2. Listen to the Gospel: *'And it was at Jerusalem the Encoenia."^ Encoenia was the festival of the dedication of the temple. For in Greek kainos means new; and whenever there was some new dedication, it was called Encoenia.^ And now this word is come into common use; if one puts on a new coat, he is said "encoeniare" (to renovate, or to hold an encmiia). For the Jews celebrated in a solemn manner the day on which the temple was dedicated; and it was the very feast day when the Lord spake what has just been read.
3. " It was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about Him, and said unto Him, How long dost thou keep our mind in suspense? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." They were not desiring the truth, but preparing a calumny. " It was winter," and they were chill; because they were slow to approach that divine fire. For to approach is to believe: he who believes, approaches; who denies, retires. The soul is not moved by the feet, but by the affections. They had become icy cold to the sweetness of loving Him, and they burned with the desire of do- ing Him an injury. They were far away, while there beside Him. It was not with ' Desiidat, struggles to sweating.
2 Jinccenia, iyxaivia, from iv and Kaivo';, new.
3 It was a feast, however, instituted by Judas Maccabaeus, to commemorate his purification of the temple, after its profanation by Antiochus. — Tr.
them a nearer approach in believing, but the pressure of persecution. They sought to hear the Lord saying, I am Christ; and probably enough they only thought of the Christ in a human way. The prophets preached Christ; but the Godhead of Christ asserted in the prophets and in the gospel itself is not perceived even by heretics; and how much less by Jews, so long as the vail is upon their heart?* In short, in a certain place, the Lord Jesus, knowing that their views of the Christ were cast in a human mould, not in the Di- vine, taking His stand on the human ground, and not on that where along with the assump- tion of humanity He also continued Divine, He said to them, " What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?" Following their own opinion, they replied, "Of David.'' For so they had read, and this only they retained; because while they read of His divinity, they did not understand it. But the Lord, to pin them down to some inquiry touching the divinity of Him whose apparent weakness they despised, answered them: "How, then, doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on my right hand, till I put Thine enemies un- der Thy feet? If David, then, in spirit call Him Lord, how is He his son?"^ He did not deny, but questioned. Let no one think, on hearing this, that the Lord Jesus denied that He was the Son of David. Had Christ the Lord given any such denial, He would not have enlightened the blind who so ad- dressed Him. For as He wa^ passing by one day, two blind men, who were sitting by the wayside, cried out, " Have mercy upon us, thou Son of David." And on hearing these words He had mercy on them. He stood still, healed, enlightened them;* for He owned the name. The Apostle Paul also says, "Who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; " ^ and in his Epistle to Timothy, " Remember that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, [He that is] of tne seed of David, according to my gospel.'"* For the Virgin Mary drew her origin, and hence our Lord also, from the seed of David. 4 4. The Jews made this inquiry of Christ, 6 Matt. XX. 30-34.
Tractate XLVIII.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
267 chiefly in order that, should He say, I am Christ, they might, in accordance with the only sense they attached to such a name, that He was of the seed of David, calumniate Him with aiming at the kingly power. There is more than this in His answer to them: they wished to calumniate Him with claim- ing to be the Son of David. He replied that He was the Son of God. And how? Listen: " Jesus answered them, I tell you, and ye believe not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me: but ye believe not; because ye are not of my sheep." Ye have already learned above (in Lecture XLV.) who the sheep are: be ye sheep. They are sheep through believing, sheep in following the Shepherd, sheep in not despising their Redeemer, sheep in entering by the door, sheep in going out and finding pasture, sheep in the enjoyment of eternal life. What did He mean, then, in saying to them, " Ye are not of my sheep "? That He saw them predestined to everlasting destruc- tion, not won to eternal life by the price of His own blood.
5. " My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life." This is the pasture. If you recollect, He had said before, "And he shall go in and out, and find pasture." We have entered by believing — we go out at death.' But as we have entered by the door of faith, so, as believers, we quit the body; for it is in going out by that same door that we are able to find pasture. The good pas- ture is called eternal life; there no blade withereth— all is green and flourishing. There is a plant commonly said to be ever-living; there only is it found to live. " I will give," He says, "unto them,'' unto my sheep, "eternal life." Ye are on the search for calumnies, just because your only thoughts are of the life that is present.
6. "And they shall never perish:" you may hear the undertone, as if He had said to them, Ye shall perish for ever, because ye are not of my sheep. " No one shall pluck them out of my hand." Give still greater heed to this: "That which my Father gave me is greater than all."= What can the wolf ' The ^asi ure, and the g-or>i,c inanti out, refer rather to Christ's guidance and nourishment of His people in this present life. — 'I'r.
2 There is a considerabh; difference in these words, as rendered by Aujriistin, from that which is found in our Kn^Iish version: " My Father who Kave them me is ^jreater than all." The latter is certainly the more intellij^ible and suitable to the context. Hut the variation of the Mss. between the two rea(lin.i,'s, " b.. fitl^ov" and "09.. ixti^utv,'" is somewhat remarkable. The far larger number are certainly in favor of the latter, as followed by our EnKlish liibles, but the former is ciiiuitcnaiiced by some of the more important; while others which have b« have at the sxime time /aei^oi' (neut.), and Ti'ct- 7'irsa. 'I'hus the.Sinaitic reads b (neut.), and nei^ioi' (masc.); while the Alexandrian has b? (masi. I, and iJ.eliov (ut-iil.}. The Vulgate, and some of the other early do? What can the thief and the robber? They destroy none but those predestined to destruction. But of those sheep of which the apostle says, "The Lord knoweth them that are His;"^ and "Whom He did foreknow, them He also did predestinate; and whom He did predestinate, them* He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glori- fied; " •» — there is none of such sheep as these that the wolf seizes, or the thief steals, or the robber slays. He, who knows what He gave for them, is sure of their number. And it is this that He says: " No one shall pluck them out of my hand; " and in reference also to the Father, " That which my Father gave me is greater than all." What did the Father give to the Son that was greater than all? To be His own only-begotten Son. What, then, means " gave "? Was He to whom He gave previously existent, or gave He in the act of begetting? For if He previously existed to whom He gave the gift of Sonship, there was a time when He was, and was not the Son. Far be it from us to suppose that the Lord Christ ever was, and yet was not the Son. Of us such a thing may be said: there was a time when we were the sons of men, but were not the sons of God. For we are made the sons of God by grace, but He by nature, for such was He born. And yet not so, as that one may say. He did not exist till He was born; for He, who was coeternal with the Father, was never unborn. Let him who is wise understand: and whoever understands not, let him believe and be nourished, and he will come to understanding. The Word of God was always with the Father, and always the Word; and because the Word, therefore the Son. So then, always the Son, and always equal. For it is not by growth but by birth that He is equal, who was always born, the Son of the Father, God of God, coeternal of the Eternal. But the Father is not God of 5 the Son: the Son is God of ^ the Father; therefore in begetting the Son, the Father " gave " Him to be God, in begetting He gave Him to be coeternal with Himself, in beget- ting He gave Him to be His equal. This is that which is greater than all. How is the versions, have AuRustin's reading; but the Peshito (Syriac), which is the earliest of them all, supports the other, its literal rendering being, " For my P'ather, who j,'ave to me, than all greater |is] He." Modern critics have generally adopteil the masc. reading,- Griesbach, Hengel, and others, almost ignoring the other, and Stier dismissing it as wholly inadmissible; while Alford, in a very strange and un.s;(tisfa<tory way, gives the neuter in his (Ireek text, anil not a syllable of exjilanation in his notes, ll seems to us that the transcriber had first let b creep into the text, perhaps from the pri'vioiis similar expression in chap. vi. ^g; and tlien ^«i<,'oi' was made neuter by some other to agree with it. This is more likely than the reverse; and our luiglLsh reading is everyway more satisfactory than.Vugustin's, — J'k.
268 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XLVITI.
Son the life, and the possessor of life? What He has, He is: as for thee, thou art one thing, thou hast another. For example, thou hast wisdom, but art thou wisdom itself? In short, because thou thyself art not that which thou hast, shouldst thou lose what thou hast, thou returnest to* the state of no longer hav- ing it: and sometimes thou re-acquirest, sometimes thou losest. As our eye has no light inherently in itself, it opens, and admits it; it shuts, and loses it. It is not thus that the Son of God is God — not thus that He is the Word of the Father; and not thus is He the Word, that passes away with the sound, but that which abides in its birth. In such a way hath He wisdom that He is Himself wis- dom, and maketh men wise: and life, that He is Himself the life, and maketh others alive. This is that which is greater than all. The evangelist John himself looked to heaven and earth when wishing to speak of the Son of God; he looked, and rose above them all. He thought on the thousands of angelic armies above the heavens; he thought, and, like the eagle soaring beyond the clouds, his mind overpassed the whole creation: he rose beyond all that was great, and arrived at that which was greater than all; and said, "In the beginning was the Word," But because He, of' whom is the Word, is not of the Word, and the Word is of Him, whose Word He is; therefore He says, " That which the Father gave me," namely, to be His Word, His only-begotten Son, the brightness of His light, " is greater than all." Therefore, "No one," He says, " plucketh my sheep out of my hand. No one can pluck them out of my Father's hand."
7. "Out of my hand," and "out of my Father's hand." What is this, "No one plucketh them out of my hand," and "No one plucketh them out of my Father's hand "? Have the Father and Son one hand, or is the Son Himself, shall we say, the hand of His Father? If by hand we are to under- stand power, the power of Father and Son is one; for their Godhead is one. But if we mean hand in the way spoken of by the pro- phet, "And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"'' the Father's hand is the Son Himself, which is not to be so understood as if God had the human form, and, as it were, bodily members; but that all things were made by Him. For men also are in the habit of calling other men their hands, by whom they get done what they wish. And some- times also the very work done by a man's hand is called his hand; as one is said to rec- ^De.
•Isa. liii. I.
ognize his hand when he recognizes what he has written. Since, then, there are many ways of speaking of the hand of a man, who literally has a hand among the members of his body; how much rather must there be more than one way of understanding it, when we read of the hand of God, who has no bodily form? And in this way it is better here, by the hand of the Father and Son, to under- stand the power of the Father and the Son; lest, in taking here the hand of the Father as spoken of the Son, some carnal thought also about the Son Himself should set us looking for the Son as somehow to be simi- larly regarded as the hand of Christ. There- fore, "no one plucketh them out of my Father's hand;" that is, no one plucketh them from me.
8. But that there may be no more room for hesitation, hear what follows: "I and my Father are one. " Up to this point the Jews were able to bear Him; they heard, " I and my Father are one," and they bore it no longer; and hardened in their own way, they had re- course to stones. " They took up stones to stone Him." The Lord, because He suffered not what He was unwilling to suffer, and only suffered what He was pleased to suffer, still addresses them while desiring to stone Him. "The Jews took up stones to stone Him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? And they an- swered. For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." Such was their reply to His words, "I and my Father are one. ' You see here that the Jews understood what the Arians understand not. For they were angry on this account, that they felt it could not be said, " I and my Father are one," save where there was equal- ity of the Father and the Son. / 9. But see what answer the/Lord gave to their dull apprehension. He saw that they could not bear the brilliance of the truth, and He tempered it with words. "Is it not writ- ten in your law," that is, as given to you, " that I said. Ye are gods? " ^ And the Lord called all the Scriptures generally, the law: although elsewhere He speaks more definitely of the law, distinguishing it from the pro- phets; as it is said, "The law and the pro- phets were until John; " ■» and " On these two commandments hang all the law and the pro- phets." ^ Sometimes, however. He divided the same Scriptures into three parts, as where He saith, "All things must be fulfilled which 3 Ps. Ixxx'i. 6.
4 Luke xvi. 16.
5 Matt. xxii. 40.
Tractate XLVIII.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
169 were written in the law, and the prophets, and the psahns, concerning me."' But now He includes the psalms also under the name of the law, where it is written, " I said, Ye are gods. If He calleth them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot he broken: say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world. Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" If the word of God came to men, that they might be called gods, how can the very Word of God, who is with God, be other- wise than God? If by the word of God men be- come gods, if by fellowship they become gods, can He by whom they have fellowship not be God? If lights which are lit are gods, is the light which enlightenet'h not God? If through being warmed in a way by saving fire they are constituted gods, is He who gives them the warmth other than God? Thou approachest the light and art enlightened, and numbered among the sons of God; if thou withdrawest from the light, thou fallest into obscurity, and art accounted in darkness; but that light ap- proacheth not, because it never recedeth from itself. If, then, the word of God maketh you gods, how can the Word of God he otherwise than God? Therefore did the Father sanctify His Son, and send Him into the world. Per- haps some one may be saying: If the Father sanctified Him, was there then a time when He was not sanctified? He sanctified in the same way as He begat Him. For in the act of begetting He gave Him the power to be holy, because He begat Him in holiness. For if that which is sanctified was unholy be- fore, how can we say to God the Father, " Hallowed be Thy name "?^- 10. " If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye will not believe me, believe the works; that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in Him." The Son says not, " the Father is in me, and I in Him,'' as men can say it. For if we think well, we are in God; and if we live well, God is in us: be- lievers, by participating in His grace, and being illuminated by Himself, are in Him, and He in us. But not so is it with the only- begotten Son: He is in the Father, and the Father in Him; as one who is ecpial is in him whose equal he is. In siiort, we can some- times say, We are in God, and God is in us; but can we say, I and God are one? Thou art in God, because God contains thee; God is in thee, because thou art bcconvi the tem- ple of God: but because thou art in Ciod, and (iod is in thee, canst thou say, He that seeth me seeth God; as the Only-begotten said, " He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father also; "3 and "I and the Father are one"? Recognize the prerogative of the Lord, and the privilege of the servant. The preroga- tive of the Lord is equality with the Father: the privilege of the servant »s fellowship with the Saviour.
11. "Therefore they sought to apprehend Him." Would they had apprehended by faith and understanding, not in wrath and murder! For now, my brethren, when I speak thus, it is the weak one wishing to apprehend what is strong, the small what is great, the fragile what is solid; and It is we ourselves — both you who are of the same matter as I am, and I myself who speak to you — who all wish to apprehend Christ. And what is it to appre- hend Him? [If] thou hast understood, thou hast apprehended. But not as did the Jews: thou hast apprehended in order to possess, they wished to apprehend in order to make away with Him. And because this was the kmd of apprehension they desired, what did He do to them? " He escaped out of their hands." They failed to apprehend Him, be- cause they lacked the hand of faith. The Word was made flesh; but it was no great task to the Word to rescue His own flesh from fleshy hands. To apprehend the Word in the mind, is the right apprehension of Christ.
12. "And He went away again beyond Jordan, into the place where John at first baptized; and there He abode. And many resorted unto Him, and said, John, indeed, did no miracle." You remember what was said of John, that he was a light, and bore witness to the day.'* Why, then, saj' these among themselves, "John did no miracle"? John, they say, signalized himself by no mir- acle; he did not put devils to fliglit, he drove away no fever, he enlightened not the blind, he raised not the dead, he fed not so many thousand men with five or seven loaves, he walked not upon the sea, he commanded not the winds and the waves. None of these things did John, and in all he said he bore witness to this man. By lamp-light we may advance to the day. " John did no miracle: but all things that Joim spake of this man were true. " Here are those who apprehended in a different way from the Jews. I'lie Jews wislied to apprehend one wlio was dei:)arting from them, these apprehended one who re- mained with them. In a word, what is it that follows? "Antl many believed on Him."
3 Chap. xiv. 9.
4 Chap. V. 35, 33.
■o THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XLIX.
TRACTATE XLIX.
Chapter XI. 1-54.
1, Among all the miracles wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection of Laza- rus holds a foremost place in preaching. But if we consider attentively who did it, our duty is to rejoice rather than to wonder. A man was raised up by Him who made man: for He is the only One of the Father, by whom, as you know, all things were made. And if all things were made by Him., what wonder is it that one was raised by Him, when so many are daily brought into the world by His power? It is a greater deed to create men than to raise them again from the dead. Yet He deigned both to create and to raise again; to create all, to resuscitate some. For though the Lord Jesus did many such acts, yet all of them are not recorded; just as this same St. John the evangelist himself testifies, that Christ the Lord both said and did many things that are not recorded;' but such were chosen for record as seemed to suffice for the salvation of believers. Thou hast just heard that the Lord Jesus raised a dead man to life; and that is sufficient to let thee know that, were He so pleased, He might raise all the dead to life. And, indeed, this very work has He reserved in His own hands till the end of the world. For while you have heard that by a great miracle He raised one from the tomb who had been dead four days, " the hour is coming,'' as He Him- self saith, " in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." He raised one who was putrid, and yet in that putrid carcase there was still the form of limbs; but at the last day He will by a word reconstitute ashes into human flesh. But it was needful then to do only some such deeds, that we, receiving them as tokens of His power, may put our trust in Him, and be preparing for that resurrection which shall be to Hfe and not to judgment. So, indeed. He saith, "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." - 2. We have, however, read in the Gospel of three dead persons who were raised to life by the Lord, and, let us hope, to some good ' Chap. XX. 30.
» Chap. V. 28, 29.
purpose. For surely the Lord's deeds are not merely deeds, but signs. And if they are signs, besides their wonderful character, they have some real significance: and to find out this in regard to such deeds is a some- what harder task than to read or hear of them. We were listening with wonder, as at the sight of some mighty miracle enacted be- fore our eyes, in the reading of the Gospel, how Lazarus was restored to life. If we turn our thoughts to the still more wonderful works of Christ, every one that believeth riseth * again: if we all consider, and understand that more horrifying kind of death, every one who sinneth dies.^ But every man is afraid of the death of the flesh; few, of the death of the soul. In regard to the death of the flesh, which must certainly come some time, all are on their guard against its approach: this is the source of all their labor. Man, destined to die, labors to avert his dying; and yet man, destined to live for ever, labors not to cease from sinning. And when he labors to avoid dying, he labors to no purpose, for its only result will be to put off death for a while, not to escape it; but if he refrain from sin- ning, his toil will cease, and he shall live for ever. Oh that we could arouse men, and be ourselves aroused along with them, to be as great lovers of the life that abideth, as men are of that which passeth away! What will a man not do who is placed under the peril of death? When the sword was overhanging their heads, men have given up every means of liv- ing they had in reserve. Who is there that has not made an immediate surrender of all, to escape being slain? And, after all, he has perhaps been slam. Who is there that, to save his life, has not been willing at once to lose his means of living, and prefer a life of beggary to a speedy death? Who ha-s had it said to him. Be off to sea if you would escape with your life, and has delayed to do so? Who has had it said to him. Set to work if you would preserve your life, and has con- tinued a sluggard? It is but little that God requires of us, that we may live for ever: and we neglect to obey Him. God says not to thee. Lose all you have, that you may live a 3 Another reading of this sentence may be: " If we reflect, it is by a more wonderful work of Christ that every one who believ- eth rises again to life: if we reflect all, and understand, it is by a more horrible death that every sinner dieth."
Tractate XLIX.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
27 little time oppressed with toil; but, Give to the poor of what you have, that you may live always exempt from labor. The lovers of this temporal life, which is theirs, neither when, nor as long as they wish, are our ac- cusers; and we accuse not ourselves in turn, so sluggish are we, so lukewarm about obtain- ing eternal life, which will be ours if we wish it, and will be imperishable when we have it; but this death which we fear, notwithstanding all our reluctance, will yet be ours in posses- sion.
3. If, then, the Lord in the greatness of ,His grace and mercy raiseth our souls to life, that we may not die for ever, we may well understand that those three dead persons Avhom He raised in the body, have some figu- rative significance of that resurrection of the soul which is effected by faith: He raised up the ruler of the synagogue's daughter, while still lying in the house;' He raised up the widow's young son, while being carried out- side the gates of the city;=' and He raised up Lazarus, when four days in the grave. Let each one give heed to his own soul: in sin- ning he dies: sin is the death of the soul. But sometimes sin is committed only in thought. Thou hast felt delight in what is fsvil, thou hast assented to its commission, thou hast sinned; that assent has slain thee: but the death is internal, because the evil thought had not yet ripened into action. The Lord intimated that He would raise such a soul to life, in raising that girl, who had not yet been carried forth to the burial, but was lying dead in the house, as if sin still lay concealed. But if thou hast not only har- bored a feeling of delight in evil, but hast also done the evil thing, thou hast, so to speak, carried the dead outside the gate: thou art already without, and being carried to the tomb. Yet such an one also the Lord raised to life, and restored to his widowed mother. If thou hast sinned, repent, and the Lord will raise thee up, and restore thee to thy mother Church. The third example of death is Lazarus. A grievous kind of death it is, and is distinguished as a habit of wick- edness. For it is one thing to fall into sin, another to form the habit of sinning. He who falls into sin, and straightway submits to correction, will be speedily restored to life; for he is not yet entangled in the habit, he is not yet laid in the tomb. But he who has become habituated to sin, is buried, and lias it properly said of him, "he stinketh;" for his charactei', like some horrible smell, begins to be of the worst repute. Such are all who are habituated to crime, abandoned in morals. Thou sayest to such an one. Do not so. But when wilt thou be listened to by one on whom the earth is thus heaped, who is breeding cor- ruption, and pressed down with the weight of habit? And yet the power of Christ was not unequal to the task of restoring such an one to life. We know, we have seen, we see every day men changing the very worst of habits, and adopting a better manner of life than that of those who blamed them. Thou detestedst such a man: look at the sister of Lazarus her- self (if, indeed, it was she who anointed the Lord's feet with ointment, and wiped with her hair what she had washed with her tears), who had a better resurrection than her brother; she was delivered from the mighty burden of a sinful character. For she was a notorious sinner; and had it said of her, "Her many sins are forgiven her, for she has loved much/' 3 We see many such, we know many: let none despair, but let none presume in himself. Both the one and the other are sin- ful. Let thine unwillingness to despair take such a turn as to lead thee to make choice of Him in whom alone thou mayest well pre- sume.