For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.
Read Chapter 78
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
19. Lastly, here let us see the words following: "And they loved Him," he saith, "in their mouth, and in their tongue they lied unto Him" (ver. 36). "But their heart was not right with Him, and they were not counted faithful in His Testament" (ver. 37). One thing on their tongue, another thing in their heart He found, unto whom the secret things of men are naked, and without any impediment He saw what they loved rather. Therefore the heart is right with God, when it doth seek God for the sake of God. For one thing he desired of the Lord, the same he will require, that he may dwell always in the House of the Lord, and may meditate on the pleasantness of Him. Unto Whom saith the heart of the faithful, I will be filled, not with the flesh-pots of the Egyptians, nor with melons and gourds, and garlick and onions, which a generation crooked and embittering did prefer even to bread celestial, nor with visible manna, and those same winged fowls; but, "I will be filled, when Thy glory shall be made manifest." For this is the inheritance of the New Testament, wherein they were not counted faithful; whereof however the faith even at that time, when it was veiled, was in the elect, and now, when it hath already been revealed, it is not in many that are called. "For many have been called, but few are elect." Of such sort therefore was the generation crooked and embittering, even when they were seeming to seek God, loving in mouth, and in tongue lying; but in heart not right with God, while they loved rather those things, for the sake of which they required the help of God.
