ing flesh and the flesh rising again, death which came between was consumed.
11. "lam," saith He, " the bread of life." And what was the source of their pride? " Your fathers," saith He, " did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead." What is it whereof ye are proud? " They ate manna, and are dead." Why they ate and are dead? Because they believed that whicli they saw; what they saw not, they did not understand. Therefore were they " your" fatliers, because you are like them. For so far, my brethren, as relates to this visible corporeal death, do not we too die who eat the bread that cometh down from heaven? They died just as we shall die, so far, as I said, as relates to the visible and carnal death of this body. But so far as relates to that death, concerning whicii the Lord warns us by fear, and in whicli their fathers died: Moses ate manna, Aaron ate manna, Phinehas ate manna, and niruiy ate manna, who were pleasing to the ],ord.
and they are not dead. Why? Because they understood the visible food spiritually, hun- gered spiritually, tasted spiritually, that they might be filled spiritually. For even we at this day receive visible food: but the sacra- ment is one thing, the virtue of the sacrament another. How many do receive at the altar and die, and die indeed by receiving? Whence the apostle saith, " Eateth and drinketh judg- ment to himself."' For it was not the mouth- ful given by the Lord that was the poison to Judas. And yet he took it; and when he took it, the enemy entered into him: not because he received an evil thing, but because he being evil received a good thing in an evil way. See ye then, brethren, that ye eat the heavenly bread in a spiritual sense; bring in- nocence to the altar. Though your sins are daily, at least let them not be deadly. Before ye approach the altar, consider well what ye are to say: " Forgive us our debts, even as we forgive our debtors."- Thou forgivest, it shall be forgiven thee: approach in peace, it is bread, not poison. But see whether thou forgivest; for if thou dost not forgive, thou liest, and liest to Him whom thou canst not deceive. Thou canst lie to God, but thou canst not deceive God. He knows what thou doest. He sees thee within, examines thee within, inspects within, judges within, and within He either condemns or crowns. But the fathers of these Jews were evil fathers of evil sons, unbelieving fathers of unbelieving sons, murmuring fathers of murmurers. For in no other thing is that people said to have offended the Lord more than in murmuring against God. And for that reason, the Lord, willing to show those men to be the children of suc'.i murmurers, thus begins His address to them: " Why murmur ye among your- selves," ye murmurers, children of mur- murers? Your fathers did eat manna, and are dead; not because manna was an evil thing, but because they ate it in an evil manner.
12. " This is the bread which cometh down from heaven." Manna signified this bread; God's altar signified this bread. Those were sacraments. \\\ the signs they were diverse; in the thing which was signified they were alike. Hear the apostle: " For I would not that ye should be ignoraht, brethren," saith he, "that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat tlie same siiiritiial meat." Of course, the same spiritual meat; for corporally it was another: since they ate Cor.
xi. 29.
= Matt. vi. 12, I - THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XXVI.
manna, we eat another thing; but the spiritual was the same as that which we eat. But *' our" fathers, not the fathers of those Jews; those to whom we are Uke, not those to whom they were like. Moreover he adds: "And did all drink the same spiritual drink." They one kind of drink, we another, but only in the visible form, which, however, signified the same thing in its soiritual virtue. For how was it that they drank the "same drink"? "They drank," saith he, "of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ."' Thence the bread, thence the drink. The rock was Christ in sign; the real Christ is in the Word and in flesh. And how did they drink? The rock was smitten twice with a rod; the double smiting signified the two wooden beams of the cross. " This, then, is the bread that cometh down from heaven, that if any man eat thereof, he shall not die.'^ But this is what belongs to the virtue of the sacrament, not to the visible sacrament; he that eateth within, not without; who eateth in his heart, not who presses with his teeth.
13. "I am the living bread, which came down from heaven." For that reason " liv- ing," because 1 came down from heaven. The manna also came down from heaven; but the manna was only a shadow, this is the truth. "If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." When did flesh comprehend this flesh which He called bread? That is called flesh which flesh does not comprehend, and for that reason all the more flesh does not comprehend it, that it is called flesh. For they were terrified at this: they said it was too much for them; they thought it impossible. " Is my flesh," saith He, " for the life of the world." Be- lievers know the body of Christ, if they neglect not to be the body of Christ. Let them become the body of Christ, if they wish to live by the Spirit of Christ. None lives by the Spirit of Christ but the body of Christ. Understand, my brethren, what I mean to say. Thou art a man; thou hast both a spirit and a body. I call that a spirit which is called the soul; that whereby it consists that thou art a man. for thou consistest of soul and body. And so thou hast an invisible spirit and a visible body. Tell me which lives of the other: does thy spirit live of thy body, or thy body of thy spirit? Every man that lives can answer; and he that cannot answer this, I know not whether he lives: what doth every man that lives answer ' My body, of course.
lives by my spirit. Wouldst thou then also live by the Spirit of Christ. Be in the body of Christ. For surely my body does not live by thy spirit. My body lives by my spirit, and thy body by thy spirit. The body of Christ cannnot live but by the Spirit of Christ. It is for this that the Apostle Paul, expound- ing this bread, says: " One bread," saith he, " we being many are one body. " - O mystery of piety! O sign of unity! O bond of charity! He that would live has where to live, has whence to live. Let him draw near, let him believe; let him be embodied, that he may be made to live. Let him not shrink from the compact of members; let him not be a rotten member that deserves to be cut off; let him not be a deformed member whereof to be ashamed; let him be a fair, fit, and sound member; let him cleave to the body, live for God by God: now let him labor on earth, that hereafter he may reign in heaven.
14. The Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, " How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" They strove, and that among themselves, since they understood not, neither wished to take the bread of concord: " for they who eat such bread do not strive with one another; for we being many are one bread, one body." And by this bread, " God makes people of one sort to dwell in a house." ^ 15. But that which they ask, while striving among themselves, namely, how the Lord can give His flesh to be eaten, they do not im- mediately hear: but further it is said to_them, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye will have no life in you." How, indeed, it may be eaten, and what maybe the mode of eating this bread, ye are ignorant of; nevertheless, "except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye will not have life in you." He spoke these words, not certainly to corpses, but /to living men.
; Whereupon, lest they, understanding it to I mean this life, should strive about this thing also. He going on added, " Whoso eateth my ; flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal llife. " Wherefore, he that eateth not this bread, nor drinketh this blood, hath not this life; for men can have temporal Ufe without that, but they can noways have eternal life. He then that eateth not His flesh, nor drinketh His blood, hath no life in him; and he that eateth His flesh, and drinketh His blood, hath li^e.
This epithet, eternal^ which He used, answers to both. It is not so in the case of that food which we take for the purpose of sustaining Cor.
2 I Cor. X.
Tractate XXVI.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
/v) this temporal life. For he who will not take it shall not live, nor yet shall he who will take it live. For very many, even who have taken It, die; it may be by old age, or by disease, or by some other casualty. But in this food and drink, that is, in the body and blood of the Lord, it is not so. For both he that doth not take it hath no life, and he that doth take it hath life, and that indeed eternal life. And thus He would have this meat and drink to be understood as meaning the fellowship of His own body and members, which is the holy Church in his predestinated, and called, and justified, and glorified saints and be- lievers. Of these, the first is already effected, namely, predestination; the second and third, that is, the vocation and justification, have taken place, are taking place, and will take place; but the fourth, namely, the glorifying, is at present in hope, but a thing future in realization. The sacrament of this thing, namely, of the unity of the body and blood of Christ, is prepared on the Lord's table in some places daily, in some places at certain inter- vals of days, and from the Lord's table it is taken, by some to life, by some to destruction: but the thing itself, of which it is the sacrainent, is for every man to life, for no man to destruction, whosoever shall have been a par- taker thereof.
i6. But lest they should suppose that eter- nal life was promised in this meat and drink in such manner that they who should take it should not even now die in the body, He condescended to meet this thought; for when He had said, " He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life," He forthwith subjoined, " and I will raise him up on the last day." That meanwhile, accord- ing to the Spirit, he may have eternal life in that rest into which the spirits of the saints are received; but as to the body, he shall not be defrauded of its eternal life, but, on the contrary, he shall have it in the resurrection of the dead at the last day.
17. "For my flesh," saith He, "is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." For whilst by meat and drink men seek to attain to this, neither to hunger nor thirst, there is nothing that truly affords this, except this meat and drink, wliich doth render tnem by whom it is taken immortal and incorruptible; that is, the very fellowship of the saints,where will lie peace and unity, full and perfect. Therefore, indeed, it is, even as men of God understood this before us, tTiat our T-ord Jesus Christ iias pointed our minds to His body and blood in those things, which from being many are reduced to some one thing. For a unity is formed by many grains forming together; and another unity is effected by the cluster- ing together of many berries.
18. Li a word. He now explains how that which He speaks of comes to pass, and what it is to eat His body and to dnnk His blood. " He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." This it is, therefore, for a man to eat that meat and to drink that drink, to dwell in Chr'ist, and to have Christ dwelling in him. Consequently, he that dwelleth not in Christ, and in whom Christ dwelleth not, doubtless neither eateth His -flesh [spiritually] nor drinketh His blood [although he may press the sacrament of ihe body and blood of Christ carnally and visibly with his teeth], but rather doth he eat and drmk the sacrament of so great a thing to his own judgment, because he, being unclean, has presumed to come to the sacraments of Christ, which no man taketh worthily except he that is pure: of such it is said, " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."'
19. "As the living Father hath sent me," saith He, " and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." He says not: As I eat the Father, and live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same shall live by me. For the Son, who was be- gotten equal, does not become better by par- ticipation of the Father; just as we are made better b}' participation of the Son, through the unity of His body and blood, which thing that eating and drinking signifies. We live then by Him, by eating Him; that is, by re- ceiving Himself as the eternal life, which we did not have from ourselves. Himself, how- ever, lives by the Father, being sent by Him, because " He emptied Himself, being made obedient even unto the death of the cross. '' = For if we take this declaration, " I live by the Father," ^ according to that which He says in another place, " The Father is greater than I; " just as we, too, live by Him who is greater than we; this results from His being sent. The sending is in fact the emptying of PJim- self, and Flis taking upon FLm the form of a servant: and this is rightly understood, while also the Son's equality of nature with the Father is preserved. For the Father is greater than the Sun as man, but He has the Son as God equal, — whilst tlie same is both God and man. Son of God and Son of man, one Christ Jesus. To this effect, if these words are rightly understood, He spoke thus: "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me: " just as if He were to say, My emptying of myself (in that He ' Matt. V. 8.
' Phil. li. r.
174 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XXVII.
sent me) effected that I should live by the Father; that is, should refer my life to Him as the greater; but that any should live l)y me is effected by that participation in which he eats me. Therefore, I being humbled, do live by the Father, man being raised up, liveth by me. But if it was said, " I live by the Father," so as to mean, that He is of the Father, not the Father of Him, it was said without detriment to His equality. And yet further, by saying, "And he that eateth me, even he shall live by me," He did not signify that His own equality was the same as our equality, but He thereby showed the grace of the Mediator.
20. "This is the bread that cometh down from heaven;" that by eating it we may live, since we cannot have eternal life from^ our- selves. Not," saith He, "as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth this bread shall live forever." That those fathers are dead, He would have to be understood as meaning, that they do not live forever. For even they who eat Christ shall certainly die temporally; but they live forever, because Christ is eternal life.
TRACTATE XXVII.
Chapter VI. 60-72.
1. We have just heard out of the Gospel the words of the Lord which follow the former discourse. From these a discourse is due to your ears and minds, and it is not unseason- able to-day; for it is concerning the body of the Lord which He said that He gave to be eaten for eternal life. And He explained the mode of this bestowal and gift of His, in what manner He gave His flesh to eat, say- ing, " He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me,- and I in him." The proof that a man has eaten and drank is this, if he abides and is abode in, if he dwells and is dwelt in, if he adheres so as not to be deserted. This, then, He has taught us, and admonished us in mystical words that we may be in His body, in His members under Himself as head, eating His flesh, not abandoning our unity with Him. But most of those who were present, by not under- standing Him, were offended; for in hearing these things, they thought only of flesh, that which themselves were. But the apostle says, and says what is true, " To be carnally- minded is death.".' The Lord gives us His flesh to eat, and yet to understand it ac- cording to the flesh is death; while yet He says of His flesh, that therein is eternal life.
Therefore we ought not to understand the flesh carnally. As in these words that follow: 2. " Many therefore," not of His enemies, but "of His disciples, when they had heard this, said. This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" If His disciples accounted this saying hard, what must His enemies have I Rom. vii. 6.
thought? And yet so it behoved that to be said which should not be understood by all. The secret of God ought to make men eagerly attentive, not hostile. But these m_en quickly departed from Him, while the Lord said such things: they did not believe Him to be saying something great, and covering some grace by these words; they understood just according to their wishes, and in the manner of men, that Jesus was able, or was determined upon this, namely, to distribute the flesh with which the Word was clothed, piecemeal, as it were, to those that believe on Him. " This," say they, " is a hard saying; who can hear it? " 3. " But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at it," — for they so said these things with themselves that they might not be heard by Him; but He who knew them in themselves, hearing within Himself, — answered and said, "This offends you; " because I said, I give you my flesh to eat, and my blood to drink{ this forsooth offends you. " Then what if ye shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before?" What is this? Did He hereby solve the question that perplexed them? Did He hereby uncover the source of their offense? He did clearly, if only they understood. For they supposed that He was going to deal out His body to them; but He said that He was to ascend into heaven, of course, whole: " When ye shall see the Son of man ascend- ing where He wa^ before; " certainly then, at least, you will see that not in the manner you suppose does He dispense His body; cer- tainly then, at least, you will understand that His grace is not consumed by tooth-biting.
Tractate XXVU.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
175 4. And He said, "It is the Spirit that quictceneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." Before we expound this, as the Lord grants us, that other must not be negligently passed over, where He says, " Then what if ye shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before?'' For Christ is the Son of man, of the Virgin Mary. Therefore Son of man He began to be here on earth, where He took flesh from the earth. For which cause it was said prophetically, " Truth is sprung from the earth."' Then what does He mean when He says, " When ye shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before "? For there had been no question if He had spoken thus: " If ye shall see the Son of God ascending where He was before," But since He said, " The Son of man ascending where He was before," surely the Son of man was not in heaven before the time when He began to have a being on earth? Here, indeed. He said, "where He was before," just as if He were not there at this time when He spoke these words. But in another place He says, " No man has ascended into heaven but He that came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven."- He said not " was," but, saith He, " the Son of man who is in heaven." He was speaking on earth, and He declared Himself to be in heaven. And yet He did not speak thus: "No man hath ascended into heaven but He that came down from heaven," the Son of God, "who is in heaven.'' AMiither tends it, but to make us understand that which even in the former dis- course I commended to your minds, my be- loved, that Christ, both God and man, is one person, not two persons, lest our faith be not a trinity, but a quaternity? Christ, there- fore, is one; the Word, soul and flesh, one Christ; the Son of God and Son of man, one Christ; Son of God always, Son of man in time, yet one Christ in regard to unity of person. In heaven He was when He spoke on earth. He was Son of man in heaven in that manner in which He was Son of God on earth; Son of God on earth in the flesh which He took. Son of man in heaven in the unity of person.
5. What is it, then, that He adds? "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh pro- fiteth nothing." Let us say to Him (for He permits us, not contradicting Him, but desir- ing to know), O Lord, good Master, in what way does the flesh profit nothing, whilst Thou hast said, "Except a man^eat my flesh, and drink my blood, he shall not have life in him?" Or does life jirofit nothing? And why are we what we are, but that we may have eternal life, which Thou dost promise by Thy flesh? Then what means " the flesh profiteth nothing"? It profiteth nothing, but only in the manner in which they understood it. They indeed understood the flesh, just as when cut to pieces in a carcass, or sold in the shambles; not as when it is quickened by the Spirit. Wherefore it is said that " the flesh profiteth nothing," in the same manner as it is said that " knowledge pufteth up." Then, ought we at once to hate knowledge? Far from it! And what means "Knowledge puffeth up"? Knowledge alone, without charit}'. Therefore he added, "but charity edifieth."^ Therefore add thou to knowledge charity, and knowledge will be profitable, not by itself, but through charity. So also here, " the flesh profiteth nothing," only when alone. Let the Spirit be added to the flesh, as charity is added to knowledge, and it profiteth very much. For if the flesh profited nothing, the Word would not be made flesh to dwell among us. If through the flesh Christ has greatly profited us, does the flesh i:)rofit nothing? Rut it is by the flesh that the 9»pirit has done somewhat for our salvation. Flesh was a vessel; consider vvhat it held, not what it was.
The apostles were sent forth; did their flesh profit us nothing? If the apostles' flesh pro- fited us, could it be that the Lord's flesh should have profited us nothing? For how should the sound of the Word come to us except by the voice of the flesh? Whence should writing come to us? All these are operations of the flesh, but only when the spirit moves it, as if it were its organ. There- fore "it is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing," as they understood the flesh, but not so do I give my flesh to be eaten.
9. Hence "the words," saith He, "which I have spoken to you are Spirit and life." For we have said, brethren, that this is what the Lord had taught us by the eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood, that we should abide in Him and He in us.. But we abide in Him when we are His members, and He abides in us when we are His temple. But that we may be His members, unity joins us together. And what but love can effect that unity should join us together? And the love of God, whence is it? Ask the apostle: " The love of God," saith he, " is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us."-" Therefore "it is the Spirit that quickeneth," for it is the Spirit that makes living members. Nor does the Spirit make ' Ps. Ixxxv. 12.
4 Rom. V. 5.
1/6 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XXVII.
[Tractate XXVII.
any members to be living except such as it finds in the body, which also the Spirit itself quickens. For the Spirit which is in thee, O man, by which it consists that thou art a man, does it quicken a member which it finds separated from thy flesh? I call thy soul thy spirit. Thy soul quickeneth only the members which are in thy flesh; if thou takest one away, it is no longer quickened by thy soul, because it is not joined to the unity of thy body. These things are said to make us love unity and fear separation. For there is noth- ing that a Christian ought to dread so much as to be separated from Christ's body. For if he is separated from Christ's body, he is not a member of Christ; if he is not a member of Christ, he is not quickened by the Spirit of Christ. "But if any man," saith the apostle, "have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."' "It is the Spirit," then, " that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." What means "are spirit and life "? They are to be understood spirit- ually. Hast thou understood spiritually? "They are spirit and life." Hast thou understood carnally? So also " are they spirit and life," but are not so to thee.