kind of desire in his mind; but what the m.easure of his strength, he saw not. The weak m.an boasted of his willingness, but the Physician had an eye on the state of his health; the one promised, the Other foreknew: the ignorant was bold; He that foreknew all, condescended to teach. How much had Peter taken upon himself, by looking only at what he wished, and having no knowledge of what he was able! How much hatl he taken upon himself, that, when the Lord had come to lay down His life for His friends, and so for him also, he should have the assurance to offer to do the same for the Lord; and while as yet Christ's life was not laid down for himself, he should promise to lay down his ownlife for Christ! "Jesus" therefore "answered him, Wilt thou lay tlown thy life for my sake?" ^\'ilt thou do for me what I have not yet done for thee? " Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake?" Canst thou go before, who art unable to follow? Why dost thou presume so far? what dost thou think of thyself? what dost thou imagine thyself to be? Hear what thou art: *' \'crily, verily, I say unto thee. The cock shall not crow, till ;20 [Tractate LXVI.
thou hast denied me thrice." See, that is how thou wilt speedily become manifest to thyself, who art now talking so loftily, and knowest not that thou art but a child. Thou promisest me thy death, and thou wilt deny me thy life. Thou, who now thinkest thyself able to die for me, learn to live first for thyself; for in fearing the death of thy flesh, thou wilt occasion the death of thy soul. Just as much as it is life to confess Christ, it is death to deny Him.
2. Or was it that the Apostle Peter, as some with a perverse kind of favor strive to excuse him,' did not deny Christ, because, when questioned by the maid, he replied that he did not know the man, as the other evangelists more expressly affirm? As if, indeed, he that denies the man Christ does not deny Christ; and so denies Him in respect of what He became on our account, that the nature He had given us might not be lost. Whoever, therefore, acknowledges Christ as God, and disowns Him as man, Christ died not for him; for as man it was that Christ died. He who disowns Christ as man, finds no reconciliation to God by the Mediator. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. "^ He that denies Christ as man is not justified: for as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners; so also by the obedience of one man shall many be made righteous. ^ He that denies Christ as man, shall not rise again into the resurrection of life; for by man is death, and by man is also the resurrection of the dead: for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive/ And by what means is He the Head of the Church, but by His manhood, because the Word was made flesh? that is, God, the Only-begotten of God the Father, became man. And how then can one be in the body of Christ who denies the man Christ? Or how can one be a member who disowns the Head? But why linger over a multitude of reasons when the Lord Himself undoes all the windings of human argumentation? For He says not. The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied the man; or, as He was wont to speak in His more familiar ■ condescension with men. The cock shall not crow till thou hast thrice denied the Son of I See Ambrose, on Luke x.xii. 3 Rom. V. 19.
z I Tim. ii. 5.
man; but He says, " till thou hast denied me thrice." What is that "me," but just what He was? and what was He but Christ? Whatever of Him, therefore, he denied, he denied Himself, he denied the Christ, he denied the Lord his God. For Thomas also, his fellowdisciple, when he exclaimed, " My Lord and my God," did not handle the Word, but only His flesh; and laid not his inquisitive hands on the incorporeal nature of God, but on His human body.^ And so he touched the man, and yet recognized his God. If, then, what the latter touched, Peter denied; what the latter invoked, Peter offended. "The cock shall not croiv till thou hast denied me thrice." Although thou say, " I know not the man; " although thou say, " Man, I know not what thou sayest; " although thou say, "I am not one of His disciples; '"^ thou wilt be denying me. If, which it were sinful to doubt, Christ so spake, and foretold the truth, then doubtless Peter denied Christ. Let us not accuse Christ in defending Peter. Let infirmity acknowledge its sin; for there is no falsehood in the Truth. AVhen Peter's infirmity acknowledged its sin, his acknowledgment was full; and the greatness of the evil he had committed in denying Christ, he showed by his tears. He himself reproves his defenders, and for their conviction, brings his tears forward as witnesses. Nor have we, on our part, in so speaking, any delight in accusing the first of the apostles; but in looking on him, we ought to take home the lesson to ourselves, that no man should place his confidence in human strength. For what else had our Teacher and Saviour in view, but to show us, by making the first of the apostles himself an example, that no one ought in any way to presume of himself? And that, therefore, really took place in Peter's soul, for which he gave cause in his body. And yet he did not go before in the Lord's behalf, as he rashly presumed, but did so otherwise than he reckoned. For before the death and resurrection of the Lord, he both died when he denied, and returned to life when he wept; but he died, because he himself had been proud in his presumption, and he lived again, because that Other had looked on him with kindness.
5 Chap. XX. 27, 28.
^ Matt. xxvi. 34, 6g-74, and Luke xxii. 55-60.
Tractate LXVII.]
TRACTATE LXVII.
Chapter XIV. 1-3.
1. Our special attention, brethren, must be earnestly turned to God, in order that we may be able to obtain some intelligent apprehension of the words of the holy Gospel, which have just been ringing in our ears. For the Lord Jesus saith: " Let not your heart be troubled. Believe' in God, and believe [or, believe also] in me." That they might not as men be afraid of death, and so be troubled, He comforts them by affirming Himself also to be God. "Believe,^' He says, "in God, believe also in me." For it follows as a consequence, that if ye believe in God, ye ought to believe also in me: which were no consequence if Christ were not God. " Believe in God, and believe in " Him, who, by nature and not by robbery, is equal with God; for He emptied Himself; not, however, by losing the form of God, but by taking the form of a servant. "" You are afraid of death as regards this servant form, "let not your heart be troubled," the form of God will raise it again.
2. But why have we this that follows, " In my Father's house are many mansions," but that they were also in fear about themselves? And therein they might have heard the words, " Let not your heart be troubled." For, was there any of them that could be free from fear, when Peter, the most confident and forward of them all, was told, " The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice"?3 Considering themselves, therefore, beginning with Peter, as destined to perish, they had cause to be troubled: but when they now hear, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you," they are revived from their trouble, made certain and confident that after all the perils of temptations they shall dwell with Christ in the presence of God. For, albeit one is stronger than another, one wiser than another, one more righteous than another, "in the Father's house there are many mansions;" none of them shall remain outside that house, wliere every one, according to his deserts, is to receive a mansion. All alike have that penny, whicli the householder orders to be given to all that have wrought in the vineyard, making no distinction tlierein between tliose who ' A few of the mss. have " ye believe" iifter the Vulgate: the Greek verb also, n-taTcutre which occurs twice in this clause, is doubtful, signifying, j'f believe, yr, believe (imperative). — MlGNii.
have labored less and those who have labored more:'* by which penny, of course, is signified eternal life, wherein no one any longer lives to a different length than others, since in eternity life has no diversity in its measure. But the many mansions point to the different grades of merit in that one eternal life. For there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory; and so also the resurrection of the dead. The saints, like the stars in the sky, obtain in the kingdom different mansions of diverse degrees of brightness; but on account of that one penny no one is cut off from the kingdom; and God will be all in alls in such a way, that, as God is love,*^ love will bring it about that what is possessed by each will be common to all. For in this way every one really possesses it, when he loves to see in another what he has not himself. There will not, therefore, be any envying amid this diversity of brightness, since in all of them will be reigning the unity of love.
3. Every Christian heart, therefore, must utterly reject the idea of those who imagine that there are many mansions spoken of, because there will be some place outside the kingdom of heaven, which shall be the abode of those blessed innocents who have departed this life without baptism, because without it they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Faith like this is not faith, inasmuch as it is not the true and catholic faith. Are you not so foolish and blinded with carnal imaginations as to be worthy of reprobation, if you should thus separate the mansion, I say not of Peter and Paul, or any of the apostles, but even of any baptized infant from the kingdom of heaven; do you not think yourselves deserving of reprobation in thus putting a separation between these and the liouse of God the Father? For the Lord's words are not, In the wliole world, or. In all creation, or. In everlasting life and blessedness, there are many mansions; but He says, "In my Father's house are many mansions." Is not that tlie house where we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens? ' Is not that the house wliereof we sing to the Lord, " Blessed are they that [Tractate LXVIII.
dwell in Thy. house; they shall praise Thee for ever and ever"?' Will you then venture to separate from the kingdom of heaven the house, not of every baptized brother, but of God the Father Himself, to whom all we who are brethren say, "Our Father, who art in heaven," -or divide it in such a way as to make some of its mansions inside, and some outside, the kingdom of heaven? Far, far be it from those who desire to dwell in the kingdom of heaven, to be willing to dwell in such folly with you: far be it, I say, that since every house of sons that are reigning can be nowhere else but in the kingdom, any part of the royal house itself should be outside the kingdom.
4. "And if I go," He says, "and prepare I Ps. Ixxxiv. 4.
2 Matt. vi. 9.
a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." O Lord Jesus, how goest Thou to prepare a place, if there are already many mansions in Thy Father^s house, where Thy people shall dwell with Thyself? Or if Thou receivest them unto Thyself, how wilt Thou come again, who never withdrawest Thy presence? Such subjects as these, beloved, were we to attempt to explain them with such brevity as seems within the proper bounds of our discourse to-day, would certainly suffer in clearness from compression, and the very brevity would become itself a second obscurity; we shall therefore defer this debt, which the bounty of our Familyhead will enable us to repay at a more suitable opportunity- TRACTATE LXVIII.
ON THE SAME PASSAGE.
I. We acknowledge, beloved brethren, that we are owing you, and ought now to repay, what was left over for consideration, how we can understand that there is no real mutual contrariety between these two statements, namely, that after saying, " In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you, that I go to prepare a place for you;" — where He makes it clear enough that He said so to them for the very reason that there are many mansions there already, and there is no need of preparing any;' — the Lord again says: "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." How is it that He goes and prepares a place, if there are many mansions already? If there were not such, He would have said, " I go to prepare." Or if the place has still to be prepared, would He not then also properly have said, " I go to prepare "? Are these mansions in existence already, and yet needing still to be prepared? For if they were not in existence, I The apparent contrariety that Augustin here deals with, partly arises from a mistaken interpretation of the second half of verse 2, as given above. His Latin version read, si quo minus, dixissem "Liobis quia vadj, etc., and is a close verbal rendering of the original text, as found in several MSS., — ei Se;u.i), iijtov av v/iii', oTi TTopeuofiai, — although some others omit the on. P)Ut while verbally exact, grammatical accuracy and a fair exegesis will admit of a pause after v/i.ii' (vobis), as the general sense of the passage requires. "On might thus be used in the sense of " because;" or, as it often is, as a particle introducing a direct statement. — Tr.
He would have said, " I go to prepare." And yet, because their present state of existence is such as still to stand in need of preparation. He does not go to prepare them in the same sense as they already exist; but if He go and prepare them as they shall be hereafter. He will come again and receive His own to Himself; that where He is, there they may be also. How then are there mansions in the Father's house, and these not different ones but the same, which already exist in a sense in which they can admit of no preparation, and yet do not exist, inasmuch as they are still to be prepared? W^w are we to think of this, but in the same way as the prophet, who also declares of God, that He has [already] made that which is yet to be. For he says not. Who will make what is yet to be, but, "Who has made what is yet to be."^ Therefore He has both made such things and is yet to make them. For they have not been - Isa. xlv. II, according to the Septuagint, whose reading, as usual, is followed by Augustin, although here a very manifest mistranslation of the Hebrew. The words are, " Thus saith Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel C:"i?Xt? mrT'Nn "ni"^*) and his Maker, Ask me of things to come," etc. This is the rendering really in accordance with the usual Hebrew idiom, with the sense of the passage itself, and with the frequent use of Yotscr (Maker) by Isaiah. It is that also approved by the Masoretic pointing, and followed generally by the other translations, including the Vulgate, which has: plastcs ejus: I'cntura intc7-rogate //.f, etc. The LXX., however, makes haothiyyoth dependent on yots'ro (notwithstanding its own suffix), instead of the verb that follows, and reads, 6 jroi^o-a? l^avtov in some copies) ra €Trep;(6/x6i'a, which Augustin renders in tlie text: qui /exit quce /utura sunt.- -Tr.
Tractate I.XVIIL] Tractate I.XVIIL] made at all if He has not made them; nor will they ever be if He make them not Himself. He has made them therefore in the way of fore-ordaining them; He has yet to make them in the way of actual elaboration. Just as the Gospel plainly intimates when He chose His disciples, that is to say, at the time of His calling them;' and yet the apostle says, " He chose us before the foundation of the world," ^ to wit, by predestination, not by actual calling. "And whom He did predestinate, them He also called; "^ He hath chosen by predestination before the foundation of the world, He chooses by calling before its close. And so also has He prepared those mansions, and is still preparing them; and He who has already made the things which are yet to be, is now preparing, not different ones, but the very mansions He has already prepared: what He has prepared in predestination. He is preparing by actual working. Already, therefore, they are^ as respects predestination; if it were not so, He would have said, I will go and prepare, that is, I will predestinate. But because they are not yet in a state of practical preparedness, He says, "And if I go and prepare a place for 3'ou, I will come again, and receive you unto myself."
2. But He is in a certain sense preparing the dwellings l)y preparing for them the dwellers. As, for instance, when He said, "In my Father's house are many dwellings," what else can we suppose the house of God to mean but the temple of God? And what that is, ask the apostle, and he will reply, " For the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are"'* This is also the kingdom of God, which the Son is yet to deliver up to the Father; and hence the same apostle says, ■*' Christ, the beginning, and then they that are Christ's in His presence; then [cometh] the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; " ^ that is, those whom He has redeemed by His blood, He shall then have delivered up to stand before His Father's face. This is that kingdom of heaven whereof it is said, "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man who sowed good seed in his field. But the good seed are the children of the kingdom;".and although now they are mingled with tares, at the end the King Himself shall send forth His angels, "and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."*^ The kingdom will shine forth in the kingdom when [those that are] 2 F.ph. i. 4.
.1 Rom. viii. 30.
'.Matt. xiii. 24, 38-43.
the kingdom sliall have reached the kingdom; just as we now pray when we say, "Thy kingdom come."' Even now, therefore, already is the kingdom called, but only as yet being called together. For if it were not now called, it could not be then said, " They shall gather out of His kingdom everything that offends." But the realm is not yet reigning. Accordingly it is already so far the kingdom, that when all offences shall have been gathered out of it, it shall then attain to sovereignty, so as to possess not merely the name of a kingdom, but also the power of government. For it is to this kingdom, standing then at the right hand, that it shall be said in the end, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom; " *^ that is, ye who were the kingdom, but without the power to rule, come and reign; that what you form.erly were only in hope, you may now have the power to be in reality. This house of God, therefore, this temple of God, this kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven, is as yet in the process of building, of construction, of preparation, of assembling. In it there will be mansions, even as the Lord is now preparing them; in it there are such already, even as the Lord has already ordained them.
3. But why is it that He went away to make such preparation, when, as it is certainly we ourselves that are the subjects in need of preparation. His doing so will be hindered by leaving us behind? I explain it. Lord, as I can: it was surely this Thou didst signify by the preparation of those mansions, that the just ought to live by faith.' For he who is sojourning at a distance from the Lord has need to be living by faith, because by this we are prepared for beholding His countenance.'" For "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God;"" and "He purifieth their hearts by faith.'' '- The former we find in the Gospel, the latter in the Acts of the Apostles. But the faith by which those who are yet to see God have their hearts purified, while sojourning at a distance here, lielieveth what it doth not see; for if there is sight, there is no longer faith. Merit is accumulating now to the believer, and then the reward is paid into the hand of the beholder. Let the Lord then go and prepare us a place; let Him go, that He may not be seen; and let Him remain concealed, that faith may be exercised. For then is the place preparing, if it is by faith we arc living. Let the believing in that place be desired, that the place desired may itself be possessed; the longing of love is the preparation of the mansion. Prepare thus, Lord, [Tractate LXIX.
what Thou art preoaring; for Thou art preparing us for Thyself, and Thyself for us, inasmuca as Thou art preparing a place both for Thyself in us, and for us in Thee. For Thou hast said, "Abide in me, and I in you."' As far as each one has been a partaker of Thee, some less, some more, such will be the diversity of rewards in proportion to the diversity of merits; such will be the multitude of mansions to suit the inequalities among their inmates; but all of them, none the less, eternally living, and endlessly blessed. Why is it that Thou goest away? Why is it Thou comest again? If I understand Thee aright, Thou withdrawest not Thyself either from the place Thou goest from, or from the I Chap. XV. 4.
I Chap. XV. 4.
place Thou comest from: Thou goest away by becoming invisible. Thou comest by again becoming manifest to our eyes. But unless Thou remainest to direct us how we ma)^ still be advancing in goodness of life, how will the place be prepared where we shall be able to dwell in the fullness of joy? Let what we have said suffice on the words which have been read from the Gospel as far as "I will come again, and receive you to myself." But the meaning of what follows, " That where I am, there ye may be also; and whither I go ye know, and the way ye know," we shall be in a better condition — after the question put by the disciple, that follows, and which we also may be putting, as it were, through him — for hearing, and more suitably situated for making the subject of our discourse.
TRACT-ATE LXIX.
Chapter XIV. 4-6.
I. We have now the opportunity, dearly beloved, as far as we can, of understanding the earlier words of the Lord from the later, and His previous statements by those that follow, in what you have heard was His answer to the question of the Apostle Thomas. For when the Lord was speaking above of the mansions, of which He both said that they already were in His Father's house, and that He was going to prepare them; where we understood that those mansions already existed in predestination, and are also being prepared through the purifying by faith of the hearts of those who are hereafter to inhabit them, seeing that they themselves are the very house of God; and what else is it to dwell in God's house than to be in the number of His people, since His people are at the same time in God, and God in them? To make this preparation the Lord departed, that by believing in Him, though no longer visible, the mansion, whose outward form is always hid in the future, may now by faith be prepared; for this reason, therefore. He had said, "And if I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." In reply to this, " Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way? " Both of these the Lord had said that they knew; both of them this other declares that he does not know, to wit, the place to which, and the way whereby. He is going. But he does not know that he is speaking falsely; they knew, therefore, and did not know that they knew. He will convince them that they already know what they imagine themselves still to be ignorant of. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life." What, brethren^ does He mean? See, we have just heard the disciple asking, and the Master instructing, and we do not yet, even after His voice has sounded in our ears, apprehend the thought that lies hid in His words. But what is it we cannot apprehend? Could His apostles, with whom He was talking, have said to Him, We do not know Thee? Accordingly, if they knew Him, and He Himself is the way, they knew the way; if they knew Him who is Himself the truth, they knew the truth; if they knew Him who is also the life, they knew the life. Thus, you see, they were convinced that they knew what they knew not that they knew.
2. What is it, then, that we also have not. apprehended in this discourse? What else, think you, brethren, but just that He said, " And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know"? And here we have discovered that they knew the way, because they knew Him who is the way: the way is that by which we go; but is the way the place also to which we Tractate LXIX.]
go? And yet each of these He said that they knew, both whither He was going, and the way. There was need, therefore, for His saying, " I am the way," in order to show those who knew Him that they knew the way, which they thought themselves ignorant of; but what need was there for His saying, " I am the way, and the truth, and the life," when, after knowing the way by which He went, they had still to learn whither He was going, but just because it was to the truth and to the life He was going? By Himself, therefore, He was going to Himself. And whither go we, but to Him? and by what way go we, but by Him? He, therefore, went to Himself by Himself, and we by Him to Him; yea, likewise both He and we go thus to the Father. For He says also in another place of Himself, *' I go to the Father; " ' and here on our account He says, " No man cometh unto the Father but by me." And in this way. He goeth by Himself both to Himself and to the Father, and we by Him both to Him and to the Father. Who can apprehend such things save he who has spiritual discernment? and how much is it that even he can apprehend, although thus spiritually discerning? Brethren, how can you desire me to explain such things to you? Only reflect how lofty they are. You see what I am, I see what you are; in all of us the body, which is corrupted, burdens the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things.- Do we think we can say, " To Thee have I lifted up my soul, O Thou that dwellest in the heavens " P^ But burdened as we are with so great a weight, under which we groan, how shall I lift up my soul unless He lift it with me who laid His own down for me? I shall speak then as 1 can, and let each of you who is able receive it. As He gives, I speak; as He gives, the receiver receiveth; and as He giveth, there is faith for him who cannot yet receive with understanding. For, saith the prophet, " If ye will not believe, ye shall not understand."-' 3. Tell me, O my Lord, what to say to Thy servants, my fellow-servants. The Apostle Thomas had Thee before him in order to ask Thee questions, and yet could not understand Thee unless he had Thee within him; 4 Isa. vii. 9, accortlinir to I, XX., which reads, iay (xij 7ri<rT<;ii<Tr)T<, oiiSi fir) o-ui/))Te. 1J^2^5n1 liowevcr, will scarcely admit the incuning of "understand" (o-uciJTe). There is a play in the Hebrew upon the verb "')3^{, which is the one used in both clauses, first in " T the //i//it7, where it means to cleuTC fast to^ to show a firm trust in: and secondly, in the Niphal, to be held fast ^ to he cotifirtned in one's trust. Hence the rendering; of our Knulish Hihle is more correct: "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." — Tk.
1 ask Thee because I know that Thou art over me; and I ask, seeking, as far as I can, to let my soul diffuse itself in that same region over me where I may listen to Thee, who usest no external sound to convey Thy teaching. Tell me, I pray, how it is that Thou goest to Thyself. Didst Thou formerly leave Thyself to come to us, especially as Thou camest not of Thyself, but the Father sent Thee? I know, indeed, that Thou didst empty Thyself; but in taking the form of a servant, = it was neither that Thou didst lay down the form of God as something to return to, or that Thou lost it as sometliing to be recovered; and yet Thou didst come, and didst place Thyself not only before the carnal eyes, but even in the very hands of men. And how otherwise save in Thy flesh? By means of this Thou didst come, yet abiding where Thou wast; by this means Thou didst return, without leaving the place to which Thou hadst come. If, then, by such means Thou didst come and return, by such means doubtless Thou art not only the way for us to come unto Thee, but wast the way also for Thyself to come and to return. For when Thou didst return to the life, which Thou art Thyself, then of a truth that same flesh of Thine Thou didst bring from death unto life. The Word of God, indeed, is one thing, and man another; but the Word was made flesh, or became man. And so the person of the Word is not different from that of the man, seeing that Christ is both in one person; and in this way, just as when His flesh died, Christ died, and when His flesh was