thing as to believe that " shall the following sentence, we find Him to have said, " If any man be willing to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." What is " he shall know"? It is the same thing as "he shall understand." But what is "If any man be willing to do His will "? It is the same All men indeed perceive vuow " is the same thing as " shall ■understand:" but that the saying, "If any man be willing to do His will," refers to believing, all do not perceive; to perceive this more accurately, we need the Lord Himself for expounder, to show us whether the doing of the Father's will does in reality refer to believing. But who does not know that this is to do the will of God, to work the work of God; that is, to work that work which is pleasing to Him? But the Lord Himself says openly in another place: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He has sent."' "That ye believe on Him," not, that ye believe Him. But if ye believe on Him, ye believe Him; yet he that believes Him does not necessarily believe on Him. For even the devils believed Him, but they did not believe on Him. Again, moreover, of His apostles we can say, we believe Paul; but not, we believe on Paul: we believe Peter; but not, we believe on Peter. For, "to him that believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted unto him for righteousness." = What then is "to believe on Him''? By believing to love Him, by believing to esteem highly, by believing to go into Him and to be incorporated in His members. It IS faith itself then that God exacts from us: and He finds not that which He exacts, unless He has bestowed what He may find. What faith, but that which the apostle has most amply defined in another place, saying, " Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh by love? " 3 Not any faith of what kind soever, but "faith that worketh by love:" let this faith be in thee, and thou shalt understand concerning the doctrine. What indeed shalt thou understand? That " this doctrine \z not mine, but His that sent me;" tiiat is, thou shalt understand that Christ the Son of God, who is the doctrine of the Father, is not from Himself, but is the Son of the Father.
7. This sentence overthrows the Sabellian heresy. The Sabellians have dared to affirm that the Son is the very same as He who is also the Father: that the names are two, but the reality one. If the names were two and -eality one, it would not be said, " My doctiine is not mine." Anyhow, if Thy doctrine ye is not Thine, O Lord, whose is it, unless there be another whose it is? The Sabellians understand not what Thou saidst; for they see not the trinity, but follow the error of their own heart. Let us worshippers of the trinity and unity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and one God, understand concerning Christ's doctrine, how it is not His. And He said that He spoke not from Himself for this reason, because Christ is the Son of the Father, and the Father is the Father of Christ; and the Son is from God the Father, God, but God the Father is God not from God the Son. 8. " He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory.' This will be he who is called Antichrist, " exalting himself," as the apostle says, "above all that is called God, and that is worshipped."-* The Lord, declaring that this same it is that will seek his own glory, not the glory of the Father, says to the Jews: "I am come in my Father's name, and have not received me; another will come his own name, him ye will receive." ^ He intimated that they would receive Antichrist, who will seek the glory of his own name, puffed up, not solid; and therefore not stable, but assuredly ruinous. But our Lord Jesus Christ has shown us a great example of humility: for doubtless He is equal with the Father, for " in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; " yea, doubtless. He Himself said, and most truly said, "Am I so longtime \\ith you, and ye have not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."* Yea, doubtless. Himself said, and most truly said, " I and the Father are one." ' If, therefore, He is one with the Father, equal to the Father, God from God, God with God, coeternal, immortal, alike unchangeable, alike without time, alike Creator and disposer of times; and yet because He came in time, and took the form of a servant, and in condition was found as a man,** He seeks the glory of the Father, not His own; what oughtest thou to do, O man, who, when thou doest anything good, seekest thy own glory; but when thou doest anything ill, dost meditate calumny against God? Consider thyself, thou art a creature, acknowledge thy Creator: thou art a servant, despise not thy Lord: thou art adopted, not for thy own merits; seek His glory from whom ♦'hou hast this grace, that thou art a man adopted; His, whose glory He sought who is from Him, the 'Only-begotten. " But He that seeketh His glory tiiat sent Him, the same is true, and no unis in Mini." In Antichrist, ' John vi. 29.
" Rom. iv. 5.
3 Oal.
V. 0.
righteousness * John xiv.
1 86 [Tractate XXX.
however, there is unrighteousness, and he is ' of Christ, seek not our own glory, that we be not true; because he will seek his own glory, not led into the snares of Antichrist. But if not His by whom he was sent: for, indeed, he was not sent, but only permitted to come. Let us all, therefore, that belong to the body Christ sought His glory that sent Him, how much more ought we to seeK the glory of Him who made us?
TRACTATE XXX.
Chapter VH. 19-24.
1. The passage of the holy Gospel of which we liave before discoursed to you, beloved, is fo lowed b^ that of to-day, which has just now been read. Both the disciples and the Jews heard the Lord speaking; both men of truth and liars heard the Truth speaking; both friends and enemies heard Charity speaking; both good men and bad men heard the Good speaking. They heard, but He discerned; He saw and foresaw whom His discourse profited and would profit. Among those who were then. He saw; among us who were to be, He foresaw. Let us therefore hear the Gospel, just as if we were listening to the Lord Himself present: nor let us sav, O happy they who were able to see Him! because there were many of them who saw, and also killed Him; and there are many among us who have not seen Him, and yet have believed. For the precious truth that sounded forth from the mouth of the Lord was both written for our sakes, and preserved for our sakes, and recited for our sakes, and will be recited also for the sake of our prosperity, even until the end of the world. The Lord is above; but the Lord, the Truth, is also here. For the body of the Lord, in which He rose agam from the dead, can be only in one place; but His truth is everywhere diffused. Let us then hear the Lord, and let us also speak that which He shall have granted to us concerning His own words.
2. " Did not Moses," saith He, " give you the law, and yet none of you doeth the law? Why do ye seek to kill me?" For ye seek to kill me just for this reason, that none of you doeth the law; for if ye did do the law, ye would recognize Christ in its very letters, and ye would not kill Him when present with you. And they answered: "The crowd answered Him;" answered as a tumultuous crowd,' things not pertaining to order, but to confusion; in a word, the crowd was disturbed.
I Turh.-..
See what answer it made: " Thou hast a devil: who seeks to kill thee?'' As if it were not worse to say, *' Thou hast a devil," than to kill Him. To Him, indeed, was it said, that He had a devil, who was casting out devils. What else can a turbulent disorderly crowd say? What else can filth stirred up do but stink? The crowd was disturbed, by what 1 By the truth. For the eyes that have not soundness cannot endure the brightness of the light.
3. But the Lord, manifestly not disturbed, but calm in His truth, rendered not evil for evil nor railing for railing; =^ although, if He were to say to these men. You have a devil, He would certainly be saying what was true. For they would not have said such things to the Truth, unless the falsehood of the devil had instigated them. What then did He answer? Let us calmly hear, and drink in the serene word: " I have done one work, and ve all marv^el." As if He said, What if ye were to see all my works? For they were His works which they saw m the world, and yet they saw not Him who made them all: He did one thing, and they were disturbed because he made a man whole on the Sabbathday. As if, indeed, when any sick man recovered his health on the Sabbath-day, it had been any other that made such a man whole than He who offended them, because He made one man whole on the Sabbath-day. For who else has made others whole than He who is health itself, — He who gives even to the beasts that health which He gave to this man? For it was bodily health. The healtli of the flesh is repaired, and the flesh dies, and when It is repaired, death is only put off, not taken away. However, even that same health, brethren, is from the Lord, through whomsoever it may be given: by whose care and ministry soever it may be imparted, it is given by Him from whom all health is, to whom it Pet.
111. 9, Tractate XXX.]
ON.THE GOSPEL OF ST. |OHX.
is said in the psalm, " O Lord, Thou wilt save! men and beasts; as Thou hast multiplied Thy mercy, O God/' For because Thou art God, Thy multiplied mercy reaches even to the safety of human flesh, reaches even to the safety of dumb animals; but Thou who givest health of flesh common to men and beasts, is there no health which Thou reservest for men? There is certainly another which is not only not common to men and beasts, but to men themselves is not common to good and bad. In a word, when he had there spoken of this health which men and cattle receive in common, because of that health which men, but only the good, ought to hope for, he added as he went on: " But the sons of men shall put their trust under the cover of Thy wings. They shall be fully satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt give them drink from the torrent of Thy pleasure. For witli Thee is the fountain of life; and in Thy Jight shall they see light."' This is the health which belongs to good men, those whom he called "sons of men;'" whilst he had said above, " O Lord, Thou shalt save men and beasts."' How then? Were not those men sons of men, that after he had said men, he should go on and say, But the sons of men: as if men and sons of men meant different things? Yet I do not believe that the Holy Spirit had said this witliout some, indication of distinction. The term men refers to the first Adam, sons of men to Christ, Perhaps, indeed, meti relate to the first man; but sons of men relate to the Son of man.
4. "I have done one work, and ye all marvel." And immediately He subjoined: " Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision." It was well done that ye received circumcision from Moses. " Not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers;" since it was Abraham that first received circumcision from the Lord.- " And ye circumcise on the Sabbath-day." Moses has convicted you: ye have received in the law to circumcise on the eighth day; ye have received in the law to cease from labor on the seventh day;^ if the eighth day from the child's birth fall on the seventh day of the week, what will ye do? Will ye abstain from work to keep the Sabbath, or will ye circumcise to fulfill the sacrament of the eighth day? But I know, saith He, what ye do. "Ye circumcise a man." Why? Because circumcision relites to what is a kind of seal of salvation, and men ought not to abstain from the work of salvation on the Sabbath-day. Therefore be ye not " angry with me, because I have made a man ' Ps.
xxxvi. 7-10.
-' (Icn. xvii.:o.
1 Kx. XX. 10.
every whit whole on the Sabbath-day." " If,"' saith He, "a man on the Sabbath-day receiveth circumcision that the law should not be broken " (for it was something saving that was ordained by Moses in that ordinance of circumcision), why are ye angry at me for working a healing on the Sabbath-day?
5. Perhaps, indeed, that circumcision pointed to the Lord Himself, at whom they were indignant, because He worked cures and healing. For circumcision was commanded to be applied on the eiglith day: and what is circumcision but the spoiling of the flesh? This circumcision, then, signified the removal of carnal lusts from the heart. Therefore not without cause was it given, and ordered to be made in that member; since by that member the creature of mortal kind is procreated. By one man came death, just as by one man the resurrection of the dead;* and by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.^ Therefore every man is born with a foreskin, because every man is born witli the vice of propagation; and God cleanses not, either from the vice with which we are born, or from the vices which we add thereto by ill living, except by the stony knife, the Lord Christ. For Christ was the Rock.-Now they used to circumcise with stone knives, and by the name of rock they prefigured Christ; and yet when He was present with them they did not acknowledge Him, but besides, they sought to kill Him. But why on the eighth day, unless because after the seventh day of the week the Lord rose again on the Lord's day? Therefore Christ's resurrection, which happened on the third day indeed of His passion, but on the eighth day in the days of the week, that same resurrection it is that doth circumcise us. Hear of those that were circumcised with the real stone, while the apostle admonishes them: " If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting on the right hand of God; set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth."* He speaks to the circumcised: Christ has risen; He has taken away from you carnal desires, evil lusts, the superfluity with which 3'ou were l)orn, and that far worse which you had added thereto by ill living; being circumcised by the Rock, why do you still set your affections on the earth? And finally, for that "Moses gave you the law, and ye circumcise a man on the Salibath-day," understand that by this is signified the good work which I have done, in that I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath-day; because he was cured that •• I Cor. XV. 21 5 Rom. V. 12.
* Col. iii. I, 2.
iSS [Tractate XXX.
he might be whole in body, and also he believed that he might be whole in soul.
6. "Judge not according to personal appearance, but judge righteous judgment," What is this? Just now, you who by the law of Moses circumcise on the Sabbath-day are not angry with Moses; and because I made a man whole on the Sabbath-day you are angry with me. You judge by the person; give heed to the truth. I do not prefer myself to Moses, says the Lord, who was also the Lord of Moses. So consider us as you would two men, as both men; judge between us, but judge a true judgment; do not condemn him by honoring me, but honor me by understanding him. For this He said to them in another place: " If ye believed Moses ye would certainly believe me also, for he wrote of me."' But in this place He willed not to say this. Himself and Moses being as it were placed before these men for judgment. Because of Moses' law you circumcise, even when it happens to be the Sabbath-day, and will ye not that I should show the beneficence of healing during the Sabbath? For the Lord of circumcision and the Lord of the Sabbath is the same who is the Author of health; and they are servile works that ye are forbidden to do on the Sabbath; if ye really understand what servile works are, ye sin not. For he that committeth sin is the servant of sin. Is it a servile work to heal a man on the Sabbathday? Ye do eat and drink (to infer somewhat from the admonition of our Lord Jesus Christ, and from His words); at any rate, why do ye eat and drink on the Sabbath, but because that what ye do pertains to health? By this ye show that tlie works of health are not in any wise to be omitted on the Sabbath. Therefore *' do not judge by person, but judge righteous judgment.'' Consider me as ye would a man; consider Moses as a man: if ye will judge according to the truth, ye will condemn neither Moses nor me; and when ye know the truth ye will know me, because I am the Truth, 7. It requires great labor in this world, brethren to get clear of the vice which the Lord has noted in this place, so as not to judge by appearance, but to keep right judgment. The Lord, indeed, admonished the Jews, but He warned us also; them He convicted, us He instructed; them He reproved, us He encouraged. Let us not imagine that this was not said to us, simply because we were not there at that time. It was written, it is read; when it was recited we heard it; but we heard it as said to the Jews; let us not place ourselves behind ourselves and watch I Joh» V. 46.
Him reproving enemies, while we ourselves do that which the truth may reprove in us. The Jews indeed judged by appearance, but for that reason they belong not to the New Testament, they have not the kingdom of heaven in Christ, nor are joined to the society of the hol}^ angels; they sought earthly things of the Lord; for a land of promise, victory over enemies, fruitfulness of child-bearing, increase of children, abundance of fruit, — all which things were indeed promised to them by God, the True and the Good, promised to them, however, as unto carnal men, — all these things made for them the Old Testament. What is the Old Testament? The inheritance, as it were, belonging to the old man. We have been renewed, have been made a new man, because He who is the new man has come. What is so new as to be born of a virgin? Therefore, because there was not in Him what instruction might renew, because He had no sin, there was given Him a new origin of birth. In Him a new birth, in us a new man. What is a new man? A man renewed from oldness. Renewed unto what? Unto desiring heavenly things, unto longing for things eternal, unto earnestly seeking the country which is above and fears no foe, where we do not lose a friend nor fear an enemy; where we live with good affection, without any want; where no longer any advances, because none fails; where no man is born, because no man dies; where there is no hungering nor thirsting; where immortality is fullness, and truth our aliment. Having these promises, and pertaining to the New Testament, and being made heirs of a new inheritance, and co-heirs of the Lord Himself, we have a far different hope from theirs: let us not judge by appearance, but hold right judgment. 8. Who is he that judges not according to the person? He that loves equally. Equal love causes that persons be not accepted. It is not when we honor men in diverse measure according to their degrees that we ought to fear lest we are accepting persons. For where we judge between two, and at times between relations, sometimes it happens that judgment has to be made between father and son; the father complains of a bad son, or the son complains of a harsh father; we regard the honor which is due to the father from the son; we do not make the son equal to the father in honor, but we give him preference if he has a good cause: let us regard the son on an equality with the father in the truth, and thus shall we bestow the honor due, so that equity destroy not merit. Thus we profit by the words of the Lord, and that we may profit, we are assisted by His grace.
Tractatf XXXI.]
TRACTATE XXXL Chapter VII. 25-36, 1. You remember, beloved, in the former discourses. — for it was both read in the Gospel and also discussed by us according to our ability, — how that the Lord Jesus went up to the feast-day, as it were in secret, not because He feared lest He should be laid hold of, — He who had the power not to be laid hold of, — but to signify that even in that very feast which was celebrated by the Jews He Himself was hidden, and that the mystery of the feast was His own. In the passage read to-day.then, that which was supposed to be timidity appeared as power; for He spoke openly on the feast-day, so that the crowds marvelled, and said that which we have heard when the passage was read: "Is not this he whom they sought to kill? And, lo, he speaketh openly, and they say nothing. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the Christ?" They who knew with what fierceness He was sought after, wondered by what power He was kept from being taken. Then, not fully understanding His power, they fancied it was the knowledge of the rulers, that these rulers knew Him to be the very Christ, and that for this reason they spared Him whom they had with so much eagerness sought out to be put to death.
2. Then those same persons who had said, "Did the rulers know that this is the Christ?" proposed a question among themselves, by which it appeared to them that He was not the Christ; for they said in addition, "But we know this man whence he is: but when Christ cometli, no man knoweth whence he is." As to how this opinion among the Jews arose, that "when Christ comes, no man knoweth whence He is" (for it did not arise without reason), if we consider the Scriptures, we find, brethren, that the Holy Scriptures have declared of Christ that " He shall be called a Nazarene."' Therefore they foretold whence He is. Again, if we seek the place of His nativity, as that whence He is by birth, neither was this hidden from the Jews, because of the Scriptures which had foretold these things. For when the Magi, on the appearing of a star, sought Him out to worship Him, they came to Herod and told him what they sought and what they meant: and he, having called together those who had knowledge of the law.
' Matt. ii. 23 ' Matt. ii. 23 inquired of them where Christ should be born: they told him, " In Bethlehem of Judah," and also brought forward the prophetic testimony. - If, therefore, the prophets had foretold both the place where the origin of His flesh was, and the place where His mother would bring Him forth, whence did spring that opinion among the Jews which we have just heard, but from this, that the Script>ures had proclaimed beforehand, and had foretold both? In respect of His being man, the Scriptures foretold whence He should be; in respect of His being God, this was hidden from the ungodly, and it required godly men to discover it. Moreover, tiiey said this, " When Christ comes, no man knoweth whence He is," because that which was spoken by Isaiah produced this opinion in them, viz, "' And His generation, who shall tell? " ^ In short, the Lord Himself made answer to botli, that they both did, and also did not know whence He was; that He might testify to the holy prophecy which before was predicted of Him, botli as to the humanity of infirmity and also as to the divinity of majesty.
3. Hear, therefore, the word of the Lord, brethren; see how He confirmed to them botli what they said, "We know this man whence he is," and also what they said, "When Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence He is. Then cried Christ in the temple, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of m}"self. but He that sent me is true, whom ye know not," That is to say, ye both know me, and ye know me not; ye both know whence I am, and ye know not whence I am. Ye know whence I am: Jesus of Nazareth, whose parents also ye knew. For in this case, the birth of the Virgin alone was hidden, to whom, however, her husband was witness; for the same was able faithfully to declare this, who was also able as a husband to be jealous. Therefore, this birth of the Virgin excepted, they knew all that in Jesus pertains to man: His face was known. His country was known, His family was known; where He was born was to be known by incpiiry. Rightly then ditl He say, " Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am," accortlingto the flesh anil form of man which He bore; but according to Hjs - Matt. ii. 6.
3 Isa. viii. 8.
[Tractate XXXI* divinity, " And I am not come of myself, but He that sent me is true, whom ye know not;" but yet that ye may know Him, believe on Him whom He has sent, and ye will know Him. For, " No man has seen God at any time, except the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him:"' and, "None knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." - 4. Lastly, when He had said, "But He that sent me is true, whom ye know not," in order to show them whence they might know that which they did not know. He subjoined, *' I know Him." Therefore seek from me to know Him. But why is it that I know Him? *' Because I am from Him, and He sent me.'' Gloriously has He shown both. " I am from Him," said He; because the Son is from the Father, and whatever the Son is, He is of Him whose Son He is. Hence we say that the Lord Jesus is God of God: we do not say that the Father is God of God, but simply God: and we say that the Lord Jesus is Light of Light; we do not say that the Father is Light of Light, but simply Light. Accordingly, to this belongs that which He said, '' I am from Him." But as to my being seen of you in the flesh, "He sent me." When thou hearest " He sent me," do not understand a difference of nature to be meant, but the authority of Him that begets.
5. " Then they sought to take Him: but no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come;" that is, because He was not willing. For what is this. " His hour was not yet come"? The Lord was not born under fate. This is not to be believed concerning thee, much less concerning Him by whom thou wast made. If thy hour is His good will, what is His hour but His good will? He meant not therefore an hour in which He should be forced to die, but that in which He would deign to be put to death. But He was awaiting the time in which He should die, for He awaited also the time in which He should be born. The apostle, speaking of this time, says, "But when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son.'^^ For this cause many say. Why did not Christ come before? To whom we must make answer, Because the fullness of time had not yet come, while He by whom the times were made sets their bounds; for He knew when He ought to come. Li the first place, it was necessary that He should be foretold through a long series of times and years; for it was not something insignificant that was to come: I John i. 8.
= Matt. xi. 27.
3 Gal.
IV. 4.