Other Writings, Part 12

1. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ, especially those recorded by the Evangelist John, — who not without cause leaned on the Lord's bosom, that he might drink in the secrets of that higher wisdom, and by evangelizing give forth again what by loving he had drunk in — are so secret and profound of understanding, that they trouble all who are perverse of heart, and exercise all who are in heart upright. Wherefore, beloved, give heed to these few words that have been read. Let us see if in any wise we can, by His own gift and help who has willed His words to be recited to us, which at that time were heard and committed to writing that they might now be read, what He means in what you have now heard Him say: Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He sees the Father doing: for whatever things the Father does, these same the Son also does in like manner.

2. Now you need to be reminded whence this discourse arose, by reason of what precedes this passage, where the Lord had cured a certain man among those who were lying in the five porches of that pool of Solomon, and to whom He had said, Take up your bed, and go unto your house. But this He had done on the Sabbath; and hence the Jews, being troubled, were falsely accusing Him as a destroyer and transgressor of the law. He then said to them, My Father works even until now, and I work. [John 5:17] For they, taking the observance of the Sabbath in a carnal sense, fancied that God had, as it were, slept after the labor of framing the world even to this day; and that therefore He had sanctified that day, from which He began to rest as from labor. Now, to our fathers of old there was ordained a sacrament of the Sabbath, [Exodus 20:8] which we Christians observe spiritually, in abstaining from every servile work, that is, from every sin (for the Lord says, Every one that commits sin is the servant of sin), and in having rest in our heart, that is, spiritual tranquillity. And although in this life we strive after this rest, yet not until we have departed this life shall we attain to that perfect rest. But the reason why God is said to have rested is, that He made no creature after all was finished. Moreover, the Scripture called it rest, to admonish us that after good works we shall rest. For thus we have it written in Genesis, And God made all things very good, and God rested on the seventh day, in order that you, O man, considering that God Himself is said to have rested after good works, should not expect rest for yourself, until after you have wrought good works; and even as God after He made man in His own image and likeness, and in him finished all His works very good, rested on the seventh day, so may you also not expect rest to yourself, unless you return to that likeness in which you were made, which likeness you have lost by sinning. For, in reality, God cannot be said to have toiled, who said, and they were done. Who is there that, after such facility of work, desires to rest as if after labor? If He commanded and some one resisted Him, if He commanded and it was not done, and labored that it might be done, then justly He should be said to have rested after labor. But when in that same book of Genesis we read, God said, Let there be light, and there was light; God said, Let there be a firmament, and the firmament was made, and all the rest were made immediately at His word: to which also the psalm testifies, saying, He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created, — how could He require rest after the world was made, as if to enjoy leisure after toil, He who in commanding never toiled? Consequently these sayings are mystical, and are laid down in this wise that we may be looking for rest after this life, provided we have done good works. Accordingly, the Lord, restraining the impudence and refuting the error of the Jews, and showing them that they did not think rightly of God, says to them, when they were offended at His working men's healing on the Sabbath, My Father works until now, and I work: do not therefore suppose that my Father so rested on the Sabbath, that thenceforth He does not work; but even as He now works, so I also work. But as the Father without toil, so too the Son without toil. God said, and they were done; Christ said to the impotent man, Take up your bed, and go unto your house, and it was done.

3. But the catholic faith has it, that the works of the Father and of the Son are not separable. This is what I wish, if possible, to speak to you, beloved; but, according to those words of the Lord, he that is able to receive it, let him receive it. [Matthew 19:12] But he that is not able to receive it, let him not charge it on me, but on his own dullness; and let him turn to Him that opens the heart, that He may pour in what He freely gives. And, lastly, if any one may not have understood, because I have not declared it as I ought to have declared it, let him excuse the weakness of man, and supplicate the divine goodness. For we have within a Master, Christ. Whatever you are not able to receive through your ear and my mouth, turn ye in your heart to Him who both teaches me what to speak, and distributes to you in what measure He deigns. He who knows what to give, and to whom to give, will help him that seeks, and open to him that knocks. And if so be that He give not, let no one call himself forsaken. For it may be that He delays to give something, but He leaves none hungry. If, indeed, He give not at the hour, He is exercising the seeker, He is not scorning the suitor. Look ye, then, and give heed to what I wish to say, even if I should not be able to say it. The catholic faith, confirmed by the Spirit of God in His saints, has this against all heretical perverseness, that the works of the Father and of the Son are inseparable. What is this that I have said? As the Father and the Son are inseparable, so also the works of the Father and of the Son are inseparable. How are the Father and the Son inseparable, since Himself said, I and the Father are one? [John 10:30] Because the Father and the Son are not two Gods, but one God, the Word and He whose the Word is, One and the Only One, Father and Son bound together by charity, One God, and the Spirit of Charity also one, so that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is made the Trinity. Therefore, not only of the Father and Son, but also of the Holy Spirit; as there is equality and inseparability of persons, so also the works are inseparable. I will tell you yet more plainly what is meant by the works are inseparable. The catholic faith does not say that God the Father made something, and the Son made some other thing; but what the Father made, that also the Son made, that also the Holy Spirit made. For all things were made by the Word; when He spoke and they were done, it is by the Word they were done, by Christ they were done. For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: all things were made by Him. If all things were made by Him, God said, Let there be light, and there was light; in the Word He made, by the Word He made.

4. Behold, then, we have now heard the Gospel, where He answered the Jews who were indignant that He not only broke the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. [John 5:18] For so it is written in the foregoing paragraph. When, therefore, the Son of God, the Truth, made answer to their erring indignation, says He, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He sees the Father doing; as if He said, Why are you offended because I have said that God is my Father, and that I make myself equal with God? I am equal in that wise that He begot me; I am equal in that wise that He is not from me, but I from Him. For this is implied in these words: The Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He sees the Father doing. That is, whatever the Son has to do, the doing it He has of the Father. Why of the Father has He the doing it? Because of the Father He has it that He is Son. Why has He it of the Father to be Son? Because of the Father He has it that He is able, of the Father that He is. For, to the Son, both to be able and to be is the self-same thing. It is not so with man. Raise your hearts by all means from a comparison of human weakness, that lies far beneath; and should any of us perhaps reach to the secret, and, while awe-struck by the brilliance as it were of a great light, should discern somewhat, and not remain wholly ignorant; yet let him not imagine that he understands the whole, lest he should become proud, and lose what knowledge he has gotten. With man, to be and to be able are different things. For sometimes the man is, and yet cannot what he wills; sometimes, again, the man is in such wise, that he can what he wills; therefore his being and his being able are different things. For if man's esse and posse were the same thing, then he could when he would. But with God it is not so, that His substance to be is one thing, and His power to be able another thing; but whatever is His, and whatever He is, is consubstantial with Him, because He is God: it is not so that in one way He is, in another way is able; He has the esse and the posse together, because He has to will and to do together. Since, then, the power of the Son is of the Father, therefore also the substance of the Son is of the Father; and since the substance of the Son is of the Father, therefore the power of the Son is of the Father. In the Son, power and substance are not different: the power is the self-same that the substance is; the substance to be, the power to be able. Accordingly, because the Son is of the Father, He said, The Son cannot of Himself do anything. Because He is not Son from Himself, therefore He is not able from Himself.

5. He appears to have made Himself as it were less, when He said, The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He sees the Father doing. Hereupon heretical vanity lifts the neck; theirs, indeed, who say that the Son is less than the Father, of less authority, of less majesty, of less possibility, not understanding the mystery of Christ's words. But attend, beloved, and see how they are confounded in their carnal intellect by the words of Christ. And this is what I said a little before, that the word of God troubles all perverse hearts, just as it exercises pious hearts, especially that spoken by the Evangelist John. For they are deep words that are spoken by him, not random words, nor such as may be easily understood. So, a heretic, if he happen to hear these words, immediately rises and says to us, Lo, the Son is less than the Father; hear the words of the Son, who says, 'The Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He sees the Father doing.' Wait; as it is written, Be meek to hear the word, that you may understand. [Sirach 5:13] Well, suppose that because I assert the power and majesty of the Father and of the Son to be equal, I was disconcerted at hearing these words, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He sees the Father doing. Well, I, being disconcerted at these words, will ask you, who seemest to yourself to have instantly understood them, a question. We know in the Gospel that the Son walked upon the sea; [Matthew 14:25] when saw He the Father walk upon the sea? Here now he is disconcerted. Lay aside, then, your understanding of the words, and let us examine them together. What do we then? We have heard the words of the Lord: The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He sees the Father doing. The Son walked upon the sea, the Father never walked upon the sea. Yet certainly the Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He sees the Father doing.

6. Return then with me to what I was saying, in case it is so to be understood that we may both escape from the question. For I see how I, according to the catholic faith, may escape without tripping or stumbling; while you, on the other hand, shut in on every side, art seeking a way of escape. See by what way you have entered. Perhaps you have not understood this that I said, See by what way you have entered: hear Himself saying, I am the door. [John 10:7] Not without cause, then, are you seeking how you may get out; and this only you find, that you have not entered by the door, but fell in over the wall. Therefore raise yourself up from your fall how you can, and enter by the door, that you may go in without stumbling, and go out without straying. Come by Christ, not bringing forward of your own heart what you may say; but what He shows, that speak. Behold how the catholic faith gets clear of this question. The Son walked upon the sea, planted the feet of flesh on the waves: the flesh walked, and the divinity directed. But when the flesh was walking and the divinity directing, was the Father absent? If absent, how does the Son Himself say, but the Father abiding in me, Himself does the works? [John 14:10] If the Father, abiding in the Son, Himself does His works, then that walking upon the sea was made by the Father, and through the Son. Accordingly, that walking is an inseparable work of Father and Son. I see both acting in it. Neither the Father forsook the Son, nor the Son left the Father. Thus, whatever the Son does, He does not without the Father; because whatever the Father does, He does not without the Son.

7. We have got clear of this question. Mark ye that rightly we say the works of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit are inseparable. But as you understand it, lo, God made the light, and the Son saw the Father making light, according to your carnal understanding, who will have it that He is less, because He said, The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He sees the Father doing. God the Father made light; what other light did the Son make? God the Father made the firmament, the heaven between waters and waters; and the Son saw Him, according to your dull and sluggish understanding. Well, since the Son saw the Father making the firmament, and also said, The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He sees the Father doing, then show me the other firmament made by the Son. Have you lost the foundation? But they that are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone, are brought into a state of peace in Christ; [Ephesians 2:14-20] nor do they strive and wander in heresy. Therefore we understand that the light was made by God the Father, but through the Son; that the firmament was made by God the Father, but through the Son. For all things were made through Him, and without Him was nothing made. Cast out your understanding, which ought not to be called understanding, but evidently foolishness. God the Father made the world; what other world did the Son make? Show me the Son's world. Whose is this world in which we are? Tell us, by whom made? If you say, By the Son, not by the Father, then you have erred from the Father; if you say, By the Father, not by the Son, the Gospel answers you thus, And the world was made by (through) Him, and the world knew Him not. Acknowledge Him, then, by whom the world was made, and be not among those who knew not Him that made the world.

8. Wherefore the works of the Father and of the Son are inseparable. Moreover, this, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, would mean the same thing as if He were to say, The Son is not from Himself. For if He is a Son, He was begotten; if begotten, He is from Him of whom He is begotten. Nevertheless, the Father begot Him equal to Himself. Nor was anything wanting to Him that begot; He who begot a co-eternal required not time to beget: who produced the Word of Himself, required not a mother to beget by; the Father begetting did not precede the Son in age, so that He should beget a Son younger than Himself. But perhaps some one may say, that after many ages God begot a Son in His old age. Even as the Father is without age, so the Son is without growth; neither has the one grown old nor the other increased, but equal begot equal, eternal begot eternal. How, says some one, has eternal begot eternal? As a temporary flame generates a temporary light. The generating flame is coeval with the light which it generates: the generating flame does not precede in time the generated light; but from the moment the flame begins, from that moment the light begins. Show me flame without light, and I show you God the Father without Son. Accordingly, the Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He sees the Father doing, implies, that for the Son to see and to be begotten of the Father, is the same thing. His seeing and His substance are not different; nor are His power and substance different. All that He is, He is of the Father; all that He can is of the Father; because what He can and what He is is one thing, and all of the Father.

9. Moreover, He goes on in His own words, and troubles those that understand the matter amiss, in order to recall the erring to a right apprehension of it. After He had said, The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He sees the Father doing; lest a carnal understanding of the matter should by chance creep in and turn the mind aside, and a man should imagine as it were two mechanics, one a master, the other a learner, attentively observing the master while making, say a chest, so that, as the master made the chest, the learner should make another chest according to the appearance which he looked upon while the master wrought; lest, I say, the carnal mind should frame to itself any such twofold notion in the case of the divine unity, going on, He says, For whatever things the Father does, these same also the Son does in like manner. It is not, the Father does some, the Son others like them, but the same in like manner. For He says not, Whatever things the Father does, the Son also does others the like; but says He, Whatever things the Father does, these same also the Son does in like manner. What things the Father does, these also the Son does: the Father made the world, the Son made the world, the Holy Ghost made the world. If three Gods, then three worlds; if one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, then one world was made by the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Ghost. Consequently the Son does those things which also the Father does, and does not in a different manner; He both does these, and does them in like manner.

10. After He had said, these does, why did He add, in like manner does? Lest another distorted understanding or error should spring up in the mind. You see, for instance, a man's work: in man there is mind and body; the mind rules the body, but there is a great difference between body and mind: the body is visible, the mind is invisible: there is a great difference between the power and virtue of the mind and that of any kind of body whatever, be it even a heavenly body. Still the mind rules its own body, and the body does; and what the mind appears to do, this the body does also. Thus the body appears to do this same thing that the mind does, but not in like manner. How does this same, but not in like manner? The mind frames a word in itself; it commands the tongue, and the tongue produces the word which the mind framed: the mind made, and the tongue made; the lord of the body made, and the servant made; but that the servant might make, it received of its lord what to make, and made while the lord commanded. The same thing was made by both, but was it in like manner? How not in like manner? Says some one. See, the word that my mind formed, remains in me; that which my tongue made, passed through the smitten air, and is not. When you have said a word in your mind, and uttered it by your tongue, return to your mind, and see that the word which you have made is there still. Has it remained on your tongue, just as it has in your mind? What was uttered by the tongue, the tongue made by sounding, the mind made by thinking; but what the tongue uttered has passed away, what the mind thought remains. Therefore the body made that which the mind made, but not in like manner. For the mind, indeed, made that which the mind may hold, but the tongue made what sounds and strikes the ear through the air. Do you chase the syllables, and cause them to remain? Well, not in such manner the Father and the Son; but these same does, and in like manner does. If God made heaven that remains, this heaven that remains the Son made. If God the Father made man that is mortal, the same man that is mortal the Son made. Whatever things the Father made that endure, these things that endure made also the Son, because in like manner He made; and whatever things the Father made that are temporal, these same things that are temporal made also the Son, because He made not only the same, but also in like manner made. For the Father made by the Son, since by the Word the Father made all things.

11. Seek in the Father and Son a separation, you find none; no, not if you have mounted high; no, not even if you have reached something above your mind. For if you turn about among the things which your wandering mind makes for itself, you talk with your own imaginations, not with the Word of God; your own imaginations deceive you. Mount also beyond the body, and understand the mind; mount also beyond the mind, and understand God. Thou reachest not unto God, unless you have passed beyond the mind; how much less you reach unto God, if you have tarried in the flesh! They who think of the flesh, how far are they from understanding what God is!— since they would not be there even if they knew the mind. Man recedes far from God when his thoughts are of the flesh; and there is a great difference between flesh and mind, yet a greater between mind and God. If you are occupied with the mind, you are in the midway: if you direct your attention beneath, there is the body; if above, there is God. Lift yourself up from the body, pass beyond even yourself. For observe what said the psalm, and you are admonished how God must be thought of: My tears, it says, were made to me my bread day and night, when it was said to me daily, Where is your God? As the pagans may say, Behold our gods, where is your God? They indeed show us what is seen; we worship what is not seen. And to whom can we show? To a man who has not sight with which to see? For anyhow, if they see their gods with their eyes, we too have other eyes with which to see our God: for blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. [Matthew 5:8] Therefore, when he had said that he was troubled, when it was daily said to him, Where is your God? these things I remembered, says he, because it is daily said to me, Where is your God? And as if wishing to lay hold of his God, These things, says he, I remembered, and poured out my soul above me. Therefore, that I might reach unto my God, of whom it was said to me, Where is your God? I poured out my soul, not over my flesh, but above me; I transcended myself, that I might reach unto Him: for He is above me who made me; none reaches to Him but he that passes beyond himself.

12. Consider the body: it is mortal, earthy, weak, corruptible; away with it. Yes, perhaps you say, but the body is temporal. Think then of other bodies, the heavenly; they are greater, better, more magnificent. Look at them, moreover, attentively. They roll from east to west, they stand not; they are seen with the eyes, not only by man, but even by the beast of the field. Pass beyond them too. And how, do you say, pass beyond the heavenly bodies, seeing that I walk on the earth? Not in the flesh do you pass beyond them, but in the mind. Away with them too: though they shine ever so much, they are bodies; though they glitter from heaven, they are bodies. Come, now that perhaps you think you have not whither to go, after considering all these. And whither am I to go, do you say, beyond the heavenly bodies; and what am I to pass beyond with the mind? Have you considered all these? I have, do you say. By what means have you considered them? Let the being that considers appear in person. The being that considers all these, that discriminates, distinguishes, and in a manner weighs them in the balance of wisdom, is really the mind. Doubtless, then, better is the mind with which you have contemplated all these things, than these things which you have contemplated. This mind, then, is a spirit, not a body. Pass beyond it too. And that you may see whither you are to pass beyond, compare that mind itself, in the first place, with the flesh. Heaven forbid that you should deign so to compare it! Compare it with the brightness of the sun, of the moon, and of the stars; the brightness of the mind is greater. Observe, first, the swiftness of the mind; see whether the scintillation of the thinking mind be not more impetuous than the brilliance of the shining sun. With the mind you see the sun rising. How slow is its motion compared with your mind! What the sun is about to do, you can think in a trice. It is about to come from the east to the west; tomorrow rises from another quarter. Where your thought has done this, the sun still lags behind, and you have traversed the whole journey. A great thing, therefore, is the mind. But how do I say is? Pass beyond it also. For the mind, notwithstanding it be better than every kind of body, is itself changeable. Now it knows, now knows not; now forgets, now remembers; now wills, now wills not; now errs, now is right. Pass therefore beyond all changeableness; not only beyond all that is seen, but also beyond all that changes. For you have passed beyond the flesh which is seen; beyond heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, which are seen. Pass, too, beyond all that changes. For when you had done with those things that are seen, and had come to your mind, there you found the changeableness of your mind. Is God at all changeable? Pass then, beyond even your mind. Pour out your soul above you, that you may reach unto God, of whom it is said to you, Where is your God?

13. Do not imagine that you are to do something beyond a man's ability. The Evangelist John himself did this. He soared beyond the flesh, beyond the earth which he trod, beyond the seas which he looked upon, beyond the air in which the fowls fly, beyond the sun, the moon, the stars, beyond all the spirits unseen, beyond his own mind, by the very reason of his rational soul. Soaring beyond all these, pouring out his soul above him, whither did he arrive? What did he see? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. If, therefore, you see no separation in the light, why do you seek a separation in the work? See God, see His Word inhering to the Word speaking, that the speaker speaks not by syllables, but this his speaking is a shining out in the brightness of wisdom. What is said of the Wisdom itself? It is the radiance of eternal light. [Wisdom 7:26] Observe the radiance of the sun. The sun is in the heaven, and spreads out its brightness over all lands and over all seas, and it is simply a corporal light.

If, indeed, you can separate the brightness from the sun, then separate the Word from the Father. I am speaking of the sun. One small, slender flame of a lamp, which can be extinguished by one breath, spreads its light over all that lies near it: you see the light generated by the flame spread out; you see its emission, but not a separation. Understand, then, beloved brethren, that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are inseparably united in themselves; that this Trinity is one God; that all the works of the one God are the works of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. All the rest which follows, and which refers to the discourse of our Lord Jesus Christ, now that a discourse is due to you tomorrow also, be present that you may hear.

1. Yesterday, so far as the Lord vouchsafed to bestow, we discussed with what ability we could, and discerned according to our capacity, how the works of the Father and of the Son are inseparable; and how the Father does not some, the Son others, but that the Father does all things through the Son, as through His Word, of which it is written, All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made. Let us today look at the words that follow. And of the same Lord let us pray for mercy, and hope that, if He deem it meet, we may understand what is true; but if we should not be able to do this, that we may not go into what is false. For it is better not to know than to go astray; but to know is better than not to know. Therefore, before all things, we ought to strive to know. Should we be able, to God be thanks; but should we not be able meanwhile to arrive at the truth, let us not go to falsehood. For we are bound to consider well what we are, and what we are treating of. We are men bearing flesh, walking in this life; and though now begotten again of the seed of the Word of God, yet in Christ renewed in such manner that we are not yet wholly rid of Adam. For truly our mortal and corruptible part that weighs down the soul [Wisdom 9:15] shows itself to be, and manifestly is, of Adam; but what in us is spiritual, and raises up the soul, is of God's gift and of His mercy, who has sent His only Son to partake our death with us, and to lead us to His own immortality. The Son we have for our Master, that we may not sin; and for our defender, if we have sinned and have confessed, and been converted; an intercessor for us, if we have desired any good of God; and the bestower of it with the Father, because Father and Son is one God. But He was speaking these things as man to men: God concealed, the man manifest, that He might make them gods that are manifest men; and the Son of God made Son of man, that He might make the sons of men sons of God. By what skill of His wisdom He does this, we perceive in His own words. For as a little one He speaks to little ones, but Himself little in such wise that He is also great, and we little, but in Him great. He speaks, in deed as one cherishing and nourishing children at the breast that grow by loving.

2. He had said, The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He sees the Father doing. We, however, understood it not that the Father does something separately, which when the Son sees, Himself also does something of the same kind, after seeing His Father's work; but when He said, The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He sees the Father doing, we understood it that the Son is wholly of the Father — that His whole substance and His whole power are of the Father that begot Him. But just now, when He had said that He does in like manner these things which the Father does, that we may not understand it to mean that the Father does some, the Son others, but that the Son with like power does the very same which the Father does, while the Father does through the Son, He went on, and said what we have heard read today: For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that Himself does. Again mortal thought is disturbed. The Father shows to the Son what things Himself does; therefore, says some one, the Father does separately, that the Son may be able to see what He does. Again, there occur to human thought, as it were, two artificers — as, for instance, a carpenter teaching his son his own art, and showing him whatever he does, that the son also may be able to do it. Shows Him, says He, all things that Himself does. Is it therefore so, that while He does, the Son does not, that He may be able to see the Father do? Yet, certainly, all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made. Hence we see how the Father shows the Son what He does, since the Father does nothing but what He does through the Son. What has the Father made? He made the world. Hath He shown the world, when made, to the Son in such wise, that the Son also should make something like it? Then let us see the world which the Son made. Nevertheless, both all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made, and also the world was made by Him. If the world was made by Him, and all things were made by Him, and the Father does nothing save by the Son, where does the Father show to the Son what He does, if it be not in the Son Himself, through whom He does? In what place can the work of the Father be shown to the Son, as though He were doing and sitting outside, and the Son attentively watching the Father's hand how it makes? Where is that inseparable Trinity? Where the Word, of which it is said that the same is the power and the wisdom of God? [1 Corinthians 1:24] Where that which the Scripture says of the same wisdom: For it is the brightness of the eternal light? [Wisdom 7:26] Where what was said of it again: It powerfully reaches from the end even to the end, and orders all things sweetly? [Wisdom 8:1] Whatever the Father does, He does through the Son: through His wisdom and his power He does; not from without does He show to the Son what He may see, but in the Son Himself He shows Him what He does.

3. What sees the Father, or rather, what does the Son see in the Father, that Himself also may do? Perhaps I may be able to speak it, but show me the man who can comprehend it; or perhaps I may be able to think and not speak it; or perhaps I may not be able even to think it. For that divinity excels us, as God excels men, as the immortal excels a mortal, as the eternal excels the temporal. May He inspire and endow us, and out of that fountain of life deign to bedew and to drop somewhat on our thirst, that we may not be parched in this wilderness! Let us say to Him, Lord, to whom we have learned to say Father. We make bold to say this, because Himself willed it; if only we so live that He may not say to us, If I am a Father, where is mine honor? If I am Lord, where is my fear? Let us then say to Him, Our Father. To whom do we say, Our Father? To the Father of Christ. He, then, who says Our Father to the Father of Christ, says to Christ, what else but Our Brother? Not, however, as He is the Father of Christ is He in like manner our Father; for Christ never so conjoined us as to make no distinction between Him and us. For He is the Son equal to the Father, the eternal Son with the Father, and co-eternal with the Father; but we became sons through the Son, adopted through the Only-begotten. Hence was it never heard from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ, when speaking to His disciples, that He said of the supreme God His Father, Our Father; but He said either My Father or Your Father. But He said not Our Father; so much so, that in a certain place He used these two expressions: I go to my God, says He, and to your God. Why did He not say, Our God? Further, He said, My Father, and your Father; He said not, Our Father. He so joins as to distinguish, distinguishes so as not to disjoin. He wills us to be one in Him, but the Father and Himself one.

4. How much soever then we may understand, and how much soever we may see, we shall not see as the Son sees, even when we shall be made equal with the angels. For we are something even when we do not see; but what are we when we do not see, other than persons not seeing? And that we may see, we turn to Him whom we may see, and there is formed in us a seeing which was not before, although we were in being. For a man is when not seeing; and the same, when he does see, is called a man seeing. For him, then, to see is not the same thing as to be a man; for if it were, he would not be man when not seeing. But since he is man when not seeing, and seeks to see what he sees not, he is one who seeks, and who turns to see; and when he has well turned and has seen, he becomes a man seeing, who was before a man not seeing. Consequently, to see is to him a thing that comes and goes; it comes to him when he turns to, and leaves him when he turns away. Is it thus with the Son? Far be it from us to think so. It was never so that He was Son, not seeing, and afterwards was made to see; but to see the Father is to Him the same thing as to be Son. For we, by turning away to sin, lose enlightenment; and by turning to God we receive enlightenment. For the light by which we are enlightened is one thing; we who are enlightened, another thing. But the light itself, by which we are enlightened, neither turns away from itself, nor loses its lucidity, because as light it exists. The Father, then, shows a thing which He does to the Son, in such wise that the Son sees all things in the Father, and is all things in the Father. For by seeing He was begotten; and by being begotten He sees. Not, however, that at any time He was not begotten, and afterwards was begotten; nor that at any time He saw not, and afterwards saw. But in what consists His seeing, in the same consists His being, in the same His being begotten, in the same His continuing, in the same His unchanging, in the same His abiding without beginning and without end. Let us not therefore take it in a carnal sense that the Father sits and does a work, and shows it to the Son; and the Son sees the work that the Father does, and does another work in another place, or out of other materials. For all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made. The Son is the Word of the Father. The Father said nothing which He did not say in the Son. For by speaking in the Son what He was about to do through the Son, He begot the Son through whom He made all things.

5. And greater works than these will He show Him, that you may marvel. Here again we are embarrassed. And who is there that may worthily investigate this so great a secret? But now, in that He has deigned to speak to us, Himself opens it. For He would not speak what He would not have us understand; and as He has deigned to speak, without doubt He has excited attention: for does He forsake any whom He has roused to give attentive hearing? We have said that it is not in a temporal sense that the Son knows — that the knowledge of the Son is not one thing, and the Son Himself another; nor one thing His seeing, Himself another; but that the seeing itself is the Son, and the knowledge as well as the wisdom of the Father is the Son; and that that wisdom and seeing is eternal and co-eternal with Him from whom it is; that it is not something that varies by time, nor something produced that was not in being, nor something that vanishes away which did exist. What is it, then, that time does in this case, that He should say, Greater works than these He will show Him? He will show, that is, He is about to show. Hath shown is a different thing from will show: has shown, we say of an act past; will show, of an act future. What shall we do here, then, brethren? Behold, He whom we had declared to be co-eternal with the Father, in whom nothing is varied by time, in whom is no moving through spaces either of moments or of places, of whom we had declared that He abides ever with the Father seeing, seeing the Father, and by seeing existing; He, I say, here again mentioning times to us, says, He will show Him greater works than these. Is He then about to show something to the Son, which the Son does not as yet know? What, then, do we make of it? How do we understand this? Behold, our Lord Jesus Christ was above, is beneath. When was He above? When He said, Whatever things the Father does, these same also the Son does in like manner. Whence know we that He is now beneath? Hence: Greater works than these He will show Him. O Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, Word of God, by which all things were made, what is the Father about to show You, that as yet You know not? What of the Father is hid from You? What in the Father is hid from You, from whom the Father is not hid? What greater works is He about to show You? Or greater than what works are they which He is to show You? For when He said, Greater than these, we ought first to understand the works than which are they greater.

6. Let us again call to mind whence this discourse started. It was when that man who was thirty-eight years in infirmity was healed, and Jesus commanded him, now made whole, to take up his bed and to go to his house. For this cause, indeed, the Jews with whom He was speaking were enraged. He spoke in words, as to the meaning He was silent; hinted in some measure at the meaning to those who understood, and hid the matter from them that were angry. For this cause, I say, the Jews, being enraged because the Lord did this on the Sabbath, gave occasion to this discourse. Therefore let us not hear these things in such wise as if we had forgotten what was said above, but let us look back to that impotent man languishing for thirty-eight years suddenly made whole, while the Jews marvelled and were angry. They sought darkness from the Sabbath more than light from the miracle. Speaking then to these, while they are indignant, He says, Greater works than these will He show Him. Greater than these: than which? What you have seen, that a man, whose infirmity had lasted thirty-eight years, was made whole; greater than these the Father is about to show to the Son. What are greater works? He goes on, saying, For as the Father raises the dead, and quickens them, so also the Son quickens whom He will. Clearly these are greater. Very much greater is it that a dead man should rise, than that a sick man should recover: these are greater. But when is the Father about to show these to the Son? Does the Son not know them? And He who was speaking, did He not know how to raise the dead? Had He yet to learn how to raise the dead to life — He, I say, by whom all things were made? He who caused that we should live, when we were not in being, had He yet to learn how we might be raised to life again? What, then, do His words mean?

7. But now He condescends to us, and He who a little before was speaking as God, now begins to speak as man. Notwithstanding, the same is man who is God, for God was made man; but was made what He was not, without losing what He was. The man therefore was added to the God, that He might be man who was God, but not that He should now henceforth be man and not be God. Let us then hear Him also as our brother whom we did hear as our Maker. Our Maker, because the Word in the beginning; our Brother, because born of the Virgin Mary: Maker, before Abraham, before Adam, before earth, before heaven, before all things corporeal and spiritual; but Brother, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, of the Israelitish virgin. If therefore we know Him who speaks to us as both God and man, let us understand the words of God and of man; for sometimes He speaks to us such things as are applicable to the majesty, sometimes such as are applicable to the humility. For the selfsame is high who was made low, that He might make us high who are low. What, then, says He? The Father will show to me greater than these, that you may marvel. To us, therefore, He is about to show, not to Him. And since it is to us that the Father is to show, for that reason He said, that you may marvel. He has, in fact, explained what He meant in saying, The Father will show to me. Why did He not say, The Father will show to you; but, He will show to the Son? Because also we are members of the Son; and like as what we the members learn, He Himself in a manner learns in His members. How does He learn in us? As He suffers in us. Whence may we prove that He suffers in us? From that voice out of heaven, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? [Acts 9:4] Is it not Himself that will sit as Judge in the end of the world, and, setting the just on the right, and the wicked on the left, will say, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom; for I was hungry, and you gave me to eat? And when they shall answer, Lord, when saw we You hungry? He will say to them, Since ye gave to one of the least of mine, you gave to me. [Matthew 25:31-40] Let us at this time question Him, and let us say to Him, Lord, when will You be a learner, seeing Thou teachest all things? Immediately, indeed, He makes answer to us in our faith, When one of the least of mine does learn, I learn.

8. Let us rejoice, then, and give thanks that we are made not only Christians, but Christ. Do ye understand, brethren, and apprehend the grace of God upon us? Marvel, be glad, we are made Christ. For if He is the head, we are the members: the whole man is He and we. This is what the Apostle Paul says: That we be no longer babes, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine. But above he had said, Until we all come together into the unity of faith, and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to the perfect man, to the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ. [Ephesians 4:14] The fullness of Christ, then, is head and members. Head and members, what is that? Christ and the Church. We should indeed be arrogating this to ourselves proudly, if He did not Himself deign to promise it, who says by the same apostle, But you are the body of Christ, and members. [1 Corinthians 12:27]

9. Whenever, then, the Father shows to Christ's members, He shows to Christ. A certain great but yet real miracle happens. There is a showing to Christ of what Christ knew, and it is shown to Christ through Christ. A marvelous and great thing it is, but the Scripture so says. Shall we contradict the divine declarations? Shall we not rather understand them, and of His own gift render thanks to Him who freely bestowed it on us? What is this that I said, is shown to Christ through Christ? Is shown to the members through the head. Lo, look at this in yourself. Suppose that with your eyes shut you would take up something, your hand knows not whither to go; and yet your hand is at any rate your member, for it is not separated from your body. Open your eyes, now the hand sees whither it may go; while the head showed, the member followed. If, then, there could be found in yourself something such, that your body showed to your body, and that through your body something was shown to your body, then do not marvel that it is said there is shown to Christ through Christ. For the head shows that the members may see, and the head teaches that the members may learn; nevertheless one man, head and members. He willed not to separate Himself, but deigned to attach Himself to us. Far was He from us, yea, very far. What so far apart as the creature and the Creator? What so far apart as God and man? What so far as justice and iniquity? What so far as eternity and mortality? Behold, so far from us was the Word in the beginning, God with God, by whom all things were made. How, then, was He made near, that He might be what we are, and we in Him? The Word was made flesh, and dwelt in (among) us. [John 1:14]

10. This, then, He is about to show us; this He showed to His disciples, who saw Him in the flesh. What is this? As the Father raises the dead, and quickens them, so also the Son quickens whom He will. Is it that the Father some, the Son others? Surely all things were made by Him. What do we say, my brethren? Christ raised Lazarus; what dead man did the Father raise, that Christ might see how to raise Lazarus? When Christ raised Lazarus, did not the Father raise him? Or was it the doing of the Son alone, without the Father? Read ye the passage itself, and see that He invokes the Father that Lazarus may rise again. [John 11:41-44] As a man, He calls on the Father; as God, He does with the Father. Therefore also Lazarus, who rose again, was raised both by the Father and by the Son, in the gift and grace of the Holy Spirit; and that wonderful work the Trinity performed. Let us not, therefore, understand this, As the Father raises the dead, and quickens them, so also the Son quickens whom He will, in such wise as to suppose that some are raised and quickened by the Father, others by the Son; but that the Son raises and quickens the very same whom the Father raises and quickens; because all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made. And to show that He has, though given by the Father, equal power, therefore He says, So also the Son quickens whom He will, that He might therein show His will; and lest any should say, The Father raises the dead by the Son, but the Father as being powerful, and as having power, the Son as by another's power, as a servant does something, as an angel, He indicated His power when He says, So also the Son quickens whom He will. It is not so that the Father wills other than the Son; but as the Father and the Son have one substance, so also one will.

11. And who are these dead whom the Father and the Son quicken? Are they the same of whom we have spoken — Lazarus, or that widow's son, [Luke 7:14] or the ruler of the synagogue's daughter? [Luke 8:54] For we know that these were raised by Christ the Lord. It is some other thing that He means to signify to us — namely, the resurrection of the dead, which we all look for; not that resurrection which certain have had, that the rest might believe. For Lazarus rose to die again; we shall rise again to live forever. Is it the Father that effects such a resurrection, or the Son? Nay verily, the Father in the Son. Consequently the Son, and the Father in the Son. Whence do we prove that He speaks of this resurrection? When He had said, As the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them, so also the Son quickens whom He will. Lest we should understand here that resurrection which He performs for a miracle, not for eternal life, He proceeded, saying, For the Father judges not any man, but all judgment has He given to the Son. What is this? He was speaking of the resurrection of the dead, that as the Father raises the dead, and quickens them, so also the Son quickens whom He will; and immediately thereupon added as a reason, concerning the judgment, saying, for the Father judges not any man, but all judgment has He given to the Son. Why said He this, but to indicate that He had spoken of that resurrection of the dead which will take place in the judgment?

12. For, says He, the Father judges no man, but all judgment has He given to the Son. A little before we were thinking that the Father does something which the Son does not, when He said, The Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that Himself does; as though the Father were doing, and the Son were seeing. In this way there was creeping in upon our mind a carnal conception, as if the Father did what the Son did not; but that the Son was looking on while the Father showed what He was doing. Then, as the Father was doing what the Son did not, just now we see the Son doing what the Father does not. How He turns us about, and keeps our mind busy! He leads us hither and there, will not allow us to remain in one place of the flesh, that by changing He may exercise us, by exercising He may cleanse us, by cleansing He may render us capable of receiving, and may fill us when made capable. What have these words to do with us? What was He speaking? What is He speaking? A little before, He said that the Father shows to the Son whatever He does. I did see, as it were, the Father doing, the Son waiting to see; presently again, I see the Son doing, the Father idle: For the Father judges not any man, but all judgment has He given to the Son. When, therefore, the Son is about to judge, will the Father be idle, and not judge? What is this? What am I to understand? What dost Thou say, O Lord? You are God the Word, I am a man. Do You say that the Father judges not any man, but has given all judgment to the Son? I read in another place that You say, I judge not any man; there is one who seeks and judges. [John 8:15] Of whom sayest Thou, There is one who seeks and judges, unless it be of the Father? He makes inquisition for your wrongs, and judges for them. How is it to be understood here that the Father judges not any man, but all judgment has He given to the Son? Let us ask Peter; let us hear him speaking in his epistle: Christ suffered for us, says he, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered wrong, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously. [1 Peter 2:21-23] How is it true that the Father judges not any man, but has given all judgment to the Son? We are here in perplexity, and being perplexed let us exert ourselves, that by exertion we may be purified. Let us endeavor as best we may, by His own gift, to penetrate the deep secrets of these words. It may be that we are acting rashly, in that we wish to discuss and to scrutinize the words of God. Yet why were they spoken, but to be known? Why did they sound forth, but to be heard? Why were they heard, but to be understood? Let Him greatly strengthen us, then, and bestow somewhat on us so far as He may deem worthy; and if we do not yet penetrate to the fountain, let us drink of the brook. Behold, John himself has flowed forth to us like a brook, conveyed to us the word from on high. He brought it low, and in a manner levelled it, that we may not dread the lofty One, but may draw near to Him that is low.

13. By all means there is a sense, a true and strong sense, if somehow we can grasp it, in which the Father judges not any man, but has given all judgment to the Son. For this is said because none will appear to men in the judgment but the Son. The Father will be hidden, the Son will be manifest. In what will the Son be manifest? In the form in which He ascended. For in the form of God He was hidden with the Father; in the form of a servant, manifest to men. Not therefore the Father judges any man, but all judgment has He given to the Son: only the manifest judgment, in which manifest judgment the Son will judge, since the same will appear to them that are to be judged. The Scripture shows us more clearly that it is the Son that will appear. On the fortieth day after His resurrection He ascended into heaven, while His disciples were looking on; and they hear the angelic voice: Men of Galilee, says it, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same that is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him going into heaven. [Acts 1:3-11] In what manner did they see Him go? In the flesh, which they touched, which they handled, the wounds even of which they proved by touching; in that body in which He went in and out with them for forty days, manifesting Himself to them in truth, not in falsity; not a phantom, or shadow, or ghost, but, as Himself said, not deceiving them, Handle and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have. [Luke 24:39] That body is now indeed worthy of a heavenly habitation, not being subject to death, nor mutable by the lapse of ages. It is not as it had grown to that age from infancy, so from the age of manhood declines to old age: He remains as He ascended, to come to those to whom He willed His word to be preached before He comes. Thus will He come in human form, and this form the wicked will see; both they on the right shall see it, and they that are separated to the left shall see it: as it is written, They shall look on Him whom they pierced. [Zechariah 12:13] If they shall look on Him whom they pierced, they shall look on that same body which they struck through with the spear; for a spear does not pierce the Word. This body, therefore, will the wicked be able to look on which they were able to wound. God hidden in the body they will not see: after the judgment He will be seen by those who will be on the right hand. This, then, is what He means when He says, The Father judges not any man, but all judgment has He given to the Son,— that the Son will come to judgment manifest, apparent to men in human body; saying to those on the right, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom; and to those on the left, Go into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. [Matthew 25:34, 41]

14. Behold, that form of man will be seen by the godly and by the wicked, by the just and the unjust, by the believers and unbelievers, by those that rejoice and by those that mourn, by them that trusted and by them that are confounded: lo, seen it will be. When that form shall have appeared in the judgment, and the judgment shall have been finished, where it is said that the Father judges not any, but has given all judgment to the Son, for this reason, that the Son will appear in the judgment in that form which He took from us. What shall be after this? When shall be seen the form of God, which all the faithful are thirsting to see? When shall be seen that Word which was in the beginning, God with God, by which all things were made? When shall be seen that form of God, of which the apostle says, Being in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God? [Philippians 2:6] For great is that form, in which, moreover, the quality of the Father and Son is recognized; ineffable, incomprehensible, most of all to little ones. When shall this form be seen? Behold, on the right are the just, on the left are the unjust; all alike see the man, they see the Son of man, they see Him who was pierced, Him who was crucified they see: they see Him that was made low, Him who was born of the Virgin, the Lamb of the tribe of Judah they see. But when will they see the Word, God with God? He will be the very same even then, but the form of a servant will appear. The form of a servant will be shown to servants: the form of God will be reserved for sons. Wherefore let the servants be made sons: let them who are on the right hand go into the eternal inheritance promised of old, which the martyrs, though not seeing, believed, for the promise of which they poured out their blood without hesitation; let them go there and see there. When shall they go there? Let the Lord Himself say: So those shall go into everlasting burning, but the righteous into life eternal. [Matthew 25:46]

15. Behold, He has named eternal life. Has He told us that we shall there see and know the Father and Son? What if we shall live for ever, yet not see that Father and Son? Hear, in another place, where He has named eternal life, and expressed what eternal life is: Be not afraid; I do not deceive you; not without cause have I promised to them that love me, saying, 'He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me; and he that loves me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will show myself to him.' [John 14:21] Let us answer the Lord, and say, What great thing is this, O Lord our God? What great thing is it? Will You show Yourself to us? What, then, did You not show Yourself to the Jews also? Did not they see You who crucified You? But You will show Yourself in the judgment, when we shall stand at Your right hand; will not also they who will stand on Your left see You? What is it that You will show Yourself to us? Do we, indeed, not see You now when You are speaking? He makes answer: I will show myself in the form of God; just now you see the form of a servant. I will not deceive you, O faithful man; believe that you shall see. You love, and yet you do not see: shall not love itself lead you to see? Love, persevere in loving; I will not disappoint your love, says He, I who have purified your heart. For why have I purified your heart, but to the end that God may be seen by you? For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. [Matthew 5:8] But this, says the servant, as if disputing with the Lord, You did not express, when Thou said, 'The righteous shall go into life eternal;' You did not say, They shall go to see me in the form of God, and to see the Father, with whom I am equal. Observe what He said elsewhere: This is life eternal, that they may know You the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. [John 17:3]

16. And immediately, then, after the judgment mentioned, all which the Father, not judging any man, has given to the Son, what shall be? What follows? That all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. The Jews honor the Father, despise the Son. For the Son was seen as a servant, the Father was honored as God. But the Son will appear equal with the Father, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. This we have, therefore, now in faith. Let not the Jew say, I honor the Father; what have I to do with the Son? Let him be answered, He that honors not the Son, honors not the Father. Thou liest every way; you blaspheme the Son, and dost wrong to the Father. For the Father sent the Son, and you despise Him whom the Father sent. How can you honor the sender, who blaspheme the sent?

17. Behold, says some one, the Son has been sent; and the Father is greater, because He sent. Withdraw from the flesh; the old man suggests oldness in time. Let the ancient, the perpetual, the eternal, to you the new, call off your understanding from time to this. Is the Son less because He is said to have been sent? I hear of a sending, not a separation. But yet, says he, among men we see that he who sends is greater than he who is sent. Be it so; but human affairs deceive a man; divine things purge him. Do not regard things human, in which the sender appears greater, the sent less; notwithstanding, things human themselves bear testimony against you. Just as, for example, if a man wishes to ask a woman to wife, and, not being able to do this in person, sends a friend to ask for him. And there are many cases in which the greater is chosen to be sent by the less. Why, then, would you now raise a captious objection, because the one has sent, the other is sent? The sun sends out a ray, but does not separate it; the moon sends out her sheen, but does not separate it; a lamp sheds light, but does not separate it: I see there a sending forth, not a separation. For if you seek examples from human things, O heretical vanity, although, as I have said, even human things in some instances refute you, and convict of error; yet consider how different it is in the case of things human, from which you wish to deduce examples for things divine. A man that sends remains himself behind, while only the man that is sent goes forward. Does the man who sends go with him whom he sends? Yet the Father, who sent the Son, has not departed from the Son. Hear the Lord Himself saying, Behold, the hour is coming, when every one shall depart to his own, and you will leave me alone; but I am not alone, because the Father is with me. [John 16:32] How has He, with whom He came, sent Him? How has He, from whom He has not departed, sent Him? In another place He said, The Father abiding in me does the works. [John 14:10] Behold, the Father is in Him, works in Him. The Father sending has not departed from the Son sent, because the sent and the sender are one.

Upon the discourses delivered yesterday and the day before, follows the Gospel lesson of today, which we must endeavor to expound in due course, not indeed proportionably to its importance, but according to our ability: both because you take in, not according to the bountifulness of the gushing fountain, but according to your moderate capacity; and we too speak into your ears, not so much as the fountain gives forth, but so much as we are able to take in we convey into your minds, — the matter itself working more fruitfully in your hearts than we in your ears. For a great matter is treated of, not by great masters, nay, rather by very small; but He who, being great, for our sakes became small, gives us hope and confidence. For if we were not encouraged by Him, and invited to understand Him; if He abandoned us as contemptible, since we were not able to partake His divinity if He did not partake our mortality and come to us to speak His gospel to us; if He had not willed to partake with us what in us is abject and most small — then we might think that He who took on Himself our smallness, had not been willing to bestow on us His own greatness. This I have said lest any should blame us as over-bold in handling these matters, or despair of himself that he should be able to understand, by God's gift, what the Son of God has deigned to speak to him. Therefore what He has deigned to speak to us, we ought to believe that He meant us to understand. But if we do not understand, He, being asked, gives understanding, who gave His Word unasked.

2. Lo, what these secrets of His words are, consider well. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whoever hears my word, and believes in Him that sent me, has eternal life. Surely we are all striving after eternal life: and He says, Whoever hears my word, and believes Him that sent me, has eternal life. Then, would He have us hear His word, and yet would He not have us understand it? Since, if in hearing and believing is eternal life, much more in understanding. But the action of piety is faith, the fruit of faith understanding, that we may come to eternal life, when there will be no reading of Gospel to us; but after all pages of reading and the voice of reader and preacher have been removed out of the way, He, who has at this time dispensed to us the gospel, will Himself appear to all that are His, now present with Him with purged heart and in an immortal body never more to die, cleansing and enlightening them, now living and seeing how that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. Therefore let us consider at this time who we are, and ponder whom we hear. Christ is God, and He is speaking with men. He would have them to apprehend Him, let Him make them capable; He would have them see Him, let Him open their eyes. It is not, however, without cause that He speaks to us, but because that is true which He promises to us.

3. Whoever hears my words, says He, and believes Him that sent me, has eternal life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life. Where, when do we come from death to life, that we come not into judgment? In this life there is a passing from death to life; in this life, which is not yet life, there is a passing hence from death unto life. What is that passing? Whoever hears my words, He said, and believes Him that sent me. Observing these, you believe and passest. And does a man pass while standing? Evidently; for in body he stands, in mind he passes. Where was he, whence he should pass, and whither does he pass? He passes from death to life. Look at a man standing, in whom all that is here said may happen. He stands, he hears, perhaps he did not believe, by hearing he believes: a little before he did not believe, just now he believes; he has made a passage, as it were, from the region of unbelief to the region of faith, by motion of the heart, not of the body, by a motion into the better; because they who again abandon faith move into the worse. Behold, in this life, which, just as I have said, is not yet life, there is a passing from death to life, so that there may not be a coming into judgment. But why did I say that it is not yet life? If this were life, the Lord would not have said to a certain man, If you will come into life, keep the commandments. [Matthew 19:17] For He says not to him, If you will come into eternal life; He did not add eternal, but said only life. Therefore this life is not to be named life, because it is not a true life. What is true life, but that which is eternal life? Hear the apostle speaking to Timothy, when he says, Charge them that are rich in this world, not to be high-minded, nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives us all things richly to enjoy; let them do good, be rich in good works, ready to distribute, to communicate. Why does he say this? Hear what follows: Let them lay up in store for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold of the true life. [1 Timothy 6:17-19] If they ought to lay up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, in order to lay hold of the true life, surely this in which they were is a false life. For why should you desire to lay hold of the true, if you have the true already? Is the true to be laid hold of? There must then be a departing from the false. And by what way must be the departing? Whither? Hear, believe; and you make the passage from death into life, and comest not into judgment.

4. What is this, and you come not into judgment? And who will be better than the Apostle Paul, who says, We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may there receive what he has done in the body, whether it be good or evil? [2 Corinthians 5:10] Paul says, We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; and do you dare promise to yourself that you shall not come into judgment? Be it far from me, do you say, that I should dare promise this to myself. But I believe Him that does promise. The Saviour speaks, the Truth promises, Himself said to me, Whoever hears my words, and believes Him that sent me, has eternal life, and makes a passage from death unto life, and shall not come into judgment. I then have heard the words of my Lord, and I have believed; so now, when I was an unbeliever, I became a believer; even as He warned me, I passed from death to life, I come not into judgment; not by my presumption, but by His promise. Does Paul, however, speak contrary to Christ, the servant against his Lord, the disciple against his Master, the man against God; so that, when the Lord says, Whoever hears and believes, passes from death to life, the apostle should say, We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ? Otherwise, if he comes not into judgment who appears before the judgment-seat, I know not how to understand it.

5. The Lord our God then reveals it, and by His Scriptures puts us in mind how it may be understood when judgment is spoken of. I exhort you, therefore, to give attention. Sometimes judgment means punishment, sometimes it means discrimination. According to that mode of speech in which judgment means discrimination, we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ that a man may there receive what things he has done in the body, whether it be good or ill. For this same is a discrimination, to distribute good things to the good, evil things to the evil. For if judgment were always to be taken in a bad sense, the psalm would not say, Judge me, O God. Perhaps some one is surprised when he hears one say, Judge me, O God. For man is wont to say, Forgive me, O God; Spare me, O God. Who is it that says, Judge me, O God? Sometimes in the psalm this very verse even is placed in the pause, to be given out by the reader and responded by the people. Does it not perhaps strike some man's heart so much that he is afraid to sing and to say to God, Judge me, O God? And yet the people sing it with confidence, and do not imagine that they wish an evil thing in that which they have learned from the divine word; even if they do not well understand it, they believe that what they sing is something good. And yet even the psalm itself has not left a man without an insight into the meaning of it. For, going on, it shows in the words that follow what kind of judgment it spoke of; that it is not one of condemnation, but of discrimination. For says it, Judge me, O God. What means Judge me, O God, and discern my cause from an unholy nation? According to this judgment of discerning, then, we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. But again, according to the judgment of condemnation, Whoever hears my words, says He, and believes Him that sent me, has eternal life, and shall not come into judgment, but makes a passage from death to life. What is shall not come into judgment? Shall not come into condemnation. Let us prove from the Scriptures that judgment is put where punishment is understood; although also in this very passage, a little further on, you will hear the same term judgment put for nothing else than for condemnation and punishment. Yet the apostle says in a certain place, writing to those who abused the body, what the faithful among you know; and because they abused it, they were chastised by the scourge of the Lord. For he says to them, Many among you are weak and sickly, and deeply sleep. For many therefore even died. And he went on: For if we judged ourselves, we should not be judged by the Lord; that is, if we reproved ourselves, we should not be reproved by the Lord. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. There are therefore those who are judged here according to punishment, that they may be spared there; there are those who are spared here, that they may be the more abundantly tormented there; and there are those to whom the very punishments are meted out without the scourge of punishment, if they be not corrected by the scourge of God; that, since here they have despised the Father that scourges, they may there feel the Judge that punishes. Therefore there is a judgment into which God, that is, the Son of God, will in the end send the devil and his angels, and all the unbelieving and ungodly with him. To this judgment, he who, now believing, passes from death unto life, shall not come.

6. For, lest you should think that by believing you are not to die according to the flesh, or lest, understanding it carnally, you should say to yourself, My Lord has said to me, Whoever hears my words, and believes Him that sent me, is passed from death to life: I then have believed, I am not to die; be assured that you shall pay that penalty, death, which you owe by the punishment of Adam. For he, in whom we all then were, received this sentence, You shall surely die; [Genesis 2:17] nor can the divine sentence be made void. But after you have paid the death of the old man, you shall be received into the eternal life of the new man, and shall pass from death to life. Mean while, make the transition of life now. What is your life? Faith: The just does live by faith. The unbelievers, what of them? They are dead. Among such dead was he, in the body, of whom the Lord says, Let the dead bury their dead. [Matthew 8:22] So, then, even in this life there are dead, and there are living; all live in a sense. Who are dead? They who have not believed. Who are living? They who have believed. What is said to the dead by the apostle? Arise, you that sleepest. But, quoth an objector, he said sleep, not death. Hear what follows: Arise, you that sleepest, and come forth from the dead. And as if the sleeper said, Whither shall I go? And Christ shall give you light. [Ephesians 1:14] Christ having enlightened you, now believing, immediately you make a passage from death to life: abide in that to which you have passed, and you shall not come into judgment.

7. Himself explains that already, and goes on, Verily, verily, I say unto you. In case, because He said is passed from death to life, we should understand this of the future resurrection, and willing to show that he who believes is passed, and that to pass from death to life is to pass from unbelief to faith, from injustice to justice, from pride to humility, from hatred to charity, He says now, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour comes, and now is. What more evident? And now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. We have already spoken of these dead. What think we, my brethren? Are there no dead in this crowd that hear me? They who believe and act according to the true faith do live, and are not dead. But they who either do not believe, or believe as the devils believe, trembling, [James 2:19] and living wickedly, confessing the Son of God, and without charity, must rather be esteemed dead. This hour, however, is still passing. For the hour of which the Lord spoke will not be an hour of the twelve hours of a day. From the time when He spoke even to the present, and even to the end of the world, the same one hour is passing; of which hour John says in his epistle, Little children, it is the last hour. [1 John 2:18] Therefore, is now. Whoever is alive, let him live; whoever was dead, let him live; let him hear the voice of the Son of God, who lay dead; let him arise and live. The Lord cried out at the sepulchre of Lazarus, and he that was four days dead arose. He who stank in the grave came forth into the air. He was buried, a stone was laid over him: the voice of the Saviour burst asunder the hardness of the stone; and your heart is so hard, that Divine Voice does not yet break it! Rise in your heart; go forth from your tomb. For you were lying dead in your heart as in a tomb, and pressed down by the weight of evil habit as by a stone. Rise, and go forth. What is Rise, and go forth? Believe and confess. For he that has believed has risen; he that confesses is gone forth. Why said we that he who confesses is gone forth? Because he was hid before confessing; but when he does confess, he goes forth from darkness to light. And after he has confessed, what is said to the servants? What was said beside the corpse of Lazarus? Loose him, and let him go. How? As it was said to His servants the apostles, What things you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. [Matthew 18:18]

8. The hour comes, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. From what source shall they live? From life. From what life? From Christ. How do we prove that the source is Christ the life? I am, says He, the way, the truth, and the life. [John 14:6] Do you wish to walk? I am the way. Do you wish not to be deceived? I am the truth. Would you not die? I am the life. This says your Saviour to you: There is not whither you may go but to me; there is not whereby you may go but by me. Therefore this hour is going on now, this act is clearly taking place, and does not at all cease. Men who were dead, rise; they pass over to life; at the voice of the Son of God they live; from Him they live, while persevering in the faith of Him. For the Son has life, whence He has it that they that believe shall live.

9. And how has He? Even as the Father has. Hear Himself saying, For as the Father has life in Himself, so also has He given to the Son to have life in Himself. Brethren, I shall speak as I shall be able. For these are those words that perplex the puny understanding. Why has He added, in Himself? It would suffice to say, For as the Father has life, so also has He given to the Son to have life. He added, in Himself: for the Father has life in Himself, and the Son has life in Himself. He meant us to understand something in that which He says, in Himself. And here a secret matter is shut up in this word; let there be knocking, that there may be an opening. O Lord, what is this that You have said? Wherefore have You added, in Himself? For did not Paul the apostle, whom You made to live, have life? He had, said He. As for men that were dead to be made alive, and at Your word to pass unto life by believing; when they shall have passed, will they not have life in You? They shall have life; for I said also a little before, Whoever hears my words, and believes Him that sent me, has eternal life. Therefore those that believe in You have life; and You have not said, in themselves. But when You speak of the Father, even as the Father has life in Himself; again, when You speak of Yourself, Thou said, So also has He given to the Son to have life in Himself. Even as He has, so gave He to have. Where has He? In Himself. Where gave He to have? In Himself. Where has Paul life? Not in himself, but in Christ. Where have you, believer? Not in yourself, but in Christ. Let us see whether the apostle says this: Now I live; but not I, but Christ lives in me. [Galatians 2:20] Our life, as ours, that is, of our own personal will, will be only evil, sinful, unrighteous; but the life in us that is good is from God, not from ourselves; it is given to us by God, not by ourselves. But Christ has life in Himself, as the Father has, because He is the Word of God. With Him, it is not the case that He lives now ill, now well; but as for man, he lives now ill, now well. He who was living ill, was in his own life; he who is living well, is passed to the life of Christ. You are made a partaker of life; you were not that which you have received, but wast one who received: but it is not so with the Son of God as if at first He was without life, and then received life. For if thus He received life, He would not have it in Himself. For, indeed, what is in Himself? That He should Himself be the very life.

10. I may perhaps declare that matter more plainly still. One lights a candle: that candle, for example, so far as regards the little flame which shines there — that fire has light in itself; but your eyes, which lay idle and saw nothing, in the absence of the candle, now have light also, but not in themselves. Further, if they turn away from the candle, they are made dark; if they turn to it, they are illumined. But certainly that fire shines so long as it exists: if you would take the light from it, you also at the same time extinguish it; for without the light it cannot remain. But Christ is light inextinguishable and co-eternal with the Father, always bright, always shining, always burning: for if He were not burning, would it be said in the psalm, Nor is there any that can hide himself from his heat? But you were cold in your sin; you turn that you may become warm; if you will turn away, you will become cold. In your sin you were dark; you turn in order to be enlightened; if you turn away, you will become dark. Therefore, because in yourself you were darkness, when you shall be enlightened, you will be light, though in the light. For says the apostle, You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord. [Ephesians 5:8] When he had said, but now light, he added, in the Lord. Therefore in yourself darkness, light in the Lord. In what way light? Because by participation of that light you are light. But if you will depart from the light by which you are enlightened, you return to your darkness. Not so Christ, not so the Word of God. But how not? As the Father has life in Himself, so has He given also to the Son to have life in Himself; so that He lives, not by participation, but unchangeably, and is altogether Himself life. So has He given also to the Son to have life. Even as He has, so has He given. What is the difference? For the one gave, the other received. Was He already in being when He received? Are we to understand that Christ was at any time in being without light, when Himself is the wisdom of the Father, of which it is said, It is the brightness of the eternal light? [Wisdom 7:26] Therefore what is said, gave to the Son, is such as if it were said, begot the Son; for by begetting He gave. As He gave Him to be, so He gave Him to be life, so also gave Him to be life in Himself. What is that, to be life in Himself? Not to need life from elsewhere, but to be Himself the plenitude of life, out of which others believing should have life while they lived. Hath given Him, then, to have life in Himself. Hath given as to whom? As to His own Word, as to Him who in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

11. Afterwards, because He was made man, what gave He to Him? And has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man. In that He is the Son of God, As the Father has life in Himself, so also has He given to the Son to have life in Himself; in that He is the Son of man, He has given Him authority of executing judgment. This is what I ex plained to you yesterday, my beloved, that in the judgment man will be seen, but God will not be seen; but after the judgment, God will be seen by those who have prevailed in the judgment, but by the wicked He will not be seen. Since, therefore, the man will be seen in the judgment in that form in which He will so come as He ascended, for that reason He had said above, The Father judges not any man, but has given all judgment to the Son. He repeats the same thing also in this place, when He says, And has given Him authority of executing judgment, because He is the Son of man. As if you were to say, has given Him authority of executing judgment. In what way? When He had not that authority of executing judgment? Since in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; since all things were made by Him, did He not already have authority of executing judgment? Yes, but according to this, I say, He gave Him authority of executing judgment, because He is the Son of man: according to this, He received authority of judging because He is the Son of man. For in that He is the Son of God, He always had this authority. He that was crucified, received; He who was in death, is in life: the Word of God never was in death, but is always in life.

12. Now, therefore, as to a resurrection, perhaps some one of us was saying: Behold, we have risen; he who hears Christ, and believes, and is passed from death to life, also will not come into judgment. The hour comes, and now is, that whoever hears the voice of the Son of God shall live: he was dead, he has heard; behold, he does rise. What is this that is said, that there is to be a resurrection afterwards? Spare yourself, do not hasten the sentence, lest you hurry after it. There is, indeed, this resurrection which comes to pass now; unbelievers were dead, the unrighteous were dead; the righteous live, they pass from the death of unbelief to the life of faith. But do not thence believe that there will not be a resurrection afterwards of the body; believe that there will be a resurrection of the body also. For hear what follows after the declaration of this resurrection which is by faith, lest any should think this to be the only resurrection, or fall into that desperation and error of men who perverted the thoughts of others, saying that the resurrection is past already, of whom the apostle says, and they overthrow the faith of some. [2 Timothy 2:18] For I believe that they were saying to them such words as these: Behold, when the Lord says, And he that believes in me is passed from death unto life; the resurrection has already taken place in believing men, who were before unbelievers: how can a second resurrection be meant? Thanks to our Lord God, He supports the wavering, directs the perplexed, confirms the doubting. Hear what follows, now that you have not whereof to make to yourself the darkness of death. If you have believed, believe the whole. What whole, do you say, am I to believe? Hear what He says: Marvel not at this, namely, that He gave to the Son authority of making judgment. I say, in the end of the world, says He. How in the end? Do not marvel at this; for the hour comes. Here He has not said, and now is. In reference to that resurrection of faith, what did He say? The hour comes, and now is. In reference to that resurrection which He intimates there will be of dead bodies, He said, The hour comes; He has not said, and now is. because it is to come in the end of the world.

13. And whence, do you say, do you prove to me that He spoke about the resurrection itself? If you hear patiently, you will presently prove it to yourself. Let us go on then: Marvel not at this; for the hour comes, in which all that are in the graves. What more evident than this resurrection? A while ago, He had not said, they that are in the graves, but, The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. He has not said, some shall live, others shall be damned; because all who believe shall live. But what does He say concerning the graves? All that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth. He said not, shall hear and live. For if they have lived wickedly, and lay in the graves, they shall rise to death, not to life. Let us see, then, who shall come forth. Although, a little before, the dead by hearing and believing did live, there was no distinction there made: it was not said, The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and when they shall have heard, some shall live, and some shall be damned; but, all that hear shall live: because they that believe shall live, they that have charity shall live, and none of them shall die. But concerning the graves, They shall hear His voice, and come forth: they that have done well, to the resurrection of life; they that have done ill, to the resurrection of judgment. This is the judgment, that punishment of which He had said a while before, Whoever believes in me is passed from death to life, and shall not come into judgment.

14. I cannot of myself do anything; as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just. If as You hear You judge, of whom dost Thou hear? If of the Father, yet surely the Father judges not any man, but has given all judgment to the Son. When do You, being in a manner the Father's herald, declare what You hear? I speak what I hear, because what the Father is, that I am: for, indeed, speaking is my function; because I am the Father's Word. For this Christ says to you. Thereupon, of yours. What is As I hear I judge, but As I am? For in what manner does Christ hear? Let us inquire, brethren, I beg of you. Does Christ hear of the Father? How does the Father speak to Him? Undoubtedly, if He speaks to Him, He uses words to Him; for every one who says something to any one, says it by a word. How does the Father speak to the Son, seeing that the Son is the Father's Word? Whatever the Father says to us, He says it by His Word: the Word of the Father is the Son; by what other word, then, does He speak to the Word Himself? God is one, has one Word, contains all things in one Word. What does that mean, then, As I hear, I judge? Just as I am of the Father, so I judge. Therefore my judgment is just. If You do nothing of Yourself, O Lord Jesus, as carnal men think; if You do nothing of Yourself, how did You say a while before, So also the Son quickens whom He will? Just now You say, Of myself I do nothing. But what does the Son declare, but that He is of the Father? He that is of the Father is not of Himself. If the Son were of Himself, He would not be the Son: He is of the Father. That the Father is, is not of the Son; that the Son is, is of the Father. Equal to the Father; but yet the Son of the Father, not the Father of the Son.

15. Because I seek not my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. The Only Son says, I seek not my own will, and yet men desire to do their own will! To such a degree does He who is equal to the Father humble Himself; and to such a degree does He extol Himself, who lies in the lowest depth, and cannot rise except a hand is reached to Him! Let us then do the will of the Father, the will of the Son, the will of the Holy Ghost; because of this Trinity there is one will, one power, one majesty. Yet for that reason says the Son, I came not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me; because Christ is not of Himself, but of the Father. But what He had that He might appear as a man, He assumed of the creature which He himself formed.

1. In a certain place in the Gospel, the Lord says that the prudent hearer of His word ought to be like a man who, wishing to build a house, digs deeply until he comes to the foundation of stability on the rock, and there establishes in security what he builds against the violence of the flood; so that, when the flood comes, it may be rather beaten back by the strength of the building. than bring ruin on that house by the force of its pressure. [Matthew 7:24-25] Let us regard the Scripture of God to be, as it were, the field where we wish to build something. Let us not be slothful, nor be content with the surface; let us dig deeply until we come to the rock: And that rock was Christ. [1 Corinthians 10:4]

2. The passage read today has spoken to us of the witness of the Lord, that He does not hold the witness of men necessary, but has a greater witness than men; and He has told us what this witness is: The works, says He, which I do bear witness of me. Then He added, And the Father that sent me bears witness of me. The very works also which He does, He says that He has received from the Father. The works, therefore, bear witness, the Father bears witness. Has John borne no witness? He did clearly bear witness, but as a lamp; not to satisfy friends, but to confound enemies: for it had been predicted long before by the person of the Father, I have prepared a lamp for mine Anointed: I will clothe His enemies with confusion; but upon Him shall flourish my sanctification. Be it that you were left in the dark in the night-time, you directed your attention to the lamp, you admired the lamp, and exulted at its light. But that lamp says that there is a sun, in which you ought to exult; and though it burns in the night, it bids you to be looking out for the day. Therefore it is not the case that there was no need of that man's testimony. For wherefore was he sent, if there was no need of him? But, on the contrary, lest man should stay at the lamp, and think the light of the lamp to be sufficient for him, therefore the Lord neither says that this lamp had been superfluous, nor yet does He say that you ought to stay at the lamp. The Scripture of God utters another testimony: there undoubtedly God has borne witness to His Son, and in that Scripture the Jews had placed their hope, — namely, in the law of God, given by Moses His servant. Search the Scripture, says He, in which you think you have eternal life: the same bears witness of me; and you will not come to me that you may have life. Why do you think that in the Scripture you have eternal life? Ask itself to whom does it bear witness, and understand what is eternal life. And because for the sake of Moses they were willing to reject Christ, as an adversary to the ordinances and precepts of Moses, He convicts those same men as by another lamp.

3. For, indeed, all men are lamps, since they can be both lighted and extinguished. Moreover, when the lamps are wise, they shine and glow with the Spirit; yet also, if they did burn and are put out, they even stink. The servants of God remain good lamps by the oil of His mercy, not by their own strength. The free grace of God, truly, is the oil of the lamps. For I have labored more than they all, says a certain lamp; and lest he should seem to burn by his own strength, he added, But not I, but the grace of God that was with me. [1 Corinthians 15:10] All prophecy, therefore, before the coming of the Lord, is a lamp. Of this lamp the Apostle Peter says: We have a more sure word of prophecy, to which you do well giving heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts. [2 Peter 1:19] Accordingly the prophets are lamps, and all prophecy one great lamp. What of the apostles? Are not they, too, lamps? They are, clearly. He alone is not a lamp. For He is not lighted and put out; because even as the Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself. The apostles also, I say, are lamps; and they give thanks because they were both lighted by the light of truth, and are burning with the spirit of charity, and supplied with the oil of God's grace. If they were not lamps, the Lord would not say to them, You are the light of the world. For after He said, You are the light of the world, He shows that they should not think themselves such a light as that of which it is said, That was the true light, that enlightens every man coming into this world. But this was said of the Lord at that time when He was distinguished from John (the Baptist). Of John the Baptist, indeed, it had been said, He was not the light, but that he might bear witness of the light. [John 1:9] And lest you should say, How was he not the light, of whom Christ says that he was a lamp? — I answer, In comparison of the other light, he was not light. For that was the true light that enlightens every man coming into this world. Accordingly, when He said also to the disciples, You are the light of the world, lest they should imagine that anything was attributed to them which was to be understood of Christ alone, and thus the lamps should be extinguished by the wind of pride, when He had said, You are the light of the world, He immediately subjoined, A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid; neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but an a candlestick, that it may shine on all that are in the house. But what if He did not call the apostles the candle, but the lighters of the candle, which they were to put on a candlestick? Hear that He called themselves the candle. So let your light shine, says He, before men, that they, seeing your good works, may glorify, not you, but your Father who is in heaven. [Matthew 5:14-16]

4. Wherefore both Moses bore witness to Christ, and John bore witness to Christ, and all the other prophets and apostles bore witness to Christ. Before all these testimonies He places the testimony of His own works. Because through those men too, it was God and none other that bore witness to His Son. But yet in another way God bears testimony to His Son. God reveals His Son through the Son Himself, He reveals Himself through the Son. To Him, if a man shall have been able to reach, he shall need no lamps; and by truly digging deep, he will carry down his building to the rock.

5. The lesson of today, brethren, is easy; but on account of what was due yesterday (for I know what I have delayed, not withdrawn, and the Lord has deigned to allow me even today to speak to you), recall to mind what you ought to demand, if perhaps, while preserving piety and wholesome humility, we may in some measure stretch out ourselves, not against God, but towards Him, and lift up our soul, pouring it out above us, like the Psalmist, to whom it was said, Where is your God? On these things, says he, I meditated, and poured out my soul above me. Therefore let us lift up our soul to God, not against God; for this also is said, To You, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul. And let us lift it up with His own assistance, for it is heavy. And from what cause is it heavy? Because the body which is corrupt weighs down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle depresses the mind while meditating on many things. [Wisdom 9:15] Let us try, then, whether we may not be able to withdraw our mind from many things in order to concentrate it on one, and to raise it to one (which indeed we cannot do, as I have said, unless He assist us who wills our souls to be raised to Himself). And so we may apprehend in some measure how the Word of God, the only begotten of the Father, the co-eternal and equal with the Father, does not anything except what He sees the Father doing, while yet the Father Himself does not anything but through the Son, who sees Him doing. Since the Lord Jesus, as it seems to me — willing here to make known some great matter to those that give attention to it, and to pour into those that are capable of receiving, and to rouse, on the other hand, the incapable to assiduity, in order that, while not yet understanding, they may by right living be made capable — has intimated to us that the human soul and rational mind which is in man, not in the beast, is invigorated, enlightened, and made happy in no other way than by the very substance of God: that the soul itself gets somewhat by and of the body, and yet holds the body subject to it, while the senses of the body can be soothed and delighted by things bodily, and that because of this kind of fellowship of soul and body in this life, and in this mutual embrace of theirs, the soul is delighted when the bodily senses are soothed, and saddened when they are offended; while yet the happiness by which the soul itself is made happy cannot be realized but by a participation of that ever-living, unchangeable life, of that eternal substance, which is God: that as the soul, which is inferior to God, causes the body, which is inferior to itself, to live, so that alone which is superior to the soul can cause that same soul to live happily. For the soul is higher than the body, and higher than the soul is God. It bestows something on its inferior, while there is something bestowed on itself by the superior. Let it serve its Lord, that it may not be trampled on by its own servant. This, brethren, is the Christian religion, which is preached through the whole world, while its enemies are dismayed; who, where they are conquered, murmur, and fiercely rage against it where they prevail. This is the Christian religion, that one God be worshipped, not many gods, because only one God can make the soul happy. It is made happy by participation of God. Not by participation of a holy soul does the feeble soul become happy, nor by participation of an angel does the holy soul become happy; but if the feeble soul seeks to be happy, let it seek that by which the holy soul is made happy. For you are made happy, not of an angel, but the angel as well as you of the same source.

6. These things being premised and firmly established — that the rational soul is made happy only by God, that the body is enlivened only by the soul, and that the soul is a something intermediate between God and the body — direct your thoughts to, and recollect with me, not the passage read today, of which we have spoken enough, but that of yesterday, which we have been turning over and handling these three days, and, to the best of our abilities, digging into until we should come to the rock. The Word Christ, Christ the Word of God with God, Christ the Word and the Word God, Christ and God and Word one God. To this press on; O soul, despising, or even transcending all things else, to this press on. There is nothing more powerful than this creature, which is called the rational mind, nothing more sublime: whatever is above this, is but the Creator. But I was saying that Christ is the Word, and Christ is the Word of God, and Christ the Word is God; but Christ is not only the Word, since the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us: [John 1:14] therefore Christ is both Word and flesh. For when He was in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. And what of us in our low estate, who, feeble and crawling on the ground, were not able to reach unto God, were we to be abandoned? God forbid. He emptied Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant; [Philippians 2:6] not, therefore, by losing the form of God. He became man who was God, by receiving what He was not, not by losing what He was: so God became man. There you have something for your weakness, something for your perfection. Let Christ raise you by that which is man, lead you by that which is God-man, and guide you through to that which is God. And the whole preaching and dispensation by Christ is this, brethren, and there is not another, that souls may be raised again, and that bodies also may be raised again. For each of the two was dead; the body by weakness, the soul by iniquity. Because each was dead, each may rise again. What each? Soul and body. By what, then, can the soul rise again but by Christ God? By what the body, but by the man Christ? For there was also in Christ a human soul, a whole soul; not merely the irrational part of the soul, but also the rational, which is called mind. For there have been certain heretics, and they have been driven out of the Church, who fancied that the body of Christ did not have in it a rational mind, but, as it were, the animal life of a beast; since, without the rational mind, life is only animal life. But because they were driven out, and driven out by the truth, accept the whole Christ, Word, rational mind, and flesh. This is the whole Christ. Let your soul rise again from iniquity by that which is God, your body from corruption by that which is man. There, most beloved, hear ye what, so far as it appears to me, is the great profundity of this passage; and see how Christ here speaks to the effect, that the only reason why He came is, in order that souls may have a resurrection from iniquity, and bodies from corruption. I have already said by what our souls are raised, by the very substance of God; by what our bodies are raised, by the human dispensation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He sees the Father doing; for whatever things He has done, these also the Son does in like manner. Yes, the heaven, the earth, the sea; the things that are in heaven, on the earth, and in the sea; the visible and invisible, the animals on the land, the plants in the fields, the creatures that swim in the waters, that fly in the air, that shine in heaven; besides all these, angels, virtues, thrones, dominations, principalities, powers; all were made by Him. Did God make all these, and show them when made to the Son, that He also should make another world full of all these? Certainly not. But, on the contrary, what does He say? For whatever things He has made, these, not others, but these also the Son does, not differently, but in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things which Himself does. The Father shows to the Son that souls may be raised, for souls are raised up by the Father and the Son; nor can souls live except God be their life. If souls, then, cannot live unless God be their life, just as themselves are the life of bodies; what the Father shows to the Son, that is, what He does, He does through the Son. For it is not by doing that He shows to the Son, but by showing He does through the Son. For the Son sees the Father showing before anything is done; and from the Father's showing and the Son's vision, is done what is done by the Father through the Son. So are souls raised up, if they can see that conjunction of unity, the Father showing, the Son seeing, and the creature made by the Father's showing and the Son's seeing; and that thing made by the Father's showing and the Son's seeing, which is neither the Father nor the Son, but beneath the Father and the Son, whatever is made by the Father through the Son. Who sees this?

8. Behold, again we humble ourselves to carnal notions, and descend to you, if indeed we had at any time ascended somewhat from you. You wish to show something to your son, that he may do what you do, you are about to do, and thus to show the thing. Therefore, what you are about to do, in order to show it to your son, you do not surely by your son; but you alone do that thing which, when done, he may see, and do another such thing in like manner. This is not the case there; why do you go on to your own similitude, and blot test out the similitude of God within you? There, the case is wholly otherwise. Find a case in which you show to your son what you do before you do it; so that, after you have shown it, it will be by the son you do. Perhaps something like this now occurs to you: Lo, do you say, I think to make a house, and I wish it to be built by my son: before I build it myself, I point out to my son what I mean to do: both he does, and I too by him to whom I pointed out my wish. You have retreated, indeed, from the former similitude, but still you lie in great dissimilitude. For, lo, before you can make the house, you inform your son, and point out to him what you mean to do; that, upon your showing before you make, he may make what you have shown, and so you may make by him: but you will speak words to your son, words will have to pass between you and him; between the person showing and the person seeing, between speaker and hearer, flies articulate sound, which is not what you are, nor what he is. That sound, indeed, which goes out of your mouth, and by the concussion of the air touches your son's ear, and filling the sense of hearing, conveys your thought to his heart; that sound, I say, is not yourself, nor your son. A sign is given from your mind to your son's mind, but that sign not either your mind or your son's mind, but something else. Is it thus that we think the Father has spoken to the Son? Were there words between the Father and the Word? Then how is it? Or, whatever the Father would say to the Son, if He would say it by a word, the Son Himself is the Word of the Father, would He speak by a word to the Word? Or, since the Son is the great Word, had smaller words to pass between the Father and Son? Was it so, that some sound, as it were a temporal, fleeting creature, had to issue from the mouth of the Father, and strike upon the ear of the Son? Has God a body, that this should proceed, as it were, from His lips? And has the Word the ears of a body, into which sound may come? Lay aside all notions of corporeal forms, regard simplicity, if you are single-minded. But how will you be single-minded? If you will not entangle yourself with the world, but disentangle yourself from the world. For by disentangling yourself, you will be single-minded. And see, if you can, what I say; or if you can not, believe what you do not see. You speak to your son; you speak by a word: neither are you, nor is your son, the word that sounds.

9. I have, do you say, another method of showing; for so well instructed is my son, that he hears without my speaking, but I show him by a nod what to do. Lo, show him by a nod what you will, yet certainly the mind holds within itself that which it would show. By what do you give this nod? With the body — namely, with the lips, the look, the brows, the eyes, the hands. All these are not what your mind is: these, too, are media; there was something understood by these signs which are not what your mind is, not what the mind of your son is; but all this which you do by the body is beneath your mind, and beneath the mind of your son: nor can your son know your mind, unless you give him signs by the body. What, then, do I say? This is not the case there; there all is simplicity. The Father shows to the Son what He is doing, and by showing begets the Son. I see what I have said; but because I see also to whom I have said it, may such understanding be some time or other formed in you as to grasp it. If you are not able now to comprehend what God is, comprehend at least what God is not: you will have made much progress, if you think of God as being not something other than He is. God is not a body, not the earth, not the heaven, not the moon, or sun, or stars — not these corporeal things. For if not heavenly things, how much less is He earthly things! Put all body out of the question. Further, hear another thing: God is not a mutable spirit. For I confess — and it must be confessed, for it is the Gospel that speaks it —God is a Spirit. But pass beyond all mutable spirit, beyond all spirit that now knows, now knows not; that now remembers, now forgets; that wills what before it willed not, that wills not what before it willed; either that suffers these mutabilities now or may suffer them: pass beyond all these. You find not any mutability in God; nor anything that may have been one way before, and is otherwise now. For where you find alternation, there a kind of death has taken place: since, for a thing not to be what it was, is a death. The soul is said to be immortal; so indeed it is, because it ever lives, and there is in it a certain continuous life, but yet a mutable life. According to the mutability of this life, it may be said to be mortal; because if it lived wisely, and then becomes foolish, it dies for the worse; if it lived foolishly, and becomes wise, it dies for the better. For the Scripture teaches us that there is a death for the worse, and that there is a death for the better. In any case, they had died for the worse, of whom it said, Let the dead bury their dead; [Matthew 8:22] and, Awake, you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light; [Ephesians 5:14] and from this passage before us, When the dead shall hear, and they that hear shall live. For the worse they had died; therefore do they come to life again. By coming to life they die for the better, because by coming to life again they will not be what they were; but for that to be, which was not, is death. But perhaps it is not called death if it is for the better? The apostle has called that death: But if you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do ye judge concerning this world as if you were still living? [Colossians 2:20] And again, For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. He wishes us to die that we may live, because we have lived to die. Whatever therefore dies, both from better to worse, and from worse to better, is not God; because neither can supreme goodness proceed to better, nor true eternity to worse. For true eternity is, where is nothing of time. But was there now this, now that? Immediately time is admitted, it is not eternal. For that you may know that God is not thus, as the soul is — certainly the soul is immortal — what, however, says the apostle of God, Who alone has immortality, unless that he openly says this, He alone has unchangeableness, because He alone has true eternity? Therefore no mutability is there.

10. Recognize in yourself something which I wish to say within, in yourself; not within as if in your body, for in a sense one may say, in yourself. For there is in you health, your age whatever it be, but this in regard to the body. In you is your hand and your foot; but there is one thing in you, within; another thing in you as in your garment. But leave outside your garment and yourself, descend into yourself, go to your secret place, your mind, and there see, if you can, what I wish to say. For if you are far from yourself, how can you come near to God? I was speaking of God, and you believed that you would understand. I am speaking of the soul, I am speaking of yourself: understand this, there I will try you. For I do not travel very far for examples, when I mean to give you some similitude to your God from your own mind; because surely not in the body, but in that same mind, was man made after the image of God. Let us seek God in His own similitude; let us recognize the Creator in His own image. There within, if we can, let us find this that we speak of — how the Father shows to the Son, and how the Son sees what the Father shows, before anything is made by the Father through the Son. But when I shall have spoken, and you have understood, you must not think that spoken of to be something just such as our example, that you may therein keep piety, which I wish to be kept by you, and earnestly admonish you to keep: that is, if you are not able to comprehend what God is, do not think it a small matter for you to know what He is not.

11. Behold, in your mind, I see some two things, your memory and your thought, which is, as it were, the seeing faculty and the vision of your soul. You see something, and perceive it by the eyes, and you commit it to the care of the memory. There, within, is that which you have committed to your memory, laid up in secret as in a storehouse, as in a treasury, as in a kind of secret chamber and inner cabinet. You think of something else, your attention is elsewhere; what you saw is in your memory, but not seen by you, because your thought is bent on another thing. I prove this at once. I speak to you who know; I mention by name Carthage; all who know it have instantly seen Carthage within the mind. Are there as many Carthages as there are minds of you? You have all seen it by means of this name, by means of these syllables known to you, rushing forth from my mouth: your ears were touched; the sense of the soul was touched through the body, and the mind bent back from another object to this word, and saw Carthage. Was Carthage made there and then? It was there already, but latent in the memory. Why was latent there? Because your mind was engaged on another matter; but when your thought turned back to that which was in the memory, thence it was shaped, and became a kind of vision of the mind. Before, there was not a vision, but there was memory; the vision was made by the turning back of thought to memory. Your memory, then, showed Carthage to your thought; and that which was in it before you directed your mind to the memory, it exhibited to the attention of your thought when turned upon it. Behold, a showing is effected by the memory, and a vision is produced in thought; and no words passed between, no sign was given from the body: you neither nodded, nor wrote, nor uttered a sound; and yet thought saw what the memory showed. But both that which showed, and that to which it showed, are of the same substance. But yet, that your memory might have Carthage in it, the image was drawn in through the eyes, for you saw what you stored up in your memory. So have you seen the tree which you remember, so the mountain, the river; so the face of a friend, of an enemy, of father, mother, brother, sister, son, neighbor; so of letters written in a book, of the book itself; so of this church: all these you saw, and committed to your memory after they were seen; and did, as it were, lay up there what you might by thinking see at will, even when they should be absent from these eyes of the body. You saw Carthage when you were at Carthage; your soul received the image by the eyes; this image was laid up in your memory; and you, the person who was present at Carthage, kept something within you which you might be able to see with yourself, even when you should not be there. All these things you received from without. What the Father shows to the Son, He does not receive from without: all comes to pass within, because there would be no creature at all without, unless the Father had made it by the Son. Every creature was made by God; before it was made it was not in being. It was not therefore seen, after being made and retained in memory, that the Father might show it to the Son, as the memory might show to thought; but, on the contrary, the Father showed it to be made, the Son saw it to be made; and the Father made it by showing, because He made it by the Son seeing. And therefore we ought not to be surprised that it is said, But what He sees the Father doing, not showing. For by this it is intimated that, with the Father, to do and to show is the same thing; that hence we may understand that He does all things by the Son seeing. Neither is that showing, nor that seeing, temporal. Forasmuch as all times are made by the Son, they could not certainly be shown to Him at any point of time to be made. But the Father's showing begets the Son's seeing, just in the same manner as the Father begets the Son. For the showing produces the seeing, not the seeing the showing. And if we were able to look into this matter more purely and perfectly, perhaps we should find that the Father is not one thing, His showing another; nor the Son one thing, His seeing another. But if we have hardly apprehended this — if we have hardly been able to explain how the memory exhibits to the thought what it has received from without — how much less can we take in or explain how God the Father shows to the Son, what He has not from elsewhere, or that which is not other than Himself! We are only little ones: I tell you what God is not, do not show you what God is. What shall we do, then, that we may apprehend what He is? Can ye do this by or through me? I say this to the little ones, both to you and to myself; there is by whom we can: we have just now sung, just now heard, Cast your care upon the Lord, and He will nourish you. The reason why you are not able, O man, is because you are a little one; being a little one, you must be nourished; being nourished, you will become full-grown; and what as a little one you could not, you shall see when full-grown; but that you may be nourished, cast your care upon the Lord, and He will nourish you.

12. Therefore let us now briefly run over what remains, and do you see how the Lord makes known to us the things which I have been here commending to your attention. The Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things which Himself does. Himself raises up souls, but by the Son, that the souls raised up may enjoy the substance of God, that is, of the Father and of the Son. And greater works than these He will show Him. Greater than which? Than healings of bodies. We have treated of this already, and must not linger upon it now. Greater is the resurrection of the body unto eternity than this healing of the body, wrought in that impotent man, to last only for a time. And greater works than these He will show Him, that you may marvel. Will show, as if the act were temporal, therefore as to a man made in time, since God the Word is not made, He by whom all times were made. But Christ was made man in time. We know in what consulship the Virgin Mary brought forth Christ, conceived of the Holy Ghost. Wherefore He, by whom as God the times were made, was made man in time. Hence, just as in time, He will show Him greater works, that is, the resurrection of bodies, that you may marvel at the resurrection of bodies wrought by the Son.

13. He then returns to that resurrection of souls: For as the Father raises the dead, and quickens them, so also the Son quickens whom He will; but this according to the Spirit. The Father quickens, the Son quickens; the Father whom He will, the Son whom He will; but the Father quickens the same as the Son, because all things were made by Him. For as the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them, so also the Son quickens whom He will. This is said of the resurrection of souls; but what of the resurrection of bodies? He returns, and says: For the Father judges not any man, but all judgment has He given to the Son. The resurrection of souls is effected by the eternal and unchangeable substance of the Father and Son. But the resurrection of bodies is effected by the dispensation of the Son's humanity, which dispensation is temporal, not co-eternal with the Father. Therefore, when He mentioned judgment, in which there should be a resurrection of bodies, He says, For the Father judges not any man, but all judgment has He given to the Son; but concerning the resurrection of souls, He says, Even as the Father raises the dead, and quickens them, so also the Son quickens whom He will. That, then, the Father and the Son together. But this concerning the resurrection of bodies: The Father judges not any man, but has given all judgment to the Son; that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. This is referred to the resurrection of souls. That all may honor the Son. How? Even as they honor the Father. For the Son works the resurrection of souls in the same manner as the Father does; the Son quickens just as the Father does. Therefore, in the resurrection of souls, let all honor the Son as they honor the Father. But what of the honoring on account of the resurrection of the body? Whoever honors not the Son, honors not the Father that sent Him. He said not even as, but honors and honors. For the man Christ is honored, but not even as God the Father. Why? Because, with respect to this, He said, The Father is greater than I. [John 14:28] And when is the Son honored even as the Father is honored? When in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and all things were made by Him. And hence, in this second honoring, what says He? Whoever honors not the Son, honors not the Father that sent Him. The Son was not sent, but because He was made man.

14. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Again He returns to the resurrection of souls, that by continual repetition we may apprehend His meaning; because we could not keep up with His discourse hastening on as on wings. Lo, the Word of God lingers with us; lo, it does, as it were, dwell with our infirmities. He returns again to the mention of the resurrection of souls. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whoever hears my word, and believes Him that sent me, has eternal life; but has it as from the Father. For whoever hears my word, and believes Him that sent me, has eternal life from the Father, by believing the Father that sent the Son. And shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life. But from the Father, whom he believes, is he quickened. What, do You not quicken? See that the Son also quickens whom He will. Verily, verily, I say unto you, That the hour comes when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Here He did not say, they shall believe Him that sent me, and therefore shall live; but by hearing the voice of the Son of God, they that hear, that is, they that obey the Son of God, shall live. Therefore, both from the Father shall they live, when they will believe the Father; and from the Son shall they live, when they will hear the voice of the Son of God. Why shall they live both from the Father and from the Son? For even as the Father has life in Himself, so also has He given to the Son to have life in Himself.

15. He has finished speaking of the resurrection of souls; it remains to speak more evidently of the resurrection of bodies. And has given Him authority also to execute judgment: not only to raise up souls by faith and wisdom, but also to execute judgment. But why this? Because He is the Son of man. Therefore the Father does something through the Son of man, which He does not from His own substance, to which the Son is equal: as, for instance, that He should be born, crucified, dead, and have a resurrection; for not any of these is contingent to the Father. In the same manner also the raising again of bodies. For the raising to life of souls the Father effects from His own substance, by the substance of the Son, in which the Son is equal to Him; because souls are made partakers of that unchangeable light, but not bodies; but the raising again of bodies, the Father effects through the Son of man. For He has given Him authority also to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man; according to that which He said above, For the Father judges not any man. And to show that He said this of the resurrection of bodies, He goes on: Marvel not at this, for the hour comes: not, and now is; but, the hour comes, in which all that are in the graves (this you have already heard sufficiently explained yesterday) shall hear His voice, and come forth. Where? Into judgment: They that have done well, into the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, into the resurrection of judgment. And dost Thou do this alone, because the Father has given all judgment to the Son, and judges not any man? I, says He, do it. But how do You do it? I cannot of myself do anything; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just. When He was treating of the resurrection of souls, He did not say, I hear; but, I see. For I hear refers to the command of the Father as giving order. Therefore, now as a man, just as He than whom the Father is greater; as from the form of a servant, not from the form of God, As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just. Whence is the man's judgment a just one? My brethren, mark well: Because I seek not my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.

1. The miracles performed by our Lord Jesus Christ are indeed divine works, and incite the human mind to rise to the apprehension of God from the things that are seen. But inasmuch as He is not such a substance as may be seen with the eyes, and His miracles in the government of the whole world and the administration of the universal creation are, by their familiar constancy, slightly regarded, so that almost no man deigns to consider the wonderful and stupendous works of God, exhibited in every grain of seed; He has, agreeably to His mercy, reserved to Himself certain works, beyond the usual course and order of nature, which He should perform on fit occasion, that they, by whom His daily works are lightly esteemed, might be struck with astonishment at beholding, not indeed greater, but uncommon works. For certainly the government of the whole world is a greater miracle than the satisfying of five thousand men with five loaves; and yet no man wonders at the former; but the latter men wonder at, not because it is greater, but because it is rare. For who even now feeds the whole world, but He who creates the cornfield from a few grains? He therefore created as God creates. For, whence He multiplies the produce of the fields from a few grains, from the same source He multiplied in His hands the five loaves. The power, indeed, was in the hands of Christ; but those five loaves were as seeds, not indeed committed to the earth, but multiplied by Him who made the earth. In this miracle, then, there is that brought near to the senses, whereby the mind should be roused to attention, there is exhibited to the eyes, whereon the understanding should be exercised, that we might admire the invisible God through His visible works; and being raised to faith and purged by faith, we might desire to behold Him even invisibly, whom invisible we came to know by the things that are visible.

2. Yet it is not enough to observe these things in the miracles of Christ. Let us interrogate the miracles themselves, what they tell us about Christ: for they have a tongue of their own, if they can be understood. For since Christ is Himself the Word of God, even the act of the Word is a word to us. Therefore as to this miracle, since we have heard how great it is, let us also search how profound it is; let us not only be delighted with its surface, but let us also seek to know its depth. This miracle, which we admire on the outside, has something within. We have seen, we have looked at something great, something glorious, and altogether divine, which could be performed only by God: we have praised the doer for the deed. But just as, if we were to inspect a beautiful writing somewhere, it would not suffice for us to praise the hand of the writer, because he formed the letters even, equal and elegant, if we did not also read the information he conveyed to us by those letters; so, he who merely inspects this deed may be delighted with its beauty to admire the doer: but he who understands does, as it were, read it. For a picture is looked at in a different way from that in which a writing is looked at. When you have seen a picture, to have seen and praised it is the whole thing; when you see a writing, this is not the whole, since you are reminded also to read it. Moreover, when you see a writing, if it chance that you can not read, you say, What do we think that to be which is here written? You ask what it is, when already you see it to be something. He of whom you seek to be informed what it is that you have seen, will show you another thing. He has other eyes than you have. Do you not alike see the form of the letters? But yet you do not alike understand the signs. Well, you see and praisest; but he sees, praises, reads and understands. Therefore, since we have seen and praised, let us also read and understand.

3. The Lord on the mount: much rather let us understand that the Lord on the mount is the Word on high. Accordingly, what was done on the mount does not, as it were, lie low, nor is to be cursorily passed by, but must be looked up to. He saw the multitude, knew them to be hungering, mercifully fed them: not only in virtue of His goodness, but also of His power. For what would mere goodness avail, where there was not bread with which to feed the hungry crowd? Did not power attend upon goodness, that crowd had remained fasting and hungry. In short, the disciples also, who were with the Lord, and hungry, themselves wished to feed the multitudes, that they might not remain empty, but had not wherewithal to feed them. The Lord asked, whence they might buy bread to feed the multitude. And the Scripture says: But this He said, proving him; namely, the disciple Philip of whom He had asked; for Himself knew what He would do. Of what advantage then was it to prove him, unless to show the disciple's ignorance? And, perhaps, in showing the disciple's ignorance He signified something more. This will appear, then, when the sacrament of the five loaves itself will begin to speak to us, and to intimate its meaning: for there we shall see why the Lord in this act wished to exhibit the disciple's ignorance, by asking what He Himself knew. For we sometimes ask what we do not know, that, being willing to hear, we may learn; sometimes we ask what we do know, wishing to learn whether he whom we ask also knows. The Lord knew both the one and the other; knew both what He asked, for He knew what Himself would do; and He also knew in like manner that Philip knew not this. Why then did He ask, but to show Philip's ignorance? And why He did this, we shall, as I have said, understand afterwards.

4. Andrew says: There is a lad here, who has five loaves and two fishes, but what are these for so many? When Philip, on being asked, had said that two hundred pennyworth of bread would not suffice to refresh that so great a multitude, there was there a certain lad, carrying five barley loaves and two fishes. And Jesus says, Make the men sit down. Now there was there much grass: and they sat down about five thousand men. And the Lord Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks; He commanded, the loaves were broken, and put before the men that were set down. It was no longer five loaves, but what He had added thereto, who had created that which was increased. And of the fishes as much as sufficed. It was not enough that the multitude had been satisfied, there remained also fragments; and these were ordered to be gathered up, that they should not be lost: And they filled twelve baskets with the fragments.

5. To run over it briefly: by the five loaves are understood the five books of Moses; and rightly are they not wheaten but barley loaves, because they belong to the Old Testament. And you know that barley is so formed that we get at its pith with difficulty; for the pith is covered in a coating of husk, and the husk itself tenacious and closely adhering, so as to be stripped off with labor. Such is the letter of the Old Testament, invested in a covering of carnal sacraments: but yet, if we get at its pith, it feeds and satisfies us. A certain lad, then, brought five loaves and two fishes. If we inquire who this lad was, perhaps it was the people Israel, which, in a childish sense, carried, not ate. For the things which they carried were a burden while shut up, but when opened afforded nourishment. And as for the two fishes, they appear to us to signify those two sublime persons, in the Old Testament, of priest and of ruler, who were anointed for the sanctifying and governing of the people. And at length Himself in the mystery came, who was signified by those persons: He at length came who was pointed out by the pith of the barley, but concealed by its husk. He came, sustaining in His one person the two characters of priest and ruler: of priest by offering Himself to God as a victim for us; of ruler, because by Him we are governed. And the things that were carried closed are now opened up. Thanks be to Him. He has fulfilled by Himself what was promised in the Old Testament. And He bade the loaves to be broken; in the breaking they are multiplied. Nothing is more true. For when those five books of Moses are expounded, how many books have they made by being broken up, as it were; that is, by being opened and laid out? But because in that barley the ignorance of the first people was veiled, of whom it is said, Whilst Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts; [2 Corinthians 3:15] for the veil was not yet removed, because Christ had not yet come; not yet was the veil of the temple rent, while Christ is hanging on the cross: because, I say, the ignorance of the people was in the law, therefore that proving by the Lord made the ignorance of the disciple manifest.

6. Wherefore nothing is without meaning; everything is significant, but requires one that understands: for even this number of the people fed, signified the people that were under the law. For why were there five thousand, but because they were under the law, which is unfolded in the five books of Moses? Why were the sick laid at those five porches, but not healed? He, however, there cured the impotent man, who here fed multitudes with five loaves. Moreover, they sat down upon the grass; therefore understood carnally, and rested in the carnal. For all flesh is grass. [Isaiah 40:6] And what were those fragments, but things which the people were not able to eat? We understand them to be certain matters of more hidden meaning, which the multitude are not able to take in. What remains then, but that those matters of more hidden meaning, which the multitude cannot take in, be entrusted to men who are fit to teach others also, just as were the apostles? Why were twelve baskets filled? This was done both marvellously, because a great thing was done; and it was done profitably, because a spiritual thing was done. They who at the time saw it, marvelled; but we, hearing of it, do not marvel. For it was done that they might see it, but it was written that we might hear it. What the eyes were able to do in their case, that faith does in our case. We perceive, namely, with the mind, what we could not with the eyes: and we are preferred before them, because of us it is said, Blessed are they who see not, and yet believe. [John 20:29] And I add that, perhaps, we have understood what that crowd did not understand. And we have been fed in reality, in that we have been able to get at the pith of the barley.

7. Lastly, what did those men who saw this miracle think? The men, says he, when they had seen the sign which He had done, said, This is indeed a prophet. Perhaps they still thought Christ to be a prophet for this reason, namely, that they were sitting on the grass. But He was the Lord of the prophets, the fulfiller of the prophets, the sanctifier of the prophets, but yet a prophet also: for it was said to Moses, I will raise up for them a prophet like you. Like, according to the flesh, but not according to the majesty. And that this promise of the Lord is to be understood concerning Christ Himself, is clearly expounded and read in the Acts of the Apostles. [Acts 7:37] And the Lord says of Himself, A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country. [John 4:44] The Lord is a prophet, and the Lord is God's Word, and no prophet prophesies without the Word of God: the Word of God is with the prophets, and the Word of God is a prophet. The former times obtained prophets inspired and filled by the Word of God: we have obtained the very Word of God for our prophet. But Christ is in such manner a prophet, the Lord of prophets, as Christ is an angel, the Lord of angels. For He is also called the Angel of great counsel. Nevertheless, what says the prophet elsewhere that not an ambassador, nor an angel, but Himself coming will save them; [Isaiah 35:4] that is, He will not send an ambassador to save them, nor an angel, but Himself will come. Who will come? The Angel himself? Certainly not by an angel will He save them, except that He is so an angel, as also Lord of angels. For angels signify messengers. If Christ brought no message, He would not be called an angel: if Christ prophesied nothing, He would not be called a prophet. He has exhorted us to faith and to laying hold of eternal life; He has proclaimed something present, foretold something future because He proclaimed the present, thence He was an angel or messenger; because He foretold the future, thence He was a prophet; and that, as the Word of God He was made flesh, thence He was Lord of angels and of prophets.

1. Following upon yesterday's lesson from the Gospel is that of today, upon which this day's discourse is due to you. When that miracle was wrought, in which Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves, and the multitudes marveled and said that He was a great prophet that came into the world, then follows this: When Jesus therefore knew that they came to seize Him, and to make Him king, He escaped again unto the mountain alone. It is therefore given to be understood that the Lord, when He sat on the mountain with His disciples, and saw the multitudes coming to Him, had descended from the mountain, and fed the multitudes on its lower parts. For how can it be that He should escape there again, if He had not before descended from the mountain? There is something meant by the Lord's descending from on high to feed the multitudes. He fed them, and ascended.

2. But why did He ascend after He knew that they wished to seize Him and make Him a king? How then; was He not a king, that He was afraid to be made a king? He was certainly not such a king as would be made by men, but such as would bestow a kingdom on men. May it not be that Jesus, whose deeds are words, does here, too, signify some thing to us? Therefore in this, that they wished to seize Him and make Him a king, and that for this He escapes to the mountain alone, is this action in His case silent; does it speak nothing, does it mean nothing? Or was this seizing of Him perhaps an intention to anticipate the time of His kingdom? For He had come now, not to reign immediately, as He is to reign in the sense in which we pray, Your kingdom come. He ever reigns, indeed, with the Father, in that He is the Son of God, the Word of God, the Word by which all things were made. But the prophets foretold His kingdom according to that wherein He is Christ made man, and has made His faithful ones Christians. There will consequently be a kingdom of Christians, which at present is being gathered together, being prepared and purchased by the blood of Christ. His kingdom will at length be made manifest, when the glory of His saints shall be revealed, after the judgment is executed by Him, which judgment He Himself has said above is that which the Son of man shall execute. Of which kingdom also the apostle has said: When He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father. [1 Corinthians 15:24] In reference to which also Himself says: Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which is prepared for you from the beginning of the world. [Matthew 25:34] But the disciples and the multitudes that believed on Him thought that He had thus come immediately to reign; hence, they wished to seize Him and to make Him a king; they wished to anticipate the time which He hid with Himself, to make it known in due time, and in due time to declare it in the end of the world.

3. That ye may know that they wished to make Him a king — that is, to anticipate, and at once to have manifest the kingdom of Christ, whom it behooved first to be judged and then to judge, — when He was crucified, and they who hoped in Him had lost hope of His resurrection, having risen from the dead, He found two of them despairingly conversing together, and, with groaning, talking with one another of what had been done; and appearing to them as a stranger, while their eyes were held that He should not be recognized by them, He mixed with them as they held discourse: but they, narrating to Him the matter of their conversation, said that He was a prophet, mighty in deeds and in words, that had been slain by the chief priests; And we, say they, did hope that it was He that should have redeemed Israel. [Luke 24:13-21] Rightly you hoped: a true thing you hoped for: in Him is the redemption of Israel. But why are you in haste? You wish to seize it. The following, too, shows us that this was their feeling, that, when the disciples inquired of Him concerning the end, they said to Him, Will You at this time be made manifest, and when will be the kingdom of Israel? For they longed for it now, they wished it now; that is, they wished to seize Him, and to make Him king. But says He to the disciples (for He had yet to ascend alone), It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in His own power: but you shall receive virtue from on high, the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth. [Acts 1:6-8] You wish that I should manifest the kingdom now; let me first gather what I may manifest; you love elevation, and you shall obtain elevation, but follow me through humility. Thus it was also foretold of Him, And the gathering of the peoples will surround You, and for this cause return Thou on high; that is, that the gatherings of the peoples may surround You, that You may gather many together, return Thou on high. Thus He did; He fed men, and ascended.

4. But why is it said, He escaped? For He could not be held against His will, nor seized against His will, since He could not be recognized against His will. But that you may know that this was done mystically, not of necessity, but of express purpose, you will presently see in the following: that He appeared to the same multitudes that sought Him, said many things in speaking with them, and discoursed much about the bread of heaven; when discoursing about bread, was He not with the same people from whom He had escaped lest He should be held of them? Then, could He not have so acted at that time that He should not be seized by them, just as afterwards when He was speaking with them? Something, therefore, was meant by His escaping. What means, He escaped? His loftiness could not be understood. For of anything which you have not understood you say, It has escaped me. Wherefore, He escaped again unto the mountain alone — the first-begotten from the dead, ascending above all heavens, and interceding for us.

5. Meanwhile, He, the one great High Priest being above (He who has entered into that within the veil, the people standing without; for Him that priest under the old law, who did this once a year, did signify): He then be ing above, what were the disciples enduring in the ship? For that ship prefigured the Church while He is on high. For if we do not, in the first place, understand this thing which that ship suffered respecting the Church, those incidents were not significant, but simply transient; but if we see the real meaning of those signs expressed in the Church, it is manifest that the actions of Christ are a kind of speeches. But when it was late, says he, His disciples went down to the sea; and when they had entered into a ship, they came over the sea to Capernaum. He declared that as finished quickly, which was done afterwards —They came over the sea to Capernaum. He returns to explain how they came; that they passed over by sailing across the lake. And while they were sailing to that place to which He has already said they had come, He explains by recapitulation what befell them. It was now dark, and Jesus had not come to them. Rightly he said dark, for the light had not come to them. It was now dark, and Jesus had not come to them. As the end of the world approaches, errors increase, terrors multiply, iniquity increases, infidelity increases; the light, in short, which, by the Evangelist John himself, is fully and clearly shown to be charity, so much so that he says, Whoever hates his brother is in darkness; [1 John 2:11] that light, I say, is very often extinguished; this darkness of enmity between brethren increases, daily increases, and Jesus is not yet come. How does it appear to increase? Because iniquity will abound, and the love of many will begin to wax cold. Darkness increases, and Jesus is not yet come. Darkness increasing, love waxing cold, iniquity abounding — these are the waves that agitate the ship; the storms and the winds are the clamors of revilers. Thence love waxes cold; thence the waves do swell, and the ship is tossed.

6. And a great wind blowing, the sea rose. Darkness was increasing, discernment was diminishing, iniquity was growing. When, therefore, they had rowed about twenty-five or thirty furlongs. Meanwhile they struggled onward, kept advancing; nor did those winds and storms, and waves and darkness effect either that the ship should not make way, or that it should break in pieces and founder; but amid all these evils it went on. For, notwithstanding iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes cold, and the waves do swell, the darkness grows and the wind rages, yet the ship is moving forward; for he that perseveres to the end, the same shall be saved. [Matthew 24:12] Nor is that number of furlongs to be lightly regarded. For it cannot really be that nothing is meant, when it is said that, when they had rowed twenty-five or thirty furlongs, Jesus came to them. It were enough to say, twenty-five, so likewise thirty; especially as it was an estimate, not an assertion of the narrator. Could the truth be anything endangered by a mere estimate, if he had said nearly thirty furlongs, or nearly twenty-five furlongs? But from twenty-five he made thirty. Let us examine the number twenty-five. Of what does it consist? Of what is it made up? Of the quinary, or number five. That number five pertains to the law. The same are the five books of Moses, the same are those five porches containing the sick folk, the same are the five loaves feeding the five thousand men. Accordingly the number twenty-five signifies the law, because five by five — that is, five times five — make twenty-five, or the number five squared. But this law lacked perfection before the gospel came. Moreover, perfection is comprised in the number six. Therefore in six days God finished, or perfected, the world, and the same five are multiplied by six, that the law may be completed by the gospel, that six times five become thirty. To them that fulfill the law, therefore, Jesus comes. And how does He come? Walking upon the waves, keeping all the swellings of the world under His feet, pressing down all its heights. Thus it goes on, so long as time endures, so long as the ages roll. Tribulations increase, calamities increase, sorrows increase, all these swell and mount up: Jesus passes on treading upon the waves.

7. And yet so great are the tribulations, that even they who have trusted in Jesus, and who strive to persevere unto the end, greatly fear lest they fail; while Christ is treading the waves, and trampling down the world's ambitions and heights, the Christian is sorely afraid. Were not these things foretold him? Justly they were afraid, too, at seeing Jesus walking on the waves; like as Christians, though having hope in the world to come, are frequently disquieted at the crash of human affairs, when they see the loftiness of this world trampled down. They open the Gospel, they open the Scriptures, and they find all these things there foretold; that this is the Lord's doing. He tramples down the heights of the world, that He may be glorified by the humble. Concerning whose loftiness it is foretold: You shall destroy strongest cities, and the spears of the enemy have come to an end, and You have destroyed cities. Why then are you afraid, O Christians? Christ speaks: It is I; be not afraid. Why are you alarmed at these things? Why are you afraid? I have foretold these things, I do them, they must necessarily be done. It is I; be not afraid. Therefore they would receive Him into the ship. Recognizing Him and rejoicing, they are freed from their fears. And immediately the ship was at the land to which they went. There is an end made at the land; from the watery to the solid, from the agitated to the firm, from the way to the goal.

8. On the next day the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea, whence the disciples had come, saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto His disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples had gone away alone; but there came other boats from Tiberias, near unto the place where they did eat bread, giving thanks to the Lord: when, therefore, the multitudes saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. Yet they got some knowledge of so great a miracle. For they saw that the disciples had gone into the ship alone, and that there was not another ship there. But there came boats also from near to that place where they did eat bread; in these the multitudes followed Him. He had not then embarked with His disciples, and there was not another ship there. How, then, was Jesus on a sudden beyond the sea, unless that He walked upon the sea to show a miracle?

9. And when the multitudes had found Him. Behold, He presents Himself to the people from whom He had escaped into the mountain, afraid that He should be taken of them by force. In every way He proves to us and gives us to know that all these things are said in a mystery, and done in a great sacrament (or mystery) to signify something important. Behold, that is He who had escaped the crowds unto the mountain; is He not speaking with the same crowds? Let them hold Him now; let them now make Him a king. And when they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, Rabbi, when did You get here?

10. After the sacrament of the miracle, He introduces discourse, that, if possible, they who have been fed may be further fed, that He may with discourse fill their minds, whose bellies He filled with the loaves, provided they take in. And if they do not, let that be taken up which they do not receive, that the fragments may not be lost. Wherefore let Him speak, and let us hear. Jesus answered and said Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me, not because ye saw the signs, but because you have eaten of my loaves. You seek me for the sake of the flesh not for the sake of the spirit. How many seek Jesus for no other object but that He may bestow on them a temporal benefit! One has a business on hand, he seeks the intercession of the clergy; another is oppressed by one more powerful than himself, he flies to the church. Another desires intervention in his behalf with one with whom he has little influence. One in this way, one in that, the church is daily filled with such people. Jesus is scarcely sought after for Jesus' sake. You seek me, not because you have seen the signs, but because you have eaten of my loaves. Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that which endures unto eternal life. You seek me for something else, seek me for my own sake. For He insinuates the truth, that Himself is that meat: this shines out clearly in the sequel. Which the Son of man will give you. You expected, I believe, again to eat bread, again to sit down, again to be gorged. But He had said, Not the meat which perishes, but that which endures unto eternal life, in the same manner as it was said to that Samaritan woman: If you knew who it is that asks of you drink, you would perhaps have asked of Him, and He would give you living water. When she said, Whence have you, since you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep? He answered the Samaritan woman: If you knew who it is that asks of you drink, you would have asked of Him, and He would give you water, whereof whoever drinks shall thirst no more; for whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again. And she was glad and would receive, as if no more to suffer thirst of body, being wearied with the labor of drawing water. And so, during a conversation of this kind, He comes to spiritual drink. Entirely in this manner also here.

11. Therefore this meat, not that which perishes, but that which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you; for Him has God the Father sealed. Do not take this Son of man as you take other sons of men, of whom it is said, And the sons of men will trust in the protection of Your wings. This Son of man is separated by a certain grace of the spirit; Son of man according to the flesh, taken out from the number of men: He is the Son of man. This Son of man is also the Son of God; this man is even God. In another place, when questioning His disciples, He says: Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am? And they answered, Some John, some Elias, some Jeremias, or one of the prophets. And He said to them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answered, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. [Matthew 16:13-16] He declared Himself Son of man, Peter declared Him the Son of the living God. Most fitly did He mention that which in mercy He had manifested Himself to be; most fitly did the other mention that which He continues to be in glory. The Word of God commends to our attention His own humility: the man acknowledged the glory of his Lord. And indeed, brethren, I think that this is just. He humbled Himself for us, let us glorify Him. For not for Himself is He Son of man, but for us. Therefore was He Son of man in that way, when the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. For to that end God the Father sealed Him. What is to seal, but to put some particular mark? To seal is to impress some mark which cannot be confounded with the rest. To seal is to put a mark on a thing. When you put a mark on anything, you do so lest it might be confused with other things, and you should not be able to recognize it. The Father, then, has sealed Him. What is that, has sealed? Bestowed on Him something peculiar, which puts Him out of comparison with all other men. For that reason it is said of Him, God, even Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows. What is it then to seal, but to have Him excepted? This is the import of above Your fellows. And so, do not, says He, despise me because I am the Son of man, but seek from me, not the meat that perishes, but that which endures to eternal life. For I am the Son of man in such manner as not to be one of you: I am Son of man in such manner that God the Father sealed me. What does that mean, He sealed me? Gave me something peculiarly my own, that I should not be confounded with mankind, but that mankind should be delivered by me.

12. They said therefore unto Him, What shall we do, that we may work the works of God? For He had said to them, Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that which endures unto eternal life. What shall we do? they ask; by observing what, shall we be able to fulfill this precept? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent. This is then to eat the meat, not that which perishes, but that which endures unto eternal life. To what purpose do you make ready teeth and stomach? Believe, and you have eaten already. Faith is indeed distinguished from works, even as the apostle says, that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law: [Romans 3:28] there are works which appear good, without faith in Christ; but they are not good, because they are not referred to that end in which works are good; for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes. [Romans 10:4] For that reason, He wills not to distinguish faith from work, but declared faith itself to be work. For it is that same faith that works by love. [Galatians 5:6] Nor did He say, This is your work; but, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent; so that he who glories, may glory in the Lord. And because He invited them to faith, they, on the other hand, were still asking for signs by which they might believe. See if the Jews do not ask for signs. They said therefore unto Him, What sign will you do, that we may see and believe you? What do you work? Was it a trifle that they were fed with five loaves? They knew this indeed, but they preferred manna from heaven to this food. But the Lord Jesus declared Himself to be such an one, that He was superior to Moses. For Moses dared not say of himself that ge gave, not the meat which perishes, but that which endures to eternal life. Jesus promised something greater than Moses gave. By Moses indeed was promised a kingdom, and a land flowing with milk and honey, temporal peace, abundance of children, health of body, and all other things, temporal goods indeed, yet in figure spiritual; because in the Old Testament they were promised to the old man. They considered therefore the things promised by Moses, and they considered the things promised by Christ. The former promised a full belly on the earth, but of the meat which perishes; the latter promised, not the meat which perishes, but that which endures unto eternal life. They gave attention to Him that promised the more, but just as if they did not yet see Him do greater things. They considered therefore what sort of works Moses had done, and they wished yet some greater works to be done by Him who promised them such great things. What, say they, will you do, that we may believe you? And that you may know that they compared those former miracles with this and so judged these miracles which Jesus did as being less; Our fathers, say they, did eat manna in the wilderness. But what is manna? Perhaps ye despise it. As it is written, He gave them manna to eat. By Moses our fathers received bread from heaven, and Moses did not say to them, Labor for the meat which perishes not. You promise meat which perishes not, but which endures to eternal life; and yet you work not such works as Moses did. He gave, not barley loaves, but manna from heaven.

13. Then Jesus said to them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, not Moses gave you bread from heaven, but my Father gave you bread from heaven. For the true bread is He that comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world. The true bread then is He that gives life to the world; and the same is the meat of which I have spoken a little before —Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that which endures unto eternal life. Therefore, both that manna signified this meat, and all those signs were signs of me. You have longed for signs of me; do ye despise Him that was signified? Not Moses then gave bread from heaven: God gives bread. But what bread? Manna, perhaps? No, but the bread which manna signified, namely, the Lord Jesus Himself. My Father gives you the true bread. For the bread of God is He that comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world. Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. Like that Samaritan woman, to whom it was said, Whoever drinks of this water shall never thirst. She, immediately understanding it in reference to the body, and wishing to be rid of want, said, Give me, O Lord, of this water; in the same manner also these said, O Lord, give us this bread; which may refresh us, and yet not fail.

14. And Jesus said to them, I am the Bread of Life: he that comes to me shall never hunger; and he that believes in me shall never thirst. He that comes to me; this is the same thing as He that believes in me; and shall never hunger is to be understood to mean the same thing as shall never thirst. For by both is signified that eternal sufficiency in which there is no want. You desire bread from heaven; you have it before you, and yet you do not eat. But I said to you, that you also have seen me, and you believed not. But I have not on that account lost my people. For has your unbelief made the faith of God of none effect? [Romans 3:3] For, see what follows: All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me, I will not cast out of doors. What kind of within is that, whence there is no going out of doors? Noble interior, sweet retreat! O secret dwelling without weariness, without the bitterness of evil thoughts, without the solicitings of temptations and the interruptions of griefs! Is it not that secret dwelling whither shall enter that well-deserving servant, to whom the Lord will say, Enter into the joy of your Lord? [Matthew 25:23]

15. And him that will come to me, I will not cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. Is it for that reason that You will not cast out him that shall come unto You, because You have descended from heaven, not to do Your own will, but the will of Him that sent You? Great mystery! I beseech you, let us knock together; something may come forth to us which may feed us, according to that which has delighted us. That great and sweet secret dwelling-place: He that will come to me. Give heed, give heed, and weigh the matter: He that will come unto me, I will not cast out. Why? Because I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. Is it then the very reason why You cast not out him that comes unto You, that You came down from heaven, not to do Your own will, but the will of Him that sent You? The very reason. Why do we ask whether it be the same? The same it is; Himself says it. For it would not be right in us to suspect Him to mean other than He says, Whoever will come to me, I will not cast out. And, as if you asked, wherefore? He answered, Because I came not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. I am afraid that the reason why the soul went forth away from God is, that it was proud; nay, I do not doubt it. For it is written, Pride is the beginning of all sin; and the beginning of man's pride is a falling away from God. It is written, it is firm and sure, it is true. And hence what is said of proud mortal man, clad in the tattered rags of the flesh, weighed down with the weight of a corruptible body, and withal extolling himself, and forgetting with what skin-coat he is clothed — what, I ask, says the Scripture to him? Why is dust and ashes proud? Why proud! Let the Scripture tell why. Because in his life he put forth his inmost parts. [Sirach 10:14-15] What is put forth, but threw afar off? This is to go forth away. For to enter within, is to long after the inmost parts; to put forth the inmost parts, is to go forth away. The proud man puts forth the inmost parts, the humble man earnestly desires the inmost parts. If we are cast out by pride, let us return by humility.

16. Pride is the source of all diseases, because pride is the source of all sins. When a physician removes a disorder from the body, if he merely cures the malady produced by some particular cause, but not the cause itself, he seems to heal the patient for a time, but while the cause remains, the disease will repeat itself. For example, to speak of this more expressly, some humor in the body produces a scurf or sores; there follows a high fever, and not a little pain; certain remedies are applied to repress the scurf, and to allay that heat of the sore; the remedies are applied, and they do good; you see the man who was full of sores and scurf healed; but because that humor was not expelled, it returns again to ulcers. The physician, perceiving this, purges away the humor, removes the cause, and there will be no more sores. Whence does iniquity abound? From pride. Cure pride and there will be no more iniquity. Consequently, that the cause of all diseases might be cured, namely, pride, the Son of God came down and was made low. Why are you proud, O man? God, for you, became low. You would perhaps be ashamed to imitate a lowly man; at any rate, imitate the lowly God. The Son of God came in the character of a man and was made low. You are taught to become humble, not of a man to become a brute. He, being God, became man; do thou, O man, recognize that you are man. Your whole humility is to know yourself. Therefore because God teaches humility, He said, I came not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. For this is the commendation of humility. Whereas pride does its own will, humility does the will of God. Therefore, Whoever comes to me, I will not cast him out. Why? Because I came not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. I came humble, I came to teach humility, I came a master of humility: he that comes to me is made one body with me; he that comes to me becomes humble; he who adheres to me will be humble, because he does not his own will, but the will of God; and therefore he shall not be cast out, for when he was proud he was cast out.

17. See those inner things commended to us in the psalm: But the sons of men will put their trust in the covering of Your wings. See what it is to enter within; see what it is to flee for refuge to His protection; see what it is to run even under the Father's lash, for He scourges every son whom He receives. But the sons of men shall put their trust under the cover of Your wings. What is within? They shall be filled with the plenteousness of Your house, when You shall have sent them within, entering into the joy of their Lord; they shall be filled with the plenteousness of Your house; and You shall give them to drink of the stream of Your pleasure. For with You is the fountain of life. Not away without You, but within with You, is the fountain of life. And in Your light we shall see light. Show Your mercy upon them that know You, and Your righteousness to them that are of upright heart. They who follow the will of their Lord, not seeking their own, but the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are the upright in heart, their feet shall not be moved. For God is good to Israel, to the upright in heart. But, as for me, says he, my feet were almost moved. Why? Because I was jealous at sinners, looking at the peace of sinners. To whom is God good then, unless to the upright in heart? For God was displeasing to me when my heart was crooked. Why displeasing? Because He gave happiness to the wicked, and therefore my feet tottered, as if I had served God in vain. For this reason, then, my feet were almost moved, because I was not upright of heart. What then is upright in heart? Following the will of God. One man is prosperous, another man toils; the one lives wickedly and yet is prosperous, the other lives rightly and is distressed. Let not him that lives rightly and is in distress be angry; he has within what the prosperous man has not: let him therefore not be saddened, nor vex himself, nor faint. That prosperous man has gold in his own chest; this other has God in his conscience. Compare now gold and God, chest and conscience. The former has that which perishes, and has it where it will perish; the latter has God, who cannot perish, and has Him there whence He cannot be taken away: only if he is upright in heart; for then He enters within and goes not out. For that reason, what said he? For with You is the fountain of life: not with us. We must therefore enter within, that we may live; we must not be, as it were, content to perish, nor willing to be satisfied of our own, to be dried up, but we must put our mouth to the very fountain, where the water fails not. Because Adam wished to live by his own counsel, he, too, fell through him who had fallen before through pride, who invited him to drink of the cup of his own pride. Wherefore, because with You is the fountain of life, and in Your light we shall see light, let us drink within, let us see within. Why was there a going out thence? Hear why: Let not the foot of pride come to me. Therefore he, to whom the foot of pride came, went out. Show that therefore he went out. And let not the hands of sinners move me; because of the foot of pride. Why do you say this? They are fallen, all they that work iniquity. Where are they fallen? In their very pride. They were driven out, and they could not stand. If, then, pride drove them out who were not able to stand, humility sends them in who can stand forever. For this reason, moreover, he who said, The bones that were brought low shall rejoice, said before, You shall give joy and gladness to my hearing. What does he mean by, to my hearing? By hearing You I am happy; because of Your voice I am happy; by drinking within I am happy. Therefore do I not fall; therefore the bones that were brought low will rejoice; therefore the friend of the Bridegroom stands and hears Him; therefore he stands, because he hears. He drinks of the fountain within, therefore he stands. They who willed not to drink of the fountain within, there are they fallen: they were driven, they were not able to stand.

18. Thus, the teacher of humility came not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him. Let us come to Him, enter in unto Him, be ingrafted into Him, that we may not be doing our own will, but the will of God: and He will not cast us out, because we are His members, because He willed to be our head by teaching us humility. Finally, hear Himself discoursing: Come unto me, you who labor and are heavy laden: take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and when you have learned this, you shall find rest for your souls, [Matthew 11:28-29] from which you cannot be cast out; because I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me; I teach humility; none but the humble can come unto me. Only pride casts out; how can he go out who keeps humility and falls not away from the truth? So much as could be said about the hidden sense has now been said, brethren: this sense is hidden enough, and I know not whether I have drawn out and shaped in suitable words for you, why it is that He casts not out him that comes unto Him; because He came not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him.

19. And this, says He, is the will of the Father that sent, that of all that He has given me I should lose nothing. He that keeps humility was given to Him; the same He receives: he that keeps not humility is far from the Master of humility. That of all which He has given me, I should lose nothing. So it is not the will of your Father that one of these little ones should perish. Of the proud, there may perish; but of the little ones, none perishes; because, if you will not become as this little one, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Of all that the Father has given me, I should lose nothing, but I will raise it up again on the last day. See how here He delineates that twofold resurrection. He that comes unto me immediately rises again, being made humble in my members; but I will raise him up again on the last day also according to the flesh. For this is the will of my Father that sent me, that every one who sees the Son, and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day. He said above, Whoever hears my word, and believes Him that sent me: but now, Whoever sees the Son, and believes in Him. He has not said, sees the Son, and believes in the Father; for to believe in the Son is the same thing as to believe in the Father. Because, even as the Father has life in Himself, so has He given also to the Son to have life in Himself. That every one who sees the Son, and believes in Him, may have eternal life: by believing and by passing unto life, just as by that first resurrection. And, because that is not the only resurrection, He says, And I will raise him up at the last day.

1. When our Lord Jesus Christ, as we have heard in the Gospel when it was read, had said that He was Himself the bread which came down from heaven, the Jews murmured and said, Is not Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he says, I came down from heaven? These Jews were far off from the bread of heaven, and knew not how to hunger after it. They had the jaws of their heart languid; with open ears they were deaf, they saw and stood blind. This bread, indeed, requires the hunger of the inner man: and hence He says in another place, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. [Matthew 5:6] But the Apostle Paul says that Christ is for us righteousness. [1 Corinthians 1:30] And, consequently, he that hungers after this bread, hungers after righteousness — that righteousness however which comes down from heaven, the righteousness that God gives, not that which man works for himself. For if man were not making a righteousness for himself, the same apostle would not have said of the Jews: For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish their own righteousness, they are not subject to the righteousness of God. [Romans 10:3] Of such were these who understood not the bread that comes down from heaven; because being satisfied with their own righteousness, they hungered not after the righteousness of God. What is this, God's righteousness and man's righteousness? God's righteousness here means, not that wherein God is righteous, but that which God bestows on man, that man may be righteous through God. But again, what was the righteousness of those Jews? A righteousness wrought of their own strength on which they presumed, and so declared themselves as if they were fulfillers of the law by their own virtue. But no man fulfills the law but he whom grace assists, that is, whom the bread that comes down from heaven assists. For the fulfilling of the law, as the apostle says in brief, is charity. [Romans 13:10] Charity, that is, love, not of money, but of God; love, not of earth nor of heaven, but of Him who made Heaven and earth. Whence can man have that love? Let us hear the same: The love of God, says he, is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. [Romans 5:5] Wherefore, the Lord, about to give the Holy Spirit, said that Himself was the bread that came down from heaven, exhorting us to believe in Him. For to believe in Him is to eat the living bread. He that believes eats; he is sated invisibly, because invisibly is he born again. A babe within, a new man within. Where he is made new, there he is satisfied with food.

2. What then did the Lord answer to such murmurers? Murmur not among yourselves. As if He said, I know why you are not hungry, and do not understand nor seek after this bread. Murmur not among yourselves: no man can come unto me, except the Father that sent me draw him. Noble excellence of grace! No man comes unless drawn. There is whom He draws, and there is whom He draws not; why He draws one and draws not another, do not desire to judge, if you desire not to err. Accept it at once and then understand; you are not yet drawn? Pray that you may be drawn. What do we say here, brethren? If we are drawn to Christ, it follows that we believe against our will; so then is force applied, not the will moved. A man can come to Church unwillingly, can approach the altar unwillingly, partake of the sacrament unwillingly: but he cannot believe unless he is willing. If we believed with the body, men might be made to believe against their will. But believing is not a thing done with the body. Hear the apostle: With the heart man believes unto righteousness. And what follows? And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. [Romans 10:10] That confession springs from the root of the heart. Sometimes you hear a man confessing, and know not whether he believes. But you ought not to call him one confessing, if you should judge him to be one not believing. For to confess is this, to utter the thing that you have in your heart: if you have one thing in your heart, and another thing on your tongue, you are speaking, not confessing. Since, then, with the heart man believes in Christ, which no man assuredly does against his will, and since he that is drawn seems to be as if forced against his will, how are we to solve this question, No man comes unto me, except the Father that sent me draw him?

3. If he is drawn, says some one, he comes unwillingly. If he comes unwillingly, then he believes not; but if he believes not, neither does he come. For we do not run to Christ on foot, but by believing; nor is it by a motion of the body, but by the inclination of the heart that we draw near to Him. This is why that woman who touched the hem of His garment touched Him more than did the crowd that pressed Him. Therefore the Lord said, Who touched me? And the disciples wondering said, The multitude throng You, and press You, and sayest Thou, Who touched me? [Luke 8:45] And He repeated it, Somebody has touched me. That woman touched, the multitude pressed. What is touched, except believed? Whence also He said to that woman that wished to throw herself at His feet after His resurrection: 'Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to the Father. [John 20:17] You think me to be that alone which you see, touch me not. What is this? Thou supposest that I am that alone which I appear to you: do not thus believe; that is, touch me not for I am not yet ascended to the Father. To you I am not ascended, for thence I never departed. She touched Him not while He stood on the earth; how then could she touch Him while ascending to the Father? Thus, however, thus He willed Himself to be touched; thus He is touched by those by whom He is profitably touched, ascending to the Father, abiding with the Father, equal to the Father.

4. Thence also He says here, if you turn your attention to it, No man comes to me except he whom the Father shall draw. Do not think that you are drawn against your will. The mind is drawn also by love. Nor ought we to be afraid, lest perchance we be censured in regard to this evangelic word of the Holy Scriptures by men who weigh words, but are far removed from things, most of all from divine things; and lest it be said to us, How can I believe with the will if I am drawn? I say it is not enough to be drawn by the will; you are drawn even by delight. What is it to be drawn by delight? Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. There is a pleasure of the heart to which that bread of heaven is sweet. Moreover, if it was right in the poet to say, Every man is drawn by his own pleasure, — not necessity, but pleasure; not obligation, but delight — how much more boldly ought we to say that a man is drawn to Christ when he delights in the truth, when he delights in blessedness, delights in righteousness, delights in everlasting life, all which Christ is? Or is it the case that, while the senses of the body have their pleasures, the mind is left without pleasures of its own? If the mind has no pleasures of its own, how is it said, The sons of men shall trust under the cover of Your wings: they shall be well satisfied with the fullness of Your house; and You shall give them drink from the river of Your pleasure. For with You is the fountain of life; and in Your light shall we see light? Give me a man that loves, and he feels what I say. Give me one that longs, one that hungers, one that is travelling in this wilderness, and thirsting and panting after the fountain of his eternal home; give such, and he knows what I say. But if I speak to the cold and indifferent, he knows not what I say. Such were those who murmured among themselves. He whom the Father shall draw, says He, comes unto me.

5. But what is this, Whom the Father shall draw, when Christ Himself draws? Why did He say, Whom the Father shall draw? If we must be drawn, let us be drawn by Him to whom one who loves says, We will run after the odor of Your ointment. [Song of Songs 1:3] But let us, brethren, turn our minds to, and, as far as we can, apprehend how He would have us understand it. The Father draws to the Son those who believe in the Son, because they consider that God is His Father. For God begot the Son equal to Himself, so that he who ponders, and in his faith feels and muses that He on whom he has believed is equal to the Father, this same is drawn of the Father to the Son. Arius believed the Son to be creature: the Father drew not him; for he that believes not the Son to be equal to the Father, considers not the Father. What do you say, Arius? What, O heretic, do you speak? What is Christ? Not very God, says he, but one whom very God has made. The Father has not drawn you, for you have not understood the Father, whose Son you deny, it is not the Son Himself but something else that you are thinking of. You are neither drawn by the Father nor drawn to the Son; for the Son is very different from what you say. Photius said, Christ is only a man, he is not also God. The Father has not drawn him who thus believes. One whom the Father has drawn says: You are Christ, Son of the living God. Not as a prophet, not as John, not as some great and just man, but as the only, the equal, You are Christ, Son of the living God. See that he was drawn, and drawn by the Father. Blessed are you, Simon Barjonas: for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. [Matthew 16:16-17] This revealing is itself the drawing. You hold out a green twig to a sheep, and you draw it. Nuts are shown to a child, and he is attracted; he is drawn by what he runs to, drawn by loving it, drawn without hurt to the body, drawn by a cord of the heart. If, then, these things, which among earthly delights and pleasures are shown to them that love them, draw them, since it is true that every man is drawn by his own pleasure, does not Christ, revealed by the Father, draw? For what does the soul more strongly desire than the truth? For what ought it to have a greedy appetite, with which to wish that there may be within a healthy palate for judging the things that are true, unless it be to eat and drink wisdom, righteousness, truth, eternity?

6. But where will this be? There better, there more truly, there more fully. For here we can more easily hunger than be satisfied, especially if we have good hope: for Blessed, says He, are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, that is here; for they shall be filled, that is there. Therefore when He had said, No man comes unto me except the Father that sent me draw him, what did He subjoin? And I will raise him up in the last day. I render unto him what he loves, what he hopes for: he will see what, not as yet by seeing, he has believed; he shall eat that which he hungers after; he shall be filled with that which he thirsts after. Where? In the resurrection of the dead; for I will raise him up on the last day.

7. For it is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. Why have I said this, O Jews? The Father has not taught you; how can you know me? For all the men of that kingdom shall be taught of God, not learn from men. And though they do learn from men, yet what they understand is given them within, flashes within, is revealed within. What do men that proclaim tidings from without? What am I doing even now while I speak? I am pouring a clatter of words into your ears. What is that that I say or that I speak, unless He that is within reveal it? Without is the planter of the tree, within is the tree's Creator. He that plants and He that waters work from without: this is what we do. But neither he that plants is anything, nor he that waters; but God that gives the increase. [1 Corinthians 3:7] That is, they shall be all taught of God. All who? Every one who has heard and learned of the Father comes unto me. See how the Father draws: He delights by teaching, not by imposing a necessity. Behold how He draws: They shall be all taught of God. This is God's drawing. Every man that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes unto me. This is God's drawing.

8. What then, brethren? If every man who has heard and learned of the Father, the same comes unto Christ, has Christ taught nothing here? What shall we say to this, that men who have not seen the Father as their teacher have seen the Son? The Son spoke, but the Father taught. I, being a man, whom do I teach? Whom, brethren, but him who has heard my word? If I, being a man, do teach him who hears my word, the Father also teaches him who hears His word. And if the Father teaches him that hears His word, ask what Christ is, and you will find the word of the Father. In the beginning was the Word. Not in the beginning God made the Word, just as in the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. [Genesis 1:1] Behold how that He is not a creature. Learn to be drawn to the Son by the Father: that the Father may teach you, hear His Word. What Word of Him, do you say, do I hear? In the beginning was the Word (it is not was made, but was), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. How can men abiding in the flesh hear such a Word? The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

9. He Himself explains this also, and shows us His meaning when He said, He that has heard and learned of the Father comes unto me. He immediately subjoined what we were able to conceive: Not that any man has seen the Father, save he who is of God, he has seen the Father. What is that which He says? I have seen the Father, you have not seen the Father; and yet ye come not unto me unless you are drawn by the Father. And what is it for you to be drawn by the Father but to learn of the Father? What is to learn of the Father but to hear of the Father? What is to hear of the Father but to hear the Word of the Father — that is, to hear me? In case, therefore, when I say to you, Every man that has heard and learned of the Father, you should say within yourselves, But we have never seen the Father, how could we learn of the Father? Hear from myself: Not that any man has seen the Father, save He who is of God, He has seen the Father. I know the Father, I am from Him; but in that manner in which the Word is from Him where the Word is, not that which sounds and passes away, but that which remains with the speaker and attracts the hearer.

10. Let what follows admonish us: Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believes in me has eternal life. He willed to reveal Himself, what He was: He might have said in brief, He that believes in me has me. For Christ is Himself true God and eternal life. Therefore, he that believes in me, says He, goes into me; and he that goes into me, has me. But what is the meaning of to have me? To have eternal life. Eternal life took death upon itself; eternal life willed to die; but of you, not of itself; of you it received that whereby it may die in your behalf. Of men, indeed, He took flesh, but yet not in the manner of men. For having His Father in heaven, He chose a mother on earth; both there begotten without mother, and here born without father. Accordingly, life took upon itself death, that life might slay death. For he that believes in me, says He, has eternal life: not what is open, but what is hid. For eternal life is the Word, that in the beginning was with God, and the Word was God, and the life was the light of men. The same eternal life gave eternal life also to the flesh which it assumed. He came to die; but on the third day He rose again. Between the Word taking flesh and the flesh rising again, death which came between was consumed.

11. I am, says He, the bread of life. And what was the source of their pride? Your fathers, says He, did eat manha in the wilderness, and are dead. What is it whereof you are proud? They ate manna, and are dead. Why they ate and are dead? Because they believed that which they saw; what they saw not, they did not understand. Therefore were they your fathers, because you are like them. For so far, my brethren, as relates to this visible corporeal death, do not we too die who eat the bread that comes down from heaven? They died just as we shall die, so far, as I said, as relates to the visible and carnal death of this body. But so far as relates to that death, concerning which the Lord warns us by fear, and in which their fathers died: Moses ate manna, Aaron ate manna, Phinehas ate manna, and many ate manna, who were pleasing to the Lord, and they are not dead. Why? Because they understood the visible food spiritually, hungered spiritually, tasted spiritually, that they might be filled spiritually. For even we at this day receive visible food: but the sacrament is one thing, the virtue of the sacrament another. How many do receive at the altar and die, and die indeed by receiving? Whence the apostle says, Eats and drinks judgment to himself. [1 Corinthians 11:29] For it was not the mouthful given by the Lord that was the poison to Judas. And yet he took it; and when he took it, the enemy entered into him: not because he received an evil thing, but because he being evil received a good thing in an evil way. See ye then, brethren, that you eat the heavenly bread in a spiritual sense; bring innocence to the altar. Though your sins are daily, at least let them not be deadly. Before ye approach the altar, consider well what you are to say: Forgive us our debts, even as we forgive our debtors. [Matthew 6:12] You forgive, it shall be forgiven you: approach in peace, it is bread, not poison. But see whether you forgive, for if you do not forgive, you lie, and lie to Him whom you can not deceive. You can lie to God, but you can not deceive God. He knows what you do. He sees you within, examines you within, inspects within, judges within, and within He either condemns or crowns. But the fathers of these Jews were evil fathers of evil sons, unbelieving fathers of unbelieving sons, murmuring fathers of murmurers. For in no other thing is that people said to have offended the Lord more than in murmuring against God. And for that reason, the Lord, willing to show those men to be the children of such murmurers, thus begins His address to them: Why murmur ye among yourselves, ye murmurers, children of murmurers? Your fathers did eat manna, and are dead; not because manna was an evil thing, but because they ate it in an evil manner.

12. This is the bread which comes down from heaven. Manna signified this bread; God's altar signified this bread. Those were sacraments. In the signs they were diverse; in the thing which was signified they were alike. Hear the apostle: For I would not that you should be ignorant, brethren, says he, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat. Of course, the same spiritual meat; for corporally it was another: since they ate manna, we eat another thing; but the spiritual was the same as that which we eat. But our fathers, not the fathers of those Jews; those to whom we are like, not those to whom they were like. Moreover he adds: And did all drink the same spiritual drink. They one kind of drink, we another, but only in the visible form, which, however, signified the same thing in its spiritual virtue. For how was it that they drank the same drink? They drank, says he of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. [1 Corinthians 10:1-4] Thence the bread, thence the drink. The rock was Christ in sign; the real Christ is in the Word and in flesh. And how did they drink? The rock was smitten twice with a rod; the double smiting signified the two wooden beams of the cross. This, then, is the bread that comes down from heaven, that if any man eat thereof, he shall not die. But this is what belongs to the virtue of the sacrament, not to the visible sacrament; he that eats within, not without; who eats in his heart, not who presses with his teeth.

13. I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. For that reason living, because I came down from heaven. The manna also came down from heaven; but the manna was only a shadow, this is the truth. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world. When did flesh comprehend this flesh which He called bread? That is called flesh which flesh does not comprehend, and for that reason all the more flesh does not comprehend it, that it is called flesh. For they were terrified at this: they said it was too much for them; they thought it impossible. Is my flesh, says He, for the life of the world. Believers know the body of Christ, if they neglect not to be the body of Christ. Let them become the body of Christ, if they wish to live by the Spirit of Christ. None lives by the Spirit of Christ but the body of Christ. Understand, my brethren, what I mean to say. You are a man; you have both a spirit and a body. I call that a spirit which is called the soul; that whereby it consists that you are a man, for you consist of soul and body. And so you have an invisible spirit and a visible body. Tell me which lives of the other: does your spirit live of your body, or your body of your spirit? Every man that lives can answer; and he that cannot answer this, I know not whether he lives: what does every man that lives answer? My body, of course, lives by my spirit. Would you then also live by the Spirit of Christ. Be in the body of Christ. For surely my body does not live by your spirit. My body lives by my spirit, and your body by your spirit. The body of Christ cannot live but by the Spirit of Christ. It is for this that the Apostle Paul, expounding this bread, says: One bread, says he, we being many are one body. [1 Corinthians 10:17] O mystery of piety! O sign of unity! O bond of charity! He that would live has where to live, has whence to live. Let him draw near, let him believe; let him be embodied, that he may be made to live. Let him not shrink from the compact of members; let him not be a rotten member that deserves to be cut off; let him not be a deformed member whereof to be ashamed; let him be a fair, fit, and sound member; let him cleave to the body, live for God by God: now let him labor on earth, that hereafter he may reign in heaven.

14. The Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? They strove, and that among themselves, since they understood not, neither wished to take the bread of concord: for they who eat such bread do not strive with one another; for we being many are one bread, one body. And by this bread, God makes people of one sort to dwell in a house.

15. But that which they ask, while striving among themselves, namely, how the Lord can give His flesh to be eaten, they do not immediately hear: but further it is said to them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you will have no life in you. How, indeed, it may be eaten, and what may be the mode of eating this bread, you are ignorant of; nevertheless, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you will not have life in you. He spoke these words, not certainly to corpses, but to living men. Whereupon, lest they, understanding it to mean this life, should strive about this thing also, He going on added, Whoever eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life. Wherefore, he that eats not this bread, nor drinks this blood, has not this life; for men can have temporal life without that, but they can noways have eternal life. He then that eats not His flesh, nor drinks His blood, has no life in him; and he that eats His flesh, and drinks His blood, has life. This epithet, eternal, which He used, answers to both. It is not so in the case of that food which we take for the purpose of sustaining this temporal life. For he who will not take it shall not live, nor yet shall he who will take it live. For very many, even who have taken it, die; it may be by old age, or by disease, or by some other casualty. But in this food and drink, that is, in the body and blood of the Lord, it is not so. For both he that does not take it has no life, and he that does take it has life, and that indeed eternal life. And thus He would have this meat and drink to be understood as meaning the fellowship of His own body and members, which is the holy Church in his predestinated, and called, and justified, and glorified saints and believers. Of these, the first is already effected, namely, predestination; the second and third, that is, the vocation and justification, have taken place, are taking place, and will take place; but the fourth, namely, the glorifying, is at present in hope; but a thing future in realization. The sacrament of this thing, namely, of the unity of the body and blood of Christ, is prepared on the Lord's table in some places daily, in some places at certain intervals of days, and from the Lord's table it is taken, by some to life, by some to destruction: but the thing itself, of which it is the sacrament, is for every man to life, for no man to destruction, whosoever shall have been a partaker thereof.

16. But lest they should suppose that eternal life was promised in this meat and drink in such manner that they who should take it should not even now die in the body, He condescended to meet this thought; for when He had said, He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life, He immediately subjoined, and I will raise him up on the last day. That meanwhile, according to the Spirit, he may have eternal life in that rest into which the spirits of the saints are received; but as to the body, he shall not be defrauded of its eternal life, but, on the contrary, he shall have it in the resurrection of the dead at the last day.

17. For my flesh, says He, is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. For while by meat and drink men seek to attain to this, neither to hunger nor thirst, there is nothing that truly affords this, except this meat and drink, which does render them by whom it is taken immortal and incorruptible; that is, the very fellowship of the saints, where will be peace and unity, full and perfect. Therefore, indeed, it is, even as men of God understood this before us, that our Lord Jesus Christ has pointed our minds to His body and blood in those things, which from being many are reduced to some one thing. For a unity is formed by many grains forming together; and another unity is effected by the clustering together of many berries.

18. In a word, He now explains how that which He speaks of comes to pass, and what it is to eat His body and to drink His blood. He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him. This it is, therefore, for a man to eat that meat and to drink that drink, to dwell in Christ, and to have Christ dwelling in him. Consequently, he that dwells not in Christ, and in whom Christ dwells not, doubtless neither eats His flesh [spiritually] nor drinks His blood [although he may press the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ carnally and visibly with his teeth], but rather does he eat and drink the sacrament of so great a thing to his own judgment, because he, being unclean, has presumed to come to the sacraments of Christ, which no man takes worthily except he that is pure: of such it is said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. [Matthew 5:8]

19. As the living Father has sent me, says He, and I live by the Father; so he that eats me, even he shall live by me. He says not: As I eat the Father, and live by the Father; so he that eats me, the same shall live by me. For the Son, who was begotten equal, does not become better by participation of the Father; just as we are made better by participation of the Son, through the unity of His body and blood, which thing that eating and drinking signifies. We live then by Him, by eating Him; that is, by receiving Himself as the eternal life, which we did not have from ourselves. Himself, however, lives by the Father, being sent by Him, because He emptied Himself, being made obedient even unto the death of the cross. [Philippians 2:8] For if we take this declaration, I live by the Father, according to that which He says in another place, The Father is greater than I; just as we, too, live by Him who is greater than we; this results from His being sent. The sending is in fact the emptying of Himself, and His taking upon Him the form of a servant: and this is rightly understood, while also the Son's equality of nature with the Father is preserved. For the Father is greater than the Son as man, but He has the Son as God equal — while the same is both God and man, Son of God and Son of man, one Christ Jesus. To this effect, if these words are rightly understood, He spoke thus: As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eats me, even he shall live by me: just as if He were to say, My emptying of myself (in that He sent me) effected that I should live by the Father; that is, should refer my life to Him as the greater; but that any should live by me is effected by that participation in which he eats me. Therefore, I being humbled, do live by the Father, man being raised up, lives by me. But if it was said, I live by the Father, so as to mean, that He is of the Father, not the Father of Him, it was said without detriment to His equality. And yet further, by saying, And he that eats me, even he shall live by me, He did not signify that His own equality was the same as our equality, but He thereby showed the grace of the Mediator.

20. This is the bread that comes down from heaven; that by eating it we may live, since we cannot have eternal life from ourselves. Not, says He, as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eats this bread shall live forever. That those fathers are dead, He would have to be understood as meaning, that they do not live forever. For even they who eat Christ shall certainly die temporally; but they live forever, because Christ is eternal life.

1. We have just heard out of the Gospel the words of the Lord which follow the former discourse. From these a discourse is due to your ears and minds, and it is not unseasonable today; for it is concerning the body of the Lord which He said that He gave to be eaten for eternal life. And He explained the mode of this bestowal and gift of His, in what manner He gave His flesh to eat, saying, He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him. The proof that a man has eaten and drank is this, if he abides and is abode in, if he dwells and is dwelt in, if he adheres so as not to be deserted. This, then, He has taught us, and admonished us in mystical words that we may be in His body, in His members under Himself as head, eating His flesh, not abandoning our unity with Him. But most of those who were present, by not understanding Him, were offended; for in hearing these things, they thought only of flesh, that which themselves were. But the apostle says, and says what is true, To be carnally-minded is death. [Romans 7:6] The Lord gives us His flesh to eat, and yet to understand it according to the flesh is death; while yet He says of His flesh, that therein is eternal life. Therefore we ought not to understand the flesh carnally. As in these words that follow:

2. Many therefore, not of His enemies, but of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is a hard saying; who can hear it? If His disciples accounted this saying hard, what must His enemies have thought? And yet so it behooved that to be said which should not be understood by all. The secret of God ought to make men eagerly attentive, not hostile. But these men quickly departed from Him, while the Lord said such things: they did not believe Him to be saying something great, and covering some grace by these words; they understood just according to their wishes, and in the manner of men, that Jesus was able, or was determined upon this, namely, to distribute the flesh with which the Word was clothed, piecemeal, as it were, to those that believe in Him. This, say they, is a hard saying; who can hear it?

3. But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at it,— for they so said these things with themselves that they might not be heard by Him: but He who knew them in themselves, hearing within Himself — answered and said, This offends you; because I said, I give you my flesh to eat, and my blood to drink, this forsooth offends you. Then what if you shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before? What is this? Did He hereby solve the question that perplexed them? Did He hereby uncover the source of their offense? He did clearly, if only they understood. For they supposed that He was going to deal out His body to them; but He said that He was to ascend into heaven, of course, whole: When you shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before; certainly then, at least, you will see that not in the manner you suppose does He dispense His body; certainly then, at least, you will understand that His grace is not consumed by tooth-biting.

4. And He said, It is the Spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing. Before we expound this, as the Lord grants us, that other must not be negligently passed over, where He says, Then what if you shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before? For Christ is the Son of man, of the Virgin Mary. Therefore Son of man He began to be here on earth, where He took flesh from the earth. For which cause it was said prophetically, Truth is sprung from the earth. Then what does He mean when He says, When you shall see the Son of man ascending where He was before? For there had been no question if He had spoken thus: If you shall see the Son of God ascending where He was before. But since He said, The Son of man ascending where He was before, surely the Son of man was not in heaven before the time when He began to have a being on earth? Here, indeed, He said, where He was before, just as if He were not there at this time when He spoke these words. But in another place He says, No man has ascended into heaven but He that came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven. [John 3:13] He said not was, but, says He, the Son of man who is in heaven. He was speaking on earth, and He declared Himself to be in heaven. And yet He did not speak thus: No man has ascended into heaven but He that came down from heaven, the Son of God, who is in heaven. Whither tends it, but to make us understand that which even in the former discourse I commended to your minds, my beloved, that Christ, both God and man, is one person, not two persons, lest our faith be not a trinity, but a quaternity? Christ, therefore, is one; the Word, soul and flesh, one Christ; the Son of God and Son of man, one Christ; Son of God always, Son of man in time, yet one Christ in regard to unity of person. In heaven He was when He spoke on earth. He was Son of man in heaven in that manner in which He was Son of God on earth; Son of God on earth in the flesh which He took, Son of man in heaven in the unity of person.

5. What is it, then, that He adds? It is the Spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing. Let us say to Him (for He permits us, not contradicting Him, but desiring to know), O Lord, good Master, in what way does the flesh profit nothing, while You have said, Except a man eat my flesh, and drink my blood, he shall not have life in him? Or does life profit nothing? And why are we what we are, but that we may have eternal life, which Thou dost promise by Your flesh? Then what means the flesh profits nothing? It profits nothing, but only in the manner in which they understood it. They indeed understood the flesh, just as when cut to pieces in a carcass, or sold in the shambles; not as when it is quickened by the Spirit. Wherefore it is said that the flesh profits nothing, in the same manner as it is said that knowledge puffs up. Then, ought we at once to hate knowledge? Far from it! And what means Knowledge puffs up? Knowledge alone, without charity. Therefore he added, but charity edifies. [1 Corinthians 8:1] Therefore add to knowledge charity, and knowledge will be profitable, not by itself, but through charity. So also here, the flesh profits nothing, only when alone. Let the Spirit be added to the flesh, as charity is added to knowledge, and it profits very much. For if the flesh profited nothing, the Word would not be made flesh to dwell among us. If through the flesh Christ has greatly profited us, does the flesh profit nothing? But it is by the flesh that the Spirit has done somewhat for our salvation. Flesh was a vessel; consider what it held, not what it was. The apostles were sent forth; did their flesh profit us nothing? If the apostles' flesh profited us, could it be that the Lord's flesh should have profited us nothing? For how should the sound of the Word come to us except by the voice of the flesh? Whence should writing come to us? All these are operations of the flesh, but only when the spirit moves it, as if it were its organ. Therefore it is the Spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing, as they understood the flesh, but not so do I give my flesh to be eaten.

6. Hence the words, says He, which I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. For we have said, brethren, that this is what the Lord had taught us by the eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood, that we should abide in Him and He in us. But we abide in Him when we are His members, and He abides in us when we are His temple. But that we may be His members, unity joins us together. And what but love can effect that unity should join us together? And the love of God, whence is it? Ask the apostle: The love of God, says he, is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. [Romans 5:5] Therefore it is the Spirit that quickens, for it is the Spirit that makes living members. Nor does the Spirit make any members to be living except such as it finds in the body, which also the Spirit itself quickens. For the Spirit which is in you, O man, by which it consists that you are a man, does it quicken a member which it finds separated from your flesh? I call your soul your spirit. Your soul quickens only the members which are in your flesh; if you take one away, it is no longer quickened by your soul, because it is not joined to the unity of your body. These things are said to make us love unity and fear separation. For there is nothing that a Christian ought to dread so much as to be separated from Christ's body. For if he is separated from Christ's body, he is not a member of Christ; if he is not a member of Christ, he is not quickened by the Spirit of Christ. But if any man, says the apostle, have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. [Romans 8:9] It is the Spirit, then, that quickens; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. What means are spirit and life? They are to be understood spiritually. Have you understood spiritually? They are spirit and life. Have you understood carnally? So also are they spirit and life, but are not so to you.

7. But, says He, there are some among you that believe not. He said not, There are some among you that understand not; but He told the cause why they understand not. There are some among you that believe not, and therefore they understand not, because they believe not. For the prophet has said, If you believe not, you shall not understand. We are united by faith, quickened by understanding. Let us first adhere to Him through faith, that there may be that which may be quickened by understanding. For he who adheres not resists; he that resists believes not. And how can he that resists be quickened? He is an adversary to the ray of light by which he should be penetrated: he turns not away his eye, but shuts his mind. There are, then, some who believe not. Let them believe and open, let them open and be illumined. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed, and who should betray Him. For Judas also was there. Some indeed, were offended; but he remained to watch his opportunity, not to understand. And because he remained for that purpose, the Lord kept not silence concerning him. He described him not by name, but neither was He silent about him; that all might fear though only one should perish. But after He spoke, and distinguished those that believe from those that believe not, He clearly showed the cause why they believed not. Therefore I said to you, says He, that no man can come unto me except it were given to him of my Father. Hence to believe is also given to us; for certainly to believe is something. And if it is something great, rejoice that you have believed, yet be not lifted up; for What do you have that you did not receive? [1 Corinthians 4:7]

8. From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. Went back, but after Satan, not after Christ. For our Lord Christ once addressed Peter as Satan, rather because he wished to precede his Lord, and to give counsel that He should not die, He who had come to die, that we might not die for ever; and He says to him, Get behind me, Satan; for you savor not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. [Matthew 16:23] He did not drive him back to go after Satan, and so called him Satan; but He made him go behind Himself, that by walking after his Lord he should not be a Satan. But these went back in the same manner as the apostle says of certain women: For some are turned back after Satan. [1 Timothy 5:15] They walked not further with Him. Behold, cut off from the body, for perhaps they were not in the body, they have lost life. They must be reckoned among the unbelieving, notwithstanding they were called disciples. Not a few, but many went back. This happened, it may be, for our consolation. For sometimes it happens that a man may declare the truth, and that what he says may not be understood, and so they that hear it are offended and go away. Now the man regrets that he had spoken that truth, and he says to himself, I ought not to have spoken so, I ought not to have said this. Behold; it happened to the Lord: He spoke, and lost many; He remained with few. But yet He was not troubled, because He knew from the beginning who they were that believed and that believed not. If it happen to us, we are sorely perplexed. Let us find comfort in the Lord, and yet let us speak words with prudence.

9. And now addressing the few that remained: Then said Jesus to the twelve (namely, those twelve who remained), Will ye also, said He, go away? Not even Judas departed. But it was already manifest to the Lord why he remained: to us he was made manifest afterwards. Peter answered in behalf of all, one for many, unity for the collective whole: Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You drive us from You; give us Your other self. To whom shall we go? If we abandon You, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. See how Peter, by the gift of God and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, understood Him. How other than because he believed? You have the words of eternal life. For You have eternal life in the ministration of Your body and blood. And we have believed and have known. Not have known and believed, but believed and known. For we believed in order to know; for if we wanted to know first, and then to believe, we should not be able either to know or to believe. What have we believed and known? That You are Christ, the Son of God; that is, that You are that very eternal life, and that You give in Your flesh and blood only that which You are.

10. Then said the Lord Jesus: Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? Therefore, should He have said, I have chosen eleven: or is a devil also chosen, and among the elect? Persons are wont to be called elect by way of praise: or was man elected because some great good was done by him, without his will and knowledge? This belongs peculiarly to God; the contrary is characteristic of the wicked. For as wicked men make a bad use of the good works of God; so, on the contrary, God makes a good use of the evil works of wicked men. How good it is that the members of the body are, as they can be disposed only by God, their author and framer! Nevertheless what evil use does wantonness make of the eyes? What ill use does falsehood make of the tongue? Does not the false witness first both slay his own soul with his tongue, and then, after he has destroyed himself, endeavor to injure another? He makes an ill use of the tongue, but the tongue is not therefore an evil thing; the tongue is God's work, but iniquity makes an ill use of that good work of God. How do they use their feet who run into crimes? How do murderers employ their hands? And what ill use do wicked men make of those good creatures of God that lie outside of them? With gold they corrupt judgment and oppress the innocent. Bad men make a bad use of the very light; for by evil living they employ even the very light with which they see into the service of their villanies. A bad man, when going to do a bad deed, wishes the light to shine for him, lest he stumble; he who has already stumbled and fallen within; that which he is afraid of in his body has already befallen him in his heart. Hence, to avoid the tediousness of running through them separately, a bad man makes a bad use of all the good creatures of God: a good man, on the contrary, makes a good use of the evil deeds of wicked men. And what is so good as the one God? Since, indeed, the Lord Himself said, There is none good, but the one God. [Mark 10:10] By how much He is better, then, by so much the better use He makes of our evil deeds. What worse than Judas? Among all that adhered to the Master, among the twelve, to him was committed the common purse; to him was allotted the dispensing for the poor. Unthankful for so great a favor, so great an honor, he took the money, and lost righteousness: being dead, he betrayed life: Him whom he followed as a disciple, he persecuted as an enemy. All this evil was Judas's; but the Lord employed his evil for good. He endured to be betrayed, to redeem us. Behold, Judas's evil was turned to good. How many martyrs has Satan persecuted! If Satan left off persecuting, we should not today be celebrating the very glorious crown of Saint Laurence. If then God employs the evil works of the devil himself for good, what the bad man effects, by making a bad use, is to hurt himself, not to contradict the goodness of God. The Master makes use of that man. And if He knew not how to make use of him, the Master contriver would not have permitted him to be. Therefore, He says, One of you is a devil, while I have chosen you twelve. This saying, I have chosen you twelve, may be understood in this way, that twelve is a sacred number. For the honor of that number was not taken away because one was lost, for another was chosen into the place of the one that perished. [Acts 1:26] The number remained a sacred number, a number containing twelve: because they were to make known the Trinity throughout the whole world, that is, throughout the four quarters of the world. That is the reason of the three times four. Judas, then only cut himself off, not profaned the number twelve: he abandoned his Teacher, for God appointed a successor to take his place.

11. All this that the Lord spoke concerning His flesh and blood;— and in the grace of that distribution He promised us eternal life, and that He meant those that eat His flesh and drink His blood to be understood, from the fact of their abiding in Him and He in them; and that they understood not who believed not; and that they were offended through their understanding spiritual things in a carnal sense; and that, while these were offended and perished, the Lord was present for the consolation of the disciples who remained, for proving whom He asked, Will ye also go away? that the reply of their steadfastness might be known to us, for He knew that they remained with Him — let all this, then, avail us to this end, most beloved, that we eat not the flesh and blood of Christ merely in the sacrament, as many evil men do, but that we eat and drink to the participation of the Spirit, that we abide as members in the Lord's body, to be quickened by His Spirit, and that we be not offended, even if many do now with us eat and drink the sacraments in a temporal manner, who shall in the end have eternal torments. For at present Christ's body is as it were mixed on the threshing-floor: But the Lord knows them that are His. [2 Timothy 2:19] If you know what you thresh, that the substance is there hidden, that the threshing has not consumed what the winnowing has purged; certain are we, brethren, that all of us who are in the Lord's body, and abide in Him, that He also may abide in us, have of necessity to live among evil men in this world even unto the end. I do not say among those evil men who blaspheme Christ; for there are now few found who blaspheme with the tongue, but many who do so by their life. Among those, then, we must necessarily live even unto the end.

12. But what is this that He says: He that abides in me, and I in him? What, but that which the martyrs heard: He that perseveres unto the end, the same shall be saved? [Matthew 24:13] How did Saint Laurence, whose feast we celebrate today, abide in Him? He abode even to temptation, abode even to tyrannical questioning, abode even to bitterest threatening, abode even to destruction — that were a trifle, abode even to savage torture. For he was not put to death quickly, but tormented in the fire: he was allowed to live a long time; nay, not allowed to live a long time, but forced to die a slow, lingering death. Then, in that lingering death, in those torments, because he had well eaten and well drunk, as one who had feasted on that meat, as one intoxicated with that cup, he felt not the torments. For He was there who said, It is the Spirit that quickens. For the flesh indeed was burning, but the Spirit was quickening the soul. He shrunk not back, and he mounted into the kingdom. But the holy martyr Xystus, whose day we celebrated five days ago, had said to him, Mourn not, my son; for Xystus was a bishop, he was a deacon. Mourn not, said he; you shall follow me after three days. He said three days, meaning the interval between the day of Saint Xystus's suffering and that of Saint Laurence's suffering, which falls on today. Three days is the interval. What comfort! He says not, Mourn not, my son; the persecution will cease, and you will be safe; but, do not mourn: whither I precede you shall follow; nor shall your pursuit be deferred: three days will be the interval, and you shall be with me. He accepted the oracle, vanquished the devil, and attained to the triumph.

1. In this chapter of the Gospel, brethren, our Lord Jesus Christ has most especially commended Himself to our faith in respect of His humanity. For indeed He always keeps in view, both in His words and deeds, that He should be believed to be God and man: God who made us, man who sought us; with the Father, always God; with us, man in time. For He would not have sought man whom He had made if Himself had not become that which He had made. But remember this, and do not let it slip from your hearts, that Christ became man in such manner that He ceased not to be God. While remaining God, He who made man took manhood. While, therefore, as man He concealed Himself, He must not be thought to have lost His power, but only to have offered an example to our infirmity. For He was detained when He willed to be, and He was put to death when he willed to be. But since there were to be His members, that is, His faithful ones, who would not have that power which He, our God, had; by His being hid, by His con cealing Himself as if He would not be put to death, He indicated that His members would do this, in which members He Himself in fact was. For Christ is not simply in the head and not in the body, but Christ whole is in the head and body. What, therefore, His members are, that He is; but what He is, it does not necessarily follow that His members are. For if His members were not Himself, He would not have said, Saul, why do you persecute me? [Acts 9:4] For Saul was not persecuting Himself on earth, but His members, namely, His believers. He would not, however, say, my saints, my servants, or, in short, my brethren, which is more honorable; but, me, that is, my members, whose head I am.

2. With these preliminary remarks, I think that we shall not have to labor much for the meaning in this chapter; for that is often betokened in the head which was to be in the body. After these things, says he, Jesus walked in Galilee: for He would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. This is what I have said; He offered an example to our infirmity. He had not lost power, but He was comforting our weakness. For it would happen, as I have said, that some believer in Him would retreat into concealment, lest he should be found by the persecutors; and lest the concealment should be objected to him as a crime, that occurred first in the head, which should afterwards be confirmed in the member. For it is said, He would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him, just as if Christ were not able both to walk among the Jews, and not be killed by them. For He manifested this power when He willed; for when they would lay hold of Him, as He was now about to suffer, He said to them, Whom do you seek? They answered, Jesus. Then, said He, I am He, not concealing, but manifesting Himself. That manifestation, however, they did not withstand, but going backwards, they fell to the ground. [John 18:6] And yet, because He had come to suffer, they rose up, laid hold of Him, led Him away to the judge, and slew Him. But what was it they did? That which a certain scripture says: The earth was delivered into the hands of the ungodly. [Job 9:24] The flesh was given into the power of the Jews; and this that thereby the bag, as it were, might be rent asunder, whence our purchase-price might run out.

3. Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. What the feast of tabernacles is, they who read the Scriptures know. They used on the holy day to make tabernacles, in likeness of the tabernacles in which they dwelt while they sojourned in the wilderness, after being led out of Egypt. This was a holy day, a great solemnity. The Jews were celebrating this, as being mindful of the Lord's benefits — they who were about to kill the Lord. On this holy day, then (for there were several holy days; but it was called a holy day with the Jews, though it was not one day, but several), His brethren spoke to the Lord Christ. Understand the phrase, His brethren, as you know it must be taken, for it is not a new thing you hear. The blood relations of the Virgin Mary used to be called the Lord's brethren. For it was of the usage of Scripture to call blood relations and all other near kindred by the term brethren, which is foreign to our usage, and not within our manner of speech. For who would call an uncle or a sister's son brother? Yet the Scripture calls relatives of this kind brothers. For Abraham and Lot are called brothers, while Abraham was Lot's uncle. [Genesis 11:27] Laban and Jacob are called brothers, while Laban was Jacob's uncle. [Genesis 28:2] When, therefore, you hear of the Lord's brethren, consider them the blood relations of Mary, who did not a second time bear children. For, as in the sepulchre, where the Lord's body was laid, neither before nor after did any dead lie; so, likewise, Mary's womb, neither before nor after conceived anything mortal.

4. We have said who the brethren were, let us hear what they said: Pass over hence, and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your work which you do. The Lord's works were not hid from the disciples, but to these men they were not apparent. They might have Christ for a kinsman, but through that very relationship they disdained to believe in Him. It is told us in the Gospel; for we dare not hold this as a mere opinion, you have just now heard it. They go on advising Him: For no man does anything in secret, and he himself seeks to be known openly: if you do these things, show yourself to the world. And directly after it says: For neither did His brethren believe in Him. Why did they not believe in Him? Because they sought human glory. For as to what His brethren appear to advise Him, they consult for His glory. You do marvellous works, make yourself known; that is, appear to all, that you may be praised by all. The flesh spoke to the flesh; but the flesh without God, to the flesh with God. It was the wisdom of the flesh speak ing to the Word which became flesh and dwelt among us.

5. What did the Lord answer to these things? Then says Jesus to them: My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. What is this? Had not Christ's time yet come? Why then was Christ come, if His time had not yet come? Have we not heard the apostle say, But when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son? [Galatians 4:4] If, therefore, He was sent in the fullness of time, He was sent when He ought to be sent, He came when it behooved that He should come. What means then, My time is not yet come? Understand, brethren, with what intention they spoke, when they appeared to advise Him as their brother. They were giving Him counsel to pursue glory; as advising in a worldly manner and with an earthly disposition, that He should not be unknown to fame, nor hide Himself in obscurity. This is what the Lord says in answer to those who were giving Him counsel of glory, My time is not yet come;— the time of my glory is not yet come. See how profound it is: they were advising Him as to glory; but He would have loftiness preceded by humility, and willed to prepare the way to elevation itself through humility. For those disciples, too, were of course seeking glory who wished to sit, one at His right hand and the other at His left: they thought only of the goal, and saw not by what way it must be reached; the Lord recalled them to the way, that they might come to their fatherland in due order. For the fatherland is on high, the way there lies low. That land is the life of Christ, the way is Christ's death; that land is the habitation of Christ, the way is Christ's suffering. He that refuses the way, why seeks he the fatherland? In a word, to these also, while seeking elevation, He gave this answer: Can ye drink the cup which I am about to drink? [Matthew 20:22] Behold the way by which you must come to that height which you desire. The cup He made mention of was indeed that of His humility and suffering.

6. Therefore also here: My time is not yet come; but your time, that is the glory of the world, is always ready. This is the time of which Christ, that is the body of Christ, speaks in prophecy: When I shall have received the fit time, I will judge righteously. For at present it is not the time of judging, but of tolerating the wicked. Therefore, let the body of Christ bear at present, and tolerate the wickedness of evil livers. Let it, however, have righteousness now, for by righteousness it shall come to judgment. And what says the Holy Scripture in the psalm to the members — namely, that tolerate the wickedness of this world? The Lord will not cast off His people. For, in fact, His people labors among the unworthy, among the unrighteous, among blasphemers, among murmurers, detractors, persecutors, and, if they are allowed, destroyers. Yes, it labors; but the Lord will not cast off His people, and He will not forsake His inheritance until justice is turned into judgment. Until the justice, which is now in His saints, be turned into judgment; when that shall be fulfilled which was said to them, You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. [Matthew 19:28] The apostle had righteousness, but not yet that judgment of which he says, Do you not know that we shall judge angels? [1 Corinthians 6:3] Be it now, therefore, the time for living rightly; the time for judging them that have lived ill shall be hereafter. Until righteousness, says he, is turned into judgment. The time of judgment will be that of which the Lord has here said, My time is not yet come. For there will be a time of glory, when He who came in humility will come in loftiness; He who came to be judged will come to judge; He who came to be slain by the dead will come to judge the quick and the dead. God, says the psalm, will come manifest, our God, and He will not be silent. What is shall come manifest? Because He came concealed. Then He will not be silent; for when He came concealed, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer, He opened not His mouth. [Isaiah 53:7] He shall come, and shall not keep silence. I was silent, says He, shall I always be silent? [Isaiah 42:14]

7. But what is necessary at the present time for those who have righteousness? That which is read in that psalm: Until righteousness is turned into judgment, and they that have it are upright of heart. You ask, perhaps, who are the upright in heart? We find in Scripture those to be upright in heart who bear the evils of the world, and do not accuse God. See, brethren, an uncommon thing is that which I speak of. For I know not how it is that, when any evil befalls a man, he runs to accuse God, when he ought to accuse himself. When you get any good, you praise yourself; when you suffer any evil, you accuse God. This is then the crooked heart, not the upright. When you are cured of this distorting and perversity, what you used to do will be turned into the contrary. For what did you use to do before? You praised yourself in the good things of God, and accused God in your own evil things; with your heart converted and made right, you will praise God in His good things, and accuse yourself in your own evil things. These are the upright in heart. In short, that man, who was not yet right in heart when the success of the wicked and the distress of the good grieved him, says, when he is corrected: How good is the God of Israel to the upright in heart! But as for me, when I was not right in heart, my feet were almost gone; my steps had nearly slipped. Why? Because I was envious at sinners, beholding the peace of sinners. I saw, says he, the wicked prosperous, and I was displeased at God; for I did wish that God should not permit the wicked to be happy. Let man understand: God never does permit this; but a bad man is thought to be happy, for this reason, because men are ignorant of what happiness is. Let us then be right in heart: the time of our glory is not yet come. Let it be told to the lovers of this world, such as the brethren of the Lord were, your time is always ready; our time is not yet come. For let us, too, dare to say this. And since we are the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, since we are His members, since we joyfully acknowledge our head, let us say it without hesitation; since, for our sakes, He deigned also Himself to say this. And when the lovers of this world revile us, let us say to them, Your time is always ready; our time is not yet come. For the apostle has said to us, For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When will our time come? When Christ, says he, your life shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. [Colossians 3:3-4]

8. What said He further? The world cannot hate you. What is this, but, The world cannot hate its lovers, the false witnesses? For you call the things that are evil, good; and the things that are good, evil. But me it hates, because I bear witness concerning it, that its works are evil. Go up to this feast. What means to this? Where ye seek human glory. What means to this? Where ye wish to prolong carnal joys, not to meditate on eternal joys. I go not up to this feast, because my time is not yet full come. On this feast-day you seek human glory; but my time, that is, the time of my glory, is not yet come. That will be my feast-day, not running before and passing over these days, but remaining for ever; that will be festivity, joy without end, eternity without a blot, serenity without a cloud. When He had said these words unto them, He abode still in Galilee. But when His brethren had gone up, then went He also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Therefore not to this feast-day, because His desire was not for temporal glory, but to teach something to profit, to correct men, to admonish them of an eternal feast-day, to turn away their love from this world, and to turn it to God. But what means this, He went up as it were in secret to the feast? This action of the Lord also is not without meaning. It appears to me that, even from this circumstance that He went up as it were in secret, He had intended to signify something; for the things that follow will show that He thus went up on the middle of the feast, that is, when those days were half over, to teach even openly. But he said, As it were in secret, meaning, not to show Himself to men. It is not without meaning that Christ went up as it were in secret to that feast, because He Himself lay hid in that feast-day. What I have said as yet is also under cover of secrecy. Let it be manifested then, let the veil be lifted, and let that which was secret appear.

9. All things that were spoken to the ancient people Israel in the manifold Scripture of the holy law, what things they did, whether in sacrifices, or in priestly offices, or in feast-days, and, in a word, in whatever things they worshipped God, whatever things were spoken to and given them in precept, were shadows of things to come. Of what things to come? Things which find their fulfillment in Christ. Whence the apostle says, For all the promises of God are in Him yea; [2 Corinthians 1:20] that is, they are fulfilled in Him. Again he says in another place, All happened to them in a figure; but they were written for our sakes, upon whom the end of the ages has come. [1 Corinthians 10:1] And he said elsewhere, For Christ is the end of the law; [Romans 10:4] likewise in another place, Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of a new moon, or of Sabbath-days, which is a shadow of things to come. [1 Corinthians 2:16-17] If, therefore, all these things were shadows of things to come, also the feast of tabernacles was a shadow of things to come. Let us examine, then, of what thing to come was this feast-day a shadow. I have explained what this feast of tabernacles was: it was a celebration of taber nacles, because the people, after their deliverance from Egypt, while directing their course through the wilderness to the land of promise, dwelt in tents. Let us observe what it is, and we shall be that thing; we, I say, who are members of Christ, if such we are; but we are, He having made us worthy, not we having earned it for ourselves. Let us then consider ourselves, brethren: we have been led out of Egypt, where we were slaves to the devil as to Pharaoh; where we applied ourselves to works of clay, engaged in earthly desires, and where we toiled exceedingly. And to us, while laboring, as it were, at the bricks, Christ cried aloud, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. Thence we were led out by baptism as through the Red Sea — red because consecrated by the blood of Christ. All our enemies that pursued us being dead, that is, all our sins being blotted out, we have been brought over to the other side. At the present time, then, before we come to the land of promise, namely, the eternal kingdom, we are in the wilderness in tabernacles. They who acknowledge these things are in tabernacles; for it was to be that some would acknowledge this. For that man, who understands that he is a sojourner in this world, is in tabernacles. That man understands that he is travelling in a foreign country, when he sees himself sighing for his native land. But while the body of Christ is in tabernacles, Christ is in tabernacles; but at that time He was so, not evidently but secretly. For as yet the shadow obscured the light; when the light came, the shadow was removed. Christ was in secret: He was in the feast of tabernacles, but there hidden. At the present time, when these things are already made manifest, we acknowledge that we are journeying in the wilderness: for if we know it, we are in the wilderness. What is it to be in the wilderness? In the desert waste. Why in the desert waste? Because in this world, where we thirst in a way in which is no water. But yet, let us thirst that we may be filled. For, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. [Matthew 5:6] And our thirst is quenched from the rock in the wilderness: for the Rock was Christ, and it was smitten with a rod that the water might flow. But that it might flow, the rock was smitten twice: because there are two beams of the cross. All these things, then, which were done in a figure, are made manifest to us. And it is not without meaning that it was said of the Lord, He went up to the feast-day, but not openly, but as it were in secret. For Himself in secret was the thing prefigured, because Christ was hid in that same festal-day; for that very festal-day signified Christ's members that were to sojourn in a foreign land.

10. Then the Jews sought Him on the feast-day: before He went up. For His brethren went up before Him, and He went not up then when they supposed and wished: that this too might be fulfilled which He said, Not to this, that is, the first or second day, to which you wish me to go. But He went up afterwards, as the Gospel tells us, on the middle of the feast.' that is, when as many days of that feast had passed as there remained. For they celebrated that same festival, so far we can understand, on several successive days.

11. They said, therefore, Where is he? And there was much murmuring among the people concerning Him. Whence the murmuring? Of strife. What was the strife? Some said, He is a good man; but others said, Nay; but he deceives the people. We must understand this of all His servants: this is said now of them. For whoever becomes eminent in some spiritual grace, of him some will assuredly say, He is a good man; others, Nay; but he deceives the people. Whence is this? Because our life is hid with Christ in God. [Colossians 3:3] On this account people may say during the winter, This tree is dead; for example, a fig tree, pear tree, or some kind of fruit tree, it is like a withered tree, and so long as it is winter it does not appear whether it is so or not. But the summer proves, the judgment proves. Our summer is the appearing of Christ: God shall come manifest, our God, and He will not be silent; fire shall go before Him: that fire shall burn up His enemies: that fire shall lay hold of the withered trees. For then shall the dry trees be apparent, when it shall be said to them, I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat; but on the other side, namely, on the right, will be seen abundance of fruit, and magnificence of leaves; the green will be eternity. To those, then, as withered trees, it shall be said, Go into everlasting fire. For behold, it says, the axe is laid to the root of the trees: every tree, therefore, that brings not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and cast into the fire. [Matthew 3:10] Let them then say of you, if you are growing in Christ, let men say of you, He deceives the people. This is said of Christ Himself; it is said of the whole body of Christ. Think of the body of Christ still in the world, think of it still on the threshing-floor; see how it is blasphemed by the chaff. The chaff and the grain are, indeed, threshed together; but the chaff is consumed, the grain is purged. What was said of the Lord then, avails for consolation, whenever it will be said of any Christian.

12. Howbeit no man spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews. But who were they that did not speak of Him for fear of the Jews? Undoubtedly they who said, He is a good man: not they who said, He deceives the people. As for them who said He deceives the people, their din was heard like the noise of dry leaves. He deceives the people, they sounded more and more loudly: He is a good man, they whispered more and more constrainedly. But now, brethren, notwithstanding that glory of Christ which is to make us immortal is not yet come, yet now, I say, His Church so increases, He has deigned to spread it abroad through the whole world, that it is now only whispered. He deceives the people; and more and more loudly it sounds forth, He is a good man.

1. What follows of the Gospel and was read today, we must next in order look at, and speak from it as the Lord may grant us. Yesterday it was read thus far, that although they had not seen the Lord Jesus in the temple on the feast-day, yet they were speaking about Him: And some said, He is a good man: but others said, Nay; but he seduces the people. For this was said for the comfort of those who, afterwards preaching God's word, were to be seducers, and yet true men. [2 Corinthians 6:8] For if to seduce is to deceive, neither was Christ a seducer, nor His apostles, nor ought any Christian to be such; but if to seduce (to lead aside) is by persuading to lead one from something to something else, we ought to inquire into the whence and the whither: if from evil to good, the seducer is a good man; if from good to evil, the seducer is a bad man. In that sense, then, in which men are seduced from evil to good, would that all of us both were called, and actually were seducers!

2. Then afterwards the Lord went up to the feast, about the middle of the feast, and taught. And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knows this man letters, having never learned? He who was in secret taught, He was speaking openly and was not restrained. For that hiding of Himself was for the sake of example; this showing Himself openly was an intimation of His power. But as He taught, the Jews marvelled; all indeed, so far as I think, marvelled, but all were not converted. And why this wondering? Because all knew where He was born, where He had been brought up; they had never seen Him learning letters, but they heard Him disputing about the law, bringing forward testimonies of the law, which none could bring forward unless he had read, and none could read unless he had learned letters: and therefore they marvelled. But their marvelling was made an occasion to the Master of insinuating the truth more deeply into their minds. By reason, indeed of their wondering and words, the Lord said something profound, and worthy of being more diligently looked into and discussed. On account of which I would urge you, my beloved, to earnestness, not only in hearing for yourselves, but also in praying for us.

3. How then did the Lord answer those that were marvelling how He knew letters which He had not learned? My doctrine, says He, is not mine, but His that sent me. This is the first profundity. For He seems as if in a few words He had spoken contraries. For He says not, This doctrine is not mine; but, My doctrine is not mine. If not Yours, how Yours? If Yours, how not Yours? For You say both: both, my doctrines; and, not mine. For if He had said, This doctrine is not mine, there would have been no question. But now, brethren, in the first place, consider well the question, and so in due order expect the solution. For he who sees not the question proposed, how can he understand what is expounded? The subject of inquiry, then, is that which He says, My, not mine this appears to be contrary; how my, how not mine? If we carefully look at what the holy evangelist himself says in the beginning of his Gospel, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; thence hangs the solution of this question. What then is the doctrine of the Father, but the Father's Word? Therefore, Christ Himself is the doctrine of the Father, if He is the Word of the Father. But since the Word cannot be of none, but of some one, He said both His doctrine, namely, Himself, and also, not His own, because He is the Word of the Father. For what is so much Yours as Yourself? And what so much not Yours as Yourself, if that You are is of another?

4. The Word then is God; and it is also the Word of a stable, unchangeable doctrine, not such as can be sounded by syllables and fleeting, but abiding with the Father, to which abiding doctrine let us be converted, being admonished by the transitory sounds of the voice. For that which is transitory does not so admonish us as to call us to transitory things. We are admonished to love God. All this that I have said were syllables; they smote through the air to reach your sense of hearing, and by sounding passed away: that, however, which I advise you ought not so to pass away, because He whom I exhort you to love passes not away; and when you, exhorted in transient syllables, shall have been converted, you shall not pass away, but shall abide with Him who is abiding. There is therefore in the doctrine this great matter, this deep and eternal thing which is permanent: whither all things that pass away in time call us, when they mean well and are not falsely put forward. For, in fact, all the signs which we produce by sounds do signify something which is not sound. For God is not the two short syllables Deus, and it is not the two short syllables that we worship, and it is not the two short syllables that we adore, nor is it to the two short syllables that we desire to come — two syllables which almost cease to sound before they have begun to sound; nor in sounding them is there room for the second until the first has passed away. There remains, then, something great which is called God, although the sound does not remain when we say the word God. Thus direct your thoughts to the doctrine of Christ, and you shall arrive at the Word of God; and when you have arrived at the Word of God, consider this, The Word was God, and you will see that it was said truly, my doctrine: consider also whose the Word is, and you will see that it was rightly said, is not mine.

5. Therefore, to speak briefly, beloved, it seems to me that the Lord Jesus Christ said, My doctrine is not mine, meaning the same thing as if He said, I am not from myself. For although we say and believe that the Son is equal to the Father, and that there is not any diversity of nature and substance in them, that there has not intervened any interval of time between Him that begets and Him that is begotten, nevertheless we say these things, while keeping and guarding this, that the one is the Father, the other the Son. But Father He is not if He have not a Son, and Son He is not if He have not a Father: but yet the Son is God from the Father; and the Father is God, but not from the Son. The Father of the Son, not God from the Son: but the other is Son of the Father, and God from the Father. For the Lord Christ is called Light from Light. The Light then which is not from Light, and the equal Light which is from Light, are together one Light not two Lights.

6. If we have understood this, thanks be to God; but if any has not sufficiently understood, man has done as far as he could: as for the rest, let him see whence he may hope to understand. As laborers outside, we can plant and water; but it is of God to give the increase. My doctrine, says He, is not mine, but His that sent me. Let him who says he has not yet understood hear counsel. For since it was a great and profound matter that had been spoken, the Lord Christ Himself did certainly see that all would not understand this so profound a matter, and He gave counsel in the sequel. Do you wish to understand? Believe. For God has said by the prophet: Unless you believe, you shall not understand. [Isaiah 7:9] To the same purpose what the Lord here also added as He went on — If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak from myself. What is the meaning of this, If any man be willing to do His will? But I had said, if any man believe; and I gave this counsel: If you have not understood, said I, believe. For understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that you may understand; since, except ye believe, you shall not understand. Therefore when I would counsel the obedience of believing toward the possibility of understanding, and say that our Lord Jesus Christ has added this very thing in the following sentence, we find Him to have said, If any man be willing to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine. What is he shall know? It is the same thing as he shall understand. But what is If any man be willing to do His will? It is the same thing as to believe. All men indeed perceive that shall know is the same thing as shall understand: but that the saying, If any man be willing to do His will, refers to believing, all do not perceive; to perceive this more accurately, we need the Lord Himself for expounder, to show us whether the doing of the Father's will does in reality refer to believing. But who does not know that this is to do the will of God, to work the work of God; that is, to work that work which is pleasing to Him? But the Lord Himself says openly in another place: This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent. [John 6:29] That ye believe in Him, not, that you believe Him. But if you believe on Him, you believe Him; yet he that believes Him does not necessarily believe on Him. For even the devils believed Him, but they did not believe in Him. Again, moreover, of His apostles we can say, we believe Paul; but not, we believe in Paul: we believe Peter; but not, we believe in Peter. For, to him that believes in Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted unto him for righteousness. [Romans 4:5] What then is to believe in Him? By believing to love Him, by believing to esteem highly, by believing to go into Him and to be incorporated in His members. It is faith itself then that God exacts from us: and He finds not that which He exacts, unless He has bestowed what He may find. What faith, but that which the apostle has most amply defined in another place, saying, Neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that works by love? [Galatians 5:6] Not any faith of whatever kind, but faith that works by love: let this faith be in you, and you shall understand concerning the doctrine. What indeed shall you understand? That this doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me; that is, you shall understand that Christ the Son of God, who is the doctrine of the Father, is not from Himself, but is the Son of the Father.

7. This sentence overthrows the Sabellian heresy. The Sabellians have dared to affirm that the Son is the very same as He who is also the Father: that the names are two, but the reality one. If the names were two and reality one, it would not be said, My doctrine is not mine. Anyhow, if Your doctrine is not Yours, O Lord, whose is it, unless there be another whose it is? The Sabellians understand not what You said; for they see not the trinity, but follow the error of their own heart. Let us worshippers of the trinity and unity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and one God, understand concerning Christ's doctrine, how it is not His. And He said that He spoke not from Himself for this reason, because Christ is the Son of the Father, and the Father is the Father of Christ; and the Son is from God the Father, God, but God the Father is God not from God the Son.

8. He that speaks of himself seeks his own glory: 'This will be he who is called Antichrist,' exalting himself, as the apostle says, above all that is called God, and that is worshipped. [2 Thessalonians 2:4] The Lord, declaring that this same it is that will seek his own glory, not the glory of the Father, says to the Jews: I have come in my Father's name, and you have not received me; another will come in his own name, him you will receive. [John 5:45] He intimated that they would receive Antichrist, who will seek the glory of his own name, puffed up, not solid; and therefore not stable, but assuredly ruinous. But our Lord Jesus Christ has shown us a great example of humility: for doubtless He is equal with the Father, for in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; yea, doubtless, He Himself said, and most truly said, Am I so long time with you, and you have not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the Father. [John 14:9] Yea, doubtless, Himself said, and most truly said, I and the Father are one. [John 10:30] If, therefore, He is one with the Father, equal to the Father, God from God, God with God, coeternal, immortal, alike unchangeable, alike without time, alike Creator and disposer of times; and yet because He came in time, and took the form of a servant, and in condition was found as a man, [Philippians 2:7] He seeks the glory of the Father, not His own; what ought you to do, O man, who, when you do anything good, seek your own glory; but when you do anything ill, dost meditate calumny against God? Consider yourself: you are a creature, acknowledge your Creator: you are a servant, despise not your Lord: you are adopted, not for your own merits; seek His glory from whom you have this grace, that you are a man adopted; His, whose glory He sought who is from Him, the Only-begotten. But He that seeks His glory that sent Him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. In Antichrist, however, there is unrighteousness, and he is not true; because he will seek his own glory, not His by whom he was sent: for, indeed, he was not sent, but only permitted to come. Let us all, therefore, that belong to the body of Christ, seek not our own glory, that we be not led into the snares of Antichrist. But if Christ sought His glory that sent Him, how much more ought we to seek the glory of Him who made us?

1. The passage of the holy Gospel of which we have before discoursed to you, beloved, is followed by that of today, which has just now been read. Both the disciples and the Jews heard the Lord speaking; both men of truth and liars heard the Truth speaking; both friends and enemies heard Charity speaking; both good men and bad men heard the Good speaking. They heard, but He discerned; He saw and foresaw whom His discourse profited and would profit. Among those who were then, He saw; among us who were to be, He foresaw. Let us therefore hear the Gospel, just as if we were listening to the Lord Himself present: nor let us say, O happy they who were able to see Him! Because there were many of them who saw, and also killed Him; and there are many among us who have not seen Him, and yet have believed. For the precious truth that sounded forth from the mouth of the Lord was both written for our sakes, and preserved for our sakes, and recited for our sakes, and will be recited also for the sake of our prosperity, even until the end of the world. The Lord is above; but the Lord, the Truth, is also here. For the body of the Lord, in which He rose again from the dead, can be only in one place; but His truth is everywhere diffused. Let us then hear the Lord, and let us also speak that which He shall have granted to us concerning His own words.

2. Did not Moses, says He, give you the law, and yet none of you does the law? Why do ye seek to kill me? For you seek to kill me just for this reason, that none of you does the law; for if you did do the law, you would recognize Christ in its very letters, and you would not kill Him when present with you. And they answered: The crowd answered Him; answered as a tumultuous crowd, things not pertaining to order, but to confusion; in a word, the crowd was disturbed. See what answer it made: You have a devil: who seeks to kill you? As if it were not worse to say, You have a devil, than to kill Him. To Him, indeed, was it said, that He had a devil, who was casting out devils. What else can a turbulent disorderly crowd say? What else can filth stirred up do but stink? The crowd was disturbed; by what? By the truth. For the eyes that have not soundness cannot endure the brightness of the light.

3. But the Lord, manifestly not disturbed, but calm in His truth, rendered not evil for evil nor railing for railing; [1 Peter 3:9] although, if He were to say to these men, You have a devil, He would certainly be saying what was true. For they would not have said such things to the Truth, unless the falsehood of the devil had instigated them. What then did He answer? Let us calmly hear, and drink in the serene word: I have done one work, and you all marvel. As if He said, What if you were to see all my works? For they were His works which they saw in the world, and yet they saw not Him who made them all: He did one thing, and they were disturbed because he made a man whole on the Sabbath day. As if, indeed, when any sick man recovered his health on the Sabbath day, it had been any other that made such a man whole than He who offended them, because He made one man whole on the Sabbath day. For who else has made others whole than He who is health itself — He who gives even to the beasts that health which He gave to this man? For it was bodily health. The health of the flesh is repaired, and the flesh dies; and when it is repaired, death is only put off, not taken away. However, even that same health, brethren, is from the Lord, through whomsoever it may be given: by whose care and ministry soever it may be imparted, it is given by Him from whom all health is, to whom it is said in the psalm, O Lord, You will save men and beasts; as You have multiplied Your mercy, O God. For because You are God Your multiplied mercy reaches even to the safety of human flesh, reaches even to the safety of dumb animals; but Thou who givest health of flesh common to men and beasts, is there no health which Thou reservest for men? There is certainly another which is not only not common to men and beasts, but to men themselves is not common to good and bad. In a word, when he had there spoken of this health which men and cattle receive in common, because of that health which men, but only the good, ought to hope for, he added as he went on: But the sons of men shall put their trust under the cover of Your wings. They shall be fully satisfied with the fatness of Your house; and You shall give them drink from the torrent of Your pleasure. For with You is the fountain of life; and in Your light shall they see light. This is the health which belongs to good men, those whom he called sons of men; while he had said above, O Lord, You shall save men and beasts. How then? Were not those men sons of men, that after he had said men, he should go on and say, But the sons of men: as if men and sons of men meant different things? Yet I do not believe that the Holy Spirit had said this without some indication of distinction. The term men refers to the first Adam, sons of men to Christ. Perhaps, indeed, men relate to the first man; but sons of men relate to the Son of man.

4. I have done one work, and you all marvel. And immediately He subjoined: Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision. It was well done that you received circumcision from Moses. Not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers; since it was Abraham that first received circumcision from the Lord. [Genesis 17:10] And ye circumcise on the Sabbath day. Moses has convicted you: you have received in the law to circumcise on the eighth day; you have received in the law to cease from labor on the seventh day; [Exodus 20:10] if the eighth day from the child's birth fall on the seventh day of the week, what will you do? Will ye abstain from work to keep the Sabbath, or will you circumcise to fulfill the sacrament of the eighth day? But I know, says He, what ye do. You circumcise a man. Why? Because circumcision relates to what is a kind of seal of salvation, and men ought not to abstain from the work of salvation on the Sabbath day. Therefore be ye not angry with me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day. If, says He, a man on the Sabbath day receives circumcision that the law should not be broken (for it was something saving that was ordained by Moses in that ordinance of circumcision), why are you angry at me for working a healing on the Sabbath day?

5. Perhaps, indeed, that circumcision pointed to the Lord Himself, at whom they were indignant, because He worked cures and healing. For circumcision was commanded to be applied on the eighth day: and what is circumcision but the spoiling of the flesh? This circumcision, then, signified the removal of carnal lusts from the heart. Therefore not without cause was it given, and ordered to be made in that member; since by that member the creature of mortal kind is procreated. By one man came death, just as by one man the resurrection of the dead; [1 Corinthians 15:21] and by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. [Romans 5:12] Therefore every man is born with a foreskin, because every man is born with the vice of propagation; and God cleanses not, either from the vice with which we are born, or from the vices which we add thereto by ill living, except by the stony knife, the Lord Christ. For Christ was the Rock. Now they used to circumcise with stone knives, and by the name of rock they prefigured Christ; and yet when He was present with them they did not acknowledge Him, but besides, they sought to kill Him. But why on the eighth day, unless because after the seventh day of the week the Lord rose again on the Lord's day? Therefore Christ's resurrection, which happened on the third day indeed of His passion, but on the eighth day in the days of the week, that same resurrection it is that does circumcise us. Hear of those that were circumcised with the real stone, while the apostle admonishes them: If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting on the right hand of God; set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. [Colossians 3:1-2] He speaks to the circumcised: Christ has risen; He has taken away from you carnal desires, evil lusts, the superfluity with which you were born, and that far worse which you had added thereto by ill living; being circumcised by the Rock, why do you still set your affections on the earth? And finally, for that Moses gave you the law, and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath day, understand that by this is signified the good work which I have done, in that I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day; because he was cured that he might be whole in body, and also he believed that he might be whole in soul.

6. Judge not according to personal appearance, but judge righteous judgment. What is this? Just now, you who by the law of Moses circumcise on the Sabbath day are not angry with Moses; and because I made a man whole on the Sabbath day you are angry with me. You judge by the person; give heed to the truth. I do not prefer myself to Moses, says the Lord, who was also the Lord of Moses. So consider us as you would two men, as both men; judge between us, but judge a true judgment; do not condemn him by honoring me, but honor me by understanding him. For this He said to them in another place: If you believed Moses ye would certainly believe me also, for he wrote of me. [John 5:46] But in this place He willed not to say this, Himself and Moses being as it were placed before these men for judgment. Because of Moses' law you circumcise, even when it happens to be the Sabbath day, and will you not that I should show the beneficence of healing during the Sabbath? For the Lord of circumcision and the Lord of the Sabbath is the same who is the Author of health; and they are servile works that you are forbidden to do on the Sabbath; if you really understand what servile works are, you sin not. For he that commits sin is the servant of sin. Is it a servile work to heal a man on the Sabbath day? You do eat and drink (to infer somewhat from the admonition of our Lord Jesus Christ, and from His words); at any rate, why do you eat and drink on the Sabbath, but because that what ye do pertains to health? By this ye show that the works of health are not in any wise to be omitted on the Sabbath. Therefore do not judge by person, but judge righteous judgment. Consider me as you would a man; consider Moses as a man: if you will judge according to the truth, you will condemn neither Moses nor me; and when you know the truth you will know me, because I am the Truth.

7. It requires great labor in this world, brethren to get clear of the vice which the Lord has noted in this place, so as not to judge by appearance, but to keep right judgment. The Lord, indeed, admonished the Jews, but He warned us also; them He convicted, us He instructed; them He reproved, us He encouraged. Let us not imagine that this was not said to us, simply because we were not there at that time. It was written, it is read; when it was recited we heard it; but we heard it as said to the Jews; let us not place ourselves behind ourselves and watch Him reproving enemies, while we ourselves do that which the truth may reprove in us. The Jews indeed judged by appearance, but for that reason they belong not to the New Testament, they have not the kingdom of heaven in Christ, nor are joined to the society of the holy angels; they sought earthly things of the Lord; for a land of promise, victory over enemies, fruitfulness of child-bearing, increase of children, abundance of fruit — all which things were indeed promised to them by God, the True and the Good, promised to them, however, as unto carnal men, — all these things made for them the Old Testament. What is the Old Testament? The inheritance, as it were, belonging to the old man. We have been renewed, have been made a new man, because He who is the new man has come. What is so new as to be born of a virgin? Therefore, because there was not in Him what instruction might renew, because He had no sin, there was given Him a new origin of birth. In Him a new birth, in us a new man. What is a new man? A man renewed from oldness. Renewed unto what? Unto desiring heavenly things, unto longing for things eternal, unto earnestly seeking the country which is above and fears no foe, where we do not lose a friend nor fear an enemy; where we live with good affection, without any want; where no longer any advances, because none fails; where no man is born, because no man dies; where there is no hungering nor thirsting; where immortality is fullness, and truth our aliment. Having these promises, and pertaining to the New Testament, and being made heirs of a new inheritance, and co-heirs of the Lord Himself, we have a far different hope from theirs: let us not judge by appearance, but hold right judgment.

8. Who is he that judges not according to the person? He that loves equally. Equal love causes that persons be not accepted. It is not when we honor men in diverse measure according to their degrees that we ought to fear lest we are accepting persons. For where we judge between two, and at times between relations, sometimes it happens that judgment has to be made between father and son; the father complains of a bad son, or the son complains of a harsh father; we regard the honor which is due to the father from the son; we do not make the son equal to the father in honor, but we give him preference if he has a good cause: let us regard the son on an equality with the father in the truth, and thus shall we bestow the honor due, so that equity destroy not merit. Thus we profit by the words of the Lord, and that we may profit, we are assisted by His grace.

1. You remember, beloved, in the former discourses — for it was both read in the Gospel and also discussed by us according to our ability — how that the Lord Jesus went up to the feast-day, as it were in secret, not because He feared lest He should be laid hold of — He who had the power not to be laid hold of — but to signify that even in that very feast which was celebrated by the Jews He Himself was hidden, and that the mystery of the feast was His own. In the passage read today then, that which was supposed to be timidity appeared as power; for He spoke openly on the feast-day, so that the crowds marvelled, and said that which we have heard when the passage was read: Is not this he whom they sought to kill? And, lo, he speaks openly, and they say nothing. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the Christ? They who knew with what fierceness He was sought after, wondered by what power He was kept from being taken. Then, not fully understanding His power, they fancied it was the knowledge of the rulers, that these rulers knew Him to be the very Christ, and that for this reason they spared Him whom they had with so much eagerness sought out to be put to death.

2. Then those same persons who had said, Did the rulers know that this is the Christ? proposed a question among themselves, by which it appeared to them that He was not the Christ; for they said in addition, But we know this man whence he is: but when Christ comes, no man knows whence he is. As to how this opinion among the Jews arose, that when Christ comes, no man knows whence He is (for it did not arise without reason), if we consider the Scriptures, we find, brethren, that the Holy Scriptures have declared of Christ that He shall be called a Nazarene. [Matthew 2:23] Therefore they foretold whence He is. Again, if we seek the place of His nativity, as that whence He is by birth, neither was this hidden from the Jews, because of the Scriptures which had foretold these things. For when the Magi, on the appearing of a star, sought Him out to worship Him, they came to Herod and told him what they sought and what they meant: and he, having called together those who had knowledge of the law, inquired of them where Christ should be born: they told him, In Bethlehem of Judah, and also brought forward the prophetic testimony. [Matthew 2:6] If, therefore, the prophets had foretold both the place where the origin of His flesh was, and the place where His mother would bring Him forth, whence did spring that opinion among the Jews which we have just heard, but from this, that the Scriptures had proclaimed beforehand, and had foretold both? In respect of His being man, the Scriptures foretold whence He should be; in respect of His being God, this was hidden from the ungodly, and it required godly men to discover it. Moreover, they said this, When Christ comes, no man knows whence He is, because that which was spoken by Isaiah produced this opinion in them, viz. And His generation, who shall tell? [Isaiah 8:8] In short, the Lord Himself made answer to both, that they both did, and also did not know whence He was; that He might testify to the holy prophecy which before was predicted of Him, both as to the humanity of infirmity and also as to the divinity of majesty.

3. Hear, therefore, the word of the Lord, brethren; see how He confirmed to them both what they said, We know this man whence he is, and also what they said, When Christ comes, no man knows whence He is. Then cried Christ in the temple, saying, You both know me, and you know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but He that sent me is true, whom you know not. That is to say, you both know me, and you know me not; ye both know whence I am, and you know not whence I am. You know whence I am: Jesus of Nazareth, whose parents also ye knew. For in this case, the birth of the Virgin alone was hidden, to whom, however, her husband was witness; for the same was able faithfully to declare this, who was also able as a husband to be jealous. Therefore, this birth of the Virgin excepted, they knew all that in Jesus pertains to man: His face was known, His country was known, His family was known; where He was born was to be known by inquiry. Rightly then did He say, You both know me, and you know whence I am, according to the flesh and form of man which He bore; but according to His divinity, And I am not come of myself, but He that sent me is true, whom you know not; but yet that you may know Him, believe in Him whom He has sent, and you will know Him. For, No man has seen God at any time, except the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him: [John 1:8] and, None knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. [Matthew 11:27]

4. Lastly, when He had said, But He that sent me is true, whom you know not, in order to show them whence they might know that which they did not know, He subjoined, I know Him. Therefore seek from me to know Him. But why is it that I know Him? Because I am from Him, and He sent me. Gloriously has He shown both. I am from Him, said He; because the Son is from the Father, and whatever the Son is, He is of Him whose Son He is. Hence we say that the Lord Jesus is God of God: we do not say that the Father is God of God, but simply God: and we say that the Lord Jesus is Light of Light; we do not say that the Father is Light of Light, but simply Light. Accordingly, to this belongs that which He said I am from Him. But as to my being seen of you in the flesh, He sent me. When you hear,He sent me, do not understand a difference of nature to be meant, but the authority of Him that begets.

5. Then they sought to take Him: but no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come; that is, because He was not willing. For what is this. His hour was not yet come? The Lord was not born under fate. This is not to be believed concerning you, much less concerning Him by whom you were made. If your hour is His good will, what is His hour but His good will? He meant not therefore an hour in which He should be forced to die, but that in which He would deign to be put to death. But He was awaiting the time in which He should die, for He awaited also the time in which He should be born. The apostle, speaking of this time, says, But when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son. [Galatians 4:4] For this cause many say, Why did not Christ come before? To whom we must make answer, Because the fullness of time had not yet come, while He by whom the times were made sets their bounds; for He knew when He ought to come. In the first place, it was necessary that He should be foretold through a long series of times and years; for it was not something insignificant that was to come: He who was to be ever held, had to be for a long time foretold. The greater the judge that was coming, the longer the train of heralds that preceded him. In short, when the fullness of time came, He also came who was to deliver us from time. For being delivered from time, we shall come to that eternity where there is no time: there it is not said, When shall the hour come, for the day is everlasting, a day which is neither preceded by a yesterday, nor cut off by a morrow. But in this world days roll on, some are passing away, others come; none abides; and the moments in which we are speaking drive out one another in turn, nor stands the first syllable for the second to sound. Since we began to speak we are somewhat older, and without doubt I am just now older than I was in the morning; thus, nothing stands, nothing remains fixed in time. Therefore ought we to love Him by whom the times were made, that we may be delivered from time and be fixed in eternity, where there is no more changeableness of times. Great, therefore, is the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, in that for our sakes He was made in time, by whom the times were made; that He was made among all things, by whom all things were made; that He became what He made. For He was made what He had made; for He was made man who had made man, lest what He had made should perish. According to this dispensation, the hour of His birth had now come, and He was born; but not yet had come the hour of His suffering, therefore not yet had He suffered.

6. In short, that you may know that the words refer, not to the necessity of His dying, but to His power — I speak this for the sake of some who, when they hear His hour was not yet come, are determined on believing in fate, and their hearts become infatuated;— that you may know, then, that it was His power of dying, recollect the passion, look at Him crucified. While hanging on the tree, He said, I thirst. They, having heard this, offered to Him on the cross vinegar by a sponge on a reed. He received it, and said, It is finished; and, bowing His head, gave up the ghost. You see His power of dying, that He waited for this — until all things should be fulfilled that had been foretold concerning Him — to take place before His death. For the prophet had said, They gave me gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. He waited for all these things to be fulfilled: after they were completed, He said, It is finished; and He departed by power, because He came not by necessity. Hence some wondered more at this His power to die than at His ability to work miracles. For they came to the cross to take the bodies down from the tree, for the Sabbath was drawing near, and the thieves were found still living. The punishment of the cross was so much the harder because it tortured men so long, and all that were crucified were killed by a lingering death. But the thieves, that they might not remain on the tree, were forced to die by having their legs broken, that they might be taken down thence. The Lord, however, was found to be already dead, [John 19:28-33] and the men marvelled; and they who despised Him when living, so wondered at Him when dead, that some of them said, Truly this was the Son of God. [Matthew 27:54] Whence also that, brethren, where He says to those that seek Him, I am He; and they, going backward, all fell to the ground? [John 18:6] Consequently there was in Him supreme power. Nor was He forced to die at an hour; but He waited the hour on which His will might fittingly be done, not that on which necessity might be fulfilled against His will.

7. But many of the people believed on Him. The Lord made whole the humble and the poor. The rulers were mad, and therefore they not only did not acknowledge the Physician, but even were eager to slay Him. There was a certain crowd of people which quickly saw its own sickness, and without delay recognized His remedy. See what that very crowd, moved by His miracles, said: When Christ comes will He do more signs than these? Surely, unless there will be two Christs, this is the Christ. Consequently, in saying these things, they believed on Him.

8. But those rulers, having heard the assurance of the multitude, and that murmuring noise of the people in which Christ was being glorified, sent officers to take Him. To take whom? Him not yet willing to be taken. Because then they could not take Him while He would not, they were sent to hear Him teaching. Teaching what? Then said Jesus, Yet a little while I am with you. What ye wish to do now ye will do, but not just now; because I am not just now willing. Why am I now as yet unwilling? Because yet a little while I am with you; and then I go unto Him that sent me. I must complete my dispensation, and in this manner come to my suffering.

9. You shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, there ye cannot come. Here He has already foretold His resurrection; for they would not acknowledge Him when present, and afterwards they sought Him when they saw the multitude already believing on Him. For great signs were wrought, even when the Lord was risen again and ascended into heaven. Then mighty deeds were done by His disciples, but He wrought by them as He wrought by Himself: since, indeed, He had said to them, Without me you can do nothing. [John 15:5] When that lame man who sat at the gate rose up at Peter's voice, and walked on his feet, so that men marvelled, Peter spoke to them to this effect, that it was not by his own power that he did this, but in the virtue of Him whom they slew. [Acts 3:2-16] Many pricked in the heart said, What shall we do? For they saw themselves bound by an immense crime of impiety, since they slew Him whom they ought to have revered and worshipped; and this crime they thought inexpiable. A great wickedness indeed it was, the thought of which might make them despair; yet it did not behoove them to despair, for whom the Lord, as He hung on the cross, deigned to pray. For He had said, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. [Luke 23:34] He saw some who were His own among many who were aliens; for these He sought pardon, from whom at the time He was still receiving injury. He regarded not that He was being put to death by them, but only that He was dying for them. It was a great thing that was forgiven them, it was a great thing that was done by them and for them, so that no man should despair of the forgiveness of his sin when they who slew Christ obtained pardon. Christ died for us, but surely He was not put to death by us? But those men indeed saw Christ dying by their own villany; and yet they believed on Christ pardoning their villanies. Until they drank the blood they had shed, they despaired of their own salvation. Therefore said He this: You shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, you cannot come; because they were to seek Him after the resurrection, being pricked in their heart with remorse. Nor did He say where I will be, but where I am. For Christ was always in that place whither He was about to return; for He came in such manner that He did not depart from that place. Hence He says in another place, No man has ascended into heaven, but He who came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven. [John 3:13] He said not, who was in heaven. He spoke on the earth, and declared that He was at the same time in heaven. He came in such wise that He departed not thence; and He so returned as not to abandon us. What do ye marvel at? This is God's doing. For man, as regards his body, is in a place, and departs from a place; and when he comes to another place, he will not be in that place whence he came: but God fills all things, and is all everywhere; He is not held in places according to space. Nevertheless the Lord Christ was, as regards His visible flesh, on the earth: as regards His invisible majesty, He was in heaven and on earth; and therefore He says, Where I am, there ye cannot come. Nor did He say, You shall not be able. but you are not able to come; for at that time they were such as were not able. And that you may know that this was not said to cause despair, He said something of the same kind also to His disciples: Whither I go ye cannot come. [John 13:33] Yet while praying in their behalf, He said, Father, I will that where I am they also may be with me. [John 17:24] And, finally, this He expounded to Peter, and says to him, Whither I go you can not follow me now, but you shall follow me hereafter. [John 13:36]

10. Then said the Jews, not to Him, but to themselves, Whither will this man go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersion among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? For they knew not what they said; but, it being His will, they prophesied. The Lord was indeed about to go to the Gentiles, not by His bodily presence, but still with His feet. What were His feet? Those which Saul desired to trample upon by persecution, when the Head cried out to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? [Acts 9:4] What is this saying that He said, You shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, there ye cannot come? Wherefore the Lord said this they knew not, and yet they did predict something that was to be without knowing it. For this is what the Lord said that they knew not the place, if place however it must be called, which is the bosom of the Father, from which Christ never departed; nor were they competent to conceive where Christ was, whence Christ never withdrew, whither He was to return, where He was all the while dwelling. How was it possible for the human heart to conceive this, least of all to explain it with the tongue? This, then, they in no wise understood; and yet by occasion of this they foretold our salvation, that the Lord would go to the dispersion of the Gentiles, and would fulfill that which they read but did not understand. A people whom I have not known served me, and by the hearing of the ear obeyed me. They before whose eyes He was, heard Him not; those heard Him in whose ears He was sounded.

11. For of that Church of the Gentiles which was to come, the woman that had the issue of blood was a type: she touched and was not seen; she was not known and yet was healed. It was in reality a figure what the Lord asked: Who touched me? As if not knowing, He healed her as unknown: so has He done also to the Gentiles. We did not get to know Him in the flesh, yet we have been made worthy to eat His flesh, and to be members in His flesh. In what way? Because He sent to us. Whom? His heralds, His disciples, His servants, His redeemed whom He created, but whom He redeemed, His brethren also. I have said but little of all that they are: His own members, Himself; for He sent to us His own members, and He made us His members. Nevertheless, Christ has not been among us with the bodily form which the Jews saw and despised; because this also was said concerning Him, even as the apostle says: Now I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. [Romans 15:8] He owed it to have come to those by whose fathers and to whose fathers He was promised. For this reason He says also Himself: I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. [Matthew 15:24] But what says the apostle in the following words? And that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. What, moreover, says the Lord Himself? Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. [John 10:16] He who had said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel, how has He other sheep to which He was not sent, except that He intimated that He was not sent to show His bodily presence but to the Jews only, who saw and killed Him? And yet many of them, both before and afterwards, believed. The first harvest was winnowed from the cross, that there might be a seed whence another harvest might spring up. But at this present time, when roused by the fame of the gospel, and by its goodly odor, His faithful ones among all nations believe, He shall be the expectation of the Gentiles, when He shall come who has already come; when He shall be seen by all, He who was then not seen by some, by some was seen; when He shall come to judge who came to be judged; when He shall come to distinguish who came not to be distinguish ed. For Christ was not discerned by the ungodly, but was condemned with the ungodly; for it was said concerning Him, He was accounted among the wicked. [Isaiah 53:12] The robber escaped, Christ was condemned. He who was loaded with criminal accusations received pardon; He who has released from their crimes all who confess Him, was condemned. Nevertheless even the cross itself, if you consider it well, was a judgment-seat; for the Judge being set up in the middle, one thief who believed was delivered, the other who reviled was condemned. [Luke 22:43] Already He signified what He is to do with the quick and the dead: some He will set on His right hand and others on His left. That thief was like those that shall be on the left hand, the other like those that shall be on the right. He was undergoing judgment, and He threatened judgment.

1. Among the dissensions and doubtings of the Jews concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, among other things which He said, by which some were confounded, others taught: On the last day of that feast (for it was then that these things were done) which is called the feast of tabernacles; that is, the building of tents, of which feast you remember, my beloved, that we have already discoursed, the Lord Jesus Christ calls, not by speaking in any way soever, but by crying aloud, that whoever thirsts may come to Him. If we thirst, let us come; and not by our feet, but by our affections; let us come, not by removing from our place, but by loving. Although, according to the inner man, he that loves does also move from a place. But it is one thing to move with the body, another thing to move with the heart: he migrates with the body who changes his place by a motion of the body; he migrates with the heart who changes his affection by a motion of the heart. If you love one thing, and loved another thing before, you are not now where you were.

2. Accordingly, the Lord cries aloud to us: for, He stood and cried out, if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. We are not obliged to delay to inquire what this meant, since the evangelist has explained it. For why the Lord said, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink; and, He that believes in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water; the evangelist has subsequently explained, saying: But this spoke He of the Spirit which they that believe in Him should receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. There is therefore an inner thirst and an inner belly, because there is an inner man. And that inner man is indeed invisible, but the outer man is visible; but yet better is the inner than the outer. And this which is not seen is the more loved; for it is certain that the inner man is loved more than the outer. How is this certain? Let every man prove it in himself. For although they who live ill may surrender their minds to the body, yet they do wish to live, and to live is the property of the mind only; and they who rule, manifest themselves more than those things that are ruled. Now it is minds that rule, bodies are ruled. Every man rejoices in pleasure, and receives pleasure by the body: but separate the mind from it, and nothing remains in the body to rejoice; and if there is joy of the body, it is the mind that rejoices. If it has joy of its dwelling, ought it not to have joy of itself? And if the mind has whereof it may have delight outside itself, does it remain without delights within? It is quite certain that a man loves his soul more than his body. But further, a man loves the soul even in another man more than the body. What is it that is loved in a friend, where the love is the purer and more sincere? What in the friend is loved — the mind, or the body? If fidelity is loved, the mind is loved; if benevolence is loved, the mind is the seat of benevolence: if this is what you love in another, that he too loves you, it is the mind you love, because it is not the flesh, but the mind that loves. For therefore you love, because he loves you: ask why he loves you, and then see what it is you love. Consequently, it is more loved, and yet is not seen.

3. I would say something further, by which it may more clearly appear to you, beloved, how much the mind is loved, and how it is preferred to the body. Those wanton lovers even, who delight in beauty of bodies, and are charmed by shapeliness of limbs, love the more when they are loved. For when a man loves, and finds that he is regarded with hatred, he feels more anger than liking. Why does he feel anger rather than liking? Because the love that he bestows is not given him in return. If, therefore, even the lovers of bodies desire to be loved in return, and this delights them more when they are loved, what shall we say of the lovers of minds? And if the lovers of minds are great, what shall we say of the lovers of God who makes minds beautiful? For as the mind gives grace to the body, so it is God that gives grace to the mind. For it is only the mind that causes that in the body by which it is loved; when the mind has left it, it is a corpse at which you have a horror; and how much soever you may have loved its beautiful limbs, you make haste to bury it. Hence, the ornament of the body is the mind; the ornament of the mind is God.

4. The Lord, therefore, cries aloud to us to come and drink, if we thirst within; and He says that when we have drunk, rivers of living water shall flow from our belly. The belly of the inner man is the conscience of the heart. Having drunk that water then, the conscience being purged begins to live; and drinking in, it will have a fountain, will be itself a fountain. What is the fountain, and what the river that flows from the belly of the inner man? Benevolence, whereby a man will consult the interest of his neighbor. For if he imagines that what he drinks ought to be only for his own satisfying, there is no flowing of living water from his belly; but if he is quick to consult for the good of his neighbor, then he becomes not dry, because there is a flowing. We will now see what it is that they drink who believe in the Lord; because we surely are Christians, and if we believe, we drink. And it is every man's duty to know in himself whether or not he drinks, and whether he lives by what he drinks; for the fountain does not forsake us if we forsake not the fountain.

5. The evangelist explained, as I have said, whereof the Lord had cried out, to what kind of drink He had invited, what He had procured for them that drink, saying, But this spoke He of the Spirit, which they that believe in Him should receive: for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. What spirit does He speak of, if not the Holy Spirit? For every man has in himself a spirit of his own, of which I spoke when I was commending to you the consideration of the mind. For every man's mind is his own spirit: of which the Apostle Paul says, For what man knows the things of a man, but the spirit of the man which is in himself? And then he added, So also the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God. [1 Corinthians 2:11] None knows the things that are ours but our own spirit. I indeed do not know what are your thoughts, nor do you know what are mine; for those things which we think within are our own, peculiar to ourselves; and his own spirit is the witness of every man's thoughts. So also the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God. We with our spirit, God with His: so, however, that God with His Spirit knows also what goes on within us; but we are not able, without His own Spirit, to know what takes place in God. God, however, knows in us even what we know not in ourselves. For Peter did not know his own weakness, when he heard from the Lord that he would deny Him thrice: the sick man was ignorant of his own condition; the Physician knew him to be sick. There are then certain things which God knows in us, while we ourselves know them not. So far, however, as belongs to men, no man knows a man as he does himself: another does not know what is going on within him, but his own spirit knows it. But on receiving the Spirit of God, we learn also what takes place in God: not the whole, for we have not received the whole. We know many things from the pledge; for we have received a pledge, and the fullness of this pledge shall be given hereafter. Meanwhile, let the pledge console us in our pilgrimage here; because he who has condescended to bind himself to us by a pledge, is prepared to give us much. If such is the token, what must that be of which it is the token?

6. But what is meant by this which he says, For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified? He is understood to say this in a sense that is evident. For the meaning is not that the Spirit of God, which was with God, was not in being; but was not yet in them who had believed on Jesus. For thus the Lord Jesus disposed not to give them the Spirit of which we speak, until after His resurrection; and this not without a cause. And perhaps if we inquire, He will favor us to find; and if we knock, He will open for us to enter. Piety knocks, not the hand, though the hand also knocks, if it cease not from works of mercy. What then is the cause why the Lord Jesus Christ determined not to give the Holy Spirit until He should be glorified? Which thing before we speak of as we may be able, we must first inquire, lest that should trouble any one, in what manner the Spirit was not yet in holy men, while we read in the Gospel concerning the Lord Himself newly born, that Simeon by the Holy Spirit recognized Him; that Anna the widow, a prophetess, also recognized Him; [Luke 2:25-38] that John, who baptized Him, recognized Him; [John 1:26-34] that Zacharias, being filled with the Holy Ghost, said many things; that Mary herself received the Holy Ghost to conceive the Lord. [Luke 1:35-79] We have therefore many preceding evidences of the Holy Spirit before the Lord was glorified by the resurrection of His flesh. Nor was it another spirit that the prophets also had, who proclaimed beforehand the coming of Christ. But still, there was to be a certain manner of this giving, which had not at all appeared before. For nowhere do we read before this, that men being gathered together had, by receiving the Holy Ghost, spoken in the tongues of all nations. But after His resurrection, when He first appeared to His disciples, He said to them: Receive the Holy Ghost. Of this giving then it is said, The Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. And He breathed upon their faces, [John 20:22] He who with His breath enlivened the first man, and raised him up from the clay, by which breath He gave a soul to the limbs; signifying that He was the same who breathed upon their faces, that they might rise out of the mire and renounce their miry works. Then, after His resurrection, which the evangelist calls His glorifying, did the Lord first give the Holy Ghost to His disciples. Then having tarried with them forty days, as the book of the Acts of the Apostles shows, while they were seeing Him and companying with Him, He ascended into heaven in their sight. There at the end of ten days, on the day of Pentecost, He sent the Holy Ghost from above. Which having received, they, who had been gathered together in one place, as I have said, being filled withal, spoke in the tongues of all nations.

7. How then, brethren, because he that is baptized in Christ, and believes on Him, does not speak now in the tongues of all nations, are we not to believe that he has received the Holy Ghost? God forbid that our heart should be tempted by this faithlessness. Certain we are that every man receives: but only as much as the vessel of faith that he shall bring to the fountain can contain, so much does He fill of it. Since, therefore, the Holy Ghost is even now received by men, some one may say, Why is it that no man speaks in the tongues of all nations? Because the Church itself now speaks in the tongues of all nations. Before, the Church was in one nation, where it spoke in the tongues of all. By speaking then in the tongues of all, it signified what was to come to pass; that by growing among the nations, it would speak in the tongues of all. Whoever is not in this Church, does not now receive the Holy Ghost. For, being cut off and divided from the unity of the members, which unity speaks in the tongues of all, let him declare for himself; he has it not. For if he has it, let him give the sign which was given then. What do we mean by saying, Let him give the sign which was then given? Let him speak in all tongues. He answers me: How then, do you speak in all tongues? Clearly I do; for every tongue is mine, namely, of the body of which I am a member. The Church, spread among the nations, speaks in all tongues; the Church is the body of Christ, in this body you are a member: therefore, since you are a member of that body which speaks with all tongues, believe that you too speak with all tongues. For the unity of the members is of one mind by charity; and that unity speaks as one man then spoke.

8. Consequently, we too receive the Holy Ghost if we love the Church, if we are joined together by charity, if we rejoice in the Catholic name and faith. Let us believe, brethren; as much as every man loves the Church of Christ, so much has he the Holy Ghost. For the Spirit is given, as the apostle says, to manifestation. To what manifestation? Just as the same apostle says, For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge after the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another the gift of healing in one Spirit, to another the working of miracles in the same Spirit. [1 Corinthians 12:7-9] For there are many gifts given to manifestation, but you, it may be, have nothing of all those I have said. If you love, it is not nothing that you have: if you love unity, whoever has anything in that unity has it also for you. Take away envy, and what I have is yours too. The envious temper puts men apart, soundness of mind unites them. In the body, the eye alone sees; but is it for itself alone that the eye sees? It sees both for the hand and the foot, and for all the other members. If a blow be coming against the foot, the eye does not turn away from it, so as not to take precaution. Again, in the body, the hand alone works, but is it for itself alone the hand works? For the eye also it works: for if a coming blow comes, not against the hand, but only against the face, does the hand say, I will not move, because it is not coming to me? So the foot by walking serves all the members: all the other members are silent, and the tongue speaks for all. We have therefore the Holy Spirit if we love the Church; but we love the Church if we stand firm in its union and charity. For the apostle himself, after he had said that diverse gifts were bestowed on diverse men, just as the offices of the several members, says, Yet I show you a still more pre-eminent way; and begins to speak of charity. This he put before tongues of men and angels, before miracles of faith, before knowledge and prophecy, before even that great work of mercy by which a man distributes to the poor all that he possesses; and, lastly, put it before even the martyrdom of the body: before all these so great things he put charity. Have it, and you shall have all: for without it, whatever you can have will profit nothing. But that you may know that the charity of which we are speaking refers to the Holy Spirit (for the question now in hand in the Gospel is concerning the Holy Spirit), hear the apostle when he says, The charity of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. [Romans 5:5]

9. Why then was it the will of the Lord, seeing that the Spirit's benefits in us are the greatest, because by Him the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, to give us that Spirit after His resurrection? Why did He signify by this? In order that in our resurrection our love may be inflamed, and may part from the love of the world to run wholly towards God. For here we are born and die: let us not love this world; let us migrate hence by love; by love let us dwell above, by that love by which we love God. In this sojourn of our life let us meditate on nothing else, but that here we shall not always be, and that by good living we shall prepare a place for ourselves there, whence we shall never migrate. For our Lord Jesus Christ, after that He is risen again, now dies no more; death, as the apostle says, shall no more have dominion over Him. [Romans 6:9] Behold what we must love. If we live, if we believe in Him who is risen again, He will give us, not that which men love here who love not God, or love the more the less they love Him, but love this the less the more they love Him; but let us see what He has promised us. Not earthly and temporal riches, not honors and power in this world; for you see all these things given to wicked men, that they may not be highly prized by the good. Not, in short, bodily health itself, though it is He that gives that also, but that, as you see, He gives even to the beasts. Not long life; for what, indeed, is long that will some day have an end? It is not length of days that He has promised to His believers, as if that were a great thing, or decrepit old age, which all wish for before it comes, and all murmur at when it does come. Not beauty of person, which either bodily disease or that same old age which is desired drives away. One wishes to be beautiful, and also to live to be old: these two desires cannot agree together; if you shall be old, you will not be beautiful; when old age comes, beauty will flee away; the vigor of beauty and the groaning of old age cannot dwell together in one body. All these things, then, are not what He promised us when He said, He that believes in me, let him come and drink, and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. He has promised us eternal life, where we shall have no fear, where we shall not be troubled, whence we shall have no migration, where we shall not die; where there is neither bewailing a predecessor deceased, nor a hoping for a successor. Accordingly, because such is what He has promised to us that love Him, and glow with the charity of the Holy Spirit, therefore He would not give us that same Spirit until He should be glorified, so that He might show in His body the life which we have not now, but which we hope for in the resurrection.

1. You remember, my beloved, that in the last discourse, by occasion of the passage of the Gospel read, we spoke to you concerning the Holy Spirit. When the Lord had invited those that believe in Him to this drinking, speaking among those who meditated to lay hold of Him, and sought to kill Him, and were not able, because it was not His will: well, when He had spoken these things, there arose a dissension among the multitude concerning Him; some thinking that He was the very Christ, others saying that Christ shall not arise from Galilee. But they who had been sent to take Him returned clear of the crime and full of admiration. For they even gave witness to His divine doctrine, when those by whom they had been sent asked, Why have you not brought him? They answered that they had never heard a man so speak: For not any man so speaks. But He spoke thus, because He was God and man. But the Pharisees, repelling their testimony, said to them: Are you also deceived? We see, indeed, that you also have been charmed by his discourses. Hath any one of the rulers or the Pharisees believed on him? But this multitude who know not the law are cursed. They who knew not the law believed on Him who had sent the law; and those men who were teaching the law despised Him, that it might be fulfilled which the Lord Himself had said, I have come that they who see not may see, and they that see may be made blind. [John 9:39] For the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, were made blind, and the people that knew not the law, and yet believed on the author of the law, were enlightened.

2. Nicodemus, however, one of the Pharisees, who had come to the Lord by night,— not indeed as being himself unbelieving, but timid; for therefore he came by night to the light, because he wished to be enlightened and feared to be known —Nicodemus, I say, answered the Jews, Does our law judge a man before it hear him, and know what he does? For they perversely wished to condemn before they examined. Nicodemus indeed knew, or rather believed, that if only they were willing to give Him a patient hearing, they would perhaps become like those who were sent to take Him, but preferred to believe. They answered, from the prejudice of their heart, what they had answered to those officers, Are you also a Galilean? That is, one seduced as it were by the Galilean. For the Lord was said to be a Galilean, because His parents were from the city of Nazareth. I have said His parents in regard to Mary, not as regards the seed of man; for on earth He sought but a mother, He had already a Father on high. For His nativity on both sides was marvellous: divine without mother, human without father. What, then, said those would-be doctors of the law to Nicodemus? Search the Scriptures, and see that out of Galilee arises no prophet. Yet the Lord of the prophets arose thence. They returned, says the evangelist, every man to his own house.

3. Thence Jesus went unto the mount; namely, to mount Olivet,— unto the fruitful mount, unto the mount of ointment, unto the mount of chrism. For where, indeed, but on mount Olivet did it become the Christ to teach? For the name of Christ is from chrism; χρισμα in the Greek, is called in Latin unctio, an anointing. And He has anointed us for this reason, because He has made us wrestlers against the devil. And early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came unto Him; and He sat down and taught them. And He was not taken, for He did not yet deign to suffer.

4. And now observe wherein the Lord's gentleness was tempted by His enemies. And the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman just taken in adultery: and they set her in the midst, and said to Him, Master, this woman has just been taken in adultery. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what do you say? But this they said, tempting Him, that they might accuse Him. Why accuse Him? Had they detected Himself in any misdeed; or was that woman said to have been concerned with Him in any manner? What, then, is the meaning of tempting Him, that they might accuse Him? We understand, brethren, that a wonderful gentleness shone out pre-eminently in the Lord. They observed that He was very meek, very gentle: for of Him it had been previously foretold, Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O most Mighty; in Your splendor and beauty urge on, march on prosperously, and reign, because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness. Accordingly, as a teacher, He brought truth; as a deliverer, He brought gentleness; as a protector, He brought righteousness. That He was to reign on account of these things, the prophet had by the Holy Spirit foretold. When He spoke His truth was acknowledged; when He was not provoked to anger against His enemies, His meekness was praised. Whilst, therefore, in respect of these two — namely, His truth and meekness — His enemies were tormented with malice and envy; in respect of the third — namely, righteousness — they laid a stumbling-block for Him. In what way? Because the law had commanded the adulterers to be stoned, and surely the law could not command what was unjust: if any man should say other than the law had commanded, he would be detected as unjust. Therefore they said among themselves, He is accounted true, he appears to be gentle; an accusation must be sought against him in respect of righteousness. Let us bring before him a woman taken in adultery; let us say to him what is ordered in the law concerning such: if he shall approve her being stoned, he will not show his gentleness; if he consent to let her go, he will not keep righteousness. But, say they, that he may not lose the reputation of gentleness, for which he has become an object of love to the people, without doubt he will say that she must be let go. Hence we find an opportunity of accusing him, and we charge him as being a transgressor of the law: saying to him, You are an enemy to the law; you answer against Moses, nay, against Him who gave the law through Moses; you are worthy of death: thou too must be stoned with this woman. By these words and sentiments they might possibly be able to inflame envy against Him, to urge accusation, and cause His condemnation to be eagerly demanded. But this against whom? It was perversity against rectitude, falsehood against the truth, the corrupt heart against the upright heart, folly against wisdom. When did such men prepare snares, into which they did not first thrust their own heads? Behold, the Lord in answering them will both keep righteousness, and will not depart from gentleness. He was not taken for whom the snare was laid, but rather they were taken who laid it, because they believed not on Him who could pull them out of the net.

5. What answer, then, did the Lord Jesus make? How answered the Truth? How answered Wisdom? How answered that Righteousness against which a false accusation was ready? He did not say, Let her not be stoned; lest He should seem to speak against the law. But God forbid that He should say, Let her be stoned: for He came not to lose what He had found, but to seek what was lost. What then did He answer? See you how full it is of righteousness, how full of meekness and truth! He that is without sin of you, says He, let him first cast a stone at her. O answer of Wisdom! How He sent them unto themselves! For without they stood to accuse and censure, themselves they examined not inwardly: they saw the adulteress, they looked not into themselves. Transgressors of the law, they wished the law to be fulfilled, and this by heedlessly accusing; not really fulfilling it, as if condemning adulteries by chastity. You have heard, O Jews, you have heard, O Pharisees, you have heard, O teachers of the law, the guardian of the law, but have not yet understood Him as the Lawgiver. What else does He signify to you when He writes with His finger on the ground? For the law was written with the finger of God; but written on stone because of the hard-hearted. The Lord now wrote on the ground, because He was seeking fruit. You have heard then, Let the law be fulfilled, let the adulteress be stoned. But is it by punishing her that the law is to be fulfilled by those that ought to be punished? Let each of you consider himself, let him enter into himself, ascend the judgment-seat of his own mind, place himself at the bar of his own conscience, oblige himself to confess. For he knows what he is: for no man knows the things of a man, but the spirit of man which is in him. Each looking carefully into himself, finds himself a sinner. Yes, indeed. Hence, either let this woman go, or together with her receive ye the penalty of the law. Had He said, Let not the adulteress be stoned, He would be proved unjust: had He said, Let her be stoned, He would not appear gentle: let Him say what it became Him to say, both the gentle and the just, Whoever is without sin of you, let him first cast a stone at her. This is the voice of Justice: Let her, the sinner, be punished, but not by sinners: let the law be fulfilled, but not by the transgressors of the law. This certainly is the voice of justice: by which justice, those men pierced through as if by a dart, looking into themselves and finding themselves guilty, one after another all withdrew. The two were left alone, the wretched woman and Mercy. But the Lord, having struck them through with that dart of justice, deigned not to heed their fall, but, turning away His look from them, again He wrote with His finger on the ground.

6. But when that woman was left alone, and all they had gone out, He raised His eyes to the woman. We have heard the voice of justice, let us also hear the voice of clemency. For I suppose that woman was the more terrified when she had heard it said by the Lord, He that is without sin of you, let him first cast a stone at her. But they, turning their thought to themselves, and by that very withdrawal having confessed concerning themselves, had left the woman with her great sin to Him who was without sin. And because she had heard this, He that is without sin. let him first cast a stone at her, she expected to be punished by Him in whom sin could not be found. But He, who had driven back her adversaries with the tongue of justice, raising the eyes of clemency towards her, asked her, Hath no man condemned you? She answered, No man, Lord. And He said, Neither do I condemn you; by whom, perhaps, you feared to be condemned, because in me you have not found sin. Neither will I condemn you. What is this, O Lord? Do You therefore favor sins? Not so, evidently. Mark what follows: Go, henceforth sin no more. Therefore the Lord did also condemn, but condemned sins, not man. For if He were a patron of sin, He would say, Neither will I condemn you; go, live as you will: be secure in my deliverance; how much soever you will sin, I will deliver you from all punishment even of hell, and from the tormentors of the infernal world. He said not this.

7. Let them take heed, then, who love His gentleness in the Lord, and let them fear His truth. For The Lord is sweet and right. You love Him in that He is sweet; fear Him in that He is right. As the meek, He said, I held my peace; but as the just, He said, Shall I always be silent? [Isaiah 42:14] The Lord is merciful and pitiful. So He is, certainly. Add yet further, Long-suffering; add yet further, And very pitiful: but fear what comes last, And true. For those whom He now bears with as sinners, He will judge as despisers. Or do you despise the riches of His long-suffering and gentleness; not knowing that the forbearance of God leads you to repentance? But you, after your hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up for yourself wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds. [Romans 2:4-6] The Lord is gentle, the Lord is long-suffering, the Lord is pitiful; but the Lord is also just, the Lord is also true. He bestows on you space for correction; but you love the delay of judgment more than the amendment of your ways. Have you been a bad man yesterday? Today be a good man. Have you gone on in your wickedness today? At any rate change tomorrow. You are always expecting, and from the mercy of God makest exceeding great promises to yourself. As if He, who has promised you pardon through repentance, promised you also a longer life. How do you know what tomorrow may bring forth? Rightly you say in your heart: When I shall have corrected my ways, God will put all my sins away. We cannot deny that God has promised pardon to those that have amended their ways and are converted. For in what prophet you read to me that God has promised pardon to him that amends, you do not read to me that God has promised you a long life.

8. From both, then, men are in danger; both from hoping and despairing, from contrary things, from contrary affections. Who is deceived by hoping? He who says, God is good, God is merciful, let me do what I please, what I like; let me give loose reins to my lusts, let me gratify the desires of my soul. Why this? Because God is merciful, God is good, God is kind. These men are in danger by hope. And those are in danger from despair, who, having fallen into grievous sins, fancying that they can no more be pardoned upon repentance, and believing that they are without doubt doomed to damnation, do say with themselves, We are already destined to be damned, why not do what we please with the disposition of gladiators destined to the sword. This is the reason that desperate men are dangerous: for, having no longer anything to fear, they are to be feared exceedingly. Despair kills these; hope, those. The mind is tossed to and fro between hope and despair. You have to fear lest hope slay you; and, when you hope much from mercy, lest you fall into judgment: again, you have to fear lest despair slay you, and, when you think that the grievous sins which you have committed cannot be forgiven you, you do not repent, and you incur the sentence of Wisdom, which says, I also will laugh at your perdition. [Proverbs 1:26] How then does the Lord treat those who are in danger from both these maladies? To those who are in danger from hope, He says, Be not slow to be converted to the Lord, neither put it off from day to day; for suddenly His anger will come, and in the time of vengeance, will utterly destroy you. [Sirach 5:8-9] To those who are in danger from despair, what does He say? In whatever day the wicked man shall be converted, I will forget all his iniquities. [Ezekiel 18:21] Accordingly, for the sake of those who are in danger by despair, He has offered us a refuge of pardon; and because of those who are in danger by hope, and are deluded by delays, He has made the day of death uncertain. You know not when your last day may come. Are you ungrateful because you have today on which you may be improved? Thus therefore said He to the woman, Neither will I condemn you; but, being made secure concerning the past, beware of the future. Neither will I condemn you: I have blotted out what you have done; keep what I have commanded you, that you may find what I have promised.

1. What we have just heard and attentively received, as the holy Gospel was being read, I doubt not that all of us have also endeavored to understand, and that each of us according to his measure apprehended what he could of so great a matter as that which has been read; and while the bread of the word is laid out, no one can complain that he has tasted nothing. But again I doubt not that there is scarcely any who has understood the whole. Nevertheless, even should there be any who may sufficiently understand the words of our Lord Jesus Christ now read out of the Gospel, let him bear with our ministry, while, if possible, with His assistance, we may, by treating thereof, cause that either all or many may understand that which a few are joyful of having understood for themselves.

2. I think that what the Lord says, I am the light of the world, is clear to those that have eyes, by which they are made partakers of this light: but they who have not eyes except in the flesh alone, wonder at what is said by the Lord Jesus Christ, I am the light of the world. And perhaps there may not be wanting some one too who says with himself: Whether perhaps the Lord Christ is that sun which by its rising and setting causes the day? For there have not been wanting heretics who thought this. The Manichæans have supposed that the Lord Christ is that sun which is visible to carnal eyes, exposed and public to be seen, not only by men, but by the beasts. But the right faith of the Catholic Church rejects such a fiction, and perceives it to be a devilish doctrine: not only by believing acknowledges it to be such, but in the case of whom it can, proves it even by reasoning. Let us therefore reject this kind of error, which the Holy Church has anathematized from the beginning. Let us not suppose that the Lord Jesus Christ is this sun which we see rising from the east, setting in the west; to whose course succeeds night, whose rays are obscured by a cloud, which removes from place to place by a set motion: the Lord Christ is not such a thing as this. The Lord Christ is not the sun that was made, but He by whom the sun was made. For all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made.

3. There is therefore a Light which made this light of the sun: let us love this Light, let us long to understand it, let us thirst for the same; that, with itself for our guide, we may at length come to it, and that we may so live in it that we may never die. This is indeed that Light of which prophecy long ago going before thus sang in the psalm: O Lord, You shall save men and beasts; even as Your mercy is multiplied, O God. These are the words of the holy psalm: mark ye what the ancient discourse of holy men of God did premise concerning such a light. Men, says it, and beasts You shall save, O Lord; even as Your mercy is multiplied, O God. For since You are God, and hast manifold mercy, the same multiplicity of Your mercy reaches not only to men whom You have created in Your own image, but even to the beasts which You have made subservient to men. For He who gives salvation to man, the same gives salvation also to the beast. Do not blush to think this of the Lord your God: nay, rather believe this and trust it, and see thou think not otherwise. He that saves you, the same saves your horse and your sheep; to come to the very least, also your hen: Salvation is of the Lord, and God saves these. You are uneasy, you question, I wonder why you doubt. Shall He disdain to save who deigned to create? Of the Lord is the saving of angels, of men, and of beasts: Salvation is of the Lord. Just as no man is from himself, so no man is saved by himself. Therefore most truly and right well does the psalm say, O Lord, You shall save men and beasts. Why? Even as your mercy is multiplied, O God. For You are God, You have created, You save: You gave being, You give to be in health.

4. Since, therefore, as the mercy of God is multiplied, men and beasts are saved by Him, have not men something else which God as Creator bestows on them, which He bestows not on the beasts? Is there no distinction between the living creature made after the image of God, and the living creature made subject to the image of God? Clearly there is: beyond that salvation common to us with the dumb animals, there is what God bestows on us, but not on them. What is this? Follow on in the same psalm: But the sons of men shall hope under the covert of Your wings. Having now a salvation in common with their cattle, the sons of men shall hope under the covert of Your wings. They have one salvation in fact, another in hope. This salvation which is at present is common to men and cattle; but there is another which men hope for; and which they who hope for receive, they who despair of receive not. For it says, The sons of men shall hope under covert of Your wings. And they that perseveringly hope are protected by You, lest they be cast down from their hope by the devil: Under covert of Your wings they shall hope. If they shall hope, what shall they hope for, but for what the cattle shall not have? They shall be fully drunk with the fatness of Your house; and from the torrent of Your pleasure You shall give them drink. What sort of wine is that with which it is laudable to be drunk? What sort of wine is that which disturbs not the mind, but directs it? What sort of wine is that which makes perpetually sane, and makes not insane by drinking? They shall be fully drunk. How? With the fatness of Your house; and from the torrent of Your pleasure You shall give them drink. How so? Because with You is the fountain of life. The very fountain of life walked on the earth, the same who said, Whoever thirsts, let him come unto me. Behold the fountain! But we begin to speak about the light, and to handle the question laid down from the Gospel concerning the light. For we read how the Lord said, I am the light of the world. Thence arose a question, lest any one, carnally understanding this, should fancy this light to mean the sun: we came thence to the psalm, which having considered, we found meanwhile that the Lord is the fountain of life. Drink and live. With You, it says, is the fountain of life; therefore, under the shadow of Your wings the sons of men hope, seeking to be full drunk with this fountain. But we were speaking of the Light. Follow on, then; for the prophet, having said, With You is the fountain of life, went on to add, In Your light shall we see light,— God of God, Light of Light. By this Light the sun's light was made; and the Light which made the sun, under which He also made us, was made under the sun for our sake. That Light which made the sun, was made, I say, under the sun for our sake. Do not despise the cloud of the flesh; with that cloud it is covered, not to be obscured, but to be moderated.

5. That unfailing Light, the Light of wisdom, speaking through the cloud of the flesh, says to men, I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. How He has withdrawn you from the eyes of the flesh, and recalled you to the eyes of the heart! For it is not enough to say, Whoever follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have light; He added too, of life; even as it was there said, For with You is the fountain of life. See thus, my brethren, how the words of the Lord agree with the truth of that psalm: both there, the light is put with the fountain of life, and by the Lord it is said, light of life. But for bodily use, light and fountain are different things: our mouths seek a fountain, our eyes light; when we thirst we seek a fountain, when we are in darkness we seek light; and if we chance to thirst in the night, we kindle a light to come to a fountain. Not so with God: light and fountain are the same thing: He who shines for you that you may see, the same flows for you that you may drink.

6. You see, then, my brethren, you see, if you see inwardly, what kind of light this is, of which the Lord says, He that follows me shall not walk in darkness. Follow the sun, and let us see if you will not walk in darkness. Behold, by rising it comes forth to you; it goes by its course towards the west. Perhaps your journey is towards the east: unless you go in a contrary direction to that in which it travels, you will certainly err by following it, and instead of east will get to the west. If you follow it by land, you will go wrong; if the mariner follows it by sea, he will go wrong. Finally, it seems to you, suppose, that you must follow the sun, and you also travel yourself towards the west, where it also travels; let us see after it has set if you will not walk in darkness. See how, although you are not willing to desert it, yet it will desert you, to finish the day by necessity of its service. But our Lord Jesus Christ, even when He was not manifest to all through the cloud of His flesh, was yet at the same time holding all things by the power of His wisdom. Your God is whole everywhere: if you fall not off from Him, He will never fall away from you.

7. Accordingly, He that follows me, says He, shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. What He has promised, He put in a word of the future tense; for He says not has, but shall have the light of life. Yet He does not say, He that shall follow me; but, he that does follow me. What it is our duty to do, He put in the present tense; but what He has promised to them that do it, He has indicated by a word of the future tense. He that follows, shall have. That follows now, shall have hereafter: follows now by faith, shall have hereafter by sight. For, while we are in the body, says the apostle, we are absent from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight. [2 Corinthians 5:6-7] When shall we walk by sight? When we shall have the light of life, when we shall have come to that vision, when this night shall have passed away. Of that day, indeed, which is to arise, it is said, In the morning I will stand near you, and contemplate you. What means in the morning? When the night of this world is over, when the terrors of temptations are over, when that lion which goes about roaring in the night, seeking whom it may devour, is vanquished. In the morning I will stand near you, and contemplate. Now what do we think, brethren, to be our duty for the present time, but what is again said in the psalm, Every night through will I wash my couch; I will moisten my bed with my tears? Every night through, says he, I will weep; I will burn with desire for the light. The Lord sees my desire: for another psalm says to Him, All my desire is before You; and my groaning is not hid from You. Do you desire gold? You can be seen; for, while seeking gold, you will be manifest to men. Do you desire grain? Thou ask one that has it; whom also you inform, while seeking to get at that which you desire. Do you desire God? Who sees, but God? From whom, then, do you seek God, as you seek bread, water, gold, silver, grain? From whom do you seek God, except from God? He is sought from Himself who has promised Himself. Let the soul extend her desire, and with more capacious bosom seek to comprehend that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man. [1 Corinthians 2:9] Desire it we can, long for it we can, pant after it we can; but worthily conceive it, worthily unfold it in words, we cannot.

8. Wherefore, my brethren, since the Lord says briefly, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life; in these words He has commanded one thing, promised another; let us do what He has commanded, that we may not with shameless face demand what He has promised; that He may not say to us in His judgment, Have you done what I commanded, that you should expect what I promised? What have You commanded, then, O Lord our God? He says to you, That you should follow me. You have sought counsel of life? Of what life, but of that of which it is said, With You is the fountain of life? A certain man heard it said to him, Go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. He followed not, but went away sorrowful; he sought the good Master, went to Him as a teacher, and despised His teaching; he went away sorrowful, tied and bound by his lusts; he went away sorrowful, having a great load of avarice on his shoulders. He toiled and fretted; and yet he thought that He, who was willing to rid him of his load, was not to be followed but forsaken. But after the Lord has, by the gospel, cried aloud, Come unto me, all you that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, how many, on hearing the gospel, have done what that rich man, on hearing from His own mouth, did not do? Therefore, let us do it now, let us follow the Lord; let us loose the fetters by which we are hindered from following Him. And who is sufficient to loose such bonds, unless He help, to whom it is said, You have burst asunder my bonds? Of whom another psalm says, The Lord looses them that are in bonds; the Lord raises up them that are crushed and oppressed.

9. And what do they follow, who have been loosed and raised up, but the Light from which they hear, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness? For the Lord gives light to the blind. Therefore we, brethren, having the eye-salve of faith, are now enlightened. For His spittle did before mingle with the earth, by which the eyes of him who was born blind were anointed. We, too, have been born blind of Adam, and have need of Him to enlighten us. He mixed spittle with clay: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. He mixed spittle with earth; hence it was predicted, Truth has sprung from the earth; and He said Himself, I am the way, the truth, and the life. When we shall see face to face, we shall have the full fruition of the truth; for this also is promised to us. For who would dare hope for what God had not deigned either to promise or to give? We shall see face to face. The apostle says, Now I know in part, now through a glass darkly; but then, face to face. [1 Corinthians 13:12] And the Apostle John says in his epistle, Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it has not yet appeared what we shall be: we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is. [1 John 3:2] This is a great promise; if you love, follow. I do love, do you say, but by what way am I to follow? If the Lord your God had said to you, I am the truth and the life, in desiring truth and longing for life, you might truly ask the way by which you might come to these, and might say to yourself: A great thing is the truth, a great thing is the life, were there only the means whereby my soul might come thereto! Do you ask by what way? Hear Him say at the first, I am the way. Before He said whither, He premised by what way: I am, says He, the way. The way whither? And the truth and the life. First, He told you the way to come; then, whither to come. I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. Remaining with the Father, the truth and life; putting on flesh, He became the way. It is not said to you, Labor in finding a way to come to the truth and life; this is not said to you. Sluggard, arise: the way itself has come to you, and roused you from your sleep; if, however, it has roused you, up and walk. Perhaps you are trying to walk, and art not able, because your feet ache. How come your feet to ache? Have they been running over rough places at the bidding of avarice? But the word of God has healed even the lame. Behold, you say, I have my feet sound, but the way itself I see not. He has also enlightened the blind.

10. All this by faith, so long as we are absent from the Lord, dwelling in the body; but when we shall have traversed the way, and have reached the home itself, what shall be more joyful than we? What shall be more blessed than we? Because nothing more at peace than we; for there will be no rebelling against a man. But now, brethren, it is difficult for us to be without strife. We have indeed been called to concord, we are commanded to have peace among ourselves; to this we must give our endeavor, and strain with all our might, that we may come at last to the most perfect peace; but at present we are at strife, very often with those whose good we are seeking. There is one who goes astray, you wish to lead him to the way; he resists, you strive with him: the pagan resists you, you dispute against the errors of idols and devils; a heretic resists, you dispute against other doctrines of devils; a bad catholic is not willing to live aright, you rebuke even your brother within; he dwells with you in the house, and seeks the paths of ruin; you are inflamed with eager passion to put him right, that you may render to the Lord a good account of both concerning him. How many necessities of strife there are on every side! Very often one is overcome with weariness, and says to himself, What have I to do with bearing with gainsayers, bearing with those who render evil for good? I wish to benefit them, they are willing to perish; I wear out my life in strife; I have no peace; besides, I make enemies of those whom I ought to have as friends, if they regarded the good will of him that seeks their good: what business is it of mine to endure this? Let me return to myself, I will be kept to myself, I will call upon my God. Do return to yourself, you find strife there. If you have begun to follow God, you find strife there. What strife, do you say, do I find? The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. [Galatians 5:17] Behold you are yourself, you are alone, you are with yourself; behold, you are bearing with no other person, but yet you see another law in your members warring against the law of your mind, and taking you captive in the law of sin, which is in your members. Cry aloud, then, and cry to God, that He may give you peace from the inner strife: O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. [Romans 7:23-25] Because, He that follows me, says He, shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. All strife ended, immortality shall follow; for the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed. And what peace will this be? This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. [1 Corinthians 15:26] To which that we may come (for it will then be in reality), let us now follow in hope Him who said, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

1. You who were present yesterday, bear in mind that we were a long while discoursing of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, where He says, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life; and if we wished to go on discoursing of that light, we might still speak a long time; for it would be impossible for us to expound the matter in brief. Therefore, my brethren, let us follow Christ, the light of the world, that we may not be walking in darkness. We must fear the darkness — not the darkness of the eyes, but that of the moral character; and even if it be the darkness of the eyes, it is not of the outer, but of the inner eyes, of those by which we discern, not between white and black, but between right and wrong.

2. When our Lord Jesus Christ had spoken these things, the Jews answered, You bear record of yourself; your record is not true. Before our Lord Jesus Christ came, He lighted and sent many prophetic lamps before Him. Of these was also John Baptist, to whom the great Light itself, which is the Lord Christ, gave a testimony such as was given to no other man; for He said, Among them that are born of women, there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist. [Matthew 11:11] Yet this man, than whom none was greater among those born of women, said of the Lord Jesus Christ, I indeed baptize you in water; but He that is coming is mightier than I, whose shoe I am not worthy to loose. [John 1:26-27] See how the lamps submits itself to the Day. The Lord Himself bears witness that the same John was indeed a lamp: He was, says He, a burning and a shining lamp; and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. [John 5:35] But when the Jews said to the Lord, Tell us by what authority you do these things, He, knowing that they regarded John the Baptist as a great one, and that the same whom they regarded as a great one had borne witness to them concerning the Lord, answered them, I also will ask you one thing; tell me, the baptism of John, whence is it? From heaven, or from men? Thrown into confusion, they considered among themselves that, if they said, From men, they might be stoned by the people, who believed John to be a prophet; if they said, From heaven, He might answer them, He whom you confess to have been a prophet from heaven bore testimony to me, and you have heard from him by what authority I do these things. They saw, then, that whichever of these two answers they made, they would fall into the snare, and they said, We do not know. And the Lord answered them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. [Matthew 21:23-27] I tell you not what I know, because you will not confess what you know. Most justly, certainly, were they repulsed, and they departed in confusion; and that was fulfilled which God the Father says by the prophet in the psalm, I have prepared a lamp for my Christ (the lamp was John); His enemies I will clothe with confusion.

3. The Lord Jesus Christ, then, had the witness of prophets sent before Him, of the heralds that preceded the judge: He had witness from John; but He was Himself the greater witness which He bore to Himself. But those men with their feeble eyes sought lamps, because they were not able to bear the day; for that same Apostle John, whose Gospel we have in our hands, says in the beginning of his Gospel, concerning John the Baptist: There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men might believe through him. He was not the light, but was sent to bear witness of the light. That was the true light, that lights every man coming into the world. If every man, therefore also lights John. Whence also the same John says, We all have received out of His fullness. Wherefore discern ye these things, that your minds may profit in the faith of Christ, that you be not always babes seeking the breasts and shrinking from solid food. You ought to be nourished and to be weaned by our holy mother the Church of Christ, and to come to more solid food by the mind, not by the belly. This discern ye then, that the light which enlightens is one thing, another that which is enlightened. For also our eyes are called lights; and every man thus swears, touching his eyes, by these lights of his: So may my lights live. This is a customary oath. Let these lights, if lights they are, be opened, and shine for you in your closed chamber, when the light is not there; they certainly cannot. Therefore, as these which we have in our face, and call lights, when they are both healthy and open, need the help of light from without — which being removed or not brought in, though they are sound and are open, yet they do not see — so our mind, which is the eye of the soul, unless it be irradiated by the light of truth, and wondrously shone upon by Him who enlightens and is not enlightened, will not be able to come to wisdom nor to righteousness. For to live righteously is for us the way itself. But how can he on whom the light does not shine but stumble in the way? And hence, in such a way, we have need of seeing, in such a way it is a great thing to see. Now Tobias had the eyes in his face closed, and the son gave his hand to the father; and yet the father, by his instruction, pointed out the way to the son. [Tobit 2:11]

4. The Jews then answered, You bear witness of yourself; your witness is not true. Let us see what they hear; let us also hear, yet not as they did: they despising, we believing; they wishing to slay Christ, we desiring to live through Christ. Let this difference distinguish our ears and minds from theirs, and let us hear what the Lord answers to the Jews. Jesus answered and said to them, Though I bear witness of myself, my witness is true; because I know whence I came and whither I go. The light shows both other things and also itself. Thou lightest a lamp, for instance, to look for your coat, and the burning lamp affords you light to find your coat; do you light the lamp to see itself when it burns? A burning lamp is indeed capable at the same time of exposing to view other things which the darkness covered, and also of showing itself to your eyes. So also the Lord Christ distinguished between His faithful ones and His Jewish enemies, as between light and darkness: as between those whom He illuminated with the ray of faith, and those on whose closed eyes He shed His light. So, too, the sun shines on the face of the sighted and of the blind; both alike standing and facing the sun are shone upon in the flesh, but both are not enlightened in the eyesight. The one sees, the other sees not: the sun is present to both, but one is absent from the present sun. So likewise the Wisdom of God, the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is everywhere present, because the truth is everywhere, wisdom is everywhere. One man in the east understands justice, another man in the west understands justice; is justice which the one understands a different thing from that which the other understands? In body they are far apart, and yet they have the eyes of their minds on one object. The justice which I, placed here, see, if justice it is, is the same which the just man, separated from me in the flesh by ever so many days' journey, also sees, and is united to me in the light of that justice. Therefore the light bears witness to itself; it opens the sound eyes and is its own witness, that it may be known as the light. But how about the unbelievers? Is it not present to them? It is present also to them, but they have not eyes of the heart with which to see it. Hear the sentence fetched from the Gospel itself concerning them: And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. [John 1:5] Hence the Lord says, and says truly, Though I bear witness of myself, my witness is true; because I know whence I came and whither I go. He meant us to understand the Father here: the Son gave glory to the Father. Himself the equal glorifies Him by whom He was sent. How ought man to glorify Him by whom he was created!

5. I know whence I came and whither I go. He who speaks to you in person has what He has not left, and yet He came; for by coming He departed not thence, nor has He forsaken us by returning there. Why do you marvel? It is God: this cannot be done by man; it cannot be done even by the sun. When it goes to the west it leaves the east, and until it returns to the east, when about to rise, it is not in the east; but our Lord Jesus Christ both comes and is there, both returns and is here. Hear the evangelist himself speaking in another place, and, if you can, understand it; if not, believe it: God, says he, no man has ever seen, but the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. He said not was in the bosom of the Father, as if by coming He had quitted the Father's bosom. Here He was speaking, and yet He declared that He was there; and when about to depart hence, what said He? Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. [Matthew 28:20]

6. The witness of the light then is true, whether it be manifesting itself or other things; for without light you can not see light, and without light you can not see any other thing whatever that is not light. If light is capable of showing other things which are not lights, is it not capable of showing itself? Does not that discover itself, without which other things cannot be made manifest? A prophet spoke a truth; but whence had he it, unless he drew it from the fountain of truth? John spoke a truth; but whence he spoke it, ask himself: We all, says he, have received of His fullness. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ is worthy to bear witness to Himself. But in any case, my brethren, let us who are in the night of this world hear also prophecy with earnest attention: for now our Lord willed to come in humility to our weakness and the deep night-darkness of our hearts: He came as a man to be despised and to be honored, He came to be denied and to be confessed; to be despised and to be denied by the Jews, to be honored and confessed by us: to be judged and to judge; to be judged unjustly, to judge righteously. Such then He came that He behooved to have a lamp to bear witness to Him. For what need was there that John should, as a lamp, bear witness to the day, if the day itself could be looked upon by our weakness? But we could not look upon it: He became weak for the weak; by infirmity He healed infirmity; by mortal flesh He took away the death of the flesh; of His own body He made a salve for our eyes. Since, therefore, the Lord has come, and since we are still in the night of the world, it behooves us to hear also prophecies.

7. For it is from prophecy that we convince gainsaying pagans. Who is Christ? Says the pagan. To whom we reply, He whom the prophets foretold. What prophets? Asks he. We quote Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, and other holy prophets: we tell him that they came long before Christ, by what length of time they preceded His coming. We make this reply then: Prophets came before Him, and they foretold His coming. One of them answers: What prophets? We quote for him those which are daily read to us. And, said he, Who are these prophets? We answer: Those who also foretold the things which we see come to pass. And he urges: You have forged these for yourselves, you have seen them come to pass, and have written them in what books you pleased, as if their coming had been predicted. Here in opposition to pagan enemies the witness of other enemies offers itself. We produce books written by the Jews, and reply: Doubtless both you and they are enemies of our faith. Hence are they scattered among the nations, that we may convince one class of enemies by another. Let the book of Isaiah be produced by the Jews, and let us see if it is not there we read, He was led as a sheep to be slaughtered, and as a lamb before his shearer was dumb, so He opened not His mouth. In humility His judgment was taken away; by His bruises we are healed: all we as sheep went astray, and He was delivered up for our sins. [Isaiah 53:5-8] Behold one lamp. Let another be produced, let the psalm be opened, and thence, too, let the foretold suffering of Christ be quoted: They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones: but they considered me and gazed upon me, they parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast the lot. My praise is with You; in the great assembly will I confess to You. All the ends of the earth shall be reminded, and be converted to the Lord: all countries of the nations shall worship in His sight; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and He shall have dominion over the nations. Let one enemy blush, for it is another enemy that gives me the book. But lo, out of the book produced by the one enemy, I have vanquished the other: nor let that same who produced me the book be left; let him produce that by which himself also may be vanquished. I read another prophet, and I find the Lord speaking to the Jews: I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord, nor will I accept sacrifice at your hands: for from the rising of the sun even to his going down, a pure sacrifice is offered to my name. [Malachi 1:10-11] Thou dost not come, O Jew, to a pure sacrifice; I prove you impure.

8. Behold, even lamps bear witness to the day, because of our weakness, for we cannot bear and look at the brightness of the day. In comparison, indeed, with unbelievers, we Christians are even now light; as the apostle says, For you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord: walk as children of light: [Ephesians 5:8] and he says elsewhere, The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast away the works of darkness, and put on us the armor of light; let us walk honestly as in the day. [Romans 13:12-13] Yet that even the day in which we now are is still night, in comparison with the light of that to which we are to come, listen to the Apostle Peter: he says that a voice came to the Lord Christ from the excellent glory, You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This voice, said he, which came from heaven, we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount. But because we were not there, and have not then heard this voice from heaven, the same Peter says to us, And we have a more sure word of prophecy. You have not heard the voice come from heaven, but you have a more sure word of prophecy. For the Lord Jesus Christ, foreseeing that there would be certain wicked men who would calumniate His miracles, by attributing them to magical arts, sent prophets before Him. For, supposing He was a magician, and by magical arts caused that He should be worshipped after His death, was He then a magician before He was born? Hear the prophets, O man dead, and breeding the worms of calumny, hear the prophets: I read, hear them who came before the Lord. We have, says the Apostle Peter, a more sure word of prophecy, to which you do well to give heed, as to a lamp in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts. [2 Peter 1:17-19]

9. When, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ shall come, and, as the Apostle Paul also says, will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart, that every man may have praise from God; [1 Corinthians 4:5] then, in presence of such a day, lamps will not be needed: no prophet shall then be read to us, no book of an apostle shall be opened; we shall not require the witness of John, we shall not need the Gospel itself. Accordingly all Scriptures shall be taken out of the way — which, in the night of this world, were as lamps kindled for us that we might not remain in darkness — when all these are taken away, that they may not shine as if we needed them, and the men of God, by whom these were ministered to us, shall themselves, together with us, behold that true and clear light. Well, what shall we see after these aids have been removed? Wherewith shall our mind be fed? Wherewith shall our gaze be delighted? Whence shall arise that joy which neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has gone up into the heart of man? What shall we see? I beseech you, love with me, by believing run with me: let us long for our home above, let us pant for our home above, let us feel that we are strangers here. What shall we see then? Let the Gospel now tell us: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. You shall come to the fountain from which a little dew has already besprinkled you: you shall see that very light, from which a ray was sent aslant and through many windings into your dark heart, in its purity, for the seeing and bearing of which you are being purified. John himself says, and this I cited yesterday: Beloved, we are the sons of God; and it has not yet appeared what we shall be: we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him even as He is. [1 John 3:2] I feel that your affections are being lifted up with me to the things that are above: but the body, which is corrupt, weighs down the soul; and, the earthly habitation depresses the mind while meditating many things. [Wisdom 9:15] I am about to lay aside this book, and you too are going to depart, every man to his own house. It has been good for us to have been in the common light, good to have been glad therein, good to have rejoiced therein; but when we part from one another, let us not depart from Him.

1. In the four Gospels, or rather in the four books of the one Gospel, Saint John the apostle, not undeservedly in respect of his spiritual understanding compared to the eagle, has elevated his preaching higher and far more sublimely than the other three; and in this elevating of it he would have our hearts likewise lifted up. For the other three evangelists walked with the Lord on earth as with a man; concerning His divinity they have said but little; but this evangelist, as if he disdained to walk on earth, just as in the very opening of his discourse he thundered on us, soared not only above the earth and above the whole compass of air and sky, but even above the whole army of angels and the whole order of invisible powers, and reached to Him by whom all things were made; saying, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made. To this so great sublimity of his beginning all the rest of his preaching well agrees; and he has spoken concerning the divinity of the Lord as none other has spoken. What he had drank in, the same he gave forth. For it is not without reason that it is recorded of him in this very Gospel, that at supper he reclined on the Lord's bosom. From that breast then he drank in secret; but what he drank in secret he gave forth openly, that there may come to all nations not only the incarnation of the Son of God, and His passion and resurrection, but also what He was before His incarnation, the only Son of the Father, the Word of the Father, coeternal with Him that begot, equal with Him by whom He was sent; but yet in that very sending made less, that the Father might be greater.

2. Whatever, then, you have heard stated in lowly manner concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, think of that economy by which He assumed flesh; but whatever you hear, or read, stated in the Gospel concerning Him that is sublime and high above all creatures, and divine, and equal and coeternal with the Father, be sure that this which you read appertains to the form of God, not to the form of the servant. For if you hold this rule, you who can understand it (inasmuch as you are not all able to understand it, but you are all bound to trust it) — if, I say, you hold this rule, as men walking in the light, you will fight against the calumnies of heretical darkness without fear. For there have not been wanting those who, in reading the Gospel, followed only those testimonies that concern the humility of Christ, and have been deaf to those which have declared His divinity; deaf for this reason, that they may be full of evil words. There have likewise been some, who, giving heed only to those which speak of the excellency of the Lord, even though they have read of His mercy in becoming man for our sakes, have not believed the testimonies, but accounted them false and invented by men; contending that our Lord Jesus Christ was only God, not also man. Some in this way, some in that: both in error. But the catholic faith, holding from both the truths which each holds and preaching the truth which each believes, has both understood that Christ is God and also believed Him to be man: for each is written and each is true. Should you assert that Christ is only God, you deny the medicine whereby you were healed: should you assert that Christ is only man, you deny the power whereby you were created. Hold therefore both. O faithful soul and catholic heart, hold both, believe both, faithfully confess both. Christ is both God and also man. How is Christ God? Equal with the Father, one with the Father. How is Christ man? Born of a virgin, taking upon Himself mortality from man, but not taking iniquity.

3. These Jews then saw the man; they neither perceived nor believed Him to be God: and you have already heard how, among all the rest, they said to Him, You bear witness of yourself; your witness is not true. You have also heard what He said in reply, as it was read to you yesterday, and according to our ability discussed. Today have been read these words of His, You judge after the flesh. Therefore it is, says He, that you say to me, You bear witness of yourself; your witness is not true, because you judge after the flesh, because you perceive not God; the man you see, and by persecuting the man, you offend God hidden in Him. You, then, judge after the flesh. Because I bear witness of myself, I therefore appear to you arrogant. For every man, when he wishes to bear commendatory witness of himself, seems arrogant and proud. Hence it is written, Let not your own mouth praise you, but let your neighbor's mouth praise you. [Proverbs 27:2] But this was said to man. For we are weak, and we speak to the weak. We can speak the truth, but we can also lie; although we are bound to speak the truth, still we have it in our power to lie when we will. But far be it from us to think that the darkness of falsehood could be found in the splendor of the divine light. He spoke as the light, spoke as the truth; but the light was shining in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not: therefore they judged after the flesh. You, says He, judge after the flesh.

4. I judge not any man. Does not the Lord Jesus Christ, then, judge any man? Is He not the same of whom we confess that He rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, there sits at the right hand of the Father, and thence shall come to judge the quick and the dead? Is not this our faith of which the apostle says, With the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation? [Romans 10:10] When, therefore, we confess these things, do we contradict the Lord? We say that He shall come a judge of the quick and the dead, while He says Himself, I judge not any man. This question may be solved in two ways: Either that we may understand this expression, I judge not any man, to mean, I judge not any man now; in accordance with what He says in another place, I am not come to judge the world, but to save the world; not denying His judgment here, but deferring it. Or, otherwise, surely that when He said, You judge after the flesh, He subjoined, I judge not any man, in such manner that you should understand after the flesh to complete the sense. Therefore let no scruple of doubt remain in our heart against the faith which we hold and declare concerning Christ as judge. Christ has come, but first to save, then to judge: to adjudge to punishment those who would not be saved; to bring them to life who, by believing, did not reject salvation. Accordingly, the first dispensation of our Lord Jesus Christ is medicinal, not judicial; for if He had come to judge first, He would have found none on whom He might bestow the rewards of righteousness. Because, therefore, He saw that all were sinners, and that none was exempt from the death of sin, His mercy had first to be craved, and afterwards His judgment must be executed; for of Him the psalm had sung, Mercy and judgment will I sing to You, O Lord. Now, He says not judgment and mercy, for if judgment had been first, there would be no mercy; but it is mercy first, then judgment. What is the mercy first? The Creator of man deigned to become man; was made what He had made, that the creature He had made might not perish. What can be added to this mercy? And yet He has added thereto. It was not enough for Him to be made man, He added to this that He was rejected of men; it was not enough to be rejected, He was dishonored; it was not enough to be dishonored, He was put to death; but even this was not enough, it was by the death of the cross. For when the apostle was commending to us His obedience even unto death, it was not enough for him to say, He became obedient unto death; for it was not unto death of any kind whatever: but he added, even the death of the cross. [Philippians 2:8] Among all kinds of death, there was nothing worse than that death. In short, that wherein one is racked by the most intense pains is called cruciatus, which takes its name from crux, a cross. For the crucified, hanging on the tree, nailed to the wood, were killed by a slow lingering death. To be crucified was not merely to be put to death; for the victim lived long on the cross, not because longer life was chosen, but because death itself was stretched out that the pain might not be too quickly ended. He willed to die for us, yet it is not enough to say this; He deigned to be crucified, became obedient even to the death of the cross. He who was about to take away all death, chose the lowest and worst kind of death: He slew death by the worst of deaths. To the Jews who understood not, it was indeed the worst of deaths, but it was chosen by the Lord. For He was to have that very cross as His sign; that very cross, a trophy, as it were, over the vanquished devil, He was to put on the brow of believers, so that the apostle said, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. [Galatians 6:14] Nothing was then more intolerable in the flesh, nothing is now more glorious on the brow. What does He reserve for His faithful one, when He has put such honor on the instrument of His own torture? Now is the cross no longer used among the Romans in the punishment of criminals, for where the cross of the Lord came to be honored, it was thought that even a guilty man would be honored if he should be crucified. Hence, He who came for this cause judged no man: He suffered also the wicked. He suffered unjust judgment, that He might execute righteous judgment. But it was of His mercy that He endured unjust judgment. In short, He became so low as to come to the cross; yea, laid aside His power, but published His mercy. Wherein did He lay aside His power? In that He would not come down from the cross, though He had the power to rise again from the sepulchre. Wherein did He publish His mercy? In that, when hanging on the cross, He said, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. [Luke 23:34] Whether, then, it be that He said, I judge not any man, because He had come not to judge the world, but to save the world; or, that, as I have mentioned, when He had said, You judge after the flesh, He added, I judge not any man, for us to understand that Christ judges not after the flesh, like as He was judged by men.

5. But that you may know that Christ is judge even now, hear what follows: And if I judge, my judgment is true. Behold, you have Him as your judge, but acknowledge Him as your Saviour, lest you feel the judge. But why has He said that His judgment is true? Because, says He, I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. I have said to you, brethren, that this holy Evangelist John soars exceedingly high: it is with difficulty that he is comprehended. But we need to remind you, beloved, of the deeper mystery of this soaring. Both in the prophet Ezekiel, and in the Apocalypse of this very John whose Gospel this is, there is mentioned a fourfold living creature, having four characteristic faces; that of a man, of an ox, of a lion, and of an eagle. Those who have handled the mysteries of Holy Scripture before us have, for the most part, understood by this living creature, or rather, these four living creatures, the four evangelists. They have understood the lion as put for king, because he appears to be, in a manner, the king of beasts on account of his strength and terrible valor. This character is assigned to Matthew, because in the generations of the Lord he followed the royal line, showing how the Lord was, along the royal line, of the seed of David. But Luke, because he begins with the priesthood of Zacharias, mentioning the father of John the Baptist, is designated the ox; for the ox was an important victim in the sacrifice of the priests. To Mark is deservedly assigned the man Christ, because neither has he said anything of the royal authority, nor did he begin with the priestly function, but only set out with the man Christ. All these have departed but little from the things of earth, that is, from those things which our Lord Jesus Christ performed on earth; of His divinity they have said very little, like men walking with Him on the earth. There remains the eagle; this is John, the preacher of sublime truths, and a contemplator with steady gaze of the inner and eternal light. It is said, indeed, that the young eagles are tested by the parent birds in this way: the young one is suspended from the talons of the male parent and directly exposed to the rays of the sun; if it looks steadily at the sun, it is recognized as a true brood; if its eye quivers, it is allowed to drop off, as a spurious brood. Now, therefore, consider how sublime are the things he ought to speak who is compared to the eagle; and yet even we, who creep on the earth, weak and hardly of any account among men, venture to handle and to expound these things; and imagine that we can either apprehend when we meditate them, or be apprehended when we speak.

6. Why have I said this? For perhaps after these words one may justly say to me: Lay aside the book then. Why do you take in hand what exceeds your measure? Why trust your tongue to it? To this I reply: Many heretics abound; and God has permitted them to abound to this end, that we may not be always nourished with milk and remain in senseless infancy. For inasmuch as they have not understood how the divinity of Christ is set forth to our acceptance, they have concluded according to their will: and by not discerning aright, they have brought in most troublesome questions upon catholic believers; and the hearts of believers began to be disturbed and to waver. Then immediately it became a necessity for spiritual men, who had not only read in the Gospel anything respecting the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, but had also understood it, to bring forth the armor of Christ against the armor of the devil, and with all their might to fight in most open conflict for the divinity of Christ against false and deceitful teachers; lest, while they were silent, others might perish. For whoever have thought either that our Lord Jesus Christ is of another substance than the Father is, or that there is only Christ, so that the same is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; whoever also have chosen to think that He was only man, not God made man, or God in such wise as to be mutable in His Godhead, or God in such wise as not to be man; these have made shipwreck from the faith, and have been cast forth from the harbor of the Church, lest by their inquietude they might wreck the ships in their company. Which thing obliged that even we, though least and as regards ourselves wholly unworthy, but in regard of His mercy set in some account among His stewards, should speak to you what either you may understand and rejoice with me, or, if you cannot yet understand, by believing it you may remain secure in the harbor.

7. I will accordingly speak; let him who can, understand; and let him who cannot understand, believe: yet will I speak what the Lord says, You judge after the flesh; I judge not any man, either now, or after the flesh. But even, if I judge, my judgment is true. Why is Your judgment true? Because I am not alone, says He, but I and the Father that sent me. What then, O Lord Jesus? If You were alone would Your judgment be false: and is it because You are not alone, but Thou and the Father that sent You, that You judge truly? How shall I answer? Let Himself answer: He says, My judgment is true. Why? Because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. If He is with You, how has He sent You? And has He sent You, and yet is He also with You? Is it so that having been sent, You have not departed from Him? And You came to us, and yet abode there? How is this to be believed? How apprehended? To these two questions I answer: You say rightly, how is it to be apprehended; how believed, you say not rightly. Rather, for that reason is it right to believe it, because it is not immediately to be apprehended; for if it were a thing to be immediately apprehended, there would be no need to believe it, because it would be seen. It is because you do not apprehend that you believe, but by believing you are made capable of apprehending. For if you do not believe, you will never apprehend, since you will remain less capable. Let faith then purify you, that understanding may fill you. My judgment is true, says He, because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. Therefore, O Lord our God, Jesus Christ, Your sending is Your incarnation. So I see, so I understand: in short, so I believe, in case it may smack of arrogance to say, so I understand. Doubtless the Lord Jesus Christ is even here; rather, was here as to His flesh, is here now as to His Godhead: He was both with the Father and had not left the Father. Hence, in that He is said to have been sent and to have come to us, His incarnation is set forth to us, for the Father did not take flesh.

8. For there are certain heretics called Sabellians, who are also called Patripassians, who affirm that it was the Father Himself that had suffered. Do not thou so affirm, O Catholic; for if you will be a Patripassian, you will not be sane. Understand, then, that the incarnation of the Son is termed the sending of the Son; and do not believe that the Father was incarnate, but do not yet believe that He departed from the incarnate Son. The Son carried flesh, the Father was with the Son. If the Father was in heaven, the Son on earth, how was the Father with the Son? Because both Father and Son were everywhere: for God is not in such manner in heaven as not to be on earth. Hear him who would flee from the judgment of God, and found not a way to flee by: Whither shall I go, says he, from Your Spirit; and whither shall I flee from Your face? If I ascend up into heaven, You are there. The question was about the earth; hear what follows: If I descend unto hell, You are there. If, then, He is said to be present even in hell, what in the universe remains where He is not present? For the voice of God with the prophet is, I fill heaven and earth. [Jeremiah 23:24] Hence He is everywhere, who is confined by no place. Turn not thou away from Him, and He is with you. If you would come to Him, be not slow to love; for it is not with feet but with affections you run. You come while remaining in one place, if you believe and lovest. Wherefore He is everywhere; and if everywhere, how not also with the Son? Is it so that He is not with the Son, while, if you believe, He is even with you?

9. How, then, is His judgment true, but because the Son is true? For this He said: And if I judge, my judgment is true; because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. Just as if He had said, My judgment is true, because I am the Son of God. How dost Thou prove that You are the Son of God? Because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. Blush, Sabellian; you hear the Son, you hear the Father. Father is Father, Son is Son. He said not, I am the Father, and I the same am the Son; but He says, I am not alone. Why are You not alone? Because the Father is with me. I am, and the Father that sent me; you hear, I am, and He that sent me. Lest thou lose sight of the person, distinguish the persons. Distin guish by understanding, do not separate by faithlessness; lest again, fleeing as it were Charybdis, thou rush upon Scylla. For the whirlpool of the impiety of the Sabellians was swallowing you, to say that the Father is the same who is Son: just now you have learned, I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. You acknowledge that the Father is Father, and that the Son is Son; you acknowledge rightly. But do not say the Father is greater, the Son is less; do not say, the Father is gold, the Son is silver. There is one substance, one Godhead, one co-eternity, perfect equality, no unlikeness. For if you only believe that Christ is another, not the same person that the Father is, but yet imagine that in respect of His nature He is somewhat different from the Father, you have indeed escaped Charybdis, but you have been wrecked on the rocks of Scylla. Steer the middle course, avoid each of the two perilous sides. Father is Father, Son is Son. You say now, Father is Father, Son is Son: you have fortunately escaped the danger of the absorbing whirl; why would you go unto the other side to say, the Father is this, the Son that? The Son is another person than the Father is, this you say rightly; but that He is different in nature, you say not rightly. Certainly the Son is another person, because He is not the same who is Father and the Father is another person, because He is not the same who is Son: nevertheless, they are not different in nature, but the selfsame is both Father and Son. What means the self-same? God is one. You have heard, Because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me: hear how you may believe Father and Son; hear the Son Himself, I and the Father are one. [John 10:30] He said not, I am the Father; or, I and the Father is one person; but when He says, I and the Father are one, hear both, both the one, unum, and the are, sumus, and you shall be delivered both from Charybdis and from Scylla. In these two words, in that He said one, He delivers you from Arius; in that He said are, He delivers you from Sabellius. If one, therefore not diverse; if are, therefore both Father and Son. For He would not say are of one person; but, on the other hand, He would not say one of diverse. Hence the reason why He says, my judgment is true, is, that you may hear it briefly, because I am the Son of God. But I would have you in such wise believe that I am the Son of God, that you may understand that the Father is with me: I am not Son in such manner as to have left Him; I am not in such manner here that I should not be with Him; nor is He in such manner there as not to be with me: I have taken to me the form of a servant, yet have I not lost the form of God; therefore He says, I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.

10. He had spoken of judgment; He means to speak of testimony. In your law, says He, it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me bears witness of me. He expounded the law to them also, if they were not unthankful. For it is a great question, my brethren, and to me it certainly appears to have been ordained in a mystery, where God said, In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand. Is truth sought by two witnesses? Clearly it is; so is the custom of mankind: but yet it may be that even two witnesses lie. The chaste Susanna was pressed by two false witnesses: were they not therefore false because they were two? Do we speak of two or of three? A whole people lied against Christ. [Luke 23:1] If, then, a people, consisting of a great multitude of men, was found a false witness, how is it to be understood that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand, unless it be that in this manner the Trinity is mysteriously set forth to us, in which is perpetual stability of truth? Do you wish to have a good cause? Have two or three witnesses, — the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In short, when Susanna, the chaste woman and faithful wife, was pressed by two false witnesses, the Trinity supported her in her conscience and in secret: that Trinity raised up from secrecy one witness, Daniel, and convicted the two. Therefore, because it is written in your law that the witness of two men is true, receive our witness, lest you feel our judgment. For I, says He, judge not any man; but I bear witness of myself: I defer judgment, I defer not the witness.

11. Let us, brethren, choose for ourselves God as our judge, God as our witness, against the tongues of men, against the weak suspicions of mankind. For He who is the judge disdains not to be witness, nor is He advanced in honor when He becomes judge; since He who is witness will also Himself be judge. In what way is He witness? Because He asks not another to learn from Him who you are. In what way is He judge? Because He has the power of killing and making alive, of condemning and acquitting, of casting down into hell and of raising up into heaven, of joining to the devil and of crowning with the angels. Since, therefore, He has this power, He is judge. Now, because He requires not another witness that He may know you; and that He who will hereafter judge you is now seeing you, there is no means whereby you can deceive Him when He begins to judge. For there is no furnishing yourself with false witnesses who can circumvent that judge when He shall begin to judge you. This is what God says to you: When you despised, I did see it; and when you believed not, I did not frustrate my sentence. I delayed it, not removed it. You would not hear what I enjoined, you shall feel what I foretold. But if you hear what I enjoined, you shall not feel the evils which I have foretold, but you shall enjoy the good things which I have promised.

12. Let it not by any means surprise any one that He says, My judgment is true; because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me; while He has said in another place, The Father judges not any man, but all judgment has He given to the Son. We have already discoursed on these same words of the evangelist, and we remind you now that this was not said because the Father will not be with the Son when He comes to judge, but because the Son alone will be apparent to the good and the bad in the judgment, in that form in which He suffered, and rose again, and ascended into heaven. For at that moment, indeed, as they were beholding Him ascending, the angelic voice sounded in the ears of His disciples, So shall He come in like manner as you have seen Him going into heaven; [Acts 1:11] that is, in the form of man in which He was judged, will He judge, in order that also that prophetic utterance may be fulfilled, They shall look upon Him whom they pierced. But when the righteous go into eternal life, we shall see Him as He is; that will not be the judgment of the living and the dead, but only the reward of the living.

13. Likewise, let it not surprise you that He says, In your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true, that any man should hence suppose that this was not also the law of God, because it is not said, In the law of God: let him know that, when it is said thus, In your law, it is just as if He said, In the law which was given to you; given by whom, except by God? Just as we say, Our daily bread; and yet we say, Give us this day.

1. What in the holy Gospel is spoken briefly ought not briefly to be expounded, so that what is read may be understood. The words of the Lord are few, but great; to be valued not by number, but by weight: not to be despised because they are few, but to be sought because they are great. You who were present yesterday have heard, as we discoursed according to our ability from that which the Lord said, You judge after the flesh: I judge not any man. But yet if I judge, my judgment is true; because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. It is written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me bears witness of me. Yesterday, as I have said, from these words a discourse was delivered to your ears and to your minds. When the Lord had spoken these words, they who heard, You judge after the flesh, manifested the truth of what they had heard. For they answered the Lord, as He spoke of God His Father, and said to Him, Where is your Father? The Father of Christ they understood carnally, because they judged the words of Christ after the flesh. But He who spoke was openly flesh, but secretly the Word: man visible, God hidden. They saw the covering, and despised the wearer: they despised because they knew not; knew not, because they saw not; saw not, because they were blind; they were blind, because they believed not.

2. Let us see, then, what answer the Lord made to this. Where, say they, is your Father? For we have heard you say, I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me: we see you alone, we do not see your Father with you; how do you say that you are not alone, but that you are with your Father? Else show us that your Father is with you. And the Lord answered them: Do you know me, that I should show you the Father? This is indeed what follows; this is what He answered in His own words, the exposition of which we have already premised. For see what He said, You neither know me nor my Father: if you knew me, you would perhaps know my Father also. You say then, Where is your Father? As if already you knew me; as if what you see were all that I am. Therefore because you know not me, I do not show you my Father. You suppose me, in fact, to be a man; hence you seek a man for my father, because you judge after the flesh. But because, according to what you see, I am one thing, and another thing according to what you see not, and that I as hidden from you speak of my Father as hidden, it is requisite that you should first know me, and then you know my Father also.

3. For if you knew me, you would perhaps know my Father also. He who knows all things is not in doubt when He says perhaps, but rebuking. Now see how this very word perhaps, which seems to be a word of doubting, may be spoken chidingly. Yea, a word expressive of doubt it is when used by man, for man doubts because he knows not; but when a word of doubting is spoken by God, from whom surely nothing is hid, it is unbelief that is reproved by that doubting, not the Godhead merely expressing an opinion. For men sometimes chidingly express doubt concerning things which they hold certain; that is, use a word of doubting, while in their heart they doubt not: just as you would say to your slave, if you were angry with him, Thou despisest me; but consider, perhaps I am your master. Hence also the apostle, speaking to some who despised him, says: And I think that I also have the Spirit of God. [1 Corinthians 7:40] When he says, I think, he seems to doubt; but he is rebuking, not doubting. And in another place the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, rebuking the future unbelief of mankind, says: When the Son of man comes, will He, do you think, find faith on the earth? [Luke 18:8]

4. You now, as I think, understand how the word perhaps is used here, in case any weigher of words and poiser of syllables, as if to show his knowledge of Latin, finds fault with a word which the Word of God spoke; and by blaming the Word of God, remain not eloquent, but mute. For who is there that speaks as does the Word which was in the beginning with God? Do not consider these words as we use them, and from these wish to measure that Word which is God. You hear the Word indeed, and despisest it; hear God and fear Him: In the beginning was the Word. Thou refer rest to the usage of your conversation, and sayest within yourself, What is a word? What mighty thing is a word? It sounds and passes away; after beating the air, it strikes the ear and is no more. Hear further: The Word was with God; remained, did not by sounding pass away. Perhaps thou still despisest it: The Word was God. With yourself, O man, a word in your heart is a different thing from sound; but the word that is with you, in order to pass to me, requires sound for a vehicle as it were. It takes to itself sound, mounts it as a vehicle, runs through the air, comes to me and yet does not leave you. But the sound, in order to come to me, left you and yet did not stay with me. Now has the word that was in your heart also passed away with the passing sound? You spoke your thought; and, that the thought which was hid with you might come to me, you sounded syllables; the sound of the syllables conveyed your thought to my ear; through my ear your thought descended into my heart, the intermediate sound flew away: but that word which took to itself sound was with you before you sounded it, and is with me, because you sounded it, without quitting you. Consider this, thou nice weigher of sounds, whoever thou be. Thou despisest the Word of God, thou who comprehendest not the word of man.

5. He, then, by whom all things were made knows all things, and yet He rebukes by doubting: If you knew me you would perhaps know my Father also. He rebukes unbelievers. He spoke a like sentence to the disciples, but there is not a word of doubting in it, because there was no occasion to rebuke unbelief. For this, If you knew me, you would perhaps know my Father also, which He said to the Jews, He said also to the disciples, when Philip asked, or rather, demanded of Him, saying, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us: just as if he said, We already know You even ourselves; You have been apparent to us; we have seen You; You have deigned to choose us; we have followed You, have seen Your marvels, heard Your words of Salvation, have taken Your precepts upon us, we hope in Your promises: You have deigned to confer much upon us by Your very presence: but still, while we know You, and we do not yet know the Father, we are inflamed with desire to see Him whom we do not yet know; and thus, be cause we know You, but it is not enough until we know the Father, show us the Father and it suffices us. And the Lord, that they might understand that they knew not what they thought they did already know, said, Am I so long time with you, and you know me not, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. [John 14:8] Has this sentence a word of doubting in it? Did He say, He that has seen me has perhaps seen the Father? Why not? Because it was a believer that listened to Him, not a persecutor of the faith: hence did the Lord not rebuke, but teach. Whoever has seen me has seen the Father also: and here, If you knew me, you would know my Father also, let us remove the word which indicates the unbelief of the hearers, and it is the same sentence.

6. Yesterday we commended it to your consideration, beloved, and said that the sentences of the Evangelist John, in which he narrates to us what he learned from the Lord, had not required to be discussed, were that possible, except the inventions of heretics had compelled us. Yesterday, then, we briefly intimated to you, beloved, that there are heretics who are called Patripassians, or Sabellians after their founder: these say that the same is the Father who is the Son; the names different, but the person one. When He wills, say they, He is Father; when He wills, He is Son: still He is one. There are likewise other heretics who are called Arians. They indeed confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is the only Son of the Father; the one, Father of the Son; the other, Son of the Father; that He who is Father is not Son, nor He who is Son is Father; they confess that the Son was begotten, but deny His equality. We, namely, the catholic faith, coming from the doctrine of the apostles planted in us, received by a line of succession, to be transmitted sound to posterity — the catholic faith, I say, has, between both those parties, that is, between both errors, held the truth. In the error of the Sabellians, He is only one; the Father and Son is the same person: in the error of the Arians, the Father and the Son are indeed different persons; but the Son is not only a different person, but different in nature. Thou midway between these, what do you say? You have shut out the Sabellian, shut out the Arian also. The Father is Father, the Son is Son; another person, not another in nature; for, I and the Father are one, which, so far as I could, I pressed on your thoughts yesterday. When he hears that word, we are, let the Sabellian go away confounded; when he hears the word one, let the Arian go away confounded. Let the catholic steer the bark of his faith between both, since in both he must be on his guard against shipwreck. Say thou, then, what the Gospel says, I and the Father are one. Not different in nature, because one; not one person, because are.

7. A little before He said, My judgment is true; because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me: as if He said, The reason why my judgment is true is, because I am the Son of God, because I speak the truth, because I am truth itself. Those men, understanding Him carnally, said, Where is your Father? Now hear, O Arian: You neither know me, nor my Father; because, If you knew me, you would know my Father also. What does this mean, except I and the Father are one? When you see some person like some other — give heed, beloved, it is a common remark; let not that appear to you difficult which you see to be customary — when, I say, you see some person like another, and you know the person to whom he is like, you say in wonder, How like this person is to that! You would not say this unless there were two. Here one who does not know the person to whom you say the other is like remarks, Is he so like him? And you answer him: What, do you not know that person? Says he, No, I do not. Immediately thou, in order to make known to him the person whom he does not know by means of the person whom he observes before him, answerest, saying, Having seen this man, you have seen the other. You did not, surely, assert that they are one person in saying this, or that they are not two; but made such answer because of the likeness: If you know the one, you know the other; for they are very like, and there is no difference whatever between them. Hence also the Lord says, If you knew me, you would know my Father also; not that the Son is the Father but like the Father. Let the Arian blush. Thanks be to the Lord that even the Arian is separate from the Sabellian error, and is not a Patripassian: he does not affirm that the Father assumed flesh and came to men, that the Father suffered, rose again, and somehow ascended to Himself; this he does not affirm; he acknowledges with me the Father to be Father, the Son to be Son. But, O brother, you have escaped that shipwreck, why go to the other? Father is Father, Son is Son; why do you affirm that the Son is unlike, that He is different, another substance? If He were unlike, would He say to His disciples, He that has seen me has seen the Father? Would He say to the Jews, If you knew me, you would know my Father also? How would this be true, unless that other was also true, I and the Father are one?

8. These words spoke Jesus in the treasury, speaking in the temple: great boldness, without fear. For He could not suffer if He did not will it, since He were not born if He did not will it. What follows then? And no man laid hold of Him, because His hour was not yet come. Some, again, when they hear this, believe that the Lord Christ was subject to fate, and say: Behold, Christ is held by fate! O, if your heart were not fatuous, you would not believe in fate. If fate, as some understand it, is derived from fando, that is from speaking, how can the Word of God be held by fate, while all things that are made are in the Word itself? For God has not ordained anything which He did not know beforehand; that which was made was in His Word. The world was made; both was made and was there. How both was made and was there? Because the house which the builder rears, was previously in his art; and there, a better house, without age, without decay: however, to show forth his art, he makes a house; and so, in a manner, a house comes forth from a house; and if the house should fall, the art remains. So were all things that are made with the Word of God; because God made all things in wisdom, and all that He made were known to Him: for He did not learn because He made, but made because He knew. To us they are known, because they are made: to Him, if they had not been known, they would not have been made. Therefore the Word went before. And what was before the Word? Nothing at all. For were there anything before it, it would not have been said, In the beginning was the Word; but, In the beginning was the Word made. In short, what says Moses concerning the world? In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth. Made what was not: well, if He made what was not, what was there before? In the beginning was the Word. And whence came heaven and earth? All things were made by Him. Do you then put Christ under fate? Where are the fates? In heaven, do you say, in the order and changes of the stars. How then can fate rule Him by whom the heavens and the stars were made; while your own will, if you think rightly, transcends even the stars? Or, because you know that Christ's flesh was under heaven, is that the reason why you think that Christ's power was put under the heavens?

9. Hear, thou fool: His hour was not yet come; not the hour in which He should be forced to die, but that in which He would deign to be put to death. For Himself knew when He should die: He considered all things that were foretold of Him, and awaited all to be finished that was foretold to be before His suffering; that when all should be fulfilled, then should come His suffering in set order, not by fatal necessity. In short, hear that you may prove. Among the rest that was prophesied of Him, it is also written: They gave me gall for meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. How this happened, we know from the Gospel. First, they gave Him gall; He received it, tasted it, and spat it out. Thereafter, as He hung on the cross, that all that was foretold might be fulfilled, He said, I thirst. They took a sponge filled with vinegar, bound it to a reed, and put it to His mouth; He received it, and said, It is finished. What did that mean? All things which were prophesied before my death are completed, then what do I here any longer? In a word, when He said It is finished, He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost. Did the thieves, who were nailed beside Him, expire when they would? They were held by the bonds of flesh, for they were not the creators of the flesh; fixed by nails, they were a long time tormented, because they had not lordship over their weakness. The Lord, however, when He would, took flesh in a virgin's womb: came forth to men when He would; lived among men so long as He would; and when He would He quitted the flesh. This is the part of power, not of necessity. This hour, then, He awaited; not the fated, but the fitting and voluntary hour; that all might first be fulfilled which behooved to be fulfilled before His decease. How could he have been under necessity of fate, when He said in another place, I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again: no man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself and take it again? [John 10:18] He showed this power when the Jews sought Him. Whom do you seek? says He. Jesus, said they. And He answered, I am He. When they heard this voice, they went back and fell to the ground. [John 18:6]

10. Says one, If he had this power, why, when the Jews insulted him on the cross and said, If he be the Son of God let him come down from the cross, did He not come down, to show them His power by coming down? Because He was teaching us patience, therefore He deferred the demonstration of His power. For if He came down, moved as it were at their words, He would be thought to have been overcome by the sting of their insults. He did not come down; there He remained fixed, to depart when He would. For what great matter was it for Him to descend from the cross, when He could rise again from the sepulchre? Let us, then, to whom this is ministered, understand that the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, then concealed, will be made manifest in the judgment, of which it is said, God will come manifest; our God, and He will not be silent. Why is it said, will come manifest? Because He, our God — namely, Christ, — came hidden, will come manifest. And will not be silent: why this will not be silent? Because at first He did keep silence. When? When He was judged; that this, too, might be fulfilled which the prophet had foretold: As a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. [Isaiah 53:7] He would not have suffered did He not will to suffer: did He not suffer, that blood had not been shed; if that blood were not shed, the world would not be redeemed. Therefore let us give thanks to the power of His divinity, and to the compassion of His infirmity; both concerning the hidden power which the Jews did not recognize, whence it is now said to them, You neither know me nor my Father, and also concerning the flesh assumed, which the Jews did not recognize, and yet knew His lineage: whence He said to them elsewhere, You both know me, and you know whence I am. Let us know both in Christ, both wherein He is equal to the Father and wherein the Father is greater than He. That is the Word, this is the flesh; that is God, this is man; but yet Christ is one, God and man.

1. The lesson of the holy Gospel which preceded today's had concluded thus: that the Lord spoke, teaching in the treasury, what it pleased Him, and what you have heard; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour was not yet come. Accordingly, on the Lord's day we made our subject of discourse what He Himself thought fit to give us. We indicated to your Charity why it was said, His hour was not yet come, lest any in their impiety should have the effrontery to suspect Christ as laid under some fatal necessity. For the hour was not yet come when by His own appointment, in accordance with what was predicted regarding Him, He should not be forced to die unwillingly, but be ready to be slain.

2. But of His own passion itself, which lay not in any necessity He was under, but in His own power, all that He said in His discourse to the Jews was, I go away. For to Christ the Lord's death was His proceeding to the place whence He had come, and from which He had never departed. I go away, said He, and you shall seek me, not from any longing for me, but in hatred. For after His removal from human sight, He was sought for both by those who hated Him and those who loved Him; by the former in a spirit of persecution, by the latter with the desire of having Him. In the Psalms the Lord Himself says by the prophet, A place of refuge has failed me, and there is none that seeks after my life; and again He says in another place in the Psalms, Let them be confounded and ashamed who seek after my life. He blamed the former for not seeking, He condemned the latter because they did. For it is wrong not to seek the life of Christ, that is, in the way the disciples sought it; and it is wrong to seek the life of Christ, that is, in the way the Jews sought it: for the former sought to possess it, these latter to destroy it. Accordingly, because these men sought it thus in a wrong way, with a perverted heart, what next did He add? You shall seek me, and— not to let you suppose that you will seek me for good — you shall die in your sin. This comes of seeking Christ wrongly, to die in one's sin; this of hating Him, through whom alone salvation could be found. For, while men whose hope is in God ought not to render evil even for evil, these men were rendering evil for good. The Lord therefore announced to them beforehand, and in His foreknowledge uttered the sentence, that they should die in their sin. And then He adds, Whither I go, you cannot come. He said the same to the disciples also in another place; and yet He said not to them, You shall die in your sin. But what did He say? The same as to these men: Whither I go, you cannot come. He did not take away hope, but foretold delay. For at the time when the Lord spoke this to the disciples, they were not able to come whither He was going, yet were they to come afterwards; but these men never, to whom in His foreknowledge He said, You shall die in your sin.

3. But on hearing these words, as is usual with those whose thoughts are carnal, who judge after the flesh, and hear and apprehend everything in a carnal way, they said, Will he kill himself because he said, Whither I go you cannot come. Foolish words, and overflowing with stupidity! For why could they not go whither He would have proceeded had He killed Himself? Were not they themselves to die? What, then, means, Will he kill himself because he said, Whither I go you cannot come? If He spoke of man's death, what man is there that does not die? Therefore, by whither I go He meant, not the going to death, but whither He was going Himself after death. Such, then, was their answer, because they did not understand.

4. And what said the Lord to those who savored of the earth? And He said to them, You are from beneath. For this cause you savor of the earth, because you lick dust like serpents. You eat earth! What does it mean? You feed on earthly things, you delight in earthly things, you gape after earthly things, you have no heart for what is above. You are from beneath: I am from above. You are of this world: I am not of this world. For how could He be of the world, by whom the world was made? All that are of the world come after the world, because the world preceded; and so man is of the world. But Christ was first, and then the world; and since Christ was before the world, before Christ there was nothing: because In the beginning was the Word; all things were made by Him. He, therefore, was of that which is above. But of what that is above? Of the air? Perish the thought! There the birds wing their flight. Of the sky that we see? Again I say, Perish the thought! It is there that the stars and sun and moon revolve. Of the angels? Neither is this to be understood: by Him who made all things were the angels also made. Of what, then, above is Christ? Of the Father Himself. Nothing is above that God who begot the Word equal with Himself, co-eternal with Himself, only-begotten, timeless, that by Him time's own foundations should be laid. Understand, then, Christ as from above, so as in your thought to get beyond everything that is made — the whole creation together, every material body, every created spirit, everything in any way subject to change: rise above all, as John rose, in order to reach this: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

5. Therefore said He, I am from above. You are of this world: I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that you shall die in your sins. He has explained to us, brethren, what He wished to be understood by you are of this world. He said therefore in fact, You are of this world, because they were sinners, because they were unrighteous, because they were unbelieving, because they savored of the earthly. For what is your opinion as regards the holy apostles? What difference was there between the Jews and the apostles? As great as between darkness and light, as between faith and unbelief, as between piety and impiety, as between hope and despair, as between love and avarice: surely the difference was great. What then, because there was such a difference, were the apostles not of the world? If your thoughts turn to the manner of their birth, and whence they came, inasmuch as all of them had come from Adam, they were of this world. But what said the Lord Himself to them? I have chosen you out of the world. Those, then, who were of the world, became not of the world, and began to belong to Him by whom the world was made. But these men continued to be of the world, to whom it was said, You shall die in your sins.

6. Let none then, brethren, say, I am not of this world. Whoever you are as a man, you are of this world; but He who made the world came to you, and delivered you from this world. If the world delights you, you wish always to be unclean (immundus); but if this world no longer delight you, you are already clean (mundus). And yet, if through some infirmity the world still delight you, let Him who cleanses (mundat) dwell in you, and thou too shall be clean. But if you are once clean, you will not continue in the world; neither will you hear what was heard by the Jews, You shall die in your sins. For we are all born with sin; we have all in living added to that wherein we were born, and have since become more of the world than when we were born of our parents. And where should we be, had He not come, who was wholly free from sin, to expiate all sin? And so, because in Him the Jews believed not, they deservedly heard [the sentence], You shall die in your sins; for in no way could you, who were born with sin, be without sin; and yet, said He, if you believe in me, although it is still true that you were born with sin, yet in your sin you shall not die. The whole misery, then, of the Jews was just this, not to have sin, but to die in their sins. From this it is that every Christian ought to seek to escape; because of this we have recourse to baptism; on this account do those whose lives are in danger from sickness or any other cause become anxious for help; for this also is the sucking child carried by his mother with pious hands to the church, that he may not go out into the world without baptism, and die in the sin wherein he was born. Most wretched surely the condition and miserable the lot of these men, who heard from those truth-speaking lips, You shall die in your sins!

7. But He explains whence this should befall them: For if you believe not that I am [He], you shall die in your sins. I believe, brethren, that among the multitude who listened to the Lord, there were those also who should yet believe. But against all, as it were, had that most severe sentence gone forth, You shall die in your sin; and thereby even from those who should yet believe had hope been withdrawn: the others were roused to fury, they to fear; yea, to more than fear, they were brought now to despair. But He revived their hope; for He added, If you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. Therefore if you do believe that I am, you shall not die in your sins. Hope was restored to the desponding, the sleeping were aroused, their hearts got a fresh awakening; and thereafter very many believed, as the Gospel itself attests in the sequel. For members of Christ were there, who had not yet become attached to the body of Christ; and among that people by whom He was crucified, by whom He was hanged on a tree, by whom when hanging He was mocked, by whom He was wounded with the spear, by whom gall and vinegar were given Him to drink, were the members of Christ, for whose sake He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And what will a convert not be forgiven, if the shedding of Christ's blood is forgiven? What murderer need despair, if he was restored to hope by whom even Christ was slain? After this many believed; they were presented with Christ's blood as a gift, that they might drink it for their salvation, rather than be held guilty of shedding it. Who can despair? And if the thief was saved on the cross — a murderer shortly before, a little afterwards accused, convicted, condemned, hanged, delivered — wonder not. The place of his conviction was that of his condemnation; while that of his conversion was the place also of his deliverance. [Luke 18:34-43] Among this people, then, to whom the Lord was speaking, were those who should yet die in their sin: there were those also who should yet believe in Him who spoke, and find deliverance from all their sin.

8. But look at this which is said by Christ the Lord: If you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. What is this, If you believe not that I am? I am what? There is nothing added; and because He added nothing, He left much to be inferred. For He was expected to say what He was, and yet He said it not. What was He expected to say? Perhaps, If you believe not that I am Christ; if you believe not that I am the Son of God; if you believe not that I am the Word of the Father; if you believe not that I am the founder of the world; if you believe not that I am the former and re-former, the creator and re-creator, the maker and re-maker of man —if you believe not that I am this, you shall die in your sins. There is much implied in His only saying I am; for so also had God said to Moses, I am who am. Who can adequately express what that am means? God by His angel sent His servant Moses to deliver His people out of Egypt (you have read and know what you now hear; but I recall it to your minds); He sent him trembling, self-excusing, but obedient. And while thus excusing himself, he said to God, whom he understood to be speaking in the person of the angel: If the people say to me, And who is the God that has sent you? What shall I say to them? And the Lord answered him, I am who am; and added, You shall say to the children of Israel, He who is has sent me to you. There also He says not, I am God; or, I am the framer of the world; or, I am the creator of all things; or, I am the multiplier of the very people to be delivered: but only this, I am who am; and, You shall say to the children of Israel, He who is. He added not, Who is your God, who is the God of your fathers; but said only this: He who is has sent me to you. Perhaps it was too much even for Moses himself, as it is too much for us also, and much more so for us, to understand the meaning of such words, I am who am; and, He who is has sent me to you. And supposing that Moses comprehended it, when would those to whom he was sent comprehend it? The Lord therefore put aside what man could not comprehend, and added what he could; for He said also besides, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. [Exodus 3:13-15] This you can comprehend; for I am who am, what mind can comprehend?

9. What then of us? Shall we venture to say anything on such words, I am who am; or rather on this, that you have heard the Lord saying, If you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins? Shall I venture with these feeble and scarcely existing powers of mine to discuss the meaning of that which Christ the Lord has said, If you believe not that I am? I shall venture to ask the Lord Himself. Listen to me as one asking rather than discussing, inquiring rather than assuming, learning rather than teaching, and fail not yourselves also to be asking with me or through me. The Lord Himself, who is everywhere, is also at hand. Let Him hear the feeling that prompts to ask, and grant the fruit of understanding. For in what words, even were it so that I comprehend something, can I convey to your hearts what I comprehend? What voice is adequate? What eloquence sufficient? What powers of intelligence? What faculty of utterance?

10. I shall speak, then, to our Lord Jesus Christ; I shall speak and may He be pleased to hear me. I believe He is present, I am fully assured of it; for He Himself has said, Lo, I am with you even to the end of the world. [Matthew 28:20] O Lord our God, what is that which Thou said, If you believe not that I am? For what is there that belongs not to the things You have made? Does not heaven so belong? Does not the earth? Does not everything in earth and heaven? Does not man himself to whom You speak? Does not the angel whom You send? If all these are things made by You, what is that existence You have retained as something exclusively Your own, which You have given to none besides, that You might be such Yourself alone? For how do I hear I am who am, as if there were none besides? And how do I hear If you believe not that I am? For had they no existence who heard Him? Yea, though they were sinners, they were men. What then can I do? What that existence is, let Him tell my heart, let Him tell, let Him declare it within; let the inner man hear, the mind apprehend this true existence; for such existence is always unvarying in character. For a thing, anything whatever (I have begun as it were to dispute, and have left off inquiring. Perhaps I wish to speak what I have heard. May He grant enlargement to my hearing, and to yours, while I speak) — for anything, whatever in short be its excellence, if it is changeable, does not truly exist; for there is no true existence wherever non-existence has also a place. For whatever can be changed, so far as changed, it is not that which was: if it is no longer what it was, a kind of death has therein taken place; something that was there has been eliminated, and exists no more. Blackness has died out in the silvery locks of the patriarch, comeliness in the body of the careworn and crooked old man, strength in the body of the languishing, the [previous] standing posture in the body of one walking, walking in the body of one standing, walking and standing in the body of one reclining, speech in the tongue of the silent — whatever changes, and is what it was not, I see there a kind of life in that which is, and death in that which was. In fine, when we say of one deceased, Where is that person? We are answered, He was. O Truth, it is thou [alone] that truly art! For in all actions and movements of ours, yea, in every activity of the creature, I find two times, the past and the future. I seek for the present, nothing stands still: what I have said is no longer present; what I am going to say is not yet come: what I have done is no longer present; what I am going to do is not yet come: the life I have lived is no longer present; the life I have still to live is not yet come. Past and future I find in every creature-movement: in truth, which is abiding, past and future I find not, but the present alone, and that unchangeably, which has no place in the creature. Sift the mutations of things, you will find was and will be: think on God, you will find the is, where was and will be cannot exist. To be so then yourself, rise beyond the boundaries of time. But who can transcend the powers of his being? May He raise us there who said to the Father, I will that they also be with me where I am. And so, in making this promise, that we should not die in our sins, the Lord Jesus Christ, I think, said nothing else by these words, If you believe not that I am; yea, by these words I think He meant nothing else than this, If you believe not that I am God, you shall die in your sins. Well, God be thanked that He said, If you believe not, and did not say, If you comprehend not. For who can comprehend this? Or is it so, since I have ventured to speak and you have seemed to understand, that you have indeed comprehended somewhat of a subject so unspeakable? If then you comprehend not, faith sets you free. Therefore also the Lord said not, If you comprehend not that I am; but said what they were capable of attaining, If you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins.

11. And savoring as these men always did of the earth, and ever hearing and answering according to the flesh, what did they say to Him? Who are you? For when you said, If you believe not that I am, thou did not tell us what thou were. Who are you, that we may believe? He answered The Beginning. Here is the existence that [always] is. The beginning cannot be changed: the beginning is self-abiding and all-originating; that is, the beginning, to which it has been said, But thou Yourself art the same, and Your years shall not fail. The beginning, He said, for so I also speak to you. Believe me [to be] the beginning, that you may not die in your sins. For just as if by saying, Who are you? they had said nothing else than this, What shall we believe you to be? He replied, The beginning; that is, Believe me [to be] the beginning. For in the Greek expression we discern what we cannot in the Latin. For in Greek the word beginning (principium, ἀρχή), is of the feminine gender, just as with us law (lex) is of the feminine gender, while it is of the masculine (νόμος) with them; or as wisdom (sapientia, σοφία) is of the feminine gender with both. It is the custom of speech, therefore, in different languages to vary the gender of words, because in things themselves there is no place for the distinction of sex. For wisdom is not really female, since Christ is the Wisdom of God, [1 Corinthians 1:24] and Christ is termed of the masculine gender, wisdom of the feminine. When then the Jews said, Who are you? He, who knew that there were some there who should yet believe, and therefore had said, Who are you? That so they might come to know what they ought to believe regarding Him, replied, The beginning: not as if He said, I am the beginning; but as if He said, Believe me [to be] the beginning. Which, as I said, is quite evident in the Greek language, where beginning (ἀρχή) is of the feminine gender. Just as if He had wished to say that He was the Truth, and to their question, Who are you? had answered, Veritatem [the Truth]; when to the words, Who are you? He evidently ought to have replied, Veritas [the Truth]; that is, I am the Truth. But His answer had a deeper meaning, when He saw that they had put the question, Who are you? in such a way as to mean, Having heard from you, If you believe not that I am, what shall we believe you to be? To this He replied, The beginning: as if He said, Believe me to be the beginning. And He added for [as such] I also speak to you; that is, having humbled myself on your account, I have condescended to such words. For if the beginning as it is in itself had remained so with the Father, as not to receive the form of a servant and speak as man with men; how could they have believed in Him, since their weak hearts could not have heard the Word intelligently without some voice that would appeal to their senses? Therefore, said He, believe me to be the beginning; for, that you may believe, I not only am, but also speak to you. But on this subject I have still much to say to you; may it therefore please your Charity that we reserve what remains, and by His gracious aid deliver it tomorrow.

1. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He had addressed to the Jews, so regulating His discourse that the blind saw not, and believers' eyes were opened, are these, which have been read today from the holy Gospel: Then said the Jews, Who are you? Because the Lord had said before, If you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. To this accordingly they rejoined, Who are you? as if seeking to know on whom they ought to believe, so as not to die in their sin. He replied to those who asked Him: Who are you? by saying, The beginning, for [so] also I speak to you. If the Lord has called Himself the beginning, it may be inquired whether the Father also is the beginning. For if the Son who has a Father is the beginning, how much more easily must God the Father be understood as the beginning, who has indeed the Son whose Father He is, but has no one from whom He Himself proceeds? For the Son is the Son of the Father, and the Father certainly is the Father of the Son; but the Son is called God of God — the Son is called Light of Light; the Father is called Light, but not, of Light — the Father is called God, but not, of God. If, then, God of God, Light of Light, is the beginning, how much more easily may we understand as such that Light, from whom the Light [comes], and God, of whom is God? It seems, therefore, absurd, dearly beloved, to call the Son the beginning, and not to call the Father the beginning also.

2. But what shall we do? Are there, then, two beginnings? Let us beware of saying so. What then, if both the Father is the beginning and the Son the beginning, how are there not two beginnings? In the same way that we call the Father God, and the Son God, and yet say not that there are two Gods; and yet He who is the Father is not the Son, He who is the Son is not the Father; and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, is neither the Father nor the Son. Although, then, as Catholic ears have been taught in the bosom of mother Church, neither He who is the Father is the Son, nor He who is the Son is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit, of the Father and of the Son, either the Son or the Father, yet we say not that there are three Gods; although, if we are asked of each apart, we must, of whichever we are questioned, confess that He is God.

3. But all this seems absurd to those who drag up familiar things to a level with things little known, visible things with invisible, and compare the creature to the Creator. For unbelievers sometimes question us and say: Whom you call the Father, do you call him God? We answer, God. Whom you call the Son, do you call him God? We answer, God. Whom you call the Holy Spirit, do you call him God? We answer, God. Then, say they, are the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit three Gods? We answer, No. They are confounded, because they are not enlightened; they have their heart shut up, because they want the key of faith. Let us then, brethren, by an antecedent faith that heals the eye of our heart, receive without obscurity what we understand — and what we understand not, believe without hesitation; let us not quit the foundation of faith in order to reach the summit of perfection. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God: and yet He is not the Father who is the Son, nor He the Son who is the Father, and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the Son, is neither the Father nor the Son. The Trinity is one God. The Trinity is one eternity, one power, one majesty — three, [but not three] Gods. Let not the reviler answer me: Three what, then? For, he adds, if there are three, you must say, three what? I reply: The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. See, he says, you have named three; but express what the three are? Nay, count them yourself; for I make out three when I say, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For the Father is God as respects Himself, but [He is] the Father as respects the Son; the Son is God as respects Himself, but He is the Son as regards the Father.

4. What I say you may gather from daily analogies. So it is with one man and another, if the one be a father, the other his son. He is man as regards himself, but a father as regards his son; and the son man as respects himself, but a son as respects his father. For father is a name given relatively, and so with son; but these are two men. And certainly God the Father is Father in a relative sense, that is, in relation to the Son; and God the Son is Son relatively, that is, in relation to the Father; but not as the former are two men are these two Gods. Why is it not so here? Because that belongs to one sphere and this to another; for this is divine. There is here something ineffable which cannot be explained in words, that there should both be, and not be, number. For see if there appear not a kind of number, Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost— the Trinity. If three, three what? Here number fails. And so God neither keeps apart from number, nor is comprehended by number. Because there are three, there is a kind of number. If you ask three what, number ceases. Hence it is said, Great is our Lord, and great His power; and of His understanding there is no number. When you have begun to reflect, you begin to number; when you have numbered, you cannot tell what you have numbered. The Father is Father, the Son is Son, the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. What are these three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Are They not three Gods? No. Are They not three Almighties? No. Not three Creators of the world? No. Is the Father then almighty? Manifestly almighty. And is the Son then not almighty? Clearly the Son is also almighty. And is the Holy Spirit then not almighty? He, too, is almighty. Are there then three Almighties? No; only one Almighty. Only in Their relation to each other do They suggest number, not in Their essential existence. For though God the Father is, as respects Himself, God along with the Son and the Holy Spirit, there are not three Gods; and, though as respects Himself He is omnipotent, as well as the Son and the Holy Spirit, there are not three omnipotents; for in truth He is the Father not in respect to Himself, but to the Son; nor is the Son so in respect to Himself, but to the Father; nor is the Spirit so as regards Himself, in as far as He is called the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. I have no name to give the three, save the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, one Almighty. And so one beginning.

5. Take an illustration from the Holy Scriptures, whereby you may in some measure comprehend what I am saying. After our Lord Jesus Christ rose again, and was pleased to ascend into heaven, at the end of ten days He sent from thence the Holy Spirit, by whom those who were present in that one chamber were filled, and began to speak in the languages of all nations. The Lord's murderers, terrified by the miracle, were pricked to the heart and sorrowed; sorrowing, were changed; and being changed, believed. There were added to the Lord's body, that is, to the number of believers, three thousand people. And so also by the working of another miracle there were added other five thousand. A considerable community was created, in which all, receiving the Holy Spirit, by whom spiritual love was kindled, were by their very love and fervor of spirit welded into one, and began in the very unity of fellowship to sell all that they had, and to lay the price at the apostles' feet, that distribution might be made to every one as each had need. And the Scripture says this of them, that they were of one soul and one heart toward God. Give heed then, brethren, and from this acknowledge the mystery of the Trinity, how it is we say, There is both the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and yet there is one God. See! There were so many thousands of these, and yet there was one heart; there were so many thousands, and one soul. But where? In God. How much more so God Himself? Do I err at all in word when I call two men two souls, or three men three souls, or many men many souls? Surely I speak correctly. Let them approach God, and one soul belongs to all. If by approaching God many souls by love become one soul, and many hearts one heart, what of the very fountain of love in the Father and Son? Is it not still more so here that the Trinity is one God? For thence, of that Holy Spirit, does love come to us, as the apostle says: The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. [Romans 5:5] If then the love of God, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us, makes many souls one soul, and many hearts one heart, how much rather are the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, one God, one light, and one beginning?

6. Let us hear, then, the Beginning who speaks to us: I have, said He, many things to say of you and to judge. You remember that He said, I do not judge any one. [John 8:15] See, now He says, I have many things to say of you and to judge. But, I do not judge is one thing: I have to judge is another; for He had come to save the world, not to judge the world. In saying, I have many things to say of you and to judge, He speaks of the future judgment. For therefore did He ascend, that He may come to judge the living and the dead. No one will judge more justly than He who was unjustly judged. Many things, said He, have I to say of you and to judge; but He that sent me is true. See how the Son, His equal, gives glory to the Father. For He sets us an example, and says as it were in our hearts: O believer, if you hear my gospel, the Lord your God says to you, when I, in the beginning God the Word with God, equal with the Father, coeternal with Him that begot, give glory to Him whose Son I am, how can you be proud before Him, whose servant you are?

7. I have many things, He said, to say of you and to judge: but He that sent me is true; as if He had said, Therefore I judge the truth, because, as the Son of the True One, I am the truth. The Father true, the Son the truth — which do we account the greater? Let us reflect, if we can, which is the greater, the True One or the Truth. Take some other instances. Is a pious man, or piety, the more comprehensive? Surely piety itself; for the pious is derived from piety, not piety from the pious. For piety may still exist, though he who was pious became impious. He has lost his piety, but has taken nothing from piety itself. What also of comely and comeliness? Comeliness is more than comely; for comeliness gives existence to the comely, not the comely to comeliness. And so of chaste and chastity. Chastity is clearly something more than chaste. For if chastity had no existence, one would have no ground to be chaste; but though one may refuse to be chaste, chastity remains entire. If then the term piety implies more than the term pious, comeliness more than comely, chastity than chaste, shall we say that the Truth is more than the True One? If we say so, we shall begin to say that the Son is greater than the Father. For the Lord Himself says most distinctly, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. [John 14:6] Therefore, if the Son is the truth, what is the Father but what the Truth Himself says, He that sent me is true? The Son is the truth, the Father true. I inquire which is the greater, but find equality. For the true Father is true not because He contained a part of that truth, but because He begot it entire.

8. I see I must speak more plainly. And, not to detain you long, let me treat only of this point today. When I have finished what, with God's help, I wish to say, my discourse shall close. I have said this, then, to enlist your attention. Every soul, as being a thing, is mutable; and although a great creature, yet a creature; though superior to the body, yet made. Every soul, then, since it is changeable — that is, sometimes believes, sometimes disbelieves; at one time wishes, at another time refuses; at one time is adulterous, at another chaste; now good, and again wicked — is changeable. But God is that which is, and so has retained as His own peculiar name, I am who am. [Exodus 3:14] Such also is the Son, when He says, If you believe not that I am; and thereto pertains also, Who are you? The Beginning [John 8:25]. God therefore is unchangeable, the soul changeable. When the soul receives from God the elements of its goodness it becomes good by participation, just as by participation your eye sees. For it sees not when the light is withdrawn, while so long as it shares in the light it sees. Since then by participation the soul is made good, if it changes and becomes bad, the goodness remains that made it good. For there is a goodness of which it partook when good; and when it has turned to evil, that goodness continues entire. If the soul fall away and become evil, there is no lessening of goodness; if it return and become good, that goodness is not enlarged. Your eye participates in this light, and you see. Is it shut? Then you have not diminished the light. Is it open? You have not increased the light. By this illustration, brethren, understand that if the soul is pious, there is piety with God, of which the soul is partaker; if the soul is chaste, there is chastity with God, of which it partakes; if it is good, there is goodness with God, of which it partakes; if it is true, there is truth with God, of which the soul is partaker. Whereof if the soul is no partaker, every man is false; and if every man may be false, no man is true of himself. But the true Father is true of Himself, for He begot the Truth. It is one thing to say, That man is true, for he has taken in the truth: it is another, God is true, for He begot the Truth. See then how God is true — not by participating in, but by generating the Truth. I see you have understood me, and am glad. Let this suffice you today. The rest, according as He gives it, we shall expound when the Lord pleases.

1. Of the holy Gospel according to John, which you see in our hand, your Charity has already heard much, whereon by God's grace we have discoursed according to our ability, pressing on your notice that this evangelist, specially, has chosen to speak of the Lord's divinity, wherein He is equal with the Father and the only Son of God; and on that account he has been compared to the eagle, because no other bird is understood to take a loftier flight. Accordingly, to what follows in order, as the Lord enables us to treat of it, listen with all your attention.

2. We have spoken to you on the preceding passage, suggesting how the Father may be understood as True, and the Son as the Truth. But when the Lord Jesus said, He that sent me is true, the Jews understood not that He spoke to them of the Father. And He said to them, as you have just heard in the reading, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am, and [that] I do nothing of myself; but as the Father has taught me, I speak these things. What means this? For it looks as if all He said was, that they would know who He was after His passion. Without doubt, therefore, He saw that some there, whom He Himself knew, whom with the rest of His saints He Himself in His foreknowledge had chosen before the foundation of the world, would believe after His passion. These are the very persons whom we are constantly commending, and with much entreaty setting forth for your imitation. For on the sending down of the Holy Spirit after the Lord's passion, and resurrection, and ascension, when miracles were being done in the name of Him whom, as if dead, the persecuting Jews had despised, they were pricked in their hearts; and they who in their rage slew Him were changed and believed; and they who in their rage shed His blood, now in the spirit of faith drank it; to wit, those three thousand, and those five thousand Jews whom now He saw there, when He said, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am [He]. It was as if He had said, I let your recognition lie over till I have completed my passion: in your own order you shall know who I am. Not that all who heard Him were only then to believe, that is, after the Lord's passion; for a little after it is said, As He spoke these words, many believed on Him; and the Son of man was not yet lifted up. But the lifting up He is speaking of is that of His passion, not of His glorification; of the cross, not of heaven; for He was exalted there also when He hung on the tree. But that exaltation was His humiliation; for then He became obedient even to the death of the cross. [Philippians 2:8] This required to be accomplished by the hands of those who should afterwards believe, and to whom He says, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am [He]. And why so, but that no one might despair, however guilty his conscience, when he saw those forgiven their homicide who had slain the Christ?

3. The Lord then, recognizing such in that crowd, said, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am [He]. You know already what I am signifies; and we must not be continually repeating, lest so great a subject beget distaste. Recall that, I am who am, and He who is has sent me, [Exodus 3:14] and you will recognize the meaning of the words, Then shall you know that I am. But both the Father is, and the Holy Spirit is. To the same is belongs the whole Trinity. But because the Lord spoke as the Son, in order that, when He says, Then shall you know that I am, there might be no chance of entrance for the error of the Sabellians, that is, of the Patripassians — an error which I have charged you not to hold, but to beware of — the error, I mean, of those who have said, The Father and Son are one and the same; two names, but one reality — to guard them against that error, when the Lord said, Then shall you know that I am, that He might not be understood as Himself the Father, He immediately added, And I do nothing of myself; but as my Father taught me, I speak these things. Already was the Sabellian beginning to rejoice over the discovery of a ground for his error; but immediately on showing himself as it were in the shade, he was confounded by the light of the following sentence. You thought that He was the Father, because He said, I am. Hear now that He is the Son: And I do nothing of myself. What means this, I do nothing of myself? Of myself I am not. For the Son is God, of the Father; but the Father is God, yet not of the Son. The Son is God of God, and the Father is God, but not of God. The Son is light of light; and the Father is light, but not of light. The Son is, but there is [One] of whom He is; and the Father is, but there is none of whom He is.

4. Let not then, my brethren, His further words, As my Father has taught me, I speak these things, be the occasion of any carnal thought stealing into your minds. For human weakness cannot think, but as it is accustomed to act and to hear. Do not then set before your eyes as it were two men, one the father, the other the son, and the father speaking to the son; as any one of you may do, when you say something to your son, admonishing and instructing him how to speak, to charge his memory with what you have told him, and, having done so, to express it in words, to enunciate distinctly, and convey to the ears of others what he has apprehended with his own. Think not thus, lest you be fabricating idols in your heart. The human shape, the outlines of human limbs, the form of human flesh, the outward senses, stature and motions of the body, the functions of the tongue, the distinctions of sounds — think not of such as existing in that Trinity, save as they pertain to the servant-form, which the only-begotten Son assumed, when the Word was made flesh to dwell among us. Thereof I forbid you not, human weakness, to think according to your knowledge: nay, rather I require you. If the faith that is in you be true, think of Christ as such; but as such of the Virgin Mary, not of God the Father. He was an infant, He grew as a man, He walked as a man, He hungered, He thirsted as a man, He slept as a man; at last He suffered as a man, hung on the tree, was slain and buried as a man. In the same form He rose again; in the same, before the eyes of His disciples, He ascended into heaven; in the same will He yet come to judgment. For angel lips have declared in the Gospel, He shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven. [Acts 1:11] When then you think of the servant-form in Christ, think of a human likeness, if you have faith; but when you think, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, away with all human fashioning from your heart. Banish from your thoughts everything bounded by corporeal limits, included in local measurement, or spread out in a mass, how great soever its size. Perish utterly such a figment from your heart. Think, if you can, on the beauty of wisdom, picture to yourself the beauty of righteousness. Has that a shape? A size? A color? It has none of these, and yet it is; for if it were not, it would neither be loved nor worthy of praise, nor be cherished in our heart and life as an object of honor and affection. But men here become wise; and whence would they so, had wisdom no existence? And further, O man, if you can not see your own wisdom with the eyes of the flesh, nor think of it by the same mental imagery as you can of bodily things, will you dare to thrust the shape of a human body on the wisdom of God?

5. What shall we say then, brethren? How spoke the Father to the Son, seeing that the Son says, As the Father taught me, I speak these things? Did He speak to Him? When the Father taught the Son, did He use words, as you do when you teach your son? How could He use words to the Word! What words, many in number, could be used to the one Word? Did the Word of the Father approach His ears to the Father's mouth? Such things are carnal: banish them from your hearts. For this I say, if only you have understood my words, I certainly have spoken and my words have sounded, and by their sound have reached your ears, and through your sense of hearing have carried their meaning to your mind, if so be you have understood. Suppose that some person of Latin speech has heard, but has only heard without understanding, what I have said. As regards the noise issuing from my mouth, he who has understood not has been a sharer therein just like yourselves. He has heard that sound; the same syllables have smote on his ears, but they have produced no effect on his mind. Why? Because he understood not. But if you have understood, whence comes your understanding? My words have sounded in the ear: have I kindled any light in the heart? Without doubt, if what I have said is true, and this truth you have not only heard, but also understood, two things have there been wrought (distinguish between them), hearing and intelligence. Hearing has been wrought by me, but by whom has understanding? I have spoken to the ear, that you might hear; who has spoken to your heart for understanding? Doubtless some one has also said something to your heart, that not only the noise of words might strike your ear, but something also of the truth might descend into your heart. Some one has spoken also to your heart, but you do not see him. If, brethren, you have understood, your heart also has been spoken to. Intelligence is the gift of God. And who, if you have understood, has spoken so in your heart, but He to whom the Psalm says, Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments? For example, the bishop has spoken. What has he said, some one asks. You repeat what he has spoken, and add, He has said the truth. Then another, who has not understood, says, What has he said, or what is it you are praising? Both have heard me; I have spoken to both; but to one of them God has spoken. If we may compare small things with great (for what are we to Him?), something, I know not what, of an incorporeal and spiritual kind God works in us, which is neither sound to strike the ear, nor color to be discerned by the eyes, nor smell to enter the nostrils, nor taste to be judged of by the mouth, nor anything hard or soft to be sensible to the touch; yet something there is which it is easy to feel — impossible to explain. If then God, as I was saying, speaks in our hearts without sound, how speaks He to His Son? Thus then, brethren, think thus as much as you can, if, as I have said, we may in some measure compare small things with great: think thus. In an incorporeal way the Father spoke to the Son, because in an incorporeal way the Father begot the Son. Nor did He so teach Him as if He had begotten Him untaught; but to have taught Him is the same as to have begotten Him full of knowledge; and this, The Father has taught me, is the same as, The Father has begotten me already knowing. For if, as few understand, the nature of the Truth is simple, to be is to the Son the same as to know. From Him therefore He has knowledge, from whom He has being. Not that from Him He had first being, and afterwards knowledge; but as in begetting He gave Him to be, so in begetting He gave Him to know; for, as was said, to the simple nature of the Truth, being is not one thing and knowing another, but one and the same.

6. Thus then He spoke to the Jews, and added, And He that sent me is with me. He had already said this also before, but of this important point He is constantly reminding them —He sent me, and He is with me. If then, O Lord, He is with You, not so much has the One been sent by the other, but you Both have come. And yet, while Both are together, One was sent, the Other was the sender; for incarnation is a sending, and the incarnation itself belongs only to the Son and not to the Father. The Father therefore sent the Son, but did not withdraw from the Son. For it was not that the Father was absent from the place to which He sent the Son. For where is not the Maker of all things? Where is He not, who said, I fill heaven and earth? [Jeremiah 23:24] But perhaps the Father is everywhere, and the Son not so? Listen to the evangelist: He was in this world, and the world was made by Him. Therefore said He, He that sent me, by whose power as Father I am incarnate, is with me — has not left me. Why has He not left me? He has not left me, He says, alone; for I do always those things that please Him. That equality exists always; not from a certain beginning, and then onwards; but without beginning, without end. For Divine generation has no beginning in time, since time itself was created by the Only-begotten.

7. As He spoke these words, many believed on Him. Would that, while I speak also, many, who before this were otherwise disposed, understood and believed on Him! For perhaps there are some Arians in this large assembly. I dare not suspect that there are any Sabellians, who say that the Father Himself is one with the Son, seeing that heresy is too old, and has been gradually eviscerated. But that of the Arians seems still to have some movement about it, like that of a putrefying carcass, or certainly, at the most, like a man at the last gasp; and from this some still require deliverance, just as from that other many were delivered. This province, indeed, did not use to have such; but ever since the arrival of many foreigners, some of these have also found their way to our neighborhood. See then, while the Lord spoke these words, many Jews believed on Him. May I see also that, while I am speaking, Arians are believing, not on me, but with me!

8. Then said the Lord to those Jews who believed on Him, If you continue in my word. Continue, I say, for you are now initiated and have begun to be there. If you continue, that is, in the faith which is now begun in you who believe, to what will you attain? See the nature of the beginning, and whither it leads. You have loved the foundation, give heed to the summit, and out of this low condition seek that other elevation. For faith has humility, but knowledge and immortality and eternity possess not lowliness, but loftiness; that is, upraising, all-sufficiency, eternal stability, full freedom from hostile assault, from fear of failure. That which has its beginning in faith is great, but is despised. In a building also the foundation is usually of little account with the unskilled. A large trench is made, and stones are thrown in every way and everywhere. No embellishment, no beauty are apparent there; just as also in the root of a tree there is no appearance of beauty. And yet all that delights you in the tree has sprung from the root. You look at the root and feel no delight: you look at the tree and admire it. Foolish man! What you admire has grown out of that which gave you no delight. The faith of believers seems a thing of little value — you have no scales to weigh it. Hear then to what it attains, and see its greatness: as the Lord Himself says in another place, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed. [Matthew 17:20] What is there of less account than that, yet what is there pervaded with greater energy? What more minute, yet what more fervidly expansive? And so you also, He says, if you continue in my word, wherein you have believed, to what will you be brought? you shall be my disciples indeed. And what does that benefit us? and you shall know the truth.

9. What, brethren, does He promise believers? And you shall know the truth. Why so? Had they not come to such knowledge when the Lord was speaking? If they had not, how did they believe? They believed, not because they knew, but that they might come to know. For we believe in order that we may know, we do not know in order that we may believe. For what we shall yet know, neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered the heart of man. For what is faith, but believing what you see not? Faith then is to believe what you see not; truth, to see what you have believed, as He Himself says in a certain place. The Lord then walked on earth, first of all, for the creation of faith. He was man, He was made in a low condition. He was seen by all, but not by all was He known. By many was He rejected, by the multitude was He slain, by few was He mourned; and yet even by those who mourned Him, His true being was still unrecognized. All this is the beginning as it were of faith's lineaments and future up-building. As the Lord, referring thereto, says in a certain place, He that loves me keeps my commandments; and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. They certainly already saw the person to whom they were listening; and yet to them, if they loved Him, does He give it as a promise that they should see Him. So also here, You shall know the truth. How so? Is that not the truth which You have been speaking? The truth it is, but as yet it is only believed, not beheld. If you abide in that which is believed, you shall attain to that which is seen. Hence John himself, the holy evangelist, says in his epistle, Dearly beloved, we are the sons of God; but it is not yet apparent what we shall be. We are so already, and something we shall be. What more shall we be than we are? Listen: It is not yet apparent what we shall be: [but] we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. How? For we shall see Him as He is. [1 John 3:2] A great promise, but the reward of faith. You seek the reward; then let the work precede. If you believe, ask for the reward of faith; but if you believe not, with what face can you seek the reward of faith? If then you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed, that you may behold the very truth as it is, not through sounding words, but in dazzling light, wherewith He shall satisfy us: as we read in the psalm, The light of Your countenance is impressed upon us. We are God's money: we have wandered away as coin from the treasury. The impression that was stamped upon us has been rubbed out by our wandering. He has come to refashion, for He it was that fashioned us at first; and He is Himself asking for His money, as Cæsar for his. Therefore He says, Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's: [Matthew 22:21] to Cæsar his money, to God yourselves. And then shall the truth be reproduced in us.

10. What shall I say to your Charity? Oh that our hearts were in some measure aspiring after that ineffable glory! Oh that we were passing our pilgrimage in sighs, and loving not the world, and continually pushing onwards with pious minds to Him who has called us! Longing is the very bosom of the heart. We shall attain, if with all our power we give way to our longing. Such in our behalf is the object of the divine Scriptures, of the assembling of the people, of the celebration of the sacra ments, of holy baptism, of singing God's praise, and of this our own exposition — that this longing may not only be implanted and germinate, but also expand to such a measure of capacity as to be fit to take in what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man. But love with me. He who loves God is not much in love with money. And I have but touched on this infirmity, not venturing to say, He loves not money at all, but, He loves not money much; as if money were to be loved, but not in a great degree. Oh, were we loving God worthily, we should have no love at all for money! Money then will be your means of pilgrimage, not the stimulant of lust; something to use for necessity, not to joy over as a means of delight. Love God, if He has wrought in you somewhat of that which you hear and praisest. Use the world: let not the world hold you captive. You are passing on the journey you have begun; you have come, again to depart, not to abide. You are passing on your journey, and this life is but a wayside inn. Use money as the traveller at an inn uses table, cup, pitcher, and couch, with the purpose not of remaining, but of leaving them behind. If such you would be, you, who can stir up your hearts and hear me; if such you would be, you will attain to His promises. It is not too much for your strength, for mighty is the hand of Him who has called you. He has called you. Call upon Him, say to Him, You have called us, we call upon You; see, we have heard You calling us, hear us calling upon You: lead us whither You have promised; perfect what You have begun; forsake not Your own gifts; leave not Your own field; let Your tender shoots yet be gathered into Your barn. Temptations abound in the world, but greater is He who made the world. Temptations abound, but he fails not whose hope reposes in Him in whom there is no deficiency.

11. I have been exhorting you, brethren, to this in such words, because the freedom of which our Lord Jesus Christ speaks belongs not to this present time. Look at what He added: You shall be my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. What means that — shall set you free? It shall make you freemen. In a word, the carnal, and fleshly-minded Jews— not those who had believed, but those in the crowd who believed not — thought that an injury was done them, because He said to them, The truth shall make you free. They were indignant at being designated as slaves. And slaves truly they were; and He explains to them what slavery it is, and what is that future freedom which is promised by Himself. But of this liberty and of that slavery it were too long to speak today.

1. Of what follows of the previous lesson, and has been read publicly to us today from the holy Gospel, I then deferred speaking, because I had already said much, and of that liberty into which the grace of the Saviour calls us it was needful to treat in no cursory or negligent way. Of this, by the Lord's help, we purpose speaking to you today. For those to whom the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking were Jews, in a large measure indeed His enemies, but also in some measure already become, and yet to be, His friends; for some He saw there, as we have already said, who should yet believe after His passion. Looking to these, He had said, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am [He]. There also were those who, when He so spoke, straightway believed. To them He spoke what we have heard today: Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on Him, If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. By continuing you shall be so; for as now you are believers, by so continuing you shall be beholders. Hence there follows, And you shall know the truth. The truth is unchangeable. The truth is bread, which refreshes our minds and fails not; changes the eater, and is not itself changed into the eater. The truth itself is the Word of God, God with God, the only-begotten Son. This Truth was for our sake clothed with flesh, that He might be born of the Virgin Mary, and the prophecy fulfilled, Truth has sprung from the earth. This Truth then, when speaking to the Jews, lay hid in the flesh. But He lay hid not in order to be denied, but to be deferred [in His manifestation]; to be deferred, in order to suffer in the flesh; and to suffer in the flesh, in order that flesh might be redeemed from sin. And so our Lord Jesus Christ, standing full in sight as regards the infirmity of flesh, but hid as regards the majesty of Godhead, said to those who had believed on Him, when He so spoke, If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. For he that endures to the end shall be saved. [Matthew 10:22] And you shall know the truth, which now is hid from you, and speaks to you. And the truth shall free you. This word, liberabit [shall free], the Lord has taken from libertas [freedom]. For liberat [frees, delivers] is properly nothing else but liberum facit [makes free]. As salvat [he saves] is nothing else but salvum facit [he makes safe]; as he heals is nothing else but he makes whole; he enriches is nothing else but he makes rich; so liberat [he frees] is nothing else but liberum facit [he makes free]. This is clearer in the Greek word. For in Latin usage we commonly say that a man is delivered (liberari), in regard not to liberty, but only to safety, just as one is said to be delivered from some infirmity. So is it said customarily, but not properly. But the Lord made such use of this word in saying, And the truth shall make you free (liberabit), that in the Greek tongue no one could doubt that He spoke of freedom.

2. In short, the Jews also so understood and answered Him; not those who had already believed, but those in that crowd who were not yet believers. They answered Him, We are Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how do you say, You shall be free? But the Lord had not said, You shall be free, but, The truth shall make you free. That word, however, they, because, as I have said, it is clearly so in the Greek, understood as pointing only to freedom, and puffed themselves up as Abraham's seed, and said, We are Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how do you say, You shall be free? O inflated skin! such is not magnanimity, but windy swelling. For even as regards freedom in this life, how was that the truth when you said, We were never in bondage to any man? Was not Joseph sold? [Genesis 37:28] Were not the holy prophets led into captivity? And again, did not that very nation, when making bricks in Egypt, also serve hard rulers, not only in gold and silver, but also in clay? [Exodus 1:14] If you were never in bondage to any man, ungrateful people, why is it that God is continually reminding you that He delivered you from the house of bondage? Or mean you, perchance, that your fathers were in bondage, but you who speak were never in bondage to any man? How then were you now paying tribute to the Romans, out of which also you formed a trap for the Truth Himself, as if to ensnare Him, when you said, Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæsar? in order that, had He said, It is lawful, you might fasten on Him as one ill-disposed to the liberty of Abraham's seed; and if He said, It is not lawful, you might slander Him before the kings of the earth, as forbidding the payment of tribute to such? Deservedly were you defeated on producing the money, and compelled yourselves to concur in your own capture. For there it was told you, Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's, after your own reply, that the money-piece bore the image of Cæsar. [Matthew 22:15-21] For as Cæsar looks for his own image on the coin, so God looks for His in man. Thus, then, did He answer the Jews. I am moved, brethren, by the hollow pride of men, because even of that very freedom of theirs, which they understood carnally, they lied when they said, We were never in bondage to any man.

3. But to the Lord's own answer, let us give better and more earnest heed, lest we ourselves be also found bondmen. For Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that every one who commits sin is the servant of sin. He is the servant — would that it were of man, and not of sin! Who will not tremble at such words? The Lord our God grant us, that is, both you and me, that I may speak in fitting terms of this freedom to be sought, and of that bondage to be avoided. Amen, amen [verily, verily], I say unto you. The Truth speaks: and in what sense does the Lord our God claim it as His to say, Amen, amen, I say unto you? His charge is weighty in so announcing it. In some sort, if lawful to be said, His form of swearing is, Amen, amen, I say unto you. Amen in a way may be interpreted, [It is] true [truly, verily]; and yet it is not interpreted, though it might have been said, What is true [verily] I say unto you. Neither the Greek translator nor the Latin has dared to do so; for this word Amen is neither Greek nor Latin, but Hebrew. So it has remained without interpretation, to possess honor as the covering of something hidden; not in order to be disowned, but that it might not, as a thing laid bare to the eye, fall into disrepute. And yet it is not once, but twice uttered by the Lord, Amen, amen, I say unto you. And now learn from the very doubling, how much was implied in the charge before us.

4. What, then, is the charge given? Verily, verily, I say unto you, says the Truth who surely, though He had not said, Verily, I say, could not possibly lie. Yet [thereby] He impresses, inculcates His charge, arouses in a way the sleeping, makes them attentive, and would not be contemned. What does He say? Verily, verily, I say unto you, that every one who commits sin is the servant of sin. Miserable slavery! Men frequently, when they suffer under wicked masters, demand to get themselves sold, not seeking to be without a master, but at all events to change him. What can the servant of sin do? To whom can he make his demand? To whom apply for redress? Of whom require himself to be sold? And then at times a man's slave, worn out by the commands of an unfeeling master, finds rest in flight. Whither can the servant of sin flee? Himself he carries with him wherever he flees. An evil conscience flees not from itself; it has no place to go to; it follows itself. Yea, he cannot withdraw from himself, for the sin he commits is within. He has committed sin to obtain some bodily pleasure. The pleasure passes away; the sin remains. What delighted is gone; the sting has remained behind. Evil bondage! Sometimes men flee to the Church, and we generally permit them, uninstructed as they are — men, wishing to be rid of their master, who are unwilling to be rid of their sins. But sometimes also those subjected to an unlawful and wicked yoke flee for refuge to the Church; for, though free-born men, they are retained in bondage: and an appeal is made to the bishop. And unless he care to put forth every effort to save free-birth from oppression, he is accounted unmerciful. Let us all flee to Christ, and appeal against sin to God as our deliverer. Let us seek to get ourselves sold, that we may be redeemed by His blood. For the Lord says, You were sold for nought, and you shall be redeemed without money. [Isaiah 52:3] Without price, that is, of your own; because of mine. So says the Lord; for He Himself has paid the price, not in money, but His own blood. Otherwise we had remained both bondmen and indigent.

5. From this bondage, then, we are set free by the Lord alone. He who had it not, Himself delivers us from it; for He alone came without sin in the flesh. For the little ones whom you see carried in their mothers' hands cannot yet walk, and are already in fetters; for they have received from Adam what they are loosened from by Christ. To them also, when baptized, pertains that grace which is promised by the Lord; for He only can deliver from sin who came without sin, and was made a sacrifice for sin. For you heard when the apostle was read: We are ambassadors, he says, for Christ, as though God were exhorting you by us; we beseech you in Christ's stead,— that is, as if Christ were beseeching you, and for what?— to be reconciled unto God. If the apostle exhorts and beseeches us to be reconciled unto God, then were we enemies to God. For no one is reconciled unless from a state of enmity. And we have become enemies not by nature, but by sin. From the same source are we the servants of sin, that we are the enemies of God. God has no enemies in a state of freedom. They must be slaves; and slaves will they remain unless delivered by Him to whom they wished by their sins to be enemies. Therefore, says be, We beseech you in Christ's stead to be reconciled unto God. But how are we reconciled, save by the removal of that which separates between us and Himself? For He says by the prophet, He has not made the ear heavy that it should not hear; but your iniquities have separated between you and your God. [Isaiah 59:1-2] And so, then, we are not reconciled, unless that which is in the midst is taken away, and something else is put in its place. For there is a separating medium, and, on the other hand, there is a reconciling Mediator. The separating medium is sin, the reconciling Mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ: For there is one God and Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. [1 Timothy 2:5] To take then away the separating wall, which is sin, that Mediator has come, and the priest has Himself become the sacrifice. And because He was made a sacrifice for sin, offering Himself as a whole burnt-offering on the cross of His passion, the apostle, after saying, We beseech you in Christ's stead to be reconciled unto God,— as if we had said, How shall we be able to be reconciled?— goes on to say, He has made Him, that is, Christ Himself, who knew no sin, [to be] sin for us, that we may be the righteousness of God in Him, [2 Corinthians 5:20-21] Him, he says, Christ Himself our God, who knew no sin. For He came in the flesh, that is, in the likeness of sinful flesh, [Romans 8:3] but not in sinful flesh, because He had no sin at all; and therefore became a true sacrifice for sin, because He Himself had no sin.

6. But perhaps, through some special perception of my own, I have said that sin is a sacrifice for sin. Let those who have read it be free to acknowledge it; let not those who have not read it be backward; let them not, I say, be backward to read, that they may be truthful in judging. For when God gave commandment about the offering of sacrifices for sin, in which sacrifices there was no expiation of sins, but the shadow of things to come, the self-same sacrifices, the self-same offerings, the self-same victims, the self-same animals, which were brought forward to be slain for sins, and in whose blood that [true] blood was prefigured, are themselves called sins by the law; and that to such an extent that in certain passages it is written in these terms, that the priests, when about to sacrifice, were to lay their hands on the head of the sin, that is, on the head of the victim about to be sacrificed for sin. Such sin, then, that is, such a sacrifice for sin, was our Lord Jesus Christ made, who knew no sin.

7. With efficacious merit does He deliver from this bondage of sin, who says in the psalms: I have become as a man without help, free among the dead. For He only was free, because He had no sin. For He Himself says in the Gospel, Behold, the prince of this world comes, meaning the devil about to come in the persons of the persecuting Jews —behold, He says, he comes, and shall find nothing in me. Not as he found some measure of sin in those whom he also slew as righteous; in me he shall find nothing. And just as if He were asked, If he shall find nothing in You, wherefore will he slay You? He further said, But that all may know that I do the will of my Father, rise and let us go hence. I do not, He says, pay the penalty of death as a necessity of my sinfulness; but in the death I die, I do the will of my Father. And in this, I am doing rather than enduring it; for, were I unwilling, I should not have had the suffering to endure. You have Him saying in another place, I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again. Here surely is one free among the dead.

8. Since, then, every one that commits sin is the servant of sin, listen to what is our hope of liberty. And the servant, He says, abides not in the house forever. The church is the house, the servant is the sinner. Many sinners enter the church. Accordingly He has not said, The servant is not in the house, but abides not in the house forever. If, then, there shall be no servant there, who will be there? For when as the Scripture speaks, the righteous king sits on the throne, who will boast of having a clean heart? Or who will boast that he is pure from his sin? [Proverbs 20:8-9] He has greatly alarmed us, my brethren, by saying, The servant abides not in the house forever. But He further adds, But the Son abides ever. Will Christ, then, be alone in His house? Will no people remain at His side? Whose head will He be, if there shall be no body? Or is the Son all this, both the head and the body? For it is not without cause that He has inspired both terror and hope: terror, in order that we should not love sin; and hope, that we should not be distrustful of the remission of sin. Every one, He says, that commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abides not in the house forever. What hope, then, have we, who are not without sin? Listen to your hope: The Son abides forever. If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, then shall you be free indeed. Our hope is this, brethren, to be made free by the free One; and that, in setting us free, He may make us His servants. For we were the servants of lust; but being set free, we are made the servants of love. This also the apostle says: For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. [Galatians 5:13] Let not then the Christian say, I am free; I have been called unto liberty: I was a slave, but have been redeemed, and by my very redemption have been made free, I shall do what I please: no one may balk me of my will, if I am free. But if you commit sin with such a will, you are the servant of sin. Do not then abuse your liberty for freedom in sinning, but use it for the purpose of sinning not. For only if your will is pious, will it be free. You will be free, if you are a servant still — free from sin, the servant of righteous ness: as the apostle says, When you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. Let us be striving after the latter, and be doing the other.

9. The first stage of liberty is to be free from crimes. Give heed, my brethren, give heed, that I may not by any means mislead your understanding as to the nature of that liberty at present, and what it will be. Sift any one soever of the highest integrity in this life, and however worthy he may already be of the name of upright, yet is he not without sin. Listen to Saint John himself, the author of the Gospel before us, when he says in his epistle, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [1 John 1:8] He alone could say this who was free among the dead: of Him only could it be said, who knew no sin. It could be said only of Him, for He also was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. [Hebrews 4:15] He alone could say, Behold, the prince of this world comes, and shall find nothing in me. Sift any one else, who is accounted righteous, yet is he not in all respects without sin; not even such as was Job, to whom the Lord bore such testimony, that the devil was filled with envy, and demanded that he should be tempted, and was himself defeated in the temptation, to the end that Job might be proved. [Job 1:2] And he was proved for this reason, not that the certainty of his carrying off the conqueror's wreath was unknown to God, but that he might become known as an object of imitation to others. And what says Job himself? For who is clean? Not even the infant whose life is but a day's span upon the earth. But it is plain that many are called righteous without opposition, because the term is understood as meaning, free from crime; for in human affairs there is no just ground of complaint attaching to those who are free from criminal conduct. But crime is grievous sin, deserving in the highest measure to be denounced and condemned. Not, however, that God condemns certain sins, and justifies and praises certain others. He approves of none. He hates them all. As the physician dislikes the ailment of the ailing, and works by his healing measures to get the ailment removed and the ailing relieved; so God by his grace works in us, that sin may be consumed, and man made free. But when, you will be saying, is it consumed? If it is lessened, why is it not consumed? That is growing less in the life of those who are advancing onwards, which is consumed in the life of those who have attained to perfection.

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 whoever was to be ordained to the superintendence 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 ordained: 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? Because, 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, lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; so that you do not the things that you would. [Galatians 5:17] In part liberty, in part bondage: not yet entire, not yet pure, not yet full liberty, 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 Deliverer's mercy, but he who wishes to be self-deceived, and who is destitute of the truth? Hence, from the fact that some infirmity remains, I venture to say that, in what measure we serve God, we are free; in what measure we serve the law of sin, we are still in bondage. Hence says the apostle, what we began to say, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. [Romans 7:22] Here then it is, wherein we are free, wherein we delight in the law of God; for liberty has joy. For as long as it is from fear that you do what is right, God is no delight to you. Find your delight in Him, and you are free. Fear not punishment, but love righteousness. Are you not yet able to love righteousness? Fear even punishment, that you may attain to the love of righteousness.

11. In the measure then spoken of above, he felt himself to be already free, and there 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 righteousness 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 you be free indeed? Indeed he also who thus spoke 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, you 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. [Romans 7:23-25] I 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 you serve the law of sin, do as the apostle himself says: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof: neither yield your members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin. [Romans 6:12-13] He says not, Let it not be; but, Let it not reign. So long as sin must be in your members, let its reigning power at least be taken away, let not its demands be obeyed. Does anger rise? Yield not up your tongue to anger for the purpose of evil-speaking; yield not up your 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 wherewith to fight against you. 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 you 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 possession 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; let it restrain evil desire. There is within something that needs bridling, that needs restraining, 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 members, may every day be lessened in the advancing pilgrim. To will, he says, is present with me; but not so, how to perfect that which is good. [Romans 7:18] Has he said, To 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 perfect 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, You shall not lust [covet]? [Exodus 20:17] To lust not at all is the perfecting of good, because it is the eliminating of evil. This he said, To perfect that which is good is not present with me, because 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, You shall not lust. What then is needed? To fulfill this: Go not after your lusts. [Sirach 18:30] Do this meanwhile so long as unlawful lusts are present in your flesh; Go not after your lusts. Abide in the service of God, in the liberty of Christ. With the mind serve the law of your God. Yield not yourself to your lusts. By following them, you add to their strength. By giving them strength, how can you conquer, when on your own strength you are nourishing enemies against yourself?

13. What then is that full and perfect liberty in the Lord Jesus, who said, If the Son shall make you free, then shall you be free indeed; and when shall it be a full and perfect liberty? When enmities are no more; when death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.— And when this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your struggle? What is this, O death, where is your struggle? The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, but only when the flesh of sin was in vigor. O death, where is [now] your 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. [2 Corinthians 5:15] Let us be praying, as those who are wounded, for the physician; 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 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 ambassadors for Christ. He gave also two pence to pay for the healing of the wounded man. [Luke 10:30-35] And perhaps these are the two commandments, on which hang all the law and the prophets. [Matthew 22:37-40] Therefore, brethren, is the Church also, wherein the wounded is healed meanwhile, the traveller's inn; but above the Church itself, lies the possessor's inheritance.