5. The Lord Jesus Himself showed this also far more openly, when He companied on earth with His disciples during forty days after His resurrection; and having on the fortieth day ascended into heaven, did at the end of ten days send the^vages, the Holy Ghost. These were done in signs, and by a kind of signs were the very realities anticipated. By significant tokens are we fed, that we may be able to come to the enduring realities. "We are workmen, and are still labormg in the vineyard: when the day is ended and the work finished, the wages will be paid. But what workman can hold out to the receiving of the wages, unless he be fed while he labors?' Even thou thyself wilt not give thy workman only wages; wilt thou not also bestow on him that where with he may repair his strength in his labor? Surely thou feedest him to 2 Rom. iii. 21.
3 Tit. ii. 12, 13.
4 IMatt. x.\. 10.
Tractate XVII. ] whom thou art to give wages. In Hke manner also doth the Lord, in those significant tokens of the Scriptures, feed us while we labor. For if that joy in understanding holy mysteries be withdrawn from us, we faint in labor, and there will be none to come to the reward.
6. How, then, is work perfected in the number forty? The reason, it may be, is, because the law was given in ten precepts, and was to be preached throughout the whole world: which whole world, we are to mark, is made up of four quarters, east and west, south and north, whence the number ten, multiplied by four, comes to forty. Or, it may be, because the law is fulfilled by the gospel, which has four books: for in the gospel it is said, " I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." Whether, then, it be for this reason or for that, or for some other more probable, which is hid from us, but not from more learned men; certain it is, however, that in the number forty a certain perfection in good works is signilied, which good works are most of all practised by a kind of abstinence from unlawful lusts of the world, that is, by fasting in the general sense.
Hear also the apostle when he says, " Love is the fulfilling of the law."' Whence the love? By the grace of God, by the Holy Spirit. For we could not have it from ourselves, as if making it for ourselves. It is the gift of God, and a great gift it is: for, saith he, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given to us."- Wherefore love completes the law, and most truly it is said, " Love is the perfecting of the law. ' ' Let us inquire as to this love, in what manner the Lord doth commend it to our consideration. Remember what I laid down: I want to explain the number thirty-eight of the years of that impotent man, why that number thirty-eight is one of weakness rather than of health. Now, as I was saying, love fulfills the law. The number forty belongs to the perfecting of the law in all works; but in love two precepts are committed to our keeping. Keep before your eyes, I beseech you, and fix in your memory, what I say; be ye not despisers of the word, that your soul may not become a trodden path, where the seed cast cannot sprout, " and the fowls of the air will come and gather it up.'' Apprehend it, and lay it up in your hearts. The precepts of love, given to us by the Lord, are two: " Thou slialt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;'" and, " 'I'hou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all phets." 5 With sood the law and the proreason did the widow cast "two mites,'' all her substance, into the offerings host of God: take ''two' with pieces of money, for good reason did the the poor man that was wounded by the robbers, for his making whole: with good reason did Jesus spent two days with the Samaritans, to establish them in love. Thus, whilst a certain good thing is generally signified by this number two, most especially is love in its twofold character set forth to us thereby. If, therefore, the number forty possesses the perfecting of the law, and the law is fulfilled only in the twin precepts of love, why dost thou' wonder that he was weak and sick, who was short of forty by two?
7. Therefore let us now see the sacred mystery whereby this impotent man is healed by the Lord. The Lord Himself came, the Teacher of love, full of love, "shortening," as it was predicted of Him, " the word upon the earth," •* and showed that tlie law and the prophets hang on two precepts of love. Upon these hung Moses with his number forty, upon these Elias with his; and the Lord brought in this number in His testimony. This impotent man is healed by the Lord in person; but before healing him, what does He say to him? "Wilt thou be made whole?" The man answered that he had not a man to put him into the pool. Truly he had need of a " man '' to his healing, but that " man '' one who is also God. " For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. "^ He came, then, the Man who was needed: why should the healing be delayed? "Arise," saith He; "take up thy bed, and walk." He said three things: "Arise, Take up thy bed, and AValk." But that "Arise" was not a command to do a work, but the operation of healing. And the man, on being made whole, received two commands: " Take up thy bed, and Walk.'' I ask you, why was it not enough to say, "Walk?" Or, at any rate, why was it not enough to say, "Arise "? For when the man had arisen whole, he would not have remained in the place. Would it not be for the purpose of going away that he would have arisen? My impression is, that He who found the man lacking two things, gave him these two precepts: for, by ordering him to do two things, it is as if He filled up that which was lacking.
8. How. then, do we find the two jirecepts of love indicated in these two conmiands of tlie Lord? " 'I'ake up thy bed," saith He, " antl walk." AVhat the two precepts are, my ' Rom. X. 10.
= Koiii. V. 5.
THE WORKS OF ST AUGUSTIN.
[Tractate XVII.
brethren, recollect with me. For they ought to be thoroughly familiar to you, and not merely to come into your mind when they are recited by us, but they ought never to be blotted out from your hearts. Let it ever be your supreme thought, that you must love God and your neighbor: "God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself."' These must always be pondered, meditated, retained, practised, and fulfilled. The love of God comes first in the order of enjoying; but in the order of doing, the love of our neighbor comes first. For He who commanded thee this love in two precepts did not charge thee to love thy neighbor first, and then God, but first God, afterwards thy neighbor. Thou, however, as thou dost not yet see God, dost earn to see Him by loving thy neighbor; by loving thy neighbor thou purgest thine eye for seeing God, as John evidently says, " If thou lovest not thy brother whom thou seest, how canst thou love God, whom thou dost not see?"' See, thou art told, "Love God." If thou say to me, "Show me Him, that I may love Him;" what shall I answer, but what the same John saith: " No man hath seen God at any time "? And, that you may not suppose yourself to be wholly estranged from seeing God, he saith, "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.""" Therefore love thy neighbor; look at the source of thy love of thy neighbor; there thou wilt see, as thou mayest, God. Begin, then, to love thy neighbor. " Break thy bread to the hungry, and bring into thy house him that is needy without shelter; if thou seest the naked, clothe him; and despise not those of the household of thy seed.'' And in doing this, what wilt thou get in consequence? " Then shall thy light break forth as the morning light. ' ' ^ Thy light is thy God, a " morning light " to thee, because Fie shall come to thee after the night of this world: for He neither rises nor sets, because He is ever abiding. He will -be a morning light to thee on thy return, He who had set for thee on thy falling away from Him. Therefore, in this " Take up thy bed," He seems to me to have said, Love thy neighbor.
9. But why the love of our neighbor is set forth by the taking up of the bed, is still shut up, and, as I suppose, needs to be expounded: unless, perhaps, it offend us that our neighbor should be indicated by means of a bed, a stolid, senseless thing. Let not my neighbor be angry if he be set forth to us by a thing ^ I John iv. 20.
2 1 John iv. 16.
3 Isa. Iviii. 7, 8.
without soul and without feeling. The Lord Himself, even our Saviour Jesus Christ, is called the corner-stone, to build up two in Himself. He is called also a rock, from which water flowed forth: "And that rock was Christ."'* What wonder, then, if Christ is called rock, that neighbor is called wood ^ Yet not any kind of wood whatever; as neither that was any kind of rock soever, but one from which water flowed to the thirsty; nor any kind soever of stone, but a corner-stone, which in itself coupled two walls coming from different directions. So neither mayest thou take thy neighbor to be wood of any kind soever, but a bed. Then what is there in a bed, pray? What, but that the impotent man was borne on it; but, when made whole, he carries the bed? What does the apostle say? "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so shall ye fulfill the law of Christ." = Now the law of Christ is love, and love is not fulfilled except we bear one another's burdens. " Forbearing," saith he, "one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." * When thou wast weak thy neighbor bore thee; thou art made whole, bear thy neighbor. So wilt thou fill up, O man, that which was lacking to thee. " Take up thy bed, then." But when thou hast taken it up, stay not in the place; "walk." By loving thy neighbor, by caring for thy neighbor, dost thou perform thy going. Whither goest thy way, but to the Lord God, whom we ought to love with the whole heart, and with the whole soul, and with the whole mind? For we are not yet come to the Lord, but we have our neighbor with us. Bear him, then, when thou walkest, that thou mayest come to Him with whom thou desirest to abide. Therefore, " take up thy bed, and walk."
10. The man did this, and the Jews were offended. For they saw a man carrying his bed on the Sabbath-day, and they did not blame the Lord for healing' him on the Sabbath, that He should be able to answer them, that if any of them had a beast fallen into a well, he would surely draw it out on the Sabbath-day, and save his beast; and so, now they did not object to Him that a man was made whole on the Sabbath-day, but that the man was carrying his bed. But if the healing was not to be deferred, should a work also have been commanded? " It is not lawful for thee," say they, to do what thou art doing, " to take up thy bed." And he, in defence, put the author of his healing before his censors, saying, " He that made me whole, the same said unto me. Take up thy bed, and 4 I Cor, X. 4.
S Gal. vi. 2.
6 Eph. iv. 2.
Tractate XVII.]
walk." Should I not take injunction from him from whom I received healing? And they said, "Who is the man that said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? '' 11. "But he that was made whole knew not who it was " that had said this to him. *' For Jesus,'' when He had done this, and given him this order, " turned away from him in the crowd." See how this also is fulfilled. We bear our neighbor, and walk towards God; but Him, to whom we are walking, we do not yet see: for that reason also, that man did not yet know Jesus. The mystery herein intimated to us is, that we believe on Him whom we do not yet see; and that He may not be seen, He turns aside in the crowd. It is difficult in a crowd to see Christ: a certain solitude is necessary for our mind; it is by a certain solitude of contemplation that God is seen. A crowd has noise; this seeing requires secrecy. " Take up thy bed " — being thyself borne, bear thy neighbor; " and walk," that thou mayest come to the goal. Do not seek Christ in a crowd: He is not as one of a crowd; He excels all crowd. That great fish first ascended from the sea, and He sits in heaven making intercession for us: as the great high priest He entered alone into that within the veil; the crowd stands ■ without. Do thou walk, bearing thy neighbor: if thou hast learned to bear, thou, who wast wont to be borne. In a word, even now as yet thou knowest not Jesus, not yet seest Jesus: what follows thereafter? Since that man desisted not from taking up his bed and walking, " Jesus seeth him afterwards in the temple." He did not see Jesus in the crowd, he saw Him in the temple. The Lord Jesus, indeed, saw him both in the crowd and in the temple; but the impotent man does not know Jesus in the crowd, but he knows Him in the temple. The man came then to the Lord: saw Him in the temple, saw Him in a consecrated, saw Him in a holy place. And what does the Lord say to him? *' Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest some worse thing befall thee."
12. The man. then, after he saw Jesus, and knew Him to be the author of his healing, was not slothful in preaching Him whom he had seen: " He departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus that liad made him whole." He brought them word, and they were mad against him; he preached his own salvation, they sought not their own salvation.
13. The Jews persecuted the Lord Jesus because He did these things on the Sabbathday. Let us hear what answer the Lord now made to the Jews. I have told you how He is wont to answer concerning the Ileal ing of men on the Sabbath-day, that they used not on the Sabbath-day to slight their cattle, either in delivering or in feeding them. What does He answer concerning the carrying of the bed? A manifest corporal work was done before the eyes of the Jews; not a healing of the body, but a bodily work, which appeared not so necessary as the healing. Let the Lord, then, openly declare that the sacrament of the Sabbath, even the sign of keeping one day, was given to the Jews for a time, but that the fulfillment of the sacrament had come in Himself. "My Father," saith He, "worketh hitherto, and I work." He sent a great commotion among them: the water is troubled by the coming of the Lord, but yet He that troubles is not seen. Yet one great sick one is to be healed by the troubled water, the whole world by the death of the Lord.
14. Let us see, then, the answer made by the Truth: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.'-' Is it false, then, which the Scripture has said, that " God rested from all His works on the seventh day "? And does the Lord Jesus speak contrary to this Scripture ministered by Moses, whilst He Himself says to the Jews, " If ye believed Moses, ye would believe me; for He wrote of me"? See, then, whether INfoses did not mean it to be significant of something that "God rested on the seventh day." For God had not become wearied in doing the work of His own creation, and needed rest as a man. How can He have been wearied, who made by a word? Yet is both that true, that "God rested from His works on the seventh day;" and this also is true that Jesus saith, " My Father worketh hitherto." But who can unfold it in words, man to men, weak to weak, unlearned to them that seek to learn; and if he chance to understand somewhat, unable to bring it forth and unfold it to men, who with difficulty, it may be, r ive it, even if what is received can possi ' be unfolded? \\'\\o, I sa}', my brethren, can unfold in words how God both works while at rest, and rests while working? I pray you to put this matter off while you are advancing on the way; for this seeing requires the temple of God, requires the holy i)lace. Bear your neighlior, and walk. Ye shall see Him in that place where ye shall not require the words of men.
15. Perhaps we can more apnropriately say this, that in the saying, "God rested on the seventh day," he signified by a great mystery the Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself, whosi)oke antl said, " My Father worketh hitherto, and 1 work." For the Lord Jesus is, of course, God. For He is the Word of God, and you have heard that " in the begin- Tl6 [Tractate XVII.
ning was the Word; " and not any word whatsoever, but "the Word was God, and all things were made by Him." He was perhaps signified as about to rest on the seventh day from all His works. For, read the Gospel, and see what great works Jesus wrought. He wrought our salvation on the cross, that all things foretold by the prophets might be fulfilled in Him. He was crowned with thorns; He hung on the tree; said, "I thirst," received vinegar on a sponge, that it might be fulfilled which was said, "And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."' And when all His works were completed, on the sixth day of the week. He bowed His head and gave up the ghost, and on the Sabbath-day He rested in the tomb from all His works. Therefore it is as if He said to the Jews, "Why do ye expect that I should not work on the Sabbath? The Sabbath-day was ordained for you for a sign of me. You observe the works of God: I was there when they were made, by me were they all made; I know them. ' My Father worketh hitherto.' The Father made the light, but He spoke that there should be light; if He spoke, it was by His Word He made it: His Word I was, I am; by me was the world made in those works, by me the world is ruled in these works. My Father worked when He made the world, and hitherto now worketh while He rules the world: therefore by me He made when He made, and by me He rules while He rules." This He said, but to whom? To men deaf, blind, lame, impotent, not acknowledging the physician, and as if in a frenzy they had lost their wits, wishing to slay Him.
16. Further, what said the evangelist as he went on? "Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father;" not in any ordinary manner, but how? "Making Himself equal with God.'' For we all say to God, "Our Father which art in heaven;" we read also that the Jews said, "Seeing Thou art our Father." = Therefore it was not for this they were angry, because He said that God was His Father, but because He said it in quite another way ' Ps. Ixix. 22.
2 Isa. Ixiii. 16.
than men do. Behold, the Jews understand what the Arians do not understand. The Arians, in fact, say that the Son is not equal with the Father, and hence it is that the heresy was driven from the Church. Lo, the very blind, the very slayers of Christ, still understood the words of Christ. They did not understand Him to be Christ, nor did they understand Him to be the Son of God: but they did nevertheless understand that in these words such a Son of God was intimated to them as should be equal with God. Who He was they knew not; still they did acknowledge such a One to be declared, in that " He said God was His Father, making Himself equal with God." Was He not therefore equal with God? He did not make Himself equal, but the Father begat Him equal. Were He to make Himself equal, He would fall by robbery. For he who wished to make himself equal with God, whilst he was not so, fell, and of an angel became a devil, ^ and administered to man that cup of pride by which himself was cast down. For this fallen said' to man, envying his standing, " Taste, and ye shall be as gods;"^ that is, seize to yourselves by usurpation that which ye are not made, for I also have been cast down by robbery. He did not put forth this, but this is what he persuaded to. Christ, however, was begotten equal to the Father, not made; begotten of the substance of the Father. Whence the apostle thus declares Him: " Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." What means "thought it not robbery "? He usurped not equality with God, but was in that equality in which He was begotten. And how were we to come to the equal God? " He emptied Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant."s ButHe emptied Himself not by losing what He was, but by taking to Him what He ivas not. The Jews, despising this form of a servant, could not untierstaj^d the Lord Christ equal to the Father, although they had not the least doubt that He affirmed this of Himself, and therefore were they enraged: and yet He still bore with them, and sought the healing of them, while they raged against Him.
3 Isa. xiv. 14.
4 Gen. iii. 5.
5 Phil. ii. 6.
Tractate XVIII. 1 1 1 TRACTATE XVIII.
Chapter V. 19.
I. John the evangelist, among his fellows and companions the other evangelists, received this special and peculiar gift from the Lord (on whose breast he reclined at the feast, hereby to signify that he was drinking deeper secrets from His inmost heart), to utter those things concerning the Son of God which may perhaps rouse the attentive minds of the little ones, but cannot fill them, as yet not capable of receiving them; while to minds of somewhat larger growth, and coming to a certain age of mner manhood, he gives in these words something whereby they may both be exercised and fed. You have heard it when it was read, and you remember how this discourse arose. For yesterday it was read, that "therefore the Jews sought to kill Jesus, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God." This that displeased the Jews, pleased the Father. This, without doubt, pleases them too that honor the Son as they honor the Father; for if it does not please them, they will not be pleasing. For God will not be greater because it pleases thee, but thou wilt be less if it displeases thee. Now against this calumny of theirs, coming either of ignorance Or of malice, the Lord speaks not at all what they can understand, but that whereby they may be agitated and troubled, and, on being troubled, it may be, seek the Physician. And He uttered what should be written, that it might afterwards be read even by us. Now we have seen what happened in the hearts of the Jews when they heard these words; what happens in ourselves when we hear them, let us more fully consider. For heresies, and certain tenets of perversity, ensnaring souls and hurling them into the deep, have not sprung up except when good Scriptures are not rightly understood, and when that in them which is not rightly understood is rashly and lioldly asserted. And so, dearly beloved, ought we very cautiously to hear those things for the understanding of which we are but little ones, and that, too, with pious heart and with trembhng, as it is written, holding this rule of soundness, that we rejoice as in food in that which we have been able to understand, according to the faith with which we are imbued; and what we have not yet been able to understand, that we lay aside doubt- [ ing, and defer the understanding of it for a itime; that is, even if we do not yet know I what it is, that still we doubt not in the least i that it is good and true. And as for me, i brethren, you must consider who I am that I undertake to speak to you, and what I have undertaken: for I have taken upon me to treat of things divine, being a man; of spiritj ual things, being carnal; of things eternal, I being a mortal. Also from me, dearly beloved, far be vain presumption, if my conversation would be sound in the house of God, I "which is the Church of the living God, the ' pillar and foundation of the truth."' In proportion to m.y measure I take what I put before you: where it is opened, I see with you; where it is shut, I knock with you.
2. Now the Jews were moved and indignant: justly, indeed, because a man dared to make himself equal with God; but unjustly in this, because in the man they understood not the God. They saw the tlesh, the God they knew not; they obser\'ed the habitation, of the innabitant they were ignorant. That flesh was a temple, within it dwelt God. It was not the flesh that Jesus made equal to the Father, it was not the form of a servant that He compared to the Lord; not that which He became for us, but that which He was when He made us. For who Christ is (I speak to Catholics) you know, because you have rightly believetl; not Word only, nor flesh only, but the Word was made flesh to dwell among us. I recite again concerning the Word what you know: " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: " here is equality with the Father. r>ut "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Than this flesh the Father is greater. Thus the Father is both equal and greater; equal to the Word, greater than the flesh; equal to Him by whom He made us, greater than He who was made for us. By this sound catholic rule, which you ought particularly to know, which you wiio know it hold fast, from which your faith ought not in any case to slip, which is to be wrestetl from your heart by no arguments of men, let us measure the things we do understand; antl the things which, it may be, we do not. untlerstantl, let us defer, to be i hereafter measured bv this rule, wiien we ' I TiiM. iii. J ii8 [Tractate XVIII.
shall be competent to do this. We know Him, then, as equal to the Father, the Son of God, because we know Him in the beginning as God the Word. Why, then, sought the Jews to slay Him? "Because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God: '' seeing the flesh, not seeing the Word. Let Him therefore speak against them, the Word through the flesh; let Him, the dweller within, speak for through His dwelling-place, that whoso can, shall know who He is that dwells within.
What saith He then to them? " Then answered Jesus, and said unto them," being indignant because He made Himself equal with God, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing." What the Jews answered to these words is not written: and perhaps they said nothing. Certain, however, who wish to be esteemed Christians, are not silent, but from these words somehow conceive certain opinions in contradiction to us, which are not to be despised, both for their and for our sakes. The Arian heretics, namely, while they assert that the Son, who