Donatists are as men cast forth from the mar- riage: just as the man who had not a wedding- garment was invited, and came, but was cast forth from the number of the guests because he had not the garment to the glory of the bridegroom; for he who seeks his own glory, not Christ's, has not the wedding garment: for they refuse to agree with him who was the friend of the Bridegroom, and says, "This is He that baptizeth." And deservedly was that which he was not made, by way of re- buke, an objection to him who had not the wedding garment, "Friend, how art thou come hither? "3 And just as he was speech- less, so also are these. For what can tongue-clatter avail when the heart is mute? For they know that inwardly, and with their own selves, they have not anything to say. Within, they are mute; without, they make a din. But whether they will or no, they hear this sung even among themselves, "Arise, O God, judge the earth; for Thou shalt in- herit among the nations:" and by not com- municating with all nations, what do they but acknowledge themselves to be disinherited?
14. Now what I said, brethren, that proph- ecy extends to all nations (for 1 wish to show you another meaning in the expression, " Containing two or three metret?e apiece ''), — that prophecy, I say, extends to all nations, is pointed out, as we have just now reminded you, in Adam, "who is the figure of Him that was to come.'' Who does not know that from him all nations are sprung; and that in the four letters of his name the four quarters of the globe, by their Greek appellations, are in- dicated? For if the east, west, north, and south are expressed in Greek even as Holy Scripture mentions them in various places, the initial letters of the words, thou wilt find, make the word Adam: for in Greek the four quarters of the world are called Anatole, Dysis, Arktos, Mesembria. If thou write these four words, one under the other, like four verses, the capital letters form the word Adam. The same is represented in Noah, by reason of the ark, in which were all ani- mals, significant of all nations: the same in Abraham, to whom it was said more clearly, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed:" the same in David, from whose psalms, to omit other expressions, we have just been singing, "Arise, O God, judge the earth; for Thou shalt inherit among all nations." Now to what God is it said "Arise," but to Him who slept? "Arise, O God, judge the earth." As if it were said. Thou hast been asleep, having been judged by the earth; arise, to 1 Matt. xxii. 13.
68 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate IX, judge the earth. And whither does that prophecy extend, " For Thou shalt inherit among all nations ''?
15. Moreover, in the fifth age, in the fifth water-pot as it were, Daniel saw a stone that had been cut from a mountain without hands, and had broken all the kingdoms of the earth; and he saw the stone grow and be- come a great mountain, so as to fill the whole face of the earth.' What can be plainer, my brethren? The stone is cut from a moun- tain: the same is the stone which the builders rejected, and is become the head of the cor- ner."^ From what mountain is it cut, if not from the kingdom of the Jews, of which our Lord Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh? And it is cut without hands, without human exertion; because Christ sprung from a virgin, without a husband^s embrace. The mountain from which it was cut had not filled the whole face of the earth; for the kingdom of the Jews did not possess all nations. But, on the other hand, the kingdom of Christ we see occupying the whole world.
16. To the sixth age belongs John the Bap- tist, than whom none greater has arisen among those born of women; of whom it was said, that he was "greater than a prophet." ^ And how did John show that Christ was sent to all nations? When the Jews came to him to be baptized, that they might not pride them- selves on the name of Abraham, he said to them, " O generation of vipers, who has pro- claimed to you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repen- tance;'' that is, be humble; for he was speak- ing to proud people. But whereof were they proud? Of their descent according to the flesh, not of the fruit of imitating their father Abraham. What said he to them? " Say not, We have Abraham for our father: "for God is able of these stones to raise. up children to Abraham."'* Meaning by stones all nations, not on account of their durable strength, as in the case of that stone which the builders rejected, but on account of their stupidity and their foolish insensibility, because they had become like the things which they were accustomed to worship: for they worshipped senseless images, themselves equally sense- less, " They that make them are like them, and so are all they that trust in them." s Accordingly, when men begin to worship God, what do they hear said to them? " That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven; who maketh His sun to rise on the good and on the evil, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust,''^ Wherefore, if ' Dan. ii. 34. 4 Malt, iii! 9.
3 Matt. xi. II. 6 Matt. V. 45.
a man becomes like that which he worships, what is meant by " God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham'"? Let us ask ourselves and we shall see that it is a fact. For of those nations are we come, but we should not have come of them had not God of the stones raised up children unto Abraham. We are made children of Abra- ham by imitating his faith, not by being born of his flesh. For just as they b}' their degen- eracy have been disinherited, so have we by imitating been adopted. Therefore, breth- ren, this prophecy also of the sixth water-pot extended to all nations; and hence it was said concerning all, " containing two or three metretse apiece."
17. But how do we show that all nations belong to the " two or three metretae apiece "? It was a matter of reckoning, in some meas- ure, that he should say the same water-pots contained "two apiece," which he had said contained " three apiece; " evidently in order to intimate to us a mystery therein. How are there " two metretae apiece"? Circum- cision and uncircumcision. Scripture men- tions these two classes of people, and leaves out no kind of men, when it says, " Circumci- sion and uncircumcision; " ^ in these two ap- pellations thou hast all nations: they are the two metretcC apiece. In these two walls, meeting from different quarters, " Christ be- came the corner-stone, in order to make peace in Himself."^ Let us show also the "three metretae apiece " in the case of these same all nations. Noah had three sons, through whom the human race was restored. Hence the Lord says, " The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leav- ened."» What is this woman, but the flesh of the Lord? What is the leaven, but the gospel? What the three measures, but all nations, on account of the three sons of Noah? Therefore the "six water-pots con- taining two or three metrexae apiece" are six periods of time, containing the prophecy re- lating to all nations, whether as represented in two sorts of men, namely, Jews and Greeks, as the apostle often mentions them; '° or in three sorts, on account of the three sons of Noah. For the prophecy was represented as reaching unto all nations. And because of that reaching it is called a m.easure," even as the apostle says, " We have received a meas- ure for reaching unto you."'^ For in preach- ing the gospel to the Gentiles, he says, "A ' measure for reaching unto you."
7 Col iii. II. 9 Luke.\iii. 21. II Metreta.
8 Eph. ii. 14.
Tractate X.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
69 TRACTATE X.
Chapter H. 12-21.
I. In the psalm you have heard the groaning of the poor, whose members endure tribula- tions over the whole earth, even unto the end of the world. Make it your chief business, my brethren, to be among and of these mem- bers: for all tribulation is to pass away. " Woe to them that rejoice l"' " Blessed," says the Truth, " are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." God has become man: what shall man be, for whom God is become man? Let this hope comfort us in every tribulation and temptation of this life. For the enemy does not cease to persecute; and when he does not openly rage, he plots in secret. How does he plot? "And for wrath, they worked deceitfully."- Thence is he called a lion and a dragon. But what is said to Christ? " Thou shalt tread on the lion and the dragon." Lion, for open rage; dragon, for hidden treachery. T]ie dragon cast Adam out of Paradise; as a lion, the same persecuted the Church, as Peter says: " For your adversary, the devil, goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may de- vour." 3 Let it not seem to you as if the devil had lost his ferocity. When he blandly flatters, then is he the more vigilantly to be guarded against. But amid all these treacher- ous devices and temptations of his, what shall we do but that which we have heard in the psalm: " And I, when they were troublesome to me, clothed me in sackcloth, and humbled my soul in fasting." ■• There is one that heareth prayer, hesitate not to pray; but He that heareth abideth within. You need not direct your eyes towards some mountain; you need not raise your face to the stars, or to the sun, or to the moon; nor must you suppose that you are heard when you j^ray beside the sea: rather detest such prayers. Only cleanse the chamber of tliy heart; wheresoever thou art, wherever thou prayest. He that hears is within, within in the secret place, which the psalmist calls his bosom, when he says, " And my prayer shall be turned in my own bosom." 5 He that heareth thee is not beyond thee; thou hast not to travel far, nor to lift thyself up, so as to reach Him as it were with thy hands. Rather, if thou lift thyself up, thou shalt fall; if thou humble thyself, He will draw near thee. Our Lord God is here, the ' Luke VI. 25. * Ps. xxxv. 13.
- Ps. xxxv. 20. S Ps. xxxv. i^.
3 1 Pet. V. 8.
Word of God, the Word made flesh, the Son of the Father, the Son of God, the Son of man; the lofty One to make us, the humble to make us anew, walking among men, bear- ing the human, concealing the divine.
2. " He went down," as the evangelist says, " to Capernaum, He, and His mother, and His brethren, and His disciples; and they contin- ued there not many days." Behold He has a mother, and brethren, and disciples: whence He has a mother, thence brethren. For our Scripture is wont to call them brethren, not only that are sprung from the same man and woman, or from the same mother, or from the same father, though by different mothers; or, in truth, that are of the same degree as cousins by the father's or mother's side: not these alone is our Scripture wont to call brethren. The Scripture must be understood as it speaks. It has its own language; one who does not know this language is perplex- ed and says. Whence had the Lord brethren? For surely Mary did not give birth a second time? Far from it! With her begins the dig- nity of virgins. She could be a mother, but a woman known of man she could not be. She is spoken of as viiilier [which usually signifies a iinfe\ but only in reference to her sex, not as implying loss of virgin purity: and this follows from the language of Scripture itself. For Eve, too, immediately she was formed from the side of her husband, and as 3'et not known of her husband, is, as you know, called mulier: "And he made her a woman [mulier]," Then, whence the breth- ren? The kinsmen of Mary, of whatever degree, are the brethren of the Lord. How do we prove this? From Scripture itself. Lot is called " Abraham's brother;" ^ he was his brother's son. Read, and thou wilt find that Abraham was Lot's uncle on the father's side, and yet they are called brethren. Why, but because they were kinsmen? Laban the Syrian was Jacob's uncle by the mother's side, for he was the brother of Rebecca, Isaac's wife and Jacob's mother.' Read the Scripture, and thou wilt find that uncle and sister's son are called brothers.^ When thou hast known this rule, thou wilt find that all the blood relations of AL'iry are the brethren of Christ.
3. But rather were those disciples brethren; * Clen. xiii. 8; xiv. 14. ** Gen. xxix. tj-ij.
7 Gen. xxviii. 5.
70 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate X.
for even those kinsmen would not be brethren were they not disciples: and to no advantage brethren, if they did not recognize their brother as their master. For in a certain place, when He was informed that His mother and His brethren were standing without, at the time He was speaking to His disciples, He said: "Who is my mother? or who are my brethren? And stretching out His hand over His disciples, He said, These are my brethren;" and, "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father, the same is my mother, and brother, and sister."' Therefore also Mary, because she did the will of the Father. What the Lord magnified in her was, that she did the will of the Father, not that flesh gave birth to flesh. Give good heed, beloved. Moreover, when the Lord was regarded with admiration by the multitude, while doing signs and wonders, and showing forth what lay concealed under the flesh, certain admiring souls said: " Happy is the womb that bare Thee: and He said. Yea, rather, happy are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." ' That is to say, even my mother, whom ye have called happy, is happy in that she keeps the word of God: not because in her the Word was made flesh and dwelt in us; but because she keeps that same word of God by which she was made, and which in her was made flesh. Let not men rejoice in temporal offspring, but let them exult if in spirit they are joined to God. We have spoken these things on account of that which the evangelist says, that He dwelt in Capernaum a few days, with His mother, and His brethren, and His disciples.
4. What follows upon this? "And the Jews' passover was at hand; and He went up to Jerusalem." The narrator relates another matter, as it came to his recollection. " And He found in the temple those that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting: and when He had made, as it were, a scourge of small cords. He drove them all out of the temple; the oxen likewise, and the sheep; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; and make not my Father's house a house of merchandise." What have we heard, brethren? See, that temple was still a figure, and yet the Lord cast out of it all that sought their own, all who had come to market. And what did they sell there? Things which people needed in the sacrifices of that time. For you know, beloved, that sacrifices were given to that people, in consideration of the I\Iatt. xii. 46-50.
Luke xi. 27.
carnal mind and stony heart yet in them, to keep them from falling away to idols: and they offered there for sacrifices oxen, sheep, and doves: you know this, for you have read it. It was not a great sin, then, if they sold in the temple that which was bought for the purpose of offering in the temple: and yet He cast them out thence. If, while they were selling what was lawful and not against justice (for it is not unlawful to sell what it is honor- able to buy). He nevertheless drove those, men out, and suffered not the house of prayer to be made a house of merchandise; how, if He found drunkards there, what would the Lord do? If the house of God ought not to be made a house of trading, ought it to be made a house of drinking? But when we say this, they gnash upon us with their teeth; but the psalm which you have heard comforts us: " They gnashed upon me with their teeth." Yet we know how we may be cured, although the strokes of the lash are multiplied on Christ, for His word is made to bear the scourge: " The scourges," saith He, " were gathered together against me, and they knew not.'' He was scourged by the scourges of the Jews; He is now scourged by the blasphemies of false Christians: they multiply scourges for their Lord, and know it not. Let us, so far as He aids us, do as the psalmist did: " But as for me, when they were troublesome to me, I put on sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting." 3 5. Yet we say, brethren (for He did not spare those men.- He who was to be scourged by them first scourged them), that He gave us a certain sign, in that He made a scourge of small cords, and with it lashed the unruly, who were making merchandise of God's temple. ■ For indeed every man twists for himself a rope by his sins: "Woe to them who draw sins as a long rope? " ■' Who makes a long rope? He who adds sin to sin. How are sins added to sins? WlVen the sins which have been committed are covered over by other sins. One has committed a theft: that he may not be found out to have com- mitted it, he seeks the astrologer. It were enough to have committed theft: why wilt thou add sin to sin? Behold two sins com- mitted. When thou art forbidden to go to the astrologer, thou revilest the bishop: be- hold three sins. When thou hearest it said of thee, Cast him forth from the Church; thou sayest, I will betake me to the party of Donntus: behold thou addest a fourth sin. The rope is growing; be thou afraid of the rope. It is good for thee to be corrected 3 Ps. XXXV.
4 Isa. V. 18; LXX.
Tractate X.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
71 here, when thou art scourged with it; tliat it :nay not be said of thee at the last, " Bind ye his hands and feet, and cast him forth into outer darkness.'*" For, "With the cords of his own sins is every one bound." ^ The former of these is the saying of the Lord, the latter that of another Scripture; but yet both are the sayings of the Lord. With their own sins are men bound and cast into outer dark- ness.
6. However, to seek the mystery of the deed in the figure, who are they that sell oxen? Who are they that sell sheep and doves? They are they who seek their own in the Church, not the things which are Christ's. They account all a matter of sale, while they will not be redeemed: they have no wish to be bought, and yet they wish to sell. Yes; good indeed is it for them that they may be redeemed by the blood of Christ, that they may come to the peace of Christ. Now, what does it profit to acquire in this world any temporal and transitory thing what- soever, be it money, or pleasure of the palate, or honor that consists in the praise of men? Are they not all wind and smoke? Do they not all pass by and flee away? Are they not all as a river rushing headlong into the sea? And woe to him who shall fall into it, for he shall be swept into the sea. Therefore ought we to curb all our affections from such de- sires. My brethren, they that seek such things are they that sell. For that Simon, too, wished to buy the Holy Ghost, just be- cause he meant to sell the Holy Ghost; and he thought the apostles to be just such traders as they whom the Lord cast out of the temple with a scourge. For such an one he was himself, and desired to buy what he might sell: he was of those who sell doves. Now it was in a dove that the Holy Ghost appeared. ^ Who, then, are they, brethren, that sell doves, i)ut they who say, "We give the Holy Ghost '"? But why do they say this? and at what price do thev sell? At the price of honor to them- selves. They receive as the price, temporal seats of honor, that they may be seen to l)e sellers of doves. Let them beware of the scourge of small cords. The dove is not for sale: it is given freely; for grace, or favor, it is called. Therefore, my brethren, just as you see them that sell, common chapmen, each cries up what he sells: how many stalls they have set up! Priniianus lias a stall at Carthage, Maximianus has another, Rogatus has another in Mauritania, they have anotlier in Numidia, this party and that, which it is not in our power now to name. Accordingly, ' Matt. xxii. 3.
- Prov. V. 22.
3 Matt. iii. 16.
one goes round to buy the dove, and every one at his own stall cries up what he sells. Let the heart of such an one turn away from every seller; let him come where he receives freely Aye, brethren, and they do not blush, that, by these bitter and malicious dissen- sions of theirs, they have made of themselves so many parties, while they assume to be what they are not, while they are lifted up, thinking themselves to be something when they are nothing.-* But what is fulfilled in them, since that they will not be corrected, but that which you have heard in the psalm: " They were rent asunder, and felt no re- morse "?
7. Well, who sell oxen? They who have dispensed to us the Holy Scriptures are under- stood to mean the oxen. The apostles were oxen, the prophets were oxen. Whence the apostle says: "Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith He it for our sakes? Yea, for our sakes He saith it: that he who ploweth should plow in hope; and he that thresheth, in hope of partaking." s Those oxen, then, have left to us the narra- tion of the Scriptures. For it was not of their own that they dispensed, because they sought the glory of the Lord. Now, what have ye heard in that psalm? "And let them say continually. The Lord be magnified, they that wish the peace of His servant."^ God's servant, God's people, God's Church. Let them who wish the peace of that Church magnify the Lord, not the ser\'ant: "and let them say continually. The Lord be magni- fied." Who, let say? '' Them who wish the peace of His servant." The voice of that people, of that servant, is clearly that voice which you have heard in lamentations in the psalm, and were moved at hearing, because you are of that people. What was sung by one, re-echoed from the hearts of all. Happy they who recognized themselves in those voices as in a mirror. Who, then, are they that wish the peace of His servant, the peace of His people, the peace of the one whom He calls His "only one," and whom He wishes to be delivered from the lion: " Deliver mine only one from the power of the dog? '' ' They who say always, " The Lord be magnified."' Those oxen, then, magnified the Lord, not themselves. See this ox magnifying his Lord, because " the ox knoweth his owner;" * observe that ox in fear lest men desert the ox's owner and rely on the ox: how he dreads them that are willing to put their confidence in him: "Was Paul crucified for you? or 4 Oal. vi. 3.
7 Fs. xxii. 20.
' Ps. XXXV. 27.
72 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate X.
were ye baptized in the name of Paul? " ' Of what I gave, I was not the giver: freely ye have received; the dove came down from heaven. " I have planted," saith he, "Apol- los watered; but God gave the increase: neither he that planteth is anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." - " And let them say always, The Lord be magnified, they that wish the peace of His serv^ant. "