when they had known God," saw this which John says, that by the Word of God all things were made. For these things are also found in the books of the philosophers: and that God has an only-begotten Son, by whom are all things. They were able to see that which is, but they saw it from afar: they were un- willing to hold the lowliness of Christ, in which ship they might have arrived in safety at that which they were able to see from afar; and the cross of Christ appeared vile to them. The sea has to be crossed, and dost thou de- spise the wood? Oh, proud wisdom! thou laughest to scorn the crucified Christ; it is He whom thou dost see from afar: " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." But wherefore was He crucified? Because the wood of His humiliation was needful to thee. For thou hadst become swollen with pride, and hadst been cast out far from that fatherland; and by the waves of this world has the way been intercepted, and there is no means of passing to the fatherland unless borne by the wood. Ungrateful one! thou laughest Him to scorn who has come to thee that thou mayest return: He has become the way, and that through the sea:' thence He walked in the sea to show that there is a way in the sea. But thou who art not able in any way thyself to walk in the sea, be carried in a ship, be carried by the wood: believe in the crucified One, and thou shalt arrive thither. On account of thee He was crucified, to teach thee humility; and because if He should come as God, He would not be recognized. For if He should come as God, He would not come to those who were not able to see God. For not according to His Godhead does He either come or depart; since He is every- where present, and is contained in no place. But, according to what did He come? He appeared as a man.
5. Therefore, because He was so man, that the God lay hid in Him, there was sent before Him a great man, by whose testimony He might be found to be more than man. And who is this? "He was a man." And how could that man speak the truth concern- ing God? "He was sent by God." What was he called? "Whose name was John." Wherefore did he come? "He came for a witness, that he might bear witness concern- ing the light, that all might believe through him." What sort of man was he who was to bear witness concerning the light? Some- thing great was that John, vast merit, great grace, great loftiness! Admire, by nil means, ' Matt. xiv. 25, admire; but as it were a mountain. But a mountain is in darkness unless it be clotned with light. Therefore only admire John that you may hear what follows, " He was not that light;" lest if, when thou thinkest the moun- tain to be the light, thou make shipwreck on the mountain, and find not consolation. But what oughtest thou to admire? The moun- tain as a mountain. But lift thyself up to ; Him who illuminates the mountain, which for this end was elevated that it might be the first to receive the rays, and make them known to your eyes. Therefore, " he was not thai light."
6. Wherefore then did he come? "But that he might bear witness concerning the light." Why so? " That all might believe through him." And concerning what light was he to bear witness? " That was the true light." Wherefore is it added true? Because an enlightened man is also called a light but the true light is that which enlightens For even our eyes are called lights; and nevertheless, unless either during the nijiht a lamp is lighted, or during the day the sun goes forth, these lights are open in vain. Thus, therefore, John was a light, but not the true light; because, if not enlightened, he would have been darkness; but, by en- lightenment, he became a light. For unless he had been enlightened he would have been darkness, as all those once impious men, to whom, as believers, the apostle said, " Yc were sometimes darkness. '' But now, because they had believed, what? — "but now are ye light," he says, " in the Lord." =■ Unless he had added "in the Lord." we should not have understood. "Light," he says, " \x\ the Lord:" darkness you were not in the Lord. " For ye were sometimes ihirkness," where he did not add in the Lonl. There- fore, darkness in you, light in the Lord. And thus " he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of the light."
7. But where is that light? " He was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." If every man that cometh, tiien also John. The true light, therefore, enlightened him by wiioiu lie desired Himself to be pointed out. Under- stand, beloved, for He came to infirm minds, to wounded hearts, to the gaze of dim-eyed souls. For this puri^ose had He come..And whence was the soul able to see that wiiidi perfectly is? Even as it commonly hajipens, tliat l)y means of some illuminated!)oily, the sun, which we cannot see with tin- eyes, is known to have arisen. Because even those ■> Eph. V. 8.
16 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate II.
r who have wounded eyes are able to see a wall illuminated and enlightened by the sun, or a mountain, or a tree, or anything of that sort; and, by means of another body illumi- nated, that arising is shown to those who are not as yet able to gaze on it. Thus, therefore, all those to whom Christ came were not fit to see Him: upon John He shed the beams of His light; and by means of him confessing himself to have been irradiated and enlighten- ed, not claiming to be one who irradiates and enlightens. He is known who enlightens. He is known who illuminates. He is known who fills. And who is it? "He who lighteth every man," he says, "who cometh into the world." For if man had not receded from that light, he would not have required to be illuminated; but for this reason has he to be illuminated here, because he departed from that light by which man might always have been illuminated.
8. What then? If He came hither, where was He? " He was in this world." He was both here and cafne hither; He was here ac- cording to His divinity, and He came hither according to the flesh; because when He was here according to His divinity. He could not be seen by the foolish, by the blind, and the wicked. These wicked men are the darkness, concerning which it was said, "The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness com- prehended it not.'' ^ Behold, both here He is now, and here He was, and here He is always; and He never departs, departs no- whither. There is need that thou have some means whereby thou mayest see that which never departs from thee; there is need that thou depart not from Him who departs no- whither; there is need that thou desert not, and thou shalt not be deserted. Do not fall, and His sun will not set to thee. If thou fallest, His sun setteth upon thee; but if thou standest. He is present with thee. But thou hast not stood: remember how thou hast fallen, how he who fell before thee cast thee down. For he cast thee down, not by vio- lence, not by assault, but by thine own will. For hadst thou not consented unto evil, thou wouldest have stood, thou wouldest have remained enlightened. But now, because thou hast already fallen, and hast become Jf^ wounded in Keart,- — the organ by which that light can be seen, — He came to thee such as tliou mightest see; and He in such fashion manifested Himself as man, that He sought testimony from man. From man God seeks testimony, and God has man as a witness; — God has man as a witness, but on account of ' John i.
man: so infirm are we. By a lamp we seek the day; because John himself was called a lamp, the Lord saying," He was a burning and a shining light; and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light: but I have greater witness than John."^ 9. Therefore He showed that for the sake of men He desired to have Himself revealed by a lamp to the faith of those who believed, that by means of the same lamp His enemies might be confounded. There were enemies who tempted Him, and said, " Tell us by what authority doest thou these things?" " I also," saith He, "will ask you one ques- tion; answer me. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they were troubled, and said among themselves, If we shall say. From heaven, he will say unto us. Why did ye not believe him?" (Because he had borne testimony to Christ, and had said, I am not the Christ, but He. 3 " But if we shall say, Of men, we fear the people, lest they should stone us: for they held John as a prophet." Afraid of stoning, but fearing more to confess the truth, they answered a lie to the Truth; and "wicked- ness imposed a lie upon itself."'* For they said, "We know not." And the Lord, be- cause they shut the door against themselves, by professing ignorance of what they knew, did not open to them, because they did not knock. For it is said. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you."^ Not only did these not knock that it might be opened to them; but, by denying that they knew, they barred that door against themselves. And the Lord says to them. Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.."* And they were con- founded by means of John; and in them were the words fulfilled, "I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame." '' 10. " He was in the world, and the world was made by Him." Tliifnk not that He was in the world as the earth is in the world, as the sky is in the world, as the sun is in the world, the moon and the stars, trees, cattle, and men. He was not thus in the world. But m what manner then? ing what He had As the Artificer governmade. For He did not rhe make it as a carpenter makes a chest, chest which he makes is outside the carpenter, and so it is put in another place, while being made; and although the workman is nigh, he sits in another place, and is external to that which he fashions. But God, infused into = John V. 35.
4 I's. xxvii. 12.
* Matt. xxi. 23-27; Mark xii.
7 Ps. cx.\xii. 17.
Tractatp: II.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
17 fashions it; being everywhere the world, present He fashions, and withdraweth not Himself elsewhere, nor doth He, as it were, handle from without, the matter which He fashions. By the presence of His majestyHe maketh what He maketh; His presence Cgovernsjvyhat He made. Therefore was He m~tlie world as the Maker of the world; for, " The world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not."
11. What meaneth "the world was made by Him"? The heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things which are therein, are called the world. Again, in another signification, those who love the world are called the world. " The world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." Did not the heavens know their Creator, or did the angels not know their Creator, or did the stars not know their Creator, whom the demons confess? All things from all sides gave testimony. But who did not know? Those who, for their love of the world, are called the world. By loving we dwell with the heart; but because of their loving the world they deserved to be called after the name of that in which they dwelt. In the same manner as we say. This house is bad, or this house is good, we do not in calling the one bad or the other good accuse or praise the walls; but by a bad house we mean a house with bad inhabitants, and by a good house, a house with good inhabi- tants. In like manner we call those the world who by loving it, inhabit the world. Who are they? Those who love the world; for they dwell with their hearts in the world. For those who do not love the world in the flesh, indeed, sojourn in the world, but in their hearts they dwell in heaven, as the apostle says, "Our conversation is in heaven."' Therefore "the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not."
12. " He came unto His own,'' — because all these things were made by Him, — "and His own received Him not." Who are they? The men whom He made. The Jews whom He at the first made to be above all nations. Because other nations worshipped idols and served demons; but that people was born of the seed of Abraham, and in an eminent sense His own, because kindred through that flesh which He deigned to assume. " He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." Did they not receive Him at all? did no one receive Him? Was there no one saved? For no one shall be saved unless he who shall have received the coming Christ.
13. But John adds: " As many as received « Phil. iii. 20. [R. V.: " Our citizenship is in heaven. 2 ' Him." What did He afford to them? Great I benevolence! Great mercy! He was born the only Son of God, and was unwilling to remain alone. Many men, when they have not sons, in advanced age adopt a son, and thus obtain by an exercise of will what nature has denied to them: this men do. But if any one have an only son, he rejoices the more in him; because he alone will possess everything, and he will not have any one to divide with him the inheritance, so that he should be poorer. Not so God: that same only Son whom He had begotten, and by whom He created all things. He sent into this world that He might not be alone, but might have adopted brethren. For we were not born of God in the manner in which the Only-begotten was born of Him, but were adopted by His grace. For He, the Only-begotten, came to loose the sins in which we were entangled, and whose burden hindered our adoption: those whom He wished to make brethren to Himself, He Himself loosed, and made joint- heirs. For so saith the apostle, " But if a son, then an heir through God." And again, " Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." He did not fear to have joint-heirs, because His heritage does not become narrow if many are possessors. Those very persons. He being possessor, become His inheritance, and He in turn becomes their inlieritance. Hear in what manner they become His inheritance: " The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee. Ask.of me, and I will give Thee tlie nations for Thine inheritance.''- Hear in wliat manner He becomes their inheritance. He says in the Psalms: " 'i'he Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup."' Let us possess Him, and let Him possess us: let Him possess us as Lord; let us possess Him as salvation, let us possess Him as light. What then tlid He give to them who received Him? '* To them He gave power to become sons of God, even to them tliat believe on His name;" that they may cling to the wooil and cross the sea.
14. And how are tliey born? Because they become sons of God and bretliren of Christ, they are certainly born. For if they arc not born, liow can tiiey be sons? Hut the sons of men are born of flesli and lilood, and of t!ie will of man, and of tlie embrace of wedlock. But in what manner are they born? "Who not of blood.s," as if of male anil female. Bloods is not Latm; but because it is plural in (ireck, tlie interpreter preferred so to ex- press it, and to speakljad Latin according to a P». ii. 7, 8.
1 Pi. xv. 3.
i8 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate II.
the grammarian that he might make the mat- ter plain to the understanding of the weak among his hearers. For if he had said blood in the singular number, he would not have explained what he desired; for men are born of the bloods of male and female. Let us say so, then, and not fear the ferule of gram- marians, so long as we reach the solid and certain truth. He who understands it and blames it, is thankless for his having under- stood. " Not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man." The apostle puts flesh for woman; because, when she was made of his rib, Adam said, "This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh."' And the apostle saith, " He that loveth his wife loveth himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh. "^ Flesh, then, is put for woman, in the same manner that spirit is sometimes put for husband. Wherefore? Because the one rules, the other is ruled; the one ought to command, the other to serve. For where the flesh commands and the spirit serves, the house is turned the wrong way. What can be worse than a house where the woman has the mastery over the man? But that house is rightly ordered where the man commands and the woman obeys. In like manner that man is rightly ordered where the spirit commands and the flesh serves.
15. These, then, "were born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." But that men might be born of God, God was first born of them. For Christ is God, and Christ was born of men. It was only a mother, indeed, that He sought upon earth; because He had already a Father in heaven: He by whom we were to be created was born of God, and He by whom we were to be re-created was born of a woman. Mar- vel not, then, O man, that thou art made a son by grace, that thou art born of God ac- cording to His Word. The Word Himself first chose to be born of man, that thou mightest be born of God unto salvation, and say to thyself. Not without reason did God wish to be born of man, but because He counted me of some importance, that He might make me immortal, and for me be born as a mortal man. When, therefore, he had ' Gen. ii. 23.
2 Eph. V. 28, 29.
said, "born of God," lest we should, as it were, be filled with amazement and trembling at such grace, at grace so great as to exceed belief that men are born of God, as if assur- ing thee, he says, " And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Why, then, dost thou marvel that men are born of God? Consider God Himself born of men: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." 16. But because " the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," by His very nativity he made an eye-salve to cleanse the eyes of our heart, and to enable us to see His majesty by means of His humility. Therefore "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us:" He healed our eyes; and what follows? " And we beheld His glory." His glory can no one see unless healed by the humility of His flesh. Wherefore were we not able to see? Consider, then, dearly beloved, and see what I say. There had dashed into man's eye, as it were, dust, earth; it had wounded the eye, and it could not see the light: that wounded eye is anointed; by earth it was wounded, and earth is applied to it for heal- ing. For all eye-salves and medicines are derived from the earth alone. By dust thou wert blinded, and by dust thou art healed: flesh, then, had wounded thee, flesh heals thee. The soul had become carnal by con-. senting to the affections of the flesh; thus had the eye of the heart been blinded. "The Word was made flesh:" that Physician made for thee an eye-salve. And as He thus came by flesh to extinguish the vices of the flesh, and by death to slay death; therefore did this take place in thee, that, as " the Word became flesh," thou mayest be able to say, " And we beheld His glory." What sort of glory? Such as He became as Son of man? That was His humility, not His glory. But to what is the sight of man brought when cured by means of flesh? " We beheld His glory, the glory as of the 0nly-beg6tten from the Father, full of grace and truth.'' Of grace and truth we shall speak more fully in another place in this same Gospel, if the Lord vouchsafe us opportunity. Let these things suffice for the present, and be ye edified in Christ: be ye comforted in faith, and watch in good works, ■ and see that ye do not depart from the wood by which ye may cross the sea.
-f < Tractate III.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
19 TRACTATE III.
Chapter I. 15-1S.
Wk undertook, in the name of the Lord, and promised to you, beloved, to treat of that grace and truth ot God, full of which the only-begotten Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, appeared to the saints, and to show how, as a matter belonging to the New Testament, it is to be distinguished from the Old Testament. Give, then, your attention, that what I receive in my measure from God, you in your measure may receive and hear the same. For it will only remain if, when the seed is scattered in your hearts, the birds take it not away, nor thorns choke it. nor heat scorch it, and there descend upon it the rain of daily exhortations and your own good thoughts, by which that is done in the heart which in the field is done by means of har- rows, so that the clod is broken, and the seed covered and enabled to germinate: that you bear fruit at which the husbandman may be glad and rejoice. But if, in return for good seed and good rain, you bring forth not fruit but thorns, the seed will not be blamed, nor will the rain be in fault; but for thorns due fire is prepared. ' 2. I do not think that I need spend much time in endeavoring to persuade you that we are Christian men; and if Christians, by virtue of the name, belonging to Christ. Upon the forehead we bear His sign; and we do not blush because of it, if we also bear it in the heart. His sign is His humility. By a star the Magi knew Him; = and this sign was given by the Lord, and it was heavenly and beautiful. He did not desire that a star should be His sign on the forehead of the faithful, but His cross. By it humbled, by it also glorified; by it He raised the humble, even by that to which He, when humbled, descended. We belong, then, to the gospel, we belong to the New Testament. " The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." We ask the apostle, and he says to us, since we are not under the law but under irrace.^ " He sent therefore His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."" Behold, for this end Christ came, that He might redeem those who were under the law; that now we may not be under tiie ' Matt. xiii. 3-25. 3 Rom. vi. 14.
law, but under grace. \\'ho, then, gave the law? He gave tae law who gave likewise grace; but the law He sent by a servant, with grace He Himself came down. And in what manner were men made under the law? By not fu filling the law. For he who fulfills the law is not under the law, but with the law; but he who is under the law is not raised up, but pressed down by the law. All men, therefore, being placed under the law, are by the law made guilty; and for this purpose it is over their head, that it may show sins, not take them away. The law then commands, the Giver of the law slioweth pity in that which the law commands. Men, endeavoring by their own strength to fulfill that which the law commands, fell by their own rash and head- strong presumption; and not with the law, but under the law, became guilty: and since by their own strength they were unable to fulfill the law, and were become guilty under the law, they implored the aid of the Deliverer; and the guilt which the law brought caused sickness to the proud. The sickness of the proud became the confession of the humble. Now tiie sick confess that they are sick; let the physician come to heal the sick.
3. Who is tiie Physician? Our Lord Jesus Christ. Who is our Lord Jesus Christ? He who was seen even by those by whom He was crucified. He who was seized, buffeted, scourged, spit ui)on, crowned witli thorns, suspended ui)on the cross, died, pierced by the spear, taken down from the cross, laid in the sepulchre. That same Jesus Christ our Lord, that same Jesus exactly, He is the com])lete Physician of our wounds. Tliat crucified One at whom insults were cast, and while He hung on tlie cross His persecutors wagging tlie head, and saying. " If he be the Son of God, let him come down from the cross,"' — He, and no otiier, is our ct)mplete Physician. Wiierefore, then, ilitl He not show to his deriders that He was the Son of God; so that if He allowed Himself to l)e lifted up upon tlie cross, at least when they said, " If he be the Son of GotI, let him come down from the cross." He should then come down, and show to tiiem that He was the very Son of God wliom tliey had dared to ileride? He would not. Wherefore would He not? Was it because He could not? Manifestly 20 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractatk III.