From Sermon XL in Sermons on Selected New Testament Lessons:
So let charity be advanced, so be it nourished, that being nourished it may
be perfected; so be "the wedding garment" put on; so be the image of God, after
which we were created, by this our advancing, engraven anew in us. For by sin
was it bruised, and worn away. How is it bruised? how worn away? When it is
rubbed against the earth? And what is, "When it is rubbed against the earth "?
When it is worn by earthly lusts. For "though man50 walketh in this image, yet
is he disquieted in vain."51 Truth is looked for in God's image, not vanity.By
the love of the truth then be that image, afterwhich we were created, engraven
anew, and His Own tribute rendered to our Caesar. For so ye have heard from the
Lord's answer, when the Jews tempted Him, as He said, "Why tempt ye Me, ye
hypocrites; show Me the tribute money,"52 that is, the impress and
superscription of the image. Show me what ye pay, what ye get ready, what is
exacted of you. And "they showed Him a denarius;" and "He asked whose image and
superscription it had." They answered, "Caesar's." So Caesar looks for his own
image. It is not Caesar's will that what he ordered to be made should be lost to
him, and it is not surely God's will that what He hath made should be lost to
Him. Caesar, my Brethren, did not make the money; the masters of the mint53 make
it; the workmen have their orders, he issues his commands to his ministers. His
image was stamped upon the money; on the money was Caesar's image. And yet he
requires what others have stamped; he puts it in his treasures; he will not have
it refused him. Christ's coin is man. In him is Christ's image, in him Christ's
Name, Christ's gifts, Christ's rules of duty.54
50 Serm. x. (lx. Ben.) 2, etc.
51 Ps. xxxviii. 7, Sept. (xxxix. 6 English version).
52 Matt. xxii. 18, 19.
53 Monetarii.
54 Officia.
From the Harmony of the Gospels Book II:
Chapter LXXII.-Of the Harmony Characterizing the Narratives Given by These
Three Evangelists Regarding the Duty of Rendering to Caesar the Coin Bearing His
Image, and Regarding the Woman Who Had Been Married to the Seven Brothers.
140. Matthew then continues in these terms: "Then went the Pharisees, and
took counsel how they might entangle Him in His talk. And they send out unto Him
their disciples, with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true,
and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man; for thou
regardest not the person of men: tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it
lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" and so on, down to the words, "And
when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at His doctrine."507 Mark
and Luke give a similar account of these two replies made by the Lord,-namely,
the one on the subject of the coin, which was prompted by the question as to the
duty of giving tribute to Caesar; and the other on the subject of the
resurrection, which was suggested by the case of the woman who had married the
seven brothers in succession. Neither do these two evangelists differ in the
matter of the order.508 For after the parable which told of the men to whom the
vineyard was let out, and which also dealt with the Jews (against whom it was
directed), and the evil counsel they were devising (which sections are given by
all three evangelists together), these two, Mark and Luke, pass over the parable
of the guests who were invited to the wedding (which only Matthew has
introduced), and thereafter they join company again with the first evangelist,
when they record these two passages which deal with Caesar's tribute, and the
woman who was the wife of seven different husbands, inserting them in precisely
the same order, with a consistency which admits of no question.
507 Matt. xxii. 15-33.
508 Mark xii. 13-27; Luke xx. 20-40.
