320

Summary of our Lord's Sayings about Wealth.

HOMILY X X I.

HOMIL.

XXI.

MATT. vi. 24.

No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other.

SEEST thou how by degrees He withdraws us from the things that now are, and at greater length introduces what He hath to say, touching voluntary poverty, and casts down the dominion of covetousness ?

For He was not contented with His former sayings, many and great as they were, but He adds others also, more and more alarming.

For what can be more alarming than what He now saith, if indeed we are for our riches to fall from the service of Christ? or what more to be desired, if indeed, by despising wealth, we shall have our affection towards Him and our charity perfect? For what I am continually repeating, the same do I now say likewise, namely, that by both kinds He presses the hearer to obey His sayings; both by the profitable, and by the hurtful; much like an excellent Physician, pointing out both the disease which is the consequence of neglect, and the good health which results from obedience.

See, for instance, what kind of gain He signifies this to be, and how He establishes the advantage of it by their deliverance from the contrary things. Thus, "wealth," saith He, "hurts you not in this only, that it arms robbers against you, nor in that it darkens your mind in the most intense degree, but also in that it casts you out of God's service, making you captives of lifeless riches, and in both ways doing you harm,

A Slave cannot have two Masters at once.

VI. 24.

321 on the one hand, by causing you to be slaves of what you MATT. ought to command; on the other, by casting you out of God's service, Whom, above all things, it is indispensable for you to serve." For just as in the other place, He signified the mischief to be twofold, in both laying up here, where moth corrupteth, and in not laying up there, where the watch kept is impregnable; so in this place too, He shews the loss to be twofold, in that it both draws off from God, and makes us subject to Mammon.

But He sets it not down directly, rather He establishes it first upon general considerations, saying thus; No man can serve two masters: meaning here two that are enjoining opposite things; since, unless this were the case, they would not even be two. For so, the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul1, and yet were they Acts divided into many bodies; their unanimity however made the many one.

Then, as adding to the force of it, He saith, "so far from serving, he will even hate and abhor:" For either he will hate the one, saith He, and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. And it seems indeed as if the same thing were said twice over; He did not however choose this form without purpose, but in order to shew that the change for the better is easy. I mean, lest thou shouldest say, "I am once for all made a slave; I am brought under the tyranny of wealth," He signifies that it is possible to transfer one's self, and that as from the first to the second, so also from the second one may pass over to the first.

[2.] Having thus, you see, spoken generally, that He might persuade the hearer to be an uncorrupt judge of His words, and to sentence according to the very nature of the things; when he hath made sure of his assent, then, and not till then, He discovers Himself. Thus He presently adds,

Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.

Let us shudder to think what we have brought Christ to say; with the Name of God, to put that of gold. But if this be shocking, its taking place in our deeds, our preferring the tyranny of gold to the fear of God, is much more shocking.

4,32.

Y

HOMIL.

2, 3,

1 Job

31,

25.

322 Danger of trying to make God and Mammon agree.

"What then? Was not this possible among the ancients?" XXI. By no means. "How then," saith one, " did Abraham, how did Job obtain a good report?" Tell me not of them that are rich, but of them that serve riches. Since Job also was rich, but he served not Mammon, but possessed it and ruled over it, and was a master, not a slave. Therefore he so possessed all those things, as if he had been the steward of another man's goods; not only not extorting from others, but even giving up his own to them that were in need. And what is more, when he had them they were no joy to him: so he also declared, saying, If I did so much as rejoice when my wealth waxed great': wherefore neither did he grieve when it was gone. But they that are rich are not now such as he was, but are rather in a worse condition than any slave, paying as it were tribute to some grievous tyrant. Because their mind is as a kind of citadel occupied by the love of money, which from thence daily sends out unto them its commands full of all iniquity, and there is none to disobey. Be not therefore thus over subtle. Nay, for God hath once for all declared and pronounced it a thing impossible for the one service and the other to agree. Say not thou, then, "it is possible." Why, when the one master is commanding thee to spoil by violence, the other to strip thyself of thy possessions; the one to be chaste, the other to commit fornication; the one to be drunken and luxurious, the other to keep the belly in subjection; the one again to despise the things that are, the other to be rivetted to the present; the one to admire marbles, and walls, and roofs, the other to contemn these, but to honour selfrestraint: how is it possible that these should agree?

3, 19.

Now He calls Mammon here a master, not because of its own nature, but on account of the wretchedness of them that bow themselves beneath it. So also He calls the belly a 2 Philip. God 2, not from the dignity of such a mistress, but from the wretchedness of them that are enslaved: it being a thing worse than any punishment, and enough, before the punishment, in the way of vengeance on him who is involved in it. For what condemned criminals can be so wretched, as they who having God for their Lord, do from that mild rule desert to this grievous tyranny, and this when their act brings after it so much harm even here? For indeed their loss

Christ's Preparation for His stricter Warnings.

323

VI. 25.

is unspeakable by so doing: there are suits, and molest- MATT. ations, and strifes, and toils, and a blinding of the soul; and what is more grievous than all, one falls away from the highest blessings; for such a blessing it is to be God's

servant.

[3.] Having now, as you see, in all ways taught the advantage of contemning riches, as well for the very preservation of the riches, as for the pleasure of the soul, and for acquiring selfcommand, and for the securing of godliness; He proceeds to establish the practicability of this command. For this especially pertains to the best legislation, not only to enjoin what is expedient, but also to make it possible. Therefore He also goes on to say,

your

Take no thought for your life', what ye shall eat. That is, lest they should say, "What then? if we cast all vʊxã, away, how shall we be able to live?" At this objection, in soul. what follows, He makes a stand, very seasonably. For as surely as if at the beginning He had said, Take no thought, the word would have seemed burthensome; so surely, now that He hath shewn the mischief arising out of covetousness, His admonition coming after is made easy to receive. Wherefore neither did He now simply say, Take no thought, but He added the reason, and so enjoined this. After having said, Ye cannot serve God and mammon, He added, therefore I say unto you, take no thought. Therefore; for what? Because of the unspeakable loss. For the hurt you receive is not in riches only, rather the wound is in the most vital parts, and in that which is the overthrow of your salvation; casting you as it does out from God, Who made you, and careth for you, and loveth you.

Therefore I say unto you, take no thought. Thus, after He hath shewn the hurt to be unspeakable, then and not before He makes the commandment stricter; in that He not only bids us cast away what we have, but forbids to take thought even for our necessary food, saying, Take no thought for your soul, what ye shall eat. Not because the soul needs food, for it is incorporeal; but He spake according to the common custom. For though it needs not food, yet can it not endure to remain in the body, except that be fed. And in saying this, He puts it not simply so, but here also

324

Our Lord's Reasons against Carefulness:

HOMIL. He brings up arguments, some from those things which we have already, and some from other examples.

XXI. 3, 4.

v. 25.

v. 27.

From what we have already, thus saying:

Is not the soul more than meat, and the body more than the raiment?

He therefore that hath given the greater, how shall He not give the less? He that hath fashioned the flesh that is fed, how shall He not bestow the food? Wherefore neither did He simply say, Take no thought what ye shall eat, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed; but, for the body, and, for the soul: forasmuch as from them He was to make His demonstrations, carrying on His discourse in the way of comparison. Now the soul He hath given once for all, and it abides such as it is; but the body increases every day. Therefore pointing out both these things, the immortality of the one, and the frailty of the other, He subjoins and says,

Which of you can add one cubit unto his stature? Thus, saying no more of the soul, since it receives not increase, He discoursed of the body only; hereby making manifest this point also, that not the food increases it, but the providence of God. Which Paul shewing also in other ways, said, So then, neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the 11 Cor. increase1.

3, 7.

From what we have already, then, He urges us in this v. 26. way and from examples of other things, by saying, Behold the fowls of the air. Thus, lest any should say, "we do good by taking thought," He dissuades them both by that which is greater, and by that which is less; by the greater, i. e. the soul and the body; by the less, i. e. the birds. For if of the things that are very inferior He hath so much regard, how shall He not give unto you? saith He. And to dnudns them on this wise, for as yet it was an ordinary 2 multitude:

but to the devil not thus; but how? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 3 Matt. mouth of God. But here He makes mention of the birds, 4, 4. and this in a way greatly to abash them; which sort of thing is of very great value for the purpose of admonition.

[4.] However, some of the ungodly have come to so great a pitch of madness, as even to attack His illustration.