(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was 
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)


ST. AUGUSTINE

LECTURES OR TRACTATES 11-20 ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.

[Translated by Rev. John Gibb, Professor in the Presbyterian Theological 
College at London.]


TRACTATE XI.

CHAPTER II. 23-25; III. 1-5.

    1. OPPORTUNELY has the Lord procured for us that this passage should 
occur in its order to-day: for I suppose you have observed, beloved, that 
we have undertaken to consider and explain the Gospel according to John in 
due course. Opportunely then it occurs, that to-day you should hear from 
the Gospel, that, "Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, 
he shall not see the kingdom of God." For it is time that we exhort you, 
who are still catechumens, who have believed in Christ in such wise, that 
you are still bearing your sins. And none shall see the kingdom of heaven 
while burdened with sins; for none shall reign with Christ, but he to whom 
they have been forgiven: but forgiven they cannot be, but to him who is 
born again of water and of the Holy Spirit. But let us observe all the 
words what they imply, that here the sluggish may find with what 
earnestness they must haste to put off their burden. For were they bearing 
some heavy load, either of stone, or of wood, or even of some gain; if they 
were carrying corn, or wine, or money, they would run to put off their 
loads: they are carrying a burden of sins, and yet are sluggish to run. You 
must run to put off this burden; it weighs you down, it drowns you.

    2. Behold, you have heard that when our Lord Jesus Christ "was in 
Jerusalem at the Passover, on the feast day, many believed in His name, 
seeing the signs which He did." "Many believed in His name;" and what 
follows? "But Jesus did not trust Himself to them." Now what does this 
mean, "They believed," or trusted, "in His name;" and yet "Jesus did not 
trust Himself to them;"? Was it, perhaps, that they had not believed on 
Him, but were feigning to have believed, and that therefore Jesus did not 
trust Himself to them? But the evangelist would not have said, "Many 
believed in His name," if he were not giving a true testimony to them. A 
great thing, then, it is, and a wonderful thing: men believe on Christ, and 
Christ trusts not Himself to men. Especially is it wonderful, since, being 
the Son of God, He of course suffered willingly. If He were not willing, He 
would never have suffered, since, had He not willed it, He had not been 
born; and if He had willed this only, merely to be born and not to die, He 
might have done even  whatever He willed, because He is the almighty Son of 
the almighty Father Let us prove it by facts. For when they wished to hold 
Him, He departed from them. The Gospel says, "And when they would have cast 
Him headlong from the top of the mountain, He departed from them 
unhurt."(1) And when they came to lay hold of Him, after He was sold by 
Judas the traitor, who imagined that he had it in his power to deliver up 
his Master and Lord, there also the Lord showed that He suffered of His own 
will, not of necessity. For when the Jews desired to lay hold of Him, He 
said to them, "Whom seek ye? But they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And said He, 
I am He. On hearing this saying, they went backward, and fell to the 
ground."(2) In this, that in answering them He threw them to the ground, He 
showed His power; that in His being taken by them He might show His will. 
It was of compassion, then, that He suffered. For "He was delivered up for 
our sins, and rose again for our justification."(3) Hear His own words: "I 
have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again: no man 
taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself, that I may take it 
again."(1) Since, therefore, He had such power, since He declared it by 
words, showed it by deeds, what then does it mean that Jesus did not trust 
Himself to them, as if they would do Him some harm against His will, or 
would do something to Him against His will, especially seeing that they had 
already believed in His name? Moreover, of the same persons the evangelist 
says, "They believed in His name," of whom he says, "But Jesus did not 
trust Himself to them." Why? "Because He knew all men, and needed not that 
any should bear witness of man: for Himself knew what was in man." The 
artificer knew what was in His own work better than the work knew what was 
in itself. The Creator of man knew what was in man, which the created man 
himself knew not. Do we not prove this of Peter, that he knew not what was 
in himself, when he said, "With Thee, even to death"? Hear that the Lord 
knew what was in man: "Thou with me even to death? Verily, verily, I say 
unto thee, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice."(2) The man, 
then, knew not what was in himself; but the Creator of the man knew what 
was in the man. Nevertheless, many believed in His name, and yet Jesus did 
not trust Himself to them. What can we say, brethren? Perhaps the 
circumstances that follow will indicate to us what the mystery of these 
words is. That men had believed in Him is manifest, is true; none doubts 
it, the Gospel says it, the truth-speaking evangelist testifies to it. 
Again, that Jesus trusted not Himself to them is also manifest, and no 
Christian doubts it; for the Gospel says this also, and the same truth-
speaking evangelist testifies to it. Why, then, is it that they believed in 
His name, and yet Jesus did not trust Himself to them? Let us see what 
follows.

    3. "And there was a man of the Pharisees, Nicodemus by name, a ruler of 
the Jews: the same came to Him by night, and said unto Him, Rabbi (you 
already know that Master is called Rabbi), we know that Thou art a teacher 
come from God; for no man can do these signs which Thou doest, except God 
be with him." This Nicodemus, then, was of those who had believed in His 
name, as they saw the signs and prodigies which He did. For this is what he 
said above: "Now, when He was in Jerusalem at the passover on the feast-
day, many believed in His name." Why did they believe? He goes on to say, 
"Seeing His signs which He did." And what says he of Nicodemus? "There was 
a ruler of the Jews, Nicodemus by name the same came to Him by night, and 
says to Him, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God." 
Therefore this man also had believed in His name. And why had he believed? 
He goes on, "For no man can do these signs which Thou doest, except God be 
with him." If, therefore, Nicodemus was of those who had believed in His 
name, let us now consider, in the case of this Nicodemus, why Jesus did not 
trust Himself to them. "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I 
say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God." Therefore to them who have been born again cloth Jesus trust Himself. 
Behold, those men had believed on Him, and yet Jesus trusted not Himself to 
them. Such are all catechumens: already they believe in the name of Christ, 
but Jesus does not trust Himself to them. Give good heed, my beloved, and 
understand. If we say to a catechumen, Dost thou believe on Christ? he 
answers, I believe, and signs himself; already he bears the cross of Christ 
on his forehead, and is not ashamed of the cross of his Lord. Behold, he 
has believed in His name. Let us ask him, Dost thou eat the flesh of the 
Son of man, and drink the blood of the Son of man? he knows not what we 
say, because Jesus has not trusted Himself to him.

    4. Therefore, since Nicodemus was of that number, he came to the Lord, 
but came by night; and this perhaps pertains to the matter. Came to the 
Lord, and came by night; came to the Light, and came in the darkness. But 
what do they that are born again of water and of the Spirit hear from the 
apostle? "Ye were once darkness, buff now light in the Lord; walk as 
children of light;"(3) and again, "But we who are of the day, let us be  
sober."(4) Therefore they who are born again were of the night, and are of 
the day; were darkness, and are light. Now Jesus trusts Himself to them, 
and they come to Jesus, not by night, like Nicodemus; not in darkness do 
they seek the day. For such now also profess: Jesus has come near to them, 
has made salvation in them; for He said, "Except a man eat my flesh, and 
drink my blood, he shall not have life in him."(5) And as the catechumens 
have the sign of the cross on their forehead, they are already of the great 
house; but from servants let them become sons. For they are something who 
already belong to the great house. But when did the people Israel eat the 
manna?

After they had passed the Red Sea. And as to what the Red Sea signifies, 
hear the apostle: "Moreover, brethren, I would not have you ignorant, that 
all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea." To 
what purpose passed they through the sea? As if thou wert asking of him, he 
goes on to say, "And all were baptized by Moses in the cloud and in the 
sea."(1) Now, if the figure of the sea had such efficacy, how great will be 
the efficacy of the true form of baptism! If what was done in a figure 
brought the people, after they had crossed over, to the manna, what will 
Christ impart, in the verity of His baptism, to His own people: brought 
over through Himself? By His baptism He brings over them that believe; all 
their sins, the enemies as it were that pursue them, being slain, as all 
the Egyptians perished in that sea. Whither does He bring over, my 
brethren? Whither does Jesus bring over by baptism, of which Moses then 
showed the figure, when he brought them through the sea? Whither? To the 
manna. What is the manna? "I am," saith He, "the living bread, which came 
down from heaven."(2) The faithful receive the manna, having now been 
brought through the Red Sea? Why Red Sea? Besides sea, why also "red"? That 
"Red Sea" signified the baptism of Christ. How is the baptism of Christ 
red, but as consecrated by Christ's blood? Whither, then, does He lead 
those that believe and are baptized? To the manna. Behold, "manna," I say: 
what the Jews, that people Israel, received, is well known, well known what 
God had rained on them from heaven; and yet catechumens know not what 
Christians receive. Let them blush, then, for their ignorance; let them 
pass through the Red Sea, let them eat the manna, that as they have 
believed in the name of Jesus, so likewise Jesus may trust Himself to them.

    5. Therefore mark, my brethren, what answer this man who came to Jesus 
by night makes. Although he came to Jesus, yet because he came by night, he 
still speaks from the darkness of his own flesh. He understands not what he 
hears from the Lord, understands not what he hears from the Light, "which 
lighteth every man that cometh into this world."(3) Already hath the Lord 
said to him, "Except a man be born again, he shall not see the kingdom of 
God. Nicodemus saith unto Him, How can a man be born again when he is old?" 
The Spirit speaks to him, and he thinks of the flesh. He thinks of his own 
flesh, because as yet he thinks not of Christ's flesh. For when the Lord 
Jesus had said, "Except a man eat my flesh, and drink my blood, he shall 
not have life in him," some who followed Him were offended, and said among 
themselves, "This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" For they fancied 
that, in saying this, Jesus meant that they would be able to cook Him, 
after being cut up like a lamb, and eat Him: horrified at His words, they 
went back, and no more followed Him. Thus speaks the evangelist: "And the 
Lord Himself remained with the twelve; and they said to Him, Lo, those have 
left Thee. And He said, Will ye also go away?"--wishing to show them that 
He was necessary to them, not they necessary to Christ. Let no man fancy 
that he frightens Christ, when he tells Him that he is a Christian; as if 
Christ will be more blessed if thou be a Christian. It is a good thing for 
thee to be a Christian; but if thou be not, it will not be ill for Christ. 
Hear the voice of the psalm, "I said to the Lord, Thou art my God, since 
Thou hast no need of my goods."(4) For that reason, "Thou art my God, since 
of my goods Thou hast no need." If thou be without God, thou wilt be less; 
if thou be with God, God will not be greater. Not from thee will He be 
greater, but thou without Him wilt be less. Grow, therefore, in Him; do not 
withdraw thyself, that He may, as it were, diminish. Thou wilt be renewed 
if thou come to Him, wilt suffer loss if thou depart from Him. He remains 
entire when thou comest to Him, remains entire even when thou fallest away. 
When, therefore, He had said to His disciples, "Will ye also go away?" 
Peter, that Rock, answered with the voice of all, "Lord, to whom shall we 
go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." Pleasantly savored the Lord's 
flesh in his mouth. The Lord, however, expounded to them, and said, "It is 
the Spirit that quickeneth." After He had said, "Except a man eat my flesh, 
and drink my blood, he shall not have life in him," lest they should 
understand it carnally, He said, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, but the 
flesh profiteth nothing: the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit 
and life."(5)

    6. This Nicodemus, who had come to Jesus by night, did not savor of 
this spirit and this life. Saith Jesus to him, "Except a man be born again, 
he shall not see the kingdom of God." And he, savoring of his own flesh, 
while as yet he savored not of the flesh of Christ in his mouth, saith, 
"How can a man be born a second time, when he is old? Can he enter a second 
time into his mother's womb, and be born?" This man knew but one birth, 
that from Adam and Eve; that which is from God and the Church he knew not 
yet: he knew only those parents that bring forth to death, knew not yet the 
parents that bring forth to life; he knew but the parents that bring forth 
successors, knew not yet the ever-living parents that bring forth those 
that shall abide.

    Whilst there are two births, then, he understood only one. One is of 
the earth, the other of heaven; one of the flesh, the other of the Spirit; 
one of mortality, the other of eternity; one of male and female, the other 
of God and the Church. But these two are each single; there can be no 
repeating the one or the other. Rightly did Nicodemus understand the birth 
of the flesh; so understand thou also the birth of the Spirit, as Nicodemus 
understood the birth of the flesh. What did Nicodemus understand? "Can a 
man enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" Thus, 
whosoever shall tell thee to be spiritually born a second time, answer in 
the words of Nicodemus, "Can a man enter a second time into his mother's 
womb, and be born?" I am already born of Adam, Adam cannot beget me a 
second time. I am already born of Christ, Christ cannot beget me again. As 
there is no repeating from the womb, so neither from baptism.

    7. He that is born of the Catholic Church, is born, as it were, of 
Sarah, of the free woman; he that is born of heresy is, as it were, born of 
the bond woman, but of Abraham's seed. Consider, beloved, how great a 
mystery. God testifies, saying, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of 
Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Were there not other patriarchs? Before 
these, was there not holy Noah, who alone of the whole human race, with all 
his house, was worthy to be delivered from the flood,--he in whom, and in 
his sons, the Church was prefigured? Borne by wood, they escaped the flood. 
Then afterwards great men whom we know, whom Holy Scriptures commends, 
Moses faithful in all his house.(1) And yet those three are named, just as 
if they alone deserved well of him: "I am the God of Abraham, and the God 
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this is my name for ever."(2) Sublime 
mystery! It is the Lord that is able to open both our mouth and your 
hearts, that we may speak as He has deigned to reveal, and that you may 
receive even as it is expedient for you.

    8. The patriarchs, then, are these three, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
You know that the sons of Jacob were twelve, and thence the people Israel; 
for Jacob himself is Israel, and the people Israel in twelve tribes 
pertaining to the twelve sons of Israel. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob three 
fathers, and one people. The fathers three, as it were in the beginning of 
the people; three fathers in whom the people was figured: and the former 
people itself the present people. For in the Jewish people was figured the 
Christian people. There a figure, here the truth; there a shadow, here the 
body: as the apostle says, "Now these things happened to them in a figure." 
It is the apostle's voice: "They were written," saith he, "for our sakes, 
upon whom the end of the ages is come."(3) Let your mind now recur to 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the case of these three, we find that free 
women bear children, and that bond women bear children: we find there 
offspring of free women, we find there also offspring of bond women. The 
bond woman signifies nothing good: "Cast out the bond woman," saith he, 
"and her son; for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son 
of the free." The apostle recounts this; and he says that in those two sons 
of Abraham was a figure of the two Testaments, the Old and the New. To the 
Old Testament belong the lovers of temporal things, the lovers of the 
world: to the New Testament belong the lovers of eternal life. Hence, that 
Jerusalem on earth was the shadow of the heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of 
us all, which is in heaven; and these are the apostle's words.(4) And of 
that city from which we are absent on our sojourn, you know much, you have 
now heard much. But we find a wonderful thing in these births, in these 
fruits of the womb, in these generations of free and bond women: namely, 
four sorts of men; in which four sorts is completed the figure of the 
future Christian people, so that what was said in the case of those three 
patriarchs is not surprising, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of 
Isaac, and the God of Jacob." For in the case of all Christians, observe, 
brethren, either good men are born of evil men, or evil men of good; or 
good men of good, or evil men of evil: more than these four sorts you 
cannot find. These things I will again repeat: Give heed, keep them, excite 
your hearts, be not dull; take in, lest ye be taken, how of all Christians 
there are four sorts. Either of the good are born good, or of the evil, are 
born evil; or of the good are born evil, or of the evil good. I think it is 
plain. Of the good, good; if they who baptize are good, and also they who 
are baptized rightly believe, and are rightly numbered among the members of 
Christ. Of the evil, evil; if they who baptize are evil, and they who are 
baptized approach God with a double heart, and do not observe the morals 
which they hear urged in the Church, so as not to be chaff, but grain, 
there. How many such there are, you know, beloved. Of the evil, good; 
sometimes an adulterer baptizes, and be that is baptized is justified. Of 
the good, evil; sometimes they who baptize are holy, they who are baptized 
do not desire to keep the way of God.

    9. I suppose, brethren, that this is known in the Church, and that what 
we are saying is manifest by daily examples; but let us consider these 
things in the case of our fathers before us, how they also had these four 
kinds. Of the good, good; Ananias baptized Paul. How of the evil, evil? The 
apostle declares that there were certain preachers of the gospel, who, he 
says, did not use to preach the gospel with a pure motive, whom, however, 
he tolerates in the Christian society, saying, "What then? notwithstanding 
every way, whether by occasion or in truth, Christ is preached, and in this 
I rejoice."(1) Was he therefore malevolent, and did he rejoice in another's 
evil? No, but rejoiced because through evil men the truth was preached, and 
by the mouths of evil men Christ was preached. If these men baptized any 
persons like themselves, evil men baptized evil men: if they baptized such 
as the Lord admonishes, when He says, "Whatsoever they bid you, do; but do 
not ye after their works,"(2) they were evil men that were baptizing good. 
Good men baptized evil men, as Simon the sorcerer was baptized by Philip, a 
holy man.(3) Therefore these four sorts, my brethren, are known. See, I 
repeat them again, hold them, count them, think upon them; guard against 
what is evil; keep what is good. Good men are born of good, when holy men 
are baptized by holy; evil men are born of evil, when both they that 
baptize and they that are baptized live unrighteously and ungodly; good men 
are born of evil, when they are evil that baptize, and they good that are 
baptized; evil men are born of good, when they are good that baptize, and 
they evil that are baptized.

    10. How do we find this in these three names, "I am the God of Abraham, 
and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob"? We hold the bond women among 
the evil, and the free women among the good. Free women bear the good; 
Sarah bare Isaac: bond women bear the evil; Hagar bare Ishmael. We have in 
the case of Abraham alone the two sorts, both when the good are of the 
good, and also when the evil are of the evil. But where have we evil of 
good figured? Rebecca, Isaac's wife, was a free woman: read, She bare 
twins; one was good, the other evil. Thou hast the Scripture openly 
declaring by the voice of God, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I 
hated."(4) Rebecca bare those two, Jacob and Esau: one of them is chosen, 
the other is reprobated; one succeeds to the inheritance, the other is 
disinherited. God does not make His people of Esau, but makes it of Jacob. 
The seed is one, those conceived are dissimilar: the womb is one, those 
born of it are diverse. Was not the free woman that bare Jacob, the same 
free woman that bare Esau? They strove in the mother's womb; and when they 
strove there, it was said to Rebecca," Two peoples are in thy womb." Two 
men, two peoples; a good people, and a bad people: but yet they strive m 
one womb. How many evil men there are in the Church! And one womb carries 
them until they are separated in the end: and the good cry out against the 
evil, and the evil in turn cry out against the good, and both strive 
together in the bowels of one mother. Will they be always together? There 
is a going forth to the light in the end; the birth which is here figured 
in a mystery is declared; and it will then appear that "Jacob have I loved, 
but Esau have I hated."

    11. Accordingly we have now found, brethren, of the good, good--of the 
free woman, Isaac; and of the evil, evil--of the bond woman, Ishmael; and 
of the good, evil--of Rebecca, Esau: where shall we find of the evil, good? 
There remains Jacob, that the completion of these four sorts may be 
concluded in the three patriarchs. Jacob had for wives free women, he had 
also bond women: the free bear children, as do also the bond, and thus come 
the twelve sons of Israel. If you count them all, of whom they were born, 
they were not all of the free women, nor all of the bond women; but yet 
they were all of one seed. What, then, my brethren? Did not they who were 
born of the bond women possess the land of promise together with their 
brethren? We have there found good sons of Jacob born of bond women, and 
good sons of Jacob born of free women. Their birth of the wombs of bond 
women was nothing against them, when they knew their seed in the father, 
and consequently they held the kingdom with their brethren. Therefore, as 
in the case of Jacob's sons, that they were born of bond women did not 
hinder their holding the kingdom, and receiving the land of promise on an 
equality with their brothers; their birth of bond women did not hinder 
them, but the father's seed prevailed: so, whoever are baptized by evil 
men, appear as if born of bond women; nevertheless, because they are of the 
seed of the Word of God, which is figured in Jacob, let them not be cast 
down, they shall possess the inheritance with their brethren. Therefore, 
let him who is born of the good seed be without fear; only let him not 
imitate the bond woman, if he is born of a bond woman. Do not thou imitate 
the evil, proud, bond woman. For how came the sons of Jacob, that were born 
of bond women, to possess the land of promise with their brethren, whilst 
Ishmael, born of a bond woman, was cast out from the inheritance? How, but 
because he was proud, they were humble? He proudly reared his neck, and 
wished to seduce his brother while he was playing with him.

    12. A great mystery is there. They were playing together, Ishmael and 
Isaac: Sarah sees them playing, and says to Abraham, "Cast out the bond 
woman and her son; for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with my 
son Isaac." And when Abraham was sorrowful, the Lord confirmed to him the 
saying of his wife. Now here is evidently a mystery, that the event was 
somehow pregnant with something future. She sees them playing, and says, 
"Cast out the bond woman and her son." What is this, brethren? For what 
evil had Ishmael done to the boy Isaac, in playing with him? That playing 
was a mocking; that playing signified deception. Now attend, beloved, to 
this great mystery. The apostle calls it persecution; that playing, that 
play, he calls persecution: for he says, "But as then he that was born 
after the flesh, persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, so also 
now;" that is, they that are born after the flesh persecute them that are 
born after the Spirit. Who are born after the flesh? Lovers of the world, 
lovers of this life. Who are born after the Spirit? Lovers of the kingdom 
of heaven, lovers of Christ, men that long for eternal life, that worship 
God freely. They play, and the apostle calls it persecution. For after he 
said these words, "And as then be that was born after the flesh persecuted 
him that was born after the Spirit, so also now;" the apostle went on, and 
showed of what persecution, he was speaking: "But what says the Scripture? 
Cast out the bond woman and her son: for the son of the bond woman shall 
not be heir with my son Isaac."[1] We search where the Scripture says this, 
to see whether any persecution on Ishmael's part against Isaac preceded 
this; and we find that this was said by Sarah when she saw the boys playing 
together. The playing which Scripture says that Sarah saw, the apostle 
calls persecution. Hence, they who seduce you by playing, persecute you the 
more. "Come," say they, "Come, be baptized here, here is true baptism for 
thee." Do not play, there is one true baptism; that other is play: thou 
wilt be seduced, and that will be a grievous persecution to thee. It were 
better for thee to make Ishmael a present of the kingdom; but Ishmael will 
not have it, for he means to play. Keep thou thy father's inheritance, and 
hear this: "Cast out the bond woman and her son; for the son of the bond 
woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac."

    13. These men, too, dare to say that they are wont to suffer 
persecution from catholic kings, or from catholic princes. What persecution 
do they bear? Affliction of body: yet if at times they have suffered, and 
how they suffered, let themselves know, and settle it with their 
consciences; still they suffered only affliction of body: the persecution 
which they cause is more grievous. Beware when Ishmael wishes to play with 
Isaac, when he fawns on thee, when he offers another baptism: answer him, I 
have baptism already. For if this baptism is true, he who would give thee 
another would be mocking thee. Beware of the persecution of the soul. For 
though the party of Donatus has at tithes suffered somewhat at the hands of 
catholic princes, it was a bodily suffering, not the suffering of spiritual 
deception. Hear and see in the very facts of Old Testament history all the 
signs and indications of things to come. Sarah is found to have afflicted 
her maid Hagar: Sarah is free. After her maid began to be proud, Sarah 
complained to Abraham, and said, "Cast out the bond woman;" she has lifted 
her neck against me. His wife complains of Abraham, as if it were his 
doing. But Abraham, who was not bound to the maid by lust, but by the duty 
of begetting children, inasmuch as Sarah had given her to him to have 
offspring by her, says to her: "Behold, she is thy handmaid; do unto her as 
thou wilt." And Sarah grievously afflicted her, and she fled from her face. 
See, the free woman afflicted the bond woman, and the apostle does not call 
that a persecution; the slave plays with his master, and he calls it 
persecution: this afflicting is not called persecution; that playing is. 
How does it appear to you, brethren? Do you not understand what is 
signified? Thus, then, when God wills to stir up powers against heretics, 
against schismatics, against those that scatter the Church, that blow on 
Christ as if they abhorred Him, that blaspheme baptism, let them not 
wonder; because God stirs them up, that Hagar may be beaten by Sarah. Let 
Hagar know herself, and yield her neck: for when, after being humiliated, 
she departed from her mistress, an angel met her, and said to her, "What is 
the matter with thee, Hagar, Sarah's handmaid?" When she complained of her 
mistress, what did she hear from the angel? "Return to thy mistress."(1) It 
is for this that she is afflicted, that she may return; and would that she 
may return, for her offspring, just like the sons of Jacob, will obtain the 
inheritance with their brethren.

    14. But they wonder that Christian powers are roused against detestable 
scatterers of the Church. Should they not be moved, then? How otherwise 
should they give an account of their rule to God? Observe, beloved, what I 
say, that it concerns Christian kings of this world to wish their mother 
the Church, of which they have been spiritually born, to have peace in 
their times. We read Daniel's visions and prophetical histories. The three 
children praised the Lord in the fire: King Nebuchadnezzar wondered at the 
children praising God, and at the fire around them doing them no harm: and 
whilst he wondered, what did King Nebuchadnezzar say, he who was neither a 
Jew nor circumcised, who had set up his own image and compelled all men to 
adore it; but, impressed by the praises of the three children when he saw 
the majesty of God present in the fire what said he? "And I will publish a 
decree to all tribes and tongues in the whole earth." What sort of decree? 
"Whosoever shall speak blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and 
Abednego, shall be cut off, and their houses shall be made a ruin."(2) See 
how an alien king acts with raging indignation that the God of Israel might 
not be blasphemed, because He was able to deliver the three children from 
the fire: and yet they would not have Christian kings to act with severity 
when Christ is contemptuously rejected, by whom not three children, but the 
whole world, with these very kings, is delivered from the fire of hell! For 
those three children, my brethren, were delivered from temporal fire. Is He 
not the same God who was the God of the Maccabees and the God of the three 
children? The latter He delivered from the fire; the former did in body 
perish in the torments of fire, but in mind they remained steadfast in the 
ordinances of the law. The latter were openly delivered, the former were 
crowned in secret? It is a greater thing to be delivered from the flame of 
hell than from the furnace of a human power. If, then, Nebuchadnezzar 
praised and extolled and gave glory to God because He delivered three 
children from the fire, and gave such glory as to send forth a decree 
throughout his kingdom, "Whosoever shall speak blasphemy against the God of 
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut off, and their houses shall 
be brought to ruin," how should not these kings be moved, who observe, not 
three children delivered from the flame, but their very selves delivered 
from hell, when they see Christ, by whom they have been delivered, 
contemptuously spurned in Christians, when they hear it said to a 
Christian, "Say that thou art not a Christian"? Men are willing to do such 
deeds, but they do not wish to suffer, at all events, such punishments.

    15. For see what they do and what they suffer. They slay souls, they 
suffer in body: they cause everlasting deaths, and yet they complain that 
they themselves suffer temporal deaths. And yet what deaths do they suffer? 
They allege to us some martyrs of theirs in persecution. See, Marculus was 
hurled headlong from a rock; see, Donatus of Bagaia  was thrown into a 
well. When have the Roman authorities decreed such punishments as casting 
men down rocks? But what do those of our party reply? What was done I know 
not; what however do ours tell?  That they hung themselves headlong and 
cast the infamy of it upon the authorities. Let us call to mind the custom 
of the Roman authorities, and see to whom we are to give credit. Our men 
declare that those men cast themselves down headlong. If they are not the 
very disciples of those men, who now cast themselves down precipices, while 
no man persecutes them, let us not credit the allegation of our men: what 
wonder if those men did what these are wont to do? The Roman authorities 
never did employ such punishments: for had they not the power to put  them 
to death openly? But those men, while  they wished to be honored when dead, 
found not a death to make them more famous. In short, whatever the fact 
was, I do not know. And even if thou hast suffered corporal affliction, O 
party of Donatus, at the hand of the Catholic Church, as an Hagar thou hast 
suffered it at the hand of Sarah; "return to thy  mistress." A point which 
it was indeed necessary to discuss has detained us somewhat too long to be 
at all able to expound the whole text of the Gospel Lesson. Let this 
suffice you in the meantime, beloved brethren, lest, by speaking of other 
matters, what has been spoken might be shut out from your hearts. Hold fast 
these things, declare such things; and while yourselves are inflamed, go 
your way thither, and set on fire them that are cold.

TRACTATE XII: CHAPTER III. 6-21.

    1. We observe, beloved, that the intimation with which we yesterday 
excited your attention has brought you together with more alacrity, and in 
greater number than usual; but meanwhile let us, if you please, pay our 
debt of a discourse on the Gospel Lesson, which comes in due course. You 
shall then hear, beloved, as well what we have already effected concerning 
the peace of the Church, and what we hope yet further to accomplish. For 
the present, then, let the whole attention of your hearts be given to the 
gospel; let none be thinking of anything else. For if he who attends to it 
wholly apprehends with difficulty, must not he who divides himself by 
diverse thoughts let go what he has received? Moreover, you remember, 
beloved, that on the last Lord's day, as the Lord deigned to help us, we 
discoursed of spiritual regeneration. That lesson we have caused to be read 
to you again, so that what was then left unspoken, we may now, by the aid 
of your prayers in the name of Christ, fulfill.

    2. Spiritual regeneration is one, just as the generation of the flesh 
is one. And Nicodemus said the truth when he said to the Lord that a man 
cannot, when he is old, return again into his mother's womb and be born. He 
indeed said that a man cannot do this when he is old, as if he could do it 
even were he an infant. But be he fresh from the womb, or now in years, he 
cannot possibly return again into the mother's bowels and be born. But just 
as for the birth of the flesh, the bowels of woman avail to bring forth the 
child only once, so for the spiritual birth the bowels of the Church avail 
that a man be baptized only once. Therefore, in case one should say, "Well, 
but this man was born in heresy, and this in schism:" all that was cut 
away, if you remember what was debated to you about our three fathers, of 
whom God willed to be called the God, not that they were thus alone  but 
because in them alone the figure of the future people was made up  in its 
completeness. For we find one born of a bond woman disinherited, one born 
of a free woman made heir: again, we find one born of a free woman 
disinherited, one born of a bond woman made heir. Ishmael, born of a bond 
woman, disinherited; Isaac, born of a free woman, made heir: Esau, born of 
a free woman, disinherited; the sons of Jacob, born of bond women, made 
heirs. Thus, in these three fathers the figure of the whole future people 
is seen: and not without reason God saith, "I am the God of Abraham, and 
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this," saith He, "is my name for 
ever."(1) Rather let us remember what was promised to Abraham himself: for 
this was promised to Isaac, and also to Jacob. What do we find? "In thy 
seed shall all nations be blessed."(2) At that time the one  man believed 
what as yet he saw not: men now see, and are blinded. What was promised to 
the one man is fulfilled in the nations; and they who will not see what is 
already fulfilled, are separating themselves from the communion of the 
nations. But what avails it them that they will not see? See they do, 
whether they will or no; the open truth strikes against their closed eyes.

    3. It was in answer to Nicodemus, who was of them that had believed on 
Jesus, that it was said, And Jesus did not trust Himself to them. To 
certain men, indeed, He did not trust Himself, though they had already 
believed on Him. Thus it is written, "Many believed in His name, seeing the 
signs which He did. But Jesus did not trust Himself to them. For He needed 
not that any should testify of man; for Himself knew what was in man." 
Behold, they already believed on Jesus, and yet Jesus did not trust Himself 
to them. Why? because they were not yet born again of water and of the 
Spirit. From this have we exhorted and do exhort our brethren the 
catechumens. For if you ask them, they have already believed in Jesus; but 
because they have not yet received His flesh and blood, Jesus has not yet 
trusted Himself to them. What must they do that Jesus may trust Himself to 
them? They must be born again of water and of the Spirit; the Church that 
is in travail with them must bring them forth. They have been conceived; 
they must be brought forth to the light: they have breasts to be nourished 
at; let them not fear lest, being born, they may be smothered; let them not 
depart from the mother's breasts.

    4. No man can return into his mother's bowels and be born again. But 
some one is born of a bond woman? Well, did they who were born of bond 
women at the former time, return into the wombs of the free to be born 
anew? The seed of Abraham was in Ishmael also; but that Abraham might have 
a son of the bond maid, it was at the advice of his wife. The child was of 
the husband's seed, not of the womb, but at the sole pleasure of the wife. 
Was his birth of a bond woman the reason why he was disinherited? Then, if 
he was disinherited because he was the son of a bond woman, no sons of bond 
women would be admitted to the inheritance. The sons of Jacob were admitted 
to the inheritance; but Ishmael was put out of it, not because born of a 
bond woman, but because he was proud to his mother, proud to his mother's 
son; for his mother was Sarah rather than Hagar. The one gave her womb, the 
other's will was added: Abraham would not have done what Sarah willed not: 
therefore was he Sarah's son rather. But because he was proud to his 
brother, proud in playing, that is, in mocking him; what said Sarah? "Cast 
out the bond woman and her son; for the son of the bond woman shall not be 
heir with my son Isaac."(1) It was not, therefore, the bowels of the bond 
woman that caused his rejection, but the slave's neck. For the free-born is 
a slave if he is proud, and, what is worse, the slave of a bad mistress, of 
pride itself. Thus, my brethren, answer the man, that a man cannot be born 
a second time; answer fearlessly, that a man cannot be born a second time. 
Whatever is done a second time is mockery, whatever is done a second time 
is play. It is Ishmael playing, let him be cast out. For Sarah observed 
them playing, saith the Scripture, and said to Abraham, "Cast out the bond 
woman and her son." The playing of the boys displeased Sarah. She saw 
something strange in their play. Do not they who have sons like to see them 
playing? She saw and disapproved it. Something or other she saw in their 
play; she saw mockery in it, observed the pride of the slave; she was 
displeased with it, and she cast him out. The children of bond women, when 
wicked, are cast out; and the child of the free woman, when an Esau, is 
cast out. Let none, therefore, presume on his birth of good parents; let 
none presume on his being baptized by holy men. Let him that is baptized by 
holy men still beware lest he be not a Jacob, but an Esau. This would I say 
then, brethren, it is better to be baptized by men that seek their own and 
love the world, which is what the name of bond woman imports, and to be 
spiritually seeking the inheritance of Christ, so as to be as it were a son 
of Jacob by a bond woman, than to be baptized by holy men and to become 
proud, so as to be an Esau to be cast out, though born of a free woman. 
Hold ye this fast, brethren. We are not coaxing you, let none of your hope 
be in us; we flatter neither ourselves nor you; every man bears his own 
burden. It is our duty to speak, that we be not judged unhappily: yours to 
hear, and that with the heart, lest what we give be required of you; nay, 
that when it is required, it may be found a gain, not a loss.

    5. The Lord says to Nicodemus, and explains to him: "Verily, verily, I 
say unto thee, Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he 
cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Thou, says He, understandest a 
carnal generation, when thou sayest, Can a man return into his mother's 
bowels? The birth for the kingdom of God must be of water and of the 
Spirit. If one is born to the temporal inheritance of a human father, be he 
born of the bowels of a carnal mother; if one is born to the everlasting 
inheritance of God as his Father, be he born of the bowels of the Church. A 
father, as one that will die, begets a son by his wife to succeed him; but 
God begets of the Church sons, not to succeed Him, but to abide with 
Himself. And He goes on: "That which is horn of the flesh is flesh; and 
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." We are born spiritually then, 
and m spirit we are born by the word and sacrament. The Spirit is present 
that we may be born; the Spirit is invisibly present whereof thou art born, 
for thou too must be invisibly born. For He goes on to say: "Marvel not 
that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The Spirit bloweth where it 
listeth, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it cometh, or 
whither it goeth." None sees the Spirit; and how do we hear the Spirit's 
voice? There sounds a psalm, it is the Spirit's voice; the gospel sounds, 
it is the Spirit's voice; the divine word sounds, it is the Spirit's voice. 
"Thou hearest its voice, and knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it 
goeth." But if thou art born of the Spirit, thou too shall be so, that one 
who is not born of the Spirit knows not, as for thee, whence thou comest, 
or whither thou goest. For He said, as He went on, "So is also every one 
that is born of the Spirit."

    6. "Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be?" 
And, in fact, in the carnal sense, he knew not how. In him occurred what 
the Lord had said; the Spirit's voice he heard, but knew not whence it 
came, and whither it was going. "Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou 
a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?" Oh, brethren! what? do 
we think that the Lord meant to taunt scornfully this master of the Jews? 
The Lord knew what He was doing; He wished the man to be born of the 
Spirit. No man is born of the Spirit if he be not humble, for humility 
itself makes us to be born of the Spirit; "for the Lord is nigh to them 
that are of broken heart."(1) The man was puffed up with his mastership, 
and it appeared of some importance to himself that he was a teacher of the 
Jews. Jesus pulled down his pride, that he might be born of the Spirit: He 
taunted him as an unlearned man; not that the Lord wished to appear his 
superior. What comparison can there be, God compared to man, truth to 
falsehood? Christ greater than Nicodemus! Ought this to be said, can it be 
said, is it to be thought? If it were said, "Christ is greater than 
angels," it were ridiculous: for incomparably greater than every creature 
is He by whom every creature was made. But yet He rallies the man on his 
pride: "Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?" As if 
He said, Behold, thou knowest nothing, thou art a proud chief; be thou born 
of the Spirit: for if thou be born of the Spirit, thou wilt keep the ways 
of God, so as to follow Christ's humility. So, indeed, is He high above all 
angels, that, "being in the forth of God, He thought it not robbery to be 
equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant, 
being made into the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man: He 
humbled Himself, being made: obedient unto death" (and lest any kind of 
death should please thee), "even the death of the cross."(2) He hung on the 
cross, and they scoffed at Him. He could have come down from the cross; but 
He deferred, that He might rise again from the tomb. He, the Lord, bore 
with proud slaves;(3) the physician with the sick. If He did this, how 
ought they to act whom it behoves to be born of the Spirit!--if He did 
this, He who is the true Master in heaven, not of men only, but also of 
angels. For if the angels are learned, they are so by the Word of God. If 
they are learned by the Word of God, ask of what they are learned; and you 
shall find, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
the Word was God." The neck of man is done away with, only the hard and 
stiff neck, that it may be gentle to bear the yoke of Christ, of which it 
is said, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."(3)

    7. And He goes on, "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe 
not; how shall ye believe, if I tell you heavenly things?" What earthly 
things did He tell, brethren? "Except a man be born again;" is that an 
earthly thing? "The Spirit bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest its 
voice, and knowest not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth;" is that 
earthly? For if He spoke it of the wind, as some have understood it, when 
they were asked what earthly thing the Lord meant, when He said, "If I told 
you earthly things, and ye believe not; how shall ye believe, if I tell you 
heavenly things?"--when, I say, it was asked of certain men what "earthly 
thing" the Lord meant, being in difficulty, they said, What He said, "The 
Spirit bloweth where it listeth," and "its voice thou hearest, and knowest 
not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth," He said concerning the wind. 
Now what did He name earthly? He was speaking of the spiritual birth; and 
going on, saith, "So is every one that is born of the Spirit." Then, 
brethren, which of us does not see, for example, the south wind going from 
south to north, or another wind coming from east to west? How, then, know 
we not whence it cometh and whither it goeth? What earthly thing, then, did 
He tell, which men did not believe? Was it that which He had said about 
raising the temple again? Surely, for He had received His body of the 
earth, and that earth taken of the earthly body He was preparing to raise 
up. They did not believe Him as about to raise up earth. "If I told you 
earthly things," saith He, "and ye believe not; how shall ye believe if I 
tell you heavenly things?" That is, if ye believe not that I can raise up 
the temple cast down by you, how shall ye believe that men can be 
regenerated by the Spirit?

    8. And He goes on: "And no man hath ascended into heaven, but He that 
came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven." Behold, He was 
here, and was also in heaven; was here in His flesh, in heaven by His 
divinity; yea, everywhere by His divinity. Born of a mother, not quitting 
the Father. Two nativities of Christ are understood: one divine, the other 
human: one, that by which we were to be made; the other, that by which we 
were to be made anew: both marvellous; that without mother, this without 
father. But because He had taken a body of Adam,--for Mary was of Adam,--
and was about to raise that same body again, it was an  earthly thing He 
had said in saying, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it 
up." But this was a heavenly thing, when He said, "Except a man be born 
again of water and of the Spirit, he shall not see the kingdom of God." 
Come then, brethren! God has willed to be the Son of man; and willed men to 
be sons of God. He came down for our sakes; let us ascend for His sake. For 
He alone descended and ascended, He who saith, "No man hath ascended into 
heaven, but He who came down from heaven." Are they not therefore to ascend 
into heaven whom He makes sons of God? Certainly they are: this is the 
promise to us, "They shall be equal to the angels of God."(1) Then how is 
it that no man ascends, but He that descended? Because one only descended, 
only one ascends. What of the rest? What are we to understand, but that 
they shall be His members, that one may ascend? Therefore it follows that 
"no man hath ascended into heaven, but He who came down from heaven, the 
Son of man who is in heaven." Dost thou marvel that He was both here and in 
heaven? Such He made His disciples. Hear the Apostle Paul saying, "But our 
conversation is in heaven."(2) If the Apostle Paul, a man, walked in the 
flesh on earth, and yet had his conversation in heaven, was the God of 
heaven and earth not able to be both in heaven and on earth?

    9. Therefore, if none but He descended and ascended, what hope is there 
for the rest? The hope for the rest is this, that He came down in order 
that in Him and with Him they might be one, who should ascend through Him. 
"He saith not, And to seeds," saith the apostle, "as in many; but as in 
one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." And to believers he saith, "And ye 
are Christ's; and if Christ's, then are Abraham's seed."(3) What he said to 
be one, that he said that we all are. Hence, in the Psalms, many sometimes 
sing, to show that one is made of many; sometimes one sings, to show what 
is made of many. Therefore was it only one that was healed in the pool; and 
whoever else went down into it was not healed. Now this one shows forth the 
oneness of the Church. Woe to them who hate unity, and make to themselves 
parties among men! Let them hear him who wished to make them one, in one, 
for one: let them hear him who says, Be not ye making many: "I have 
planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. But neither he that 
planteth is anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the 
increase."(4) They were saying, "I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas." 
And he says, "Is Christ divided?" Be ye in one, be one thing, be one 
person: "No man hath ascended into heaven, but He who came down from 
heaven." Lo! we wish to be thine, they said to Paul. And he said to them, I 
will not that ye be Paul's, but be ye His whose is Paul together with you.

    10. For He came down and died, and by that death delivered us from 
death: being slain by death, He slew death. And you know, brethren, that 
this death entered into the world through the devil's envy. "God made not 
death," saith the Scripture, "nor delights He in the destruction of the 
living; but He created all things to be." But what saith it here? "But by 
the devil's envy, death entered into the whole world."(5) To the death 
offered for our entertainment by the devil, man would not come by 
constraint; for the devil had not the power of forcing, but only cunning to 
persuade. Hadst thou not consented, the devil had brought in nothing: thy 
own consenting, O man, led thee to death. Of the mortal are mortals born; 
from immortals we are become mortals. From Adam all men are mortal; but 
Jesus the Son of God, the Word of God, by which all things were made, the 
only Son equal with the Father, was made mortal: "for the Word was made 
flesh, and dwelt among us."

    11. He endured death, then; but death He hanged on the cross, and 
mortal men are delivered from death. The Lord calls to mind a great matter, 
which was done in a figure with them of old: "And as Moses," saith He, 
"lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted 
up; that every one who believeth on Him may not perish, but have 
everlasting life." A great mystery is here, as they who read know. Again, 
let them hear, as well they who have not read as they who have forgotten 
what perhaps they had heard or read. The people Israel were fallen 
helplessly in the wilderness by the bite of serpents; they suffered a great 
calamity by many deaths: for it was the stroke of God correcting and 
scourging them that He might instruct them. In this was shown a great 
mystery, the figure of a thing to come: the Lord Himself testifies in this 
passage, so that no man can give another interpretation than that which the 
truth indicates concerning itself. Now Moses was ordered by the Lord to 
make a brazen serpent, and to raise it on a pole in the wilderness, and to 
admonish the people Israel, that, when any had been bitten by a serpent, he 
should look to that serpent raised up on the pole. This was done: men were 
bitten; they looked and were healed.(1) What are the biting serpents? Sins, 
from the mortality of the flesh. What is the serpent lifted up? The Lord's 
death on the cross. For as death came by the serpent, it was figured by the 
image of a serpent. The serpent's bite was deadly, the Lord's death is 
life-giving. A serpent is gazed on that the serpent may have no power. What 
is this? A death is gazed on, that death may have no power. But whose 
death? The death of life: if it may be said, the death of life; ay, for it 
may be said, but said wonderfully. But should it not be spoken, seeing it 
was a thing to be done? Shall I hesitate to utter that which the Lord has 
deigned to do for me? Is not Christ the life? And yet Christ hung on the 
cross. Is not Christ life? And yet Christ was dead. But in Christ's death, 
death died. Life dead slew death; the fullness of life swallowed up death; 
death was absorbed in the body of Christ. So also shall we say in the 
resurrection, when now triumphant we shall sing, "Where, O death, is thy 
contest? Where, O death, is thy sting?"(2) Meanwhile brethren, that we may 
be healed from sin, let us now gaze on Christ crucified; for "as Moses," 
saith He, "lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man 
be lifted up; that whosoever believeth on Him may not perish, but have 
everlasting life." Just as they who looked on that serpent perished not by 
the serpent's bites, so they who look in faith on Christ's death are healed 
from the bites of sins. But those were healed from death tO temporal life; 
whilst here He saith, "that they may have everlasting life." Now there is 
this difference between the figurative image and the real thing: the figure 
procured temporal life; the reality, of which that was the figure, procures 
eternal life.

    12. "For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but 
that the world through Him may be saved." So far, then, as it lies in the 
physician, He is come to heal the sick. He that will not observe the orders 
of the physician destroys himself. He is come a Saviour to the world: why 
is he called the Saviour of the world, but that He is come to save the 
world, not to judge the world? Thou wilt not be saved by Him; thou shall be 
judged of thyself And why do I say, "shall be judged"? See what He says: 
"He that believeth on Him is not judged, but he that believeth not." What 
dost thou expect He is going to say, but "is judged"? "Already," saith He, 
"has been judged." The judgment has not yet appeared, but already it has 
taken place. For the Lord knoweth them that are His: He knows who are 
persevering for the crown, and who for the flame; knows the wheat on His 
threshing-floor, and knows the chaff; knows the good corn, and knows the 
tares. He that believeth not is already judged. Why judged? "Because he has 
not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God."

    13. "And this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and 
men loved darkness rather than light,because their deeds were evil." My 
brethren, whose works does the Lord find to be good? The works of none: He 
finds the works of all evil. How is it, then, that some have done the 
truth, and are come to the light? For this is what follows: "But he that 
doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that 
they are wrought in God." In what way have some done a good work to come to 
the light, namely, to Christ? And how have some loved darkness? For if He 
finds all men sinners, and healeth all of sin, and that serpent in which 
the Lord's death was figured healed them that were bitten, and on account 
of the serpent's bite the serpent was set up, namely, the Lord's death on 
account of mortal men, whom He finds unrighteous; how are we to understand 
that "this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men 
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil"? How is 
this? Whose works, in fact, are good? Hast Thou not come to justify the 
ungodly? "But they loved," saith He, "darkness rather than light." There He 
laid the emphasis: for many loved their sins; many confessed their sins; 
and he who confesses his sins, and accuses them, doth now work with God. 
God accuses thy sins: and if thou also accusest, thou art united to God. 
There are, as it were, two things, man and sinner. That thou art called 
man, is God's doing; that thou art called sinner, is man's own doing. Blot 
out what thou hast done, that God may save what He has done. It behoves 
thee to hate thine own work in thee, and to love the work of God in thee. 
And when thy own deeds will begin to displease thee, from that time thy 
good works begin, as thou findest fault with thy evil works. The confession 
of evil works is the beginning of good works. Thou doest the truth, and 
comest to the light. How is it thou doest the truth? Thou dost not caress, 
nor soothe, nor flatter thyself; nor say, "I am righteous," whilst thou art 
unrighteous: thus, thou beginnest to do the truth. Thou comest to the 
light, that thy works may be made manifest that they are wrought in God; 
for thy sin, the very thing that has given thee displeasure, would not have 
displeased thee, if God did not shine into thee, and His truth show it 
thee. But he that loves his sins, even after being admonished, hates the 
light admonishing him, and flees from it, that his works which he loves may 
not be proved to be evil. But he that doeth truth accuses his evil works in 
himself, spares not himself, forgives not himself, that God may forgive 
him: for that which he desires God to forgive, he himself acknowledges, and 
he comes to the light; to which he is thankful for showing him what he 
should hate in himself. He says to God, "Turn away Thy face from my sins:" 
yet with what countenance says it, unless he adds, "For I acknowledge mine 
iniquity, and my sin is ever before me ?"(1) Be that before thyself which 
thou desirest not to be before God. But if thou wilt put thy sin behind 
thee, God will thrust it back before thine eyes; and this He will do at a 
time when there will be no more fruit of repentance.

    14. Run, my brethren, lest the darkness lay hold of you. Awake to your 
salvation, awake while there is time; let none be kept back from the temple 
of God, none kept back from the work of the Lord, none called away from 
continual prayer, none be defrauded of wonted devotion. Awake, then, while 
it is day: the day shines, Christ is the day. He is ready to forgive sins, 
but to them that acknowledge them; ready to punish the self-defenders, who 
boast that they are righteous, and think themselves to be something when 
they are nothing. But he that walks in His love and mercy, even being free 
from those great and deadly sins, such crimes as murder, theft, adultery; 
still, because of those which seem to be minute sins, of tongue, or of 
thought, or of intemperance in things permitted, he doeth the truth in 
confession, and cometh to the light in good works: since many minute sins, 
if they be neglected, kill. Minute are the drops that swell the rivers; 
minute are the grains of sand; but if much sand is put together, the heap 
presses and crushes. Bilge-water neglected in the hold does the same thing 
as a rushing wave. Gradually it leaks in through the hold; and by long 
leaking in and no pumping out, it sinks the ship. Now what is this pumping 
out, but by good works, by sighing, fasting, giving, forgiving, so to 
effect that sins may not overwhelm us? The path of this life, however, is 
troublesome, full of temptations: in prosperity, let it not lift us up; in 
adversity, let it not crush us. He who gave the happiness of this world 
gave it for thy comfort, not for thy ruin. Again, He who scourgeth thee in 
this life, doeth it for thy improvement, not for thy condemnation. Bear the 
Father that corrects thee for thy training, lest thou feel the judge in 
punishing thee. These things we tell you every day, and they must be often 
said, because they are good and wholesome.

TRACTATE XIII: CHAPTER III. 22-29.

    1. The course of reading from the Gospel of John, as those of you who 
are concerned for your own progress may remember, so proceeds in regular 
order, that the passage which has now been read comes before us for 
exposition to-day. You remember that we have expounded it, in the preceding 
discourses, from the very beginning of the Gospel, as far as the lesson of 
to-day. And though perhaps you have forgotten much of it, at least it 
remains in your memory that we have done our part in it. What you have 
heard from it about the baptism of John, even though you retain not all, 
yet I believe you have heard that which you may retain. Also, what was said 
as to why the Holy Spirit appeared in the shape of a dove; and how that 
most knotty question was solved, namely, what was that something in the 
Lord which John did not know, and which he learned by means of the dove, 
whilst already John knew Him, since, as Jesus came to be baptized, he said 
to Him, "I ought to be baptized by Thee, and comest Thou to me?" when the 
Lord answered him, "Suffer it now, that all righteousness may be 
fulfilled."(1)

    2. Now, therefore, the order of our reading obliges us to return to 
that same John. The same is he who was prophesied of by Isaiah, "The voice 
of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare yea way for the Lord, make His 
paths straight."(2) Such testimony gave he to his Lord and (for the Lord 
deemed him worthy) his friend. And the Lord, even his friend, did also 
Himself bear witness to John. For concerning John He said, "Among them that 
are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist." 
But as He put Himself before John, in that wherein He was greater, He was 
God. "But he that is! less," saith He, "in the kingdom of heaven is greater 
than he."(3) Less in age; greater in power, in deity, in majesty, in 
brightness: even as "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with 
God, and the Word was God." In the preceding passages, however, John had 
given testimony to the Lord, in such wise that he did indeed call Him Son 
of God, but said not that He was God, nor yet denied it: he was silent as 
to His being God, not denied that He was God; but yet he was not altogether 
silent as to His being God, for perhaps we find this in the lesson of to-
day. He had called Him Son of God; but men, too, have been called sons of 
God. He had declared Him to be of such excellence, that he was not himself 
worthy to loose the latchet of His shoe. Now this greatness gives us much 
to understand: whose shoe-latchet he was not worthy to loose, he than whom 
none greater had arisen among them that are born of women. He was more, 
indeed, than all men and angels. For we find an angel forbidding a man to 
fall at his feet. For example, when in the Apocalypse an angel was showing 
certain things to John, the writer of this Gospel, John, terrified at the 
greatness of the vision, fell down at the angel's feet. But said the angel, 
"Rise; see thou do it not: worship God, for I am thy fellow-servant, and 
the brethren's."(4) An angel, then, forbade a man to fall down at his feet. 
Is it not manifest that He must be above all angels, for whom a man, such 
that a greater than he has not risen among them that are born of women, 
declares himself to be not worthy to loose the latchet of His shoe?

    3. John, however, may say something more evidently, that our Lord Jesus 
Christ is God. We may find this in the present passage, that it is perhaps 
of Him we have been singing, "The Lord reigned over all the earth;" against 
which they are deaf who imagine that He reigns only in Africa. But let them 
not suppose that it is not of Christ it is spoken when it is said, "God 
reigned over all the earth." For who else is our King, but our Lord Jesus 
Christ? It is He that is our King. And what have you heard in the same 
psalm, in the verse just sung? "Sing praises to our God, sing praises: sing 
praises to our Kings sing praises." Whom he called God, the same he called 
our King: "Sing praises to our God, sing praises: sing praises to our King, 
sing ye praises with understanding." And that thou shouldest not understand 
Him to whom thou singest praises to reign in one part, he says, "For God is 
King of all the earth."(5) And how is He King of all the earth, who 
appeared in one part of the earth, in Jerusalem, in Judea,  walking among 
men, born, sucking the breast, growing, eating, drinking, waking, sleeping, 
sitting at a well,  wearied; laid hold of, scourged, spat upon,  crowned 
with thorns, hanged on a tree, wounded with a spear, dead, buried? How then 
King of all the earth? What was seen  locally was flesh, to carnal eyes 
only flesh was visible; the immortal majesty was concealed in  mortal 
flesh. And with what eyes shall we be able to behold the immortal majesty, 
after penetrating through the structure of the flesh? There is another eye, 
there is an inner eye. Tobias, for example, was not without eyes, when, 
blind in his bodily eyes, he was giving precepts of life to his son.(6) The 
son was holding the father's hand, that the father might walk with his 
feet, whilst the father was giving the son counsel to walk in the way of 
righteousness. Here I see eyes, and there I understand eyes. And better are 
the eyes of him that gives counsel of life, than his who holds the hand. 
Such eyes Jesus also required when He said to Philip, "Am I so long time 
with you, and ye have not known me?" Such eyes He required when He said, 
"Philip, he that seeth me, seeth the Father." These are the eyes of the 
understanding, these are the eyes of the mind. It is for that reason that 
the psalm, when it had said, "For God is King of all the earth," 
immediately added, "Sing ye praises with understanding." For in that I say, 
"Sing ye praises to our God," I say that God is our King. But yet our King 
you have seen among men, as man; you have seen Him suffering, crucified, 
dead: there was in that flesh something concealed, which you might have 
seen with eyes of flesh. What was there concealed? "Sing ye praises with 
understanding." Do not seek to see with the eyes what is beheld by the 
mind. "Sing praises" with the tongue, for He is among you as flesh; but 
because "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," render the sound to 
the flesh, render to God the gaze of the mind "Sing ye praises with 
understanding," and you see that the "Word was made flesh, and dwelt among 
us."

    4. Now let John also declare his witness:  "After these things came 
Jesus and His disciples into the land of Judea; and there He tarried with 
them, and baptized." Being baptized, He baptized. Not with that baptism 
with which He was baptized did He baptize. The Lord, being baptized by a 
servant gives baptism, showing the path of humility and leading to the 
baptism of the Lord, that is, His own baptism, by giving an example of 
humility, in not Himself refusing baptism from a servant. And in the 
baptism by a servant, a way was prepared for the Lord; the Lord also being 
baptized, made Himself a way for them that come to Him. Let us hear 
Himself: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." If thou seekest truth, 
keep the way, for the way and the truth are the same. The way that thou art 
going is the same as the whither thou art going: thou art not going by a 
way as one thing, to an object as another thing; not coming to Christ by 
something else as a way, thou comest to Christ by Christ. How by Christ to 
Christ? By Christ the man, to Christ God; by the Word made flesh, to the 
Word which in the beginning was God with God; from that which man ate, to 
that which angels daily eat. For so it is written, "He gave them bread of 
heaven: man ate the bread of angels."(1) What is the bread of angels? "In 
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Re Word was 
God." How has man eaten the bread of angels? "And the Word was made flesh, 
and dwelt among us."

    5. But though we have said that angels eat, do not fancy, brethren, 
that this is done with teeth. For if you think so, God, of whom the angels 
eat, is as it were torn in pieces. Who tears righteousness in pieces? But 
still, some one asks me, And who is it that can eat righteousness? Well, 
how is it said, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after 
righteousness, for they shall be filled"? The  food which thou eatest 
carnally perishes, in order to refresh thee; to repair thy waste it is 
consumed: eat righteousness; and while thou art refreshed, it continues 
entire. Just as by seeing this corporeal light, these eyes of ours are 
refreshed, and yet it is a corporeal thing that is seen by corporeal eyes. 
Many there have been, when too long in darkness, whose eyesight is weakened 
by fasting, as it were, from light. The eyes, deprived of their food (for 
they feed on light), become wearied by fasting, and weakened, so that they 
cannot bear to see the light by which they are refreshed; and if the light 
is too long absent, they are quenched, and the very sense of sight dies as 
it were in them. What then? Does  the light become less, because so many 
eyes are daily fed by it? Thy eyes  are refreshed, and the light remains 
entire. As God was able to show this in the case of corporeal light to 
corporeal eyes, does He not show that other light to clean hearts as 
unwearied, continuing entire, and in no respect failing? What light? "In 
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." Let us see if this 
is light. "For with Thee is the fountain of light, and in Thy light shall 
we see light." On earth, fountain is one thing, light another. When 
thirsting, thou seekest a fountain, and to get to the fountain thou seekest 
light; and if it is not day, thou lightest a lamp to get to the fountain. 
That fountain is the very light: to the thirsting a fountain, to the blind 
a light. Let the eyes be opened to see the light, let the lips of the heart 
be opened to drink of the fountain; that which thou drinkest, thou seest, 
thou hearest. God becomes all to thee; for He is to thee the whole of these 
things which thou lovest. If thou regardest things visible, neither is God 
bread, nor is God water, nor is God this light, nor is He garment nor 
house. For all these are things visible, and single separate things. What 
bread is, water is not; and what a garment is, a house is not; and what 
these things are, God is not, for they are visible things. God is all this 
to thee: if thou hungerest, He is bread to thee; if thou thirstest, He is 
water to thee; if thou art in darkness, He is light to thee: for He remains 
incorruptible. If thou art naked, He is a garment of immortality to thee, 
when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put 
on immortality. All things can be said of God, and nothing is worthily said 
of God. Nothing is wider than this poverty of expression. Thou seekest a 
fitting name for Him, thou canst not find it; thou seekest to speak of Him 
in any way soever, thou findest that He is all. What likeness have the lamb 
and the lion? Both is said of Christ. "Behold the Lamb of God!" How a lion? 
"The Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed."(1)

    6. Let us hear John: "Jesus baptized." We said that Jesus baptized. How 
Jesus? How the Lord? How the Son of God? How the Word? Well, but the Word 
was made flesh. "And John also was baptizing in AEnon, near to Salim." A 
certain lake, "Aenon."(2) How do we know it was a lake? "Because there was 
much water there, and they came and were baptized. For John was not yet 
cast into prison." If you remember (see, I say it again), I told you why 
John baptized: because the Lord must needs be baptized. And why must the 
Lord be baptized? Because many there would be to despise baptism, that they 
might appear to be endowed with greater grace than they saw other believers 
endowed with. For example, a catechumen, now living continently, might 
despise a married person, and say of himself that he was better than the 
other believer. That catechumen might possibly say in his heart, "What need 
have I to receive baptism, to have just what that other man has, than whom 
I am already better?" Therefore, lest that neck of pride should hurl to 
destruction certain men much elated with the merits of their own 
righteousness, the Lord was willing to be baptized by a servant, as if 
addressing His chief sons: "Why do you extol yourselves? Why lift 
yourselves up because you have, one prudence, another learning, another 
chastity, another the courage of patience? Can you possibly have as much as 
I who gave you these? And yet I was baptized by a servant, you disdain to 
be baptized by the Lord." This is the sense of "to fulfill all 
righteousness."

    7. But some one will say, "It were enough, then, that John baptized 
only the Lord; what need was there for others to be baptized by John?" Now 
we have said this too, that if John had baptized only the Lord, men would 
not be without this thought, that John had a better baptism than the Lord 
had. They would say, in fact, "So great was the baptism of John, that 
Christ alone was worthy  to be baptized therewith." Therefore, to show that 
the baptism which the Lord was to give was better than that of John,--that 
the one might be understood as that of a servant,  the other as that of the 
Lord,--the Lord was baptized to give an example of humility; but He was not 
the only one baptized by John, lest John's baptism should appear to be 
better than the baptism of the Lord. To this end, however, our Lord Jesus 
Christ showed the way, as you have heard, brethren, lest any man, 
arrogating to himself that he has abundance of some particular grace, 
should disdain to be baptized with the baptism of the Lord. For whatever 
the catechumen's proficiency, he still carries the load of his iniquity: it 
is not forgiven him until he shall have come to baptism. Just as the people 
Israel were not rid of the Egyptians until they had come to the Red Sea, so 
no man is rid of the pressure of sins until he has come to the font of 
baptism.

    8. "Then there arose a question on the part of John's disciples with 
the Jews about purifying." John baptized, Christ baptized. John's disciples 
were moved; there was a running after Christ, people were coming to John. 
Those who came to John, he sent to Jesus to be baptized; but they who were 
baptized by Christ were not sent to John. John's disciples were alarmed, 
and began to dispute with the Jews, as usually happens. Understand the Jews 
to have declared that Christ was greater, and that to His baptism people 
ought to have recourse. John's disciples, not yet understanding this, 
defended John's baptism. They came to John himself, that he might solve the 
question. Understand, beloved. And here we are given to see the use of 
humility, and, when people were erring in the subject of dispute, are shown 
whether John desired to glory in himself. Now probably he said, "You say 
the truth, you contend rightly; mine is the better baptism, I baptized 
Christ Himself." John could say this after Christ was baptized. If he 
wished to exalt himself, what an opportunity he had to do so! But he knew 
better before whom to humble himself: to Him whom he knew to have come 
after himself by birth, he willingly yielded precedence by confessing Him. 
He understood his own salvation to be in Christ. He had already said above, 
"We all have received out of His fullness;" and this is to confess Him to 
be God. For how can all men receive of His fullness, if He be not God? For 
if He is man in such wise that He is not God, then Himself also receives of 
the fullness of God, and so is not God. But if all men receive of His 
fullness, He is the fountain, they are drinkers. They that drink of a 
fountain, both thirst and drink. The fountain never thirsts; it has never 
need of itself. Men need a fountain. With thirsty stomachs and parched lips 
they run to the fountain to be refreshed. The fountain flows to refresh, so 
does the Lord Jesus.

    9. Let us see, then, what answer John gives: "They came unto John, and 
said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou 
barest witness, behold the same baptizeth, and all men come to him:" that 
is, What sayest thou? Ought they not to be hindered, that they may rather 
come to thee? "He answered and said, A man cannot receive anything, except 
it be given him from heaven." Of whom, think you, had John said this? Of 
himself. "As a man, I received," saith he, "from heaven." Note, my beloved: 
"A man cannot receive anything, except it be given him from heaven Ye 
yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ." As much as to 
say, "Why do ye deceive yourselves? See how you have put this question 
before me. What have you said to me? 'Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond 
Jordan, to whom thou barest witness.' Then you know what sort of witness I 
bare to Him. Am I now to say that He is not the same whom I declared Him to 
be? And because I received somewhat from heaven, in order to be something, 
do you wish me to be empty of it, so as to speak against the truth? 'A man 
cannot receive anything, except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves 
bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ.'" Thou art not the Christ; 
but what if thou art greater than He since thou didst baptize Him? "I am 
sent:" I am the herald, He is the Judge.

    10. But hear a far stronger, a far more expressive testimony. See ye 
what it is we are treating of; see ye that to love any person in place of 
Christ is adultery. Why do I say this? Let us attend to the voice of John. 
People could be mistaken in him, could think him to be the person he was 
not. He rejects the false honor, in order to hold the truth complete. See 
what he declares Christ to be; what does he say himself is? "He that hath 
the bride is the bridegroom." Be chaste, love the bridegroom. But what art 
thou, who sayest to us, "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom? But the 
friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly 
because of the bridegroom's voice." The Lord our God will help me in 
proportion to the tumult of my heart, for it is full of sadness, to utter 
the grief I feel; but I beseech you by Christ Himself to imagine in thought 
what it will not be possible for   me to utter; for I know that my grief 
cannot be expressed with befitting impressiveness. Now I see many 
adulterers who desire to get possession of the bride, purchased at so great 
a price, loved while deformed that she might be made fair, having been 
purchased and delivered and adorned by such an one; and those adulterers 
strive with their words to be loved instead of the bridegroom. Of that One 
it is said, "This is He that baptizeth."(1) Who is he that goes forth from 
us and says, "I am he that baptizeth"? Who is he that goes forth from us 
and says, "That is holy which I give"? Who is he that goes hence and says, 
"It is good for thee to be born of me"? Let us hear the friend of the 
bridegroom, not the adulterers against the bridegroom; let us hear one 
jealous, but not for himself.

    11. Brethen, return in thought to your own homes. I speak of carnal, I 
speak of earthly things; I speak after the manner of men, for the infirmity 
of your flesh. Many of you have, many of you wish to have, many, though you 
wish not to have, still have had wives; many who do not at all wish to have 
wives, are born of the wives of your fathers. This is a feeling that 
touches every heart. There is no man so alien from mankind in human affairs 
as not to feel what I say. Suppose that a man, having set out on a journey, 
had commended his bride to the care of his friend: "See, I pray thee, thou 
art my dear friend; see to it, lest in my absence some other may perchance 
be loved in my stead." Then what sort of a person must he be, who, while 
the guardian of the bride or wife of his friend, does indeed endeavor that 
none other be loved, but if he wishes himself to be loved instead of his 
friend, and desires to enjoy her who was committed to his care, how 
detestable must he appear to all mankind! Let him see her gazing out of the 
window, or joking with some one somewhat too heedlessly, he forbids her as 
one who is jealous. I see him jealous, but let me see for whom he is 
jealous; whether for his absent friend or for his present self. Think that 
our Lord Jesus Christ has done this. He has committed His bride to the care 
of His friend; He has set out on a journey to a far country to receive a 
kingdom, as He says Himself in the Gospel,(2) but yet is present in His 
majesty. Let the friend who has gone beyond the sea be deceived; and if he 
is deceived, woe to him who deceives! Why do men attempt to deceive God,--
God who looks at the hearts of all, and searches the secrets of all? But 
some heretic shows himself, and says, "'Tis I that give, 'tis I that 
sanctify, 'tis I that justify; go not thou to that other sect." He does 
well indeed to be jealous, but see for whom. "Go not thou to idols," saith 
he,--he is rightly jealous; "nor to diviners,"--still rightly jealous. Let 
us see for whom he is jealous: "What I give is holy, because it is I that 
give it; he is baptized whom I baptize; he whom I baptize not is not 
baptized." Hear thou the friend of the bridegroom, learn to be jealous for 
thy friend; hear His voice who is "He that baptizeth." Why desire to 
arrogate to thyself what is not thine? Is he so very absent who has left 
here his bride? Knowest thou not, that He who rose from the dead is sitting 
at the right hand of the Father? If the Jews despised Him hanging on the 
tree, dost thou despise Him sitting in heaven? Be assured, beloved, that I 
suffer great grief of this matter; but, as I have said, I leave the rest to 
your thoughts. I cannot utter it if I speak the whole day. If I bewail it 
the whole day, I do not enough. I cannot utter it, if I should have, as the 
prophet says, "a fountain of tears;" and were I changed into tears, and to 
become all tears, were I turned into tongues, and to become all tongues, it 
were not enough.

    12. Let us return and see what this John saith: "He that hath the bride 
is the bridegroom;" she is not my bride. And dost thou not rejoice in the 
marriage? Yea, saith he, I do rejoice: "But the friend of the bridegroom, 
who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the voice of the 
bridegroom." Not because of mine own voice, saith he, do I rejoice, but 
because of the Bridegroom's voice. I am in the place of hearer; He, of 
speaker: I am as one that must be enlightened, He is the light; I am as the 
ear, He is the word. Therefore the friend of the Bridegroom standeth and 
heareth Him. Why standeth? Because he falls not. How fails not? Because he 
is humble. See him standing on solid ground; "I am not worthy to loose the 
latchet of His shoe." Thou doest well to be humble; deservedly thou dost 
not fall; deservedly thou standest, and hearest Him, and rejoicest greatly 
for the Bridegroom's voice. So also the apostle is the Bridegroom's friend; 
he too is jealous, not for himself, hut for the Bridegroom. Hear his voice 
when he is jealous: "I am jealous over you," said he, "with the jealousy of 
God:" not with my own, nor for myself, but with the jealousy of God. Why? 
How? Over whom art thou jealous, and for whom? "For I have espoused you to 
one husband, to present a chaste virgin to Christ." Why dost thou fear, 
then? Why art thou jealous? "I fear," saith he, "lest, as the serpent 
beguiled Eve by his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the 
chastity which is in Christ."(1) The whole Church is called a virgin. You 
see that the members of the Church are divers, that they are endowed with 
and do rejoice in divers gifts: some men wedded, some women wedded; some 
are widowers who seek no more to have wives, some are widows who seek no 
more to have husbands; some men preserve continence from their youth, some 
women have vowed their virginity to God: divers are the gifts, but all 
these are one virgin. Where is this virginity? for it is not in the body. 
It belongs to few women; and if virginity can be said of men, to few men in 
the Church belongs a holy integrity even of body; yet one such is a more 
honorable member. Other members, however, preserve virginity, not in body, 
but all in mind. What is the virginity of the mind? Entire faith, firm 
hope, sincere charity. This is the virginity which he, who, was jealous for 
the Bridegroom, feared might be corrupted by the serpent. For, just as the 
bodily member is marred in a certain part, so the seduction of the tongue 
defiles the virginity of the heart. Let her who does not desire without 
cause to keep virginity of body, see to it that she be not corrupted in 
mind.

    13. What shall I say, then, brethren? Even the heretics have virgins, 
and there are many virgins among heretics. Let us see whether they love the 
Bridegroom, so that this virginity may be guarded. For whom is it guarded? 
"For Christ." Let us see if it be for Christ, and not for Donatus: let us 
see for whom this virginity is preserved: you can easily prove. Behold, I 
show you the Bridegroom, for He shows Himself. John bears witness to Him: 
"This is He that baptizeth." O thou virgin, if for this Bridegroom thou 
preservest thy virginity, why runnest thou to him who says, "I am he that 
baptizeth," while the friend of the Bridegroom tells thee, "This is He that 
baptizeth"? Again, thy Bridegroom possesseth the whole world; why, then, 
shouldst thou be defiled with a part of it? Who is the Bridegroom? "For God 
is King of all the earth." This thy Bridegroom possesses the whole, because 
He purchased the whole. See at what price He purchased it, that thou mayest 
understand what He has purchased. What price has He given? He gave His 
blood. Where gave He, where shed He, His blood? In His passion. Is it not 
to thy Bridegroom thou singest, or feignest to sing, when the whole world 
was purchased: "They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my 
bones: but they themselves considered me, they looked upon me, they divided 
my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast lots"? Thou art the 
bride, acknowledge thy Bridegroom's vesture. Upon what vesture was the lot 
cast? Ask the Gospel; see to whom thou art espoused, see from whom thou 
receivest pledges. Ask the Gospel; see what it tells thee in the suffering 
of the Lord. "There was a coat" there: let us see what kind; "woven from 
the top throughout." What does the coat woven from the top signify, but 
charity? What does this coat signify, but unity? Consider this coat, which 
not even the persecutors of Christ divided. For it saith, "They said among 
themselves, Let us not divide it, but let us cast lots upon it." Behold 
that of which the psalm spoke! Christ's persecutors did not rend His 
garment; Christians divide the Church.

    14. But what shall I say, brethren? Let us see plainly what He 
purchased. For there He bought, where He paid the price. Paid it for how 
much? If He paid it only for Africa, let us be Donatists, and not be called 
Donatists, but Christians; since Christ bought only Africa: although even 
here are other than Donatists. But He has not been silent of what He bought 
in this transaction. He has made up the account: thanks be to God, He has 
not tricked us. Need there is for that bride to hear, and then to 
understand to whom she has vowed her virginity. There, in that psalm where 
it says, "They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones;" 
wherein the Lord's passion is most openly declared;--the psalm which is 
read every year on the last week, in the hearing of the whole people, at 
the approach of Christ's passion; and this psalm is read both among them 
and us;--there, I say, note, brethren, what He has bought: let the bill of 
merchandise be read: hear ye what He bought: "All the ends of the earth 
shall remember, and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations 
shall worship in His sight: for the kingdom is His, and He shall rule the 
nations." Behold what it is He has bought! Behold! "For God, the King of 
all the earth," is thy Bridegroom. Why, then, wouldst thou have one so rich 
reduced to rags? Acknowledge Him: He bought the whole; yet thou sayest, 
"Thou hast a part of it here." Oh, would that thou weft well-pleasing to 
thy Spouse; would that thou who speakest wert not defiled, and, what is 
worse, defiled in heart, not in body! Thou lovest a man instead of Christ; 
lovest one that says, "'Tis I that baptize;" not hearing the friend of the 
Bridegroom when he says, "This is He that baptizeth;" not hearing him when 
he says, "He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom." I have not the bride, 
said he; but what am I? "But the friend of the Bridegroom, who standeth and 
heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly, because of the Bridegroom's voice."

    15. Evidently, then, my brethren, it profits those men nothing to keep 
virginity, to have continence, to give alms. All those doings which are 
praised in the Church profit them nothing; because they rend unity, namely, 
that "coat" of charity. What do they? Many among them are eloquent; great 
tongues, streams of tongues. Do they speak like angels? Let them hear the 
friend of the Bridegroom, jealous for the Bridegroom, not for himself: 
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not 
charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."(1)

    16. But what say they? "We have baptism." Thou hast, but not thine. It 
is one thing to have, another to own. Baptism thou hast, for thou hast 
received to be baptized, received as one enlightened, provided thou be not 
darkened of thyself; and when thou givest, thou givest as a minister, not 
as owner; as a herald proclaiming, not as a judge. The judge speaks through 
the herald, and nevertheless it is not written in the registers, "The 
herald said," but, "The judge said." Therefore see if what thou givest is 
thine by authority. But if thou hast received, confess with the friend of 
the Bridegroom, "A man cannot receive anything, except it be given him from 
heaven." Confess with the friend of the Bridegroom, "He that hath the bride 
is the Bridegroom; but the friend of the Bridegroom standeth and heareth 
Him." But O, would thou didst stand and hear Him, and not fall, to hear 
thyself! For by hearing Him, thou wouldst stand and hear; for thou wilt 
speak, and thy head is puffed with pride. I, saith the Church, if I am the 
bride, if I nave received pledges, if I have been redeemed at the price of 
that blood, do hear the voice of the Bridegroom; and I do hear the voice of 
the Bridegroom's friend too, if he give glory to my Bridegroom, not to 
himself. Let the friend speak: "He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom; 
but the friend of the Bridegroom standeth and heareth Him, and rejoices 
greatly because of the voice of the Bridegroom." Behold, thou hast 
sacraments; and I grant that thou hast. Thou hast the form, but thou art a 
branch cut off from the vine; thou hast a form, I want the root. There is 
no fruit of the form, except where there is a root; but where is the root 
but in charity? Hear the form of the cut-off branches; let Paul speak: 
"Though I know all mysteries," saith he, "and have all prophecy, and all 
faith" (and how great a faith!), "so as to remove mountains, and have not 
charity, I am nothing."

    17. Let no man tell you fables, then. "Pontius wrought a miracle; and 
Donatus prayed, and God answered him from heaven." In the first place, 
either they are deceived, or they deceive. In the last place, grant that he 
removes mountains: "And have not charity," saith the apostle, "I am 
nothing." Let us see whether he has charity. I would believe that he had, 
if he had not divided unity. For against those whom I may call marvel-
workers, my God has put me on my guard, saying, "In the last times there 
shall arise false prophets, doing signs and wonders, to lead into error, if 
it were possible, even the elect: Lo, I have foretold it to you."(1) 
Therefore the Bridegroom has cautioned us, that we ought not to be deceived 
even by miracles. Sometimes, indeed, a deserter frightens a plain 
countryman; but whether he is of the camp, and whether he is the better of 
that character with which he is marked, is what he who would not be 
frightened or seduced attends to. Let us then, my brethren, hold unity: 
without unity, even he who works miracles is nothing. The people Israel was 
in unity, and yet wrought no miracles: Pharaoh's magicians were out of 
unity, and yet they wrought the like works as Moses."(2) The people Israel, 
as I have said, wrought no miracles. Who were saved with God--they who did, 
or they who did not, work miracles? The Apostle Peter raised a dead person: 
Simon Magus did many things: there were there certain Christians who were 
not able to do either what Peter did or what Simon did; and wherein did 
they rejoice? In this, that their names were written in heaven. For this is 
what our Lord Jesus Christ said to the disciples on their return, because 
of the faith of the Gentiles. The disciples, in truth, themselves said, 
boasting, "Behold, Lord, in Thy name even the devils are subject to us." 
Rightly indeed they confessed, they brought the honor to the name of 
Christ; and yet what does He say to them? "Do not ye glory in this, that 
the devils are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in 
heaven."(3) Peter cast out devils. Some old widow, some lay person or 
other, having charity, and holding the integrity of faith, forsooth does 
not do this. Peter is the eye in the body, that man is the finger, yet is 
he in the same body in which Peter is; and if the finger has less power 
than the eye, yet it is not cut off from the body. Better is it to be a 
finger and to be in the body, than to be an eye and to be plucked out of 
the body.

    18. Therefore, my brethren, let no man deceive you, let no man seduce 
you: love the peace of Christ, who was crucified for you, whilst He was 
God. Paul says, "Neither he that planteth is anything, neither he that 
watereth, but God who giveth the increase."(4) And does any of us say that 
he is something? If we say that we are something, and give not the glory to 
Him, we are adulterers; we desire ourselves to be loved, not the 
Bridegroom. Love ye Christ, and us in Him, in whom also you are beloved by 
us. Let the members love one another, but live all under the Head. With 
grief indeed, my brethren, I have been obliged to speak much, and yet I 
have said little: I have not been able to finish the passage; God will help 
us to finish it in due season. I did not wish to burden your hearts 
further; I wish them to be free for sighs and prayers in behalf of those 
who are still deaf and do not understand.

TRACTATE XIV: CHAPTER III. 29-36.

    1. This lesson from the holy Gospel shows us the excellency of our Lord 
Jesus Christ's divinity, and the humility of the man who earned the title 
of the Bridegroom's friend; that we may distinguish between the man who is 
man, and the Man who is God. For the Man who is God is our Lord Jesus 
Christ, God before all ages, Man in the age of our world: God of the 
Father, man of the Virgin, yet one and the same Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, Son of God, God and man. But John, a man of distinguished grace, 
was sent before Him, a man enlightened by Him who is the Light. For of John 
it is said, "He was not the Light, but that he should bear witness of the 
Light." He may himself be called a light indeed, and rightly so; but an 
enlightened, not an enlightening light. The light that enlightens, and that 
which is enlightened, are different things: for even our eyes are called 
lights (lumina), and yet when we open them in the dark, they do not see. 
But the light that enlightens is a light both from itself and for itself, 
and does not need another light for its shining; but all the rest need it, 
that they may shine.

    2. Accordingly John confessed Him: as you have heard that when Jesus 
was making many disciples, and they reported to John as if to excite him to 
jealousy,--for they told the matter as if moved by envy, "Lo, he is making 
more disciples than thou,"--John confessed what he was, and thereby merited 
to belong to Him, because he dared not affirm himself to be that which 
Jesus is. Now this is what John said: "A man cannot receive anything, 
except it be given him from heaven." Therefore Christ gives, man receives. 
"Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I 
am sent before Him He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom; but the friend 
of the Bridegroom, who standeth and heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly because 
of the Bridegroom's voice." Not of himself did he give himself joy. He that 
will have joy of himself shall be sad; but he that will have his joy of God 
will ever rejoice, because God is everlasting. Dost thou desire to have 
everlasting joy? Cleave to Him who is everlasting. Such an one John 
declared himself to be. "Because of the Bridegroom's voice, the friend of 
the Bridegroom rejoiceth," not because of his own voice, and "standeth and 
heareth." Therefore, if he falls, he heareth Him not: for of a certain one 
who fell it is said, "And he stood not in the truth;"' this is said of the 
devil. It behoves the Bridegroom's friend, then, "to stand and to hear." 
What is it to stand? It is to abide in His grace, which he received. And he 
hears a voice at which he rejoices. Such was John: he knew whereof he 
rejoiced; he did not arrogate to himself to be what he was not; he knew 
himself as one enlightened, not the enlightener. "But that was the true 
Light," saith the evangelist, "that lighteneth every man coming into this 
world." If "every man," then also John himself; for he too is of men. 
Moreover, although none hath arisen among them that are born of women 
greater than John, yet he was himself one of those that are born of women. 
Is he to be compared with Him who, because He willed it, was born by a 
singular and extraordinary birth? For both generations of the Lord are 
unexampled, both the divine and the human: by the divine He has no mother; 
by the human, no father. Therefore John was but one of the rest: of greater 
grace, however, so that of those born of women none arose greater than he; 
so great a testimony he gave to our Lord Jesus Christ as to call Him the 
Bridegroom, and himself the Bridegroom's friend, not worthy however to 
loose the latchet of the Bridegroom's shoe. You have already heard much on 
this point, beloved: let us look to what follows; for it is somewhat hard 
to understand. But as John himself says, that "no man can receive anything, 
except it be given him from heaven," whatever we shall not have understood, 
let us ask Him who gives from heaven: for we are men, and cannot receive 
anything, except He, who  is not man, give it us.

    3. Now this is what follows: and John says, "This my joy therefore is 
fulfilled." What is his joy? To rejoice at the Bridegroom's voice. It is 
fulfilled in me, I bare my grace; more I do not assume to myself, lest also 
I lose what I have received. What is this joy? "With joy rejoiceth for the 
Bridegroom's voice." A man may understand, then, that he ought not to 
rejoice of his own wisdom, but of the wisdom which he has received from 
God. Let him ask nothing more, and he loses not what he found. For many, in 
that they affirmed themselves to be wise, became fools. The apostle 
convicts them, and says of them, "Because that which is known of God is 
manifest to them; for God has showed it unto them." Hear ye what he says of 
certain unthankful, ungodly men: "For the invisible things of Him from the 
creation of the world are seen, being understood by the things that are 
made, His eternal power likewise, and Godhead; so that they are without 
excuse." Why without excuse? "Because, knowing God" (he said not, "because 
they knew Him not "), "they glorified Him not as God, nor were thankful; 
but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was 
darkened: professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."(2) If they 
had known God, they had known at the same time that God, and none other, 
had made them wise; and they would not then attribute to themselves that 
which they did not have from themselves, but to Him from whom they had 
received it. But by their unthankfulness they became fools. Therefore, what 
God gave freely, He took from the unthankful. John would not be this; he 
would be thankful: he confessed to have received, and declared that he 
rejoiced for the Bridegroom's voice, saying, "Therefore this my joy is 
fulfilled."

    4. "He must increase, but I must decrease." What is this? He must be 
exalted, but I must be humbled. How is Jesus to increase? How is God to 
increase? The perfect does not increase. God neither increases nor 
decreases. For if He increases, He is not perfect; if He decreases, he is 
not God. And how can Jesus increase, being God? If to man's estate, since 
He deigned to be man and was a child; and, though the Word of God, lay an 
infant in a manger; and, though His mother's Creator, yet sucked the milk 
of infancy of her: then Jesus having grown in age of the flesh, that 
perhaps is the reason why it is said, "He must increase, but I must 
decrease." But why in this? As regards the flesh, John and Jesus were of 
the same age, there being six months between them: they had grown up 
together; and if our Lord Jesus Christ had willed to be here longer before 
His death, and that John should be here with Him, then, as they had grown 
up together, so would they have grown old together: in what way, then, "He 
must increase but I must decrease"? Above all, our Lord Jesus Christ being 
now thirty years old, does a man who is already thirty years old still 
grow? From that same age, men begin to go downward, and to decline to 
graver age, thence to old age. Again, even had they both been lads, he 
would not have said. "He must increase," but, We must increase together. 
But now each is thirty years of age. The interval of six months makes no 
difference in age; the difference is discovered by reading rather than by 
the look of the persons.

    5. What means, then, "He must increase, but I must decrease"? This is a 
great mystery! Before the Lord Jesus came, men were glorying of themselves; 
He came a man, to lessen man's glory, and to increase the glory of God. Now 
He came without sin, and found all men in sin. If thus He came to put away 
sin, God may freely give, man may confess. For man's confession is man's 
lowliness: God's pity is God's loftiness. Therefore, since He came to 
forgive man his sins, let man acknowledge his own lowliness and let God 
show His pity. "He must increase, but I must decrease:" that is, He must 
give, but I must receive; He must be glorified, but I must confess. Let man 
know his own condition, and confess to God; and hear the apostle as he says 
to a proud, elated man, bent on extolling himself: "What hast thou that 
thou didst not receive? And if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory 
as if thou didst not receive it?"(1) Then let man understand that he has 
received; and when he would call that his own which is not his, let him 
decrease: for it is good for him that God be glorified in him. Let him 
decrease in himself, that he may be increased in God. These testimonies and 
this truth, Christ and John signified by their deaths. For John was 
lessened by the Head: Christ was exalted on the cross; so that even there 
it appeared what this is, "He must increase, but I must decrease." Again, 
Christ was born when the days were just beginning to lengthen; John was 
born when they began to shorten. Thus their very creation and deaths 
testify to the words of John, when he says, "He must increase, but I must 
decrease." May the glory of God then increase in us, and our own glory 
decrease, that even ours may increase in God! For this is what the apostle 
says, this is what Holy Scripture says: "He that glorieth, let him glory in 
the Lord."(2) Wilt thou glory in thyself? Thou wilt grow; but grow worse in 
thy evil. For whoso grows worse is justly decreased. Let God, then, who is 
ever perfect, grow, and grow in thee. For the more thou understandest God, 
and apprehendest Him, He seems to be growing in thee; but in Himself He 
grows not, being ever perfect. Thou didst understand a little yesterday; 
thou understandest more to-day, wilt understand much more to-morrow: the 
very light of God increases in thee: as if thus God increases, who remains 
ever perfect. It is as if one's eyes were being cured of former blindness, 
and he began to see a little glimmer of light, and the next day he saw 
more, and the third day still more: to him the light would seem to grow; 
yet the light is perfect, whether he see it or not. Thus it is also with 
the inner man: he makes progress indeed in God, and God seems to be 
increasing in him; yet man himself is decreasing, that he may fall from his 
own glory, and rise into the glory of God.

    6. What we have just heard, appears now distinctly and clearly. "He 
that cometh from above, is above all." See what he says of Christ. What of 
himself? "He that is of the earth, is of earth, and speaketh of the earth. 
He that cometh from above is above all"-this is Christ; and "he that is of 
the earth, is of earth, and speaketh of the earth "--this is John. And is 
this the whole: John is of the earth, and speaks of the earth? Is the whole 
testimony that he bears of Christ a speaking of the earth? Are they not 
voices of God that are heard from John, when he bears witness of Christ? 
Then how does he speak of the earth? He said this of man. So far as relates 
to man in himself, he is of earth, and speaks of the earth; and when he 
speaks some divine things, he is enlightened by God. For, were he not 
enlightened, he would be earth speaking of earth. God's grace is apart by 
itself, the nature of man apart by itself. Do but examine the nature of 
man: man is born and grows, he learns the customs of men. What does he know 
but earth, of earth? He speaks the things of men, knows the things of men, 
minds the things of men; carnal, he judges carnally, conjectures carnally: 
lo! it is man all over. Let the grace of God come, and enlighten his 
darkness, as it saith, "Thou wilt lighten my candle, O Lord; my God, 
enlighten my darkness;"(1) let it take the mind of man, and turn it to its 
own light; immediately he begins to say, as the apostle says, "Yet not I, 
but the grace of God that is with me;"(2) and, "Now I live; yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me."(3) That is to say, "He must increase, but I must 
decrease." Thus John: as regards John, he is of the earth, and speaks of 
the earth; whatever that is divine thou hast heard from John, is of Him 
that enlightens, not of him that receives.

    7. "He that cometh from heaven is above all; and what He hath seen and 
heard, that He testifieth: and no man receiveth His testimony." Cometh from 
heaven, is above all, our Lord Jesus Christ; of whom it was said above, "No 
man hath ascended into heaven, but He that came down from heaven, the Son 
of man who is in heaven." And He is above all; "and what He hath seen and 
heard, that He speaks." Moreover, He hath a Fathers being Himself the Son 
of God; He hath a Father, and He also hears of the Father. And what is that 
which He hears of the Father? Who can unfold this? When can my tongue, when 
can my heart be sufficient, either the heart to understand, or the tongue 
to utter, what that is which the Son hath heard from the Father? May it be 
the Son has heard the Word of the Father? Nay, the Son is the Word of the 
Father. You see how all human effort is here wearied out; you see how all 
guessing of our heart, all straining of our darkened mind, here fails. I 
hear the Scripture saying that the Son speaks that which He heareth from 
the Father; and again, I hear the Scripture saying that the Son is Himself 
the Word of the Father: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
with God, and the Word was God." The words that we speak are fleeting and 
transient: as soon as thy word has sounded from thy mouth, it passeth away; 
it makes its noise, and passes away into silence. Canst thou follow thy 
sound, and hold it to make it stand? Thy thought, however, remains, and of 
that thought that remains thou utterest many words that pass away. What say 
we, brethren? When God spake, did He give out a voice, or sounds, or 
syllables? If He did, in what tongue spake He? In Hebrew, or in Greek, or 
in Latin? Tongues are necessary where there is a distinction of nations. 
But there none can say that God spake in this tongue, or in that. Observe 
thy own heart. When thou conceivest a word which thou mayest utter,--For I 
will say, if I can, what we may  note in ourselves, not whereby we may 
comprehend that,--well, when thou conceivest a word to utter, thou meanest 
to utter a thing, and the very conception of the thing is already a word in 
thy heart: it has not vet come forth, but it is already born in the heart, 
and is waiting to come forth. But thou considerest the person to whom it is 
to come forth, with whom thou art to speak: if he is a Latin, thou seekest 
a Latin expression; if a Greek, thou thinkest of Greek words; if a Punic, 
thou considerest whether thou knowest the Punic language: for the diversity 
of hearers thou hast recourse to divers tongues to utter the word 
conceived; but the conception itself was bound by no tongue in particular. 
Whilst therefore God, when speaking, required not a language, nor took up 
any kind of speech, how was He heard by the Son, seeing that God's speaking 
is the Son Himself? As, in fact, thou hast in thy heart the word that thou 
speakest, and as it is with thee, and is none other than the spiritual 
conception itself (for just as thy soul is spirit, so also the word which 
thou hast conceived is spirit; for it has not yet received sound to be 
divided by syllables, but remains in the conception of thy heart, and in 
the mirror of the mind); so God gave out His Word, that is, begat the Son. 
And thou, indeed, begettest the word even in thy heart according to time; 
God without time begat the Son by whom He created all times. Whilst, 
therefore, the Son is the Word of God, and the Son spoke to us not His own 
word, but the word of the Father, He willed to speak Himself to us when He 
was speaking the word of the Father. This it is that John said, as was fit 
and necessary; and we have expounded according to our ability. He whose 
heart has not yet attained to a proper perception of so great a matter, has 
whither to turn himself, has where to knock, has from whom to ask, from 
whom to seek, of whom to receive.

    8. "He that cometh from heaven is above all; and what He hath seen and 
heard, that testifieth He; and His testimony no man receiveth." If no man, 
to what purpose came He? He means, no man of a certain class. There are 
some people prepared for the wrath of God, to be damned with the devil; of 
these, none receiveth the testimony of Christ. For if none at all, not any 
man, received, what could these words mean, "But he that received His 
testimony hath set to his seal that God is true"? Not certainly, then, no 
man, if thou sayest thyself, "He that received His testimony has set to his 
seal that God is true." Perhaps John, on being questioned, would answer and 
say, I know what I have said, in saying no man. There are, in fact, people 
born to God's wrath, and thereunto foreknown. For God knows who they are 
that will and that will not believe; He knows who they are that shall 
persevere in that in which they have believed, and who that shall fall 
away; and all that shall be for eternal life are numbered by God; and He 
knows already the people set apart. And if He knows this, and has given to 
the prophets by His Spirit to know it, He gave this also to John. Now John 
was observing, not with his eye,--for as regards himself he is earth, and 
speaketh of earth,--but with that grace of the Spirit which he received of 
God, he saw a certain people, ungodly, unbelieving. Contemplating that 
people in its unbelief, he says, "His testimony, who came from heaven, no 
man receiveth." No man of whom? Of them who shall be on the left hand, of 
them to whom it shall be said, "Go into the everlasting fire, which is 
prepared for the devil and his angels." Who are they that do receive it? 
They who shall be at the right hand, they to whom it shall be said, "Come, 
ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which is prepared for you from 
the beginning of the world." He observes, then, in the Spirit a dividing, 
but in the human race a mingling together; and that which is not yet 
separated locally, he separated in the understanding, in the view of the 
heart; and he saw two peoples, one of believers, one of unbelievers. Fixing 
his thought on the unbelievers, he says, "He that cometh from heaven is 
above all; and what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth and no man 
receiveth His testimony." He then turned his thought from the left hand, 
and looked at the right, and proceeded to say, "He that received His 
testimony has set to his seal that God is true." What means "has set to his 
seal that God is true," if it be not that man is a liar, and God is true? 
For no human being can speak any truth, unless he be enlightened by Him who 
cannot lie. God, then, is true; but Christ is God. Wouldest thou prove 
this? Receive His testimony and thou findest it. For "he that hath received 
His testimony has set to his seal that God is true." Who is true? The same 
who came from heaven, and is above all, is God, and true. But if thou dost 
not yet understand Him to be God, thou hast not yet received His testimony: 
receive it, and thou puttest thy seal to it; confidently thou 
understandest, definitely thou acknowledgest, that God is true.

    9. "For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God." Himself is 
the true God, and God sent Him: God sent God. Join both, one God, true God 
sent by God. Ask concerning them singly, He is God; ask concerning them 
both, they are God. Not individually God, and both Gods; but each 
individual God, and both God. For so great is the charity of the Holy 
Spirit-there, so great the peace of unity, that when thou questionest about 
them individually, the answer to thee is, God; when thou askest concerning 
the Trinity, thou gettest for answer, God. For if the spirit of man, when 
it cleaves to God, is one spirit, as the apostle openly declares, "He that 
is joined to the Lord is one spirit;"(1) how much more is the equal Son, 
joined to the Father, together with Him one God! Hear another testimony. 
You know how many believed, when they sold all they had and laid it at the 
apostles' feet, that it might be distributed to each according to his need; 
and what saith the Scripture of that gathering of the saints? "They had one 
soul and one heart in the Lord."(2) If charity made one soul of so many 
souls, and one heart of so many hearts, how great must be the charity 
between the Father and the Son! Surely it must be greater than that between 
those men who had one heart. If, then, the heart of many brethren was one 
by charity, if the soul of many brethren was one by charity, wouldst thou 
say that God the Father and God the Son are two? If they are two Gods, 
there is not the highest charity between them. For if charity is here so 
great as to make thy soul and thy friend's soul one soul, how can it be 
then that the Father and the Son is not one God? Far be unfeigned faith 
from this thought. In short, how excellent that charity is, understand 
hence: the souls of many men are many, and if they love one another, it is 
one soul; still, in the case of men, they may be called many souls, because 
the union is not so strong. But there it is right for thee to say one God; 
two or three Gods it is not right for thee to say. From this, the supreme 
and surpassing excellency of charity is shown thee to be such, that a 
greater cannot be.

    10. "For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God." This, of 
course, he said of Christ, to distinguish himself from Christ. What then? 
Did not God send John himself? Did he not say himself, "I am sent before 
Him"? and, "He that sent me to baptize with water"? And is it not of John 
that it is said, "Behold, I send my messenger before Thee, and he shall 
prepare Thy way"?(1) Does he not himself speak the words of God, he of whom 
it is said that he is more than a prophet? Then, if God sent him too, and 
he speaks the words of God, how do we understand him to have distinctly 
said of Christ, "He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God"? But see 
what he adds: "For God giveth not the Spirit by measure." What is this, 
"For God giveth not the Spirit by measure"? We find that God does give the 
Spirit by measure. Hear the apostle when he says, "According to the measure 
of the gift of Christ."(2) To men He gives by measure, to the only Son He 
gives not by measure. How does He give to men by measure? "To one is given 
by the Spirit the word of wisdom: to another the word of wisdom according 
to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another 
prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another kinds of tongues; to 
another the gift of healing. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all 
teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gift of healing? Do all 
speak with tongues? Do all interpret?"(3) This man has one gift, that man 
another; and what that man has, this has not: there is a measure, a certain 
division of gifts. To men, therefore, it is given by measure, and concord 
among them makes one body. As the hand receives one kind of gift to work, 
the eye another to see, the ear another to hear, the foot another to walk; 
nevertheless the soul that does all is one, in the hand to work, in the 
foot to walk, in the ear to hear, in the eye to see; so are also the gifts 
of believers diverse, distributed to them as to members, to each according 
to his proper measure. But Christ, who gives, receives not by measure.

11. Now hear further what follows: because He had said of the Son, "For God 
giveth not the Spirit by measure: the Father loveth the Son, and hath given 
all things into His hand," He added, "hath given all things into His 
hands," that thou mightest know also here with what distinction it is said, 
"The Father loveth the Son." And why? Does the Father not love John? And 
yet He has not given all things into his hand. Does the Father not love 
Paul? And yet He has not given all things into his hand. "The Father loveth 
the Son:" but as father loveth, not as master loveth a servant; as the Only 
Son, not as an adopted son. And so "hath given all things into His hand." 
What means "all things"? That the Son should be such as the Father is. To 
equality with Himself He begat Him in whom it was no robbery to be in the 
form of God, equal to God. "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all 
things into His hand." Therefore, having deigned to send us the Son, let us 
not imagine that it is something less than the Father that is sent to us. 
The Father, in sending the Son, sent His other self.

    12. But the disciples, still thinking that the Father is something 
greater than the Son, seeing only the flesh, and not understanding His 
divinity, said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us." As 
much as to say, "We know Thee already, and bless Thee that we know Thee: 
for we thank Thee that Thou hast shown Thyself to us. But as yet we know 
not the Father: therefore our heart is inflamed, and occupied with a 
certain holy longing of seeing Thy Father who sent Thee. Show us Him, and 
we shall desire nothing more of Thee: for it sufficeth us when He has been 
shown, than whom none can be greater." A good longing, a good desire; but 
small intelligence. Now the Lord Jesus Himself, regarding them as small men 
seeking great things, and Himself great among the small, and yet small 
among the small, says to Philip, one of the disciples, who had said this: 
"Am I so long time with you, and ye have not known me, Philip?" Here Philip 
might have answered, Thee we have known, but did we say to Thee, Show us 
Thyself? We have known Thee, but it is the Father we seek to know. He 
immediately adds, "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father also."(4) If, 
then, One equal with the Father has been sent, let us not estimate Him from 
the weakness of the flesh, but think of the majesty clothed in flesh, but 
not weighed down by the flesh. For, remaining God with the Father, He was 
made man among men, that, through Him who was made man, thou mightest 
become such as to receive God. For man could not receive God. Man could see 
man; God he could not apprehend. Why could he not apprehend God? Because he 
had not the eye of the heart, by which to apprehend Him. There was 
something within disordered, something without sound: man had the eyes of 
the body sound, but the eyes of the heart sick. He was made man to the eye 
of the body; so that, believing on Him who could be seen in bodily form, 
thou mightst be healed for seeing Him whom thou wast not able to see 
spiritually. "Am I so long time with you, and ye know me not, Philip? He 
that hath seen me, hath seen the Father also." Why did they not see Him? 
Lo, they did see Him, and yet saw not the Father: they saw the flesh, but 
the majesty was concealed. What the disciples who loved Him saw, saw also 
the Jews who crucified Him. Inwardly, then, was He all; and in such manner 
inwardly in the flesh, that He remained with the Father when He came to the 
flesh.

    13. Carnal thought does not apprehend what I say: let it defer 
understanding, and begin by faith; let it hear what follows: "He that 
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the 
Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." He has not 
said, The wrath of God cometh to him; but, "The wrath of God abideth on 
him." All that are born mortals have the wrath of God with them. What wrath 
of God? That wrath which Adam first received. For if the first man sinned, 
and heard the sentence, "Thou shalt die the death," he became mortal, and 
we began to be born mortal; and we have been born with the wrath of God. 
From this stock came the Son, not having sin, and He was clothed with flesh 
and mortality. If He partook with us of the wrath of God, are we slow to 
partake with Him the grace of God? He, then, that will not believe the Son, 
on the same "the wrath of God abideth." What wrath of God? That of which 
the apostle says, "We also were by nature the children of wrath, even as 
the rest."(1) All are therefore children of wrath, because coming of the 
curse of death. Believe on Christ, for thee made mortal, that thou mayest 
receive Him, the immortal; and when thou shalt have received His 
immortality, thou shalt no longer be mortal. He lived, thou wast dead; He 
died that thou shouldst live. He has brought us the grace of God, and has 
taken away the wrath of God. God has conquered death, lest death should 
conquer man.

TRACTATE XV: CHAPTER IV. 1-42.

    1. It is nothing new to your ears, beloved, that the Evangelist John, 
like an eagle, takes a loftier flight, and soars above the dark mist of 
earth, to gaze with steadier eyes upon the light of truth. From his Gospel 
much has already been treated of and discussed through our ministry, with 
the Lord's help; and the passage which has been read to-day follows in due 
order. What I am about to say, with the Lord's permission, many of you will 
hear in such wise that you will be reviewing what you know, rather than 
learning what you know not. Yet, for all that, your attention ought not to 
be slack, because it is not an acquiring, but a reviewing, of knowledge. 
This has been read, and we have in our hands to discourse upon this 
passage--that which the Lord Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at 
Jacob's well. The things spoken there are great mysteries, and the 
similitudes of great things; feeding the hungry, and refreshing the weary 
soul.

    2. Now when the Lord knew this, "when He had heard that the Pharisees 
had learned that He was making more disciples than John, and baptized more 
(though Jesus baptized not, but His disciples), He left Judea, and departed 
again into Galilee." We must not discourse of this too long, lest, by 
dwelling on what is manifest, we shall lack the time to investigate and lay 
open what is obscure. Certainly, if the Lord saw that the fact of their 
coming to know that He made more disciples, and baptized more, would so 
avail to salvation to the Pharisees in following Him, as to become 
themselves His disciples, and to desire to be baptized by Him; rather would 
He not have left Judea, but would have remained there for their sakes. But 
because He knew their knowledge of the fact, and at the same time knew 
their envy, and that they learned this, not to follow, but to persecute 
him, He departed thence. He could, indeed, even when present, cause that He 
should not be taken of them, if He would not; He had it in His power not to 
be put to death, if He would not, since He had the power not to be born, if 
He would not. But because, in everything that He did as man, He was showing 
an example to them who were to believe on Him (that any one servant of God 
sinneth not if he retire into another place, when he sees, it may be, the 
rage of his persecutors, or of them that seek to bring his soul into evil; 
but if a servant of God did this he might appear to commit sin, had not the 
Lord led the way in doing it), that good Master did this to teach us, not 
because He feared it.

    3. It may perhaps surprise you why it is said, that "Jesus baptized 
more t