I John i. 33.
2 Luke xix. 12.
Tractate XIII.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
91 thou to that other sect." He does well in- deed to be jealous, but see for whom. " Go not thou to idols/' saith he, — he is rightly jeal- ous; " nor todiviners,'' — still rightly jealous. Let us see for whom he is jealous: " What I give is holy, because it is /that give it; he is baptized whom I baptize; he whom I bap- tize not is not baptized." Hear thou the friend of the bridegroom, learn to be jealous for thy friend: hear His voice who is "He that baptizeth.'^ Why desire to arrogate to thyself what is not thine? Is he so very ab- sent who has left here his bride? Knowest thou not, that He who rose from the dead is sitting at the right hand of the Father? If the Jews despised Him hanging on the tree, dost thou despise Him sitting in heaven? Be assured, beloved, that I suffer great grief of this matter; but, as I have said, I leave the rest to your thoughts. I cannot utter it if I speak the whole day. If I bewail it the whole day, I do not enough. I cannot utter it, if I should have, as the prophet says, " a fountain of tears;" and were I changed into tears, and to become all tears, were I turned into tongues, and to become all tongues, it were not enough.
12. Let us return and see what this John saith: " He that hath the bride is the bride- groom; " she is not my bride. And dost thou not rejoice in the marriage? Yea, saith he, I do rejoice: "But the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the voice of the bridegroom." Not because of mine own voice, saith he, do I rejoice, but because of the Bridegroom's voice. I am in the place of hearer; He, of speaker: I am as one that must be enlightened, He is the light; I am as the ear, He is the word. Therefore the friend of the Bridegroom standeth and heareth Him. Why standeth? Because he falls not. How falls not? Because he is humble. See him stand- ing on solid ground; "I am not worthy to loose the latchet of His shoe." Thou doest well to be humble; deservedly thou dost not fall; deservedly thou standest, and hearest Him, and rejoicest greatly for the Bride- groom s voice. So also the apostle is the Bridegroom's friend; he too is jealous, not for himself, but for the Bridegroom. Hear his voice when he is jealous: "I am jealous over you," said he, "with the jealousy of God: " not with my own, nor for myself, but with the jealousy of God. Why? How? Over whom art thou jealous, and for whom?
" For I have espoused you to one husband, to present a chaste virgin to Christ." Wiiy dost thou fear, tb.en? Why art thou jealous? *' I fear," saith he, "lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve by his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the chastity which is in Christ." ' The whole Church is called a virgin. You see that the members of the Church are divers, that they are endowed with and do rejoice in divers gifts: some men wedded, some women wedded; some are wid- owers who seek no more to have wives, some are widows who seek no more to have hus- bands; some men preserve continence from their youth, some women have vowed their virginity to God: divers are the gifts, but all these are one virgin. Where is this virginity? for it is not in the body. It belongs to few women; and if virginity can be said of men, to few men in the Church belongs a holy integrity even of body; yet one such is a more honorable member. Other members, however, preserve virginity, not in body, but all in mind. What is the virginity of the mind? Entire faith, firm hope, sincere chai- ity. This is the virginity which he, who, was jealous for the Bridegroom, feared might be corrupted by the serpent. For, just as the bodily member is marred in a certain part, so the seduction of the tongue defiles the virginity of the heart. Let her who does not desire without cause to keep virginity of body, see to it that she be not corrupted in mind.
13. What shall I say, then, brethren? Even the heretics have virgins, and there are man}'' virgins among heretics. Let us see whether they love the Bridegroom, so that this virginity may be guarded. For whom is it guarded? " For Christ." Let us see if it be for Christ, and not for Donatus: let us see for whom this virginity is preserved: you can easily prove. Behold, I show you the Bridegroom, for He shows Himself. John bears witness to Him: " This is He that bap- tizeth." O thou virgin, if for this Bride- groom thou preservest thy virginity, why run- nest tliou to him who says, " I am he that baptizeth," while the friend of the Bride- groom tells thee, " This is He that baptiz- eth "? Again, thy Bridegroom possesseth the whole world; why, then, shouldst thou be defiled with a part of it? Who is the Bridegroom.''
For God is King of all the earth.
This thy Bridegroom possesses the whole, because He purchased the whole. See at what price He purchased it, that thou mayest understand what He has purchased. What price has He given? He gave His blood. Where gave He, where shed He, His blood? In His passion. Is it not to thy Bridegroom thou singest, or feignest to sing, when the whole world was purchased: " Tliey pierced ' — ^ ■'-■-■- ' 2 Cor. xi, 2, 3.
92 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XIII.
my hands and my feet, they counted all my tones: but they themselves considered me, they looked upon me, they divided my gar- ments among them, and upon my vesture they cast lots "? Thou art the bride, acknow- ledge thy Bridegroom's vesture. Upon what vesture was the lot cast? Ask the Gospel; see to whom thou art espoused, see from whom thou receivest pledges. Ask the Gospel; see what it tells thee in the suffering of the Lord, ^' There was a coat" there: let us see what kind; "woven from the top throughout." What does the coat woven from the top sig- nify, but charity? What does this coat sig' Tiify, but unity? Consider this Coat, which not even the persecutors of Christ divided. For it saith, " They said among themselves, Let us not divide it, but let us cast lots upon it." Behold that of which the psalm spoke! Christ's persecutors did not rend His gar- ment; Christians divide the Church.
14. But what shall I say, brethren? Let us see plainly what He purchased. For there He bought, where He paid the price. Paid it for how much? If He paid it only for Africa, let us be Donatists, and not be called Donatists, but Christians; since Christ bought only Africa: although even here are other than Donatists. But He has not been silent of what He bought in this transaction. He has made up the account: thanks be to God, He has not tricked us. Need there is for that bride to hear, and then to understand to whom she has vowed her virginity. There, in that psalm where it says, " They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones;'' wherein the Lord's passion is most openly declared; — the psalm which is read every year on the last week, in the hearing of the whole people, at the approach of Christ's passion; and this psalm is read both among them and us; — there, I say, note, brethren, what He has bought: let the bill of merchan- dise be read: hear ye what He bought: "All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship in His sight: fOr the kingdom is His, and He shall rule the na- tions." Behold what it is He has bought! Behold! "For God, the King of all the earth," is thy Bridegroom. Why, then, wouldst thou have one so rich reduced to rags? Acknowledge Him: He bought the whole; yet thou sayest, " Thou hast a part of it here." Oh, would that thou wert well- pleasing to thy Spouse; would that thou who speakest wert not defiled, and, what is worse, defiled in heart, not in body! Thou lovest a man instead of Christ; lovest one that says, *' 'Tis I that baptize; " not hearing the friend of the Bridegroom when he says, " This is He that baptizeth;" not hearing him when he says, " He that hath the bride is the Bride- groom." I have not the bride, said he; but what am I? "But the friend of the Bride- groom, who standeth and heareth Him, re- joiceth greatly, because of the Bridegroom's voice."
15. Evidently, then, my brethren, it pro- fits those men nothing to keep virginity, to have continence, to give alms. All those doings which are praised in the Church profit them nothing; because they rend unity, namely, that "coat" of charity. What do they? Many among them are eloquent; great tongues, streams of tongues. Do they speak like angels? Let them hear the friend of the Bridegroom, jealous for the Bridegroom, not for himself: " Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." ' 16. But what say they? " We have bap- tism." Thou hast, but not thine. It is one thing to have, another to own. Baptism thou hast, for thou hast received to be baptized, received as one enlightened, provided thou be not darkened of thyself; and when thou givest, thou givest as a minister, not as owner; as a herald proclaiming, not as a judge. The judge speaks through the herald, and nevertheless it is not written in the regis- ters, "The herald said," but, "The judge said." Therefore see if what thou givest is thine by authority. But if thou hast re- ceived, confess with the friend of the Bride- groom, "A man cannot receive anything, ex- cept it be given him from heaven." Confess with the friend of the Bridegroom, " He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom; but the friend of the Bridegroom standeth and hear- eth Him." But O. would thou didst stand and hear Him, and not fall, to hear thyself! For by hearing Him, thou wouldst stand and hear; for thou wilt speak, and/thy head is puf- fed with pride. I, saith the Church, if I am the bride, if I nave received pledges, if I have been redeemed at the price of that blood, do hear the voice of the Bridegroom; and I do hear the voice of the Bridegroom's friend too, if he give glory to my Bridegroom, not to himself. Let the friend speak: " He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom; but the friend of the Bridegroom standeth and hear- eth Him, and rejoices greatly because of the voice of the Bridegroom." Behold, thou hast sacraments; and I grant that thou hast. Thou hast the form, but thou art a branch I I Cor. xiii. i.
Tractate XIV.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
cut off from the vine; thou hast a form, I want the root. There is no fruit of the form, except where there is a root; but where is the root but in charity? Hear the form of the cat-off branches; let Paul speak: " Though I know all mysteries," saith he, "and have all prophecy, and all faiih " (and how great a faith!), "so as to remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing."
17. Let no man tell you fables, then. " Pontius wrought a miracle; and Donatus prayed, and God answered him from heaven." In the first place, either they are deceived, or they deceive. In the last place, grant that he removes mountains: "And have not charity," saith the apostle, " I am nothing.'' Let us see whether he has charity. I would believe that he had, if he had not divided unity. For against those whom I may call marvel-workers, my God has put me on my guard, saying, " In the last times there shall arise false prophets, doing signs and wonders, to lead into error, if it were possible, even the elect: Lo, I have foretold it to you."' Therefore the Bridegroom has cautioned us, that we ought not to be deceived even by miracles. Sometimes, indeed, a deserter frightens a plain countryman; but whether he is of the camp, and whether he is the better of that character with which he is marked, is what he who would not be frightened or se- duced attends to. Let us then, my brethren, hold unity: without unity, even he who works miracles is nothing. The people Israel was in unity, and yet wrought no miracles: Pharaoh's magicians were out of unity, and yet they wrought the like works as Moses. ^ The peo- ple Israel, as I have said, wrought no miracles. Who were saved with God — -they who did, or they who did not, work miracles? The Apostle Peter raised a dead person: Simon Magus did many things- there were there certani Christians who were not able to do either what Peter did or what Simon did; 2 Ex. vii 12.
and wherein did they rejoice? In this, that their names were written in heaven. For this is what our Lord Jesus Christ said to the dis- ciples on their return, because of the faith of the Gentiles. The disciples, in truth, them- selves said, boasting, "Behold, Lord, in Thy name even the devils are subject to us." Rightly indeed they confessed, they brought the honor to the name of Christ; and yet what does He say to them? "Do not ye glory in this, that the devils are subject to- you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." 3 Peter cast out devils. Some old widow, some lay person or other, having charity, and holding the integrity of faith, forsooth does not do this. Peter is the eye in the body, that man is the finger, yet is he in the same body in w^hich Peter is; and if the finger has less power than the eye, yet it is not cut off from the body. Better is it to be a finger and to be in the body, than to be an eye and to be plucked out of the body.
18. Therefore, my brethren, let no man deceive you, let no man seduce you: love the peace of Christ, who was crucified for you, whilst He was God. Paul says, " Neither he that planteth is anything, neither he that wa- tereth, but God who giveth the increase."*' And does any of us say that he is something? If we say that we are something, and give not the glory to Him, we are adulterers; we desire ourselves to be loved, not the Bride- groom. Love ye Christ, and us in Him, in whom also you are beloved by us. Let the members love one another, but live all under the Head. With grief indeed, my brethren, I have been obliged to speak much, and yet I have said little: I have not been able to finish the passage; God will help us to finish it in due season. I did not wish to burden your hearts further; I wish them to be free for sighs and prayers in behalf of those who are still deaf and do not understand.
3 Luke X. 17.
4 I Cor. iii. 7.
TRACTATE XIV.
CHArTKR 1 II. 29-36.
I. This lesson from the holy Gospel shows us the excellency of our Lord Jesus Christ's divinity, and the humility of the man For the Man who is God is our Lonl Jesus Christ, God before all ages, Man in tlie age of our world: God of tlie Father, man of the who earned the title of the Bridegroom's Virgin, yet one and the same Lord and Saviour friend; that we may distinguish between the Jesus Christ, Son of God, God and man. But man who is man, and the Man who is God. John, a man of distinguished grace, was sent 94 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XIV.
before Him, a man enlightened by Him who is the Light. For of John it is said, "He was not the Light, but that he should bear witness of the Light." He may himself be called a light indeed, and rightly so; but an enlightened, not an enlightening light. The light that enlightens, and that which is en- lightened, are different things: for even our eyes are called lights (lumina)^ and yet when we open them in the dark, they do not see. But the light that enlightens is a light both from itself and for itself, and does not need another light for its shining; but all the rest need it, that they may shine.
2. Accordingly John confessed Him: as you have heard that when Jesus was making many disciples, and they reported to John as if to excite him to jealousy, — for they told the matter as if moved by envy, *' Lo, he is making more disciples than thou," — John confessed what he was, and thereby merited to belong to Him, because he dared not affirm himself to be that which Jesus is. Now this is what John said: "A man cannot receive anything, except it be given him from heaven. " Therefore Christ gives, man receives. "Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him. He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom; but the friend of the Bridegroom, who stand- eth and heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly be- cause of the Bridegroom's voice. '* Not of himself did he give himself joy. He that will have joy of himself shall be sad; but he that will have his joy of God will ever rejoice, because God is everlasting. Dost thou de- sire to have everlasting joy? Cleave to Him who is everlasting. Such an one John de- clared himself to be. *' Because of the Bride- groom's voice, the friend of the Bridegroom rejoiceth," not because of his own voice, and *'standeth and heareth." Therefore, if he falls, he heareth Him not: for of a certain one who fell it is said, " And he stood not in the truth;"' this is said of the devil. It be- hoves the Bridegroom's friend, then, "to stand and to hear." What is it to stand? It is to abide in His grace, which he received. And he hears a voice at which he rejoices. Such was John: he knew whereof he rejoiced; he did not arrogate to himself to be what he was not; he knew himself as one enlightened, not the enlightener. " But that was the true Light," saith the evangelist, " that lighteneth every man coming into this world." If " every man," then also John himself; for he too is of men. Moreover, although none hath arisen among them that are born of ' Jobii viii. 44.
women greater than John, yet he was himself one of those that are born of women. Is he to be compared with Him who, because He willed it, was born by a singular and extra- ordinary birth? For both generations of the Lord are unexampled, both the divine and the human: by the divine He has no mother; by the human, no father. Therefore John vvas but one of the rest: of greater grace, how- ever, so that of those born of women none arose greater than he; so great a testimony he gave to our Lord Jesus Christ as to call Him the Bridegroom, and himself the Bride- groom's friend, not worthy however to loose the latchet of the Bridegroom's shoe. You have already heard much on this point, be- loved: let us look to what follows; for it is somewhat hard to understand. But as John himself says, that " no man can receive any- thing, except it be given him from heaven," whatever we shall not have understood, let us ask Him who gives from heaven: for we are men, and cannot receive anything, except He, who is not man, give it us.
3. Now this is what follows: and John says, " This my joy therefore is fulfilled." What is his joy? To rejoice at the Bridegroom's voice. It is fulfilled in me, I have my grace; more I do not assume to myself, lest also I lose what I have received. What fs this joy? " With joy rejoiceth for the Bridegroom's voice." A man may understand, then, that he ought not to rejoice of his own wisdom, but of the wisdom which he has received from God. Let him ask nothing more, and he loses not what he found. For many, in that they affirmed themselves to be wise, became fools. The apostle convicts them, and says of them, " Because that which is known of God is manifest to them; for God has showed it unto them." Hear ye what he says of cer- tain unthankful, ungodly men: " For the in- visible things of Him from the creation of the world are seen, being understood by the things that are made. His etei^nal power like- wise, and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." Why without excuse? " Because, knowing God " (he said not, " because they knew Him not "), " they glorified Him not as God, nor were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened: professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.'" If they had known God, they had known at the same time that God, and none other, had made them wise; and they would not then attribute to themselves that which they did not have from themselves, but to Him from whom they • 2 Rom. i. 19-22.
Tractate XIV.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
95 had received it. But by their unthankfuhiess they became fools. Therefore, what God gave freely. He took from the unthankful. John would not be this; he would be thank- ful: he confessed to have received, and de- clared that he rejoiced for the Bridegroom's voice, saying, " Therefore this my joy is ful- filled."
4. " He must increase, but I must de- crease." What is this? He must be exalted, but I must be humbled. How is Jesus to increase? How is God to increase? The perfect does not increase. God neither in- creases nor decreases. For if He increases. He is not perfect; if He decreases, he is not God. And how can Jesus increase, being God? If to man's estate, since He deigned to be man and was a child; and, though the Word of God, lay an infant in a manger; and, though His mother's Creator, yet sucked the milk of infancy of her: then Jesus having grown in age of the flesh, that perhaps is the reason why it is said, " He must increase, but I must decrease.'' But why in this? As re- gards the flesh, John and Jesus were of the same age, there being six months between them: they had grown up together; and if our Lord Jesus Christ had willed to be here longer before His death, and that John should be here with Him, then, as they had grown up together, so would they have grown old to- gether: in what way, then, " He must increase, but I must decrease "? Above all, our Lord Jesus Christ being now thirty years old, does a man who is already thirty years old still grow? From that same age, men begin to go downward, and to decline to graver age, thence to old age. Again, even had they both been lads, he would not have said, " He must increase,'' but. We must increase together. But now each is thirty years of age. The in- terval of six months makes no difference in age; the difference is discovered by reading rather than by the look of the persons.
5. What means, then, " He must increase, but I must decrease "? This is a great mys- tery! Before the Lord Jesus came, men were glorying of themselves; He came a man, to lessen man's glory, and to increase the glory of God. Now He came without sin, and found all men in sin. H thus He came to put away sin, God may freely give, man may confess. For man's confession is man's lowliness: God's pity is God's loftiness. Therefore, since He came to forgive man his sins, let man acknowledge his own lowliness and let God show His pity. " He must in- crease, but I must decrease:" that is, He must give, but I must receive; He must be glorified, but I must confess. Let man know his own condition, and confess to God; and hear the apostle as he says to a proud, elated man, bent on extolling himself: "What hast thou that thou didst not receive? And if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou didst not receive it? " ' Then let man understand that he has received; and when he would call that his own which is not his, let him decrease: for it is good for him that God be glorified in him. Let him decrease in himself, that he may be increased in God. These testimonies and this truth, Christ and John signified by their deaths. For John was lessened by the Head: Christ was exalted on the cross; so that even there it appeared what this is, " He must increase, but I must de- crease." Again, Christ was born when the days were just beginning to lengthen; John was born when they began to shorten. Thus their very creation and deaths testify to the words of John, when he says, " He must in- crease, but I must decrease." May the glory of God then increase in us, and our own glory decrease, that even ours may increase in God! For this is what the apostle says, this is what Holy Scripture says: " He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." " Wilt thou glory in thyself? Thou wilt grow; but grow worse in thy evil. For whoso grows worse is justly decreased. Let God, then, who is ever per- fect, grow, and grow in thee. For the more thou understandest God, and apprehendest Him, He seems to be growing in thee; but in Himself He grows not, being ever perfect. Thou didst understand a little yesterday; thou understandest more to-day, wilt understand much more to-morrow: the very light of God increases in thee; as if thus God increases, who remains ever perfect. It is as if one's eyes were being cured of former blindness, and he began to see a little glimmer of light, and the next day he saw more, and the third day still more: to him the light would seem to grow; yet the light is perfect, whether he see it or not. Thus it is also with the inner man: he makes progress indeed in God, and God seems to be increasing in him; yet man himself is decreasing, that he may fall from his own glory, and rise into the glory of God.
6. What we have just heard, appears now distinctly and clearly. "He thatcometh from above, is above all." See what he says of Christ. What of himself? " He that isof th.e earth, is of earth, and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from above is above all" — this is Christ; and " he that is of the earth, is of earth, and speaketh of the earth" — this is John. And is this the whole: John is of the • I Cor. iv. 7.
Cor.
1. 31- 96 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XIV.