greenbaggins
Puritan Board Doctor
How do we reconcile, in our minds, what Jesus was saying in Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men," etc., with the passage on the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6:6-8 "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet," etc.? Thomas Manton has the solution:
We must distinguish of the different scope and intention of Christ in these two places. There, Christs scope is to commend and enjoin good works to be seen of men, ad edificationem, for their edification; here, his scope is to forbid us to do good works to be seen of men, ad ostentationem, for our own ostentation: There, Christian charity to the souls of men is commended; and here, vainglory is forbidden (emphasis original, Works of Thomas Manton, volume 1, p. 5).
For a bonus, note also his take on the fact that God sees everything we do in private: "Mark, that which is the hypocrite's fear, and binds condemnation upon the heart of a wicked man, is here made to be the saints' support and ground of comfort-that they pray to an all-seeing God" (p. 9).