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ST. AUGUSTINE

SERMONS (61-70) ON SELECTED LESSONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

[Translated by Rev. R. G. MacMullen.
Edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D.]

SERMON XI.

[LXI. BENEDICTINE EDITION.]

ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL, MATT. VII. 7, "ASKED AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN
YOU;" ETC. AN EXHORTATION TO ALMS-DEEDS.

 1. In the lesson of the Holy Gospel the Lord hath exhorted us to prayer.
"Ask," saith He, "and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh
receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he
give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?(10) Or
if he ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?(11) If ye then," saith He,
"though ye be evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how
much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them
that ask Him?(12) Though ye be evil," He saith, "ye know how to give good
gifts unto your children." A marvellous thing, Brethren! we are evil: yet
have we a good Father. What is more evident? We have heard our proper name:
"Though ye be evil, ye know how to give good gifts unto your children." And
now see what kind of Father He showeth them, whom he called evil. "How much
more shall your Father?" Father of whom? undoubtedly of the evil. And what
kind of Father? "None is good but God only."(1)

 2. For this cause have we who are evil a good Father, that we may not
always continue evil. No evil man can make another man good. If no evil man
can make another good, how can an evil man make himself good? He only can
make of an evil man a good man, who is good eternally. "Heal me, and I
shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved."(2) Why then do those vain
ones(3) say to me in words vain as themselves, "Thou canst save thyself if
thou wilt"? "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed." We were created good
by The Good; for "God made man upright,"(4) but by our own free will, we
became evil. We had power from being good to become evil, and we shall have
power from being evil to become good. But it is He who is ever Good, who
maketh the good out of the evil; for man by his own will had no power to
heal himself. Thou dost not look out for a physician to wound thyself; but
when thou hast wounded thyself, thou lookest out for one to cure thee. Good
things then after the time present, temporal good things, such as are
concerned with the body and flesh, we do know how to give to our children,
even though we are evil. For even these are good things, who would doubt
it? A fish, an egg, bread, fruit, wheat, the light we see, the air we
breathe, all these are good; the very riches by which men are lifted up,
and which make them loth to acknowledge other men to be their equals; by
which, I say, men are lifted up rather in love of their dazzling clothing,
than with any thought of their common nature, even these riches, I repeat,
are good; but all these goods which I have now mentioned may be possessed
by good and bad alike; and though they be good themselves, yet cannot they
make their owners good.

 3. A good then there is which maketh good, and a good there is whereby
thou mayest do good. The Good which maketh good is God. For none can make
man good, save He who is Good eternally. Therefore that thou mayest be
good, call upon God. But there is another good whereby thou mayest do good,
and that is, whatever thou mayest possess. There is gold, there is silver;
they are good, not such as can make thee good, but whereby thou mayest do
good. Thou hast gold and silver, and thou desirest more gold and silver.
Thou both hast, and desirest to have; thou art at once full, and thirsty.
This is a disease, not opulence. When men are in the dropsy,(5) they are
full of water, and yet are always thirsty. They are full of water, and yet
they thirst for water. How then canst thou take pleasure in opulence, who
hast thereby this dropsical desire? Gold then thou hast, it is good; yet
thou hast not whereby thou canst be made good, but whereby thou canst do
good. Dost thou ask, What good can I do with gold? Hast thou not heard in
the Psalm, "He hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor, his
righteousness remaineth for ever."(6) This is good, this is the good
whereby thou art made good; righteousness. If thou have the good whereby
thou art made good, do good with that good which cannot make thee good.
Thou hast money, deal it out freely. By dealing it out freely, thou
increasest righteousness. "For he hath dispersed abroad, hath distributed,
hath given to the poor; his righteousness remaineth for ever." See what is
diminished and what increased. Thy money is diminished, thy righteousness
increased. That is diminished which thou must soon have lost, that
diminished which thou must soon have left behind thee; that increased which
thou shalt possess for ever.

 4. It is then a secret of gainful dealing I am giving; learn so to trade.
For thou dost commend the merchant who selleth lead and getteth gold, and
wilt thou not commend the merchant, who layeth out money, and getteth
righteousness? But thou wilt say, I do not lay out my money, because I have
not righteousness. Let him who has righteousness lay his money out; I have
not righteousness, so at least let me have my money. Dost thou not then
wish to lay out thy money, because thou hast not righteousness? Yea, lay it
out then rather that thou mayest have righteousness. For from whence shalt
thou have righteousness but from God, the Fountain of righteousness?
Therefore, if thou wilt have righteousness, be God's beggar, who just now
out of the Gospel urged thee to ask, and seek, and knock. He knew His
beggar, and lo the Householder, the mighty rich One, rich, to wit, in
riches spiritual and eternal, exhorteth thee and saith, "Ask, seek, knock;
he that asketh receiveth, he that seeketh findeth, to him that knocketh it
shall be opened."(7) He exhorteth thee to ask, and will he refuse thee what
thou askest?

 5. Consider a similitude or comparison drawn from a contrary case (as of
that unjust judge), which is an encouragement to us to prayer. "There was,"
saith the Lord, "in a city a certain judge, which feared not God, neither
regarded man."(1) A certain widow importuned him daily, and said, "Avenge
me." He would not for a long time; but she ceased not to petition, and he
did through her importunity what he would not of his own good will.(2) For
thus by a contrary case hath He recommended us to pray.

 6. Again, He saith, "A certain man to whom some guest had come, went to
his friend, and began to knock and say, A guest is come to me, lend me
three loaves." He answered, "I am already in bed, and my servants with me."
The other does not leave off, but stands and presses his case, and knocks
and begs as one friend of another. And what saith He? "I say unto you that
he riseth, and not because of his friendship," but "because of the other's
importunity he giveth him as many as he wanted. Not because of his
friendship," though he is his friend, but "because of his importunity."(3)
What is the meaning of "because of his importunity?" Because he did not
leave off knocking; because even when his request was refused, he did not
turn away. He who was not willing to give, gave what was asked, because the
other fainted not in asking. How much more then shall that Good One give
who exhorteth us to ask, who is displeased if we ask not? But when at times
He giveth somewhat slowly, it is that He is showing us the value of His
good(4) things; not that He refuses them. Things which have been long
desired, are obtained with the greater pleasure, whereas those which are
given quickly, are held cheap. Ask then, seek, be instant. By the very
asking and seeking thou dost grow so as to contain the more. God is keeping
in reserve for thee, what it is not His will to give thee quickly, that
thou mayest learn for great things to long with great desire. Therefore
"ought we always to pray, and not to faint."(5)

 7. If then God hath made us His beggars by admonishing, and exhorting,
and commanding us to ask, and seek, and knock, let us for our part pay
regard to those who ask from us. We ask, and from whom do we ask? Who are
we that ask? What do we ask? From whom, or who are we, or what is it that
we ask? We ask of the Good God; and we that ask are evil men; but we ask
for righteousness, whereby we may be good. We ask then for that which we
may have for ever, wherewith when we shall be filled, we shall want no
more. But in order that we may be filled, let us hunger and thirst;
hungering and thirsting, let us ask, and seek, and knock. "For blessed are
they who hunger and thirst after righteousness."(6) Wherefore are they
blessed? They do hunger and thirst, and are they blessed? Is want ever a
blessing? They are not blessed in that they hunger and thirst, but in that
they will be filled. There will there be blessedness, in the fulness, not
in the hunger. But hunger must go before the fulness, that no loathing
attach to the bread.

 8. We have said then, from whom it is that we ask, and who we are that
ask, and what we ask. But we also are asked ourselves. For we are God's
mendicants; that He may acknowledge His mendicants, let us on our part
acknowledge ours. But let us think in this case again, when anything is
asked of us, who they are that ask, from whom they ask, and what they ask?
Who then are they that ask? Men. From whom do they ask? From men. Who are
they that ask? Mortals. From whom? From mortals. Who are they that ask?
Frail beings. From whom? From frail beings. Who are they that ask?
Wretches. And from whom? From wretches. Excepting in the matter of wealth,
they that ask are as they of whom they ask. With what face canst thou ask
before thy lord, who dost not acknowledge thine own equal? "I am not," he
will say, "as he is," far be it from me to be such as he. It is thus that
one clad in silk, and puffed up with pride, speaks of one who is wrapped in
rags. But I ask you when you both are stripped. I ask you not as you are
now when clothed, but as you were when you were first born. Both were
naked, both weak, beginning a life of misery, and therefore beginning it
with cries.

 9. See then, recall, O rich man, to mind thy first beginnings; see
whether thou broughtest anything into the world. Now thou hast come indeed,
and hast found so great abundance. But tell me, I pray thee, what didst
thou bring hither? Tell me, or if thou art ashamed to say, hear the
Apostle. "We brought nothing into this world."(7) He saith, "We brought
nothing into this world." But perhaps because thou broughtest in nothing,
but yet hast found much here, thou wilt take away something hence? This
too, peradventure through love of riches, thou art afraid to confess. Hear
this also, and let the Apostle who will not flatter, tell thee. "We brought
nothing into this world," to wit when we were born; "neither can we carry
anything out," to wit when we shall depart out of the world. Thou
broughtest in nothing, and thou shalt carry nothing away. Why then dost
thou puff up thyself against the poor man? When infants first are born, let
only the parents, servants, dependants, and the crowds of obsequious
attendants, get out of the way; and then let the wealthy children with
their cries be recognised. Let the rich woman and the poor give birth
together; let them take no

notice of their children, let them go away for a little while; then let
them return, and recognise them if they can. See then, O rich man, "thou
broughtest nothing into this world; neither canst thou carry anything out."
What I have said of them at their birth, I may say of them in death. If it
be not so, when by any chance old sepulchres are broken up, let the bones
of the rich be recognised if they can. Therefore, thou rich man,  give ear
to the Apostle, "We brought nothing into this world." Acknowledge it, true
it is. "Neither can we carry anything out." Acknowledge it, this is true
also.

 10. What follows then? "Having food and covering, let us be therewith
content; for they who wish to be rich fall into temptation, and many and
hurtful lusts, which drown then in destruction and perdition. For avarice
is the root of all evil, which some following after, have erred from the
faith."(1) Now consider what they have abandoned. Grieved thou art that
they have abandoned this, but see now in what they have entangled
themselves. Hear; "They have erred from the faith, and entangled themselves
in many sorrows." But who? "They who wish to be rich." It is one thing to
be rich, another to wish to become rich. He is rich, who is born of rich
parents, and he is rich not because he wished it, but because many left him
their inheritances. His(2) wealth I see, I make no question as to the
pleasure he takes in it. In this Scripture it is covetousness that is
condemned, not gold, or silver, or riches, but covetousness. For they who
do not wish to become rich, or do not care about it, who do not burn with
covetous desires, nor are inflamed by the fires of avarice, but who yet are
rich, let them hear the Apostle (it has been read to-day), "Charge them
that are rich in this world."(3) Charge them what? Charge them before all
things, not to be proud in their conceits, for there is nothing which
riches do so much generate as pride. Each several fruit, each several grain
of corn, each several tree, has its peculiar worm, and the worm of the
apple is of one kind, and of the pear another, and of the bean another, and
of the wheat another. The worm of riches is(4) pride.

11. "Charge therefore the rich of this world that they be not proud in
their conceits." He hath shut out the abuse,(5) let him teach now the
proper use. "That they be not proud in their conceits." But whence cometh
the defence against pride? From that which follows: "Nor trust in the
uncertainty of riches." They who trust not in the uncertainty of riches,
are not proud in their conceits. If they be not proud in their conceits,"
let them fear. If they fear, they are not proud in their conceits. How many
are they who were rich yesterday, and are poor to-day? How many go to sleep
rich, and through robbers coining and taking all away, wake up poor?
Therefore "charge them not to trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in
the Living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy," things temporal,
and things eternal. But things eternal more for enjoyment, the things
temporal for use. Things temporal as for travellers, things eternal as for
inhabitants. Things temporal, whereby we may do good; things eternal,
whereby we may be made good. Therefore let the rich do this, "Let them not
be proud in their conceits, nor trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in
the Living God, who giveth us all things richly to enjoy." Let them do
this. But what can they do with what they have? Hear what. "Let them be
rich in good works, let them easily distribute."(6) For they have
wherewithal. Why then do they not do it? Poverty is a hard estate. But they
may give easily, for they have the means. "Let them communicate," that is,
let them acknowledge their fellow-mortals as their equals. "Let them
communicate, let them lay up for themselves a good foundation against the
time to come."(7) For, saith he, when I say, Let them distribute easily,
let them communicate," I have no wish to spoil, or strip them, or leave
them empty. It is a painful lesson I teach; I show them a place to put
their goods, "let them lay up in store for themselves." For I have no wish
that they should remain in poverty. "Let them lay up for themselves in
store." I do not bid them lose their goods, but I show them whither to
remove them. "Let them lay up in store for themselves a good foundation
against the time to come, that they may hold on the true s life." The
present then is a false life; let them lay hold on the true life "For it is
vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. What so great abundance hath man in
all his labour, wherewith he laboureth under the sun?"(9) Therefore the
true life must be laid hold upon, our riches must be removed to the place
of the true life, that we may find there what we give here. He maketh this
exchange of our goods who also changeth ourselves.

 12. Give then, my brethren, to the poor, "Having food and covering, let
us be therewith content." The rich man has nothing from his riches, but
what the poor man begs of him, food and covering. What more hast thou from
all that thou possessest? Thou hast got food and necessary covering.
Necessary I say, not useless, not superfluous. What more dost thou get from
thy riches? Tell me. Assuredly all thou hast more will be superfluous. Let
thy superfluities then be the poor man's necessaries. But thou wilt say, I
get costly banquets, I feed on costly meats. But the poor man, what does he
feed on? On cheap food; the poor man feeds on cheap, and I, says he, on
costly meats. Well, I ask you, when you both are filled, the costly enters
into thee, but when it is once entered, what does it become? If we had but
looking-glasses within us, should we not be put to shame for all the costly
meat whereby thou hast been filled? The poor man hungers, and so does the
rich; the poor man seeks to be filled, so does the rich. The poor man is
filled with inexpensive, the rich with costly meats. Both are filled alike,
the object(1) whither both wish to attain is one and the same, only the one
reaches it by a short, the other by a circuitous way. But thou wilt say, I
relish better my costly food. True, and it is hard for thee to be
satisfied, dainty as thou art. Thou knowest not the relish of that which
hunger seasons.(2) Not that I have said this to force the rich to feed on
the meat and drink of the poor. Let the rich use what their infirmity has
accustomed them to; but let them be sorry, that they are not able to do
otherwise. For it would be better for them if they could. If then the poor
man be not puffed up for his poverty, why shouldest thou for thine
infirmity? Use then choice, and costly meats, because thou art so
accustomed, because thou canst not do otherwise, because if thou dost
change thy custom, thou art made ill. I grant thee this, make use of
superfluities, but give to the poor necessaries; make use of costly meats,
but give to the poor inexpensive food. He is looking to receive from thee,
and thou art looking to receive from God; he is looking to the hand which
was made as he was, and thou art looking to the hand that made thee, and
made not thee only, but the poor man with thee. He set you both one and the
same journey, this present life: you have found yourselves companions in
it, you are walking one way: he is carrying nothing, thou art loaded
excessively: he is carrying nothing with him, thou art carrying with thee
more than thou dost need. Thou art loaded: give him of that thou hast; so
shalt thou at once feed him, and lessen thine own burden.

 13. Give then to the poor; I beg, I advise, I charge, I command you. Give
to the poor whatever ye will. For I will not conceal from you, Beloved, why
it is that I have deemed it necessary to deliver this discourse to you. As
I am going to and from the Church, the poor importune me, and beg me to
speak to you, that they may receive something of you. They have urged me to
speak to you; and when they see that they receive nothing from you, they
suppose that all my labour among you is in vain. Something also they expect
from me. I give them all I can; but have I the means sufficient to supply
all their necessities? Forasmuch then as I have not means sufficient to
supply all their necessity, I am at least their ambassador to you. You have
heard and applauded; God be thanked. You have received the seed, you have
returned an answer. But these your commendations weigh me down rather, and
expose me to danger. I bear them, and tremble whilst I bear them.
Nevertheless, my brethren, these your commendations are but the tree's
leaves; it is the fruit I am in quest of.

SERMON XII.

ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL, MATT. VIII. 8, "I AM NOT WORTHY THAT THOU
SHOULDEST COME UNDER MY ROOF," ETC., AND OF THE WORDS OF THE APOSTLE, I
COR. VIII. 10, "FOR IF A MAN SEE THEE WHO HAST KNOWLEDGE SITTING AT MEAT IN
AN IDOL'S TEMPLE," ETC.

 1. WE have heard, as the Gospel was being read, the praise of our faith
as manifested in humility. For when the Lord Jesus promised that He would
go to the Centurion's house to heal His servant, He answered, "I am not
worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and
he shall be healed."(3) By calling himself unworthy, he showed himself
worthy for Christ to come not into his house, but into his heart. Nor would
he have said this with so great faith and humility, had he not borne Him in
his heart, of whose coming into his house he was afraid. For it were no
great happiness for the Lord Jesus to enter into his house, and vet not to
be in his heart. For this Master of humility both by word and example, sat
down even in the house of a certain proud Pharisee, by name Simon;(4) and
though He sat down in his house, there was no place in this heart, "where
the Son of Man could lay His Head."(5)

 2. For so, as we may understand from the words of the Lord Himself, did
He call back from His discipleship a certain proud man, who of his own
accord was desirous to go with Him. "Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever
Thou goest."6) And the Lord seeing in his heart what was invisible, said,
"Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
hath not where to lay His Head."(7) That is, in thee, guile like the fox
doth dwell, and pride as the birds of heaven. But the Son of Man simple as
opposed to guile, lowly as opposed to pride, hath not where to lay His
Head; and this very laying, not the raising up of the head, teaches
humility. Therefore doth He call back this one who was desirous to go, and
another who refused He draweth onward. For in the same place He saith to a
certain man, "Follow Me." And he said, "I will follow Thee, Lord, but let
me first go and bury my father."(1) His excuse was indeed a dutiful one:
and therefore was he the more worthy to have his excuse removed, and his
calling confirmed. What he wished to do was an act of dutifulness; but the
Master taught him what he ought to prefer. For He wished him to be a
preacher of the living word, to make others live. But there were others by
whom that first necessary office might be fulfilled. "Let the dead," He
saith, "bury their dead." When unbelievers bury a dead body, the dead bury
the dead. The body of the one hath lost its soul, the soul of the others
hath lost God. For as the soul is the life of the body; so is God the life
of the soul. As the body expires when it loses the soul, so doth the soul
expire when it loses God. The loss of God is the death of the soul: the
loss of the soul the death of the body. The death of the body is necessary;
the death of the soul voluntary.

 3. The Lord then sat down in the house of a certain proud Pharisee. He
was in his house, as I have said, and was not in his heart. But into this
centurion's house He entered not, yet He possessed his heart. Zacchaeus
again received the Lord both in house and heart.(2) Yet the centurion's
faith is praised for its humility. For he said, "I am not worthy that Thou
shouldest come under my roof;"(3) and the Lord said, "Verily I say unto
you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel;"(4) according to
the flesh, that is. For he too was an Israelite undoubtedly according to
the spirit. The Lord had come to fleshly Israel, that is, to the Jews,
there to seek first for the lost sheep, among this people, and of this
people also He had assumed His Body. "I have not found there so great
faith," He saith. We can but measure the faith of men, as men can judge of
it; but He who saw the inward parts, He whom no man can deceive, gave His
testimony to this man's heart, hearing words of lowliness, and pronouncing
a sentence of healing.

 4. But whence did he get such confidence? "I also," saith he, "am a man
set under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go,
and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh: and to my servant, Do
this, and he doeth it."(5) I am an authority to certain who are placed
under me, being myself placed under a certain authority above me. If then I
a man under authority have the power of commanding, what power must Thou
have, whom all powers serve? Now this man was of the  Gentiles, for he was
a centurion. At that time the Jewish nation had soldiers of the Roman
empire among them. There he was engaged in a military life, according to
the extent of a centurion's authority, both under authority himself, and
having authority over others; as a subject obedient, ruling others who were
under him. But the Lord (and mark this especially, Beloved, as need there
is you should), though He was among the Jewish people only, even now
announced beforehand that the Church should be in the whole world, for the
establishment of which He would send Apostles; Himself not seen, yet
believed on by the Gentiles: by the Jews seen, and put to death. For as the
Lord did not in body enter into this man's house, and still, though in body
absent, yet present in majesty, healed his faith, and his house; so the
same Lord also was in body among the Jewish people only: among the other
nations He was neither born of a Virgin, nor suffered, nor walked, nor
endured His human sufferings, nor wrought His divine miracles. None of all
this took place in the rest of the nations, and yet was that fulfilled
which was spoken of Him, "A people whom I have not known, hath served Me."
And how if it did not know Him? "Hath obeyed Me by the hearing of the
ear."(6) The Jewish nation knew, and crucified Him; the whole world besides
heard and believed.

 5. This absence, so to say, of His body, and presence of His power among
all nations, He signified also in the instance of that woman who had
touched the edge of His garment, when He asketh, saying, "Who touched
Me?"(7) He asketh, as though He were absent; as though present, He healeth.
"The multitude," say the disciples, "press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who
touched Me?" For as if He were so walking as not to be touched by anybody
at all, He said, "Who touched Me?" And they answer, "The multitude press
Thee." And the Lord would seem to say, I am asking for one who touched, not
for one who pressed Me. In this case also is His Body now, that is, His
Church. The faith of the few "touches" it, the throng of the many "press"
it. For ye have heard, as being her children, that Christ's Body is the
Church, and if ye will, ye yourselves are so. This the Apostle says in many
places, "For His body's sake, which is the Church;"(8) and again, "But ye
are the body of Christ, and members in particular."(9) If then we are His
body, what His body then suffered in the crowd, that doth His Church suffer
now. It is pressed by many, touched by few. The flesh presses it, faith
touches it. Lift up therefore your eyes, I beseech you, ye who have
wherewithal to see. For ye have before you something to see. Lift up the
eyes of faith, touch but the extreme border of His garment, it will be
sufficient for saving health.

 6. See ye how that which ye have heard out of the Gospel was at that time
to come is now present. Therefore, said He, on occasion of the commendation
of the Centurion's faith, as in the flesh an alien, but of the household in
heart, "Therefore I say unto you, Many shall come front the east and
west."(1) Not all, but "many;" yet they shall "come from the East and
West;" the whole world is denoted by these two parts. "Many shall come from
the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out
into outer darkness." "But the children of the kingdom," the Jews, namely.
And how "the children of the kingdom"? Because they received the Law; to
them the Prophets were sent, with them was the temple and the Priesthood;
they celebrated the figures of all the things to come. Yet of what things
they celebrated the figures, they acknowledged not the presence. And,
"Therefore the children of the kingdom," He saith, shall go into outer
darkness, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." And so we see the
Jews reprobate, and Christians called from the East and West, to the
heavenly banquet, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, where the
bread is righteousness, and the(2) cup wisdom.

 7. Consider then, brethren, for of these are ye; ye are of this people,
even then foretold, and now exhibited.(3) Yes, verily, ye are of those who
have been called from the East and West, to sit down in the kingdom of
heaven, not in the temple of idols. Be ye then the Body of Christ, not the
pressure of His Body. Ye have the border of His garment to touch, that ye
may be healed of the issue of blood, that is, of carnal pleasures. Ye have,
I say, the border of the garment to touch. Look upon the Apostles as the
garment, by the texture of unity clinging closely to the sides of Christ.
Among these Apostles was Paul, as it were the border, the least and last;
as he saith himself, "I am the least of the Apostles."(4) In a garment the
last and least thing is the border. The border is in appearance
contemptible, yet is it touched with saving efficacy.(5) "Even to this hour
we both hunger and thirst, and are naked and buffeted."(6) What state so
low, so contemptible as this! Touch then, if thou art suffering from a
bloody flux. There will go power out of Him whose garment it is, and it
will heal thee. The border was proposed to you just now to be touched, when
out of the same Apostle there was read, "For if any one see him which hath
knowledge sit at meat in an idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him
who is weak, be emboldened to eat things offered to idols? And through thy
knowledge shall thy weak brother perish, for whom Christ died!"(7) How
think ye may men be deceived by idols, which they suppose are honoured by
Christians? A man may say, "God knows my heart." Yes, but thy brother did
not know thy heart. If thou art weak, beware of a still greater weakness;
if thou art strong, have a care of thy brother's weakness. They who see
what you do, are emboldened to do more, so as to desire not only to eat,
but also to sacrifice there. And lo, "Through thy knowledge the weak
brother perisheth." Hear then, my brother; if thou didst disregard the
weak, wouldest thou disregard a brother also? Awake. What if so thou sin
against Christ Himself? For attend to what thou canst not by any means
disregard. "But," saith he, "when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound
their weak conscience ye sin against Christ."(8) Let them who disregard
these words, go now, land sit at meat in the idol's temple; will they not
be of those who press, and do not touch. And when they have been at meat in
the idol's I temple, let them come and fill the Church; not to receive
saving health, but to make a pressure there.

8. But thou wilt say, I am afraid lest I offend those above me. By all
means be afraid of offending them, and so thou wilt not offend God. For
thou who art afraid lest thou offend those above thee, see whether there be
not One above him whom thou art afraid of offending. By all means then be
loth to offend those above thee. This is an established rule with thee. But
then is it not plain, that he must on no account be offended, who is above
all others? Run over now the list of those above thee. First are thy father
and mother, if they are educating thee aright; if they are bringing thee up
for Christ; they are to be heard in all things, they must be obeyed in
every command; let them enjoin nothing against one above themselves, and so
let them be obeyed. And who, thou wilt say, is above him who begat me? He
who created thee. For man begets, but God creates. How it is that man
begets, he does not know; and what he shall beget, he does not know. But He
who saw thee that He might make thee, before that he whom He made existed,
is surely above thy father. Thy country again should be above thy very
parents; so that whereinsoever thy parents enjoin aught against thy
country, they are not to be listened to. And whatsoever thy country enjoin
against God, it is not to be listened to. For if thou wilt be healed, if
after the issue of blood, if after twelve years' continuance in that
disease, if after having spent thine all upon physicians, and not having
received health, thou dost wish at length to he made whole; O woman, whom I
am addressing as a figure of the Church, thy father enjoineth thee this,
and thy people that. But thy Lord saith to thee, "Forget thine own people,
and thy father's house."(1) For what good? for what advantage? with what
useful result? "Because the King hath desired thy beauty." He hath desired
what He made, since when deformed He loved thee, that He might make thee
beautiful. For thee unbelieving, and deformed, He shed His Blood, and He
made thee faithful and beauteous, He hath loved His own gifts in thee. For
what didst thou bring to thy spouse? What didst thou receive for dowry from
thy former father, and former people? Was it not the excesses(2) and the
rags of sins? Thy rags He cast away, thy robe impure(3) He tore asunder. He
pitied thee that He might adorn thee. He adorned thee, that He might love
thee.

 9. What need of more, Brethren. Ye are Christians, and have heard, that
"If ye sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin
against Christ." Do not disregard it, if ye would not be wiped out of the
book of life. How long shall I go about to speak in bright and pleasing
terms to you, what my grief forceth me to speak in some sort, and will not
suffer me to keep secret? Whosoever they are who are minded to disregard
these things, and sin against Christ, let them only consider what they are
doing. We wish the rest of the Heathen to be gathered in; and ye are stones
in their way: they have a wish to come; they stumble, and so return. For
they say in their hearts, Why should we leave the gods whom the very
Christians worship as we do? God forbid, thou wilt say, that I should
worship the gods of the Gentiles. I know, I understand, I believe thee. But
what account art thou making of the consciences of the weak which thou art
wounding? What account art thou making of their price, if thou disregard
the purchase? Consider for how great a price was the purchase made.
"Through thy knowledge," saith the Apostle, "shall the weak brother
perish;" that knowledge which thou professest to have, in that thou knowest
that an idol is nothing, and that in thy mind thou art thinking only of
God, and so sittest down in the idol's temple. In this knowledge the weak
brother perisheth. And lest thou shouldest pay no regard to the weak
brother, he added, "for whom Christ died." If thou wouldest disregard him,
yet consider his Price, and weigh the whole world in the balance with the
Blood of Christ. And lest thou shouldest still think that thou art sinning
against a weak brother, and so esteem it after that he had heard that he
was "Peter" a trivial fault, and of small account, he saith, "Ye sin
against Christ." For men are in the habit of saying, I sin against man; am
I sinning against God?" Deny then that Christ is God. Dost thou dare deny
that Christ is God? Hast thou learned this other doctrine, when thou didst
sit at meat in the idol's temple? The school of Christ doth not admit that
doctrine. I ask; Where learnedst thou that Christ is not God? The Pagans
are wont to say so. Seest thou what bad associations(4) do? Seest thou,
"that evil communications corrupt good manners?"(5) There thou canst not
speak of the Gospel, and thou dost hear others talking of idols. There thou
losest the truth that Christ is God; and what thou dost drink in there,
thou vomitest out in the Church. It may be thou art bold enough to speak
here; bold enough to mutter among the crowds; "Was not then Christ a man?
Was He not crucified?" This hast thou learned of the Pagans. Thou hast lost
thy soul's health, thou hast not touched the border. On this point then
touch again the border, and receive health. As I taught thee to touch it in
this that is written, "Whoso seeth a brother sit at meat in the idol's
temple;"(6) touch it also concerning the Divinity of Christ. The same
border said of the Jews, "Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning
the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever,"(7) Behold,
against Whom, even the Very God, thou dost sin, when thou sittest down with
false gods.

10. It is no god, you will say; because it is the tutelary genius of
Carthage. As though if it were Mars or Mercury, it would be a god. But
consider in what light it is esteemed by them; not what it is in itself.
For I know also as well as thou, that it is but a stone. If this "genius"
be any ornament, let the citizens of Carthage live well; and they
themselves will be this "genius" of Carthage. But if the "genius" be a
devil, ye have heard in that same Scripture, "The things which the Gentiles
sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God; and I would not that
ye should have fellowship with devils."(8) We know well that it is no God;
would that they knew it too! but because of those weak ones who do not know
it, their conscience ought not to be wounded. It is this that the Apostle
warns us of. For that they regard that statue as something divine, and take
it for a god, the altar is witness. What does the altar there, if it be not
accounted a god? Let no one tell me; it is no deity, it is no God. I have
said already, "Would that they only knew this, as we all do." But how they
regard it, for what they take it, and what they do about it, that altar is
witness. It is convincing against the intentions of all who worship there,
grant that it may not be convincing also against those who sit at meat with
them!

11. Yes, let not Christians press the Church, if the Pagans do. She is the
Body of Christ. Were we not saying, that the Body of Christ was pressed,
and not touched. He endured those who pressed Him; and was looking out for
those who "touched" Him. And, Brethren, I would that if the Body of Christ
be pressed by Pagans, by whom it is wont to be pressed; that at least
Christians would not press the Body of Christ. Brethren, it is my business
to speak to you, my business it is to speak to Christians; "For what have I
to do to judge them that are without?"(1) the Apostle himself saith. Them
we address in another way, as being weak. With them we must(2) deal softly,
that they may hear the truth; in you the corruption must be cut out. If ye
ask whereby the Pagans are to be gained over, whereby they are to be
illuminated, and called to salvation; forsake their solemnities, forsake
their trifling shows; and then if they do not consent to our truth, let
them blush at their own scantiness.

12. If he who is over thee be a good man, he is thy nourisher; if a bad
man, he is thy tempter. Receive the nourishment in the one case with
gladness, and in the temptation show thyself approved. Be thou gold. Regard
this world as the furnace of the goldsmith; in one narrow place are there
things, gold, chaff, fire. To the two former the fire is applied, the chaff
is burned, and the gold purified. A man has yielded to threats, and been
led away to the idol's temple: Alas! I bewail the chaff; I see the ashes.
Another has not yet yielded to threats nor terrors; has been brought before
the judge, and stood firm in his confession, and has not bent down to the
idol image: what does the flame with him? Does it not purify the gold?
Stand, fast then, Brethren, in the Lord; greater in power, is He who hath
called you. Be not afraid of the threats of the ungodly. Bear with your
enemies; in them ye have those for whom ye may pray; let them by no means
terrify you. This is saving health, draw out in this feast here from this
source; here drink that wherewith ye may be satisfied, and not in those
other feasts, that only whereby ye may be maddened. Stand fast in the Lord.
Ye are silver, ye shall be gold. This similitude is not our own, it is out
of Holy Scripture. Ye have read and heard, "As gold in the furnace hath He
tried them, and received them as a burnt-offering."(3) See what ye shall be
among the treasures of God. Be ye rich as touching God, not as if to make
Him rich, but as to become rich from Him. Let Him replenish you; admit
nought else into your heart.

13. Do we lift up ourselves unto pride, or tell you to be despisers against
the powers ordained? Not so. Do ye again who are sick on this point, touch
also that border of the garment? The Apostle himself saith, "Let every soul
be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, the
powers that be are ordained of God. He then who resisteth the power,
resisteth the ordinance of God."(4) But what if it enjoin what thou
oughtest not to do? In this case by all means disregard the power through
fear of Power. Consider these several grades of human powers. If the
magistrate s enjoin anything, must it not be done? Yet if his order be in
opposition to the Proconsul, thou dost not surely despise the power, but
choosest to obey a greater power. Nor in this case ought the less to be
angry, if the greater be preferred. Again, if the Proconsul himself enjoin
anything, and the Emperor another thing, is there any doubt, that
disregarding the former, we ought to obey the latter? So then if the
Emperor enjoin one thing, and God another, what judge ye?Pay me tribute,
submit thyself to my allegiance. Right, but not in an idol's temple. In an
idol's temple He forbids it. Who forbids it? A greater Power. Pardon me
then: thou threatenest a prison, He threateneth hell. Here must thou at
once take to thee thy "faith as a shield, whereby thou mayest be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the enemy."(6)

14. But one of these powers is plotting, and contriving evil designs
against thee. Well: he is but sharpening the razor wherewith to shave the
hair, but not to cut the head. Ye have but just now heard this that I have
said in the Psalm, "Thou hast worked deceit like a sharp razor."(7) Why did
He compare the deceit of a wicked man in power to a razor? Because it does
not reach, save to our superfluous parts. As hairs on our body seem as it
were superfluous, and are shaven off without any loss of the flesh; so
whatsoever an angry man in power can take from thee, count only among thy
superfluities. He takes away thy poverty; can he take away thy wealth? Thy
poverty is thy wealth in thy heart. Thy superfluous things only hath he
power to take away, these only hath he power to injure, even though he had
license given him so far as to hurt the body. Yea even this life itself to
those whose thoughts are of another life, this present life, I say, may be
reckoned among the things superfluous. For so the Martyrs have despised it.
They did not lose life, but they gained Life.

 15. Be sure, Brethren, that enemies have no power against the faithful,
except so far as it profiteth them to be tempted and proved. Of this be
sure, Brethren, let no one say ought against it. Cast all your care upon
the Lord, throw yourselves wholly and entirely upon Him. He will not
withdraw Himself that ye should fall. He who created us, hath given us
security touching our very hairs. "Verily I say unto you, even the hairs of
your head are all numbered."(1) Our hairs are numbered by God; how much
more is our conduct known to Him to whom our hairs are thus known? See
then, how that God doth not disregard our least things. For if He
disregarded them, He would not create them. For He verily both created our
hairs, and still taketh count of them. But thou wilt say, though they are
preserved at present, perhaps they will perish. On this point also hear His
word, "Verily I say unto you, there shall not an hair of your head
perish.''(2) Why art thou afraid of man, O man, whose place is in the Bosom
of God? Fall not out of His Bosom; whatsoever thou shall suffer there, will
avail to thy salvation, not to thy destruction. Martyrs have endured the
tearing of their limbs, and shall Christians fear the injuries of Christian
times? He who would do thee an injury now, can only do it in fear. He does
not say openly, come to the idol-feast; he does not say openly, come to my
altars, and banquet there. And if he should say so, and thou wast to
refuse, let him make a complaint of it, let him bring it as an accusation
and charge against thee: "He would not come to my altars, he would not come
to my temple, where I worship." Let him say this. He does not dare; but in
his guile he contrives another attack. Make ready thy hair; he is
sharpening the razor; he is about to take off thy superfluous things, to
shave what thou must soon leave behind thee. Let him take off what shall
endure, if he can. This powerful enemy, what has he taken away? what great
thing has he taken away? That which a thief or housebreaker could take: in
his utmost rage, he can but take what a robber can. Even if he should have
license given him to the slaying of the very body, what does he take away,
but what the robber can take? I did him too much honour, when I said, "a
robber." For be the robber who and what he may, he is a man. He takes from
thee what a fever, or an adder, or a poisonous mushroom can take. Here lies
the whole power of the rage of men, to do what a mushroom can! Men eat a
poisonous mushroom, and they die. Lo! in what frail estate is the life of
man; which sooner or later thou must abandon; do not struggle then in such
wise for it, as that thou shouldest be abandoned thyself.

16. Christ is our Life; think then of Christ. He came to suffer, but also
to be glorified; to be despised, but to be exalted also; to die; but also
to rise again. If the labour alarm thee, see its reward. Why dost thou wish
to arrive by softness at that to which nothing but hard labour can lead?
Now thou art afraid, lest thou shouldest lose thy money; because thou
earnest thy money with great labour. If thou didst not attain to thy money,
which thou must some time or other lose, at all events when thou diest,
without labour, wouldest thou desire without labour to attain to the Life
eternal? Let that be of higher value in thine eyes, to which after all thy
labours thou shalt in such sort attain as never more to lose it. If this
money, to which thou hast attained after all thy labours on such condition
as that thou must some time lose it, be of high value with thee; how much
more ought we to long after those things which are everlasting!

 17. Give no credit to their words, neither be afraid of them. They say
that we are enemies of their idols. May God so grant, and give all into our
power, as He hath already given us that which we have broken down. For this
I say, Beloved, that ye may not attempt to do it, when it is not lawfully
in your power to do it; for it is the way of ill-regulated men, and the mad
Circumcelliones,(3) both to be violent when they have no power, and to be
ever eager in their wishes to die without a cause. Ye heard what we read to
you, all of you who were present in the Mappalia.(4) "When the land shall
have been given into your power (he saith first, "into your power," and so
enjoined what was to be done); "then," saith he, "ye shall destroy their
altars, and break in pieces their groves, and hew down all their
images."(5) When we shall have got the power, do this. When the power has
not been given us, we do not do it; when it is given, we do not neglect it.
Many Pagans have these abominations on their own estates; do we go and
break them in pieces? No, for our first efforts are that the idols in their
hearts should be broken down. When they too are made Christians themselves,
they either invite us to so good a work, or anticipate us. At present we
must pray for them, not be angry with them. If very painful feelings excite
us, it is rather against Christians, it is against our brethren, who will
enter into the Church in such a mind, as to have their body there, and
their heart anywhere else. The whole ought to be within. If that which man
seeth is within, why is that which God seeth without?

 18. Now ye may know, Dearly Beloved, that these unite their murmurings
with Heretics and with Jews. Heretics, Jews, and Heathens have made a unity
against Unity. Because it has happened, that in some places the Jews have
received chastisement because of their wickednesses; they charge and
suspect us, or pretend, that we are always seeking the like treatment for
them. Again, because it has happened that the heretics(1) in some places
have suffered the penalty of the laws for the impiety and fury of their
deeds of violence; they say immediately that we are seeking by every means
some harm for their destruction. Again, because it has been resolved that
laws should be passed against the Heathen, yea for them rather, if they
were only wise. (For as when silly boys are playing with the mud, and
dirtying their hands, the strict master comes, shakes the mud out of their
hands, and holds out their book; so has it pleased God by the hands of
princes His subjects to alarm their childish, foolish hearts, that they may
throw away the dirt from their hands, and set about something useful. And
what is this something useful with the hands, but, "Break thy bread to the
hungry, and bring the houseless poor into thy house"?(2) But nevertheless
these children escape  from their master's sight, and return stealthily to
their mud, and when they are discovered they hide their hands that they may
not be seen.) Because then it has so pleased God, they think that we are
looking out for the idols everywhere, and that we break them down in all
places where we have discovered them. How so? Are there not places before
our very eyes in which they are? Or are we indeed ignorant where they are?
And yet we do not break them down, because God has not given them into our
power. When does God give them into our power? When the masters of these
things shall become Christians. The master of a certain place has just
lately wished this to be done. If he had not been minded to give the place
itself to the Church, and only had given orders that there should be no
idols on his property; I think that it ought to have been executed with the
greatest devotion, that the soul of the absent Christian brother, who
wishes on his land to return thanks to God, and would not that there should
be anything there to God's dishonour, might be assisted by his fellow-
Christians. Added to this, that in this case he gave the place itself to
the Church. And shall there be idols n the Church's estate? Brethren, see
then what it is that displeases the Heathens. It is but a little matter
with them that we do not take them away from their estates, that we do not
break them down: they would have them kept up even in our own places. We
preach against idols, we take them away from the hearts of men; we are
persecutors of idols; we openly profess it. Are we then to be the
preservers of them? I do not touch them when I have not the power; I do not
touch them when the lord of the property complains of it; but when he
wishes it to be done, and gives thanks for it, I should incur guilt if I
did it not.

SERMON XIII.

[LXIII. BEN.]

ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL, MATT. VIII. 23, "AND WHEN HE WAS ENTERED INTO A
BOAT," ETC.

 I. BY the Lord's blessing, I will address you upon the lesson of the Holy
Gospel which has just been read, and take occasion thereby to exhort you,
that against the tempest and waves of this world, faith sleep not in your
hearts. "For the Lord Christ had not indeed death nor sleep in His power,
and peradventure sleep overcame the Almighty One as He was sailing against
His will?" If ye believe this, He is asleep in you; but if Christ be awake
in you, your faith is awake. The Apostle saith, "that Christ may dwell in
your hearts by faith."(3) This sleep then of Christ is a sign of a high
mystery.(4) The sailors are the souls passing over the world in wood. That
ship also was a figure of the Church. And all, individually indeed are
temples of God, and his own heart is the vessel in which each sails; nor
can he suffer shipwreck, if his thoughts are only good.

 2. Thou hast heard an insult, it is the wind; thou art angry, it is a
wave. When therefore the wind blows, and the wave swells, the ship is
endangered, the heart is in jeopardy, the heart is tossed to and fro. When
thou hast heard an insult, thou longest to be avenged; and, lo, avenged
thou hast been, and so rejoicing in another's harm thou hast suffered
shipwreck. And why is this? Because Christ is asleep in thee. What does
this mean, Christ is asleep in thee? Thou hast forgotten Christ. Rouse Him
up then, call Christ to mind, let Christ awake in thee, give heed to Him.
What didst thou wish? To be avenged. Hast thou forgotten, that when He was
being crucified, He said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do?"(1) He who was asleep in thy heart did not wish to be avenged.
Awake Him up then, call Him to remembrance. The remembrance of Him is His
word; the remembrance of Him is His command. And then wilt thou say if
Christ, awake in thee, What manner of man am I, who wish to be avenged! Who
am I, who deal out threatenings against another man? I may die perhaps
before I am avenged. And when at my last breath, inflamed with rage, and
thirsting for vengeance, I shall depart out of this body, He will not
receive me, who did not wish to be avenged; He will not receive me, who
said, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; forgive, and it shall be
forgiven you."(2) Therefore will I refrain myself from my wrath, and return
to the repose of my heart. Christ hath commanded the sea, tranquillity is
restored.

 3. Now what I have said as to anger, hold fast as a rule in all your
temptations. A temptation has sprung up; it is the wind; thou art
disturbed; it is a wave. Awake up Christ then, let Him speak with thee.
"Who is this, since the winds and the sea obey Him?"(3) Who is this, whom
the sea obeyeth? "The sea is His, and He made it."(4) "All things were made
by Him."(5) Imitate the winds then, and the sea rather; obey the Creator.
At Christ's command the sea giveth ear; and art thou deaf? The sea heareth,
and the wind ceaseth: and dost thou still blow on? What! I say, I do, I
devise; what is all this, but to be blowing on, and to be unwilling to stop
in obedience to the word of Christ? Let not the wave master you in this
troubled state of your heart. Yet since we are but men, if the wind should
drive us on, and stir up the affections of our souls, let us not despair;
let us awake Christ, that we may sail on a tranquil sea, and so come to our
country. "Let us(6) turn to the Lord," etc.

SERMON XIV.

ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL, MATT. X. 16, "BEHOLD, I SEND YOU FORTH AS SHEEP
IN THE MIDST OF WOLVES," ETC.

Delivered on a Festival of Martyrs.

 I. When the Holy Gospel was read, Brethren, ye heard how our Lord Jesus
Christ strengthened His Martyrs by His teaching, saying, "Behold, I send
you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves."(7) Now consider, my Brethren,
what he does. If but one wolf come among many sheep, be they ever so many
thousands, they will all be put to confusion by one wolf in the midst of
them: and though all may not be torn, yet all are frightened. What manner
of design is this then, what manner of counsel, what manner of power, not
to let in a wolf amongst the sheep, but to send the sheep against the
wolves! "I send you," saith He, "as sheep in the midst of wolves;" not to
the neighbourhood of wolves, but "in the midst of wolves." There was then
at that time a herd of wolves, and but few sheep. For when the many wolves
killed the few sheep, the wolves were changed and became sheep.

 2. Let us hear then what advice He hath given, who hath promised the
crown, but hath first appointed the combat; who is a spectator of the
combatants, and assisteth them in their toil. What manner of conflict hath
He prescribed? "Be ye," saith He, "wise as serpents, and simple as
doves."(7) Whoso understandeth, and holdeth to this, may die in
assurance(8) that he will not really die. For no one ought to die in this
assurance, but he who knows that he shall in such sort die, as that death
only shall die in him, and life be crowned.

 3. Wherefore, Beloved, I must explain to you, though I have often spoken
already on this subject, what it is to be "simple as doves, and wise as
serpents." Now if the simplicity of doves be enjoined us, what hath the
wisdom of the serpent to do in the simplicity of the dove? This in the dove
I love, that she has no gall; this I fear in the serpent, that he has
poison. But now do not fear the serpent altogether; something he has for
thee to hate, and something for thee to imitate. For when the serpent is
weighed down with age, and he feels the burden of his many years, he
contracts and forces himself into a hole, and lays aside his old coat(9) of
skin, that he may spring forth into new life. Imitate him in this, thou
Christian, who dost hear Christ saying, "Enter ye in at the strait
gate."(10) And the Apostle Paul saith to thee, "Put ye off the old man with
his deeds, and put ye on the new man."(11) Thou hast then something to
imitate in the serpent. Die not for the "old man," but for the truth. Whoso
dies for any temporal good dies "for the old man." But when thou hast
stripped thyself of all "that old man," thou hast imitated the wisdom of
the serpent. Imitate him in this again; "keep thy head safe." And what does
this mean, keep thy head safe? Keep Christ with thee. Have not some of you,
it may be, observed, on occasions when you have wished to kill an adder,
how to save his head, he will expose his whole body to the strokes of his
assailant? He would not that that part of him should be struck, where he
knows that his life resides. And our Life is Christ, for He hath said
Himself, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."(1) Here the Apostle
also; "The Head of the man is Christ."(2) Whoso then keepeth Christ in him,
keepeth his head for his protection.

 4. Now what need is there to commend to you in many words the simplicity
of the dove? For the serpent's poison had need to be guarded against:
there, there was a danger in imitation; there, there was something to be
feared; but the dove may you imitate securely. Mark how the doves rejoice
in society; everywhere do they fly and feed together; they do not love to
be alone, they delight in communion, they preserve affection; their cooings
are the plaintive cries(3) of love, with kissings they beget their young.
Yea even when doves, as we have often noticed, dispute about their holes,
it is as it were but a peaceful strife. Do they separate, because of their
contentions? Nay, still do they fly and feed together, and their very
strife is peaceful. See this strife of doves, in what the Apostle saith,
"If any man obey not our word by this epistle, mark that man, and have no
company with him." Behold the strife; but observe now how it is the strife
of doves, not of wolves. He subjoined immediately, "Yet count him not as an
enemy, but admonish him as a brother."(4) The dove loves even when she is
in strife; and the wolf even when he caresses, hates. Therefore having the
simplicity of doves, and the wisdom of serpents, celebrate the solemnities
of the Martyrs in sobriety of mind,s not(6) in bodily excess, sing lauds to
God. For He who is the Martyrs' God, is our Lord God also, He it is who
will crown us. If we shall have wrestled well, we shall be crowned by Him,
who hath crowned already those whom we desire to imitate.

SERMON XV.

[LXV. BEN.]

ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL, MATT. X. 28, "BE NOT AFRAID OF THEM THAT KILL
THE BODY."

Delivered on a Festival of Martyrs.

 I. The Divine oracles which have just been read teach us in fearing not
to fear, and in not fearing to fear. Ye observed when the Holy Gospel was
being read, that our Lord God before He died for us, would have us to be
firm; and this by admonishing us "not" to fear, and withal to fear. For he
said, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul." See where He advised us not to fear. See now where He advised us to
fear. "But," saith he, "fear Him who hath power to destroy both body and
soul in hell."(7) Let us fear therefore, that we may not fear. Fear seems
to be allied to cowardice: seems to be the character of the weak, not the
strong. But see what saith the Scripture, "The fear of the Lord is the hope
of strength."(8) Let us then fear, that we may not fear; that is, let us
fear prudently, that we may not fear vainly. The holy Martyrs on the
occasion of whose solemnity this lesson was read out of the Gospel, in
fearing, feared not; because in fearing God, they did not regard men.

 2. For what need a man fear from man? And what is that whereby one man
should cause another fear, since both of them are men? One threatens and
says, "I will kill thee;" and does not fear, lest after his threat he die
before he have fulfilled it. "I will kill thee," he says. Who says it, and
to whom? I hear two men, the one threatening, and the other alarmed: of
whom the one is powerful, and the other weak, yet both are mortal. Why then
does he so stretch out himself, he, in honour, a somewhat more inflated
power, in body, equal weakness? Let him securely threaten death who does
not fear death. But if he fear that whereby he causes fear; let him think
of himself, and compare himself with him whom he is threatening. Let him
see in him whom he threateneth a likeness of condition, and so together
with him let him seek like pity from the Lord. For he is but a man, and he
threatens another man, a creature, another creature; only the one puffed up
under his Creator's eye, and the other fleeing for refuge to the same
Creator.

 3. Let the stout Martyr then, as he stands a man before another man, say;
"I do not fear, because I fear." Thou canst not do what thou art
threatening, unless He will; but what He threateneth, none can hinder Him
from doing.

And then again, what dost thou threaten, and what canst thou do, if thou
art permitted? 'Thy violence extends but to the flesh, the soul is safe
from thee. Thou canst not kill what thou dost not see: visible thyself,
thou threatenest that which is visible in me. But we have both an invisible
Creator, whom we ought both to fear; who of that which was both visible and
invisible created man. He made Him visible out of the earth, and with His
Breath He breathed into Him an invisible Spirit. Therefore the invisible
substance, that is, the soul, which has raised from the earth the earth as
it lay, does not fear, when thou assaultest the earth. Thou canst strike
the habitation, but canst thou strike him who dwells there? When the chain
is broken, he escapes who before was bound, and he will now be crowned in
secret. Why then dost thou threaten me, who canst do nothing to my soul?
Through the desert of that to which thou canst do nothing, will that to
which thy power extends rise again. For through the soul's desert, will the
flesh also rise again; and will be restored to its inhabitant, now no more
to fail, but to endure for ever. Behold (I am using the words of a Martyr),
behold, I say, not even on account of my body do I fear thy threats. My
body indeed is subject to thy power; but even the hairs of my head are
numbered by my Creator. Why should I fear lest I lose my body, who cannot
even lose a hair? How shall he not have a care of my body, to whom my
meanest things are so well known? This body which may be wounded and slain
will for a time be ashes, but it will be for ever immortal. But to whom
shall this be? To whom shall the body be restored for life eternal, even
though it have been slain, destroyed, and scattered to the winds? to whom
shall it be so restored? To him who has not been afraid to lay down his own
life, since he does not fear, lest his body should be slain.

 4. For, Brethren, the soul is said to be immortal, and immortal it is
according to a certain manner of its own: for it is a kind of life which is
able to give life to the body by its presence. For by the soul doth the
body live. This life cannot die, and therefore is the soul immortal. Why
then said I according to a certain manner of its own? Hear why. Because
there is a true immortality, an immortality which is an on-tire
unchangeableness; of which the Apostle saith, speaking of God, "Who only
hath immortality, dwelling in that light which no man may approach unto,
whom no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honour and glory for ever
and ever. Amen."(1) If then God only hath immortality, the soul must needs
be mortal. See then why it was that I said that the soul is immortal after
a certain manner of its own. For in fact it may also die. Understand this,
Beloved, and there will remain no difficulty. I venture to say then that
the soul can die, can be slain also. Yet it is undoubtedly immortal. See, I
venture to say, it is at once immortal, and it may be slain; and therefore
I said that there is a kind of immortality, an entire unchangeableness,
that is, which God Only hath, of whom it is said, "Who Only hath
immortality;" for if the soul cannot be slain, how did the Lord Himself
say, when He would make us fear, "Fear Him who hath power to slay both body
and soul in hell"?

 5. Hitherto I have confirmed, not solved, the difficulty. I have proved
that the soul can be slain. The Gospel cannot he gainsaid but by the
ungodly soul. Lo, something occurs to me here, and comes into my mind to
speak. Life cannot be gainsaid, but by a dead soul. The Gospel is life,
impiety and infidelity are the death of the soul. See then, it can die, and
yet it is immortal. How then is it immortal? Because there is always a sort
of life which is never extinguished in it. And how does it die? Not in
ceasing to be life, but by losing its life. For the soul is both life to
something else, and it has its own proper life. Consider the order of the
creatures. The soul is the life of the body: God is the life of the soul.
As the life, that is the soul, is present with the body, that the body die
not; so ought the life of the soul, that is God, to be with it that the
soul die not. How does the body die? By the soul's leaving it. I say, by
the soul's leaving it the body dies; and it lies along a mere carcass, what
was a little before a desirable, now a contemptible, object. There are in
it still its several members, the eyes, and ears; but these are but the
windows of the house, its inhabitant is gone. They who bewail the dead, cry
in vain at the windows of the house; there is none within to hear. How many
things does the fond affection of the mourner give utterance to, how many
enumerate and call to mind; and with what a madness of sorrow, so to say,
does he speak, as with one who was sensible of what was doing, when he is
really speaking with one who is no longer there? He recounts his good
qualities, and the tokens of his goodness towards himself. It was thou that
didst give me this; and did his and that for me; it was thou who didst thus
and thus dearly love me. But if thou wouldest only consider and understand,
and restrain the madness of thy grief, he who once loved thee, is gone; in
vain does the house receive thy knockings, in which thou canst not find a
dweller.

 6. Let us return to the subject I was speaking of a little while since.
The body is dead.

Why? Because its life, that is the soul, is gone Again, the body is alive,
and the man is impious, unbelieving, hard of belief, incorrigible; in this
case whilst the body is alive, the soul by which the body lives is dead.
For the soul is so excellent a thing, that it has power even though dead to
give life to the body. So excellent a thing, I say, is the soul, so
excellent a creature, that even though dead itself, it has power to quicken
the body. For the soul of the impious, unbelieving, unregulated man is
dead, and yet by it though dead the body lives. And therefore is it in the
body; it sets on the hands to work, and the feet to walk; it directs the
eye to see, it disposes the ears to hear, it discriminates tastes, avoids
pains, seeks after pleasures. All these are tokens of the life of the body;
but they are from the presence of the soul. If I were to ask a body whether
it were alive; it would answer me, You see me walking, you see me working,
you hear me talking, you perceive that I have certain aims and aversions,
and do you not understand that the body is alive? By these works then of
the soul which is placed within, I understand that the body is alive. I ask
the soul also whether it is alive? It also has its proper works, by which
it manifests its life. The feet walk. I understand by this that the body
lives, but by the presence of the soul. I ask now, does the soul live?
These feet walk. (To speak only of this one movement.) I am questioning
both body and soul, as touching their life. The feet walk, I understand
that the body lives. But whither do they walk? To adultery, it is said.
Then is the soul dead. For so hath unerring Scripture said, "The widow who
liveth in pleasure is dead."(1) Now since the difference is great between
"pleasure" and adultery, how can the soul which is said to be dead in
pleasure, live in adultery? It is surely dead. But it is dead even though
it be not in this case. I hear a man speaking; the body then lives. For the
tongue could not move itself in the mouth, and by its several motions give
utterance to articulate sounds, were there not an inhabitant within; and a
musician as it were to this instrument, to make use of his tongue. I
understand it perfectly. Thus the body speaks; the body then lives. But I
ask, is the soul alive also? Lo, the body speaks, and so is alive. But what
does it speak? As I said concerning the feet; they walk, and so the body is
alive, and I then asked, whither do they walk? that I might understand
whether the soul was alive also. So also when I hear a man speak, I
understand that the body is alive; I ask what does he speak, that I may
know whether the soul is alive also. He speaks a lie. If so, then is the
soul dead. How do we prove this? Let us ask the truth itself, which saith,
"The mouth that lieth, slayeth the soul."(2) I ask, why is the soul dead? I
ask as I did just now, why is the body dead? Because the soul, its life,
was gone. Why is the soul dead? Be cause God, its life, hath forsaken it.

7. After this brief examination then, know and hold for certain that the
body is dead without the soul, and that the soul is dead without God. Every
man without God hath a dead t soul. Thou dost bewail the dead: bewail the
sinner rather, bewail rather the ungodly man, bewail the unbeliever. It is
written, "The mourning for the dead is seven days; for a fool and an
ungodly man all the days of his life."(3) What! are there no bowels of
Christian compassion in thee; that thou mournest for a body from which the
soul is gone, and mournest not for the soul, from which God is departed?
Let the Martyr remembering this make answer to him that threatens him, "Why
dost thou force me to deny Christ?" Wouldest thou then force me to deny the
truth? And if I will not, what wilt thou do? Thou wilt assault my body,
that my soul shall depart from it; but this same soul of mine has its body
only for the soul's sake. It is not so foolish or unwise. Thou wouldest
wound my body; but wouldest thou, that through fear lest thou shouldest
wound my body, and my, soul should depart from it, I should wound mine own
soul, and my God should depart from it? Fear not then, O Martyr, the sword
of thy executioner; fear only thine own tongue, lest thou do execution upon
thine own self, and slay, not thy body, but thy soul. Fear for thy soul,
lest it die in hell-fire.

 8. Therefore said the Lord, "Who hath power to slay both body and soul in
hell-fire." How? when the ungodly shall be cast into hell-fire, will his
body and his soul burn there? Everlasting punishment will be the death of
the body; the absence of God will be the death of the soul. Wouldest thou
know what the death of the soul is? Understand the Prophet who saith, "Let
the ungodly be taken away, that he may not see the glory of the Lord." (4)
Let the soul then fear its proper death, and not fear the death of its
body. Because if it fear its own death, and so live in its God, by not
offending and thrusting Him away from him, it will be found worthy s to
receive its body again at the end; not unto everlasting punishment, as the
ungodly, but unto life eternal, as the righteous. By fearing this death,
and loving that life, did the Martyrs, in hope of the promises of God, and
in contempt of the threats of persecutors, attain(6) themselves to be
crowned with God, and have left to us the celebration of these solemnities.

SERMON XVI.

[LXVI. BEN.]

ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL, MATT. XI. 2, "NOW WHEN JOHN HEARD IN THE PRISON
THE WORKS OF THE CHRIST, HE SENT BY HIS DISCIPLES, AND SAID UNTO HIM, ART
THOU HE THAT COMETH, OR LOOK WE FOR ANOTHER?" ETC.

 I. THE lesson of the Holy Gospel has set before us a question touching
John the Baptist. May the Lord assist me to resolve it to you, as He hath
resolved it to us. John was commended, as ye have heard, by the testimony
of Christ, and in such terms commended, as that there had not risen a
greater among those who were born of women. But a greater than he had been
born of a Virgin. How much greater? Let the herald himself declare, how
great the difference is between himself and his Judge, whose herald he is.
For John went before Christ both in his birth and preaching; but it was in
obedience that he went before Him; not in preferring himself before Him.
For so the whole train(1) of attendants walks before the judge; yet they
who walk before, are really after him. How signal a testimony then did John
give to Christ? Even to saying that he "was not worthy to loose the latchet
of His shoes."(2) And what more? "Of His fulness," saith he, "have all we
received."(3) He confessed that he was but a lamp lighted at His Light, and
so he took refuge at His feet, lest venturing on high, he should be
extinguished by the wind of pride. So great indeed was he, that he was
taken for Christ; and if he had not himself testified that he was not He,
the mistake would have continued, and he would have been, reputed to be the
Christ. What striking humility! Honour was proffered him by the people, and
he himself refused it. Men were at fault in his greatness, and he humbled
himself. He had no wish to increase by the words of men, seeing he had
comprehended the Word of God.

 2. This then did John say concerning Christ. And what said Christ of
John? We have just now heard. "He began to say to the multitudes concerning
John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the
wind?"(4) Surely not; for John was not "blown about by every wind of
doctrine."(5) "But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft
raiment?"(6) No, for John was clothed in rough apparel; he had his raiment
of camel's hair, not of down. "But what went ye out for to see? A Prophet?
yea, and more than a Prophet."(7) Why "more than a Prophet"? The Prophets
foretold that the Lord would come, whom they desired to see, and saw not;
but to him was vouchsafed what they sought. John saw the Lord; he saw Him,
pointed his finger toward Him, and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who
taketh away the sins of the world;"(8) behold, here He is. Now had He come
and was not acknowledged; and so a mistake was made also as to John
himself. Behold then here is He whom the Patriarchs desired to see, whom
the Prophets foretold, whom the Law prefigured. "Behold the Lamb of God,
who taketh away the sins of the world." And he gave a goodly testimony to
the Lord, and the Lord to him. "Among them that are born of women," saith
the Lord, "there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist:
notwithstanding, he that is less in the kingdom of heaven is greater than
he;"(9) less in time, but greater in majesty. This He said, meaning Himself
to be understood. Now exceedingly great among men is John the Baptist, than
whom among men Christ alone is greater. It may also(10) be thus stated and
explained, "Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a
greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding, he that is the least in the
kingdom of heaven is greater than he." Not in the sense that I have before
explained it. "Notwithstanding, he that is the least in the kingdom of
heaven is greater than he;" the kingdom of heaven he meant where the Angels
are; he then that is the least among the Angels, is greater than John. Thus
He set forth to us the excellence(11) of that kingdom which we should long
for; set before us a city, of which we should desire to be citizens. What
sort of citizens are there? how great are they! Whoso is the least there,
is greater than John. Than what John? "Than whom there hath not risen a
greater among them that are born of women."

 3. Thus have we heard the true and good record both of John concerning
Christ, and of Christ concerning John. What then is the meaning of this;
that John sent his disciples to Him when He was shut up in prison, on the
eve of being put to death, and said to them, "Go, say to Him, Art Thou He
that should come, or do we look for another?"(12) Is this then all that
praise? That praise is it turned to doubting? What sayest thou, John. To
Whom art thou speaking? What sayest thou? Thou speakest to thy Judge,
thyself the herald. Thou stretchedst out the finger, and pointedst Him out;
thou saidst, "Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who taketh away the sins
of the world." Thou saidst, "Of His fulness have we all received." Thou
saidst, "I am not worthy to unloose the latchet of His shoes." And dost
thou now say, "Art Thou He that should come, or do we look for another?" Is
not this the same Christ? And who art thou? Art thou not His forerunner?
Art thou not he of whom it was foretold, "Behold, I send my messenger
before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before thee?"(1) How dost thou
prepare the way, and thou art thyself straying from the way? So then the
disciples of John came; and the Lord said to them, "Go, tell John, the
blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the poor
have the Gospel preached to them; and blessed is he whosoever shall not be
offended in Me."(2) Do not suspect that John was offended in Christ. And
yet his words do sound so; "Art Thou He that should come?" Ask my works;
"The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the
dead are raised, the poor have the Gospel preached to them;" and dost thou
ask whether I am He? My works, saith He, are My words. "Go, show him again.
And as they departed." Lest haply any one should say, John was good at
first, and the Spirit of God forsook him; therefore after their departure,
he spake these words; after their departure whom John had sent, Christ
commended John.(2)

 4. What is the meaning then of this obscure question? May that Sun shine
upon us, from which that lamp derived its flame. And so the resolution of
it is altogether plain. John had separate disciples of his own; not as in
separation from Christ, but prepared as a witness to him. For meet it was
that such an one should give his testimony to Christ, who was himself also
gathering disciples, and who might have been envious of Him, for that he
could not see Him. Therefore because John's disciples highly esteemed their
master, they heard from John his record concerning Christ, and marvelled;
and as he was about to die, it was his wish that they should be confirmed
by him. For no doubt they were saying among themselves; Such great things
doth he say of Him, but none such of himself. "Go then, ask Him;" not
because I doubt, but that ye may be instructed. "Go, ask Him," hear from
Himself what I am in the habit of telling you; ye have heard the herald, be
confirmed by the Judge. "Go, ask Him, Art Thou He that should come, or do
we look for another?" They went accordingly and asked; not for John's sake,
but for their own. And for their sakes did Christ say, "The blind see, the
lame walk, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, the
poor have the Gospel preached to them." Ye see Me, acknowledge Me then; ye
see the works, acknowledge the Doer. "And blessed is he whosoever shall not
be offended in Me." But it is of you I speak, not of John. For that we
might know that He spake not this of John, as they departed, "He began to
speak to the multitudes concerning John;" the True, the Truth Himself,
proclaimed his true praises.

 5. I think this question has been sufficiently explained. Let it suffice
then to have prolonged my address thus far. Now keep the poor in mind.
Give, ye who have not given hitherto believe me, ye will not lose it. Yes,
truly, that only it seems ye lose, which ye do not carry to the circus.(3)
Now must we render unto the poor the offerings of such of you as have
offered anything, and the amount which we have is much less than your usual
offerings. Shake off this sloth. I am become a beggar for beggars; what is
that to me? I would be a beggar for beggars, that ye may be reckoned among
the number of children.

SERMON XVII.

ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL, MATT. XI. THANK THEE, O FATHER, LORD OF HEAVEN
AND EARTH, THAT THOU DIDST HIDE THESE THINGS FROM THE WISE AND
UNDERSTANDING," ETC.

 1. WHEN the Holy Gospel was being read, we heard that the Lord Jesus
exulted in Spirit, and said, "I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, for that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes."(4) Thus much to begin with, we find
before we pass on further, if we consider the words of the Lord with due
attention, with diligence, and above all with piety, that we ought not
invariably to understand when we read of "confession" in the Scriptures,
the confession(6) of a sinner. Now especial need there was of saying this,
and of reminding you, Beloved, of this, because as soon as this word was
uttered by the reader's voice, there followed upon it the sound of the
beating of your breasts, when ye had heard, I mean, what the Lord said, "I
confess to Thee, O Father." At the uttering of these words, "I confess," ye
beat your breasts. Now what means this beating of the breast, but to show
that which lies hid within the breast, and to chastise by the visible
beating the secret sin? And why did ye this, but because ye heard, "I
confess to Thee, O Father." Ye heard the words "I confess," but ye did not
consider, who it is that confesses. But consider now. If Christ, from whom
all sin is far removed, said, "I confess:" confession does not belong to
the sinner only, but sometimes to him also that praiseth God. We confess
then, whether in praising God, or accusing ourselves. In either case it is
a godly confession, either when thou blamest thyself, who art not without
sin, or when thou praisest Him who can have no sin.

 2. But if we consider it well: thine own blame is His praise. For why is
it that thou dost now confess in accusing thyself for thy sin? in accusing
thyself why dost thou confess? but because thou art become alive from the
dead? for the Scripture saith, "Confession perisheth from the dead, as from
one that is not."(1) If confession perisheth from the dead, he who
confesseth must be alive; and if he confesseth sin he hath undoubtedly
risen again from death. Now if he that confesseth sin hath risen again from
the dead, who hath raised him? No dead man can raise himself. He only was
able to raise Himself, who though His Body was dead, was not dead. For He
raised up that which was dead. He raised up Himself, who in Himself was
alive, but in His Body that was to be raised was dead. For not the Father
only, of whom it was said by the Apostle, "Wherefore God also hath exalted
Him,"(2) raised the Son, but the Lord also raised Himself, that is, His
Body. Whence He said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise
it again."(3) But the sinner is dead, especially he whom the load of sinful
habit presseth down, who is buried as it were like Lazarus. For he was not
merely dead, he was buried also.(4) Whosoever then is oppressed by the load
of evil habit, of a wicked life, of earthly lusts, I mean, so that that in
his case is true which is piteously described in a certain Psalm, "The fool
hath said in his heart, There is no God,"(5) he is such an one, of whom it
is said, "Confession perisheth from the dead, as from one that is not." And
who shall raise him up, but He who when the stone was removed, cried out,
and said, "Lazarus, Come forth?"(6) Now what is to "come forth," but to
bring forth what was hidden? He then who confesseth "cometh forth." "Come
forth" he could not were he not alive; he could not be alive, had he not
been raised again. And therefore in confession the accusing of one's self,
is the praise of God.

 3. Now one may say, what profit then is the Church, if he that confesseth
comes forth, at once raised to life again by the voice of the Lord? What
profit to Him that confesseth, is the Church, to which the Lord said,
"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven."(7) Consider
this very case of Lazarus: he comes forth, but with his bands. He was alive
already through confession, but he did not yet walk free, entangled as he
was in his bands. What then doth the Church to which it was said,
"Whatsoever ye shall loose, shall be loosed;" but what(8) the Lord said
forthwith to His disciples, "Loose him, and let him go"?(9)

 4. Whether then we accuse ourselves, or directly praise God, in both ways
do we praise God. If with a pious intention we accuse ourselves, by so
doing we praise God. When we praise God directly, we do as it were
celebrate His Holiness, who is without sin: but when we accuse ourselves,
we give Him glory, by whom we have risen again. This if thou shall do, the
enemy will find none occasion whereby to(10) overreach thee before the
judge. For when thou shall be thine own accuser, and the Lord thy
Deliverer, what shall he be but a mere calumniator? With good reason hath
the Christian hereby provided protection for himself against his enemies,
not those that may be seen, flesh and blood, to be pitied, rather than to
be feared, but against those against whom the Apostle exhorts us to arm
ourselves: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood;"(11) that is, against
men whom ye see raging against you. They are but vessels, which another
uses, they are but instruments which another handles. "The devil," saith
the Scripture," entered into the heart of Judas, that he should betray the
Lord."(12) One may say then, what have I done? Hear the Apostle, "Give not
place to the devil."(13) Thou hast given him place by an evil will: he
entered, and possessed, and now uses thee. He had not possessed thee, hadst
thou not given him place.

 5. Therefore doth he warn and say, "We wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities and powers." Any one might suppose this
meant against the kings of the earth, against the powers of this world. How
so? are they not flesh and blood? And once for all it is said, "not against
flesh and blood." Turn thy attention from all men. What enemies then
remain? "Against principalities and powers of spiritual wickedness, the
rulers of the world."(14) It might seem as though he gave the devil and his
angels more than they have. It is so, he has called them the "rulers of the
world." But to prevent misunderstanding, he explains what this world is, of
which they are the rulers. "The rulers of the world, of this darkness."
What is, "of the world, of this darkness?" The world is full of those who
love it, and of unbelievers, over whom he is ruler. This the Apostle calls
darkness. This darkness the devil and his angels are the rulers of. This is
not the natural, and unchangeable darkness: this darkness changes, and
becomes light; it believes, and by believing is enlightened. When this
takes place in it, it will hear the words, "For ye were sometimes darkness,
but now are ye light in the Lord."(1) For when ye were darkness, ye were
not in the Lord: again, when ye are light, ye are light not in yourselves,
but in the Lord. "For what hast thou which thou hast not received?"(2)
Inasmuch then as they are invisible enemies, by invisible means must they
be subdued. A visible enemy indeed thou mayest overcome by blows; thy
invisible enemy thou conquerest by belief. A man is a visible enemy; to
strike a blow is visible also. The devil is an invisible enemy; to believe
is invisible also. Against invisible enemies then there is an invisible
fight.

 6. From these enemies how can any man say that he is safe? For this I had
begun to speak of, but I thought it necessary to treat of these enemies at
some little length. But now that we know our enemies, let us see to our
defence against them. "In praising I will call upon the Lord, so shall I be
safe from mine enemies."(3) Thou seest what thou hast to do. "In praising
call;" that is, "in praising the Lord, call." For thou wilt not be safe
from thine enemies, if thou praise thyself. "In praising call upon the
Lord, and thou shalt be safe from thine enemies." For what doth the Lord
Himself say? "The sacrifice of praise shall glorify Me, and there is the
way, in which I will show him My salvation."(4) Where is the way? In the
sacrifice of praise. Let not your foot then wander out of this way. Keep in
the way; depart not from it; from the praise of the Lord depart not a foot,
nay, not a nail's breadth. For if thou wilt deviate from this way, and
praise thyself instead of the Lord, thou wilt not be safe from thine
enemies; for it is said of them, "They have laid stumbling-blocks for me by
the way."(5) Therefore in whatever,  measure thou thinkest that thou hast
good of thine own self, thou hast deviated from the praise of God. Why dost
thou marvel then, if thine enemy seduce thee, when thou art thine own
seducer? Hear the Apostle, "For if a man think himself to be something when
he is nothing, he seduceth himself."(6)

 7. Give heed then to the Lord confessing; "I confess to Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth." I confess to Thee, that is, I praise Thee. I
praise Thee, not I accuse myself. Now as far as the taking of very(7) man
is concerned, all, is grace, singular and perfect grace. What merit had
that man(8) who is Christ, if thou take away the grace, even that so pre-
eminent grace, whereby it behoved that there should be One Christ, and that
He whom we acknowledge should be He? Take away this grace, and what is
Christ but a mere man? what but the same as thou art thyself? He took a
Soul, He took a Body, He took a perfect Man; He uniteth him to Himself, the
Lord maketh one Person with the servant. What pre-eminent grace is this!
Christ in heaven, Christ on earth; Christ at once both in heaven and earth;
not two Christs, but the same Christ, both in heaven and earth. Christ with
the Father, Christ in the Virgin's womb; Christ on the Cross, Christ
succouring some souls in hell; and on the self-same day Christ in paradise
with the robber who confessed. And how did the robber attain(9) to this
blessedness, but because he held on that I way, in which "He showeth His
salvation"? That way, from which let not thy foot wander. For in that he
accused himself, he praised God, and made his own life blessed. He looked
in hope(10) for this from the Lord, and said to Him, "Lord, remember me
when Thou comest into Thy kingdom."(11) For he considered his own wicked
deeds, and thought it much, if mercy should be shown him even at the last.
But the Lord immediately after He had said, "Remember me"--when? "when Thou
comest into Thy kingdom," saith, "Verily I say unto thee, Today shall thou
be with Me in paradise." Mercy offered at once, what misery deferred.

 8. Hear then the Lord confessing; "I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of
heaven and earth."(12) What do I confess? Wherein do I praise thee? For
this confession, as I have said before, signifieth praise. "Because Thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them
unto babes." What is this, Brethren? Understand by that which is opposed to
them. "Thou hast hid these things," saith he, "from the wise and prudent;"
and he did not say, thou hast revealed them to the foolish and imprudent,
but "Thou hast hid these things" indeed "from the wise and prudent, and
hast revealed them unto babes." To these wise and prudent, who are really
objects of derision, to the arrogant who in false pretence are great, yet
in truth are only swollen up, he opposed not the foolish, nor the
imprudent, but babes. Who are babes? The humble. Therefore "Thou hast
hidden these things from the wise and prudent." Under the name of the wise
and prudent, He hath Himself explained that the proud are understood, when
He said, "Thou hast revealed them unto babes." Therefore from those who are
not babes Thou hast hidden them. What is from those who are not babes? From
those who are not humble. And who are they but the proud? O way of the
Lord! Either there was none, or it lay hid, that it might be revealed to
us. Why did the Lord exult? "Because it was revealed unto babes." We must
be little babes; for if we would wish to be great, "wise and prudent as it
were, it is not revealed unto us. Who are these great ones? The wise and
prudent. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."(1) Here
then thou hast a remedy suggested from its opposite. For if by "professing
thyself wise, thou art become a fool; profess thyself a fool, and thou wilt
be wise." But profess it in truth, profess it from the heart, for it is
really so as thou professest. If thou profess it, do not profess it before
men, and forbear to profess it before God. As to thyself, and all that is
thine, thou art altogether dark. For what else is it to be a fool, but to
be dark in heart? He saith of them at last, "Professing themselves to be
wise, they became fools." Before they professed this, what do we find? "And
their foolish heart was darkened."(2) Acknowledge then that thou art not to
thyself a light. At best thou art but an eye, thou art not the light. And
what good is even an open and a sound eye, if the light be wanting?
Acknowledge therefore that of thine own self thou art no light to thyself;
and cry out as it is written, "Thou, Lord, wilt light my candle: Thou wilt
enlighten, O Lord, my darkness with Thy Light."(3) For myself I was all
darkness; but Thou art the Light that scattereth the darkness, and
enlighteneth me; of myself I am no light to myself, yea I have no portion
of light but in Thee.

 9. So John also, the friend of the Bridegroom, was thought to be the
Christ, was thought to be the Light. "He was not that Light, but that he
might bear witness of the Light."(4) But what was the Light? It was the
true Light. What is the true Light? "That which lighteneth every man." If
that be the true Light which lighteneth every man, then it lightened John
also, who professed and confessed rightly, "Of His fulness have all we
received."(5) See if he said ought else, but "Thou, O Lord, shalt lighten
my candle." Finally, being now enlightened, He gave His testimony. For the
benefit of the blind the lamp gave witness to the Day. See how that He is a
lamp; "Ye sent," He said, "unto John, and ye were willing for a season to
rejoice in his light; he was a burning and a shining lamp."(6) He, the
lamp, that is, a thing enlightened, was lighted that it might shine. That
which can be lighted can be extinguished also. Now that it may not be
extinguished, let it not expose itself to the wind of pride. Therefore, "I
confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid
these things from the wise and prudent," from those who thought themselves
to be light, and were darkness; and who because they were darkness, and
thought themselves to be light, could not even be enlightened. But they who
were darkness, and confessed that they were darkness, were little babes,
not great; were humble, not proud. Rightly therefore did they say, "O Lord,
Thou wilt lighten my candle." They knew themselves, they praised the Lord.
They did not stray from the way of salvation; "They in praise called upon
the Lord, and they were saved from their enemies."(7)

 10. Turning then to the Lord our God, the Father Almighty, in purity of
heart, let us render unto Him, as our frailty best can, our highest and
abundant thanks, with our whole mind praying His singular goodness, that in
His good pleasure He would vouchsafe to hear our prayers, that by His Power
He would drive out the enemy from our deeds and thoughts, would enlarge our
faith, direct our minds, grant us spiritual thoughts, and bring us safe to
His endless blessedness, through His Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

SERMON XVIII.

[LXVIII. BEN.]

AGAIN ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL, MATT. XI. 25, "I THANK THEE, O FATHER,
LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH," ETC.

 I. WE have heard the Son of God saying, "I confess to Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth." What doth he confess to Him? Wherein doth he
praise Him? "Because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes."(8) Who are the "wise and prudent"? Who
the "babes"? What hath He hid from the wise and prudent, and revealed unto
babes? By the "wise and prudent," He signifieth those of whom St. Paul
speaks; "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of
this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?"(1) Yet
perhaps thou still askest who they are. They are they peradventure who in
their much disputation concerning God, have spoken falsely of Him; who,
puffed up by their own doctrines, could in no wise find out and know God,
and who for the God whose substance is incomprehensible and invisible, have
thought the air and sky to be God, or the sun to be God, or anything which
holds high place(2) among the creatures to be God. For observing the
grandeur and beauty and powers of the creatures, they rested in them, and
found not the Creator.

 2. These men does the Book of wisdom reprove, where it is said, "For if
they were able to know so much as to aim at the world, how did they not
sooner find out the Lord thereof?"(3) They are accused as wasting their
time and their busy disputes in investigating and measuring as it were the
creature; they sought out the courses of the stars, the intervals of the
planets, the movements(4) of the heavenly bodies, so as to arrive by
certain s calculations to that degree of knowledge as to foretell the
eclipses of the sun and moon; and that as they had foretold, so should the
event be according to the day and hour, and to the portion of the bodies
which should be eclipsed. Great industry, great activity of mind. But in
these things they sought after the Creator, who was not far off from them,
and they found Him not. Whom if they could have found, they might have had
within them. With the best reason then, and very rightly were they accused,
who could investigate the numbers of the stars, and their varied movements,
and know and foretell the eclipses of the luminaries: rightly accused, I
say, in that they found not Him by whom these had been created and
ordained, because they neglected to seek Him. But be not thou much
disquieted, if thou art ignorant of the courses of the stars, and the
proportions(6) of the celestial and terrestrial bodies. Behold the fair
beauty of the world, and praise its Creator's counsel. Behold what He has
made, and love Him who made it: be this thy greatest care. Love Him who
made it; for He made thee also after His own image, that thou mightest love
Him.

 3. If then it is strange that those things of which Christ said, "Thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent," were hidden from such
wise men as these, who, occupied wholly about the creatures, chose to seek
the Creator carelessly, and could not find Him; still more strange is it
that there should even be found some "wise and prudent" men who were able
to know Him. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness."(7) Perhaps thou dost ask, what truth do they hold in
unrighteousness? "Because that which may be known of God is manifest among
them." How is it manifest? He goes on to say, "For God hath manifested it
to them."(8) Dost thou still enquire how He manifested it to them to whom
He gave not the law? How? "For the invisible things of Him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made."(9) There were then some such, not as Moses the servant of God,
not as many Prophets who had an insight into and knowledge of these things,
and were aided by the Spirit of God, which they drew in by faith, and drank
with the throat(10) of godliness, and poured(11) forth again by the mouth
of the interior man. Not such as these were they; but far unlike them, who
by means of this visible creation were able to attain to the understanding
of the Creator, and to say of these things which God hath made;(12) Behold
what things He hath made, He governeth and containeth also. He who hath
made them, Himself filleth what He hath made with His own presence. Thus
much they were enabled to say. For these Paul also made mention of in the
Acts of the Apostles, where, when he had said of God, "For in Him we live
and move and have our being"(13) (forasmuch as he was speaking to the
Athenians among whom those learned men had existed); he subjoined
immediately; "As certain also of your own have said." Now it was no trivial
thing they said; "That in Him we live and move and have our being."

 4. In what then were they unlike the others? why were they blamed? why
rightly accused? Hear the words of the Apostle which I had begun to quote;
"The wrath of God," saith he, "is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness" (even of those, namely, who had not received the law);
"against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in
unrighteousness." What truth? "Because that which may be known of God is
manifest in them." By whose manifestation of it? "For God hath manifested
it to them." How? "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even
His Eternal Power and Godhead." Why did He manifest it? "That they might be
without excuse." Wherein then are they to be blamed? "Because that when
they knew God, they glorified Him not as God."

 5. What mean these words, "Glorified Him not as God?" They did not give
Him thanks. Is this then to glorify God; to give God thanks? Yes, verily.
For what can be worse, if having been created after the image of God, and
having come to know God, thou shalt not be thankful to Him? This surely,
this is to glorify God, to give God thanks. The faithful know where and
when it is said, "Let us give thanks unto our Lord God." But who gives
thanks to God, save he who "lifts up his heart unto the Lord?" Therefore
are they blameable and without excuse, "Because when they knew God, they
glorified Him not as God, nor gave Him thanks. But"--what? "But they became
vain in their imaginations." Whence did they become vain, but because they
were proud? Thus smoke vanishes away by rising up aloft, and a flame burns
the more brightly and strongly in proportion as it is kept low; "They
became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
So smoke, though it rise higher than the flame, is dark.

 6. Finally, mark what follows, and see the point on which the whole
matter depends. "For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."
For arrogating to themselves what God had given, God took away what He had
given. Therefore from the proud He hid Himself, who conveyed the knowledge
of Himself only to those who through the creature sought diligently after
the Creator. Well then did our Lord say, "Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent;" whether from those who in their manifold
disputations, and most busy search, have reached to the full investigation
of the creature, but knew nothing of the Creator, or from them who when
they knew God, glorified Him not as God, nor gave Him thanks, and who could
not see perfectly or healthfully because they were proud. "Therefore Thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them
unto babes." What babes? To the lowly. Say on whom doth My Spirit rest?
"Upon him that is lowly and quiet, and who trembleth at My words."(2) At
these words Peter trembled; Plato trembled not. Let the fisherman hold fast
what that most famous philosopher has lost. "Thou hast hid these things
from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." Thou hast
hid them from the proud, and revealed them to the humble. What things are
these? For when He said this, He did not intend the heaven and earth, or
point them out as it were with His hand as He spake. For these who does not
see? The good see them, the bad see them; for He "maketh His sun to rise on
the evil and the good."(3) What then are these things? "All things are
delivered unto Me of My Father."(4)

SERMON XIX.

[LXIX. BEN.]

ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL, MATT. XIX. "COME UNTO ME, ALL YE THAT LABOUR
AND ARE HEAVY LADEN," ETC.

 I. WE heard in the Gospel that the Lord, rejoicing greatly in Spirit,
said unto God the Father, "I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and
hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in
Thy sight. All things are delivered unto Me of My Father: and no man
knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him."(5) I have labour in
talking, you in hearing: let us then both give ear to Him who goes on to
say, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour."(6) For why do we labour all,
except that we are mortal men, frail creatures and infirm, bearing about
vessels of clay which crowd and straiten one another. But if these vessels
of flesh are straitened, let the open(7) expanse of charity be enlarged.
What then does He mean by, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour," but that ye
may labour no more? In a word, His promise is clear enough; forasmuch as He
called those who were in labour, they might perchance enquire, for what
profit they were called: "and," saith He, "I will refresh you."

 2. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me;"(8) not to raise the fabric
of the world, not to create all things visible and invisible, not in the
world so created to work miracles and raise the dead; but," that I am meek
and lowly in heart." Thou wishest to be great, begin from the least. Thou
art thinking to construct some mighty fabric in height; first think of the
foundation of humility. And how great soever a mass of building one may
wish and design to place above it, the greater the building is to be, the
deeper does he dig his foundation. The building in the course of its
erection, rises up on high, but he who digs its foundation, must first go
down very low. So then you see even a building is low before it is high,
and the top is raised only after humiliation.

 3. What is the top in the erection of that building which we are
constructing? Whither will the highest point of this building reach? I say
at once, even to the Vision of God. Ye see how high, how great a thing it
is to see God. Whoso longeth after it, understands both what I say and what
he hears. The Vision of God is promised to us, of the very God, the Supreme
God. For this is good, to see Him who seeth.

For they who worship false gods, see them easily; but they see them "who
have eyes and see not." But to us is promised the Vision of the Living and
the Seeing God, that we may desire eagerly to see that God of whom
Scripture saith, "He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that
formed the eye, doth he not consider?"(1) Doth He then not hear, who hath
made for thee that whereby thou hearest? and doth not He see, who hath
created that whereby thou seest? Well therefore in the foregoing words of
this very Psalm doth He say, "Understand therefore ye unwise among the
people, and ye fools at length be wise."(2) For many men commit evil deeds
whilst they think they are not seen by God. And it is difficult indeed for
them to believe that He cannot see them; but they think that He will not.
Few are found of such great impiety, that that should be fulfilled in them
which is written, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."(3)
This is but the madness of a few. For as great piety belongs but to the
few, no less also does great impiety. But the multitude of men speak thus:
What! is God thinking now upon this, that He should know what I am doing in
my house, and does God care for what I may choose to do upon my bed? Who
says this? "Understand, ye unwise among the people, and ye fools at length
be wise." Because as being a man, it is a labour for thee to know all that
takes place in thy house, and for all the doings and words of thy servants
to reach thee; thinkest thou that it is a like labour for God to observe
thee, who did not labour to create thee? Doth not He fix His eye upon thee,
who made thine eye? Thou wast not, and He created thee and gave thee being;
and doth not He care for thee now that thou art, who "calleth those things
which be not as though they were"?(4) Do not then promise thyself this.
Whether thou wilt or no, He seeth thee, and there is no place whither thou
canst hide thyself from His eyes. "For if thou goest up into heaven, He is
there; if thou goest down into hell, He is there also."(5) Great is thy
labour, whilst unwilling to depart from evil deeds: yet wishest not to be
seen by God. Hard labour truly! Daily art thou wishing to do evil, and dost
thou suspect that thou art not seen? Hear the Scripture which saith, "He
that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, doth not
He consider?" Where canst thou hide thy evil deeds from the eyes of God? If
thou wilt not depart from them, thy labour is great indeed.

 4. Hear Him then who saith, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour." Thou
canst not end thy labour by flying. Dost thou choose to fly from Him, and
not rather to Him? Find out then whither thou canst escape, and so fly. But
if thou canst not fly from Him, for that He is everywhere present; fly (it
is quite nigh(6) ) to God, who is present where thou art standing. Fly. Lo
in thy flight thou hast passed the heavens, He is there; thou hast
descended into hell, He is there; whatever deserts of the earth thou shalt
choose, there is He, who hath said, "I fill heaven and earth."(7) If then
He fills heaven and earth, and there is no place whither thou canst fly
from Him; cease this thy labour, and fly to His presence, lest thou feel
His coming. Take courage from the(8) hope that thou shalt by well-living
see Him, by whom even in thy evil living thou art seen. For in evil living
thou canst be seen, thou canst not see; but by well-living thou art both
seen and seest. For with how much more tender nearness(9) will He who
crowneth the worthy look on thee, who in His pity saw thee that He might
call thee when unworthy? Nathanael said to the Lord whom as yet he did not
know, "Whence knewest thou me?" The Lord said unto him, "When thou wast
under the fig-tree I saw thee."(10) Christ saw thee in thine own shade; and
will He not see thee in His Light? For what is, "When thou wast under the
fig-tree I saw thee"? What does it mean? Call to mind the original sin of
Adam, in whom we all die. When he first sinned, he made himself aprons of
fig-leaves,(11) signifying by these leaves the irritations of lust to which
he had been reduced by sinning. Hence are we born; in this condition are we
born; born in sinful flesh, which "the likeness of sinful flesh" alone can
cure. Therefore "God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh."(12)
He came of this flesh, but He came not as other men. For the Virgin
conceived Him not by lust, but by faith. He came into the Virgin, who was
before the Virgin. He made choice of her whom He created, He created her
whom He designed to choose. He brought to the Virgin fruitfulness: He took
not away her unimpaired purity. He then who came to thee without the
irritation of the leaves of the fig-tree, "when thou wast under the fig-
tree," saw thee. Make ready then to see Him in His height of glory,(13) by
whom in His pity thou wast seen. But because the top is high, think of the
foundation. What foundation? dost thou say? "Learn of Him, for He is meek
and lowly in heart." Dig this foundation of lowliness deep in thee, and so
wilt thou attain to the crowning top of charity. "Turning to the Lord,"
etc.

SERMON XX.

[LXX. BEN.]

AGAIN ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL, MATT. XI. 28, "COME UNTO ME, ALL YE THAT
LABOUR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST," ETC.

 1. IT seems strange to some, Brethren, when they hear the Lord say, "Come
unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden
is light."(1) And they consider that they who have fearlessly bowed their
necks to this yoke, and have with much submission taken this burden upon
their shoulders, are tossed about and exercised by so great difficulties in
the world, that they seem not to be called from labour to rest, but from
rest to labour rather; since the Apostle also saith, "All who will live
godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution."(2) So one will say, "How
is the yoke easy, and the burden light," when to bear this yoke and burden
is nothing else, but to live godly in Christ? And how is it said, "Come
unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you"?
and not rather said, "Come ye who are at ease and idle, that ye may
labour." For so he found those men idle and at ease, whom he hired into the
vineyard,(3) that they might bear the heat of the day. And we hear the
Apostle under that easy yoke and light burden say, "In all things approving
ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in
necessities, in distresses, in stripes,"(4) etc., and in another place of
the same Epistle, "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save
one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice have I
suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep:"(5) and the
rest of the perils, which may be enumerated indeed, but endured they cannot
be but by the help of the Holy Spirit.

 2. All these grievous and heavy trials which he mentioned, did he very
frequently and abundantly sustain; but in very deed the Holy Spirit was
with him in the wasting of the outward man, to renew the inner man from day
to day, and by the taste of spiritual rest in the affluence of the delights
of God to soften down by the hope of future blessedness all present
hardships,  and to alleviate all heavy trials. Lo, how sweet a yoke of
Christ did he bear, and how light a burden; so that he could say that all
those hard and grievous sufferings at the recital of which as just above
every hearer shudders, were a "light tribulation;" as he beheld with the
inward eyes, the eyes of faith, at how great a price of things temporal
must be purchased the life to come, the escape from the everlasting pains
of the ungodly, the full enjoyment, free from all anxiety, of the eternal
happiness of the righteous. Men suffer themselves to be cut and burnt, that
the pains not of eternity, but of some more lasting sore than usual, may be
bought off at the price of severer pain. For a languid and uncertain period
of a very short repose, and that too at the end of life, the soldier is
worn down by all the hard trials of war, restless it may be for more years
in his labours, than he will have to enjoy his rest in ease. To what storms
and tempests, to what a fearful and tremendous raging of sky and sea, do
the busy merchantmen expose themselves, that they may acquire riches
inconstant as the wind, and full of perils and tempests, greater even than
those by which they were acquired! What heats, and colds, what perils, from
horses, from ditches, from precipices, from rivers, from wild beasts, do
huntsmen undergo, what pain of hunger and thirst, what straitened
allowances of the cheapest and meanest meat and drink, that they may catch
a beast! and sometimes after all, the flesh of the beast for which they
endure all this is of no use for the table. And although a boar or a stag
be caught, it is more sweet to the hunter's mind because it has been
caught, than it is to the eater's palate because it is dressed. By what
sharp corrections of almost daily stripes is the tender age of boys brought
under! By what great pains even of watching and abstinence in the schools
are they exercised, not to learn true wisdom, but for the sake of riches,
and the honours of an empty show, that they may learn arithmetic,(6) and
other literature, and the deceits of eloquence!

 3. Now in all these instances, they who do not love these things feel
them as great severiities; whereas they who love them endure the same, it
is true, but they do not seem to feel them severe. For love makes all, the
hardest and most distressing things, altogether easy, and almost nothing.
How much more surely then and easily will charity do with a view to true
blessedness, that which mere desire does as it can, with a view to what is
but misery? How easily is any temporal adversity endured, if it be that
eternal punishment may be avoided, and eternal rest procured! Not without
good reason did that vessel of election say with exceeding joy "The
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us."(7) See then how it is that that" yoke
is easy, and that burden light." And if it be strait to the few who choose
it, yet is it easy to all who love it. The Psalmist saith, "Because of the
words of Thy lips I have kept hard ways."(1) But the things which are hard
to those who labour, lose their roughness(2) to those same men when they
love. Wherefore it has been so arranged by the dispensation of the Divine
goodness, that to "the inner man who is renewed from day to day,"(3) placed
no longer under the Law but under Grace, and freed from the burdens of
numberless observances which were indeed a heavy yoke, but meetly imposed
on a stubborn neck, every grievous trouble which that prince who is cast
forth could inflict from without on the outward man, should through the
easiness of a simple faith, and a good hope, and a holy charity, become
light through the joy within. For to a good will nothing is so easy, as
this good will to itself, and this is enough for God. How much soever
therefore this world may rage, most truly did the angels exclaim when the
Lord was born in the flesh, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace to men of good will;"(4) because "His yoke," who was then born, "is
easy, and His burden light." And as the Apostle saith, "God is faithful,
who will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able to bear; but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that we may be able to
bear it."(5)


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF I/VI, Schaff). The digital version is by The Electronic Bible
Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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