7. How then, brethren, because he that is baptized in Clirist, and believes on Him, does not speak now in the tongues of all nations, are we not to believe that he has received the Holy Ghost? (]od forbid that our heart should be tempted by this faithlessness. Certain we are that every man receives: but only as much as the vessel of faith that he shall bring to the fountain can contain, so much does He fill of it. Since, therefore, the Holy Ghost is even now received by men, some one may say, Why is it that no man speaks in the tongues of all nations? Because the Church itself now speaks in the tongues of all nations. Before, the Church was in one nation, where it spoke in the tongues of all. B}- speaking then in the tongues of all, it signified what was to come to pass; that by growing among the nations, it would speak in the tongues of all. Whoso is not in this Church, does not now receive the Holy Ghost. For, being cut off and divided from the unity of the mem- bers, which unity speaks in the tongues of all, let him declare for himself; he has it not. For if he has it, let him give the sign which was given then. What do we mean by say- ing. Let him give the sign which was then given? Let him speak in all tongues. He answers me: How then, dost thou speak in all tongues? Clearly I do; for every tongue is mine, namely, of the body of which I am a member. The Church, spread among the nations, speaks in all tongues; the Cnurch is the body of Christ, in this body thou art a member: therefore, since thou art a member of that body which speaks with all tongues, believe that thou too speakest with all tongues. For the unity of the members is of one mind by charity; and that unity speaks as one man then spoke.
8. Consequently, we too receive the Holy Ghost if we love the Church, if we are joined together by charity, if we rejoice in the Catholic name and faith, l^et us believe, brethren; as much as every man loves the Church of Christ, so much has he the Holy Ghost. For the Spirit is given, as the apostle saith, "to manifestation." To what mani- festation? Just as the same apostle saith, " For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge after the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another the gift of healing in one Spirit, to another the working of miracles in the same SiJirit."^ For there are many gifts given to manifestation, but thou, it may be, iiast nothing of all those I have said. If thou lovest, it is not notliiiig that thou hast: if thou lovest iniiiy, whoever has aught in that unity has it also for thee. Take away envy, and what I have is thine too. The envious temper puts men apart, soundness of mind unites them. In the body, the ej'e alone sees; but is it for irself alone that the eye sees? It 196 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XXXII.
sees both for the hand and the foot, and for all the other members. If a blow be coming against the foot, the eye does not turn away from it, so as not to take precaution. Again, in the body, the hand alone works, but is it for itself alone the hand works? For the eye also it works: for if a coming blow comes, not against the hand, but only against the face, does the hand say, I will not move, be- cause it is not coming to me?.So the foot by walking serves all the members: all the other members are silent, and the tongue speaks for all. We have therefore the Holy Spirit if we love the Church; but we love the Church if we stand firm in its union and charily. For the apostle himself, after he had said that diverse gifts were bestowed on diverse men, just as the ofifices of the several members, saith, "Yet I show you a still more pre- eminent way;'' and begins to speak of charity. This he put before tongues of men and angels, before miracles of faith, before knowledge and prophecy, before even that great work of mercy by which a man distri- butes to the poor all that he possesses; and, lastly, put it before even the martyrdom of the body: before all these so great things he put charity. Have it, and thou shalt have all: for without it, whatever thou canst have will profit nothing. But that thou mayest know that the charity of which we are speaking re- fers to the Holy Spirit (for the question now in hand in the Gospel is concerning the Holy Spirit), hear the apostle when he says, " The charity of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us." ' 9. Why then was it the will of the Lord, seeing that the Spirit's benefits in us are the greatest, because by Him the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, to give us that Spirit after His resurrection? Why did He signify by this? In order that in our resur- rection our love may be inflamed, and may part from the love of the world to run wholly towards God. For here we are born and die: let us not love this world; let us migrate hence by love; by love let us dwell above, by that love by which we love God. In this sojourn of our life let us meditate on nothing else, but that here we shall not always be, ' Rom. V. 5.
and that by good living we shall prepare a place for ourselves there, whence we shall never migrate. For our Lord Jesus Christ, after that He is risen again, " now dieth no more; " " death," as the apostle says, " shall no more have dominion over Him."^ Be- hold what we must love. If we live, if we believe on Him who is risen again. He will give us, not that which men love here who love not God, or love the more the less they love Him, but love this the less the more they love Him; but let us see what He has prom- ised us. Not earthly and temporal riches, not honors and power in this world; for you see all these things given to wicked men, that they may not be highly prized by the good. Not, in short, bodily health itself, though it is He that gives that also, but that, as you see. He gives even to the beasts. Not long life; for what, indeed, is long that will some day have an end? It is not length of days that He has promised to His believers, as if that were a. great thing, or decrepit old age, which all wish for before it comes, and all murmur at when it does come. Not beauty of person, which either bodily disease or that same old age which is desired drives away. One wishes- to be beautiful, and also to live to be old: these two desires cannot agree together; if thou shalt be old, thou wilt not be beautiful; when old age comes, beauty will flee away; the vigor of beauty and the groaning of old age cannot dwell together in one body. All these things, then, are not what He promised us when He said, " He that believeth in me, let him come and drink, and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."' He has promised us eternal life, where we shall have no fear, where we shall not be troubled, whence we shall have no migration, where we shall not die; where there is neither bewailing a predecessor deceased, nor a hoping for a successor. Accordingly, because such is what He has promised to u^/that love Him, and glow with the charity of the Holy Spirit, therefore He would not give us that same Spirit until He should be glorified, so that He might show in His body the life which we have not now, but which we hope for in the resurrection.
2 Rom. vi. 9 Tkactate XXXIII.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
197 TRACTATE XXXIII.
Chapter VH. 40-53; VHI. i-ii.
1. You remember, my beloved, that in the last discourse, by occasion of the passage of the Gospel read, we spoke to you concerning the Holy Spirit. When the Lord had invited those that believe on Him to this drinking, speaking among those who meditated to lay hold of Him, and sought to kill Him, and were not able, because it was not His will: well, when He had spoken these things, there arose a dissension among the multitude concerning Him; some thinking that He was the very Christ, others saying that Christ shall not arise from Galilee. But they who had been sent to take Him returned clear of the crime and full of admiration. For they even gave wit- ness to His divine doctrine, when those by whom they had been sent asked, " Why have ye not brought him?'' They answered that they had never heard a man so speak: " For not any man so speaks." But He spake thus, because He was God and man. But the Pharisees, repelling their testimony, said to them: "Are ye also deceived? " We see, indeed, that you also have been charmed by his discourses. " Hath any one of the rulers or the Pharisees believed on him? But this multitude who know not the law are cursed." They who knew not the law believed on Him who had sent the law; and those men who were teaching the law despised Him, that it might be fulfilled which the Lord Himself had said, " I am come that they who see not may see, and they that see may be made blind." ' For the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, were made blind, and the people that knew not the law, and yet believed on the author of the law, were enlightened.
2. "Nicodemus," however, "one of the Pharisees, who had come to the Lord by night," — not indeed as being himself un[)e- lieving, but timid; for therefore he came by night to the light, because he wished to be enlightened and feared to be known; — Nic- odemus, I say, answered the Jews, "Dotii our law judge a man before it hear him, and know what he doeth?" For they perversely wished to contlemn before they examined. Nicodemus indeed knew, or rather believed, that if only they were willing to give Him ri patient hearing, they would perhaps become like those who were sent to take Him, but ■ John is. 39.
■ John is. 39.
preferred to believe. They answered, from the prejudice of their heart, what they had answered to those officers, "Art thou also a Galilean? " That is, one seduced as it were by the Galilean. For the Lord was said to be a Galilean, because His parents were from the city of Nazareth. I have said " His parents" in regard to Mary, not as regards the seed of man; for on earth He sought but a mother, He had already a Father on high. For His nativity on both sides was marvellous: divine without mother, human without father. What, then, said those would-be doctors of the law to Nicodemus? "Search the Scrip- tures, and see that out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." Yet the Lord of the prophets arose thence. "They returned," saith the evangelist, " every man to his own house."
3. " Thence Jesus went unto the mount;" namely, to mount " Olivet," — unto the fruit- ful mount, unto the mount of ointment, unto the mount of chrism. For where, indeed, but on mount Olivet did it become the Christ to teach? For the name of Christ is from chrism; -/jncsim in the (ireek, is called in Latin uncfio, an anoififing. And He has anointed us for this reason, because He has made us wrestlers against the devil. "And early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came unto ^iim; and He sat down and taught them." And He was not taken, for He did not yet deign to suffer.
4. And now observe wherein the Lord's gentleness was tempted by His enemies. "And the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman just taken in adultery: and they set her in the midst, and said to Him, Master, this woman has just been taken in adultery. Now Moses in tiie law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what say- est thou? But this they said, tempting Him, that they might accuse Him." Why accuse Him? Had they detected Himself in any misdeed; or was that woman said to have been concerned with Him in any manner? AVMiat, then, is the meaning of "tempting Him, that they migiit accuse Him''? We understand, brethren, that a wonderful gen- tleness shone out pre-eminently in the Lord. 'I'hey observed that He was very meek, very gentle: for of Him it had been previously foretold, "Gird Thy sword ujion 'Fhy thigh, O most Mighty; in Thv splendor and beauty 198 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XXXIII.
urge on, march on prosperously, and reign, because of truth, and meekness, and right- eousness."' Accordingly, as a teacher. He brought truth; as a deliverer, He brought gentleness; as a protector. He brought right- eousness. That He was to reign on account of these things, the prophet had by the Holy Spirit foretold. When He spoke His truth was acknowledged; when He was not provoked to anger against His enemies. His meekness was praised. Whilst, therefore, in respect of these two, — namely. His truth and meekness, — His enemies were tormented with malice and envy; in respect of the third, — namely, right- eousness,— they laid a stumbling-block for Him, In what way? Because the law had commanded the adulterers to be stoned, and surely the law could not command what was unjust: if any man should say other than the law had commanded, he would be detected as unjust. Therefore they said among them- selves, " He is accounted true, he appears to be gentle; an accusation must be sought against him in respect of righteousness. Let us bring before him a woman taken in adul- tery; let us say to him what is ordered in the law concerning such: if he shall approve her being stoned, he will not show his gentleness; if he consent to let her go, he will not keep righteousness. But, say they, that he may not lose the reputation of gentleness, for which he is become an object of love to the people, without doubt he will say that she must be let go. Hence we find an opportu- nity of accusing him, and we charge him as being a transgressor of the law: saying to him. Thou art an enemy to the law; thou an- swerest against Moses, nay, against Him who gave the law through Moses; thou art worthy of death; thou too must be stoned with this woman." By these words and sentiments they might possibly be able to inflame envy against Him, to urge accusation, and cause His condemnation to be eagerly demanded. But this against whom? It was perversity against rectitude, falsehood against the truth, the corrupt heart against the upright heart, folly against wisdom. When did such men prepare snares, into which they did not first thrust their own heads? Behold, the Lord in answering them will both keep righteousness, and will not depart from gentleness. He was not taken for whom the snare was laid, but rather they were taken who laid it, because they believed not on Him who could pull them out of the net.
5, What answer, then, did the Lord Jesus make? How answered the Truth? How I Ps. xlv. 3, 4.
answered Wisdom? How answered that Righteousness against which a faise accusa- tion was ready? He did not say. Let her not be stoned; lest He should seem to speak against the law. But God forbid that He should say. Let her be stoned: for He came not to lose what He had found, but to seek what was lost. What then did He answer? See you how full it is of righteousness, how full of meekness and truth! " He that is without sin of you," saith He, " let him first cast a stone at her.'' O answer of Wisdom! How He sent them unto themselves! For without they stood to accuse and censure, themselves they examined not inwardly: they saw the adulteress, they looked not into them- selves. Transgressors of the law, they wished the law to be fulfilled, and this by heedlessly accusing; not really fulfilling it, as if condemn- ing adulteries by chastity. You have heard, O Jews, you have heard, O Pharisees, you have heard, O teachers of the law, the guar- dian of the law, but have not yet understood Him as the Lawgiver. What else does He signify to you when He writes with His fin- ger on the ground? For the law wa& written with the finger of God; but written on stone because of the hard-hearted. The Lord now wrote on the ground, because He was seeking fruit. You have heard then, Let the law be fulfilled, let the adulteress be stoned. But is it by punishing her that the law is to be ful- filled by those that ought to be punished? Let each of you consider himself, let him enter into himself, ascend the judgment-seat of his own mind, place himself at the bar of his own conscience, oblige himself to confess. For he knows what he is: for " no man know- eth the things of a man, but the spirit of man which is in him." Each looking carefully into himself, finds himself a sinner. Yes, indeed. Hence, either let this woman go, or together with her receive ye the penalty of the law. Had He said, L^t not the adul- teress be stoned, He would be proved unjust: had He said. Let her be stoned, He would not appear gentle: let Him say what it be- came Him to say, both the gentle and the just, "Whoso is without sin of you, let him first cast a stone at her." This is the voice of Justice: Let her, the sinner, be punished, but not by sinners: let the law be fulfilled, but not by the transgressors of the law. This certainly is the voice of justice: by which justice, those men pierced through as if by a dart, looking into themselves and finding themselves guilty, "one after another all withdrew." The two were left alone, the wretched woman and Mercy. But the Lord, having struck them through with that dart of Tractate XXXIIL] ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
199 justice, deigned not to heed their fall, but, turning away His look from them, " again He wrote with His finger on the ground."
6. But when that woman was left alone, and all they were gone out, He raised His eyes to the woman. We have heard the voice of jus- tice, let us also hear the voice of clemency. For I suppose that woman was the more ter- rified when she had heard it said by the Lord, " He that is without sin of you, let him first cast a stone at her." But they, turning their thought to themselves, and by that very with- drawal having confessed concernino- them- selves, had left the woman with her great sin to Him who was without sin. And because she had heard this, " He that is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her,'' she expected to be punished by Him in whom sm could not be found. But He, who had driven back her adversaries with the tongue of justice, raising the eyes of clemency towards her, asked her, " Hath no man condemned thee?" She an- swered, ''No man, Lord." And He said, "Neither do I condemn thee;'' by whom, perhaps, thou didst fear to be condemned, because in me thou hast not found sin. " Neither will I condemn thee." What is this, O Lord? Dost Thou therefore favor sins? Not so, evidently. Mark what fol- lows: " Go, henceforth sin no more." There- fore the Lord did also condemn, but con- demned sins, not man. For if He were a patron of sin, He would say, Neither will I condemn thee; go, live as thou wilt: be se- cure in my deliverance; how much soever thou wilt sin, I will deliver thee from all pun- ishment even of hell, and from the torment- ors of the infernal world. He said not this, 7. Let them take heed, then, who love His gentleness in the Lord, and let them fear His truth. For " The Lord is sweet and right." ' Thou lovest Llim in that He is sweet; fear Him in tliat He is right. As the meek. He said,*" I held my peace;" but as the just. He said, " Shall I always be silent? "= "The Lord is merciful and pitiful." So He is, certainly. Add yet further, "Long-suffer- ing;" add yet further, "And very pitiful:" but fear what comes last, "And true." ^ For those whom He now be.irs with as sinners, He will judge as despiscrs. " Or despisest thou the riches of His long-suffering and gen- tleness; not knowing that the forbearance of God leadeth thee to repentance? ]5ut thou, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up for thyself wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the right- eous judgment of God; who will render to ' I's. XXV.
= 1 sa. xlii. i^.
I's. Ixxxvi. 15.
every man according to his deeds. ""•* The Lord is gentle, the Lord is long-suffering, the Lord is pitiful; but the Lord is also just, the Lord is also true. He bestows on thee space for correction; but thou lovest the delay of judgment more than the amendment of thy ways. Hast thou been a bad man yesterday? To-day be a good man. Hast thou gone on in thy wickedness to-day? At any rate change to-morrow. Thou art always expect- ing, and from the mercy of God makest ex- ceeding great promises to thyself. As if He, who has promised thee pardon through re- pentance, promised thee also a longer life. How knowest thou what to-morrow may bring forth? Rightly thou sayest in thy heart: When I shall have corrected my ways, God will put all my sins away. We cannot deny that God has promised pardon to those that have amended their ways and are converted. For in what prophet thou readest to me that God has promised pardon to him that amends, thou dost not read to me that God has prom- ised thee a long life.
8. From both, then, men are in danger; both from hoping and despairing, from con- trary things, from contrary affections. Who is deceived by hoping.'' He who says, God is good, God is merciful, let me do what I please, what I like; let me give loose reins to my lusts, let me gratify the desires of my soul. Why this? Because God is merciful, God is good, God is kind. These men are. in danger by hope. And those are in danger from despair, who, having fallen into griev- ous sins, fancying that tliey can no more be pardoned upon repentance, and believing that they are without doubt doomed to damnation, do say with themselves, We are already des- tined to be damned, why not do what we please? with the disposition of gladiators des- tined to the sword. This is tlie reason that desperate men are dangerous: for, having no longer aught to fear, they are to be feared ex- ceedingly. Despair kills these; hope, those. The mind is tossed to and fro between hope and despair. Thou hast to fear lest hope slay thee; and, when thou hopest much from mercy, lest thou fall into judgment: again, thou hast to fear lest despair slay thee, and, when thou thinkest that the griev^ous sins which thou hast committed cannot be forgiven thee, thou dost not repent, and thou incurrest the sentence of Wisdom, wliich says, " I also will laugh at your perdition.'' = How then does the Lord treat those who are in danger from both tliese maladies? To those who are in danger from hojie, He says, " Be