10. The first stage of liberty, then, is to be free from crimes [sinful conduct]. And so the Apostle Paul, when he determined on the ordination of either elders or deacons, or who- ever was to be ordained to the superintend- ence of the Church, says not, If any one is without sin; for had he said so, every one would be rejected as unfit, none would be or- dained: but he says, " If any one is without crime" [E.V. blame], '^ such as, murder, adultery, any uncleanness of fornication, theft, fraud, sacrilege, and others of that sort. When a man has begun to be free from these (and every Christian man ought to be so), he begins to raise his head to liberty; but that is liberty begun, not completed. Why, says some one, is it not completed liberty? Be- cause, " I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind;" " for what I would," he says, " that do I not; but what I hate, that do I."' " The flesh," he says, " lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; so that ye do not the things that ye would." ' In part liberty, in part bondage: not yet entire, not yet pure, not yet full li-berty, because not yet eternity. For we have still infirmity in part, in part we have attained to liberty. Whatever has been our sin, was previously wiped out in baptism. But because all our iniquity has been blotted out, has there remained no infirmity? If there had not, we should be living here without sin. Yet who would venture to say so, but the proud, but the man unworthy of the De- liverer's mercy, but he who wishes to be self- deceived, and who is destitute of the truth ' Hence, from the fact that some infirmity re- mains, I venture to say that, in what measure vve serve God, we are free; in what measure we serve the law of sin, we are still in bon- dage. Hence says the apostle, what we be- gan to say, " I delight in tlie law of God after the inward man."' Here then it is, wherein we are free, wherein we deligiit in the law of God; for liberty has joy. l-'or as long as it is from fear that thou doest what is right, God is no delight to thee. Find thy delight in Him, ami thou art free. Fear not jiunish- ment, but love righteousness. An thou not yet able to love righteousness? Fear even punishment, that thou mayest attain to the love of righteousness.
11. In the measure then spoken of above, he fell himself to be already free, and there- 6 I Til «i;ui.
Tit. i. 6.
'7- 234 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XL I.
fore said, " I delight in the law of God after the inward man." I delight in the law, I delight in its requirements, I delight in right- eousness itself. " But I see another law in my members" — this infirmity which remains — "warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members." On this side he feels his captivity, where righteousness has not been perfected; for where he delights in the law of God, he is not the captive but the friend of the law; and therefore free, because a friend. What then is to be done with that which so remains? What, but to look to Him who has said, "If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed "? Indeed he also who thus spake so looked to Him: "O wretched man that I am,'' he says, " who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Therefore "if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.'' And then he concluded thus: " So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin," • 1 myself^ he says; for there are not two of us contrary to each other, coming from different origins; but " with the mind I myself serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin," so long as languor struggles against salvation. 12. But if with the flesh thou servest the law of sin, do as the apostle himself says: " Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust there- of: neither yield ye your members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin. "^ He says not. Let it not be; but, "Let it not reign." So long as sin must be in thy members, let its reigning power at least be taken away, let not its demands be obeyed. Does anger rise? Yield not up thy tongue to anger for the pur- pose of evil-speaking; yield not up thy hand or foot to anger for the purpose of striking. That irrational anger would not rise, were there no sin in the members. But take away its ruling power; let it have no weapons where- with to fight against thee. Then also it will learn not to rise, when it begins to find the lack of weapons. " Yield not your members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin," else will ye be entirely captive, and there will be no room to say, " With the mind I serve the law of God." For if the mind keep pos- session of the weapons, the members are not roused to the service of raging sin. Let the inward ruler keep possession of the citadel, because it stands there under a greater ruler, and is certain of assistance. Let it bridle anger; iR om. vu. 23-25.
2 Rom. vi. 12, 13.
let it restrain evil desire. There is within some- thing that needs bridling, that needs restrain- ing, that needs to be kept in command. And what did that righteous man wish, who with the mind was serving the law of God, but that there should be a complete deliverance from that which needed to be bridled? And this ought every one to be striving after who is aiming at perfection, that lust itself also, no longer receiving the obedience of the mem- bers, may every day be lessened in the ad- vancing pilgrim. "To will," he says, "is present with me; but not so, how to perfect that which is good." 3 Has he said, ^o do good is not present with me? Had he said so, hope would be wanting. He does not say. To do is not present with me, but, " To per- fect is not present with me." For what is the perfecting of good, but the elimination and end of evil? And what is the elimination of evil, but what the law says, " Thou shalt not lust [covet] " P'' To lust not at all is the perfecting of good, because it is the elimina- ting of evil. This he said, " To perfect that which is good is not present with me," be- cause his doing could not get the length of setting him free from lust. He labored only to bridle lust, to refuse consent to lust, and not to yield his members to its service. " To perfect," then, he says, "that which is good is not present with me." I cannot fulfill the commandment, "Thou shalt not lust." What then is needed? To fulfill this: "Go not after thy lusts." s Do this meanwhile so long as unlawful lusts are present in thy flesh; " Go not after thy lusts." Abide in the ser- vice of God, in the liberty of Christ. With the mind serve the law of thy God. Yield not thyself to thy lusts. By following them, thou addest to their strength. By giving them strength, how canst thou conquer, when on thine own strength thou art nourishing en- emies against thyself? / 13. What then is that fulKand perfect lib- erty in the Lord Jesus, who said, " If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free in- deed;" and when shall it be a full and per- fect liberty? When enmities are no more; when " death, the last enemy, shall be des- troyed." " For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on im- mortality.— And when this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swal- lowed up in victory. O death, where is thy struggle? " ^ What is this, " O death, where is thy struggle "? " The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh," 3 Rom. vii. i8. 4 Ex. xx. 17. 5 Ecclus. xviii. 30.
Tractate XLII.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
but only when the flesh of sin was in vigor. "O death, where is [now] thy struggle?" Now shall we live, no more shall we die, in Him who died for us and rose again: "that they," he says, "who live, should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again."' Let us be pray- ing, as those who are wounded, for the phy- sician; let us be carried into the inn to be healed. For it is He who promises salvation, who pitied the man left half-alive on the road by robbers. He poured in oil and wine, He I 2 Cor. V. 15.
healed the wounds, He put him on his beast, He took him to the inn. He commended him to the innkeeper's care. To what innkeeper? Perhaps to him who said, " We are ambassa- dors for Christ." He gave also two pence to pay for the healing of the wounded man.= And perhaps these are the two command- ments, on which hang all the law and the prophets. 3 Therefore, bretliren, is the Cluirch also, wherein the wounded is healed mean- while, the traveller's inn; but above the Church itself, lies the possessor's inheritance.
2 Luke X. 30-35.
TRACTATE XLII.
Chapter VHL 37-47.
I. Our Lord, in the form of a servant, yet not a servant, but even in servant-form the Lord (for that form of flesh was indeed ser- vant-like; but though He was "in the like- ness of sinful flesh," ' yet was He not sinful flesh) promised freedom to those who believed in Him. But the Jews, as if proudly glorying in their own freedom, refused with indignation to be made free, when they were the servants of sin. And therefore they said that they were free, because Abraham's seed. What answer, then, the Lord gave them to this, we have heard in the reading of this day's lesson. " I know," He said, " that ye are Abraham's children; but ye seek to kill me, because my word taketh no hold in you." I recognize you, He says; " Ye are the children of Abra- ham, but ye seek to kill me." I recognize the fleshly origin, not the believing heart. " Ye are the children of Abraham," hut after the flesh. Therefore He says, "Ye seek to kill me, because my word taketh no hold in you.'' If my word were taken, it would take hold: if ye were taken, ye would be enclosed like fishes within the meslies of faith. What then means that — " taketh no hold in you "? It taketh not hold of your heart, because not received by your heart. For so is the word of God, and so it ought to be to believers, as a hook to the fish: it takes when it is taken. No injury is done to those who are taken; since they are taken for salvation, and not for destruction. Hence the Lord says to His disciples: " Com.e after me, and I shall make you fishers of men." '■ But such were not ' Rom. viii. 3.
= Malt. iv. ly.
these; and yet they were the children of Abraham, — children of a man of God, un- righteous themselves. For they inherited the fleshly genus, but were become degenerate, by not imitating the faith of him whose children they were.
2. You have heard, indeed, the Lord saying, "I know that ye are Abraham's children." Hear what He says afterwards: " I speak that which I have seen with my Father; and ye do that which ye have seen with your father." He had already said, " I know that ye are Abraham's children." What is it, then, that they do? What He told them: "Ye seek to kill me." This they never saw with Abraham. But the Lord wishes God the Father to be understood when He says, " I speak that which I have seen with my Father." I have seen the truth: I speak the truth, because I am the Truth. For if the Lord speaks the truth which He I has seen with the Father, He has seen Him- I self — He speaks Himself; because He Him- self is tlie Truth of the Father, which He saw with the Father. For He is the Word — the Word which was with God. The evil, tiien, which tliese men do, and which the Lord chides and reprehends, where have they seen it? With their fatlier. When we come to hear in what follows the still clearer statement wiio is tlicir father, tlien shall we understand what kind of things tliey saw with such a fatht;-; for as yet He names not their father. A Lit- tle above He referred to Abraham, but n\ regard to their fleshly origin, not their similarity of life. He is about to speak of tliat other father of theirs, who neither begat them 236 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XLII.
nor created them to be men. But still they were his children in as far as they were evil, not in as far as they were men; in what they imitated him, and not as created by him.
3. " They answered and said unto Him, Abraham is our father; '' as if, What hast thou to say against Abraham? or, If thou canst, dare to find fault with Abraham. Not that the Lord dared not find fault with Abra- ham; but Abraham was not one to be found fault with by the Lord, but rather approved. But these men seemed to challenge Him to say some evil of Abraham, and so to have some occasion for doing what they purposed. " Abraham is our father."
4. Let us hear how the Lord answered them, praising Abraham to their condemna- tion. "Jesus saith unto them, If ye are Abraham's children, do the works of Abra- ham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham." See, he was praised, they were condemned. Abra- ham was no manslayer. I say not. He im- plies, I am Abraham's Lord; though did I say it, I would say the truth. For He said in another place, " Before Abraham was, I am " (ver. 58); and then they sought to stone Him. He said not so. But meanwhile, as you see me, as you look upon me, as alone you think of me, I am a man. Wherefore, then, wish you to kill a man who is telling you what he has heard of God, but because you are not the children of Abraham? And yet He said above, " I know that ye are Abraham's children." He does not deny their origin, but condemns their deeds. Their flesh was from him, but not their life.
5. But we, dearly beloved, do we come of Abraham's race, or was Abraham in any sense our father according to the flesh? The flesh of the Jews draws its origin from his flesh, not so the flesh of Christians. We have come of other nations, and yet, by imitating him, we have become the children of Abra- ham. Listen to the apostle: " To Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. He saith not," he adds, "And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."' We then have become Abra- ham's seed by the grace of God. It was not of Abraham's flesh that God made any co-heirs with him. He disinherited the former, He adopted the latter; and from that olive tree whose root is in the patriarchs, He cut off the proud natural branches, and engrafted the I Gal. iii. i6, 29.
I Gal. iii. i6, 29.
lowly wild olive.*' And so, when the Jews came to John to be baptized, he broke out upon them, and addressed them, " O genera- tion of vipers.'' Very greatly indeed did they boast of the loftiness of their origin, but he called them a generation of vipers, — not even of human beings, but of vipers. He saw the form of men, but detected tiie poison. Yet they had come to be changed, ^ because at all events to be baptized; and he said to them, "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bruig forth therefore fruits meet for repen- tance. And think not to say within your- selves. We have Abraham to our father; for God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham."'* If ye bring not forth fruits meet for repentance, flatter not yourselves aI)out such a lineage. God is able to condemn you, without defrauding Abraham of children. For He has a way to raise up children to Abraham. Those who imitate his faith shall be made his children. " God is able of these stones to raise up children unto At)raham." Such are we. In our parents we were stones, when we worshipped stones for our god. Of such stones God has created a family to Abra- ham.
6. Why, then, does this empty and vain bragging exalt itself? Let them cease boast- ing that they are the children of Abraham. They have heard what they ought to have heard: " If ye are the children of Abraham," prove it by your deeds, not by words. " Ye seek to kill me, a man; " — I say not, mean- while, the Son of God; I say not God; I say not the Word, for the Word dies not I say merely this that you see; for only what you see can you kill, and whom you see not can you offend. "This," then, " did not Abra- ham,'' "Ye do the works of your father." And as yet He says not who is that father of theirs. / 7. And now what answer did they give Him? For they began somewliat to realize that the Lord was not speaking of carnal generation, but of their manner of life. And because it is the custom of the Scriptures, which they read, to call it, in a spiritual sense, fornication, when the soul is, as it were, pros- tituted by subjection to many false gods, they made this reply: "Then said they to Him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God." Abraham has now lost his importance. For they were repulsed as they ought to have been by the truth-speak- ing mouth; because such was Abraham, whose deeds tliey failed to imitate, and yet gloried - Rom. xi. 17. 4 Matt. iii. 7-9.
3 In some editions, " to be cleansed.'
Tractate XLII.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN, -o/ in his lineage. And they altered their reply, saying, I believe, with themselves, As often as we name Abraham, he goes on to say to us, Wliy do ye not imitate him in whose lineage ye glory? Such a man, so holy, just, and guileless, we cannot imitate. Let us call God our Father, and see what he will say to us.
8. Has falsehood indeed found something to say, and should not truth find its fitting re- ply? Let us hear what they say: let us hear what they hear. "We have one Father/' they say, " even God. Then said Jesus unto them, If God were your Father, ye would [doubtless] love me; for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of my- self, but He sent me." Ye call God Father; recognize me, then, as at least a brother. At the same time He gave a stimulus to the hearts of the intelligent, by touching on that which He has a habit of saying, " I came not of myself: He sent me. I proceeded forth and came from God." Remember what we are wont to say: From Him He came; and from whom He came, with Him He came. The sending of Christ, therefore, is His in- carnation. But as respects the proceeding forth of the Word from God, it is an eternal procession. Time holds not Him by whom timiC was created. Let no one be saying in his heart. Before the Word was, how did God exist? Never say. Before the Word of God was. God was never without the Word, be- cause the Word is abiding, not transient; God, not a sound; by whom the heaven and earth were made, and which passed not awa}' with those things that were made upon the earth. From Him, then, He proceeded forth as God, the equal, the only Son, the Word of the Father; and came to us. for the Word was made flesh that He might dwell among us. His coming indicates His humanity; His abiding, His divinity. It is His God- head towards which, His humanity whereby, we make progress. Had He not become that whereby we might advance, we should never attain to Him who abideth ever.
9. "Why," He says, "do ye not under- stand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word." And so they could not un- derstand, because they could not hear. And whence could they not hear, but just because they refused to be set right by believing? And why so? "Ye are of your father the devil.'' How long do ye keep speaking of a father? How often will ye ciiange your fathers, — at one time Abraham, at another God? Hear from the Son of God whose children ye be: " Ye are of your father the devil."
10. Here, now, we must beware of the heresy of the Manicheans, which affirms that there is a certain principle of evil, and a cer- tain family of darkness with its princes, which had the presumption to fight against God; but that God, not to let His kingdom be subdued by the hostile family, despatched against them, as it were, His own offspring, princes of His own [kingdom of] light; and so sub- dued that race from which the devil derives his origin. From thence, also, they say our flesh derives its origin, and accordmgly think the Lord said, "Ye are of your father the devil," because they were evil, as it were, by nature, deriving their origin from the oppos- ing family of darkness. So they err, so their eyes are blinded, so they make themselves the family of darkness, by believing a false- hood against Him who created them. For every nature is good; but man's nature has been corrupted by an evil will. What God made cannot be evil, if man were not [a cause of] evil to himself. But surely the Creator is Creator, and the creature a creature [a thing created]. The creature cannot be put on a level with the Creator. Distinguish be- tween Him who made, and that wliich He made. The bench cannot be put on a level with the mechanic, nor the pillar with its buil- der; and yet the mechanic, though he made the bench, did not himself create the wood. But the Lord our God, in His omnipotence and by the Word, made what He made. He had no materials out of which to make all that He made, and yet He made it. For they were made because He willed it, they were made because He said it; l)ut tiie things made cannot be compared with the Maker. If thou seekest a proper subject of compari- son, turn thy mind to the only-begotten Son. How, then, were the Jews the ciiildren of the devil? By imitation, not by birth. Lis- ten to the usual language of the Holy Scrip- tures. The prophet says to those very Jews, " Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite."' The Amorites were not a na- tion that gave origin to the Jews. The Hit- tites also were tliemselves of a nation alto- gether different from the race of the Jews. But because ttic.Xmorites and Hittites were impious, and llie Jews imitated their impie- ties, they found parents for themselves, not of whom tiiey were born, but m whose dam- nation they should share, because following their customs. But perhaps you in(iuire, \\'iience is the devil himself? From tiie same source certainly as the other angels. But tiie other an<rels continued in tiieirobedi-