(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)


ST. AUGUSTINE

TEN HOMILIES ON THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN.

(ON THE EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN TO THE PARTHIANS)

[Translated by Rev. H. Browne, M.A., Canon of Waltham and Principal of the
Chichester Diocesan College; revised by Rev. Joseph H. Myers, D.D.]


THE PROLOGUE

   YE remember, holy brethren, that the Gospel according to John, read in
orderly course of lessons, is the subject on which we usually discourse:
but because of the now intervening solemnity of the holy days, on which
there must be certain lessons recited in the Church, which so come every
year that they cannot be other than they are:(2) the order which we had
undertaken is of necessity for a little while intermitted, not wholly
omitted. But when I was thinking what matter of discourse upon the
Scriptures, agreeably with the cheerfulness of these days, I might
undertake with you, as the Lord shall vouchsafe to grant, during the
present week, being such an one as might be finished in these seven or
eight days; the Epistle of blessed John occurred to me: that whereas we
have for a while intermitted the reading of his Gospel, we may in
discoursing upon his Epistle not go from his side: the rather, as in this
same Epistle, which is very sweet to all who have a healthy taste of the
heart to relish the Bread of God, and very meet to be had in remembrance of
God's Holy Church, charity is above all commended. He has spoken many
words, and nearly all are about charity.(3) He that hath in himself that
which he is to hear, must needs rejoice at that which he heareth. For so
shall this reading be to that man, as oil upon flame; if that be there
which may be nourished, it is nourished and groweth and abideth. Again,  to
some it ought to be a flame to fuel; that if he did not burn, by added
discourse he may be set on fire. For in some that which is there, is
nourished: in some it is kindled, if it be not there: that we all may
rejoice  in one charity. But where charity, there peace; and where
humility, there charity. Now let us hear himself: and  at his words, what
the Lord suggests, that let us  speak also to you, that ye may well
understand.

HOMILY I: 1 JOHN I. 1.--II. 11.

   "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, and which we
have seen with our eyes, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life:
and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and show
unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested
unto us: the things which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that
ye also may have fellowship with us: and that our fellowship maybe(1) with
the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto
you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have
heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no
darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in
darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: if we walk in the light, as He is
in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ His Son shall cleanse(2) us from all sin. If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a
liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things write I
unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our
sins: not for our's only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And in
this we do know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith he knoweth
Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in
him. But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God
perfected. In this we know that we are in Him, if in Him we be perfect. He
that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He
walked. Beloved, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old
commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the
word which ye have heard. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which
thing is true in Him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true
light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his
brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth
in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. For he that
hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not
whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes."

   1. "THAT which was from the beginning. which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes,(3) and our hands have handled, of the word of
life." Who is he that with hands doth handle the Word. except because "The
Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us "? Now this Word which was made flesh
that it might be handled, began to be flesh, of the Virgin Mary: but not
then began the Word, for the Apostle saith, "That which was from the
beginning." See whether his epistle does not bear witness to his gospel,
where ye lately heard, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God.(1) Perchance, "Concerning the word of life" on may take as a sort
of expression concerning Christ, not the very body of Christ which was
handled with hands. See what follows: "And the Life was manifested." Christ
therefore is "the word of life." And whereby manifested? For it was "from
the beginning," only not manifested to men: but it was manifested to
angels, who saw it and fed on it as their bread. But what saith the
Scripture "Man did eat angels' bread."(2) Well then "the Life was
manifested" in the flesh; because it exhibited in manifestation, that thai
which can be seen by the heart only, should be seen by the eyes also, that
it might heal the hearts. For only by the heart is the Word seen: but the
flesh is seen by the bodily eyes also. We had wherewith to see the flesh,
but had not wherewith to see the Word: "the Word was made flesh," which we
might see, that so that in us might be healed wherewith we might see the
Word.

   2. "And we have seen and are witnesses."(3) Perhaps some of the
brethren who are not acquainted with the Greek do not know what the word
"witnesses" is in Greek: and yet it is a term much used by all, and had in
religious reverence; for what in our tongue we call "witnesses," in Greek
are "martyrs." Now where is the man that has not heard of martyrs, or where
the Christian in whose mouth the name of martyrs dwelleth not every day?
and would that it so dwelt in the heart also, that we should imitate the
sufferings of the martyrs, not persecute them with our cups!(4) Well then,
"We have seen and are witnesses," is as much as to say, We have seen and
are martyrs. For it was for bearing witness of that which they had seen,
and bearing witness of that which they had heard from them who had seen,
that, while their testimony itself displeased the men against whom it was
delivered, the martyrs suffered all that they did suffer. The martyrs are
God's witnesses. It pleased God to have men for His witnesses, that men
also may have God to be their witness. "We have seen," saith he, "and are
witnesses." Where have they seen? In the manifestation. What meaneth, in
the manifestation? In the sun, that is, in this light of day. And how
should He be seen in the sun who made the sun, except as "in the sun He
hath set His tabernacle; and Himself t as a bridegroom going forth out of
his chamber, exulted as a giant to run His course?"(5)  He before the
sun,(6) who made the sun, He  before the day-star, before all the stars,
before  all angels, the true Creator, ("for all things  were made by Him,
and without Him was nothing made,") that He might be seen by eyes of flesh
which see the sun, set His very tabernacle in the sun, that is, showed His
flesh in manifestation of this light of day: and that Bridegroom's chamber
was the Virgin's womb, because in that virginal womb were joined the two,
the Bridegroom and the bride, the Bridegroom the Word, and the bride the
flesh; because it is written, "And they twain shall be one flesh;"(7) and
the Lord saith in the Gospel, "Therefore they are no more twain but one
flesh.(8) And Esaias remembers right well that they are two: for speaking
in the person of Christ he saith, "He hath set a mitre upon me as upon a
bridegroom, and adorned me with an ornament as a bride."(9) One seems to
speak, yet makes Himself at once Bridegroom and Bride; because "not two,
but one flesh:" because "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us." To that
flesh the Church is joined, and so there is made the whole Christ, Head and
body.

   3. "And we are witnesses, and show unto you that eternal life, which
was with the Father, and was manifested unto us:" i.e., manifested among
us: which might be more plainly expressed, manifested to us. "The things,"
therefore, "which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you."(10) Those
saw the Lord Himself present in the flesh, and heard words from the mouth
of the Lord, and told them to us. Consequently we also have heard, but have
not seen. Are we then less happy than those who saw and heard? And how does
he add, "That ye also may have fellowship with us"? Those saw, we have not
seen, and yet we are fellows; because we hold the faith in common. For
there was one who did not believe even upon seeing, and would needs handle,
and so believe, and said, "I will not believe except I thrust my fingers
into the place of the nails, and touch His scars."(11) And He did give
Himself for a time to be handled by the hands of men, who always giveth
Himself to be seen by the sight of the angels; and that disciple did
handle, and exclaimed, "My Lord, and my God!" Because he touched the Man,
he confessed the God. And the Lord, to console us who, now that He sitteth
in heaven, cannot touch Him with the hand, but only reach Him with faith,
said to him, "Because thou hast seen, thou hast believed; blessed are they
that have not seen, and yet believe. We are here described, we designated.
Then let the blessedness take place in us, of which the Lord predicted that
it should take place; let us firmly hold that which we see not; because
those tell us who have seen. "That ye also," saith he, "may have fellowship
with us." And what great matter is it to have fellowship with men? Do not
despise it; see what he adds: "and our fellowship may be with God the
Father, and Jesus Christ His Son. And these things, "saith he, "we write
unto you, that your joy may be full."(2) Full joy he means in that
fellowship, in that charity, in that unity.

   4. "And this is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare
unto you."(3) What is this? Those same have seen, have handled with their
hands, the Word of life: He "was from the beginning," and for a time was
made visible and palpable, the Only-begotten Son of God. For what thing did
He come, or what new thing did He tell us? What was it His will to teach?
Wherefore did He this which He did, that the Word should be made flesh,
that "God over all things"(4) should suffer indignities from men, that He
should endure to be smitten upon the face by the hands which Himself had
made? What would He teach? What would He show? What would He declare? Let
us hear: for without the fruit of the precept the hearing of the story, how
Christ was born, and how Christ suffered, is a mere pastime of the mind,
not a strengthening of it. What great thing hearest thou? With what fruit
thou hearest, see to that. What would He teach? What declare? Hear. That
"God is light," saith he, "and there is no darkness in Him at all."(5)
Hitherto, he hath named indeed the light, but the words are dark: good is
it for us that the very light which he hath named should enlighten our
hearts, and we should see what he hath said. This it is that we declare,
that "God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all." Who would dare
to say that there is darkness in God? Or what is the light? Or what
darkness? Lest haply he speaks of such things as pertain to these eyes of
ours. "God is light." Saith some man, "The sun also is light, and the moon
also is light, and a candle is light." It ought to be something far greater
than these, far more excellent, and far more surpassing. How much God is
distant from the creature, how much the Maker from the making, how much
Wisdom from that which is made by Wisdom, far beyond all things must this
light needs be. And haply we shall be near to it, if we get to know what
this light is, and apply ourselves unto it, that by it we may be
enlightened; because in ourselves we are darkness, and only when
enlightened by it can we become light, and not be put to confusion by it,
being put to confusion by ourselves. Who is he that is put to confusion by
himself? He that knows himself to be a sinner. Who is he that by it is not
put to confusion? He who by it is enlightened. What is it to be enlightened
by it? He that now sees himself to be darkened by sins, and desires to be
enlightened by it, draws near to it: whence the Psalm saith, "Draw near
unto Him, and be ye enlightened; and your faces shall not be ashamed."(6)
But thou shall not be shamed by it, if, when it shall Show thee to thyself
that thou art foul, thine own foulness shall displease thee, that thou
mayest perceive its beauty. This it is that He would teach.

   5. And may it be that we say this over-hastily? Let the apostle himself
make this plain in what follows. Remember what was said at the outset of
our discourse, that the present epistle commendeth charity: "God is light,"
saith he, "and in Him is no darkness at all." And what said he above? "That
ye may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with God the
Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." But moreover, if "God be light, and
in Him is no darkness at all, and we must have fellowship with Him," then
from us also must the darkness be driven away, that there may be light
created in us, for darkness cannot have fellowship with light. To this end,
see what follows: "If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in
darkness, we lie."(1) hast also the Apostle Paul saying, "Or what
fellowship hath light with darkness?"(2) Thou sayest thou hast fellowship
with God, and thou walkest in darkness; "and God is light, and in Him is no
darkness at all:" then how should there be fellowship between light and
darkness? At this point therefore a man may say to himself, What shall I
do? how shall I be light? I live in sins and iniquities. There steals upon
him, as it were, a desperation and sadness. There is no salvation save in
the fellowship of God. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."
But sins are darkness, as the Apostle saith of the devil and his angels,
that they are "rulers of this darkness."(3) He would not call them of
darkness, save as rulers of sins, having lordship over the wicked. Then
what are we to do, my brethren? Fellowship(4) with God must be had, other
hope of life eternal is none; now "God is Light, and in Him is no darkness
at all:" now iniquities are darkness; by iniquities we are pressed down,
that we cannot have fellowship with God: what hope have we then? Did I not
promise to speak something during these days, that shall cause gladness?
Which if I make not good, this is sadness. "God is Light, and in Him is no
darkness at all;" sins are darkness: what shall become of us? Let us hear,
whether peradventure He will console, lift up, give hope, that we faint not
by the way. For we are running, and running to our own country; and if we
despair of attaining, by that very despair we fail. But He whose will it is
that we attain, that He may keep us safe in our own land, feedeth us in the
way. Hear we then: "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in
darkness, we lie, and do not the truth." Let us not say that we have
fellowship with Him, if we walk in darkness. "If we walk in the light, as
He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another."(5) Let us walk in
the light, as He is in the light, that we may be able to have fellowship
with Him. And what are we to do about our sins? Hear what follows, "And the
blood of Jesus Christ His Son shall purge(6) us from all sin."(7) Great
assurance hath God given! Well may we celebrate the Passover, wherein was
shed the blood of the Lord, by which we are cleansed "from all sin!" Let us
be assured: the "handwriting which was against us,"(8) the bond of our
slavery, the devil held, but by the blood of Christ it is blotted out. "The
blood," saith he, "of His Son shall purge us from all sin." What meaneth,
"from all sin"? Mark: lo even now, in the name of Christ whom these(9) here
have now confessed, who are called infants,(10) have all their sins been
cleansed. They came in old, they went out new. How, came in old, went out
new? Old men they came in, infants they went out. For the old life is old
age with all its dotage, but the new life is the infancy of regeneration.
But what are we to do? The past sins are pardoned, not only to these but to
us; and after the pardon and abolition of all sins, by living in this world
in the midst of temptations, some haply have been contracted. Therefore
what he can, let man do; let him confess himself to be what he is, that he
may be cured by Him who always is what He is: for He always was and is; we
were not and are.

   6. For see what He saith; "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us."(11) Consequently, if thou hast
confessed thyself a sinner, the truth is in thee: for the Truth itself is
light. Thy life hath not yet shone in perfect brightness, because there are
sins in thee; but yet thou hast already begun to be enlightened, because
there is in thee the confession of sins. For see what follows: "If we
confess our sins,(12) He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and
to purge us from all iniquity."(13) Not only the past, but haply if we have
contracted any from this life; because a man, so long as he bears the
flesh, cannot but have some at any rate light sins. But these which we call
light, do not thou make light of. If thou make light of them when thou
weighest them, be afraid when thou countest them. Many light make one huge
sin: many drops fill the river; many grains make the lump. And what hope is
there? Before all, confession: lest any think himself righteous, and,
before the eyes of God who seeth that which is, man, that was not and is,
lift up the neck. Before all, then, confession; then, love: for of charity
what is said? "Charity covereth a multitude of sins."(1) Now let us see
whether he commendeth charity in regard of the sins which subsequently
overtake us: because charity alone extinguisheth sins. Pride extinguisheth
charity: therefore humility strengtheneth charity; charity extinguisheth
sins Humility goes along with confession, the humility by which we confess
ourselves sinners: this is humility, not to say it with the tongue, as if
only to avoid arrogancy, lest we should displease men if we should say that
we are righteous. This do the ungodly and insane: "I know indeed that I am
righteous, but what shall I say before men? If I shall call myself
righteous, who will bear it, who tolerate? let my righteousness be known
unto God: I however will say that I am a sinner, but only that I may not be
found odious for arrogancy." Tell men what thou art, tell God what thou
art. Because if thou tell not God what thou art, God condemneth what He
shall find in thee. Wouldest thou not that He condemn thee? Condemn thou.
Wouldest thou that He forgive? do thou acknowledge, that thou mayest be
able to say unto God, "Turn Thy face from my sins."(2) Say also to Him
those words in the same Psalm "For I acknowledge mine iniquity." "If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
purge us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him
a liar, and His word is not in us."(3) If thou shalt say, I have not
sinned, thou makest Him a liar, while thou wishest to make thyself true.
How is it possible that God should be a liar, and man true, when the
Scripture saith the contrary, "Every man a liar, God alone true"?(4)
Consequently, God true through Himself, thou true through God; because
through thyself, a liar.

   7. And lest haply he should seem to have given impunity for sins, in
that he said, "He is faithful and just to cleanse us from all iniquity;"
and men henceforth should say to themselves, Let us sin, let us do securely
what we will, Christ purgeth us, is faithful and just, purgeth us from all
iniquity: He taketh from thee an evil security, and putteth in an useful
fear. To thine own hurt thou wouldest be secure; thou must be solicitous.
For "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins," provided thou always
displease thyself, and be changing until thou be perfected. Accordingly,
what follows? "My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye
sin not."(5) But perchance sin overtakes us from our mortal life: what
shall be done then? What? shall there be now despair? Hear: "And if any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and
He is the propitiator for our sins."(6) He then is the advocate; do thou
thine endeavor not to sin: if from the infirmity of this life sin shall
overtake thee, see to it straightway, straightway be displeased,
straightway condemn it; and when thou hast condemned, thou shall come
assured unto the Judge. There hast thou the advocate: fear not to lose thy
cause in thy confession. For if oft-times in this life a man commits his
cause to an eloquent tongue, and is not lost; thou committest thyself to
the Word, and shall thou be lost? Cry, "We have an advocate with the
Father."

   8. See John himself observing humility. Assuredly he was a righteous
and a great man, who from the Lord's bosom drank in the secrets of His
mysteries; he, the man who by drinking from the Lord's bosom indited(7) of
His Godhead, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God:"
he, being such a man as this, saith not, Ye have an advocate with the
Father; but, "If any man sin, an advocate," saith he, "have we." He saith
not, ye have; nor saith, ye have me; nor saith, ye have Christ Himself: but
he puts Christ, not himself, and saith, also, "We have," not, ye have. He
chose rather to put himself in the number of sinners that he might have
Christ for his advocate, than to put himself in Christ's stead as advocate,
and to be found among the proud  that shall be condemned. Brethren, Jesus
Christ the righteous, even Him have we for our advocate with the Father;
"He," even He, "is the propitiation for our sins." This whoso hath held
fast, hath made no heresy; this whoso hath held fast, hath made no schism.
For whence came schisms? When men say, "we" are righteous, when men say,
"we" sanctify the unclean, "we" justify the ungodly; "we" ask, "we" obtain.
But what saith John? "And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." But some man will say: then do the
saints not ask for us? Then do bishops and rulers not ask for the people?
Yea, but mark the Scriptures, and see that rulers also commend themselves
to the prayers of the people. Thus the apostle saith to the congregation,
"Praying withal for us also."(1) The apostle prayeth for the people, the
people prayeth for the apostle. We pray for you, brethren: but do ye also
pray for us. Let all the members pray one for another let the Head
intercede for all, Therefore it is no marvel that he here goes on and shuts
the mouths of them that divide the Church. of God. For he that has said,
"We have Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our
sins:" having an eye to those who would divide themselves, and would say,
"Lo, here is Christ, lo, there;"(2) and would show Him in a part who bought
the whole and possesses the whole, he forthwith goes on to say, "Not our
sins only, but also the sins of the whole world." What is this, brethren?
Certainly "we have found it in the fields of the woods,"(3) we have found
the  Church in all nations. Behold, Christ "is the propitiation for our
sins; not ours only, but also the sins of the whole world." Behold, thou
hast the Church throughout the whole world; do not follow false justifiers
who in truth are cutters off. Be thou in that mountain which hath filled
the whole earth: because "Christ is the propitiation for our sins; not only
ours, but also the sins of the whole world," which He hath bought with His
blood.

   9. "And in this," saith he, "we do know Him,(4) if we keep His
commandments."(5) What commandments? "He that saith, I know Him, and
keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." But
still thou askest, What commandments? "But whoso," saith he, "keepeth His
word, in him verily is the love of God perfected."(6) Let us see whether
this same commandment be not called love. For we were asking, what
commandments? and he saith, "But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is
the love of God perfected." Mark the Gospel, whether this be not the
commandment: "A new commandment," saith the Lord, "give I unto you, that ye
love one another. (7)--In this we know that we are in Him, if in Him we be
perfected."(8) Perfected in love, he calls them: what is perfection of
love? To love even enemies, and love them for this end, that they may be
brethren. For not a carnal love ought ours to be. To wish a man temporal
weal, is good; but though that fail, let the soul be safe. Dost thou wish
life to any that is thy friend? Thou doest well. Dost thou rejoice at the
death of thine enemy? Thou doest ill. But haply both to thy friend the life
thou wishest him is not for his good, and to thine enemy the death thou
rejoicest at hath been for his good. It is uncertain whether this present
life be profitable to any man or unprofitable: but the life which is with
God without doubt is profitable. So love thine enemies as to wish them to
become thy brethren; so love thine enemies as that they may be called into
thy fellowship. For so loved He who, hanging on the cross, said, "Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do."(9) For he did not say,
Father let them live long, me indeed they kill, but let them live. He was
casting out from them the death which is for ever and ever, by His most
merciful prayer, and by His most surpassing might. Many of them believed,
and the shedding of the blood of Christ was forgiven them. At first they
shed it while they raged; now they drank it while they believed. "In this
we know that we are in Him, if in Him we be made perfect." Touching the
very perfection of love of enemies, the Lord admonishing, saith, "Be ye
therefore perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.(10) He," therefore,
"that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He
walked."(11) How, brethren? what cloth he advise us? "He that saith he
abideth in Him," i.e., in Christ, "ought himself also so to walk even as He
walked." Haply the advice is this, that we should walk on the sea? That be
far from us! It is this then, that we walk in the way of righteousness. In
what way? I have already mentioned it. He was fixed upon the cross, and yet
was He walking in this very way: this way is the way of charity, "Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do." If, therefore, thou have
learned to pray for thine enemy, thou walkest in the way of the Lord.

   10. "Dearly beloved, I write unto you no new commandment, but the old
commandment which ye had from the beginning."(12) What commandment calls he
"old? Which ye had," saith he, "from the beginning. Old" then, in this
regard, that ye have already heard it: otherwise he will contradict the
Lord, where He saith, "A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one
another."(1) But why an "old" commandment? Not as pertaining to the old
man. But why? "Which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the
word which ye have heard." Old then, in this regard, that ye have already
heard it. And the selfsame he showeth to be new, saying, "Again, a new
commandment write I unto you."(2) Not another, but the selfsame which he
hath called old, the same is also new. Why? "Which thing is true in Him and
in you." Why old,  ye have already heard: i.e., because ye knew it already.
But why new? "Because the darkness is past, and the true light now
shineth." Lo, whence it is new: because the darkness pertains to the old
man, but the light to the new man. What saith the Apostle Paul? "Put ye off
the old man, and put ye on the new."(3) And again what saith he "Ye were
sometime darkness, but now light in the Lord."(4)

   11. "He that saith he is in the light"--now he is making all clear that
he has been saying--"he that saith he is in the light, and hateth his
brother, is in darkness even until now."(5) What! my brethren, how long
shall we say to you, "Love your enemies"?(6) See whether, what is worse, ye
do not hate your brethren. If ye loved only your brethren, ye would be not
yet perfect: but if ye hate? your brethren, what are ye, where are ye? Let
each look to his own heart: let him not keep hatred against his brother for
any hard word; on account of earthly contention let him not become earth.
For whoso hates his brother, let him not say that he walks in the light.
"He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness
even until now." Thus, some man who was a pagan has become a Christian;
mark well: behold he was in darkness, while he was a pagan: now is he made
henceforth a Christian; thanks be to God, say all joyfully; the apostle is
read, where he saith joyfully, "For ye were sometime darkness, but now
light in the Lord."(8) Once he worshipped idols, now he worships God; once
he worshipped the things he made, now he worships Him that made him. He is
changed: thanks be to God, say all Christians with joyful greeting. Why?
Because henceforth he is one that adores the Father and the Son and the
Holy Ghost; one that detests demons and idols. Yet still is John solicitous
about our convert: while many greet him with joy, by him he is still looked
upon with apprehension. Brethren, let us gladly welcome a mother's
solicitude. Not without cause is the mother solicitous about us when others
rejoice: by the mother, I mean charity: for she dwelt in the heart of John,
when he spake these words. Wherefore, but because there is something he
fears in us, even when men now hail us with joy? What is it that he fears?
"He that saith he is in the light"--What is this? He that saith now he is a
Christian,--"and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now." Which
there is no need to expound: but to be glad of it, if it be not so, or to
bewail it, if it be.

   12. "He that loveth his brother abideth (manet) in the light, and there
is none occasion of stumbling in him."(9)--I beseech you by Christ: God is
feeding us, we are about to refresh our bodies in the name of Christ; they
both are in some good measure refreshed, and are to be refreshed: let the
mind be fed. Not that I am going to speak for a long time, do I say this;
for behold, the lesson is now coming to an end: but lest haply of weariness
we should hear Jess attentively than we ought that which is most
necessary.--"He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is
no scandal," or "none occasion of stumbling, in him." Who are they that
take scandal or make scandal? They that are offended in Christ, and in the
Church. They that are offended in Christ, are as if burnt by the sun, those
in the Church as by the moon. But the Psalm saith, "The sun shall not burn
thee by day, neither the moon by night:(10)  i.e., if thou hold fast
charity, neither in Christ shall thou have occasion of falling, nor in the
Church; neither Christ shall thou forsake, nor the Church. For he that
forsakes the Church, how is he in Christ who is not in the members of
Christ? How is he in Christ who is not in the body of Christ? Those
therefore take scandal, or, occasion of failing, who forsake Christ or the
Church. Whence do we understand that the Psalm in saying, "By day shall the
sun not burn thee, nor the moon by night," saith it of this, that the
burning means scandal, or occasion of stumbling? In the first place mark
the similitude itself. Just as the person whom something is burning saith,
I cannot bear it, I cannot away with it, and draws back; so those persons
who cannot bear some things in the Church, and withdraw themselves either
from the name of Christ or from the Church, are taking scandal. For see how
those took scandal as from the sun, those carnal ones to whom Christ
preached of His flesh, saying, "He that eateth not the flesh of the Son of
Man and drinketh His blood, shall have no life in him."(1) Some seventy
persons(2) said, "This is an hard saying," and went back from Him, and
there remained the twelve. All those the sun burnt, and they went back, not
being able to bear the force of the Word. There remained therefore the
twelve. And lest haply men should imagine that they confer a benefit upon
Christ by believing on Christ, and not that the benefit is conferred by Him
upon them; when the twelve were left, the Lord said to them, "Will ye also
go?" That ye may know that I am necessary to you, not ye to me. But those
whom the sun had not burnt, answered by the voice of Peter: "Lord, Thou
hast the word(3) of eternal life; whither shall we go?" But who are they
that the Church as the moon burneth by night? They that have made schisms.
Hear the very word used in the apostle: "Who is offended, and I burn
not?"(4) In what sense then is it, that there is no scandal or occasion of
stumbling in him that loveth his brother? Because he that loveth his
brother, beareth all things for unity's sake; because it is in the unity of
charity that brotherly love exists. Some one, I know not who, offendeth
thee: whether it be a bad man, or as thou supposest a bad man, or as thou
pretendest a bad man: and dost thou desert so many good men? What sort of
brotherly love is that which hath appeared in these(5) persons? While they
accuse the Africans, they have deserted the whole world! What, were there
no saints in the whole world? Or was it possible they should be condemned
by you unheard? But oh! if ye loved your brethren, there would be none
occasion of stumbling in you. Hear thou the Psalm, what it saith: "Great
peace have they that love Thy law, and there is to them none occasion of
stumbling."(6) Great peace it saith there is for them that love the law of
God, and that is why there is to them none occasion of stumbling. Those
then who take scandal, or, occasion of stumbling, destroy peace. And of
whom saith he that they take not and make not occasion of stumbling? They
that love God's law. Consequently they are in charity. But some man will
say, "He said it of them that love God's law, not of the brethren." Hear
thou what the Lord saith: "A new commandment give I unto you that ye love
one another."(7) What is the Law but commandment? Moreover, how is it they
do not take occasion of stumbling, but because they forbear one another? As
Paul saith, "Forbearing one another in love, studying to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace."(8) And to show that this is the law of
Christ, hear the same apostle commending this very law. "Bear ye one
another's burdens," saith he, "and so shall ye fulfill the law of
Christ."(9)

   12. "For he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in
darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth."(10) A great thing, my
brethren: mark it, we beseech you. "He that hateth his brother walketh in
darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath
blinded his eyes." What so blind as these who hate their brethren? For that
ye may know that they are blind, they have stumbled at a Mountain. I say
the same things often, that they may not slip out of your memory. The Stone
which was "cut out of the Mountain without hands," is it not Christ, who
came of the kingdom of the Jews, without the work of man?(11) Has not that
Stone broken in pieces all the kingdoms of the earth, that is, all the
dominations of idols and demons? Has not that Stone grown, and become a
great mountain, and filled the whole earth? Do we point with the finger to
this Mountain in like manner as the moon on its third day(12) is pointed
out to men? For example, when they wish people to see the new moon, they
say, Lo, the moon! lo, where it is! and if there be some there who are not
sharp-sighted, and say, Where? then the finger is put forth that they may
see it. Sometimes when they are ashamed to be thought blind, they say they
have seen what they have not seen. Do we in this way point out the Church,
my brethren? Is it not open? Is it not manifest? Has it not possessed all
nations? Is not that fulfilled which so many .years before was promised to
Abraham, that in his seed should all nations be blessed?(1) It was promised
to one believer, and the world is filled with thousands of believers.
Behold here the mountain filling the whole face of the earth! Behold the
city of which it is said, "A city set upon a mountain cannot be hid!"(2)
But those stumble at the mountain, and when it is said to them, Go up;
"There is no mountain," say they, and dash their heads against it sooner
than seek a habitation there. Esaias was read yesterday; whosoever of you
was awake not with his eyes only but with his ear, and not the ear of the
body but the ear of the heart, noted this; "In the last days shall the
mountain of the house of the Lord be manifest, prepared upon the top of the
mountains."(3) What so manifest as a mountain? But there are even mountains
unknown, because they are situated in one part of the earth. Which of you
knows Mount Olympus? Just as the people who dwell there do not know our
Giddaba. These mountains are in different parts of the earth. But not so
that Mountain, for it hath filled the whole face of the earth, and of it is
said, "Prepared upon the top of the mountains." It is a Mountain above the
tops of all mountains. "And," saith he, "to it shall be gathered all
nations." Who can fail to be aware of this Mountain? Who breaks his head by
stumbling against it? Who is ignorant of the city set upon a mountain? But
marvel not that it is unknown by these who hate the brethren, because they
walk in darkness and know not whither they go, because the darkness hath
blinded their eyes. They do not see the Mountain: I would not have thee
marvel; they have no eyes. How is it they have no eyes? Because the
darkness hath blinded them. How do we prove this? Because they hate the
brethren, in that, while they are offended at Africans, they separate
themselves from the whole earth: in that they do not tolerate for the peace
of Christ those whom they defame, and do tolerate for the sake of
Donatus(4) those whom they condemn.

HOMILY II: 1 John II. 12-17.

   "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven
through His name. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that
is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have
overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, children, because ye have known
the Father. I write(1) unto you, fathers, because ye have known Him that is
from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and
the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Love
not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love
the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the
world, is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world
passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God
abideth for ever (even as God also abideth for ever).

   1. All things that are read from the Holy Scriptures in order to our
instruction and salvation, it behoves us to hear with earnest heed. Yet
most of all must those things be commended to our memory, which are of most
force against heretics; whose insidious designs cease not to circumvent all
that are weaker and more negligent. Remember that our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ both died for us, and rose again; died, to wit, for our
offenses, rose again for our justification.(2) Even as ye have just heard
concerning the two disciples whom He met with in the way, how "their eyes
were holden that they should not know Him:"(1) and He found them despairing
of the redemption that was in Christ, and deeming that now He had suffered
and was dead as a man, not accounting that as Son of God He ever liveth;
and deeming too that He was so dead in the flesh as not to come to life
again, but just as one of the prophets: as those of you who were attentive
have just now heard their own words. Then  "He opened to them the
Scriptures, beginning at Moses," and going through all the prophets,
showing them that all He had suffered had been foretold, lest they should
be more staggered if the Lord should rise again, and the more fail to
believe Him, if these things had not been told before concerning Him. For
the firmness of faith is in this, that all things which came to pass in
Christ were foretold. The disciples, then, knew Him not, save "in the
breaking of bread." And truly he that eateth and drinketh not judgment to
himself in the breaking of bread cloth know Christ.(2) Afterward also those
eleven "thought they saw a spirit." He gave Himself to be handled by them,
who also gave Himself to be crucified; to be crucified by enemies, to be
handled by friends: yet the Physician of all, both of the ungodliness of
those, and of the unbelief of these. For ye heard when the Acts of the
Apostles were read, how many thousands of Christ's slayers believed.(3) If
those believed afterwards who had killed, should not those believe who for
a little while doubted? And yet even in regard of them, (a thing which ye
ought especially to observe, and to commit to your memory, because that
which shall make us strong against insidious errors, God has been pleased
to put in the Scriptures, against which no man dares to speak, who in any
sort wishes to seem a Christian), when He had given Himself to be handled
by them, that did not suffice Him, but He would also confirm by means of
the Scriptures the heart of them that believe: for He looked forward to us
who should be afterwards; seeing that in Him we have nothing that we can
handle, but have that which we may read. For if those believed only because
they held and handled, what shall we do? Now, Christ is ascended into
heaven; He is not to come save at the end, to judge the quick and the dead.
Whereby shall we believe, but by that whereby it was His will that even
those who handled Him should be confirmed? For He opened to them the
Scriptures and showed them that it behoved Christ to suffer, and that all
things should be fulfilled which were written of Him in the Law of Moses,
and the Prophets, and the Psalms. He embraced in His discourse the whole
ancient text of the Scriptures. All that there is of those former
Scriptures tells of Christ; but only if it find ears. He also  "opened
their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures." Whence we
also must pray for this, that He would open our understanding.

   2. But what did the Lord show written of Him in the Law of Moses, and
the Prophets, and the Psalms? What did He show? Let Himself say. The
evangelist has put this briefly, that we might know what in all that great
compass of the Scriptures we ought to believe and to understand. Certainly
there are many pages, and many books; the contents of them all is this
which the Lord briefly spake to His disciples. What is this? That "it
behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again the third day." Thou hast it
now concerning the Bridegroom, that "it behoved Christ to suffer, and to
rise again:" the Bridegroom has been set forth to us. Concerning the Bride,
let us see what He saith; that thou, when thou knowest the Bridegroom and
the Bride, mayest not without reason come to the marriage. For every
celebration is a celebration of marriage: the Church's nuptials are
celebrated. The King's Son is about to marry a wife, and that King's Son is
Himself a King: and the guests frequenting the marriage are themselves the
Bride. Not, as in a carnal marriage, some are guests, and another is she
that is married; in the Church they that come as guests, if they come to
good purpose, become the Bride. For all the Church is Christ's Bride, of
which the beginning and first fruits is the flesh of Christ: there was the
Bride joined to the Bridegroom in the flesh. With good reason when He would
betoken that same flesh, He brake bread, and with good reason "in the
breaking of bread," the eyes "of the disciples were opened, and they knew
Him." Well then, what did the Lord say was written of Him in the Law and
Prophets and Psalms? That "it behoved Christ to suffer." Had He not added,
"and to rise again," well might those mourn whose eyes were holden; but "to
rise again" is also foretold. And wherefore this? Why did it behove Christ
to suffer and to rise again? Because of that Psalm which we especially
commended to your attention on the fourth day, the first station, of last
week.(4) Why did it behove Christ to suffer and to rise again? For this
reason: "All the ends of the earth shall be reminded and converted unto the
Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him."(1) For
that ye may know that it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again; in
this place also what hath He added, that after setting forth the Bridegroom
He might also set forth the Bride? "And that there be preached," saith He,
"in His name, repentance and remission of sins throughout all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem." Ye have heard, brethren; hold it fast. Let no man
doubt concerning the Church, that it is "throughout all nations:" let no
man doubt that it began at Jerusalem, and hath filled all nations. We know
the field where the Vine is planted: but when it is grown we know it not,
because it has taken up the whole. Whence did it begin? "At Jerusalem."
Whither has it come? To "all nations." A few remain: it shall possess all.
In the mean time, while it is taking possession of all, it has seemed good
to the Husbandman to cut off some unprofitable branches, and they have made
heresies and schisms. Let not the branches that are cut off induce you to
be cut off: rather exhort ye them that are cut off that they be grafted in
again. It is manifest that Christ hath suffered, is risen again, and  is
ascended into heaven: made manifest also  is the Church, because there is
"preached in His name repentance and remission of sins throughout all
nations." Whence did it begin? "Beginning at Jerusalem." The man hears
this; foolish and vain, and (how, shall I express it?) worse than blind! so
great a mountain, and he does not see it; a candle set upon a candlestick,
and he shuts his eyes against it!

   3. When we say to them, If ye be Catholic Christians, communicate with
that Church from which the Gospel is spread abroad over the whole earth:
communicate with that Jerusalem:(2) when this we say to them, they make
answer to us, we do not communicate with that city where our King was
slain, where our Lord was slain: as though they hate the city where our
Lord was slain. The Jews slew Him whom they found on earth, these scorns
Him that sitteth in heaven! Which are the worse; those who despised Him
because they thought Him man, or those who scorn the sacraments of Him whom
now they confess to be God? But they hate, forsooth, the city in which
their Lord was slain! Pious men, and merciful! they much grieve that Christ
was slain, and in men they slay Christ! But He loved that city, and pitied
it: from it He bade the preaching of Him begin, "beginning at Jerusalem."
He made there the beginning of the preaching of His name: and thou
shrinkest back with horror from having communion with that city!(4) No
marvel that being cut off thou hatest the root. What said He to His
disciples? "Sit ye still in the city, because I send my promise(5) upon
you." Behold what the city is that they hate! Haply they would love it, if
Christ's murderers dwelt in it. For it is manifest that all Christ's
murderers, i.e., the Jews, are expelled from that city.(6) That which had
in it them that were fierce against Christ, hath now them that adore
Christ. Therefore do these men hate it, because Christians are in it. There
was it His will that His disciples should tarry, and there that He should
send to them the Holy Ghost. Where had the Church its commencement, but
where the Holy Ghost came from heaven, and filled the hundred and twenty
sitting in one place? That number twelve was made tenfold. They sat, an
hundred and twenty persons, and the Holy Ghost came, "and filled the whole
place, and there came a sound, as it were the rushing of a mighty wind, and
there were cloven tongues like as of fire." Ye have heard the Acts of the
Apostles: this was the lesson read today:(7) "They began to speak with
tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." And all who were on the spot,
Jews who were come from divers nations, recognised each his own tongue, and
marvelled that those unlearned and ignorant men had on the sudden learned
not one or two tongues, but the tongues of all nations whatsoever. There,
then, where all tongues sounded, there was it betokened that all tongues
should believe. But these men, who much love Christ, and therefore refuse
to communicate with the city which i killed Christ, so honor Christ as to
affirm that He is left to two tongues, the Latin and the Punic, i.e.
African. Christ possess only two tongues! For there are but these two
tongues on the side of Donatus, more they have not. Let us awake, my
brethren, let us rather see the gift of the Spirit of God, and let us
believe the things spoken before concerning Him, and let us see fulfilled
the things spoken before in the Psalm: "There are neither speeches nor
discourses,(8) but their voices are heard among them.(9) And lest haply the
case be so that the tongues themselves came to one place, and not rather
that the gift of Christ came to all tongues, hear what follows: "Into all
the earth is their sound gone out, and unto the ends of the world their
words." Wherefore this? Because "in the sun hath He set His tabernacle,"
i.e., in the open light. His tabernacle, His flesh: His tabernacle, His
Church: "in the sun" it is set; not in the night, but in the day. But why
do those not acknowledge it? Return to the lesson at the place where it
ended yesterday, and see why they do not acknowledge it: "He that hateth
his brother, walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because
the darkness hath blinded his eyes." For us then, let us see what follows,
and not be in darkness. How shall we not be in darkness? If we love the
brethren. How is it proved that we love the brotherhood? By this, that we
do not rend unity, that we hold fast charity.

   4. "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven
you through His name."(1) Therefore, "little children,"(2) because in
forgiveness of sins ye have your birth. But through whose name are sins
forgiven? Through Augustin's? No, therefore neither through the name of
Donatus. Be it thy concern to see who is Augustin, or who Donatus: no, not
through the name of Paul, not through the name of Peter. For to them that
divided unto themselves the Church, and out of unity essayed to make
parties, the mother charity in the apostle travailing in birth with her
little ones, exposeth her own bowels, with words doth as it were rend her
breasts, bewaileth her children whom she seeth borne out dead, recalleth
unto the one Name them that would needs make them many names, repelleth
them from the love of her that Christ may be loved, and saith, "Was Paul
crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?"(3) What saith
he? "I would not that ye be mine, that so ye may be with me: be ye with me;
all we are His who died for us, who was crucified for us": whence here also
it is said, "Your sins are forgiven you through His name," not through the
name of any man.

   5. "I write unto you, fathers."(4) Why first sons? "Because your sins
are forgiven you through His name," and ye are regenerated into a new life,
therefore sons. Why fathers? "Because ye have known Him that is from the
beginning:" for the beginning hath relation unto fatherhood. Christ new in
flesh, but ancient in Godhead. How ancient think we? how many years old?
Think we, of greater age s than His mother? Assuredly of greater age than
His mother, for "all things were made by Him."(6) If all things, then did
the Ancient make the very mother of whom the New should be born. Was He,
think we, before His mother only? Yea, and before His mother's ancestors is
His antiquity. The ancestor of His mother was Abraham; and the Lord saith,
"Before Abraham I am."(7) Before Abraham, say we? The heaven and earth, ere
man was, were made. Before these was the Lord, nay rather also is. For
right well He saith, not, Before Abraham I was, but, "Before Abraham I AM."
For that of which one says, "was," is not; and that of which one says,
"will be," is not yet: He knoweth not other than to be. As God, He knoweth
"to be:" "was," and "will be," He knoweth not. It is one day there, but a
day that is for ever and ever. That day yesterday and tomorrow do not set
in the midst between them: for when the 'yesterday' is ended, the 'to-day'
begins, to be finished by the coming 'tomorrow.' That one day there is a
day without darkness, without night, without spaces, without measure,
without hours. Call it what thou wilt: if thou wilt, it is a day; if thou
wilt, a year; if thou wilt, years. For it is said of this same, "And thy
years shall not fail."(8) But when is it called a day? When it is said to
the Lord, "To-day have I begotten Thee."(9) From the eternal Father
begotten, from eternity begotten, in eternity begotten: with no beginning,
no bound, no space of breadth; because He is what is, because Himself is
"He that Is." This His name He told to Moses: "Thou shalt say unto them, He
THAT IS hath sent me unto you."(10) Why speak then of "before Abraham"?
why, before Noe? why, before Adam? Hear the Scripture: "Before the day-star
have I begotten Thee."(11) In fine, before heaven and earth. Wherefore?
Because "all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing
made."(12) By this know ye the "fathers:" for they become fathers by
acknowledging "That which is from the beginning."

   6. "I write unto you, young men." There are sons, are fathers, are
young men: sons, because begotten; fathers, because they acknowledge the
Beginning; why young men? "Because ye have overcome the wicked one." In the
sons, birth: in the fathers, antiquity: in the young men, strength. If the
wicked one is "overcome" by the young men, he fights with us. Fights, but
not conquers.(1) Wherefore? Because we are strong, or because He is strong
in us who in the hands of the persecutors was found weak? He hath made us
strong, who resisted not His persecutors. "For He was crucified of
weakness, but He liveth by the power of God."(2)

   7. "I write, unto you,(4) children."(5) Whence children? "Because ye
have known the Father. I write unto you fathers:" he enforceth this, and
repeateth,(6) "Because ye have known Him that is from the beginning."
Remember that ye are fathers: if ye forget "Him that is from the
beginning," ye have lost your fatherhood. "I write unto you, young men."
Again and again consider that ye are young men: fight, that ye may
overcome: overcome, that ye may be crowned: be lowly, that ye fall not in
the fight. "I write unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the
word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one."

   8. All these things, my brethren,--"because we have known That which is
from the beginning, because we are strong, because we have known the
Father,"--do all these, while they in a manner commend(7) knowledge, not
commend charity? If we have known, let us love: for knowledge without
charity saveth not. "Knowledge(8) puffeth up, charity edifieth."(9) If ye
have a mind to confess and not love, ye begin to be like the demons. The
demons confessed the Son of God, and said, "What have we to do with
Thee?"(10) and were repulsed. Confess and embrace, For those feared for
their iniquities; love ye Him that forgiveth your iniquities. But how can
we love God, if we love the world? He prepareth us therefore to be
inhabited by charity.(11) There are two loves: of the world, and of God: if
the love of the world inhabit, there is no way for the love of God to enter
in: let the love of the world make way, and the love of God inhabit; let
the better have place. Thou lovedst the world: love not the world: when
thou hast emptied thine heart of earthly love, thou shall drink in love
Divine: and thenceforth beginneth charity to inhabit thee, from which can
nothing of evil proceed. Hear ye therefore his words, how he goes to work
in the manner of one that makes a clearance. He comes upon the hearts of
men as a field that he would occupy: but in what state does he find it? If
he finds a wood, he roots it up; if he finds the field cleared, he plants
it. He would plant a tree there, charity  And what is the wood he would
root up? Love of the world. Hear him, the rooter up of the wood! "Love not
the world," (for this comes next,) "neither the things that are in the
world; if any man love the world the(12) love of the Father is not in
him."(13)

   9. Ye have heard that "if any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him." Let not any say in his heart that this is false,
brethren: God saith it; by the Apostle the Holy Ghost hath spoken; nothing
more true: "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in
him." Wouldest thou have the Father's love, that thou mayest be joint-heir
with the Son? Love not the world. Shut out the evil love of the world, that
thou mayest be filled with(14) the love of God. Thou art a vessel; but as
yet thou art full. Pour out what thou hast, that thou mayest receive what
thou hast not. Certainly,(15) our brethren are now born again of water and
of the Spirit: we also some years ago were born again of water and of the
Spirit. Good is it for us that we love not the world, lest the sacraments
remain in us unto damnation, not as means of strengthening(16) unto
salvation. That which strengthens unto salvation is, to have the root of
charity, to have the "power of godliness," not "the form" only.(17) Good is
the form, holy the form: but what avails the form, if it hold not  the
root? The branch that is cut off, is it  not east into the fire? Have the
form, but in the root. But in what way are ye rooted so that ye be not
rooted up? By holding charity, as saith the Apostle Paul, "rooted and
grounded in charity."(28) How shall charity be rooted there, amid the
overgrown wilderness of the love of the world? Make clear riddance of the
woods. A mighty seed ye are about to put in: let there not be that in the
field which shall choke the seed. These are the uprooting words which he
hath said: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."(1)

   10. "For all that is in the world, is(2) the lust of the flesh, and the
lust of the eyes, and the pride(3) of life,"(4) three things he hath said,
which(2) are not of the Father, but are of the world. And the world passeth
away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for
ever, even as He abideth for ever."(5) Why am I not to love what God made?
What wilt thou? Whether wilt thou love the things of time, and pass away
with time; or not love the world, and live to eternity with God? The river
of temporal things hurries one along: but like a tree sprung up beside the
river is our Lord Jesus Christ.(6) He assumed flesh, died, rose again,
ascended into heaven. It was His will to plant Himself, in a manner, beside
the river of the things of time. Art thou rushing down the stream to the
headlong deep? Hold fast the tree. Is love of the world whirling thee on?
Hold fast Christ. For thee He became temporal, that thou mightest become
eternal; because He also in such sort became temporal, that He remained
still eternal. Something was added to Him from time, not anything went from
His eternity. But thou wast born temporal, and by sin wast made temporal:
thou wast made temporal by sin, He was made temporal by mercy in remitting
sins. How great the difference, when two are in a prison, between the
criminal and him that visits him! For upon a time a person comes to his
friend and enters in to visit him, and both seem to be in prison; but they
differ by a wide distinction. The one, his cause presses down: the other,
humanity has brought thither. So in this our mortal state, we were held
fast by our guiltiness, He in mercy came down: He entered in unto the
captive, a Redeemer not an oppressor. The Lord for us shed His blood,
redeemed us, changed our hope. As yet we bear the mortality of the flesh,
and take the future immortality upon trust: and on the sea we are tossed by
the waves, but we have the anchor of hope already fixed upon the land.

   11. But let us "not love the world, neither, the things that are in the
world. For the things that are in the world, are the lust of the flesh, and
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." These three are they: lest
haply any man say, "The things that are in the world, God made: i.e. heaven
and earth, the sea: the sun, the moon, the stars, all the garniture of the
heavens. What is the garniture of the sea? all creeping things. What of the
earth? animals, trees, flying creatures. These are 'in the world,' God made
them. Why then am I not to love what God hath made?" Let the Spirit of God
be in thee, that thou mayest see that all these things are good: but woe to
thee if thou love the things made, and forsake the Maker of them! Fair are
they to thee: but how much fairer He that formed them! Mark well, beloved.
For by similitudes ye may be instructed: lest Satan steal upon you, saying
what he is wont to say, Take your enjoyment in the creature of God;
wherefore made He those things but for your enjoyment? And men drink
themselves drunken, and perish, and forget their own Creator: while not
temperately but lustfully they use the things created, the Creator is
despised. Of such saith the apostle: "They worshipped and served the
creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed for ever."(7) God doth not
forbid thee to love(8) these things, howbeit, not to(9) set thine
affections upon them for blessedness, but to approve and praise them to
this end, that thou mayest love thy Creator. In the same manner, my
brethren, as if a bridegroom should make a ring for his bride, and she
having received the ring, should love it more than she loves the bridegroom
who made the ring for her: would not her soul be found guilty of adultery
in the very gift of the bridegroom, albeit she did but love what the
bridegroom gave her? By all means let her love what the bridegroom gave:
yet should she say, "This ring is enough for me, I do not wish to see his
face now:" what sort of woman would she be? Who would not detest such
folly? who not pronounce her guilty of an adulterous mind? Thou lovest gold
in place of the man, lovest a ring in place of the bridegroom: if this be
in thee, that thou lovest a ring in place of thy bridegroom, and hast no
wish to see thy bridegroom; that he has given time an earnest, serves not
to pledge thee to him, but to turn away thy heart from him! For this the
bridegroom gives earnest, that in his earnest he may himself be loved. Well
then, God gave thee all these things: love Him that made them. There is
more that He would fain give thee, that is, His very Self that made these
things. But if thou love these--what though God made them--and  neglect the
Creator and love the world; shall not thy love be accounted adulterous?(10)

   12. For "the world" is the appellation given not only to this fabric
which God made heaven and earth, the sea, things visible and invisible: but
the inhabitants of the world are called the world, just as we call a
"house" both the walls and them that inhabit therein. And sometimes we
praise a house, and find fault with the inhabitants. For we say, A good
house; because it is marbled and beautifully(1) ceiled: and in another
sense we say, A good house: no man there suffers wrong, no acts of plunder,
no acts of oppression, are done there. Now we praise not the building, but
those who dwell within the building: yet we call it "house," both this and
that. For all lovers of the world, because by love they inhabit the world,
just as those inhabit heaven, whose heart is on high while in the flesh
they walk on earth: I say then, all lovers of the world are called the
world. The same have only these three things, "lust of the flesh, lust of
the eyes, vain glory of life." For they lust to eat, drink, cohabit: to use
these pleasures. Not surely, that there is no allowed measure in these
things? or that when it is said, Love not these things, it means that ye
are not to eat, or not to drink, or not to beget children? This is not the
thing said. Only, let there be measure, because of the Creator, that these
things may not bind you by your loving of them: lest ye love that for
enjoyment, which ye ought to have for use. But ye are not put to the proof
except when two things are propounded to you, this or that: Will thou
righteousness or gains? I have not wherewithal to live, have not
wherewithal to eat, have not wherewithal to drink. But what if thou canst
not have these but by iniquity? Is  it not better to love that which thou
losest not, than to lose thyself by iniquity? Thou seest the gain of gold,
the loss of faith thou seest not. This then, saith he to us, is "the lust
of  the flesh," i.e. the lusting after those things which pertain to the
flesh, such as food, and carnal cohabitation, and all other such like.

   13 ."And the lust of the eyes:" by "the lust of the eyes," he means all
curiosity. Now how wide is the scope of curiosity! This it is that works in
spectacles, in theatres, in sacraments of the devil, in magical arts, in
dealings(2) with darkness: none other than curiosity. Sometimes it tempts
even the servants of God, so that they wish as it were to work a miracle,
to tempt God whether He will hear their prayers in working of miracles; it
is curiosity: this is "lust of the eyes;" it "is not of the Father." If God
hath given the power, do the miracle, for He hath put it in thy way to do
it: for think not that those who have not done miracles shall not pertain
to the kingdom of God. When the apostles were rejoicing that the demons
were subject to them, what said the Lord to them? "Rejoice not in this, but
rejoice because your names are written in heaven."(3) In that would He have
the apostles to rejoice, wherein thou also rejoicest. Woe to thee truly if
thy name be not written in heaven! Is it woe to thee if thou raise not the
dead? is it woe to thee if thou walk not on the sea? is it woe to thee if
thou cast not out demons? If thou hast received power to do them, use it
humbly, not proudly. For even of certain false prophets the Lord hath said
that "they shall do signs and prodigies."(4) Therefore let there be no
"ambition of the world:" Ambitio saeculi, is Pride. The man wishes to make
much of himself in his honors: he thinks himself great, whether because of
riches, or because of some power.

   14. These three there are, and thou canst find nothing whereby human
cupidity can be tempted, but either by the lust of the flesh, or the lust
of the eyes, or the pride of life. By these three was the Lord tempted of
the devil.(5) By the lust of the flesh He was tempted when it was said to
Him, "If thou be the Son of God, speak to these stones that they become
bread," when He hungered after His fast. But in what way repelled He the
tempter, and taught his soldier how to fight? Mark what He said to him:
"Not by bread alone doth man live, but by every word of God." He was
tempted also by the lust of the eyes concerning a miracle, when he said to
Him, "Cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge
concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any
time thou dash thy foot against a stone." He resisted the tempter, for to
do the miracle, would only have been to seem either to have yielded, or to
have done it from curiosity; for He wrought when He would, as God, howbeit
as healing the weak. For if He had done it then, He might have been thought
to wish only to do a miracle. But lest men should think this, mark what He
answered; and when the like temptation shall happen to thee, say thou also
the same: "Get thee behind me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shall not
tempt the Lord thy God:" that is, if I do this I shall tempt God. He said
what He would have thee to say. When the enemy suggests to thee, "What sort
of man, what sort of Christian, art thou? As yet hast thou done one
miracle? or by thy prayers have the dead been raised, or hast thou healed
the fevered? if thou wert truly of any moment, thou wouldest do some
miracle:" answer and say: "It is written, Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy
God:" therefore I will not tempt God, as if I should belong to God if I do
a miracle, and not belong if I do none: and what becomes then of His words,
"Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven"? By "pride of life" how
was the Lord tempted? When he carried Him up to an high place, and said to
Him, "All these will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."
By the loftiness of an earthly kingdom he wished to tempt the King of all
worlds: but the Lord who made heaven and earth trod the devil under foot.
What great matter for the devil to be conquered by the Lord? Then what did
He in the answer He made to the devil but teach thee the answer He would
have thee to make? "It is, written, Thou shall worship the Lord thy God,
and Him only shall thou serve." Holding these things fast, ye shall not
have the concupiscence of the world: by not having concupiscence of the
world, neither shall the lust of the flesh, nor the lust of the eyes, nor
the pride of life, subjugate you: and ye shall make place for Charity when
she cometh, that ye may love God. Because if love of the world be there,
love of God will not be there. Hold fast rather the love of God, that as
God is for ever and ever, so ye also may remain for ever and ever: because
such is each one as is his love. Lovest thou earth? thou shall be earth.
Lovest thou God? what shall I say? thou shall be a god? I dare  not say it
of myself, let us hear the Scriptures: "I have said, Ye are gods, and all
of you sons of the Most High."(1) If then ye would be gods and sons of the
Most High, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all
the things that are in the world, is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the
world:"(2) i.e. of men, lovers of the world. "And the world passeth away,
and the lusts thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever,
even as God also abideth for ever."

HOMILY III: 1 JOHN II. 18-27.

   "Children, it is the last hour: and as ye have heard that antichrist
shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is
the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us: if they had
been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out,
that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. But ye have
an unction from the Holy One, and know all things.(1) I write unto you, not
because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is
of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?
[He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.](2) Whosoever
denieth the Son, the same hath neither the Father nor the Son: and he that
acknowledgeth the Son hath both the Father and the Son. Let that therefore
abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have
heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the
Son, and in the Father. And this is the promise that He hath promised us,
even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them
that seduce you; that ye may know that, ye have an unction, and that the
unction which ye have received of him may abide in you. And ye need not
that any man teach you; because His unction teacheth you of all things."

  1. "CHILDREN,(1) it is the(2) last hour." In this lesson he addresses
the children that they may make haste to grow, because "it is the last
hour." Age or stature(3) of the body is not at one's own will. A man does
not grow in respect of the flesh when he will, any more than he is born
when he will: but where the being born rests with the will, the growth also
rests with the will. No man is "born of water and the Spirit,(4) except he
be willing. Consequently if he will, he grows or makes increase: if he
will, he decreases. What is it to grow? To go onward(5) by proficiency.
What is it to decrease? To go backward(6) by deficiency. Whoso knows that
he is born, let him hear that he is an infant; let him eagerly cling to the
breasts of his mother, and he grows apace. Now his mother is the Church;
and her breasts are the two Testaments of the Divine Scriptures. Hence let
him suck the milk of all the things that as signs of spiritual truths were
done in time for our eternal salvation,(7) that being nourished and
strengthened, he may attain to the eating of solid meat, which is, "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God."(8) Our milk is Christ in His humility; our meat, the selfsame Christ
equal with the Father. With milk He nourisheth thee, that He may feed thee
with bread: for with the heart spiritually to touch Christ is to know that
He is equal with the Father.

   2. Therefore it was that He forbade Mary to touch Him, and said to her,
"Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father."(9) What is this?
He gave Himself to be handled by the disciples. and did He shun Mary's
touch? Is not He the same that said to the doubting disciple, "Reach hither
thy fingers, and feel the scars"?(10) Was He at that time ascended to the
Father? Then why doth He forbid Mary, and saith, "Touch me not; for I am
not yet ascended to the Father?" Or are we to say, that He feared not to be
touched by men, and feared to be touched by women? The touch of Him
cleanseth all flesh. To whom He willed first to be manifested, by them
feared He to be handled? Was not His resurrection announced by women to the
men, that so the serpent should by a sort of counterplot be overcome? For
because he first by the woman announced death to man, therefore to men was
also life announced by a woman. Then why was He unwilling to be touched,
but because He would have it to be understood of that spiritual touch? The
spiritual touch takes place from a pure heart. That person does of a pure
heart reach Christ with his touch who understands Him coequal with the
Father. But whoso does not yet understand Christ's Godhead, that person
reaches but unto the flesh, reaches not unto the Godhead. Now what great
matter is it, to reach only unto that which the persecutors reached unto,
who crucified Him? But that is the great thing, to understand the Word God
with God, in the beginning, by whom all things were made: such as He would
have Himself to be known when He said to Philip, "Am I so long time with
you, and have ye not known me, Philip? He that seeth me, seeth also the
Father."(11)

   3. But lest any be sluggish to go forward, let him hear: "Children, it
is the last hour." Go forward, run, grow; "it is the last hour." This same
last hour is long; yet it is the last. For he has put "hour" for "the last
time;" because it is in the last times that our Lord Jesus Christ is to
come.(12) But some will say, How the last times? how the last hour?
Certainly antichrist will first come, and then will come the day of
judgment. John perceived these thoughts: test people should in a manner
become secure, and think it was not the last hour because antichrist was to
come, he   said to them, "And as ye have heard that antichrist is to come,
now are there come many antichrists." Could it have many antichrists,
except it were "the last hour"?

   4. Whom has he called antichrists? He goes on and expounds. "Whereby we
know that it is the last hour," By what? Because "many antichrists are
come. They went out from us;" see the antichrists! "They went out from us:"
therefore we bewail the loss. Hear the consolation. "But they were not of
us." All heretics, all schismatics went out from us, that is, they go out
from the Church; but they would not go out, if they were of us. Therefore,
before they went out they were not of us. If before they went out they were
not of us. many are within, are not gone out, but yet are antichrists. We
dare to say this: and why, but that each one while he is within may not be
an antichrist? For he is about to describe and mark the antichrists, and we
shall see them now. And each person ought to question his own conscience,
whether he be an antichrist. For antichrist in our tongue means, contrary
to Christ.(1) Not, as some take it, that antichrist is to be so called
because he is to come ante Christum, before Christ, i.e. Christ to come
after him: it does not mean this, neither is it thus written, but
Antichristus, i.e. contrary to Christ. Now who is contrary to Christ ye
already perceive from the apostle's own exposition, and understand that
none can go out but antichrists; whereas those who are not contrary to
Christ, can in no wise go out. For he that is not contrary to Christ holds
fast in His body, and is counted therewith as a member. The members are
never contrary one to another. The entire body consists of all the members.
And what saith the apostle concerning the agreement of the members? "If one
member suffer, all the members suffer with it; and if one member be
glorified, all the members rejoice with it."(2) If then in the glorifying
of a member the other members rejoice with it, and in its suffering all the
members suffer, the agreement of the members hath no antichrist. And there
are those who inwardly are in such sort in the body of our Lord Jesus
Christ--seeing His body is yet under cure, and the soundness will not be
perfect save in the resurrection of the dead--are in such wise in the body
of Christ, as bad humors. When these are vomited up, the body is relieved:
so too when bad men go out, then the Church is relieved. And one says, when
the body vomits and casts them out, These humors went out of me, but they
were not of me. How were not of me? Were not cut out of my flesh, but
oppressed my breast while they were in me.

   5. "They went out from us; but," be not sad, "they were not of us." How
provest thou this? If they had been of us, they would doubtless have
continued with us. Hence therefore ye may see, that many who are not of us,
receive with us the Sacraments, receive with us baptism. receive with us
what the faithful know they receive, Benediction, the Eucharist,(3) and
whatever there is in Holy Sacraments: the communion of the very altar they
receive with us, and are not of us. Temptation proves that they are not of
us. When temptation comes to them as if blown by a wind they fly abroad;
because they were not grain. But all of them will fly abroad, as we must
often tell you, when once the fanning of the Lord's threshing-floor shall
begin in the day of judgment. "They went out from us, but they were not of
us; if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us."
For would ye know, beloved, how most certain this saying is, that they who
haply have gone out and return, are not antichrists, are not contrary to
Christ? Whoso are not antichrists, it cannot be that they should continue
without. But of his own will is each either an antichrist or in Christ.
Either we are among the members, or among the bad humors. He that changeth
himself for the better, is in the body, a member: but he  that continues in
his badness, is a bad  humor; and when he is gone out, then they   who were
oppressed will be relieved. "They  went out from us, but they were not of
us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us:
but (they went out), that they might be made manifest that they were not
all of us." That he has added, "that they might be made manifest," is,
because even when they are within they are not of us; yet they are not
manifest, but by going out are made manifest. "And ye have an unction from
the Holy One, that ye may be manifest to your own selves.(4) The spiritual
unction is the Holy Spirit Himself, of which the Sacrament is in the
visible unction.(1) Of this unction of Christ he saith, that all who have
it know the bad and the good; and they need not to be taught, because the
unction itself teacheth them.

   6. "I write unto you not because ye know not the truth, but because ye
know it, and that no lie is of the truth."(2) Behold, we are admonished how
we may know antichrist. What is Christ? Truth. Himself hath said "I am the
Truth."(3) But "no lie is of the truth." Consequently, all who lie are not
yet of Christ. He hath not said that some lie is  of the truth, and some
lie not of the truth. Mark the sentence. Do not fondle yourselves, do not
flatter yourselves, do not deceive yourselves, do not cheat yourselves: "No
lie is of the truth." Let us see then how antichrists lie, because there is
more than one kind of lying. "Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus
is the Christ?" One is the meaning of the word "Jesus," another the meaning
of the word "Christ:" though it be one Jesus Christ our Saviour, yet
"Jesus" is His proper name. Just as Moses was so called by his proper name,
as Elias, as Abraham: so as His proper name our Lord hath the name "Jesus:"
but "Christ" is the name of His(4) sacred character. As when we say,
Prophet, as when we say, Priest; so by the name Christ we are given to
understand the Anointed, in whom should be the redemption of the whole
people. The coming of this Christ was hoped for by the people of the Jews:
and because He came in lowliness, He was not acknowledged; because the
stone was small, they stumbled at it and were broken. But "the stone grew,
and became a great mountain;"(5) and what saith the Scripture? "Whosoever
shall stumble at this stone shall be broken;(6) and on whomsoever this
stone shall come. it will grind him to powder." We must mark the difference
of the words: it saith, he that stumbleth shall be broken; but he on whom
it shall come, shall be ground to powder. At the first, because He came
lowly, men stumbled at Him: because He shall come lofty to judgment, on
whomsoever He shall come, He will grind him to powder. But not that man
will He grind to powder at His future coming, whom He broke not when He
came. He that stumbled not at the lowly, shall not dread the lofty. Briefly
ye have heard it, brethren: he that stumbled not at the lowly. shall not
dread the lofty. For to all bad men is Christ a stone of stumbling;
whatever Christ saith is bitter to them.

   7. For hear and see. Certainly all who go out from the Church, and are
cut off from the unity of the Church, are antichrists; let no man doubt it:
for the apostle himself hath marked them, "They went out from us, but they
were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have
continued with us." Therefore, whoso continue not with us, but go out from
us, it is manifest that they are antichrists. And how are they proved to be
antichrists? By lying. "And who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus
is the Christ?"(7) Let us ask the heretics: where do you find a heretic
that denies that Jesus is the Christ? See now, my beloved, a great
mystery.(8) Mark what the Lord God may have inspired us withal, and what I
would fain work into your minds. Behold, they went out from us, and turned
Donatists: we ask them whether Jesus be the Christ; they instantly confess
that Jesus is the Christ. If then that person is an antichrist, who denies
that Jesus is the Christ, neither can they call us antichrists, nor we
them; therefore, neither they went out from us, nor we from them. If then
we have not gone out one from another, we are in unity: if we be in unity,
what means it that there are two altars in this city? what, that there are
divided houses, divided marriages? that there is a common bed, and a
divided Christ? He admonishes us, he would have us confess what is the
truth:--either they went out from us, or we from them. But let it not be
imagined that we have gone out from them. For we have the testament of the
Lord's inheritance, we recite it, and there we find, "I will give Thee the
nations for Thine inheritance, and for Thy possessions the ends of the
earth."(9) We hold fast Christ's inheritance; they hold it not, for they do
not communicate with the whole earth, do not communicate with the(10)
universal body redeemed by the blood of the Lord. We have the Lord Himself
rising from the dead, who presented Himself to be felt by the hands of the
doubting disciples: and while they yet doubted, He said to them, "It
behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name"(11)--
Where? which way? to what persons?--"through all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem." Our minds are set at rest concerning the unity of the
inheritance! Whoso does not communicate with this inheritance, is gone out.

   8. But let us not be made sad: "They went out from us, but they were
not of us for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued
with us."(1) If then they went out from us, they are antichrists; if they
are antichrists, they are liars; if they are liars, they deny that Jesus is
the Christ. Once more we come back to the difficulty of the question. Ask
them one by one; they confess that Jesus is the Christ. The difficulty that
hampers us comes of our taking what is said in the Epistle in too narrow a
sense. At any rate ye see the question; this question puts both us and them
to a stand, if it be not understood. Either we are antichrists, or they are
antichrists; they call us antichrists, and say that we went out from them;
we say the like of them. But now this epistle has marked out the
antichrists by this cognizance: "Whosoever denies that Jesus is the
Christ," that same "is an antichrist." Now therefore let us enquire who
denies; and let us mark not the tongue, but the deeds. For if all be asked,
all with one mouth confess that Jesus is the Christ. Let the tongue keep
still for a little while, ask the life. If we shall find this, if the
Scripture itself shall tell us that denial is a thing done not only with
the tongue, but also with the deeds, then assuredly we find many
antichrists, who with the mouth profess Christ, and in their manners
dissent from Christ. Where find we this in Scripture? Hear Paul the
Apostle; speaking of such, he saith, "For they confess that they know God,
but in their deeds deny Him."(2) We find these also to be antichrists:
whosoever in his deeds denies Christ, is an antichrist. I listen not to
what he says, but I look what life he leads. Works speak, and do we require
words? For where is the bad man that does not wish to talk well? But what
saith the Lord to such? "Ye hypocrites, how can ye speak good things, while
ye are evil?"(3) Your voices ye bring into mine ears: I look into your
thoughts. I see an evil will there, and ye make a show of false fruits. I
know what I must gather, and whence; I do not "gather figs of thistles," I
do not gather "grapes of thorns;" for "every tree is known by its
fruit."(4) A more lying antichrist is he who with his mouth professes that
Jesus is the Christ, and with his deeds denies Him. A liar in this, that he
speaks one thing, and t does another.

    9. Now therefore, brethren, if deeds are, to be questioned, not only
do we find many antichrists gone out; but many not yet maninfest, who have
not gone out at all. For as many as the Church hath within it that are
perjured, defrauders,(5) addicted to black arts, consulters of fortune-
tellers, adulterers, drunkards, usurers, boy-stealers,(6) and all the other
vices that we are not able to enumerate; these things are contrary to the
doctrine of Christ, are contrary to the word of God. Now the Word of God is
Christ: whatever is contrary to the Word of God is in Antichrist. For
Antichrist means, "contrary to Christ."  And would ye know how openly these
resist Christ? Sometimes it happens that they do some evil, and one begins
to reprove them; because they dare not blaspheme Christ, they blaspheme His
ministers by whom they are reproved: but if thou show them that thou
speakest Christ's words, not thine own, they endeavor all they can to
convict thee of speaking thine own words, not Christ's: if however it is
manifest that thou speakest Christ's words, they go even against Christ,
they begin to find fault with Christ: "How," say they, "and why did He make
us such as we are?" Do not persons say this every day, when they are
convicted of their deeds? Perverted by a depraved will, they accuse their
Maker. Their Maker cries to them from heaven, (for the same made us, who
new-made us:) What made I thee? I made man, not avarice; I made man, not
robbery; I made man, not adultery. Thou hast heard that my works praise me.
Out of the mouth of the Three Children, it was the hymn itself that kept
them from the fires."(7) The works of the Lord praise the Lord, the heaven,
the earth, the sea, praise Him; praise Him all things that are in the
heaven, praise Him angels, praise Him stars, praise Him lights, praise Him
whatever swims, whatever flies, whatever walks, whatever creeps; all these
praise the Lord. Hast thou heard there that avarice praises the Lord? Hast
thou heard that drunkenness praises the Lord? That luxury praises, that
frivolity praises Him? Whatever thou hearest not in that hymn give praise
to the Lord, the Lord made not that thing. Correct what thou hast made,
that what God made in thee may be saved. But if thou wilt not, and lovest
and embracest thy sins, thou art contrary to Christ. Be thou within, be
thou without, thou art an antichrist; be thou within, be thou without, thou
art chaff. But why art thou not without? Because thou hast not fallen in
with a wind to carry thee away.

   10. These things are now manifest, my brethren. Let no man say, I do
not worship Christ, but I worship God His Father. "Every one that denieth
the Son, hath neither the Son nor the Father; and he that confesseth the
Son, hath both the Son and the Father."(1) He speaks to you that are grain:
and let those who were chaff, hear, and become grain. Let each one, looking
well to his own conscience, if he be a lover of the world, be changed; let
him become a lover of Christ, that he be not an antichrist. If one shall
tell him that he is an antichrist, he is wroth, he thinks it a wrong done
to him; perchance, if he is told by him that strives with him(2) that he is
an antichrist, he threatens an action at law.(3) Christ saith to him, Be
patient; if thou hast been falsely spoken of, rejoice with me, because I
also am falsely spoken of by the antichrists: but if thou art truly spoken
of, come to an understanding with thine own conscience; and if thou fear to
be called this, fear more to be it.

   11. "Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the
beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall abide in
you, ye also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father. And this is the
promise that He hath promised us."(4) For haply thou mightest ask about the
wages, and say, Behold, "that which I have heard from the beginning I keep
safe in me, I comply therewith; perils, labors, temptations, for the sake
of this continuance, I bear up against them all: with what fruit? what
wages? what will He hereafter give me, since in this world I see that I
labor among temptations? I see not here that there is any rest: mere
mortality weigheth down the soul, and the corruptible body presseth it down
to lower things: but I bear all things, that "that which I have heard from
the beginning"(5) may "remain" in me; and that I may say to my God,
"Because of the words of Thy lips have I kept hard ways."(6) Unto what
wages then? Hear, and faint not. If thou wast fainting in the labors, upon
the promised wages be strong. Where is the man that shall work in a
vineyard, and shall let slip out of his heart the reward he is to receive?
Suppose him to have forgotten, his hands fail. The remembrance of the
promised wages makes him persevering in the work: and yet he that promised
it is a man who can deceive thine expectation. How much more strong
oughtest thou to be in God's field, when He that promised is the Truth, Who
can neither have any successor, nor die, nor deceive him to whom the
promise was made! And what is the promise? Let us see what He hath
promised. Is it gold which men here love much, or silver? Or possessions,
for which men lavish gold, however much they love gold? Or pleasant lands,
spacious houses, many slaves, numerous beasts? Not these are the wages, so
to say, for which he exhorts us to endure in labor. What are these wages
called? "eternal life." Ye have heard, and in your joy ye have cried out:
love that which ye have heard, and ye are delivered from your labors into
the rest of eternal life. Lo, this is what God promises; "eternal life."(7)
Lo, this what God threatens; eternal fire. What to those set on the right
hand? "Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you
from the beginning of the world."(8) To those on the left, what? "Go into
eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Thou dost not yet
love that: at least fear this.

   12. Remember then, my brethren, that Christ hath promised us eternal
life: "This," saith he, "is the promise which He hath promised us, even
eternal life. These things have I written to you concerning them which
seduce you."(9) Let none seduce you unto death: desire the promise of
eternal life. What can the world promise? Let it promise what you will, it
makes the promise perchance to one that tomorrow shall die. And with what
face wilt thou go hence to Him that abideth for ever? "But a powerful man
threatens me, so that I must do some evil." What does he threaten? Prisons,
chains, fires, torments, wild beasts: aye, but not eternal fire? Dread that
which One Almighty threatens; love that which One Almighty promises; and
all the world becomes vile in our regard, whether it promise or terrify.
"These things have I written unto you concerning them which seduce you;
that ye may know that ye have an unction, and the unction which we have
received from Him may abide in you."(10) In the unction we have the
sacramental sign [of a thing unseen], the virtue itself is invisible;(11)
the invisible unction is the Holy Ghost; the invisible unction is that
charity, which, in whomsoever it be, shall be as a root to him: however
burning the sun, he cannot wither. All that is rooted is nourished by the
sun's warmth, not withered.

   13. "And ye have no need that any man teach you, because His(1) unction
teacheth you concerning all things."(2) Then to what purpose is it that
"we," my brethren, teach you? If "His unction teacheth you concerning all
things," it seems we labor without a cause. And what mean we, to cry out as
we do? Let us leave you to His unction, and let His unction teach you. But
this is putting the question only to myself: I put it also to that same
apostle: let him deign to hear a babe that asks of him: to John himself I
say, Had those the unction to whom thou wast speaking? Thou hast said, "His
unction teacheth you concerning all things." To what purpose hast thou
written an Epistle like this? what teaching didst "thou "give them? what
instruction? what edification? See here now, brethren, see a mighty
mystery) The sound of our words strikes the ears, the Master is within. Do
not suppose that any man learns ought from man. We can admonish by the
sound of our voice; if there be not One within that shall teach, vain is
the noise we make. Aye, brethren, have yea mind to know it? Have ye not all
heard this present discourse? and yet how many will go from this place
untaught! I, for my part, have spoken to all; but they to whom that Unction
within speaketh not, they whom the Holy Ghost within teacheth not, those go
back untaught. The teachings of the master from without are a sort of aids
and admonitions. He that teacheth the hearts, hath His chair in heaven.
Therefore saith He also Himself in the Gospel: "Call no man your master
upon earth; One is your Master, even Christ."(4) Let Him therefore Himself
speak to you within, when not one of mankind is there: for though there be
some one at thy side, there is none in thine heart. Yet let there not be
none in thine heart:(5) let Christ be in thine heart: let His unction be in
the heart, lest it be a heart thirsting in the wilderness, and having no
fountains to be watered withal. There is then, I say, a Master within that
teacheth: Christ teacheth; His inspiration teacheth. Where His inspiration
and His unction is not, in vain do words make a noise from without. So are
the words, brethren, which we speak from without, as is the husbandman to
the tree: from without he worketh, applieth water and diligence of culture;
let him from without apply what he will, does he form the apples? does he
clothe the nakedness of the  wood with a shady covering of leaves? does he
do any thing like this from within? But whose doing is this? Hear the
husbandman, the apostle: both see what we are, and hear the Master within:
"I have planted, Apollos haft watered; but God gave the increase: neither
he that planteth is any thing, neither he that watereth, but He that giveth
the increase, even God." (6) This then we say to you: whether we plant, or
whether we water, by speaking we are not any thing; but He that giveth the
increase, even God: that is, "His unction which teacheth you concerning all
things."

HOMILY IV: John II. 27; III. 8.

   "And it is true, and lieth not. Even as it hath taught you, abide in
it. And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we
may have confidence, and not be put to shame by Him at His coming. If ye
know that He is righteous, know ye that every one that doeth righteousness
is born of Him. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us, that we should be called and should be the sons of God: therefore the
world knoweth us not, because it knew not Him, us also the world knoweth
not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it is not yet manifested what
we shall be. We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for
we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him
purifieth himself, even as He is pure. Whosoever committeth sin committeth
also iniquity. Sin is iniquity. And ye know that He was manifested to take
away sin; and in Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not:
whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him. Little children,
let no man seduce you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He
is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth
from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested; that He
might destroy the works of the devil."

   1. Ye remember, brethren, that yesterday's lesson was brought to a
close at this point, that "ye have no need that any man teach you, but the
unction itself teacheth you concerning all things." Now this, as I am sure
ye remember, we so expounded to you, that we who from without speak to your
ears, are as workmen applying culture from without to a tree, but we cannot
give the increase  nor form the fruits: but only He that created and
redeemed and called you, He, dwelling in you by faith and the Spirit, must
speak to you within, else vain is all our noise of words. Whence does this
appear? From this: that while many hear, not all are persuaded of that
which is said, but only they to whom God speaks within. Now they to whom He
speaks within, are those who give place to Him: and those give place to
God, who "give not place to the devil."(1) For the devil wishes to inhabit
the hearts of men, and speak there the things which are able to seduce. But
what saith the Lord Jesus? "The prince of this world is cast out."(2)
Whence cast? out of heaven and earth? out of the fabric of the world? Nay,
but out of the hearts of the believing. The invader being cast out, let the
Redeemer dwell within: because the same redeemed, who created. And the
devil now assaults from without, not conquers Him that hath possession
within. And he assaults from without, by casting in various temptations:
but that person consents not thereto, to whom God speaks within, and the
unction of which ye have heard.

   2. "And it is true," namely, this same unction; i.e. the very Spirit of
the Lord which teacheth men, cannot lie: "and is not false.(3) Even as it
hath taught you, abide ye in the same. And now, little children, abide ye
in Him, that when He shall be manifested, we may have boldness in His
sight, that we be not put to shame by Him at His coming."(4) Ye see,
brethren: we believe on Jesus whom we have not seen: they announced Him,
that saw, that handled, that heard the word out of His own mouth; and that
they might persuade all mankind of the truth thereof, they were sent by
Him, not dared to go of themselves. And whither were they sent? Ye heard
while the Gospel was read, "Go, preach the Gospel to the whole creation
which is under heaven."(5) Consequently, the disciples were sent "every
where:" with signs and wonders to attest that what they spake, they had
seen. And we believe on Him whom we have not seen, and we look for Him to
come. Whose look for Him by faith, shall rejoice when He cometh: those who
are without faith, when that which now they see not is come, shall be
ashamed. And that confusion of face shall not be for a single day and so
pass away, in such sort as those are wont to be confounded, who are found
out in some fault, and are scoffed at by their fellowmen. That confusion
shall carry them that are confounded to the left hand, that to them it may
be said, "Go into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels."(6) Let us abide then in His words, that we be not confounded when
He cometh. For Himself saith in the Gospel to them that had believed on
Him: "If ye shall abide in my word, then are ye verily my disciples."(7)
And, as if they had asked, With what fruit? "And," saith He, "ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free." For as yet our salvation is
in hope, not in deed: for we do not already possess that which is promised,
but we hope for it to come. And "faithful is He that promised;"(8) He
deceiveth not thee: only do thou not faint, but wait for the promise. For
He, the Truth, cannot deceive. Be not thou a liar, to profess one thing and
do another; keep thou the faith, and He keeps His promise. But if thou keep
not the faith, thine own self, not He that promised, hath defrauded thee.

   3. "If ye know that He is righteous, know ye(1) that every one that
doeth righteousness is born of Him."(2) The righteousness which at present
is ours is of faith. Perfect righteousness is not, save only in the angels:
and scarce in angels, if they be compared with God: yet if there be any
perfect righteousness of souls and spirits which God hath created, it is in
the angels, holy, just, good, by no lapse turned aside, by no pride
falling, but remaining ever in the contemplation of the Word of God, and
having nothing else sweet unto them save Him by whom they were created; in
them is perfect righteousness: but in us it has begun to be, of faith, by
the Spirit. Ye heard when the Psalm was read,   "Begin(3) to the Lord in
confession."(4) "Begin," saith it; the beginning of our righteousness is
the confession of sins. Thou hast begun not to defend thy sin; now hast
thou made a beginning of righteousness: but it shall be perfected in thee
when to do nothing else shall delight thee, when "death shall be swallowed
up in victory,"(5) when there shall be no itching of lust, when there shall
be no struggling with flesh and blood, when there shall be the palm of
victory, the triumph over the enemy; then shall there be perfect
righteousness. At present we are still fighting: if we fight we are in the
lists;(6) we smite and are smitten; but who shall conquer, remains to be
seen. And that man conquers, who even when he smites presumes not on his
own strength, but relies upon God that cheers him on. The devil is alone
when he fights against us. If we are with God, we overcome the devil: for
if thou fight alone with the devil, thou wilt be overcome. He is a skillful
enemy: how may palms has he won! Consider to what he has cast us down t
That we are born mortal, comes of this, that he in the first place cast
down from Paradise our very original. What then is to be done, seeing he is
so well practised? Let the Almighty be invoked to thine aid against the
devices of the devil. Let Him dwell in thee, who cannot be overcome, and
thou shalt securely overcome him who is wont to overcome. But to overcome
whom? Those in whom God dwelleth not. For, that ye may know it, brethren;
Adam being in Paradise despised the commandment of God, and lifted up the
neck, as if he desired to be his own master, and were loath to be subject
to the will of God: so he fell from that immortality, from that
blessedness. But there was a certain man, a man now well skilled, though a
mortal born, who even as he sat on the dunghill, purifying with worms,
overcame the devil: yea, Adam himself then overcame: even he, in Job;
because Job was of his race. So then, Adam, overcome in Paradise, overcame
on the dunghill. Being in Paradise, he gave ear to the persuasion of the
woman which the devil had put into her: but being on the dunghill he said
to Eve, "Thou hast spoken as one of the foolish women."(7) There he lent an
ear, here he gave an answer: when he was glad, he listened, when he was
scourged, he overcame. Therefore, see what follows, my brethren, in the
Epistle: because this is what it would have us lay to heart, that we may
overcome the devil indeed, but not of ourselves. "If ye know that He is
righteous," saith it, "know ye that every one that doeth righteousness is
born of Him:" of God, of Christ. And in that he hath said, "Is born of
Him," he cheers us on. Already therefore, in that we are born of Him, we
are perfect.

   4. Hear. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath given us, that we
should be called sons of God, and be(8) (such).(9) For whoso are called
sons, and are not sons, what profiteth them the name where the thing is
not? How many are called physicians, who know not how to heal! how many are
called watchers, who sleep all night long! So, many are called Christians,
and yet in deeds are not found such; because they are not this which they
are called, that is, in life, in manners, in faith, in hope, in charity.
But what have ye heard here, brethren? "Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be, the
sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it hath not known
Him, us also the world knoweth not."(10) There is a whole world Christian,
and a whole world ungodly; because throughout the whole world there are
ungodly, and throughout the whole world there are godly: those know not
these. In what sense, think we, do they not know them? They deride them
that live good lives. Mark well and see: for haply there are such also
among you. Each one of you who now lives godly, who despises worldly
things, who does not choose to go to spectacles, who does not choose to
make himself drunken as it were by solemn custom, yea, what is worse, under
countenance of holy days to make himself unclean: the man who does not
choose to do these things, how is he derided by those who do them!(1) Would
he be scoffed at if he were known? But why is he not known? "The world
knoweth Him not." Who is "the world"? Those inhabiters of the world. Just
as we say, "a house;" meaning, its inhabitants. These things have been said
to you again and again, and we forbear to repeat them to your disgust. By
this time, when ye hear the word "world," in a bad signification, ye know
that ye must understand it to mean only lovers of the world because through
love they inhabit, and by inhabiting have become entitled to the name.
Therefore the world hath not known us, because it hath not known Him. He
walked here Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh; He was God, He was
latent in weakness.(2) And wherefore was He not known? Because He reproved
all sins in men. They, through loving the delights of sins, did not
acknowledge the God: through loving that which the fever prompted, they did
wrong to the Physician.

   5. For us then, what are we? Already we are begotten of Him; but
because we are such in hope, he saith, "Beloved, now are we sons of God."
Now already? Then what is it we look for, if already we are sons of God?
"And not yet," saith he, "is it manifested what(3) we shall be." But what
else shall we be than sons of God? Hear what follows: "We know that, when
He shall appear, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is."
Understand, my beloved. It is a great matter: "We know that, when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." In the first
place mark, what is called "Is." Ye know what it is that is so called. That
which is called "Is," and not only is called but is so, is unchangeable: It
ever remaineth, It cannot be changed, It is in no part corruptible: It hath
neither proficiency, for It is perfect; nor hath deficiency, for It is
eternal. And what is this? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God."(4) And what is this? "Who being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God."(5) To see Christ
in this sort, Christ in the form of God, Word of God, Only-Begotten of the
Father, equal with the Father, is to the bad impossible. But in regard that
the Word was made flesh, the bad also shall have power to see Him: because
in the day of judgment the bad also will see Him; for He shall so come to
judge, as He came to be judged. In the selfsame form, a man, but yet God:
for "cursed is every one that putteth his trust in man."(6) A man, He came
to be judged, a man, He will come to judge. And if He shall not be seen,
what is this that is written, "They shall look on Him whom they
pierced?"(7) For of the ungodly it is said, that they shall see and be
confounded. How shall the ungodly not see, when He shall set some on the
right hand, others on the left? To those on the right hand He will say,
"Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom:"(8) to  those on the
left He will say, "Go into everlasting fire." They will see but the form of
a servant, the form of God they will not see. Why? because they were
ungodly; and the Lord Himself saith, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they shall see God."(9) Therefore, we are  to see a certain vision, my
brethren, "which neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, nor hath
entered into the heart of man:"(10) a certain vision, a vision surpassing
all earthly beautifulness, of gold, of silver, of groves and fields; the
beautifulness of sea and air, the beautifulness of sun and moon, the
beautifulness of the stars, the beautifulness of angels: surpassing all
things: because from it are all things beautiful.

   6. What then shall "we" be, when we shall see this? What is promised to
us? "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." The tongue hath
done what it could, hath sounded the words: let the rest be thought by the
heart. For what hath even John himself said in comparison of That which Is,
or what can be said by us men, who are so far from being equal to his
merits? Return we therefore to that unction of Him, return we to that
unction which inwardly teacheth that which we cannot speak: and because ye
cannot at present see, let your part and duty be in desire. The whole life
of a good Christian is an holy desire.(11) Now what thou longest for, thou
dost not yet see: howbeit by longing, thou art made capable, so that when
that is come which thou mayest  see, thou shall be filled. For just as, if
thou wouldest fill a bag, (1) and knowest how great the thing is that shall
be given, thou stretchest the opening of the sack or the skin, or whatever
else it be; thou knowest how much thou wouldest put in, and seest that the
bag is narrow; by stretching thou makest it capable of holding more: so
God, by deferring our hope, stretches our desire; by the desiring,
stretches the mind; by stretching, makes it more capacious. Let us desire
therefore, my brethren, for we shall be filled. See Paul widening, as it
were,(2) his bosom, that it may be able to receive that which is to come.
He saith, namely, "Not that I have already received, or am already perfect:
brethren, I deem not myself to have apprehended."(3) Then what art thou
doing in this life, if thou have not yet apprehended? "But this one thing
[I do]; forgetting the things that are behind, reaching forth to the things
that are before,(4) upon the strain I follow on unto the prize of the high
calling." He says he reaches forth, or stretches himself, and says that he
follows "upon the strain." He felt himself too little to take in that
"which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the
heart of man."(5) This is our life, that by longing we should be exercised.
But holy longing exercises us just so much as we prune off our longings
from the love of the world. We have already said, "Empty out that which is
to be filled." With good thou art to be filled: pour out the bad. Suppose
that God would fill thee with honey: if thou art full of vinegar, where
wilt thou put the honey? That which the vessel bore in it must be poured
out: the vessel itself must be cleansed; must be cleansed, albeit with
labor, albeit with hard rubbing, that it may become fit for that thing,
whatever it be. Let us say honey, say gold, say wine; whatever we say it
is, being that which cannot be said, whatever we would fain say, It is
called--God. And when we say" God," what have we said? Is that one syllable
the whole of that we look for? So then, whatever, we have had power to say
is beneath Him: let us stretch ourselves unto Him, that when He shall come,
He may fill us. For "we shall be like Him; because we shall see Him as He
is."

   7. "And every one that hath this hope in Him." Ye see how he hath set
us our place, in "hope." Ye see how the Apostle Paul agreeth with his
fellow-apostle, "By hope we are saved. But hope that is seen, is not hope:
for what. a man seeth, why doth he hope for? For if what we see not, we
hope for, by patience we wait for it."(6) This very patience exerciseth
desire. Continue thou, for He continueth: and persevere thou in walking,
that thou mayest reach the goal: for that to which thou tendest will not
remove. See: "And every one that hath this hope in Him, purifieth(7)
himself even as He is pure."(8) See how he has not taken away free-will, in
that he saith, "purifieth himself." Who purifieth us but God? Yea, but God
doth not purify thee if thou be unwilling. Therefore, in that thou joinest
thy will to God, in that thou purifiest thyself. Thou purifiest thyself,
not by thyself, but by Him who cometh to inhabit thee. Still, because thou
doest somewhat therein by the will, therefore is somewhat attributed to
thee. But it is attributed to thee only to the end thou shouldest say, as
in the Psalm, "Be thou my helper, forsake me not."(9) If thou sayest, "Be
thou my helper," thou doest somewhat: for if thou be doing nothing, how
should He be said to "help" thee?

   8. "Every one that doeth sin, doeth also iniquity."(10) Let no man say,
Sin is one thing, iniquity another: let no man say, I am a sinful man, but
not(11) a doer of iniquity. For, "Every one that doeth sin, doeth also
iniquity. Sin is iniquity." Well then, what are we to do concerning sins
and iniquities? Hear what He saith: "And ye know that He was manifested to
take away sin; and sin in Him is not."(12) He, in Whom sin is not, the same
is come to take away sin. For were there sin in Him, it must be taken away
from Him, not He take it away Himself. "Whosoever abideth in Him, sinneth
not."(13) In so far as he abideth in Him, in so far sinneth not. "Whosoever
sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him." A great question this:
"Whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him." No marvel. We
have not seen Him, but are to see; have not known Him, but are to know: we
believe on One we have not known. Or haply, by faith we have known, and by
actual beholding(14) have not yet known? But then in faith we have both
seen and known. For if faith doth not yet see, why are we said to have been
enlightened? There is an enlightening by faith, and an enlightening by
sight. At present, while we are on pilgrimage, "we walk by faith, not by
sight,"(15) or, actually beholding. Therefore also our righteousness is "by
faith, not by sight." Our righteousness shall be perfect, when we shall see
by actual beholding.(1) Only, in the meanwhile, let us not leave that
righteousness which is of faith, since "the just doth live by faith,"(2) as
saith the apostle. "Whosoever abideth in Him, sinneth not." For, "whosoever
sinneth, hath not seen Him, neither known Him." That man who sins, believes
not: but if a man believes, so far as pertains to his faith, he sinneth
not.

   9. "Little children, let no man seduce you. He that doeth righteousness
is righteous, as He is righteous."(3) What? on hearing that we are
"righteous as He is righteous," are we to think ourselves equal with God?
Ye must know what means that "as:" thus he said a while ago, "Purifieth
himself even as He is pure." Then is our purity like and equal to the
purity of God, and our righteousness to God's righteousness? Who can say
this? But the word "as," is not always wont to be used in the sense of
equality. As, for example, if, having seen this large church,(4) a person
should wish to build a smaller church, but with the same relative
dimensions: as, for example, if this be one measure in width and two
measures in length, he too should build his church one measure in width and
two measures in length: in that case one sees that he has built it "as"
this is built. But this church has, say, a hundred cubits in length, the
other thirty: it is at once "as" this, and yet unequal. Ye see that this
"as" is not always referred to parity and equality. For example, see what a
difference there is between the face of a man and its image from a mirror:
there is a face in the image, a face in the body: the image exists in
imitation, the body in reality. And what do we say? Why, "as" there are
eyes here, so also there; "as" ears here, so ears also there. The thing is
different, but the "as" is said of the resemblance. Well then, we also have
in us the image of God; but not that which the Son equal with the Father
hath: yet except we also, according to our measure, were "as" He, we should
in no respect be said to be like Him. "He purifieth us," then, "even as He
is pure:" but He is pure from eternity, we pure by faith. We are "righteous
even as He is righteous;" but He is so in His immutable perpetuity, we
righteous by believing on One we do not see, that so we may one day see
Him. Even when our righteousness shall be perfect, when we shall be equal
to the angels, not even then shall it be equalled with Him. How far then
is it from Him now, when not even then it shall be equal!

   10. "He that doeth sin, is of the devil, because the devil sinneth from
the beginning."(5) "Is of the devil:" ye know what he means: by imitating
the devil. For the devil made no man, begat no man, created no man: but
whoso imitates the devil, that person, as if begotten of him, becomes a
child of the devil; by imitating him, not literally by being begotten of
him. In what sense art thou a child of Abraham? not that Abraham begat
thee? In the same sense as the Jews, the children of Abraham, not imitating
the faith of Abraham, are become children of the devil: of the flesh of
Abraham they were begotten, and the faith of Abraham they have not
imitated. If then those who were thence begotten were put out of the
inheritance, because they did not imitate, thou, who art not begotten of
him, art made a child, and in this way shall be a child of him by imitating
him. And if thou imitate the devil, in such wise as he became proud and
impious against God, thou wilt be a child of the devil: by imitating, not
that he created thee or begat thee.

   11. "Unto this end was the Son of God manifested." Now then, brethren,
mark! All sinners are begotten of the devil, as sinners. Adam was made by
God: but when he consented to the devil, he was begotten of the devil; and
he begat all men such as he was himself. With lust itself we were born;
even before we add our sins, from that condemnation we have our birth. For
if we are born without any sin, wherefore this running with infants to
baptism that they may be released? Then mark well, brethren, the two birth-
stocks,(6) Adam and Christ: two men are; but one of them, a man that is
man; the other, a Man that is God. By the man that is man we are sinners;
by the Man that is God we are justified. That birth hath cast down unto
death; this birth hath raised up unto life: that birth brings with it sin;
this birth setteth free from sin. For to this end came Christ as Man, to
undo(7) the sins of men. "Unto this end was the Son of God manifested, that
He may undo the works of the devil."

   12. The rest I commend to your thoughts, my beloved, that I may not
burden you. For the question we labor to solve is even this--that we call
ourselves sinners: for if any man shall say that he is without sin, he is a
liar. And in the Epistle of this same John we have found it written, "If we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves."(1) For ye should remember
what went before: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us." And yet, on the other hand, in what follows thou
art told, "He that is begotten of God sinneth not: he that doeth sin hath
not seen Him, neither known Him.--Every one that doeth sin is of the
devil:" sin is not of God: this affrights us again. In what sense are we
begotten of God, and in what sense do we confess ourselves sinners? Shall
we say, because we are not begotten of God? And what do these Sacraments in
regard to infants? What hath John said? "He that is begotten of God,
sinneth not." And yet again the same John hath said, "If we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us!" A great
question it is, and an embarrassing one; and may I have made you intent
upon having it solved, my beloved. Tomorrow, in the name of the Lord, what
He will give, we will discourse thereof.

HOMILY V: 1 John III. 9-18.

   "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth
in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children
of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever is not
righteous is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this
is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one
another. Not as Cain, who was of the wicked one, and slew his brother. And
wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's
righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate us. We know that we
have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that
loveth not abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer:
and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. In this we
know love, that He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his
brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how
can the love of God dwell in him? My little children, let us not love only
in word and in tongue; but in deed and in truth."

   1. HEAR intently, I do beseech you, because it is no small matter that
we have to cope withal: and I doubt not, because ye were intent upon it
yesterday, that ye have with even greater intentness of purpose come
together to-day. For it is no slight question, how he saith in this
Epistle, "Whosoever is born of God, sinneth not,"(1) and how in the same
Epistle he hath said above, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us."(2) What shall the man do, who is
pressed by both sayings out of the same Epistle? If he shall confess
himself a sinner, he fears lest it be said to him, Then art thou not born
of God; because it is written, "Whosoever is born of God, sinneth not." But
if he shall say that he is just and that he hath no sin, he receives on the
other side a blow from the same Epistle, "If we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Placed then as he is in the
midst, what he can say and what confess, or what profess, he cannot find.
To profess himself to be without sin, is full of peril; and not only full
of peril, but also full of error': "We deceive ourselves," saith he, "and
the truth is not in us, if we say that we have no sin." But oh that thou
hadst none, and saidst this! for then wouldest thou say truly, and in
uttering the truth wouldest have not so much as a vestige of wrong to be
afraid of. But, that thou doest ill if thou say so, is because it is a lie
that thou sayest. "The truth," saith he, "is not in us, if we say that we
have no sin." He saith not, "Have not had;" lest haply it should seem to be
spoken of the past life. For the man here hath had sins: but from the time
that he was born of God, he has begun not to have sins. If it were so,
there would be no question to embarrass us. For we should say, We have been
sinners, but now we are justified: we have had sin, but now we have none.
He saith not this: but what saith he? "If we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." And then after a while he
says on the other hand, "Whosoever is born of God sinneth not." Was John
himself not born of God? If John was not born of God, John, of whom ye have
heard that he lay in the Lord's bosom; does any man dare engage for himself
that in him has taken place that regeneration which it was not granted to
that man to have, to whom it was granted to lie in the bosom of the Lord?
The man whom the Lord loved more than the rest,(1) him alone had He not
begotten of the Spirit?

   2. Mark now these words. As yet, I am urging it upon you, what straits
we are put to that by putting your minds on the stretch, that is, by your
praying for us and for yourselves, God may make enlargement, and give us an
outlet: lest some man find in His word an occasion of his own perdition,
that word which was preached and put in writing only for healing and
salvation. "Every man," saith he, "that doeth sin, doeth also iniquity."
Lest haply thou make a distinction, "Sin is iniquity." Lest thou say, A
sinner I am, but not a doer of iniquity, "Sin is iniquity. And ye know that
to this end was He manifested, that He should take away sin; and there is
no sin in Him." And what doth it profit us, that He came without sin?
"Every one that sinneth not, abideth in Him: and every one that sinneth,
hath not seen Him, neither known Him. Little children, let no man seduce
you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous."
This we have already said, that the word "as" is wont to be used of a
certain resemblance, not of equality. "He that doeth sin is of the devil,
because the, devil sinneth from the beginning." This too we have already
said, that the devil created no man, nor begat any, but his imitators are,
as it were, born of him. "To this end was the Son of God manifested, that
He should undo(2) the works of the devil." Consequently, to undo (or loose)
sins, He that hath no sin. And then follows: "Every one that is born of God
doth not commit sin; for? his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin,
because he is born of God:"(3) he has drawn the cord tight!--Be-like, it is
in regard of some one sin that he hath said, "Doth not sin," not in regard
of all sin: that in this that he saith, "Whoso is born of God, doth not
sin," thou mayest understand some one particular sin, which that man who is
born of God cannot commit:(4) and such is that sin that, if one commit it,
it confirms the rest. What is this sin? To do contrary to the commandment.
What is the commandment? "A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love
one another."(5) Mark well! This commandment of Christ is called, "love."
By this love sins are loosed. If this love be not kept, the not holding it
is at once a grievous sin, and the root of all sins.

   3. Mark well, brethren; we have brought forward somewhat in which, to
them that have good understanding, the question is solved. But do we only
walk in the way with them that run more swiftly? Those that walk more
slowly must not be left behind. Let us turn the matter every way, in such
words as we can, in order that it may be brought within reach of all. For I
suppose, brethren, that every man is concerned for his own soul, who does
not come to Church without cause, who does not seek temporal things in the
Church, who does not come here to transact secular business; but comes here
in order that he may lay hold upon some eternal thing, promised unto him,
whereunto he may attain: he must needs consider how he shall walk in the
way, lest he be left behind, lest he go back, lest he go astray, lest by
halting he do not attain. Whoever therefore is in earnest, let him be slow,
let him be swift, yet let him not leave the way. This then I have said,
that in saying, "Whosoever is born of God sinneth not," it is probable he
meant it of some particular sin: for else it will be contrary to that
place: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth
is not in us." In this way then the question may be solved. There is a
certain sin, which he that is born of God cannot commit; a sin, which not
being committed, other sins are loosed, and being committed, other sins are
confirmed. What is this sin? To do contrary to the commandment of Christ,
contrary to the New Testament.(1) What is the new commandment? "A new
commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another."(1) Whoso doeth
contrary to charity and contrary to brotherly love, let him not dare to
glory and say that he is born of God: but whoso is in brotherly love, there
are certain sins which he cannot commit, and this above all, that he should
hate his brother. And how fares it with him concerning his other sins, of
which it is said, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us?" Let him hear that which shall set his mind at rest
from another place of Scripture; "Charity covereth a multitude of sins."(3)

   4. Charity therefore we commend; charity this Epistle commendeth. The
Lord, after His resurrection, what question put He to Peter, but, "Lovest
thou me?"(4) And it was not enough to ask it once; a second time also He
put none other question, a third time also none other. Although when it
came to the third time, Peter, as one who knew not what was the drift of
this, was grieved because it seemed as if the Lord did not believe him;
nevertheless both a first time and a  second, and a third He put this
question. Thrice fear denied, thrice love confessed. Behold Peter loveth
the Lord. What is he to do for the Lord? For think not that he in the Psalm
did not feel himself at a loss what to do: "What shall I render unto the
Lord for all the benefits He hath done unto me?"(5) He that said this in
the Psalm, marked what great things had been done for him by God; and
sought what he should render to God, and could find nothing. For whatever
thou wouldest render, from Him didst thou receive  it to render. And what
did he find to offer in return? That which, as we said, my brethren, he had
received from Him, that only found he to offer in return. "I will receive
the cup of salvation, and will call upon the name of the Lord." For who had
given him the cup of salvation, but He to whom he wished to offer in
return?  Now to receive the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the
Lord, is to be filled with charity; and  so filled, that not only thou
shall not hate thy brother, but shall be prepared to die for thy brother.
This is perfect charity, that thou be prepared to die for thy brother. This
the Lord exhibited in Himself, who died for all, praying for them by whom
He was crucified, and saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do."(6) But if He alone hath done this, He was not a Master, if He had
no disciples. Disciples who came after Him have done this.(2) Men were
stoning Stephen, and he knelt down and said, "Lord, lay not this sin to
their charge."(8) He loved them that were killing him; since for them also
he was dying. Hear also the Apostle Paul: "And I myself," saith he, "will
be spent for your souls."(9) For he was among those for whom Stephen, when
by their hands he was dying, besought forgiveness. This then is perfect
charity. If any man shall have so great charity that he is prepared even to
die for his brethren, in that man is perfect charity. But as soon as it is
born, is it already quite perfect? That it may be made perfect, it is born;
when born, it is nourished; when nourished, it is strengthened; when
strengthened, it is perfected; when it has come to perfection, what saith
it? "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I wished to be dissolved,
and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the
flesh is needful for you."(10) For their sakes he was willing to live, for
whose sakes he was prepared to die.

   5. And that ye may know that it is this perfect charity which that man
violates not, and against which that man sins not, who is born of God; this
is what the Lord saith to Peter; "Peter lovest thou me?" And he answers, "I
love." He saith not, If thou love me, shew kindness to me. For when the
Lord was in mortal flesh, He hungered, He thirsted: at that time when He
hungered and thirsted, He was taken in as a guest; those who had the means,
ministered unto Him of their substance, as we read in the Gospel. Zacchaeus
entertained Him as his guest: he was saved from his disease by entertaining
the Physician. From what disease? The disease of avarice. For he was very
rich, and the chief of the publicans. Mark the man made whole from the
disease of avarice: "The half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have
taken any thing from any man, I will restore him fourfold."(1) That he kept
the other half, was not to enjoy it, but to pay his debts. Well, he at that
time entertained the Physician as his guest, because there was infirmity of
the flesh in the Lord, to which men might show this kindness; and this,
because it was His will to grant this very thing to them that did Him kind
service; for the benefit was to them that did the service, not to Him. For,
could He to whom angels ministered require these men's kindness? Not even
His servant Elias, to whom He sent bread and flesh by the ravens upon a
certain occasion? had need of this; and yet that a religious widow might be
blessed, the servant of God is sent, and he whom God in secret did feed, is
fed by the widow. But still, although by the means of these servants of
God, those who consider their need get good to themselves, in respect of
that reward most manifestly set forth by the Lord in the Gospel: "He that
receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a
righteous man's reward: and he that receiveth a prophet in the name of a
prophet shall receive a prophet's reward: and whosoever shall give to drink
unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a
disciple, verily I say unto you, He shall in no wise lose his reward:"(3)
although, then, they that do this, do it to their own good: yet neither
could this kind office be done to Him when about to ascend(4) into Heaven.
What could Peter, who loved Him, render unto Him? Hear what. "Feed my
sheep:" i.e. do for the brethren, that which I have done for thee. I
redeemed all with my blood: hesitate not to die for confession of the
truth, that the rest may imitate you.

   6. But this, as we have said, brethren, is perfect charity. He that is
born of God hath it. Mark, my beloved, see what I say. Behold, a man has
received the Sacrament of that birth, being baptized; he hath the
Sacrament, and a great Sacrament, divine, holy, ineffable. Consider what a
Sacrament! To make him a new man by remission of all sins! Nevertheless,
let him look well to the heart, whether that be thoroughly done there,
which is done in the body; let him see whether he have charity, and then
say, I am born of God. If however he have it not, he has indeed the
soldier's mark upon him, but he roams as a deserter. Let him have charity;
otherwise let him not say that he is born of God. But he says, I have the
Sacrament. Hear the Apostle: "If I know all mysteries,(5) and have all
faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not charity, I am
nothing."(6)

   7. This, if ye remember, we gave you to understand in beginning to read
this Epistle, that nothing in it is so commended as charity. Even if it
seems to speak of various other things, to this it makes its way back, and
whatever it says, it will needs bring all to bear upon charity. Let us see
whether it does so here. Mark: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit
sin." We ask, what sin? because if thou understand all sin, it will be
contrary to that place, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Then let him say what sin; let him
teach us; lest haply I may have rashly said that the sin here is the
violation of charity, because he said above, "He that hateth his brother is
in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth,
because the darkness hath blinded his eyes."(7) But perhaps he has said
something in what comes afterwards, and has mentioned charity by name? See
that this circuit of words hath this end, hath this issue. "Whosoever is
born of God, sinneth not, because His seed remaineth in him."(8) The "seed"
of God, i.e. the word of God: whence the apostle saith, "I have begotten
you through the Gospel. And he cannot sin, because he is born of God."(9)
Let him tell us this, let us see in what we cannot sin. "In this are
manifested the children of God and the children of the devil. Whosoever is
not righteous is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother."(10)
Aye, now indeed it is manifest of what he speaks: "Neither he that loveth
not his brother." Therefore, love alone puts the difference between the
children of God and the children of the devil. Let them all sign themselves
with the sign of the cross of Christ; let them all respond, Amen; let all
sing Alleluia; let all be baptized, let all come to church, let all build
the walls of churches: there is no discerning of the children of God from
the children of the devil, but only by charity. They that have charity are
born of God: they that have it not, are not born of God. A mighty token, a
mighty distinction! Have what thou wilt; if this alone thou have not, it
profiteth thee nothing: other things if thou have not, have this, and thou
hast fulfilled the law. "For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the
law," saith the apostle: and, "Charity is the fulfilling of the law."(11) I
take this to be the pearl which the merchant man in the Gospel is described
to have been seeking, who "found one pearl, and sold all that he had, and
bought it."(1) This is the pearl of price, Charity, without which whatever
thou mayest have, profiteth thee nothing: which if alone thou have, it
sufficeth thee. Now, with faith thou seest, then with actual beholding(2)
thou shalt see. For if we love when we see not, how shall we embrace it
when we see! But wherein must we exercise ourselves? In brotherly love.
Thou mayest say to me, I have not seen God: canst thou say to me, I have
not seen man? Love thy brother. For if thou love thy brother whom thou
seest, at the same time thou shall see God also; be  cause thou shall see
Charity itself, and within dwelleth God.

   8. "Whosoever is not righteous is not of God, neither he that loveth
not his brother."(3) "For this is the message:" mark how he confirms it:
"For this is the message which we heard from the beginning, that we should
love one another." He has made it manifest to us that it is of this he
speaks; whoso acts against this commandment, is in that accursed sin, into
which those fall who are not born of God. "Not as Cain, who was of that
wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his
own works were evil, and his brother's righteous."(4) Therefore, where envy
is, brotherly love cannot be. Mark, my beloved. He that envieth, loveth
not. The sin of the devil is in that man; because the devil through envy
cast man down. For he fell, and envied him that stood. He did not wish to
cast man down that he himself might stand, but only that he might not fall
alone. Hold fast in your mind from this that he has subjoined, that envy
cannot exist in charity. Thou hast it openly, when charity was praised,
"Charity envieth not."(5) There was no charity in Cain; and had there been
no charity in Abel, God would not have accepted his sacrifice. For when
they had both offered, the one of the fruits of the earth, the other of the
offspring of the flock; what think ye, brethren, that God slighted the
fruits of the earth, and loved the offspring of the flock? God had not
regard to the hands, but saw in the heart: and whom He saw offer with
charity, to his sacrifice He had respect; whom He saw offer with envy, from
his sacrifice He turned away His eyes. By the good works, then, of Abel, he
means only charity: by the evil works of Cain he means only his hatred of
his brother. It was not enough that he hated his brother and envied his
good works; because he would not imitate, he would kill. And hence it
appeared that he was a child of the devil, and hence also that the other
was God's righteous one. Hence then are men discerned, my brethren. Let no
man mark the tongue, but the deeds and the heart. If any do not good for
his brethren, he shews what he has in him. By temptations are men proved.

   9. "Marvel not, brethren, if the world hate us."(6) Must one often be
telling you what "the world" means? Not the heaven, not the earth, nor
these visible works which God made; but lovers of the world. By often
saying these things, to some I am burdensome: but I am so far from saying
it without a cause, that some may be questioned whether I said it, and they
cannot answer. Let then, even by thrusting it upon them, something stick
fast in the hearts of them that hear. What is "the world"? The world, when
put in a bad sense, is, lovers of the world: the world, when the word is
used in praise, is heaven and earth, and the works of God that are in them;
whence it is said, "And the world was made by Him."(7) Also, the world is
the fullness of the earth, as John himself hath said, "Not only for our
sins is He the propitiator, but (for the sins) of the whole world:"(8) he
means, "of the world," of all the faithful scattered throughout the whole
earth. But the world in a bad sense, is, lovers of the world. They that
love the world, cannot love their brother.

10. "If the world hate us: we know What do we know?--"that we have passed
from death unto life"--How do we know? "Because we love the brethren."(9)
Let none ask man: let each return to his own heart: if he find there
brotherly love, let him set his mind at rest, because he is "passed from
death unto life." Already he is on the right hand: let him not regard that
at present his glory is hidden: when the Lord shall come, then shall he
appear in glory. For he has life in him, but as yet in winter; the root is
alive, but the branches, so to say, are dry: within is the substance that
has the life in it, within are the leaves of trees, within are the fruits:
but they wait for the summer. Well then, "we know that we have passed from
death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not, abideth
in death." Lest ye should think it a light matter, brethren, to hate, or,
not to love, hear what follows: "Every one that hateth his brother, is a
murderer."(10) How now? if any made light of hating his brother, will he
also in his heart make light of murder? He does not stir his hands to kill
a man; yet he is already held by God a murderer; the other lives, and yet
this man is already judged as his slayer! "Every one that hateth his
brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life
abiding in him."

   11. "In this know we love:"(1) he means, perfection of love, that
perfection which we have bidden you lay to heart: "In this know we love,
that He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for
the brethren." Lo here, whence that came: "Peter, lovest thou me? Feed My
sheep."(2) For, that ye may know that He would have His sheep to be so fed
by him, as that he should lay down his life for the sheep, straightway said
He this to him: "When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst
whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth
thy hands, and another shall gird thee, I and carry thee whither thou
wouldest not. This spake He," saith the evangelist, "Signifying by what
death he should glorify God;" so that to whom He had said, Feed my sheep,"
the same He might teach to lay down his life for His sheep.

   12. Whence beginneth charity, brethren? Attend a little: to what it is
perfected, ye have heard; the very end of it, and the very measure of it is
what the Lord hath put before us in the Gospel: "Greater love hath no man,"
saith He, "than that one lay down his life for his friends."(3) Its
perfection, therefore, He hath put before us in the Gospel, and here also
it is its perfection that is put before us: but ye ask yourselves, and say
to yourselves, When shall it be possible for us to have "this" charity? Do
not too soon despair of thyself. Haply, it is born and is not yet perfect;
nourish it, that it be not choked. But thou wilt say to me, And by what am
I to know it? For to what it is perfected, we have heard; whence it begins,
let us hear. He goes on to say: "But whoso hath this world's good, and
seeth his brother have hunger,(4) and shutteth up his bowels of compassion
from him, how can the love of God dwell in him?"(5) Lo, whence charity
begins withal!(6) If thou art not yet equal to the dying for thy brother,
be thou even now equal to the giving of thy means to thy brother. Even now
let charity smite thy bowels, that not of vainglory thou shouldest do it,
but of the innermost(7) marrow of mercy; that thou consider him, now in
want. For if thy superfluities thou canst not give to thy brother, canst
thou lay down thy life for thy brother? There lies thy money in thy bosom,
which thieves may take from thee; and though thieves do not take it, by
dying thou wilt leave it, even if it leave not thee while living: what wilt
thou do with it? Thy brother hungers, he is in necessity: be-like he is in
suspense, is distressed by his creditor: he is thy brother, alike ye are
bought, one is the price paid for you, ye are both redeemed by the blood of
Christ: see whether thou have mercy, if thou have this world's means.
Perchance thou sayest, "What concerns it me? Am I to give my may not suffer
trouble?" If money, that he this be the answer thy heart makes to thee, the
love of the Father abideth not in thee. If the love of the Father abide not
in thee, thou art not born of God. How boastest thou to be a Christian?
Thou hast the name, and hast not the deeds. But if the work shall follow
the name, let any call thee pagan, show thou by deeds that thou art a
Christian. For if by deeds thou dost not show thyself a Christian, all men
may call thee a Christian yet; what doth the name profit thee where the
thing is not forthcoming? "But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his
brother have need,(8) and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him,
how can the love of God dwell in him?" And then he goes on: "My little
children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue but in deed and in
truth."(9)

   13. I suppose the thing is now made manifest to you my brethren: this
great and most concerning secret and mystery.(10) What is the force of
charity, all Scripture doth set forth; but I know not whether any where it
be more largely set forth than in this Epistle. We pray you and beseech you
in the Lord, that both what ye have heard ye will keep in memory, and to
that which is yet to be said, until the epistle be finished, will come with
earnestness, and with earnestness hear the same. But open ye your heart for
the good seed: root out the thorns, that that which we are sowing in you be
not choked, but rather that the harvest may grow, and that the Husbandman
may rejoice and make ready the barn for you as for grain, not the fire as
for the chaff

HOMILY VI: JOHN III. 19.--IV. 3.

   "And herein we know that we are of the truth, and assure our hearts
before Him. For if our heart think ill of us, God is greater than our
heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart think not ill of us,
then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we shall receive
of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do in His sight those things
that please Him. And this is His commandment, That we should believe on the
name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us
commandment. And he that keepeth His commandments shall dwell in Him, and
He in him. And herein we know that He abideth in us, by the Holy Spirit
which He hath given us. Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but try
the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone
out into this world. In this is known the Spirit of God: every spirit that
confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
God: and this is the antichrist, of whom ye have heard that he should come;
and even now already is he in this world."

   1. If ye remember, brethren, yesterday we closed our sermon at this
sentence,(1) which without doubt behooved and does behoove to abide in your
heart, seeing it was the last ye heard. "My little children, let us not
love only in word and in tongue; but in deed and in truth." Then he goes
on: "And herein we know that we are of the truth, and assure our hearts
before Him."(2)  "For if our heart(3) think ill of us, God is greater than
our heart, and knoweth all things." He had said," Let us not love only in
word and in tongue, but in work and in truth:" we are asked, In what work,
or in what truth, is he known that loveth God, or loveth his brother? Above
he had said up to what point charity is perfected: what the Lord saith in
the Gospel, "Greater love than this hath no man, that one lay down his life
for his friends,"(4) this same had the apostle also said: "As He laid down
His life for us, we ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren."(5)
This is the perfection of charity, and greater can not at all be found. But
because it is not perfect in all, and that man ought not to despair in whom
it is not perfect, if that be already born which may be perfected: and of
course if born, it must be nourished, and by certain nourishments of its
own must be brought unto its proper perfection: therefore, we have asked
concerning the commencement of charity, where it begins, and there have
straightway found: "But whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his
brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how
dwelleth the love of the Father in him?"(6) Here then hath this charity, my
brethren, its beginning: to give of one's superfluities to him that hath
need to him that is in any distress; of one's temporal abundance to deliver
his brother from temporal tribulation. Here is the first rise of charity.
This, being thus begun, if thou shalt nourish with the word of God and hope
of the life to come, thou wilt come at last unto that perfection, that thou
shalt be ready to lay down thy life for thy brethren.

   2. But, because many such things are done by men who seek other
objects, and who love not the brethren; let us come back to the testimony
of conscience. How do we prove that many such things are done by men who
love not the brethren? How many in heresies and schisms call themselves
martyrs! They seem to themselves to lay down their lives for their
brethren. If for the brethren they laid down their lives, they would not
separate themselves from the whole brotherhood. Again, how many there are
who for the sake of vainglory bestow much, give much, and seek therein but
the praise of men and popular glory, which is full of windiness, and
possesses no stability! Seeing, then, there are such, where shall be the
proof of brotherly charity? Seeing he wished it to be proved, and hath said
by way of admonition, "My little children, let us not love only in word and
in tongue; but in deed and in truth;" we ask, in what work, in what truth?
Can there be a more manifest work than to give to the poor? Many do this of
vainglory, not of love. Can there be a greater work than to die for the
brethren? This also, many would fain be thought to do, who do it of
vainglory to get a name, not from bowels of love. It remains, that that man
loves his brother, who before God, where God alone seeth, assures his own
heart, and questions his. heart whether he does this indeed for love of the
brethren; and his witness is that eye which penetrates the heart, where man
cannot look. Therefore Paul the Apostle, because he was ready to die for
the brethren, and said, "I will myself be spent for your souls,"(1) yet,
because God only saw this in his heart, not the mortal men to whom he
spake, he saith to them, "But to me it is a very small thing that I should
be judged of you or at man's bar."(2) And the same apostle shows also in a
certain place, that these things are oft done of empty vainglory, not upon
the solid ground of love: for speaking of the praises of charity he saith,
"If I distribute all my goods to the poor. and if I deliver up my body to
be burned, but have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."(3) Is it
possible for a man to do this without charity? It is. For they that have
divided unity, are persons that have not charity. Seek there, and ye shall
see many giving much to the poor; shall  see others prepared to welcome
death, insomuch that where there is no persecutor they cast themselves
headlong: these doubtless without charity do this. Let us come back then to
conscience, of which the apostle saith: "For our glorying is this, the
testimony of our conscience."(4) Let us come back to conscience, of which
the same saith, "But let each prove his own work, and then he shall have
glorying in himself and not in another."(5) Therefore, let each one of us
"prove his own work," whether it flow forth from the vein of charity,
whether it be from charity as the root that his good works sprout forth as
branches. "But let each prove his own work, and then he shall have glorying
in himself and not in another," not when another's tongue bears witness to
him, but when his own conscience bears it.

   3. This it is then that he enforces here. "In this we know that we are
of the truth, when in deed and in truth" we love, "not only in words and in
tongue: and(6) assure our heart before Him."(7) What meaneth, "before Him?"
Where He seeth. Whence the Lord Himself in the Gospel saith: "Take heed
that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: otherwise
ye have no reward with your Father which is in heaven."(8) And what
meaneth, "Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:" except
that the right hand means a pure conscience, the left hand the lust of the
world?(9) Many through lust of the world do many wonderful things: the left
hand worketh, not the right. The right hand ought to work, and without
knowledge of the left hand, so that lust of the world may not even mix
itself therewith when by love we work aught that is good. And where do we
get to know this? Thou art before God: question thine heart, see what thou
hast done, and what therein was thine aim; thy salvation, or the windy
praise of men. Look within, for man cannot judge whom he cannot see. If "we
assure our heart," let it be "before Him." Because "if our heart think ill
of us," i.e. accuse us within, that we do not the thing with that mind it
ought to be done withal, "greater is God than our heart, and knoweth all
things." Thou hidest thine heart from man: hide it from God if thou canst!
How shalt thou hide it from Him, to whom it is said by a sinner, fearing
and confessing, "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? and from Thy face
whither shall I flee?"(10) He sought a way to flee, to escape the judgment
of God, and found none. For where is God not? "If I shall ascend," saith
he, "into heaven, Thou art there: if I shall  descend into hell, Thou art
there." Whither wilt thou go? whither wilt thou flee? Wilt thou hear
counsel? If thou wouldest flee from Him, flee to Him. Flee to Him by
confessing, not from Him by hiding: hide thou canst not, but confess thou
canst. Say unto Him, "Thou art my place to flee unto;"(1) and let love be
nourished in thee, which alone leadeth unto life. Let thy conscience bear
thee witness that thy love is of God. If it be of God, do not wish to
display it before men; because neither men's praises lift thee unto heaven,
nor their censures put thee down from thence. Let Him see, who crowneth
thee: be He thy witness, by whom as judge thou art crowned. "Greater is God
than our heart, and knoweth all things."

   4. "Beloved, if our heart think not ill of us, we have confidence
towards God:"(2)--What meaneth, "If our heart think not ill"? If it make
true answer to us, that we love and that there is(3) genuine love in us:
not feigned but sincere; seeking a brother's salvation, expecting no
emolument from a brother, but only his salvation--"we have confidence
toward God: and whatsoever we ask, we shall receive of Him, because we keep
His commandments."(4)--Therefore, not in the sight of men, but where God
Himself seeth, in the heart--"we have confidence," then, "towards God: and
whatsoever we ask, we shall receive of Him:" howbeit, because we keep His
commandments. What are "His commandments"? Must we be always repeating? "A
new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another."(5) It is
charity itself that he speaks of, it is this that he enforces. Whoso then
shall have brotherly charity, and have it before God, where God seeth, and
his heart being interrogated under righteous examination make him none
other answer than that the genuine root of charity is there for good fruits
to come from; that man hath confidence with God, and whatsoever he shall
ask, he shall receive of Him, because he keepeth His commandments.

   5. Here a question meets us: for it is not this or that man, or thou or
I that come in question,--for if I have asked any thing of God and receive
it not, any person may easily say of me, "He hath not charity: "and of any
man soever of this present time, this may easily be said; and let any think
what he will, a man of man:--not we, but those come more in question, those
men of whom it is on all hands known that they were saints when they wrote,
and that they are now with God. Where is the man that hath charity, if Paul
and it not, who said, "Our mouth is open unto you, O ye Corinthians, our
heart is enlarged; ye are not straitened in us:"(6) who said," I will
myself be spent for your souls:" and so great grace was in him, that it was
manifested that he had charity. And yet we find that he asked and did not
receive. What say we, brethren? It is a question: look attentively to God:
it is a great question, this also. Just as, where it was said of sin, "He
that is born of God sinneth not:" we found this sin to be the violating of
charity, and that this was the thing strictly intended in that place: so
too we ask now what it is that he would say. For if thou look but to the
words, it seems plain: if thou take the examples into the account, it is
obscure. Than the words here nothing can be plainer. "And whatsoever we
ask, we shall receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do
those things that are pleasing in His sight." "Whatsoever we ask," saith
he, "we shall receive of Him." He hath put us sorely to straits. In the
other place also he would put us to straits, if he meant all sin: but then
we found room to expound it in this, that he meant it of a certain sin, not
of all sin; howbeit of a sin which "whosoever is born of God committeth
not:" and we found that this same sin is none other than the violation of
charity. We have also a manifest example from the Gospel, when the Lord
saith, "If I had not come, they had not had sin."(7) How? Were the Jews
innocent when He came to them, because He so speaks? Then if He had not
come, would they have had no sin? Then did the Physician's presence make
one sick, not take away the fever? What madman even would say this? He came
not but to cure and heal the sick. Therefore when He said, "If I had not
come, they had not had sin," what would He have to be understood, but a
certain sin in particular? For there was a sin which the Jews would not
have had. What sin? That they believed not on Him, that when he had come
they despised Him. As then He there said "sin," and it does not follow that
we are to understand all sin, but a certain sin: so here also not all sin,
lest it be contrary to that place where he saith, "If we say that we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us:"(8) but a certain
sin in particular, that is, the violation of charity. But in this place he
hath bound us more tightly: "If we shall ask," he hath said, "if our heart
accuse us not, and tell us in answer, in the sight of God, that true love
is in us;" "Whatsoever we ask, we shall receive of Him."

   6. Well now: I have already told you, my, beloved brethren, let no man
turn toward us. For what are we? or what are ye? What, but the Church of
God which is known to all? And, if it please Him, in that Church are we;
and those of us who by love abide in it, there let us persevere, if we
would show the love we have. But then the apostle Paul, what evil are we to
think of him? He not love the brethren! He not have within himself the
testimony of his conscience in the sight of God! Paul not have within him
that root of charity whence all good fruits proceeded What madman would say
this? Well then: where find we that the apostle asked and did not receive?
He saith himself: "Lest I should be exalted above measure through the
abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,
an angel of Satan to buffet me. For which thing I besought the Lord thrice,
that He would take it from me. And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient
for thee: for strength is made perfect in weakness."(1) Lo, he was not
heard in his prayer that the "angel of Satan" should be taken from him. But
wherefore? Because it was not good for him. He was heard, then, for
salvation, when he was not heard according to his wish. Know, my beloved, a
great(2) mystery: which we urge upon your consideration on purpose that it
may not slip from you in your temptations. The saints are in all things
heard unto salvation: they are always heard in that which respects their
eternal salvation; it is this that they desire: because in regard of this,
their prayers are always heard.

   7. But let us distinguish God's different ways of hearing prayer. For
we find some not heard for their wish, heard for salvation: and again some
we find heard for their wish, not heard for salvation. Mark this
difference, hold fast this example of a man not heard for his wish but
heard for salvation. Hear the apostle Paul; for what is the hearing of
prayer unto salvation, God Himself showed him: "Sufficient for thee," saith
He, "is my grace; for strength is perfected in weakness." Thou hast
besought, hast cried, hast thrice cried: the very cry thou didst raise once
for all I heard, I turned not away mine ears from thee; I know what I
should do: thou wouldest have it taken away, the healing thing by which
thou art burned; I know the infirmity by which thou art burdened. Well
then: here is a man who was heard for salvation, while as to his will he
was not heard. Where find we persons heard for their will, not heard for
salvation? Do we find, think we, some wicked, some impious man, heard of
God for his will, not heard for salvation? If I put to you the instance of
some man, perchance thou wilt say to me, "It is thou that callest him
wicked, for he was righteous; had he not been righteous, his prayer would
not have been heard by God." The instance I am about to allege is of one,
of whose iniquity and impiety none can doubt. The devil himself: he asked
for Job, and received.(3) Have ye not here also heard concerning the devil,
that "he that committeth sin is of the devil"?(4) Not that the devil
created, but that the sinner imitates. Is it not said of him, "He stood not
in the truth"?(5) Is not even he "that old serpent," who, through the woman
pledged the first man in the drink of poison?(6) Who even in the case of
Job, kept for him his wife, that by her the husband might be, not
comforted, but tempted? The devil asked for a holy man, to tempt him; and
he received: the apostle asked that the thorn in the flesh might be taken
from him, and he received not. But the apostle was more heard than the
devil. For the apostle was heard for salvation, though not for his wish:
the devil was heard for his wish, but for damnation. For that Job was
yielded up to him to be tempted, was in order that by his standing the
proof the devil should be tormented. But this, my brethren, we find not
only in the Old Testament books, but also in the Gospel. The demons
besought the Lord, when He expelled them from the man, that they might be
permitted to go into the swine. Should the Lord not have power to tell them
not to approach even those creatures? For, had it not been His will to
permit this, they were not about to rebel against the King of heaven and
earth. But with a view to a certain mystery, with a certain(7) ulterior
meaning, He let the demons go into the swine: to show that the devil hath
dominion in them that lead the life of swine.(8) Demons then were heard in
their request; was the apostle not heard? Or rather (what is truer) shall
we say, The apostle was heard, the demons not heard? Their will was
effected; his weal was perfected.

   8. Agreeably with this, we ought to understand that God, though He give
not to our will, doth give for our salvation. For suppose the thing thou
have asked be to thine hurt, and the Physician knows that it is to thine
hurt; what then? It is not to be said that the physician does not give ear
to thee, when, perhaps, thou askest for cold water, and if it is good for
thee, he gives it immediately, if not good, he gives it not. Had he no ears
for thy request, or rather, did he give ear for thy weal, even when he
gainsaid thy will? Then let there be in you charity, my brethren; let it be
in you, and then set, your minds at rest: even when the thing ye ask for is
not given you, your prayer is, granted, only, ye know it not. Many have
been given into their own hands, to their own hurt: of whom the apostle
saith, "God gave them up to their own hearts' lusts."(1) Some man hath
asked for a great sum of money; he hath received, to his hurt. When he had
it not, he had little to fear; no sooner did he come to have it, than he
became a prey to the more powerful. Was not that man's request granted to
his own hurt, who would needs have that for which he should be sought after
by the robber, whereas, being poor, none sought after him? Learn to beseech
God that ye may commit it to the Physician to do what He knows best. Do
thou confess the disease, let Him apply the means of healing. Do thou only
hold fast charity. For He will needs cut, will needs burn; what if thou
criest out, and art not spared for thy crying under the cutting, under the
burning and the tribulation, yet He knows how far the rottenness
reaches.(2) Thou wouldest have Him even now take off His hands, and He
considers only the deepness of the sore; He knows how far to go. He does
not attend to thee for thy will, but he does attend to thee for thy
healing. Be ye sure, then, my brethren, that what the apostle saith is
true: "For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered:
for He maketh intercession for the saints."(3) How is it said, "The Spirit
itself intercedeth for the saints," but as meaning the charity which is
wrought in thee by the Spirit? For therefore saith the same apostle: "The
charity of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is
given unto us."(4) It is charity that groans, it is charity that prays:
against it He who gave it cannot shut His ears. Set your minds at rest: let
charity; ask, and the ears of God are there. Not that  which thou wishest
is done, but that is done which is advantageous. Therefore, "whatever we
ask," saith he, "we shall receive of Him," I have already said, If thou
understand it to mean, "for salvation," there is no question: if not for
salvation, there is a question, and a great one, a question that makes thee
an accuser of the apostle Paul. "Whatever we ask, we receive of Him,
because we keep His commandments, and do these things that are pleasing in
His sight:" within, where He seeth.

   9. And what are those commandments? "This," saith he, "is His
commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ,
and love one another."(5) Ye see that this is the commandment: ye see that
whoso doeth aught against this commandment, doeth the sin from which "every
one that is born of God" is free. "As He gave us commandment:" that we love
one another. "And he that keepeth His commandment"(6)--ye see that none
other thing is bidden us than that we love one another--"And he that
keepeth His commandment shall abide(7) in Him, and He in him. "And in this
we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us. Is it
not manifest that this is what the Holy Ghost works in man, that there
should be in him love and charity? Is it not manifest, as the Apostle Paul
saith, that "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given us"?(8) For [our apostle] was speaking of charity, and was
saying that we ought in the sight of God to interrogate our own heart. "But
if our heart think not ill of us:" i.e. if it confess that from the love of
our brother is done in us whatever is done in any good work. And then
besides, in speaking of the commandment, he says this: "This is His
commandment, That we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ,
and love one another, as He gave us commandment." "And he that doeth His
commandment abideth(9) in Him, and He in him. In this we know that He
abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us."(10) If in truth thou
find that thou hast charity, thou hast the Spirit of God in order to
understand: for a very necessary thing it is.

   10. In the earliest times, "the Holy Ghost fell upon them that
believed: and they spake with tongues," which they had not learned, "as the
Spirit gave them utterance."(11) These were signs adapted to the time. For
there behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit in all tongues, to
shew that the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues over the whole
earth. That thing was done for a betokening, and it passed away. In the
laying on of hands now, that persons may receive the Holy Ghost, do we look
that they should speak with tongues? Or when we laid the hand on these
infants,(1) did each one of you look to see whether they would speak With
tongues, and, when he saw that they did not speak with tongues, was any of
you so wrong-minded as to say, These have not received the Holy Ghost; for,
had they received, they would speak with tongues as was the case in those
times? If then the witness of the presence of the Holy Ghost be not now
given through these miracles, by what is it given, by what does one get to
know that he has received the Holy Ghost? Let him question his own heal?.
If he love his brother the Spirit of God dwelleth in him. Let him see, let
him prove himself before the eyes of God, let him see whether there he in
him the love of peace and unity, the love of the Church that is spread over
the whole earth. Let him not rest only in his loving the brother whom he
has before his eyes, for we have many brethren whom we do not see, and in
the unity of the Spirit we are joined to them. What marvel that they are
not with us? We are in one body, we have one Head, in heaven. Brethren, our
two eyes do not see each other; as one may say, they do not know each
other. But in the charity of the bodily frame do they not know each other?
For, to shew you that in the charity which knits them together they do know
each other; when both eyes are open, the right may not rest on some object,
on which the left shall not rest likewise. Direct the glance of the right
eye without the other, if thou canst. Together they meet in one object,
together they are directed tone object: their aim is one, their places
diverse. If then all who with thee love God have one aim with thee, heed
not that in the body thou are separated in place; the eyesight of the heart
ye have alike fixed on the light of truth. Then if thou wouldest know that
thou hast received the Spirit, question thine heart: lest haply thou have
the sacrament, and have not the virtue of the sacrament. Question thine
heart. If love of thy brethren be there, set thy mind at rest. There cannot
be love without the Spirit of God: since Paul cries, "The love of God is
shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us."(2)

   11. "Beloved, believe not every spirit."(3) Because he had said, "In
this we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us."
But how this same Spirit is known, mark this: "Beloved, believe not every
spirit, but prove the spirits whether they be from God." And who is he that
proves the spirits? A hard matter has he put to us, my brethren! It is well
for us that he should tell us himself how we are to discern them. He is
about to tell us: fear not: but first see; mark: see that hereby is ex.
pressed the very thing that vain heretics(4) taunt us withal. Mark, see
what he says, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits
whether they be from God." The Holy Spirit is spoken of in the Gospel by
the name of water; where the Lord "cried and said, If any man thirst, let
him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water."(5) But the evangelist has expounded of
what He said this: for he goes on to say, "But this spake He of the Spirit,
which they that believed on Him should receive." Wherefore did not the Lord
baptize many? But what saith he? "For the Holy Ghost was not yet given;
because that Jesus was not yet glorified." Then seeing those had baptism,
and had not yet received the Holy Ghost, whom on the day of Pentecost the
Lord sent from heaven, the glorifying of the Lord was first waited for, so
that the Spirit might be given. Even before He was glorified, and before He
sent the Spirit, He yet invited men to prepare themselves for the receiving
of the water of which He said, "Whoso thirsteth, let him come and drink;"
and, "He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water." What meaneth, "Rivers of living water"? What is that water? Let no
man ask me; ask the Gospel. "But this," saith it, "He said of the Spirit,
which they should receive that should believe on Him." Consequently, the
water of the sacrament is one thing: another, the water which betokens the
Spirit of God. The water of the sacrament is visible: the water of the
Spirit invisible. That washes the body, and betokens that which is done in
the soul. By this Spirit the soul itself is cleansed and fed. This is the
Spirit of God, which heretics and all that cut themselves off from the
Church, cannot have. And whosoever do not openly cut themselves off, but by
iniquity are cut off, and being within, whirl about as chaff and are not
grain; these have not this Spirit. This Spirit is denoted by the Lord under
the name of water: and we have heard from this epistle, "Believe not every
spirit;" and those words of Solomon bear witness, "From strange water keep
thee far."(1) What meaneth, "water"? Spirit. Does water always signify
spirit? Not always: but in some places it signifies the Spirit, in some
places it signifies baptism, in some places signifies peoples,(2) in some
places signifies counsel: thus thou findest it said in a certain place,
"Counsel is a fountain of life to them that possess it."(3) So then, in
divers places of the Scriptures, the term "water" signifies divers things.
Now however by the term water ye have heard the Holy Spirit spoken of, not
by an interpretation of ours but by witness of the Gospel, where it saith,
"But this said He of the Spirit, which they should receive that should
believe on Him." If then by the name of water is signified the Holy Spirit,
and this epistle saith to us, "Believe not every spirit, but prove the
spirits, whether they be of God;" let us understand that of this it is
said, "From strange water keep thee far, and from a strange fountain drink
thou not."(1) What meaneth, "From a strange fountain drink thou not"? A
strange spirit believe thou not.

   12. There remains then the test by which it is to be proved to be the
Spirit of God.  He has indeed set down a sign, and this, be-like,
difficult: let us see, however. We are to recur to that charity; it is that
which teacheth us, because it is the unction. However, what saith he here?
"Prove the spirits, whether they be from God: because many false prophets
have gone out into this world." Now there are all heretics and all
schismatics. How then am I to prove the spirit? He goes on: "In this is
known(4) the Spirit of God." Wake up the ears of your heart. We were at a
loss; we were saying, Who knows? who discerns? Behold, he is about to tell
the sign. "Hereby is known the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and
this is the antichrist, of whom ye have heard that he should come; and even
now already is he in this world."(5) Our ears, so to say, are on the alert
for discerning of the spirits; and we have been told something, such that
thereby we discern not a whir the more. For what saith he? "Every spirit
that confesseth that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, is of God." Then is
the spirit that is among the heretics, of God, seeing they "confess that
Jesus Christ came in the flesh"? Aye, here perchance they lift themselves
up against us, and say: Ye have not the Spirit from God; but we confess
"that Jesus Christ came in the flesh:" but the apostle here hath said that
those have not the Spirit of God, who confess not "that Jesus Christ came
in the flesh." Ask the Arians: they confess "that Jesus Christ came in the
flesh:" ask the Eunomians; they confess "that Jesus Christ came in the
flesh:" ask the Macedonians; they confess "that Jesus Christ came in the
flesh:" put the question to the Cataphryges; they confess "that Jesus
Christ came in the flesh:" put it to the Novatians; they confess "that
Jesus Christ came in the flesh." Then have all these heresies the Spirit of
God? Are they then no false prophets? Is there then no deception there, no
seduction there? Assuredly they are antichrists; for "they went out from
us, but were not of us."

   13. What are we to do then? By what to discern them? Be very attentive;
let us go together in heart, and knock. Charity herself keeps watch; for it
is none other than she that shall knock, she also that shall open: anon ye
shall understand in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Already ye have
heard that it was said above, "Whoso denieth that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh, the same is an antichrist." There also we asked, Who denies?
because neither do we deny, nor do those deny. And we found that some do in
their deeds deny;(6) and we brought testimony from the apostle, who saith,
"For they confess that they know God, but in their deeds  deny Him."(7)
Thus then let us now also make the enquiry in the deeds not in the tongue.
What is the spirit that is not from God? That "which denieth that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh." And what is the spirit that is from God? That
"which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." Who is he that
confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh? Now, brethren, to the
mark! let us look to the works, not stop at the noise of the tongue. Let us
ask why Christ came in the flesh, so we get at the persons who deny that He
is come in the flesh. If thou stop at tongues, why, thou shalt hear many a
heresy confessing that Christ is come in the flesh: but the truth
convicteth those men. Wherefore came Christ in the flesh? Was He not God?
Is it not written of Him, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God?"(8) Was it not He that did feed angels, is
it not He that doth feed angels? Did He not in such sort come hither, that
He departed not thence? Did He not in such sort ascend, that He forsook not
us? Wherefore then came He in the flesh? Because it behooved us to have the
hope of resurrection shown unto us. God He was, and in flesh He came; for
God could not die, flesh could die; He came then in the flesh, that He
might die for us. But how died He for us? "Greater charity than this hath
no man, that a man lay down his life for his friends."(1) Charity therefore
brought  Him to the flesh. Whoever therefore has not charity denies that
Christ is come in the flesh. Here then do thou now question all heretics.
Did Christ come in the flesh? "He did come; this I believe, this I
confess." Nay, this thou deniest. "How do I deny? Thou hearest that I say
it!" Nay, I convict thee of denying it. Thou sayest with the voice, deniest
with the heart; sayest in words, deniest in deeds. "How," sayest thou, "do
I deny in deeds?" Because the end for which Christ came in the flesh, was,
that He might die for us. He died for us, because therein He taught much
charity. "Greater charity than this hath no man, that a man lay down his
life for his friends." Thou hast not charity, seeing thou for thine own
honor dividest unity. Therefore by this understand ye the spirit that is
from God. Give the earthen vessels a tap, put them to the proof, whether
haply they be cracked and give a dull sound: see whether they ring full and
clear, see whether charity be there. Thou takest thyself away from the
unity of the whole earth, thou dividest the Church by schisms, thou rendest
the Body of Christ. He came in the flesh, to gather in one, thou makest an
outcry to scatter abroad. This then is the Spirit, of God, which saith that
Jesus is come in the fleshy which saith, not in tongue but in deeds, which
saith, not by making a noise but by loving. And that spirit is not of God,
which denies that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh I denies, here also,
not in tongue but in life; not in words but in deeds. It is manifest
therefore by what we may know the brethren. Many within are in a sort
within; but none without except he be indeed without.

   14. Nay, and that ye may know that he has referred the matter to deeds,
he saith, "And every spirit, qui solvit Christum, which does away with
Christ that He came in the flesh,(2) is not of God." A doing away in deeds
is meant. What has he shown thee? "That denieth:" in that he saith, "doeth
away" (or, "unmaketh"). He came to gather in one, thou comest to unmake.
Thou wouldest pull Christ's members  asunder. How can it be said that thou
deniest not that Christ is come in the flesh, who rendest as- under the
Church of God which He hath gathered together? Therefore thou goest against
Christ; thou art an antichrist. Be thou within, or be thou without, thou
art an antichrist: only, when thou art within, thou art hidden; when thou
art without, thou art made manifest. Thou unmakest Jesus and deniest that
He came in the flesh; thou art not of God. Therefore He saith in the
Gospel: "Whoso shall break(3) one of these least commandments, and shall
teach so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven."(4) What is this
breaking? What this teaching? A breaking in the deeds and a teaching as it
were in words.(5) "Thou that preachest men should not steal, dost thou
steal?"(6) Therefore he that steals breaks or undoes the commandment in his
deed, and as it were teaches so: "he shall be called least in the kingdom
of heaven," i.e. in the Church of this present time.(1) Of him it is said,
"What they say do ye; but what they do, that do not ye.(2) But he that
shall do, and shall teach so, shall be called great in the kingdom of
heaven." From this, that He has here said, fecerit, "shall do," while in
opposition to this He has there said solverit, meaning non fecerit, "shall
not do, and shall teach so"--to break, then, is, not to do--what doth He
teach us, but that we should interrogate men's deeds, not take their words
upon trust? The obscurity of the things compels us to speak much at length,
chiefly that that which the Lord deigns to reveal may be brought within
reach even of the brethren of slower understanding, because all were bought
by the blood of Christ. And I am afraid the epistle itself will not be
finished during these days as I promised: but as the Lord will, it is
better to reserve the remainder, than to overload your hearts with too much
food.

HOMILY VII: 1 John IV. 4-12.

   "Now are ye of God, little children, and have overcome him: because
greater is He that is in you, than he that is in this world. They are of
the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God
heareth not us. From this know we the spirit of truth, and [the spirit] of
error. Dearly, beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God in
us, that God sent His only-begotten Son into this world, that we may live
through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved, but that He loved us, and
sent His Son to be the Atoner(1) for our sins. Dearly beloved, if God so
loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any
time."

   1. So is this world to all the faithful seeking their own country, as
was the desert to the people Israel. They wandered indeed as yet, and were
seeking their own country: but with God for their guide they could not
wander astray. Their way was God's bidding.(2) For where they went about
during forty years, the journey itself is made  up of a very few stations,
and is known to all. They were retarded because they were in training, not
because they were forsaken. That therefore which God promiseth us is
ineffable sweetness and a good,(3) as the Scripture saith, and as ye have
often heard by us rehearsed, which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither hath entered into the heart of man."(4) But by temporal labors we
are exercised, and by temptations of this present life are trained.
Howbeit, if ye would not die of thirst in this wilderness, drink charity.
It is the fountain which God has been pleased to place here that we faint
not in the way: and we shall more abundantly drink thereof, when we are
come to our own land. The Gospel has just been read; now to speak of the
very words with which the lesson ended, what other thing heard ye but
concerning charity? For we have made an agreement with our God in prayer,
that if we would that He should forgive us our sins, we also should forgive
the sins which may have been committed against us.(5) Now that which
forgiveth is none other than charity. Take away charity from the heart;
hatred possesseth it, it knows not how to forgive. Let charity be there,
and she fearlessly forgiveth, not being straitened. And this whole epistle
which we  have undertaken to expound to you, see whether it commendeth
aught else than this one thing, charity. Nor need we fear lest by much
speaking thereof it come to be hateful. For what is there to love, if
charity come to be hateful? It is by charity that other things come to be
rightly loved; then how must itself be loved! Let not that then which ought
never to depart from the heart, depart from the tongue.

   2. "Now," saith he, "are ye of God little children, and have overcome
him:"(1) whom but Antichrist? For above he had said, "Whosoever unmaketh(2)
Jesus Christ and denieth that He is come in the flesh is not of God." Now
we expounded, if ye remember, that all those who violate charity deny Jesus
Christ to have come in the flesh. For Jesus had no need to come but because
of charity: as indeed the charity we are commending is that which the Lord
Himself commendeth  in the Gospel, "Greater love than this can no man have,
that a man lay down his life for his friends."(3) How was it possible for
the Son of God to lay down His life for us without putting on flesh in
which He might die? Whosoever therefore violates charity, let him say what
he will with his tongue, his life denies that Christ is come in the flesh;
and this is an antichrist, wherever he may be, whithersoever he have come
in. But what saith the apostle to them who are citizens of that country for
which we sigh? "Ye have overcome him." And whereby have they overcome?
"Because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in this world." Lest
they should attribute the victory to their own strength, and by arrogance
of pride should be overcome, (for whomsoever the devil makes proud, he
overcomes,) wishing them to keep humility, what saith he? "Ye have overcome
him." Every man now, at hearing this saying, "Ye have overcome," lifts up
the head, lifts up the neck, wishes himself to be praised. Do not extol
thyself; see who it is that in thee hath overcome. Why hast thou overcome?
"Because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." Be
humble, bear thy Lord; be thou the beast for Him to sit on. Good is it for
thee that He should rule, and He guide. For if thou have not Him to sit on
thee, thou mayest lift up the neck, mayest strike out the heels: but woe to
thee without a ruler, for this liberty sendeth thee among the wild beasts
to be devoured!

   3. "These are of the world."(4) Who? The antichrists. Ye have already
heard who they be. And if ye be not such, ye know them, but whosoever is
such, knows not. "These are of the world: therefore speak they of the
world, and the world heareth them." Who are they that "speak of the world"?
Mark who are against charity. Behold, ye have heard the Lord saying, "If ye
forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you also
your trespasses. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will
your Father forgive your trespasses."(5) It is the sentence of Truth: or if
it be not Truth that speaks, gainsay it. If thou art a Christian and
believest Christ, He hath said, "I am the truth." This sentence is true, is
firm. Now hear men that "speak of the world." "And wilt thou not avenge
thyself? And wilt thou let him say that he has done this to thee? Nay: let
him feel that he has to do with a man." Every day are such things said,
They that say such things, "of the world speak they, and the world heareth
them." None say such things but those that love the world, and by none are
such things heard but by those who love the world. And ye have heard that
to love the world and neglect charity is to deny that Jesus came in the
flesh. Or say if the Lord Himself in the flesh did that? if, being
buffeted, He willed to be avenged? if, hanging on the cross, He did not
say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"?(6) But if He
threatened not, who had power; why dost thou threaten, why art thou
inflated with anger, who art under power of another? He died because it was
His will to die, yet He threatened not; thou knowest not when thou shall
die, and dost thou threaten?

   4. "We are of God."(7) Let us see why; see whether it be for any other
thing than  charity. "We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he
that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and
of error:" namely by this, that he that heareth us hath the spirit of
truth; he that heareth not us, hath the spirit of error. Let us see what he
adviseth, and let us choose rather to hear him advising in the spirit of
truth, and not antichrists, not lovers of the world, not the world. If we
are born of God, "beloved,"(8) he goes on--see above from what: "We are of
God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us.
Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and of error:" aye, now, he makes us
eagerly attentive: to be told that he who knows God, hears; but he who
knows not, hears not; and that this is the discerning between the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error: well then, let us see what he is about to
advise; in what we must hear him--"Beloved, let us love one another."(8)
Why? because a man adviseth? "Because love is of God." Much hath he
commended love, in that he hath said, "Is of God:" but he is going to say
more; let us eagerly hear. At present he hath said, "Love is of God; and
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God."(1) Why? "For God is love" [Love is God].(2) What more
could be said, brethren? If nothing were said in praise of love throughout
the pages of this epistle, if nothing whatever throughout the other pages
of the Scriptures, and this one only thing were all we were told by the
voice of the Spirit of God, "For Love is God;" nothing more ought we to
require.

   5. Now see that to act against love is to act against God. Let no man
say, "I sin against man when I do not love my brother, (mark it!) and sin
against man is a thing to be taken easily; only let me not sin against God.
How sinnest thou not against God, when thou sinnest against love? "Love is
God." Do "we" say this? If we said, "Love is Gods" Imply some one of you
might be offended and say, What hath he said? What meant he to say, that
"Love is God"? God "gave" love, as a gift God bestowed love. "Love is of
God: Love IS God." Look, here have ye, brethren, the Scriptures of God:
this epistle is canonical; throughout all nations it is recited, it is held
by the authority of the whole earth, it hath edified the whole earth. Thou
art here told by the Spirit of God, "Love is God." Now if thou dare, go
against God, and refuse to love thy brother!

   6. In what sense then was it said a while ago, "Love is of God;" and
now, "Love IS God?" For God is Father and Son and Holy Ghost: the Son, God
of God, the Holy Ghost, God of God; and these three, one God, not three
Gods. If the Son be God, and the Holy Ghost God, and that person loveth in
whom dwelleth the Holy Ghost: therefore "Love is God;" but "IS God,"
because "Of God." For thou hast both in the epistle; both, "Love is of
God," and, "Love is God." Of the Father alone the Scripture hath it not to
say, that He is "of God:" but when thou hearest that expression, "Of God,"
either the Son is meant, or the Holy Ghost. Because while the apostle
saith, "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit
which is given unto. us:"(3) let us understand that He who subsisteth in
love is the Holy Ghost. For it is even this Holy Spirit, whom the bad
cannot receive, even He is that Fountain of which the Scripture saith, "Let
the fountain of thy water be thine own, and let no stranger partake with
thee."(4) For all who love not God, are strangers, are antichrists. And
though they come to the churches, they cannot be numbered among the
children of God; not to them belongeth that Fountain of life. To have
baptism is possible even for a bad man; to have prophecy is possible even
for a bad man. We find that king Saul had prophecy: he was persecuting holy
David, yet was he filled with the spirit of prophecy, and began to
prophesy. (5) To receive the sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord is
possible even for a bad man: for of such it is said, "He that eateth and
drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself."(6) To have
the name of Christ is possible even for a bad man; i.e. even a bad man can
be called a Christian: as they of whom it is said, "They polluted the name
of their God."(7) I say, to have all these sacraments is possible even for
a bad man; but to have charity, and to be a bad man, is not possible. This
then is the peculiar gift, this the "Fountain" that is singly one's "own."
To drink of this the Spirit of God exhorteth you, to drink of Himself the
Spirit of God exhorteth you.

   7. "In this was manifested the love of God in us."(8) Behold, in order
that we may love God, we have exhortation. Could we love Him, unless He
first loved us? If we were slow to love, let us not be slow to love in
return. He first loved us; not even so do we love. He loved the
unrighteous, but He did away the unrighteousness: He loved the unrighteous,
but not unto unrighteousness did He gather them together: He loved the
sick, but He visited them to make them whole. "Love," then, "is God." "In
this was manifested the love of God in us, because that God sent His only-
begotten Son into the world, that we may live through Him." As the Lord
Himself saith: "Greater love than this can no man have, that a man lay down
his life for his friends:"(9) and there was proved the love of Christ
towards us, in that He died for us: how is the love of the Father towards
us proved? In that He "sent His only Son" to die for us: so also the
apostle Paul saith: "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?"(1)
Behold the Father delivered up Christ; Judas delivered Him up; does it not
seem as if the thing done were of the same sort? Judas is "traditor," one
that delivered up, [or, a traitor]: is God the Father that? God forbid!
sayest thou. I do not say it, but the apostle saith, "He that spared not
His own Son, but "tradidit Eum" delivered Him up for us all." Both the
Father delivered Him up, and He delivered up Himself. The same apostle
saith: "Who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me."(2) If the Father
delivered up the Son; and the Son delivered up Himself, what has Judas
done? There was a "traditio" (delivering up) by the Father; there was a
"traditio" by the Son; there was a "traditio" by Judas: the thing done is
the same,  but what is it that distinguishes the Father delivering up the
Son, the Son delivering up Himself, and Judas the disciple delivering up
his Master? This: that the Father and the Son did it in love, but Judas did
this(3) in treacherous betrayal. Ye see that not what the man does is the
thing to be considered; but with what mind and will he does it. We find God
the Father in the same deed in which we find Judas; the Father we bless,
Judas we detest. Why do we bless the Father, and detest Judas? We bless
charity, detest iniquity. How great a good was conferred upon mankind by
the delivering up of Christ! Had Judas this in his thoughts, that therefore
he delivered Him up? God had in His thoughts our salvation by which we were
redeemed; Judas had in his thoughts the price for which he sold the Lord.
The Son Himself had in His thoughts the price He gave for us, Judas  in his
the price he received to sell Him. The diverse intention therefore makes
the things   done diverse. Though the thing be one, yet if we measure it by
the diverse intentions, we find the one a thing to be loved, the other to
be condemned; the one we find a thing to be glorified, the other to be
detested. Such is the force of charity. See that it alone discriminates, it
alone distinguishes the doings of men.

   8. This we have said in the case where the things done are similar. In
the case where they are diverse, we find a man by charity made fierce;(4)
and by iniquity made winningly gentle. A father beats a boy, and a boy-
stealer caresses. If thou name the two things, blows and caresses, who
would not choose the caresses, and decline the blows? If thou mark the
persons, it is charity that beats, iniquity that caresses. See what we are
insisting upon; that the deeds of men are only discerned by the root of
charity. For many things may be done that have a good appearance, and yet
proceed not from the root of charity. For thorns also have flowers: some
actions truly seem rough, seem savage; howbeit they are done for discipline
at the bidding of charity. Once for all, then, a short precept is given
thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through
love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether
thou correct, through love correct; whether thou spare, through love do
thou spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring
but what is good.

   9. "In this is love--in this was manifested the love of God toward us,
because that God sent  his only-begotten Son into this world, that we may
live through Him.--In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He
loved us:"(5) we did not love Him first: for to this end loved He us, that
we may love Him: "And sent His Son to be the Atoner for our sins:
"litatorem," i.e. one that sacrifices. He sacrificed for our sins. Where
did He find the sacrifice? Where did He find the victim which he would
offer pure? Other He found none; His own self He offered. "Beloved, if God
so loved us we ought also to love one another.(6) Peter," saith He, "lovest
thou me?" And he said, "I love." "Feed my sheep."

   10. "No man hath seen God at any time:"(7) He is a thing invisible; not
with the eye but with the heart must He be sought. But just as if we wished
to see the sun, we should purge the eye of the body; wishing to see God,
let us purge the eye by which God can be seen. Where is this eye? Hear the
Gospel: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."(8) But let
no man imagine God to himself according to the lust of his eyes. For so he
makes unto himself either a huge form, or a certain incalculable magnitude
which, like the light which he sees with the bodily eyes, he makes extend
through all directions; field after field of space he gives it all the
bigness he can; or, he represents to himself like as it were an old man of
venerable form. None of these things do thou imagine. There is something
thou mayest imagine, if thou wouldest see God; "God is love." What sort of
face hath love? what form hath it? what stature? what feet? what hands hath
it? no man can say. And yet it  hath feet, for these carry men to church:
it hath hands; for these reach forth to the poor: it hath eyes; for thereby
we consider the needy: "Blessed is the man," it is said, "who considereth
the needy and the poor."(1) It  hath ears, of which the Lord saith, "He
that hath ears to hear let him hear."(2) These  are not members distinct by
place, but with the understanding he that hath charity sees the whole at
once. Inhabit, and thou shalt be inhabited; dwell, and thou shalt be dwelt
in. For how say you, my brethren? who loves what he does hot see? Now why,
when charity is praised, do ye lift up your hands, make acclaim, praise?
What have I shown you? What I produced, was it a gleam of colors? What I
propounded, was it gold and silver? Have I dug out jewels from hid
treasures? What of this sort have I shown to your eyes? Is my face changed
while I speak? I am in the flesh; I am in the same form in which I came
forth to you; ye are in the same form in which ye came hither charity is
praised, and ye shout applause. Certainly ye see nothing. But as it pleases
you when ye praise, so let it please you that ye may keep it in your heart.
For mark well what I say brethren; I exhort you all, as God enables me,
unto a great treasure. If there were shown you a beautiful little vase,
embossed,(3) inlaid with gold, curiously wrought, and it charmed your eyes,
and drew towards it the eager desire of your heart, and you were pleased
with the hand of the artificer, and the weight of the silver, and the
splendor of the metal; would not each one of you say, "O, if I had that
vase!" And to no purpose ye would say it, for it would not rest with you to
have it. Or if one should wish to have it, he might think of stealing it
from another's house. Charity is praised to you; if it please you, have it,
possess it: no need that ye should rob any man, no need that ye should
think of buying it; it is to be had freely, without cost. Take it, clasp
it; there is nothing sweeter. If such it be when it is but spoken of, what
must it be when one has it?

   11. If any of you perchance wish to keep charity, brethren, above all
things do not imagine it to be an abject and sluggish thing; nor that
charity is to be preserved by a sort of gentleness, nay not gentleness, but
tameness and listlessness.(4) Not so is it preserved. Do not imagine that
thou then lovest thy servant when thou dost not beat him, or that thou then
lovest thy son when thou givest him not discipline, or that thou then
lovest thy neighbor when thou dost not rebuke him: this is not charity, but
mere feebleness. Let charity be fervent to correct, to amend: but if there
be good manners, let them delight thee; if bad, let them be amended, let
them be corrected. Love not in the man his error, but the man: for the man
God made, the error the man himself made. Love that which God made, love
not that which the man himself made. When thou lovest that, thou takest
away this: when  thou esteemest that, thou amendest this. But even if thou
be severe s at any time, let it be because of love, for correction. For
this  cause was charity betokened  by the Dove which descended upon the
Lord.(6) That likeness of a dove, the likeness in which came the Holy
Ghost, by whom charity should be shed forth into us: wherefore was this?
The dove hath no gall: yet with beak and wings she fights for her young;
hers is a fierceness without bitterness. And so does also a father; when he
chastises his son, for discipline he chastises him. As I said, the
kidnapper, in order that he may sell, inveigles the child with bitter
endearments; a father, that he may correct, does without gall chastise.
Such be ye to all men. See here, brethren, a great lesson, a great rule:
each one of you has children, or wishes to have; or if he has altogether
determined to have no children after the flesh, at least spiritually he
desires to have children:--what father does not correct his son? what son
does not his father discipline? And yet he seems to be fierce(7) with him.
It is the fierceness of love, the fierceness of charity: a sort of
fierceness without gall after the manner of the dove, not of the raven.
Whence it came into my mind, my brethren, to tell you, that those violaters
of charity are they that have made the schism: as they hate charity itself,
so they hate also the dove. But the dove convicts them: it comes forth from
heaven, the heavens open, and it abideth on the head of the Lord. Wherefore
this? That John may hear, "This is He that baptizeth."(8) Away, ye robbers;
away, ye invaders of the possession of Christ! On your own possessions,
where ye will needs be lords, ye have dared to fix the titles of the great
Owner. He recognizes His own titles; He vindicates to Himself His own
possession. He does not cancel the titles, but enters in and takes
possession. So in one that comes to the Catholic Church, his baptism is not
cancelled, that the title of the commander(9) be not cancelled: but what is
done in the Catholic Church? The title is acknowledged; the Owner enters in
under His own titles, where the robber was entering in under titles not his
own.

HOMILY VIII: JOHN IV. 12-16.

    "If we love one another, God abideth in us, and His love will be
perfected in us. In this know we that we abide in Him, and He in us,
because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and are witnesses
that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in
God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is
love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him."

   1. Love is a sweet word, but sweeter the deed. To be always speaking of
it, is not in our power: for we have many things to do, and divers
businesses draw us different ways, so that our tongue has not leisure to be
always speaking of love: as indeed our tongue could have nothing better to
do. But though we may not always be speaking of it, we may always keep it.
Just as it is with the Alleluia which we sing at this present time,(1) are
we always doing this? Not one hour, I do not say for the whole space of it,
do we sing Alleluia, but barely during a few moments of one hour, and then
give ourselves to something else. Now Alleluia, as ye already know, means,
Praise ye the Lord. He that praises God with his tongue, cannot be always
doing this: he that by his life and conduct praises God, can be doing it
always. Works of mercy, affections of charity, sanctity of piety,
incorruptness of chastity, modesty of sobriety, these things are always to
be practiced: whether we are in public, or at home; whether before men, or
in our chamber; whether speaking, or holding our peace; whether occupied
upon something, or free from occupation: these are always to be kept,
because all these virtues which I have named are within. But who is
sufficient to name them all? There is as it were the army of an emperor
seated within in thy mind. For as an emperor by his army does what he will,
so the Lord Jesus Christ, once beginning to dwell in our inner man, (i.e.
in the mind through faith), uses these virtues as His ministers. And by
these virtues which cannot be seen with eyes, and yet when they are named
are praised--and they would not be praised except they were loved, not
loved except they were seen; and if not loved except seen, they are seen
with another eye, that is, with the inward beholding of the heart--by these
invisible virtues, the members are visibly put  in motion: the feet to
walk, but whither? whither they are moved by the good will which as a
soldier serves the good emperor: the hands to work; but what? that which is
bidden by charity which is inspired within by the Holy Ghost. The members
then are seen when they are put in motion; He that orders them within is
not seen: and who He is that orders them within is known almost alone to
Him that orders, and to him who within is ordered.

   2. For, brethren, ye heard just now when the Gospel was read, at least
if ye had for it the ear not only of the body but also of the heart. What
said it? "Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be
seen of them."(2) Did He mean to say this, that whatever good things we do,
we should hide them from the eyes of men,(3) and fear to be seen? If thou
fearest spectators thou wilt not have imitators: thou oughtest therefore to
be seen. But thou must not do it to the end thou mayest be seen. Not there
should be the end of thy joy, not there the goal of thy rejoicing, that
thou shouldest account thyself to have gotten the whole fruit of thy good
work, when thou art seen and praised. This is nothing. Despise thyself when
thou art praised, let Him be praised in thee who worketh by thee. Therefore
do not for thine own praise work the good thou doest: but to the praise of
Him from whom thou hast the power to do good. From thyself thou hast the
ill doing, from God thou hast the well doing. On the other hand, see
perverse men, how preposterous they are. What they do well, they will needs
ascribe to themselves; if they do ill, they will needs accuse God. Reverse
this distorted and preposterous proceeding, which puts the thing, as one
may say, head downwards, which makes that undermost which is uppermost,(1)
and that upwards which is downwards. Dost thou want to make God undermost
and thyself uppermost? Thou goest headlong, not elevatest thyself; for He
is always above. What then? thou well, and God ill? nay rather, say this,
if thou wouldest speak more truly, I ill, He well; and what I do well from
Him is the well-doing: for from myself whatever  I do is ill. This
confession strengthens the heart, and makes a firm foundation of love. For
if we ought to hide our good works lest they be seen of men, what becomes
of that sentence of the Lord in the sermon which He delivered on the mount?
Where He said this, there He also said a little before, "Let your good
works shine before men."(2) And He did not stop there, did not there make
an end, but added, "And glorify your Father which is in Heaven." And what
saith the apostle? "And I was unknown by face unto the Churches of Judea
which were in Christ: but they heard only, That he which persecuted us in
times past, now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And in me they
glorified God."(3) See how he also, in regard that he became so widely
known did not set the good in his own praise, but in the praise of God. And
as for him, in his own person, that he was one who laid waste the Church, a
persecutor, envious, malignant, it is himself that confesses this, not we
that reproach him therewith. Paul loves to have his sins spoken of by us,
that He may be glorified who healed such a disease. For it was the hand of
the Physician that cut end healed the greatness of the sore. That voice
from heaven prostrated the persecutor, and raised up the preacher; killed
Saul, and quickened Paul.(4) For Saul was the persecutor of a holy man;
thence had this man his name, when he persecuted the Christians:(5)
afterward of Saul he became Paul. What does the name Paulus mean? Little.
Therefore when he was Saul, he was proud, lifted   up; when he was Paul, he
was lowly, little, Thus we say, I will see thee "paulo post," i.e. after a
little while.(6) Hear that he was made little: "For I am the least of the
apostles;(7) and, To me the least of all saints," he saith in another
place. So was he among the apostles as the hem of the garment: but the
Church of the Gentiles touched it, as did the woman which had the flux, and
was made whole.(8)

   3. Then, brethren, this I would say, this I do say, this if I might I
would not leave unsaid: Let there be in you now these works, now those,
according to the time, according to the hours, according to the days. Are
you always to be speaking? always to keep silence? always to be refreshing
the body? always to be fasting? always to be giving bread to the needy?
always to be clothing the naked? always to be visiting the sick? always to
be bringing into agreement them that disagree? always to be burying the
dead? No: but now this, now that. These things are taken in hand, and they
stop: but that which as emperor commands all the forces within neither hath
beginning nor ought to stop. Let charity within have no intermission: let
the offices of charity be exhibited according to the time. Let "brotherly
love" then, as it is written, let "brotherly love continue."(9)

   4. But perchance it will have struck some of you all along, while we
have been expounding to you this epistle of blessed John, why it is only
"brotherly" love that he so emphatically commends. "He that loveth his
brother," saith he: and, "a commandment is given us that we love one
another."(10) Again and again it is of brotherly love that he speaks: but
the love of God, i.e. the love with which we ought to love God, he has not
so constantly named; howbeit, he has not altogether left it unspoken. But
concerning love of an enemy, almost throughout the epistle, he has said
nothing. Although he vehemently preaches up and commends charity to us, he
does not tell us to love our enemies, but tells us to love our brethren.
But just now, when the Gospel was read, we heard, "For if ye love them that
love you, what reward shall ye have? Do not even the publicans this? "(11)
How is it then that John the apostle, as the thing of great concern to us
in order to a certain perfection, commends brotherly love; whereas the Lord
saith it is not enough that we love our brethren, but that we ought to
extend that love so that we may reach even to enemies? He that reaches even
unto enemies does not overleap the brethren. It must needs, like fire,
first seize upon what is nearest, and so extend to what is further off. A
brother is nearer to thee than any chance person. Again, that person has
more hold upon thee whom thou knowest not, who yet is not against thee,
than an enemy who is also against thee. Extend thy love to them that are
nearest, yet do not call this an extending: for it is almost loving
thyself, to love them that are close to thee Extend it to the unknown, who
have done thee no ill. Pass even them: reach on to love thine enemies. This
at least the Lord commands. Why has the apostle here said nothing about
loving an enemy.

   5. All love,(1) whether that which is called carnal, which is wont to
be called not "dilectio" but "amor:" (for the word "dilectio" is wont to be
used of better objects, and to be understood of better objects:) yet all
love, dear brethren, hath in it a wishing well to those who are loved.  For
we ought not so to love, nor are we able so to love, (whether "diligere" or
"amare:" for this latter word the Lord used when He said, "Petra, amas me?"
"Peter, lovest thou me?") we ought not so to love(2) men, as we hear
gluttons say, I love thrushes. Thou askest why he loves them? That he may
kill, that he may consume. He says he loves, and to this end loves he them,
that they may cease to be; to this end loves he them, that he may make away
with them. And whatever we love in the way of food, to this end love we it,
that it may be consumed and we recruited. Are men to be so loved as to be
consumed? But there is a certain friendliness of well wishing, by which we
desire at some time or other to do good to those whom we love. How if there
be no good that we can do? The benevolence, the wishing well, of itself
sufficeth him that loves. For we ought not to wish men to be wretched, that
we may be enabled to practise works of mercy. Thou givest bread to the
hungry: but better it were that none hungered, and thou hadst none to give
to. Thou clothest the naked: oh that all were clothed, and this need
existed not! Thou buriest the dead: oh that it were come at last, that life
where none shall die! Thou reconcilest the quarrelling: oh that it were
here at last, that eternal peace of Jerusalem, where none shall disagree!
For all these are offices done to necessities. Take away the wretched;
there will be an end to works of mercy. The works of mercy will be at an
end: shall the ardor of charity be quenched? With a truer touch of love
thou lovest the happy man, to whom there is no good office thou canst do;
purer will that love be, and far more unalloyed. For if thou have done  a
kindness to the wretched, perchance thou desirest to lift up thyself over
against him, and wishest him to be subject to thee, who hast done the
kindness to him. He was in need, thou didst bestow; thou seemest to thyself
greater because thou didst bestow, than he upon whom it was bestowed. Wish
him thine equal, that ye both may be under the One Lord, on whom nothing
can be bestowed.

   6. For in this the proud soul has passed bounds, and, in a manner,
become avaricious. For, "The root of all evils is avarice;"(3) and again it
is said, "The beginning of all sin is pride."(4) And we ask, it may be, how
these two sentences agree: "The root of all evils is avarice;" and, "The
beginning of all sin is pride." If pride is the beginning of all sin, then
is pride the root of all evils. Now certainly, "the root of all evils is
avarice." We find that in pride there is also avarice, (or grasping;) for
man has passed bounds: and what is it to be avaricious? to go beyond that
which sufficeth. Adam fell by pride: "the beginning of all sin is pride,"
saith it: did he fall by grasping? What more grasping, than he whom God
could not suffice? In fact, my brethren, we read how man was made after the
image and likeness of God: and what said God of him? "And let him have
power over the fishes of the sea, and over the fowl of the heaven, and over
all cattle which move upon the earth."(5) Said He, Have power over men?
"Have power," saith He: He hath given him natural power: "have power" over
what? "over the fishes of the sea, the fowl of the heaven, and all  moving
things which move upon the earth." Why is this power over these things a
natural power? Because man hath the power from this; that he was made after
the image of God. And in what was he made after God's image? In the
intellect, in the mind, in the inner man; in that he understands truth,
distinguishes between right and wrong, knows by whom he was made, is able
to understand his Creator, to praise his Creator: he hath this
intelligence, who hath prudence. Therefore when many by evil lusts wore out
in themselves the image of God, and by perversity of their manners
extinguished the very flame, so to say, of intelligence, the Scripture
cried aloud to them, "Become not ye as the horse and mule which have no
understanding."(2) That is to say, I have set thee above the horse and
mule; thee, I made after mine image, I have given thee power over these.
Why? Because they have not the rational mind: but thou by the rational mind
art capable of truth, understandest what is above thee: be subject to Him
that is above thee, and beneath thee shall those things be over which thou
was set. But because by sin man deserted Him whom he ought to be under, he
is made subject to the things which he ought to be above.

   7. Mark what I say: God, man, beasts: to wit, above thee, God; beneath
thee, the beasts. Acknowledge Him that is above thee, that those that are
beneath thee may acknowledge thee.(2) Thus, because Daniel acknowledged God
above him, the lions acknowledged him above them. But if thou acknowledge
not Him that is above thee, thou despisest thy superior, thou becomest
subject to thine inferior. Accordingly, how was the pride of the Egyptians
quelled? By the means of frogs and flies.(3) God might have sent lions: but
a great man may be scared by a lion. The prouder they were, the more by the
means of things contemptible and feeble was their wicked neck broken. But
Daniel, lions acknowledge, because he was subject to God. What? the martyrs
who were cast to the wild beasts to fight with them, and were torn by the
teeth of savage creatures, were they not under God? or were those three men
servants of God, and the Maccabees not servants of God? The fire
acknowledged as God's servants the three men, whom it burned not, neither
hurt their garments;(4) and did it not acknowledge the Maccabees?(5) It
acknowledged the Maccabees; it did, my brethren, acknowledge them also. But
there was need of a scourge, by the Lord's permission: He hath said in
Scripture, "He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth."(6) For think ye, my
brethren, the iron would have pierced into the vitals(7) of the Lord unless
He had permitted its or that He would have hung fastened to the tree,
unless it had been His will? Did not His own creature acknowledge Him? Or
did He set an ensample of patience to His faithful ones? Ye see then, God
delivered some visibly, some He delivered not visibly: yet all He
spiritually delivered, spiritually deserted none. Visibly He seemed to have
deserted some, some He seemed to have rescued. Therefore rescued He some,
that thou mayest not think that He had not power to rescue. He has given
proof that He has the power, to the end that where he doth it not, thou
mayest understand a more secret will, not surmise difficulty of doing. But
what, brethren? When we shall have come out of all these snares of
mortality, when the times of temptation shall have passed away, when the
river of this world shall have fleeted by, and we shall have received again
that "first robe,"(8) that immortality which by sinning we have lost, "when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption," that is, this flesh shall
have put on incorruption, "and this mortal shall have put on
immortality;"(9) the now perfected sons of God, in whom is no more need to
be tempted, neither to be scourged, shall all creatures acknowledge:
subjected to us shall all things be, if we here be subjected to God.

   8. So then ought the Christian to be, that he glory not over other
"men." For God hath given it thee to be over the beasts, i.e. to be better
than the beasts. This hast thou by nature; thou shall always be better than
a beast. If thou wish to be better than another man, thou wilt begrudge him
when thou shall see him to be thine equal. Thou oughtest to wish all men to
be thine equals; and if by wisdom thou surpass any, thou oughtest to wish
that he also may be wise. As long as he is slow, he learns from thee; as
long as he is untaught, he hath need of thee; and thou art seen to be the
teacher, he the learner; therefore thou seemest to be the superior, because
thou art the teacher; he the inferior, because the learner. Except thou
wish him thine equal, thou wishest to have him always a learner. But if
thou wish to have him always a learner, thou wilt be an envious teacher. If
an envious teacher, how wilt thou be a teacher? I pray thee, do not teach
him thine enviousness. Hear the apostle speaking of the bowels of charity:
"I would that all were even as I."(10) In what sense did he wish all to be
his equals? In this was he superior to all, that by charity he wished all
to be his equals. I say then, man has past bounds; he would needs be greedy
of more than his due, would be above men, he that was made above the
beasts: and this is pride.

   9. And see what great works pride does. Lay it up in your hearts, how
much alike, how much as it were upon a par, are the works it doeth, and the
works of charity. Charity feeds the hungry, and so does pride: charity,
that God may be praised; pride, that itself may be praised. Charity clothes
the naked, so does pride: charity fasts, so does pride: charity buries the
dead, so does pride. All good works which charity wishes to do, and does;
pride, on the other hand, drives at the same, and, so to say, keeps her
horses up to the mark. But charity is between her and it, and leaves not
place for ill-driven pride; not ill-driving, but ill-driven. Woe to the man
whose charioteer is pride, for he must needs go headlong! But that, in the
good that is done, it may not be pride that sets us on, who knows? who sees
it? where is it? the works we see: mercy feeds, pride also feeds; mercy
takes in the stranger, pride also takes in the stranger; mercy intercedes
for the poor, pride also intercedes. How is this? In the works we see no
difference. I dare to say somewhat, but not I; Paul hath said it: charity
dies, that is, a man having charity confesses the name of Christ, suffers
martyrdom: pride also confesses, suffers also martyrdom. The one hath
charity, the other hath not charity. But let him that hath not charity hear
from the apostle: "If I distribute all my goods to the poor, and if I give
my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.(1) So
then the divine Scripture calls us off from the display of the face
outwardly to that which is within; from this surface which is vaunted
before men, it calls us off to that which is within. Return to thy own
conscience, question it. Do not consider what blossoms outwardly, but what
root there is in the ground. Is lust rooted there? A show there may be of
good deeds, truly good works there cannot be. Is charity rooted there? Have
no fear: nothing evil can come of that. The proud caresses, love(2) is
severe. The one clothes, the other smites. For the one clothes in order to
please men, the other smites in order to correct by discipline. More
accepted is the blow of charity than the alms of pride. Come then within,
brethren; and in all things, whatsoever ye do, look unto God your witness.
See, if He seeth, with what mind ye do it. If your heart accuse you not
that ye do it for the sake of display, it is well: fear ye not. But when ye
do good, fear not test another see you. Fear thou lest thou do it to the
end that thou mayest be praised: let the other see it, that God may be
praised. For if thou hidest it from the eyes of man, thou hidest it from
the imitation of man, thou withdrawest from God His praise. Two are there
to whom thou doest the alms: two hunger; one for bread, the other for
righteousness. Between these two famishing souls:--as it is written,
"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled:"(3)-- between these two famishing persons thou the doer of
the good work art set; if charity does the work by occasion of the one,
therein it hath pity on both, it would succor both. For the one craves what
he may eat, the other craves what he may imitate. Thou feedest the one,
give thyself as a pattern to the other; so hast thou given alms to both:
the one thou hast caused to thank thee for killing his hunger, the other
thou hast made to imitate thee by setting him an example.

   10. Shew mercy then, as men of merciful hearts; because in loving
enemies also, ye love brethren. Think not that John has  given no precept
concerning love of our enemy, because he has not ceased to speak of
brotherly love. Ye love brethren. "How," sayest thou, "do we love
brethren?" I ask wherefore thou lovest an  enemy. Wherefore dost thou love
him? That he may be whole in this life? what if it be not expedient for
him? That he may be rich? what if by his very riches he shall be blinded?
That he may marry a wife? what if he shall have a bitter life of it? That
he may have children? what if they shall be bad? Uncertain therefore are
these things which thou seemest to wish for thine enemy, in that thou
lovest him; they are uncertain. Wish for him that he may have with thee
eternal life; wish for him that he may be thy brother: when thou lovest
him, thou lovest a brother. For thou lovest in him not what he is, but what
thou wishest that he may be. I once said to you, my beloved, if I mistake
not: There is a log of timber lying in sight; a good workman has seen the
log, not yet planed, just as it was hewn from the forest, he has taken a
liking to it, he would make something out of it. For indeed he did not love
it to this end that it should always remain thus. In his art he has seen
what it shall be, not in his liking what it is; and his liking is for the
thing he will make of it, not for the thing it is. So God loved us sinners.
We say that God loved sinners: for He saith, "They that are whole need not
the Physician, but they that are sick."(1) Did He love us sinners to the
end we should still remain sinners? As timber from the wood our Carpenter
saw us, and had in His thoughts the building He would make thereof, not the
unwrought timber that it was. So too thou seest thine enemy striving
against thee, raging, biting with words, exasperating with contumelies,
harassing with hatred: thou hast regard to this in him, that he is a man.
Thou seest all these things that are against thee, that they were done by
man; and thou seest in him that he was made by God. Now that he was made
man, was God's doing: but that be hates thee, is his doing; that he has
ill-will at thee, is his doing. And what sayest thou in thy mind? Lord, be
merciful to him, forgive him his sins, strike terror into him, change  him.
Thou lovest not in him what he is, but what thou wishest him to be.
Consequently, when thou lovest an enemy, thou lovest a brother. Wherefore,
perfect love is the loving an enemy: which perfect love is in brotherly
love. And let no man say that John the apostle has admonished us somewhat
less, and the Lord Christ somewhat more. John has admonished us to love the
brethren; Christ has admonished us to love even enemies. Mark to what end
Christ hath bidden thee to love thine enemies. That they may remain always
enemies? If He bade it for this end, that they should remain enemies, thou
hatest,(2) not lovest. Mark how He Himself loved, i.e. because He would not
that they should be still the persecutors they were, He said, "Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do."(3) Whom He willed to be
forgiven, them He willed to be changed: whom He willed to be changed, of
enemies He deigned to make brethren, and did in truth make them so. He was
killed, was buried, rose again, ascended into heaven: sent the Holy Ghost
to His disciples: they began with boldness to preach His name, they did
miracles in the name of Him that was crucified and slain: those slayers of
the Lord saw them; and they who in rage had shed His blood, by believing
drank it.

   11. These things have I said, brethren, and somewhat at length: yet
because charity was to be more earnestly commended to you, beloved, in this
way was it to be commended. For if there be no charity in you, we have said
nothing. But if it be in you, we have as it were east oil upon the flames.
And in whom it was not, perchance by words it hath been kindled. In one;
that which was there hath grown; in another, that hath begun to be, which
was not. To this end therefore have we said these things, that ye be not
slow to love your enemies. Does any man rage against thee? he rages, pray
thou; he hates, pity thou. It is the fever of his soul that hates thee: he
will be whole, and will thank thee. How do physicians love them that are
sick? Is it the sick that they love? If they love them as sick, they wish
them to be always sick. To this end love they the sick; not that they
should still be sick, but that from being sick they should be made whole.
And how much have they very often to suffer from the frenzied! What
contumelious language! Very often they are even struck by them. He attacks
the fever, forgives the man. And what shall I say, brethren? does he love
his enemy? Nay, he hates his enemy, the disease; for it is this that he
hates, and loves the man by whom he is struck: he hates the fever. For by
whom or by what is he struck?  by the disease, by the sickness, by the
fever. He takes away that which strives against him, that there may remain
that from which he shall have thanks. So do thou. If thine enemy hate thee,
and unjustly hate thee; know that the lust of the world reigns in him,
therefore he hates thee. If thou also hate him, thou on the other hand
renderest evil for evil. What does it, to render evil for evil? I wept for
one sick man who hated thee; now bewail I thee, if thou also hatest. But he
attacks thy property; he takes from thee I know not what things which thou
hast on earth: therefore hatest thou him, because he puts thee to straits
on earth. Be not thou straitened, remove thee to heaven above; there shalt
thou have thine heart where there is wide room, so that thou mayest not be
straitened in the hope of life eternal. Consider what the things are that
he takes from thee: not even them would he take from thee, but by
permission of Him who "scourgeth every son whom He receiveth."(3) He, this
same enemy of thine, is in a manner the instrument(4) in the hands of God,
by which thou mayest be healed. If God knows it to be good for thee that he
should despoil thee, He permits him; if He knows it to be good for thee
that thou shouldest receive blows, He permits him to smite thee: by the
means of Him He careth for thee: wish thou that he may be made whole.

   12. "No man hath seen God at any time." See, beloved: "If we love one
another, God will dwell in us, and His love will be perfected in us."(1)
Begin to love; thou shalt be perfected. Hast thou begun to love? God has
begun to dwell in thee: love Him that has begun to dwell in thee, that by
more perfect indwelling He may make thee perfect. "In this we know that we
dwell in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit."(2) It
is well: thanks be to God! We come to know that He dwelleth in us. And
whence come we to know this very thing, to wit, that we do know that He
dwelleth in us? Because John himself has said this: "Because He hath given
us of His Spirit." Whence know we that He hath given us of His Spirit? This
very thing, that He hath given thee of His Spirit, whence comest thou to
know it? Ask thine own bowels: if they are full of charity, thou hast the
Spirit of God. Whence know we that by this thou knowest that the Spirit of
God dwelleth in thee? "Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us."(3)

   13. "And we have seen, and are witnesses, that God hath sent His Son to
be the Saviour of the world."(4) Set your minds at rest, ye that are sick:
such a Physician is come, and do ye despair? Great were the diseases,
incurable were the wounds, desperate was the sickness. Dost thou note the
greatness of thine ill, and not note the omnipotence of the Physician? Thou
art desperate, but He is omnipotent; Whose witnesses are these that first
were healed, and that announce the Physician: yet even they are made whole
in hope rather than in the reality. For so saith the apostle: "For by hope
we are saved."(5) We have begun therefore to be made whole in faith: but
our wholeness shall be perfected "when this corruptible shall have put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality."(6) This is
hope, not the reality. But he that rejoiceth in hope shall hold the reality
also: whereas he that hath not the hope, shall not be able to attain unto
the reality.

   14. "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth
in him and he in God."(7) Now we may say it in not many words; "Whosoever
shall confess;" not in word but in deed, not with tongue but with the life.
For many confess in words, but in deeds deny: "And we have known and
believed the love which God hath in us."(8) And again, by what hast thou
come to know this? "Love is God." He hath already said it above, behold he
saith it again. Love could not be more exceedingly commended to thee than
that it should be called GOD. Haply thou wast ready to despise a gift of
God. And dost thou despise God? "Love is God: and he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in him." Each mutually inhabiteth the
other; He that holdeth, and he that is holden. Thou dwellest in God, but
that thou mayest be holden: God inhabiteth thee, but that He may hold thee,
lest thou fall. Lest haply thou imagine that thou becomest an house of God
in such sort as thine house supports thy flesh: if the house in which thou
art withdraw itself from under thee, thou fallest; but if thou withdraw
thyself, God falleth not. When thou forsakest Him, He is none the less;
when thou hast returned unto Him, He is none the greater.(9) Thou art
healed, on Him thou wilt bestow nothing; thou art made clean, thou art new-
made, thou art set right: He is a medicine to the unhealthy, is a rule for
the crooked, is light for the bedarkened, is an habitation for the
deserted. All therefore is conferred on thee: see thou imagine not that
ought is conferred upon God by thy coming unto Him: no, not so much as a
slave. Shall God, forsooth, not have servants if thou like not, if all like
not? God needs not the servants, but the servants need God: therefore saith
the Psalm, "I have said unto the Lord, thou art my God."(10) He is the true
Lord. And what saith it? "For of my goods Thou hast no need." Thou needest
the good thou hast by thy servant. Thy servant needeth the good he hath by
thee, that thou mayest feed him; thou also needest the good thou hast by
thy servant, that he may help thee. Thou canst not draw water for thyself,
Canst not cook for thyself, canst not run before thy horse, canst not tend
thy beast. Thou seest that thou needest the good thou hast by thy servant,
thou needest his attendance. Therefore thou art not a true lord, while thou
hast need of an inferior. He is the true Lord, who seeks nothing from us;
and woe to us if we seek not Him! He seeks nothing from us: yet He sought
us, when we sought not Him. One sheep had strayed; He found it, He brought
it back on His shoulders rejoicing.(1) And was the sheep necessary for the
Shepherd, and not rather the Shepherd necessary for the sheep?--The more I
love to speak of charity, the less willing am I that this epistle should be
finished. None is more ardent in the commending of charity. Nothing more
sweet is preached to you, nothing more wholesome drunk by you: but only
thus if by godly living ye confirm in you the gift of God. Be not
ungrateful for His so great grace, who, though He had one Only Son, would
not that He should be alone a Son; but, that He might have brethren,
adopted unto Him those who should with Him possess life eternal.

HOMILY IX: 1 JOHN IV 17-2

   "Herein is love made perfect in us, that we may have boldness in the
day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no
fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.
He that feareth is not made perfect in love. Let us love Him, because He
first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a
liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God
whom he seeth not? And this commandment have we from Him, That he who
loveth God love his brother also."

   1. YE remember, beloved, that of the epistles of John the apostle the
last past remains to be handled by us and expounded to you, as the Lord
vouchsafes. Of this debt then we are mindful: and ye ought to be mindful of
your claim. For indeed this same charity, which in this epistle is chiefly
and almost alone commended, at once maketh us most faithful in paying our
debts, and you most sweet in exacting your rights. I have said, most sweet
in exacting, because where charity is not, he that exacts is bitter: but
where charity is, both he that exacts is sweet, and he of whom it is
exacted, although he undertakes some labor, yet charity makes the very
labor to be almost no labor, and light. Do we not see how, even in dumb and
irrational animals, where the love is not spiritual but carnal and natural,
with great affection the mother yields herself to her young ones when they
will have the milk which is their right: and however impetuously the
suckling rushes at the teats, yet that is better for the mother than that
it should not suck nor exact that which of love is due? Often we see great
calves driving their heads at the cow's udders with a force that almost
lifts up the mother's body, yet does she not kick them off; nay, if the
young one be not there to suck, the towing of the dam calls for it to come
to the teats. If then there be in us that spiritual charity of which the
apostle saith, "I became small in the midst of you even as a nurse
cherishing her young ones;"(1) we love you the more when ye are exacting.
We like not the sluggish, because for the languid ones we are afraid. We
have been obliged, however, to intermit the continuous reading of this
epistle, because of certain stated lessons coming between, which must needs
be read on their holy days, and the same preached upon. Let us now come
back to the order which was interrupted; and what remains, holy brethren,
receive ye with all attention. I know not whether charity could be more
magnificently commended to us, than that it should be said, "Charity is
God."(2) Brief praise, yet mighty praise: brief in utterance, mighty in
meaning! How soon is it said, "Love is God!" This also is short: if thou
count it, it is one: if thou  weigh it, how great is it! "Love is God, and
he that dwelleth," saith he, "in love, dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in
him." Let God be thy house, and be thou an house of God; dwell in God, and
let God dwell in thee. God dwelleth in thee, that He may hold thee: thou
dwellest in God, that thou mayest not fall; for thus saith the apostle of
this same charity "Charity never falleth."(1) How should He fall whom God
holdeth?

   2. "Herein is our love made perfect in us that we may have boldness in
the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world."(2) He
tells how each may prove himself, what progress charity has made in him or
rather what progress he has made in charity. For if charity is God, God is
capable neither of proficiency nor of deficiency: that charity is said to
be making proficiency in thee, means only that thou makest proficiency in
it. Ask therefore what proficiency thou hast made in charity, and what
thine heart will answer thee, that thou mayest know the measure of thy
profiting. For he has promised to show us in what we may know Him, and hath
said, "In this is love made perfect in us." Ask, in what? "That we have
boldness in the day of judgment." Whoso hath boldness in the day of
judgment, in that man is charity made perfect. What is it to have boldness
in the day of judgment? Not to fear lest the day of judgment should come.
There are men who do not believe in a day of judgment; these cannot have
boldness in a day which they do not believe will come. Let us pass these:
may God awaken them, that they may live; why speak we of the dead? They do
not believe that there will be a day of judgment; they neither fear nor
desire what they do not believe. Some man has begun to believe in a day of
judgment: if he has begun to believe, he has also begun to fear. But
because he fears as yet, because he hath not yet boldness in the day of
judgment, not yet is charity in that man made perfect. But for all that, is
one to despair? In whom thou seest the beginning, why despairest thou of
the end? What beginning do I see? (sayest thou.) That very fear. Hear the
Scripture: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."(3) Well then,
he has begun to fear the day of judgment: by fearing let him correct
himself, let him watch against his enemies, i.e. his sins; let him begin to
come to life again inwardly, and to mortify his members which are upon the
earth, as the apostle saith, "Mortify your members which are upon the
earth."(4) By the members upon earth he means spiritual wickedness:(5) for
he goes on to expound it, "Covetousness, uncleanness,"(6) and the rest
which he there follows out. Now in proportion as this man who has begun to
fear the day of judgment, mortifies his members which are upon the earth,
in that proportion the heavenly members rise up and are strengthened. But
the heavenly members are all good works. As the heavenly members rise up,
he begins to desire that which once he feared. Once he feared lest Christ
should come and find in him the impious whom He must condemn; now he longs
for Him to come, because He shall find the pious man whom He may crown.
Having now begun to desire Christ's coming, the chaste soul which desires
the embrace of the Bridegroom renounces the adulterer, becomes a virgin
within by faith, hope, and charity. Now hath the man boldness in the day of
judgment: he fights not against himself when he prays, "Thy kingdom
come."(7) For he that fears test the kingdom of God should come, fears lest
his prayer be heard. How can he be said to pray, who fears lest his prayer
be heard? But he that prays with boldness of charity, wishes now that He
may come. Of this same desire said one in the Psalm, "And thou, Lord, how
long? Turn, Lord, and deliver my soul."(8) He groaned at being so put off.
For there are men who with patience submit to die; but there are some
perfect who with patience endure to live. What do I mean? When a person
still desires this life, that person, when the day of death comes,
patiently endures death: he struggles against himself that he may follow
the will of God, and in his mind desires that which God chooseth, not what
man's will chooseth: from desire of the present life there comes a
reluctance against death, but yet he takes to him patience and fortitude,
that he may with an even mind meet death; he dies patiently. But when a man
desires, as the apostle saith, "to be dissolved and to be with Christ,"(9)
that person, not patiently dies, but patiently lives, delightedly dies. See
the apostle patiently living, i.e. how with patience he here, not loves
life, but endures it. "To be dissolved," saith be, "and to be with Christ,
is far better: but to continue in the flesh is necessary for your sakes."
Therefore, brethren, do your endeavor, settle it inwardly with yourselves
to make this your concern, that ye may desire the day of judgment. No
otherwise is charity proved to be perfect, but only when one has begun to
desire that day. But that man desires it, who hath boldness in it, whose
conscience feels no alarm in perfect and sincere charity.

   3. "In this is His love perfected in us, that we may have boldness in
the day of judgment." Why shall we have boldness? "Because as He is are we
also in this world." Thou hast heard the ground of thy boldness: "Because
as He is," saith the apostle, "are we also in this world." Does he not seem
to have said something impossible? For is it possible for man to be as God?
I have already expounded to you that "as" is not always said of equality,
but is said of a certain resemblance. For how sayest thou, As I have ears,
so has my image? Is it quite so? and yet thou sayest "so, as." If then we
were made after God's image, why are we not so as God? Not unto equality,
but relatively to our measure. Whence then are we given boldness in the day
of judgment? "Because as He is, are we also in this world." We must refer
this to the same charity, and understand what is meant. The Lord in the
Gospel saith, "If ye love them that love you, what reward shall ye have? do
not the publicans this?"(1) Then what would He have us do? "But I say unto
you, Love your enemies, and pray far them that persecute you." If then He
bids us love our enemies, whence brings He an example to set before us?
From God Himself: for He saith, "That ye may be the children of your Father
which is in heaven." How doth God this? He loveth His enemies, "Who maketh
His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and raineth upon the just and
the unjust." If this then be the perfection unto which God inviteth us,
that we love our enemies as He loved His; this is our boldness in the day
of judgment, that "as He is, so are we also in this world:" because, as He
loveth His enemies in making His sun to rise upon good and bad, and in
sending rain upon the just and unjust, so we, since we cannot bestow upon
them sun and rain, bestow upon them our tears when we pray for them.

   4. Now therefore concerning this same boldness, let us see what he
says. Whence do we understand that charity is perfect? "There is no fear in
charity."(2) Then what say we of him that has begun to fear the day of
judgment? If charity in him were perfect, he would not fear. For perfect
charity would make perfect righteousness, and he would have nothing to
fear: nay rather he would have something to desire; that iniquity may pass
away, and God's kingdom come. So then, "there is no fear in charity." But
in what charity? Not in charity begun: in what then? "But perfect charity,"
saith he, "casteth out fear." Then let fear make the beginning, because
"the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Fear, so to say,
prepares a place for charity. But when once charity has begun to inhabit,
the fear which prepared the place for it is cast out. For in proportion as
this increases, that decreases: and the more this comes to be within, is
the fear cast out. Greater charity, less fear; less charity, greater fear.
But if no fear, there is no way for charity to come in. As we see in
sewing, the thread is introduced by means of the bristle;(3) the bristle
first enters, but except it come out the thread does not come into its
place: so fear first occupies the mind, but the fear does not remain there,
because it enters only in order to introduce charity. When once there is
the sense of security in the mind, what joy have we both in this world and
in the world to come! Even in this world, who shall hurt us, being full of
charity? See how the apostle exults concerning this very charity: "Who
shall separate us from the charity of Christ? shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"(4)
And Peter saith: "And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers s of
that which is good?--There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out
fear: because fear hath torment."(6) The consciousness of sins torments the
heart: justification has not yet taken place. There is that in it which
itches, which pricks. Accordingly in the Psalm what saith he concerning
this same perfection of righteousness? "Thou hast turned for me my mourning
into joy: Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; to
the end that my glory may sing to thee, and that I be not pricked."(2) What
is this, "That I be not pricked?" That there be not that which shall goad
my conscience. Fear doth goad: but fear not thou: charity enters in, and
she heals the wound that fear inflicts. The fear of God so wounds as doth
the leech's knife;(8) it takes away the rottenness, and seems to make the
wound greater. Behold, when the rottenness was in the body, the wound was
less, but perilous: then comes the knife; the wound smarted less than it
smarts now while the leech is cutting it. It smarts more while he is
operating upon it than it would if it were not operated upon; it smarts
more under the healing operation, but only that it may never smart when the
healing is effected. Then let fear occupy thine heart, that it may bring in
charity; let the cicatrice succeed to the leech's knife. He is such an
Healer, that the cicatrices do not even appear: only do thou put thyself
under His hand. For if thou be without fear, thou canst not be justified.
It is a sentence pronounced by the Scriptures; "For he that is without
fear, cannot be justified."(1) Needs then must fear first enter in, that by
it charity may come. Fear is the healing operation: charity, the sound
condition. "But he that feareth is not made perfect in love." Why? "Because
fear hath torment;" just as the cutting of the surgeon's knife hath
torment.

   5. But there is another sentence, which seems contrary to this if it
have not one that understands.(2) Namely, it is said in a certain place of
the Psalms, "The fear of the Lord is chaste, enduring forever."(3) He shows
us an eternal fear, but a chaste. But if he there shows us an eternal fear,
does this epistle perchance contradict him, when it saith, "There is no
fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear?" Let us interrogate both
utterances of God. One is the Spirit, though the books two, though the
mouths two though the tongues two. For this is said by the mouth of John,
that by the mouth of David: but think not that the Spirit is more than one.
If one breath fills two pipes [of the double-flute], cannot one Spirit fill
two hearts, move two tongues? But if two pipes filled by one breathing
sound in unison, can two tongues filled with the Spirit or Breathing of God
make a dissonance? There is then an unison there, there is a harmony, only
it requires one that can hear. Behold, this Spirit of God hath breathed
into and filled two hearts, hath moved two tongues: and we have heard from
the one tongue, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out
fear;" we have heard from the other, "The fear of the Lord is chaste,
enduring for ever." How is this?  The notes seem to jar. Not so: rouse
thine ears: mark the melody. It is not without cause that in the one place
there is added that word, chaste, in the other it is not added: but because
there   is one fear which is called chaste, and there is another fear which
is not called chaste. Let us mark the difference between these two fears,
and so understand the harmony of the flutes. How are we to understand, or
how to distinguish? Mark, my beloved. There are men who fear God, lest they
be cast into  hell, lest haply they burn with the devil in everlasting
fire. This is the fear which introduces charity: but it comes that it may
depart. For if thou as yet fearest God because of punishments, not yet dost
thou love Him whom thou in such sort fearest. Thou dost not desire the good
things, but art afraid of the evil things. Yet because thou art afraid of
the evil things, thou correctest thyself and beginnest to desire the good
things. When once thou hast begun to desire the good, there shall be in
thee the chaste fear. What is the chaste fear? The fear lest thou lose the
good things themselves. Mark! It is one thing to fear God lest He cast thee
into hell with the devil, and another thing to fear God lest He forsake
thee. The fear by which thou fearest lest thou be cast into hell with the
devil, is not yet chaste; for it comes not from the love of God, but from
the fear of punishment: but when thou fearest God lest His presence forsake
thee, thou embracest Him, thou longest to enjoy God Himself.

   6. One cannot better explain the difference between these two fears,
the one which charity casteth out, the other chaste, which endureth for
ever, than by putting the case of two married women, one of whom, you may
suppose, is willing to commit adultery, delights in wickedness, only fears
lest she be condemned by her husband. She fears her husband: but because
she yet loves wickedness, that is the reason why she fears her husband. To
this woman, the presence of her husband is not grateful but burdensome; and
if it chance she live wickedly, she fears her husband, lest he should come.
Such are they that fear the coming of the day of judgment. Put the case
that the other loves her husband, that she feels that she owes him chaste
embraces, that she stains herself with no uncleanness of adultery; she
wishes for the presence of her husband. And how are these two fears
distinguished? The one woman fears, the other also fears. Question them:
they seem to make one answer: question the one, Dost thou fear thine
husband? she answers, I do. Question the other, whether she fears her
husband; she answers, I do fear him. The voice is one, the mind diverse.
Now then let them be questioned, Why? The one saith, I fear my husband,
lest he should come: the other saith, I fear my husband, lest he depart
from me. The one saith, I fear to be condemned: the other, I fear to be
forsaken. Let the like have place in the mind of Christians, and thou
findest a fear which love casteth out, and another fear, chaste, enduring
for ever.

   7. Let us speak then first to these who fear God, just in the manner of
that woman who delights in wickedness; namely, she fears her husband test
he condemn her; to such let us, first speak. O soul, which fearest God lest
He condemn thee, just as the woman fears, who delights in wickedness: fears
her husband, lest she be condemned by her husband as thou art displeased at
this woman, so be displeased at thyself. If perchance thou hast a wife,
wouldest thou have thy wife fear thee thus, that she be not condemned by
thee i that delighting in wickedness, she should be repressed only by the
weight of the fear of thee, not by the condemnation of her iniquity? Thou
wouldest have her chaste, that she may love thee, not that she may fear
thee. Show thyself such to God, as thou wouldest have thy wife be to thee.
And if thou hast not yet a wife, and wishest to have one, thou wouldest
have her such. And yet what are we saying, brethren? That woman, whose fear
of her husband is, to be condemned by her husband, perhaps does not commit
adultery, lest by some means or other it come to her husband's knowledge,
and he deprive her of this temporal light of life: now the husband can be
deceived and kept in ignorance; for he is but human, as she is who can
deceive him. She fears him, from whose eyes she can be hid: and dost thou
not fear the face ever upon thee of thine Husband? "The countenance of the
Lord is against them that do evil."(1) She catches at her husband's
absence, and haply is incited by the delight of adultery; and yet she saith
to herself, I will not do it: he indeed is absent, but it is hard to keep
it from coming in some way to his knowledge. She restrains herself, lest it
come to the knowledge of a mortal man, one who, it is also possible, may
never know it, who, it is also possible, may be deceived, so that he shall
esteem a bad woman to be good, esteem her to be chaste who is an
adulteress: and dost thou not fear the eyes of Him whom no man can deceive?
thou not fear the presence of Him who cannot be turned away from thee? Pray
God to look upon thee, and to turn His face away from thy sins; "Turn away
Thy face from my sins."(2) But whereby dost thou merit that He should turn
away His face from thy sins. if thou turn not away thine own face from thy
sins? For the same voice saith in the Psalm: "For I acknowledge mine
iniquity, and my sin is ever before me."(3) Acknowledge thou, and He
forgives.(4)

   8. We have addressed that soul which hath as yet the fear which
endureth not for ever, but which love shuts out and casts forth: let us
address that also which hath now the fear which is chaste, enduring for
ever. Shall we find that soul, think you, that we may address it? think
you, is it here in this congregation? is it, think you, here in this
chancel?(5) think you, is it here on earth? It cannot but be, only it is
hidden. Now is the winter: within is the greenness in the root. Haply we
may get at the ears of that soul. But wherever that soul is, oh that I
could find it, and instead of its giving ear to me, might myself give ear
to it! It should teach me something, rather than learn of me! An holy soul,
a soul of fire, and longing for the kingdom of God: that soul, not I
address, but God Himself doth address, and thus consoleth while patiently
it endures to live here on earth: "Thou wouldest that I should even now
come, and I know that thou wishest I should even now come: I know what thou
art, such that without fear thou mayest wait for mine advent; I know that
is a trouble to thee: but do thou even longer wait, endure; I come, and
come quickly." But to the loving soul the time moves slowly. Hear her
singing, like a lily as she is from amid the thorns; hear her sighing and
saying, "I will sings and will understand in a faultless(6) way: when will
thou come unto me?"(7) But in a faultless way well may she not fear;
because "perfect love casteth out fear." And when He is come to her
embrace, still she fears, but(8) in the manner of one that feels secure.
What does she fear? She will beware and take heed to herself against her
own iniquity, that she sin not again: not test she be cast into the fire,
but lest she be forsaken by Him. And there shall be in her--what? the
"chaste fear, enduring for ever." We have heard the two flutes sounding in
unison. That speaks of fear, and this speaks of fear: but that, of the fear
with which the soul fears test she be condemned; this, of the fear with
which the soul fears lest she be forsaken.(9) That is the fear which
charity casteth out: this, the fear that endureth for ever.

   9. "Let us love,(10) because He first loved us."(11) For how should we
love, except He had first loved us? By loving we became friends: but He
loved us as enemies, that we might be made friends. He first loved us, and
gave us the gift of loving Him. We did not yet love Him: by loving we are
made beautiful. If a man deformed and ill-featured love a beautiful woman,
what shall he do? Or what shall a woman do, if, being deformed and ill-
featured and black-complexioned, she love a beautiful man? By loving can
she become beautiful? Can he by loving become handsome? He loves a
beautiful woman, and when he sees himself in a mirror, he is ashamed to
lift up his face to her his lovely one of whom he is enamored. What shall
he do that he may be beautiful? Does he wait for good looks to come? Nay
rather, by waiting old age is added to him, and makes him uglier. There is
nothing then to do, there is no way to advise him, but only that he should
restrain himself, and not presume to love unequally: or if perchance he
does love her, and wishes to take her to wife, in her let him love
chastity, not the face of flesh. But our soul, my brethren, is unlovely by
reason of iniquity: by loving God it becomes lovely. What a love must that
be that makes the lover beautiful! But God is always lovely, never
unlovely, never changeable. Who is always lovely first loved us; and what
were we when He loved us but foul and unlovely? But not to leave us foul;
no, but to change us, and of unlovely make us lovely. How shall we become
lovely? By loving Him who is always lovely. As the love increases in thee,
so the loveliness increases: for love is itself the beauty of the soul.
"Let us love, because He first loved us." Hear the apostle Paul: "But God
showed His love in us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us:"(1) the just for the unjust, the beautiful for the foul. How find we
Jesus beautiful? "Thou art beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of
men; grace is poured upon thy lips."(2) Why so? Again see why it is that He
is fair; "Beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of men:" because "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God."(3) But in that He took flesh, He took upon Him, as it were, thy
foulness, i.e. thy mortality, that He might adapt Himself to thee, and
become suited to thee, and stir thee up to the love of the beauteousness
within. Where then in Scripture do we find Jesus uncomely and deformed, as
we have found Him comely and "beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons
of men?" where find we Him also deformed? Ask Esaias: "And we saw Him, and
He had no form nor comeliness."(4) There now are two flutes which seem to
make discordant sounds: howbeit one Spirit breathes into both. By this it
is said, "Beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of men:" by that it
is said in Esaias, "We saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness." By one
Spirit are both flutes filled, they make no dissonance. Turn not away thine
ears, apply the understanding. Let us ask the apostle Paul, and let him
expound to us the unison of the two flutes, Let him sound to us the note,
"Beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of men.--Who, being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God."(5) Let him sound
to us also the note, "We saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness.--He
made Himself of no reputation, taking upon Him the form of a servant, made
in the likeness of men, and in fashion found as man. He had no form nor
comeliness," that He might give thee form and comeliness. What form? what
comeliness? The love which is in charity:(6) that loving, thou mayest
run;(7) running, mayest love. Thou art fair now: but stay not thy regard
upon thyself, lest thou lose what thou hast received; let thy regards
terminate in Him by whom thou wast made fair. Be thou fair only to the end
He may love thee. But do thou direct thy whole aim to Him, run thou to Him,
seek His embraces, fear to depart from Him; that there may be in thee the
chaste fear, which endureth for ever. "Let us love, because He first loved
us."

   10. "If any man say, I love God."(8) What God?(9) wherefore love we?
"Because He first loved us," and gave us to love. He loved us ungodly, to
make us godly; loved us unrighteous, to make us righteous; loved us sick,
to make us whole. Ask each several man; let him tell thee if he love God.
He cries out, he confesses: I love, God knoweth. There is another question
to be asked. "If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a
liar." By what provest thou that he is a liar? Hear. "For he that loveth
not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not?" What
then? does he that loves a brother, love God also? He must of necessity
love God, must of necessity love Him that is Love itself. Can one love his
brother, and not love Love? of necessity he must love Love. What then?
because he loves Love, does it follow that he loves God? Certainly it does
follow. In loving Love, he loves God. Or hast thou forgotten what thou
saidst a little while ago, "Love is God"?(1) If "Love is God," whoso loveth
Love, loveth God. Love then thy brother, and feel thyself assured. Thou
canst not say, "I love my brother, but I do not love God." As thou liest,
if thou sayest" I love God," when thou lovest not thy brother, so thou art
deceived when thou sayest, I love my brother, if thou think that thou
lovest not God. Of necessity must thou who lovest thy brother, love Love
itself: but "Love is God:" therefore of necessity must he love God, whoso
loveth his brother. But if thou love not the brother whom thou seest, how
canst thou love God whom thou seest not? Why does he not see God? Because
he has not Love itself. That he does not see God, is, because he has not
love: that he has not love, is, because he loves not his brother. The
reason then why he does not see God, is, that he has not Love. For if he
have Love, he sees God, for "Love is God:" and that eye is becoming more
and more purged by. love, to see that Unchangeable Substance, in the
presence of which he shall always rejoice, which he shall enjoy to
everlasting, when he is joined with the angels. Only, let him run now, that
he may at last have gladness in his own country. Let him not love his
pilgrimage, not love the way: let all be bitter save Him that calleth us,
until we hold Him fast, and say what is said in the Psalm: "Thou hast
destroyed all that go a-whoring from Thee"(2)--and who are they that go a-
whoring? they that go away and love the world: but what shall thou do? he
goes on and says:--"but for me it is good to cleave to God." All my good
is, to cling unto God, freely. For if thou question him and say, For what
dost thou cling to Him? and he should say, That He may give me--Give thee
what? It is He that made the heaven, He that made the earth: what shall He
give thee? Already thou are cleaving to Him: find something better, and He
shall give it thee.

   11. "For he that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love
God whom he seeth not? And this commandment have we from Him, that he who
loveth God love his brother also."(3) Marvellous fine talk it was, that
thou didst say, "I love God," and hatest thy brother! O murderer, how
lovest thou God? Hast thou not heard above in this very epistle, "He that
hateth his brother  is a murderer"?(4) Yea, but I do verily love God,
however I hate my brother. Thou dost verily not love God, if thou hate thy
brother. And now I make it good by another proof. This same apostle hath
said, "He gave us commandment that we should love one another." How canst
thou be said to love Him whose commandment thou hatest? Who shall say, I
love the emperor, but I hate his laws? In this the emperor understands
whether thou love him, that his laws be observed throughout the provinces.
Our Emperor's law, what is it? "A new commandment give I unto you, that ye
love one another."(5) Thou sayest then, that thou lovest Christ: keep His
commandment, and love thy brother. But if thou love not thy brother, how
canst thou be said to love Him whose commandment thou despisest?-Brethren,
I am never satiated in speaking of charity in the name of the Lord. In what
proportion ye have an insatiable desire of this thing, in that proportion
we hope the thing itself is growing in you, and casting out fear, that so
there may remain that chaste fear which is for ever permanent. Let us
endure the world, enclure tribulations, endure the stumbling-blocks of
temptations. Let us not depart from the way; let us hold the unity  of the
Church, hold Christ, hold charity. Let us not be plucked away from the
members of His Spouse, not be plucked away from faith, that we may glory in
His coming: and we shall securely abide in Him, now by faith, then by
sight, of whom we have so great earnest, even the gift of the Holy Spirit.

HOMILY X: 1 JOHN V. 1-3.

   "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every
one that loveth Him that begat Him, loveth Him also that is begotten of
Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, because we love God,
and do His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His
commandments."

   1. I SUPPOSE ye remember, those of you who were present yesterday, to
what place in the course of this epistle our exposition has reached:
namely, "He that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God
whom he seeth not? And this commandment have we from Him, That he who
loveth God, love his brother also."(1) Thus far we discoursed. Let us see
then what comes next in order. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the
Christ is born of God."(2) Who is he that believeth not that Jesus is the
Christ? He that does not so live as Christ commanded. For many say, "I
believe:" but faith without works saveth not. Now the work of faith is
Love, as Paul the apostle saith, "And faith which worketh by love."(3) Thy
past works indeed, before thou didst believe, were either none, or if they
seemed good, were nothing worth. For if they were none, thou wast as a man
without feet, or with sore feet unable  to walk: but if they seemed good,
before thou didst believe, thou didst run indeed, but by running aside from
the way thou wentest astray instead of coming to the goal. It is for us,
then, both to run, and to run in the way. He that runs aside from the way,
runs to no purpose, or rather runs but to toil. He goes the more astray,
the more he runs aside from the way. What is the way by which we run?
Christ hath told us, "I am the Way."(4) What the home to which we run? "I
am the Truth." By Him thou runnest, to Him thou runnest, in Him thou
restest. But, that we might run by Him, He reached even unto us: for we
were afar off, foreigners in a far country. Not enough that we were in a
far country, we were feeble also that we could not stir. A Physician, He
came to the sick: a Way, He extended Himself to them that were in a far
country. Let us be saved by Him, let us walk in Him. This it is to "believe
that Jesus is the Christ," as Christians believe, who are not Christians
only in name, but in deeds and in life, not as the devils believe. For "the
devils also believe and tremble,"(5) as the Scripture tells us. What more
could the devils believe, than that they should say, "We know who thou art,
the Son of God?"(6) What the devils said, the same said Peter also. When
the Lord asked them who He was, and whom did men say that He was, the
disciples made answer to Him, "Some say that thou art John the Baptist;
some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto
them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answered and said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the Living God."(7) And this he heard from the Lord:
"Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." See what praises follow this
faith. "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church." What
meaneth, "Upon this rock I will build my Church"? Upon this faith; upon
this that has been said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Upon this rock," saith He, "I will build my Church." Mighty praise! So
then, Peter saith, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God:" the
devils also say, "We know who thou art, the Son of God, the Holy One of
God." This Peter said, this also the devils: the words the same, the mind
not the same. And how is it clear that Peter said this with love? Because a
Christian's faith is with love, but a devil's without love. How without
love? Peter said this, that he might embrace Christ; the devils said it,
that Christ might depart from them. For before they said, "We know who thou
art, the Son of God, they said, "What have we to do with thee? Why art thou
come to destroy us before the time?" It is one thing then to confess Christ
that thou mayest hold Christ, another thing to confess Christ that thou
mayest drive Christ from thee. So then ye see, that in the sense in which
he here saith, "Whoso believeth," it is a faith of one's own, not as one
has a faith in common with many. Therefore, brethren, let none of the
heretics say to you, "We also believe." For to this end have I given you an
instance from the case of devils, that ye may not rejoice in the words of
believing, but search well the deeds of the life.

   5. Let us see then what it is to believe in Christ; what to believe
that Jesus, He is the Christ. He proceeds: "Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, is born of God." But what is it to believe that? "And every
one that loveth Him that begat Him, loveth Him also that is begotten of
Him." To faith he hath straightway joined love, because faith without love
is nothing worth. With love, the faith of a Christian; without love, the
faith of a devil: but those who believe not, are worse than devils, more
stupid than devils. Some man will not believe in Christ: so far, he is not
even upon a par with devils. A person does now believe in Christ, but hates
Christ: he hath the confession of faith in the fear of punishment, not in
love of the crown: thus the devils also feared to be punished. Add to this
faith love, that it may become a faith such as the Apostle Paul speaks of,
a "faith which worketh by love:"(1) thou hast found a Christian, found a
citizen of Jerusalem, found a fellow-citizen of the angels, found a pilgrim
sighing in the way: join thyself to him, he is thy fellow-traveller, run
with him, if indeed thou also art this. "Every one that loveth Him that
begat Him, loveth Him also that is begotten of Him." Who "begat"? The
Father. Who "is begotten"? The Son. What saith he then? "Every one that
loveth the Father, loveth the Son."

   3. "In this we know that we love the sons of God."(2) What is this,
brethren? Just now he was speaking of the Son of God, not of sons of God:
lo, here one Christ was set before us to contemplate, and we were told,
"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one
that loveth Him that begat," i, e. the Father, "loveth Him also that is
begotten of Him," i.e. the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And he goes on: "In
this we know that we love the sons of God;" as if he bad been about to say,
"In this we know that we love the Son of God." He has said, "the sons of
God," whereas he was speaking just before of the Son of God--because the
sons of God are the Body of the Only Son of God, and when He is the Head,
we the members, it is one Son of God. Therefore, he that loves the sons of
God, loves the Son of God, and he that loves the Son of God, loves the
Father; nor can any love the Father except he love the Son, and he that
loves the sons, loves also the Son of God. What sons of God? The members of
the Son of God. And by loving he becomes himself a member, and comes
through love to be in the frame of the body of Christ, so there shall be
one Christ, loving Himself. For when the members love one another, the body
loves itself. "And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with
it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it."(3) And then
he goes on to say, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members." John was
speaking just before of brotherly love, and said, "He that loveth not his
brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not?"(4) But if
thou lovest thy brother, haply thou lovest thy brother and lovest not
Christ? How should that be, when thou lovest members of Christ? When
therefore thou lovest members of Christ, thou lovest Christ; when thou
lovest Christ, thou lovest the Son of God; when thou lovest the Son of God,
thou lovest also the Father. The love therefore cannot be separated into
parts. Choose what thou wilt love; the rest follow thee. Suppose thou say,
I love God alone, God the Father. Thou liest: if thou lovest, thou lovest
Him not alone; but if thou lovest the Father, thou lovest also the Son.
Behold, sayest thou,  I love the Father, and I love the Son: but this only,
the Father God and the Son God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who ascended into
heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father, that Word by which all
things were made, and "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us:" this
alone I love. Thou liest; for if thou lovest the Head, thou lovest also the
members; but if thou lovest not the members, neither lovest thou the Head.
Dost thou not quake at the voice uttered by the Head from Heaven on behalf
of His members, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou ME?"(5) The persecutor of
His members He called His persecutor: His lover, the lover of His members.
Now what are His members, ye know, brethren: none other than the Church of
God. "In this we know that we love the sons of God, in that we love God."
And how? Are not the sons of God one thing, God Himself another? But he
that loves God, loves His precepts. And what are the precepts of God? "A
new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another."(6) Let none
excuse himself by another love, for another love; so and so only is it with
this love: as the love itself is compacted in one, so all that hang by it
doth it make one, and as fire melts them down into one. It is gold: the
lump is molten and becomes some one thing. But unless the fervor of charity
be applied, of many there can be no melting down into one. "That we love
God," by this "know we that we love the sons of God."

   4. And by what do we know that we love the sons of God? By this, "that
we love God, and do His commandments." We sigh here, by reason of the
hardness of doing the commandments of God. Hear what follows. O man, at
what toilest thou in loving? In loving avarice. With toil is that loved
which thou lovest: there is no toil in loving God. Avarice will enjoin thee
labors, perils, sore hardships and tribulations; and thou wilt do its
bidding. To what end? That thou mayest have that with which thou shalt fill
thy chest, and lose thy peace of mind. Thou didst feel thyself haply more
secure before thou hadst it, than since thou didst begin to have. See what
avarice has enjoined thee. Thou hast filled thine house, and art in dread
of robbers; hast gotten gold, lost thy sleep. See what avarice has enjoined
thee. Do, and thou didst. What does God enjoin thee! Love me. Thou lovest
gold, thou wilt seek gold, and perchance not find it: whoso seeks me, I am
with him. Thou wilt love honor, and perchance not attain unto it: who ever
loved me, and did not attain? God saith to thee, thou wouldest make thee a
patron, or a powerful friend: thou seekest a way to his favor by means of
another inferior. Love me, saith God to thee: favor with me is not had by
making interest with some other: thy love itself makes me present to thee.
What sweeter than this love, brethren? It is not without reason that ye
heard just now in the Psalm, "The unrighteous told me of delights,(1) but
not as is Thy law, O Lord."(2) What is the Law of God? The commandment of
God. What is the commandment of God? That "new commandment," which is
called new because it maketh new: "A new commandment give I unto you, that
ye love one another."(3) Hear because this is the law of God. The apostle
saith, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so shall ye fulfill the law of
Christ."(4) This, even this, is the consummation of all our works; Love. In
it is the end: for this we run: to it we run; when we are come to it, we
shall rest.

    5. Ye have heard in the Psalm, "I have seen the end of all
perfection.(5) He hath said, I have seen the end of all perfection: what
had he seen? Think we, had he ascended to the peak of some very high and
pointed mountain, and looked out thence and seen the compass of the earth,
and the circles of the round world, and therefore said, "I have seen the
end of all perfection"? If this be a thing to be praised, let us ask of the
Lord eyes of the flesh so sharp-sighted, that we shall but require some
exceeding high mountain on earth, that from its summit we may see the end
of all perfection. Go not far: lo, I say to thee, it is here; ascend the
mountain, and see the end. Christ is the Mountain; come to Christ: thou
seest thence the end of all perfection. What is this end? Ask Paul: "But
the end of the, commandment is charity, from a pure heart, and a good
conscience, and faith unfeigned:"(6) and in another place, "Charity is the
fullness," or fulfillment, "of the law." What so finished and terminated as
"fullness"? For, brethren, the apostle here uses end in a way of praise.
Think not of consumption, but of consummation. For it is in one sense that
one says, I have finished my bread, in another, I have finished my coat. I
have finished the bread, by eating it: the coat, by making it. In both
places the word is "end," "finish:" but the bread is finished by its being
consumed, the coat is finished by being made: the bread, so as to be no
more; the coat, so as to be complete. Therefore in this sense take ye also
this word, end, when the Psalm is read and ye hear it said, "On the end, a
Psalm of David."(7) Ye are for ever hearing this in the Psalms, and ye
should know what ye hear. What meaneth, "On  the end"?--"For Christ is the
end of the law unto every one that believeth."(8) And what meaneth, "Christ
is the end"? Because Christ is God, and "the end of the commandment is
charity," and "Charity is God:" because Father and Son and Holy Ghost are
One. There is He the End to thee; elsewhere He is the Way. Do not stick
fast in the way, and so never come to the end. Whatever else thou come to,
pass beyond it, until thou come to the end. What is the end? It is good for
me to "hold me fast in God."(9) Hast thou laid fast hold on God? thou hast
finished the way: thou shall abide in thine own country. Mark well! Some
man seeks money: let not it be the end to thee: pass on, as a traveller in
a strange land. But if thou love it, thou art entangled by avarice; avarice
will be shackles to thy feet: thou canst make no more progress. Pass
therefore this also: seek the end. Thou seekest health of the body: still
do not stop there. For what is it, this health of the body, which death
makes an end of, which sickness debilitates, a feeble, mortal, fleeting
thing? Seek that, indeed, lest haply ill-health hinder thy good works: but
for that very reason, the end is not there, for it is sought in order to
something else. Whatever is sought in order to something else, the end is
not there: whatever is loved for its own sake, and freely, the end is
there. Thou seekest honors; perchance seekest them in order to do
something, that thou mayest accomplish something, and so please God: love
not the honor itself, lest thou stop there. Seekest thou praise? If thou
seek God's, thou doest well; if thou seek thine own, thou doest ill; thou
stoppest short in the way. But behold, thou art loved, art praised: think
it not joy when in thyself thou art praised; be thou praised in the Lord,
that thou mayest sing, "In the Lord shall my soul be praised."(1) Thou
deliverest some good discourse, and thy discourse is praised. Let it not be
praised as thine, the end is not there. If thou set the end there, there is
an end of thee: but an end, not that thou be perfected, but that thou be
consumed. Then let not thy discourse be praised as coming from thee, as
being thine. But how praised? As the Psalm saith, "In God will I praise the
discourse, in God will I praise the word."(2) Hereby shall that which there
follows come to pass in thee: "In God have I hoped, I will not fear what
man can do unto me."(3) For when all things that are thine are praised in
God, no fear lest thy praise be lost, since God faileth not. Pass therefore
this also.

   6. See, brethren, how many things we pass, in which is not the end.
These we use as by the way; we take as it were our refreshment at the
halting places on our journey, and pass on.(4) Where then is the end?
"Beloved, we are sons of God, and it hath not yet up, peared what we shall
be;"(5) here is this said, in this epistle. As yet then, we are on the way;
as yet, wherever we come, we must pass on, until we attain unto some end.
"We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see
Him as He is. That is the end; there perpetual praising, there Alleluia(6)
always without fail. This, then is the end he has spoken of in the Psalm:
"I have seen the end of all perfection:"(7) and as though it were said to
him, What is the end thou hast seen? "Thy commandment, exceeding broad."
This is the end: the breadth of the commandment. The breadth of the
commandment is charity, because where charity is, there are no straits. In
this breadth. this wide room, was the apostle when he said, "Our mouth is
open to you, O ye Corinthians, our heart is enlarged: ye are not straitened
in us."(8) In this, then, is "Thy commandment exceeding broad." What is the
broad commandment? "A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one
another." Charity, then, is not straitened. Wouldest thou not be straitened
here on earth? Dwell in the broad room. For whatever man may do to thee, he
shall not straiten thee; because thou lovest that which man cannot hurt:
lovest God, lovest the brotherhood, lovest the law of God, lovest the
Church Of God: it shall be for ever. Thou laborest here on earth, but thou
shall come to the promised enjoyment. Who can take from thee that which
thou lovest? If no man can take from thee that which thou lovest, secure
thou sleepest: or rather secure thou warchest, lest by sleeping thou lose
that which thou lovest. For not without reason is it said, "Enlighten mine
eyes, lest at any time I sleep in death."(9) They that shut their eyes
against charity, fall asleep in the lusts of carnal delights. Be wakeful,
therefore. For then are the delights, to eat, to drink, to wanton in
luxury, to play, to hunt; these vain pomps all evils follow. Are we
ignorant that they are delights? who can deny that they delight? But more
beloved is the law of God. Cry against such. persuaders: "The unrighteous
have told me of delights: but not so as is thy law, O Lord."(10) This
delight remaineth. Not only remaineth as the goal to which thou mayest
come, but also calleth thee back when thou fleest.

   7. "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments."(11)
Already ye have heard, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets." See how He would not have thee divide thyself over a multitude
of pages: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." On
what two commandments? "Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And, thou shall love
thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets."(12) See here of what commandments this whole epistle talks.
Therefore hold fast love, and set your minds at rest. Why fearest thou lest
thou do evil to some man? Who does evil to the man he loves? Love(1) thou:
it is impossible to do this without doing good. But it may be, thou
rebukest? Kindness(2) does it, not fierceness. But it may be thou beatest?
For discipline thou dost this; because thy kindness of love(3) will not let
thee leave him undisciplined. And indeed there come somehow these different
and contrary results, that sometimes hatred uses winning ways, and charity
shows itself fierce. A person hates his enemy, and feigns friendship for
him: he sees him doing some evil, he praises him: he wishes him to go
headlong, wishes him to go blind over the precipice of his lusts, haply
never to return; he praises him, "For the sinner is praised in the desires
of his soul;"(4) he applies to him the unction of adulation; behold, he
hates, and praises. Another sees his friend doing something of the same
sort; he calls him back; if he will not hear, he uses words even of
castigation, he scolds, he quarrels:(5) there are times when it comes to
this, that one must even quarrel! Behold, hatred shows itself winningly
gentle, and charity quarrels! Stay not thy regard upon the words of seeming
kindness, or the seeming cruelty of the rebuke; look into the vein(6) they
come from; seek the root whence they proceed. The one is gentle and bland
that he may deceive, the other quarrels that he may correct. Well then, it
is not for us, brethren, to enlarge your heart: obtain from God the gift to
love one another. Love all men, even your enemies, not because they are
your brethren, but that they may be your brethren; that ye may be at all
times on fire with brotherly love, whether toward him that is become thy
brother, or towards thine enemy, so that, by being beloved, he may become
thy brother. Wheresoever ye love a brother, ye love a friend. Now is he
with thee, now is he knit to thee in unity, yea catholic unity. If thou art
living aright, thou lovest a brother made out of an enemy. But thou lovest
some man who has not yet believed Christ, or, if he have believed, believes
as do the devils: thou rebukest his vanity. Do thou love, and that with a
brotherly love: he is not yet a brother, but thou lovest to the end he may
be a brother. Well then, all our love is a brotherly love, towards
Christians, towards all His members. The discipline of charity, my
brethren, its strength, flowers, fruit, beauty, pleasantness, food, drink,
meat, embracing, hath in it no satiety. If it so delight us while in a
strange land, in our own country how shall we rejoice!

   8. Let us run then, my brethren, let us run, and love Christ. What
Christ? Jesus Christ. Who is He? The Word of God. And how came He to the
sick? "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us."(7) It is complete then,
which the Scripture foretold, "Christ must suffer, and rise again the third
day from the dead."(8) His body, where is it? His members, where toil they?
Where must thou be, that thou mayest be under thine Head? "And that
repentance and remission of sins be preached in His name through all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem."(9) There let thy charity be spread
abroad. Christ saith, and the Psalm, i.e. the Spirit of God, "Thy
commandment is exceeding broad:" and for-sooth some man will have charity
to be confined to Africa! Extend thy charity over the whole earth if thou
wilt love Christ, for Christ's members are over all the earth. If thou
lovest but a part, thou art divided: if thou art divided, thou art not in
the body; if thou art not in the body, thou art not under the Head. What
profiteth it thee that thou believest(10) and blasphemest? Thou adorest Him
in the Head, blasphemest Him in the Body. He loves His Body. If thou hast
cut thyself off from His Body, the Head hath not cut itself off from its
Body. To no purpose dost thou honor me, cries thine Head to thee from on
high, to no purpose dost thou honor me. It is all one as if a man would
kiss thine head and tread upon thy feet: perchance with nailed boots he
would crush thy feet, while he will clasp thy head and kiss it: wouldest
thou not cry out in the midst of the words with which he honors thee, and
say, What art thou doing, man? thou treadest on me. Thou wouldest not mean,
Thou treadest on my head; for the head he honored; but more would the head
cry out for the members trodden upon, than for itself because it was
honored. Does not the head itself cry out, I will none of thine honor; do
not tread on me? Now say if thou canst, How have I trodden upon thee? say
that to the head: I wanted to kiss thee, I wanted to embrace thee. But
seest thou not, O fool, that what thou wouldest embrace does in virtue of a
certain unity, which knits the whole frame together, reach to that which
thou treadest upon? Above(11) thou honorest me, heneath(12) thou treadest
upon me. That on which thou treadest pains more than that which thou
honorest rejoiceth. In what sort does the tongue cry out? "It hurts me." It
saith not, "It hurts my foot," but, "It hurts me," saith it. O tongue, who
has touched thee? who has struck? who has goaded? who has pricked? No man,
but I am knit together with the parts that are trodden upon. How wouldest
thou have me not be pained, when I am not separate?

   9. Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, ascending into heaven on the fortieth
day, did for this reason commend to us His Body where it would continue to
lie, because He saw that many would honor Him for that He is ascended into
heaven: and saw that their honoring Him is useless if they trample upon His
members here on earth. And lest any one should err, and, while he adored
the Head in heaven should trample upon the feet on earth, He told us where
would be His members. For being about to ascend, He spake His last words on
earth: after those same words He spake no more on earth. The Head about to
ascend into heaven commended to us His members on earth and departed.
Thenceforth thou findest not Christ speaking on earth; thou findest Him
speaking, but from heaven. And even from heaven, why? Because His members
on earth were trodden upon. For to the persecutor Saul He said from on
high, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"(1) I am ascended into heaven,
but still I lie on earth: here I sit at the right hand of the Father, but
there I yet hunger, thirst, and am a stranger. In what manner then did He
commend to us His Body, when about to ascend into heaven? When the
disciples asked Him, saying, "Lord, wilt thou at this time present(2)
thyself, and when shall be the kingdom of Israel?"(3) He made answer, now
at the point to depart, "It is not for you to know the time which the
Father hath put in His own power: but ye shall receive strength of the Holy
Ghost coming upon you, and ye shall be witnesses to me." See where His Body
is spread abroad, see where He will not be trodden upon: "Ye shall be
witnesses to me, unto Jerusalem, and unto Judea, and even unto all the
earth." Lo, where I lie that am ascending! For I ascend, because I am the
Head: my Body lies yet beneath. Where lies? Throughout the whole earth.
Beware thou strike not, beware thou hurt not, beware thou trample not:
these be the last words of Christ about to go into heaven. Look at a sick
man languishing on his bed, lying in his house, and worn out with sickness,
at death's door, his soul as it were even now between his teeth: who,
anxious, it may be, about something that is dear to him, which he greatly
loves, and it comes into his mind, calls his heirs, and says to them, I
pray you, do this. He, as it were, detains his soul by a violent effort,
that it may not depart ere those words be made sure. When he has dictated
those last words, he breathes out his soul, he is borne a corpse to the
sepulchre. His heirs, how do they remember the last words of the dying man?
How, if one should stand up and say to them, Do it not: what would they
say? "What? shall I not do that which my father, in the act of breathing
out his soul, commanded me with his last breath, the last word of his that
sounded in my ears when my father was departing this life? Whatever other
words of his I may not regard, his last have a stronger hold upon me: since
which I never saw him more, never more heard speech of his. Brethren, think
with Christian hearts; if to the heirs of a man, his words spoken when
about to go to the tomb are so sweet, so grateful, so weighty, what must we
account of the last words of Christ, spoken not when about to go back to
the tomb, but to ascend into heaven! As for the man who lived and is dead,
his soul is hurried off to other places, his body is laid in the earth, and
whether these words of his be done or not, makes no difference to him: he
has now something else to do, or something else to suffer: either in
Abraham's bosom he rejoices, or in eternal fire he longs for a drop of
water, while his corpse lies there senseless in the sepulchre; and yet the
last words of the dying man are kept. What have those to look for, who keep
not the last words of Him that sitteth in heaven, who seeth from on high
whether they be despised or not despised? The words of Him, who said,
"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou ME?" who keeps account, unto the
judgment, of all that He seeth His members suffer?

   10. And what have we done, say they? We are the persecuted, not the
persecutors. Ye are the persecutors, O wretched men. In the first place, in
that ye have divided the Church. Mightier the sword of the tongue than the
sword of steel. Agar, Sarah's maid, was proud, and she was afflicted by her
mistress for her pride. That was discipline, not punishment.(4)
Accordingly, when she had gone away from her mistress, what said the angel
to her? "Return to thy mistress."(5) Then, O carnal soul, like a proud
bond-woman, suppose thou have suffered any trouble for discipline' sake,
why rarest thou? "Return to thy mistress," hold fast the peace of the
Church.(6) Lo, the gospels are produced, we read where the Church is spread
abroad: men dispute against us, and say to us, "Betrayers!"(1) Betrayers of
what? Christ commendeth to us His Church, and thou believest not: shall I
believe thee, when thou revilest my parents? Wouldest thou that I should
believe thee about the "betrayers"? Do thou first believe Christ. What is
worth believing? Christ is God, thou art man: which ought to be believed
first? Christ has spread His Church abroad over all the earth: I say it--
despise me: the gospel speaks--beware. What saith the gospel? "It behoved
Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead on the third day, and
that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name."(2)
Where remission of sins, there the Church is. How the Church? Why, to her
it was said, "To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven, and
whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." 4 Where is
this remission of sins spread abroad? "Through all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem." Lo, believe Christ! But, because thou art well aware that if
thou shall believe Christ, thou wilt not have anything to say about
"betrayers," thou wilt needs have me to believe thee when thou speakest
evil against my parents, rather than thyself believe what Christ foretold!

* * * * * * * *

   [The remainder of the Homily is wanting in all the manuscripts. It
seems also that St. Augustin was hindered from completing the exposition of
the entire epistle, as he had undertaken to do: at least Possidius
specifies this work under the title, "In Epist. Joannis ad Parthos
Tractatus decem," and it is scarcely likely that the whole of the fifth
chapter was expounded in this tenth Homily. --Of the "Sermons," there are
none upon the remaining part of this epistle: the following extracts from
other works of St. Augustin will supply what will be most desiderated:
namely, his exposition of the text on "the Three Witnesses," of "the sin
unto death," and of the twentieth verse].

Contra Maximinum, lib. ii. c. 22 #. 3.

   1. Joann. v. 7.8. Tres sunt testes; spiritus, et aqua, et sanguis; et
tres unum sunt.(4)

   I would not have thee mistake that place in the epistle of John the
apostle where he saith, "There are three witnesses: the Spirit, and the
water, and the blood: and the three are one." Lest haply thou say that the
Spirit and the water and the blood are diverse substances, and yet it is
said, "the three are one:" for this cause I have admonished thee, that thou
mistake not the matter. For these are mystical expressions,(5) in which the
point always to be considered is, not what the actual things are, but what
they denote as signs: since they are signs of things, and what they are in
their essence is one thing, what they are in their signification another.
If then we understand the things signified, we do find these things to be
of one substance. Thus, if we should say, the rock and the water are one,
meaning by the Rock, Christ; by the water, the Holy Ghost: who doubts that
rock and water are two different substances? yet because Christ and the
Holy Spirit are of one and the same nature, therefore when one says, the
rock and the water are one, this can be rightly taken in this behalf, that
these two things of which the nature is diverse, are signs of other things
of which the nature is one. Three things then we know to have issued from
the Body of the Lord when He hung upon the tree: first, the spirit: of
which it is written, "And He bowed the head and gave up the spirit:"(6)
then, as His side was pierced by the spear, "blood and water." Which three
things if we look at as they are in themselves, they are in substance
several land distinct, and therefore they are not one. But if we will
inquire into the things signified I by these, there not unreasonably comes
into our thoughts the Trinity itself, which is the One, Only, True, Supreme
God, Father and Son and Holy Ghost, of whom it could most truly be said,
"There are Three Witnesses, and the Three are One:" so that by the term
Spirit we should understand God the Father to be signified; as indeed it
was concerning the worshipping of Him that the Lord was speaking, when He
said, "God is a Spirit:"(7) by the term, blood, the Son; because "the Word
was made flesh:"(8) and by the term water, the Holy Ghost; as, when Jesus
spake of the water which He would give to them that thirst, the evangelist
saith, "But this said He of the Spirit which they that believed on Him were
to receive."(9) Moreover, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are
"Witnesses," who that believes the Gospel can doubt, when the Son saith, "I
am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me, He beareth
witness of me."(10) Where, though the Holy Ghost is not mentioned, yet He
is not to be thought separated from them. Howbeit neither concerning the
Spirit hath He kept silence elsewhere, and that He too is a witness hath
been sufficiently and openly shown. For in promising Him He said, "He shall
bear witness of me." (1) These are the "Three Witnesses, and the Three are
One, because of one substance. But whereas, the signs by which they were
signified came forth from the Body of the Lord, herein they figured the
Church preaching the Trinity, that it hath one and the same nature: since
these Three in threefold manner signified are One, and the Church that
preacheth them is the Body of Christ. In this manner then the three things
by which they are signified came out from the Body: of the Lord: like as
from the Body of the Lord sounded forth the command to "baptize the nations
in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."(2) "In the
name:" not, In the names: for "these Three are One," and One God is these
Three. And if in any other way this depth of mystery which we read in
John's epistle can be expounded and understood agreeably with the Catholic
faith, which neither confounds nor divides the Trinity, neither believes
the substances diverse nor denies that the persons are three, it is on no
account to be rejected. For whenever in Holy Scriptures in order to
exercise the minds of the faithful any thing is put darkly, it is to be
joyfully welcomed if it can be in many ways but not unwisely ex-pounded.

De Sermone Domini in Monte, lib. i. 22, # 73.

   1 Joann. v. 16. Si quis scit peccare fratrem suum peccatum non ad
mortem, postulabit, et dabit illi Dominus vitam qui peccat non ad mortem;
est autem peccatum ad mortem; non pro illo dico ut roget.

   But what presses harder upon the present question [in the Lord's
command of praying for enemies and persecutors] is that saying of the
apostle John, "If any man know that his brother sinneth a sin not unto
death, he shall ask, and the Lord will give life to that man who sinneth
not unto death: but there is a sin unto death: not for that do I say that
he should ask." For it manifestly shows that there are some "brethren" whom
we are not commanded to pray for, whereas the Lord bids us pray even for
our persecutors. Nor can this question be solved except we acknowledge,
that there are some sins in brethren that are worse than the sin of enemies
in persecuting. That "brethren" mean Christians, may be proved by many
texts of Holy Writ; the plainest, however, is that of the apostle which he
puts thus: "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the
unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother."(3) For he has not added
our; but thought it plain enough, when by the term brother he spake of the
Christian that should have an unbelieving wife. And accordingly he says
just afterwards, "But if the unbelieving depart, let her depart: but a
brother or sister is not put under servitude in a matter of this sort." The
"sin," therefore, of a brother, "unto death," I suppose to be when, after
the acknowledging of God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, one
fights against the brotherhood, and is set on by the fire-brands of
hatred(4) against the very grace through which he was reconciled to God.(5)
But "a sin not unto death" is when a person, not having alienated his love
from his brother. yet through some infirmity of mind may have failed to
exhibit the due offices of brotherhood. Wherefore, on the one hand, the
Lord on the cross said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they
do,"(6) since they had not yet, by being made partakers of the grace of the
Holy Spirit, entered into the fellowship of holy brotherhood; and blessed
Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles prays for them who are stoning him;(7)
because they had not yet believed Christ, and were not fighting against
that grace of communion. On the other hand, the apostle Paul does not pray
for Alexander, and the reason I suppose, is, that this man was a brother,
and had sinned "unto death," i.e. by opposing the brotherhood in a spirit
of hatred.(8) Whereas for such as had not broken off the bonds of love, but
had given way through fear, he prays that they may be forgiven. For so he
says: "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him
according to his works: of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly
withstood our words."(9) Then he subjoins for whom he prays, saying, "At my
first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that
it may not be laid to their charge." This difference of sins it is that
distinguishes Judas with his treason from Peter with his denial. Not that
to him who repenteth there is to be no forgiveness: lest we go against that
sentence of the Lord, in which He commands always to forgive the brother
who asks his brother's forgiveness:(1) but that the mischief of that sin
is, that the man cannot submit to the humiliation of begging for pardon,
even when he is forced by his evil conscience both to acknowledge and to
publish his sin. For when Judas had said, "I have sinned, in that I have
betrayed the innocent blood,"(2) he went and hanged himself in desperation,
rather than pray for forgiveness in humiliation. Wherefore it makes a great
difference, what sort of repentance God forgives. For many are much quicker
than others to confess that they have sinned, and are angry with themselves
in such sort that they vehemently wish they had not sinned, while yet they
cannot lay down their pride, and submit to have the heart humbled and
broken so as to implore pardon: a state of mind which one may well believe
to be, for the greatness of their sin, a part of their already begun
damnation.

   And this, perhaps, it is "to sin against the Holy Ghost:"(3) i.e.
through malice and envy to fight against brotherly charity after receiving
the grace of the Holy Spirit: that sin which the Lord saith hath no
forgiveness, either here or in the world to come ...... For the Lord in
saying to the Pharisees, "Whosoever shall speak an evil word against the
Son of Man,"(4) &c., may have meant to warn them to come to the grace of
God, and having received it, not to sin as they have now sinned. For now
they have spoken an evil word against the Son of Man, and it may be
forgiven them, if they be converted and believe and receive the Holy
Spirit: which when they have received, if they will then have ill-will
against the brotherhood and oppose the grace they have received, there is
no forgiveness for them, either in this world or in the world to come.

Liber de Correptione el Gratia, # 35.

   By this grace such is the liberty they receive, that although as long
as they live here they have to fight against the lusts of sins, and are
overtaken by some sins for which they must daily pray, "Forgive us our
debts," yet they no longer serve the sin which is unto death, of which the
apostle John saith, "There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall
ask for that." Concerning which sin (since it is not expressed) many
different opinions may be formed: but I affirm that sin to be the forsaking
until deaths the "faith which worketh by love.

Contra Maximinum. lib. ii. c. 14, # 2, 3.

   1 Joann. v. 20." Ut simus in vero Filio ejus Jesu Christo; ipse est
verus Deus et vita aeterna."(6)

   When ye read, "That we may be in His true Son Jesus Christ," think of
the "true Son" of God. But this Son ye in no wise think to be the true Son
of God, if ye deny Him to be begotten of the substance of the Father. For
was He already Son of Man and by gift of God became Son of God, begotten
indeed of God, but by grace, not by nature? Or, though not Son of Man, yet
was He some sort of creature which, by God's changing it, was converted
into Son of God? If you mean nothing of this sort, then was He either
begotten of nothing, or of some substance. But thou hast relieved us from
all fear of having to suppose that you affirm the Son of God to be of
nothing, for thou hast declared that this is not your meaning. Therefore,
He is of some substance. If not of the substance of the Father, then of
what? Tell me. But ye cannot find any other... Consequently, the Father and
the Son are of one and the same substance. This is the Homousion .... In
the Scriptures both you and We read, "That we may be in His true Son Jesus
Christ; He is the true God and Eternal Life." Let both parties yield to
such weighty evidence. Tell us then, whether this "true Son" of God,
discriminated as He is by the property of this name from those who are sons
by grace,(1) be of no substance or of some substance. Thou sayest, "I do
not say that He is of no substance, lest I should say that He is of
nothing." He is therefore of some substance: I ask, of what? If not of the
substance of the Father, seek another. If thou findest not another, as
indeed thou canst find none at all, then acknowledge it to be the Father's,
and confess the Son Homousios, "of one substance with the Father." Flesh is
begotten of flesh, the Son of flesh is begotten of the substance of the
flesh. Set: aside corruption, reject from the eye of the mind all carnal
passions, and behold "the invisible things of God understood by the means
of the things that are made."(2) Believe that the Creator who hath given
flesh power to beget flesh, who hath given parents power of the substance
of the flesh to generate "true sons" of flesh, much more had power to beget
a "true Son" of His own substance, and to have one substance with the true
Son, the spiritual incorruption remaining and carnal corruption being
altogether alien therefrom.(3)

Callatio cum Maximino, # 14.

   If He is begotten, He is Son: if He is Son, He is the "true Son,"
because Only-Begotten. For we also are called sons: He Son by nature, we
sons by grace . . . To say that because He is begotten, He is of another
nature, is to deny that He is the "true Son." Now we have the Scripture:
"That we may be in His true Son Jesus Christ; He is the true God and
Eternal Life."(4) Why "true God"? because "true Son" of God. For if He has
given to animals this property, that what they beget shall be none other
than what they themselves are: man begets man, dog begets dog, and should
God not beget God? If then He is of the same substance, why tallest thou
Him less? Is it because when a human father begets a son, though human
beget human, yet greater begets less? If so, then let us wait for Christ to
grow as human beings grow whom human beings beget!(5) But if Christ, ever
since He was begotten (and this was not in time but from eternity), is what
He is, and yet is less than the Father, at that rate the human condition is
the better of the two: for a human being at any rate can grow, and has the
property of sooner or later attaining to the age, to the strength of the
father; but He never: then how is He a "true Son"?

De Trinitate, lib. i. 6, # 9.

   And if the Son be not of the same substance as the Father, then is He a
made substance: if a made substance, then not "all things were made by
Him:" but, "all things were made by Him;"(6) therefore, He is of one and
the same substance with the Father. And therefore, not only God, but True
(or, Very) God. Which the same John doth most openly affirm in his epistle:
Scimus quod Filius Dei venerit et dederit nobis intellectum ut cognoscamus
verum Deum, et simus in vero Filio ejus Jesu Christo. Hic est verus Deus et
vita aeterna." "We know that the Son of God is come; and hath given us an
understanding that we may (learn to) know the True God,(7) and may be in
His true Son Jesus Christ. This is the True God and Eternal Life."

   10. Hence also by consequence we understand, that what the apostle Paul
saith, "Who only hath immortality,"(8) he saith not merely of the Father,
but of the One and Only God, which the Trinity itself is. For neither is
the "Eternal Life" itself mortal in respect of any mutability: and
consequently, since the Son of God "is Eternal Life," He also is to be
understood together with the Father, where it is said, "Who only hath
immortality.


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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