5 P.s. xi. 5. Aii.i<iistin here, as usual, along with the Vulffate, follows the.SeptuaKint in what is clearly a mistranslation of the Hebrew text, which is correctly rendered Kramm.itically in our Knijlish version, though not exactly according to the Masoretic punctuatiim. "Sj ti' (fem.) shows that " his soul" is the subject.
and not the object of the hatred.— Tr.
6 I Cor. XV. 28.
TRACTATE LXXXIV.
Chapter XV. i^.
I. The Lord, beloved brethren, hath defined that fullness of love which we ought to bear to one another, when He said: " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Inasmuch, then, as He had said before, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you;" and appended to these words what you have just been hearing, " Greater love hath no man than this, tliat a man lay down his life for his friends; " th.ere follows from this as a consequence, what this same Evangelist John says in his epistle, " Tliat as Christ laid down His life for us, even so we also ought to lay tiowii our lives for the brethren;"' loving one another in truth, as He hatli loved us, who laitl down His life for us. Such also is doubtless the meaning of wliat we read in the Proverbs of Solomon: " If thou sittest down to supper at ' 1 John iii. 16.
[Tractate LXXXIV.
the table of a ruler, consider wisely what is set before thee; and so put to thy hand, knowing that thou art bound to make similar preparations."' For what is the table of the ruler, but that from which we take the body" and blood of Him who laid down His life for us? And what is it to sit thereat, but to approach in humility? And what is it to consider intelligently what is set before thee, but worthily to reflect on the magnitude of the favor? And what is it, so to put to thy hand^ as knowing that thou art bound to make similar preparations, but as I have already said, that, as Christ laid down His life for us, so we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren? For as the Apostle Peter also says, " Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps. "^ This is to make similar preparations. This it was that the blessed martyrs did in their burning love; and if we celebrate their memories in no mere empty form,and, in the banquet Avhereat they themselves were filled to the full, approach the table of the Lord, we must, as they did, be also ourselves making similar preparations. For on these very grounds we do not commemorate them at that table in the same way, as we do others who now rest in peace, as that we should also pray for them, but rather that they should do so for us, that we may cleave to their footsteps; because they have actually attained that fullness of love, than which, our Lord hath told us, there cannot be a greater. For such tokens of love they exhibited for their brethren, as they themselves had equally received at the table of the Lord.
2. But let us not be supposed to have so spoken as if on such grounds we might possibly arrive at an equality with Christ the Lord, if for His sake we have undergone witness-bearing even unto blood. He had power to lay down His life, and to take it again; 3 but we have no power to live as long as we wish; and die we must, however unwilling: He^ by dying, straightway slew death in Himself; we, by His death, are delivered from death: His flesh saw no corruption;* ours, after corruption, shall in the end of the world be clothed by Him with incorruption: i7i? had no need of us, in order to work out our salvation; we, without Him, can do nothing: He gave Himself as the vine, to us the branches; we, apart from Him, can have no life. Lastly, although brethren die for brethren, yet no martyr's blood is ever shed for the remission of the sins of brethren, as was I Prov. xxiii. 1,2: see below, &t\6. also Tract. XLVII. sec. 2, 3 Chap..X. 18. 4 Acts ii. 31.
note 4.
2 I Pet. ii. 21.
the case in what He did for us; and in this respect He bestowed not on us aught for imitation, but something for congratulation. In as far, then, as the martyrs have shed their blood for the brethren, so far have they exhibited such tokens of love as they themselves perceived at the table of the Lord. (One might imitate Him in dying, but no one could, in redeeming.) s In all else, then, that I have said, although it is out of my power to mention everything, the martyr of Christ is far inferior to Christ Himself. But if any one shall set himself in comparison^ I say, not with the power, but with the innocence of Christ, and (I would not say) in thinking that he is healing the sins of others, but at least that he has no sins of his own, even so far is his avidity overstepping the requirements of the method of salvation; it is a matter of considerable moment for him, only he attains not his desire. And well it is that he is admonished in that passage of the Proverbs, which immediately goes on to say, " But if thy greed is too great, be not desirous of his dainties; for it is better that thou take nothing thereof, than that thou shouldst take more than is befitting. For such things, "it is added, ''have a life of deceit," that is, of hypocrisy. For in asserting his own sinlessness, he cannot prove, but only pretend, that he is righteous. And so it is said, " For such have a deceiving life." There is only One who could at once have human flesh and be free from sin. Appropriately are we commanded that which follows; and such a word and proverb is well adapted to human weakness, when it is said, " Lay not thyself out, seeing thou art poor, against him that is rich." For the rich man is Christ, who was never obnoxious to punishment either through hereditary or personal debt and is righteous Himself, and justifies others. Lay not thyself out against Him, thou who art so poor, that thou art manifestly to the eyes of all the daily beggar that thou art in thy prayer for the remission of sins. "But keep thyself," he says, "from thine own counseF '[" cease from thine own wisdom"— E. V,]. From what, but from this delusive presumption? For He, indeed, inasmuch as He is not only man but also God, can never be chargeable with evil. " For if thou turn thine eye upon Him, He will nowhere be visible." "Thine eye," that is, the human eye, wherewith thou distinguishest that which is human; "if thou turn it upon Him, He will nowhere be visible," because 5 This parenthesized sentence is found,, according to Migne, inserted here in six mss. In three others it occurs immediately before the second following sentence, beginning, " But if any one," etc. In other mss. it is wanting; and Migne omits it from the text. -Tr.
Tractate LXXXV.]
He cannot be seen with such organs of sight loved us, and given Himself for us.= " For as are thine. " For He will provide Himself; greater love hath no man than this, that a man wings like an eagle's, and will depart to the house of His overseer,"' from which, at all events, He came to us, and found us not such lay down his life for his friends.'" And let us be imitating Him in such a spirit of reverential obedience, that we shall never have as He Himself was who came. Let us there- the boldness to presume on a comparison before love one another, even as Christ hath tween Him and ourselves.
I The whole of this passage, taken from Proverbs xxiii. 3-5, as | well as verses i and 2, quoted in sec. i of this Lecture, and in Tract. XLVII. sec. 2 (where see note 4\ departs so widely from the Hebrew text, and even from the Septuagint (which is itself considerably astray), that it is hardly possible to account for the differences; and we refrain from attempting it. The text had 1 evidently been felt to be obscure from very early times, especially for those who were unacquainted with the Hebrew; and hence transformations, omissions, and interpolations of words, and even of sentences, on the part of copyists and commentators, had resulted in the very various readings of different versions. The passage as given by Augustin is a good e.\ample of his ingenuity in spiritualizing the statements of Scripture. — Tr. 2 Gal. ii. 20.
TRACTATE LXXXV.
Chapter XV. 14, 15.
1. When the Lord Jesus had commended the love which He manifested toward us in dying for us, and had said, " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," He added, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." What great condescension! when one cannot even be a good servant unless he do his lord's commandments; the very means, which only prove men to be good servants. He wished to be those whereby His friends should be known. But the condescension, as I have termed it, is this, that the Lord condescends to call those His friends whom He knows to be His servants. For, to let us know tliat it is the duty of servants to yield obedience to their master's commands, He actually in another place reproaches those who are servants, by saying, "And why call ye me. Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say? " ' Accordingly, when ye say Lord, prove what you say by doing my commandments. Is it not to the obedient servant that He is yet one day to say, "Well done, thou good servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord "?" One, therefore, who is a good servant, can be both servant and friend.
2. ]>nt let us mark what follows. " Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth." How, then, are we to understand the good servant to be both servant and friend, when He says, " Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth "?
' Luke vi. 46.
» Matt. XXV. 21.
He introduces the name of friend in such a way as to withdraw that of servant; not as if to include both in the one term, but in order that the one should succeed to the place vacated by the other. What does it mean? Is it this, that even in doing the Lord's commandments we shall not be servants? Or this, that then we shall cease to be servants, when we have been good servants? And yet who can contradict the Truth, when He says, " Henceforth I call you not servants? " and shows why He said so: " For the servant," He adds, " knoweth not what his lord doeth." Is it that a good and tried servant is not likewise entrusted by his master with his secrets? What does He mean, then, by saying, " The servant' knoweth not what his lord doeth"? Be it that " he Knoweth not what he doeth," is he ignorant also of what he commands? For if he were so, how can he serve? Or how is he a servant who does no service? And yet the Lord speaks thus: "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants." Truly a marvellous statement! Seeing we cannot serve the Lord but by doing His commandments, how is it that in doing so we shall cease to be servants? If I be not a servant in doing His commandments, and yet cannot be in His service unless I so do, then, in my very service, I am no longer a servant.
3. Let us, brethren, let us understand, and may the Lord enable us to untlerstand, and enable us also to do what we understand. And if we know this, wc know of a truth what the ]-ord doeth; for it is only the Lord that so enables us, and by such means only do we attain to His friendship. For just as there [Tractate LXXXVI.
are two kinds of fear, which produce two classes of fearers; so there are two kinds of service, which produce two classes of servants. There is a fear, which perfect love casteth out;' and there is another fear, which is clean, and endureth for ever.^ The fear that lies not in love, the apostle pointed to when he said, " For ye have not received the spirit of service again to fear."^ But he referred to the clean fear when he said, " Be not high-minded, but fear."'» In that fear which love casteth out, there has also to be cast out the service along with it: for both were joined together by the apostle, that is, the service and the fear, when he said, " For ye have not received the spirit of service again to fear.'' And it was the servant connected with this kind of service that the Lord also had in His eye when He said, " Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth." Certainly not the servant characterized by the clean fear, to whom it is said, ** Well done, thou good servant: enter thou into the joy of thy lord;" but the servant who is characterized by the fear which love casteth out, of whom He elsewhere saith, " The servant abideth not in the house for ever, but the Son abideth ever.-''5 Since, therefore, He hath given us power to become the sons of God,* let us not be servants, but sons: that, in some wonderful and indescribable but real way, we may as servants have the power not to be servants; servants, indeed, with that clean fear which distin- = Ps. xix. 9.
5 Chap. viii. 35.
guishes the servant that enters into the joy of his lord, but not servants with the fear that has to be cast out, and which marketh him that abideth not in the house for ever. But let us bear in mind that it is the Lord that enableth us to serve so as not to be servants. And this it is that is unknown to the servant, who knoweth not what his Lord doeth; and who, when he doeth any good thing, is lifted up as if he did it himself, and not his Lord; and so, glories not in the Lord, but in himself, thereby deceiving himself, because glorying, as if he had not received. ^ But let us, beloved, in order that we may be the friends of the Lord, know what our Lord doeth. For it is He who makes us not only men, but also righteous, and not we ourselves. And who but He is the doer, in leading us to such a knowledge? For "we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." ^ Whatever good there is, is freely given by Him. And so because this also is good, by-Him who graciously imparteth all good is this gift of knowing likewise bestowed; that, in respect of all good things whatever, he that glorieth may glory in the Lord.^ But the words that follow, *' But I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my P'ather I have made known unto you," are so profound, that we must by no means compress them within the limits of the present discourse, but leave them over till another.
1 Cor. iv. 7.
8 I Cor. ii. 12.
9 I Cor. i.
31- TRACTATE LXXXVI.
Chapter XV. 15, 16.
I. It is a worthy subject of inquiry how these words of the Lord are to be understood, " But I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." For who is there that dare affirm or believe that any man knoweth all things that the only-begotten Son hath heard of the Father; when there is no one that can comprehend even how He heareth any word of the Father, being as He is Himself the only Word of the Father? Nay more, is it not the case that a little afterwards, in this same discourse, which He delivered to the disciples between the Supper and His passion. He said.
"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now "? ' How, then, are we to understand that He made known unto the disciples all that He had heard of the Father, when there are many things that He saith nQt, just because He knows that they cannot bear them now? Doubtless what He is yet to do He says that He has done as the same Being who hath made those things which are yet to be.- For as He says by the prophet, " They pierced my hands and my feet,"^ and not. They will yet pierce; but I Chap. xvi. 12.
2 Isa. xlv. II.
3 Ps. xxii. 16 Tractate LXXXVI.]
ooo speaking as it were of the past, and yet predicting what was still in the future: so also in the passage before us He declares that He has made known to the disciples all, that He knows He will yet make known in that fullness of knowledge, whereof the apostle says, '• But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away,"' For in the same place he adds: "Now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known; and now through a glass in a riddle, but then face to face.'' ' For the same apostle also says that we have been saved by the washing of regeneration,- and yet declares in another place, "We are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is no hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."^ To a similar purpose it is also said by his fellow-apostle Peter, " In whom, though now seeing Him not, ye believe; and in whom, when ye see Him, ye shall rejoice with a joy unspeakable and glorious: receiving the reward of faith, even the salvation of your souls."'* If, then, it is now the season of faith, and faith's reward is the salvation of our souls; who, in that faith which worketh by love,^ can doubt that the day must come to an end, and at its close the reward be received; not only the redemption of our body, whereof the Apostle Paul speaketh,^ but also the salvation of our souls, as we are told by the Apostle Peter? For the felicity springing from both is at this present time, and in the existing state of mortality, a matter rather of hope than of actual possession. But this it concerns us to remember, that our outward man, to wit the body, is still decaying; but the inward, that is, the soul, is being renewed day by day.'' Accordingly, while we are waiting for the immortality of the flesh and salvation of our souls in the future, yet with the pledge we have received, it may be said that we are saved already; so that knowledge of all things which the Onlybegotten hath heard of the Father we are to regard as a matter of hoj^e still lying in the future, although declared by Christ as something He had already imparted.
2. "Ye have not chosen me," He says, " but I have chosen you.'' Grace such as that is ineffable. I'"or what were we so long as Christ had not yet chosen us, and we were therefore still destitute of love? For he who hath chosen Him, how can he love Him? Were we, think you, in that condition which is sung of in the psalm: " I had rather be an abject in the house of the Lord, than dwell in the tents of wickedness"?* Certainly not. What were we then, but sinful and lost? We had not yet come to believe on Him, in order to lead to His choosing us; for if it were those who already believed that He chose, then was He chosen Himself, prior to His choosing. But how could He say, " Ye have not chosen me,'' save only because His mercy anticipated us?' Here surely is at fault the vain reasoning of those who defend the foreknowledge of God in opposition to His grace, and with this view declare that we were chosen before the foundation of the world,'" because God foreknew that we should be good, but not that He Himself would make us good. So says not He, who declares, "Ye have not chosen me." For had He chosen us on the ground that He foreknew that we should be good, then would He also have foreknown that we would not be the first to make choice of Him. For in no other way could we possibly be good: unless, forsooth, one could be called good who has never made good his choice. What was it then that He chose in those who were not good? For they were not chosen because of their goodness, inasmuch as they could not be good without being chosen. Otherwise grace is no more grace, if we maintain the priority of merit. Such, certainly, is the election of grace, whereof the apostle says: "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace.'* To which he adds: " And if by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace."" Listen, thou ungrateful one, listen: "Ye iiave not chosen me, but I have chosen you." Not that thou mayest say, I am chosen because I already believed. For if thou wert believing in Him, then hadst thou already chosen Him. But listen: "Ye have not chosen me." Not that thou mayest say, Before I believed I was already doing good works, and therefore was I chosen. For what good work can be prior to faith, when the apostle says, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin "? '- What, then, are we to say on hearing such words, "Ye have not chosen me," but that vve were evil, and were chosen in order that we might be good through the grace of Him who chose us? For it is not by grace, if merit preceded: but it is of grace; and therefore that grace did not f;nd, but effected the merit.
3. See then, beloved, liow it is that He choosetli not the good, but maketli those whom He has chosen good. ** I have ciiosen 0 Ps. lix. 10. '-■ Rum. xiv. 23.
you," He saith, "and appointed you that ye should go and bring fortli fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain." And is not that the fruit, whereof He had already said, "Without me ye can do nothing"?' He hath chosen therefore, and appointed that we should go and bring forth fruit; and no fruit, accordingly, had we to induce His choice of us. "That ye should go," He said, "and bring forth fruit." We go to bring forth, and He Himself is the way wherein we go, and wherein He hath appointed us to go. And so His rrercy hath anticipated us in all.
I Chap. XV. 5.
"And that your fruit," He saith, "should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you." Accordingly let love remain; for He Himself is our fruit. And this love lies at present in longing desire, not yet in fullness of enjoyment; and whatsoever with that longing desire we shall ask in the name of the only-begotten Son, the Father giveth us. But what is not expedient for our salvation to receive, let us not imagine that we ask that in the Saviour's name: but we ask in the name of the Saviour only that which really belongs to the way of salvation.
TRACTATE LXXXVII.
Chapter XV. 17-19.
Chapter XV. 17-19.
I. In the Gospel lesson which precedes this one, the Lord had said: " Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and appointed 3'ou, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you.'' On these words you remember that we have already discoursed, as the Lord enabled us. But here, that is, in the succeeding lesson which you have heard read, He says: "These things I command you, that ye love one another.'' And thereby we are to understand that this is our fruit, of which He had said, "I have chosen you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain.'' And what He subjoined, " That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you," He will certainly give us if we love one another; seeing that this very thing He has also given us, in choosing us when we had no fruit, because we had chosen Him not; and appointing us that we should bring forth fruit, — that is, that we should love one another, — a fruit that we cannot have apart from Him, just as the branches can do nothing apart from the vine. Our fruit, therefore, is charity, which the apostle explains to be, "Out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned."' So love we one another, and so love we God. For it would be with no true love that we loved one another, if we loved not God. For every one loves his neighbor as himself if he I I Tim. i. 5.
loves God; and if he loves not God, he loves not himself. For on these two commandments of love hang all the law and the prophets: - this is our fruit. And it is in reference, therefore, to such fruit that He gives us commandment when He says, " These things I command you, that ye love one another." In the same way also the Apostle Paul, when wishing to commend the fruit of the Spirit in opposition to the deeds of the flesh, posited this as his principle, saying, " The fruit of the Spirit is love;" and then, as if springing from and bound up in this principle, he wove the others together, which are "joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. "^ For who can truly rejoice who loves not good as the source of his joy? Who can have true peace, if he have it not with one/whom he truly loves? Who can be long-enduring through persevering continuance in good, save through fervent love? Who can be kind, if he love not the person he is aiding? Who can be good, if he is not made so by loving? Who can be sound in the faith, without that faith which worketh by love? Whose meekness can be beneficial in character, if not regulated by love? And who will abstain from that which is debasing, if he love not that which dignifies? Appropriately, therefore, does the good Master so frequently commend love, as the only thing needing to be commended, without which all other good things can be of no avail, and which cannot be possessed - Matt. xxii. 40.
3 Gal. V. 22.
Tractate LXXXVII.]
without bringing with it those other good things that make a man truly good.
2. But alongside of this love we ought also patiently to endure the hatred of the world. For it must of necessity hate those whom it perceives recoiling from that which is loved by itself. But the Lord supplies us with special consolation from His own case, when, after saying, " These things I command you, that ye love one another," He added, "If the world hate you, know that it hated me before [it hated] you." Why then should the member exalt itself above the head? Thou refusest to be in the body if thou art unwilling to endure the hatred of the world along with the Head. " If ye were of the world," He says, ''the world would love its own." He says this, of course, of the whole Church, which, by itself, He frequently also calls by the name of the world: as when it is said, " God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. " ' And this also: "The Son of man came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.''- And John says in his epistle: " We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also [for those] of the whole world." ^ The whole world then is the Church, and yet the whole world hateth the Church. The world therefore hateth the world, the hostde that which is reconciled, the condemned that which is saved, the polluted that which is cleansed.
3. But that world which God is in Christ reconciling unto Himself, \vhich is saved by Christ, and has all its sins freely pardoned by Christ, has been chosen out of the world that is hostile, condemned, and defiled. For out of that mass, which has all perished in Adam, are formed the vessels of mercy, whereof that world of reconciliation is composed, that is hated by the world which belongeth to the vessels of wrath that are formed out of the same mass and fitted to destruction.'' Finally, after saying, " If ye were of tlie world, the world would love its own," He immediately added, "But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." And so these men were themselves also of that world, and, that they might no longer be of it, were chosen out of it, through no merit of their own, for no good works of theirs had preceded; and not by nature, which through free-will had become totally corrupted at its source: but gratuitously, that is, of actual grace. For He who chose the world out of the world, effected for Himself, instead of finding, what He should choose: for " there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace. And if by grace," he adds, "then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. "^ 4, But if we are asked about the love which IS borne to itself by that world of perdition which hateth the world of redemption; we reply, it loveth itself, of course, with a false love, and not with a true. And hence, it loves itself falsely, and hates itself truly. l'"or he that loveth wickedness, hateth his own soul.*^ And yet it is said to love itself, inasmuch as it loves the wickedness that makes it wicked; and, on the other hand, it is said to hate itself, inasmuch as it loves that which causes it injury. It hates, therefore, the true nature that is in it, and loves the vice: it hates what it is. as made by the goodness of God, and loves what has been wrought in it by freewill. And hence also, if we rightly understand it, we are at once forbidden and commanded to love it: thus, we are forbidden, when it is said to us, " Love not the world; "^ and we are commanded, when it is said to us, "Love your enemies."^ These constitute the world that hateth us. And therefore we are forbidden to love in it that which it loves in itself; and we are enjoined to love in it what it hates in itself, namely, the workmanship of God, and the various consolations of His goodness. For we are forbidden to love the vice that is in it, and enjoined to love the nature, while it loves the vice in itself, and hates the nature: so that we may both love and hate it in a right manner, whereas it loves and hates it.self perversely.
5 Rom. xi. s, 6.
6 Ps. xi. 5. See Tract. LXXXIII. sec. 3, note 4.