4. For which cause our Lord
Himself also with His own mouth saith, “Cleanse what are within,
and what are without will be clean.”1813
And, also, in another place, when
He was refuting the foolish
speeches of the
Jews, in that they
spake
evil against His
disciples, eating with unwashen
hands;
“Not what entereth into the mouth,” said He, “defileth the
man: but what cometh forth out of the mouth, that defileth the
man.”
1814
Which
sentence, if the whole of it be taken of the mouth of the body, is
absurd. For neither doth
vomit defile him, whom
food defileth not.
Forsooth
food entereth into the mouth,
vomit proceedeth forth out
of the mouth. But without doubt the former words relate to the
mouth of the
flesh, where He says, “Not what entereth into the
mouth defileth the man,” but the latter words to the mouth of the
heart, where He saith, “But what proceedeth forth out of the
mouth, this defileth the man.”
1815
Lastly, when the
Apostle Peter
sought of Him an explanation of this as of a
parable, He answered,
“Are ye also yet without understanding? understand ye not, that
whatsoever entereth into the mouth, goeth into the
belly, and is
cast out into the
draught?” Here surely we perceive the mouth of
the
flesh, into which the
food enters. But in what He next adds, in
order that we might recognize the mouth of the
heart, the slowness
of our
heart would not follow, did not the
Truth deign to
walk even
with the slow. For He saith, “But what things go forth from the
mouth, go out of the
heart;” as though He should say, When you
hear it said “from the mouth,” understand “from the
heart.”
I say both, but I set forth one by the other. The inner man hath an
inner mouth, and this the inner
ear discerns: what things go forth
from this mouth, go out of the
heart, and they
defile the man. Then
having left the term mouth, which may be understood also of the
body, He shows more openly what He is saying. “For from the
heart
go out,” saith He, “
evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries,
fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies; these are what
defile the man.” There is surely no one of those evils, which can
be
committed also by the members of the body, but that the
evil
thoughts go before and
defile the man, although something
hinder
the
sinful and
wicked deeds of the body from following. For if,
because
power is not given, the
hand is free from the
murder of a
man, is the
heart of the murderer forsooth therefore
clean from
sin? Or if she be
chaste, whom one unchaste wishes to
commit
adultery with, hath he on that account
failed to
commit adultery
with her in his
heart? Or if the
harlot be not found in the
brothel, doth he, who
seeks her, on that account
fail to
commit
fornication in his
heart? Or if time and place be wanting to one
who wishes to hurt his
neighbor by a
lie, hath he on that account
failed already to speak false witness with his inner mouth? Or if
any one fearing men,
dare not utter aloud blasphemy with
tongue of
flesh, is he on this account
guiltless of this
crime, who saith in
his
heart, “There is no
God.”
1816
Thus all the other
evil deeds
of men, which no motion of the body performs, of which no
sense of the body is conscious, have their own
secret criminals,
who are also polluted by consent alone in thought, that is, by
evil
words of the inner mouth. Into which he (the Psalmist) fearing lest
his
heart should fall aside, asks of the
Lord that the
door of
Continence be set around the
lips of this mouth, to contain the
heart, that it fall not aside into
evil words: but contain it, by
not suffering thought to proceed to consent: for thus, according to
the
precept of the
Apostle,
sin reigneth not in our
mortal body,
nor do we yield our members as
weapons of
unrighteousness unto
sin.
1817
From
fulfilling which
precept they are surely
far removed, who on this
account turn not their members to
sin, because no
power is allowed
them; and if this be present, straightway by the motions of their
members, as of
weapons, they show, who reigneth in them within.
Wherefore so far as is in themselves, they yield their members
weapons of unrighteousness unto sin; because this is what they
wish, which for this reason they yield not, because they are not
able.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
