3. " For if ye knew me, ye would perhaps know my Father also." He who knows all things is not in doubt when He says perhaps, but rebuking. Now see how this very word perhaps, which seems to be a word of doubt- ing, may be spoken chidingly. Yea, a word expressive of doubt it is when used by man, for man doubts because he knows not; but when a word of doubting is spoken by God, from whom surely nothing is hid, it is unbe- lief that is reproved by that doubting, not the Godhead merely expressing an opinion. For men sometimes chidingly express doubt con- cerning things which they hold certain; that is, use a word of doubting, while in their heart they doubt not: just as thou wouldst say to thy slave, if thou wert angry with him, " Thou despisest me; but consider, perhaps I am thy master/* Hence also the apostle, speaking to some who despised him, says: "And I think that I also have the Spirit of God. ' ' ' When he says, "I think," he seems to doubt; but he is rebuking, not doubting. And in another place the Lord Jesus Christ Flimself, rebuk- ing the future unbelief of mankind, saith: " When the Son of man cometh, will He, thinkest thou, find faith on the earth? " ^ 4. You now, as I think, understand how the word perhaps is used here, in case any weigher of words and poiser of syllables, as if to show his knowledge of Latin, finds fault with a word which the Word of God spoke; and by blam- ing the Word of (jod, remain nut eloquent, but mute. For who is there that speaks as doth the Word which was in the beginning Cor.
VII. 40.
- Luke xviii. 8.
with God? Do not consider these words as we use them, and from these wish to measure that Word which is God. Thou hearest the Word indeed, and despisest it; hear God and fear Him: " In the beginning was the Word." Thou referrest to the usage of thy conversa- tion, and sayest within thyself. What is a word? What mighty thing is a word? It sounds and passes away; after beating the air, it strikes the ear and is no more. Hear further: "The Word was with God;" re- mained, did not by sounding pass away. Perhaps thou still despisest it: " The Word was God." With thyself, O man, a word in thy heart is a different thing from sound; but the word that is with thee, in order to pass to me, requires sound for a vehicle as it were. It takes to itself sound, mounts it as a vehicle, runs through the air, comes to me and yet does not leave thee. But the sound, in order to come to me, left thee and yet did not stay with me. Now has the word that was in thy heart also passed away with the passing sound? Thou didst speak thy thought; and, that the thought which was hid with thee might come to me, thou didst sound syllables; the sound of the syllables conveyed thy thought to my ear; through my ear thy thought descended into my heart, the intermediate sound flew away: but that word which took to itself sound was with thee before thou didst sound it, and is with me, because thou didst sound it, with- out quitting thee. Consider this, thou nice weigher of sounds, whoever thou be. Thou despisest the Word of God, thou who com- prehendest not the word of man.
5. He, then, by whom all things were made knows all things, and yet He rebukes by doubting: " If ye knew me ye would perhaps know my Father also." He rebukes unbe- lievers. He spoke a like sentence to the disciples, but there is not a word of doubting in it, because there was no occasion to rebuke unbelief. For this, "If ye knew me, ye would perhaps know my F'ather also," which He said to the Jews, He said also to the dis- ciples, when Philip asked, or rather, demand- ed of Him, saying, " Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us: " just as if he said. We already know Thee even ourselves; Thou hast been apparent to us; we have seen Thee; Thou hast deigned to choose us; we have followed Thee, have seen Thy marvels, heard Thy words of salvation, have taken Thy pre- cepts upon us, we hope in Thy promises: Thou hast deigned to confer much upon us by Thy very presence: but still, while we know Thee, and we do not yet know the Father, we are inflamed with desire to see Him whom we do not yet know; and thus, be- Tractate XXXVI I. J ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
215 cause we know Thee, but it is not enough until we Icnow the Father, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. And the Lord, that they might understand that they knew not what they thought they did already know, said, ''Am I so long time with you, and ye know me not, Philip? he who hath seen me hath seen the Father." ' Has this sentence a word of doubt- ing in it? Did He say, He that hath seen me hath perhaps seen the Father? Why not? Because it was a believer that listened to Him, not a persecutor of the faith: hence did the Lord not rebuke, but teach. "Whoso hath seen me hath seen the Father also; " and here, " If ye knew me, ye would know my Father also,'' let us remove the word which indicates the unbelief of the hearers, and it is the same sentence.
6. Yesterday we commended it to your consideration, beloved, and said that the sen- tences of the Evangelist John, in which he narrates to us what he learned from the Lord, had not required to be discussed, were that possible, except the inventions of heretics had compelled us. Yesterday, then, we briefly intimated to you, beloved, that there are heretics who are called Patripassians, or Sabellians after their founder: these say that the same is the Father who is the Son; the names different, but the person one. When He wills, say they. He is Father; when He wills. He is Son: still He is one. There are likewise other heretics who are called Arians. They indeed confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is the only Son of the Father; the one, Father of the Son; the other. Son of the Father; that He who is Father is not Son, nor He who is Son is Father; they confess that the Son was begotten, but deny His equality. We, namely, the catholic faith, coming from the doctrine of the apostles planted in us, re- ceived by a line of succession, to be trans- mitted sound to posterity, — the catholic faith, I say, has, l)etween both those parties, that is, between both errors, hekl the truth. In the error of the Sabellians, He is only one; the Father and Son is the same person: in the error of the Arians, the Father and the Son are indeed different persons; but the Son is not only a different person, but different in nature. Thou midway between these, what sayest thou? Thou hast shut out the Sabel- lian, shut out the Arian also. The Father is I'ather, the Son is Son; another person, not another in nature; for, " I and the Father are one," which, so far as I could, I pressed on your thoughts yesterday. When he hears that word, we «/r, let the Sabellian go away > John xiv. 8.
confounded; when he hears the word one, let the Arian go away confounded. Let the catholic steer the bark of his faith between both, since in both he must be on his guard against shipwreck. Say thou, then, what the Gospel saith, "land the Father are one." Not different in nature, because one; not one person, because are.
7. A little before He said, " My judgment is true; because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me:" as if He said, The reason why my judgment is true is, because I am the Son of God, because I speak the truth, because I am truth itself. Those men, understanding Him carnally, said, "Where is thy Father? " Now hear, O Arian: "Ye neither know me, nor my Father;'' be- cause, " If ye knew me, ye would know my Father also." What doth this mean, except "land the Father are one"? When thou seest some person like some other, — give heed, beloved, it is a common remark; let not that appear to you difficult which you see to be customary. — when, I say, thou seest some person like another, and thou knowest the person to whom he is like, thou sayest in wonder, "' How like this person is to that! " Thou wouldst not say this unless there were two. Here one who does not know the per- son to whom thou sayest the other is like re- marks, "Is he so like him?'' And thou answerest him: What? dost thou not know that person? Saith he, ''No, I do not.'' Immediately thou, in order to make known to him the person whom he does not know by means of the person whom he observes before him, answerest, saying. Having seen this man, thou hast seen the other. Thou didst not, surely, assert that they are one person in say- ing this, or that they are not two; but made such answer because of the likeness: " If thou knowest the one, thou knowest the other; for they are very like, and there is no difference whatever between them.'' Hence also the Lord saith, " If ye knew me, ye would know my Father also;" not that tlie Son is the Father ()ut like the Father. Let the Arian blush. Thanks be to the Lord that even the Arian is separate from the Sabellian error, and is not a Patripassian: he does not affirm that the Father assumed flesh and came to men, that the Father suffered, rose again, and somehow ascended to Himself; this he does not affirm; he acknowledges with me the Father to be Father, the Son to be Son. But, O brother, thou hast escaped that ship- wreck, why go to the other? Father is Father, Son is Son; why dost thou affirm that the Son is unlike, that He is different, another sub- stance? If He were unlike, would He say to 2l6 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XXXVII.
His disciples, " He tliat hath seen me hath seen the Father"? Would He say to the Jews, "If ye knew me, ye would know my Father also "? How would this be true, un- less that other was also true, " I and the Father are one "?
8. " These words spake Jesus in the treas- ury, speaking in the temple:" great boldness, without fear. For He could not suffer if He did not will it, since He were not born if He did not will it. What follows then? "And no man laid hold of Him, because His hour was not yet come." Some, again, when they hear this, believe that the Lord Christ was subject to fate, and say: Behold, Christ is held by fate! O, if thy heart were not fatu- ous, thou wouldst not believe in fate, \ifate, as some understand it, is derived ixovufando, that is from speaking, how can the Word of God be held by fate, whilst all things that are made are in the Word itself? For God has not ordained anything which He did not know beforehand; that which was made was in His Word. The world was made; both was made and was there. How both was made and was there? Because the house which the builder rears, was previously in his art; and there, a better house, without age, without decay: however, to show forth his art, he makes a house; and so, in a manner, a house comes forth from a house; and if the house should fall, the art remains. So were all things that are made with the Word of God; because God made all things in wisdom,' and all that He made were known to Him: for He did not learn because He made, but made because He knew. To us they are known, because they are made: to Him, if they had not been known, they would not have been made Therefore the Word went before. And what was before the Word? Nothing at all. For were there anything before it, it would not have been said, " In the beginning was the Word; " but. In the beginning was the Word made. In short, what says Moses concerning the world? " In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth." Made what was not: well, if He made what was not, what was there before? "In the beginning was the Word. " And whence came heaven and earth? "All things were made by Him." Dost thou then put Christ under fate? Where are the fates? In heaven, sayest thou, in the order and changes of the stars. How then can fate rule Him by whom the heavens and the stars were made; whilst thy own will, if thou thinkest rightly, transcends even the stars? Or, because thou knowest that Christ's flesh I Ps. civ. 24.
was under heaven, is that the reason why thou thinkest that Christ's power was put under the heavens?
9. Hear, thou fool: "His hour was not yet come; " not the hour in which He should be forced to die, but that in which He would deign to be put to death. For Himself knew when He should die: He considered all things thai were foretold of Him, and awaited all to be finished that was foretold to be before His suffering; that when all should be fulfilled, then should come His suffering in set order, not by fatal necessity. In short, hear that you may prove. Among the rest that was prophesied of Him, it is also written: " They gave me gall for meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." ^ How this hap- pened, we know from the Gospel. First, they gave Him gall; He received it, tasted it, and spat it out. Thereafter, as He hung on the cross, that all that was foretold might be fulfilled, He said, "I thirst." They took a sponge filled with vinegar, bound it to a reed, and put it to His mouth; He received it, and said, " It is finished. " What did that mean? All things which were prophesied before my death are completed, then what do I here any longer? In a word, when He said " It is finished, He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost." Did the thieves, who were nailed beside Him, expire when they would? They were held by the bonds of flesh, for they were not the creators of the flesh; fixed by nails, they were a long time tor- mented, because they had not lordship over their weakness. The Lord, however, when He would, took flesh in a virgin's womb: came forth to men when He would; lived among men so long as He would; and when He would He quitted the flesh. This is the part of power, not of necessity. This hour, then, He awaited; not the fated, but the fitting and voluntary hour; that all might first be fulfilled which behoved to be fulfilled' before His de- cease. How could he have been under neces- sity of fate, when He said in another place, " I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again: no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself and take it again? " ^ He showed this power when the Jews sought Him. " Whom seek ye? " saith He. " Jesus," said they. And He answered," I am He." When they heard this voice, " they went back and fell to the ground." ■* 10. Says one. If he had this power, why, when the Jews insulted him on the cross and said, " If he be the Son of God let him come down from the cross,'' did he not comedown.
2 Ps. Ixix. 22.
3 John X. 18.
4 John xviii. 6.
Tractate XXXVIII.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
217 to show them his power by coming down? Because He was teaching us patience, there- fore He deferred the demonstration of His power. For if He came down, moved as it were at their words, He would be thought to have been overcome by the sting of their in- sults. He did not come down; there He re- mained fixed, to depart when He would. For what great matter was it for Him to descend from the cross, when He could rise again from the sepulchre? Let us, then, to whom this is ministered, understand that the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, then concealed, will be made manifest in the judgment, of which it is said, "God will come manifest; our God, and He will not be silent." ' Why is it said, ''will come manifest"? Because He, our God,- — namely, Christ, — came hidden, will come manifest. "And will not l)e silent:" why this "will not be silent"? Because at first He did keep silence. When? When He was judged; that this, too, might be ful- I Ps. I.
I Ps. I.
filled which the prophet had foretold: "As a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.'' =" He would not have suffered did He not will to suffer: did He not suffer, that blood had not been shed; if that blood were not shed, the world would not be redeemed. Therefore let us give thanks to the power of His divinity, and to the compassion of His infirmity; both concernini» the hidden power which the Jews did not recognize, whence it is now said to them, " Ye neither know me nor my Father," and also concerning the flesh assumed, which the Jews did not recognize, and yet knew His lineage: whence He said to them elsewhere, " Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am." Let us know both in Christ, both wherein He is equal to the Father and where- in the Father is greater than He. That is the Word, this is the flesh; that is God, this is man; but yet Christ is one, God and man.
2 Isa. liii. 7.
TRACTATE XXXVIII.
Chapter VIH. 21-25.
1, The lesson of the holy Gospel which preceded to-day's had concluded thus: that "the Lord spake, teaching in the treasury," what it pleased Him, and what you have heard; "and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour was not yet come." ' Accordingly, on the Lord's day we made our subject of discourse what He Himself thought fit to give us. We indicated to your Charity why it was said, " His hour was not yet come," lest any in their impiety should have the effrontery to suspect Christ as laid under some fatal necessity. For the hour was not yet come when by His own appointment, in accordance with what was predicted regarding Him, He should not be forced to die unwill- ingly, but be ready to be slain.
2. But of His own passion itself, which lay not in any necessity He was under, but in His own power, all that He said in His dis- course to the Jews was, " I go away," For to Christ the Lord's death was His proceeding to the place whence He had come, and from which He had never departed. " I go away," • Chap. viii. 20.
• Chap. viii. 20.
said He, "and ye shall seek me," not from any longing for me, but in hatred. P'or after His removal from human sight. He was sought for both by those who hated Him and those who loved Him; by the former in a spirit of persecution, by the latter with the desire of having Him. In the Psalms the Lord Himself says by the pro[)het, "A place of refuge hath failed me, and there is none that seeketh after my life;"= and again He says in another place in the Psalms, " Let them be confounded and ashamed who seek after my life."^ He blamed the former for not seeking, He condemned the latter be- cause they did. For it is wrong not to seek 'the life of Christ, that is, in the way the dis- ciples sought it; and it is wrong to seek the life of Christ, that is, in the way the Jews sought it: for the former souglu to possess it, these latter to destroy it. Accordingly, iiecause these men sought it tlnis in a wrong way, with a perverted heart, what ne.xt did He add? " Ye shall seek me, and " — not to let you suppose that ye will seek me for good — " ye » Ps. cxlii. 4.
3 Ps. xl. 14.
2l8 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XXXVIII.
shall die in your sin." This comes of seek- ing Christ wrongly, to die in one's sin; this of hating Him, through whom alone salvation could be found. For, while men whose hope is in God ought not to render evil even for evil, these men were rendering evil for good. The Lord therefore announced to them be- forehand, and in His foreknowledge uttered the sentence, that they should die in their sin. And then He adds, " Whither I go, ye cannot come.'' He said the same to the disciples also in another place; and yet He said not to them. " Ye shall die in your sin.'' But what did He say ? The same as to these men: " Whither I go, ye cannot come." ' He did not take away hope, but foretold delay. For at the time when the Lord spake this to the disciples, they were not able to come whither He was going, yet were they to come after- wards; but these men never, to whom in His foreknowledge He said, " Ye shall die in your sin.''
3. But on hearing these words, as is usual with those whose thoughts are carnal, who judge after the flesh, and hear and apprehend everything in a carnal way, they said, "Will he kill himself? because he said. Whither I go ye cannot come." Foolish words, and overflowing with stupidity! For why? could they not go whither He would have proceeded had He killed Himself? Were not they them- selves to die? What, then, means, " Will he kill himself? because he said. Whither I go ye cannot come?" If He spake of man's death, what man is there that does not die? Tiierefore, by " whither I go" He meant, not tne going to death, but whither He was going Himself after death. Such, then, was their answer, because they did not understand.
4. And what said the Lord to those who savored of the earth? "And He said unto tiiem. Ye are from beneath." For this cause ye savor of the earth, because ye lick dust like serpents. Ye eat earth! What does it mean? Ye feed on earthly things, ye delight in earthly things, ye gape after earthly things, ye have no heart for what is above. "Ye are from beneath: I am from above. Ye are of this world: I am. not of this world." For how could He be of the world, by whom the world was made? All that are of the world come after the world, because the world pre- ceded; and so man is of the world. But Christ was first, and then the world; and since Christ was before the world, before Christ there was nothing: because " In the begin- ning was the Word; all things were made by Him." ^ He, therefore, was of that which is above. But of what that is above? Of the air? Perish the thought! there the birds wing their fliglit. Of the sky that we see? Again I say, Perish the thought! it is there that the stars and sun and moon revolve. Of the angels? Neither is this to be understood: by Him who made all things were the angels also made. Of what, then, above is Christ? Of the Father Himself. Nothing is above that God who begat the Word equal with Him- self, co-eternal with Himself, only -begotten, timeless, that by Him time's own foundations should be laid. Understand, then, Christ as from above, so as in thy thought to get be- yond everything that is made,- — the whole creation together, every material body, every created spirit, everything in any way subject to change: rise above all, as John rose, in order to reach this: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
5. Therefore said He, "I am from above. Ye are of this world: I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins." He has explained to us, brethren, what He wished to be understood by "ye are of this world." He said there- fore in fact, " Ye are of this world," because they were sinners, because they were unrighte- ous, because they were unbelieving, because they savored of the earthly. For what is your opinion as regards the holy apostles? What difference was there between the Jews and the apostles? As great as between dark- ness and light, as between faith and unbelief, as between piety and impiety, as between hope and despair, as between love and avarice: surely the difference was great. What then? because there was such a difference, were the apostles not of the world? If thy thoughts turn to the manner of their birth, and whence they came, inasmuch as all of them had come from Adam, they were of this world. But what said the Lord Himself to them? "I have chosen you out of the world. " ^ Those, then, v/ho were of the world, became not of the world, and began to belong to Him by whom the world was made. But these men continued to be of the world, to whom it was said, " Ye shall die in your sins."
6. Let none then, brethren, say, I am not of this world. Whoever thou art as a man, thou art of this world; but He who made the world came to thee, and delivered thee from this world. If the world delights thee, thou wishest always to be unclean [immundus); but if this world no longer delight thee, thou art already clean {niimdus). And yet, if through I Chap. xiii. 33.
2 Chap. i. I, 3.
3 Chap. XV. 19.
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
19 some infirmity the world still delight thee, let Him who cleanseth [jnimdai) dwell in thee, and thou too shalt be clean." But if thou art once clean, thou wilt not continue in the world; neither wilt thou hear what was heard by the Jews, "Ye shall die in your sins." For we are all born with sin; we have all in living added to that wherein we were born, and have since become more of the world than when we were born of our parents. And where should we be, had He not come, who was wholly free from sin, to expiate all sin? And so, because in Him the Jews believed not, they deservedly heard [the sentence], "Ye shall die in your sins;" for in no way could ye, who were born with sin, be without sin; and yet, said He, if ye believe in me, although It is still true that ye were born with sin, yet in your sin ye shall not die. The whole misery, then, of the Jews was just this, not to have sin, but to die in their sins. From this it is that every Christian ought to seek to escape; because of this we have re- course to baptism; on this account do those whose lives aie in danger from sickness or any other cause become anxious for help; for this also is the sucking child carried by his mother with pious hands to the church, that he may not go out into the world without baptism, and die in the sin wherein he was born. Most wretched surely the condition and miserable the lot of these men, who heard from those truth-speaking lips," Ye shall die in your sins! "