Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/94

42 As to the fourth proof, which runs, "Whosoever therefore shall do one of these least commandments"—to this St. Augustine aptly replies, Com. on John 21: 11 [ Nic. Fathers, 7: 443], where Simon Peter is said to draw "the net to land full of great fishes, a hundred and fifty and three." St. Augustine says: "'Whosoever will break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoso shall do and teach them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.' The latter, therefore, would belong to the number of the great fishes. But the former, that is, 'the least,' who in act breaks what he teaches in word, may be in such a church, which contains those who are represented by that first catch of fishes, which had both bad and good, because this catch is also called the kingdom of heaven—for he said, 'The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net cast into the sea, which gathers in all kinds of fish,' a parable by which he wishes both the good and the bad to be understood. And of these he says that they are to be separated on the shore, namely, at the end of the world. Then, in order to show that these 'least' are the reprobate, who teach good things with their lips and break them by their bad living, and will not be as the 'least' in the future in the life eternal, yea will not be there at all, for he had said, 'He shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven,'—Christ went on to say: 'For I say unto you, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.' Certainly, these are the scribes and Pharisees who sit in Moses' seat and of whom Christ said: 'Whatsoever things they say, these do ye, but whatsoever things they do, these do not ye, for they say and do not,' Matt. 23:2. They teach in words what they break in their lives. Therefore the conclusion is that he who is 'least in the kingdom of heaven,' the church now being made up of such as it is, will not enter into the kingdom of heaven, the church being then what it is to be; because, in teaching