Chapter XIII.
44. Rightly, therefore, does he who is intent on cleansing our heart follow up360
| 360 Having uttered warnings against formalists, the Lord now passes to the complete dedication of the heart.
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what He has said with a
precept, where He says: “Lay not up
361
| 361 Condere…tinea et comestura exterminant; Vulgate, thesaurizare…ærugo et tinea domolitur.
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for yourselves
treasures upon
earth, where
moth and rust
362
| 362 Not the specific rust of metals; wider sense of wear and tear.
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doth
corrupt,
363
| 363 Condere…tinea et comestura exterminant; Vulgate, thesaurizare…ærugo et tinea domolitur.
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and where
thieves break through and
steal: but lay up for yourselves
treasures in
heaven, where neither
moth nor rust doth
corrupt, and where
thieves do not
break through nor
steal. For where your
treasure is, there will your
heart be
364
also.” If, therefore, the
heart be on
earth,
i.e. if one perform anything with a
heart bent on obtaining earthly
advantage, how will that
heart be
clean which wallows on
earth? But if it be in
heaven, it will be
clean, because whatever things are heavenly are
clean. For anything becomes polluted when it is mixed with a
nature that is inferior, although not polluted of its
kind; for
gold is polluted even by pure
silver, if it be mixed with it: so also our
mind
becomes polluted by the desire after earthly things, although the
earth itself be pure of its
kind and order. But we would not understand
heaven in this passage as anything corporeal, because everything corporeal is to be reckoned as
earth. For he who lays up
treasure for himself in
heaven ought to
despise the whole
world. Hence it is in that
heaven of which it is said, “The
heaven of heavens is the
Lord’s,
365
i.e. in the
spiritual firmament: for it is not in that which is to pass away that we ought to
fix and place our
treasure and our
heart, but in that which ever abideth; but
heaven and
earth shall pass away.
366
| 366 Matt. xxiv. 35. Robert South gives his sermon on this passage the heading, “No man ever went to heaven whose heart was not there before.” It has been remarked, as regards an earthly Church, one does not take abiding interest in it unless one gives toward it.
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45. And here He makes it manifest that He gives all these precepts with a view to the cleansing of the heart, when He says: “The candle367
of the body is the
eye: if therefore thine
eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of
light. But if thine
eye be
evil, thy whole body shall be full of
darkness. If, therefore, the
light [
lamp]
368
that is in thee be
darkness, how great is that
darkness!” And this passage we are to understand in such a way as to
learn from it that all our works are pure and well-pleasing in the sight of
God, when they are done with a single
heart,
i.e. with a heavenly intent, having that end of
love in view; for
love is also the fulfilling of the
law.
369
Hence we ought to take the
eye here in the sense of the intent itself, wherewith we do whatever we are doing; and if this be pure and right, and looking at that which ought to be looked at, all our works which we perform in accordance therewith are necessarily good. And all those works He has called the whole body; for the
apostle also speaks of certain works of which he disapproves as our members, and
teaches that they are to be mortified, saying, “
Mortify therefore your
members which are upon the
earth;
fornication, uncleanness,
covetousness,”
370
and all other such things.
371
| 371 “Singleness of intention will preserve us from the snare of having a double treasure, and therefore a divided heart” (Plumptre).
|
46. It is not, therefore, what one does, but the intent with which he does it, that is to be considered. For this is the light in us, because it is a thing manifest to ourselves that we do with a good intent what we are doing; for everything which is made manifest is light.372
| 372 Eph. v. 13. Augustin’s rendering here is the true sense of the original.
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For the
deeds themselves which go forth from us to human society, have an uncertain issue; and therefore He has called them
darkness. For I do not know, when I present
money to a
poor man who asks it, either what he is to do with it, or what he is to
suffer from it; and it may happen that he does some
evil with it, or
suffers some
evil on account of it, a thing I did not wish to happen when I gave it to him, nor would I have given it with such an
intention. If, therefore, I did it with a good intention,—a thing which was known to me when I was doing it, and is therefore called
light,—my
deed also is lighted up, whatever issue it shall have; but that issue, inasmuch as it is uncertain and unknown, is called
darkness. But if I have done it with a bad intent, the
light itself even is
darkness. For it is spoken of as
light, because every one knows with what intent he acts, even when he acts with a bad intent; but the
light itself is
darkness, because the aim is not directed singly to things above, but is turned downwards to things beneath, and makes, as it were, a
shadow by means of a double
heart. “If, therefore, the
light that is in thee be
darkness, how great is that
darkness!”
i.e., if the very intent of the
heart with which you do what you are doing (which is known to you) is polluted by the
hunger after earthly and temporal things, and
blinded, how much more is the
deed itself, whose issue is uncertain,
polluted and full of
darkness! Because, although what you do with an intent which is neither upright nor pure, may turn out for some one’s good, it is the way in which you have done it, not how it has turned out for him, that is reckoned to you.
373
| 373 The eye is as the lamp (Revised Version) through which the body gets light,—the organ whose proper work it is to transmit light. The blind have no light, because their lamp is out or destroyed. The light within us is “the reason, especially the practical reason” (Meyer); that which is left of the divine image in man (Tholuck); the reason that was left after the fall of Adam (Calvin); the Old-Testament revelation perverted (Lange); the conscience
(Alford). “The spirit of man is the candle (lamp, Revised Version) of the Lord” (Prov. xx. 27): it guides the faculties of the soul. But if it be in darkness how great is that darkness; i.e. the darkness which already existed! What a terrible condition those are in who do not receive the Spirit of enlightenment (who becomes the “inner light”), and feel no need of Him! “He whose affections are on heavenly things, has his whole soul lighted; he whose
affections are depraved, has his understanding and his whole soul darkened also” (Mansel).
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