Origen or a Jerome ? or that his Latin or his 
 Septuagint has not sometimes led him astray ? or 
 that his exposition is not occasionally warped by, 
 and submitted to the influence of, his dogmatic 
 system ? or that his allegories and mystical num- 
 bers are worthy in each case to stand unques- 
 tioned, and may profitably now be reproduced to 
 edify us ? To demand this were to demand what 
 he would not have demanded for himself : ^ what 
 can be refused without abating one jot of true and 
 genuine reverence and honour, the more valuable 
 because rendered not blindly, but with knowledge. 
 
 To these words of apology or explanation, which 
 have extended to a greater length than I meant 
 they should, I may be allowed to add yet a few 
 words more upon the plan on which this book has 
 been composed. It resembles, to compare a very 
 
 quaslibet Scriptura commemorat, ea generatim digerens, sola ex- 
 posita litteris mandet. 
 
 ' He, who could thus express himself, certainly with no mock 
 modesty, but in entire sincerity, Ep. 95. Quid ipsa divina eloquia, 
 nonne palpantur potius quam tractantur a nobis, dum in multis 
 pluribus quaerimus potius quid sentiendum sit, quam definitum 
 aliquid fixumque sentimus ? 
 
 b 
 
XVIU PREFACE. 
 
 small matter with a great, that of the Augustinus 
 of Jansenius, which is probably familiar to many. 
 His purpose, as is well known, in his celebrated 
 work, was to bring all which Augustine had written 
 in regard to that great Pelagian Controversy, under 
 review at once, — to set it in order, and to present 
 it thus ordered and arranged, with the quotation of 
 the most material passages, before the eyes of the 
 reader. He implied not, in so doing, that Augus- 
 tine's own works wanted the highest order and 
 method ; — that they were only as a rough quarry, 
 from which others were to dig and build. But 
 the very circumstances of their production neces- 
 sarily caused that what bore on any single matter 
 should be scattered up and down in diverse 
 treatises, and that matter only fully handled when 
 these separated portions were united and brought 
 together. For a great part of his polemical works 
 will only be contemplated from a right point of 
 view when we regard them as occasional tracts, 
 each drawn from him by the urgent necessities 
 of the Church at the moment, in answer to the 
 solicitation of friends, or the provocation of 
 enemies ; — and that during a time when the con- 
 troversy was ever shifting its aspect, and each 
 party was more and more feeling its grounds, 
 completing and harmonizing its system, discover- 
 ing the ultimate results to which it would lead. 
 
PREFACE. XIX 
 
 This is the especial value of his writings in more 
 than one great conflict, wherein he is the standard 
 bearer of the Church, that they are not one great 
 work, calmly and in part with a literary interest 
 reviewing a finished controversy, not the history 
 of a battle which the Church has fought and won, 
 but themselves, so to speak, acts and exploits, 
 often the decisive ones, in that battle. Yet while 
 this is their value, it also leaves room for such a 
 work as that with which the Bishop of Ypres so 
 disturbed from his grave the Vatican, and all who 
 wished to reconcile a professed veneration for the 
 great Doctor of the West, with a real departure 
 from his principles; — one of the hardest tasks 
 which the Church of Rome has found imposed 
 upon her; one which greatly perplexed her at 
 Trent, which has put her to her shiftiest world- 
 wisdom then and since, and the difficulties of 
 which, by this book, were infinitely increased. 
 
 Now there is room for a conspectus of the same 
 kind in regard to those portions of Scripture 
 which he has illustrated in his writings. For 
 there too we seldom find in one place all that he 
 has to say upon one matter : in them too he often 
 repeats himself, while for the practical needs of 
 those for whom he wrote or spake it was often 
 needful to go over the same ground again and 
 again ; though indeed his resources are such that 
 b2 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 it is generally with variations, it rarely happens 
 but that some further touch is added. In them 
 too his opinions often underwent a progress and a 
 change. For example, Rom. vii. 7 — 25 was dif- 
 ferently explained in his youth and with the deeper 
 heart-knowledge of his later years. Thus, again, 
 his Commentary especially dedicated to the Sermon 
 on the Mount, which was written indeed while he 
 was yet a presbyter, contains comparatively little 
 of what he has contributed for the elucidation of 
 that portion of Scripture. For example, he dis- 
 misses the words " For they shall see God" in 
 two or three lines, while yet this vision of God oc- 
 cupied him greatly : he has dedicated a letter, so 
 long that it is often numbered among his treatises, 
 to this single subject. The relation, again, of the 
 new legislation of Christ to the law of Moses, the 
 right apprehension of which can alone give us a 
 key to this discourse, is very slightly touched on, 
 as compared with the large handling which it finds 
 in his writings directed against the Manichseans. 
 And other examples of the kind might easily be 
 multiplied. It is in his Sermons, in his Letters, 
 in his Exposition of the Psalms, in his contro- 
 versial Tracts that what he has most precious as 
 bearing on this discourse is to be found, — from 
 these it has to be gathered together. It has been 
 my aim to concentrate these scattered rays. 
 
PREFACE. XXI 
 
 I cannot indeed hope that 1 have brought to bear 
 all in his writings which helps the interpretation 
 of these Chapters, or is characteristic of him as 
 their interpreter, nor that I have made the happiest 
 use of the materials which I had at command. 
 Yet I can truly say that I have been continually 
 embarrassed, not by the penury, but by the riches 
 of my materials; perplexed how to work them 
 up, — how, without exceeding the narrow limits 
 which 1 had set myself, not to leave out much of 
 a deep interest; Often I have only given a single 
 sentence, oftentimes only a reference, when I 
 would willingly have given a page : so that 
 although the book is constructed throughout on 
 the supposition that the reader will not have an 
 Augustine at hand, or will not care to afford time 
 for the following up the references, yet is it also 
 arranged so as to yield much additional inform- 
 ation to any who should be inclined so to do. To 
 aid this the references have been carefully and 
 fully made to the Benedictine Edition. In a very 
 few passages they are wanting ; sometimes when, 
 a quotation has not extended beyond two or three 
 words, it seemed hardly worth the giving. Again, 
 some passages I had copied out long ago, and 
 not anticipating I should want them as I do now, 
 I had not particularly specified the place from, 
 whence they came, nor have I since recovered it. 
 
XXU PREFACE. 
 
 Here too another observation may be necessary. 
 It is well known that the Benedictine Editors of 
 the works of St. Augustine on very slight evi- 
 dence, or often indeed on no evidence at all save 
 their own inward conviction, have dismissed nume- 
 rous Sermons, much too hastily as since has been 
 generally considered, from the body of his works. 
 Now there should be something to justify this 
 dismissal, more than a general observation, with 
 which they are often satisfied, that such or such a 
 sermon is quite in the manner of Caesarius or some 
 one else.^ There should be phrases of a more 
 debased Latin, allusion to Church rites which 
 were not in use till a later period, inaccuracies in 
 dogmatic statements, thoughts altogether unwor- 
 thy of a great teacher. Such, in many of these 
 Sermons, there are, entirely to justify what they 
 have done; but at other times these marks are 
 altogether wanting : and without the presence of 
 any such they relegate, apparently at their 
 caprice, a Sermon into the Appendix. I have a 
 few times quoted from these Sermons, yet always 
 giving notice of the quarter from whence the 
 quotations are drawn, that the reader may know 
 that they are from works which the Benedictines 
 have adjudged as spurious. Of course those I 
 
 * Caesarii stylum et mentem refert. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 have quoted, I have believed genuine. On the 
 other hand, I have refrained from making any use 
 of the volume of Sermons lately published as 
 Augustine's at Paris,' while in it there is a 
 running into the opposite extreme. Doubtless 
 several genuine discourses of his, valuable addi- 
 tions to those which we already possessed, are 
 there to be found ; but very much also, altogether 
 unworthy of him, there appears under his name. 
 There is not apparently much in these discourses 
 which would directly bear upon the subject which 
 I had in hand, and till a decision should be 
 arrived at about them, carrying with it more 
 weight than any w^hich this very uncritical edition 
 can lend, I have thought it better to leave them 
 altogether untouched. Perhaps a still more diffi- 
 cult task than to know where to stay one's hand 
 in actual quotation was to leave unnoticed the 
 thousand interesting subjects which the Sermon 
 on the Mount of itself suggests, to refuse to 
 follow down the avenues, which, as one advances, 
 present themselves ever to the right hand and to 
 the left. Yet this self-denial I have used, wherever 
 the subject was not fairly in one way or another 
 suggested by something which Augustine has said. 
 There is indeed a disadvantage in this, a disad- 
 
 ' Sancti Aurelii Augustini Sermones inediti, cura et studio D. A. 
 B. Caillau. Parisiis. 1842. 
 
XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 vantage like his who undertakes to paint a picture 
 with a single colour, and whose work is in danger 
 of lacking liveliness and variety, yet one counter- 
 balanced by the advantage of being true to the 
 plan of one's book ; and that plan in the present 
 instance was not to bring together every thing 
 that I could for the elucidation of this all-im- 
 portant discourse, but rather whatever Augustine 
 had contributed for that elucidation, thus seeking 
 to give the reader an idea of him as a practical 
 interpreter of Scripture, which idea could only 
 have been disturbed by the introduction of alien 
 matter.^ 
 
 • The ample treasures of St. Augustine's writings have more than 
 once suggested books not unlike this in plan. Thus there is a Catena 
 on the Epistles of St. Paul drawn altogether from his works, which 
 is commonly ascribed to Bede as its author ; Baronius doubts whether 
 with justice, but apparently without any good grounds for his doubts. 
 There is again, from an anonymous author, Augustinus in Vetus et 
 Novum Testamentum, Basileas, 1542. This seemed to me care- 
 lessly and negligently done : the obvious passages which a man 
 might lay his hand on at once are given, but little care is used in 
 collecting what is scattered up and down, and it abounds with large 
 and needless gaps. The books of moral and theological Loci Com- 
 munes, which have been formed exclusively from his writings, have 
 a remoter resemblance. Of such there are several, as D. Aurelii 
 Augustini Millelogium Veritatis, a F. Bartholomaeo de Urbino, 
 Lugdunum, 1555, alphabetically arranged under several heads. 
 Another commonplace book of his most notable sayings, by Joannes 
 Piscatorius Lithopolitanus, Augustae Vindelicorum, 1537, has not 
 an alphabetical but a dogmatic arrangement. 
 
EXPOSITION, 
 
 4"C. S)-c. Sfc, 
 
 ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. V. 
 
 Ver. 1, 2. — Augustine does not speak with very great 
 decision concerning the question, which has always 
 occupied harmonists, whether tlie sermon recorded by 
 St. Matthew is the same which St. Luke records (vi. 
 20 — 49). Against this, he finds the one to have been 
 spoken on a mountain, the other in the plain (Luke, 
 vi. 17) ; while yet, on the other side, the great internal 
 resemblance, and the fact that the same miracle, the 
 healing of the centurion's servant, is recorded by each 
 Evangelist as immediately following, speak for the 
 identity of the two. He suggests, as a reconciliation 
 of all difficulties, that the Lord may perhaps, first, on 
 some higher eminence of the mountain have spoken 
 the discourse to his disciples which St. Matthew re- 
 cords ; and then, coming down to the foot of the 
 mountain, have repeated the same to the multitude, in 
 an abridged form, and one more suitable to them : and 
 that of this we have the record in St. Luke. Yet, 
 before he leaves the question, he allows that this dif- 
 ference, of one discourse having been spoken on a 
 mountain, the other in the plain, does not impera- 
 tively demand such a scheme; which, after all, has 
 in it something unnatural. The two statements are 
 
 B 
 
2 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MAT 
 
 capable of reconciliation : our Lord may have " stood" 
 (Luke, vi. 17) on some more level sjjace on the slope 
 of the mountain, capable of conveniently receiving the 
 multitude, and then, when they were assembled, have 
 sat down (Matt. v. 1), and spoken once for all that 
 one discourse which both the Evangelists relate.^ And 
 this is, no doubt, the true and more natural explana- 
 tion ; from Avhich the inner differences, as Augustine 
 himself affirms, need move us as little as the outer. 
 One Evangelist does not contradict another, when, as 
 St. Luke here, he relates more succinctly what the 
 other had related more at length ; or again, when he 
 finds place in his narrative for elements in a discourse, 
 which the other, though in general the more copious, 
 has omitted. 
 
 There is an emphasis, acknowledged by all later 
 interpreters, in the words, '' He opened his 7nouth." 
 The phrase is not merely another way of saying. He 
 began to teach, but signifies that he was about com- 
 mencing a discourse more than commonly Aveighty 
 and full (Job, iii. 1 ; xxxii. 20 ; Acts, viii. 35 ; x. 34.) 
 Augustine has not let this go unobserved, although he 
 
 ' De Cons. Evang. 1. ii. c. 19. Quanquam etiam illud possit 
 occurrere, in aliqua excelsiore parte mentis prime cum solis disci- 
 pulis Dominum fuisse, quando ex eis illos duodecim elegit ; deinde 
 cum eis descendisse, non de monte, sed de ipsit mentis celsitudine 
 in campestrem locum, id est, in aliquam aequalitatem quas in latere 
 montis erat, et multas turbas capere poterat : atque ibi stetisse, 
 donee ad eum turbas congregarentur ; ac postea cum sedisset, acce- 
 pisse propinquius discipulos ejus, atque ita illis caeterisque turbis 
 praesentibus unam habuisse sermonem, quem Matthaeus Lucasque 
 narrarunt, diverse narrandi mode, sed e^dem veritate rerum et sen- 
 tentiarum, quos ambo dixerunt. 
 
VER. 2, 3.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 3 
 
 finds exclusively an indication of the length of the dis- 
 course, which is introduced with this preface, and not 
 also of its weight and solemnity.^ Yet in truth, when 
 his words, who is himself The Word, are recorded, 
 where there is that, these must of necessity be there 
 also. 
 
 Ver. 3. — The very first words of the sermon itself, 
 " Blessed are the poor in spirit/' stir a difficult ques- 
 tion; in what sense, namely, "in spirit" shall be taken. 
 Augustine explains it : poor in their own spirits, and 
 so rich in the Spirit of God, — who are therefore as 
 valleys, filled with the waters which roll off from the 
 swelling mountains.^ Yet while this is no doubt, in 
 its totality, the true meaning of Christ's saying, it 
 would seem as though Augustine lays on the words 
 " in spirit," not exactly their right significance ; he 
 would have it. Blessed are they that have not an elated 
 spirit, taking " spirit" altogether in an evil sense,^ as 
 that in man which lifts itself up against God, and so 
 hinders the reception of any of his blessings or graces. 
 But what our Lord would say is doubtless this, Blessed 
 are they that are poor in the spirit of their minds, the 
 
 ' De Serm. Dora, in Mun. 1. i. c. 1. Ista circumlocutio qua 
 scribitur, Et aperiens os suum, fortassis ipsa mora commendat ali- 
 quanto longiorem futurum esse sermonem. 
 
 ^ Enarr. in Ps. cxli. 4. Beati pauperes spiritu sue, divites Spi- 
 ritu Dei. Omnis enim homo qui spiritum suum sequitur, superbus 
 est. Subdat spiritum suum, ut capiat Spiritum Dei. Ibat in culmen, 
 residat in valle. Si ierit in culmen, denatat ab illo aqua, si in valle 
 resederit, implebitur ex e^. 
 
 ^ Thus De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. i. Non habentes inflantem 
 spiritum, and Enarr. in Ps. cxliii. 7 ; see also the preceding note. 
 
 b2 
 
4 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 term " poor" being alone that which is to exclude the 
 false riches of pride and self-sufficiency, and the words 
 that follow, " in spirit," being to mark that it is the 
 region of the inner man in which his thoughts are 
 moving ; that he is not now speaking of worldly riches 
 or worldly poverty, not of the things which are outside 
 of a man, but of that which is within. It is as much 
 as to say, Blessed are they that are inwardly pOor, 
 that in their hearts and spirits have a sense of need, 
 of emptiness, and poverty. 
 
 His explanation, it will be seen, though capable of 
 winning slightly in accuracy, yet effectually excludes 
 the Romish interpretation, that it is any outward po- 
 verty or riches of which Christ is speaking, that he is 
 fore-announcing here any mendicant orders, or any 
 singular beatitudes, which should be theirs.^ Augus- 
 tine had far too deep an insight into Christian truth to 
 limit and explain Chi'ist's saying here by the other 
 form in which St. Luke records it, " Blessed be ye 
 poor ;" on the contrary, he evermore interprets that 
 by this, completing the briefer by the fuller, not cut- 
 ting down (which were absurd) the fuller to suit with 
 the briefer. For he that was a faithful monitor, and 
 none more faithful, to the rich of this world, — warning 
 them of the dangers that especially were theirs, hard- 
 ness of heart, self-indulgence, pride, and notably the 
 last,2 — was as faithful also to the poor, did not fall into 
 the temptation, which is equally a temptation, of flat- 
 
 ' Many Romish interpreters make irrmy^ too 'nndiJ.ari the voluv- 
 tarily poor. 
 
 " Sertn. Ixi. c. 9. Omne pomum, onine granum, omne fru- 
 mentum, omne lignum, habet vermem suum. \'erniis divitiarumj 
 superbia. 
 
VER. 3.] SERMON ON THE MOTTNT. 5 
 
 tering them, and therefore would not let them belieye 
 that their outward poverty did itself constitute humi- 
 lity, however it might be a help to it, or that they were 
 necessarily poor in spirit because poor in this world. 
 He often tells them they were not to take for granted 
 that every beggar was a Lazarus ; * while on the other 
 side there were Jobs and Abrahams, who were adorned 
 with this true poverty, even in the midst of their worldly 
 abundance.2 — While this poverty of spirit is the con- 
 dition of every blessing, therefore to it is attached the 
 promise of " the kingdom of heaven,' which is inclu- 
 sive of all blessings; for all the beatitudes which follow 
 are but, as he observes, the unfolding of this first one. 
 On the phrase itself, " kingdom of heaven," so often 
 recurring in St. Matthew, (in the other New Testament 
 
 ' Enarr. in Ps. cxxxi. 15. Pauper Dei in animo est, non in 
 saccule. Procedit aliquando homo habens plenam domum, uberes 
 terras ; . . . novit quia in ipsis non est presumendum ; humiliat se Deo, 
 facit inde bene ; ita cor ipsius erigitur ad Deum, ut noverit quia non 
 solum nihil illi prosunt divitite ipsas, sed et impediunt pedes ipsius, 
 nisi Ille regat et lUe subveniat : et numeratur inter pauperes, qui 
 saturantur panibus. Invenis alium mendicura inflatum, aut ideo non 
 inflatum, quia nihil habet, quaerentem taraen unde infletur. Non 
 attendit Deus facultatem, sed cupiditatem ; et judicat eum secundum 
 cupiditatem, quia inhiat rebus temporalibus, non secundum facul- 
 tatem, quam non ei contigit adipisci. And Enarr. in Ps. Ixxxv. 1. 
 Resistit Deus superbis, et holosericatis et pannosis : humilibus 
 autem dat gratiam, et habentibus aliquam substantiam hujus seculi 
 et non habentibus. Cf. Serm. clxxvii., where he seeks especially 
 to bring out the force of St. Paul's words, Qui volunt divites fieri. 
 1 Tim. vi. 5. 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. Ixxi. 2. Qua paupertate etiam beatus Job pau- 
 per fuit, et antequam magnas illas terrenas divitias amisisset. Quod 
 ideo commemorandum putavi, quoniam sunt quidam qui facilius 
 omnia sua pauperibus distribuunt, quam ipsi pauperes Dei fiant. 
 
6 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 Scriptures, kingdom of God), he notes how it belongs 
 exclusively to the New Covenant ; that while all else 
 was in the old, even life eternal, and the resurrection 
 of the dead, yet this name was not there, but would 
 appear reserved for his lips who was to be a King to 
 rule, and a Priest to sanctify, his people.^ 
 
 Ver. 4. " Blessed are the meek." — Augustine shares 
 with the Vulgate thebetteii2xxaBgM»ent of the beati- 
 tudes which places this immediately after the first, re- 
 versing the position of this and the " Blessed are they 
 that mourn," which in our Bibles has precedence of 
 it, but which, for the truer logical coherence, should 
 follow.2 He rightly explains this meekness as having 
 reference to our bearing, not toward God, but our 
 fellow-men.' And then comes out the appropriateness 
 of the blessing. It seems, according to the judgment 
 of men, that in a world of wrong and unrighteousness 
 and violence, the meek man will surely make himself 
 a prey ; that sooner or later he will be thrust out from 
 all ; that an Isaac, who will rather give up the well 
 than contend for it, and this more than once, will at 
 length have nothing left him which he may call his 
 own (Gen. xxvi. 20). But it is not so. . Great under 
 
 * Con. Faust. 1. xix, c. 31. Regnum coelonim . . . . ori eju 
 nominandum servabatur, quem Regem ad regendos et Sacerdotem ad 
 sanctificandos fideles suo3 universus ille apparatus veteris Instrumenti 
 in generationibus, factis, dictis, sacrificiis, observationibus, festivi- 
 tatibus, omnibusque eloquiorum praeconiis, et rebus gestis et rerutn 
 figuris parturiebat esse venturum. 
 
 * Lachmann has admitted this arrangement into his text. 
 
 ^ De Serm. Dom. in Men. 1. i. c. 2. Mites sunt qui cedunt 
 improbitatibus et non resistunt malo, sed vincunt in bono malum. 
 
VER. 4.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 7 
 
 God is the strength and power of meekness : in the 
 words of the Eastern Proverb, — The one staff of 
 Moses breaks in shivers at last the ten thousand spears 
 of Pharaoh. These meek shall in the end inherit all 
 things, shall inherit even this earth, from which there 
 seemed danger they would be altogether excluded.^ 
 Here, too, we have one of his many striking antithetic 
 sayings ; Thou wishest to possess the earth : beware 
 then lest thou be possest by it.^ — There is force, which 
 I think Augustine intended to bring out, in the form 
 under which the promise is conveyed, " They shall 
 inherit the earth" and that in more ways than one ; — 
 " the earth," while possession in land must always 
 remain the surest of earthly possessions, — and " they 
 shall inherit," while possession by inheritance in the 
 orderly succession of father and son seems to give the 
 greatest promise and pledge of endurance.* 
 
 1 Serm. liii. c. 8. He observes how in each, congrua congru- 
 entibus apposita sint ; and on this ; Quia mites homines facile 
 excluduntur de terra sua, Beati, inquit, mites, quoniam ipsi heere- 
 ditate possidebunt terram. It shall be theirs, not merely as a 
 future benefit, but a present, according to those profound words of 
 his (Ep. 153, c. 6), Omne quod male possidetur alienum est: 
 male autem possidet qui male utitur : and again (ibid.), Fidelis 
 hominis totus mundus divitiarum est ; infidelis autem nee obolus. 
 So that he does not in fact contradict that meaning which looks at 
 it as a future inheritance, when (Ep. 149) he explains " the earth" 
 spoken of here as, Ecclesiam heereditatemque fidelium atque sanc- 
 torum, quae dicitur terra viventium." 
 
 * Serm. liii. c. 2. Vis possidere terram ? vide ne possidearis a 
 terra. 
 
 ^ De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c.2. Significat quandam solidi- 
 tatem et stabilitatem haareditatis perpetuae. 
 
8 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 Ver. 5. " Blessed are they that mourn." — There is, 
 he often takes occasion to remark, a mourning which 
 has no blessing attached to it ; there is misery enough 
 among men, which yet has no blessing, while it leads 
 to no repentance, or while at best it is only a sorrow 
 of this world. One is groaning for one thing, one for 
 another ; for this temporal loss, for that earthly tribu- 
 lation ; for the hail that has laid waste his vineyard, 
 for the death that has entered into his dwelling, for 
 the powerful foes that are seeking his harm : and if 
 perchance the groaning of the faithful reaches to the 
 ears of the world, the world lays his sorrowing to the 
 same account. Men say he has suffered this loss or 
 that ; for they know not of a mourning which springs 
 from a higher source, a mourning for our own sins, for 
 the sins of others, out of a sense of our exile here, of 
 our separation from the true home of our spirits, out 
 of a longing for the eternal Sabbath. i And yet it is 
 only this nobler grief that has the promise linked to 
 it, this only which will be followed by consolation. 
 To be thus miserable is to be happy, while, on the 
 contrary, he that is without this mourning gives too 
 sure an augury, that there is reserved for him a 
 mourning of another kind, and which shall not ex- 
 change itself, as shall this, for the consolations of the 
 kingdom. 2 
 
 ' See a beautiful passage (Enarr. in Ps. xxxvii. 9) on the groan- 
 ing which is before the Lord, compared with that which is only 
 before men. 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. xxxvii. 1. Felix est qui sic miser est; . . . immo 
 miser esset si lugens non esset: and again (Enarr. in Ps. cxlviii. 
 1), Qui non gemit peregrinus, non gaudebit civis. Ep. 248, (ad 
 Sebastianum.) Pia est ista tristitia, et, si dici potest, beata miseriaj 
 
VER. 6.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 9 
 
 Ver. 6. " Blessed are they which do hunger and 
 thirst after righteousness.'^ — Not that the hunger and 
 thirst are tliemselves the blessing, but they prepare the 
 way for the blessing, for the heavenly aliment which 
 but for this hunger would be slighted or loathed. i 
 Very beautifully Augustine draws from St. John, vi. 
 26 — 65, a kind of commentary on this text, making 
 the " righteousness" here to be equivalent with the 
 " bread from heaven" there, and saying that under each 
 we should understand no other than Christ himself. 
 This is at once evident with regard to the bread from 
 heaven, and he quotes the words of St. Paul (1 Cor. 
 i. 30), " Christ Jesus . . . made unto us righteous- 
 ness," in proof that " righteousness" here is equally 
 exchangeable for him in whom the righteousness is 
 contained ; and that the hungering and thirsting after 
 it is no desiring merely a moral amelioration, but a 
 longing after Christ, and the being clothed with his 
 righteousness, the satisfaction out of his fulness.- The 
 Jews, he says, were in the state of mind directly 
 opposite to this which here has the blessing linked to 
 it, when, going about to establish their own righteous- 
 ness, they would not submit themselves to the righteous- 
 
 vitiis alienis tribulari, non implicari; moerere, noa bsrere ; dolore 
 contrahi, non amore attrahi. Hsec est persequutio quam patiuntur 
 omnes qui volunt in Christo pie vivere, secundum apostolicam mor- 
 dacem veracemque sententiam (2 Tim, iii. 12). Quid enim hie sic 
 persequitur vitam bonorum, quam vita iniquorum ? 
 
 ' Serm. Ixi. c. 6. Praecedat saturitatem fames, ne fastidium non 
 perveniat ad panes. 
 
 "^ Thus, too, he exchanges with a true feeling of the text, " right- 
 eousness" for " God," in some allusions to this passage ; Enarr. in 
 Ps. cxlv. 18. 
 
10 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 ness of God (Rom. x. 3) ; as no less were those who 
 disputed with the Lord concerning the bread of God 
 which came down from heaven (John, vi.), which he 
 would have given them, but which they scornfully put 
 back : for they had not the spiritual hunger, the sense 
 of emptiness, which alone would have interpreted his 
 words, or given a value to the offer, i He cannot find 
 the entire fulfilment of the appended promise, '■'■for 
 they shall he filled" in the present life; for here our 
 jaws are but sprinkled, as it were, with a few drops out 
 of that river of joy, whereof then we shall drink to 
 the full : yet the longing now is the condition of the 
 satisfying of the longing hereafter; and the more 
 longing, the ampler satisfaction, for this longing is the 
 dilating of the vessel that it may contain the more.^ 
 
 ' In Evang. Joh. Tract. 26. Isti a pane de ccelo longe erant, 
 nee eum esurire noverant. Fauces cordis languidas habebant . . . 
 Panis quippe iste interioris hominis quaerit esuriem : unde alio loco 
 dicit, Bead qui esuriunt et sitiunt justitiam, quoniam ipsi satura- 
 buntur. Justitiam vero nobis esse Christum, Paulus Apostolus 
 dicit. Ac per hoc qui esurit hunc panem, esuriat justitiam ; sed 
 justitiam quae de ccelo descendit, justitiam quam dat Deus, non quam 
 sibi facit homo. And then he justly explains the " righteousness of 
 God " (Rom. i, 17), not as the righteousness with which God is right- 
 eous in himself, but the righteousness which he gives to his people. 
 
 * De Util. Jejun. c. 1. Perlinet ergo ad homines hanc vitam 
 mortalem gerentes, esurire ac sitire justitiam : impleri autem justiti^, 
 ad aliam vitam pertinet. Hoc pane, hoc cibo pleni sunt Angeli : 
 homines autem dum esuriunt, extendunt se ; dum se extendunt, dila- 
 tantur ; dum dilatantur, capaces fiunt ; capaces facti, suo tempore 
 replebuntur. Quid ergo, htc nihil inde capiunt qui esuriunt et 
 sitiunt justitiam? Capiunt plane, sed aliud est cum quaerimus de 
 refectione iter agentium, et aliud cum quaerimus de perfectione 
 beatorum. And Enarr. in Ps. xxxv. 10, Quis est fons vitae nisi 
 Christus 1 Venit ad te in came, ut irroraret fauces tuas sitientes ; 
 satiabit sperantem, qui irroravit sitientera. 
 
VER. 7, 8.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 11 
 
 Ver. 7. " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall 
 obtain mercy." — This mercifulness Augustine would 
 appear sometimes to confine to the relief of the tem- 
 poral needs of our brother ; yet is it a pitifulness which 
 is evidently of a wider reach, embracing the whole 
 outcomings of a Christian's heart, whether in inward 
 sympathies or outward acts, in relation to the sorrows 
 and sufferings of his brethren. And here the blessed 
 retaliations of the kingdom of God shall find place: — 
 " Do, and it shall be done. Do with another that it 
 may be done with thee : for thou aboundest and thou 
 lackest. Thou aboundest in things temporal, thou 
 lackest things eternal. A beggar is at thy gate, thou 
 art thyself a beggar at God's gate. Thou art sought, 
 and thou seekest. As thou dealest with thy seeker, 
 even so God will deal with his. Thou art both empty 
 and full. Fill thou the empty out of thy fulness, 
 that out of the fulness of God thine emptiness may 
 be filled." 1 
 
 Ver. 8. '' Blessed are the pure in heart." — The 
 pure heart Augustine explains as the single heart, 
 the heart without folds, and this, with the promise 
 attached, "for they shall see God," causes him to 
 bring this passage at once into connexion with those 
 others in which our Lord speaks of the single eye, 
 the eye of the soul (Matt. vi. 22, 23 ; Luke, xi. 34), 
 which only when healthy is receptive of divine light, 
 and the channel of light to the whole man ; while that is 
 the same statement as this, that only the pure of heart 
 
 ' Serm, liii. c. 5. 
 
12 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 shall see God.^ But how this seeing of God should 
 be, — for he will not suffer the words to be explained 
 away into the mere figure of a general felicity, — is a 
 question which occupied him greatly; though he 
 truly said at the beginning of a long epistle on the 
 subject, that it is one upon which holy living will help 
 infinitely more than subtle teaching.^ And as this 
 question occupied him, so did another which is nearly 
 connected with it, namely, when this shall be ? a ques- 
 tion which must mainly depend for its answer on the 
 answer given to the first. What the seeing of God is 
 must decide when it shall be, whether in this life or in 
 the life to come 1 or whether, like so many other pro- 
 mises, it shall have a partial fulfilment now, an entire 
 one hereafter ? To arrive at a satisfactory answer it 
 will be needful to put together, from his different 
 writings, the results which he comes to upon these 
 points. He most truly takes his first stand upon this : 
 that the seeing God at all involves and itself rests upon 
 the divine constitution of man, his original creation in 
 the divine image ; and hence, to use an image of the 
 later Platonists, as while the eye is soliform (j;Xio£iCj)c) 
 it therefore can see the sun, so man, being made in a 
 divine image, is therefore capable of knowing and 
 
 ' "Beati mundicordes," as he commonly expresses it with a word 
 of his own. The Vulgate, Beati mundo corde; — mundum cor=sim- 
 plex (i. e. sine plica) cor = o<})9aXjUOf awXaDj (Luke, xi. 34). Per- 
 haps " sincerus" would be nearer to the Greek nadapo;, since they 
 both rest on the image of immunity from foreign admixtures — this of 
 colours, that (according at least to one etymology, sine cera) of honey 
 from the wax that would impair its perfect purity. 
 
 ' Ep. 147, (ad Paulinam). Primum mihi videtur plus valere in 
 hac inquisiiione vivendi quam loquendi modum. 
 
VER. 8.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 13 
 
 seeing God.i But St. Paul tells us what was this 
 image of God in which man was first created — not 
 outward but inward — created after God in righteous- 
 ness and true holiness. The seeing then which rests 
 upon this must be an inward seeing; not, as some 
 said, whom he earnestly rebukes, with these carnal 
 eyes, but it must be through the restoration of the 
 effaced likeness of God in the soul that the forfeited 
 capacity of seeing him must be restored; the en- 
 lightened eyes of the understanding, the heart puri- 
 fied by faith — and no bodily eyes — these are the 
 organs by which God is seen. In proportion as we 
 are unlike to him, we are incapable of seeing him ; in 
 proportion as we grow in likeness, as we are "renewed 
 in knowledge after the image of him that created" us, 
 we grow in the power of this vision. " 
 
 Here, then, is the answer to the other question, 
 — When it shall be: whether in this life or in the 
 coming ? Plainly in both. For, since this renewal is 
 begun here, the vision must begin here also — though 
 
 ' Serm. Ixxxviii. c. 6. Fecit autera te Deus, 6 homo, ad ima- 
 ginem suam. Daretne tibi unde videres solem quern fecit, et non 
 tibl daret unde videres eum qui te fecit, cum te ad imaginem suam 
 fecerit ? 
 
 2 Ep. 92, c. 3, (ad Italicam). With allusion to 1 John, v. 2. 
 In tantum ergo videbimus, in quantiim similes ei erimus, quia 
 nunc in tantiim non videmus, in quantiim dissimiles sumus. Inde 
 igitur videbimus, unde similes erimus. Quis autem dementissimus 
 dixerit, corpore nos vel esse vel futuros esse similes Deo 1 The 
 whole epistle is directed against those who thought the corporeal eye 
 would be the organ with which God would be seen ; yet elsewhere 
 (Ep. Ill, and De Civ, Dei, 1. xxii. c. 29) he expresses himself more 
 doubtfully, as being unable to say what accessions of power the spi- 
 ritual body may receive. 
 
14 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT.V. 
 
 it be now but a seeing through a glass darklj- ; while 
 its consummation will be there, where it will be face 
 to face. For this most earnestly he affirms, that it will 
 be a seeing which shall be intuitive and immediate, a 
 seeing " him as he is ;" that it will not be merely a 
 theophany, such as were the appearances of God to 
 the saints in the Old Testament, the taking of a form 
 in which to make himself apparent to men ; but a 
 revelation of God in his own most proper nature, 
 from which will follow a seeing him as he is. This 
 was denied to Moses then, for it was impossible ; no 
 man, while yet flesh and blood, could so see God 
 and live (Exod. xxxiii. 20), but it shall be granted to 
 him and to all the faithful in the world to come. And 
 here, Augustine observes, is the reconciliation of those 
 passages, some of which say, that " no man hath seen 
 God at any time" (John, i. 18), that no man hath seen 
 him nor can see him (1 Tim. vi. 16) ; while others 
 speak of men being introduced into his presence, seeing 
 him, and speaking with him (Gen. xviii. 1 ; Isai. vi. 1.)' 
 It is to the attaining of this pure heart, this j^urged 
 eye of the soul, that all helps and appliances of grace 
 are tending.- This is the great meaning and purpose of 
 
 ' See his beautiful letter to Paulina, Ep. 147, c. 6 — 8. Ipse 
 ergo erat in ea specie qu;i apparere voluerat, non autem ipse appa- 
 rebat in natura propria, quam Moses videre cupiebat. Ea quippe 
 promittitur Sanctis in alia vitii .... Multi viderunt, sed quod vo- 
 luntas elegit, non quod natura formavit." 
 
 * Serm. Ixxxviii. c. 5. Tola igitur opera nostra, fratres, in hac 
 vita est, sanare oculum cordis unde videtur Deus. Ad hoc sacro- 
 sancta mysteria celebrantur, ad hoc sermo Dei pra3dicatur, ad hoc 
 agunt quidquid agunt divina; sanctaeque literae, ut purgetur illud inte- 
 rius ab ea re quae nos impedit ab aspectu Dei. In this and the fol- 
 lowing chapters is much more that is admirable on the purging the 
 inward eye. 
 
VER. 8.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 15 
 
 them, — of sacraments, of preaching, of scripture, — to 
 prepare and fit us for this — for a time when we shall 
 be enabled to see the See-er : ^ for in that seeing, all 
 blessedness is included ; without it there were no hea- 
 ven, with it there could be no hell.^ 
 
 Ver. 9. " Blessed are the peaceinakei^s, for they shall 
 he called the children of God." — Augustine some- 
 times understands by " peacemakers" those that have 
 made peace in their own inner souls, in whom the spi- 
 rit is ruling and the flesh serving ; who, submitting 
 themselves to God, are able to submit their lower 
 nature to themselves ; who, thus being content to be 
 ruled, are able in their turn to rule :^ but generally 
 he takes a wider range, for this is evidently too nar- 
 row. It is true that the Latin " pacifici," * which he 
 has in common with the Vulgate, and which is rather 
 " the peaceable" than " the peacemakers," encourages 
 a narrower view; as indeed it confounds in a ^reat 
 measure this beatitude with the second, for the meek 
 and the peaceable will be nearly the same. But the 
 naming of the peace mahers introduces a new thought. 
 The Christian is not merely himself quiet in the land, 
 quiet in his own heart, but he is a spreader of peace 
 around him — the peace of this world, but more than 
 this, the peace also of God ; knowing the blessedness 
 of that peace himself, he says also by word and deed to 
 
 ' Videre Videntem. 
 
 - Visio Dei est tota vita seterna. Si mali Dei faciem viderent, 
 pcenis caderent. 
 
 ^ So De Serm. Dora, in IMon, 1. i. c. 2. 
 
 *' Pacifici =: eijfivixoi, but the word here is Ei^nyowoioi. 
 
16 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 his brethren, " Be ye reconciled with Gocl."i Too many 
 expositors look exclusively to that other and lower 
 peace, those especially who prize Christianity merely 
 for its power of healing the outward sores of the world, 
 not for its staunching the deep inward hurts of men's 
 souls. Not that the peace of this world is excluded ; ~ 
 Christianity does bring this peace, but only by the way: 
 it is aiming at a higher peace, and one for the sake of 
 which, as being the only real peace, it is willing for 
 the while to forego and sacrifice the other peace — to be 
 called a troubler — to apj)ear to be bringing in the sword 
 of division, rather than the bands of union. Thus it 
 is, he observes, with the faith of Christ, even in the 
 individual man, for in one sense in the redeemed man 
 there is not peace but war — a war which this very re- 
 demption has brought in : in him the flesh lusteth 
 against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh ; yet 
 this is in the way to that peace, which alone deserves 
 the name. And so also must it be in a sinful world. 
 (2 Tim. iv. 2.)^ 
 
 Ver. 10 — 12. — On these words Augustine has often 
 occasion to remark, that it is a suffering "/or right- 
 eous7iess' sahe," and that alone, which has the blessing — 
 that it is in fact the cause which makes the martyr. 
 This he had need to affirm against the Donatists, who 
 because they wei'e suffering, on account of their schism, 
 
 • Thus Augustine, with a beautiful allusion to Luke, x. 5, Quo 
 pleni sunt, fundunt. 
 
 * Thus Augustine himself, writing to a soldier, says (Ep. 189, 
 ad Bonifac.) Esto ergo etiam bellando pacificus, ut eos quos 
 expugnas ad pacis utilitatem vincendo perducas. Beati enim pa- 
 cifici. ait Dominus. 
 
 3 Con. Lit. Petil, 1. ii. c. 69. 
 
VER. 10—12.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 17 
 
 many things at the hands of the civil power, therefore 
 claimed for themselves without further question this 
 blessing ; and appealed to their sufferings in proof of 
 the righteousness of their cause. Now, not to say that 
 many of their sufferings were self-inflicted,^ many the 
 just punishment of civil crimes, even those which they 
 bore for their faith's sake did not give them title to 
 this, until another question was settled. For without 
 in the least seeking to justify the means which the 
 temporal power used, and Augustine, with the rest of 
 the Church in Africa, sanctioned and approved, for 
 the forcible reducing them to unity, in this one must 
 see he had right, that they could not claim merely on 
 the strength of these sufferings to be the rightful inhe- 
 ritors of the blessing here.2 There was another point 
 which had first to be proved, namely, that it was 
 for Christ's sake, as witnesses of Christ's truth, and as 
 
 ' Con. Gaudeat. l.i. c. 28. Genus hominum . . . crudelissimum 
 in niortibus alienis, vilissimum in suis. See the almost incredible details 
 of this fury of self-destruction which possessed them, in his letter to 
 Count Boniface (Ep. 185, c. 3). Yet the actual facts do not alto- 
 gether bear him out, when to one of them he says (Con. Gaudent. 
 1. i. c. 21,) Quam persecutionem patimini, nisi a vobis ? 
 
 ^ Thus Gaudentius, a Donatist, writes, Nostram caussam solee nobis 
 istffi persecutiones gravissiraam reddunt, and proceeds to quote Matt. 
 
 10 — 12, to whom Augustine replies (Con. Gaudent. 1. i. c. 20), 
 Recte ista dicerentur a vobis quaerentibus martyrum gloriam, si 
 haberetis martyrum caussam. Non enim felices ait Dominus, qui 
 mala ista patiuntur, sed qui propter filium hominis patiuntur, qui est 
 Christus Jesus. Vos autem non propter ipsum patimini, sed contra 
 ipsura. And again, Non ex passione certa justitia, sed ex justitia 
 passio gloriosa est. Ideoque Dominus . . . non generaliter ait, Beati 
 qui persecutionem patiuntur, sed addit magnam differentiam qua vera 
 a sacrilegio pietas secernatur. Ait enim, Beati qui persecutionem 
 patiuntur propter justitiam. Cf. Con. Lit. Petil. 1, ii. c. 71. 
 C 
 
18 EXPOSITION OF THE [sT. MATT. V. 
 
 the true representatives of Christ's body, that they 
 suffered what they did. They could not in arguing 
 with the Catholics, who entirely denied this, bring 
 these sufferings in proof that they were, because they 
 suffered them, the true body of Christ. Else by the 
 same proofs, as Augustine keenly retorts, the priests of 
 Baal were martyrs when Elijah slew them; and their 
 cross the malefactors had in common with Jesus :i or 
 if they found here a confirmation of their doctrines, 
 the Pagans who still survived in the Roman empire 
 might as well appeal to the forbidding of their worship, 
 the closing of theil* temples, the pains and penalties 
 which attended the adherence to their superstition, as 
 evidences of its truth. According to their principles 
 every mine would be full of martyrs, and every one 
 who perished by the sword of justice would be 
 crowned.2 
 
 " For' great is your reward in heaven." Augustine 
 often enlarges on the sustaining power of Christian 
 hope, and an eye directed to this great reward.^ — But 
 on the word " reward" itself he is very distinct, and 
 
 ' Ep. 185, c. 2, (ad Bonifac.) Et ipse Dominus cum latronibus 
 crucifixus est, sed quos passio jungebat, caussa separabat. 
 
 2 Enarr. in Ps. xxxiv. 23. JMartyres non facit poena, sed caussa. 
 Nam si poena martyres faceret, omnia metalla martyribus plena 
 essent, omnes catenae martyres traherent ; omnes qui gladio feri- 
 untur, coronarentur. Nemo ergo dicat, Quia patior Justus sura. Quia 
 ipse qui primo passus est, pro justitiii passus est, ideo magnam ex- 
 ceptionem addidit, Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter jus- 
 titiam .... Nemo ergo dicat, Persecutionem patior ; non ventilet 
 poenam, sed probet caussam. Cf. Con. Lit. Petil. 1. ii. c. 19. 
 
 ^ Enarr. in Ps. xxxvi. 23. Attende mercedem, si vis sustinere la- 
 borem. 
 
VER. 10 — 12,] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 19 
 
 guards against all claims which, on the strength of this 
 word, the proud heart of man might make. The " re- 
 ward in heaven" does, indeed, bear a relation to that 
 which is done or suffered for Christ's sake on earth, 
 yet is it a relation of grace, and not of debt. God has 
 chosen, has of his own free will and unmerited bounty 
 appointed, that there should be such a relation, and now 
 " he is faithful that promised." The doctrine of pre- 
 venting grace, legitimately carried out, must for ever 
 exclude the notion of any claim, as of merit properly so 
 called ; not that there are not merits, or rather graces, 
 which will in that day be recognized, but that these 
 merits ai'e themselves gifts of God,i so that eternal 
 life will be but the adding one more gift, the crown- 
 ing, to all the preceding ones, Avhich he has heaped 
 upon his people.- It will be but " grace for grace." ^ 
 
 ' Ep. 194, (ad Sixtum). Ipsa vita aeterna. . . .gratia nuncupatur, 
 ....necideo quia non meritis datur, sed quia data sunt et ipsa 
 merita quibus datur. And again, De Grat. et Lib. Arb. c. 8, Si 
 vita bona nostra nihil aliud est quam Dei gratia, sine dubio et vita 
 aeterna, quae bonae vitae redditur, Dei gratia est ; et ipsa enim 
 gratis datur, quia gratis data est ilia, cui datur. 
 
 ^ Ep. 194, (ad Sixtum). Cum Deus coronat merita nostra, nihil 
 aliud coronat, quam munera sua. Enarr. in Ps. Ixx. Tua peccata 
 sunt, merita Dei sunt. Supplicium tibi debetur, et ciira praemium 
 venerit, sua dona coronabit, non merita tua. See too his Anti-Pe- 
 lagian Tracts, passim. 
 • ^ Ep. 194, (ad Sixtum). Nunc vero de plenitudine ejus accepi- 
 mus non soliim gratiam qua nunc juste in laboribus usque ad 
 finem vivimus, sed etiam gratiam pro hac gratia, ut in requie postea 
 sine fine vivamus. Augustine has here given the hint, at least, of 
 the right explanation, which so many even now miss, of that difficult 
 ^ajiv avT4 ;^tt5iT0f (John, i. 16), that it means one grace heaped upon, 
 and as a better grace coming, in some sort, in the room of (avrt) a 
 preceding ; (so Theognis, avr' aviSv dviaf, troubles upon troubles). 
 
 c2 
 
20 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 Vev. 3 — 12. — As regards the contemplation of 
 the heptad of beatitudes no longer singly, but as a 
 whole, Augustine suggests, that perhaps they may 
 stand in some relation to the sevenfold operation of 
 the Holy Spirit of which Isaiah (ch. xi.) speaks — 
 though it can hardly, I think, be said that he very 
 successfully traces the relation of each to each. He 
 notes how the eighth beatitude returns, as it were, 
 upon the first, having the same promise, " The king- 
 dom of heaven," ^ which, in the intermediate ones, has 
 not been forsaken, for that one comprehends all the 
 others, but has been broken up, or rather contemplated 
 successively in its various aspects; and how this return 
 indicates that now the perfect and complete man has 
 on all his sides been declared." For these, as he says 
 most truly, are not different persons that will be differ- 
 ently blest — it is not that one, being pure of heart, will 
 see God; another, being merciful, will obtain mercy; 
 and a third, who hungering and thirsting after right- 
 eousness, will be filled. But these are different sides of 
 the same Christian character, with the capacities of 
 blessedness which are linked to each : so that, while it 
 is true that, because the man is pure of heart, and not 
 because he is merciful, or meek, or peacemaker, he 
 will see God ; and again, while he is merciful, and not 
 
 It is scarcely, however, probable that St. John meant, as he implies, 
 by the first X"?'5> '^^ grace of this life, and by the second, the grace 
 of eternal life, but, rather by the two together, the uninterrupted 
 stream of God's gifts in Christ, which are ever succeeding, and, so to 
 speak, replacing one another. 
 
 ' De Serm, Dom. in JMon. 1. i. c. 4 ; and Serm. cccxlviii. 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 3. Octava tanquam ad caput 
 redit ; quia consummatum perfectumque ostendit et probat. 
 
VER. 3— 12.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 21 
 
 while he is pure of heart, that he will obtain mercy, 
 and so forward, yet it is the same person throughout 
 to whom all belong. Just as, if it were said, "■ Happy 
 are they that have feet, for they can walk ; happy are 
 they that have tongues, for they can speak;" we 
 should not think of one man having a tongue, another 
 feet, but only to each limb attribute its appropriate 
 function. 1 It is true, indeed, that these graces, like 
 grapes of the same bunch, may ripen, some earlier than 
 others, yet do they not the less all hang upon the 
 same stem, and the same process of ripening is going 
 forward in them all. He might have added, perhaps, 
 that in these separated blessings there is an implicit 
 summons to seek to complete the Christian character 
 in all its aspects — to polish the diamond on all its 
 sides, that so on every side it may be capable of re- 
 flecting the light of heaven which will on that side 
 also fall upon it. 
 
 Ver. 13. " Ye are the salt of the earth."— The 
 transition from what went before is easy: — Ye are salt, 
 — intended to communicate a savor of life unto others ; 
 to hinder the woi'ld from becoming a putrefying mass 
 of corruption. Beware then lest you yourselves, 
 through fear of worldly incommodities and persecu- 
 tions, lose this your seasoning power, for there are 
 none other to impart grace to you, while it is you that 
 
 ' Serm. liii. c. 9. Sic tanquam spiritalia membra componens, 
 docuit quid ad quid pertineat. Apta est humilitas ad habendum 
 regnuni ccelorum, apta mansuetudo ad possidendam terram, aptus 
 luctus ad consolationem, apta fames et sitisjustitiae ad saturitatem, 
 apta misericordia ad impetrandam misericordiam, aptum mundum 
 cor ad videndum Deum. 
 
22 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 are appointed from ■whom it is to be diffused upon all 
 others. 1 And the salt •which has thus " lost his sa- 
 vor," - what "will it be good for, " but to be cast out 
 and to be trodden under foot of men ? " Augustine 
 makes here the beautiful observation, that they are 
 not truly trodden under foot, who without shrinking 
 suffer persecution, but they who through fear of per- 
 secution become vile, abandoning their faith; for how- 
 ever undermost he may seem, yet he is not really so, 
 who, whatever he may be suffering below on earth, 
 has his heart fixed above in heaven.' 
 
 Ver. 14, 15. " Te are the light of the world." —Yet not 
 light in themselves, but light in the Lord ; rays darted 
 forth from the sun, but not the sun itself. In themselves, 
 
 ' De Serm. Dora, in Mon. 1. i. c. 6. Si vos per quos condiendi 
 sunt quodammodo populi, metu persecutionum temporalium amise- 
 ritis regna ccelorum, qui erunt homines per quos a vobis error 
 auferatur, cum vos elegerit Deus, per quos errorem auferat caete- 
 rorum ? 
 
 * Here, as there is occasion not unfrequently to notice, the earlier 
 Latin translation which Augustine uses has a better term than that 
 substituted in the Vulgate. In the latter, /ua-jav9? is rendered eva- 
 nuerit, which is not indeed incorrect, as Tholuck (Ausleg. d. Berg- 
 predigt, p. 121) asserts, for we have in Cicero, Salsaraenta vetustate 
 evanescunt : but the old infatuerit was singularly happy (fatuus = 
 fxoi^oq, the man saltless, insipid. We have no such happy word for 
 it as the French /a^Ze.) It is probable, however, that the Vulgate is 
 a translation of /u.ttfav9?, which is the other, but the inferior reading. 
 
 ^ De Serm. Dom. in IVfon. 1. i. c. 6. Non itaque calcatur ab 
 hominibus, qui patitur persecutionem, sed qui persecutionem timendo 
 infatuatur. Calcari enim non potest nisi inferior, sed inferior non 
 est qui quamvis corpore multa in terra sustineat, corde tamen fixus 
 in coelo est. 
 
VER. 14, 15.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 23 
 
 even as all others, they were " sometimes darkness," 
 (Ephes. V. 8), and, receding from the true light, would 
 become darkness again. For no man is a true light, 
 having light in himself, but is as a candle or a lamp, 
 which has been kindled and may be quenched again ; 
 having ever need to exclaim with the Psalmist, " The 
 Lord is my Light.''^ And Augustine makes a happy 
 comparison of John, v. 35, with Avords of the same 
 Evangelist, i. 8, 9. Christ was the Light, " the True 
 Light which lighteth every man" (jh i^Sjq to aXridwoy): 
 John was a lamp or torch (not (j>wg but Xvxyoi:),^ burn- 
 ing indeed and shining, but yet burning down and 
 shining only for a season. 
 
 By the " hill" on which the city is set, Augustine 
 understands Christ himself, the foundation upon which 
 the Church is built, the stone cut out without hands 
 and growing into a mountain and filling the world.* 
 
 ' Serm. clxxxii. c. 6. Illuminandi sumus, non lumen sumus. 
 Enarr. in Ps. cxviii, 105. Nulla quippe creatura, quamvis rationalis 
 et intellectualis, a seips^ illuminatur, sed participatione sempiterna; 
 veritatis accenditur. 
 
 * Serm. clxxxii. c. 5. Luceraa et accendi potest, et extingui potest. 
 Lumen verum accendere potest, extingui non potest. Serm. ccclxxxi. 
 C. 7. Johannes lumen illuminatum ; Christus lumen illuminans. 
 As in these places he draws out the distinction between Christ the 
 Light, and John the Lamp, so elsewhere in a remarkable way (Serm. 
 cclxxxviii. De Voce et Verbo) between Christ the Word (the Aoyo;) 
 and John the Voice (the <f>4)vii) : the one a new utterance to the world 
 — a new speaking of God to man — the beginning of a new creation ; 
 the other but a startling and awakening cry in an old world. 
 
 ' Serm. cccxxxviii. c. 1 . Ipse est mons, qui ex parvo lapide crevit, 
 et totum orbem crescendo implevit. And Con, Faust. 1. xvi. c. 17, 
 Se scilicet montem, fideles autem suos in sui norainis gloria fundatos 
 asserens civitatem. 
 
24 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 Yet the Lord may perhaps only mean, the Church 
 can no more escape the notice of the world, than a 
 city set on an eminence the eyes of men ; even as in 
 the next verse it seems very questionable whether we 
 are to look for any particular meaning in " the 
 bushel," under which to be hid the candle was not 
 lighted. It may be what the Lord would say is but 
 generally this; — You were not given such great gifts, to 
 let them rust in idleness. It is a statement at once of 
 God's intention concerning them, and a warning that 
 they do not defeat that intention. That salt which is 
 yours was intended to season, see then that it grows 
 not savorless; this city to be visible, beware lest it 
 lose the power of drawing men's eyes to it. This light 
 which is kindled in you was meant to shine and to 
 give light to all that are in the house, that is, in the 
 Church, or, as Augustine rather inclines to interpret 
 it, in the world ; see then that you suffer not this 
 light to be darkened in you — it was imparted for a 
 very different end. To find, as he does, in the bushel 
 a particular allusion to worldly cares, or worldly lusts, 
 which we may not suffer to darken the light of the 
 spirit, putting that uppei'most which ought to be un- 
 dermost, and vice versa, certainly seems far fetched.' 
 
 • De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 6. And yet it is impossible to 
 deny the beauty of his further explanation of this passage, where 
 concerning the candlestick on which the candle is to be set he says, 
 Serm. ccxcvi. c. 6, Crux Christi est magnum candelabrum. Quivult 
 lucere, non erubescat de ligneo candelabro. . . . Audi ergo Paulum 
 Apostolum, audi lucernam in candelabro exsultantem, Mihi autem 
 absit gloriari, nisi in cnice Domini nostri Jesu Christi. Gal. vi. 14. 
 
VEIL 16, 17, 18.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 25 
 
 Ver. 16. — There -will be an opportunity of entering 
 into Augustine's view of this passage, when we come 
 to his reconciliation of the command here given, to 
 let our light shine before men, with the warning (vi. 
 1 — 18) against the doing ought to be seen of men. 
 For the present it will be sufficient to observe, that he 
 suggests the difficulty, and in this way solves it. The 
 Lord says not here, Let your light shine before men, 
 that they may glorify you ; but, that they may "glorify 
 your Father which is in heaven," — this his gloiy, and 
 not your own, is to be the end and aim of your doings ;i 
 and the later prohibition will not be found to be a pro- 
 hibition of the doing good deeds before others, but of 
 the doing them with the purpose that those others may 
 exalt and glorify us. 
 
 Ver. 17, 18. — To the great and important question, 
 in what way Christ came not to destroy the law, but 
 to fulfil, Augustine gives apparently many answers ; 
 yet not in fact many, while they all at the root are one. 
 First, he says, Clirist fulfilled the law by himself per- 
 fectly doing it. Secondly, he fulfilled it, by shedding 
 abroad that love in the hearts of his people, by which 
 and by which alone it is truly fulfilled " (Rom. 
 xiii. 9, 10) ; and where, through the weakness of the 
 
 ' Serm. cccxxxviii. c. 3. Non autem Dominus jussit bona opera 
 abscondi, sed in bonis operibus laudem humanam non cogitare. 
 Cf. Serm. cxlix. c. 13. Hoc si quseris, ut glorificetur Deus, noli 
 timere ne videaris ab hominibus. Etiam sic intus est eleemosyna 
 tua in abscondito ; ubi solus ille, cujus gloriam quaeris, te videt hoc 
 qujerere. 
 
 * Serm. cxxv. Quia venit dare caritatem, et caritas perficit legem ; 
 merito dixit, Non veni legem solvere, sed implere. 
 
26 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 flesh, and the remains of old corruptions, they yet 
 came short, himself fulfilling it in their room, and so 
 having a right to stand as an advocate in their behalf.^ 
 Thirdly, he fulfilled it, when in him whatsoever was 
 shadowed out in the types of the old law found a 
 completion; whatsoever was prophesied and promised, 
 became in him Yea and Amen^ (2 Cor. i. 20.) And 
 lastly, he fulfilled it, by unfolding how much it con- 
 tained, showing how beside the letter which they 
 deemed so easy to satisfy, it had also an inner spirit : 
 that it had a kernel as well as an outer husk ; and he 
 oftentimes quotes as a true parallel to this saying, the 
 words of St. John,^ " The law was given by Moses, 
 but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John, i. 
 17) ; this " grace" which was given by Christ being 
 the power of fulfilling that law, which was before only 
 a threatening and killing letter ; * this " truth" being 
 not opposed to untruth,* but truth in the sense of reality 
 
 ' Con. Faust. 1. xix. c. 17. Deinde quia, etiam sub gratia positis, 
 in hac naortali vita difficile est omni modo implere quod in lege 
 scriptum est, Non concupisces : ille per carnis suae sacrificium Sa- 
 cerdos effectus, impetrat nobis indulgentiam, etiam hinc adimplens 
 legem ; ut quod per nostram infirmitatem minus possumus, per illius 
 perfectionem recupeietur, cuj us capitis membra effecti sumus. (1 
 Job. ii. 1.) 
 
 * Con. Faust. I. xix. c. 8. " Con. Faust. 1. xvil. c. 16. 
 
 * Concupiscentiam terruit, non extinxit ; and with a right insight 
 into that often misquoted passage (2 Cor. iii. 6), " The letter killeth, 
 but the spirit giveth life," (De Spir. et Lit. c. 19,) Lex enim sine 
 adjuvanteSpiritu procul dubio est littera occidens : ciim vero adest 
 vivificans Spiritus, hoc ipsum intus conscriptum facit diligi, quod 
 foris scriptum lex faciebat timeri. 
 
 * Not a,\riBeia, opposed to 4.i~Jif, but a\n9tia (=Eix>Jv, Ileb. x. 1 
 = ff-S|Ua, Col. ii. 17,) to (Txia, or vTr6i(iyfA,a, Heb. ix. 23. Cf. Enarr. 
 in Ps. Ixxiii. 1. 
 
VER. 17, 18.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 27 
 
 or body, opposed to shadow, or outline ; so that that 
 declaration of St. John's, and this of our Lord's, he 
 woukl make exactly to answer to those words of St. 
 Paul, " but the body is of Christ." (Col. ii. 17.) All 
 these expositions run into one ; since in Christ's law- 
 fulfilling walk in the flesh, as the promised man, and 
 in the consequences of that life of perfect holiness, in 
 his resurrection and ascension, power was first given 
 to humanity to keep the law, even as by that was first 
 revealed to men all that the law of love was, and all 
 the blessed demands which it made upon them ; and 
 where, too, they were to find help for all their short- 
 comings in it, whereof now they had become more 
 deeply conscious than ever. 
 
 By these answei's it will at once be seen how little 
 Augustine consents with them, Manichaeans of old, 
 Quakers in modern times, who afiirm that in the new 
 legislation of Christ there is any abrogation of, or 
 withdrawing, or casting a slight upon, any part of the 
 old. He had on this matter the same great conflict 
 to maintain with the Manichaeans, which Irenseus 
 and others in earlier times had maintained with the 
 Gnostics. These, as those, eagerly snatched at such 
 passages as Matt. v. 31, 32 ; 43, 44 ; as evidences of 
 the repealing of the law of Moses; saying, that what- 
 ever Christ allowed to stand fast and sanctioned, was 
 not peculiar to Moses, but belonged to the universal 
 morality, — every thing distinctive of Moses was by 
 him cast aside. Now Augustine, in reply to these 
 cavillers, does not avail himself of the timid gloss of 
 some modern commentators, and admit that there is a 
 repealing, but then seek to make out that it is only 
 the Pharisaical additions to, or perversions of, the law 
 
28 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 which are repealed. He denies the repealing altoge- 
 ther ; and this verse, he affirms, gives us the key-note 
 of the Sermon on the Mount, at least to the end 'of its 
 first chapter.i He affirms how in each case the old 
 stands fast, however there may be a new unfolded out 
 of it. This verse, as may well be supposed, was a 
 hard saying to the adversaries. They had many out- 
 lets from it, while they had no good one. Sometimes 
 they denied that the words were Christ's, while they 
 are only recorded by St. Matthew, who was not called 
 till a later period of our Lord's ministry than that at 
 which he reports these words as spoken, and whose 
 witness they claimed therefore the liberty of putting 
 hj." Or allowing them to be the Lord's, they replied, 
 that he did not mean the Jewish law, (however he 
 might have been willing that the Jews should under- 
 stand him so to speak, and thus lay aside a part of 
 their bitter enmity against him), but quite a different 
 thing : and the law that he came to fulfil was the na- 
 
 ' Con. Faust. 1. xix. c. 26. Si Christus ubi quibusdam antiquis 
 sententiis proposilis adjunxit. Ego autem dico vobis, neque primorum 
 hominum legem hoc verborum additamento adimplevit, neque illam 
 quae per Mosem data est quasi contrariorum oppositione destruxit ; 
 sed potius omnia ex Hebraeorum lege commemorata ita commenda- 
 vit, ut quidquid ex persona sua insuper loqueretur, vel ad expositio- 
 nem requirendam valeret, si quid ilia obscure posuisset, vel ad tutius 
 conservandum quod ilia voluisset. Vides quam sit aliter intelligen- 
 dum, quod ait, Non se venisse legem solvere, sed adimplere : scilicet, 
 ut non quasi semiplena istis verbis integraretur, sed ut quod litera 
 jubente propter superborum praesumtionem non poterat, suadente 
 gratia propter humilium confessionem impleretur, opere factorum, 
 non adjectione verborum. 
 
 ' Con. Faust. 1. xvii. c. 3. 
 
VER. 17, 18.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 29 
 
 tural law written on men's hearts.^ And then, with an 
 attempt to shift the ground of controversy, they would 
 retort on the Catholics, that neither could they under- 
 stand this of the Jewish law. For neither did they 
 themselves act as though Christ had come to fulfil and 
 confirm that, but on the contrary had suffered a great 
 part of its enactments, its feasts and its sacrifices, its 
 circumcision and its sabbaths, its differences of meats, 
 and a thousand other legal observances, to fall away. 
 They too acted, as if Christ had dissolved and repealed 
 the law which he found in force at his coming.^ 
 
 This charge against the Church, that it too was a 
 dissolver of the law, and could not therefore hold to 
 these words, in any sense which would give it a right 
 to accuse others for utterly rejecting them, was, of 
 course, one well worthy of an answer, and Augustine 
 girds himself to the answering it fully. He replies, 
 that in the Church nothing, which there was in the 
 Synagogue, is dissolved, but rather every thing con- 
 firmed, — and this, while in Christ the type has passed 
 into the reality, the flower into the fruit, the prophecy 
 into the fulfilment, and in that is to stand fast for ever. 
 Had those that were Christ's, after his coming abode 
 in the type and the prophecy, refusing the realities 
 when in Christ they were made theirs, then, indeed, 
 there would have been, on their part, a dissolving of 
 the law and the prophets, while it would seem that 
 nothing which these had foretold or prefigured had 
 come to pass. But now, in the letting them go in 
 
 ' Con. Faust, 1. xix. c. 1. 
 
 ^ Con. Faust. 1. xviii. c. 1,2. Faustus, the Manichasan, says, 
 Nee tu id credis, de quo me solum incusas. 
 
30 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 their outward letter, there was the witness for their true 
 fulfibnent.^ They did not practise now the circum- 
 cision of the flesh, because Christ had given them the 
 true circumcision of the Spirit, and so caused the 
 shadow to give place to the substance. They kept not 
 the feasts of unleavened bread, for Christ had done 
 tliat which those feasts announced, purged out the old 
 leaven from men's life, causing them to be unleavened 
 in him ; - nor the passover, while now the true Lamb 
 of God, indeed without spot, was slain. They ob- 
 served not the sabbath, which, indeed, was only such 
 in a figure, for now the true sabbaths, those to which 
 the others pointed, were come, while He was come, in 
 whom there is the true rest and sabbath-keeping for 
 men's spirits, — he, who could say, " Come unto me, 
 all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give 
 you rest." * In this way Christ fulfilled and did not 
 dissolve the ceremonial part of Moses's law, — even as 
 the moral precepts, by the new light which he cast 
 upon them, by the added grace that he gave, enabling 
 men to keep them.^ But to this subject there will be 
 frequent necessity of returning. 
 
 ' Con. Faust. 1. xviii. c. 4. And again, Ideo ablata quia im- 
 plela. 
 
 ^ Con. Faust. 1. xix. c. 10. Ciim queeris, Curazyma sicut Judaei 
 non observet Christianus, si Christus non venit legem solvere sed 
 implere ? Respondeo, immo propterea magis hoc non observat 
 Christianus, quia quod ilia figuia prophetabatur, expurgato veteris 
 vitas f«rmento, novam vitam demonstrans, Christus implevit, 
 
 ^ Con. Faust. 1. xix. c. 19. Cf. Con. Adimant. c. 16. 
 
 ^ Con. Faust. 1. xix. -c. 18. Haec praecepta sunt morum ; ilia 
 sacramenta sunt promissorum : haec implentur per adjuvantem gra- 
 tiam, ilia per redditam veritatem ; utraque per Christum, et illam 
 
VER. 19, 20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 31 
 
 Ver. 19 — 20. — What is this being ^' least in the 
 kingdovi of heaven" which is here threatened? 
 Augustine starts with taking certainly for granted that 
 the doer and teacher of transgression/ of whom Christ 
 is now speaking, cannot be one who Avill ultimately 
 have any part with him. There are two explanations 
 then of the difficulty of finding a place at all assigned 
 to him in Christ's kingdom : for on the face of the 
 words, he that is least in the kingdom has a place in 
 that kingdom, albeit that place is the lowest : — either, 
 that is, to take the kingdom of heaven as the Church 
 militant, the kingdom in the present earlier state of its 
 developement, in which false teachers and evil workers 
 are mingled with the doers and teachei's of the truth, 
 and to say, that in this he shall have a place, though, in 
 God's estimate, the lowest place, and one from which, 
 while he occupies it unworthily, he shall hereafter be 
 cast out altogether. In this way Augustine oftentimes 
 explains the passage, referring in proof of such use of 
 the term, *' kingdom of heaven," to such passages as 
 Matt. xiii. 47.^ Sometimes, however, he has another 
 
 semper gratiam donantem, nunc etiam revelantem, et hanc veritatem 
 tunc promittentem, nunc exhibentem. 
 
 ' He, however, does not understand the words exactly thus — but 
 of one who does ill, while he teaches well, making this a parallel 
 phrase to ^latt. xxiii. 3, " They say and do not." (Beza, in modern 
 limes, has the same construction, making xoi JiJa^n =: xav JfJiJo, and 
 referring oZrai to the TronTy, and not to the Xilsiv.) Thus in Joh. 
 Evang. Tract, cxxii. c. 9. Denique ut ostenderet istos minimos re- 
 probos esse, qui docent bona loquendo, quae solvunt male vivendo, 
 nee quasi minimos in vita aeterna futures, sed omnino ibi non futures 
 .... continuo subjecit, Dico enim vobis, nisi &c. And Serm. cclii. c. 3. 
 
 ' Thus Serm. cclii. c. 3. Minimus vocabitur in regno ccelo- 
 
32 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 solution; he takes "the kingdom of heaven" as the per- 
 fected kingdom of glory, that into which nothing unholy 
 shall enter, and then he takes the announcement that he 
 shall be " least" there, as one of those mitigated forms 
 of expression in which oftentimes threatening is more 
 awfully concentrated than in many a louder menace ; i 
 — he shall be least there being equivalent to, and 
 another way of saying, he shall not be there at all. 
 The net now has fish of all kinds and all sizes, but 
 then it shall only contain " great fishes" " (John, xxi. 
 11) in it, and such as are least shall not be found in it 
 at all. It will at once be seen that these two explana- 
 tions do not contradict one another ; he shall be least 
 in the kingdom here, and excluded from it altogether 
 there. 
 
 I confess, however, it seems to me hardly likely that 
 our Saviour by the being " least in the kingdom of 
 heaven" means being excluded from it altogether, es- 
 pecially as he has used elsewhere the selfsame phrase 
 in so very different a sense (Matt. xi. 11). It appears 
 more natural to understand him here to be speaking 
 of some who out of a false freedom taught and them- 
 selves practised an exemption from certain special 
 Christian precepts, dealing with them as though they 
 were annulled and abrogated; and who yet, despite 
 
 rum. Sed in quo regno coelorum 1 In ecclesia quae modo est . . . 
 Ibi erit, sed minimus. Cf. De Civ. Dei, 1. xx. c. 9. 
 
 • 'EXa^i^ro; = novissimus et niillus. 
 
 * In Joh. Evang. Tract. 122. For the full understanding his 
 allusion here, it would be needful to enter into the allegorical signi- 
 fication, which he finds in the miraculous draught of fishes after the 
 Resurrection. 
 
VER. 19, 20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 33 
 
 this, did in the inmost centre of their life belong to 
 Christ. Such should be least in the kingdom of God 
 — in it, while their faith saved them, but least in it, 
 while they took so false and one-sided a view of its 
 enactments— least now in the judgment of God, and 
 in the work which, from that false standing point, they 
 should be able to accomplish — least hereafter in the 
 place that should be given them. And Augustine's 
 argument, drawn from ver. 20, — which he makes only 
 to be the stronger and yet more emphatic repetition of 
 ver. 19, and so " least in the kingdom of heaven," in 
 the former verse, to be identical with the not havinsf 
 an entrance into that kingdom in the latter, — appears 
 to me to be an erroneous one, drawn from a wrong 
 view of the relation in which the verses stand to 
 one another. The second does not say over again 
 what the first had said, but rather there is progress 
 and a climax in the verses. Such a relaxing for your- 
 selves and for others the commandments will set you 
 low in the true kingdom of obedience and holiness ; 
 but this of having a righteousness so utterly false and 
 hollow as that of the Scribes and Pharisees, will not 
 merely set you low, but will exclude you from that 
 kingdom utterly ; for while that marks an impaired 
 spiritual vision, this marks one wholly darkened and 
 destroyed. 
 
 Ver. 21, 22. — On the words " Whosoever is angry 
 with his brother without a cause,^' Augustine observes, 
 that in the Greek MSS. the last words find no place, 
 and it is simply and with no exception, " Whosoever 
 is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the 
 judgment." This, however, is not the fact with infi- 
 
 B 
 
34 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 nitely the largest number of the MSS. which now 
 exist, in which, as in most of the early versions, "with- 
 out a cause" is to be found. He must himself natu- 
 rally have desired it there ; for he everywhere recog- 
 nizes the possibility of an holy anger, and ingeniously 
 shows, that even should it be right to omit these 
 words, as probably it is, the prohibition is still not 
 absolute, nor without its qualifications, since it is with 
 thy brother, not with thy brother's sin, that thou art 
 forbidden to be angry.i Anger itself may be an holy 
 passion — it is attributed to Christ, (Mark, iii. 5,) and 
 to God himself— the possibility of its being sinless in 
 man is expressly recognized in those words of the 
 Apostle, " Be ye angry and sin not." (Ephes. iv. 26.) 
 For it is not, he says, itself hatred, though when it is 
 fostered long it is evermore in danger of degenerating 
 into that ; as wine too long kept, of turning into vine- 
 gar; and therefore is it to be gotten rid of, to be 
 emptied out from the vessel of the heart, without delay. 
 " Let not the sun go down upon your wrath."^ 
 
 ' Retract. 1. i. c. 19. Non fratri irascitur qui peccato fratris 
 irascitur. It is here where he observes that sine caussa is wanting 
 in the Greek MSS. ; in his Exposition of the discourse itself he 
 reads it. 
 
 * Ep. 38, (ad Profuturum), NuUi irascenti ira sua videtur 
 injusta [eix^?]. Ita enim inveterascens ira fit odium, dum quasi 
 justi doloris admixta dulcedo, diutius earn in vase detinet, donee 
 totum acescat, vasque corrumpat. Quapropter multo melius nee 
 juste cuiquam irascimur, quiim velut juste irascendo in alicujus 
 odium irae occultii facilitate delabimur In recipiendis enim hos- 
 pitibus ignotis, solemus dicere, multo esse melius malum hominem 
 perpeti, quam forsitan per ignorantiam excludi bonum, dum cavemus 
 ne recipiatur malus. Sed in aftectibus animi contra est. Nam in- 
 
VER. 21, 22.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 35 
 
 With regard to the word " Racha," Augustine says, 
 that he had learned from a Jew whom he had ques- 
 tioned on the subject, that it is not a word having any 
 distinct significance, but rather an interjection, the 
 i vague exclamation of an indignant mind.i And ac- 
 cepting this interpretation, he finds a natural and easy 
 climax here. The first grade of the sin is when a 
 I man feels the emotion of a causeless anger in his 
 j heart, which yet he so represses, that it does not find 
 any utterance without. In the second it breaks forth 
 into utterances of passion, such as this " Racha," which 
 however as yet, having no fixed meaning attached to 
 them, are not words of settled scorn and contempt. 
 This is the third degree of the sin, Avhen it is indeed 
 no longer merely anger, for it has ripened into hate. 
 He is no doubt perfectly right in affirming that de- 
 grees of guilt are intended to be signified here; al- 
 though those in modern times best acquainted with the 
 Eastern tongues do not acquiesce in the interpretation 
 of his Jew — but explain Racha as a term of reproach, 
 not indeed very severe, but having a fixed meaning, 
 and that pretty nearly equivalent to our English, Oh 
 vain man !- 
 
 comparabiliter salubrius est etiam irae juste pulsanti non aperire 
 penetrale cordis, quam admittere non facile recessuram, et perven- 
 turam de surculo ad trabem. 
 
 De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 9. Dixit enim esse vocem non 
 significantem aliquid, sed indignantis animi motum exprimentem. 
 
 2 Racha = Si avB^'jim xeve, Jam. ii. 20. The use by St. James 
 of this very term, and of the forbidden fxca^oQ by our Lord himself, 
 j(]Matt. xxiii. 17,) are alone proofs, if any were needed, that these terms 
 lare instanced but as signs of inward states of enmity and scorn : else 
 might a new Pharisaism develop itself out of this very teaching of 
 Christ's — one which, avoiding certain expressly forbidden utterances 
 
 d2 
 
36 EXPOSITION OF THE [sT. MATT. V. 
 
 And as ascending degrees of guilt are involved in 
 those different outcomings of anger, so also degrees of 
 penalty are expressed by the "judgment," the " coun- 
 cil" and the " hell-fire" or Gehenna; but all of them 
 penalties divine, not human : with the deeper guilt 
 there goes along the deeper damnation. For it is a 
 strange marring and misunderstanding of our Lord's 
 words on the part of some, one from which Augus- 
 tine, as will be seen by the next quotation, is altogether 
 free, to make the two first, the judgment and the 
 council, expressions of penalties inflicted by earthly 
 tribunals ; and only the third, the Gehenna, that which 
 comes directly from the sentence of God. On the 
 contrary, they all are earthly forms under which the 
 different degrees of loss and injury for the spirit of 
 man, reaching at last to its total loss and perdition, — set 
 forth by the casting out into the place appointed for 
 the burning of the offal of Jerusalem, — are described. 
 It is scarcely possible to imagine a greater missing of 
 the meaning, a more complete perplexing of the whole 
 passage, than is theirs, who find here any allusion to 
 earthly judgment-seats or human councils, save as the 
 shadows under which the things heavenly, in them- 
 selves unutterable, are pourtrayed.^ Therefore our 
 
 of outrage and ill will, should count itself free to use any other. 
 But even as these, where love is, may be righteously and holily 
 used, and Christ and his servants spake the keenest things in love, 
 so where love is not, the guilt of'' Racha," and " Thou fool," will 
 be incurred not merely where these words are exchanged for others, 
 but where no word at all finds utterance from the lips. 
 
 ' De Serin. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 9. Videntur ergo aliqui gradus 
 in peccatis et in reatu, sed quibus modis invisibiliter exhibeantur 
 meritis animanim, quis potest dicere 1 
 
VER. 21, 22.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 37 
 
 translation " hell-fire" is not happy, as somewhat 
 countenancing the confusion ; not that the eternal loss 
 is not by our Lord, indicated, but while that has twice 
 before been mentioned under forms of things earthly, 
 so it ought still to be here. The valley of Hinnom, 
 the place where the offal and the carcases were flung 
 forth, to be gnawed by the worm, and from time to 
 ; time to be consumed by the fire, is the Gehenna here. 
 j And our Lord is saying exactly the contrary to that 
 which they who so interpret will then be making him 
 j to say : he is saying, Moses gave you a law for the 
 outer man, he told you that if you killed you should 
 die. That is well ; but there is another region which 
 that precept could not reach, which nothing that Moses 
 had to impart could reach, a region with which earthly 
 tribunals do not meddle, but over which I am Lord ; 
 and I tell you that you must learn to look at the least 
 germs of evil will to your brother, the faintest rudi- 
 ments of hate, as having in them the nature of dead- 
 liest sin, as implicit murder,^ to be checked in the very 
 outset, since each growth of this indulged evil will 
 bring you under greater and greater condemnation, 
 till at last it will bring on a total and final separation 
 of your souls from the fountain of grace and love, so 
 
 ' Augustine quotes, exactly to the point, 1 John, iii. 15. And 
 Serm. Iviii. c. 7. Gladium non eduxisti, non vulnus in came fecisti, 
 non corpus piaga aliqua trucidasti. Cogitatio sola odii in corde tuo 
 est, et teneris homicida. . . . Quantum ad te pertinet, occidisti quern 
 odisti. Emenda te, corrige te. Si in domibus vestris scorpiones 
 essent aut aspides, quantum laboraretis, ut domus vestras purgaretis, 
 et securi habitare possetis ? Irascimini, et inveterantur irse in cordibu s 
 vestris, fiunt tot odia, tot trabes, tot scorpii, tot serpentes ; et domum 
 Dei, cor vestrum, purgare non vultis? 
 
\ 
 
 38 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 that being entirely reprobate ye shall be east out to 
 that fearful place, of which the valley of Hinnom, 
 with its worm and its fire, are the nearest, though 
 indeed only the faint, earthly images. 
 
 Ver. 23, 24. — In this way Augustine traces the 
 connection Avith what precedes ; If thou mayest not be 
 angry with thy brother, much less mayest thou retain 
 in thine heart a deep seated and lasting alienation 
 from him : or elsewhere, with a slight diiference. 
 Thou hast heard the awful consequences of a sin 
 against thy brother, how it separates thee not merely 
 from him but from God : hear now also the remedy,^ 
 how thou mayest restore thy disturbed relations with 
 thy God; for thy present condition unfits thee for 
 fellowship with him, deprives thee of the privilege of 
 offering to him any gift, since thou must thyself be an 
 offering, before any thing which thou bringest can be 
 welcome as such.2 
 
 But how obey the command to go to our brother ? 
 The half completed sacrifice will hardly endure so 
 great a delay. It may be that we know not where to 
 seek him now, or, if we know, that lands and seas lie 
 between him and us. This going then must be most 
 often a going in heart, an hastening with the swift 
 affection of love, not with the tardy motion of the 
 feet,3 And the altar and the offering, in like manner, 
 
 ' Serm. Ixxxii. c. 3. Ecce iile reatus gehennae quam cito solutus 
 est. Nondum reconciliatus, eras gehennae reus : reconcilialus, securus 
 offers munus tuum ad altare. 
 
 ^ Serm. Ixxxii. c.3. Offers munus tuum, et tu nos es munus Dei. 
 
 ^ De Serm. Dom. in Mou. 1. i. c. 10. Pergendum est ergo . . . 
 non pedibus corporis, sed motibus animi, ut te humili affectu pro- 
 
VER. 23, 24.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 39 
 
 must be spiritually understood. We offer our gift 
 when we bring any sacrifice of praise or prayer, — we 
 offer it on God's altar when we bring it ario-ht : here- 
 tics, as Augustine observes, offer not on the altar, 
 they rather cast their unaccepted gifts on the ground. 
 From all this it is plain that he does not see any im- 
 mediate nor any direct reference here to the Eucha- 
 rist ; though, indeed, that being the culminating act 
 of self-oblation unto God, in this self-oblation is of 
 course included, that there must be on the part of the 
 offerer a perfect charity, if that, the highest gift, is to 
 be acceptably offered. Speaking while the Jewish 
 temple service was yet in existence, our Lord clothes 
 an eternal truth in lang;uao;e borrowed from that tem- 
 porary institution, and to find any direct allusion to 
 any thing else in these terms " altar" and " gift," is 
 highly unnatural ; and certainly, as far as any passage 
 I have myself as yet seen, Augustine does not do so.i 
 But there still remains to consider what these words, 
 " have ought against thee" may mean. Is the offerer 
 of the jrift to be considered as the agfo-rieved or 
 aggrieving person ? is he to hasten and bestow forgive- 
 ness for a wrong that has been done him, or to claim 
 forgiveness for a wrono- that he has done ? Now the 
 
 sternas fratri ad quem cara cogitatione cucurreris, iu conspectu ejus, 
 cui munus oblaturus es. Ita enim etiamsi praesens sit, poteris eum 
 non siraulato animo lenire, atque in gratiam revocare, veniam postu- 
 lando ; si hoc prius coram Deo feceris, pergens ad eum non pigro 
 motu corporis, sed celerrimo dilectionis affectu. 
 
 ■ No doubt there is some passage of the kind, as Johnson in his 
 " Unbloody Sacrifice" numbers St. Augustine among those who have 
 so interpreted the altar here, but he does not give any especial refer- 
 ence. 
 
40 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 words, as Augustine observes/ clearly point out the 
 last to be the meaning;. If our brother had wronged 
 us 7ve should have something against him, not he 
 against us. It would be no duty then to seek him, 
 or to ask pardon — only to be willing to be sought by 
 him and to bestow pardon : where we have been the 
 wronger, there we are to seek it. This done, " then 
 come and offer thy gift," that is, this being accom- 
 plished in spirit, go forward in the work of worship, 
 or praise, or whatsoever else it was, which thou hadst 
 commenced with thy God.^ 
 
 Ver. 25, 26. — Augustine's interpretation of the pre- 
 cept, "Agree with thine adversary quickly," is re- 
 markable, though it requires some modification before 
 it can claim entire assent. That other explanation 
 seems weak and trivial, though supported by consi- 
 derable authorities, which would make this merely a 
 counsel of worldly prudence, and to say no more than 
 this, While the issue of every pleading before a judge 
 is uncertain, be not stiff and stern in refusing terms 
 of peace and reconciliation, lest unexpectedly judg- 
 ment be given against thee, and afterwards thou rue 
 
 ■ De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 10. Si in mentem venerit quod 
 aliquid habeat adversum nos frater : id est, si nos eum in aliquo 
 laesimus, tunc enim ipse habet adversum nos: nam nos adversiis 
 ilium habemus, si ille nos laesit : ubi non opus est pergere ad recon- 
 ciliationem : non enim veniam postulabis, ab eo qui tibi fecit injuriam, 
 sed tantum dimittes. A comparison with Mark, xi. 25, Rev. ii. 4, 
 14, 20, confirms this to be the true meaning of iX}" '"'' "*''■'» tivoj. 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 10. Atque inde veniens, id 
 est, intentionem revocans ad id quod agere cceperas, offers munus 
 tuum. 
 
VER. 25, 26.] SERMON OX THE MOUNT. 41 
 
 bitterly thine obstinacy and thine implacable mind. 
 But since counsels of a merely worldly prudence do 
 not and cannot find place in our Lord's teaching, it is 
 not to be wondered that Augustine does not even 
 consider this literal explanation, but at once looks for 
 a spiritual, and inquires, who is the adversary with 
 whom we are bidden to be agreed. It cannot be, he 
 observes, the devil, for however the term " adversaiy" 
 (o avTiciKOQ, cf. 1 Pet. V. 8) would suit with him, yet 
 our part is not to consent with, but to proclaim and 
 maintain eternal warfare with him.i Nor can it be 
 the flesh, though that too is an adversary warring 
 against the soul, for men are only too willing to con- 
 sent with it, and the true course is not so to do, but 
 rather to make it consent with us.2 Nor can it, he 
 affirms, be any fellow man whatever, for what power 
 would such an one have to deliver us over to an eter- 
 nal doom ?^ Nor yet can the adversary be exactly 
 God, though he too might well be termed the adver- 
 sary of the sinner; since then the image would be 
 disturbed, and God would be at the same time the 
 accusing party and the judge before whom the two 
 parties are going. Therefore, Augustine concludes, 
 though this is not far from the truth, yet it will be 
 better still to say that the adversary is the Law — an 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 11. Neque concordare cum 
 illo expedit, cui semel renunciando, bellum indiximus, et quo victo 
 coronabimur : neque consentire illi jam oportet, cui si nunquam 
 consensissemus, nunquam in istas incidissemus miserias. 
 
 * Ibid. Qui earn servituti subjiciunt, non ipsl ei consentiunt, sed 
 earn sibi consentire cogunt. 
 
 3 Ibid. Quomodo judici traditurus est, qui ante judicem pariter 
 exhibebitur? 
 
42 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. Y. 
 
 adversary so long as for the past it condemns us, and 
 for the present commands us one thing and we do and 
 love another : and every step of our lives which we 
 take with this adversary imreconciled, is a drawing 
 nearer to the judgment and to a certain condemna- 
 tion. ^ But when we love the thing which it com- 
 mands, which in Christ we are enabled to do, and the 
 righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, then Ave are 
 reconciled unto it. It is a law, indeed, still, but a law 
 of liberty.2 For the past also we are reconciled unto 
 it, while through Christ Jesus and faith in his blood 
 it has lost its accusing power. We have learned to 
 accuse ourselves, and have thus taken from the law 
 its desire of accusing us any more. And this is to 
 be done ^^ quicMy," because we knoAV not how soon 
 for us the way may be ended, and we may find our- 
 selves suddenly in the presence of the Judge.^ 
 
 ' Serm. ccli. c. 8. Quis est adversarius tuus ? Sermo legis. 
 Quaa est via? vita ista. Quomodo est ilie adversarius ■? Dicit, Non 
 moechaberis, et tu vis moechari. Dicit, Non concupiseas rem 
 proximi tui ; et tu vis rapere res alienas .... Qaando vides quia 
 ille sermo aliud jubet, et tu aliud facis, est adversarius tuus .... 
 Compone dum es cum illo in via. Adest Deus qui vos concordet. 
 Quomodo vos concordat Deus? Donando peccata et inspirando 
 justitiam ut fiant opera bona. Cf. Serm. cix. c. 3, 4. Adversarius 
 est voluntatis tua3, donee fiat autor salutis tuee .... Adversarius est 
 nobis, quamdiu sumus et ipsi nobis. ... Si cum eo consenseris, pro 
 judice invenies patrem, pro ministro saevo angelum tollentem in 
 sinum Abrahae, pro carcere paradisum. Cf. Serm. ix. c. 3, and 
 Serm. ccclxxxvii. 
 
 ^ The redeemed man is not any more, according to Augustine's 
 profound distinction (in Job. Tract iii.), sub lege, but cum lege and 
 in lege — not under the law, but yet neither avo/t/to?, because hwfxot 
 Xjiff-Tw (1 Cor. ix. 21), because every loosing from the old is in its 
 very nature an attaching to the new (Rom. vii. 1 — 4). 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 11. 
 
VER. 25, 26.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 43 
 
 Now it is most true, as he affirms, that the outraged 
 law of God is the real " adversary," but yet that law 
 is here contemplated, according to the whole con- 
 nexion of the passage, as embodied and finding its 
 representative in the brother who has something 
 against us. And his objection to understanding by 
 the adversary a fellow man at all — for how, he asks, 
 could such have power to deliver us to the heavenly 
 judgment ? — is capable of an easy dilution. His appeals 
 to the All-seeing and All-searching, against our con- 
 tinued enmity, our determined refusals to walk in love, 
 will be, whether he desire them to be so or not, a de- 
 livering us to the judge, as again he will deliver us, 
 by being compelled to appear against us and be our 
 accuser at that day.^ 
 
 As regards the minor details of this parabolic say- 
 ing, by the ^^Judfje" he understand not the Father, but 
 Christ, since " the Father judges no man, but hath 
 committed all judgment unto the Son ;" — by " the 
 office!'" an angel, since he will come with all his holy 
 angels to judge both the quick and dead; — by the 
 "7;/'iso»," the outer darkness, the place of lost spirits; 
 not purgatory, as the modern Romanists, who see in 
 the words " till thou has paid the uttermost farthing," 
 a limit defined, after which there would be deliver- 
 ance from this prison. That such an interpretation 
 was stirrinw in his time we learn from his ovm. words. 
 It was one that he would willingly have himself con- 
 sented to, but that he found the Scriptures on the 
 
 ' It is remarkable that Hilary had already anticipated this objec- 
 tion and difficulty, and answered it ; Adversario tradente nos judici, 
 quia manens in eum simultatis nostras ira nos arguit. 
 
44 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 other side too clear and too strong. He asks with 
 truth, How can any paying of this debt come to pass 
 in that world where there is no place for amendment 
 or repentance V and finds in these words the expres- 
 sion of an everlasting doom.^ 
 
 Ver. 27, 28. — Here Augustine makes an accurate 
 distinction ; that it is not, namely, the looking, out of 
 which, unawares to the beholder, there arises up in 
 his heart the suggestion of an unholy desire, which 
 itself involves the sin, but the looking with the inten- 
 tion and purpose of thereby feeding desire ; ^ though 
 indeed it is nothing but a practical Pelagianism, which 
 would deny the concupiscence itself, whether willingly 
 or unwillingly stirred, to be of the nature of sin. But 
 it is not this of which Christ is here speaking —rather 
 of the deliberate fomentinar of desire throutrh the fuel 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 11. Unde enitn solvitur illud 
 debitutn, ubi jam non datur poenitendi et correctius vivendi locus? 
 And again, Semper solvit novissimum quadrantem, dura sempiternas 
 pcenas terrenorum peccatoram luit. 
 
 * De Octo Dulc. QuKSt., qu. 1. Illud enim quod dicitur, quan- 
 doque, etsi post plurimum temporis, eos qui in catholica communione 
 moriuntur, quamvis usque in finem vitae hujus flagitiosissime et 
 sceleratissime vixerint, de poenis ultricibus exituros familiarius 
 meum tangit affectum. But he goes on to say, such passages as 
 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10, Ephes. v. 5, 6, are too strong on the other side. 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 12. Non dixit, Omnis qui con- 
 cupiverit mulierem, sed qui viderit mulierem ad concupiscendum 
 earn : id est, hoc fine et hoc animo attenderit, ut eam concupiscat. 
 This distinction has been often overlooked ; yet it is required by the 
 words themselves. iTfsf to (eo ut) is not = etc to (ita ut). In the 
 first, which stands here, is involved not merely the event, but also 
 the intention. 
 
VER. 27, 28.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 45 
 
 of impure looks : he that so doth, hath committed 
 adultery in his heart already, and not he merely in 
 whom sin is " finished" in act as well as in desire. 
 
 Ver. 29, 30 — He questions whether this " right eye" 
 which must be plucked out, and " right hand" which 
 must be cut off, shall be understood generally of any 
 thing that is eminently dear to us,^ or whether we 
 shall give them a more special signification. He de- 
 termines for the latter, and will have the " right eye" to 
 mean some beloved friend, our counsellor and guide 
 in divine things, whom yet we must cast off if he 
 would lead us into heresies and errors,- even as by the 
 " right hand" is meant our active helper and minister in 
 the same, whom in like manner, under the like cir- 
 cumstances, at every cost and pain to ourselves, we 
 must reject and cut off. They are therefore called the 
 right eye and the right hand, that is, those of most 
 price and esteem, because they are guides and helpers 
 in things of greatest moment, to wit, in things spi- 
 ritual. And in this he notes that another consequence 
 is included : for if even such as these must be cut off, 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom, in Mon. 1. i. c. 13. Quidquid namque est 
 quod significat oculus, sine dubio tale est quod vehementer diligitur. 
 Solet enim et ab iis qui vehementer volunt exprimere dilectionem 
 suam, ita dici, Diligo eum ut oculos meos, aut etiara plus quam 
 oculos meos. 
 
 ' Serm. Ixxxi. He instances, as an example of what he means, our 
 Lord's conduct with Peter, and his words to him, " Get thee behind 
 me, Satan, "(iMatt. xvi. 23,) when he would have placed a stumbling 
 block in his way, though of course it did not then come to the actual 
 casting off, while the rebuke was there effectual to bring back Peter 
 to his true position. 
 
46 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 how much more the left eye and the left hand, the 
 helpers not in spiritual but in wordly things, if they 
 would put a stumbling block in our way. 
 
 The only objection to this interpretation is its nar- 
 rowness : that it does not and cannot exhaust the 
 meaning of the Avords : though it is important to hold 
 fast what in it is involved, namely, that these are not 
 sins, but occasions of sin, which are to be cut off with- 
 out pity. Christ is not here telling us that our sinful 
 lusts are to be cut off— that were of course; — but that 
 what is harmless in itself, yea in its subordinate po- 
 sition useful and comely, and so likened to the hand 
 and the eye, if through any peculiarity of our tem- 
 perament or condition, it hinders the main work of 
 our salvation, it is to be offered up to that, as the less 
 to the greater, the part to the whole. 
 
 Ver. 31. — Here, too, the Manichseans found a con- 
 tradiction between the teaching of Moses and of Christ; 
 Moses giving facilities for divorce — " Whosoever will 
 put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce- 
 ment ;" but Christ throwing every hindrance in the 
 way of it, declaring that marriage, " saving for the 
 cause of fornication," was indissoluble. It is true 
 that in this they involved themselves in a contradic- 
 tion which did not escape the keenness of the adver- 
 sary with whom they had to do ; since Moses, whom 
 they spake against, was yet here, according to their 
 own principles, worthiest of praise, in helping to dis- 
 solve the bands of an institution which they traced up 
 to the devil,! which, as they affirmed, contributed to 
 
 ' Con. Faust. 1. xix. c. 26. Verumtamen . . . quaero cur displlceat 
 
VER. 31.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 47 
 
 the detaining of the divine principle in a material 
 prison. But soon leaving this, which was only by 
 the way, Angustine answered triumphantly, that the 
 legislation of Moses and of Christ, so far from being 
 opposed to one another, were in fact both in the same 
 line. When Moses said, " Whosoever shall put away 
 his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement" * 
 this was not spoken to encourage divorces, but, on 
 the contrary, to throw impediments in their way. A 
 man could not at every light motion of caprice or 
 anger dismiss his wife, but was thus compelled to have 
 resort to a legal process, and to the Scribe, who alone 
 could draw out the necessary instrument, and who 
 might be assumed, from his position and education, to 
 be a wise and a prudent man ; able, therefore, and 
 willing, if that were possible, to remove misunder- 
 standings and offences, to knit again the bands of a 
 broken love between the two parties ; and who, only 
 when every such attempt had failed, would give the 
 bill of divorce which the husband required.^ This 
 
 dimittere uxorem, quam non ad matrimonii fidem, sed ad concupis- 
 centiae crimen, habendum esse censetis ? . . . Eo modo enim putatis 
 partem Dei vestri . . . etiam carnis compedibus colligari. 
 
 ' De Serm, Dora, in Mon. 1. i. c. 14. Qui dimiserit, det illi libel- 
 lum repudii : ut iracundiam temerariam projicientis uxorem libelli 
 cogitatio temperaret. Qui ergo dimittendi moram queesivit, significavit 
 quantum potuit duris hominibus se nolle disscidium. 
 
 "^ Con. Faust. 1. xix. c. 26. Praesertim quia, ut perhibent apud 
 Hebrajos scribere literas Hebraeas nulli fas erat nisi scribis solis. . . . 
 Ad hos igitur quos oporteret esse prudentes legis interpretes et justos 
 disscidii dissuasores, lex mittere voluit eum, quem jussit libellum 
 repudii dare, si dimisisset uxorem. Non enim ei poterat seribi 
 libellus, nisi ab ipsis qui per banc occasionem ex necessitate venientem 
 quodammodo in manus suas bono consilio regerent, atque inter ipsum 
 et uxorem pacifice agendo dilectionem concordiamque suaderent. 
 
48 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 much the law did ; why it did not more the Lord him- 
 self tells us elsewhere ; " Moses, because of the hard- 
 ness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your 
 wives ;" ^ but the legislation is in the same direction, 
 the one a lower, the other a higher, witness for the 
 sanctity of marriage ; in each there was alike a decla- 
 ration that the Lord " hateth putting away," though 
 he did not impose upon them who were yet living in 
 the oldness of the letter, the higher precept, whose 
 fuller blessings they only were capable of accepting, 
 who were walking in the newness of the Spirit. 
 
 Ver. 32. — Is the sin, Augustine stops here to inquire, 
 which the Lord recognizes as a justifying cause of 
 divorce, to be taken in its literal sense, and to be con- 
 fined to that only, or shall we rather receive it accord- 
 ing to its wider spiritual significance, and by this 
 '■^fornication" understand every graver sin which 
 corrupts and defiles the soul, according to that usage 
 of Scripture, which evermore speaks of all grievous 
 departures of all kinds from God under this image of 
 a wife breaking faith with her husband ? His deter- 
 mination, in which however he departs from most of the 
 Fathers of the Church, is in favour of the latter view.^ 
 Yet one cannot doubt that the literal is the true sense of 
 the passage. For there is evidently no cogency in his 
 
 ' Con. Faust. 1. xix. c. 29. 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 16. Ex quo intelligitur quod 
 propter illicitas concupiscentias, non tantum quas in stupris . . . com- 
 mittantur, sed omnino quaslibet, quaj animam corpore male utentem 
 a. lege Dei aberrare faciunt, et perniciose turpiterque corrumpi, 
 possit sine crimine et vir uxorem dimittere et uxor virum. Cf. 
 c. 12, and Qusest. Ixxxviii. qu. 83. 
 
VER. 32.] . SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 49 
 
 argument, that there are other sins of a deeper dye 
 than this ; and, therefore, if this justifies a separation, 
 by so much the more will those. It is enough to reply 
 that those other sins, if indeed they be graver, yet do 
 not contradict the very idea of marriage, do not assail 
 it at its very heart and centre ; so little do they do so, 
 that if only this faith be kept, marriage may exist as 
 truly between the unregenerate as the faithful, the 
 wicked as the godly, though of course it will not be 
 the shadow of so great a mystery. Nor is it to be 
 thought of that our Lord, uttering here, as he kncAv he 
 was, a word which was to be in all ages as a sharp 
 sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of rela- 
 tions the closest, would yet have left it in such vague- 
 ness and uncertainty, exposed to such cruel abuses, as 
 it must needs be, if the literal meaning of the words 
 were once abandoned, and that which is thus proposed 
 taken in its stead. ^ 
 
 But there is another question, in the matter of 
 which the judgment of Augustine has certainly had a 
 most powerful influence, first on the interpretation of 
 the words of Scripture, and through this on the deter- 
 minations of the Church ; — I mean the lawfulness of 
 the marriage of the innocent party, after separation on 
 
 ' Augustine himself, in his Retractations, l.i. c. 19, acknowledges 
 that the whole matter — latebrosissima quaeslio, as he terms it— deserves 
 to be considered anew, and though he does not withdraw, yet speaks 
 with no confidence of, the decision to which he has arrived. Sed 
 quam velit Dominus intelligi fornicationem, propter quam liceat di-. 
 mittere uxorem, utrum earn quae damnatur in stupris, an illam de 
 qua dicitur, Perdidisti omnem qui fornicatur abs te (Ps. Ixxii. 27), 
 in qua utique et ist. est, . . . etiam atque etiam cogitandum est atque 
 requirendum. 
 
 E 
 
50 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 account of a breach of the marriage vom' in the other 
 party. The Church of Rome, which, as is well known, 
 denies altogether this permission, has always very 
 much appealed to his authority. And his weight is 
 no doubt thrown very decidedly into this scale, though 
 he does not profess to see his way with perfect clear- 
 ness, and at the last^ acknowledges how little satisfied 
 ■ he is with what he has done, and confesses the great 
 difficulty and obscurity which hangs over the whole 
 subject ; an obscurity so great, that in another work, 
 written late in his life, he says that he who shall take 
 up and act on the erroneous interpretation cannot be 
 said more than venially to err.^ 
 
 His arguments that there can be no permission 
 here of marriage in any case after divorce (the di- 
 vorced party still living), are chiefly these. Such an 
 interpretation of this passage cannot be the right one, 
 for so it will be brought into contradiction with 1 Cor. 
 vii. 10, 11, " Let not the wife depart from her husband. 
 But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be 
 reconciled to her husband." The steps of his argu- 
 ment are the following ; Our Lord declares only one 
 cause which will justify a wife departing from her 
 husband, that is, his adultery. St. Paul therefore here 
 could not have contemplated any other cause. Con- 
 templating, then, as he must have done, this, he did 
 
 ' Retract. 1. ii. c. 57. Scripsi duos libros . . . cupiens solvere 
 difficillimam qujEStionem. Quod utrum enodatissime fecerim nescio : 
 immo vero non me pervenisse ad hujus rei perfectionem seutio. 
 
 * De Fide et Oper. c. 19. In ipsis divinis sententiis ita obscurum 
 est utrum et iste, cui quidera sine dubio adulteram licet dimittere, 
 adulter tamen habeatur si alteram duxerit, ut quantiim existimo 
 venialiter ibi quisque fallatur. 
 
VER. 32.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 51 
 
 yet give the precept, " Let her remain unmarried," 
 unless she be reconciled to him.i 
 
 Those who maintain the opposite view have ques- 
 tioned whether St. Paul did not contemplate other 
 grounds of separation, not as belonging indeed to the 
 highest Christian state, in which it is clear they could 
 not occur, but yet as not entirely inconsistent with a 
 true Christian profession; and this provisional bearing 
 with a more imperfect state of things, and this modera- 
 tion in dealing with the perplexities which must have 
 arisen from the first growing up of a Christian Church 
 out of an heathen world, is part, they say, of the won- 
 derful wisdom of the great Gentile apostle. But while 
 he bears Avith such things, he yet declares at the same 
 time the higher law; and with this toleration of sepa- 
 rations, will yet in no case allow an infringement of 
 the precept of the Lord's, which forbids divorces on 
 all lower grounds, and so forbids a new marriage upon 
 either side, saving on this one cause. But this view is 
 altogether strange to Augustine. When he is pressed, 
 as he is by Pollentius, whom he answers at length, 
 with the Lord's own words here, and at Matt. xix. 9, 
 he forsakes the canon- which he has himself elsewhere 
 laid down, namely, that the shorter and more incom- 
 plete passage is to receive the law of its interpretation 
 from the longer and fuller, and proceeding exactly on 
 the opposite principle, he finds the limitation of these 
 passages in St. Matthew in the parallel ones of Mark 
 
 • De Conjug. Adulter. 1. i. c. 1 — 7. 
 
 * Pauciora exponi debent secundum plura, et regula generalis per 
 exceptionem alibi traditam est limitanda. 
 
 e2 
 
52 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 (x. 11), and Luke (xvi. 18). ^ And then, to bring these 
 sayings into agreement with those, he has recourse to 
 this scheme, certainly an artificial one, namely, that 
 our Lord means by the exception, " saving for the 
 cause of fornication," that it would be a greater sin to 
 dismiss her without this provocation, not that it would 
 be no sin to do it with this provocation, and to marry 
 another ; for, he says, the Lord affirmed it would be 
 adultery in either case, only in one of a worse kind 
 than in the other.- 
 
 Another argument which Augustine finds against 
 understanding the words as involving such a permis- 
 sion, is that so a reconciliation with the guilty party 
 becomes impossible, while yet he believes that under 
 the new covenant of grace such ought to find place, 
 arguing, that as God receives back the souls that have 
 departed from him, and defiled themselves, if only 
 penitent and believing, into union with him, this should 
 be the pattern and example for his people — there should 
 not be a greater severity and remembrance of sin on 
 man's part — there should not be in any case a casting 
 
 ' De Conjug. Adult. Li. c. 11, 22. Quod subobscure apud 
 Matthaeum positum est, quoniam totum a parte significatum est, 
 expositum est apud alios, qui totum generaliter expresserunt, sicut 
 legitur apud Marcum (x. 11) ; et apud Lucam (xvi. 18). 
 
 ^ De Conjug. Adult. 1. i. c. 9. Cur ergo, inquis, interposuit 
 Dominus causam fornicationis, et non potius generaliter ait, Qui- 
 
 cunque dimiserit uxorem suam et aliam duxerit, mcechatur ? 
 
 Credo, quia illud quod majus est, hoc Dominus commemorare 
 voluit. Majus enim adulterium esse quis negat, uxore non fornicante 
 dimissa alteram ducere, quam si fornicantem quisque dimiserit, et 
 tunc alteram duxerit? Non quia et hoc adulterium non est, sed 
 quia minus est. 
 
VER. 32.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 53 
 
 off for ever.i But the analogy does not hold good, — 
 he should have taken the sins not merely which are 
 inconsistent with, but that which directly contradicts, 
 the idea of the relations between God and man, and 
 shown that there is forgiveness for that. Now there 
 is only one such sin, and that we know is irremissible, 
 the sin against the Holy Ghost. If there is to be an 
 argument from this analogy, here and here only would 
 it be fairly drawn. Other blemishes in the conduct 
 of the married, one to another, as unkindness, disturb 
 the relation, but do not, as does this sin, contradict 
 and deny its fundamental idea. Moreover, one cannot 
 help feeling, that while this recommendation, that the 
 innocent party should receive back the guilty, may 
 spring from a deep sense of the forgiveness which 
 sinners, who have themselves been forgiven, should 
 extend one to another, yet most often it does spring 
 from a poor view of marriage, from a shallow sense 
 of the reality of the wrong that has been done, of the 
 sanctity that has been violated. 
 
 Ver. 33 — 37. — This prohibition, apparently abso- 
 lute, of all swearing, perplexed Augustine a good deal, 
 and this he takes occasion more than once to confess.* 
 
 ' De Conjug. Adult. 1. ii. c. 6. Haec crimina in Vetere Dei 
 Lege nullis sacrificiis mundabantur, quae Novi Testamenti sanguine 
 sine dubitatione mundantur; et ideo tunc omnimodo prohibitum est 
 ab alio contaminatam viro recipere uxorera . . . Nunc autem postea 
 quam Christus ait adulterae, Nee ego te damnabo, vade, deinceps 
 noli peccare ; quis non intelligat debere ignoscere maritum, quod 
 videt ignovisse Dominum amborum. 
 
 * Serm. clxxx. c. 4. Scio difficilem questionem, et caritati vestrae 
 fateor, semper illam vitavi. 
 
54 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 He feels that the prohibition cannot be thus absolute 
 as it seems ; that the oath, or calling of God to be a 
 witness of the truth, or if falsehood be spoken, to be 
 an avenger of it, cannot in itself be sinful, since rather 
 it is a religious act, for it is a testimony of a belief in 
 a righteous and living God, Moreover he finds that 
 God himself swears ;i as Ps. cix. 4; Gen. xxii. 16; 
 Num. xiv. 28.2 So, too, many of his servants, in 
 some of the holiest moments of their lives ; thus St. 
 Paul, (Rom. i. 9; 1 Cor. xv. 31 ; 2 Cor. i. 23; Gal. 
 i. 20) : and these cannot be transgressions of theirs. ^ 
 He himself, when he found that an oath would give 
 strength to the words which he spoke, and charity 
 made him greatly to desire that they should be impli- 
 citly received, was in the habit of confirming them by 
 an appeal to the present and all-seeing God ; * and 
 though, as he says, he did this ever with a solemn 
 awe, yet his moral sense told him he was not herein 
 sinning. 
 
 But what then does our Lord mean by the " Swear 
 
 ' But in one place, Enarr. in Ps. Ixxxviii, he denies that this is in 
 point, saying, Deus solus securus jurat, quia falli non potest. But 
 since the perjury is in the intention, not in the mere sounds that pro- 
 ceed from the lips, the man who does not wish to deceive might in 
 this respect just as securely swear as God, who is not able to be 
 deceived. 
 
 " He might have added the <ru il-rcai; of our Lord, (Matt. xxvi. 64), 
 which is in the strictest sense an oath ; while according to the Hebrew 
 manner, it was the proposer, and not the taker of the oath, who re- 
 peated its words. 
 
 ^ De Mendac. c. 15. Praecepti violati reum Paulum, praesertim 
 in Epistolis conscriptis atque editis ad spiritalem vitam salutemque 
 populorum, nefas est dicere. 
 
 ^ Serm. clxxx. c. 9. 
 
VER. 33—37.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 55 
 
 not at all?" He is often content to answer, that it 
 is a counsel of prudence. He who swears often may 
 escape falling into perjury, but he who swears never 
 cannot fall into it ; as you may be delivered from fall- 
 ing over a precipice, even though you walk on its very 
 edge, but you must escape if you j^ut an ample space 
 between you and it.i 
 
 It is not wonderful that Augustine should feel 
 himself little content with a reply such as this, which 
 indeed could satisfy nobody. But surely this would 
 be something of a truer point of view from which to 
 contemplate the words of our Lord, — a view, as will 
 be seen by the two or three next quotations, not altoge- 
 ther strange to Augustine, though he has not wrought 
 it consistently out. There were, we know, whole worlds 
 of mischief at work among his hearers and contempo- 
 raries with regard to oaths ; as first, that some were 
 more binding than others ; that those made to the Lord 
 must indeed be performed, but those by the altar and 
 lie gift on the altar, by the temple and the gold in 
 the temple, did indeed some oblige, while others were 
 nugatory ; and the blind leaders of the blind, the spi- 
 ritual rulers of the people, had made a scale of the 
 obligations of these oaths on the consciences of men. 
 (Matt, xxiii. 16 — 22.) Then, too, men had learned to 
 think that if only God's name were avoided, there was 
 no irreverence in the frequent oaths by heaven, by the 
 earth, by Jerusalem, by their own heads — and these 
 brought in on the slightest need, or on no need at all ; 
 
 ' Serm. clxxx. Cf. De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 17. Sicut 
 enim falsum loqui non potest, qui noa loquitur ; sic pejerare non 
 potest, qui non jurat. 
 
56 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 just as now-a-days the same lingering half-respect for 
 the Holy Name will often cause men, who would not 
 be wholly profane, to substitute for that Name sounds 
 that nearly resemble, but are not exactly it, — or the 
 name, it may be, of some heathen deity. 
 
 Our Lord, then, with all this before his eyes, ad- 
 dresses that listening crowd, not abolishing, but here 
 too filling out the commandment given by Moses. 
 You have heard long ago the sanctity of the judicial 
 oath, and that taken upon solemn occasions, and in 
 the express name of God. Moses forbade all rash and 
 all false swearing by that awful Name. But I forbid 
 light, irreverent adjurations of every kind, and at eveiy 
 time, — adjurations so lightly spoken and so lightly 
 broken. I banish them altogether, and from every 
 region of your life.^ The "at all" which perplexes 
 Augustine so much, and has perplexed so many, is 
 doubtless to be interpreted and limited by what im- 
 mediately follows. All these kinds of oaths, which 
 I specify, are forbidden you. You do not, by using 
 them, really avoid taking God's name in vain. For 
 why have these oaths any thing binding ? It is God's 
 presence in these created things which gives them any 
 hold over your consciences. If you swear by heaven, 
 you have not escaped the swearing by his Name, for 
 heaven is his throne — if by the earth, it is his footstool 
 — by Jerusalem, it is the city of the great King— if by 
 your head, as supposing that there at least you are 
 
 ' Serm. clxxx. c. 10. Istam ergo consuetudinem quotidianara, 
 crebram, sine causa, nullo extorquente, nullo de tuis verbis dubi- 
 tante, jurandi, avertite a vobis, amputate a Unguis vestris, circum- 
 cidite ab ore vestro. 
 
VER. 33—37.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 57 
 
 swearing by something which is your own, yet it is 
 not so ; that is God's workmanship, you coukl not of 
 your own power make one hair of it black or white.^ 
 So that every oath is an awful thing, and in its ulti- 
 mate ground rests upon God, though the lightness and 
 frivolity of men causes them willingly to conceal this 
 fact from their eyes. 
 
 And then he opens to them the deep mystery of the 
 oath, that it is a consequence of sin, not itself evil, but 
 " of evil;"" so that in the highest idea of intercourse, 
 as between unfallen beings, angels with angels, it could 
 find no place : it would be utterly inconceivable. Only 
 where the tree of life has been forsaken for the mourn- 
 ful yet wondrous teaching of the tree of the knowledge 
 of good and evil, only where the lie has come out, could 
 there be any word for the truth. Were all speech the 
 exact out-coming of the inner life, there could be no 
 form of speech which would carry greater assurance 
 than any other. He that demands an oath recognizes 
 the untruthfulness of man ; he does not indeed affirm 
 that he of whom he demands it would now speak 
 falsehood without it, but that there is in him, and in 
 himself, and in every man, that which, but for the ever 
 newly awakened sense of his standing in the presence 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 17. Quid enim poterat quisque 
 luagis ad se pertinere arbitrari quam caput suum. Sed quomodo 
 nostrum est, ubi potestatem faciendi unius capilli albi aut nigri non 
 habemus ? 
 
 * De Mendacio, c. 18. A malo alterius, cui non aliter videtur 
 persuaderi posse quod dicitur, nisi jurando fides fiat, aut ab illo 
 malo nostro, quod liujus mortalitates adhuc pellibus involuti cor 
 nostrum non valemus ostendere : quod utique si valeremus, juratione 
 opus non esset. 
 
58 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 of God, the all-seeing and the all-avenging, would lead 
 him to untruth : that nothing but God, and the awful 
 sense of God's presence among them, can keep men 
 true; so that in this respect the oath is a deeply reli- 
 gious act, a confession that God is true, and only in 
 God can man be other than a liar. Yet not the less it 
 " Cometh of evil," while men ought not to need, and 
 but for their first great departure from God would 
 not need, thus continually to be brought back into his 
 presence, in which presence they ought continually to 
 dwell. And the oath disappears wherever there is any 
 near approximation to this. The true ideal of Chris- 
 tian conversation, that to which the Church is con- 
 tinually striving, that to which multitudes of God's 
 saints have already arrived in all their intercourse one 
 with another, is that in which the oath has become 
 superfluous, in which the Yea and Nay are all that 
 are ever offered and asked, while there is entire con- 
 fidence that each is always speaking as though God 
 were hearing him. To this sincerity, this entire truth- 
 fulness of conversation one with another, the Lord 
 would have his disciples strive, and to .this attain. 
 Let guile and deceit cease from among you, and the 
 oath will cease also ; for it is of your evil, and only 
 that renders it so frequently offered, and so frequently 
 demanded. 
 
 Ver. 38. — Here is again the apparent difficulty of 
 harmonizing the new and old: the semblance, as though 
 Christ did not intend to do so, did not mean to put his 
 legislation in connection with, but rather in 0])position 
 to, the legislation of Moses ; and with this difficulty, 
 the temptation to forsake the true explanation for the 
 
VER. 38.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 59 
 
 easy one — for that, I mean, which seems easy at first, 
 ■ but which yet presently will involve him that snatches 
 at it in infinite perplexities and contradictions. Augus- 
 tine's dispute with the Manichaeans must have brought 
 him early into the consciousness of this. They, of 
 course, gladly seized on this passage^ as another proof 
 of the manner in which Christ sought to dissociate and 
 disconnect his teaching; from the teachins: of the Old 
 Testament ; as if he were here saying. They of old 
 time taught one thing, but I teach another ; they 
 encouraged retaliation, but I denounce it : and in its 
 place require the extreme forgiveness of injuries. But 
 the true explanation is, that the different precepts be- 
 long to different domains of man's life ; and Christ is 
 brino-ino; the inner domain of man's life under his 
 law, while Moses had been satisfied with bringing the 
 outward under the dominion of his. But that outward 
 is not abolished in one jot or tittle of it, by the new 
 law of love. It is still " an eye for an eye, a tooth for 
 a tooth ;" not always in this form exactly, but the 
 spirit of all law which is exercised in a Christian state 
 is retributive and avenging, and approximating more 
 or less to this. Neither does it herein sink or obscure 
 its character as a Christian state, but rather asserts it 
 the more. The civil magistrate is a revenger to exe- 
 cute justice. God has appointed him to be such; and 
 without such a witness, all idea of righteousness and 
 of judgment would perish from the Avorld. 
 
 Moreover, as Augustine observes,^ it is monstrous 
 
 ' See Con. Adim, c. 8. 
 
 * Con. Faust. 1. xix. c. 25. Quandoquidem et illud antiquum 
 ad reprimendas flammas odiorum, saevientiumque immoderatos ani- 
 
60 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 to speak of tliis precept, " an eye for an eye, and a 
 tooth for a tooth," as fostering revenge, that is, private 
 animosity and hate. For, he asks, is the natural man, 
 is the enraged savage, satisfied with inflicting on his 
 foe as much as he has suffered ? No ; his desire is 
 ever to inflict more; to give two, or twenty it may be, 
 for the one which he has received ; thus again dis- 
 turbing the balance of equity, though in the other 
 scale, — and so himself losing, and causing his adver- 
 sary, under the sense of an unmerited amount of injury, 
 to lose the sense of a righteous government in the 
 world, under which every transgression of law will 
 recoil on the transgressor, and receive its just re- 
 compence of reward. But this law, which took the 
 execution of the vengeance out of the hands of the 
 man who might be tempted to mar it by overdoing it, 
 or doing it in hatred and personal enmity, was not a 
 fostering, but a limiting, and in its measure subduing, 
 the evil of man's heart. It did not indeed implant 
 
 mos refrenandos, ita praeceptum est. Quis enim tantundem facile 
 contentus est reponere vindictae, quantum accepit injuriae ? Nonne 
 videmus homines leviter laesos moliri caedem, sitire sanguinem, vix- 
 que invenire in malis inimici unde satientur ? Quis pugno percussus 
 non aut judicia concitat in daranationem ejus qui percusserit, aut si 
 ipse repercutere velit, totum hominem, si non etiam telo aliquo 
 arrepto, pugnis calcibusque contundit? Huic igitur immoderatae ac 
 per hoc injustae ultioni, lex justum modum figens, pcenam talionis 
 instituit : hoc est, ut qualem quisque intulit injuriam, tale suppli- 
 cium pendant. Proinde, Oculum pro oculo, dentem pro dente, non 
 femes sed limes furoris est ; non ut id quod sopltum erat, inde 
 accenderetur, sed ne id quod ardebat, ultrii extenderetur, impositus. 
 Est enim quaedam justa vindicta, justeque debetur ei qui fuerit pas- 
 sus injuriam : unde utique ciim ignoscimus, de nostro quodammodo 
 jure largimur. Cf. De Serm. Dora, in ]\Ion. 1. i. c. 19. 
 
VER. 38.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 61 
 
 there a principle of love, nor yet certainly secure that 
 they who availed themselves of it should be pure from 
 all motives of private hate, and inspired only by a zeal 
 for God's outraged justice, and a desire to make an 
 offending brother recognize the law against which he 
 had been sinning. But still (as a preparation at least) 
 it was working in this line, until a higher Lawgiver 
 should come, and teach that besides this law of right- 
 eousness, there was a law of love which he would 
 write in the hearts of his people, and which would 
 teach them that where only selfish interests were pe- 
 rilled, every thing was to be forgiven, every thing to 
 be forgone;— even as this law of love would teach them 
 the harder lesson yet of carrying out, where need was, 
 the justice at once retributive and corrective, of God,^ 
 and this, without the slightest feeling that herein they 
 were suspending the law of love, or rendering to the 
 man evil for his evil, but rather still good for his evil, 
 while it is justice for his injustice, right for his wrong. 
 Truly a hard thing to do aright, but yet not impos- 
 sible. 
 
 Ver. 39. — This command to " resist not evil," 
 and the others of like import which are scattered 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 20. Neque hie ea vindicta 
 prohibetur, quas ad correctionem valet : etiam ipsa enim pertinet ad 
 misericordiam . . . Sed huic vindictae referendje non est idoneus, nisi 
 qui odium quo solent flagrare qui se vindicare desiderant, dilectionis 
 magnitudine superaverit. Enarr, in Ps. cviii. 5. [Deus] autem etiam 
 cum vindicat, non reddit malum pro malo, quoniam justum reddit 
 injusto. Quod autem justum est, utique bonum est. Punit ergo 
 non delectatione alienae miseriEe, quod est, malum pro malo ; sed 
 dilectione justitiac, quod est, bonum pro malo. 
 
62 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 through the Gospels, but which He the closest in this 
 discourse, are open to abuse upon two sides. There 
 is, first, the abuse of the Quaker, who demands that 
 there should be throughout a cleaving to the letter, 
 and who affirms that it is nothing but cowardice and 
 a shrinking from the strictness of Christ's law, which 
 prevents these precepts of his from being literally 
 obeyed. Augustine meets this assertion, first histori- 
 cally, showing that neither did the Lord himself, nor 
 yet his apostles, whom yet all must acce23t as the most 
 authoritative interpreters of the word spoken, hold 
 themselves bound in every case to the letter of these 
 commandments. For instance, when one of the officers 
 struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, our blessed 
 Lord did not offer himself to be stricken again, but 
 firmly, though mildly, rebuked the smiter (John, xviii. 
 22, 23). And St. Paul spake yet a sterner word to 
 that judge who unrighteously bade him to be stricken 
 — " God shall smite thee, thou whited wall" (Acts, 
 xxiii. 3).^ Then, further, he refutes this interpretation 
 by showing how such a cleaving to the letter of this 
 and the following precepts, will continually issue in 
 a violation of the spirit of Christ's commandments. 
 Thus, in the case of that man that struck him, to 
 have ofl'ered him the other cheek, would have been no 
 love, while it would have been a tempting him to 
 repeat his fearful offence. Again, it is said, " Give 
 to every man that asketh of thee" (Luke, vi. 30) : 
 shall I give therefore an open knife to an infant, — a 
 drawn sword to a madman or a murderer, — money 
 to him who, as I well know, will surely spend it in riot 
 
 ' De Mendacio, c. 15. De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 19. 
 
VER. 39.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 63 
 
 and debauchery ? " Resist not evil ;" therefore the 
 merciless and the destroyers are to be allowed to tread 
 the world under their feet, and thou art to do nothing 
 to stay them ? 
 
 No : it is clear, he says, that our Lord is here giving 
 laws for the inward spirit of man.i This offering the 
 other cheek is an inward thing, is the meekness of the 
 spirit under wrong, the preparedness of heart to bear 
 as much or more, if so any good may come to the 
 injurious person. But the man's Christian love and 
 prudence are in each case to decide whether it is also 
 a precept for his outward conduct. It may be so, it 
 will often be so ; for instance, if thou thinkest that thy 
 offending brother will be won by thy Christian patience, 
 and his evil overcome by this exhibition of thy good, 
 then it will be thy duty, if he has done thee one wrong, 
 to lay thyself open to a second outrage : if thou hopest 
 thus to teach him the worthlessness of the things after 
 which he is striving, to let him spoil thee again.^ 
 
 ' Ep. 138, c. 2, (ad Maicell.) Denique ista praecepta magis ad 
 praeparationem cordis, quae intus est, pertinere, quam ad opus quod 
 in aperto fit ; ut teneatur in secreto animi patientia cum benevolentia, 
 in manifesto autem id fiat quod eis videtur prodesse posse, quibus 
 bene velle debemus, hinc liquido ostenditur, quod ipse Dominus 
 Jesus, exemplum singulare patientice, ciim percuteretur in faciem, 
 respondit, Si male dixi, exprobra de malo : si autem bene, quid me 
 caedis? Nequaquam igitur pra:ceptum suum, si verba intueamur, 
 implevit . . . et tamen paratus venerat, non solum in faciem percuti, 
 veriim etiam pro his quoque a quibus haec patiebatur crucifixus 
 occidi, pro quibus ait in cruce pendens, Pater, ignosce illis, quia 
 nesciunt quid faciant. 
 
 - Ep. 138, c. 2. Qui ergo vincit bono malum, patienter amittit 
 temporalia commoda, ut doceat quam pro fide atque justitia contem- 
 nenda sint, quje ille nimis amando fit malus. 
 
64 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 Deal with him as a prudent keeper will sometimes 
 deal with a madman in his charge, giving way to and 
 humouring him in part ; or as a compassionate phy- 
 sician, that contradicts not his patient in the delirium 
 of his fever.i But if thou countest that his evil will 
 grow with its impunity, that he will strengthen himself 
 in his sin and therefore in his misery, through thy 
 forbearance, then it is thy duty to turn to him thy 
 love on its severer side, to repress the outcomings of 
 his evil,2 though it will be tlie same love that dictates 
 this conduct or the other. Thus in a state which is 
 really Christian, war itself will be no violation of 
 charity, but will be carried on in the spirit of love, 
 that those against whom it is waged may not be allowed 
 to make miserable themselves and others, that hence- 
 forth it may be more hapjjily consulted for them, than 
 they would else have consented to consult for them- 
 selves.3 
 
 From all this it will appear, that while Augustine 
 shows that the literal, or what calls itself the literal, 
 scheme of interpretation, is not to be jiainfully cleaved 
 to, yet it is not because this is too high, too loving, 
 and too large, but because it oftentimes would not be 
 high, or large, or loving enough. Thus, for instance, a 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 19. 
 
 ' Ep. 138, c. 2. Cui licentia iniquitatis eripitur, utiliter vincitur: 
 quoniam nihil est infelicius felicitate peccantium, qua poenalis nutritur 
 impunitas, et mala voluntas velut hostis interior roboratur. And De 
 Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 20. Posse peceatum amore potius 
 vindicari, quam impunitum relinqui. 
 
 ' Ep. 138, c. 2, (ad Marcell.) Si terrena ista respublica praecepta 
 Christiana custodiat, et ipsa bella sine benevolentia non gerentur, ut 
 ad pietatis justitiaeque pacatam societatem victis facilius consulatur. 
 
VER. 39.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 65 
 
 sparing might oftentimes be no true mercy, nor grow 
 out of any root of love, but might only be an indul- 
 gence of our own indolence, or sloth, or cowardice. 
 So that in so doing he in no way favours but goes 
 directly against the glosses which the world makes on 
 these sayings of our Saviour's, and which it willingly 
 believes to be the only alternatives, if the literal appli- 
 cation be forsaken. What the world says, or, when it 
 dare not say, what it thinks in its heart, is very nearly 
 as follows: — All this is very fine morality, only it is 
 unhappily superfine, and quite unfit for everyday Avork 
 and wear, — evidently pitched at too high a key for prac- 
 tical use ; it must be taken down a little before it will 
 actually serve the needs of men. It could never be 
 meant that we are to be so meek, so forgiving, so 
 ready to impart as this ; that were only to make our- 
 selves a prey. These are extreme sayings. It will be 
 enough, if we make some approximation, nearer or 
 more remote, to the conduct here enjoined. — But no : 
 it is not thus : the commands are to stand fast ever- 
 more in their breadth and fulness : only love and the 
 Spirit of God are in each case to be their interpreters, 
 to apply them to the emergent necessity. Where these 
 are wanting, the precept must be interpreted falsely : 
 if in the letter, it will be in a loveless form ; or, if that 
 
 ' Ep. 153, (ad Macedon.) Plurimum interest quo animo quisque 
 parcat. Sicut enim est aliquando misericordia puniens, ita et cru- 
 delitas parcens. And he proceeds to give examples of this. Cf. 
 Con. Petil. l.ii. c. 67. Sicut est plerumque crudelis fallax adulatio, 
 sic semper misericors justa correptio. Cf. in 1 Ep. Joh. Tract, vii. 
 With a play on the words, which yet is much more than a mere 
 play, he says the seieritus Dei is but indeed the saeva Veritas Dei. 
 F 
 
66 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 be forsaken, there will be a sinning against the letter 
 and the spirit alike. 
 
 Ver. 40, 41. — These verses Augustine brings into 
 comparison with the precept of St. Paul, " redeeming 
 the time, because the days are evil," (Ephes. v. 16,) 
 that is, as he understands it, purchasing time, with all 
 its precious advantages, at the cost of meaner things. 
 Give up those meaner things, even though they be 
 thine by right ; give thy coat, and thy cloak too, rather 
 than lose thy time, time given thee for working out 
 thy salvation, in too eagerly seeking to regain them.i 
 To enter into the meaning of that very difficult passage 
 Avould be alien to our present purpose ; yet it is gene- 
 i-ally agreed that this is not exactly its meaning, and 
 so that there is no true parallel here. That may be, 
 and indeed certainly is, a counsel of Christian jrni- 
 dence, but this is otherwise. Christ, in the form of an 
 outward precept, is giving a law for the inward spirit 
 of a, Christian man, and one, as Augustine has himself 
 so often and so distinctly declared, to be, or not to be, 
 carried out by him in the letter according to the vary- 
 ing necessities of the brother that may sin against 
 him. It may be thou canst teach him an higher 
 lesson by letting him have the thing he is unduly 
 snatching at. Let him have it then : count his soul 
 more precious than thy worldly goods. But this does 
 not exclude the other dealing of love. It may be 
 what now he most needs to learn is, that unrighteous- 
 
 ' Serm. clxvii. c. 4. Judicio vult tecum contendere, . . . vult 
 avocare te litibus a Deo tuo. . . . Quantum ergo melius est ut num- 
 mum amittas et tempus ledimas. 
 
VER. 40, 41.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 67 
 
 ness is not to cany the day iinreproved even in this 
 present evil time, that the way of the transgressors is 
 hard. Then thou art bound by the same law of love 
 to resist him, and to make him feel that thei"e is a 
 divine order, even in the midst of this sinful world ; 
 an order which he cannot break through at will, which, 
 though it looks so weak, is indeed mighty, — which if 
 he violate, it will surely assert and avenge itself. For, 
 as God dealt with men by Law and by Gospel, and 
 the same love was in each, as the Law punished and 
 the Gospel forgave, each for the bringing about an 
 end beyond themselves, and the same end, even the 
 righteousness of the sinner, though they sought it by 
 different ways, so will there be counterparts of both in 
 the wise and loving conduct of a Christian man toward 
 his offending brother.^ 
 
 Exactly so, too, will it be in a Christian state. 
 While the judge, indeed, is the representative but of 
 one side of the divine character — of the divine justice, 
 he does not pardon, but only acquit or condemn. The 
 king, however, is a larger mirror of the divine per- 
 fections, of grace no less than of justice : he, there- 
 fore, after the condemnation, is free to pardon. Yet 
 the idea on which this pardon rests is, that it will 
 bring about in him that is the object of it a truer 
 righteousness than the payment of the extreme penalty 
 would have done, that there is something in him which 
 
 * In this matter it is not possible beforehand to give any other 
 rule than that which Augustine himself gives, when he says, Dilige 
 et fac quod voles. The everlasting law is, that thou render good for 
 thy brother's evil : the shape in which thou shalt render it, love, 
 which means not however merely the unwillingness to inflict present 
 jpain, shall prescribe. 
 
 f2 
 
68 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 promises that the end. Avhich punishment was to reach 
 will more sj,irely be attained by the method of grace. 
 Were it otherwise, the true love would be to suffer 
 the punishment to take its course. So that here, too, 
 justice and grace appear as identical, as love, manifest- 
 ing itself now at its one pole, now at the other. It is 
 true, indeed, that the grace comes out less frequently 
 in the Christian State than in the Christian Church, 
 that there it is ever the exception; for the State stands 
 in many respects in relation to the Church, as the 
 legal economy to the evangelical, an outer court of 
 the same temple. And, as in that earlier economy, the 
 side of grace came out less prominently than that of 
 severe justice, so is it in the State also, which yet 
 knows, as that knew, of the one no less than the 
 other.i 
 
 Ver. 42. — Hitherto, Augustine observes, it has been 
 the more negative virtues of not injuring, and being 
 patient under the injuries of others, which the Lord 
 has urged on his disciples. But this were little, unless 
 the more active and communicative graces were added 
 also ; and so follows the precept, " Give to him that 
 asketh thee." But can this, he inquires, mean, that no 
 request is ever to be denied ? Was Joseph, then, to 
 give to the wife of Potiphar what she asked ? or 
 Susannah to the Jewish elders ? Shall I give money 
 to a man to help him in oppressing the innocent ? or 
 
 ' A long leUer of Augustine's to a civil ruler, (Ep. 153, ad 
 Macedon.,) justifying the Church in its frequent pleadings for the 
 pardon of criminals, is full of matter of the deepest interest on these 
 relations of Church and State, and of the love whereof punishment 
 no less than pardon is, according to its true idea, the utterance. 
 
VER. 42.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 6& 
 
 which I know that he will spend upon his sinful lusts? i 
 It is plain that a thousand other monstrous cases of the 
 kind might be cited, down to that of the Carpocratians, 
 who justified indulgence in all fleshly lusts by these 
 words, saying, Whatever the flesh asked, they were 
 bound to give to it. 
 
 It is clear, then, the words must have their limita- 
 tion somewhere. Augustine finds the limitation not 
 from without, but in the words themselves, — Give to 
 every man ; but not every thing.- If you send an un- 
 worthy beggar away with a lecture upon idleness, you 
 have sent him not empty away. You have given to 
 him, although not the very thing which he required. 
 Here, too, he observes, we have the Lord's own inter- 
 pretation of his words. When that suitor cried to him 
 from the crowd, " Master, speak to my brother, that 
 he divide the inheritance with me ; " and the Lord 
 made answer, " Man, who made me a judge or a 
 divider over you ?" — might it not appear that he for- 
 got his own precept, refusing even this easily granted 
 request which was made him? But it was not so; he 
 gave the man, not indeed what he asked, but some- 
 thing far better, a medicine for the hurt of his soul, 
 saying to him, or at least for him, " Take heed and 
 beware of covetousness." ^ So, too, Joseph gave, but 
 it was a counsel of chastity; for when he made answer, 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 20. 
 
 ' Serrn. ccclix. Omni petenti te da. Non est dictum, Omnia 
 petenti te da : Prorsus da ; et si non quod petit, tu tamen aliquid 
 da : malum petit, tu bona da. 
 
 ^ Serm. ccclix. Non dedit Dominus hoc, nee tamen nihil dedit. 
 Minus negavit, sed quod plus est donavit . . . Ergo banc regulam 
 tenete. Date quando petimini, et si non hoc quod petimini. Hoc 
 
70 EXPOSITION OF THE [sT. MATT. V. 
 
 How shall I, a servant, betray the confidence of my 
 lord ? (Gen. xxxix. 8, 9,) in that was involved much 
 more an exhortation to her, How wilt thou, a wife, 
 betray the yet higher confidence of thine husband? 
 The ]irecept, then, " Give," as interpreted by the life of 
 him who uttered it, is ever to stand fast, but it is, Give 
 that which will make the receiver truly richer ; and 
 often in this sense a seeming denial will be the most 
 real giving ; as on the other side there are gifts which 
 are no gifts, (" All these things will I give thee, if 
 thou wilt fall down and worship me,") gifts which it 
 were far better never to have received. He who gives 
 these does not really give ; and while he seems to be 
 keeping the letter of this, is indeed breaking the spiiit 
 of all Christ's commandments. 
 
 So much concerning the spirit in which this precept 
 is to be obeyed, — on the details Augustine does not 
 yield us much; yet he notes how the Lord has in- 
 stanced, as examples of the things whereof a Christian 
 man shall patiently, where need is, endure the loss, 
 some that are most necessary, the cloak and the coat, 
 that so he may by implication involve all others ; for 
 if these, how much more readily the superfluous, shall 
 be forgone. ^ 
 
 Ver. 43 — 45. — Here also Augustine has seized M'ith 
 a firm grasp that which can alone be the right inter- 
 pretation of these verses. In respect of those words, 
 
 fecit Dominus. Petebat ille. Quid ? Divisionem haereditatis. 
 Dedit Dominus. Quid ? Peremptionem cupiditatis . . . Nunquid 
 petitorem inanem diinisit, et non potius veritate implevit ? 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 19. "Si enim de necessariis hoc 
 imperatum est, quanto magis superflua contemnere convenit? 
 
VER. 43 — 45.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 71 
 
 " Thou shalt hate thine enemy" he does not, to with- 
 draw the passage from Manichsean calumnies, betake 
 himself to the poor evasion, that because the exact 
 words are not found in their letter in the Old Testa- 
 ment, therefore the Lord is here pointing not at an 
 Old Testament precept, but at a Pharisaical abuse of 
 such, to some addition of the Scribes, falsely made. 
 Be the words in the Old Testament or no, they express 
 the spirit of it ; and no one need shrink from allowing 
 this, if only he will keep in mind that they were ad- 
 dressed to Israel solely as the theocratic people, as 
 having therefore no enemies but the same who were 
 God's enemies,! — hating them therefore only as God 
 hates them, — hating, that is, the evil in them, and not 
 hating any thing besides. The precept was no con- 
 cession to man's weakness,^ but a summons to holi- 
 ness, to a keeping themselves unspotted from the world 
 
 ' Con. Faust. 1. xix. c. 24. Unusquisque inic^mis homo, in quan- 
 tum iniquus est, odio liabendus est ; in quantum autem homo est, 
 diligendus est ; ut illud quod in eo recte odimus arguamus, id est, 
 vitium, quo possit illud quod in eo recte diligimus, id est, humana 
 natura ipsa, emendato vitio, liberari . . . Audito igitur et non intel- 
 lecto quod antiquis dictum erat, Oderis inimicum tuum, ferebantur 
 homines in hominis odium, ciim deberent non odisse nisi vitium. 
 Hos corrigit Dominus, dicendo, Diligite inimicos vestros, ut, qui jam 
 dixerat, Non veni legem solvere, sed adimplere, ideoque de odio 
 inimici quod scriptum est in lege, non solveret, praecipiendo utique 
 ut diligamus inimicos, cogeret nos intelligere quonam modo posse- 
 mus unum eumdemque hominem et odisse propter culpam, et diligere 
 propter naturam. 
 
 - Even Augustine himself does not alvfays hold fast to this the one 
 right exposition ; as, for instance, when, De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 
 1. i. c. 21, he says, Nee quod in lege dictum est, Oderis inimicum 
 tuum, vox jubentis justo accipienda est, sed permittentis infirmo. 
 
72 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 that surrounded them. Let us understand this, and 
 then ^ye shall see that Christ does not intend to repeal 
 this more than any of the preceding commandments 
 of Moses. " Thou shalt hate thine enemy" still stands 
 firm, — thine enemy, because God's enemy ; there shall 
 be in thee the abhorrence of evil, the holy hatred of 
 sin ; though now he adds out of the rich treasure-house 
 of his grace another power, even that of loving at the 
 same time the man, while hating the evil that is in 
 him ; — so shalt thou be as the physician, loving the 
 sick man, yet hating and Avarring with the sickness.^ 
 
 He often takes occasion to remark how side by side 
 with these passages, — which they who misunderstood 
 them, wilfully or otherwise, would have to counte- 
 nance revenge, to encourage hatred, — there were mul- 
 titudes of passages even in the Old Testament (dawn- 
 streaks of the coming day) breathing the spirit of these 
 new precepts of Christ ; however the strength to fulfil 
 them may have been for the most wanting till he 
 came to give it.^ Thus he compares with the restraint 
 upon anger (Matt. v. xxii.), the words at Prov. xvi. 
 34. The adultery of the heart (Matt. v. 28) is equally 
 met, and foi'bidden in the Old Testament, which has 
 not merely its seventh, but its tenth commandment, — 
 " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife.'' The 
 love of enemies is enjoined, Prov. xxv. 21 ; he else- 
 where adds, by example also, as in the cases of Joseph, 
 
 ' Serni. cdxxii. (Appendix.) Quod cum sancto et pio animo 
 feceris, vices ccelestis Medici agis, odio habens morbum, et diligens 
 aegrotum. 
 
 ^ Con. Faust. 1. xix. c. 28 — 30. Omnia vel paene omnia, quae 
 monuit seu praecepit ubi adjungebat, Ego autem dice vobis, inve- 
 niuntur et in illis veteribus libris. 
 
VER. 43 — 45.] SERMON OX THE MOUNT. 73 
 
 of David (1 Sam. xxiv. 5 ; Ps. vii. 4), in the law, too, 
 itself, where it is written, " If thou meet thine enemy's 
 ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it 
 back to him again." (Exod. xxiii. 4, 5.) The ground 
 of this love being the goodness of God to all, has its 
 parallel, Wisd. xii. 1. The indissolubility of mar- 
 riage is declared, Gen. ii. 24, of which words we 
 know the use which was made by the Lord himself 
 (Matt. xix. 4). When the Manichaeans seized upon 
 sayings like these, " He maketh his sun to rise on the 
 evil and on the good," and argued from thence that he 
 who said this, or he of whom this was said, could 
 never be the same God whose severity in word and 
 act came so fearfully out in the Old Testament, Au- 
 gustine answers, that as the Old Testament is not 
 without its frequent declarations of God's inexhaus- 
 tible mercy, his patience, his love, so neither is the 
 New without its abundant declarations and instances 
 of his severity and his anger ; he quotes in evidence, 
 Matt. X. 28 ; xxii. 13 ; xxv. 41 ; Rom. i. 24 ; ii. 5 ; 
 Heb. xii. 29 ; Luke, xix. 27 ; 2 Cor. v. 3 ; Acts, v. 
 5. 1 It was true that there was more of fear in the 
 Old Testament, and more of love in the New, yet was 
 there each in either; and it was only by a directing 
 attention exclusively to the one side or the other that 
 they could be thus played off against each other. ^ 
 
 ' Con. Adim. c. 7. Ex quo facile apparet et in ea patienti^ quae 
 
 invitat ad poenitentiam, et in ea indulgentia, quse ignoscit poeniten- 
 tibus; et in ea justitia quae punit eos qui corrigi nolunt, utrumque 
 Testamentum convenire atque congruere, tanquam ab uno Deo 
 utrumque conscriptum. Cf. Con. Adv. Leg. et Proph. l.i. c. 16 — 
 18. 
 * Con. Adv. Leg. et Proph. 1. i. c. 17. Vaniloqui et mentis 
 
74 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 His homilies and discourses are filled with earnest 
 practical applications of passages like the present. 
 Dost thou find it hard to obey this precept of loving 
 thine enemies ; and when thy Lord is proposed to 
 thee for an example of this, who made of the blood 
 which his murderers shed an healing salve for those 
 murderers themselves, dost thou answer in thine heart 
 that he was God, but thou art only a man? Look, 
 then, at a man like thyself, at one with the same pas- 
 sions ; look at Stephen, not thy Lord, but thy fellow 
 servant, with no other helps save what thou hast, and 
 listen to him praying for his murderers, " Lord, lay 
 not this sin to their charge;" ^ and see in that case the 
 fruit of thus obeying the command, " Pray for them 
 that despitefully use you and persecute you." To that 
 prayer of Stephen, Paul's conversion was most pro- 
 bably the answer- — even his, who could not be satis- 
 fied with having a single hand in the martyr's death, 
 but who kept the garments of all that stoned him, 
 rendering them apt for their bloody work, and so may 
 be said himself to have stoned him by the hands of 
 all. Pray, then, against the sinner, but pray for the 
 
 seductores adversantes litteris sacris, quas intelligere nolunt, eligunt 
 ex eis aspera qufe ibi leguntiir ad commendandam severitatera Dei, 
 et de litteris Evangelicis atque Apostolicis lenia quae ibi leguntur ad 
 commendandam bonitatem Dei ; et apud homines imperitos hinc 
 ingerunt horrorem, inde cjuaerunt favorem ; quasi difficile sit, ut 
 quisquam similiter blasphemus atque impius, eo modo adversetur 
 Novo Testamento, quo isti Veteri, carpens de Vetere (juibus ibi 
 commendatur Dei bonitas, et e contrario de Novo quibus ibi com- 
 mendalur Dei severitas. 
 
 • Serm. clxxxiii. c. 3. 
 
 * Ibid. c. 4. Omnium vestimenta servabat, et tanquam manibus 
 omnium lapidabat. 
 
VER. 43—45.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 75 
 
 man ; pray against what Satan has made of the man, 
 but pray for the man that God made. Hate that, but 
 love this. 
 
 Augustine is perplexed by some examples in Scrip- 
 ture that seem to go counter to this. How, for 
 instance, shall we imderstand Rev. vi. 9, where the 
 souls under the altar exclaim, " How long, O Lord, 
 holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our 
 blood on them that dwell on the earth ?" But who, 
 he concludes, shall presume to say that this is not a 
 prayer against the kingdom of sin, under which they 
 suffered such things ; and which kingdom the very 
 chai'ity which now is theirs, makes them so to desire 
 and pray that it may be overthrown ?i And, again, 
 there are St. Paul's words, (Rom. xii. 20,) " In so 
 doing thou shalt heap coals of lire on his head ;" 
 which at first sight, and as some have interpreted 
 them,- seem to contain rather the precepts of a subtler 
 hatred than of purest love. The image has been ex- 
 plained thus : Do thine enemy good, for thus thou 
 wilt draw down on him, continuing in his enmity, a 
 more signal vengeance from heaven : — or else thus ; 
 So doing, thou wilt bring upon him the smart of a 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. i. c. 22. Nam ipsa est sincera et 
 plena j ustitise et misericordiae vindicta martyrum , ut evertatur regnum 
 peccati, quo regnante tanta perpessi sunt. 
 
 ^ Some in his time did so abuse the passage : thus Enarr. in Ps. 
 Iviii. 10, he observes, [Malevolus] malitiose sapit quod scriptum est, 
 Hoc enim faciens, carbones ignis congeres super caput ejus. Agit 
 enim ut ampHus aggravet etei excitet indignationem Dei, quam car- 
 bonibus ignis significare putat, non intelligens ilium ignem esse 
 poenitentise urentem dolorem, quousque caput erectum superbia 
 beneficiis inimici ad humilitatem salubrem deponitur. 
 
76 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 livelier pain, of stronger self-rebuke, of deeper self- 
 scorn. This last explanation is on the way to the right 
 one, but stopping here, is equally with the other op- 
 posed to the universal spirit as much as to the pre- 
 sent argument of St. Paul ; and Augustine, with a 
 righteous earnestness, vindicating the passage, explains 
 how the benefits are to be imparted, not with the pur- 
 pose of aggravating an enemy's punishment, but for 
 the bringing about in him that true repentance, which 
 shall, if it may be, avert the punishment altogether ; 
 that the " coals of fire" heaped upon the head are 
 the image indeed of a pain inflicted, but yet one in- 
 flicted in love and for the burning out of the malice 
 that is in the man,i a present suffering which is to 
 issue in a lasting healing. For fear of a mistake, and 
 for ever excluding one, the apostle, he observes, was 
 diligent to add, showing what he meant, " Be not 
 overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."'- 
 
 He pauses to inquire whether this "sun" which God 
 makes to rise, and this " rain" which he causes to fall, 
 on the evil as well as the good, the unjust no less than 
 the just, are to be taken literally, — a declaration of the 
 natural bounties and blessings whereof all are par- 
 
 ' Serm.cxlix. c. 18. Ipsa vero ustio, poenitentiaest, t[uae tanquani 
 cai'bones ignis, iiiimicitias ejus malitiasque consumit. Umbreit, in 
 a valuable note on Prov. xxv. 22, takes quite tlie same ethical view 
 of the command, but explains the image a little differently ; Thou 
 shalt make him to glow with shame ; and Augustine, too, in one place, 
 says that the enemy under this treatment blushes, (erubescit.) 
 
 " Enarr. in Ps. Ixxviii, 10. Quomodo autem potest vincere in 
 bono malum, in superficie bonus, et in alto malus, qui opere parcit et 
 corde saevit, manu mitis, voluntate crudelis? Cf. also De Doct. 
 Christ. 1. iii. c. 16. 
 
VER. 43 — 45.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 77 
 
 takers ; or not rather the rain of his grace, the sun of 
 his righteousness, (Mai. iv. 2,) with which he visits 
 the hearts of all, though some are as soil which re- 
 fuses to be softened by that rain (Heb. vi. 7, 8), or 
 warmed by that sun. But he decides, and we cannot 
 doubt rightly, in favour of the former explanation/ 
 for thej' are not "evil" upon whom the spiritual sun has 
 risen, but through this rising upon them have passed 
 into the number of the good; nor they "unjust" upon 
 whom this rain comes down, but are now the just 
 through its fertilizing and refreshing powers. Rather 
 this sun and this rain are the common mercies which 
 all men receive, the unjust as well as the just,^ even 
 those that " walk in their own ways," (Acts, xiv. 16, 
 17,) and Avhich they receive at no other hands than 
 his ; though, indeed, they are not mercies to the 
 wicked at all in the same sense that they are to the 
 good. And this unstinted bounty of God, this love 
 which comprehends all, according to the measure in 
 which they can be comprehended by it, is the measure 
 by which his people, those who would indeed show 
 themselves his children, are to exercise love, the pat- 
 tern which they are to seek to imitate. 
 
 Ver. 46, 47. — There are three manners of returns, 
 as Augustine sometimes observes, which men may 
 make one to another. There is, first, the returning of 
 good for good, and evil for evil, which is the principle 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 23, and Serm. Iviii. c. 6. In 
 this view he brings out rightly the meaning of " his sun ;" De Serm. 
 Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 23. Addidit sinim, id est, quem ipse fecit 
 atque constituit, et k nullo aliquid sumsit ut faceret. 
 
 ^ Enarr. in Ps. xxxv. 6. 
 
78 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 which the world recognizes and on which it proceeds : 
 " Do not even the 2^uhlicans the same ?" ^ this is the 
 rule of the natural man. But beneath this there is 
 the returning of evil for good, which is devilish; while 
 above it there is the returning of good for evil, which 
 is divine, Avhich is God's principle of action ; and unto 
 this the Lord summons the children of God.- 
 
 Ver. 48. " Be ye therefore -perfect, even as your 
 Father which is in heaven is 'perfect." — This also was 
 one of the favourite texts of the Pelagians, which 
 they adduced in proof that men might live here alto- 
 gether without sin. God, they said, would not have 
 commanded what was impossible. If perfection had 
 been unattainable, Christ would not have required it. 
 But Augustine ^ answers that we must know what this 
 " perfect" means. It is not necessarily complete, and 
 having attained its ultimate end, in every thing ; but 
 that may be perfect in one respect which is not perfect 
 in another : or again, a man may be perfect, as having 
 
 ' In 1 Ep. Joh. Tract, viii. Extende dilectionem ia proximos, 
 nee voces illam extensionem. Prope enim te diligis, qui eos diligis, 
 qui tibi adhaerent. Extende ad ignotos, qui tibi nihil mali fecerunt. 
 Transcende et ipsos, perveni ut diligas inimicos. Serm. cclxxiii. (Ap- 
 pendix.) Amas amantes te, filioset parentes. Amat et latro, amat 
 et draco, amant et lupi, amant et ursi. 
 
 ^ This is drawn out somewhat differently, Enarr. in Ps. cviii. 2. 
 
 ' De Peccat. Mer. et Rem. 1. ii. c. 15. It may be seen, also, 
 how he dealt with this and passages of the like kind, such as Deut. 
 xviii. 13; 2 Cor. xiii. 11 ; Col. i. 28; Phil. ii. 14, in his Treatise 
 De Perfect. Justit. c. 8, 9. He says of most of them, Ipsum iineni 
 commemorant, quo currendo pertendant. 
 
VER. 48.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 79 
 
 every grace and lacking none, and yet imperfect while 
 lie has them not in that intensity which the immutable 
 law of truth requires. And here both these obser- 
 vations find application. It is on an especial point 
 the Lord is speaking ; " Be ])erfect, that is, have the 
 grace of loving, not merel}" your friends, but your 
 enemies, stop not short at the one, but go on to the 
 other, fulfilling the course set before you, reaching the 
 end of your Christian course; and do this because God 
 does it." But he who says that it means. Do this in 
 the measure in which God does it, and believes this 
 possible, shows, not that he has high notions of what 
 man's love ought to be, but that he has most poor and 
 unworthy notions of what God's love is. It Avas not 
 that Augustine desired to cast a damp on any true 
 strivings after added measures of Christian grace, after 
 illimitable advances to perfection ; but on these, as 
 seeing plainly the false root out of which they grew, 
 that the Pelagian spoke of this perfection as within 
 man's reach, not while he believed in the mightiness 
 of the grace that was given to bring it about, but 
 while he disbelieved in the extent and malignity of the 
 evil which was opposing its attainment. His talk 
 about this state of a perfect health was not an extolling 
 of the medicine, but an extenuating and denying of 
 the disease — an all-important distinction ! 
 
 In the life to come, undoubtedly, this command 
 would be literally and in all its extent fulfilled. God's 
 people will be perfect as he is perfect : and yet not so, 
 that the distinction between the nature of God and the 
 nature of man will be abolished, as some appeared to 
 him to affirm, but man will reach the perfection of his 
 
80 EXPOSITION, &C. [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 nature, as God has ever existed in the perfection of 
 his.i 
 
 ' Quaest. in Deut. 1. v. qu. 9. Neque enim quia dictum est, 
 Estote perfect!, sicut Pater vester ccelestis perfectus est, ideo Eequali- 
 tatem Patris . . . sperare debemus : quamvis non defuerunt qui et 
 hoc futurum putaverunt; nisi forte quid dicant pariim inlelligimus. 
 Con. Maxim. 1. i. c. 12. Ipse secundum naturam suam, nos secun- 
 dum nostram. 
 
( 81 ) 
 
 ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. VI. 
 
 Ver. 1 — 4. — The connection of this part of the Dis- 
 course, on which we now are entering, with the pre- 
 ceding, Augustine traces thus. In that which went 
 before the Lord had taught his disciples what they 
 were to do ; he now proceeds to teach them Jiow they 
 are to do it, with what simplicity and singleness of 
 eye.^ And this teaching, as he observes, is never 
 superfluous; for even after the eye is in great part 
 purged to see God, yet it is ever hard to prevent the 
 creeping in of harmful influences, where least sus- 
 pected, and this even from the very accompaniments 
 of our good actions : - as, for instance, from the praises 
 of men, which those draw after them. And very use- 
 fully he brings out how besides the mere and utter 
 
 ' In 1 Ep. Joli. Tract, viii. Videte quanta opera faciat superbia. 
 Ponite in corde, quam similia faciat et quasi paria caritati. Pascit 
 esurientem caritas, pascit et superbia ; caritas ut Deus laudetur, 
 superbia ut ipsa laudetur. Vestit nudum caritas, vestit et superbia. 
 Jejunat caritas, jejunat et superbia . . . Ergo Scriptura divina intro 
 nos revocat, a jactatione hujus faciei foriasecus .... Redi ad con- 
 scientiam tuam, ipsam interroga. Noli attendere quod floret foris, sed 
 qua; radix est interna. Radicata est cupiditas ? species potest esse 
 bonorum factorum : vere opera bona esse non possunt. Radicata 
 est caritas ? securus esto, nihil mali procedere potest. Blanditur 
 superbia ; saevit amor : . . . accipitur magis plaga caritatis, quam 
 eleemosyna superbiae. 
 
 - De Serm. Dom. in Mon. I. ii. c. I. Oculo magna ex parte 
 mundato difficile est non subrepere sordes aliquas de his rebus, quae 
 ipsas bonas nostras actiones comitari solent, veluti est laus humana.. 
 
 Cx 
 
82 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 hypocrite, who has no motive in what he does but his 
 own glory, there are many in whom tliere is a verj^ 
 great admixture of motives, Avhose good deeds have 
 two sources, one pure and one sullied ; for whom, 
 indeed, God and the pleasing of God are first, yet the 
 intention does not remain altogether in its simplicity ; 
 there is also an eye turned askance to some meaner 
 reward. 1 Yet the warning is throughout not against 
 having the praise of men, but against the doing aught 
 that we may have their praise, instead of with a single 
 eye to God's glory. It is not. Take heed that ye be 
 seen not in your alms; but, Take heed that you do not 
 your alms to be seen of men. For in some sort we 
 are bound in charity to desire men's praises ; that is, 
 if there be good wrought by us, we are bound in love 
 to desire there may be a recognition of that good 
 on the part of others : since their failing to recognize 
 it would mark a wrong condition in them. We are 
 bound to desire that our conversation may be attrac- 
 tive, for Ave may thus sometimes at the same moment 
 do a double alms, ministering to the rich man the 
 example, to the poor the help, that he needs.- If our 
 conscience tells us that God's glory, and not pride or 
 ostentation, is the root of our actions, let us be fearless 
 in this matter, and not dread or shun to be seen, only 
 having a care that this shall not be the final aim of 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 2. 
 
 ^ In 1 Ep. Joh. Tract, viii. Si enim abscondis ab oculis hominis, 
 abscondis ab imitatione hominis. Duo sunt quibus eleemosynam 
 
 facis : duo esuriunt, unus panem, alter justitiam Ille enim 
 
 quasrit quod manducet, ille quierit quod imitetur. Pascis istum, 
 praebes te isti: ambobus dedisti eleemosynam. Cf. De Civ. Dei, 
 1. V. c. 14 ; and Serm. clix. c. 10 — 13. 
 
VER. 1 — 4.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 83 
 
 our deeds.i And here, he says, lies the reconciliation 
 of such passages as that of St. Paul, " I please all men 
 in all things" (1 Cor. x. 33), and that other in which 
 he says, " If I yet pleased men, I should not be the 
 servant of Christ." (Gal. i. 10.) I please men as a 
 means to an end, for the winning them to the truth : 
 I do not make the pleasing them itself an end ; on 
 the contrary, this is something which I utterly forgo 
 whenever higher interests of God's truth are at stake. 
 Yet his affecting words in his Confessions,- concerning 
 the difficulty which he found when he was praised, in 
 distinguishing whether the pleasure that he felt was a 
 pleasure tliat others should be glorifying God for the 
 good which they saw in him, or a pleasui'e in being 
 thus himself extolled and glorified, and the deep 
 heart-searchino;s into which this broug-ht him, will not 
 easily be forgotten by those who once have read them. 
 He notes the peculiar difficulty which besets the faith- 
 ful man here. In other matters we may avoid that 
 which would prove the occasion of sin in us, we may 
 put the temptation far from us ; but we cannot here — 
 for we may not get away from virtue, so to get away 
 from the praises which follow it. 
 
 He continually finds an illustration of the warning 
 here conveyed, that, snatching at a false, we do not 
 lose all true reward, in the doom of the foolish virgins 
 (Matt. XXV.) In them he sees the image of persons 
 like those noted here, who are working for, and living 
 on, the praises of men. These praises were as the 
 present oil in the virgins' lamps, and so long as they 
 had a supply of these, they were adorned with appa- 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. Ixv. 2. ^ Confess. 1. x. c, 37. 
 
 g2 
 
84 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 rent good works. But when these praises fail, as at 
 the last clay they must fail, every thing will fail : all 
 Avherein they found their impulses to good will cease; 
 and the good itself, such as it was, will cease likewise. 
 Their oil has failed, and their lamps will have gone out. 
 And for the past they will have already received and 
 already exhausted their reward ; what they laboured 
 for they got ; l>ut now there will remain for them no- 
 thing but that sentence, " I know you not," uttered 
 from his lips with whom no work avails which is not 
 wrought out of love to him.i — In one place he wittily 
 likens these boasters of their good deeds, and thus 
 losers of all true reward, to the hen, which has no 
 sooner laid its egg, than by its cackling it calls some 
 one to take it away. 
 
 Augustine has a laborious, and as I cannot but 
 think an unnecessary, discussion concerning what the 
 " left hand" can mean, which is not to be permitted 
 to know what the " rujlit liand" gives. It were better 
 to recognize this as one of those strong popular say- 
 ings, which are not to be required to give an account 
 of themselves in detail, which they cannot do ; while in 
 the very contradictions, which would arise if they were 
 thus pressed, lies the chief of their strength. Thus it 
 is true, that if knowledge might be attributed to the 
 hands at all, it would be impossible that the left hand 
 should not know what the right hand gave, since both 
 
 ' Serm. xciii. c. 9. Non sunt fraudati laudibus humanis : qute- 
 siei'unt laudes humanas, habueiunt. Ista; laudes humana; in die 
 judicii non eos adjuvant. Enarr. in J's. cxlvii. 13. Non inveniunt 
 tunc faventes, non inveniunt tunc iaudantes, a quibus solebant lau- 
 dari et quasi excitari ad bona opera, non robore bona; conscientias, 
 sed incitamento linguiE alienae. 
 
VER. 1 — 4.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 85 
 
 are organs of one and the same will ; but this impos- 
 sibility is not to make us quit the meaning which the 
 words at first obviously suggest. Rather we are to see 
 how in this very impossibility, which lies on the sur- 
 face of the precept, is involved the exhortation to the 
 greatest possible secrecy, or i-ather simplicity, in alms- 
 giving, — for the secrecy is an accident, which in the 
 nature of things must often be wanting, but the sim- 
 plicity, the absence as far as possible of all reflex con- 
 sciousness of and dwelling on the work, must always 
 be there. After rejecting many explanations as un- 
 tenable, he ends by explaining the left hand as the 
 carnal will, manifesting itself in the look turned side- 
 ways to the human praise and reward, whereas by the 
 right is meant the single purpose of fulfilling the 
 divine commands ; i and he makes the entire precept 
 amount to this, Let not meaner motives mingle with 
 and defile your higher. That this lesson underlies the 
 whole teaching of Christ, with which we now have to 
 do, is plain : but here it seems that he is giving rather 
 to his disciples an example of what he would have 
 them do, than the principle on which they are to do 
 it ; While you are looking for an higher reward than 
 the praises of men, let your alms be given in secret 
 (and this he clothes in a strong gnomic saying): so 
 secretly, that if that were possible, no part of yourselves 
 save that actually engaged in the givino- should know 
 of the gift — not even the brother-hand. 
 
 ' Serm.cxiix. c. 14. Sinistra est animi cupiditas carnalis, dextera 
 est animi caritas spiritalis. [Elsewhere, the left, the ipsa delectatio 
 laudis — the right, the intentio implendi divina praecepta.] Si ergo 
 cum quisque facit eleemosynam, miscet cupiditatem teraporalium 
 commodorum, ut in opere illo aliquid tale conquirat, miscet sinistrae 
 conscientiam operibus dextrae. Ci'. Enarr. in Ps. cxxxvi. 5. 
 
86 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 Ver. 5, 6. — To these words, " Enter into thy closet, 
 and shut thy door,'' without exckiding the literal 
 sense, and the AA-arning against prayers made to be 
 seen,i Augustine gives also a mystical meaning. This 
 ^' closet" or chamber is the heart of man, — " the door" is 
 the avenues of sense by which defiling and disturbing 
 thoughts of this world would enter in ; a door, too, at 
 which the tempter is ever knocking, who yet passes 
 on and leaves us, if he finds it resolutely closed against 
 him." Then, he says, we fulfil the commandment of 
 giving no place to the devil, when Ave diligently close 
 the heart's door against him, and against the crowd of 
 distracting thoughts Avith Avhich he is ever seeking to 
 mar and spoil our prayers. On the shutting of the 
 door in this sense, he is often urgent, yet certainly not 
 more urgent than the immense importance of the sub- 
 ject Avould AA'arrant. Thus in one place he says, Wert 
 thou speaking Avith me, and that, not asking a favour, 
 but as with thine equal, and shouldst thou suddenly 
 break off and give a message to thy servant, could I 
 otherAvise than esteem it an affi-ont ? Yet this is 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. cxli. 3. Si homines reddituri sunt, efFunde ante 
 homines precem tuam : si Deus reddlturus est, efFunde ante eum 
 precem tuam. 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. in Men. 1. ii. c. 3. Parum est intrare in cubi- 
 cula, si ostium pateat importunis, per quod ostium ea quae foris sunt 
 improbe se immergunt, et interiora nostra appetunt. Foris autem 
 diximus esse omnia temporalia et visibilia, quje per ostium, id est, 
 per carnalem sensum in cogitatlones nostras penetrant et turba va- 
 norum phantasmatum oranfibus obstrepunt. And elsewhere, Clauso 
 ostio, id est, exclusa phantasmatum turba. And Enarr. in Ps. cxli. 
 3, Tentator non cessat pulsare ut irrumpat; si clausum invenerit, 
 transit. There is here much more that is admirable on this shutting 
 of the heart's door. 
 
VER. 5, 6.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 87 
 
 what tlioii doest daily with thy God.i And in another 
 popular exposition^ he inquires, why men are so re- 
 luctant to obey this command, — why they so seldom 
 turn in upon the solitude of their own hearts, — why 
 they so much prefer to be abroad than at home. And 
 then he likens them to those that have discomfortable 
 households, and so are unwilling to seek their homes, 
 while they know that only wretchedness and strife 
 await them there. It would be otherwise if their 
 
 ' Enarr. in Ps. cxl. 5. Quid facis de cogitatioaibus tuis? quid 
 facis de tumultu et caterva rebellantium desideriorum . . . Confiteris 
 peccata, Deum adoras: video corpus ubi jaceat, quaero ubi volitet 
 animus. Mode si mecum loquereris, et subito averteres te ad servum 
 tuum, et dimitteres me, non dico a quo aliquid petebas, sed cum 
 quo ex aequo loquebaris, non mihi injuriam factam deputarem? 
 Ecce quid facis quotidie Deo. Cf. Enarr. in Ps. Ixxxv. 4. Et 
 tolerat Deus tot corda precantium, et diversas res cogitantium ; 
 omitto dicere et noxias, omitto dicere aliquando perversas et inimi- 
 cas Deo ; ipsas superfluas cogitare, injuria est ejus, cum quo loqui 
 coeperas. 
 
 - Enarr. in Ps. xxxiii. 5. Attendat sanctitas vestra : Quomodo 
 nolunt intrare domos suas qui habent malas uxores : quomodo ex- 
 eunt ad forum et gaudent. Coepit hora esse, qua intrent in domum 
 suam ; contristantur. Intraturi sunt enim ad taedia, ad murmura, ad 
 amaritudines, ad eversiones ... Si ergo miseri sunt qui ciim redeunt 
 ad parietes suos, timent ne aliquibus suorum perturbationibus ever- 
 tantur, quanto sunt miseriores, qui ad conscientiam suam redire 
 nolunt, ne ibi litibus peccatorum evertantur ? Ergo ut possis libens 
 redire ad cor tuum, munda illud . . . Aufer inde cupiditatum sordes, 
 auferlabemavaritiEe.aufertabem'superstitionum . . . aufer ista omnia; 
 intra in cor tuum, et gaudebis ibi. Ciim ibi coeperis gaudere, ipsa 
 munditia cordis tui delectabit te, et faciei orare : quomodo si venias ad 
 aliquem locum — silentium est ibi, forte quies est ibi, mundus est locus. 
 Oremus hie, dicis, et delectat te compositio loci, et credis quod ibi 
 te exaudiat Deus. Si ergo loci visibilis te delectat munditia, quare 
 te non offendit immunditia cordis tui ? 
 
88 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 hearts were pure, if their consciences were purged : 
 they would not then find every thing driving them 
 abroad, but rather every thing attracting them to their 
 homes. 
 
 Ver. 7, 8. — In his beautiful letter upon prayer, 
 addressed to the noble widow Paula, Augustine dis- 
 tinguishes between the " much xpeaking" which is 
 rebuked, and the much praying, which elsewhere the 
 Lord has so earnestly commanded. He Avho himself 
 passed nights in prayer, who said, " Seek, and ye sliall 
 find," and spake a parable " that men ought always 
 to pray and not to faint," does not find fault with 
 prayer which is long drawn out, if only it he prayer, 
 but Avith that, in which, while it retains the name of 
 prayer, an endless tumult and hubbub of words is sub- 
 stituted for all deeper, and oftentimes in words un- 
 speakable, utterances of the spirit; or which, having 
 begun aright, has yet come to this, that the words have 
 now survived the feeling with which the prayer was 
 commenced.! 
 
 And why not this much speaking ? " For your 
 Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before 
 
 * Ep. 130, c. 10. Nequeenim, ut nonnulli putant, hoc estorare 
 in multiloquio, si diutius oretur. Aliud est sermo mulius, aliud 
 diuturnus affectus ; nam de ipso Domino scriptum est quod pernoc- 
 taverit in orando, et quod prolixius oraverit : ubi quid aliud quam 
 nobis prsbebat exemplum, in tempore precator opportunus, cura 
 Patre exauditor aeternus? Absit ab oratione multa locutio ; sed non 
 desit multa precatio, si fervens perseverat intentio. Nam multum 
 loqui est in orando rem necessariam superfluis agere verbis ; multum 
 autem precari est ad eum quem precamur diuturna et pia cordis 
 excitatione pulsare. Nam plerumque hoc negotium plus gemitibus 
 quam sermonibus agitur, plus fletu quam aft'atu. 
 
VER. 7, 8.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 89 
 
 ye ask hivi." But these words seem to extend further 
 than to tlie rebuke of wordy unmeaning prayers. 
 For if it be thus, answered some, if he thus knows 
 before we ask, what need to pray at all ? And, first, 
 what need to express any petition in words, to tell him 
 aught, who knows every thing already ? But these 
 words, Augustine replies, are only the accidental 
 clothing of our prayer, in which we array them for 
 our own sakes and not for his : — so entirely accidental 
 that very often our prayer exists without them. They 
 were given us at first as helps to memory, instructing 
 us in the things which we ought to desire or deprecate 
 either with words or without them.^ But then the 
 more real question remains : What need to pray at 
 all, either in words or in imuttered desires ? Will not 
 he, who is altogether good, give unasked what his 
 earthly children need? But the prayer, Augustine 
 makes answer, is the preparation and the enlargement 
 of the heart for the receiving the divine gift ; which 
 indeed God is always prepared to give, but we are not 
 always prepared to receive." In the act of prayer 
 
 ' De Serm. Dora, in Mon. 1. ii. c. 3 ; De Trin. 1. xv. c. 13. 
 
 ^ De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 3. Ipsa orationis intentio cor 
 nostrum serenat et purgat, capaciusque efficit ad accipienda divina 
 munera, quas spiritaliter nobis infundantur. Non enim ambitioue 
 precum nos exaudit Deus, qui semper paratus est dare suam lucem 
 nobis ; non visibilem, sed intelligibilem et spiritalem ; sed nos non 
 semper parati sumus accipere, cum inclinamur in alia, etrerum tem- 
 poralium cupiditate tenebramur. Fit ergo in oratione conversio 
 cordis ad eum qui semper dare paratus est, si nos capiamus quod 
 dederit; et in ipsa conversione purgatio interioris oculi, cum exclu- 
 duntur ea, quae temporaliter cupiebantur, ut acies cordis simplicis 
 ferre possit simplicem lucera, divinitus sine ullo occasu aut immu- 
 tatione fulgentem ; nee solum ferre, sed etiam manere in ilia ; non 
 
90 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 there is a purging of the spiritual eye, Avhich thus is 
 averted from the things earthly which darken it, and 
 becomes receptive of the divine light, — able not alone 
 to endure the brightness of that light, but to rejoice 
 in it with an ineffable joy. In the earnest asking is 
 the enlargement of the heart for the abundant receiv- 
 ing ; even as in it is also the needful preparation for 
 the receiving with a due thankfulness ; while, on the 
 contrary, the unsought would most times remain un- 
 acknowledged also.i 
 
 Ver. 9. — On the prayer itself Augustine first notes 
 how we nowhere read that they of the Old Covenant 
 were bidden to say " Our Father.'' Their word was 
 rather. Master,- while their relation was a servile one. 
 Not, indeed, that they were altogether without hints 
 that the filial relation was the true one, was that into 
 
 tantum sine molestia, sed etiam cum ineffabili gaudio, quo vere ac 
 sinceriter beata vita perficitur. And on this that God should com- 
 mand men to pray, he says elsewhere, Ep. 130, c.8, (ad Probam), 
 Quod quare facial qui novit quid nobis necessarium sit, prius quum 
 petamus ab eo.movereanimum potest, nisi intelligamusquod Dominus 
 et Deus noster non voluntatem nostram sibi veUt innotescere, quam 
 non potest ignorare, sed exerceri in orationibus desiderium nostrum, 
 quo possimus capere, quod praeparat dare. Illud enim valde mag- 
 num est, sed nos ad capiendum parvi et angusti sumus. And else- 
 where, Tam largo fonti vas inaue admovendum est. 
 
 ' Serm. Ivi. c. 3. Ideo voluit ut ores, ut desideranti det, ne 
 vilescat quod dederit : quia et ipsum desiderium ipse insinuavit. 
 
 ^ De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 4. Multa enim dicta sunt in 
 laudem Dei quas per omnes sanctas scripturas varie lateque diffusa 
 poterit quisque considerare, cum legit : nusquam tamen invenitur 
 praeceptum populo Israel ut dicerat. Pater noster, aut ut oraret 
 Patrem Deum : sed Dominus eis insinuatus est, tanquam servientibus, 
 id est, secundum carnem adhuc viventibus. 
 
VER. 9.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 91 
 
 which God designed to bring his people. There were 
 glimpses of it in the Old Testament, as Isai. i. 2, 
 Ixiii. 16 5 Ps. Ixxxii. 6; Mai. i. 6; but yet at best 
 Israel was but as the heir, who, " as long as he is a 
 child, differeth nothing from a servant." The spirit 
 of adoption, whereby we cry Abba Father, was not 
 theirs : for this is the exclusive prerogative of the New 
 Covenant, the gift of the Son, and the consequence of 
 the Incarnation ; i to as many as believe on him he 
 gives power to become the sons of God. (John, i. 12.) 
 Most fitting, he remarks, is this address Avith which 
 to begin our prayer, for by words like these our love 
 is kindled ; — since what should be dearer to children 
 than a father ? — and our devout affection, that men as 
 we should be permitted thus, and on these relations, to 
 hold converse with God ; and no less our confidence 
 that we shall not ask in vain, when, before asking, we 
 have already received this greatest gifi; of all, the 
 adoption of sons." Nor less are we prompted here to 
 the study of sanctity, that we prove not altogether 
 unworthy of so high a descent. Moreover, he observes, 
 it is not " My Father," but " Our Father," for this is 
 the prayer of brethren that in Christ are knit together 
 into one body, adopted in him into one and the same 
 family upon earth.^ 
 
 ' Ut homines nascerentur ex Deo, primo ex ipsis natus est Deus. 
 
 ^ De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 4. Quo nomine et caritas ex- 
 citatur, . . . et quseclam impetrandi praesumtio, quae petituri sumus ; 
 cum prius quam aliquid peteremus tam magnum donum accepimus, 
 ut sinamur dicere. Pater noster, Deo. Quid enim jam non det filiis 
 petentibus, cum hoc ipsum ante dederit, ut filii essent. 
 
 ^ De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 4, and Serm.lxiv. (Appendix.) 
 Oratio fraterna est; non dicit, Pater meus, tanquam pro se tantilm 
 
92 EXPOSITION OF THE [SJ. MATT. VI. 
 
 " Which art in heaven," — not, Augustine observes, 
 as tliough God were locally in the higher regions of 
 the world, having by comparison left the others ; for 
 if it were thus, they would be nearer him who dwell in 
 the mountains than those in the plains, and the birds 
 of the air, as nearer yet, would be more fortunate and 
 happier than either. ^ But he understands by " heaven" 
 the hearts of the faithful, — Who dwellest in them as in 
 a temjde, as in thy chosen habitation : and, of course, 
 when the words are once transferred from the material 
 to the moral world, there is no difficulty in speaking 
 of God as dwellino: and deliffhting to dwell more in 
 one place than another.^ But the words " which art 
 in heaven" are capable of a simpler explanation, and 
 do not require that we betake ourselves to an allegory 
 to justify their use. For while it is indeed true that 
 the local heavens are no more the habitation of God 
 than any other place, — that, while God is a Spirit, all 
 place is out of place when we are thinking of him ; — 
 yet this attribution of the pure immeasurable spaces 
 of the ether above us — the regions lifted high " above 
 the smoke and stir of this dim spot" — to God for his 
 habitation, is part of tlie unconscious symbolism which 
 is common to all ages and people, and in no respect a 
 denial of his declaration, " I fill heaven and earth." 
 The introduction of the words into the besrinnins; of 
 
 orans, sed, Pater noster, omnes videlicet una oratione complectens, 
 qui se in Christo fratres esse cognoscunt. 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 5. 
 
 ^ Ep. 187, (ad Dardanum). Fatendum est ubique esse Deum 
 per divinitatis praesentiam, sed non ubique per habitationis gratiam. 
 This whole letter is on the presence of God, and how far it may be 
 attributed to one place more than another. 
 
VER. 9.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 93 
 
 this prayer rests on this universal symbolism ; they are, 
 as it were, a Sursum corda, they remind, iis that now 
 we have lifted u]) our hearts from earth and things 
 earthly to an higher and purer world. 
 
 But they have an higher value yet, as they are a 
 protest against all pantheistic notions about prayer, all 
 which I'est on philosophical schemes of the identity 
 of our spirit and the Spirit of God. We are thus 
 bidden to look for God, not in ourselves, but out of 
 and above ourselves. Prayer is not to be the sinking 
 in of the spirit upon itself, but the struggling up of 
 our spirit toward another Spirit, higher and holier than 
 our own, one with whom our spirit is indeed allied, 
 but yet with which it is not one and the same ; " The 
 Spirit beareth witness with our spirit." The Mahom- 
 medan Sufies, and other pantheistic devotees of the 
 East, in the deepest abstractions of their devotions, 
 are indeed worshippers of no God but self, while they 
 have lost or denied this distinction, for which the 
 words here, no less than the recognition of relation in 
 the address *' Our Father," are a standing witness. 
 
 " Hallowed he tliy Name.'' What is this ? Augus- 
 tine asks; can God be holier than he is? Not in 
 himself; that Name in itself remains always the 
 same, hallowed for evermore ; but in us the sanctifi- 
 cation of that Name is capable of increase, and in this 
 petition we are asking for this increase of its sanctity 
 in ourselves and in others, that God in fact may be 
 known, and honoured, and feared among men as the 
 Holy One.^ While then there must not be that empty- 
 
 ' Senn. Ivii. c. 4. Pro nobis rogamus, non pro Deo. . . . Quod 
 semper sanctum est, sanctificetur in nobis. Serm. Ivi. c. 4. Quid 
 
94 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI.. 
 
 ing of the plirase Name of God, which would make it 
 nothing more than the awful title by which we desig- 
 nate him, for then in this petition there Avould be little 
 else than a desire that blasphemous speeches might 
 cease out of the world ; so, on the other hand, we must 
 not take the Name of God as identical with God him- 
 self. For, in proof of this, we could not desire that 
 God might be hallowed or holier than he already is. 
 But his Name we can ; for it is that whereby he has 
 revealed himself to men, it is all of himself, Avhich, not 
 being ineffable, he has uttered and declared; — the 
 coming out of all which may be known of him from 
 the infinite abyss of being. (Exod. iii. 13, 14.) ^ As 
 lonsr as there is room either for ourselves or for others 
 to love this Name, this revelation of his perfections, 
 more, so long this prayer must find utterance from the 
 lips of his people, and so long cannot altogether give 
 place to the " Holy, Holy, Holy," which is not prayer 
 and 2>etition, but purely and solely adoration and 
 praise. 
 
 Ver. 10. " Thy Mngdom come ; " — yet not as though 
 his kingdom were not already among us, but even as 
 
 est sanctificetur? sanctum habeatur, non contemnatur. Enarr. in 
 Ps. ciii. 1. Quid ergo rogamus? Ut illis hominibus, qui per infi- 
 delitatem nondum habent, noraen Dei sanctum sit, quibus nondum 
 est ille sanctus, qui per se et in se, et in Sanctis suis, sanctus est. 
 Rogamus pro genere humano, rogamus pro orbe terrarum, pro 
 omnibus gentibus, quotidie sedentibus et disputantibus, quia non est 
 rectus Deus, et non recte judicat Deus, ut aliquando ipsi se corri- 
 gant, et rectum cor ad illius rectitudinem ducant; et adhaerentes ei, 
 directi ad rectum, non jam vituperent, sed placeat rectis rectus. 
 ' Enarr. in Ps. ci. 25. 
 
VER. 10.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 95 
 
 the present light is absent to tlie blind and to them 
 who Avilfully close their eyes, so that kingdom, though 
 it be ever with us, is yet now absent from them who will 
 not know of it.i But all must know it then, when it 
 shall not merely be intelligibly but visibly set up : and 
 it is for this we ask, that it may so come to us now 
 that we may be found in it then.^ 
 
 " Th^ n'ill be done," — that is, let it be done accord- 
 ing to thy will ; for Augustine denies, what at first 
 sight might seem to lie in the words, that the end and 
 consummation here prayed for is the absorption of all 
 other wills in the will of God, so that in this sense his 
 will shall everywhere alone be done. Rather is it the 
 brino-ino; all the lesser circles of the wills of God's 
 creatures to have the same centre as the great circle of 
 God's all embracing will. God's will is not that his 
 creatures should not will, but that they should will 
 onlv what is sfood and ti'ue : it is not that their wills 
 should be annihilated, but brought back into har- 
 mony with the will of perfect goodness. This may 
 seem at first a distinction hardly worth making, yet 
 the whole Monothelite controversy was a witness to the 
 deep importance which the Church attached to the 
 maintaining of the reality in the ^^erfected manhood of 
 her Head, and so also in her members, of a humau 
 will, which subordinated indeed to the divine will, yet 
 
 1 De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 6. Quemadmodum enim 
 etiam praesens lux absens est ceecis et eis qui oculos claudunt, ita 
 Dei regnum quamvis numquam discedat de terris, tamen absens est 
 ignorantibus. And again, Nondum regnat hoc regnum. 
 
 ^ Serm. Ivi. c. 4. Ut in nobis veniat, optamus ; ut in illo in- 
 veniamur, optamus. 
 
96 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 should not be abolished by it.^ And this is his prac- 
 tical exposition of the words. *' Thy will be done ;" 
 grant that Ave may never seek to warp the straight to 
 the crooked, thy will to ours, but always to correct the 
 crooked by the straight, our will by thine.- — And 
 " in earth as it is in heaven ;" as by the angels there, 
 by us also liere.^ This is the simple explanation, not, 
 as he sometimes throws out, that " heaven" may be 
 the Church, and " earth" the world. For this is a 
 prayer for perfection and completion ; and since that 
 will is only imperfectly done even in the Church, such 
 could not be the ultimate longing of the souls of the 
 faithful, nor that in which they would find their final 
 rest. And this is fatal to all other explanations of the 
 like kind.* 
 
 Ver. 11. " Give us this day our daily hreadJ" — 
 Augustine objects to the narrowing this to any one 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 6. Qui ergo faciunt volun- 
 tatem Dei, in illis utique fit voluntas Dei ; non quia ipsi faciunt ut 
 velit Deus, sed quia faciunt quod ille vult ; id est, faciunt secundiiin 
 voluntatem ejus. 
 
 ^ I^narr. in Ps. xxxi. 11. Duae voluntates sunt, sed voluntas tua 
 cori'igatur ad voluntatem Dei, non voluntas Dei detorqueatur ad 
 tuam. Prava est enim tua, regula est ilia, regula, ut quod pravum 
 est, ad regulam corrigatur. And presently before, Quomodo dis- 
 tortum lignum etsi ponas in pavimento aequali, non collocatur, non 
 compaginatur, nee adjungitur, semper agitatur et nutat, non quia 
 inaE(juale est ubi posuisti, sed quia distortum est quod posuisti : ita et 
 cor tuuni quamdiu pravum est et distortum non potest colliniari recti- 
 tudiniDei, et non potest in illo collocari, ut haereat iili. 
 
 ^ Serm. Ivii. c. 6. Quomodo te non oflendunt Angeli tui, sic te 
 non offendamus et nos. 
 
 ■* Such are to be found De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 10 ; 
 Serra. Ivi. c. 5, and Ivii. c. b". 
 
VER. 11.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 97 
 
 thing : either as some did to the Holy Eucharist, or as 
 others, who gave it somewhat a wider meaning, to all 
 spiritual refection, or, again, as others, going into quite 
 the other extreme, to the nourishment of the body ex- 
 clusively.i This " bread" is rather the whole aliment of 
 body and of spirit ; of the body, as food and clothing 
 and whatever else is necessary for our earthly life ; 
 and of spirit, so that the frequent communions, the 
 daily worship, the readings of the Scriptures, the 
 hymns we hear and sing, these all will belong no less 
 to the daily bread which we ask.^ He does not fail to 
 remark the silent rebuke that there is here for the wor- 
 shipper who takes these words in his mouth while 
 he is allowing himself in anxious and far-looking cares, 
 while he is making luxurious provision for the flesh 
 and for its lusts. It is but bread he asks, and that the 
 bread of to-day.^ This prayer is the answer of the 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 7. 
 
 * Serm. Ivii. c. 7. Da aeterna, da temporalia. Proraisistl regnura, 
 noli negare subsidium. Dabis apud te sempiternum ornamentum, 
 da in terra temporale aliraentum. Serm. Iviii. c. 4- Quicquid 
 animae nostrae et carni nostras in hac vita necessarium est, quotidiano 
 pane concluditur. 
 
 ' The difficult question of the meaning of ETrfounoj does not 
 trouble him much. He is in general satisfied with quotidianus ; or, 
 if he uses Jerome's correction, supersubstantialis, — and the only 
 passage in which I have found it, is in a sermon which his Benedictine 
 editors have dismissed to the Appendix (Serm. Ixiv.), — he does not 
 more than refer the word to Christ, the bread of life, qui omnem 
 superat substantiam. If it be true, as a modern commentator 
 affirms, that whenever he meddles with Greek he betrays a shameful 
 ignorance of it, (turpem literarum Graecarum inscitiam passim pro- 
 (Jidit — Winer,) it was well he left the hard question of the etymology 
 of this word alone. But in truth his acquaintance with Greek is not 
 at all so utterly contemptible as this : that he often speaks slightingly 
 H 
 
98 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 faithful to the admonition of the Apostle, (1 Tim. vi. 
 
 of it himself is true, and no less so that it was irregularly gotten. 
 Yet we have many examples of no inconsiderable tact and skill 
 with which he draws the distinction between words that in their 
 meaning border on one another, and of other acquaintance with the 
 language, which renders this at least an exaggerated charge. A few 
 examples may not be altogether out of place. Thus he distinguishes 
 between TrXsovE^ia and (^I'Ka.^yv^ia, showing how much larger the first 
 is in its significance than the last (Enarr. in Ps. cxviii. 16) ; again, 
 between a,fjt,e>>ij.<ig and aa-'Tri^oi; (Qu.in Lev. I. iii. qu. 40); between 
 iTTEvSujOia.superindumentum, and IttodjWij, superhumerale (Qu.in Jud. 
 1. vii. qu. 41) ; between v^oorirox.oi;, irjajToyevri?, and fA^ovoyivh^ (Qu.in 
 Deut. 1. V. qu. 23); between a'!ra.p)(al and 'jr^ajroyevfifxaTo. (Qu. in 
 Num. 1. iv. qu. 32) ; between JSfov and ^ofxa, (Loc. de Num. 1. iv.) 
 So, too, he notes that tKo-ras-t; may mean more than fear or great 
 astonishment; it may be as much as mentis alienatio (l^ia-rnfjii), and 
 is therefore a peculiarly fit word for expressing the condition of mind 
 in which men receive communications from the higher world (Qu.in 
 Gen. 1. i. qu. 80) : that aSoXEa-;)fET'v, though used in the Septuagint in 
 a good, is oftener used in classic Greek in a bad, sense. He gives 
 (Qu. in Exod. 1. ii. qu. 177) the right explanation of wXayta, that it 
 means the flanks, and cannot mean the front and rear, and of xXitw 
 (Qu. in Exod. 1. ii. qu. 131). So too he distinguishes IvTafiafEiv 
 and SaWTEtv (Loc. de Gen. 1. i.), aXoyoi; and afjiaQhi; (Loc. de Exod. 
 1. ii.) He notices the usage of waihta in the Greek Scriptures as 
 different from the classical, that it is not instruction generally, as in 
 classic Greek, but always per molestias eruditio, (Enarr. in Ps. cxviii. 
 66.) He takes note of a difficulty in the use of ^jSpifi", at Judg. ix. 
 33, LXX., while o§%oj is the morning before sunrise, and not, as it 
 seems to be used there, after (Quaest. in Jud. qu. 46). So also he 
 observes a double use of TrafaxXunc, and the verb from which it is 
 derived, that it is both exhortation and consolation (Enarr, in Ps. 
 cxviii. 52). Commenting on Lev. xviii. 21, he rightly concludes 
 that the a.^x.'^^t whom the children of Israel are forbidden to serve, 
 which last word he found expressed in the Septuagint by XotjEijeiv, 
 can be no other than the piince of this world, since, had it been an 
 earthly potentate, SsuXeiJeiv would have been the word used (Qu. in 
 
VER. 11, 12.] SERMOX ON THE MOUNT. 99 
 
 8,) " Having food and raiment, let us be therewith 
 content." ^ 
 
 Ver. 12. " And forgive us our debts." — This peti- 
 tion Augustine does not refer to the great forgive"ness, 
 which is assumed as a thing already past, already in 
 baptism possest, and out of the faith in which, and in 
 the adoption that went with it, the entire prayer pro- 
 ceeds ; but he refers it to the sins of a daily infirmity, 
 in which even he who watches the most will yet be 
 entangled ; and without which a life in the flesh can. 
 scarcely be led : " scarcely without some of the world's 
 
 Lev. 1. iii. qu. 66). He distinguishes Sixuios-vy» and htuilufxa in a dis- 
 tinction of which the philological importance is swallowed up in 
 the infinitely greater doctrinal : of the last of these words he will 
 not allow justitia to be the right translation, but justificatio; for 
 JixaiM^aa does not mean a man's inherent righteousness, but, as he 
 expresses it, justitiae quibus justificantur gratis per gratiam Dei qui 
 per seipsos justi esse non possunt (Enarr. in Ps. cxviii. 56). Now I 
 would not affirm that all which he says on these and on other Greek 
 matters can be maintained without occasional modifications, or that 
 the knowledge here displayed is very profound ; and it must at once 
 be confessed that he does sometimes greatly trip ; take, for instance, 
 his derivation of Tr\nfx[xi\eia (Qu. in Lev. 1. iii. qu, 20), which he 
 does not recognize as a disharmony, a violation of fxi\o;, but derives 
 from fxiXei, cura; est ; yet in this handful of observations, gathered 
 almost at random, there are at least evidences of something better 
 than a " disgraceful ignorance." 
 
 ' Serm. Iviii. c. 4. Pereat avaritia, et dives est natura. 
 
 * Con. Ep. Parmen. 1. ii. c. 10, on this petition, — Quod utique 
 non de illis peccatis dicitur, quae in baptismi regeneratione dimissa 
 sunt, sed de iis quas quotidie de seculi amarissimis fructibus humanas 
 vitae infirmitas contrahit. Cf. Ep. 54 (ad Macedonium) ; De Civ. 
 Dei, 1. xxi. c. 27. Quid est ergo peccata vestra, nisi peccata, sine 
 quibus nee vos eritis, qui justificati et sanctificati estis ? 
 
 h2 
 
lUO EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 dust adhering to him will even the faithful man walk 
 through the world's paths (vix sine pulvere). But in 
 this j)rayer there is, as it were, the shaking off this dust 
 before it has settled and hardened upon him.^ Herein 
 is the daily washing of the feet, for them that are already 
 partakers of the great washing." (John, xiii. 10.) The 
 daily sins of a Christian man may be small, yet are not 
 therefore to be despised. For if despised, then, though 
 not else, they become indeed dangerous. It is of little 
 drops that mighty rivers are made up. The leak may 
 be trifling, yet if waters are always coming in and not 
 being continually pumped out, they will in the end sink 
 the ship.^ But in this prayer there is, as it were, for 
 the man that faithfully uses it, the pledge of a daily 
 cleansing.* 
 
 Augustine uses the testimony of this prayer against 
 all proud Pelagian notions of an absolutely sinless 
 
 ' Serm, cccli. c. 3. 
 
 " In Evang. Joh. Tract. Ivi. Quotidie pedes lavat nobis qui in- 
 terpellat pro nobis ; et quotidie nos opus habere ut pedes lavemus . . . 
 in ipsa Oratione Dominica confitemur, cum dicimus, Dimitte nobis. 
 Cf. Serm. cccli. c. 3. 
 
 ^ Serm. Iviii. c. 9. Non potes hie vivere sine ipsis [sc. peccatis,] 
 vel minuta sint, vel levia sint. Sed ipsa levia et minuta non con- 
 temnantur. De minutis guttis flumina implentur. Non contem- 
 nantur vel minora. Per angustas rimulas na vis insudat aqua, impletur 
 sentina : et si contemnatur sentina, mergitur navis. And Serm, Ivi. 
 c. 9. Quid interest, utriim te plumbum premat, an arena ? plumbum 
 una massa est, arena minuta grana sunt, sed copiii te premunt. 
 
 * De Peccat. Mer. et Rem. 1. iii. c. 13. And Ep. 167, c. 6, 
 (ad Hieronym.), with allusion to the latter clause of this petition, 
 Forgive, us we forgive, Quoniam in multis ofTendimus omnes, sug- 
 gest Dominicam tanquam quotidianam quotidianis, etsi levioribus, 
 tamen vulneribus, medicinam. 
 
VER. 12.] SERMOX ON THE MOUNT. 101 
 
 State in this life.^ It was to the Apostles themselves 
 this prayer was first given : they were to acknowledge 
 in these words their own sinfulness.- Shall we suppose 
 others more exempt than they? And since this prayer 
 is ordained for the use of all, it is not to be thought for 
 an instant that Christ would have put a lie into the 
 mouth of any ; which would yet be the case, if any 
 who were without sin were still at his bidding to pray 
 this prayer, asking forgiveness for sins of which they 
 were not guilt^'. The Pelagians had two or three 
 escapes from this conclusion. One was this, that a 
 perfect man might yet pray this prayer out of humility 
 — a lying humility, which Augustine more justly cha- 
 racterizes as itself an awful sacrilege, and would con- 
 stitute a sinner, were he none before ; ^ or again, that 
 this prayer was given to the Apostles while they were 
 yet carnal, and suited them then, but not afterwards ; * 
 but this he refutes by comparison of other passag'es, as 
 1 John, i. 8, where no such refuge is possible. Some- 
 what more plausibly than this, they said that the sinless 
 man would merge himself, and his own individuality, 
 in the whole body of the Church, and could therefore 
 honestly use this prayer, while still in the body there 
 
 1 Of such a perfect state he says, De Pecc. Mer. et Rem. 1. iii. 
 
 c. 13, Optandum est ut fiat, conaadura est ut fiat, supplicandum est 
 ut fiat ; not! tamen quasi factum fuerit, confitendum. 
 
 ^ Ep. 157, c. 2, (ad Hilarium). Omnibus eaim necessaria est 
 Oratio Dominica, quam etiam ipsis arietibus gregis, id est, Apostolis 
 suis Dominus dedit, ut unusquisque Deo dicat, Dimitte nobis debita 
 nostra. 
 
 3 Con. Ep. Parmen. 1. ii. c. 10. Quod si hoc in oratione ficte et 
 non veraciter dicunt, putantes se non habere quod eis dimittat Deus, 
 id ipsum est inexpiabile sacrilegiura. Cf. Serm. clxxxi, c. 4. 
 
 * Serm. cxxxv. c. 7. 
 
102 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 was sin, though not in him.i Augustine answers them 
 at length, and observes, how one at least of their fa- 
 vourite examples of such a sinless man, that is, Daniel, 
 has cut them off from this refuge, for he expressly 
 distinguishes the two, his own sin and the congrega- 
 tion's (Dan. ix. 20), "While I was confessing my sin 
 and the sin of my people." He rightly concludes that 
 for the spiritual priesthood of the New Covenant this 
 prayer contains the same confession of sin as under 
 the Old did the offerings which the priests made first 
 for themselves, ere ever they made them for the sins 
 of the people. As those offerings implicitly convinced 
 them, so this confession explicitly convinces us.^ 
 
 This remission of our debts being not so much as 
 asked except on a condition, " As we forgive our 
 debtors" causes Augustine often to remark how ter- 
 rible this prayer may become to us. If we pray it, 
 keeping an unforgiving temper, we shall be ourselves 
 blocking up the way by which our prayers might 
 ascend : not merely failing to extricate ourselves from 
 the bands of our sins, but with our own hands binding 
 the cords of them round us the closer. ^ It will little 
 profit to do as some do, who feeling this, when they 
 
 ' De Peccat. Mer. et Rem. 1. ii. c. 10. These are their words : 
 Sancti et perfecti jam Apostoli dicebant, Dlraitte nobis debita nostra, 
 . . . ut per hoc quod dicerent nostra, in uno esse corpore demonstra- 
 rent et illos adhuc habentes peccata, et seipsos qui jam carebant 
 omni ex parte peccato. 
 
 * Serm. cxxxv. Sacrificia convincebant sacerdotes .... Non 
 attendo quod loqueris, sed quid offeras. Victima tua convincit te. 
 
 ^ Serm. Iviii. c. 6. Qui vult dicere efficaciter, Dimitte, oportet 
 ut dicat veraciter, Sicut et nos dimittimus. Serm. cccxv. c. 7. Ibi 
 ilia inimica [ira] stat contra te. Sepit viam orationis tuee, murum 
 erigit, et non est qua transeas. 
 
VER. 12, 13.] SERMOX ON THE MOUNT. 103 
 
 come near this petition avoid it, and pass on to the 
 next : like a debtor that, seeing his creditor at a dis- 
 tance, turns into some side alley from the way in which 
 before he was going. For whom is it that we seek to 
 shun ? a creditor who, while there is in us this temper, 
 will meet us everywhere, and from whom there is no 
 escape.^ (Ps. cxxxviii. 7.) 
 
 Ver. 13. " And lead us not into teviptatioyi." — 
 Augustine traces a connection with the last petition : 
 Forgive us what we have done : grant that we do not 
 the same any more.- He mentions that it was read in 
 numerous Latin MSS., though he had never found it 
 in the Greek, that many also of the faithful in his 
 time were wont to pray, Suffer us not to be led into 
 temptation, 3 while it seemed to them that the leading 
 of men into temptation might not by any means be 
 attributed to God. (Jam. i. 13.) But he often shows 
 how there is no need of shrinking from the words, or 
 seeking to rob them of their force, by any such addi- 
 tions either secretly or openly made. God does tempt, 
 even as the Devil tempts : all the difference is in the 
 end and aim with which they do it,* — the one tempt- 
 
 * Serm. ccclii. c. 2. Quomodo quisque in vico cum occurrerit ei, 
 cui aliquid debet, si ad manum est diverticulum, dimittit quo ibat, et 
 it per aliam partem, ne faciem videat creditoris. Hoc tu in isto 
 versa te fecisse arbitratus es. Devitasti dicere, Dimitte sicut ego 
 dimisi, ne sic dimitteret, id est, non dimitteret, quia non dimittis. 
 Quem devitas? quis devitas? Quo ibis, ubi tu esse possis, et ille 
 non esse "! 
 
 * Serm. xlviii. c. 8. Dimitte quae fecimus, et da ut alia non 
 committamus. 
 
 ' De Dono Persev. c. 6. 
 
 * In Evang. Joh. Tract, xliii. Intelligimus duas esse tentationes, 
 
104 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 ing to deceive, the other to approve ; Satan to bring 
 out men's evil to their ruin, God to bring out, and 
 through the conflict to strengthen, their good to their 
 everlasting gain ; or if to bring out their sin, yet this 
 only as a means and a transition to an higher good, 
 that recovering, they may walk henceforward hum- 
 bler, wiser, more circumspect ; that knowing, they 
 may take up arms more earnestly against, the evil that 
 is in them. He adduces oftentimes St. Peter, and his 
 permitted fall, as an instance of what he means. lie 
 had said, like the Psalmist, " I shall never be moved.''^ 
 How good was it for him that the temptation came, 
 and that through it he found out the secret of his 
 weakness, and so also of his strength. ^ 
 
 But this question being set at rest, there arises 
 another ; and seeing that a temptation may come, and 
 often does come, from God, it becomes the more 
 needful to explain why we should hei'e be bidden to 
 deprecate temptation ; how, too, this will agree with 
 those Scriptures, in which we are bidden to count it all 
 joy when we fall into divers temptations. Augustine, 
 
 unam quae decipit, alteram quae probat : secundum eam quae deci- 
 pit, Deus neminem tentat : secundum eam quae probat, tentat vos 
 Dominus Deus vaster, ut sciat si diligitis eum : . . . non ergo Deus 
 nescit, sed dictum est, ut sciat, quod est, ut scire vos faciat. Cf. Serra. 
 ii. c. 3. Non enim sibi homo ita notus est, ut Creatori ; nee sic 
 aeger sibi notus est ut medico ... Si Deus cessat tentare, magister 
 cessat docere. Cf. Serm. Ivii. c. 9. 
 
 • De Corrept. et Grat. c. 9. Haec vox et Apostoli Petri esse 
 potuit : dixerat quippe et ipse in abundantia sua, Animam meam pro 
 te ponam ; sibi festinando tribuens, quod ei fuerat a Domino postea 
 largiendum .... Sed quia didicit non de seipso fidere, etiam hoc ei 
 profecit in bonum, faciente illo qui diligentibus eum omnia co-opera- 
 tur in bonum. 
 
 ^ Multos impedit a firmitate, firmitatis praesumptio. 
 
VER. 13.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 105 
 
 in reply, draws a distinction between the being led 
 into temptation, and the being tempted. ^ The first is 
 the coming under the power of a temptation greater 
 than we can bear, and this we deprecate, ^ saying, 
 " Lead us not into temptation," but not the other, 
 while we acknowledge that as the sad but needful 
 condition of our state in the flesh. And many both 
 in ancient and modern times have taken the same 
 line : Lead us not into temptation ; that is, they say, 
 Lead us not so far into it that a way back shall be 
 impossible : Suffer us not to be so inextricably entan- 
 gled in it, that there shall be no way of escape ; but 
 with the temptation make ever the way of deliverance. 
 Now though it is most true that this will ever be the 
 prayer 3 of the faithful, yet such a distinction cannot 
 be maintained as lying in the words. " Lead us not 
 into temptation" is indeed, what it seems at first sight, 
 a prayer that we may not be tempted ; yet not as 
 declining to meet temptation when it comes, not as 
 denying the blessing with which it may be charged ; 
 but out of a deep sense of our own infirmity, and of 
 the uncertainty of the issue, praying that it may be 
 averted, however willing we may be manfully to en- 
 counter it, yea to count it all joy, if it arrive.* 
 
 ' De Serin. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 9. Aliud est induct in tenta- 
 tionem, aliud tentari .... Inducimur enim si tales acciderint, quas 
 ferre non possumus. Ep. 130, (ad Probam). [Petimus] ne deserti 
 ejus adjutorio alicui tentationi vel consentiamus decepti, vel cedamus 
 afflicti. 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 9. Tanquam si quispiam cui 
 necesse sit igne examinari, non oret ut igne non contingatur, sed ut 
 non exuratur. 
 
 3 See Tholuck's Auslegung der Bergpredigt, p. 430. 
 
 •* Ep. 130, c. 14, (ad Probam). In hi? ergo tribulationibus quas 
 
10(3 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 " But deliver us from evil." Most truly and most 
 profoundly Augustine brings out how " Deliver us 
 from evil" might be put in other words, Deliver us 
 from ourselves, for this is indeed the great deliverance 
 that we need.^ — But on the question whether this be a 
 distinct petition, and so the number of petitions in the 
 Lord's Prayer be seven and not six, he i-ather wavers. 
 In one place- he makes seven petitions, and finds a 
 meaning and a mystery in the number, drawing a 
 parallel between the seven and the seven beatitudes 
 out of which the whole discourse unfolds itself; and 
 he then refers " Lead us not into temptation" to evil 
 threatening in the future, " Deliver us from evil" to 
 the evil which already is around us and about us.^ 
 And this, while throughout all Scripture seven is the 
 covenant number, the number of sacrifice and the 
 number of prayer, the signature of all meetings be- 
 tween God and man, is undoubtedly true as regards 
 the number of petitions hei'e ; they are seven and not 
 six. Yet Augustine himself sometimes departs from 
 this truer view, and expressly unites these two last as 
 forming parts of the same petition.* But when, as 
 
 possunt et prodesse et nocere, . . • quia dura, quia molesta, quia contra 
 sensum nostrae infirmitatis sunt, universali humana voluntate ut a 
 nobis haec auferantur, oramus. 
 
 ' Libera me a me. And again, Serm. xliv. c. 3, Libera me ab 
 homine malo, a me ipso. 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. in Mon. \, ii. c. 11 ; Serm. Iviii. c. 10. 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. \. ii. c. 9. Ultima et septima petltio 
 est, Sed libera nos a malo. Orandum est enim ut non solum non 
 inducamur in malum quo caremus, quod sexto loco pelitur ; sed ab 
 illo etiam liberemur, quo jam inducti sumus. 
 
 * Serm. Ivii. c. 10. Ideo addidit sed ; ut ostenderet hoc totum ad 
 unam sententiam pertinere. . . . Liberando nos a malo non nos infert 
 
VER. 13.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 107 
 
 has just been noticed, he makes " Lead us not into 
 temptation" future, and " Deliver us from evil" present, 
 he has reversed the true order, and that which the 
 very sequence of the petitions indicates. " Lead us 
 not into temptation," is a prayer that we may be kept 
 from the evil which is now alluring: and threatening 
 to ensnare us. " Deliver us from evil," is the cry for 
 an entire deliverance, for the redemption of the body, 
 for the coming of that time when, to speak his own 
 language, all that is as yet only in spe shall be also in 
 re ; so that we have here, in these three petitions, a 
 past, a present, and a future ; and this the true order 
 he has himself elsewhere implicitly indicated.^ — Au- 
 gustine knows nothing of the doxology, as neither do 
 the other chiefest of the Latin Fathers ; nor yet, com- 
 menting on the Sermon on the Mount, does he notice 
 the " Amen" though elsewhere he gives well what its 
 meaning is on the lips of the faithful, that it is their 
 seal and subscription to all that has been spoken. 2 
 
 in tentationem, non nos inferendo in tentationem, liberal nos a male. 
 Presently after he speaks of them as sex vel septem petitiones. Cf. 
 the Enchir. ad Laurent, c. 116. 
 
 ' Con. Julian. 1. vi. c. 14. Qua [scil. gratia] liberor, ut sciam, 
 ne intrem in tentationem, a concupiscentia mea abstractus et illectus, 
 . . . qua /ifeerutor, utspero, in aeternum, ubijam nullalex inmembris 
 meis repugnet legi mentis meae — this last liberator being evidently 
 in his mind the answer to the prayer, Deliver us from evil, as the 
 liberor to the prayer. Lead us not into temptation. This the right 
 meaning he has spoken out, De Pecc. Mer. et Remiss. 1. ii. c. 4, 
 Deinde addimus quod perficietur in fine, ciim absorbebitur mortale 
 a vita : Sed libera nos a malo. 
 
 ' In a fragment of a sermon, v. 5, p. 1510, (Ben. Ed.) Fratres 
 mei, Amen vestrum subscriptio vestra est, consensio vestra est, ad- 
 stipulatio vestra est. 
 
108 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 Ver. 14, 15. — Augustine has some valuable observa-^ 
 tions on our Lord returning back upon this conditioi 
 of our obtaining forgiveness, and upon this only," 
 among all the matters of which the prayer had treated ; 
 here giving one blow more to the die, so to make the 
 impression sharper and deeper on the minds of all. 
 And this he did because of the fearful consequence of 
 a failure here ; for to retain our anger or our malice 
 is not merely to retain one sin, but in the retaining of 
 that one to retain also every other : it is not merely to 
 shut one door, but in that one to shut every door, by 
 which the grace of God might enter into our souls.' 
 
 On the plan and inner coherence of the Prayer he 
 notes how the three first petitions contain, as we have 
 seen that the last three do, a beginning, a middle, and 
 an end. God's Name, at his coming in the flesh, began 
 to be hallowed ; since that his kingdom has been ever 
 coming, as it is in part come ; hereafter it will be a 
 perfected kingdom, at his second advent, from which 
 time his will will be done here as perfectly as in 
 heaven. So too, he observes, as the eternal things are 
 first in dignity, they are here j^laced the first in order. 
 We are asking in the three first petitions things which, 
 though having for us a beginning in time, will yet 
 stand fast through eternity; the Name will be hal- 
 lowed, the kingdom will be established, and the will 
 accomplished for ever. But the other and later peti- 
 tions relate to things transient : the daily bread will 
 
 ' Serm. Ivii. c. 11, 12. Unde accepturus enlm veniam fueras pro 
 caeteris delictis, hoc perdis. Si quid aliis sensibus, aliis cupidilatibus 
 peccaveras, hinc erat sanandum quia dicturus eras, Dimitte, sicut et 
 DOS dimittimus. . . . IHo perdito cuncta tenebuntur ; omnino nihil 
 dimittitur. 
 
VER. 14 — 18.] SERMOX ON THE MOUNT. 109 
 
 not be needed by them who feed on the beatific vision 
 of God ; nor the forgiveness of trespasses by them that 
 are perfect; nor exemption from temptation, where 
 there is nothing within or without to tempt ; nor de- 
 liverance from evil, where all evil will have ended.^ 
 
 Nor does he fail to show how this prayer is the 
 mould into which our desii'es are to be cast,- that it is 
 a ground plan given us, which we may fill out, and 
 on which we may build at large, but yet not go beyond 
 it, while it is, as it were, normal for other prayers ; 
 there being no possible petition that a faithful man 
 ought to make, which cannot be reduced under one or 
 other rubric of this prayer ; no petition of any saint 
 which is not an unfolding; of somethino; which is shut 
 up in the Lord's Prayer. It is only such })rayer as 
 should not be made, something that we ask amiss, 
 which will not range itself under one or other of these 
 petitions.^ 
 
 Ver. 16 — 18. — Here is another precept, Augustine 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 10 ; Serm. Iviii. c. 10. Tres 
 ergo petitiones siiperiores aeternae sunt ; quatuor autem sequentes ad 
 istam vitani pertinent. 
 
 * Serm. Ivi. c. 3. Verba quae D. N. J. C. in Oratione docuit, 
 forma est desideriorum. And De Perfect. Just, c. 8, Oratione in- 
 sinuans omnes regulas sancti desiderii. 
 
 ' Ep. 130, c. 12, (ad Probam). Si per omnia precationum sanc- 
 torum verba discurras, quantum existimo, nihil invenies quod in ista 
 Dominica non contineatur et concludatur Oratione. . . . Qui autem 
 dicit in oratione, verbi gratia, Domine, multiplica divitias raeas; 
 aut, Da mihi quantas illi vel illi dedisti ; aut, Honores meos auge; 
 aut, Fac me in hoc seculo prspotentem atque clarentem ; . . . puto 
 eum non invenire in Oratione Dominica quo possit haec vota co- 
 aptare. 
 
110 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 observes, on purity of intention, which is now alto- 
 gether the matter in hand, a warning that no ostenta- 
 tion or desire of human praise be allowed to mingle 
 with actions which ought to be done simply before 
 God, with an eye to an heavenly and not an earthly 
 reward.^ All the precepts in this part of the dis- 
 course teach us, how it is not merely in the pomp 
 and splendour of worldly things that pride may show 
 itself, but also that it may lurk under rags and in sack- 
 cloth, and a pride the more perilous as being the more 
 veiled. For he who outdoes others in the adorning; of 
 his body, and in the splendour of other things, deceives 
 nobody with a fraudulent appearance of sanctity, while 
 he is at once convinced of being a follower of the 
 world's vanities.2 But he who draws the eyes of men 
 upon himself by an unusual squalor and self-neglect, 
 when this he does of choice and not suffers it of neces- 
 sity,must be judged by his other works, whether through 
 contempt of superfluous ornament or through some 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 12. Manifestum est his prae- 
 ceptis omnem nostratn intentionem in interiora gaudia dirigi, ne foris 
 quffirentes mercedem huic seculo conformeraur, et amittamus pro- 
 missionem tanto solidioris atque firmioris, quanto interioris beati- 
 tudinis. 
 
 ^ De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 12. In hoc autem capitulo 
 maxime animadvertendum est, non in solo rerum corporearum nitore 
 atque pompa, sed etiam in ipsis sordibus luctuosis esse posse jactan- 
 tiam, et eo perieulosiorem quo sub nomine servitutis Dei decipit. 
 Qui ergo immoderate cultu corporis atque vestitus, vel ceeterarum 
 rerum nitore praefulget, facile convincitur rebus ipsis, pomparum 
 seculi esse sectator, neque quenquam fallit dolosa imagine sanctitatis. 
 Qui autem inusitato squalore ac sordibus intentos in se oculos homi- 
 num facit, . . . caeteris ejus operibus potest conjici utriim hoc con- 
 temtu superflui cultus, an ambitione aliqua faciat. 
 
VER. 16 — 18.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. Ill 
 
 sinister aim he does it; for the Lord himself has warned 
 us to bcAvare of wolves in sheep's clothing, and to know 
 men not by their appearance but by their fruits. This 
 we shall soon be able to do, for if we give heed, it 
 will not fail but that presently something will fall out 
 whereby we shall be able to know whether such an 
 one be indeed a wolf in sheep's clothing, or a sheep in 
 its own. Yet, he adds, a faithful man should not 
 therefore flatter the eyes of men with a superfluous 
 adoi-ning, because that spare and barely needful array 
 is often usurped by deceivers to cheat the unwary; 
 the sheep should not lay aside their own clothing, 
 because sometimes the wolves cover themselves with 
 the like.i 
 
 But with this clear view into the whole purpose of 
 the passage, it is singular that Augustine should have 
 found a difficulty in the words " Anoint thine head," 
 which he does, while the habit of such anointing in 
 times of fasting or indeed at any time had altogether 
 departed when he wrote : he therefore interprets the 
 precept mystically of the inward gladness of the spirit 
 before the Lord.- Yet it would seem a more natural 
 course rather to substitute for this anointing the head 
 any other forms of outward seemliness and decent 
 comeliness, which are in use in our own time, and the 
 omission of which would attract a peculiar observa- 
 tion. They are not to be thus omitted ; there is no 
 such proclamation to be made of what the Christian 
 man is doing. — It hardly needs to add that this, 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 24. Non ideo debent oves 
 odisse vestimentum suum, quia plerumque illo se occultant lupi. 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 12. Intelligendum est hoc 
 praeceptum unguendi caput ... ad interiorem hominem pertinere. 
 
112 EXPOSITION OF THE [sT. MATT. VI. 
 
 " Wlien ye fast" he interprets everj^where as a com- 
 mand. It was reserved for others to turn " When ye 
 fast" into the more convenient, If ye choose to fast. 
 And other ways he notices in which our fasting may 
 come to nothing, as when, it goes together with any 
 indulged sin, when, abstaining from things which are 
 sometimes allowable, we do not abstain from those 
 which ai'e always unlawful ;i or again, when it is a 
 mere changing of our luxuries and not an abridg- 
 ing them :- and he draws a picture, evidently from 
 the life, in more places than one, of a luxurious fool- 
 fasting, as our Reformers well named it, which had 
 already sprung up in his time, and Avhich, keeping 
 the name, had entirely evaded the reality of fasting, 
 being in truth no mortifying, but only a pampering of 
 the appetite in new forms ; or again, when that which 
 thereby is spared, is not spared for the poor but for 
 ourselves ;^ in all which cases it shall not be seen, he 
 says, by our heavenly Father with any pleasure, nor 
 bring any blessing with it. 
 
 Ver. 19, 20. — In his work especially dedicated to 
 the elucidation of this discourse, Augustine hastens 
 rapidly over these verses ; though in other places he 
 
 ' Serm. cxliii. (Appendix). Quid enim prodest pallidum esse 
 jejuniis, si odio et invidia llvescasl Quid enim prodest vinum non 
 bibere, et iracundiae veneno inebriari? 
 
 ^ Serm. ccx. c. 8, 9. Tanquam non sit Quadragesima pije 
 humilitatis observatio, sed novae voluptatis oceasio. And again, 
 Serm. ccv. Nemo sub abstinentiae specie mutare affectet potius 
 quam resecare delitias. 
 
 ^ Serm. cxliv. (Appendix). Jejunium tuum te castiget, sed 
 Iffitificet alterum. 
 
VER. 19, 20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 113 
 
 has loved to enlarge upon them much : yet not there 
 so rapidly but that he seeks to trace their connexion 
 with what went before and what follows, a connexion 
 which others have despaired of finding. He would 
 find the following : Give with no unworthy aim, with 
 no by-ends and out-looks for thine own advantage — 
 that were to lay up treasure on earth ; but do good for 
 the love of God, for the pure love of thy brother — 
 that is to lay up treasure in heaven. And then he 
 points to the following verses (22, 23) in proof that it 
 is singleness and purity of intention upon which the 
 Lord is still dwelling. But this is scarcely tenable ; 
 for while it is most true that all which is done out of 
 an unworthy motive perishes, yet the specifying of the 
 moth and rust^ and thieves, as the instruments of de- 
 struction, points to the more obvious interpretation, 
 namely, that this laying up of treasures upon earth is 
 not the laying out the temporal mammon seemingly for 
 God, though indeed with unworthy selfish aims, but 
 the not laying it out for him at all, nor even appearing 
 so to do, but rather only and evidently laying it up for 
 ourselves. 
 
 If there be a connexion, it might perhaps be rather 
 traced thus : Prefer the unseen and eternal before the 
 seen and transitory ; as I have bidden you to do this 
 in other things, to count the praise of God better than 
 the praise of men, — while this is hollow and transient, 
 that real and enduring, — so also and for the same 
 
 ' For 0fS<rif Augustine has, with the old Italic, comestura; the 
 Vulgate aerugo. Here again the change was for the worse, while 
 S^Zs-ii; has not the special significance, so given it, of rust, but refers 
 generally to the gnawing tooth of time ; the consumption, by what 
 ever means it may take place of the things which are of earth. 
 I 
 
114 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 reasons count it better to have treasure in heaven than 
 on earth. Count it a blessed thing that by giving to 
 God you can set the seal of endurance upon that 
 which is in its nature so transitory, that you can shift 
 beyond mortal decay and evil chance, that which of 
 itself is so liable to these — even as Augustine himself 
 often expresses it, Lift up your fruits to an higher floor, 
 where they will not be exposed to the same inevitable 
 danger of corrupting and spoiling, which they are on 
 the lower.i ^ For he who gave, desires that we should 
 not lose even his lower gifts, but should keep them fbr 
 ever ; and therefore gives counsels such as this, offer- 
 ing to take into his own secure keeping that which in 
 no other way can we retain : to send it before us, to 
 that world where we are certainly going, that we may 
 find it there.^ You trust in God, will you not then 
 trust him? you believe in him, will you not then 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. xlviii. 9. Modo si amicus tuus intraret in domum 
 tuam, et inveniret te in loco humido frumenta posuisse, qui forte 
 sciret naturam corruptionis frumentorum, quam tu nescires, daret 
 tibi hujusmodi consilium, dicens, Frater, perdis quod cum magno 
 labore collegisti: in loco humido posuisti; paucis diebus ista pu- 
 trescunt. Et quid facio, frater ? Leva in superiora. Audires amicum 
 suggerentem, ut frumenta leva res de inferioribus ad superiora, et non 
 audis Christum monentem, ut thesaurum tuum leves de terra ad 
 coelum. Cf. Serm. Ix. c. 7. 
 
 ' See his beautiful words, Enarr. in Ps, xxxviii. 7, where, among 
 other things, he says, Quare ibi ponis ubi possis amittere, ubi si non 
 amittas, ibi permanere perpetuo non potes ? Est alius locus quo te 
 transferam. Praecedat te quod habes, noli timere ne perdas : dator 
 eo"o eram, custos ego ero. And again, of what is offered to God 
 he says, Serm. xlii. 2, Non dico, Hoc non peril, sed dico, Hoc 
 solum non peril. And in a sermon, De Contemptu Mundi (v. 5, 
 p. 713), Si amas divitias, praemitte, easque sequaris ; ne cCim amas 
 in terra, aul viyus eas amittas aut mortuus. 
 
VER. 19, 20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 115 
 
 believe liim, and that he has occult channels of com- 
 munication between this world and the other, so that 
 all what is committed to these will be found in that ? 
 Beware, he sometimes adds, lest you be of them, the 
 men of the earth, that have slept their sleep, even the 
 sleep of a vain worldly existence, and when they 
 awaken to a world of realities their hands are empty ; 
 they " have found nothing," found nothing while they 
 placed nothing in the hand of Christ, which in each of 
 his poor was stretched out to them.i And he often 
 uses the gathering distresses and troubles of his time, 
 the barbarian invasions which had now wasted Italy, 
 and were fast advancing toward Africa, and Avhich 
 were bringing an evident uncertainty on all things 
 worldly, as an additional motive for heartily obeying 
 this command ; - for, besides the inevitable quitting at 
 death, it seemed likely that many would have to loose 
 their grasp even before. Thiis, writing to the clergy 
 and people of Hippo, who in his absence had forgone, 
 under the pressure of their temporal calamities, some 
 usual bounties to the poor, he reminds them, that if 
 indeed the weak fabric of this world was falling, what 
 reason was there here that they should quickly transfer 
 
 ' Enarr. in Ps. Ixxv. 6. Dormierunt somnum suum viri diviti- 
 arum, et nihil invenerunt in manibus suis, . . . Nihil inveniunt in 
 manibus suis, quia nihil posuerunt in manu Christi. Vis aliquid 
 invenire in manibus tuispostea? Noli contemnere modo manuni 
 pauperis, etrespice manus inanes, si vis habere manus plenas. 
 
 * Serm. Ix. c. 6. Non surgitur, non proceditur, nisi ut un^ voce 
 dicatur ab omnibus : Vae nobis, ruit mundus. Si ruit, quare non 
 migras? Si tibi architectus diceret, Ruituram domum tuam ; nonne 
 prius migrares quam murmurares? Structor mundi tibi dicit, Rui- 
 turum mundum, et non credis? Cf. Serm. xxxviii. c. 5 — 7. 
 
 i2 
 
116 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 their goods to that only stronger built city that would 
 survive the shock. ^ And to some that veere already 
 stripped of their worldly possessions he addresses 
 himself thus: The enemy has invaded your house, 
 would he have invaded heaven? He has slain the 
 servant that has Avatched your goods ; would he have 
 slain the Lord that would have kept them there 
 where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth ? ~ 
 You have ransomed your life from the barbarians at 
 the cost of all that you had. And how came this ? 
 Because you would not render a portion of that all 
 imto Christ. You would not give, so he took, and 
 took, not as he was once willing to have received, but 
 took, leaving no blessing behind. ^ That which comes 
 from his people on the gentle pressure of his mere 
 bidding, comes as the fine and' sweet and golden 
 coloured olive oil which runs freely from the fruit, 
 almost before ever the press has touched them. It is 
 the lees, the dark and vile amurca, which is wrung 
 out by the force of an harsh constraint at the last.* 
 
 1 Ep. 122. Sicut enim ad loca munitiora festinantius migrant, 
 qui ruinam domus vident contritis parietibus iniminere; sic corda 
 Christiana quantu magis sentiunt mundi hujus ruinam crebrescentibus 
 tribulationibus propinquare, tanto magis debent bona quae in terra 
 recondere disponebant, in thesaurum ccelestem impigra celeritale 
 transferre ; ut si aliquis humanus casus accident, gaudeat qui de 
 loco ruinoso emigravit. 
 
 ^ Serm. Ix. c. 8. Invasit hostis domum, nunquid invaderet 
 coelum? Occidit servum custodem, nunquid occideret Dominum 
 servatorem, quo fur non accedit, neque tinea corrumpit? 
 
 3 Serm. De Contemptu fliundi, v. 5, p. 713. Christo modicum 
 non dedisti, et barbaris totum quod habuisti, dedisti. . . . Christus 
 rogat, et non accipit. Ille torquet, et totum aufert. 
 
 ■• Mundus est torcular: abundant pressurae ejus, oleum esto tu, 
 non amurca. 
 
VER. 21 — 23.] SERMOX ON THE MOUXT. 117 
 
 Ver. 21. " For irhere your treasure is, there ivill 
 your heart he also." — This is the reason why Christ 
 desires his people to lay up store in heaven, namely, 
 that they may have a heart in heaven ; this is why he 
 bids them to lift up their goods, that they may lift up 
 their souls as well. For it is the power which the 
 treasure has inevitably to draw after it the heart, the 
 fact that it is the loadstar to which the needle must 
 point, which makes it of such consequence where the 
 treasure is stored. * For him that has his treasure in 
 earth, it is vain when he hears the awakening cry of 
 the Church, Lift up your hearts, to make answer. 
 We lift them up unto the Lord. He does not, he 
 cannot do so — his heart is of necessity where his trea- 
 sure, that which he esteems his best good, is, — in the 
 earth and not in heaven; and so long as his treasure 
 is there, his heart must remain there too.^ 
 
 Ver. 22,23. — Augustine understands "the eye" here 
 as the intention with which our works are performed, 
 — " the body" the sum total of these works themselves. 
 If the eye be single, if the intention, that is, be right 
 
 ' Enarr. in Ps. xc. 16. Quare autem vult [Christus] ut locum 
 mutes thesauro tuo, nisi ut locum mutes cordi tuo ? Nemo enim 
 cogitat nisi de thesauro sue. Quam multi hie sunt qui me raodo 
 audiunt, et non est cor eorum nisi in saccellis suis. In terra estis, 
 quia in terra est quod amatis ; mittatur in coelum, et erit ibi cor 
 vestrum. 
 
 ' Serm. cccxlv. Si autem in terra obruis cor tuum, erubesce, 
 quia mentiris cum respondes, quando audis, Sursum corda. Nam 
 dicitur, Sursum corda ; et continuo respondes, Haberaus ad Domi- 
 num. Deo mentiris. In terra obrutum cor habes, quia ubi fuerit 
 thesaurus tuus, ibi erit et cor tuum. 
 
118 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 and pure, directed to God and to the pleasing of God, 
 all the works which we work according to that inten- 
 tion, which in other words are wrought in faith,i will 
 be right and pure also : they will be illuminated also. 
 " But if thine eye he evil,'' if thine intention is defiled 
 and blinded by the appetite of things carnal and tem- 
 poral, all the works that spring out of that impure 
 motive shall be sharers in the darkness.^ 
 
 There are two explanations of the words following : 
 " If therefore the light that is in thee be darhnesSf 
 how great is that darhness" — one which should make 
 the second " darkness," the darkness which shall then 
 ensue in the body, or, to leave the image, in the whole 
 domain of man's spiritual life ; if the avenues of light 
 are stopped, what a great darkness will ensue through 
 that whole region of man's soul ! According to the 
 other meaning, which indeed includes this, the second 
 darkness is the darkness which existed before (jo aKoroc, 
 with the article) in that region ; and then we must un- 
 derstand our Lord as contemplating the whole region 
 of man's passions and propensities as itself darkness : 
 this dark and confused chaos was to have been lighted 
 up by the rays of heavenly light received through the 
 
 • Con. Julian, l.iv. c. 3. Hunc oculum agnosce intentionem, 
 qu^ facit quisque quod facit ; et per hoc disce eum qui non facit 
 opera bona intentione fidei bonsB, hoc est, ejus quae per dilectionem 
 operatur, totum quasi corpus, quod illis, velut membris, operibus 
 constat, tenebrosum esse, hoc est plenum nigredine peccatorum. 
 
 ^ De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 13. Enarr. in Ps. cxviii. 37. 
 Proinde magni interest cum aliquid bonum facimus, cujus rei con- 
 
 templatione faciamus; ut scilicet non tantum si bonum est 
 
 quod facimus, sed praecipue si bonum est propter quod facimus, 
 cogitemus. 
 
VER. 23, 24.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 119 
 
 eye of the soul ; but if even this eye is obscured, if 
 that which was light becomes darkness, what will it 
 be with that which is of its own nature darkness : 
 not, as our version has it, " that darkness," but " the 
 darkness," which is now cut off, by the obstruction 
 of its one avenue of light, from the only illumination 
 which could have reached it? I cannot doubt that 
 this deeper, is also the truer, meaning. Tholuck^ 
 affirms that Augustine has embraced it ; yet not cer- 
 tainly in his exposition of this discourse ; where his 
 meaning, though hard to catch, is certainly not this, 
 nor have I been able to find any other passage to 
 justify the assertion. 2 
 
 Ver. 24. — The connection is thus traced by Augus- 
 tine. There was a warning in the preceding verse 
 against the double eye as opposed to the single, and 
 now follows the assurance of the folly of attempting 
 the double service, an attempt which might flow out 
 of that double eye. He has a subtle remark, noting 
 the nice selection of the words here, and clearing the 
 passage even from the appearance of a repetition. In 
 the first clause, the "master"" whom the man will 
 "hate" is Satan, the "master" whom he will "love" 
 is God, and this the faithful man will both do and 
 profess to do. But no man actually and openly pro- 
 fesses to hate God and love the Devil ; so that in the 
 
 ' Auslegung der Bergpredigt, p. 452. 
 
 * It is evidently implied in the translation of the Vulgate, Ipsa 
 tenebrcB quantae enint : (but for this Augustine has, Tenebrae 
 quantaa!) and by St. Jerome, Ipsa caligo quantis tenebris obvol- 
 vetur ; by Chrysostom also, and most of the ancients, though the 
 other is in modern times the most common explanation. 
 
120 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 second clause, when the Lord is putting the converse 
 case, he changes both words, since they would be no 
 longer the most appropriate; the sinner ^^ holds to" 
 Satan when he follows his rewards, he practically 
 " despises" God when he heeds not his promises and 
 his threatenings, however little he may acknowledge 
 to himself or to others that he is doing the one or the 
 other.i Augustine does not commit the mistake, which 
 is a modern one, of making mammon actually a pro- 
 per name, and a title of the god of this world ; but, 
 on the contrary, gives its right explanation, though at 
 the same time he says, with truth, that its service is 
 his service." 
 
 Ver. 25 — 34. "Therefore" — while there cannot 
 be a single eye (ver. 22) so long as we propose a 
 double object for our striving, and while under the 
 pretext that we are only providing things necessary, 
 the whole inordinate care and servitude to mammon 
 may again come in, " therefore" our Lord proceeds, 
 " tahe no thoucjht^ for your life, ivhat ye shall eat or 
 
 * Quaest. Evang. 1. ii. c. 36. Non dixit, Odiel, sed conteranet : 
 sicut Solent minas ejus postponere cnpiditatibus suis, qui de bonitate 
 ejus ad impunitatem sibi blandiuntur. 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. in Mon. l.ii. c. 14. Lucrum Punice mammon 
 dicitur. Sed qui servit mammonae, illi utique servit, qui rebus istis 
 terrenis merito suae perversitatis praepositus, magistratus hujus seculi 
 a Domino dicitur. 
 
 ^ fxri fxi^iy-vare. Augustine's non habere solicitudinem, and the 
 ne soliciti sitis of the Vulgate, are both better than our " Take no 
 thought," which w pa change for the worse from the " Be not 
 careful" of the earlier translations. The jue^ijuva (from y.epi? and 
 fxi^i^ti)) is the care which divides and draws the soul more ways 
 than one, — hinders a serving of the Lord aTrsfis-TrasrTWf (1 Cor. vii. 
 
VER. 25 - 34.] SERMOX ox THE MOUNT. 121 
 
 what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body rvhat ye 
 shall put on ;" and then Augustine traces the argu- 
 ment in the latter clause of the verse thus : Will not 
 he who gave the more excellent thing, the breath of 
 life, give also the meaner thing, the meat by which 
 that life is sustained ? he who made your marvellous 
 bodies, cannot and will not he furnish the raiment 
 which they need ? ^ 
 
 Augustine connects ver. 27 with the first clause of 
 the verse following, and reads, " Which of you, hy 
 taking thought," can add one cubit unto his stature ? 
 And why'' (or. Why then) " take ye thought for rai- 
 ment?" He who has said your bodies shall be just 
 what they are, and that is evidently God, for ye 
 
 35). Now it is true that the words solicitus and solicitudo do not 
 rest on the same image of distraction, but they express the unsettling 
 of the spirit through unreasonable anxiety. Solicitus, from solo and 
 cieo, that which is moved from its resting-place, and borne up and 
 down, the contrary of the £ JfaToj. It will thus stand in its etymology 
 in connexion with the fxh fjurico^H^iffBe, in the parallel passage in St. 
 Luke (xii. 29), Be not swayed backward and forward, as a bucket 
 in the air, without any sure resting-place (Nolite in sublime extolli 
 — Augustine). Our " Take no thought" sounds like an exaggera- 
 tion of the precept of faith, and by the help of assuming that it is so, 
 and the consequent impossibility of carrying out the precept, men 
 justify to themselves the whole extent of their unfaithful anxieties and 
 cares. 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 15. Domlnus admonet, ut 
 meminerimus multo amplius nobis Deum dedisse, quod nos fecit et 
 coraposuit ex anima et corpore, quam est alimentum atque tegumen- 
 tum; . . . qui dedit animam raulto facilius escam esse daturum. He 
 rightly remarks, that 4'"X^ ^^^^ •* ^o ^^ translated life, and not soul, 
 as at Matt. x. 39, " He that findeth his life (■^v^'iy) shall lose it." 
 
 * /uEfi|Uv£v, for which he has curans — which at least is better than 
 the cogitans of the Vulgate. 
 
122 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 yourselves are powerless in the matter, you could add 
 nothing to them in this respect, cannot he also clothe 
 them ? 1 But Maldonatus rightly remarks, that it is 
 impossible that this can be the true connexion, as is 
 clear from a comparison with the parallel passage in 
 St. Luke (xii. 25 — 27), where the interposition of 
 ver. 26 makes it impossible that such could be the 
 line of thought. Nor yet does he himself give the 
 right, though he acutely points out the error of this. 
 That true one will only be attained when the word 
 which we have taken as signifying " stature" (//Xticta) 
 is accepted rather in its other sense, term of life. (John, 
 ix. 21 — 23.)" There is much against taking it as 
 stature here. In the first place, if our Lord wished to 
 show that a man could not do " that which is least" ^ 
 for his body, we should rather expect. Which of you 
 by taking thought can add an inch, or, he might have 
 said yet more strongly, an hair's breadth, to his height? 
 So large a measure as a cubit seems, according to the 
 laws of a natural rhetoric, certainly out of place. We 
 should feel this much more vividly if we were to sub- 
 stitute a foot, which yet is not by one-half so much, 
 for the cubit, which not being a measure familiar to 
 us, we do not at once associate actual length with it. 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 15. Cujus potestate atque 
 dominatu factum est, ut ad banc staturam corpus vestrum perdu- 
 ceretur, ejus providentia etiam vestiri potest. 
 
 '^ This was first, I believe, suggested by Erasmus. Hammond has 
 brought well together the arguments in its favour. 
 
 3 Augustine feels that adding a cubit to the body can hardly be 
 called " that which is least," and seeks to help the interpretation 
 thus, (Qufest. Evang. 1. ii. c. 28,) jNIinimum est enim hoc, sed Deo 
 corpora operanti. 
 
VER. 25 — 34.] SERMON OX THE MOUNT. 123 
 
 Suppose it were said, Which of you with all his caring 
 can make himself a foot higher ? we should feel at 
 once that a foot was scarcely the measure which would 
 there have most naturally found place. 
 
 This difficulty was perceived long ago by Euthy- 
 mius, who sought to escape it by replying, that the 
 cubit was used as the ordinary measure of stature. 
 This is most true, even as the foot with us, but not to 
 the exclusion of a smaller measure when any inner 
 necessity shall require the mention of the latter. And 
 then there is this second objection, that increase of 
 stature is not a thing about which men do take anxious 
 thought ; it can scarcely be said in any case to be an 
 object of desire. But it is otherwise with added length 
 of days (1 Kings, iii. 11) ; and understanding the pas- 
 sage to refer to that, our Saviour's argument will then 
 be this : To what profit is all this solicitude about that 
 which is to sustain life, when after all it can effect so 
 little? with all your carking and caring, you cannot 
 make the most trifling addition, not so much as a 
 single cubit, to the length of your life : ^ God brings 
 in the day that terminates your course, whensoever he 
 will. (Luke, xii. 10.) The image will then be that of 
 life as a race or course (Ipofiog), and the cubit, which 
 would have been much in the stature of a man, while 
 that rarely consists of more than three cubits in all, 
 would be exceedingly little, and therefore most appro- 
 priate, in the length of a course. We have abundant 
 
 * Attempts thus to add to it are not without example in the East. 
 Von Hammer, in his Fundgruben des Orients, gives a copy of a re- 
 gularly executed document of the kind, in which an inferior formally 
 makes over to his patron a certain number, I think fifteen, of the 
 years of his life. 
 
124 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 examples in Scripture, of life set forth under this 
 image; as Job, ix. 25; 2 Tim. iv. 7, and Ps. xxxix. 5, 
 " Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth." ^ 
 
 Bnt these sayings, and those that follow to the end 
 of the chapter, might seem at first sight to cast a 
 slight upon all labour, and all providence, on man's 
 part: and, as Avas to be expected, they have not escaped 
 this abusive interpretation. The Manichaeans, for in- 
 stance, as we learn from Augustine,* in their eager 
 quest for discrepancies between the Old and the New 
 Testament, if so they might find help for their asser- 
 tion, that the Old came from a different God, while it 
 taught another doctrine, found in tliis passage a con- 
 tradiction to the summons of the wise man, to learn 
 foresight from the ant, " Go to the ant, thou sluggard, 
 &c." (Prov. vi. 6 — 8) ; and the idle vagabond monks, 
 who bore, after the Church had cast them out, the 
 name of Euchites,'' affirmed not merely the lawfulness 
 
 ' A saying of Augustine's, Plus est pauperi videre ccelum stellatum 
 quam diviti tectum inauratum, is exactly in the same line of thought 
 as this, " Consider the lilies of the field . . . yet I say unto you, that 
 Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these," though 
 it does not come from him with any direct reference to what the Lord 
 has spoken here. 
 
 ' Con. Adimant. c.24. See another contradiction that they found 
 between this passage and Gen.iv. 10, in this same treatise, c. 4, with 
 Augustine's admirable answer. As regards the passage from the 
 Proverbs (vi. 6), he gives it altogether a spiritual significance. The 
 time of outward prosperity is our summer, in which we must lay up 
 of the Word of God, of the lessons of his truth, and all that which 
 shall secretly nourish and feed us when the winter of tribulation and 
 sorrow shall arrive. Cf. his beautiful words, Enarr. in Ps. Ixvi, 2, 
 and in Ps. xxxvii. 20. 
 
 ^ Liber de Haeres. c. 57. 
 
VER. 25—34] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 125 
 
 of living without labour, but on the plea of this pas- 
 sage, avowed it as a point of perfection to abstain from 
 all toil, declaring, that so they came close to this com- 
 mand of Christ, feeding like the birds out of God's 
 hand, and living on his free bounty, without any 
 cai'efulness for to-morrow. i 
 
 But Augustine set himself with a strong earnestness 
 against this perversion of Christ's words, and the 
 spreading evil which from this had infected many, — 
 dedicating an especial treatise to this object. It cannot 
 be, he says, that abstaining from labour is a point of 
 perfection, for the blessed Apostle St. Paul himself, 
 when indeed he had abundant causes to exempt him 
 from toil, yet laboured with his own hands, and gave 
 the same commandment in the Churches, " that if 
 any would not work, neither should he eat." (2 Thess. 
 iii. 8—11. Cf Acts, xviii. 1 ; xx. 33.) And then with 
 regard to forethought and preparation for the coming 
 day, neither can this, he shows, be altogether forbidden, 
 for the Lord himself, with his disciples, had a bag, 
 from which things needful were purchased : the frag- 
 ments that remained of the loaves he bade to be 
 gathered up, evidently to be reserved for another occa- 
 sion. How far looking too was St. Paul in the matter 
 of the collection for the poor saints at Jerusalem (1 
 Cor. xvi. 1 ; Acts, xi. 27) ; how rejoiced at its large- 
 
 ' De Opere Monach. c. 3. Evangelica praecepta, de quibus 
 nonnulli non solum pigritiam sed etiam arrogantiam suam fovent. 
 And c. 30, Quis ferat homines contumaces saluberrimis Apostoli 
 monitis resistentes, non sicut infirmiores tolerari, sed sicut etiam sanc- 
 tiores prjedicari, ut monasteria doctrinii saniore fundata, gemina 
 illecebra corrumpantur, et dissoiutil licentia vacationis, et false 
 nomine sanctitatis 1 
 
126 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 ness (2 Cor. ix. 15) ;^ how provident in all his arrange- 
 ments concerning the different members of the Church 
 (1 Tim. V. 16). Were the not making any provision 
 for the morrow the point of perfection, then the savage 
 who wastes what he cannot immediately consume, 
 who lives only for the present hour, would have 
 reached the highest state of all.^ 
 
 He turns upon these idle monks, who do not seem to 
 have made a very profitable use of the leisure which this 
 interpretation gavethem — wandering aboutthecountry, 
 as he desci'ibes them, selling now the relics of martyrs, 
 if indeed of martja's — now phylacteries and amulets 
 — professing now to be on journeys to visit their kin- 
 dred, whom they had heard to be alive in some distant 
 land, and everywhere seeking the profits of a gainful 
 poverty, the rewards of a pretended sanctity ; ^ and he 
 says to them, if you are determined to take this Scrip- 
 ture in the letter, you must at least be consistent and 
 carry your interpretation through. It is true you do 
 not sow, nor reap ; you understand Christ literally, 
 
 ' De Opere Monach. c. 16. Quanta pinguedine sanctas laatitiaa 
 perfusus Apostolus, dum loquitur de alterno suppleraento indigentise 
 militum et provincialium Christi. Cf. De Mendacio, c. 15. 
 
 * Con. Adimant. c. 24. Si hoc [Matt. vi. 24] ideo dictum est ut 
 non servetur panis in crastinum, magis hoc implent vagi Romanorum, 
 quos Passives appellant, qui annona quotidian^ satiato ventre, aut 
 donant statim quod restat aut projiciunt ; quam vel Domini discipuli^ 
 qui etiam cum ipso Domino cceH et terrae in terra ambulantes loculos 
 habebant: vel Paulus Apostolus, qui omnium terrenorum con- 
 temptor sic tamen gubernavlt ea qua praesenti vitae erant necessaria, 
 ut etiam de viduis praeceperit. (1 Tim. v. 16). — Passivus, in this 
 passage, is a virord of African origin, and was applied to persons who 
 led an idle, tramping, gypsey-like kind of life. See Du Cange, s. v. 
 
 ^ Sumptus lucrosse egestatis, aut simulatae pretium sanctitatis. 
 
VER. 25 — 34.] SERMOX ON THE MOUNT. 127 
 
 where toil is to be avoided ; then by the same reason 
 you ought also to have no barns, but you have such, 
 in which you are ready enough to store the labours of 
 others. If you will be as the birds, what mean the 
 preparations of your food, your grinding and your 
 baking ? what your reserving of aught for to-morrow V 
 And then he draws a lively picture of a flock of 
 monks, as they should be, if they will adhere to the 
 letter of this precept, lighting on a field and gathering 
 what they need for the moment of its produce, which 
 they must consume raw as they find it. 
 
 But who is it, he asks, that really lives according 
 to the spirit of the precepts which his Saviour has 
 given him here ? He who is confident that if by in- 
 firmity or other cause he is cut off" from his work, he 
 shall indeed be fed without his toil, as the birds are, 
 and clothed as the lilies : but with health and streng-th 
 and opportunity, knows that these are God's appointed 
 means whereby he shall receive things needful for the 
 body ; yet esteems not, because he labours, that it is 
 any other than God who does truly feed him and 
 clothe him now : - who knows that it is the solicitude 
 
 ' De Opere Monach. c. 23. Cur ergo isti manus otiosas et plena 
 repositoria volunt habere ? Cur ea quae sumunt ex laboribus aliorum, 
 recondunt et servant unde quotidie proferalur 1 Cur denique molunt 
 et coquunl'! Hoc enim aves non faciunt. And ibid. c. 24, Cur 
 volatilia coeli non vobis sunt exemplo ad nihil reservandum, et vultis 
 ut sint exemplo ad nihil operandum 1 
 
 ' De Opere Rlonach. c. 27. Siet nosperaliquam velinfirmitatem 
 vel occupationem non possimus operari, sic ille nos pascet et vestiet, 
 quemadmodum aves et lilia, quae nihil operantur hujuscemodi : ciim 
 autem possumus, non debemus tentare Deum nostrum, quia et hoc 
 quod possumus, ejus munere possumus, et cum hinc vivimus, illo 
 largiente vivimus, qui largitus est ut possimus. 
 
128 EXPOSITION, &C. [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 and not the labour (for that is God's appointment) 
 which is excluded ;i the doubt whether God could, if 
 need were, provide for us in any other-way, that is 
 checked; and the feeling that it is any other Avho 
 does ever under any circumstances, whether we labour 
 or whether we are hindered from labour, in fact pro- 
 vide. 
 
 Augustine does not take our Saviour's words, " But 
 seek ye first the kingdom of God and Ms rif/kteotis- 
 ness, and all these things shall he added to you" as 
 actually excluding prayer for these lower things ; only 
 they shall not be the objects of our first or chiefest 
 or most earnest prayers. The great things of the 
 kingdom are to claim these ; but in subordination to 
 those greater we may ask for health of body, peace in 
 our times, and the other forms of an outward pro- 
 sperity.2 
 
 ' De Mendac. c. 15. Satis elucet ista praecepta sic intelligenda 
 ut nihil operis nostri temporalium adipiscendorum amore, vel timore 
 egestatis, tanquam ex necessitate faciamus. 
 
 * Serm. Ixiii. (Appendix). Nee hoc sic dicimus, ut pro rebus 
 temporalibus Deum non oremus, id est, pro sanitate corporis, aut 
 pro pace temporum, aut pro abundantia fructuum. Debemus et 
 ista a Deo petere, sed secundo et tertio loco, ut primas partes in 
 omni intentione nostrae orationis amor animee et desiderium vitat- 
 aeternae obtineat. 
 
( 129 ) 
 
 ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. VII. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Upon these words, " Judge not, that ye he 
 not judged" Augustine observes, that they must not 
 be understood as though the Christian man Avere alto- 
 gether to abdicate the right of discerning between good 
 and evil : for the Lord himself bids us to know men 
 by their fruits, that is, to judge of what spirit they are; 
 and says again, " Judge righteous judgment" (John, 
 vii. 24) ; and again his Apostle, " Do not ye judge 
 them that are within?" (1 Cor. v. 12.) For there are 
 some sins which are manifest, actions which cannot 
 be done with a right intention, — "open beforehand, 
 going before to judgment." (1 Tim. v. 24.) On all 
 these a Christian must pass a judgment ; though even 
 here he will refi-ain from judging what will be the 
 final state of him who does these things, since it will 
 be always possible that he may repent and be saved. 
 But the not judging chiefly refers to those acts which 
 are capable of a double interpretation,^ these are ever 
 to have the judgment of charity. He gives for exam- 
 ples the following : If a man, on the plea of bodily 
 weakness, should decline to keep the fasts of the 
 Church, and you should not believe his plea, but 
 should count that it were only an excuse for self- 
 indulgence, — an unwillingness to mortify the flesh. 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. inMon. L iu c. 18. Sunt quaedam facta media 
 quae ignoramus quo animo fiant, quia et bono et malo fieri possunt, 
 de quibus temerarium est judicare, maxime ut condemnemus. 
 K 
 
130 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 this were to transgress the commandment, and to be 
 a judge of evil thoughts. Or a man rules his house, 
 as it seems to you, with too severe a strictness ; yet do 
 not therefore conclude him harsh and cruel, since it 
 may be out of a zeal for righteousness, and the love of 
 an holy discipline, that he does it.^ In these, and all 
 such like cases, that word will apply, " Who art thou 
 that judgest another man's servant? to his own master 
 he standeth or falleth" (Rom. xiv. 4) ; and that other 
 word, "Judge nothing before the time" (1 Cor. iv. 5); 
 and our Lord's precept here, " Judge not, that ye be 
 not judged." Nor are they things questionable alone, 
 and acts capable of a double interpretation, on which 
 men are tempted to exercise uncharitable judgment. 
 But the evil of their own hearts, the sad conscious- 
 ness of their own mingled, and oftentimes impure, 
 motives, makes them prompt to suspect the same in 
 others, and to think that even deeds evidently good 
 do yet grow out of some evil root." Against all this he 
 reminds us, the seeking of that charity which " think- 
 eth no evil," is the only remedy that will avail. 
 
 Ver. 2. — But, Augustine asks, how is what foUoAvs 
 to be understood : " For ivith rvhat judgment ye judge, 
 ye shall he judged ; " since it cannot mean that if we 
 judge rashly of others, God will judge rashly of us ; 
 
 ' Serm. Ixvi. (Appendix). De illis vero quae aperta sunt et pub- 
 lica mala judicare et arguere, cum caritate tamen et amore, et 
 possumus et debemus, odio habentes non hominem sed peccatum, 
 non vitiosum sed vitium ; detestantes morbum potius quam aegrotum. 
 
 * Thus Enarr. in Ps. cxviii. 39, with a mournful, yet most true 
 heart-kncwledge, he says, Hoc enim proclivius homo suspicatur in 
 alio, quod sentit in seipso. 
 
VER. 2.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 131 
 
 or if we measure unjustly to them, it will in turn be 
 measured unjustly to us ? ^ But it is not the temerity 
 of the sinner's judgment which God will imitate, but 
 the severity of it ; " With the froward thou wilt show 
 thyself froward." (Ps. xviii. 26.) Nor in the moral 
 world can the retaliation, whether it comes directly 
 from God, or from those that are his vicegerents on 
 earth, be considered as a new act of injustice, but is 
 rather the restoration of the disturbed balances of 
 righteousness,^ by throwing a counter-weight into the 
 scale opposite to that into which the offender had 
 thrown his weight. Punishment is the recoil of 
 crime, and the strength of the back-stroke propor- 
 tions itself to the strength of the original blow. 
 
 He has a remarkable reply to one who found in 
 these words an argument against the everlasting du- 
 ration of the punishment of sinners. These argued, 
 that as men sinned wdthin limits of time, so within 
 limits of time their punishment must be restrained, 
 according to that phrase, " With what measure ye 
 mete, it shall he measured to you again ;^' and accord- 
 ing to the general equity, which would demand, that 
 the sin which was temporal should receive also a 
 punishment only temporal. But their sin, though 
 accidentally confined within limits of time and space, 
 had its true seat and root in that which was everlast- 
 ing in them, in their will, in that latent eternity which 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 18. 
 
 * So, speaking of Dives and Lazarus, with reference to this verse, 
 he says, Serm. ccclxvii., Pensantur . . . pro purpura flamraa, refectio 
 pro nuditate, ut salva sit mquitas staterm. Cf. De Civ. Dei, 1. xxi. 
 ell. 
 
 k2 
 
132 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 is in every man.^ A sin, though coming outwardly 
 to pass under conditions of time and of space, yet in 
 its essence lies out of these altogether, — is eternal as 
 the woe it brings. 
 
 Ver. 3 — 5. — As examples of what the Lord means 
 by " the mote" and " the beam,'' Augustine instances 
 anger and hate : transient anger is a mote disturbing 
 indeed, but not destroying, the spiritual vision ; while 
 hatred, which is anger grown inveterate,^ the mote 
 now swollen into a beam,^ quite destroys that vision, 
 causing a man to walk altogether in darkness.* (1 
 
 ' Ep, 102, quaest. 4, where he says, In e&dem igitur mensura, 
 quamvis non seternorum malefactorum, aeterna supplicia remeti- 
 untur, ut quia aeternam voluit haberi peccati perfruitionem, ffiternam 
 vindictae inveniat severitatem. See, too, his argument from the 
 analogy of human punishments (De Civ. Dei, 1. xxi. c. 11). The 
 chapter is very remarkable, as anticipating so much of Butler's 
 argument " On the Government of God by Rewards and Punish- 
 ments." Among other things he says, Jam vero damnum, ignominia, 
 exsilium, servitus, ciam plerumque sic infligantur ut null^ venia re- 
 laxentur, nonne pro hujus vitae modo similia pcenis videntur aeternis? 
 Ideo quippe a;terna esse non possunt, quia nee ipsa vita qu£e his 
 plectitur porrigitur in a?ternum : et tamen peccata quae vindicantur 
 longissimi tempoiis pfEnis, brevissimo tempore perpetrantur, nee 
 quispiam exstitit qui censeret tam cito nocentium finienda esse tor- 
 menta, qiiam cito factum est vel homicidium, vel adulterium, vel 
 sacrilegium, vel quidlibet aliud scelus, non temporis longitudine, 
 sed iniquitatis et impietatis magnitudine metiendum. 
 
 ^ De Serm. Dom. in Mon. l.ii. c. 19. Odium est ira inveterata. 
 
 ^ Serm, Ixxxii. c. 1. Festuca initium trabis est. Nam trabes 
 quando nascitur, priiis festuca est. Rigando festucam, perducis ad 
 trabem: alendo iram malis suspicionibus, perducis ad odium. 
 
 * Serm. Ivi. (Appendix.) Cordis oculura festuca turbat, trabes 
 excaecat . . . Per subitaneam iracundiam cordis oculus turbatur, per 
 odium lumen caritatis extinguitur. 
 
VER. 3—5.] SERMON OX THE MOUXT. 133 
 
 John, ii. 11.) He who in his heart nourishes hatred 
 to his brother, with what front shall he condemn and 
 rebuke his brother for the passing anger which may 
 find place in his? At times it Avould appear as if 
 Augustine meant to limit the interpretation to this 
 single case, but of course this would be too narrow a 
 meaning ; and elsewhere he gives the more compre- 
 hensive interpretation, which makes the mote and the 
 beam to be respectively any smaller and greater sins : 
 the mote being that sin which is indeed injurious to, 
 but is still consistent with, a state of grace, an impaired 
 but not a destroyed vision of God ; but the beam in- 
 volving absolute blindness, total suspension of spiritual 
 vision. 
 
 He is very earnest in warning us lest we should 
 understand this passage — which in oift cowardice 
 and sloth we might perhaps be tempted to do — as 
 though all fraternal rebuke and correction were declared 
 to be out of place. The warning is only directed against 
 the rebuking in a wrong spirit, without earnest endea- 
 vours at self-amendment, without a recognition of our 
 common sinfulness,^ without the remembrance that we 
 too, also, have been " foolish, disobedient;" and so re- 
 buking, not in the spirit of meekness and of love, but 
 in that of arrogance or scorn, or with an evil pleasure 
 in the humiliation of a brother.^ So far from all Chris- 
 
 ' On this " Judge not," he asks, Sertn. ccclxxxvii., Ergo tacebimus 
 et neminem omnino corripiemus? Corripiamus plane, sed prius 
 nos. Proximura vis corripere : nihil est tibi te ipso propinquius. 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. in jNIon. 1. ii. c. 19. See also much that is 
 most admirable on this matter of Christian rebuke, Exp. Ep. ad Gal. 
 (vi. 1 ), where among other things he says, Nunquam alieui peccati 
 objurgandi suscipiendura est negocium, nisi ciim internis interroga- 
 
134 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 tian rebuke being here condemned, there is implicitly 
 in the passage a command to exercise this difficult 
 grace,* only at the right time and in the right temper ; 
 " then" after we have in ourselves sought the remo- 
 val of all that is hindering our own vision of God, 
 and rendering us incapable of giving true counsel to 
 our brother, " shalt thou see clearly to cast out the 
 mote out of thy brother's eye ; " - and it is not to love, 
 but to hate our brother,^ under the plea of charity, 
 not to exercise it, when it is needed. He observes 
 often what sharp correction there will be frequently 
 in love, while indifference or hatred will either keep 
 silence, or else flatter and by their flattery strengthen 
 and confirm in evil.* How sharply Stephen could 
 speak to those Jews (Acts, vii. 51), for whom yet, after 
 they had profceeded to far greater outrages against him, 
 he could pray even in his dying agony.* 
 
 tionibus examinantes nostram conscientiam liquido nobis coram Deo 
 responderimus, dilectione nos facere. 
 
 1 Exp. Ep. ad Gal. vi. 1. Nihil autem sic probat spiritalem 
 virum, quam peccati alieni tractatio, ciini liberationem ejus potius 
 quam insultationem, potiusque auxilia quam convicia meditatur. 
 
 * Serm. Ixxxii. c. 2. Lumen quod in te est, non te permittit 
 negligere lumen fratris. 
 
 ^ Ibid. Tua patientia, illius mors est. 
 
 * In 1 Ep. Job. Tract. 7. Si qui forte vultis servare caritatem, 
 
 fratres, ante omnia ne putetis abjectam et desidiosam Non 
 
 putes tunc te amare servum tuum, quando eum non caedis ; aut tunc 
 te amare filium tuum, quando ei non das disciplinam ; aut tunc te 
 amare vicinum tuum, quando eum non corripis. Non est ista caritas, 
 sed languor, 
 
 5 Of Stephen, with one of those plays on the words which were 
 rarely unwelcome to him, he says, Lingua clamat, cor amat. 
 
VER. 6.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 135 
 
 Ver.6. — Augustine distinguishes between the ''holy" 
 and the " pearls ;" he allows them indeed ultimately 
 to mean the same, yet the same contemplated upon 
 different sides. " That which is holy" is the truth, as 
 it may not be spoiled or corrupted, or, if in itself in- 
 violable, as it may not be laid open to profane attempts 
 of the kind. The " pearls" are the same mysteries of the 
 faith, as they are too precious to be exposed to slights 
 or careless contempt. ^ So also he distinguishes between 
 the " dogs" and the " swine :" the dogs are the active 
 opposers of God's truth (the rabiosa canis, see Acts, 
 xiii. 45), the swine the passive despisers" (the amica 
 luto sus); somewhat, I suppose, as we have in the 
 parable of the marriage of the king's son, (Matt, 
 xxii.,) those that killed the king's messengers, and 
 those that were content with despising the message, 
 (Matt. xxii. 5, 6). And then he distributes the two 
 exhibitions of hostility, giving the contemptuous 
 trampling under foot to the swine, the turning again 
 and rending to the dogs.^ Yet I can hardly doubt but 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 20. Sanctum ex eo quod non 
 debet corrumpi, margarita ex eo quod non debet contemni. 
 
 ^ De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 20. Canes ergo pro oppug- 
 natoribus veritatis, porcos pro contemptoribus positos non incongrue 
 accipimus. And he assumes the same, Enarr. in Ps. ix. 15, where 
 of these two kinds of opposers he says. Qui malunt pertinaciter 
 latrare, quam studiose quasrere, aut qui nee latrare nee quaerere, 
 sed in suarum voluptatum cceno volutari. 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 20. Porci quamvis non ita 
 ut canes morsu appelant, passim tamen calcando coinquinant. It 
 may be seen in Hammond what can be said in defence of this dis- 
 tribution ; it is in itself most harsh, connecting the first and fourth 
 clauses, the second and the third, instead of the first and third, the 
 second and fourth. Certainly the connecting particle would not be 
 Kal but h, were this the meaning. 
 
■*- 136 EXPOSITIOX OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 that this is an erroneous distribution, and that they 
 both belong to the swine, so that there might well be 
 a semicolon after " Give not that which is holy unto 
 the dof/sf'^ for the treading under foot is as little 
 proper to these animals as the other outbreak of hos- 
 tility, the turning again and rending : while both are 
 the most graphic and exactest delineations of the 
 bearing of the enraged swine, which we must naturally 
 here consider, not as the domesticated creature, but as 
 the hog in the ferocity of its savage state.- The words 
 in fact say this. You will expose the truth to insult and 
 yourselves to injury.^ So that if Ave are to find here 
 two different characters of bestial opposers, we should 
 rather say that the " dogs" were the unclean, the utterly 
 and shamelessly sunken in impure lusts (Rev. xxii. 
 15), the " swine" the fierce and bitter opponents of the 
 truth of God. (Compare Ps. Ixxx. 13. " The wild 
 boar out of the wood doth root it out.") The first the 
 Heliogabalus, the second the Galerius.^ 
 
 ' In Bishop Lloyd's Greek Testament there is a punctuation 
 equivalent to this, but it is not common. 
 
 ^ The <rT5a<f>£VTEf will express the quick sharp turn of the head of 
 the boar with which the wound is inflicted (Horace — \'erreso/)/(</it!(m 
 m^ditans ictum ; Ovid — Obliquo dente timendus aper) ; and the 
 pti^Ma-i, the nature of the wound, which is formidable, not so much 
 from its depth as from being a long tearing or ripping up, or, as we 
 have it, rending. 
 
 3 Serm. Ixxvii. c. 6. Ne forte &c. . ., id est, post contemtum 
 margaritarum vestrarum etiam molesti sint vobis. 
 
 '' This view derives an additional confirmation from an accurate 
 fixing of the meaning of to ayiov. We translate it vaguely " that 
 which is holy," but it is certainly " the holy thing," i. e. the altar 
 flesh. See Lev. xxii. 6 — 16, LXX., where that is several times 
 called Ta ayia, which no unclean person might eat. It is not that 
 
VER. 7.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 137 
 
 Ver. 7.— This, according to Augustine, is the con- 
 nexion between this verse and the preceding. Some 
 one, hearing these last words, might be tempted to say 
 in his heart. But what pearls have I, which I am even 
 in danger of losing, by casting before the unworthy ? 
 I hardly seem to have such for myself. In answer to 
 this thought, rising out of a sense of spiritual poverty, 
 opportunely follows the suggestion, how this poverty 
 may be removed, '' Ask, and it sh(dl be given you ; 
 seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened 
 unto you." In his Retractations he recalls the dis- 
 tinction which in his Exposition of this discourse he 
 had sought to draw between these three, and which, 
 being withdrawn, it will be needless to examine, and 
 he recognizes, in all three, exhortations to an instancy 
 of earnest prayer.^ He finds in ver. 11 a proof that 
 
 the dogs would not eat it, for it would be welcome to them ; but 
 that it would be a profanation to give it to them, thus to make it a 
 ffKu^ar^ov. (Exod. xxii. 31.) Such " dogs " are they who would turn 
 the grace of God into lasciviousness. This, the true interpretation 
 of TO ayiov, was preserved in the ancient Church, in the cry of the 
 deacons to those who were about to communicate, to. ayta to~c ayio'ij, 
 which did not mean generally, holy things for holy persons, but the 
 holy flesh for the holy persons, for the kingdom of priests ; with 
 allusion to those Levitical ordinances, now transmuted and glorified, 
 which I have referred to above. So, too, I have no doubt that there 
 is a singular propriety in the image of the pearls; that they are 
 selected, as Maldonatus suggests, for the likeness to acorns which 
 they bear ; and the fury of the swine is supposed to be excited by 
 discovering that they are not these, but something which, though in- 
 finitely more precious, they have no desire for. 
 
 • L. i. c. 19. Operose quidem tria ista quid inter se diflPerant 
 exponendum putavi, sed longe melius ad instantissimam petitionem 
 omnia referuntur. So Enarr. in Ps. cxviii, 48. 
 
138 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 it is so; where "ask" evidently stands for and repre- 
 sents not merely itself, but the " seek" and " knock" 
 as well. In his popular homiletic use of these words 
 he very frequently brings into comparison the two pa- 
 rables of the Unjust Judge (Luke, xviii. 1), and the 
 Friend at midnight (Luke, xi. 5).i The image of the 
 knocking, with the final opening of the door, gives to 
 the latter parallel a peculiar fitness. 
 
 Ver. 8. — The objection might here be urged, namely, 
 that notwithstanding this and like promises in Scrip- 
 tures (as John, xiv. 13, xv. 16, xvi. 23 ; 1 John, iii. 22), 
 the saints do not always obtain their petitions, do not 
 invariably ask and receive. For example, St. Paul 
 asked, and earnestly and often, for the removal of the 
 thorn in his flesh, whatever that was, and it was not 
 removed ; this was expressly denied him. (2 Cor. xii. 
 7 — 9.) Aug\istine takes up this very example, and 
 affirms that God's servants are always heard, showing 
 how in that very instance the Apostle was heard, not 
 indeed to his present desire, but to his lasting good, 
 since by that temptation and through those buffetings 
 he was to be perfected.- God dealt with him as the 
 faithful physician deals with his patient, from whom he 
 withdraws not the knife and the cautery, notwithstand- 
 ing his instant cries. He knows how far the wound 
 reaches, and so he will search it to the bottom and 
 
 ' Serm, Ixi. c. 4. Ecce paterfamilias et magaus dives, divitiarum 
 scilicet spiritualium et aeternarum, hortatur et dicit tibi, Pete, quaere, 
 pulsa. Hortatur ut petas, negabit quod petis "! Attende a contrario 
 similitudinem. And he quotes Luke, xviii. 1. Cf. Ep. 130, c. 8. 
 
 * In 1 Ep. Joh. Tract. 6. Deus etsi voluntati nostras non dat, 
 saluti dat. 
 
VER. 8.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 139 
 
 make a perfect cure. He knows too that the patient 
 will thank him for this in the end, and so he hears 
 him for his lasting desire, which is health ; not for his 
 momentary desire, which is release from pain. It is 
 thus that God hears his servants for the lasting desire 
 of their souls, which is holiness; not for the imme- 
 diate, which may be ease.^ Augustine brings out, 
 moreover, how, on the other side, a petition may be 
 granted in anger, as was that of the devils, when 
 they were allowed at their petition to enter into the 
 swine, but did only so accelerate the doom which they 
 feared (Matt. viii. 31, 32); as that of the prince of 
 all evil (Job, i. 12), when he desired to tempt Job, 
 and was permitted to do so, for Job's greater approval 
 and for the aggravation of his own confusion ; as that 
 of the Israelites, when they asked for quails and 
 perished while the meat was yet in their mouths. 
 And so, on the other hand, a petition may be refused 
 in love; in which case it is not really refused, but 
 rather granted in an higher shape than the asker con- 
 templated. There is a beautiful passage in his Con- 
 fessions, where, concerning some prayers of his mother 
 
 ' In 1 Ep. Joh. Tract. 6. [Deus] secare vult, urere vult. Tu 
 si clamas et non exaudiris, in sectione, in ustione, et tribulatione, 
 novit ilie quousque putre est, Tu jam vis revocet manus, et ille 
 vulneris sinura attendit ; scit quousque perveniat : non te exaudit 
 ad voluntatem, sed exaudit ad sauitatem. Cf. Serm. cccliv. c. 7. 
 Petit aeger ut quod ad salutem apponit medicus, cum voluerit aegrotus, 
 auferatur. Medicus dicit, Non : mordet, sed sanat. Tu dicis. 
 Telle quod mordet. Medicus dicit, Non tollo, quia sanat. Tu ad 
 medicum quare venisti? Sanari, an molestiam non pati? Non ergo 
 exaudivit Dominus Paulum ad voluntatem, quia exaudivit ad sani- 
 tatem. Cf. Enarr. in Fs. exxx. 1. 
 
140 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 Monica's, he says, God gave heed to the hinge of her 
 desire, though he gave her not the boon exactly by the 
 means through which she sought it. Her anxiety and 
 her earnest prayer was that he might not sail for 
 Italy, while she dreaded the dangers and temptations 
 which he Avould encounter at Rome : he sailed, not- 
 withstanding, and it was there at length that he found 
 Christ.i 
 
 Ver. 9, 10. — The very ingenious allegories which 
 Augustine discovers, in the " bread" and the " stone," 
 the "fish" and the " serpent" and not less in the eg^ 
 and the scorpion, which St. Luke (xi. 12), but not one 
 Evangelist, has recorded, may be seen by any one who 
 places sufficient value upon such to take the trouble 
 of following up the references given below." Yet I 
 cannot doubt that these objects were selected for no 
 other reason than as objects among the most obvious 
 of an wholesome nourishment, which a father would 
 give to his children ; and that in each case the anti- 
 thesis yests on the resemblance : a stone has some like- 
 
 ' Confess. 1. v. c. 15. Quid a te petebat, Deus meus, tantis 
 lacrimis, nisi ut navigare me non sineres? Sed tu alte consulens, et 
 exaudiens cardinem desiderii ejus, non curasti quod tune petebat, ut 
 in me faceres quod semper petebat. We may compare Serra. Ixxx. 
 Qualis est apud te filius tuus nesciens res humanas, talis es et tu 
 apud Dominum, nesciens res divinas. Ecce ante te filius tuus tota 
 die plorans, ut des illi cultrum, id est gladium : negas te dare, non 
 das, coatemnis flentem, ne plangas morientem. Ploret, affligat se, 
 coUidat se, ut leves eum in equum : non facis, quia non potest eum 
 regere ; elidet et occidet ilium. Cui negas partem, totura illi servas. 
 Sed ut crescat, et totum possideat secure, non das illi modicum 
 periculosum. 
 
 2 Ep. 130, c. 8, (ad Probam) ; Qusst. Evang. 1. ii. c. 22. 
 
VER. 9—11.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 141 
 
 ness to bread, a serpent to a fish, and a scorpion to an 
 egg. And these allegories, and the like, should pass 
 for what they are worth, as the harmless, often times 
 edifying and graceful, plays and scintillations of a re- 
 ligious fancy ; frequently meant for no more by those 
 who offered them ; but which assume a very different 
 aspect when they are afterwards fixed and hardened 
 into permanent expositions of Scripture truth. 
 
 Ver. 11. — Augustine observes how those who are 
 addrest here as " being evil" are the very same into 
 whose mouths but now the Lord has put that word, 
 " Our Father ;" i to whom he has made the promise, 
 " Ask, and it shall be given you :" so that every 
 faithful man has a double aspect — he is " evil" through 
 his old nature — he is good through participation with 
 him who is the highest good, who is in some sense 
 the alone good, (Matt. xix. 17,) the good in himself, 
 and altogether good, while others are good through 
 him, and only as they are sharers in his life.^ So 
 that we may perceive here that he has seized the right 
 interpretation of the " being evil," M'hich they fail to 
 catch 3 who take the epithet " evil," not as the desig- 
 
 ■ Ep. 153, c. 5, (ad Macedon.) Num igitur Deus Pater nialorum 
 est? Absit. Quoniodo dicitur, Pater vester ccelestis, quibus dicitur, 
 Cum sitis mali : nisi quia utrumque Veritas monstrat, quid sitnus 
 Dei bono, quid humane vitio, hoc commendans, illud emendans ? 
 Cf. Serra. xc. Pater ergo malorum, sed non relinquendorum, quia 
 medicus sanandorum. 
 
 * Con. duas Ep- Pelag. 1. iii. c. 3. Inde mali, unde adhuc filii 
 SEeculi, jam tarlien filii Dei facti pignore Spiritiis Sancti. 
 
 ^ Even he himself at times, as Ue Serm. Dom. in Mod. 1. ii. c. 21, 
 Malos appellat dilectores adhuc seculi hujus et peccatores. 
 
142 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 nation of all men, of human nature in general (Gen. 
 viii. 21), as it is opposed to the goodness and holiness 
 of God, but of some particular men deeper sunken 
 in corruption than the rest; as if Christ would say, 
 Even the worst among you (even the Trovrjpoiy do not 
 extend their malignity to their children, but in their 
 relations to them show themselves bountiful and good. 
 But the other is the truer and deeper explanation, em- 
 bracing the whole race of men under this charge of 
 evil, who, being such, have yet natural affections, the 
 yearnings of a parent's heart toward their children, 
 and, according to their ability and knowledge, impart 
 unto them good gifts, which if not in the highest sense 
 deserving the title of " good," are yet good for the 
 necessities of this present life. How much more cer- 
 tainly Avill the Heavenly Father impart the true goods 
 of his kingdom, for it is those that the Lord has 
 prominently in his eye, as is plainly shown by a com- 
 parison with the parallel passage in St. Luke (xi. 13), 
 where instead of " good things" it is his " Holy 
 Spii'it" which is promised to them that ask.^ As he 
 will not deny his children, altogether withholding 
 
 ' This will come more clearly out if we note how tj'j e^ l/xSiv 
 av9pcB7rof, ver. 9, is not pleonastic, as we make it, " what man of 
 you ;" but there is a silent opposition between the avflfaoTroj here and 
 the rrctTwj o Iv roT^ ol^aw"; of ver. 1 1 ; Who of you, though he be but 
 a man, &;c. ; and then the being but a man will plainly appear as 
 equal to ttovo^o? iv. 
 
 ^ Enarr. in Ps. cxviii. 48. Alius porro Evangelista non ait, Dabit 
 bona petentibus se, qus multipliciter possunt intelligi, vel corporalia 
 vel spiritalia ; sed circumcidit inde alia, satisque diligenter expressit 
 quid nos vehementer atque instanter voluerit poscere Dominus, et 
 ait, Quanto magis Pater vester dabit Spiritum bonum petentibus se 1 
 
VER. 11, 12.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 143 
 
 what they ask (ver. 7, 8), so neither will he deceive 
 his children, giving to them a useless or a noxious 
 thing instead of a good (ver. 9, 10). He observes 
 how here again it is the same argument as finds place 
 in the parable of the Unjust Judge, an argument from 
 the worse to the better. 
 
 Ver. 12. — Some will perhaps remember Gibbon's 
 sneer concerning this precept, that, extolled as it was, 
 he had read it four hundred years before Christ 
 announced it in the Gospel, and he produces a passage 
 from Isocrates, — which by the way is no anticipation 
 of it at all, for it is merely the negative injunction of 
 not doing to others what we are unwilling to suffer 
 from them, a rule marvellously distant from Christ's 
 law of an active love. But Augustine, so far from 
 being afraid of the charge that this is an old precept, 
 makes it the glory of the written and spoken law, that 
 it is the transcript of that which is old, and not merely 
 as old as this man or that, but as the creation itself, a 
 reproduction of the dimmed and obscured law written 
 once by the finger of God on the hearts of all men. 
 When therefore heathen sages or poets proclaimed any 
 part of this, they had not thereby anticipated Christ,^ 
 they had only decyphered some fragment of that law, 
 which he gave at the beginning ; and which when men, 
 fugitives from themselves and from the knowledge of 
 
 ' Enarr. in Ps. cxl. 6. Dixit hoc Pythagoras, dixit hoc Plato. . . . 
 Propterea si inventus fuerit aliquis eorum hoc dixisse quod dixit et 
 Christus, gratulamur illi, non sequimur ilium. Sed prior fuit ille 
 quam Christus? Si quisvera loquitur, prior est quam ipsa Veritas? 
 O homo, attends Christum, non quando ad te venerit, sed quando te 
 fecerit. 
 
144 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 their own hearts, had lost the power of reading, he 
 came in the flesh to read to them anew.^ 
 
 He notes that in the Latin copies it was not " All 
 things" but " All good things whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." 
 But he rejects this " good" as clearly an addition, 
 and one which was not to be found in any Greek MSS. 
 He thus explains the manner in which it probably 
 first found its way into the text. It had occurred to 
 some one : But what if a man should desire sinful 
 things of another, as to be invited of him to a drunken 
 revel, and should proceed himself first to invite the 
 other to the same, that he might be requited in like 
 kind, this could not surely be fulfilling the Lord's 
 precept. And so to avoid this evil consequence, 
 which yet to the transcriber seemed to be involved in 
 the words, he guarded the " All things" by making 
 it rather, All good things.- Augustine, however, shows 
 that there is not really such a difficulty here ; for we 
 will only good things, we desire bad things.^ It is 
 
 '■ Enarr. in Ps. Ivii. 2, Non enim scriptum non habebant, sed 
 legere nolebant. . . . Quia homines appetentes ea quae foris sunt, 
 etiam a seipsis exules facti sunt, data est etiam conscripta lex : non 
 quia in cordibus scripta non erat ; sed quia tu fugitivus eras cordis 
 tui, ab illo qui ubique est, comprehenderis, et ad teipsum intro 
 revocaris. 
 
 * De Civ, Dei, 1. xiv. c. 8. Cavendum enim putaverunt, ne 
 quisquam inhonesta velit sibi fieri ab iiominibus, ut de turpioribus 
 taceam, certe luxuriosa convivia in quibus se, si et ipse illis faciat 
 similia, hoc praeceptum exLstimet impleturum. Cf. De Serm. Dom. 
 in Men. 1. ii. c. 22. 
 
 3 De Serm. Dom. in JMon. 1. ii. c. 22. Id enim quod dictum est, 
 Quaecunque vultis, non usitate ac passim, sed proprie dictum accipi 
 oportet. Voluntas namque non est nisi in bonis. Nam in malis 
 
VER. 12 — 14.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 145 
 
 true, that "to will" may be sometimes used in a laxer 
 and in the lower sense ; but this does not hinder, 
 whei'e need is, the taking it in the stricter, in which 
 here it is to be accepted. — " This is the Law and the 
 Prophets" not " All the Law and the Prophets," as 
 Christ expressed himself elsewhere, (Matt. xxii. 40,) 
 for there he had been giving the two commandments, 
 Love to God, and Love to our neighbour, so that he 
 could thus speak ; but this commandment in its utmost 
 latitude includes only love to our brother. 
 
 Ver. 13, 14. — On the words " Enter ye in at the 
 strait gate" he has in one of his homilies many 
 beautiful observations. What is it, he asks, which 
 makes this gate so strait to us and so narrow ? It is 
 not so much that it is strait in its own nature, as 
 that we make it strait for ourselves — by the swellings 
 of our pride ; — and then vexed that we cannot enter, 
 chafing and impatient at the hinderances we meet with, 
 we become more and more unable to pass through. 
 But where is the remedy? how shall these tumid 
 places of our souls be brought down ? By accepting 
 
 fiagitiosisque factis, cupiditas proprie dicitur, non voluntas. Cf. De 
 Civ. Dei, 1. xiv. c. 8. To the unregenerate belongs indeed the 
 liberum arbitrium, that is, in each individual case a choice is possible 
 to them : the libera voluntas pertains only to the regenerate ; this is 
 their redemption that they have the will set free in Christ. And 
 there is an higher yet, as Augustine teaches, even than this libera 
 voluntas, namely, the libertas, the beata necessitas boni, which raay 
 be ascribed only to God and to his holy Angels ; as at the other 
 extreme there is the misera necessitas peccandi, the condition of 
 devils, and that into which evil men are every day more and more 
 coming. 
 
 L 
 
146 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 and drinking of the cup, wholesome though it may be 
 bitter, of humility j by listening to and learning of 
 him, the same who said, " Enter ye in at the strait 
 gate," and who gives also answer to them who inquire, 
 " How shall we enter in?" and says, " I am the way," 
 " I am the gate." i 
 
 We may here adduce an example of the rich sym- 
 bolic significance which of old they traced in many 
 of the ways and works of the lower creation : most, it 
 is true, of these being found by this time to be entirely 
 mythical, yet not therefore marred for us. Thus Au- 
 gustine, with reference to this passage, makes use of a 
 legend concerning the artifice by which the serpent 
 was believed to get rid of its old skin, namely, by 
 forcing itself through some narrow aperture and so 
 leaving behind that old, and coming out in all the fresh- 
 ness and splendour of its new. And wouldst thou, he 
 asks, according to the bidding of the Apostle, put off 
 the old man and put on the new, there is but one way 
 to effect it. Thou must not be afraid of the straitness 
 of this gate ; it is only by forcing thyself through it, 
 that thou canst leave behind thee the exuviae of the 
 old man.2 And if processes like these be painful, yet 
 
 ' Serm. cxlii. c. 5. Clamat ille qui factus est Via ; Intrate per 
 angustam portam. Conatur ingredl, impedit tumor : et tanto magis 
 perniciose conatur, quanto magis impedit tumor. Tumidum autem 
 vexat angustia, vexatus autem amplius tumebit. Ampliiis tumens 
 quando intrabit'! Ergo deturaescat. . . . Accipiat humilitatis medi- 
 camentum, bibat contra tumorem poculum amarum sed salubre, 
 bibat poculum humilitatis. Quid se arctat? Non sinit moles, non 
 magna, sed tumida. Magnitudo enim soliditatem habet, tumor in- 
 flationem. 
 
 ' Enarr. in Ps. Ivii. 5. Et quomodo exuo, inquis, veterem homi- 
 nem ? Imitare astutiam serpentis. Quid enim facit serpens ut exuat 
 
VER. 13—20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 147 
 
 still remember, says he in another place, the present 
 time is the time of healing, not of enjoying. i — And on 
 the " many'''' and the "few" — Be not led away by the 
 numbers of those, nor abashed by the fewness of these. 
 For do not number them but weigh them, and in a 
 just balance, see how a few grains are enough to over- 
 balance whole armsful of chafF.2 
 
 Ver. 15—20. — Our Lord has said just before that 
 there are few that find this way of life; and now there 
 is danger lest heretics, who commonly glory in their 
 fewness,' as though it marked them especially as the 
 little flock to whom the kingdom was given, should 
 snatch at these words, and boast that they were the 
 finders of, and leaders in, the way. Therefore he adds 
 immediately the caution, " Beware of false pi-ophets." 
 This is the connexion which here Augustine gives : 
 but concerning the "fruits," the not having of which, 
 and the having the contrary to which, will cause these 
 false prophets to be known, and will lay bare their 
 hypocrisy; these, he remarks, it is clear cannot be 
 those more prominent works of an outward piety. 
 
 se veterem tunicam ? Coarctal se per foramen angustum. Et ubi, 
 inquis, invenio hoc foramen angustum ? Audi. Arcta et angusta est 
 via quas ducit ad vitam. . . . Ibi ponenda est vetus tunica et alibi 
 poni non potest. Aut si vis vetustate impediri, gravari, premi, noli 
 ire per angustam. Cf. Serm. Ixiv. c. 2 ; and De Doct. Christ. 1. ii. 
 c. 16. 
 
 • Serm. Ixxxvii. c. 11. Sanitatis tempus est, non voluptatis. 
 
 ^ Enarr. in Ps. cecix. 4. Noli numerare, sed appende : stateram 
 affer aequam. . . . Vide contra pauca grana quantam paleam laves. 
 
 3 De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 23. Hseretici, qui se plerumque 
 paucitate commendaut. 
 
 l2 
 
148 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 prayer, fasting, alms, which have been mentioned 
 before. For these are the " clothing" which at first 
 meets the eye, the true and natural in the case of the 
 sheep ; the adventitious and false in that of the wolves. 
 But the " fruits" which they ought to have and have 
 not, having their evil contraries, he explains by a 
 reference to Gal. v. 19, and to the "fruit of the Spirit" 
 which are enumerated there : ^ not that there may not 
 be in bad men imitations also of these, but the simple 
 eye will most often detect them, which is the reason 
 why, before these cautions are given, so much has 
 been said concerning the keeping the eye single, since 
 the single eye will alone be able to profit by them.^ 
 This is not the general explanation of the early 
 Church, but the " fruits," which shall declare the true 
 character of the men, are generally taken as the false 
 doctrines by the bringing forward of which, false 
 teachers, bearing an appearance of outward sanctity, 
 shall at length be detected. Yet any satisfying ex- 
 planation must combine both false doctrines and sinful 
 works ; and they cannot be thus distinguished, for a 
 false doctrine is as much a work as a wicked deed, as 
 really the outgrowth of the iiiner man. 
 
 But the impossibility of the actual outcoming from 
 evil being anything but evil, the certainty therefore 
 that sooner or later it will display itself in its true cha- 
 racter, the Lord illustrates and sets forth by the ex- 
 amples of trees which must bear after their kind. Yet 
 here Augustine notes how the error of the Manichaeans 
 
 ' So Enarr. in Ps. cxlix. 1. Non enim fructus ostenditur nisi in 
 factis. . . . Quaerimus fructus caritatis, invenimus spinas dissentionis. 
 Ex fructibus eorum cognoscetis eos. 
 
 ' De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c.24. 
 
VER. 15 — 20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 149 
 
 is carefully to be guarded against. They made much 
 of the Sermon on the Mount, calling it the Sermo 
 deificus,! (while they arbitrarily rejected so much of 
 Christ's teaching,) mainly on account of these verses 
 17 and 18, in which they assumed to find a support 
 for their system of two original principles^ — one good, 
 from which good proceeded, and one evil, from which 
 evil ; and of two races of men, claiming their descent 
 from the one and from the other. But he shows 
 plainly that what went before and what comes after 
 (see Luke, vi. 43 — 45) alike require another inter- 
 pretation, that it is only when forcibly rent away from 
 the context, that the words can be made even to seem to 
 give support to such a doctrine. There is no assertion 
 here of a Manichaean dualism, neither does Christ say 
 of men that there is aught irrevocably fixed in their 
 natures, so that some can never become good, and 
 others never evil ; but only that so long as a man is as 
 an evil tree, he cannot bring forth good fruits, that if he 
 would do good he must first he good.'' To support the 
 
 ' See the words of Faustus in Augustine's work, Con. Faust. 
 
 1. xxxii. c. 7. Credimus . . . cunctum Sermonem deificum, qui 
 maxime duarum praeferens naturarum discretionem, ipsius esse non 
 venit in dubium. 
 
 ^ De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. ii. c. 24. Illorum error maxime 
 cavendum est, qui de ipsis duabus arboribus duas naturas opinantur 
 esse, quarum una sit Dei, altera vero neque Dei, neque ex Deo. 
 
 ^ Con. Adimant. c. 26. IVIala ergo arbor fructus bonos facere 
 non potest ; sed ex mala fieri bona potest, ut bonos fructus ferat* 
 And again, Muta cor et mutabitur opus. Cf. Con. Fortunat. Disput. 
 
 2. He is scarcely correct, however, when he explains " Make the 
 tree good" (Matt. xii. 33), as an admonition; for so a perplexity 
 will arise with regard to the words that follow, " Make the tree cor- 
 rupt ;" since no such admonition could have come from the lips of 
 
150 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 other view, as he acutely observes, it ought to have 
 been said, A good tree cannot become a bad one, nor 
 a bad one good. There is indeed, he affirms, a dijfFer- 
 ence in men, as they are regenerate or natural, as they 
 belong to the stock of the wild olive (the oleaster), or 
 have been engrafted anew on the good olive tree, as 
 they pertain to Adam or to Christ. But then the wild 
 olive is not of a different kind from the good, but is 
 only a degeneration of that good. This degeneration 
 took place at the fall : then, that which was a good 
 tree became the wild and bitter stock, and as such it 
 filled the world with its shoots, — incapable of restoring 
 itself to its first and nobler condition, yet capable of 
 being restored, if only it were grafted anew upon one 
 of that stock from which it originally fell away, and 
 through this re-engrafting became partaker of its 
 better life. The first Adam, the head of the fallen race, 
 is this oleaster, having become such at his fall ; the 
 second Adam, the head of the restored race, is the 
 olive, in whom there are possibilities of renewal for 
 all. 
 
 But Augustine, as he had, on the one side, to deny, 
 against the Manichseans, an evil creation coming from 
 the hands of a God of perfect goodness, — to deny that 
 there were any men the very original foundations of 
 whose being were evil, trees which could not become 
 good, and therefore could not bring forth good fruit, — 
 so also had he, on the other side, to deny, against the 
 Pelagians, that the degenerate tree was capable of re- 
 Christ. But " Make" here rather answers to our English, Suppose : 
 Grant or suppose a corrupt tree, give me such by way of argument, 
 and I say the fruit will be corrupt also. He often himself uses Fac, 
 and Pone, in this same sense. 
 
VER. 15 — 20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 151 
 
 storing itself, and bringing forth good fruit, by its 
 own unaided power : ^ and as he had to rescue this 
 verse from Manichsean abuses, so it furnishes him 
 with weapons against the shallow Pelagian scheme 
 which would look at men's deeds apart from the living 
 root in the man out of which they grew. When he, 
 awfully conscious of God as the one and only fountain 
 of all goodness, laid down the great principle, No act 
 is good, if it be not of faith ; ^ that is, if the man who 
 did it stood not in a living connexion with the one 
 source of goodness, they sought to embarrass him with 
 the splendid deeds of heathens and unbaptized men, — 
 with the chastity of Scipio, the fortitude of Regulus, 
 the incorruptibility of Fabricius. They demanded, 
 whether he would deny these to be good. To this he 
 made answer, that they had no right as moralists to 
 take isolated acts, and ask a judgment upon them. 
 For the true question was this. Was the man who 
 wrought these acts a righteous man? was the tree 
 good? for if not, he who is himself the Truth had 
 
 ' The statement of Pelagius (De Gratia Chrisli, 1. i. c. 18), is so 
 exactly that of a Pelagian world now and at all times, that it is worth 
 quoting : Habemus autem possibilitatem utriusque partis a Deo in- 
 sitam, velut quamdam, ut ita dicam, radicem fructiferam atque 
 fcECundam, quae ex voluntate hominis divers^ g'gnat et pariat, et 
 quae possit ad proprii cultoris arbitrium vel nitere flore virtutum, vel 
 sentibus horrere vitiorum. It is at once evident that this theory of 
 human nature is at the bottom of all our modern schemes of educa- 
 tion, which proceed on the plan of cultivating the old stock, rather 
 than the being engrafted on a new. 
 
 " Enarr. 2*. in Ps. xxxi. Laudo fructum boni operis, sed in fide 
 agnosco radicem. There is here in the introduction to this psalm a 
 large discussion, in the most popular form, on the relation of faith 
 and works, the tree and its fruits, and one full of interest. 
 
152 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 declared that the fruit could not be good. We may 
 think that the truest application of his principle to 
 Pelagian objectors would have been one which should 
 not thus have made these lofty deeds to have been 
 wholly false, only more splendid vices, as he keenly 
 calls them ; but rather to have replied, that these also 
 were of faith ; that wherever there was a deed lofty or 
 pure or true, that also was of his inspiration from 
 whom all good things do come, and who left himself 
 nowhere without a witness. Yet, even while we thus 
 feel that the faith without which it is impossible to 
 please God, might have been made by him of larger 
 reach, and to embrace some whom he excludes, his 
 principle stands fast. He was here asserting the 
 foundation of all morals, namely, that the condition of 
 the man determines the value of the deed, that the 
 motive is the deed,^ — and of all religion, namely, that 
 it is only the man in relation with God who can do 
 righteous acts; or in forms of speech which this Scrip- 
 ture supplies, and which he often uses, the good tree 
 only can bring forth good fruit, and that tree only is 
 good which has been engrafted on a nobler stock, and 
 made partaker of an higher life than its own. 2 
 
 ' One of the chiefest obligations of Christian Ethics to Augustine 
 and to his influence, is that he nowhere deals with, but everywhere 
 attacks at the root, what one might not unfitly call quantitative mo- 
 rality, — I mean a morality which acknowledges such questions as 
 this, which I take from a Romish book of casuistry lately published, 
 How many scudi must a man steal to constitute a mortale peccatum? 
 What morality can exist in a land, where the light has become such 
 darkness as this ? 
 
 2 The largest use of this passage, in its bearing on the Pelagian 
 controversy, is to be found in his treatise Con. Julian. 1. iv. c. 3. 
 
VER. 21, 22.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 153 
 
 Ver. 21, 22. — How, Augustine inquires, are these 
 words of the Lord to be reconciled with those other of 
 his Apostle, " No man can say that Jesus is the Lord 
 but by the Holy Ghost" (1 Cor. xii. 3) ; for here are 
 some that call Jesus Lord, whom yet he denies ever 
 to have been his, who therefore could never have said 
 this in the power of the Holy Ghost.i But he easily 
 sets the two passages at one, showing how the saying 
 that Jesus is the Lord, is there to be accepted in its 
 highest sense ; it is the saying which is the true out- 
 coming and expression of the innermost conviction, 
 that which all speech would have been, if sin had not 
 made every man more or less a liar, and therefore his 
 speech not always to be tlie faithful utterance of that 
 which is within him, he now oftentimes speaking more 
 or less or differently from that which he actually feels. 
 But such is not properly speech at all.^ And in this 
 highest sense of saying, in which the saying is the 
 expression of the being, no man says that Jesus is the 
 Christ but by the Holy Ghost ; no man, in other 
 words, believes it in his heart but by the Holy Ghost. 
 This is what St. Paul affirms ; ^ while our Lord, using 
 the words as men are commonly wont to use them, 
 
 ' The apparent opposition comes out in the double dicit of the 
 Latin, here, Non omnis qui dicit mihi Domine, and there, Nemo 
 potest dicere Dorainus Jesus, more than either in the Greek or Eng- 
 lish, which both have different words in the two places. 
 
 * De Serm. Dora. inMon. l.ii. c. 25. Videlur enim diceie etiam 
 ille qui nee vult nee intelligit quod dicit : sed ille proprie dicit, qui 
 voluntatem ac mentem suam sono vocis enuntiat. 
 
 * Exactly in the same way, when he declares, " Whosoever shall 
 call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. x. 13), the 
 word " call" is to be taken in the same pregnant sense. 
 
154 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 who do not deny even to falsehoods the title of speech, 
 affirms there will be some who will have said, "Lord, 
 Lord" but out of no true heart. Elsewhere Augus- 
 tine uses the same deep distinction, for the purpose 
 of delivering our Saviour's declaration, " Whosoever 
 speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be for- 
 given him" (Matt. xii. 32), from shallow and yet mis- 
 chievous interpretations, ^ as though they could mean 
 any mere words whatsoever, — even such as a man in 
 the wildest and guiltiest moments of his blasphemy 
 may have spoken ; as though they could mean aught 
 short of the entire and final alienation of the heart and 
 will and life from every thing divine, the contradic- 
 tion of the whole man to all of God's which testifies 
 of grace and mercy and truth and holiness ; a sin 
 which therefore, in its very nature, has excluded its 
 own forgiveness. - 
 
 Will these who say, " Have we not prophesied m 
 thy Name, and in thy Name have cast out devils?" 
 be in this speaking truly, or will this be yet another 
 untruth added to all that have gone before in their 
 
 ■ Exp. Ep. ad Rom. Verbum enim dicere non ita videtur hie 
 positum, ut tanturamodo illud intelligatur quod per linguam fabri- 
 camus, sed quod corde conceptum etiam opere exprimimus. Thus 
 on the parallel, Rom. x. 10, " With the mouth confession is made 
 unto salvation," he observes (In Evang. Joh. Tract. 26), De radice 
 cordis surgit ista confessio. Aliquando audis confitentem, et nescis 
 credentem. Sed nee debes vocare confitentem, quem judicas non 
 credentem ... Si aliud in corde habes, aliud dicis ; loqueris, non con- 
 fiteris. Here, it will be noted, he makes " confess" to be the pregnant 
 word. 
 
 * Exp. Ep. ad Rom. Qui hoc verbum, quod sine venia vult in- 
 telligi Dominus, in Spiritum Sanctum dicit, hoc est, qui desperans 
 de gratia et pace quam donat, in peccatis suls perseverandum sibi 
 esse dicit, dicere intelligendus in factis. 
 
VER. 21, 22.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 155 
 
 lives ? Some, Augustine replies, might understand it 
 in the latter sense, that in this also they are liars ; 
 some might be so tempted to understand the passage, 
 finding a difficulty in attributing the actual perform- 
 ance of miracles or wonderful works to ungodly men, 
 to any who should finally hear that " Depart from 
 me" from the lips of the Saviour. But to dissolve 
 this objection, he refers to the case of the Egyptian 
 magicians, to those of Saul^ and of Balaam, and to 
 the Lord's own words concerning the false prophets 
 of the latter days. 2 (Matt, xxiv, 24.) All these were 
 really partakers of a divine power, though they used 
 it for their own harm. And suggested by this and 
 like passages, he has in many places instructive words 
 and warnings on the nothingness of all gifts, even up 
 to the greatest gift of working all miracles, if there 
 be not charity. These all are no proofs of holiness, 
 without which holiness we cannot enter into life ; while 
 without them we may well have a place in the king- 
 dom. Not their peculiar gift, not that the devils were 
 subject to them, was the true matter of rejoicing for 
 the Apostles ; but rather, as their Lord reminded them, 
 that which they had in common with all was that in 
 which they were truly to exult, namely, that their 
 names were written in heaven.' And he has many 
 
 ' Enarr. in Ps. ciii. 3. 
 
 ' Ad Simplicianum, 1. ii. qu. i. Non enim eos mentientes putamus 
 ista dlcturos in illo judicio, ubi nullus erit fallendi locus, aut ullam 
 vocem talium legimus, dicentium, Dileximus te. Cf. Serm. cxxxviii. 
 c. 3, 
 
 ' Enarr. in Ps. cxxx. 1. Non omnes Christiani boni daemones 
 ejiciunt, omnium tamen nomina scripta sunt in coelo. Non eos 
 voluit gaudere ex eo quod proprium habebant, sed ex eo quod cum 
 caBteris salutem tenebant. Cf. Serm. cxliii. c. 7. 
 
156 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 warnings drawn from the declaration here,i against 
 wishing to be signalized in the Church for gifts, which 
 always bring with them the danger of puffing up the 
 possessor, rather than for graces, which will keep him 
 humble. Better, in this mystical body, to be a little 
 finger which is sound, than an eye which is bleared 
 and winking ; 2 though one be a member of so little 
 esteem, the other the noblest of the body. It was woe 
 to Simon Magus when he Avished to do the woi'ks 
 which the Apostles did, but did not at the same time 
 wish to be the man which the Apostles were.^ 
 
 Ver. 23. — The Lord's answer, " I never knew i/ou," 
 is here to be accepted according to that deeper mean- 
 ing of knowing, which, as Augustine truly brings out, 
 includes also loving,— a knowing which, in its essence, 
 is reciprocal : he only is known who also knows ; so 
 that he has all right when he affirms, " I never knew 
 you," is but another way of saying, Ye knew me never. 
 Not to be knownof the Judge is never to have known 
 him, and is therefore itself the condemnation. * And 
 hereupon follows that terrible " Depart from me,'"' 
 that everlasting separation from the presence of God,* 
 
 ' Enarr. in Ps. ciii. 3. Videant qualem rationem habituri sunt 
 cum Deo qui Sanctis non sancte utuntur. 
 
 ' Enarr. in Ps. cxxx. 1. Tutior est enim in corpore digitus sanus, 
 
 quam lippiens oculus Non ergo quserat quisque in corpora 
 
 Christi nisi sanitatem. 
 
 ^ Enarr. in Ps. cxxx. 1. Volult talia facere, non talis esse. 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. cxli. 4. Non novi vos. Non inde gaudeant et 
 dicant, Non puniemur, quia non novit nos Judex. Jam puniti sunt, 
 si eos non novit Judex. 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. xlix. 3. Si enim possemus facere, fratres, ut dies 
 
VER. 23.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 157 
 
 wherein every thing that is fearful is contained. And 
 he often brings out that the terribleness of that " De- 
 part from me" presents itself unto men under very- 
 different aspects, as they are or are not the true ser- 
 vants and children of God. For the faithful man, for 
 him who has been saying, " One thing have I desired 
 of the Lord, .... to behold the beauty of the Lord, 
 and to inquire in his temple," it is terrible for this, 
 even that it is exclusion from the face of the Beloved; 
 therefore he is not of the " workers of iniquity" lest 
 he should thus lose the light of God's countenance. ^ 
 But for the ungodly these words are terrible, not for 
 this exclusion, but only for the after pains and penal- 
 ties which they involve : and if hindered from sinning, 
 it is not the fear of displeasing that Lord, and being 
 bidden to depart from him, that hinders these ; on the 
 contrary, if they could ensure to themselves an eternal 
 impunity of sinning, they would choose to sin on for 
 ever. Not the fear of this loss of his favour, this sepa- 
 ration from his presence, but the dread of what in his 
 
 judicii non veniret, puto quia nee sic erat male vivendura. Si non 
 veniret ignis die judicii, et sola peccatoribus immineret separatio a 
 facie Dei, in qualibet essent affluentia delieiarum, non videntes a 
 quo creati sunt, et separati ab ilia dulcedine ineffabilis vultus ejus, 
 in qualibet aeternitate et impunitate peccati, plangere se deberent. 
 Sed quid loquar, aut quibus loquar? Haec amantibus poena est, non 
 contemnentibus. Qui dulcedinem sapientiae et veritatis utcunque 
 sentire c«Eperunt, noverunt quod dico, quanta poena sit tantummodo 
 a facie Dei separari : qui autem illam dulcedinem non gustaverunt, 
 si nondum desiderant Dei faciem, tlmeant vel ignem, supplicia ter- 
 reant, quem prsmia non invitant. Cf. Enarr. 2*. in Ps. xxvi. 9. 
 
 ' Gratis amans, non puniri timens ab eo quem trerait, sed separari 
 ab eo quem diligit. 
 
158 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 anger he could do to them, restrains them.i And he 
 often presses each man to judge of himself and of his 
 state, whether he be a lover of God or only a fearer 
 of hell, by asking himself, what is the truly terrible 
 which this " Depart from me" seems to contain for 
 him. 
 
 Ver. 24 — 29. — There is a solemn awfulness in this 
 conclusion, which Augustine bids us specially to note ; 
 and he observes how neither by the one or other of 
 these parties, not by those who are swept away any 
 more than by those who stand, can the open despisers 
 of the truth be signified.^ For in each case there is a 
 willingness to hear the word, a certain good will there- 
 fore towards the truth. But the only way whereby 
 that which is heard wins a stable foundation in the 
 soul, is through its being turned into action ; " Who- 
 
 ' He has a beautiful passage, in 1 Ep. Joh. Tract. 9, on the 
 subject, where he likens souls in these two conditions to two wives; 
 the one purely loving her absent husband, the other adulteress in 
 will, though not daring to be also in deed ; each fearing her husband. 
 £t quomodo discernuntur duo ista tiraores ? Timet ilia, timet et ilia 
 .... Jam ergo interrogentur, Quare 1 Ilia dicit, Timeo virum, ne 
 veniat : ilia dicit, Timeo virum, ne discedat. Ilia dicit, Timeo ne 
 damner : ilia dicit, Timeo, ne deserar. Yet the servile fear has its 
 subordinate value ; it may be keeping a place and making room for 
 the holy fear, though the latter cannot enter till the first go out ; to 
 use his own illustration, Sicut videmus per setam introduci linum, 
 quando aliquid suitur, seta prius intrat, sed nisi exeat, non succedit 
 linum. 
 
 * Ep. 127, c. 7. Dominus enim Jesus non ab iis qui non audiunt, 
 sed eos inter se auditores verborum suorum, latissimo limite non tenui 
 distinctione discrevit. 
 
VER. 24 — 29.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 159 
 
 soever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, 
 I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house 
 upon a rock." Christ, as in so many other places of 
 Scripture, is himself to be understood by the rock, — 
 that man builds on the rock, who does the things 
 which he hears and learns of Christ. He distin- 
 guishes, but not in a way calling for especial note, 
 three forms of trial and temptation, as set forth under 
 " the winds," " the rain" and " the floods ; " and in 
 one place asks. If it be thus to have built insecurely, 
 what will it be not to have built at all? Some indeed 
 might say, if such is the doom of the building inse- 
 curely, it were better not to build at all. But will it 
 be any better doom to be swept away naked than to, 
 be swept away among the ruins of thy fallen house? ^ 
 That were not to hear at all, to have built nothing ; 
 this is to hear and not do, to have built weakly. It 
 remains as the one wise thing, — to hear, and what we 
 hear to do ; being doers of the word, and not hearers 
 only, deceiving our own selves. (Jam. i. 22.) 
 
 ' Serm. clxxix. Venit pluvia, veniunt flumina. Nunquid ideo 
 tutus, quia raperis nudus. Enarr. in Ps. cli. 21. Audire et non 
 facere, ia arena sedificare est ; audire et facere, in petra jedificare 
 est ; nee audire, nee facere nihil agdificare est. Si in arena ae.dificas, 
 ruinam sedificas : si nihil aedificas, expositus pluviis, fluminibus, 
 ventis, ante rapieris quara steteris. Ergo non est cessandum, sed 
 aadificandum ; nee sic aedificandum, ut ruina aedificetur; sed in petra 
 ffidificandum, ut tentatio non evertat. 
 
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