{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/106/1060048.htm","path":"chr/ecf/106/1060048.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/106/1060048.htm","text":"59. And inasmuch as when such things are either provided against the time p. 54 to come, or reserved, if there is no cause wherefore you should expend them, it is uncertain with what intention it is done, since it may be done with a single heart, and also with a double one, He has seasonably added in this passage: \u201cJudge not, 426 that ye be not judged. 427 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, 428 and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.\u201d In this passage, I am of opinion that we are taught nothing else, but that in the case of those actions respecting which it is doubtful with what intention they are done, we are to put the better construction on them. For when it is written, \u201cBy their fruits ye shall know them,\u201d the statement has reference to things which manifestly cannot be done with a good intention; such as debaucheries, or blasphemies, or thefts, or drunkenness, and all such things, of which we are permitted to judge, according to the apostle\u2019s statement: \u201cFor what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?\u201d 429 But concerning the kind of food, because every kind of human food can be taken indiscriminately with a good intention and a single heart, without the vice of concupiscence, the same apostle forbids that they who ate flesh and drank wine be judged by those who abstained from such kinds of sustenance: \u201cLet not him that eateth,\u201d says he, \u201cdespise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not, judge him that eateth.\u201d There also he says: \u201cWho art thou that judges another man\u2019s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.\u201d 430 For in reference to such matters as can be done with a good and single and noble intention, although they may also be done with an intention the reverse of good, those parties wished, howbeit they were [mere] men, to pronounce judgment upon the secrets of the heart, of which God alone is Judge.\n60. To this category belongs also what he says in another passage: \u201cTherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts 431 of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.\u201d 432 There are therefore certain ambiguous actions, respecting which we are ignorant with what intention they are performed, because they may be done both with a good or with an evil one, of which it is rash to judge, especially for the purpose of condemning. Now the time will come for these to be judged, when the Lord \u201cwill bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts.\u201d In another passage also the same apostle says: \u201cSome men\u2019s aims are manifest beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.\u201d He calls those sins manifest, with regard to which it is clear with what intention they are done; these go before to judgment, because if a judgment shall follow, it is not rash. But those which are concealed follow, because neither shall they remain hid in their own time. So we must understand with respect to good works also. For he adds to this effect: \u201cLikewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.\u201d 433 Let us judge, therefore, with respect to those which are manifest; but respecting those which are concealed, let us leave the judgment to God: for they also cannot be hid, whether they be good or evil, when the time shall come for them to be manifested.\n61. There are two things, moreover, in which we ought to beware of rash judgment; when it is uncertain with what intention any thing is done; or when it is uncertain what sort of a person he is going to be, who at preset is manifestly either good or bad. If, therefore, any one, for example, complaining of his stomach, would not fast, and you, not believing this, were to attribute it to the vice of gluttony, you would judge rashly. Likewise, if you were to come to know the gluttony and drunkenness as being manifest, and were so to administer reproof as if the man could never be amended and changed, you would nevertheless judge rashly. Let us not therefore reprove those things about which we do not know with what intention they are done; nor let us so reprove those things which are manifest, as that we should despair of a return to a right state of mind; and thus we shall avoid the judgment of which in the present instance it is said, \u201cJudge not, that ye be not judged.\u201d\n62. But what He says may cause perplexity: \u201cFor with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.\u201d Is it the case, then, that if we shall judge any thing with a rash judgment, God will also judge rashly with respect to us? or if we shall measure any thing with an unjust measure, is there with God also an unjust measure, according to which it shall be measured to us again? (for by the expression measure also, I suppose the judgment itself is meant.) By no means does God either judge rashly, or recompense to any one with an unjust measure; but it is so expressed, inasmuch as p. 55 that very same rashness wherewith you punish another must necessarily punish yourself. Unless, perchance, it is to be imagined that injustice does harm in some way to him against whom it goes forth, but in no way to him from whom it goes forth; but nay, it often does no harm to him who suffers the injury, but it must necessarily do harm to him who inflicts it. For what harm did the injustice of the persecutors do to the martyrs? None; but very much to the persecutors themselves. For although some of them were turned from the error of their ways, yet at the time at which they were acting as persecutors, their wickedness was blinding them. So also a rash judgment frequently does no harm to him who is the object of the rash judgment; but to him who judges rashly, the rashness itself must necessarily do harm. According to such a rule, I judge of that saying also: \u201cEvery one that strikes 434 with the sword shall perish with the sword.\u201d 435 For how many take the sword, and yet do not perish with the sword, Peter himself being an instance! But lest any should think that he escaped such punishment by the pardon of his sins (although nothing could be more absurd than to think that the punishment of the sword, which did not befall Peter, could have been greater than that of the cross, which actually befell him), yet what would they say of the malefactors who were crucified with our Lord; for both he who got pardon, got it after he was crucified, and the other did not get it at all? 436 Or had they perhaps crucified all whom they had slain; and did they therefore themselves too deserve to suffer the same thing? It is ridiculous to think so. For what else is meant by the statement, \u201cFor all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword,\u201d but that the soul dies by that very sin, whatever it may be, which it has committed?\nSine scientia, amore, necessitate (\u201cwithout knowledge, love, necessity.\u201d\u2014Bengel). The discussion is one of the most thorough and satisfactory sections of Augustin\u2019s commentary.\n54:427\nJudicetur de vobis\u2026judicabitur; Vulgate, judicemini\u2026judicabimini.\n54:428\nCogitationes; Vulgate, consilia.\n54:432 54:433 55:434\nOmnis qui percusserit; Vulgate, omnes qui acceperint.\n55:435 55:436","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VI: Our Lord\u2019s ...","type":"page"}