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ST. AUGUSTINE

LECTURES OR TRACTATES 21-30 ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.

[Translated by Rev. John Gibb, Professor in the Presbyterian Theological
College at London.]


TRACTATE XXI: CHAPTER V. 20-23

   1. YESTERDAY, so far as the Lord vouchsafed to bestow, we discussed
with what ability we could, and discerned according to our capacity, how
the works of the Father and of the Son are inseparable; and how the Father
doeth not some, the Son others, but that the Father doeth all things
through the Son, as through His Word, of which it is written, "All things
were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made." Let us to-day look at
the words that follow. And of the same Lord let us pray for mercy, and hope
that, if He deem it meet, we may understand what is true; but if we should
not be able to do this, that we may not go into what is false. For it is
better not to know than to go astray; but to know is better than not to
know. Therefore, before all things, we ought to strive to know. Should we
be able, to God be thanks; but should we not be able meanwhile to arrive at
the truth, let us not go to falsehood. For we are bound to consider well
what we are, and what we are treating of. We are men bearing flesh, walking
in this life; and though now begotten again of the seed of the Word of God,
yet in Christ renewed in such manner that we are not yet wholly rid of
Adam. For truly our mortal and corruptible part that weighs down the
soul(1) shows itself to be, and manifestly is, of Adam; but what in us is
spiritual, and raises up the soul, is of God's gift and of His mercy, who
has sent His only Son to partake our death with us, and to lead us to His
own immortality. The Son we have for our Master, that we may not sin; and
for our defender, if we have sinned and have confessed, and been converted;
an intercessor for us, if we have desired any good of God; and the bestower
of it with the Father, because Father and Son is one God. But He was
speaking these things as man to men: God concealed, the man manifest, that
He might make them gods that are manifest men; and the Son of God made Son
of man, that He might make the sons of men sons of God. By what skill of
His wisdom He doeth this, we perceive in His own words. For as a little one
He speaks to little ones, but Himself little in such wise that He is also
great, and we little, but in Him great. He speaks, indeed, as one
cherishing and nourishing children at the breast that grow by loving.

   2. He had said, "The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He
seeth the Father doing." We, however, understood it not that the Father
doeth something separately, which when the Son seeth, Himself also doeth
something of the same kind, after seeing His Father's work; but when He
said, "The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He seeth the Father
doing," we understood it that the Son is wholly of the Father--that His
whole substance and His whole power are of the Father that begat Him. But
just now, when He had said that He doeth in like manner these things which
the Father doeth, that we may not understand it to mean that the Father
doeth some, the Son others, but that the Son with like power doeth the very
same which the Father doeth, whilst the Father doeth through the Son, He
went on, and said what we have heard read to-day: "For the Father loveth
the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth." Again mortal
thought is disturbed. The Father showeth to the Son what things Himself
doeth; therefore, saith some one, the Father doeth separately, that the Son
may be able to see what He doeth. Again, there occur to human thought, as
it were, two artificers--as, for instance, a carpenter teaching his son his
own art, and showing him whatever he doeth, that the son also may be able
to do it. "Showeth Him," saith He, "all things that Himself doeth." Is it
therefore so, that whilst He doeth, the Son doeth not, that He may be able
to see the Father do? Yet, certainly, "all things were made by Him, and
without Him was nothing made." Hence we see how the Father showeth the Son
what He doeth, since the Father doeth nothing but what He doeth through the
Son. What hath the Father made? He made the world. Hath He shown the world,
when made, to the Son in such wise, that the Son also should make something
like it? Then let us see the world which the Son made. Nevertheless, both"
all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made," and also
"the world was made by Him."(1) If the world was made by Him, and all
things were made by Him, and the Father doeth nothing save by the Son,
where cloth the Father show to the Son what He doeth, if it be not in the
Son Himself, through whom He doeth? In what place can  the work of the
Father be shown to the Son,  as though He were doing and sitting outside,
and the Son attentively watching the Father's hand how it maketh? Where is
that inseparable Trinity? Where the Word, of which it is said that the same
is ''the power and the wisdom of God"?(2) Where that which the Scripture
saith of the same wisdom: "For it is the brightness of the eternal
light?"(3) Where what was said of it again: "It powerfully reaches from the
end even to the end, and ordereth all things sweetly"?(4) Whatever the
Father doeth, He doeth through the Son: through His wisdom and his power He
doeth; not from without doth He show to the Son what He may see, but in the
Son Himself He showeth Him what He doeth.

   3. What seeth the Father, or rather, what doth the Son see in the
Father, that Himself also may do? Perhaps I may be able to speak it, but
show me the man who can comprehend it; or perhaps I may be able to think
and not speak it; or perhaps I may not be able even to think it. For that
divinity excels us, as God excels men, as the immortal excels a mortal, as
the eternal excels the temporal. May He inspire and endow us, and out of
that fountain of life deign to bedew and to drop somewhat on our thirst.
that we may not be parched in this wilderness! Let us say to Him, Lord, to
whom we have learnt to say Father. We make bold to say this, because
Himself willed it; if only we so live that He may not say to us, "If I am a
Father, where is mine honor? if I am Lord, where is my fear?" Let us then
say to Him, "Our Father."  To whom do we say, "Our Father"? To the Father
of Christ. He, then, who says "Our Father" to the Father of Christ, says to
Christ, what else but "Our Brother"? Not, however, as He is the Father of
Christ is He in like manner our Father; for Christ never so con joined us
as to make no distinction between Him and us. For He is the Son equal to
the Father, the eternal Son with the Father, and co-eternal with the
Father; but we became sons through the Son, adopted through the Only-
begotten. Hence was it never heard from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ,
when speaking to His disciples, that He said of the supreme God His Father,
"Our Father;" but He said either "My Father" or "Your Father." But He said
not "Our Father;" so much so, that in a certain place He used these two
expressions: "I go to my God," saith He, "and to your God." Why did He not
say, "Our God"? Further, He said, "My Father, and your Father;" He said
not, "Our Father." He so joins as to distinguish, distinguishes so as not
to disjoin. He wills us to be one in Him, but the Father and Himself one.

   4. How much soever then we may understand, and how much soever we may
see, we shall not see as the Son seeth, even when we shall be made equal
with the angels. For we are something even when we do not see; but what are
we when we do not see, other than persons not seeing? And that we may see,
we turn to Him whom we may see, and there is formed in us a seeing which
was not before, although we were in being. For a man is when not seeing;
and the same, when he doth see, is called a man seeing. For him, then, to
see is not the same thing as to be a man; for if it were, he would not be
man when not seeing. But since he is man when not seeing, and seeks to see
what he sees not, he is one who seeks, and who turns to see; and when he
has well turned and has seen, he becomes a man seeing, who was before a man
not seeing. Consequently, to see is to him a thing that comes and goes; it
comes to him when he turns to, and leaves him when he turns away. Is it
thus with the Son? Far be it from us to think so. It was never so that He
was Son, not seeing, and afterwards was made to see; but to see the Father
is to Him the same thing as to be Son. For we, by turning away to sin, lose
enlightenment; and by turning to God we receive enlightenment. For the
light by which we are enlightened is one thing; we who are enlightened,
another thing. But the light  itself, by which we are enlightened, neither
turns away from itself, nor loses its lucidity, because as light it exists.
The Father, then, showeth a thing which He doeth to the Son, in such wise
that the Son seeth all things in the Father, and is all things in the
Father. For by seeing He was begotten; and by being begotten He seeth. Not,
however, that at any time He was not begotten, and afterwards was begotten;
nor that at any time He saw not, and afterwards saw. But in what consists
His seeing, in the same consists His being, in the same His being begotten,
in the same His continuing, in the same His unchanging, in the same His
abiding without beginning and without end. Let us not therefore take it in
a carnal sense that the Father sitteth and doeth a work, and showeth it to
the Son; and the Son seeth the work that the Father doeth, and doeth
another work in another place, or out of other materials. For "all things
were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made." The Son is the Word of
the Father. The Father said nothing which He did not say in the Son. For by
speaking in the Son what He was about to do through the Son, He begat the
Son through whom He made all things.

   5. "And greater works than these will He show Him, that ye may marvel."
Here again we are embarrassed. And who is there that may worthily
investigate this so great a secret? But now, in that He has deigned to
speak to us, Himself opens it. For He would not speak what He would not
have us understand; and as He has deigned to speak, without doubt He has
excited attention: for does He forsake any whom He has roused to give
attentive hearing? We have said that it is not in a temporal sense that the
Son knoweth,--that the knowledge of the Son is not one thing, and the Son
Himself another; nor one thing His seeing, Himself another; but that the
seeing itself is the Son, and the knowledge as well as the wisdom of the
Father is the Son; and that that wisdom and seeing is eternal and co-
eternal with Him from whom it is; that it is not something that varies by
time, nor something produced that was not in being, nor something that
vanishes away which did exist. What is it, then, that time does in this
case, that He should say, "Greater works than these He will show Him"? "He
will show," that is, "He is about to show." Hath shown is a different thing
from will show: hath shown, we say of an act past; will show, of an act
future. What shall we do here, then, brethren? Behold, He whom we had
declared to be co-eternal with the Father, in whom nothing is varied by
time, in whom is no moving through spaces either of moments or of places,
of whom we had declared that He abides ever with the Father seeing, seeing
the Father, and by seeing existing; He, I say, here again mentioning times
to us, saith, "He will show Him greater works than these." Is He then about
to show something to the Son, which the Son doth not as yet know? What,
then, do we make of it? How do we understand this? Behold, our Lord Jesus
Christ was above, is beneath. When was He above? When He said, "What things
soever the Father doeth, these same also the Son doeth in like manner."
Whence know we that He is now beneath? Hence: "Greater works than these He
will show Him." O Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, Word of God, by which all
things were made, what is the Father about to show Thee, that as yet Thou
knowest not? What of the Father is hid from Thee? What in the Father is hid
from Thee, from whom the Father is not hid? What greater works is He about
to show Thee? Or greater than what works are they which He is to show Thee?
For when He said, "Greater than these," we ought first to understand the
works than which are they greater.

   6. Let us again call to mind whence this discourse started. It was when
that man who was thirty-eight years in infirmity was healed, and Jesus
commanded him, now made whole, to take up his bed and to go to his house.
For this cause, indeed, the Jews with whom He was speaking were enraged. He
spoke in words, as to the meaning He was silent; hinted in some measure at
the meaning to those who understood, and hid the matter from them that were
wroth. For this  cause, I say, the Jews, being enraged because the Lord did
this on the Sabbath, gave occasion to this discourse. Therefore let us not
hear these things in such wise as if we had forgotten what was said above,
but let us look back to that impotent man languishing for thirty-eight
years suddenly made whole, while the Jews marvelled and were wroth. They
sought darkness from the Sabbath more than light from the miracle. Speaking
then to these, while they are indignant, He saith, "Greater works than
these will He show Him." "Greater than these:" than which? What ye have
seen, that a man, whose infirmity had lasted thirty-eight years, was made
whole greater than these the Father is about to show to the Son. What are
greater works? He goes on, saying, "For as the Father raiseth the dead, and
quickeneth them, so also the Son quickeneth whom He will." Clearly these
are greater. Very much greater is it that a dead man should rise, than that
a sick man should recover: these are greater. But when is the Father about
to show these to the Son? Does the Son not know them? And He who was
speaking, did He not know how to raise the dead? Had He yet to learn how to
raise the dead to life--He, I say, by whom all things were made? He who
caused that we should live, when we were not in being,  had He yet to learn
how we might be raised to life again? What, then, do His words mean?

   7. But now He condescends to us, and He who a little before was
speaking as God, now begins to speak as man. Notwithstanding, the same is
man who is God, for God was made man; but was made what He was not, without
losing what He was. The man therefore was added to the God, that He might
be man who was God, but not that He should now henceforth be man and not be
God. Let us then hear Him also as our brother whom we did hear as our
Maker. Our Maker, because the Word in the beginning; our Brother, because
born of the Virgin Mary: Maker, before Abraham, before Adam, before earth,
before heaven, before all things corporeal and spiritual; but Brother, of
the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, of the Israelitish virgin. If
therefore we know Him who speaks to us as both God and man, let us
understand the words of God and of man; for sometimes He speaks to us such
things as are applicable to the majesty, sometimes such as are applicable
to the humility. For the selfsame is high who was made low, that He might
make us high who are low. What, then, saith He? "The Father will show" to
me "greater than these, that ye may marvel." To us, therefore, He is about
to show, not to Him. And since it is to us that the Father is to show, for
that reason He said, "that ye may marvel." He has, in fact, explained what
He meant in saying, "The Father will show" to me. Why did He not say, The
Father will show to you; but, He will show to the Son? Because also we are
members of the Son; and like as what we the members learn, He Himself in a
manner learns in His members. How doth He learn in us? As He suffers in us.
Whence may we prove that He suffers in us? From that voice out of heaven,
"Saul, Saul, why. persecutest thou me?" (1) Is it not Himself that will sit
as Judge in the end of the world, and, setting the just on the right, and
the wicked on the left, will say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive
the kingdom; for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat"? And when they shall
answer, "Lord, when saw we Thee hungry?" He will say to them, "Since ye
gave to one of the least of mine, ye gave to me." (2) Let us at this time
question Him, and let us say to Him, Lord; when wilt Thou be a learner,
seeing Thou teachest all things? Immediately, indeed, He makes answer to us
in our faith, When one of the least of mine doth learn, I learn.

   8. Let us rejoice, then, and give thanks that we are made not only
Christians, but Christ. Do ye understand, brethren, and apprehend the grace
of God upon us? Marvel, be glad, we are made Christ. For if He is the head,
we are the members: the whole man is He and we. This is what the Apostle
Paul saith: "That we be no longer babes, tossed to and fro, and carried
about with every wind of doctrine." But above he had said, "Until we all
come together into the unity of faith, and to the knowledge of the Son of
God, to the perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fullness of
Christ." (3) The fullness of Christ, then, is head and members. Head and
members, what is that? Christ and the Church. We should indeed be
arrogating this to ourselves proudly, if He did not Himself deign to
promise it, who saith by the same apostle, "But ye are the body of Christ,
and members." (4)

   9. Whenever, then, the Father showeth to Christ's members, He showeth
to Christ. A certain great but yet real miracle happens. There is a showing
to Christ of what Christ knew, and it is shown to Christ through Christ. A
marvelous and great thing it is, but the Scripture so saith. Shall we
contradict the divine declarations? Shall we not rather understand them,
and of His own gift render thanks to Him who freely bestowed it on us? What
is this that I said, "is shown to Christ through Christ"? Is shown to the
members through the head. Lo, look at this in thyself. Suppose that with
thine eyes shut thou wouldest take up something, thy hand knows not whither
to go; and yet thy hand is at any rate thy member, for it is not separated
from thy body. Open thine eyes, now the hand sees whither it may go; while
the head showed, the member followed. If, then, there could be found in
thyself something such, that thy body showed to thy body, and that through
thy body something was shown to thy body, then do not marvel that it is
said there is shown to Christ through Christ. For the head shows that the
members may see, and the head teaches that the members may learn;
nevertheless one man, head and members. He willed not to separate Himself,
but deigned to attach Himself to us. Far was He from us, yea, very far.
What so far apart as the creature and the Creator? What so far apart as God
and man? What so far as justice and iniquity? What so far as eternity and
mortality? Behold, so far from us was the Word in the beginning, God with
God, by whom all things were made. How, then, was He made near, that He
might be what we are, and we in Him? "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt in
(among) us." (1)

   10. This, then, He is about to show us; this He showed to His
disciples, who saw Him in the flesh. What is this? "As the Father raiseth
the dead, and quickeneth them, so also the Son quickeneth whom He will." Is
it that the Father some, the Son others? Surely all things were made by
Him. What do we say, my brethren? Christ raised Lazarus; what dead man did
the Father raise, that Christ might see how to raise Lazarus? When Christ
raised Lazarus, did not the Father raise him? or was it the doing of the
Son alone, without the Father? Read ye the  passage itself, and see that He
invokes the Father that Lazarus may rise again. (2) As a man, He calls on
the Father; as God, He doeth with the Father. Therefore also  Lazarus, who
rose again, was raised both by the Father and by the Son, in the gift and
grace of the Holy Spirit; and that wonderful work the Trinity performed.
Let us not, therefore, understand this, "As the Father raiseth the dead,
and quickeneth them, so also the Son quickeneth whom He will," in such wise
as to suppose that some are raised and quickened by the Father, others by
the Son; but that the Son raiseth and quickeneth the very same whom the
Father raiseth and quickeneth; because" all things were made by Him, and
without Him was nothing made." And to show that He has, though given by the
Father, equal power, therefore He saith, "So also the Son quickeneth whom
He will," that He might therein show His will; and lest any should say,
"The Father raiseth the dead by the Son, but the Father as being powerful,
and as having power, the Son as by another's power, as a servant does
something, as an angel," He indicated His power when He saith, "So also the
Son quickeneth whom He will." It is not so that the Father willeth other
than the Son; but as the Father and the Son have one substance, so also one
will.

   11. And who are these dead whom the Father and the Son quicken? Are
they the same of whom we have spoken--Lazarus, or that widow's son, (3) or
the ruler of the synagogue's daughter? (4) For we know that these were
raised by Christ the Lord. it is some other thing that He means to signify
to us,--namely, the resurrection of the dead, which we all look for; not
that resurrection which certain have had, that the rest might believe. For
Lazarus rose to die again; we shall rise again to live for ever. Is it the
Father that effects such a resurrection, or the Son? Nay verily, the Father
in the Son. Consequently the Son, and the Father in the Son. Whence do we
prove that He speaks of this resurrection? When He had said, "As the Father
raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, so also the Son quickeneth whom
He will." Lest we should understand here that resurrection which He
performs for a miracle, not for eternal life, He proceeded, saying, "For
the Father judgeth not any man, but all judgment hath He given to the Son."
What is this? He was speaking of the resurrection of the dead, that "as the
Father raiseth the dead, and quickeneth them, so also the Son quickeneth
whom He will;" and immediately thereupon added as a reason, concerning the
judgment, saying, "for the Father judgeth not any man, but all judgment
hath He given to the Son." Why said He this, but to indicate that He had
spoken of that resurrection of the dead which will take place in the
judgment?

   12. "For," saith He, "the Father judgeth no man, but all judgment hath
He given to the Son." A little before we were thinking that the Father
doeth something which the Son doeth not, when He said," The Father loveth
the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth;" as though the
Father were doing, and the Son were seeing. In this way there was creeping
in upon our mine a carnal conception, as if the Father did what the Son did
not; but that the Son was looking on while the Father showed what He was
doing. Then, as the Father was doing what the Son did not, just now we see
the Son doing what the Father doeth not. How He turns us about, and keeps
our mind busy! He leads us hither and thither, will not allow us to remain
in one place of the flesh, that by changing He may exercise us, by
exercising He may cleanse us, by cleansing He may render us capable of
receiving, and may fill us when made capable. What have these words to do
with us? What was He speaking? What is He speaking? A little before, He
said that the Father showeth to the Son whatever He doeth. I did see, as it
were, the Father doing. the Son waiting to see; presently again, I see the
Son doing, the Father idle: "For the Father judgeth not any man, but all
judgment hath He given to the Son." When, therefore, the Son is about to
judge, will the Father be idle, and not judge? What is this? What am I to
understand? What dost Thou say, O Lord? Thou art God the Word, I am a man.
Dost Thou say that "the Father judgeth not any man, but hath given all
judgment to the Son"? I read in another place that Thou sayest, "I judge
not any man; there is one who seeketh and judgeth." (1) Of whom sayest
Thou, "There is one who seeketh and judgeth," unless it be of the Father?
He maketh inquisition for thy wrongs, and judgeth for them. How is it to be
understood here that "the Father judgeth not any man, but all judgment hath
He given to the Son"? Let us ask Peter; let us hear him speaking in his
epistle: "Christ suffered for us," saith he, "leaving us an example that we
should follow His steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in His
mouth; who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered wrong,
He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously."
(2) How is it true that "the Father judgeth not any man, but hath given all
judgment to the Son"? We are here in perplexity, and being perplexed let us
exert ourselves, that by exertion we may be purified. Let us endeavor as
best we may, by His own gift, to penetrate the deep secrets of these words.
It may be that we are acting rashly, in that we wish to discuss and to
scrutinize the words of God. Yet why were they spoken, but to be known? Why
did they sound forth, but to be heard? Why were they heard, but to be
understood? Let Him greatly strengthen us, then, and bestow somewhat on us
so far as He may deem worthy; and if we do not yet penetrate to the
fountain, let us drink of the brook. Behold, John himself has flowed forth
to us like a brook, conveyed to us the word from on high. He brought it
low, and in a manner levelled it, that we may not dread the lofty One, but
may draw nigh to Him that is low.

   13. By all means there is a sense, a true and strong sense, if somehow
we can grasp it, in which "the Father judgeth not any man, but hath given
all judgment to the Son." For this is said because none will appear to men
in the judgment but the Son. The Father will be hidden, the Son will be
manifest. In what will the Son be manifest? In the form in which He
ascended. For in the form of God He was hidden with the Father; in the form
of a servant, manifest to men. Not therefore "the Father judgeth any man,
but all judgment hath He given to the Son:" only the manifest judgment, in
which manifest judgment the Son will judge, since the same will appear to
them that are to be judged. The Scripture shows us more clearly that it is
the Son that will appear. On the fortieth day after His resurrection He
ascended into heaven, while His disciples were looking on; and they hear
the angelic voice: "Men of Galilee," saith it, "why stand ye gazing up into
heaven? This same that is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in
like manner as ye have seen Him going into heaven." (3) In what manner did
they see Him go? In the flesh, which they touched, which they handled. the
wounds even of which they proved by touching; in that body in which He went
in and out with them for forty days, manifesting Himself to them in truth,
not in falsity; not a phantom, or shadow, or ghost, but, as Himself said,
not deceiving them, "Handle and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones,
as ye see me have." (4) That body is now indeed worthy of a heavenly
habitation, not being subject to death, nor mutable by the lapse of ages.
It is not as it had grown to that age from infancy, so from the age of
manhood declines to old age: He remains as He ascended, to come to those to
whom He willed His word to be preached before He comes. Thus will He come
in human form, and this form the wicked will see; both they on the right
shall see it, and they that are separated to the left shall see it: as it
is written, "They shall look on Him whom they pierced." (1) If they shall
look on Him whom they pierced, they shall look on that same body which they
struck through with the spear; for a spear does not pierce the Word. This
body, therefore, will the wicked be able to look on which they were able to
wound. God hidden in the body they will not see: after the judgment He will
be seen by those who will be on the right hand. This, then, is what He
means when He saith, "The Father judgeth not any man, but all judgment hath
He given to the Son,"--that the Son will come to judgment manifest,
apparent to men in human body; saying to those on the right, "Come, ye
blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom;" and to those on the left, "Go
into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels." (2)

   14. Behold, that form of man will be seen by the godly and by the
wicked, by the just and the unjust, by the believers and unbelievers, by
those that rejoice and by those that mourn, by them that trusted and by
them that are confounded: lo, seen it will be. When that form shall have
appeared in the judgment, and the judgment shall have been finished, where
it is said that the Father judgeth not any, but hath given all judgment to
the Son, for this reason, that the Son will appear in the judgment in that
form which He took from us. What shall be after this? When shall be seen
the form of God, which all the faithful are thirsting to see? When shall be
seen that Word which was in the beginning, God with God, by which all
things were made? When shall be seen that form of God, of which the apostle
saith, "Being in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal
with God"? (3) For great is that form, in which, moreover, the quality of
the Father and Son is recognized; ineffable, incomprehensible, most of all
to little ones. When shall this form be seen? Behold, on the right are the
just, on the left are the unjust; all alike see the man, they see the Son
of man, they see Him who was pierced, Him who was crucified they see: they
see Him that was made low, Him who was born of the Virgin, the Lamb of the
tribe of Judah they see. But when will they see the Word, God with God? He
will be the very same even then, but the form of a servant will appear. The
form of a servant will be shown to servants: the form of God will be
reserved for sons. Wherefore let the servants be made sons: let them who
are on the right hand go into the eternal inheritance promised of old,
which the martyrs, though not seeing, believed, for the promise of which
they poured out their blood without hesitation; let them go thither and see
there. When shall they go thither? Let the Lord Himself say: "So those
shall go into everlasting burning, but the righteous into life eternal."
(4)

   15. Behold, He has named eternal life. Has He told us that we shall
there see and know the Father and Son? What if we shall live for ever, yet
not see that Father and Son? Hear, in another place, where He has named
eternal life, and expressed what eternal life is: "Be not afraid; I do not
deceive thee; not without cause have I promised to them that love me,
saying, 'He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that
loveth me; and he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will
love him, and will show myself to him.'" (5) Let us answer the Lord, and
say, What great thing is this, O Lord our God? What great thing is it? Wilt
Thou show Thyself to us? What, then, didst Thou not show Thyself to the
Jews also? Did not they see Thee who crucified Thee? But Thou wilt show
Thyself in the judgment, when we shall stand at Thy right hand; will not
also they who will stand on Thy left see Thee? What is it that Thou wilt
show Thyself to us? Do we, indeed, not see Thee now when Thou art speaking?
He makes answer: I will show myself in the form of God; just now you see
the form of a servant. I will not deceive thee, O faithful man; believe
that thou shall see. Thou lovest, and yet thou dost not see: shall not love
itself lead thee to see? Love, persevere in loving; I will not disappoint
thy love, saith He, I who have purified thy heart. For why have I purified
thy heart, but to the end that God may be seen by thee? For "blessed are
the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (6) "But this," saith the
servant, as if disputing with the Lord, "Thou didst not express, when Thou
didst say, 'The righteous shall go into life eternal;' Thou didst not say,
They shall go to see me in the form of God, and to see the Father, with
whom I am equal." Observe what He said elsewhere: "This is life eternal,
that they may know Thee the one true God,and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast
sent." (7)

   16. And immediately, then, after the judgment mentioned, all which the
Father, not judging any man, hath given to the Son, what shall be? What
follows? "That all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." The
Jews honor the Father, despise the Son. For the Son was seen as a servant,
the Father was honored as God. But the Son will appear equal with the
Father, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. This we
have, therefore, now in faith. Let not the Jew say, "I honor the Father;
what have I to do with the Son?" Let him be answered, "He that honoreth not
the Son, honoreth not the Father. Thou liest every way; thou blasphemest
the Son, and dost wrong to the Father. For the Father sent the Son, and
thou despisest Him whom the Father sent. How canst thou honor the sender,
who blasphemest the sent?"

   17. Behold, says some one, the Son has been sent; and the Father is
greater, because He sent. Withdraw from the flesh; the old man suggests
oldness in time. Let the ancient, the perpetual, the eternal, to thee the
new, call off thy understanding from time to this. Is the Son less because
He is said to have been sent? I hear of a sending, not a separation. But
yet, saith he, among men we see that he who sends is greater than he who is
sent. Be it so; but human affairs deceive a man; divine things purge him.
Do not regard things human, in which the sender appears greater, the sent
less; notwithstanding, things human themselves bear testimony against thee.
Just as, for example, if a man wishes to ask a woman to wife, and, not
being able to do this in person, sends a friend to ask for him. And there
are many cases in which the greater is chosen to be sent by the less. Why,
then, wouldst thou now raise a captious objection, because the one has
sent, the other is sent? The sun sends out a ray, but does not separate it;
the moon sends out her sheen, but does not separate it; a lamp sheds light,
but does not separate it: I see there a sending forth, not a separation.
For if thou seekest examples from human things, O heretical vanity,
although, as I have said, even human things in some instances refute thee,
and convict of error; yet consider how different it is in the case of
things human, from which you wish to deduce examples for things divine. A
man that sends remains himself behind, while only the man that is sent goes
forward. Does the man who sends go with him whom he sends? Yet the Father,
who sent the Son, has not departed from the Son. Hear the Lord Himself
saying, "Behold, the hour is coming, when every one shall depart to his
own, and ye will leave me alone; but I am not alone, because the Father is
with me." (1) How has He, with whom He came, sent Him? How has He, from
whom He has not departed, sent Him? In another place He said, "The Father
abiding in me doeth the works." (2) Behold, the Father is in Him, works in
Him. The Father sending has not departed from the Son sent, because the
sent and the sender are one.

TRACTATE XXII: CHAPTER V. 24-30.

   UPON the discourses delivered yesterday and the day before, follows the
Gospel lesson of to-day, which we must endeavor to expound in due course,
not indeed proportionably to its importance, but according to our ability:
both because you take in, not according to the bountifulness of the gushing
fountain, but according to your moderate capacity; and we too speak into
your ears, not so much as the fountain gives forth, but so much as we are
able to take in we convey into your minds,--the matter itself working more
fruitfully in your hearts than we in your ears. For a great matter is
treated of, not by great masters, nay, rather by very small; but He who,
being great, for our sakes became small, gives us hope and confidence. For
if we were not encouraged by Him, and invited to understand Him; if He
abandoned us as contemptible, since we were not able to partake His
divinity if He did not partake our mortality and come to us to speak His
gospel to us; if He had not willed to partake with us what in us is abject
and most small,--then we might think that He who took on Himself our
smallness, had not been willing to bestow on us His own greatness. This I
have said test any should blame us as over-bold in handling these matters,
or despair of himself that he should be able to understand, by God's gift,
what the Son of God has deigned to speak to him Therefore what He has
deigned to speak to us, we ought to believe that He meant us to understand.
But if we do not understand He, being asked, gives understanding, who gave
His Word unasked.

   2. Lo, what these secrets of His words are, consider well. "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Whoso heareth my word, and believeth on Him that
sent me, hath eternal life." Surely we are all striving after eternal life:
and He saith, "Whoso heareth my word, and believeth Him that sent me, hath
eternal life." Then, would He have us hear His word, and yet would He not
have us understand it? Since, if in hearing and believing is eternal life,
much more in understanding. But the action of piety is faith, the fruit of
faith understanding, that we may come to eternal life, when there will be
no reading of Gospel to us; but after all pages of reading and the voice of
reader and preacher have been removed out of the way, He, who has at this
time dispensed to us the gospel, will Himself appear to all that are His,
now present with Him with purged heart and in an immortal body never more
to die, cleansing and enlightening them, now living and seeing how that "in
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." Therefore let us
consider at this time who we are, and ponder whom we hear. Christ is God,
and He is speaking with men. He would have them to apprehend Him, let Him
make them capable; He would have them see Him, let Him open their eyes. It
is not, however, without cause that He speaks to us, but because that is
true which He promises to us.

   3. "Whoso heareth my words," saith He, "and believeth Him that sent me,
hath eternal life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from
death unto life." Where, when do we come from death to life, that we come
not into judgment? In this life there is a passing from death to life; in
this life, which is not yet life, there is a passing hence from death unto
life. What is that passing? "Whoso heareth my words," He said, "and
believeth Him that sent me." Observing these, thou believest and passest.
And does a man pass while standing? Evidently; for in body he stands in
mind he passes. Where was he, whence he should pass, and whither does he
pass? He passes from death to life. Look at a man standing, in whom all
that is here said may happen. He stands, he hears, perhaps he did not
believe, by hearing he believes: a little before he did not believe, just
now he believes; he has made a passage, as it were, from the region of
unbelief to the region of faith, by motion of the heart, not of the body,
by a motion into the better; because they who again abandon faith move into
the worse. Behold, in this life, which, just as I have said, is not yet
life, there is a passing from death to life, so that there may not be a
coming into judgment. But why did I say that it is not yet life? If this
were life, the Lord would not have said to a certain man, "If thou wilt
come into life, keep the commandments."(1) For He saith not to him, If thou
wilt come into eternal life; He did not add eternal, but said only life.
Therefore this life is not to be named life, because it is not a true life.
What is true life, but that which is eternal life? Hear the apostle
speaking to Timothy, when he says, "Charge them that are rich in this
world, not to be high-minded, nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the
living God, who giveth us all things richly to enjoy; let them do good, be
rich in good works, ready to distribute, to communicate." Why does he say
this? Hear what follows: "Let them lay up in store for themselves a good
foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold of the true
life."(2) If they ought to lay up for themselves a good foundation for the
time to come, in order to lay hold of the true life, surely this in which
they were is a false life. For why shouldest thou desire to lay hold of the
true, if thou hast the true already? Is the true to be laid hold of? There
must then be a departing from the false. And by what way must be the
departing? Whither? Hear, believe; and thou makest the passage from death
into life, and comest not into judgment.

   4. What is this, "and thou comest not into judgment"? And who will be
better than the Apostle Paul, who saith, "We must all appear before the
judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may there receive what he has done
in the body, whether it he good or evil"?(3) Paul saith, "We must all
appear before the judgment-seat of Christ;" and darest thou promise to
thyself that thou shall not come into judgment? Be it far from me, sayest
thou, that I should dare promise this to myself. But I believe Him that
doth promise. The Saviour speaks, the Truth promises, Himself said to me,
"Whoso heareth my words, and believeth Him that sent me, hath eternal life,
and makes a passage from death unto life, and shall not come into
judgment." I then have heard the words of my Lord, and I have believed; so
now, when I was an unbeliever, I became a believer even as He warned me, I
passed from death to life, I come not into judgment; not by my presumption,
but by His promise. Does Paul, however, speak contrary to Christ, the
servant against his Lord, the disciple against his Master, the man against
God; so that, when the Lord saith, "Whoso heareth and believeth, passeth
from death to life," the apostle should say, "We must all appear before the
judgment-seat of Christ"? Otherwise, if he comes not into judgment who
appears before the judgment-seat, I know not how to understand it.

   5. The Lord our God then reveals it, and by His Scriptures puts us in
mind how it may be understood when judgment is spoken of. I exhort you,
therefore, to give attention. Sometimes judgment means punishment,
sometimes it means discrimination. According to that mode of speech in
which judgment means discrimination, "we must all appear before the
judgment-seat of Christ that" a man "may there receive what things he has
done in the body, whether it be good or ill." For this same is a
discrimination, to distribute good things to the good, evil things to the
evil. For if judgment were always to be taken in a bad sense, the psalm
would not say, "Judge me, O God." Perhaps some one is surprised when he
hears one say, "Judge me, O God." For man is wont to say, "Forgive me, O
God;" "Spare me, O God." Who is it that says, "Judge me, O God"? Sometimes
in the psalm this very verse even is placed in the pause,(1) to be given
out by the reader and responded by the people. Does it not perhaps strike
some man's heart so much that he is afraid to sing and to say to God,
"Judge me, O God"? And yet the people sing it with confidence, and do not
imagine that they wish an evil thing in that which they have learned from
the divine word; even if they do not well understand it, they believe that
what they sing is something good. And yet even the psalm itself has not
left a man without an insight into the meaning of it. For, going on, it
shows in the words that follow what kind of judgment it spoke of; that it
is not one of condemnation, but of discrimination. For saith it, "Judge me,
O God." What means "Judge me, O God, and discern my cause from an unholy
nation"? According to this judgment of discerning, then, "we must all
appear before the judgment-seat of Christ." But again, according to the
judgment of condemnation, "Whoso heareth my words," saith He, "and
believeth Him that sent me, hath eternal life, and shall not come into
judgment, but makes a passage from death to life." What is "shall not come
into judgment?" Shall not come into condemnation. Let us prove from the
Scriptures that judgment is put where punishment is understood; although
also in this very passage, a little further on, you will hear the same term
judgment put for nothing else than for condemnation and punishment. Yet the
apostle says in a certain place, writing to those who abused the body, what
the faithful among you know; and because they abused it, they were
chastised by the scourge of the Lord. For he says to them, "Many among you
are weak and sickly, and deeply sleep." For many therefore even died. And
he went on: "For if we judged ourselves, we should not be judged by the
Lord;" that is, if we reproved ourselves, we should not be reproved by the
Lord. "But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may
not be condemned with the world."(2) There are therefore those who are
judged here according to punishment, that they may be spared there; there
are those who are spared here, that they may be the more abundantly
tormented there; and there are those to whom the very punishments are meted
out without the scourge of punishment, if they be not corrected by the
scourge of God; that, since here they have despised the Father that
scourgeth, they may there feel the Judge that punisheth. Therefore there is
a judgment into which God, that is, the Son of God, will in the end send
the devil and his angels, and all the unbelieving and ungodly with him. To
this judgment, he who, now believing, passes from death unto life, shall
not come.

   6. For, lest thou shouldest think that by believing thou art not to die
according to the flesh, or lest, understanding it carnally, thou shouldest
say to thyself, "My Lord has said to me, Whoso heareth my words, and
believeth Him that sent me, is passed from death to life: I then have
believed, I am not to die;" be assured that thou shall pay that penalty,
death, which thou owest by the punishment of Adam. For he, in whom we all
then were, received this sentence, "Thou shall surely die;"(3) nor can the
divine sentence be made void. But after thou hast paid the death of the old
man, thou shall be received into the eternal life of the new man, and shall
pass from death to life. Meanwhile, make the transition of life now. What
is thy life? Faith: "The just doth live by faith."(1) The unbelievers, what
of them? They are dead. Among such dead was he, in the body, of whom the
Lord says, "Let the dead bury their dead."(2) So, then, even in this life
there are dead, and there are living; all live in a sense. Who are dead?
They who have not believed. Who are living? They who have believed. What is
said to the dead by the apostle? "Arise, thou that sleepest." But, quoth an
objector, he said sleep, not death. Hear what follows: "Arise, thou that
sleepest, and come forth from the dead." And as if the sleeper said,
Whither shall I go? "And Christ shall give thee light."(3) Christ having
enlightened thee, now believing, immediately thou makest a passage from
death to life: abide in that to which thou hast passed, and thou shall not
come into judgment.

   7. Himself explains that already, and goes on, "Verily, verily, I say
unto you." In case, because He said "is passed from death to life," we
should understand this of the future resurrection, and willing to show that
he who believes is passed, and that to pass from death to life is to pass
from unbelief to faith, from injustice to justice, from pride to humility,
from hatred to charity, He saith now, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The
hour cometh, and now is." What more evident? "And now is, when the dead
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." We
have already spoken of these dead. What think we, my brethren? Are there no
dead in this crowd that hear me? They who believe and act according to the
true faith do live, and are not dead. But they who either do not believe,
or believe as the devils believe, trembling,(4) and living wickedly,
confessing the Son of God, and without charity, must rather be esteemed
dead. This hour, however, is still passing. For the hour of which the Lord
spoke will not be an hour of the twelve hours of a day. From the time when
He spoke even to the present, and even to the end of the world, the same
one hour is passing; of which hour John saith in his epistle, "Little
children, it is the last hour."(5) Therefore, is now. Whoso is alive, let
him live; whoso was dead, let him live; let him  hear the voice of the Son
of God, who lay dead; let him arise and live. The Lord cried out at the
sepulchre of Lazarus, and he that was four days dead arose. He who stank in
the grave came forth into the air. He was buried, a stone was laid over
him: the voice of the Saviour burst asunder the hardness of the stone; and
thy heart is so hard, that Divine Voice does not yet break it! Rise in thy
heart; go forth from thy tomb. For thou wast lying dead in thy heart as in
a tomb, and pressed down by the weight of evil habit as by a stone. Rise,
and go forth. What is Rise, and go forth? Believe and confess. For he that
has believed has risen; he that confesses is gone forth. Why said we that
he who confesses is gone forth? Because he was hid before confessing; but
when he does confess, he goes forth from darkness to light. And after he
has confessed, what is said to the servants? What was said beside the
corpse of Lazarus? "Loose him, and let him go." How? As it was said to His
servants the apostles, "What things ye shall loose on earth, shall be
loosed in heaven."(6)

   8. "The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of
the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." From what source shall they
live? From life. From what life? From Christ, How do we prove that the
source is Christ the life? "I am," saith He, "the way, the truth, and the
life."(7) Dost thou wish to walk? "I am the way." Dost thou wish not to be
deceived? "I am the truth" Wouldest thou not die? "I am the life." This
saith thy Saviour to thee: There is not whither thou mayest go but to me;
there is not whereby thou mayest go but by me. Therefore this hour is going
on now, this act is clearly taking place, and does not at all cease. Men
who were dead, rise; they pass over to life; at the voice of the Son of God
they live; from Him they live, while persevering in the faith of Him. For
the Son hath life, whence He has it that they that believe shall live.

   9. And how hath He? Even as the Father hath. Hear Himself saying, "For
as the Father hath life in Himself, so also hath He given to the Son to
have life in Himself." Brethren, I shall speak as I shall be able. For
these are those words that perplex the puny understanding. Why has He
added, "in Himself"? It would suffice to say, "For as the Father hath life,
so also hath He given to the Son to have life." He added, "in Himself:" for
the Father "hath life in Himself," and the Son hath life in  Himself. He
meant us to understand something in that which He saith, "in Himself."  And
here a secret matter is shut up in this word; let there be knocking, that
there may be an opening. O Lord, what is this that Thou hast said?
Wherefore hast Thou added, "in Himself"? For did not Paul the apostle, whom
Thou madest to live, have life? He had, said He. As for men that were dead
to be made alive, and at Thy word to pass unto life by believing; when they
shall have passed, will they not have life in Thee? They shall have life;
for I said also a little before, "Whoso heareth my words, and believeth Him
that sent me, hath eternal life." Therefore those that believe in Thee have
life; and Thou hast not said, "in themselves," But when Thou speakest of
the Father, "even as the Father hath life in Himself;" again, when Thou
speakest of Thyself, Thou saidst, "So also hath He given to the Son to have
life in Himself." Even as He hath, so gave He to have. Where hath He? "In
Himself." Where gave He to have? "In Himself." Where hath Paul life? Not in
himself, but in Christ. Where hast thou, believer? Not in thyself, but in
Christ. Let us see whether the apostle says this: "Now I live; but not I,
but Christ liveth in me."(1) Our life, as ours, that is, of our own
personal will, will be only evil, sinful, unrighteous; but the life in us
that is good is from God, not from ourselves; it is given to us by God, not
by ourselves. But Christ hath life in Himself, as the Father hath, because
He is the Word of God. With Him, it is not the case that He liveth now ill,
now well; but as for man, he liveth now ill, now well. He who was living
ill, was in his own life; he who is living well, is passed to the life of
Christ. Thou art made a partaker of life; thou wast not that which thou
hast received, but wast one who received: but it is not so with the Son of
God as if at first He was without life, and then received life. For if thus
He received life, He would not have it in Himself. For, indeed, what is in
Himself? That He should Himself be the very life.

   10. I may perhaps declare that matter more plainly still. One lights a
candle: that candle, for example, so far as regards the little flame which
shines there--that fire has light in itself; but thine eyes, which lay idle
and saw nothing, in the absence of the candle, now have light also, but not
in themselves. Further, if they turn away from the candle, they are made
dark; if they turn to it, they are illumined. But certainly that fire
shines so long as it exists: if thou wouldst take the light from it, thou
dost also at the same time extinguish it; for without the light it cannot
remain. But Christ is light inextinguishable and co-eternal with the
Father, always bright, always shining, always burning: for if He were not
burning, would it be said in the psalm, "Nor is there any that can hide
himself from his heat?"(2) But thou wast cold in thy sin; thou turnest that
thou mayest become warm; if thou wilt turn away, thou wilt become cold. In
thy sin thou wast. dark; thou turnest in order to be enlightened; if thou
turnest away, thou wilt become dark. Therefore, because in thyself thou
wast darkness, when thou shalt be enlightened, thou wilt be light, though
in the light. For saith the apostle, "Ye were once darkness, but now light
in the Lord."(3) When he had said, "but now light," he added, "in the
Lord." Therefore in thyself darkness, "light in the Lord." In what way
"light"? Because by participation of that light thou art light. But if thou
wilt depart from the light by which thou art enlightened, thou returnest to
thy darkness. Not so Christ, not so the Word of God. But how not? "As the
Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given also to the Son to have life
in Himself;" so that He lives, not by participation, but unchangeably, and
is altogether Himself life. "So hath He given also to the Son to have
life." Even as He hath, so has He given. What is the difference?  For the
one gave, the other received. Was He already in being when He received? Are
we to understand that Christ was at any time in being without light, when
Himself is the wisdom of the Father, of which it is said, "It is the
brightness of the eternal light?"(4) Therefore what is said, "gave to the
Son," is such as if it were said, "begat the Son;" for by begetting He
gave. As He gave Him to be, so He gave Him to be life, so also gave Him to
be life in Himself. What is that, to be life in Himself? Not to need life
from elsewhere, but to be Himself the plenitude of life, out of which
others believing should have life while they lived. "Hath given Him," then.
"to have life in Himself." Hath given as to whom? As to His own Word, as to
Him who "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God."

   11. Afterwards, because He was made man, what gave He to Him? "And hath
given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man." In
that He is the Son of God, "As the Father hath life in Himself, so also
hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself;" in that He is the Son of
man, "He hath given Him authority of executing judgment." This is what I
explained to you yesterday, my beloved, that in the judgment man will be
seen, but God will not be seen; but after the judgment, God will be seen by
those who have prevailed in the judgment, but by the wicked He will not be
seen. Since, therefore, the man will be seen in the judgment in that form
in which He will so come as He ascended, for that reason He had said above,
"The Father judgeth not any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son."
He repeats the same thing also in this place, when He says, "And hath given
Him authority of executing judgment, because He is the Son of man." As if
thou wert to say, "hath given Him authority of executing judgment." In what
way? When He had not that authority of executing judgment? Since "in the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;"
since "all things were made by Him," did He not already have authority of
executing judgment? Yes, but according to this, I say, "He gave Him
authority of executing judgment, because He is the Son of man:" according
to this, He received authority of judging "because He is the Son of man."
For in that He is the Son of God, He always had this authority. He that was
crucified, received; He who was in death, is in life: the Word of God never
was in death, but is always in life.

   12. Now, therefore, as to a resurrection, perhaps some one of us was
saying: Behold, we have risen; be who hears Christ, and believes, and is
passed from death to life, also will not come into judgment. The hour
cometh, and now is, that whoso heareth the voice of the Son of God shall
live: he was dead, he has heard; behold, he doth rise. What is this that is
said, that there is to be a resurrection afterwards? Spare thyself, do not
hasten the sentence, lest thou hurry after it. There is, indeed, this
resurrection which comes to pass now; unbelievers were dead, the
unrighteous were dead; the righteous live, they pass from the death of
unbelief to the life of faith. But do not thence believe that there will
not be a resurrection afterwards of the body; believe that there will be a
resurrection of the body also. For hear what follows after the declaration
of this resurrection which is by faith, lest any should think this to be
the only resurrection, or fall into that desperation and error of men who
perverted the thoughts of others, "saying that the resurrection is past
already," of whom the apostle saith, "and they overthrow the faith of
some."(1) For I believe that they were saying to them such words as these:
"Behold, when the Lord saith, And he that believeth in me is passed from
death unto life;" the resurrection has already taken place in believing
men, who were before unbelievers: how can a second resurrection be meant?"
Thanks to our Lord God, He supports the wavering, directs the perplexed,
confirms the doubting. Hear what follows, now that thou hast not whereof to
make to thyself the darkness of death. If thou hast believed, believe the
whole. What whole, sayest thou, am I to believe? Hear what He saith:
"Marvel not at this," namely, that He gave to the Son authority of making
judgment. I say, in the end of the world, saith He. How in the end? "Do not
marvel at this; for the hour cometh." Here He has not said, "and now is."
In reference to that resurrection of faith, what did He say? "The hour
cometh, and now is." In reference to that resurrection which He intimates
there will be of dead bodies, He said, "The hour cometh;" He has not said,
"and now is," because it is to come in the end of the world.

   13. And whence, sayest thou, dost thou prove to me that He spoke about
the resurrection itself? If thou hear patiently, thou wilt presently prove
it to thyself. Let us go on then: "Marvel not at this; for the hour cometh,
in which all that are in the graves." What more evident than this
resurrection? A while ago, He had not said, "they that are in the graves,"
but, "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear
shall live." He has not said, some shall live, others shall be damned;
because all who believe shall live. But what does He say concerning the
graves? "All that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come
forth." He said not, "shall hear and live." For if they have lived
wickedly, and lay in the graves, they shall rise to death, not to life. Let
us see, then, who shall come forth. Although, a little before, the dead by
hearing and believing did live, there was no distinction there made: it was
not said, The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and when they
shall have heard, some shall live, and some shall be damned; but, "all that
hear shall live:" because they that believe shall live, they that have
charity shall live, and none of them shall die. But concerning the graves,
"They shall hear His voice, and come forth: they that have done well, to
the resurrection of life; they that have done ill, to the resurrection of
judgment." This is the judgment, that punishment of which He had said a
while before, "Whoso believeth in me is passed from death to life," and
shall not come into judgment.

   14. "I cannot of myself do anything; as I hear I judge, and my judgment
is just." If as Thou hearest Thou judgest, of whom dost Thou hear? If of
the Father, yet surely "the Father judgeth not any man, but hath given all
judgment to the Son." When dost Thou, being in a manner the Father's
herald, declare what Thou hearest? I speak what I hear, because what the
Father is, that I am: for, indeed, speaking is my function; because I am
the Father's Word. For this Christ says to thee. Thereupon, of thine. What
is "As I hear I judge," but "As I am"? For in what manner does Christ hear?
Let us inquire, brethren, I beg of you. Does Christ hear of the Father? How
doth the Father speak to Him? Undoubtedly, if He speaks to Him, He uses
words to Him; for every one who says something to any one, says it by a
word. How doth the Father speak to the Son, seeing that the Son is the
Father's Word? Whatever the Father says to us, He says it by His Word: the
Word of the Father is the Son; by what other word, then, doth He speak to
the Word Himself? God is one, has one Word, contains all things in one
Word. What does that mean, then, "As I hear, I judge?" Just as I am of the
Father, so I judge. Therefore "my judgment is just." If Thou doest nothing
of Thyself, O Lord Jesus, as carnal men think; if Thou doest nothing of
Thyself, how didst Thou say a while before, "So also the Son quickeneth
whom He will"? Just now Thou sayest, Of myself I do nothing. But what does
the Son declare, but that He is of the Father? He that is of the Father is
not of Himself. If the Son were of Himself, He would not be the Son: He is
of the Father. That the Father is, is not of the Son; that the Son is, is
of the Father. Equal to the Father; but yet the Son of the Father, not the
Father of the Son.

   15. "Because I seek not my own will, but the will of Him that sent me."
The Only Son saith, "I seek not my own will," and yet men desire to do
their own will! To such a degree does He who is equal to the Father humble
Himself; and to such a degree does He extol Himself, who lies in the lowest
depth, and cannot rise except a hand is reached to Him! Let us then do the
will of the Father, the will of the Son, the will of the Holy Ghost;
because of this Trinity there is one will, one power, one majesty. Yet for
that reason saith the Son, "I came not to do mine own will, but the will of
Him that sent me;" because Christ is not of Himself, but of the Father. But
what He had that He might appear as a man, He assumed of the creature which
He himself formed.

TRACTATE XXIII: CHAPTER V. 19-40.

   1. In a certain place in the Gospel, the Lord says that the prudent
hearer of His word ought to be like a man who, wishing to build a house,
digs deeply until he comes to the foundation of stability on the rock, and
there establishes in security what he builds against the violence of the
flood; so that, when the flood comes, it may be rather beaten back by the
strength of the building. than bring ruin on that house by the force of its
pressure.(1) Let us regard the Scripture of God to be, as it were, the
field where we wish to build something. Let us not be slothful, nor be
content with the surface; let us dig deeply until we come to the rock: "And
that rock was Christ."(2)

   2. The passage read to-day has spoken to us of the witness of the Lord,
that He does not hold the witness of men necessary, but has a greater
witness than men; and He has told us what this witness is: "The works,"
saith He, "which I do bear witness of me." Then He added, "And the Father
that sent me beareth witness of me." The very works also which He doeth, He
says that He has received from the Father. The works, therefore, bear
witness, the Father bears witness. Has John borne no witness? He did
clearly bear witness, but as a lamp; not to satisfy friends, but to
confound enemies: for it had been predicted long before by the person of
the Father, "I have prepared a lamp for mine Anointed: I will clothe His
enemies with confusion; but upon Him shall flourish my sanctification."(1)
Be it that thou wert left in the dark in the night-time, thou didst direct
thy attention to the lamp, thou didst admire the lamp, and didst exult at
its light. But that lamp says that there is a sun, in which thou oughtest
to exult; and though it burns in the night, it bids thee to be looking out
for the day. Therefore it is not the case that there was no need of that
man's testimony. For wherefore was he sent, if there was no need of him?
But, on the contrary, lest man should stay at the lamp, and think the light
of the lamp to be sufficient for him, therefore the Lord neither says that
this lamp had been superfluous, nor yet doth He say that thou oughtest to
stay at the lamp. The Scripture of God utters another testimony there
undoubtedly God hath borne witness to His Son, and in that Scripture the
Jews had placed their hope,--namely, in the law of God, given by Moses His
servant. "Search the Scripture," saith He, "in which ye think ye have
eternal life: the same bears witness of me; and ye will not come to me that
ye may have life." Why do ye think that in the Scripture ye have eternal
life? Ask itself to whom does it bear witness, and understand what is
eternal life. And because for the sake of Moses they were willing to reject
Christ, as an adversary to the ordinances and precepts of Moses, He
convicts those same men as by another lamp.

   3. For, indeed, all men are lamps, since they can be both lighted and
extinguished. Moreover, when the lamps are wise, they shine and glow with
the Spirit; yet also, if they did burn and are put out, they even stink.
The servants of God remain good lamps by the oil of His mercy, not by their
own strength. The free grace of God, truly, is the oil of the lamps. "For I
have labored more than they all," saith a certain lamp; and lest he should
seem to burn by his own strength, he added, "But not I, but the grace of
God that was with me."(2) All prophecy, therefore, before the coming of the
Lord, is a lamp. Of this lamp the Apostle Peter says: "We have a more sure
word of prophecy, to which ye do well giving heed, as unto a lamp shining
in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your
hearts."(3) Accordingly the prophets are lamps, and all prophecy one great
lamp. What of the apostles? Are not they, too, lamps? They are, clearly. He
alone is not a lamp. For He is not lighted and put out; because "even as
the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life
in Himself." The apostles also, I say, are lamps; and they give thanks
because they were both lighted by the light of truth, and are burning with
the spirit of charity, and supplied with the oil of God's grace. If they
were not lamps, the Lord would not say to them, "Ye are the light of the
world." For after He said, "Ye are the light of the world," He shows that
they should not think themselves such a light as that of which it is said,
"That was the true light, that enlighteneth every man coming into this
world." But this was said of the Lord at that time when He was
distinguished from John (the Baptist). Of John the Baptist, indeed, it had
been said, "He was not the light, but that he might bear witness of the
light."(4) And lest thou shouldst say, How was he not the light, of whom
Christ says that "he was a lamp"?--I answer, In comparison of the other
light, he was not light. For "that was the true light that enlighteneth
every man coming into this world." Accordingly, when He said also to the
disciples, "Ye are the light of the world," lest they should imagine that
anything was attributed  to them which was to be understood of Christ
alone, and thus the lamps should be extinguished by the wind of pride, when
He had said, "Ye are the light of the world," He immediately subjoined, "A
city that is set on a hill cannot be hid; neither do men light a candle and
put it under a bushel, but an a candlestick, that it may shine on all that
are in the house." But what if He did not call the apostles the candle, but
the lighters of the candle, which they were to put on a candlestick? Hear
that He called themselves the candle. "So let your light shine," saith He,
"before men, that they, seeing your good works, may glorify," not you, but
"your Father who is in heaven."(5)

   4. Wherefore both Moses bore witness to Christ, and John bore witness
to Christ, and all the other prophets and apostles bore witness to Christ.
Before all these testimonies He places the testimony of His own works.
Because through those men too, it was God and none other that bore witness
to His Son. But yet in another way God bears testimony to His Son. God
reveals His Son through the Son Himself, He reveals Himself through the
Son. To Him, if a man shall have been able to reach, he shall need no
lamps; and by truly digging deep, he will carry down his building to the
rock.

   5. The lesson of to-day, brethren, is easy; but on account of what was
due yesterday (for I know what I have delayed, not withdrawn, and the Lord
has deigned to allow me even to-day to speak to you), recall to mind what
you ought to demand, if perhaps, while preserving piety and wholesome
humility, we may in some measure stretch out ourselves, not against God,
but towards Him, and lift up our soul, pouring it out above us, like the
Psalmist, to whom it was said, "Where is thy God? "On these things," saith
he, "I meditated, and poured out my soul above me."(1) Therefore let us
lift up our soul to God, not against God; for this also is said, "To Thee,
O Lord, I have lifted up my soul."(2) And let us lift it up with His own
assistance, for it is heavy. And from what cause is it heavy? Because the
body which is corrupt weighs down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle
depresses the mind while meditating on many things.(3) Let us try, then,
whether we may not be able to withdraw our mind from many things in order
to concentrate it on one, and to raise it to one (which indeed we cannot
do, as I have said, unless He assist us who wills our souls to be raised to
Himself). And so we may apprehend in some measure how the Word of God, the
only begotten of the Father, the co-eternal and equal with the Father,
doeth not anything except what He seeth the Father doing, whilst yet the
Father Himself doeth not anything but through the Son, who seeth Him doing.
Since the Lord Jesus, as it seems to me,--willing here to make known some
great matter to those that give attention to it, and to pour into those
that are capable of receiving, and to rouse, on the other hand, the
incapable to assiduity, in order that, while not yet understanding, they
may by right living be made capable,--has intimated to us that the human
soul and rational mind which is in man, not in the beast, is invigorated,
enlightened, and made happy in no other way than by the very substance of
God: that the soul itself gets somewhat by and of the body, and yet holds
the body subject to it, while the senses of the body can be soothed and
delighted by things bodily, and that because of this kind of fellowship of
soul and body in this life, and in this mutual embrace of theirs, the soul
is delighted when the bodily senses are soothed, and saddened when they are
offended; while yet the happiness by which the soul itself is made happy
cannot be realized  but by a participation of that ever-living,
unchangeable life, of that eternal substance,  which is God: that as the
soul, which is inferior to God, causes the body, which is inferior to
itself, to live, so that alone which is superior to the soul can cause that
same soul to live happily. For the soul is higher than the body, and higher
than the soul is God. It bestows something on its inferior, while there is
something bestowed on itself by the superior. Let it serve its Lord, that
it may not be trampled on by its own servant. This, brethren, is the
Christian religion, which is preached through the whole world, while its
enemies are dismayed; who, where they are conquered, murmur, and fiercely
rage against it where they prevail. This is the Christian religion, that
one God be worshipped, not many gods, because only one God can make the
soul happy. It is made happy by participation of God. Not by participation
of a holy soul does the feeble soul become happy, nor by participation of
an angel does the holy soul become happy; but if the feeble soul seeks to
be happy, let it seek that by which the holy soul is made happy. For thou
art made happy, not of an angel, but the angel as well as thou of the same
source.

   6. These things being premised and firmly established,--that the
rational soul is made happy only by God, that the body is enlivened only by
the soul, and that the soul is a something intermediate between God and the
body,--direct your thoughts to, and recollect with me, not the passage read
to-day, of which we have spoken enough, but that of yesterday, which we
have been turning over and handling these three days, and, to the best of
our abilities, digging into until we should come to the rock. The Word
Christ, Christ the Word of God with God, Christ the Word and the Word God,
Christ and God and Word one God. To this press on; O soul, despising, or
even transcending all things else, to this press on. There is nothing more
powerful than this creature, which is called the rational mind, nothing
more sublime: whatever is above this, is but the Creator. But I was saying
that Christ is the Word, and Christ is the Word of God, and Christ the Word
is God; but Christ is not only the Word, since "the Word became flesh, and
dwelt among us:"(4) therefore Christ is both Word and flesh. For when "He
was in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God."
And what of us in our low estate, who, feeble and crawling on the ground,
Were not able to reach unto God, were we to be abandoned? God forbid. "He
emptied Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant;"(5) not, therefore,
by losing the form of God. He became man who was God, by receiving what He
was not, not by losing what He was: so God became man. There thou hast
something for thy weakness, something for thy perfection. Let Christ raise
thee by that which is man, lead thee by That which is God-man, and guide
thee through to that which is God. And the whole preaching and dispensation
by Christ is this, brethren, and there is not another, that souls may be
raised again, and that bodies also may be raised again. For each of the two
was dead; the body by weakness, the soul by iniquity. Because each was
dead, each may rise again What each? Soul and body. By what, then, can the
soul rise again but by Christ God? By what the body, but by the man Christ?
For there was also in Christ a human soul, a whole soul; not merely the
irrational part of the soul, but also the rational, which is called mind.
For there have been certain heretics, and they have been driven out of the
Church, who fancied that the body of Christ did not have in it a rational
mind, but, as it were, the animal life of a beast; since, without the
rational mind, life is only animal life. But because they were driven out,
and driven out by the truth, accept thou the whole Christ, Word, rational
mind, and flesh. This is the whole Christ. Let thy soul rise again from
iniquity by that which is God, thy body from corruption by that which is
man. There, most beloved, hear ye what, so far as it appears to me, is the
great profundity of this passage; and see how Christ here speaks to the
effect, that the only reason why He came is, in order that souls may have a
resurrection from iniquity, and bodies from corruption. I have already said
by what our souls are raised, by the very substance of God; by what our
bodies are raised, by the human dispensation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

   7. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son cannot of Himself do
anything, but what He seeth the Father doing; for what things soever He has
done, these also the Son doeth in like manner." Yes, the heaven, the earth,
the sea; the things that are in heaven, on the earth, and in the sea; the
visible and invisible, the animals on the land, the plants in the fields,
the creatures that swim in the waters, that fly in the air, that shine in
heaven; besides all these, angels, virtues, thrones, dominations,
principalities, powers; "all were made by Him." Did God make all these, and
show them when made to the Son, that He also should make another world full
of all these? Certainly not. But, on the contrary, what does He say? "For
what things soever He has made, these," not others, but "these also the Son
doeth," not differently, "but in like manner." "For the Father loveth the
Son, and showeth Him all things which Himself doeth." The Father showeth to
the Son that souls may be raised, for souls are raised up by the Father and
the Son; nor can souls live except God be their life. If souls, then,
cannot live unless God be their life, just as themselves are the life of
bodies; what the Father shows to the Son, that is, what He doeth, He doeth
through the Son. For it is not by doing that He shows to the Son, but by
showing He doeth through the Son. For the Son sees the Father showing
before anything is done; and from the Father's showing and the Son's
vision, is done what is done by the Father through the Son. So are souls
raised up, if they can see that conjunction of unity, the Father showing,
the Son seeing, and the creature made by the Father's showing and the Son's
seeing; and that thing made by the Father's showing and the Son's seeing,
which is neither the Father nor the Son, but beneath the Father and the
Son, whatever is made by the Father through the Son. Who sees this?

   8. Behold, again we humble ourselves to carnal notions, and descend to
you, if indeed we had at any time ascended somewhat from you. Thou wishest
to show something to thy son, that he may do what thou doest; thou art
about to do, and thus to show the thing. Therefore, what thou art about to
do, in order to show it to thy son, thou doest not surely by thy son; but
thou alone doest that thing which, when done, he may see, and do another
such thing in like manner. This is not the case there; why goest thou on to
thy own similitude, and blottest out the similitude of God within thee?
There, the case is wholly otherwise. Find a case in which thou showest to
thy son what thou doest before thou doest it; so that, after thou hast
shown it, it will be by the son thou doest. Perhaps something like this now
occurs to thee: Lo, sayest thou, I think to make a house, and I wish it to
be built by my son: before I build it myself, I point out to my son what I
mean to do: both he doeth, and I too by him to whom I pointed out my wish.
Thou hast retreated, indeed, from the former similitude, but still thou
liest in great dissimilitude. For, lo, before thou canst make the house.
thou dost inform thy son, and point out to him what thou meanest to do;
that, upon thy showing before thou makest, he may make what thou hast
shown, and so thou mayest make by him: but thou wilt speak words to thy
son, words will have to pass between thee and him; between the person
showing and the person seeing, between speaker and hearer, flies articulate
sound, which is not what thou art, nor what he is. That sound, indeed,
which goes out of thy mouth, and by the concussion of the air touches thy
son's ear, and filling the sense of hearing, conveys thy thought to his
heart that sound, I say, is not thyself, nor thy son. A sign is given from
thy mind to thy son's mind, but that sign not either thy mind or thy son's
mind, but something else. Is it thus that we think the Father has spoken to
the Son? Were there words between the Father and the Word? Then how is it?
Or, whatever the Father would say to the Son, if He would say it by a word,
the Son Himself is the Word of the Father, would He speak by a word to the
Word? Or, since the Son is the great Word, had smaller words to pass
between the Father and Son? Was it so, that some sound, as it were a
temporal, fleeting creature, had to issue from the mouth of the Father, and
strike upon the ear of the Son? Has God a body, that this should proceed,
as it were, from His lips? And has the Word the ears of a body, into which
sound may come? Lay aside all notions of corporeal forms, regard
simplicity, if thou art single. minded. But how wilt thou be single-minded?
If thou wilt not entangle thyself with the world. but disentangle thyself
from the world. For by disentangling thyself, thou wilt be single-minded.
And see, if thou canst, what I say; or if thou canst not, believe what thou
dost not see. Thou speakest to thy son; thou speakest by a word: neither
art thou, nor is thy son, the word that sounds.

   9. I have, sayest thou, another method of showing; for so well
instructed is my son, that he hears without my speaking, but I show him by
a nod what to do. Lo, show him by a nod what thou wilt, yet certainly the
mind holds within itself that which it would show. By what dost thou give
this nod? With the body,--namely, with the lips, the look, the brows, the
eyes, the hands. All these are not what thy mind is: these, too, are media;
there was something understood by these signs which are not what thy mind
is, not what the mind of thy son is; but all this which thou doest by the
body is beneath thy mind, and beneath the mind of thy son: nor can thy son
know thy mind, unless thou give him signs by the body. What, then, do I
say? This is not the case there; there all is simplicity. The Father shows
to the Son what He is doing, and by showing begets the Son. I see what I
have said; but because I see also to whom I have said it, may such
understanding be some time or other formed in you as to grasp it. If ye are
not able now to comprehend what God is, comprehend at least what God is
not: you will have made much progress, if you think of God as being not
something other than He is. God is not a body, not the earth, not the
heaven, not the moon, or sun, or stars--not these corporeal things. For if
not heavenly things, how much less is He earthly things! Put all body out
of the question. Further, hear another thing: God is not a mutable spirit.
For I confess,--and it must be confessed, for it is the Gospel that speaks
it,--" God is a Spirit." But pass beyond all mutable spirit, beyond all
spirit that now knows, now knows not; that now remembers, now forgets; that
wills what before it willed not, that wills not what before it willed;
either that suffers these mutabilities now or may suffer them: pass beyond
all these. Thou findest not any mutability in God; nor aught that may have
been one way before, and is otherwise now. For where thou findest
alternation, there a kind of death has taken place: since, for a thing not
to be what it was, is a death. The soul is said to be immortal; so indeed
it is, because it ever lives, and there is in it a certain continuous life,
but yet a mutable life. According to the mutability of this life, it may be
said to be mortal; because if it lived wisely, and then becomes foolish, it
dies for the worse; if it lived foolishly, and becomes wise, it dies for
the better. For the Scripture teaches us that there is a death for the
worse, and that there is a death for the better. In any case, they had died
for the worse, of whom it said, "Let the dead bury their dead;"(1) and,
"Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light;"(2) and from this passage before us, "When the dead shall hear,
and they that hear shall live." For the worse they had died; therefore do
they come to life again. By coming to life they die for the better, because
by coming to life again they will not be what they were; but for that to
be, which was not, is death. But perhaps it is not called death if it is
for the better? The apostle has called that death: "But if ye be dead with
Christ from the elements of this world, why do ye judge concerning this
world as if ye were still living?"(3) And again, "For ye are dead, and your
life is hid with Christ in God." He wishes us to die that we may live,
because we have lived to die. Whatever therefore dies, both from better to
worse, and from worse to better, is not God; because neither can supreme
goodness proceed to better, nor true eternity to worse. For true eternity
is, where is nothing of time. But was there now this, now that? Immediately
time is admitted, it is not eternal. For that ye may know that God is not
thus, as the soul is,-certainly the soul is immortal,--what, however, saith
the apostle of God, "Who alone hath immortality," unless that he openly
says this, He alone hath unchangeableness, because He alone hath true
eternity? Therefore no mutability is there.

   10. Recognize in thyself something which I wish to say within, in
thyself; not within as if in thy body, for in a sense one may say, "in
thyself." For there is in thee health, thy age whatever it be, but this in
regard to the body. In thee is thy hand and thy foot; but there is one
thing in thee, within; another thing in thee as in thy garment. But leave
outside thy garment and thyself, descend into thyself, go to thy secret
place, thy mind, and there see, if thou canst, what I wish to say. For if
thou art far from thyself, how canst thou come near to God? I was speaking
of God, and thou believedst that thou wouldst understand. I am speaking of
the soul, I am speaking of thyself: understand this, there I will try thee.
For I do not travel very far for examples, when I mean to give thee some
similitude to thy God from thy own mind; because surely not in the body,
but in that same mind, was man made after the image of God. Let us seek God
in His own similitude; let us recognize the Creator in His own image. There
within, if we can, let us find this that we speak of,--how the Father shows
to the Son, and how the Son sees what the Father shows, before anything is
made by the Father through the Son. But when I shall have spoken, and thou
hast understood, thou must not think that spoken of to be something just
such as our example, that thou mayest therein keep piety, which I wish to
be kept by thee, and earnestly admonish thee to keep: that is, if thou art
not able to comprehend what God is, do not think it a small matter for thee
to know what He is not.

   11. Behold, in thy mind, I see some two things, thy memory and thy
thought, which is, as it were, the seeing faculty and the vision of thy
soul. Thou seest something, and perceivest it by the eyes, and thou
committest it to the care of the memory. There, within, is that which thou
hast committed to thy memory, laid up in secret as in a storehouse, as in a
treasury, as in a kind of secret chamber and inner cabinet. Thou thinkest
of something else, thy attention is elsewhere; what thou didst see is in
thy memory, but not seen by thee, because thy thought is bent on another
thing. I prove this at once. I speak to you who know; I mention by name
Carthage; all who know it have instantly seen Carthage within the mind. Are
there as many Carthages as there are minds of you? You have all seen it by
means of this name, by means of these syllables known to you, rushing forth
from my mouth: your ears were. touched; the sense of the soul was touched
through the body, and the mind bent back from another object to this word,
and saw Carthage. Was Carthage made there and then? It was there already,
but latent in the memory. Why was latent there? Because thy mind was
engaged on another matter; but when thy thought turned back to that which
was in the memory, thence it was shaped, and became a kind of vision of the
mind. Before, there was not a vision, but there was memory; the vision was
made by the turning back of thought to memory. Thy memory, then, showed
Carthage to thy thought; and that which was in it before thou didst direct
thy mind to the memory, it exhibited to the attention of thy thought when
turned upon it. Behold, a showing is effected by the memory, and a vision
is produced in thought; and no words passed between, no sign was given from
the body: thou didst neither nod, nor write, nor utter a sound; and yet
thought saw what the memory showed. But both that which showed, and that to
which it showed, are of the same substance. But yet, that thy memory might
have Carthage in it, the image was drawn in through the eyes, for thou
didst see what thou didst store up in thy memory. So hast thou seen the
tree which thou rememberest; so the mountain, the river; so the face of a
friend, of an enemy, of father, mother, brother, sister, son, neighbor; so
of letters written in a book, of the book itself; so of this church: all
these thou didst see, and didst commit to thy memory after they were seen;
and didst, as it were, lay up there what thou mightst by thinking see at
will, even when they should be absent from these eyes of the body. Thou
sawest Carthage when thou wast at Carthage; thy soul received the image by
the eyes; this image was laid up in thy memory; and thou, the person who
wast present at Carthage, didst keep something within thee which thou
mightst be able to see with thyself, even when thou shouldst not be there.
All these things thou didst receive from without. What the Father shows to
the Son, He does not receive from without: all comes to pass within,
because there would be no creature at all without, unless the Father had
made it by the Son. Every creature was made by God; before it was made it
was not in being. It was not therefore seen, after being made and retained
in memory, that the Father might show it to the Son, as the memory might
show to thought; but, on the contrary, the Father showed it to be made, the
Son saw it to be made; and the Father made it by showing, because He made
it by the Son seeing. And therefore we ought not to be surprised that it is
said, "But what He seeth the Father doing," not showing. For by this it is
intimated that, with the Father, to do and to show is the same thing; that
hence we may understand that He doeth all things by the Son seeing. Neither
is that showing, nor that seeing, temporal. Forasmuch as all times are made
by the Son, they could not certainly be shown to Him at any point of time
to be made. But the Father's showing begets the Son's seeing, just in the
same manner as the Father begets the Son. For the showing produces the
seeing, not the seeing the showing. And if we were able to look into this
matter more purely and perfectly, perhaps we should find that the Father is
not one thing, His showing another; nor the Son one thing, His seeing
another. But if we have hardly apprehended this,--if we have hardly been
able to explain how the memory exhibits to the thought what it has received
from without,--how much less can we take in or explain how God the Father
shows to the Son, what He has not from elsewhere, or that which is not
other than Himself! We are only little ones: I tell you what God is not, do
not show you what God is. What shall we do, then, that we may apprehend
what He is? Can ye do this by or through me? I say this to the little ones,
both to you and to myself; there is by whom we can: we have just now sung,
just now heard, "Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He will nourish thee."(1)
The reason why thou art not able, O man, is because thou art a little one;
being a little one, thou must be nourished; being nourished, thou wilt
become full-grown; and what as a little one thou couldst not, thou shalt
see when full-grown; but that thou mayest be nourished, "cast thy care upon
the Lord, and He will nourish thee."

   12. Therefore let us now briefly run over what remains, and do you see
how the Lord makes known to us the things which I have been here commending
to your attention. "The Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things
which Himself doeth." Himself raiseth up souls, but by the Son, that the
souls raised up may enjoy the substance of God, that is, of the Father and
of the Son. "And greater works than these He will show Him." Greater than
which? Than healings of bodies. We have treated of this already, and must
not linger upon it now. Greater is the resurrection of the body unto
eternity than this healing of the body, wrought in that impotent man, to
last only for a time. "And greater works than these He will show Him, that
ye may marvel."(1) "Will show," as if the act were temporal, therefore as
to a man made in time, since God the Word is not made, He by whom all times
were made. But Christ was made man in time. We know in what consulship the
Virgin Mary brought forth Christ, conceived of the Holy Ghost. Wherefore
He, by whom as God the times were made, was made man in time. Hence, just
as in time, "He will show Him greater works," that is, the resurrection of
bodies, "that ye may marvel" at the resurrection of bodies wrought by the
Son.

   13. He then returns to that resurrection of souls: "For as the Father
raiseth the dead, and quickeneth them, so also the Son quickeneth whom He
will;" but this according to the Spirit. The Father quickeneth, the Son
quickeneth; the Father whom He will, the Son whom He will; but the Father
quickeneth the same as the Son, because all things were made by Him. "For
as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, so also the Son
quickeneth whom He will." This is said of the resurrection of souls; but
what of the resurrection of bodies? He returns, and says: "For the Father
judgeth not any man. but all judgment hath He given to the Son." The
resurrection of souls is effected by the eternal and unchangeable substance
of the Father and Son. But the resurrection of bodies is effected by the
dispensation of the Son's humanity, which dispensation is temporal, not co-
eternal with the Father. Therefore, when He mentioned judgment, in which
there should be a resurrection of bodies, He saith, "For the Father judgeth
not any man, but all judgment hath He given to the Son;" but concerning the
resurrection of souls, He saith, "Even as the Father raiseth the dead, and
quickeneth them, so also the Son quickeneth whom He will." That, then, the
Father and the Son together. But this concerning the resurrection of
bodies: "The Father judgeth not any man, but hath given all judgment to the
Son; that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." This is
referred to the resurrection of souls. "That all may honor the Son." How?
"Even as they honor the Father." For the Son works the resurrection of
souls in the same manner as the Father doth; the Son quickeneth just as the
Father doth. Therefore, in the resurrection of souls, "let all honor the
Son as they honor the Father." But what of the honoring on account of the
resurrection of the body? "Whoso honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the
Father that sent Him." He said not even as, but honoreth and honoreth. For
the man Christ is honored, but not even as God the Father. Why? Because,
with respect to this, He said, "The Father is greater than I."(1) And when
is the Son honored even as the Father is honored? When "in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God; and all things were made by Him."
And hence, in this second honoring, what saith He? "Whoso honoreth not the
Son, honoreth not the Father that sent Him." The Son was not sent, but
because He was made man.

   14. "Verily, verily, I say unto you." Again He returns to the
resurrection of souls, that by continual repetition we may apprehend His
meaning; because we could not keep up with His discourse hastening on as on
wings. Lo, the Word of God lingers with. us; lo, it doth, as it were, dwell
with our infirmities. He returns again to the mention of the resurrection
of souls. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whoso heareth my word, and
believeth Him that sent me, hath eternal life;" but hath it as from the
Father. "For whoso heareth my word, and believeth Him that sent me, hath
eternal life" from the Father, by believing the Father that sent the Son
"And shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life." But
from the Father, whom he believes, is he quickened. What, dost Thou not
quicken? See that the Son also "quickeneth whom He will." "Verily, verily,
I say unto you, That the hour cometh when the dead shall hear the voice of
the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." Here He did not say, they
shall believe Him that sent me, and therefore shall live; but by hearing
the voice of the Son of God, "they that hear," that is, they that obey the
Son of God, "shall live." Therefore, both from the Father shall they live,
when they will believe the Father; and from the Son shall they live, when
they will hear the voice of the Son of God. Why shall they live both from
the Father and from the Son "For even as the Father hath life in Himself,
so also hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself."

   15. He has finished speaking of the resurrection of souls; it remains
to speak more evidently of the resurrection of bodies. "And hath given Him
authority also to execute judgment:" not only to raise up souls by faith
and wisdom, but also to execute judgment. But why this? "Because He is the
Son of man." Therefore the Father doeth something through the Son of man,
which He doeth not from His own substance, to which the Son is equal: as,
for instance, that He should be born, crucified, dead, and have a
resurrection; for not any of these is contingent to the Father. In the same
manner also the raising again of bodies. For the raising to life of souls
the Father effects from His own substance, by the substance of the Son, in
which the Son is equal to Him; because souls are made partakers of that
unchangeable light, but not bodies; but the raising again of bodies, the
Father effects through the Son of man. For "He hath given Him authority
also to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man;" according to that
which He said above, "For the Father judgeth not any man." And to show that
He said this of the resurrection of bodies, He goes on: "Marvel not at
this, for the hour cometh:" not, and now is; but, "the hour cometh, in
which all that are in the graves (this ye have already heard sufficiently
explained yesterday) shall hear His voice, and come forth." Where? Into
judgment: "They that have done well, into the resurrection of life; and
they that have done evil, into the resurrection of judgment." And dost Thou
do this alone, because the Father hath given all judgment to the Son, and
judgeth not any man? I, saith He, do it. But how doest Thou it? "I cannot
of myself do anything; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just." When
He was treating of the resurrection of souls, He did not say, I hear; but,
l see. For I hear refers to the command of the Father as giving order.
Therefore, now as a man, just as He than whom the Father is greater; as
from the form of a servant, not from the form of God, "As I hear, I judge;
and my judgment is just." Whence is the man's judgment a just one? My
brethren, mark well: "Because I seek not my own will, but the will of Him
that sent me."

TRACTATE XXIV: CHAPTER VI. 1-14.

   1. The miracles performed by our Lord Jesus Christ are indeed divine
works, and incite the human mind to rise to the apprehension of God from
the things that are seen. But inasmuch as He is not such a substance as may
be seen with the eyes, and His miracles in the government of the whole
world and the administration of the universal creation are, by their
familiar constancy, slightly regarded, so that almost no man deigns to
consider the wonderful and stupendous works of God, exhibited in every
grain of seed; He has, agreeably to His mercy, reserved to Himself certain
works, beyond the usual course and order of nature, which He should perform
on fit occasion, that they, by whom His daily works are lightly esteemed,
might be struck with astonishment at beholding, not indeed greater, but
uncommon works. For certainly the government of the whole world is a
greater miracle than the satisfying of five thousand men with five loaves;
and yet no man wonders at the former; but the latter men wonder at, not
because it is greater, but because it is rare. For who even now feeds the
whole world, but He who creates the cornfield from a few grains? He
therefore created as God creates. For, whence He multiplies the produce of
the fields from a few grains, from the same source He multiplied in His
hands the five loaves. The power, indeed, was in the hands of Christ; but
those five loaves were as seeds, not indeed committed to the earth, but
multiplied by Him who made the earth. In this miracle, then, there is that
brought near to the senses, whereby the mind should be roused to attention,
there is exhibited to the eyes, whereon the understanding should be
exercised, that we might admire the invisible God through His visible
works; and being raised to faith and purged by faith, we might desire to
behold Him even invisibly, whom invisible we came to know by the things
that are visible.

   2. Yet it is not enough to observe these things in the miracles of
Christ. Let us interrogate the miracles themselves, what they tell us about
Christ: for they have a tongue of their own, if they can be understood. For
since Christ is Himself the Word of God, even the act of the Word is a word
to us. Therefore as to this miracle, since we have heard how great it is,
let us also search how profound it is; let us not only be delighted with
its surface, but let us also seek to know its depth. This miracle, which we
admire on the outside, has something within. We have seen, we have looked
at something great, something glorious, and altogether divine, which could
be performed only by God: we have praised the doer for the deed. But just
as, if we were to inspect a beautiful writing somewhere, it would not
suffice for us to praise the hand of the writer, because he formed the
letters even, equal and elegant, if we did not also read the information he
conveyed to us by those letters; so, he who merely inspects this deed may
be delighted with its beauty to admire the doer: but he who understands
does, as it were, read it. For a picture is looked at in a different way
from that in which a writing is looked at. When thou hast seen a picture,
to have seen and praised it is the whole thing; when thou seest a writing,
this is not the whole, since thou art reminded also to read it. Moreover,
when thou seest a writing, if it chance that thou canst not read, thou
sayest, "What do we think that to be which is here written?" Thou askest
what it is, when already thou seest it to be something. He of whom thou
seekest to be informed what it is that thou hast seen, will show thee
another thing. He has other eyes than thou hast. Do you not alike see the
form of the letters? But yet you do not alike understand the signs. Well,
thou seest and praisest; but he sees, praises, reads and understands.
Therefore, since we have seen and praised, let us also read and understand.

   3. The Lord on the mount: much rather let us understand that the Lord
on the mount is the Word on high. Accordingly, what was done on the mount
does not, as it were, lie low, nor is to be cursorily passed by, but must
be looked up to. He saw the multitude, knew them to be hungering,
mercifully fed them: not only in virtue of His goodness, but also of His
power. For what would mere goodness avail, where there was not bread with
which to feed the hungry crowd? Did not power attend upon goodness, that
crowd had remained fasting and hungry. In short, the disciples also, who
were with the Lord, and hungry, themselves wished to feed the multitudes,
that they might not remain empty, but had not wherewithal to feed them. The
Lord asked, whence they might buy bread to feed the multitude. And the
Scripture saith: "But this He said, proving him;" namely, the disciple
Philip of whom He had asked; "for Himself knew what He would do." Of what
advantage then was it to prove him, unless to show the disciple's
ignorance? And, perhaps, in showing the disciple's ignorance He signified
something more. This will appear, then, when the sacrament of the five
loaves itself will begin to speak to us, and to intimate its meaning: for
there we shall see why the Lord in this act wished to exhibit the
disciple's ignorance, by asking what He Himself knew. For we sometimes ask
what we do not know, that, being willing to hear, we may learn; sometimes
we ask what we do know, wishing to learn whether he whom we ask also knows.
The Lord knew both the one and the other; knew both what He asked, for He
knew what Himself would do; and He also knew in like manner that Philip
knew not this. Why then   did He ask, but to show Philip's ignorance? And
why He did this, we shall, as I have said, understand afterwards.

   4. Andrew saith: "There is a lad here, who has five loaves and two
fishes, but what are these for so many?" When Philip, on being asked, had
said that two hundred pennyworth of bread would not suffice to refresh that
so great a multitude, there was there a certain lad, carrying five barley
loaves and two fishes. "And Jesus saith, Make the men sit down. Now there
was there much grass: and they sat down about five thousand men. And the
Lord Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks;" He commanded, the loaves were
broken, and put before the men that were set down. It was no longer five
loaves, but what He had added thereto, who had created that which was
increased. "And of the fishes as much as sufficed." It was not enough that
the multitude had been satisfied, there remained also fragments; and these
were ordered to be gathered up, that they should not be lost: "And they
filled twelve baskets with the fragments."

   5. To run over it briefly: by the five loaves are understood the five
books of Moses; and rightly are they not wheaten but barley loaves, because
they belong to the Old Testament. And you know that barley is so formed
that we get at its pith with difficulty; for the pith is covered in a
coating of husk, and the husk itself tenacious and closely adhering, so as
to be stripped off with labor. Such is the letter of the Old Testament,
invested in a covering of carnal sacraments: but yet, if we get at its
pith, it feeds and satisfies us. A certain lad, then, brought five loaves
and two fishes. If we inquire who this lad was, perhaps it was the people
Israel, which, in a childish sense, carried, not ate. For the things which
they carried were a burden while shut up, but when opened afforded
nourishment. And as for the two fishes, they appear to us to signify those
two sublime persons, in the Old Testament, of priest and of ruler, who were
anointed for the sanctifying and governing of the people. And at length
Himself in the mystery came, who was signified by those persons: He at
length came who was pointed out by the pith of the barley, but concealed by
its husk. He came, sustaining in His one person the two characters of
priest and ruler: of priest by offering Himself to God as a victim for us;
of ruler, because by Him we are governed. And the things that were carried
closed are now opened up. Thanks be to Him. He has fulfilled by Himself
what was promised in the Old Testament. And He bade the loaves to be
broken; in the breaking they are multiplied. Nothing is more true. For when
those five books of Moses are expounded, how many books have they made by
being broken up, as it were; that is, by being opened and laid out? But
because in that barley the ignorance of the first people was veiled, of
whom it is said, "Whilst Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts;"(1)
for the veil was not yet removed, because Christ had not yet come; not yet
was the veil of the temple rent, while Christ is hanging on the cross:
because, I say, the ignorance of the people was in the law, therefore that
proving by the Lord made the ignorance of the disciple manifest.

   6. Wherefore nothing is without meaning; everything is significant, but
requires one that understands: for even this number of the people fed,
signified the people that were under the law. For why were there five
thousand, but because they were under the law, which is unfolded in the
five books of Moses? Why were the sick laid at those five porches, but not
healed? He, however, there cured the impotent man, who here fed multitudes
with five loaves. Moreover, they sat down upon the grass; therefore
understood carnally, and rested in the carnal. "For all flesh is grass."(2)
And what were those fragments, but things which the people were not able to
eat? We understand them to be certain matters of more hidden meaning, which
the multitude are not able to take in. What remains then, but that those
matters of more hidden meaning, which the multitude cannot take in, be
entrusted to men who are fit to teach others also, just as were the
apostles? Why were twelve baskets filled? This was done both marvellously,
because a great thing was done; and it was done profitably, because a
spiritual thing was done. They who at the time saw it, marvelled; but we,
hearing of it, do not marvel. For it was done that they might see it, but
it was written that we might hear it. What the eyes were able to do in
their case, that faith does in our case. We perceive, namely, with the
mind, what we could not with the eyes: and we are preferred before them,
because of us it is said, "Blessed are they who see not, and yet
believe."(1) And I add that, perhaps, we have understood what that crowd
did not understand. And we have been fed in reality, in that we have been
able to get at the pith of the barley.

   7. Lastly, what did those men who saw this miracle think? "The men,"
saith he, "when they had seen the sign which He had done, said, This is
indeed a prophet." Perhaps they still thought Christ to be a prophet for
this reason, namely, that they were sitting on the grass. But He was the
Lord of the prophets, the fulfiller of the prophets, the sanctifier of the
prophets, but yet a prophet also: for it was said to Moses, "I will raise
up for them a prophet like unto thee." Like, according to the flesh, but
not according to the majesty. And that this promise of the Lord is to be
understood concerning Christ Himself,  is clearly expounded and read in the
Acts of the Apostles.(2) And the Lord says of Himself, "A prophet is not
without honor, except in his own country."(3) The Lord is a prophet, and
the Lord is God's Word, and no prophet prophesies without the Word of God:
the Word of God is with the prophets, and the Word of God is a prophet. The
former times obtained prophets inspired and filled by the Word of God: we
have obtained the very Word of God for our prophet. But Christ is in such
manner a prophet, the Lord of prophets, as Christ is an angel, the Lord of
angels. For He is also called the Angel of great counsel.(4) Nevertheless,
what says the prophet elsewhere? that not an ambassador, nor an angel, but
Himself coming will save them;(5) that is, He will not send an ambassador
to save them, nor an angel, but Himself will come. Who will come? The Angel
himself? Certainly not by an angel will He save them, except that He is so
an angel, as also Lord of angels. For angels signify messengers. If Christ
brought no message, He would not be called an angel: if Christ prophesied
nothing, He would not be called a prophet. He has exhorted us to faith and
to laying hold of eternal life; He has proclaimed something present,
foretold something future because He proclaimed the present, thence He was
an angel or messenger; because He foretold the future, thence He was a
prophet; and that, as the Word of God He was made flesh, thence He was Lord
of angels and of prophets.

TRACTATE XXV: CHAPTER VI. 15-44.

   1. Following upon yesterday's lesson from the Gospel is that of to-day,
upon which this day's discourse is due to you. When that miracle was
wrought, in which Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves, and the
multitudes marveled and said that He was a great prophet that came into the
world, then follows this: "When Jesus therefore knew that they came to
seize Him, and to make Him king, He escaped again unto the mountain alone."
It is therefore given to be understood that the Lord, when He sat on the
mountain with His disciples, and saw the multitudes coming to Him, had
descended from the mountain, and fed the multitudes on its lower parts. For
how can it be that He should escape thither again, if He had not before
descended from the mountain? There is something meant by the Lord's
descending from on high to feed the multitudes. He fed them, and ascended.

   2. But why did He ascend after He knew that they wished to seize Him
and make Him a king? How then; was He not a king, that He was afraid to be
made a king? He was certainly not such a king as would be made by men, but
such as would bestow a kingdom on men. May it not be that Jesus, whose
deeds are words, does here, too, signify something to us? Therefore in
this, that they wished to seize Him and make Him a king, and that for this
He escapes to the mountain alone, is this action in His case silent; does
it speak nothing, does it mean nothing? Or was this seizing of Him perhaps
an intention to anticipate the time of His kingdom? For He had come now,
not to reign immediately, as He is to reign in the sense in which we pray,
Thy kingdom come. He ever reigns, indeed, with the Father, in that He is
the Son of God, the Word of God, the Word by which all things were made.
But the prophets foretold His kingdom according to that wherein He is
Christ made man, and has made His faithful ones Christians. There will
consequently be a kingdom of Christians, which at present is being gathered
together, being prepared and purchased by the blood of Christ. His kingdom
will at length be made manifest, when the glory of His saints shall be
revealed, after the judgment is executed by Him, which judgment He Himself
has said above is that which the Son of man shall execute. Of which kingdom
also the apostle has said: "When He shall have delivered up the kingdom to
God, even the Father."(1) In reference to which also Himself says: "Come,
ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which is prepared for you from
the beginning of the world."(2) But the disciples and the multitudes that
believed on Him thought that He had thus come immediately to reign; hence,
they wished to seize Him and to make Him a king; they wished to anticipate
the time which He hid with Himself, to make it known in due time, and in
due time to declare it in the end of the world.

   3. That ye may know that they wished to make Him a king,--that is, to
anticipate, and at once to have manifest the kingdom of Christ, whom it
behoved first to be judged and then to judge,--when He was crucified, and
they who hoped in Him had lost hope of His resurrection, having risen from
the dead, He found two of them despairingly conversing together, and, with
groaning, talking with one another of what had been done; and appearing to
them as a stranger, while their eyes were held that He should not be
recognized by them, He mixed with them as they held discourse: but they,
narrating to Him the matter of their conversation, said that He was a
prophet, mighty in deeds and in words, that had been slain by the chief
priests; "And we," say they, "did hope that it was He that should have
redeemed Israel."(3) Rightly you hoped: a true thing you hoped for: in Him
is the redemption of Israel. But why are ye in haste? Ye wish to seize it.
The following, too, shows us that this was their feeling, that, when the
disciples inquired of Him concerning the end, they said to Him, "Wilt Thou
at this time be made manifest, and when will be the kingdom of Israel?" For
they longed for it now, they wished it now; that is, they wished to seize
Him, and to make Him king. But saith He to the disciples (for He had yet to
ascend alone), "It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the
Father hath put in His own power: but ye shall receive virtue from on high,
the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and ye shall be witnesses to me in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the ends of the
earth."(4) You wish that I should manifest the kingdom now; let me first
gather what I may manifest; you love elevation, and you shall obtain
elevation, but follow me through humility. Thus it was also foretold of
Him, "And the gathering of the peoples will surround Thee, and for this
cause return Thou on high;"(5) that is, that the gatherings of the peoples
may surround Thee, that Thou mayest gather many together, return Thou on
high. Thus He did; He fed men, and ascended.

   4. But why is it said, He escaped? For He could not be held against His
will, nor seized against His will, since He could not be recognized against
His will. But that you may know that this was done mystically, not of
necessity, but of express purpose, you will presently see in the following:
that He appeared to the same multitudes that sought Him, said many things
in speaking with them, and discoursed much about the bread of heaven; when
discoursing about bread, was He not with the same people from whom He had
escaped test He should be held of them? Then, could He not have so acted at
that time that He should not be seized by them, just as afterwards when He
was speaking with them? Something, therefore, was meant by His escaping.
What means, He escaped? His loftiness could not be understood. For of
anything which thou hast not understood thou sayest, "It has escaped me."
Wherefore, "He escaped again unto the mountain alone,--the first-begotten
from the dead, ascending above all heavens, and interceding for us."(6)

   5. Meanwhile, He, the one great High Priest being above (He who has
entered into that within the veil, the people standing without; for Him
that priest under the old law, who did this once a year, did signify): He
then being above, what were the disciples enduring in the ship? For that
ship prefigured the Church while He is on high. For if we do not, in the
first place, understand this thing which that ship suffered respecting the
Church, those incidents were not significant, but simply transient; but if
we see the real meaning of those signs expressed in the Church, it is
manifest that the actions of Christ are a kind of speeches. "But when it
was late, saith he, His disciples went down to the sea; and when they had
entered into a ship, they came over the sea to Capernaum." He declared that
as finished quickly, which was done afterwards,--"They came over the sea to
Capernaum." He returns to explain how they came; that they passed over by
sailing across the take. And whilst they were sailing to that place to
which He has already said they had come, He explains by recapitulation what
befell them. "It was now dark, and Jesus had not come to them." Rightly he
said "dark," for the light had not come to them "It was now dark, and Jesus
had not come to them." As the end of the world approaches, errors increase,
terrors multiply, iniquity increases, infidelity increases; the light, in
short, which, by the Evangelist John himself, is fully and clearly shown to
be charity, so much so that he says, "Whoso hateth his brother is in
darkness;"(1) that light, I say, is very often extinguished; this darkness
of enmity between brethren increases, daily increases, and Jesus is not yet
come. How does it appear to increase? "Because iniquity will abound, and
the love of many will begin to wax cold." Darkness increases, and Jesus is
not yet come. Darkness increasing, love waxing cold, iniquity abounding,--
these are the waves that agitate the ship; the storms arid the winds are
the clamors of revilers. Thence love waxes cold; thence the waves do swell,
and the ship is tossed.

   6. "And a great wind blowing, the sea rose." Darkness was increasing,
discernment was diminishing, iniquity was growing. "When, therefore, they
had rowed about twenty-five or thirty furlongs." Meanwhile they struggled
onward, kept advancing; nor did those winds and storms, and waves and
darkness effect either that the ship should not make way, or that it should
break in pieces and founder; but amid all these evils it went on. For,
notwithstanding iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes cold, and the
waves do swell, the darkness grows and the wind rages, yet the ship is
moving forward; "for he that perseveres to the end, the same shall be
saved."(2) Nor is that number of furlongs to be lightly regarded. For it
cannot really be that nothing is meant, when it is said that, "when they
had rowed twenty-five or thirty furlongs, Jesus came to them." It were
enough to say, "twenty-five," so likewise "thirty;" especially as it was an
estimate, not an assertion of the narrator. Could the truth be aught
endangered by a mere estimate, if he had said nearly thirty furlongs, or
nearly twenty-five furlongs? But from twenty-five he made thirty. Let us
examine the number twenty-five. Of what does it consist? of what is it made
up? Of the quinary, or number five. That number five pertains to the law.
The same are the five books of Moses, the same are those five porches
containing the sick folk, the same are the five loaves feeding the five
thousand men. Accordingly the number twenty-five signifies the law, because
five by five--that is, five times five--make twenty-five, or the number
five squared. But this law lacked perfection before the gospel came.
Moreover, perfection is comprised in the number six. Therefore in six days
God finished, or perfected, the world, and the same five are multiplied by
six, that the law may be completed by the gospel, that six times five
become thirty. To them that fulfill the law, therefore. Jesus comes. And
how does He come? Walking upon the waves, keeping all the swellings of the
world under His feet, pressing down all its heights. Thus it goes on, so
long as time endures, so long as the ages roll. Tribulations increase,
calamities increase, sorrows increase, all these swell and mount up: Jesus
passeth on treading upon the waves.

   7. And yet so great are the tribulations, that even they who have
trusted in Jesus, and who strive to persevere unto the end, greatly fear
lest they fail; while Christ is treading the waves, and trampling down the
world's ambitions and heights, the Christian is sorely afraid. Were not
these things foretold him? Justly "they were afraid," too, at seeing Jesus
walking on the waves; like as Christians, though having hope in the world
to come, are frequently disquieted at the crash of human affairs, when they
see the loftiness of this world trampled down. They open the Gospel, they
open the Scriptures, and they find all these things there foretold; that
this is the Lord's doing. He tramples down the heights of the world, that
He may be glorified by the humble. Concerning whose loftiness it is
foretold: `Thou shalt destroy strongest cities," and "the spears of the
enemy have come to an end, and Thou hast destroyed cities."(1) Why then are
ye afraid, O Christians? Christ speaks: "It is I; be not afraid." Why are
ye alarmed at these things? Why are ye afraid? I have foretold these
things, I do them, they must necessarily be done. "It is I; be not afraid.
Therefore they would receive Him into the ship." Recognizing Him and
rejoicing, they are freed from their fears. "And immediately the ship was
at the land to which they went." There is an end made at the land; from the
watery to the solid, from the agitated to the firm, from the way to the
goal.

   8. "On the next day the multitude that stood on the other side of the
sea," whence the disciples had come, "saw that there was none other boat
there, save that one whereinto His disciples were entered, and that Jesus
went not with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples were gone
away alone; but there came other boats from Tiberias, nigh unto the place
where they did eat bread, giving thanks to the Lord: when, therefore, the
multitudes saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also took
shipping, and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus." Yet they got some knowledge
of so great a miracle. For they saw that the disciples had gone into the
ship alone, and that there was not another ship there. But there came boats
also from near to that place where they did eat bread; in these the
multitudes followed Him. He had not then embarked with His disciples, and
there was not another ship there. How, then, was Jesus on a sudden beyond
the sea, unless that He walked upon the sea to show a miracle?

   9. "And when the multitudes had found Him." Behold, He presents Himself
to the people from whom He had escaped into the mountain, afraid that He
should be taken of them by force. In every way He proves to us and gives us
to know that all these things are said in a mystery, and done in a great
sacrament (or mystery) to signify something important. Behold, that is He
who had escaped the crowds unto the mountain; is He not speaking with the
same crowds? Let them hold Him now; let them now make Him a king. "And when
they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they said unto Him Rabbi,
when camest Thou hither?"

   10. After the sacrament of the miracle, He introduces discourse, that,
if possible, they who have been fed may be further fed, that lie may with
discourse fill their minds, whose bellies He filled with the loaves,
provided they take in. And if they do not, let that be taken up which they
do not receive, that the fragments may not be lost. Wherefore let Him
speak, and let us hear. "Jesus answered and said Verily, verily, I say unto
you, ye seek me, not because ye saw the signs, but because ye have eaten of
my loaves." Ye seek me for the sake of the flesh not for the sake of the
spirit. How many seek Jesus for no other object but that He may bestow on
them a temporal benefit! One has a business on hand, he seeks the
intercession of the clergy; another is oppressed by one more powerful than
himself, he flies to the church. Another desires intervention in his behalf
with one with whom he has little influence. One in this way, one in that,
the church is daily filled with such people. Jesus is scarcely sought after
for Jesus' sake. "Ye seek me, not because ye have seen the signs, but
because ye have eaten of my loaves. Labor not for the meat which perisheth,
but for that which endureth unto eternal life." Ye seek me for something
else, seek me for my own sake. For He insinuates the truth, that Himself is
that meat: this shines out clearly in the sequel. "Which the Son of man
will give you." Thou didst expect, I believe, again to eat bread, again to
sit down, again to be gorged. But He had said, "Not the meat which
perisheth, but that which endureth unto eternal life," in the same manner
as it was said to that Samaritan woman: "If thou knewest who it is that
asketh of thee drink, thou wouldest perhaps have asked of Him, and He would
give thee living water." When she said, "Whence hast thou, since thou hast
nothing to draw with, and the well is deep?" He answered the Samaritan
woman: "If thou knewest who it is that asketh of thee drink, thou wouldst
have asked of Him, and He would give thee water, whereof whoso drinketh
shall thirst no more; for whoso drinketh of this water shall thirst again."
And she was glad and would receive, as if no more to suffer thirst of body,
being wearied with the labor of drawing water. And so, during a
conversation of this kind, He comes to spiritual drink. Entirely in this
manner also here.

   11. Therefore "this meat, not that which perisheth, but that which
endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you;
for Him hath God the Father sealed." Do not take this Son of man as you
take other sons of men, of whom it is said, "And the sons of men will trust
in the protection of Thy wings."(2) This Son of man is separated by a
certain grace of the spirit; Son of man according to the flesh, taken out
from the number of men: He is the Son of man. This Son of man is also the
Son of God; this man is even God. In another place, when questioning His
disciples, He saith: "Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am? And they
answered, Some John, some Elias, some Jeremias, or one of the prophets. And
He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answered, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God."(1) He declared Himself Son of man,
Peter declared Him the Son of the living God. Most fitly did He mention
that which in mercy He had manifested Himself to be; most fitly did the
other mention that which He continues to be in glory. The Word of God
commends to our attention His own humility: the man acknowledged the glory
of his Lord. And indeed, brethren, I think that this is just. He humbled
Himself for us, let us glorify Him. For not for Himself is He Son of man,
but for us. Therefore was He Son of man in that way, when "the Word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us." For to that end "God the Father sealed
Him." What is to seal, but to put some particular mark? To seal is to
impress some mark which cannot be confounded with the rest. To seal is to
put a mark on a thing. When thou puttest a mark on anything, thou doest so
test it might be confused with other things, and thou shouldst not be able
to recognize it. "The Father," then, "hath sealed Him." What is that, "hath
sealed"? Bestowed on Him something peculiar, which puts Him out of
comparison with all other men. For that reason it is said of Him, "God,
even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above l Thy
fellows."(2) What is it then to seal, but to have Him excepted? This is the
import of "above Thy fellows." And so, do not, saith He, despise me because
I am the Son of man, but seek from me, "not the meat that perisheth, but
that which endureth to eternal life." For I am the Son of man in such
manner as not to be one of you: I am Son of man in such manner that God the
Father sealed me. What does that mean, He "sealed me"? Gave me something
peculiarly my own, that I should not be confounded with mankind, but that
mankind should be delivered by me.

   12. "They said therefore unto Him, What shall we do, that we may work
the works of God?" For He had said to them, "Labor not for the meat which
perisheth, but for that which endureth unto eternal life." "What shall we
do?" they ask; by observing what, shall we be able to fulfill this precept?
"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye
believe on Him whom He has sent." This is then to eat the meat, not that
which perisheth, but that which endureth unto eternal life. To what purpose
dost thou make ready teeth and stomach? Believe, and thou hast eaten
already. Faith is indeed distinguished from works, even as the apostle
says, "that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law:"(3)
there are works which appear good, without faith in Christ; but they are
not good, because they are not referred to that end in which works are
good; "for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that
believeth."(4) For that reason, He willeth not to distinguish faith from
work, but declared faith itself to be work. For it is that same faith that
worketh by love.(5) Nor did He say, This is your work; but, "This is the
work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He has sent;" so that he who
glories, may glory in the Lord. And because He invited them to faith, they,
on the other hand, were still asking for signs by which they might believe.
See if the Jews do not ask for signs. "They said therefore rate Him, What
sign doest thou, that we may see and believe thee? what dost thou work?"
Was it a trifle that they were fed with five loaves? They knew this indeed,
but they preferred manna from heaven to this food. But the Lord Jesus
declared Himself to be such an one, that He was superior to Moses. For
Moses dared not say of Himself that He gave, "not the meat which perisheth,
but that which endureth to eternal life." Jesus promised something greater
than Moses gave. By Moses indeed was promised a kingdom, and a land flowing
with milk and honey, temporal peace, abundance of children, health of body,
and all other things, temporal goods indeed, yet in figure spiritual;
because in the Old Testament they were promised to the old man. They
considered therefore the things promised by Moses, and they considered the
things promised by Christ. The former promised a full belly on the earth,
but of the meat which perisheth; the latter promised, "not the meat which
perisheth, but that which endureth unto eternal life." They gave attention
to Him that promised the more, but just as if they did not yet see Him do
greater things. They considered therefore what sort of works Moses had
done, and they wished yet some greater works to be done by Him who promised
them such great things. What, say they, doest thou, that we may believe
thee? And that thou mayest know that they compared those former miracles
with this and so judged these miracles which Jesus did as being less; "Our
fathers," say they, "did eat manna in the wilderness." But what is manna?
Perhaps ye despise it. "As it is written, He gave them manna to eat." By
Moses our fathers received bread from heaven, and Moses did not say to
them, "Labor for the meat which perisheth not." Thou promisest "meat which
perisheth not, but which endureth to eternal life;" and yet thou workest
not such works as Moses did. He gave, not barley loaves, but manna from
heaven.

   13. "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, not
Moses gave you bread from heaven, but my Father gave you bread from heaven.
For the true bread is He that cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to
the world." The true bread then is He that giveth life to the world; and
the same is the meat of which I have spoken a little before,--"Labor not
for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto eernal
life." Therefore, both that manna signified this meat, and all those signs
were signs of me. Ye have longed for signs of me; do ye despise Him that
was signified? Not Moses then gave bread from heaven: God gives bread. But
what bread? Manna, perhaps? No, but the bread which manna signified,
namely, the Lord Jesus Himself. My Father giveth you the true bread. "For
the bread of God is He that cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the
world Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread." Like
that Samaritan woman, to whom it was said, "Whoso drinketh of this water
shall never thirst." She, immediately understanding it in reference to the
body, and wishing to be rid of want, said, "Give me, O Lord, of this
water;" in the same manner also these said, "O Lord, give us this bread;"
which may refresh us, and yet not fail.

   14. "And Jesus said unto them, I am the Bread of Life: he that cometh
to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."
"He that cometh to me;" this is the same thing as "He that believeth on
me;" and "shall never hunger" is to be understood to mean the same thing as
"shall never thirst." For by both is signified that eternal sufficiency in
which there is no want. You desire bread from heaven; you have it before
you, and yet you do not eat. "But I said unto you, that ye also have seen
me, and ye believed not." But I have not on that account lost my people.
"For hath your unbelief made the faith of God of none effect?"(1) For, see
thou what follows: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him
that cometh to me, I will not cast out of doors." What kind of within is
that, whence there is no going out of doors? Noble interior, sweet retreat!
O secret dwelling without weariness, without the bitterness of evil
thoughts, without the solicitings of temptations and the interruptions of
griefs! Is it not that secret dwelling whither shall enter that well-
deserving servant, to whom the Lord will say, "Enter thou into the joy of
thy Lord ?"(2)

   15. "And him that will come to me, I will not cast out. For I came down
from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me." Is
it for that reason that Thou wilt not cast out him that shall come unto
Thee, because Thou hast descended from heaven, not to do Thine own will,
but the will of Him that sent Thee? Great mystery! I beseech you, let us
knock together; something may come forth to us which may feed us, according
to that which has delighted us. That great and sweet secret dwelling-place:
"He that will come to me." Give heed, give heed, and weigh the matter: "He
that will come unto me, I will not cast out." Why? "Because I came down
from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me." Is
it then the very reason why Thou castest not out him that cometh unto Thee,
that Thou camest down from heaven, not to do Thy own will, but the will of
Him that sent Thee? The very reason. Why do we ask whether it be the same?
The same it is; Himself says it. For it would not be right in us to suspect
Him to mean other than He says, "Whoso will come to me, I will not cast
out." And, as if thou askedst, wherefore? He answered, "Because I came not
to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me." I am afraid that the
reason why the soul went forth away from God is, that it was proud; nay, I
do not doubt it. For it is written, "Pride is the beginning of all sin; and
the beginning of man's pride is a failing away from God." It is written, it
is firm and sure, it is true. And hence what is said of proud mortal man,
clad in the tattered rags of the flesh, weighed down with the weight of a
corruptible body, and withal extolling himself, and forgetting with what
skin-coat he is clothed,--what, I ask, saith the Scripture to him? "Why is
dust and ashes proud?" Why proud! Let the Scripture tell why. "Because in
his life he put forth his inmost parts."(1) What is "put forth," but "threw
afar off"? This is to go forth away. For to enter within, is to long after
the inmost parts; to put forth the inmost parts, is to go forth away. The
proud man puts forth the inmost parts, the humble man earnestly desires the
inmost parts. If we are cast out by pride, let us return by humility.

   16. Pride is the source of all diseases, because pride is the source of
all sins. When a physician removes a disorder from the body, if he merely
cures the malady produced by some particular cause, but not the cause
itself, he seems to heal the patient for a time, but while the cause
remains, the disease will repeat itself. For example, to speak of this more
expressly, some humor in the body produces a scurf or sores; there follows
a high fever, and not a little pain; certain remedies are applied to
repress the scurf, and to allay that heat of the sore; the remedies are
applied, and they do good; thou seest the man who was full of sores and
scurf healed; but because that humor was not expelled, it returns again to
ulcers. The physician, perceiving this, purges away the humor, removes the
cause, and there will be no more sores. Whence doth iniquity abound? From
pride. Cure pride and there will be no more iniquity. Consequently, that
the cause of all diseases might be cured, namely, pride, the Son of God
came down and was made low. Why art thou proud, O man? God, for thee,
became low. Thou wouldst perhaps be ashamed to imitate a lowly man; at any
rate, imitate the lowly God. The Son of God came in the character of a man
and was made low. Thou art taught to become humble, not of a man to become
a brute. He, being God, became man; do thou, O man, recognize that thou art
man. Thy whole humility is to know thyself. Therefore because God teaches
humility, He said, "I came not to do my own will, but the will of Him that
sent me." For this is the commendation of humility. Whereas pride doeth its
own will, humility doeth the will of God. Therefore, "Whoso cometh to me, I
will not cast him out." Why? "Because I came not to do my own will, but the
will of Him that sent me." I came humble, I came to teach humility, I came
a master of humility: he that cometh to me is made one body with me; he
that cometh to me becomes humble; he who adhereth to me will he humble,
because he doeth not his own will, but the will of God; and therefore he
shah not be cast out, for when he was proud he was cast out.

   17. See those inner things commended to us in the psalm: "But the sons
of men will put their trust in the covering of Thy wings." See what it is
to enter within; see what it is to flee for refuge to His protection; see
what it is to run even under the Father's lash, for He scourgeth every son
whom He receiveth. "But the sons of men shall put their trust under the
cover of Thy wings." What is within? "They shall be filled with the
plenteousness of Thy house," when Thou shalt have sent them within,
entering into the joy of their Lord; "they shall be filled with the
plenteousness of Thy house; and Thou shalt give them to drink of the stream
of Thy pleasure. For with Thee is the fountain of life." Not away without
Thee, but within with Thee, is the fountain of life. "And in Thy light we
shall see light. Show Thy mercy upon them that know Thee, and Thy
righteousness to them that are of upright heart." They who follow the will
of their Lord, not seeking their own, but the things of the Lord Jesus
Christ, they are the upright in heart, their feet shall not be moved. For
"God is good to Israel, to the upright in heart. But, as for me, says he,
my feet were almost moved." Why? "Because I was jealous at sinners, looking
at the peace of sinners."(2) To whom is God good then, unless to the
upright in heart? For God was displeasing to me when my heart was crooked.
Why displeasing? Because He gave happiness to the wicked, and therefore my
feet tottered, as if I had served God in vain. For this reason, then, my
feet were almost moved, because I was not upright of heart. What then is
upright in heart? Following the will of God. One man is prosperous, another
man toils; the one lives wickedly and yet is prosperous, the other lives
rightly and is distressed. Let not him that lives rightly and is in
distress be angry; he has within what the prosperous man has not: let him
therefore not be saddened, nor vex himself, nor faint. That prosperous man
has gold in his own chest; this other has God in his conscience. Compare
now gold and God, chest and conscience. The former has that which perishes,
and has it where it will perish; the latter has God, who cannot perish, and
has Him there whence He cannot be taken away: only if he is upright in
heart; for then He enters within and goeth not out. For that reason, what
said he? "For with Thee is the fountain of life:" not with us. We must
therefore enter within, that we may live; we must not be, as it were,
content to perish, nor willing to be satisfied of our own, to be dried up,
but we must put our mouth to the very fountain, where the water fails not.
Because Adam wished to live by his own counsel, he, too, fell through him
who had fallen before through pride, who invited him to drink of the cup of
his own pride. Wherefore, because "with Thee is the fountain of life, and
in Thy light we shall see light," let us drink within, let us see within.
Why was there a going out thence? Hear why: "Let not the foot of pride come
to me." Therefore he, to whom the foot of pride came, went out. Show that
therefore he went out. "And let not the hands of sinners move me;" because
of the foot of pride. Why sayest thou this? "They are fallen, all they that
work iniquity."  Where are they fallen? In their very pride. "They were
driven out, and they could not stand"(1) If, then, pride drove them out who
were not able to stand, humility sends them in who can stand for ever. For
this reason, moreover, he who said, "The bones that were brought low shall
rejoice,"(2) said before, "Thou shall give joy and gladness to my hearing."
What does he mean by, " to my hearing"? By hearing Thee I am happy; because
of Thy voice I am happy; by drinking within I am happy. Therefore do I not
fall; therefore "the bones that were brought low will rejoice;" therefore
"the friend of the Bridegroom standeth and heareth Him;" therefore he
stands, because he hears. He drinks of the fountain within, therefore he
stands. They who willed not to drink of the fountain within, "there are
they fallen: they were driven, they were not able to stand."

   18. Thus, the teacher of humility came not to do His own will, but the
will of Him that sent Him. Let us come to Him, enter in unto Him, be
ingrafted into Him, that we may not be doing our own will, but the will of
God: and He will not cast us out, because we are His members, because He
willed to be our head by teaching us humility. Finally, hear Himself
discoursing: "Come unto me, ye who labor and are heavy laden: take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart:" and when ye
have learned this, "ye shall find rest for your souls,"(3) from which ye
cannot be cast out; "because I am come down from heaven, not to do my own
will, but the will of Him that sent me;" I teach humility; none but the
humble can come unto me. Only pride casteth out; how can he go out who
keeps humility and falls not away from the truth? So much as could be said
about the hidden sense has now been said, brethren: this sense is hidden
enough, and I know not whether I have drawn out and shaped in suitable
words for you, why it is that He casteth not out him that cometh unto Him;
because He came not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him.

   19. "And this," saith He, "is the will of the Father that sent, that of
all that He hath given me I should lose nothing." He that keeps humility
was given to Him; the same He receives: he that keeps not humility is far
from the Master of humility. "That of all which He hath given me, I should
lose nothing." "So it is not the will of your Father that one of these
little ones should perish." Of the proud, there may perish; but of the
little ones, none perisheth; because, "if ye will not become as this little
one, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." "Of all that the
Father hath given me, I should lose nothing, but I will raise it up again
on the last day." See how here He delineates that twofold resurrection. "He
that cometh unto me" immediately rises again, being made humble in my
members; but I will raise him up again on the last day also according to
the flesh. "For this is the will of my Father that sent me, that every one
who seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have eternal life; and I will
raise him up on the last day." He said above, "Whoso heareth my word, and
believeth Him that sent me:" but now, "Whoso seeth the Son, and believeth
on Him." He has not said, seeth the Son, and believeth on the Father; for
to believe on the Son is the same thing as to believe on the Father.
Because," even as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given also to
the Son to have life in Himself. That every one who seeth the Son, and
believeth on Him, may have eternal life:" by believing and by passing unto
life, just as by that first resurrection. And, because that is not the only
resurrection, He saith, "And I will raise him up at the last day."

TRACTATE XXVI: CHAPTER VI. 41-59.

   1. When our Lord Jesus Christ, as we have heard in the Gospel when it
was read, had said that He was Himself the bread which came down from
heaven, the Jews murmured and said, "Is not Jesus the son of Joseph, whose
father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from
heaven?" These Jews were far off from the bread of heaven, and knew not how
to hunger after it. They had the jaws of their heart languid; with open
ears they were deaf, they saw and stood blind. This bread, indeed, requires
the hunger of the inner man: and hence He saith in another place, "Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be
satisfied."(1) But the Apostle Paul says that Christ is for us
righteousness.(2) And, consequently, he that hungers after this bread,
hungers after righteousness,--that righteousness however which cometh down
from heaven, the righteousness that God gives, not that which man works for
himself. For if man were not making a righteousness for himself, the same
apostle would not have said of the Jews: "For, being ignorant of the
righteousness of God, and wishing to establish their own righteousness,
they are not subject to the righteousness of God."(3) Of such were these
who understood not the bread that cometh down from heaven; because being
satisfied with their own righteousness, they hungered not after the
righteousness of God. What is this, God's righteousness and man's
righteousness? God's righteousness here means, not that wherein God is
righteous, but that which God bestows on man, that man may be righteous
through God. But again, what was the righteousness of those Jews? A
righteousness wrought of their own strength on which they presumed, and so
declared themselves as if they were fulfillers of the law by their own
virtue. But no man fulfills the law but he whom grace assists, that is,
whom the bread that cometh down from heaven assists. "For the fulfilling of
the law," as the apostle says in brief, "is charity."(4) Charity, that is,
love, not of money, but of God; love, not of earth nor of heaven, but of
Him who made Heaven and earth. Whence can man have that love? Let us hear
the same: "The love of God," saith he, "is shed abroad in our hearts by the
Holy Spirit which is given unto us."(5) Wherefore, the Lord, about to give
the Holy Spirit, said that Himself was the bread that came down from
heaven, exhorting us to believe on Him. For to believe on Him is to eat the
living bread. He that believes eats; he is sated invisibly, because
invisibly is he born again. A babe within, a new man within. Where he is
made new, there he is satisfied with food.

   2. What then did the Lord answer to such murmurers? "Murmur not among
yourselves." As if He said, I know why ye are not hungry, and do not
understand nor seek after this bread. "Murmur not among yourselves: no man
can come unto me, except the Father that sent me draw him." Noble
excellence of grace! No man comes unless drawn. There is whom He draws, and
there is whom He draws not; why He draws one and draws not another, do not
desire to judge, if thou desirest not to err. Accept it at once and then
understand; thou art not yet drawn? Pray that thou mayest be drawn. What do
we say here, brethren? If we are "drawn" to Christ, it follows that we
believe against our will; so then is force applied, not the will moved. A
man can come to Church unwillingly, can approach the altar unwillingly,
partake of the sacrament unwillingly: but he cannot believe unless he is
willing. If we believed with the body, men might be made to believe against
their will. But believing is not a thing done with the body. Hear the
apostle: "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." And what
follows? "And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."(6) That
confession springs from the root of the heart. Sometimes thou hearest a man
confessing, and knowest not whether he believes. But thou oughtest not to
call him one confessing, if thou shouldest judge him to be one not
believing. For to confess is this, to utter the thing that thou hast in thy
heart: if thou hast one thing in thy heart, and another thing on thy
tongue, thou art speaking, not confessing. Since, then, with the heart man
believeth on Christ, which no man assuredly does against his will, and
since he that is drawn seems to be as if forced against his will, how are
we to solve this question, "No man cometh unto me, except the Father that
sent me draw him"?.

   3. If he is drawn, saith some one, he comes unwillingly. If he comes
unwillingly, then he believes not; but if he believes not, neither does he
come. For we do not run to Christ on foot, but by believing; nor is it by a
motion of the body, but by the inclination of the heart that we draw nigh
to Him. This is why that woman who touched the hem of His garment touched
Him more than did the crowd that pressed Him. Therefore the Lord said, "Who
touched me?" And the disciples wondering said, "The multitude throng Thee,
and press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched me?"(1) And He repeated it,
"Somebody hath touched me." That woman touched, the multitude pressed. What
is "touched," except "believed"? Whence also He said to that woman that
wished to throw herself at His feet after His resurrection: "'Touch me not;
for I am not yet ascended to the Father."(2) Thou thinkest me to be that
alone which thou seest; "touch me not." What is this? Thou supposest that I
am that alone which I appear to thee: do not thus believe; that is, "touch
me not for I am not yet ascended to the Father." To thee I am not ascended,
for thence I never departed. She touched Him not while He stood on the
earth; how then could she touch Him while ascending to the Father? Thus,
however, thus He willed Himself to be touched; thus He is touched by those
by whom He is profitably touched, ascending to the Father, abiding with the
Father, equa to the Father.

   4. Thence also He says here, if thou turn thy attention to it, "No man
cometh to me except he whom the Father shall draw." Do not think that thou
art drawn against thy will. The mind is drawn also by love. Nor ought we to
be afraid, lest perchance we be censured in regard to this evangelic word
of the Holy Scriptures by men who weigh words, but are far removed from
things, most of all from divine things; and lest it be said to us, "How can
I believe with the will if I am drawn?" I say it is not enough to be drawn
by the will; thou art drawn even by delight. What is it to be drawn by
delight? "Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires
of thy heart."(3) There is a pleasure of the heart to which that bread of
heaven is sweet. Moreover, if it was right in the poet to say, "Every man
is drawn by his own pleasure,"(4)--not necessity, but pleasure; not
obligation, but delight,--how much more boldly ought we to say that a man
is drawn to Christ when he delights in the truth, when he delights in
blessedness, delights in righteousness, delights in everlasting life, all
which Christ is? Or is it the case that, while the senses of the body have
their pleasures, the mind is left without pleasures of its own? If the mind
has no pleasures of its own, how is it said, "The sons of men shall trust
under the cover of Thy wings: they shall be well satisfied with the
fullness of Thy house; and Thou shalt give them drink from the river of Thy
pleasure. For with Thee is the fountain of life; and in Thy light shall we
see light"?(5) Give me a man that loves, and he feels what I say. Give me
one that longs, one that hungers, one that is travelling in this
wilderness, and thirsting and panting after the fountain of his eternal
home; give such, and he knows what I say. But if I speak to the cold and
indifferent, he knows not what I say. Such were those who murmured among
themselves. "He whom the Father shall draw," saith He, "cometh unto me."

   5 But what is this, "Whom the Father shall draw," when Christ Himself
draws? Why did He say, "Whon the Father shall draw"? If we must be drawn,
let us be drawn by Him to whom one who loves says, "We will run after the
odor of Thine ointment."(6) But let us, brethren, turn our minds to, and,
as far as we can, apprehend how He would have us understand it. The Father
draws to the Son those who believe on the Son, because they consider that
God is His Father. For God begat the Son equal to Himself, so that he who
ponders, and in his faith feels and muses that He on whom he has believed
is equal to the Father, this same is drawn of the Father to the Son. Arius
believed the Son to be creature: the Father drew not him; for he that
believes not the Son to be equal to the Father, considers not the Father.
What sayest thou, Arius? What, O heretic, dost thou speak? What is Christ?
Not very God, saith he, but one whom very God has made. The Father has not
drawn thee, for thou hast not understood the Father, whose Son thou
deniest: it is not the Son Himself but something else that thou art
thinking of. Thou art neither drawn by the Father nor drawn to the Son; for
the Son is very different from what thou sayest. Photius said, "Christ is
only a man, he is not also God." The Father hath not drawn him who thus
believes. One whom the Father has drawn says: "Thou art Christ, Son of the
living God." Not as a prophet, not as John, not as some great and just man,
but as the only, the equal, "Thou art Christ, Son of the living God." See
that he was drawn, and drawn by the Father. "Blessed art thou, Simon
Barjonas: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father
who is in heaven."(1) This revealing is itself the drawing. Thou holdest
out a green twig to a sheep, and thou drawest it. Nuts are shown to a
child, and he is attracted; he is drawn by what he runs to, drawn by loving
it, drawn without hurt to the body, drawn by a cord of the heart. If, then,
these things, which among earthly delights and pleasures are shown to them
that love them, draw them, since it is true that "every man is drawn by his
own pleasure," does not Christ, revealed by the Father, draw? For what does
the soul more strongly desire than the truth? For what ought it to have a
greedy appetite, with which to wish that there may be within a healthy
palate for judging the things that are true, unless it be to eat and drink
wisdom, righteousness, truth, eternity?

   6. But where will this be? There better, there more truly, there more
fully. For here we can more easily hunger than be satisfied, especially if
we have good hope: for "Blessed," saith He, "are they that hunger and
thirst after righteousness," that is here; "for they shall be filled," that
is there. Therefore when He had said," No man cometh unto me except the
Father that sent me draw him," what did He subjoin? "And I will raise him
up in the last day." I render unto him what he loves, what he hopes for: he
will see what, not as yet by seeing, he has believed; he shall eat that
which he hungers after; he shall be filled with that which he thirsts
after. Where? In the resurrection of the dead; for "I will raise him up on
the last day."

   7. For it is written in the prophets, "And they shall all be taught of
God." Why have I said this, O Jews? The Father has not taught you; how can
ye know me? For all the men of that kingdom shall be taught of God, not
learn from men. And though they do learn from men, yet what they understand
is given them within, flashes within, is revealed within. What do men that
proclaim tidings from without? What am I doing even now while I speak? I am
pouring a clatter of words into your ears. What is that that I say or that
I speak, unless He that is within reveal it? Without is the planter of the
tree, within is the tree's Creator. He that planteth and He that watereth
work from without: this is what we do. But "neither he that planteth is
anything, nor he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase."(2) That
is, "they shall be all taught of God." All who? "Every one who has heard
and learned of the Father cometh unto me." See how the Father draws: He
delights by teaching, not by imposing a necessity. Behold how He draws:
"They shall be all taught of God." This is God's drawing. "Every man that
hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." This is God's
drawing.

   8. What then, brethren? If every man who has heard and learned of the
Father, the same cometh unto Christ, has Christ taught nothing here? What
shall we say to this, that men who have not seen the Father as their
teacher have seen the Son? The Son spake, but the Father taught. I, being a
man, whom do I teach? Whom, brethren, but him who has heard my word? If I,
being a man, do teach him who hears my word, the Father also teacheth him
who hears His word. And if the Father teacheth him that hears His word, ask
what Christ is, and thou wilt find the word of the Father. "In the
beginning was the Word." Not in the beginning God made the Word, just as
"in the beginning God made the heaven and the earth."(3) Behold how that He
is not a creature. Learn to be drawn to the Son by the Father: that the
Father may teach thee, hear His Word. What Word of Him, sayest thou, do I
hear? "In the beginning was the Word" (it is not "was made," but "was"),
"and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." How can men abiding in
the flesh hear such a Word? "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."

   9. He Himself explains this also, and shows us His meaning when He
said, "He that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me." He
forthwith subjoined what we were able to conceive: "Not that any man hath
seen the Father, save he who is of God, he hath seen the Father." What is
that which He saith? I have seen the Father, you have not seen the Father;
and yet ye come not unto me unless ye are drawn by the Father. And what is
it for you to be drawn by the Father but to learn of the Father? What is to
learn of the Father but to hear of the Father? What is to hear of the
Father but to hear the Word of the Father--that is, to hear me? In case,
therefore, when I say to you, "Every man that hath heard and learned of the
Father," you should say within yourselves, But we have never seen the
Father, how could we learn of the Father? hear from myself: "Not that any
man hath seen the Father, save He who is of God, He hath seen the Father."
I know the Father, I am from Him; but in that manner in which the Word is
from Him where the Word is, not that which sounds and passes away, but that
which remains with the speaker and attracts the hearer.

   10. Let what follows admonish us: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he
that believeth on me hath eternal life." He willed to reveal Himself, what
He was: He might have said in brief, He that believeth on me hath me. For
Christ is Himself true God and eternal life. Therefore, he that believeth
on me, saith He, goeth into me; and he that goeth into me, hath me. But
what is the meaning of "to have me"? To have eternal life. Eternal life
took death upon itself; eternal life willed to die; but of thee, not of
itself; of thee it received that whereby it may die in thy behalf. Of men,
indeed, He took flesh, but yet not in the manner of men. For having His
Father in heaven, He chose a mother on earth; both there begotten without
mother, and here horn without father. Accordingly, life took upon itself
death, that life might slay death. "For he that believeth on me," saith He,
"hath eternal life:" not what is open, but what is hid. For eternal life is
the Word, that "in the beginning was with God, and the Word was God, and
the life was the light of men." The same eternal life gave eternal life
also to the flesh which it assumed. He came to die; but on the third day He
rose again. Between the Word taking flesh and the flesh rising again, death
which came between was consumed.

   11. "I am," saith He, "the bread of life." And what was the source of
their pride? "Your fathers," saith He, "did eat manna in the wilderness,
and are dead." What is it whereof ye are proud? "They ate manna, and are
dead." Why they ate and are dead? Because they believed that which they
saw; what they saw not, they did not understand. Therefore were they "your"
fathers, because you are like them. For so far, my brethren, as relates to
this visible corporeal death, do not we too die who eat the bread that
cometh down from heaven? They died just as we shall die, so far, as I said,
as relates to the visible and carnal death of this body. But so far as
relates to that death, concerning which the Lord warns us by fear, and in
which their fathers died: Moses ate manna, Aaron ate manna, Phinehas ate
manna, and many ate manna, who were pleasing to the Lord, and they are not
dead. Why? Because they understood the visible food spiritually, hungered
spiritually, tasted spiritually, that they might be filled spiritually. For
even we at this day receive visible food: but the sacrament is one thing,
the virtue of the sacrament another. How many do receive at the altar and
die, and die indeed by receiving? Whence the apostle saith, "Eateth and
drinketh judgment to himself."(1) For it was not the mouthful given by the
Lord that was the poison to Judas. And yet he took it; and when he took it,
the enemy entered into him: not because he received an evil thing, but
because he being evil received a good thing in an evil way. See ye then,
brethren, that ye eat the heavenly bread in a spiritual sense; bring
innocence to the altar. Though your sins are daily, at least let them not
be deadly. Before ye approach the altar, consider well what ye are to say:
"Forgive us our debts, even as we forgive our debtors."(2) Thou forgivest,
it shall be forgiven thee: approach in peace, it is bread, not poison. But
see whether thou forgivest; for if thou dost not forgive, thou liest, and
liest to Him whom thou canst not deceive. Thou canst lie to God,, but thou
canst not deceive God. He knows what thou doest. He sees thee within,
examines thee within, inspects within, judges within, and within He either
condemns or crowns. But the fathers of these Jews were evil fathers of evil
sons, unbelieving fathers of unbelieving sons, murmuring fathers of
murmurers. For in no other thing is that people said to have offended the
Lord more than in murmuring against God. And for that reason, the Lord,
willing to show those men to be the children of such murmurers, thus begins
His address to them: "Why murmur ye among yourselves," ye murmurers,
children of murmurers? Your fathers did eat manna, and are dead; not
because manna was an evil thing, but because they ate it in an evil manner.

   12. "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven." Manna signified
this bread; God's altar signified this bread. Those were sacraments. In the
signs they were diverse; in the thing which was signified they were alike.
Hear the apostle: "For I would not that ye should be ignorant, brethren,"
saith he, "that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed
through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the
sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat." Of course, the same
spiritual meat; for corporally it was another: since they ate manna, we eat
another thing; but the spiritual was the same as that which we eat. But
"our" fathers, not the fathers of those Jews; those to whom we are like,
not those to whom they were like. Moreover he adds: "And did all drink the
same spiritual drink." They one kind of drink, we another, but only in the
visible form, which, however, signified the same thing in its spiritual
virtue. For how was it that they drank the "same drink"? "They drank,"
saith he "of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was
Christ."(1) Thence the bread, thence the drink. The rock was Christ in
sign; the real Christ is in the Word and in flesh. And how did they drink?
The rock was smitten twice with a rod; the double smiting signified the two
wooden beams of the cross. "This, then, is the bread that cometh down from
heaven, that if any man eat thereof, he shall not die." But this is what
belongs to the virtue of the sacrament, not to the visible sacrament; he
that eateth within, not without; who eateth in his heart, not who presses
with his teeth.

   13. "I am the living bread, which came down from heaven." For that
reason "living,'' because I came down from heaven. The manna also came down
from heaven; but the manna was only a shadow, this is the truth. "If any
man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will
give is my flesh, for the life of the world." When did flesh comprehend
this flesh which He called bread? That is called flesh which flesh does not
comprehend, and for that reason all the more flesh does not comprehend it,
that it is called flesh. For they were terrified at this: they said it was
too much for them; they thought it impossible. "Is my flesh," saith He,
"for the life of the world." Believers know the body of Christ, if they
neglect not to be the body of Christ. Let them become the body of Christ,
if they wish to live by the Spirit of Christ. None lives by the Spirit of
Christ but the body of Christ. Understand, my brethren, what I mean to say.
Thou art a man; thou hast both a spirit and a body. I call that a spirit
which is called the soul; that whereby it consists that thou art a man, for
thou consistest of soul and body. And so thou hast an invisible spirit and
a visible body. Tell me which lives of the other: does thy spirit live of
thy body, or thy body of thy spirit? Every man that lives can answer; and
he that cannot answer this, I know not whether he lives: what cloth every
man that lives answer? My body, of course, lives by my spirit. Wouldst thou
then also live by the Spirit of Christ. Be in the body of Christ. For
surely my body does not live by thy spirit. My body lives by my spirit, and
thy body by thy spirit. The body of Christ cannnot live but by the Spirit
of Christ. It is for this that the Apostle Paul, expounding this bread,
says: "One bread," saith he, "we being many are one body."(2) O mystery  of
piety! O sign of unity! O bond of charity! He that would live has where to
live, has whence to live. Let him draw near, let him believe; let him be
embodied, that he may be made to live. Let him not shrink  from the compact
of members; let him not be a rotten member that deserves to be cut off; let
him not be a deformed member whereof to be ashamed; let him be a fair, fit,
and sound member; let him cleave to the body, live for God by God: now let
him labor on earth, that hereafter he may reign in heaven.

   14. The Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, "How can this
man give us his flesh to eat?" They strove, and that among themselves,
since they understood not, neither wished to take the bread of concord:
"for they who eat such bread do not strive with one another; for we being
many are one bread, one body." And by this bread, "God makes people of one
sort to dwell in a house."(3)

   15. But that which they ask, while striving among themselves, namely,
how the Lord can give His flesh to be eaten, they do not immediately hear:
but further it is said to them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye
eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye will have no life
in you." How, indeed, it may be eaten, and what may be the mode of eating
this bread, ye are ignorant of; nevertheless, "except ye eat the flesh of
the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye will not have life in you." He
spoke these words, not certainly to corpses, but to living men. Whereupon,
lest they, understanding it to mean this life, should strive about this
thing also, He going on added, "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my
blood, hath eternal life." Wherefore, he that eateth not this bread, nor
drinketh this blood, hath not this life; for men can have temporal life
without that, but they can noways have eternal life. He then that eateth
not His flesh, nor drinketh His blood, hath no life in him; and he that
eateth His flesh, and drinketh His blood, hath life. This epithet, eternal,
which He used, answers to both. It is not so in the case of that food which
we take for the purpose of sustaining this temporal life. For he who will
not take it shall not live, nor yet shall he who will take it live. For
very many, even who have taken it, die; it may be by old age, or by
disease, or by some other casualty. But in this food and drink, that is, in
the body and blood of the Lord, it is not so. For both he that doth not
take it hath no life, and he that doth take it hath life, and that indeed
eternal life. And thus He would have this meat and drink to be understood
as meaning the fellowship of His own body and members, which is the holy
Church in his predestinated, and called, and justified, and glorified
saints and believers. Of these, the first is already effected, namely,
predestination; the second and third, that is, the vocation and
justification, have taken place, are taking place, and will take place; but
the fourth, namely, the glorifying, is at present in hope; but a thing
future in realization. The sacrament of this thing, namely, of the unity of
the body and blood of Christ, is prepared on the Lord's table in some
places daily, in some places at certain intervals of days, and from the
Lord's table it is taken, by some to life, by some to destruction: but the
thing itself, of which it is the sacrament, is for every man to life, for
no man to destruction, whosoever shall have been a partaker thereof.

   16. But lest they should suppose that eternal life was promised in this
meat and drink in such manner that they who should take it should not even
now die in the body, He condescended to meet this thought; for when He had
said, "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life,"
He forthwith subjoined, "and I will raise him up on the last day." That
meanwhile, according to the Spirit, he may have eternal life in that rest
into which the spirits of the saints are received; but as to the body, he
shall not be defrauded of its eternal life, but, on the contrary, he shall
have it in the resurrection of the dead at the last day.

   17. "For my flesh," saith He, "is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed." For whilst by meat and drink men seek to attain to this, neither
to hunger nor thirst, there is nothing that truly affords this, except this
meat and drink, which doth render them by whom it is taken immortal and
incorruptible; that is, the very fellowship of the saints, where will be
peace and unity, full and perfect. Therefore, indeed, it is, even as men of
God understood this before us, that our Lord Jesus Christ has pointed our
minds to His body and blood in those things, which from being many are
reduced to some one thing. For a unity is formed by many grains forming
together; and another unity is effected by the clustering together of many
berries.

   18. In a word, He now explains how that which He speaks of comes to
pass, and what it is to eat His body and to drink His blood. "He that
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." This
it is, therefore, for a man to eat that meat and to drink that drink, to
dwell in Christ, and to have Christ dwelling in him. Consequently, he that
dwelleth not in Christ, and in whom Christ dwelleth not, doubtless neither
eateth His flesh [spiritually] nor drinketh His blood [although he may
press the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ carnally and visibly
with his teeth], but rather doth he eat and drink the sacrament of so great
a thing to his own judgment, because he, being unclean, has presumed to
come to the sacraments of Christ, which no man taketh worthily except he
that is pure: of such it is said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God."(1)

   19. "As the living Father hath sent me," saith He, "and I live by the
Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." He says not: As I
eat the Father, and live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same
shall live by me. For the Son, who was begotten equal, does not become
better by participation of the Father; just as we are made better by
participation of the Son, through the unity of His body and blood, which
thing that eating and drinking signifies. We live then by Him, by eating
Him; that is, by receiving Himself as the eternal life, which we did not
have from ourselves. Himself, however, lives by the Father, being sent by
Him, because "He emptied Himself, being made obedient even unto the death
of the cross."(2) For if we take this declaration, "I live by the
Father,"(3) according to that which He says in another place, "The Father
is greater than I;" just as we, too, live by Him who is greater than we;
this results from His being sent. The sending is in fact the emptying of
Himself, and His taking upon Him the form of a servant: and this is rightly
understood, while also the Son's equality of nature with the Father is
preserved. For the Father is greater than the Sun as man, but He has the
Son as God equal,--whilst the same is both God and man, Son of God and Son
of man, one Christ Jesus. To this effect, if these words are rightly
understood, He spoke thus: "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live
by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me:" just as if
He were to say, My emptying of myself (in that He sent me) effected that I
should live by the Father; that is, should refer my life to Him as the
greater; but that any should live by me is effected by that participation
in which he eats me. Therefore, I being humbled, do live by the Father, man
being raised up, liveth by me. But if it was said, "I live by the Father,"
so as to mean, that He is of the  Father, not the Father of Him, it was
said without detriment to His equality. And yet further, by saying, "And he
that eateth me, even he shall live by me," He did not signify that His own
equality was the same as our equality, but He thereby showed the grace of
the Mediator.

   20. "This is the bread that cometh down from heaven;" that by eating it
we may live, since we cannot have eternal life from ourselves. Not," saith
He, "as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth this bread
shall live forever." That those fathers are dead, He would have to be
understood as meaning, that they do not live forever. For even they who eat
Christ shall certainly die temporally; but they live forever, because
Christ is eternal life.

TRACTATE XXVII: CHAPTER VI. 60-72.

   1. We have just heard out of the Gospel the words of the Lord which
follow the former discourse. From these a discourse is due to your ears and
minds, and it is not unseasonable to-day; for it is concerning the body of
the Lord which He said that He gave to be eaten for eternal life. And He
explained the mode of this bestowal and gift of His, in what manner He gave
His flesh to eat, saying, "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,
dwelleth in me, and I in him." The proof that a man has eaten and drank is
this, if he abides and is abode in, if he dwells and is dwelt in, if he
adheres so as not to be deserted. This, then, He has taught us, and
admonished us in mystical words that we may be in His body, in His members
under Himself as head, eating His flesh, not abandoning our unity with Him.
But most of those who were present, by not understanding Him, were
offended; for in hearing these things, they thought only of flesh, that
which themselves were. But the apostle says, and says what is true, "To be
carnally-minded is death."(1) The Lord gives us His flesh to eat, and yet
to understand it according to the flesh is death; while yet He says of His
flesh, that therein is eternal life. Therefore we ought not to understand
the flesh carnally. As in these words that follow:

   2. "Many therefore," not of His enemies, but "of His disciples, when
they had heard this, said. This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" If His
disciples accounted this saying hard, what must His enemies have thought?
And yet so it behoved that to be said which should not be understood by
all. The secret of God ought to make men eagerly attentive, not hostile.
But these men quickly departed from Him, while the Lord said such things:
they did not believe Him to be saying something great, and covering some
grace by these words; they understood just according to their wishes, and
in the manner of men, that Jesus was able, or was determined upon this,
namely, to distribute the flesh with which the Word was clothed, piecemeal,
as it were, to those that believe on Him. "This," say they, "is a hard
saying; who can hear it?"

   3. "But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at it,"--
for they so said these things with themselves that they might not be heard
by Him: but He who knew them in themselves, hearing within Himself,--
answered and said, "This offends you;" because I said, I give you my flesh
to eat, and my blood to drink, this forsooth offends you. "Then what if ye
shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before?" What is this? Did
He hereby solve the question that perplexed them? Did He hereby uncover the
source of their offense? He did clearly, if only they understood. For they
supposed that He was going to deal out His body to them; but He said that
He was to ascend into heaven, of course, whole: "When ye shall see the Son
of man ascending where He was before;" certainly then. at least, you will
see that not in the manner you suppose does He dispense His body; certainly
then, at least, you will understand that His grace is not consumed by
tooth-biting.

   4. And He said, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing." Before we expound this, as the Lord grants us, that other must
not be negligently passed over, where He says, "Then what if ye shall see
the Son of man ascending where He was before?" For Christ is the Son of
man, of the Virgin Mary. Therefore Son of man He began to be here on earth,
where He took flesh from the earth. For which cause it was said
prophetically, "Truth is sprung from the earth."(1) Then what does He mean
when He says, "When ye shall see the Son of man ascending where He was
before"? For there had been no question if He had spoken thus: "If ye shall
see the Son of God ascending where He was before," But since He said, "The
Son of man ascending where He was before," surely the Son of man was not in
heaven before the time when He began to have a being on earth? Here,
indeed, He said, "where He was before," just as if He were not there at
this time when He spoke these words. But in another place He says, "No man
has ascended into heaven but He that came down from heaven, the Son of man
who is in heaven."(2) He said not "was," but, saith He, "the Son of man who
is in heaven." He was speaking on earth, and He declared Himself to be in
heaven. And yet He did not speak thus: "No man hath ascended into heaven
but He that came down from heaven," the Son of God, "who is in heaven."
Whither tends it, but to make us understand that which even in the former
discourse I commended to your minds, my beloved, that Christ, both God and
man, is one person, not two persons, lest our faith be not a trinity, but a
quaternity? Christ, therefore, is one; the Word, soul and flesh, one
Christ; the Son of God and Son of man, one Christ; Son of God always, Son
of man in time, yet one Christ in regard to unity of person. In heaven He
was when He spoke on earth. He was Son of man in heaven in that manner in
which He was Son of God on earth; Son of God on earth in the flesh which He
took, Son of man in heaven in the unity of person.

   5. What is it, then, that He adds? "It is the Spirit that quickeneth;
the flesh profiteth nothing." Let us say to Him (for He permits us, not
contradicting Him, but desiring to know), O Lord, good Master, in what way
does the flesh profit nothing, whilst Thou hast said, "Except a man eat my
flesh, and drink my blood, he shall not have life in him?" Or does life
profit nothing? And why are we what we are, but that we may have eternal
life, which Thou dost promise by Thy flesh? Then what means "the flesh
profiteth nothing"? It profiteth nothing, but only in the manner in which
they understood it. They indeed understood the flesh, just as when cut to
pieces in a carcass, or sold in the shambles; not as when it is quickened
by the Spirit. Wherefore it is said that "the flesh profiteth nothing," in
the same manner as it is said that "knowledge puffeth up." Then, ought we
at once to hate knowledge? Far from it! And what means "Knowledge puffeth
up"? Knowledge alone, without charity. Therefore he added, "but charity
edifieth."(3) Therefore add thou to knowledge charity, and knowledge will
be profitable, not by itself, but through charity. So also here, "the flesh
profiteth nothing," only when alone. Let the Spirit be added to the flesh,
as charity is added to knowledge, and it profiteth very much. For if the
flesh profiled nothing, the Word would not be made flesh to dwell among us.
If through the flesh Christ has greatly profiled us, does the flesh profit
nothing? But it is by the flesh that the Spirit has done somewhat for our
salvation. Flesh was a vessel; consider what it held, not what it was. The
apostles were sent forth; did their flesh profit us nothing? If the
apostles' flesh profited us, could it be that the Lord's flesh should have
profiled us nothing? For how should the sound of the Word come to us except
by the voice of the flesh? Whence should writing come to us? All these are
operations of the flesh, but only when the spirit moves it, as if it were
its organ. Therefore "it is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing," as they understood the flesh, but not so do I give my flesh to be
eaten.

   6. Hence "the words," saith He, "which I have spoken to you are Spirit
and life." For we have said, brethren, that this is what the Lord had
taught us by the eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood, that we
should abide in Him and He in us. But we abide in Him when we are His
members, and He abides in us when we are His temple. But that we may be His
members, unity joins us together. And what but love can effect that unity
should join us together? And the love of God, whence is it? Ask the
apostle: "The love of God," saith he, "is shed abroad in our hearts by the
Holy Spirit which is given to us."(4) Therefore "it is the Spirit that
quickeneth," for it is the Spirit that makes living members. Nor does the
Spirit make any members to be living except such as it finds in the body,
which also the Spirit itself quickens. For the Spirit which is in thee, O
man, by which it consists that thou art a man, does it quicken a member
which it finds separated from thy flesh? I call thy soul thy spirit. Thy
soul quickeneth only the members which are in thy flesh; if thou takest one
away, it is no longer quickened by thy soul, because it is not joined to
the unity of thy body. These things are said to make us love unity and fear
separation. For there is nothing that a Christian ought to dread so much as
to be separated from Christ's body. For if he is separated from Christ's
body, he is not a member of Christ; if he is not a member of Christ, he is
not quickened by the Spirit of Christ. "But if any man," saith the apostle,
"have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."(1) "It is the Spirit,"
then, "that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have
spoken to you are spirit and life." What means "are spirit and life"? They
are to be understood spiritually. Hast thou understood spiritually? "They
are spirit and life." Hast thou understood carnally? So also "are they
spirit and life," but are not so to thee.

   7. "But," saith He, "there are some among you that believe not." He
said not There are some among you that understand not; but He told the
cause why they understand not "There are some among you that believe not,"
and therefore they understand not, because they believe not. For the
prophet has said, "If ye believe not, ye shall not understand."(2) We are
united by faith, quickened by understanding. Let us first adhere to Him
through faith, that there may be that which may be quickened by
understanding. For he who adheres not resists; he that resists believes
not. And how can he that resists be quickened? He is an adversary to the
ray of light by which he should be penetrated: he turns not away his eye,
but shuts his mind. "There are," then, "some who believe not." Let them
believe and open, let them open and be illumined. "For Jesus knew from the
beginning who they were that believed, and who should betray Him." For
Judas also was there. Some indeed, were offended; but he remained to watch
his opportunity, not to understand. And because he remained for that
purpose, the Lord kept not silence concerning him. He described him not by
name, but neither was He silent about him; that all might fear though only
one should perish. But after He spoke, and distinguished those that believe
from those that believe not, He clearly showed the cause why they believed
not. "Therefore I said unto you," saith He, "that no man can come unto me
except it were given to him of my Father." Hence to believe is also given
to us; for certainly to believe is something. And if it is something great,
rejoice that thou hast believed, yet be not lifted up; for "What hast thou
that thou didst not receive?"(3)

   8. "From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more
with Him." Went back, but after Satan, not after Christ. For our Lord
Christ once addressed Peter as Satan, rather because he wished to precede
his Lord, and to give counsel that He should not die, He who had come to
die, that we might not die for ever; and He says to him, "Get thee behind
me, Satan; for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but the things
that be of men."(4) He did not drive him back to go after Satan, and so
called him Satan; but He made him go behind Himself, that by walking after
his Lord he should not be a Satan. But these went back in the same manner
as the apostle says of certain women: "For some are turned back after
Satan."(5) They walked not further with Him. Behold, cut off from the body,
for perhaps they were not in the body, they have lost life. They must be
reckoned among the unbelieving, notwithstanding they were called disciples.
Not a few, but "many went back." This happened, it may be, for our
consolation. For sometimes it happens that a man may declare the truth, and
that what he says may not be understood, and so they that hear it are
offended and go away. Now the man regrets that he had spoken that truth,
and he says to himself, "I ought not to have spoken so, I ought not to have
said this." Behold; it happened to the Lord: He spoke, and lost many; He
remained with few. But yet He was not troubled, because He knew from the
beginning who they were that believed and that believed not. If it happen
to us, we are sorely perplexed. Let us find comfort in the Lord, and yet
let us speak words with prudence.

   9. And now addressing the few that remained: "Then said Jesus to the
twelve" (namely, those twelve who remained), "Will ye also," said He, "go
away?" Not even Judas departed. But it was already manifest to the Lord why
he remained: to us he was made manifest afterwards. Peter answered in
behalf of all, one for many, unity for the collective whole: "Then Simon
Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go?" Thou drivest us from Thee;
give us Thy other self. "To whom shall we go?" If we abandon Thee, to whom
shall we go? "Thou hast the words of eternal life." See how Peter, by the
gift of God and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, understood Him. How other
than because he believed? "Thou hast the words of eternal life." For Thou
hast eternal life in the ministration of Thy body and blood. "And we have
believed and have known." Not have known and believed, but "believed and
known." For we believed in order to know; for if we wanted to know first,
and then to believe, we should not be able either to know or to believe
What have we believed and known? "That Thou art Christ, the Son of God;"
that is, that Thou art that very eternal life, and that Thou givest in Thy
flesh and blood only that which Thou art.

   10. Then said the Lord Jesus: "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of
you is a devil?" Therefore, should He have said, "I have chosen eleven:" or
is a devil also chosen, and among the elect? Persons are wont to be called
"elect" by way of praise: or was man elected because some great good was
done by him, without his will and knowledge? This belongs peculiarly to
God; the contrary is characteristic of the wicked. For as wicked men make a
bad use of the good works of God; so, on the contrary, God makes a good use
of the evil works of wicked men. How good it is that the members of the
body are, as they can be disposed only by God, their author and framer!
Nevertheless what evil use doth wantonness make of the eyes? What ill use
doth falsehood make of the tongue? Does not the false witness first both
slay his own soul with his tongue, and then, after he has destroyed
himself, endeavor to injure another? He makes an ill use of the tongue, but
the tongue is not therefore an evil thing; the tongue is God's work, but
iniquity makes an ill use of that good work of God. How do they use their
feet who run into crimes? How do murderers employ their hands? And what ill
use do wicked men make of those good creatures of God that lie outside of
them? With gold they corrupt judgment and oppress the innocent. Bad men
make a bad use of the very light; for by evil living they employ even the
very light with which they see into the service of their villanies. A bad
man, when going to do a bad deed, wishes the light to shine for him, lest
he stumble; he who has already stumbled and fallen within; that which he is
afraid of in his body has already befallen him in his heart. Hence, to
avoid the tediousness of running through them separately, a bad man makes a
bad use of all the good creatures of God: a good man, on the contrary,
makes a good use of the evil deeds of wicked men. And what is so good as
the one God? Since, indeed, the Lord Himself said, "There is none good, but
the one God."(1) By how much He is better, then, by so much the better use
He makes of our evil deeds. What worse than Judas? Among all that adhered
to the Master, among the twelve, to him was committed the common purse; to
him was allotted the dispensing for the poor. Unthankful for so great a
favor, so great an honor, he took the money, and lost righteousness: being
dead, he betrayed life: Him whom he followed as a disciple, he persecuted
as an enemy. All this evil was Judas's; but the Lord employed his evil for
good. He endured to be betrayed, to redeem us. Behold, Judas's evil was
turned to good. How many martyrs has Satan persecuted! If Satan left off
persecuting, we should not to-day be celebrating the very glorious crown of
Saint Laurence. If then God employs the evil works of the devil himself for
good, what the bad man effects, by making a bad use, is to hurt himself,
not to contradict the goodness of God. The Master makes use of that man.
And if He knew not how to make use of him, the Master contriver would not
have permitted him to be. Therefore, He saith, "One of you is a devil,"
whilst I have chosen you twelve. This saying, "I have chosen you twelve,"
may be understood in this way, that twelve is a sacred number. For the
honor of that number was not taken away because one was lost, for another
was chosen into the place of the one that perished.(2) The number remained
a sacred number, a number containing twelve: because they were to make
known the Trinity throughout the whole world, that is, throughout the four
quarters of the world. That is the reason of the three times four. Judas,
then only cut himself off, not profaned the number twelve: he abandoned his
Teacher, for God appointed a successor to take his place.

   11. All this that the Lord spoke concerning His flesh and blood;--and
in the grace of that distribution He promised us eternal life, and that He
meant those that eat His flesh and drink His blood to be understood, from
the fact of their abiding in Him and He in them; and that they understood
not who believed not; and that they were offended through their
understanding spiritual things in a carnal sense; and that, while these
were offended and perished, the Lord was present for the consolation of the
disciples who remained, for proving whom He asked, "Will ye also go away?"
that the reply of their steadfastness might be known to us, for He knew
that they remained with Him;--let all this, then, avail us to this end,
most beloved, that we eat not the flesh and blood of Christ merely in the
sacrament, as many evil men do, but that we eat and drink to the
participation of the Spirit, that we abide as members in the Lord's body,
to be quickened by His Spirit, and that we be not offended, even if many do
now with us eat and drink the sacraments in a temporal manner, who shall in
the end have eternal torments. For at present Christ's body is as it were
mixed on the threshing-floor: "But the Lord knoweth them that are His."(1)
If thou knowest what thou threshest, that the substance is there hidden,
that the threshing has not consumed what the winnowing has purged; certain
are we, brethren, that all of us who are in the Lord's body, and abide in
Him, that He also may abide in us, have of necessity to live among evil men
in this world even unto the end. I do not say among those evil men who
blaspheme Christ; for there are now few found who blaspheme with the
tongue, but many who do so by their life. Among those, then, we must
necessarily live even unto the end.

   12. But what is this that He saith: "He that abideth in me, and I in
him"? What, but that which the martyrs heard: "He that persevereth unto the
end, the same shall be saved"?(2) How did Saint Laurence, whose feast we
celebrate to-day, abide in Him? He abode even to temptation, abode even to
tyrannical questioning, abode even to bitterest threatening, abode even to
destruction;--that were a trifle, abode even to savage torture. For he was
not put to death quickly, but tormented in the fire: he was allowed to live
a long time; nay, not allowed to live a long time, but forced to die a
slow, lingering death. Then, in that lingering death, in those torments,
because he had well eaten and well drunk, as one who had feasted on that
meat, as one intoxicated with that cup, he felt not the torments. For He
was there who said, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth." For the flesh
indeed was burning, but the Spirit was quickening the soul. He shrunk not
back, and he mounted into the kingdom. But the holy martyr Xystus, whose
day we celebrated five days ago, had said to him, "Mourn not, my son;" for
Xystus was a bishop, he was a deacon. "Mourn not," said he; "thou shall
follow me after three days." He said three days, meaning the interval
between the day of Saint Xystus's suffering and that of Saint Laurence's
suffering, which falls on to-day. Three days is the interval. What comfort!
He says not, "Mourn not, my son; the persecution will cease, and thou wilt
be safe;" but, "do not mourn: whither I precede thou shall follow; nor
shall thy pursuit be deferred: three days will be the interval, and thou
shall be with me." He accepted the oracle, vanquished the devil, and
attained to the triumph.

TRACTATE XXVIII: CHAPTER VII. 1-13.

   1. In this chapter of the Gospel, brethren, our Lord Jesus Christ has
most especially commended Himself to our faith in respect of His humanity.
For indeed He always keeps in view, both in His words and deeds, that He
should be believed to be God and man: God who made us, man who sought us;
with the Father, always God; with us, man in time. For He would not have
sought man whom He had made if Himself had not become that which He had
made. But remember this, and do not let it slip from your hearts, that
Christ became man in such manner that He ceased not to be God. While
remaining God, He who made man took manhood. While, therefore, as man He
concealed Himself, He must not be thought to have lost His power, but only
to have offered an example to our infirmity. For He was detained when He
willed to be, and He was put to death when he willed to be. But since there
were to be His members, that is, His faithful ones, who would not have that
power which He, our God, had; by His being hid, by His concealing Himself
as if He would not be put to death, He indicated that His members would do
this, in which members He Himself in fact was. For Christ is not simply in
the head and not in the body, but Christ whole is in the head and body.
What, therefore, His members are, that He is; but what He is, it does not
necessarily follow that His members are. For if His members were not
Himself, He would not have said, "Saul, why persecutest thou me?"(1) For
Saul was not persecuting Himself on earth, but His members, namely, His
believers. He would not, however, say, my saints, my servants, or, in
short, my brethren, which is more honorable; but, me, that is, my members,
whose head I am.

   2. With these preliminary remarks, I think that we shall not have to
labor much for the meaning in this chapter; for that is often betokened in
the head which was to be in the body. "After these things," saith he,
"Jesus walked in Galilee: for He would not walk in Judea, because the Jews
sought to kill Him." This is what I have said; He offered an example to our
infirmity. He had not lost power, but He was comforting our weakness. For
it would happen, as I have said, that some believer in Him would retreat
into concealment, test he should be found by the persecutors; and lest the
concealment should be objected to him as a crime, that occurred first in
the head, which should afterwards be confirmed in the member. For it is
said, "He would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him,"
just as if Christ were not able both to walk among the Jews, and not be
killed by them. For He manifested this power when He willed; for when they
would lay hold of Him, as He was now about to suffer, "He said to them,
Whom seek ye? They answered, Jesus. Then, said He, I am He," not
concealing, but manifesting Himself. That manifestation, however, they did
not withstand, but "going backwards, they fell to the ground."(2) And yet,
because He had come to suffer, they rose up, laid hold of Him, led Him away
to the judge, and slew Him. But what was it they did? That which a certain
scripture says: "The earth was delivered into the hands of the ungodly."(3)
The flesh was given into the power of the Jews; and this that thereby the
bag, as it were, might be rent asunder, whence our purchase-price might run
out.

   3. "Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand." What the feast of
tabernacles is. they who read the Scriptures know. They used on the holy
day to make tabernacles, in likeness of the tabernacles in which they dwelt
while they sojourned in the wilderness, after being led out of Egypt. This
was a holy day, a great solemnity. The Jews were celebrating this, as being
mindful of the Lord's benefits--they who were about to kill the Lord. On
this holy day, then (for there were several holy days; but it was called a
holy day with the Jews, though it was not one day, but several), "His
brethren" spoke to the Lord Christ. Understand the phrase, "His brethren,"
as you know it must be taken, for it is not a new thing you hear. The blood
relations of the Virgin Mary used to be called the Lord's brethren. For it
was of the usage of Scripture to call blood relations and all other near
kindred by the term brethren, which is foreign to our usage, and not within
our manner of speech. For who would call an uncle or a sister's son
"brother"? Yet the Scripture calls relatives of this kind "brothers." For
Abraham and Lot are called brothers, while Abraham was Lot's uncle.(4)
Laban and Jacob are called brothers, while Laban was Jacob's uncle.(5)
When, therefore, you hear of the Lord's brethren, consider them the blood
relations of Mary, who did not a second time bear children. For, as in the
sepulchre, where the Lord's body was laid, neither before nor after did any
dead lie; so, likewise, Mary's womb, neither before nor after conceived
anything mortal.

   4. We have said who the brethren were, let us hear what they said:
"Pass over hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see thy
work which thou doest." The Lord's works were not hid from the disciples,
but to these men they were not apparent. They might have Christ for a
kinsman, but through that very relationship they disdained to believe on
Him. It is told us in the Gospel; for we dare not hold this as a mere
opinion, you have just now heard it. They go on advising Him: "For no man
doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly: if
thou do these things, show thyself to the world." And directly after it
says: "For neither did His brethren believe in Him." Why did they not
believe in Him? Because they sought human glory. For as to what His
brethren appear to advise Him, they consult for His glory. Thou doest
marvellous works, make thyself known; that is, appear to all, that thou
mayest be praised by all. The flesh spoke to the flesh; but the flesh
without God, to the flesh with God. It was the wisdom of the flesh speaking
to the Word which became flesh and dwelt among us.

   5 What did the Lord answer to these things? Then saith Jesus to them:
"My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready." What is this? Had
not Christ's time yet come? Why then was Christ come, if His time had not
yet come? Have we not heard the apostle say, "But when the fullness of time
came, God sent His Son"?(1) If, therefore, He was sent in the fullness of
time, He was sent when He ought to be sent, He came when it behoved that He
should come. What means then, "My time is not yet come"? Understand,
brethren, with what intention they spoke, when they appeared to advise Him
as their brother. They were giving Him counsel to pursue glory; as advising
in a worldly manner and with an earthly disposition, that He should not be
unknown to fame, nor hide Himself in obscurity. This is what the Lord says
in answer to those who were giving Him counsel of glory, "My time is not
yet come;"--the time of my glory is not yet come. See how profound it is:
they were advising Him as to glory; but He would have loftiness preceded by
humility, and willed to prepare the way to elevation itself through
humility. For those disciples, too, were of course seeking glory who wished
to sit, one at His right hand and the other at His left: they thought only
of the goal, and saw not by what way it must be reached; the Lord recalled
them to the way, that they might come to their fatherland in due order. For
the fatherland is on high, the way thither lies  low. That land is the life
of Christ, the way is Christ's death; that land is the habitation of
Christ, the way is Christ's suffering. He that refuses the way, why seeks
he the fatherland? In a word, to these also, while seeking elevation, He
gave this answer: "Can ye drink the cup which I am about to drink?"(2)
Behold the way by which you must come to that height which you desire. The
cup He made mention of was indeed that of His humility and suffering.

   6. Therefore also here: "My time is not yet come; but your time," that
is the glory of the world, "is always ready." This is the time of which
Christ, that is the body of Christ, speaks in prophecy: "When I shall have
received the fit time, I will judge righteously."(3) For at present it is
not the time of judging, but of tolerating the wicked. Therefore, let the
body of Christ bear at present, and tolerate the wickedness of evil livers.
Let it, however, have righteousness now, for by righteousness it shall come
to judgment. And what saith the Holy Scripture in the psalm to the
members,--namely, that tolerate the wickedness of this world? "The Lord
will not cast off His people." For, in fact, His people labors among the
unworthy, among the unrighteous, among blasphemers, among murmurers,
detractors, persecutors, and, if they are allowed, destroyers. Yes, it
labors; but "the Lord will not cast off His people, and He will not forsake
His inheritance until justice is turned into judgment."(4) "Until the
justice," which is now in His saints, "be turned into judgment;" when that
shall be fulfilled which was said to them, "Ye shall sit upon twelve
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."(5) The apostle had
righteousness, but not yet that judgment of which he says, "Know ye not
that we shall judge angels?"(6) Be it now, therefore, the time for living
rightly; the time for judging them that have lived ill shall be hereafter.
"Until righteousness," saith he, "is turned into judgment." The time of
judgment will be that of which the Lord has here said, "My time is not yet
come." For there will be a time of glory, when He who came in humility will
come in loftiness; He who came to be judged will come to judge; He who came
to be slain by the dead will come to judge the quick and the dead. "God,"
saith the psalm, "will come manifest, our God, and He will not be
silent."(7) What is "shall come manifest"? Because He came concealed. Then
He will not be silent; for when He came concealed, "He was led as a sheep
to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer, He opened not His
mouth."(8) He shall come, and shall not keep silence. "I was silent," saith
He, "shall I always be silent?"(9)

   7. But what is necessary at the present time for those who have
righteousness? That which is read in that psalm: "Until righteousness is
turned into judgment, and they that have it are upright of heart." You ask,
perhaps, who are the upright in heart? We find in Scripture those to be
upright in heart who bear the evils of the world, and do not accuse God.
See, brethren, an uncommon thing is that which I speak of. For I know not
how it is that, when any evil befalls a man, he runs to accuse God, when he
ought to accuse himself. When thou gettest any good, thou praisest thyself;
when thou sufferest any evil, thou accusest God. This is then the crooked
heart, not the upright. When thou art cured of this distorting and
perversity, what thou didst use to do will be turned into the contrary. For
what didst thou use to do before? Thou didst praise thyself in the good
things of God, and didst accuse God in thine own evil things; with thy
heart converted and made right, thou wilt praise God in His good things,
and accuse thyself in thy own evil things. These are the upright in heart.
In short, that man, who was not yet right in heart when the success of the
wicked and the distress of the good grieved him, says, when he is
corrected: "How good is the God of Israel to the upright in heart! But as
for me," when I was not right in heart, "my feet were almost gone; my steps
had well-nigh slipped." Why?. "Because I was envious at sinners, beholding
the peace of sinners." I saw, saith he, the wicked prosperous, and I was
displeased at God; for I did wish that God should not permit the wicked to
be happy. Let man understand: God never does permit this; but a bad man is
thought to be happy, for this reason, because men are ignorant of what
happiness is. Let us then be right in heart: the time of our glory is not
yet come. Let it be told to the lovers of this world, such as the brethren
of the Lord were, "your time is always ready;" our time "is not yet come."
For let us, too, dare to say this. And since we are the body of our Lord
Jesus Christ, since we are His members, since we joyfully acknowledge our
head, let us say it without hesitation; since, for our sakes, He deigned
also Himself to say this. And when the lovers of this world revile us, let
us say to them, "Your time is always ready; our time is not yet come." For
the apostle has said to us, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with
Christ in God." When will our time come? "When Christ," saith he, "your
life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory."(2)

   8. What said He further? "The world cannot hate you." What is this,
but, The world cannot hate its lovers, the false witnesses? For you call
the things that are evil, good; and the things that are good, evil. "But me
it hateth, because I bear witness concerning it, that its works are evil.
Go ye up to this feast." What means "to this"? Where ye seek human glory.
What means "to this"? Where ye wish to prolong carnal joys, not to meditate
on eternal joys. "I go not up to this feast, because my time is not vet
full come." On this feast-day you seek human glory; but my time, that is,
the time of my glory, is not yet come. That will be my feast-day, not
running before and passing over these days, but remaining for ever; that
will be festivity, joy without end, eternity without a blot, serenity
without a cloud. "When He had said these words unto them, He abode still in
Galilee. But when His brethren were gone up, then went He also up unto tile
feast, not openly, but as it were in secret." Therefore "not to this feast-
day," because His desire was not for temporal glory, but to teach something
to profit, to correct men, to admonish them of an eternal feast-day, to
turn away their love from this world, and to turn it to God. But what means
this, "He went up as it were in secret to the feast"?  This action of the
Lord also is not without meaning. It appears to me that, even from this
circumstance that He went up as it were in secret, He had intended to
signify something; for the things that follow will show that He thus went
up on the middle of the feast, that is, when those days were half over, to
teach even openly. But he said, "As it were in secret," meaning, not to
show Himself to men. It is not without meaning that Christ went up "as it
were in secret" to that feast, because He Himself lay hid in that feast-
day. What I have said as yet is also under cover of secrecy. Let it be
manifested then, let the veil be lifted, and let that which was secret
appear.

   9. All things that were spoken to the ancient people Israel in the
manifold Scripture of the holy law, what things they did, whether in
sacrifices, or in priestly offices, or in feast-days, and, in a word, in
what things soever they worshipped God, what things soever were spoken to
and given them in precept, were shadows of things to come. Of what things
to come? Things which find their fulfillment in Christ. Whence the apostle
says, "For all the promises of God are in Him yea;"(3) that is, they are
fulfilled in Him. Again he says in another place, "All happened to them in
a figure; but they were written for our sakes, upon whom the end of the
ages is come."(4) And he said elsewhere, "For Christ is the end of the
law;"(5) likewise in another place, "Let no man judge you in meat, or in
drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of a new moon, or of Sabbath-days,
which is a shadow of things to come."(6) If, therefore, all these things
were shadows of things to come, also the feast of tabernacles was a shadow
of things to come. Let us examine, then, of what thing to come was this
feast-day a shadow. I have explained what this feast of tabernacles was: it
was a celebration of tabernacles, because the people, after their
deliverance from Egypt, while directing their course through the wilderness
to the land of promise, dwelt in tents. Let us observe what it is, and we
shall be that thing; we, I say, who are members of Christ, if such we are;
but we are, He having made us worthy, not we having earned it for
ourselves. Let us then consider ourselves, brethren: we have been led out
of Egypt, where we were slaves to the devil as to Pharaoh; where we applied
ourselves to works of clay, engaged in earthly desires, and where we toiled
exceedingly. And to us, while laboring, as it were, at the bricks, Christ
cried aloud, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden." Thence
we were led out by baptism as through the Red Sea.--red because consecrated
by the blood of Christ. All our enemies that pursued us being dead, that
is, all our sins being blotted out, we have been brought over to the other
side. At the present time, then, before we come to the land of promise,
namely, the eternal kingdom, we are in the wilderness in tabernacles. They
who acknowledge these things are in tabernacles; for it was to be that some
would acknowledge this. For that man, who understands that he is a
sojourner in this world, is in tabernacles. That man understands that he is
travelling in a foreign country, when he sees himself sighing for his
native land. But whilst the body of Christ is in tabernacles, Christ is in
tabernacles; but at that time He was so, not evidently but secretly. For as
yet the shadow obscured the light; when the light came, the shadow was
removed. Christ was in secret: He was in the feast of tabernacles, but
there hidden. At the present time, when these things are already made
manifest, we acknowledge that we are journeying in the wilderness: for if
we know it, we are in the wilderness. What is it to be in the wilderness?
In the desert waste. Why in the desert waste? Because in this world, where
we thirst in a way in which is no water. But yet, let us thirst that we may
be filled. For, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled."(1) And our thirst is quenched
from the rock in the wilderness: for "the Rock was Christ," and it was
smitten with a rod that the water might flow. But that it might flow, the
rock was smitten twice: because there are two beams of the cross.(2) All
these things, then, which were done in a figure, are made manifest to us.
And it is not without meaning that it was said of the Lord, "He went up to
the feast-day. but not openly, but as it were in secret." For Himself in
secret was the thing prefigured, because Christ was hid in that same
festal-day; for that very festal-day signified Christ's members that were
to sojourn in a foreign land.

   10. "Then the Jews sought Him on the feast-day:" before He went up. For
His brethren went up before Him, and He went not up then when they supposed
and wished: that this too might be fulfilled which He said, "Not to this,
that is, the first or second day, to which you wish me to go. But He went
up afterwards, as the Gospel tells us, "on the middle of the feast;' that
is, when as many days of that feast had passed as there remained. For they
celebrated that same festival, so far we can understand, on several
successive days.

   11. "They said, therefore, Where is he? And there was much murmuring
among the people concerning Him." Whence the murmuring? Of strife. What was
the strife? "Some said, He is a good man; but others said, Nay; but he
deceiveth the people." We must understand this of all His servants: this is
said now of them. For whoever becomes eminent in some spiritual grace, of
him some will assuredly say, "He is a good man;" others, "Nay; but he
deceiveth the people." Whence is this? "Because our life is hid with Christ
in God."(3) On this account people may say during the winter, This tree is
dead; for example, a fig tree, pear tree, or some kind of fruit tree, it is
like a withered tree, and so long as it is winter it does not appear
whether it is so or not. But the summer proves, the judgment proves. Our
summer is the appearing of Christ: "God shall come manifest, our God, and
He will not be silent;"(4) "fire shall go before Him:" that fire "shall
burn up His enemies:"(5) that fire shall lay hold of the withered trees.
For then shall the dry trees be apparent, when it shall be said to them, "I
was hungry, and ye gave me not to eat;" but on the other side, namely, on
the right, will be seen abundance of fruit, and magnificence of leaves; the
green will be eternity. To those, then, as withered trees, it shall be
said, "Go into everlasting fire. For behold," it saith, "the axe is laid to
the root of the trees: every tree, therefore, that bringeth not forth good
fruit shall be cut down, and cast into the fire."(6) Let them then say of
thee, if thou art growing in Christ, let men say of thee, "He deceiveth the
people." This is said of Christ Himself; it is said of the whole body of
Christ. Think of the body of Christ still in the world, think of it still
on the threshing-floor; see how it is blasphemed by the chaff. The chaff
and the grain are, indeed, threshed together; but the chaff is consumed,
the corn is purged. What was said of the Lord then, avails for consolation,
whenever it will be said of any Christian.

   12. "Howbeit no man spake openly of Him for fear of the Jews." But who
were they that did not speak of Him for fear of the Jews? Undoubtedly they
who said, "He is a good man:" not they who said, "He deceiveth the people."
As for them who said "He deceiveth the people," their din was heard like
the noise of dry leaves. "He deceiveth the people, they sounded more and
more loudly: "He is a good man," the whispered more and more constrainedly.
But now, brethren, notwithstanding that glory of Christ which is to make us
immortal is not yet come, yet now, I say, His Church so increases, He has
deigned to spread it abroad through the whole world, that it is now only
whispered. "He deceiveth the people;" and more and more loudly it sounds
forth, "He is a good man."

TRACTATE XXIX: CHAPTER VII. 14-18.

   1. What follows of the Gospel? and was read to-day, we must next in
order look at, and speak from it as the Lord may grant us. Yesterday it was
read thus far, that although they had not seen the Lord Jesus in the temple
on the feast-day, yet they were speaking about Him: "And some said, He is a
good man: but others said, Nay; but he seduceth the people." For this was
said for the comfort of those who, afterwards preaching God's word, were to
be seducers, and yet true men.(1) For if to seduce is to deceive, neither
was Christ a seducer, nor His apostles, nor ought any Christian to be such;
but if to seduce (to lead aside) is by persuading to lead one from
something to something else, we ought to inquire into the whence and the
whither: if from evil to good, the seducer is a good man; if from good to
evil, the seducer is a bad man. In that sense, then, in which men are
seduced from evil to good, would that all of us both were called, and
actually were seducers!

   2. Then afterwards the Lord went up to the feast, "about the middle of
the feast, and taught." "And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this
man letters, having never learned?" He who was in secret taught, He was
speaking openly and was not restrained. For that hiding of Himself was for
the sake of example; this showing Himself openly was an intimation of His
power. But as He taught, "the Jews marvelled;" all indeed, so far as I
think, marvelled, but all were not converted. And why this wondering?
Because all knew where He was born, where He had been brought up; they had
never seen Him learning betters, but they heard Him disputing about the
law, bringing forward testimonies of the law, which none could bring
forward unless he had read, and none could read unless he had learned
letters: and therefore they marvelled. But their marvelling was made an
occasion to the Master of insinuating the truth more deeply into their
minds. By reason, indeed of their wondering and words, the Lord said
something profound, and worthy of being more diligently looked into and
discussed. On account of which I would urge you, my beloved, to
earnestness, not only in hearing for yourselves, but also in praying for
us.

   3. How then did the Lord answer those that were marvelling how He knew
letters which He had not learned? "My doctrine," saith He, "is not mine,
but His that sent me." This is the first profundity. For He seems as if in
a few words He had spoken contraries. For He says not, This doctrine is not
mine; but, "My doctrine is not mine." If not Thine, how Thine? If Thine,
how not Thine? For Thou sayest both: both, "my doctrines;" and, "not mine."
For if He had said, This doctrine is not mine, there would have been no
question. But now, brethren, in the first place, consider well the
question, and so in due order expect the solution. For he who sees not the
question proposed, how can he understand what is expounded? The subject of
inquiry, then, is that which He says, "My, not mine" this appears to be
contrary; how "my," how "not mine"? If we carefully look at what the holy
evangelist himself says in the beginning of his Gospel, "In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;" thence
hangs the solution of this question. What then is the doctrine of the
Father, but the Father's Word? Therefore, Christ Himself is the doctrine of
the Father, if He is the Word of the Father. But since the Word cannot be
of none, but of some one, He said both "His doctrine," namely, Himself, and
also, "not His owns" because He is the Word of the Father. For what is so
much "Thine" as Thyself? And what so much not Thine as Thyself, if that
Thou art is of another?

   4. The Word then is God; and it is also the Word of a stable,
unchangeable doctrine, not such as can be sounded by syllables and
fleeting, but abiding with the Father, to which abiding doctrine let us be
converted, being admonished by the transitory sounds of the voice. For that
which is transitory does not so admonish us as to call us to transitory
things. We are admonished to love God. All this that I have said were
syllables; they smote through the air to reach your sense of hearing, and
by sounding passed away: that, however, which I advise you ought not so to
pass away, because He whom I exhort you to love passes not away; and when
you, exhorted in transient syllables, shall have been converted, you shall
not pass away, but shall abide with Him who is abiding. There is therefore
in the doctrine this great matter, this deep and eternal thing which is
permanent: whither all things that pass away in time call us, when they
mean well and are not falsely put forward. For, in fact, all the signs
which we produce by sounds do signify something which is not sound. For God
is not the two short syllables "Deus," and it is not the two short
syllables that we worship, and it is not the two short syllables that we
adore, nor is it to the two short syllables that we desire to come--two
syllables which almost cease to sound before they have begun to sound; nor
in sounding them is there room for the second until the first has passed
away. There remains, then, something great which is called "God," although
the sound does not remain when we say the word "God." Thus direct your
thoughts to the doctrine of Christ, and ye shall arrive at the Word of God;
and when you have arrived at the Word of God, consider this, "The Word was
God," and you will see that it was said truly, "my doctrine:" consider also
whose the Word is, and you will see that it was rightly said, "is not
mine."

   5. Therefore, to speak briefly, beloved, it seems to me that the Lord
Jesus Christ said, "My doctrine is not mine," meaning the same thing as if
He said, "I am not from myself." For although we say and believe that the
Son is equal to the Father, and that there is not any diversity of nature
and substance in them, that there has not intervened any interval of time
between Him that begets and Him that is begotten, nevertheless we say these
things, while keeping and guarding this, that the one is the Father, the
other the Son. But Father He is not if He have not a Son, and Son He is not
if He have not a Father: but yet the Son is God from the Father; and the
Father is God, but not from the Son. The Father of the Son, not God from
the Son: but the other is Son of the Father, and God from the Father. For
the Lord Christ is called Light from Light. The Light then which is not
from Light, and the equal Light which is not from Light, are together one
Light not two Lights.

   6. If we have understood this, thanks be to God; but if any has not
sufficiently understood, man has done as far as he could: as for the rest,
let him see whence he may hope to understand. As laborers outside, we can
plant and water; but it is of God to give the increase. "My doctrine,"
saith He, "is not mine, but His that sent me." Let him who says he has not
yet understood hear counsel. For since it was a great and profound matter
that had been spoken, the Lord Christ Himself did certainly see that all
would not understand this so profound a matter, and He gave counsel in the
sequel. Dost thou wish to understand? Believe. For God has said by the
prophet: "Except ye believe, ye shall not understand."(1) To the same
purpose what the Lord here also added as He went on--"If any man is willing
to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it be of
God, or whether I speak from myself." What is the meaning of this, "If any
man be willing to do His will"? But I had said, if any man believe; and I
gave this counsel: If thou hast not understood, said I, believe. For
understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore do not seek to understand
in order to believe, but believe that thou mayest understand; since,
"except ye believe, ye shall not understand." Therefore when I would
counsel the obedience of believing toward the possibility of understanding,
and say that our Lord Jesus Christ has added this very thing in the
following sentence, we find Him to have said, "If any man be willing to do
His will, he shall know of the doctrine." What is "he shall know"? It is
the same thing as "he shall understand." But what is "If any man be willing
to do His will"? It is the same thing as to believe. All men indeed
perceive that "shall know" is the same thing as "shall understand:" but
that the saying, "If any man be willing to do His will," refers to
believing, all do not perceive; to perceive this more accurately, we need
the Lord Himself for expounder, to show us whether the doing of the
Father's will does in reality refer to believing. But who does not know
that this is to do the will of God, to work the work of God; that is, to
work that work which is pleasing to Him? But the Lord Himself says openly
in another place: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He
has sent."(1) "That ye believe on Him," not, that ye believe Him. But if ye
believe an Him, ye believe Him; yet he that believes Him does not
necessarily believe on Him. For even the devils believed Him, but they did
not believe on Him. Again, moreover, of His apostles we can say, we believe
Paul; but not, we believe on Paul: we believe Peter; but not, we believe on
Peter. For, "to him that believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his
faith is counted unto him for righteousness."(2) What then is "to believe
on Him"? By believing to love Him, by believing to esteem highly, by
believing to go into Him and to be incorporated in His members. It is faith
itself then that God exacts from us: and He finds not that which He exacts,
unless He has bestowed what He may find. What faith, but that which the
apostle has most amply defined in another place, saying, "Neither
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh
by love?"(3) Not any faith of what kind soever, but "faith that worketh by
love:" let this faith be in thee, and thou shall understand concerning the
doctrine. What indeed shall thou understand? That "this doctrine is not
mine, but His that sent me;" that is, thou shall understand that Christ the
Son of God, who is the doctrine of the Father, is not from Himself, but is
the Son of the Father.

   7. This sentence overthrows the Sabellian heresy. The Sabellians have
dared to affirm that the Son is the very same as He who is also the Father:
that the names are two, but the reality one. If the names were two and
reality one, it would not be said, "My doctrine is not mine." Anyhow, if
Thy doctrine is not Thine, O Lord, whose is it, unless there be another
whose it is? The Sabellians understand not what Thou saidst; for they see
not the trinity, but follow the error of their own heart. Let us
worshippers of the trinity and unity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and
one God, understand concerning Christ's doctrine, how it is not His. And He
said that He spoke not from Himself for this reason, because Christ is the
Son of the Father, and the Father is the Father of Christ; and the Son is
from God the Father, God, but God the Father is God not from God the Son.

   8. "He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory.' This will be he
who is called Antichrist, "exalting himself," as the apostle says, "above
all that is called God, and that is worshipped."(4) The Lord, declaring
that this same it is that will seek his own glory, not the glory of the
Father, says to the Jews: "I am come in my Father's name, and ye have not
received me; another will come in his own name, him ye will receive."(5) He
intimated that they would receive Antichrist, who will seek the glory of
his own name, puffed up, not solid; and therefore not stable, but assuredly
ruinous. But our Lord Jesus Christ has shown us a great example of
humility: for doubtless He is equal with the Father, for "in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;" yea,
doubtless, He Himself said, and most truly said, "Am I so long time with
you, and ye have not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father."(6)  Yea, doubtless, Himself said, and most truly said, "I and the
Father are one."(7) If, therefore, He is one with the Father, equal to the
Father, God from God, God with God, coeternal, immortal, alike
unchangeable, alike without time, alike Creator and disposer of times; and
yet because He came in time, and took the form of a servant, and in
condition was found as a man,(8) He seeks the glory of the Father, not His
own; what oughtest thou to do, O man, who, when thou doest anything good,
seekest thy own glory; but when thou doest anything ill, dost meditate
calumny against God? Consider thyself: thou art a creature, acknowledge thy
Creator: thou art a servant, despise not thy Lord: thou art adopted, not
for thy own merits; seek His glory from whom thou hast this grace, that
thou art a man adopted; His, whose glory He sought who is from Him, the
Only-begotten. "But He that seeketh His glory that sent Him, the same is
true, and no unrighteousness is in Him" In Antichrist, however, there is
unrighteousness, and he is not true; because he will seek his own glory,
not His by whom he was sent: for, indeed, he was not sent, but only
permitted to come. Let us all, therefore, that belong to the body of
Christ, seek not our own glory, that we be not led into the snares of
Antichrist. But if Christ sought His glory that sent Him, how much more
ought we to seek the glory of Him who made us?

TRACTATE XXX: CHAPTER VII, 19-24.

   1. The passage of the holy Gospel of which we have before discoursed to
you, beloved, is followed by that of to-day, which has just now been read.
Both the disciples and the Jews heard the Lord speaking; both men of truth
and liars heard the Truth speaking; both friends and enemies heard Charity
speaking; both good men and bad men heard the Good speaking. They heard,
but He discerned; He saw and foresaw whom His discourse profiled and would
profit. Among those who were then, He saw; among us who were to be, He
foresaw. Let us therefore hear the Gospel, just as if we were listening to
the Lord Himself present: nor let us say, O happy they who were able to see
Him! because there were many of them who saw, and also killed Him; and
there are many among us who have not seen Him, and yet have believed. For
the precious truth that sounded forth from the mouth of the Lord was both
written for our sakes, and preserved for our sakes, and recited for our
sakes, and will be recited also for the sake of our prosperity, even until
the end of the world. The Lord is above; but the Lord, the Truth, is also
here. For the body of the Lord, in which He rose again from the dead, can
be only in one place; but His truth is everywhere diffused. Let us then
hear the Lord, and let us also speak that which He shall have granted to us
concerning His own words.

   2. "Did not Moses," saith He, "give you the law, and vet none of you
doeth the law? Why do ye seek to kill me?" For ye seek to kill me just for
this reason, that none of you doeth the law; for if ye did do the law, ye
would recognize Christ in its very letters, and ye would not kill Him when
present with you. And they answered: "The crowd answered Him;" answered as
a tumultuous crowd,' things not pertaining to order, but to confusion; in a
word, the crowd was disturbed. See what answer it made: "Thou hast a devil:
who seeks to kill thee?" As if it were not worse to say, "Thou hast a
devil," than to kill Him. To Him, indeed, was it said, that He had a devil,
who was casting out devils. What else can a turbulent disorderly crowd say?
What else can filth stirred up do but stink? The crowd was disturbed; by
what? By the truth. For the eyes that have not soundness cannot endure the
brightness of the light.

   3. But the Lord, manifestly not disturbed, but calm in His truth,
rendered not evil for evil nor railing for railing;(2) although, if He were
to say to these men, You have a devil, He would certainly be saying what
was true. For they would not have said such things to the Truth, unless the
falsehood of the devil had instigated them. What then did He answer? Let us
calmly hear, and drink in the serene word: "I have done one work, and ye
all marvel." As if He said, What if ye were to see all my works? For they
were His works which they saw in the world, and yet they saw not Him who
made them all: He did one thing, and they were disturbed because he made a
man whole on the Sabbath-day. As if, indeed, when any sick man recovered
his health on the Sabbath-day, it had been any other that made such a man
whole than He who offended them, because He made one man whole on the
Sabbath-day. For who else has made others whole than He who is health
itself,--He who gives even to the beasts that health which He gave to this
man? For it was bodily health. The health of the flesh is repaired, and the
flesh dies; and when it is repaired, death is only put off, not taken away.
However, even that same health, brethren, is from the Lord, through
whomsoever it may be given: by whose care and ministry soever it may be
imparted, it is given by Him from whom all health is, to whom it is said in
the psalm, "O Lord, Thou wilt save men and beasts; as Thou hast multiplied
Thy mercy, O God." For because Thou art God Thy multiplied mercy reaches
even to the safety of human flesh, reaches even to the safety of dumb
animals; but Thou who givest health of flesh common to men and beasts, is
there no health which Thou reservest for men? There is certainly another
which is not only not common to men and beasts, but to men themselves is
not common to good and bad. In a word, when he had there spoken of this
health which men and cattle receive in common, because of that health which
men, but only the good, ought to hope for, he added as he went on: "But the
sons of men shall put their trust under the cover of Thy wings. They shall
be fully satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt give them
drink from the torrent of Thy pleasure. For with Thee is the fountain of
life; and in Thy light shall they see light."(1) This is the health which
belongs to good men, those whom he called "sons of men;" whilst he had said
above, "O Lord, Thou shall save men and beasts." How then? Were not those
men sons of men, that after he had said men, he should go on and say, But
the sons of men: as if men and sons of men meant different things? Yet I do
not believe that the Holy Spirit had said this without some indication of
distinction. The term men refers to the first Adam, sons of men to Christ.
Perhaps, indeed, men relate to the first man; but sons of men relate to the
Son of man.

   4. "I have done one work, and ye all marvel." And immediately He
subjoined: "Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision." It was well done
that ye received circumcision from Moses. "Not that it is of Moses, but of
the fathers;" since it was Abraham that first received circumcision from
the Lord.(2) "And ye circumcise on the Sabbath-day." Moses has convicted
you: ye have received in the law to circumcise on the eighth day; ye have
received in the law to cease from labor on the seventh day;(3) if the
eighth day from the child's birth fall on the seventh day of the week, what
will ye do Will ye abstain from work to keep the Sabbath, or will ye
circumcise to fulfill the sacrament of the eighth day? But I know, saith
He, what ye do. "Ye circumcise a man." Why? Because circumcision relates to
what. is a kind of seal of salvation, and men ought not to abstain from the
work of salvation on the Sabbath-day. Therefore be ye not "angry with me,
because I have made a man  every whit whole on the Sabbath-day." "If,"
saith He, "a man on the Sabbath-day receiveth circumcision that the law
should not be broken" (for it was something saving that was ordained by
Moses in that ordinance of circumcision), why are ye angry at me for
working a healing on the Sabbath-day?

   5. Perhaps, indeed, that circumcision pointed to the Lord Himself, at
whom they were indignant, because He worked cures and healing. For
circumcision was commanded to be applied on the eighth day: and what is
circumcision but the spoiling of the flesh? This circumcision, then,
signified the removal of carnal lusts from the heart. Therefore not without
cause was it given, and ordered to be made in that member; since by that
member the creature of mortal kind is procreated. By one man came death,
just as by one man the resurrection of the dead;(4) and by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin.(5) Therefore every man is born
with a foreskin, because every man is born with the vice of propagation;
and God cleanses not, either from the vice with which we are born, or from
the vices which we add thereto by ill living, except by the stony knife,
the Lord Christ. For Christ was the Rock, Now they used to circumcise with
stone knives, and by the name of rock they prefigured Christ; and yet when
He was present with them they did not acknowledge Him, but besides, they
sought to kill Him. But why on the eighth day, unless because after the
seventh day of the week the Lord rose again on the Lord's day? Therefore
Christ's resurrection, which happened on the third day indeed of His
passion, but on the eighth day in the days of the week, that same
resurrection it is that doth circumcise us. Hear of those that were
circumcised with the real stone, while the apostle admonishes them: "If
then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ is, sitting on the right hand of God; set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth."(6) He speaks to the circumcised: Christ
has risen; He has taken away from you carnal desires, evil lusts, the
superfluity with which you were born, and that far worse which you had
added thereto by ill living; being circumcised by the Rock, why do you
still set your affections on the earth? And finally, for that "Moses gave
you the law, and ye circumcise a man on the Sabbath-day," understand that
by this is signified the good work which I have done, in that I have made a
man every whit whole on the Sabbath-day; because he was cured that he might
be whole in body, and also he believed that he might be whole in soul.

   6. "Judge not according to personal appearance, but judge righteous
judgment." What is this? Just now, you who by the law of Moses circumcise
on the Sabbath-day are not angry with Moses; and because I made a man whole
on the Sabbath-day you are angry with me. You judge by the person; give
heed to the truth. I do not prefer myself to Moses, says the Lord, who was
also the Lord of Moses. So consider us as you would two men, as both men;
judge between us, but judge a true judgment; do not condemn him by honoring
me, but honor me by understanding' him. For this He said to them in another
place: "If ye believed Moses ye would certainly believe me also, for he
wrote of me."(1) But in this place He willed not to say this, Himself and
Moses being as it were placed before these men for judgment. Because of
Moses' law you circumcise, even when it happens to be the Sabbath-day, and
will ye not that I should show the beneficence of healing during the
Sabbath? For the Lord of circumcision and the Lord of the Sabbath is the
same who is tile Author of health; and they are servile works that ye are
forbidden to do on the Sabbath; if ye really understand what servile works
are, ye sin not. For he that committeth sin is the servant of sin. Is it a
servile work to heal a man on the Sabbath-day? Ye do eat and drink (to
infer somewhat from the admonition of our Lord Jesus Christ,  and from His
words); at any rate, why do ye eat and drink on the Sabbath, but because
that  what ye do pertains to health? By this ye show that the works of
health are not in any wise to be omitted on the Sabbath. Therefore "do not
judge by person, but judge righteous judgment." Consider me as ye would a
man; consider Moses as a man: if ye will judge according to the truth, ye
will condemn neither Moses nor me; and when ye know the truth ye will know
me, because I am the Truth.

   7. It requires great labor in this world, brethren to get clear of the
vice which the Lord has noted in this place, so as not to judge by
appearance, but to keep right judgment. The Lord, indeed, admonished the
Jews, but He warned us also; them He convicted, us He instructed; them He
reproved, us He encouraged. Let us not imagine that this was not said to
us, simply because we were not there at that time. It was written, it is
read; when it was recited we heard it; but we heard it as said to the Jews;
let us not place ourselves behind ourselves and watch Him reproving
enemies, while we ourselves do that which the truth may reprove in us. The
Jews indeed judged by appearance, but for that reason they belong not to
the New Testament, they have not the kingdom of heaven in Christ, nor are
joined to the society of the holy angels; they sought earthly things of the
Lord; for a land of promise, victory over enemies, fruitfulness of child-
bearing, increase of children, abundance of fruit,--all which things were
indeed promised to them by God, the True and the Good, promised to them,
however, as unto carnal men,--all these things made for them tile Old
Testament. What is the Old Testament? The inheritance, as it were,
belonging to the old man. We have been renewed, have been made a new man,
because He who is the new man has come. What is so new as to be born of a
virgin? Therefore, because there was not in Him what instruction might
renew, because He had no sin, there was given Him a new origin of birth. In
Him a new birth, in us a new man. What is a new man? A man renewed from
oldness. Renewed unto what? Unto desiring heavenly things, unto longing for
things eternal, unto earnestly seeking the country which is above and fears
no foe, where we do not lose a friend nor fear an enemy; where we live with
good affection, without any want; where no longer any advances, because
none fails; where no man is born, because no man dies; where there is no
hungering nor thirsting; where immortality is fullness, and truth our
aliment. Having these promises, and pertaining to the New Testament, and
being made heirs of a new inheritance, and co-heirs of the Lord Himself, we
have a far different hope from theirs: let us not judge by appearance, but
hold right judgment.

   8. Who is he that judges not according to the person? He that loves
equally. Equal love causes that persons be not accepted. It is not when we
honor men in diverse measure according to their degrees that we ought to
fear lest we are accepting persons. For where we judge between two, and at
times between relations, sometimes it happens that judgment has to be made
between father and son; the father complains of a had son, or the son
complains of a harsh father; we regard the honor which is due to the father
from the son; we do not make the son equal to the father in honor, but we
give him preference if he has a good cause: let us regard the son on an
equality with the father in the truth, and thus shall we bestow the honor
due, so that equity destroy not merit. Thus we profit by the words of the
Lord, and that we may profit, we are assisted by His grace.


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/VII, Schaff). The digital version is by The Electronic Bible
Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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