The Thirty First Sermon, Which is the Eleventh Upon the Fourth Chapter - Ephesians 4:26-28
that we may see our own sins and shamefulness, be ashamed of ourselves, and also behold the righteousness which has been shown to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us tend thereto with the endeavor to be fashioned after it, so that we may come daily nearer and nearer to it until we fully cleave unto it. And in the meantime, may He bear with our infirmities, granting us the grace to amend them from day to day, in the hope that He will show Himself merciful towards us, provided we play the judges against ourselves in condemning all the vices we perceive to be in us. May it please Him to grant this grace, not only to us but also to all people and nations of the earth. Amen.
The Thirty First Sermon,
Which is the Eleventh Upon the Fourth Chapter 26. Be ye angry, and sin not: Let not the sun go down upon your anger, 27. Neither give place to the devil.
28. Let him that stole, steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands in the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
We saw last Sunday that if every one of us looked well to himself and to his own vices, we would have enough to prevent our chafing and anger from wreaking our wrath upon those who offend us. For we are already so wayward in ourselves that a small thing will put us out of patience. Therefore, the fault that another man commits against us, be it ever so small, will always set us in a rage.
And why is that? Because we take too much time to look upon other men's faults and, in the meantime, forget our own. The remedy, then, which is set down here to keep us from being so soon and so lightly offended at other men's faults, is that each of us should enter into himself and vex and chafe himself there when he sees himself so wretched, as indeed all of us are.
Now, after that Saint Paul has shown that it would be much better and more beneficial for us to be grieved at our own vices than to be offended at every small occasion when others do not behave to our liking, he adds this: "Let not the sun go down upon your anger."
We must not understand by this that Saint Paul meant to acquit those who are quick to anger and quickly appeased, for that is a vice
worthy of blame. Although it is more excusable than harboring displeasure that turns into rancor or hatred, we cannot be so soon pacified without already having offended God with our wrath. For we hear what is said even by the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ: "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment" (Matthew 5:22). We do not need to have given any blow or done any open wrong that might bring us before a judge; if we have only been offended enough to conceive a grudge, there is no excuse for us.
Therefore, when Saint Paul forbids us from nurturing our anger, he does not fully justify those who are gentle and easily reconciled and who will soon forgive, for they are already blameworthy, as I said before. He proceeds here by degrees, as if he should say, "My friends, if every one of us thought upon his own sins, it is certain that we would be moved to dislike ourselves, for we provoke God's wrath against us. And he who has a lively feeling of his own faults will arm himself against himself with them." We ought to have a zeal for God as if we were His attorneys, and that zeal should compel us to condemn evil wherever we find it.
But anger is always at our elbow; yes, it dwells in us, so we shall never be as perfect as we should wish to be as long as we are in this world. Yet, however the case stands, let us beware that we do not allow ourselves to be possessed by inordinate passions. If we conceive any resentment and go to bed upon it, surely we will be poisoned soon, and the mischief will not be easily perceived.
It is as if a man who already feels himself afflicted with some infectious disease lingers in his misery and by all means possible avoids the physician, running as far away from him as he possibly can if the physician offers to come to him. And afterward, when he
seeks a remedy, it is too late because the disease has settled and grown so strong that medicine can no longer help him. So it is with the man who is angry and continues in it without purging the malice from his heart; it is as if he had an internal and hidden disease that becomes so strong it later becomes incurable.
That is the second degree which Saint Paul sets down here. First, he shows us how we may be faultless before God in respect to anger and wrath: that is, by each of us thinking upon our own faults, condemning them, being sorry for them, and feeling such anguish of mind for them that we are as men half in despair. That is a holy anger, one which God approves of.
Yet, for as much as we are weak, if we commit a fault, at least let us not double it. And though we have offended God, let us not let it cause us to multiply wrath against Him, lest the devil gain possession of us and we cannot afterward abide being brought back again into the right way, but our passions overmaster us and lead us without end or measure. In any case, let us beware of that.
That also is why he says that we give place to the devil when the sun goes down upon our anger. It is true that as soon as we have tripped, the devil has already gained power over us; however, he is bridled in such a way that if we recognize our faults and amend them, God does not allow him to hold us captive as prisoners. But when we are so far gone as to take offense, liking our own testiness, and thereby conceive numerous grudges that fester inwardly more and more, we have given Satan entrance, and he has taken possession of us.
Afterward, it is too late to wish to return, for the mischief is rooted so deeply and has grown so strong that medicine can no longer do any good, as I have already shown. Now we see Saint Paul's meaning.
Therefore, let us put this doctrine into practice. The first point is to
examine the evil within us so that we may be angry with ourselves, and each of us becomes a foe to himself, driven by zeal toward God to hate and abhor our own vices. Let that be the first thing on which we focus our study, and then we shall have enough to occupy our chafing and anger.
We shall no longer be so hasty to take offense against those who have wronged us but will rather bear with those who have greatly offended us, because we will have enough business searching out our own imperfections. And, as I said before, we shall more easily bear with others' misdeeds when we perceive that we ourselves are blameworthy in so many ways, not only toward mortal creatures but also toward the living God. For who are we to make such a stir over every wrong done to us, when we seek forgiveness from God every day (as necessity also compels us) for the offenses we have committed against His majesty, through which we have broken His righteousness?
The very means, therefore, to appease all wicked and excessive anger is that each of us be grieved and angry with himself, because he sees himself subject to so many infirmities, or rather so many sins and vices.
For the second point, if we happen to stumble and fall through frailty, so that we are not held back by the fear of God and are guilty before Him, let us beware that we do not harden ourselves in our wrongdoing. As soon as we feel any immoderate stirring within us, let us step in front of it and endeavor to repress it. Let us use force in that regard to subdue our passions that carry us away, causing us to fight against God and our neighbors.
Thus, we must fight courageously to restrain all our anger. Or, if any excess has escaped us, let us come back again, reconsider, and rid it
quickly, knowing that it is like a disease that requires a speedy remedy, or else it will overgrow in such a way that all help will come too late. Let us think upon it.
Now, if Saint Paul had said no more than this: "My friends, let not the sun go down upon your anger, for if rancor does once settle, it will not be easily put away," it would have been much, and that warning ought to have sufficed us. But the threat he sets down with it, in that he says, "Give no place to the devil," ought to make the hairs stand up on our heads (Ephesians 4:26-27).
Some indeed have expounded it to be spoken of the enemies of the faith who seek occasion to slander it. But it is easy to see from the words themselves that he intended to warn us of something we ought to be more afraid of and which will scare us worse: that is to say, that the devil gets, as it were, mastery and dominion over us when we feed any grudge or heartburning against our brethren.
Now then, which of us will not quake with fear when we hear of our subjection to Satan, as if we were in his bonds like a prisoner? And yet, for all that, we take no heed of the things that are told us here.
For Saint Paul has uttered God's sentence, which is that if we pursue our anger and heartburning against those who have offended us, it is all one as if we willfully passed an obligation to Satan to be held as thralls under his tyranny.
Therefore, it stands us in hand all the more to consider carefully that if that vice cannot be thoroughly amended at the first onset, we may at least be well aware that it does not so settle in us that we cannot be reconciled again, or that we should pursue our quarrels, or that nothing would be able to weigh with us until we have taken some revenge. Let us take heed, I say, that we do not enter into such bondage of Satan.
And for that reason, it is said that when people fret and chafe in that fashion, of one devil there are made two. And why? Because God is already offended at my neighbor for doing me wrong, and if I also fall to resenting the matter on my part and feel the need to repay him in kind, the devil has won us both. I ought to pity the soul that is already, in a way, led astray and on the high road to perdition. I ought to seek to be reconciled with him again and to heal the sore as much as possible. But if I, too, let the reins loose and cast myself into Satan's slavery through the cursed liberty I take, then he gains the upper hand of both parties.
So then, let us keep this threatening well in mind, whereby the Holy Spirit meant to wake us thoroughly so that each of us might stand on guard, beware of taking offense or bearing a grudge, and avoid afterward conceiving such hatred that may harden us so there will be no more means to appease us.
Now, hereunto Saint Paul adds another warning (as I have declared already), wherein he rebukes the common vices that are contrary to the rule which our Lord gives us, to the intent that we should live as God's children, knowing whereunto we are called. Now, he speaks of the deceits, robberies, and extortions that are committed when every man is too much wedded to himself and has no conscience of other men's harms.
"Let him that stole," says he, "steal no more; but rather let him labor with his hands to do the things that are good and profitable, and wherewith he may succor such as have need" (Ephesians 4:28).
Now, when Saint Paul speaks here of theft, he does not mean such thieves as men punish with whipping or hanging, but all manner of sleights and crafts that are used to get other men's goods by evil practices, such as extortions, briberies, and all other like things.
Although such things may be faced out, or those who are most guilty of them may not be accused before men because they know how to cloak their misdoings, yet does Saint Paul call them all thefts and robberies. And why? Because the prophets and apostles did not speak in the ordinary manner of speech that is used in courts of justice on earth; they had an eye to the judgment seat of God.
For the thing that may be excused, yea, and perhaps well justified before men, shall not fail to be condemned there. For God sees much clearer than mortal creatures. Again, favor or partiality may often sway in legal matters, so that there shall be cloaking, dissembling, and covering, and the judges shall like well enough to have a napkin tied before their eyes, that a man may have some starting hole to escape out at. They may often like well enough of such things, but it is not so with God.
Wherefore, let us mark well that the forbidding of us to steal is not like the publishing of some statute law that belongs to temporal policy, but we are called before the heavenly judge, who discovers the things that are hidden from men and condemns all wicked covetousness as theft, whereby we are moved to seek our own profit too much to the hindrance of our neighbor. To be short, under this word "theft" or "stealing," Saint Paul comprehends all the wicked practices that are used to deceive others with, and also all extortions whereby men are fleeced of their goods and bereft of their substance.
Now, then, we see that there are thieves to be found of all degrees.
For there is not a man who is not busy gripping to himself—I mean those who are not reformed by God's spirit. Although a merchant man may be counted of good wealth, yet he will have store of fetches and policies still, and they shall be as nets laid for the simple sort and such as have no experience, who do not perceive them. In like case is
it with handicraftsmen; for they have the skill to counterfeit their works in such a wise that men shall be deceived by them. Again, as touching the price, there is no trusting to them; all is one to them, so long as they may sell their wares, for they think that all is lawful for them. Likewise, do laborers and husbandmen. To be short, there is no state of men wherein there are not infinite faults and extortions to be seen, so that every man would gain and make himself strongest.
If you look upon the rich and upon such as live off their rents, it is yet worse. For they flay off the skins of the inferior people and of such as are unable to resist them. And yet before men (as I said), all of them justify themselves; however, that is because they do not know that God has sounded here his trumpet to summon them before him, nor consider what manner of perfection and pureness must be brought unto him. So much the more, therefore, does it stand us in hand to try not only all our outward deeds but also all our wicked affections whereby we are tempted to enrich ourselves beyond reason and measure.
And Saint Paul says purposely that he who has stolen should steal no more to show that there ought to appear such a change in our life when God has once brought us home to himself by his Gospel, as we may no more resemble the wretched unbelievers who walk in darkness, but consider that our Lord's enlightening of us is with the condition that we should become new creatures.
Herewithal, we see the thing I have touched on already: namely, that Saint Paul does not speak of the common thefts that are condemned and punished before the world, for then it would follow that all had been thieves who had been converted to Christianity. But (as I said before) he uses the word "steal" purposely to make us abhor all craftiness, malice, subtlety, and the catching of other men's goods all
the more. For if it had been said but thus: "Use no more craft to deceive men, neither take ye leave to pull the things to you that are none of your own," he would not have touched them so much to the quick, who flatter themselves and seek to have some cover to cloak their vices withal.
But when he says, "Steal no more," it is to the end that we should think thus with ourselves: Alas, although I would fain excuse myself, and it seems to me that it was not done amiss of me, and men have bleared eyes, yet I must not rest upon that. For in the meantime, my faults shall not fail to be registered before God, and I must be fain to yield an account of all things that have not been done according to uncorrupt equity and right, and I must be taken for a thief before God, notwithstanding that all the world has acquitted me.
But now, let us see how well this doctrine is put in practice. A man shall find that those who are converted to the Gospel take the most liberty to do evil. It would seem that a number have learned nothing else by the Gospel but to busy themselves about petty sleights to entangle other men's goods. For there are those to be seen who used greater simplicity in the time when they were blind wretches and knew nothing of God and of the pure doctrine of salvation, for they had at least some uprightness and plain dealing toward the world.
But they have so profited backward in God's school that they are far craftier than they were before, in making their own advantage, in taking more liberty, and in bearing themselves on the hand that all things are lawful for them. And they are so shameless in facing and bolstering out their doings that they merely make light of it and believe they have been greatly wronged when they are blamed for things that are plainly known to all men and of which even little children may be judges.
So much the more, then, are we to be condemned, seeing that Paul tells us here that although we enriched ourselves by craft and extortion and made no conscience to rake other men's goods to us before we had good teaching, yet at least we should be well advised to walk more uprightly with our neighbors, now that we are enlightened by God's Word. You see then that the thing we have to bear in mind upon this text is that our Lord Jesus Christ's doctrine ought to rule us in such singleness that every one of us may forgo his craftiness and subtleties.
Furthermore, forasmuch as a number excuse themselves, saying, "How shall I do then? For I have no trade to live by unless I may still follow my own manner of dealing," Saint Paul says, "Let them labor."
Let him who would make it an excuse that he has no way to provide for himself except by deceit and fraud, let him (says Paul) give himself to laboring with his hands. As if he said that men's dispensing with themselves under the color that they should then fast and endure many miseries and penuries is a trifling matter before God. All those allegations are neither here nor there before God, says Saint Paul. For if anyone is afraid that he shall want, let him not forbear to labor. Mark that for one point.
And here, let us learn to leave these self-soothings, wherewith a number of folks put themselves to sleep, who, when they have said,
"What shall I do?" persuade themselves that God's mouth is stopped and that He dares not come near them again. They will need to be so privileged that, to their own seeming, they are quite clear if they can allege for themselves, "How then? Whereof shall I live? What shall I do if I do not follow my accustomed trade?" It seems to us that God is shut out of the gate and that He has no more authority to condemn us when we have once alleged those things for ourselves. But that is folly, says Saint Paul.
We should rather scratch up the earth with our nails than offend God by doing wrong to our neighbors. The thing then to which he sends us back is that when a man has grown rich and has lived a long time at his ease by filching and stealing—that is to say, by petty, fine sleights and conveyances that are against equity and right—let him not be ashamed to lower his pride and to labor for his living.
Although he has previously done nothing but sit still and gotten his living by devising mischief, yet let him not be ashamed to labor and to take pains for his sustenance.
To be short, Saint Paul shows us here that all unlawful gains must be left by those who call themselves Christians and wish to be taken as such. And this warning is as needful for us nowadays as ever it was for any. For besides the fact that we must abstain from all subtlety and deceit when God once calls us to be His children and would have us maintain a brotherhood among ourselves, many of us also must give up our trades of living. For what a number of means to live upon are there in the papacy?
But when we come before God, let us always remember this definitive sentence which I have set down: namely, that we consider how the case concerns our not answering before an earthly judge, but before Him who sees all things and before whom nothing can be cloaked. Therefore, let us think well upon it, seeing there are so many means excusable in popery, whereby almost a fourth part of the world is maintained, and yet all of them are not only unavailing but also abominable before God.
First of all, there are priests and monks, and all the rabble of cloisterers. Secondly, there are their hangers-on who live off them and are, as it were, their hired men, who gain something by them and skim off some part of their fat by one means or another. Under this
cover lurks a very long tail that is turned in and out like a maze.
Again, there is a great sort to be seen who give themselves wholly to things that are worth nothing. True, it is that in this darkness of theirs, men do not see very well; insomuch that black (as you would say) is turned into white. But yet, however the case stands, there is no excuse for men in this behalf.
Every man must have an eye to this: that as heretofore I have filched and plundered to get my living and have exercised some wicked practice or other, which God condemns by His Word, seeing I have defiled myself by eating the bread which did not come to me lawfully from the hand of God as it should do, according to my asking of my daily bread from Him, but by filching here and there—I must now henceforth change my ways and learn to labor in such wise that I may truly say that the things which I have come to me by God's blessing.
That is the thing we have to remember upon this lesson of Saint Paul's. And it behooves us to put it so much the better in practice, considering that thievery is more rife nowadays in the world than ever it was, and yet, notwithstanding, a number of men still flatter themselves in that behalf because the belly will needs have the upper hand.
"When a man has enough to live on," they say, "and all things necessary besides, it is good reason that he should not exempt himself from God's Word; but that we should starve for hunger, what order were in that? What rigor were it?" Forasmuch then as we are so inclined to seek to be provided for by hook or by crook, without regarding what is lawful or unlawful, let us think the better upon the things that Saint Paul tells us here.
And he proceeds yet one degree further in this change, which he enjoins upon all the faithful. He tells them they must not only abstain from defrauding others and from taking their goods, but also endeavor to help those who are in need. Although it may seem too harsh to us to abstain from all evil, and that instead of living at our ease, as we have been accustomed to do, and of having many comforts, we should be forced to scratch our living out of the earth with our nails (as they say) and labor with great pain and toil, even to the point of living very sparingly—although (I say) this may seem very hard, yet we must go further.
When we have what is needed to provide for ourselves without resorting to wicked practices, we must occasionally spare something of what God gives us through His blessing to relieve the needy.
Therefore, let us not look to what we are inclined to do but consider that by our own nature, we are so stubborn and wedded to our own profit that each of us always wants to be well provided for. Since we have so little regard for those who are members of the body of our
Lord Jesus Christ as well as ourselves, we must make an effort to do them good, for that is a labor that will lead us to another.
We must, I say, force all our affections, and thereupon employ ourselves earnestly and sincerely, so that we may be able to declare that the bread we eat comes to us from God's hand and that we are sustained by His goodness, just as if it were from a father who divides out to each of his children their portion. Let us be resolved on that point. Moreover, let us not think it enough to abstain from all craftiness, from manipulating others with our schemes, and from taking others' goods, but let us labor to do good with the little we have and to help those who are in need.
Howbeit, Saint Paul adds here yet one more circumstance, which deserves to be well noted: that is, he would have us labor in the thing that is good. And why does he add that? Let us consider how many trades, crafts, or occupations there are in the world that serve for nothing but corruption and to draw in money, as they say. Truly, people are not aware of it. And why? Because everyone is content that those who have the means should be prodigal, so their money may circulate widely. Again, those who (in their own estimation) cannot earn their living otherwise are inventing new devices every day to angle money out of fools' purses and from those given to frivolity. Again, those who have wealth will set themselves up and be proud before the world.
That is why the occupations and trades that serve only for pomp, superfluity, and for what I know not—niceness and allurements, provoking people to lewdness—make people believe that nothing is amiss with them. But Saint Paul, therefore, makes a distinction here.
It is not enough when someone says, "Oh, I take pains, I have my occupation, or I have such a trade." That is not enough; one must see whether it is good and profitable for the commonwealth and whether one's neighbors may fare the better by it.
Shouldn't this be the end to which all trades, occupations, and states tend and ought to refer themselves: that everyone aims to employ themselves in something beneficial? For the same reason, we are likened to the members of a body. Now then, as if to say, the hand should employ itself to the delight of some other member, which, nevertheless, should receive harm by it. By that means, the whole body would go to destruction. So then, we must always keep in mind that in whatever calling we live, God must go before us, as if He called us to Him, and we follow the way that He shows us by His
Word. Surely, He will never allow any trade or occupation which is
not beneficial and serviceable to the whole commonwealth and redounds also to the profit of all.
Therefore, if someone uses a trade or occupation that serves only to breed offenses, to indulge people in their delicate delights, to utterly ruin them, or to excessively promote pomp, as though people intended, even in spite of nature, to make havoc of the good things
God has given us, it is certain that all these things are outside the compass of godly vocations or callings, and that God utterly disallows them. You may well say, "I have toiled in this or that." Yes, but you have served the devil. For just as the devil has his martyrs, so he also has his servants. We see how those given to superstition martyr themselves without end or ceasing and are, as one might say, stark mad upon it and as good as out of their wits.
Often, the Scripture also uses the same comparisons to show how the devil casts people completely out of their bounds when he once possesses them. You see then that many people torment themselves without reason; yes, but yet they are the devil's martyrs. Likewise, there are a great number who have taken much pain in some trade or occupation to get their living, and yet if one looks at what purpose it serves, he shall find it to be nothing but infection and filthiness, and that it serves only to nourish pride and superfluity. To be short, it is an open provocation of God, and a wasting and misspending of the things God has given, with the commandment to use them soberly and steadily.
No wonder, therefore, that Saint Paul has made this distinction. And therefore let every man look diligently to himself, and when fathers are minded to set their children to any trade or occupation, let them not look (as is the common custom) at which may be most gainful.
Instead, let them match these two things together: when they have
considered by what trade their son may best earn his living and provide for himself and his household when he comes to be married, let them also consider that he serves his neighbor's needs and that the use of his craft or mystery may redound to the common profit of all.
The thing, then, which fathers must have respect to in setting their children to trades and occupations is not to be preoccupied with how they may most gain, but how they may always be held in order and not swerve one way or another. For when our desires carry us away, and we can no sooner spy a little gain but we are by and by snatching at it, it is as if we shook hands with Satan. Yes, and these things become like baited hooks that he casts for us.
Just as a hungry fish will soon be caught, and the food she reached for costs her dearly, so it fares with these enticements of Satan.
When people have no further foresight but say, "Oh, such a man gained well by such a trade, and great profit may be made of it," they step to it at all adventure, without any consideration of whether it is right or wrong. They are choked before they ever come to that consideration. So much the more, therefore, it stands us in good stead to mark well what Saint Paul says here: that when people are desirous to get their living, they must think carefully and not excuse themselves by doing things just because they are customarily done by others and no fault is found with them among men. Rather, they should consider that they have to do with God, and that it is He before whom we must make our account.
Again, let us have a good eye to the thing that is told us here, that is to say, to the succoring of the needy. For Saint Paul intended to warn us in one word, that our Lord, in setting poor folks before us, intends to try what we are, namely, whether there is kindness in us, or
whether we are cruel like wild beasts. This is also something that ought to move us to compassion. For the same reason, when the Scripture speaks of doing alms, it not only uses the word mercy but also says that our bowels ought to be moved when we see our brethren in need.
You see then that the sight of our neighbors' necessities ought to provoke us to liberality and to relieve them. Let us not wait until they cry out for hunger, or until we are forced, or until shame compels us.
But let each of us think, does this person have a need? Has God set him before me? Has He made me aware of it? That is enough. For it is as if He has summoned me and sent me His receivers or rentgatherers to take up His revenues. Just as those who have revenues and rents send their men to demand them and gather them up, so our Lord requires of us that we should pay Him His tributes—that is to say, the homage money that we owe Him, in acknowledgment that the things we possess come from Him and are of His mere free gift.
He does not send sheriffs or sergeants, but the poor, and that should suffice us, for they are His true receivers. This is so that we should not be reluctant to give to them. The reason their necessity is set before our eyes is so that we should be touched with pity and compassion, and thereby be inclined to do good.
So then, let us mark that the summary of the things spoken of here is, first, that we should forsake all manner of trades to live by which are not in agreement with God's Word, assuring ourselves that we will always be considered thieves before Him if we use any wicked trades. And although we have good assurance that our calling is good and lawful, we must use it in such a way that there is no ravening, craft, or deceit in it. Mark that for one point.
Again, let us understand that there is no excuse for us before God; although we may allege famine, poverty, or necessity, all that will not serve to acquit us. We must put our hands to labor, that we may earn our living lawfully and refrain from profiting ourselves by other men's losses. Finally, besides binding up our hands from doing any man wrong and from using any clever tricks and sleights to get other men's goods, let us have regard to do good.
Yes, and let us have special care to succor those in need, yet with the things that God has given us of our own. For these are the offerings and sacrifices we must make unto Him in acknowledgment of His benefits. We know that almsdeeds are called sacrifices. Therefore, when we do them, we must protest with an unfeigned and true heart that we come to do homage to God for the things we hold from Him.
If there is any theft in our hands, it is certain that our sacrifices will be unclean, and our almsdeeds will be turned into loathsomeness.
Let every man beware that he does not pill and poll with one hand, only to give of it soon after with the other. Let each of us have both our hands clean. Neither let us have a double heart, but labor with all uprightness to earn our living in such a way that if God sends us any profit by it, we may take it as His free gift. In good truth, Moses also forbids us to attribute any part of our gain to our own running or to the labor of our hands, for God will have us be beholden to Him for all (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).
Therefore, when we do any alms, let it be with this protestation, not only with our mouth but also in heart and deed. Namely, that according as our Lord has shown Himself liberal unto us, bestowed upon us, and given us over and above what we need to serve our own needs, we are willing to do Him homage with it. Let us show indeed that we do not intend to keep to ourselves the things He has given us