He turns upon these idle monks, who seem to have made no very profitable use of the leisure which this interpretation gave them-wandering about the country, as he describes them, selling now the relics of martyrs, if indeed of martyrs-now phylacteries and amulets-professing now to be on journeys to visit their 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 Scripture in the letter, you must at least be consistent, and carry your interpretation through. It is true you do not sow, nor reap; you understand Christ literally, 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? And then he draws a lively picture of a flock of ravenous monks, such as they would be, if indeed 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 lucrosæ egestatis, aut simulatæ pretium sanctitatis. † De Op. Monach. c. 23: Cur ergo isti manus otiosas et plena repositoria volunt habere? Cur ea quæ sumunt ex laboribus aliorum, recondunt et servant unde quotidie proferatur? Cur denique molunt et coquunt ? Hoc enim aves non faciunt. And c. 24: Cur volatilia cœli non vobis sunt exemplo ad nihil reservandum, et vultis ut sint exemplo ad nihil operandum? But who is it, he asks, that 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 solicitude, and not the labour, (for that is God's appointment,) which is excluded;† 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, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 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 our first, our chiefest, or our most earnest "But * 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, quæ nihil operantur hujuscemodi: cum autem possumus, non debemus tentare Deum nostrum, quia et hoc quod possumus, ejus munere possumus, et cum hinc vivimus, illo largiente vivimus, qui largitus est ut possimus. + De Mendac. c. 15: Satis elucet ista præcepta sic intelligenda ut nihil operis nostri temporalium adipiscendorum amore, vel timore egestatis, tanquam ex necessitate faciamus. 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 conditions of an outward prosperity.* * Serm. 63 (Appendix): Nec hoc sic dicimus, ut pro rebus temporalibus Deum non oremus, id est, pro sanitate corporis, aut pro pace temporum, aut pro abundantiâ fructuum. Debemus et ista a Deo petere, sed secundo et tertio loco, ut primas partes in omni intentione nostræ orationis amor animæ et desiderium vitæ æternæ obtineat. ST. MATTHEW, CHAP. VII. These VER. 1.-"Judge not, that ye be not judged." 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 judgment;" (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 possible 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 judgment of charity. He gives for examples the following: If * De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 2. c. 18: Sunt quædam facta media quæ ignoramus quo animo fiant, quia et bono et malo fieri possunt, de quibus temerarium est judicare, maxime ut condemnemus. 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;" (Rom. xiv. 4;) and that other word, "Judge nothing before the time;" (1 Cor. iv. 5;) and our Lord's precept here, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." Nor is it things questionable alone, and acts capable of a double interpretation, on which men are tempted to exercise uncharitable judgments. But the evil of their own hearts, the sad consciousness of their own mingled, and oftentimes impure motives, makes them prompt to suspect the same in others, and to think that even deeds evidently good do yet grow out of some evil root.† Against all * Serm. 66, (Appendix): De illis vero quæ aperta sunt et publica mala judicare et arguere, cum caritate tamen et amore, et possumus et debemus, odio habentes non hominem sed peccatum, non vitiosum sed vitium; detestantes morbum potius quam ægrotum. †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. |