{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/106/1060044.htm","path":"chr/ecf/106/1060044.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/106/1060044.htm","text":"47. Then, further, the statement which follows, \u201cNo man can serve two masters,\u201d is to be referred to this very intent, as He goes on to explain, saying: \u201cFor either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will 374 submit to the one, and despise the other.\u201d And these words are to be carefully considered; for who the two masters are he forthwith shows, when He says, \u201cYe cannot serve God and mammon.\u201d Riches are said to be called mammon among the Hebrews. The Punic name also corresponds: for gain is called mammon in Punic. 375 But he who serves mammon certainly serves him who, as being set over those earthly things in virtue of his perversity, is called by our Lord the prince of this world. 376 A man will therefore \u201ceither hate\u201d this one, \u201cand love the other,\u201d i.e. God; \u201cor he will submit to the one, and despise the other.\u201d For whoever serves mammon submits to a hard and ruinous master: for, being entangled by his own lust, he becomes a subject of the devil, and he does not love him; for who is there who loves the devil? But yet he submits to him; as in any large house he who is connected with another man\u2019s maid servant submits to hard bondage on account of his passion. even though he does not love him whose maid-servant he loves.\n48. But \u201che will despise the other,\u201d He has said; not, he will hate. For almost no one\u2019s conscience can hate God; but he despises, i.e. he does not fear Him, as if feeling himself secure in consideration of His goodness. From this carelessness and ruinous security the Holy Spirit recalls us, when He says by the prophet, \u201cMy son, do not add sin upon sin, and say, The mercy of God is great ;\u201d 377 and, \u201cKnowest thou not that the patience 378 of God inviteth 379 thee to repentance?\u201d 380 For whose mercy can be mentioned as being so great as His, who pardons all the sins of those who return, and makes the wild olive a partaker of the fatness of the olive? and whose severity as being so great as His, who spared not the natural branches, but broke them off because of unbelief? 381 But let not any one who wishes to love God, and to beware of offending Him, suppose that he can serve two masters; 382 and let him disentangle the upright intention of his heart from all doubleness: for thus he will think of the Lord with a good heart, and in simplicity of heart will seek Him. 383\nAlterum patietur; Vulgate, unum sustinebit.\n49:375\nAugustin is the only one to give this derivation. His residence in North Africa is the explanation of his knowledge of the Punic. The word probably comes from the Chaldee and through the Hebrew word aman, \u201cwhat is trusted in.\u201d (See Thayer, Lexicon.)\n49:376 49:377 49:378\nPatientia\u2026invitat; Vulgate, benignitas\u2026adducit.\n49:379\nLuther says the world can do it in a masterly way, and carry the tree (or \u201cwater\u201d according to the English figure) on both shoulders. This verse is a rebuke to those who think they can combine a supreme affection for heavenly and for earthly things at the same time, and pursue both with equal zeal.\n49:383","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VI: Our Lord\u2019s ...","type":"page"}