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ST. AUGUSTINE

LECTURES OR TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.

[Translated by the Rev. James Innes, minister at Panbride, near Dundee,
Scotland.]


TRACTATE XLV: CHAPTER X. 1-10.

   1. OUR Lord's discourse to the Jews began in connection with the man
who was born blind and was restored to sight. Your Charity therefore ought
to know and be advised that today's lesson is interwoven with that one. For
when the Lord had said, "For judgment I am come into this world; that they
who see not might see, and they who see might be made blind,"--which, on
the occasion of its reading, we expounded according to our ability,--some
of the Pharisees said, "Are we blind also?" To whom He replied. "If ye were
blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; [therefore] your sin
remaineth."(1) To these words He added what we have been hearing today when
the lesson was read.

   2. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door
into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and
a robber." For they declared that they were not blind; yet could they see
only by being the sheep of Christ. Whence claimed they possession of the
light, who were acting as thieves against the day? Because, then, of their
vain and proud and incurable arrogance, did the Lord Jesus subjoin these
words, wherein He has given us also salutary lessons, if we lay them to
heart. For there are many who, according to a custom of this life, are
called good people,--good men, good women, innocent, and observers as it
were of what is commanded in the law; paying respect to their parents,
abstaining from adultery, doing no murder, committing no theft, giving no
false witness against any one, and observing all else that the law
requires--yet are not Christians; and for the most part ask boastfully,
like these men. "Are we blind also?" But just because all these things that
they do, and know not to what end they should have reference, they do to no
purpose, the Lord has set forth in today's lesson the similitude of His own
flock, and of the door that leads into the sheepfold. Pagans may say, then,
We live well. If they enter not by the door, what good will that do them,
whereof they boast? For to this end ought good living to benefit every one,
that it may be given him to live for ever: for to whomsoever eternal life
is not given, of what benefit is the living well? For they ought not to be
spoken of as even living well, who either from blindness know not the end
of a right life, or in their pride despise it. But no one has the true and
certain hope of living always, unless he know the life, that it is Christ;
and enter by the gate into the sheepfold.

   3. Such, accordingly, for the most part seek to persuade men to live
well, and yet not to be Christians. By another way they wish to climb up,
to steal and to kill, not as the shepherd, to preserve and to save. And
thus there have been certain philosophers, holding many subtle discussions
about the virtues and the vices, dividing, defining, drawing out to their
close the most acute processes of reasoning, filling books, brandishing
their wisdom with rattling jaws; who would even dare to say to people,
Follow us, keep to our sect, if you would live happily. But they had not
entered by the door: they wished to destroy, to slay, and to murder.

   4. What shall I say of such? Look, the Pharisees themselves were in the
habit of reading, and in what they read, their voices re-echoed the Christ,
they hoped He would come, and recognized Him not when present; they
boasted, even they, of being amongst those who saw, that is, among the
wise, and they disowned the Christ, and entered not in by the door.
Therefore would such also, if they chanced to seduce any, seduce them to be
slaughtered and murdered, not to be brought into liberty. Let us leave
these also to themselves, and look at those who glory in the name of Christ
Himself, and see whether even they perchance are entering in by the door.

   5. For there are countless numbers who not only boast that they see,
but would have it appear that they are enlightened by Christ; yet are they
heretics. Have even they somehow entered by the gate? Surely not. Sabellius
says, He who is the Son is Himself the Father; but if the Son, then is
there no Father. He enters not by the door, who asserts that the Son is the
Father. Arius says, The Father is one thing, the Son is another thing. He
would say rightly if he said, Another person; but not another thing.(2) For
when he says, Another thing, he contradicts Him who says in his hearing, "I
and my Father are One."(3) Neither does he therefore enter by the door; for
he preaches a Christ such as he fabricates for himself, not such as the
truth declares Him. Thou hast the name, thou hast not the reality. Christ
is the name of something; keep hold of the thing itself, if thou wouldst
benefit by the name. Another, I know not from whence, says with
Photinus,(4) Christ is mere man; He is not God. He enters not in by the
door, for Christ is both man and God. But why need I make many references,
and enumerate the many vanities of heretics? Keep hold of this, that
Christ's sheepfold is the Catholic Church. Whoever would enter the
sheepfold, let him enter by the door, let him preach the true Christ. Not
only let him preach the true Christ, but seek Christ's glory, not his own;
for many, by seeking their own glory, have scattered Christ's sheep,
instead of gathering them. For Christ the Lord is a low gateway: he who
enters by this gateway must humble himself, that he may be able to enter
with head unharmed. But he that humbleth not, but exalteth himself, wishes
to climb over the wall; and he that climbeth over the wall, is exalted only
to fall.

   6. Thus far, however, the Lord Jesus speaks in covert language; not as
yet is He understood. He names the door, He names the sheepfold, He names
the sheep: all this He sets forth, but does not yet explain. Let us read on
then, for He is coming to those words, wherein He may think proper to give
us some explanation of what He has said; from the explanation of which He
will perhaps enable us to understand also what He has not explained. For He
gives us what is plain, for food; what is obscure, for exercise. "He that
entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other
way." Woe to the wretch, for he is sure to fall! Let him then be humble,
let him enter by the door: let him walk on the level ground, and he shall
not stumble. "The same," He says, "is a thief and a robber." The sheep of
another he desires to call his own sheep,--his own, that is, as carried off
by stealth, for the purpose, not of saving, but of slaying them. Therefore
is he a thief, because what is another's he calls his own; a robber,
because what he has stolen he also kills. "But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep: to him the porter openeth." Concerning
this porter we shall make inquiry, when we have heard of the Lord Himself
what is the door and who is the shepherd. "And the sheep hear his voice:
and he calleth his own sheep by name." For He has their names written in
the book of life. "He calleth his own sheep by name." Hence, says the
apostle, "The Lord knoweth them that are His."(1) "And he leadeth them out.
And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the
sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger do they not
follow, but do flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers."
These are veiled words, full of topics of inquiry, pregnant with
sacramental signs. Let us follow then, and listen to the Master as He makes
some opening into these obscurities; and perhaps by the opening He makes,
He will cause us to enter.

   7. "This parable spake Jesus unto them; but they understood not what He
spake unto them." Nor we also, perhaps. What, then, is the difference
between them and us, before even we can understand these words? This, that
we on our part knock, that it may be opened unto us; while they, by
disowning Christ, refused to enter for salvation, and preferred remaining
outside to be destroyed. In as far, then, as we listen to these words with
a pious mind, in as far as, before we understand them, we believe them to
be true and divine, we stand at a great distance from these men. For when
two persons are listening to the words of the gospel, the one impious, the
other pious, and some of these are such as neither perhaps understands, the
one says, It has said nothing; the other says, It has said the truth, and
what it has said is good, but we do not understand it. This latter, because
he believes, now knocks, that he may be worthy to have it opened up to him,
if he continue knocking; but the other still hears the words, "If ye
believe not, ye shall not understand."(2) Why do I draw your attention to
this? Even for this reason, that when I have explained as I can these
obscure words, or, because of their great abstruseness, I have either
myself failed to arrive at an understanding of them, or wanted the faculty
of explaining what I do understand, or every one has been so dull as not to
follow me, even when I give the explanation, yet should he  not despair of
himself; but continue in faith, walk on in the way, and hear the apostle
saying, "And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even
this unto you. Nevertheless whereto we have already attained, let us walk
therein."(3)

   8. Let us begin, then, with hearing His exposition of what we have
heard Him propounding. "Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, I am the door of the sheep." See, He has opened the very door
which was shut in His former description. He Himself is the door. We have
come to know it; let us enter, or rejoice that we are already within. "All
that ever came are thieves and robbers." What is this, Lord, "All that ever
came"? How so? hast Thou not come? But understand; I said, "All that ever
came," meaning, of course, exclusive of myself.(4) Let us recollect then.
Before His coming came the prophets: were they thieves and robbers? God
forbid. They did not come apart from Him, for they came with Him. When
about to come, He sent heralds, but retained possession of the hearts of
His messengers. Do you wish to know that they came with Him, who is Himself
ever existent? Certainly He assumed human flesh at the time appointed. But
what means that "ever"? "In the beginning was the Word."(1) With Him,
therefore, came those who came with the word of God. "I am," said He, "the
way, and the truth, and the life."(2) If He is the truth, with Him came
those who were truthful. As many, therefore, as were apart from Him, were
"thieves and robbers," that is, had come to steal and to destroy.

   9. "But the sheep did not hear them." This is a more important point,
"the sheep did not hear them." Before the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ,
when He came in humility in the flesh, righteous men preceded, believing in
the same way in Him who was to come, as we believe in Him who has come.
Times vary, but not faith. For verbs themselves also vary with the tense,
when they are variously declined. He is to come, has one sound; He has
come, has another: there is a change in the sound between He is to come,
and He has come:(3) yet the same faith unites both,--both those who
believed that He would come, and those who have believed that He is come.
At different times, indeed, but by the one doorway of faith, that is, by
Christ, do we see that both have entered. We believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ was born of the Virgin, that He came in the flesh, suffered, rose
again, ascended into heaven: all this, just as you hear verbs of the past
tense, we believe to be already fulfilled. In that faith a partnership is
also held with us by those fathers who believed that He would be born of
the Virgin, would suffer, would rise again, would ascend into heaven; for
to such the apostle pointed when he said, "But we having the same spirit of
faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken;
we also believe, and therefore speak."(4) The prophet said, "I believed,
therefore have I spoken:"(5) the apostle says, "We also believe, and
therefore speak." But to let you know that their faith is one, listen to
him saying, "Having the same spirit of faith, we also believe." So also in
another place, "For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, how 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, and did all drink the same spiritual drink." The Red
Sea signifies baptism; Moses, their leader through the Red Sea, signifies
Christ; the people, who passed through, signify believers; the death of the
Egyptians signifies the abolition of sins. Under different signs there is
the same faith. It is with different signs as with different words [verbs];
for verbs change their sounds through the tenses, and verbs are indeed
nothing else than signs. For they are words because of what they signify:
take away the meaning from a word,(6) and it becomes a senseless sound.
All, therefore, have become signs. Was not the same faith theirs by whom
these signs were employed, and by whom were foretold in prophecy the very
things which we believe? Certainly it was: but they believed that they were
yet to come, and we, that they have come. In like manner does he also say,
"They all drank the same spiritual drink;" "the same spiritual," for it was
not the same material [drink]. For what was it they drank? "For they drank
of the spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ."(7)
See, then, how that while the faith remained, the signs were varied. There
the rock was Christ; to us that is Christ which is placed on the altar of
God. And they, as a great sacramental sign of the same Christ, drank the
water flowing from the rock: what we drink is known to believers. If one's
thoughts turn to the visible form, the thing is different; if to the
meaning that addresses the understanding, they drank the same spiritual
drink. As many, then, at that time as believed, whether Abraham, or Isaac,
or Jacob, or Moses, or the other patriarchs or prophets who foretold of
Christ, were sheep, and heard Christ. His voice, and not another's, did
they hear. The Judge was present in the person of the Crier. For even when
the judge speaks through the crier, the clerk(8) does not make it, The
crier said; but the judge said. But others there are whom the sheep did not
hear, in whom Christ's voice had no place,--wanderers, uttering falsehoods,
prating inanities, fabricating vanities, misleading the miserable.

   10. Why is it, then, that I have said, This is a more important point?
What is there about it obscure and difficult to understand? Listen, I
beseech you. See, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself came and preached. Much
more surely was that the Shepherd's voice which was uttered by the very
mouth of the Shepherd. For if the Shepherd's voice came through the
prophets, how much more did the Shepherd's own tongue give utterance to the
Shepherd's voice? Yet all did not hear Him. But what are we to think? Those
who did hear, were they sheep? Lo? Judas heard, and was a wolf: he
followed, but, clad in sheep-skin. he was laying snares for the Shepherd.
Some, again, of those who crucified Christ did not hear, and yet were
sheep; for such He saw in the crowd when He said, "When ye have lifted up
the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am He."(1) Now, how is this
question to be solved? They that are not sheep do hear, and they that are
sheep do not hear. Some, who are wolves, follow the Shepherd's voice; and
some, that are sheep, contradict it. Last of all, the sheep slay the
Shepherd. The point is solved; for some one in reply says. But when they
did not hear, as yet they were not sheep, they were then wolves: the voice,
when it was heard, changed them, and out of wolves transformed them into
sheep; and so, when they became sheep, they heard, and found the Shepherd,
and followed Him. They built their hopes on the Shepherd's promises,
because they obeyed His precepts.

   11. That question has been solved in a way, and perhaps satisfies every
one. But I bare still a subject of concern, and what concerns me I shall
impart to you, that, in some sort inquiring together, I may through His
revelation be found worthy with you to attain the solution. Hear, then,
what it is that moves me. By the Prophet Ezekiel the Lord rebukes the
shepherds, and among other things says of the sheep, "The wandering sheep
have ye not recalled."(2) He both declares it a wanderer, and calls it a
sleep. If, while wandering, it was a sheep, whose voice was it hearing to
lead it astray? For doubtless it would not be straying were it hearing the
shepherd's voice: but it strayed just because it heard another's voice; it
heard the voice of the thief and the robber. Surely the sheep do not hear
the voice of robbers. "Those that came," He said,--and we are to
understand, apart from me,--that is, "those that came apart from me are
thieves and robbers, and the sheep did not hear them." Lord, if the sheep
did not hear them, how can the sheep wander? If the sheep hear only Thee,
and Thou art the truth, whoever heareth the truth cannot certainly fall
into error. But they err, and are called sheep. For if, in the very midst
of their wandering, they were not called sheep, it would not be said by
Ezekiel, "The wandering sheep have ye not recalled." How is it at the same
time a wanderer and a sheep? Has it heard the voice of another? Surely "the
sheep did not hear them." Accordingly many are just now being gathered into
Christ's fold, and from being heretics are becoming catholics. They are
rescued from the thieves, and restored to the shepherds: and sometimes they
murmur, and become wearied of Him that calls them back, and have no true
knowledge of him that would murder them; nevertheless also, when, after a
struggle, those have come who are sheep, they recognize the Shepherd's
voice, and are glad they have come, and are ashamed of their wandering.
When, then, they were glorying in that state of error as in the truth, and
were certainly not hearing the Shepherd's voice, but were following
another, were they sheep, or were they not? If they were sheep, how can it
be the case that the sheep do not listen to aliens? If they were not sheep,
wherefore the rebuke addressed to those to whom it is said, "The wandering
sheep have ye not recalled"? In the case also of those already become
catholic Christians, and believers of good promise, evils sometimes occur:
they are seduced into error, and after their error are restored. When they
were thus seduced, and were rebaptized, or after the companionship of the
Lord's fold were turned back again into their former error, were they
sheep, or were they not? Certainly they were catholics. If they were
faithful catholics, they were sheep. If they were sheep, how was it that
they could listen to the voice of a stranger when the Lord saith, "The
sheep did not hear them"?

   12. You hear, brethren, the great importance of the question. I say
then, "The Lord knoweth them that are His."(3) He knoweth those who were
foreknown, He knoweth those who were predestinated; because it is said of
Him, "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to
the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He
called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also
glorified. If God be for us, who can be against us?" Add to this: "He that
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how hath He not
with Him also freely given us all things?" But what "us"? Those who are
foreknown, predestinated, justified, glorified; regarding whom there
follows, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?"(1)
Therefore "the Lord knoweth them that are His;" they are the sheep. Such
sometimes do not know themselves, but the Shepherd knoweth them, according
to this predestination, this foreknowledge of God, according to the
election of the sheep before the foundation of the world: for so saith also
the apostle, "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world."(2) According, then, to this divine foreknowledge and
predestination, how many sheep are outside, how many wolves within! and how
many sheep are inside, how many wolves without! How many are now living in
wantonness who will yet be chaste! how many are blaspheming Christ who will
yet believe in Him! how many are giving themselves to drunkenness who will
yet be sober! how many are preying on other people s property who will yet
freely give of their own! Nevertheless at present they are hearing the
voice of another, they are following strangers. In like manner, how many
are praising within who will yet blaspheme; are chaste who will yet be
fornicators; are sober who will wallow hereafter in drink; are standing who
will by and by fall! These are not the sheep. (For we speak of those who
were predestinated,--of those whom the Lord knoweth that they are His.) And
yet these, so long as they keep right, listen to the voice of Christ. Yea,
these hear, the others do not; and yet, according to predestination, these
are not sheep, while the others are.

   13. There remains still the question, which I now think may meanwhile
thus be solved. There is a voice of some kind,--there is, I say, a certain
kind of voice of the Shepherd, in respect of which the sheep hear not
strangers, and in respect of which those who are not sheep do not hear
Christ. What a word is this! "He that endureth to the end, the same shall
be saved."(3) No one of His own is indifferent to such a voice, a stranger
does not hear it: for this reason also does He announce it to the former,
that he may abide  perseveringly with Himself to the end; but  by one who
is wanting in such persevering continuance with Him, such a word remains
unheard. One has come to Christ, and has  heard word after word of one kind
and another, all of them true, all of them salutary; and among all the rest
is also this utterance, "He that endureth to the end, the same shall be
saved." He who has heard this is one of the sheep. But there was, perhaps,
some one listening to it, who treated it with dislike, with coldness, and
heard it as that of a stranger. If he was predestinated, he strayed for the
time, but he was not lost for ever: he returns to hear what he has
neglected, to do what he has heard. For if he is one of those who are
predestinated, then both his very wandering and his future conversion have
been foreknown by God: if he has strayed away, he will return to hear that
voice of the Shepherd, and to follow Him who saith, "He that endureth to
the end, the same shall be saved." A good voice, brethren, it is; true and
shepherd-like, the very voice of salvation in the tabernacles of the
righteous.(4) For it is easy to hear Christ, easy to praise the gospel,
easy to applaud the preacher: but to endure unto the end, is peculiar to
the sheep who hear the Shepherd's voice. A temptation befalls thee, endure
thou to the end, for the temptation will not endure to the end. And what is
that end to which thou shalt endure? Even till thou reachest the end of thy
pathway. For as long as thou hearest not Christ, He is thine adversary in
the pathway, that is, in this mortal life. And what doth He say? "Agree
with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him."(5) Thou
hast heard, hast believed, hast agreed. If thou hast been at enmity, agree.
If thou hast got the opportunity of coming to an agreement, keep not up the
quarrel longer. For thou knowest not when thy way will be ended, and it is
known to Him. If thou art a sheep, and if thou endurest to the end, thou
shalt be saved: and therefore it is that His own despise not that voice,
and strangers hear it not. According to my ability, as He gave me the
power, I have either explained to you or gone over with you a subject of
great profundity. If any have failed fully to understand, let him retain
his piety, and the truth will be revealed: and let not those who have
understood vaunt themselves as swifter at the expense of the slower, lest
in their vaunting they turn out of the track, and the slower more easily
attain the goal. But let all of us be guided by Him to whom we say, "Lead
me, O Lord, in Thy way, and I will walk in Thy truth."(6)

   14. By this, then, which the Lord hath explained, that He Himself is
the door, let us find entrance to what He has set forth, but not explained.
And indeed who it is that is the Shepherd, although He hath not told us in
the lesson we have read to-day, yet in that which follows He very plainly
tells us: "I am the good Shepherd." And although He had not said so, whom
else but Himself ought we to have understood in those words where He saith,
"He that entereth in by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep. To Him the
porter openeth: and the sheep hear His voice: and He calleth His own sheep
by name, and leadeth them out. And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He
goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice"? For
who else calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them hence unto eternal
life, but He who knoweth the names of those that are fore-ordained? Hence
He said to His disciples, "Rejoice that your names are written in
heaven;"(1) for from this it is that He calleth them by name. And who else
putteth them forth, save He who putteth away their sins, that, freed from
their grievous fetters, they may be able to follow Him? And who hath gone
before them to the place whither they are to follow Him, but He who, rising
from the dead, dieth no more; and death shall have no more dominion over
Him;(2) and who, when He was manifest here in the flesh, said, "Father, I
will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am"?(3)
Hence it is that He saith, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he
shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." In this He
clearly shows that not only the Shepherd, but the sheep also enter in by
the door.

   15. But what is this, "He shall go in and out, and find pasture"? To
enter indeed into the Church by Christ the door, is eminently good; but to
go out of the Church, as this same John the evangelist saith in his
epistle, "They went out from us, but they were not of us,"(4) is certainly
otherwise than good. Such a going out could not then be commended by the
good Shepherd, when He said, "And he shall go in and out, and find
pasture." There is therefore not only some sort of entrance, but some
outgoing also that is good, by the good door, which is Christ. But what is
that praiseworthy and blessed outgoing? I might say, indeed, that we enter
when we engage in some inward exercise of thought; and go out, when we take
to some active work without: and since, as the apostle saith, Christ
dwelleth in our hearts by faith,(5) to enter by Christ is to give ourselves
to thought in accordance with that faith; but to go out by Christ is, in
accordance also with that same faith, to take to outside works, that is to
say, in the presence of others. Hence, also, we read in a psalm, "Man goeth
forth to his work;"(6) and the Lord Himself saith, "Let your works shine
before men."(7) But I am better pleased that the Truth Himself, like a good
Shepherd, and therefore a good Teacher, hath in a certain measure reminded
us how we ought to understand His words, "He shall go in and out, and find
pasture," when He added in the sequel, "The thief cometh not, but for to
steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it more abundantly." For He seems to me to have
meant, That they may have life in coming in, and have it more abundantly at
their departure. For no one can pass out by the door--that is, by Christ--
to that eternal life which shall be open to the sight, unless by the same
door--that is, by the same Christ--he has entered His church, which is His
fold, to the temporal life, which is lived in faith. Therefore, He saith,
"I am come that they may have life," that is, faith, which worketh by
love;(8) by which faith they enter the fold that they may live, for the
just liveth by faith:(9) "and that they may have it more abundantly," who,
enduring unto the end, pass out by this same door, that is, by the faith of
Christ; for as true believers they die, and will have life more abundantly
when they come whither the Shepherd hath preceded them, where they shall
die no more. Although, therefore, there is no want of pasture even here in
the fold,--for we may understand the words "and shall find pasture" as
referring to both, that is, both to their going in and their going out,--
yet there only will they find the true pasture. where they shall be filled
who hunger and thirst after righteousness,(10)--such pasture as was found
by him to whom it was said, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise."(11)
But how He Himself is the door, and Himself the Shepherd, so that He also
may in a certain respect be understood as going in and out by Himself, and
who is the porter, it would be too long to inquire to-day, and, according
to the grace given us by Himself, to unfold in the way of dissertation.

TRACTATE XLVI: CHAPTER X. 11-13.

   1. THE Lord Jesus is speaking to His sheep--to those already so, and to
those yet to become such--who were then present; for in the place where
they were, there were those who were already His sheep, as well as those
who were afterwards to become so: and He likewise shows to those then
present and those to come, both to them and to us, and to as many also
after us as shall yet be His sheep, who it is that had been sent to them.
All, therefore, hear the voice of their Shepherd saying, "I am the good
Shepherd." He would not add "good," were there not bad shepherds. But the
bad shepherds are those who are thieves and robbers, or certainly hirelings
at the best. For we ought to examine into, to distinguish, and to know, all
the characters whom He has here depicted. The Lord has already unfolded two
points, which He had previously set forth in a kind of covert form: we
already know that He is Himself the door, and we know that He is Himself
the Shepherd. Who the thieves and robbers are, was made clear in
yesterday's lesson; and to-day we have heard of the hireling, as we have
heard also of the wolf. Yesterday the porter was also introduced by name.
Among the good, therefore, are the door, the doorkeeper, the shepherd, and
the sheep: among the bad, the thieves and robbers, the hirelings, and the
wolf.

   2. We understand the Lord Christ as the door, and also as the Shepherd;
but who is to be understood as the doorkeeper? For the former two, He has
Himself explained: the doorkeeper He has left us to search out for
ourselves. And what doth He say of the doorkeeper? "To him," He saith, "the
porter [doorkeeper](1) openeth." To whom cloth he open? To the Shepherd.
What doth he open to the Shepherd? The door. And who is also the door? The
Shepherd Himself. Now, if Christ the Lord had not Himself explained, had
not Himself said, "I am the Shepherd," and "I am the door," would any of us
have ventured to say that Christ is Himself both the Shepherd and the door?
For had He said, "I am the Shepherd," and had not said, "I am the door," we
should be setting ourselves to inquire what was the door, and perhaps,
mistaken in our views, be still standing before the door. His grace and
mercy have revealed to us the Shepherd, by His calling Himself so; have
revealed to us also the door, when declared Himself such; but He hath left
us to search out the doorkeeper for ourselves. Whom, then, are we to call
the doorkeeper? Whomsoever we fix upon, we must take care not to think of
him as greater than the door itself; for in men's houses the doorkeeper is
greater than the door. The doorkeeper is placed before the door, not the
door before the doorkeeper; because the porter keepeth the door, not the
door the porter. I dare not say that any one is greater than the door, for
I have heard already what is the door: that is no longer unknown to me, I
am not left to my own conjecture, and I have not got much room for mere
human guess work: God hath said it, the Truth hath said it, and we cannot
change what the Unchangeable hath uttered.

   3. In respect, then, of the profound nature of this question, I shall
tell you what I think: let each one make the choice that pleases him, but
let him think of it reverently; as it is written, "Think of the Lord with
goodness, and in simplicity of heart seek Him."(2) Perhaps we ought to
understand the Lord Himself as the doorkeeper: for the shepherd and the
door are in human respects as much different from each other as the
doorkeeper and the door; and yet the Lord has called Himself both the
Shepherd and the door. Why, then, may we not understand Him also as the
doorkeeper? For if we look at His personal qualities,(3) the Lord Christ is
neither a shepherd, in the way we are accustomed to know and to see
shepherds; nor is He a door, for no artisan made Him: but if, because of
some point of similarity, He is both the door and the Shepherd, I venture
to say, He is also a sheep. True, the sheep is under the shepherd; yet He
is both the Shepherd and a sheep. Where is He the Shepherd? Look, here thou
hast it; read the Gospel: "I am the good Shepherd." Where is He a sheep?
Ask the prophet: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter."(4) Ask the
friend of the bridegroom: "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin
of the world."(5) Moreover, I am going to say something of a still more
wonderful kind, in accordance with these points of similarity. For both the
lamb, and the sheep, and the shepherd are friendly with one another, but
from the lions as their foes the sheep are protected by their shepherds:
and yet of Christ, who is both sheep and Shepherd, we have it said, "The
Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed."(1) All this, brethren,
understand in connection with points of similarity, not with personal
qualities. It is a common thing to see the shepherds sitting on a rock, and
there guarding the cattle committed to their care. Surely the shepherd is
better than the rock that he sits upon; and yet Christ is both the Shepherd
and the rock. All this by way of comparison. But if thou askest me for His
peculiar personal quality:(2) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God."(3) If thou askest me for the personal
quality peculiarly His own: The only Son, from everlasting to everlasting
begotten of the Father, the equal of Him that begat, the Maker of all
things, unchangeable with the Father, unchanged by the assuming of human
form, man by incarnation, the Son of man, and the Son of God. All this that
I have said is not figure, but reality.

   4. Therefore, let us not, brethren, be disturbed in understanding Him,
in harmony with certain resemblances, as Himself the door, and also the
doorkeeper. For what is the door? The way of entrance. Who is the
doorkeeper? He who opens it. Who, then, is He that opens Himself, but He
who unveils Himself to sight? See, when the Lord spoke at first of the
door, we did not understand: so long as we did not understand, it was shut:
He who opened it is Himself the doorkeeper. There is no need, then, of
seeking any other meaning, no need; but perhaps there is the desire. If
there is so, quit not the path, go not outside of the Trinity. If thou art
in quest of some other impersonation of the doorkeeper, bethink thee of the
Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit will not think it unmeet to be the
doorkeeper, when the Son has thought it meet to be Himself the door. Look
at the doorkeeper as perhaps the Holy Spirit: about Him the Lord saith to
His disciples, "He shall guide you into all truth."(4) What is the door?
Christ. What is Christ? The Truth. Who, then, openeth the door, but He who
guideth into all truth?

   5. But what are we to say of the hireling? He is not mentioned here
among the good. "The good Shepherd," He says, "giveth His life for the
sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the Shepherd, whose own the
sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth;
and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep." The hireling does
not here bear a good character, and yet in some respects is useful; nor
would he be called an hireling, did he not receive hire from his employer.
Who then is this hireling, that is both blameworthy and needful? And here,
brethren, let the Lord Himself give us light, that we may know who the
hirelings are, and be not hirelings ourselves. Who then is the hireling?
There are some in office in the church, of whom the Apostle Paul saith,
"Who seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's." What means
that, "Who seek their own"? Who do not love Christ freely, who do not seek
after God for His own sake; who are pursuing after temporal advantages,
gaping for gain, coveting honors from men. When such things are loved by an
overseer, and for such things God is served, whoever such an one may be, he
is an hireling who cannot count himself among the children. For of such
also the Lord saith: "Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward."(5)
Listen to what the Apostle Paul says of St. Timothy: "But I trust in the
Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good
comfort, when I know your circumstances; for I have no man like-minded, who
will naturally(6) care for you. For all seek their own, not the things
which are Jesus Christ's."(7) The shepherd mourned in the midst of
hirelings. He sought some one who sincerely loved the flock of Christ, and
round about him, amongst those who were with him at that time, he found not
one. Not that there was no one then in the Church of Christ but the Apostle
Paul and Timothy, who had a brother's(8) concern for the flock; but it so
happened at the time of his sending Timothy, that he had none else of his
sons about him; only hirelings were with him, "who sought their own, not
the things which are Jesus Christ's." And yet he himself, with a brother's
anxiety for the flock, preferred sending his son, and remaining himself
amongst hirelings. Hirelings are also found among ourselves, but the Lord
alone distinguisheth them. He that searcheth the heart, distinguisheth
them; and yet sometimes we know them ourselves. For it was not without a
purpose that the Lord Himself said also of the wolves: "By their fruits ye
shall know them."(1) Temptations put many to the question, and then their
thoughts are made manifest; but many remain undiscovered. The Lord's fold
must have as overseers, both those who are children and those who are
hirelings. But the overseers, who are sons, are the shepherds. If they are
shepherds, how is there but one Shepherd, save that all of them are members
of the one Shepherd, to whom the sheep belong? For they are also members of
Himself as the one sheep; because "as a sheep he was led to the slaughter."

   6. But give heed to the fact that even the hirelings are needful. For
many indeed in the Church are following after earthly profit, and yet
preach Christ, and through them is heard the voice of Christ; and the sheep
follow, not the hireling, but the Shepherd's voice speaking through the
hireling. Hearken to the hirelings as pointed out by the Lord Himself: "The
scribes," He saith, "and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: do what they
say; but do not what they do."(2) What else said He but, Listen to the
Shepherd's voice speaking through the hirelings? For sitting in Moses'
seat, they teach the law of God; therefore God teacheth by them. But if
they wish to teach their own things, hear them not, do them not. For
certainly such seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's; but
no hireling has dared to say to Christ's people, Seek your own, not the
things which are Jesus Christ's. For his own evil conduct he does not
preach from the seat of Christ: he does injury by the evil that he does,
not by the good that he says. Pluck the grapes, beware of the thorn. It is
well I see that you have understood; but for the sake of those that are
slower, I shall repeat these words with greater plainness. How said I,
Pluck the bunch of grapes, beware of the thorn; when the Lord saith, "Do
men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles"? That is quite true: and
yet what I said is also true, Pluck the bunch of grapes, beware of the
thorn. For sometimes the grape-cluster, springing from the root of the
vine, finds its support in a common hedge; its branch, grows, becomes
embedded among thorns, and the thorn bears other fruit than its own. For
the thorn has not been produced from the vine, but has become the resting-
place of its runner. Make thine inquiries only at the roots. Seek for the
thorn-root, thou wilt find it apart from the vine: seek the origin of the
grape, and from the root of the vine it will be found to have sprung. And
so, Moses' seat  was the vine; the morals of the Pharisees were  the
thorns. Sound doctrine cometh through the wicked, as the vine-branch in a
hedge, a bunch of grapes among thorns. Gather care. fully, so as in seeking
the fruit not to tear thine hand; and while thou art to hear one speaking
what is good, imitate him not when doing what is evil. "What they tell you,
do,"--gather the grapes; "but what they do, do not,"--beware of the thorns.
Even through hirelings listen to the voice of the Shepherd, but be not
hirelings yourselves, seeing ye are members of the Shepherd. Yea, Paul
himself, the holy apostle who said, "I have no  one who hath a brother's
concern about you; for all seek their own, not the things which l are Jesus
Christ's," draws a distinction in another place between hirelings and sons;
and see what he saith: "Some preach Christ even of envy and strife, and
some also of good will: some of love, knowing that I am set for the defence
of the gospel; but some also preach Christ of contention, not sincerely,
supposing to add affliction to my bonds." These were hirelings who disliked
the Apostle Paul. And why such dislike, but just because they were seeking
after temporal things? But mark what he adds: "What then? notwithstanding,
every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached: and I
therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice."(3) Christ is the truth: let the
truth be preached in pretense by hirelings, let it be preached in truth by
the children: the children are waiting patiently for the eternal
inheritance of the Father, the hirelings are longing for, and in a hurry to
get, the temporal pay of their employer. For my part let me be shorn of the
human glory, which I see such an object of envy to hirelings: and yet by
the tongues both of hirelings and of children let the divine glory of
Christ be published abroad, seeing that, "whether in pretense or in truth,
Christ is preached."

   7. We have seen who the hireling is also. Who, but the devil, is the
wolf? And what was said of the hireling? "When he seeth the wolf coming, he
fleeth: but the sheep are not his own, and he careth not for the sheep."
Was the Apostle Paul such an one? Certainly not. Was Peter such an one? Far
from it. Was such the character of the other apostles, save Judas, the son
of perdition? Surely not. Were they shepherds then? Certainly they were.
And how is there one Shepherd? I have already said they were shepherds,
because members of the Shepherd. In that head they rejoiced, under that
head they were in harmony together, with one spirit they lived in the bond
of one body; and therefore belonged all of them to the one Shepherd. If,
then, they were shepherds, and not hirelings, wherefore fled they when
suffering persecution? Explain it to us, O Lord. In an epistle, I have seen
Paul fleeing: he was let down by the wall in a basket, to escape the hands
of his persecutor.(1) Had he, then, no care of the sheep, whom he thus
abandoned at the approach of the wolf? Clearly he had, but he commended
them by his prayers to the Shepherd who was sitting in heaven; and for
their advantage he preserved himself by flight, as he says in a certain
place, "To abide in the flesh is needful for you."(2) For all had heard
from the Shepherd Himself, "If they persecute you in one city, flee ye into
another."(3) May the Lord be pleased to explain to us this point! Lord,
Thou saidst to those whom Thou didst certainly wish to be faithful
shepherds, and whom Thou didst form into Thine own members, "If they
persecute you flee." Doest Thou, then, injustice to them, when Thou blamest
the hirelings who flee when they see the wolf coming! We ask Thee to tell
us what meaning lies hid in the depths of the question. Let us knock, and
the keeper of the door, which is Christ, will be here to reveal Himself.

   8. Who is the hireling that seeth the wolf coming, and fleeth? He that
seeketh his own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. He is one that
does not venture plainly to rebuke an offender.(4) Look, some one or other
has sinned--grievously sinned; he ought to be rebuked, to be
excommunicated: but once excommunicated, he will turn into an enemy, hatch
plots, and do all the injury he can. At present, he who seeketh his own,
not the things that are Jesus Christ's, in order not to lose what he
follows after, the advantages of human friendship, and incur the annoyances
of human enmity, keeps quiet and does not administer rebuke. See, the wolf
has caught a sheep by the throat; the devil has enticed a believer into
adultery: thou holdest thy peace--thou utterest no reproof. O hireling,
thou hast seen the wolf coming and hast fled! Perhaps he answers and says:
See, I am here; I have not fled. Thou hast fled, because thou hast been
silent; thou hast been silent, because thou hast been afraid. The flight of
the mind is fear. Thou stoodest with thy body, thou fleddest in thy spirit,
which was not the conduct of him who said, "Though I be absent in the
flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit."(5) For how did he flee in spirit,
who, though absent in the flesh, yet in his letters reproved the
fornicators? Our affections are the motions of our minds. Joy is expansion
of the mind; sorrow, contraction of the mind; desire, a forward movement of
the mind; and fear, the flight of the mind. For thou art expanded in mind
when thou art glad; contracted in mind when thou art in trouble; thou
movest forward in mind when thou hast an earnest desire; and thou fleest in
mind when thou art afraid. This, then, is how the hireling is said to flee
at the sight of the wolf. Why? "Because he careth not for the sheep." Why
"careth he not for the sheep"? "Because he is an hireling." What is that,
"he is an hireling"? He seeketh a temporal reward, and shall not dwell in
the house for ever. There are still some things here to be inquired about
and discussed with you, but it is not prudent to burden you. For we are
ministering the Lord's food to our fellow-servants; we feed as sheep in the
Lord's pastures, and are fed together. And just as we must not withhold
what is needful, so our weak hearts are not to be overcharged with the
abundance of provisions. Let it not then annoy your Charity that I do not
take up to-day all that I think is still here to be discussed; but the same
lesson will, in the Lord's name, be read over to us again on the preaching
days, and be, with His help, more carefully considered.

TRACTATE XLVII: CHAPTER X. 14-21.

   1. Those of you who hear the word of our God, not only with
willingness, but also with attention, doubtless remember our promise.
Indeed the same gospel lesson has also been read to-day which was read last
Lord's day; because, having lingered over certain closely related topics,
we could not discuss all that we owed to your powers of understanding.
Accordingly, what has been already said and discoursed about we do not
inquire into today, lest by continual repetitions we should be prevented
from reaching what has still to be spoken. You know now in the Lord's name
who is the good Shepherd, and in what way good shepherds are His members,
and therefore the Shepherd is one. You know who is the hireling we have to
bear with; who the wolf, and the thieves, and the robbers we have to beware
of; who are the sheep, and what is the door whereby both sheep and shepherd
enter: how we are to understand the doorkeeper. You know also that every
one who entereth not by the door is a thief and a robber, and cometh not
but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. All these sayings have, as I
think, been sufficiently handled. To-day we ought to tell you, as far as
the Lord enables us (for Jesus Christ our Saviour hath Himself told us that
He is both the Shepherd and the door, and that the good Shepherd entereth
in by the door), how it is that He entereth in by Himself. For if no one is
a good shepherd but he that entereth by the door, and He Himself is
preeminently the good Shepherd, and also Himself the door, I can understand
it only in this way, that He entereth in by Himself to His sheep, and
calleth them to follow Him, and they, going in and out, find pasture, which
is to say, eternal life.

   2. I proceed, then, without more delay. When I seek to get into you,
that is, into your heart, I preach Christ: were I preaching  something
else, I should be trying to climb up some other way. Christ, therefore, is
my gate to you: by Christ I get entrance, not to your houses, but to your
hearts. It is by Christ I enter: it is Christ in me that you have been
willingly hearing. And why is it you have thus willingly hearkened to
Christ in me? Because you are the sheep of Christ, purchased with the blood
of Christ. You acknowledge your own price, which is not paid by me, but is
preached by my instrumentality. He, and only He, was the buyer, who shed
precious blood--the precious blood of Him who was without sin. Yet made He
precious also the blood of His own, for whom He paid the price of blood:
for had He not made the blood of His own precious, it would not have been
said, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."(1) So
also when He saith, "The good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep," He
is not the only one who has done such a deed; and yet if those who have
done so are His members, He only Himself was the doer of it. For He was
able to do so without them, but whence had they the power apart from Him,
who Himself had said, "Without me ye can do nothing"?(2) But from the same
source we can show what others also have done, for the apostle John
himself, who preached the very gospel you have been hearing, has said in
his epistle, "Just as Christ laid down His life for us, so ought we also to
lay down our lives for the brethren."(3) "We ought," he says: He made us
debtors who first set the example. To the same effect it is written in a
certain place, "If thou sittest down to sup at a ruler's table, make wise
observation of what is set before thee; and put to thy hand, knowing that
it will be thy duty to make similar provision in turn."(4) You know what is
meant by the ruler's table: you there find the body and blood of Christ;
let him who comes to such a table be ready with similar provision. And what
is such similar provision? As fire laid down His life for us, so ought we
also, for the edification of others, and the maintenance of the faith,(5)
to lay down our lives far the brethren. To the same effect He said to
Peter, whom He wished to make a good shepherd. not in Peter's own person,
but as a member of His body: "Peter, lovest thou me? Feed my sheep." This
He did once, again, and a third time, to the disciple's sorrow. And when
the Lord had questioned him as often as lie judged it needful, that he who
had thrice denied might thrice confess Him, and had a third time given him
the charge to feed His sheep, He said to him, "When thou wast young, thou
girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shall
be old, thou shall stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee,
and carry thee whither thou wouldest not." And the evangelist has explained
the Lord's meaning: "But this spake He, signifying by what death he should
glorify God."(6) "Feed my sheep" applies, then, to this, that thou shouldst
lay down thy life for my sheep.

   3. And now when He saith, "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the
Father," who can be ignorant of His meaning? For He knoweth the Father by
Himself, and we by Him. That He hath knowledge by Himself, we know already:
that we also have knowledge by Him, we have likewise learned, for this also
we have learned of Him. For He Himself hath said: "No one hath seen God at
any time; but the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He
hath declared Him."(1) And so by Him do we also get this knowledge, to whom
He hath declared Him. In another place also He saith: "No one knoweth the
Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any one the Father, save the Son, and
he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him."(2) As He then knoweth the Father
by Himself, and we know the Father by Him; so into the sheepfold He
entereth by Himself, and we by Him. We were saying that by Christ we have a
door of entrance to you; and why? Because we preach Christ. We preach
Christ; and therefore we enter in by the door. But Christ preacheth Christ,
for He preacheth Himself; and so the Shepherd entereth in by Himself. When
the light shows the other things that are seen in the light, does it need
some other means of being made visible itself? The light, then, exhibits
both other things and itself. Whatever we understand, we understand with
the intellect: and how, save by the intellect, do we understand the
intellect itself? But does one in the same way with the bodily eye see both
other things and [the eye] itself? For though men see with their eyes, yet
their own eyes they see not. The eye of the flesh sees other things, itself
it cannot [see]: but the intellect understands itself as well other things.
In the same way as the intellect seeth itself, so also cloth Christ preach
Himself. If He preacheth Himself, and by preaching entereth into thee, He
entereth into thee by Himself. And He is the door to the Father, for there
is no way of approach to the Father but by Him. "For there is one God and
one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."(3) Many things are
expressed by a word: all that I have just said, I have said, of course, by
means of words. If I were wishing to speak also of a word itself, how could
I do so but by the use of the word? And thus both many things are expressed
by a word, which are not the same as the word, and the word itself can only
be expressed by means of the word. By the Lord's help we have been copious
in illustration. Remember, then, how the Lord Jesus Christ is both the door
and the Shepherd: the door, in presenting Himself to view; the Shepherd, in
entering in by Himself. And indeed, brethren, because He is the Shepherd,
He hath given to His members to be so likewise. For both Peter, and Paul,
and the other apostles were, as all good bishops are, shepherds. But none
of us calleth himself the door. This--the way of entrance for the sheep--He
has retained as exclusively belonging to Himself. In short, Paul discharged
the office of a good shepherd when he preached Christ, because he entered
by the door. But when the undisciplined sheep began to create schisms, and
to set up other doors before them, not of entrance to their joint assembly,
but for falling away into divisions, saying, some of them, "I am of Paul;"
others, "I am of Cephas;" others," I of Apollos;" others, "I of Christ:"
terrified for those who said, "I am of Paul,"--as if calling out to the
sheep, Wretched ones, whither are you going? I am not the door,--he said,
"Was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?"(4)
But those who said, "I am of Christ," had found the door.

   4. But of the one sheepfold and of the one Shepherd, you are now indeed
being constantly reminded; for we have commended much the one sheepfold,
preaching unity, that all the sheep should enter by Christ, and none of
them should follow Donatus. Nevertheless, for what particular reason this
was said by the Lord, is sufficiently apparent. For He was speaking among
the Jews, and had been specially sent to the Jews, not for the sake of that
class who were bound up in their inhuman hatred and persistently abiding in
darkness, but for the sake of some in the nation whom He calls His sheep:
of whom He saith, "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel."(5) He knew them even amid the crowd of His raging foes, and
foresaw them in the peace of believing. What, then, does He mean by saying,
"I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," but that He
exhibited His bodily presence only to the people of Israel? He did not
proceed Himself to the Gentiles, but sent: to the people of Israel He both
sent and came in person, that those who proved despisers should receive the
greater judgment, because favored also with the sight of His actual
presence. The Lord Himself was there: there He chose a mother: there He
wished to be conceived, to be born, to shed His blood: there are His
footprints,(6) now objects of adoration where last He stood, and whence He
ascended to heaven: but to the Gentiles He only sent.

   5. But perhaps some one thinks that, as He Himself came not to us, but
sent, we have not heard His own voice, but only the voice of those whom He
sent. Far from it: let such a thought be banished from your hearts; for He
Himself was in those whom He sent. Listen to Paul himself whom He sent; for
Paul was specially sent as an apostle to the Gentiles; and it is Paul who,
terrifying them not with himself but with Him saith, "Do ye wish to receive
a proof of Him who speaketh in me, that is, of Christ?"(1) Listen also to
the Lord Himself. "And other sheep I have," that is, among the Gentiles,
"which are not of this fold," that is, of the people of Israel: "them also
must I bring." Therefore, even when it is by the instrumentality of His
servants, it is He and not another that bringeth them. Listen further:
"They shall hear my voice." See here also, it is He Himself who speaks by
His servants, and it is His voice that is heard in those whom He sends.
"That there may be one fold, and one shepherd." Of these two flocks, as of
two walls, is the corner-stone formed.(2) And thus is He both door and the
corner-stone: all by way of comparison, none of them literally.

   6. For I have said so before, and earnestly pressed it on your notice,
and those who comprehend it are wise, yea, those who are wise do comprehend
it; and yet let those who are not yet intellectually enlightened, keep hold
by faith of what they cannot as yet understand. Christ is many things
metaphorically, which strictly speaking(3) He is not. Metaphorically Christ
is both a rock, and a door, and a corner-stone, and a shepherd, and a lamb,
and a lion. How numerous are such similitudes, and as many more as would
take too long to enumerate! But if you select the strict significations of
things as you are accustomed to see them, then He is neither a rock, for He
is not hard and senseless; nor a door, for no artisan made Him; nor a
corner-stone, for He was not constructed by a builder; nor a shepherd, for
He is no keeper of four-footed animals; nor a lion, as it ranks among the
beasts of the forest; nor a lamb, as it belongs to the flock. All such,
then, are by way of comparison. But what is He properly? "In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God [God was the
Word]." And what, as He appeared in human nature? "And the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us [in us]."(4)

   7. Hear also what follows. "Therefore doth my Father love me," He
saith, "because I lay down my life. that I might take it again." What is
this that He says? "Therefore doth my Father love me:" because I die, that
I may rise again.(5) For the "I" is uttered with special emphasis: "Because
I lay down," He saith, "I lay down my life," "I lay down." What is that "I
lay down"? I Lay it down. Let the Jews no longer boast: they might rage,
but they could have no power: let them rage as they can; if I were
unwilling to lay down my life, what would all their raging effect? By one
answer of His they were prostrated in the dust: when they were asked, "Whom
seek ye?" they said, "Jesus;" and on His saying to them, "I am He, they
went backward, and fell to the ground."(6) Those who thus fell to the
ground at one word of Christ when about to die, what will they do at the
sound of His voice when coming to judgment? "I, I," I say, "lay down my
life, that I may take it again." Let not the Jews boast, as if they had
prevailed; He Himself laid down His life. "I laid me down [to sleep]," He
says [elsewhere]. You know the psalm: "I laid me down and slept; and I
awaked [rose up], for the Lord sustaineth me." What of that--"I lay down"?
Because it was my pleasure, I did so. What does "I lay down" mean? I died.
Was it not a lying down to sleep on His part, who, when He pleased, rose
from the tomb as He would from a bed? But He loves to give glory to the
Father, that He may stir us up to glorify our Creator. For in adding, "I
arose, for the Lord sustaineth me;" think you there was here a kind of
failing in His power, so that, while He had it in His own power to die, He
had it not in His power to rise again? So, indeed, the words seem to imply
when not more closely considered. "I lay down to sleep;" that is, I did so,
because I pleased. "And I arose:" why? "Because the Lord sustaineth [will
sustain] me."(7) What then? wouldst Thou not have power to rise of Thyself?
If Thou hadst not the power, Thou wouldst not have said, "I have power to
lay down my life, and I have power to take it again." But, as showing that
not only did the Father raise the Son, but the Son also raised Himself,
hear how, in another passage in the Gospel, He saith, "Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up." And the evangelist adds: "But this
He spake of the temple Of is body."(1) For only that which died was
restored to life. The Word is not mortal, His soul is not mortal. If even
thine dieth not, could the Lord's be subject to death?

   8. How can I know, thou wilt say, that mine dieth not? Slay it not
thyself, and it cannot die. How, thou asketh, can I slay my soul? To say
nothing. meanwhile of other sins, "The mouth that lieth, slayeth the
soul."(2) How, thou sayest, can I be sure that it dieth not? Listen to the
Lord Himself giving security to His servant: "Be not afraid of them that
kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do." But what in
the plainest terms does He say? "Fear Him who hath power to slay both soul
and body in hell."(3) Here you have the fact that it dieth, and that it
doth not die. What is its dying? What is dying to thy flesh? Dying, to thy
flesh, is the losing of its life: dying to thy soul, is the losing of its
life. The life of thy flesh is thy soul: the life of thy soul is thy God.
As the flesh dies in losing the soul, which is its life, so the soul dieth
in losing God, who is its life. Of a certainty, then, the soul is immortal.
Manifestly immortal, for it liveth even when dead. For what the apostle
said of the luxurious widow, may also be said of the soul if it has lost
its God, "she is dead while she liveth."(4)

   9. How, then, does the Lord lay down His life [soul]?(5) Let us,
brethren, inquire into this a little more carefully. The time is not so
pressing as is usual on the Lord's day: we have leisure. and theirs will be
the profit who have assembled to-day also to wait on the Word of God. "I
lay down my life," He says. Who lays down? What lays He down? What is
Christ? The Word and man. Not man as being flesh alone: but as man consists
of flesh and soul, so, in Christ there is a complete humanity. For He would
not have assumed the baser part, and left the better behind, seeing that
the soul of man is certainly superior to the body. Since, then, there is
entire manhood in Christ, what is Christ? The Word, I repeat, and man. What
is the Word and man? The Word soul, and flesh. Keep hold of that, for there
has been no lack of heretics on this point also, expelled as they were some
time ago from the catholic truth, but still persisting, like thieves and
robbers who enter not by the door, to lay their snares around the fold.
These heretics are termed Apollinarians,(6) and have ventured to assert
dogmatically that Christ is only the word and flesh, and contend that He
did not assume a human soul. And yet some of them could not deny that there
was a soul in Christ. See their intolerable absurdity and madness. They
would have Him to possess an irrational soul, but deny Him a rational one.
They allowed Him a mere animal, they deprived Him of a human, soul. But
they took away Christ's reason by losing their own. Let it be otherwise
with us, who have been nourished and established in the catholic faith.
Accordingly, on this occasion I would remind your Charity, that, as in
former lectures, we have given you sufficient instruction against the
Sabellians and Arians,--the Sabellians, who say, The Father is the same as
the Son--the Arians, who say, The Father is one being, the Son is another,
as if the Father and Son were not of the same substance--and also, provided
you remember as you ought, against the Photinian heretics, who have
asserted that Christ was mere man, and destitute of Godhead:(7) and against
the Manicheans, who maintain that He was God only without any true
humanity: we may, on this occasion, in speaking about the soul, give you
some instruction also in opposition to the Apollinarians, who say that our
Lord Jesus Christ had no human soul, that is, a rational intelligent soul,-
-that soul, I mean, by which, as men, we differ from the brutes.

   10. In what sense, then, did our Lord say here, "I have power to lay
down my soul [life]"? Who lays down his soul, and takes it again? Is it as
being the Word that Christ does so? Or is it the human soul He possesses
that lays down and resumes its own existence? Or is it His fleshly nature
that lays down its life and takes it again? Let us sift each of the three
questions I have suggested, and choose that which conforms to the standard
of truth. For if we say that the Word of God laid down His soul, and took
it again, we should have to fear the entrance of a wicked thought, and have
it said to us: Then there was a time when that soul was separated from the
Word, and a time, after His assumption of that soul, when He was without a
soul. I see, indeed, that the Word was once without a human soul, but only
so, when "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God." But from the time that the Word was made flesh, to dwell
amongst us,(1) and manhood was assumed by the Word, that is, our whole
nature, soul and flesh, what more could His passion and death do than
separate the body from the soul? It separated not the soul from the Word.
For if the Lord died, yea, because He died (for He did so for us on the
cross), doubtless His flesh breathed out that which was its life: for a
short time the soul forsook the flesh, although destined by its own return
to raise the flesh again to life. But I cannot say that the soul was
separated from the Word. He said to the soul of the thief, "To-day shalt
thou be with me in paradise."(2) He forsook not the believing soul of the
robber, and did He abandon His own? Surely not; but when the Lord took that
of the other into His keeping, He certainly retained His own in
indissoluble union. If, on the other hand, we say that the soul laid down
and reassumed itself, we fall into the greatest absurdity; for what was not
separated from the Word, was inseparable from itself.

   11. Let us turn, then, to what is true and easily understood. Take the
case of any man, who does not consist of the word and soul and flesh, but
only of soul and flesh; and let us inquire how any such man lays down his
life. Can no ordinary man do so? Thou mayest say to me: No man has power to
lay down his life [soul], and to take it again. But were not a man able to
lay down his life, the Apostle John would not say, "As Christ laid down his
life for us, even so ought we also to lay down our lives for the
brethren."(3) Therefore may we also (if only we are filled with His
courage, for without Him we can do nothing) lay down our lives for the
brethren. When some holy martyr has laid down his life for the brethren,
who laid it down, and what laid he down? If we understand this, we shall
perceive in what sense it was said by  Christ, "I have power to lay down my
life."  Art thou prepared, O man, to die for Christ? I am prepared, he
replies. Let me repeat the question in other words. Art thou prepared to
lay down thy life for Christ? And to these words he makes me the same
reply, I am prepared, as he had, when I said, Art thou prepared to die? To
lay down one's life [soul], is, then, the same as to die. But in whose
behalf is the sacrifice in this case? For all men, when they die, lay down
their  life; but it is not all who lay it down for Christ. And no one has
power to resume what he has laid down. But Christ both laid it down for us,
and did so when it pleased Him; and when it pleased Him, He took it again.
To lay down one's soul then, is to die. As also the Apostle Peter said to
the Lord: "I will lay down my life [soul] for Thy sake;"(4) that is, I will
die for Thy sake. View it, then, as referable to the flesh: the flesh
layeth down its life, and the flesh taketh it again; not, indeed, the flesh
by its own power, but by the power of Him that inhabiteth it. The flesh,
then, layeth down its life in expiring. Look at the Lord Himself on the
cross: He said, "I thirst:" those who were present dipped a sponge in
vinegar, fastened it to a reed, and applied it to His mouth; then, having
received it, He said, "It is finished;" meaning, All is fulfilled which had
been prophesied regarding me as, prior to my death, still in the future.
And because He had the power, when He pleased, to lay down His life, after
He had said, "It is finished," what adds the evangelist? "And He bowed His
head, and gave up the spirit."(5) This is to lay down the soul [life]. Only
let your Charity attend to this. "He bowed His head, and gave up the
spirit." Who gave up? what gave He up? He gave up the spirit; His flesh
gave it up. What means, the flesh gave it up? The flesh sent it forth,
breathed it out. For so, in becoming separated from the spirit, we are said
to expire. Just as getting outside the paternal soil is to be expatriated,
turning aside from the track is to deviate; so to become separated from the
spirit is to expire; and that  spirit is the soul [life]. Accordingly, when
the soul quits the flesh, and the flesh remains without the soul, then is a
man said to lay down his soul [his human life]. When did Christ lay down
His life? When it pleased the Word. For sovereign authority resided in the
Word; and therein lay the power to determine when the flesh should lay down
its life, and when it should take it again.

   12. If, then, the flesh laid down its life, how did Christ lay down His
life? For the flesh is not Christ. Certainly in this way, that Christ is
both flesh, and soul, and the Word; and yet these three things are not
three Christs, but one. Ask thine own human nature, and from thyself ascend
to what is above thee, and which, if not yet able to be understood, can at
least be believed. For in the same way that one man is soul and body, is
one Christ both the Word and man. Consider what I have said, and
understand. The soul and body are two things, but one man: the Word and man
are two things, but one Christ. Apply, then, the subject to any man. Where
is now the Apostle Paul? If one answer, At rest with Christ, he speaks
truly. And likewise, should one reply, In the sepulchre at Rome, he is
equally right. The one answer I get refers to his soul, the other to his
flesh. And yet we do not say that there are two Apostle Pauls, one who
rests in Christ, another who was laid in the sepulchre; although we may say
that the Apostle Paul liveth in Christ, and that the same apostle lieth
dead in the tomb. Some one dieth, and we say, He was a good man, and
faithful; he is in peace with the Lord: and then immediately, Let us attend
his obsequies, and lay him in the sepulchre. Thou art about to bury one
whom thou hadst just declared to be in peace with God; for the latter
regards the soul which blooms eternally, and the other the body, which is
laid down in corruption. But while the partnership of the flesh and soul
has received the name of man, the same name is now applied to either of
them, singly and by itself.

   13. Let no one, then, be perplexed, when he hears that the Lord has
said, "I lay down my life, and I take it again." The flesh layeth it down,
but by the power of the Word: the flesh taketh it again, but by the same
power. Even His own name, the Lord Christ, was applied to His flesh alone.
How can you prove it? says some one. We believe of a certainty not only in
God the Father, but also in Jesus Christ His Son, our only Lord: and this
that I have just said contains the whole, in Jesus Christ His Son, our only
Lord. Understand that the whole is here: the Word, and soul, and flesh. At
all events thou confessest what is also held by the same faith, that thou
believest in that Christ who was crucified and buried. Ergo, thou deniest
not that Christ was buried; and yet it was the burial only of His flesh.
For had the soul been there, He would not have been dead: but if it was a
true death, and its resurrection real, it was previously without life in
the tomb; and yet it was Christ that was buried. And so the flesh apart
from the soul was also Christ, for it was only the flesh that was buried.
Learn the same likewise in the words of an apostle. "Let this mind," he
says, "be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of
God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Who, save Christ Jesus,
as respects His nature as the Word, is God with God? But look at what
follows: "But emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant;
being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man." And who
is this, but the same Christ Jesus Himself? But here we have now all the
parts, both the Word in that form of God which assumed the form of a
servant, and the soul and the flesh in that form of a servant which was
assumed by the form of God. "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto
death."(1) Now in His death, it was His flesh only that was slain by the
Jews. For if He said to His disciples, "Fear not them that kill the body,
but are not able to kill the soul,"(2) how could they do more in His own
case than kill the body? And yet in the slaying of His flesh, it was Christ
that was slain. Accordingly, when the flesh laid down its life, Christ laid
it down; and when the flesh, in order to its resurrection, assumed its
life, Christ assumed it. Nevertheless this was done, not by the power of
the flesh, but of Him who assumed both soul and flesh, that in them these
very things might receive fulfillment.

   14. "This commandment," He says, "have I received of my Father." The
Word received not the commandment in word, but in the only  begotten Word
of the Father every commandment resides. But when the Son is said to
receive of the Father what He possesses essentially in Himself, as it is
said, "As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to
have life in Himself,"(3) while the Son is Himself the life,there is no
lessening of His authority, but the setting forth of His generation. For
the Father added not after-gifts as to a son whose state was imperfect at
birth, but on Him whom He begat in absolute perfection He bestowed all
gifts in begetting. In this manner He gave Him equality with Himself, and
yet begat Him not in a state of inequality. But while the Lord thus spake,
for the light was shining in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it
not,(4) "there was a dissension again created among the Jews for these
sayings, and many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad: why hear ye
him?" This was the thickest darkness. Others said, "These are not the words
of him that hath a devil; can a devil open the eyes of the blind?" The eyes
of such were now begun to be opened.

TRACTATE XLVIII: CHAPTER X. 22-42.

   1. As I have already charged you, beloved, you ought steadfastly to
bear in mind that Saint John the evangelist would not have us be always
nourished with milk, but fed with solid food. Still, whoever is hardly able
as yet to partake of the solid food of God's word, let him find nourishment
in the milk of faith; and the word which he cannot understand, let him not
hesitate to believe. For faith is the deserving: understanding, the reward.
In the very labor of intent application the eye of our mind struggles(1) to
get rid of the foul films of human mists, and be cleared up to the word of
God. Labor, then, will not be declined if love is present; for you know
that he who loves his labor is insensible to its pain. For no labor is
grievous to those who love it. If cupidity on the part of the avaricious
endures so great toils, what in our case will not love endure?

   2. Listen to the Gospel: "And it was at Jerusalem the Encoenia."(2)
Encoenia was the festival of the dedication of the temple. For in Greek
kainos means new; and whenever there was some new dedication, it was called
Encoenia.(3) And now this word is come into common use; if one puts on a
new coat, he is said "encoeniare" (to renovate, or to hold an encoenia).
For the Jews celebrated in a solemn manner the day on which the temple was
dedicated; and it was the very feast day when the Lord spake what has just
been read.

   3. "It was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.
Then came the Jews round about Him, and said unto Him, How long dost thou
keep our mind in suspense? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." They
were not desiring the truth, but preparing a calumny. "It was winter," and
they were chill; because they were slow to approach that divine fire. For
to approach is to believe: he who believes, approaches; who denies,
retires. The soul is not moved by the feet, but by the affections. They had
become icy cold to the sweetness of loving Him, and they burned with the
desire of doing Him an injury. They were far away, while there beside Him.
It was not with them a nearer approach in believing, but the pressure of
persecution. They sought to hear the Lord saying, I am Christ; and probably
enough they only thought of the Christ in a human way. The prophets
preached Christ; but the Godhead of Christ asserted in the prophets and in
the gospel itself is not perceived even by heretics; and how much less by
Jews, so long as the vail is upon their heart?(4) In short, in a certain
place, the Lord Jesus, knowing that their views of the Christ were cast in
a human mould, not in the Divine, taking His stand on the human ground, and
not on that where along with the assumption of humanity He also continued
Divine, He said to them, "What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?"
Following their own opinion, they replied, "Of David." For so they had
read, and this only they retained; because while they read of His divinity,
they did not understand it. But the Lord, to pin them down to some inquiry
touching the divinity of Him whose apparent weakness they despised,
answered them: "How, then, doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The
LORD said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on my right hand, till I put Thine enemies
under Thy feet? If David, then, in spirit call Him Lord, how is He his
son?"(5) He did not deny, but questioned. Let no one think, on hearing
this, that the Lord Jesus denied that He was the Son of David. Had Christ
the Lord given any such denial, He would not have enlightened the blind who
so addressed Him. For as He was passing by one day, two blind men, who were
sitting by the wayside, cried out, "Have mercy upon us, thou Son of David."
And on hearing these words He had mercy on them. He stood still, healed,
enlightened them;(6) for He owned the name. The Apostle Paul also says,
"Who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;"(7) and in his
Epistle to Timothy, "Remember that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead,
[He that is] of the seed of David, according to my gospel."(8) For the
Virgin Mary drew her origin, and hence our Lord also, from the seed of
David.

   4. The Jews made this inquiry of Christ, chiefly in order that, should
He say, I am Christ, they might, in accordance with the only sense they
attached to such a name, that He was of the seed of David, calumniate Him
with aiming at the kingly power. There is more than this in His answer to
them: they wished to calumniate Him with claiming to be the Son of David.
He replied that He was the Son of God. And how? Listen: "Jesus answered
them, I tell you, and ye believe not: the works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me: but ye believe not; because ye are not of my
sheep." Ye have already learned above (in Lecture XLV.) who the sheep are:
be ye sheep. They are sheep through believing, sheep in following the
Shepherd, sheep in not despising their Redeemer, sheep in entering by the
door, sheep in going out and finding pasture, sheep in the enjoyment of
eternal life. What did He mean, then, in saying to them, "Ye are not of my
sheep"? That He saw them predestined to everlasting destruction, not won to
eternal life by the price of His own blood.

   5. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I
give unto them eternal life." This is the pasture. If you recollect, He had
said before, "And he shall go in and out, and find pasture." We have
entered by believing--we go out at death.(1) But as we have entered by the
door of faith, so, as believers, we quit the body; for it is in going out
by that same door that we are able to find pasture. The good pasture is
called eternal life; there no blade withereth--all is green and
flourishing. There is a plant commonly said to be ever-living; there only
is it found to live. "I will give," He says, "unto them," unto my sheep,
"eternal life." Ye are on the search for calumnies, just because your only
thoughts are of the life that is present.

   6. "And they shall never perish:" you may hear the undertone, as if He
had said to them, Ye shall perish for ever, because ye are not of my sheep.
"No one shall pluck them out of my hand." Give still greater heed to this:
"That which my Father gave me is greater than all."(2) What can the wolf
do? What can the thief and the robber? They destroy none but those
predestined to destruction. But of those sheep of which the apostle says,
"The Lord knoweth them that are His;"(3) and "Whom He did foreknow, them He
also did predestinate; and whom He did predestinate, them He also called;
and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He
also glorified;"(4)--there is none of such sheep as these that the wolf
seizes, or the thief steals, or the robber slays. He, who knows what He
gave for them, is sure of their number. And it is this that He says: "No
one shall pluck them out of my hand;" and in reference also to the Father,
"That which my Father gave me is greater than all." What did the Father
give to the Son that was greater than all? To be His own only-begotten Son.
What, then, means "gave"? Was He to whom He gave previously existent, or
gave He in the act of begetting? For if He previously existed to whom He
gave the gift of Sonship, there was a time when He was, and was not the
Son. Far be it from us to suppose that the Lord Christ ever was, and yet
was not the Son. Of us such a thing may be said: there was a time when we
were the sons of men, but were not the sons of God. For we are made the
sons of God by grace, but He by nature, for such was He born. And yet not
so, as that one may say, He did not exist till He was born; for He, who was
coeternal with the Father, was never unborn. Let him who is wise
understand: and whoever understands not, let him believe and be nourished,
and he will come to understanding. The Word of God was always with the
Father, and always the Word; and because the Word, therefore the Son. So
then, always the Son, and always equal. For it is not by growth but by
birth that He is equal, who was always born, the Son of the Father, God of
God, coeternal of the Eternal. But the Father is not God of(5) the Son: the
Son is God of(5) the Father; therefore in begetting the Son, the Father
"gave" Him to be God, in begetting He gave Him to be coeternal with
Himself, in begetting He gave Him to be His equal. This is that which is
greater than all. How is the Son the life, and the possessor of life? What
He has, He is: as for thee, thou art one thing, thou hast another. For
example, thou hast wisdom, but art thou wisdom itself? In short, because
thou thyself art not that which thou hast, shouldst thou lose what thou
hast, thou returnest to the state of no longer having it: and sometimes
thou re-acquirest, sometimes thou losest. As our eye has no light
inherently in itself, it opens, and admits it; it shuts, and loses it. It
is not thus that the Son of God is God--not thus that He is the Word of the
Father; and not thus is He the Word, that passes away with the sound but
that which abides in its birth. In such a way hath He wisdom that He is
Himself wisdom, and maketh men wise: and life, that He is Himself the life,
and maketh others alive. This is that which is greater than all. The
evangelist John himself looked to heaven and earth when wishing to speak of
the Son of God; he looked, and rose above them all. He thought on the
thousands of angelic armies above the heavens; he thought, and, like the
eagle soaring beyond the clouds, his mind overpassed the whole creation: he
rose beyond all that was great, and arrived at that which was greater than
all; and said, "In the beginning was the Word." But because He, of(1) whom
is the Word, is not of the Word, and the Word is of Him, whose Word He is;
therefore He says, "That which the Father gave me," namely, to be His Word,
His only-begotten Son, the brightness of His light, "is greater than all."
Therefore, "No one," He says, "plucketh my sheep out of my hand. No one can
pluck them out of my Father's hand."

   7. "Out of my hand," and "out of my Father's hand." What is this, "No
one plucketh them out of my hand," and "No one plucketh them out of my
Father's hand"? Have the Father and Son one hand, or is the Son Himself,
shall we say, the hand of His Father? If by hand we are to understand
power, the power of Father and Son is one; for their Godhead is one. But if
we mean hand in the way spoken of by the prophet, "And to whom is the arm
of the Lord revealed?"(2) the Father's hand is the Son Himself, which is
not to be so understood as if God had the human form, and, as it were,
bodily members: but that all things were made by Him. For men also are in
the habit of calling other men their hands, by whom they get done what they
wish. And sometimes also the very work done by a man's hand is called his
hand; as one is said to recognize his hand when he recognizes what he has
written. Since, then, there are many ways of speaking of the hand of a man,
who literally has a hand among the members of his body; how much rather
must there be more than one way of understanding it, when we read of the
hand of God, who has no bodily form? And in this way it is better here, by
the hand of the Father and Son, to understand the power of the Father and
the Son; lest, in taking here the hand of the Father as spoken of the Son,
some carnal thought also about the Son Himself should set us looking for
the Son as somehow to be similarly regarded as the hand of Christ.
Therefore, "no one plucketh them out of my Father's hand;" that is, no one
plucketh them from me.

  8. But that there may be no more room for hesitation, hear what follows:
"I and my Father are one." Up to this point the Jews were able to bear Him;
they heard, "I and my Father are one," and they bore it no longer; and
hardened in their own way, they had recourse to stones. "They took up
stones to stone Him." The Lord, because He suffered not what He was
unwilling to suffer, and only suffered what He was pleased to suffer, still
addresses them while desiring to stone Him. "The Jews took up stones to
stone Him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my
Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?  And they answered, For a
good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because that thou,
being a man, makest thyself God," Such was their reply to His words, "I and
my Father are one." You see here that the Jews understood what the Arians
understand not. For they were angry on this account, that they felt it
could not be said, "I and my Father are one," save where there was equality
of the Father and the Son.

   9. But see what answer the Lord gave to their dull apprehension. He saw
that they could not bear the brilliance of the truth, and He tempered it
with words. "Is it not written in your law," that is, as given to you,
"that I said, Ye are gods?"(3) And the Lord called all the Scriptures
generally, the law: although elsewhere He speaks more definitely of the
law, distinguishing it from the prophets; as it is said, "The law and the
prophets were until John;"(4) and "On these two commandments hang all the
law and the prophets."(5) Sometimes, however, He divided the same
Scriptures into three parts, as where He saith, "All things must be
fulfilled which were written in the law, and the prophets, and the psalms,
concerning me."(1) But now He includes the psalms also under the name of
the law, where it is written, "I said, Ye are gods. If He calleth them
gods, to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken: say
ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world. Thou
blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" If the word of God came
to men, that they might be called gods, how can the very Word of God, who
is with God, be otherwise than God? If by the word of God men become gods,
if by fellowship they become gods, can He by whom they have fellowship not
be God? If lights which are lit are gods, is the light which enlighteneth
not God? If through  being warmed in a way by saving fire they are
constituted gods, is He who gives them the warmth other than God? Thou
approachest the light and art enlightened, and numbered among the sons of
God; if thou withdrawest from the light, thou fallest into obscurity, and
art accounted in darkness; but that light approacheth not, because it never
recedeth from itself. If, then, the word of God maketh you gods, how can
the Word of God be otherwise than God? Therefore did the Father sanctify
His Son, and send Him into the world. Perhaps some one may be saying: If
the Father sanctified Him, was there then a time when He was not
sanctified? He sanctified in the same way as He begat Him. For in the act
of begetting He gave Him the power to be holy, because He begat Him in
holiness. For if that which is sanctified was unholy before, bow can we say
to God the Father, "Hallowed be Thy name"?(2)

   10. "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do,
though ye will not believe me, believe the works; that ye may know and
believe that the Father is in me, and I in Him." The Son says not, "the
Father is in me, and I in Him," as men can say it. For if we think well, we
are in God; and if we live well, God is in us: believers, by participating
in His grace, and being illuminated by Himself, are in Him, and He in us.
But not so is it with the only-begotten Son: He is in the Father, and the
Father in Him; as one who is equal is in him whose equal he is. In short,
we can sometimes say, We are in God, and God is in us; but can we say, I
and God are one? Thou art in God, because God contains thee; God is in
thee, because thou art become the temple of God: but because thou art in
God, and God is in thee, canst thou say, He that seeth me seeth God; as the
Only-begotten said, "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father also;"(3)
and "I and the Father are one"? Recognize the prerogative of the Lord, and
the privilege of the servant. The prerogative of the Lord is equality with
the Father: the privilege of the servant is fellowship with the Saviour.

   11. "Therefore they sought to apprehend Him." Would they had
apprehended by faith and understanding, not in wrath and murder! For now,
my brethren, when I speak thus, it is the weak one wishing to apprehend
what is strong, the small what is great, the fragile what is solid; and it
is we ourselves--both you who are of the same matter as I am, and I myself
who speak to you--who all wish to apprehend Christ. And what is it to
apprehend Him? [If] thou hast understood, thou hast apprehended. But not as
did the Jews: thou hast apprehended in order to possess, they wished to
apprehend in order to make away with Him. And because this was the kind of
apprehension they desired, what did He do to them? "He escaped out of their
hands." They failed to apprehend Him, because they lacked the hand  of
faith. The Word was made flesh; but it was no great task to the Word to
rescue His own flesh from fleshy hands. To apprehend the Word in the mind,
is the right apprehension of Christ.

   12. "And He went away again beyond Jordan, into the place where John at
first baptized; and there He abode. And many resorted unto Him, and said,
John, indeed; did no miracle." You remember what was said of John, that he
was a light, and bore witness to the day.(4) Why, then, say these among
themselves, "John did no miracle"? John, they say, signalized himself by no
miracle; he did not put devils to flight, he drove away no fever, he
enlightened not the blind, he raised not the dead, he fed not so many
thousand men with five or seven loaves, he walked not upon the sea, he
commanded not  the winds and the waves. None of these things did John, and
in all he said he bore witness to this man. By lamp-light we may advance to
the day. "John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man
were true." Here are those who apprehended in a different way from the
Jews. The Jews wished to apprehend one who was departing from them, these
apprehended one who remained with them. In a word, what is it that follows?
"And many believed on Him."

TRACTATE XLIX: CHAPTER XI. 1--54.

   1. Among all the miracles wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ, the
resurrection of Lazarus holds a foremost place in preaching. But if we
consider attentively who did it, our duty is to rejoice rather than to
wonder. A man was raised up by Him who made man: for He is the only One of
the Father, by whom, as you know, all things were made. And if all things
were made by Him, what wonder is it that one was raised by Him, when so
many are daily brought into the world by His power? It is a greater deed to
create men than to raise them again from the dead. Yet He deigned both to
create and to raise again; to create all, to resuscitate some. For though
the Lord Jesus did many such acts, yet all of them are not recorded; just
as this same St. John the evangelist himself testifies, that Christ the
Lord both said and did many things that are not recorded;(1) but such were
chosen for record as seemed to suffice for the salvation of believers. Thou
hast just heard that the Lord Jesus raised a dead man to life; and that is
sufficient to let thee know that, were He so pleased, He might raise all
the dead to life. And, indeed this very work has He reserved in His own
hands till the end of the world. For while you have heard that by a great
miracle He raised one from the tomb who had been dead four days, "the hour
is coming," as He Himself saith, "in the which all that are in the graves
shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." He raised one who was putrid,
and yet in that putrid carcase there was still the form of limbs; but at
the last day He will by a word reconstitute ashes into human flesh. But it
was needful then to do only some such deeds, that we, receiving them as
tokens of His power, may put our trust in Him, and be preparing for that
resurrection which shall be to life and not to judgment. So, indeed, He
saith, "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall
hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection
of damnation."(2)

   2. We have, however, read in the Gospel of three dead persons who were
raised to life by the Lord, and, let us hope, to some good purpose. For
surely the Lord's deeds are not merely deeds, but signs. And if they are
signs, besides their wonderful character, they have some real significance:
and to find out this in regard to such deeds is a somewhat harder task than
to read or hear of them. We were listening with wonder, as at the sight of
some mighty miracle enacted before our eyes, in the reading of the Gospel,
how Lazarus was restored to life. If we turn our thoughts to the still more
wonderful works of Christ, every one that believeth riseth again: if we all
consider, and understand that more horrifying kind of death, every one who
sinneth dies.(3) But every man is afraid of the death of the flesh; few, of
the death of the soul. In regard to the death of the flesh, which must
certainly come some time, all are on their guard against its approach: this
is the source of all their labor. Man, destined to die, labors to avert his
dying; and yet man, destined to live for ever, labors not to cease from
sinning. And when he labors to avoid dying, he labors to no purpose, for
its only result will be to put off death for a while, not to escape it; but
if he refrain from sinning, his toil will cease, and he shall live for
ever. Oh that we could arouse men, and be ourselves aroused along with
them, to be as great lovers of the life that abideth, as men are of that
which passeth away! What will a man not do who is placed under the peril of
death? When the sword was overhanging their heads, men have given up every
means of living they had in reserve. Who is there that has not made an
immediate surrender of all, to escape being slain? And, after all, he has
perhaps been slain. Who is there that, to save his life, has not been
willing at once to lose his means of living, and prefer a life of beggary
to a speedy death? Who has had it said to him, Be off to sea if you would
escape with your life, and has delayed to do so? Who has had it said to
him, Set to work if you would preserve your life, and has continued a
sluggard? It is but little that God requires of us, that we may live for
ever: and we neglect to obey Him. God says not to thee, Lose all you have,
that you may live a little time oppressed with toil; but, Give to the poor
of what you have, that you may live always exempt from labor. The lovers of
this temporal life, which is theirs, neither when, nor as long as they
wish, are our accusers; and we accuse not ourselves in turn, so sluggish
are we, so lukewarm about obtaining eternal life, which will be ours if we
wish it, and will be imperishable when we have it; but this death which we
fear, notwithstanding all our reluctance, will yet be ours in possession.

   3. If, then, the Lord in the greatness of His grace and mercy raiseth
our souls to life, that we may not die for ever, we may well understand
that those three dead persons whom He raised in the body, have some
figurative significance of that resurrection of the soul which is effected
by faith: He raised up the ruler of the synagogue's daughter, while still
lying in the house;(1) He raised up the widow's young son, while being
carried outside the gates of the city;(2) and He raised up Lazarus, when
four days in the grave. Let each one give heed to his own soul: in sinning
he dies: sin is the death of the soul. But sometimes sin is committed only
in thought. Thou hast felt delight in what is evil, thou hast assented to
its commission thou hast sinned; that assent has slain thee but the death
is internal, because the evil thought had not yet ripened into action. The
Lord intimated that He would raise such a soul to life, in raising that
girl, who had not yet been carried forth to the burial, but was lying dead
in the house, as if sin still lay concealed. But if thou hast not only
harbored a feeling of delight in evil, but hast also done the evil thing,
thou hast, so to speak, carried the dead outside the gate: thou art already
without, and being carried to the tomb. Yet such an one also the Lord
raised to life. and restored to his widowed mother. If thou hast sinned,
repent, and the Lord will raise thee up, and restore thee to thy mother
Church. The third example of death is Lazarus. A grievous kind of death it
is, and is distinguished as a habit of wickedness. For it is one thing to
fall into sin, another to form the habit of sinning. He who falls into sin,
and straightway submits to correction, will be speedily restored to life;
for he is not yet entangled in the habit, he is not yet laid in the tomb.
But he who has become habituated to sin, is buried, and has it properly
said of him, "he stinketh;" for his character, like some horrible smell,
begins to be of the worst repute. Such are all who are habituated to crime,
abandoned in morals. Thou sayest to such an one, Do not so. But when wilt
thou be listened to by one on whom the earth is thus heaped, who is
breeding corruption, and pressed down with the weight of habit? And yet the
power of Christ was not unequal to the task of restoring such an one to
life. We know, we have seen, we see every day men changing the very worst
of habits, and adopting a better manner of life than that of those who
blamed them. Thou detestedst such a man: look at the sister of Lazarus
herself (if, indeed, it was she who anointed the Lord's feet with ointment,
and wiped with her hair what she had washed with her tears), who had a
better resurrection than her brother; she was delivered from the mighty
burden of a sinful character. For she was a notorious sinner; and had it
said of her, "Her many sins are forgiven her, for she has loved much."(3)
We see many such, we know many: let none despair, but let none presume in
himself. Both the one and the other are sinful. Let thine unwillingness to
despair take such a turn as to lead thee to make choice of Him in whom
alone thou mayest well presume.

   4. So then the Lord also raised Lazarus to life. You have heard what
type of character he represents; in other words, what is meant by the
resurrection of Lazarus. Let us now, therefore, read over the passage; and
as there is much in this lesson clear already, we shall not go into any
detailed exposition, so as to take up more thoroughly the necessary points.
"Now a certain man was sick, [named] Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary
and Martha, his sisters." In the previous lesson you remember that the Lord
escaped from the hands of those who sought to stone Him, and went away
beyond Jordan, where John baptized.(4) When the Lord therefore had taken up
His abode there, Lazarus fall sick in Bethany, which was a town lying close
to Jerusalem.

   5. "But Mary was she who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His
feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters
sent unto Him, saying." We now understand whither it was they sent, namely,
where the Lord was; for He was away, as you know, beyond the Jordan. They
sent messengers to the Lord to tell Him that their brother was ill. He
delayed to heal, that He might be able to raise to life. But what was the
message sent by his sisters? "Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick."
They did not say, Come; for the intimation was all that was needed for one
who loved. They did not venture to say, Come and heal him: they ventured
not to say, Command there, and it shall be done here. And why not so with
them, if on these very grounds the centurion's faith was commended? For he
said, "I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof; but speak
the word only, and my servant shall be healed."(1) No such words said these
women, but only, "Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick." It is enough
that Thou knowest; for Thou art not one that loveth and forsaketh. But says
some one, How could a sinner be represented by Lazarus, and be so loved by
the Lord? Let him listen to Him, when He says, "I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners."(2) For had not God loved sinners, He would not
have come down from heaven to earth.

   6. "But when Jesus heard [that], He said, This sickness is not unto
death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified."
Such a glorifying of Himself did not add to His dignity, but benefited us.
Hence He says, "is not unto death," because even that death itself was not
unto death, but rather unto the working of a miracle whereby men might be
led to faith in Christ, and so escape the real death. And mark how the
Lord, as it were indirectly, called Himself God, for the sake of some who
deny that the Son is God. For there are heretics who make such a denial,
that the Son of God is God. Let them hearken here: "This sickness" He says.
"is not unto death, but for the glory of God." For what glory? For the
glory of what God? Hear what follows: "That the Son of God may be
glorified." "This sickness," therefore, He says, "is not unto death. but
for the glory of God, that the Son of God maybe glorified thereby." By
what? By that sickness.

   7. "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus." The one
sick, the others sad, all of them beloved: but He who loved them was both
the Saviour of the sick, nay more, the Raiser of the dead and the Comforter
of the sad. "When He heard therefore that he was sick, He abode then two
days still in the same place." They sent Him word: He abode where He was:
and the time ran on till four days were completed. And not in vain, were it
only that perhaps, nay that certainly, even the very number of days has
some sacramental significance. "Then after that He saith again to His
disciples, Let us go into Judea:" where He had been all but stoned, and
from which He had apparently departed for the very purpose to escape being
stoned. For as man He departed; but returned as if in forgetfulness of 'all
infirmity, to show His power. "Let us go," He said, "into Judea."

   8. And now see how the disciples were terrified at His words. "The
disciples say unto Him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone Thee, and
goest Thou thither again? Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the
day? "What means such. an answer? They said to Him, "The Jews of late
sought to stone Thee, and goest Thou thither again" to be stoned? And the
Lord, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? if any man walk in the day,
he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world: but if he walk
in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him." He spoke
indeed of the day, but to our understanding as if it were still the night.
Let us call upon the Day to chase away the night, and illuminate our hearts
with the light. For what did the Lord mean? As far as I can judge, and as
the height and depth of His meaning breaks into light, He wished to argue
down their doubting and unbelief. For they wished by their counsel to keep
the Lord from death, who had come to die, to save themselves from death. In
a similar way also, in another passage, St. Peter, who loved the Lord, but
did not yet fully understand the reason of His coming, was afraid of His
dying, and so displeased the Life, to wit, the Lord Himself; for when He
was intimating to the disciples what He was about to suffer at Jerusalem at
the hands of the Jews, Peter made reply among the rest, and said, "Far be
it from Thee, Lord; pity Thyself: this shall not be unto Thee." And at once
the Lord replied, "Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savorest not the
things that be of God, but those that be of men." And yet a little before,
in confessing the Son of God, he had merited commendation: for he heard the
words, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven."(3) To whom He had
said, "Blessed art thou," He now says, "Get thee behind me, Satan;" because
it was not of himself that he was blessed. But of what then? "For flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven." See,
this is how thou art blessed, not from anything that is thine own, but from
that which is mine. Not that I am the Father, but that all things which the
Father hath are mine.(1) But if his blessedness came from the Lord's own
working, from whose [working] came he to be Satan? He there tells us: for
He assigned the reason of such blessedness, when He said, "Flesh and blood
hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven:" that is
the cause of thy blessedness. But that I said, "Get thee behind me, Satan,
hear also its cause. For thou savorest not the things that be of God, but
those that be of men." Let no one then flatter himself: in that which is
natural to himself he is Satan, in that which is of God he is blessed. For
all that is of his own, whence comes it, but from his sin? Put away the
sin, which is thine own. Righteousness, He saith, belongeth unto me. For
what hast thou that thou didst not receive?(2) Accordingly, when men wished
to give counsel to God. disciples to their Master, servants to their Lord,
patients to their Physician, He reproved them by saying, "Are there not
twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not."
Follow me, if ye would not stumble: give not counsel to me, from whom you
ought to receive it. To what, then, refer the words, "Are there not twelve
hours in the day"? Just that to point Himself out as the day, He made
choice of twelve disciples. If I am the day, He says, and you the hours, is
it for the hours to give counsel to the day? The day is followed by the
hours, not the hours by the day. If these, then, were the hours, what in
such a reckoning was Judas? Was he also among the twelve hours? If he was
an hour, he had light; and if he had light, how was the Day betrayed by him
to death? But the Lord, in so speaking, foresaw, not Judas himself, but his
successor. For Judas, when he fell, was succeeded by Matthias, and the
duodenary number preserved.(3) It was not, then, without a purpose that the
Lord made choice of twelve disciples, but to indicate that He Himself is
the spiritual Day. Let the hours then attend upon the Day, let them preach
the Day, be made known and illuminated by the Day, and by the preaching of
the hours may the world believe in the Day. And so in a summary way it was
just this that He said: Follow me, if ye would not stumble.

   9. "And after that He saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but
I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." It was true what He said. To his
sisters he was dead, to the Lord he was asleep. He was dead to men, who
could not raise him again; but the Lord aroused him with as great ease from
the tomb as one arouseth a sleeper from his bed. Hence it was in reference
to His own power that He spoke of him as sleeping: for others also, who are
dead, are frequently spoken of in Scripture as sleeping; as when the
apostle says, "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning those who are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others who
have no hope."(4) Therefore he also spoke of them as sleeping, because
foretelling their resurrection. And so, all the dead are sleeping, both
good and bad. But just as, in the case of those who sleep and waken day by
day, there is a great difference as to what they severally see in their
sleep: some experience pleasant dreams; others. dreams so frightful that
the waking are afraid to fall asleep for fear of their recurrence: so every
individual sleeps and wakens in circumstances peculiar to himself. And
there is a difference as to the kind of custody one may be placed in, who
is afterwards to be taken before the judge. For the kind of custody in
which men are placed depends on the merits of the case: some are required
to be guarded by lictors, an office humane and mild, and becoming a
citizen; others are given up to subordinates;(5) some, again, are sent to
prison: and in the prison itself all are not thrust together into its
lowest dungeons, but dealt with in proportion to the merits and superior
gravity of the charges. As, then, there are different kinds of custody
among those engaged in official life, so there are different kinds of
custody for the dead, and differing merits in those who rise again. The
beggar was taken into custody, so was the rich man: but the one into
Abraham's bosom; the other, where he thirsted, and found not a drop of
water.(6)

   10. Therefore, to make this the occasion of instructing your Charity,
all souls have, when they quit this world, their different receptions. The
good have joy; the evil, torments. But when the resurrection takes place,
both the joy of the good will be fuller and the torments of the wicked
heavier, when they shall be tormented in the body. The holy patriarchs,
prophets, apostles, martyrs, and good believers, have been received into
peace; but all of them have still in the end to receive the fulfillment of
the divine promises; for they have been promised also the resurrection of
the flesh, the destruction of death, and eternal life with the angels. This
we have all to receive together; for the rest, which is given immediately
after death, every one, if worthy of it, receives when he dies. The
patriarchs first received it--think only from what they rest; the prophets
afterwards; more recently the apostles; still more lately the holy martyrs,
and day by day the good and faithful. Thus some have now been in that rest
for long, some not so long; others for fewer years, and others whose
entrance therein is still less than recent. But when they shall wake from
this sleep, they shall all together receive the fulfillment of the promise.

   11. "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of
sleep. Then said His disciples"--according to their understanding they
replied--"Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well." For the sleep of the sick
is usually a sign of returning health. "Howbeit Jesus spake of his death,
but they thought that He spake of the taking of rest in sleep. Then said
Jesus unto them plainly,"--for He said somewhat obscurely, "He sleepeth; "-
-therefore He said plainly, "Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes
that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe." I even know that he is
dead, and I was not there: for he had been reported not as dead, but sick.
But what could remain hid from Him who had created it, and into whose hands
the soul of the dying man had departed? This is why He said," I am glad for
your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe;" that they
might now begin to wonder that the Lord could assert his death, which He
had neither seen nor heard of. For here we ought specially to bear in mind
that as yet the disciples themselves, who already believed in Him, had
their faith built up by miracles: not that a faith, utterly wanting till
then, might begin to exist; but that what had previously come into being
might be increased; although He made use of such an expression as if only
then they would begin to believe. For He said not, "I am glad for your
sakes," that your faith may be increased or confirmed; but, "that ye may
believe;" which is to be understood as meaning, that your faith may be
fuller and more vigorous.

   12. "Nevertheless, let us go unto him. Then said Thomas, who is called
Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with
Him. Therefore Jesus came, and found that he had [lain] in the grave four
days already." Much might be said of the four days, according to the wont
of the obscure passages of Scripture, which bear as many senses as there is
diversity of those who understand them. Let us express also our opinion of
what is meant by one four days dead. For as in the former case of the..
blind man we understand in a way the human race, so in the case of this
dead man many perhaps are also to be understood; for one thing may be
signified by different figures. When a man is born, he is born already in a
state of death; for he inherits sin from Adam. Hence the apostle says: " By
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so that passed
upon all men, wherein all have sinned."(1) Here you have one day of death
because man inherits it from the seed stock of death. Thereafter he grows,
and begins to approach the years of reason that he may know the law of
nature, which every one has had implanted in his heart: What thou wouldst
not have done to thyself, do not to another. Is this learned from the pages
of a book, and not in a measure legible in our very nature? Hast thou any
desire to be robbed? Certainly not. See here, then, the law in thy heart:
What thou art unwilling to suffer, be unwilling to do. This law also is
transgressed by men; and here, then, we have the second day of death. The
law was also divinely given through Moses, the servant of God; and therein
it is said," Thou shall not kill; thou shall not commit adultery; thou
shall not bear false witness; honor thy father and mother; thou shall not
covet thy neighbor's property; thou shall not covet thy neighbor's
wife."(2) Here you have the written law, and it also is despised: this is
the third day of death. What remains? The gospel also comes, the kingdom of
heaven is preached, Christ is everywhere published; He threatens hell, He
promises eternal life; and that also is despised. Men transgress the
gospel; and this is the fourth day of death. Now he deservedly stinketh.
But is mercy to be denied to such? God forbid; for to raise such also from
the dead, the Lord thinks it not unfitting to come.

   13. "And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to comfort them
concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was
coming, went and met Him; but Mary sat [still] in the house. Then said
Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
But I know that even now, whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it
Thee:" She did not say, But even now I ask Thee to raise my brother to life
again. For how could she know if such a resurrection would be of benefit to
her brother? She only said, I know that Thou canst, and whatsoever Thou art
pleased, Thou doest: for Thy doing it is dependent on Thine own judgment,
not on my presumption. "But even now I know that, whatsoever Thou wilt ask
of God, God will give it Thee."

   14 "Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again." This was
ambiguous. For He said not, Even now I will raise thy brother; but, "Thy
brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto Him, I know that he shall rise
again in the resurrection, at the last day." Of that resurrection I am
sure, but uncertain about this. "Jesus saith unto her, I am the
resurrection." Thou sayest, My brother shall rise again at the last day:
true; but by Him, through whom he shall rise then, can he rise even now,
for "I," He says, "am the resurrection and the life." Give ear, brethren,
give ear to what He says. Certainly the universal expectation of the
bystanders was that Lazarus, one who had been dead four days,' would live
again; let us hear, and rise again. How many are there in this audience who
are crushed down under the weighty mass of some sinful habit! Perhaps some
are hearing me to whom it may be said, "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is
excess;"(2) and they say, We cannot. Some others, it may be, are nearing
me, who are unclean, and stained with lusts and crimes, and to whom it is
said, Refrain from such conduct, that ye perish not; and they reply, We
cannot give up our habits. O Lord, raise them again. "I am," He says, "the
resurrection and the life." The resurrection because the life.

   15. "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." What meaneth
this? "He that believeth in me, though he were dead," just as Lazarus is
dead, "yet shall he live;" for He is not the God of the dead, but of the
living. Such was the answer He gave the Jews concerning their fathers, long
ago dead, that is, concerning Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob: I am the! God
of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and! the God of Jacob: He is not the God
of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto u Him."(3) Believe then,
and though thou wert dead, yet shalt thou live: but if thou believest not,
even while thou livest thou art dead. Let us prove this likewise, that if
thou believest not, though thou belivest thou art dead. To one who was
delaying to follow Him, and saying, "Let me first go and bury my father,"
the Lord said, "Let the dead bury their dead; but come thou and follow
me."(4) There was there a dead man requiring to be buried, there were there
also dead men to bury the dead: the one was dead in the flesh, the others
in soul. And how comes death on the soul? When faith is wanting. How comes
death on the body? When the soul is wanting. Therefore thy soul's soul is
faith. "He that believeth in me," says Christ, though he were dead in the
flesh, yet shall he live in the spirit; till the flesh also rise again,
never more to die. This is "he that believeth in me," though he die, "yet
shall he live. And whosoever liveth" in the flesh, "and believeth in me,"
though he shall die in time on account of the death of the flesh, "shall
never die," because of the life of the spirit, and the immortality of the
resurrection. Such is the meaning of the words, "And whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto Him,
Yea, Lord, I have believed that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who
hast come into the world." When I believed this, I believed that Thou art
the resurrection, that Thou art the life: I believed that he that believeth
in Thee, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and
believeth in Thee, shall never die.

   16. "And when she had so said, she went ' her way, and called Mary her
sister silently, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee." It is
worthy of notice the way in which the whispering of her voice was
denominated silence. For how could she be silent, when she said, "The
Master is come, and calleth for thee"? It is also to be noticed why it is
that the evangelist has not said where, or when, or how the Lord called for
Mary; namely, that in order to preserve the brevity of the narrative, it
may rather be understood from the words of Martha.

   17. "As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto Him.
For Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was still in that place where
Martha met Him. The  Jews, then, who were with her in the house,  and
comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily, and went out,
followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave, to weep there." What cause
had the evangelist to tell us this? To show us what it was that  occasioned
the numerous concourse of people to be there when Lazarus was raised to
life. For the Jews, thinking that her reason for hastening away was to seek
in weeping the solace of her grief, followed her; that the great miracle of
one rising again who had been four days dead, might have the presence of
many witnesses.

   18. "Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell
down at His feet, saying unto Him, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my
brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews
also weeping, who were with her, He groaned in the spirit, and troubled
Himself,(1) and said, Where have ye laid him?" Something there is, did we
but know it, that He has suggested to us by groaning in the spirit, and
troubling Himself. For who could trouble Him, save He Himself? Therefore,
my brethren, first give heed here to the power that did so, and then look
for the meaning. Thou art troubled against thy will; Christ was troubled
because He willed. Jesus hungered, it is true, but because He willed; Jesus
slept, it is true, but because He willed; He was sorrowful, it is true, but
because He willed; He died, it is true, but because He willed: in His own
power it lay to be thus and thus affected or not. For the Word assumed soul
and flesh, fitting on Himself our whole human nature in the oneness of His
person. For the soul of the apostle was illuminated by the Word; so was the
soul of Peter, the soul of Paul, of the other apostles, and the holy
prophets,--the souls of all were illuminated by the Word; but of none was
it said, "The Word was made flesh;"(2) of none was it said," I and the
Father are one."(3) The soul and flesh of Christ is one person with the
Word of God, one Christ. And by this [Word] wherein resided the supreme
power, was infirmity made use of at the beck of His will; and in this way
"He troubled Himself."

   19. I have spoken of the power: look now to the meaning. It is a great
criminal that is signified by that four days' death and burial. Why is it,
then, that Christ troubleth Himself, but to intimate to thee how thou
oughtest to be troubled, when weighed down and crushed by so great a mass
of iniquity? For here thou hast been looking to thyself, been seeing thine
own guilt, been reckoning for thyself: I have done this, and God has spared
me; I have committed this, and He hath borne with me; I have heard the
gospel, and despised it; I have been baptized, and returned again to the
same course: what am I doing? whither am I going? how shall I escape? When
thou speakest thus, Christ is already groaning; for thy faith is groaning.
In the voice of one who groaneth thus, there comes to light the hope of his
rising again. If such faith is within. there is Christ groaning; for if
there is faith in us, Christ is in us. For what else says the apostle:
"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith."(4) Therefore thy faith in
Christ is Christ Himself in thy heart. This is why He slept in the ship;
and why, when His disciples were in danger and already on the verge of
shipwreck, they came to Him and awoke Him. Christ arose, laid His commands
on the winds and waves, and there ensued a great calm.(5) So also with
thee; the winds enter thy heart, that is, where thou sailest, where thou
passest along this life as a stormy and dangerous sea; the winds enter, the
billows rise and toss thy vessel. What are the winds? Thou hast received
some insult, and art wroth: that insult is the wind; that anger, the waves.
Thou art in danger, thou preparest to reply, to render cursing for cursing,
and thy vessel is already nigh to shipwreck. Awake the Christ who is
sleeping. For thou art in commotion, and making ready to render evil for
evil, because Christ is sleeping in thy vessel. For the sleep of Christ in
thy heart is the forgetfulness of faith. But if thou arousest Christ, that
is, recallest thy faith, what dost thou hear said to thee by Christ, when
now awake in thy heart? I [He says] have heard it said to me, "Thou hast a
devil,"(6) and I have prayed for them. The Lord hears and suffers; the
servant hears and is angry! But thou wishest to be avenged. Why so? I am
already avenged. When thy faith so speaks to thee, command is exercised, as
it were, over the winds and waves, and there is a great calm. As, then, to
awaken Christ in the vessel is just to awaken faith; so in the heart of one
who is pressed down by a great mass and habit of sin, in the heart of the
man who has been a transgressor even of the holy gospel and a despiser of
eternal punishment, let Christ groan, let such a man betake himself to
self-accusation. Hear still more: Christ wept; let man bemoan himself. For
why did Christ weep, but to teach man to weep? Wherefore did He groan and
trouble Himself, but to intimate that the faith of one who has just cause
to be displeased with himself ought to be in a sense groaning over the
accusation of wicked works, to the end that the habit of sinning may give
way to the vehemence of penitential sorrow?

   20. "And He said, Where have ye laid him?" Thou knewest that he was
dead, and art Thou ignorant of the place of his burial? The meaning here
is, that a man thus lost becomes, as it were, unknown to God. I have not
ventured to say, Is unknown--for what is unknown to Him? but, As it were
unknown. And how do we prove this? Listen to the Lord, who will yet say in
the judgment, "I know you not: depart from me." (1) What does that mean, "I
know you not"? I see you not in that light of mine--in that righteousness
which I know. So here, also, as if knowing nothing of such a sinner, He
said, "Where have ye laid him?" Similar in character was God's voice in
Paradise after  man had sinned: "Adam, where art thou?" (2) "They say unto
Him, Lord, come and see." What means this "see"? Have pity. For the Lord
sees when He pities. Hence it is said to Him, "Look upon my humility
[affliction] and my pain, and forgive all my sins." (4)  21. "Jesus wept.
Then said the Jews, Behold how He loved him!" "Loved him," what does that
mean? "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (3)
"But some of them said, Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the
blind, have caused that even this man should not die?" But He, who would do
nought to hinder his dying, had something greater in view in raising him
from the dead.

   22. "Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself, cometh to the tomb."
May His groaning have thee also for its object, if thou wouldst re-enter
into life! Every man who lies in that dire moral condition has it said to
him, "He cometh to the tomb." "It was a cave, and a stone had been laid
upon it." Dead under that stone, guilty under the law. For you know that
the law, which was given to the Jews, was inscribed on stone. (5) And all
the guilty are under the law: the right-living are in harmony with the law.
The law is not laid on a righteous man. (6) What mean then the words, "Take
ye away the stone"? Preach grace. For the Apostle Paul calleth himself a
minister of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit; "for
the letter," he says, "killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (7) The letter
that killeth is like the stone that crusheth. "Take ye away," He saith,
"the stone." Take away the weight of the law; preach grace. "For if there
had been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness
should be by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that
the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."
(8) Therefore "take ye away the stone."

   23. "Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto Him, Lord, by
this time he stinketh: for he hath been [dead] four days. (9) Jesus saith
unto her, Have I not said unto thee, that, if thou believest, thou shalt
see the glory of God?" What does He mean by this, "thou shall see the glory
of God"? That He can raise to life even one who is putrid and hath been
four days [dead]. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
(10) and, "Where sin abounded, grace also did superabound." (11)

   24. "Then they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and
said, Father, I thank Thee, that Thou hast heard me. And I knew that Thou
hearest me always: but because of the people that stand by I said it, that
they may believe that Thou hast sent me. And when He had thus spoken, He
cried with a loud voice." He groaned, He wept, He cried with a loud voice.
With what difficulty does one rise who lies crushed under the heavy burden
of a habit of sinning! And yet he does rise: he is quickened by hidden
grace within; and after that loud voice he riseth. For what followed? "He
cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And immediately he that was
dead came forth, bound hand and foot with bandages; (12) and his face was
bound about with a napkin." Dost thou wonder how he came forth with his
feet bound, and wonderest not at this, that after four days' interment he
rose from the dead? In both events it was the power of the Lord that
operated, and not the strength of the dead. He came forth, and yet still
was bound. Still in his burial shroud, he has already come outside the
tomb. What does it mean? While thou despisest [Christ]. thou liest in the
arms of death; and if thy contempt reacheth the lengths I have mentioned,
thou art buried as well: but when thou makest confession, thou comest
forth. For what is this coming forth, but the open acknowledgment thou
makest of thy state, in quitting, as it were, the old refuges of darkness?
But the confession thou makest is effected by God, when He crieth with a
loud voice, or in other words, calleth thee in abounding grace.
Accordingly, when the dead man had come forth, still bound; confessing, yet
guilty still; that his sins also might be taken away, the Lord said to His
servants: "Loose him, and let him go." What does He mean by such words?
Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (1)

   25. "Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the
things which Jesus did, believed on Him. But some of them went away to the
Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done." All of the Jews who
had come to Mary did not believe, but many of them did. "But some of them,"
whether of the Jews who had come, or of those who had believed, "went away
to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done:" whether in the
way of conveying intelligence, in order that they also might believe, or
rather in the spirit of treachery, to arouse their anger. But whoever were
the parties, and whatever their motive, intelligence of these events was
carried to the Pharisees.

   26. "Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and
said, What do we?" But they did not say, Let us believe. For these
abandoned men were more occupied in considering what evil they could do to
effect His ruin, than in consulting for their own preservation: and yet
they were afraid, and took counsel of a kind together. For "they said, What
do we? for this man doeth many miracles: if we let him thus alone, all men
will believe on him; and the Romans shall come, and take away both our
place and nation." They were afraid of losing their temporal possessions,
and thought not of life eternal; and so they lost both. For the Romans,
after our Lord's passion and entrance into glory, took from them both their
place and nation, when they took the one by storm and transported the
other: and now that also pursues them, which is said elsewhere, "But the
children of the kingdom shall go into outer darkness." (2) But this was
what they feared, that if all believed on Christ, there would be none
remaining to defend the city of God and the temple against the Romans; just
because they had a feeling that Christ's teaching was directed against the
temple itself and their own paternal laws.

   27. "And one of them, [named] Caiaphas, being the high priest that same
year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is
expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole
nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself; but being high priest
that year, he prophesied." We are here taught that the Spirit of prophecy
used the agency even of wicked men to foretell what was future; which,
however, the evangelist attributes to the divine sacramental fact that he
was pontiff, which is to say, the high priest. It may, however, be a
question in what way he is called the high priest of that year, seeing that
God appointed one person to be high priest, who was to be succeeded only at
his death by another. But we are to understand that ambitious schemes and
contentions among the Jews led to the appointment afterwards of more than
one, and to their annual turn of service. For it is said also of Zacharias:
"And it came to pass that, while he executed the priest's office before God
in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest's office,
his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord." (3)
From which it is evident that there were more than one, and that each had
his turn: for it was lawful for the high priest alone to place the incense
on the altar. (4) And perhaps also there were several in actual service in
the same year, who were succeeded next year by several others, and that it
fell by lot to one of them to burn incense. What was it, then, that
Caiaphas prophesied? "That Jesus should die for the nation; and not for the
nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of
GOd that were scattered abroad." This is added by the evangelist; for
Caiaphas prophesied only of the Jewish nation, in which there were sheep of
whom the Lord Himself had said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of
the house of Israel." (5) But the evangelist knew that there were other
sheep, which were not of this fold, but which had also to be brought, that
there might be one fold and one shepherd. (6) But this was said in the way
of predestination; for those who were still unbelieving were as yet neither
His sheep nor the children of God.

   28. "Then, from that day forth, they took counsel together for to put
Him to death. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews; but
went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called
Ephraim, and there continued with His disciples." Not that there was any
failure in His power, by which, had He only wished, He might have continued
His intercourse with the Jews, and received no injury at their hands; but
in His human weakness He furnished His disciples with an example of living,
by which He might make it manifest that it was no sin in His believing
ones, who are His members, to withdraw from the presence of their
persecutors, and escape the fury of the wicked by concealment, rather than
inflame it by showing themselves openly.

TRACTATE L: CHAPTER XI. 55-57; XII.

   1. YESTERDAY'S lesson in the holy Gospel, on which we spake as the Lord
enabled us, is followed by to-day's, on which we purpose to speak in the
same spirit of dependence. Some passages in the Scriptures are so clear as
to require a hearer rather than an expounder: over such we need not tarry,
that we may have sufficient time for those which necessarily demand a
fuller consideration.

   2. "And the Jews' passover was nigh at hand." The Jews wished to have
that feast-day crimsoned with the blood of the Lord. On it that Lamb was
slain, who hath consecrated it as a feast-day for us by His own blood.
There was a plot among the Jews about slaying Jesus: and He, who had come
from heaven to suffer, wished to draw near to the place of His suffering,
because the hour of His passion was at hand. Therefore "many went out of
the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to sanctify themselves."
The Jews did so in accordance with the command of the Lord delivered by
holy Moses in the law, that on the feast-day of the passover all should
assemble from every part of the land, and be sanctified in celebrating the
services of the day. But that celebration was a shadow of the future. And
why a shadow? It was a prophetic intimation of the Christ to come, a
prophecy of Him who on that day was to suffer for us: that so the shadow
might vanish and the light come; that the sign might pass away, and the
truth be retained. The Jews therefore held the passover in a shadowy form,
but we in the light. For what need was there that the Lord should command
them to slay a sheep on the very day of the feast, save only because of Him
it was prophesied, "He is led as a sheep to the slaughter"? (1). The door-
posts of the Jews were sealed with the blood of the slaughtered animal:
with the blood of Christ are our foreheads sealed. And that sealing--for it
had a real significance--was said to keep away the destroyer from the
houses that were sealed: (2) Christ's seal drives away the destroyer from
us, if we receive the Saviour into our hearts. But why have I said this?
Because many have their door-posts sealed while there is no inmate abiding
within: they find it easy to have Christ's seal in the forehead, and yet at
heart refuse admission to His word. Therefore, brethren, I have said, and I
repeat it, Christ's seal driveth from us the destroyer, if only we have
Christ as an inmate of our hearts. I have stated these things, lest any
one's thoughts should be turning on the meaning of these festivals of the
Jews. The Lord therefore came as it were to the victim's place, that the
true passover might be ours, when we celebrated His passion as the real
offering of the lamb.

   3. "Then sought they for Jesus:" but with evil intent. For happy are
they who seek for Jesus in a way that is good. They sought for Him, with
the intent that neither they nor we should have Him more: but in departing
from them, He has been received by us. Some who seek Him are blamed, others
who do so are commended; for it is the spirit animating the seeker that
finds either praise or condemnation. Thence you have it also in the psalms,
"Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul:" (3) such
are those who sought with evil purpose. But in another place he says,
"Refuge hath failed me, and there is no one that seeketh after my soul."
(4) Those who sought, and those who did not, are blamed alike. Therefore
let us seek for Christ, that He may be ours, that we may keep Him, and not
that we may slay Him; for these men sought to get hold of Him, but only for
the purpose of speedily getting quit of Him for ever. "Therefore they
sought for Him, and spake among themselves: What think ye, that He will not
come to the feast?"

   4. "Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment,
that, if any man knew where He were, he should show it, that they might
take Him." Let us for our parts show the Jews where Christ is. Would,
indeed, that all the seed of those who had given commandment to have it
shown them where Christ was, would but hear and apprehend! Let them come to
the church and hear where Christ is, and take Him. They may hear it from
us, they may hear it from the gospel. He was slain by their forefathers, He
was buried, He rose again, He was recognized by the disciples, He ascended
before their eyes into heaven, and there sitteth at the right hand of the
Father; and He who was judged is yet to come as Judge of all: let them
hear, and hold fast. Do they reply, How shall I take hold of the absent?
how shall I stretch up my hand into heaven, and take hold of one who is
sitting there? Stretch up thy faith, and thou hast got hold. Thy
forefathers held by the flesh, hold thou with the heart; for the absent
Christ is also present. But for His presence, we ourselves were unable to
hold Him. But since His word is true, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the
end of the world," (1) He is away, and He is here; He has returned, and
will not forsake us; for He has carried His body into heaven, but His
majesty He has never withdrawn from the world.

   5. "Then Jesus, six days before the passover, came to Bethany, where
Lazarus was who had been dead, whom Jesus raised from the dead. And there
they made Him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that
reclined at the table." To prevent people thinking that the man had become
a phantom, because he had risen from the dead, he was one of those who
reclined at table; he was living, speaking, feasting: the truth was made
manifest, and the unbelief of the Jews was confounded. The Lord, therefore,
reclined at table with Lazarus and the others; and they were waited on by
Martha, one of the sisters of Lazarus.

   6. But "Mary," the other sister of Lazarus, "took a pound of ointment
of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His
feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odor of the
ointment." Such was the incident, let us look into the mystery it imported.
Whatever soul of you wishes to be truly faithful, anoint like Mary the feet
of the Lord with precious ointment. That ointment was righteousness, and
therefore it was [exactly] a pound weight: but it was ointment of pure nard
[nardi pistici], very precious. From his calling it "pistici," (2) we ought
to infer that there was some locality from which it derived its
preciousness: but this does not exhaust its meaning, and it harmonizes well
with a sacramental symbol. The root of the word ["pure"] in the Greek is by
us called "faith." Thou weft seeking to work righteousness: the just shall
live by faith. (3) Anoint the feet of Jesus: follow by a good life the
Lord's footsteps. Wipe them l with thy hair: what thou hast of superfluity,
give to the poor, and thou hast wiped the feet of the Lord; for the hair
seems to be the superfluous part of the body. Thou hast something to spare
of thy abundance: it is superfluous to thee, but necessary for the feet of
the Lord. Perhaps on this earth the Lord's feet are still in need. For of
whom but of His members is He yet to say in the end, "Inasmuch as ye did it
to one of the least of mine, ye did it unto me"? (4) Ye spent what was
superfluous for yourselves, but ye have done what was grateful to my feet.

   7. "And the house was filled with the odor." The world is filled with
the fame of a good character: for a good character is as a pleasant odor.
Those who live wickedly and bear the name of Christians, do injury to
Christ: of such it is said, that through them "the name of the Lord is
blasphemed." (5) If through such God's name is blasphemed, through the good
the name of the Lord is honored. Listen to the apostle, when he says, "We
are a sweet savor of Christ in every place." As it is said also in the Song
of Songs, "Thy name is as ointment poured forth." (6) Attend again to the
apostle: "We are a sweet savor," he says, "of Christ in every place, both
in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the
savor of life unto life, to the other the savor of death unto death: and
who is sufficient for I these things?" (7) The lesson of the holy Gospel
before us affords us the opportunity of so speaking of that savor, that we
on our part may give worthy utterance, and you diligent heed, to what is
thus expressed by the apostle himself, "And who is sufficient for these
things?" But have we any reason to infer from these words that we are
qualified to attempt speaking on such a subject, or you to hear? We,
indeed, are not so; but He is sufficient, who is pleased to speak by us
what it may be for your profit to hear. The apostle, you see, is, as he
calls himself, "a sweet savor:" but that sweet savor is "to some the savor
of life unto life, and to others the savor of death unto death;" and yet
all the while "a sweet savor" in itself. For he does not say, does he, To
some we are a sweet savor unto life, to others an evil savor unto death? He
called himself a sweet savor, not an evil; and represented himself as the
same sweet savor, to some unto life, to others unto death. Happy they who
find life in this sweet savor! but what misery can be greater than theirs,
to whom the sweet savor is the messenger of death?

8. And who is it, says some one, that is thus slain by the sweet savor? It
is to this the apostle alludes in the words, "And who is sufficient for
these things?" In what wonderful ways God brings it about that the good
savor is fraught both with life to the good, and with death to the wicked;
how it is so, so far as the Lord is pleased to inspire my thoughts (for it
may still conceal a deeper meaning beyond my power to penetrate),--yet so
far, I say, as my power of penetration has reached, you ought not to have
the information withheld. The integrity of the Apostle Paul's life and
conduct, his preaching of righteousness in word and exhibition of it in
works, his wondrous power as a teacher and his fidelity as a steward, were
everywhere noised abroad: he was loved by some, and envied by others. For
he himself tells us in a certain place of some, that they preached Christ
not sincerely, but of envy; "thinking," he says, "to add affliction to my
bonds." But what does he add? "Whether in pretence or in truth, let Christ
be preached." (1) They preach who love me, they preach who hate me; in that
good savor the former live, in it the others die: and yet by the preaching
of both let the name of Christ be proclaimed, with this excellent savor let
the world be filled. Hast thou been loving one whose conduct evidenced his
goodness? then in this good savor thou hast lived. Hast thou been envying
such a one then in this same savor thou hast died. But hast thou, pray, in
thus choosing to die, converted this savor into an evil one? Turn from
thine envious feelings, and the good savor will cease to slay thee.

   9. And now, lastly, listen to what we have here, how this ointment was
to some a sweet savor unto life, and to others a sweet savor unto death.
When the pious Mary had rendered this grateful service to the Lord,
straightway one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was yet to betray
Him, said, "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and
given to the poor?" Alas for thee, wretched man! the sweet savor hath slain
thee. For the cause that led him so to speak is disclosed by the holy
evangelist. But we, too, might have supposed, had not the real state of his
mind been revealed in the Gospel, that the care of the poor might have
induced him so to speak. Not so. What then? Hearkeu to a true witness:
"This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief,
and had the money bag, and bare (2) what was put therein." Did he bear it
about, or bear it away? For the common service he bore it, as a thief he
bore it away.

   10. Look now, and learn that this Judas did not become perverted only
at the time when he yielded to the bribery of the Jews and betrayed his
Lord. For not a few, inattentive to the Gospel, suppose that Judas only
perished when he accepted money from the Jews to betray the Lord. It was
not then that he perished, but he was already a thief, and a reprobate,
when following the Lord; for it was with his body and not with his heart
that he followed. He made up the apostolic number of twelve, but had no
part in the apostolic blessedness: he had been made the twelfth in
semblance, and on his departure, and the succession of another, the
apostolic reality was completed, and the entireness of the number
conserved. (3) What lesson then, my brethren, did our Lord Jesus Christ
wish to impress on His Church, when it pleased Him to have one castaway
among the twelve, but this, that we should bear with the wicked, and
refrain from dividing the body of Christ? Here you have Judas among the
saints,--that Judas, mark you! who was a thief, yea--do not overlook it--
not a thief of any ordinary type, but a thief and a sacrilegist: a robber
of money bags, but of such as were the Lord's; of money bags, but of such
as were sacred. If there is a distinction made in the public courts between
such crimes as ordinary theft and peculation,--for by peculation we mean
the theft of public property; and private theft is not visited with the
same sentence as public,--how much more severe ought to be the sentence on
the sacrilegious thief, who has dared to steal, not from places of any
ordinary kind, but to steal from the Church? He who thieves from the
Church, stands side by side with the castaway Judas. Such was this man
Judas, and yet he went in and out with the eleven holy disciples. With them
he came even to the table of the Lord: he was permitted to have intercourse
with them, but he could not contaminate them. Of one bread did both Peter
and Judas partake, and yet what communion had the believer with the
infidel? Peter's partaking was unto life, but that of Judas unto death. For
that good bread was just like the sweet savor. For as the sweet savor, so
also does the good bread give life to the good, and bring death to the
wicked. "For he that eateth unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to
himself:" (4) "judgment to himself," not to thee. If, then, it is judgment
to himself, not to thee, bear as one that is good with him that is evil,
that thou mayest attain unto the rewards of the good, and be not hurled
into the punishment of the wicked.

   11. Lay to heart our Lord's example while living with man upon earth.
Why had He a money bag, who was ministered unto by angels, save to intimate
that His Church was destined thereafter to have her repository for money?
Why gave He admission to a thief, save to teach His Church patiently to
bear with thieves? But he who had formed the habit of abstracting money
from the bag, did not hesitate for money received to sell the Lord Himself.
But let us see what answer our Lord gave to such words. See, brethren: He
does not say to him, Thou speakest so on account of thy thievishness. He
knew him to be a thief, yet did not betray him, but rather endured him, and
showed us an example of patience in tolerating the wicked in the Church.
"Then said Jesus to him: Let her keep it against the day of my burial." (1)
He announced that His own death was at hand.

   12. But what follows? "For the poor ye have always with you, but me ye
will not have always." We can certainly understand, "the  poor ye have
always;" what He has thus said is true. When were the poor wanting in the
Church? "But me ye will not have always;" what does He mean by this? How
are we to understand, "Me ye will not have always"? Don't be alarmed: it
was addressed to Judas. Why, then, did He not say, thou wilt have, but, ye
will have? Because Judas is not here a unit. One wicked man represents the
whole body of the wicked; in the same way as Peter, the whole body of the
good, yea, the body of the Church, but in respect to the good. For if in
Peter's case there were no sacramental symbol of the Church, the Lord would
not have said to him, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of
heaven: whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; and
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." (2) If this
was said only to Peter, it gives no ground of action to the Church. But if
such is the case also in the Church, that what is bound on earth is bound
in heaven, and what is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven,--for when the
Church excommunicates, the excommunicated person is bound in heaven; when
one is reconciled by the Church, the person so reconciled is loosed in
heaven:--if such, then, is the case in the Church, Peter, in receiving the
keys, represented the holy Church. If, then, in the person of Peter were
represented the good in the Church, and in Judas' person were represented
the bad in the Church, then to these latter was it said, "But me ye will
not have always." But what means the "not always;" and what, the "always"?
If thou art good, if thou belongest to the body represented by Peter, thou
hast Christ both now and hereafter: now by faith, by sign, by the sacrament
of baptism, by the bread and wine of the altar. Thou hast Christ now, but
thou wilt have Him always; for when thou hast gone hence, thou wilt come to
Him who said  to the robber, "To-day shall thou be with me in paradise."
(3) But if thou livest wickedly, thou mayest seem to have Christ now,
because thou enterest the Church, signest thyself with the sign of Christ,
art baptized with the baptism of Christ, minglest thyself with the members
of Christ, and approachest His altar: now thou hast Christ, but by living
wickedly thou wilt not have Him always.

   13. It may be also understood in this way: "The poor ye will have
always with you, but me ye will not have always." The good may take it also
as addressed to themselves, but not so as to be any source of anxiety; for
He was speaking of His bodily presence. For in respect of His majesty, His
providence, His ineffable and invisible grace, His own words are fulfilled,
"Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." (4) But in respect
of the flesh He assumed as the Word, in respect of that which He was as the
son of the Virgin, of that wherein He was seized by the Jews, nailed to the
tree, let down from the cross, enveloped in a shroud, laid in the
sepulchre, and manifested in His resurrection, "ye will not have Him
always." And why? Because in respect of His bodily presence He associated
for forty days with His disciples, and then, having brought them forth for
the purpose of beholding and not of following Him, He ascended into heaven?
and is no longer here. He is there, indeed, sitting at the right hand of
the Father; and He is here also, having never withdrawn the presence of His
glory. In other words, in respect of His divine presence we always have
Christ; in respect of His presence in the flesh it was rightly said to the
disciples, "Me ye will not have always." In this respect the Church enjoyed
His presence only for a few days: now it possesses Him by faith, without
seeing Him with the eyes. In whichever way, then, it was said, "But me ye
will not have always," it can no longer, I suppose, after this twofold
solution, remain as a subject of doubt.

   14. Let us listen to the other few points that remain: "Much people of
the Jews therefore knew that He was there: and they came not for Jesus'
sake only, but that they might see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the
dead." They were drawn by curiosity, not by charity: they came and saw.
Hearken to the strange scheming of human vanity. Having seen Lazarus as one
raised from the dead,--for the fame of such a miracle of the Lord's had
been accompanied everywhere with so much evidence of its genuineness, and
it had been so openly performed, that they could neither conceal nor deny
what had been done,--only think of the plan they hit upon. "But the chief
priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; because that
by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus." O
foolish consultation and blinded rage! Could not Christ the Lord, who was
able to raise the dead, raise also the slain? When you were preparing a
violent death for Lazarus, were you at the same time denuding the Lord of
His power? If you think a dead man one thing, a murdered man another, look
you only to this, that the Lord made both, and raised Lazarus to life when
dead, and Himself when slain.

TRACTATE LI: CHAPTER XII. 12-26.

   1. AFTER our Lord's raising of one to life, who had been four days
dead, to the utter amazement of the Jews, some of whom believed on seeing
it, and others perished in their envy, because of that sweet savor which is
unto life to some, and to others unto death; (1) after He had sat down to
meat with Lazarus--the one who had been dead and raised to life--reclining
also at table, and after the pouring on His feet of the ointment which had
filled the house with its odor; and after the Jews also had shown their own
spiritual abandonment in conceiving the useless cruelty and the monstrously
foolish and insane guilt of slaying Lazarus;--of all which we have spoken
as we could, by the grace of the Lord, in previous discourses: let your
Charity now notice how abundant before our Lord's passion was the fruit
that appeared of His preaching, and how large was the flock of lost sheep
of the house of Israel which had heard the Shepherd's voice.

   2. For the Gospel, the reading of which yon have just been listening
to, says: "On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when
they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees
and went forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna: blessed is He that cometh
in the name of the Lord as the King of Israel." The branches of palm trees
are laudatory emblems, significant of victory, because the Lord was about
to overcome death by dying, and by the trophy of His cross to triumph over
the devil, the prince of death. The exclamation used by the worshipping (2)
people is Hosanna, indicating, as some who know the Hebrew language affirm,
rather a state of mind than having any positive significance; (3) just as
in our own tongue (4) we have what are called interjections, as when in our
grief we say, Alas! or in our joy, Ha! or in our admiration, O how fine!
where O! expresses only the feeling of the admirer. Of the same class must
we believe this word to be, as it has failed to find an interpretation both
in Greek and Latin, like that other, "Whosoever shall say to his brother,
Raca." (5) For this also is allowed to be an interjection, expressive of
angry feelings.

   3. But when it is said, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the
Lord, [as] the King of Israel," by "in the name of the Lord" we are rather
to understand "in the name of God the Father," although it might also be
understood as in His own name, inasmuch as He is also Himself the Lord. As
we find Scripture also saying in another place, "The Lord rained [upon
Sodom fire] from the Lord." (1) But His own words are a better guide to our
understanding, when He saith, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye
receive me not: another will come in his own name, and him ye will
receive." (2) For the true teacher of humility is Christ, who humbled
Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (3)
But He does not lose His divinity in teaching us humility; in the one He is
the Father's equal, in the other He is assimilated to us. By that which
made Him the equal of the Father, He called us into existence; and by that
in which He is like unto us, He redeemed us from ruin.

   4. These, then, were the words of praise addressed to Jesus by the
multitude, "Hosanna: blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, the
King of Israel." What a cross of mental suffering must the Jewish rulers
have endured when they heard so great a multitude proclaiming Christ as
their King! But what honor was it to the Lord to be King of Israel? What
great thing was it to the King of eternity to become the King of men? For
Christ's kingship over Israel was not for the purpose of exacting tribute,
of putting swords into His soldiers' hands, of subduing His enemies by open
warfare; but He was King of Israel in exercising kingly authority over
their inward natures, in consulting for their eternal interests, in
bringing into His heavenly kingdom those whose faith, and hope, and love
were centred in Himself. Accordingly, for the Son of God, the Father's
equal, the Word by whom all things were made, in His good pleasure to be
King of Israel, was an act of condescension and not of promotion; a token
of compassion, and not any increase of power. For He who was called on
earth the King of the Jews, is in the heavens the Lord of angels.

   5. "And Jesus, when He had found a young ass, sat thereon." Here the
account is briefly given: for how it all happened may be found at full
length in the other evangelists. (4) But there is appended to the
circumstance itself a testimony from the prophets, to make it evident that
He in whom was fulfilled all they read in Scripture, was entirely
misunderstood by the evil-minded rulers of the Jews. Jesus, then, "found a
young ass, and sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion:
behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt." Among that people,
then, was the daughter of Zion to be found; for Zion is the same as
Jerusalem. Among that very people, I say, reprobate and blind as they were,
was the daughter of Zion, to whom it was said, "Fear not, daughter of Zion:
behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt." This daughter of Zion,
who was thus divinely addressed, was amongst those sheep that were hearing
the Shepherd's voice, and in that multitude which was celebrating the
Lord's coming with such religious zeal, and accompanying Him in such
warlike array. To her was it said, "Fear not:" acknowledge Him whom thou
art now extolling, and give not way to fear when He comes to suffering; for
by the shedding of His blood is thy guilt to be blotted out, and thy life
restored. But by the ass's colt, on which no man had ever sat (for so it is
found recorded in the other evangelists), we are to understand the Gentile
nations which had not received the law of the Lord; by the ass, on the
other hand (for both animals were brought to the Lord), that people of His
which came of the nation of Israel, and was already so far subdued as to
recognize its Master's crib.

   6. "These things understood not His disciples at the first; but when
Jesus was glorified," that is, when He had manifested the power of His
resurrection, "then remembered they that these things were written of Him,
and they had done these things unto Him," that is, they did nothing else
but what had been written concerning Him. In short, mentally comparing with
the contents of Scripture what was accomplished both prior to and in the
course of our Lord's passion, they found this also therein, that it was in
accordance with the utterance of the prophets that He sat on an ass's colt.

   7. "The people, therefore, that was with Him when He called Lazarus out
of his tomb, and raised him from the dead, bare record. For this cause the
crowd also met Him, for that they heard that He had done this miracle. The
Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves: Perceive ye that we prevail
nothing? Behold, the whole world is gone after Him." Mob set mob in motion.
(5) "But why art thou, blinded mob that thou art, filled with envy because
the world has gone after its Maker ?"

   8. "And there were certain Gentiles among them that had come up to
worship at the feast: the same came therefore to Philip, who was of
Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.
Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus."
Let us hearken to the Lord's reply. See how the Jews wish to kill Him, the
Gentiles to see Him; and yet those, too, were of the Jews who cried,
"Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel."
Here, then, were they of the circumcision and they of the uncircumcision,
like two house walls running from different directions and meeting together
with the kiss of peace, in the one faith of Christ. Let us listen, then, to
the voice of the Cornerstone: "And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is
come that the Son of man should be glorified." Perhaps some one supposes
here that He spake of Himself as glorified, because the Gentiles wished to
see Him. Such is not the case. But He saw the Gentiles themselves in all
nations coming to the faith after His own passion and resurrection,
because, as the apostle says, "Blindness in part has happened to Israel,
until the fullness of the Gentiles should be come in." (1) Taking occasion,
therefore, from those Gentiles who desired to see Him, He announces the
future fullness of the Gentile nations, and promises the near approach of
the hour when He should be glorified Himself, and when, on its consummation
in heaven, the Gentile nations should be brought to the faith. To this it
is that the prediction pointed, "Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens,
and Thy glory above all the earth." (2) Such is the fullness of the
Gentiles, of which the apostle saith, "Blindness in part is happened to
Israel, till the fullness of the Gentiles come in."

   9. But the height of His glorification had to be preceded by the depth
of His passion. Accordingly, He went on to add, "Verily, verily, I say unto
you, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." But He spake of
Himself. He Himself was the grain that had to die, and be multiplied; to
suffer death through the unbelief of the Jews, and to be multiplied in the
faith of many nations.

   10. And now, by way of exhortation to follow in the path of His own
passion, He adds, "He that loveth his life shall lose it," which may be
understood in two ways: "He that loveth shall lose," that is, If thou
lovest, be ready to lose; if thou wouldst possess life in Christ, be not
afraid of death for Christ. Or otherwise, "He that loveth his life shall
lose it." Do not love for fear of losing; love it not here, lest thou lose
it in eternity. But what I have said last seems better to correspond with
the meaning of the Gospel, for there follow the words, "And he that hateth
his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." So that when it is
said in the previous clause, "He that loveth," there is to be understood in
this world, he it is that shall lose it. "But he that hateth," that is, in
this world, is he that shall keep it unto life eternal. Surely a profound
and strange declaration as to the measure of a man's love for his own life
that leads to its destruction, and of his hatred to it that secures its
preservation! If in a sinful way thou lovest it, then dost thou really hate
it; if in a way accordant with what is good thou hast hated it, then hast
thou really loved it. Happy they who have so hated their life while keeping
it, that their love shall not cause them to lose it. But beware of
harboring the notion that thou mayest court self-destruction by any such
understanding of thy duty to hate thy life in this world. For on such
grounds it is that certain wrong-minded and perverted people, who, with
regard to themselves, are murderers of a specially cruel and impious
character, commit themselves to the flames, suffocate themselves in water,
dash themselves against a precipice, and perish. This was no teaching of
Christ's, who, on the other hand, met the devil's suggestion of a precipice
with the answer, "Get thee behind me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt
not tempt the Lord thy God." (3) To Peter also He said, signifying by what
death he should glorify God, "When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself,
and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, another
shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not;" (4)--where He
made it sufficiently plain that it is not by himself but by another that
one must be slain who follows in the footsteps of Christ. And so, when
one's case has reached the crisis that this condition is placed before him,
either that he must act contrary to the divine commandment or quit this
life, and that a man is compelled to choose one or other of the two by the
persecutor who is threatening him with death, in such circumstances let him
prefer dying in the love of God to living under His anger, in such
circumstances let him hate his life in this world that he may keep it unto
life eternal.

   11. "If any man serve me, let him follow me." What is that, "let him
follow me," but just, let him imitate me? "Because Christ suffered for us,"
says the Apostle Peter, "leaving us an example that we should follow His
steps." (1) Here you have the meaning of the words, "If any man serve me,
let him follow me." But with what result? what wages? what reward? "And
where I am," He says, "there shall also my servant be." Let Him be freely
loved, that so the reward of the service done Him may be to be with Him.
For where will one be well apart from Him, or when will one come to feel
himself in an evil case in company with Him? Hear it still more plainly:
"If any man serve me, him will my Father honor." And what will be the honor
but to be with His Son? For of what He said before, "Where I am, there
shall also my servant be," we may understand Him as giving the explanation,
when He says here, "him will my Father honor." For what greater honor can
await an adopted son than to be with the Only-begotten; not, indeed, as
raised to the level of His Godhead, but made a partaker of His eternity?

   12. But it becomes us rather to inquire what is to be understood by
this serving of Christ to which there is attached so great a reward. For if
we have taken up the idea that the serving of Christ is the preparation of
what is needful for the body, or the cooking and serving up of food, or the
mixing of drink and handing the cup to one at the supper table; this,
indeed, was done to Him by those who had the privilege of His bodily
presence, as in the case of Martha and Mary, when Lazarus also was one of
those who sat at the table. But in that sort of way Christ was served also
by the reprobate Judas; for it was he also who had the money bag; and
although he had the exceeding wickedness to steal of its contents, yet it
was he also who provided what was needful for the meal. (2) And so also,
when our Lord said to him, "What thou doest, do quickly," there were some
who thought that He only gave him orders to make some needful preparations
for the feast-day, or to give something to the poor. (3) In no sense,
therefore, was it of this class of servants that the Lord said, "Where I
am, there shall also my servant be," and "If any man serve me, him will my
Father honor;" for we see that Judas, who served in this way, became an
object of reprobation rather than of honor. Why, then, go elsewhere to find
out what this serving of Christ implies, and not rather see its disclosure
in the words themselves? for when He said, "If any man serve me, let him
follow me," He wished it to be understood just as if He had said, If any
man doth not follow me, he serveth me not. And those, therefore, are the
servants of Jesus Christ, who seek not their own things, but the things
that are Jesus Christ's. (4) For "let him follow me" is just this: Let him
walk in my ways, and not in his own; as it is written elsewhere, "He that
saith he abideth in Christ, ought himself also so to walk, even as He
walked." (5) For he ought, if supplying food to the hungry, to do it in the
way of mercy and not of boasting, seeking therein nothing else but the
doing of good, and not letting his left hand know what his right hand
doeth; (6) in other words, that all thought of self-seeking should be
utterly estranged from a work of charity. He that serveth in this way
serveth Christ, and will have it rightly said to him, "Inasmuch as ye did
it unto one of the least of those who are mine, ye did it unto me." (7) And
thus doing not only those acts of mercy that pertain to the body, but every
good work, for the sake of Christ (for then will all be good, because
"Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth
" (8)), he is Christ's servant even to that work of special love, which is
to lay down his life for the brethren, for that were to lay it down also
for Christ. For this also will He say hereafter in behalf of His members:
Inasmuch as ye did it for these, ye have done it for me. And certainly it
was in reference to such a work that He was also pleased to make and to
style Himself a servant, when He says, "Even as the Son of man came not to
be ministered unto [served], but to minister [serve], and to lay down His
life for many." (9) Every one, therefore, is the servant of Christ in the
same way as Christ also is a servant. And he that serveth Christ in this
way will be honored by His Father with the signal honor of being with His
Son, and having nothing wanting to his happiness for ever.

   13. Accordingly, brethren, when you hear the Lord saying, "Where I am,
there shall also my servant be," do not think merely of good bishops and
clergymen. But be yourselves also in your own way serving Christ, by good
lives, by giving alms, by preaching His name and doctrine as you can; and
every father of a family also, be acknowledging in this name the affection
he owes as a parent to his family. For Christ's sake, and for the sake of
life eternal, let him be warning, and teaching, and exhorting, and
correcting all his household; let him show kindliness, and exercise
discipline; and so in his own house he will be filling an ecclesiastical
and kind of episcopal office, and serving Christ, that he may be with Him
for ever. For even that noblest service of suffering has been rendered by
many of your class; for many who were neither bishops nor clergy, but young
men and virgins, those advanced in years with those who were not, many
married persons both male and female, many fathers and mothers of families,
have served Christ even to the laying down of their lives in martyrdom for
His sake, and have been honored by the Father in receiving crowns of
exceeding glory.

TRACTATE LII: CHAPTER XII. 27-36.

   1. AFTER the Lord Jesus Christ, in the words of yesterday's lesson, had
exhorted His servants to follow Him, and had predicted His own passion in
this way, that unless a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it
abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit; and also had
stirred up those who wished to follow Him to the kingdom of heaven, to hate
their life in this world if their thought was to keep it unto life
eternal,--He again toned down His own feelings to our infirmity and says,
where our lesson to-day commenced, "Now is my soul (1) troubled." Whence,
Lord, was Thy soul troubled? He had, indeed, said a little before, "He that
hateth his life [soul] in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." Dost
thou then love thy life in this world, and is thy soul troubled as the hour
approacheth when thou shalt leave this world? Who would dare affirm this of
the soul [life] of the Lord? We rather it was whom He transferred unto
Himself; He took us into His own person as our Head, and assumed the
feelings of His members; and so it was not by any others He was troubled,
but, as was said of Him when He raised Lazarus, "He was troubled in
Himself. " (2) For it behoved the one Mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus, just as He has lifted us up to the heights of heaven, to
descend with us also into the lowest depths of suffering.

   2. I hear Him saying a little before, "The hour cometh that the Son of
man should be glorified: if a corn of wheat die, it bringeth forth much
fruit." I hear this also, "He that hateth his life in this world shall keep
it unto life eternal." Nor am I permitted merely to admire, but commanded
to imitate, and so, by the words that follow, "If any man serve me, let him
follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be," I am all on
fire to despise the world, and in my sight the whole of this life, however
lengthened, becomes only a vapor; in comparison  with my love for eternal
things, all that is temporal has lost its value with me. And now, again, it
is my Lord Himself, who by such words has suddenly transported me from the
weakness that was mine to the strength that was His, that I hear saying,
"Now is my soul troubled." What does it mean? How biddest Thou my soul
follow Thee if I behold Thine own troubled? How shall I endure what is felt
to be heavy by strength so great? What is the kind of foundation I can seek
if the Rock is giving way? But me-thinks I hear in my own thoughts the Lord
giving me an answer, saying, Thou shall follow me the better, because it is
to aid thy power of endurance that I thus interpose. Thou hast heard, as
addressed to thyself, the voice of my fortitude hear in me the voice of thy
infirmity: I supply strength for thy running, and I check not thy
hastening, but I transfer to myself thy causes for trembling, and I pave
the way for thy marching along. O Lord our Mediator, God above us, man for
us, I own Thy mercy For because Thou, who art so great, art troubled
through the good will of Thy love, Thou preservest, by the richness of Thy
comfort, the many in Thy body who are troubled by the continual experience
of their own weakness, from perishing utterly in their despair.

   3. In a word, let the man who would follow learn the road by which he
must travel. Perhaps an hour of terrible trial has come, and the choice is
set before thee either to do iniquity or endure suffering; the weak soul is
troubled, on whose behalf the invincible soul [of Jesus] was voluntarily
troubled; set then the will of God before thine own. For notice what is
immediately subjoined by thy Creator and thy Master, by Him who made thee,
and became Himself for thy teaching that which He made; for He who made man
was made man, but He remained still the unchangeable God, and transplanted
manhood into a better condition. Listen, then, to what He adds to the
words, "Now is my soul troubled." "And what shall I say? Father, save me
from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify
Thy name." He has taught thee here what to think of, what to say, on whom
to call, in whom to hope, and whose will, as sure and divine, to prefer to
thine own, which is human and weak. Imagine Him not, therefore, as losing
aught of His own exalted position in wishing thee to rise up out of the
depths of thy ruin. For He thought it meet also to be tempted by the devil,
by whom otherwise He would never have been tempted, just as, had He not
been willing, He would never have suffered; and the answers He gave to the
devil are such as thou also oughtest to use in times of temptation. (1) And
He, indeed, was tempted, but not endangered, that He might show thee, when
in danger through temptation, how to answer the tempter, so as not to be
carried away by the temptation, but to escape its danger. But when He here
said, "Now is my soul troubled;" and also when He says, "My soul is
sorrowful, even unto death;" and "Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me;" He assumed the infirmity of man, to teach him, when thereby
saddened and troubled, to say what follows: "Nevertheless, Father, not as I
will, but as Thou wilt." (2) For thus it is that man is turned from the
human to the divine, when the will of God is preferred to his own. But to
what do the words "Glorify Thy name" refer, but to His own passion and
resurrection? For what else can it mean, but that the Father should thus
glorify the Son, who in like manner glorifieth His own name in the similar
sufferings of His servants? Hence it is recorded of Peter, that for this
cause He said concerning him, "Another shall gird thee,  and carry thee
whither thou wouldest not." because He intended to signify "by what death
he should glorify God." (3) Therefore in him, too, did God glorify His
name, because thus also does He glorify Christ in His members.

   4. "Then came there a voice from heaven, [saying], I have both
glorified it, and will glorify it again." "I have both glorified it,"
before I created the world, "and I will glorify it again," when He shall
rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. It may also be otherwise
understood. "I have both glorified it,"--when He was born of the Virgin,
when He exercised miraculous powers; when the Magi, guided by a star in the
heavens, bowed in adoration before Him; when He was recognized by saints
filled with the Holy Spirit; when He was openly proclaimed by the descent
of the Spirit in the form of a dove, and pointed out by the voice that
sounded from heaven; when He was transfigured on the mount; when He wrought
many miracles, cured and cleansed multitudes, fed so vast a number with a
very few loaves, commanded the winds and the waves, and raised the dead;--
"and I will glorify it again;" when He shall rise from the dead; when death
shall have no longer dominion over Him; and when He shall be exalted over
the heavens as God, and His glory over all the earth.

   5. "The people therefore that stood by, and heard it, said that it
thundered: others said, An angel spake to Him. Jesus answered and said,
This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes." He thereby showed
that the voice made no intimation to Him of what He already knew, but to
those who needed the information. And just as that voice was uttered by
God, not on His account, but on that of others, so His soul was troubled,
not on His own account, but voluntarily for the sake of others.

   6. Look at what follows: "Now," He says, "is the judgment of the
world." What, then, are we to expect at the end of time? But the judgment
that is looked for in the end will be the judging of the living and the
dead, the awarding of eternal rewards and punishment. Of what sort, then,
is the judgment now? I have already, in former lessons, as far as I could,
put you in mind, beloved, that there is a judgment spoken of, not of
condemnation, but of discrimination; (4) as it is written, "Judge me, O
God, and plead [discern, discriminate] my cause against an unholy nation."
(5) And many are the judgments of God; as it is said in the psalm. "Thy
judgments are a great deep."(6) And the apostle also says, "O the depth of
the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His
judgments!" (1) To such judgments does that spoken of here by the Lord also
belong, "Now is the judgment of this world;" while that judgment in the end
is reserved, when the living and the dead shall at last be judged. The
devil, therefore, had possession of the human race, and held them by the
written bond of their sins as criminals amenable to punishment; he ruled in
the hearts of unbelievers, and, deceiving and enslaving them, seduced them
to forsake the Creator and give worship to the creature; but by faith in
Christ, which was confirmed by His death and resurrection, and, by His
blood, which was shed for the remission of sins, thousands of believers are
delivered from the dominion of the devil, are united to the body of Christ,
and under this great head are made by His one Spirit to spring up into new
life as His faithful members. This it was that He called the judgment, this
righteous separation, this expulsion of the devil from His own redeemed.

   7. Attend, in short, to His own words. For just as if we had been
inquiring what He meant by saying, "Now is the judgment of the world," He
proceeded to explain it when He says, "Now shall the prince of this world
be cast out." What we have thus heard was the kind of judgment He meant.
Not that one, therefore, which is yet to come in the end, when the living
and dead shall be judged, some of them set apart on His right hand, and the
others on His left; but that judgment by which "the prince of this world
shall be cast out." In what sense, then, was he within, and whither did He.
mean that he was to be cast out? Was it this: That he was in the world. and
was cast forth beyond its boundaries? For had He been speaking of that
judgment which is yet to come in the end, some one's thoughts might have
turned to that eternal fire into which the devil is to be cast with his
angels, and all who belong to him;--that is, not naturally, but through
moral delinquency; not because he created or begat them, but because he
persuaded and kept hold of them: some one, therefore, might have thought
that that eternal fire was outside the world, and that this was the meaning
of the words, "he shall be cast out." But as He says, "Now is the judgment
of this world," and in explanation of His meaning, adds, "Now shall the
prince of this world be cast out," we are thereby to understand what is now
being done, and not what is to be, so long afterwards, at the last day. The
Lord, therefore, foretold what He knew, that after His own passion and
glorification, many nations throughout the whole world, in whose hearts the
devil was an inmate, would become believers, and the devil, when thus
renounced by faith, is cast out.

   8. But some one says, Was he then not cast out of the hearts of the
patriarchs and prophets, and the righteous of olden time? Certainly he was.
How, then, is it said, "Now he shall be cast out"? How else can we think of
it, but that what was then done in the case of a very few individuals, was
now foretold as speedily to take place in many and mighty nations? Just as
also that other saying, "For the Spirit was not yet given, because that
Jesus was not yet glorified," (2) may suggest a similar inquiry, and find a
similar solution. For it was not without the Holy Spirit that the prophets
predicted the events of the future; nor was it so that the aged Simeon and
the widowed Anna knew by the Holy Spirit the infant Lord; (3) and that
Zacharias and Elisabeth uttered by the Holy Spirit so many predictions
concerning Him, when He was not yet born, but only conceived. (4) But "the
Spirit was not yet given;" that is, with that abundance of spiritual grace
which enabled those assembled together to speak in every language, (5) and
thus announce beforehand in the language of every nation the Church of the
future: and so by 'this spiritual grace it was that nations were gathered
into congregations, sins were pardoned far and wide, and thousands of
thousands were reconciled unto God.

   9. But then, says some one, since the devil is thus cast out of the
hearts of believers, does he now tempt none of the faithful? Nay, verily,
he does not cease to tempt. But it is one thing to reign within, another to
assail from without; for in like manner the best fortified city is
sometimes attacked by an enemy without being taken. And if some of his
arrows are discharged, and reach us, the apostle reminds us how to render
them harmless, when he speaks of the breastplate and the shield of faith.
(6) And if he sometimes wounds us, we have the remedy at hand. For as the
combatants are told, "These things I write unto you, that ye sin not:" so
those who are wounded have the sequel to listen to, "And if any man sin, we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous; and He is
the propitiation for our sins." (7) And what do we pray for when we say,
"Forgive us our debts," but for the healing of our wounds? And what else do
we ask, when we say, "Lead us not into temptation," (1) but that he who
thus lies in wait for us, or assails us from without, may fail on every
side to effect an entrance, and be unable to overcome us either by fraud or
force? Nevertheless, whatever engines of war he may erect against us, so
long as he has no more a place in the heart that faith inhabits, he is cast
out. But "except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."
(2) Presume not, therefore, about yourselves, if you would not have the
devil, who has once been cast out, to be recalled within.

   10. On the other hand, let us be far from supposing that the devil is
called in any such way the prince of the world, as that we should believe
him possessed of power to rule over the heaven and the earth. The world is
so spoken of in respect of wicked men, who have overspread the whole earth;
just as a house is spoken of in respect to its inhabitants, and we
accordingly say, It is a good house, or a bad house; not as finding fault
with, or approving of, the erection of walls and roofs, but the morals
either of the good or the bad within it. In a similar way, therefore, it is
said, "The prince of this world;" that is, the prince of all the wicked who
inhabit this world. The world is also spoken of in respect to the good, who
in like manner have overspread the whole earth; and hence the apostle says,
"God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself." (3) These are they
out of whose hearts the prince of this world is ejected.

   11. Accordingly, after saying, "Now shall the prince of this world be
cast out," He added, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw
all things (4) after me." And what "all" is that, but those out of which
the other is ejected? But He did not say, All men, but "all things;" for
all men have not faith. (5) And, therefore, He did not allude to the
totality of men, but to the creature in its personal integrity, that is, to
spirit, and soul, and body; or all that which makes us the intelligent,
living, visible, and palpable beings we are. For He who said, "Not a hair
of your head shall perish," (6) is He who draweth all things after Him. Or
if by "all things" it is men that are to be understood, we can speak of all
things that are foreordained to salvation: of all which He declared, when
previously speaking of His sheep, that not one of them would be lost. (7)
And of a certainty all classes of men, both of every language and every
age, and all grades of rank, and all diversities of talents, and all the
professions of lawful and useful arts, and all else that can be named in
accordance with the innumerable differences by which men, save in sin
alone, are mutually separated, from the highest to the lowest, and from the
king to the beggar, "all," He says, "will I draw after me;" that He may be
their head, and they His members. But this will be, He adds, "if I be
lifted up from the earth," that is, when I am lifted up; for He has no
doubt of the future accomplishment of that which He came to fulfill. He
here alludes to what He said before: "But if the corn of wheat die, it
bringeth forth much fruit." For what else did He signify by His lifting up,
than His suffering on the cross? an explanation which the evangelist
himself has not omitted; for he has appended the words, "And this He said
signifying what death He should die."

   12. "The people answered Him, We have heard out of the law that Christ
abideth for ever: and how sayest Thou, The Son of man must be lifted up?
And who is this Son of man?" It had stuck to their memory that the Lord was
constantly calling Himself the Son of man. For, in the passage before us,
He does not say, If the Son of man be lifted up from the earth; but had
called Himself so before, in the lesson which was read and expounded
yesterday, when those Gentiles were announced who desired to see Him: "The
hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified" (ver. 23). Retaining
this, therefore, in their minds, and understanding what He now said, "When
I am lifted up from the earth," of the death of the cross, they inquired of
Him, and said, "We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever;
and how sayest Thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of
man ?" For if it is Christ, He, they say, abideth for ever; and if He
abideth for ever, how shall He be lifted up from the earth, that is, how
shall He die through the suffering of the cross? For they understood Him to
have spoken of what they themselves were meditating to do. And so He did
not dissipate for them the obscurity of such words by imparting wisdom, but
by stimulating their conscience.

   13. "Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little (8) light is in you." And
by this it is you understand that Christ abideth for ever. "Walk, then,
while ye have the light, test darkness come upon you." Walk, draw near,
come to the full understanding that Christ shall both die and shall live
for ever; that He shall shed His blood to redeem us, and ascend on high to
carry His redeemed along with Him. But darkness will come upon you, if your
belief in Christ's eternity is of such a kind as to refuse to admit in His
case the humiliation of death. "And he that walketh in darkness knoweth not
whither he goeth." So may he stumble on that stone of stumbling and rock of
offence which the Lord Himself became to the blinded Jews: just as to those
who believed, the stone which the builders despised was made the head of
the corner. (1) Hence, they thought Christ unworthy of their belief;
because in their impiety they treated His dying with contempt, they
ridiculed the idea of His being slain: and yet it was the very death of the
grain of corn that was to lead to its own multiplication, and the lifting
up of one who was drawing all things after Him. "While ye have the light,"
He adds, "believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light."
While you have possession of some truth that you have heard, believe in the
truth, that you may be born again in the truth.

   14. "These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide Himself from
them." Not from those who had begun to believe and to love Him, nor from
those who had come to meet Him with branches of palm trees and songs of
praise; but from those who saw and hated Him, for they saw Him not, but
only stumbled on that stone in their blindness. But when Jesus hid Himself
from those who desired to slay Him (as you need from forgetfulness to be
often reminded), He had regard to our human weakness, but derogated not in
aught from His own authority.

TRACTATE LIII: CHAPTER XII. 37-43.

   1. WHEN our Lord Christ, foretelling His own passion, and the
fruitfulness of His death in being lifted up on the cross, said that He
would draw all [things] after Him; and when the Jews, understanding that He
spake of His death, put to Him the question how He could speak of death as
awaiting Him, when they heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever;
He exhorted them, while still they had in them the little light, which had
so taught them that Christ was eternal, to walk, to make themselves
acquainted with the whole subject, lest they should be overtaken with
darkness. And, when He had  said this, He hid Himself from them. With these
points you have been made acquainted in former Lord's day lessons and
discourses.

   2. The evangelist thereafter brings forward what has formed the brief
subject of to-day's reading, and says, "But though He had done so many
miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him: that the saying of
Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath
believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?"
Where he makes it sufficiently plain that the Son of God is Himself the arm
of the Lord; not that the person of God the Father is determined by the
shape of human flesh, and that the Son is attached to Him as a member of
His body; but because all things were made by Him, and therefore He is
designated the arm of the Lord. For as it is with thine arm that thou
workest, so the Word of God is styled His arm; because by the Word He
elaborated the world. For why does a man, in order to do some work, stretch
forth his arm, but because the doing of it does not straightway follow his
word? And if he was endowed with such pre-eminent power that what he said
was done without any movement of his body, then would his word be his arm.
But the Lord Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God the Father, as He is no
mere member of the Father's body, so is He no mere thinkable, and audible,
and transitory word; for, as all things were made by Him, He was the word
of God.

   3. When, therefore, we hear that the Son of God is the arm of God the
Father, let no carnal custom raise its distracting din in our ears; but as
far as His grace enables us, let us think of that power and wisdom of God
by which all things were made. Surely such an arm as that is neither held
out by stretching, nor drawn in by contracting it. For He is not one and
the same with the Father, but He and the Father are one; and as equal with
the Father, He is in all respects complete, as well as the Father: so that
no room is left open for the abominable error of those who assert that the
Father alone exists, but according to the difference of causes is Himself
sometimes called the Son, sometimes the Holy Spirit; and so also from these
words may venture to say, See you perceive that the Father alone exists, if
the Son is His arm: for a man and his arm are not two persons, but one. Not
understanding nor considering how words are transferred from one thing to
another, on account of some mutual likeness, even in our daily forms of
speech about things the most familiar and visible; and how much the more
must it be so, in order that things ineffable may find some sort of
expression in our speech, things which, as they really exist, cannot be
expressed in words at all? For even one man styles another his arm, by whom
he is accustomed to transact his business: and if he is deprived of him, he
says in his grief, I have lost my arm; and to him who has taken him away,
he says, You have deprived me of my arm. Let them understand, then, the
sense in which the Son is termed the arm of the Father, as that by which
the Father hath executed all His works; that they may not, by failing to
understand this, and continuing in the darkness of their error, resemble
those Jews of whom it was said, "And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been
revealed?"

   4. And here we meet with the second question, to treat of which,
indeed, in any adequate manner, to investigate all its mysterious windings,
and throw them open to the light in a befitting way, I think within the
scope neither of my own powers, nor of the shortness of the time, nor of
your capacity. Yet, as we cannot allow ourselves so far to disappoint your
expectations as to pass on to other topics without saying something on
this, take what we shall be able to offer you: and wherein we fail to
satisfy your expectations, ask the increase of Him who appointed us to
plant and to water; for, as the apostle saith, "Neither is he that planteth
anything, nor he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." (1)
There are some, then, who mutter among themselves, and sometimes speak out
when they can, and even break forth into turbulent debate, saying: What did
the Jews do, or what fault was it of theirs, if it was a necessity "that
the saying of Isaiah the prophet should be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord,
who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been
revealed?" To whom our answer is, that the Lord, in His foreknowledge of
the future, foretold by the prophet the unbelief of the Jews; He foretold
it, but did not cause it. For God does not compel any one to sin simply
because He knows already the future sins of men. For He foreknew sins that
were theirs, not His own; sins that were referable to no one else, but to
their own selves. Accordingly, if what He foreknew as theirs is not really
theirs, then had He no true foreknowledge: but as His foreknowledge is
infallible, it is doubtless no one else, but they themselves, whose
sinfulness God foreknew, that are the sinners. The Jews, therefore,
committed sin, with no compulsion to do so on His part, to whom sin is an
object of displeasure; but He foretold their committing of it, because
nothing is concealed from His knowledge And accordingly, had they wished to
do good instead of evil, they would not have been hindered; but in this
which they were to do they were foreseen of Him who knows what every man
will do, and what He is yet to render unto such an one according to his
work.

   5. But the words of the Gospel also, that follow, are still more
pressing, and start a  question of more profound import: for He goes on to
say, "Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He
hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see
with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I
should heal them." For it is said to as: If they could not believe, what
sin is it in man not to do what he cannot do? and if they sinned in not
believing, then they had the power to believe, and did not use it. If,
then, they had the power, how says the Gospel, "Therefore they could not
believe, because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and
hardened their heart;" so that (which is of grave import) to God Himself is
referred the cause of their not believing, inasmuch as it is He who "hath
blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart"? For what is thus testified
to in the prophetical Scriptures, is at least not spoken of the devil, but
of God. For were we to suppose it said of the devil, that he "hath blinded
their eyes, and hardened their heart;" we have to undertake the task of
being able to show what blame was theirs in not believing, of whom it is
said, "they could not believe." And then, what reply shall we give touching
another testimony of this very prophet, which the Apostle Paul has adopted,
when he says: "Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the
election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded, according as it is
written, God hath given them the spirit of remorse, eyes that they should
not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day"? (1)

   6. Such, as you have just heard, brethren, is the question that comes
before us, and you can perceive how profound it is; but we shall give what
answer we can. "They could not believe," because that Isaiah the prophet
foretold it; and the prophet foretold it because God foreknew that such
would be the case. But if I am asked why they could not, I reply at once,
because they would not; for certainly their depraved will was foreseen by
God, and foretold through the prophet by Him from whom nothing that is
future can be hid. But the prophet, sayest thou, assigns another cause than
that of their will. What cause does the prophet assign? That "God hath
given them the spirit of remorse, eyes that they should not see, and ears
that they should not hear; and hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their
heart." This also, I reply, their will deserved. For God thus blinds and
hardens, simply by letting alone and withdrawing His aid: and God can do
this by a judgment that is hidden, although not by one that is unrighteous.
This is a doctrine which the piety of the God-fearing ought to preserve
unshaken and inviolable in all its integrity: even as the apostle, when
treating of the same intricate question, says, "What shall we say then? is
there unrighteousness with God? God forbid." (2) If, then, we must be far
from thinking that there is unrighteousness with God, this only can it be,
that, when He giveth His aid, He acteth mercifully; and, when He
withholdeth it, He acteth righteously: for in all He doeth, He acteth not
rashly, but in accordance with judgment. And still further, if the
judgments of the saints are righteous, how much more those of the
sanctifying and justifying God? They are therefore righteous, although
hidden. Accordingly, when questions of this sort come before us, why one is
dealt with in such a way, and another in such another way; why this one is
blinded by being forsaken of God, and that one is enlightened by the divine
aid vouchsafed to him: let us not take upon ourselves to pass judgment on
the judgment of so mighty a judge, but tremblingly exclaim with the
apostle, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"
(3) As it is also said in the psalm, "Thy judgments are as a great deep."
(4)

   7. Let not then, brethren, the expectations of your Charity drive me to
attempt the task of penetrating into such a deep, of sounding such an
abyss, of searching into what is unsearchable. I own my own little measure
of ability, and I think I have some perception of yours also, as equally
small. This is too high for my stature, and too strong for my strength; and
for yours also, I think. Let us, therefore, listen together to the
admonition and to the words of Scripture: "Seek not out the things that are
too high for thee, neither search the things that are above thy strength."
(5) Not that such things are forbidden us, since the divine Master saith,
"There is nothing hid that shall not be revealed:" (6) but if we walk up to
the measure of our present attainments, then, as the apostle tells us, not
only what we know not and ought to know, but also if we are minded to know
anything else, God will reveal even this unto us. (7) But if we have
reached the pathway of faith, let us keep to it with all constancy: let it
be our guide to the chamber of the King, in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. (8) For it was in no spirit of grudging that the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself acted towards those great and specially chosen
disciples of His, when He said, "I have many things to say unto you, but ye
cannot bear them now." (9) We must be walking, making progress, and
growing, that our hearts may become fit to receive the things which we
cannot receive at present. And if the last day shall find us sufficiently
advanced, we shall then learn what here we were unable to know.

   8. If, however, any one considers himself able, and has confidence
enough, to give a clearer and better exposition of the question before us,
God forbid that I should not be still more ready to learn than to teach.
Only let no one dare to defend the freedom of the will in any such way as
to attempt depriving us of the prayer that says, "Lead us not into
temptation;" and, on the other hand, let no one deny the freedom of the
will, and so venture to find an excuse for sin. But let us give heed to the
Lord, both in commanding and in offering His aid; in both telling us our
duty, and assisting us to discharge it. For some He hath let be lifted up
to pride through an overweening trust in their own wills, while others He
hath let fall into carelessness through a contrary excess of distrust. The
former say: Why do we ask God not to let us be overcome by temptation, when
it is all in our own power? The latter say: Why should we try to live well,
when the power to do so is in the hands of God? O Lord, O Father, who art
in heaven, lead us not into any of these temptations; but "deliver us from
evil!" (1) Listen to the Lord, when He says, "I have prayed for thee,
Peter, that thy faith fail not;" (2) that we may never think of our faith
as so lying in our free will that it has no need of the divine assistance.
Let us listen also to the evangelist, when he says, "He hath given them
power to become the sons of God;" (3) that we may not imagine it as
altogether beyond our own power that we believe: but in both let us
acknowledge His beneficent acting. For, on the one side, we have to give
Him thanks that the power is bestowed; and on the other, to pray that our
own little strength may not utterly fail. It is this very faith that
worketh by love, (4) according to the measure thereof that the Lord hath
given to every man; (5) that he that glorieth may glory, not in himself,
but in the Lord. (6)

   9. It is no wonder, then, that they could not believe, when such was
their pride of will, that, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, they
wished to establish their own: as the apostle says of them, "They have not
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." (7) For it was not by
faith, but as it were by works, that they were puffed up; and blinded by
this very self-elation, they stumbled against the stone of stumbling. And
so it is said, "they could not," by which we are to understand that they
would not; in the same way as it was said of the Lord our God, "If we
believe not, yet He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself." (8) It is
said of the Omnipotent, "He cannot." And so, just as it is a commendation
of the divine will that the Lord "cannot deny Himself," that they "could
not believe" is a fault chargeable on the will of man.

   10. And, look you! so also say I, that those who have such lofty ideas
of themselves as to suppose that so much must be attributed to the powers
of their own will, that they deny their need of the divine assistance in
order to a righteous life, cannot believe on Christ. For the mere syllables
of Christ's name, and the Christian sacraments, are of no profit, where
faith in Christ is itself resisted. For faith in Christ is to believe in
Him that justifieth the ungodly; (9) to believe in the Mediator, without
whose interposition we cannot be reconciled unto God; to believe in the
Saviour, who came to seek and to save that which was lost; to believe in
Him who said, "Without me ye can do nothing." (11) Because, then, being
ignorant of that righteousness of God that justifieth the ungodly, he
wishes to set up his own to satisfy the minds of the proud, such a man
cannot believe on Christ. And so, those Jews "could not believe:" not that
men cannot be changed for the better; but so long as their ideas run in
such a direction, they cannot believe. Hence they are blinded and hardened;
for, denying the need of divine assistance, they are not assisted. God
foreknew this regarding these Jews who were blinded and hardened, and the
prophet by His Spirit foretold it.

   11. But when he added, "And they should be converted, and I should heal
them," is there a "not" to be understood, that is, they should not be
converted, connecting it with the clause before, where it is said, "that
they should not see with their eyes and understand with their heart;" for
here also it is certainly meant, "and should not understand "? For
conversion itself is likewise a gift of His grace, as when it is said to
Him, "Turn us, O God of Hosts." (12) Or may it be that we are to understand
this also as actually taking place through the merciful experience of the
divine method of healing, [namely this,] that, being of proud and perverse
wills, and wishing to establish their own righteousness, they were left
alone for the very purpose of being blinded; and thus blinded in order that
they might stumble on the stone of stumbling, and have their faces filled
with shame; and so, being thus humbled, might seek the name of the Lord,
and no longer a righteousness of their own, that inflated their pride, but
the righteousness of God, that justifieth the ungodly? For this very way
turned out to the good of many of them, who were afterwards filled with
remorse for wickedness, and believed on Christ; and on whose behalf He
Himself had put up the prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do." (13) And it is of that ignorance of theirs also that the
apostle says, "I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not
according to knowledge:" for he then goes on also to add, "For they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of
God." (14)

   12. "These things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory, and spake of
Him." What Isaiah saw, and how it refers to Christ the Lord, are to be read
and learned in his book. For he saw Him, not as He is, but in some
symbolical way to suit the form that the vision of the prophet had itself
to assume. For Moses likewise saw Him, and yet we find him saying to Him
whom he saw, "If I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thyself, that
I may clearly see Thee;" (1) for he saw Him not as He is. But the time when
this shall yet be our experience, that same Saint John the Evangelist tells
us in his Epistle: "Dearly beloved, [now] are we the sons of God; and it
hath not yet become manifest what we shall be: because we know that, when
He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." (2)
He might have said "for we shall see Him," without adding "as He is;" but
because he knew that He was seen of some of the fathers and prophets, but
not as He is, therefore after saying "we shall see Him," he added "as He
is." And be not deceived, brethren, by any of those who assert that the
Father is invisible, and the Son visible. This assertion is made by those
who think that the latter is a creature, and whose understanding runs not
in harmony with the words, "I and my Father one." (3) Accordingly, as
respects the form of God wherein He is equal with the Father, the Son also
is invisible: but, in order to be seen of men, He assumed the form of a
servant, and being made in the likeness of men, (4) became visible to man.
He showed Himself, therefore, even before His incarnation, to the eyes of
men, as it pleased Him, in the creature-form at His command, but not as He
is. Let us be purifying our hearts by faith, that we may be prepared for
that ineffable and, so to speak, invisible vision. For "blessed are the
pure in heart; for they shall see God." (5)

   13. "Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on Him;
but, because of the Pharisees, they did not confess Him, lest they should
be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the glory of men more than the
glory of God." See how the evangelist marked and disapproved of some, who
yet, he said, believed on Him: who, if ever they did advance though this
gateway of faith, would thereby also overcome that love of human glory
which had been overcome by the apostle, when he said, "God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world
is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."  (6) For to this end also did
the Lord Himself, when derided by the madness of human pride and impiety,
fix His cross on the foreheads of those who believed on Him, on that which
is in a manner the abode of modesty, that faith may learn not to blush at
His name, and love the glory of God more than the glory of men.

TRACTATE LIV: CHAPTER XII. 44-50.

   1. Whilst our Lord Jesus Christ was speaking among the Jews, and giving
so many miraculous signs, some believed who were foreordained to eternal
life, and whom He also called His sheep; but some did not believe, and
could not believe, because that, by the mysterious yet not unrighteous
judgment of God, they had been blinded and hardened, because forsaken of
Him who resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. (1) But of
those who believed, there were some whose confession went so far, that they
took branches of palm trees, and met Him as He approached, turning in their
joy that very confession into a service of praise: while there were others,
belonging to the chief rulers, who had not the boldness to confess their
faith, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; and whom the
evangelist has branded with the words, that "they loved the praise of men
more than the praise of God "(ver. 43). Of those also who did not believe,
there were some who would afterwards believe, and whom He foresaw, when He
said," When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye acknowledge
that I am He: " (2) but there were some who would remain in the same
unbelief, and be imitated by the Jewish nation of the present day, which,
being shortly afterwards crushed in war, according to the prophetic
testimony which was written concerning Christ, has since been scattered
almost through the whole world.

   2. While matters were in this state, and His own passion was now at
hand, " Jesus cried, and said," as our lesson to-day commences, "He that
believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me; and he that
seeth me, seeth Him that sent me." He had already said in a certain place,
"My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me." (1) Where we understood
that He called His doctrine just what He is Himself, the Word of the
Father; and in saying, "My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me,"
implied this, that He was not of Himself, but had His being from another.
(2) For He was God of God, the Son of the Father: but the Father is not God
of God, but God, the Father of the Son. And now when He says, "He that
believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me," how else
are we to understand it, but that He appeared as man to men, while He
remained invisible as God? And that none might think that He was no more
than what they saw of Him, He indicated His wish to be believed on, as
equal in character and rank with the Father, when He said, "He that
believeth on me, believeth not on me," that is, merely on what he seeth of
me, "but on Him that sent me," that is, on the Father. But he that
believeth on the Father, must believe that He is the Father; and he that
believeth on Him as the Father, must believe that He has a Son; and in this
way, he that believeth on the Father, must believe on the Son. But let no
one believe about the only-begotten Son just what they believe about those
who are called the sons of God by grace and not by nature, as the
evangelist says, "He gave them power to become the sons of God," (3) and
according to what the Lord Himself also mentioned, as declared in the law,
"I said, Ye are gods; and all of you children of the Most High: " (4)
because He said, "He that believeth on me, believeth not on me," to show
that the whole extent of our faith in Christ should not be limited by His
manhood. He therefore, He saith, believeth on me, who doth not believe on
me merely according to what he seeth of me, but on Him that sent me: so
that, believing thus on the Father, he may believe that He has a Son co-
equal with Himself, and then attain to a true faith in me. For if one
should think that He has sons only according to grace, who are certainly no
more than His creatures, and not the Word, but those made by the Word, and
that He has no Son co-equal and co-eternal with Himself, ever born, alike
incommutable, in nothing dissimilar and inferior, then he believes not on
the Father who sent Him, for the Father who sent Him is no such conception
as this.

   3. And, accordingly, after saying, "He that believeth on me, believeth
not on me, but on Him that sent me," that it might not be thought that He
would have the Father so understood, as if He were the Father only of many
sons regenerated by grace, and not of the only-begotten Word, His own co-
equal, He immediately added, "And he that seeth me, seeth Him that sent
me." Does He say here, He that seeth me, seeth not me, but Him that sent
me, as He had said, "He that believeth me, believeth not on me, but on Him
that sent me"? For He uttered the former of these words, that He might not
be believed on merely as He then appeared, that is, as the Son of man; and
the latter, that He might be believed on as the equal of the Father. He
that believeth on me, believeth not merely on what He sees of me, but
believeth on Him that sent me. Or, when he believeth on the Father, who
begat me, His own co-equal, let him believe on me, not as he seeth me, but
as [he believeth] on Him that sent me; for so far does the truth, that
there is no distance between Him and me, reach, that He who seeth me, seeth
Him that sent me. Certainly, Christ the Lord Himself sent His apostles, as
their name implies: for as those who in Greek are called angeli are in
Latin called nuntii [messengers], so the Greek apostoli [apostles] becomes
the Latin missi [persons sent]. But never would any of the apostles have
dared to say, "He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on Him
that sent me;" for in no sense whatever would he say, "He that believeth on
me." We believe an apostle, but we do not believe on him; for it is not an
apostle that justifieth the ungodly. But to him that believeth on Him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (5) An
apostle might say, He that receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me; or, He
that heareth me, heareth Him that sent me; for the Lord tells them so
Himself: "He that receiveth you, receiveth me; and he that receiveth me,
receiveth Him that sent me." (6) For the master is honored in the servant,
and the father in the son: but then the father is as it were in the son,
and the master as it were in the servant. But the only-begotten Son could
rightly say, "Believe on God, and believe on me;" (1) as also what He saith
here, "He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on Him that sent
me." He did not turn away the faith of the believer from Himself, but only
would not have the believer continue in the form of a servant: because
every one who believeth in the Father that sent Him, straightway believeth
on the Son, without whom he knoweth that the Father hath no existence as
such, and thus reacheth in his faith to the belief of His equality with the
Father, in conformity with the words that follow, "And he that seeth me,
seeth Him that sent me."

   4. Attend to what follows: "I am come a light into the world, that
whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." He said in a
certain place to His disciples, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that
is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it
under a bushel, but on a candlestick; that it may give light to all that
are in the house: so let your light shine before men, that they may see
your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven:" (2) but He did
not say to them, Ye are come a light into the world, that whosoever
believeth on you should not abide in darkness. Such a statement, I
maintain, can nowhere be met with. All the saints, therefore, are lights,
but they are illuminated by Him through faith; and every one that becomes
separated from Him will be enveloped in darkness. But that Light, which
enlightens them, cannot become separated from itself; for it is altogether
beyond the reach of change. We believe, then, the light that has thus been
lit, as the prophet or apostle: but we believe him for this end, that we
may not believe on that which is itself enlightened, but, with him, on that
Light which has given him light; so that we, too, may be enlightened, not
by him, but, along with him, by the same Light as he. And when He saith,
"That whosoever believeth on me may not abide in darkness," He makes it
sufficiently manifest that all have been found by Him in a state of
darkness: but that they may not abide in the darkness wherein they have
been found, they ought to believe on that Light which hath come into the
world, for thereby was the world created.

   5. "And if any man," He says, "hear my words, and keep them not, I
judge him not." Remember what I know you have heard in former lessons; and
if any of you have forgotten, recall it: and those of you who were absent
then, but are present now, hear how it is that the Son saith, "I judge him
not," while in another place He says, "The Father judgeth no man, but hath
committed all judgment unto the Son;" (3) namely, that thereby we are to
understand, It is not now that I judge him. And why not now? Listen to the
sequel: "For I am not come," He says, "to judge the world, but to save the
world;" that is, to bring the world into a state of salvation. Now,
therefore, is the season of mercy, afterwards will be the time for
judgment: for He says, "I will sing to Thee, O Lord, of mercy and
judgment." (4)

   6. But see also what He says of that future judgment in the end: "He
that despiseth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him:
the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." He
says not, He that despiseth me, and receiveth not my words, I judge him not
at the last day; for had He said so, I do not see how it could have been
else than contradictory of that other statement, when He says, "The Father
judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." But when He
said, "He that despiseth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one to judge
him," and, for the information of those who were waiting to hear who that
one was, went on to add, "The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge
him in the last day," He made it sufficiently manifest that He Himself
would then be the judge. For it was of Himself He spake, Himself He
announced, and Himself He set forth as the gate whereby He entered as the
Shepherd to His sheep. In one way, therefore, will those be judged who have
never heard that word, in another way those who have heard and despised.
"For as many as have sinned without law," says the apostle, "shall also
perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged
by the law." (5)

   7. "For I have not," He says, "spoken of myself." He says that He has
not spoken of Himself, because He is not of Himself. Of this we have
frequently discoursed already; so that now, without any more instruction,
we have simply to remind you of it as a truth with which you are familiar.
"But the Father who sent me, He gave me a commandment what I should say,
and what I should speak." We would not stay to elaborate this, did we know
that we were now speaking with those with whom we have spoken on former
occasions, and of these, not with all, but such only whose memories have
retained what they heard: but because there are perhaps some now present
who did not hear, and some in a similar condition who have forgotten what
they heard, on their account let those who remember what they have heard
bear with our delay. How giveth the Father a commandment to His only Son?
With what words doth He speak to the Word, seeing that the Son Himself is
the only-begotten Word? Could it be by an angel, seeing that by Him the
angels were created? Was it by means of a cloud, which, when it gave forth
its sound to the Son, gave it not on His account, as He Himself also tells
us elsewhere, but for the sake of others who were needing to hear it (ver.
29)? Could it be by any sound issuing from the lips, where bodily form was
wanting, and where there is no such local distance separating the Son from
the Father as to admit of any intervening air, to give effect, by its
percussion, to the voice, and render it audible? Let us put away all such
unworthy notions of that incorporeal and ineffable subsistence. The only
Son is the Word and the Wisdom of the Father, and therein are all the
commandments of the Father. For there was no time that the Son knew not the
Father's commandment, so as to make it necessary for Him to possess in
course of time what He possessed not before. For what He has received from
the Father, He received in being born, and was given it in being begotten.
For the life He is, and life He certainly received in being born, while yet
there was no antecedent time when life was wanting to His personal
existence. For, on the one hand, the Father has life, and is what He has:
and yet He received it not, because He is not of any one. But the Son
received life as the Father's gift, of whom He is: and so He Himself is
what He has; for He has life, and is the life. Listen to Himself when He
says, "As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to
have life in Himself." (1) Could He give it to one who was in being, and
yet hitherto was destitute thereof? On the contrary, in the very begetting
it. was given by Him who begat the life, and so life begat the life. And to
show that He begat the life equal, and not inferior to Himself, it was
said, "As He hath life in Himself, so hath He also given to the Son to have
life in Himself." He gave life; for in begetting the life, what was it He
gave Him, save to be the life? And as His nativity is itself eternal, there
never was a time without that Son who is the life, and never was there a
time when the Son Himself was without the life; and as His nativity is
eternal, so He, who was thus born, is eternal life. And so the Father gave
not to the Son a commandment which He had not already; but, as I said, in
the Wisdom of the Father, that is, in the word of the Father, are laid up
all the Father's commandments. And yet the commandment is said to have been
given Him, because He, to whom it is thus given, is not of Himself: and to
give that to the Son which He never was without, is the same in meaning as
to beget that Son who never was without existence.

   8. There follow the words: "And I know that His commandment is life
everlasting." If, then, the Son Himself is eternal life, and the Father's
commandment the same, what else is expressed than this, I am the Father's
commandment? And in like manner, in what He proceeds to say, "Whatsoever I
speak, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak," let us not be taking
the "said unto me" as if the Father used words in speaking to the only
Word, or that the Word of God needed words from God. The Father spake to
the Son in the same way as He gave life to the Son; not that He knew not
the one, or had not the other, but just because He was the Son. What, then,
do the words mean, "Even as He said unto me, so I speak;" but just, I speak
the truth? So the former said as the Truthful One (2) what the latter thus
spake as the Truth. The Truthful begat the Truth. What, then, could He now
say to the Truth? For the Truth had no imperfection to be supplied by
additional truth. He spake, therefore, to the Truth, because He begat the
Truth. And in like manner the Truth Himself speaks what has been said to
Him; but only to those who have understanding, and who are taught by Him as
the God-begotten Truth. But that men might believe what they had not yet
capacity to understand, words that were audible issued from His human lips;
sounds passing rapidly away broke on the ear, and speedily completed the
little term of their duration: but the truths themselves, of which the
sounds are but signs, passed, as it were, into the memory of those who
heard them, and have come down to us also by means of written characters as
signs addressed to the eye. But it is not thus that the Truth speaks; He
speaks inwardly to the souls of the intelligent; He needs no sound to
instruct, but floods the mind with the light of understanding. And he,
then, who in that light is able to behold the eternity of His birth,
himself hears in the same way the Truth speaking, as He heard the Father
telling Him what He should speak. He has awakened in us a great longing for
that sweet experience of His presence within; but it is by daily growth
that we acquire it; it is by walking that we grow, and it is by forward
efforts we walk, so as to be  able at last to attain it.

TRACTATE LV: CHAPTER XIII. I-5.

   1. THE Lord's Supper, as set forth in John, must, with His assistance,
be unfolded in a becoming number of Lectures, and explained with all the
ability He is pleased to grant us. "Now, before the feast of the passover,
when Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this
world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved
them unto the end." Pascha (passover) is not, as some think, a Greek noun,
but a Hebrew: and yet there occurs in this noun a very suitable kind of
accordance in the two languages. For inasmuch as the Greek word paschein
means to stiffer, therefore pascha has been supposed to mean suffering, as
if the noun derived its name from His passion: but in its own language,
that is, in Hebrew, pascha means passover; (1) because the pascha was then
celebrated for the first time by God's people, when, in their flight from
Egypt, they passed over the Red Sea. (2) And now that prophetic emblem is
fulfilled in truth, when Christ is led as a sheep to the slaughter, (3)
that by His blood sprinkled on our doorposts, that is, by the sign of His
cross marked on our foreheads, we may be delivered from the perdition
awaiting this world, as Israel from the bondage and destruction of the
Egyptians; (4) and a most salutary transit we make when we pass over from
the devil to Christ, and from this unstable world to His well-established
kingdom. And therefore surely do we pass over to the ever-abiding God, that
we may not pass away with this passing world. The apostle, in extolling God
for such grace bestowed upon us, says: "Who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of
His love."(5) This name, then, of pascha, which, as I have said, is in
Latin called transitus (pass over), is interpreted, as it were, for us by
the blessed evangelist, when he says, "Before the feast of pascha, when
Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should pass out of this world to
the Father." Here you see we have both pascha and pass-over. Whence, and
whither does He pass? Namely, "out of this world to the Father." The hope
was thus given to the members in their Head, that they doubtless would yet
follow Him who was "passing" before. And what, then, of unbelievers, who
stand altogether apart from this Head and His members? Do not they also
pass away, seeing that they abide not here always? They also do plainly
pass away: but it is one thing to pass from the world, and another to pass
away with it; one thing to pass to the Father, another to pass to the
enemy. For the Egyptians also passed over [the sea]; but they did not pass
through the sea to the kingdom, but in the sea to destruction.

   2. "When Jesus knew," then, "that His hour was come that He should pass
out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the
world, He loved them unto the end." In order, doubtless, that they also,
through that love of His, might pass from this world where they now were,
to their Head who had passed hence before them. For what mean these words,
"to the end," but just to Christ? "For Christ is the end of the law," says
the apostle, "for righteousness to every one that believeth." (6) The end
that consummates, not that consumes; he end whereto we attain, not wherein
we perish. Exactly thus are we to understand the passage, "Christ our
passover is sacrificed." (7) He is our end; into Him do we pass. For I see
that these gospel words may also be taken in a kind of human sense, that
Christ loved His own even unto death, so. that this may be the meaning of
"He loved them unto the end." This meaning is human, not divine: (1) for it
was not merely up to this point that we were loved by Him, who loveth us
always and endlessly. God forbid that He, whose death could not end, should
have ended His love at death. Even after death that proud and ungodly rich
man loved his five brethren; (2) and is Christ to be thought of as loving
us only till death? God forbid, beloved. He would have come in vain with a
love for us that lasted till death, if that love had ended there. But
perhaps the words, "He loved them unto the end," may have to be understood
in this way, That He so loved them as to die for them. For this He
testified when He said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay
down his life for his friends." (3) We have certainly no objection that "He
loved them unto the end" should be so understood, that is, it was His very
love that carried Him on to death.

   3. "And the supper," he says, "having taken place, (4) and the devil
having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray
Him, [Jesus] knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands,
and that He has come from God, and is going to God; He riseth from supper,
and layeth aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After
that He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet,
and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded." We are not to
understand by the supper having taken place, as if it were already finished
and over; for it was still going on when the Lord rose and washed His
disciples' feet. For He afterwards sat down again, and gave the morsel
[sop] to His betrayer, implying certainly that the supper was not yet over,
or, in other words, that there was still bread on the table. Therefore, by
supper having taken place, is meant that it was now ready, and laid out on
the table for the use of the guests.

   4. But when he says, "The devil having now put into the heart of Judas
Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him;" if one inquires, what was put into
Judas' heart, it was doubtless this, "to betray Him." Such a putting [into
the heart] is a spiritual suggestion: and entereth not by the ear, but
through the thoughts; and thereby not in a way that is corporal, but
spiritual. For what we call spiritual is not always to be understood in a
commendatory way. The apostle knew of certain spiritual things [powers], of
wickedness in heavenly places, against which he testifies that we have to
maintain a struggle; (5) and there would not be spiritual wickednesses,
were there not also wicked spirits. For it is from a spiritual being that
spiritual things get their name. But how such things are done, as that
devilish suggestions should be introduced, and so mingle with human
thoughts that a man accounts them his own, how can he know? Nor can we
doubt that good suggestions are likewise made by a good spirit in the same
unobservable and spiritual way; but it is matter of concern to which of
these the human mind yields assent, either as deservedly left without, or
graciously aided by, the divine assistance. The determination, therefore,
had now been come to in Judas' heart by the instigation of the devil, that
the disciple should betray the Master, whom he had not learned to know as
his God. In such a state had he now come to their social meal, a spy on the
Shepherd, a plotter against the Redeemer, a seller of the Saviour; as such
was he now come, was he now seen and endured, and thought himself
undiscovered: for he was deceived about Him whom he wished to deceive. But
He, who had already scanned the inward state of that very heart, was
knowingly making use of one who knew it not.

   5. "[Jesus] knowing that the Father has given all things into His
hands." And therefore also the traitor himself: for if He had him not in
His hands, He certainly could not use him as He wished. Accordingly, the
traitor had been already betrayed to Him whom he sought to betray; and he
carried out his evil purpose in betraying Him in such a way, that good he
knew not of was the issue in regard to Him who was betrayed. For the Lord
knew what He was doing for His friends, and patiently made use of His
enemies: and thus had the Father given all things into His hands, both the
evil for present use, and the good for the final issue. "Knowing also that
He has come from God, and is going to God:" neither quitting God when He
came from Him, nor us when He returned.

   6. Knowing, then, these things, "He riseth from supper, and layeth
aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He
poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to
wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded." We ought, dearly
beloved, carefully to mark the meaning of the evangelist; because that,
when about to speak of the pre-eminent humility of the Lord, it was his
desire first to   commend His majesty. It is in reference to this that he
says, "Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands,
and that He has come from God, and is going to God." It is He, therefore,
into whose hands the Father had given all things, who now washes, not the
disciples' hands, but their feet: and it was just while knowing that He had
come from God, and was proceeding to God, that He discharged the office of
a servant, not of God the Lord, but of man. And this also is referred to by
the prefatory notice he has been pleased to make of His betrayer, who was
now come as such, and was not unknown to Him; that the greatness of His
humility should be still further enhanced by the fact that He did not
esteem it beneath His dignity to wash also the feet of one whose hands He
already foresaw to be steeped in wickedness.

   7. But why should we wonder that He rose from supper, and laid aside
His garments, who, being in the form of God, made Himself of no reputation?
(1) And why should we wonder, if He girded Himself with a towel, who took
upon Him the form of a servant, and was found in the likeness of a man? (2)
Why wonder, if He poured water into a basin wherewith to wash His
disciples' feet, who  poured His blood upon the earth to wash l away the
filth of their sins? Why wonder, if  with the towel wherewith He was girded
He wiped the feet He had washed, who with the  very flesh that clothed Him
laid a firm path way for the footsteps of His evangelists? In order,
indeed, to gird Himself with the towel,   He laid aside the garments He
wore; but  when He emptied Himself [of His divine glory] in order to assume
the form of a servant, He laid not down what He had, but assumed that which
He had not before. When about to be crucified, He was indeed stripped of
His garments, and when dead was wrapped in linen clothes: and all that
suffering of His is our purification. When, therefore, about to suffer the
last extremities [of humiliation,] He here illustrated beforehand its
friendly compliances; not only to those for whom He was about to endure
death, but to him also who had resolved on betraying Him to death. Because
so great is the beneficence of human humility, that even the Divine Majesty
was pleased to commend it by His own example; for proud man would have
perished eternally, had he not been found by the lowly God. For the Son of
man came to seek and to save that which was lost. (3) And as he was lost by
imitating the pride of the deceiver, let him now, when found, imitate the
Redeemer's humility.

TRACTATE LVI. CHAPTER XIII. 6--10.

   1. When the Lord was washing the disciples' feet, "He cometh to Simon
Peter; and Peter saith unto Him, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?" For who
would not be filled with fear at having his feet washed by the Son of God?
Although, therefore, it was a piece of the greatest audacity for the
servant to contradict his Lord, the creature his God; yet Peter preferred
doing this to the suffering of his feet to be washed by his Lord and God.
Nor ought we to think that Peter was one amongst others who so expressed
their fear and refusal, seeing that others before him had suffered it to be
done to themselves with cheerfulness and equanimity. For it is easier so to
understand the words of the Gospel, because that, after saying, "He began
to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He
was girded," it is then added, "Then cometh He to Simon Peter," as if He
had already washed the feet of some, and after them had now come to the
first of them all. For who can fail to know that the most blessed Peter was
the first of the apostles? But we are not so  to understand it, that it was
after some others that He came to him; but that He began with him. (1)
When, therefore, He began to wash the disciples' feet, He came to him with
whom He began, namely, to Peter; and then Peter took fright at what any one
of them might have been frightened, and said, "Lord, dost Thou wash my
feet?" What is implied in this" Thou"? and what in "my"? These are subjects
for thought rather than for speech; lest perchance any adequate conception
the soul may have formed of such words may fail of explanation in the
utterance.

   2. But "Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not
now, but thou shalt know hereafter." And not even yet, terrified as he was
by the sublimity of the Lord's action, does he allow it to be done, while
ignorant of its purpose; but is unwilling to see, unable to endure, that
Christ should thus humble Himself to his very feet. "Thou shalt never," he
says, "wash my feet." What is this "never" [in aeternum]? I will never
endure, never suffer, never permit it: that is, a thing is not done "in
oeternum" which is never done. Then the Saviour, to terrify His reluctant
patient with the danger of his own salvation, says, "If I wash thee not,
thou shalt have no part with me." He speaks in this way, "If I wash thee
not," when He was referring only to his feet; just as it is customary to
say, You are trampling on me, when it is only the foot that is trampled on.
And now the other, in a perturbation of love and fear, and more frightened
at the thought that Christ should be withheld from him, than even to see
Him humbled at his feet, exclaims, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my
hands and my head." Since this, indeed, is Thy threat, that my bodily
members must be washed by Thee, not only do I no longer withhold the
lowest, but I lay the foremost also at Thy disposal. Deny me not having a
part with Thee, and I deny Thee not any part of my body to be washed.

   3. "Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his
feet, but is clean every whit." Some one perhaps may be aroused at this,
and say: Nay, but if he is every whit clean, what need has He even to wash
his feet? But the Lord knew what He was saying, even though our weakness
reach not into His secret purposes. Nevertheless, so far as He is pleased
to instruct and teach us out of His law, up to the little measure of my
apprehension, I would also, with His help, make some answer bearing on the
depths of this question: and, first of all, I shall have no difficulty in
showing that there is no self-contradiction in the manner of expression.
For who may not say, as here, with the greatest propriety, He is all clean,
except (1) his feet?--although he would speak with greater elegance were he
to say, He is all clean, save (1) his feet; which is equivalent in meaning.
Thus, then, doth the Lord say, "He needeth not save to wash his feet, but
is all clean." All, that is, except, or save (1) his feet, which he still
needs to wash.

   4. But what is this? what does it mean? and what is there in it we need
to examine? The Lord says, The Truth declares that even he who has been
washed has need still to wash his feet. What, my brethren, what think you
of it? save that in holy baptism a man has all of him washed, not all save
his feet, but every whit; and yet, while thereafter living in this human
state, he cannot fail to tread on the ground with his feet. And thus our
human feelings themselves, which are inseparable from our mortal life on
earth, are like feet wherewith we are brought into sensible contact with
human affairs; and are so in such a way, that if we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.(2) And every day, therefore,
is He who intercedeth for us s washing our feet: and that we, too have
daily need to be washing our feet, that is ordering aright the path of our
spiritual foot. steps, we acknowledge even in the Lord': prayer, when we
say, "Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors." (4) For "if,'
as it is written, "we confess our sins," then verily is He, who washed His
disciples' feet, "faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness," (5) that is, even to our feet wherewith we
walk on the earth.

   5. Accordingly the Church, which Christ cleanseth with the washing of
water in the word, is without spot and wrinkle, (6) not only in the case of
those who are taken away immediately after the washing of regeneration from
the contagious influence of this life, and tread not the earth so as to
make necessary the washing of their feet, but in those also who have
experienced such mercy from the Lord as to be enabled to quit this present
life even with feet that have been washed. But although the Church be also
clean in respect of those who tarry on earth, because they live
righteously; yet have they need to be washing their feet, because they
assuredly are not without sin. For this cause is it said in the Song of
Songs, "I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?" (7) For one so
speaks when he is constrained to come to Christ, and in coming has to bring
his feet into contact with the ground. But again, there is another question
that arises. Is not Christ above? hath He not ascended into heaven, and
sitteth He not at the Father's right hand? Does not the apostle expressly
declare, "If ye, then, be risen with Christ, set your thoughts on those
things which are above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God.
Seek the things which are above, not things which are on earth?" (1) How is
it, then, that to get to Christ we are compelled to tread the earth, since
rather our hearts ought to be turned upwards toward the Lord, that we may
be enabled to dwell in His presence? You see, brethren, the shortness of
the time to-day curtails our consideration of this question. And if you
perhaps fail in some measure to do so, yet I for my part see how much
clearing up it requires. And therefore I beg of you to suffer it rather to
be adjourned, than to be treated now in too negligent and restricted a
manner; and your expectations will not be defrauded, but only deferred. For
the Lord who thus makes us your debtors, will be present to enable us also
to pay our debts.

TRACTATE LVII: CHAPTER XIII. 6-10 (continued), and Song of Sol. V. 2, 3.

IN WHAT WAY THE CHURCH SHOULD FEAR TO DEFILE HER FEET, WHILE PROCEEDING ON
HER WAY TO CHRIST.

   1. I  HAVE not been unmindful of my debt, and acknowledge that the time
of payment has now come. May He give me wherewith to pay, as He gave me
cause to incur the debt. For He has given me the love, of which it is said,
"Owe no man anything, but to love one another." (1) May He give also the
word, which I feel myself owing to those I love. I put off your
expectations till now for this reason, that I might explain as I could how
it is we come to Christ along the ground, When we are commanded rather to
seek the things which are above, not the things which are upon the earth.
(2) For Christ is sitting above, at the right hand of the Father: but He is
assuredly here also; and for that reason said also to Saul, as he was
raging on the earth, "Why persecutest thou me?" (3) But the topic on which
we were speaking, and which led to our entering on this inquiry, was our
Lord's washing His disciples' feet, after the disciples themselves had
already been washed, and needed not, save to wash their feet. And we there
saw it to be understood that a man is indeed wholly washed in baptism; but
while thereafter he liveth in this present world, and with the feet of his
human passions treadeth on this earth, that is, in his life-intercourse
with others, he contracts enough to call forth the prayer, "Forgive us our
debts." (4) And thus from these also is he cleansed by Him who washed His
disciples' feet, (3) and ceaseth not to make intercession for us.(6) And
here occurred the words of the Church in the Song of Songs, when she saith,
"I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?" when she wished to go and
open to that Being, fairer in form than the sons of men, (7) who had come
to her and knocked, and asked her to open to Him. This gave rise to a
question, which we were unwilling to compress into the narrow limits of the
time, and therefore deferred till now, in what sense the Church, when on
her way to Christ, may be afraid of defiling her feet, which she had washed
in the baptism of Christ.

   2. For thus she speaks: "I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice
of my Beloved (8) that knocketh at the gate." And then He also says: "Open
to me, my sister, my nearest, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is
filled with dew, and my hair with the drops of the night." And she replies:
"I have put off my dress; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how
shall I defile them?" (9) O wonderful sacramental symbol! O lofty mystery!
Does she, then, fear to defile her feet in coming to Him who washed the
feet of His disciples? Her fear is genuine; for it is along the earth she
has to come to Him, who is still on earth, because refusing to leave His
own who are stationed here. Is it not He that saith, "Lo, I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world"? (10) Is it not He that saith, "Ye
shall see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of man"? (1) If they ascend to Him because He is
above, how do they descend to Him, but because He is also here? Therefore
saith the Church: "I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?" She
says so even in the case of those who, purified from all dross. can say: "I
desire to depart, and to be with Christ; nevertheless to abide in the flesh
is more needful for you." (2) She says it in those who preach Christ, and
open to Him the door, that He may dwell by faith in the hearts of men. (3)
In such she says it, when they deliberate whether to undertake such a
ministry, for which they do not consider themselves qualified, so as to
discharge it blamelessly, and so as not, after preaching to others,
themselves to become castaways. (4) For it is safer to hear than to preach
the truth: for in the hearing, humility is preserved; but when it is
preached, it is scarcely possible for any man to hinder the entrance of
some small measure of boasting, whereby the feet at least are defiled.

   3. Therefore, as the Apostle James saith, "Let every man be swift to
hear, slow to speak." (5) As it is also said by another man  of God, "Thou
wilt make me to hear joy and gladness; and the bones Thou hast humbled will
rejoice." (6) This is what I said: When the truth is heard, humility is
preserved. And another says: "But the friend of the bridegroom standeth and
heareth him, and rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice." (7)
Let us rejoice in the hearing that comes from the noiseless speaking of the
truth within us. For although, when the sound is outwardly uttered, as by
one that readeth; or proclaimeth, or preacheth, or disputeth, or
commandeth, or comforteth, or exhorteth, or even by one that sings or
accompanies his  voice on an instrument, those who do so may fear to defile
their feet, when they aim at pleasing men with the secretly active desire
of human applause. Yet the one who hears such with a willing and pious
mind, has no room for self-gratulation in the labors of others; and with no
self-inflation, but with the joy of humility, rejoices because of the
Master's words of truth. Accordingly, in those who hear with willingness
and humility, and spend a tranquil life in sweet and wholesome studies, the
holy Church will take delight, and may say, "I sleep, and  my heart
waketh." And what is this, "I sleep, and my heart waketh," but just I sit
down quietly to listen? My leisure is not laid out in nourishing
slothfulness, but in acquiring wisdom. "I sleep, and my heart waketh." I am
still, and see that Thou art the Lord: (8) for "the wisdom of the scribe
cometh by opportunity of leisure; and he that hath little business shall
become wise." (9) "I sleep, and my heart waketh:" I rest from troublesome
business, and my mind turns its attention to divine concerns (or
communications). (10)

   4. But while the Church finds delightful repose in those who thus
sweetly and humbly sit at her feet, here is one who knocks, and says: "What
I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light; and what ye hear in the
ear, that preach ye upon the house-tops." (11) It is His voice, then, that
knocks at the gate, and says: "Open to me, my sister, my neighbor, my dove,
my perfect one; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops
of the night." As if He had said, Thou art at leisure, and the door is
closed against me: thou art caring for the leisure of the few, and through
abounding iniquity the love of many is waxing cold. (12) The night He
speaks of is iniquity: but His dew and drops are those who wax cold and
fall away, and make the head of Christ to wax cold, that is, the love of
God to fail. For the head of Christ is God. (13) But they are borne on His
locks, that is, their presence is tolerated in the visible sacraments;
while their senses never take hold of the internal realities. He knocks,
therefore, to shake off this quiet from His inactive saints, and cries,
"Open to me," thou who, through my blood, art become "my sister;" through
my drawing nigh, "my neighbor;" through my Spirit, "'my dove;" through my
word which thou hast fully learned in thy leisure, "my perfect one:" open
to me, go and preach me to others. For how shall I get in to those who have
shut their door against me, without some one to open? and how shall they
hear without a preacher? (14)

   5. Hence it happens that those who love to devote their leisure to good
studies, and shrink from encountering the troubles of toilsome labors, as
feeling themselves unsuited to undertake and discharge such services with
credit, would prefer, were it possible, to have the holy apostles and
ancient preachers of the truth again raised up against that abounding of
iniquity which hath so reduced the warmth of Christian love. But in regard
to those who have already left the body, and put off the garment of the
flesh (for they are not utterly parted), the Church replies, "I have put
off my dress; how shall I put it on?" That dress shall, indeed, yet be
recovered; and in the persons of those who have meanwhile laid it aside,
shall the Church again put on the garment of flesh: only not now, when the
cold are needing to be warmed; but then, when the dead shall rise again.
Realizing, then, her present difficulty through the scarcity of preachers,
and remembering those members of her own who were so sound in word and holy
in character, but are now disunited from their bodies,  the Church says in
her sorrow, "I have put off my dress; how shall I put it on?" How can those
members of mine, who had such surpassing power, through their preaching, to
open the door to Christ, now return to the bodies which they have laid
aside?

   6. And then, turning again to those who preach, and gather in and
govern the congregations of His people, and so open as they can to Christ,
but are afraid, amid the difficulties of such work, of falling into sin,
she says, "I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?" For whosoever
offendeth not in word, the same is a perfect man. And who, then, is
perfect? Who is there that offendeth not amid such an abounding of
iniquity, and such a freezing of charity? "I have washed my feet; how shall
I defile them?" At times I read and hear: "My brethren, be not many
masters, seeing that ye shall receive the greater condemnation: for in many
things we offend all." (1) "I have washed my feet; how shall I defile
them?" But see, I rise and open. Christ, wash them. "Forgive us our debts,"
because our love is not altogether extinguished: for "we also forgive our
debtors."(2) When we listen to Thee, the hones which have been humbled
rejoice with Thee in the heavenly places. (3) But when we preach Thee, we
have to tread the ground in order to open to Thee: and then, if we are
blameworthy, we are troubled; if we are commended, we become inflated. Wash
our feet, that were formerly cleansed, but have again been defiled in our
walking through the earth to open unto Thee. Let this be enough today,
beloved. But in whatever we have happened to offend, by saying otherwise
than we ought, or have been unduly elated by your commendations, entreat
that our feet may be washed, and may your prayers find acceptance with God.

TRACTATE LVIII: CHAPTER XIII. 10--15.

   1. We have already, beloved, as the Lord was pleased to enable us,
expounded to you those words of the Gospel, where the Lord, in washing His
disciples' feet, says, "He that is once washed needeth not save to wash his
feet, but is clean every whit." Let us now look at what follows. "And ye,"
He says, "are clean, but not all." And to remove the need of inquiry on our
part, the evangelist has himself explained its meaning, by adding: "For He
knew who it was that should betray Him; therefore said He, Ye are not all
clean." Can anything be clearer? Let us therefore pass to what follows.

   2. "So, after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and
was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?"
Now it is that the blessed Peter gets that promise fulfilled: for he had
been put off when, in the midst of his trembling and asserting, "Thou shalt
never wash my feet," he received the answer, "What I do, thou knowest not
now, but thou shall know hereafter" (vers. 7, 8). Here, then, is that very
hereafter; it is now time to tell what was a little ago deferred.
Accordingly, the Lord, mindful of His foregoing promise to make him
understand an act of His so unexpected, so wonderful, so frightening, and,
but for His own still more terrifying rejoinder, impossible to be
permitted, that the Master not only of themselves, but of angels, and the
Lord not only of them, but of all things, should wash the feet of His own
disciples and servants: having then promised to let him know the meaning of
so important an act, when He said, "Thou shalt know afterwards," begins now
to show them what it was that He did.

   3. "Ye call me," He says, "Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I
am." "Ye say well," for ye only say the truth; I am indeed what ye say.
There is a precept laid on man: "Let not thine own mouth praise thee, but
the mouth of thy neighbor." (1) For self-pleasing is a perilous thing for
one who has to be on his guard against falling into pride. But He who is
over all things, however much He commend Himself, cannot exalt Himself
above His actual dignity: nor can God be rightly termed arrogant. For it is
to our advantage to know Him, not to His; nor can any one know Him, unless
that self-knowing One make Himself known. If He, then, by abstaining from
self-commendation, wish, as it were, to avoid arrogance, He will deny us
the power of knowing Him. And no one surely would blame Him for calling
Himself Master, even though believing Him to be nothing more than a man;
seeing He only makes profession of what even men themselves in the various
arts profess to such an extent, without any charge of arrogance, that they
are termed professors. But to call Himself also the Lord of His disciples,-
-of men who, in an earthly sense, were themselves also free-born,--who
would tolerate it in a man? But it is God that speaks. Here no elation is
possible to loftiness so great, no lie to the truth: the profit is ours to
be the subjects of such loftiness, the servants of the truth. That He calls
Himself Lord is no imperfection on His side, but a benefit on ours. The
words of a certain profane (1) author are commended, when he says, "All
arrogance is hateful, and specially disagreeable is that of talent and
eloquence;" (2) and yet, when the same person was speaking of his own
eloquence, he said, "I would call it perfect, were I to pronounce judgment;
nor, in truth, would I greatly fear the charge of arrogance." (3) If, then,
that most eloquent man had in truth no fear of being charged with
arrogance, how can the truth itself have such a fear? Let Him call Himself
Lord who is the Lord, let Him say what is true who is the Truth; so that I
may not fail to learn that which is profitable, by His being silent about
that which is. The most blessed Paul--certainly not himself the only-
begotten Son of God, but the servant and apostle of that Son; not the
Truth, but a partaker of the truth--declares with freedom and consistency,
"And though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I say the
truth." (4) For it would not be in himself, but in the truth, which is
superior to himself, that he was glorying both humbly and truly: for it is
he also who has given the charge, that he that glorieth should glory in the
Lord. (5) Could thus the lover of wisdom have no fear of being chargeable
with foolishness, though he desired to glory? and would wisdom itself, in
its glorying, have any fear of such a charge? He had no fear of arrogance
who said, "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord;" (6) and could the
power of the Lord have any such fear in commending itself, in which His
servant's soul is making her boast? "Ye call me," He says, "Master and
Lord: and ye say well; for so I am." Therefore ye say well, that I am so:
for if I were not what ye say, ye would be wrong to say so, even with the
purpose of praising me. How, then,  could the Truth deny what the disciples
of the Truth affirm? How could that which was said by the learners be
denied by the very Truth that gave them their learning? How can the
fountain deny what the drinker asserts? how can the light hide what the
beholder declares?

   4. "If I, then," He says, "your Lord and Master, have washed your feet,
ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example,
that ye should do as I have done to you." This, blessed Peter, is what thou
didst not know when thou wert not allowing it to be done. This is what He
promised to let thee know afterwards, when thy Master and thy Lord
terrified thee into submission, and washed thy feet. We have learned,
brethren, humility from the Highest; let us, as humble, do to one another
what He, the Highest, did in His humility. Great is the commendation we
have here of humility: and brethren do this to one another in turn, even in
the visible act itself, when they treat one another with hospitality; for
the practice of such humility is generally prevalent, and finds expression
in the very deed that makes it discernible. And hence the apostle, when he
would commend the well-deserving widow, says, "If she is hospitable, if she
has washed the saints' feet." (7) And wherever Such is not the practice
among the saints, what they do not with the hand they do in heart, if they
are of the number of those who are addressed in the hymn of the three
blessed men, "O ye holy and humble of heart, bless ye the Lord." (8) But it
is far better, and beyond all dispute more accordant with the truth, that
it should also be done with the hands; nor should the Christian think it
beneath him to do what was done by Christ. For when the body is bent at a
brother's feet, the feeling of such humility is either awakened in the
heart itself, or is strengthened if already present.

   5. But apart from this moral understanding of the passage, we remember
that the way in which we commended to your attention the grandeur of this
act of the Lord's, was that, in washing the feet of disciples who were
already washed and clean, the Lord instituted a sign, to the end that, on
account of the human feelings that occupy us on earth, however far we may
have advanced in our apprehension of righteousness, we might know that we
are not exempt from sin; which He thereafter washes away by interceding for
us, when we pray the Father, who is in heaven, to forgive us our debts, as
we also forgive our debtors. (1) What connection, then, can such an
understanding of the passage have with that which He afterwards gave
Himself, when He explained the reason of His act in the words, "If I then,
your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one
another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I
have done to you"? Can we say that even a brother may cleanse a brother
from the contracted stain of wrongdoing? Yea, verily, we know that of this
also we were admonished in the profound significance of this work of the
Lord's, that we should confess our faults one to another, and pray for one
another, even as Christ also maketh intercession for us. (2) Let us listen
to the Apostle James, who states this precept with the greatest clearness
when he says, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for
another." (3) For of this also the Lord gave us the example. For if He who
neither has, nor had, nor will have any sin, prays for our sins, how much
more ought we to pray for one another's in turn! And if He forgives us,
whom we have nothing to forgive; how much more ought we, who are unable to
live here without sin, to forgive one another! For what else does the Lord
apparently intimate in the profound significance of this sacramental sign,
when He says, "For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have
done to you;" but what the apostle declares in the plainest terms,
"Forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as
Christ forgave you, so also do ye"? (4) Let us therefore forgive one
another his faults, and pray for one another's faults, and thus in a manner
be washing one another's feet. It is our part, by His grace, to be
supplying the service of love and humility: it is His to hear us, and to
cleanse us from all the pollution of our sins through Christ, and in
Christ; so that what we forgive even to others, that is, loose on earth,
may be loosed in heaven.

TRACTATE LIX: CHAPTER XIII. 16-20.

   1. We have just heard in the holy Gospel  the Lord speaking, and
saying, "Verily, verily ,I say unto you, The servant is not greater than
his lord, nor the apostle [he that is sent] greater than he that sent him:
if ye know these things, blessed shall ye be if ye do them." He said this,
therefore, because He had washed the disciples' feet, as the Master of
humility both by word and example. But we shall be able, with His help, to
handle what is in need of more elaborate handling, if we linger not at what
is perfectly clear. Accordingly, after uttering these words, the Lord
added, "I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but, that the
Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me, shall lift up his
heel upon me." And what is this, but that he shall trample upon me?   We
know of whom He speaks: it is Judas, that betrayer of His, who is referred
to. He had not therefore chosen the person whom, by these words, He setteth
utterly apart from His chosen ones. When I say then, He continues "Blessed
shall ye be if ye do them, I speak not of you all:" there is one among you
who will not be blessed, and who will not do these things. "I know whom I
have chosen." Whom, but those who shall be blessed in the doing of what has
been commanded and shown as needful to be done, by Him who alone can make
them blessed? The traitor Judas, He says, is not one of those that have
been chosen. What, then, is meant by what He says in another place, "Have I
not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" (1) Was it that he also
was chosen for some purpose, for which he was really necessary; although
not for the blessedness of which He has just been saying, "Blessed shall ye
be if ye do these things"? He speaketh not so of them all; for He knows
whom He has chosen to be associated with Himself in blessedness. Of such he
is not one, who ate His bread in order that he might lift up his heel upon
Him. The bread they ate was the Lord Himself; he ate the Lord's bread in
enmity to the Lord: they ate life, and he punishment. "For he that eateth
unworthily," says the apostle, "eateth judgment unto himself." (1) "From
this time," (2) Christ adds, "I tell you before it come; that when it is
come to pass, ye may believe that I am He:" that is, I am He of whom the
Scripture that preceded has just said, "He that eateth bread with me, shall
lift up his heel upon me."

   2. He then proceeds to say: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me; and he that receiveth me,
receiveth Him that sent me." Did He mean us to understand that there is as
little distance between one sent by Him, and Himself, as there is between
Himself and God the Father? If we take it in this way, I know not what
measurements of distance (which may God forbid!) we shall be adopting, in
the Arian fashion. For they, when they hear or read these words of the
Gospel, have immediate recourse to their dogmatic measurements, whereby
they ascend not to life, but fall headlong into death. For they straightway
say: The Son's messenger stands at the same relative distance from the Son,
as expressed in the words, "He that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth
me," as that in which the Son Himself stands from the Father, when He said,
"He that receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me." But if thou sayest so,
thou forgettest, heretic, thy measurements. For if, because of these words
of the Lord, thou puttest the Son at as great a distance from the Father as
the messenger [apostle] from the Son, where dost thou purpose to place the
Holy Spirit? Has it escaped thee, that ye are wont to place Him after the
Son? He will therefore come in between the messenger and the Son; and much
greater, then, will be the distance between the Son and His messenger, than
between the Father and His Son. Or perhaps, to preserve that distinction
between the Son and His messenger, and between the Father and His Son, at
their equality of distance, will the Holy Spirit be equal to the Son? But
as little will ye allow this. And where, then, do ye think of placing Him,
if ye place the Son as far beneath the Father, as ye place the messenger
beneath the Son? Restrain, therefore, your foolhardy presumption; and do
not be seeking to find in these words the same distance between the Son and
His messenger as between the Father and His Son. But listen rather to the
Son Himself, when He says, "I and my Father are one." (3) For there the
Truth hath left you no shadow of distance between the Begetter and the
Only-begotten; there Christ Himself hath erased your measurements, and the
rock hath broken your staircase to pieces.

   3. But now that the heretical slander has been disposed of, in what
sense are we to understand these words of the Lord: "He that receiveth
whomsoever I send, receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth Him
that sent me"? For if we were inclined to understand the words, "He that
receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me," as expressing the oneness in
nature of the Father and the Son; the sequence from the similar arrangement
of words in the other clause, "He that receiveth whomsoever I send,
receiveth me," would be the unity in nature of the Son and His messenger.
And there might, indeed, be no impropriety in so understanding it, seeing
that a twofold substance belongeth to the strong man, who hath rejoiced to
run the race; (4) for the Word was made flesh, (5) that is, God became man.
And accordingly He might be supposed to have said, "He that receiveth
whomsoever I send, receiveth me," with reference to His human nature; "and
he that receiveth me" as God, "receiveth Him that sent me." But in so
speaking, He was not commending the unity of nature, but the authority of
the Sender in Him who is sent. Let every one, therefore, so receive Him
that is sent, that in His person lie may give heed to Him who sent Him. If,
then, thou lookest for Christ in Peter, thou wilt find the disciple's
instructor; and if thou lookest for the Father in the Son, thou wilt find
the Begetter of the Only-begotten: and so in Him who is sent, thou art not
mistaken in receiving the Sender. What follows in the Gospel cannot be
compressed within the shortness of the time remaining. And therefore,
dearly beloved, let what has been said, if thought sufficient, be received
in a healthful way, as pasture for the holy sheep; and if it is somewhat
scanty, let it be ruminated over with ardent desire for more.

TRACTATE LX: CHAPTER XIII. 21.

   1. It is no light question, brethren, that meets us in the Gospel of
the blessed John, when he says: "When Jesus had thus said, He was troubled
in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that
one of you shall betray me." Was it for this reason that Jesus was
troubled, not in flesh, but in spirit, that He was now about to say, "One
of you shall betray me"? Did this occur then for the first time to His
mind, or was it at that moment suddenly revealed to Him for the first time,
and so troubled Him by the startling novelty of so great a calamity? Was it
not a little before that He was using these words, "He that eateth bread
with me will lift up his heel against me"? And had He not also, previously
to that, said, "And ye are clean, but not all"? where the evangelist added,
"For He knew who should betray Him:" (1) to whom also on a still earlier
occasion He had pointed in the words, "Have not I chosen you twelve, and
one of you is a devil?" (2) Why is it, then, that He "was now troubled in
spirit," when "He testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that
one of you shall betray me"? Was it because now He had so to mark him out,
that he should no longer remain concealed among the rest, but be separated
from the others, that therefore "He was troubled in spirit"? Or was it
because now the traitor himself was on the eve of departing to bring those
Jews to whom he was to betray the Lord, that He was troubled by the
imminency of His passion, the closeness of the danger, and the swooping
hand of the traitor, whose resolution was foreknown? For some such cause it
certainly was that Jesus "was troubled in spirit," as when He said, "Now is
my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour; but
for this cause came I unto this hour." (3) And accordingly, just as then
His soul was troubled as the hour of His passion approached; so now also,
as Judas was on the point of going and coming, and the atrocious villainy
of the traitor neared its accomplishment, "He was troubled in spirit."

   2. He was troubled, then, who had power to lay down His life, and had
power to take it again.(4) That mighty power is troubled, the firmness of
the rock is disturbed: or is it rather our infirmity that is troubled in
Him? Assuredly so: let servants believe nothing unworthy of their Lord, but
recognize their own membership in their Head. He who died for us, was also
Himself troubled in our place. He, therefore, who died in power, was
troubled in the midst of His power: He who shall yet transform (5) the body
of our humility into similarity of form with the body of His glory, hath
also transferred into Himself the feeling of our infirmity, and
sympathizeth with us in the feelings of His own soul. Accordingly, when it
is the great, the brave, the sure, the invincible One that is troubled, let
us have no fear for Him, as if He were capable of failing: He is not
perishing, but in search of us [who are]. Us, I say; it is us exclusively
whom He is thus seeking, that in His trouble we may behold ourselves, and
so, when trouble reaches us, may not fall into despair and perish. By His
trouble, who could not be troubled save with His own consent, He comforts
such as are troubled unwillingly.

   3. Away with the reasons of philosophers, who assert that a wise man is
not affected by mental perturbations. God hath made foolish the wisdom of
this world; (6) and the Lord knoweth the thoughts of men, that they are
vain. (7) It is plain that the mind of the Christian may be troubled, not
by misery, but by pity: he may fear lest men should be lost to Christ; he
may sorrow when one is being lost; he may have ardent desire to gain men to
Christ; he may be filled with joy when such is being done; he may have fear
of falling away himself from Christ; he may sorrow over his own
estrangement from Christ; he may be earnestly desirous of reigning with
Christ, and he may be rejoicing in the hope that such fellowship with
Christ will yet be his lot. These are certainly four of what they call
perturbations--fear and sorrow, love and gladness. And Christian minds may
have sufficient cause to feel them, and evidence their dissent from the
error of Stoic philosophers, and all resembling them: who indeed, just as
they esteem truth to be vanity, regard also insensibility as soundness; not
knowing that a man's mind, like the limbs of his body, is only the more
hopelessly diseased when it has lost even the feeling of pain.

   4. But says some one: Ought the mind of the Christian to be troubled
even at the prospect of death? For what comes of those words of the
apostle, that he had a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, (1) if the
object of his desire can thus trouble him when it comes? Our answer to this
would be easy, indeed, in the case of those who also term gladness itself a
perturbation [of the mind]. For what if the trouble he thus feels arises
entirely from his rejoicing at the prospect of death? But such a feeling,
they say, ought to be termed gladness, and not rejoicing. (2) And what is
that, but just to alter the name, while the feeling experienced is the
same? But let us for our part confine our attention to the Sacred
Scriptures, and with the Lord's help seek rather such a solution of this
question as will be in harmony with them; and then, seeing it is written,
"When He had thus said, He was troubled in spirit," we will not say that it
was joy that disturbed Him; lest His own words should convince us of the
contrary when He says, "My soul is sorrowful, even unto death." (3) It is
some such feeling that is here also to be understood, when, as His betrayer
was now on the very point of departing alone, and straightway returning
along with his associates, "Jesus was troubled in spirit."

   5. Strong-minded, indeed, are those Christians, if such there are, who
experience no trouble at all in the prospect of death; but for all that,
are they stronger-minded than Christ? Who would have the madness to say so?
And what else, then, does His being troubled signify, but that, by
voluntarily assuming the likeness of their weakness, He comforted the weak
members in His own body, that is, in His Church; to the end that, if any of
His own are still troubled at the approach of death, they may fix their
gaze upon Him, and so be kept from thinking themselves castaways on this
account, and being swallowed up in the more grievous death of despair? And
how great, then, must be that good which we ought to expect and hope for in
the participation of His divine nature, whose very perturbation
tranquillizes us, and whose infirmity confirms us? Whether, therefore, on
this occasion it was by His pity for Judas himself thus rushing into ruin,
or by the near approach of His own death, that He was troubled, yet there
is no possibility of doubting that it was not through any infirmity of
mind, but in the fullness of power, that He was troubled, and so no despair
of salvation need arise in our minds, when we are troubled, not in the
possession of power, but in the midst of our weakness. He certainly bore
the infirmity of the flesh,--an infirmity which was swallowed up in His
resurrection. But He who was not only man, but God also, surpassed by an
ineffable distance the whole human race in fortitude of mind. He was not,
then, troubled by any outward plessure of man, but troubled Himself; which
was very plainly declared of Him when He raised Lazarus from the dead: for
it is there written that He troubled Himself, (4) that it may be so
understood even where the text does not so express it, and yet declares
that He was troubled. For having by His power assumed our full humanity, by
that very power He awoke in Himself our human feelings whenever He judged
it becoming.


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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