1 And it came to pass on the second first sabbath that, as he went through the corn fields, his disciples plucked the ears and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.
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VERS. 1.-- *And it came to pass,* etc. He says that the letter of the sabbath had begun to be loosed, etc., *as far as* after the second, from that on which the preceding things were said or done. *Through the corn,* etc. Mystically: the field is the world; the crop of the field, the fruitfulness of the human race; the ears, the fruits of the Church, with which the apostles are filled, feeding themselves on our progress. *The disciples plucked,* etc. The disciples, not having space to eat because of the importunity of the crowds, hungered as men, but by plucking the ears they solace their want, which is a sign of a more austere life, to seek not prepared dishes but simple foods. And note that the apostles already destroy the letter of the sabbath, against the Ebionites, who receive the other apostles, but reject Paul as a transgressor of the law. Mystically: the disciples, hungering for the salvation of men, pass through the corn, that is, through the regions which, etc., *as far as* convicting the doctors of the law of not knowing the law.
2 And some of the Pharisees said to them: Why do you that which is not lawful on the sabbath days?
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VERS. 2.-- *They said to them,* etc. Others say that these things were objected to the Lord himself. But they could have been objected by different persons both to the Lord himself and to the disciples, and to whomsoever it was objected it looks chiefly to him. *On the sabbaths.* The sabbaths signify keepings of feast; either those which are kept in this world by those who give themselves to the superstitions of the Jews; or those which shall be kept in the world to come, when in perpetual solemnity we shall eat the good things of the earth.
3 And Jesus answering them, said: Have you not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was hungry and they that were with him:
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VERS. 3.-- *Have you not read this,* etc. How is that objected to the Lord as a crime, which in a servant is not held for a crime? The true king, etc., *as far as* all the sons of the Church are priests, anointed with the Holy Ghost that they may offer themselves.
4 How he went into the house of God and took and ate the bread of proposition and gave to them that were with him, which is not lawful to eat but only for the priests?
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VERS. 4.-- *He went into the house of God.* Great is the grace of hospitality: with the peril of death set before it, the mind of the priest does not turn the guest away. And so we ought to take upon ourselves the perils of others. But the true priests do not shut out the true David from the hospitality of the mind, not even for the peril of death.
5 And he said to them: The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
6 And it came to pass also, on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught. And there was a man whose right hand was withered.
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VERS. 6.-- *A man.* Mystically this man signifies the human race dried up in the fruitfulness of good work, through the hand stretched out to the tree in the first parent, which the innocent hand stretched out on the cross heals. And well was the hand withered in the Synagogue, because where there is a greater gift of knowledge, there the transgressor lies under a greater fault.
7 And the scribes and Pharisees watched if he would heal on the sabbath: that they might find an accusation against him.
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VERS. 7.-- *They watched.* Because he had excused, by the probable example of the master, the destruction of the sabbath which they were charging against the disciples, now, watching the master himself, they wish to calumniate him, that if he heal not, they may accuse him of cruelty or of weakness; if he heal, of transgression.
8 But he knew their thoughts and said to the man who had the withered hand: Arise and stand forth in the midst. And rising he stood forth.
9 Then Jesus said to them: I ask you, if it be lawful on the sabbath days to do good or to do evil? To save life or to destroy?
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VERS. 9.-- *I ask you.* Forestalling the calumny which they were preparing for themselves, he reproves them, etc., *as far as* God is not the author of evil, but those whom he does not save he is said to destroy.
10 And looking round about on them all, he said to the man: Stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched it forth. And his hand was restored.
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VERS. 10.-- *Stretch forth.* The weakness of an unfruitful soul is cured by no better order than by the bounty of alms; whence it is said: *Let not thy hand be stretched out to receive, and drawn back to give*. For he stretches out his hands to God in vain, being about to pray for his sins, who does not stretch these out to the poor according to his power.
11 And they were filled with madness: and they talked one with another, what they might do to Jesus.
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VERS. 11.-- *Folly.* Because they were moved by envy alone, for there was no fault either in a man's stretching out his hand, or in Jesus' healing. It was great folly to plot the death of him whose benefits they very greatly needed.
12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray: and he passed the whole night in the prayer of God.
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VERS. 12.-- *He went out into a mountain to pray.* The mountain on which he chooses and teaches the apostles signifies the height of justice, because they were to be instructed and to preach, that they might not remain among the weak, but be raised to things above. So also the law was given on a mountain. He leads the apostles up more eminently, that from the mountain the mountains may first receive the peace to be announced to the people. So also Moses, alone understanding the law spiritually, ascended the summit of the mountain on which God was.
13 And when day was come, he called unto him his disciples: and he chose twelve of them (whom also he named apostles):
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VERS. 13.-- *Disciples.* Of whom he chose twelve, whom he named apostles, that is, sent in his own place; whence: *As the Father hath sent me, I also send you*. Ascending into the mountain he calls to himself, he chooses whom he wills, because it is not of their zeal but of divine grace that they were called to the apostleship; whence: *You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you*. He chose not the wise, not the rich, not the noble, lest he should seem to have chosen them for prudence, or to have redeemed them with riches, or to have drawn any to grace by the authority of power and nobility.
14 Simon, whom he surnamed Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew,
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VERS. 14.-- *He surnamed.* Not then for the first time, but long before, when he is said to have been brought by Andrew: *Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter.* But Luke, wishing to name the names of the twelve apostles, since he had need to say Peter, wished briefly to hint that he was not so called before; but that the Lord so surnamed him, that it should not be thought done by chance, but that from the change the sacrament of the rock might be commended to the hearers.
15 Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon who is called Zelotes,
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VERS. 15.-- *Matthew.* Matthew, for humility's sake, places himself in the order beneath his fellow Thomas, though by the other evangelists he is set before him.
16 And Jude the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, who was the traitor.
17 And coming down with them, he stood in a plain place: and the company of his disciples and a very great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the sea coast, both of Tyre and Sidon,
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VERS. 17.-- *And coming down,* etc. The Lord, about to choose apostles, went up into the mountains; about to teach the crowds, he returns to the plains, because the crowds are not able to see Christ except in what is lowly, and rarely is it found either that a crowd follows the Lord to higher things, or that any weak man is cured on the mountain; but when the fever of lusts has been quenched and the light of knowledge kindled, each one step by step goes up to the height of the virtues. *The sea coast.* Not from the neighbouring sea of Galilee, because they do not set this in the place of the miracle, but it is named from the great sea. In which Tyre and Sidon also could be comprehended. But because they are cities of the Gentiles, they are deliberately set down by name, that it may be intimated how great is the power of Christ, which stirs even foreign cities.
18 Who were come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And they that were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.
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VERS. 18.-- *That they might hear.* If we say that there are two discourses, he went up into the mountain, and had his disciples there; and afterwards he came down and made this one to the crowd. If we say there was one, it must be understood thus, that he went up into the mountain, and after a little came down, and there made the discourse, where there was a level place.
19 And all the multitude sought to touch him: for virtue went out from him and healed all.
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VERS. 19.-- *To touch him.* He touches Christ who faithfully believes in him. He is touched by Christ who is made firm in him. He who so touches and is touched is healed by the power of his spirit.
20 And he, lifting up his eyes on his disciples, said: Blessed are ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
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VERS. 20.-- *And he, lifting up,* etc. Although he speaks generally to all, he lifts his eyes specially upon the disciples, that they who receive the word of God with the intent ear of the heart may more widely receive the light of the inward savour; to whom, sitting on the mountain, he opens his mouth, that he may utter great things upon them; standing on the plain he directs his eyes, that they may patiently understand what they hear. *Blessed are the poor,* etc. They who cannot yet climb the citadel of consummated virtue are meanwhile to be cherished with the beatitude of a general perfection, that little by little advancing to better things, while they gladly listen to the Lord standing on the plain, they may at some time loftily ascend to him sitting on the mountain. For those upon whose hearts he still presses to tame them, these he addresses as it were standing. Those whom he finds exercised by long endeavour and now teachable, to these he imparts mystical things as one resting at ease. What in Matthew is fully said by eight beatitudes in the sermon of perfection to the apostles on the top of the mountain, this in Luke, etc., *as far as* but because he excelled in faith, by faith he deserved the primacy before the rest.
21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for you shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for you shall laugh.
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VERS. 21.-- *You that now hunger.* He who hungers has compassion on him that hungers: by compassion he gives freely, by giving freely he becomes just; he makes himself equal to his inferiors, he shuts out guile, he seeks the truth. *You that now weep.* He who for the riches of Christ's inheritance, for the bread of eternal life, for the hope of heavenly joys, desires weeping, hunger and poverty, is blessed; much more blessed he who does not fear to keep these virtues amid adversities.
22 Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
23 Be glad in that day and rejoice: for behold, your reward is great in heaven, For according to these things did their fathers to the prophets.
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VERS. 23.-- *Rejoice and be glad.* Amid the hatreds of hearts, amid the reproaches of tongues, amid the hands of persecutors, be conversant with a gladder heart, in view of the reward on high. *For according to these things.* By the example of the prophets he strengthens them, because those who speak the truth are wont to suffer persecution.
24 But woe to you that are rich: for you have your consolation.
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VERS. 24.-- *But woe,* etc. Matthew on the mountain describes only the beatitudes of the upright; but Luke on the plain describes also the woe of the wicked, because hearers still untrained are to be driven to good things by threats and terrors, while for the perfect it is enough to be invited by rewards. *But woe.* Since above the kingdom of heaven is said to be the poor's, it appears by the contrary that he estranges himself from this kingdom who seeks his consolation in temporal things. Nor are riches so much in fault as the love of riches.Mystically: the rich man is the Jewish people, or the heretic, or the philosopher of the world, who, delighted with the abundance of words and the patronage of eloquence, having gone beyond the simplicity of the true faith, have laid up useless treasures, disputing according to the usage of the world about the generation of Christ; who in the world to come shall recognize the neediness of their faith, and, wasted with eternal fasting, shall know that the food of faithlessness which they belch forth in the present is the cause of so great a punishment. And there shall be a time when they shall bewail their laughter. To whom it is well said: *Woe, when men shall bless you;* because while here they please the powerful, they subject themselves to a perpetual curse, because as the poor, the hungry, the weeping are proved by the wickedness of the evil, so those given to riches, to feasts and to laughter, by the evil retinue of those who fawn upon them, are cherished unto a greater punishment.
25 Woe to you that are filled: for you shall hunger. Woe to you that now laugh: for you shall mourn and weep.
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VERS. 25.-- *You that are filled,* etc. You who among the rich abound the more, like the rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and with feasts, who seeks a drop of water from Lazarus' finger. *Woe to you that now laugh,* etc. Solomon: *The heart of the wise man is where there is sadness, the heart of fools where there is gladness*; teaching that folly is to be ascribed to those who laugh, prudence to those who weep.
26 Woe to you when men shall bless you: for according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets.
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VERS. 26.-- *Shall bless you,* etc. A great part of the punishment of sinners is that their crimes are not only not reproved, but are moreover praised as though well done.
27 But I say to you that hear: Love your enemies. Do good to them that hate you.
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VERS. 27.-- *Love your enemies.* When it has been said what they can suffer from enemies, he adds how they ought to bear themselves toward those enemies. And here the Church is not fed with milk, but strengthened with the stronger food of charity. It is not enough not to hate, but what is beyond human nature is commanded, to love. And whereas the law commands a return of vengeance, the Gospel bestows charity for enmities, kindness for hatreds, prayers for curses, patience for persecutors, and even the grace of recompense for those who hunger.
28 Bless them that curse you and pray for them that calumniate you.
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VERS. 28.-- *Pray for them that calumniate you.* That the prophets seem to imprecate, these are not the wishes of men desiring it, but foretellings of things to come: for they themselves prayed for their enemies.
29 And to him that striketh thee on the one cheek, offer also the other. And him that taketh away from thee thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also.
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VERS. 29.-- *And to him that striketh thee.* Since charity is patient, it ought to sustain the patient bearing of him that beats; and since it is kind, it ought not to answer curses. If it *seeketh not her own,* it ought not to resist him that plunders; if it *envieth not*, it ought not to hate an enemy. *Offer them,* etc. The physician of souls commands those whom he instructs to heal their neighbours to bear all things that can avail for the salvation of their neighbours. And it pertains to mercy that, as from sick and frenzied sons, they should suffer many things, if their health require it, until the infirmity pass. What is so wonderful as to offer the cheek to him that strikes? Nay, every assault of the angry man is broken, wrath is calmed; and through patience he is invited to repentance. *A garment.* What is said of the garment and the coat is to be done also in other things which by any right we call temporally our own. For if this is commanded concerning necessary things, much more is it enjoined to despise superfluous things.
30 Give to every one that asketh thee: and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again.
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VERS. 30.-- *Ask not again.* Because *charity is patient, is kind*; it not only bears bravely the injuries of an enemy, but also kindly anticipates the favour of a friend, that they may be drawn by other kindnesses.
31 And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner.
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VERS. 31.-- *And as you would.* Lest he should seem to dissolve the law, he keeps in benefits the return which he neglects in injuries. Nor does he say, as they do, but *as you would that men should do to you, that you also should do to them,* that the return may be the fuller, since the act is matched with the wish. And now extend the works of charity not only to friends, but even to enemies, that they may begin to be friends; and first extend the affection of love, and afterwards the works of charity.
32 And if you love them that love you, what thanks are to you? For sinners also love those that love them.
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VERS. 32.-- *And if you love.* The more eminent your degree of profession, the more needful it is that the care of virtue be more abundant, that you embrace in the bosom of charity even those who do not love. There are two kinds of benefit: either when we give kindly what we give, or when we lend to one who will repay.
33 And if you do good to them who do good to you, what thanks are to you? For sinners also do this.
34 And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thanks are to you? For sinners also lend to sinners, for to receive as much.
35 But love ye your enemies: do good, and lend, hoping for nothing thereby: and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the sons of the Highest. For he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil.
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VERS. 35.-- *But yet,* etc. After he has reproved as unfruitful the love and mutual benefit of sinners, he now shows how these are to be done fruitfully by the faithful, as if he should say: Although such love and mutual benefit profit not sinners, yet do you love, not only by the leading of nature, as they love friends, but by a higher degree of virtue, your enemies. The philosophers divide justice into three parts: one toward God, which is called piety; another toward parents, or the rest of the human race; the third toward the dead, that the due rites of burial be paid to them. But the Lord, having gone beyond the oracle of the law and the summit of prophecy, extended the office of piety even to those who have done hurt. *Hoping for nothing thereby: and it shall be.* Not fixing the hope of a reward in man. For whether he repay what you have lent, God will nevertheless repay also, at whose bidding you did it; or whether he repay not, your inheritance shall be for ever.
36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
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VERS. 36.-- *Be ye therefore merciful,* etc. He rains upon the evil, the earth does not deny its produce, the same sun enlightens the good and the evil. Mystically: he waters the people of the Jews with prophetic rains, and upon those not deserving it the ray of the eternal sun has shone. If therefore they have believed, be merciful to them, by teaching and by lifting them up, and do not rashly judge, lest anyone conscious of his own offence be compelled to pass sentence upon another.
37 Judge not: and you shall not be judged. Condemn not: and you shall not be condemned. Forgive: and you shall be forgiven.
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VERS. 37.-- *Judge not.* There are certain middle and uncertain things, in what mind they are done, because they can be done well and ill. We know not either what he will be like who now appears evil, of whose correction to despair, and to reprove him as though cast off, is rash. Concerning open things which cannot be done with a good mind, it is permitted us to judge.
38 Give: and it shall be given to you: good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you shall mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.
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VERS. 38.-- *For with the same measure.* It can be taken generally of all things which are done by mind, by hand, by tongue, because God will render according to the works of each. *For with the same,* God will not repay with an unjust measure, but it is as if he should say: The very rashness of judging and the unjust measure hurts thee, punishes thee, and often not him about whom thou doest this. Or if thou judgest and measurest rightly, it profits thee, it saves thee, even though sometimes not him upon whom thou bestowest these things.
39 And he spoke also to them a similitude: Can the blind lead the blind? Do they not both fall into the ditch?
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VERS. 39.-- *He spoke.* By which he invites to the giving of alms and to the forgiving of injury. *Can he.* If anger has blinded thee against a violent man: if thou shalt be covetous against him that asks, canst thou, with thy mind vitiated, heal his vice? And not only he who has done thee injury, but thou also who knowest not how to bear it, shalt be guilty. But if his wickedness finds thee tranquil, both he shall repent, and thou shalt be crowned for thy patience, because thou hast taken care to lead the blind man with a seeing eye, that is, with a serene heart, to the light.
40 The disciple is not above his master: but every one shall be perfect, if he be as his master.
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VERS. 40.-- *As the master.* God does not avenge his own injuries, but by bearing with persecutors he willed to make them milder; the disciples, who are men, ought to imitate this rule of perfection.
41 And why seest thou the mote in thy brother's eye: but the beam that is in thy own eye thou considerest not?
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VERS. 41.-- *And why seest thou,* etc. Truly a sinner is not able to chastise a sinner, because they who, forestalled by pride, or by hatred, or by some other vice, judging these things light or nothing, gravely rebuke those whom they see disturbed from the state of the mind, either by anger or by some slight sin, such men as these love rather to blame and to condemn than to correct and to amend. *Thou considerest not.* The open eye sees ill, namely its own boasting, while it wishes to heal others, but being blind it is not able to look upon itself, while in this it falls the worse.
42 Or how canst thou say to thy brother: Brother, let me pull the mote out of thy eye, when thou thyself seest not the beam in thy own eye? Hypocrite, cast first the beam out of thy own eye: and then shalt thou see clearly to take out the mote from thy brother's eye.
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VERS. 42.-- *Hypocrite.* If thou wilt reprove anyone, first see whether thou art like him. And if thou art, groan alike with him, and be not willing that he should obey thee, but admonish him to strive alike. But if thou art not like him, yet because thou once wast, or couldst have been, condescend, and reprove not out of hatred but out of mercy. Rarely therefore, and not without great necessity, are rebukes to be applied, and not save out of regard for God, when the beam has been removed from the eye. For these men undertake to accuse all things out of hatred or envy, and wish to seem counsellors, without the example of their own amendment. But they ought first to take away the beam of envy, or of malice, or of dissimulation, from the hidden place of their heart, that they may be able to cast out the mote of anger, or of any fault of envy, from their brother's eye.
43 For there is no good tree that bringeth forth evil fruit: nor an evil tree that bringeth forth good fruit.
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VERS. 43.-- *There is no tree,* etc. A tree good or bad is not nature, which was created good by God in all things, but a good or a bad will. The fruits are the works, which can neither be good of a bad will, nor bad of a good will. *Nor a tree.* If thou wilt have true justice and not feigned, fulfil in deeds what thou showest in words, that thou mayest be a good tree, and be adorned with good fruits. Because although the hypocrite feign, he is not good who does evil works; and if he reprove the guiltless, he is not therefore evil who does good works. And note that here the discussion is of manifest things.
44 For every tree is known by its fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns: nor from a bramble bush do they gather the grape.
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VERS. 44.-- *For every tree.* The evil are known by their own fruit, while they oppress the good, and blaspheme God by their deeds if not by their words: and chiefly they are discerned by their impatience in the time of adversity. For fasts and prayer and things of this kind belong to the feigning as also to the good: but the sheep ought not to lay aside their own fleeces, even if sometimes wolves cover themselves with them. *Is known.* Not by the garment, but by the works which are done by them, are they known. Because as the thorn does not make a grape, so a good tree makes what is good, a bad tree what is bad, and not the contrary. *For neither of thorns.* Not of thorns, that is, of the cares of the world, figs, that is, the sweetness of the resurrection, nor of the bramble, that is, of the pricking of vices, a grape, that is, the fruit of the soul. Which, as a grape near to earthly things is corrupted, in higher places ripens. Or from the flesh, which brings forth thorns and thistles, we do not gather Christ, who hung upon the tree like a grape. The thorn and the bramble, to the heretics, from whom no wise man will be able to find holiness or virtue, but they tear and bloody those that draw near. Or the thorns and brambles are the cares of the world and the prickings of vices. The grape and the fig, the sweetness of the new manner of life which Christ hungers for in us, and the fervour of love which gladdens the heart of man. Not of thorns and brambles a grape or a fig, because the mind still pressed by the custom of the old man can indeed feign, but cannot bear the fruit of the new man. But if at any time the deeds or words of the evil profit the good, the evil do not do this, but it comes of them by the counsel of God.
45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth that which is evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
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VERS. 45.-- *Bringeth forth good.* He loves his enemy. He gives to everyone that asks, and things of this kind. *Bringeth forth evil,* etc. He hates his friend, he takes away what is another's, he does not give his own, and things of this kind, which God judges according to the intention of the heart. And truly, because it proceeds from a good or a bad heart, the fruit ought to be judged good or bad, because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks what lies hidden within, that is, the effect proceeds outwardly, as well in words as in deeds. This is as regards the divine examination, to which the mouth of the heart speaks, because he is not ignorant from what intention words proceed. Because even the words which outwardly seem good, because they proceed from an evil root, he judges not to be good; whence he subjoins: *And why call you me Lord?* As if he should say: Why do you boast that you put forth the leaves of a right confession, who show no fruits of good work? *Out of the abundance.* By the speech of the mouth the Lord signifies all the things which are brought forth from the heart by act or by thought. For a word is wont to be put for a deed; whence: *There was no word which he did not show them*.
46 And why call you me, Lord, Lord; and do not the things which I say?
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VERS. 46.-- *And why,* etc. This calling seems the fruit of a good tree, but because it does not proceed from the fatness of charity, God judges it not good. But what the true discernment of good or of evil fruits may be, he sets forth under another figure:
47 Every one that cometh to me and heareth my words and doth them, I will shew you to whom he is like.
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VERS. 47.-- *Everyone that cometh,* etc. After he has long disputed of the openly evil, and of the truly and the feignedly good, he likens good hearers of the word to himself, the evil to the devil. Because as Christ builds, instructs and governs one Church out of the various persons of men, being about to lead it into life eternal; so the good hearer builds for himself by various virtues a dwelling on high, being about to rejoice in the world to come with Christ at its dedication. And as the devil draws those who obey him from the heavens to earthly things and to sins, where there is no foundation, because evil is without substance, and always casts them down into worse things: so the evil hearer, whether he be initiated in the mysteries of Christ, or wholly a stranger, cast down as it were into a well without a bottom, finds not where to hold himself, but when he has come into the depth of evils, he despises.
48 He is like to a man building a house, who digged deep and laid the foundation upon a rock. And when a flood came, the stream beat vehemently upon that house: and it could not shake it: for it was founded on a rock.
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VERS. 48.-- *He digged deep.* He digs deep who by the precepts of humility roots out utterly from the hearts of his own all earthly things, that he may not serve God for the sake of anything fleeting, that he may have in them an unshaken dwelling. *He laid a foundation.* Foundations in the plural, the doctors; in the singular, the foundation, the doctor of doctors Christ. Morally. The foundations of the house are the intentions of a good manner of life, which through Christian humility, the rubbish of superfluous thoughts having been drawn off, the perfect hearer sets within himself, doing spiritually in himself what Christ does generally in the whole Church. *A flood.* This flood he elsewhere calls the gates of hell. *And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it*. This flood happens in three ways, because each man is tempted by his own concupiscence, or by the wickedness of false brethren, or by the open assault of those without. *Beaten upon.* By the rush of the river can be understood the crisis of the last judgment, when each Church has been consummated. *Everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted*. *That house.* Our several houses are daily beaten by the unquiet of unclean spirits, or of wicked men, or of one's own mind, or of the flesh. And in so far as they trust in their own strength, they are bowed down: in so far as they cleave to the most unconquered rock, they cannot be shaken.
49 But he that heareth and doth not is like to a man building his house upon the earth without a foundation: against which the stream beat vehemently. And immediately it fell: and the ruin of that house was great.
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VERS. 49.-- *Upon the earth,* etc. The devil builds upon the earth the world which is set in wickedness, because he draws it to the love of earthly things. He builds without a foundation, because sin does not subsist in its own nature, since evil is not a substance, which nevertheless, wherever it happens, grows together in a good nature, or without a foundation, that is, without a bottom. As therefore he who is plunged into a well is held at the bottom of the well, so the fallen soul stands as it were in a certain place of the bottom, if it holds itself within some measure of sin. But since it cannot be content with the sin into which it falls, while it is daily led to worse things, as in a well into which it has fallen it does not find a bottom whereon it may be fixed. *It fell down, and there was made a ruin,* etc. Every conscience which does not remain with its hope fixed in God is not able to persist in temptations, and is the more driven the more it is disjoined from things above in those things which are of the world. And truly all the evil, or the feignedly good, become worse when any temptation presses in.