2. For when the Jews had said, "Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? '' of these two charges cast at Him, He denied the one, but not the other. For He answered and said, " I have not a devil." He did not say, I am not a Samaritan; and yet the two charges had been made. Although He returned not cursing with cursing, although He met not slander with slander, yet was it proper for Hiaa to deny the one charge and not to deny the other. And not without a purpose, brethren. For Samaritan means keeper.' He knew that He was our keeper. For " He that keepeth Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth; "= and, " Except the Lord keep the city, they wake in vain who keep it." 3 He then is our Keeper who is I Samaria, Hebrew *,il?2'2?i literally, "a keep," from -|^"jj to keep, to guard; hence, according to Augustin, "Samaritan," ^i^^Dki'i ^ keeper, a guardian. — Tr.
our Creator. For did it belong to Him to redeem us, and would it not be His to preserve us? Finally, that you may know more fully the hidden reason •* w4iy He ought not to have denied that He was a Samaritan, call to mind that well-known parable, where a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who wounded him severely, and left him half dead on the road. A priest camp along and took no notice of him. A Levite came up, and he also passed on his way, A certain Samaritan came up — He who is our Keeper. He went up to the wounded man. He exercised mercy, and did a neighbor's part to one whom He did not account an alien. s To this, then. He only replied that He had not a devil, but not that He was not a Samaritan.
3. And then after such an insult, this was all that He said of His own glory: " But I honor," said He, "my Father, and ye dishonor me." That is, I ho/nor not myself, that ye may not think me arrogant. I have One to honor; and did ye recognize me, just as I honor the Father, so would ye also honor me. I do what I ought; ye do not what ye ought.
4. "And I," said He, " seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth." Whom does He wish to be understood but the Father? How, then, does He say in another place, "The Father judgeth no man, Init hath committed all judgment unto the , Son," '' while here He says, " I seek not mine. i own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth"? If, then, the Father judgeth.
2 Ps. cxxi. 4.
6 Chap. V. 22.
Tractate XLIII.]
how is it that He judgeth no man, but liath committed all judgment unto the Son?
5. In order to solve this point, attend. It may be solved by [quoting] a similar mode of speaking. Thou hast it written, " God tempteth not any man; "' and again thou hast it written, " The Lord your God tempteth you, to know whether you love Him."- Just the point in dispute, you see. For how docs God icmpt not any viafi, and how does the Lord your God tevipt you, to knoic whether ye love Hun? It is also written, " There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; "' ^ and in another place it is written, " The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever."^ Here also is the point in dispute. For how does perfect love cast out fear, if the fear of the Lord, which is clean, endureth for ever?
6. We are to understand, then, that there are two kinds of temptation: one, that deceives; the other, that proves. As regards that which deceives, God tempteth not ahy man; as regards that which proves, the Lord your God tempteth you, that He max know wliether ye love Him. But here again, also, there arises another question, how He tempteth that He may know, from whom, prior to the temptation, nothing can be hid. It is not that God is ignorant; but it is said, that He may know, that is, that He may make you to know. Such modes of speaking are found both in our ordinary conversation, and in writers of eloquence. Let me say a word on our style of conversation. We speak of a blind ditch, not because it has lost its eyes, but l)ecause by lying hid it makes us blind to its existence. One speaks of " bitter lupins," that is, "sour;" not that they themselves are bitter, but because they occasion bitterness to those who taste them.^ And so there are also expressions of this sort in Scripture. Those wiio take the trouble to attain a knowledge of such points have no trouble in solving them. And so " the Lord your God tempts you, that He may know." What is this, "that He may know"? That He may make you to know " if you love Him." Job was unknown to himself, l)ut he was not unknown to God. He led the tempter into [Job], and brought him to a knowledge of himself.
7. VVhat then of the two fears? There is a servile fear, anil there is a clean [chaste] fear: there is the fear of suffering jiunishment, there is another fear of losing righteousness. That fear of suffering punishment 5 Virx. (ifor/;. lib. i. 75: Tyistes lu/n'nos non ijuiii i/i.ti sunt iristes, set/ i/iiia giistati coutristanty hoc est, triatcs /aciiint. lU is slavish. What great thing is it to fear punishment? The vilest slave and the crudest robber do so. It is no great thing to fear punishment, but great it is to love righteousness. Has he, then, who loves righteousness no fear? Certainlv he has; not of incurring of punishment, but of losing righteousness. Aly brethren, assure yourselves of it, and draw your inference from that which you love. Some one of you is fond of money. Can I find any one, think you, who is not so? Yet from this very thing which he loves he may understand my meaning. He is afraid of loss: why is he so? Because he loves money. In the same measure that he loves money, is he afraid of losing it. So, then, some one is found to be a lover of righteousness, who at heart is much more afraid of its loss, who dreads more being stripped of his righteousness, than thou of thy money. This is the fear that is clean — this [the fear] that endureth for ever. It is not this that love makes away with, or casteth out, but rather embraces it, and keeps it with it, and possesses it as a companion. For we come to the Lord that we may see Him face to face. And there it is this pure fear that preserves us; for such a fear as that does not disturb, but reassure. The adulterous woman fears the coming of her husband, and the chaste one fears her husband's departure.
8. Therefore, as, according to one kind of temptation, "God tempteth not any man:'' but according to another, " The Lord your God tempteth you;'' and according to one kind of fear, "there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; "' l)ut according to another, " tae fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever; " — so also, in this passage, according to one kind of judgment, " the Father ludgeth no man. but hath committed all judgment unto the Son;" and according to another, '' I," said He, " seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth."
9. This point may also be solved from the word itself. Thou hast jienal judgment spoken of in the Gospel: '* He that believeth not is judged^ already;" and in another place, " The hour is coming, when those who are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have ilone good, unto the resurrection of life; ami they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment."' You see how He has jiut judgment for condemnation ami inniishment. And yet if judgment were always to be taken for condemnation, should we ever have heard in the ^Jiiificatiis. John iii. 18.
Jutiiiiiim. John v. 1%..■■».
24; [Tractate XI. III.
psalm, " Judge me, O God "? In the former place, judgment is used In the sense of inflicting pain; here, it is used in the sense of discernment.' How so? Just because so expounded by him who says, " Judge me, O God." For read, and see what follows. What is this "Judge me, O God," but just what he adds, " and discern^ my cause against an unholy nation "? ^ Because then it was said, " Judge me, O God, and discern [the true merits of] my cause against an unholy nation;" similarly now said the Lord Christ, "I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth." How is there " one that seeketh and judgeth "? There is the Father, who discerns and distinguishes between my glory and yours. For ye glory in the spirit of this present world. Not so do I, who say to the Father, " Father, glorify Thou me with that glory which I had with Thee before the world was." * What is " that glory "? One altogether different from human inflation. Thus doth the Father judge. And so to "judge" is to "discern."' And what does He discern? The glory of His Son from the glory of mere men; for to that end is it said, " God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. "^ For not because He became man is He now to be compared with us. We, as men, are sinful, He is sinless; we, as men, inherit from Adam both death and delinquency. He received from the Virgin mortal flesh, but no iniquity. In fine, neither because 7ve wish it are we born, nor as long as we wish it do we live, nor in the way that we wish it do we die: but He, before He was born, chose of whom He should be born; at His birth He brought about the adoration of the Magi; He grew as an infant, and showed Himself God by His miracles, and surpassed man in His weakness. Lastly, He chose also the manner of His death, that is, to be hung on the cross, and to fasten the cross itself on the foreheads of believers, so that the Christian may say, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." * On the very cross, when He pleased, He made His body be taken down, and departed; in tlie very sepulchre, as long as it pleased Him, He lay; and, when He pleased, He arose as from a bed. So, then, brethren, in respect to His very form as a servant (for rvho can speak of that other form as it ought to be spoken of, " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the • Discretione))!, discerne, — legal terms, implying the judicial expiscation and discriminating of the real facts and merits of a case, by sifting the evidence and separating the true from the false. == See previous note. i Vs. xliii. i.
4 John xvii. 5. 5 Ps. xlv. 7. 6 Gal. vi. 14.
Word was God "?) — in respect, I say, to His very form as a servant, the difference is great between the glory of Christ and the glory of other men. Of that glory He spoke, when the devil-possessed heard Him say, "I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth."
10. But what sayest Thou, O Lord, of Thyself? " Verily, verily, I say unto you. If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." Ye say, "Thou hast a devil." I call you to life: keep my word and ye shall not die. They heard, " He shall never see death who keepeth my word," and were angry, because already dead in that death from which they might have escaped. " Then said the Jews, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest. If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death." See how Scripture speaks: ''He shall not see," that is', "taste of death." "He shall see death — he shall taste of death." Who seeth? Who tasteth? What eyes has a man to see with when he dies? When death at its coming shuts up those very eyes from seeing aught, how is it said, " he shall not see death"? With what palate, also, and v/ith what jaws can death be tasted, that its savor may be discovered? When it taketh every sense away, what will remain in the palate? But here, "he will see," and "he will taste," are used for that which is really the case, he will know by experience.
11. Thus spake the Lord (it is scarcely sufficient to say), as one dying to dying men; for " to the Lord also belong the issues from death," ' as saith the psalm. Seeing, then, He was both speaking to those destined to die, and speaking as one appointed to death Himself, what mean His words, "He who keepeth my saying shall never see death;'' save that the Jlord saw another death, from which He was come to delivef us — the second death, death eternal, the death of hell,^ the death of damnation with the devil and his angels? This is real death; for that other is only a removal. What is that other death? The leaving of the body — the laying down of a heavy burden; provided another burden be not carried away, to drag the man headlong to hell. Of that real death then did the Lord say, " He who keepeth my saying shall never see death."
12. Let us not be frightened at that other death, but let us fear this one. But, what is very grievous, many, through a perverse fear of that other, have fallen into this. It has 7 Ps. Ixviii. 20.
8 Geketmarum.
Tractate XLIII.]
ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHX.
24: been said to some, Adore idols; for if you do it not, you shall be put to death: or, as Nebuchadnezzar said, If you do not, you shall be thrown into the furnace of flaming fire. Many feared and adored. Shrinking from death, they died. Through fear of tne death which cannot be escaped, they fell into that which they might happily have escaped, had they not, unhappily, been afraid of that which is inevitable. As a man, thou art borrt— art destined to die. Whither wilt thou go to escape death? What wilt thou do to escape it? That thy Lord might comfort thee in thy necessary subjection to death, of His own good pleasure He condescended to die. When thou seest the Christ lying dead, art thou reluctant to die? Die then thou must; thou hast no means of escape. Be it to-day, be it to-morrow; it is to be — the debt must be paid. What, then, does a man gain by fearing, fleeing, hiding himself from discov.- ery by his enemy? Does he get exemption from death? No, but that he may die a little later. He gets not security against his debt, but asks a respite. Put it off as long as you please, the thing so delayed will come at last. Let us fear that death which the three men feared when they said to the king, "God is able to deliver us even from that flame; and if not," etc' There was there the fear of that death which the Lord now threatens, when they said, But also if He be not willing openly to deliver us. He can crown us with victory in secret. Whence also the Lord, when on the eve of appointing martyrs and becoming the head-martyr Himself, said, " Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do." How " have they no more that they can do "? What if, after having slain one, they threw his body to be mangled by wild beasts, and torn to pieces by birds? Cruelty seems still to have something it can do. But to whom is it done? He has departed. The body is there, but without feeling. The tenement lies on the ground, the tenant is gone. And so " after tliat they have no more that they can do;" for they can do nothing to that which is without sensation. " But fear Him who hath power to destroy botli body and soul in hell fire." - Here is the death that He spnke of when He said, " He that keepeth my saying shall never see death." Let us keep tlien, brethren. His own word in faith, as those who are yet to attain to sight, when the liberty we receive has reached its fullness.
13. But those men, indignant, yet dead, ami predestinated to death eternal, answered witii insults, and said, " Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets." But not in that death which the Lord meant to be understood was either Abraham dead or the prophets. For these were dead, and yet they live: those others were alive, and yet they had died. For, replying in a certain place to the Sadducees, when they stirred the question of the resurrection, tlie Lord Himself speaks thus: " But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read how the Lord said to Moses from the bush, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living."' If, then, they live, let us labor so to live, that after death we may be able to live with them. " Whom makest thou thyself," they add, that thou sayest, " he shall never see death who keepeth my saying," when thou knowest that both Abraham is dead and the prophets?
14. " Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing: it is my Father that glorifieth me." He said this on account of their saying, " Whom makest thou thyself?'' For He refers His glory to the Father, of whom it is that He is God. From this expression also the Arians sometimes revile our faith, and say. See, the Father is greater; for at all events He glorifies the Son, Heretic, hast thou not read of the Son Himself also saying that He glorifies His Father? ■♦ If both He glorifieth the Son, and the Son glorifieth the Father, lay aside thy stubbornness, acknowledge the equality, correct thy perversity.
15. "It is," then, said He, "my Father that glorifieth me; of v/hom ye say, that He is your God: and ye have not known Him." See, my brethren, how He shows that God Himself is the Father of the Christ, who was announced also to the Jews. I say so for this reason, that now again there are certain heretics who say that the God revealed in the Old Testament is not the Father of Christ, but some prince or other, I know not what, of evil angels. There are Manicheans who say so; there are Marcionites who say so. There are also, perhaps, other heretics, whom it is eitiier unnecessary to mention, or all of whom I cannot at j^resent recall; yet there have not been wanting those who said this. Attend, then, tliat you may have something also to affirm against such. C'hrist tlie Lord calleth Him His Father whom they called their God, and did not know; for had they known [that God] Himself they would have received His Son. " But 1," said He, " know ' Dan. iii. 16-18.
* " In the gehenna of fircv 3 Matt. xxii. 31, 33; Ex. iii. 6.
* t li.ip. xvii. 4.
[Tractate XLIII.
Him.'' To those judging after the flesh He might have seemed from such words to be self-assuming, because He said, " I know Him." But see what follows: " If I should say that I know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you." Let not, then, self-assumption be so guarded against as to cause the relinquishment of truth. "But I know Him, and keep His saying." The saying of the Father He was speaking as Son; and He Himself (vas the Word of tne Father, that was speaking to men.
i6. " Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw, and was glad.'' Abraham's seed, Abraham's Creator, bears a great testimony to Abraham. "Abraham rejoiced,^' He says, " to see my day." He did not fear, but " rejoiced to see it." For in him there was the love that casteth out fear.' He says not, rejoiced because he saw; but '' rejoiced that he might see." Believing, at all events, he rejoiced in hope to see with the understanding. "And he saw." And what more could the Lord Jesus Christ say, or what more ought He to have said? "And he saw," He says, "and was glad." Who can unfold this joy, my brethren? If those rejoiced whose bodily eyes were opened by the Lord, what joy was his who saw with the eyes of his soul the light ineffable, the abiding Word, the brilliance that dazzles the minds of the pious, the unfailipng Wisdom, God abiding with the Father, and at some time to come in the flesh and yet not to withdraw from the bosom of the Father? All this did Abraham see. For in saying "my day," it may be uncertain of what He spake; whether the day of the Lord in time, when He should come in the flesh, or that day of the Lord which knows not a dawn, and knows no decline. But for my part I doubt not that father Abraham knew it all. And where shall I find it out? Ought the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ to satisfy us? Let us suppose that we cannot find it out, for perhaps it is difficult to say in what sense it is clear that Abraham "rejoiced to see the day" of Christ, " and saw it, and was glad." And though we find it not, can the Truth have lied? Let us believe the Truth, and cherish no doubt of Abraham's merited rewards. "^ Yet listen to one passage that occurs to me meanwhile. When father Abraham sent his servant to seek a wife for his son Isaac, he bound him by this oath, to fulfill faithfully what he was commanded, and know also for himself what to do. For it was a great matter that was in hand when marriage was I I John iv. i8.
2 Meritis.
sought for Abraham's seed. But that the servant might apprehend what Abraham knew, that it was not offspring after the flesh he desired, nor anything of a carnal kind concerning his race that was referred to, he said to the servant whom he sent, " Put thy hand under my thigh, and swear by the God of heaven. 3 What connection has the God of heaven with Abraham's thigh? Already you understand the mystery:-* by thigh is meant race. And what was that swearing, but the signifying that of Abraham's race would the God of heaven come in the flesh? Fools find fault with Abraham because he said, Put thy hand under my thigh. Those who find fault with Christ's flesh find fault with Abraham's conduct. But let us, brethren, if we acknowledge the flesh of Christ as worthy of veneration, despise not that thigh, but receive it as spoken of prophetically. For a prophet also was Abraham. Whose prophet? Of his own seed, and of his Lord. To his own seed he pointed in saying, " Put thy hand under my thigh." To his Lord he pointed in adding, " and swear by the God of heaven."
17. The angry Jews replied, "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?" And the Lord: "Verily, verily, I say unto you. Before Abraham was made, I am.-"s Weigh the words, and get a knowledge of the mystery. " Before Abraham was made." Understand, that "was made" refers to human formation; but "am" to the Divine essence. "He was made," because Abraham was a creature. He did not say, Before Abraham was, I was; but, " Before Abraham was made," who was not made save by me, " I am." Nor did He say this. Before Abraham was made I was made; for " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth;"* and "in the beginning was the Word."'' " Before A^braham was made, I am." Recognize the Creator — distinguish the creature. He who spake was made the seed of Abraham; and that Abraham might be made. He Himself was before Abraham.
18. Hence, as if by the most open of all insults thrown at Abraham, they were now excited to greater bitterness. Of a certainty it seemed to them that Christ the Lord had uttered blasphemy in saying, " Before Abraham was made, I am." "Therefore took they up stones to cast at Him. ' ' To what could so great hardness have recourse, save to its like? " But Jesus " [acts] as man, as one in 3 Gen. XXIV. 2-4. 4 Sacramentum, 5 A nti'i)iiain Abraham fieret ego sum. Greek, "ffpl;/ 'A^paafji.
Tractate XLIV.]
the form of a servant, as lowly, as about to suffer, about to die, about to redeem us with His blood; not as He who is — not as the Word in the beginning, and the Word with God. For when they took up stones to cast at Him, what grent thing were it had they been instantly swallowed up in the gaping earth, and found the inhabitants of hell in place of stones? It were not a great thing to God; but better was it that patience should be commended than power exerted. Therefore "He hid Himself from them, that He might not be stoned. As man, He fied from the stones; but woe to those from w'hose stony hearts God has fled?
TRACTATE XLIV.
Chapter IX.
1. We have just read the long lesson of the man born blind, whom the Lord Jesus restored to the light; but were we to attempt handling the whole of it, and considering, according to our abilit}^ each passage in a way proportionate to its worth, the day would be insufficient. Wherefore I ask and warn )'Our Charity not to require any words of ours on those passages whose meaning is manifest; for it would be too protracted to linger at each. I proceed, therefore, to set forth briefly the mystery of this blind man's enlightenment. All, certainly, that was done by our Lord Jesus Christ, both works and words, are worthy of our astonishment and admiration: His works, because they are facts; His words, because they are signs. If we reflect, then, on what is signified by the deed here done, that blind man is the human race; for this blindness had place in the first man through sin, from whom we all draw our origin, not only in respect of death, but also of unrighteousness. For if unbelief is blindness, and faith enlightenment, whom did Christ find a believer at His coming? seeing that the apostle, belonging himself to the family of the prophets, says: ''And we also in times past were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."' If "children of wrath," then children of vengeance, children of punishment, children of hell. For how is it "by nature," save that thrt)ugh the first man sinning moral evil rooted itself in us as a nature? If evil has so taken root within us, every man is born mentally blind. For if lie sees, he has no need of a guide. If he does need one to guide and enlighten him, then is he blind from his birth.
2. The Lord came: what did He tlo? He set forth a great mystery. " He spat on the ■ Eph. ii. 3.
ground,*' He made clay of His spittle; for the Word was made flesh.- "And He anointed the eyes of the blind man." The anointing had taken place, and yet he saw not. He sent him to the pool which is called Siloam. But it was the evangelist's concern to call our attention to the name of this pool; and he adds, "Which is interpreted, Sent." You understand now who it is that was sent; for had He not been sent, none of us would have been set free from iniquity. Accordingly he washed his eyes in that pool which is interpreted. Sent— he was baptized in Christ. If, therefore, when He baptized him in a manner in Himself, He then enlightened him; when He anointed Him, perhaps He made him a catechumen. ' In many different ways indeed may the profound meaning of such a sacramental act be set forth and handled; but let this suffice your Charity. You have heard a great mystery. Ask a man. Are you a Christian? His answer to you is, I am not, if he is a pagan or a Jew. But if he says, I am; you inquire again of him, Are you a catechumen or a believer? If he reply, A catechumen; he has been anointed, but not yet washed. But how anointed'' Inquire, and he will answer you. Inquire of him in whom he believes. In that very respect in which he is a catecluunen he says, In Christ. See, I am speaking in a way both to the faithful and to catechumens. What have I said of the spittle and the clay? That the Word was made flesh. This even catechumens hear; but that to which they have been anointed is not all they need; let them hasten to the font if they are in searcii of enlightenment.
3. And now, because of certain points u\ ' Chnp. I. 14.
1 'I'lic niimf ).;jvfi\ (•• uiu- will) was iiiuirr insiriiction fur bnptiain, aiul f(ir nitranci- into the full privilc«cs of ihiirL-li mcmbershi|>.
[Tractate XLIV.