tihvary of ^he t:beolo0ical ^tminavy 
 
 PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 Rev. Charles Hodge 
 
EXPOSITION 
 
 OF THE ^'"'^^ilHrckl its' 
 
 SERMON ON THE MOUNT, 
 
 DRAWN FROM THE 
 
 WRITINGS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, 
 
 WITH OBSERVATIONS, 
 
 AND AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON HIS MERITS AS AN 
 INTERPRETER OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 BY 
 
 EICHAED CHENEVIX TEENCH, B.D. 
 
 VICAR OF ITCHENSTOKE, HANTS; 
 AND EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD BISHOP OP OXFORD. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, REVISED S( IMPROVED. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. 
 
 MDCCCLI. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THIS volume is not, as a glance at any page 
 will show, a translation of St. Augustine's 
 Commentary on the Serm^on on the Mount, ^ but 
 m attempt to draw from the circle of his writings, 
 ^that one of course included,) what of most im- 
 portant he has contributed for the elucidation, or 
 for 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 and justly recognized among the very chiefest 
 
 * In the Benedictine Edition, torn. iii. pars 2^ pp. 162 — 236. 
 
"Vl PEEFACE. 
 
 of her teachers. A friend, to whom the manu- 
 script, when nearly prepared for press, was shown, 
 — and whose counsel and judgment that I am able 
 at all times to profit by, is one of the chief hap- 
 pinesses of my life, — 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 whicl^' 
 is now finding favour among us, of presenting iii 
 the mass, unsifted and untried, the old exposition^ 
 of Scripture, often placing side by side explana-r 
 tions which, in their minor details at least, excludds, 
 one another, and this with no attempt to judge or ' 
 discriminate between them, — no endeavour to sepa- 
 rate the accident of one age, the superfluous, i^ 
 may be the injurious, excrescence 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. Moreover, when we , 
 confine ourselves merely to giving back the old, , 
 and this with well nigh a suspension of all judg- 
 ment 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 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 forms in which it will best meet our present needs, 
 exists no longer ; that henceforth the Scripture shall 
 be for us a cistern, clear it may be, and full, but 
 no longer a spring of water springing up as freshly 
 and newly for our lips, as for the lips of any gene- 
 ration which has gone before: — and as her pro- 
 ductive, 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 seems 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 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 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 
 descend, as by inevitable progress they must 
 descend, to the more careless many. Some lan- 
 guage 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 doc- 
 trines 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 that they would them- 
 selves disclaim it now. Before the false teaching 
 of Eutyches had compelled her clearly to repre- 
 sent 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 oningled with 
 man; but who, that meant right, would have used 
 this language after? Before the order of our jus- 
 tification had been brought out with that distinct- 
 ness, in which a doctrine only can be brought out 
 through an earnest contending 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.'' In such language we 
 recognize a loss, as in all lack of distinctness there 
 is such, but not a denial upon their parts who used 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 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 
 to ourselves, — ^that we, too, have our mistaken ten- 
 dencies, our superstitions, our faulty statements 
 of the truth, which we are handing down to the 
 Church of a later age, for it slowly to discern, pain- 
 fully 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 
 themselves, 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, however slight, I would not willingly leave 
 b 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 exposed to this charge 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. Augus- 
 tine. All added acquaintance with these more 
 and more has explained to me the mighty influ- 
 ence, the wondrous spell which he has exerted 
 over so many among the strongest spirits of all 
 ages, — ^the great purposes which God in his pro- 
 vidence 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 occu- 
 pied for more than the first three centuries of her 
 existence. But in Augustine the theology 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- 
 
PREFACE. Xi 
 
 ledge of God which is all, but with this the sub- 
 jective knowledge of God's image in man, that 
 image defaced, and that image restored; it is 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 significance of 
 every man comes out, and the free modem western 
 world begins, — the germs of it at least are securely 
 laid. And believing this, one cannot sufficiently 
 admire the manner in which St. Augustine's ap- 
 pearance was timed ; for it was the last moment, at 
 which living he could have shared the fulness of 
 the culture of the ancient world; for thence- 
 forward that whole world was daily becoming 
 more incoherent, and ever falling more rapidly 
 into ruins. 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. 
 
 52 
 
Xii PREFACE. 
 
 How much he did form it, how he ruled the 
 middle ages, either in his own name, or by mould- 
 ing the men who in their turn ruled their genera- 
 tion, is known to every student of Church History. 
 Nor is it hard to understand how this should have 
 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 deshe 
 ever, where it was possible, to justify to the reason 
 what had first been received by faith, with a con- 
 fidence 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 
 
 * 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 S. 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 contem- 
 poraries of alter Augustinus, lingua Augustini. 
 
PREFACE. Xm 
 
 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. 
 On the contrary, that work for which we owe him 
 the greatest thanks was yet to be accomplished. 
 The Reformers felt and found that he more than 
 any other was their Doctor. The issue of their 
 later controversy 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, for it was only the same ques- 
 tion at a later stage of its development, the neces- 
 sary 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 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 regards 
 scientific or popular exposition, the laws of inter- 
 pretation, or the practical application of those 
 laws, are probably greater than to any single In- 
 terpreter of God's Word. 
 
 But because we owe to St. Augustine a debt of 
 gratitude so large, shall we also count ourselves 
 bound to say that, in his practical application of 
 his principles, he is always true to his own laws? 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 or that he had himself the same external helps at 
 command as an Origen or a Jerome ? or that his 
 Latin version or his Septuagint has not sometimes 
 led him astray? or that his exposition is not occa- 
 sionally warped by, and submitted to the influence 
 of, his dogmatic system? or that his allegories and 
 mystical numbers are worthy in each case to stand 
 unquestioned, and may now be profitably repro- 
 duced to edify us? To demand this were to demand 
 for him that which he would not have demanded 
 for himself; that which can be refused without 
 abating one jot of true and genuine reverence and 
 honour, the more valuable because rendered not 
 blindly, but with discrimination and with know- 
 ledge. 
 
 I will add a few words more upon the plan on 
 which this book has been composed. It resembles, 
 to compare a very 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 his reader. He implied 
 not, in so doing, that Augustine's own works wanted 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 the highest order and method ; or that they were 
 only as a rough quarry, from which others should 
 dig and build. But the very circumstances of their 
 production necessarily caused that which bears on 
 any single matter to be scattered up and down in 
 divers treatises, and that matter only to be fully 
 handled when these separated portions are united 
 and brought together. For a great part of his 
 polemical works will only be contemplated from a 
 right point of ■\dew, when we regard them as occa- 
 sional 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, discovering the ulti- 
 mate results to which it would lead. This is the 
 especial value of his writings in more than one 
 great conflict wherein he is the standard-bearer of 
 the Church, that the}'' are not one great work, 
 reviewing calmly and in part with a literary in- 
 terest 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 
 
PREFACE. XVll 
 
 mth which the Bishop of Ypres so disturbed from 
 his grave the Vatican, and all who wished to recon- 
 cile a professed veneration for the great Doctor of 
 the West, with a real departure from the truths 
 which he lived to maintain ; — one of the hardest 
 tasks which the Church of Rome has found im- 
 posed upon her ; one which greatly perplexed her 
 at Trent, which put her to her shiftiest world- 
 wisdom then as since, and the difficulties of which 
 were by this book 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 him- 
 self, the practical needs of those for whom he wrote 
 or spake, making it often needful that he should 
 go over the same ground again and again ; though 
 indeed his resources are such that 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 he differently explained 
 in his earlier and in 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 
 
XVlll PREFACE. 
 
 what lie has contributed for the elucidation of that 
 portion of Scripture. For example, he dismisses 
 the words, " For they shall see God," in two or three 
 lines, while yet this vision of God in other places 
 occupied 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 controversial 
 Tracts, that what he has most precious as bearing 
 on this discourse is to be found, — from these it 
 must be gathered together. It has been my aim 
 to concentrate these scattered rays. 
 
 I cannot indeed hope that I have brought to bear 
 all or nearly all in his writings which helps the in- 
 terpretation 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 scantness, but 
 
PREFACE. XIX 
 
 by the abundance of my materials; perplexed bow 
 to work them up, — ^how, without exceeding the 
 limits which I 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 to yield much additional information to 
 any who should be willing to undertake this labour. 
 Here too another observation may be necessary. 
 It is well known that the Benedictine Editors of 
 Augustine on very slight evidence, or often indeed 
 on no evidence at all save their own inward con- 
 viction, have dismissed numerous 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 Csesarius, or some one else.* There 
 should be phrases of a more debased Latin, allusion 
 
 * Caesar ii stylum et men tern refert. 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 to Churcli rites and customs whicli grew not into 
 use till a later period, inaccuracies in dogmatic 
 statements, thoughts altogether unworthy of a 
 great teacher. Such in many of these sermons 
 there are, entirely justifying what they have done ; 
 but in others these marks are altogether wanting : 
 and without the presence of any such they relegate, 
 apparently at their caprice, a sermon to the Ap- 
 pendix. 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 writings which 
 the Benedictine Editors have adjudged as spurious. 
 Of course those I 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,* and this 
 because in it there is a running into the opposite 
 extreme. Doubtless several genuine discourses of 
 his, valuable additions to those which we already 
 possessed, are here published for the first time ; but 
 very much also, altogether unworthy of him, is 
 boldly put forth under his name. There is not 
 apparently much in these discourses which would 
 
 * Sancti Aurelii Augustijii Sermones inediti, curd et studio D. 
 B. Caillau. Parisiis. 1842. 
 
PREFACE. XXI 
 
 directly bear upon the subject whicb I had in hand, 
 and till a decision is arrived at about them, carry- 
 ing with it more weight than any which this very 
 uncritical edition can lend, I have thought it better 
 to leave them altogether untouched. 
 
 Perhaps a still more difficult task than to know 
 where to stay one's hand in actual quotation, was 
 to leave unnoticed the innumerable 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 loss like his who undertakes to paint a 
 picture with a single colour, and whose work is in 
 danger of lacking livehness and variety, yet one 
 amply counterbalanced by the advantage of con- 
 tinuing true to the scheme of one's book ; and that 
 scheme in the present instance was not to bring 
 together all that I could for the elucidation of this 
 all-important discourse, but rather whatever Augus- 
 tine had contributed for that elucidation, thus 
 seeking to give the reader an idea of him as a 
 practical interpreter of Scripture, which idea would 
 
XXll PREFACE. 
 
 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 
 correctly, but apparently on no sufficient grounds. There is a Com- 
 mentary on St. Luke, collected by Jacobus a Logenhagen, Antverp., 
 1574 ; also, from an anonymous author, Jugustinus in Fetus et 
 Novum Testamentum, Basilese, 1542. This seemed to me carelessly 
 and negligently done: the obvious passages which one might lay 
 hands 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 Communes 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. Bartholomseo de ITrbino, Lugdunum, 
 1555, alphabetically arranged under several heads. Another com- 
 monplace book of his most notable sayings, by Johannes Piscatorius 
 Lithopolitanus, Augustse Vindelicorum, 1537, has not an alphabetical 
 but a dogmatic arrangement. And of more importance than either 
 of these, Reiser, S. Augustlnus Veritatis Evangelico-Catholicce Testis 
 et Confessor, Francof., 1678, in which the chief passages of his 
 writings are brought together, in which he witnesses for the Reformed 
 as against the Romish theology. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE SECOND EDITIOK 
 
 The most important matter in which this second 
 edition differs from the first is in the addition of 
 the preliminary Essay, which, with the exception 
 of two or three paragraphs, is altogether new. 
 
 Itchenstoke, March 26, 1851, 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 TT is not my intention to offer in this present essay any 
 -^ estimate of the worth of St. Augustine's theology, 
 regarded as a whole, but so far as possible to confine 
 myself to the subject indicated by its title, and to consider 
 him in a single light, that is, as an interpreter of Holy 
 Scripture. An essay undertaking this, if it were not closely 
 watched in its growth, might easily, and almost unawares, 
 pass into that, and thus become quite another thing from 
 that which it was intended to be : yet it does not appear 
 to me that an attempt to trace his leading characteristics 
 as an expositor, to estimate his accomplishments, moral 
 and mental, for being a successful one, to set forth the 
 rules and principles of exposition which he either expressly 
 laid down or habitually acted on, and to give a few speci- 
 mens of his actual manner of intei-pretation, (which is all 
 I propose to myself here,) need involve the logical neces- 
 sity of going on to consider his whole scheme of theology. 
 Between so great and arduous a work as that, and the 
 comparatively humbler, and certainly more limited task 
 which I have undertaken here, a line of distinction may 
 very justly be drawn, and if due watchfulness is exercised, 
 may without any great difficulty be observed. 
 
 B 
 
2 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. I. 
 
 In considering the merits of a theologian and interpreter 
 of God's Holy Word, we naturally inquire first, what 
 were his moral qualifications for the work which he under- 
 took ; for if goodness be so essential even to the orator, 
 that one of old defined him as Vir ionuSy dicendi peritus, 
 and few I think will quarrel with that bonus, or count it 
 superfluous in the definition, how much more essentially 
 must it belong, and in its highest form of love towards 
 God and to all which truly witnesses of God, to the great 
 theologian. That old maxim. Pectus facit tJieologum, will 
 always continue true, and, other things being equal or 
 nearly equal, he will best explain Scripture, who most loves 
 Scripture. We may therefore very fairly open this subject 
 by gathering from Augustine's own lips a few testimonies 
 of the love with which he regarded it, and the labour 
 which he counted well bestowed upon its study : for herein 
 lay the pledge and promise that it should yield up to 
 him the hid treasures which it contained. And certainly 
 no one came to the study of Scripture with a more entire 
 confidence that in it were laid up all treasures of wisdom 
 and knowledge, that in the investigation of it truer joys 
 were to be found than anywhere besides.* Perhaps in 
 no Christian writer of any age do we meet more, or more 
 varied, expressions of a raptui'ous delight in the Word 
 of God ; no one laid himself down in its green pastures 
 with a deeper and a fuller joy ; no one more entirely felt 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. xxx\dii. 1. 
 
CHAP. T.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 3 
 
 that he might evermore draw water from these " wells of 
 salvation" without fear of di-awing them dry.* 
 
 Availing himself here of liis own experience, he loved to 
 compare the Scriptures of truth not merely with the 
 Manichsean falsehoods and figments, the "husks," with 
 which he had once sought to fill himself, but even with 
 the noblest and loftiest productions of the uninspired 
 intellect of man. Thus in many places, and especially 
 in an eloquent and afi'ecting passage in his Confessions, he 
 compares Scripture with the books which he had studied 
 in the time of his addiction to the pliilosophy of Plato, 
 and tells us what he finds in it, which he did not find in 
 them.f And as he had proved in his own case that love, 
 and love only, had " the key of knowledge," so he con- 
 
 * Ep. 1.37. c. 1 : Tanta est enim Christianaruin profunditas litte- 
 rarum, at in eis quotidie proficerem, si eas solas ab iueunte pueritia 
 usque ad decrepitam senectutem maximo otio, summo studio, meliore 
 ingenio conarer addiscere : non quod ad ea quae necessaria sunt saluti, 
 tanta in eis perveniatur difficultate: sed cum quisque ibi fidera 
 tenuerit, sine qua pie recteque non vivitur, tarn multa, tamque mul- 
 tiplicibus mysteriorum umbraculis opacata, intelligeuda proficientibus 
 restant, tantaque non solum in verbis quibus ista dicta sunt, verura 
 etiam in rebus quse intelligeuda^ sunt, latet altitudo sapientite, ut 
 annosissimis, acutissimis, flagrantissimis cupiditate discendi hoc con- 
 tingat, quod eadem Scriptura quodam loco habet, Cum consummaverit 
 homo, tunc incipit. 
 
 t Conf. 1. 7. c. 20, 21 : He concludes : Hoc illse litterse non habent. 
 Non habent illse paginse vultum pietatis hujus, lacrymas confessionis, 
 sacrificium tuum, spiritum contribulatum, cor contritum et humilia- 
 tum, populi salutem, sponsam, civitatem, arrham Spiritus Sancti, 
 poculum pretii nostri : nemo ibi cantat: Nonae Deo subdita erit 
 anima mea ? nemo ibi audit vocantem : Venite ad me, qui laboratis. 
 B 2 
 
4 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. T. 
 
 tinually pressed this same truth upon all others. For 
 indeed this was a fundamental principle with him, that 
 Scripture to be rightly understood must be contemplated 
 from within and not from without ; so that in more than 
 one place he has excellent remarks, of which the applica- 
 tion has not now passed away, on the absurdity of taking 
 the account of it — and not of it alone, but of any book 
 which had won a place in the world — not from its friends 
 and admirers, but from its professed foes, from them who 
 start with declaring their hostility to it, or their indiffer- 
 ence about it.* 
 
 An especial glory which Holy Scripture had in his eyes 
 was this, that it was not a book for the few learned, but 
 quite as much for the many simple. He delighted to trace 
 in its construction all which marked it out as such, which, 
 in regard of it as of so many other arrangements of God's 
 
 * Be TJtil. Cred. c. 6 : Nihil est profecto temeritatis plenius, 
 quam quorumque librorum expositores deserere, qui eos se tenere ac 
 discipulis tradere posse profitentur, et coram sententiam requirere ab 
 his qui couditoribus illorum atque auctoribus acerbissimum, nescio 
 qua cogente caussa, bellum indixerunt. Quis enim sibi unquam 
 libros Aristotelis reconditos et obscuros ab ejus inimico expoueudos 
 putavit? ut de his loquar disciplinis, in quibus lector fortasse sine 
 sacrilegio labi potest, Q,uis denique geometricas litteras Archimedis 
 legere, magistro Epicuro, aut discere voluit ? contra quas ille multum 
 pertinaciter, nihil earum, quantum arbitror, intelligens, disserebat. 
 And again, Be 3Ior. Eccles. c. 1 : Quis enim mediocriter sanus non 
 facile intelligat, Scripturarum expositionem ab iis petendam esse, qui 
 earum doctores se esse profitentur; fierique' posse, immo id semper 
 accidere, ut multa indoctis videantur absurda, quse cum a doctioribus 
 exponuntur, eo laudanda videantur, et eo accipiantur aperta dulcius, 
 quo clausa diflficilius aperiebantm' ? 
 
CHAP. I.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 5 
 
 providence and grace, set a seal to tliat word of the 
 Psalmist : " Thou, God, hast of thy goodness prepared 
 for the poor ;" (Ps. Lxviii. 10 ;) and in this respect to trace 
 the glorious prerogative which at once difterenced this 
 Book from, and exalted it above, all other books, even the 
 greatest to which man's wisdom had given birth. These 
 last oftentimes repelled all but a few ; while this Book of 
 a wisdom far exceeding theirs, invited, welcomed, spread 
 a table for all.* 
 
 Nor did the manifold difficulties and obscurities in 
 the Bible in the least deprive it in his sight of this its 
 
 * Thus making spiritual apphcation of the words, " All beasts of 
 the field driuk thereof," (Ps. civ. 11,) to the streams of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, as those from which all may thus quench their thirst, he 
 exclaims {Enarr. in Fs. ciii) : Non dicit aqua, Lepori sufficio et 
 repeUit onagrum ; neque hoc dicit. Onager accedat, le])us si acces- 
 serit, rapietur. Tam fidehter et temperate fluit, ut sic onagrum 
 satiet ne leporem terreat. Sonat strepitus vocis Tullianse, Cicero 
 legitur, ahquis liber est, dialogus ejus est, sive ipsius, sive Platonis, 
 seu cujuscumque talium; audiunt imperiti, infii-mi minoris cordis, 
 quis audet illuc aspirare? Strepitus aquse, et forte turbata, certe 
 tamen tam rapaciter fluentis, ut animal timidum non audeat accedere 
 et bibere. Cui sonuit. In principio fecit Deus coelum et terram, 
 et non ausus est bibere ? Cui sonat Psalmus, et dicat, Multum est 
 ad me? Augustine's comparison here may remind us of the 
 beautiful, but now somewhat overworn image, of Scripture as a river 
 with depths where the elephant may swim, and shallows which the 
 lamb may ford ; an image belonging, I believe, originally to Gregory 
 the Great. At least I have never met with it eaiiierthan in the 
 prefatory epistle to his Commentary on Job : Divinus etenim sermo 
 sicut mysteriis prudentes exercet, sic plerumque superficie simplices 
 refovet. . . . Quasi quidam quippe est fluvius, ut ita dixcrim, planus 
 et altus, in quo et agnus ambulet, et elephas natet. 
 
6 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. I. 
 
 distinctive glory and character.* Por in the first place, 
 as he is strong to urge, there was nothing hard in one 
 passage of Scripture, but, if it nearly concerned the salva- 
 tion of men, the same was set down more plainly in 
 another ;t or if not so, then it was assuredly something of 
 which simple men, those to whom the gift of an especial 
 insight into mysteries was not granted, might safely re- 
 main ignorant; while these obscurer and more difficult 
 passages, which only after often knocking yielded up their 
 meaning, or, it may be, would not yield it up at all, 
 served many important moral purposes, and could not 
 have been absent from a Book intended to serve such ends 
 
 * Ep. 137. c. 5 {ad Volus.) : Modus autem ipse dicendi quo sancta 
 Scriptura contexitur, quam omnibus accessibilis, quatnvis paucissimis 
 penetrabilis. Ea quse aperta continet, quasi amicus familiaris, sine 
 fuco ad cor loquitur indoctorum atque doctorum. Ea vero quae in 
 mysteriis occultat, nee ipsa eloquio superbo erigit, quo non audeat 
 accedere mens tardiuscula et inerudita, quasi pauper ad divitem ; sed 
 invitat omnes humili sermone, quos non solum manifesto pascat, sed 
 etiam secreta exerceat veritate, hoc in promtis quod in reconditis 
 habens. Sed ne aperta fastidirentur, eadem rursus operta deside- 
 rantur, desiderata quodam modo renovantur, renovata suaviter inti- 
 mantur. His salubriter et prava corriguntur, et parva nutriuntur, et 
 magna oblectantur ingenia. 
 
 t Be Loctr. Christ. 1. 2. c. 14 : In iis qufe aperte in Scripturis 
 posita sunt, inveniuntur omnia quse continent fidem, moresque vivendi, 
 spem scilicet atque caritatem. Conf. 1. 6. c. 5 : Excipiens omnes 
 populari sinu. The Reformers, who afl^med the peispiciiitas Scrip- 
 tuTEe against the Romish exaggerations of its extreme obscurity, had, 
 and were forward to urge that they had, Augustine on their side. 
 (See Reiser, Augustimis Veritatis Evangelico-Catholicce Testis et 
 Confessor, Frankfort, 1678, pp. 37—41. 
 
CHAP. I.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 7 
 
 as those for which this Book was given. By them it was 
 proved and seen who were worthy to have mysteries re- 
 vealed to them, and who not ; who were content patiently 
 and humbly to wait at the doors of the Eternal Wisdom, 
 and even when these w^ere not opened to them at their 
 first knocking, to tarry there ; to believe that all was well 
 said, was best said, when to their limited faculties it might 
 seem contradictory and confused.* It was seen, on the 
 other hand, w^ho were ready to go away in a rage ; having 
 come to Scripture with no due preparations for under- 
 standing it, to assume there was no meaning in that of 
 which they could not grasp the meaning at the firstf — no 
 
 * As in one place he says : Latere te sequitas potest ; esse ibi 
 iniquitas non potest. 
 
 t For himself, there are not a few passages concerning which he 
 is content to avow his own continued ignorance, or at least that he 
 has nothing certain to propose for their interpretation. Nay, in 
 respect of Scripture in general, he exclaims, certainly with no mock 
 modesty, but in entire sincerity {Ep. 95) : Q,uid ipsa divina eloquia, 
 nonne palpantur potius quam tractantur a nobis, dum in multis 
 pluribus quserimus potius quid sentiendum sit, quam definitum aliquid 
 fixumque sentimus ? In respect of all these he lays down that golden 
 rule {De Gen. ad Litt. 1. 8. c. 5) : Melius est dubitare de rebus 
 occultis, quam litigare de incertis. Among the passages of which he 
 thus confesses his ignorance is 2 Thess. ii. 7, who is meant by 6 
 Karkxi^v, {Be Civ. Dei, 1. 20. c. 19. §. 2;) so too in regard of 
 1 Pet. iii. 18 ; see his interesting letter on this hard question of the 
 preaching to the spirits in prison, Up. 164, ad Euod. Thus too on 
 the question of the origin of souls, and whether they be ex traduce, 
 or each one a new creation, though he must greatly have inclined to 
 the former of these opinions as a strong confirmation of his dogmatic 
 system, still, weighing the difficulty of the question, and acknow- 
 ledging the silence in which Scripture has left it, he declares that he 
 
8 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. I. 
 
 righteousness in that dealing, the righteousness of which 
 they could not at once comprehend ; forward to accuse it 
 of absurdity or immorality, rather than themselves of a 
 dullness of mental, or, which was more probably the case, 
 of spiritual vision.* No one, indeed, oftener or more 
 earnestly urges humility as the one condition of so knock- 
 ing at the door of divine mysteries, that it may be opened 
 to us. He had himself known, as he is forward to con- 
 fess, what it was to knock in quite another spirit, in a 
 temper in which it was inevitable that he should knock in 
 vain.f 
 
 has come to no certain determination, observing {Ep. 190, c. 5) : 
 Ubi res naturaliter obscura nostrum modalum vincit, et aperta 
 Divina Scriptura non subvenit, temere bine aliquid definire bumana 
 conjectura preesumit. He satisfies bimself witb tbe consideration 
 tbat after all it is not tbe birtb, but tbe 7iew birtb, of tbe soul, wbich 
 mainly concerns tbe Cbi'istian, making tbese beautiful remarks {Ep. 
 190. §. Z, ad Optat) : Unde si origo animse lateat, dum tamen 
 redemptio clareat, periculum non est. Neque enim in Cbristum cre- 
 dimus, ut nascamur, sed ut renascamur. See bis Letter to Jerome 
 {JEp. 166) on tbe same subject. 
 
 * De JJtil. Cred. c. 7. : NuUa imbutus disciplina Terentianum 
 Maurum sine magistro attingere non auderes ; Asper, Cornutus, Do- 
 natus et aHi innumerabiles requiruntur, ut quilibet poeta possit intel- 
 Hgi, cujus carmina et tbeatri plausus videntur captare : tu in eos libros, 
 qui, quoquo modo se babeant, sancti tamen divinarumque rerum 
 pleni, prope totius generis bumani confessione ditfamantur, sine duce 
 irruis, et de bis sine prseceptore audes ferre sententiam ; nee si tibi 
 aliqua occurrunt quae videautur absm'da, tarditatem tuam et putre- 
 factum tabe bujus mundi animum, qualis omnium stultorum est, 
 accusas potius, quam eos qui fortasse a talibus. intelHgi nequeunt. Cf. 
 In Joh. Tract. 20 : Perversa corda pertm-bat, sicut pia corda exercet 
 Verbum Dei. 
 
 t Thus Conf. 1. 3. c. 5 : Institui animum intendere in Scripturas 
 
CHAP. I.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 9 
 
 But beside being these exercises of liumility, or sup- 
 plying tliis touchstone of its absence, these difficulties and 
 obscuiities were fiu'ther profitable in that they hindered 
 men from growing weary of Scriptm-e, as though it was a 
 book which they had entii'ely mastered, of which they had 
 taken the length and breadth and height and depth, so 
 that it had now no fm-ther secrets to reveal to them, no 
 new pastui'es into which to lead them.* Then too there 
 was the delight of finding, which was so much the greater 
 after the labour of seeking.f And in the very claims 
 which these harder portions of God's Word made on 
 
 sanctas, ut viderem quales essent. Et ecce video rem non comper- 
 tam superbis, neque nudatam pueris ; sed incessu humilem, successu 
 excelsam et velatam mysteriis ; et non eram ego talis, ut intrare in 
 earn possem, aut inclinare cervicem ad ejus gressus. Visa est mihi 
 indigna quam Tullianae dignitati compararem. And Serm. 51. c. 5 : 
 Loquor vobis aliquando deceptus, cum primo puer ad divinas Scrip- 
 turas ante vellem afferre acumen discutiendi quam pietatem quserendi ; 
 ego ipse perversis moribus claudebam januam Domini mei; quum 
 pulsare deberem, ut aperiretur, addebam ut clauderetm-. Superbus 
 enim audebam quserere, quod nisi bumilis non potest invenire. 
 
 * Be Boctr. Christ. 1. 2. c. 6 : Magnifice igitm- et salubriter Spi- 
 ritus S. ita Scripturas sacras modificavit, ut locis apertioribus fami 
 occurreret, obscurioribus autem fastidia detergeret. 
 
 t E7Uirr.inPs. xxxviii.l : Dulcedo in ventionis, quam prsecessit labor 
 inquisitionis; and again (Co?2.i/(?W(5^ac.c. 10) : Quae propterea figuratis 
 velut amictibus obteguntm*, ut sensum pie quserentis exerceant, et ne 
 nuda ac prompta vilescant. Q,uamyis quse aliis locis aperte ac 
 manifeste dicta didicimus, cum ea ipsa de abditis eruuntm-, in nostra 
 quodam modo cognitione renovantur, et renovata dulcescunt. Nee 
 invidentur discentibus, quod his modis obscm-autur : sed commen- 
 dantur magis, ut quasi subtracta desiderentur ardentius, et invenian- 
 tur desiderata jocundius. 
 
10 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. I. 
 
 the powers and faculties of the mind, there was profit ; 
 since there is nothing that so dwarfs its powers and 
 stunts its growth as the having always to do with that 
 which is perfectly easy and at once comprehended, while, 
 on the contrary, the mind gradually expands to the size of 
 that which it has to take in.* 
 
 A portion, or rather a fruit, of this humility, is a right 
 understanding of the relations in which reason and faith 
 stand to one another; and the light in which Augus- 
 
 * Thus on the words of the Psalmist, " His eyelids try the chil- 
 dren of men," (Ps. xi. 4,) he says {Enarr. in Fs. x. 5) : Quippe 
 quibusdam Scripturarum locis obscuris tanquam clausis oculis Dei 
 exercentur [filii hominum,] ut quserant : et rursus quibusdam locis 
 manifestis, tanquam apertis oculis Dei, illuminantur, ut gaudeant, Et 
 ista in Sanctis libris crebra opertio atque adapertio tanquam palpebrse 
 sunt Dei quae interrogant, id est, quee probant filios hominum, qui 
 neque fatigantur rerum obscuritate, sed exercentur; neque inflantur 
 cognitione, sed confirmantur. Cf. Serm. 51. c. 4; and again, Enarr. 
 in Fs. cxlvi. 6 : Non inteUigis, parum intelligis, non consequeris : 
 honora Scripturam Dei, honora verbum Dei, etiam non apertum, 
 differ pietate intelligentiam. Noli protervus esse accusare aut obscn- 
 ritatem, aut quasi perversitatem Scripturse. Perversum hie 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 exercereris in pulsando; voluit, ut pulsanti aperiret. 
 Pulsando exerceberis ; exercitatus, latior efficieris ; latior factus, 
 capies quod donatur. Ergo noli indignari quod clausum est : mitis 
 esto, mansuetus esto. Noli recalcitrare adversus obscura et dicere. 
 Melius diceretur si sic diceretur. Quando enim potes tu sic dicere 
 aut judicare, quomodo dici expediat ? Sic dictum est, quomodo dici 
 debuit. Non corrigat seger medicamenta- sua, novit ea medicus 
 modificare ; ei crede, qui te curat. And again : Si nusquam 
 aperta esset Scriptura, non te pasceret; si nusquam occulta, non 
 te exerceret. 
 
CHAP. I.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 11 
 
 tine regards the submission in the Christian man of the 
 first to the last, is peculiarly interesting. We see here 
 how it came to pass that he was the Father to whom 
 schoolman and mystic alike appealed. He does demand 
 this submission; he does evermore affirm that the true 
 order is not, as proud man would have it, Know and be- 
 lieve, but rather, Believe and know :* yet at the same 
 time reason, in the very submission which it makes, does 
 honour to its own worth ; since it is by an act of its own 
 that it recognises the reasonableness of putting itself into 
 an higher school, of postponing its own exercise. Por 
 this he very much dwells on, that it is a postponing, not a 
 renouncing, of its own exercise. It is subjected indeed, but 
 " subjected in hope," in the hope that partly in this world 
 and altogether in the world to come any seeming discords 
 between its conclusions and Faith's mandates shall be re- 
 moved. This shall be the reward of faith, that what the 
 faithful man now believes, he shall by and bye entirely 
 understand. He knows that the intellectual eye of his soul 
 is now, not indeed extinguished, but diseased, and is there- 
 fore liable to see things distorted, not because they are so, 
 but because it has lost in part its healthy capacity of 
 vision. Under the treatment of the Great Physician it 
 hopes to recover perfect healthiness of vision ; which re- 
 
 * Serm. 43. c. 3 : Dicet mihi homo, Intelligam ut credam. Ego 
 ei respoudeara, Immo crede ut intelligas. Intellectus enim merces 
 est fidei. And again: Credat in Christum, ut possit intelligere 
 Christum. And in this sense he expounds the words of our Lord, 
 John vii. 17. {hi Ev. Joh. Tract. 29. §. 6.) 
 
12 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. I. 
 
 covered, it does not doubt that there will be a perfect 
 identity between what it then sees and what faith has now 
 received and believed.* Understanding, while it is not 
 the way to faith, shall yet be the reward of faith. 
 
 As was to be expected fi:om one who perceived so clearly 
 that God was not to be found out by searching, but was 
 known to them, and to them only, unto whom he was 
 pleased to reveal himself, Augustine speaks often of prayer 
 as that to which alone the shut doors of Scriptui'e mys- 
 teries would open; and in his writings there are many 
 devoutest prayers of his own, in which he turns to God as 
 to the one fountain of hght and understanding, as to the 
 One who alone can show him the hidden things which are 
 contained in his law, seeking insight and illumination from 
 Him, and desiring above all that he may neither be him- 
 self deceived thereia, nor deceive others therefrom.f 
 
 * Ep. 120. c. 1 : Ut ergo in quibusdam rebus ad doctrinam salu- 
 tarem pertinentibus quas ratione nondum percipere valeamus, sed ali- 
 quando valebimus, fides prsecedat rationem, qua cor muadetur, ut 
 magnse rationis capiat et perferat lucem, hoc utique rationis est. 
 Et ideo rationabUiter dictum est per propbetam, Nisi credideritis, non 
 inteUigetis. (Isai. vii. 9.) Ubi procul dubio discrevit haec duo, 
 deditque consilium quo prius credamus, ut id quod credimus, intel- 
 ligere valeamus. ... Si igitur rationabUe est, ut ad magna qufedam 
 quffi capi nondum possunt, fides prsecedat rationem, procul dubio 
 quantulacunque ratio quae hoc persuadet, etiam ipsa antecedit fidem. 
 
 t This is only a fragment of one of them {Conf. 11, c. 2) : Domine 
 Deus mens, circumcide ab omni temeritate omnique mendacio inte- 
 riora et exteriora labia mea. Sint castse delicise mese Scripturse 
 tuse ; nee faUar in eis, nee fallam ex eis. Domine attende, et miserere, 
 Domine Deus mens, lux csecorum et virtus infirmorum, statimque 
 
CHAP. I.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 13 
 
 lux videntium et virtus fortium, attende animam mcam, et audi 
 clamantem de profundo. Largire spatium meditationibus nostris 
 in abdita Legis tuae, ueque adversus pulsantes claudas eas. Neque 
 enim frustra scribi voluisti tot paginarum opaca secreta. — It would, 
 I think, help us a little to appreciate the extent to which Augus- 
 tine modified and moulded the thoughts and feelings, and even the 
 very expi-essions, of the most eminent Chui'ch writers who came 
 after him, if we were to compare, on subjects of moral aud theolo- 
 gical interest, some of their chiefest utterances with his; as, for 
 example, with some of these his sayings in regard of Scripture, a 
 very beautiful passage on the same subject in Gregory the Great, 
 which in every line shows the influence of his great teacher {Moral, 
 1, 20. c. i) : Quamvis omnem scientiam atque doctrinam Scriptura 
 sacra sine aliqua comparatione transcendat; ut taceam quod vera 
 prsedicat, quod ad ccelestem patriam vocat, quod a terrenis desideriis 
 ad superna amplectenda cor legentis iramutat, quod dictis obscurioribus 
 exercet fortes, et parvulis humili sermone blanditur; quod nee sic 
 clausa est, ut pavesci debeat; nee sic patet ut vilescat; quod usu 
 fastidium tollit, et tanto amplius diligitm- quanto amplius meditatur ; 
 quod legentis animum humilibus verbis adjuvat, sublimibus sensibus 
 levat : quod aliquo modo cum legentibus crescit : quod a rudibus 
 lectoribus quasi recognoscitur, ettamen doctis semper nova reperitur; 
 ut ergo de rerum pondere taceam, scientias tamen omnes atque doc- 
 trinas ipso etiam locutionis suse more transcendit, quia uno eodemque 
 sermone dum narrat textum prodit mysterium, et sic scit prseterita 
 dicere, ut eo ipso noverit futura prsedicare, et non immutato dicendi 
 ordine, eisdem ipsis sermonibus novit et anteacta describere, et 
 agenda nuntiare ; sicut haec eadem beati Jobi verba sunt, qui dum 
 sua dicit, uostra prtedicit, dumque lamenta propria per sermonem 
 indicat, sanctte Ecclesise causam per intellectum sonat. 
 
14 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. II. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 TT7HILE Augustine does not set too liigh a value on 
 * ' external helps, on the outward furniture and accom- 
 plishment of the interpreter, but recognizes to the full that 
 spii'itual things can only be spiritually discerned, that 
 only the Spirit can intei-pret what was given by the Spirit : 
 he is as far removed as can be from that enthusiasm which 
 would despise these helps, as though they could not do 
 good service in their place, as though they were not also 
 gifts of God. Nor did he sparingly or reluctantly reco- 
 gnize the value of those subsidiary aids, which he did not 
 himself possess, or which he only imperfectly possessed ; 
 but attached to them their full honour and importance. 
 In his valuable treatise Be Doctrind Christiana he images 
 forth the perfect interpreter, such as he ought to be ; and 
 gives suggestions which may help to form such, even 
 while he confesses how far ojBF he knows himself from ful- 
 filling his own ideal. Thus he urges the great advantage 
 which he may derive from recurring to the Hebrew and 
 Greek originals, and where this is not possible, from the 
 use of many translations, as checking, throwing light on, 
 and completing, one another. He will have his ideal and 
 perfect interpreter well acquainted with natural history, 
 with music, with history and chronology, with logic, and 
 
CHAP. IT.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 15 
 
 with philosophy ;* for not one of these but will come into 
 play ; some of them will be most important for the great 
 work which he has undertaken. If he has been in Egypt, 
 let him come forth from it as richly furnished with its 
 stuffs as he may, with its silver and its gold, which may 
 afterwards be worked up for the very service of the taber- 
 nacle itself, f 
 
 Here then may very fitly be considered what was the 
 actual extent of Augustine's own outward equipment for 
 
 * L. 2. c. 11 — 42; and for the sake of others who may not pos- 
 sess all this knowledge, he proposes (c. 19) that some one who does, 
 should undertake a Biblical Dictionary, such as since has often been 
 done : Ut non sit necesse Christiano in multis propter pauca labo- 
 rare, sic video posse fieri, si quem eorum qui possunt, benignam sane 
 operam fraternse utilitati delectet impeudere, ut quoscumque terrarum 
 locos quffive animaKa vel herbas atque arbores, sive lapides vel metalla 
 incognita, speciesque quashbet Scriptura commemorat, ea generatim 
 digerens, sola exposita Utteris mandet. 
 
 t Be Boctr. Christ. 1. 2. c. 40 : Philosophi autem qui vocantur, si 
 qua forte vera et fidei nostras accommodata dixerunt, maxime Platonici, 
 non solum formidanda non sunt, sed ab eis etiam tanquam injustis 
 possessoribus in usum nostrum vindicanda. Sicut enim ^gyptii non 
 solum idola habebant et onera gravia, qute populus Israel detestaretur 
 et fugeret, sed etiam vasa atque ornamenta de auro et argento, et 
 vestem, quae ille populus exiens de ^gypto sibi potius tanquam ad 
 usum meliorem clanculo vindicavit, non auctoritate propria, sed pr»- 
 cepto Dei, ipsis iEgyptiis nescienter commodantibus ea, quibus non 
 bene utebantur, sic doctrinse omnes Gentilium non solum simulata et 
 superstitiosa figmenta gravesque sarcinas supervacui laboris habent, 
 .... sed etiam liberales disciplinas usui veritatis aptiores ; . . . . 
 quod eorum tamquam aurum et ai'gentum, quod non ipsi instituerunt, 
 sed de quibusdam quasi metallis diviuee providentise, qu?e ubique 
 infusa sunt, eruerunt, .... debet ab eis auferre Christiauus ad usum 
 justum prsedicandi Evangelii. 
 
16 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. II. 
 
 the work of an interpreter. It is almost needless to 
 observe that he possessed no knowledge whatsoever of 
 Hebrew. Indeed there were but two of the early Fathers, 
 Origen in the Greek Church, and he but slightly,* and 
 Jerome in the Latin, who did so. It is, as he declares, a 
 lingua incognita to him, and he everywhere proclaims his 
 entire unacquaintance with it.f His knowledge of Punic, 
 (for that he knew it we may, I think, certainly conclude,^) 
 would no doubt materially have helped him, had he been 
 inclined seriously to grapple with the difficulties of the 
 Hebrew tongue. Bochart, Gesenius, and others who have 
 studied the few remains of this tongue which have come 
 down to us, so express their regret at the almost entire 
 perishing of all its monuments, and at our deprivation 
 thus of all the helps that might have been derived from 
 it, as to show that the resemblance between the languages 
 could not have been slight ; even as we might have con- 
 cluded, a priori, that the Punic, brought as it was from 
 
 * See Huet's Origeniana, 1. 2. c. 2, for proofs how slight and 
 inaccurate his acquaintance with Hebrew was (Judaicis litteris leviter 
 tinctus.) 
 
 t Le Boctr. Christ. 1. 2. c. 23 ; Conf. 1. 11. c. 3 ; Enarr. in Ps. 
 cxixvi. 7 ; et passim. 
 
 I It seems implied in such language as this {Serni. 167. c. 3): 
 Proverbium notum est Punicum, quod quidem Latine vobis dicam, 
 quia Punice non omnes nostis; cf. Exp.Inchoat. in Rom. §. 13. Yet 
 it would not seem a very common knowledge among the provincials, 
 for he complains more than once of the difficulty of obtaining pres- 
 byters who were acquainted -with the language for some chm-ches in 
 country districts, where no other tongue was understood by the 
 population. 
 
CHAP. II.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 17 
 
 Phoenicia to the northern coast of Africa, must retain a 
 considerable resemblance to its mother, or, rather, its 
 sister dialect. The fact of this connexion between the 
 languages Augustine several times notes, and not unfre- 
 quently adduces words which the two had in common.* 
 Yet with the exception of such slight assistances to his 
 exposition as those indicated below, it did not do him any 
 effectual service in his work. 
 
 Being thus ignorant of Hebrew, Augustine's nearest 
 approach to the original text of the Old Testament was 
 through the Septuagint version. There was a double 
 misfortune here; first, that this version, as nearly all 
 would now admit, wdth a multitude of isolated felicities 
 of translation, and resting evidently on a true tradition 
 in regard of many difficult words and passages, hav- 
 ing, too, had great honour put upon it in the use which 
 the apostles made of it, our Lord himself setting his 
 seal on one memorable occasion to its development of 
 the original text, (cf. Matt. xix. 5 with Gen. ii. 24,) 
 is still infinitely faulty, full of intentional and uninten- 
 tional departures from the original ; and secondly, that he 
 
 * Serm. 113. c. 2 : Istte enim linguae sibi significationis quadam 
 vicinitate sociantur. Cf. In Joh. Tract. 15. § 27. Thus lie notices 
 that Baal, which appears in so many of the Carthaginian names, 
 Hdiombal, k^^rubal, meant " lord" in Punic no less than in Hebrew; 
 {Qucest. in Jicd. qu. 16 ;) that Edom was Punic for blood, as in 
 Hebrew it is applied to aught that is \)\oo^-red; {Enarr. in Ps. 
 cxxxvi. 7;) he mentions 3Iessiah and Mammon as being Punic no 
 less than Hebrew words : and notes {Loc. in Gen. i. 24) the similarity 
 between the languages as not merely of word but of idiom. 
 C 
 
18 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. IT. 
 
 shared with, well-nigh all the early Church in an extra- 
 vagant estimate of its merits, so that he yielded himself 
 to this untrustworthy guide with the most unquestioning 
 confidence. He was not disinclined* to give credit to the 
 legend told by Aristeas, and repeated with various modi- 
 fications by Philo, Josephus, Justin Martyr,f and others, 
 in regard of the miraculous consent of its seventy-two 
 interpreters shut up in their seventy-two separate cells, a 
 fiction which Jerome characterized in the language which 
 it deserved ;J Nay further, he appears to have recognized 
 a prophetic spirit in them ; and not to have doubted that 
 the same Spirit which dictated the original, did also guide 
 them and preserve them from all error : so that he will not 
 allow any such in their version, and is in nothing offended 
 by some plain deviations of theirs from the original text : 
 thus when they make Jonah to proclaim, " Yet three days 
 and Nineveh shall be overthrown," he persuades him- 
 self that they did not this without authority, and that 
 there is a meaning in their three, as well as in the fo7'ti/ of 
 the Hebrew text.§ This belief in the faultlessness of the 
 Septuagint caused him at first altogether to disapprove of, 
 and never to look otherwise than coldly on, Jerome's cor- 
 rection and revision of this version, or rather new transla- 
 
 * DeBodr. Christ. 1. 2. c. 15 ; j^. 28. c. 2 [ad Hieron.) ; Qu. in 
 Gen. qu. 169; Be Civ. Dei, 1. 18. c. 42, 43. 
 
 f Coh. ad GrcBC. c. 13. 
 
 \ Praf. in Pent. : Nescio quis primus auctor cellulas Alexandriae 
 mendacio suo extruxerit. 
 
 § De Co?is. Evang. 1, 2. c. 66 ; Be Boctr. Christ. 1. 4. § 15 ; 
 Qu. in Gen. qu. 169 ; Be Civ. Bei, 1. 15. c. 14. § 2 ; and c. 23. § 3. 
 
CHAP. II.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 19 
 
 tion from the Hebrew.* He seemed to have counted this 
 translation too sacred to be touched, or at any rate that 
 the danger of unsettling men's minds through altering any- 
 thing in so time-honom'ed a version exceeded the advan- 
 tages which might be derived from the removal of any 
 incorrectnesses in it, if such indeed there were there. 
 
 In regard of Augustine's own knowledge of Greek, 
 there has certainly been a tendency among those who in 
 later times have estimated his merits, or rather his de- 
 merits, (for many have had an eye only for these,) 
 as an expositor of Scriptm-e, to exaggerate his defi- 
 ciencies herein. It is quite true that his knowledge ot 
 Greek was in-egularly gotten; that he did not in his 
 earlier years lay strong and sure foundations on which to 
 build his later acquisitions ; that he speaks of an early 
 distaste which he had for the language; though from his 
 own account it was plainly no more than a boy's distaste 
 for the labour needful to overcome the first difficulties in 
 a foreign tongue. f It is true too that he himself often 
 speaks slightingly of his own acquaintance with the 
 original language of the New Testament, and confesses 
 that, where he had to do with abstruse and recondite 
 matters in theology or philosophy, he preferred to read a 
 
 * Ep. 28. c. 2 ; 82, 5 ; 71. c 2 3 {ad Hieron) -. in which last 
 Epistle he gives a curious account of the uproar which followed in 
 some African church, when a bishop attempted to introduce Jerome's 
 translation directly from the Hebrew instead of that from the Septua- 
 gint, to which the people had hitherto been accustomed, 
 
 t Conf, 1. 1. c. 13, 14. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. II. 
 
 Latin translation to a Greek original;* yet when one 
 and another speak of him as " unacquainted alike with the 
 Greek and Hebrew tongues/'f and a third of his every- 
 where betraying a " shameful ignorance" of Greek,^ in 
 this there is undoubted exaggeration and injustice. We 
 have so many examples of a tact and skill not inconsider- 
 able with which he draws the distinction between words 
 that in their meaning border on one another, and of other 
 acquaintance with the language, as would require any such 
 statement to be very materially modified. § 
 
 * De Trin. 1. 3. c. 1 ; cf. Conf. 1. 7. c. 9. 
 
 t Walch, Bib. Patrist. p. 352 : Augustinus extitit, ut alii, Ebrsese 
 et Grsecse lingute ignarus ; Rosenmullek, Hist. Intt. S. Ss. v. 3. 
 p. 404 : Imperitus non tantum Hebrsese, sed etiam Grsecse linguae. 
 Compare Rich. Simon, Hist. Crit. du V. T. v. 3. p. 9. 
 
 \ Turpem litterarura Grsecarum insoitiam passim prodidit; 
 (Winer, Annott. in Ep. ad Gal. p. 22.) But single mistakes ought 
 not to go for mucli : Winer himself not many pages from the place 
 where he expresses this judgment, writes wmrent for inusserit ; 
 yet is he in the main not merely a correct but an elegant writer of 
 Latin ; and Reiche, the author of commentary very far from unlearned 
 on the Romans, deliberately derives cnroQMfiiQa (Rom. xiii. 12) from 
 dTTujdtiv, p. 458. For a juster and not too favom-able an estimate 
 of Augustine's attainments in Greek see his Life, in the last volume 
 of the Benedictine edition of his works, p. 5. 
 
 § A few examples in proof will not be out of place. Thus he draws 
 an important distinction between irvtviia and -rrvori, with reference to 
 John XX. 22 and Gen. ii. 7, and the attempt of some to make the first 
 act of insufflation, " He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and 
 man became a living soul," equivalent to the second, " He breathed on 
 them and saith, Receive ye the Holy Ghost," {De Civ. Bei, 1. 13. c. 
 24.) The distinction dra\vn by Doderlein, {Synon. v. 5, p. 95,) between 
 spirare and flare, spiritus and flatus, supplies an interesting parallel 
 and confirmation. He has a fine discussion on the relation between 
 
CHAP. II.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 21 
 
 So too Augustine used his Latin text with frequent, if 
 not continual, reference to the original, oftentimes recti- 
 fying the errors of the former by an appeal to the latter. 
 
 XaTpeia, 9pr](TKeia, tvakfitia, ^toai^ua, and their Latin equiva- 
 lents. {Be Civ. Dei, 1. 10. c. 1.) He handles certainly not iU the 
 difficult synonymes at 1 Tim. ii. 1 ; Trpoasvxal, hrjaeiQ, Ivrev^ig, 
 tvxapi-<yTiai. {Ep. 149. c. 2.) He distinguishes between tt pe<T[:ivrr]g and 
 ykpajv, the elder and the old man ; {JEnarr. in Fs. Ixx. 18; cf. Qucest. 
 sup. Gen. 1. 1. qu, 70 ;) though it is difficult to agree with him when 
 he complains that the Latin is poorly furnished with words to 
 express the finer shades of distinction in regai'd of old age, as con- 
 templated either in its moral or physical aspects : on the contrary, 
 as we might have expected beforehand, the language is singularly 
 rich in these. (Dodehlein's Synon.-^. 4. pp. 89 — 95.) He distin- 
 guishes between TrXsovs^ta and (piXapyvpia, showing how much 
 larger the first is in its significance than the last ; {Enarr. in Fs. 
 cxviii. 16 ;) again, between afKufiog and daTriXog, (Qu. in Lev. 1. 3. 
 qu. 40;) between iwevdvixa, superindumentum, and sTrcjfiig, super- 
 humerale, {Qu. in Jud., 1. 7. qu. 41 ;) between Trpwroro/cof, ttjOw- 
 Toytvi}g, and fiovoytvi]g, {Qu. in JDeut., 1. 5. qu. 23 ;) between 
 OTrapxat and 7rpu)ToyevriiJ.aTa, {Qu. in Num., I. 4. qu. 32;) between 
 Smpov and dofia, {Loc. de Num. 1. 4. ;) evracpid^siv and Oclttthv, 
 {Loc. de Gen. 1. i,;) dXoyog and dfiaOrig, {Loc. de Gen. 1. 2.;) 
 Kaipbg and yjpbvog, {Ep. 197. § 2, 3 ;) CKtvog and dyyfXov, {Qucest. 
 in Lev., 1. 3. qu. 51 ;) Xarpeveiv and dovXtvsiv, {Qu. in Lev., 1. 3. 
 qu. 66 ;) diKaiocvvr] and diKaiiofia. {Enarr. in Fs. cxviii. 56.) So, 
 too, he notes that tKcrraffig may mean more than fear or great 
 astonishment; it maybe as much as mentis alienatio, {s^iaTrjfii,) and 
 is therefore a peculiarly fit word for expressing the condition of mind 
 in which men receive communications from an higher world ; {Qu. in 
 Gen. 1. i. qu. 80; Enarr. in Fs. ciii. 11;) that d^oXeffxsTj', though 
 used in the Septuagint in a good, is oftener used in classic Greek in a 
 bad, sense. He gives {Qu. inExod. 1. 2. qu. 177) the right explana- 
 tion of TrXdyia, that it means the flanks, and cannot mean the front 
 and rear, and of KXirt]. {Qu. in E.vod. 1. 2. qu. 131.) He notices 
 the usage of TraiSeia in the Greek Scriptures as different from the 
 classical, that it is not instruction generally, as in other Greek, but 
 
22 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. II. 
 
 Thus in one place* lie silences a Manicliaean objection, 
 showing that it merely rested on a carelessness of the 
 Latin interpreter. Nor was he an uncritical taker up of 
 the first text of the original which came in his way, but 
 laboured earnestly after the most accurate that was attain- 
 able, and with this end spared no labour in the comparison 
 
 always fer molestias eruditio. {Enarr. in Ps. cxviii. 66.) He takes 
 note of a difficulty in the use of opQp'i^u) at Judg. ix. 33, LXX., 
 oqOqoq being the morning before sunrise, and not, as it seems to be 
 used there, after. {Qu. in Jud. qu. 46.) So also he observes a 
 double use of TrapaKXrjaig, and the verb from which it is derived, that 
 it is both exhortation and consolation. [Enarr. in Ps. cxviii. 52.) 
 Where he gives derivations of Greek words they are in general 
 correct ; thus of rpaycXa^og, {Annot. in Job. c. 39 ;) of droixog, 
 {Serm. 362, c. 17 ;) of TrapaTrrw/ta, {Qu. in Lev. 1. 3. qu. 20 ;) he 
 corrects the popular derivation of 7rd(Txa, as though it was from 
 TrcKTx^iv, showing this to be impossible ; [Enarr. in Ps. cxl. 10 ;) 
 he errs indeed in TrXrjjjifxsXda, not making it a violation of [isXog, a 
 disharmony, but deri\dng it from fisXti, curse est ; [Qu. in Lev., 1. 3. 
 qu. 20.) He is acquainted mth the force of the middle future as 
 distinguished from the active. [Qu. in Exod., 78.) He connects the 
 Latin version, which had rendered avXaXai (Exod. xxvi. 3) as if it 
 had been avXai, vestibula, instead of cortinse. He observes how 
 inadequate a rendering of aopaaai (Gen. xix. 11) caecitas is, and that 
 the Latin has in fact no word exactly corresponding ; [Le Civ. Dei, 
 1. 22. c. 19 ;) he explains how compeditos had found its way into 
 the Latin text, Ps. kxxix. (xc.) 12, seemingly as the rendering of 
 TTSTraidevusvovg, namely, that the translator must have had in his 
 copy TreTTtdrjuEvovg. Now I would not of course affirm that all 
 which he says on these and on other like matters which might be 
 adduced can always be maintained without modification ; or that the 
 knowledge here displayed is very profound ; yet in this handful of 
 observations, gathered almost at random from his works, there are at 
 all events evidences of something better than " a disgraceful ignorance 
 of Greek." 
 
 * Con. Faust., 1. 11. c. 4. 
 
CHAP. II.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 23 
 
 of MSS. It is well known that of the various readings 
 which exist in the MSS. of the New Testament which have 
 come clown to us, all or nearly all of any importance must 
 have found their way very early into the text, certainly 
 before the middle of the thii'd century.* Augustine often 
 alludes to the weightiest of these, and draws them and 
 their external authority and internal probability into con- 
 sideration W'hen explaining the passages in which they 
 occm'.f 
 
 And generally he is well acquainted with the primaiy 
 rules of textual criticism, however the scientific elabora- 
 tion and full development of them may have been, and 
 
 * Con. Fmcst. 1. 11. c. 2: Paucse, et sacrarum literarum studiosis 
 notissimse sententiarum varietates. 
 
 t Thus he alludes {Ej). 193. § 10,) to the more than oue variety 
 of reading that finds place at 1 Cor. xv, 31, with the view of con- 
 sidering how far there may be help in one or other of these readings, 
 for the removing any difficulty which the passage may possess. 
 Again he alludes {Ep. 149. § 28) to the remarkable omission in some 
 MSS. of the /i?) at Col. ii. 18. It is actually omitted by the Cod. 
 Vaticanus, which Lachmann has followed. Thus, too, he enters on 
 the question, one of the hardest in textual criticism, whether hkti 
 should be admitted or not into the text at Matt. v. 22 : in his 
 Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount he has given it room; 
 but afterwards {Retract. 1. 1. c. 19) withdraws it, because, as he says, 
 the Greek MSS. had it not. He takes no notice of thepalam found 
 in many Latin copies of his time, at Matt. vi. 4, because, as he says, 
 he finds nothing to correspond with it in the Greek : I need not 
 observe that the modern critical editions omit the tv t<^ (paveQt^ 
 of the received text. At the same time it must be allowed that not 
 unfrequently he takes up with a plainly faulty Latin translation, and 
 even discusses at length a difficulty which would have at once dis- 
 appeared, if he had turned to his Greek copies. 
 
24 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. II. 
 
 naturally were, the work of a later age. Thus he lays down 
 a canon which all who in modern times have laboured at fix- 
 ing the text have duly recognized ; namely, that a reading 
 which involves an apparent doctrinal or other difficulty is 
 to be preferred, other things being equal, to one which 
 will make every thing easy and smooth.* In obedience 
 to this canon he will not evade the difficulty of a reference 
 in regard of the thirty pieces of silver to " Jeremy the 
 prophet" (Matt, xxvii. 9,) by m-ging the fact, of which 
 yet he is entirely aware, that for " Jeremy" in some MSS. 
 " Zechariah" was found written ; since, quite apart from 
 the fact of the preponderance of diplomatic authority in 
 favom- of the former reading, it is altogether inexplicable 
 how " Jeremy," not being the true reading, should have 
 found its way into the text ; while, on the contrary, nothing 
 is so easy as to explain how, albeit the true reading, it 
 should yet have by some been omitted, or exchanged for 
 " Zechariah."f 
 
 Having spoken thus much of his knowledge and his 
 ignorance of those foreign languages, which were or might 
 have been to him, subsidiary aids in his exposition of 
 Scripture, a few remarks may fitly follow on his use and 
 command of that language, in which he has deposited all 
 the rich stores and treasures of his mind. If it be true, 
 as has been sometimes said, that the style is the man, we 
 might assume beforehand that where the man was so 
 
 * DiflBlcilior lectio prsestat procliviori. 
 t Be Cons. Evang. 1. 3. c. 7. 
 
CHAP. II.] INTEKPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 25 
 
 genuine and so true, there would be nothing unreal or 
 aliected in the style. And it would have been in many 
 ways affectation for a Christian writer of the fourth 
 or lifth century to have aimed at writing the Latin of 
 the Augustan age. As far as a large acquaintance with 
 the best writers in the language would have carried him 
 in such an attempt, had he been inclined to make it, he 
 was not unprovided; nor can his departm-e from the 
 standard of classical Latinity be laid to any ignorance 
 of the best models. Amid all the errors of his youth, 
 his classical studies were never intermitted.* That mighty 
 longing w^hich always possessed him, drove him as eagerly 
 into these studies, so long as he believed that from such 
 som'ces he could draw that which would slake the thirst of 
 his soul, as afterwards to those fountains which indeed 
 could do it. And remembering that he professed rhetoric 
 and grammar, or more properly literatm'e, not at Tagaste 
 only, but at Carthage, at Milan, and at Eome, we may 
 confidently presume that his familiarity with those authors 
 who alone would have fui*nished him with a needful pre- 
 paration was not superficial nor inaccui-ate ; for he cer- 
 tainly was not the man to undertake to teach others that 
 which he did not adequately possess himself. But indeed 
 we have more immediate evidence of the fact. All his 
 writings give testimony of the extent and range of his 
 acquaintance with the literatm-e of Eome. His greatest 
 
 * On the extent of these studies and the diligence with which he 
 pursued them, see his Confessions, 1. 4. c. 16. 
 
26 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. II. 
 
 familiarity is perhaps with Cicero and with Varro. Many 
 important fragments of the latter, especially of his Bivme 
 Antiquities, have come down to us only through their in- 
 corporation into his great prose epic and apology for the 
 Christian Church, The City of God. But his range of 
 authors is not limited : he makes allusion to almost the 
 whole circle of Latin classics, and draws his illustration 
 freely from them all. 
 
 Yet for all this, his own Latin is not the attempted 
 revival of something gone by, but the language as it has 
 been modified in the course of four centmies, and by the 
 new, most of all by the Christian, influences which had 
 been brought the meanwhile to bear upon it. Nor does 
 his diction want signs of that further transformation which 
 the language should presently undergo.* The words that 
 figure in the glossaries of later Latinity already begin to 
 
 * A slight but very curious anticipation of the coming time in 
 Augustine's Latin is the frequent recurrence in it of rhymes, and 
 these evidently not unsought, or at any rate not unwelcomed when 
 they offered themselves ; such for instance as the following, in all or 
 nearly all of which there is an evident intention of giving point to 
 the sentence by their aid : thus a definition of faith : Quid est enim 
 fides, nisi credere quse non vides ? {In Joh. Tract. 40 ;) the relation 
 of the two Testaments to one another : In Novo Testamento patent, 
 quae in Vetere latent; the mystical meaning of John xxi. 9, 13: 
 Piscis assns Christus e?,i passus ; {In Joh. Tract. 123;) on Stephen's 
 keenest rebuke of his countrymen, whom he prayed for notwith- 
 standing; (Acts vii. 51, 60;) Lingua clamat, cox amat; or exhortations 
 such as the following : Hoc agamus bene, ut illud habeamus ^j/(?ji2(? ; 
 {Serm. 104. c. 3 ;) Noli amare impedimentum, si non vis invenire 
 tormentum. {Serm. 311. c. 4,) 
 
CHAP. II.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 27 
 
 appear in his pages, although in no great number, and 
 chiefly in his familiar epistles, or discourses addressed to 
 the multitude ; and then very often they are wilfuUy in- 
 troduced that his hearers may understand him the better. 
 His classical culture preserves him for the most from 
 phrases and idioms of a needless oflFence, and in a great 
 degree from the harsh Africanisms of TertuUian and 
 Arnobius. Nor are there any tokens of that reluctancy 
 in the language to yield itself freely to all the uses 
 whereto he would put it, of which we are so often pain- 
 fully conscious in reading the former of those writers. 
 On the contrary, his diction appears ever as the willing 
 servant of his thought;* fuU and free, it is a garment in 
 
 * One great test of masteiy over a language is familiarity with its 
 synonyms, and power of distinguishing accurately between them. In 
 this Augustine excels, having an evident pleasure in tracing such 
 finer distinctions, which he does often with no common subtlety and 
 skill. Thus he distinguishes between flagitium and facinus : Quod 
 agit indomita cupiditas ad corrumpendum animum et corpus suum, 
 flagitium vocatur ; quod autem agit ut alteri noceat, facinus dicitur ; 
 {DeDoctr. Christ. 1. 3. c. 10 ; cf. Doderlein's Synon. v. 2, p. 145 j) 
 again, between delictum and peccatum, [Qu. in Lev. qu. 20,) keeping 
 clear of the common error, which makes one the sin of omissiou, the 
 other of commission; (see Doderlein's Synon. v. 2, p. 139 ;) rather 
 the delictum is the desertio boni ; peccatum, perpetratio mali. So 
 too, between semulatio and invidia; {t,ri\oQ and <p96vog. Expos, 
 ad Gal. v. 20;) semulatio est dolor animi, cum alius pervenit ad rem, 
 quam duo pluresve appetebant, et nisi ab uno haberi non potest : 
 Invidia vero dolor animi est, cum indignus videtur aliquis assequi 
 etiam quod tu non appetebas. So also he discriminates between arrha 
 and pignus; {Serm. 23, c. 8, 9, and Serm. 378;) cm'iosus and 
 studiosus; {Be TJtil. Cred. c. 9;) Isetitia and gaudium, cautio and 
 
28 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. II. 
 
 the flowing and graceful folds of which his thoughts are 
 amply yet not redundantly arrayed. He knows what the 
 langiiage can do, and oftentimes tests its powers to the 
 uttermost; his works, indeed, are full of passages of an 
 almost unequalled eloquence.* Now and then, it is true, 
 
 metus, volo and cupio ; {Be Civ. Dei, 1. 14. c. 8 ;) astutus, prudens, 
 and sapiens; {Be Gen. ad Lit. 1. 9. c. 2 ;) precor, imprecor, deprecor. 
 {Up. 149. c. 2,) His etymologies too are almost always correct ; as 
 prodigia, quod porro dicant; {Be Civ. Bei,l. 28, c. 8;) adulterimn, 
 quasi ad alterum ; {Serin. 51, c. 13 ;) or if they are such as some 
 would call in question, such as his derivation of religio from religare, 
 rather than relegere, {Retract. 1. 1. c. 13,) yet here, if he has many 
 against him, yet also some with him, and he was aware of, and had 
 once inclined to, the preferable etymology. {Be Civ. Bei, 1. 10. c. 3.) 
 His derivation of abominor as though it was abhominor, so to hate 
 one as not to esteem him a man, {Serin. 9. c. 9,) might seem indeed 
 in more ways than one to militate against his Latin scholarship ; but 
 elsewhere he rightly derives it from omen; {Retract. 1. 1. c. 13;) 
 and I have no doubt that the other, like so many of the ancient 
 etymologies, which are quite misunderstood when they are taken 
 in any other spirit, was intended for a calemlourg and no more. In 
 like manner when he says. Est enim severitas, quasi sseva Veritas, 
 Dei, {Serm, 171. c. 5,) he doubtless offers this as a moral rather than 
 jpJiiloloffical etymology, — though indeed Doderlein puts the word in 
 connexion with verus, {Synon. v. 1, p. 77,) and other etymologists 
 with ssevus. 
 
 * As for instance this passage, upon the Church and her teaching 
 {Be Mor. Eccles. c. 30) : Tu pueriliter pueros, fortiter juvenes, quiete 
 senes, prout cuj usque non corporis tantum sed et animi setas est, 
 exerces et doces. Tu feminas veris suis non ad explendam libidinem, 
 sed ad propagandam prolem, et ad rei familiaris societatem, casta et 
 fideli obedientia subjicis. Tu viros conjugibus, non ad illudendum 
 imbeciUiorem sensum sed sinceri amoris legibus subjicis. Tu paren- 
 tibus filios libera quadara servitute subjungis, parentes filiis pia 
 dominatione prseponis. Tu fratribus fratres religionis vinculo fir- 
 
CHAP. 11.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 29 
 
 in the antithetic pointedness of his sentences, though the 
 antithesis never perils, but is made alway to subserve, the 
 sense, or again in the sustained balance of some long- 
 drawn periods, we are just reminded that he had once 
 taught rhetoric in the capitals of Africa and of Italy. 
 
 miore atque artiore quam sanguinis nectis. Tu omnis generis propin- 
 quitatem et affinitatis necessitudinem, servatis naturae voluntatisque 
 nexibus, mutua caritate constringis. Tu dominis servos non tarn 
 conditionis necessitate, quam officii delectatione doces adhaerere. 
 Tu dominos servis, summi Uei communis Domini consideratione pla- 
 cabiles, et ad consulendum quam coercendum propensiores facis. Tu 
 cives civibus, gentes gentibus, et prorsus homines primorum parentura 
 recordatione, non societate tantum sed quadam etiam fraternitate 
 conjungis. Doces reges prospicere populis, mones populos se sub- 
 dere regibus. Quibus honor debeatur, quibus affectus, quibus reve- 
 rentia, quibus timor, quibus consolatio, quibus admonitio, quibus 
 cohortatio, quibus disciplina, quibus objurgatio, quibus supplicium, 
 sedulo doces, ostendens quemadmodum et non omnibus omnia, et 
 omnibus caritas, et nulli debeatur injuria. 
 
30 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. Til. 
 
 CHAPTEE III 
 
 TN the first chapter of this essay I considered and sought 
 -*- to illustrate by quotations from Augustine's own writ- 
 ings the tone and temper of gratitude and affection, of 
 humility and reverence, with which he approached, and 
 would fain lead others to approach, the word of God. I 
 brought this into earliest consideration, as being indeed the 
 source out of which all his excellencies in the unfolding of 
 its deeper and spiritual meaning had their rise ; as that for 
 the absence of which all treasures of knowledge and learn- 
 ing, had he possessed them, would have been an insufficient 
 compensation : and then in the next chapter I sought to 
 estimate, as also important, though in a far inferior 
 degree, in what measui-e he was himself outwardly fur- 
 nished and accomplished for the work which he undertook. 
 I shall now proceed to gather from his writings some of 
 those principles and canons of interpretation, which either 
 adopting from others, or generalizing from his own 
 experience, he has laid down, as needful to be observed, 
 if Scripture inteipretation is not to be abandoned to 
 merest hazard and caprice ; which I shall do without 
 implying thereby that he was himself always faithful to 
 these rules : and I shall at the same time endeavour to 
 
CHAP. III.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 31 
 
 trace sucli external circumstances of his own position, as 
 may be supposed most effectually to have wrought in the 
 forming and further unfolding of his system of inter- 
 pretation. 
 
 We may first observe that Augustine very often presses 
 excellently well the duty of interpreting Scripture according 
 to the analogy of faith ; in other words, that no single say- 
 ings there shall receive such an explanation as shall put them 
 in contradiction with the whole body and complex of doc- 
 trinal truth drawn from other Scriptures ; that the explana- 
 tion which does place any single passage in this opposi- 
 tion must, however plausible it may seem, at once be 
 rejected ; since all interpretation must be, so to speak, pan- 
 harmonic. Thus he is refuting those who were fain to 
 find in 1 Cor. iii. 15, a declaration that evil livers should 
 yet, if only they were members of the Catholic Church, 
 after passing through certain purgatorial fires, attain to 
 final salvation ; and who said that the apostle had these in 
 his eye, when he spoke of some who should be saved 
 " yet so as by fire." This cannot be his meaning, Augus- 
 tine answers, because the entire testimony of Scripture in 
 a multitude of distinctest passages avouches the contrary 
 to this ; which passages it would be absurd to override and 
 overrule by that which would be a doubtful interpretation 
 of an obscure passage at the best, even if these were not 
 there to prove that it is a faUe one.* And he well lays 
 
 * De Odo Dulcit. Qiccest. qu. 1; Be Fide et Oper. c. 15; Be Tide, 
 Spe, et Carit. c. 57 : Q-uidam ita intelligendum putant, ut qui, quum 
 
32 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. III. 
 
 down tliis as a general canon, that the obscurer passages 
 are ever to receive their interpretation from the clearer, 
 and not vice versa. ^ 
 
 In regard of the tropical language of Scripture, Augus- 
 tine often calls to notice that in it certain figures are not 
 indissolubly tied to certain corresponding realities of the 
 kingdom of heaven, that to assume that they are so, would 
 often altogether lead us from the right path. He recog- 
 nizes the freedom with which the inspired writers and 
 the Lord himself appropriated from the great storehouse of 
 imagery in nature and in art, that which was fittest for the 
 setting forth of that truth which at the moment they had 
 in hand, without thereby forbidding that the very same 
 image, contemplated indeed on some other side, should 
 presently set forth an altogether different, nay opposite, 
 truth. Thus Christ is a lion, (Eev. v. 5,) and Satan is a 
 lion ; (1 Pet. v. 8 ;) the truth is leaven, (Matt. xiii. 33,) 
 and malice, wickedness, and hypocrisy are leaven ; (1 Cor, 
 V. 8 ; Luke xii. 1 ;) for, to use a modern illustration, the 
 imagery of Scripture is not so much stereotype, never to 
 
 fidem habeant, male operantur, per qnasdani ignis poenas possint 
 
 purgari ad salutem percipiendam Si ergo innnmerabilia quae 
 
 per omnes Scripturas sine ambiguitate dicta reperiri possunt [de 
 necessitate bonorum operum] falsa erunt, poterit verus esse ille intel- 
 lectus. Sed quia bsec apostolica manifestissima et apertissitna 
 testinionia falsa esse non possunt, illud quod obscure dictum est sic 
 intelligendum est, ut his manifestis non inveniatnr esse contrarium. 
 
 * Be Locir. Christ. 1. 2. c. 14 : Ad obscuras locutiones illus- 
 trandas de manifestioribus sumantur exempla, et qusedam certarum 
 sententiarum testimonia dubitationem incertis auferant. 
 
CHAP. III.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 33 
 
 be shifted any more from the place which it once has occu- 
 pied, but rather like those moveable types which may con- 
 tinually be brought into new combinations ; or to use 
 Augustine's own comparison, it resembles the letters of 
 the alphabet, which, still the same, yet help now to com- 
 pose words expressive of what is best, and then presently, 
 it may be, of what is worst. Yet no one would affirm that 
 because D has done duty in Diabolus, it is therefore 
 an impiety to use it also in Deus.* 
 
 Again, he insists strongly on the vanity of appealing to 
 any but to plain and literal passages of Scripture for the 
 laying of first foundations of doctrines, most of all when in 
 controversy with gainsayers and opposers. Afterwards, 
 when these foundations are securely laid, the confirmations 
 of the truth, which may be superinduced from the alle- 
 gorical and figurative, will fitly find their place ; but to 
 begin with these is like painting on a cloud or building in 
 
 * Thus Serm. 32, c. 6 : Non enim semper in Scripturis eadem 
 significantur rebus certis. Non semper mons Dominum significat, 
 non semper lapis Dominum significat, non semper leo Dominum 
 significat, non semper bonum, non semper malum: sed pro locis 
 Scripturarum, quo pertinent cetera circimistantia ipsius lectionis. 
 Quemadmodum litterse in tot miUibus verborum atque sermonum 
 ipsse repetuntur, non augentur; .... quum una littera variis in 
 locis ponitur, et pro loco valet, nou unam rem valet. This last 
 thought he further unfolds, Enarr. in, Ps. ciii. 21 : Si audieris 
 litteram primam in nomine Dei, et putaveris eam semper ibi ponen- 
 dam, delebis eam in nomine diaboli, ab eadem enim littera incipit 
 nomen Dei a qua incipit nomen diaboli; et nihil tam disjunctum 
 quam Deus et diabolus. And finally, Enarr. in Ps. viii. 8 : Hsec 
 regula in omni allegoria retinenda est, ut pro sententia prsesentis loci 
 consideretur quod per similitudinem dicitur. 
 D 
 
34 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. III. 
 
 the air. Moreover, it is idle for us to expect that adver- 
 saries will be convinced by these passages, which, if they 
 are capable of our meaning, are also capable of another, 
 which the adversary may refuse to admit to have any 
 deeper meaning at all. Proofs, therefore, of this character 
 should be laid aside for the time, not because they are 
 false, but because they do not belong to this stage of the 
 argument, inasmuch as they do not of necessity carry con- 
 viction with them ;* afterwards they will be good for the 
 delight and yet further con&mation of friends, though 
 not for the conviction or putting to silence of foes. They 
 are to be regarded as the ornamental fringe, never as the 
 main woof or texture, of the argument. The thrice re- 
 peated " Holy " of the seraphim in Isaiah's vision (Isai. vi.) 
 is good for us, who already, and on other grounds, have 
 believed the doctrine of a Holy Trinity, but it would be 
 idle to seek to convince a denier of that blessed doctrine 
 thereby. 
 
 How well, again, he warns against that exaggeration of 
 one side of a truth, which, with the overlooking or slighting 
 of the other, of that which should balance, counterpoise, 
 and complete it, has been the fruitful occasion of so many 
 heresies which have afflicted the Church ; for the half 
 truth is very often no truth at all, at least to them who 
 
 * Be Unit. Eccl. c. 5 : Ilia interim seponenda sunt, quae 
 obscure posita et figurarum velaminibus involuta, et secundum nos et 
 
 secundum illos possunt interpretari Aperta Veritas clamet, 
 
 luceat, in obturatas aures irrumpat, dissimulantium oculos feriat. 
 
CHAP. III.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 35 
 
 hold it with the ignoring of the other half.* Thus 
 was it, as he often observes, with the Sabellian and the 
 Arian. Each had his array of texts to appeal to ; but 
 neither had taken in the whole cii'cle of Catholic teaching 
 in regard of the relation of the Son to the Father, and 
 therefore neither had the truth. Their errors he likens to 
 Scylla and Charybdis, sailing between which, he that would 
 avoid making perilous shipwreck of the faith, must give 
 all diligence that in his eagerness to keep as far as pos- 
 sible aloof from the one, he does not entangle himself in 
 the dangers of the other. It is not sufficient for his safety 
 that he avoid one ; he must avoid the other at the same 
 time. But the conflict with these forms of error was 
 already fought and gained before Augustine's time. He has 
 indeed oftentimes instructive matter on them both,t as 
 being each of them the partial exaggeration of certain 
 scriptures with the overlooking of others, yet not com- 
 pelled thereto by present and urgent needs of the Church ; 
 for he himself speaks of these heresies, the first as 
 altogether past, the other as just ahve and no more. J 
 But in other cases it was otherwise. It was this accu- 
 
 * De Tide et Oper. § 5, 7 : Errant liomiues, non servantes 
 modum: et quum in unam partem procliviter ire cseperint, non 
 respiciunt divinse auctoritatis alia testimonia, quibus possint ab ilia 
 intentione revocari, et in ea quse ex utrisque temperata est veritate 
 
 et moderatione consistere Nos vero ad sanam doctrinam 
 
 pertinere arbitramiir ex utrisque testimoniis vitam sententiamque 
 moderari. 
 
 t See for instance, In Ev. Joh. Tract. 36. § 9. 
 
 X In Ev. Joh. Tract. 40. § 7. 
 
 D 3 
 
36 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. III„ 
 
 sation of overlooking and sligliting one-half of the truth 
 of Scripture in their blind and passionate urging of the 
 other, which he found need especially to bring against the 
 Donatists. They of that schism refused, as is well known, 
 to hold communion with the Church Catholic ; and it was 
 exactly thus that they justified their schism. They laid 
 hold on all the declarations in Scriptm-e which spoke of 
 the holiness of the Church, its freedom from impurity ; 
 overlooking all those others which characterized that holi- 
 ness in the present time as imperfect even in the faithful 
 themselves ; disregarding too all those, which declared or 
 implied that, until the end of the present seon, with the 
 faithful sinners would be mingled ; and because they did 
 not find this perfect fi-eedom from evil in the Churct 
 Catholic, they would not admit it to be the Chm-ch at all. 
 Augustine had here to show that what they advanced was 
 not so much untrue as one-sided. Yet we can scarcely 
 afl&rm that his controversy with these fierce and fanatic 
 separatists, greatly as it occupied him, (for Donatism was 
 the running sore of the African Church, and one which 
 never entirely ceased till the body, and the disease which 
 afflicted the body, perished together,) contributed in any 
 important measure to the forming of his system of inter- 
 pretation. Its influence is felt to a certain degree in his 
 exegesis, as in the manner in which it causes him to 
 weight certain statements of Scripture ; but Donatism, so 
 far as argument was concerned, (for practically the case 
 was very different) was more easily disposed of than that it 
 could have seriously moulded or affected him. 
 
CHAP. III.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 37 
 
 The wandering rabble of that faction was indeed formi- 
 dable enough, when in some remote district, men and 
 women, rudely but terribly armed, at first with clubs only, 
 " Israels" as they called them,* but afterwards with slings 
 and hatchets, lances and swords,-}- and with their cry of 
 Deo Laudes, which Augustine describes as more di'eaded 
 than a lion's roar,f they laid wait for in the way, or sur- 
 rounded by night the house of, some member, most often 
 some priest, or even bishop of the Catholic Church; 
 pulled it down or burned it over his head, and forcing 
 him thence, or even from the very altar itself,§ so wounded 
 and beat him that perhaps he presently expired ; or after 
 having thus maltreated, dragged him till nearly dead 
 through filthy pools ; || or poming quick lime, and when 
 they found that of that alone their victims sometimes 
 recovered, lime mingled with vinegar into his eyes, deprived 
 him amid excruciating torments, of vision ;^ or in their 
 milder mood, clothing him in some masquerade dress of 
 scorn, paraded him tln'ough the neighbouring villages, 
 and after many days hardly let him go ;** or harnessing 
 him in a mill, compelled him with many stripes to turn 
 it ;tt or when one of them, in that insane spirit of self- 
 destruction which possessed them, meeting a Catholic re- 
 
 * E7iarr. in Ps. x. 3. f Con. Lit. Vetil. \. 2. c. 88, 96. 
 
 % Eiiarr. in Ps. cxxxii. 1. § Con. Cresc. 1. 3. c. 43. 
 
 II Con. Cresc. 1. 3. c. 48 ; E^. 88. § 6. 
 *|[ Ep. 111. § 1 ; Con. Cresc. 1. 3. c. 42. 
 ** Ep. 88. § 6 ; Con. Cresc. 1. 3. c. 48. 
 ■■t Ep. 185. c. 4. 
 
38 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. III. 
 
 quired him to kill him, on threat of his own death if he re- 
 fused.* But those who bore the word for this schism, wielded 
 the weapons of their warfare in no such effectual manner. 
 It is not a little curious in the many debates carried on 
 either in writing or by word of mouth between Augustine 
 and some of the Donatist bishops or theologians, some of 
 them by the way evidently sincere and earnest men, to 
 note the rapidity with which he turns their position, and 
 puts himself almost at once within the lines of their 
 defences. After a while they discover that thus it will 
 inevitably be ; and the Ithacan mendicant had hardly such 
 dread of the thews and sinews of Ulysses, and hardly so 
 unwillingly advanced to the conflict, as do they to the calm 
 discussion with him of the points at issue between 
 themselves and the Catholic Church ; for to this method 
 of settling their differences Augustine continually invites 
 them, while they avoid it by any subterfuges they may.f 
 
 But it was not entirely so with the Manichseans. They 
 were not altogether such weaklings in his hands ; in 
 them he encountered adversaries, not indeed intellectually 
 his equals ; for where could he have met such ? yet crafty, 
 dexterous, and eloquent, by no means unpractised in the 
 loo-ical fence, and wielding the weapons of a destructive 
 criticism with a skill, which it is impossible not sometimes 
 to admire. And otherwise, also, the contest was a more 
 serious one. He had not against them to vindicate a few 
 
 * Ep. 185. c. 4; for other outrages see Ep. 132, § 2. 
 t Ep. 34. c. 6. 
 
CHAP. TTI.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 39 
 
 passages of Scripture from perverse and partial inter- 
 pretation, but to defend and to secure the very founda- 
 tions of the faith, which they assailed, and which their 
 success would have utterly overthrown. The question at 
 issue was not here how this or that Scripture should be 
 understood, and whether it could only be rightly under- 
 stood, when controlled and tempered by other passages ; 
 but whether there was a Scripture at all, or at least such 
 a Scripture as men might securely commit themselves to, 
 the very Word of God, containing all truth in it, and 
 nothing but the truth ; and if so, whether those writings 
 which were in the keeping of the CathoHc Church, and 
 which she could show to have been in her keeping in an 
 unbroken succession from the times of the apostles were 
 indeed this Book — which when tliey denied on internal 
 grounds drawn from the writings themselves, he had to 
 trace the perfect harmony existing between the different por- 
 tions of this Book ; that one part, the New Testament, did 
 not, as they said, go counter to and thus condemn another, 
 that is, the Old ; that the several portions of the New were 
 not repugnant to one another, and did not thus (since in 
 in that case it could only be partially true) leave each man 
 at liberty to select for himself those parts of it which he 
 was willing to receive and believe. 
 
 The Manichseans could not but feel that if the con- 
 troversy between them and the Church Catholic, as to what 
 was the genuine doctrine which Christ had delivered, was 
 to be decided by an appeal to the canonical Scriptures, 
 the decision must inevitably be given against them, and in 
 
40 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. III. 
 
 favour of the Clmrch. There remained therefore nothing 
 for them but either entirely to refuse to accept this appeal, 
 as they did in regard of the Old Testament, or where such 
 absolute refusal would have at once put them out of court, 
 and left them without even a nominal profession of the 
 Christian faith, to seek to weaken as far as they might the 
 authority of this judge, and so to take away from the force 
 of his decision. They began, as is ever the case with those 
 who would be quit of the Bible, with an assault upon the 
 Old Testament; and from the authority of this they 
 sought to release themselves altogether. It was from the 
 vantage ground of the New that they made their assault 
 upon it, maintaining that it was full of statements irrecon- 
 cHeable with the doctrines delivered there. Adimantus, 
 an immediate scholar of Mani, wrote a book full of these 
 so-called " contradictions," of which it may be insti-uctive 
 to adduce a few. Thus the beginning of Genesis, in 
 which it is said that " God created the heaven and the 
 earth," was contrary to the opening of St. John, where it is 
 declared that the world was made by Christ.* The words 
 of Genesis that " God rested on the seventh day," were 
 contrary to those of the Lord, " My Father worketh 
 hithei-to." (John v. 17.)t The declaration in Genesis, " It 
 is not good that the man should be alone : I will make an 
 help meet for him," contradicts the blessing which the 
 Lord pronounced on every one who should leave (among 
 other things) wife for his sake. (Matt. xix. 29.)J That 
 
 Con. Adimant. 3fan. c. 1. f ■^^^<^- c. 2. | Ibid. r. 3. 
 
CHAP. IIT.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 41 
 
 God made man in his own image is against that word of 
 Christ to the Pharisees, " Ye are of your father the devil," 
 (John viii. 44.)* God's declaration in the Old Testament 
 that he was a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers 
 upon the children, was contrary to the word of Christ, 
 " He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good." 
 (Matt. V. 45.)t All the places in the Old Testament in 
 which God was set forth as speaking or appearing to 
 man were convinced of falsehood by that one word of 
 Chiist's apostle : " No man hath seen God at any time ;" 
 (John i. 18 ;) as indeed by the Lord himself. (John v, 37.)+ 
 In the Old Testament certain meats were declared to be 
 unclean ; but Christ said, " There is nothing that entering 
 into a man can defile him." (Mark vii. 15.)§ 
 
 It will be observed of the greater number of these 
 very characteristic antitheses that they are merely ridi- 
 culous, although not too ridiculous, some of them, to 
 have done duty anew in later times. Others again rest 
 on the progressive character of Eevelation, on the cir- 
 cumstance that it was a gradual education of men into 
 the knowledge of God, in which they moved up from 
 and through the more elementary and imperfect into the 
 higher and more perfect, as they were able to bear it 
 — a consideration which will have to be recognized and 
 urged by theologians much more freely and largely than 
 it now is, if they would not find themselves sometimes. 
 
 * Con. Adimant. Man. c. 5. f Ibid. c. 7. + Ibid. c. 
 § Ibid. c. 15. 
 
42 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. TIL 
 
 when engaged with the adversaries of Revealed Truth, in all 
 the grievous embarrassments which a false position may 
 entail. This of the gradual training of men into the know- 
 ledge of the truth, and the consequent use and fitness at 
 one stage of the teaching, of helps which were laid aside 
 and would have been inapplicable, where not injurious, at 
 a later,* was a matter of which Augustine had a very- 
 firm grasp, and on which he often expresses himself 
 with remarkable clearness and forcef — for all which he 
 may have been in part indebted to these very gainsay ers 
 themselves. J With the setting forth of this principle of the 
 
 * He has many illustrations drawn from our daily hfe. Thus 
 Unarr. in Ps. Lxxiii. 1 : Tu ipse dedisti filio tuo, et nuces parvulo, 
 et codicem grandi. De Vera Rel. c. 17 : Quis perturbatur si unus 
 medicus aha per ministros suos imbecillioribus, alia per se ipsum 
 valentioribus praecipiat ad reparandam vel obtinendam salutem ? 
 
 t Conf. 1. 3. c. 7 : Tanquam si in uno die indicto a pomeridianis 
 horis justitio, qnisquam storaachetur non sibi concedi quid venale 
 proponere, quia mane concessum est : aut in una domo videat aliquid 
 tractari manibus a quoquam servo, quod facere non sinatur qui pocula 
 ministrat : aut aliquid post praesepia fieri, quod ante mensam pro- 
 hibeatur ; et indignetur, cum sit unum habitaculum et una familia, 
 non ubique atque omnibus idem tribui. Sic sunt isti qui indignantur, 
 cum audierint iUo sseculo licuisse justis aliquid, quod isto non hcet 
 justis ; et quia iUis aliud prsecepit Deus, istis aliud pro temporalibus 
 causis, cum eidem justitife utrique servierint : cum in uno homine et 
 in uno die et in unis sedibus videant aliud alii membro congruere, et 
 ahud jamdudura licuisse, post horam non licere : quiddam in illo an- 
 gulo permitti aut juberi quod in isto juste vetetur et vindicetur. 
 Numquid justitia varia est et mutabilis? Sed tempora quibus prsesidet, 
 non pariter eunt ; tempora enim sunt. Cf. Con. Faust. 1. 22. c. 47 ; 
 Be Lodr. Christ. 1. 3. c. 10. 
 
CHAP. Til.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 43 
 
 divine economy, he at once disposes of a multitude of the 
 so-called contradictions which they had found between the 
 earKer revelation of God and the later, as the distinction 
 of meats, ordained in the Old dispensation, abolished in the 
 New — the retaliation of injuries allowed in the Old, their 
 forgiveness enjoined in the New — circumcision appointed 
 there, forbidden here. 
 
 But they did not and could not stop here. The expe- 
 rience of all past controversies, and a very little considera- 
 tion of the actual relation in which the Old and New 
 Testament stand to one another, attest the certainty of the 
 fact that they will stand or fall together. None can give 
 up the Old, and hope to retain the New. None that attack 
 the Old will ever pause there; they will find themselves 
 irresistibly and necessarily carried on to assail the New. 
 The victory which they may seem to themselves to have 
 won over that, they will themselves feel to be nothing 
 worth, unless they can overthrow the authority of this 
 also ; for the Old may all be established again by the aid and 
 authority of the New, which everywhere presupposes and 
 sets the seal of a divine character to the Old ; just as much 
 
 which comes to the Church from such gainsayings {Serm. 51. c. 7): 
 Negligentius Veritas qusereretur, si mendaces adversarios non haberet. 
 And again, Enarr. in Ps. lAv. 22 : Numquid enim perfecte de Trini- 
 tate tractatum est antequam oblatrarent Ariani? numquid perfecte de 
 poenitentibus tractatum est antequam obsisterent Novatiani ? Sic non 
 perfecte de baptismate tractatum est antequam contradicerent foris 
 positi rebaptizatores. In reference to this fact, which all Church 
 history confirms, he quotes often 1 Cor. xi. 19 ; cf. Conf. 1. 7. c. 19 ; 
 Enarr. in Ps. Lxvii. 31 ; D^ Gen. Con. Man. I. 1. c. 1. 
 
44 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. III. 
 
 as the Old prophesies of, and contains the New enfolded 
 up in itself,* — that being, according to Augustine's own 
 image, the closed hand, and this the open, but the same 
 hand still. Feeling, then, that nothing was really won, 
 unless they could thus overthrow the legislative and abso- 
 lute authority of the New Testament no less than that of 
 the 01d,f they proceeded to effect this in the minds of the 
 simple and the unstable, affirming that the books of canoni- 
 cal Scripture which the Catholic Church received were in 
 whole or in part not the wi'iting of them whose names 
 they bore — either interpolated by some who would fain 
 mingle Jewish superstition with Christian truth,:]; (and 
 that there should be such corruption they found pro- 
 phesied and announced in the parable of the tares and the 
 wheat,§) or, as in the case of the Acts, altogether sup- 
 
 * As in one place he says : Vetus Testamentum est occultatio 
 Novi, et Novum manifestatio Veteris. 
 
 f The process of first setting the New Testament against the Old, 
 and when this antagonism seems to have done its work, then the 
 several parts of the New against one another, was exactly that which 
 the Germaa assailants of Holy Scripture in the last century pursued, 
 who did not venture to lay profane hands on the New Testament, 
 for long after they had renounced their faith in the Old : it is exactly 
 that which we shaU see repeated in England, 
 
 X Conf. 1. 5. c. 11 ; Ep. 82. c. 2. § 6. How feeble this escape of 
 theirs, Augustine tells us that he felt even while he was still entangled 
 in their snares. {Be TJtil. Cred. c. 3.) His acquaintance with clas- 
 sical literature must have made him feel how nothing worth objections 
 against the genuineness of a passage are, drawn merely from the 
 subjective sense of the reader, and with no wavering and uncertainty 
 in the external evidence to back them. 
 
 $ Con. Faust. 1. 18. c. 3, 7. 
 
CHAP. .III.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 45 
 
 posititious;* or else, that if theirs, yet when they wi'ote them 
 they were themselves not altogether delivered from those 
 Jewish superstitions and errors ; and therefore that in each 
 case a test had need to be applied, whereby each portion 
 of Scripture should be judged whether it belonged to that 
 which was to be authoritatively received or no.f This 
 test was of course practically, whether they could turn it 
 into a seeming support of their dogmas, in which case it 
 was allowed ; or whether it went plainly contrary to them, 
 when it was rejected. 
 
 They agreed wdth the modern rationalists, in that they 
 tried Holy Scripture by the subjective standard of their 
 own likings and dislikings, accepting that which squared 
 with their own preconceived opinions, rejecting that which 
 did not 4 Like them, too, they proceeded to find motives 
 
 * De mil. Cred. c. 3 ; Ep. 237. § 2. 
 
 t Thus Faustus {Con. Faust. 1. 32. c. 1) : Ego de Testamento Novo 
 purissima quaeque legens et mese saluti convenieutia, prsetermitto 
 quae a vestris majoribus inducta fallaciter, et majestatem illius et 
 gratiam decolorant. Cf. 1. 33. c. 3 : Nee immerito nos ad hujusce- 
 modi Scripturas tarn inconsonantes et varias, nunquam saue sine 
 judicio ac ratione aures afferimus ; sed contemplantes omnia, et cum 
 altis alia conferentes, perpendimus utrum eorum quidque a Clu-isto 
 dici potuerit, necne. 
 
 :|: Con. Faust. 1. 11. c. 2 ; cf. 1. 22. c. 1 5 : Inde probas hoc iUius esse, 
 illud nonesse, quia hoc pro te sonat, illud contra te. Tuesergo regula 
 veritatis ? quidquid contra te fuerit, non est verum ? And when they 
 in their turn sought to adduce such portions of Scripture as they did 
 profess to receive in proof of doctrines of their own, he admirably 
 brings out the absurdity of this {Ibid. 1. 32. c. 16) : Ex Evangelic 
 probatis. Ex quo Evangeho? Quod non totum accipitis, quod 
 
46 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. III. 
 
 for their rejection in some contradiction or discrepancy 
 which they professed to detect in the narrative they dis- 
 allowed, making difficulties where there were none, exag- 
 gerating them where such there really were ; and under 
 cover of the discrepancies which they had discovered 
 between Scriptm-e and Scriptm*e, excusing themselves 
 from yielding credit to either. Thus they obliged Augus- 
 tine to many important discussions on many matters, of 
 which the interest can never grow old, and which have an 
 especially lively interest at the present moment ; for read- 
 ing the cavils and objections of Faustus the Manichsean, 
 one seems transported into the present age, so marvel- 
 lously have they in almost all essential matters, and 
 curiously often in minutest details,* anticipated the destmc- 
 tive criticism, as brought to bear against Scripture, of the 
 last sixty years : nor is it otherwise than encom'aging to 
 
 falsatum esse vos dicitis. Q,uis ergo testem suum prius ipse dicat 
 falsitate esse corruptum, et tunc producat ad testimonium ? Si enim 
 quod vultis ei credimus, et quod non vultis ei non credimus, jam non 
 illi sed vobis credimus. 
 
 * Thus Faustus has anticipated the trivial objection drawn from 
 the titles of the several Gospels, /card MaTOaTov, Kara MapKov, 
 namely, that on their fronts these Gospels do not profess to be what 
 the Church afiirms them — namely, the writing of these apostles or 
 apostolic men, but only of some who claimed to write according to 
 accounts received severally from these four. Thus, according to his 
 words quoted Con. Faust. 1. 32. c. 3, the Evangelists were — incerti 
 nominis viri, qui ne sibi non haberetur fides, scribentibus quse nes- 
 cirent, partim apostolorum nomina, partim eorum qui apostolos 
 secuti viderentur, scriptorum suorum frontibus indiderunt, asseve- 
 rantes secundum eos se scrijjsisse quce serif serint. 
 
CHAP. III.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 47 
 
 observe that this whole batteiy of assault has been directed 
 against the word of God with at least the same confi- 
 dence of success, and the same boastful announcements 
 that truth and reason were with the assailants,* and that 
 the Church was hopelessly clinging to the exploded and the 
 antiquated, and this by men of a far keener dialectic skill, 
 a far subtler intellectual power than any who have inherited 
 their mantle, f and yet that all has been brought against it 
 in vain. The whole fury of the assault passed away like a 
 noise, like a flood that foams and frets for a brief season 
 round some everlasting foundations, but presently sub- 
 sides, and shows that it has been unable to displace one 
 stone from its position. 
 
 Compelled to it by these devices of theii-s, Augustine 
 has many most interesting discussions on matters, which 
 but for them he might have only slightly handled, if 
 handled at all. Thus, one of the subjects on which these 
 gainsayers forced him to express himself often and dis- 
 tinctly, was the authority and evidence wdth which the 
 canonical books come down to later generations in the 
 Church, as indeed the works of those whose names they 
 
 * De Mon. Mmiich. c. 17: Magni pollicitatores rationis atque 
 veritatis. Cotif. 1. 3. c. 6: Dicebant Veritas et Veritas; et multum 
 earn dicebant mihi, et nusquam erat iu eis. 
 
 t Tor the chief characteristics of Faustus the Manichsean, that 
 "great snare of the devil" (magnus laqueus diaboli), as Augustine 
 calls him, a man who certainly finds not his peer among the modern 
 assailants of Scriptm-e, see Cotif. 1. 5. c. 3, 6, 7, 8; and at c. 13, a 
 comparison between his eloquence and that of St. Ambrose. Cf. Con. 
 Faust, 1. 1. c. 1. 
 
48 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. III. 
 
 bear ; and lie very excellently shows how impossible it is 
 to designate or even to imagine any time, when the inter- 
 polation or corruption of them could have been accom- 
 plished.* 
 
 So, too, he treats often on the relation between various 
 records of the same event, and the differences, which yet 
 are never contradictions, which must exist between them.f 
 Thus, the miracle of the healing of the centurion's servant 
 was pecuHarly unwelcome to the Manichseans, and they 
 greatly desired to get rid of it on account of those words 
 with which it concludes, in which the Lord gives such 
 great honour to Jewish patriarchs, making them the foun- 
 dations of that goodly company, to which indeed others 
 should afterwards be joined. They sought to undermine 
 the authority of the whole narrative, by urging the well- 
 known difference between the two Evangelists, that in one 
 the centurion appears himself as coming, in the other as 
 sending others to be the bearers of his petition. To such 
 unworthy objections he replies with a just indignation. J 
 
 * The following are among the most important passages, Be Mor. 
 Eccles. c. 29 ; Con. Faust. 1. 11. c. 2 ; 1. 28. c. 2 ; 1. 32. c. 16. 
 
 t Diversa multa, adversa nulla esse possunt ; and Le Cons. Evang, 
 1. 2. c. 66 : Ubi utrumque factum potest intelligi, nulla repugnantia 
 est, si alius aliud, et aliud alius commemorat. 
 
 :|: Having shown how futile their objections in this particular 
 instance, he more generally adds {Con. Faust. 1. 33. c. 8) : VeUem 
 sane ut aliquis istorum vanorum, qui hujusmodi qusestiunculas quasi 
 magnas calumniose objiciunt Evangelio, narraret aliquid idem ipse 
 bis numero non falsum nee fallaciter, sed omnino id volens intimare 
 et exponere, et stilo exciperentur verba ejus eique recitarentur ; utrum 
 non aliquid plus minusve diceret, aut prsepostero ordine, non ver- 
 
CHAP. III.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 49 
 
 Nor will he allow these slight variations to cast him 
 into any embarrassment, nor yet to drive him to unnatural, 
 or at best improbable, devices and combinations for the 
 purpose of getting rid of them. That according to St. 
 Matthew the disciples wakened their Lord in the storm 
 with the cry, "Lord save us; we perish;" (viii. 25;) 
 according to St. Mark, " Master, carest Thou not that we 
 perish?" (iv. 38;) while in St. Luke, the words are 
 " Master, master, we perish ;" (viii. 24 ;) this does not 
 trouble him. He readily admits that all these words may 
 have been said, some by one, and some by another, dis- 
 ciple ; but he does not require this of necessity. If the 
 inspired narrations have truly expressed the exact meaning 
 of the words uttered by the disciples at that moment, this 
 is enough for him, and all that he claims from them.* In 
 
 borum tantum, sed etiam rerum; aut utrum non aliquid ex sua 
 sententia diceret, tamquam alius diserit, quod eum dixisse non 
 audierit, sed voluisse atque sensisse plane cognoverit ; aut utrum non 
 alicujus breviter complecteretur sententite veritatem, cujus rei antea 
 quasi expressius articulos explicasset : et si quid est aliud quod for- 
 tasse possit certis regulis comprebendi, "quomodo fiat ut vel in 
 duorum singulis ejusdem rei narrationibus, vel in duabus unius ex una 
 eademque re, mvdta diversa inveniantur, nulla tamen adversa; et 
 multa varia, nulla contraria. 
 
 * Be Cons. Evang. 1. 2. c. 24 : Nee opus est quserere quid borum 
 potius Cbristo dictum sit. Sive enim aliquid borum trium dixerint, 
 sive alia verba quae nullus Evangelistarum commemoravit, tantum- 
 dem tamen valentia ad eandem sententiae veritatem, quid ad rem 
 interest? Quanquam et boo fieri potuit, ut pluribus eum simul exci- 
 fi tantibus, omnia bsec, aliud ab alio, dieerentur. (Cf. Qu. in GeU' 
 ! 1. 10. qu. 64.) Tbus too again on tbe concordant diversity of the 
 four Evangelists (c. 66) : Qua nobis ostenditur non esse mendacium, 
 
 E 
 
50 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. III. 
 
 otlier statements to the same effect, and in statements yet 
 stronger than these, there is on Augustine's part a freedom 
 and Mness in recognising the human element in Scripture, 
 which has perplexed some.* But that he himself did not 
 in the least believe that he was thus trenching on the 
 divine inspiration of Scripture, is manifest from innumer- 
 able passages that might be quoted, in which he claims 
 for it immunity from all error, styles its authors "the 
 pen of the Holy Ghost," and the like.f. 
 
 si quisquam ita diverso modo aliquid narret, ut ab ejus voluntate cui 
 consonandum et consentiendum est, non recedat. Quod nosse at 
 moribus utile est, propter cavenda et judicanda mendacia; et ipsi fidei, 
 ne putemus, quasi consecratis souis, ita munii'i veritatem, tanquam 
 Deus uobis queinadmodum ipsam rem, sic verba quae propter illam 
 sunt dicenda, commendet ; cum potius ita res quse diceuda est, 
 sermonibus per quos dicenda est, prseferatur, ut istos omnino quse- 
 rere non deberemus, si cam sine his nosse possemus, sicut illam 
 novit Deus, et in Ipso angeli ejus. 
 
 * As when, accounting for the different order in which the Evan- 
 gehsts narrate events, and the greater fulness of one than another, 
 he says {Be Cons. Evang. 1. 2. c. 12) : Ut enim quisque meminerat, 
 et ut cuique cordi erat vel brevius vel prolixius eandem tamen expli- 
 care sententiam, ita eos explicasse manifestum est. See Rich. Simon's 
 Hist. Crit. du N. T. c. 18. p. 262. 
 
 t De Com. Evang. 1. 2. c. 12 : Omnem falsitatem abesse ab Evan- 
 gelistis decet, non solum earn quae mentiendo promitur, sed etiam eam 
 quse obliviscendo. Cf. ^;. 1 9 [ad Hier.) : Si aliquid in eis offendero 
 litteris quod videatur contrarium veritati : nihil aliud quam men- 
 dosum esse codicem, vel interpretem non assecutum esse quod dictum 
 est, vel me minime intellexisse non ambigam. So too Conf. 1. 7. 
 c. 21 : Arripui venerabilem stilum Spiritils S. tui, et pree ceeteris 
 apostolum Paulum, et perierunt illse qusestiones, in quibus mihi 
 aliquando visus est adversari sibi, et non congruere testimouiis legis 
 et prophetarum, et apparuit mihi una facies eloquiorum castorum. 
 Cf. De Gen. ad Lift. 1. 5. c. 8. 
 
CHAP. IV.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 51 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TN a faithful portrait the lights and shadows ought 
 -*- equally to find place. Such a faithful picture it is my 
 desire here to present, and something therefore will need 
 to be said on the excesses of Augustine's allegorical inter- 
 pretations of the Old Testament. Keeping these out of 
 sight, one might present him in an aspect more exclu- 
 sively favourable as an expositor, but certainly not in 
 such a true one. He never indeed pushes this scheme of 
 interpretation so far as to cast any slight, which Origen, as 
 is well known, did, on the historic letter of the earlier 
 Instrument. He may believe and aflSjm of some portions 
 of it that they borrow all, or nearly all, their worth from 
 the higher spiritual truth of which they are the vehicle ; 
 but he never teaches or implies that anything which is 
 there told as history, was indeed no history, had no objec- 
 tive reality, and was only the clothing of some moral or 
 spiiitual truth. On the contrary, he witnesses often and 
 earnestly against all extenuations of the historic letter of 
 Scripture ; which must needs stand firm, whatever super- 
 structure may afterwards be built thereon ; this latter is 
 ever to be reared on the establishment of the literal sense, 
 E 2 
 
52 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. IV. 
 
 not upon its ruins.* His allegory is always witli a salva 
 rerum gestarum fide, often expressed, always understood.t 
 Of course it can be only witli this system driven into 
 excess, and fui'tlier than the hints which Scripture itself 
 supplies for its due limitation will warrant, that any fault 
 can be found. That there is in all Scripture, and natu- 
 rally most of all in the Old Testament Scriptm-e, an alle- 
 gorical element which has a right to claim recognition from 
 the Christian interpreter, few, if any, would deny. Indeed 
 there are large portions of God's Word, as the description of 
 Ezekiel's temple, (c. 40 — 48,) as the Song of Songs, which 
 only come to their due rights when regarded from this 
 
 * Serm. 2. c. 6 : Ante omnia, fratres, hoc in nomine Domini et 
 admonemus quantum possumus, et prsecipimus, ut quando auditis 
 exponi sacramentum Scripturse narrantis quae gesta sunt, prius illud 
 quod lectum est credater sic gestum quomodo lectum est ; ne, sub- 
 tracto fundamento rei gestae, quasi in acre quseratis sedilieai'e. 
 
 f On this matter he has an important chapter in the Be Civ. Dei, 
 1. 13. c. 21 : he is speaking of the paradise of Gen. i. — iii., to which 
 the aUegorists denied any historic reality. Probably he has Origen, 
 {BePrincip. 1. 4. c. 16,) especially in his eye : Nonnulli totum iUum 
 Paradisum ubi primi homines S. Scripturse veritate fuisse narrantur, ad 
 intelligibilia referunt, arboresque illas et ligna fructifera in virtutes 
 vitse moresque convertunt; tanquam visibilia et corporalia ilia non 
 fuerint, sed intelligibilium significandorum caussa eo modo dicta vel 
 scripta sint. Quasi propterea non potuerit esse Paradisus corporalis, 
 quia potest etiam spiritalis intelligi : tanquam ideo non fuerint duae 
 mulieres, Agar et Sara, et ex illis duo filii Abrahae, uuus de ancilla, 
 unus de libera, quia duo Testamenta in eis figm-ata dicit apostolus ; 
 aut ideo de nulla petra, Moyse percutiente, aqua defluxerit, quia potest 
 illic figurata siguificatione etiam Christus .intelligi, eodem apostolo 
 dicente, Petra autem erat Christus. Cf. De Gen. ad Litt. 1. 8. 
 c. 4, 7. 
 
CHAP. IV.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 63 
 
 point of view, and which, regarded from any other, must 
 ine^dtably receive an unworthy explanation. And as the 
 thing is recognized in Scriptui-e, so also the word by which 
 it is usually designated. (Gal. iv. 24.) The allegory is 
 that which aXXo ayopevsL : in it the words signify some- 
 thing more, in general something deeper and higher, than 
 that which they bear upon the surface ;* they look beyond 
 themselves into altogether another sphere of thought and 
 feeling, and need to be translated into that, before they 
 attain to their due rights, and exhaust the intention with 
 which they were spoken. 
 
 The extent, indeed, to which the Old Testament is in 
 this sense prefigurative of the New, and exactly how far 
 its personages are prophetic, its institutions typical, and its 
 actions allegorical, is a matter very hard satisfactorily to 
 determine.! I believe it can only be approximatively 
 detennined, and that, after all rules have been laid down, 
 much must be left to the tact and religious instinct of the 
 interpreter. We indeed feel entii'ely confident that the 
 
 * In the allegory, as he himself explains it {Le Loctr. Christ. 
 1. 3. 0. 37) : Aliud dicitur, ut aliud intelligatur. 
 
 t On the extent of this the real, as distinguished from the verbal, 
 prophecy of the Old Testament, Aagustine expresses himself often. 
 Thus Serm. 2. c. 6 : Tales ergo illos viros habebat Deus, et illo 
 tempore tales fecerat preecones Filio venturo, ut non solum in his quae 
 dicebant, sed etiam in his quae faciebant, vel in his quae illis accidebant, 
 Christus quseratur, Christus inveniatur. Con. Faust. 1. 22. c. 24 : 
 Hoc primimi dico, iUorum hominum non tantum linguam, verum 
 etiam vitam fuisse propheticam, totumque iEud regnum gentis 
 Hebrseorum, magnum quendam, quia et ]\Iagni cujusdam, fuisse 
 prophetam. Cf. Be Div. Quast. qu. 58. § 2. 
 
54 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. IV. 
 
 comparatively few types and proplieeies which, in as many 
 words are claimed by the Lord or by his apostles in the 
 New Testament, the brazen serpent, the manna, the Pas- 
 chal lamb, Jacob's ladder, Agar and Sarah, Melchisedek, 
 the High Priest entering into the holiest, and such other 
 as they may expressly declare to have been such, do not 
 at all exhaust the typical element therein, but should 
 rather serve as examples of that which is true to a much 
 greater extent ; the earlier history being throughout full 
 of stirrings of that divine life which ultimately culminated 
 in Christ, outKne sketches which should only be filled 
 up at a later day,* witnesses of all kinds laid deep in that 
 earlier economy that one God was the author of it and of 
 the later. It is only when we come to consider how far 
 we may proceed in this direction, and where we ought to 
 stop, that perplexities commence. 
 
 Better indeed, far better to find Christ everywhere in 
 the Old Testament than nowhere: and to address our- 
 selves to the prophetic books in any other expectation 
 than that of eveiywhere finding Him, or to expect that 
 under any other conditions they will render up to us their 
 secret, is to cast wilfully away " the key of knowledge,' ' 
 and yet to expect that the door will be opened to us.f 
 
 * On the partial fulfilment of prophecies in personages of the Old 
 Testament, with the exhaustive fulfilment which was yet reserved for 
 Christ, Augustine has some good observations, speaking of Solomon 
 and the prophecies that went before in regard of him, Be Civ. Dei, 
 1. 17. c. 8. 
 
 t With a beautiful application of the miracle of the turning of the 
 
CHAP. IV.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 55 
 
 But vdth. the historic books it is otherwise. Even oTantino- 
 that the events recorded in them only found place for the 
 sake of those higher ulterior meanings, of which the lower 
 and actual were an allegoiy ; granting that they were all 
 a great acted parable and nothing more; yet to make everj^ 
 part of this parable significant is to forget the primary laws 
 of parabolic interpretation, — that there are parts in the 
 parable that exist merely for the sake of holding the other 
 and more important parts of it in connexion, as there 
 must be passages in the most splendid and best arranged 
 house, as there is the handle in the knife which is not 
 for cutting, much in the lyre which is not for \delding 
 sound. Nor does this escape Augustine; he very often 
 himself places this much of limit on the seeking for a 
 secondary, and as he would count it, a higher meaning in 
 all parts of the Old Testament ; he allows that such con- 
 necting parts must be looked for there, and that it would 
 be idle to seek this higher meaning in them.* And some- 
 
 water into wine, xiugustine on this matter exclaims {In Ev. Joh. 
 Tract. 9) : Tollitur insipientia cum transieris ad Dominum ; et quod 
 aqua erat, vinum tibi fit. Lege libros omnes propheticos ; non 
 inteUecto Cliristo, quid tam insipidum et fatuum invenies ? Intellige 
 ibi Christum, non solum sapit quod legis, sed etiam inebriat. 
 
 * Con. Fatist. 1. 22. c, 94 : Christum igitur sonant hsec omnia ; 
 .... nee esse quidquam credendum est librorum propbeticorum 
 contextione narratum, quod non significet aliquid futurorum; nisi 
 quse ideo posita sunt ut ex eis quodam modo religentur ea, quae 
 ilium Regem populumque ejus, sive propriis sive figuratis locutionibus 
 rebusve prsenuntient. Sicut enim in citbaris et hujuscemodi organis 
 rausicis, non quidem omnia quse tanguntur canorum aliquid resonant, 
 sed tantum cliordse ; csetera tamen in toto citharse corpore ideo 
 
66 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. IV. 
 
 times lie makes a stand in a still more advanced position 
 against the allegorists, altogether refusing to go along with 
 them in their extremes,* and recognizing the literal inter- 
 preter as worthy by comparison of superior honour. f But 
 at other times, for there is a certain wavering and uncer- 
 
 fabricata sunt, ut esset ubi vincirentur, uude et quo tenderentur 
 illae, quae ad cantilense suavitatem modulaturus et percussuinis est 
 artifex; ita iu his propheticis narrationibus quse de rebus gestis 
 hominum propbetico spiritu deliguntur, aut aliquid jam sonant signi- 
 ficatione futurorum; aut si nihil tale significant, ad hoc iuterpo- 
 nuntur, ut sit unde ilia significantia tanquam sonantia connectantur. 
 Cf. Be Civ. Dei, 1. 16. c. 2. 
 
 * Tbe following is a passage in which be thus expresses bimself 
 with greater moderation {Be Civ. Dei, 1. 17. c. 3) : Q,uibusdam 
 visum est, nihil esse in eisdem libris vel prsenuntiatum et effectum, 
 vel effectum quamvis non prsenuntiatum, quod non insinuat aliquid 
 ad supernam Civitatem Dei ejusque filios in bac %'ita peregrinos 
 
 figurata significatione referendum Mihi autem sicut multum 
 
 videntur errare qui nullas res gestas in eo genere Ktterarum aliquid 
 ahud prseter id quod eo modo gestae sunt significare arbitrantur ; ita 
 multum audere qui prorsus ibi omnia significationibus allegoricis 
 
 involuta esse contendunt Hoc enim existimo, non tamen 
 
 culpans eos, qui potuerint iUic de quacunque re gesta sensum 
 spiritahs intelUgentise exsculpere, servata primitus duntaxat bistorise 
 veritate. 
 
 t Be Gen. con. Manich. 1. 2, c. 2 : Sane quisquis voluerit omnia 
 quse dicta sunt, secundum litteram accipere, id est non aliter intelli- 
 gere quam littera sonat, et potuerit evitare blaspbemias, et omnia 
 congruentia fidei catbolica prsedicare, non solum ei non est invi- 
 dendum, sed prsecipuus multumque laudabUis intellector babendus est. 
 Si autem nullus exitus datur ut pie et digue Deo quse scripta sunt 
 inteUigantur, nisi figurate at que in senigmatis proposita ista cre- 
 damus, babentes auctoritatem apostolicam, a quibus tam multa de 
 libris Veteris Testamenti sohiintur senigmata, modum quem inten- 
 dimus teneamus, adjuvante Illo qui nos petere quserere pulsare 
 adbortatur. 
 
CHAP. IV.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 57 
 
 tainty about the way in which he expresses himself in this 
 matter, he himself seems prepared to go all lengths with 
 them, to make the entire Old Testament history, not in 
 its great massive outline and plan, but in all its details, 
 prophetic,* to see nothing there simply for its own sake, 
 to account as though it were unworthy of the Holy Ghost 
 to have occupied Himself in the record of such matters as 
 fill up veiy many pages there, unless this second and New 
 Testament meaning could be shown everywhere to underlie 
 the plainer and more obvious. f 
 
 The result is oftentimes that in seeking to get more out 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. cxxxvi. 3 : DLximus omnia quae secundum lit- 
 teram in ilia Civitate contingebant figuras nostras fuisse. Cf. De 
 Catech. Riid. § 6. 
 
 t This seems to me to speak out in such words as the following 
 {Be Civ. Dei, 1. 17. c. 1) : Ipsa Scriptura, qufe per ordinem reges 
 eorumque facta et eventa digerens, videtur tanquam historica dili- 
 gentia rebus gestis occupata esse narrandis, si adjuvante Dei Spiritu 
 considerata tractetur, vel magis vel certe non minus prsenuntiandis 
 futuris, quam prseteritis enuntiandis invenietur intenta. Cf. Enarr. 
 in Ps. cxiii. 1. Thus too after a rapid and masterly oversight of the 
 whole Jewish history, with a tracing of the Christian element which 
 he everywhere found therein, a sketch occupying a great part of his 
 twelfth book against Faustus, he sums up aU in such language as 
 this (c. 37) : Hsec omnia figurse nostree fuerunt. [1 Cor. x. 11.] Nam 
 si Ismael et Isaac homines nati, duo Testamenta significant, quid 
 credendum est de tot factis, quae nullo naturali usu, nuHa negotii 
 necessitate facta sunt ? nihilne significant ? Si quis nostrum qui 
 Hebrseas litteras ignoramus, videret eas in pariete conscriptas, 
 honorato aliquo loco, quis esset tam excors, ut eo modo pictum 
 parietem putaret? an non potius intelligeret scriptum, ut si legere 
 non valeret, non tamen illos apices aliquid siguificare dubitaret ? At the 
 same time he is obliged to acknowledge that in the Jewish history, so 
 
58 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. TV. 
 
 of Scripture than it was intended to yield, less is indeed 
 gotten. A shadow is snatched at, which is not reached, 
 but in the snatching at it a substance has been lost. We 
 may illustrate this from Augustine's own exposition of the 
 103rd psalm, (according to our reckoning the 104th.) 
 Instead of that fresh healthy feeling which would read in 
 this psalm a setting forth of the glories of God in crea- 
 tion, with a drawing of strength and encouragement for 
 the faithful fi'om a contemplation of these, he will not be 
 content, unless he has allegorized it throughout. The 
 sun that "knoweth his going down" (ver. 19) is the 
 " Sun of righteousness" that hiew of his own death, and, 
 (with an urging of the agnovit of the Latin,) was well 
 pleased to lay down his life. The beasts that " get them 
 away together" and hide in their dens at the rising of this 
 sun, are the persecutors in heart, who yet do not dare to 
 show themselves openly as such in the bright day of the 
 Church's prosperity ; and so on.* It may be said that 
 
 far at least as relates to the history of the kings, the typical 
 character after Solomon's time almost altogether disappears. {Be 
 Civ. Dei, 1. 17. c. 21. 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. ciii. Thus too on the words of the Psalmist, 
 " I laid me down and slept ; I awaked, for the Lord sustained me," 
 (Ps. iii. 5,) he asks {De Civ. Dei, 1. 17- c. 18) : An forte quisquam 
 ita desipit, ut credat velut aliquid magnum nobis indicare voluisse 
 prophetam, quod dormierit et exsurrexerit, nisi somnus iste mors 
 esset, et evigilatio resurrectio, quam de Christo sic oportuit pro- 
 phetari ? But why not ? for entirely granting that these words look 
 on to our Lord's resurrection, yet is not the wondrous mystery of 
 our sleeping and waking, and the mercies which evermore attend 
 it, one weU worthy of being ascribed to God? might it not, without 
 that higher meaning, have foimd its place in a psalm ? 
 
CHAP. IV.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 59 
 
 here is no slight on the historic facts of the Old Testa- 
 ment ; and this is perfectly true ; but there is one on 
 God's revelation of Himself in nature, as though that had 
 no glory of its own, which a sweet and inspired singer in 
 his Church might fitly occupy himself in proclaiming. 
 Scripture indeed is not mainly idyllic but epic ; its theme 
 and argument is not nature but man ; yet as all worthy 
 forms of human composition find their prototypes or their 
 consummation therein, so even the idyl will not be wholly 
 wanting there.* 
 
 And the historic element in the Old Testament often- 
 times does not fare better. It is never, as I have observed, 
 in the least denied; but something else is everywhere 
 superinduced upon it, as though without this it would not 
 have worth and significance enough to justify the place 
 which it occupies in the Scriptures of God. Thus the 
 Ark is pitched within and without (Gen. vi. 14) in sign 
 that the Church shall be so joined and knit together, that 
 neither heresies nor scandals from within, nor open assaults 
 from without, shall dissolve its framework, or make it per- 
 vious to the waters of the world. f Jacob's deception of 
 his father, with all the profound lessons to be drawn from 
 the conduct and after fortunes of the four principal actors 
 in that transaction, none of them without fault, and none 
 
 * How deficient an eye for tliis is indicated in such interpreta- 
 tions as Hilary's, when he makes " the lilies of the field," which we 
 are bidden to " consider," (Matt. vi. 28,) not to be lilies, but angels. 
 {Comm. in Matt, in loc.) Augustine protests against this. 
 
 t Con. Faust. 1. 12. c. 14. 
 
60 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. IV. 
 
 witliout punishment, is passed slightly over, while Augus- 
 tine hunts after a higher mystical meaning in the transac- 
 tion, to which he unsuccessfully adjusts it.* Surely there 
 was meaning enough in it already ; and sm'ely the divine 
 character of the family and of the nation, and of all those 
 human relationships which spring out of these, abundantly 
 justify a teaching, which in minutest detail and a thou- 
 sand shapes should show us what is the blessing of main- 
 taining God's order here, what the curse which attends 
 its violation. An Holy Scripture does not demean itself, 
 nor exhaust itself on matters alien to its very highest pur- 
 pose, when it largely occupies itself herein. 
 
 I am im willing to leave this subject without a few 
 general observations in conclusion. The system of alle- 
 gorical and mystical interpretations is one manifesting 
 itself in too many quarters, and finding evidently far 
 too much favour with hearers and readers to be referred 
 to the caprice and to the idiosyncrasies of particular 
 teachers in the Church; even as it is absurd to trace it up 
 to Philo or to any foreign source, and to suppose that we 
 have accounted for it thus. We do it, its authors and 
 favourers, most right ; — not when we seek to defend it in 
 the full extent to which it was carried, because we find it 
 allowed or zealously furthered by men to whom the Chm-ch 
 owes so incalculable a debt ; — but rather when we seek to 
 explain it, and how it should have cast its roots so widely, 
 and grown up to such an height. It was then, as I believe, not 
 merely the excusable, but the inevitable, consequence of 
 
 * Serm. 4. c. 11—33. 
 
CHAP. IV.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 61 
 
 that great wrench and shock whereby the Church forcibly 
 detached itself from Judaism, (the writings of Justin 
 Martyr mark the moment,) and by God's grace delivered 
 itself for ever from the danger of merely knowing a Christ 
 who should be the Son of Abraham, the Son of David — 
 a shock of which the results were felt for centuries, during 
 all which the controversies in which the Church was 
 involved, yet further led it to an exclusive, or at least pre- 
 dominant, contemplation of the divine nature and person 
 of its Lord. But it belongs to the limitation of human 
 faculties and powers, that when mighty truths are mightily 
 felt and witnessed for by men, this can only be through a 
 partial throwing into the back ground, and present obscur- 
 ing of other truths, especially of those which are the 
 balancing counterweight to these. And thus it came to 
 pass that when the Church passed over to, and rooted 
 itself in a Gentile soil, and became virtually a Church ot 
 the Gentiles, having just fulfilled its great protest against 
 Ebionitism and all forms of Judaizing error, there was a 
 difficulty on the part of the protesters in recognizing in its 
 full worth this early and preparatory history of the king- 
 dom of God— in other words, the whole Jewish history 
 and institutions, as the periphery of a circle whereof 
 Christ was the centre, as the womb in which the Christ 
 after the flesh had been gradually forming and taking 
 shape* and coming to the birth. We see this difficulty 
 
 * Augustine himself expresses this truth, though in w^-ds some- 
 what obscure {De Civ. Dei, 1. 17. c 11) : Ipse Jesus intelhgitur, 
 substantia populi ejus, ex quo natura est carnis ejus. 
 
62 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. IV. 
 
 of recognizing the worth of the preparatory history in its 
 extremest excess and caricature in all the various forms 
 of Gnostic heresy, all which had this in common, that they 
 brought down their Christ direct from heaven, and would 
 know of no human preparation for his appearing, no 
 earthly root and stalk out of which He as the perfect 
 flower unfolded at the last : and as a consequence of this 
 they all took up a position of fanatical hostility to the 
 Old Testament. 
 
 And even of those who were within the Chm*ch, and 
 entirely remote from such blasphemous exaggerations as 
 theii's, who would have been shocked at and resisted, 
 and who did resist them to the uttermost, there were not 
 wanting some who drove this tendency into positive error. 
 Origen at once suggests himself as the most notable 
 example. It is plain, however, that in these his endea- 
 vom's to take the veil from off Moses' face, for so he calls 
 it, or at least in his excesses in this direction, he found 
 opposition even in his own day ;* for he complains himself 
 that when he, like Isaac, has opened the wells of spiritual 
 understanding, others come like the PhiKstines and stop 
 them again, t In this resistance which he everywhere 
 encountered, we have a remarkable example of the divine 
 leading of the Church. Those very writers who resisted 
 
 * See HuET, Origeniana, 1. 2. qu. 13 ; De la Rue, Preface to 
 the second volume of his works. 
 
 t In Gen. Horn. 13. § 3. The position of these "friends of the 
 letter" is plain from his own account of them. They resisted him 
 on the right ground, veritatem negantes stare posse nisi super terram. 
 
CHAP. IV.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 63 
 
 him were themselves, I believe, giving too wide a range 
 to this system of allegorical interpretation ; it was to them 
 unduly dear : yet so soon as he or any other did thus 
 absolutely put in peril the truth of God, and threaten 
 seriously to impugn the historic basis on which the truth 
 rested, and on which alone it could rest,* so soon as ever 
 he overpassed the hmits within which this tendency was 
 safe, — the comparatively harmless, if not always the edify- 
 ing, play of the fancy, — they at once and earnestly protested 
 against it, saw with all clearness and distinctness the 
 importance of setting determined limits to it which it 
 should not be allowed to overpass. 
 
 Still with all this, it was only the excesses and perilous 
 extravagances of this system to which for the most part 
 they opposed themselves ; so long as these were avoided, 
 they felt no misgiving about it, and the system of capri- 
 cious allegorical interpretation continued in full force, and 
 abode in highest honour during all the middle ages, with 
 indeed the same protests on the part of the great 
 teachers of those ages, when it seemed to threaten vital 
 truth, as we find in the earlier Chiu'ch ;t nor was it till 
 
 * In proof that Origen does so see the remarkable passage, De 
 Frincip. 1. 4. c. 15 ; one of many that might be referred to. 
 
 t Thus the great mediaeval scholar of Augustine, Hugh of St. 
 Victor, treading in his master's footsteps {Erud. Lidasc. 1. 6. c. 3) : 
 Sicut vides, quod omnis sedificatio fundamento carens, stabilis esse 
 non potest, sic est etiam in doctrina. Fundamentum autem et prin- 
 cipium doctrinse sacrse historia est, de qua, quasi mel de favo, Veritas 
 allegorise exprimitnr. iEdiiicatums ergo primum fundamentum historiae 
 pone J delude per significationem typicam in arcem fidei fabricam mentis 
 
64 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. IV. 
 
 the Eeformation, and its assertion of the dignity of the 
 family and the nation against the Papacy, which made 
 war upon them both, that the letter of the Old Testament, 
 with its record of an elect family and chosen nation, came 
 to its full rights and honour, that men saw all which was 
 contained for them therein. Doubtless it was in Luther 
 his reverence for the great fundamental institutes of family 
 and national life, for the relations of husbands and wives, 
 parents and children, masters and servants, kings and sub- 
 jects, his sense that a record which told simply about these 
 as seen in the light of God, must be of the highest value, 
 with a feeling that all this was called in question by the 
 eagerness to find another and deeper meaning in such 
 portions of Scriptiu:e as were occupied mainly about these, 
 which moved him to such exceeding and oftentimes extra- 
 vagantly expressed indignation against the allegorizers of 
 the early Church; — even as his great work on Genesis, 
 upon which he laboured with a peculiar care and love, 
 
 erige ; ad extremuin ergo per morahtatis gratiam quasi pulcherruno 
 superducto colore tedificium pinge. At the same time such lan- 
 guage as the following is a curious proof of the upper hand which 
 the allegorical interpretation had acquired, even in the minds of 
 those who felt themselves most hound to vindicate the worth also 
 of the historic letter, when they could give in so far to the allegorists 
 as even in the very act of protesting against their excesses, to use 
 such humble apologies for the letter of Scripture as the following 
 {Prcenott. Elucid. c. 5) : Quasi lutum tihi videtur totum hoc quod 
 verbum Dei foris habet, et ideo forte pedibus conculcas quia lutum 
 est,et contemnis quod corporaliter et visibiliter gestum littera narrat. 
 Sed audi : luto isto quod pedibus tuis conculcatur, caeci oculus ad 
 videndum illuminatm*. 
 
CHAP. IV.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 65 
 
 and which employed him during eight years of his life, is 
 a glorious moniunent of the simpler historic interpreta- 
 tion. Augustine indeed had too many other titles to his 
 respect and reverence for him ever to speak slightingly 
 of him ; yet in this matter, if others are counted blame- 
 worthy, he cannot be altogether acquitted of a share in the 
 blame. 
 
66 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 WHAT lias been thus far said in regard of Augus- 
 tine's fitnesses for being an able expositor of tbe 
 Word of God, in regard too of the spirit in whicli lie 
 approached the work, I shall now endeavour to illustrate 
 by a series of examples selected from his writings. Here 
 indeed one is solicited by an abundance, which, if it does 
 not make poor, yet casts into a continual perplexity as to 
 what to choose ; for certainly there was never an untruer 
 charge than that which Pere Simon brings against the 
 exegetical writings of Augustine — namely, that one must 
 read a great deal in them to come on an)i;hing which is 
 good : a charge which, were it true, would include almost 
 every other in itself ; but which is so far from being so, 
 that he who made it did in fact pronounce sentence 
 against himself, declaring his own incapacity to recognise 
 Christian depth and Christian experience, even when they 
 were presented to him.* 
 
 I shall draw my materials not merely from those writ- 
 ings avowedly dedicated to the exposition of Scripture, 
 
 * Yet this is little compared with Rosenmiiller's judgment {Hist. 
 Interp. Lib. Sac. v. 3. p. 502) : Nobis quidem sine omni suo merito 
 consecutus esse videtur earn nominis celebritatem et auptoritatem 
 qua per omnia deinceps secula floruit. 
 
CHAP, v.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 67 
 
 but indifferently from all. For it is a consequence of the 
 immense digressions in whicli Augustine freely allows him- 
 self, that oftentimes the secondary gains from his exposi- 
 tion are larger than the primary. Thus he is expounding 
 a psalm, and we suddenly find him explaining a parable, 
 or unfolding at large a mii'acle of our Lord's — eagerly 
 following the game which starts up before him on his 
 path. These sometimes untimely digressions, as keeping 
 too long and unduly out of sight the subject w^hich he pro- 
 fesses to be handling, and generally as affecting the form 
 of his exposition, must be considered as in some sort a 
 blemish, and in their degree to detract from its value; 
 yet may they on another side be contemplated as a portion 
 of his wealth, of that inexhaustible fulness w^hich on all 
 occasions is seeking to pour itself forth, — so that we should 
 be ill content to have them away. 
 
 And first, we may consider his skill in the reconciliation 
 of Scriptures ; I mean not merely the removal of apparent 
 discrepancies between one historic fact and another re- 
 corded there, such discrepancies as lie on the sm-face of 
 the several narrations, but of those seeming oppositions, 
 ethical or doctrinal, which lie much deeper, and can only be 
 reconciled in an higher unity w^herein the differences are 
 atoned. Let serve as an example of his skill herein the 
 reconciliation which he offers of all the parts of St. Paul's 
 
 I conduct in regard of the Jewish ceremonial law; which 
 law the great apostle appears sometimes himself to observe, 
 (Acts. xxi. 23 — 26,) w^hile at other times, under peril of 
 their salvation, he forbids his converts to do so. (Gal. v. 
 F 2 
 
68 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 3, 4.) There are some veiy interesting letters between 
 himself and St. Jerome, in which these and similar pas- 
 sages, with the difficulties that beset them, are fully and 
 most profitably discussed.* The discussion has its rise 
 in an offence, which Augustine had not unjustly taken at a 
 passage in Jerome's Commentary on tJie Galatians, wherein, 
 out of a mistaken desire to clear the character of a saint 
 and apostle from every speck and blemish, he implies that 
 the scene between St. Paul and St. Peter (Gal. ii. 14) was 
 got up between them for the promoting of peace in the 
 Church at Antioch ; that the apostle of the Gentiles did 
 not really blame the apostle of the circumcision, but that 
 each performed a part in a transaction arranged before- 
 hand — St. Peter, who had indeed done well in preserving 
 the peace of the Chui'ch, having by his withdrawal satis- 
 fied the Jewish converts, and St. Paul by his blame of 
 him having vindicated the liberty in Christ, which else 
 that withdrawal might have perilled.f Augustine, too 
 straightforward a lover of the truth to endure economies of 
 this kind, protests with a righteous earnestness against 
 this explanation, which he asks Jerome to defend or to 
 retract. J The latter defends his position, and with the 
 
 * Augustine's are the 28tli, 40tli, and 82nd ; Jerome's, the 68th, 
 72nd, and 75th in the Benedictine edition of Augustine's works. 
 
 t In the same way he speaks {Ad Fhilem. 7) of the contention 
 between Paul and Barnabas (Acts xv. 39) as cedijicatormm Ecclesise 
 jurgium — which in a sense is most true ; but it was not with this 
 intent they strove. 
 
 X Ej). 28. 0. 3, he communicates his grief; and again Ep. 40. 
 c. 3, 4. In this last epistle he unhappily bids St. Jerome to sing his ; 
 
CHAP, v.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 69 
 
 following arguments — However Paul may liave seemed 
 to find fault witli Peter for conforming to the preju- 
 dices of the Jemsh converts, yet he could not really 
 have done so ; since, if such conformity was wrong, he 
 too was in tlie same condemnation ; for he also made the 
 Jews, or rather the Judaizing Christians, to believe that he 
 kept the law ; and, in proof of this, Jerome instances his 
 circumcising of Timothy, (Acts xvi. 3,) his shaving of his 
 head at Cenchrea, (Actsxviii. 18,) his purifying of himself 
 in the temple, (Acts xxi. 26,) and his general confession 
 that to the Jews he became a Jew.* 
 
 But Augustine will not allow this defence, and seizes 
 rightly the true point of view out of which St. Paul 
 acted, and shows what the rule of his conduct was — not, 
 that is, to make the faithful who still clung to the law at 
 all believe that he also was still a keeper of it altogether ; 
 an attempt of this kind would have made his whole life a 
 long lie ; but to prove to them that he did not, as some 
 
 recantation {Tta\ivij)diav caue.) The latter, whom none can deny, 
 with the fuUest recognition of the Church's large obligations to 
 him, to have been somewhat tetchy and prompt to take offence, was 
 exceedingly hurt at this exhortation from the younger man; and 
 his part of the correspondence is full of characteristic touches, as 
 indeed the noble character of Augustine comes out greatly in his. 
 There is an interesting analysis of this correspondence, bringing 
 out the perso7ial in it, which I have not thought it needful to 
 touch on, by Mohler; {Verm. Scrift. v. 1. p. 1 — 18;) in which, 
 strikingly enough for a Romanist, he gives the entire right to Paul 
 as against Peter, to Augustine as against Jerome. 
 
 * Jerome {Ep. 75. c. 3) : Qua igitur fronte, qua audacia Paulus in 
 altero reprehendat, quod ipse commisit ? 
 
70 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 charged him, account those Jewish rites and customs 
 and ceremonies as things to be abhorred, and cast off by 
 a Christian man for sinful and sacrilegious ; that he had 
 none of that enthusiasm agaimt the Law which afterwards 
 developed itself in what we may call the ultra-Pauline 
 sects, in Gnostics and Manichaeans : but, on the contrary, 
 saw in it shadows and outlines of those good things 
 which had their substance in Christ. Those w4io had 
 grown up in the law, those to whom it had become a 
 second nature, were perfectly at liberty to retain it,* pro- 
 vided only they did not suppose that salvation in any 
 degree depended on the observing or non-observing of it, 
 or thrust it as a thing of necessity upon others. He did 
 not blame Peter for observing, nor for countenancing 
 Jewish Christians in the observing of, those customs, but 
 for compelling Gentiles to Judaize, and so implicitly say- 
 ing that these things were necessary for salvation.f So 
 far from blaming, he would himself willingly come under the 
 law from time to time, in this way stopping their mouths 
 who affirmed that he set the rites and customs of Judaism 
 on a level with heathen superstitions and idolatries, and 
 taught that they were to be cast off in the same spirit as 
 
 * Con. Faust. 1. 19. c. 17. 
 
 t Ep. 40. c. 4 : Non ideo Petrum emendavit, quod paternas 
 traditiones observaret : quod si facere vellet, nee mendacitcr nee 
 incongvue faceret : quamvis eaim jam superflua, tamen solita non 
 nocerent ; sed quoniam gentes cogebat Judai'zare : quod nullo mode 
 posset, nisi ea sic ageret, tanquam adhuc etiam post Domini adventum 
 necessaria saluti forent : quod vehementer per apostolatum Pauli 
 Veritas dissuasit. 
 
CHAP, v.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 71 
 
 were those. But so doing, he never acted a falsehood, 
 seeking to persuade any that he was a constant observer 
 of that law. Only by occasional compliance with its enact- 
 ments he paid it honour, as that which had been, though 
 for a temporary purpose, framed by God himself, and 
 honoured of Him as the preparatory discipline of men, 
 until the coming in of that which was perfect. 
 
 St. Paul had no desire that the Christian Church, so 
 far at least as it was formed out of Jewish elements, 
 should violently and with revolutionary haste rend itself 
 away from that Jewish economy, in which and out of 
 which it had grown ; but that it should gently and in good 
 time sm'ely detach itself therefrom, as the ripe fruit from 
 the shell which has now served its end.* It was another 
 thing, when it was sought to submit the heathen, who had 
 never grown up in these practices, to them ; even as it 
 would have been another thing if men, even those origi- 
 nally of a Jewish stock, should, after these customs and 
 observances had once fallen out of use, at a later period 
 have risen up and sought under any pretext to bring them 
 in anew. This the Church would have been bound to 
 resist, and will do so, if ever it should display itself. 
 That which Paul countenanced and allowed was but as it 
 were the burying of the body of the synagogue leisurely 
 and with due honours ; this would have been the disin- 
 terring of its corpse after it had lain long in the grave. f 
 
 It seems to me that Augustine gives here the true reso- 
 
 * Con, Faust. 1. 32. c. 13. 
 
 t Ep. 82. c. 2. Sicut defuncta corpora, necessariorum officiis 
 
72 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 lution of all the apparent contradictions in St. Paul's 
 conduct, as his circumcising of Timothy, and his sapng, 
 " If ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing ;" 
 (Gal. V. 2;) the solution, too, of still weightier moral 
 perplexities ; for his line of action has, doubtless, in it at 
 first sight something perplexing to the lover of truth, to 
 him who believes that entire truthfidness and plainness 
 of dealing should be the marked characteristic of an 
 eminent saint of God. For take the most difficult case of 
 all, that in which all difficulties centre, his undertaking at 
 his last \dsit to Jerusalem a Nazarite vow in the temple. 
 (Acts xxi.) Was this with the hypocritical view of making 
 the Jews or Jewish Christians to believe that he was a 
 constant observer of the whole ceremonial law, nay more, 
 one who would go beyond the letter of its requii-ements, 
 and take freewill vows upon himself? Not this,* but prac- 
 tically to disprove that which the Judaizers affirmed of 
 him, for the purpose of making him hateful at Jerusalem, 
 and of marring his work everywhere — namely, that he 
 
 deducenda erant quodammodo ad sepulturam [vetera sacramenta,] 
 nee simulate, sed religiose; non autem deserenda continuo, vel 
 inimicoriun obtrectationibus tanquam canum morsibus projicienda. 
 Proinde nunc quisquis Cbristianomm, quamvis sit ex Judseis, simi- 
 liter ea celebrare voluerit, tanquam sopitos cineres eruens, non erit 
 pins deductor vel bajulus corporis, sed impius sepulturse violator. 
 
 * Ep. 82. c. 2 : Tanquam inimicum legis, mandatorumque divi- 
 norum criminabantur ; cujus falsse criminationis invidiam congru- 
 entius devitare non posset, quam ut ea ipse celebraret, quae damnare 
 tanquam sacrUega putabatm- : atque ita ostenderet, nee Judseos tunc 
 ab eis tanquam a nefariis probibendos, nee GentUes ad ea tanquam 
 ad necessaria compellendos. This too, he goes on to say, was the 
 
CHAP, v.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 73 
 
 obliged his converts from among the Jews of the disper- 
 sion to forsake Moses, that he absolutely forbade their 
 longer adherence to legal ordinances ; while all, in fact, 
 that he actually forbade was their supposing that a man 
 was justified by these ; or laying the yoke of them on 
 heathen converts, with an " Except ye be circumcised 
 after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." Here 
 indeed he did speak out, and proclaim that, if in this 
 spirit they preached circumcision or practised it, Christ 
 woidd profit them nothing ; they were fallen from grace. 
 Otherwise it was a thing indiiferent, which neither helped 
 nor hindered. No doubt he desired to see even this out- 
 ward mark of separation between the different members of 
 the new family in Christ Jesus taken away ; but he was 
 content to wait till it should fall away of itself, as he 
 knew that, if not in the first, yet in the second or 
 third generations of the Jewish converts it inevitably 
 must.* 
 
 principle of the apostle's dealing in the cases of Timothy and 
 Titus ; he circumcised the first, that none might say he esteemed 
 circumcision an execrahle thing ; he would not circumcise Titus, that 
 the Hberty of the gospel might stand fast. 
 
 * Con. Mendac. c. 12: Id autem quod Paulus fecit, ut quasdam 
 observationes legitimas Judaica consuetudine retinendo et agendo non 
 se inimicum Legi Prophetisque monstraret, absit ut mendaciter eum 
 fecisse credamus. De hac quippe re satis est ejus nota sententia, 
 qua fuerat constitutum, nee Judseos qui tunc in Christum credebant 
 prohibendos esse a paternis traditionibus, nee ad eas Gentiles, cum 
 Christiani fierent, esse cogendos ; ut ilia sacramenta quae divinitus 
 prsecepta esse constaret, non tanquam sacrilegia fugerentur; nee 
 tamen putarcntur sic necessaria jam Novo Testameuto revelato, tan- 
 
74 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 Another slighter example of Augustine's skill in setting 
 at one may follow. He takes the words of St. Paul, 
 " Bear ye one another's burdens," (Gal. vi. 3,) and then 
 the words which follow so close, " Every man shall bear 
 his own burden," (ver. 5,) which at first sight seem to 
 contradict one another, though they are separated by but 
 two or three verses one from the other, and he shows 
 excellently well their reconciliation to lie in the twofold 
 use of the word " burden." The " burden" of one another's 
 infirmities, the " burden" even of one another's sins, in so 
 far as they wiU be the cause to us of annoyance, of pain, 
 and of labour, we can and we ought to bear for one 
 another ; even while there is another " burden," the solemn 
 answer of each man for his own life to God, which every 
 one must bear for himself, and which none can bear for 
 a brother.* 
 
 Once more ; on the words of St. Paul, " We must all 
 
 quam sine illis quicunque converterentur ad Deum salvi esse non 
 possent. Hoc error quorundam putabat, hoc timor Petri simidabat, 
 hoc libertas Pauli redarguebat. 
 
 * Be Com. Evang. 1. 2. c. 30 : Alia sunt onera portandse infir- 
 mitatis, alia reddendse rationis Deo de actibus nostris ; ilia cum 
 fratribus sustentauda communicantur, hsec propria ab uno quoque 
 portantur. See an admirable sermon [Serm. 164) on these two 
 texts, in their relation to one another ; and on the tirst of them some 
 beautiful observations, JDiv. Qiicest. qu. 71. The seeming contra- 
 diction between the two declarations comes out more strongly in 
 the Latin, which has onus in both places, as the English has 
 " burden," than in the Greek, which in the first has jSapo^, in the 
 second (popriov, a variation which Augustine does not seem to have 
 used as a help to his explanation, but whereby it is abundantly 
 justified. 
 
CHAP, v.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 75 
 
 appear before tlie judgment seat of Christ;" (2 Cor. v. 10 ;) 
 What is this ? he exclaims ; what does St. Paul say here ? 
 Has not the Lord Himself promised, that he who heareth 
 his word and believeth on Him that sent Him shall not 
 come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life ? 
 (John V. 24 ;) and now the servant seems to unsay the 
 master's word, and to bring us all before the judgment 
 seat anew. The atonement of the statements lies in the 
 different uses of the word "judgment," (KpiaiQ,) which sig- 
 nifies sometimes condemnation, and sometimes discrimina- 
 tion ; and in the second sense only it is true that we must 
 all appear before the judgment seat — namely, that to each 
 may be severally distributed things suitable to his condi- 
 tion, good to the good, evil to the evil.* Augustine's 
 interpretation of this passage is entirely against their doc- 
 trine, who teach that for the faithfd man also there will 
 be a judgment according to works. His faith has saved 
 him ; however afterwards, according to the measure of his 
 holiness, of Christ formed in him, will be the measure of 
 his capacity for receiving the divine reward, and his 
 place in the future kingdom. 
 
 In the first and most important of the instances just 
 adduced, Augustine had but to set right the error of a 
 friend : but at other times his task is to deal with the 
 cavils of a foe. It may profit to show by two or three 
 examples how he disposes of the objections of the Mani- 
 
 * Li Ev. Joh. Trad. 22 : Ut bonis bona, nialis mala clistribu- 
 intur. 
 
76 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 cliaeans and other adversaries, who, rejecting the whole Old 
 Testament, yet naturally made some, as they esteemed them, 
 more peculiarly exposed and indefensible positions there, 
 the chief points of their attack. One of these was with 
 them, as it eminently was with the English Deists of the last 
 century, the destruction of the Canaanites root and branch, 
 and at the express command of God : another, such 
 entangiings of the (comparatively) innocent in a common 
 doom with the guilty, and making of those to suffer for 
 the sin of these, as found place when for Achan's as yet 
 undiscovered sin not a few of the children of Israel 
 perished in battle with their enemies. (Josh. vii. 5.) 
 
 In reply to the first of these objections, he does not 
 betake himself to any of those poor evasions, which some 
 in conflict with modern Deism have sought out, — as for 
 instance, that the land of Canaan had originally belonged 
 to the children of Israel, that is, through its occupancy by 
 the patriarchs, and that in fact, under Joshua, they did 
 but reclaim and recover their own; but he sees in the 
 excision of those guilty nations an act of the divine 
 righteousness, which they only will misunderstand, but 
 which they will certainly misunderstand, who are ignorant 
 of what sin is, and what sin deserves.* The Canaanites 
 were the " carcase," and it is the everlasting law of God's 
 
 * Qucest. in Jos. qu. 16 : Qui propter hoc Veteris Testamenti 
 verum Deum fuisse nolunt credere, tarn perverse de operibus Dei 
 quam de peccatis hominum judicant, nescieutes quid quisque pati 
 dignus sit, et magnum putantes malum cum casura dejiciuntur, 
 mortalesque moriuutur. 
 
CHAP, v.] TNTEKPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 77 
 
 moral government, that " where the carcase is, there shall 
 the eagles be gathered together." It is a law as loving as 
 it is righteous, that this " carcase" shall not for ever be 
 permitted to taint and pollute the moral atmosphere of his 
 world. The " eagles" that on this occasion were gathered 
 together for the removing of it out of the way, were the 
 children of Israel ; if any of them did his appointed work 
 in the bitterness of his spirit, with a mere lust after the 
 possessions of those whom he destroyed, having pleasure 
 in the sufferings which he inflicted, and leaving out of 
 sight that he was a minister and executor of the righteous- 
 ness of God, this was his sin ; he was indeed a robber 
 and a murderer ; but nothing of this lay in his commis- 
 sion ; nay, he contradicted his mission, so far as he 
 allowed himself in any such evil passions as these.* 
 
 In Avhat manner Augustine disposed of the other cavil, 
 his words quoted below wiU sufficiently declare. f 
 
 * Con. Adima7it. Man. c. 17: Displicet istis miseris quod Deus 
 
 populo suo interficiendos tradidit inimicos Intelligant sine 
 
 odio esse posse vindictam, quara pauci intelligunt ; et tameu qnam- 
 diu non intelligitur, tamdiu necesse est ut lector in libris utriusque 
 Testamenti maguo labore aut errore jactetur, et putet contrarias sibi 
 esse Scripturas. 
 
 t Qiicest. in Jos. qu. 8 : Non enim aliquid dirum, quantum attiuet 
 ad universi mundi administratiouem, contingit mortalibus, cum 
 moriuntur quandoque moritm'i: et tamen apud eos qui talia metuunt, 
 disciplina sancitur, ut non se solum quisque cm-et in populo, sed 
 invicem sibi adbibeant diligentiam, et tanquam unius corporis et 
 unius hominis alia pro aliis sint membra solicita. Nee tamen 
 credendum est, etiam poenis quae post mortem irrogantur, alium pro 
 alio posse damnari ; sed in his tantum poenis banc irrogari poenam, quse 
 
78 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 The blots and blemislies in the lives of the faithful were 
 a frequent and favourite subject of malignant comment on 
 the part of some of those adversaries, the Manichsean 
 especially, with whom Augustine had to contend. He 
 does not of course deny the existence of such blots, some 
 of them very dark ones, in their lives ; which being 
 there, the Scriptm-e is too faithful mirror not to give 
 them back :* while yet at the same time he does not fail to 
 bring out that a malignant misinterpretation oftentimes 
 accounted actions of theirs to be such, which indeed were 
 innocent and laudable ; and that even of those wherein 
 there was manifestly a fault, many were hatefully exag- 
 gerated by these adversaries, to whom Noah was a 
 drunkard, Moses, for the killing of the Egyptian, a mur- 
 derer,! and the unhappy daughters of Lot monsters of lust 
 
 finem faerant habiturse, etiamsi non eo modo finirentur. Simul 
 etiam ostenditur, qiiantum connexa sit in populi societate ipsa uni- 
 versitas, ut nou in se ipsis singuli, sed et tanquam partes in toto 
 existimentur. He carries so far his view of the merely corrective 
 character which temporal death may often have, as to assume that 
 Ananias and Sapphira were thus judged temporally, that they might 
 not be condemned eternally. {Serm. 148.) 
 
 * Con. Faust. 1. 22. c. 60 : [Scriptura] tanquam speculi fidelis 
 nitor, admotarum sibi personarum non solum quae pulcra atque 
 Integra, verum etiam quae deformia vitiosaque sint, indicat; and 
 c. 65 : NuUius accipit adulandam personam, sed et laudanda et 
 vituperanda hominuni facta vel ipsa judicat, vel legentibus judicanda 
 proponit; nee solum homines ipsos vel vituperabUes vel laudabne3 
 intimans, verum etiam qusedam in vituperabilibus laudanda et in 
 laudabilibus vituperanda non tacens. 
 
 t He sees in this energetic self-help of Moses, carnal as it was, 
 the promise and the prophecy of the man that should afterwards 
 
CHAP, v.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 79 
 
 and impurity.* But whatever the extent of the sin of any, 
 Scripture was in no wise compromised by it, nor yet the 
 righteousness of God, whose word and utterance that 
 Scripture was. The Scripture recorded these sinful 
 actions of theirs, but did not praise them; most often 
 expressed the strongest moral disapprobation of them ; 
 or where it kept silence, this silence was itself for the 
 better exercise of the moral sense of the reader, that 
 applying the rules drawn from other Scriptures, and from 
 the immutable principles of morality graven in all hearts, 
 he might pass his own judgment on the deed, excusing or 
 accusing ; which that he should be sometimes thus invited 
 to do was plainly far more profitable, than that he should 
 always find judgments ready made for him in the Scrip- 
 tm*es themselves.f 
 
 redeem Israel, and has a striking comparison on the subject {Con. 
 Fanst. 1. 22. c. 70) : Verumtamen animse virtutis capaces ac fertiles, 
 prsemittunt ssepe vitia, quibus hoc ipsum indicant, cui virtuti sint 
 potissimum accommodatse, si fuerint prseceptis excultae. Sicut enim 
 et agricolse quam terram viderint, quamvis inutiles, tamen ingentes 
 herbas progignere, frumentis aptam esse pronuntiant ; et ubi tilicem 
 aspexerint, licet eradicandam sciant, validis vitibus babilem intel- 
 ligunt, et quern montem oleastris silvescere aspexerint, oleis esse 
 utilem cultura accedente non dubitant, sic ille animi motus, quo 
 Moyses peregrinum fratrem a cive improbo injuriam perpetientem, 
 non observato ordine potestatis, inultum esse non pertulit, non 
 virtutum fructibus inutilis erat, sed adhuc incultas vitiosa quidem 
 sed magUEB fertilitatis sign a fundebat. 
 
 * Con. Faust. 1. 22. c. 43. 
 
 t Con. Faust. 1. 22. c. 45 : Narrata ista sunt, non laudata. 
 Qrusedam vero enunciato judicio Dei, quajdam tacito narrari opor- 
 tuitj ut quando promitur quid inde jadicaverit Deus, instruatur 
 
80 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 Nor yet, lie adds, was the fact of these faults and fail- 
 ings, yea of these great and grievous sins, of good men 
 inconsistent with their positions as the bearers in their 
 time of God's promises, the witnesses for his truth. Such 
 bearers of his word, such witnesses for his truth they 
 were ; and as such, having indeed a treasure, but having it 
 in earthen vessels, so that it was nothing strange if the 
 earthen vessel should sometimes appear. There was 
 only ONE whose sin, if such the Scripture had been 
 obliged to record, would have set that Scriptm'e at contra- 
 diction with itself, and shaken the everlasting foundations 
 upon which the faith of the Church reposes.* 
 
 Again, how excellent is his reply to some of these same 
 cavillers, whose nice ears, as it seems, were offended at 
 the occasional plainness of speech wliich Scripture claims 
 for itself in speaking of certain sins and their consequences, 
 such plainness of speech as Moses has sometimes used; as 
 Paul, and eminently on one occasion, (Eom. i. 26, 27,) 
 
 nostra imperitia; quaudo autem tacetur, vel exerceatur peritia ut 
 quod alibi didicimus recolamus, vel excutiatur pigritia ut quod 
 nondum novimus, inquiramus. Cf. Con. Mendac. c. 14. 
 
 ^ On the different ways in which we may contemplate the sins of 
 God's saints, how we may get from them all harm, but how they 
 were recorded for our good, he has many most useful observations, 
 commenting on the 50th (51st, E. V.) psalm {Enarr. in Ps. L. 1, 2) : 
 Non sit delectatio minorum lapsus majorum, sed sit casus majorum 
 
 tremor minorum Audiunt male audientes, et quserunt sibi 
 
 patrocinia peccandi Alii vero audientes salubriter, in casn 
 
 fortis metiuntur infirmitatem suam. And for an interesting estimate 
 of David's character with its one shadow, a dark and deep one 
 indeed, but also its many brightest lights, see Con. Faust. 1. 22. c. 66. 
 
CHAP, v.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 81 
 
 does not shrink from employing. How well he defends this 
 needful irappriaia of Scripture against the affected, or if 
 not affected, untimely, delicacy of men, who could bear 
 that such things should be done, but not that they should 
 be spoken of; nay, who would have silence in regard of 
 them kept, when by the speaking the doing might perhaps 
 be prevented.* 
 
 There are passages, and those of high importance, the 
 interpretation of which Augustine was the first to set 
 upon its right basis. Such a passage is John v. 25 — 29 ; 
 for the right explanation of which a great debt of gratitude 
 is owing to him. The expositors before him were driven, 
 apparently by their antagonism to the Gnostics, who 
 denied a resurrection of the body, and consequently 
 spiritualized the whole passage, into the opposite extreme, 
 understanding it throughout as if it had reference, and 
 reference only, to the bodily resurrection at the end of the 
 world. f They got over the difficulty of the words, *' The 
 
 * Con. Adv. Leg. et Proph. 1. 1. c. 24 : [Cicero] cum doceret, in 
 translatione verborum obscoenitatem esse vitandam. Nolo, inquit, 
 dici, morte Africani castratam esse rempubUcam. Sed si lioc verbum 
 ipse quod vitari volebat, ut vitandum ostenderet, non vitavit, et quod 
 dici noluit, coactus est dicere, quanto magis res quse verbo eodem 
 recte significatur, ut ab audiente possit intelligi, suo verbo enun- 
 tiatiir? Atque ut ad illud redeamus, quod iste reprehendit: si 
 Cicero vir eloquentissimus et verborum vigilantissimus appensor et 
 mensor, quod dici noluit, dixit, ne diceretur: quanto melius Deus 
 magis morum quam verborum pulcritudinem quserens atque mundi- 
 tiam, turpe aliquid non turpiter sed minaciter dixit, ut hoc hor- 
 reretur, ne illud committeretur. 
 
 t So Tertullian, De Res. Car. c. 37. 
 
82 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 liom* is coming and now is," by seeing an allusion in that 
 " now is" to sucli foretastes of tlie future resui-rection as 
 found place in the raising of Lazarus, of the daughter of 
 Jairus, and of the widow's son. Nor did the following 
 expositors either of the Greek or Latin Church, Chrys- 
 ostom, or Jerome, or Ambrose, extricate themselves from 
 this erroneous track. Augustine was the first who showed 
 plainly that those who thus took the whole passage literally 
 were as far in error, though their error was more venial, 
 as those who had spiritualized it all ; that the Lord in 
 fact is here speaking of two resurrections ; in ver. 25, 26, 
 of a spiritual resurrection already present, the quickening 
 of the spirits of as many as open their hearts to hear his 
 voice; and then in ver. 28, 29, of that universal bodily 
 resm'rection which should be at the end of the world. 
 Nilus, indeed, a scholar of Chrysostom's, had just indi- 
 cated the right exposition,* but it was Augustine who 
 first set it upon a secure foundation ; nor would it be easy 
 anywhere to find a more admirable specimen of Scripture 
 interpretation, at once popular and profound, than his 
 vindication in more places than one, of the view which 
 he has taken. 
 
 In regard of ver. 25, he fii'st clears his way by showing 
 that it is in perfect consistency with the language of 
 Scripture in a multitude of other passages, to set forth the 
 state of sin as one of death, and the quickening of the spiriU 
 of men through Christ's life-giving wjord as a resurrection. 
 
 % 3. 135. 
 
CHAP, v.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 83 
 
 He quotes in proof such obvious texts as these, Ephes. v. 
 14 ; Isai. ix. 2 ; Col. iii. 1 ; Rom. viii. 10, 11. He then 
 proceeds to justify an exposition in this sense of the words 
 before him, showing how admirably all fits, down to the 
 minutest details, when this key is appHed ; while so much 
 does not fit at all, or only fits badly and with much forcing, 
 when it is attempted to explain these ver. 25, 26, of the 
 final resiu'rection, or, again, ver. 28, 29, of the present 
 spiritual quickening of souls. Christ begins, " The hour 
 is coming," and then, lest his hearers should understand 
 Him of a perfect future, and lay the scene of that whereof 
 He is speaking at the end of the world. He adds " and now 
 is" — thus by aid of the two phrases, marking at once a 
 grace akeady present, though in part also futm-e; even 
 as He could say to his disciples during the days of his 
 flesh and before his ascension, "Now ye are clean," 
 (John XV. 3,) although the fulness of his quickening 
 power did not descend tiU after Pentecost. He proceeds, 
 " when the dead," that is, the spiritually dead, — and He 
 says not " all," as when speaking of the final resurrec- 
 tion, — " shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they 
 that hear shall live." The words " they that hear," mark 
 some that wiU hear and some that will not hear, even as 
 it lies in men's own wiU to open or to close the spiritual 
 ear to tJiis voice of the Son of God ; but He would not 
 have so spoken of that voice of his at the last, which all 
 must hear, whether they will or no. Nor yet would He have 
 said " shall live," had He intended to express the rising 
 at the last day at once of good and evil. Only the good 
 g2 
 
84 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 " live." Life in Scriptm-e is evermore synonymous with 
 blessedness. When the Lord would express the fact of 
 the rising again of the wicked, he uses quite another 
 language. 
 
 And indeed the change of language is most marked 
 throughout, when He is speaking, as at ver. 28, 29, He is, 
 of the bodily resurrection of all at the end of the world. 
 Then the hour " is coming ;" it no longer " now is," for 
 He is declaring that which is wholly future, — " in the 
 which all," before it was, " when the dead," more or 
 fewer, but now his word is all-inclusive, " all that are in 
 the graves," — of which graves there was no mention before, 
 — " shall hear his voice," (" the voice of the Archangel 
 and the trump of God," 1 Thess. iv. 16,) " and shall come 
 forth," the word implying a bodily coming forth; with no 
 mention here of all being made alive or living; with no one 
 word expresssing now what the portion shall be of those 
 that hear this voice ; but as this is a resui-rection which 
 embraces all mankind, the Lord divides these according as 
 they have done good or evil into a " resurrection of life" 
 and a " resurrection of damnation."* 
 
 * Having reached ver. 28, 29, and starting from them, he thus 
 sums up the whole of his argument {Serm. 362. c. 23, 24) : Superius 
 cum dixisset, Venit hora, adjecit, et nunc est: ne ilia hora prse- 
 nuntiata putaretur, qua in fine sseculi futura est corporum resur- 
 rectio. Hie ergo quia ipsam volehat intelligi, cum dixisset, Venit 
 hora, non adjecit, et nunc est. Item superius mortuos dixit audire 
 vocem Filii Dei, monumentorum autem nidlam commemorationem 
 fecit, ut distingueremus mortuos per mentis errorem qui resurgunt 
 modo per fidem, ab eis mortuis quorum cadavera in mouumentis sunt 
 resurrectura in ultimo sseculi. Hie ergo, ut ilia in fine speraretur 
 
CHAP, v.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 85 
 
 Yet recognising this as undoubtedly the only true expo- 
 sition of John V. 25 — 29, 1 cannot believe that Augustine 
 has also right when he co-ordinates, or identifies rather, these 
 two resiuTcctions, the spiritual and the bodily, severally with 
 the first and second resurrection of the Apocalypse. (Eev. 
 XX. 4— 6.)* This is part and parcel of an interpretation 
 almost throughout beside the mark, as it seems to me, of 
 this book of Scripture ; upon the exposition of which in the 
 after Chui'ch for many hundred years his influence w^as very 
 far from favourable.! Yet one important principle in 
 
 corporum resurrectio, Omnes, ait, qui in monumentis sunt, audient 
 vocem ejus et precedent. Item superius, Audient, inquit, vocem 
 Filii Dei, et qui audierint, vivent. Quid opus erat addere. Qui audi- 
 erintjuisi quia de his dicebat qui secundum mentis errorem mortui sunt, 
 quorum multi audiunt et non audiunt, id est, non obtemperant, non cre- 
 dunt. Hie autem ubi secundum coi-pora resurrectm-os pronuntiat, non 
 ait, Audient vocem ejus, et qui audierint, procedent. Omnes enim no- 
 vissimam lubam audient, et procedent, quia omnes resurgemus. Supe- 
 rius, ubi per fidem secundum Spiritum reviviscitur, ad eaudem sortem 
 omnes reviviscunt ; ut vita eorum non distribuatm- in beatitudinem 
 et miseriam, sed ad bonam partem omnes pertiueant. Et ideo cum 
 dixisset. Qui audierint, vivent ; non adjecit. Qui bona egerunt, in 
 vitam seternam, qui vero mala egerunt, in poenam aeternam. Hoe 
 enim ipsum quod dictum est, vivent, in bono tantummodo accipi 
 voluit. Hie autem dixit, Audient et procedent, quo verbo significavit 
 corporalem motum corporum de locis sepulturarum suarum. Sed 
 quia procedere de monumentis non omnibus ad bonum erit: Qui 
 bona, inquit, fecerunt, in resurrectionem vitse ; etiam bic vitam in 
 bono tantum intelligi voluit : qui vero mala egerunt in resurrec- 
 tionem judicii, judicium scilicet pro poena posuit. Cf. In Ev. Jok. 
 Ti-act. 19 ; and De Civ, Dei, 1. 20. c. 6. 
 
 * De Civ. Dei, 1. 20. c. 6, 7. 
 
 t The great passage in which he unfolds his view of the Apoca- 
 lypse is De Civ. Dei, 1. 20. c. 7—17. 
 
86 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 regard of this book lie affirms, and one the overlooking 
 of wMcli brings infinite confusion into its interpretation ; 
 namely, that we are not to read it as one continuous 
 series of events, stretching onward in unbroken succession 
 to the consummation of all things ; but rather that there 
 are in it many new beginnings, — thus ch. xii. is such, 
 — and often when it seems at first sight to be naiTating 
 different things, it is indeed only narrating the same in 
 different ways.* 
 
 Augustine was not always so successful an innovator. 
 I shall here profit by that liberty which he, using in 
 regard of the writings of those who went before him, 
 desired also should be used in regard of his own,f to 
 adduce two or three examples of what seem to me losses, 
 more or less serious, which he inflicted on the interpreta- 
 tion of Scripture. Thus he did serious wrong, as I am 
 persuaded, to the Old Testament theology and its inter- 
 pretation, through his lowering to the rank of created 
 angels, the Angel of Jehovah, who appears, and ever in 
 
 * Be Civ. Dei, 1. 20. c. 17 : In hoc quidem libro obscure multa 
 dicuntur, .... maxime quia sic eadem multis modis repetit, ut alia 
 atque alia dicere videatur ; cum aliter atque aliter hsec ipsa dicere 
 vestigetur. 
 
 t Ep. 148. c. 4 : Neque eaim quonimlibet disputationes, quamvis 
 Catbolieorum et laudatorum hominum, velut Scripturas canonicas 
 habere debemus, ut nobis non hceat salva honorificentia quse iHis 
 debetur homiuibus, aliquid in eorum scriptis improbare atque respuere, 
 si forte invenerimus quod aliter senserint quam Veritas habet, divino 
 adjutorio vel ab aliis intellecta, vel a nobis. Talis ego sum in scriptis 
 aliorum, tales volo esse inteUectores meorum. 
 
CHAP, v.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 87 
 
 his own name, at so many great crises of tlie theocracy, 
 and to whom divine titles, honour, and attributes, are 
 continually ascribed. (Gen. xxxii. 28, 30; xlviii. 16; 
 Exod. iii. 5; Josh. v. 14, 15; Judg. xiii. 18.)* Not 
 seeing in him the Son of God, the Word as yet unincarnate, 
 he deprived these his apparitions of a great part of their 
 significance, manifestly of all which they had as preludes 
 and figures of the coming incarnation. t 
 
 Jansenius, and others who like him seek to glorify 
 Augustine at the expense of all the other great doctors of 
 the early Church, even of an Athanasius himself, (indeed 
 one might suppose from Jansenius that he first had dis- 
 covered in Scripture the doctrines of grace,) these make 
 very much of his departure in this matter from the 
 unanimous exegetical tradition of as many as had gone 
 before him. They do not scruple to attribute to him the 
 glory of having hereby given the final stroke and death- 
 blow to Arianism ; which they afiirm found one of its 
 chiefest supports, and now, when in the course of the con- 
 troversy all the others had been removed from it, its only 
 
 * The chief passage on this subject is De Trin. 1. 3. c. 11. Later 
 favourers of this interpretation have added nothing to the arguments 
 which he there adduces. Cf. Be Civ. Dei, 1. 16. c. 29 ; Con. Maxim. 
 Arian. 1. 2. c. 26. 
 
 t Prseludia et figurse incamationis : Bull, Bef. Fid. Nic. 1. 4. c. 3. 
 § 14, who quotes the remarkable passages from HUary, Be Trin. 
 1. 4. §§ 23, 42, in which the elder faith of the Church on this 
 subject is maintained. For a full collection of passages fi'om the 
 early Fathers, see Bull, 1. 1. c. 1. §§ 2—8; and Petavius, Be Trin. 
 1. 8. c. 2. 
 
88 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 one, in tlie admission which the Church, as they say, had 
 too hastily made, that this intermediate angel was the 
 Word of God.* The steps of the Arian argument, put in 
 its barest form, were these ; God is invisible ; (1 Tim. i. 
 17;) but this angel, whom the whole Church has ever 
 recognised as the Word not as yet incarnate, was visible : 
 therefore this angel, that is, the Word, is not God. Many 
 have shown. Bishop Bull perhaps the best of all, that 
 there was no need of going back from the Chui'ch's 
 original faith in this matter, for the pm-pose of avoiding 
 such a conclusion ; and the eagerness of all modem Ai'ians 
 to maintain Augustine's position is a clear evidence that 
 they feel more to be gained for them than lost by such an 
 intei-pretation of the passages in the Old Testament, in 
 which the Angel of the Lord appears. Nor indeed is it 
 with them alone that it has found favom* ; but w^ith others 
 also, fi'om a very different, though not a worthier, theolo- 
 gical interest : for not to speak of the Socinians, who 
 indeed are but the Arians a little more developed, to 
 whom it was welcome as depriving the doctrine of the 
 Trinity of an important support, it has been favom-ably 
 
 * Thus in his Augustinus, Jansenius : Augustimis adversus con- 
 stantem prsecedentium sententiam magno ausu, majore conscientia, 
 subnixus scripturarum pondere, et rationum gravissimariun acumine 
 ac textura primus pansis velis in libris de Trinitate demonstravit 
 omnes apparitiones illas Yeteris Testamenti, non Deo sed angelo 
 tribuendas esse. So too Rivius {Vita Azigustini, Antverp. 1646, 
 p. 587) : Non dubitavit he contra totam Patrum vetustorum scholam, 
 melioribusque auspiciis fonteni heereseos [Arianse] occludere. Com- 
 pare Rich. Simon's Hist. Crit. du iV. T. c. 19. 
 
CHAP, v.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 89 
 
 received by the Eomanists as well, promising to supply them 
 with a seriptm-al authority for their worship of angels. 
 
 The Epistle to the Romans, the interpretation of which 
 owes so much to Augustine, (some part of its gains from 
 him I shall desire presently to recount,) yet is not exclu- 
 sively a gainer fi'om him. Here and there he has set the 
 iutei-pretation on a wrong track ; and thus I am persuaded 
 it has been with the latter clause of chap. v. 5. The 
 histor}^ of the exposition of the verse is cmious ; to Augus- 
 tine's influence we mainly owe the almost entii-e loss for 
 many centuries of its true interpretation ; which Origen, 
 Chiysostom, and Ambrose, men eveiy one of them less 
 penetrated with the spirit of St. Paul than he was, had 
 yet rightly seized ; but which, by his influence and frequent 
 use of it in another sense, was so completely lost sight of, 
 that it was not recovered anew till the time of the Eeforma- 
 tion. He read in his Latin, Caritas Dei diffusa est in 
 cordibus nostris per Spiritum Sanctum, qui datus est 
 nobis. Had he read, as Ambrose reads it,* and as it 
 should have been, effusa,-\ it is probable he would have been 
 saved from his mistake : for the comparison which would 
 have been thus suggested with such passages as Acts ii. 
 17 ; Isai. xxxii. 15 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 25 ; Joel ii. 28, in all 
 which God's large and free communication of Himself to 
 men is set forth under the image of a stream from heaven 
 to earth, would have led him to see that this " love of 
 
 * Be Spir. Sand. 1. 1. c. 8. § 88. 
 
 f 'Ekksxvt""' is the word of the original 
 
90 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 God" wliicli is poured out in our hearts, and is here 
 declared to be our ground of confidence in Him, is his love 
 to us, and not as Augustine will have it, our love to Him; 
 as is plain from a comparison with ver. 8.* The passage 
 is of considerable dogmatic importance. The perverted 
 intei'pretation became in after times one of the main stays, 
 indeed by far the chiefest one, of the Romish theory of an 
 infused rio;hteousness being the ground of our confidence 
 toward God : this the true explanation excludes, yet at 
 the same time affirms this great truth, that God's justi- 
 fication of the sinner is not, as the Romanists say we hold 
 it, an act merely declaratory, leaving the sinner as to his 
 real state where it found him, but a transitive act, being 
 not alone negatively a forgiveness of sin, but positively an 
 imparting of the spirit of adoption, with the sense of 
 reconciliation, and of all else into which God's love received 
 and believed will unfold itself. 
 
 Of slighter importance is his departure from the hitherto 
 received interpretation of Gen, vi. 2 ; although here, too, 
 I must needs believe that he forsook, and caused others to 
 
 * The caritas Dei diligentis, not the caritas Dei dilecti. In 
 several other passages where ayairr] Gfov occurs, Qtov is the genitive 
 of the subject, not of the object. (Rom. viii. 39 ; 2 Cor. v. 14, and 
 elsewhere.) — It is by no oversight that Augustine so interprets the 
 passage. On the contrary he distinctly rejects the correcter expla- 
 nation {Be Spir. et Litt. c. 32) : Caritas Dei dicta est diffundi in 
 cordibus nostris, non qua nos ipse diligit, sed qua nos facit dilectores 
 suos: sicut justitia Dei, qua nos justi ejus munere eflBcimur; et 
 Domini salus, qua nos salvos facit; et fides Jesu Christi, qua nos 
 fideles facit. 
 
CHAP, v.] INTEEPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 91 
 
 forsake, tte true explanation of the words. Most, if not all, 
 of the Fathers who had gone before him, certainly Justin, 
 Clement of Alexandi'ia, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Ambrose, 
 had understood " the sons of God," of whom Moses speaks 
 as angels ; for " sons of God" is a standing title of the 
 angels in the Old Testament ; (Job i. 6 ; ii. 1 ; xxxviii. 
 7; Ps. xxix. 1 ; Ixxxix. 7; Dan. iii. 25 ;) and never till 
 under the New Testament there had come forth a Son of 
 God, is it given to mortal men. (John i. 12.) He, how- 
 ever, saw in them, and was one of the first who did so, 
 the descendants of Seth,* and understood the inspired 
 historian to intend by this notice to indicate a breaking 
 down of the distinction which had hitherto been main- 
 tained between the two lines of Cain and of Seth. The 
 question is full of difficulty, yet there is much to lead one 
 to the conclusion that the earlier expositors were in the 
 right, who beheld in these unions, which were the crown- 
 ing wickedness of the old world, and from whence the 
 giants sprung, something more mysterious than marriages 
 contracted between the Cainites and the Sethites — some 
 "spiritual wickednesses," which rendered the flood an 
 inevitable necessity. 
 
 While we are thus marking the spots upon the sun, it 
 may be well to indicate one or two more passages, where 
 Augustine's usual skill seems to have failed him. Thus, 
 quoting the words of St. John, " His head and his hairs 
 
 * Be Civ. Dei, 1. 15. c. 22: in the following chapter he seeks to 
 refute at length the contrary explanation. 
 
92 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. V. 
 
 were white like wool, as white as snow," (Eev. i. 14,) lie 
 singularly enough sees in this whiteness of Chiist's hair, 
 the hoary head of old age ; an outward expression of the 
 inward fact, that He whom the seer beheld was "the 
 Ancient of Days."* This every one, I think, at once 
 feels cannot have been the meaning of St. John ; and a 
 little reflection justifies the instinctive dissent from such an 
 explanation : for the blanching of the hair being one of the 
 signs and consequences of life receding before death, of com- 
 mencing weakness and decay, it is impossible that the hair 
 " white as snow" could in this sense have been attributed to 
 the ever-living and ever-strong. Rather the " white" here is 
 to be explained, as in all the divine apparitions in which it 
 is mentioned,t by the fact that all brightness in its utmost 
 excess attains to be absolutely white : iron ends with being 
 white hot. The hair " white like wool, as white as snow," 
 is here another trait of the intolerable brightness, which 
 from head to foot was the Lord's. 
 
 Even in Mttle details in which one might suppose his 
 exegetical tact would certainly have shown him the right 
 way, he sometimes misses his point. Thus, in one place, 
 he suggests a reason why the Lord should have promised 
 
 * Exp. in Gal. 4. 21 : Dominus non nisi ob antiquitatem Veritatis 
 in Apocalypsi albo capite apparuit. 
 
 t Matt. xvii. 2 ; xxviii. 3 ; Mark ix. 3 ; xvi. 5 ; Luke ix, 29 ; cf. 
 Luke xxiv. 4 witb John xx. 12. The Qpovog XiVKOQ, Rev. xx. 11, is = 
 Qp6voQ So^rjg, Matt. xxv. 31 ; the vs(psXT] Xtvicrj, Rev.xiv. 14 = vsipkXr] 
 ^(oTsivr], Matt. xvii. 5. And the connexion between XtvKog and luceo, 
 nix and niteo, (contracted from niviteo,) is undoubted. 
 
CHAP, v.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 03 
 
 a reward to one who should give even a cup of cold water 
 to a disciple of his, (Matt. x. 42,) namely, that thus not 
 even the poorest, not one so poor as to be unable to heat 
 it, should be excluded from the power of showing this 
 mercy, and inheriting this reward.* Writing under an 
 African sky, he should have better interpreted these 
 words ; the " cold" is added to imply a certain zeal on the 
 part of the offerer of this cup, which makes him careful to 
 offer one of real refreshment ; and this only the cold water, 
 that which therefore had been freshly drawn, would be to 
 the weaiy traveller. (Prov. xxv. 25; Jer. xviii. 14.) 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps, cxxv. 5 : CaHcem aquae frigidce. addidit, ne quis 
 vel inde caussaretur, quod hgnuin non habuerit unde calefaceret 
 aquam. 
 
94 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VI. 
 
 CHAPTER YL , 
 
 "TT would not be difficult, I think, to compose a com- 
 -^ mentary, whicli should be both interesting and instruc- 
 tive, on the whole life of John the Baptist as recorded in 
 Scripture, drawing the materials exclusively from the 
 writings of St. Augustine, so abundant and so excellent 
 would those materials be found. Such here, however, I 
 cannot attempt, but must satisfy myself with rapidly 
 touching on a few points in his life which Augustine has 
 dwelt on with a peculiar love, or expounded with more 
 than ordinary success ; not forbearing, at the same time, 
 to express my sense of one or two erroneous explanations 
 into which I am persuaded he has fallen. Indeed, that 
 which I first would note is an inaccuracy in respect of 
 Zacharias, the father of the Baptist, of which, indeed, he 
 is not the author, for we find it aheady in St. Ambrose, 
 even as it maintained its ground dui'ing all the middle 
 ages — I mean the making Zacharias to have been High 
 Priest, which of course he was not, but only one of the 
 ordinary priests. This error had its root in a misappre- 
 hension of Luke i. 9, where Zacharias is described as going 
 in to burn incense in the temple of the Lord.* This was 
 
 * In Uv. Jok. Tract. 49. § 27 : Nam incensum non licebat ponere 
 nisi summo sacerdoti. Qi.Be Perfect. Just. c. 17; Serm. 291. § 3; For 
 
CHAP. VI.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 95 
 
 understood as though it was the entrance once a year into 
 the Holy of Holies, which being only permitted to the 
 High Priest, he who performed this function must needs 
 have been clothed with this office. The Evangelist alludes, 
 in fact, to the daily burning of incense, moraing and 
 evening, which was not his exclusive prerogative, but was 
 permitted to the ordinaiy priests as well. 
 
 Augustine brings out in respect of such births as the 
 Baptist's, in which the parents are stricken in years, and 
 according to the usual order of things have overlived the 
 hope and expectation of children, that, however remotely, 
 they are yet approximations to the one central Virgin birth. 
 The relation is not merely that these as well as that are out 
 of the usual order ; it lies not in the wonder that belongs, 
 though of course in very different proportions, to both ; 
 but also in the fact that in these also that which is born, 
 is born manifestly not of the will of flesh, nor of the will 
 of man. In these births according to promise and by 
 the special gift of God, that disturbing element which 
 mingles with the very foundations of our natui'al life as 
 they are first laid, was not indeed altogether wanting, 
 as in Ilk birth who was virgin-born, yet has it fallen very 
 far into the background ; therefore it became well that He 
 who should be born of a pure Virgin should have as his 
 herald one born in virtue of a promise, and of those that, 
 like Abraham and Sarah, had overpassed the expectation 
 of childi-en ; and in this birth we may behold a certain 
 
 an ample refutation of an error so patent as not to need one, see 
 WiTSius, Vita Joh, Bapt. p. 475. 
 
96 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VI. 
 
 approximation, however distant, to the mj-stery of 
 that* 
 
 The distinction between John's baptism and Christ's, 
 and the immeasurable superiority of the last over the first, 
 Augustine everywhere asserts or assumes. f I have not 
 any passage at hand in which he draws out loliat the 
 essential prerogatives of the baptism of the Master, as 
 compared with that of the servant, were. J He probably 
 considered, though in this he was mistaken, that no one 
 could confound that preparatory washing with the Chris- 
 tian sacrament of baptism, and that the difference was 
 expressed with sufl&cient clearness in the words of the 
 Baptist himself : " I indeed baptize you with water unto 
 repentance ; but he that cometh after me shall baptize 
 you with the Holy Ghost and with fire ;" (Matt. iii. 11 ;) 
 John's the baptismus Jluminis, the Lord's not Jluminis 
 alone, hut Jlaminis as weU. The attempt to identify the 
 
 * Serm. 290. c. 1 : Ambo mirabiliter nati, prseco et Judex, lucerna 
 et Dies, vox et Verbum, servus et Dominus. De sterili semis, de 
 Virgine Dominus. Serm. 291. § 1 : Quia enim venturus erat per 
 Virginem Deus homo, prsecessit eum de sterili mirabilis homo. 
 
 t Serm. 210. c. 2 : Baptismus Johannis a baptismo Christi dis- 
 cernendus est. In Ev. Joh. Tract. 5. § 5 : Qui baptizati sunt a 
 Johanne non eis suflFecit ; baptizati sunt enim baptismo Christi : 
 Augustine has probably especially in his thought the disciples of 
 John baptized by Paul at Ephesus; (Acts xix. 1 — 5;) cf. Con. Lift. 
 Fetil. 1. 2. c. 37. For the humiliating evasions by which the main- 
 tainers of the identity of the two baptisms seek to get rid of this 
 decisive statement, see Gerhard's Loc. Theoll. loc. 21. c. 4. § 63. 
 
 \ They are best stated by Tertullian in a remarkable passage, De 
 Baptismo, c. 10. 
 
CHAP. VI.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 97 
 
 two is found for the most part in connexion witli a poor 
 and unworthy apprehension of the benefits of Christian 
 baptism. John's baptism is not raised to a level with it, 
 but it is reduced to a level with John's. One who, like 
 Augustine, held that it was of the essence of a New 
 Testament sacrament, not merely to promise, but actually 
 to impart, grace,* was not likely to confuse them ; for this 
 none would have aflBrmed of the baptism of John. 
 
 Augustine has altogether a right insight into the words 
 of the Baptist, John i. 15; the exact meaning of which 
 very far from all interpreters have seized. It would be 
 long to follow them in their different deviations from the 
 right way ; which right way is, to take the words as de- 
 claring first a fact : "He that cometh after me is pre- 
 ferred before me ;" and then the ground on which this fact 
 reposes ; " for He was before me ;" and they only escape the 
 appearance of containing a tautology, when we seize rightly, 
 as Augustine has done, the distinction between the verb of 
 time and of becoming {yiyove) in the fiirst clause of the 
 sentence, and that of eternity and of being (J]v) in the 
 second. John is here declaring, first, that Christ, although 
 coming into the world later than himself, had yet, as one 
 might say, overtaken and passed him by, had got beyond 
 him ; so that the glory and fame of John, however it had 
 an earlier beginning, was yet fading and waning now before 
 the greater glory of his Lord: and then, in the second 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. Lxxiii. 1 : Sacramenta Novi Testamenti dant 
 salutem, sacramenta Veteris Testamenti promiserunt Salvatorem. 
 H 
 
98 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VI. 
 
 clause of the verse, lie announces tliat this was only just 
 and fitting, since He who thus came into the world after 
 him, yet was before him, was from eternity. It was only 
 just, then, that the Sun should extinguish the lamp — the 
 King cause the herald to be forgotten — He whose goings 
 forth were from everlasting should surpass in reputation 
 and honour him who pertained only to time.* 
 
 These relations between John and his Lord Augustine 
 loved to find expressed in the titles, severally, of the voice, 
 which is all that John claimed for himself; (John i. 28 ;) 
 and of the Word, which is claimed for his Lord ; (John 
 i. 1 ;) so also in that of the lamp, burning and shining 
 indeed, (John v. 35,) but with a derived light, and with 
 one quenched after a season, which was John, as compared 
 with the Light, " the true light which lighteth every man 
 that Cometh into the world," which was Christ. (John i. 9.)f 
 
 380. § 5 : Q-uomodo si duo ambulant in itinere, et unus 
 sit tardior, alter velocior, et prsecedat tardior aliquantum, post pau- 
 lulum autem sequatur velocior ; respicit tardior praecedens velociorem 
 sequentem, et dicit, Post me venit. Et ecce accelerante illo, et 
 propinquante, et adhserente, et transeunte, videt ille anteriorem quern 
 respiciebat posteriorem ; certe si celeritatem ejus expavescat quodam 
 modo et admiretur, nonne poterunt esse ista verba ejus, Ecce bomo 
 post me erat, et ante me factus est ? Ibid. : Prsecessit bonore 
 Jobaunem. Sed vide utrum merito. Interroga ipsum Jobannem. 
 Q,ui te sequebatm', quare tibi prselatus est ? Sequitur, Q,uia prior 
 me erat. Prior Jobanne, prior Abrabam, prior quam Adam, prior 
 quani coelum et terra, prior quam Angeli, Sedes, Dominationes, Prin- 
 cipatus, et Potestates. 
 
 f Tbis antitbesis between Jobn as tbe lamp and Cbrist as tbe 
 Light we have in great part lost in tbe English translation : where 
 
CHAP. VI.] INTERPRETEE OF SCRIPTURE.^ 99 
 
 This last antithesis has taken great hold upon Augustine, 
 so that he recurs to it again and again. Nor is it only as 
 a play in which his fancy has found pleasure ; for under 
 that which might at fii'st sight have appeared no better 
 than such a play of tlie fancy, there was expressed a truth, 
 than which none was dearer to his heart, and one which 
 the gainsayings of Pelagians had more and more made 
 him to feel was a central truth of all theology — tliis, 
 namely, that God is the one fountain-source of all wisdom, 
 light, and knowledge, " the Father of lights ;" while all 
 that man has is derived; he receives light, he never 
 creates it ; if he is light, he is " light in the Lord:'' even as 
 the eyes at their healthiest and best have but the capacity 
 of vision ; it is only the coming of another light than their 
 own which actually enables them to see. Thus Christ was 
 the Light, the true light that lighteth every man ; the 
 chiefest, highest, holiest beside him, a John himself, was 
 but a lamp kindled from his beams,* but which, as it 
 
 the words, IkiIvoq tjv 6 \vxvoq 6 Kaiofxtvog kuI (paiviov, have been, 
 rendered, " lie was a buining and a shining Viglit" Augustine had 
 in his translation much better, as it is also now in the Vulgate : lUe 
 erat lucerna ardens et lucens. The word lucerna threw him and 
 others, as Tertullian before him, back on the words of the Psalmist, 
 Paravi lucernam Christo meo, (Ps. cxxxi. 17,) in which words they 
 believed they saw a third distinct prophecy of John, besides the two 
 which the Old Testament undoubtedly contains. Thus Serm. 293. 
 § 4 : Deus Pater in prophetia loquens, Paravi lucernam Christo meo, 
 Johannem Salvatori pra;conem, Judici prsecursorem venturo, future 
 amicum Sponso. 
 
 * On the noble humility of John, and the freedom with which he 
 abases himself, that he may give aU glory to his Lord, Augustine 
 
 h2 
 
100 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VI. 
 
 was kindled, might also be quenched in darkness again.* 
 He remarks too, by the way, although this is a very 
 subordinate thought with him, that it was part of God's 
 discipline and training of men that the lamp should go 
 before the Light. The weak and diseased eyes that could 
 not at once have endured the brightness of this were 
 thus trained to bear it by the feebler splendour of the 
 other.f 
 
 exclaims {^Serm. 287. c. 2) : Lucerna enim erat, et vento superbiae 
 timebat exstingui. 
 
 * Serm. 67. c. 5 : Tu tibi lumen non es. Ut multum, oculus es ; 
 lumen non es. Quid prodest patens et sanus oculus, si lumen desit ? 
 Sic et Johannes lumen putabatur. And then with reference to 
 John V. 33 : Ille lucerna, hoc est, res illuminata, accensa ut luceret. 
 Quae accendi potest, potest et exstingui. Cf. Serm. 341. § 2; 7» Bo. 
 Joh. Tract. r4. § 1 : Potest quidem dici lumen Johannes, et bene 
 dicitm* et ipse lumen ; sed illuminatimi, non illuminans. AUud est 
 enim lumen quod illuminat, et aliud lumen quod illuminatm-. Nam 
 et oculi nostri lumina dicuntur, et tamen in tenebris patent et non 
 vident. Lumen autem illuminans a seipso lumen est, et sibi lumen 
 est, et non indiget alio lumine ut lucere possit, sed ipso indigent 
 csetera ut luceant. Cf. Ibid. 23. § 3, 4. 
 
 f Serm. 67. c. 5 : Propter csecos lucerna diei testimonium perhi- 
 bebat — which thought he expresses in another image elsewhere {In 
 Ev. Joh. Tract. 2. § 7) : Q-uomodo plerumque fit ut in aliquo corpora 
 radiato cognoscatur ortus esse sol, quem oculis videre non possumus. 
 Quia et qui saucios habent oculos, idonei sunt videre parietem illumi- 
 natum et Ulustratum a sole, vel montem, vel arborem, aut aliquid 
 hujuscemodi idonei sunt videre : et in alio illustrato demonstratur 
 ortus Ule, cui videndo adhuc minus idoneam aciem gerunt. Sic ergo 
 illi omnes, ad quos Christus venerat minus idonei erant cum videre : 
 radiavit Johannem, et per ilium confitentem se radiatum ac se LUumi- 
 natum esse, non qui radiaret et illuminaret, cognitus est ille qui 
 illuminat, cognitus est ille qui illustrat. 
 
CHAP. VI.] INTEKPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 101 
 
 So also, as Christ was the Light and John only the 
 lamp, Christ was the Word and John only the voice. In 
 drawing out the relations of Jesus and John as expressed 
 by these titles, the Word and the voice, Augustine traces 
 with a singular subtlety the manifold and profound fit- 
 nesses which lie in them for the setting forth of those 
 relations. A word, he observes, is something even without 
 a voice, for a word in the heart is as truly a word as after 
 it is outspoken ; while a voice is nothing, a mere unmean- 
 ing sound, an empty cry, unless it be also the vehicle of 
 a word. But when they are thus united, the voice in a 
 manner goes before the word, for the sound strikes the ear 
 before the sense is conveyed to the mind : yet while it 
 thus goes before it in this act of communication, it is not 
 rgally before it, but the contrary. Thus, when we speak, 
 the word in our hearts must precede the voice on our lips, 
 which voice is yet the vehicle by which the word in us is 
 transferred to and becomes also a word in another ; but 
 this being accomplished, or rather in the very accomplish- 
 ment of this, the voice has passed away, exists no more ; 
 but the word which is planted now in the other's heart, as 
 wen as in ours, remains. AU this Augustine transfers to 
 the Lord and to his forerunner. John is nothing without 
 Jesus : Jesus just what he was before without John ; how- 
 ever to men the knowledge of Him may have come through 
 John. John the first in time, and yet He who came after 
 most truly having heen before him. John, so soon as 
 he had accomplished his mission, passing away, ceasing, 
 having no continuous significance for the Church of God, 
 
102 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VI. 
 
 but Jesus, of whom lie had told, and to whom he wit- 
 nessed, abiding for ever.* 
 
 It must always strike one as somewhat strange, that 
 even after the Lord had commenced his ministry, John 
 stiU went forward wdth his ; that John's baptism did not 
 cease after Christ's had begun; (John iii. 22, 23;) that 
 John, so far from dissolving the circle of his disciples, and 
 handing them all over to the more perfect Teacher who 
 now was come, not only retained those whom he had 
 made already, (Matt. ix. 14,) but also gathered others 
 round him. (John iv. l.)t Augustine seems to give the 
 
 * Serm. 293 . § 3 : Johannes Vox ad tempus, Christus Verbum in 
 principio setemum. Tolle verbam, quid est vox? Ubi nullus est 
 intellectus, inanis est strepitus. Vox sine verbo aui'em pulsat, cor 
 non sedificat. Verumtamen in ipso corde nostro sedificando adver- 
 tamus ordinem rerum. Si cogito quid dicam, jam verbum est in 
 corde meo : sed loqui ad te volens, qua^ro quemadmodum sit etiam in 
 corde tuo, quod jam est in meo. Hoc quserens quomodo ad te per- 
 veniat, et in corde tuo insideat verbum quod jam est in corde meo, 
 assumo vocem, et assumta voce loquor tibi : sonus vocis ducit ad te 
 intellectum verbi, et cum ad te duxit sonus vocis intellectum verbi, 
 sonus quidem ipse pertransit, verbum autem quod ad te sonus per- 
 duxit, jam est in corde tuo, nee recessit a meo. Qi. Serm. 288. § 3 : 
 an admirable specimen of Augustine's skill in making the hard com- 
 paratively easy, and uniting at once the deep and the popular ; and 
 Serm. 289. § 3. I ought to mention that all this of the distinction 
 between the voice and the word, and the application of the distinction 
 to John and the Lord, is anticipated by Origen, In Joan, torn. 2. 
 § 26. 
 
 t Serm. 292. c. 2 : Hie ergo Johannes non invenitur inter dis- 
 cipulos Domini, sed potius invenitur discipulos habuisse cum Domino; 
 .... absit ut dicam, contra Dominum, sed tamen quasi extra 
 Dominum. 
 
CHAP. VI.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 103 
 
 true explanation of the fact ; which is, that a certain inde- 
 pendence, a certain aloofness on his part was necessary to 
 his function as a witness to the Lord. If his witness 
 was to go far with his countrymen, it must be that, not 
 of one that was merely a disciple of Jesus, and who there- 
 fore would evidently only reproduce the impressions re- 
 ceived from Him, whose witness consequently would be in 
 fact, and would be felt by all to be, the Lord's testimony 
 to Himself.* The testimony of John on the contrary, 
 came with quite another force, being that of one who, 
 while he did fullest and freest homage to the superior 
 greatness of the Lord, yet retained, for so God had willed 
 it, a position of his own. That position moreover being 
 exactly one in which feelings of jealousy would most 
 easily have risen in his mind at the glory which was fast 
 eclipsing his own, feelings which there were not wanting 
 those who attempted to stir up, (John iii. 36,) his testi- 
 mony to the character and mission of the Son of God must 
 have come to the men of his generation with a weight, 
 which under no other circumstances it could have pos- 
 sessed.! 
 
 At the same time John's aloofness from Jesus reaches 
 deeper than this, grounds itself on a fact which Augus- 
 tine often urges — namely, that John was, so to speak, the 
 impersonation of the whole preparatory discipline for men's 
 
 * Serm. 293. § 6 : Laudatis quern sequimini, praedicatis cui 
 adliseretis. 
 
 t Serm. 293. § 6 : Hoc erat procul dubio necessarium prsecursori 
 fideli, ab eo Christum prsedicari qui posset semulus credi. 
 
104 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VI. 
 
 reception of a Saviour:* that whole preparation culminated 
 in him; "the law and the prophets were until John." 
 Yet though standing thus at the threshold, he did not him- 
 self move in the sphere, of New-Testament and evangehcal 
 life, but in that of the Old ; and thus it would have 
 seemed like a confounding of things which it was the 
 intention of God should be kept distinct, the law and the 
 gospel, prophecy and its fulfilment, it would have troubled 
 and marred the representative character of John, per- 
 sonifying, as he did, the first of each of these great contrasts, 
 had he entered into closer personal relation with Him who 
 was the end of the law, the fulfilment of prophecy. 
 
 In regard of John's message to Jesus, " Art thou He 
 that should come, or do we look for another ?" (Matt. xi. 
 3,) the somewhat startling character of such a message 
 from such a man, the strange sound which it has in our 
 ears that he who bore the first and distinctest witness to 
 Jesus as the Christ, should now himself seem to doubt 
 whether he were the promised One or not, Augustine well 
 brings out ;■{■ while at the same time he keeps clear of, 
 indeed he seems expressly to contradict, Tertullian's 
 
 * Be Div. Quasi, qu. 58 : Johannes Baptista multis probabiUbus 
 
 documentis non absurde creditor prophetise gestare personam 
 
 Totius prophetise, quae ab exordio generis humani usque ad adventum 
 Domini de Domino facta est, imaginem gestat. 
 
 t Serm. 66. § 3 : Ilia laudatio facta est dubitatio ? Tu digitum 
 intendisti, tu eum ostendisti ; tu dixisti, Ecce agnus Dei, Ecce qui 
 toUit peccata mundi, Tu dixisti, Nos omnes de plenitudine ejus 
 accepimus. Tu dixisti, Non sum dignus corrigiam calceamenti ejus 
 solvere. Et mode tu dicis, Tu es qui venis, an alium expectamus ? 
 
CHAP. VI.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 105 
 
 error,* who will have the Baptist to have sent not for his 
 disciples' satisfaction and establishment in the faith, or at 
 least not merely for theirs, but also for his own ; as though 
 ill that dungeon of Machaerus, he too had been assailed 
 with doubts by the tempter, and now needed for himself 
 this re-assuring word. This explanation of the message 
 has something in it attractive at first sight, and Olshausen 
 has done for it all of which it is capable to commend it 
 to the Christian sense of the reader, and to remove from 
 it what it has of strange and perplexing : yet I cannot 
 accept it as a true view of the case, or believe that there 
 were any shakings in the Baptist's faith. Bather in send- 
 ing his disciples with this question to the Lord, he did 
 but continue to do that which he had done from the 
 first, namely, turn all eyes so far as he might away from 
 himself, the waning lamp, and to Jesus, the waxing Sun. 
 His disciples had heard his testimony that Jesus was the 
 Christ, and they might have been tempted to believe this, 
 mainly because theii* master said it, instead of because the 
 Lord himself declared it — to have made even their very 
 afiiance on the Lord itself an act of homage done to their 
 own master, and not to Him. How few would have 
 
 * Tertullian, Le Baj)t. c. 10; Adv. Marcion. 1. 4. c. 18 : Ipso 
 jam Domino operanti in terram necesse erat portionem Spiritus S. 
 quse ex forma prophetici moduli in Johanne egerat prseparatm-am 
 viarum Dominicai-mn abscedere jam ab Johanne, redactam scilicet in 
 Dominum, ut in massalem suam summam. This statement Augustine 
 I think meant pointedly to contradict, when he explains the reason of 
 the Lord's testimony to John (ver. 7 — 15,) as being, Ne fortis aliquis 
 dicat ; Bonus erat primo Johannes, et Spiritus Dei deseruit ilium. 
 
J 06 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VI. 
 
 resisted the subtle flattery offered to tliem in such a shape 
 as this. But John did resist it. Their faith in Christ 
 shall rest not on their faith in him, that is, on man's word, 
 as its ultimate ground, but rather on the word of God, on 
 the Lord's own testimony that he is the Christ. John 
 desii'ed, as Augustine well expresses it, that his disciples 
 should dig down to the rock, and set their foundations 
 there, and would not be satisfied until they had so done ; 
 and this was the meaning of his sending them with that 
 question to the Lord.* 
 
 He further adds that the Lord's honourable testimony 
 to John, which directly follows, (ver. 7 — 11,) was in all 
 probability especially timed to hinder on the part of those 
 present, or of any to whom the notice of this message 
 shoidd come, any such misinterpretation of it, or misap- 
 plication of his own warning words, " Blessed is he who- 
 soever shall not be offended in me,"f as should derogate 
 in the least from the just esteem and honour in which the 
 Baptist deserved ever to be holden. The Lord reminds 
 those present of what John was, of what they themselves 
 in times past had seen and found him — no reed shaken by 
 every wind, but a cedar-tree braving the shock of storms — 
 no server of the time, that would say soft things to kings, 
 
 * Serm. 66. § 4 : Ite dicite illi ; non quia ego dubito, sed ut vos 
 instruamini. Ite, dicite illi : quod ego soleo dicere, ab illo audita : 
 audistis prsecouem, confirmamini a judice. 
 
 f Ibid. : Nam ut sciremus quia non de Johanne dixit : Illis 
 abeuntibus coepit dicere ad turbas de Johanne: dixit laudes ejus 
 veras verax, Veritas. 
 
CHAP. VI.] INTERPEETEE OF SCRIPTURE. 107 
 
 that he might wear the soft clothing of those that are in 
 favour in king's paLices, — no such shaper therefore of his 
 doctrines to the shifting moods of the times as would 
 now seek for fear or for favour to go back from his former 
 testimony to Christ. But what had they found him? 
 a true successor in outward manner of life, and in inner 
 spirit, to the old prophets — himself a prophet — " yea," 
 the Lord adds out of his own deeper insight into the 
 meaning of John's appearance, for this the multitude had 
 not apprehended — " and more than a prophet." 
 
 But how " more than a prophet" ? To this Augustine 
 replies that he was more, and had higher honour, than any 
 other prophet ; fii'st, in that he was the only prophet who 
 was himself prophesied of and announced by others ; his 
 coming having indeed a double announcement; (Isai. xl. 3; 
 Matt. iv. 5,6;)* and secondly, in that he was the connecting 
 link between the old dispensation and the new; (Luke 
 xvi. 16;) and himself, though not perfectly belonging to, 
 yet partaking of the prerogatives of, the new.f And 
 thirdly, which was indeed but another aspect of this 
 second, he was more than any other prophet, in that he bore 
 testimony, not as all others had done, to a Saviour yet 
 future, but to one already present ; and that, not in dark 
 
 * Thus Serm. 288. § 2 : Hie propheta, immo amplius quam pro- 
 pheta, prfenuntiari meruit per prophetam. 
 
 t Serm. 293. § 2 : Videtur Johannes interjeetus quidam limes 
 Testamentorum duorum, Veteris et Novi Sustinet ergo per- 
 sonam vetustatis, et prseconium novitatis. And in a sermon which 
 the Benedictine editors reject, he is called legis et gratise fibula. 
 
1 08 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VI. 
 
 figures, but in plainest words, seeing with his eyes what 
 many prophets and kings of the old covenant had desired 
 to see and had not seen — they telling at most of a Sun 
 which should one day rise up above the horizon, he actu- 
 ally gilded by the brightness of his risen beams.* 
 
 But the further words, " For this is he of whom it is 
 written, Behold I send my messenger before thy face,*' (ver. 
 10,) with the explanation, " This is Elias which was for to 
 come," (ver. 14,) added to that later declaration which 
 all admit to have reference to John, " Elias is come 
 already," (Matt. xvii. 11, 13,) how, it maybe asked, shall 
 these be reconciled with John's own distinct denial of his 
 being Elias (John i. 21) ? The solution of the apparent 
 contradiction is of course not difficult, the key to it lying, 
 as Augustine rightly remarks, in the words of the angel, 
 that he should go before the Lord " in the spii'it and 
 power of Elias ;" (Luke i. 17 ;) so that in one sense, that 
 is literally, John the Baptist was not Elias, in another, 
 that is in a figure, he was.f But at the same time Augus- 
 
 * Con. duasEpp. Pelag. 1. 3. c. 4 : Quasi prseteritse dispensationis 
 limes quidam, qui mediatorem ipsum non aliqua umbra futuri, vel 
 allegorica significatione, vel ulla prophetica prsenuntiatione venturum 
 esse significans, sed digito demonstrans ait, Ecce aguus Dei, ecce qui 
 toUit peccatum mundi. Con. Litt. Fetil. 1. 2. c. 37: Prioribus justis 
 prsenuntiare tantum Christum concessum est, huic autem et prse- 
 nuntiare absentem, et videre praesentem. Cf. Serm. 288. § 2. 
 
 f In Ev. Joh. Tract. 4 : Si figuram prsecursiouis advertas, Johannes 
 ipse est EUas, quod enim ille ad primum adventum, hoc Hie ad 
 secundum. Si proprietatem personse interroges, Johannes Johannes, 
 Elias Elias. 
 
CHAP. VI.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 109 
 
 tine does not believe that this coming of John the Baptist 
 was the exhaustive fulfilment of the prophecy of Malachi, 
 or more than a partial and initial one. There is yet in 
 reserve an actual and personal coming of the great Ee- 
 former of the Old Testament, who, in contemplation of 
 this, was withdrawn from the earth without tasting of 
 death.* In this I cannot but believe that he was right, 
 and it is hard to perceive how the Lord could have been 
 at more pains to declare to his disciples that so it should 
 be, or to prevent their confounding these two cognate but 
 distinct events, than at Matt. xvii. 11, He is; not to say 
 that the same is more lightly indicated in his, " If ye will 
 receive it," here. (ver. 14.) 
 
 The words that follow are more difficult : " Yerily I say 
 unto you, among them that are born of woman there hath 
 not risen a greater than John the Baptist ; notwithstanding 
 he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than 
 he ;" (Matt. xi. 11 ;) nor has Augustine planted himself, as 
 I believe, at the true point of view from which to explain 
 them. Indeed he himself wavers between two expo- 
 sitions ; sometimes he makes " the kingdom of heaven" to 
 signify the future heavenly world, and thus the Lord to 
 
 * InEv.Joh. Tract. 4 : Quod erat Johannes ad primum adventum, 
 hoc erit Elias ad secundum adventum. Quomodo duo adventus 
 Judicis, sic duo prsecones ; cf. Be Civ. Dei, 1. 20. c. 29. With 
 this connects itself his faith, {Ser7n. 299. § 11,) as that of so many 
 in the early Church, that Elijah with Enoch are the two witnesses 
 of Rev. xi. 7, so that of him it should be true, mortem distulit, 
 non evasit. 
 
liO AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VT. 
 
 affirm tliat the lowest angel is greater than the greatest 
 that is stiU compassed with infirmities here ; but he does 
 not lay much stress on this exposition, and only once or 
 twice has suggested it.* He rather and preferably makes 
 the point of the declaration to lie in that " born of 
 woman," finding a tacit antithesis between this and " born 
 of a virgin," as was only He who uttered these words, who 
 will then himself be that " least," or rather, lesser, " in 
 the kingdom of heaven," who is greater than John.f But 
 this interpretation is in every way most unsatisfying. 
 How can we imagine that the Lord would have thought 
 it needful to say with such emphasis that he was greater 
 than John? Moreover He too is expressly declared to 
 have been " made of a woman" (Gal. iv. 4,) which word 
 therefore fails to express that antithesis to virgin, (cf. also 
 John ii. 4 ; xix. 26,) which is necessary for this explana- 
 tion ; and further, as the most decisive objection of all to 
 that exposition which would make the Lord to mean Him- 
 self by this " lesser in the kingdom of heaven," He was not 
 
 * Con. Adv. Leg. et Froph. 1. 2. c. 5 : Aut enim regnum ccfilorum 
 appellavit eo loco Dominus, quod nondum accepimus et in quo 
 nondum sumus ; et quia ibi sunt sancti angeh, quihbet in eis minor 
 major est utique quohbet sancto et justo, portante corpus quod cor- 
 rumpitur et aggravat animam. Aut si regnum coelorum in ea sen- 
 tentiaillic intelligi voluit, qua et in hoc tempore significatur Ecclesia, 
 profecto se ipsum Dominus signincavit, quia nascendi tempore minor 
 erat Johanne, major autem divinitatis seternitate, et Dominica 
 potestate. In like manner he suggests the two explanations, Serm. 
 66. § 2. 
 
 t In Ev. Joh. Tract. 14 : Minor nativitate, major potestate, major 
 divinitate, majestate, claritate. 
 
CHAP. VI.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. Ill 
 
 in the kingdom of heaven, since rather the kingdom of 
 heaven was in Him, and unfolded itself from Him. For 
 myself I cannot doubt that the point of the saying lies in 
 the opposition, not between "bom of woman" and " born of 
 a virgin;" but between "bom of woman" and " born of the 
 Spirit ;" which they all ai-e that are in the new " kingdom 
 of heaven," that kingdom of the Spirit which dates from 
 Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost was given as, until the 
 Son was glorified, he had not been given before; (John vii. 
 39 ;) our Lord declaring here that the mystery of regenera- 
 tion, whereof all the faithful to the very least in the New 
 Covenant are partakers, is a higher gift than any of which 
 the greatest saints and servants of God, even a John him- 
 self, were partakers in the Old. 
 
 There is a certain fitness, Augustine observes, the 
 same fitness which we may trace as running through the 
 whole of the Baptist's history, in the fact, that the im- 
 mediate occasion of his martyrdom was not his witness 
 for Jesus as the Christ, or aught in immediate connexion 
 with his Lord ; but rather his assertion of the holiness oi 
 the Law : " It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's 
 wife." (Mark vi. 18.) He who was its last and noblest 
 personification fitly sealed with his own blood his zeal for 
 its holiness.* At the same time that he, and such as he, 
 inasmuch as they died for the truth, did in fact die for 
 Christ, who is the Truth, that they were his martyrs as 
 really as those who were called by his name, and shed 
 
 Enarr. in Ps. cxl. 10. 
 
112 ADGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VI. 
 
 their blood more immediately for his testimony — is a point 
 which he oftentimes presses, and on which he strongly 
 feels. Thus a sermon on the Maccabsean martyrs* is 
 dedicated entirely to this unity of the people of God before 
 and after Christ, out of which unity it well became that 
 the Christian Church should celebrate those martyrs who 
 died before their King had died, or even had appeared, 
 no less than those who died after. 
 
 And on deaths like this of the Baptist's, when the ser- 
 vants of God seem given into the hands of the wicked, 
 who do unto them whatsoever they list, (Matt. xvii. 12,) 
 he often takes occasion to remark how different to the eye 
 of sense the dealings of God with some of his servants, 
 from his dealings with others ; those he gloriously delivers; 
 these he appears to abandon to their foes ; the three chil- 
 dren are brought forth unscathed from the fiery furnace; the 
 Maccabaean martyrs perish in the flames; (2 Mace. vi. 11; 
 vii, 5 ;) Peter is delivered from the sword of Herod — from 
 that sword just stained with his brother apostle's blood ; 
 (Acts xii. 2, 11 ;) one John the malice of an emperor fails 
 to hurt, and he is plunged unharmed into the bm-ning oil ; 
 another falls a victim to a woman's spite, and his life is 
 given to a wanton dancing-girl's request. But shall we 
 therefore say that those God delivered, and these not? 
 Would such language rightly express the facts of the case ? 
 Should we not rather say, Those were delivered openly, 
 and in the face of the world — these as really delivered. 
 
 Serm. 300. 
 
CHAP. VI.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 113 
 
 however their deliverance did not as openly appear ; but 
 like so much besides, is at present seen and apprehended 
 only by the eye of faith.* 
 
 The life, or rather the death, of Stephen naturally does 
 not yield such varied and abundant matter for comment as 
 that of the Baptist : for the whole of the proto-martyr's 
 history, profoundly suggestive as in manifold ways it is, 
 is yet confined within the limits of two chapters. All that 
 we know of him is there : he starts suddenly as from 
 the ranks into the very foremost place of peril and of 
 honour, a standard-bearer of the truth ;t he rises above the 
 horizon, a great luminary of the Church, but sets for us • 
 almost as soon as risen ; leaving to us one great discourse, 
 one mighty deed. On this, however, Augustine has 
 much. In the Afiican Church the memory of the martyrs 
 was especially dear. Some of the noblest of that noble 
 army of martyrs were ci:ildren of her own ; and though 
 now the days of the martyrs were over, the spirit that 
 inspired them, and that pervades, though not without the 
 
 * Serm. 301. c. 3 : Ergo iUis Deus aderat, hos deseruerat? Absit. 
 Immo utrisque adfuit, illis in aperto, istis in occulto. Illos visibi- 
 liter liberabat : istos invisibiliter coronabat. Euarr. 2''* in Ps. xxxiii. 
 18 : lUe qui tulit de flamma tres pueros, numquid tulit de flamma 
 Macbabseos? Nonne illi in ignibus hymnizabant, illi in ignibus 
 exspirabant ? Deus trium puerorum, nonne ipse est et Macbabseorum ? 
 lUos eruit, et illos non eruit ? Immo utrosque emit, sed tres pueros 
 sic eruit, ut et carnales confunderentur. 
 
 t Augustine bimself observes, with reference to this fact that it 
 was the deacons and not the apostles who furnished the first martyr 
 {Serm. 315. c. 19) : Prior victima de agnis quam arietibus. 
 I 
 
114 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VI. 
 
 admixtiu'e of some turbid elements, tlie writings of Tertul- 
 lian, had not passed away. And thus some of Augustine's 
 most admirable discourses were delivered on the days 
 dedicated to their memories; on St. Stephen he has 
 several, and from these and other sources in his writings 
 I select a few notices of him, who in so many aspects was 
 the forerunner of St. Paul. 
 
 Augustine, without entering with any fulness into the 
 scheme of Stephen's discourse, which is certainly difficult, — 
 why, namely, it should have so long an exordium, why he 
 should dwell so long on the patriarchal history, which was 
 as familiarly known to his hearers as to himself, and which 
 bore only most remotely on the matters of which he was 
 accused — without professing to explain all this,* yet gives 
 an important hint on the subject, namely, that this long 
 introduction was, in the nobler sense of the teim, a cap- 
 tatio benevolentise. Having much to say, before he con- 
 cluded, that would be most distasteful to his hearers, he 
 would fain conciliate them so far as he might, and espe- 
 
 * He has however in one place a brief but valuable analysis of 
 the earlier parts of the discourse, though one would fain have had 
 the connexion traced also between these and the latter {Serm. 315. 
 c. 2) : Hie prius exposuit illis ab initio legem Dei, ab Abraham 
 usque ad Moysem, usque ad datam legem, usque ad introitum in 
 terram promissionis ; ut commendaret quia non erat verum testimo- 
 nium unde illi calumniam commovebant [Acts vi. 13.] Deinde de 
 Moyse dedit eis magnam similitudinem ad Christum. Keprobatus 
 ab eis Moyses, et ipse eos liberavit ; reprobatus liberavit. Sic 
 et Dominus Christus reprobatus a Judeeis, ipse illos est postea 
 liberaturus. 
 
CHAP. VI.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 115 
 
 cially would impress on them, by dwelling so fully on the 
 early privileges and election of the Abrahamic family, that 
 these privileges were most precious to him, even while he 
 was asserting that in Christ Jesus they had now become 
 the common property of all the families of the earth.* 
 
 The sharp severity of speech and tone which appears 
 in some parts of Stephen's address to his fellow-country- 
 men Augustine is fond of contrasting with the truest love 
 to them which broke forth in his dying prayer. And he 
 bids us note how much of tenderest love will often lie hid 
 under words that almost sound like words of bitterness 
 and hate. Where could Stephen have found keener words 
 than those — " Ye stifFnecked and uncircumcised in heart 
 and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost" (Acts vii. 
 51 — 53) ? One who knew not the mysteries of love might 
 suppose that he hated those whom he addressed in lan- 
 guage such as this ; and yet presently, when they added 
 to all their former resistance to him those fui'ther utter- 
 ances of their enmity, gnashing upon him with their teeth, 
 yea, even under the showers of their cruel stones, he could 
 pray for these same, and did pray for them, even in the 
 agonies of painful death.f 
 
 * Serm. 319. c. 1 : Conciliabat auditorem, ut commendaret Sah'a- 
 torem. Blande coepit, ut diu audiretur. 
 
 t Serm. 317. c. 4: Lingua clamat, cor amat; and in a beautiful 
 passage, In Ev. Joh. Trad. 6. § 3 : Magnus impetus, sed columba 
 sine felle ssevit. Serm. 315. c. 2: Seevire videtur: lingua ferox, cor 
 lene. Clamabat et amabat. Sieviebat, et salvos fieri volebat. Quis 
 non crederet iratum, quis non crederet odiorum facibus inflammatura? 
 Hoc dicat, qui cor non videt. Latebat cor ejus ; sed audita sunt 
 I 2 
 
116 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VI. 
 
 And this example of Stephen's dying love Augustine, 
 in his homiletic instruction, urges often on his hearers from 
 another point of view. Many, when exhorted by the 
 example of Christ their Lord to bless them that curse 
 them, and to pray for them that despitefully use them, 
 might perhaps make answer, " He could do this, He could 
 say, even as they nailed Him to the cross, ' Father, forgive 
 them, for they know not what they do.' This was not 
 difficult for Him, for He was God ; but it is impossible for 
 us." Augustine in reply bids them look not alone at 
 their Master, but also at their fellow-servant, at one of 
 like passions with themselves, by nature a sinful man — 
 to look at Stephen, who under that shower of stones 
 prayed for his murderers; and with his example before 
 them to acknowledge that the same was possible for them, 
 who had the same fountain of grace to draw from which 
 he had, the same Saviour to turn to as he had, — a Saviour 
 in whose strength they too might overcome hate and 
 revenge, and all the evil passions of the mind.* 
 
 novissima verba ejus, et patuerunt occulta ejus cum lapidaretur: 
 Domine, ne statuas illis hoc peccatum. Ubi est, Dura cervice ? Hoc 
 est totum quod clamabas ? hoc est totum quod sseviebas ? foris 
 clamabas, et intus orabas. Cf. Enarr. in Ps. cxxxii. 2. 
 
 * Serm. 315. c. 6; 317. c. 2: Quando audiunt: Pater, iguosce 
 iUis, quia nesciuut quid faciunt ; dicuut sibi, Ipse hoc potuit tam- 
 quam Filius Dei, tamquam unicus Patris. Caro enim pendebat, sed 
 Deus intus latebat. Nos autem quid sumus, qui ista faciamns? 
 Fefellit qui jussit ? Absit : non fefellit. Si multum ad te putas 
 imitari Dominum tuuni; adtende Stephanum couservum tuum. 
 Dnrainus Christus, unicus Dei filius: nuraquid hoe Stepbanus? 
 Dominus Christus, de incorrupta virgine natus : numquid hoc Ste- 
 
CHAP. YL] interpreter OF SCRIPTURE. 117 
 
 It is singular that Augustine has not indicated with 
 greater clearness the meaning of Stephen's beholding in 
 that hour of his agony his Lord standing at the right hand 
 of God, for it is exactly such a point as he seldom suffers 
 to escape him. He often indeed notes that this is the only 
 instance in which He is described as standing, that on 
 every other occasion he is sitting, at the right hand of the 
 Majesty on high ; but he does not proceed to explain or to 
 account for this exceptional case.* The right explanation 
 we owe to Gregory the Greatf — namely, that it belongs to 
 the passion of the moment that the dying martyr-, filled with 
 confidence in his Saviour's present help, should thus behold 
 Him, not sitting in majestic calmness, but uprisen from 
 his throne, and thus standing at the right hand of the 
 Father, as in act to come forth to the help of his suifering 
 servant, — all which we have taken up into our Collect on 
 St. Stephen's day : " blessed Jesus, who standest at 
 the right hand of God to succour all those that suffer for 
 Thee." 
 
 It is at least a pardonable play upon words, even if it 
 
 phanus ? Dominus Christus venit, non in carne peccati, sed in simili- 
 tudine caniis peccati : numquid hoc Stephanas ? Sic natus est ut tu; 
 inde natus est, unde et tu ; ab eo renatus est, a quo et tu. 
 
 * He connects, indeed, Stephen's standing with his Lord's {Serm. 
 314. § 1) : Jesum stantem videbat ; ideo stabat et non cadebat, quia 
 stans sursmn et deorsum certautem desuper spectans invictas militi 
 suo vires, ne caderet, suggerebat. 
 
 t The passage is as follows {Horn. 29 in Evang.) -. Sedere judi- 
 cantis [adde, imperantis] est, stare vero pugnantis vel adjuvantis. 
 Stephanus in labore certaminis positus stantem vidit, quern adjutorem 
 habuit. 
 
118 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VI. 
 
 is no more, in whicli Augustine allows himself when he 
 urges the nomen et omen of Stephen's name. He who 
 first, being steadfast unto death, received the crow7i of life, 
 had borne long since the prophecy of this his martyr's 
 croAvn in the name of Stephen {arecpavog) which he bore.* 
 The relation between a prayer and its answer is not always 
 distinctly traced in Scripture. Like so much else which is 
 there, it is left for us to draw out for ourselves from slight 
 and scattered hints, rather than forcibly obtruded upon us. 
 We are not told that there was any connexion between 
 Peter's deliverance from the dungeon of Herod, and the 
 prayer that " was made without ceasing of the Church 
 unto God for him ;" (Acts xii. 5 ;) yet who can doubt 
 that there was such, and, his attention having been called 
 to it, that it was the intention of the sacred historian to 
 indicate such? Neither can we doubt that there was a 
 deep inner connexion between Stephen's prayer and Paul's 
 conversion. The apostle Paul was probably the direct 
 fruit of the prayer which the dying martyr- uttered for his 
 enemies ; of which enemies the " young man whose name 
 was Saul" was so far the bitterest, that he was not content 
 with having a single hand in the proto -martyr's death, but 
 by keeping the clothes of the witnesses, and consequently 
 the chief actors in the deed, and disencumbering them 
 
 * Serm. 314. § 2; Enarr. in Ps. Lviii. 3: Stephanus lapidatus 
 est, et quod vocabatur accepit ; Stephanus enim corona dicitur. 
 Less tolerable than this is another pun in which he allows himself on 
 this same occasion ; Serm. 317. c. 4 -, Petris lapidabatur qui pro 
 Petrd moriebatur, dicente apostolo, Petra autem erat Christus. 
 
CHAP. VI.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. J 19 
 
 for their work, had as it were many hands in the 
 slaughter.* 
 
 The scattering of the disciples in the persecution that 
 followed, which disciples yet " went everywhere preaching 
 the word," Augustine triumphantly compares to the scat- 
 tering of sparks of fire, which before were heaped upon a 
 single hearth, but now were flung abroad to kindle where- 
 soever they alighted. The foolish Jews had thought to 
 quench those torches, which indeed they only succeeded in 
 scattering far and wide, and which presently set the world 
 in a flame. f 
 
 * Serm. 316, § 7. Quantum sseviebat in ilia CEede, vultis audire? 
 Vestimenta lapidantium servabat, ut omnium manibus lapidaret. 
 Serm. 279. § 1: Sic aderat lapidantibus ut non ei sufficeret si tantum 
 suis manibus lapidaret. Ut enim esset in omnium lapidantium mani- 
 bus, ipse omnium vestimenta servabat, magis sseviens omnes adju- 
 vando quam suis manibus lapidando. 
 
 t Serm. 316. c. 4 : Fugati suutfratres, sed tanquam ardentes faces, 
 quocunque veniebant, accendebant. Stalti Judsei, quando iUos de 
 Jerosolymis fugabant, carbones ignis in silvam mittebant. And Serm. 
 116. c. 6, he compares the Church of Jerusalem to a heap of burning 
 brands : Lapidato Stephano passa est ilia congeries persecutionem; 
 Sparsa sunt ligna, et accensus est mundus. 
 
120 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VII. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 TT is difficult not to regret that Augustine did not, 
 -*- among kis other exegetical works, give to the Church 
 a commentaiy on the Epistle to the Eomans, seeing that 
 for such a work the character of his mind, and the whole 
 training of his life, eminently fitted him. He was of a 
 spirit more akin to the great apostle of the Gentiles 
 than any Father of the early Church. He, too, like Paul, 
 had been brought by wonderful ways, and after many 
 fearful struggles, there where he had found rest for his soul. 
 Out of this great conflict he did not bring merely his 
 wounds and his scars, but also a deep acquaintance 
 with the devices of the enemy, with the weaknesses and 
 treacheries of the human heart, with the mighty power of 
 Him that had stood on his side to help and to save. But 
 he has not bequeathed to the Church any such work. 
 His hrief Scholia on this Epistle, and his Inckoata Expositio, 
 which, though it occupies sixteen columns, only handles 
 the first five verses of the first chapter, and in which he 
 did not proceed further, justly fearing the enormous size 
 to which a commentary on that scale would grow, only 
 slightly qualify this statement. His work on the Galatians, 
 which might have been accepted as in part a substitute, 
 belongs to an earlier period of his life, and with very 
 
CHAP. VII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 121 
 
 much of valuable, does not possess all the depth and ful- 
 ness of his later exposition. For though that which 
 Luther says of him, that " he was first roused up and 
 made a man by the Pelagians when he strove against 
 them," has something of that verbal exaggeration he often 
 displays, yet to that controversy he did certainly owe 
 much. In conflict with these gainsayers he learned to 
 possess his truth as he had never done before, as but for 
 this perhaps he never would have done at all, and not to 
 possess only, but to enlarge and to deepen it. 
 
 But although we have not such a work from his pen, 
 there is largest material for the exposition of this portion 
 of Holy Scripture to be drawn, if one would bring it 
 together, from almost all parts of his writings, and more 
 especially from his treatises having reference to that con- 
 troversy, and from several of his Letters. By most 
 modern interpreters of the Romans, these rich and abun- 
 dant mines have remained well nigh unwr ought. It 
 would be impossible in the compass of this present essay 
 to do more than select two or three prominent passages 
 of that Epistle, and to attempt to show from these the 
 manner in which he has addressed himself to the exposi- 
 tion of this very deep and theologically central portion of 
 God's word.* 
 
 And, first, in regard of Eom. v. 12 — 21. This is 
 
 * See an interesting passage in his book JDe Sj)ir. et Litt. c. 8, in 
 ■which he expresses himself on the subject matter of this Epistle, 
 and generally on the fitness of St. Paul to be eminently the preacher 
 of the grace of God, 
 
122 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VII. 
 
 Augustine's stronghold and citadel in all his great con- 
 troversy with the Pelagians.* He felt, and rightly, that 
 in the relations there set out, of Adam and Christ to one 
 another, and of the progeny of each, respectively, to its 
 natural and its spiritual head, the whole controversy 
 between the Church and these deniers of her truth lay 
 implicitly wrapped up. Indeed this chapter is the rock 
 upon which all Pelagian schemes of theology, which pro- 
 ceed on the extenuation of the Pall, the denial of the signi- 
 ficancy of Adam's sin (save in the way of evil example) to 
 any but himself, — which break up the race of man into a 
 multitude of isolated atoms, touching, but not really con- 
 nected with, one another, instead of contemplating it as 
 one great whole, — must for ever shiver and come to 
 nothing. In the light of this chapter such schemes 
 appear as contrary to the revealed Word of God, as 
 indeed they are to all deeper apprehensions which have 
 been attained quite apart from Scripture, of the awful 
 physical and spiritual bands which knit the members of 
 the human family to one another. And to x\.ugustine it 
 was given, if not to feel this more strongly than any other, 
 yet certainly to bring it out to the consciousness of the 
 Church as no other hitherto had done. 
 
 The meaning of the latter part of that chapter, as he 
 loves to draw it out, is as follows : — The apostle had 
 spoken in what went before of Christ's death, and the 
 
 * It is a passage, ubi vel maxime fides Christiana consistit. {Ep. 
 190. $ 3.) 
 
CJIAP. VIT.] INTERPRETER OP SCRIPTURE. 128 
 
 fruits of that death ; but the question might well present 
 itself; How should the death of one have such signi- 
 ficance for all ? St. Paul answers the question. This one 
 is not merely one ; He stands in a relation to all men, which 
 can only find its analogy in the relation in which Adam 
 stood to all. He may be rightly called a " second Adam." 
 In Adam the whole natural development of man was 
 included ; the whole race is but the unfolding of that 
 fii'st, that one man. Exactly so Christ is a spiritual 
 Head. The whole race of regenerate men were shut up 
 in Him, are unfolded out of Him. They are but the one 
 grain of gold beaten out, and extended into an infinite 
 breadth. As the huge oak with its trunk and all its 
 spreading branches is rudimentally wrapped up in the 
 single acorn ; so the world, or mankind natural in Adam, 
 and the Church, or mankind spiritual in Christ.* What 
 Adam and Christ were in intenso, they are in extenso. He 
 often adduces, as a Scriptm'al confirmation of this view of 
 the matter, the language and argument of the apostle to 
 the Hebrews, (vii. 9,) who concludes that it was not Abra- 
 ham alone that paid tithes to Melchisedek, but that all 
 the future Levites paid tithes in him.f The whole moral 
 history of the world oscillates between two persons. They 
 
 * Op, Imp. con. Jul. 1. 2. c. 163 : Unde fit ut totum genus huma- 
 num quodam modo sint homines duo, primus et secundus. And 
 again, Serm. 90 : Venit unus contra anum ; contra unum qui sparsit 
 unus qui collegit. In Ev. Joh. Tract. 3. § 12: Homo, et homo; 
 homo ad mortem, et homo ad vitam. 
 
 t Op. Im'^erf. con. Jul. 1. 6. c. 22. 
 
124 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VII. 
 
 are the centres round whicli everything revolves — the two 
 poles of humanity — the two successive champions and 
 representatives of the race. One is defeated, and the 
 lot of the whole race for thousands of years is servitude 
 and shame ; one is victorious, and vast and enduring as 
 were the issues of the other's defeat, those of his victory 
 are vaster and more enduring still. 
 
 Only out of this view of the race as being included in 
 Adam, do we attain any right apprehension of the signi- 
 ficance of Adam's sin. It was not so much a sin, and 
 differing from others only in that it was the first, and 
 when compared with many that followed perhaps a slight 
 sin ; which is the Pelagian position — not this so much as 
 the sin, the head and front of the world's offending, not 
 the first only, but the greatest, the mother sin in which 
 every after sin was enfolded.* It was a bruising and 
 injiuring of the seed, and thus more or less a marring and 
 distorting of each single branch and fibre and leaf which 
 should evolve itself therefrom. It was a flinging of poison 
 into the fountain head, and thus an infecting of every drop 
 of the stream.f And only so do we attain any right 
 
 * Op. Imp. con. Jul. 1. 6, c. 21, 27. 
 
 t In a minor detail of his interpretation of this passage, but one 
 on which, he lays considerable stress, it is now acknowledged by all 
 that he was at fault. He found at Rom. 5. 12, in his Italic version, 
 as it is now in the Vulgate, In quo omnes peccaverunt ; , which in quo 
 he referred to Adam, as though St. Paul would say, " In whom all 
 sinned." The words are e^' ^ iravTig ^fiaprov, and are rightly 
 rendered in our version "for that all have sinned," (i0%^ = bri, as 
 2 Cor. 5. 4 = quatenus,) the apostle meaning in those words to say 
 
CHAP. VII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 125 
 
 apprehension of the significance of Christ's righteousness ; 
 for that other is but one side, the sadder and the darker 
 side, of the truth. That which held good for death, held 
 good also for life. The same law of intimate union 
 between the members of the race and their head, which 
 made one man's sin so diffusive of death, has made one 
 man's obedience or righteousness so difPusive of life. 
 Christ shall diffuse himself no less effectually than Adam, 
 as the one by generation, so the other by regeneration. 
 
 that no following man was capable of arresting the tide of evil, and 
 so being a new head of life, an dpxrjydg K(>>VQ for the race, inasmuch 
 as each in his turn and by his own act, not merely by succession from 
 Adam, came under the law of sin, and so under the law of death. As 
 far as these words went Julian had entire right on his side, explaining 
 them thus {Op. Imperf. c. Jul. 1. 2. c. 174) : In quo omnes peccave- 
 runt, nihil aliud indicat quam, quia omnes peccaverunt. Considering 
 how much tm'ued on the words, and how often they came into debate 
 between them, (see again 1. 6. c. 23) it is strange that Augustine 
 should not have turned to the original. The error does not seriously, 
 or indeed at all, affect his position. That Adam's sin was the fontal- 
 sin of all other which followed ; that also it reacted on the moral, and 
 through that on the physical, condition not of one man, but of aU who in 
 that one were wrapped up, this is quite strongly enough stated in the 
 passage, to bear the subtraction of the further proof of it which 
 Augustine drew from a mistaken interpretation of these words. Such 
 assertions as the following still remain true, though they are not 
 found in these words {Con. dims Ep. Fel.l. 4. c. 4) : In illo primo 
 homine peccasse omnes intelligantur, quia in illo fuerunt omnes, 
 quando ille peccavit ; De Pecc. 3Ier. et Rem. 1. 3. c. 7 : In Adam 
 omnes tunc peccaverunt, quando in ejus natm'a, iUa insita vi, qua eos 
 gignere poterat, adhuc omnes ille unus fuerunt; Be Civ. Dei, 1. 13. 
 c. 14 : Omnes fuimus in illo uuo, quando omnes fuimus iUe unus ; 
 nondum erat nobis sigillatim creata et distributa forma, in qua sin- 
 guli viveremus, sed jam uatm*a ei'at seminalis, ex qua propagaremur. 
 
126 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VII. 
 
 Nay there shall be, as there ever must be, a mightier 
 power in the good than in the evil ; for while the one sin 
 was sufficient to ruin the world, the righteousness of one 
 did not merely do away with that one sin, but with all the 
 innumerable others which had unfolded themselves out of 
 that one.* 
 
 But the Epistle to the Eomans, before it describes the 
 bringing in of Him, the restorer of all which Adam had 
 forfeited and lost, sets forth the preparatory discipline of 
 the law under which man was being trained for welcoming 
 that Saviour, when at length in the fulness of time he 
 should be revealed ; and among the ends to which the 
 law thas given should serve, the apostle declares that it 
 " entered that the offence might abound." (Rom. v. 20.) 
 Two questions present themselves here, and, as carrying us 
 into the heart of Augustine's exposition of this Epistle, 
 and with it of his whole theology, we may consider severally 
 his answer to each. And fii*st. In what way did the en- 
 
 * Thus in his important letter, Ad Eilarium {Ep. 157. § 12): In 
 hac caussa duo constituuntur homines, Adam, ex quo consistit gene- 
 ratio carnalis, et Christus, ex quo regeneratio spiritalis. Sed quia tantum 
 ille homo, iste autem et Deus et homo, non quomodo ilia generatio 
 uno delicto ohligat, quod est ex Adam, ita ista regeneratio unum 
 delictum solum solvit, quod est ex Adam. Sed illi quidem genera- 
 tioni sufficit ad condemnationem unius delicti counexio, quidquid 
 enim postea homines ex malis suis operibus addunt, non pertiuet ad 
 illam generationem, sed ad humanam conversationem ; huic autem 
 regenerationi non sufficit illud delictum tantummodo solvere, quod ex 
 Adam trahituv, sed quidquid etiam postea ex iniquis operibus humanae 
 conversationis accedit. Ideo judicium ex uno in condemnationem, 
 gratia autem ex multis dehctis in justificationem. 
 
CHAP. VII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 127 
 
 trance of the law cause the offence or sin to abound? To 
 this he has a double answer. The law caused sin to 
 abound, in that sin was more sinful now, being done 
 against the express commandment of God, the lex mani- 
 festa,^ than when done only against the lex occulta, that 
 commandment written at the beginning on the hearts of 
 men, but which now through long neglect had become 
 more or less illegible and obliterated there. Where there 
 is no law, there indeed is sin, but not transgression.f 
 
 But this was not all ; not in this way only did the 
 entrance of the law cause the offence to abound. The 
 law had also in a deeper sense, and one which fearfully 
 revealed the evil of man's heart, an irritating power. 
 Man craves to be avrovoixoQ, and the very fact of a law 
 given does of itself suggest resistance to and defiance of 
 that law. The prohibited becomes by the very fact of the 
 
 * Serm. 170. c. 2. 
 
 t Enarr. in Ps. cii: duare lege subintrante abundavit peccatum ? 
 Quia nolebant se confiteri homines peccatores, addita lege facti sunt 
 et ivcBvaricatores. Preevaricatov enim non est quisque, nisi cum 
 legem transgressus fuerit. Cf. Con. Faust. 1. 19. c. 7; Serm. 170. 
 c. 2. Yet Augustine at the same time is very earnest in not allowino- 
 the giving of a m-itteu law to call into question that there went another 
 eternal law before that, however man may have refused, and through 
 refusing become unable distinctly, to read it. Thus Enarr. in Ps. 
 Ivii. 1 : Hoc et antequam Lex daretui', nemo ignorare permissus est 
 ut esset unde judicarentm- et quibus Lex non esset data. Sed ne 
 sibi homines aliquid defuisse quererentur, scriptum est et in tabulis, 
 quod in cordibus non legebant; non enim scriptum non habebant, sed 
 llegere nolebant. Oppositum est oculis eorum quod in conscientia 
 ividere cogerentur, et quasi forinsecus adraota voce Dei, ad interiora 
 sua homo compulsus est. 
 
128 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VII. 
 
 prohibition to be also the desired. The stream of man's 
 corruptions fretted and raged more furiously for the 
 obstacles placed in its way; as some mountain torrent 
 foams round a rock that has fallen in its bed ; which, not 
 sufficing to dam it up, only rouses it to fiercer activity 
 than before.* 
 
 But the yet deeper question stiU remained. How was 
 this giving of a law which made the guilty guiltier, and 
 which thus stirred up and roused the evil which might 
 else have remained dormant in man's heart, reconcilable 
 with the love and righteousness of God ? In the same 
 way as the physician does nothing contrary to or unworthy 
 of his art, whereof the end is, the healing of men, when 
 he causes the floating sickness which pervaded the whole 
 frame, to concentrate itself into some fixed shape of disease, 
 which then and only then he can encounter and over- 
 come. f The sick man would not perhaps have acknow- 
 
 * De Spir. et Lit. c. 4 : Lex quamvis bona, auget prohibendo 
 desiderimn malum : sicut aquae impetus si in earn partem non cesset 
 influere, vehementior fit obice opposite, cujus molem cum evicerit 
 majore cumulo prsecipitatus violentius per prona devolvitux ; nescio 
 quo enim modo boo ipsum quod concupiscitur, fit jucundius, dum 
 vetatur. And again Serjn. 153. c. 5: Minor erat concupiscentia, 
 quando ante Legem securus peccabas ; nunc autem oppositis tibi 
 obicibus Legis, fluvius concupiscentite quasi frenatus est paululum, 
 non siccatus : sed increscente impetu qui te ducebat obicibus nullis, 
 obruit te obicibus ruptis. Cf. De Div. Qucest. qu. 66. 
 
 f We have tbe confession of the heathen to this effect. Seneca 
 {Ep. 56): Omnia enim vitia in aperto leviora sunt: morbi quoque 
 tunc ad sanitatem inclinant, cum ex abdito erumpunt, ac vim suam 
 proferunt. 
 
CHAP. VII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 129 
 
 ledged liimself as sick before, and therefore raiglit have 
 refused to submit himself to the painful processes of cure.* 
 The law, demanding and threatening, revealed man to him- 
 self, who was hitherto in great part hidden from himself. 
 It made him see his wound, and thus sent him to his 
 Healer, to Him too who should enable him by assisting 
 grace to do those things which the law indeed had re- 
 quired of him, but had never been able to bring about in 
 him ;f so that the wondrous circle ends in the establishing 
 of that law which seemed at first about to be utterly over- 
 thrown. (Rom. iii. 31.) 
 
 * The following quotations will put us in the right point of view 
 for understanding the position which Augustine took, justifying the 
 righteousness of God, Enarr. in Ps. cii. 7 : Non crudeliter hoc 
 fecit Deus, sed consilio medicinee ; aliquando enim videtur sibi homo 
 sanus et aegrotat, et in eo quod aegrotat et non sentit, medicum non 
 quserit; augetur morbus, crescit molestia, quseritur medicus, et 
 totum sanatur. And again, In Ev. Joh. Tract. 3. § 11, 14: Lex 
 minabatur, non opitulabatur ; jubebat, non sanabat ; languorem osten- 
 debat, non auferebat : sed iUi praeparabat medico venturo cum gratia 
 et veritate : tanquam ad aliquem quem curare vult medicus, mittat 
 primo servum suum, ut ligatum ilium inveniat. Cf. Ep. 145. § 3 : 
 Lex itaque docendo et jubendo quod sine gratia impleri non potest, 
 homini demonstrat suam infirmitatem, ut quserat demonstrata infir- 
 mitas Salvatorem, a quo sancta voluntas possit, quod infirma non 
 posset. Lex igitur adducit ad fidem, fides impetrat Spiritum lar- 
 giorem, diifundit Spiritus caritatem, implet caritas legem . . . . Ita 
 bona est lex illi, qui ea legitime utitur ; utitui- autem legitime, qui 
 inteUigens quare sit data, per ejus comminationem confugit ad 
 gratiam hberantem. Cf. Serm. 155. c. 4; 170. c. 2; Ad Simplic. 
 1. 1. qu. 1 ; Ep. 196. c. 2. 
 
 t Be Fide et Oper. c. 14 : Sequmitur enim bona opera justifica- 
 tum, non prscedunt justificandum — " a golden sentence," as one of 
 the greatest of our old English divines has termed it. 
 
 K 
 
130 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VII. 
 
 On one more passage in this Epistle, and one tliat 
 eminently brings out what is characteristic in Augustine's 
 exposition, some further words may be added. It is well 
 known that there have been in the Church two different 
 expositions of Eom. vii. 7 — 25. Is the apostle there 
 describing the conflicts and struggles of the regenerate 
 man inter renovandum ? or is he describing those of the 
 man as yet not partaker of Christ, but only brought by 
 the law under strong convictions of sin and of the demands 
 which that holy law makes on his obedience ? Augustine, 
 in the early part of his Christian life, and in conformity 
 with the view of the passage which had been the prevalent 
 one in all the times before him, understood St. Paul to be 
 occupied here in setting forth the struggles of the man not 
 actually partaker as yet of the redemption which is in 
 Christ Jesus. Thus in such writings of his as were com- 
 posed and published at this period, we have an exposition 
 of the passage according to this earlier scheme ;* while at 
 the close of his life he states, what indeed his treatment of 
 this passage in many of his later writings would without 
 this statement have made sufficiently manifest, namely 
 that he had seen cause to change his view of this Scrip- 
 ture; and at the same time he gives the reasons which 
 had moved him to this change.f In this matter also we 
 may doubtless trace the influence which that same contest 
 with the Pelagians had upon his whole habit of thought. 
 
 * As Be Div. Quasi, qu. 66; Ad Simpliciamim, 1. 1. c. 1. 
 t Retract. 1. 1. c. 23; Con. dum Ep. Pel. 1. 1. c. 10. § 22. 
 
CHAP. VII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. J 31 
 
 and on tlie form of his theology. These men, as is well 
 known, magnified the natural powers of man, gave all to 
 nature, which they did not consider now to be otherwise 
 than in its original integrity and as it came from God ; 
 and however in word they might attribute something to 
 the grace of God, yet in fact that grace, when more closely 
 inspected, was but nature in disguise. And it seemed to 
 him that the passage, understood as he had once under- 
 stood it, putting as it did language such as this into the 
 mouth of the man not as yet under grace, " I delight in 
 the law of God after the inward man" (ver. 22), favoured 
 too much those erroneous views of the powers of our un- 
 renewed natm-e, which were by those heretics entertained, 
 cast a certain slight on that sanctifying and renewing 
 grace of the Spirit whereby alone we either will or do that 
 which is well pleasing in God's sight.* 
 
 It may perhaps be allowed me without presumption 
 here to obsei-ve that I do not believe Augustine to have 
 been right in thus going back from the Church's and from 
 his own earlier exposition of this chapter. There would 
 be much more in his objection, if the only alternative were 
 between the accepting of these words as the voice of the 
 natural man, or else of the man renewed in the spirit of 
 his mind. But a third course is possible, namely, to con- 
 
 * Non video, quomodo diceret homo sub lege : Condelector legi 
 secundum interiorem hominem, cum ipsa delectatio boni qua etiam 
 non consentit ad malum non timore poense sed amore justitise, (hoc 
 est enim condclectari,) non nisi gratiae deputanda sit. 
 k2 
 
132 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VII. 
 
 sider them as the utterance of the man convinced, and 
 that by the Spirit of God, of sin and of righteousness, on 
 the way to, but not yet arrived at, the blessed freedom of 
 the spirit in Christ Jesus, seeing it afar off, and struggling 
 toward, though not grasping it a*s yet. 
 
 Nor does Augustine himself fail distinctly to observe 
 that while he is escaping from one danger, he is, by the 
 new interpretation which he is introducing here, running 
 into another. If that which he left might seem to play 
 into the hands of the Pelagians, ascribing too much to the 
 natural powers of man, did not that which he now favoured, 
 and which his influence caused to be received without a 
 question in the Western Church for more than a thousand 
 years, ascribe too little to the regenerate man ? did it not 
 set the standard of his obedience too low ? He is quite 
 aware that this charge might be brought against it, and is 
 very earnest in vindicating his exposition of the words* 
 from all antinomian abuse; in giving all care lest the 
 evil of men shoidd turn that which in itself was healthful 
 food into poison, t It is plain that to such abuse it would be 
 much more exposed according to his later exposition than 
 according to that of the earlier Church, though of course 
 this in itself would not be sufficient reason to reject it. 
 
 Por instance, in regard of the words which the easiest 
 
 * Difficilis et periculosus locus, as in one place he calls it. {Serm, 
 154. c. 1; of. Serm. 151, c. 1.) 
 
 t Serm.\h\. c. 1: Ne homines male smnentes salubrem cibum, 
 vertant in venenum. 
 
CHAP. VII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 133 
 
 yield themselves to sucli an abuse, which might be and 
 have been the most eagerly seized by the false-hearted, 
 who are looking in Christ's Gospel not for strength to 
 deKver them from sin, but excuses for remaining in sin — 
 I mean the apostle's concluding words, " So then with the 
 mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the 
 law of sin ;" (vii. 35 ;) he continually urges that aU this 
 impotence for good whereof the regenerate man here or 
 elsewhere complains, has solely to do with the interior 
 region of his heart and his inability to bring the thoughts 
 and desires of his heart into a perfect conformity to the 
 will of God, and has nothing at all to do with the exterior 
 sphere of his acts.* It is one thing concupiscere, another 
 post concupiscentias ire. So long as we bear about this 
 body we shaU not altogether be delivered from the first ; 
 for the promise is not even to those who walk in the 
 Spirit, " Ye shall not have the lust of the flesh ;" but it is 
 most truly, " Ye shall T\.Qi fulfil the lust of the flesh." 
 
 * De Nupt. et Conciip. 1. 2. c. 31 : Quod sic inteUigendum est, 
 mente servio legi Dei, non consentiendo legi peccati, came autem 
 servio legi peccati, habendo desideria peccati, quibus etsi non con- 
 sentio, nondum tamen penitus careo. See the four preceding chapters, 
 which have all an important bearing on this subject. Cf. Enarr. in 
 Fs. Lxxv. 3. Thus too on the confession of the apostle, (for he 
 naturally rejects altogether the unworthy evasion that St. Paul is 
 speaking of another, not of himself,) " The good that I would I do 
 not; but the evil which I would not that T do," (ver. 19,) he asks 
 [Serm. 154) : Itane Apostolus Paulus nolebat facere adiilterium, et 
 faciebat adulterium? nolebat esse avarus, et erat avarus? Cf. Con. 
 duos Fp.PeU. I.e. 10. § 18. 
 
134 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VII. 
 
 (Gal. V. 16.)* And lie distinguislies between the inhabi- 
 tatio peccati, over which the faithful man still mourns, and 
 the regnum peccati, which in him has been destroyed. 
 (Eom. vi. 12.) The Canaanite will dwell in the land, but 
 he is under tribute.f The Christian soldier is not here 
 complaining of defeat, but that which he grudges is to be 
 always at war, always in a conflict, even though in Christ 
 Jesus he is evermore a conqueror therein. f 
 
 Augustine brings into closest connexion with this pas- 
 sage in the Eomans, and gives a right interpretation of, 
 those other words of the same apostle, so often misapplied 
 in his own time, and so often misapplied still, " The letter 
 killeth, but the spirit giveth life," (2 Cor. iii. 6,) which are 
 often taken as though "the letter" meant the letter of 
 Scripture, which profited nothing, which might often even 
 be so misused as to " kill," at any rate would not make 
 alive, unless the inner spiritual meaning, or " the spirit," 
 were discovered and drawn out. This assertion, which of 
 course has its truth, — indeed Augustine tells us that, used 
 in this sense, the passage was one of his great teacher 
 
 * Ep. 196. c. 2. 
 
 t See an important passage for his teaching on all this subject, 
 Exp. Ep. ad Gal. v. 17, 18. He draws a distinction perhaps ver- 
 bally hardly to be justified, but of which the intention is plain: 
 Ahud est peccare, aliud habere peccatum. 
 
 :|: Thus in affecting words {Se)-m. 151. c. 8) : Nolo semper vin- 
 cere ; sed volo aliquando ad pacem venire. And again, on the present 
 conflict with indwelUng sin: Quamdiu vitiis repugfratur, plena pax 
 non est, quia et ilia quae resistunt periculoso debellantur prtelio, et ilia 
 quae victa sunt nondum secure triumphantur otio, sed adhuc sohcito 
 premuntur imperio. 
 
CHAP. VIT.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 135 
 
 Ambrose's favourite sayings,* — has yet nothing to do with 
 what the apostle is stating in these words ; and the fact of 
 this explanation having both in old times and new acquired 
 so great a cuiTcncy is a striking example of the tendency 
 to isolate statements of Scripture, and to interpret them 
 independently of the context which can alone rightly ex- 
 plain them. " The letter" here, according to aU the 
 necessities of the context, is the law, called " the letter" 
 because icritten on tables of stone ; the whole dispensation, 
 commanding and threatening, yet not quickening, of the 
 Old Testament. This, as the apostle in harmony with all 
 his other teaching declares, " kiUeth," not merely nega- 
 tively, in that it does not make alive, but positively ; for, as 
 Augustine admirably brings out, the true parallel and 
 interpretation of the words is to be found in those other 
 words of the apostle, " I was alive without the law once, 
 &c. ;" while " the spirit" here is that dispensation of the 
 Spirit of which he speaks Rom. viii. 1 — 11, as that in 
 which, and in which only, resides the power of making 
 men alive unto God.f 
 
 * Conf. 1. 6. c. 4. 
 
 t He Spir. et Litt. c. 4 : Doctrina quippe ilia, qua mandatam 
 accipimus continenter recteque vivendi, littera est occidens, nisi adsit 
 vivificans spu'itus. Neque enim solo illo modo intelligendum est 
 quod legimus, Littera occidit, spiritus autem vivificat ; ut aliquid 
 figurate seriptum, cujus est absurda proprietas, non accipiamus sicut 
 littera sonat, sed aliud quod significat intuentes interiorem. hominem 
 spiritali intelligentia nutriamus ; .... sed etiam illo, eoque vel 
 maxime, quo apertissime alio loco dicit, Concupiscentiam nesciebam, 
 nisi lex diceret -. Non concupisces. And c. 5 : Volo demonstrare illud 
 quod ait apostolus : Littera occidit, spiritus autem vivificat, non de 
 
136 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VII. 
 
 figuratis locutionibus dictum, quamvis et illinc congruenter accipiatur, 
 sedpotins de lege aperte quod est malum prohibente; andc. 19: Lex 
 enim sine adjuvante Spiritu procul dubio est littera occidens ; cum 
 vero adest vivificans Spiritus, hoc ipsum intus conscriptum facit 
 diligi, quod foris scriptum lex faciebat timeri. Yet he is not himself 
 uniformly true to the right explanation, clearly as he has stated it 
 here, for see Be Doctr. Christ. 1. 3. c. 5. 
 
CHAP. VIII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 137 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 TN this concluding chapter I will adduce a few miscel- 
 -*- laneous specimens of Augustine's insight into the 
 Word of God — evidences of the power with which it had 
 taken hold of himself, of the tact and skill with which he 
 unfolded it to others. 
 
 Matt. xix. 23 — 26. His explanation of this passage 
 furnishes an excellent example of the manner in which he 
 clears away a difficulty by a deeper penetration into the 
 meaning of the words before him, by thus setting himself at 
 their moral centre, and unfolding them from thence. The 
 disciples had seen the rich young man go sorrowing away, 
 and heard the Lord say, " How hardly shall they that 
 have riches enter into the kingdom of God ;" whereupon 
 they exclaim, "Who then can be saved?" This question 
 of theirs, Augustine observes, showed how deeply they 
 had entered into the meaning of their Lord's words. 
 For at iii-st sight it would not appear as though the dif- 
 ficulty of a ricli man's entering into the kingdom involved 
 a difficulty for all ; nay, from the very exceptional cha- 
 racter of the assertion, it would seem to follow that for 
 the poor it was not difficult, but easy. Whence then 
 this question, implying a doubtfulness generated by that 
 
138 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 declaration of their Lord, whether any man could be 
 saved? It arose from the fact, as he admirably brings 
 out, that the disciples saw into the deeper meaning of 
 their Lord's words ; they understood that the " rich"* of 
 whom He spake were not merely the rich in possessions, 
 but the rich in desires, the lovers of riches, whether they 
 had them, or had them not. And thus out of a deeply 
 painful sense of the difficulty of being really poor, that is, 
 poor in spirit, of detaching the soul from the love of the 
 creature, and from trusting in the world, " they were 
 exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved ? " 
 
 And how well he unfolds the Lord's further declaration, 
 " With men this is impossible, but with God all things 
 are possible ;" showing that it does not mean that God 
 will dispense with this law of his kingdom, seeing that 
 else so many would be excluded from it, that He will 
 widen the eye of the needle till it is large enough 
 for the man of worldly lusts, (actually rich or not makes 
 no difference,) to pass through it with all his baggage ; but 
 
 * After mucli that is admirable, he goes on to say {Enarr. in, 
 Fs. Li. 9) : Illi apud se dicentes, Q,uinam poterit salvari, quid 
 attenderunt ? Non facilitates, sed cupiditates. Viderunt enim etiam 
 psos pauperes, etsi non habentes pecuniam tamen habere avaritiam. 
 And again [Qiiccst. Evang. 1. 2. qu. 47): Eo nianifestatur omnes 
 ciipidos, etiam si facultatibus hujus mundi careant, ad hoc genus 
 divitum quod est reprehensum pertinere; quia postea dixerunt qui 
 audiebant : Et quis poterit salvus fieri ? cum incomparabiliter major 
 turba sit pauperum : videlicet intelligentes in eo numero deputari 
 etiam illos, qui quanquam talia non habeant, tamen habendi cupiditate 
 rapiuntur. 
 
CHAP. VIII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 139 
 
 rather, " With God all things are possible," is the same 
 as saying, '' All things are possible to him that believeth :" 
 this, which it is impossible for man to accomplish in his 
 own strength, namely, this making of himself poor in 
 spirit, this loosening of himself from the bands which 
 bind him so fast to the world and to the creature, shall 
 yet be possible for him in the strength of God. The 
 impossible thing, which yet is possible with God, is not 
 the saving of the rich man, but the making of the rich 
 man poor, one of God's poor, and so an inheritor of his 
 kingdom.* 
 
 Matt. xxvi. 60. The question has been sometimes 
 asked, and not always satisfactorily answered, wherein 
 were the witnesses that witnessed against the Lord false 
 witnesses, as by both the evangelists who make mention 
 of them they are styled? The Lord had said, " Destroy 
 this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." (John 
 ii. 19.) Wherein then did they witness untruly? Not 
 certainly, as some have said, in taking literally what He 
 had spoken figuratively. This might have been dulness 
 of apprehension, but would not have constituted false- 
 hood. But as Augustine rightly ui-ges, a very smaU turn 
 
 Ev. 1. 2. qu. 47 : Quod autem ait, Q,u8e impossibilia sunt 
 apud homines, possibilia sunt apud Deum, non ita accipiendum est, 
 quod cupidi et superbi, qui nomine illius divitis significati sunt, iu 
 regnum coelorum sint intraturi cum suis cupiditatibus et superbia, 
 sed possibile est Deo ut per verbum ejus .... a cupiditate tempo- 
 ralium ad caritatem seternorum, et a pemiciosa superbia ad humi- 
 litatem saluberrimam convertantur. 
 
140 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 which they gave to his words in reporting them, entirely 
 altered their character. He had said, " K you destroy, 
 I will rebuild ;" He had never proposed, nor even seemed 
 to propose, as in the wantonness of power, himself to 
 destroy and throw down the holy temple of God, that so 
 He might have the opportunity of displaying his might in 
 the building up of it anew; He had but presented Himself 
 as the repairer of the ruins which they might effect ; and 
 the slight alteration of his Solvite, into the Solvam which 
 they put in his mouth, quite altered the character of the 
 saying; while at the same time the falsehood, for its 
 readier acceptance, would fain preserve a certain resem- 
 blance to the truth.* 
 
 Luke iv. 13. How much of practical and edifying 
 Augustine often draws from single words in the Scripture. 
 Thus on the hint which the third evangelist furnishes in 
 his record of the Temptation, that when the Evil One de- 
 parted from our Lord, it was only " for a season," he 
 takes occasion to bring this first great temptation, which 
 signalized the opening of Christ's ministry, into relation 
 with the second, which signalized its close, compares the 
 temptation of the wilderness with that of the garden ; 
 and contrasts the two. The enemy in the first tries to 
 overcome his constancy by bringing to bear against it all 
 pleaswahle things, in the last all painful things. He 
 knocked first at the door of desire, and, when that proved 
 closed against him, at the door of fear. And as it fared 
 
 * Serm. 315. c. 1 : Vicina voluit esse falsitas veritati. 
 
CHAP. VIII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 141 
 
 with the Master, so shall it be with each one of the 
 servants ; they, too, shall have to tread both on the lion 
 and the adder, to resist now a threatening, now a flat- 
 tering, world.* 
 
 Luke xxiii. 39 — 43, Augustine magnifies often, and 
 with justice, the heroic character of the faith of the peni- 
 tent malefactor, how far it exceeded all ordinary faith, how 
 far it exceeded in some respects even the faith of the 
 apostles themselves. t Nor does he fail to take note of 
 
 * Enarr. 3" in Ps. xxx. 5 : Hujusmodi pugnse exemplum ipse tibi 
 Imperator tuus, qui propter te etiam tentari dignatus est, in se 
 demonstravit. Et primo tentatus est illecebris ; quia teutata est in 
 illo janua cupiditatis, quando eum tentavit diabolus, dicens. Die 
 lapidibus istis ut panes fiant ; A dora me, et dabo tibi regna ista ; 
 Mitte te deorsum quia scriptum est, Quia Angelis suis mandavit de 
 te, et in manibus tollent te. Omnis haec illecebra cupiditatem tentat. 
 At ubi clausam januam invenit cupiditatis in eo qui tentabatur pro 
 nobis, convertit se ad tentandam januam timoris, et prseparavit iUi 
 passionem. Denique hoc dicit Evangelista, Et consummata tenta- 
 tione, diabolus recessit ab eo ad tempus. Quid est, ad tempus ? Tan- 
 quam rediturus, et tentaturus januam timoris, quia clausam invenit 
 januam cupiditatis. Cf. Senn. 284 : Quid ait Evangelista ? Post- 
 quam perfecit diabolus omnem tentationem : omnem, sed ad ille- 
 cebras pertinentem. Restabat alia tentatio in asperis et dm'is, in 
 saevis, in atrocibus atque immitibus restabat alia tentatio. Hoc 
 sciens Evangelista, quid peractum esset, quid restaret, ait, Postquam 
 complevit diabolus omnem tentationem, recessit ab eo ad tempus. 
 Discessit ab eo, id est, insidians serpens, venturus est rugiens leo, sed 
 vincet eum qui conculcabit leonem et draconem. 
 
 t Serm. 232. c. 6: Magna fides : huic fidei quid addi possit, ignoro. 
 Titubaverunt ipsi qui viderunt Christum mortuos suscitautem; cre- 
 didit ille qui videbat secnm in ligno pendentem. Quando ilU tituba- 
 verunt, tunc ille credidit. Qualem fructum Cbristus de arido ligno 
 percepit? .... Non solum credebat resurrecturum, sed etiam regna- 
 
142 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 the symbolic character of the whole wondrous transaction, 
 and the prophecy that was contained in the bearing 
 severally of the penitent and obdurate malefactor, of all 
 the after relations of men to the crucified Lord ; one 
 portion of the sinful race turning to Him, looking and 
 living ; the other turning away, and abiding in death.* 
 
 Acts ii. 1 — 4. The giving of the law from Mount 
 Sinai has been often compared, especially in modern 
 times, with the giving of the new law, or rather of the 
 Gospel, from that other mount, where the Lord sat down 
 with his disciples ; (Matt. v. 1 ;) and the circumstances 
 which attended the speaking of that word of God and 
 this, were undoubtedly veiy characteristic of the dispensa- 
 tions which they severally ushered in. But of old, the 
 parallel and the contrast was rather drawn between Sinai 
 and Pentecost ; and how strikingly Augustine draws out 
 the parallel of likeness and opposition between the two, 
 may be seen in the extract given below ; one of many 
 passages of like kind that might be quoted. f Nor does 
 
 turum. Pendenti, crucifixo, cruento, hserenti, Cum venens, inquit, 
 in regnum tuum : Et illi, Nos sperabamus. Ubi spem latro invenit, 
 discipulus perdidit. Cf. Serm. 32. § 2. 
 
 * Serm. 285. § 2: Ita factse sunt tres cruces, tres caussse. Unns 
 latronum Christo insultabat, alter sua mala confessus Christ! se 
 misericordise commendabat. Crux Christi in medio non fuit sup- 
 plicium, sed tribunal: de cruce quippe insultantem damnavit, cre- 
 dentem liberavit. Timete, insultantes, gaudete, credentes : hoc faciet 
 in claritate, quod fecit in humilitate. 
 
 t Serm. 155. c. 6 : Sed videte ibi quomodo, et hie quomodo. Ibi 
 plebs longe stabat, timer erat, amor non erat; nam usque adeo timu- 
 
CHAP. VIII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 143 
 
 lie miss the relation Avhich this day, (wherein for one pro- 
 phetic moment at least, the distinction of languages disap- 
 peared,) bore to that earlier day in which the tongues of 
 mankind were divided. (Gen. xi. 1 — 9.) Here was a 
 pledge and a promise, that the one language and one 
 speech which had thus been lost, should yet through the 
 Church be given back, that a day should arrive when all 
 should be again of " one lip" as at the first.* 
 
 Acts X. 9 — 16. There are two ways in which the 
 vision of the sheet, full of " all manner of four-footed 
 beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, 
 
 erunt, ut dicerent ad Moysem, Loquere tu ad nos, et non nobis 
 loquatur Dominus, ne moriamur. Descendit ergo, sicut scriptum est, 
 Deus in Sina in igne, sed plebem longe stantem territans, et digito 
 suo scribens in lapide, non in corde. Hue autem quando venit 
 Spiritus Sanctus, congregati erant fideles in unum; nee in monte 
 terruit, sed intravit in domum, De coelo quidem factus est subito 
 sonus, quasi ferretur flatus vehemens: sonuit, sed nullus expavit. 
 Audisti sonum, vide et ignem, quia et in monte utrumque erat, et ignis 
 et sonitus ; sed illic etiam fumus, hie vero ignis serenus. Visse sunt 
 euim illis linguse divisse, velut ignis. Numquid de longinquo territans? 
 Absit, nam insedit super unumquemque eorum, et coeperunt Hnguis 
 loqui, sicut Spiritus dabat eis pronuntiare. 
 
 * Serm. 271 : Sicut enim post diluvium superba impietas hominum 
 tm-rim contra Dominum sedificavit excelsam, quando per linguas 
 diversas dividi meruit genus humanum, ut unaquseque gens lingua 
 propria loqueretur, ne ab aliis intelligeretur ; sic bumilis fidelium pietas 
 earum hnguarum diversitatem Ecclesise contuht unitati, ut quod dis- 
 cordia dissipaverat, colligeret caritas, et bumani generis tanquam unius 
 corporis membra dispersa ad unum caput Christum compagiuata redi- 
 gerentur, et in sancti corporis unitatem dilectiouis igne conflarentur. 
 Cf. Enarr. in Ps. Liv. 10 : Spii-itus superbite dispersit Huguas, Sphitus 
 Sanctus congregavit hnguas. 
 
144 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 and fowls of the air," and the command addressed to 
 Peter in regard of these, " Kill and eat," may be under- 
 stood. Either Peter was thus taught that the Levitical 
 distinction between clean and unclean meats had ceased, 
 that this great line of practical demarcation between 
 Jew and Gentile was taken away, and left to draw his own 
 conclusion that the separation itself, which this distinction 
 so greatly helped to maintain, was not intended to exist 
 any longer ; or else, which seems to me the better, though 
 by much the seldomer, view of the vision, to say with 
 Augustine, that all these unclean things in the vessel 
 represented the heathen. This is more agreeable with 
 ver. 16: "What God has cleansed, that call not thou 
 common ;" for assuredly it was not the hitherto forbidden 
 meats, but the heathen, and more particularly Cornelius, 
 whom God had cleansed, and whom Peter declares (ver. 
 28) that he, through this vision, had learned not to call 
 common or unclean. The only difficulty in this explana- 
 tion is found in the commandment, " Kill and eat," and 
 what that will mean; but this, which might seem at 
 first sight the weak point of this interpretation, is in 
 reality very far from so being. It only needs that we 
 keep in mind the higher sacramental uses which eating 
 has in almost all religions, eminently in the Christian, to 
 discover the key to these words. That which is eaten is 
 entirely incorporated into and assimilated with the eater : 
 there is thus the innermost identification of the one and 
 the other. The command then to Peter is, in fact, that he 
 should boldly incorporate the heathen into that body of 
 
CHAP. VIII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 145 
 
 which, he is here, and for the moment, contemplated as the 
 organ and the mouth.* 
 
 Acts X. 44. Augustine explains, and no doubt rightly, 
 the exceptional case of the baptism of Cornelius, who, 
 with those that belonged to him, received the Holy Spirit, 
 not as others in baptism or after, but before, of which, he 
 observes, there is no other example in all Scripturef — 
 namely, that it was for the entire removing of Peter's 
 doubts whether the Gentile converts shoidd be admitted 
 into the fellowship of the Church at once, and without the 
 process of first becoming Jews. It was the Lord himself 
 deciding the question, and saying to his apostle, " Why 
 doubtest thou about water ? Behold, / akeady am 
 here.":]: 
 
 Rom. xi. 2 — 4. On the words of Elijah here quoted, 
 
 I only am left," (1 Kin. xix. 10, 14,) with the rebuke 
 
 of God which foUows, "I have reserved to myself" not 
 
 * Serm. 125. § 9 : Petro dictum est, Macta et manduca, ut osten- 
 derenter geutes creditui'se et intraturae in corpus Ecclesiee, sicut quod 
 manducamus in corpus nostrum intrat. Cf. Serm. 149. c. 5 — 7 : 
 Occidendi ergo erant et manducandi, id est ut interficeretur in eis vita 
 prfeterita, qua non noverant Clu'istum, et transierent in corpus ejus, 
 tanquam in novam vitam .... societatis Ecclesite. Cf. Serm. 266. 
 
 6 ; and Enarr. in Ps. ciii. 11. Grotius, who is much readier to 
 accept Scripture mysteries than he is commonly esteemed, follows 
 him here, though without allusion to his predecessor : Linteum de ccelo 
 delapsum intellexit esse Ecclesiam ccelitus coUectam. Apoc. 21. 2. 
 Nee in Ecclesiam involvuntur, nisi jam mundati. Occidere, est toUere 
 in eis quod restat de veteri homine : manducare, sihi adunare. 
 
 t Serm. 269. § 2 : Singulare occurrit exemplum, 
 
 X Serm. 99. c. 12: Quid de aqua dubitas? jam Ego hie sum. 
 ,Cf. &m.266. $ 7. 
 
146 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VIII. 
 
 tliee only, as thou supposest, but " seven thousand men 
 who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal," 
 Augustine makes many profitable remarks; likening the 
 aspect of the Church in its present condition to a barn- 
 floor, where there shows to the eye at first sight nothing 
 but a heap of chaff. Yet if one look more closely, if he 
 stretch out his hand, and grasp a portion of what is there, 
 and then make a separation with the breath of his mouth 
 as with a purging blast, he ^viU come to distinguish and 
 discern the precious grains which were concealed from 
 him before. And as with that handful on which he has 
 made this experiment, so will it be throughout the whole 
 mass. The chaff indeed first meets the eye, yet among it 
 and beneath it many grains lie hidden ; separated, it may 
 be, by intervening chaff from, and not touching, one 
 another ; and each one hardly knowing more than itself- 
 yet not therefore to give way to the temptation of believing 
 that it is there alone, of exclaiming with the impatient 
 prophet of old, "I only am left." * 
 
 1 Cor. XV. 23. It is well known that the Universalists 
 
 * Thus Enarr. in Ps. xxv : Grana cum coeperint triturari, inter 
 paleas jam se non tangunt; ita quasi se non noverunt, quia intercedit 
 palea. Et quicunque longius attendit aream, paleam solam putat ; 
 nisi diligentius intueatur, nisi manum porrigat, nisi spiritu oris, id 
 est, flatu purgante discernat, difficile pervenit ad discretionem gra- 
 norum. Ergo aliquando et ipsa grana ita sunt quasi sejuncta ab 
 invicem, et non se tangentia, ut putet unusquisque cum profecerit, 
 quod solus sit. Hsec cogitatio, fratres, Eliam teutavit, tantum virum. 
 Cf. Se7-m. 311. c. 10 : Absit ut de area tanti Patris-familias desperera. 
 Qui longe areain videt, solam paleam putat : invenit grana, qui novit 
 inspicere. Ubi te offendit palea, ibi latet grauorum massa. 
 
CHAP. VIII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 147 
 
 make much of the " all^^ and '' alV in the words of St. 
 Paul : " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all 
 be made alive," as though the second " all" must needs 
 have the same reach as the first ; and since the first "all" 
 embraces the whole race of men, for there is no one who 
 has not through Adam's sin come under sentence of 
 natural death, so they conclude the second " all " must 
 be as wide-embracing; and that a co-extensive " all" wiU 
 through Christ's righteousness be partakers of life eternal. 
 But Augustine shows what is the true antithesis between 
 these alls ; that Paul does but say, " All who die, die in 
 Adam ; all who Hve, live through Christ." In this respect 
 indeed they are co-extensive, that none die, except as 
 involved in Adam's sin, none live, except as justified 
 thi'ough Christ's righteousness — in this sense, but no 
 other.* 
 
 ] Cor. XV. 56. "The sting of death is sin." These 
 words are often understood as though St. Paul would say, 
 That what gives to death its bitterness, and in this way 
 imparts to it its " sting," is sin and the sense of sin. The 
 words however, as Augustine urges, cohere much more 
 intimately with the apostle's teaching in regard of death 
 as the fruit and consequence of sin ; and their true parallel 
 
 * Be Civ. Dei, 1. 13. c. 23 : Non quia omnes qui in Adam mori- 
 untur, membra eruut Christi ; ex iUis enim multo plures secunda in 
 seternum morte plcctentur : sed ideo dictum est, omties atque omnes, 
 quia sicut nemo corpora animali nisi in Adam moritur, ita nemo 
 corpore spiritali nisi in Christo vivificatur. Cf. Serm, 293. § 9; 
 and on Rom. 5. 18, exposed to like abuse, his words, I^. 157. § 13; 
 Ofj. Imp. con. Jul. 1. 2. c. 135. 
 
 l2 
 
148 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VIJI. 
 
 and interpretation is to be found in Eom. v. 12, " Sin 
 entered into the world, and death by sin." Sin is that 
 weapon of mortal temper which kills those that otherwise 
 would have lived for ever. " The sting of death" {KivTpov 
 Bavdrov) in fact is equivalent to " the deadly sting," 
 {jcivrpov QavdaLixov,) thougli the personification of death 
 which goes immediately before causes a little difficulty in 
 precisely seizing the force of the words. And exactly 
 in the same way, when the apostle presently before 
 demands, " death, where is thy sting ?" he does not 
 mean, " Where is thy bitterness for him that beheves ?" 
 He might very fitly have asked this, but yet the exact 
 meaning of this triumphant question is rather. Where is 
 that sin, by which thou didst once exercise such dread and 
 universal dominion over the children of men? It is 
 abolished by the free justification of the sinner, and 
 therefore thou, who art nothing without it, and wouldest 
 not have been at all but for it, shalt, in the kingdom of 
 the Son of God, and for the children of the resm-rection, 
 be also abolished.* 
 
 PhU. ii. 12. Augustine's explanation of this passage is 
 directly opposed to that of the modern Eomish Church. 
 
 * Pecc. Mer.efHem.l. 3.c. 11: Aculeus mortis peccatum; aculeus 
 autem qua mors facta est, non quem mors fecit ; peccato enim mori- 
 mur, non morte peccamus. Sic itaque dictum est, aculeus mortis, quo- 
 modo lignum vitse, non quod hominis vita faceret, sed quo vita hominis 
 fieret. Sic enim dicimus et poculum mortis, quo aliquis mortuus sit 
 vel mori possit, non quod moriens mortuusve confecerit. Aculeus itaque 
 mortis peccatum est, peccati punctu mortificatum est genus huma- 
 num. Cf. Con. duos Epp. Pel. 1. 4. c. 4; Serm. 299. § 10. 
 
CHAP. VTII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 149 
 
 This, in a necessary consistency with its doctrine that the 
 measure of a man's holiness is the measure of his justifica- 
 tion, teaches a continual insecm-ity on the part of every man 
 concerning- his state of grace ; and since in no man that 
 holiness can be perfect, it could not teach otherwise ; and 
 this passage, with one other from the Old Testament,* does 
 constant duty in proof; they are the two mainstays of the 
 argument. t Leaving that other passage, which however is 
 utterly misapplied, the present is as little in point. Augus- 
 tine tells us what " fear" it is which is here urged — not the 
 fear, or rather doubt, whether we be in a state of grace or 
 no, but the fear lest we fall from that state of grace, the 
 metus vigilantiae, not the timor diffidentise ; :j: or as some- 
 times wdth reference to the verse following, and in opposi- 
 tion to the Pelagians, he brings out, the fear of humility. 
 You are to " work out your o^vn salvation ;" but you are to 
 do it with an awful sense that it is not your work, but 
 God's work in you and through you; "with fear and 
 trembling," being mindful how awful a thing it is to be 
 brought into immediate contact with " the powers of the 
 world to come," to have God working in you ; who may 
 cease working, if you hinder his godly motions, attributing 
 in yom' pride any part of the work to yourselves ; and 
 then, when He ceases, all will be at a stand. § 
 
 * Eccles. 9. 1, whicti appears in the Vulgate: Nescit homo, utrum 
 amore an odio dignus sit. 
 
 t &^EsTius, in loc, or any other of the Roman Catholic expositors. 
 
 X Eiiarr. in Ps. li : Quare cmn timore ? Quapropter qui se putat 
 stare, videat ne cadat. Q,uare cum tremore? Intendens te ipsum, ne 
 et tu tenteris. 
 
 § Serm. 131. c. 3 : Depressa implentur, alta siccantur. Gratia 
 
150 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VITI. 
 
 Phil. ii. 15. Augustine gives rightly the allusion con- 
 tained in the words here : " Among whom ye shine as 
 lights in the world;'' namely, that these lights (^warTjpEc) 
 to which the faithfid are compared ai-e the heavenly lumi- 
 naries, and mainly the sim and moon.* Various other 
 allusions have been traced in the words ; some making 
 these " lights" to be torches, like which the faithful are to 
 shine in the midst of a dark world ; others find these here 
 compared to lighthouses, like which they are to guide 
 wanderers over the world's sea ; others again find a refer- 
 ence to the golden candlestick in the sanctuary : but all 
 erroneously; the word of the original is never used in the 
 Septuagint or New Testament to signify ought but the 
 heavenly luminaries. t 
 
 pluvia est. Ideo cum timore et tremore, id est, cum himulitate. 
 NoH altum sapere, sed time. Time, ut implearis : noli altum sapere, 
 ne sicceris. Enarr. hi Fs. cui. 32 : Ideo ergo cum timore, quia Deus 
 operatm*. Quia ipse dedit, non ex te est quod habes, cum timore et 
 tremoi'e operaberis ; nam si non tremueris eum, aiiferet quod dedit. 
 Cf. De Gmt. et Lib. Arhit. c. 9. 
 
 * Thus he brings tins passage into connexion with the creation of 
 the fourth day {Enarr. in Fs. xciii. 1) : Quomodo lumiuaria in coelo 
 per diem et per noctem procedunt, peragunt itinera sua, cursus suos 
 certos habent; .». . sic debent sancti, &:c.; cf. ver. 23 i and Enarr. 
 in Fs. cxLvii. 4. 
 
 t It is the word employed Gen. i. 14, 16; Ecclus. xLiii. 7; 
 "Wisd. xiii. 2 ; and compare Dan. xii. 3, where the redeemed are 
 likened to ^uxrrijptg tov ovpavov, and iu the only other passage in the 
 N. T. where the word occurs (Rev. xxi. 11) 6 ^worr/p avTijg is, that 
 which to the heavenly City is in place of sun and moon, see ver. 23. 
 It may be worth while further to note, though this is not his merit, 
 but that of the early Latin translation which he used, that he has the 
 right translation of (paiveaOi -. apparetis, and not lucetis, which is that 
 
CHAP. VIII.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 151 
 
 Col. i. 13. It is plain that Augustine would not have 
 been content with resolving " Son of his love" here, as 
 we have done, into *' dear Son."* It indeed includes 
 this, but expresses also something further than this. In 
 his great work, Be Trinitate, which contains his pro- 
 foundest speculations on the being and nature of God, 
 and which, though appealing to a more limited circle of 
 readers than most of his wTitings, may perhaps be consi- 
 dered the loftiest work of his genius, a work which he 
 began a young man and ended an old,t he urges that love 
 being no mere attribute of God, but his essence and sub- 
 stance, " Son of his love" is in fact equivalent with " only 
 begotten." The bfjioovaiov, not it may be for the conviction 
 of the Arian, but yet most reaUy, is involved in the words ; 
 for the " Son of God's love" must in fact share, is in that 
 very phrase declared to share, with Him in his own essen- 
 tial being. I 
 
 Rev. XX. 12. Such language as the giving of the white 
 stone, (Rev. ii. 17,) the standing on the sea of glass. 
 
 of the Vulgate. To justify lucetis the word should have been (paivtri -. 
 <paivet.v is to shine; (Gen. i. 17; Exod. xiii. 22; John v. 35; Rev. 
 i. 16 ; 2 Pet. i. 19 ;) ^aiviaQai to appear. (Prov. xxi. 2 ; Matt. ii. 7 ; 
 Jam. iv. 14 ; 1 Pet. iv. 18.) 
 
 * YioQ rrjg ayatn]Q, as though it were no more than v'lOQ 
 ayaTrTjTog. 
 
 t Bj). 174. 
 
 X Be Trin. 1. 15. c. 19 : Caritas quippe Patris qute in natura ejus 
 est ineffabiliter simplici nihil est aliud quam ejus ipsa natura atque 
 substantia. Ac per hoc Filius caritatis ejus nuUas est alius, quam 
 qui de substantia ejus est genitus. And presently before, Filius 
 caritatis suae, PiHus substantite sute. 
 
152 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VTII. 
 
 (Kev. XV. 2,) the opening of tlie books and judging men 
 out of them, and all other in which the things of heaven, 
 not otherwise to be made inteUigible to us, are translated 
 into the language of earth, is of com'se accommodation and 
 condescension, but still with most real truth as its ground- 
 work ; and it is the task of the skilful interpreter to bring 
 out the essential truth of which each of these images is the 
 vehicle. This Augustine does very happily, as for instance 
 in his very solemn explanation, quoted below, of what this 
 " opening of the books" at the last day may mean.* 
 
 But I must draw these specimens of Augustine's exe- 
 getical skill to an end, which I wiU do with one or two 
 closing observations. It will be seen, I think, by not a 
 few of these examples, that with all his dialectic dexterity 
 and aU his delight in subtlest speculation, which indeed he 
 snuffs afar off', with sometliing of the same exultation as 
 the war-horse in Job " the thunder of the captains and 
 the shouting," plunging into the thickest of it with an 
 eager joy, with aU his fondness for tracing up everything 
 to its very ultimate ground, f he abides still the man of the 
 people, uniting in a remarkable degree with his metaphy- 
 
 * Be Civ, Dei, 1. 20. c. 14 : Qusedam vis est inteUigenda divina, 
 qua fiet ut cuique opera sua, vel boua vel mala, cuncta in memoriam 
 revocentur, et mentis intuitu mii'a celeritate cernantm' ; ut accuset 
 vel excuset scientia conscientiam, atque ita simul et omnes et singuli 
 judicentur. Quae nimirum vis divina, libri nomen accepit. In e^ 
 quippe quodam modo legitui- quidquid ea faciente recolitur. 
 
 t See, for instance, his interesting discussion on the origin of 
 slavery, De Civ. Dei, 1. 19. c. 15. 
 
CHAP. VTII.] INTERPRETEH OF SCRIPTURE. 153 
 
 sical subtlety a broad practical common sense ; -^dtliout 
 wliicli union indeed lie never could have exercised so wide 
 a dominion as lie has. The rich treasure house of common 
 life was open to him. ramiliarity and use had not worn 
 out its significance, nor robbed it of its mystery for him. 
 We find him abounding evermore in happiest illustration, 
 the homeliest as the highest, continually appealing in his 
 popular exegesis to proverbs in common use, to familiar 
 tui-ns of language,* drawing out their lesson from these, 
 tracking those vestiges of the truth which are everywhere 
 dispersed,! and making men's daily life and their most 
 ordinaiy words and ways to throw light on Scripture, to 
 receive light fro7n Scripture, and to witness for truths far 
 greater than they dreamed. 
 
 It must be acknowledged too that in brief and felicitous 
 antithesis Augustine is without a peer. More than any 
 other Churchi writer he abounds in short and memorable, 
 and, if I might so call them, epigrammatic sayings, con- 
 centrating with a forceful brevity the whole trath which he 
 desires to impart into some single phrase, forging it into 
 a polished shaft, at once pointed to pierce, and barbed that 
 it shall not lightly drop from, the mind and memory. And 
 thus it has come to pass that as no writer lends himself so 
 happily to quotation, none perhaps is so often quoted. J 
 
 * As in one place he says himseK: Ipsa lingua popularis plerumque 
 est doctrina salutaxis. 
 
 t Enarr. in Fs. cxviii. 36 : Vestigia veritatis, quse ubique dispersa 
 est. 
 
 X The Spaniards have a proverb : No hay sermon sin Agostino, 
 
154 AUGUSTINE AS AN [CHAP. VIIT. 
 
 And then witli what a genial tact does he know how to 
 plant himself at the central point of the truth which he 
 desires to explain, and from thence securely to unfold it. 
 How often does he in a single phrase sum up the point of 
 some Scripture history or doctrine, draw out and make 
 application of it to the hearts and consciences of men in 
 short and never to be forgotten words ; how often does he 
 illuminate as with a flash of lightning some dark passage, 
 or trace with a single word some delicate yet important 
 distinction, which, once traced, can never be confounded 
 again.* I know not how better I can sum up his excel- 
 
 * I will instance a few examples of the condensed fulness whicli is 
 to be often found in his single sentences and phrases. Thus he gathers 
 up in a single phrase the sin of Simon Magus, (Acts viii. 19,) when 
 he desired of the apostles that he too might have like power with 
 them to impart the Holy Ghost : Voluit talia facere, non talis esse. 
 Coming on those words of the evangelist, which describe how the 
 whole crowd of the Lord's captors " went backward and fell to the 
 ground," at that word of his, "I am He," (John xviii. 6,) he 
 exclaims : Quid faciet judicaturus, qui judicandus hoc fecit ? Quid 
 regnaturus poterit, qui moriturus hoc potuit? even as on that 
 earlier trouble of Herod (Matt. ii. 3) : Quid erit tribunal judicantis, 
 cum superbos reges cunee terrebant infantis ? He gives the purpose 
 of the Lord in suffering himself to be tempted : Ad hoc pugnat im- 
 perator, ut milites discant. {Serm. 123. c. 2.) On the indignation of 
 the ruler of the synagogue at the healing of the woman who had been 
 bowed together (Luke xiii. 14,) he exclaims : Bene scandalizati sunt 
 de iUa erecta ipsi curvi. {Enarr. 2" in Ps. Lxviii. 24.) On the 
 doubt of Thomas in regard of the resurrection of his Lord : Dubi- 
 tatio Thomse, confirmatio Ecclesise ; with which we may compare the 
 Church collect for St. Thomas's day. He explains why the Lord, 
 after the resurrection, should have three times over repeated his 
 question to Peter, " Lovest thou me ?" (John xxi, 15 — 17): Donee 
 
CHAP. VIIT.] INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE. 155 
 
 lencies as an interpreter of Scripture, than in tlie words of 
 one who on this matter has expressed himself in the fol- 
 lowing language (Clausen^ Augustinus Sacra Scripturce 
 Literpres, p. 267. Berol. 1828): Mira Augustini erat in- 
 genii profnnditas, ardens et cordata pietas ; ut animum ad 
 ea, quae intus quseque in subHmi sunt, totum conversum 
 haberet : satis egisse se non prius arbitratus, quam sibi 
 usibusque suis religiosis satisfactum esset, veritates ex 
 sacro idearum fonte elicere, ad interna conscientiae oracula 
 revocare studio generoso annisus est. Hinc egregise multse 
 interpretationis virtutes ortae sunt : soUicitudo religiosa, 
 
 trina voce amoris solveret trinam vocem negationis. {Enarr. in Ps. 
 xxxvii. 13.) The whole question at issue between the Church and the 
 Donatists in regard of the true and the false separation from sinners, 
 he expresses in these words : Fugio paleam ne hoc sim, non aream ne 
 mhil sim. He sets forth the manifold relation of Christ to his 
 Church in regard of prayer {Enarr. in Ps. Lxxxv. 1) : Orat pro 
 nobis, orat in nobis, et oratur a nobis : He prays for us, as our High 
 Priest; He prays in us, as our Head; He is prayed to by us, 
 as our God. "With this we may parallelize his exposition of the 
 words, " I am the way, the truth, and the life ;" (John xiv. 6 ;) Hoc 
 est, per me venitur; ad me pervenitur; in me permanetur. {De 
 Hod. Christ. 1. 1.) Again, how profound is his commentary on 
 the words of St. Paul, (Rom. xii. 2,) " Be ye transformed by the 
 renewing of your minds, that ye may /prove what is that good and 
 perfect and acceptable will of God:" Tantum videmus, quantum 
 morimur huic sectJo; quantum autem huie vivimus, non videmus. 
 How conscience- searching his remark on the unprofitable servant, 
 who is cast into outer darkness, not because he has wasted, but only 
 because he has not multiplied, his Lord's money : Intelligitur poena 
 interversoris ex poena pigri. With what a felicitous analogy he illus- 
 trates the fact that regenerate men do not beget regenerate, but 
 natural and needing regeneration {J)e Pec. Mer. et Rem. 1. 3. c. 8) : 
 
156 AUGUSTINE. [chap. VIII. 
 
 gravitas verecunda, pia sinceritas : quum litteras sacras fidei 
 regulam, lucem pietatis, vitse magistram positas esse sciret, 
 neque igitm-, nisi ad doctrinam et vitam usus redundarei, 
 doeto labori laudem pretiumque constare. Et quanta 
 Nostri in vestigiis ad metam hancce dirigendis constantia 
 erat ! quanta in sententiis multis dogmaticis vel ethicis 
 efferendis construendisque diligentia, sagacitas, sapientia 
 vere cliiistiana ! ut non tarn argutando dixeris eum in- 
 tellexisse, quid scripserint auctores sacri, quam, impetu 
 interno ductum, quid senserint, ipsum sensisse ; ita in ex- 
 positionibus nihil deest, nihil superest, nihil claudicat : 
 cardinem rei acu quasi tetigit feriitque, ut veritate tibi 
 persuasum, pietate te commotum, simplicitate delectatum 
 sentias. 
 
 Palea, qute opere humano tanta diligentia separatur, manet in fructu 
 qui de purgato tritico nascitur. As again the profound spiritual truth 
 which the Lord declares Matt. x. 39, and elsewhere, is shown to have 
 its truest analogies in the world of nature {Serm. 331. c. 1) : Agricola 
 triticum si non perdit in semiue, non amat in messe. How happily he 
 has seized the central point of the type of the braseu serpent, which 
 they who make that exalted serpent to represent the Lord, and not the 
 death of the Lord, in part miss {In Ev. Joh. Tract. 13) : Quid est 
 serpens exaltatus ? Mors Domini in cruce. Adtenditur serpens, ut 
 nihil valeat serpens ; adtenditur mors, ut nihil valeat mors. {Enarr. 
 in Fs. Lxxiii, 2) : Sanari a serpente, magnum sacramentum. Quid 
 est, intuendo serpentem sanari a serpente ? Credendo in Mortuum 
 salvari a morte. And on the water and the blood that flowed from 
 the wounded side of the Saviour, and their typical relation to the 
 two sacraments {Serm. 311. c. 3): De latere Domini aqua sanguisque 
 profluxit. In uno est mundatio tua, in altero redemptio tua. 
 
EXPOSITION 
 
 HE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 
 
EXPOSITION, 
 
 ETC. 
 
 ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. V. 
 
 Ver. 1, 2. — Augustine does not express himself with 
 very great decision concerning the question, which has 
 always occupied and divided harmonists — namely, whether 
 the Sermon on the Mount, recorded by St. Matthew, is 
 the same as that which St. Luke records, (vi. 20 — 49.) 
 Against their identity, he finds this to have been spoken 
 on a mountain, that in the plain; (Luke vi. 17 while 
 yet, on the other hand, the great internal resemblance, 
 and the fact that the same miracle, the healing of the cen- 
 turion's servant, follows upon both, speak for the identity 
 of the two. He suggests, as a reconciliation of all dif- 
 ficulties, that the Lord may perhaps, first, on some higher 
 eminence of the mountain have spoken the discourse to 
 his disciples which St. Matthew records ; 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 repetition we have the 
 record of St. Luke. Yet, before he leaves the question, 
 he allows that this difference, of one discourse having 
 been spoken on a mountain, the other in the plain, does 
 
160 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 not imperatively demand such a scheme ; whicli, after all, 
 lias in it something unnatural. The two statements are 
 capable of reconciliation : our Lord may have " stood" 
 (Luke vi. 17) on some more level space upon 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 evangelists relate.* And this is, 
 no doubt, the truer and more natm'al explanation ; from 
 which the inner differences, as Augustine himself affinns, 
 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 of a discourse, which the other, though reporting 
 other parts of it more fully, has omitted. 
 
 There is an emphasis, acknowledged by all later inter- 
 preters, in the words, " He opened his 7nouth,^' which are 
 not merely another way of saying, He began to teach, but 
 
 * Be Cons. Evang. 1. 2. c. 19: Quanquam etiam illud possit 
 occurrere, in aliqua excelsiore parte montis primo cum solis disci- 
 pulis Dominum fuisse, quando ex eis illos duodecim elegit; deinde 
 cum eis descendisse, non de monte, sed de ipsa montis celsitudine 
 in campestrem locum, id est, in aliquam sequalitatem quae in latere 
 montis erat, et multas turbas capere poterat : atque ibi stetisse, 
 donee ad eum turbse congregarentur ; ac postea cum sedisset, acce- 
 pisse propinquius discipulos ejus, atque ita illis cseterisque turbis 
 prsesentibus unum habuisse sermonem, quem Mattbgeus Lucasque 
 narrarunt, diverso narrandi modo, sed eadem veritate rerum et sen- 
 tentiarum, quos ambo dixerunt. 
 
VER. 2, 3.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 161 
 
 signify tliat He was about commencing a discourse more 
 than commonly weighty and full. (Job iii. 1 ; xxii. 20 ; 
 Acts viii. 35 ; x. 34.) Augustine lias not let this go 
 unobserved, although he finds exclusively an indication of 
 the length of the discourse 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 and 
 the Wisdom of God, are recorded, where there is that, 
 these must of necessity be there also. 
 
 Ver. 3. '^Blessed are the poor in spirit.'" — In these 
 words, the first in the Sermon, a difficult question is 
 already stii-red; in what sense, namely, " ^V^ spirit'' shall 
 be taken. Augustine explains it, poor in their own spirits, 
 and so rich in the Spirit of God, who are thus as the 
 valleys, filled with the waters which roll off from the high 
 and the barren hills. f Yet while this is no doubt, in the 
 main, the true meaning of Christ's saying, he lays on 
 the words " in spirit" not exactly their right stress ; he 
 would have it. Blessed are they that have not an elated 
 spirit; taking "'spirit" altogether in an evil sense, J as 
 
 * De Serm. Bom. in lion. 1. 1. c. 1: Ista circumlocutio qua scri- 
 bitur, Et aperiens os suum, fortassis ipsa mora commendat aliquanto 
 longiorein futurum esse sermonem. 
 
 t Enarr. in Ps. cxli. 4 : Beati pauperes spiritu suo, divites Spiritu 
 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 ea. 
 
 :|: Thus De Serm. Bom. in 3Ion. 1. 1. c. 1 : Non habentes inflantem 
 spiritum, and Enarr. in Ps. cxliii. 7 ; see also the preceding note. 
 
 M 
 
162 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 that in man which lifts itself up against God, and so 
 hinders the reception of any of his gifts or blessings. 
 But what our Lord would say is doubtless this, Blessed 
 are they that are poor in the spirit of their minds ; the 
 term '^ poor^^ being alone that which is to exclude the 
 false riches of pride and self-sufficiency, and the words 
 that follow, " in spirit" marking that it is the region of 
 the inner man in which his thoughts are moving ; that 
 he is not now speaking of w^orldly 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, who 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 
 Eomish interpretation, that it is any outward poverty or 
 riches of which Christ is speaking, that he is fore- 
 announcing here any mendicant orders, or any singular 
 beatitudes which should be theirs.* Augustine had far 
 too deep an insight into Christian truth to limit and 
 explain Christ's saying here by the other form in which 
 St. Luke records it, " Blessed be ye poor ;" on the con- 
 trary, he evermore interprets that by this, completing the 
 briefer by the fuller, not cutting down (which were absm-d) 
 the fuller to suit with the briefer. For he that was a 
 
 * Many Eomish interpreters make 7rrw%oi r<^ Trvivixan, the 
 voluntarily poor. 
 
VER. 3.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 163 
 
 faithful monitor, (and none more faithful,) to the rich of 
 this world, warning them of the dangers that especially 
 were theirs, hardness of heart, self-indulgence, pride, and 
 notably the last, — for as eveiy fruit has its worm, so 
 wealth has this,* — was as faithful also to the poor, did 
 not fall into the temptation, which is equally a temptation, 
 of flattering or favom*ing them, (Lev. xix. 15,) and there- 
 fore would not let them believe that their outward poverty 
 did itself constitute humility, 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 ;t 
 while on the other side there were Jobs and Abrahams, 
 who were adorned with this true poverty, even in the 
 
 * Serm. 61. c. 9 : Omne pomum, omne graniim, omne frumentum, 
 omne lignum, habet vermem suura. Vermis divitiarum, superbia. 
 
 f Enarr. in Ps. cxxxi. 15 : Pauper Dei in animo est, non in 
 sacculo. Procedit aliquando homo habens plenam domum, uberes 
 terras ; . . . . novit quia in ipsis non est presumendum ; humiliat se 
 Deo, facit inde bene ; ita cor ipsius erigitm- ad Deum, ut noverit quia 
 non solum nihil illi prosunt divitise ipsae, sed et impediunt pedes ipsius, 
 nisi Ille regat et Ille subveniat : et numeratur inter pauperes, qui 
 saturantur panibus. Invenis alium mendicum inflatum, aut ideo non 
 inflatum, quia nihil habet, quserentem tamen uude infletur. Non 
 attendit Deus facultatem, sed cupiditatem ; et judicat eum secundum 
 cupiditatem, quia inhiat rebus temporalibus, non secundum facultatem, 
 quam non ei contigit adipisci. And Enarr. in Ps. Lxxxv. 1: Resistit 
 Deus superbis, et holosericatis et pannosis : humilibus autem dat 
 gratiam, et habentibus aliquam substantiam hujus seculi et non 
 habentibus. Cf. Enarr. in Ps. xciii. 1 ; and Serm. 177, where he 
 seeks especially to bring out the force of St. Paul's words: Qai volnnt 
 divites fieri. 1 Tim. vi. 5. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 midst of their worldly abundance.* — This poverty of spirit 
 being the condition of every blessing, therefore to it is 
 attached the promise of "the kingdom of heaven,'' which 
 is inckisive of all blessings ; for all the beatitudes which 
 foUow 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 
 Scriptures, " kingdom of God'' as sometimes with him,) 
 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 should be a King 
 to rule, and a Priest to sanctify, his people.t 
 
 Ver. 4. ''Blessed are the meek, for they shall inlierit the 
 earth." — Augustine shares with the Vulgate the better 
 arrangement of the beatitudes which places this imme- 
 diately after the first, reversing the position of this and of 
 the " Blessed are they that mourn ;" which in our Bibles 
 has precedence of it, but which, for the truer logical 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. Ixxi. 2: Qua paupertate etiam beatus Job pauper 
 fuit, et antequam magnas illas terrenas divitias amisisset. Quod ideo 
 commemorandum putavi, quoniam sunt quid am qui facilius omnia sua 
 pauperibus distribuunt, quam ipsi pauperes Dei fiant. 
 
 t Con. Faust. 1, 19. c. 31: Regnum coelorum . . . . ori ejus 
 nominandum servabatur, quem Regem ad regendos et Sacerdotem ad 
 sanctificandos fideles suos universus ille apparatus veteris Instrumenti 
 in generationibus, factis, dictis, sacrificiis, observationibus, festivita- 
 tibus, omnibusque eloquiorum praeconiis, et rebus gestis et rerum 
 figuris partmiebat esse venturum. 
 
 i 
 
VER. 4.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 1G5 
 
 coherence, sliould follow.* He rightly explains this meek- 
 ness as having reference to our bearing, not toward God, 
 but our fellow-men.f And then comes out the appro- 
 priateness of the blessing ; for it seems, according to the 
 judgment of men, that in a world of wrong and im- 
 righteousness 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 again 
 and again than contend for it, will at length have nothing" 
 left him which he may call his own. (Gen. xxvi. 30.) But 
 it is not so. Great under God is the strength and power 
 of meekness ; with it is ever the victory at the last : 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'' shaU in the end inherit all 
 things, even this "■earth''' from which it seemed once 
 as if they would be thrust out altogether. J Here, too. 
 
 * Lachmann and Tischendorf have admitted this arrangement into 
 their text, 
 
 t De Serm. Lorn, in 3Ion. 1. 1. c. 2: Mites sunt qui cedunt impro- 
 bitatibus et non resistunt malo, sed vincunt in bono malum. 
 
 :|: Serm. 53. c. 8 : He observes how in each, congrua congruen- 
 tibus apposita sint ; and on this ; Quia mites homines facile exclu- 
 duntur de terra sua, Beati, inquit, mites, quoniam ipsi haereditate 
 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.) : Fidehs homiuis totus 
 muudus dixdtiarum est : infidelis autem nee obolus. So that he does 
 not in fact contradict that meaning which looks at it as a future 
 inheritance, when {Ejp. 149) he explains " the earth" spoken of here 
 
IGO EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 we have one of Augustine's striking antithetic sayings : 
 " Thou wishest to possess the earth : beware then lest 
 thou be possessed by it."* — There is a force, which I 
 think he intended to bring out, in the form under which 
 the promise is conveyed, ''For they shall inUerit tJie 
 eartlij' — and that in more ways than one; 'HJie earthy 
 possession in land always remaining the siu-est of earthly 
 possessions, — and " inlierit^' possession by inheritance in 
 the orderly succession of father and son being ever 
 counted to have the strongest promise and pledge of 
 endurance, t 
 
 Ver. 5. " Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be 
 comforted'' — 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, for 
 it leads to no repentance, or at best is only a " sorrow of 
 this world." One is groaning for one thing, one for 
 another — for this temporal loss, for that worldly tribula- 
 tion ; 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. 
 
 as, Ecclesiam hfereditatemque fidelium atque sanctorum, qu£e dicitur 
 terra viventium. 
 
 * Serm. 53. c. 2: Vis possidere terram? vide ne possidearis a 
 terra. 
 
 f De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 2 : Significat quandam solidi- 
 tatem et stabilitatem lisereditatis perpetuse. 
 
VER. 5, 6.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 167 
 
 the world lays liis sorrowing to tlie same account. Men 
 say lie lias suffered this loss or that ; for they know not of 
 a mourning which springs from a higher source, a mourn- 
 ing for our own sins, for the sins of others, out of a sense 
 of our exile here, of oui- separation from the true home of 
 our spirits, out of a longing for the eternal Sabbath.* 
 And yet it is only this nobler grief that has the promise 
 linked to it, this only which will be followed by consola- 
 tion. To be thus miserable is indeed to be happy, while, 
 on the contrary, he that is altogether without this mourn- 
 ing gives too sure an augury that there is reserved for him 
 a mourning of another kind, and which shall not exchange 
 itself, as shall this, for the consolations of the kingdom of 
 heaven.f 
 
 Ver. 6. " blessed are they which do hunger and thirst 
 after righteousness, for they shall be filled.''^ — It is not that 
 the hunger and thirst are in themselves the blessing, but 
 only as they prepare the way for its reception, create a 
 
 * See a beautiful passage {Enarr. in Ps. xxxvii. 9) ou the groan- 
 ing which is before the Lord, compared with that which is only 
 before men. 
 
 t Enarr. in Ps. xxxvii. 1. TeKx 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 : Pia est 
 ista tristitia, et, si dici potest, beata miseria, vitiis alienis tribulari, 
 non implicari; moerere, non hajrere; dolore contrahi, non amore 
 attrahi. Hsec est persequutio quam patiuntur omnes qui volunt in 
 Christo pie vivere, secundum apostolicam mordacem veracemque sen- 
 tentiam (2 Tim. iii. 12). Quid enim hie sic persequitur vitam 
 bonorum, quam vita iniquoruni? 
 
168 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 longing for the heavenly aliment, which except for this 
 hunger would be slighted or loathed.* Yery beautifully 
 Augustine draws from John vi. 26 — 65 a commentary on 
 this text, making the " rigJiteousness''^ here to be equivalent 
 with the " bread from heaven" there, and urging that by 
 each we should understand nothing short of 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 righteousness," 
 in proof that " rigliteousness'^ here is equally exchangeable 
 for Him in whom the righteousness is contained; the 
 hungering and thirsting after which is no desiring merely 
 a moral amelioration, but a longing after Christ, and the 
 being clothed with Ms righteousness, and satisfied out of 
 his fulness. f The Jews, he says, were in the condition of 
 mind dii'ectly opposed to that which here has the blessing 
 attached to it, when, going about to establish their own 
 righteousness, they would not submit themselves to the 
 righteousness of God ; (Eom. 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 
 
 * Sei-m. 61. c. 6: Prsecedat saturitatem fames, ne fastidium non 
 perveniat ad panes. 
 
 t Thus, too, he exchanges with a true feeling of the sense, 
 "righteousness'' for " God," in some alkisions to this passage; Enarr. 
 in Fs. C5LV, 18. 
 
VER. 6.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. If! 9 
 
 value to his offer.* Augustine cannot find the entire 
 fulfilment of the appended promise, "/or they shall he 
 filled,''' in the present life; for here our jaws are but 
 sprinkled, as it were, with a few drops from 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 itself the dilating of the 
 vessel that it may contain the more.f 
 
 * In Ev. Joh. Tract. 26 : Isti a pane de coelo longe erant, nee eum 
 esurire noverant. Fauces cordis languidas habebant .... Panis 
 quippe iste interioris hominis quserit esuriem : unde alio loco dicit, 
 Beati qui esuriuut et sitiunt justitiain, quoniam ipsi saturabuntur. 
 Justitiam vero nobis esse Christum, Paulas Apostolus dicit. Ac per 
 hoc qui esurit hunc panem, esuriat justitiam ; sed justitiam qu8e de 
 ccelo descendit, justitiam quam dat Deus, non quam sibi tacit homo. 
 And then he justly explains the "righteousness of God," (Rom. i. 17,) 
 not as the righteousness with which God is righteous in himself, but 
 the righteousness which He gives to his people. 
 
 •\ Be TJtil. Jejun. c. 1: Pertinet ergo ad homines hanc vitam 
 mortalem gerentes, esurire ac sitire justitiam : impleri autem justitia, 
 ad aliam vitam pertinet. Hoc pane, hoc cibo pleni sunt Angeli : 
 homines autem dum esuriuut, extendunt se ; dum se extendunt, dila- 
 tautur; dum dilatantur, capaces fiunt; capaces facti, suo tempore 
 replebuntur. Quid ergo, hie nihil inde capiunt qui esuriuut et 
 sitiunt justitiam ? Capiunt plane, sed aliud est cum quserimus de 
 refectione iter agentium, et aliud cum quaerimus de perfectione 
 beatorum. And Enarr. in Ps. cxxii. 4 : Q,uantacumque justitia in 
 nobis fuerit, ros est nescio quis ad ilium foutem, ad sagiuam illam 
 tantam stillicidia quaidam sunt, quae vitam nostram molliant, et 
 duram iniquitatem solvant. Enarr. in Ps. xxxv. 10: Qids est fons 
 vitae nisi Christus ? Venit ad te in came, ut irroraret fauces tuas 
 sitientes ; satiabit sperantem, qui irroravit sitientem. 
 
170 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 Ver. 7. " Blessed are the merciful, for tJiey shall obtain 
 mercy." — This mercifulness x\ugustine would appear some- 
 times to confine to the relief of the temporal needs of our 
 brother ; yet is it a pitifulness which is evidently of a . 
 wider reach, embracing the whole outcomings of a Chris- 
 tian'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 king- 
 dom of God shall find place ; upon which he expresses 
 himself thus : " 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." * 
 
 Ver. 8. ^'Blessed are tJie pure in heart, for they shall 
 see God."' — The ''pure heart''' Augustine explains, and 
 rightly as I believe, as the single heart, the heart without 
 folds ; and this, with the promise of seeing God which is 
 attached to it, causes him to bring this passage at once 
 into connexion with those others in which our Lord speaks 
 of the single eye, that eye of the soul, (Matt. vi. 32, 33 ; 
 
 * Serm. 53. c. 5. 
 
VER. 8.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 171 
 
 Luke xi. 34,) whicli only when liealthy is receptive of 
 divine liglit, and tlie channel of light to the whole man ; 
 a declaration identical with the present, that only the 
 pure in heart shall see God.* But liow this seeing of 
 God should be, — for he will not explain away the words 
 into a mere figure of a general felicity, — is a question 
 which occupied hiin greatly ; yet one, as he truly said at 
 the beginning of a long epistle on tlie subject, in whicli 
 holy living will help infinitely more than subtle teaching. f 
 And as this question occupied liim, so did another which 
 is nearly connected with it, namely, lolien this should be ? 
 a question which must mainly depend for its answer ou 
 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 ? or whether, like so many other promises, it 
 shall have a partial fulfilment now, an entii'e fulfilment 
 hereafter ? To arrive at a satisfactory answer it will be 
 needfid 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 of 
 God at all involves, and itself rests upon, the divine consti- 
 
 * Beati muudicordes, as he commonly expresses it with a word 
 of his own. The Vulgate, Beati mundo corde; — mundmn cor = sim- 
 ples (i.e. sine plica) cor = 600aX/i6e aTrXoSt; (Luke si. 34.) Per- 
 haps sincerus would be nearer to the Greek KaOagog, 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 was that would impair its perfect purity. 
 
 f Ep.\¥l : Primum mihi videtur plus valere in hac inquisitione 
 vivendi quam loquendi modura. 
 
172 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 tution of man, his original creation in tlie divine image ; 
 and hence, to use an image of the later Platonists, as 
 because the eye is soliform (JiXioEth'ig), it therefore can see 
 the sun, so man, being made in a divine image, is there- 
 fore capable of knowing and seeing God.* 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 righteousness and true holiness." (Ephes. iv. 24.) 
 The seeing then which rests upon this must be an inward 
 seeing; not, as some said, whom he earnestly rebukes, 
 with these eyes of flesh, 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 enlightened eyes of the understanding, the heart 
 purified by faith — these, and no bodily eyes, are the 
 organs by which God is seen. In proportion as we are 
 unlike to Him, we are incapable of seeing Him ; in pro- 
 portion as we grow in likeness to Him, as we are " re- 
 newed in knowledge after the image of Him that created" 
 us, we grow in the power of this vision. t 
 
 * Serm. 88. c. 6 : Fecit autem te Deus, o homo, ad imaginem 
 suam. Daretne tibi unde videres solem quern fecit, et non tibi daret 
 uude videres eum qui te fecit, cum te ad imaginem suam fecerit ? 
 
 t Thus Uj). 92. c. 3, (with allusion to 1 John v. 2) : In tantum 
 ergo videbimus, in quantum similes ei erimus, quia nunc in tantum 
 non videmus, in quantum dissimiles sumus. Inde igitur videbimus, 
 unde similes erimus. Quis autem dementissimus dixerit, corpora 
 nos vel esse vel futures esse similes Deo? The whole epistle is 
 directed against those who thought the corporeal eye would be the 
 organ with w^hich God would be seen ; yet elsewhere {Ep. Ill; 
 
VER. 8.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 173 
 
 Here, then, is the answer to the other question: When 
 it shall be, in this life, or in the coming ? Plainly in both. 
 For, since this renewal is begun here, the vision must 
 begin here also ; though it be now but a seeing through a 
 glass darkly : 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 imme- 
 diate, a seeing " Him as He is ;" no mere theophany, such 
 as were the appearances of God to the saints in the Old 
 Testament, no 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 once ; no man, while yet 
 flesh and blood, could so see God and live, (Exod. xxxiii. 
 20,) but it shaU 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 ; (1 Tim. vi. 16 ;) 
 while others speak of men being introduced into his pre- 
 sence, seeing Him, and speaking with Him. (Gen. xviii. 1 ; 
 Isai. vi. 1.)* It is to the attaining of this pure heart, 
 
 and De Civ. Dei, 1. 22. c. 29) he expresses himself more doubtfully, 
 as being unable to say what accessions of power the spiritual body 
 may receive. 
 
 * See his beautiful letter to Paulina, Ep. 147. c. 6—8 : Ipse ergo 
 erat in ea specie qua apparere voluerat, non autem ipse ai)parebat in 
 natura propria, qaam Moses videre cupiebat. Ea quippe promittitur 
 Sanctis in alia vita .... Multi viderunt, sed quod voluntas elegit, 
 non quod natura formavit. 
 
174 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 tliis pm-ged eye of tlie soul, that all lielps and appliances 
 of grace are tending.* This is the great meaning and 
 pui'pose of them all, — of sacraments, of preaching, of 
 Scripture, — to prepare and fit us for this, for a time when 
 we shall be enabled to see the Seer :f for in that seeing 
 all blessedness is included; without it there were no 
 heaven, with it there could be no hell. if 
 
 Yer. 9. '^Blessed are tJie peacemakers, for they shall be 
 called the children of God.^^ — Augustine sometimes under- 
 stands by "peacemakers'" those that have made peace in 
 theii' own inner souls, in whom the spirit 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 mder range, for this-is -evidently 
 too narrow. It is true that the Latin pacifici,\\ which he 
 
 * Serm. 88. c. 5 : Tota igitur opera nostra, fvatres, in hac vita 
 est, sanare oculum cordis unde videtur Deus, Ad hoc sacrosaneta 
 mysteria celebrantur, ad hoc sermo Dei prajdicatur, ad hoc agunt 
 qnidquid agunt divinfe sanctaque literse, ut purgetur illud interius 
 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. 
 
 t Videre Videntem. 
 
 % Visio Dei est tota vita seterna. Si mah Dei faciem viderent, 
 pcenis caderent. 
 
 § So Be Serin. Bom in 3fon. 1. 1. c. 2. 
 
 II Pacifici = £(pjji^ IK 01, {(3ov\6ixtvoi dpr)vi]v, Prov. xii. 20,) as op- 
 posed to those who are l^ IpiOtlac, (Rom. ii. 8 ;) but the word here 
 is elprjvoTTOioi. 
 
VER. 9.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 175 
 
 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 great measure 
 this beatitude with the second, for the " meelc' and the 
 "peaceable" will be nearly the same. But the naming of 
 the " peacewotX^ers" introduces a new thought. The Chris- 
 tian 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 his brethren, " Be ye 
 reconciled with God."* Too many expositors look ex- 
 clusively to that other and lower peace, those especially 
 who prize Christianity merely for its power of healing the 
 outward sores of the world, not as that which alone 
 stanches the deep inner wounds of men's souls. Not 
 that the peace of this world is excluded ;t the Gospel 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 true peace, it is willing for a season to forego and 
 sacrifice the- other, to be called a troubler, to appear to be 
 bringing in the sword of division, rather than to be 
 knitting the bands of love. Thus it is, he observes, with 
 
 * Thus Augustine, with allusion to Luke x. 5 : Quo pleui sunt, 
 fundunt. 
 
 t Thus Augustine himself, writing to a soldier, says {E]). 189, 
 ad Bonifac.) : Esto ergo etiam bellando pacificus, ut eos quos ex- 
 pugnas ad pacis utilitatem vincendo perducas. Beati enim pacifici, 
 ait Dominus. 
 
176 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 tlie truth 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 redemption has brought in : in him 
 the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against 
 the flesh ; yet thus is he in the way to that peace, which 
 alone deserves the name. And so also ^ust it be. in a 
 sinful world. (3 Tim. iv. 2.)* 
 
 Yer. 10 — 12. — Augustine oftentimes very graphically 
 describes the new forms which persecution assumes, re- 
 maining in its essence the same, when now it is no longer 
 the persecution which heathens direct against Christians, 
 but that which bad Christians direct against good ; and 
 we learn from him by the way some of the forms which 
 in his time the scoffings of the ungodly against the earnest 
 assumed.! But further, he has need fi'equently to urge 
 that it is, according to the Lord's own express limitation, 
 a suff'ering "/or righteousness' sake," and that alone, which 
 has the blessing ; that it is in fact the cause which makes 
 the martyr. This he had need to af&rm against the 
 Donatists, who because they were suffering, on account of 
 their schism, many things at the hands of the civil power, 
 therefore claimed without further question this blessing as 
 their own ; and appealed to these sufferings of theirs in 
 proof of the righteousness of their cause. Now, not to 
 
 * Con. Lit. Petil. 1. 2. c. 69. 
 
 t Enarr. in Ps. xc. 3 : Dicunt, Magnus tu, Justus, tu es Elias, tu 
 es Petrus, de coelo venisti. 
 
VER. 10 — 12.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 177 
 
 say that many of tlieir sufferings were self-inflicted,* many 
 the just punishment of civil crimes, even those which they 
 bore for their faith's sake gave them no right to assume 
 this, till another question had been settled in tlieir favour. 
 For, without in the least seeking to justify all the means 
 which the temporal power used, and Augustine, with the 
 rest of the Church in Africa, sanctioned and approved, for 
 the forcible reducing of them to unity, in this he had 
 plainly right, when he entirely denied their claim, merely 
 on the strength of these sufi'erings, to be the rightful in- 
 heritors of this blessing.f Another point had first to be 
 proved, namely, that it was for Christ's sake, as witnesses 
 for Christ's truth, and as the true representatives of 
 
 * Con. GmtdentA. 1. c. 28: Genus hominum . . . crudelissimum 
 in mortibus alienis, vilissimum in suis. See the almost incredible 
 details of this fury of self-destruction which possessed them, in his 
 letter to Count Boniface. {Ej). 185, c. 3.) Yet the actual facts do 
 not altogether bear him out, when of one of them he asks {Con. 
 Gaudent. 1. 1. c. 21,) Quam persecutionem patimini, nisi a vobis? 
 
 t Thus Gaudentius, a Donatist, writes : Nostram caussam solse 
 nobis istse persecutiones gravissimam reddunt, and proceeds to quote 
 Matt. V. 10 — 12; Augustine replies {Con. Gaudent. 1. 1. c. 20) : 
 Recte ista dicerentur a vobis quEcrentibus martyrum gloriam, si 
 haberetis martp'um 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 
 ipsum. 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 
 patiuntm- propter justitiam. Cf. Con. Lit. Fetil. 1. 2. c. 71 ; Con. 
 Crescon. 1. 4. c. 46 ; Ep. 44. c. 2, 4. 
 
 N 
 
178 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 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, 
 because they suffered these things, were the ti-ue body of 
 Christ. Else by the same proofs, as he keenly retorts, 
 the priests of Baal were martyrs, when EKjah slew them ; 
 and as regards the cross, the malefactors had that in 
 common with the Lord.* If they found in these perse- 
 cutions the evidence that they were Christ's Church, by 
 the same right the pagans who still sui-vived in the 
 Eoman empire might appeal to the forbidding of their 
 worship, the closing of their temples, the pains and 
 penalties which attended the adherence to their supersti- 
 tion, as evidences of its truth. Once grant that sufferings 
 of themselves constituted martyrs, and every mine would 
 be fidl of them ; no criminal who perished by the sword of 
 justice but would be the rightful claimant of a crown.f 
 " I'or great is your reward in heaven." Augustine often 
 
 * Ep. 185. c. 2: Et ipse Dominus cum latronibus crucifixus est, 
 sed quos passio jungebat, caussa separabat. Cf. Serm. 331. c. 3. 
 
 t Enarr. in Ps. xxxiv. 23 : Martyres non facit poena, sed caussa. 
 Nam si poena martyi-es faceret, omnia metalla martyribus plena 
 essent, omnes catena3 martyres traherent ; omnes qui gladio feriuntur, 
 coronarentm-. Nemo ergo dicat, Quia patior Justus sum. Quia ipse 
 qui primo passus est, pro justitia passus est, ideo magnam excep- 
 tionem addidit, Beati qui persecutionem ^aiinvdm' propter Jtistitiam 
 .... Nemo ergo dicat, Persecutionem patior ; non ventilet poenam, sed 
 probet caussam. Enarr. in Ps. cxlv. 7 : Quidquid jure pateris, non 
 est injuria. Latrones multa patiuntur, sed non injmiam. Scelerati, 
 malefici, effractores, adulteri, corruptores, omnes patiuntur multa 
 mala, sed nuUa est injm-ia. Cf. Con. Lit. Petil. 1. 2. c. 19. 
 
VER. 10 — 12.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 179 
 
 enlarges on the sustaining power of Christian hope, and 
 of an eye directed to this great reward.* But on this 
 word " reivard" he is very distinct, and carefully guards 
 against aU claims which, on the strength of it, the proud 
 heart of man might make. The " reward inJieaveii' 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, and 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 preventing grace, legitimately carried out, must 
 for ever exclude the notion of any claim, as of merit pro- 
 perly so called ; not that there are not merits, or rather 
 graces, which will hereafter be recognised, but that these 
 merits are themselves gifts of God,-!" so that eternal life 
 will be but the adding of one more, one crowning gift, to 
 all that preceded.^ It will be but "grace for grace."§ 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. sxxvi. 23 : Attende mercedem, si vis sustinere 
 laborem. 
 
 t Ep. 194 : Ipsa vita seterna gratia nuncupatur, nee ideo quia 
 non meritis datur, sed quia data sunt et ipsa merita quibus datur. 
 And again {Be Grat. et Lib, Arb. c. 8) : Si vita bona nostra nihil 
 ahud est quam Dei gratia, sine dubio et vita aterua, quEe bonae vitse 
 redditur, Dei gratia est ; et ipsa enim gratis datur, quia gratis data 
 est ilia, cui datur. 
 
 % Ep. 194 : Cum Dens coronat merita nostra, nihil aliud coronat, 
 quam munera sua. Enarr. in Ps. lxx : Tua peccata sunt, merita 
 Dei sunt. Supplicium tibi debetur, et cum prsemium venerit, sua 
 dona coronabit, non merita tua. See too his anti-Pelagian treatises, 
 passim. 
 
 § Ep. 194 : Nunc vero de plenitudine ejus accepimus uou soliun 
 N 2 
 
180 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 Yer. 3 — 12. — As regards the contemplation of tlie 
 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 be 
 said that he very successfully traces the relation of each 
 to each. He notes how the eighth beatitude returns upon 
 the first, having the same promise, " the kingdom 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. f For these, as he says most truly, are not dif- 
 ferent persons that wiU be differently blest ; it is not that 
 one, being pure in heart, will see God ; another, being 
 
 gratiam qua nunc juste in laboribus usque ad finem vivimus, sed 
 etiam gratiam pro hac gratia, ut in reqnie 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 X"Pt^ "'^^^ X^I^'^'^C, 
 (John, i. 16,) that it means one grace heaped upon, and as a better 
 grace commg in some sort ^V^ the room of {avri) a preceding ; (so 
 Theoguis, dvr' aviSjv dviag, troubles upon troubles.) It is scarcely, 
 however, probable that St. John meant, as he implies, by the first 
 XapiQ, the 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 speat, 
 replacing one another. 
 
 * Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 4 ; and. Serm. 348. 
 
 t Be Serm. Bom. in 3Ion. 1. 1. c. 3 : Octava tanquam ad caput 
 redit ; quia consummatum perfectumque ostendit et probat. 
 
VER. 10 — 12.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 181 
 
 merciful, will obtain mercy ; and a third, that, hungering 
 and thirsting after righteousness, 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 in 
 heart,'' and not because he is ''merciful,'' or '' 7neeJc," or 
 a ''peacemaker," he will "see God;" and again, because 
 he is " merciful," and not because he is "pure in heart" 
 that he Avill " oMain mercy" and so with the rest, yet it 
 is the same person throughout to whom all the promises 
 belong. Just as, were it 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.* It is true, indeed, 
 that these graces, like grapes of the same cluster, may 
 ripen some earlier than others, may be some of them finer 
 and fuller than others, yet do they not the less all hang 
 upon the same stalk ; and the same process of ripening is 
 going forward in them all. He might have added, per- 
 haps, that in these separated blessings there is an implicit 
 summons to seek to complete the Christian character in 
 aU its aspects, to polish the diamond on all its sides, that 
 
 * Serm. 53. c. 9. Sic tanquam spiritalia membra componens, 
 docuit quid ad quid pertineat. Apia est humilitas ad habendum 
 regnum ccelorum, apta mansuetudo ad possidendam terram, aptus 
 luctus ad consolationem, apta fames et sitis justitite ad saturitatem, 
 apta misericordia ad impetrandam misericordiam, aptum mundum cor 
 ad videndum Deum. 
 
1 82 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 SO on every side it may be capable of reflecting tliat light 
 of heaven which will on that side also fall upon it. 
 
 Ver. 13. " Fe are the salt of the earth.'" — The transition 
 from what went before is easy : " Ye are the salt;" as such 
 intended to communicate a savour of life unto others ; to 
 hinder the world from becoming a putrefying mass of 
 corruption. Beware then lest you yourselves, through 
 fear of worldly incommodities and persecutions, lose this 
 your seasoning power, for there are none other to impart 
 grace to you, since it is you that are appointed to difluse 
 it to the rest of the world.* And the salt which has thus 
 " lost his savour, ''f what will it be good for, " but to be 
 cast out and to be trodden underfoot of men" ? Augustine 
 makes here the beautiful observation, that they are not 
 truly thus ^^ trodden underfoot" who sufPer persecution 
 without shrinking, but they who through fear of persecu- 
 tion become vile, abandoning their faith; for however 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. m 3Ion. 1. 1. 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 csete- 
 rorum ? 
 
 t 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, fnogavBy is rendered 
 evanuerit, which is not indeed incorrect, as Tholuck [Ausleg. d. 
 Bergpredigt, p. 121) asserts, for we have in Cicero, Salsamenta vetus- 
 tate evanescunt : but the old infatnerit was singularly happy 
 fatuus = jiiW|o6c, the man saltless, insipid. "We have no such happy 
 word for it as the '^i&ackfade. 
 
VER. 14, 15.1 SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 183 
 
 undermost lie may seem, yet lie is not really so, who, 
 whatever he may be suffering below on earth, has his 
 heart fixed above in heaven.* 
 
 Ver. 14, 15. ''Ye are the I'lgU of tJie worlcV'—Thty 
 are light, yet not in themselves, but "Hght in the Lord;" 
 rays darted forth from the sun, but not the sun itself. In 
 themselves, even as all others, they were " sometimes 
 darkness," (Eplies. v. 8,) and, receding from the true 
 lio-ht, woidd become darkness a^ain. For no man is a 
 true light, having light in himself, but is as a candle or a 
 lamp, w^hich has been kindled and may be quenched again; 
 having ever need to exclaim with the Psalmist, " The 
 Lord is- my light.' f — " ^ city that is set on an hill 
 cannot he hid'"' By this " hilV^ Augustine understands 
 Christ himself, the foundation upon which the Chiu'ch is 
 built, the stone cut out without hands, which growing into 
 a mountain fills the world. ^ Yet the Lord may perhaps 
 mean no more than that the Church can no more escape 
 
 * Be Serm. Dom. in Mo7i. 1. 1. c. 6 : Non itaque calcatur ab 
 homiuibus, qui patitur persecationem, sed qui persecutionem timendo 
 infatuatur. Calcai-i enim non potest nisi inferior, sed inferior non 
 est qui quamvis corpora multa in terra sustineat, corde tamen fixus 
 in coelo est. 
 
 t Enarr. in Ps. cxviii. 105 -. NuUa quippe creatura, quamvis 
 rationaHs et intellectuallis, a seipsa iUuminatm', sed partieipatione 
 sempiternse veritatis accenditur. 
 
 X Serm. 338. c. 1 : Ipse est mons, qui ex parvo lapide crevit, et 
 totuni orbem crescendo implevit. And Con. Faust. 1. 16. c. 17 : 
 Se scilicet montem, fideles autem suos in sui nomiuis gloria fundatos 
 asserens civitatem. 
 
184 EXPOSITION or the [st. matt. v. 
 
 the notice of the world, than a city set on an eminence 
 the eyes of men — " Neither do men light a candle and put 
 it under a bushel, but on a candlestick ; and it giveth light 
 to all that are in the house." To find, as Augustine does, 
 in this " busheV a particular allusion to worldly cares, or 
 worldly lusts, which we may not suffer to darken the light 
 of the spii'it, putting that uppermost which ought to be 
 undermost, and vice versa, certainly seems far-fetched.* 
 What the Lord would say is but generally this : You were 
 not given such gi-eat 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 
 w^hich is yours was intended to season, see then that it 
 grows not savourless ; 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 
 lio;ht to all that are in the house, that is, in the Church, 
 or, as he 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. 
 
 Yer. 16. — There will be an opportunity of entering into 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 6 : And yet it is impossible to 
 deny tlie beauty of his further explanation of this passage, where 
 concerning the candlestick on which the candle is to be set he says 
 {Serm. 296. c. 6) : Crux Christi est magnum candelabrum, Qui 
 
 vult lucere, non erubescat de ligneo caudelabro Audi ergo 
 
 Paulum Apostolum, audi lucernam in candelabro exsultantem, Mihi 
 autem absit gloriari, nisi in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi. 
 Gal. vi. 14. 
 
VER. 17, 18.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 185 
 
 Augustine's view of this passage, when we come to his 
 reconciliation of the command here given, " Let your lUjM 
 slihie before men'' with the warning against doing any 
 of oiu' righteousness " before men^ to be seen of them'' 
 (vi. 1 — 18.) For the present it will be sufficient to ob- 
 serve, that he suggests the difficulty, and in this way 
 solves it : the Lord says not here, " Let your llglit so sJiine 
 before men, that they may glorify" you ; but, that they may 
 '■^glorify your Father which is in heaten'' — this his gloiy, 
 and not your own, is to be the end and aim of your 
 doings ;* and the later prohibition wiU not be found to be 
 a prohibition of the doing of good deeds before others, 
 but of the doing them with the pm'pose that those others 
 may exalt and glorify us. 
 
 Ver. 17, 18. — To the great and important question, 
 namely, in what way Christ was come, " not to destroy the 
 laio, but to fulfil," Augustine gives apparently many 
 answers ; yet not in fact many, being all at the root but 
 one. First, he says, Christ fulfilled the law by Himself 
 perfectly keeping it. Secondly, he fulfilled it, by shedding 
 abroad that love in the hearts of his people, by which and 
 
 * Serm. 338. c. 3 : Non autem Dominus jussit bona opera 
 abscondi, sed in bonis operibus laudem humanam non cogitare. 
 Cf. Serm. 149. c. 13 : Hoc si quEcris, ut glorificetur Dcus, noH 
 timere ne videaris ab hominibus. Etiam sic intus est eleemosyna 
 tua in abscondito ; ubi solus iUc, cujus gloriam quEcris, te videt hoc 
 quserere. 
 
186 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 by whicli alone it is truly fulfilled;* (Eom. xiii. 9, 10;) 
 and wLere, through the weakness of the flesh, and the 
 remains of old corruptions, they yet came short, Himself 
 fulfilling it in their room, and so having a right to appear 
 as an advocate in their behalf.t Thirdly, He fulfilled it, 
 when in Him whatsoever was shadowed out in the types 
 of the old law found a completion ; whatsoever was pro- 
 phesied and promised, became in him Yea and Amen.J 
 (2 Cor. i. 20.) And lastly, He fulfilled it, by unfolding 
 how much it contained, showing how beside the letter 
 which they deemed so easy to satisfy, it had also an inner 
 spirit : that it had a kernel as weU as an outer husk ; and 
 he oftentimes quotes as a true parallel to this saving, the 
 words of the Baptist : " The law was given by Moses, but 
 grace and truth came by Jesus Christ;" (John i. 17;) § 
 this " grace" that 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 
 
 * Serm. 125 : Quia venit dare caritatem, et caritas perficit legem; 
 merito dixit, Non veni legem solvere, sed implere. Ep. 167. c. 6 : 
 Lex libertatis, lex caritatis est. 
 
 t Con. Faust. 1. 19. c. 17 : Deinde quia, etiam sub gratia positis, 
 in hac mortal! vita difficile est omni modo implere quod in lege 
 scriptum est, Non concupisces : ille per carnis suae sacrificium 
 Sacerdos effectus, impetrat nobis indulgentiam, etiam bine adimplens 
 legem ; ut quod per nostram infirmitatem minus possimius, per 
 illius perfectionem recuperetur, cujus capitis membra effecti sumus. 
 (1 Job. ii. 1.) 
 
 I Con. Faust. 1. 19. c. 8. § Con. Faust. 1. 17. c. 16. 
 
 !1 Serm. 154. c. 1 : Concupiscentiam terruit, non exstinxit; ter- 
 ruit, non oppressit ; fecit timorem pcenro, non amorem justitise. 
 
VER. 17, 18.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 187 
 
 untnitli,* but truth in the sense of reality or body, op- 
 posed to shadow or outline ; so that those words of St. 
 John's, and these of our Lord's, he would make exactly to 
 answer to that declaration of St. Paul, where speaking of 
 the distinction between clean and unclean meats, and of 
 holidays, new moons, and sabbaths, he says ; " which 
 are a shadow of things to come, but the hody is of Christ." 
 (Col. ii, 17 ; Heb. x. 1.) All these explanations 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 fii'st revealed to men all that the law of love was, 
 and all the blessed demands which it made upon them ; 
 and no less the quarter in which they were to find help for 
 all their shortcomings therein, whereof now they had be- 
 come more deeply conscious than ever. 
 
 By these answers it will at once be seen how little 
 Augustine consents with them, Manichaeans of old, 
 Quakers in modem times, who afiinn that in the new 
 legislation of Christ there is any abrogation of, or with- 
 drawing, or casting a slight upon, any part of the old. 
 He had on this matter the same gi*eat conflict to main- 
 tain ^Wth the Mauichaeans, which Irenseus, Tertullian, and 
 others in earlier times, had maintaiued with the Gnostics. 
 
 * Not aXi^Otia, opposed to iptvdoc, but d\r]9eia (= tiKwv, Heb. 
 X. l. = <Tu)fia, Col. ii. 17,) to CKia, or vwohiyfia, Heb. ix. 23. Cf. 
 Euarr. in Ps. Lxxiii. 1. 
 
188 EXPOSITION OF THE [ ST. MATT. V. 
 
 These, as those, eagerly snatched at such passages as 
 Matt. V. 31, 32 ; 43, 44 ; they urged them as plain proofs 
 that Christ had come, according to his own declaration, 
 to repeal the Mosaic code ; they affirmed that whatever of 
 that code He sanctioned and allowed to stand fast, was 
 not peculiar to Moses, but belonged to the universal 
 morality, while everything distinctive of Moses was by 
 Him disallowed and cast aside. Now Augustine, in 
 reply to these enemies of the Old Testament, does not 
 avail himself of the timid gloss of -some modern com- 
 mentators, and admit that there is such a repealing ; but 
 then plead that it is only the Pharisaical additions to, or 
 perversions of, the law which thus are repealed. Kather 
 he denies the repealing altogether; 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.* He 
 declares that in each case the old stands fast, however 
 there may be a new unfolded from it. This verse, as may 
 
 * Con. Faust. 1. 19. c. 26 : Si Christus ubi quibusdam antiquis 
 sententiis propositis adjunxit, Ego autem dico vobis, neque primorum 
 hominum legem hoc verborum additamento adimplevit, ueque illam 
 quse per Mosera data est quasi contrariorum oppositione destruxit ; 
 sed potius omnia ex Hebrteorum lege commemorata ita commeudavit, 
 ut quidquid ex persona sua insuper loqueretur, vel ad expositionem 
 requirendam valeret, si quid ilia obscure posuisset, vel ad tutius 
 conservandum quod ilia voluisset. Vides quam sit aliter intelligen- 
 dum, quod ait, Non se veuisse legem solvere, sed adiraplere ; scilicet, 
 ut non quasi semiplena istis verbis integraretur, sed ut quod litera 
 jubente propter superborum prfesumtionem non poterat, suadente 
 gratia propter humilium confessionem impleretur, opere factorum, 
 non adjectione verborum. 
 
VER. 17, 18.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 189 
 
 well be supposed, was a hard saying to tlie adversaries. 
 They had many ways of escape from it, having no good 
 one. Sometimes they denied that the words were Christ's 
 at all, urging that 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 by.* 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 understand Him so to speak, and thus lay aside a 
 part of their bitter enmity against Him,) but quite a dif- 
 ferent thing ; that the law that He came to fulfil was the 
 natui'al law written on men's hearts. f And then, with an 
 attempt to shift the ground of controversy, they would 
 retort on the Catholics, that as little could tliey under- 
 stand this of that law which was given by Moses. For 
 neither did they themselves act as though Christ had 
 come to fulfil and confii-m that, but on the contrary 
 had suffered a great part of its enactments, its feasts and 
 its sacrifices, its circumcision and its sabbaths, its differ- 
 ences of meats, and a thousand other legal observances, to 
 fall out of use ; and now would have earnestly resisted 
 their revival. They, too, in their practice plainly implied 
 that Christ had dissolved and abrogated the law which He 
 found in force at his coming. J 
 
 * Con. Faust. 1. 17. c. 3. f Con. Faust. 1. 19. c. 1. 
 
 X Con. Faust. 1, 18. c. 1, 2. Faustus, the Manichsean, says. 
 Nee tu id credis, de quo me solum incusas. 
 
190 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 This cliarge against tlie Cliurcli, that it too was a dis- 
 solver 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 everything confii'med, — 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 continued after his coming to cling to the type 
 and the prophecy, had they abode among the outlines and 
 the shadows, refusing the substantial realities which now 
 in Him and in his incarnation were made theirs, then, 
 indeed, there would have been, on their part, a dissolving 
 of the law and the prophets, inasmuch as it would have 
 seemed that nothing of all which these had foretold or 
 prefigm'cd had come to pass ; that all was promise, and 
 nothing fulfilment. But now, whatever they let go in the 
 letter, they did, in the very letting go, declare to be for 
 them spuitually fulfilled.* They did not practise, now 
 the cu'cumcision of the flesh, but only 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 feast of unleavened bread, for in Christ, 
 whatever that feast had foreshadowed was accomplished ; 
 
 * Con. Faust. 1. 18. c. 4. And again : Ideo ablata, quia impleta. 
 
VER. 19, 20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 191 
 
 He liacl purged out the old leaven from men's li"'^, causing 
 them to be unleavened in Him ;* nor the passt ver, now 
 that the true Lamb of God, indeed without blemish, was 
 slain. They observed not the sabbath, which, indeed, 
 was only such in a figure ; for now the true sabbaths, 
 those to which the others pointed, were come ; seeing that 
 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."t In this way Christ fulfilled, and 
 did not dissolve, the ceremonial part of Moses' 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 observe them. J But to this subject there will be 
 frequent necessity of returning. 
 
 Ver. 19, 30. — A^Tiat is this being " least in the kingdom 
 of heaven,' which is here threatened? Augustine starts 
 with taking certainly for gi-anted that the doer and teacher 
 
 * Con. Faust. 1. 19. c. 10: Cum quasris. Cur azyma sicut Judaei 
 non observet Christianus, si Christus non venit legem solvere sed 
 implere? Respondeo, immo propterea magis hoc non observat 
 Christianus, quia quod iUa figura prophetabatur, expui-gato veteris 
 vitse fermento, novam vitam demonstrans, Christus implevit. 
 
 + Con. Faust. 1. 19. c. 19. Cf. Con. Adimajit. c. 16. 
 
 \ Con. Faust. 1. 19. c. 18: Hsec prsecepta sunt morum; ilia 
 sacramenta sunt promissorum : hsec implentm- per adjuvantem gra- 
 tiara, iUa per redditam veritatem ; utraque per Christum, et illam 
 semper gratiam donantem, nunc etiam revelantem, et hanc veritatem 
 tunc promitteutem, nunc exhibentem. 
 
192 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 of transgression,* of whom Christ is now speaking, even 
 though it be only in regard of " 07ie of these least com- 
 mandments,^' cannot be one who will 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 hingdom'" has a place in that kingdom, 
 albeit that place is the lowest: — either, that is, to take " the 
 Jcingdom of heaven'' as the Church militant, the kingdom 
 in the present earlier state of its development, in which 
 false teachers and evil workers are mingled with the doers 
 and teachers 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, as an unworthy occupant, 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 pas- 
 sages as Matt. xiii. 47.t Sometimes, however, he has 
 
 * 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 Matt, xxiii. 3, " They say and do not." (Beza, in modern 
 times, has the same construction, making Kai di^d^y = Kav di^a^y, 
 and referring ovtid to the touIv, and not to the Xv^iv.) Thus, 
 In Ev. JoJi. Tract. 122. c. 9: Denique ut ostenderet istos minimos 
 reprobos esse, qui docent bona loquendo, quae solvunt male vivendo, 
 nee quasi minimos in vita eeterna futm'os, sed omnino ibi non 
 futures .... continuo subjecit, Dico enim vobis, nisi &c. Cf. Serm. 
 252. c. 3. 
 
 + Thus Serm. 252. c. 3: Minimus vocabitur iu regno ccelorum. 
 Sed in quo regno coelorum ? In ecclesia quae modo est . . . Ibi erit, 
 sed minimus. Cf. Be Civ. Dei, 1. 20. e. 9. 
 
VEK. 19, 20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 193 
 
 another solution ; he takes " the Jcingdom of heaven'^ as tlie 
 perfected kingdom of gloiy, that into which nothing 
 unholy shall enter ; and then he understands the announce- 
 ment that he shall be " leasf there, as one of those 
 mitigated forms of expression, in which oftentimes threat- 
 ening is more awfully concentrated than in many a 
 loudest menace ;* to say that he " shall be leasf there, 
 being but another way of saying that he shall not be 
 found there at all. The net now has fish of all kinds and 
 all sizes, but then it shall only contain " great fishes"f 
 (Johnxxi. 11) in it, and such as are 'Heasf shall not be 
 found in it at all. It will at once be seen that these two 
 explanations do not contradict one another ; he shall be 
 least in the kingdom now, and excluded from it altogether 
 hereafter. 
 
 I confess, however, it seems to me hardly likely that the 
 '''■least ill the kingdom of heaven^ ^ can mean one excluded 
 from it altogether, especially as our Lord has used else- 
 where the selfsame phrase in so very different a sense. 
 (Matt. xi. 11.) We may more naturally understand Him 
 to be speaking here of some, who out of a false free- 
 dom taught, and themselves practised, an exemption from 
 certain special Christian precepts, dealing with them as 
 though they were annulled and abrogated ; and who yet, 
 
 * 'EXaxi(Troe = novissiinus et nullus. 
 
 \ In Ev. Joh. Tract. 122. For the fuU understanding Ms allu- 
 sion here, it would be needful to enter into the allegorical signifi- 
 cation, which he finds in the miraculous draught of fishes after the 
 Resurrection. 
 
194 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 despite of this, did in the inmost centre of theii' life belong 
 to Christ. Such should be " least in the kingdom of God'' 
 — in it, being saved by their faith ; but " leasf in it, as 
 having taken so false and one-sided a view of its enact- 
 ments — " least"" now in the judgment of God, and in the 
 work which from that false standing point they should be 
 able to accomplish— "/ms^" hereafter in the place that 
 should be assigned 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^' in the former verse, to be 
 identical with the having no entrance into that kingdom 
 in the latter, — appears to me an en-oneous 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 of the commandments will set you 
 low in the true kingdom of obedience and holiness ; (ver. 
 19;) but this of having a righteousness so utterly false 
 and hoUow as that of the Scribes and Pharisees, wiU not 
 merely set you low, but will exclude you from that king- 
 dom altogether; (ver. 20;) for while that marks an 
 impaired spiritual vision, this marks a vision utterly 
 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 
 
VER, 21, 22.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 195 
 
 simply and with no qualification ; " Whosoever is angry lolth 
 Ms hr other shall he in danger of the judgment.^' This, 
 however, is not the fact with the greater number of 
 existing MSS,, in which, as in Fathers of the second 
 century, and also in most of the early versions, " loithoid 
 a cause'" is to be found. He must himself naturally have 
 desired it there ; for he sides in this matter, and rightly, 
 with the Peripatetic rather than the Stoic, everywhere 
 recognizing the possibility of an holy anger ; and he inge- 
 niously shows, that even should it be right to omit these 
 words here, the prohibition of anger 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.* Anger itself may be an holy passion ; it is attri- 
 buted to Christ, (Mark iii. 5,) and to God ; the pos- 
 sibility 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 cherished long it is evermore in danger 
 of degenerating into hatred ; as wine too long kept, of 
 turning into vinegar : and therefore is it to be gotten rid 
 of, to be emptied out fi-om the vessel of the heart, without 
 delay : " Let not the sun go down upon your wrath."t 
 
 * Retract. 1. 1. c. 19 : Nou fratri irascitur, qvii peccato fratris iras- 
 citur. It is here that he notes sine caussa to be ^yanting in the 
 Greek MSS. ; in his Exposition of the discourse itself he reads it. 
 Among the leading MSS. B (the Cod. Vat.) is the only one that 
 now has it not. A and C have unfortunately lacunce exactly here. 
 
 t Bp. 38: Nulli irascenti ira sua videtur injusta [iiKii]. Ita 
 o2 
 
196 EXPOSITION or the [st. matt. v. 
 
 Witli regard to the word " Racha,'' Augustine tells us, 
 that he had learned from a Jew whom he had questioned 
 on the subject, that it is not a word having any distinct 
 significance, but rather an interjection, the vague excla- 
 mation of an indignant mind.* And accepting this 
 account of the word, he finds a natural and easy climax 
 here. The fii'st grade of the sin is, when a man feels the 
 emotion of a causeless anger in his 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 " EacJia,^^ 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, when 
 it is indeed no longer merely anger, for it has ripened into 
 hate. He is no doubt perfectly right in affirming that 
 degrees of guilt are intended to be signified here ; although 
 those who in modern times have gone the deepest into the 
 matter do not acquiesce in the interpretation of his Jew; 
 but explain '' Racha'' as a tenn of reproach, not indeed 
 
 enim inveterascens ira fit odium, dum quasi justi doloris admixta 
 dulcedo, diutius earn in vase detinet, donee totum acescat, vasque 
 corrumpat. Quaproi^ter multo melius nee juste cuiquam irascimur, 
 quam vekit juste irascendo in alicujus odium ii'se occulta facilitate 
 delabimur. In recipiendis enim hospitibus ignotis, solemus dicere, 
 multo esse melius malum hominem perpeti, quam forsitan per igno- 
 rantiam excludi bonum, dum cavemus ne recipiatur malus. Sed in 
 affectibus anim^ contra est. Nam incomparabiliter salubrius est 
 etiam iree juste pulsanti non aperire penetrale cordis, quam admittere 
 non facile recessuram, et perventuram de sm-culo ad trabem. 
 
 * Be Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 9 : Dixit enim esse vocem non 
 significantem aliquid, sed indignantis animi motum exprimentem. 
 
VER. 21, 22.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 197 
 
 very severe, but liaving a fixed meaning, and that pretty- 
 nearly equivalent to om* Englisli, Oli vain man !* 
 
 And as ascending degrees of guilt are involved in those 
 diiferent outcomings of anger, so also degrees of penalty 
 are expressed by the '^judgment,"" the " council,'" 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 mis- 
 understanding of our Lord's words on the part of some, — 
 one from which Augustine, 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 
 " GeJienna'' that which comes directly from the sentence 
 of God. On the contrary, they are all earthly forms 
 under which the different degi'ees of loss and injury for 
 the spiiit of man, reaching at last to its total loss and 
 
 * Racha = w avQptJTre kevs. Jam. ii. 20. The use by St. James 
 of this very term, and of the forbidden /xwpog by our Lord himself, 
 (Matt, xxiii. 17,) are alone proofs, if any were needed, that these 
 terms are 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 ; such as, avoiding certain expressly forbidden utterances 
 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, {Be Civ. Dei, 
 1, 21. c. 27 : Non dicit fratri suo, Fatue, qui cum hoc dicit, non ipsi 
 fraternitati, sed peccato ejus infensus est,) so where love is not, the 
 guilt of " Racha" and " Thou fool," will be inciu-red not merely 
 where these words are exchanged for others, but where no word at all 
 finds utterance from the lips. 
 
198 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 perdition, — set forth by the casting ont 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 allu- 
 sion to earthly judgment-seats or human councils, save as 
 the shadows mider which the things heavenly, in them- 
 selves unutterable, are portrayed.* Therefore om- trans- 
 lation " liell-jire" is not happ}^, as somewhat countenancing 
 the confusion ; not that the eternal loss is not by our 
 Lord indicated, but since that has twice before been men- 
 tioned under forms of things earthl}*, so should it stiU have 
 been here. The vaUey of Hinnom, profaned by the idola- 
 trous worship of Moloch, (3 Kin. xxiii. 10; Jer. vii. 31,) 
 and thereafter the place where every abomination was flung 
 forth, the offal and the carcases, to be gnawed by the 
 worm, and from time to time to be consiuned by the fire, 
 is the " Gehenna'' here. And our Lord is saying exactly 
 the contrary to that which they who so interpret wiU then 
 be making Him 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 
 earthlv tribunals do not meddle, but over which I am 
 
 * Be Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 9 : Yidentui' ergo aliqui gradus 
 in peccatis et in reatu, sed quibus modis invisibiliter exhibeantnr 
 meritis ammarum, quis potest dicere ? 
 
VER. 23, 24.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 199 
 
 Lord ; and T 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 deadliest 
 sin, as implicit murder,* to be checked in the very out- 
 set ; since each growth of this indidged e^dl 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 that, being entirely 
 reprobate, ye shall be cast out to that fearful place, of 
 which the valley of Hinnom, with its worm and its fire, is 
 the nearest, though indeed only the faint, earthly repre- 
 sentation. 
 
 Ver. 23, 24. — In this way Augustine traces the con- 
 nexion with 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 difference : Thou hast heard the 
 awful consequences of a sin against thy brother, how it 
 separates thee not merely from him, but from God : hear 
 
 * Augustine quotes, exactly to the point, 1 John iii. 15. And 
 Serm. 58. c. 7: Gladium non eduxisti, non vulnus in carne fecisti, 
 non coqjus plaga aliqua trucidasti. Cogitatio sola odii in corde tuo 
 est, et teneris homicida. . . . Quantum ad te pertinet, occidisti quem 
 odisti. Emenda te, corrige te. Si in domibus vestris scorpiones 
 essent aut aspides, quantum laboraretis, ut domus vestras pm-garetis, 
 et securi habitare possetis ? Irascimini, et inveterantur ii'te in cor- 
 dibus vestris, fiunt tot odia, tot trabes, tot scorpii, tot serpentes ; et 
 domum Dei, cor vestrum, purgare non vultis ? 
 
200 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 now also the remedy,* how thou mayest restore thy dis- 
 turbed relations with thy God ; for thy present condition 
 unfits thee for communion with Him, deprives thee of the 
 privilege of offering to Him any gift, since thou must 
 thyself be an offering, before any meaner thing which thou 
 bringest can be welcome as such.f 
 
 But how obey the command to "^o," to our brother ? 
 The half completed sacrifice will hardly endure so great a 
 delay. It may be that we are ignorant where now to 
 seek him, 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. J And the altar and 
 the offering, in like manner, 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 aright : 
 heretics, 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 imme- 
 
 * Serm. 82. c. 3 : Ecce i]le reatiis geliennse quam cito solutus 
 est. Nondum reconciliatus, eras gehennse reus : reconciliatus, securus 
 offers munus tuum ad altare. 
 
 t Serm. 82. c. 3 : Offers munus tuum, et tu non es munus Dei. 
 
 X Be Serm. JDom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 10 : Pergendum est ergo . . . 
 non pedibus corporis, sed motibus animi, ut te humili affectu pro- 
 sternas fratri ad quern cara cogitatione cucurreris, in conspectu ejus, 
 cui munus oblatm'us es. Ita enim etiamsi prsesens sit, poteris eum 
 non simulato 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. 
 
VER. 23, 24.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 201 
 
 diate nor any direct reference here to tlie Holy Eucharist ; 
 though, indeed, in that, as being the culminating act of 
 self-oblation unto God, there must be on the part of the 
 offerer a perfect charity, if his highest gift, to wit, that of 
 himself, is to be graciously received. Speaking while the 
 Jewish temple service was yet in existence, our Lord 
 clothes an eternal truth in language borrowed from that 
 temporary institution ; and to find direct allusion to any- 
 thing else in these terms " altar'' and " (fiff' is highly 
 unnatural ;* and certainly, as far as any passage I am 
 myself acquainted with, Augustine does not do so.f 
 
 But there still remains to consider what these words, 
 " liam ought against tliee" may mean. Is the offerer of 
 the gift to be considered as the injm-ed or injurious person ? 
 is he to hasten and bestow foro-iveness for a wrono- that has 
 
 * The most important passage in Augustine on the spiritual 
 sacrifices which the faithful are evermore to offer unto God, and the 
 relation in which they stand to the abrogated sacrifices of the law, is 
 to be found Be Civ. Dei, 1. 10. c. 3—6. Thus, c. 3 : Cum ad ilium 
 sursum est, ejus est altare cor nostrum : ejus Unigenito eum sacer- 
 dote placamus : ei cruentas victimas csedimus, quando usque ad san- 
 guinem pro ejus veritate certamus: ei suavissimum adolemus incensum, 
 cum in ejus conspectu pio sanctoque amore flagramus : ei dona ejus 
 in nobis, nosque ipsos vovemus, et reddimus ei beneficiorum ejus 
 solemnitatibus festis et diebus statutis dicamus sacramusque memo- 
 riam, ne volumine temporum ingrata subrepat oblivio : ei sacrificamus 
 hostiam humilitatis et laudis in ara cordis igne fervidee caritatis. 
 
 t No doubt there is some passage of the kind, as Johnson, in 
 his Jjnhloody Sacrifice, numbers St. Augustine among those who 
 have so interpreted the " altar^' here, but he does not give any 
 especial reference. 
 
202 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 been done him, or to sue forgiveness for a wrong that he 
 has done ? The words, as Augustine observes,* clearly 
 point out the last to be the meaning. If our brother had 
 wronged us, we should have something against liim, not he 
 against us. It would be no duty then to seek him, or to 
 ask pardon ; but only to be willing to be sought by him, and 
 to bestow pardon on him : where we have been the wronger, 
 there we are to seeTz it. This done, " tlien come and offer 
 thy gifty' that is, this being accomplished in spii'it, go 
 forward in the sacrifice of worship, or praise, supplication, 
 or whatsoever else it was, of which thou hadst commenced 
 the offering to thy God.f 
 
 Ver, 25, 26. — Augustine's interpretation of the precept, 
 '■'Agree loitJi tlime adversary quickly, ^^ is remarkable, though 
 it requires some modification before it can claim entire 
 assent. That other explanation seems weak and trivial, 
 though supported by considerable authorities, which would 
 make this merely a counsel of worldly prudence, and to 
 
 * Le Serm. Bom. in Mon. I. i. c. 10 : Si in mentem venerit 
 quod aliquid habeat adversum nos frater: id est, si nos eum iu 
 aliquo l?esimus, tunc enim ipse habet adversum nos : nam nos 
 adversus ilium babemus, si Ule nos Isesit : ubi non opus est pergere 
 ad reconciliationem : non enim veniam postulabis ab eo qui tibi 
 fecit injuriam, sed tantum dimittes. A comparison witb Mark xi. 25 ; 
 Rev, ii. 4, 14, 20, confirms this as the true meaning of 'ix^iv n 
 Kara tivoq. 
 
 t De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 10 : Atque inde veniens, id 
 est, intentionem revocans ad id quod agere coeperas, offers munus 
 tuum. 
 
VER. 25, 26.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 203 
 
 say no more than this, Seeing that the issue of every 
 pleading before a judge is uncertain, be not stiff and 
 stern in refusing terms of peace and reconciliation, lest 
 unexpectedly judgment be given against thee, and after- 
 wards thou rue bitterly thine obstinacy and thine impla- 
 cable mind. But since counsels of a merely worldly 
 prudence do not and cannot find place in our Lord's 
 teaching, it is nothing strange 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 " agree.'" It cannot, he observes, 
 be the devil, for however the term " adversary"' (6 dvriciKoc, 
 of. 1 Pet. V. 8) would suit him, yet our part is not to 
 consent, but to proclaim and maintain eternal warfare, with 
 him.* Nor can it be the flesh, though that too is an 
 adversary warring against the soul ; for men are only too 
 willing to consent with it, and the true course is not so to 
 do, but rather to make it consent with us.f Nor can it, 
 he affii'ms, be any fellow man whatever ; for what power 
 would such an one have to deliver us over to an eternal 
 doom? J Nor yet can the "adversary" be exactly God, 
 though He too might well be termed the adversary of the 
 
 * Be Serm. Bom. in, 3Ion. 1. 1. c. 11 : Neque concordare cum 
 illo expedit, cui semel renimciaudo, bellum indiximus, et quo victo 
 corouabimur : neque consentire illi jam oportet, cui si nunquam 
 coDsensissemus, nunquam in istas incidissemus miserias. 
 
 t Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 11 : Qui earn servituti subjiciunt, 
 non ipsi ei consentiunt, sed cam sibi consentire coo-unt. 
 
 + Be Serm. Bom. in Hon. 1. 1. c. 11 : Quomodo judici traditurus 
 est, qd ante judicem pariter exhibebitiu'? 
 
204 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 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. There- 
 fore, Augustine concludes, though this is not far from the 
 truth, yet it will be better still to say that the adversaiy 
 is the Law — an adversary so long as for the past it con- 
 demns 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 unreconciled, is a 
 drawing nearer to the judgment and to a certain con- 
 demnation.* 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 we are 
 reconciled unto it. It is a law, indeed, still, but a law of 
 liberty. f For the past also we are reconciled unto it, 
 
 * Serm. 251. c. 8: Q,uis est adversarius tuus? Sermo legis. 
 Quae est via ? vita ista. Quomodo est ille adversarius ? Dicit, Non 
 moechaberis, et tu vis moechari. Dicit, Non concupiscas rem 
 
 proximi tui ; et tu vis rapere res alienas Quando vides quia 
 
 ille sermo aliud jubet, et tu aliud facis, est adversarius tuus 
 
 Compone, dum es cum iUo in via. Adest Deus qui vos concordet. 
 Quomodo vos concordat Deus ? Donando peccata et inspirando 
 justitiam ut fiant opera bona, Cf. Serm. 109. c. 3, 4 : Adversaiius 
 
 est voluntatis tuae, donee fiat auctor salutis tuse Adversarius 
 
 est nobis, quamdiu sumus et ipsi nobis Si cum eo consen- 
 
 seris, pro judice invenies patrem, pro ministro ssevo angelum tollen- 
 tem in sinum Abrahse, pro carcere paradisum. Cf. Serm. 9. c. 3, 
 and Serm. 387. 
 
 t The redeemed man is not any more, according to Augustine's 
 profound distinction, {In Ev. Joh. Tract. 3,) suh lege, but cum lege 
 and in lege— not imder the law, (Q,ui enim sub lege est, non implet 
 legem, sed premitur a lege : Enarr. in Ps. cxliii. 1,) but yet neither 
 
VER. 26, 20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 205 
 
 inasmucli as 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 " quickli/," 
 because we know not how soon for us " the way" may be 
 ended, and we may find ourselves suddenly in the presence 
 of the Judge.* 
 
 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 connexion 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 continued enmity, our determined refusals to walk in 
 love, will be, whether he desire them to be so or not, 
 a delivering us to the judge, as further he will deliver us, 
 by being compelled to appear against us and be our accuser 
 at that day.t 
 
 As regards the minor details of this parabolic saying, by 
 
 dvofioQ, because evvofiog XoKTrcp, (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. Bom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 11. 
 
 t It is remarkable that Hilary had already anticipated this ob- 
 jection and difficulty, and answered it : Adversario tradente nos judici, 
 quia manens in eum simultatis nostrse ira nos arguit. 
 
206 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 " the Judge" lie understands not the Father, but Christ, 
 since " the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed 
 all judgment unto the Son;" — by ''the officer,'' an angel, 
 since He will come with all his holy angels to judge both 
 the quick and dead ; — by the ''prison,' the outer dark- 
 ness, the place of lost spirits ; not purgatory, as the 
 modem Romanists, who see in the words " till thou hast 
 paid the uttermost farthing ," a limit defined, after which 
 there would be deliverance from this prison. That such 
 an interpretation was stirring in his time we learn from 
 his own words. It was one that he would wiUingiy have 
 himself consented to, but that he found the Scriptures on 
 the 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?* and is compelled to find in these words 
 the expression of an everlasting doom.f 
 
 Ver. 27, 38. — Here Augustine makes an accm-ate and 
 important distinction ; that it is not, namely, the looking. 
 
 * Be Serm. Dom. in 3Ion. 1. i. c, 11 : Unde enim solvitur illud 
 debitum, ubi jam non datur poenitendi et correctius vivendi locus ? 
 And again : Semper solvit novissimum quadrantem, dum sempiternas 
 poenas terrenorum peccatorum luit. 
 
 f Be Octo Bulc. Qucest. qu. 1 : Illud enim quod dicitur, quan- 
 doque, etsi post plurimmn temporis, eos qui in catholica commu- 
 nione moriuntur, quamvis usque in finem vitse hujus flagitiosissime 
 et sceleratissime vixerint, de poenis ultricibus exitui'os familiarius 
 meum tangit affectum. But be goes on to say, such passages as 
 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10 ; Epbes. v. 5, 6, are too strong on the other side. 
 
VER. 29, 30.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 207 
 
 out of vvhicli, unawares to the beholder, there arises up in 
 his heart the suggestion of an unholy desii'e, which makes 
 a man guilty of that sin which the Lord is characterizing 
 here; but the looking with the intention and purpose of 
 thereby feeding desii'e ;* though indeed it is nothing but 
 a practical Pelagianism, which would deny the concupis- 
 cence itself, whether willingly or unwillingly stirred, to be 
 of the natiu-e of sin. But it is not this of which Christ is 
 here speaking, but rather of the dehberate fomenting and 
 feeding of desire through the fuel of impure looks : he that 
 so doth, " hath committed adultery already in his heart" 
 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 anything 
 that is eminently dear to us,f or whether we shall give 
 them a more special signification. He determines for the 
 
 * Be Serm. Horn, in Hon. 1. 1. c. 12 : Non dixit, Omnis qui con- 
 cupiverit mulierem, sed qui T'iderit mulierem ad concupiscenduiu 
 earn : id est, hoc fine et hoc animo attenderit, ut earn concupiscat. 
 This distinction has been often overlooked ; yet it is required by the 
 words themselves. Ilpbg to (eo ut) is not = elg to (ita ut). In the 
 first, which stands here, is involved not merely the event, but also 
 the intention. 
 
 t Be Serm. Bom. in Man. 1. 1. c. 13 : Quidquid namque est 
 quod significat oculus, sine dubio tale est quod vehementer dUigitur. 
 Solet euim et ab iis qui vehementer volunt exprimere dilectionem 
 suam, ita dici, Diligo eum ut oculos meos, aut etiam plus quam 
 oculos meos. 
 
208 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 latter, and will have the " rigid eye" to mean some be- 
 loved friend, our counsellor and guide in divine things, 
 whom yet we must cast off if he would lead us into here- 
 sies 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 circumstances, at every cost and 
 pain to ourselves, we must reject and cut off. They are 
 therefore caUed 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 spiritual. And in this he notes that another 
 consequence is included : for if even such as these must be 
 cast off, how much more the left eye and the /(^^hand, the 
 helpers not in spiritual but in worldly things, if they would 
 put a stumbling block in our way. 
 
 The only objection to this interpretation is its narrow- 
 ness ; that it does not and cannot exhaust the meaning of 
 the words : 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 without pity. Christ is not 
 here telling us that our sinful lusts are to be renounced, 
 for that were of course ; but that what is harmless in itself, 
 yea, in its subordinate position useful and comely, and 
 
 * Serm. 81. 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," (Matt. xvi. 23,) when he would have placed a stumhhng 
 block in his way, though of course it did not then come to the actual 
 casting off, the rebuke being effectual to bring back Peter to his true 
 position. 
 
VER. 31.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 209 
 
 thus likened to the hand and the eye, even this, if 
 through any peculiarity of our temperament or condition, 
 through any temptation in which it entangles us, it hinders 
 the main work of our salvation, is to be offered up to that, 
 as the less to the greater, as the part to the whole. 
 
 Ver. 31. — Here, too, the Manichaeans found a contra- 
 diction between the teacliiug of Moses and of Christ; 
 Moses giving facilities for divorce ; " Wliosoever will put 
 away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement ;" 
 but Christ throwing eveiy hindrance in the way of it, de- 
 claring that marriage, " saving for tlie cause of fornication " 
 was indissoluble. It is true that in this they involved 
 themselves in a contradiction which did not escape the 
 keenness of the adversary with whom they had to do ; 
 since Moses, whom they spake against, was yet here, ac- 
 cording to their own principles, worthiest of praise, in 
 helping to dissolve the bands of an institution, which they 
 traced up to the devil,* and which, as they affirmed, con- 
 tributed to the detaining of the divine principle in a ma- 
 terial prison. But soon leaving this, which was only by 
 the way, Augustine answered triumphantly, that the legis- 
 lation of Moses and of Christ, so far from being opposed 
 to one another, were in fact both in the same line. T\Tien 
 Moses said, " Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him 
 
 * Con. Faust. 1. 19. c. 26: Verumtameu . . . qusero cur dis- 
 pliceat dimittere uxorem, quam non ad matrimonii fidem, sed ad con- 
 cupiscentiae crimen, habendum esse censetis ? . . . . Eo modo enim 
 patatis partem Dei vestri .... etiam camis compedibus colligari. 
 P 
 
210 EXPOSITION or THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 give her a writing of divorcement,^'* this was not spoken 
 to encourage divorces, but, on the contrary, to throw im- 
 pediments in their way. A man could not at eveiy 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 instru- 
 ment, and who might be assumed, fi'om his position and 
 education, to be a wise and a prudent man ; able, there- 
 fore, and willing, if that were possible, to remove misun- 
 derstandings 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.f This much the law 
 did ; why it did not more the Lord himself tells us else- 
 where ; " Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, 
 suffered you to put away your wives ;"J but the legisla- 
 tion of Moses is in the same direction with that of Christ, 
 
 * Be Serm. Bom. in Won. 1. 1. c. 14 : Qmi dimiserit, det illi Hbel- 
 lum repudii: ut iracundiam temerariam projicientis uxorem Hbelli 
 cogitatio temperaret. Qui ergo dimittendi moram qusesivit, signifi- 
 cavit quantum potuit duris hominibus se nolle disscidium. 
 
 t Con. Faust. 1. 19. c. 26 : Prsesertim quia, ut perhibent apud 
 Hebrseos scribere literas Hebrseas nulli fas erat nisi scribis soils. 
 .... Ad hos igitur quos oporteret esse prudentes legis interpretes 
 et justos disscidii dissuasores, lex mittere voluit eum, quern jussit 
 libellum repudii dare, si dimisisset uxorem. Non enim ei poterat 
 scribi libellus, nisi ab ipsis qui per hanc occasionem ex necessitate 
 venientem quodammodo in manus suas bono consilio regerent, atque 
 inter ipsum et uxorem pacifice agendo dilectionem concordiamque 
 suaderent. 
 
 + Con. Faust. 1. 19. c. 29. 
 
VER. 32.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 211 
 
 the one a lower, the other a higher, witness for the sanc- 
 tity of marriage ; in each there was alike a declaration 
 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, or introduce them into the 
 fuller blessings which they only were capable of receiving 
 who were walking in the newness of the Spirit. 
 
 Ver. 33. — 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 confined to that 
 only ? or shall we rather receive it according to its wider 
 spiritual significance, and by this "■fornication'' understand 
 every graver sin which corrupts and defiles the soul, ac- 
 cording to that profound symbolism of Scripture, which 
 evermore speaks of all grievous departui'cs of all kinds 
 from God under this image of a wife breaking faith with 
 her husband ? His determination, in which however he 
 disagrees with most of the Fathers of the Chm'ch, is in 
 favour of the latter view.* Yet one cannot doubt that 
 the literal is the true sense of the passage. Tor there is 
 . evidently no cogency in his argument, that there are other 
 sins of a deeper dye than this ; and, therefore, if this jus- 
 
 * De Serm. Bom, in Mon. 1. 1. c. 16 : Ex quo intelligitur quod 
 propter illicitas concupiscentias, non tantum quae in stupris .... 
 committantur, sed omnino quaslibet, quae animam corpore male 
 utentem a lege Dei aberrare faciunt, et perniciose turpiterque cor- 
 rumpi, possit sine crimine et vir uxorem dimittere et uxor virum. 
 Cf. c. 12, and Qucest. 88. qu. 83. 
 
 P 2 
 
212 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 tifies a separation, by so mucli 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 com-se it will not be to 
 them the shadow of so great a mystery. Nor is it to be 
 thought of that our Lord, uttering here, as He knew He 
 was, a word which should be in all ages as a sharp sword, 
 piercing even to the dividing asunder of relations the 
 closest, would yet have left it in such vagueness and un- 
 certainty, exposed to such cmel abuses, as it must needs 
 be, if the literal meaning of the words be once abandoned, 
 and that which is thus proposed accepted 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 determinations of the 
 Chm-ch ; — I mean the lawfulness of the marriage of the 
 innocent and injured party, after separation on account of 
 
 * Aua;ustine himself, in his Retractations, 1, 1. c. 19, acknow- 
 ledges that the whole matter — latebrosissima qasestio, 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 fornication em, propter 
 quam Hceat dimittere uxorem, utrum earn quse damnatur in stupris, 
 an illam de qua dicitur, Perdidisti omnem qui fornicatur abs te 
 (Ps. Lxxii. 27), in qua utique et ista est, . . . -. etiam atque etiam 
 cogitandum est atque requirendum. 
 
VER. 32.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 218 
 
 a breach of the marriage vow in the other party. The 
 Chui-ch of Eome, which, as is well known, denies alto- 
 gether this permission, has always very much appealed to 
 his authority. And his weight is no doubt tlu'own very 
 decidedly into this scale :* he does not, however, profess to 
 see his way in the matter with perfect clearness, and 
 acknowledges at the lastf how Kttle satisfied he is with 
 what he has done, confessing the great difficulty and 
 obscurity which hangs over the whole question ; an ob- 
 scurity so great, that in another work, wi'itten late in his 
 life, he affirms that he who shall here take up and act on 
 the erroneous interpretation cannot be said more than 
 venially to err. J 
 
 His arguments that there can be no permission here of 
 marriage in any case after divorce, (the divorced 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." 
 
 * Thus Serm. 392. c. 2 : Solius fornicationis causa hcet uxorem 
 
 adulteram dimittere, sed ilia vivente non hcet alteram ducere 
 
 Adulteria sunt., non conjugia. 
 
 t Retract. 1. 2. c. 57 : Scripsi duos hbros .... cupiens solvere 
 diflicillimam qusestionem. Q,uod utrum enodatissime fecerim, nescio : 
 immo vero non me pervenisse ad hujus rei perfectionem sentio. 
 
 X De Fide et Oper. c. 19 : In ipsis divinis sententiis ita obscurum 
 est utrum et iste, cui quidem sine dubio adulteram licet dimittere, 
 adulter tanien habeatur si alteram duxerit, ut quantum existimo 
 venialiter ibi quisque fallatur. 
 
214 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 The steps of his argument are the following : Our Lord 
 declares one only cause which will justify a wife departing 
 from her husband, that is, his adultery. St. Paul there- 
 fore here could not have contemplated any other cause. 
 Contemplating, then, as he must have done, this, he did 
 yet give the precept, " Let her remain unmarried," unless 
 she be reconciled to him.* 
 
 Those who maintain the opposite view have questioned 
 whether St. Paul did not contemplate other grounds of 
 separation, not indeed as belonging to the highest Chi-is- 
 tian state, in which it is clear they could not occur, but 
 yet as not entirely inconsistent with a true Christian pro- 
 fession ; and this provisional bearing with a more imperfect 
 state of things, and this moderation in dealing with the 
 perplexities which must have arisen from the first growing 
 up of a Chi'istian Church out of an heathen world, is part, 
 they say, of the wonderful wisdom of the great Gentile 
 apostle. But while he bears with such things, he yet de- 
 clares at the same time the higher law ; and with this 
 toleration of separations, will yet in no case allow an in- 
 fringement of the Lord's precept, which forbids divorces 
 on aU lower grounds, and so forbids a new marriage upon 
 either side, saving where the adultery of the other party 
 has, de facto, dissolved the union, having annulled its essen- 
 tial condition ; " They two shall be one flesh." But this 
 view is altogether strange to Augustine. When he is 
 pressed, as he is by Pollentius, whom he answers at length, 
 
 Le Conjug. Adulter. 1. I.e. 1 — 7. 
 
VER. 82.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 215 
 
 with the Lord's own words here, and at Matt. xix. 9, he 
 forsakes the canon* which he has himself elsewhere laid 
 down, namel}^, that the shorter and more incomplete pas- 
 sage 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 St. Mark, (x. 11,) and 
 St. Luke, (xvi. 18.)f And then, to bring these sayings 
 into agreement with those, he has recourse to tliis scheme, 
 certainly an artificial one, namely, that by the exception, 
 ^^ saving for the cause of fornication,'' the Lord intended, 
 that it would be a greater sin to dismiss her without this 
 provocation, not that it would be 7io sin with this provo- 
 cation to do it, and to marry another ; for, he says, the 
 Lord pronounced it adultery in either case, only in one of 
 a worse kind than in the other. J 
 
 Another argument which Augustine finds against under- 
 
 * Pauciora exponi debent secundum pliu'a, et regula generalis per 
 exceptionem alibi traditam est limitanda. 
 
 t Be Conjug. Adult. 1. 1. c. 11, 22: Quod subobscure apud 
 Matthseum positum est, quoniam totum a parte significatum est, 
 expositum est apud aUos, qui totum generaliter expresserunt, sicut 
 legitur apud Marcum (x. 11) ; et apud Lucam (xvi. 18). 
 
 \ De Conjug. Adult. 1. 1 . c. 9 : Cur ergo, inquis, interposuit 
 Dominus causam fornicationis, et non potius generaliter ait, Qui- 
 cunque dimiserit uxorem suam et aliam duxerit, moechatur ? , . . . 
 Credo, quia illud quod majus est, hoc Dominus commemorare 
 voluit. Majus enini adulterium esse quis negat, uxore non forni- 
 cante dimissa alteram ducere, quam si fornicantem quisque dimiserit, 
 et tunc alteram duxerit ? Non quia et hoc adulterium non est, sed 
 quia minus est. 
 
216 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 standing the words as involving sucli a permission, is that 
 so a reconciliation with the guilty party becomes impos- 
 sible, while yet he beheves that under the new covenant of 
 grace such, where there is repentance, ought to find place ; 
 for he argues that as God receives back the souls that have 
 departed from Him, and defiled themselves, if only peni- 
 tent and believing, into his favour and gi-ace, reunites 
 them to Himself, 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 j there should not be in 
 any case a casting off for ever.* But the analogy does 
 not hold good ; he should have taken the sins not merely 
 which are inconsistent with, but that wJdcli directly con," 
 tradicts, 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 faii'ly di-awn. Other blemishes in the conduct of the 
 married one to another, as harshness or unkindness, dis- 
 turb the relation, but do not, as does this sin, contradict 
 and deny its fundamental idea. Moreover, one cannot 
 
 * Be Conjug. Adult. 1. ii. c. 6 : Hsec crimina in Vetere Dei Lege 
 nullis saciificiis mundabantur, quae Novi Testamenti sanguine sine 
 dubitatione mundantur ; et ideo tunc omnimodo prohibitum est ab 
 alio contaminatain viro recipere uxorem . . . Nunc autem postea 
 quam Chi-istus ait adulterse, Nee ego te damnabo, vade, deinceps noh 
 peccare ; quis non intelligat debere iguoscere maritum, quod videt 
 ignovisse Dominum amborum. .-^-' 
 
VER. 33 — 37.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 217 
 
 help feeling, that while this recommeiKlation, 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 an unworthy 
 apprehension of marriage, from a slight sense of the reality 
 of the wTong that has been inflicted, of the sanctity that 
 has been violated. 
 
 Ver. 33 — 37. — This prohibition, apparently absolute, 
 of all swearing perplexed Augustine a good deal, and this 
 he takes occasion more than once to confess.* He feels 
 that the prohibition cannot be as absolute as it seems; 
 that the oath, or calling of God to be a witness of the 
 truth, or an avenger of the falsehood spoken, cannot in 
 itself be sinful, since rather it is a religious act, the testi- 
 mony of a faith in a righteous and living God. Moreover 
 he finds that God himself swears ;t as at Ps. cix. 4; 
 Gen. xxii. 16 ; Num. xiv. 28 ; J many, too, of his servants. 
 
 * Serm. 180. c. 4 : Scio difficilem questionem, et caritati vestrse 
 fateor, semper illam vitavi. 
 
 t Sometimes however, as Enarr. in Ps. Lxxxviii. 4, he denies that 
 this is in point, saying; Deus solus securus jui-at, quia falH non 
 potest. But since the perjury is in the intention, not in the mere 
 sounds that proceed 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. 
 
 X He might have added the av slirag of our Lord, (Matt. xxvi. 64,) 
 which is in the strictest sense an oath; since according to the Hebrew 
 manner, it was the proposer, and not the taker of the oath, who 
 repeated its words. 
 
218 EXPOSITION OF THE [ ST. MATT. V. 
 
 and in some of the holiest moments of their lives ; (thus 
 St. Paul, Eom. i. 9 ; 1 Cor. xv. 31 ; 2 Cor. i. 23 ; Gal. 
 i. 30 ;) and these cannot be transgressions on their parts.* 
 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 implicitly be- 
 lieved, was in the habit of confirming them by an appeal 
 to the present and all-seeing God ; t and though, as he 
 says, he did this ever with a solemn awe, yet his moral 
 sense told him he was not sinning herein. 
 
 But what then does our Lord mean by this " Swear not 
 at alV ? He is often content to answer, that it is a 
 counsel of prudence. He who swears often may escape 
 falling into perjuiy, but he who swears never cannot faU 
 into it ; as you may be delivered fi'om falling over a preci- 
 pice, even though you walk on its very edge; but you 
 come not into a possible danger of this fall, if you put an 
 ample space between you and it. J 
 
 It is not wonderful that Augustine should feel himself 
 
 * JDe Mendac. c. 15 : Prsecepti violati reum Paulum, prsesertim 
 in Epistolis conscriptis atque editis ad spiritalem vitam salutemque 
 populorum, nefas est dicere. 
 
 t Serm. 180. c. 9. 
 
 + Serm. 180; Ej). 157. c. 5 ; Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 1, c. 17: 
 Sicut eiiim falsum loqtii nou potest, qui non loquitur; sic pejerare 
 non potest, qui non jurat. Serm. 307. c. 3 : Non est peccatum, 
 verum jurare, sed quia grande peccatum est, falsum jurare, longe est 
 a peccato falsum jm-andi, qui omnino non jurat: propinquat falsae 
 jurationi, qui vel verum jurat. Dominus ergo, qui prohibuit jurare, supra 
 ripam te noluit ambulare, ne pes tuus in angusto labatur, et cadas. 
 
VER. 33 — 37.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 219 
 
 little content with, a reply such as this, which indeed 
 could satisfy nobody. But surely this would be a truer 
 point of view from which to contemplate the words, — a 
 view, as will be seen by the two or three next quotations, 
 not altogether strange to Augustine, though he has not 
 wrought it consistently out. There were, we know, whole 
 worlds of mischief at work among our Lord's hearers and 
 contemporaries with regard to oaths : as first, that some 
 were more binding than others ; that those made to the 
 Lord must indeed be performed, while of those by the 
 altar and the gift on the altar, by the temple and the gold 
 in the temple, some indeed did oblige, while others were 
 nugatory; and the spiritual rulers of the people, blind 
 leaders of the blind, had made a scale of the obligation of 
 these several 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 "^y heaven'' ''by the earth,'' '' hy 
 Jerusalem," by their own heads — and these brought in on 
 the slightest need, or on no need w^hatsoever; just as 
 now-a-days men who would not be whoUy profane will 
 substitute for the Name of God sounds that nearly re- 
 semble, but are not exactly it, or the name, it may be, of 
 some heathen deity; and this out of a lingering respect for 
 that Holy Name. 
 
 Our Lord, then, with aU this before his eyes, addresses 
 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 of that taken 
 
220 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 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 adjm-ations of every 
 kind, and at every time,— adjurations so lightly spokci 
 and so lightly broken. I banish them altogether, and 
 from every region of your life.* The ''at alV which 
 perplexes Augustine so much, and has pei-plexed so many, 
 is doubtless to be interpreted and limited by what imme- 
 diately follows. All these Hnds 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 anything binding ? It is God's presence in these 
 created things which gives them any hold over your con- 
 sciences. 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 Eang — if by your head, as supposing that 
 there at least you are sweai-ing by something which is 
 your OTVTi, yet it is not so ; that is God's workmanship, 
 you could not of yom* own power make one hair of it 
 black or white, f So that every oath is an awful thing, 
 and in its ultimate ground rests upon God, though the 
 
 * Serm. 180. c. 10 : Istam ergo consuetudinem qaotidianam cre- 
 bram, sine causa, nullo extorquente, nullo de tuis verbis dubitante, 
 jurandi, avertite a vobis, amputate a Unguis vestris, circumcidite ab 
 ore vestro. 
 
 t Be Serm. Bom. in 3fon. 1. 1. c. 17 : Quid enim poterat quisque 
 magis ad se pertinere arbitrari quam caput suum?*Sed quomodo 
 nostrum est, ubi potestatem faciendi unius capilli albi aut uigri non 
 habemus ? 
 
VER. 83 — 37.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 221 
 
 lightness and frivolity of men causes them ^^illingiy to 
 conceal this fact from their eyes. 
 
 And then He opens to them the deep mysteiy of the 
 oath, that it is a consequence of sin ; not itself evil, but 
 " of evil C^ 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 mournful yet 
 wondi'ous teaching of the tree of the knowledge of good and 
 evil, only where the lie has come forth, could there be any 
 word for the truth. Were all speech the exact out-coming 
 of the inner life, w^ere there never any gulf between that 
 and this, there could be no form of speech which would 
 carry greater assurance than another. 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 only that in him, 
 and in himself, and in every man, is that which, but for the 
 ever newly-awakened sense of a standing in the presence 
 of God, the all-seeing and the all-avenging, would lead 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 religious act, a con- 
 fession that God is true, and only in God can man be 
 
 * 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 hujus mortalitatis adliuc pellibus involuti cor 
 nostrum nou valemus ostendere : quod utique si valeremus, juratione 
 opus nou esset. 
 
222 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 other than a liar. Yet not the less it " cometh of eml^ 
 since men ought not to need, and but for theii* fii'st great 
 departure from God would not need, thus continually to 
 be brought back into his presence, in the presence of 
 whom they ought continually to dwell. And the oath 
 disappears wherever there is any near approximation to 
 this. The tme ideal of Christian conversation, that 
 toward which the Church is continually 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 lias become superfluous, in which the Yea and Nay 
 are all that are ever offered or asked, each one being 
 entirely confident that the other is always speaking as 
 though God heard him. After this sincerity, this entire 
 truthfulness 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 evil,^' of you7' evil ; and only 
 that renders it so frequently offered, and so frequently 
 required. 
 
 Ver. 38. — Here is again the apparent difficulty of har- 
 monizing the new and old; the appearance as though 
 Chi'ist did not intend to do so, did not mean to put his 
 legislation in connexion with, but rather in opposition to, 
 the legislation of Moses; and with this difficulty, the 
 temptation to forsake the true explanation for the easy 
 one — for that, I mean, which seems easy at fii'st, but 
 which yet presently will involve him that sijatches at it in 
 
VER. 38.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 223 
 
 infinite perplexities and contradictions. Augustine's dis- 
 pute witli tlie ManicliEeans must have brought him early to 
 a 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 teaching of the Old Testament ; as if He were 
 here saying, They of old time taught one thing, but I 
 teach another : they encoui-aged retaliation ; but I de- 
 nounce it, and in its place require the extreme forgiveness 
 of injuries. But the true explanation is, that the different 
 precepts belong to different domains of man's life ; and 
 Christ is bringing 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 toothy^ 
 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. Nei- 
 ther 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 execute justice. God has 
 appointed him to be such ; and without such a witness, all 
 sense of righteousness and of judgment would quickly 
 perish from the world. 
 
 Moreover, as Augustine observes,! it is monstrous to 
 
 * See Con. Adim. c. 8. 
 
 t Con. Faust. I. 19. c. 25: duandoquidem et illud antiquum ad 
 
224 EXPOSITION or the [st. matt. v. 
 
 adduce this precept, " an eye for an eije^ and a tootJifor a 
 tootJi,'"' 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 
 return two, or twenty it may be, for the one which he has 
 received ; thus a second time distui-bing the balance of 
 equity, though in the other scale, — and so himself losing, 
 and causing his adversary, under the sense of an unmerited 
 amount of injury, to lose, the sense of a righteous govern- 
 ment in the world, according to which every transgression 
 of law will recoil on the transgressor, and receive its just 
 recompeuce 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 
 
 reprimendas flammas odiorum, saevientiumque immoderatos animos 
 refrenandos, ita prseceptum est. Quis enim tantundem facile con- 
 teutus est reponere vindictae, quantum accepit injuria? Nonne 
 videmus homines leviter laesos moliri ctedem, sitire sanguinem, vixque 
 iuvenire in malis inimici unde satientur? Quis pugno percussus 
 non aut judicia concitat in damnationem 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 injustse ultioni, lex justum modnm tigens, pcenam talionis 
 instituit : hoc est, ut qualem quisque intulit injuriam, tale supplicium 
 pendant. Proinde, Oculum pro oculo, dentem pro dente, non fomes 
 sed limes furoris est ; non ut id quod sopitum erat, inde accenderetur, 
 sed ne id quod ardebat, ultra extenderetur, impositus. Est enim 
 qusedam justa vindicta, justeque debetur ei qui fuerit passus injuriam-, 
 unde utique cum ignoscimus, de nostro quodammodo jm*e largimur. 
 Cf. Be Serm. Bom. in Mo7i. 1. 1. c. 19. 
 
VER. 38.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 225 
 
 a limiting, and in its measure a subduing, the evil of man's 
 heart. It did not indeed implant 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 : it might be only a 
 righteousness of the unrighteous.* But still (as a pre- 
 paration at least) it was working in this line, until a 
 higher Lawgiver should come, and teach that besides 
 this law of righteousness, 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 
 peiilled, 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,t — and 
 this, without the slightest feeling that herein they were 
 suspending the law of love, or rendering to the man evil 
 for liis evil, but rather still good for his evil, inasmuch as 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. cviii. 4 : Quae, si dici potest, injustoniin justitia est. 
 
 t De Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 20: Neque hie ea vindicta 
 proMbetur, quae ad correctionem valet : etiam ipsa enim pertinet ad 
 misericordiam . . . Sed huic vindictse referendse non est idoneus, 
 nisi qui odium quo solent flagi-are qui se vindicare desiderant, dilec- 
 tionis magnitudine superaverit. Enarr. in Fs. cviii. 5 : [Deus] autem 
 etiam cum vindicat, non reddit malum pro malo, quoniam justum 
 reddit injusto. Quod autem justum est, utique boniun est. Punit 
 ergo non delectatione alienee miserise, quod est, malum pro malo ; sed 
 dilectione justitise, quod est, bonum pro malo. 
 
 9, 
 
226 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 it is justice for his injustice, rigM for his wrong. Truly 
 a hard thing, yet not an impossible, rightly to do. 
 
 Yer. 39. — This command to ^' resist not evil'' and the 
 others of like import which are scattered through the 
 Gospels, but which lie 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 through- 
 out 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 historically, sho^ving that neither did the Lord him- 
 self, nor yet his apostles, whom none can refuse to accept 
 as the authoritative interpreters of the word spoken, hold 
 themselves bound in every case to the letter of these 
 commandments. Por instance, when the servant of the 
 High Priest 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 a yet sterner word to that 
 judge who unrighteously bade him to be stricken : " God 
 shall smite tJiee, thou whited wall." (Acts xxiii. 3.)* 
 Then, further, he refates this interpretation by showing 
 how such a cleaving to the letter of this and similar pre- 
 cepts, will continually issue in a violation of the spirit of 
 Christ's commandments. Thus, in the case of that man 
 
 Be Mendac. c. 15 : Be Serm. Bom. in Hon. 1. 1. c. 19. 
 
 1 
 
VER. 39.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 227 
 
 that dared to lift up kis hand against the Lord, to have 
 offered him the other cheek, would have been no love, for 
 it would have been a tempting of him to repeat his fearful 
 oifence.* Again, because it is said, " Give to every man 
 that asketh of thee," (Luke vi. 30,) am I therefore to give 
 an open knife to an infant, — a drawn sword to a madman 
 or a murderer, — money to him who, as I well know, will 
 sm'ely spend it in riot and excess? Because it is said 
 ^^ Resist not m/;" are therefore the merciless and the 
 destroyers to be allowed to tread the world under their 
 feet, and the righteous to do nothing to stay them ? 
 
 No ; it is clear this cannot be the meaning ; it must be 
 that our Lord is giving here laws for the inward spirit of 
 man.f This offering of the other cheek is an inward 
 
 * In Ev. Joh. Tract. 113. § 4 : Hie dicet ahquis, Cur non fecit 
 quod ipse praecepit? Percutienti enim non sic respondere, sed 
 maxiUam debuit alteram prsebere. Quid quod et veraciter mansuete 
 justeque respondit, et non solum alteram maxiUam iterum percussuro, 
 sed totum corpus figendum prseparavit in ligno? Et hinc potius 
 demonstravit, quod demonstrandum fuit, sua scilicet magna ilia prse- 
 cepta patientiae, non ostentatione corporis, sed cordis prseparatione 
 facienda. Fieri enim potest ut alteram maxillam visibiliter preebeat 
 homo, et iratus. Quanto ergo melius et respondet vere placatus, et 
 ad perferenda graviora tranquiUo animo fit paratus ? 
 
 t Bp. 138. c. 2: Denique ista prtecepta magis ad praeparationem 
 cordis, quffi 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 hquido ostenditur, quod ipse Dominus Jesus, exemplum 
 singulare patientise, cum percuteretur in faciem, respotidit, Si male 
 dixi, exprobra de malo : si autem bene, quid me csedis ? Nequaquam 
 igitur prseceptum suum, si verba intueamur, implevit . . . et tamen 
 
 Q2 
 
S28 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 thing, is tlie meekness of the spirit under wrong, the pre- 
 paredness of heart to bear as much or more, if so any good 
 may come to the injurious person. But Christian love and 
 prudence are in each case to decide whether it is also a 
 precept for the outward conduct. It may be so ; it will 
 often be so ; for instance, if thou thinkest that thy offend- 
 ing 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.* Deal with him as 
 a prudent keeper will sometimes deal with a madman in 
 his charge, giving way to and humoming him in part ; or 
 as a compassionate physician, that contradicts not his 
 patient in the delirium of his fever, f 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, J though it will be the same love that dictates 
 
 paratus venerat, non solum in faciem percuti, verum etiam pro his 
 quoque a quibus hsec 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, quse ille nimis amando fit mains. 
 
 t De Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 19. 
 
 \ Ep. 1 38. c. 2 : Cui licentia iniquitatis eripitur, utiliter vincitur : 
 quoniam nihil est infehcius felicitate peccantium, qua poenaKs nutritur 
 
VER. 39.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 229 
 
 tills 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 henceforth it may be more 
 happily consulted for them, than they would else have 
 consented to consult for themselves.* Nor indeed are 
 God's sharpest punishments of men, so long at the least 
 as their state of trial last, other than such outcomings of 
 his infinite pity, which would fain chasten now, that it may 
 not be obliged to condemn hereafter.t 
 
 From all this it will appear, that while Augustine denies 
 that the literal, or what calls itself the literal, scheme of 
 interpretation, is to be painfully 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 sparing might often- 
 times be no true mercy, nor grow out of any root of love, 
 but might only be an indulgence of our own indolence, or 
 sloth, or cowardice. J So that in thus interpreting he in 
 
 impunitas, et mala voluntas velut hostis interior roboratur. Be Serm. 
 Dom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 20: Posse peccatum amore potius vindicari, 
 quam impunitum relinqui, 
 
 * Ep. 138. c. 2: Si terrena ista respublica preecepta Christiana 
 custodiat, et ipsa bella sine benevoientia non gerentur, ut ad pietatis 
 justitiseque pacatam societatem victis faciUus consulatur. 
 
 t Serm. 171. c. 4. 
 
 % Ep. 153 : Plurimum interest quo animo quisque parcat, Sicut 
 enim est aliquando misericordia puniens, ita et crudelitas parcens. 
 And be proceeds to give examples of this. Cf. Con. Petil. 1. 2 . c. 67 : 
 
230 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 no way favours, but goes directly against, the glosses 
 which the world makes on these sayings of oui* Saviour's, 
 and which it willingly believes to be the only alternatives, 
 if the literal application be forsaken. What the world 
 says, or, when it dares not say, what it thinks in its heart, 
 is very nearly as follows : — This all is very fine morality, 
 only it is unhappily super^ne, and quite unfit for everyday 
 work and wear ; — these precepts are evidently pitched at 
 too high a key for practical use ; and must be taken down 
 a little before they 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 ourselves a prey : these are extreme sayings ; and 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 evermore in 
 all their breadth and fulness : their only limitation is this, 
 that love and the Spirit of God are in each case to be 
 their interpreters, to apply them to the emergent necessity. 
 Where this love and this Spirit are wanting, the precept 
 must be interpreted falsely : if in the letter, it wiU be in 
 a loveless form ; or, if that be forsaken, then there wiU be 
 a sinning against the letter and the spirit alike. 
 
 Ver. 40, 41. — These verses Augustine brings into com- 
 parison with the precept of St. Paul, "redeeming the 
 
 Sicut est plermnque crudelis fallax adulatio, sic semper misericors 
 justa correptio. Cf. In 1 Up. Joh. Tract. 7. 
 
VER. 40, 41.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 231 
 
 time, because the days are evil," (Ephes. v. 16,) that is, 
 as he understands it, purchasing time, with aU 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 lent thee for working out thy salvation, in too eagerly 
 seeking to regain them.* To enter into the meaning of 
 that very difficult passage would be alien to the present 
 pui'pose ; yet it is generally 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 Chi'is- 
 tian prudence, but this is otherwise. Eather we have here, 
 in the form of an outward precept, 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, literally carried out by him according to the varying 
 necessities of the brother that may sin against him. It 
 may be thou canst teach him the 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 the precept does not necessarily ex- 
 clude the other dealing of love. It may be what now he 
 most needs to learn is, that unrighteousness is not to 
 carry the day unreproved even in this present evil time, 
 that " the way of the transgressors is hard." Then thou 
 
 * Serm. 167. c. 4 : Jiidicio vult tecum contendere, .... vult 
 avocare te litibus a Deo tuo. . . . Quantum ergo melius est ut 
 nummum amittas, et tempus redimas. 
 
232 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 art bound by the same law of love to resist liim, and to 
 make bim feel that there is a divine order even in tbe 
 midst of this sinful world; an order wliicb be cannot 
 violate at will, wbieb, though it look so weak, is indeed 
 mighty, — which if he infringe, it will surely assert and 
 avenge itself. Tor 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 
 ways so different, so will there be counterparts to both in 
 the wise and loving conduct of a Christian man toward 
 his offending brother.* The everlasting rule 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 pain, shaU pre- 
 scribe. 
 
 Exactly so, too, will it be in a Christian State. The 
 judge, indeed, being the representative but of one side of 
 the divine character, of the divine justice, does not pardon, 
 but only acquits or condemns. The king, however, is a 
 larger mirror of the divine perfections, of grace no less 
 than of justice : he, therefore, after the condemnation, is 
 free to pardon. It was this, the Ungly function which 
 our Lord exercised when he let the woman taken in 
 
 * 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. 
 
VER. 40, 41.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 233 
 
 adultery go free. (John \dii. 11.) He did not thereby act 
 against his o\vn law, given by Moses, which had said that 
 such should be stoned : He only completed it.* The idea 
 upon which her pardon, upon which every pardon pro- 
 nounced by the monarch as the fountain of grace in the 
 land, 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 promises that the end which punishment was 
 to reach will more surely 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, mani- 
 festing itself now at its one pole, now at the other. It is 
 true, indeed, that the gi'ace comes out less frequently in 
 the Christian State than in the Christian Church, that in 
 the first 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 as well as the other.f 
 
 * Enarr. in, Ps. L. 5 : Numquid Christus fecit contra legem 
 suam? .... Non ergo Deus contra legem suam, quia nee impe- 
 rator contra leges suas facit, quando confessis dat indulgentiam. 
 Moj' ses minister legis, Christus promulgator legis ; Moyses lapidat 
 ut judex, Christus indulget ut rex. 
 
 t A long letter of Augustine's to a civil ruler, {Ej). 153, ad 
 
234 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 Ver. 42. — Hitlierto, Augustine observes, it has beentlie 
 more negative virtues of not injuring, and being patient 
 under tlie injuries of otters, wMcb 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 thatasketh 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 inno- 
 cent ? or which I know that he will spend upon his sinful 
 lusts ?* It is plain that a thousand other monstrous cases 
 of the kind might be cited, down to that of the Carpocra- 
 tians, who justified indulgence in all fleshly lusts by these 
 words, saying. Whatever the flesh asked, they were bound 
 to give to it. 
 
 Clearly, then, the command must have its limitation 
 somewhere. Augustine finds the limitation in the words 
 themselves : — Give to every man ; but not every thing. '\ 
 If you send an unworthy beggar away with a lecture upon 
 idleness, you have sent him "not empty away." You 
 
 Macedon.) justifying tte Church in its frequent pleadings for the 
 pardon of criminals, is fuU of matter of the deepest interest on 
 these relations of the Church and State, and of the love whereof 
 punishment no less than pardon is, according to its true idea, the 
 utterance. 
 
 * Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 20. 
 
 t Serm. 359 : 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. 
 
VER. 42.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 235 
 
 have given to him, although not the very thing which he 
 required. Here, too, he observes, we have the Lord's 
 own interpretation 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 forgot his own 
 precept, refusing even this easily granted request which 
 was made to Him? But it was not so; He gave the 
 man, not indeed what he asked, but something far better, 
 a medicine for the hurt of his soul, in that warning word : 
 "Take heed and beware of covetousness."* (Luke xii. 
 13, 15.) So, too, Joseph gave, but it was a counsel of 
 chastity ; for when he made answer. How shall I, a ser- 
 vant, 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 confi- 
 dence of thine husband ? The command 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 re- 
 ceiver truly richer ; and often in this sense a seeming denial 
 will be the most real giving,! ^s on the other side there 
 
 * Serm. 359 : 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 petiraini. Hoc 
 fecit Dominus. Petebat ille. Quid? Divisionem hsereditatis. Dedit 
 Dominus. Quid? Peremptionem cupiditatis . . . Nunquid peti- 
 torem inanem dimisit, et non potius veritate implevit? 
 
 t Enchir. de Fide, Spe, et Car. c. 72: Non solum ergo qui dat 
 
236 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V, 
 
 are gifts wliicli are no gifts, wliich as it was wrong to ask, 
 so would it have been 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 spirit of all Christ's commandments. 
 
 So much concerning the interpretation which this pre- 
 cept is to have : on its details Augustine does not yield 
 us much ; yet he notes how the Lord has instanced, as 
 examples of the things whereof a disciple of his shall 
 patiently, where need is, endure the loss, some that are 
 most necessary, the cloak and the coat, that so He may 
 implicitly involve all others : for if these, how much more 
 readily the superfluous, shall be forgone.* 
 
 Ver. 43 — 45. — Here also Augustine has seized with a 
 firm grasp that which can alone be the right interpretation 
 of these verses. In respect of those words, " Thou sJialt 
 hate thine enemy, ^' he does not, to withdraw the passage 
 from Manichsean calumnies, betake himself to the poor 
 evasion, that because the exact words are not found in the 
 Old Testament, therefore the Lord is here pointing not at 
 
 esui'ienti cibum, sitienti potum, nudo vestimentum, et quod cuique 
 necessarium est iudigenti, verum etiam qui emendat verbere in quem 
 potestas datur, vel coercet aliqua disciplina, et tamen peccatum ejus, 
 quo ab illo Isesus et offensus est, dimittit ex corde, vel orat ut ei 
 dimittatur, non solum in eo quod dimittit atque- orat, verum etiam 
 in eo quod corripit, et aliqua emendatoria poena plectit, eleemosynam 
 dat, quia misericordiam prtestat. 
 
 * De Serin. Dom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 19: Si enim de necessariis hoc 
 imperatum est, quanto magis superflua contemnere couvenit? 
 
VER. 43—45.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 237 
 
 an Old Testament precept, but at a Pharisaical abuse of 
 such, denouncing some addition to it whicli the Scribes 
 had 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 addressed to Israel solely as the theocratic people, as 
 having therefore no enemies but those who also were 
 God's enemies,* — to hate them therefore, but only as 
 God hated, — to hate, that is, the evil in them, and not 
 any thing besides. The precept was no concession to man's 
 weakness,! but a summons to holiness, to a keeping them- 
 selves unspotted from the world that surrounded them. 
 Let us understand this, and then we shall see that the 
 divine legislator of the New Covenant does not intend to 
 repeal this any more than the preceding commandments 
 
 * Con. Faust. 1. 19. c. 24 : Unusquisque iniquus homo, in quan- 
 tum iniquus est, odio habendus 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, human a 
 natura ipsa, emendato vitio, liberari . . . Audito igitur et non intel- 
 lecto quod antiquis dictum erat, Oderis inimicum tuum, ferebantur 
 homines in hominis odium, cum 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, prsecipiendo utique 
 ut diligamus inimicos, cogeret nos intelligere quonam modo possemus 
 unum eumdemque hominem et odisse propter culpam, et diligere 
 propter naturam. 
 
 f Even Augustine himself does not ahvays hold fast to this the 
 one right exposition ; as, for instance, when, Be Senn. Bom, in Mon. 
 1. 1. c. 21, he says: Nee quod in lege dictum est, Oderis inimicum 
 tuum, vox jubentis justo accipienda est, sed permittentis infii-mo. 
 
238 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 of Moses. " TJiou sJialt hate tJiine enemy''' still stands 
 firm, — " tliine 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, that of loving the man, even while 
 we hate the evil that is in him ; — all which he illustrates 
 by the practice of the physician, who out of the veiy good 
 will that he has to the sick man does the more hate and 
 make war against the sickness by which he is holden.* 
 
 He often takes occasion to remark how side by side with 
 these passages, which they who misunderstood them, wil- 
 fully or otherwise, would have to encourage hatred, to 
 countenance revenge, there were innumerable 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.f Thus he com- 
 pares with the restraint upon anger, (Matt. v. 22,) the 
 words at Prov. xvi. 34. The adultery of the heart which 
 the Lord denounces (Matt. v. 28) is equally met and for- 
 bidden in the Old Testament, which has not merely its 
 
 * Serm. 272 {Appendix): Quod cum saucto et pio animo feceris, 
 vices coelestis Medici agis, odio habens morbum, et diligens segrotum. 
 
 t Con. Faust. 1. ] 9. c. 28 — 30 : Omnia vel psene omnia, quae 
 monuit seu prsecepit ubi adjungebat. Ego autem dico vobis, inve- 
 niuutur et in illis veteribus libris. It is worth while to compare 
 TertiJlian, {Adv. Marc. 1. 4. c. 14—17,) who is dealing with the same 
 great question, and asserting against the Gnostics, as Augustine 
 against the Manichaeans, the one spirit which pervades the Old 
 Testament and the New. 
 
VER. 48 — 45.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 239 
 
 seventh, but its tenth commandment : " Thou shalt not 
 covet thy neighbour's wife." The love of enemies is 
 enjoined, Prov. xxv. 31 ; and in the law 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 ;) while some of God's chosen saints, a 
 Joseph and a David, (1 Sam. xxiv. 5 ; Ps. vii. 4,) give 
 noble examples of it in their lives. The ground of this 
 love being the goodness of God to all, has its parallel, 
 Wisd. xii. 1. The indissolubility of marriage is declared. 
 Gen. ii. 24, of which words we know the use made by 
 the Lord himself. ('Matt. xix. 4.) When the Manichaeans 
 fastened upon sayings like this, " He maketh Ms sun to 
 rise on the evil and on the good^^ and argued 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 fear- 
 fully out in the Old Testament, Augustine answers, that 
 neither is the Old Testament without its frequent declara- 
 tions of God's inexhaustible mercy, his patience, his love, 
 nor yet the New without its abundant announcements and 
 instances of his severity and anger ; he quotes in evidence. 
 Matt. X. 28; xxii. 13; xxv. 41; Rom. i. 24; ii. 5; 
 Heb. xii. ;:!9; Luke xix. 27 ; 2 Cor. v. 3; Acts v. 5.* 
 It was true that there was more of fear in the Old Testa- 
 
 * Con. Adhn. c. 7 : Ex quo facile apparet et in ea patientia quae 
 invitat ad pcenitentiam ; et in ea indulgentia, quae ignoscit poeniten- 
 tibus; et in ea justitia quse punit eos qui corrigi nolunt, utiounque 
 Testamentum convenire atque congruere, tanquam ab uno Deo 
 utrumque conscriptum. Cf. Con. Adv. Leg, et Pro;ph. 1. I.e. 16 — 18. 
 
240 EXPOSITION or the [st. matt. v. 
 
 ment, and more of love in tlie New,* yet was tliere each 
 in either ; and it was only by a dii'ecting of the attention 
 of the simple exclusively to the one side or the other, that 
 they could be set in contrary lights, and thus played off 
 against each other. j* 
 
 In regard of any difficulty from passages where the saints 
 and servants of God appear to be seeking and longing 
 after vengeance upon their enemies, such difficulty exists 
 quite as much in passages of the New Testament as the 
 Old. How, for instance, shall we understand Eev. 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 ?" Augustine is 
 perplexed by this and similar utterances. 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 veiy charity which 
 
 * Con. Adim. c. 22: Sicut enim tempore cai-itatis bonitas, sic 
 tempore timoris severitas Dei maxime commendatur. Be Mor. Eccles. 
 c. 28 : Quanquam enim utrumque m utroque sit, prsevalet tamen in 
 Vetere timor, amor in Novo. 
 
 t Con. Adv. Leg. et Proph. 1. 1. c. 17: Vaniloqui et mentis 
 seductores adversantes litteris sacris, quas intelligere nolunt, eligunt 
 ex eis aspera quse ibi legmitur ad commendandam severitatem Dei, 
 et de litteris Evangelicis atque Apostolicis lenia quae ibi leguntur ad 
 commendandam bonitatem Dei; et apud homines imperitos hinc 
 ingerunt borrorem, inde quserunt favorem; quasi difficile sit, ut 
 quisquam similiter blaspbemus atque impius, eo modo adversetur 
 Novo Testamiento, quo isti Veteri, carpens de Vetere quibus ibi com- 
 mendatur Dei bonitas, et e contrario de Novo quibus ibi commendatur 
 Dei severitas. 
 
VER. 43 — 45.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 241 
 
 now is theirs, makes them so to desire and pray that it 
 may be overthrown.* Again, there are St. Paul's reasons 
 for doing good to an enemy: " In so doing thou shalt 
 heap coals of fire on his head ;" (Hom. xii. 20 ;) which at 
 first sight, and as some have interpreted them,f seem to 
 contain rather the precepts of a subtler hatred than of 
 purest love. The image has been explained thus : Do 
 tliine enemy good, for thus thou wilt draw down on him, 
 supposing him to continue in his enmity, a more signal 
 vengeance from heaven. But this would not be, as South 
 well and wittily remarks, loving om* enemy, but only 
 hating him more artificially. Or else thus : Do thine 
 enemy good, for so thou wilt bring upon him the smart of 
 a livelier pain, of a stronger self-rebuke, of a deeper self- 
 scorn. This last explanation is on the way to the right 
 one, but, stopping here, is equally with the other opposed 
 as much to the universal spirit, as to the present argument, 
 of St. Paid ; and Augustine, vindicating with a righteous 
 earnestness the passage from any such covert malice, shows 
 that the benefits are to be imparted, not with the purpose 
 
 * Be Serm. Bom. in Hon. 1. 1. c. 22: Nam ipsa est sincera et 
 plena justitife et misericordise vindicta martyrum, ut evertatur regnum 
 peecati, quo regnante tanta perpessi sunt. 
 
 t Some in his time did so abuse the passage: thus Enarr. in 
 Ps. Lviii. 10, he observes : [Malevolus] malitiose sapit quod scriptum 
 est. Hoe enim faciens, carbones ignis congeres super caput ejus. 
 Agit enim ut amplius aggravet et ei excitet indignationem Dei, quam 
 cai-bonibus ignis significare putat, non intelligens ilium ignem esse 
 poenitentife urentem dolorem, quousque caput erectum superbia 
 beneficiis inimici ad humilitatem salubrem deponitur. 
 
242 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 of aggravating an enemy's punisliment, but for the bring- 
 ing about in him of that tme repentance, which shall, if it 
 may be, avert the punishment altogether ; that the " coals 
 of fire" heaped upon the head are the image of a pain 
 inflicted indeed, but yet inflicted in love, and for the 
 burning out of the malice in the man,* a present smart 
 which is to issue in a lasting cure. For fear of a mistake, 
 and for ever excluding one, the apostle, he observes, was 
 diligent to add, himself interpreting what he just had 
 spoken: "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil 
 with good."! 
 
 He pauses to inquire whether this "5m^" which God 
 makes to rise on the evil as on the good, this "ram" 
 which He sends on the unjust no less than the just, are 
 to be taken literally, — a declaration of the natui-al bounties 
 and blessings whereof all are partakers ; or not rather the 
 " raivb^ of his grace, the " mvb" of his righteousness, (Mai. 
 iv. 2,) with which he visits the hearts of all, though some 
 are as soil which refuses to be softened by that rain, (Heb. 
 vi. 7, 8,) or warmed by that sun. But he decides, and 
 
 * Serm. 149. c. 18 : Ipsa vero ustio, poenitentia est, quae tanquam 
 carbones ignis, inimicitias ejus malitiasque consumit. Umbreit, in a 
 valuable note on Prov. xxv. 22, takes quite the same ethical view of 
 the command, but explains the image a little diflPerently : Thou shalt 
 make him to glow with shame; and Augustine, too, in one place, 
 says that the enemy under this treatment blushes, (erubescit,) 
 
 t Enarr. in Ps. Lxxviii. 10 : Quomodo autem potest vincere in 
 bono malum, in superficie bonus, et in alto malus, qui opere parcit, 
 et corde ssevit, manu mitis, voluntate crudelis ? Cf . De Boot. Christ. 
 1. 3. c. 16. 
 
VER. 46, 47.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 243 
 
 we cannot doubt riglitly, in favour of the former explana- 
 tion,* for they are not " eviV upon whom the spiritual 
 Sun has risen, but thi-ough his rising upon them have 
 passed into the number of the " good;'' nor they " mijusf" 
 upon whom this rain comes down, but are now the '' jusf" 
 thi'ough its fertilizing and refreshing powers. Eather this 
 sun and this rain are the common mercies which all men 
 receive,! even those that " walk in their own ways," from 
 whom He does not withhold " rain from heaven, and fi-uit- 
 ful seasons, Ming their hearts with food and gladness." 
 (Acts xiv. 16, 17.) And this unstinted bounty of God, 
 this love which comprehends all, according to the measure 
 in which they are capable of being comprehended by it, is 
 the measui-e in which his people, those who would indeed 
 show themselves " tlie children of their Father which is in 
 heaven,'' are to exercise love, the pattern which they are 
 to set before them for imitation. 
 
 Yer. 46, 47. — There are three manners of returns, as 
 Augustine sometimes observes, w^hich men may make one 
 to another. There is, fii'st, the retm-ning of good for 
 good, and evil for evil, which is the principle which the 
 world recognizes and on which it proceeds : "Do not even 
 
 * Serm. 58. c. 6, Be Serm. Born, in Mon. 1. 2. c. 23. In this 
 view lie brings out riglitly the meaning of "Jus sun": Addidit siium, 
 id est, quern ipse fecit atque constituit, et a nullo aliquid sumsit 
 ut faceret. 
 
 f Enarr. in Fs. xxxv. 6. 
 
 r2 
 
244 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 the publicans the same T'* this is the rule of the natm-al 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, which is God's principle of 
 action ; and unto this the children of God ai-e summoned 
 here.f 
 
 Yer. 48. " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
 which is in heaven is perfect.''^ — This was a favourite text 
 of the Pelagians, adduced by them in proof that men might 
 live here altogether 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 
 ^' perfecf* means. It is not necessarily complete and 
 having attained its ultimate end in everything ; but that 
 may be perfect in one respect which is not perfect in 
 another : or again, a man may be ''perfect,^' as having 
 every grace and lacking none, and yet imperfect, in that 
 
 * In \ Ep. Joh. Tract. 8 : Extende dilectionem in proximos, 
 nee voces illam extensionem. Prope enim te diligis, qui cos diligis, 
 qui tibi adliaerent, Extende ad ignotos, qui tibi nihil mali fecerunt. 
 Transcende et ipsos, perveni ut diligas inimicos. Serm. 273 {Ap- 
 pendix) : Amas amantes te, filios et parentes. Amat et latro, amat 
 et draco, amant et lupi, amant et ursi. 
 
 t This is drawn out somewhat differently, Enarr. in Ps. cviii. 2. 
 
 X De Pecc. Mer. et Rem. 1. 2. 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 finem 
 commemorant, quo currendo pertendant. 
 
VER. 48.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 245 
 
 he has them not in that intensity which the immutable 
 law of truth requires. And here both these limitations 
 find place. It is on an especial point the Lord is speak- 
 ing : '■'■ Be ye perfect .-" Love, that is, not merely your 
 friends, but your enemies, stop not short at that easier 
 love, but go on to the harder, fulfilling the coui'se set 
 before you, reaching to the end of your Christian com'se ; 
 and do this, because God does it. But he who asserts this 
 to mean, Do all this in the measure in which God does 
 it, — and believes this possible, declares, 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 was not that Augustine desired to cast a slight 
 on any true strivings after added measures of Christian 
 grace ;* but only on these theories of a sinless perfection, 
 as detecting plainly the false root out of which they grew, 
 that the Pelagian spoke of this perfection as within man's 
 reach, not out of his stronger faith in the power of the 
 grace which would bring it about, but out of his weaker 
 conviction of the extent and malignity of the evil which 
 was opposed to its attainment. His talk about this state 
 of a perfect health was not an extolling of the medicine, 
 but an extenuating and more or less a denying of the 
 disease — an aU-important distinction ! 
 
 In the life to come, undoubtedly, this command would 
 
 * Rather his language is such as this {Serm. 169. c. 15) : Semper 
 tibi displiceat quod es, si vis pervenire ad id quod noudum es. Nam 
 ubi tibi placuisti, ibi remansisti. Si autem dixeris, Sufficit; et 
 peristi. Semper adde, semper ambula, semper profice. 
 
246 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. V. 
 
 be literally and in all its extent fulfilled. God's people will 
 be perfect, even 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 afiirm, 
 but man will reach the perfection of his nature, as God 
 has ever existed in the perfection of his.* 
 
 * Con. Maxim. 1. 1. c. 12 : Ipse secundum naturam suam, nos 
 secundum nostram. Qucest. in Beut. 1. 5. qu. 9 : Neque enim quia 
 dictum est, Estote perfecti, sicut Pater vester coelestis perfectus est, 
 ideo sequalitatem Patris .... sperare debemus : quamvis non defue- 
 runt qui et hoc futurum putaverunt; nisi forte quid dicant parum 
 intelligimus. Cf. Enarr. in Fs. sciv. 1. 
 
VER. 1 — 4.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 247 
 
 ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. VI. 
 
 Ver. 1 — 4. The connexion of this part of the Sermon, 
 on which we now are entering, with the preceding, Augus- 
 tine traces thus. Hitherto the Lord has taught his dis- 
 ciples wMi they were to do ; He now proceeds to teach 
 them liow they shall do it, with what simplicity and sin- 
 gleness of eye.* And this teaching, 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, even where least suspected, and 
 this from the very accompaniments of our good actions :f 
 as, for instance, from the praises of men, which those will 
 
 * In\ Ep. Joh. Tract. 8 : 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 bujus faciei forinsecus .... Redi ad con- 
 scientiam tuani, ipsam interroga. Noli attendere quod floret foris, 
 sed quae radix est interna. Eadicata est cupiditas? species potest 
 esse bonorum factonim : vere opera bona esse non possunt. Radicata 
 est caritas? securus esto, nibil mali procedere potest. Blanditur 
 superbia; ssevit amor: .... accipitur magis plaga caritatis, quam 
 eleemosyna superbise. 
 
 t Be Serm. Bom, in Mon. 1. 2. c. 1 : Oculo magna ex parte 
 mundato difficile est non subrepere sordes aliquas de bis rebus, quae 
 ipsas bonas nostras actiones comitari solent, veluti est laus bumana. 
 
248 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 draw after them. And very usefully lie brings out liow, 
 quite apart from the mere and utter hypocrite, who has 
 no motive in any thing which he does but his own glory, 
 there are many in whom there is a very great admixture 
 of motives, whose good deeds have two sources, one pure 
 and one sullied ; for whom, indeed, God and the pleasing 
 of God is first ; yet the intention does not remain alto- 
 gether in its simplicity ; there is also an eye turned aside 
 to some meaner reward.* 
 
 At the same time it is very important to observe, and 
 he often observes, that the warning is throughout not 
 against having the praise of men, but against the doing 
 aught that we may have their praise, instead of Avith a 
 single eye to God's glory. It is not, Take heed that ye 
 be not seen in your alms ; but " Take heed that you do 
 not your alms before men to he seen of them^ 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 attractive, for we 
 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. f If our conscience tells us 
 
 * D<? Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 2. 
 
 f In 1 ^. Joh. Tract. 8 : Si enim abscondis ab oculis homiuis, 
 abscondis ab imitatione hominis. Duo sunt quibus eleemosynam 
 facis : duo esuriunt, unus panem, alter justitiam .... Ille enim 
 
VER. 1 4.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT 249 
 
 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 even shun to be, seen, only having a care that this 
 shall not be the final aim of our deeds.* And, here, he 
 says, lies the reconciliation of such declarations 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 seiTant of Christ." (Gal. i. 10.) I 
 please men as a mean to an end, for the winning of them 
 to the truth : I do not make the pleasing of them itself 
 my end; on the contrary, this is something which I 
 utterly forego whenever higher interests of God's truth 
 are at stake. Yet his affecting words in his Confessions,-f 
 concerning the difficulty which he found when praised, in 
 distinguishing whether the pleasure he felt was a pleasure 
 that others should be glorifying God for the good which 
 they saw in him, or a pleasure in being thus himself 
 extolled and glorified, and the deep heart-searchings into 
 which this doubt brought him, will not easily be forgotten 
 by those who once have read them. He notes the pecu- 
 liar difficulty which besets the faithful man here. In 
 other matters he may avoid that which would prove the 
 occasion of sin in him ; he may put the temptation far 
 from him; but he cannot here ; for we may not get away 
 
 quserit quod manducet, ille quaerit quod imitetur. Pascis istum, 
 prsebes te isti : ambobus dedisti eleemosynam. Cf. De Civ. Dei, 
 1. 5. c. 14; and Serm. 159. c. 10—13. 
 
 * Eftarr. in Ps. Lxv. 2. t Conf. 1. 10. c. 37. 
 
250 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 from virtue, so to get away from the praises wliicli follow 
 it, and the temptations which follow those praises. 
 
 He continually finds an illustration of the warning here 
 conveyed, lest snatching at an earthly we forfeit a heavenly 
 reward, in the doom of the foolish virgins. (Matt, xxv.) 
 In them he sees the image of persons, who like those 
 noted here, are working for, and living on, the praises of 
 men. These praises were as the present oil in the vii'gins' 
 lamps, of which so long as the supply lasted, they were 
 adorned with apparent good works. But when these 
 praises fail, as at the last day they must fail, then for 
 them everything will fail : all wherein 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 ; but now there will 
 remain for them nothing 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.* — In 
 one place he wittily likens these boasters of their good 
 deeds, who are 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. 
 
 * Serm. 93. c. 9 : Non sunt fraudati laudibus humanis : quse- 
 sierunt laudes humanas, habuerunt. Istse laudes humanse in die 
 judicii non eos adjuvant. Enarr. in Ps. cxlvii. 13 : Non inveniunt 
 tunc faventes, non inveniunt tunc laudantes, a quibus solebant laudari 
 et quasi excitari ad bona opera, non robore bouse conscientice, sed 
 incitamento linguae alienee. 
 
VER. 1 — 4.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 251 
 
 Augustine has a laborious, and, as I cannot but think, 
 an unnecessary discussion concerning what the " left Jiarid'^ 
 may mean, which is not to be permitted to know what 
 the " right hand'^ does." It were better to recognize this 
 as one of those strong popular sayings, which are not to 
 be requii'ed to give an account of themselves in detail. 
 They cannot do this, and it is in the very contradictions 
 which would arise, if they were thus pressed, that the 
 chief of their strength Ues. Thus it is true, that if know- 
 ledge 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 are organs of one and the 
 same will ; but this impossibihty is not to make us quit 
 the meaning which the words at first obviously suggest. 
 Eather we are to see in this very impossibility, which lies 
 on the surface of the precept, an exhortation involved to 
 the greatest possible secrecy, or rather 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 untenable, 
 he ends by explaining the " left hand'' as the carnal 
 desire, manifesting itself in the look turned sideways to 
 the human praise and reward, whereas by the " right 
 hand" is meant the single purpose of fulfilling the divine 
 commands ;* and he makes the entii*e precept amount to 
 
 * Serm. 149. c. 14 : Sinistra est animi cupiditas carnalis, dextera 
 
252 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 this, Let not meaner motives mingle witli and defile your 
 higher. That this lesson underlies the whole teachmg of 
 Christ with which we now have to do, is plain : but 
 assuredly He is giving here to his disciples rather an 
 example of what He would have them do, than the prm- 
 ciple on which they are to do it ; since 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 giving 
 should know of the gift — not even the brother-hand. 
 
 Yer. 5, 6. — To these words, " Enter into th 
 and shut thy door,^' Augustine, without excluding the 
 literal sense, and the warning against prayers made to be 
 seen,* gives also a mystical meaning. This " closet'' or 
 chamber is the heart of man; " the door'" the avenues of 
 sense by which disturbing and defiling 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.'f Then, he says. 
 
 est auimi caritas spiritalis. [Elsewhere, the left, the ipsa delectatio 
 laudis — the right, the intentio implendi divina prsecepta.] Si ergo 
 cum quisque facit eleemosynam, miscet cupiditatem temporaliura 
 coramodorum, ut in opere illo aliquid tale conquirat, miscet sinistrse 
 conscientiam operibus dextrse. Cf. Etiarr. in Ps. cxxxvi. 5. 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. cxli. 3 : Si homines reddituri sunt, effunde ante 
 homines precem tuam: si Deus redditurus est, effunde ante emn 
 precem tuam. 
 
 t Be Serm. Lom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 3 : Parum est intrare in cubi- 
 
VER. 6, 0.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 253 
 
 we fulfil the apostolic commandment, " Give no place to 
 the devil," when we diligently close the heart's door 
 against him, and against the crowd of distracting thoughts 
 with which 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 im- 
 mense importance of the subject would warrant. Thus in 
 one place he says, Wert thou speaking with me, and that, 
 not asking a favour, but as with thine equal, and shouldst 
 thou suddenly break off and give a message to thy seiTant, 
 could I otherwise than esteem it an affront ? Yet this is 
 what thou doest daily with thy God.* And in another 
 
 cula, si ostium pateat importunis, per quod ostium ea quae foris sunt 
 iniprobe se immergunt, et iuteriora nostra appetunt. Foris autem 
 diximus esse omnia temporalia et visibilia, quae per ostium, id est, 
 per carnal em sensum in cogitationes nostras penetrant, et turba 
 vanorum phantasmatum orantibus obstrepunt. And elsewhere: 
 Clauso ostio, id est, exclusa phantasmatum turba. And Enarr. in 
 Ps. csh. 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. 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. cxl. 5 : Q,uid facis de cogitationibus tuis ? quid 
 facis de tumultu et caterva rebellantium desideriorum .... Confiteris 
 peccata, Deum adoras : video corpus ubi jaceat, queero ubi vohtet 
 animus. Modo si mecum loquereris, et subito averteres te ad servixm 
 tuum, et dimitteres me, non dico a quo aliquid petebas, sed cum 
 quo ex Pequo loquebaris, non mihi injuriam factam deputarem? 
 Ecce quid facis quotidie Deo. Cf. Enarr. in Ps. lxxxv. 4 : Et 
 tolerat Deus tot corda precantium, et diversas res cogitantium ; 
 omitto dicere et noxias, omitto dicere aliquando perversas et 
 inimicas Deo; ipsas superfluas cogitare, injuria est ejus, cum quo 
 loqui coeperas. 
 
254 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 popular exposition* he inquires why men are so reluctant 
 to obey this command, — why they so seldom turn in upon 
 the soKtude 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 unwUling to retui'n to their homes, while they know 
 that only wretchedness and strife await them there. It 
 would be otherwise if their hearts were pm"e, if their con- 
 sciences were purged; they would not then find every 
 thing driving them abroad, but rather every thing attract- 
 ing them home. 
 
 Ver. 7, 8. — In his exquisitely beautiful letter upon 
 prayer, addressed to the noble widow Proba, Augustine 
 distinguishes between the " mucli speaking ^^ which is re- 
 buked, and the much praying, which elsewhere the Lord 
 
 * Unarr. in Ps. xxxiii. 5 : Attendat sanctitas vestra : Quomodo 
 nolunt intrare domos suas qui habent malas uxores : quomodo exeunt 
 ad forum et gaudeut. Coepit hora esse, qua intrent iu domum 
 suam ; contristantur. Intraturi sunt enim ad taedia, ad murmura, ad 
 
 amaritudines, ad eversiones Si ergo miseri sunt qui cum 
 
 redeunt ad parietes suos, timent ne aliquibus suorum perturbationibus 
 evertantm-, quanto sunt miseriores, qui ad conscientiam suam redire 
 nolunt, ne ibi litibus peccatorum evertantm- ? Ergo ut possis libens 
 redire ad cor tuum, munda illud .... Aufer inde cupiditatum sordes, 
 aufer labem avaritise, aufer tabeni superstitionum .... aufer ista 
 omnia ; intra in cor tuum, et gaudebis ibi. Cum ibi cceperis gaudere, 
 ipsa munditia cordis tui delectabit te, et faciet orare : quomodo si 
 venias ad aliquem locum, silentium est ibi, forte quies est ibi, mundus 
 est locus, Oremus bic, dicis, et delectat te compositio loci, et credis 
 quod ibi te exaudiat Deus. Si ergo loci visibilis te delectat munditia, 
 quare te uon offendit immunditia cordis tui ? 
 
VER. 7, 8.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 255 
 
 Las so earnestly commanded. He who himself passed 
 nights in prayer, who said, ''Seek, mid ye sJiallJind,'" and 
 spake a parable " that men ought always to pray and not 
 to faint," must be as far as possible from finding fault 
 with prayer which is long drawn out, if only it be prayer. 
 He can only condemn that, in which, wliile it retains the 
 name of prayer, an endless tumult and hubbub of words 
 is substituted 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 com- 
 menced.* 
 
 And why not this *' much speaking'''? " 'For your Father 
 knoiveth lohat things ye have need of, before ye ask IIi?)i." 
 But might it not seem that these words reached a good 
 deal further than to the rebuke of wordy unmeaning 
 prayers ? For if it be thus, answered some, if He thus 
 knows before we ask, what necessity to pray at all ? And, 
 fii-st, what need to express any petition in words, to tell 
 
 * F/j. 180. c. 10 : Neque enim, ut nonnuUi putant, hoc est orare 
 iu mtiltiloquio, si diutius oretur. Aliud est sermo multus, aliud 
 diuturnus affectus ; nam de ipso Domino scriptum est quod pernoc- 
 taverit in oraudo, et quod prolixius oraverit : ubi quid aliud quam 
 nobis prsebebat excmplum, in tempore precator opportunus, cum 
 Patre exauditor eeternus ? 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 cum quern precamur diuturna et pia cordis 
 excitatione pulsare. Nam plerumque boc negotium plus gemitibus 
 quam sermonibus agitur, plus fietu quam affatu. 
 
256 EXPOSITION or the [st. matt. vi. 
 
 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, instmcting us in the things 
 which we ought to desire or deprecate either with words 
 or -wnthout them.* But then the more real question re- 
 mains : What need to pray at all, either in words or in 
 unuttered 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 of the divine 
 gift ; which indeed God is always prepared to give, but 
 we are not always prepared to receive. t In the act of 
 
 * Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 3 ; Be Trin. 1. 15. c. 13. 
 
 t Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 3 -. Ipsa orationis intentio cor 
 nostrum serenat et purgat, capaciusque eflficit ad accipienda divina 
 munera, quse spiritaliter nobis infundantur. Non enim ambitione 
 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, et rerum 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, quse temporaliter cupiebantur, ut acies cordis simplicis 
 ferre possit simplicem lucem, divinitus sine ullo occasu aut immu- 
 tatione fulgentem ; nee solum ferre, sed etiam manere in iUa ; non 
 tantum sine molestia, sed etiam cum ineffabili gaudio, quo vere ac 
 sinceriter beata vita perficitur. And on this tbat God should com- 
 mand men to pray, he says elsewhere {Ep. 130, c. 8) : Quod quare 
 faciat qui novit quid nobis necessarium sit, prius quam petamus 
 
VER. 8, 9.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 257 
 
 prayer there is a purging of the spiritual eye, which thus 
 is averted from the things earthly wliich 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 inejffable joy. In the earnest asking is the en- 
 largement of the heart for the abundant receiving ; even 
 as in it is also the needful preparation for the receiving 
 with a due thankfulness; while, on the contrary, the 
 unsought would most often remain the unacknowledged 
 also.* 
 
 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, f as their relation was a servile one. Not, indeed, 
 that they were altogether without hints that the filial 
 relation was the true one, and that into which God de- 
 
 ab eo, movere animum potest, nisi inteUigamus quod Doimiius et 
 Deus noster non voluntatem nostram sibi veHt innotescere, quam 
 non potest ignorare, sed eserceri in orationibus desiderium nostrum, 
 quo possimus capere, quod prteparat dare. lUud enim valde mag- 
 num est, sed nos ad capiendum parvi et angusti sumus. And else- 
 where : Tarn largo fonti vas inane admovendum est. 
 
 * Serm. 56. c. 3 : Ideo voluit ut ores, ut desideranti det, ne 
 vilescat quod dederit : quia et ipsum desiderium ipse insinuavit. 
 
 t Be Serm. Bom. in 3Io)i. 1. 2. c. 4 : Multa enim dicta sunt in 
 laudem Dei quse per omnes sanctas scripturas varie lateque diffusa 
 poterit quisque considerare, cum legit: nusquam tamen invenitur 
 preeceptum populo Israel ut diceret. Pater noster, aut ut oraret 
 Patrem Deum: sed Dominus eis insinuatus est, tanquam servientibus, 
 id est, secundum camem adhuc viventibus. 
 8 
 
258 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 signed to bring his people. There were glimpses of this 
 in the Old Testament; (Isai. i. 2; Lxiii. 16; Ps. Lxxxii. 
 6 ; Mai. i. 6 ;) yet Israel at best 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 fruit of the 
 Incarnation ;* 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 with 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 om- devout affection, that such as we should be per- 
 mitted thus, and on these relations, to hold converse with 
 God. Nor less is herein involved and expressed our con- 
 fidence that we shall not ask in vain, when, before asking, 
 we have already received this greatest gift of all, the 
 adoption of sons.f Hereby too are we prompted 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 mystical 
 
 * Ut homines nascerentiir ex Deo, primo ex ipsis natus est 
 Deus. 
 
 t Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 4 : Quo nomine et caritas exci- 
 tatur, . . . . et qusedam impetrandi prsesumtio, quae petitm-i 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 ? 
 
VER. 9.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 259 
 
 body, adopted in Him into one and tlie same spiritual 
 family upon earth.* 
 
 " Which art in heaven,^' — not, Augustine obseiTes, 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 dweU on the 
 mountains than those in the plains, and the birds of the 
 air, as nearer yet, would be more fortunate and happier 
 than either.t But he understands by " heaven'' the hearts 
 of the faithful, and the words to mean, Who dwellest in 
 them as in a temple, 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 speak- 
 ing of God as dwelling, and delighting to dwell, rather 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. Tor while it is indeed true that the local 
 heavens are no more the habitation of God than any other 
 place, — that, since God is a Spirit, all place is out of 
 place when we are thinking of Him, — yet this attribution 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. in 3Ion. 1. 2. c. 4, and Serm. 64 (Appendix) : 
 Oratio fraterna est ; non dicit, Pater meus, tanquam pro se tantum 
 orans, sed, Pater noster, omnes videlicet una oratione complectens, 
 qui se in Christo fratres esse coci;noscunt. 
 
 t De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 5. 
 
 :j: Ep. 187: Patendam est ubique esse Deum per divinitatis prfe- 
 sentiam, 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. 
 
 s 2 
 
260 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 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 the un- 
 conscious symbolism which is common to all ages and all 
 people, and in no respect a denial of his declaration, " I fiU 
 heaven and earth." The introduction of the words into 
 the beginning of this prayer rests on this universal sym- 
 bolism ; they are, as it were, a Sursum corda, they remind 
 us that now we have lifted up our hearts from earth and 
 things earthly to an higher and purer world. 
 
 But they have an higher value yet, as they are a pro- 
 test against all pantheistic notions about prayer, all which 
 rest on the assumption of the identity of our spirit and 
 the Spirit of God. We are thus bidden to look for God, 
 |l not in, 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 which our spirit is 
 indeed allied, but yet with which it is not one and the 
 same ; " The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit." The 
 Mahommedan Sufies, and other pantheistic devotees of 
 the East, in the deepest abstractions of their devotions, 
 are indeed worshippers of no God but self, inasmuch as 
 they have lost or denied this distinction, for which the 
 words here, no less than the recognition of a relation im- 
 plying difference and distinction in the address " Our 
 Father" are a standing witness. 
 
 '' Hallowed he thy Name.'' What is this ? Augustine 
 asks ; can God be holier than He is already ? Not in 
 
VER. 9.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 261 
 
 Himself; that Name in itself remains always tlie same, 
 " halloiced'' for evermore ; but in us its sanctification is 
 capable of increase, and in this petition we are asking for 
 tliis increase of its sanctity in ourselves and in others, 
 that God, in fact, may be more known and honoured and 
 feared among men as the Holy One.* While then there 
 must not be that emptying of the phrase " Name of God," 
 which would make it nothing more than the awful title by 
 which we designate Him, for then in this petition there 
 would 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 himself. 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, which, 
 not being ineffable. He has uttered and declared; — the 
 coming out of all which may be known of Him from the 
 unfathomable abyss of being. (Exod. iii. 13, 14. )t As 
 
 * Serm. 57. c 4 : Pro nobis rogamus, non pro Deo .... Quod 
 semper sanctum est, sanctificetur in nobis. Ser7n. 56. c. 4 : Quid 
 est sanctificetur ? sanctum habeatur, non contemnatur. Enarr. in 
 Ps. ciii. 1 : Quid ergo rogamus ? Ut iUis hominibus, qui per infideli- 
 tatem nondum babent, nomen Dei sanctum sit, quibus noudmn est iUe 
 sanctus, qui per se et in se et in Sanctis suis sanctus est. Rogamus 
 pro genere bumano, 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 corrigant, et rectum cor ad 
 illius rectitudinem ducant ; et adbserentes ei, directi ad rectum, non 
 jam vituperent, sed placeat rectis rectus. 
 
 f Enarr. in Ps. ci. 25. 
 
262 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 long 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 our lips, and so 
 long cannot altogether give place to the "Holy, Holy, 
 Holy," which is not prayer and petition, but purely and 
 solely adoration and praise. 
 
 Ver. 10. " Thy kingdom come i'^ — yet not as though his 
 kingdom were not already among us, but even as the 
 present light is absent to the blind and to them who wil- 
 fidly close their eyes, so that kingdom, though it be ever 
 with us, is yet now absent from them who will not know 
 of it.* But aU must know it then, when it shall not 
 
 I merely be spiritually 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.f 
 
 " Thy will he done^'' — that is. Let it be done here accord- 
 ing to thy will ; for Augustine denies, what at first sight 
 might seem to lie in the words, that the end and consum- 
 
 fe mation here prayed for is the absorption of all other wills 
 in the will of God, so that in this sense his will shall 
 
 * De Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 6 : Quemadmodum enim etiam 
 prsesens lux absens est caecis et eis qui oculos claudunt, ita Dei regnum 
 quamvis numquam diseedat de terris, tamen absens est ignorantibus. 
 And In Ev. Joh. Tract. 68 (on the words, Tunc justi fulgebunt sicut sol 
 in regno Patris sui : Matt. xiii. 43) : Regnum fulgebit in regno, cum 
 regno venerit regnam, quod nunc oramus et dicimus, Veuiat regnum 
 tuum. Sed nondum reguat hoc regnum. 
 
 t Serm. 56. c. 4: TJt in nobis veniat, optamus; ut in illo in^e- 
 niamur, optamus. 
 
VER. 10.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 263 
 
 everywhere alone be done. Eather is it the bringing all 
 the lesser cii'cles 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 only what is good and true : it is 
 not that their wills should be annihilated, but brought 
 back into harmony 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 main- 
 taining of the reality in the perfected manhood of her 
 Head, and so also in her members, of a human will, which 
 should be subordinated indeed to the divine will, yet 
 should not be abolished by it.* And this is his practical 
 exposition of the words, '■'■Thy will he done-" grant that 
 we may never seek to warp the straight to the crooked, 
 thy will to oui's, but always to correct the crooked by the 
 straight, our will by thine.f — And " in earth as it is in 
 
 * Be Serm, Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 6 : Qui ergo faciunt voluntatem 
 Dei, in illis utique fit voluntas Dei ; non quia ipsi faciunt ut velit 
 Deus, sed quia faciunt quod iUe vult ; id est, faciunt secundum volun- 
 tatem ejus. 
 
 t Enarr. in Ps. xxxi. 11 : Duse volnntates sunt, sed voluntas tua 
 con-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 distortum 
 lignum etsi ponas in pavimento sequali, non collocatur, non compagi- 
 natur, nee adjungitur, semper agitatur et nutat, non quia insequale 
 est ubi posuisti, sed quia distortum est quod posuisti : ita et cor tuum, 
 quamdiu pravum est et distortum, non potest colliniari rectitudini Dei, 
 et non potest in Ulo collocari, ut heereat illi. Enarr. in Ps. cxlvi. § 7 : 
 
264 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 Jieaven ;'^ as by the angels there, by us also here.* Tliis 
 is the simple explanation, not, as he sometimes throws 
 out, that " heaven'^ may be the Church, and " earW 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.f 
 
 Ver. 11. " Give us this day our daily Iread^ — Augus- 
 tine objects to the narrowing of this petition to any one 
 thing ; either, as some did, to the Holy Eucharist, or as 
 others, who gave it somewhat a wider meaning, to all 
 spu'itual refection ; or, again, as others, going into quite 
 the other extreme, to the nourishment of the body exclu- 
 sively. J This ^^ bread'* is rather the whole aliment of body 
 and of spirit ; of the body, as food, with 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 appertain to, and be included in, the " daily bread'^ 
 
 Distoi-tum cor, parum est quod non se corrigit ad Deum : et Deum 
 vult distorquere ad se. 
 
 * Serm. 57. c. 6 : Quomodo te non offendunt Angeli ttii, sic te 
 non offendamus et nos. 
 
 t Such are to be found Be Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1, 2. c. 10 j Serm. 
 56. c. 5, and 5?. c. 6. 
 
 \ Be Serm. Bom. in Hon. 1. 2. c. 7- 
 
VER. 11, 12.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 265 
 
 which we ask.* He docs not fail to remark the silent 
 rebuke that there is here for the worshipper, who takes 
 these words in liis mouth, while he is allowing himself in 
 anxious and far-looking cares, while he is making luxu- 
 rious provision for the flesh and for its lusts. It is but 
 bread wkicli with his lips he asks, and that for the day.f 
 This prayer is the answer of the faithful to the admonition 
 of the apostle, (1 Tim. vi. 8,) " Having food and raiment, 
 let us be therewith content. "J 
 
 Ver. 13. '' And forgive us our debts'' — This petition 
 Augustine does not refer to the great forgiveness, which is 
 assumed as a thing ah-eady past, already in baptism pos- 
 sessed, and out of the faith in which, and in the adoption 
 that went with it, the entire prayer proceeds. But he 
 refers this to the sins of a daily infinnity, in which even 
 he who watches the most will yet be entangled- and 
 
 * Serm. 57. c. 7 : Da seterna, da temporaha. Promisisti regnum, 
 noh negare subsidium. Dabis apud te sempiternum ornamentum, da 
 in terra temporale ahmentum. Serm. 58. c. 4: Quicquid auimse 
 nostrse et cami nostrse in hac vita necessarium est, quotidiano pane 
 concluditur. 
 
 t The difficult question of the meaning of sTrioixnog 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. 64), — he does not 
 more than refer the word to Christ, the bread of life, qui omnem 
 superat substantiam. 
 
 % Serm. 58. c. 4 : Pereat avaritia, et dives est natura. 
 
266 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 without whicli a life in the flesh can scarcely be led :* 
 scarcely without some of the world's dust adhering to 
 him (vix sine pulvere) will even the faithful man walk 
 through the world's paths. But in this prayer there is, 
 so to say, the shaking ojff this dust before it has settled 
 and hardened upon him.f 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. And feeling the importance of this matter, he 
 illustrates it with manifold comparisons. It is of little 
 drops that mighty rivers, yea ruinous and wide- wasting 
 
 * Con. Ep. Farmen. 1. 2, c. 10 : Quod utique non de illis peccatis 
 dicitur, quse in baptism! regeneratione dimissa sunt, sed de iis quae 
 quotidie de seculi amarissimus fructibus humanfe vitae infii'mitas con- 
 trabit. Ep. 265. § 8: Est etiam pcenitentia bonorum et humiHum 
 fidelium pene quotidiana, in qua pectora tundimus, dicentes, Dimitte 
 nobis debita nostra, sicut nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Neque 
 enim ea nobis dimitti volumus, quae dimissa non dubitamus in bap- 
 tismo, sed ilia utique quae humanae fragilitati, quamvis parva, tamen 
 crebra subrepunt ; quae si collecta contra nos fuerint, ita nos grava- 
 bunt et oppriment, sicut unum aliquod grande peccatum. Quid enim 
 interest ad naufragium, utrum uno grandi fluctu navis operiatur et 
 obruatur, an paulatim subre])ens aqua in sentinam et per negligen- 
 tiam derelicta atque contemta impleat navem atque submergat ? Cf. 
 Up. 54; Be Civ. Dei, 1. 21. c. 27: Quid est ergo peccata vestra, 
 nisi peccata, sine quibus nee vos eritis, qui justificati et sauctificati 
 estis ? 
 
 t Serm. 351. § 4—6. 
 
 :|: In Ev. Joh. Tract. 56 : Quotidie pedes lavat nobis, qui inter- 
 pellat pro nobis ; et quotidie nos opus habere ut pedes lavemus . . . 
 in ipsa Oratione Dominica confitemur, cum dicimus, Dimitte nobis. 
 Cf. Serm. 351. c. 3; EncJiir. de Fide, Spe, et Car. c. 71. 
 
VER. 12.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 267 
 
 inundations 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. A moun- 
 tain of minute grains of sand will as effectually crush out 
 the life, as the same bulk of solid lead.* Little venomous 
 insects, if only there are enough of them, will kill a man 
 with their multitudinous bites, as certainly as some wild 
 beast with its single one.f But in this prayer there is for 
 the man that faithfully uses it, the pledge and power of 
 a daily cleansing, the medicine of his sKght but ever re- 
 curring hurts. J 
 
 Augustine uses the testimony of this prayer against all 
 proud Pelagian notions of an absolutely sinless state in 
 this life.§ He loves to entrench himself here; || he dwells 
 
 * Serm. 58. c. 9 : Non potes hicvivere sineipsis [sc. peccatis,] vel 
 minuta sint, vel levia sint. Sed ipsa levia et minuta non contem- 
 nantur. De minutis guttis flumina implentur. Non contemnantur 
 vel minora. Per angustas rimulas navis insudat aqua; impletur sen- 
 tina : et si contemnatui sentina, mergitur navis. Cf. Enarr. in Ps. 
 cxxix. § 5 ; Serm. 56. c. 9 : Quid interest, utrum te plumbum premat, 
 an arena? plumbum una massa est, arena minuta grana sunt, sed 
 copia te premunt. 
 
 t Serm. 278. c. 12, 13 : Magnse bestise uno morsu occidunt homi- 
 nem : minutse autem cum fuerint multse congregatse, plerumque 
 iuterimunt; et talem perniciem inferunt, ut poenis bujusmodi gens 
 superba Pharaonis judicari meruerit. 
 
 :|; De Pecc. Mer. et Rem. 1. 3. c. 13 ; Ep. 167. c. 6 : Quouiam in 
 multis ofFendimus omnes, suggerit Dominicam tanquam quotidianam 
 quotidianis, etsi levioribus, tameu vulneribus, medicinam. 
 
 § Of such a perfect state be says, Be Pecc. Mer. et Rem. 1. 3. c. 13: 
 Optandum est ut fiat, eonandum est ut fiat, supplicandum est ut fiat ; 
 non tamen quasi factum fuerit, confitcnduni. 
 
 II Ep. 176. § 2 : Nova quippe heeresis et nimium pcrniciosa tentat 
 
 /" 
 
268 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 on the fact that it was to the apostles themselves that this 
 prayer was first given : they were to acknowledge in these 
 words their own sinfulness,* and shall any other assume 
 themselves more exempt from imperfection than they, and 
 thus to have outgrown the use of this prayer? And if not, 
 if it was intended, as it plainly was, for all, and at all 
 periods of their Christian life, 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 guilty. 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 characterizes as itself an awful sacrilege, which 
 would constitute him a sinner, had he been none before ;t 
 
 assurgere inimicorum gratiee Christi, qui nobis etiam Dominicani 
 Orationem impiis disputationibus conantur auferre. Cum enim 
 Dominus docuerit ut dicamus, Diraitte nobis debita nostra, isti dicunt 
 posse bominem in bac vita, praeceptis Dei cognitis, ad tantam perfec- 
 tionem justitise sine adjutorio gratia Salvatoris, per solum liberum 
 voluntatis arbitrium pervenire, ut ei non sit jam necessarium dicere, 
 Dimitte nobis debita nostra. 
 
 * Dp. 157. c. 2 : Omnibus enim necessaria est Oratio Dominica, 
 quam etiam ipsis arietibus gregis, id est, apostolis suis Dominus dedit, 
 ut unusquisque Deo dicat, Dimitte nobis debita nostra. Be Civ. Dei, 
 1. 14. c. 9 : Non enim qualiumcunque bominum vox est ; sed maxima 
 piorum, multumque justorum atque sanctorum . . . Nunc satis bene 
 \avitur, si sine crimine ; sine peccato autem qui se vivere existimat, 
 non id agit, ut peccatum non babeat, sed ut veniam non accipiat. 
 
 t Con. Ep. Parmen. 1. 2. c. 10 : Quod si boc in oratione ficte et 
 non veraciter dicunt, putantes se non babere quod eis dimittat Deus, 
 id ipsum est inexpiabile sacrilegium. Cf. Serm. 181. c. 4. 
 
VER. 12.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 269 
 
 or again, they replied 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 passages, as 1 John i. 8, where no such subterfuge 
 is possible. Somewhat more plausibly than this, they 
 affirmed that the sinless man Avould merge himself, and his 
 own separate life, in that of the whole body of the Chm'ch, 
 and could therefore honestly use this prayer, inasmuch as 
 in the body to which he belonged there still was sin, 
 though not in himself.f Augustine answers them at 
 length, and observes how one at least of their favourite 
 examples of such a sinless man, that is, Daniel, has left 
 them no opportunity for such an evasion ; for he expressly 
 distinguishes the two, his own sin and the congregation'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 con- 
 tains the same confession of sin as under the Old did the 
 offerings which the priests made fii-st for themselves, before 
 ever they made them for the sins of the people. As those 
 offerings implicitly convinced them, (Heb. vii. 37,) so this 
 confession explicitly convinces us.| 
 
 * Serm. 135. c. 7- 
 
 t De Pecc. Mer. et Rem. 1. 2. c. 10, These are their words : 
 Sancti et perfect! jam apostoli dicebant, Dimitte nobis debita nostra, 
 . . . ut per hoc quod dicerent nostra, in uno esse corpore demoustra- 
 rent et illos adbuc babentes peccata, et seipsos qui jam carebant 
 omni ex parte peccato. 
 
 X Serm. 135 : Sacrificia convincebant sacerdotes .... Non at- 
 tendo quod loqueris, sed quid offeras. Victima tua convincit te. 
 
270 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VT. 
 
 This remission of our debts being not so miicli as 
 asked except on a condition, ^^ As we forgive our dehtors^^ 
 causes Mm often to remark how terrible 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 om* sins, but with 
 our own hands binding the cords of them more closely 
 round us.* It will little profit to do as some do, who 
 feeling this, when they approach this petition avoid it, and 
 pass on to the next : like a debtor that, seeing his creditor 
 at a distance, turns into some side alley out of the way in 
 which before he was going. For whom is it that we seek 
 to shun ? a creditor who, so long as there is this temper 
 in us, will meet us everywhere, and whom it is impossible 
 to evade. t (Ps. cxxxvii. 7.) 
 
 Yer. 13. " And lead us not into temptation.^^ — Augus- 
 tine traces a connexion with the last petition : Forgive us 
 
 * Serm. 58. c. 6 : Qui volt dicere efficaciter, Dimitte, oportet ut dicat 
 veraciter, Sicut et nos dimittimus. Serm. 315. c. 7 : Ibi ilia inimica 
 [ira] stat contra te. Sepit viam orationis tuse, murum erigit, et non 
 est qua transeas. 
 
 t Serm. 352. c. 2: Quomodo quisque in vico cum occurrerit ei, 
 cui ahquid debet, si ad manum est diverticulum, dimittit quo ibat, 
 et it per aliam partem, ne faciem videat creditoris. Hoc tu in isto 
 versu 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 ? 
 
VER. 13.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 271 
 
 what we have done : grant that we do not the same any 
 more.* He mentions that it was read in numerous Latin 
 ]\ISS., 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 jf it seeming to 
 them that the actual leading of men into temptation 
 might not by any means be attributed to God. (Jam. 
 i. 13.) But he often shows that no need exists for 
 shrinking from the words, or seeking to rob them of their 
 force, by any such additions either secretly or openly 
 made. God does tempt, just as the de\il tempts : all the ^ "'^ 
 difference lies in the end and aim with which they seve- ' 
 rally do it,J — the one tempting 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 mean and a transition to an 
 higher good, that they, discovering and recovering from 
 their sin, may walk henceforward more humbly, more cir- 
 
 * Serm. 48. c. 8 : Dimitte quae fecimus, et da ut alia non com- 
 mittamus. 
 
 t Be Bon. Persev. c. 6. 
 
 X In Ev. Joh. Tract. 43 : Intelligimns duas esse tentationes, unam 
 quaj decipit, alteram quai probat : secundum eam quse decipit, Deus 
 neminem tentat : secundum eam quse probat, tentat vos Dominus 
 Deus vester, ut sciat si dUigitis eura ; . . . non ergo Deus nescit, 
 sed dictum est, ut sciat, quod est, ut scire vos faciat. Cf. Serm. 2. c. 3: 
 Non enim sibi homo ita notus est, ut Creator!; nee sic seger sibi 
 notus est, ut medico ... Si Deus cessat tentare, magister cessat 
 docere. Cf. Serm. 57. c. 9. 
 
272 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 cumspectly ; that knowing better, they may take up arms 
 more earnestly against, the evil that is in them. He ad- 
 duces oftentimes St. Peter, and his permitted fall, as an 
 instance of what he means. He 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 should 
 find out the secret of his weakness, and thus 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 here 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. (Jam. i. 2.) Augustine, in reply, draws a 
 distinction between the being led into temptation, and the 
 being tempted.:}: The first is the coming under the power 
 
 * Be Corrept. et Grot. c. 9 : Hsec vox et apostoli Petri esse 
 potuit : dixerat quippe et ipse in abundantia sua, Animam meam pro 
 te ponam ; sibi festinaado tribuens, quod ei fuerat a Domino pestea 
 largiendum .... Sed quia didicit non de seipso fidere, etiam hoc ei 
 profecit in bonum, faciente illo qui dUigentibus eum omnia co-operatur 
 in bonum. 
 
 t Serm. 76. c. 4 : Multos impedit a firmitate, pra'smntio firmitatis. 
 Cf. Serm. 286. c. 3 ; Enarr. in Ps. xsxvi. 1. 
 
 + Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 9 : Aliud est induci in tenta- 
 tionem, aliud tentari .... Inducimur enim si tales acciderint, quas 
 ferre nonpossumus. Ej). 130. c. 11 : [Petimus] ne deserti ejus adju- 
 torio alicui tentationi vel consentiamus decepti, vel cedamus aflBicti. 
 Cf. Ep. 177. § 4 : where may be seen as weU the use which Augus- 
 tine makes of this petition also in his controversy with the Pelagians. 
 
VER. 13.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 273 
 
 of a temptation greater than we can bear, and this we 
 /deprecate,* saying, " Lead us not into temptation," but 
 not the other, for we acknowledge that to be the sad but 
 needful condition of our life 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 entangled in it, that 
 there shall be no means of escape ; but with the tempta- 
 tion make ever the way of deliverance. Now though it is 
 most true that this will ever be the prayer of the faithful, f 
 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 decHning 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 infiinnity, 
 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 should arrive.J 
 *' But deliver us from evil." On the question whether 
 
 * Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 9 : Tanquam si quispiam cui 
 necesse sit igne examinari, non oret ut igne non contingatm-, sed ut 
 non exuratnr. 
 
 f See Tholuck's Auslegimg der Berg'predigt, p. 430. 
 
 :|: Ep. 130. c. 14 : In his ergo tribulationibus qase possunt et 
 prodesse et nocere, . . . quia dura, quia molesta, quia contra sensum 
 nostrse infirmitatis sunt, universali humana voluntate ut a nobis hsec 
 auferantur, oramus. 
 
 T 
 
274 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 this be a distinct petition, and so the number of petitions 
 in the Lord's Prayer be seven and not six, Augustine 
 rather wavers. In one place* he makes seven petitions, 
 and finds a meaning and a mysteiy in the number, draw- 
 ing 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 temptatiovC^ to evil threaten- 
 ing in the future, ''^ Deliver us from eviV to evil which 
 already is around and about us.f And seeing that 
 throughout all Scripture seven is the covenant number, 
 the number of sacrifice and the number of prayer, the 
 signatm-e of all meetings between God and man, this is 
 undoubtedly true as regards the number of petitions here ; 
 they are seven and not six. Yet he himself sometimes 
 departs from this truer view, and expressly unites these 
 two last as forming parts of the same petition,]: When, 
 too, as has just been noticed, he makes " Lead us not into 
 temptation" to refer to the future, and '' Deliver us from 
 eviV to the 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 
 
 * De Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 11 ; Serm. 58. c, 10. 
 
 t Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 9 : Ultima et septima petitio 
 est, Sed libera nos a malo. Orandum est enim ut non solum non 
 inducamur in malum quo caremus, quod sexto loco petitur; sed ab 
 illo etiam liberemur, quo jam inducti sumus. 
 
 X Serm. 57- c. 10: Ideo addidit sed: ut ostenderet hoc totum ad 
 unam senteutiam pertinere .... Liberando nos a malo non nos 
 infert in tentationem, non nos inferendo in tentationem, liberat nos a 
 malo. Presently after he speaks of them as sex vel septem petitiones. 
 Cf. Enchir. ad Laurent, c. 116. 
 
VER. 13.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 275 
 
 kept from the evil which is now alluring and threatening 
 to ensnare us: '■'Deliver us from eviV" 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.* That this deliverance from evil is 
 first and chiefly a deliverance from our evil selves, that 
 this is the great deliverance which we need, he often most 
 tmly and most profoundly brings out.t 
 
 Augustine '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 
 '' Amenj" though elsewhere he gives well what its meaning 
 is on the lips of the faithful, that it is their seal and 
 consent and adstipulation to all that has been spoken. J 
 
 * Con. Julian. 1. 6. c. 14 : Qua [scU. gratia] liheror, ut sciam 
 ne intrem in tentationem, a concupiscentia mea abstractus et illectus, 
 . . . qua liberabor, ut spero, in seternum, ubi jam nulla lex in mem- 
 bris meis repugnet legi mentis mese — this last liberabor being evi- 
 dently in bis mind the answer to the prayer, ^^ Deliver us from evil'' 
 as the liheror to the prayer, " Lead us not into temptation." This 
 the right meaning he has spoken out, Be Pecc. Mer. et Rem. 1. 2. c. 4 : 
 Delude addimus quod perficietur in fine, cum absorbebitor mortale a 
 vita : Sed libera nos a malo. 
 
 t Libera me a me. And again, Serm. 44. c. 3 : Libera me ab 
 homine malo, a me ipso. 
 
 I In a fragment of a sermon, v. 5. p. 1510: Tratres mei, Ameu 
 vestrum subseriptio vestra est, consensio vestra est, adstipulatio 
 vestra est. 
 
 t2 
 
276 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 Ver. 14, 15. — Augustine has oftentimes solemn obser- 
 vations on our Lord returning back upon this condition 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 aU.* 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 Grod 
 might enter into our souls. f 
 
 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 " wilV will " be done'' here as perfectly as " in heaven." 
 So too, he observes, as the eternal things are first in 
 
 * Enchir. de Tide, Spe, et Car. c. 74 : Ad tarn magnum tonitruum 
 qui nou expergiscitur, non dormit sed mortuus est. 
 
 t Serm. 57. c. 11, 12 : Unde acceptm-us enim veniam fueras pro 
 cseteris delictis, hoc perdis. Si quid aliis sensibus, aliis cupiditatibus 
 peccaveras, hinc erat saaandum quia dicturus eras, Dimitte, sicut et 
 
 nos dimittimus lUo perdito cuncta teuebuntm* ; omnino nihil 
 
 dimittitur. 
 
VER. 14, 15.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 277 
 
 dignity, they are here placed 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 haUowed, the king- 
 dom will be established, and the will accomplished for 
 ever. But the other and later petitions relate to things 
 transient : the daily bread will not be needed by them 
 who feed on the beatific vision of God ; nor the forgive- 
 ness of trespasses by them that are perfect ; nor exemption 
 from temptation, where there is nothing any more within 
 or without to tempt ; nor deliverance from evil, where aU 
 evil will have ended,* 
 
 Nor does he fail to show how this Prayer is the mould 
 into which our desires are to be cast,t 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, being as it 
 is normal for all other prayers ; there being no possible 
 request 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 some- 
 thing which is shut up in the Lord's Prayer. It is only 
 such a request as ought not to have been made, something 
 
 * Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 10; Serm. 58. c. 10: Tres 
 ergo petitiones saperiores seternse sunt ; quatuor autem sequentes ad 
 istam vitam pertinent. 
 
 t Serm. 56. c. 3 : Verba quae Dominus noster Jesus Christus in 
 Oratione docuit, forma est desideriorum ; Be Perfect. Just. c. 8 : 
 Oratione insinuans omnes regulas sancti desiderii. 
 
278 EXPOSITION or the [st. matt, vi. 
 
 that we " ask amiss," which will not range itseK under 
 one or other of these petitions.* 
 
 Yer. 16 — 18. — Here is another precept, Augustine 
 observes, on purity of intention, which is now altogether 
 the matter in hand, a warning that no ostentation 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.f All the pre- 
 cepts in this part of the discourse warn us, how it is not 
 merely in the pomp and splendour of worldly things that 
 pride may display itself, but that also it may lurk under 
 rags and in sackcloth, being then a pride the more perilous 
 as being the more veiled. Por 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, being at once convinced as a follower and a lover 
 of the vanities of this world. J But he who draws the 
 
 * Ep. 130. c. 12: Si per omnia precationum sanctarum verba 
 discurras, quantum existimo, nihU. invenies quod in ista Dominica 
 
 non contineatur et concludatur Oratione Q,ui autem dicit in 
 
 oratione, verbi gratia, Domine, multiplica divitias meas; aut, Da 
 miTii quantas illi vel illi dedisti ; aut, Honores meos auge ; aut, Fac 
 me in lioc seculo praepotentem atque clarentem ; . . . puto eum non 
 invenire in Oratione Dominica quo possit lisec vota coaptare. 
 
 f De Serni. Bom. in Mon. \. 2. c. 12 : Manifestum est his prae- 
 ceptis omnem nostram intentiouem in interiora gaudia dirigi, ne 
 foris quserentes mercedem huic seculo conformemur, et amittamus 
 promissionem tanto solidioris atque firmioris, quanto interioris beati- 
 tudinis. 
 
 \ He Serm. Dom, in Mon. 1. 2. c. 12: In hoc autem capitulo 
 
VER. 16 — 18.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 279 
 
 eyes of men upon Mmself by an unusual squalor and self- 
 neglect, when this he puts on of choice and not endures 
 of necessity, must be judged by the rest of his conversa- 
 tion, whether through contempt of superfluous ornament, 
 or through some sinister aim he has done it; for the Lord 
 himself has warned us to beware 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 some in- 
 timation will be given us 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 adorning, because that spare and barely need- 
 ful array is often usurped by deceivers to cheat the 
 unwary ; the sheep should not lay aside their own cloth- 
 ing, because sometimes the wolves cover themselves with 
 the like.* 
 
 But with this clear view into the whole purpose of the 
 
 maxime animadvertendum est, non in solo rerum corporearum nitore 
 atque pompa, sed etiam in ipsis sordibus luctuosis esse posse jactan- 
 tiam, et eo periculosiorem quo sub nomine servitutis Dei decipit. 
 Qui ergo immoderato cuitu corporis atque vestitus, vel cseterarum 
 rerum nitore prfefulget, 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, . . . cseteris ejus operibus potest conjici utrum hoc con- 
 temtu superflui cultus, an ambitione aliqua faciat. 
 
 * Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 24 : Non ideo debent oves 
 odisse vestimentum suum, quia plerumque illo se occultant lupi. 
 
280 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 passage, it is singular that Augustine should have found 
 a difficulty in the words '^Anoint tliine head,'' which he 
 does, from the habit of such anointing in times of fasting 
 or indeed at any time having altogether disappeared when 
 he wrote : he therefore interprets the precept mystically of 
 the inward gladness of the spirit before the Lord.* Yet 
 surely here, as in so many other places, we are to see the 
 permanent and the universal embodied and presented to 
 us in the forms of the transient and local ; and we shall 
 interpret these words according to their true spirit and 
 intention, when we substitute for this anointing the head 
 any other forms of outward seemliness and decent adorn- 
 ing, which are in use in our own time, and the omission 
 of which would attract a peculiar observation. 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, " When ye fast,'' Augustine inter- 
 prets everywhere as a command. It was reserved for 
 others to tm-n " Whe7i ye fast" into the more convenient, 
 i/'ye choose to fast. He notices other ways besides this 
 of ostentatious demonstration in which our fasting may 
 come to nothing, as when it goes together with any in- 
 dulged sin, when, abstaining fi'om things which are some- 
 times allowable, we do not abstain from those which are 
 always unlawful ;t or again, when it is a mere varying of 
 
 * De Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 12 : Intelligenduin est hoc 
 prseceptum unguendi caput .... ad interiorem hominem pertiuere. 
 t Serm. 143 {Appendix) : Quid enim prodest paUidum esse 
 
VER. 19, 20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 281 
 
 our luxuries, and not an abridging of them :* and he draws 
 a picture, evidently from the life, in more places than one, 
 of a luxurious " fool-fasting," as oui* Reformers happily 
 named it, which had already sprung up in his time; and 
 which, keeping the name, had entirely evaded the reality 
 of fasting, being in truth no mortif}ing, but only a pam- 
 pering of the appetite in new forms ; or again, when that 
 which thereby is spared, is not spared for the poor but for 
 ourselves ;t in all which cases it shall not be seen, he says, 
 by our heavenly Father with any pleasm'e, 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 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 finds the following : Give with 
 no unworthy aim, with no by-ends and out-looks for thine 
 own advantage — that were to " lay up treasures on earth;'* 
 but do good for the love of God, for the pm'e love of thy 
 
 jejuniis, si odio et invidia livescas ? Quid enim prodest vinuni non 
 bibere, et iracundise veneno inebriari ? 
 
 * Serm. 210. c. 8, 9 : Tanquam non sit Quadragesima pise 
 humilitatis observatio, sed novse voluptatis occasio. And again, 
 Serm. 205. c. 2 : Nemo sub abstinentiae specie mutare affectet potius 
 quam resecare delitias. 
 
 t Serm. 144 {Appendlr) : Jejuni um tuum te castiget, sed Iseti- 
 ficet alterum. 
 
282 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 brother — that is to " lay up treasures in lieaven .-" 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 
 " moW and " rwsf' * and " thieves'^ as the instmments of 
 destruction, points to the more obvious intei-pretation, 
 namely, that this laying up of treasures upon earth is not, 
 as he would have us to understand, a laying out of 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 lajdng it up for ourselves. 
 
 If there be a connexion, it might perhaps be rather 
 traced thus : Prefer the unseen and eternal before the seen 
 
 * For jSpwfftc Augustine has, with the old Italic, comestura ; the 
 A^ulgate, (BTugo. Here again the change was for the worse, seeing 
 that iSpcjcng has not the special significance, so given it, of rust, but 
 refers generally to the gnawing tooth of time, to the consumption, 
 by whatever means, of the things which are on earth. I have observed 
 other passages, where the earlier Latin versions were more accurate 
 than the Vulgate which took their place. Thus the Vulgate translates 
 KaTa<TKr]vu)(Tug (Matt. viii. 20) nidos, which we have followed, 
 " nests," H. v., but the earlier translation more correctly, diversoria. 
 (Augustine, Con.Faust. 1. 22. c. 48.) KaTa<TKr)vioffsig are not " nests," 
 neither do birds, having once left, return to their nests, as places of 
 shelter. So, too, Heb. vi. 7, the Vulgate renders di' ovg j^^^py^'i'rai, 
 a quihus cohtur ; and has again drawn us along with its error : " hy 
 whom it is dressed," I!,. V, ; but the old Italic : propter quos colitur. 
 (Teetullian, Be Pudic. c. 20.) 
 
VER. 19, 20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 283 
 
 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, — this being hollow and transient, that real and 
 endui'ing, — so also and for the same 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. And 
 this is a language which Augustine himself often uses : 
 Lift up, he says, your fruits to an higher floor, where 
 they will not be exposed to the same inevitable danger of 
 ccrmpting and spoiling, which they are on the lower.* 
 For He who gave, desires that we should not lose even 
 his lower gifts, but should keep them for ever ; and there- 
 fore gives counsels such as this, oifering to take into his 
 own secure keeping that which in no other way can we 
 retain : to send it before us, to that world whither we are 
 certainly going, that we may find it there.f You trust in 
 
 * Unarr. in Ps. xlviii. 9 : Modo si amicns 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 coUegisti : in loco humido posuisti; paucis diebus ista putres- 
 eunt. Et quid facio, frater ? Leva in superiora. Audires amicum 
 suggerentem, ut fi-umenta levares de inferioribus ad superiora, et non 
 audis Christum monentem, ut thesaurum tuum leves de terra ad 
 coelum. Cf. Serm. 60. c. 7- 
 
 t See his beautiful words, Enarr. in Ps. xxxviii. 7, where, among 
 other things, he says : Quare ibi ponis ubi possis amittere, ubi si non 
 
284 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 Grod, will you not tlien trust Him ? you believe in Him, 
 will you not tlien believe Him, and that He has occult 
 channels of communication 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 the number of them, the men of the earth, that have 
 slept their sleep, even the sleep of a vain worldly exist- 
 ence, and when they awaken to a world of realities their 
 hands are empty ; they " have found nothing," found 
 nothing, because they placed nothing in the hand of 
 Christ, which in each one of his poor was stretched out to 
 them.t And he often uses the gathering distresses and 
 
 amittas, ibi permanere perpetuo non potes ? Est ahus locus quo te 
 transferam. Prsecedat te quod habes, noli timere ne perdas : dator 
 ego eram, custos ego ero. And again, of what is offered to God 
 he says, Serm. 42. 2 : Non dico, Hoc non perit, sed dico, Hoc 
 solum non perit. And in a sermon, Be Contemptu Mundi (v. 5, 
 p. 713) : Si amas divitias, prsemitte, easque sequaris ; ne cum amas 
 in terra, aut vivus eas amittas aut mortuus. 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. xxxviii. 7 : Si haberet quispiam amicus tuus 
 quosdam locos vel cisternas, et quseque receptacula fabricarum ad 
 servandum aliquem liquorera vel vini vel olei quaereres, et diceret 
 tibi ; Ego tibi servo : haberetque ad iUa receptacula occultos canales 
 quosdam transitusque, ut per hos clanculo iret quod palam funde- 
 retur, et diceret tibi, Quod habes, hie funde : videres autem tu non 
 esse iUum locum ubi ponere cogitabas, et timeres fundere ; ille qui 
 sciret machinamenta qusedam occulta locorum suorum non tibi 
 diceret, Eunde secmnis, hinc illuc pervenit ; non vides qua, sed crede 
 mihi, qui fabricavi? Fabricavit enim per quem facta sunt omnia 
 mansiones omnibus nobis: illuc vult prsecedere quod habemus, ne 
 hoc in terra perdamus. 
 
 t Enarr. in Ps. Lxxv. 6 : Dormierunt somnum suum viri diviti- 
 arum, et nihil invenerunt in manibus suis Nihil inveniunt 
 
VER. 19, 20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 285 
 
 troubles of his time, the barbarian invasions, which having 
 abeady Avasted Italy, were fast advancing upon Africa, 
 and which were bringing an evident uncertainty on all 
 things worldly, as an additional motive for heartily 
 obeying this command;* for, apart from the inevitable 
 quitting at death, it seemed likely that many would have 
 to loose their grasp of their possessions long before. 
 Thus, writing to the clergy and people of Hippo, who in 
 his absence had forgone, under the pressure of their 
 temporal calamities, some customary bounties to the poor, 
 he reminds them, that if indeed the weak fabric of this 
 world was falling, what greater reason and motive was 
 there in this very thing, why they should quickly transfer 
 whatsoever of their goods they could to that stronger built 
 City, which alone would survive the shock. f And to 
 some that were already stripped of their worldly posses- 
 
 in manibus suis, quia nihil posueruut in manu Christi. Vis aliquid 
 invenire in manibus tuis postea? NoU contemnere modo manum 
 pauperis, et respice manus inanes, si vis habere manus plenas. 
 
 * Serm, 60. c. 6 : Non surgitur, non proceditur, nisi ut una voce 
 dicatur ab omnibus: Vse nobis, ruit mundus. Si ruit, quare non 
 migras ? Si tibi arcbitectus diceret, Ruituram domum tuam ; noune 
 prius migrares quam murmurares ? Structor mundi tibi dicit, Rui- 
 turum mundum, et non credis ? Cf. Serm. 38. c. 5 — 7- 
 
 t Ep. 122 : Sicut enim ad loca munitiora festinantius migrant, 
 qui ruinam domus vident contritis parietibus imminere; sic corda 
 Christiana quanto magis sentiunt mundi hujus ruinam crebrescentibus 
 tribulationibus propinquare, tanto magis debent bona quae in terra 
 recondere disponebant, in thesaurum coelestem impigra celeritate 
 transferre; ut si aliquis humanus casus accident, gaudeat qui de 
 loco ruinoso emigravit. 
 
286 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 sions lie addresses himself thus : The enemy has invaded 
 your house, would he have invaded heaven? He has 
 slain the servant that has watched your goods ; would he 
 have slain the Lord who was willing to 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 did this necessity 
 arise ? Because you would not render a portion of that 
 all unto Christ. You would not give, and therefore He 
 took; and took, not as He was once willing to have 
 received at your hands, but took, leaving no blessing 
 behind.f That which comes from his people at the 
 gentle pressure of his simple bidding, comes as the fine 
 and sweet and golden coloured olive oil which runs freely 
 from the fi-uit,almostbefore ever the press has touched them. 
 That is as the lees, the dark and vile amurca, which is 
 wrung out by the force of an harsh constraint at the last. if 
 
 Ver. 21. '' For where your treasure is, tliere will your 
 heart be also'' — This is the reason, he says, why Christ 
 desires his people to lay up store in heaven, namely, ^that_ 
 they mayhave a heart in heaven ^^ this is why He bids 
 
 * Serm. 60. c. 8 : Invasit * hostis domum, nunquid invaderet 
 coelum? Occidit servum custodem, nunquid occideret Doniinum 
 servatorem, quo fur non accedit, neque tinea corrumpit ? 
 
 f Serm. de Contemptu 3Iundi, v. 5. p. 713 : Christo modicum 
 non dedisti, et barbaris totum quod babuisti, dedisti .... Cbristus 
 rogat, et non accipit. Ille torquet, et totum aufert. 
 
 :|: Mundus est torcular; abundant pressurse ejus, oleum esto tu, 
 non amurca. 
 
VER. 22, 23.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 287 
 
 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 icJiere this treasure is stored.* 
 For him that has his treasure in earth, it is vain when he 
 hears the stii-ring summons of the Chiu'ch, 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 treasui'e, 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.f 
 
 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 
 thine eye be single" if the intention, that is, be right and 
 pure, directed to God and to the pleasing of God, all the 
 works which are wrought according to that intention. 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. xc. 16: Q,uare autem vult [Ckristus] ut locum 
 mutes thesauro tuo, nisi ut locum mutes cordi tuo ? Nemo enim 
 cogitat nisi de thesauro suo. Q,uam multi hie sunt qui me modo 
 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. 
 
 t Serm. 345: Si autem in terra obruis cor tuum, erubesce, quia 
 mentiris cum respondes, quando audis, Sursuni corda. Nam dicitur, 
 Sursum corda; et continuo respondes, Habemus ad Dominum. 
 Deo mentiris. In terra obrutum cor habes, quia ubi fuerit thesaurus 
 tuus, ibi erit et cor tuum. 
 
288 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 whicli in other words are wrought in faith,* will be right 
 and pure also; they will be illuminated also. " But if 
 tJiine eye be evil'' if thine intention is defiled and blinded 
 by the appetite of things carnal and temporal, all the 
 works that spring out of that impure motive shall be 
 sharers in the darkness.t 
 
 There are two explanations of the words following : '' If 
 therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is 
 that darkness" — one, which should make the second 
 " darkness" to be 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, but also something more, the 
 second ''darkness" is the darkness before existing (to 
 (TKUToc, with the article) in that region ; and then we 
 must understand our Lord as contemplating the whole 
 region of man's passions and propensities as itself " dark- 
 ness .•" this obscure and confused chaos was to have been 
 
 * Con. Julian. 1. 4. c. 3 : Hunc oculum agnosce intentionem, qua 
 facit quisque quod facit ; et per hoc disce eum qui non facit opera 
 bona intentione fidei bouse, hoc est, ejus quse per dilectionem operatur, 
 totum quasi corpus, quod illis, velut membris, operibus constat, 
 tenebrosum esse, hoc est plenum nigredine peecatorum. 
 
 f Be Serm. Bom. in 3Ion. 1. 2. 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 prsecipue si bonum est propter quod facimus, 
 cogitemus. 
 
VER. 24.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 289 
 
 lighted up by the rays of heavenly light received through 
 the eye of the soul ; but if even this eye is obscured, if that 
 which was light becomes darkness, what will it be with 
 that wJiicJi is of its own natut'e darJcTiess: not, as our 
 version has it, ^' that darJcness,'' but ^Hlie 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 certainly 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.t 
 
 Ver. 24. — The connexion is thus traced : there was a 
 waraing 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 
 
 * Auslegung der Bergpredigt, p. 452. 
 
 t It is evidently implied in the translation of the Vulgate, Ipsce 
 tenebrffi quantse erunt: (but for tMs Augustine has, Tenebrae 
 quantae !) and by St. Jerome, Ipsa caligo quantis tenebris obvolvetur; 
 by Chrysostom also, and most of tbe ancients, though the other is in 
 modern times the more common explanation. 
 U 
 
290 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 " love'' is God, and ttis 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 
 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 ^' Jiolds 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 either this or that.* Augustine does not commit 
 the mistake, which is a modern one, of making " mam- 
 mon'' a proper name, and an actual title of " the god of 
 this world ;" but, on the contrary, gives its right explana- 
 tion, though at the same time he says with truth, that 
 its service is Ms service.t 
 
 Ver. 25 — 34. " TJierefore'' — 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, " TJiere- 
 fore," om- Lord proceeds, ''take no tlioiiglit\ for your life. 
 
 * Qncest. Evang. 1, 2. c. 36: Non dixit, Odiet, sed contemnet: 
 sicut Solent minas ejus postponere cupiditatibus suis, qui de bonitate 
 ejus ad impunitatem sibi blandiuntur. 
 
 t Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 14 : Lucrum Punice mammon 
 dicitur. Sed qui sei-vit mammonse, iUi utique servit, qui rebus istis 
 terrenis merito suae perversitatis preepositus, magistratus bujus seculi 
 a Domino dicitur. 
 
 ^ fiT] fiepinvuTe. Augustine's non habere solicitudinem, and the 
 
VER. 25 — 34.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 291 
 
 what ye shall eat or lohat ye shall drink, nor yet for your 
 body, what ye shall put on ;^' and then Augustine traces the 
 argument 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 fashioned your marvellous bodies, 
 cannot and will not He furnish the raiment which they 
 need ?* 
 
 Augustine connects ver. 27 with the first clause of the 
 
 ne soliciti sitis of the Vulgate, are both better than our " Take no 
 ihotfght" which was a change for the worse from the " Be not 
 careful" of the earlier translations. The ixepi[xvd (from fitpig and 
 liipiZoj) is the care which divides and draws the soul more ways 
 than one, — hinders a serving of the Lord cLTrtpKrirdcrrMQ (1 Cor. 
 vii. 35.) Now it is true that the words solicit us and solicit udo 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 i^pcTioq. It will thus stand 
 in its etymology in connexion with the /xj) [iSTeojpii^icrOt, in the 
 parallel passage in St. Luke (xii. 29) : Be not swayed backward and 
 forward, as a bucket in the air, without any sm-e resting-place (Nolite 
 in sublime extolli: Augustine). Our " Take no t/iotight" sounds like 
 an exaggeration 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. Bom. in 3Ion. 1. 2, c. 15 : Dominus admonet, ut 
 meminerimus multo amplius nobis Deum dedisse, quod nos fecit et 
 composuit ex anima et corpore, quam est alimentum atque tegumen- 
 tum; .... qui dedit animam midto facilius escam esse daturum. 
 He rightly remarks that •^vx'7 liere is to be translated " life" and 
 not soul, as at Matt.x. 39 : " He that findeth his life (i/'i^X')'^) shall 
 lose it." 
 
 u 2 
 
292 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 verse following, and reads, " WJilcli of you, by taking 
 tlioiigld,^ can add one cubit unto Ids stature ? And why 
 taJce ye tliouglit for raiment ?'' He who has determined 
 your bodies shall be just what they are, and that is evi- 
 dently God, for ye yourselves are powerless in the matter, 
 you could add nothing to them in this respect, cannot He 
 also clothe them ?t But Maldonatus rightly remarks, that 
 this cannot be the true connexion, as is clear from a com- 
 parison 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 translated " stature" (yiXinia) is 
 accepted rather in its other sense, "term of life." (Johnix. 
 21 — 23. )J There is much against taking it as ''stature'' 
 here. In the first place, had 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 
 
 * fiiQifivCov, for which he has curam, which at least is better than 
 the cogitans of the Vulgate. 
 
 t Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 15: Cujus potestate atque 
 dominatu factum est, ut ad hanc staturam corpus vestruin 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. 
 
 § Augustine feels that adding a cubit to the body can hardly be 
 called " that tohich is least" and seeks to help the interpretation 
 thus (Quasi. Evang. 1. 2. c. 28) : Minimum est enim hoc, sed Deo 
 corpora operanti. 
 
VER. 25 — 34.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 293 
 
 more strongly, " an hair'' 8 breadth^'' to his height ? So 
 large a measure as a cubit is, according to the laws of a 
 natural rhetoric, certainly out of place. We should feel 
 this much more vividly if we were to substitute 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 
 realize how large an addition this would be. Suppose it 
 were said " 'V\Tiich of you with all his caring can make 
 himself afoot 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 Euth}Tnius, 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 
 desii'e. But it is otherwise with added length of days ; 
 (1 Kin. iii. 11 ; Prov. iii. 16 ;) and understanding the pas- 
 sage to refer to that, our Saviour's argument wiU 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 ter- 
 
 * 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 
 
294 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 minates your course, whensoever tie will. (Luke xii, 10.) 
 The image will then be that of life as a race or course, 
 (^pojjiog,) and the cubit, which would have been much in 
 the stature of a man, that rarely consisting of more than 
 four cubits in all, would be exceedingly little, and there- 
 fore most appropriate, in the length of a course. "We 
 have abundant 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.'"'^ 
 But 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 was 
 to be expected, they have not escaped this abusive inter- 
 pretation. The Manichseans, for instance, as we learn 
 from Augustine,! in their eager quest for discrepancies 
 
 regularly 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. 
 
 * A saying of Augustine's, Plus est pauperi videre coelum 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. 
 
 t 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. See his excellent words, Enarr. in Ps. Lxvi. 2, 
 and in Ps. xxxvii. 20. 
 
VER. 25 — 84.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 295 
 
 between the Old Testament and the New, if so they might 
 find help for their assertion, that the Old came from a 
 different God, since it taught another doctrine, found in 
 this passage a contradiction to Solomon's exhortation, 
 " Go to the ant, thou sluggard, &c." (Prov. vi. 6—8 ;) 
 and the idle vagabond monks, wdio bore, after the Church 
 had cast them out, the name of Euchites,t affirmed not 
 merely the lawfidness of li\dng without labour, but on the 
 plea of this passage, avowed it as a point of perfection to 
 abstain from all toil ; declaring that so they came close to 
 this command of Christ, feeding like the birds out of God's 
 hand, and living on his free bounty, without any careful- 
 ness for to-morrow. t 
 
 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 reasons which would have justified his releasing 
 himself from toil, yet laboured with his own hands, and 
 gave the same commandment in the Churches, " that if 
 
 * Liher de Hares, c. 57. 
 
 t De Op. Monach. c. 3 : Evangelica prsecepta, de quibus non- 
 nulli 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 
 sanctiores prsedicari, ut monasteria doctrina saniore fundata, gemina 
 illecebra corrumpantm*, et dissoluta licentia vacationis, et false 
 nomine sanctitatis ? 
 
296 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. IMATT. VI. 
 
 any would not work, neither should he eat." (2 Thess. 
 iii. 8 — 11 ; cf. Acts xviii. 1 ; xx. 33.) And then, as 
 regards 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; (John xii. 6;) the fragments 
 that remained over of the loaves He bade to be gathered 
 up, evidently to be reserved for another occasion. 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 much pleased at its largeness; (2 Cor. ix. 15 ;)* 
 how provident in all his arrangements concerning the 
 different members of the Church. (1 Tim. v. 16.) Were 
 the not making of 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 condition of all.f 
 
 * Be Op. Monach. c. 16: Quanta pinguedine sanctse Isetitise 
 perfusus apostolus, dum loquitur de alterno supplemento indigentise 
 mUitum et provincialium Christi. Cf. Be Mendac. c. 15. 
 
 t Con. Adimant. c. 24 : Si hoc [Matt. vi. 24] ideo dictum est 
 ut non servetur panis in crastinum, magis hoc implent vagi Eoma- 
 norum, quos Passivos appellant, qui annona quotidiana satiato ventre, 
 aut donant statim quod restat aut projiciunt; quam vel Domini 
 discipuli, qui etiam cum ipso Domino coeli et terrse in terra ambu- 
 lantes loculos habebant : vel Paulus apostolus, qui omnium terre- 
 norum contemptor sic tamen gubernavit ea quae prsesenti vitse erant 
 necessaria, ut etiam de viduis pra^ceperit. (1 Tim. v. 16.) — Passivus, 
 in this passage, is a word of African origin, and was applied to 
 persons who led an idle, tramping, gypsey-like kind of life. (See 
 Du Cange, s. 5.) 
 
VEE. 25—34.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 297 
 
 He turns upon these idle monks, who seem to have 
 made no veiy profitable use of the leism-e which this in- 
 terpretation gave them — wandering about the country, as 
 he describes them, selling now the relics of martyrs, if 
 indeed of martyrs — now phylacteries and amulets — pro- 
 fessing now to be on joui'neys to visit theii' kindred, 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 Scriptm'e in the 
 letter, you must at least be consistent, and carry your in- 
 terpretation through. It is true you do not sow, nor 
 reap ; you understand Chiist literally, 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 ?t And then he draws a lively picture of 
 a flock of ravenous monks, such as they would be, if in- 
 deed they adhered 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. 
 
 * Sumptus lucrosse egestatis, aut simulatse pretium sanctitatis. 
 
 t Be Ojj. Monach. c. 23 : Cur ergo isti manus otiosas et plena 
 repositoria volunt habere ? Cur ea quse summit ex laboribus aliorura, 
 recondunt et servant unde quotidie proferatur? Cur denique molunt 
 et coquunt ? Hoc enim aves non faciunt. 'And c. 24 : Cur volatilia 
 coeH non vobis sunt exemplo ad nihil reservandum, et vultis ut sint 
 exemplo ad nihil operandum ? 
 
298 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VI. 
 
 But wlio is it, he asks, tliat really lives according to the 
 spirit of the precepts which his Saviour has given to him 
 here ? He who is confident that, if by infirmity 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 strength 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 solici- 
 tude, and not the labour, (for that is God's appointment,) 
 which is excluded ;t the doubt whether God could, if need 
 were, provide for us in any other way, that is forbidden ; 
 with the feeling that it is any other except only He who 
 does ever under any circumstances, whether we labour or 
 whether we are hindered from labour, in fact provide. 
 
 Augustine does not take our Saviour's words, ^' But 
 seek ye first the kingdom of God and Ms rigJiteousness, and 
 all these things shall be added to you,^' as actually excluding 
 prayer for these lower things; only they shall not be 
 the objects of om- first, our chiefest, or our most earnest 
 
 * De Op. Monach. c. 27 : Si et nos per aliquam vel infirmitatem 
 vel occupationem non possimus operari, sic ille nos pascet et vestiet, 
 quemadmodum aves et lilia, quse aihil operantur hujusceniodi : cum 
 autem possumus, non debemus tentare Deum nostrum, quia et hoc 
 quod possumus, ejus munere possumus, et cum hinc vivimus, iUo 
 largiente vivimus, qui largitus est ut possimus. 
 
 t De Mendac. c. 15 : Satis elucet ista prsecepta sic intelligenda 
 ut nihil operis nostri temporalium adipiscendorum amore, vel timore 
 egestatis, tanquam ex necessitate faciamus. 
 
VER. 25 84.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 299 
 
 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 con- 
 ditions of an outward prosperity.* 
 
 * Serm. 63 {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 nostras orationis amor animse et desiderium vitse seternse 
 obtineat. 
 
800 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. VII. 
 
 Ver. 1. — '•'■Judge not, that ye he not judged." These 
 words, Augustine observes, must not be understood as 
 though the Christian man were altogether 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 by the outward evidence which they give us of what 
 spirit they are ; and says again, " Judge righteous judg- 
 ment;" (John vii. 24;) and 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 ; which are " open beforehand, 
 going before to judgment." (1 Tim. v. 24.) On all 
 these a Christian must pass a judgment ; though even here 
 he will refrain from judging what will be the final state 
 of him who does these things, since it will be always pos- 
 sible that he may repent and be saved. But the " Judge 
 not'' chiefly refers to those acts which are capable of a 
 double interpretation ;* these are ever to have the judg- 
 ment of charity. He gives for examples the following : If 
 
 * Be Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 18 : Sunt qusedam facta media 
 quae ignoramus quo animo fiant, quia et bono et malo fieri possunt, 
 de quibus temerarium est judicare, maxime ut condemnemus. 
 
VER. L] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 301 
 
 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, 
 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 ;" (Eom. 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 he not judged." Nor is 
 it things questionable alone, and acts capable of a double 
 interpretation, on which men are tempted to exercise un- 
 charitable judgments. But the evil of their own hearts, 
 the sad consciousness of their own mingled, and often- 
 times impure motives, makes them prompt to suspect the 
 same in otters, and to think that even deeds evidently 
 good do yet grow out of some evil root.f Against all 
 
 * Serm. 66, {Appendix) : De illis vero quae aperta sunt et publica 
 mala judicare et arguere, cum caritate tamen et amore, et possimius 
 et debemus, odio habentes non hominem sed peccatum, non vitiosum 
 sed vatium ; detestantes morbum potius quam segrotum. 
 
 t Thus Enarr. in Ps. cxviii. 39, with a mournful, yet most true 
 heart-knowledge, he says: Hoc enim proclivius homo suspicatur in 
 alio, quod sentit in seipso. 
 
302 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 this lie reminds us, tlie seeking of that charity which 
 " thinketh no evil," is the only remedy that will avail. 
 
 Ver. 3. — But how, he asks, is what follows to be under- 
 stood : " For with what judgme^it ye judge ^ ye shall be 
 judged;'^ since it cannot mean that if we judge rashly of 
 others, God will judge rashly of us ; or if we measure un- 
 justly 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. 36.) 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 righte- 
 ousness,! by the throwing of 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 
 force of the back-stroke proportions itself to the force of 
 the original blow. 
 
 He has a remarkable reply to some who found in these 
 words an argument against the everlasting duration of the 
 punishment of the ungodly. These argued, that as men 
 sinned within limits of time, so within limits of time their 
 
 * Be Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 18. 
 
 t So, speaking of Dives and Lazarus, with reference to this verse, 
 he says, Serm. 367 : Pensantur .... pro purpura flamma, refectio 
 pro nuditate, ut salva sit aquitas stater ce. Cf. Be Civ. Bei, 1. 21. 
 c.ll. 
 
VER. 3 — 5.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 303 
 
 punisliment must be restrained, according to this phrase, 
 " With ichat measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you 
 again,'" and according to the general equity, which would 
 demand that the sin which was temporal should receive 
 punishment which was temporal as well. But their sin, 
 though accidentally confined within limits of time and 
 space, had its true seat and root in that which was ever- 
 lasting in them, in their will, in that latent eternity which 
 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. — In his excellent commentary on David's 
 
 * Ep. 102. qu. 4 : In eadem igitur mensura, quamvis non ater- 
 norum malefactorum, seterna supphcia remetiuntm-, ut quia seternani 
 voluit liaberi peccati perfruitionem, seternam viudictaj inveniat seve- 
 ritatem. See, too, his argument from the analogy of human 
 punishments. {Be Civ. Lei, 1. 21. c. 11.) The chapter is very 
 remarkable, as anticipating so much of Butler's argument, in the 
 chapter of The Analogy, " On the Government of God by Rewards 
 and Punishments." Among other things he says : Jam vero 
 damnum, ignominia, exsihum, servitus, cum plerumque sic infli- 
 gantur ut nulla venia relaxentur, nonne pro hujus vitse modo similia 
 poenis videntur seternis? Ideo quippe seterna esse non possunt, 
 quia nee ipsa vita quse his plectitur porrigitur in seternum : et tamen 
 peccata quae vindicantur longissimi temporis poenis, brevissimo 
 tempore perpetrantur, nee quispiam exstitit qui censeret tarn cito 
 nocentium finienda esse tormenta, quam cito factum est vel homi- 
 cidium, vel adulterium, vel sacrilegium, vel quidhbet aliud scelus, 
 non temporis longitudine, sed iniquitatis et impietatis magnitudine 
 metiendum. 
 
304 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 great penitential Psalm (the 51st, with him the 50th) 
 Augustine illustrates this forwardness to pull out the 
 mote from a brother's eye combined with ignorance con- 
 cerning the beam in our own, by the example of David; 
 who in the time of his own worst sin blazed up in a 
 righteous indignation, as he in his blindness deemed it, 
 against one whose offence was infinitesimally small as 
 compared with his own; and he justly traces up the 
 severity of the sentence which David pronounces against 
 the spoiler, not to the sense of righteousness which he still 
 possessed, but to his present blindness in regard of his own 
 transgression.* 
 
 As examples of what the Lord means by " the mote'''' 
 and " the beam,'' Augustine often instances anger and 
 hate; transient anger is a mote disturbing indeed, but 
 not destroying, the spiritual vision ; while hatred, which 
 is anger grown inveterate,t the mote now swollen into a 
 beam, I quite destroys that vision, causing a man to walk 
 altogether in darkness. § (1 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 would appear 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. L. 5. 
 
 t Be Serin. Dom. in 3Ion. 1. 2. c. 19 : Odium est ira inveterata. 
 
 :|: Serm. 82. c. 1 : Festuca initmm trabis est. Nam trabes quando 
 nascitur, prius festuca est. Rigando festucam, perducis ad trabem : 
 alendo iram mails suspicionibus, perducis ad odium. 
 
 § Serm. 56, {Appendix) : Cordis oculum festuca turbat, trabes 
 
 excajcat Per subitaneam iracundiam cordis oculus turbatur, 
 
 per odium lumen caritatis extinguitur. 
 
VER. 3 — 5.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 305 
 
 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 comprehensive 
 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' involving 
 absolute blindness, a total suspension of spiritual vision. 
 
 He is very earnest in warning us lest we should under- 
 stand this precept and prohibition — ^vhich in our cowardice 
 and sloth we might perhaps be tempted to do — as though 
 all fraternal correction and rebuke were declared to be out 
 of place. The warning is only directed against th^ re- 
 buking in a wrong spirit, without earnest endeavoui's at 
 self-amendment, without a recognition of our common 
 sinfulness,* without the remembrance that we also have 
 been "foolish, disobedient;" and thus rebuking, not in 
 the spirit of meekness and of love, but in that of arrogance 
 or scorn, or with an evil pleasui'e in the humiliation of a 
 brother. t So far from all Christian rebuke being here 
 
 * On tliis " Judge not" he asks, Serm, 387 : Ergo tacebimus et 
 neminem omnino corripiemus ? Corripiamus plane, sed prius nos. 
 Proximum vis compere : nihil est tibi te ipso propinquius. 
 
 t J)e Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 19 : See also much that is most 
 admirable on this matter of Christian rebuke, E.rp. Ep. ad Gal. 6. 1, 
 where among other things he says : Nunquam alieni peccati objur- 
 gandi suscipiendum est negocium, nisi cum internis interrogationibus 
 examinantes nostram conscientiam liquido nobis coram Deo respon- 
 derimus, dilectione nos facere. 
 
306 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 condemned, there is implicitly in the passage a command 
 to exercise this difficult grace,* oul}^ at the right time and 
 in the right temper ; " then'"' after we have in ourselves 
 sought the removal 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 €ye;''\ and it is not to love, but to 
 hate our brother,^ under the plea of charity to refrain 
 from the exercise of it, when it is needed. He observes 
 often with what sharp correction love will frequently be 
 armed, while indifference or hatred will either keep silence, 
 or else flatter and by their flattery strengthen and confirm 
 in evil.§ 
 
 Yer. 6. — xiugustine distinguishes between the 
 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 coiTupted, or, if in itself inviolable, as it may 
 
 * Exp. Ep. ad Gal. 6. 1: Nihil autem sic probat spiritalem virum, 
 quam peccati alieni tractatio, cum liberationem ejus potius quam 
 insultationem, potiusque auxilia quam convicia meditatur. 
 
 t Serm. 82. c. 2 : Lumen quod in te est, non te permittit neghgere 
 lumen fratris. 
 
 \ Serm. 82. c. 2 : Tua patientia, illius mors est. 
 
 ^ In\ Ep. Joh. Tract. 7 : Si qui forte viiltis servare caritatem, 
 
 fratres, ante omnia ne putetis abjectam et desidiosam Non 
 
 putes tunc te amare servum tuum, quando eum non csedis ; aut tunc 
 te amare filium tuum, quando ei non das disciplinam; aut tunc te 
 amare vicinum tuum, quando eum non coiTipis. Non est ista caritas, 
 sed languor. 
 
VER. G.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 307 
 
 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 to a careless con- 
 tempt.* 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 " sicine" 
 the more passive despisers ;t (the amica luto sus ;) some- 
 what, I suppose, as we have in the parable of the marriage 
 of the king's son, those that killed the king's messengers, 
 and those that w^ere content with despising the message. 
 (Matt. xxii. 5, 6.) And then he distributes the two out- 
 breaks of hostility, ascribing the contemptuous trampling 
 under foot to the swine, the tm-ning again and rending to 
 the dogs. I Yet I can hardly doubt but that this is an 
 erroneous distribution, and that they both belong to the 
 swine, so that there mio-ht well be a semicolon after " Give 
 
 * De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 20 : Sanctum ex eo quod non 
 debet corrumpi, margarita ex eo quod non debet contemni. 
 
 t De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 20 : Canes ergo pro oppugna- 
 toribus veritatis, porcos pro contemptoribus positos non incougrue 
 accipimus. And he assumes the same, 3narr. in Fs. ix. 15, where 
 of these two kinds of opposers he says : Qui malunt pertinaciter 
 latrare, quam studiose queerere, aut qui nee latrare nee quserere, sed 
 in suarum voluptatum cceno volutari. 
 
 :|: De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 2. 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 distribution ; 
 it is in itself most harsh, connecting the fii'st and fom'th clauses, the 
 second and the third, instead of the first and third, the second and 
 fourth. Certainly the connecting particle would not be Koi but f/, 
 were this the meaning. 
 
 x2 
 
308 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 not that which is holy unto the dogs ;''* for the treading 
 under foot is as little proper to these animals as the other 
 outbreak of enmity, the turning again and rending : while 
 this and that are alike the most graphic and exaetest de- 
 lineations 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.f 
 The warning in fact is this, You will at once expose the 
 truth to insult and yourselves to injury. J So that if we 
 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. (Ps. lxxx. 13 : "The wild boar out of 
 the wood doth root it out.") The first would be the 
 Helioojabalus, the second the Galerius.§ 
 
 * In Bishop Lloyd's New Testament there is a punctuation equi- 
 valent to this, but it is not common. 
 
 t The arpatphreg will express the quick sharp tur7i of the boar, 
 with which the wound is inflicted (Horace — Verres obliquum nieditans 
 ictum; Ovid — Ohliquo dente timendus aper) ; and the pr]^uj(n, 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 y For the swine's treading underfoot see Plautus, Trucul. 
 2. 2 IB. 
 
 % Serm. 77. c. 6 : Ne forte, &c , id est, post contemtum 
 
 margaritarum vestrarum etiam molesti siut vobis. 
 
 § This view derives an additional confirmation from an accurate 
 fixing of the meaning of to ityiov. 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 
 
VER. 7.] SERMON' ON THE MOUNT. 309 
 
 Yer. 7. — This, according to Augustine, is the connexion 
 between this verse and the preceding. Some one, hearing 
 these Lnst words, might be tempted to say in his heart, 
 " But what pearls have I, which I am even in danger of 
 losing, by casting them before the unw^orthy? I hardly 
 seem to have such for myself." In answer to this thought, 
 rising out of a sense of spiritual poverty, opportunely 
 follows a suggestion of the effectual w^ay whereby this 
 poverty may be removed : " Ask, and it shall be given 
 ■you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened 
 unto you''' (cf. Jam. i. 5.) In his Retractations he recalls 
 the distinction which in his exposition of this discourse 
 he had sought to draw between these three ; w^hich, being 
 withdraw^n, it -will be needless to examine ; and he recog- 
 nizes, in all three, exhortations to an instancy of earnest 
 
 TO. liyia, which no unclean person might eat; cf. Jer, xi. 15; Hagg. 
 ii. 12. It is not that the dogs would not eat it, for it would he welcome 
 to them ; hut that it would be a profanation to give it to them, thus 
 to make it a (ncvjSaXov. (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. liyia Tolg ayioig, which did not mean generally, holy things for 
 holy persons, but the holy flesh for the holy persons, for the king- 
 dom of priests; with allusion to those Levitical ordinances, now 
 transmuted and glorified, which 1 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 infinitely more precious, they have no 
 desire for. 
 
3J0 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VIT. 
 
 prayer.* He finds in ver. 11a proof that this is so ; 
 where " ask"" evidently stands for and represents not 
 merely itself, but the '' seek'^ and '' hiock'' as well. In 
 his popular homiletic use of these words he veiy fre- 
 quently brings into comparison the two parables of the 
 Unjust Judge, (Luke xviii. 1,) and the Friend at midnight. 
 (Luke xi. 5.)t 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 Scriptures, 
 (as John xiv. 13 ; xv. 16 ; x\d. 23; 1 John iii. 22,) the 
 saints do not always obtain their petitions, do not in- 
 variably " ask'' and " receive.'" For example, St. Paul 
 asked, and earnestly and often, for the removal of the 
 thorn in his flesh, whatever that may have been, and it 
 was not only not removed, but his petition expressly denied 
 him. (2 Cor. xii. 7 — 9.) Augustine takes up this very 
 example in proof that God's servants are always heard ; in 
 this very instance Paul was heard, not indeed to his pre- 
 sent desire, but to his lasting good, seeing that by that 
 temptation and through those buffetings of Satan he was 
 
 * L. 1. C.19 : Operose quidem tria ista quid inter se difTerant expo- 
 nendum putavi, sed longe mehus ad instantissimam petitionem omnia 
 referuntur. So Enarr. in Fs. cxviii. 48. 
 
 t Serm. 61. c. 4 : Ecce paterfamilias et magnus dives, divitiarum 
 scilicet spirituahum et seternarum, hortatur et dicit tibi, Pete, qusere, 
 pulsa. Hortatur ut petas, negabit quod petis ? Attende a contrai'io 
 simihtudinem. And he quotes Luke xviii. 1. Cf. .£^. 130. c. 8. 
 
VER. 8.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 311 
 
 to be perfected.* God dealt with liim as the faithful 
 physician deals with his patient, from whom he withdraws 
 not the knife and the cautery, notwithstanding his instant 
 cries ; he knows how far the wound reaches, and therefore 
 he will search it to the bottom, and so make a perfect cure : 
 he knows too that the patient will thank him for this in 
 the end, and thus he hears him for his lasting desire, 
 wdiich is health ; not for his momentaiy wish, which is 
 release from present pain. It is thus that God hears his 
 servants for the lasting desire of their souls, which is 
 holiness; not for the immediate, which may be ease.t 
 Augustine brings out, moreover, the other side of this 
 
 * Inl Ejp. Joh. Trad. 6 : Deus etsi voluntati nostiEe non dat, 
 saluti dat. 
 
 t Serm. 286. c. 6 : Ne contristemini quando petitis et non acci- 
 jiitis, et arbitremini quod ante oculos vos non habeat Deus, si ad 
 tempus non exaudiat voluntatem vestram. Non enim semper aegrum 
 exaudit medicus ad voluntatem, quamvis ejus sine dubio procuret 
 atque appetat sanitatem. Non dat, quod petit ; sed quod non petit, 
 hoc procurat. Petit frigidam, non dat. Crudelis factus est, qui 
 venit sanare ? Artis est, non crudelitatis. Non dat ad lioram quod 
 delectat: ut sanus possit omnia, nondum sano negantur aliqua. 
 hi 1 Ep. Joh. Tract. 6 : [Deus] secare vult, urere vult. Tu si 
 clamas et non exaudiris, in sectione, in ustione, et tribulatione, novit 
 iUe quousque putre est. Tu jam vis revocet manus, et ille vulneris 
 sinum attendit ; scit quousque perveniat : non te exaudit ad voluntatem, 
 sed exaudit ad sanitatem. Cf. Serm. 354. c. 7 : Petit seger ut quod 
 ad salutem apponit medicus, cum voluerit segrotus, auferatur. Medicus 
 dicit, Non : mordet, sed sanat. Tu dicis, Tolle quod raordet. Medicus 
 dicit, Non tollo, quia sanat. Tu ad medicum quare veuisti ? Sanaii, 
 an molestiam non pati ? Non ergo exaudivit Dominus Paulum ad 
 voluntatem, quia exaudivit ad sanitatem. Cf. Enarr. in Ps. cxxx. 1 ; 
 Enarr. 2"* in Ps. xc. § 6. 
 
312 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 truth — that a petition may be granted in anger, as was 
 that of the devils, when they were allowed to enter into 
 the swine, as they sought, 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,) who, desiring to tempt 
 Job, was permitted to do so, for Job's greater approval 
 and for the aggravation of his own confusion ; as that of 
 the Israelites, who petulantly asked for quails, and then 
 perished, while the meat was yet in their mouths. (Ps. 
 Lxxviii. 29 — 81.)* 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 contemplated. There is a beautiful passage in his 
 Confessions, where, concerning some prayers of his mother 
 Monica's, he says, God gave heed to the hinge of her 
 desire, though He did not yield her the boon exactly by the 
 means through which she sought it. Her desii'e and her 
 earnest prayer was that her son might not sail for Italy, 
 so did she dread for him the dangers and temptations 
 which he would encounter at Rome : he sailed not- 
 withstanding, and it was there at length that he found 
 Christ.f 
 
 * Enarr. 2» in Ps. xxvi. 4 : Vere felix est non qui id habeat quod 
 amat, sed qui id amet quod amandum est. Multi enim miseri magis 
 habendo quod amant, quam careudo. Amando enim res noxias 
 miseri, babendo sunt miseriores. Et propitius Deus, quum male 
 amamus, negat quod amamus ; iratus autem dat amanti quod male 
 amat. 
 
 t Conf. 1. 5. c. 15 : Quid a te petebat, Deus mens, tantis lacrimis, 
 nisi ut navigare me non sineres ? Sed tu alte consulens, et exaudiens 
 
VER. 9, 10.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 313 
 
 Ver. 9, 10. — The very ingenious allegories which 
 Augustine discovers in the " bread" and the " stone,'" the 
 ''jisli' and the " serpent'' and not less in the ^^% and the 
 scorpion, which St. Luke, (xi. 12,) but not our evangelist, 
 has recorded, may be seen by any who will follow up the 
 references given below.* For myself, I cannot believe that 
 *^ bread" and '\fisJi' are selected for any other reason 
 than as the most familiar objects of an wholesome nourish- 
 ment which a father would give to his childi'en : the 
 allusions indeed are drawn from the daily life of Galilsean 
 fishermen, (Mark viii. 6, 7 ; John xxi. 9,) such as many of 
 Christ's hearers were ; and in each case the antithesis rests 
 on a felt resemblance between what is asked, and what 
 might be given in its stead: " a stone" has some likeness to 
 '■'bread," '' a senyent" to ''■a fish" and a scorpion, when 
 coiled up, to an tg^. Such allegories as Augustine here 
 proposes should pass for what they are worth, as the 
 harmless, oftentimes edifying and graceful, plays and 
 scintillations of a religious fancy ;f frequently meant for 
 
 cardinein desiderii ejus, non curasti quod tunc petebat, ut in me 
 faceres quod semper petebat. We may compare Serm. 80 : Qualis 
 est apud te filius tuus nesciens res bumanas, talis es et tu apud 
 Domiuum, nesciens res divinas. Ecce ante te filius tuus tota die 
 plorans, ut des illi cultrum, id est gladium : negas te dare, non 
 das, contemnis fientem, ne plangas morientem. Floret, affligat se, 
 collidat se, ut leves eum in equum : non facis, quia non potest eum 
 regere; elidet et occidet ilium. Cui negas partem, totum illi servas. 
 Sed ut crescat, et totum possideat secure, non das iUi modicum 
 periculosum. 
 
 * Ej). 130. c. 8; Quasi. Evang. 1. 2. c. 22. 
 
 t Tbis was Augustine's own feehng about them, however some- 
 
814 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 no more by those wlio offered them; but which assume a 
 ver}^ different aspect, when they are by others fixed and 
 liardened into permanent expositions of Scripture truth : 
 then they often degenerate into an unworthy trifling with 
 the word of God. 
 
 Ver. 11. — Those who are addressed here as " being evil" 
 are the veiy same, Augustine observes, into whose mouths 
 but now the Lord has put that word, " Ou?- Father ;"* to 
 whom He has made the promise, " ^sk, and it shall be 
 given you .•" so that every faithful man has a double aspect 
 — he is " eviV 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. 1 7,) the 
 good in Himself, and altogether good, while others are 
 good through Him, and only as they are sharers in his 
 life.f He has thus seized the full force of this " being 
 
 times he may lay on them a greater weight than they can well bear, 
 and play with them overmuch. Thus In Rom. Inchoat. Exp. § 13, 
 having fallen on one of these correspondencies between things natural 
 and things spiritual, and followed it up a little, he checks himself with 
 this observation : Sed hsec verborum consonantia, sive provenerit sive 
 provisa sit, non pugnaciter agendum est ut ei quisque consentiat, sed 
 quantum interpretantis elegantiam hilaritas audientis admittit. 
 
 * ^. 153. c. 5 : Num igitur Deus Pater malorum est? Absit. 
 Quomodo dicitur, Pater vester coelestis, quibus dicitur, Cum sitis 
 mail : nisi quia ntrumque Veritas monstrat, quid simus Dei bono, 
 quid humano vitio, hoc commendans, illud emendans ? Cf. Serm. 90 : 
 Pater ergo malorum, sed non relinquendorum, quia medicus sanan- 
 dorum. 
 
 t Con. duas Ep. Pelag. 1. 3. c. 3 : Inde mali, unde adhuc filii 
 ScTculi, jam tamen filii Dei facti piguort Spiritus Sancti. 
 
VER. 11.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 315 
 
 rr/Z," wliicli they fail to catch* who take the epithet 
 " evil,"' not as the designation of all men, of human nature 
 in general, (Gen. viii. 21,) as it is opposed to the good- 
 ness and holiness of God, but of some particular men 
 sunken deeper in corruption than the rest ; as if Christ 
 would say, Even the worst among you (even the " evil,")f 
 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, 
 which embraces the whole race of men under this charge 
 of " behiff evil;" (so that this perhaps is the strongest, or 
 one of the strongest, testimonies for original sin which all 
 Scriptm-e contains ;) and yet, being such, you have still 
 natural affections, the yearnings of a parent's heart toward 
 your children, and, according to your ability and know- 
 ledge, impart unto them '"good gifts,'" gifts, which if not 
 in the highest sense ''good'' are yet good for the neces- 
 sities of this present life. How much more certainly will 
 an Heavenly Father impart to his children the true 
 goods of his kingdom ; for it is those that the Lord has 
 prominently in his eye, as is evident from a comparison 
 with the parallel passage in St, Luke, (xi. 13,) where in- 
 
 * Even he himself at times, as Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1, 2. c. 21: 
 Malos appellat dilectores adhuc seculi hujus et peccatores. 
 
 t This will come more clearly out, if we note how rig t^ vjxiov 
 avOptJirog, (ver. 9,) is not pleonastic, as we make it, " JFkat man of 
 you,;' but there is a silent opposition between the civQ^m-koc, here 
 and the nar/)p 6 Iv rolq ovpavoXg of ver. 11; "Who of you, though 
 he he hut a man, &c.;" and then the being but a man will plainly 
 appear as equal to Trovijpdg wv. 
 
316 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 stead of ^^ good things^" it is his " Holy Spii'it" which is 
 promised to them that ask it.* As He will not deny his 
 childi-en, altogether withholding 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 argu- 
 ment as finds place in the parable of the Unjust Judge, 
 an argument from the worse to the better. 
 
 Ver. 12. — Some will perhaps remember in Gibbon's 
 Memoirs his sneer concerning this precept, that, extolled 
 as it was, he had read the same in a work written four 
 hundred years before Christ announced it in the Gospel, in 
 proof of which he adduces 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 suJffer from them, a rule marvellously 
 distant from Christ's law of an active love. But Augus- 
 tine, so far from being afraid of the charge that the pre- 
 cepts of the Gospel are old, or that others said them before 
 Christ, makes it the glory of the written and spoken law, 
 that it is the transcript of that which was from the first, 
 and not merely as old as this man or that, but as the 
 
 * Unarr. in Ps. cxviii. 48: AHus porro Evangelista non ait, 
 Dabit bona petentibus se, quae multipliciter possuut iutelligi, vel 
 corporalia vel spiritalia ; sed circumcidit inde alia, satisque diligenter 
 expressit quid nos vebementer atque instanter voluerit poscere Domi- 
 nus, et ait, Uuauto magis Pater vester dabit Spiritum bouum peten- 
 tibus se ? 
 
VER. 12.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 317 
 
 creation itself, a reproduction of the dimmed and obscm-ed 
 law written at the beginning 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 antici- 
 pated Christ,* they had only deciphered some fragment of 
 that law, which He gave from the first ; and which when 
 men, fugitives from themselves and from the knowledge of 
 theii' own hearts, had lost the power of reading, He came 
 in the flesh to read to them anew,t and to bring out its 
 well nigh obliterated characters afresh. 
 
 He notes that in the Latin copies it was not "All 
 things,'' but " All good tilings whatsoever ye would that 
 men should do to you, do ye even so to them.'' But he 
 rejects this ''good" as clearly an interpolation, not being 
 found in any Greek MSS.; and he thus explains the manner 
 in which it probably found its way into the text. It had 
 occurred to some one reading these words : But what if 
 a man should desire sinful things of another, as to be in- 
 vited ot him to a drunken revel, and should proceed him- 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. cxl. 6 : Dixit hoc Pythagoras, dixit hoc Plato. 
 .... Propterea si inventus fuerit ahquis eorum hoc dixisse quod 
 dixit et Christus, gratulamur iUi, non sequimur ilium. Sed prior fuit 
 ille quam Christus? Si quis vera loquitui-, prior est quam ipsa 
 Veritas ? homo, attende Christum, non quando ad te venerit, sed 
 quando te fecerit. 
 
 t Enarr. in Ps. Lvii. 2 : 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 
 iatro revocaris. 
 
318 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VIT. 
 
 self 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 to the reader or transcriber seemed to be involved 
 in the words, he guarded this " All things" by making it 
 rather, '' All good tilings.'''^ Augustine, however, shows 
 that there is really no such difficulty here ; for we do not 
 will other than good things ; w^e desire bad things. f It is 
 true, that " to will" may be sometimes used in a laxer 
 and in the lower sense ; but this does not hinder, where 
 need is, the taking of it in the stricter, in w^hich here it is 
 to be accepted. — " This is the law and the projjhets,'' not, 
 
 * Be Civ. Dei, 1. 14. c. 8 : Cavendum enirri putaverunt, ne quis- 
 quam inhonesta velit sibi fieri ab hominibus, ut de turpioribus 
 taceam, certe luxm-iosa convivia in quibus se, si et ipse illis facial 
 similia, hoc prseceptum existimet impleturum. Cf. Be Serm, Bom. 
 in Mon. 1. 2. c. 22. 
 
 t Be Serm. Bom. in Hon. 1. 2. c. 22 : Id enim quod dictum est, 
 Qusecunque vultis, non usitate ac passim, sed propria dictum accipi 
 oportet. Voluntas namque non est nisi in bonis. Nam in malis 
 flagitiosisque factis, cupiditas propria dicitur, non voluntas. Cf. Be 
 Civ. Bei, 1. 14. c. 8. To the unregenerate belongs indeed the 
 liberum arhitrium, 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 may 
 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. TertuUian's method of guarding this passage from abuse 
 {Adv. Marc. 1. 4. c. 16,) appears at first sight different, yet essentially 
 agrees with Augustine's. 
 
VER. 13, 14.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 319 
 
 " All the law and the prophets," as Christ expressed him- 
 self 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 the 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 excellent obser- 
 vations. What is it, he asks, which makes this gate so 
 strait to us and this way so narrow ? It is not so much 
 that it is " straif 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 hindrances 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 and drinking of the cup, wholesome 
 though it may be distasteful, of humility ; by listening to 
 and learning of Him, who having said, " Enter ye in at 
 the strait gate,'" to them who enquire, " How shall we 
 enter in ?" says also, "By Me;" "I am the Way;" "I 
 am the o-ate."* 
 
 &"• 
 
 * Serm. 142. c. 5 : Clamat ille qui factus est Via ; Intrate per 
 angustani portam. Conatur ingredi, impedit tumor : et tanto magis 
 perniciose conatur, quanto magis impedit tumor. Tumidum autem 
 vexat angustia, vexatus autem amplius tumebit. Amplius tumens 
 
 quando intrabit ? Ergo detumescat Accipiat humilitatis 
 
 medicameutum, bibat contra tumorem poculum amarum sed sahibre, 
 bibat poculum humihtatis. Quid se arctat ? Non sinit moles, non 
 
320 EXPOSITION or the [ST. matt. VII. 
 
 We may here adduce an example of the rich symbolic 
 significance which of old men loved to trace in many of 
 the ways and works of the lower creation : most, it is 
 true, of these ha\dng been found by us and with our more 
 accurate knowledge to be mythical, yet which may still in 
 their higher application survive for us. Thus Augustine, 
 with reference to this passage, alludes to the artifice by 
 which the serpent is 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 
 freshness 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 exuvia of the old man.* 
 
 magna, sed tumida. Magnitude enim soliditatem habet, tumor 
 inflationem. 
 
 * Enarr, in Ps. imi. 5 : Et quomodo exuo, inquis, veterem homi- 
 nem? Imitare astutiam serpentis. Quid enim facit serpens, ut 
 exuat se veterem tunicam ? Coarctat se per foramen angustum. Et 
 ubi, inquis, invenio hoc foramen angustum ? Audi. Arcta et angusta 
 
 est via qua? 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. 64. c. 2 ; De Loot. Christ. 1. 2. 
 c. 16; QucBst. 17. in Matt. qu. 8. Augustine is very fond of these 
 adaptations from the natural history, or oftener from the natural 
 mythology, of animals ; makes frequent allusion to cm-ious legends 
 about them, which are valuable to him in that he finds in them the 
 reflexes of spiritual truths ; as here of the mystery of the regene- 
 ration. Thus he alludes to the story of the pelican killing its 
 young, and then wounding its own bosom, and revivifying them on 
 
VER. 13, 14.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 321 
 
 And if processes like these be painful, yet still remember the 
 present time is the time of cure, not of enjoyment.* — And 
 on the " many' and the ''feio,"" Be not led away, he says, 
 
 the third day with the blood from thence : even so is there one who 
 says " I kill and I make alive." {Enarr. in Ps. ci. $ 8.) A part of 
 the wisdom of the serpent which the faithfol shall imitate is this, 
 that when threatened it offers its body to the assailant, but at all 
 hazards protects its head. Christ is every man's head : let the 
 persecutor wound thee anywhere, in thy goods, in thy person, but 
 not in thy faith ; not in Him. {Enarr. in Ps. Lvii. § 10 ; Serm. 64. 
 c. 2.) " Bear ye one another's burdens" he illustrates by this legend 
 of a custom among stags (Efiarr. in Ps. cxxix. § 4) : Dicuntur cervi 
 quando transeunt in proximas insulas pascuse gratia, capita super se 
 invicem ponere ; et unus qui ante est solus portat caput, et non 
 ponit super alteram : sed cum et ipse defecerit, tollit se ab anteriore 
 parte, et redit posterius ut et ipse in altero requiescat : et sic portant 
 omnes onera sua, et perveniunt ad quod desideraut ; et non patiuntur 
 naufragium, quia quasi uavis est illis caritas. Cf. Enarr. in Ps. xli. 
 § 4. I have somewhere read of the same device ascribed to cranes 
 in their long flights. For other properties of the stag see Enarr. in 
 Ps. xli. § 3. The fact that the hen droops and sickens, loses all the 
 freshness and brightness of her plumage while she is nm*sing her 
 young, reminds him often of Him who in the days of his flesh wept 
 over Jerusalem, whose childi-enHe would fain have gathered together, 
 even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and they would 
 not. (Matt, xxiii. 37.) Thus Enarr. 1^ in Ps. Lviii. § 10 : Infir- 
 matus est usque ad mortem, et assumsit infirmitatis carnem, ut pullos 
 Jerusalem colligeret sub alas suas, tanquam galliua infirmata cum par- 
 vulis. Certe notam rem dico, quae in conspectu nostro quotidie versatur : 
 quomodo raucescit vox,quomodo fit hispidum totum corpus ? deponuntur 
 alse, laxantur pluraee, et vides circa pullos nescio quid segrotum, et ea 
 est materna caritas quae invenitur infirmitas. Cf. Enarr. 1* in Ps. 
 xc. § 5 ; Serm. 105. § 8. But that this note has grown already too long, 
 I might quote a singular legend of the manner in which he supposes 
 the eagle to renew its youth. (Ps. ciii. 5.) Enarr. in Ps. cii. $ 9. 
 * Serm. 87. c. 11 : Sanitatis tempus est, non voluptatis. 
 Y 
 
322 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 by the numbers of those, nor abashed by the fewness of 
 these ; for when thou comparest, do not number, but weigh 
 them ; and in a just balance note how few grains are 
 enough to overbalance whole armsful of chaff.* 
 
 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 few- 
 ness,f as though it marked them especially as the " little 
 Uocy^ to whom the kingdom was given, sliould snatch at 
 these words, and boast that they were the finders of, and 
 leaders in, the way. Therefore follows immediately the 
 caution, '■'■Beware of false prophets.^' This is the con- 
 nexion which Augustine gives : but concerning the ''good 
 fruit,'' the not having of wliich, and the having the con- 
 trary 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, prayer, fasting, alms, which have 
 been mentioned before. Tor such 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, but rather their evil contraries, he explains by a 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. cccix. 4 : Noli numerare, sed appende : stateram 
 affer sequam Vide contra pauca grana quaatam paleam leves. 
 
 t Be Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 23 : Hseretici, qui se plerumque 
 paucitate commendant. 
 
VER. 15—20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 323 
 
 reference to Gal. v. 19, and to the "fruit of the Spirit" 
 enumerated there :* not that there may not, be in bad 
 men imitations also of these, but the simple eye will 
 most often detect them ; and this is the explanation of 
 all which, before these cautions are given, has been said 
 concerning the keeping of the eye single, since the 
 single eye will alone be able to profit by them.t This is 
 not the usual explanation of the early Church, but the 
 ''fruits'' which shall declare the true character of these 
 deceitful workers, are generally taken as the false doc- 
 trines by the bringing forward of which, false teachers, 
 who may wear an appearance of outward sanctity, shall 
 sooner or later be detected. Yet any satisfying explana- 
 tion 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, and as really the 
 outgrowth of the inner 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 nature, this 
 the Lord illustrates and sets forth by the example of 
 trees, which must bear after their kind. Yet here Augus- 
 tine notes how the error of the Manicheeans is carefully 
 to be guarded against. They, while they arbitrarily re- 
 jected so much of Christ's teaching, made much of the 
 
 * So Enarr. in Ps. cxlix. 1 : Non enim fructus ostenditur nisi in 
 
 factis Quserimus fructus caritatis, invenimus spinas dissen- 
 
 tionis. Ex fructibus eorum cognoscetis eos. 
 
 t DeSerm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 24. 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VTI. 
 
 Sermon on the Mount, calling it the " divine discourse,"* 
 mainly on account of these verses 17 and 18, in which 
 they professed to find a support for their system of two 
 original principlest — one good, from which good pro- 
 ceeded, and one evil, from which evil ; and of two races of 
 men, having 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 
 interpretation ; that only when forcibly rent away from the 
 context, can the w^ords even semblably give support to such 
 a doctrine. There is no assertion here of a Manichsean 
 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 be 
 good. I To support the other view, as he acutely observes, 
 
 * See the words of Faiistus in Augustine's work, Con. Faust. 
 1. 32. c. 7 : Credimus .... cunctum Sermonem deificum, qui 
 maxime duarum prseferens naturarum discretiouem, ipsius esse non 
 venit in dubium. 
 
 t De Serm. Bom. in Mon. 1. 2. 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 : Mala ergo arbor fructus bonos facere 
 non potest ; sed ex mala fieri bona potest, ut bonos fructus ferat. 
 And again, Muta cor et mutabitiu- opus. Cf. De Act. c. Tel. Manich. 
 1. 2. c. 2, 4 ; Con. Fortunat. Bisput. 2. He is scarcely correct, 
 however, when he explains " 3Iake 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 corrupt •" since no such admo- 
 
VER. 15 — 20.] SERMON ON THE M'^UNT. 325 
 
 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 difference in men, as they are natural or regenerate, 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 nature 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 wild olive, 
 having become such at his fall ; the second Adam, the 
 head of the restored race, is the good olive, in whom 
 are laid up the possibilities of renewal for all. 
 
 But Augustine, as he had, on the one side, to deny, 
 
 nition could have come from the Hps of Christ. But " Make" here 
 rather answers to our English, Suppose : Grant or suppose a corrupt 
 tree, give me such hy way of argument, and I say the fruit will 
 be corrupt also. He often himself uses Fac, and Pone, in this 
 same sense. 
 
 * Augustine is very earnest and very strong on this, of evil having 
 no independent subsistence, but being only a degeneration of good ; 
 so that in one place where he deals with this matter at large, he can 
 say {EncJiir. de Fide, Spe, et Car. c. 12. 13) : Quid est malus homo, 
 nisi malum bonum ? 
 
326 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 against tte Manicliaeaiis, 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 
 which therefore could not bring forth good frait, — so also 
 had he, on the other side, to deny, against the Pelagians, 
 that the degenerate tree was capable of restoring itself, 
 and bringing forth good fruit, by its own unaided power :* 
 and as he had to rescue this verse from Manichaean abuses, 
 so it furnished him with weapons against the shallow 
 Pelagian scheme which would regard 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 ;t 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 statement of Pelagius {Be Grat. Christi, 1. 1. c. 18) is so 
 exactly tliat of a Pelagian world now and at all times, that it is worth 
 quoting: Habemus autem possibilitatem utriusque partis a Deo 
 insitam, velut quamdam, ut ita dicam, radicem fruetiferam atque 
 foecundam, quse ex voluntate hominis diversa gignat et pariat, et 
 quse possit ad proprii cultoris arbitrium vel nitere flore virtutum, 
 vel sentibus borrere vitiorum. It is at once evident that this theory 
 of human nature is at the bottom of all our modern schemes of 
 education, which proceed on the plan of cultivating the old stock, 
 rather than the being engrafted on a new. 
 
 t 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 fuU of interest. 
 
VER. 15 — 20.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 327 
 
 the splendid deeds of heathens and unbaptized men, — 
 with the chastity of Scipio, the fortitude of Regulus, the 
 incorruptibility of Pabricius : 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 ? w^as the tree good ? for if not, He who is himself 
 the Truth had declared that the fruit could not be good. 
 We may feel 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 whoUy 
 false, only more splendid sins, as he keenly calls them ; 
 but rather to have replied, that these also were of faith ; 
 that w^herever there was a deed wrought any where or by 
 any man lofty or pure or true, that also was of Us inspira- 
 tion from w^hom all good things do come, and who left not 
 Himself any where without a witness. Yet, however we 
 may thus feel that the " faith without which it is impos- 
 sible 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 founda- 
 tion 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 
 
 * One of the chiefest obligations of Ckristian 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 
 morality, — I mean a morality which acknowledges such questions as 
 
328 EXPOSITION or the [st. matt. vii. 
 
 in relation with God wlio can do righteous acts ; or in 
 forms of speech whicli this Scripture 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 a better life than 
 its own.* 
 
 Ver. 21, 32. — 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 ?t But he easily sets the two 
 passages at one, showing how the " saymg that Jesus is 
 the Lord," is there to be accepted in its highest sense ; it 
 is the saying which is the genuine out-coming and expres- 
 sion 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 the 
 faithful utterance of that which is within him, he now 
 
 this, which I take from a Romish book of casuistry lately published 
 in. Italy: "How many scudi must a man steal to constitute a 
 mortal sin?" What morality can exist in a land, where the light 
 has become such darkness as this ? 
 
 * The largest use of this passage, in its bearing on the Pelagian 
 controversy, is to be found in his treatise Con. Julian. 1. 4. c. 3. 
 
 t The apparent opposition comes out in the double dicit of the 
 Latin, (here, Non omnis qui dicit mihi Domine, and there. Nemo 
 potest dicere Dominus Jesus,) more than either in the Greek or 
 English, which both have different words in the two places. 
 
VER. 21, 22.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 829 
 
 oftentimes speaking more or less differently from that 
 which he actually thinks or feels. But such is not pro- 
 perly speech at all.* And in this highest sense of saying, 
 in which the saying is the expression of the being, no man 
 mys *' that Jesus is the Lord 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 afiSi-ms ;f while our 
 Lord, using the words as men are commonly wont to use 
 them, who do not deny even to falsehoods the title of 
 speech, affirms there will be some who will have mid^ 
 " Lord, Lord,''' but out of no true heart. Elsewhere 
 Augustine uses the same important distinction for the 
 purpose of dehvering our Saviour's declaration, " Who- 
 soever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be 
 forgiven him," (Matt. xii. 32,) from shallow, and yet mis- 
 chievous, interpretations, J as though any mere words 
 
 * De Serm. Bom. in 3fon. 1. 2. c. 25 : Videtiir enim dicere etiam 
 ille qui nee vult nee intelligit quod dicit : sed ille proprie dicit, qui 
 voluntatem ae nientem suara sono voeis enuntiat. 
 
 t Exaetly 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. 
 
 \ Exp. Ep. ad Rom. : Verbum enim dicere non ita videtur hie 
 positum, ut tantummodo 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 Ev. Joh. Tract. 26) : De radice 
 cordis sm-git ista confessio. Aliquando audis confitentem, et nescis 
 credentem. Sed nee debes vocare confitentem, quern judicas non 
 '^redentem .... Si aliud in corde habes, aliud dicis ; loqueris, non 
 confiteris. Here, it wUl be noted, he makes " confess" to be the 
 pregnant word. 
 
330 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 whatsoever could be meant, — even sucli as a man in tlie 
 wildest and guiltiest moments of his blasphemy might 
 have spoken; as though any thing could be here intended 
 short of the entire and final alienation of the heart and 
 will and life from every thing divine, the contradiction of 
 the whole man to all of God's which testifies of grace and 
 mercy and tnith and holiness ; a sin which therefore, in 
 its very nature, has excluded its own forgiveness.* 
 
 Will these who say, " Have we not prophesied in thy 
 Name, and in thy Name have cast out devils ?'' in this 
 be speaking truly, or will this word be another untruth 
 added to all that have gone before in their lives ? Some, 
 Augustine replies, might be tempted to understand it in 
 the latter sense, as that in this also they are liars, from 
 finding a difficulty in attributing the actual performance 
 of miracles or wonderful works to ungodly men, to any 
 who should at last hear that terrible '' Depart from me,'' 
 from the lips of the Saviom*. But to dissolve this objec- 
 tion, he refers to the case of the Egyptian magicians, to 
 those of Sault and of Balaam, and to the Lord's own 
 words concerning the false prophets of the latter days. J 
 
 * Exp. Ep, ad Rom. -. Qui hoc verbum, quod sine venia vult 
 intelligi Dominus, in Spiritum Sanctum (licit, hoc est, qui desperans 
 de gratia et pace quam donat, in peccatis suis perseverandum sibi esse 
 dicit, dicere intelligendus in factis. 
 
 t Enarr. in Ps. ciii. 3. 
 
 \ Ad SimpUcianum, 1. 2. qu. 1 : Non enim eos mentientes putamus 
 ista dicturos in illo judicio, ubi nullus erit faUendi locus, aut 
 uUam vocem taUum legimus, dicentium, Dileximus te. Cf. Serm. 
 138. c. 3. 
 
VER. 21, 22.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 331 
 
 (Matt. xxiv. 24.) All these were really partakers of a 
 spiritual 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 ; (Heb. xii. 14 ;) while without them we may well have 
 a place in the kingdom. Not the gifts which they had 
 in common but with a few, not that the devils were sub- 
 ject to them, was the true matter of exultation for the 
 disciples; but rather, as theii- Lord reminded them, that 
 which they had in common with all believers, namely, 
 that their names were written in heaven.* (Luke x. 
 17 — 30.) And he has many warnings drawn from the 
 declaration here,t 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 Kttle finger which is sound, than an eye 
 which is bleared and winking ; J though one be a member 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. cxxx. 1 : Non omnes Christiani boni dsemones 
 ejiciuut, omnium tamen nomina scripta sunt in coelo. Non eos voluit 
 gaudere ex eo quod proprium habebant, sed ex eo quod cum cseteris 
 salutem tenebant. Cf. Serm. 143. c. 7. 
 
 t Eyiarr. in Ps. ciii. 3 : Videant qnalem 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 quaerat quisque in corpore 
 Christi nisi sanitatem. 
 
332 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 of such little esteem, tlie other the noblest in the 
 body. 
 
 Ver. 23. — The Lord's answer, "/ never knew you^^ is 
 here to be accepted according to that deeper meaning of 
 knowing^ which, as Augustine tiiily 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, " / never knew you^' is but another way 
 of saying. Ye never knew me. Not to be known of 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,t wherein every thing that is fearful is 
 contained. And he often brings out that the terribleness 
 of that ^^ Depart from me'' presents itself unto men under 
 
 * Enarr. in Ps. cxli. 4 : Non novi vos. Non inde gaudeant et 
 dicant, Non pimiemur, quia non noAdt nos Judex. Jam puniti sunt, 
 si eos non novit Judex. 
 
 t Enarr. in Ps. xlix. 3 : Si enim possemus facere, fratres, ut dies 
 judicii non veniret, puto quia nee sic erat male vivendum. Si non 
 veniret ignis die judicii, et sola peccatoribus immineret separatio a 
 facie Dei, in qualibet essent affluentia deliciarum, non videntes a quo 
 creati sunt, et separati ab ilia dulcedine ineffabilis vultus ejus, in 
 qualibet seternitate et impunitate peccati, plangere se deberent. Sed 
 quid loquar, aut quibus loquar? Hsec amantibus poena est, non con- 
 temnentibus. Q,ui dulcedinem sapientise et veritatis utcunque sentire 
 ccEperunt, noverunt quod dico, quanta poena sit tantummodo a facie 
 Dei separari : qui autem illam dulcedinem non gustaverunt, si nondum 
 desiderant Dei faciem, timeant vel ignem ; supplicia terreant, quern 
 preemia non invitant. Cf. Enarr, 2a in Ps, xxvi. 9. 
 
VER. 23.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 333 
 
 very different aspects, as they are or are not tlie 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 dreadful 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 dreadfid, not for this exclusion, but only 
 for the after pains and penalties which they involve : and 
 if hindered from sinning, it is not the fear of displeasing 
 that Lord, and of being bidden to depart from Him, that 
 hinders them ; 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, of this separation from his presence, but the dread of 
 what in his anger he could do to them, restrains them.-j- 
 
 * Gratis amans, non puniri timens ab eo quern tremit, sed separari 
 ah eo quern diligit. 
 
 t He has an instructive 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; edich fearing her husband. 
 Et quomodo discernuntur duo ista timores ? Timet ilia, timet et ilia ; 
 .... Jam ergo interrogentur, Quare ? lUa dicit, Timeo virum, ne 
 veniat: ilia dicit, Timeo virum, ne discedat. lUa dicit, Timeo ne 
 damner : iUa dicit, Timeo, ne deserar. Yet the servile fear has its 
 subordinate value ; it may be keeping a place and making room for 
 tbe boly 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. 
 
334 EXPOSITION OF THE [ST. MATT. VII. 
 
 And he often presses eacli 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. 34 — 29. — There is a solemn awfulness in this 
 conclusion, wliich Augustine bids us specially to note; 
 urging that 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. f 
 For in each case there is a wilHngness to hear the word, a 
 certain good will therefore towards the truth. But only 
 in one way does that which is heard win a stable founda- 
 tion in the soul, that is, through being turned into action : 
 " TFJwsoever lieai'eth these sayings of mine, and doetJi 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 the " rock ;'' that man builds on the rock, who 
 does the things which he hears and learns of Christ. 
 Augustine distinguishes, 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 in- 
 securely, what will it be not to have built at all ? Some 
 indeed might say. Better not to build at all, if such is the 
 
 * Serm. 178. c. 10. 
 
 f Ep. 127. c. 7 : Dominus enim Jesus non ab lis qui non audiunt, 
 sed eos inter se auditores verborum suorum, latissimo limite non tenui 
 distinctione discrevit. 
 
VER. 24 — 29.] SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 335 
 
 doom of building insecurely. But will it be a 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 only prudent 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. 179. c. 9 : Venit pluvia, veniunt flumina. Nunquid ideo 
 tutus, quia raperis nudus ? Enarr. in Fs. cii. 21 : Audire et non 
 facere, in arena sedificare est ; audire et facere, in petra sedificare est ; 
 nee audire, nee facere nihil sedificare est. Si in arena sedificas, 
 ruinam sedificas : si nihU sedificas, expositus pluviis, fluminibus, ventis, 
 ante rapieris quam steteris. Ergo non est cessandum, sed sedifican- 
 dum ; nee sic sedificandum, ut ruina sedificetur ; sed in petra aedifi- 
 candum, ut tentatio non evertat. — On the concluding words of St. 
 Matthew, wdth which he sums up the impression which this discourse 
 made on the assembled multitude : " He taught them as one having 
 authority, and not as the Scribes," see what Augustine says, Enarr. 
 n Fs. xciii. § 8. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PHTNTERS, 
 
 CHANDOS STREET. 
 
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 John W. Parker, West Strand. 
 
 By Eichard Chenevix Trench, B.D. 
 
 Examining Cha'plain to the Lord Bishop of Oxford. 
 
 Notes on the Parables. Fourth Edition. Octavo. 
 12*. 
 
 Notes on the Miracles. Third Edition. Octavo. 
 Star of the Wise Men; a Commentary on the Second 
 
 Chapter of St. Matthew. 3*. 
 
 Sacred Latin Poetry : selected and arranged for 
 
 Use. With Notes and Introduction. 7-y. ; or 14*. bound in 
 antique calf. 
 
 The Fitness of Holy Scripture for Unfolding the 
 
 Spiritual Life of Men— Christ the Desire of all Nations : being 
 the Hulsean Lectures for 1845 and 1846. New Edition. In 
 One Volume. Octavo. 7*. 6^?. 
 
 St. Augustine's Exposition of the Sermon on the 
 
 Mount. Second Edition. With an Introductory Essay on the 
 Merits of St. Augustine as an Interpreter of Scripluie. 
 
 Elegiac Poems. Second Edition. 25. ^d. 
 Justin Martyr, and other Poems. Third Edition. 
 
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS 
 
 By Kichard Whately, D.D. 
 
 Archbishop of Dublin. 
 
 The Kingdom of Christ. Fourth Edition. 8^. 
 Sermons. Second Edition, with Additions. 125. 
 On Peculiarities of the Christian Kehgion. Sixth 
 
 and Cheaper Edition. Octavo. 7<y. &d. 
 
 On Difficulties in the Writings of the Apostle Paul. 
 
 Sixth and Cheaper Edition. Octavo. 8j. 
 
 On the Errors of Eomanism having their Origin 
 
 in Human Nature. Fourth and Cheaper Edition. Octavo. 
 
 On Dangers to Christian Faith from the Teaching 
 
 or the Conduct of its Professors. Second Edition. Octavo. 
 10*. 
 
 Infant Baptism Considered, in a Charge delivered 
 
 in 1850. 2s. 
 
 Lectures on the Characters of our Lord's Apostles. 
 3*. &d. 
 
 Lectures on the Scripture Revelations respecting 
 
 Good and Evil Angels. 3*. 6^. 
 
 View of the Scripture Revelations respecting a 
 
 Future State. Sixth Edition. 5*. 
 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN W. PARKER. 
 
 Edited for the Syndics of the Cambridge 
 University Press. 
 
 Sanderson De Obligatione Conscientise. With 
 
 English Notes, including an abridged Ti'anslation, by W. 
 "Whewell, D.D., Master of Trinity College. Octavo. 9*. 
 
 The Homihes, with various Headings, and the 
 
 Quotations from the Fathers given at length in the Original 
 Languages. Edited by G. E. Corrie, B.D., Master of Jesus 
 College, and Norrisian Professor of Divinity in the University, 
 and Examining Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Ely. Octavo. 
 10*. &d. 
 
 Pearson on the Creed. Kevised and corrected by 
 Temple Chevalier, B.D. One thick Volume. Octavo. 13*. 
 
 Twysden's Historical Vindication of the Church of 
 
 England in point of Schism. Edited, with the Author's MS. 
 Corrections by Professor Corrie. 7*. Qd. 
 
 Archbishop Usher's Answer to a Jesuit; with other 
 Tracts on Popery. Octavo. 13*. 6d. 
 
 Dr. Hey's Lectures on Divinity. Third Edition. 
 
 Two volumes. Octavo. 30*. 
 
 Wilson's Illustration of the Method of Explaining 
 the New Testament. Edited by Thomas Turton, D.D., Lord 
 Bishop of Ely. Octavo. 8*. 
 
 The Canabridge Greek and English Testament, in 
 
 Parallel Columns on the same Page. Edited by Professor 
 ScHOLEFiELD, Third Edition. 7*. Qd. 
 
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS 
 
 By Julius Charles Hare, M.A. 
 
 Archdeacon of Lewes. 
 
 Mission of the Comforter. Second Edition. Oc- 
 tavo. 125. 
 
 The Victory of Faith. Second Edition. 6a\ 
 Parish Sermons. Two Series. Octavo. 12.s. each. 
 The True Eemedy for the Evils of the Age : a 
 
 Charge. With Notes on the Educational, Matrimonial, and 
 Baptismal Questions. 3*. ^d. 
 
 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy 
 
 Neighbour: a Letter to the Editor of the English Review. 2s. 
 
 The Duty of the Church in Times of Trial : a 
 
 Charge. With Notes on the Management Clauses of Schools, 
 and on the Jewish Question. 5*. 
 
 The Means of Unity : a Charge. With Notes on 
 
 the Jerusalem Bishopric, and the Need of an Ecclesiastical Synod. 
 Octavo. 5j. 
 
 The Unity of the Church: a Sermon, 3^. 
 
 The Better Prospects of the Church : a Charge. 
 Octavo. 3*. 
 
 Privileges imply Duties : a Charge. 3s. 
 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN W. PARKER. 
 
 By r. D. Maurice, M.A. 
 
 Chaplain of Lincoln' s-inn. 
 
 The New Testament, the History of the Church, 
 
 and the Romish Apostasy, Joint Witnesses to the Reality of the 
 Divine Kingdom upon Earth. 
 
 The Church a Family : Sermons on the Occasional 
 
 Services of the Prayer-Book. 4^. 6^. 
 
 The Prayer-Book ; specially considered as a Pro- 
 tection against Romanism. Nineteen Sermons preached at Liu- 
 coln's-inn. hs. 6d. 
 
 The Lord's Prayer. Nine Sermons preached at 
 
 Lincoln's-inn. Third Edition. 2^. &d. 
 
 The Keligions of the World, and their Kelations to 
 
 Christianity. Second and Cheaper Edition. 5^. 
 
 Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews ; with a 
 
 Review of Newman's Theory of Development. Octavo. Ts. 6d. 
 
 Christmas Day, and other Sermons. Octavo. 
 10.y. 6d. 
 
 Three Letters to Eev. W. Palmer on the Jerusalem 
 
 Bishopric, &c, 3*. 
 
 On Eight and Wrong Methods of Supporting 
 
 Protestantism. 1*. 
 
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS 
 
 The Churches of England and Rome. 
 
 History of Popery; the Origin, Growth, and Pro- 
 gress of the Papal Power ; its Political Influence, and its Effects 
 on the Progress of the Civilization. With an Examination of the 
 Present State of the Romish Church in Ireland, a History of the 
 Inquisition, and Specimens of its Monkish Legends. 9*. 6d. 
 
 Observations on the Eev. Dr. Wiseman's Eeply to 
 Dr. Turton's Roman-catholic Doctrine of the Eucharist Con- 
 sidered. By Thomas Turton, D.D., Bishop of Ely. 
 
 James's Treatise on the Corruptions of Scripture, 
 
 Councils, and Fathers, by the Prelates, Pastors, and Pillars of the 
 Church of Rome, for the Maintenance of Popery. Revised and 
 Corrected by J. E. Cox, M.A.. Vicar of St. Helen's, Bishops- 
 gate. 12^. 
 
 Pullwood's Koma Kuit. The Pillars of Eome 
 
 broken. A New Edition, by C. Hardwick, M.A., Fellow of St. 
 Catherine's Hall, Cambridge. 10^. 6d. 
 
 The Scriptural Character of the English Church 
 
 Considered. With Notes. By D. Coleridge, M.A., Principal of 
 St. Mark's College. 2^. 6d. 
 
 Burnet's History of the Keformation. The Abridg- 
 ment Revised, and Edited, with Additions, by G. E. Corrie, B.D., 
 Master of Jesus CoUege, Cambridge. 10^. Qd. 
 
 History of the English Eeformation. By F. 0. 
 Massingberd, M.A., Rector of South Ormsby, 6.y. 
 
 Outline of the History of the British Church. 
 
 Is. 6d. 
 Eomanism and Holy Scripture Compared. By 
 
 R. Mant, D.D., Bishop of Down and Connor. 9d. 
 
 The Churches of Eome and England Compared. 
 By R. Mant, D.D., Bishop of Down and Connor. 6d. 
 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN W. PARKER. 
 
 Sermons. 
 
 Sermons Preached before the University of Oxford. 
 By C. A. Ogilvie, D.D., Canon of Christ Church. 5.y. 
 
 Lectures on the Prophecies, proving the Divine 
 Origin of Christianity. By A, McCaul, D.D., Professor of 
 Divinity in King's College. 7^. 6^. 
 
 Twenty-five Village Sermons. By C. Kingsley, 
 
 jun., Rector of Eversley. 5^. 
 
 Two Series of Discourses. I. On Christian Humi- 
 liation. II. On the City of God. By C. H. Terrot, D.D., 
 Bishop of Edinburgh. 7*. &d. 
 
 The Liturgy as it is, illustrated in a Series of Prac- 
 tical Sermons. By H. Howarth, B.D., Rector of St. George, 
 Hanover-square. 4^. %d. 
 
 Sermons. By J. 0. W. Haweis, M.A., Morning 
 
 Preacher at the Magdalen Hospital. 5.$. &d. 
 
 Practical Sermons, by Dignitaries and other Cler- 
 gymen. Edited by J. C. Crosthwaite, M.A., Rector of St. 
 Mary-at-HiU. Three Volumes. 7*. each. 
 
 Short Sermons for Children, illustrative of the 
 
 Catechism and Liturgy. By the Rev. C. A. Johns, B.A. 3^. ^d. 
 
 The Calling of a Medical Student; Four Sermons 
 
 preached at King's College. By E. H. Plumtre, M.A., Chap- 
 lain and Divinity Lecturer. l.y. 6^. 
 
 Butler's Three Sermons on Human Nature, and 
 
 Dissertation on Virtue. With Preface and Syllabus, by W. 
 Whewell, D.D. 2>s. 6d. 
 
 Butler's Six Sermons on Moral Subjects. With 
 Preface and Syllabus. By Dr. Whewell. 3^. 6d. 
 
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. 
 
 History of the Christian Church, from the Ascen- 
 sion of Jesus Christ to the Conversion of Constantine. By the 
 late Dr. Burton. Eighth and Cheaper Edition. 5^. 
 
 History of the Church of England. By T. Vowler 
 Short, D.D., Lord Bishop of St. Asaph. 16*. 
 
 College Lectures on Ecclesiastical History. By 
 W. Bates, B.D., FeDow of Christ's College, Cambridge. 6*. &d. 
 
 College Lectures on Christian Antiquities, and 
 
 the Ritual of the English Church. By the same author. 9*. 
 
 Manual of Christian Antiquities. By the Rev. J. 
 E. RiDDL,E M.A. Octavo. 18*. 
 
 Guericke's Manual of Antiquities of the Christian 
 
 Church ; translated and adapted to the use of the English Church. 
 By A. J. W. Morrison, B.A., Head Master of Grammar 
 School, Truro. Foolscap Octavo. 
 
 Gregory of Nazianzum. A Contribution to the 
 
 Ecclesiastical History of the Fourth Century. By Professor 
 Ullmann, of Heildelberg. Translated by G. V. Cox, M.A., 
 Esquire Bedel. 6*. 
 
 Exposition of the XXXIX. Articles, Historical and 
 Theological. By E. Harold Browne, M.A., Prebendary of 
 Exeter. To be completed in Two Volumes, Octavo. Vol. I. 
 10*. 6^. 
 
 London : JOHN W. PARKER, West Strand. 
 
 1B178TC 582r| 
 
 06-12-03 32180 MS 
 
Princeton Theoloaical S|m;narj( Utjraries 
 
 1 1012 01276 7572 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 ««te-* 
 
 
 
 
 ^^^^m 
 
 ^«.^^.«^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 HIGHSMITH #45115