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| Chapter XX. Of the way in which auger should be banished according to the gospel.
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Chapter XX.
Of the way in which auger should be banished according
to the gospel.
Wherefore if we wish to
gain the substance of that divine reward of which it is said,
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God,”946
we ought not only
to banish it from our actions, but entirely to root it out from our
inmost soul. For it will not be of any good to have checked anger in
words, and not to have shown it in deeds, if God, from whom the secrets
of the heart are not hid, sees that it remains in the secret recesses
of our bosom. For the word of the gospel bids us destroy the roots of
our faults rather than the fruits; for these, when the incitements are
all removed, will certainly not put forth shoots any more; and so the
mind will be able to continue in all patience and holiness, when this
anger has been removed, not from the surface of acts and deeds, but
from the very innermost thoughts. And, therefore to avoid the
commission of murder, anger and hatred are cut off, without which the
crime of murder cannot possibly be committed. For “whosoever is
angry with his brother, is in danger of the judgment;”947
and “whosoever hateth his brother
is a murderer;”948
viz., because in
his heart he desires to kill him, whose blood we know that he has
certainly not shed among men with his own hand or with a weapon; yet,
owing to his burst of anger, he is declared to be a murderer by God,
who renders to each man, not merely for the result of his actions, but
for his purpose and desires and wishes, either a reward or a
punishment; according to that which He Himself says through the
prophet: “But I come that I may gather them together with all
nations and tongues;”949
and
again:950
| 950 Et rursum
(Petschenig): et Apostolus (Gazæus). | “Their thoughts between themselves
accusing or also defending one another, in the day when God shall judge
the secrets of men.”951
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