Complete Works of Saint Jerome, Vol. VII

reconciled, nor could the flesh do anything unless the mind or the Holy Spirit dwelling in us had commanded it, or [if] the flesh or soul resisting [the law] were to be handed over to the judge, when He Himself is the Judge. Others, according to the Epistle of Peter saying: Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about (I Peter v, 8), and the rest, interpret the adversary as the devil, and they wish the Savior to command that, while it is in our power, we should be benevolent towards the devil, who is an enemy and avenger, and not make him suffer punishments for our sake. For since he himself provides the incentives of vices, and even if we sin by our own will, if we have consented to him suggesting vices, he is to be tormented for us. And they say that each of the saints is benevolent to his adversary if he does not make him sustain torments for himself. Some argue more strictly that in baptism individuals enter into a pact with the devil and say: I renounce thee, O devil, and thy pomp, and thy vices, and thy world which is placed in wickedness (I John v, 19). If, therefore, we have kept the pact, we are benevolent and in agreement with our adversary, and by no means to be cast into prison. But if we have transgressed anything of those things which we promised to the devil, we shall be handed over to the judge and the officer, and we shall be sent into prison, and we shall not go out of it until we repay the last farthing. A farthing quadrans quarter-penny is a kind of coin which has two mites minuta small coins. Whence in another Gospel, that poor widow woman is said to have put a farthing into the treasury (Mark xii, 42), and in another, two mites (Luke xxi, 2). Not that the Gospels disagree, but that one farthing has two mite coins. This, therefore, is what He says: You shall not go out of prison until you pay even the smallest sins.

(Vers. 28.) "Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart."

Between pathos passion and propatheia pre-passion/initial impulse, that is, between passion and pre-passion, there is this difference, that passion is counted as a vice: pre-passion, although it may have the guilt of a beginning, is not held as a crime. Therefore, he who sees a woman, and his soul is tickled, he is struck by a pre-passion. If, however, he consents, and has made an affect out of the thought, just as it is written in David: They passed into the affect of the heart (Psalm lxxii, 7), he has passed from pre-passion to passion, and for this one, the will to sin is not lacking, but the occasion. Whoever, therefore, shall look on a woman to lust after her, that is, if he looks so that he may lust, so that he may dispose himself to act, he is rightly said to commit adultery with her in his heart.

(Vers. 29, 30.) "And if thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell.

A And if thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, than that thy whole body be cast into hell." Because He had spoken above of the lust of a woman, He rightly now calls the thought and sense fluttering into different things the eye. Through the right hand and other parts of the body, the beginnings of the will and affect are demonstrated: so that what we conceive in the mind, we fulfill in deed. It must be guarded, therefore, that what is best in us does not quickly slip into vice. For if the right eye and right hand scandalize, how much more those things which are on our left! For if the soul slips, how much more the body, which is more prone to sins! Otherwise: In the right eye, and in the right hand, is shown the affect of brothers, wives, and children, and kin and relatives, which if we see are an impediment to us in contemplating the true light, we ought to truncate such portions, lest while we wish to gain others, we ourselves perish eternally. Whence it is said also of the high priest, whose soul is dedicated to the worship of God: He shall not be polluted upon his father and mother and sons (Leviticus xxi, 11), that is, he shall know no affect except that of Him to whose worship he is dedicated.

(Vers. 31-33.) "And it hath been said: Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you: that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery. Again you have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not forswear thyself: but thou shalt perform thy oaths to the Lord."

In the latter part, the Savior explains this place more fully, that Moses (Deut. xxiv) ordered a bill of divorce to be given because of the hardness of the hearts of husbands (Matt. xix, 8), not granting division, but taking away homicide. For it is much better, although a sad discord may happen, than for blood to be shed through hatred.

(Vers. 34-37.) "But I say to you not to swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God: nor by the earth, for it is his footstool: nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head: because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your speech be yea, yea: no, no: and that which is over and above these, is of evil."

This very bad habit of swearing by the elements the Jews are known to have always had, just as the prophetic speech frequently reproves them (Isa. lxv, 16). He who swears, either venerates or loves Him by whom he swears. In the law, it is commanded that we should not swear, except by the Lord our God (Deut. vi, 13).