13, By all means there is a sense, a true and strong sense, if somehow we can grasp it, in which "the Father judgeth not any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son." For this is said because none will appear to men in the judgment but the Son. The Father will be hidden, the Son will be mani- fest. In what will the Son be manifest? In the form in which He ascended. For in the form of God He was hidden with the Father; in the form of a servant, manifest to men. Not therefore " the Father judgeth any man, but all judgment hath He given to the Son: " only the manifest judgment, in which manifest judgment the Son will judge, since the same will appear to them that are to be judged. The Scripture shows us more clearly that it is the Son that will appear. On the fortieth day after His resurrection He ascended into heaven, while His disciples were looking on; and they hear the angelic voice: " Men of Galilee," saith it, "why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same that is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen FLim going into heaven. " ^ In what manner did they see Him go? In the flesh, which they touched, which they handled, the wounds even of which they proved by touching; in that body in which He went in and out with them for forty days, manifesting Him.self to them in truth, not in falsity; not a phantom, or shadow, or ghost, but, as Himself said, not deceiving them, " Handle and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."* That body is now indeed worthy of a heavenly habitation, not being subject to death, nor mutable by the lapse of ages. It is not as it had grown to that age from infancy, so from the age of 3 Acts i. 3-1 1.
4 Luke -xxiv. 39.
Tractate XXI.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
143 manhood declines to old age: He remains as He ascended, to come to those to whom He willed His word to be preached before He comes. Thus will He come in human form, and this form the wicked will see; both they on the right shall see it, and they that are separated to the left shall see it: as it is written, " They shall look on Him whom they pierced." ' If they shall look on Him whom they pierced, they shall look on that same body which they struck through with the spear; for a spear does not pierce the Word. This body, therefore, will the wicked be able to look on which they were able to wound. God hidden in the bod}^ they will not see: after the judgment He will be seen by those who will be on the right hand. This, then, is what He means when He saith, "The Father judgeth not any man, but all judgment hath He given to the Son," — that the Son will come to judgment manifest, apparent to men in human body; saying to those on the right, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom; " and to those on the left, " Go into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. " = 14. Behold, that form of man will be seen by the godly and by the wicked, by the just and the unjust, by the believers and unbe- lievers, by those that rejoice and by those that mourn, by them that trusted and by them that are confounded: lo, seen it will be. When that form shall have appeared in the judgment, and the judgment shall have been finished, where it is said that the Father judgeth not any, but hath given all judgment to the Son, for this reason, that the Son will appear in the judgment in that form which He took from us. What shall be after this? When shall be seen the form of God, which all the faithful are thirsting to see? When shall be seen that Word which was in the be- ginning, God with God, by which all things were made? When shall be seen that form of God, of which the apostle saith, " Being in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God"?3 For great is that form, in which, moreover, the quality of the Father and Son is recognized; ineffable, in- comprehensible, most of till to little ones. When shall this form be seen? Behold, on the right are the just, on the left are the unjust; all alike see the man, they see the Son of man, they see Him who was pierced. Him who was crucified they see: they see Him that was made low, Him who was born of the Virgin, the Lamb of the tribe of Judali they see. But when will they see the Word, God with » Zech. xii. 13 T Phil. ii. 6.
God? He will be the very same even then, but the form of a servant will appear. The form of a servant will be shown to servants: the form of God will be reserved for sons. Wherefore let the servants be made sons: let them who are on the right hand go into the eternal inheritance promised of old, which the martyrs, though not seeing, believed, for the promise of which they poured out their blood without hesitation; let them go thither and see there. When shall they go thither? Let the Lord Himself say: "So those shall go into everlasting burning, but the righteous into life eternal."'* 15. Behold, He has named eternal life. Has He told us that we shall there see and know the Father and Son? What if we shall live for ever, yet not see that Father and Son? Hear, in another place, where He has named eternal life, and expressed what eternal life is: " Be not afraid; I do not deceive thee; not without cause have I promised to them that love me, saying, ' He that hath my command- ments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will show myself to him.' " ^ Let us answer the Lord, and say, What great thing is this, O Lord our God? What great thing is it? Wilt Thou show Thyself to us? What, then, didst Thou not show Thyself to the Jews also? Did not they see Thee who crucified Thee? But Thou wilt show Thyself in the* judgment, when we shall stand at Thy right hand; will not also they who will stand on Thy left see Thee? Wliat is it that Thou wilt show l"hy- self to us? Do we, indeed, not see Thee now when Thou art speaking? He makes answer: I will show myself in the form of God; just now you see the form of a serv^ant. I will not deceive thee, O faithful man; be- lieve that thou shalt see. Thou lovest, and yet thou dost not see: shall not love itself lead thee to see? Love, persevere in loving; I will not disappoint thy love, saith He, I who have purified thy heart. For why have I puri- fied thy heart, but to the end that God may be seen by thee? For " blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."* "But this," saith the servant, as if disputing with the Lord, "Thou didst not express, when Thou didst say, ' The righteous shall go into life eternal; ' Thou didst not say, They shall go to see me in the form of God, and to see the Fatlier, with whom I am ecpial." Observe what He said elsewhere: " This is life eter- nal, that they may know Thee the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. " ' 5 John xiv. 21 7 John xvii. 3.
144 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XXII.
16. And immediately, then, after the judg- ment mentioned, all which the Father, not judging any man, hath given to the Son, what shall be? What follows? "That all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." The Jews honor the Father, de- spise the Son. For the Son was seen as a servant, the Father was honored as God. But the Son will appear equal with the Father, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. This we have, therefore, now in faith. Let not the Jew say, " I honor the Father; what have I to do with the Son? " Let him be answered, '" He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father. Thou liest ■every way; thou blasphemest the Son, and dost wrong to the Father. For the Father sent the Son, and thou despisest Him whom the Father sent. How canst thou honor the sender, who blasphemest the sent? " 17. Behold, says some one, the Son has been sent; and the Father is greater, because He sent. Withdraw from the flesh; the old man suggests oldness in time. Let the an- cient, the perpetual, the eternal, to thee the new, call off thy understanding from time to this. Is the Son less because He is said to have been sent? I hear of a sending, not a separation. But yet, saith he, among men we see that he who sends is greater than he who is sent. Be it so; but human affairs de- ceive a mjyi; divine things purge him. Do not regard things human, in which the sender appears greater, the sent less; notwithstand- ing, things human themselves bear testimony against thee. Just as, for example, if a man wishes to ask a woman to wife, and, not being able to do this in person, sends a friend to ask for him. And there are many cases in which the greater is chosen to be sent by the less. Why, then, wouldst thou now raise a captious objection, because the one has sent, the other is sent? The sun sends out a ray, but does not separate it; the moon sends out her sheen, but does not separate it; a lamp sheds light, but does not separate it: I see there a sending forth, not a separation. For if thou seekest examples from human things, O heretical vanity, Although, as I have said, even human things in some instances refute thee, and convict of error; yet consider how different it is in the case of things human, from which you wish to deduce examples for things divine. A man that sends remains himself behind, while only the man that is sent goes forward. Does the man who sends go with him whom he sends? Yet the Father, who sent the Son, has not departed from the Son. Hear the Lord Himself saying, " Be- hold, the hour is coming, when every one shall depart to his own, and ye will leave me alone; but I am not alone, because the Father is with me." ' How has He, with whom He came, sent Him? How has He, from whom He has not departed, sent Him? In another place He said, " The Father abiding in me doeth the works." " Behold, the Father is in Him, works in Him. The Father sending has not departed from the Son sent, because the sent and the sender are one.
' John xvi. 32.
" John xiv. 10.
TRACTATE XXII Chapter V. 24-30.
Upon the discourses delivered yesterday and the day before, follows the Gospel lesson of to-day, which we must endeavor to ex- pound in due course, not indeed propor- tionably to its importance, but according to our ability: both because you take in, not according to the bountifulness of the gush- ing fountain, but according to your mod- erate capacity; and we too speak into your ears, not so much as the fountain gives forth, but so much as we are able to take in we convey into your minds, — the matter itself working more fruitfully in your hearts than we in your ears. For a great matter is ' treated of, not by great masters, nay, rather : by very small; but He who, being great, for our sakes became small, gives us hope and I confidence. For 'if we were not encouraged [by Him, and invited to understand Him; if He abandoned us as contemptible, since we were not able to partake His divinity if He did not partake our mortality and come to us to speak His gospel to us; if He had not willed to partake with us what in us is abject and most sm.all, — then we might think that He who took on Himself our smallness, had not been willing to bestow on us His own greatness. This I have said lest any should Tractate XXII.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
H5 blame us as over-bold in handling these matters, or despair of himself that he should be able to understand, by God's gift, what the Son of God has deigned to speak to him. Therefore what He has deigned to speak to us, we ought to believe that He meant us to understand. But if we do not understand, He, being asked, gives understanding, who gave His Word unasked.
2. Lo, what these secrets of His words are, consider well. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whoso heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath eternal life." Surely we are all striving after eternal life: and He saith, " Whoso heareth my word, and believeth Him that sent me, hath eternal life." Then, would He have us hear His word, and yet would He not have us under- stand it? Since, if in hearing and believing is eternal life, much more in understanding. But the action of piety is faith, the fruit of faith understanding, that we may come to eternal life, when tliere will be no reading of Gospel to us; but after all pages of reading and the voice of reader and preacher have been removed out of the way, He, who has at this time dispensed to us the gospel, will Himself appear to all that are His, now present with Him with purged heart and in an immortal body never more to die, cleans- ing and enlightening them, now living and seeing how that "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." There- fore let us consider at this time who we are, and ponder whom we hear. Christ is God, and He is speaking with men. He would have them to apprehend Him, let Him make them capable; He would have them see Him, let Him open their eyes. It is not, however, witiiout cause that He speaks to us, but be- cause that is true which He promises to us.
3. " Whoso heareth my words," saith He, "and believeth Him that sent me, hath eternal life, and shall not come into judg- ment, but is passed frcnn death unto life." Where, when do we come from death to life, that we come not into judgment? In this life there is a passing from death to life; in this life, which is not yet life, there is a passing hence from death unto life. What is that passing? "Whoso heareth my words," He said, "and believeth Him that sent me." Observing these, thou believest and passest. And does a man pass while standing? Evi- dently; for in body he stands, in mind he passes. Where was he, whence he should pass, and whither does he pass? He passes from death to life. Look at a man standhig, in whom all that is here saitl may happen. He stands, he hears; perhaps he did not be- 10 lieve, by hearing he believes: a little before he did not believe, just now he believes; he has made a passage, as it were, from the region of unbelief to the region of faith, by motion of the heart, not of the body, by a motion into the better; because they vvho again abandon faith move into the worse. Behold, in this life, which, just as I have said, is not yet life, there is a passing from death to life, so that there may not be a com- ing into judgment. But why did I say that it is not yet life? If this were life, the Lord would not have said to a certain man, " If thou wilt come into life, keep the command- ments.'^^ For He saith not to him. If thou wilt come into eternal life; He did not add eternal, but said only life. Therefore this life is not to be named life, because it is not a true life. What is true life, but that which is eternal life? Hear the apostle speaking to Timothy, when he says, "Charge them that are rich in this world, not to be high-minded, nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us al! things richly to enjoy; let them do good, be rich in good works, ready to distribute, to communicate." Why does he say this' Hear what follows: " Let them lay up in store for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold of the true life.''- If they ought to lay up for themselves a good founda- tion for the time to come, in order to lay hold of the true life, surely this in which they were is a false life. For why shouldest thou desire to lay hold of the true, if thou hast the true already? Is the true to be laid hold of? There must then be a departing from the false. And by what way must be the depart- ing? Whither? Hear, believe; and thou makest the passage from death into life, and comest not into judgment.
4. What is this, "and thou comest not into judgment"? And who will be better than the Apostle Paul, who saith, " We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may there receive what he has done in the body, whether it be good or evil "? 3 Paul saith, " We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ;" and darest thou promise to thyself that thou shalt not come into ju gment? Be it far from me, sayest thou, tliat I should dare promise this to myself. But I believe Him that cloth promise. The Saviour speaks, the Trutii promises, Himself said to me, " Whoso hear- eth my words, and believeth Him that sent me, hath eternal life, and makes a passage from death unto life, and shall not come into Malt. xi.\-. 17.
- Tim. vi.
17-19.
3 2 Cor. V. 10.
146 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XXII.
judgment." I then have heard the words of my Lord, and I have believed; so now, when I was an unbeliever, I became a believer; even as He warned me, I passed from death to life, I come not into judgment; not by my presumption, but by His promise. Does Paul, however, speak contrary to Christ, the servant against his Lord, the disciple against his Master, the man against God; so that, when the Lord saith, "Whoso heareth and believeth, passeth from death to life," the apostle should say, "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ "? Other- wise, if he comes not into judgment who ap- pears before the judgment-seat, I know not how to understand it.
5. The Lord our God then reveals it, and by His Scriptures puts us in mind how it may be understood when judgment is spoken of. I exhort you, therefore, to give atten- tion. Sometimes judgment means punish- ment, sometimes it means discrimination. According to that mode of speech in which judgment means discrimination, "we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that " a man " may there receive what things he has done in the body, whether it be good or ill." For this same is a discrimination, to j distribute good things to the good, evil things to the evil. For if judgment were always to be taken in a bad sense, the psalm would not say, "Judge me, O God." Perhaps some one is surprised when he hears one say, '^ Judge me, O God." For man is wont to say, " Forgive me, O God; " "Spare me, O God." Who is it that says, " Judge me, O God "? Sometimes in the psalm this very verse even is placed in the pause,' to be given out by the reader and responded by the people. Does it not perhaps strike some man's heart so much that he is afraid to sing and to say to God, "Judge me, O God"? And yet the people sing it with confidence, and do not imagine that they wish an evil thing in that which they have learned from the divine word; even if they do not well un- derstand it, they believe that what they sing is something good. And yet even the psalm itself has not left a man without an insight into the meaning of it. For, going on, it shows in the words that follow what kind of judgment it spoke of; that it is not one of condemnation, but of discrimination. For saith it, " Judge me, O God." What means " Judge me, O God, and discern my cause from an unholy nation"? According to this judgment of discerning, then, "we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ."
I Diapsabiia.
But again, according to the judgment of con- demnation, "Whoso heareth my words," saith He, " and believeth Him that sent me, hath eternal life, and shall not come into judgment, but makes a passage from death to life." What is "shall not come into judg- ment?" Shall not come into condemnation. Let us prove from the Scriptures that judg- ment is put where punishment is understood; although also in this very passage, a little further on, you will hear the same \.&xv<\ judg- ment put for nothing else than for condemna- tion and punishment. Yet the apostle says in a certain place, writing to those who abused the body, what the faithful among you know; and because they abused it, they were chas- tised by the scourge of the Lord. For he says to them, "Many among you are weak and sickly, and deeply sleep." For many therefore even died. And he went on: " For if we judged ourselves, we should not be judged by the Lord; " that is, if we reproved ourselves, we should not be reproved by the Lord. "But when we are judged, ^ye are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world."- There are therefore those who are judged here accord- ing to punishment, that they may be spared there; there are those who are spared here, that they may be the more abundantly tor- mented there; and there are those to whom the very punishments are meted out without the scourge of punishment, if they be not corrected by the scourge of God; that, since here they have despised the Father that scourgeth, they may there feel the Judge that punisheth. Therefore there is a judgment into which God, that is, the Son of God, will in the end send the devil and his angels, and all the unbelieving and ungodly with him. To this judgment, he who, now believing, passes from death unto life, shall not come.
6. For, lest thou shouldest think that by believing thou art not to die/according to the flesh, or lest, understanding it carnally, thou shouldest say to thyself, " My Lord has said to me. Whoso heareth my words, and believ- eth Him that sent me, is passed from death to life: I then have believed, I am not to die;" be assured that thou shalt pay that penalty, death, which thou owest by the pun- ishment of Adam. For he, in whom we all then were, received this sentence, " Thou shalt surely die; "3 nor can the divine sen- tence be made void. But after thou hast paid the death of the old man, thou shalt be received into the eternal life of the new man, and shalt pass from death to life. Mean- - I Cor. xi.
3 Gen. ii. 17.
Tractate XXII.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST JOHN.
147 while, make the transition of hfe now. What is thy life? Faith: "The just doth live by faith."' The unbelievers, what of them? They are dead. Among such dead was he, in the body, of wnom the Lord says, "Let the dead bury their dead."- So, then, even in this life there are dead, and there are liv- ing; all live in a sense. Who are dead? They who have not believed. Who are liv- ing? They who have believed. What is said to the dead by the apostle? "Arise, thou that sleepest." But, quoth an objector, he said sleep, not death. Hear what follows: "Arise, thou that sleepest, and come forth from the dead.'' And as if the sleeper said, Whither shall I go? "And Christ shall give thee light." ^ Christ having enlightened thee, now believing, immediately thou makest a passage from death to life: abide in that to which thou hast passed, and thou shalt not come into judgment.
7. Himself explains that already, and goes on, "Verily, verily, I say unto you.'' In case, because He said " is passed from death to life," we should understand this of the future resurrection, and willing to show that he who believes is passed, and that to pass from death to life is to pass from unbelief to faith, from injustice to justice, from pride to humility, from liatred to charity, He saith now, "Verily, verily, I say unto you. The hour Cometh, and now is." What more evi- dent? "And now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." We have already spoken of these dead. What think we, my brethren? Are there no dead in this crowd that hear me? They who believe and act according to the true faith do live, and are not dead. But they who either do not be- lieve, or believe as the devils believe, trem- bling,-' and living wickedly, confessing the Son of God, and without charity, must rather be esteemed dead. This hour, however, is still passing. For the hour of which the Lord spoke will not be an hour of the twelve hours of a day. From the time when He spoke even to the present, and even to the end of the world, the same one hour is pass- ing; of which hour John saith in his epistle, "Little children, it is the last hour."5 Therefore, is now. \\'lioso is alive, let him live; wlioso was dead, let him live; let him hear the voice of the Son of God, who lay dead; let him arise and live. The Lord cried out at the sepulchre of Lazarus, and he that was four days dead arose. He who stank in the grave came forth into the air. He was