Chapter XXV.
82. But seeing that, however pure an eye one may have, i.e. with however single and
sincere a heart one may live, he yet cannot look into the heart of another: whatever things
could not have become apparent in deeds or words, are disclosed by trials. Now trial is
twofold; either in the hope of obtaining some temporal advantage, or in the terror of losing
it. And especially must we be on our guard, lest, when striving after wisdom, which can be
found in Christ alone, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;470—we
must be on our guard, I say, lest, under the very name of Christ, we be deceived by heretics,
or by any parties whatever defective in intelligence, and lovers of this world. For on this
account He adds a warning, saying, “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord,471 shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven,
he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven:” lest we should think that the mere fact of one
saying to our Lord, “Lord, Lord,” belongs to those fruits; and from that he should seem to
us to be a good tree. But those are the fruits, to do the will of the Father who is in heaven,
in the doing of which He has condescended to exhibit Himself as an example.
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83. But the question may fairly be started, how with this sentence the statement of the
apostle is to be reconciled, where he says, “No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth
Jesus accursed; and no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost:”472 for
neither can we say that any who have the Holy Spirit will not enter into the kingdom of
heaven, if they persevere onwards to the end; nor can we affirm that those who say, “Lord,
Lord,” and yet do not enter into the kingdom of heaven, have the Holy Spirit. How then
does no one say “that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost,” unless it is because the
apostle has used the word “say” here in a strict and proper sense, so that it implies the will
and understanding of him who says? But the Lord has used the word which He employs in
a general sense: “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven.” For he also who neither wishes nor understands what he says, seems to say it;
but he properly says it, who gives expression to his will and mind by the sound of his voice:
just as, a little before, what is called “joy” among the fruits of the Spirit is called so in a strict
and proper sense, not in the way in which the same apostle elsewhere uses the expression,
“Rejoiceth not in iniquity:”473 as if any one could rejoice in iniquity: for that transport of a
mind making confused and boisterous demonstrations of joy is not joy; for this latter is
possessed by the good alone. Hence those also seem to say it, who neither perceive with the
470 Col. ii. 3.
471 Many called Him Lord, but He never called any one Lord (ipsum multi, etiam amplissimi viri,—ipse
neminem ne Pilatum quidem, dominum vocavit.—Bengel).
472 1 Cor. xii. 3.
473 1 Cor. xiii. 6.
Chapter XXV
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Chapter XXV