Matthew 25:42

Verse 42. Gave me not. Jesus Christ chargeth them not here with a want of faith, but with a want of good works. They certainly believed, but they attended not to good works; as if a dead faith, that is a faith not working by charity, could bring them to heaven. Saint Augustine de fide & oper. c. xv. & ad Dulcit. q. 2. ad 4.—Jesus Christ suffers his members to want, in mercy to them, and to afford others an opportunity of shewing their love for him, and of redeeming their sins by alms-deeds, as was said to the king of the Chaldeans, peccata tua eleemosynis redime. Daniel 4.