9. In connection with this, we come also to some understanding of the further point, that is, so far as it can be understood by such beings as ourselves, why the Holy Spirit is not said to be born, but to proceed: since, if He also were called by the name of Son, He could not avoid being called the Son of both, which is utterly absurd. For no one is a son of two, unless of a father and mother. But it would be utterly abhorrent to entertain the suspicion of any such intervention between God the Father and God the Son. For not even a son of human parents proceedeth at the same time from father and from mother: but at the time that he proceedeth from the father into the mother, it is not then that he proceedeth from the mother; and when he cometh forth from the mother into the light of day, it is not then that he proceedeth from the father. But the Holy Spirit proceedeth not from the Father into the Son, and then proceedeth from the Son to the work of the creature's sanctification; but He proceedeth at the same time from both: although this the Father hath given unto the Son, that He should proceed from Him also, even as He proceedeth from Himself. And as little can we say that the Holy Spirit is not the life, seeing that the Father is the life, and the Son is the life. And in the same way as the Father, who hath life in Himself, hath given to the Son also to have life in Himself; so hath He also given that life should proceed from Him, even as it also proceedeth from Himself.^ But we come now to the words of our Lord that follow, when He saith: "And He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me; for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore, said I, that He shall take of mine, an^ shall show it unto you." But as the present discourse has already been protracted to some length, they must be left over for another.
8 This passage from sec. 8, Augustin has transferred into Book XV. " Qn the Trinity," chap. 27.
Tractate C] TRACTATE C.
Chapter XVI. 13-15 [continued).
I. When our Lord gave the promise of the coming of His Holy Spirit. He said, " He shall teach you all truth," or, as we read in some copies, " He shall guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, ^' On these Gospel words we have already discoursed as the Lord enabled us; and now give your attention to those that follow. "And He will show you," He said, "things to come." Over this, which is perfectly plain, there is no need to linger; for it contains no question that demands from us any regular exposition. But the words that He proceeds to add, " He shall make me clearly known; ' for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you," are not to be carelessly passed over. For by the words, " He shall make me clearly known," we may understand, that by shedding abroad [God's] love in the hearts of believers, and making them spiritual. He showed them how it was that the Son was equal to the Father, whom previously they had only known according to the flesh, and as men themselves had thought of Him only as man. Or at least that, filled themselves through that very love with boldness, and divested of all fear, they might proclaim Christ unto men; and so His fame be spread abroad through the whole world. So that He said, " He shall make me clearly known," as if meaning, He shall free you from fear, and endow you with a love that will so inflame your zeal in preaching me, that you will send forth the odor, and commend the honor of, my glory throughout the world. For what they were to do in the Holy Spirit, He said that the Spirit Himself would also do, as is implied in the words, " For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you." - The Greek word, indeed, which is i^ii^dntf.^ has been rendered by the Latin interpreters in their respective translations, cliirificabit (" shall make clearly known") by one, and glflrificabit ("shall glorify") by another: for the idea exjiressed in Greek by the one term 'W$«, from which is derived the verb no'^anzi, may be interpreted both by clariias (l)rightness) and gloria (glory). For by glory every one becomes bright, and glorious by brightness; ami hence ' Clari/icabit: see below.
- Matt. X. 20.
what is signified by both words, is one and the same thing. And, as the most famous writers of the Latin tongue in olden time have defined it, glory is the generally diffused and accepted fame of any one accompanied with praise. But when this happened in the world in regard to Christ, we are not to suppose that it was the bestowing of any great thing on Christ, but on the world. For to praise what is good is not of benefit to that which receives, but to those who give the commendation.
2. But there is also a false glory, when the praise given is the result of a mistake, whether in regard to things or to persons, or to both. For men are mistaken in regard to things, when they think that to be good which is evil; and in regard to persons, when they think one to be good who is evil; and in regard to both, when what is actually. a vice is esteemed a virtue; and when he who is praised for something is destitute of what he is supposed to have, whether he be good or evil. To credit vain-glorious persons^ with the things they profess, is surely a huge vice, and not a virtue; and yet you know how common is the laudatory fame of such; for, as Scripture says, " The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who practises iniquity is blessed. "•• Here those who praise are not mistaken m the persons, but in the things; for that is evil which they believe to be good. But those who are morally corrupted with the evil of prodigality are undoubtedly such as those who praise them do not simply suspect, but perceive them to be. But further, if one feign himself a just man, and be not so, but, as regards all that he seems to do in a praiseworthy way in the sight of men, does it not for God's sake, that is, for the sake of true righteousness, but makes glory from men the only glory he seeks and hankers after; while those with whom his extolled fame is eenerally accepted think of him only as living in a 3 Hisirionibus, literally, play-actors. ,.4 Ps. X. 3..\uguslin here, as usual, follows the Septuaitint. ? vH (pri'se), however, is not passive, but, instead of its usual accusative, takes ■'j,' willi the subj<-et (if jiraise, and is rendered with sufFicient accuracy in the English version. ^T2< 'I'so, must be translated /irZ/Vv/j', with "the covetous," or " ihe defrauder." ns its iioiiihutthc: and the verse should thus read, "The wicked boasteth of his.soul's desire, and the defrauder blesseth [and] blas])heineih Jeliovah." It would be natural enough in the defrauder to do botli. — Tr.
;86 [Tractate C.
;86 [Tractate C.
praiseworthy way for God's sake, — they are not mistaken in the thing, but are deceived in the person. For that which they believe to be good, is good; but the person whom they beUeve to be good, is the reverse. But if, for example, skill in magical arts be esteemed good, and any one, so long as he is believed to have delivered his country by those same arts whereof all the while he is utterly ignorant, attain amongst the irreligious to that generally accepted renown which is defined as glory, those who so praise err in both respects; to wit, both in the thing, for they esteem that good which is evil; and in the person, for he is not at all what they suppose him. But when, in regard to any one who is righteous by God's grace and for God's sake, in other words, truly righteous, there is on account of that very righteousness a generally accepted fame of a laudatory kind, then the glory is indeed a true one; and yet we are not to suppose that thereby the righteous man is made blessed, but rather those who praise him are to be congratulated, because they judge rightly, and love the righteous. And how much more, then, did Christ the Lord, by His own glory, benefit, not Himself, but those whom He also benefited by His death?
3. But that is not a true glory which He has among heretics, with whom, nevertheless. He appears to have a generally accepted fame accompanied with praise. Such is no true glory, because in both respects they are mistaken, for they both think that to be good which is not good, and they suppose Christ to be what Christ is not. For to say that the only-begotten Son is not equal to Him that begat, is not good: to say that the onlybegotten Son of God is man only, and not God, is not good: to say that the flesh of the Truth is not true flesh, is not good. Of the three doctrines which I have stated, the first is held by the Arians, the second by the Photinians, and the third by the Manicheans. But inasmuch as there is nothing in any of them that is good, and Christ has nothing to do with them, in both respects they are in the wrong; and they attach no true glory to Christ, although there may appear to be amongst them a generally accepted fame regarding Christ of a laudatory character. And accordingly all heretics together, whom it would be too tedious to enumerate, who have not right views regarding Christ, err on this account, that their views are untrue regarding both good things and evil. The pagans, also, of whom great numbers are landers of Christ, are themselves also mistaken in both respects, saying, as they do, not in accordance with the truth of God, but rather with their own conjectures, that He was a magician. For they reproach Christians as being destitute of skill; but Christ they laud as a magician, and so betray what it is that they love: Christ indeed they do not love, since what they love is that which Christ never was. And thus, then, in both respects they are in error, for it is wicked to be a magician; and as Christ was good. He was not a magician. Wherefore, as we have nothing to say in this place of those who malign and blaspheme Christ, — for it is of His glory we speak, wherewith He was glorified in the world, — it was only in the holy Catholic Church that the Holy Spirit glorified Him with His true glory. For elsewhere, that is, either among heretics or certain pagans, the glory He has in the world cannot be a true one, even where there is a generally accepted fame of Him accompanied with praise. His true glory, therefore, in the Catholic Church is celebrated in these words by the prophet: " Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; and Thy glory above all the earth." ^ Accordingly, that after His exaltation the Holy Spirit was to come, and to glorify Him, the sacred psalm, and the Onlybegotten Himself, promised as an event of the future, which we see accomplished.
4. But when He says, " He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you," listen thereto with Catholic ears, and receive it with Catholic minds. For not surely on that account, as certain heretics have imagined, is the Holy Spirit inferior to the Son; as if the Son received from the Father, and the Holy Spirit from the Son, in reference to certain gradations of natures. Far be it from us to believe this, or to say it, and from Christian hearts to think it. In fine. He Himself straightway solved the question, and explained why He said so. "All tilings that the Father hath are mine: therefore, said 1, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you." What would you more? The Holy Spirit thus receives of the Father, of whom the Son receives; for in this Trinity the Son is born of the Father, and from the Father the Holy Spirit proceedeth. He, however, who is born of none, and proceedeth from none, is the Father alone. But in what sense it is that the only-begotten Son said, "All things that the Father hath are mine '^ (for it certainly was not in the same sense as when it was said to that son, who was not only begotten, but the elder of two, " Thou art ever with me; and all that I have is thine),"'' will have our careful consideration, if the Lord I Ps. cviii, 5.
2 Luke x\'. 31.
Tractate CI.]
1B7 so will, in connection with the passage where the Only-begotten saith to the Father, "And all mine are Thine, and Thine are mine;"' ' Chap xvii. 10.
so that our present discourse may be here brought to a close, as the words that follow require a different opening for their discussion.
TRACTATE CI.
Chapter XVI, 16-23.
I. These words of the Lord, when He says, "A little while, and ye shall no more see me: and again a little while, and ye shall see me; because I go to the Father/' were so obscure to the disciples, before what He thus says was actually fulfilled, that they inquired among themselves what it was that He said, and had to confess themselves utterly ignorant. For the Gospel proceeds, "Then said some of His disciples among themselves, What is this that He saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again a little while, and ye shall see me; and. Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that He saith, A little while? we know not what He saith." This is what moved them, that He said, "A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again a little while, and ye shall see me." For in what precedes, because He had not said, "A little while,'' but only, " I go to the Father and ye shall see me no more," ' He appeared to them to have spoken, as it were, quite plainly, and they had no inquiry among themselves regarding it. But now, what was then obscure to them, and was shortly afterwards revealed, is already perfectly manifest to us: for after a little while He suffered, and they saw Him not; again, after a little while He rose, and they saw Him. But how the words are to be taken that He used, "Ye shall no more see me," inasmuch as by the word " more "- He wished it to be understood that they would not see Him afterwards, we have explained at the passage where He said, The Holy Spirit " shall convince of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye shall see me no more; "3 meaning thereby, that tiiey would never afterwards see Christ in His present state of subjection to death.
2. "Now Jesus knew," as the evangelist ' Chap. xvi. 10.
2 The I'.iiKlish version has here, " ^'^• shall not sec nic," reading ou in the orijjinal, with the Alexandrine CDdrx. Several of the others, however (includinK the.Sinaitic), Iviive oiixtTi. (" no more"), rendered liy Au>;ustin j<i/ii /laii, which lias thus the greater weight of authority on its side.— Tr.
3 Above, Tract. XCV.
proceeds to say, " that they were desirous to ask Him, and said unto them, Ye Inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again a little while, and ye shall see me. Verily verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy:" which may be understood in this way, that the disciples were thrown into sorrow over the death of the Lord, and straightway were filled with joy at His resurrection; but the world, whereby are signified the enemies that slew Christ, were, of course, in a state of rapture over the murder of Christ, at the very time when the disciples were filled with sorrow. For by the name of the world the wickedness of this wor.d may be understood; in other words, those who are the friends of this world. As the Apostle James says in his epistle, " Whosoever will be a friend of this world, is become the enemy of God; " " for the effect of that enmity to God was, that not even His Only-begotten was spared.
3. And then He goes on to say, "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow; l)ut I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." Nor does the metaphor here em|')Ioyed seem ditticiilt to understand; for its key is at hand in the exposition given by Himself of its meaning. For the pangs of parturition are compared to sorrow, and the birtli itself to joy; which is usually all the greater when it is not a girl but a boy that is born. But when He said, " Your joy no man taketh from you," for tlicir joy was Jesus Himself, there is implied what was said by the apostle, " Christ, being raisetl from the dead, ilieth no A Jas. iv. 4.
[Tractate CI.
more; and death shall have no more dominion over Him.", 4. Hitherto in this section of the Gospel, whereon we are discoursing to-day, the tenor of everything has been, I may say, of easy understanding: a much closer attention is needful in connection with the words that follow. For what does He mean by the words, "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing ''? The verb to ask, used here, means not only to beg of, but also to question; and the Greek Gospel, of which this is a translation, has a word that may also be understood in both senses, so that by it the ambiguity is not removed;^ and even though it were so, every difficulty would not thereby disappear. For we read that the Lord Christ, after He rose again, was both questioned and petitioned. He was asked by the disciples, on the eve of His ascension into heaven, when He would be manifested, and when the kingdom of Israel would come; ^ and even when already in heaven. He was petitioned [asked] by St. Stephen to receive his spirit. '* And who dare either think or say that Christ ought not to be asked, sitting as He does in heaven, and yet was asked while He abode on earth? or that He ought not to be asked in His state of immortality, although it was men's duty to ask Him while still in His state of subjection to death? Nay, beloved, let us ask Him to untie with His own hands the knot of our present inquiry, by so shining into our hearts that we may perceive what He saith.
5. For I think that His words, " But I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you," are not to be referred to the time of His resurrection, and when He showed them His fiesh to be looked at and handled;s but rather to that of which He had already said, " He that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father; and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."^ For He had already risen. He had already shown Himself to them m the flesh, and He was already sitting at the right hand of the Father, when that same Apostle John, whose Gospel this is, says in his epistle, " Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is."' That vision belongs not to this life, but to the future; and is not temporal, but eternal. "And this is life eternal," in the words of Him who is that life, " that they might know Thee the only true God, and 3 Acts i. 6.
6 Chap. xiv. 21.
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."^ Of this vision and knowledge the apostle says, " Now we see through a glass, in a riddle; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."' At present the Church is in travail with the longing for this fruit of all he-r labor, but then she shall bring to the birth in its actual contemplation; now she travails in birth with groaning, then shall she bring forth in joy; now she travails in birth through her prayers, then shall she bring forth in her praises. Thus, too, is it a male child; since to such fruit in the contemplation are all the duties of her present conduct to be referred. For He alone is free; because He is desired on His own account, and not in reference to aught besides. Such conduct is in His service; for whatever is done in a good spirit has a reference to Him, because it is done on His behalf; while He, on the other hand, is got and held in possession on His own account, and not on that of aught besides. And there, accordingly, we find the only end that is satisfying to ourselves. He will therefore be eternal; for no end can satisfy us, save that which is found in Him who is endless. With this was Philip inspired, when he said, " Show us the Father, and it sufhceth us.^' And in that showing the Son gave promise also of His own presence, when He said, " Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? " '° Of that, therefore, which alone sufificeth us, we are very appropriately informed, "Your joy no man taketh from you."
6. On this point, also, in reference to what has been said above, I think we may get a still better understanding of the words, "A little while, and ye shall no more see me: and again a little while, and ye shall see me." For the whole of that space oyer which the present dispensation extends, is but a little while; and hence this same evangelist says in his epistle, "It is the last hour."" For in this sense also He added, " Because I go to the Father," which is to be referred to the preceding clause, where He saith, "A little while, and ye shall no more see me;^' and not to the subsequent, where He saith, "And again a little while, and ye shall see me." For by His going to the Father, He was to bring it about that they should not see Him. And on this account, therefore, His words did not mean that He was about to die, and to be withdrawn from their view till His resurrection; but that He was about to go to the Father, which He did after His resurrec- 9 I Cor. xiii. 12.
" I John ii. 18.
Tractate CI I. J tion, and when, after holding intercourse with them for forty days. He ascended into heaven.' He therefore addressed the words, "A Uttle while, and ye shall no more see me," to those who saw Him at the time in bodily form; because He was about to go to the Father, and never thereafter to be seen in that mortal state wherein they now beheld Him when so addressing them. But the words that He added, "And again a little while, and ye shall see me," He gave as a promise to the Church universal: just as to it, also, He gave the other promise, " Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." = The Lord is not slack concerning His promise: a little while, and we shall see Him, where we shall have no more any requests to make, any questions to put; for I Acts i. 3, 9.
Matt, xxviii. 20.
nothing shall remain to be desired, nothing lie hid to be inquired about. This little while appears long to us, because it is still in continuance; when it is over, we shall then feel what a little while it was. Let not, then, our joy be like that of the world, whereof it is said, " But the world shall rejoice; " and yet let not our sorrow in travailing in birth with such a desire be unmingled with joy; but, as the apostle says, be "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, '^ for even the woman in travail, to whom we are compared, has herself more joy over the offspring that is soon to be, than sorrow over her present pains. But let us here close our present discourse, for the words that follow contain a very trying question, and must not be unduly curtailed, so that they may, if the Lord will, obtain a more befitting explanation 3 Rom. xii. 12.
TRACTATE CIL Chapter XVL 23-28.
I. We have now to consider these words of the Lord, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, If ye shall ask anything of the Father in my name. He will give it you." It has already been said in the earlier portions of this discourse of our Lord^s, on account of those who ask some things of the Father in Christ's name and receive them not, that there is nothing asked of the Father in the Saviour's name that is asked in contrariety to the method of salvation." For it is not the sound of the letters and syllables, but 'what the sound itself imports, and what is rightly and truly to be understood by that sound, that He is to be regarded as declaring, wlien He says, " in my name." Hence, he who has such ideas of Christ as ought not to be entertained of the only Son of God, asketh not in His name, even though he may not abstain from the mention of Christ in so many letters and syllables; since it is only in His name he asketh, of whom he is thinking wlien he asketh. But he who has such ideas of Him as ought to be entertained, asketh in His name, and receiveth what he asketli, if he asketh nothing that is contrary to his own everlasting salvation. And he receiveth it when he ought to receive ic. For some things are not ' Above, Tract. LXXIII.
refused, but are delayed till they can be given at a suitable time. In this way, surely, we are to understand His words, " He will give you," so that thereby we may know that those benefits are signified which are properly applicable to those who ask. For all the saints are heard effectively- in their own behalf, but are not so heard in behalf of all besides, whether friends or enemies, or any others: for it is not said in a general kind of way.
He will give;" but, "He will give you. ' 2. "Hitherto," He says, "ye have not asked anything in my name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." This that He calls a full joy is certainly no carnal joy, but a spiritual one; and wiien it shall be so great as to be no longer capable of any additions to it, it will then doubtless be full. Whatever, then, is asked as belonging LO the attainment of this joy, is to be asked in the name of Christ, if we understand the grace of God, and if we are truly in (juest of a blessed life. But if aught dilferent from this is asked, there is nothing asked: not that the thing itself is nothing at all, but that in comi^arison with what is so great, aiiytiiing else that is coveted is virtually nothing.
- /C.iaiii/iiiittiif, liiard and answered.
[Tractate CIL For, of course, the man is not actually nothing, of whom the apostle says, " He who thinketh himself to be something, when he is nothing/' ' But surely in comparison with the spiritual man, who knows that by the grace of God he is what he is, he who makes vain assumptions is nothing. In this way, then, may the words also be rightly understood, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, if ye shall ask anything of the Father in my name. He will give [it] you;" that by the words, " if anything," should not be understood anything whatever, but anything that is not really nothing in connection with the life of blessedness. And what follows, " Hitherto ye have not asked anything in my name," may be understood in two ways; either, that ye have not asked in my name, because a name that ye have not known as it is yet to be known; or, ye have not asked anything, since in comparison with that which ye ought to have asked, what ye have asked is to be accounted as nothing. In order, then, that they may ask in His name, not that which is nothing, but a full joy (since anything different from this that they ask is virtually nothing). He addresses to them the exhortation, "Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full; " that is, ask this in my name, that your joy may be full, and ye shall receive. For His saints, who persevere in asking such a good thing as this, will in no wise be defrauded by the mercy of God.
3. "These things," said He, "have I spoken to you in proverbs: but the hour Cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of my Father." I might be disposed to say that this hour, whereof He speaketh, must be understood as that future period when we shall see openly, as the blessed Paul says, " face to face;" that what He says, " These things have I spoken to you in proverbs," is one with what has been said by the same apostle, " Now we see through a glass, in a riddle:"'' and "I will show you," because the Father shall be seen through the instrumentality of the Son, is akin to what He says elsewhere, " Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and [he] to whom the Son shall be pleased to reveal Him. "3 But such a sense seems to be interfered with by that which follows: "At that day ye shall ask in my name." For in that future world, when we have reached the kingdom where we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is,-* what shall we then have to ask, when our desire shall be satisfied with good things P^ 3 Matt. xi. 27.
As it is also said in another psalm: " I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall be revealed."* For petition has to do with some kind of want, which can have no place there where such abundance shall reign.
4. It remains, therefore, for us, so far as my capacity to apprehend it goes, to understand Jesus as having promised that He would cause His disciples, from being carnal and natural, to become spiritual, although not yet such as we shall be, when a spiritual body shall also be ours; but such as was he who said, " We speak wisdom among them that are perfect; " ' and, " I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal;"^ and, " We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.