Other Writings, Part 13

1. Our Lord, in the form of a servant, yet not a servant, but even in servant-form the Lord (for that form of flesh was indeed servant-like; but though He was in the likeness of sinful flesh, [Romans 8:3] yet was He not sinful flesh) promised freedom to those who believed in Him. But the Jews, as if proudly glorying in their own freedom, refused with indignation to be made free, when they were the servants of sin. And therefore they said that they were free, because Abraham's seed. What answer, then, the Lord gave them to this, we have heard in the reading of this day's lesson. I know, He said, that you are Abraham's children; but you seek to kill me, because my word takes no hold in you. I recognize you, He says; You are the children of Abraham, but you seek to kill me. I recognize the fleshly origin, not the believing heart. You are the children of Abraham, but after the flesh. Therefore He says, You seek to kill me, because my word takes no hold in you. If my word were taken, it would take hold: if you were taken, you would be enclosed like fishes within the meshes of faith. What then means that — takes no hold in you? It takes not hold of your heart, because not received by your heart. For so is the word of God, and so it ought to be to believers, as a hook to the fish: it takes when it is taken. No injury is done to those who are taken; since they are taken for salvation, and not for destruction. Hence the Lord says to His disciples: Come after me, and I shall make you fishers of men. [Matthew 4:19] But such were not these; and yet they were the children of Abraham — children of a man of God, unrighteous themselves. For they inherited the fleshly genus, but had become degenerate, by not imitating the faith of him whose children they were.

2. You have heard, indeed, the Lord saying, I know that you are Abraham's children. Hear what He says afterwards: I speak that which I have seen with my Father; and you do that which you have seen with your father. He had already said, I know that you are Abraham's children. What is it, then, that they do? What He told them: You seek to kill me. This they never saw with Abraham. But the Lord wishes God the Father to be understood when He says, I speak that which I have seen with my Father. I have seen the truth: I speak the truth, because I am the Truth. For if the Lord speaks the truth which He has seen with the Father, He has seen Himself — He speaks Himself; because He Himself is the Truth of the Father, which He saw with the Father. For He is the Word — the Word which was with God. The evil, then, which these men do, and which the Lord chides and reprehends, where have they seen it? With their father. When we come to hear in what follows the still clearer statement who is their father, then shall we understand what kind of things they saw with such a father; for as yet He names not their father. A little above He referred to Abraham, but in regard to their fleshly origin, not their similarity of life. He is about to speak of that other father of theirs, who neither begot them nor created them to be men. But still they were his children in as far as they were evil, not in as far as they were men; in what they imitated him, and not as created by him.

3. They answered and said to Him, Abraham is our father; as if, What have you to say against Abraham? Or, If you can, dare to find fault with Abraham. Not that the Lord dared not find fault with Abraham; but Abraham was not one to be found fault with by the Lord, but rather approved. But these men seemed to challenge Him to say some evil of Abraham, and so to have some occasion for doing what they purposed. Abraham is our father.

4. Let us hear how the Lord answered them, praising Abraham to their condemnation. Jesus says unto them, If you are Abraham's children, do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man that has told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. See, he was praised, they were condemned. Abraham was no manslayer. I say not, He implies, I am Abraham's Lord; though did I say it, I would say the truth. For He said in another place, Before Abraham was, I am [John 8:58]; and then they sought to stone Him. He said not so. But meanwhile, as you see me, as you look upon me, as alone you think of me, I am a man. Wherefore, then, wish you to kill a man who is telling you what he has heard of God, but because you are not the children of Abraham? And yet He said above, I know that you are Abraham's children. He does not deny their origin, but condemns their deeds. Their flesh was from him, but not their life.

5. But we, dearly beloved, do we come of Abraham's race, or was Abraham in any sense our father according to the flesh? The flesh of the Jews draws its origin from his flesh, not so the flesh of Christians. We have come of other nations, and yet, by imitating him, we have become the children of Abraham. Listen to the apostle: To Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. He says not, he adds, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ. And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. We then have become Abraham's seed by the grace of God. It was not of Abraham's flesh that God made any co-heirs with him. He disinherited the former, He adopted the latter; and from that olive tree whose root is in the patriarchs, He cut off the proud natural branches, and engrafted the lowly wild olive. [Romans 11:17] And so, when the Jews came to John to be baptized, he broke out upon them, and addressed them, O generation of vipers. Very greatly indeed did they boast of the loftiness of their origin, but he called them a generation of vipers — not even of human beings, but of vipers. He saw the form of men, but detected the poison. Yet they had come to be changed, because at all events to be baptized; and he said to them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. [Matthew 3:7-9] If you bring not forth fruits meet for repentance, flatter not yourselves about such a lineage. God is able to condemn you, without defrauding Abraham of children. For He has a way to raise up children to Abraham. Those who imitate his faith shall be made his children. God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Such are we. In our parents we were stones, when we worshipped stones for our god. Of such stones God has created a family to Abraham.

6. Why, then, does this empty and vain bragging exalt itself? Let them cease boasting that they are the children of Abraham. They have heard what they ought to have heard: If you are the children of Abraham, prove it by your deeds, not by words. You seek to kill me, a man;— I say not, meanwhile, the Son of God; I say not God; I say not the Word, for the Word dies not. I say merely this that you see; for only what you see can you kill, and whom you see not can you offend. This, then, did not Abraham. You do the works of your father. And as yet He says not who is that father of theirs.

7. And now what answer did they give Him? For they began somewhat to realize that the Lord was not speaking of carnal generation, but of their manner of life. And because it is the custom of the Scriptures, which they read, to call it, in a spiritual sense, fornication, when the soul is, as it were, prostituted by subjection to many false gods, they made this reply: Then said they to Him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Abraham has now lost his importance. For they were repulsed as they ought to have been by the truth-speaking mouth; because such was Abraham, whose deeds they failed to imitate, and yet gloried in his lineage. And they altered their reply, saying, I believe, with themselves, As often as we name Abraham, he goes on to say to us, Why do you not imitate him in whose lineage you glory? Such a man, so holy, just, and guileless, we cannot imitate. Let us call God our Father, and see what he will say to us.

8. Has falsehood indeed found something to say, and should not truth find its fitting reply? Let us hear what they say: let us hear what they hear. We have one Father, they say, even God. Then said Jesus unto them, If God were your Father, you would [doubtless] love me; for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but He sent me. You call God Father; recognize me, then, as at least a brother. At the same time He gave a stimulus to the hearts of the intelligent, by touching on that which He has a habit of saying, I came not of myself: He sent me. I proceeded forth and came from God. Remember what we are wont to say: From Him He came; and from whom He came, with Him He came. The sending of Christ, therefore, is His incarnation. But as respects the proceeding forth of the Word from God, it is an eternal procession. Time holds not Him by whom time was created. Let no one be saying in his heart, Before the Word was, how did God exist? Never say, Before the Word of God was. God was never without the Word, because the Word is abiding, not transient; God, not a sound; by whom the heaven and earth were made, and which passed not away with those things that were made upon the earth. From Him, then, He proceeded forth as God, the equal, the only Son, the Word of the Father; and came to us, for the Word was made flesh that He might dwell among us. His coming indicates His humanity; His abiding, His divinity. It is His Godhead towards which, His humanity whereby, we make progress. Had He not become that whereby we might advance, we should never attain to Him who abides ever.

9. Why, He says, do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear my word. And so they could not understand, because they could not hear. And whence could they not hear, but just because they refused to be set right by believing? And why so? You are of your father the devil. How long do you keep speaking of a father? How often will you change your fathers — at one time Abraham, at another God? Hear from the Son of God whose children you are: You are of your father the devil.

10. Here, now, we must beware of the heresy of the Manicheans, which affirms that there is a certain principle of evil, and a certain family of darkness with its princes, which had the presumption to fight against God; but that God, not to let His kingdom be subdued by the hostile family, dispatched against them, as it were, His own offspring, princes of His own [kingdom of] light; and so subdued that race from which the devil derives his origin. From thence, also, they say our flesh derives its origin, and accordingly think the Lord said, You are of your father the devil, because they were evil, as it were, by nature, deriving their origin from the opposing family of darkness. So they err, so their eyes are blinded, so they make themselves the family of darkness, by believing a falsehood against Him who created them. For every nature is good; but man's nature has been corrupted by an evil will. What God made cannot be evil, if man were not [a cause of] evil to himself. But surely the Creator is Creator, and the creature a creature [a thing created]. The creature cannot be put on a level with the Creator. Distinguish between Him who made, and that which He made. The bench cannot be put on a level with the mechanic, nor the pillar with its builder; and yet the mechanic, though he made the bench, did not himself create the wood. But the Lord our God, in His omnipotence and by the Word, made what He made. He had no materials out of which to make all that He made, and yet He made it. For they were made because He willed it, they were made because He said it; but the things made cannot be compared with the Maker. If you seek a proper subject of comparison, turn your mind to the only-begotten Son. How, then, were the Jews the children of the devil? By imitation, not by birth. Listen to the usual language of the Holy Scriptures. The prophet says to those very Jews, Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite. [Ezekiel 16:3] The Amorites were not a nation that gave origin to the Jews. The Hittites also were themselves of a nation altogether different from the race of the Jews. But because the Amorites and Hittites were impious, and the Jews imitated their impieties, they found parents for themselves, not of whom they were born, but in whose damnation they should share, because following their customs. But perhaps you inquire, Whence is the devil himself? From the same source certainly as the other angels. But the other angels continued in their obedi ence. He, by disobedience and pride, fell as an angel, and became a devil.

11. But listen now to what the Lord says: You, said He, are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. This is how you are his children, because such are your lusts, not because you are born of him. What are his lusts? He was a murderer from the beginning. This it is that explains, the lusts of your father you will do. You seek to kill me, a man that tells you the truth. He, too, had ill-will to man, and slew man. For the devil, in his ill-will to man, assuming the guise of a serpent, spoke to the woman, and from the woman instilled his poison into the man. They died by listening to the devil, [Genesis 3:1] whom they would not have listened to had they but listened to the Lord; for man, having his place between Him who created and him who was fallen, ought to have obeyed the Creator, not the deceiver. Therefore he was a murderer from the beginning. Look at the kind of murder, brethren. The devil is called a murderer not as armed with a sword, or girded with steel. He came to man, sowed his evil suggestions, and slew him. Think not, then, that you are not a murderer when you persuade your brother to evil. If you persuade your brother to evil, you slay him. And to let you know that you slay him, listen to the psalm: The sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. You, then, will do the lusts of your father; and so you go madly after the flesh, because you cannot go after the spirit. He was a murderer from the beginning; at least in the case of the first of mankind. From the very time that murder [manslaughter] could possibly be committed, he was a murderer [manslayer]. Only from the time that man was made could manslaughter be committed. For man could not be slain unless man was previously made. Therefore, he was a murderer from the beginning. And whence a murderer? And he stood [abode] not in the truth. Therefore he was in the truth, and fell by not standing in it. And why stood he not in the truth? Because the truth is not in him; not as in Christ. In such a way is the truth [in Him], that Christ Himself is the Truth. If, then, he had stood in the truth, he would have stood in Christ; but he abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

12. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. What is this? You have heard the words of the Gospel: you have received them with attention. Here now, I repeat them, that you may clearly understand the subject of your thoughts. The Lord said those things of the devil which ought to have been said of the devil by the Lord. That he was a murderer from the beginning is true, for he slew the first man; and he abode not in the truth, for he lapsed from the truth. When he speaks a lie, to wit, the devil himself, he speaks of his own; for he is a liar, and its [his] father. From these words some have thought that the devil has a father, and have inquired who was the father of the devil. Indeed this detestable error of the Manicheans has found means down to this present time wherewith to deceive the simple. For they are wont to say, Suppose that the devil was an angel, and fell; and with him sin began as you say; but, Who was his father? We, on the contrary, reply, Who of us ever said that the devil had a father? And they, on the other hand, rejoin, The Lord says, and the Gospel declares, speaking of the devil, He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and his father.

13. Hear and understand. I shall not send you far away [for the meaning]; understand it from the words themselves. The Lord called the devil the father of falsehood. What is this? Hear what it is, only revolve the words themselves, and understand. It is not every one who tells a lie that is the father of his lie. For if you have got a lie from another, and uttered it, thou indeed hast lied in giving utterance to the lie; but you are not the father of that lie, because you have got it from another. But the devil was a liar of himself. He begot his own falsehood; he heard it from no one. As God the Father begot as His Son the Truth, so the devil, having fallen, begot falsehood as his son. Hearing this, recall now and reflect upon the words of the Lord. You catholic minds, consider what you have heard; attend to what He says. He— who? The devil— was a murderer from the beginning. We admit it — he slew Adam. And he abode not in the truth. We admit it, for he lapsed from the truth. Because there is no truth in him. True: by falling away from the truth he has lost its possession. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. He is both a liar, and the father of lies. For thou, it may be, are a liar, because you utter a lie; but you are not its father. For if you have got what you say from the devil, and hast believed the devil, you are a liar, but not the father of the lie. But he, because he got not elsewhere the lie wherewith in serpent-form he slew man as if by poison, is the father of lies just as God is Father of truth. Withdraw, then, from the father of lies: make haste to the Father of truth; embrace the truth, that you may enter into liberty.

14. Those Jews, then, spoke what they saw with their father. And what was that but falsehood? But the Lord saw with His Father what He should speak; and what was that, but Himself? What, but the Word of the Father? What, but the truth of the Father, eternal itself, and co-eternal with the Father? He, then, was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him; when he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar, — and not only a liar, but also the father of it; that is, of the very lie that he speaks he is the father, for he himself begot his lie. And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of you convicts me of sin, as I convict both you and your father? If I say the truth, why do you not believe me, but just because you are the children of the devil?

15. He that is of God hears God's words: you therefore hear them not, because you are not of God. Here, again, it is not of their nature as men, but of their depravity, that you are to think. In this way they are of God, and yet not of God. By nature they are of God, in depravity they are not of God. Give heed, I pray you. In the gospel you have the remedy against the poisonous and impious errors of the heretics. For of these words also the Manicheans are accustomed to say, See, here there are two natures, — the one good and the other bad; the Lord says it. What says the Lord? You therefore hear me not, because you are not of God. This is what the Lord says. What then, he rejoins, do you say to that? Hear what I say. They are both of God, and not of God. By nature they are of God: by depravity they are not of God; for the good nature which is of God sinned voluntarily by believing the persuasive words of the devil, and was corrupted; and so it is seeking a physician, because no longer in health. That is what I say. But you think it impossible that they should be of God, and yet not of God. Hear why it is not impossible. They are of God, and yet not of God, in the same way as they are the children of Abraham, and yet not the children of Abraham. Here you have it. It is not as you say. Hearken to the Lord Himself; it is He that said to them, I know that you are the children of Abraham. Could there be any lie with the Lord? Surely not. Then is it true what the Lord said? It is true. Then it is true that they were the children of Abraham? It is true. But listen to Himself denying it. He who said, You are the children of Abraham, Himself denied that they were the children of Abraham. If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that tells you the truth, which I have heard from God: this did not Abraham. You do the works of your father, that is, of the devil. How, then, were they both Abraham's children, and yet not his children? Both states He showed in them. They were both Abraham's children in their carnal origin, and not his children in the sin of following the persuasion of the devil. So, also, apply it to our Lord and God, that they were both of Him, and not of Him. How were they of Him? Because He it was that created the man of whom they were born. How were they of Him? Because He is the Architect of nature, — Himself the Creator of flesh and spirit. How, then, were they not of Him? Because they had made themselves depraved. They were no longer of Him, because, imitating the devil, they had become the children of the devil.

16. Therefore came the Lord God to man as a sinner. You have heard the two names, both man and sinner. As man, he is of God; as a sinner, he is not of God. Let the moral evil in man be distinguished from his nature. Let that nature be owned, to the praise of the Creator; let the evil be acknowledged, that the physician may be called in to its cure. When the Lord then said, He that is of God hears the words of God: you therefore hear them not, because you are not of God. He did not distinguish the value of different natures, or find, beyond their own soul and body, any nature in men which had not been vitiated by sin; but foreknowing those who should yet believe, them He called of God, because yet to be born again of God by the adoption of regeneration. To these apply the words He that is of God hears the words of God. But that which follows, You therefore hear them not, because you are not of God, was said to those who were not only corrupted by sin (for this evil was common to all), but also foreknown as those who would not believe with the faith that alone could deliver them from the bondage of sin. On this account He foreknew that those to whom He so spoke would continue in that which they derived from the devil, that is, in their sins, and would die in the impiety in which they resembled him; and would not come to the regeneration wherein they would be the children of God, that is, be born of the God by whom they were created as men. In accordance with this predestinating purpose did the Lord speak; and not that He had found any man among them who either by regeneration was already of God, or by nature was no longer of God.

1. In that lesson of the holy Gospel which has been read today, from power we learn patience. For what are we as servants to the Lord, as sinners to the Just One, as creatures to the Creator? Howbeit, just as in what we are evil, we are so of ourselves; so in whatever respects we are good, we are so of Him, and through Him. And nothing does man so seek as he does power. He has great power in the Lord Christ; but let him first imitate His patience, that he may attain to power. Who of us would listen with patience if it were said to him, You have a devil? As was said to Him, who was not only bringing men to salvation, but also subjecting devils to His authority.

2. For when the Jews had said, Say we not well that you are a Samaritan, and hast a devil? of these two charges cast at Him, He denied the one, but not the other. For He answered and said, I have not a devil. He did not say, I am not a Samaritan; and yet the two charges had been made. Although He returned not cursing with cursing, although He met not slander with slander, yet was it proper for Him to deny the one charge and not to deny the other. And not without a purpose, brethren. For Samaritan means keeper. He knew that He was our keeper. For He that keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps; and, Except the Lord keep the city, they wake in vain who keep it. He then is our Keeper who is our Creator. For did it belong to Him to redeem us, and would it not be His to preserve us? Finally, that you may know more fully the hidden reason why He ought not to have denied that He was a Samaritan, call to mind that well-known parable, where a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who wounded him severely, and left him half dead on the road. A priest came along and took no notice of him. A Levite came up, and he also passed on his way. A certain Samaritan came up — He who is our Keeper. He went up to the wounded man. He exercised mercy, and did a neighbor's part to one whom He did not account an alien. [Luke 10:30-37] To this, then, He only replied that He had not a devil, but not that He was not a Samaritan.

3. And then after such an insult, this was all that He said of His own glory: But I honor, said He, my Father, and you dishonor me. That is, I honor not myself, that you may not think me arrogant. I have One to honor; and if you recognized me, just as I honor the Father, so would you also honor me. I do what I ought; you do not what you ought.

4. And I, said He, seek not my own glory: there is one that seeks and judges. Whom does He wish to be understood but the Father? How, then, does He say in another place, The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son, while here He says, I seek not my own glory: there is one that seeks and judges? If, then, the Father judges, how is it that He judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son?

5. In order to solve this point, attend. It may be solved by [quoting] a similar mode of speaking. You have it written, God tempts not any man; [James 1:13] and again you have it written, The Lord your God tempts you, to know whether you love Him. [Deuteronomy 13:3] Just the point in dispute, you see. For how does God tempt not any man, and how does the Lord your God tempt you, to know whether you love Him? It is also written, There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear; [1 John 4:18] and in another place it is written, The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. Here also is the point in dispute. For how does perfect love cast out fear, if the fear of the Lord, which is clean, endures for ever?

6. We are to understand, then, that there are two kinds of temptation: one, that deceives; the other, that proves. As regards that which deceives, God tempts not any man; as regards that which proves, the Lord your God tempts you, that He may know whether you love Him. But here again, also, there arises another question, how He tempts that He may know, from whom, prior to the temptation, nothing can be hid. It is not that God is ignorant; but it is said, that He may know, that is, that He may make you to know. Such modes of speaking are found both in our ordinary conversation, and in writers of eloquence. Let me say a word on our style of conversation. We speak of a blind ditch, not because it has lost its eyes, but because by lying hid it makes us blind to its existence. One speaks of bitter lupins, that is, sour; not that they themselves are bitter, but because they occasion bitterness to those who taste them. And so there are also expressions of this sort in Scripture. Those who take the trouble to attain a knowledge of such points have no trouble in solving them. And so the Lord your God tempts you, that He may know. What is this, that He may know? That He may make you to know if you love Him. Job was unknown to himself, but he was not unknown to God. He led the tempter into [Job], and brought him to a knowledge of himself.

7. What then of the two fears? There is a servile fear, and there is a clean [chaste] fear: there is the fear of suffering punishment, there is another fear of losing righteousness. That fear of suffering punishment is slavish. What great thing is it to fear punishment? The vilest slave and the cruelest robber do so. It is no great thing to fear punishment, but great it is to love righteousness. Has he, then, who loves righteousness no fear? Certainly he has; not of incurring of punishment, but of losing righteousness. My brethren, assure yourselves of it, and draw your inference from that which you love. Some one of you is fond of money. Can I find any one, think you, who is not so? Yet from this very thing which he loves he may understand my meaning. He is afraid of loss: why is he so? Because he loves money. In the same measure that he loves money, is he afraid of losing it. So, then, some one is found to be a lover of righteousness, who at heart is much more afraid of its loss, who dreads more being stripped of his righteousness, than thou of your money. This is the fear that is clean — this [the fear] that endures forever. It is not this that love makes away with, or casts out, but rather embraces it, and keeps it with it, and possesses it as a companion. For we come to the Lord that we may see Him face to face. And there it is this pure fear that preserves us; for such a fear as that does not disturb, but reassure. The adulterous woman fears the coming of her husband, and the chaste one fears her husband's departure.

8. Therefore, as, according to one kind of temptation, God tempts not any man; but according to another, The Lord your God tempts you; and according to one kind of fear, there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear; but according to another, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever;— so also, in this passage, according to one kind of judgment, the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son; and according to another, I, said He, seek not my own glory: there is one that seeks and judges.

9. This point may also be solved from the word itself. You have penal judgment spoken of in the Gospel: He that believes not is judged already; and in another place, The hour is coming, when those who are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment. You see how He has put judgment for condemnation and punishment. And yet if judgment were always to be taken for condemnation, should we ever have heard in the psalm, Judge me, O God? In the former place, judgment is used in the sense of inflicting pain; here, it is used in the sense of discernment. How so? Just because so expounded by him who says, Judge me, O God. For read, and see what follows. What is this Judge me, O God, but just what he adds, and discern my cause against an unholy nation? Because then it was said, Judge me, O God, and discern [the true merits of] my cause against an unholy nation; similarly now said the Lord Christ, I seek not my own glory: there is one that seeks and judges. How is there one that seeks and judges? There is the Father, who discerns and distinguishes between my glory and yours. For you glory in the spirit of this present world. Not so do I who say to the Father, Father, glorify Thou me with that glory which I had with You before the world was. [John 17:5] What is that glory? One altogether different from human inflation. Thus does the Father judge. And so to judge is to discern. And what does He discern? The glory of His Son from the glory of mere men; for to that end is it said, God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows. For not because He became man is He now to be compared with us. We, as men, are sinful, He is sinless; we, as men, inherit from Adam both death and delinquency, He received from the Virgin mortal flesh, but no iniquity. In fine, neither because we wish it are we born, nor as long as we wish it do we live, nor in the way that we wish it do we die: but He, before He was born, chose of whom He should be born; at His birth He brought about the adoration of the Magi; He grew as an infant, and showed Himself God by His miracles, and surpassed man in His weakness. Lastly, He chose also the manner of His death, that is, to be hung on the cross, and to fasten the cross itself on the foreheads of believers, so that the Christian may say, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. [Galatians 6:14] On the very cross, when He pleased, He made His body be taken down, and departed; in the very sepulchre, as long as it pleased Him, He lay; and, when He pleased, He arose as from a bed. So, then, brethren, in respect to His very form as a servant (for who can speak of that other form as it ought to be spoken of, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God?) — in respect, I say, to His very form as a servant, the difference is great between the glory of Christ and the glory of other men. Of that glory He spoke, when the devil-possessed heard Him say, I seek not my own glory: there is one that seeks and judges.

10. But what do You say, O Lord, of Yourself? Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. You say, You have a devil. I call you to life: keep my word and you shall not die. They heard, He shall never see death who keeps my word, and were angry, because already dead in that death from which they might have escaped. Then said the Jews, Now we know that you have a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and you say, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. See how Scripture speaks: He shall not see, that is, taste of death. He shall see death — he shall taste of death. Who sees? Who tastes? What eyes has a man to see with when he dies? When death at its coming shuts up those very eyes from seeing anything, how is it said, he shall not see death? With what palate, also, and with what jaws can death be tasted, that its savor may be discovered? When it takes every sense away, what will remain in the palate? But here, he will see, and he will taste, are used for that which is really the case, he will know by experience.

11. Thus spoke the Lord (it is scarcely sufficient to say), as one dying to dying men; for to the Lord also belong the issues from death, as says the psalm. Seeing, then, He was both speaking to those destined to die, and speaking as one appointed to death Himself, what mean His words, He who keeps my saying shall never see death; save that the Lord saw another death, from which He had come to deliver us — the second death, death eternal, the death of hell, the death of damnation with the devil and his angels? This is real death; for that other is only a removal. What is that other death? The leaving of the body — the laying down of a heavy burden; provided another burden be not carried away, to drag the man headlong to hell. Of that real death then did the Lord say, He who keeps my saying shall never see death.

12. Let us not be frightened at that other death, but let us fear this one. But, what is very grievous, many, through a perverse fear of that other, have fallen into this. It has been said to some, Adore idols; for if you do it not, you shall be put to death: or, as Nebuchadnezzar said, If you do not, you shall be thrown into the furnace of flaming fire. Many feared and adored. Shrinking from death, they died. Through fear of the death which cannot be escaped, they fell into that which they might happily have escaped, had they not, unhappily, been afraid of that which is inevitable. As a man, you are born — art destined to die. Whither will you go to escape death? What will you do to escape it? That your Lord might comfort you in your necessary subjection to death, of His own good pleasure He condescended to die. When you see the Christ lying dead, are you reluctant to die? Die then you must; you have no means of escape. Be it today, be it tomorrow; it is to be — the debt must be paid. What, then, does a man gain by fearing, fleeing, hiding himself from discovery by his enemy? Does he get exemption from death? No, but that he may die a little later. He gets not security against his debt, but asks a respite. Put it off as long as you please, the thing so delayed will come at last. Let us fear that death which the three men feared when they said to the king, God is able to deliver us even from that flame; and if not, etc. [Daniel 3:16-18] There was there the fear of that death which the Lord now threatens, when they said, But also if He be not willing openly to deliver us, He can crown us with victory in secret. Whence also the Lord, when on the eve of appointing martyrs and becoming the head-martyr Himself, said, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. How have they no more that they can do? What if, after having slain one, they threw his body to be mangled by wild beasts, and torn to pieces by birds? Cruelty seems still to have something it can do. But to whom is it done? He has departed. The body is there, but without feeling. The tenement lies on the ground, the tenant is gone. And so after that they have no more that they can do; for they can do nothing to that which is without sensation. But fear Him who has power to destroy both body and soul, in hell fire. Here is the death that He spoke of when He said, He that keeps my saying shall never see death. Let us keep then, brethren, His own word in faith, as those who are yet to attain to sight, when the liberty we receive has reached its fullness.

13. But those men, indignant, yet dead, and predestinated to death eternal, answered with insults, and said, Now we know that you have a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets. But not in that death which the Lord meant to be understood was either Abraham dead or the prophets. For these were dead, and yet they live: those others were alive, and yet they had died. For, replying in a certain place to the Sadducees, when they stirred the question of the resurrection, the Lord Himself speaks thus: But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read how the Lord said to Moses from the bush, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. If, then, they live, let us labor so to live, that after death we may be able to live with them. Whom makest you yourself, they add, that you say, he shall never see death who keeps my saying, when you know that both Abraham is dead and the prophets?

14. Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing: it is my Father that glorifies me. He said this on account of their saying, Whom makest you yourself? For He refers His glory to the Father, of whom it is that He is God. From this expression also the Arians sometimes revile our faith, and say, See, the Father is greater; for at all events He glorifies the Son. Heretic, have you not read of the Son Himself also saying that He glorifies His Father? If both He glorifies the Son, and the Son glorifies the Father, lay aside your stubbornness, acknowledge the equality, correct your perversity.

15. It is, then, said He, my Father that glorifies me; of whom you say, that He is your God: and you have not known Him. See, my brethren, how He shows that God Himself is the Father of the Christ, who was announced also to the Jews. I say so for this reason, that now again there are certain heretics who say that the God revealed in the Old Testament is not the Father of Christ, but some prince or other, I know not what, of evil angels. There are Manicheans who say so; there are Marcionites who say so. There are also, perhaps, other heretics, whom it is either unnecessary to mention, or all of whom I cannot at present recall; yet there have not been wanting those who said this. Attend, then, that you may have something also to affirm against such. Christ the Lord calls Him His Father whom they called their God, and did not know; for had they known [that God] Himself they would have received His Son. But I, said He, know Him. To those judging after the flesh He might have seemed from such words to be self-assuming, because He said, I know Him. But see what follows: If I should say that I know Him not, I shall be a liar like you. Let not, then, self-assumption be so guarded against as to cause the relinquishment of truth. But I know Him, and keep His saying. The saying of the Father He was speaking as Son; and He Himself was the Word of the Father, that was speaking to men.

16. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw, and was glad. Abraham's seed, Abraham's Creator, bears a great testimony to Abraham. Abraham rejoiced, He says, to see my day. He did not fear, but rejoiced to see it. For in him there was the love that casts out fear. [1 John 4:18] He says not, rejoiced because he saw; but rejoiced that he might see. Believing, at all events, he rejoiced in hope to see with the understanding. And he saw. And what more could the Lord Jesus Christ say, or what more ought He to have said? And he saw, He says, and was glad. Who can unfold this joy, my brethren? If those rejoiced whose bodily eyes were opened by the Lord, what joy was his who saw with the eyes of his soul the light ineffable, the abiding Word, the brilliance that dazzles the minds of the pious, the unfailing Wisdom, God abiding with the Father, and at some time come in the flesh and yet not to withdraw from the bosom of the Father? All this did Abraham see. For in saying my day, it may be uncertain of what He spoke; whether the day of the Lord in time, when He should come the flesh, or that day of the Lord which knows not a dawn, and knows no decline. But for my part I doubt not that father Abraham knew it all. And where shall I find it out? Ought the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ to satisfy us? Let us suppose that we cannot find it out, for perhaps it is difficult to say in what sense it is clear that Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ, and saw it, and was glad. And though we find it not, can the Truth have lied? Let us believe the Truth, and cherish no doubt of Abraham's merited rewards. Yet listen to one passage that occurs to me meanwhile. When father Abraham sent his servant to seek a wife for his son Isaac, he bound him by this oath, to fulfill faithfully what he was commanded, and know also for himself what to do. For it was a great matter that was in hand when marriage was sought for Abraham's seed. But that the servant might apprehend what Abraham knew, that it was not offspring after the flesh he desired, nor anything of a carnal kind concerning his race that was referred to, he said to the servant whom he sent, Put your hand under my thigh, and swear by the God of heaven. [Genesis 24:2-4] What connection has the God of heaven with Abraham's thigh? Already you understand the mystery: by thigh is meant race. And what was that swearing, but the signifying that of Abraham's race would the God of heaven come in the flesh? Fools find fault with Abraham because he said, Put your hand under my thigh. Those who find fault with Christ's flesh find fault with Abraham's conduct. But let us, brethren, if we acknowledge the flesh of Christ as worthy of veneration, despise not that thigh, but receive it as spoken of prophetically. For a prophet also was Abraham. Whose prophet? Of his own seed, and of his Lord. To his own seed he pointed in saying, Put your hand under my thigh. To his Lord he pointed in adding, and swear by the God of heaven.

17. The angry Jews replied, You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? And the Lord: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was made, I am. Weigh the words, and get a knowledge of the mystery. Before Abraham was made. Understand, that was made refers to human formation; but am to the Divine essence. He was made, because Abraham was a creature. He did not say, Before Abraham was, I was; but, Before Abraham was made, who was not made save by me, I am. Nor did He say this, Before Abraham was made I was made; for In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; [Genesis 1:1] and in the beginning was the Word. Before Abraham was made, I am. Recognize the Creator — distinguish the creature. He who spoke was made the seed of Abraham; and that Abraham might be made, He Himself was before Abraham.

18. Hence, as if by the most open of all insults thrown at Abraham, they were now excited to greater bitterness. Of a certainty it seemed to them that Christ the Lord had uttered blasphemy in saying, Before Abraham was made, I am. Therefore took they up stones to cast at Him. To what could so great hardness have recourse, save to its like? But Jesus [acts] as man, as one in the form of a servant, as lowly, as about to suffer, about to die, about to redeem us with His blood; not as He who is — not as the Word in the beginning, and the Word with God. For when they took up stones to cast at Him, what great thing were it had they been instantly swallowed up in the gaping earth, and found the inhabitants of hell in place of stones? It were not a great thing to God; but better was it that patience should be commended than power exerted. Therefore He hid Himself from them, that He might not be stoned. As man, He fled from the stones; but woe to those from whose stony hearts God has fled?

1. We have just read the long lesson of the man born blind, whom the Lord Jesus restored to the light; but were we to attempt handling the whole of it, and considering, according to our ability, each passage in a way proportionate to its worth, the day would be insufficient. Wherefore I ask and warn your Charity not to require any words of ours on those passages whose meaning is manifest; for it would be too protracted to linger at each. I proceed, therefore, to set forth briefly the mystery of this blind man's enlightenment. All, certainly, that was done by our Lord Jesus Christ, both works and words, are worthy of our astonishment and admiration: His works, because they are facts; His words, because they are signs. If we reflect, then, on what is signified by the deed here done, that blind man is the human race; for this blindness had place in the first man, through sin, from whom we all draw our origin, not only in respect of death, but also of unrighteousness. For if unbelief is blindness, and faith enlightenment, whom did Christ find a believer at His coming? Seeing that the apostle, belonging himself to the family of the prophets, says: And we also in times past were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. [Ephesians 2:3] If children of wrath, then children of vengeance, children of punishment, children of hell. For how is it by nature, save that through the first man sinning moral evil rooted itself in us as a nature? If evil has so taken root within us, every man is born mentally blind. For if he sees, he has no need of a guide. If he does need one to guide and enlighten him, then is he blind from his birth.

2. The Lord came: what did He do? He set forth a great mystery. He spat on the ground, He made clay of His spittle; for the Word was made flesh. And He anointed the eyes of the blind man. The anointing had taken place, and yet he saw not. He sent him to the pool which is called Siloam. But it was the evangelist's concern to call our attention to the name of this pool; and he adds, Which is interpreted, Sent. You understand now who it is that was sent; for had He not been sent, none of us would have been set free from iniquity. Accordingly he washed his eyes in that pool which is interpreted, Sent — he was baptized in Christ. If, therefore, when He baptized him in a manner in Himself, He then enlightened him; when He anointed Him, perhaps He made him a catechumen. In many different ways indeed may the profound meaning of such a sacramental act be set forth and handled; but let this suffice your Charity. You have heard a great mystery. Ask a man, Are you a Christian? His answer to you is, I am not, if he is a pagan or a Jew. But if he says, I am; you inquire again of him, Are you a catechumen or a believer? If he reply, A catechumen; he has been anointed, but not yet washed. But how anointed? Inquire, and he will answer you. Inquire of him in whom he believes. In that very respect in which he is a catechumen he says, In Christ. See, I am speaking in a way both to the faithful and to catechumens. What have I said of the spittle and the clay? That the Word was made flesh. This even catechumens hear; but that to which they have been anointed is not all they need; let them hasten to the font if they are in search of enlightenment.

3. And now, because of certain points in the lesson before us, let us run over the words of the Lord, and of the whole lesson itself rather than make them a theme of discourse. As He passed out, He saw a man who was blind; blind, not from any cause whatever, but from his birth. And His disciples asked Him, Rabbi. You know that Rabbi is Master. They called Him Master, because they desired to learn. The question, at all events, they proposed to the Lord as a master, Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents, that he was born blind. What is this that He has said? If no man is sinless, were the parents of this blind man without sin? Was he himself either born without original sin, or had he committed none in the course of his lifetime? Because his eyes were closed, had his lusts lost their wakefulness? How many evils are done by the blind? From what evil does an evil mind abstain, even though the eyes are closed? He could not see, but he knew how to think, and perchance to lust after something which his blindness hindered him from attaining, and so still in his heart to be judged by the searcher of hearts. If, then, both his parents had sin, and the man himself had sin, wherefore said the Lord, Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents, but only in respect to the point on which he was questioned, that he was born blind? For his parents had sin; but not by reason of the sin itself did it come about that he was born blind. If, then, it was not through the parents' sin that he was born blind, why was he born blind? Listen to the Master as He teaches. He seeks one who believes, to give him understanding. He Himself tells us the reason why that man was born blind: Neither has this man sinned, He says, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

4. And then, what follows? I must work the works of Him that sent me. See, here is that sent one [Siloam], wherein the blind man washed his face. And see what He said: I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day. Recall to your mind the way in which He gives universal glory to Him of whom He is: for that One has the Son who is of Him; He Himself has no One of whom He is. But wherefore, Lord, said You, While it is day? Hearken why He did so. The night comes when no man can work. Not even Thou, Lord. Will that night have such power that not even Thou, whose work the night is, will be able to work therein? For I think, Lord Jesus, nay I do not think, but believe and hold it sure, that You were there when God said, Let there be light, and there was light. [Genesis 1:3] For if He made it by the Word, He made it by You: and therefore it is said, All things were made by Him; and without Him was nothing made. God divided between the light and the darkness: the light He called Day, and the darkness He called Night. [Genesis 1:4-5]

5. What is that night wherein, when it comes, no one shall be able to work? Hear what the day is, and then you will understand what the night is. But how shall we hear what the day is? Let Himself tell us: As long as I am in this world, I am the light of the world. See, He Himself is the day. Let the blind man wash his eyes in the day, that he may behold the day. As long, He says, as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Then will it be night of a kind unknown to me, when Christ will no longer be there; and so no one will be able to work. An inquiry remains, my brethren; patiently listen to me as I inquire. With you I inquire: With you shall I find Him to whom my inquiry is addressed. We are agreed; for it is expressly and definitely stated that the Lord proclaimed Himself in this place as the day, that is, the light of the world. As long, He says, as I am in this world, I am the light of the world. Therefore He Himself works. But how long is He in this world? Are we to think, brethren, that He was here then, and is here no longer? If we think so, then already, after the Lord's ascension, did that fearful night begin, when no one can work. If that night began after the Lord's ascension, how was it that the apostles wrought so much? Was that the night when the Holy Spirit came, and, filling all who were in one place, gave them the power of speaking in the tongues of every nation? Was it night when that lame man was made whole at the word of Peter, or rather, at the word of the Lord dwelling in Peter? [Acts 3:6-8] Was it night when, as the disciples were passing by, the sick were laid in couches, that they might be touched at least by their shadow as they passed? [Acts 5:15] Yet, when the Lord was here, there was no one made whole by His shadow as He passed; but He Himself had said to the disciples, Greater things than these shall you do. Yes, the Lord had said, Greater things than these shall you do; but let not flesh and blood exalt itself: let such hear Him also saying, Without me you can do nothing.

6. What then? What shall we say of that night? When will it be, when no one shall be able to work? It will be that night of the wicked, that night of those to whom it shall be said in the end, Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. But it is here called night, not flame, nor fire. Hearken, then, why it is also night. Of a certain servant He says, Bind ye him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness. [Matthew 22:13] Let man, then, work while he lives, that he may not be overtaken by that night when no man can work. It is now that faith is working by love; and if now we are working, then this is the day — Christ is here. Hear His promise, and think Him not absent. It is Himself who has said, Lo, I am with you. How long? Let there be no anxiety in us who are alive; were it possible, with this very word we might place in perfect security the generations still to come. Lo, He says, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. [Matthew 28:28] That day, which is completed by the circuit of yonder sun, has but few hours; the day of Christ's presence extends even to the end of the world. But after the resurrection of the living and the dead, when He shall say to those placed at His right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom; and to those at His left, Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; [Matthew 25:34, 41] then shall be the night when no man can work, but only get back what he has wrought before. There is a time for working, another for receiving; for the Lord shall render to every one according to his works. [Matthew 16:27] While you live, be doing, if you are to be doing at all; for then shall come that appalling night, to envelope the wicked in its folds. But even now every unbeliever, when he dies, is received within that night: there is no work to be done there. In that night was the rich man burning, and asking a drop of water from the beggar's finger; he mourned, agonized, confessed, but no relief was vouchsafed. He even endeavored to do good; for he said to Abraham, Father Abraham, send Lazarus to my brethren, that he may tell them what is being done here, lest they also come into this place of torment. [Luke 16:24-28] Unhappy man! When thou were living, then was the time for working: now you are already in the night, in which no man can work.

7. When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and He spread the clay upon his eyes, and said to him, Go and wash in the pool of Siloam (which is, by interpretation, Sent). He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. As these words are clear, we may pass them over.

8. The neighbors therefore, and those who saw him previously, for he was a beggar, said, Is not this he who sat and begged? Some said, It is he: others, No; but he is like him. The opening of his eyes had altered his countenance. He said, I am he. His voice utters its gratitude, that it might not be condemned as ungrateful. Therefore said they unto him, How were your eyes opened? He answered, The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and saw. See, he has become the herald of grace; see, he preaches the gospel; endowed with sight, he becomes a confessor. That blind man makes confession, and the heart of the wicked was troubled; for they had not in their heart what he had now in his countenance. They said to him, Where is he who has opened your eyes? He said, I know not. In these words the man's own soul was like that of one only as yet anointed, but not yet seeing. Let us so put it, brethren, as if he had that anointing in his soul. He preaches, and knows not the Being whom he preaches.

9. They brought to the Pharisees him who had been blind. And it was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also asked how he had received his sight. And he said to them, He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed, and do see. Therefore said some of the Pharisees; not all, but some; for some were already anointed. What then said those who neither saw nor were anointed? This man is not of God, because he keeps not the Sabbath. He it was rather who kept it, who was without sin. For this is the spiritual Sabbath, to have no sin. In fact, brethren, it is of this that God admonishes us, when He commends the Sabbath to our notice: You shall do no servile work. [Leviticus 23:8] These are God's words when commending the Sabbath, You shall do no servile work. Now ask the former lessons, what is meant by servile work; and listen to the Lord: Every one that commits sin is the servant of sin. But these men, neither seeing, as I said, nor anointed, kept the Sabbath carnally, and profaned it spiritually. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? These were the anointed ones. And there was a division among them. The day had divided between the light and the darkness. They say then unto the blind man again, What do you say of him who has opened your eyes? What is your feeling about him? What is your opinion? What is your judgment? They sought how to revile the man, that he might be cast out of the synagogue, but be found by Christ. But he steadfastly expressed what he felt. For he said, That he is a prophet. As yet, indeed, anointed only in heart, he does not thus far confess the Son of God, and yet he speaks not untruthfully. For the Lord says of Himself, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country. [Matthew 13:57]

10. Therefore the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, till they called the parents of him that received his sight; that is, who had been blind, and had come to the possession of sight. And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered them, and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: but how he now sees, we know not; or who has opened his eyes, we know not. And they said, Ask himself; he is of age, let him speak of himself. He is indeed our son, and we might justly be compelled to answer for him as an infant, because then he could not speak for himself: from of old he has had power of speech, only now he sees: we have been acquainted with him as blind from his birth, we know him as having speech from of old, only now do we see him endowed with sight: ask himself, that you may be instructed; why seek to calumniate us? These words spoke his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had conspired already, that if any man did confess that He was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. It was no longer a bad thing to be put out of the synagogue. They cast out, but Christ received. Therefore said his parents, He is of age, ask himself.

11. Then again called they the man who had been blind, and said to him, Give God the glory. What is that, Give God the glory? Deny what you have received. Such conduct is manifestly not to give God the glory, but rather to blaspheme Him. Give God, they say, the glory: we know that this man is a sinner. Then said he, If he is a sinner, I know not: one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. Then said they to him, What did he to you, how opened he your eyes? And he, indignant now at the hardness of the Jews, and as one brought from a state of blindness to sight, unable to endure the blind, answered them, I have told you already, and you have heard: wherefore would ye hear it again? Will ye also become his disciples? What means, Will ye also, but that I am one already? Will ye also be so? Now I see, but see not askance.

12. They cursed him, and said, You are his disciple. Such a malediction be upon us, and upon our children! For a malediction it is, if you lay open their heart, not if you ponder the words. But we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spoke unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is. Would ye had known that God spoke to Moses! ye would have also known that God preached by Moses. For you have the Lord saying, Had ye believed Moses, you would have also believed me; for he wrote of me. Is it thus ye follow the servant, and turn your back against the Lord? But not even the servant do ye follow; for by him ye would be guided to the Lord.

13. The man answered and said to them, Herein is a marvellous thing, that you know not from whence he is, and yet he has opened my eyes. Now we know that God hears not sinners; but if any man is a worshipper of God, and does His will, him He hears. He speaks still as one only anointed. For God hears even sinners. For if God heard not sinners, in vain would the publican, casting his eyes on the ground, and smiting on his breast, have said, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner. And that confession merited justification, as this blind man enlightenment. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. With frankness, constancy, and truthfulness [he spoke]. For these things that were done by the Lord, by whom were they done but by God? Or when would such things be done by disciples, were not the Lord dwelling in them?

14. They answered and said to him, You were wholly born in sins. What means this wholly? Even to blindness of the eyes. But He who has opened his eyes, also saves him wholly: He will grant a resurrection at His right hand, who gave enlight enment to his countenance. You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach us? And they cast him out. They had made him their master; many questions had they asked for their own instruction, and they ungratefully cast forth their teacher.

15. But, as I have already said before, brethren, when they expel, the Lord receives; for the rather that he was expelled, was he made a Christian. Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, Do you believe in the Son of God? Now He washes the face of his heart. He answered and said, as one still only anointed, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe in him? And Jesus said to him, You have both seen Him, and it is He that talks with you. The One is He that is sent; the other is one washing his face in Siloam, which is interpreted, Sent. And now at last, with the face of his heart washed, and a conscience purified, acknowledging Him not only as the son of man, which he had believed before, but now as the Son of God, who had assumed our flesh, he said, Lord, I believe. It is but little to say, I believe: would you also see what he believes Him? He fell down and worshipped Him.

16. And Jesus said to him. Now is He, the day, discerning between the light and the darkness. For judgment am I come into this world; that they who see not might see, and they who see might be made blind. What is this, Lord? A weighty subject of inquiry have You laid on the weary; but revive our strength that we may be able to understand what You have said. You have come that they who see not may see: rightly so, for You are the light: rightly so, for You are the day: rightly so, for Thou deliverest from darkness: this every soul accepts, every one understands. What is this that follows, And those who see may be made blind? Shall then, because You have come, those be made blind who saw? Hear what follows, and perhaps you will understand.

17. By these words, then, were some of the Pharisees disturbed, and said to Him, Are we blind also? Hear now what it is that moved them, And they who see may be made blind. Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you should have no sin; while blindness itself is sin. If you were blind, that is, if you considered yourselves blind, if you called yourselves blind, you also would have recourse to the physician: if then in this way you were blind, you should have no sin; for I have come to take away sin. But now ye say, We see; [therefore] your sin remains. Wherefore? Because by saying, We see: ye seek not the physician, you remain in your blindness. This, then, is that which a little above we did not understand, when He said, I have come, that they who see not may see; for what means this, that they who see not may see? They who acknowledge that they do not see, and seek the physician, that they may receive sight. And they who see may be made blind: what means this, they who see may be made blind? That they who think they see, and seek not the physician, may abide in their blindness. Such discerning therefore of one from another He called judgment, when He said, For judgment I have come into this world, whereby He distinguishes the cause of those who believe and make confession from the proud, who think they see, and are therefore the more grievously blinded: just as the sinner, making confession, and seeking the physician, said to Him, Judge me, O God, and discern my cause against the unholy nation, — namely, those who say, We see, and their sin remains. But it was not that judgment He now brought into the world, whereby in the end of the world He shall judge the living and the dead. For in respect to this He had said, I judge no man; seeing that He came the first time, not to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

1. Our Lord's discourse to the Jews began in connection with the man who was born blind and was restored to sight. Your Charity therefore ought to know and be advised that today's lesson is interwoven with that one. For when the Lord had said, For judgment I have come into this world; that they who see not might see, and they who see might be made blind,— which, on the occasion of its reading, we expounded according to our ability — some of the Pharisees said, Are we blind also? To whom He replied, If you were blind, you should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; [therefore] your sin remains. To these words He added what we have been hearing today when the lesson was read.

2. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. For they declared that they were not blind; yet could they see only by being the sheep of Christ. Whence claimed they possession of the light, who were acting as thieves against the day? Because, then, of their vain and proud and incurable arrogance, did the Lord Jesus subjoin these words, wherein He has given us also salutary lessons, if we lay them to heart. For there are many who, according to a custom of this life, are called good people —good men, good women, innocent, and observers as it were of what is commanded in the law; paying respect to their parents, abstaining from adultery, doing no murder, committing no theft, giving no false witness against any one, and observing all else that the law requires — yet are not Christians; and for the most part ask boastfully, like these men, Are we blind also? But just because all these things that they do, and know not to what end they should have reference, they do to no purpose, the Lord has set forth in today's lesson the similitude of His own flock, and of the door that leads into the sheepfold. Pagans may say, then, We live well. If they enter not by the door, what good will that do them, whereof they boast? For to this end ought good living to benefit every one, that it may be given him to live for ever: for to whomsoever eternal life is not given, of what benefit is the living well? For they ought not to be spoken of as even living well, who either from blindness know not the end of a right life, or in their pride despise it. But no one has the true and certain hope of living always, unless he know the life, that it is Christ; and enter by the gate into the sheepfold.

3. Such, accordingly, for the most part seek to persuade men to live well, and yet not to be Christians. By another way they wish to climb up, to steal and to kill, not as the shepherd, to preserve and to save. And thus there have been certain philosophers, holding many subtle discussions about the virtues and the vices, dividing, defining, drawing out to their close the most acute processes of reasoning, filling books, brandishing their wisdom with rattling jaws; who would even dare to say to people, Follow us, keep to our sect, if you would live happily. But they had not entered by the door: they wished to destroy, to slay, and to murder.

4. What shall I say of such? Look, the Pharisees themselves were in the habit of reading, and in what they read, their voices re-echoed the Christ, they hoped He would come, and recognized Him not when present; they boasted, even they, of being among those who saw, that is, among the wise, and they disowned the Christ, and entered not in by the door. Therefore would such also, if they chanced to seduce any, seduce them to be slaughtered and murdered, not to be brought into liberty. Let us leave these also to themselves, and look at those who glory in the name of Christ Himself, and see whether even they perchance are entering in by the door.

5. For there are countless numbers who not only boast that they see, but would have it appear that they are enlightened by Christ; yet are they heretics. Have even they somehow entered by the gate? Surely not. Sabellius says, He who is the Son is Himself the Father; but if the Son, then is there no Father. He enters not by the door, who asserts that the Son is the Father. Arius says, The Father is one thing, the Son is another thing. He would say rightly if he said, Another person; but not another thing. For when he says, Another thing, he contradicts Him who says in his hearing, I and my Father are One. Neither does he therefore enter by the door; for he preaches a Christ such as he fabricates for himself, not such as the truth declares Him. You have the name, you have not the reality. Christ is the name of something; keep hold of the thing itself, if you would benefit by the name. Another, I know not from whence, says with Photinus, Christ is mere man; He is not God. He enters not in by the door, for Christ is both man and God. But why need I make many references, and enumerate the many vanities of heretics? Keep hold of this, that Christ's sheepfold is the Catholic Church. Whoever would enter the sheepfold, let him enter by the door, let him preach the true Christ. Not only let him preach the true Christ, but seek Christ's glory, not his own; for many, by seeking their own glory, have scattered Christ's sheep, instead of gathering them. For Christ the Lord is a low gateway: he who enters by this gateway must humble himself, that he may be able to enter with head unharmed. But he that humbles not, but exalts himself, wishes to climb over the wall; and he that climbs over the wall, is exalted only to fall.

6. Thus far, however, the Lord Jesus speaks in covert language; not as yet is He understood. He names the door, He names the sheepfold, He names the sheep: all this He sets forth, but does not yet explain. Let us read on then, for He is coming to those words, wherein He may think proper to give us some explanation of what He has said; from the explanation of which He will perhaps enable us to understand also what He has not explained. For He gives us what is plain, for food; what is obscure, for exercise. He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way. Woe to the wretch, for he is sure to fall! Let him then be humble, let him enter by the door: let him walk on the level ground, and he shall not stumble. The same, He says, is a thief and a robber. The sheep of another he desires to call his own sheep — his own, that is, as carried off by stealth, for the purpose, not of saving, but of slaying them. Therefore is he a thief, because what is another's he calls his own; a robber, because what he has stolen he also kills. But he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep: to him the porter opens. Concerning this porter we shall make inquiry, when we have heard of the Lord Himself what is the door and who is the shepherd. And the sheep hear his voice: and he calls his own sheep by name. For He has their names written in the book of life. He calls his own sheep by name. Hence, says the apostle, The Lord knows them that are His. [2 Timothy 2:19] And he leads them out. And when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger do they not follow, but do flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. These are veiled words, full of topics of inquiry, pregnant with sacramental signs. Let us follow then, and listen to the Master as He makes some opening into these obscurities; and perhaps by the opening He makes, He will cause us to enter.

7. This parable spoke Jesus unto them; but they understood not what He spoke unto them. Nor we also, perhaps. What, then, is the difference between them and us, before even we can understand these words? This, that we on our part knock, that it may be opened unto us; while they, by disowning Christ, refused to enter for salvation, and preferred remaining outside to be destroyed. In as far, then, as we listen to these words with a pious mind, in as far as, before we understand them, we believe them to be true and divine, we stand at a great distance from these men. For when two persons are listening to the words of the gospel, the one impious, the other pious, and some of these are such as neither perhaps understands, the one says, It has said nothing; the other says, It has said the truth, and what it has said is good, but we do not understand it. This latter, because he believes, now knocks, that he may be worthy to have it opened up to him, if he continue knocking; but the other still hears the words, If you believe not, you shall not understand. Why do I draw your attention to this? Even for this reason, that when I have explained as I can these obscure words, or, because of their great abstruseness, I have either myself failed to arrive at an understanding of them, or wanted the faculty of explaining what I do understand, or every one has been so dull as not to follow me, even when I give the explanation, yet should he not despair of himself; but continue in faith, walk on in the way, and hear the apostle saying, And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless whereto we have already attained, let us walk therein. [Philippians 3:15-16]

8. Let us begin, then, with hearing His exposition of what we have heard Him propounding. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. See, He has opened the very door which was shut in His former description. He Himself is the door. We have come to know it; let us enter, or rejoice that we are already within. All that ever came are thieves and robbers. What is this, Lord, All that ever came? How so have You not come? But understand; I said, All that ever came, meaning, of course, exclusive of myself. Let us recollect then. Before His coming came the prophets: were they thieves and robbers? God forbid. They did not come apart from Him, for they came with Him. When about to come, He sent heralds, but retained possession of the hearts of His messengers. Do you wish to know that they came with Him, who is Himself ever existent? Certainly He assumed human flesh at the time appointed. But what means that ever? In the beginning was the Word. [John 1:1] With Him, therefore, came those who came with the word of God. I am, said He, the way, and the truth, and the life. [John 14:6] If He is the truth, with Him came those who were truthful. As many, therefore, as were apart from Him, were thieves and robbers, that is, had come to steal and to destroy.

9. But the sheep did not hear them. This is a more important point, the sheep did not hear them. Before the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He came in humility in the flesh, righteous men preceded, believing in the same way in Him who was to come, as we believe in Him who has come. Times vary, but not faith. For verbs themselves also vary with the tense, when they are variously declined. He is to come, has one sound; He has come, has another: there is a change in the sound between He is to come, and He has come: yet the same faith unites both — both those who believed that He would come, and those who have believed that He has come. At different times, indeed, but by the one doorway of faith, that is, by Christ, do we see that both have entered. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin, that He came in the flesh, suffered, rose again, ascended into heaven: all this, just as you hear verbs of the past tense, we believe to be already fulfilled. In that faith a partnership is also held with us by those fathers who believed that He would be born of the Virgin, would suffer, would rise again, would ascend into heaven; for to such the apostle pointed when he said, But we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak. [2 Corinthians 4:13] The prophet said, I believed, therefore have I spoken: the apostle says, We also believe, and therefore speak. But to let you know that their faith is one, listen to him saying, Having the same spirit of faith, we also believe. So also in another place, For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, how 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, and did all drink the same spiritual drink. The Red Sea signifies baptism; Moses, their leader through the Red Sea, signifies Christ; the people, who passed through, signify believers; the death of the Egyptians signifies the abolition of sins. Under different signs there is the same faith. It is with different signs as with different words [verbs]; for verbs change their sounds through the tenses, and verbs are indeed nothing else than signs. For they are words because of what they signify: take away the meaning from a word, and it becomes a senseless sound. All, therefore, have become signs. Was not the same faith theirs by whom these signs were employed, and by whom were foretold in prophecy the very things which we believe? Certainly it was: but they believed that they were yet to come, and we, that they have come. In like manner does he also say, They all drank the same spiritual drink; the same spiritual, for it was not the same material [drink]. For what was it they drank? For they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ. [1 Corinthians 10:1-4] See, then, how that while the faith remained, the signs were varied. There the rock was Christ; to us that is Christ which is placed on the altar of God. And they, as a great sacramental sign of the same Christ, drank the water flowing from the rock: what we drink is known to believers. If one's thoughts turn to the visible form, the thing is different; if to the meaning that addresses the understanding, they drank the same spiritual drink. As many, then, at that time as believed, whether Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, or Moses, or the other patriarchs or prophets who foretold of Christ, were sheep, and heard Christ. His voice, and not another's, did they hear. The Judge was present in the person of the Crier. For even when the judge speaks through the crier, the clerk does not make it, The crier said; but the judge said. But others there are whom the sheep did not hear, in whom Christ's voice had no place — wanderers, uttering falsehoods, prating inanities, fabricating vanities, misleading the miserable.

10. Why is it, then, that I have said, This is a more important point? What is there about it obscure and difficult to understand? Listen, I beseech you. See, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself came and preached. Much more surely was that the Shepherd's voice which was uttered by the very mouth of the Shepherd. For if the Shepherd's voice came through the prophets, how much more did the Shepherd's own tongue give utterance to the Shepherd's voice? Yet all did not hear Him. But what are we to think? Those who did hear, were they sheep? Lo? Judas heard, and was a wolf: he followed, but, clad in sheep-skin, he was laying snares for the Shepherd. Some, again, of those who crucified Christ did not hear, and yet were sheep; for such He saw in the crowd when He said, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am He. [John 8:28] Now, how is this question to be solved? They that are not sheep do hear, and they that are sheep do not hear. Some, who are wolves, follow the Shepherd's voice; and some, that are sheep, contradict it. Last of all, the sheep slay the Shepherd. The point is solved; for some one in reply says, But when they did not hear, as yet they were not sheep, they were then wolves: the voice, when it was heard, changed them, and out of wolves transformed them into sheep; and so, when they became sheep, they heard, and found the Shepherd, and followed Him. They built their hopes on the Shepherd's promises, because they obeyed His precepts.

11. That question has been solved in a way, and perhaps satisfies every one. But I bare still a subject of concern, and what concerns me I shall impart to you, that, in some sort inquiring together, I may through His revelation be found worthy with you to attain the solution. Hear, then, what it is that moves me. By the Prophet Ezekiel the Lord rebukes the shepherds, and among other things says of the sheep, The wandering sheep have ye not recalled. [Ezekiel 34:4] He both declares it a wanderer, and calls it a sheep. If, while wandering, it was a sheep, whose voice was it hearing to lead it astray? For doubtless it would not be straying were it hearing the shepherd's voice: but it strayed just because it heard another's voice; it heard the voice of the thief and the robber. Surely the sheep do not hear the voice of robbers. Those that came, He said — and we are to understand, apart from me — that is, those that came apart from me are thieves and robbers, and the sheep did not hear them. Lord, if the sheep did not hear them, how can the sheep wander? If the sheep hear only You, and You are the truth, whoever hears the truth cannot certainly fall into error. But they err, and are called sheep. For if, in the very midst of their wandering, they were not called sheep, it would not be said by Ezekiel, The wandering sheep have ye not recalled. How is it at the same time a wanderer and a sheep? Has it heard the voice of another? Surely the sheep did not hear them. Accordingly many are just now being gathered into Christ's fold, and from being heretics are becoming Catholics. They are rescued from the thieves, and restored to the shepherds: and sometimes they murmur, and become wearied of Him that calls them back, and have no true knowledge of him that would murder them; nevertheless also, when, after a struggle, those have come who are sheep, they recognize the Shepherd's voice, and are glad they have come, and are ashamed of their wandering. When, then, they were glorying in that state of error as in the truth, and were certainly not hearing the Shepherd's voice, but were following another, were they sheep, or were they not? If they were sheep, how can it be the case that the sheep do not listen to aliens? If they were not sheep, wherefore the rebuke addressed to those to whom it is said, The wandering sheep have ye not recalled? In the case also of those already become catholic Christians, and believers of good promise, evils sometimes occur: they are seduced into error, and after their error are restored. When they were thus seduced, and were rebaptized, or after the companionship of the Lord's fold were turned back again into their former error, were they sheep, or were they not? Certainly they were Catholics. If they were faithful Catholics, they were sheep. If they were sheep, how was it that they could listen to the voice of a stranger when the Lord says, The sheep did not hear them?

12. You hear, brethren, the great importance of the question. I say then, The Lord knows them that are His. [2 Timothy 2:19] He knows those who were foreknown, He knows those who were predestinated; because it is said of Him, For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified. If God be for us, who can be against us? Add to this: He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how has He not with Him also freely given us all things? But what us? Those who are foreknown, predestinated, justified, glorified; regarding whom there follows, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? [Romans 7:29-33] Therefore the Lord knows them that are His; they are the sheep. Such sometimes do not know themselves, but the Shepherd knows them, according to this predestination, this foreknowledge of God, according to the election of the sheep before the foundation of the world: for so says also the apostle, According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. [Ephesians 1:4] According, then, to this divine foreknowledge and predestination, how many sheep are outside, how many wolves within! And how many sheep are inside, how many wolves without! How many are now living in wantonness who will yet be chaste! How many are blaspheming Christ who will yet believe in Him! How many are giving themselves to drunkenness who will yet be sober! How many are preying on other people property who will yet freely give of their own! Nevertheless at present they are hearing the voice of another, they are following strangers. In like manner, how many are praising within who will yet blaspheme; are chaste who will yet be fornicators; are sober who will wallow hereafter in drink; are standing who will by and by fall! These are not the sheep. (For we speak of those who were predestinated — of those whom the Lord knows that they are His.) And yet these, so long as they keep right, listen to the voice of Christ. Yea, these hear, the others do not; and yet, according to predestination, these are not sheep, while the others are.

13. There remains still the question, which I now think may meanwhile thus be solved. There is a voice of some kind — there is, I say, a certain kind of voice of the Shepherd, in respect of which the sheep hear not strangers, and in respect of which those who are not sheep do not hear Christ. What a word is this! He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. [Matthew 10:22] No one of His own is indifferent to such a voice, a stranger does not hear it: for this reason also does He announce it to the former, that he may abide perseveringly with Himself to the end; but by one who is wanting in such persevering continuance with Him, such a word remains unheard. One has come to Christ, and has heard word after word of one kind and another, all of them true, all of them salutary; and among all the rest is also this utterance, He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. He who has heard this is one of the sheep. But there was, perhaps, some one listening to it, who treated it with dislike, with coldness, and heard it as that of a stranger. If he was predestinated, he strayed for the time, but he was not lost for ever: he returns to hear what he has neglected, to do what he has heard. For if he is one of those who are predestinated, then both his very wandering and his future conversion have been foreknown by God: if he has strayed away, he will return to hear that voice of the Shepherd, and to follow Him who says, He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. A good voice, brethren, it is; true and shepherd-like, the very voice of salvation in the tabernacles of the righteous. For it is easy to hear Christ, easy to praise the gospel, easy to applaud the preacher: but to endure unto the end, is peculiar to the sheep who hear the Shepherd's voice. A temptation befalls you, endure thou to the end, for the temptation will not endure to the end. And what is that end to which you shall endure? Even till you reach the end of your pathway. For as long as you hear not Christ, He is your adversary in the pathway, that is, in this mortal life. And what does He say? Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him. [Matthew 5:25] You have heard, hast believed, hast agreed. If you have been at enmity, agree. If you have got the opportunity of coming to an agreement, keep not up the quarrel longer. For you know not when your way will be ended, and it is known to Him. If you are a sheep, and if you endure to the end, you shall be saved: and therefore it is that His own despise not that voice, and strangers hear it not. According to my ability, as He gave me the power, I have either explained to you or gone over with you a subject of great profundity. If any have failed fully to understand, let him retain his piety, and the truth will be revealed: and let not those who have understood vaunt themselves as swifter at the expense of the slower, lest in their vaunting they turn out of the track, and the slower more easily attain the goal. But let all of us be guided by Him to whom we say, Lead me, O Lord, in Your way, and I will walk in Your truth.

14. By this, then, which the Lord has explained, that He Himself is the door, let us find entrance to what He has set forth, but not explained. And indeed who it is that is the Shepherd, although He has not told us in the lesson we have read today, yet in that which follows He very plainly tells us: I am the good Shepherd. And although He had not said so, whom else but Himself ought we to have understood in those words where He says, He that enters in by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep. To Him the porter opens: and the sheep hear His voice: and He calls His own sheep by name, and leads them out. And when He puts forth His own sheep, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice? For who else calls His own sheep by name, and leads them hence unto eternal life, but He who knows the names of those that are fore-ordained? Hence He said to His disciples, Rejoice that your names are written in heaven; [Luke 10:20] for from this it is that He calls them by name. And who else puts them forth, save He who puts away their sins, that, freed from their grievous fetters, they may be able to follow Him? And who has gone before them to the place whither they are to follow Him, but He who, rising from the dead, dies no more; and death shall have no more dominion over Him; [Romans 6:9] and who, when He was manifest here in the flesh, said, Father, I will that they also whom You have given me be with me where I am? [John 17:24] Hence it is that He says, I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. In this He clearly shows that not only the Shepherd, but the sheep also enter in by the door.

15. But what is this, He shall go in and out, and find pasture? To enter indeed into the Church by Christ the door, is eminently good; but to go out of the Church, as this same John the evangelist says in his epistle, They went out from us, but they were not of us, [1 John 2:19] is certainly otherwise than good. Such a going out could not then be commended by the good Shepherd, when He said, And he shall go in and out, and find pasture. There is therefore not only some sort of entrance, but some outgoing also that is good, by the good door, which is Christ. But what is that praiseworthy and blessed outgoing? I might say, indeed, that we enter when we engage in some inward exercise of thought; and go out, when we take to some active work without: and since, as the apostle says, Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, [Ephesians 3:17] to enter by Christ is to give ourselves to thought in accordance with that faith; but to go out by Christ is, in accordance also with that same faith, to take to outside works, that is to say, in the presence of others. Hence, also, we read in a psalm, Man goes forth to his work; and the Lord Himself says, Let your works shine before men. [Matthew 5:16] But I am better pleased that the Truth Himself, like a good Shepherd, and therefore a good Teacher, has in a certain measure reminded us how we ought to understand His words, He shall go in and out, and find pasture, when He added in the sequel, The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. For He seems to me to have meant, That they may have life in coming in, and have it more abundantly at their departure. For no one can pass out by the door — that is, by Christ — to that eternal life which shall be open to the sight, unless by the same door — that is, by the same Christ — he has entered His church, which is His fold, to the temporal life, which is lived in faith. Therefore, He says, I have come that they may have life, that is, faith, which works by love; [Galatians 5:6] by which faith they enter the fold that they may live, for the just lives by faith: [Romans 1:17] and that they may have it more abundantly, who, enduring unto the end, pass out by this same door, that is, by the faith of Christ; for as true believers they die, and will have life more abundantly when they come whither the Shepherd has preceded them, where they shall die no more. Although, therefore, there is no want of pasture even here in the fold — for we may understand the words and shall find pasture as referring to both, that is, both to their going in and their going out — yet there only will they find the true pasture. where they shall be filled who hunger and thirst after righteousness, [Matthew 5:6] — such pasture as was found by him to whom it was said, Today shall you be with me in paradise. [Luke 23:43] But how He Himself is the door, and Himself the Shepherd, so that He also may in a certain respect be understood as going in and out by Himself, and who is the porter, it would be too long to inquire today, and, according to the grace given us by Himself, to unfold in the way of dissertation.

1. The Lord Jesus is speaking to His sheep — to those already so, and to those yet to become such — who were then present; for in the place where they were, there were those who were already His sheep, as well as those who were afterwards to become so: and He likewise shows to those then present and those to come, both to them and to us, and to as many also after us as shall yet be His sheep, who it is that had been sent to them. All, therefore, hear the voice of their Shepherd saying, I am the good Shepherd. He would not add good, were there not bad shepherds. But the bad shepherds are those who are thieves and robbers, or certainly hirelings at the best. For we ought to examine into, to distinguish, and to know, all the characters whom He has here depicted. The Lord has already unfolded two points, which He had previously set forth in a kind of covert form: we already know that He is Himself the door, and we know that He is Himself the Shepherd. Who the thieves and robbers are, was made clear in yesterday's lesson; and today we have heard of the hireling, as we have heard also of the wolf. Yesterday the porter was also introduced by name. Among the good, therefore, are the door, the doorkeeper, the shepherd, and the sheep: among the bad, the thieves and robbers, the hirelings, and the wolf.

2. We understand the Lord Christ as the door, and also as the Shepherd; but who is to be understood as the doorkeeper? For the former two, He has Himself explained: the doorkeeper He has left us to search out for ourselves. And what does He say of the doorkeeper? To him, He says, the porter [doorkeeper] opens. To whom does he open? To the Shepherd. What does he open to the Shepherd? The door. And who is also the door? The Shepherd Himself. Now, if Christ the Lord had not Himself explained, had not Himself said, I am the Shepherd, and I am the door, would any of us have ventured to say that Christ is Himself both the Shepherd and the door? For had He said, I am the Shepherd, and had not said, I am the door, we should be setting ourselves to inquire what was the door, and perhaps, mistaken in our views, be still standing before the door. His grace and mercy have revealed to us the Shepherd, by His calling Himself so; have revealed to us also the door, when declared Himself such; but He has left us to search out the doorkeeper for ourselves. Whom, then, are we to call the doorkeeper? Whomsoever we fix upon, we must take care not to think of him as greater than the door itself; for in men's houses the doorkeeper is greater than the door. The doorkeeper is placed before the door, not the door before the doorkeeper; because the porter keeps the door, not the door the porter. I dare not say that any one is greater than the door, for I have heard already what is the door: that is no longer unknown to me, I am not left to my own conjecture, and I have not got much room for mere human guess work: God has said it, the Truth has said it, and we cannot change what the Unchangeable has uttered.

3. In respect, then, of the profound nature of this question, I shall tell you what I think: let each one make the choice that pleases him, but let him think of it reverently; as it is written, Think of the Lord with goodness, and in simplicity of heart seek Him. [Wisdom 1:1] Perhaps we ought to understand the Lord Himself as the doorkeeper: for the shepherd and the door are in human respects as much different from each other as the doorkeeper and the door; and yet the Lord has called Himself both the Shepherd and the door. Why, then, may we not understand Him also as the doorkeeper? For if we look at His personal qualities, the Lord Christ is neither a shepherd, in the way we are accustomed to know and to see shepherds; nor is He a door, for no artisan made Him: but if, because of some point of similarity, He is both the door and the Shepherd, I venture to say, He is also a sheep. True, the sheep is under the shepherd; yet He is both the Shepherd and a sheep. Where is He the Shepherd? Look, here you have it; read the Gospel: I am the good Shepherd. Where is He a sheep? Ask the prophet: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. [Isaiah 53:7] Ask the friend of the bridegroom: Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world. [John 1:29] Moreover, I am going to say something of a still more wonderful kind, in accordance with these points of similarity. For both the lamb, and the sheep, and the shepherd are friendly with one another, but from the lions as their foes the sheep are protected by their shepherds: and yet of Christ, who is both sheep and Shepherd, we have it said, The Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. [Revelation 5:5] All this, brethren, understand in connection with points of similarity, not with personal qualities. It is a common thing to see the shepherds sitting on a rock, and there guarding the cattle committed to their care. Surely the shepherd is better than the rock that he sits upon; and yet Christ is both the Shepherd and the rock. All this by way of comparison. But if you ask me for His peculiar personal quality: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. If you ask me for the personal quality peculiarly His own: The only Son, from everlasting to everlasting begotten of the Father, the equal of Him that begot, the Maker of all things, unchangeable with the Father, unchanged by the assuming of human form, man by incarnation, the Son of man, and the Son of God. All this that I have said is not figure, but reality.

4. Therefore, let us not, brethren, be disturbed in understanding Him, in harmony with certain resemblances, as Himself the door, and also the doorkeeper. For what is the door? The way of entrance. Who is the doorkeeper? He who opens it. Who, then, is He that opens Himself, but He who unveils Himself to sight? See, when the Lord spoke at first of the door, we did not understand: so long as we did not understand, it was shut: He who opened it is Himself the doorkeeper. There is no need, then, of seeking any other meaning, no need; but perhaps there is the desire. If there is so, quit not the path, go not outside of the Trinity. If you are in quest of some other impersonation of the doorkeeper, bethink you of the Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit will not think it unmeet to be the doorkeeper, when the Son has thought it meet to be Himself the door. Look at the doorkeeper as perhaps the Holy Spirit: about Him the Lord says to His disciples, He shall guide you into all truth. What is the door? Christ. What is Christ? The Truth. Who, then, opens the door, but He who guides into all truth?

5. But what are we to say of the hireling? He is not mentioned here among the good. The good Shepherd, He says, gives His life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the Shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees; and the wolf catches them, and scatters the sheep. The hireling does not here bear a good character, and yet in some respects is useful; nor would he be called an hireling, did he not receive hire from his employer. Who then is this hireling, that is both blameworthy and needful? And here, brethren, let the Lord Himself give us light, that we may know who the hirelings are, and be not hirelings ourselves. Who then is the hireling? There are some in office in the church, of whom the Apostle Paul says, Who seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's. What means that, Who seek their own? Who do not love Christ freely, who do not seek after God for His own sake; who are pursuing after temporal advantages, gaping for gain, coveting honors from men. When such things are loved by an overseer, and for such things God is served, whoever such an one may be, he is an hireling who cannot count himself among the children. For of such also the Lord says: Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. [Matthew 6:5] Listen to what the Apostle Paul says of St. Timothy: But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your circumstances; for I have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for you. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. [Philippians 2:19-21] The shepherd mourned in the midst of hirelings. He sought some one who sincerely loved the flock of Christ, and round about him, among those who were with him at that time, he found not one. Not that there was no one then in the Church of Christ but the Apostle Paul and Timothy, who had a brother's concern for the flock; but it so happened at the time of his sending Timothy, that he had none else of his sons about him; only hirelings were with him, who sought their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. And yet he himself, with a brother's anxiety for the flock, preferred sending his son, and remaining himself among hirelings. Hirelings are also found among ourselves, but the Lord alone distinguishes them. He that searches the heart, distinguishes them; and yet sometimes we know them ourselves. For it was not without a purpose that the Lord Himself said also of the wolves: By their fruits you shall know them. [Matthew 7:16] Temptations put many to the question, and then their thoughts are made manifest; but many remain undiscovered. The Lord's fold must have as overseers, both those who are children and those who are hirelings. But the overseers, who are sons, are the shepherds. If they are shepherds, how is there but one Shepherd, save that all of them are members of the one Shepherd, to whom the sheep belong? For they are also members of Himself as the one sheep; because as a sheep he was led to the slaughter.

6. But give heed to the fact that even the hirelings are needful. For many indeed in the Church are following after earthly profit, and yet preach Christ, and through them is heard the voice of Christ; and the sheep follow, not the hireling, but the Shepherd's voice speaking through the hireling. Hearken to the hirelings as pointed out by the Lord Himself: The scribes, He says, and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: do what they say; but do not what they do. [Matthew 23:2-3] What else said He but, Listen to the Shepherd's voice speaking through the hirelings? For sitting in Moses' seat, they teach the law of God; therefore God teaches by them. But if they wish to teach their own things, hear them not, do them not. For certainly such seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's; but no hireling has dared to say to Christ's people, Seek your own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. For his own evil conduct he does not preach from the seat of Christ: he does injury by the evil that he does, not by the good that he says. Pluck the grapes, beware of the thorn. It is well I see that you have understood; but for the sake of those that are slower, I shall repeat these words with greater plainness. How said I, Pluck the bunch of grapes, beware of the thorn; when the Lord says, Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? That is quite true: and yet what I said is also true, Pluck the bunch of grapes, beware of the thorn. For sometimes the grape-cluster, springing from the root of the vine, finds its support in a common hedge; its branch, grows, becomes embedded among thorns, and the thorn bears other fruit than its own. For the thorn has not been produced from the vine, but has become the resting-place of its runner. Make your inquiries only at the roots. Seek for the thorn-root, you will find it apart from the vine: seek the origin of the grape, and from the root of the vine it will be found to have sprung. And so, Moses' seat was the vine; the morals of the Pharisees were the thorns. Sound doctrine comes through the wicked, as the vine-branch in a hedge, a bunch of grapes among thorns. Gather carefully, so as in seeking the fruit not to tear your hand; and while you are to hear one speaking what is good, imitate him not when doing what is evil. What they tell you, do,— gather the grapes; but what they do, do not,— beware of the thorns. Even through hirelings listen to the voice of the Shepherd, but be not hirelings yourselves, seeing you are members of the Shepherd. Yea, Paul himself, the holy apostle who said, I have no one who has a brother's concern about you; for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's, draws a distinction in another place between hirelings and sons; and see what he says: Some preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of good will: some of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel; but some also preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. These were hirelings who disliked the Apostle Paul. And why such dislike, but just because they were seeking after temporal things? But mark what he adds: What then, notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached: and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. [Philippians 1:15-18] Christ is the truth: let the truth be preached in pretense by hirelings, let it be preached in truth by the children: the children are waiting patiently for the eternal inheritance of the Father, the hirelings are longing for, and in a hurry to get, the temporal pay of their employer. For my part let me be shorn of the human glory, which I see such an object of envy to hirelings: and yet by the tongues both of hirelings and of children let the divine glory of Christ be published abroad, seeing that, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached.

7. We have seen who the hireling is also. Who, but the devil, is the wolf? And what was said of the hireling? When he sees the wolf coming, he flees: but the sheep are not his own, and he cares not for the sheep. Was the Apostle Paul such an one? Certainly not. Was Peter such an one? Far from it. Was such the character of the other apostles, save Judas, the son of perdition? Surely not. Were they shepherds then? Certainly they were. And how is there one Shepherd? I have already said they were shepherds, because members of the Shepherd. In that head they rejoiced, under that head they were in harmony together, with one spirit they lived in the bond of one body; and therefore belonged all of them to the one Shepherd. If, then, they were shepherds, and not hirelings, wherefore fled they when suffering persecution? Explain it to us, O Lord. In an epistle, I have seen Paul fleeing: he was let down by the wall in a basket, to escape the hands of his persecutor. [2 Corinthians 11:33] Had he, then, no care of the sheep, whom he thus abandoned at the approach of the wolf? Clearly he had, but he commended them by his prayers to the Shepherd who was sitting in heaven; and for their advantage he preserved himself by flight, as he says in a certain place, To abide in the flesh is needful for you. [Philippians 1:24] For all had heard from the Shepherd Himself, If they persecute you in one city, flee ye into another. [Matthew 10:23] May the Lord be pleased to explain to us this point! Lord, You said to those whom Thou certainly wished to be faithful shepherds, and whom You formed into Your own members, If they persecute you, flee. Doest Thou, then, injustice to them, when Thou blamest the hirelings who flee when they see the wolf coming! We ask You to tell us what meaning lies hid in the depths of the question. Let us knock, and the keeper of the door, which is Christ, will be here to reveal Himself.

8. Who is the hireling that sees the wolf coming, and flees? He that seeks his own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. He is one that does not venture plainly to rebuke an offender. [1 Timothy 5:20] Look, some one or other has sinned— grievously sinned; he ought to be rebuked, to be excommunicated: but once excommunicated, he will turn into an enemy, hatch plots, and do all the injury he can. At present, he who seeks his own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's, in order not to lose what he follows after, the advantages of human friendship, and incur the annoyances of human enmity, keeps quiet and does not administer rebuke. See, the wolf has caught a sheep by the throat; the devil has enticed a believer into adultery: you hold your peace — you utter no reproof. O hireling, you have seen the wolf coming and hast fled! Perhaps he answers and says: See, I am here; I have not fled. You have fled, because you have been silent; you have been silent, because you have been afraid. The flight of the mind is fear. Thou stoodest with your body, you fled in your spirit, which was not the conduct of him who said, Though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit. [Colossians 2:5] For how did he flee in spirit, who, though absent in the flesh, yet in his letters reproved the fornicators? Our affections are the motions of our minds. Joy is expansion of the mind; sorrow, contraction of the mind; desire, a forward movement of the mind; and fear, the flight of the mind. For you are expanded in mind when you are glad; contracted in mind when you are in trouble; you move forward in mind when you have an earnest desire; and you flee in mind when you are afraid. This, then, is how the hireling is said to flee at the sight of the wolf. Why? Because he cares not for the sheep. Why cares he not for the sheep? Because he is an hireling. What is that, he is an hireling? He seeks a temporal reward, and shall not dwell in the house forever. There are still some things here to be inquired about and discussed with you, but it is not prudent to burden you. For we are ministering the Lord's food to our fellow-servants; we feed as sheep in the Lord's pastures, and are fed together. And just as we must not withhold what is needful, so our weak hearts are not to be overcharged with the abundance of provisions. Let it not then annoy your Charity that I do not take up today all that I think is still here to be discussed; but the same lesson will, in the Lord's name, be read over to us again on the preaching days, and be, with His help, more carefully considered.

1. Those of you who hear the word of our God, not only with willingness, but also with attention, doubtless remember our promise. Indeed the same gospel lesson has also been read today which was read last Lord's day; because, having lingered over certain closely related topics, we could not discuss all that we owed to your powers of understanding. Accordingly, what has been already said and discoursed about we do not inquire into to day, lest by continual repetitions we should be prevented from reaching what has still to be spoken. You know now in the Lord's name who is the good Shepherd, and in what way good shepherds are His members, and therefore the Shepherd is one. You know who is the hireling we have to bear with; who the wolf, and the thieves, and the robbers we have to beware of; who are the sheep, and what is the door whereby both sheep and shepherd enter: how we are to understand the doorkeeper. You know also that every one who enters not by the door is a thief and a robber, and comes not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. All these sayings have, as I think, been sufficiently handled. Today we ought to tell you, as far as the Lord enables us (for Jesus Christ our Saviour has Himself told us that He is both the Shepherd and the door, and that the good Shepherd enters in by the door), how it is that He enters in by Himself. For if no one is a good shepherd but he that enters by the door, and He Himself is preeminently the good Shepherd, and also Himself the door, I can understand it only in this way, that He enters in by Himself to His sheep, and calls them to follow Him, and they, going in and out, find pasture, which is to say, eternal life.

2. I proceed, then, without more delay. When I seek to get into you, that is, into your heart, I preach Christ: were I preaching something else, I should be trying to climb up some other way. Christ, therefore, is my gate to you: by Christ I get entrance, not to your houses, but to your hearts. It is by Christ I enter: it is Christ in me that you have been willingly hearing. And why is it you have thus willingly hearkened to Christ in me? Because you are the sheep of Christ, purchased with the blood of Christ. You acknowledge your own price, which is not paid by me, but is preached by my instrumentality. He, and only He, was the buyer, who shed precious blood — the precious blood of Him who was without sin. Yet made He precious also the blood of His own, for whom He paid the price of blood: for had He not made the blood of His own precious, it would not have been said, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. So also when He says, The good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep, He is not the only one who has done such a deed; and yet if those who have done so are His members, He only Himself was the doer of it. For He was able to do so without them, but whence had they the power apart from Him, who Himself had said, Without me you can do nothing? But from the same source we can show what others also have done, for the apostle John himself, who preached the very gospel you have been hearing, has said in his epistle, Just as Christ laid down His life for us, so ought we also to lay down our lives for the brethren. [1 John 3:16] We ought, he says: He made us debtors who first set the example. To the same effect it is written in a certain place, If you sit down to sup at a ruler's table, make wise observation of what is set before you; and put to your hand, knowing that it will be your duty to make similar provision in turn. You know what is meant by the ruler's table: you there find the body and blood of Christ; let him who comes to such a table be ready with similar provision. And what is such similar provision? As He laid down His life for us, so ought we also, for the edification of others, and the maintenance of the faith, to lay down our lives for the brethren. To the same effect He said to Peter, whom He wished to make a good shepherd, not in Peter's own person, but as a member of His body: Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. This He did once, again, and a third time, to the disciple's sorrow. And when the Lord had questioned him as often as He judged it needful, that he who had thrice denied might thrice confess Him, and had a third time given him the charge to feed His sheep, He said to him, When you were young, you girded yourself, and walked whither you would, but when you shall be old, you shall stretch forth your hands, and another shall gird you, and carry you whither you would not. And the evangelist has explained the Lord's meaning: But this spoke He, signifying by what death he should glorify God. Feed my sheep applies, then, to this, that you should lay down your life for my sheep.

3. And now when He says, As the Father knows me, even so know I the Father, who can be ignorant of His meaning? For He knows the Father by Himself, and we by Him. That He has knowledge by Himself, we know already: that we also have knowledge by Him, we have like wise learned, for this also we have learned of Him. For He Himself has said: No one has seen God at any time; but the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. And so by Him do we also get this knowledge, to whom He has declared Him. In another place also He says: No one knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any one the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. [Matthew 11:27] As He then knows the Father by Himself, and we know the Father by Him; so into the sheepfold He enters by Himself, and we by Him. We were saying that by Christ we have a door of entrance to you; and why? Because we preach Christ. We preach Christ; and therefore we enter in by the door. But Christ preaches Christ, for He preaches Himself; and so the Shepherd enters in by Himself. When the light shows the other things that are seen in the light, does it need some other means of being made visible itself? The light, then, exhibits both other things and itself. Whatever we understand, we understand with the intellect: and how, save by the intellect, do we understand the intellect itself? But does one in the same way with the bodily eye see both other things and [the eye] itself? For though men see with their eyes, yet their own eyes they see not. The eye of the flesh sees other things, itself it cannot [see]: but the intellect understands itself as well other things. In the same way as the intellect sees itself, so also does Christ preach Himself. If He preaches Himself, and by preaching enters into you, He enters into you by Himself. And He is the door to the Father, for there is no way of approach to the Father but by Him. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. [1 Timothy 2:5] Many things are expressed by a word: all that I have just said, I have said, of course, by means of words. If I were wishing to speak also of a word itself, how could I do so but by the use of the word? And thus both many things are expressed by a word, which are not the same as the word, and the word itself can only be expressed by means of the word. By the Lord's help we have been copious in illustration. Remember, then, how the Lord Jesus Christ is both the door and the Shepherd: the door, in presenting Himself to view; the Shepherd, in entering in by Himself. And indeed, brethren, because He is the Shepherd, He has given to His members to be so likewise. For both Peter, and Paul, and the other apostles were, as all good bishops are, shepherds. But none of us calls himself the door. This — the way of entrance for the sheep — He has retained as exclusively belonging to Himself. In short, Paul discharged the office of a good shepherd when he preached Christ, because he entered by the door. But when the undisciplined sheep began to create schisms, and to set up other doors before them, not of entrance to their joint assembly, but for falling away into divisions, saying, some of them, I am of Paul; others, I am of Cephas; others, I of Apollos; others, I of Christ: terrified for those who said, I am of Paul,— as if calling out to the sheep, Wretched ones, whither are you going? I am not the door — he said, Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? [1 Corinthians 1:12-13] But those who said, I am of Christ, had found the door.

4. But of the one sheepfold and of the one Shepherd, you are now indeed being constantly reminded; for we have commended much the one sheepfold, preaching unity, that all the sheep should enter by Christ, and none of them should follow Donatus. Nevertheless, for what particular reason this was said by the Lord, is sufficiently apparent. For He was speaking among the Jews, and had been specially sent to the Jews, not for the sake of that class who were bound up in their inhuman hatred and persistently abiding in darkness, but for the sake of some in the nation whom He calls His sheep: of whom He says, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. [Matthew 15:24] He knew them even amid the crowd of His raging foes, and foresaw them in the peace of believing. What, then, does He mean by saying, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but that He exhibited His bodily presence only to the people of Israel? He did not proceed Himself to the Gentiles, but sent: to the people of Israel He both sent and came in person, that those who proved despisers should receive the greater judgment, because favored also with the sight of His actual presence. The Lord Himself was there: there He chose a mother: there He wished to be conceived, to be born, to shed His blood: there are His footprints, now objects of adoration where last He stood, and whence He ascended to heaven: but to the Gentiles He only sent.

5. But perhaps some one thinks that, as He Himself came not to us, but sent, we have not heard His own voice, but only the voice of those whom He sent. Far from it: let such a thought be banished from your hearts; for He Himself was in those whom He sent. Listen to Paul himself whom He sent; for Paul was specially sent as an apostle to the Gentiles; and it is Paul who, terrifying them not with himself but with Him says, Do ye wish to receive a proof of Him who speaks in me, that is, of Christ? [2 Corinthians 13:3] Listen also to the Lord Himself. And other sheep I have, that is, among the Gentiles, which are not of this fold, that is, of the people of Israel: them also must I bring. Therefore, even when it is by the instrumentality of His servants, it is He and not another that brings them. Listen further: They shall hear my voice. See here also, it is He Himself who speaks by His servants, and it is His voice that is heard in those whom He sends. That there may be one fold, and one shepherd. Of these two flocks, as of two walls, is the corner-stone formed. [Ephesians 2:11-22] And thus is He both door and the corner-stone: all by way of comparison, none of them literally.

6. For I have said so before, and earnestly pressed it on your notice, and those who comprehend it are wise, yea, those who are wise do comprehend it; and yet let those who are not yet intellectually enlightened, keep hold by faith of what they cannot as yet understand. Christ is many things metaphorically, which strictly speaking He is not. Metaphorically Christ is both a rock, and a door, and a corner-stone, and a shepherd, and a lamb, and a lion. How numerous are such similitudes, and as many more as would take too long to enumerate! But if you select the strict significations of things as you are accustomed to see them, then He is neither a rock, for He is not hard and senseless; nor a door, for no artisan made Him; nor a corner-stone, for He was not constructed by a builder; nor a shepherd, for He is no keeper of four-footed animals; nor a lion, as it ranks among the beasts of the forest; nor a lamb, as it belongs to the flock. All such, then, are by way of comparison. But what is He properly? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God [God was the Word]. And what, as He appeared in human nature? And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us [in us].

7. Hear also what follows. Therefore does my Father love me, He says, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. What is this that He says? Therefore does my Father love me: because I die, that I may rise again. For the I is uttered with special emphasis: Because I lay down, He says, I lay down my life, I lay down. What is that I lay down? I lay it down. Let the Jews no longer boast: they might rage, but they could have no power: let them rage as they can; if I were unwilling to lay down my life, what would all their raging effect? By one answer of His they were prostrated in the dust: when they were asked, Whom do you seek? they said, Jesus; and on His saying to them, I am He, they went backward, and fell to the ground. Those who thus fell to the ground at one word of Christ when about to die, what will they do at the sound of His voice when coming to judgment? I, I, I say, lay down my life, that I may take it again. Let not the Jews boast, as if they had prevailed; He Himself laid down His life. I laid me down [to sleep], He says [elsewhere]. You know the psalm: I laid me down and slept; and I awaked [rose up], for the Lord sustains me. What of that — I lay down? Because it was my pleasure, I did so. What does I lay down mean? I died. Was it not a lying down to sleep on His part, who, when He pleased, rose from the tomb as He would from a bed? But He loves to give glory to the Father, that He may stir us up to glorify our Creator. For in adding, I arose, for the Lord sustains me; think you there was here a kind of failing in His power, so that, while He had it in His own power to die, He had it not in His power to rise again? So, indeed, the words seem to imply when not more closely considered. I lay down to sleep; that is, I did so, because I pleased. And I arose: why? Because the Lord sustains [will sustain] me. What then? Would Thou not have power to rise of Yourself? If You had not the power, You would not have said, I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again. But, as showing that not only did the Father raise the Son, but the Son also raised Himself, hear how, in another passage in the Gospel, He says, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And the evangelist adds: But this He spoke of the temple of His body. For only that which died was restored to life. The Word is not mortal, His soul is not mortal. If even yours dies not, could the Lord's be subject to death?

8. How can I know, you will say, that mine dies not? Slay it not yourself, and it cannot die. How, thou asks, can I slay my soul? To say nothing meanwhile of other sins, The mouth that lies, slays the soul. [Wisdom 1:11] How, you say, can I be sure that it dies not? Listen to the Lord Himself giving security to His servant: Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But what in the plainest terms does He say? Fear Him who has power to slay both soul and body in hell. Here you have the fact that it dies, and that it does not die. What is its dying? What is dying to your flesh? Dying, to your flesh, is the losing of its life: dying to your soul, is the losing of its life. The life of your flesh is your soul: the life of your soul is your God. As the flesh dies in losing the soul, which is its life, so the soul dies in losing God, who is its life. Of a certainty, then, the soul is immortal. Manifestly immortal, for it lives even when dead. For what the apostle said of the luxurious widow, may also be said of the soul if it has lost its God, she is dead while she lives. [1 Timothy 5:6]

9. How, then, does the Lord lay down His life [soul]? Let us, brethren, inquire into this a little more carefully. The time is not so pressing as is usual on the Lord's day: we have leisure, and theirs will be the profit who have assembled today also to wait on the Word of God. I lay down my life, He says. Who lays down? What lays He down? What is Christ? The Word and man. Not man as being flesh alone: but as man consists of flesh and soul, so, in Christ there is a complete humanity. For He would not have assumed the baser part, and left the better behind, seeing that the soul of man is certainly superior to the body. Since, then, there is entire manhood in Christ, what is Christ? The Word, I repeat, and man. What is the Word and man? The Word, soul, and flesh. Keep hold of that, for there has been no lack of heretics on this point also, expelled as they were some time ago from the catholic truth, but still persisting, like thieves and robbers who enter not by the door, to lay their snares around the fold. These heretics are termed Apollinarians, and have ventured to assert dogmatically that Christ is only the word and flesh, and contend that He did not assume a human soul. And yet some of them could not deny that there was a soul in Christ. See their intolerable absurdity and madness. They would have Him to possess an irrational soul, but deny Him a rational one. They allowed Him a mere animal, they deprived Him of a human, soul. But they took away Christ's reason by losing their own. Let it be otherwise with us, who have been nourished and established in the catholic faith. Accordingly, on this occasion I would remind your Charity, that, as in former lectures, we have given you sufficient instruction against the Sabellians and Arians — the Sabellians, who say, The Father is the same as the Son — the Arians, who say, The Father is one being, the Son is another, as if the Father and Son were not of the same substance — and also, provided you remember as you ought, against the Photinian heretics, who have asserted that Christ was mere man, and destitute of Godhead: and against the Manicheans, who maintain that He was God only without any true humanity: we may, on this occasion, in speaking about the soul, give you some instruction also in opposition to the Apollinarians, who say that our Lord Jesus Christ had no human soul, that is, a rational intelligent soul — that soul, I mean, by which, as men, we differ from the brutes.

10. In what sense, then, did our Lord say here, I have power to lay down my soul [life]? Who lays down his soul, and takes it again? Is it as being the Word that Christ does so? Or is it the human soul He possesses that lays down and resumes its own existence? Or is it His fleshly nature that lays down its life and takes it again? Let us sift each of the three questions I have suggested, and choose that which conforms to the standard of truth. For if we say that the Word of God laid down His soul, and took it again, we should have to fear the entrance of a wicked thought, and have it said to us: Then there was a time when that soul was separated from the Word, and a time, after His assumption of that soul, when He was without a soul. I see, indeed, that the Word was once without a human soul, but only so, when in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But from the time that the Word was made flesh, to dwell among us, and manhood was assumed by the Word, that is, our whole nature, soul and flesh, what more could His passion and death do than separate the body from the soul? It separated not the soul from the Word. For if the Lord died, yea, because He died (for He did so for us on the cross), doubtless His flesh breathed out that which was its life: for a short time the soul forsook the flesh, although destined by its own return to raise the flesh again to life. But I cannot say that the soul was separated from the Word. He said to the soul of the thief, Today shall you be with me in paradise. [Luke 23:43] He forsook not the believing soul of the robber, and did He abandon His own? Surely not; but when the Lord took that of the other into His keeping, He certainly retained His own in indissoluble union. If, on the other hand, we say that the soul laid down and reassumed itself, we fall into the greatest absurdity; for what was not separated from the Word, was inseparable from itself.

11. Let us turn, then, to what is true and easily understood. Take the case of any man, who does not consist of the word and soul and flesh, but only of soul and flesh; and let us inquire how any such man lays down his life. Can no ordinary man do so? You may say to me: No man has power to lay down his life [soul], and to take it again. But were not a man able to lay down his life, the Apostle John would not say, As Christ laid down his life for us, even so ought we also to lay down our lives for the brethren. [1 John 3:16] Therefore may we also (if only we are filled with His courage, for without Him we can do nothing) lay down our lives for the brethren. When some holy martyr has laid down his life for the brethren, who laid it down, and what laid he down? If we understand this, we shall perceive in what sense it was said by Christ, I have power to lay down my life. Are you prepared, O man, to die for Christ? I am prepared, he replies. Let me repeat the question in other words. Are you prepared to lay down your life for Christ? And to these words he makes me the same reply, I am prepared, as he had, when I said, Are you prepared to die? To lay down one's life [soul], is, then, the same as to die. But in whose behalf is the sacrifice in this case? For all men, when they die, lay down their life; but it is not all who lay it down for Christ. And no one has power to resume what he has laid down. But Christ both laid it down for us, and did so when it pleased Him; and when it pleased Him, He took it again. To lay down one's soul then, is to die. As also the Apostle Peter said to the Lord: I will lay down my life [soul] for Your sake; that is, I will die for Your sake. View it, then, as referable to the flesh: the flesh lays down its life, and the flesh takes it again; not, indeed, the flesh by its own power, but by the power of Him that inhabites it. The flesh, then, lays down its life in expiring. Look at the Lord Himself on the cross: He said, I thirst: those who were present dipped a sponge in vinegar, fastened it to a reed, and applied it to His mouth; then, having received it, He said, It is finished; meaning, All is fulfilled which had been prophesied regarding me as, prior to my death, still in the future. And because He had the power, when He pleased, to lay down His life, after He had said, It is finished, what adds the evangelist? And He bowed His head, and gave up the spirit. This is to lay down the soul [life]. Only let your Charity attend to this. He bowed His head, and gave up the spirit. Who gave up what gave He up? He gave up the spirit; His flesh gave it up. What means, the flesh gave it up? The flesh sent it forth, breathed it out. For so, in becoming separated from the spirit, we are said to expire. Just as getting outside the paternal soil is to be expatriated, turning aside from the track is to deviate; so to become separated from the spirit is to expire; and that spirit is the soul [life]. Accordingly, when the soul quits the flesh, and the flesh remains without the soul, then is a man said to lay down his soul [his human life]. When did Christ lay down His life? When it pleased the Word. For sovereign authority resided in the Word; and therein lay the power to determine when the flesh should lay down its life, and when it should take it again.

12. If, then, the flesh laid down its life, how did Christ lay down His life? For the flesh is not Christ. Certainly in this way, that Christ is both flesh, and soul, and the Word; and yet these three things are not three Christs, but one. Ask your own human nature, and from yourself ascend to what is above you, and which, if not yet able to be understood, can at least be believed. For in the same way that one man is soul and body, is one Christ both the Word and man. Consider what I have said, and understand. The soul and body are two things, but one man: the Word and man are two things, but one Christ. Apply, then, the subject to any man. Where is now the Apostle Paul? If one answer, At rest with Christ, he speaks truly. And likewise, should one reply, In the sepulchre at Rome, he is equally right. The one answer I get refers to his soul, the other to his flesh. And yet we do not say that there are two Apostle Pauls, one who rests in Christ, another who was laid in the sepulchre; although we may say that the Apostle Paul lives in Christ, and that the same apostle lies dead in the tomb. Some one dies, and we say, He was a good man, and faithful; he is in peace with the Lord: and then immediately, Let us attend his obsequies, and lay him in the sepulchre. You are about to bury one whom you had just declared to be in peace with God; for the latter regards the soul which blooms eternally, and the other the body, which is laid down in corruption. But while the partnership of the flesh and soul has received the name of man, the same name is now applied to either of them, singly and by itself.

13. Let no one, then, be perplexed, when he hears that the Lord has said, I lay down my life, and I take it again. The flesh lays it down, but by the power of the Word: the flesh takes it again, but by the same power. Even His own name, the Lord Christ, was applied to His flesh alone. How can you prove it? Says some one. We believe of a certainty not only in God the Father, but also in Jesus Christ His Son, our only Lord: and this that I have just said contains the whole, in Jesus Christ His Son, our only Lord. Understand that the whole is here: the Word, and soul, and flesh. At all events you confess what is also held by the same faith, that you believe in that Christ who was crucified and buried. Ergo, you deny not that Christ was buried; and yet it was the burial only of His flesh. For had the soul been there, He would not have been dead: but if it was a true death, and its resurrection real, it was previously without life in the tomb; and yet it was Christ that was buried. And so the flesh apart from the soul was also Christ, for it was only the flesh that was buried. Learn the same likewise in the words of an apostle. Let this mind, he says, be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Who, save Christ Jesus, as respects His nature as the Word, is God with God? But look at what follows: But emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant; being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man. And who is this, but the same Christ Jesus Himself? But here we have now all the parts, both the Word in that form of God which assumed the form of a servant, and the soul and the flesh in that form of a servant which was assumed by the form of God. He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death. [Philippians 2:6-8] Now in His death, it was His flesh only that was slain by the Jews. For if He said to His disciples, Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, [Matthew 10:28] how could they do more in His own case than kill the body? And yet in the slaying of His flesh, it was Christ that was slain. Accordingly, when the flesh laid down its life, Christ laid it down; and when the flesh, in order to its resurrection, assumed its life, Christ assumed it. Nevertheless this was done, not by the power of the flesh, but of Him who assumed both soul and flesh, that in them these very things might receive fulfillment.

14. This commandment, He says, have I received of my Father. The Word received not the commandment in word, but in the only begotten Word of the Father every commandment resides. But when the Son is said to receive of the Father what He possesses essentially in Himself, as it is said, As the Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself, [John 5:26] while the Son is Himself the life,there is no lessening of His authority, but the setting forth of His generation. For the Father added not after-gifts as to a son whose state was imperfect at birth, but on Him whom He begot in absolute perfection He bestowed all gifts in begetting. In this manner He gave Him equality with Himself, and yet begot Him not in a state of inequality. But while the Lord thus spoke, for the light was shining in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not, there was a dissension again created among the Jews for these sayings, and many of them said, He has a devil, and is mad: why hear ye him? This was the thickest darkness. Others said, These are not the words of him that has a devil; can a devil open the eyes of the blind? The eyes of such were now begun to be opened.

1. As I have already charged you, beloved, you ought steadfastly to bear in mind that Saint John the evangelist would not have us be always nourished with milk, but fed with solid food. Still, whoever is hardly able as yet to partake of the solid food of God's word, let him find nourishment in the milk of faith; and the word which he cannot understand, let him not hesitate to believe. For faith is the deserving: understanding, the reward. In the very labor of intent application the eye of our mind struggles to get rid of the foul films of human mists, and be cleared up to the word of God. Labor, then, will not be declined if love is present; for you know that he who loves his labor is insensible to its pain. For no labor is grievous to those who love it. If cupidity on the part of the avaricious endures so great toils, what in our case will not love endure?

2. Listen to the Gospel: And it was at Jerusalem the Encœnia. Encoenia was the festival of the dedication of the temple. For in Greek kainos means new; and whenever there was some new dedication, it was called Encœnia. And now this word has come into common use; if one puts on a new coat, he is said encœniare (to renovate, or to hold an encœnia). For the Jews celebrated in a solemn manner the day on which the temple was dedicated; and it was the very feast day when the Lord spoke what has just been read.

3. It was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about Him, and said to Him, How long do you keep our mind in suspense? If you be the Christ, tell us plainly. They were not desiring the truth, but preparing a calumny. It was winter, and they were chill; because they were slow to approach that divine fire. For to approach is to believe: he who believes, approaches; who denies, retires. The soul is not moved by the feet, but by the affections. They had become icy cold to the sweetness of loving Him, and they burned with the desire of doing Him an injury. They were far away, while there beside Him. It was not with them a nearer approach in believing, but the pressure of persecution. They sought to hear the Lord saying, I am Christ; and probably enough they only thought of the Christ in a human way. The prophets preached Christ; but the Godhead of Christ asserted in the prophets and in the gospel itself is not perceived even by heretics; and how much less by Jews, so long as the veil is upon their heart? [2 Corinthians 3:15] In short, in a certain place, the Lord Jesus, knowing that their views of the Christ were cast in a human mould, not in the Divine, taking His stand on the human ground, and not on that where along with the assumption of humanity He also continued Divine, He said to them, What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? Following their own opinion, they replied, Of David. For so they had read, and this only they retained; because while they read of His divinity, they did not understand it. But the Lord, to pin them down to some inquiry touching the divinity of Him whose apparent weakness they despised, answered them: How, then, does David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand, till I put Your enemies under Your feet? If David, then, in spirit call Him Lord, how is He his son? [Matthew 22:42-45] He did not deny, but questioned. Let no one think, on hearing this, that the Lord Jesus denied that He was the Son of David. Had Christ the Lord given any such denial, He would not have enlightened the blind who so addressed Him. For as He was passing by one day, two blind men, who were sitting by the wayside, cried out, Have mercy upon us, thou Son of David. And on hearing these words He had mercy on them. He stood still, healed, enlightened them; [Matthew 20:30-34] for He owned the name. The Apostle Paul also says, Who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; [Romans 1:3] and in his Epistle to Timothy, Remember that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, [He that is] of the seed of David, according to my gospel. [2 Timothy 2:8] For the Virgin Mary drew her origin, and hence our Lord also, from the seed of David.

4. The Jews made this inquiry of Christ, chiefly in order that, should He say, I am Christ, they might, in accordance with the only sense they attached to such a name, that He was of the seed of David, calumniate Him with aiming at the kingly power. There is more than this in His answer to them: they wished to calumniate Him with claiming to be the Son of David. He replied that He was the Son of God. And how? Listen: Jesus answered them, I tell you, and you believe not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me: but you believe not; because you are not of my sheep. You have already learned above (in Lecture XLV.) who the sheep are: be ye sheep. They are sheep through believing, sheep in following the Shepherd, sheep in not despising their Redeemer, sheep in entering by the door, sheep in going out and finding pasture, sheep in the enjoyment of eternal life. What did He mean, then, in saying to them, You are not of my sheep? That He saw them predestined to everlasting destruction, not won to eternal life by the price of His own blood.

5. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life. This is the pasture. If you recollect, He had said before, And he shall go in and out, and find pasture. We have entered by believing — we go out at death. But as we have entered by the door of faith, so, as believers, we quit the body; for it is in going out by that same door that we are able to find pasture. The good pasture is called eternal life; there no blade withers — all is green and flourishing. There is a plant commonly said to be ever-living; there only is it found to live. I will give, He says, unto them, unto my sheep, eternal life. You are on the search for calumnies, just because your only thoughts are of the life that is present.

6. And they shall never perish: you may hear the undertone, as if He had said to them, You shall perish for ever, because you are not of my sheep. No one shall pluck them out of my hand. Give still greater heed to this: That which my Father gave me is greater than all. What can the wolf do? What can the thief and the robber? They destroy none but those predestined to destruction. But of those sheep of which the apostle says, The Lord knows them that are His; [2 Timothy 2:19] and Whom He did foreknow, them He also did predestinate; and whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified; [Romans 8:29-30] — there is none of such sheep as these that the wolf seizes, or the thief steals, or the robber slays. He, who knows what He gave for them, is sure of their number. And it is this that He says: No one shall pluck them out of my hand; and in reference also to the Father, That which my Father gave me is greater than all. What did the Father give to the Son that was greater than all? To be His own only-begotten Son. What, then, means gave? Was He to whom He gave previously existent, or gave He in the act of begetting? For if He previously existed to whom He gave the gift of Sonship, there was a time when He was, and was not the Son. Far be it from us to suppose that the Lord Christ ever was, and yet was not the Son. Of us such a thing may be said: there was a time when we were the sons of men, but were not the sons of God. For we are made the sons of God by grace, but He by nature, for such was He born. And yet not so, as that one may say, He did not exist till He was born; for He, who was coeternal with the Father, was never unborn. Let him who is wise understand: and whoever understands not, let him believe and be nourished, and he will come to understanding. The Word of God was always with the Father, and always the Word; and because the Word, therefore the Son. So then, always the Son, and always equal. For it is not by growth but by birth that He is equal, who was always born, the Son of the Father, God of God, coeternal of the Eternal. But the Father is not God of the Son: the Son is God of the Father; therefore in begetting the Son, the Father gave Him to be God, in begetting He gave Him to be coeternal with Himself, in begetting He gave Him to be His equal. This is that which is greater than all. How is the Son the life, and the possessor of life? What He has, He is: as for you, you are one thing, you have another. For example, you have wisdom, but are you wisdom itself? In short, because you yourself art not that which you have, should you lose what you have, you return to the state of no longer having it: and sometimes you re-acquire, sometimes you lose. As our eye has no light inherently in itself, it opens, and admits it; it shuts, and loses it. It is not thus that the Son of God is God — not thus that He is the Word of the Father; and not thus is He the Word, that passes away with the sound, but that which abides in its birth. In such a way has He wisdom that He is Himself wisdom, and makes men wise: and life, that He is Himself the life, and makes others alive. This is that which is greater than all. The evangelist John himself looked to heaven and earth when wishing to speak of the Son of God; he looked, and rose above them all. He thought on the thousands of angelic armies above the heavens; he thought, and, like the eagle soaring beyond the clouds, his mind overpassed the whole creation: he rose beyond all that was great, and arrived at that which was greater than all; and said, In the beginning was the Word. But because He, of whom is the Word, is not of the Word, and the Word is of Him, whose Word He is; therefore He says, That which the Father gave me, namely, to be His Word, His only-begotten Son, the brightness of His light, is greater than all. Therefore, No one, He says, plucks my sheep out of my hand. No one can pluck them out of my Father's hand.

7. Out of my hand, and out of my Father's hand. What is this, No one plucks them out of my hand, and No one plucks them out of my Father's hand? Have the Father and Son one hand, or is the Son Himself, shall we say, the hand of His Father? If by hand we are to understand power, the power of Father and Son is one; for their Godhead is one. But if we mean hand in the way spoken of by the prophet, And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? [Isaiah 53:1] the Father's hand is the Son Himself, which is not to be so understood as if God had the human form, and, as it were, bodily members: but that all things were made by Him. For men also are in the habit of calling other men their hands, by whom they get done what they wish. And sometimes also the very work done by a man's hand is called his hand; as one is said to recognize his hand when he recognizes what he has written. Since, then, there are many ways of speaking of the hand of a man, who literally has a hand among the members of his body; how much rather must there be more than one way of understanding it, when we read of the hand of God, who has no bodily form? And in this way it is better here, by the hand of the Father and Son, to understand the power of the Father and the Son; lest, in taking here the hand of the Father as spoken of the Son, some carnal thought also about the Son Himself should set us looking for the Son as somehow to be similarly regarded as the hand of Christ. Therefore, no one plucks them out of my Father's hand; that is, no one plucks them from me.

8. But that there may be no more room for hesitation, hear what follows: I and my Father are one. Up to this point the Jews were able to bear Him; they heard, I and my Father are one, and they bore it no longer; and hardened in their own way, they had recourse to stones. They took up stones to stone Him. The Lord, because He suffered not what He was unwilling to suffer, and only suffered what He was pleased to suffer, still addresses them while desiring to stone Him. The Jews took up stones to stone Him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? And they answered, For a good work we stone you not, but for blasphemy, and because that thou, being a man, makest yourself God. Such was their reply to His words, I and my Father are one. You see here that the Jews understood what the Arians understand not. For they were angry on this account, that they felt it could not be said, I and my Father are one, save where there was equality of the Father and the Son.

9. But see what answer the Lord gave to their dull apprehension. He saw that they could not bear the brilliance of the truth, and He tempered it with words. Is it not written in your law, that is, as given to you, that I said, You are gods? And the Lord called all the Scriptures generally, the law: although elsewhere He speaks more definitely of the law, distinguishing it from the prophets; as it is said, The law and the prophets were until John; [Luke 16:16] and On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. [Matthew 22:40] Sometimes, however, He divided the same Scriptures into three parts, as where He says, All things must be fulfilled which were written in the law, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me. [Luke 24:44] But now He includes the psalms also under the name of the law, where it is written, I said, You are gods. If He calls them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken: say ye of Him, whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blaspheme; because I said, I am the Son of God? If the word of God came to men, that they might be called gods, how can the very Word of God, who is with God, be otherwise than God? If by the word of God men become gods, if by fellowship they become gods, can He by whom they have fellowship not be God? If lights which are lit are gods, is the light which enlightens not God? If through being warmed in a way by saving fire they are constituted gods, is He who gives them the warmth other than God? Thou approachest the light and art enlightened, and numbered among the sons of God; if you withdraw from the light, you fall into obscurity, and art accounted in darkness; but that light approaches not, because it never recedes from itself. If, then, the word of God makes you gods, how can the Word of God be otherwise than God? Therefore did the Father sanctify His Son, and send Him into the world. Perhaps some one may be saying: If the Father sanctified Him, was there then a time when He was not sanctified? He sanctified in the same way as He begot Him. For in the act of begetting He gave Him the power to be holy, because He begot Him in holiness. For if that which is sanctified was unholy before, how can we say to God the Father, Hallowed be Your name? [Matthew 6:9]

10. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye will not believe me, believe the works; that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in Him. The Son says not, the Father is in me, and I in Him, as men can say it. For if we think well, we are in God; and if we live well, God is in us: believers, by participating in His grace, and being illuminated by Himself, are in Him, and He in us. But not so is it with the only-begotten Son: He is in the Father, and the Father in Him; as one who is equal is in him whose equal he is. In short, we can sometimes say, We are in God, and God is in us; but can we say, I and God are one? You are in God, because God contains you; God is in you, because you have become the temple of God: but because you are in God, and God is in you, can you say, He that sees me sees God; as the Only-begotten said, He that has seen me, has seen the Father also; and I and the Father are one? Recognize the prerogative of the Lord, and the privilege of the servant. The prerogative of the Lord is equality with the Father: the privilege of the servant is fellowship with the Saviour.

11. Therefore they sought to apprehend Him. Would they had apprehended by faith and understanding, not in wrath and murder! For now, my brethren, when I speak thus, it is the weak one wishing to apprehend what is strong, the small what is great, the fragile what is solid; and it is we ourselves — both you who are of the same matter as I am, and I myself who speak to you — who all wish to apprehend Christ. And what is it to apprehend Him? [If] you have understood, you have apprehended. But not as did the Jews: you have apprehended in order to possess, they wished to apprehend in order to make away with Him. And because this was the kind of apprehension they desired, what did He do to them? He escaped out of their hands. They failed to apprehend Him, because they lacked the hand of faith. The Word was made flesh; but it was no great task to the Word to rescue His own flesh from fleshy hands. To apprehend the Word in the mind, is the right apprehension of Christ.

12. And He went away again beyond Jordan, into the place where John at first baptized; and there He abode. And many resorted unto Him, and said, John, indeed, did no miracle. You remember what was said of John, that he was a light, and bore witness to the day. Why, then, say these among themselves, John did no miracle? John, they say, signalized himself by no miracle; he did not put devils to flight, he drove away no fever, he enlightened not the blind, he raised not the dead, he fed not so many thousand men with five or seven loaves, he walked not upon the sea, he commanded not the winds and the waves. None of these things did John, and in all he said he bore witness to this man. By lamp-light we may advance to the day. John did no miracle: but all things that John spoke of this man were true. Here are those who apprehended in a different way from the Jews. The Jews wished to apprehend one who was departing from them, these apprehended one who remained with them. In a word, what is it that follows? And many believed on Him.

1. Among all the miracles wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection of Lazarus holds a foremost place in preaching. But if we consider attentively who did it, our duty is to rejoice rather than to wonder. A man was raised up by Him who made man: for He is the only One of the Father, by whom, as you know, all things were made. And if all things were made by Him, what wonder is it that one was raised by Him, when so many are daily brought into the world by His power? It is a greater deed to create men than to raise them again from the dead. Yet He deigned both to create and to raise again; to create all, to resuscitate some. For though the Lord Jesus did many such acts, yet all of them are not recorded; just as this same St. John the evangelist himself testifies, that Christ the Lord both said and did many things that are not recorded; but such were chosen for record as seemed to suffice for the salvation of believers. You have just heard that the Lord Jesus raised a dead man to life; and that is sufficient to let you know that, were He so pleased, He might raise all the dead to life. And, indeed this very work has He reserved in His own hands till the end of the world. For while you have heard that by a great miracle He raised one from the tomb who had been dead four days, the hour is coming, as He Himself says, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth. He raised one who was putrid, and yet in that putrid carcass there was still the form of limbs; but at the last day He will by a word reconstitute ashes into human flesh. But it was needful then to do only some such deeds, that we, receiving them as tokens of His power, may put our trust in Him, and be preparing for that resurrection which shall be to life and not to judgment. So, indeed, He says, The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

2. We have, however, read in the Gospel of three dead persons who were raised to life by the Lord, and, let us hope, to some good purpose. For surely the Lord's deeds are not merely deeds, but signs. And if they are signs, besides their wonderful character, they have some real significance: and to find out this in regard to such deeds is a somewhat harder task than to read or hear of them. We were listening with wonder, as at the sight of some mighty miracle enacted before our eyes, in the reading of the Gospel, how Lazarus was restored to life. If we turn our thoughts to the still more wonderful works of Christ, every one that believes rises again: if we all consider, and understand that more horrifying kind of death, every one who sins dies. But every man is afraid of the death of the flesh; few, of the death of the soul. In regard to the death of the flesh, which must certainly come some time, all are on their guard against its approach: this is the source of all their labor. Man, destined to die, labors to avert his dying; and yet man, destined to live for ever, labors not to cease from sinning. And when he labors to avoid dying, he labors to no purpose, for its only result will be to put off death for a while, not to escape it; but if he refrain from sinning, his toil will cease, and he shall live forever. Oh that we could arouse men, and be ourselves aroused along with them, to be as great lovers of the life that abides, as men are of that which passes away! What will a man not do who is placed under the peril of death? When the sword was overhanging their heads, men have given up every means of living they had in reserve. Who is there that has not made an immediate surrender of all, to escape being slain? And, after all, he has perhaps been slain. Who is there that, to save his life, has not been willing at once to lose his means of living, and prefer a life of beggary to a speedy death? Who has had it said to him, Be off to sea if you would escape with your life, and has delayed to do so? Who has had it said to him, Set to work if you would preserve your life, and has continued a sluggard? It is but little that God requires of us, that we may live for ever: and we neglect to obey Him. God says not to you, Lose all you have, that you may live a little time oppressed with toil; but, Give to the poor of what you have, that you may live always exempt from labor. The lovers of this temporal life, which is theirs, neither when, nor as long as they wish, are our accusers; and we accuse not ourselves in turn, so sluggish are we, so lukewarm about obtaining eternal life, which will be ours if we wish it, and will be imperishable when we have it; but this death which we fear, notwithstanding all our reluctance, will yet be ours in possession.

3. If, then, the Lord in the greatness of His grace and mercy raises our souls to life, that we may not die for ever, we may well understand that those three dead persons whom He raised in the body, have some figurative significance of that resurrection of the soul which is effected by faith: He raised up the ruler of the synagogue's daughter, while still lying in the house; [Mark 5:41-42] He raised up the widow's young son, while being carried outside the gates of the city; [Luke 7:14-15] and He raised up Lazarus, when four days in the grave. Let each one give heed to his own soul: in sinning he dies: sin is the death of the soul. But sometimes sin is committed only in thought. You have felt delight in what is evil, you have assented to its commission, you have sinned; that assent has slain you: but the death is internal, because the evil thought had not yet ripened into action. The Lord intimated that He would raise such a soul to life, in raising that girl, who had not yet been carried forth to the burial, but was lying dead in the house, as if sin still lay concealed. But if you have not only harbored a feeling of delight in evil, but hast also done the evil thing, you have, so to speak, carried the dead outside the gate: you are already without, and being carried to the tomb. Yet such an one also the Lord raised to life. and restored to his widowed mother. If you have sinned, repent, and the Lord will raise you up, and restore you to your mother Church. The third example of death is Lazarus. A grievous kind of death it is, and is distinguished as a habit of wickedness. For it is one thing to fall into sin, another to form the habit of sinning. He who falls into sin, and straightway submits to correction, will be speedily restored to life; for he is not yet entangled in the habit, he is not yet laid in the tomb. But he who has become habituated to sin, is buried, and has it properly said of him, he stinks; for his character, like some horrible smell, begins to be of the worst repute. Such are all who are habituated to crime, abandoned in morals. You say to such an one, Do not so. But when will you be listened to by one on whom the earth is thus heaped, who is breeding corruption, and pressed down with the weight of habit? And yet the power of Christ was not unequal to the task of restoring such an one to life. We know, we have seen, we see every day men changing the very worst of habits, and adopting a better manner of life than that of those who blamed them. You detested such a man: look at the sister of Lazarus herself (if, indeed, it was she who anointed the Lord's feet with ointment, and wiped with her hair what she had washed with her tears), who had a better resurrection than her brother; she was delivered from the mighty burden of a sinful character. For she was a notorious sinner; and had it said of her, Her many sins are forgiven her, for she has loved much. We see many such, we know many: let none despair, but let none presume in himself. Both the one and the other are sinful. Let your unwillingness to despair take such a turn as to lead you to make choice of Him in whom alone you may well presume.

4. So then the Lord also raised Lazarus to life. You have heard what type of character he represents; in other words, what is meant by the resurrection of Lazarus. Let us now, therefore, read over the passage; and as there is much in this lesson clear already, we shall not go into any detailed exposition, so as to take up more thoroughly the necessary points. Now a certain man was sick, [named] Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and Martha, his sisters. In the previous lesson you remember that the Lord escaped from the hands of those who sought to stone Him, and went away beyond Jordan, where John baptized. When the Lord therefore had taken up His abode there, Lazarus fell sick in Bethany, which was a town lying close to Jerusalem.

5. But Mary was she who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent unto Him, saying. We now understand whither it was they sent, namely, where the Lord was; for He was away, as you know, beyond the Jordan. They sent messengers to the Lord to tell Him that their brother was ill. He delayed to heal, that He might be able to raise to life. But what was the message sent by his sisters? Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick. They did not say, Come; for the intimation was all that was needed for one who loved. They did not venture to say, Come and heal him: they ventured not to say, Command there, and it shall be done here. And why not so with them, if on these very grounds the centurion's faith was commended? For he said, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof; but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. [Matthew viii] No such words said these women, but only, Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick. It is enough that You know; for You are not one that loves and forsakes. But says some one, How could a sinner be represented by Lazarus, and be so loved by the Lord? Let him listen to Him, when He says, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. [Matthew 9:13] For had not God loved sinners, He would not have come down from heaven to earth.

6. But when Jesus heard [that], He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified. Such a glorifying of Himself did not add to His dignity, but benefited us. Hence He says, is not unto death, because even that death itself was not unto death, but rather unto the working of a miracle whereby men might be led to faith in Christ, and so escape the real death. And mark how the Lord, as it were indirectly, called Himself God, for the sake of some who deny that the Son is God. For there are heretics who make such a denial, that the Son of God is God. Let them hearken here: This sickness, He says, is not unto death, but for the glory of God. For what glory? For the glory of what God? Hear what follows: That the Son of God may be glorified. This sickness, therefore, He says, is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God maybe glorified thereby. By what? By that sickness.

7. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus. The one sick, the others sad, all of them beloved: but He who loved them was both the Saviour of the sick, nay more, the Raiser of the dead and the Comforter of the sad. When He heard therefore that he was sick, He abode then two days still in the same place. They sent Him word: He abode where He was: and the time ran on till four days were completed. And not in vain, were it only that perhaps, nay that certainly, even the very number of days has some sacramental significance. Then after that He says again to His disciples, Let us go into Judea: where He had been all but stoned, and from which He had apparently departed for the very purpose to escape being stoned. For as man He departed; but returned as if in forgetfulness of all infirmity, to show His power. Let us go, He said, into Judea.

8. And now see how the disciples were terrified at His words. The disciples say unto Him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone You, and You are going there again? Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? What does such an answer mean? They said to Him, The Jews of late sought to stone You, and You are going there again to be stoned? And the Lord, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbles not, because he sees the light of this world: but if he walk in the night, he stumbles, because there is no light in him. He spoke indeed of the day, but to our understanding as if it were still the night. Let us call upon the Day to chase away the night, and illuminate our hearts with the light. For what did the Lord mean? As far as I can judge, and as the height and depth of His meaning breaks into light, He wished to argue down their doubting and unbelief. For they wished by their counsel to keep the Lord from death, who had come to die, to save themselves from death. In a similar way also, in another passage, St. Peter, who loved the Lord, but did not yet fully understand the reason of His coming, was afraid of His dying, and so displeased the Life, to wit, the Lord Himself; for when He was intimating to the disciples what He was about to suffer at Jerusalem at the hands of the Jews, Peter made reply among the rest, and said, Far be it from You, Lord; pity Yourself: this shall not be unto You. And at once the Lord replied, Get behind me, Satan: for you savor not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. And yet a little before, in confessing the Son of God, he had merited commendation: for he heard the words, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father who is in heaven. [Matthew 16:16-23] To whom He had said, Blessed are you, He now says, Get behind me, Satan; because it was not of himself that he was blessed. But of what then? For flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father who is in heaven. See, this is how you are blessed, not from anything that is your own, but from that which is mine. Not that I am the Father, but that all things which the Father has are mine. But if his blessedness came from the Lord's own working, from whose [working] came he to be Satan? He there tells us: for He assigned the reason of such blessedness, when He said, Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you, but my Father who is in heaven: that is the cause of your blessedness. But that I said, Get behind me, Satan, hear also its cause. For you savor not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Let no one then flatter himself: in that which is natural to himself he is Satan, in that which is of God he is blessed. For all that is of his own, whence comes it, but from his sin? Put away the sin, which is your own. Righteousness, He says, belongs unto me. For what have you that thou did not receive? [1 Corinthians 4:7] Accordingly, when men wished to give counsel to God, disciples to their Master, servants to their Lord, patients to their Physician, He reproved them by saying, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbles not. Follow me, if you would not stumble: give not counsel to me, from whom you ought to receive it. To what, then, refer the words, Are there not twelve hours in the day? Just that to point Himself out as the day, He made choice of twelve disciples. If I am the day, He says, and you the hours, is it for the hours to give counsel to the day? The day is followed by the hours, not the hours by the day. If these, then, were the hours, what in such a reckoning was Judas? Was he also among the twelve hours? If he was an hour, he had light; and if he had light, how was the Day betrayed by him to death? But the Lord, in so speaking, foresaw, not Judas himself, but his successor. For Judas, when he fell, was succeeded by Matthias, and the duodenary number preserved. [Acts 1:26] It was not, then, without a purpose that the Lord made choice of twelve disciples, but to indicate that He Himself is the spiritual Day. Let the hours then attend upon the Day, let them preach the Day, be made known and illuminated by the Day, and by the preaching of the hours may the world believe in the Day. And so in a summary way it was just this that He said: Follow me, if you would not stumble.

9. And after that He says unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. It was true what He said. To his sisters he was dead, to the Lord he was asleep. He was dead to men, who could not raise him again; but the Lord aroused him with as great ease from the tomb as one arouses a sleeper from his bed. Hence it was in reference to His own power that He spoke of him as sleeping: for others also, who are dead, are frequently spoken of in Scripture as sleeping; as when the apostle says, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others who have no hope. [1 Thessalonians 4:13] Therefore he also spoke of them as sleeping, because foretelling their resurrection. And so, all the dead are sleeping, both good and bad. But just as, in the case of those who sleep and waken day by day, there is a great difference as to what they severally see in their sleep: some experience pleasant dreams; others, dreams so frightful that the waking are afraid to fall asleep for fear of their recurrence: so every individual sleeps and wakens in circumstances peculiar to himself. And there is a difference as to the kind of custody one may be placed in, who is afterwards to be taken before the judge. For the kind of custody in which men are placed depends on the merits of the case: some are required to be guarded by lictors, an office humane and mild, and becoming a citizen; others are given up to subordinates; some, again, are sent to prison: and in the prison itself all are not thrust together into its lowest dungeons, but dealt with in proportion to the merits and superior gravity of the charges. As, then, there are different kinds of custody among those engaged in official life, so there are different kinds of custody for the dead, and differing merits in those who rise again. The beggar was taken into custody, so was the rich man: but the one into Abraham's bosom; the other, where he thirsted, and found not a drop of water. [Luke 16:22-24]

10. Therefore, to make this the occasion of instructing your Charity, all souls have, when they quit this world, their different receptions. The good have joy; the evil, torments. But when the resurrection takes place, both the joy of the good will be fuller and the torments of the wicked heavier, when they shall be tormented in the body. The holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and good believers, have been received into peace; but all of them have still in the end to receive the fulfillment of the divine promises; for they have been promised also the resurrection of the flesh, the destruction of death, and eternal life with the angels. This we have all to receive together; for the rest, which is given immediately after death, every one, if worthy of it, receives when he dies. The patriarchs first received it — think only from what they rest; the prophets afterwards; more recently the apostles; still more lately the holy martyrs, and day by day the good and faithful. Thus some have now been in that rest for long, some not so long; others for fewer years, and others whose entrance therein is still less than recent. But when they shall wake from this sleep, they shall all together receive the fulfillment of the promise.

11. Our friend Lazarus sleeps; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples— according to their understanding they replied — Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. For the sleep of the sick is usually a sign of returning health. Howbeit Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He spoke of the taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly,— for He said somewhat obscurely, He sleeps;— therefore He said plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe. I even know that he is dead, and I was not there: for he had been reported not as dead, but sick. But what could remain hid from Him who had created it, and into whose hands the soul of the dying man had departed? This is why He said, I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; that they might now begin to wonder that the Lord could assert his death, which He had neither seen nor heard of. For here we ought specially to bear in mind that as yet the disciples themselves, who already believed in Him, had their faith built up by miracles: not that a faith, utterly wanting till then, might begin to exist; but that what had previously come into being might be increased; although He made use of such an expression as if only then they would begin to believe. For He said not, I am glad for your sakes, that your faith may be increased or confirmed; but, that you may believe; which is to be understood as meaning, that your faith may be fuller and more vigorous.

12. Nevertheless, let us go unto him. Then said Thomas, who is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with Him. Therefore Jesus came, and found that he had [lain] in the grave four days already. Much might be said of the four days, according to the wont of the obscure passages of Scripture, which bear as many senses as there is diversity of those who understand them. Let us express also our opinion of what is meant by one four days dead. For as in the former case of the blind man we understand in a way the human race, so in the case of this dead man many perhaps are also to be understood; for one thing may be signified by different figures. When a man is born, he is born already in a state of death; for he inherits sin from Adam. Hence the apostle says: By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so that passed upon all men, wherein all have sinned. [Romans 5:12] Here you have one day of death because man inherits it from the seed stock of death. Thereafter he grows, and begins to approach the years of reason that he may know the law of nature, which every one has had implanted in his heart: What you would not have done to yourself, do not to another. Is this learned from the pages of a book, and not in a measure legible in our very nature? Have you any desire to be robbed? Certainly not. See here, then, the law in your heart: What you are unwilling to suffer, be unwilling to do. This law also is transgressed by men; and here, then, we have the second day of death. The law was also divinely given through Moses, the servant of God; and therein it is said, You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and mother; you shall not covet your neighbor's property; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. [Exodus 20:12-17] Here you have the written law, and it also is despised: this is the third day of death. What remains? The gospel also comes, the kingdom of heaven is preached, Christ is everywhere published; He threatens hell, He promises eternal life; and that also is despised. Men transgress the gospel; and this is the fourth day of death. Now he deservedly stinks. But is mercy to be denied to such? God forbid; for to raise such also from the dead, the Lord thinks it not unfitting to come.

13. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him; but Mary sat [still] in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if You had been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever You will ask of God, God will give it You. She did not say, But even now I ask You to raise my brother to life again. For how could she know if such a resurrection would be of benefit to her brother? She only said, I know that You can, and whatsoever You are pleased, You do: for Your doing it is dependent on Your own judgment, not on my presumption. But even now I know that, whatsoever You will ask of God, God will give it You.

14. Jesus says unto her, Your brother shall rise again. This was ambiguous. For He said not, Even now I will raise your brother; but, Your brother shall rise again. Martha says unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection, at the last day. Of that resurrection I am sure, but uncertain about this. Jesus says unto her, I am the resurrection. You say, My brother shall rise again at the last day: true; but by Him, through whom he shall rise then, can he rise even now, for I, He says, am the resurrection and the life. Give ear, brethren, give ear to what He says. Certainly the universal expectation of the bystanders was that Lazarus, one who had been dead four days, would live again; let us hear, and rise again. How many are there in this audience who are crushed down under the weighty mass of some sinful habit! Perhaps some are hearing me to whom it may be said, Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; [Ephesians 5:18] and they say, We cannot. Some others, it may be, are hearing me, who are unclean, and stained with lusts and crimes, and to whom it is said, Refrain from such conduct, that you perish not; and they reply, We cannot give up our habits. O Lord, raise them again. I am, He says, the resurrection and the life. The resurrection because the life.

15. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. What means this? He that believes in me, though he were dead, just as Lazarus is dead, yet shall he live; for He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Such was the answer He gave the Jews concerning their fathers, long ago dead, that is, concerning Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto Him. Believe then, and though thou were dead, yet shall you live: but if you believe not, even while you live you are dead. Let us prove this likewise, that if you believe not, though you live you are dead. To one who was delaying to follow Him, and saying, Let me first go and bury my father, the Lord said, Let the dead bury their dead; but come thou and follow me. [Matthew 8:21-22] There was there a dead man requiring to be buried, there were there also dead men to bury the dead: the one was dead in the flesh, the others in soul. And how comes death on the soul? When faith is wanting. How comes death on the body? When the soul is wanting. Therefore your soul's soul is faith. He that believes in me, says Christ, though he were dead in the flesh, yet shall he live in the spirit; till the flesh also rise again, never more to die. This is he that believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives in the flesh, and believes in me, though he shall die in time on account of the death of the flesh, shall never die, because of the life of the spirit, and the immortality of the resurrection. Such is the meaning of the words, And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She says unto Him, Yea, Lord, I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who hast come into the world. When I believed this, I believed that You are the resurrection, that You are the life: I believed that he that believes in You, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever lives and believes in You, shall never die.

16. And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister silently, saying, The Master has come, and calls for you. It is worthy of notice the way in which the whispering of her voice was denominated silence. For how could she be silent, when she said, The Master has come, and calls for you? It is also to be noticed why it is that the evangelist has not said where, or when, or how the Lord called for Mary; namely, that in order to preserve the brevity of the narrative, it may rather be understood from the words of Martha.

17. As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto Him. For Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was still in that place where Martha met Him. The Jews, then, who were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily, and went out, followed her, saying, She goes unto the grave, to weep there. What cause had the evangelist to tell us this? To show us what it was that occasioned the numerous concourse of people to be there when Lazarus was raised to life. For the Jews, thinking that her reason for hastening away was to seek in weeping the solace of her grief, followed her; that the great miracle of one rising again who had been four days dead, might have the presence of many witnesses.

18. Then when Mary had come where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, Lord, if You had been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, who were with her, He groaned in the spirit, and troubled Himself, and said, Where have ye laid him? Something there is, did we but know it, that He has suggested to us by groaning in the spirit, and troubling Himself. For who could trouble Him, save He Himself? Therefore, my brethren, first give heed here to the power that did so, and then look for the meaning. You are troubled against your will; Christ was troubled because He willed. Jesus hungered, it is true, but because He willed; Jesus slept, it is true, but because He willed; He was sorrowful, it is true, but because He willed; He died, it is true, but because He willed: in His own power it lay to be thus and thus affected or not. For the Word assumed soul and flesh, fitting on Himself our whole human nature in the oneness of His person. For the soul of the apostle was illuminated by the Word; so was the soul of Peter, the soul of Paul, of the other apostles, and the holy prophets — the souls of all were illuminated by the Word; but of none was it said, The Word was made flesh; of none was it said, I and the Father are one. The soul and flesh of Christ is one person with the Word of God, one Christ. And by this [Word] wherein resided the supreme power, was infirmity made use of at the beck of His will; and in this way He troubled Himself.

19. I have spoken of the power: look now to the meaning. It is a great criminal that is signified by that four days' death and burial. Why is it, then, that Christ troubles Himself, but to intimate to you how you ought to be troubled, when weighed down and crushed by so great a mass of iniquity? For here you have been looking to yourself, been seeing your own guilt, been reckoning for yourself: I have done this, and God has spared me; I have committed this, and He has borne with me; I have heard the gospel, and despised it; I have been baptized, and returned again to the same course: what am I doing? Whither am I going? How shall I escape? When you speak thus, Christ is already groaning; for your faith is groaning. In the voice of one who groans thus, there comes to light the hope of his rising again. If such faith is within, there is Christ groaning; for if there is faith in us, Christ is in us. For what else says the apostle: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. [Ephesians 3:17] Therefore your faith in Christ is Christ Himself in your heart. This is why He slept in the ship; and why, when His disciples were in danger and already on the verge of shipwreck, they came to Him and awoke Him. Christ arose, laid His commands on the winds and waves, and there ensued a great calm. [Matthew 8:24-26] So also with you; the winds enter your heart, that is, where you sail, where you pass along this life as a stormy and dangerous sea; the winds enter, the billows rise and toss your vessel. What are the winds? You have received some insult, and are angry: that insult is the wind; that anger, the waves. You are in danger, you prepare to reply, to render cursing for cursing, and your vessel is already near to shipwreck. Awake the Christ who is sleeping. For you are in commotion, and making ready to render evil for evil, because Christ is sleeping in your vessel. For the sleep of Christ in your heart is the forgetfulness of faith. But if you arouse Christ, that is, recallest your faith, what do you hear said to you by Christ, when now awake in your heart? I [He says] have heard it said to me, You have a devil, and I have prayed for them. The Lord hears and suffers; the servant hears and is angry! But you wish to be avenged. Why so? I am already avenged. When your faith so speaks to you, command is exercised, as it were, over the winds and waves, and there is a great calm. As, then, to awaken Christ in the vessel is just to awaken faith; so in the heart of one who is pressed down by a great mass and habit of sin, in the heart of the man who has been a transgressor even of the holy gospel and a despiser of eternal punishment, let Christ groan, let such a man betake himself to self-accusation. Hear still more: Christ wept; let man bemoan himself. For why did Christ weep, but to teach man to weep? Wherefore did He groan and trouble Himself, but to intimate that the faith of one who has just cause to be displeased with himself ought to be in a sense groaning over the accusation of wicked works, to the end that the habit of sinning may give way to the vehemence of penitential sorrow?

20. And He said, Where have ye laid him? Thou knew that he was dead, and are You ignorant of the place of his burial? The meaning here is, that a man thus lost becomes, as it were, unknown to God. I have not ventured to say, Is unknown — for what is unknown to Him? But, As it were unknown. And how do we prove this? Listen to the Lord, who will yet say in the judgment, I know you not: depart from me. [Matthew 7:23] What does that mean, I know you not? I see you not in that light of mine — in that righteousness which I know. So here, also, as if knowing nothing of such a sinner, He said, Where have ye laid him? Similar in character was God's voice in Paradise after man had sinned: Adam, where are you? [Genesis 3:9] They say unto Him, Lord, come and see. What means this see? Have pity. For the Lord sees when He pities. Hence it is said to Him, Look upon my humility [affliction] and my pain, and forgive all my sins.

21. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how He loved him! Loved him, what does that mean? I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. [Matthew 9:13] But some of them said, Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not die? But He, who would do nought to hinder his dying, had something greater in view in raising him from the dead.

22. Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself, comes to the tomb. May His groaning have you also for its object, if you would re-enter into life! Every man who lies in that dire moral condition has it said to him, He comes to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone had been laid upon it. Dead under that stone, guilty under the law. For you know that the law, which was given to the Jews, was inscribed on stone. [Exodus 31:18] And all the guilty are under the law: the right-living are in harmony with the law. The law is not laid on a righteous man. [1 Timothy 1:9] What mean then the words, Take ye away the stone? Preach grace. For the Apostle Paul calls himself a minister of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter, he says, kills, but the spirit gives life. [2 Corinthians 3:6] The letter that kills is like the stone that crushes. Take ye away, He says, the stone. Take away the weight of the law; preach grace. For if there had been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness should be by the law. But the Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. [Galatians 3:21-22] Therefore take ye away the stone.

23. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, says unto Him, Lord, by this time he stinks: for he has been [dead] four days. Jesus says unto her, Have I not said to you, that, if you believe, you shall see the glory of God? What does He mean by this, you shall see the glory of God? That He can raise to life even one who is putrid and has been four days [dead]. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; [Romans 3:23] and, Where sin abounded, grace also did superabound. [Romans 5:20]

24. Then they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, Father, I thank You, that You have heard me. And I knew that You hear me always: but because of the people that stand by I said it, that they may believe that You have sent me. And when He had thus spoken, He cried with a loud voice. He groaned, He wept, He cried with a loud voice. With what difficulty does one rise who lies crushed under the heavy burden of a habit of sinning! And yet he does rise: he is quickened by hidden grace within; and after that loud voice he rises. For what followed? He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And immediately he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with bandages; and his face was bound about with a napkin. Do you wonder how he came forth with his feet bound, and wonderest not at this, that after four days' interment he rose from the dead? In both events it was the power of the Lord that operated, and not the strength of the dead. He came forth, and yet still was bound. Still in his burial shroud, he has already come outside the tomb. What does it mean? While you despise [Christ], you lie in the arms of death; and if your contempt reaches the lengths I have mentioned, you are buried as well: but when you make confession, you come forth. For what is this coming forth, but the open acknowledgment you make of your state, in quitting, as it were, the old refuges of darkness? But the confession you make is effected by God, when He cries with a loud voice, or in other words, calls you in abounding grace. Accordingly, when the dead man had come forth, still bound; confessing, yet guilty still; that his sins also might be taken away, the Lord said to His servants: Loose him, and let him go. What does He mean by such words? What soever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. [Matthew 16:19]

25. Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. All of the Jews who had come to Mary did not believe, but many of them did. But some of them, whether of the Jews who had come, or of those who had believed, went away to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done: whether in the way of conveying intelligence, in order that they also might believe, or rather in the spirit of treachery, to arouse their anger. But whoever were the parties, and whatever their motive, intelligence of these events was carried to the Pharisees.

26. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? But they did not say, Let us believe. For these abandoned men were more occupied in considering what evil they could do to effect His ruin, than in consulting for their own preservation: and yet they were afraid, and took counsel of a kind together. For they said, What do we? For this man does many miracles: if we let him thus alone, all men will believe in him; and the Romans shall come, and take away both our place and nation. They were afraid of losing their temporal possessions, and thought not of life eternal; and so they lost both. For the Romans, after our Lord's passion and entrance into glory, took from them both their place and nation, when they took the one by storm and transported the other: and now that also pursues them, which is said elsewhere, But the children of the kingdom shall go into outer darkness. [Matthew 8:12] But this was what they feared, that if all believed on Christ, there would be none remaining to defend the city of God and the temple against the Romans; just because they had a feeling that Christ's teaching was directed against the temple itself and their own paternal laws.

27. And one of them, [named] Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said to them, You know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spoke he not of himself; but being high priest that year, he prophesied. We are here taught that the Spirit of prophecy used the agency even of wicked men to foretell what was future; which, however, the evangelist attributes to the divine sacramental fact that he was pontiff, which is to say, the high priest. It may, however, be a question in what way he is called the high priest of that year, seeing that God appointed one person to be high priest, who was to be succeeded only at his death by another. But we are to understand that ambitious schemes and contentions among the Jews led to the appointment afterwards of more than one, and to their annual turn of service. For it is said also of Zacharias: And it came to pass that, while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. [Luke 1:8-9] From which it is evident that there were more than one, and that each had his turn: for it was lawful for the high priest alone to place the incense on the altar. [Exodus 30:7] And perhaps also there were several in actual service in the same year, who were succeeded next year by several others, and that it fell by lot to one of them to burn incense. What was it, then, that Caiaphas prophesied? That Jesus should die for the nation; and not for the nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. This is added by the evangelist; for Caiaphas prophesied only of the Jewish nation, in which there were sheep of whom the Lord Himself had said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. [Matthew 15:24] But the evangelist knew that there were other sheep, which were not of this fold, but which had also to be brought, that there might be one fold and one shepherd. But this was said in the way of predestination; for those who were still unbelieving were as yet neither His sheep nor the children of God.

28. Then, from that day forth, they took counsel together for to put Him to death. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with His disciples. Not that there was any failure in His power, by which, had He only wished, He might have continued His intercourse with the Jews, and received no injury at their hands; but in His human weakness He furnished His disciples with an example of living, by which He might make it manifest that it was no sin in His believing ones, who are His members, to withdraw from the presence of their persecutors, and escape the fury of the wicked by concealment, rather than inflame it by showing themselves openly.

1. Yesterday's lesson in the holy Gospel, on which we spoke as the Lord enabled us, is followed by today's, on which we purpose to speak in the same spirit of dependence. Some passages in the Scriptures are so clear as to require a hearer rather than an expounder: over such we need not tarry, that we may have sufficient time for those which necessarily demand a fuller consideration.

2. And the Jews' passover was near at hand. The Jews wished to have that feast-day crimsoned with the blood of the Lord. On it that Lamb was slain, who has consecrated it as a feast-day for us by His own blood. There was a plot among the Jews about slaying Jesus: and He, who had come from heaven to suffer, wished to draw near to the place of His suffering, because the hour of His passion was at hand. Therefore many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to sanctify themselves. The Jews did so in accordance with the command of the Lord delivered by holy Moses in the law, that on the feast-day of the passover all should assemble from every part of the land, and be sanctified in celebrating the services of the day. But that celebration was a shadow of the future. And why a shadow? It was a prophetic intimation of the Christ to come, a prophecy of Him who on that day was to suffer for us: that so the shadow might vanish and the light come; that the sign might pass away, and the truth be retained. The Jews therefore held the passover in a shadowy form, but we in the light. For what need was there that the Lord should command them to slay a sheep on the very day of the feast, save only because of Him it was prophesied, He is led as a sheep to the slaughter? [Isaiah 53:7] The door-posts of the Jews were sealed with the blood of the slaughtered animal: with the blood of Christ are our foreheads sealed. And that sealing — for it had a real significance — was said to keep away the destroyer from the houses that were sealed: [Exodus 12:22-23] Christ's seal drives away the destroyer from us, if we receive the Saviour into our hearts. But why have I said this? Because many have their door-posts sealed while there is no inmate abiding within: they find it easy to have Christ's seal in the forehead, and yet at heart refuse admission to His word. Therefore, brethren, I have said, and I repeat it, Christ's seal drives from us the destroyer, if only we have Christ as an inmate of our hearts. I have stated these things, lest any one's thoughts should be turning on the meaning of these festivals of the Jews. The Lord therefore came as it were to the victim's place, that the true passover might be ours, when we celebrated His passion as the real offering of the lamb.

3. Then sought they for Jesus: but with evil intent. For happy are they who seek for Jesus in a way that is good. They sought for Him, with the intent that neither they nor we should have Him more: but in departing from them, He has been received by us. Some who seek Him are blamed, others who do so are commended; for it is the spirit animating the seeker that finds either praise or condemnation. Thence you have it also in the psalms, Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: such are those who sought with evil purpose. But in another place he says, Refuge has failed me, and there is no one that seeks after my soul. Those who sought, and those who did not, are blamed alike. Therefore let us seek for Christ, that He may be ours, that we may keep Him, and not that we may slay Him; for these men sought to get hold of Him, but only for the purpose of speedily getting quit of Him forever. Therefore they sought for Him, and spoke among themselves: What think ye, that He will not come to the feast?

4. Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that, if any man knew where He were, he should show it, that they might take Him. Let us for our parts show the Jews where Christ is. Would, indeed, that all the seed of those who had given commandment to have it shown them where Christ was, would but hear and apprehend! Let them come to the church and hear where Christ is, and take Him. They may hear it from us, they may hear it from the gospel. He was slain by their forefathers, He was buried, He rose again, He was recognized by the disciples, He ascended before their eyes into heaven, and there sits at the right hand of the Father; and He who was judged is yet to come as Judge of all: let them hear, and hold fast. Do they reply, How shall I take hold of the absent? How shall I stretch up my hand into heaven, and take hold of one who is sitting there? Stretch up your faith, and you have got hold. Your forefathers held by the flesh, hold thou with the heart; for the absent Christ is also present. But for His presence, we ourselves were unable to hold Him. But since His word is true, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world, [Matthew 28:20] He is away, and He is here; He has returned, and will not forsake us; for He has carried His body into heaven, but His majesty He has never withdrawn from the world.

5. Then Jesus, six days before the passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom Jesus raised from the dead. And there they made Him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that reclined at the table. To prevent people thinking that the man had become a phantom, because he had risen from the dead, he was one of those who reclined at table; he was living, speaking, feasting: the truth was made manifest, and the unbelief of the Jews was confounded. The Lord, therefore, reclined at table with Lazarus and the others; and they were waited on by Martha, one of the sisters of Lazarus.

6. But Mary, the other sister of Lazarus, took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Such was the incident, let us look into the mystery it imported. Whatever soul of you wishes to be truly faithful, anoint like Mary the feet of the Lord with precious ointment. That ointment was righteousness, and therefore it was [exactly] a pound weight: but it was ointment of pure nard [nardi pistici], very precious. From his calling it pistici, we ought to infer that there was some locality from which it derived its preciousness: but this does not exhaust its meaning, and it harmonizes well with a sacramental symbol. The root of the word [pure] in the Greek is by us called faith. You were seeking to work righteousness: the just shall live by faith. [Romans 1:17] Anoint the feet of Jesus: follow by a good life the Lord's footsteps. Wipe them with your hair: what you have of superfluity, give to the poor, and you have wiped the feet of the Lord; for the hair seems to be the superfluous part of the body. You have something to spare of your abundance: it is superfluous to you, but necessary for the feet of the Lord. Perhaps on this earth the Lord's feet are still in need. For of whom but of His members is He yet to say in the end, Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it unto me? [Matthew 25:40] You spent what was superfluous for yourselves, but you have done what was grateful to my feet.

7. And the house was filled with the odor. The world is filled with the fame of a good character: for a good character is as a pleasant odor. Those who live wickedly and bear the name of Christians, do injury to Christ: of such it is said, that through them the name of the Lord is blasphemed. [Romans 2:24] If through such God's name is blasphemed, through the good the name of the Lord is honored. Listen to the apostle, when he says, We are a sweet savor of Christ in every place. As it is said also in the Song of Songs, Your name is as ointment poured forth. [Song of Songs 1:3] Attend again to the apostle: We are a sweet savor, he says, of Christ in every place, both in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor of life unto life, to the other the savor of death unto death: and who is sufficient for these things? [2 Corinthians 2:14-16] The lesson of the holy Gospel before us affords us the opportunity of so speaking of that savor, that we on our part may give worthy utterance, and you diligent heed, to what is thus expressed by the apostle himself, And who is sufficient for these things? But have we any reason to infer from these words that we are qualified to attempt speaking on such a subject, or you to hear? We, indeed, are not so; but He is sufficient, who is pleased to speak by us what it may be for your profit to hear. The apostle, you see, is, as he calls himself, a sweet savor: but that sweet savor is to some the savor of life unto life, and to others the savor of death unto death; and yet all the while a sweet savor in itself. For he does not say, does he, To some we are a sweet savor unto life, to others an evil savor unto death? He called himself a sweet savor, not an evil; and represented himself as the same sweet savor, to some unto life, to others unto death. Happy they who find life in this sweet savor! But what misery can be greater than theirs, to whom the sweet savor is the messenger of death?

8. And who is it, says some one, that is thus slain by the sweet savor? It is to this the apostle alludes in the words, And who is sufficient for these things? In what wonderful ways God brings it about that the good savor is fraught both with life to the good, and with death to the wicked; how it is so, so far as the Lord is pleased to inspire my thoughts (for it may still conceal a deeper meaning beyond my power to penetrate) — yet so far, I say, as my power of penetration has reached, you ought not to have the information withheld. The integrity of the Apostle Paul's life and conduct, his preaching of righteousness in word and exhibition of it in works, his wondrous power as a teacher and his fidelity as a steward, were everywhere reported abroad: he was loved by some, and envied by others. For he himself tells us in a certain place of some, that they preached Christ not sincerely, but of envy; thinking, he says, to add affliction to my bonds. But what does he add? Whether in pretence or in truth, let Christ be preached. They preach who love me, they preach who hate me; in that good savor the former live, in it the others die: and yet by the preaching of both let the name of Christ be proclaimed, with this excellent savor let the world be filled. Have you been loving one whose conduct evidenced his goodness then in this good savor you have lived. Have you been envying such a one? Then in this same savor you have died. But have you, pray, in thus choosing to die, converted this savor into an evil one? Turn from your envious feelings, and the good savor will cease to slay you.

9. And now, lastly, listen to what we have here, how this ointment was to some a sweet savor unto life, and to others a sweet savor unto death. When the pious Mary had rendered this grateful service to the Lord, straightway one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was yet to betray Him, said, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? Alas for you, wretched man! The sweet savor has slain you. For the cause that led him so to speak is disclosed by the holy evangelist. But we, too, might have supposed, had not the real state of his mind been revealed in the Gospel, that the care of the poor might have induced him so to speak. Not so. What then? Hearken to a true witness: This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the money bag, and bare what was put therein. Did he bear it about, or bear it away? For the common service he bore it, as a thief he bore it away.

10. Look now, and learn that this Judas did not become perverted only at the time when he yielded to the bribery of the Jews and betrayed his Lord. For not a few, inattentive to the Gospel, suppose that Judas only perished when he accepted money from the Jews to betray the Lord. It was not then that he perished, but he was already a thief, and a reprobate, when following the Lord; for it was with his body and not with his heart that he followed. He made up the apostolic number of twelve, but had no part in the apostolic blessedness: he had been made the twelfth in semblance, and on his departure, and the succession of another, the apostolic reality was completed, and the entireness of the number conserved. [Acts 1:26] What lesson then, my brethren, did our Lord Jesus Christ wish to impress on His Church, when it pleased Him to have one castaway among the twelve, but this, that we should bear with the wicked, and refrain from dividing the body of Christ? Here you have Judas among the saints — that Judas, mark you! Who was a thief, yea — do not overlook it — not a thief of any ordinary type, but a thief and a sacrilegist: a robber of money bags, but of such as were the Lord's; of money bags, but of such as were sacred. If there is a distinction made in the public courts between such crimes as ordinary theft and peculation — for by peculation we mean the theft of public property; and private theft is not visited with the same sentence as public — how much more severe ought to be the sentence on the sacrilegious thief, who has dared to steal, not from places of any ordinary kind, but to steal from the Church? He who thieves from the Church, stands side by side with the castaway Judas. Such was this man Judas, and yet he went in and out with the eleven holy disciples. With them he came even to the table of the Lord: he was permitted to have intercourse with them, but he could not contaminate them. Of one bread did both Peter and Judas partake, and yet what communion had the believer with the infidel? Peter's partaking was unto life, but that of Judas unto death. For that good bread was just like the sweet savor. For as the sweet savor, so also does the good bread give life to the good, and bring death to the wicked. For he that eats unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself: [1 Corinthians 11:29] judgment to himself, not to you. If, then, it is judgment to himself, not to you, bear as one that is good with him that is evil, that you may attain unto the rewards of the good, and be not hurled into the punishment of the wicked.

11. Lay to heart our Lord's example while living with man upon earth. Why had He a money bag, who was ministered unto by angels, save to intimate that His Church was destined thereafter to have her repository for money? Why gave He admission to a thief, save to teach His Church patiently to bear with thieves? But he who had formed the habit of abstracting money from the bag, did not hesitate for money received to sell the Lord Himself. But let us see what answer our Lord gave to such words. See, brethren: He does not say to him, You speak so on account of your thievishness. He knew him to be a thief, yet did not betray him, but rather endured him, and showed us an example of patience in tolerating the wicked in the Church. Then said Jesus to him: Let her keep it against the day of my burial. He announced that His own death was at hand.

12. But what follows? For the poor you have always with you, but me ye will not have always. We can certainly understand, the poor you have always; what He has thus said is true. When were the poor wanting in the Church? But me ye will not have always; what does He mean by this? How are we to understand, Me ye will not have always? Don't be alarmed: it was addressed to Judas. Why, then, did He not say, you will have, but, ye will have? Because Judas is not here a unit. One wicked man represents the whole body of the wicked; in the same way as Peter, the whole body of the good, yea, the body of the Church, but in respect to the good. For if in Peter's case there were no sacramental symbol of the Church, the Lord would not have said to him, I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. [Matthew 16:19] If this was said only to Peter, it gives no ground of action to the Church. But if such is the case also in the Church, that what is bound on earth is bound in heaven, and what is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven, — for when the Church excommunicates, the excommunicated person is bound in heaven; when one is reconciled by the Church, the person so reconciled is loosed in heaven: — if such, then, is the case in the Church, Peter, in receiving the keys, represented the holy Church. If, then, in the person of Peter were represented the good in the Church, and in Judas' person were represented the bad in the Church, then to these latter was it said, But me ye will not have always. But what means the not always; and what, the always? If you are good, if you belong to the body represented by Peter, you have Christ both now and hereafter: now by faith, by sign, by the sacrament of baptism, by the bread and wine of the altar. You have Christ now, but you will have Him always; for when you have gone hence, you will come to Him who said to the robber, Today shall you be with me in paradise. [Luke 23:43] But if you live wickedly, you may seem to have Christ now, because you enter the Church, signest yourself with the sign of Christ, art baptized with the baptism of Christ, minglest yourself with the members of Christ, and approachest His altar: now you have Christ, but by living wickedly you will not have Him always.

13. It may be also understood in this way: The poor ye will have always with you, but me ye will not have always. The good may take it also as addressed to themselves, but not so as to be any source of anxiety; for He was speaking of His bodily presence. For in respect of His majesty, His providence, His ineffable and invisible grace, His own words are fulfilled, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. [Matthew 28:20] But in respect of the flesh He assumed as the Word, in respect of that which He was as the son of the Virgin, of that wherein He was seized by the Jews, nailed to the tree, let down from the cross, enveloped in a shroud, laid in the sepulchre, and manifested in His resurrection, ye will not have Him always. And why? Because in respect of His bodily presence He associated for forty days with His disciples, and then, having brought them forth for the purpose of beholding and not of following Him, He ascended into heaven, and is no longer here. He is there, indeed, sitting at the right hand of the Father; and He is here also, having never withdrawn the presence of His glory. In other words, in respect of His divine presence we always have Christ; in respect of His presence in the flesh it was rightly said to the disciples, Me ye will not have always. In this respect the Church enjoyed His presence only for a few days: now it possesses Him by faith, without seeing Him with the eyes. In whichever way, then, it was said, But me ye will not have always, it can no longer, I suppose, after this twofold solution, remain as a subject of doubt.

14. Let us listen to the other few points that remain: Much people of the Jews therefore knew that He was there: and they came not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. They were drawn by curiosity, not by charity: they came and saw. Hearken to the strange scheming of human vanity. Having seen Lazarus as one raised from the dead — for the fame of such a miracle of the Lord's had been accompanied everywhere with so much evidence of its genuineness, and it had been so openly performed, that they could neither conceal nor deny what had been done — only think of the plan they hit upon. But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus. O foolish consultation and blinded rage! Could not Christ the Lord, who was able to raise the dead, raise also the slain? When you were preparing a violent death for Lazarus, were you at the same time denuding the Lord of His power? If you think a dead man one thing, a murdered man another, look you only to this, that the Lord made both, and raised Lazarus to life when dead, and Himself when slain.

1. After our Lord's raising of one to life, who had been four days dead, to the utter amazement of the Jews, some of whom believed on seeing it, and others perished in their envy, because of that sweet savor which is unto life to some, and to others unto death; [2 Corinthians 2:15] after He had sat down to meat with Lazarus — the one who had been dead and raised to life — reclining also at table, and after the pouring on His feet of the ointment which had filled the house with its odor; and after the Jews also had shown their own spiritual abandonment in conceiving the useless cruelty and the monstrously foolish and insane guilt of slaying Lazarus;— of all which we have spoken as we could, by the grace of the Lord, in previous discourses: let your Charity now notice how abundant before our Lord's passion was the fruit that appeared of His preaching, and how large was the flock of lost sheep of the house of Israel which had heard the Shepherd's voice.

2. For the Gospel, the reading of which you have just been listening to, says: On the next day much people that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna: blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord as the King of Israel. The branches of palm trees are laudatory emblems, significant of victory, because the Lord was about to overcome death by dying, and by the trophy of His cross to triumph over the devil, the prince of death. The exclamation used by the worshipping people is Hosanna, indicating, as some who know the Hebrew language affirm, rather a state of mind than having any positive significance; just as in our own tongue we have what are called interjections, as when in our grief we say, Alas! Or in our joy, Ha! Or in our admiration, O how fine! Where O! expresses only the feeling of the admirer. Of the same class must we believe this word to be, as it has failed to find an interpretation both in Greek and Latin, like that other, Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca. For this also is allowed to be an interjection, expressive of angry feelings.

3. But when it is said, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord, [as] the King of Israel, by in the name of the Lord we are rather to understand in the name of God the Father, although it might also be understood as in His own name, inasmuch as He is also Himself the Lord. As we find Scripture also saying in another place, The Lord rained [upon Sodom fire] from the Lord. [Genesis 19:24] But His own words are a better guide to our understanding, when He says, I have come in my Father's name, and you receive me not: another will come in his own name, and him you will receive. For the true teacher of humility is Christ, who humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. [Philippians 2:8] But He does not lose His divinity in teaching us humility; in the one He is the Father's equal, in the other He is assimilated to us. By that which made Him the equal of the Father, He called us into existence; and by that in which He is like us, He redeemed us from ruin.

4. These, then, were the words of praise addressed to Jesus by the multitude, Hosanna: blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. What a cross of mental suffering must the Jewish rulers have endured when they heard so great a multitude proclaiming Christ as their King! But what honor was it to the Lord to be King of Israel? What great thing was it to the King of eternity to become the King of men? For Christ's kingship over Israel was not for the purpose of exacting tribute, of putting swords into His soldiers' hands, of subduing His enemies by open warfare; but He was King of Israel in exercising kingly authority over their inward natures, in consulting for their eternal interests, in bringing into His heavenly kingdom those whose faith, and hope, and love were centred in Himself. Accordingly, for the Son of God, the Father's equal, the Word by whom all things were made, in His good pleasure to be King of Israel, was an act of condescension and not of promotion; a token of compassion, and not any increase of power. For He who was called on earth the King of the Jews, is in the heavens the Lord of angels.

5. And Jesus, when He had found a young ass, sat thereon. Here the account is briefly given: for how it all happened may be found at full length in the other evangelists. But there is appended to the circumstance itself a testimony from the prophets, to make it evident that He in whom was fulfilled all they read in Scripture, was entirely misunderstood by the evil-minded rulers of the Jews. Jesus, then, found a young ass, and sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, your King comes, sitting on an ass's colt. Among that people, then, was the daughter of Zion to be found; for Zion is the same as Jerusalem. Among that very people, I say, reprobate and blind as they were, was the daughter of Zion, to whom it was said, Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, your King comes, sitting on an ass's colt. This daughter of Zion, who was thus divinely addressed, was among those sheep that were hearing the Shepherd's voice, and in that multitude which was celebrating the Lord's coming with such religious zeal, and accompanying Him in such warlike array. To her was it said, Fear not: acknowledge Him whom you are now extolling, and give not way to fear when He comes to suffering; for by the shedding of His blood is your guilt to be blotted out, and your life restored. But by the ass's colt, on which no man had ever sat (for so it is found recorded in the other evangelists), we are to understand the Gentile nations which had not received the law of the Lord; by the ass, on the other hand (for both animals were brought to the Lord), that people of His which came of the nation of Israel, and was already so far subdued as to recognize its Master's crib.

6. These things understood not His disciples at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, that is, when He had manifested the power of His resurrection, then remembered they that these things were written of Him, and they had done these things unto Him, that is, they did nothing else but what had been written concerning Him. In short, mentally comparing with the contents of Scripture what was accomplished both prior to and in the course of our Lord's passion, they found this also therein, that it was in accordance with the utterance of the prophets that He sat on an ass's colt.

7. The people, therefore, that was with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb, and raised him from the dead, bare record. For this cause the crowd also met Him, for that they heard that He had done this miracle. The Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves: Perceive ye that we prevail nothing? Behold, the whole world is gone after Him. Mob set mob in motion. But why are you, blinded mob that you are, filled with envy because the world has gone after its Maker?

8. And there were certain Gentiles among them that had come up to worship at the feast: the same came therefore to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip comes and tells Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. Let us hearken to the Lord's reply. See how the Jews wish to kill Him, the Gentiles to see Him; and yet those, too, were of the Jews who cried, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. Here, then, were they of the circumcision and they of the uncircumcision, like two house walls running from different directions and meeting together with the kiss of peace, in the one faith of Christ. Let us listen, then, to the voice of the Cornerstone: And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified. Perhaps some one supposes here that He spoke of Himself as glorified, because the Gentiles wished to see Him. Such is not the case. But He saw the Gentiles themselves in all nations coming to the faith after His own passion and resurrection, because, as the apostle says, Blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should be come in. [Romans 11:25] Taking occasion, therefore, from those Gentiles who desired to see Him, He announces the future fullness of the Gentile nations, and promises the near approach of the hour when He should be glorified Himself, and when, on its consummation in heaven, the Gentile nations should be brought to the faith. To this it is that the prediction pointed, Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Your glory above all the earth. Such is the fullness of the Gentiles, of which the apostle says, Blindness in part is happened to Israel, till the fullness of the Gentiles come in.

9. But the height of His glorification had to be preceded by the depth of His passion. Accordingly, He went on to add, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit. But He spoke of Himself. He Himself was the grain that had to die, and be multiplied; to suffer death through the unbelief of the Jews, and to be multiplied in the faith of many nations.

10. And now, by way of exhortation to follow in the path of His own passion, He adds, He that loves his life shall lose it, which may be understood in two ways: He that loves shall lose, that is, If you love, be ready to lose; if you would possess life in Christ, be not afraid of death for Christ. Or otherwise, He that loves his life shall lose it. Do not love for fear of losing; love it not here, lest you lose it in eternity. But what I have said last seems better to correspond with the meaning of the Gospel, for there follow the words, And he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. So that when it is said in the previous clause, He that loves, there is to be understood in this world, he it is that shall lose it. But he that hates, that is, in this world, is he that shall keep it unto life eternal. Surely a profound and strange declaration as to the measure of a man's love for his own life that leads to its destruction, and of his hatred to it that secures its preservation! If in a sinful way you love it, then do you really hate it; if in a way accordant with what is good you have hated it, then have you really loved it. Happy they who have so hated their life while keeping it, that their love shall not cause them to lose it. But beware of harboring the notion that you may court self-destruction by any such understanding of your duty to hate your life in this world. For on such grounds it is that certain wrong-minded and perverted people, who, with regard to themselves, are murderers of a specially cruel and impious character, commit themselves to the flames, suffocate themselves in water, dash themselves against a precipice, and perish. This was no teaching of Christ's, who, on the other hand, met the devil's suggestion of a precipice with the answer, Get behind me, Satan; for it is written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. [Matthew 4:7] To Peter also He said, signifying by what death he should glorify God, When you were young, you girded yourself, and walked whither you would, but when you shall be old, another shall gird you, and carry you whither you would not; — where He made it sufficiently plain that it is not by himself but by another that one must be slain who follows in the footsteps of Christ. And so, when one's case has reached the crisis that this condition is placed before him, either that he must act contrary to the divine commandment or quit this life, and that a man is compelled to choose one or other of the two by the persecutor who is threatening him with death, in such circumstances let him prefer dying in the love of God to living under His anger, in such circumstances let him hate his life in this world that he may keep it unto life eternal.

11. If any man serve me, let him follow me. What is that, let him follow me, but just, let him imitate me? Because Christ suffered for us, says the Apostle Peter, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps. [1 Peter 2:21] Here you have the meaning of the words, If any man serve me, let him follow me. But with what result? What wages? What reward? And where I am, He says, there shall also my servant be. Let Him be freely loved, that so the reward of the service done Him may be to be with Him. For where will one be well apart from Him, or when will one come to feel himself in an evil case in company with Him? Hear it still more plainly: If any man serve me, him will my Father honor. And what will be the honor but to be with His Son? For of what He said before, Where I am, there shall also my servant be, we may understand Him as giving the explanation, when He says here, him will my Father honor. For what greater honor can await an adopted son than to be with the Only-begotten; not, indeed, as raised to the level of His Godhead, but made a partaker of His eternity?

12. But it becomes us rather to inquire what is to be understood by this serving of Christ to which there is attached so great a reward. For if we have taken up the idea that the serving of Christ is the preparation of what is needful for the body, or the cooking and serving up of food, or the mixing of drink and handing the cup to one at the supper table; this, indeed, was done to Him by those who had the privilege of His bodily presence, as in the case of Martha and Mary, when Lazarus also was one of those who sat at the table. But in that sort of way Christ was served also by the reprobate Judas; for it was he also who had the money bag; and although he had the exceeding wickedness to steal of its contents, yet it was he also who provided what was needful for the meal. And so also, when our Lord said to him, What you do, do quickly, there were some who thought that He only gave him orders to make some needful preparations for the feast-day, or to give something to the poor. In no sense, therefore, was it of this class of servants that the Lord said, Where I am, there shall also my servant be, and If any man serve me, him will my Father honor; for we see that Judas, who served in this way, became an object of reprobation rather than of honor. Why, then, go elsewhere to find out what this serving of Christ implies, and not rather see its disclosure in the words themselves? For when He said, If any man serve me, let him follow me, He wished it to be understood just as if He had said, If any man does not follow me, he serves me not. And those, therefore, are the servants of Jesus Christ, who seek not their own things, but the things that are Jesus Christ's. [Philippians 2:21] For let him follow me is just this: Let him walk in my ways, and not in his own; as it is written elsewhere, He that says he abides in Christ, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked. [1 John 2:6] For he ought, if supplying food to the hungry, to do it in the way of mercy and not of boasting, seeking therein nothing else but the doing of good, and not letting his left hand know what his right hand does; [Matthew 6:3] in other words, that all thought of self-seeking should be utterly estranged from a work of charity. He that serves in this way serves Christ, and will have it rightly said to him, Inasmuch as you did it unto one of the least of those who are mine, you did it unto me. [Matthew 25:40] And thus doing not only those acts of mercy that pertain to the body, but every good work, for the sake of Christ (for then will all be good, because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes [Romans 10:4]), he is Christ's servant even to that work of special love, which is to lay down his life for the brethren, for that were to lay it down also for Christ. For this also will He say hereafter in behalf of His members: Inasmuch as you did it for these, you have done it for me. And certainly it was in reference to such a work that He was also pleased to make and to style Himself a servant, when He says, Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto [served], but to minister [serve], and to lay down His life for many. [Matthew 20:28] Every one, therefore, is the servant of Christ in the same way as Christ also is a servant. And he that serves Christ in this way will be honored by His Father with the signal honor of being with His Son, and having nothing wanting to his happiness forever.

13. Accordingly, brethren, when you hear the Lord saying, Where I am, there shall also my servant be, do not think merely of good bishops and clergymen. But be yourselves also in your own way serving Christ, by good lives, by giving alms, by preaching His name and doctrine as you can; and every father of a family also, be acknowledging in this name the affection he owes as a parent to his family. For Christ's sake, and for the sake of life eternal, let him be warning, and teaching, and exhorting, and correcting all his household; let him show kindliness, and exercise discipline; and so in his own house he will be filling an ecclesiastical and kind of episcopal office, and serving Christ, that he may be with Him forever. For even that noblest service of suffering has been rendered by many of your class; for many who were neither bishops nor clergy, but young men and virgins, those advanced in years with those who were not, many married persons both male and female, many fathers and mothers of families, have served Christ even to the laying down of their lives in martyrdom for His sake, and have been honored by the Father in receiving crowns of exceeding glory.

1. After the Lord Jesus Christ, in the words of yesterday's lesson, had exhorted His servants to follow Him, and had predicted His own passion in this way, that unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit; and also had stirred up those who wished to follow Him to the kingdom of heaven, to hate their life in this world if their thought was to keep it unto life eternal — He again toned down His own feelings to our infirmity and says, where our lesson today commenced, Now is my soul troubled. Whence, Lord, was Your soul troubled? He had, indeed, said a little before, He that hates his life [soul] in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. Do you then love your life in this world, and is your soul troubled as the hour approaches when you shall leave this world? Who would dare affirm this of the soul [life] of the Lord? We rather it was whom He transferred unto Himself; He took us into His own person as our Head, and assumed the feelings of His members; and so it was not by any others He was troubled, but, as was said of Him when He raised Lazarus, He was troubled in Himself. For it behooved the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, just as He has lifted us up to the heights of heaven, to descend with us also into the lowest depths of suffering.

2. I hear Him saying a little before, The hour comes that the Son of man should be glorified: if a grain of wheat die, it brings forth much fruit. I hear this also, He that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. Nor am I permitted merely to admire, but commanded to imitate, and so, by the words that follow, If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be, I am all on fire to despise the world, and in my sight the whole of this life, however lengthened, becomes only a vapor; in comparison with my love for eternal things, all that is temporal has lost its value with me. And now, again, it is my Lord Himself, who by such words has suddenly transported me from the weakness that was mine to the strength that was His, that I hear saying, Now is my soul troubled. What does it mean? How biddest Thou my soul follow You if I behold Your own troubled? How shall I endure what is felt to be heavy by strength so great? What is the kind of foundation I can seek if the Rock is giving way? But methinks I hear in my own thoughts the Lord giving me an answer, saying, You shall follow me the better, because it is to aid your power of endurance that I thus interpose. You have heard, as addressed to yourself, the voice of my fortitude; hear in me the voice of your infirmity: I supply strength for your running, and I check not your hastening, but I transfer to myself your causes for trembling, and I pave the way for your marching along. O Lord our Mediator, God above us, man for us, I own Your mercy! For because Thou, who art so great, art troubled through the good will of Your love, Thou preservest, by the richness of Your comfort, the many in Your body who are troubled by the continual experience of their own weakness, from perishing utterly in their despair.

3. In a word, let the man who would follow learn the road by which he must travel. Perhaps an hour of terrible trial has come, and the choice is set before you either to do iniquity or endure suffering; the weak soul is troubled, on whose behalf the invincible soul [of Jesus] was voluntarily troubled; set then the will of God before your own. For notice what is immediately subjoined by your Creator and your Master, by Him who made you, and became Himself for your teaching that which He made; for He who made man was made man, but He remained still the unchangeable God, and transplanted manhood into a better condition. Listen, then, to what He adds to the words, Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Your name. He has taught you here what to think of, what to say, on whom to call, in whom to hope, and whose will, as sure and divine, to prefer to your own, which is human and weak. Imagine Him not, therefore, as losing anything of His own exalted position in wishing you to rise up out of the depths of your ruin. For He thought it meet also to be tempted by the devil, by whom otherwise He would never have been tempted, just as, had He not been willing, He would never have suffered; and the answers He gave to the devil are such as thou also ought to use in times of temptation. [Matthew 4:1-10] And He, indeed, was tempted, but not endangered, that He might show you, when in danger through temptation, how to answer the tempter, so as not to be carried away by the temptation, but to escape its danger. But when He here said, Now is my soul troubled; and also when He says, My soul is sorrowful, even unto death; and Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; He assumed the infirmity of man, to teach him, when thereby saddened and troubled, to say what follows: Nevertheless, Father, not as I will, but as You will. [Matthew 26:38-39] For thus it is that man is turned from the human to the divine, when the will of God is preferred to his own. But to what do the words Glorify Your name refer, but to His own passion and resurrection? For what else can it mean, but that the Father should thus glorify the Son, who in like manner glorifies His own name in the similar sufferings of His servants? Hence it is recorded of Peter, that for this cause He said concerning him, Another shall gird you, and carry you whither you would not, because He intended to signify by what death he should glorify God. Therefore in him, too, did God glorify His name, because thus also does He glorify Christ in His members.

4. Then came there a voice from heaven, [saying], I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. I have both glorified it, before I created the world, and I will glorify it again, when He shall rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. It may also be otherwise understood. I have both glorified it,— when He was born of the Virgin, when He exercised miraculous powers; when the Magi, guided by a star in the heavens, bowed in adoration before Him; when He was recognized by saints filled with the Holy Spirit; when He was openly proclaimed by the descent of the Spirit in the form of a dove, and pointed out by the voice that sounded from heaven; when He was transfigured on the mount; when He wrought many miracles, cured and cleansed multitudes, fed so vast a number with a very few loaves, commanded the winds and the waves, and raised the dead —and I will glorify it again; when He shall rise from the dead; when death shall have no longer dominion over Him; and when He shall be exalted over the heavens as God, and His glory over all the earth.

5. The people therefore that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spoke to Him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. He thereby showed that the voice made no intimation to Him of what He already knew, but to those who needed the information. And just as that voice was uttered by God, not on His account, but on that of others, so His soul was troubled, not on His own account, but voluntarily for the sake of others.

6. Look at what follows: Now, He says, is the judgment of the world. What, then, are we to expect at the end of time? But the judgment that is looked for in the end will be the judging of the living and the dead, the awarding of eternal rewards and punishment. Of what sort, then, is the judgment now? I have already, in former lessons, as far as I could, put you in mind, beloved, that there is a judgment spoken of, not of condemnation, but of discrimination; as it is written, Judge me, O God, and plead [discern, discriminate] my cause against an unholy nation. And many are the judgments of God; as it is said in the psalm, Your judgments are a great deep. And the apostle also says, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments! [Romans 11:33] To such judgments does that spoken of here by the Lord also belong, Now is the judgment of this world; while that judgment in the end is reserved, when the living and the dead shall at last be judged. The devil, therefore, had possession of the human race, and held them by the written bond of their sins as criminals amenable to punishment; he ruled in the hearts of unbelievers, and, deceiving and enslaving them, seduced them to forsake the Creator and give worship to the creature; but by faith in Christ, which was confirmed by His death and resurrection, and, by His blood, which was shed for the remission of sins, thousands of believers are delivered from the dominion of the devil, are united to the body of Christ, and under this great head are made by His one Spirit to spring up into new life as His faithful members. This it was that He called the judgment, this righteous separation, this expulsion of the devil from His own redeemed.

7. Attend, in short, to His own words. For just as if we had been inquiring what He meant by saying, Now is the judgment of the world, He proceeded to explain it when He says, Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. What we have thus heard was the kind of judgment He meant. Not that one, therefore, which is yet to come in the end, when the living and dead shall be judged, some of them set apart on His right hand, and the others on His left; but that judgment by which the prince of this world shall be cast out. In what sense, then, was he within, and whither did He mean that he was to be cast out? Was it this: That he was in the world. and was cast forth beyond its boundaries? For had He been speaking of that judgment which is yet to come in the end, some one's thoughts might have turned to that eternal fire into which the devil is to be cast with his angels, and all who belong to him — that is, not naturally, but through moral delinquency; not because he created or begot them, but because he persuaded and kept hold of them: some one, therefore, might have thought that that eternal fire was outside the world, and that this was the meaning of the words, he shall be cast out. But as He says, Now is the judgment of this world, and in explanation of His meaning, adds, Now shall the prince of this world be cast out, we are thereby to understand what is now being done, and not what is to be, so long afterwards, at the last day. The Lord, therefore, foretold what He knew, that after His own passion and glorification, many nations throughout the whole world, in whose hearts the devil was an inmate, would become believers, and the devil, when thus renounced by faith, is cast out.

8. But some one says, Was he then not cast out of the hearts of the patriarchs and prophets, and the righteous of olden time? Certainly he was. How, then, is it said, Now he shall be cast out? How else can we think of it, but that what was then done in the case of a very few individuals, was now foretold as speedily to take place in many and mighty nations? Just as also that other saying, For the Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified, may suggest a similar inquiry, and find a similar solution. For it was not without the Holy Spirit that the prophets predicted the events of the future; nor was it so that the aged Simeon and the widowed Anna knew by the Holy Spirit the infant Lord; [Luke 2:25-38] and that Zacharias and Elisabeth uttered by the Holy Spirit so many predictions concerning Him, when He was not yet born, but only conceived. But the Spirit was not yet given; that is, with that abundance of spiritual grace which enabled those assembled together to speak in every language, [Acts 2:4-6] and thus announce beforehand in the language of every nation the Church of the future: and so by this spiritual grace it was that nations were gathered into congregations, sins were pardoned far and wide, and thousands of thousands were reconciled unto God.

9. But then, says some one, since the devil is thus cast out of the hearts of believers, does he now tempt none of the faithful? Nay, verily, he does not cease to tempt. But it is one thing to reign within, another to assail from without; for in like manner the best fortified city is sometimes attacked by an enemy without being taken. And if some of his arrows are discharged, and reach us, the apostle reminds us how to render them harmless, when he speaks of the breastplate and the shield of faith. [1 Thessalonians 5:8] And if he sometimes wounds us, we have the remedy at hand. For as the combatants are told, These things I write unto you, that you sin not: so those who are wounded have the sequel to listen to, And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins. [1 John 2:1-2] And what do we pray for when we say, Forgive us our debts, but for the healing of our wounds? And what else do we ask, when we say, Lead us not into temptation, [Matthew 6:12-13] but that he who thus lies in wait for us, or assails us from without, may fail on every side to effect an entrance, and be unable to overcome us either by fraud or force? Nevertheless, whatever engines of war he may erect against us, so long as he has no more a place in the heart that faith inhabits, he is cast out. But except the Lord keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain. Presume not, therefore, about yourselves, if you would not have the devil, who has once been cast out, to be recalled within.

10. On the other hand, let us be far from supposing that the devil is called in any such way the prince of the world, as that we should believe him possessed of power to rule over the heaven and the earth. The world is so spoken of in respect of wicked men, who have overspread the whole earth; just as a house is spoken of in respect to its inhabitants, and we accordingly say, It is a good house, or a bad house; not as finding fault with, or approving of, the erection of walls and roofs, but the morals either of the good or the bad within it. In a similar way, therefore, it is said, The prince of this world; that is, the prince of all the wicked who inhabit this world. The world is also spoken of in respect to the good, who in like manner have overspread the whole earth; and hence the apostle says, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. [2 Corinthians 5:19] These are they out of whose hearts the prince of this world is ejected.

11. Accordingly, after saying, Now shall the prince of this world be cast out, He added, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things after me. And what all is that, but those out of which the other is ejected? But He did not say, All men, but all things; for all men have not faith. [2 Thessalonians 3:2] And, therefore, He did not allude to the totality of men, but to the creature in its personal integrity, that is, to spirit, and soul, and body; or all that which makes us the intelligent, living, visible, and palpable beings we are. For He who said, Not a hair of your head shall perish, [Luke 21:18] is He who draws all things after Him. Or if by all things it is men that are to be understood, we can speak of all things that are foreordained to salvation: of all which He declared, when previously speaking of His sheep, that not one of them would be lost. And of a certainty all classes of men, both of every language and every age, and all grades of rank, and all diversities of talents, and all the professions of lawful and useful arts, and all else that can be named in accordance with the innumerable differences by which men, save in sin alone, are mutually separated, from the highest to the lowest, and from the king to the beggar, all, He says, will I draw after me; that He may be their head, and they His members. But this will be, He adds, if I be lifted up from the earth, that is, when I am lifted up; for He has no doubt of the future accomplishment of that which He came to fulfill. He here alludes to what He said before: But if the grain of wheat die, it brings forth much fruit. For what else did He signify by His lifting up, than His suffering on the cross, an explanation which the evangelist himself has not omitted; for he has appended the words, And this He said signifying what death He should die.

12. The people answered Him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abides for ever: and how sayest Thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? And who is this Son of man? It had stuck to their memory that the Lord was constantly calling Himself the Son of man. For, in the passage before us, He does not say, If the Son of man be lifted up from the earth; but had called Himself so before, in the lesson which was read and expounded yesterday, when those Gentiles were announced who desired to see Him: The hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified [John 12:23]. Retaining this, therefore, in their minds, and understanding what He now said, When I am lifted up from the earth, of the death of the cross, they inquired of Him, and said, We have heard out of the law that Christ abides for ever; and how sayest Thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man? For if it is Christ, He, they say, abides for ever; and if He abides for ever, how shall He be lifted up from the earth, that is, how shall He die through the suffering of the cross? For they understood Him to have spoken of what they themselves were meditating to do. And so He did not dissipate for them the obscurity of such words by imparting wisdom, but by stimulating their conscience.

13. Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little light is in you. And by this it is you understand that Christ abides forever. Walk, then, while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you. Walk, draw near, come to the full understanding that Christ shall both die and shall live for ever; that He shall shed His blood to redeem us, and ascend on high to carry His redeemed along with Him. But darkness will come upon you, if your belief in Christ's eternity is of such a kind as to refuse to admit in His case the humiliation of death. And he that walks in darkness knows not whither he goes. So may he stumble on that stone of stumbling and rock of offense which the Lord Himself became to the blinded Jews: just as to those who believed, the stone which the builders despised was made the head of the corner. [1 Peter 2:6-8] Hence, they thought Christ unworthy of their belief; because in their impiety they treated His dying with contempt, they ridiculed the idea of His being slain: and yet it was the very death of the grain of grain that was to lead to its own multiplication, and the lifting up of one who was drawing all things after Him. While you have the light, He adds, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. While you have possession of some truth that you have heard, believe in the truth, that you may be born again in the truth.

14. These things spoke Jesus, and departed, and did hide Himself from them. Not from those who had begun to believe and to love Him, nor from those who had come to meet Him with branches of palm trees and songs of praise; but from those who saw and hated Him, for they saw Him not, but only stumbled on that stone in their blindness. But when Jesus hid Himself from those who desired to slay Him (as you need from forgetfulness to be often reminded), He had regard to our human weakness, but derogated not in anything from His own authority.

1. When our Lord Christ, foretelling His own passion, and the fruitfulness of His death in being lifted up on the cross, said that He would draw all [things] after Him; and when the Jews, understanding that He spoke of His death, put to Him the question how He could speak of death as awaiting Him, when they heard out of the law that Christ abides for ever; He exhorted them, while still they had in them the little light, which had so taught them that Christ was eternal, to walk, to make themselves acquainted with the whole subject, lest they should be overtaken with darkness. And, when He had said this, He hid Himself from them. With these points you have been made acquainted in former Lord's day lessons and discourses.

2. The evangelist thereafter brings forward what has formed the brief subject of today's reading, and says, But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him: that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Where he makes it sufficiently plain that the Son of God is Himself the arm of the Lord; not that the person of God the Father is determined by the shape of human flesh, and that the Son is attached to Him as a member of His body; but because all things were made by Him, and therefore He is designated the arm of the Lord. For as it is with your arm that you work, so the Word of God is styled His arm; because by the Word He elaborated the world. For why does a man, in order to do some work, stretch forth his arm, but because the doing of it does not straightway follow his word? And if he was endowed with such pre-eminent power that what he said was done without any movement of his body, then would his word be his arm. But the Lord Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God the Father, as He is no mere member of the Father's body, so is He no mere thinkable, and audible, and transitory word; for, as all things were made by Him, He was the word of God.

3. When, therefore, we hear that the Son of God is the arm of God the Father, let no carnal custom raise its distracting din in our ears; but as far as His grace enables us, let us think of that power and wisdom of God by which all things were made. Surely such an arm as that is neither held out by stretching, nor drawn in by contracting it. For He is not one and the same with the Father, but He and the Father are one; and as equal with the Father, He is in all respects complete, as well as the Father: so that no room is left open for the abominable error of those who assert that the Father alone exists, but according to the difference of causes is Himself sometimes called the Son, sometimes the Holy Spirit; and so also from these words may venture to say, See you perceive that the Father alone exists, if the Son is His arm: for a man and his arm are not two persons, but one. Not understanding nor considering how words are transferred from one thing to another, on account of some mutual likeness, even in our daily forms of speech about things the most familiar and visible; and how much the more must it be so, in order that things ineffable may find some sort of expression in our speech, things which, as they really exist, cannot be expressed in words at all? For even one man styles another his arm, by whom he is accustomed to transact his business: and if he is deprived of him, he says in his grief, I have lost my arm; and to him who has taken him away, he says, You have deprived me of my arm. Let them understand, then, the sense in which the Son is termed the arm of the Father, as that by which the Father has executed all His works; that they may not, by failing to understand this, and continuing in the darkness of their error, resemble those Jews of whom it was said, And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

4. And here we meet with the second question, to treat of which, indeed, in any adequate manner, to investigate all its mysterious windings, and throw them open to the light in a befitting way, I think within the scope neither of my own powers, nor of the shortness of the time, nor of your capacity. Yet, as we cannot allow ourselves so far to disappoint your expectations as to pass on to other topics without saying something on this, take what we shall be able to offer you: and wherein we fail to satisfy your expectations, ask the increase of Him who appointed us to plant and to water; for, as the apostle says, Neither is he that plants anything, nor he that waters; but God that gives the increase. [1 Corinthians 3:7] There are some, then, who mutter among themselves, and sometimes speak out when they can, and even break forth into turbulent debate, saying: What did the Jews do, or what fault was it of theirs, if it was a necessity that the saying of Isaiah the prophet should be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? To whom our answer is, that the Lord, in His foreknowledge of the future, foretold by the prophet the unbelief of the Jews; He foretold it, but did not cause it. For God does not compel any one to sin simply because He knows already the future sins of men. For He foreknew sins that were theirs, not His own; sins that were referable to no one else, but to their own selves. Accordingly, if what He foreknew as theirs is not really theirs, then had He no true foreknowledge: but as His foreknowledge is infallible, it is doubtless no one else, but they themselves, whose sinfulness God foreknew, that are the sinners. The Jews, therefore, committed sin, with no compulsion to do so on His part, to whom sin is an object of displeasure; but He foretold their committing of it, because nothing is concealed from His knowledge. And accordingly, had they wished to do good instead of evil, they would not have been hindered; but in this which they were to do they were foreseen of Him who knows what every man will do, and what He is yet to render unto such an one according to his work.

5. But the words of the Gospel also, that follow, are still more pressing, and start a question of more profound import: for He goes on to say, Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. For it is said to us: If they could not believe, what sin is it in man not to do what he cannot do and if they sinned in not believing, then they had the power to believe, and did not use it. If, then, they had the power, how says the Gospel, Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; so that (which is of grave import) to God Himself is referred the cause of their not believing, inasmuch as it is He who has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart? For what is thus testified to in the prophetical Scriptures, is at least not spoken of the devil, but of God. For were we to suppose it said of the devil, that he has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; we have to undertake the task of being able to show what blame was theirs in not believing, of whom it is said, they could not believe. And then, what reply shall we give touching another testimony of this very prophet, which the Apostle Paul has adopted, when he says: Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for; but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded, according as it is written, God has given them the spirit of remorse, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day?

6. Such, as you have just heard, brethren, is the question that comes before us, and you can perceive how profound it is; but we shall give what answer we can. They could not believe, because that Isaiah the prophet foretold it; and the prophet foretold it because God foreknew that such would be the case. But if I am asked why they could not, I reply at once, because they would not; for certainly their depraved will was foreseen by God, and foretold through the prophet by Him from whom nothing that is future can be hid. But the prophet, do you say, assigns another cause than that of their will. What cause does the prophet assign? That God has given them the spirit of remorse, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear; and has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart. This also, I reply, their will deserved. For God thus blinds and hardens, simply by letting alone and withdrawing His aid: and God can do this by a judgment that is hidden, although not by one that is unrighteous. This is a doctrine which the piety of the God-fearing ought to preserve unshaken and inviolable in all its integrity: even as the apostle, when treating of the same intricate question, says, What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. [Romans 9:14] If, then, we must be far from thinking that there is unrighteousness with God, this only can it be, that, when He gives His aid, He acts mercifully; and, when He withholds it, He acts righteously: for in all He does, He acts not rashly, but in accordance with judgment. And still further, if the judgments of the saints are righteous, how much more those of the sanctifying and justifying God? They are therefore righteous, although hidden. Accordingly, when questions of this sort come before us, why one is dealt with in such a way, and another in such another way; why this one is blinded by being forsaken of God, and that one is enlightened by the divine aid vouchsafed to him: let us not take upon ourselves to pass judgment on the judgment of so mighty a judge, but tremblingly exclaim with the apostle, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! [Romans 11:33] As it is also said in the psalm, Your judgments are as a great deep.

7. Let not then, brethren, the expectations of your Charity drive me to attempt the task of penetrating into such a deep, of sounding such an abyss, of searching into what is unsearchable. I own my own little measure of ability, and I think I have some perception of yours also, as equally small. This is too high for my stature, and too strong for my strength; and for yours also, I think. Let us, therefore, listen together to the admonition and to the words of Scripture: Seek not out the things that are too high for you, neither search the things that are above your strength. Not that such things are forbidden us, since the divine Master says, There is nothing hid that shall not be revealed: [Matthew 10:26] but if we walk up to the measure of our present attainments, then, as the apostle tells us, not only what we know not and ought to know, but also if we are minded to know anything else, God will reveal even this unto us. [Philippians 3:15-16] But if we have reached the pathway of faith, let us keep to it with all constancy: let it be our guide to the chamber of the King, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. [Colossians 2:3] For it was in no spirit of grudging that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself acted towards those great and specially chosen disciples of His, when He said, I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. We must be walking, making progress, and growing, that our hearts may become fit to receive the things which we cannot receive at present. And if the last day shall find us sufficiently advanced, we shall then learn what here we were unable to know.

8. If, however, any one considers himself able, and has confidence enough, to give a clearer and better exposition of the question before us, God forbid that I should not be still more ready to learn than to teach. Only let no one dare to defend the freedom of the will in any such way as to attempt depriving us of the prayer that says, Lead us not into temptation; and, on the other hand, let no one deny the freedom of the will, and so venture to find an excuse for sin. But let us give heed to the Lord, both in commanding and in offering His aid; in both telling us our duty, and assisting us to discharge it. For some He has let be lifted up to pride through an overweening trust in their own wills, while others He has let fall into carelessness through a contrary excess of distrust. The former say: Why do we ask God not to let us be overcome by temptation, when it is all in our own power? The latter say: Why should we try to live well, when the power to do so is in the hands of God? O Lord, O Father, who art in heaven, lead us not into any of these temptations; but deliver us from evil! [Matthew 6:13] Listen to the Lord, when He says, I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith fail not; [Luke 22:32] that we may never think of our faith as so lying in our free will that it has no need of the divine assistance. Let us listen also to the evangelist, when he says, He has given them power to become the sons of God; that we may not imagine it as altogether beyond our own power that we believe: but in both let us acknowledge His beneficent acting. For, on the one side, we have to give Him thanks that the power is bestowed; and on the other, to pray that our own little strength may not utterly fail. It is this very faith that works by love, [Galatians 5:6] according to the measure thereof that the Lord has given to every man; [Romans 12:3] that he that glories may glory, not in himself, but in the Lord. [1 Corinthians 1:31]

9. It is no wonder, then, that they could not believe, when such was their pride of will, that, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, they wished to establish their own: as the apostle says of them, They have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. [Romans 10:3] For it was not by faith, but as it were by works, that they were puffed up; and blinded by this very self-elation, they stumbled against the stone of stumbling. And so it is said, they could not, by which we are to understand that they would not; in the same way as it was said of the Lord our God, If we believe not, yet He abides faithful, He cannot deny Himself. [2 Timothy 2:13] It is said of the Omnipotent, He cannot. And so, just as it is a commendation of the divine will that the Lord cannot deny Himself, that they could not believe is a fault chargeable on the will of man.

10. And, look you! so also say I, that those who have such lofty ideas of themselves as to suppose that so much must be attributed to the powers of their own will, that they deny their need of the divine assistance in order to a righteous life, cannot believe in Christ. For the mere syllables of Christ's name, and the Christian sacraments, are of no profit, where faith in Christ is itself resisted. For faith in Christ is to believe in Him that justifies the ungodly; [Romans 4:5] to believe in the Mediator, without whose interposition we cannot be reconciled unto God; to believe in the Saviour, who came to seek and to save that which was lost; [Luke 19:10] to believe in Him who said, Without me you can do nothing. Because, then, being ignorant of that righteousness of God that justifies the ungodly, he wishes to set up his own to satisfy the minds of the proud, such a man cannot believe in Christ. And so, those Jews could not believe: not that men cannot be changed for the better; but so long as their ideas run in such a direction, they cannot believe. Hence they are blinded and hardened; for, denying the need of divine assistance, they are not assisted. God foreknew this regarding these Jews who were blinded and hardened, and the prophet by His Spirit foretold it.

11. But when he added, And they should be converted, and I should heal them, is there a not to be understood, that is, they should not be converted, connecting it with the clause before, where it is said, that they should not see with their eyes and understand with their heart; for here also it is certainly meant, and should not understand? For conversion itself is likewise a gift of His grace, as when it is said to Him, Turn us, O God of Hosts. Or may it be that we are to understand this also as actually taking place through the merciful experience of the divine method of healing, [namely this,] that, being of proud and perverse wills, and wishing to establish their own righteousness, they were left alone for the very purpose of being blinded; and thus blinded in order that they might stumble on the stone of stumbling, and have their faces filled with shame; and so, being thus humbled, might seek the name of the Lord, and no longer a righteousness of their own, that inflated their pride, but the righteousness of God, that justifies the ungodly? For this very way turned out to the good of many of them, who were afterwards filled with remorse for wickedness, and believed on Christ; and on whose behalf He Himself had put up the prayer, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. [Luke 23:34] And it is of that ignorance of theirs also that the apostle says, I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge: for he then goes on also to add, For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. [Romans 10:2-3]

12. These things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory, and spoke of Him. What Isaiah saw, and how it refers to Christ the Lord, are to be read and learned in his book. For he saw Him, not as He is, but in some symbolic way to suit the form that the vision of the prophet had itself to assume. For Moses likewise saw Him, and yet we find him saying to Him whom he saw, If I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Yourself, that I may clearly see You; [Exodus 33:13] for he saw Him not as He is. But the time when this shall yet be our experience, that same Saint John the Evangelist tells us in his Epistle: Dearly beloved, [now] are we the sons of God; and it has not yet become manifest what we shall be: because we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. [1 John 3:2] He might have said for we shall see Him, without adding as He is; but because he knew that He was seen of some of the fathers and prophets, but not as He is, therefore after saying we shall see Him, he added as He is. And be not deceived, brethren, by any of those who assert that the Father is invisible, and the Son visible. This assertion is made by those who think that the latter is a creature, and whose understanding runs not in harmony with the words, I and my Father one. Accordingly, as respects the form of God wherein He is equal with the Father, the Son also is invisible: but, in order to be seen of men, He assumed the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men, [Philippians 2:7] became visible to man. He showed Himself, therefore, even before His incarnation, to the eyes of men, as it pleased Him, in the creature-form at His command, but not as He is. Let us be purifying our hearts by faith, that we may be prepared for that ineffable and, so to speak, invisible vision. For blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God. [Matthew 5:8]

13. Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on Him; but, because of the Pharisees, they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God. See how the evangelist marked and disapproved of some, who yet, he said, believed on Him: who, if ever they did advance though this gateway of faith, would thereby also overcome that love of human glory which had been overcome by the apostle, when he said, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. [Galatians 6:14] For to this end also did the Lord Himself, when derided by the madness of human pride and impiety, fix His cross on the foreheads of those who believed on Him, on that which is in a manner the abode of modesty, that faith may learn not to blush at His name, and love the glory of God more than the glory of men.

1. Whilst our Lord Jesus Christ was speaking among the Jews, and giving so many miraculous signs, some believed who were foreordained to eternal life, and whom He also called His sheep; but some did not believe, and could not believe, because that, by the mysterious yet not unrighteous judgment of God, they had been blinded and hardened, because forsaken of Him who resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble. [James 4:6] But of those who believed, there were some whose confession went so far, that they took branches of palm trees, and met Him as He approached, turning in their joy that very confession into a service of praise: while there were others, belonging to the chief rulers, who had not the boldness to confess their faith, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; and whom the evangelist has branded with the words, that they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God [John 12:43]. Of those also who did not believe, there were some who would afterwards believe, and whom He foresaw, when He said, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you acknowledge that I am He: but there were some who would remain in the same unbelief, and be imitated by the Jewish nation of the present day, which, being shortly afterwards crushed in war, according to the prophetic testimony which was written concerning Christ, has since been scattered almost through the whole world.

2. While matters were in this state, and His own passion was now at hand, Jesus cried, and said, as our lesson today commences, He that believes in me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me; and he that sees me, sees Him that sent me. He had already said in a certain place, My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. Where we understood that He called His doctrine just what He is Himself, the Word of the Father; and in saying, My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me, implied this, that He was not of Himself, but had His being from another. For He was God of God, the Son of the Father: but the Father is not God of God, but God, the Father of the Son. And now when He says, He that believes in me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me, how else are we to understand it, but that He appeared as man to men, while He remained invisible as God? And that none might think that He was no more than what they saw of Him, He indicated His wish to be believed on, as equal in character and rank with the Father, when He said, He that believes in me, believes not on me, that is, merely on what he sees of me, but on Him that sent me, that is, on the Father. But he that believes in the Father, must believe that He is the Father; and he that believes in Him as the Father, must believe that He has a Son; and in this way, he that believes in the Father, must believe in the Son. But let no one believe about the only-begotten Son just what they believe about those who are called the sons of God by grace and not by nature, as the evangelist says, He gave them power to become the sons of God, and according to what the Lord Himself also mentioned, as declared in the law, I said, You are gods; and all of you children of the Most High: because He said, He that believes in me, believes not on me, to show that the whole extent of our faith in Christ should not be limited by His manhood. He therefore, He says, believes in me, who does not believe in me merely according to what he sees of me, but on Him that sent me: so that, believing thus on the Father, he may believe that He has a Son co-equal with Himself, and then attain to a true faith in me. For if one should think that He has sons only according to grace, who are certainly no more than His creatures, and not the Word, but those made by the Word, and that He has no Son co-equal and co-eternal with Himself, ever born, alike incommutable, in nothing dissimilar and inferior, then he believes not on the Father who sent Him, for the Father who sent Him is no such conception as this.

3. And, accordingly, after saying, He that believes in me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me, that it might not be thought that He would have the Father so understood, as if He were the Father only of many sons regenerated by grace, and not of the only-begotten Word, His own co-equal, He immediately added, And he that sees me, sees Him that sent me. Does He say here, He that sees me, sees not me, but Him that sent me, as He had said, He that believes me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me? For He uttered the former of these words, that He might not be believed on merely as He then appeared, that is, as the Son of man; and the latter, that He might be believed on as the equal of the Father. He that believes in me, believes not merely on what He sees of me, but believes in Him that sent me. Or, when he believes in the Father, who begot me, His own co-equal, let him believe in me, not as he sees me, but as [he believes] on Him that sent me; for so far does the truth, that there is no distance between Him and me, reach, that He who sees me, sees Him that sent me. Certainly, Christ the Lord Himself sent His apostles, as their name implies: for as those who in Greek are called angeli are in Latin called nuntii [messengers], so the Greek apostoli [apostles] becomes the Latin missi [persons sent]. But never would any of the apostles have dared to say, He that believes in me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me; for in no sense whatever would he say, He that believes in me. We believe an apostle, but we do not believe in him; for it is not an apostle that justifies the ungodly. But to him that believes in Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. [Romans 4:5] An apostle might say, He that receives me, receives Him that sent me; or, He that hears me, hears Him that sent me; for the Lord tells them so Himself: He that receives you, receives me; and he that receives me, receives Him that sent me. [Matthew 10:40] For the master is honored in the servant, and the father in the son: but then the father is as it were in the son, and the master as it were in the servant. But the only-begotten Son could rightly say, Believe in God, and believe in me; as also what He says here, He that believes in me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me. He did not turn away the faith of the believer from Himself, but only would not have the believer continue in the form of a servant: because every one who believes in the Father that sent Him, straightway believes in the Son, without whom he knows that the Father has no existence as such, and thus reaches in his faith to the belief of His equality with the Father, in conformity with the words that follow, And he that sees me, sees Him that sent me.

4. Attend to what follows: I have come a light into the world, that whosoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. He said in a certain place to His disciples, You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; that it may give light to all that are in the house: so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven: [Matthew 5:14-16] but He did not say to them, You have come a light into the world, that whosoever believes in you should not abide in darkness. Such a statement, I maintain, can nowhere be met with. All the saints, therefore, are lights, but they are illuminated by Him through faith; and every one that becomes separated from Him will be enveloped in darkness. But that Light, which enlightens them, cannot become separated from itself; for it is altogether beyond the reach of change. We believe, then, the light that has thus been lit, as the prophet or apostle: but we believe him for this end, that we may not believe in that which is itself enlightened, but, with him, on that Light which has given him light; so that we, too, may be enlightened, not by him, but, along with him, by the same Light as he. And when He says, That whosoever believes in me may not abide in darkness, He makes it sufficiently manifest that all have been found by Him in a state of darkness: but that they may not abide in the darkness wherein they have been found, they ought to believe in that Light which has come into the world, for thereby was the world created.

5. And if any man, He says, hear my words, and keep them not, I judge him not. Remember what I know you have heard in former lessons; and if any of you have forgotten, recall it: and those of you who were absent then, but are present now, hear how it is that the Son says, I judge him not, while in another place He says, The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son; namely, that thereby we are to understand, It is not now that I judge him. And why not now? Listen to the sequel: For I am not come, He says, to judge the world, but to save the world; that is, to bring the world into a state of salvation. Now, therefore, is the season of mercy, afterwards will be the time for judgment: for He says, I will sing to You, O Lord, of mercy and judgment.

6. But see also what He says of that future judgment in the end: He that despises me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. He says not, He that despises me, and receives not my words, I judge him not at the last day; for had He said so, I do not see how it could have been else than contradictory of that other statement, when He says, The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son. But when He said, He that despises me, and receives not my words, has one to judge him, and, for the information of those who were waiting to hear who that one was, went on to add, The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day, He made it sufficiently manifest that He Himself would then be the judge. For it was of Himself He spoke, Himself He announced, and Himself He set forth as the gate whereby He entered as the Shepherd to His sheep. In one way, therefore, will those be judged who have never heard that word, in another way those who have heard and despised. For as many as have sinned without law, says the apostle, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law. [Romans 2:12]

7. For I have not, He says, spoken of myself. He says that He has not spoken of Himself, because He is not of Himself. Of this we have frequently discoursed already; so that now, without any more instruction, we have simply to remind you of it as a truth with which you are familiar. But the Father who sent me, He gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak. We would not stay to elaborate this, did we know that we were now speaking with those with whom we have spoken on former occasions, and of these, not with all, but such only whose memories have retained what they heard: but because there are perhaps some now present who did not hear, and some in a similar condition who have forgotten what they heard, on their account let those who remember what they have heard bear with our delay. How gives the Father a commandment to His only Son? With what words does He speak to the Word, seeing that the Son Himself is the only-begotten Word? Could it be by an angel, seeing that by Him the angels were created? Was it by means of a cloud, which, when it gave forth its sound to the Son, gave it not on His account, as He Himself also tells us elsewhere, but for the sake of others who were needing to hear it [John 12:29]? Could it be by any sound issuing from the lips, where bodily form was wanting, and where there is no such local distance separating the Son from the Father as to admit of any intervening air, to give effect, by its percussion, to the voice, and render it audible? Let us put away all such unworthy notions of that incorporeal and ineffable subsistence. The only Son is the Word and the Wisdom of the Father, and therein are all the commandments of the Father. For there was no time that the Son knew not the Father's commandment, so as to make it necessary for Him to possess in course of time what He possessed not before. For what He has received from the Father, He received in being born, and was given it in being begotten. For the life He is, and life He certainly received in being born, while yet there was no antecedent time when life was wanting to His personal existence. For, on the one hand, the Father has life, and is what He has: and yet He received it not, because He is not of any one. But the Son received life as the Father's gift, of whom He is: and so He Himself is what He has; for He has life, and is the life. Listen to Himself when He says, As the Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself. Could He give it to one who was in being, and yet hitherto was destitute thereof? On the contrary, in the very begetting it was given by Him who begot the life, and so life begot the life. And to show that He begot the life equal, and not inferior to Himself, it was said, As He has life in Himself, so has He also given to the Son to have life in Himself. He gave life; for in begetting the life, what was it He gave Him, save to be the life? And as His nativity is itself eternal, there never was a time without that Son who is the life, and never was there a time when the Son Himself was without the life; and as His nativity is eternal, so He, who was thus born, is eternal life. And so the Father gave not to the Son a commandment which He had not already; but, as I said, in the Wisdom of the Father, that is, in the word of the Father, are laid up all the Father's commandments. And yet the commandment is said to have been given Him, because He, to whom it is thus given, is not of Himself: and to give that to the Son which He never was without, is the same in meaning as to beget that Son who never was without existence.

8. There follow the words: And I know that His commandment is life everlasting. If, then, the Son Himself is eternal life, and the Father's commandment the same, what else is expressed than this, I am the Father's commandment? And in like manner, in what He proceeds to say, Whatsoever I speak, even as the Father said to me, so I speak, let us not be taking the said to me as if the Father used words in speaking to the only Word, or that the Word of God needed words from God. The Father spoke to the Son in the same way as He gave life to the Son; not that He knew not the one, or had not the other, but just because He was the Son. What, then, do the words mean, Even as He said to me, so I speak; but just, I speak the truth? So the former said as the Truthful One what the latter thus spoke as the Truth. The Truthful begot the Truth. What, then, could He now say to the Truth? For the Truth had no imperfection to be supplied by additional truth. He spoke, therefore, to the Truth, because He begot the Truth. And in like manner the Truth Himself speaks what has been said to Him; but only to those who have understanding, and who are taught by Him as the God-begotten Truth. But that men might believe what they had not yet capacity to understand, words that were audible issued from His human lips; sounds passing rapidly away broke on the ear, and speedily completed the little term of their duration: but the truths themselves, of which the sounds are but signs, passed, as it were, into the memory of those who heard them, and have come down to us also by means of written characters as signs addressed to the eye. But it is not thus that the Truth speaks; He speaks inwardly to the souls of the intelligent; He needs no sound to instruct, but floods the mind with the light of understanding. And he, then, who in that light is able to behold the eternity of His birth, himself hears in the same way the Truth speaking, as He heard the Father telling Him what He should speak. He has awakened in us a great longing for that sweet experience of His presence within; but it is by daily growth that we acquire it; it is by walking that we grow, and it is by forward efforts we walk, so as to be able at last to attain it.

1. The Lord's Supper, as set forth in John, must, with His assistance, be unfolded in a becoming number of Lectures, and explained with all the ability He is pleased to grant us. Now, before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end. Pascha (passover) is not, as some think, a Greek noun, but a Hebrew: and yet there occurs in this noun a very suitable kind of accordance in the two languages. For inasmuch as the Greek word paschein means to suffer, therefore pascha has been supposed to mean suffering, as if the noun derived its name from His passion: but in its own language, that is, in Hebrew, pascha means passover; because the pascha was then celebrated for the first time by God's people, when, in their flight from Egypt, they passed over the Red Sea. And now that prophetic emblem is fulfilled in truth, when Christ is led as a sheep to the slaughter, [Isaiah 53:7] that by His blood sprinkled on our doorposts, that is, by the sign of His cross marked on our foreheads, we may be delivered from the perdition awaiting this world, as Israel from the bondage and destruction of the Egyptians; [Exodus 12:23] and a most salutary transit we make when we pass over from the devil to Christ, and from this unstable world to His well-established kingdom. And therefore surely do we pass over to the ever-abiding God, that we may not pass away with this passing world. The apostle, in extolling God for such grace bestowed upon us, says: Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. [Colossians 1:13] This name, then, of pascha, which, as I have said, is in Latin called transitus (pass over), is interpreted, as it were, for us by the blessed evangelist, when he says, Before the feast of pascha, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should pass out of this world to the Father. Here you see we have both pascha and pass-over. Whence, and whither does He pass? Namely, out of this world to the Father. The hope was thus given to the members in their Head, that they doubtless would yet follow Him who was passing before. And what, then, of unbelievers, who stand altogether apart from this Head and His members? Do not they also pass away, seeing that they abide not here always? They also do plainly pass away: but it is one thing to pass from the world, and another to pass away with it; one thing to pass to the Father, another to pass to the enemy. For the Egyptians also passed over [the sea]; but they did not pass through the sea to the kingdom, but in the sea to destruction.

2. When Jesus knew, then, that His hour had come that He should pass out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end. In order, doubtless, that they also, through that love of His, might pass from this world where they now were, to their Head who had passed hence before them. For what mean these words, to the end, but just to Christ? For Christ is the end of the law, says the apostle, for righteousness to every one that believes. [Romans 10:4] The end that consummates, not that consumes; the end whereto we attain, not wherein we perish. Exactly thus are we to understand the passage, Christ our passover is sacrificed. [1 Corinthians 5:7] He is our end; into Him do we pass. For I see that these gospel words may also be taken in a kind of human sense, that Christ loved His own even unto death, so that this may be the meaning of He loved them unto the end. This meaning is human, not divine: for it was not merely up to this point that we were loved by Him, who loves us always and endlessly. God forbid that He, whose death could not end, should have ended His love at death. Even after death that proud and ungodly rich man loved his five brethren; [Luke 16:27-28] and is Christ to be thought of as loving us only till death? God forbid, beloved. He would have come in vain with a love for us that lasted till death, if that love had ended there. But perhaps the words, He loved them unto the end, may have to be understood in this way, That He so loved them as to die for them. For this He testified when He said, Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. We have certainly no objection that He loved them unto the end should be so understood, that is, it was His very love that carried Him on to death.

3. And the supper, he says, having taken place, and the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him, [Jesus] knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He has come from God, and is going to God; He rises from supper, and lays aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He pours water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. We are not to understand by the supper having taken place, as if it were already finished and over; for it was still going on when the Lord rose and washed His disciples' feet. For He afterwards sat down again, and gave the morsel [sop] to His betrayer, implying certainly that the supper was not yet over, or, in other words, that there was still bread on the table. Therefore, by supper having taken place, is meant that it was now ready, and laid out on the table for the use of the guests.

4. But when he says, The devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him; if one inquires, what was put into Judas' heart, it was doubtless this, to betray Him. Such a putting [into the heart] is a spiritual suggestion: and enters not by the ear, but through the thoughts; and thereby not in a way that is corporal, but spiritual. For what we call spiritual is not always to be understood in a commendatory way. The apostle knew of certain spiritual things [powers], of wickedness in heavenly places, against which he testifies that we have to maintain a struggle; [Ephesians 6:12] and there would not be spiritual wickednesses, were there not also wicked spirits. For it is from a spiritual being that spiritual things get their name. But how such things are done, as that devilish suggestions should be introduced, and so mingle with human thoughts that a man accounts them his own, how can he know? Nor can we doubt that good suggestions are likewise made by a good spirit in the same unobservable and spiritual way; but it is matter of concern to which of these the human mind yields assent, either as deservedly left without, or graciously aided by, the divine assistance. The determination, therefore, had now been come to in Judas' heart by the instigation of the devil, that the disciple should betray the Master, whom he had not learned to know as his God. In such a state had he now come to their social meal, a spy on the Shepherd, a plotter against the Redeemer, a seller of the Saviour; as such was he now come, was he now seen and endured, and thought himself undiscovered: for he was deceived about Him whom he wished to deceive. But He, who had already scanned the inward state of that very heart, was knowingly making use of one who knew it not.

5. [Jesus] knowing that the Father has given all things into His hands. And therefore also the traitor himself: for if He had him not in His hands, He certainly could not use him as He wished. Accordingly, the traitor had been already betrayed to Him whom he sought to betray; and he carried out his evil purpose in betraying Him in such a way, that good he knew not of was the issue in regard to Him who was betrayed. For the Lord knew what He was doing for His friends, and patiently made use of His enemies: and thus had the Father given all things into His hands, both the evil for present use, and the good for the final issue. Knowing also that He has come from God, and is going to God: neither quitting God when He came from Him, nor us when He returned.

6. Knowing, then, these things, He rises from supper, and lays aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He pours water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. We ought, dearly beloved, carefully to mark the meaning of the evangelist; because that, when about to speak of the pre-eminent humility of the Lord, it was his desire first to commend His majesty. It is in reference to this that he says, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He has come from God, and is going to God. It is He, therefore, into whose hands the Father had given all things, who now washes, not the disciples' hands, but their feet: and it was just while knowing that He had come from God, and was proceeding to God, that He discharged the office of a servant, not of God the Lord, but of man. And this also is referred to by the prefatory notice he has been pleased to make of His betrayer, who was now come as such, and was not unknown to Him; that the greatness of His humility should be still further enhanced by the fact that He did not esteem it beneath His dignity to wash also the feet of one whose hands He already foresaw to be steeped in wickedness.

7. But why should we wonder that He rose from supper, and laid aside His garments, who, being in the form of God, made Himself of no reputation? And why should we wonder, if He girded Himself with a towel, who took upon Him the form of a servant, and was found in the likeness of a man? [Philippians 2:6-7] Why wonder, if He poured water into a basin wherewith to wash His disciples' feet, who poured His blood upon the earth to wash away the filth of their sins? Why wonder, if with the towel wherewith He was girded He wiped the feet He had washed, who with the very flesh that clothed Him laid a firm pathway for the footsteps of His evangelists? In order, indeed, to gird Himself with the towel, He laid aside the garments He wore; but when He emptied Himself [of His divine glory] in order to assume the form of a servant, He laid not down what He had, but assumed that which He had not before. When about to be crucified, He was indeed stripped of His garments, and when dead was wrapped in linen clothes: and all that suffering of His is our purification. When, therefore, about to suffer the last extremities [of humiliation,] He here illustrated beforehand its friendly compliances; not only to those for whom He was about to endure death, but to him also who had resolved on betraying Him to death. Because so great is the beneficence of human humility, that even the Divine Majesty was pleased to commend it by His own example; for proud man would have perished eternally, had he not been found by the lowly God. For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost. [Luke 19:10] And as he was lost by imitating the pride of the deceiver, let him now, when found, imitate the Redeemer's humility.

1. When the Lord was washing the disciples' feet, He comes to Simon Peter; and Peter says unto Him, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet? For who would not be filled with fear at having his feet washed by the Son of God? Although, therefore, it was a piece of the greatest audacity for the servant to contradict his Lord, the creature his God; yet Peter preferred doing this to the suffering of his feet to be washed by his Lord and God. Nor ought we to think that Peter was one among others who so expressed their fear and refusal, seeing that others before him had suffered it to be done to themselves with cheerfulness and equanimity. For it is easier so to understand the words of the Gospel, because that, after saying, He began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded, it is then added, Then comes He to Simon Peter, as if He had already washed the feet of some, and after them had now come to the first of them all. For who can fail to know that the most blessed Peter was the first of the apostles? But we are not so to understand it, that it was after some others that He came to him; but that He began with him. When, therefore, He began to wash the disciples' feet, He came to him with whom He began, namely, to Peter; and then Peter took fright at what any one of them might have been frightened, and said, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet? What is implied in this Thou? And what in my? These are subjects for thought rather than for speech; lest perchance any adequate conception the soul may have formed of such words may fail of explanation in the utterance.

2. But Jesus answered and said to him, What I do you know not now, but you shall know hereafter. And not even yet, terrified as he was by the sublimity of the Lord's action, does he allow it to be done, while ignorant of its purpose; but is unwilling to see, unable to endure, that Christ should thus humble Himself to his very feet. You shall never, he says, wash my feet. What is this never [in æternum]? I will never endure, never suffer, never permit it: that is, a thing is not done in æternum which is never done. Then the Saviour, to terrify His reluctant patient with the danger of his own salvation, says, If I wash you not, you shall have no part with me. He speaks in this way, If I wash you not, when He was referring only to his feet; just as it is customary to say, You are trampling on me, when it is only the foot that is trampled on. And now the other, in a perturbation of love and fear, and more frightened at the thought that Christ should be withheld from him, than even to see Him humbled at his feet, exclaims, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Since this, indeed, is Your threat, that my bodily members must be washed by You, not only do I no longer withhold the lowest, but I lay the foremost also at Your disposal. Deny me not having a part with You, and I deny You not any part of my body to be washed.

3. Jesus says to him, He that is washed needs not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. Some one perhaps may be aroused at this, and say: Nay, but if he is every whit clean, what need has He even to wash his feet? But the Lord knew what He was saying, even though our weakness reach not into His secret purposes. Nevertheless, so far as He is pleased to instruct and teach us out of His law, up to the little measure of my apprehension, I would also, with His help, make some answer bearing on the depths of this question: and, first of all, I shall have no difficulty in showing that there is no self-contradiction in the manner of expression. For who may not say, as here, with the greatest propriety, He is all clean, except his feet?— although he would speak with greater elegance were he to say, He is all clean, save his feet; which is equivalent in meaning. Thus, then, does the Lord say, He needs not save to wash his feet, but is all clean. All, that is, except, or save his feet, which he still needs to wash.

4. But what is this? What does it mean? And what is there in it we need to examine? The Lord says, The Truth declares that even he who has been washed has need still to wash his feet. What, my brethren, what think you of it, save that in holy baptism a man has all of him washed, not all save his feet, but every whit; and yet, while thereafter living in this human state, he cannot fail to tread on the ground with his feet. And thus our human feelings themselves, which are inseparable from our mortal life on earth, are like feet wherewith we are brought into sensible contact with human affairs; and are so in such a way, that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. [1 John 1:8] And every day, therefore, is He who intercedes for us, [Romans 8:34] washing our feet: and that we, too have daily need to be washing our feet, that is ordering aright the path of our spiritual footsteps, we acknowledge even in the Lord's prayer, when we say, Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. [Matthew 6:12] For if, as it is written, we confess our sins, then verily is He, who washed His disciples' feet, faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, [1 John 1:9] that is, even to our feet wherewith we walk on the earth.

5. Accordingly the Church, which Christ cleanses with the washing of water in the word, is without spot and wrinkle, [Ephesians 5:26-27] not only in the case of those who are taken away immediately after the washing of regeneration from the contagious influence of this life, and tread not the earth so as to make necessary the washing of their feet, but in those also who have experienced such mercy from the Lord as to be enabled to quit this present life even with feet that have been washed. But although the Church be also clean in respect of those who tarry on earth, because they live righteously; yet have they need to be washing their feet, because they assuredly are not without sin. For this cause is it said in the Song of Songs, I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? [Song of Songs 5:3] For one so speaks when he is constrained to come to Christ, and in coming has to bring his feet into contact with the ground. But again, there is another question that arises. Is not Christ above? has He not ascended into heaven, and sits He not at the Father's right hand? Does not the apostle expressly declare, If you, then, be risen with Christ, set your thoughts on those things which are above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God. Seek the things which are above, not things which are on earth? [Colossians 3:1-2] How is it, then, that to get to Christ we are compelled to tread the earth, since rather our hearts ought to be turned upwards toward the Lord, that we may be enabled to dwell in His presence? You see, brethren, the shortness of the time today curtails our consideration of this question. And if you perhaps fail in some measure to do so, yet I for my part see how much clearing up it requires. And therefore I beg of you to suffer it rather to be adjourned, than to be treated now in too negligent and restricted a manner; and your expectations will not be defrauded, but only deferred. For the Lord who thus makes us your debtors, will be present to enable us also to pay our debts.

In what way the Church should fear to defile her feet, while proceeding on her way to Christ.

1. I Have not been unmindful of my debt, and acknowledge that the time of payment has now come. May He give me wherewith to pay, as He gave me cause to incur the debt. For He has given me the love, of which it is said, Owe no man anything, but to love one another. [Romans 13:8] May He give also the word, which I feel myself owing to those I love. I put off your expectations till now for this reason, that I might explain as I could how it is we come to Christ along the ground, when we are commanded rather to seek the things which are above, not the things which are upon the earth. [Colossians 3:1-2] For Christ is sitting above, at the right hand of the Father: but He is assuredly here also; and for that reason said also to Saul, as he was raging on the earth, Why do you persecute me? [Acts 9:4] But the topic on which we were speaking, and which led to our entering on this inquiry, was our Lord's washing His disciples' feet, after the disciples themselves had already been washed, and needed not, save to wash their feet. And we there saw it to be understood that a man is indeed wholly washed in baptism; but while thereafter he lives in this present world, and with the feet of his human passions treads on this earth, that is, in his life-intercourse with others, he contracts enough to call forth the prayer, Forgive us our debts. [Matthew 6:12] And thus from these also is he cleansed by Him who washed His disciples' feet, and ceases not to make intercession for us. [Romans 8:34] And here occurred the words of the Church in the Song of Songs, when she says, I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? when she wished to go and open to that Being, fairer in form than the sons of men, who had come to her and knocked, and asked her to open to Him. This gave rise to a question, which we were unwilling to compress into the narrow limits of the time, and therefore deferred till now, in what sense the Church, when on her way to Christ, may be afraid of defiling her feet, which she had washed in the baptism of Christ.

2. For thus she speaks: I sleep, but my heart wakes: it is the voice of my Beloved that knocks at the gate. And then He also says: Open to me, my sister, my nearest, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is filled with dew, and my hair with the drops of the night. And she replies: I have put off my dress; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? [Song of Songs 5:2-3] O wonderful sacramental symbol! O lofty mystery! Does she, then, fear to defile her feet in coming to Him who washed the feet of His disciples? Her fear is genuine; for it is along the earth she has to come to Him, who is still on earth, because refusing to leave His own who are stationed here. Is it not He that says, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world? [Matthew 28:20] Is it not He that says, You shall see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man? If they ascend to Him because He is above, how do they descend to Him, but because He is also here? Therefore says the Church: I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? She says so even in the case of those who, purified from all dross, can say: I desire to depart, and to be with Christ; nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. [Philippians 1:23-24] She says it in those who preach Christ, and open to Him the door, that He may dwell by faith in the hearts of men. [Ephesians 3:17] In such she says it, when they deliberate whether to undertake such a ministry, for which they do not consider themselves qualified, so as to discharge it blamelessly, and so as not, after preaching to others, themselves to become castaways. [1 Corinthians 9:27] For it is safer to hear than to preach the truth: for in the hearing, humility is preserved; but when it is preached, it is scarcely possible for any man to hinder the entrance of some small measure of boasting, whereby the feet at least are defiled.

3. Therefore, as the Apostle James says, Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak. [James 1:19] As it is also said by another man of God, You will make me to hear joy and gladness; and the bones You have humbled will rejoice. This is what I said: When the truth is heard, humility is preserved. And another says: But the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him, and rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Let us rejoice in the hearing that comes from the noiseless speaking of the truth within us. For although, when the sound is outwardly uttered, as by one that reads; or proclaims, or preaches, or disputes, or commands, or comforts, or exhorts, or even by one that sings or accompanies his voice on an instrument, those who do so may fear to defile their feet, when they aim at pleasing men with the secretly active desire of human applause. Yet the one who hears such with a willing and pious mind, has no room for self-gratulation in the labors of others; and with no self-inflation, but with the joy of humility, rejoices because of the Master's words of truth. Accordingly, in those who hear with willingness and humility, and spend a tranquil life in sweet and wholesome studies, the holy Church will take delight, and may say, I sleep, and my heart wakes. And what is this, I sleep, and my heart wakes, but just I sit down quietly to listen? My leisure is not laid out in nourishing slothfulness, but in acquiring wisdom. I sleep, and my heart wakes. I am still, and see that You are the Lord: for the wisdom of the scribe comes by opportunity of leisure; and he that has little business shall become wise. [Sirach 38:24] I sleep, and my heart wakes: I rest from troublesome business, and my mind turns its attention to divine concerns (or communications).

4. But while the Church finds delightful repose in those who thus sweetly and humbly sit at her feet, here is one who knocks, and says: What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the house-tops. [Matthew 10:27] It is His voice, then, that knocks at the gate, and says: Open to me, my sister, my neighbor, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. As if He had said, You are at leisure, and the door is closed against me: you are caring for the leisure of the few, and through abounding iniquity the love of many is waxing cold. [Matthew 24:12] The night He speaks of is iniquity: but His dew and drops are those who wax cold and fall away, and make the head of Christ to wax cold, that is, the love of God to fail. For the head of Christ is God. [1 Corinthians 11:3] But they are borne on His locks, that is, their presence is tolerated in the visible sacraments; while their senses never take hold of the internal realities. He knocks, therefore, to shake off this quiet from His inactive saints, and cries, Open to me, thou who, through my blood, has become my sister; through my drawing near, my neighbor; through my Spirit, my dove; through my word which you have fully learned in your leisure, my perfect one: open to me, go and preach me to others. For how shall I get in to those who have shut their door against me, without some one to open? And how shall they hear without a preacher? [Romans 10:14]

5. Hence it happens that those who love to devote their leisure to good studies, and shrink from encountering the troubles of toilsome labors, as feeling themselves unsuited to undertake and discharge such services with credit, would prefer, were it possible, to have the holy apostles and ancient preachers of the truth again raised up against that abounding of iniquity which has so reduced the warmth of Christian love. But in regard to those who have already left the body, and put off the garment of the flesh (for they are not utterly parted), the Church replies, I have put off my dress; how shall I put it on? That dress shall, indeed, yet be recovered; and in the persons of those who have meanwhile laid it aside, shall the Church again put on the garment of flesh: only not now, when the cold are needing to be warmed; but then, when the dead shall rise again. Realizing, then, her present difficulty through the scarcity of preachers, and remembering those members of her own who were so sound in word and holy in character, but are now disunited from their bodies, the Church says in her sorrow, I have put off my dress; how shall I put it on? How can those members of mine, who had such surpassing power, through their preaching, to open the door to Christ, now return to the bodies which they have laid aside?

6. And then, turning again to those who preach, and gather in and govern the congregations of His people, and so open as they can to Christ, but are afraid, amid the difficulties of such work, of falling into sin, she says, I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? For whosoever offends not in word, the same is a perfect man. And who, then, is perfect? Who is there that offends not amid such an abounding of iniquity, and such a freezing of charity? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? At times I read and hear: My brethren, be not many masters, seeing that you shall receive the greater condemnation: for in many things we offend all. [James 3:1-2] I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? But see, I rise and open. Christ, wash them. Forgive us our debts, because our love is not altogether extinguished: for we also forgive our debtors. [Matthew 6:12] When we listen to You, the bones which have been humbled rejoice with You in the heavenly places. But when we preach You, we have to tread the ground in order to open to You: and then, if we are blameworthy, we are troubled; if we are commended, we become inflated. Wash our feet, that were formerly cleansed, but have again been defiled in our walking through the earth to open unto You. Let this be enough today, beloved. But in whatever we have happened to offend, by saying otherwise than we ought, or have been unduly elated by your commendations, entreat that our feet may be washed, and may your prayers find acceptance with God.

1. We have already, beloved, as the Lord was pleased to enable us, expounded to you those words of the Gospel, where the Lord, in washing His disciples' feet, says, He that is once washed needs not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. Let us now look at what follows. And ye, He says, are clean, but not all. And to remove the need of inquiry on our part, the evangelist has himself explained its meaning, by adding: For He knew who it was that should betray Him; therefore said He, You are not all clean. Can anything be clearer? Let us therefore pass to what follows.

2. So, after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said to them, Know ye what I have done to you? Now it is that the blessed Peter gets that promise fulfilled: for he had been put off when, in the midst of his trembling and asserting, You shall never wash my feet, he received the answer, What I do, you know not now, but you shall know hereafter (vers. 7-8). Here, then, is that very hereafter; it is now time to tell what was a little ago deferred. Accordingly, the Lord, mindful of His foregoing promise to make him understand an act of His so unexpected, so wonderful, so frightening, and, but for His own still more terrifying rejoinder, impossible to be permitted, that the Master not only of themselves, but of angels, and the Lord not only of them, but of all things, should wash the feet of His own disciples and servants: having then promised to let him know the meaning of so important an act, when He said, You shall know afterwards, begins now to show them what it was that He did.

3. You call me, He says, Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am. You say well, for you only say the truth; I am indeed what ye say. There is a precept laid on man: Let not your own mouth praise you, but the mouth of your neighbor. [Proverbs 27:2] For self-pleasing is a perilous thing for one who has to be on his guard against falling into pride. But He who is over all things, however much He commend Himself, cannot exalt Himself above His actual dignity: nor can God be rightly termed arrogant. For it is to our advantage to know Him, not to His; nor can any one know Him, unless that self-knowing One make Himself known. If He, then, by abstaining from self-commendation, wish, as it were, to avoid arrogance, He will deny us the power of knowing Him. And no one surely would blame Him for calling Himself Master, even though believing Him to be nothing more than a man; seeing He only makes profession of what even men themselves in the various arts profess to such an extent, without any charge of arrogance, that they are termed professors. But to call Himself also the Lord of His disciples — of men who, in an earthly sense, were themselves also free-born — who would tolerate it in a man? But it is God that speaks. Here no elation is possible to loftiness so great, no lie to the truth: the profit is ours to be the subjects of such loftiness, the servants of the truth. That He calls Himself Lord is no imperfection on His side, but a benefit on ours. The words of a certain profane author are commended, when he says, All arrogance is hateful, and specially disagreeable is that of talent and eloquence; and yet, when the same person was speaking of his own eloquence, he said, I would call it perfect, were I to pronounce judgment; nor, in truth, would I greatly fear the charge of arrogance. If, then, that most eloquent man had in truth no fear of being charged with arrogance, how can the truth itself have such a fear? Let Him call Himself Lord who is the Lord, let Him say what is true who is the Truth; so that I may not fail to learn that which is profitable, by His being silent about that which is. The most blessed Paul— certainly not himself the only-begotten Son of God, but the servant and apostle of that Son; not the Truth, but a partaker of the truth— declares with freedom and consistency, And though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I say the truth. [2 Corinthians 12:6] For it would not be in himself, but in the truth, which is superior to himself, that he was glorying both humbly and truly: for it is he also who has given the charge, that he that glories should glory in the Lord. [1 Corinthians 1:31] Could thus the lover of wisdom have no fear of being chargeable with foolishness, though he desired to glory, and would wisdom itself, in its glorying, have any fear of such a charge? He had no fear of arrogance who said, My soul shall make her boast in the Lord; and could the power of the Lord have any such fear in commending itself, in which His servant's soul is making her boast? You call me, He says, Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am. Therefore ye say well, that I am so: for if I were not what ye say, you would be wrong to say so, even with the purpose of praising me. How, then,could the Truth deny what the disciples of the Truth affirm? How could that which was said by the learners be denied by the very Truth that gave them their learning? How can the fountain deny what the drinker asserts? How can the light hide what the beholder declares?

4. If I, then, He says, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. This, blessed Peter, is what thou did not know when thou were not allowing it to be done. This is what He promised to let you know afterwards, when your Master and your Lord terrified you into submission, and washed your feet. We have learned, brethren, humility from the Highest; let us, as humble, do to one another what He, the Highest, did in His humility. Great is the commendation we have here of humility: and brethren do this to one another in turn, even in the visible act itself, when they treat one another with hospitality; for the practice of such humility is generally prevalent, and finds expression in the very deed that makes it discernible. And hence the apostle, when he would commend the well-deserving widow, says, If she is hospitable, if she has washed the saints' feet. [1 Timothy 5:10] And wherever such is not the practice among the saints, what they do not with the hand they do in heart, if they are of the number of those who are addressed in the hymn of the three blessed men, O you holy and humble of heart, bless ye the Lord. But it is far better, and beyond all dispute more accordant with the truth, that it should also be done with the hands; nor should the Christian think it beneath him to do what was done by Christ. For when the body is bent at a brother's feet, the feeling of such humility is either awakened in the heart itself, or is strengthened if already present.

5. But apart from this moral understanding of the passage, we remember that the way in which we commended to your attention the grandeur of this act of the Lord's, was that, in washing the feet of disciples who were already washed and clean, the Lord instituted a sign, to the end that, on account of the human feelings that occupy us on earth, however far we may have advanced in our apprehension of righteousness, we might know that we are not exempt from sin; which He thereafter washes away by interceding for us, when we pray the Father, who is in heaven, to forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. [Matthew 6:12] What connection, then, can such an understanding of the passage have with that which He afterwards gave Himself, when He explained the reason of His act in the words, If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you? Can we say that even a brother may cleanse a brother from the contracted stain of wrongdoing? Yea, verily, we know that of this also we were admonished in the profound significance of this work of the Lord's, that we should confess our faults one to another, and pray for one another, even as Christ also makes intercession for us. [Romans 8:34] Let us listen to the Apostle James, who states this precept with the greatest clearness when he says, Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another. [James 5:16] For of this also the Lord gave us the example. For if He who neither has, nor had, nor will have any sin, prays for our sins, how much more ought we to pray for one another's in turn! And if He forgives us, whom we have nothing to forgive; how much more ought we, who are unable to live here without sin, to forgive one another! For what else does the Lord apparently intimate in the profound significance of this sacramental sign, when He says, For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you; but what the apostle declares in the plainest terms, Forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye? [Colossians 3:13] Let us therefore forgive one another his faults, and pray for one another's faults, and thus in a manner be washing one another's feet. It is our part, by His grace, to be supplying the service of love and humility: it is His to hear us, and to cleanse us from all the pollution of our sins through Christ, and in Christ; so that what we forgive even to others, that is, loose on earth, may be loosed in heaven.

1. We have just heard in the holy Gospel the Lord speaking, and saying, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord, nor the apostle [he that is sent] greater than he that sent him: if you know these things, blessed shall you be if you do them. He said this, therefore, because He had washed the disciples' feet, as the Master of humility both by word and example. But we shall be able, with His help, to handle what is in need of more elaborate handling, if we linger not at what is perfectly clear. Accordingly, after uttering these words, the Lord added, I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but, that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eats bread with me, shall lift up his heel upon me. And what is this, but that he shall trample upon me? We know of whom He speaks: it is Judas, that betrayer of His, who is referred to. He had not therefore chosen the person whom, by these words, He sets utterly apart from His chosen ones. When I say then, He continues, Blessed shall you be if you do them, I speak not of you all: there is one among you who will not be blessed, and who will not do these things. I know whom I have chosen. Whom, but those who shall be blessed in the doing of what has been commanded and shown as needful to be done, by Him who alone can make them blessed? The traitor Judas, He says, is not one of those that have been chosen. What, then, is meant by what He says in another place, Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? Was it that he also was chosen for some purpose, for which he was really necessary; although not for the blessedness of which He has just been saying, Blessed shall you be if you do these things? He speaks not so of them all; for He knows whom He has chosen to be associated with Himself in blessedness. Of such he is not one, who ate His bread in order that he might lift up his heel upon Him. The bread they ate was the Lord Himself; he ate the Lord's bread in enmity to the Lord: they ate life, and he punishment. For he that eats unworthily, says the apostle, eats judgment unto himself. [1 Corinthians 11:29] From this time, Christ adds, I tell you before it come; that when it has come to pass, you may believe that I am He: that is, I am He of whom the Scripture that preceded has just said, He that eats bread with me, shall lift up his heel upon me.

2. He then proceeds to say: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receives whomsoever I send, receives me; and he that receives me, receives Him that sent me. Did He mean us to understand that there is as little distance between one sent by Him, and Himself, as there is between Himself and God the Father? If we take it in this way, I know not what measurements of distance (which may God forbid!) we shall be adopting, in the Arian fashion. For they, when they hear or read these words of the Gospel, have immediate recourse to their dogmatic measurements, whereby they ascend not to life, but fall headlong into death. For they straightway say: The Son's messenger stands at the same relative distance from the Son, as expressed in the words, He that receives whomsoever I send, receives me, as that in which the Son Himself stands from the Father, when He said, He that receives me, receives Him that sent me. But if you say so, you forget, heretic, your measurements. For if, because of these words of the Lord, you put the Son at as great a distance from the Father as the messenger [apostle] from the Son, where do you purpose to place the Holy Spirit? Has it escaped you, that you are wont to place Him after the Son? He will therefore come in between the messenger and the Son; and much greater, then, will be the distance between the Son and His messenger, than between the Father and His Son. Or perhaps, to preserve that distinction between the Son and His messenger, and between the Father and His Son, at their equality of distance, will the Holy Spirit be equal to the Son? But as little will you allow this. And where, then, do ye think of placing Him, if you place the Son as far beneath the Father, as you place the messenger beneath the Son? Restrain, therefore, your foolhardy presumption; and do not be seeking to find in these words the same distance between the Son and His messenger as between the Father and His Son. But listen rather to the Son Himself, when He says, I and my Father are one. For there the Truth has left you no shadow of distance between the Begetter and the Only-begotten; there Christ Himself has erased your measurements, and the rock has broken your staircase to pieces.

3. But now that the heretical slander has been disposed of, in what sense are we to understand these words of the Lord: He that receives whomsoever I send, receives me; and he that receives me, receives Him that sent me? For if we were inclined to understand the words, He that receives me, receives Him that sent me, as expressing the oneness in nature of the Father and the Son; the sequence from the similar arrangement of words in the other clause, He that receives whomsoever I send, receives me, would be the unity in nature of the Son and His messenger. And there might, indeed, be no impropriety in so understanding it, seeing that a twofold substance belongs to the strong man, who has rejoiced to run the race; for the Word was made flesh, that is, God became man. And accordingly He might be supposed to have said, He that receives whomsoever I send, receives me, with reference to His human nature; and he that receives me as God, receives Him that sent me. But in so speaking, He was not commending the unity of nature, but the authority of the Sender in Him who is sent. Let every one, therefore, so receive Him that is sent, that in His person he may give heed to Him who sent Him. If, then, you look for Christ in Peter, you will find the disciple's instructor; and if you look for the Father in the Son, you will find the Begetter of the Only-begotten: and so in Him who is sent, you are not mistaken in receiving the Sender. What follows in the Gospel cannot be compressed within the shortness of the time remaining. And therefore, dearly beloved, let what has been said, if thought sufficient, be received in a healthful way, as pasture for the holy sheep; and if it is somewhat scanty, let it be ruminated over with ardent desire for more.

1. It is no light question, brethren, that meets us in the Gospel of the blessed John, when he says: When Jesus had thus said, He was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Was it for this reason that Jesus was troubled, not in flesh, but in spirit, that He was now about to say, One of you shall betray me? Did this occur then for the first time to His mind, or was it at that moment suddenly revealed to Him for the first time, and so troubled Him by the startling novelty of so great a calamity? Was it not a little before that He was using these words, He that eats bread with me will lift up his heel against me? And had He not also, previously to that, said, And you are clean, but not all? Where the evangelist added, For He knew who should betray Him: to whom also on a still earlier occasion He had pointed in the words, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? Why is it, then, that He was now troubled in spirit, when He testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me? Was it because now He had so to mark him out, that he should no longer remain concealed among the rest, but be separated from the others, that therefore He was troubled in spirit? Or was it because now the traitor himself was on the eve of departing to bring those Jews to whom he was to betray the Lord, that He was troubled by the imminency of His passion, the closeness of the danger, and the swooping hand of the traitor, whose resolution was foreknown? For some such cause it certainly was that Jesus was troubled in spirit, as when He said, Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour. And accordingly, just as then His soul was troubled as the hour of His passion approached; so now also, as Judas was on the point of going and coming, and the atrocious villainy of the traitor neared its accomplishment, He was troubled in spirit.

2. He was troubled, then, who had power to lay down His life, and had power to take it again. That mighty power is troubled, the firmness of the rock is disturbed: or is it rather our infirmity that is troubled in Him? Assuredly so: let servants believe nothing unworthy of their Lord, but recognize their own membership in their Head. He who died for us, was also Himself troubled in our place. He, therefore, who died in power, was troubled in the midst of His power: He who shall yet transform the body of our humility into similarity of form with the body of His glory, has also transferred into Himself the feeling of our infirmity, and sympathizes with us in the feelings of His own soul. Accordingly, when it is the great, the brave, the sure, the invincible One that is troubled, let us have no fear for Him, as if He were capable of failing: He is not perishing, but in search of us [who are]. Us, I say; it is us exclusively whom He is thus seeking, that in His trouble we may behold ourselves, and so, when trouble reaches us, may not fall into despair and perish. By His trouble, who could not be troubled save with His own consent, He comforts such as are troubled unwillingly.

3. Away with the reasons of philosophers, who assert that a wise man is not affected by mental perturbations. God has made foolish the wisdom of this world; [1 Corinthians 1:20] and the Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain. It is plain that the mind of the Christian may be troubled, not by misery, but by pity: he may fear lest men should be lost to Christ; he may sorrow when one is being lost; he may have ardent desire to gain men to Christ; he may be filled with joy when such is being done; he may have fear of falling away himself from Christ; he may sorrow over his own estrangement from Christ; he may be earnestly desirous of reigning with Christ, and he may be rejoicing in the hope that such fellowship with Christ will yet be his lot. These are certainly four of what they call perturbations — fear and sorrow, love and gladness. And Christian minds may have sufficient cause to feel them, and evidence their dissent from the error of Stoic philosophers, and all resembling them: who indeed, just as they esteem truth to be vanity, regard also insensibility as soundness; not knowing that a man's mind, like the limbs of his body, is only the more hopelessly diseased when it has lost even the feeling of pain.

4. But says some one: Ought the mind of the Christian to be troubled even at the prospect of death? For what comes of those words of the apostle, that he had a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, [Philippians 1:23] if the object of his desire can thus trouble him when it comes? Our answer to this would be easy, indeed, in the case of those who also term gladness itself a perturbation [of the mind]. For what if the trouble he thus feels arises entirely from his rejoicing at the prospect of death? But such a feeling, they say, ought to be termed gladness, and not rejoicing. And what is that, but just to alter the name, while the feeling experienced is the same? But let us for our part confine our attention to the Sacred Scriptures, and with the Lord's help seek rather such a solution of this question as will be in harmony with them; and then, seeing it is written, When He had thus said, He was troubled in spirit, we will not say that it was joy that disturbed Him; lest His own words should convince us of the contrary when He says, My soul is sorrowful, even unto death. [Matthew 26:38] It is some such feeling that is here also to be understood, when, as His betrayer was now on the very point of departing alone, and straightway returning along with his associates, Jesus was troubled in spirit.

5. Strong-minded, indeed, are those Christians, if such there are, who experience no trouble at all in the prospect of death; but for all that, are they stronger-minded than Christ? Who would have the madness to say so? And what else, then, does His being troubled signify, but that, by voluntarily assuming the likeness of their weakness, He comforted the weak members in His own body, that is, in His Church; to the end that, if any of His own are still troubled at the approach of death, they may fix their gaze upon Him, and so be kept from thinking themselves castaways on this account, and being swallowed up in the more grievous death of despair? And how great, then, must be that good which we ought to expect and hope for in the participation of His divine nature, whose very perturbation tranquillizes us, and whose infirmity confirms us? Whether, therefore, on this occasion it was by His pity for Judas himself thus rushing into ruin, or by the near approach of His own death, that He was troubled, yet there is no possibility of doubting that it was not through any infirmity of mind, but in the fullness of power, that He was troubled, and so no despair of salvation need arise in our minds, when we are troubled, not in the possession of power, but in the midst of our weakness. He certainly bore the infirmity of the flesh — an infirmity which was swallowed up in His resurrection. But He who was not only man, but God also, surpassed by an ineffable distance the whole human race in fortitude of mind. He was not, then, troubled by any outward plessure of man, but troubled Himself; which was very plainly declared of Him when He raised Lazarus from the dead: for it is there written that He troubled Himself, that it may be so understood even where the text does not so express it, and yet declares that He was troubled. For having by His power assumed our full humanity, by that very power He awoke in Himself our human feelings whenever He judged it becoming.

1. This short section of the Gospel, brethren, we have in this lesson brought forward for exposition, as thinking that we ought also to say something of the Lord's betrayer, as now plainly enough disclosed by the dipping and holding out to him of the piece of bread. Of that indeed which precedes, (namely), that Jesus, when about to point him out, was troubled in spirit, we have treated in our last discourse; but what I perhaps omitted to mention there, the Lord, by His own perturbation of spirit, thought proper to indicate this also, that it is necessary to bear with false brethren, and those tares that are among the wheat in the Lord's field until harvest-time, because that when we are compelled by urgent reasons to separate some of them even before the harvest, it cannot be done without disturbance to the Church. Such disturbance to His saints in the future, through schismatics and heretics, the Lord in a way foretold and prefigured in Himself, when, at the moment of that wicked man Judas' departure, and of his thereby bringing to an end, in a very open and decided way, his past intermingling with the wheat, in which he had long been tolerated, He was troubled, not in body, but in spirit. For it is not spitefulness, but charity, that troubles His spiritual members in scandals of this kind; lest perchance, in separating some of the tares, any of the wheat should also be uprooted therewith.

2. Jesus, therefore, was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said: Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. One of you, in number, not in merit; in appearance, not in reality; in bodily commingling, not by any spiritual tie; a companion by fleshly juxtaposition, not in any unity of the heart; and therefore not one who is of you, but one who is to go forth from you. For how else can this one of you be true, of which the Lord so testified, and said, if that is true which the writer of this very Gospel says in his Epistle, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us? [1 John 2:19] Judas, therefore was not of them; for, had he been of them, he would have continued with them. What, then, do the words One of you shall betray me mean, but that one is going out from you who shall betray me? Just as he also, who said, If they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, had said before, They went out from us. And thus it is true in both senses, of us, and not of us; in one respect of us, and in another not of us; of us in respect to sacramental communion, but not of us in respect to the criminal conduct that belongs exclusively to themselves.

3. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom He spoke. For while they were imbued with a reverential love to their Master, they were none the less affected by human infirmity in their feelings towards each other. Each one's own conscience was known to himself; but as he was ignorant of his neighbor's, each one's self-assurance was such that each was uncertain of all the others, and all the others were uncertain of that one.

4. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom, one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. What he meant by saying in His bosom, he tells us a little further on, where he says, on the breast of Jesus. It was that very John whose Gospel is before us, as he afterwards expressly declares. For it was a custom with those who have supplied us with the sacred writings, that when any of them was relating the divine history, and came to something affecting himself, he spoke as if it were about another; and gave himself a place in the line of his narrative becoming one who was the recorder of public events, and not as one who made himself the subject of his preaching. Saint Matthew acted also in this way, when, in coming in the course of his narrative to himself, he says, He saw a publican named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom, and says unto him, Follow me. [Matthew 9:9] He does not say, He saw me, and said to me. So also acted the blessed Moses, writing all the history about himself as if it concerned another, and saying, The Lord said to Moses. [Exodus 6:1] Less habitually was this done by the Apostle Paul, not however in any history which undertakes to explain the course of public events, but in his own epistles. At all events, he speaks thus of himself: I knew a man in Christ fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows;) such an one caught up into the third heaven. [2 Corinthians 12:2] And so, when the blessed evangelist also says here, not, I was leaning on Jesus' bosom, but, There was leaning one of the disciples, let us recognize a custom of our author's, rather than fall into any wonder on the subject. For what loss is there to the truth, when the facts themselves are told us, and all boastfulness of language is in a measure avoided? For thus at least did he relate that which most signally pertained to his praise.

5. But what mean the words, whom Jesus loved? As if He did not love the others, of whom this same John has said above, He loved them to the end [John 13:1]; and as the Lord Himself, Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And who could enumerate all the testimonies of the sacred pages, in which the Lord Jesus is exhibited as the lover, not only of this one, or of those who were then around Him, but of such also as were to be His members in the distant future, and of His universal Church? But there is some truth, doubtless, underlying these words, and having reference to the bosom on which the narrator was leaning. For what else can be in dicated by the bosom but some hidden truth? But there is another more suitable passage, where the Lord may enable us to say something about this secret that may prove sufficient.

6. Simon Peter therefore beckons, and says to him. The expression is noteworthy, as indicating that something was said not by any sound of words, but by merely beckoning with the head. He beckons, and says; that is, his beckoning is his speech. For if one is said to speak in his thoughts, as Scripture says, They said [reasoned] with themselves; [Wisdom 2:1] how much more may he do so by beckoning, which expresses outwardly by some sort of signs what had previously been conceived within! What, then, did his beckoning mean? What else but that which follows? Who is it of whom He speaks? Such was the language of Peter's beckoning; for it was by no vocal sounds, but by bodily gestures, that he spoke. He then, having leaned back on Jesus' breast,— surely the very bosom of His breast this, the secret place of wisdom!— says unto Him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a piece of bread, when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the bread, Satan entered into him. The traitor was disclosed, the coverts of darkness were revealed. What he got was good, but to his own hurt he received it, because, evil himself, in an evil spirit he received what was good. But we have much to say about that dipped bread which was presented to the false-hearted disciple, and about that which follows; and for these we shall require more time than remains to us now at the close of this discourse.

1. I Know, dearly beloved, that some may be moved, as the godly to inquire into the meaning of, and the ungodly to find fault with, the statement, that it was after the Lord had given the bread, that had been dipped, to His betrayer that Satan entered into him. For so it is written: And when He had dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the Son of Simon. And after the bread, then entered Satan into him. For they say, Was this the worth of Christ's bread, given from Christ's own table, that after it Satan should enter into His disciple? And the answer we give them is, that thereby we are taught rather how much we need to beware of receiving what is good in a sinful spirit. For the point of special importance is, not the thing that is received, but the person that receives it; and not the character of the thing that is given, but of him to whom it is given. For even good things are hurtful, and evil things are beneficial, according to the character of the recipients. Sin, says the apostle, that it might appear sin, wrought death to me by that which is good. [Romans 7:13] Thus, you see, evil is brought about by the good, so long as that which is good is wrongly received. It is he also that says: Lest I should be exalted unduly through the greatness of my revelations, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me. For which thing I besought the Lord thrice, that He would take it away from me; and He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you: for strength is made perfect in weakness. [2 Corinthians 12:7-9] And here, you see, good was brought about by that which was evil, when the evil was received in a good spirit. Why, then, do we wonder if Christ's bread was given to Judas, that thereby he should be made over to the devil; when we see, on the other hand, that Paul was visited by a messenger of the devil, that by such an instrumentality he might be perfected in Christ? In this way, both the good was injurious to the evil man, and the evil was beneficial to the good. Bear in mind the meaning of the Scripture, Whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. [1 Corinthians 11:27] And when the apostle said this, he was dealing with those who were taking the body of the Lord, like any other food, in an undiscerning and careless spirit. If, then, he is thus taken to task who does not discern, that is, does not distinguish from the other kinds of food, the body of the Lord, what condemnation must be his, who in the guise of a friend comes as an enemy to His table! If negligence in the is thus visited with blame, what must be the punishment that will fall on the man that sells the very person who has invited him to his table! And why was the bread given to the traitor, but as an evidence of the grace he had treated with ingratitude?

2. It was after this bread, then, that Satan entered into the Lord's betrayer, that, as now given over to his power, he might take full possession of one into whom before this he had only entered in order to lead him into error. For we are not to suppose that he was not in him when he went to the Jews and bargained about the price of betraying the Lord; for the evangelist Luke very plainly attests this when he says: Then entered Satan into Judas, who was surnamed Iscariot, being one of the twelve; and he went his way, and communed with the chief priests. [Luke 22:3-4] Here, you see, it is shown that Satan had already entered into Judas. His first entrance, therefore, was when he implanted in his heart the thought of betraying Christ; for in such a spirit had he already come to the supper. But now, after the bread, he entered into him, no longer to tempt one who belonged to another, but to take possession of him as his own.

3. But it was not then, as some thoughtless readers suppose, that Judas received the body of Christ. For we are to understand that the Lord had already dispensed to all of them the sacrament of His body and blood, when Judas also was present, as very clearly related by Saint Luke; [Luke 22:19-21] and it was after this that we come to the moment when, in accordance with John's account, the Lord made a full disclosure of His betrayer by dipping and holding out to him the morsel of bread, and intimating perhaps by the dipping of the bread the false pretensions of the other. For the dipping of a thing does not always imply its washing; but some things are dipped in order to be dyed. But if a good meaning is to be here attached to the dipping, his ingratitude for that good was deservedly followed by damnation.

4. But still, possessed as Judas now was, not by the Lord, but by the devil, and now that the bread had entered the belly, and an enemy the soul of this man of ingratitude: still, I say, there was this enormous wickedness, already conceived in his heart, waiting to be wrought out to its full issue, for which the damnable desire had always preceded. Accordingly, when the Lord, the living Bread, had given this bread to the dead, and in giving it had revealed the betrayer of the Bread, He said, What you do, do quickly. He did not command the crime, but foretold evil to Judas, and good to us. For what could be worse for Judas, or what could be better for us, than the delivering up of Christ — a deed done by him to his own destruction, but done, apart from him, in our behalf? What you do, do quickly. Oh that word of One whose wish was to be ready rather than to be angry! That word! expressing not so much the punishment of the traitor as the reward awaiting the Redeemer! For He said, What you do, do quickly, not as wrathfully looking to the destruction of the trust-betrayer, but in His own haste to accomplish the salvation of the faithful; for He was delivered for our offenses, [Romans 4:25] and He loved the Church, and gave Himself for it. [Ephesians 5:25] And as the apostle also says of himself: Who loved me, and gave Himself for me. [Galatians 2:20] Had not, then, Christ given Himself, no one could have given Him up. What is there in Judas' conduct but sin? For in delivering up Christ he had no thought of our salvation, for which Christ was really delivered, but thought only of his money gain, and found the loss of his soul. He got the wages he wished, but had also given him, against his wish, the wages he merited. Judas delivered up Christ, Christ delivered Himself up: the former transacted the business of his own selling of his Master, the latter the business of our redemption. What you do, do quickly, not because you have the power in yourself, but because He wills it who has all the power.

5. Now no one of those at the table knew for what intent He spoke this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the money-bag, that Jesus said to him, Buy those things which we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor. The Lord, therefore, had also a money-box, where He kept the offerings of believers, and distributed to the necessities of His own, and to others who were in need. It was then that the custom of having church-money was first introduced, so that thereby we might understand that His precept about taking no thought for the morrow [Matthew 6:34] was not a command that no money should be kept by His saints, but that God should not be served for any such end, and that the doing of what is right should not be held in abeyance through the fear of want. For the apostle also has this foresight for the future, when he says: If any believer has widows, let him give them enough, that the church may not be burdened, that it may have enough for them that are widows indeed. [1 Timothy 5:16]

6. He then, having received the morsel of bread, went immediately out: and it was night. And he that went out was himself the night. Therefore when the night had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified. The day therefore uttered speech unto the day, that is, Christ did so to His faithful disciples, that they might hear and love Him as His followers; and the night showed knowledge unto the night, that is, Judas did so to the unbelieving Jews, that they might come as His persecutors, and make Him their prisoner. But now, in considering these words of the Lord, which were addressed to the godly, before His arrest by the ungodly, special attention on the part of the hearer is required; and therefore it will be more becoming in the preacher, instead of hurriedly considering them now, to defer them till a future occasion.

1. Let us give our mind's best attention, and, with the Lord's help, seek after God. The language of the divine hymn is: Seek God and your soul shall live. Let us search for that which needs to be discovered, and into that which has been discovered. He whom we need to discover is concealed, in order to be sought after; and when found, is infinite, in order still to be the object of our search. Hence it is elsewhere said, Seek His face evermore. For He satisfies the seeker to the utmost of his capacity; and makes the finder still more capable, that he may seek to be filled anew, according to the growth of his ability to receive. Therefore it was not said, Seek His face evermore, in the same sense as of certain others, who are always learning, and never coming to a knowledge of the truth; [2 Timothy 3:7] but rather as the preacher says, When a man has finished, then he begins; [Sirach 18:7] till we reach that life where we shall be so filled, that our natures shall attain their utmost capacity, because we shall have arrived at perfection, and no longer be aiming at more. For then all that can satisfy us will be revealed to our eyes. But here let us always be seeking, and let our reward in finding put no end to our searching. For we do not say that it will not be so always, because it is only so here; but that here we must always be seeking, lest at any time we should imagine that here we can ever cease from seeking. For those of whom it is said that they are always learning, and never coming to a knowledge of the truth, are here indeed always learning; but when they depart this life they will no longer be learning, but receiving the reward of their error. For the words, always learning, and never coming to a knowledge of the truth, mean, as it were, always walking, and never getting into the road. Let us, on the other hand, be walking always in the way, till we reach the end to which it leads; let us nowhere tarry in it till we reach the proper place of abode: and so we shall both persevere in our seeking, and be making some attainments in our finding, and, thus seeking and finding, be passing on to that which remains, till the very end of all seeking shall be reached in that world where perfection shall admit of no further effort at advancement. Let these prefatory remarks, dearly beloved, make your Charity attentive to this discourse of our Lord's, which He addressed to the disciples before His passion: for it is profound in it self; and where, in particular, the preacher purposes to expend much labor, the hearer ought not to be remiss in attention.

2. What is it, then, that the Lord says, after that Judas went out, to do quickly what he purposed doing, namely, betraying the Lord? What says the day when the night had gone out? What says the Redeemer when the seller had departed? Now, He says, is the Son of man glorified. Why now? It was not, was it, merely that His betrayer had gone out, and that those were at hand who were to seize and slay Him? Is it thus that He is now glorified, to wit, that His deeper humiliation is approaching; that over Him are impending both bonds, and judgment, and condemnation, and mocking, and crucifixion, and death? Is this glorification, or rather humiliation? Even when He was working miracles, does not this very John say of Him, The Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified? Even then, therefore, when He was raising the dead, He was not yet glorified; and is He glorified now, when drawing near in His own person unto death? He was not yet glorified when acting as God, and is He glorified in going to suffer as man? It would be strange if it were this that God, the great Master, signified and taught in such words. We must ascend higher to unveil the words of the Highest, who reveals Himself somewhat that we may find Him, and anon hides Himself that we may seek Him, and so press on step by step, as it were, from discoveries already made to those that still await us. I get here a sight of something that prefigures a great reality. Judas went out, and Jesus is glorified; the son of perdition went out, and the Son of man is glorified. He it was that had gone out, on whose account it had been said to them all, And you are clean, but not all (ver. 10). When, therefore, the unclean one departed, all that remained were clean, and continued with their Cleanser. Something like this will it be when this world shall have been conquered by Christ, and shall have passed away, and there shall be no one that is unclean remaining among His people; when, the tares having been separated from the wheat, the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. [Matthew 13:43] The Lord, foreseeing such a future as this, and in testimony that such was signified now in the separation of the tares, as it were, by the departure of Judas, and the remaining behind of the wheat in the persons of the holy apostles, said, Now is the Son of man glorified: as if He had said, See, so will it be in that day of my glorification yet to come, when none of the wicked shall be present, and none of the good shall be wanting. His words, however, are not expressed in this way: Now is prefigured the glorification of the Son of man; but expressly, Now is the Son of man glorified: just as it was not said, The Rock signified Christ; but, That Rock was Christ. [1 Corinthians 10:4] Nor is it said, The good seed signified the children of the kingdom, or, The tares signified the children of the wicked one; but what is said is, The good seed, these are the children of the kingdom; and the tares, the children of the wicked one. [Matthew 13:38] According, then, to the usage of Scripture language, which speaks of the signs as if they were the things signified, the Lord makes use of the words, Now is the Son of man glorified; indicating that in the completed separation of that arch sinner from their company, and in the remaining around Him of His saints, we have the foreshadowing of His glorification, when the wicked shall be finally separated, and He shall dwell with His saints through eternity.

3. But after saying, Now is the Son of man glorified, He added, and God is glorified in Him. For this is itself the glorifying of the Son of man, that God should be glorified in Him. For if He is not glorified in Himself, but God in Him, then it is He whom God glorifies in Himself. And just as if to give them this explanation, He furthers adds: If God is glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself. That is, If God is glorified in Him, because He came not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him; and God shall glorify Him in Himself, in such wise that the human nature, in which He is the Son of man, and which was so assumed by the eternal Word, should also be endowed with an eternal immortality. And, He says, He shall straightway glorify Him; predicting, to wit, by such an asseveration, His own resurrection in the immediate future, and not, as it were, ours in the end of the world. For it is this very glorification of which the evangelist had previously said, as I mentioned a little ago, that on this account the Spirit was not yet in their case given in that new way, in which He was yet to be given after the resurrection to those who believed, because that Jesus was not yet glorified: that is, mortality was not yet clothed with immortality, and temporal weakness transformed into eternal strength. This glorification may also be indicated in the words, Now is the Son of man glorified; so that the word now may be supposed to refer, not to His impending passion, but to His closely succeeding resurrection, as if what was now so near at hand had actually been accomplished. Let this suffice your affection today; we shall take up, when the Lord permits us, the words that follow.

1. It becomes us, dearly beloved, to keep in view the orderly connection of our Lord's words. For after having previously said, but subsequently to Judas' departure, and his separation from even the outward communion of the saints, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him;— whether He said so as pointing to His future kingdom, when the wicked shall be separated from the good, or that His resurrection was then to take place, that is, was not to be delayed, like ours, till the end of the world — and having then added, If God is glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him, whereby without any ambiguity He testified to the immediate fulfillment of His own resurrection; He proceeded to say, Little children, yet a little while I am with you. To keep them, therefore, from thinking that God was to glorify Him in such a way that He would never again be joined with them in earthly intercourse, He said, Yet a little while I am with you: as if He had said, Straightway indeed I shall be glorified in my resurrection; and yet I am not straightway to ascend into heaven, but yet a little while I am with you. For, as we find it written in the Acts of the Apostles, He spent forty days with them after His resurrection, going in and out, and eating and drinking: [Acts 1:3] not indeed that He had any experience of hunger and thirst, but even by such evidences confirmed the reality of His flesh, which no longer needed, but still possessed the power, to eat and to drink. Was it, then, these forty days He had in view when He said, Yet a little while I am with you, or something else? For it may also be understood in this way: Yet a little while I am with you; still, like you, I also am in this state of fleshly infirmity, that is, till He should die and rise again: for after He rose again He was with them, as has been said, for forty days in the full manifestation of His bodily presence; but He was no longer with them in the fellowship of human infirmity.

2. There is also another form of His divine presence unknown to mortal senses, of which He likewise says, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. [Matthew 28:20] This, at least, is not the same as yet a little while I am with you; for it is not a little while until the end of the world. Or if even this is so (for time flies, and a thousand years are in God's sight as one day, or as a watch in the night,) yet we cannot believe that He intended any such meaning on this occasion, especially as He went on to say, You shall seek me, and as I said to the Jews, Whither I go, you cannot come. That is to say, after this little while that I am with you, you shall seek me, and whither I go, you cannot come. Is it after the end of the world that, whither He goes, they will not be able to come? And where, then, is the place of which He is going to say a little after in this same discourse, Father, I will that they also be with me where I am? It was not then of that presence of His with His own which He is maintaining with them till the end of the world that He now spoke, when He said, Yet a little while I am with you; but either of that state of mortal infirmity in which He dwelt with them till His passion, or of that bodily presence which He was to maintain with them up till His ascension. Whichever of these any one prefers, he can do so without being at variance with the faith.

3. That no one, however, may deem that sense inconsistent with the true one, in which we say that the Lord may have meant the communion of mortal flesh which He held with the disciples till His passion, when He said, Yet a little while I am with you; let those words also of His after His resurrection, as found in another evangelist, be taken into consideration, when He said, These are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you: [Luke 24:44] as if then He was no longer with them, even at the very time that they were standing by, seeing, touching, and talking with Him. What does He mean, then, by saying, while I was yet with you, but, while I was yet in that state of mortal flesh wherein ye still remain? For then, indeed, He had been raised again in the same flesh; but He was no longer associated with them in the same mortality. And accordingly, as on that occasion, when now clothed in fleshly immortality, He said with truth, while I was yet with you, to which we can attach no other meaning than, while I was yet with you in fleshly mortality; so here also, without any absurdity, we may understand His words, Yet a little while I am with you, as if He had said, Yet a little while I am mortal like yourselves. Let us look, then, at the words that follow.

4. You shall seek me: and as I said to the Jews, Whither I go, you cannot come; so say I to you now. That is, you cannot come now. But when He said so to the Jews, He did not add the now. The former, therefore, were not able at that time to come where He was going, but they were so afterwards; because He says so a little afterwards in the plainest terms to the Apostle Peter. For, on the latter inquiring, Lord, where are You going? He replied to him, Whither I go you can not follow me now; but you shall follow me afterwards [John 13:36]. But what it means is not to be carelessly passed over. For whither was it that the disciples could not then follow the Lord, but were able afterwards? If we say, to death, what time can be discovered when any one of the sons of men will find it impossible to die; since such, in this perishable body, is the lot of man, that therein life is not a whit easier than death? They were not, therefore, at that time less able to follow the Lord to death, but they were less able to follow Him to the life which is deathless. For there it was the Lord was going, that, rising from the dead, He should die no more, and death should no more have dominion over Him. [Romans 6:9] For as the Lord was about to die for righteousness' sake, how could they have followed Him now, who were as yet unripe for the ordeal of martyrdom? Or, with the Lord about to enter the fleshly immortality, how could they have followed Him now, when, even though ready to die, they would have no resurrection till the end of the world? Or, on the point of going, as the Lord was, to the bosom of the Father, and that without any forsaking of them, just as He had never quitted that bosom in coming to them, how could they have followed Him now, since no one can enter on that state of felicity but he that is made perfect in love? And to show them, therefore, how it is that they may attain the fitness to proceed, where He was going before them, He says, A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another [John 13:34]. These are the steps whereby Christ must be followed; but any fuller discourse thereon must be put off till another opportunity.

1. The Lord Jesus declares that He is giving His disciples a new commandment, that they should love one another. A new commandment, He says, I give unto you, that you love one another. But was not this already commanded in the ancient law of God, where it is written, You shall love your neighbor as yourself? [Leviticus 19:18] Why, then, is it called a new one by the Lord, when it is proved to be so old? Is it on this account a new commandment, because He has divested us of the old, and clothed us with the new man? For it is not indeed every kind of love that renews him that listens to it, or rather yields it obedience, but that love regarding which the Lord, in order to distinguish it from all carnal affection, added, as I have loved you. For husbands and wives love one another, and parents and children, and all other human relationships that bind men together: to say nothing of the blame-worthy and damnable love which is mutually felt by adulterers and adulteresses, by fornicators and prostitutes, and all others who are knit together by no human relationship, but by the mischievous depravity of human life. Christ, therefore, has given us a new commandment, that we should love one another, as He also has loved us. This is the love that renews us, making us new men, heirs of the New Testament, singers of the new song. It was this love, brethren beloved, that renewed also those of olden time, who were then the righteous, the patriarchs and prophets, as it did afterwards the blessed apostles: it is it, too, that is now renewing the nations, and from among the universal race of man, which overspreads the whole world, is making and gathering together a new people, the body of the newly-married spouse of the only-begotten Son of God, of whom it is said in the Song of Songs, Who is she that ascends, made white? Made white indeed, because renewed; and how, but by the new commandment? Because of this, the members thereof have a mutual interest in one another; and if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; and one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. [1 Corinthians 12:25-26] For this they hear and observe, A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another: not as those love one another who are corrupters, nor as men love one another in a human way; but they love one another as those who are gods, and all of them sons of the Highest, and brethren, therefore, of His only Son, with that mutual love wherewith He loved them, when about to lead them on to the goal where all sufficiency should be theirs, and where their every desire should be satisfied with good things. For then there will be nothing wanting they can desire, when God will be all in all. [1 Corinthians 15:28] An end like that has no end. No one dies there, where no one arrives save he that dies to this world, not that universal kind of death whereby the body is bereft of the soul; but the death of the elect, through which, even while still remaining in this mortal flesh, the heart is set on the things which are above. Of such a death it is that the apostle said, For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. [Colossians 3:3] And perhaps to this, also, do the words refer, Love is strong as death. [Song of Songs 8:6] For by this love it is brought about, that, while still held in the present corruptible body, we die to this world, and our life is hid with Christ in God; yea, that love itself is our death to the world, and our life with God. For if that is death when the soul quits the body, how can it be other than death when our love quits the world? Such love, therefore, is strong as death. And what is stronger than that which binds the world?

2. Think not then, my brethren, that when the Lord says, A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, there is any overlooking of that greater commandment, which requires us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind; for along with this seeming oversight, the words that you love one another appear also as if they had no reference to that second commandment, which says, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. For on these two commandments, He says, hang all the law and the prophets. [Matthew 22:37-40] But both commandments may be found in each of these by those who have good understanding. For, on the one hand, he that loves God cannot despise His commandment to love his neighbor; and on the other, he who in a holy and spiritual way loves his neighbor, what does he love in him but God? That is the love, distinguished from all mundane love, which the Lord specially characterized, when He added, as I have loved you. For what was it but God that He loved in us? Not because we had Him, but in order that we might have Him; and that He may lead us on, as I said a little ago, where God is all in all. It is in this way, also, that the physician is properly said to love the sick; and what is it he loves in them but their health, which at all events he desires to recall; not their sickness, which he comes to remove? Let us, then, also so love one another, that, as far as possible, we may by the solicitude of our love be winning one another to have God within us. And this love is bestowed on us by Him who said, As I have loved you, that you also love one another. For this very end, therefore, did He love us, that we also should love one another; bestowing this on us by His own love to us, that we should be bound to one another in mutual love, and, united together as members by so pleasant a bond, should be the body of so mighty a Head.

3. By this, He adds, Shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another: as if He said, Other gifts of mine are possessed in common with you by those who are not mine — not only nature, life, perception, reason, and that safety which is equally the privilege of men and beasts; but also languages, sacraments, prophecy, knowledge, faith, the bestowing of their goods upon the poor, and the giving of their body to the flames: but because destitute of charity, they only tinkle like cymbals; they are nothing, and by nothing are they profited. [1 Corinthians 13:1-3] It is not, then, by such gifts of mine, however good, which may be alike possessed by those who are not my disciples, but by this it is that all men shall know that you are my disciples, that you have love one to another. O thou spouse of Christ, fair among women! O thou who ascendest in whiteness, leaning upon your Beloved! For by His light you are made dazzling to whiteness, by His assistance you are preserved from falling. How well becoming you are the words in that Song of Songs, which is, as it were, your bridal chant, That there is love in your delights! This it is that suffers not your soul to perish with the ungodly; it is this that judges your cause, and is strong as death, and is present in your delights. How wonderful is the character of that death, which was all but swallowed up in penal sufferings, had it not been over and above absorbed in delights! But here this discourse must now be closed; for we must make a new commencement in dealing with the words that follow.

1. While the Lord Jesus was commending to the disciples that holy love wherewith they should love one another, Simon Peter says unto Him, Lord, where are You going? So, at all events, said the disciple to his Master, the servant to his Lord, as one who was prepared to follow. Just as for the same reason the Lord, who read in his mind the purpose of such a question, made him this reply: Whither I go, you can not follow me now; as if He said, In reference to the object of your asking, you can not now. He does not say, You can not; but You can not now. He intimated delay, without depriving of hope; and that same hope, which He took not away, but rather bestowed, in His next words He confirmed, by proceeding to say, You shall follow me afterwards. Why such haste, Peter? The Rock (petra) has not yet solidified you by His Spirit. Be not lifted up with presumption, You can not now; be not cast now into despair, You shall follow afterwards. But what does he say to this? Why cannot I follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake. He saw what was the kind of desire in his mind; but what the measure of his strength, he saw not. The weak man boasted of his willingness, but the Physician had an eye on the state of his health; the one promised, the Other foreknew: the ignorant was bold; He that foreknew all, condescended to teach. How much had Peter taken upon himself, by looking only at what he wished, and having no knowledge of what he was able! How much had he taken upon himself, that, when the Lord had come to lay down His life for His friends, and so for him also, he should have the assurance to offer to do the same for the Lord; and while as yet Christ's life was not laid down for himself, he should promise to lay down his own life for Christ! Jesus therefore answered him, Will you lay down your life for my sake? Will you do for me what I have not yet done for you? Will you lay down your life for my sake? Can you go before, who art unable to follow? Why do you presume so far? What do you think of yourself? What do you imagine yourself to be? Hear what you are: Verily, verily, I say unto you, The cock shall not crow, till you have denied me thrice. See, that is how you will speedily become manifest to yourself, who art now talking so loftily, and know not that you are but a child. You promise me your death, and you will deny me your life. You, who now thinkest yourself able to die for me, learn to live first for yourself; for in fearing the death of your flesh, you will occasion the death of your soul. Just as much as it is life to confess Christ, it is death to deny Him.

2. Or was it that the Apostle Peter, as some with a perverse kind of favor strive to excuse him, did not deny Christ, because, when questioned by the maid, he replied that he did not know the man, as the other evangelists more expressly affirm? As if, indeed, he that denies the man Christ does not deny Christ; and so denies Him in respect of what He became on our account, that the nature He had given us might not be lost. Whoever, therefore, acknowledges Christ as God, and disowns Him as man, Christ died not for him; for as man it was that Christ died. He who disowns Christ as man, finds no reconciliation to God by the Mediator. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. [1 Timothy 2:5] He that denies Christ as man is not justified: for as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners; so also by the obedience of one man shall many be made righteous. [Romans 5:19] He that denies Christ as man, shall not rise again into the resurrection of life; for by man is death, and by man is also the resurrection of the dead: for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. [1 Corinthians 15:21-22] And by what means is He the Head of the Church, but by His manhood, because the Word was made flesh, that is, God, the Only-begotten of God the Father, became man. And how then can one be in the body of Christ who denies the man Christ? Or how can one be a member who disowns the Head? But why linger over a multitude of reasons when the Lord Himself undoes all the windings of human argumentation? For He says not, The cock shall not crow till you have denied the man; or, as He was wont to speak in His more familiar condescension with men, The cock shall not crow till you have thrice denied the Son of man; but He says, till you have denied me thrice. What is that me, but just what He was, and what was He but Christ? Whatever of Him, therefore, he denied, he denied Himself, he denied the Christ, he denied the Lord his God. For Thomas also, his fellow disciple, when he exclaimed, My Lord and my God, did not handle the Word, but only His flesh; and laid not his inquisitive hands on the incorporeal nature of God, but on His human body. And so he touched the man, and yet recognized his God. If, then, what the latter touched, Peter denied; what the latter invoked, Peter offended. The cock shall not crow till you have denied me thrice. Although thou say, I know not the man; although thou say, Man, I know not what you say although thou say, I am not one of His disciples; you will be denying me. If, which it were sinful to doubt, Christ so spoke, and foretold the truth, then doubtless Peter denied Christ. Let us not accuse Christ in defending Peter. Let infirmity acknowledge its sin; for there is no falsehood in the Truth. When Peter's infirmity acknowledged its sin, his acknowledgment was full; and the greatness of the evil he had committed in denying Christ, he showed by his tears. He himself reproves his defenders, and for their conviction, brings his tears forward as witnesses. Nor have we, on our part, in so speaking, any delight in accusing the first of the apostles; but in looking on him, we ought to take home the lesson to ourselves, that no man should place his confidence in human strength. For what else had our Teacher and Saviour in view, but to show us, by making the first of the apostles himself an example, that no one ought in any way to presume of himself? And that, therefore, really took place in Peter's soul, for which he gave cause in his body. And yet he did not go before in the Lord's behalf, as he rashly presumed, but did so otherwise than he reckoned. For before the death and resurrection of the Lord, he both died when he denied, and returned to life when he wept; but he died, because he himself had been proud in his presumption, and he lived again, because that Other had looked on him with kindness.

1. Our special attention, brethren, must be earnestly turned to God, in order that we may be able to obtain some intelligent apprehension of the words of the holy Gospel, which have just been ringing in our ears. For the Lord Jesus says: Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, and believe [or, believe also] in me. That they might not as men be afraid of death, and so be troubled, He comforts them by affirming Himself also to be God. Believe, He says, in God, believe also in me. For it follows as a consequence, that if you believe in God, you ought to believe also in me: which were no consequence if Christ were not God. Believe in God, and believe in Him, who, by nature and not by robbery, is equal with God; for He emptied Himself; not, however, by losing the form of God, but by taking the form of a servant. [Philippians 2:6-7] You are afraid of death as regards this servant form, let not your heart be troubled, the form of God will raise it again.

2. But why have we this that follows, In my Father's house are many mansions, but that they were also in fear about themselves? And therein they might have heard the words, Let not your heart be troubled. For, was there any of them that could be free from fear, when Peter, the most confident and forward of them all, was told, The cock shall not crow till you have denied me thrice? Considering themselves, therefore, beginning with Peter, as destined to perish, they had cause to be troubled: but when they now hear, In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you, they are revived from their trouble, made certain and confident that after all the perils of temptations they shall dwell with Christ in the presence of God. For, albeit one is stronger than another, one wiser than another, one more righteous than another, in the Father's house there are many mansions; none of them shall remain outside that house, where every one, according to his deserts, is to receive a mansion. All alike have that penny, which the householder orders to be given to all that have wrought in the vineyard, making no distinction therein between those who have labored less and those who have labored more: [Matthew 20:9] by which penny, of course, is signified eternal life, whereto no one any longer lives to a different length than others, since in eternity life has no diversity in its measure. But the many mansions point to the different grades of merit in that one eternal life. For there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differs from another star in glory; and so also the resurrection of the dead. The saints, like the stars in the sky, obtain in the kingdom different mansions of diverse degrees of brightness; but on account of that one penny no one is cut off from the kingdom; and God will be all in all in such a way, that, as God is love, [1 John 4:8] love will bring it about that what is possessed by each will be common to all. For in this way every one really possesses it, when he loves to see in another what he has not himself. There will not, therefore, be any envying amid this diversity of brightness, since in all of them will be reigning the unity of love.

3. Every Christian heart, therefore, must utterly reject the idea of those who imagine that there are many mansions spoken of, because there will be some place outside the kingdom of heaven, which shall be the abode of those blessed innocents who have departed this life without baptism, because without it they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Faith like this is not faith, inasmuch as it is not the true and catholic faith. Are you not so foolish and blinded with carnal imaginations as to be worthy of reprobation, if you should thus separate the mansion, I say not of Peter and Paul, or any of the apostles, but even of any baptized infant from the kingdom of heaven; do you not think yourselves deserving of reprobation in thus putting a separation between these and the house of God the Father? For the Lord's words are not, In the whole world, or, In all creation, or, In everlasting life and blessedness, there are many mansions; but He says, In my Father's house are many mansions. Is not that the house where we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens? [2 Corinthians 5:1] Is not that the house whereof we sing to the Lord, Blessed are they that dwell in Your house; they shall praise You for ever and ever? Will you then venture to separate from the kingdom of heaven the house, not of every baptized brother, but of God the Father Himself, to whom all we who are brethren say, Our Father, who art in heaven, [Matthew 6:9] or divide it in such a way as to make some of its mansions inside, and some outside, the kingdom of heaven? Far, far be it from those who desire to dwell in the kingdom of heaven, to be willing to dwell in such folly with you: far be it, I say, that since every house of sons that are reigning can be nowhere else but in the kingdom, any part of the royal house itself should be outside the kingdom.

4. And if I go, He says, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. O Lord Jesus, how can You go to prepare a place, if there are already many mansions in Your Father's house, where Your people shall dwell with Yourself? Or if Thou receive them unto Yourself, how will You come again, who never withdrawest Your presence? Such subjects as these, beloved, were we to attempt to explain them with such brevity as seems within the proper bounds of our discourse today, would certainly suffer in clearness from compression, and the very brevity would become itself a second obscurity; we shall therefore defer this debt, which the bounty of our Family-head will enable us to repay at a more suitable opportunity.

1. We acknowledge, beloved brethren, that we are owing you, and ought now to repay, what was left over for consideration, how we can understand that there is no real mutual contrariety between these two statements, namely, that after saying, In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you, that I go to prepare a place for you;— where He makes it clear enough that He said so to them for the very reason that there are many mansions there already, and there is no need of preparing any; — the Lord again says: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. How is it that He goes and prepares a place, if there are many mansions already? If there were not such, He would have said, I go to prepare. Or if the place has still to be prepared, would He not then also properly have said, I go to prepare? Are these mansions in existence already, and yet needing still to be prepared? For if they were not in existence, He would have said, I go to prepare. And yet, because their present state of existence is such as still to stand in need of preparation, He does not go to prepare them in the same sense as they already exist; but if He go and prepare them as they shall be hereafter, He will come again and receive His own to Himself: that where He is, there they may be also. How then are there mansions in the Father's house, and these not different ones but the same, which already exist in a sense in which they can admit of no preparation, and yet do not exist, inasmuch as they are still to be prepared? How are we to think of this, but in the same way as the prophet, who also declares of God, that He has [already] made that which is yet to be. For he says not, Who will make what is yet to be, but, Who has made what is yet to be. Therefore He has both made such things and is yet to make them. For they have not been made at all if He has not made them; nor will they ever be if He make them not Himself. He has made them therefore in the way of fore-ordaining them; He has yet to make them in the way of actual elaboration. Just as the Gospel plainly intimates when He chose His disciples, that is to say, at the time of His calling them; [Luke 6:13] and yet the apostle says, He chose us before the foundation of the world, [Ephesians 1:4] to wit, by predestination, not by actual calling. And whom He did predestinate, them He also called; [Romans 8:30] He has chosen by predestination before the foundation of the world, He chooses by calling before its close. And so also has He prepared those mansions, and is still preparing them and He who has already made the things which are yet to be, is now preparing, not different ones, but the very mansions He has already prepared: what He has prepared in predestination, He is preparing by actual working. Already, therefore, they are, as respects predestination; if it were not so, He would have said, I will go and prepare, that is, I will predestinate. But because they are not yet in a state of practical preparedness, He says, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself.

2. But He is in a certain sense preparing the dwellings by preparing for them the dwellers. As, for instance, when He said, In my Father's house are many dwellings, what else can we suppose the house of God to mean but the temple of God? And what that is, ask the apostle, and he will reply, For the temple of God is holy, which [temple] you are. [1 Corinthians 3:17] This is also the kingdom of God, which the Son is yet to deliver up to the Father; and hence the same apostle says, Christ, the beginning, and then they that are Christ's in His presence; then [comes] the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; [1 Corinthians 15:23-24] that is, those whom He has redeemed by His blood, He shall then have delivered up to stand before His Father's face. This is that kingdom of heaven whereof it is said, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man who sowed good seed in his field. But the good seed are the children of the kingdom; and although now they are mingled with tares, at the end the King Himself shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The kingdom will shine forth in the kingdom when [those that are] the kingdom shall have reached the kingdom; just as we now pray when we say, Your kingdom come. [Matthew 6:10] Even now, therefore, already is the kingdom called, but only as yet being called together. For if it were not now called, it could not be then said, They shall gather out of His kingdom everything that offends. But the realm is not yet reigning. Accordingly it is already so far the kingdom, that when all offenses shall have been gathered out of it, it shall then attain to sovereignty, so as to possess not merely the name of a kingdom, but also the power of government. For it is to this kingdom, standing then at the right hand, that it shall be said in the end, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom; [Matthew 25:34] that is, you who were the kingdom, but without the power to rule, come and reign; that what you formerly were only in hope, you may now have the power to be in reality. This house of God, therefore, this temple of God, this kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven, is as yet in the process of building, of construction, of preparation, of assembling. In it there will be mansions, even as the Lord is now preparing them; in it there are such already, even as the Lord has already ordained them.

3. But why is it that He went away to make such preparation, when, as it is certainly we ourselves that are the subjects in need of preparation, His doing so will be hindered by leaving us behind? I explain it, Lord, as I can: it was surely this You signified by the preparation of those mansions, that the just ought to live by faith. [Romans 1:17] For he who is sojourning at a distance from the Lord has need to be living by faith, because by this we are prepared for beholding His countenance. [2 Corinthians 5:6-8] For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God; [Matthew 5:8] and He purifies their hearts by faith. [Acts 15:9] The former we find in the Gospel, the latter in the Acts of the Apostles. But the faith by which those who are yet to see God have their hearts purified, while sojourning at a distance here, believes what it does not see; for if there is sight, there is no longer faith. Merit is accumulating now to the believer, and then the reward is paid into the hand of the beholder. Let the Lord then go and prepare us a place; let Him go, that He may not be seen; and let Him remain concealed, that faith may be exercised. For then is the place preparing, if it is by faith we are living. Let the believing in that place be desired, that the place desired may itself be possessed; the longing of love is the preparation of the mansion. Prepare thus, Lord, what You are preparing; for You are preparing us for Yourself, and Yourself for us, inasmuch as You are preparing a place both for Yourself in us, and for us in You. For You have said, Abide in me, and I in you. As far as each one has been a partaker of You, some less, some more, such will be the diversity of rewards in proportion to the diversity of merits; such will be the multitude of mansions to suit the inequalities among their inmates; but all of them, none the less, eternally living, and endlessly blessed. Why is it that You go away? Why is it You come again? If I understand You aright, Thou withdrawest not Yourself either from the place You go from, or from the place You come from: You go away by becoming invisible, You come by again becoming manifest to our eyes. But unless You remain to direct us how we may still be advancing in goodness of life, how will the place be prepared where we shall be able to dwell in the fullness of joy? Let what we have said suffice on the words which have been read from the Gospel as far as I will come again, and receive you to myself. But the meaning of what follows, That where I am, there ye may be also; and whither I go ye know, and the way ye know, we shall be in a better condition — after the question put by the disciple, that follows, and which we also may be putting, as it were, through him — for hearing, and more suitably situated for making the subject of our discourse.

1. We have now the opportunity, dearly, beloved, as far as we can, of understanding the earlier words of the Lord from the later, and His previous statements by those that follow, in what you have heard was His answer to the question of the Apostle Thomas. For when the Lord was speaking above of the mansions, of which He both said that they already were in His Father's house, and that He was going to prepare them; where we understood that those mansions already existed in predestination, and are also being prepared through the purifying by faith of the hearts of those who are hereafter to inhabit them, seeing that they themselves are the very house of God; and what else is it to dwell in God's house than to be in the number of His people, since His people are at the same time in God, and God in them? To make this preparation the Lord departed, that by believing in Him, though no longer visible, the mansion, whose outward form is always hid in the future, may now by faith be prepared: for this reason, therefore, He had said, And if I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. In reply to this, Thomas says unto Him, Lord, we know not whither You go: and how can we know the way? Both of these the Lord had said that they knew; both of them this other declares that he does not know, to wit, the place to which, and the way whereby, He is going. But he does not know that he is speaking falsely; they knew, therefore, and did not know that they knew. He will convince them that they already know what they imagine themselves still to be ignorant of. Jesus says unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. What, brethren, does He mean? See, we have just heard the disciple asking, and the Master instructing, and we do not yet, even after His voice has sounded in our ears, apprehend the thought that lies hid in His words. But what is it we cannot apprehend? Could His apostles, with whom He was talking, have said to Him, We do not know You? Accordingly, if they knew Him, and He Himself is the way, they knew the way; if they knew Him who is Himself the truth, they knew the truth; if they knew Him who is also the life, they knew the life. Thus, you see, they were convinced that they knew what they knew not that they knew.

2. What is it, then, that we also have not apprehended in this discourse? What else, think you, brethren, but just that He said, And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know? And here we have discovered that they knew the way, because they knew Him who is the way: the way is that by which we go; but is the way the place also to which we go? And yet each of these He said that they knew, both whither He was going, and the way. There was need, therefore, for His saying, I am the way, in order to show those who knew Him that they knew the way, which they thought themselves ignorant of; but what need was there for His saying, I am the way, and the truth, and the life, when, after knowing the way by which He went, they had still to learn whither He was going, but just because it was to the truth and to the life He was going? By Himself, therefore, He was going to Himself. And whither go we, but to Him, and by what way go we, but by Him? He, therefore, went to Himself by Himself, and we by Him to Him; yea, likewise both He and we go thus to the Father. For He says also in another place of Himself, I go to the Father; and here on our account He says, No man comes unto the Father but by me. And in this way, He goes by Himself both to Himself and to the Father, and we by Him both to Him and to the Father. Who can apprehend such things save he who has spiritual discernment? And how much is it that even he can apprehend, although thus spiritually discerning? Brethren, how can you desire me to explain such things to you? Only reflect how lofty they are. You see what I am, I see what you are; in all of us the body, which is corrupted, burdens the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weighs down the mind that muses upon many things. [Wisdom 9:15] Do we think we can say, To You have I lifted up my soul, O Thou that dwellest in the heavens? But burdened as we are with so great a weight, under which we groan, how shall I lift up my soul unless He lift it with me who laid His own down for me? I shall speak then as I can, and let each of you who is able receive it. As He gives, I speak; as He gives, the receiver receives; and as He gives, there is faith for him who cannot yet receive with understanding. For, says the prophet, If you will not believe, you shall not understand.

3. Tell me, O my Lord, what to say to Your servants, my fellow-servants. The Apostle Thomas had You before him in order to ask You questions, and yet could not understand You unless he had You within him; I ask You because I know that You are over me; and I ask, seeking, as far as I can, to let my soul diffuse itself in that same region over me where I may listen to You, who usest no external sound to convey Your teaching. Tell me, I pray, how it is that You go to Yourself. Did Thou formerly leave Yourself to come to us, especially as You came not of Yourself, but the Father sent You? I know, indeed, that You emptied Yourself; but in taking the form of a servant, [Philippians 2:7] it was neither that Thou laid down the form of God as something to return to, or that You lost it as something to be recovered; and yet You came, and placed Yourself not only before the carnal eyes, but even in the very hands of men. And how otherwise save in Your flesh? By means of this You came, yet abiding where You were; by this means You returned, without leaving the place to which You had come. If, then, by such means You came and return, by such means doubtless You are not only the way for us to come unto You, but wast the way also for Yourself to come and to return. For when You returned to the life, which You are Yourself, then of a truth that same flesh of Yours You brought from death unto life. The Word of God, indeed, is one thing, and man another; but the Word was made flesh, or became man. And so the person of the Word is not different from that of the man, seeing that Christ is both in one person; and in this way, just as when His flesh died. Christ died, and when His flesh was buried, Christ was buried (for thus with the heart we believe unto righteousness, and thus with the mouth do we make confession unto salvation [Romans 10:10]); so when the flesh came from death unto life, Christ came to life. And because Christ is the Word of God, He is also the life. And thus in a wonderful and ineffable manner He, who never laid down or lost Himself, came to Himself. But God, as was said, had come through the flesh to men, the truth to liars; for God is true, and every man a liar. [Romans 3:4] When, therefore, He withdrew His flesh from among men, and carried it up there where no liar is found, He also Himself — for the Word was made flesh— returned by Himself, that is, by His flesh, to the truth, which is none other but Himself. And this truth, we cannot doubt, although found among liars, He preserved even in death; for Christ was once dead, but never false.

4. Take an example, very different in character and wholly inadequate, yet in some lit tle measure helpful to the understanding of God, from things that are in peculiarly intimate subjection to God. See here in my own case, while as far as pertains to my mind I am just the same as yourselves, if I keep silence I am so to myself; but if I speak to you something suited to your understanding, in a certain sense I go forth to you without leaving myself, but at the same time approach you and yet quit not the place from which I proceed. But when I cease speaking, I return in a kind of way to myself, and in a kind of way I remain with you, if you retain what you have heard in the discourse I am delivering. And if the mere image that God made is capable of this, what may not God, the very image of God, not made by, but born of God; whose body, wherein He came forth to us and returned from us, has not ceased to be, like the sound of my voice, but abides there, where it shall die no more, and death shall have no more dominion over it? [Romans 6:9] Much more, perhaps, might and ought to have been said on these words of the Gospel; but your souls ought not to be burdened with spiritual food, however pleasant, especially as the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. [Matthew 26:41]

1. The words of the holy Gospel, brethren, are rightly understood only if they are found to be in harmony with those that precede; for the premises ought to agree with the conclusion, when it is the Truth that speaks. The Lord had said before, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also: and then had added, And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know; and showed that all He said was that they knew Himself. What, therefore, the meaning was of His going to Himself by Himself — for He also lets the disciples see that it is by Him that they are to come to Him — we have already told you, as we could, in our last discourse. When He says, therefore, That where I am, there ye may be also, where else were they to be but in Himself? In this way is He also in Himself, and they, therefore, are just where He is, that is, in Himself. Accordingly, He Himself is that eternal life which is yet to be ours, when He has received us unto Himself; and as He is that life eternal, so is it in Him, that where He is there shall we be also, that is to say, in Himself. For as the Father has life in Himself, and certainly that life which He has is in no wise different from what He is Himself as its possessor, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself, inasmuch as He is the very life which He has in Himself. But shall we then actually be what He is, (namely), the life, when we shall have begun our existence in that life, that is, in Himself? Certainly not, for He, by His very existence as the life, has life, and is Himself what He has; and as the life, is in Him, so is He in Himself: but we are not that life, but partakers of His life, and shall be there in such wise as to be wholly incapable of being in ourselves what He is, but so as, while ourselves not the life, to have Him as our life, who has Himself the life on this very account that He Himself is the life. In short, He both exists unchangeably in Himself and inseparably in the Father. But we, when wishing to exist in ourselves, were thrown into inward trouble regarding ourselves, as is expressed in the words, My soul is cast down within me: and changing from bad to worse, cannot even remain as we were. But when by Him we come unto the Father, according to His own words, No man comes unto the Father but by me, and abide in Him, no one shall be able to separate us either from the Father or from Him.

2. Connecting, therefore, His previous words with those that follow, He proceeded to say, If you had known me, you should certainly have known my Father also. This conforms to His previous words, No man comes unto the Father but by me. And then He adds: And from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. But Philip, one of the apostles, not understanding what he had just heard, said, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us. And the Lord replied to him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have ye not known me, Philip? He that sees me, sees also the Father. Here you see He complains that He had been so long time with them, and yet He was not known. But had He not Himself said, And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know; and on their saying that they knew it not, had convinced them that they did know, by adding the words: I am the way, and the truth, and the life? How, then, says He now, Have I been so long time with you, and have ye not known me? when, in fact, they knew both whither He went and the way, on no other grounds save that they really knew Himself? But this difficulty is easily solved by saying that some of them knew Him, and others did not, and that Philip was one of those who did not know Him; so that, when He said, And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know, He is understood as having spoken to those that knew, and not to Philip, who has it said to him, Have I been so long time with you, and have ye not known me, Philip? To such, then, as already knew the Son, was it now also said of the Father, And from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him: for such words were used because of the all-sided likeness subsisting between the Father and the Son; so that, because they knew the Son, they might henceforth be said to know the Father. Already, therefore, they knew the Son, if not all of them, those at least to whom it is said, And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know; for He is Himself the way. But they knew not the Father, and so have also to hear, If you have known me, you have known my Father also; that is, through me you have known Him also. For I am one, and He another. But that they might not think Him unlike, He adds, And from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. For they saw His perfectly resembling Son, but needed to have the truth impressed on them, that exactly such as was the Son whom they saw,was the Father also whom they did not see. And to this points what is afterwards said to Philip, He that sees me, sees also the Father. Not that He Himself was Father and Son, which is a notion of the Sabellians, who are also called Patripassians, condemned by the Catholic faith; but that Father and Son are so alike, that he who knows one knows both. For we are accustomed to speak in this way of two who closely resemble each other, to those who are in the habit of seeing one of them, and wish to know what like the other is, so that we say, In seeing the one, you have seen the other. In this way, then, is it said He that sees me, sees also the Father. Not, certainly, that He who is the Son is also the Father, but that the Son in no respect disagrees with the likeness of the Father. For had not the Father and Son been two persons, it would not have been said, If you have known me, you have known my Father also. Such is certainly the case for no one, He says, comes unto the Father but by me: if you have known me, you have known my Father also; because it is I, who am the only way to the Father, that will lead you to Him, that He also may Himself become known to you. But as I am in all respects His perfect image, from henceforth ye know Him in knowing me; and have seen Him, if you have seen me with the spiritual eyesight of the soul.

3. Why, then, Philip, do you say, Show us the Father, and it suffices us? Have I been so long time with you, and yet have ye not known me, Philip? He that sees me, sees the Father also. If it interests you much to see this, believe at least what you see not. For how, He says, do you say, Show us the Father? If you have seen me, who am His perfect likeness, you have seen Him to whom I am like. And if you can not directly see this, do you not believe, at least, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? But Philip might say here, I see You indeed, and believe Your full likeness to the Father; but is one to be reproved and rebuked because, when he sees one who bears a likeness to another, he wishes to see that other to whom he is like? I know, indeed, the image, but as yet I know only the one without the other; it is not enough for me, unless I know that other whose likeness he bears. Show us, therefore, the Father, and it suffices us. But the Master really reproved the disciple because He saw into the heart of his questioner. For it was with the idea, as if the Father were somehow better than the Son, that Philip had the desire to know the Father: and so he did not even know the Son, because believing that He was inferior to another. It was to correct such a notion that it was said, He that sees me, sees the Father also. How do you say, Show us the Father? I see the meaning of your words: it is not the original likeness you seek to see, but it is that other you think the superior. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? Why do you desire to dis cover some distance between those who are thus alike? Why do you crave the separate knowledge of those who cannot be separated? What, after this, He says not only to Philip, but to all of them together, must not now be thrust into a corner, in order that, by His help, it may be the more carefully expounded.

1. Give close attention, and try to understand, beloved; for while it is we who speak it is He Himself who never withdraws His presence from us who is our Teacher. The Lord says, what you have just heard read, The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father, that dwells in me, He does the works. Even His words, then, are works? Clearly so. For surely he that edifies a neighbor by what he says, works a good work. But what mean the words, I speak not of myself, but, I who speak am not of myself? Hence He attributes what He does to Him, of whom He, that does them, is. For the Father is not God [as born, etc.] of any one else, while the Son is God, as equal, indeed, to the Father, but [as born] of God the Father. Therefore the former is God, but not of God; and the Light, but not of light: whereas the latter is God of God, Light of Light.

2. For in connection with these two clauses — the one where it is said, I speak not of myself; and the other, which runs, but the Father that dwells in me, He does the works,— we are opposed by two different classes of heretics, who, by each of them holding only to one clause, run off, not in one, but opposite directions, and wander far from the pathway of truth. For instance, the Arians say, See here, the Son is not equal to the Father, He speaks not of Himself. The Sabellians, or Patripassians, on the other hand, say, See, He who is the Father is also the Son; for what else is this, The Father that dwells in me, He does the works, but I that do them dwell in myself? You make contrary assertions, and that not only in the sense that any one thing is false, that is, contrary to truth, but in this also, when two things that are both false contradict one another. In your wanderings you have taken opposite directions; midway between the two is the path you have left. You are a far longer distance apart from each other than from the very way you have both forsaken. Come hither, you from the one side, and you from the other: pass not across, the one to the other, but come from both sides to us, and make this the place of your mutual meeting. You Sabellians, acknowledge the Being you overlook; Arians, set Him whom you subordinate in His place of equality, and you will both be walking with us in the pathway of truth. For you have grounds on both sides that make mutual admonition a duty. Listen, Sabellian: so far is the Son from being the same as the Father, and so truly is He another, that the Arian maintains His inferiority to the Father. Listen, Arian: so truly is the Son equal to the Father, that the Sabellian declares Him to be identical with the Father. Do thou restore the personality you have abstracted, and thou, the full dignity you have lowered, and both of you stand together on the same ground as ourselves: because the one of you [who has been an Arian], for the conviction of the Sabellian, never lets out of sight the personality of Him who is distinct from the Father, and the other [who has been a Sabellian] takes care, for the conviction of the Arian, of not impairing the dignity of Him who is equal with the Father. For to both of you He cries, I and my Father are one. When He says one, let the Arians listen; when He says, we are, let the Sabellians give heed, and no longer continue in the folly of denying, the one, His equality [with the Father], the other, His distinct personality. If, then, in saying, The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, He is thereby accounted of a power so inferior, that what He does is not what He Himself wills; listen to what He also said, As the Father raises up the dead and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom He will. And so likewise, if in saying, The Father that dwells in me, He does the works, He is on that account not to be regarded as distinct in person from the Father, let us listen to His other words, Whatever things the Father does, these also does the Son likewise; and He will be understood as speaking not of one person twice over, but of two who are one. But just because their mutual equality is such as not to interfere with their distinct personality, therefore He speaks not of Himself, because He is not of Himself; and the Father also, that dwells in Him, Himself does the works, because He, by whom and with whom He does them, is not, save of [the Father] Himself. And then He goes on to say, Believe ye not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? Or else believe me for the very works' sake. Formerly it was Philip only who was reproved, but now, it is shown that he was not the only one there that needed reproof. For the very works' sake, He says, believe ye that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: for had we been separated, we should have been unable to do any kind of work inseparably.

3. But what is this that follows? Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. And so He promised that He Himself would also do those greater works. Let not the servant exalt himself above his Lord, or the disciple above his Master. He says that they will do greater works than He does Himself; but it is all by His doing such in or by them, and not as if they did them of themselves. Hence the song that is addressed to Him, I will love You, O Lord, my strength. But what, then, are those greater works? Was it that their very shadow, as they themselves passed by, healed the sick? [Acts 5:15] For it is a mightier thing for a shadow, than for the hem of a garment, to possess the power of healing. [Matthew 14:36] The one work was done by Christ Himself, the other by them; and yet it was He that did both. Nevertheless, when He so spoke, He was commending the efficacious power of His own words: for it was in this sense He had said, The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwells in me, He does the works. What works was He then referring to, but the words He was speaking? They were hearing and believing, and their faith was the fruit of those very words: howbeit, when the disciples preached the gospel, it was not small numbers like themselves, but nations also that believed; and such, doubtless, are greater works. And yet He said not, Greater works than these shall you do, to lead us to suppose that it was only the apostles who would do so; for He added, He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do. Is the case then so, that he that believes in Christ does the same works as Christ, or even greater than He did? Points like these are not to be treated in a cursory way, nor ought they to be hurriedly disposed of; and, therefore, as our present discourse must be brought to a close, we are obliged to defer their further consideration.

1. It is no easy matter to comprehend what is meant by, or in what sense we are to receive, these words of the Lord, He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also: and then, to this great difficulty in the way of our understanding, He has added another still more difficult, And greater things than these shall he do. What are we to make of it? We have not found one who did such works as Christ did; and are we likely to find one who will do even greater? But we remarked in our last discourse, that it was a greater deed to heal the sick by the passing of their shadow, as was done by the disciples, than as the Lord Himself did by the touch of the hem of His garment; and that more believed on the apostles than on the Lord Himself, when preaching with His own lips; so that we might suppose works like these to be understood as greater: not that the disciple was to be greater than his Master, or the servant than his Lord, or the adopted son than the Only-begotten, or man than God, but that by them He Himself would condescend to do these greater works, while telling them in another passage, Without me you can do nothing. While He Himself, on the other hand, to say nothing of His other works, which are numberless, made them without any aid from themselves, and without them made this world; and because He Himself thought meet to become man, without them He made also Himself. But what have they [made or done] without Him, save sin? And last of all, He straightway also withdrew from the subject all that could cause us agitation; for after saying, He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; He immediately went on to add, Because I go unto the Father; and whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do. He who had said, He will do, afterwards said, I will do; as if He had said, Let not this appear to you impossible; for he that believes in me can never become greater than I am, but it is I who shall then be doing greater things than now; greater things by him that believes in me, than by myself apart from him; yet it is I myself apart from him, and I myself by him [that will do the works]: and as it is apart from him, it is not he that will do them; and as, on the other hand, it is by him, although not by his own self, it is he also that will do them. And besides, to do greater things by one than apart from one, is not a sign of deficiency, but of condescension. For what can servants render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards them? And sometimes He has condescended to number this also among His other benefits towards them, namely, to do greater works by them than apart from them. Did not that rich man go away sad from His presence, when seeking counsel about eternal life? He heard, and cast it away: and yet in after days the counsel that fell on his ears was followed, not by one, but by many, when the good Master was speaking by the disciples; He was an object of contempt to the rich man, when warned by Himself directly, and of love to those whom by means of poor men He transformed from rich into poor. Here, then, you see, He did greater works when preached by believers, than when speaking Himself to hearers.

2. But there is still something to excite thought in His doing such greater works by the apostles; for He said not, as if merely with reference to them, The works that I do shall you do also; and greater works than these shall you do: but wishing to be understood as speaking of all that belonged to His family, said, He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do. If, then, he that believes shall do such works, he that shall do them not is certainly no believer: just as He that loves me, keeps my commandments, implies, of course, that he who keeps them not, loves not. In another place, also, He says, He that hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who builds his house upon a rock; [Matthew 7:24] and he, therefore, who is unlike this wise man, without doubt either hears these sayings and does them not, or fails even to hear them. He that believes in me, He says, though he die, yet shall he live; and he, therefore, that shall not live, is certainly no believer now. In a similar way, also, it is said here, He that believes in me shall do [such works]: he is, therefore, no believer who shall not do so. What have we here, then, brethren? Is it that one is not to be reckoned among believers in Christ, who shall not do greater works than Christ? It were hard, unreasonable, intolerable, to suppose so; that is, unless it be rightly understood. Let us listen, then, to the apostle, when he says, To him that believes in Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. [Romans 4:5] This is the work in which we may be doing the works of Christ, for even our very believing in Christ is the work of Christ. It is this He works in us, not certainly without us. Hear now, then, and understand, He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also: I do them first, and he shall do them afterwards; for I do such works that he may do them also. And what are the works, but the making of a righteous man out of an ungodly one?

3. And greater works than these shall he do. Than what, pray? Shall we say that one is doing greater works than all that Christ did who is working out his own salvation with fear and trembling? [Philippians 2:12] A work which Christ is certainly working in him, but not without him; and one which I might, without hesitation, call greater than the heavens and the earth, and all in both within the compass of our vision. For both heaven and earth shall pass away, [Matthew 24:35] but the salvation and justi fication of those predestinated thereto, that is, of those whom He foreknows, shall continue forever. In the former there is only the working of God, but in the latter there is also His image. But there are also in the heavens, thrones, governments, principalities, powers, archangels, and angels, which are all of them the work of Christ; and is it, then, greater works also than these that he does, who, with Christ working in him, is a co-worker in his own eternal salvation and justification? I dare not call for any hurried decision on such a point: let him who can, understand, and let him who can, judge whether it is a greater work to create righteous beings than to make righteous the ungodly. For at least, if there is equal power employed in both, there is greater mercy in the latter. For this is the great mystery of godliness which was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. But when He said, Greater works than these shall he do, there is no necessity requiring us to suppose that all of Christ's works are to be understood. For He spoke, perhaps, only of these He was now doing; and the work He was doing at that time was uttering the words of faith, and of such works specially had He spoken just before when He said, The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father, that dwells in me, He does the works. His words, accordingly, were His works. And it is assuredly something less to preach the words of righteousness, which He did apart from us, than to justify the ungodly, which He does in such a way in us that we also are doing it ourselves. It remains for us to inquire how the words are to be understood, Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I will do it. Because of the many things His believing ones ask, and receive not, there is no small question claiming our attention; but as this discourse must now be concluded, we must allow at least a little delay for its consideration and discussion.

1. The Lord, by His promise, gave those whose hopes were resting on Himself a special ground of confidence, when He said, For I go to the Father; and whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I will do it. His proceeding, therefore, to the Father, was not with any view of abandoning the needy, but of hearing and answering their petitions. But what is to be made of the words, Whatsoever you shall ask, when we behold His faithful ones so often asking and not receiving? Is it, shall we say, for no other reason but that they ask amiss? For the Apostle James made this a ground of reproach when he said, You ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. [James 4:3] What one, therefore, wishes to receive, in order to turn to an improper use, God in His mercy rather refuses to bestow. Nay, more, if a man asks what would, if answered, only tend to his injury, there is surely greater cause to fear, lest what God could not withhold with kindness, He should give in His anger. Do we not see how the Israelites got to their own hurt what their guilty lusting craved? For while it was raining manna on them from heaven, they desired to have flesh to eat. [Numbers 11:32] They disdained what they had, and shamelessly sought what they had not: as if it were not better for them to have asked not to have their unbecoming desires gratified with the food that was wanting, but to have their own dislike removed, and be made themselves to receive aright the food that was provided. For when evil becomes our delight, and what is good the reverse, we ought to be entreating God rather to win us back to the love of the good, than to grant us the evil. Not that it is wrong to eat flesh, for the apostle, speaking of this very thing, says, Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused which is received with thanksgiving; [1 Timothy 4:4] but because, as he also says, It is evil for that man who eats with offense; [Romans 14:20] and if so, with offense to man, how much more so if to God, to whom it was no light offense, on the part of the Israelites, to reject what wisdom was supplying, and ask for that which lust was craving: although they would not actually make the request, but murmured because it was wanting. But to let us know that the wrong lies not with any creature of God, but with obstinate disobedience and inordinate desire, it was not in swine's flesh that the first man found death, but in an apple; [Genesis 3:6] and it was not for a fowl, but for a dish of pottage, that Esau lost his birthright. [Genesis 25:34]

2. How, then, are we to understand Whatsoever you shall ask, I will do it, if there are some things which the faithful ask, and which God, even purposely on their behalf, leaves undone? Or ought we to suppose that the words were addressed only to the apostles? Surely not. For what He has got the length of now saying is in the very line of what He had said before: He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; which was the subject of our previous discourse. And that no one might attribute such power to himself, but rather to make it manifest that even these greater works were done by Himself, He proceeded to say, For I go to the Father; and whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I will do it. Was it the apostles only that believed on Him? When, therefore, He said, He that believes in me, He spoke to those, among whom we also by His grace are included, who by no means receive everything that we ask. And if we turn our thoughts even to the most blessed apostles, we find that he who labored more than they all, yet not he, but the grace of God that was with him, [1 Corinthians 15:10] besought the Lord thrice that the messenger of Satan might depart from him, and received not what he had asked. [2 Corinthians 12:8] What shall we say, beloved? Are we to suppose that the promise here made, Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I will do it, was not fulfilled by Him even to the apostles? And to whom, then, will ever His promise be fulfilled, if therein He has deceived His own apostles?

3. Wake up, then, believer, and give careful heed to what is stated here, in my name: for in these words He does not say, whatsoever you shall ask in any way; but, in my name. How, then, is He called, who promised so great a blessing? Christ Jesus, of course: Christ means King, and Jesus means Saviour! For certainly it is not any one who is a king that will save us, but only the Saviour-King; and therefore, whatsoever we ask that is adverse to the interests of salvation, we do not ask in the name of the Saviour. And yet He is the Saviour, not only when He does what we ask, but also when He refuses to do so; since by not doing what He sees to be contrary to our salvation, He manifests Himself the more fully as our Saviour. For the physician knows which of his patient's requests will be favorable, and which will be adverse, to his safety; and therefore yields not to his wishes when asking what is prejudicial, that he may effect his recovery. Accordingly, when we wish Him to do whatsoever we ask, let it not be in any way, but in His name, that is, in the name of the Saviour, that we present our petition. Let us not, then, ask anything that is contrary to our own salvation; for if He do that, He does it not as the Saviour, which is the name He bears to His faithful disciples. For He who condescends to be the Saviour of the faithful, is also a Judge to condemn the ungodly. Whatsoever, therefore, any one that believes in Him shall ask in that name which He bears to those who believe in Him, He will do it; for He will do it as the Saviour. But if one that believes in Him asks something through ignorance that is injurious to his salvation, he asks it not in the name of the Saviour; for His Saviour He will no longer be if He do anything to impede his salvation. And hence, in such a case, in not doing what He is entreated to do, His way is kept the clearer for doing what His name imports. And on that account, not only as the Saviour, but also as the good Master, He taught us, in the very prayer He gave us, what we should ask, in order that, whatsoever we shall ask, He may do it; and that we, too, might thereby understand that we cannot be asking in the Master's name anything that is inconsistent with the rule of His own instructions.

4. There are some things, indeed, which, although really asked in His name, that is, in harmony with His character as both Saviour and Master, He does not at the time we ask them, and yet He fails not to do them. For when we pray that the kingdom of God may come, it does not imply that He is not doing what we ask, because we do not begin at once to reign with Him in the everlasting kingdom: for what we ask is delayed, but not denied. Nevertheless, let us not fail in pray ing, for in so doing we are as those that sow the seed; and in due season we shall reap. [Galatians 6:9] And even when we are asking aright, let us ask Him at the same time not to do what we ask amiss; for there is reference to this also in the Lord's Prayer, when we say, Lead us not into temptation. [Matthew 6:9-13] For surely the temptation is no slight one if your own request be hostile to your cause. But we must not listen with indifference to the statement that the Lord (to prevent any from thinking that what He promised to do to those that asked, He would do without the Father, after saying, Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I will do it) immediately added, That the Father may be glorified in the Son: if you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. In no respect, therefore, does the Son act without the Father, since He so acts for the very purpose that in Him the Father may be glorified. The Father, therefore, acts in the Son, that the Son may be glorified in the Father: and the Son acts in the Father, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; for the Father and the Son are one.

1. We have heard, brethren, while the Gospel was read, the Lord saying: If you love me, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter [Paraclete], that He may abide with you for ever; [even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and shall be in you. There are many points which might form the subject of inquiry in these few words of the Lord; but it were too much for us either to search into all that is here for the searching, or to find out all that we here search for. Nevertheless, as far as the Lord is pleased to grant us the power, and in proportion to our capacity and yours, attend to what we ought to say and you to hear, and receive, beloved, what we on our part are able to give, and apply to Him for that wherein we fail. It is the Spirit, the Comforter, that Christ has promised to His apostles; but let us notice the way in which He gave the promise. If you love me, He says, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever: [even] the Spirit of truth. We have here, at all events, the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, whom the catholic faith acknowledges to be consubstantial and co-eternal with Father and Son: He it is of whom the apostle says, The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given unto us. [Romans 5:5] How, then, does the Lord say, If you love me, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter; when He says so of the Holy Spirit, without [having] whom we can neither love God nor keep His commandments? How can we love so as to receive Him, without whom we cannot love at all? Or how shall we keep the commandments so as to receive Him, without whom we have no power to keep them? Or can it be that the love wherewith we love Christ has a prior place within us, so that, by thus loving Christ and keeping His commandments, we become worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit, in order that the love, not of Christ, which had already preceded, but of God the Father, may be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given unto us? Such a thought is altogether wrong. For he who believes that he loves the Son, and loves not the Father, certainly loves not the Son, but some figment of his own imagination. And besides, this is the apostolic declaration, No one says, Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit: [1 Corinthians 12:3] and who is it that calls Him Lord Jesus but he that loves Him, if he so call Him in the way the apostle intended to be understood? For many call Him so with their lips, but deny Him in their hearts and works; just as He says of such, For they profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him. [Titus 1:16] If it is by works He is denied, it is doubtless also by works that His name is truly invoked. No one, therefore, says, Lord Jesus, in mind, in word, in deed, with the heart, the lips, the labor of the hands — no one says, Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit; and no one calls Him so but he that loves. And accordingly the apostles were already calling Him Lord Jesus: and if they called Him so, in no way that implied a feigned utterance, with the mouth confessing, in heart and works denying Him; if they called Him so in all truthfulness of soul, there can be no doubt they loved. And how, then, did they love, but in the Holy Spirit? And yet they are commanded to love Him and keep His commandments, previous and in order to their receiving the Holy Spirit: and yet, without having that Spirit, they certainly could not love Him and keep His commandments.

2. We are therefore to understand that he who loves has already the Holy Spirit, and by what he has becomes worthy of a fuller possession, that by having the more he may love the more. Already, therefore, had the disciples that Holy Spirit whom the Lord promised, for without Him they could not call Him Lord; but they had Him not as yet in the way promised by the Lord. Accordingly they both had, and had Him not, inasmuch as they had Him not as yet to the same extent as He was afterwards to be possessed. They had Him, therefore, in a more limited sense: He was yet to be given them in an ampler measure. They had Him in a hidden way, they were yet to receive Him in a way that was manifest; for this present possession had also a bearing on that fuller gift of the Holy Spirit, that they might come to a conscious knowledge of what they had. It is in speaking of this gift that the apostle says: Now we have received, not the spirit of this world, but the spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God. [1 Corinthians 2:12] For that same manifest bestowal of the Holy Spirit the Lord made, not once, but on two separate occasions. For close on the back of His resurrection from the dead He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. And because He then gave [the Spirit], did He on that account fail in afterwards sending Him according to His promise? Or was it not the very same Spirit who was both then breathed upon them by Himself, and afterwards sent by Him from heaven? [Acts 2:4] And so, why that same giving on His part which took place publicly, also took place twice, is another question: for it may be that this twofold bestowal of His in a public way took place because of the two Commandments of love, that is, to our neighbor and to God, in order that love might be impressively intimated as pertaining to the Holy Spirit. And if any other reason is to be sought for, we cannot at present allow our discourse to be improperly prolonged by such an inquiry: provided, however, it be admitted that, without the Holy Spirit, we can neither love Christ nor keep His commandments; while the less experience we have of His presence, the less also can we do so; and the fuller our experience, so much the greater our ability. Accordingly, the promise is no vain one, either to him who has not [the Holy Spirit], or to him who has. For it is made to him who has not, in order that he may have; and to him who has, that he may have more abundantly. For were it not that He was possessed by some in smaller measure than by others, St. Elisha would not have said to St. Elijah, Let the spirit that is in you be in a twofold measure in me. [2 Kings 2:9]

3. But when John the Baptist said, For God gives not the Spirit by measure, he was speaking exclusively of the Son of God, who received not the Spirit by measure; for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. [Colossians 2:9] And no more is it independently of the grace of the Holy Spirit that the Mediator between God and men is the man Christ Jesus: [1 Timothy 2:5] for with His own lips He tells us that the prophetical utterance had been fulfilled in Himself: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He has anointed me, and has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor. [Luke 4:18-21] For His being the Only-begotten, the equal of the Father, is not of grace, but of nature; but the assumption of human nature into the personal unity of the Only-begotten is not of nature, but of grace, as the Gospel acknowledges itself when it says, And the child grew, and waxed strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was in Him. [Luke 2:40] But to others He is given by measure — a measure ever enlarging until each has received his full complement up to the limits of his own perfection. As we are also reminded by the apostle, Not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think soberly; according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. [Romans 12:3] Nor is it the Spirit Himself that is divided, but the gifts bestowed by the Spirit: for there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. [1 Corinthians 12:4]

4. But when He says, I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, He intimates that He Himself is also a paraclete. For paraclete is in Latin called advocatus (advocate); and it is said of Christ, We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. [1 John 2:1] But He said that the world could not receive the Holy Spirit, in much the same sense as it is also said, The minding of the flesh is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can be; just as if we were to say, Unrighteousness cannot be righteous. For in speaking in this passage of the world, He refers to those who love the world; and such a love is not of the Father. [1 John 2:16] And thus the love of this world, which gives us enough to do to weaken and destroy its power within us, is in direct opposition to the love of God, which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us. The world, therefore, cannot receive Him, cause it sees Him not, neither knows Him. For worldly love possesses not those invisible eyes, whereby, save in an invisible way, the Holy Spirit cannot be seen.

5. But you, He adds, shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and be in you. He will be in them, that He may dwell with them; He will not dwell with them to the end that He may be in them: for the being anywhere is prior to the dwelling there. But to prevent us from imagining that His words, He shall dwell with you, were spoken in the same sense as that in which a usually dwells with a man in a visible way, He explained what He shall dwell with you meant, when He added the words, He shall be in you. He is seen, therefore, in an invisible way: nor can we have any knowledge of Him unless He be in us. For it is in a similar way that we come to see our conscience within us: for we see the face of another, but we cannot see our own; but it is our own conscience we see, not another's. And yet conscience is never anywhere but within us: but the Holy Spirit can be also apart from us, since He is given that He may also be in us. But we cannot see and know Him in the only way in which He may be seen and known, unless He be in us.

1. After the promise of the Holy Spirit, lest any should suppose that the Lord was to give Him, as it were, in place of Himself, in any such way as that He Himself would not likewise be with them, He added the words: I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. Orphani [Greek] are pupilli [parent-less children] in Latin. The one is the Greek, the other the Latin name of the same thing: for in the psalm where we read, You are the helper of the fatherless [in the Latin version, pupillo], the Greek has orphano . Accordingly, although it was not the Son of God that adopted sons to His Father, or willed that we should have by grace that same Father, who is His Father by nature, yet in a sense it is paternal feelings toward us that He Himself displays, when He declares, I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In the same way He calls us also the children of the bridegroom, when He says, The time will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall the children of the bridegroom fast. [Matthew 9:15] And who is the bridegroom, but Christ the Lord?

2. He then goes on to say, Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more. How so? The world saw Him then; for under the name of the world are to be understood those of whom He spoke above, when saying of the Holy Spirit, Whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him. He was plainly visible to the carnal eyes of the world, while manifest in the flesh; but it saw not the Word that lay hid in the flesh: it saw the man, but it saw not God: it saw the covering, but not the Being within. But as, after the resurrection, even His very flesh, which He exhibited both to the sight and to the handling of His own, He refused to exhibit to others, we may in this way perhaps understand the meaning of the words, Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you shall see me: because I live, you shall live also.

3. What is meant by the words, Because I live, you shall live also? Why did He speak in the present tense of His own living, and in the future of theirs, but just by way of promise that the life also of the resurrection-body, as it preceded in His own case, would certainly follow in theirs? And as His own resurrection was in the immediate future, He put the word in the present tense to signify its speedy approach: but of theirs, as delayed till the end of the world, He said not, you live; but, you shall live. With elegance and brevity, therefore, by means of two words, one of them in the present tense and the other in the future, He gave the promise of two resurrections, to wit, His own in the immediate future, and ours as yet to come in the end of the world. Because I live, He says, you shall live also: because He lives, therefore shall we live also. For as by man is death, by man also is the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. [1 Corinthians 15:21-22] As it is only through the former that every one is liable to death, it is only through Christ that any one can attain unto life. Because we did not live, we are dead; because He lived, we shall live also. We were dead to Him, when we lived to ourselves; but, because He died in our behalf, He lives both for Himself and for us. For, because He lives, we shall live also. For while we were able of ourselves to attain unto death, it is not of ourselves also that life can come into our possession.

4. In that day, He says, you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. In what day, but in that whereof He said, You shall live also? For then will it be that we can see what we believe. For even now is He in us, and we in Him: this we believe now, but then shall we also know it; although what we know even now by faith, we shall know then by actual vision. For as long as we are in the body, as it now is, to wit, corruptible, and encumbering to the soul, we live at a distance from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight. [2 Corinthians 5:7] Then accordingly it will be by sight, for we shall see Him as He is. [1 John 3:2] For if Christ were not even now in us, the apostle would not say, And if Christ be in you, the body is dead indeed because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. [Romans 8:10] But that we are also in Him even then, He makes sufficiently clear, when He says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Accordingly in that day, when we shall be living the life, whereby death shall be swallowed up, we shall know that He is in the Father, and we in Him, and He in us; for then shall be completed that very state which is already in the present begun by Him, that He should be in us, and we in Him.

5. He that has my commmandments, He adds, and keeps them, he it is that loves me. He that has [them] in his memory, and keeps them in his life; who has them orally, and keeps them morally; who has them in the ear, and keeps them in deed; or who has them in deed, and keeps them by perseverance;— he it is, He says, that loves me. By works is love made manifest as no fruitless application of a name. And he that loves me, He says, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. But what is this, I will love? Is it as if He were then only to love, and loves not at present? Surely not. For how could the Father love us apart from the Son, or the Son apart from the Father? Working as They do inseparably, how can They love apart? But He said, I will love him, in reference to that which follows, and I will manifest myself to him. I will love, and will manifest; that is, I will love to the very extent of manifesting. For this has been the present aim of His love, that we may believe, and keep hold of the commandment of faith; but then His love will have this for its object, that we may see, and get that very sight as the reward of our faith: for we also love now, by believing in that which we shall see hereafter; but then shall we love in the sight of that which now we believe.

1. While the disciples thus question, and Jesus their Master replies to them, we also, as it were, are learning along with them, when we either read or listen to the holy Gospel. Accordingly, because the Lord had said, Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you shall see me, Judas — not indeed His betrayer, who was surnamed Iscariot, but he whose epistle is read among the canonical Scriptures — asked Him of this very matter: Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself unto us, and not unto the world? Let us, too, be as it were questioning disciples with them, and listen to our common Master. For Judas the holy, not the impure, the follower, but not the persecutor of the Lord, has inquired the reason why Jesus was to manifest Himself to His own, and not to the world; why it was that yet a little while, and the world should not see Him, but they should see Him.

2. Jesus answered and said to him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loves me not, keeps not my sayings. Here we have set forth the reason why He is to manifest Himself to His own, and not to that other class whom He distinguishes by the name of the world; and such is the reason also why the one loves Him, and the other loves Him not. It is the very reason, whereof it is declared in the sacred psalm, Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an unholy nation. For such as love are chosen, because they love: but those who have not love, though they speak with the tongues of men and angels, have become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal; and though they had the gift of prophecy, and knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and had all faith so that they could remove mountains, they are nothing; and though they distributed all their substance, and gave their body to be burnt, it profits them nothing. [1 Corinthians 13:1-3] The saints are distinguished from the world by that love which makes the one-minded to dwell [together] in a house. In this house Father and Son make their abode, and impart that very love to those whom They shall also honor at last with this promised self manifestation; of which the disciple questioned his Master, that not only those who then listened might learn it from His own lips, but we also from his Gospel. For he had made inquiry about the manifestation of Christ, and heard [in reply] about His loving and abiding. There is therefore a kind of inward manifestation of God, which is entirely unknown to the ungodly, who receive no manifestation of God the Father and the Holy Spirit: of the Son, indeed, there might have been such, but only in the flesh; and that, too, neither of the same kind as the other, nor able under any form to remain with them, save only for a little while; and even that, for judgment, not for rejoicing; for punishment, not for reward.

3. We have now, therefore, to understand, so far as He is pleased to unfold it, the meaning of the words, Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you shall see me. It is true, indeed, that after a little while He was to withdraw even His body, in which the ungodly also were able to see Him, from their sight; for none of them saw Him after His resurrection. But since it was declared on the testimony of angels, He shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven; [Acts 1:11] and our faith stands to this, that He will come in the same body to judge the living and the dead; there can be no doubt that He will then be seen by the world, meaning by the name, those who are aliens from His kingdom. And, on this account, it is far better to understand Him as having intended to refer at once to that epoch, when He said, Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more, when in the end of the world He shall be taken away from the sight of the damned, that for the future He may be seen only of those with whom, as those that love Him, the Father and Himself are making their abode. But He said, a little while, because that which appears tedious to men is very brief in the sight of God: for of this same little while our evangelist, John, himself says, Little children, it is the last time. [1 John 2:18]

4. But further, lest any should imagine that the Father and Son only, without the Holy Spirit, make their abode with those that love Them, let him recall what was said above of the Holy Spirit, Whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and shall be in you [John 14:17]. Here you see that, along with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit also takes up His abode in the saints; that is to say, within them, as God in His temple. The triune God, Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, come to us while we are coming to Them: They come with help, we come with obedience; They come to enlighten, we to behold; They come to fill, we to contain: that our vision of Them may not be external, but inward; and Their abiding in us may not be transitory, but eternal. The Son does not manifest Himself in such a way as this to the world: for the world is spoken of in the passage before us as those, of whom He immediately adds, He that loves me not, keeps not my sayings. These are such as never see the Father and the Holy Spirit: and see the Son for a little while, not to their attainment of bliss, but to their condemnation; and even Him, not in the form of God, wherein He is equally invisible with the Father and the Holy Spirit, but in human form, in which it was His will to be an object of contempt in suffering, but of terror in judging the world.

5. But when He added, And the saying which you have heard is not mine, but the Father's who sent me, let us not be filled with wonder or fear: He is not inferior to the Father, and yet He is not, save of the Father: He is not unequal in Himself, but He is not of Himself. For it was no false word He uttered when He said, He that loves me not, keeps not my sayings. He called them, you see, His own sayings; does He, then, contradict Himself when He said again, And the saying which you have heard is not mine? And, perhaps, it was on account of some intended distinction that, when He said His own, He used sayings in the plural; but when He said that the saying, that is, the Word, was not His own, but the Father's, He wished it to be understood of Himself. For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. For as the Word, He is certainly not His own, but the Father's: just as He is not His own image, but the Father's; and is not Himself His own Son, but the Father's. Rightly, therefore, does He attribute whatever He does, as equal, to the Author of all, of whom He has this very prerogative, that He is in all respects His equal.

1. In the preceding lesson of the holy Gospel, which is followed by the one that has just been read, the Lord Jesus had said that He and the Father would come to those who loved Them, and make Their abode with them. But He had also already said above of the Holy Spirit, But you shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and shall be in you [John 14:17]: by which we understood that the divine Trinity dwells together in the saints as in His own temple. But now He says, These things have I spoken unto you while [still] dwelling with you. That dwelling, therefore, which He promised in the future, is of one kind; and this, which He declares to be present, is of another. The one is spiritual, and is realized inwardly by the mind; the other is corporal, and is exhibited outwardly to the eye and the ear. The one brings eternal blessedness to those who have been delivered, the other pays its visits in time to those who await deliverance. As regards the one, the Lord never withdraws from those who love Him; as regards the other, He comes and goes. These things, He says, have I spoken unto you, while [still] dwelling with you; that is, in His bodily presence, wherein He was visibly conversing with them.

2. But the Comfort, He adds, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you. Is it, then, that the Son speaks, and the Holy Spirit teaches, so that we merely get hold of the words that are uttered by the Son, and then understand them by the teaching of the Spirit as if the Son could speak without the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit teach without the Son: or is it not rather that the Son also teaches and the Spirit speaks, and, when it is God that speaks and teaches anything, that the Trinity itself is speaking and teaching? And just because it is a Trinity, its persons required to be introduced individually, so that we might hear it in its distinct personality, and understand its inseparable nature. Listen to the Father speaking in the passage where you read, The Lord said to me, You are my Son: listen to Him also teaching, in that where you read, Every man that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes unto me. The Son, on the other hand, you have just heard speaking; for He says of Himself, Whatsoever I have said to you: and if you would also know Him as a Teacher, bethink yourself of the Master, when He says, One is your Master, even Christ. [Matthew 23:10] Furthermore, of the Holy Spirit, whom you have just been told of as a Teacher in the words, He shall teach you all things, listen to Him also speaking, where you read in the Acts of the Apostles, that the Holy Spirit said to the blessed Peter, Go with them, for I have sent them. The whole Trinity, therefore, both speaks and teaches: but were it not also brought before us in its individual personality, it would certainly altogether surpass the power of human weakness to comprehend it. For as it is altogether inseparable in itself, it could never be known as the Trinity, were it always spoken of inseparably; for when we speak of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we certainly do not pronounce them simultaneously, and yet in themselves they cannot be else than simultaneous. But when He added, He will bring to your remembrance, we ought also to understand that we are commanded not to forget that these pre-eminently salutary admonitions are part of that grace which the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance.

3. Peace, He said, I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. It is here we read in the prophet, Peace upon peace: peace He leaves with us when going away, His own peace He will give us when He comes in the end. Peace He leaves with us in this world, His own peace He will give us in the world to come. His own peace He leaves with us, and abiding therein we conquer the enemy. His own peace He will give us when, with no more enemies to fight, we shall reign as kings. Peace He leaves with us, that here also we may love one another: His own peace will He give us, where we shall be beyond the possibility of dissension. Peace He leaves with us, that we may not judge one another of what is secret to each, while here on earth: His own peace will He give us, when He will make manifest the counsels of the heart; and then shall every man have praise of God. [1 Corinthians 4:5] And yet in Him and from Him it is that we have peace, whether that which He leaves with us when going to the Father, or that which He will give us when we ourselves are brought by Him to the Father. And what is it He leaves with us, when ascending from us, save His own presence, which He never withdraws? For He Himself is our peace who has made both one. [Ephesians 2:14] It is He, therefore, that becomes our peace, both when we believe that He is, and when we see Him as He is. [1 John 3:2] For if, so long as we are in this corruptible body that burdens the soul, and are walking by faith, not by sight, He forsakes not those who are sojourning at a distance from Himself; [2 Corinthians 5:6-7] how much more, when we have attained to that sight, shall He fill us with Himself?

4. But why is it that, when He said, Peace I leave with you, He did not add, my; but when He said, I give unto you, He there made use of it? Is my to be understood even where it is not expressed, on the ground that what is expressed once may have a reference to both? Or may it not be that here also we have some underlying truth that has to be asked and sought for, and opened up to those who knock thereat? For what, if by His own peace He meant such to be understood as that which He possesses Himself? Whereas the peace, which He leaves us in this world, may more properly be termed our peace than His. For He, who is altogether without sin, has no elements of discord in Himself; while the peace we possess, meanwhile, is such that in the midst of it we have still to be saying, Forgive us our debts. [Matthew 6:12] A certain kind of peace, accordingly, we do possess, inasmuch as we delight in the law of God after the inward man: but it is not a full peace, for we see another law in our members warring against the law of our mind. [Romans 7:22-23] In the same way we have peace in our relations with one another, just because, in mutually loving, we have a mutual confidence in one another: but no more is such a peace as that complete, for we see not the thoughts of one another's hearts; and we have severally better or worse opinions in certain respects of one another than is warranted by the reality. And so that peace, although left us by Him, is our peace: for were it not from Him, we should not be possessing it, such as it is; but such is not the peace He has Himself. And if we keep what we received to the end, then such as He has shall we have, when we shall have no elements of discord of our own, and we shall have no secrets hid from one another in our hearts. But I am not ignorant that these words of the Lord may be taken so as to seem only a repetition of the same idea, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: so that after saying peace, He only repeated it in saying my peace; and what He had meant in saying I leave with you, He simply repeated in saying I give unto you. Let each one understand it as he pleases; but it is my delight, as I believe it is yours also, my beloved brethren, to keep such hold of that peace here, where our hearts are making common cause against the adversary, that we may be ever longing for the peace which there will be no adversary to disturb.

5. But when the Lord proceeded to say, Not as the world gives, give I unto you, what else does He mean but, Not as those give who love the world, give I unto you? For their aim in giving themselves peace is that, exempt from the annoyance of lawsuits and wars, they may find enjoyment, not in God, but in the friendship of the world; and although they give the righteous peace, in ceasing to persecute them, there can be no true peace where there is no real harmony, because their hearts are at variance. For as one is called a consort who unites his lot (sortem) with another, so may he be termed concordant whose heart has entered into a similar union. Let us, therefore, beloved, with whom Christ leaves peace, and to whom He gives His own peace, not after the world's way, but in a way worthy of Him by whom the world was made, that we should be of one heart with Himself, having our hearts run into one, that this one heart, set on that which is above, may escape the corruption of the earth.

1. We have just heard, brethren, these words of the Lord, which He addressed to His disciples: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard how I said to you, I go away, and come unto you: if you loved me, you would surely rejoice, because I go unto the Father; for the Father is greater than I. Their hearts might have become filled with trouble and fear, simply because of His going away from them, even though intending to return; lest, possibly, in the very interval of the shepherd's absence, the wolf should make an onset on the flock. But as God, He abandoned not those from whom He departed as man: and Christ Himself is at once both man and God. And so He both went away in respect of His visible humanity, and remained as regards His Godhead: He went away as regards the nature which is subject to local limitations, and remained in respect of that which is ubiquitous. Why, then, should their heart be troubled and afraid, when His quitting their eyesight was of such a kind as to leave unaltered His presence in their heart? Although even God, who has no local bounds to His presence, may depart from the hearts of those who turn away from Him, not with their feet, but their moral character; just as He comes to such as turn to Him, not with their faces, but in faith, and approach Him in the spirit, and not in the flesh. But that they might understand that it was only in respect of His human nature that He said, I go and come to you, He went on to say, If you loved me, you would surely rejoice, because I go unto the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And so, then, in that very respect wherein the Son is not equal to the Father, in that was He to go to the Father, just as from Him is He hereafter to come to judge the quick and the dead: while in so far as the Only-begotten is equal to Him that begot, He never withdraws from the Father; but with Him is everywhere perfectly equal in that Godhead which knows of no local limitations. For being as He was in the form of God, as the apostle says, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. For how could that nature be robbery, which was His, not by usurpation, but by birth? But He emptied Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant; [Philippians 2:6-7] and so, not losing the former, but assuming the latter, and emptying Himself in that very respect wherein He stood forth before us here in a humbler state than that wherein He still remained with the Father. For there was the accession of a servant-form, with no recession of the divine: in the assumption of the one there was no consumption of the other. In reference to the one He says, The Father is greater than I; but because of the other, I and my Father are one.

2. Let the Arian attend to this, and find healing in his attention; that wrangling may not lead to vanity, or, what is worse, to insanity. For it is the servant-form which is that wherein the Son of God is less, not only than the Father, but also than the Holy Spirit; and more than that, less also than Himself, for He Himself, in the form of God, is greater than Himself. For the man Christ does not cease to be called the Son of God, a name which was thought worthy of being applied even to His flesh alone as it lay in the tomb. And what else than this do we confess, when we declare that we believe in the only-begotten Son of God, who, under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, and buried? And what of Him was buried, save the flesh without the spirit? And so in believing in the Son of God, who was buried, we surely affix the name, Son of God, even to His flesh, which alone was laid in the grave. Christ Himself, therefore, the Son of God, equal with the Father because in the form of God, inasmuch as He emptied Himself, without losing the form of God, but assuming that of a servant, is greater even than Himself; because the unlost form of God is greater than the assumed form of a servant. And what, then, is there to wonder at, or what is there out of place, if, in reference to this servant-form, the Son of God says, The Father is greater than I; and in speaking of the form of God, the self-same Son of God declares, I and my Father are one? For one they are, inasmuch as The Word was God; and greater is the Father, inasmuch as the Word was made flesh. Let me add what cannot be gainsaid by Arians and Eunomians: in respect of this servant-form, Christ as a child was inferior also to His own parents, when, according to Scripture, He was subject [Luke 2:51] as an infant to His seniors. Why, then, heretic, seeing that Christ is both God and man, when He speaks as man, do you calumniate God? He in His own person commends our human nature; do you dare in Him to asperse the divine? Unbelieving and ungrateful as you are, will you degrade Him who made you, just for the very reason that He is declaring what He became because of you? For equal as He is with the Father, the Son, by whom man was made, became man, in order to be less than the Father: and had He not done so, what would have become of man?

3. May our Lord and Master bring home clearly to our minds the words, If you loved me, you would surely rejoice, because I go unto the Father; for the Father is greater than I. Let us, along with the disciples, listen to the Teacher's words, and not, with strangers, give heed to the wiles of the deceiver. Let us acknowledge the twofold substance of Christ; to wit, the divine, in which he is equal with the Father, and the human, in respect to which the Father is greater. And yet at the same time both are not two, for Christ is one; and God is not a quaternity, but a Trinity. For as the rational soul and the body form but one man, so Christ, while both God and man, is one; and thus Christ is God, a rational soul, and a body. In all of these we confess Him to be Christ, we confess Him in each. Who, then, is He that made the world? Christ Jesus, but in the form of God. Who is it that was crucified under Pontius Pilate? Christ Jesus, but in the form of a servant. And so of the several parts whereof He consists as man. Who is He who was not left in hell? Christ Jesus, but only in respect of His soul. Who was to rise on the third day, after being laid in the tomb? Christ Jesus, but solely in reference to His flesh. In reference, then, to each of these, He is likewise called Christ. And yet all of them are not two, or three, but one Christ. On this account, therefore, did He say, If you loved me, you would surely rejoice, because I go unto the Father; for human nature is worthy of congratulation, in being so assumed by the only-begotten Word as to be constituted immortal in heaven, and, earthy in its nature, to be so sublimated and exalted, that, as incorruptible dust, it might take its seat at the right hand of the Father. In such a sense it is that He said He would go to the Father. For in very truth He went unto Him, who was always with Him. But His going unto Him and departing from us were neither more nor less than His transforming and immortalizing that which He had taken upon Him from us in its mortal condition, and exalting that to heaven, by means of which He lived on earth in man's behalf. And who would not draw rejoicing from such a source, who has such love to Christ that he can at once congratulate his own nature as already immortal in Christ, and cherish the hope that he himself will yet become so through Christ?

1. Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, had said to His disciples, If you loved me, you would surely rejoice, because I go unto the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And that He so spoke in His servant-form, and not in that of God, wherein He is equal with the Father, is well known to faith as it resides in the minds of the pious, not as it is feigned by the scornful and senseless. And then He added, And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it has come to pass, you might believe. What can He mean by this, when the fact rather is, that a man ought, before it comes to pass, to believe that which demands his belief? For it forms the very encomium of faith when that which is believed is not seen. For what greatness is there in believing what is seen, as in those words of the same Lord, when, in reproving a disciple, He said, Because you have seen, you have believed; blessed are they that see not, and yet believe. And I hardly know whether any one can be said to believe what he sees; for this same faith is thus defined in the epistle addressed to the Hebrews: Now faith is the substance of those that hope, the assurance of things not seen. Accordingly, if faith is in things that are believed, and that, too, in things which are not seen, what mean these words of the Lord, And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it has come to pass, you might believe? Ought He not rather to have said, And now I have told you before it come to pass, that you may believe what, when it has come to pass, you shall see? For even he who was told, Because you have seen, you have believed, did not believe only what he saw; but he saw one thing, and believed another: for he saw Him as man, and believed Him to be God. He perceived and touched the living flesh, which he had seen in the act of dying, and he believed in the Deity infolded in that flesh. And so he believed with the mind what he did not see, by the help of that which was apparent to his bodily senses. But though we may be said to believe what we see, just as every one says that he believes his own eyes, yet that is not to be mistaken for the faith which is built up by God in our souls; but from things that are seen, we are brought to believe in those which are invisible. Wherefore, beloved, in the passage before us, when our Lord says, And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it has come to pass, you might believe; by the words, when it has come to pass, He certainly means, that they would yet see Him after His death, alive, and ascending to His Father; at the sight of which they should then be compelled to believe that He was indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God, seeing He could do such a thing, even after predicting it, and also could predict it before He did it: and this they should then believe, not with a new, but with an augmented faith; or at least [with a faith] that had been impaired by His death, and was now repaired by His resurrection. For it was not that they had not previously also believed Him to be the Son of God, but when His own predictions were actually fulfilled in Him, that faith, which was still weak at the time of His here speaking to them, and at the time of His death almost ceased to exist, sprang up again into new life and increased vigor.

2. But what says He next? Hereafter I will not talk much with you; for the prince of this world comes; and who is that, but the devil? And has nothing in me; that is to say, no sin at all. For by such words He points to the devil, as the prince, not of His creatures, but of sinners, whom He here designates by the name of this world. And as often as the name of the world is used in a bad sense, He is pointing only to the lovers of such a world; of whom it is elsewhere recorded, Whosoever will be a friend of this world, becomes the enemy of God. [James 4:4] Far be it from us, then, so to understand the devil as prince of the world, as if he wielded the government of the whole world, that is, of heaven and earth, and all that is in them; of which sort of world it was said, when we were lecturing on Christ the Word, And the world was made by Him. The whole world therefore, from the highest heavens to the lowest earth, is subject to the Creator, not to the deserter; to the Redeemer, not to the destroyer; to the Deliverer, not to the enslaver; to the Teacher, not to the deceiver. And in what sense the devil is to be understood as the prince of the world, is still more clearly unfolded by the Apostle Paul, who, after saying, We wrestle not against flesh and blood, that is, against men, went on to say, but against principalities and powers, and the world rulers of this darkness. For in the very next word he has explained what he meant by world, when he added, of this darkness; so that no one, by the name of the world, should understand the whole creation, of which in no sense are fallen angels the rulers. Of this darkness, he says, that is, of the lovers of this world: of whom, nevertheless, there were some elected, not from any deserving of their own, but by the grace of God, to whom he says, You were sometimes darkness; but now are you light in the Lord. [Ephesians 5:8] For all have been under the rulers of this darkness, that is, [under the rulers] of wicked men, or darkness, as it were, in subjection to darkness: but thanks be to God, who has delivered us, says the same apostle, from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. [Colossians 1:12-13] And in Him the prince of this world, that is, of this darkness, had nothing; for neither did He come with sin as God, nor had His flesh any hereditary taint of sin in its procreation by the Virgin. And, as if it were said to Him, Why, then, dost Thou die, if You have no sin to merit the punishment of death? He immediately added, But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do: arise, let us go hence. For He was sitting at table with those who were similarly occupied. But let us go, He said, and whither, but to the place where He, who had nothing in Him deserving of death, was to be delivered up to death? But He had the Father's commandment to die, as the very One of whom it had been foretold, Then I paid for that which I took not away; and so appointed to pay death to the full, while owing it nothing, and to redeem us from the death that was our due. For Adam had seized on sin as a prey, when, deceived, he presumptuously stretched forth his hand to the tree, and attempted to invade the incommunicable name of that Godhead which was disallowed him, and with which the Son of God was endowed by nature, and not by robbery.

1. This passage of the Gospel, brethren, where the Lord calls Himself the vine, and His disciples the branches, declares in so many words that the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, [1 Timothy 2:5] is the head of the Church, and that we are His members. For as the vine and its branches are of one nature, therefore, His own nature as God being different from ours, He became man, that in Him human nature might be the vine, and we who also are men might become branches thereof. What mean, then, the words, I am the true vine? Was it to the literal vine, from which that metaphor was drawn, that He intended to point them by the addition of true? For it is by similitude, and not by any personal propriety, that He is thus called a vine; just as He is also termed a sheep, a lamb, a lion, a rock, a corner-stone, and other names of a like kind, which are themselves rather the true ones, from which these are drawn as similitudes, not as realities. But when He says, I am the true vine, it is to distinguish Himself, doubtless, from that [vine] to which the words are addressed: How are you turned into sourness, as a strange vine? [Jeremiah 2:21] For how could that be a true vine which was expected to bring forth grapes and brought forth thorns? [Isaiah 5:4]

2. I am, He says, the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit, He takes away; and every one that bears fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Are, then, the husbandman and the vine one? Christ is the vine in the same sense as when He said, The Father is greater than I; but in that sense wherein He said, I and my Father are one, He is also the husbandman. And yet not such a one as those, whose whole service is confined to external labor; but such, that He also supplies the increase from within. For neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters; but God that gives the increase. But Christ is certainly God, for the Word was God; and so He and the Father are one: and if the Word was made flesh — that which He was not before — He nevertheless still remains what He was. And still more, after saying of the Father, as of the husbandman, that He takes away the fruitless branches, and prunes the fruitful, that they may bring forth more fruit, He straightway points to Himself as also the purger of the branches, when He says, Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Here, you see, He is also the pruner of the branches — a work which belongs to the husbandman, and not to the vine; and more than that, He makes the branches His workmen. For although they give not the increase, they afford some help; but not of themselves: For without me, He says, ye can do nothing. And listen, also, to their own confession: What, then, is Apollos, and what is Paul? But ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos watered. And this, too, as the Lord gave to every man; and so not of themselves. In that, however, which follows, but God gave the increase, [1 Corinthians 3:5-7] He works not by them, but by Himself; for work like that exceeds the lowly capacity of man, transcends the lofty powers of angels, and rests solely and entirely in the hands of the Triune Husbandman. Now you are clean, that is, clean, and yet still further to be cleansed. For, had they not been clean, they could not have borne fruit; and yet every one that bears fruit is purged by the husbandman, that he may bring forth more fruit. He bears fruit because he is clean; and to bear more, he is cleansed still further. For who in this life is so clean as not to be in need of still further and further cleansing? Seeing that, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness; to cleanse in very deed the clean, that is, the fruitful, that they may be so much the more fruitful, as they have been made the cleaner.

3. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Why does He not say, You are clean through the baptism wherewith you have been washed, but through the word which I have spoken unto you, save only that in the water also it is the word that cleanses? Take away the word, and the water is neither more nor less than water. The word is added to the element, and there results the Sacrament, as if itself also a kind of visible word. For He had said also to the same effect, when washing the disciples' feet, He that is washed needs not, save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. And whence has water so great an efficacy, as in touching the body to cleanse the soul, save by the operation of the word; and that not because it is uttered, but because it is believed? For even in the word itself the passing sound is one thing, the abiding efficacy another. This is the word of faith which we preach, says the apostle, that if you shall confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. [Romans 10:10] Accordingly, we read in the Acts of the Apostles, Purifying their hearts by faith; [Acts 15:9] and, says the blessed Peter in his epistle, Even as baptism does also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience. This is the word of faith which we preach, whereby baptism, doubtless, is also consecrated, in order to its possession of the power to cleanse. For Christ, who is the vine with us, and the husbandman with the Father, loved the Church, and gave Himself for it. And then read the apostle, and see what he adds: That He might sanctify it, cleansing it with the washing of water by the word. [Ephesians 5:25-26] The cleansing, therefore, would on no account be attributed to the fleeting and perishable element, were it not for that which is added, by the word. This word of faith possesses such virtue in the Church of God, that through the medium of him who in faith presents, and blesses, and sprinkles it, He cleanses even the tiny infant, although itself unable as yet with the heart to believe unto righteousness, and to make confession with the mouth unto salvation. All this is done by means of the word, whereof the Lord says, Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.