Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/95

Rh the things which he is in the habit of breaking, he will not belong to the company of those who practise what they teach. Therefore, will this one not be of the number of the great fishes, for he who both practises and teaches, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And because he was great here, therefore he will be in the place where that least person is not. Yea, and so very great will they be there [that is, in heaven] that the one who there is the least is greater than he than whom here no one is greater. Nevertheless those who are great here, that is, those who are in the kingdom of heaven, where the net gathers together the good and the bad, and do the good things they teach—these shall be the greater in that eternal kingdom of heaven, even those who belong at God's right hand and to the resurrection of life, and those are they whom the fish represent." Thus far Augustine.

Augustine's words have the same meaning as the words of Gregory, namely, that the church gathers together the elect and the reprobate in the faith; and, secondly, that those who teach in the church and fill its seats of dignity and break God's commandments are reprobate. For he says: "Finally, in order to show that those least are the reprobate, who teach good things with their lips and break them with bad living, they will not only not be as the least in the eternal life in the future, but will not be there at all." In the third place, he teaches that faithful Christians, doing God's commands, indeed are great in God's holy church, and that prelates who occupy commanding offices and break the commandments are the least; and, if they are reprobate, then they will not be in the kingdom of God. Therefore, let the disciples of antichrist blush who live contrary to Christ and yet say they are the greatest in God's holy church and are most proud, and who, flourishing in public places by the covetousness and haughtiness of this world, are called the heads and the body of holy church, but who, according to the Gospel of Christ, deserve to be called the least. The fourth teaching is that the hun-