Chapter XIII. 44. Rightly, therefore, does he who is intent on cleansing our heart follow up360 what He has said with a precept, where He says: “Lay not up361 for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust362 doth corrupt,363 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 be364 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 cor- poreal, 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 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, 360 Having uttered warnings against formalists, the Lord now passes to the complete dedication of the heart. 361 Condere…tinea et comestura exterminant; Vulgate, thesaurizare…ærugo et tinea domolitur. 362 Not the specific rust of metals; wider sense of wear and tear. 363 Condere…tinea et comestura exterminant; Vulgate, thesaurizare…ærugo et tinea domolitur. 364 Erit; Vulgate, est. 365 Ps. cxv. 16. 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. 367 Lucerna…lumen. 368 Lucerna…lumen. 369 Rom. xiii. 10. Chapter XIII 120 Chapter XIII