Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost The Gospel Mat.6.v.24 Monday Meditation: A Plaine Path-way To Heaven Thomas Hill 1634


GOSPEL Matt. 6:24-33 
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: "No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. "Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment? Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? "And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is to day, and to morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith? "Be not solicitous therefore, saying: What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you."

MONDAY MEDITATION

This Gospel speaketh of Servants in these words: No man can serve two Masters: It speaketh of Love and hate in these words, for either he will love the one, and hate the other: It speaketh of Masters in these words, no man can serve two Masters: and that it is meant of two Masters opposite or contrary one to another, appeareth by these words; A man cannot serve God and Mammon, that is to say, God and the Devil, which are the most opposite one to another of all things in the world. And first concerning servants: as there be some that be born servants. Such as all mankind is unto God as is aforesaid; so some do make themselves servants by consent, being otherwise free, such are all sinners, as are unto death, as St. John termeth them, that is to say, deadly sins: For whosoever committeth such a sin maketh himself, as St. Paul, sayth, a servant, or a slave unto sin, and consequently to the Devil the Father of sin: for as St Peter sayth, of whom a man is overcome, his servant he is, and so he that committeth mortal sin maketh the devil his Master, by consent, yea by a full and deliberate consent, for without such a consent , a deadly sin, is not committed.

Nay he that keepth all the commandments of God and breaketh but one mortal sin maketh the devil his Master, by consent, yea by a full and deliberate consent, for without such a consent, a deadly sin, is not committed.

Nay he that keepeth all the commandments of God and breaketh but one mortally, that is to say, committing a mortal sin, thereby is the servant of the Devil, till he convert himself to God again, and do penance for his sin: so saith St. James, he that keepeth all the commandments & breaketh one, is guilty of all: Even as he that believeth all articles of faith and faileth in one, believeth none, nor hath any divine faith at all.

Concerning the second point, to wit, Love and Hate; there be two kind of Loves, natural and supernatural , speculative and practical; Naturally we cannot chose but love God, and hate the Devil, because God is the natural object of our love, the devil of hate; God being our supreme and final Good; the devil our supreme and final evil.

Practical love, is to do the will and commandment of him whom we love, out of the motive of love, according whereunto Christ saith, He that loveth me, keepeth my commandments: and St. John sayth, If any man say, he loveth God, and keepeth not his commandments, he is a liar: & St. Gregory sayth, the exhibition of our work, is the demonstration of our love, and therefore it is called practical, because we practice our love, or put our love in practice.


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