Sermon 1
A Treatise Against the Manichees
On What Is Written:
"In the Beginning God Made Heaven and Earth"
And: "in the Beginning Was the Word"

1. Whoever remembers his debt and the apostolic saying in which it is written, Owe no one anything, except to love one another (Rom 13:8), ought to compel himself to pay it. And indeed, however great the roar with which the terror of tax collectors bears down upon debtors, love demands far more vehemently, for it takes away from the demand the weight of fear and lays on a greater weight of shame. I remember that I promised your Charity that a reply against the foolish and ruinous slanders of the Manichees, by which they lie in wait against the Old Testament, would not be wanting on our part, so far as the Lord deigns to grant. Take heed, therefore, and see the serpent's snares, and withdraw your necks from them and set them under the yoke of Christ. For they dare to hold out deceits of this kind to the unwary, saying that the Scriptures of the New and the Old Testament are opposed to each other, so that the two cannot be held together by one faith. And striving to convince people that the very openings of the book of Genesis and of the Gospel according to John are at enmity with each other, they set them, as it were, face to face in conflict.

2. They say: Moses says, In the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gen 1:1), and does not name the Son through whom all things were made, whereas John says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing (John 1:1-3). Is this a contradiction, or are they rather in contradiction with themselves, who have chosen to find fault, in their blindness, with what they do not understand rather than to seek it out in piety? For what will they say when I have replied that the very "beginning" is the Son of God, in whom Genesis says that God made heaven and earth? Or will I perhaps be unable to prove this, when I know that witnesses from the very New Testament, to which they are subject whether they will or no with the neck of their pride broken, are at hand for me? For the Lord says to the unbelieving Jews, If you believed Moses, you would believe me also; for he wrote of me (John 5:46). Why then should I not understand the Lord himself as the beginning in which God the Father made heaven and earth? For In the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gen 1:1) Moses certainly wrote, and that he wrote of the Lord is confirmed by the Lord's own voice. Or is he perhaps not himself also the beginning? Nor will there be any need to doubt this, since the Gospel speaks, where the Jews, having asked the Lord who he was, he himself answered, The beginning, who also speak to you (John 8:25). Behold the beginning in which God made heaven and earth. Heaven, therefore, and earth God made in the Son, through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made, so that, the Gospel also being in agreement with Genesis, we may hold our inheritance according to the accord of both Testaments, and leave the quarrelsome slanders to the disinherited heretics.

3. Now it ought in no way to disturb your prudence that, although John the Evangelist did not say "All things were made in him" but All things were made through him (John 1:3), we do not read in Genesis "Through the beginning God made heaven and earth" but In the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gen 1:1). For the Apostle says, That he might make known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he set forth in him in the dispensation of the fullness of times, to restore all things in Christ, those that are in heaven and those that are on earth, in him (Eph 1:9-10). Therefore, just as here you hear what he says, in him, in such a way that you understand also "through him," so in what John says, All things through him, you are compelled to understand also "in him." And just as here the understanding is not taken from me by which I understand that all things were made in him, since I read through him, so in Genesis, when I read that heaven and earth were made in him, who forbids me to understand also "through him"? Unless perhaps the Manichees transfer the dispute from the two Testaments and set it up among the most blessed witnesses of the New Testament, that is, between Paul and John, because the one says in him and the other through him. But just as we do not believe that Paul and John are opposed to each other, so too we compel them to confess the agreement of Moses and Paul.

4. And since, just as these two agree with each other, so also John agrees with both, because he said through him in such a way as not to forbid "in him" being understood, all the divine writings stand at peace among themselves. But as it usually happens that, when we gaze at passing clouds through the darkness of night, our sight is so confused by their murk that the stars seem to us to be running in the opposite direction, so these heretics, because in the cloud of their error they find no peace, think rather that divine Scripture is quarreling.

5. Perhaps they may say that In the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gen 1:1) was not said of the Word of God. Grant that this is so: let what is written, In the beginning God made heaven and earth, be understood as said not of the beginning who is the only Son of God, but of the beginning of time—not because time already existed before there was any creation (for no one would say that even time is coeternal with God, who is the founder of times), but so that time began together with heaven and earth. If, then, anyone understands it thus, recognizing at least the distance between creature and Creator, lest he say that what God made is coeternal with God who made it, certainly even in that word the number of persons will shine forth, where it is said, Let us make man to our image and likeness (Gen 1:26), and, God made man to the image of God (Gen 1:27). And yet, even if it did not appear, and the Trinity were intimated to those who understand under the name of unity, the beginning of the Gospel ought not on that account to have seemed to the prudent to contradict the beginning of Genesis. For it could seem so only to the imprudent. For we have countless examples of such ways of speaking in the Scriptures. The Lord himself says, in speaking, But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet (Matt 5:34-35). Will they perhaps, because he does not name himself there, deny that Christ sits in heaven? Likewise the Apostle says, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to him, that it should be repaid to him? For from him and through him and in him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever (Rom 11:33-36). Here too no express mention of the Son is made. The Apostle says there is one God and Lord, from whom are all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things. Why then did these people choose Moses to set against John the Evangelist, but were unwilling to set the apostle Paul against him? Clearly because they wished to persuade unlearned people that the two Testaments are contrary, so as to use one as a witness and reject the other. For this is what their error professes. For if there were another whose equally insane fury tried to show to the unlearned that the New Testament itself was contrary to itself, what else would he do but set forth Paul and John, just as these set forth Moses and John, as enemies quarreling with each other? But just as the purest and truest faith commends the agreement of Paul and John, and in what blessed Paul says, From him and through him and in him are all things (Rom 11:36), teaches us to understand not only the Father but also the Son and the Holy Spirit, so, looking at the peace of Moses and John, in what Moses said, In the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gen 1:1), if he takes "beginning" as the beginning of time, he recognizes in the word God nothing else than the unity of the Trinity, or he unhesitatingly embraces as the "beginning" in which God made heaven and earth the Son himself. There are many other passages that we could call to mind according to these rules of the speech of the divine Scriptures. But lest we burden your Holiness's memory, it will suffice to have recalled these. We exhort you to seek out the rest for yourselves, or to take note when the Scriptures are read, and to consider and discuss them among yourselves in harmony.

Sermon 2
On Abraham, Where He Is Tested by God

1. The well-known piety of our father Abraham has been brought back to our remembrance by the recent reading. And it is something so wonderful that we must suppose no heart so forgetful that it could ever slip from it. Yet somehow, however often it is read, it affects the minds of the hearers as though it were happening then. Great faith, great piety, not only toward God but even toward his only son, for whom the father believed there could be no evil in whatever he commanded who had created him. For Abraham could be his son's father according to the operation of the flesh, but not his creator and founder according to the operation of majesty. Indeed, as the Apostle says, Isaac was born to Abraham not according to the flesh but by promise (Gal 4:23). Not because he had not begotten him in the flesh, but because he had received him out of the deepest despair. And had not God been present to promise, the old man would no longer have dared to hope for any posterity from the womb of his aged wife. But he believed that the child would be born, and he did not mourn that he would die. His right hand is chosen for the sacrifice, that the son might die, whose heart was chosen for faith, that the son might be born. Abraham did not tremble to believe when it was promised. He did not tremble to offer when it was demanded. Nor was the believer's religion opposed to the devotion of one obeying. This I say: Abraham did not say to himself, "God has spoken to me. When he promised a son, I believed that God would give me posterity. And what posterity? Such that he said to me, In Isaac shall your seed be named (Gen 21:12). And lest perhaps my seed should be named in Isaac in such a way that my son should die before me, In your seed, he said, shall all nations be blessed (Gen 22:18). He himself, then, in speaking to me, promised a son, and he himself demands that I kill him!" He did not make a problem for himself, as though out of contrary and opposing words of God promising that a son would be born and afterward saying, "Kill your son for me." But in his heart there was always an unshaken faith, in no way failing. For Abraham reflected that God, who had granted that one should be born of aged parents who did not exist, was able even to restore him from death. For greater was what God had already done, when after such great despair he saw given to him a son who had not existed, which, if you consult human weakness, was impossible. And so he applied his mind to faith. He did not believe that anything was impossible to the Creator. As he had believed when he received the son, so he believed afterward when God commanded. In receiving the son he had already proved God. He believed when he was to receive the son, he believed when he was to kill him. Everywhere faithful, nowhere cruel. He led his son all the way to the place of the victim. He even armed his right hand with the knife. You attend to who strikes, and whom he strikes. Attend to who commands. Abraham, then, is dutiful in obeying. What of God in commanding? Lest perhaps to weak souls—I will not say sacrilegious—he himself who commanded be displeasing. But if the one who obeyed is pleasing, how is the one who commanded displeasing? For if Abraham did well in obeying, much better, and incomparably far better, did God in commanding.

2. Perhaps a hidden meaning is being sought. For God would not command this in vain, nor is it to be taken in a fleshly way—which, when read, has perhaps disturbed the hearts of some who understand too little. God, it says, tested Abraham (Gen 22:1). Is God, then, so ignorant of things, so unaware of the human heart, that he should discover by testing a man? Far from it. Rather, it is so that the man himself may discover himself. First of all, then, brothers, on account of those who oppose the old Law, the holy Scripture—because some who do not understand are quicker to attack what they do not understand than to seek so as to understand, and are not humble inquirers but proud slanderers—on account of these, then, who wish to accept the Gospel and to reject the old Law, thinking that they can be on God's way and rightly walk on one foot, since they are not scribes learned in the kingdom of God who bring forth from their treasure things new and old, on account, then, of such people, lest perhaps some of them be hiding here, or, even if they are not here, that those present may have something to answer such people, this question must be briefly resolved. We say to such people: You accept the Gospel, you do not accept the Law; but we say that the most merciful giver of the Gospel is the same who was also the giver of the terrible Law. For by the Law he terrified, and by the Gospel he healed those converted whom he had terrified by the Law that they might be converted. An emperor gave a law, and many things were committed against the law. The law the emperor gave knew only to punish sinners. It remained, then, that he who had sent the law ahead should come himself with pardon to undo their offenses. But what does the perverse heart say, since it says that it accepts the Gospel but rejects the Law? Why does it reject it? "Because it is written," it says, "God tested Abraham. Shall I worship a God who tests?" Worship Christ, whom you have in the Gospel. He himself recalls you to understanding the Law. But because they have not crossed over to Christ, they have remained in their own phantasm. For they do not worship Christ such as he is preached from the Gospel, but such as they have fashioned for themselves. Therefore over the veil of their natural folly they add another veil of perverse opinion. And how, through a double veil, can what shines in the Gospel be seen? A God who tests displeases you; let Christ who tests displease you. But when Christ who tests has pleased you, let God who tests please you. For Christ too, the Son of God, is God, and Christ with the Father is one God. Where, then, do we read of Christ testing? The Gospel speaks. It says: He says to Philip, You have loaves. Give them to eat. And the Evangelist adds, But this he said to test him; for he himself knew what he was about to do (John 6:5-6). Now turn your mind back to God testing Abraham. For this God too said in testing Abraham: he himself knew what he was about to do. Christ the tester is acknowledged, God the tester is acknowledged; let the heretic the tester be corrected. For the heretic does not test as God tests. For God tests in order to open a person up, the heretic tests in order to close God off from himself.

3. Therefore let your Charity know that God's testing does not aim at his coming to know something he did not know before, but that, by his testing, that is, his questioning, what is hidden in a person may be brought out. For a person is not so known to himself as to the Creator, nor is a sick man so known to himself as to the physician. A man is ill. He himself suffers, the physician does not suffer, and from him who does not suffer he waits to hear what it is he suffers. Therefore in the psalm a person cries out, From my hidden faults cleanse me, O Lord (Ps 19:12 (18:13)). For there are in a person things hidden from the very person in whom they are. And they do not come forth, nor are they opened up, nor are they found, except by tests. If God ceases to test, the master ceases to teach. But God tests in order to teach; the devil tests in order to deceive. Yet unless the one who is tested gives him room, he is driven off empty and laughable. Therefore the Apostle says, Do not give place to the devil (Eph 4:27). But people give place to the devil out of their own desires. For people do not see the devil with whom they fight, but they have an easy remedy. Let them conquer themselves within, and they triumph over him outside. Why do we say this? Because a person does not know himself unless in testing he learns himself. But when he has learned himself, let him not neglect himself. For if he neglected himself while hidden, let him not neglect himself once known.

4. What then shall we say, brothers? Even if Abraham knew himself, we did not know Abraham. He had to be made known either to himself or at least to us: to himself, that he might know whence to give thanks; to us, that we might know either what to ask of the Lord or what to imitate in the man. What, then, does Abraham teach us? To put it briefly: that we should not prefer to God what God gives. Meanwhile, as to the letter of the deeds done, before the hidden depth of the mystery is treated—that is, what lies hidden in this mystery in which Abraham was commanded to kill his only son: Therefore do not prefer to him who bestowed it even that which God bestows on you as something great. And when he chooses to take it from you, let it not become cheap to you, for God is to be loved freely. For what reward sweeter from God than God himself?

5. So Abraham fulfills the obedience of his devotion. He hears from God, Now I know that you fear God (Gen 22:12). This is understood to mean that God brought it about that Abraham should become known to himself. Just as when a prophet speaks (I am speaking to Christians, or to those advancing in the school of God; what I say is neither crude nor new, but most familiar and most evident to your Holiness along with us)—when a prophet speaks, what do we say? "God said." We say well. We also say, "The prophet said." And we say both rightly, and we find both in authority. And the Apostles understood the Prophets in such a way as to say, God said (Acts 4:24-25). And in another place, Isaiah said (Rom 10:20). Both are true, because we find both in the Scriptures. Let the Christian resolve for me the question I have just proposed, and he will resolve for himself the one I proposed a little earlier. How? Because what a man says concerning God's gift, God says, according to that text, For it is not you who speak (Matt 10:20), and so on; and again, Behold, I Paul speak to you (Gal 5:2); and again, Christ who speaks in me (2 Cor 13:3). Therefore, brothers, transfer this rule to what once seemed twisted, and it will be straight.

6. Let us all, then, look to him, that he himself may feed our hungering souls who hungered for our sake, who became poor, though he was rich, that by his poverty (2 Cor 8:9) we might be enriched. Opportunely a little while ago we sang to him, All things look to you, that you may give them food in due season (Ps 104:27 (103:27)). If all things, then all people. If all people, then we also. Therefore, if we are to give anything good in this discourse, it is not we who will give it, but he from whom we all receive, because we all wait upon him. It is the time; let him give—but let us do what he said in order that he may give, that is, let us wait upon him. Let us look to him with the heart. For just as the eyes and ears of the body are turned toward us, so the eyes and ears of the heart are turned toward him. With the ear of the heart open, hear a great mystery. All the mysteries of the divine Scriptures are indeed great and divine. Yet there are some more notable and more excellent, which especially demand that we be attentive, and which beyond the rest build up the fallen, satisfy the hungry—who are not so satisfied as to grow weary, but it is a satiety without weariness, driving out want while not taking on contempt. Whom would it not move that an only son is commanded to be sacrificed to the one by whom he was promised? And especially when the matter is recounted as it happened, it makes our minds attentive to seeking out the hidden meaning set before us.

7. Before all things, however, brothers, in the name of the Lord we both admonish you as much as we can and instruct you that, when you hear the hidden meaning of a passage of Scripture narrating what was done expounded, you first believe that what was read happened just as it was read, lest, the foundation of the deed being removed, you should seek to build, as it were, in the air. Abraham our father was in those times a faithful man, believing God, justified by faith, as Scripture says, both the old and the new. He received a son from his wife Sarah, both being now established in old age, out of great despair—but according to man. But what is not to be hoped for from God, for whom nothing is difficult? Who does great things as he does small ones; who raises the dead as he creates the living. If a painter makes a mouse by the same art by which he makes an elephant (different works, but one art), how much more God, who spoke and they were made, who commanded and they were created? What does he do with difficulty, who makes by a word? With the ease with which he created the angels above the heavens, with that ease the lights in the heavens, with that ease the fish in the sea, with that ease the trees and animals on the earth, with that ease the great as the small. To him, then, for whom it was easiest of all to make everything from nothing, is it to be wondered at that he gave a son to the aged? Such men, then, or such people, God had, and in that time he had made such heralds of the Son to come, that not only in what they said, but even in what they did, or in what happened to them, Christ might be sought, Christ might be found. Whatever was written and done concerning Abraham is also a prophecy, as the Apostle says in a certain place: For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman, which things are an allegory (Gal 4:22, 24). These, then, are the two Testaments.

8. Now, then, we do not say imprudently that Isaac both was born to Abraham and signified something. So too, commanded to sacrifice his son, he obeys God, leads him to the place, arrives after three days, leaves his two servants with the beast of burden, goes on himself where God had commanded; he raises the wood onto the altar, raises the son upon the wood. Before the son comes to the place of sacrifice, he carries the wood by which he is to be raised. Then, when he was now almost being struck, a voice sounds that he be spared. And yet there is no withdrawing without a sacrifice and without blood poured out. A ram appears, its horns caught in a thicket. It is sacrificed; the sacrifice is carried out. With the sacrifice carried out, it is said to Abraham, I will make your seed as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea. And your seed shall possess the cities of its adversaries. And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice (Gen 22:17-18). See, then, when it was done, and when the commemoration of the very deed takes place. When that ram says, They have pierced my hands and my feet (Ps 22:16 (21:17)), and so on. When that sacrifice in the psalm was carried out, then in that very psalm it was said, All the ends of the earth shall be reminded and shall turn to the Lord. And all the families of the nations shall worship in his sight. For the kingdom is his, and he shall have dominion over the nations (Ps 22:27-28 (21:28-29)). If shall be reminded was said, then something was prefigured beforehand which we now see being done.

9. Let us see, then, how it was fulfilled, and whence it was fulfilled, and by what preceding sacrifice it was fulfilled, which was said to Abraham, In your seed shall all nations be blessed (Gen 22:18). Happy the nations, which did not hear that, and now, reading it, have believed what he believed who heard it. Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God (Jas 2:23). That he believed God, within, in the heart, is in faith alone. But that he resolved to sacrifice his son, that undaunted he armed his right hand, that he would even now have struck had he not been held back by the voice—that is surely great faith, and a great work. And the work itself God praised, when he said, Because you have obeyed my voice (Gen 22:18). Why, then, does the apostle Paul say, We hold that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law (Rom 3:28), and in another place says, And faith which works through love (Gal 5:6)? How does faith work through love, and how is a man justified by faith apart from the works of the Law? How? Attend, brothers. Someone believes, receives the sacraments of faith on his bed, and dies. The time for working was lacking to him. What do we say? That he was not justified? We plainly say that he was justified, believing in him who justifies the ungodly (Rom 4:5). So this man was justified, and did not work. And the saying of the Apostle is fulfilled, We hold that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law (Rom 3:28). The thief who was crucified with the Lord believed with the heart unto righteousness, and confessed with the mouth unto salvation (Rom 10:10). For faith which works through love, even if there is no occasion to work outwardly, is nevertheless kept burning in the heart. For there were some under the Law who boasted of the works of the Law, which perhaps they did not out of love but out of fear, and they wished to seem righteous and to be preferred to the gentiles who had not done the work of the Law. But the Apostle, preaching faith to the gentiles, since he saw that those who came to the Lord were justified by faith, so that those who had now believed should work well—not that by working well they should merit to believe—cried out securely and said that a man can be justified by faith apart from the works of the Law, so that those rather were not righteous who did what they did out of fear, since faith works through love in the heart, even if it does not go forth into outward work.

Sermon 3
On Hagar and Ishmael
[A Fragment]

1. The Old Testament pertains properly to the Jews. For fleshly benefits were promised, because spiritual ones were not grasped. That earthly kingdom, and an earthly life, was utterly cast down and handed over to subjection to enemies. They hoped for everything from the Lord in a fleshly way, and for the sake of these things they served. Let Christians be questioned, if only there are no such people now. Such people pertain to the Old Testament. For I am not asking about the name but about the life. Of such people are both heresy and schism. Hagar fled from the face of Sarah, and Sarah afflicted her. What is to be wondered at? She afflicted her bodily. If the party of Donatus suffered any affliction, on account of its pride it suffered, as the slave woman Hagar from Sarah. Let Hagar hear the voice of the angel, Return to your mistress (Gen 16:9). But as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also now (Gal 4:29). We do not find that Isaac was bodily persecuted by Ishmael, but only that the Apostle spoke of persecution. Note there where he said, But as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also now. But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son: for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman (Gal 4:29-30). Therefore, where Scripture says that, there let us seek. What does it say in Genesis? And it happened, when Ishmael and Isaac were playing, that she saw them playing (Gen 21:9). Who persecuted? Whom did he persecute? Sarah saw them playing, and said, Cast out the slave woman and her son (Gen 21:10). Why? Because she saw them playing. But Paul calls that play persecution, because that playing was a mockery. If a mockery, it is a seduction and a deception. Every game of children is an image of greater business: and when an older child plays with a younger, as if to seduce him, knowing that he has other concerns he is pursuing, he pretends certain things to the child, that is, to the weaker one, playing with him. Ishmael was older, and strengthened in malice, but playing with the child Isaac, he was seducing Isaac, and was committing certain frauds in playing with the weaker one. The mother noticed that that play was persecution. So understanding, Sarah the mother said that that play meant, Cast out the slave woman and her son: for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac (Gen 21:10). And the Church says, "Cast out the heresies and their children": for the heretics shall not be heirs with the Catholics. But why shall they not be heirs? Were they not born of the seed of Abraham? And how do they have the baptism of the Church? They have baptism: the seed of Abraham would make them heirs, were it not that pride excludes them from the inheritance. By the same word you are born, by the same sacrament; but you do not come to the same inheritance of eternal life unless you return to the Catholic Church. Of the seed of Abraham you are born, but a son of the slave woman, outside, because of pride.

Sermon 4
On Esau and Jacob

1. We remember that we are debtors of yesterday's reading. But as we owe a sermon, so you also owe a hearing. And that reading indeed sounds fleshly. But whoever has received the Spirit of God is wise spiritually. For the Apostle said, To be wise according to the flesh is death (Rom 8:6). And for this the Lord promised the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth. Therefore, as he promised and sent him, so that each one who has now received that Spirit should not be a slave to temporal pleasures, but, made master of his body and a servant of the Creator, should direct himself in the way of God's commandments. Let neither his steps falter nor his eyes flutter, but let him advance with the intent of faith, that he may come to that which neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man (1 Cor 2:9)—which is believed before it is seen, so that when it comes, he who has believed may not be confounded. Let him therefore press on, walking in hope, hoping for what he does not yet hold, believing what he does not yet see, loving him to whom he does not yet cleave. And the exercising of the soul in faith, in hope, and in love makes it fit to grasp what is to come.

2. When, therefore, Peter was still wise in a fleshly way, troubled at the questioning of a servant girl, he denied the Lord three times. For the physician had foretold to the sick man what was going to happen in him. The sick man did not know the falls of his own sickness, and presumed too much about himself as a sick man, but the true physician saw. For he had said that he would die with the Lord and for the Lord. But he could not yet, because he was weak. But when the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, came afterward and confirmed those into whom he came, that man, filled with spiritual confidence, now began to be truly ready to die for him whom he had earlier denied. Filled with this confidence, all the martyrs, holding the right faith, not dying or suffering for a false faith, for an empty phantasm, for a vain hope, for an uncertain thing, but for the promise of truth, holding it certain that he who promised is able to perform, despised all things present and burned for things to come, which, when they have become present to them, will not be past.

3. Remember, then, you who were present yesterday, the two sons of Isaac, Esau and Jacob; how the younger is preferred to the elder, so that you may belong to Jacob and not love Esau. Now Esau will be whoever wishes to live in a fleshly way, or to hope for fleshly things in the age to come. Whether, then, living in a fleshly way and rejoicing in such things in this time, and hoping for such things from God as the wicked also have, and placing his whole happiness in that very thing in which the unjust also rejoice, or, certainly despising this present life and hoping for such a life in the future, he is fleshly, having a fleshly faith, a fleshly hope, a fleshly love. But faith is spiritual: to believe that your Lord is a protector for a time, so that you may come to that which will not be temporal, and to hope that you will have the life of the angels, not in the corruptions of the flesh, not in pleasures and enticements, not in fornications and drunkenness and the joy of fleshly feasts, not in the pride of possessions of earthly dominion, but only as the angels live.

4. Now the angels live in the joy not of the creature, but of the Creator. For the joy of the creature is whatever is seen. The joy of the Creator is what is not seen with the eyes of the body, but with the purified gaze of the mind. Blessed are the pure in heart. For what vision are they blessed? For they shall see God (Matt 5:8). For do not think, brothers, that the angels rejoice because they see earth or heaven or whatever is in them. They do not rejoice because they see heaven and earth, but because they see him who made heaven and earth.

5. But he who made heaven and earth is neither heaven nor earth, nor can anything earthly be conceived of him, nor anything heavenly, nor will you be able to conceive anything corporeal or spiritual. God is not this. Do not make for yourself some large and beautiful man. God is not bounded by a human form. He is not contained in a place, not held by space. Do not make for yourself, as it were, a golden God. God is not this. For the gold from which you wish to make a God, God himself made, and made it lowly because it is on the earth. Do not set before yourself that God is something such as you see in heaven, whether moon or sun or stars or whatever shines and gleams in heaven. God is not this. But again, do not for that reason suppose that God is the sun, because the sun is, as it were, a kind of wheel, not an immense expanse of light; nor say to yourself, "Therefore God is of infinite and immense light," so as to stretch out the sun itself, as it were, and make it have no end, neither this way nor that, neither above nor below, and yet set before yourself an immense light as God. This too is not God. God indeed dwells in inaccessible light (1 Tim 6:16). But such light is not a wheel, nor can it be known by the eyes of the flesh.

6. But if you can see what truth is, what wisdom is, what justice is—as it was said, Come to him and be enlightened (Ps 34:5 (33:6))—how that is the true light of which John says, It was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9), how John the Baptist himself was not the true light. For John the Evangelist says, He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light (John 1:8). Now not only was John the Baptist not the true light, but neither was Paul the true light, nor Peter the true light, nor were any of the Apostles the true light. For the true light is that which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9). But they were lights, because they were enlightened. For the eyes of our flesh too are called lights, and each one swears, "By my lights." What are these lights? If the sun is lacking, if moon or lamp is lacking, surely they remain in darkness. Where are the lights? Let them see before themselves, let them lead the feet, if they are lights. And yet they are lights. Why are they lights? Because they can receive light. For when light has been brought in, your forehead does not perceive the light itself, nor your ear, nor your sense of smell, nor your hand, nor your foot. Only the members in you that are called eyes alone perceive the light brought in. With the light absent they are darkened, but with the light brought in they alone are enlightened, that is, because they alone perceive the light. Your other members too are indeed enlightened, but so that they can be seen, not so that they can see. For the light that rises or that is brought in floods all the members: the eyes that they may see, the rest that they may be seen. So all the saints were enlightened that they might see, and that they might proclaim what they saw. Therefore it was said to them, You are the light of the world (Matt 5:14). But light, not the true light. Why? Because it was the true light, which enlightens every man (John 1:9). He said every man. If he were speaking of this sun, he would not say every man, because this sun is not seen by men alone. The beasts also see it, and the tiniest animals. And flies see this sun. But that light which is God no one sees, except those of whom it was said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8).

7. Try to conceive, brothers, the light of truth, the light of wisdom, how it is everywhere present to all. Try to conceive the light of justice: for it is present to everyone who thinks. For what is it that he thinks? Whoever wishes to live unjustly sins, abandons justice. Is it diminished? He has turned toward justice. What? Is it increased? He abandons it, leaves it whole. He turns toward it, finds it whole. What, then, is the light of justice? Does it rise from the East and go to the West? Or is there some other place from which it rises or to which it comes? Is it not everywhere at hand? A man certainly who is in the West, if he wishes to live justly, that is, according to justice—does that which he may gaze upon and see fail him, according to that very justice? Again, one placed in the East, if he wishes to live justly, that is, according to the same justice—does it fail him? For justice is there; it is at hand to one living justly. According to its rule even those see how they may live justly. As the just by living well see it, so the unjust by living badly do not see it. For the one lives justly, since he sees it, and that one sees it itself in order to direct his acts according to it, because unless he directs his acts according to the rule of justice, he is dashed into the error of iniquity. Therefore, because justice could be at hand also for this man standing there, it is in no place and is everywhere. So justice, so wisdom, so truth, so chastity. Try, then, to see such a light. But you cannot. The gaze of the mind flutters; let it be purified that it may see. And that it may be purified and may see, let it believe, that it may merit to be purified. What, then, you cannot see, defer, that we may be cured and may be able to see.

8. Yet do not conceive in the age to come anything such as you now see. For if you conceive something such, and love something such, you wish to go out of the world together with the world itself, you wish to take the world with you. These things will not be there. There will be a certain light there, from which this something—I know not what—distills, which we now understand and rejoice in. But if we have a blessing from the dew of heaven, we have abundance from the fertility of the earth (Gen 27:28): for so was Jacob blessed. Let us belong to him and not live in a fleshly way. Because each one begins by living in a fleshly way, Esau was therefore called the elder. Two Testaments are spoken of in the Law, one the Old, the other the New. The Old had temporal promises, but spiritual significations. Let your Charity attend. If a "land of promise" was promised to the Jews, the land of promise signifies something spiritually. If a city of peace, Jerusalem, was promised to the Jews, the name of the city Jerusalem signifies something spiritually. If circumcision of the flesh was given to the Jews, it signifies some spiritual circumcision. If the Jews were commanded to observe one sabbath day out of seven, it signifies a spiritual rest, which has no evening. For in those very seven days, in Genesis, on all the days it is said, Evening was made (Gen 1:5); on the seventh day it is not said, "Evening was made." On the seventh day, which has no evening, there is signified to us an everlasting rest, where there is no setting. If fleshly sacrifices were given to the Jews, through the victims of animals they all signify spiritual sacrifices. Therefore those who so understood as though something present were given to them as a great thing, and sought no future thing, and were not able to understand spiritually the things that were done in a fleshly way, belong to the elder son, belong to the Old Testament.

9. For the Old Testament is a promise figured. The New Testament is a promise understood spiritually. For since the Jerusalem that was on earth pertains to the Old Testament, it has an image to the Jerusalem that is in heaven, and pertains to the New Testament. Fleshly circumcision pertains to the Old Testament; circumcision of the heart pertains to the New Testament. According to the Old Testament the people is freed from Egypt; according to the New Testament the people is freed from the devil. The Egyptian persecutors and Pharaoh pursue the Jews going out of Egypt; their own sins and the devil, the prince of sins, pursue the Christian people. But just as the Egyptians pursue the Jews as far as the sea, so sins pursue Christians as far as baptism. Attend, brothers, and see: the Jews are freed through the sea, the Egyptians are overwhelmed in the sea; Christians are freed into the remission of sins, sins are blotted out through baptism. They go out after the Red Sea and walk through the wilderness; so too Christians after baptism are not yet in the land of promise, but are in hope. Now this world is a wilderness, and truly for the Christian it is a wilderness after baptism, if he understands what he has received. If not only bodily signs are done in him, but if also there is a spiritual effect in the heart, he understands that this world is a wilderness for him, he understands that he lives in a pilgrimage, that he longs for his homeland. But as long as he longs, he is in hope. For in hope we have been saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom 8:24-25). That patience in the wilderness makes one hope for something. If he already thinks himself in his homeland, he does not arrive at his homeland. If he already thinks himself in his homeland, he remains on the way. But that he may not remain on the way, let him hope for his homeland, let him long for his homeland, lest he stray. For temptations come to meet him. And as in the wilderness temptations come to meet one, so after baptism they come to meet. For just as the Egyptians were not the only enemies of the Jews, who pursued them from Egypt (for they were past enemies, just as each one is pursued by his past life and his past sins with their prince the devil), but there arose also in the wilderness those who would hinder the way, and it was fought against them, and they were conquered: so after baptism, when the Christian has begun to walk the way of his heart in the hope of God's promises, let him not stray. For temptations come to meet him, suggesting something else (the delights of this world, some other life), to twist each one off the way and lead him from his purpose. But if you overcome these desires, these suggestions, the enemies on the way are conquered, and the people is brought through to its homeland.

10. Hear the Apostle, that these were figures of us: For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that all our fathers were under the cloud (1 Cor 10:1). If they were under the cloud, they were under the gloom. What is it, they were under the gloom? Because they did not understand spiritually the things that were done with them in a fleshly way. And all passed through the sea, and all were baptized in Moses, and all ate the same spiritual food (1 Cor 10:1-3). For manna was given to them in the desert, as the sweetness of the Scriptures is given to us, that we may endure in this wilderness of human life. And Christians know what manna they receive, to whom the psalm itself said, Taste and see how sweet the Lord is (Ps 34:8 (33:9)). And all, he says, ate the same spiritual food. What is the same? Signifying the same thing. And all drank the same spiritual drink (1 Cor 10:4). And note how he expounded one thing and was silent about the rest: For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ. But these things were figures of us (1 Cor 10:4, 6). They were displayed to them, but they were figures of us, because to them they were displayed in a fleshly way, but to us they were signified spiritually. Therefore those who held them in a fleshly way belonged to the Old Testament.

11. Now see that Isaac had grown old. Whose person did Isaac bear, when he wished to bless his elder son? He had now grown old. Where there is old age, there is the old. For by old age I understand the old, and by the old I understand the Old Testament. This Old Testament, then, because those who were under the cloud did not understand it, is why Isaac's eyes are said to have grown dim. The dimness of Isaac's bodily eyes signifies the dimness of the minds of the Jews. Isaac's old age signifies the oldness of the Old Testament. What then, brothers? He wishes nevertheless to bless even his elder son Esau. The mother loved the younger and the father the elder, as the firstborn. For the justice was equal toward both, but there was greater love toward the firstborn. He wishes to bless the elder, because the Old Testament made its promises to the first people. It speaks its promises only to the Jews. To them it seems to promise, to them it seems to pledge everything. They are called from Egypt, freed from enemies, led through the sea, fed with manna, they receive the Testament, they receive the Law, they receive the promises, they receive the very land of promise. No wonder that he wished to bless the first son. But under the figure of the elder, the younger is blessed. For the mother bears the type of the Church. But understand the Church, brothers, not in those alone who began to be holy after the Lord's coming and birth, but all, however many were holy, pertain to that same Church. For father Abraham does not fail to pertain to us because he existed before Christ was born of the Virgin, and we so long afterward, that is, after Christ's passion, became Christians, since the Apostle says that we are sons of Abraham (Gal 3:7) by imitating Abraham's faith. Therefore are we to be admitted to the Church by imitating him, and are we to exclude him himself from the Church? This Church is signified in Rebecca, the wife of Isaac. This Church was in the holy Prophets too, who understood the Old Testament, because those fleshly promises signified some spiritual something. If spiritual, then the spiritual belong to the younger son, because the fleshly is first, and afterward the spiritual.

12. We told your Holiness yesterday that Esau is called the elder son because no one becomes spiritual except from being fleshly. But if he perseveres in the prudence of the flesh, he will always be Esau. But if he becomes spiritual, he will be the younger son. Yet that younger one will be the greater: for the one precedes in time, the other in virtue. For when Jacob had cooked lentils, Esau desired to receive them before he came to that blessing. And Jacob said to him, Give me your birthright, and I will give you the lentils I have cooked (Gen 25:31, 33). He sold his birthright to the younger. The one took away temporal pleasure, the other took away everlasting dignity. Therefore those who serve temporal pleasures in the Church eat lentils. Which indeed Jacob cooked, but Jacob did not eat. For idols had flourished more in Egypt. Lentils are the food of Egypt. By lentils all the errors of the gentiles are signified. Because, then, the Church—more eminent and more manifest—was signified as going to come in the younger son from the gentiles, Jacob is said to have cooked the lentils, and Esau to have eaten them. For the gentiles abandoned the idols they had worshiped. But the Jews served idols. For, converted in heart to Egypt, they were led through the wilderness. And when their enemies had been slain in the sea, and their foes overwhelmed by the waves, they desired to make an idol, because they did not see Moses. And they did not understand that God was present with them, but, having their hope in the presence of a man, when they did not see the man with their eyes, they began to think that God was not there, although he alone bestowed such great things through Moses. They sought a man with the eyes of the flesh, because they did not have the eyes of the heart by which to see God in Moses. Therefore they lost their primacy, because, converted in heart to Egypt, they ate lentils. Take note. There is a Christian people. But within that Christian people those hold the primacy who belong to Jacob. But those who live in a fleshly way, believe in a fleshly way, hope in a fleshly way, love in a fleshly way, still belong to the Old Testament, not yet to the New. They are still in the lot of Esau, not yet in the blessing of Jacob.

13. Let your Holiness attend. Old Isaac, then, with dim eyes wished to bless his elder son, because the Old Testament was directed to the Jews. Because that Old Testament was not understood by them, his eyes are therefore called dim. As I said, brothers, he speaks to the elder, the blessing comes to the younger. For this mother, who is understood in all the saints, that is, the Church, who understood the prophecy, herself gives counsel to the younger son, and says to him, I myself heard your father saying to your brother: Go, and bring me game, that I may eat and that my soul may bless you before I die. Now therefore, son, hear me (Gen 27:6-8). And she gave him counsel to go and bring two kids from the nearby flock, and that the mother should prepare them as his father delighted in, and that he should eat and bless his younger son in the absence of the elder. But he was afraid and said, My brother is hairy, but I am smooth, lest my father touch me and feel me, and understand that I am Jacob, and I shall gain not a blessing but a curse (Gen 27:11-12). But she said, Go, son, hear me; let your curse be upon me (Gen 27:13). He went on, brought two kids. They were prepared, he set them before his father. And as she had foretold, since the father did not recognize him by his voice, he touched him, found the hairs, because the mother had wrapped his arms in the skins of the kids. He believed it was the elder, and blessed him. In the blessing he intended the elder, and the blessing came to the younger. What, then, is the meaning that under the appearance of the elder the younger is blessed, except that under the figures of the Old Testament promised to the people of the Jews, the spiritual blessing came to the people of the Christians? Attend, brothers. They hear of the land of promise, we also hear of it. As though to the Jews Scripture seems to speak of the land of promise, and to us comes the understanding of the land of promise, who say to God, You are my hope, my portion in the land of the living (Ps 142:5 (141:6)). But that we should say this, the mother taught us, that is, the Church herself in the holy Prophets teaches us how we should understand spiritually the very fleshly promises.

14. But the blessing could not come to us unless, already cleansed from sins by the new birth of regeneration, we bear the sins of others through forbearance. For the mother bore both sons. Attend, brothers. She bore one hairy, the other smooth. The hairs signify sins, the smoothness gentleness, that is, cleanness from sins. Two sons are blessed, because the Church blesses two kinds. As Rebecca bore two, so two are begotten in the womb of the Church, one hairy, the other smooth, whose difference we have expounded. For there are people who even after baptism do not wish to put away their sins, and wish to do the things they did before. For example: if they were committing frauds, they wish to defraud again; if they swore falsely, they still wish to perjure themselves; if they circumvented the innocent with deceits, they still wish to circumvent; if they were plotting murders, they plot the same; if they fornicated, if they got drunk, they do those very things no less. Behold Esau born hairy. What does Jacob do? It is said to him by his mother, "Go, let your father bless you." And he says, "I am afraid, I will not approach." For there are people in the Church who fear to be mingled with sinners, lest, as it were, through fellowship with sinners they be stained in the unity, and through heresies and schisms perish.

15. What, then, is said to hairy Esau, who did not conduct himself well in the house? For this too is said of them. He was a wild hunter, but Jacob conducted himself without guile in the house (Gen 25:27). And therefore the mother loved him, whose sweet conduct she felt. This is the Jacob who was afterward called Israel, when he wrestled with the angel: and this in a great mystery. Having been blessed, he was called Israel, and this because he was without guile. Attend, my brothers, and see how he was without guile. When the Lord saw Nathanael, because he knew what kind of man he was, he said, Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile (John 1:47). If, then, this man is an Israelite because there is no guile in him, in Israel himself surely there was no guile. What, then, is the meaning of what is said, Your brother came with guile, and took away the blessing (Gen 27:35)? Scripture commends him as conducting himself without guile in the house. The Lord too bears witness that he was without guile, when he says of Nathanael, Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile. What, then, is the meaning, when it is said, He approached with guile, and took away the blessing?

16. Meanwhile let us attend to what guile signifies, and let us see what Jacob ought to do. He bears the sins of others, and bears them with forbearance, though they are the sins of others. For this is what it means to have the goatskins, that is, patiently to bear the sins of others, not to cling to his own. So all who, for the unity of the Church, bear with the sins of others imitate Jacob. For Jacob himself too is in Christ, since Christ is in the seed of Abraham. For it was said, In your seed shall all nations be blessed (Gen 22:18). Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, who committed no sin, bore the sins of others. And does he to whom sins are forgiven disdain to bear the sins of others? If, then, Jacob crosses over to Christ, he bears the sins of others, that is, the goatskins. And what is guile?

17. For he comes late, and brings what his father had commanded, and finds his brother blessed in his stead, and is not blessed with another blessing. Because those two men were two peoples. One blessing signifies the unity of the Church. But they are two peoples, which is also Jacob. Yet in another way figured are the two peoples pertaining to Jacob. For our Lord Jesus Christ, who had come to the Jews and the gentiles, was rejected by the Jews, who belonged to the elder son. Yet he chose certain ones who belonged to the younger son, who had begun spiritually to desire and understand the Lord's promises, not receiving in a fleshly way the other land they desired, but spiritually desiring that city where no one is born in a fleshly way; for there no one dies in a fleshly way, no one in a spiritual way.

18. When, then, they began to desire this, they began to belong to Jacob, those who believed in Christ, and there came to be a flock of the Lord in Judea itself. But what does the Lord say of that flock? I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I will go, I will bring them, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16). What other sheep does the Lord Jesus Christ have, except from the gentiles? The sheep from the gentiles were joined to the Jewish sheep. For from the Jews were the Apostles. From there too were the five hundred brothers who saw the Lord after the resurrection. From there was Nathanael himself, to whom the Lord bore witness that there was no guile in him. From there were the one hundred and twenty who, when they were in the house, the Holy Spirit came to flood them, whom he had promised to the disciples. From there were the many thousands of people whom we read in the Acts of the Apostles were baptized in the name of Christ, even those who had crucified Christ. Therefore from there were the sheep, and many sheep. But not alone. The Lord had others from the gentiles. These two peoples, as though coming from different directions, are signified also by two walls. For the Church of the Jews came from circumcision. The Church of the gentiles came from uncircumcision. Coming from different directions, they were joined together in the Lord. Therefore the Lord is called the cornerstone. For the psalm says, The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner (Ps 118:22 (117:22)). And the Apostle says, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone (Eph 2:20). Where there is a corner, two walls are joined; in a corner two walls do not come together unless from different directions; for if they come from one side, they do not make a corner. The two kids, then, are the two peoples, they are the two folds, they are the two walls, they are the two blind men who sat by the way, they are the two boats into which the fish were lifted. In many places of the Scriptures two peoples are understood, but they are one in Jacob.

19. Why kids, someone will ask? You know that kids are sinners, for the kids will be on the left, and the lambs on the right. But those who persevere as kids, they will be on the left. For unless they had first been kids, the Lord would not say, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt 9:13). For when the Lord was associating with sinners and eating with tax collectors, the Jews—as though lambs, that is, as though righteous, and through pride rather goats—objected to the Lord as a charge, indeed said to his disciples, Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners? (Matt 9:11). Answering, how did the Lord defend himself? Those who are well, he said, have no need of a physician, but those who are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt 9:12-13). He calls the kids, then, but so that they may not persevere as kids. For Jacob slew them and prepared from them a feast for his father, that is, to the spiritual understanding, which was to be understood in that blessing, although it was figured in the elder son. For this the kids were slain, and eaten, and carried over into one body. So sins are slain in sinners, and, slain, they pass over into the one body of the Church, whose figure Peter bore, when it was said to him, Kill and eat (Acts 10:13). Therefore the one was wild, the other in the house, gentle; the one the elder, the other the younger; the blessings seemed to look toward the one, they came to the other. They looked toward the one, because fleshly promises were promised to the Jews; they came to the other, because they were to be understood spiritually, and to be received by Christians. To the latter the blessing would not have come unless he bore the sins which he himself no longer committed.

20. Therefore let your Holiness understand how sins are to be borne. For there are those who seem to themselves to bear sins, and are silent toward sinners. Now that pretense is to be detested. Bear the sinner, not so as to love the sin in him, but so as to pursue the sin for his sake. Love the sinner, not insofar as he is a sinner, but insofar as he is a man. As if you love a sick man, you pursue the fever; for if you spare the fever, you do not love the sick man. Say, then, what is true to your brother, do not be silent. For what else are we doing than telling you what is true? Do not do it deceitfully: with open truth say what is true, but until he is corrected, let him be borne. At different times might have happened the slaying of the kids and the carrying of the skins; yet they signify a matter that can take place at one time. For the just man at once both reproves sinners, which is to slay the kids, and mercifully tolerates their sins, which is to bear the skins. As far as in him lay, he slew the kids, he slew the sinners. But he bore the sins of others, and bore them with forbearance. He deserved to be blessed, because love bears all things (1 Cor 13:7). That love was in the mother, and the mother bore the figure of that love. Which figure was of all the saints, she bore the figure of love, because there are no saints except those who have love. For what will it profit, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love? I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I know all mysteries, and all prophecy, and hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3). What kind of thing, then, is love, which alone profits much, without which the rest profit nothing! Therefore love itself gives the counsel, and the son of love obeys.

21. What counsel does it give? That he take the goatskins and approach his father. The father seeks the elder, and blesses the younger. The Old Testament regards the Jews through the letter, and through its spiritual understanding Christians are blessed in it. Let your Holiness attend to a great mystery, a great hidden meaning. Isaac says, Your brother came with guile (Gen 27:35), of a man without guile. Without doubt Isaac, as he was of a prophetic spirit, knew what was being done, and he himself was acting figuratively. He sets everything in the great depth of mysteries. For if he did not know what he was doing, he would be angry at the son deceiving him. The elder comes and says, Behold, father, eat; as you commanded me, I have done (Gen 27:31). He says, Who are you? He answered, I am your elder son Esau. And who is he, he said, from whom I have already eaten, and have blessed him, and he shall be blessed? (Gen 27:32-33) He seemed to be angry. Esau awaited from his mouth some curse upon his brother. While Esau awaits the curse, Isaac confirms the blessing. O to be angry, O to be indignant! But he knew the mystery. And the dimness of his bodily eyes signified the dimness of the mind of the Jews. But the eyes of his heart saw the depth of the mysteries.

22. And your brother came, he says, with guile, and took away the blessing (Gen 27:35). We were saying that we should see what with guile is. This guile is not guile. How is guile not guile? How is a rock not a rock? How is something called sea and is not sea, because it signifies something else? So something is called earth and is not earth, because it signifies something else. So something is called a rock and is not a rock, because it signifies something else. So something is called a mountain and is not a mountain. So the Lord Jesus Christ is called a lion of the tribe of Judah and the Lord Jesus Christ is not a lion. So he is called a lamb and is not a lamb. So he is called a sheep and is not a sheep. So he is called a calf, and it is something else. So guile is spoken of and is not guile. Why, then, is it called guile? Let us seek. Why all those things were said, let us seek. Why was he called a lion? Because of his strength. Why was he called a rock? Because of his firmness. Why was he called a lamb? Because of his innocence. Why was he called a calf? Because of the victim. Why was he called a mountain? Because of his greatness. Why manna? Because of its sweetness. Why, then, guile? Let us now see what guile is, and we find why it was called guile. For we know what a rock is; and yet a man who is absurd and hard is called a rock, and a man who is robust and immovable is called a rock. And from it you have drawn firmness for praise, and hardness for reproach. We know firmness in a rock, and we have taken Christ as a rock: And the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). We know strength in a lion, and yet the devil too is named a lion. In guile, what do we know, so that we may take guile too as a figure, just as a mountain is taken, just as a lion is taken, just as a lamb is taken, just as a rock is taken, and the rest?

23. What, then, is guile? Guile is when one thing is done and another pretended. So when one thing is in the intention, another in the deeds, it is called guile. Therefore guile in its proper sense is reprehensible, as a rock in its proper sense. Whoever says that the rock was Christ in the proper sense blasphemes, as whoever says that the calf was Christ in the proper sense blasphemes. A calf in its proper sense is an animal, in figure a victim. In its proper sense a stone is hardened earth, in figure firmness. Guile in its proper sense is fraud, in figure the figure itself. For every figurative and allegorical reading or speech seems to sound one thing in a fleshly way, to intimate another spiritually. This figure, then, he called by the name of guile. What, then, is, He came with guile, and took away your blessing? (Gen 27:35) Because what was being done was figurative, therefore it was said, He came with guile. For he would not confirm the blessing to a deceitful man, to whom a just curse was due. Therefore that was not true guile, especially because he did not lie in saying, I am your elder son Esau (Gen 27:32). For he had already made a pact with his brother and had sold his birthright. He said he had this from his father, which he had bought from his brother; what the one had lost had passed over to the other. For the honor of the firstborn had not been shut out of Isaac's house. The honor of the firstborn was there. It was not in him who had sold it. Where was it, if not in the younger? Therefore, knowing this in the mystery, Isaac confirmed the blessing and says to his son, What shall I do for you? And he, Bless me also, father: for you have not one blessing only (Gen 27:37-38). But Isaac knew of one.

24. Why one? The Spirit will be present that I may declare it and you may understand. Let us see the blessings themselves, what kind of blessing Jacob received, and what kind of blessing Esau received. Isaac himself to Jacob: Are you my son Esau? He answered: I am (Gen 27:24). And he said, Bring it to me, and I will eat of your game, son, and my soul shall bless you before I die; but bring your kiss near to me (Gen 27:25-26). He did not kiss the other. From peace his blessing began. Why did he confirm peace with a kiss? Because he too for the sake of peace was bearing the sins of others. And he approached, and kissed him. And he smelled the smell of his garments (Gen 27:27). For he had his brother's robe. That is, the dignity of the firstborn which the other had lost, this man had. In him it now smelled good, which the other had wickedly lost. He smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said: Behold the smell of my son, like the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed (Gen 27:27). He received the smell of the garment, and he spoke of the smell of a field. Understand Christ in the inner mystery, and understand the garment of Christ to be the Church.

25. Let your Holiness understand. For one thing is signified in many ways. That is, the Church, which those two kids signify, this garment signifies, because one thing is signified in many ways, which is none of these in plain reality, all of them in figure. A lamb cannot be a lion; a lion cannot be a lamb. But our Lord Jesus Christ could be both a lion and a lamb. But because he is neither a lion nor a lamb in plain reality, he is both a lion and a lamb in figure. So kids cannot be a garment, and a garment cannot be kids. But the Church, because it is neither kids nor a garment in plain reality, is both kids and a garment in figure. And whatever else can be said.

26. He smelled his garments, and said: Behold the smell of my son, like the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed (Gen 27:27). This field is the Church. Let us prove that the field is the Church. Hear the Apostle saying to the faithful, You are God's tillage, God's building (1 Cor 3:9). Not only is the Church a field, but God is also the farmer. Hear the Lord himself: I am the vine, you the branches, and my Father is the farmer (John 15:1, 5). In this field, then, the laborer toiling and hoping for an eternal reward, the Apostle himself claims nothing for himself except as much as befits a laborer. I, he says, planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the growth (1 Cor 3:6-7). How he preserved humility, that he might belong to Jacob, that he might belong to that very field, that is, the Church, lest he lose the robe whose smell was like the smell of a full field, and pass over to the pride of Esau, understanding in a fleshly way and full of conceit! The field, then, smells from the garment of the son. But that field is not anything of itself. Therefore he added, which the Lord has blessed. And the Lord shall give you of the dew of heaven from above, and of the richness of the earth, and abundance of grain and wine. And nations shall serve you, and you shall be lord of your brother, and the sons of your father shall worship you. Whoever curses you shall be cursed, and whoever blesses you shall be blessed (Gen 27:28-29). This is the blessing of Jacob. If Esau too were not blessed, there would be no question. He too is blessed, but not with the same blessing, nor yet wholly different from it.

27. Let us hear, then, how Esau is blessed, and let us see what difference there is between the spiritual sons of the Church and the fleshly; between those who bear the sins of others, and those who carry their own; between those who always live spiritually, and those who always delight in fleshly joys. Answering, Isaac said to Esau, Who then is it that hunted game for me, and brought it to me? Let him be blessed. And it happened, when Esau heard the words of his father Isaac, he cried out with a loud voice and said: Bless me also, father. And he said to him: Your brother came with guile, and received your blessing (Gen 27:33-35).

28. And Esau said, Rightly is his name called Jacob (Gen 27:36). For Jacob means "supplanting." And is that supplanting itself empty, since it is taken in figure as guile is? For there was not now such malice in the brother that he should wish to supplant his brother. For he was called the supplanter then, when at his birth he held his brother's foot with his hand: then he was called the supplanter. But the supplanting of the fleshly is the life of the spiritual. For all the fleshly, when in the Church they envy the spiritual, are supplanted, and become worse. Hear the Apostle saying this very thing, especially because there he mentioned the smell, which here Isaac expressed, saying, Behold the smell of my son, like the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed (Gen 27:27). The Apostle says, then, We are the good odor of Christ in every place, and he says, to some indeed an odor of life unto life, to others an odor of death unto death. And who is sufficient for these things? (2 Cor 2:14-16)—that is, to understand how we are an odor of death unto the death of men, through no fault of ours. For they walk their spiritual ways, they know nothing else than to live well. And those who envy those living innocently commit grave sins, for which God punishes them. And that odor becomes for them unto death, which is for others unto life. For the Lord himself was first made a good odor unto life for those who believed, and a bad odor unto death for those who persecuted. For because many had believed in him, the Jews envied, and committed so great a crime by killing the innocent one, the Holy of holies. But if they had not done this, the good odor of Christ would not have availed for them unto death. Therefore Esau was supplanted in his father's blessing.

29. Now Isaac answered and said to him, I have made him your lord (Gen 27:37). For Esau could receive nothing else than what was said: And all his brothers shall serve him; but what shall I do for you, son? And Esau said to his father: Bless me nevertheless. When Isaac was strangled: that is, when he was constrained. A great matter, a great mystery: would that we might grasp it! Constrained, he blesses, and yet he blesses. And what he blesses is true, but nevertheless he blesses constrained. What this is, attend. Let us see the blessing itself, and let us understand what it is to bless constrained.

30. Now Isaac answered—the father indeed did not kiss Esau—and said to him, Behold, from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling, and from the dew of heaven above (Gen 27:39). He said this also to the other, From the richness of the earth, and from the dew of heaven: this, then, is common to Jacob and Esau. What is proper to Jacob? Nations shall serve you. What is proper to Jacob? All your brothers shall serve you, and whoever blesses you shall be blessed, and whoever curses you shall be cursed. This man too has something—I know not what—proper to himself, which was not said to Jacob: And you shall live by your sword, and you shall serve your brother (Gen 27:40). But lest it should take away free choice—as we said yesterday too on this point—he added, But it shall be, when you shall lay aside and loose the yoke from your neck (Gen 27:40). What is, But it shall be, when you shall lay aside and loose the yoke from your neck? You are free, if you will, to be converted; not as though you will be two, but one Jacob. For all who are converted from Esau belong to Jacob. Likeness makes one, unlikeness makes difference. What, then? From the dew of heaven, and from the fertility of the earth, both have. Let nations serve you and your brothers and the sons of your father, Jacob alone has. But you shall live by your sword, Esau alone. They have something in common, certain things each one alone.

31. There are wicked people in the Church belonging to Esau, because they too are children of Rebecca, children of the mother Church, born of her womb, and hairy in persevering in fleshly sins, yet born of her womb. They have, then, from the dew of heaven and from the fertility of the earth: from the dew of heaven all the Scriptures, all the divine word; but from the fertility of the earth, all the visible sacraments: for a visible sacrament pertains to the earth. All these the Church has in common, both the good and the wicked. For they too have and share in the sacraments, and—as the faithful know—of the wheat and the wine. And they have of the dew of heaven, because over all comes down the word of God from heaven. The word of God comes and waters. But who waters, and what he waters, attend. For he waters both these and those, that is, the wicked and the good. But those wicked ones turn the good rain into the root of thorns; but those good ones draw the rain to good fruit. For the Lord rains at once upon the grainfield and upon the thorns: but for the grainfield he rains unto the barn, for the thorns unto the fire; and yet the rain is one. So the word of God rains upon all. Let each one see what kind of root he has; let each one see where he draws the good rain. If he draws it so as to bring forth thorns, is the rain of God to be accused on that account? Before it comes to the root, that rain is sweet. The word of God is sweet, until it comes to an evil heart, and turns the rain of God to its own fraud, turns it to hypocrisy, turns it to the roots of evil desires, to its own perversities and depravities. It indeed begins to bring forth thorns, but from good rain: for it has of the dew of heaven. And since not all the wicked are excluded from the sacraments of God, it has also of the richness of the earth, which those know who have already wished to be partakers of the mysteries of the faithful.

32. Although these things pertain to both, yet "all nations" pertains only to the spiritual, because they pertain to the Church that has filled the whole world. Attend, brothers, and discern as much as you can, or as much as the Lord gives you. Every spiritual person sees that the Church throughout the whole world is one, true, catholic. And it claims nothing for itself, and tolerates the sins of people whom it cannot purge from the Lord's threshing floor before that last winnower comes, who cannot be deceived, to purge his threshing floor and put the wheat into the barn, but give the chaff to be burned. For he it is who is to exclude the chaff and separate it from the wheat, and prepare the barn for the wheat, the fire for the chaff. And so, because he knows, he tolerates the sinners to be separated at the end. Throughout all nations sinners and all the fleshly are mixed with the spiritual, and serve them. But the spiritual do not serve, because they profit from them when they themselves fail. Attend, my brothers. I will speak if I can, and not be afraid. I will not be silent. For I am pressed to speak. And if perhaps some are angry with me, let them grant pardon. For I am afraid, as I said. Let them grant pardon to my fear. Christ feared no one. But we, fearing Christ, do not spare, lest, while we are unwilling to grieve such people, he not spare us. What I wish to say, deign to hear, and attend most intently. Both Jacob and Esau received of the dew of heaven and of the richness of the earth. Both have that which we have already said, which we know, which you know. But that nations should serve him, only Jacob received, because the fleshly in the Church throughout the whole world do not serve any but the spiritual. Why? Because the spiritual profit from them. For this reason fleshly people are called servants. And even if they do what they do not wish, the evil conduct of the fleshly nevertheless profits the spiritual, because they both profit from that conduct, and are crowned through their forbearance.

33. Let your Holiness attend to what we say. But to Esau the nations were not given, because all the fleshly who are in the Church are either divided off or are easily inclined to division. Behold, the party of Donatus arose from there, is from there, from those very fleshly people thinking in a fleshly way. They were fleshly, but because they sought their own honor, or lost their patience, they found an entrance, and were divided off. They loved their own honor, attributed much to it, swelled with the conceit of pride, did not have forbearance, that is, did not have love. For it is written, Love bears all things, endures all things. It is not jealous, it is not puffed up, it does not act wrongly (1 Cor 13:7, 4). And so, whatever else they had, because they did not have that through which whatever is had is profitable, they divided themselves off. And however many heresies or cuttings-off and schisms have arisen, they have arisen through these fleshly people. For either they thought in a fleshly way, and made for themselves images of their phantasms, and erred, and the Catholic faith reproved them; and when they were rebuked, they were thrust out by their own weight. Or, finding for themselves quarrels and feuds with people, they divided themselves off. Who, then, divided themselves off, but those to whom belongs that sword of which it was said, You shall live by your sword (Gen 27:40)? Not that the sword is not taken in a good sense. For just as those things above were said, that is, as that stone is taken both for firmness on account of Christ, and for reproach on account of the fool; as Christ is called a lion for one reason, and the devil is called a lion for another: so the sword is taken sometimes in a good sense, sometimes in a bad. But here, not without cause, it was not given to Jacob but given to Esau, unless something of mystery is signified in the bad sense. As that servitude too is not foreign to the mystery; that is, what was said, You shall serve your brother (Gen 27:40), for this too was said in a great mystery.

34. Therefore, brothers, those who divide themselves off, they have the sword of division, and they die by their sword, and they live by their sword. But because the Lord had spoken the truth, Whoever strikes with the sword shall die by the sword (Matt 26:52), look at those, my brothers, who have cut themselves off from unity, in which they were cut off in vain. You know how many parts the party of Donatus has made, and I do not think it is hidden from your Holiness that whoever strikes with the sword perishes by the sword. It was said to him, You shall live by your sword (Gen 27:40). So too those who have not departed from the Church, yet are such as they would be if they were outside. For those who love their own honors in the Church are altogether such as those who love their worldly conveniences in the Church. And they too are chaff. But the wind is lacking, and therefore they do not fly off the threshing floor. This is what I say briefly: temptation is lacking, for they would fly off the threshing floor. Then, when the Church has done anything against them, how easily they cut themselves off! How easily they gather a congregation outside, and yet are unwilling to let go of their offices! How they are willing to die for that very office! How they wish to hold the people under them, and not release the people to the unity of Christ! How they wish to make them their own sheep, whom they did not buy with their own blood, and therefore they hold them cheap, because they did not buy them! What need is there to dispute on this longer? Look at them throughout the universal Church, see such people, both those who are within, and those who, finding an occasion, have flown off the threshing floor and wish to drag the grains with them. But the true and full grains tolerate the chaff and remain on the threshing floor until the end, until the last winnower comes: as Jacob with the goatskins tolerated the sins of others, and deserved to receive the father's blessing.

35. But why did Isaac bless when importuned (Gen 27:38)? For now of necessity, now constrained, his father said to him, Behold, from the richness of the earth shall be your dwelling, and from the dew of heaven (Gen 27:39). And lest you think yourself good on that account: You shall live by your sword, and you shall serve your brother (Gen 27:40). But lest you despair of yourself, because you can correct yourself: But it shall be, when you shall lay aside and loose the yoke from your neck (Gen 27:40). Behold, of the richness of the earth and of the dew of heaven he shall receive. But Isaac, importuned, throws the blessing to him, does not give it. Does it not happen even now in the Church to wicked people who wish to disturb the Church that they are tolerated for the necessity of its very peace, that they are admitted, that they have the sacraments in common? And sometimes it is known that they are wicked, and perhaps they cannot be convicted. That they may be amended and degraded, that they may be excluded, that they may be excommunicated, they cannot be convicted. If someone presses the matter, sometimes it comes to ruptures of the Church. The governor of the Church is constrained, as it were, to say: "Behold, you shall have of the richness of the earth and of the dew of heaven; use the sacraments; you eat judgment for yourself, you drink judgment for yourself: For whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself (1 Cor 11:29). You know that you are admitted out of the necessity of the Church's peace; you have nothing in your heart but disturbances and divisions. Therefore you shall live by your sword. For in that which you receive of the dew of heaven and of the richness of the earth, in that you will not live. For this does not delight you, nor is the Lord sweet to you." For if this delighted you, and the Lord were sweet to you, you would imitate the humility of the Lord, not the pride of the devil. Although, then, he may receive the mystery of the Lord's humility, of the dew of heaven and of the richness of the earth, he nevertheless does not lay aside the pride of the devil—to whom I will do nothing—who always rejoices in seditions and dissensions. Although you have this communion of the dew of heaven and of the richness of the earth, yet you live by your sword, and over seditions and dissensions you either rejoice or are terrified. Change yourself, then, and take the yoke from your neck.

36. These things have been said to you, brothers, few perhaps for the greatness of the mysteries, yet many for the time and for our strength and for yours. And if perhaps this question has not been more thoroughly discussed, there are nevertheless in part great mysteries which, if treated later, are found out. Grant pardon both to the narrowness of the time and to our strength and to your capacity. Do you wish to grasp more? Grow. Do you wish to grow? Live well. For whoever does not wish to live well does not wish to grow. May the holy Lord our God have set out these feasts for you on the birthday of his martyr Vincent. The name is of victory. Love, then, that you may conquer. For persecution is not lacking. The devil is a persecutor; the occasion of a crown is never wanting. Only let the soldier of Christ understand the battle and know whom he conquers. Is it that, because no manifest enemy of the body presses you, no hidden persecutor presses you with the enticements of the flesh? How many evils he suggests, how many through desire, how many through fear! With what enticements he persuades you to go to soothsayers, to astrologers, when your head aches. Those who abandon God and go to diabolical amulets have been conquered by the devil. On the contrary, if it is suggested to someone that he might perhaps work remedies of the devil for the body, by which another is said to have been healed—because, the devil having received his sacrifice from him, he stops persecuting the body since he has obtained the heart—therefore, whoever has these wicked remedies suggested to him and says, "I would rather die than use such remedies; if God wills, he scourges and frees me; if he knows it is necessary, let him free me; but if he knows that I must go out of this life, whether I am saddened or glad, I will follow the will of the Lord; for behold, after a little time, with what face am I to go out to the Lord; for the remedies of the devil do not bestow on me what God bestows, eternal life; why do I damn my soul, and buy a few days for my body?"—whoever says this, and does not go nor apply his heart to work the evil remedies, certainly conquers. I have said one thing by way of example. You see surely now how many things the devil suggests. But where is he? You see someone certainly languishing, you see him panting in his bed, you see him scarcely moving his limbs, scarcely moving his tongue: this weary man conquers the devil. Many have been crowned in the amphitheater fighting against beasts. Many in their beds are crowned, conquering the devil. They seem unable to move, and within in the heart they have such great strength, they wage such a battle! But where the battle is hidden, there the victory is hidden.

37. Why have we said these things, brothers? That when you celebrate the birthdays of the martyrs, you may imitate the martyrs, and not think that the occasions of a crown can be lacking to you because such persecutions are now lacking. For daily persecutions from the devil are not lacking even now, whether through suggestion or through some afflictions of the body. Only know that you have a commander who has already gone ahead into heaven. He has given you a way by which to follow; hold yourself to him. When you have conquered, do not attribute it to yourself through pride, as though you had striven by your own strength. But presume upon him who gave you strength to conquer, because he himself conquered the world. And you will always be crowned and go out from here a martyr, if you overcome all the temptations of the devil.

Sermon 4/A
From a Sermon on the Three Rods
[A Fragment]

[2] But why the Lord first chose the lowborn, the few, the unlearned, and the unrefined, when he had before his eyes a great crowd—fewer indeed in comparison with those poorer ones, but in their own kind many rich, noble, learned, wise men, whom he afterward also gathered in—the Apostle expounds the mystery: God chose the weak things of this world to confound the strong; and God chose the foolish things of this world to confound the wise; and God chose the lowborn things of this world and the things that are not, that is, are not counted, that the things that are might be brought to nothing (1 Cor 1:27-28). For he had come to teach humility and to subdue pride. God had come in humility: in no way would he here first seek the lofty, who had come so humble. First, because he chose to be born of that woman who was betrothed to a carpenter. He did not, then, choose a distinguished lineage, lest in this earth nobility should be proud. He did not even choose to be born in a most distinguished city, but was born in Bethlehem of Judah, which is not even called by the name of a city. To this day the inhabitants of that place call it a village: so small, so slight, almost nothing, were it not ennobled by the former birth of the Lord Christ. He chose, then, the weak, the poor, the unlearned: not because he abandoned the strong, the rich, the wise, the noble; but if he chose these first, they would seem to themselves to be chosen for the merit of their riches, for the merit of their possessions, for the merit of their birth, and, puffed up about these things, they would not receive the salvation of humility, without which no one can return to that life from which we would not have fallen except through pride.

[3] Therefore he did not say "mother," because sometimes mothers are either more delicate, or, loving their children less, when they have given birth, hand them over to others to be nursed. Again, if he had said only, As a nurse cherishing (1 Thess 2:7), and had not added "her own children," he would seem to have received children from another woman who had given birth, to be nursed. He both called himself a "nurse," because he was feeding them, and said "his own children," because he himself had given birth to them, saying, My children, of whom I am again in travail, until Christ be formed in you (Gal 4:19). But he gives birth as the Church gives birth, from her womb, not from her seed.

Sermon 5
On the Wrestling of Jacob with the Angel

1. This rule of discipline is especially necessary for a Christian man, that he hear the word of God while he is in this world, that he attend to him who came to save the world first through mercy and afterward, with discernment, through judgment. And therefore our Lord Jesus Christ offered himself to us as one to be imitated; so that, since we are Christians, we may either imitate him, or imitate others who have imitated him. For there are some of those who are called Christians and are not, whom the Church has partly cast out like dung, as are all heresies and all schisms, which are also compared to unfruitful branches cut off from the vine, and to the chaff which the wind snatches from the threshing floor before the winnowing. But there are others who are wicked within and are contained in the very Catholic communion, whom the good Christian must necessarily tolerate to the end, because the winnowing of this harvest and threshing floor will not be until the day of judgment. These things we have always sung to you, and in the name of Christ we suppose that they cling in your hearts. These readings that are read to you—are they now read to you for the first time, and are they not the same ones repeated daily? But just as the readings of God need to be repeated daily, lest the evils and thorns of the world spring up in your hearts and choke the seed that has been sown there, so the word of God too ought always to be repeated to you, lest, having forgotten, you say that you have not heard what we say we have said.

2. Many approach, and now is the time that in the name of God they should hasten to receive the grace of baptism, believing that all the sins they have previously committed are forgiven them, all of them indeed, and that they go out from it owing nothing to the Lord; just as that servant who was rendering an account to his lord—the lord found that he owed ten thousand talents, yet he departed owing nothing, not because he himself owed nothing, but because the lord was merciful, forgave everything, and released the debtor. And yet, brothers, how vehemently that same servant terrified us! Because he was unwilling to forgive his fellow servant, or to defer the payment of a hundred denarii, his lord laid back on him the ten thousand talents that he had forgiven him. Therefore those who are going to go out from baptism owing nothing and released from all sins, let them beware lest, if anyone sins against them and they are unwilling to forgive him, not only is it thenceforth not forgiven them, but also everything that had been forgiven is laid back upon them. Therefore let no one say, "Who does that, or who has done that?" By saying that to themselves, people die. Love your enemy, says the Lord. And you say, "Who does that?" Because he himself has not done it, he thinks no one could do it. The matter is in the heart. Whence do you see who does it? Do you think that the one who shouts has not forgiven? For perhaps sometimes someone shouts and orders a man to be beaten, and you think he has not forgiven. Why? When you beat your son, do you hold hatred in your heart? Therefore the matter is in the heart. God alone sees whether it has been forgiven. For sometimes someone does not beat, seems to spare with the hand, and rages in the heart and wishes evil to the man within and wants him killed. He holds an evil will against him, although he seems to render him nothing bodily. On the contrary, there are those who seem bodily, as it were, to render evil, but that bodily correction, as it were, is love. He wants the man to come to a good life, and the more he loves him, the more he wants him corrected. So too God. Does he not love us? Does he not exhort us to love our enemies, that we may, as far as we can, be like him? For he said thus: But you, be perfect, as your Father who is in heaven; who makes his sun rise upon the good and the wicked, and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt 5:48, 45). How great, then, is the love in the Lord, when for sinners and the ungodly he sent Christ to be crucified, and redeemed us by the price of his blood, we who were his enemies by loving the things he made over against him who made them! When, therefore, we were doing these things, God sent, as the Apostle says, his Son (Gal 4:4), and handed him over for us, the ungodly, to be killed by other ungodly people. And if so great a gift was given to those not yet faithful, what then is reserved for the faithful? Behold how God loves people. Let us attend, brothers: does he not scourge them? Does he not correct them? If he does not correct them, whence famine, whence sicknesses, whence pestilences and diseases? For all these are corrections of God. If, then, he loves and yet corrects, so you too, if you have someone in your power, although you keep the affection of love, do not nevertheless deny the scourge of correction. For if you deny it, you do not hold love; because that man dies in his sins, who, if perhaps corrected, would abandon them; and a true hatred is the more imputed to you.

3. Therefore let no one say, "Who can do that?" Strive to fulfill these things in your hearts. Hold fast, that you may love. Wrestle, and you will conquer. For there Christ conquers. Against what do you wrestle? Against sin you wrestle, against the words of people speaking evil: "So you do not avenge yourself? So you will remain undefended and not show him? Oh, if he had to deal with me!" Wrestle, and conquer. For if Christ had wished to command the earth, when he suffered so much from the Jews, that it should open and swallow his persecutors, could he not? If, then, he who had the power so endured them until he was lifted up on the cross, and, hanging on the cross, said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34), will you, a servant redeemed by the blood of your crucified Lord, not imitate your Savior? For what need was there for him to suffer so much, who was permitted not to suffer? For he said thus: I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down and will take it again (John 10:18). And so he did. For what happened, brothers? He was hanging on the cross, as we read to the candidates. But when he saw all the Scriptures fulfilled in himself, so that they even gave him vinegar: It is finished, he said, and he bowed his head and gave up the spirit (John 19:30), as though he had stood for this, that it might be fulfilled. When he willed, then, he laid down his life. And therefore he was God, and those men who were crucified beside him. He dies sooner, they later. And when it was ordered that the bodies be taken down from the cross on account of the sabbath, that they might be buried, they found those thieves living and broke their legs; but the Lord already dead. And yet one of them struck his side with a lance, and there flowed out blood and water. Behold your price. For what flowed from the side, but the sacrament which the faithful receive? The Spirit, the blood of the Pasch. The Spirit which he sent forth, and the blood and water which flowed from the side. From that very blood and water the Church is signified as born. And when did the blood and water come out from the side? When Christ was already sleeping on the cross, for Adam too received sleep in Paradise, and so Eve was brought forth from his side. Behold, then, your price. Imitate the humility and the footsteps of your Lord, and do not say, "Who does that?" There is perhaps near you one too who does not do it. But in that crowd, if you do it, it will be reckoned to you as though you find on the threshing floor one grain and chaff without end. With difficulty you find two grains joined together, but among the grains chaff is mixed in. So among those who wish to serve God, there is uproar and a multitude of wicked people surrounding them on every side, because wherever they turn, they find none but evil advisers. Be, then, a grain, and do not be anxious about the chaff. The time will come when it will be separated. Therefore we sang, Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from an unholy nation (Ps 43:1 (42:1)). The Church says this, groaning among sinners. Do you think, brothers, that the Church wishes to be distinguished for this, that it may be separated from the heresies as from branches cut off? It is already separated from them. Does the Church say, Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause, so that it may be set apart from the party of Donatus, or from the Arians, or from the Manichees? It asks to be distinguished only from those who are mixed with it, whom it must tolerate to the end. But it says this: Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause, that is, lest I be judged together with them and perish on the day of judgment. For now it has been said, Let the weeds grow (Matt 13:30), and now the wicked are tolerated by the good, to be separated on the day of judgment.

4. And therefore that Jacob, who was just now read, signifies the Christian people. For he is the younger son; because the Jewish people is Esau. From Jacob indeed the Jewish nation was born, but rather in figure the Jews are understood as Esau, because the elder people was rejected, but the younger people received the primacy. When they were even wrestling in the womb, and the mother suffered distress because her inward parts were being driven about, she said, Why is this so for me? Better for me was barrenness than that I should suffer this (Gen 25:22). It was said to her by the Lord that two peoples were striving in her womb and two nations, and that the elder would serve the younger. What was said when they were in the womb, this was said again in the blessing of Isaac, when he blessed the younger, but thought he was blessing the elder. Isaac bore the person of the Law. The Law seems to be given to the Jews, and the kingdom itself given to the Christians. Attend, for the Law seems to promise the kingdom. To the Jews it says, Therefore shall the kingdom be taken away from you and given to a nation doing justice (Matt 21:43). It shall be taken from Esau and given to Jacob. Esau was born shaggy and hairy, that is, full of sins; sins clung to him. But that the other might receive the primacy, he received the goatskins on his arms, and so the father blessed him, feeling his arms and finding them shaggy. But those hairs and sins were borne by Jacob, they did not cling to Jacob. So too, then, the Church of God bears the sins of others, not its own, tolerating them to the end, just as the Lord Jesus Christ too bore the sins of others. And the father blesses the younger. And how did he bless him? A holy mystery—what kind of men they were! For the Scriptures want sharp eyes. He blessed his younger son, and he seems deceived, as though he had blessed one for another. He comes who had gone to the hunt, bringing what the father had commanded, and says, "Father, eat, as you wished." He says to Isaac, Who are you? And he, I am Esau your elder son. And he says, So you are Esau? But who, then, is it who brought me food and I ate, and I blessed him, and he is blessed? (Gen 27:32-33) O to be angry at the deceiver! O to be angry at the deceitful one! Rather say: Why did he deceive me? Why did he beguile me? Let his brother take away that blessing, and let him be among the wicked. Does not this matter, done in a mystery, cry out that the elder shall serve the younger? Esau too, then, receives such a blessing. But he added, You shall be the servant of your brother (Gen 27:40). When the other said, Are the blessings finished? Bless me also, he said, Since I have made him such, what have I to give you? And he said, Bless me also, father (Gen 27:38). And he extorted it, and received a nearly similar blessing of the dew of heaven and the fertility of the earth with all abundance. And he added at once, And you shall serve your brother. And it shall be so for you, when you shall loose his yoke from your neck (Gen 27:40). What is the meaning of what was said, And it shall be so for you, when you shall loose his yoke from your neck, except that he shows that those whom Esau prefigured are such sinners that they have it in their power and in their free choice to change themselves and be joined to the brother?

5. Attend to the mystery. Behold, the Jew is the servant of the Christian. And this is manifest, and Jacob has filled the whole world, as you see. And that you may know that these things were said of the future, consider the history itself and see that they were not fulfilled in those two men: The elder shall serve the younger (Gen 25:23). For we read that Esau was much enriched and began to reign in all abundance, but that Jacob went to pasture another's sheep. And when he had begun to return and to fear his brother—it was just now read—he sends gifts, I know not how many, of cattle, and sends also a servant to say, Behold the gifts of your brother. He was unwilling to see him before he placated him with gifts, and afterward, the gifts received, he saw him. And when Jacob had come to him, he worshiped him from afar. How, then, The elder shall serve the younger, when the younger seems to worship the elder? But these things were therefore not fulfilled in the history, that they might be understood as said of the future Jacob. The younger son received the primacy, and the elder son, the people of the Jews, lost the primacy. Behold, Jacob has filled the earth, has taken hold of both nations and kingdoms. The Roman emperor, now a Christian, ordered that the Jews should not approach Jerusalem itself. And scattered throughout the world, they have become, as it were, the keepers of our books. As servants, when they go into the auditorium of their masters, carry the codices behind them and sit outside, so the elder son has become to the younger son. For sometimes they raise certain points in the Scriptures, and from the codices of the Jews something is known with certainty. Therefore they were scattered, that they might keep our books for us. The elder, then, serves the younger. For see with how great dignity the Christian people is, and in how great a falling away the people of the Jews is. When perhaps they have dared even slightly to stir against the Christians, you have heard what has befallen them in recent times. Therefore it is now true that the elder shall serve the younger (Gen 25:23). How, then, that blessing, You shall have of the dew of heaven and of the fertility of the earth? As he blessed the younger, so he blessed the elder. But to the elder it was said, And you shall be the servant of your brother. And it shall be so, when you shall loose his yoke from your neck (Gen 27:40). How many are there who have loosed the yoke from their neck and have become our brothers? Attend to how many Jews have believed. And now, if you find a Jew, and evangelize to him the Lord Jesus Christ, and he believes, will he not loose the yoke from his neck? And how many did this in the first times of the faith? Thousands. Indeed those who believed then, as we read, both from servants became brothers and coheirs.

6. Therefore the Church which says, Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from an unholy nation (Ps 43:1 (42:1)), does not wish to be distinguished from Esau, from whom it is already distinguished, but from wicked Christians. For this Jacob, in whom the Christian people is figured—you have heard how he wrestled with the Lord. For the Lord appeared to him, that is, an angel bearing the person of God, and he wrestled with him and wished to hold and seize him. He wrestled, prevailed, and held him. When he held him, he did not let him go unless blessed. May the Lord grant, brothers, to unfold so great a mystery. He wrestles, prevails, and wishes to be blessed by him over whom he prevailed. What, then, is the meaning that he wrestled and wishes to hold him? The Lord says in the Gospel, The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and those who do violence seize it (Matt 11:12). This is what we were saying a while ago: Wrestle, that you may hold Christ, that you may love your enemy. For you hold Christ here, if you have loved your enemy. And what does the Lord himself, that is, the angel in the person of the Lord, say, when he was prevailing and holding him? He touched the breadth of his thigh, and it withered, and therefore Jacob limped. It is said, "Let me go, for it is now morning." And he, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." And he blessed him. How? By changing his name: "You shall not be called Jacob, but Israel: because you have prevailed with God, you shall prevail also with men." This is the blessing. See one man: in part he is touched and withers, and in part he is blessed. The very same one man in part withered and limps, and in part is blessed that he may flourish.

7. But what is the meaning—as much as the Lord suggests we say, without prejudice to a better understanding—what is, Behold, morning has now come, let me go? This is what the Lord says after the passion to the woman who wished to hold his feet, Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father (John 20:17). What is this? For when that very reading was read, I treated of it once, how it was said, Do not touch me, I have not yet ascended to the Father. Why? Did no one touch him bodily, unless he had ascended to the Father? He was still here, the disciple who did not believe felt his scars. How, then, was he unwilling to be touched, except that this was said figuratively? That woman was the Church. And this is it: Do not touch me, do not touch me in a fleshly way, but as I am equal to the Father. But as long as you do not understand me as equal to the Father, do not touch me, because you touch not me, but my flesh. For Paul says, in the elevation of his progress, And if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer. And, The old things have passed away, behold they have become new; but all things are from God (2 Cor 5:16-18). What is, And if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer? Because when we knew him in a fleshly way, we thought him only to be a man. But truly after his grace shone upon us, we understood the Word equal to the Father. He was holding, then, and wrestling, as though wishing to embrace Jacob in his fleshly garb. But he was saying, Let me go, in a fleshly way, for behold, it is now morning, that you may be spiritually enlightened: that is, Do not think me a man. Let me go, for it is now morning. In the morning, in the light of truth and of wisdom through which all things were made, we understood. You will enjoy it fully when this night has passed, that is, the iniquity of this world. For then morning comes, when the Lord shall come, that he may be seen by us as he is seen by the angels. Because now we see through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face (1 Cor 13:12). Let us hold, then, brothers, what was said, Let me go. Behold, it is now morning. But what did the other say? I will not let you go unless you bless me. Because through the flesh the Lord first blesses us. The faithful know what they receive, because they are blessed through the flesh. And they know that they would not be blessed unless that flesh, crucified, were given for the life of the world. But how is he blessed? Because he prevailed with God, because he held firmly and persevered and did not lose from his hands what Adam lost. Let us therefore, the faithful, hold what we receive, that we may deserve to be blessed.

8. The withered part of Jacob signifies wicked Christians, so that in Jacob himself there is both blessing and limping. He is blessed in respect of those living well, he limps in respect of those living badly. But still in one man there is both. There will be a separation and distinction afterward. This the Church desires in the psalm, saying, Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from an unholy nation (Ps 43:1 (42:1)). Just so indeed, because the Gospel says, If your foot scandalizes you, cut it off and cast it from you. For it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God having one foot, than with two feet to go into the eternal fire (Mark 9:45). These wicked ones, then, are cut off in the end. Now the Church is lame. It sets one foot firmly, the other it has weak. Attend to the pagans, brothers. They sometimes find good Christians serving God, and they marvel and are drawn and believe. Sometimes they attend to those living badly, and they say, "Behold the Christians." But these who live badly belong to the breadth of Jacob's thigh that was touched, which withered. But the touch of the Lord's hand is the Lord's hand correcting and giving life. Therefore in part he is blessed, and in part he withers. And the Lord shows these who live badly in the Church, because thence comes what is written in the Gospel, that when the blade had grown the weeds appeared; because when people have begun to make progress, then they begin to perceive the wicked. These things are known to you; by the gift of God it comes about that they are recognized. But for now the weeds are to be tolerated until the end of the harvest, lest perhaps in rooting up the weeds the wheat too be rooted up at the same time. But the time will come when the Church shall be heard saying, Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from an unholy nation (Ps 43:1 (42:1)), when the Lord shall come in his glory with his holy angels, and all nations shall be gathered before him, and he shall separate them, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and the just shall be placed on the right, but the goats on the left. And to those it shall be said, Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom; but to those, Go into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:31-34, 41).

Sermon 6
On the Fact That the Lord Appeared to Moses
In the Burning Bush

1. When the holy readings were being read, we turned our attention to those things written in the first reading that was recited to us, and we take care to share briefly with your Holiness the things the Lord suggests, lest, receiving the divine mysteries in a fleshly way, you should not only fail to profit but even fail. For there first occurs to our gaze, from that divine reading, that God appeared to Moses. But God deigns to appear through his substance as he is only to pure hearts. For so it is written in the Gospel, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). But to the bodily eyes of the saints, whenever God wished to appear, he appeared not through himself but through a visible and sensible creature, as far as it can be perceived by this flesh, either through a sounding voice, that is, to the ears, or through fire to the eyes, or through an angel appearing in some visible form, but bearing the person of God. So let us understand, brothers, that God appeared to Moses. For that majesty which made heaven and earth, which rules the whole world, to which the angels always cling, contemplating its beauty with pure minds, could not appear to the mortal eyes of a man unless a visible and sensible creature was assumed, which pertains to these visible eyes of the body, since even the Wisdom of God himself, through whom all things were made, would not appear to human eyes unless he assumed mortal flesh.

2. Just as, then, the Word of God, that is, the Son of God, assumed flesh that he might appear to the eyes, so God always, that he might appear to the eyes of people, deigned to appear in some visible creature. For most plainly you have in the Acts of the Apostles that an angel appeared to Moses in the bush. Is this Scripture true, and that one false? Or that one false and this one true? But what? If we are Christians, if we believe well, both are true. If, then, both are true, how did God appear here, how is an angel said to have appeared there, except that that Spirit, who, acting in the Acts of the Apostles, said that an angel appeared, expounded this reading of how God appeared? That declaration is the exposition of this obscurity. Lest you understand that God appeared through himself, there it was expounded to you how God appeared through an angelic creature. But why do you wonder that it is said, when an angel appears, God said, and, God called Moses, and he approached the place, and, The Lord said to Moses? Because it is not the temple, the angel, that is regarded, but the indweller of the angel. For the angel himself was the temple of God. For if he deigns to dwell and speak in a man, so that when a prophet speaks it is said, "God said," how much more through an angel? And when it is said, "God said through Isaiah," what was Isaiah? Was he not a man bearing flesh, born of father and mother as all of us? And yet he speaks, and what do we say of his utterances? "Thus says God." How, then, God, if Isaiah, except that it is God through Isaiah? So here too, the angel speaking, God is said to speak. Why, except that it is God through the angel?

3. Attend therefore, the question resolved, also to that as a sign of which it seems to have been done, that he appeared in a bush, and the bush was not consumed, was not set on fire, and appeared as fire, and did not burn the bush. Do we think the bush signifies something good, since they are thorns? Thorns signify sinners. Therefore the bush signified the people of the Jews full of thorns, full of sins. And although the great majesty of God appeared there in the people, the sins were not consumed, just as by this fire the thorns were not burned up. For if the fire had consumed the thorns, it would signify that the word of the Lord that was spoken to the Jews had consumed their sins, and that that Law put an end to their iniquities. The fire is in the bush as the Law is in the Jews; the thorns of the bush are as the sins of the Jews; the fire here did not burn the thorns, as the Law there did not consume the sins.

4. But God speaks to Moses (you already know these things, and we ought not to hold you longer, on account of the narrowness of the time): I am who am; He who is has sent me (Exod 3:14). For when he asked the name of God, this was said: I am who am. And you shall say to the sons of Israel, He who is has sent me to you (Exod 3:14). What is this? O God, O our Lord, what are you called? "I am called Is," he said. What is, "I am called Is"? Because I abide forever, because I cannot be changed. For those things that are changed are not, because they do not abide. For what is, abides. But what is changed, was something and will be something; yet it is not, because it is changeable. Therefore the unchangeableness of God deigned to intimate itself by this name, I am who am.

5. What, then, is it that afterward he again told himself another name, when it was said, And the Lord said to Moses, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this is my name forever (Exod 3:15)? How is it there, I am called this because I am, and behold here another name, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? Because, just as God is unchangeable, he made all things through mercy and the Son of God himself deigned, by taking up changeable flesh, while remaining what the Word of God is, to come and to come to the aid of man. He clothed himself, then, in mortal flesh, he who is, that it might be said, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

6. Then attend now to the signs, the signs that God gave to Moses. When he said, If the people say to me, God did not send you, by what signs shall I show that you have sent me? it was said, Cast down the rod that you have in your hand. He cast down the rod and it became a serpent, and Moses shuddered. The Lord said again: Take hold of its tail. And it became a rod as it was (Exod 4:1-4). He gave another sign also: Put your hand into your bosom. And he put his hand in. Bring it out. He brought it out, and it became white as snow, that is, leprous (Exod 4:6). For a white color in human skin is diseased. Put it again into your bosom (Exod 4:7). He put it in, and it received its color. He gave him a third sign: Take water from the river, and pour it on level ground (Exod 4:9). He took it, poured it out, and it was turned into blood. By these signs the people will hear you. If they do not hear you at the first, they will hear at the second or the third (Exod 4:8-9).

7. Let us strive, as far as the Lord helps, to declare the things they signify. The rod signifies the kingdom, the serpent mortality. For from the serpent death was administered to man. That very death the Lord deigned to assume. The rod, then, coming to the earth, had the appearance of a serpent, because the kingdom of God, which is Christ Jesus, came to the earth. He was clothed with mortality, which he also fastened to the cross. Now your Holiness knows that, when that people in the wilderness, stiff-necked and proud, murmured against God, it began to be bitten by serpents and to fall by those very bites. In mercy God gave a remedy, which remedy indeed brought present health, but proclaimed future wisdom. He said to Moses, Hang up a bronze serpent in the middle of the wilderness on wood, and say to the people: Whoever has been struck, let him gaze upon this serpent. And the people who were struck gazed upon the serpent and were healed (Num 21:8-9). And the Lord attests in the Gospel by such a sign. For when he was speaking with Nicodemus, he said, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:14-15). That is, whoever has been struck by the serpents of sins, let him gaze upon Christ, and he will have health unto the remission of sins. Therefore, brothers, it is mortality itself which was assumed by the Lord, which his body the Church must necessarily have, whose head is the man in heaven. So the Church has mortality, which was inflicted through the persuasion of the serpent. For we owe death to the sin of the first man, but afterward we shall come to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. But when does he come to life and return to the kingdom? At the end of the world. For he therefore held the tail, where the end is, that he might recall it to its former state.

8. What of that hand? It is certain that that hand too signifies the people, the bosom the people. What is the bosom of Moses? The secret of God. When the man was in the secret of God, he was sound and of good color. He went out from the secret of God, Adam departed from paradise, God being offended, and he became diseased. That hand, then, became white; but it returned to the bosom, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and received its color. But what of that water? That water signifies wisdom. For often water is set as a likeness of wisdom, and it was said, It shall become in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life (John 4:14). But that water, wisdom, which on the earth was made blood, does it not show us the Word made flesh and dwelling in us? Certainly it shows it. All things, then, are signs and mysteries of the future people, concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. And if there are any other sacraments in the old Books, whether we understand them or do not understand them, they want one who seeks, not one who reproves. Let us ask, then, let us seek, and let us knock, that it may be opened to us. To them future sacraments were foretold; we see the present ones in the Church.

Sermon 7
On the Bush in Which There Was a Flame
And the Bush Was Not Consumed
A Sermon Delivered
During the Lenten Fast

1. When the divine reading was read, the great miracle that had made Moses, the servant of God, most attentive, we too awaited in our hearts, and we ourselves became attentive to how the fire appeared in the bush and the bush was not burned. Then we noted that holy Scripture first said that an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in the bush. Then Moses was speaking not as though with an angel, but as though with the Lord. Third, we noted that, when Moses asked the name of God, that he might have what to say to the sons of Israel when they asked what was the name of the God who had sent him to them, he answered, I am who am. And, commending this not in passing but by repetition, he added, saying, This you shall say to the sons of Israel: He who is has sent me to you (Exod 3:14). Finally, having now declared his name, he still added and said, This you shall say to them: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever (Exod 3:15). Of these things, what the Lord grants, hear. They are indeed great and like volumes of the mysteries of God, which, if we should try to unroll fittingly and sufficiently, neither strength nor time would suffice.

2. What, then, we can say briefly, was not in vain, not idly, not without the signification of some secret. There was a flame in the bush, and the bush was not burned. For the bush is a certain kind of thorn, nor could anything be set to its praise which the earth brought forth for the sinner. For at the first it was said to sinning man, The earth shall bring forth for you thorns and thistles (Gen 3:18). Nor ought we to think that the very fact that the bush was not burned, that is, was not caught by the flame, is something good. For if the flame signifies something good, in which an angel appeared or the Lord—whence also, when the Holy Spirit came, there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire—we ought to be caught by this fire, and not, on account of hardness, to be unburned. The bush that was not burned signified the people who resisted God. The bush, then, to which Moses was sent, signified the thorny people of the Jews. And therefore the bush was not burned, because the hardness of the Jews, as I said, resisted the law of God. For if that thorny people were not signified, Christ would not have been crowned with thorns by it.

3. But that the same one who was speaking to Moses is called both an angel of the Lord and the Lord, is a great question, and ought not to have a rash affirmer, but a cautious inquirer. There are two opinions that can be put forward on this, of which, whichever be true, both are according to the faith. When I said which of them is true, I said this: which of them he meant who wrote it. For when we, inquiring into the Scriptures, perceive something that the writer perhaps did not mean, we nevertheless ought not to perceive what would shrink from the rule of faith, from the rule of truth, from the rule of piety. So I propose both opinions. There may perhaps be even a third that escapes me. But of these two proposed, choose whichever you wish. Some say that he was called both the angel of the Lord and the Lord, because he was Christ, of whom the Prophet plainly says that he is the angel of great counsel (Isa 9:6). For "angel" is a name of office, not of nature. For he is called in Greek "angel" who in Latin is called "messenger." "Messenger," then, is a name of action: by acting, that is, by announcing something, he is called a messenger. Who would deny that Christ announced to us the kingdom of heaven? Then an angel, that is, a messenger, is sent by him who through him announces something. And who would deny that Christ was sent? He who so often says, I came not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me (John 6:38), is himself properly sent. For that pool of Siloam too is interpreted Sent (John 9:7). Therefore he whose eyes he anointed with clay, he ordered to wash his face there. For no one's eye is opened, except his who is cleansed by Christ. Therefore the same is angel, the same is Lord.

4. But here something else occurs to be guarded against. For there are not lacking heretics who say that the natures of the Father and the Son differ and are discordant, and that they are not of one and the same substance. But the Catholic faith believes that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, a Trinity of one substance, inseparably, equally, not confused by mixture, not separated by distinction. Those, then, who labor to persuade people that the Son is not of the same substance of which the Father is, argue from this, that the Son was seen by the fathers. "The Father," they say, "was not seen; but the invisible and the visible are a different nature. And therefore," they say, "of the Father it was said, Whom no man has seen, nor can see (1 Tim 6:16); so that he who was seen not only by Moses but also by Abraham, not only by Abraham but also by Adam himself and the other fathers, is believed or understood to be not God the Father, but rather the Son, a creature." The Catholic faith does not say this. But what does it say? God the Father, God the Son; the Father unchangeable, the Son unchangeable; the Father eternal, the Son coeternal; the Father invisible, the Son invisible. For if you say the Father is invisible, the Son visible, you have distinguished, rather indeed separated, the substances. How have you found grace, you who have lost faith? This question, then, is resolved thus: God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is by his proper nature invisible. But he appeared when he willed, to whom he willed. Not as he is, but as he willed, he whom all things serve. For if your soul, since it is invisible in your body, in order to appear utters a voice, and the voice in which your soul appears when you speak is not the substance of your soul—the one is one thing, the voice is another, and yet it appears even in a thing which it itself is not—so too God, if he appeared in fire, is not fire; if he appeared in smoke, is not smoke; if he appeared in sound, is not sound. These are not God, but they indicate God. This being held, we securely believe that he who appeared to Moses could be called both the Son and the Lord and the angel of the Lord.

5. But those who think that he was truly an angel of the Lord, not Christ but an angel sent, an account must be demanded of them why he was called the Lord. For just as from those who say that he was Christ an account is demanded why he was called an angel, so from those who say he was an angel an account is demanded why he was called the Lord. But those who say he was Christ—I have already mentioned how they get out of it, why he was called an angel; because the Prophet plainly called the Lord Christ the angel of great counsel. Those, then, who say he was an angel, must answer why he was called the Lord. And they too answer: Just as in the Scriptures the Prophet speaks and it is said that the Lord speaks, not because the Lord is the prophet, but because the Lord is in the prophet, so too when the Lord deigns to speak through an angel, as through an Apostle, as through a Prophet, rightly he is called both an angel on account of himself and the Lord on account of the indwelling God. For certainly Paul was a man and Christ was God, and yet the Apostle himself says, Do you wish to receive a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ? (2 Cor 13:3). The Prophet too said, I will hear what the Lord God speaks in me (Ps 85:8 (84:9)). He who speaks in a man, speaks also in an angel. Therefore the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses, and it is said to him, Lord, and he says, I am who am. It is the voice of the indweller, not of the temple.

6. For if he was Christ on the ground that, though called an angel, he was one, what shall we do when three appeared to Abraham? What do we say here? Three appeared, and Abraham, as though speaking to one, says, Lord (Gen 18:3). What do we say? Why three? Was it the Trinity itself? Why, then, Lord? Because the Trinity is one Lord, not three Lords, and the Trinity is one God, not three gods; one substance, three persons. For the Father is not the Son, nor is the Son the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit either the Father or the Son. But the Father is none but the Son's; the Son is none but the Father's; the Spirit is both the Father's and the Son's. Although in those three some say that one there was preeminent, whom Abraham called Lord, when he had appeared with two, as Christ with his angels. But what do we make of it, that when two were sent to Sodom, appearing to Lot, Abraham's brother, he too recognizes the divinity in them, and, though he sees two, calls them Lord? The one calls Lord in three, the other calls Lord in two. Let us not, then, separate the Trinity and make a duality in Sodom; I think we better understand that our fathers recognized the Lord in the angels, understood the indweller in his dwelling, and gave glory not to those bearing him but to the one seated within. This opinion is confirmed not only by the Epistle written to the Hebrews, where it is said, For if the word spoken through angels was made firm (Heb 2:2) (for he was speaking of the Old Testament, he commended that there angels spoke but God was honored in his angels, and through the angels the inner indweller was heard), but also in the Acts of the Apostles Stephen says, arguing and rebuking the Jews, Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears—stiff-necked, the thorns not burned—you have always resisted the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51). Therefore the bush was not burned, because the Spirit of the flame was resisted by the thorns of sins. You have always resisted the Holy Spirit. Which of the Prophets did your fathers not kill? (Acts 7:51-52). And whence it follows, You who received the law by the edicts of angels and did not keep it (Acts 7:53). If he said "angels" and not of angels, there would not be lacking those who would say, "It is Christ," because he is called the angel of great counsel. Christ an angel—but is Christ angels? The apostle Paul too says that the seed of Abraham was dispensed from the Old Testament to the New. And how was it dispensed? Ordained, he says, through angels by the hand of a Mediator (Gal 3:19).

7. Now then, an angel, and in the angel the Lord, said to Moses asking his name, I am who am. This you shall say to the sons of Israel: He who is has sent me to you (Exod 3:14). "To be" is a name of unchangeableness. For all things that are changed cease to be what they were and begin to be what they were not. To be, is. True being, sincere being, genuine being, none has but he who is not changed. He has true being to whom it is said, You shall change them and they shall be changed, but you are the same (Ps 102:26-27 (101:27-28)). What is, I am who am, except, I am eternal? What is, I am who am, except, I am he who cannot be changed? No creature, not heaven, not earth, not Angel, not Virtue, not Throne, not Dominions, not Powers. Since, then, this is the name of eternity, it is more that he deigned to have the name of mercy: I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Exod 3:15). That in himself, this toward us. For if he willed to be only what he is in himself, what would we be? If Moses understood—rather, because Moses understood, when it was said to him, I am who am; he who is has sent me to you—he believed this to be much for men, he saw this to be much distant from men. For whoever has worthily understood this which is and truly is, and has been breathed upon by some light of the truest essence, even briefly as by a flash, sees himself far beneath, far most remote, far most unlike, as he says, I said in my ecstasy (Ps 31:22 (30:23)). For with his mind taken up he saw something—I know not what—that was more toward him. And this was what was true. I said, he says, in my ecstasy. What? I am cast away from before your eyes (Ps 31:22 (30:23)). Since, then, Moses saw himself far unequal to that which was said, not that which was seen, and as it were less capable, whence, inflamed with that very desire of seeing what is, he said to the God with whom he spoke, Show me yourself (Exod 33:13). As though, then, far unlike that excellence of essence, he despaired, God raises him in his despair, since he saw him afraid, as though saying: Since I said, I am who am, and, He who is has sent me, you understood what it is to be, and you despaired of grasping it. Raise your hope: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and of Jacob. I am so what I am, I am so being itself, that I would not fail men. If in any way we can seek God and search out him who is, and indeed not placed far from each one of us: For in him we live and move and are (Acts 17:27-28); let us therefore praise his essence ineffably and love his mercy.

Sermon 8
A Sermon on the Ten Plagues of the Egyptians
And the Ten Commandments of the Law
Delivered at Carthage at the Table of Saint Cyprian

1. To the Lord our God, whose worshipers we are, it was said in praise in a certain place of the Scriptures, You have arranged all things in measure and number and weight (Wis 11:20). Then by the apostolic teaching we are taught to behold the invisible things of God understood through the things that are made, and to search out the things that are hidden through the things that are manifest. Whence creation, questioned in a certain way everywhere, answers, by a kind of voice of its own form, that it has the Lord God as its maker. Then the Apostle recalls that the things written in the books which are called the Old Testament happened in figure: And they were written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Cor 10:11). Accordingly, dearly beloved, if the things that seem to come about, as it were by chance, in the nature of things, when carefully examined and discussed and prudently traced out and discovered, intimate the praise of the Creator, and the divine providence diffused through all things and arranging, as it was said, sweetly all things since it reaches mightily from end to end—how much more the things that are recited as not only done but also commended in the divine writings? Whence we have undertaken, in the name of our Lord, with his help and gift, the question, or rather the inquiry and disputation, proposed to us by the brothers—what it means that the Egyptians are struck with ten plagues and the people of God is instructed with ten commandments—to unfold as far as we can, with the pious intent of your heart striving along with us. Those who proposed it know what they proposed, that is, they know that they proposed it, and they recall that I did not rashly bring this forth to you. But whoever of you did not propose it, hear alike what we can say, that the proposal of the brothers may be the care of all, and what is expounded of our ministry may be the nourishment of all. For we trust that he himself will help, if not for our sake, certainly for yours, that we may say the things that both ought to be said and are useful to hear, so that, walking together in the way of his truth and hastening together to our homeland, we may deserve, by recognizing the will of the law of God, to avoid the enemies and ambushers of our journey.

2. There are ten plagues with which the people of Pharaoh was struck. There are ten commandments with which the people of God was instructed. Let us see, brothers, since things done bodily are to be understood spiritually. For we do not think they were only said and written, not done, but we believe they were done as we read they were done, and yet we know by apostolic teaching that those very deeds were shadows of things to come. We think, then, that the things that were done are to be investigated spiritually, yet we cannot deny that they were done. Let no one, then, say, "It is written indeed that water was turned into blood in the plague of the Egyptians, but it signifies something, for it could not really have happened." Whoever says this seeks the will of God in such a way as to do injury to the power of God. For what? If by saying it he could signify, could he not also by doing? Or was not Isaac, or Ishmael, born? They were born, they were men, and they were born of Abraham, one of the slave woman, the other of the free. Although, then, they were men, although they were born, they nevertheless figured the two Testaments, the Old and the New. Thus, the firmness of the deeds being first set in the foundation, we ought to inquire into the things signified, lest, the foundation removed, we seem to wish to build in the air. I think, then, that all who despise the ten commandments of the law and do not observe them suffer spiritually the things that the Egyptians suffered bodily. This proposal, until I unfold it with the Lord's help, I want you to be attentive and praying for us, that we may say things useful to you. For what pertains to us, we perhaps consider; but what we speak, we serve to you.

3. Receive this first, then, lest you be deceived in the number: that to those ten plagues does not pertain what was done first by way of a sign, that the rod was turned into a serpent. For that was the approach itself to Pharaoh, by which Moses was commended as one about to lead the people of God out of Egypt. The obstinate were not yet being struck, but they were already being terrified by a divine sign. Nor is it now needful, nor is it proposed, to say anything about that rod turned into a serpent. Nevertheless, because we have made mention of it out of necessity, lest anyone err in the number, nor ought there to remain in the mind of any hearer a scruple, as of a matter not understood, we say briefly that the rod signifies the kingdom of God, and that the same kingdom is certainly the people of God; but the serpent signifies the time of this mortality: for death was administered by the serpent. As though, then, falling from the hand of the Lord to the earth, they were made mortal. Whence the rod, cast down from the hand of Moses, was made a serpent. The magicians of Pharaoh did likewise: their rods being cast down, they were made serpents. But first the serpent of Moses, that is, the rod of Moses, devoured all the serpents of the magicians. Then at last, the tail being grasped, it again became a rod, and the kingdom returned to the hand. For the rods of the magicians are the peoples of the ungodly. Yet these peoples of the ungodly, conquered in the name of Christ, when they are transferred into his body, are as it were devoured by the serpent of Moses, until we return the kingdom of God to the hand of God, but at the end of the mortal world, which the tail of the serpent signifies. A great sign: so be it, so be it. You have heard what you ought to desire; hear what you ought to avoid.

4. The first commandment in the law is about worshiping one God: You shall not have, he says, other gods besides me (Exod 20:3). The first plague of the Egyptians, water turned into blood. Compare the first commandment to the first plague. The one God, from whom are all things, understand by the likeness of water, from which all things are generated. But to what does blood pertain, except to mortal flesh? What, then, is the turning of water into blood, except that their foolish heart was darkened? For saying that they were wise, they became fools; and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man (Rom 1:21-23)—the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds and four-footed beasts and serpents. The glory of the incorruptible God, from whom are all things, is like water; the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed beasts and serpents is like blood. And this indeed happens in the heart of the ungodly, for God remains unchangeable: for not because the Apostle too said, They changed, was God therefore changed.

5. The second commandment: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for whoever takes the name of the Lord his God in vain shall not be cleansed (Exod 20:7). The name of the Lord our God, Jesus Christ, is truth: for he himself said, I am the truth (John 14:6). Truth, then, cleanses, vanity defiles. And since whoever speaks truth speaks of God's—for whoever speaks a lie speaks of his own—to speak truth is to speak rationally; but to speak vanity is to make noise rather than to speak. Rightly, because the second commandment is the love of truth, to which the love of vanity is contrary. Truth speaks, vanity makes a clamor. See, contrary to this second commandment, the second plague. What is that second plague? An abundance of frogs. You have vanity fittingly signified, if you attend to the loquacity of frogs. See the lovers of truth, not taking the name of the Lord their God in vain, speaking wisdom among the perfect, even among the imperfect: not indeed speaking what they cannot grasp, yet not withdrawing from truth and proceeding into vanity. For although the imperfect cannot grasp it, if anything somewhat loftier is discussed about the Word of God, God with God, through whom all things were made, and they can grasp what Paul speaks among them as among little ones in Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus, and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2, 6; 3:1)—yet that is not truth, and this vanity. But it would be vanity if we said that Christ did not undergo death but feigned it, that those wounds were in phantasm, that not true but simulated blood flowed from the wounds, that he showed false scars as though after false wounds. But when we say all these things are true, say they were done, believe and proclaim them certain, expressed, fulfilled, although we do not speak of his sublime and unchangeable truth, yet we do not go into vanity. But those who say that all those things in Christ were false and simulated are frogs croaking in the muddy marsh. They can have the noise of a voice, they cannot instill the teaching of wisdom. Finally, in the Church those clinging to truth speak the truth through which all things were made: the truth, the Word made flesh and dwelling in us; the truth, Christ born of God, one from one, only-begotten and coeternal; the truth, having taken the form of a servant, born of the Virgin Mary, having suffered, been crucified, risen, ascended; everywhere truth, both what the little one can grasp and what the little one cannot grasp; truth both in bread and in milk, in the bread of the great, in the milk of the little. For the same bread, that it may become milk, is passed through the flesh. But those who contradict this truth and, deceived in their own vanity, deceive others, are frogs bringing weariness to the ears, not food to the minds. Hear, finally, people speaking rationally: There are no speeches nor words whose voices are not heard—but voices not empty, because their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the earth (Ps 19:3-4 (18:4-5)). But if you wish to understand the frogs too by contrast, recall that verse of the psalm: Each one has spoken vain things to his neighbor (Ps 12:2 (11:3)).

6. The third commandment: Remember to sanctify the sabbath day (Exod 20:8). In this third commandment is intimated a certain proclamation of rest, a quiet of heart, a tranquility of mind, which a good conscience makes. There is sanctification, because there is the Spirit of God. Finally, see the rest, that is, the quiet: Upon whom, he says, does my Spirit rest? Upon the humble and quiet and one who trembles at my words (Isa 66:2). The restless, then, recoil from the Holy Spirit—lovers of quarrels, sowers of slanders, more desirous of contention than of truth—by their restlessness they do not admit to themselves the rest of the spiritual sabbath. Against the restlessness of these it is said, as if that they may have a sabbath in their heart, the sanctification of the Spirit of God: Be gentle to hear the word, that you may understand (Sir 5:11). What am I to understand? God saying: "Cease from your restlessness; let there be no tumult in your heart through the corruption of fluttering phantasms that prick you; let it not be so." For you are to understand God saying to you, Be still and see that I am God (Ps 46:10 (45:11)). But you through restlessness are unwilling to be still, and, blinded by the corruption of your contentions, you demand to see what you cannot. For attend to the third plague contrary to this third commandment: gnats were born in the land of Egypt from the mud. They are certain tiniest, most restless flies, flying about in disorder, rushing into the eyes, not allowing a person to rest, who, when they go away, rush in, and when driven off, return again, just like the wholly vain phantasms of the heart of the contentious. Hold the commandment, beware the plague.

7. The fourth commandment is: Honor your father and your mother (Exod 20:12). Contrary to this is the fourth plague of the Egyptians. The dog-fly is the canine fly: it is a Greek word. It is canine not to recognize one's parents; nothing is so canine as when those who begat one are not recognized. Rightly, then, even the whelps of dogs are born blind.

8. The fifth commandment is: You shall not commit adultery; the fifth plague is death among the cattle of the Egyptians. Let us compare. Take a man committing adultery, not content with his own marriage. He is unwilling to tame in himself a certain appetite of the flesh, which is common to us and to the cattle. For to lie together and to beget belongs also to the cattle; to reason, to understand, belongs to men. Therefore reason, which presides in the mind, ought, as reigning and ruling, to bridle the motions of the lower flesh, not to loosen them immoderately and unlawfully, here and there and at random. And therefore to the cattle themselves it was given by nature, the Creator so ordaining, that they should not be moved toward the females and toward mating except at certain times. For the beast does not restrain itself at another time by reason, but altogether grows torpid, that very motion growing cold. But man can always be moved, because he can also bridle the motion. To you the Creator gave the dominion of reason. To you he granted the commandments of continence, as it were reins over the lower beasts. You hold what the beast cannot, and therefore you hope for what the beast cannot. You labor somewhat in containing yourself, the beast does not labor. But you will rejoice always in eternity, which the beast does not reach. If the work wearies, let the reward rouse you. For this too is patience, to bridle the inward motion, and not, like a beast, to loosen into all things what you have in common with the beast. But if you despise yourself in yourself, and neglect the image of God in which he made you, conquered by the desire of the beasts, you will be, as it were, a beast, the man being lost; not as though turned into the nature of a beast, but having in the form of a man the likeness of a beast, you who do not hear him saying, Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding (Ps 32:9 (31:9)). And do you perhaps choose to be a beast for yourself and to roam in free lust, restraining the appetite of the flesh to continence by no law? Attend to the plague. If you do not fear to be a beast, at least fear to die like a beast.

9. The sixth commandment: You shall not kill. The sixth plague, boils on the body, and blisters boiling and swarming, and burnings of sores from the ash of the furnace. Such are murderous souls. They burn with anger, because through anger the fellowship of brotherhood has perished. People burn with wrath, they burn also with grace. But one is the heat of health, another the heat of an ulcer. Pustules burning throughout the whole body are murders conceived. It swarms, and it is not healthy. It burns, but not with the Spirit of God. For both he who wishes to help burns, and he who wishes to kill burns; the one by a commandment, the other by a disease; the one with good works, the other with festering ulcers. If we could see the souls of murderers, we would lament more than the rotting bodies of the ulcerous.

10. There follows the seventh commandment: You shall not steal, and the seventh plague: hail upon the crops. What you steal away contrary to the commandment, you lose from heaven. For no one has unjust gain without just loss. For example, he who steals acquires a garment, but by the heavenly judgment loses faith. Where there is gain, there is loss; visibly gain, invisibly loss; gain from his own blindness, loss from the cloud of the Lord. For nothing is without providence, dearly beloved. Or do you truly think that the things people suffer they suffer while God sleeps? These things seem to happen at random, clouds to gather, rains to pour, hail to be cast, the earth to be shaken by thunder, to be terrified by lightning. They are thought to happen at random and, as it were, not to pertain to divine providence. Against such thoughts that psalm keeps watch: Praise the Lord from the earth—when praises had been spoken from heaven—dragons and all deeps, fire, hail, snow, ice, the stormy wind, which do his word (Ps 148:7-8). Therefore those who by their own evil desire steal outwardly are hailed upon inwardly by the judgment of God. Oh, if they could look into the field of their heart! Surely they would mourn, since they would not find there what to put into the mouth of the mind, even if in their theft they found what to swallow with the greed of the gullet. Greater is the hunger of the inner man, greater is the hunger and more dangerous the plague and heavier the death. Many walk about dead, and many, hungry, exult over vain riches. Finally, Scripture calls the servant of God rich within: The hidden man of your heart, it says, who is rich before God (1 Pet 3:4). Not rich before men, but rich before God; where God sees, there he is rich. What, then, does it profit you, if where man does not see you steal, and where God sees you are hailed upon?

11. The eighth commandment: You shall not bear false witness (Exod 20:16). The eighth plague: the locust, an animal harmful with its tooth. But what does a false witness want, except to harm by biting and to consume by lying? Finally, the Apostle, admonishing the people of God not to assail one another with false accusations, If you bite, he says, and devour one another, see that you are not consumed by one another (Gal 5:15).

12. The ninth commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife (Exod 20:17). The ninth plague: dense darkness. For there is a certain adultery, against which a commandment was given above also, in not desiring the chastity of another's wife. For he too is an adulterer who does not go to another's wife only because he is not content with his own. But now, not only to sin after his own wife but even to attempt another's, is truly dense darkness. For nothing so pains the heart of the one who suffers it. And he who does this to another would by no means wish to suffer it himself. To other things every man is more ready. But this—I do not know whether anyone has been found who would bear it tolerably. O the dense darkness of those who do these things, who covet such things! Truly they are blinded by a horrible frenzy: for it is an untamed frenzy to defile a man's wife.

13. The tenth commandment: You shall not covet anything of your neighbor's, not his cattle, not his possession, not his beast of burden, nor anything at all of your neighbor's shall you covet (Exod 20:17). Contrary to this commandment is the tenth plague: the death of the firstborn. In which plague, when I seek a certain comparison, nothing for the moment occurs to me—perhaps something better will occur to those inquiring more diligently—except that all the things that people have they keep for their heirs, and among heirs nothing is dearer than the firstborn. But here it is reproved to covet your neighbor's property. He covets too who takes by theft. For who steals his neighbor's property except by coveting? But about theft a commandment was already given above. There you may understand robbery too. For Scripture would not give a commandment about theft and be silent about robbery, unless it had wished you to understand that, if it is punishable to take away secretly, it is of much greater punishment to snatch away violently. To take away from one unwilling, then, whether secretly or openly, has its own commandment. But to covet your neighbor's property—which God marks in the heart—even if you seek there a just succession, is not lawful. Finally, those who wish to possess, as it were justly, the property of others, seek to be made heirs by the dying. For what seems so just as to possess what is left to one, to have it by common right? "What is it to you, man? It was left to me, I obtained the inheritance, I read the will." Nothing seems more just than this voice of avarice. You praise him as though possessing by right; God condemns him as unjustly coveting. See what you are, you who wish to be made heir by someone. You certainly do not wish that he should have his own heirs, among whom nothing is dearer than the firstborn. Accordingly, you are punished in your own firstborn, you who, by coveting another's property, seek out, as it were by a shadow of right, that which was not owed to you by right. And it is indeed easy, brothers, to lose firstborn bodily. For people are mortal: whether before their parents or after their parents, those about to die die. This is the troublesome thing: lest through this hidden and unjust coveting you lose the firstborn of your heart. For the firstborn in us bears the image of the grace of God: newly born, first born. Among all, as it were, the offspring of our heart, faith is the firstborn. For no one works well unless faith goes before. All your good works are your spiritual children, but among these faith was first born to you. Whoever you are who secretly covet another's property, you lose inner faith. For you will first without doubt be a pretender, complying not out of love but out of fraud. As though loving the one by whom you wish to be made heir, by loving him you seek his death, and that you may see yourself the possessor of his property, you envy him a successor.

14. These, brothers, the ten commandments and the ten plagues having been run through, may, by comparing the despisers of the commandments with the condemned obstinacy of the Egyptians, make you cautious, that you may have your goods secure in the commandments of God. Your goods, I say, your goods of your inner chest, of your inner treasure; your goods, which neither thief nor robber nor powerful neighbor can take from you, where neither moth nor rust is to be feared, with which the rich man goes out even when shipwrecked. For so you will be the people of God among the unjust Egyptians, they suffering these things in their heart, but you unharmed in your very inner men, until the people is led out of Egypt by a kind of exodus of yours. And this indeed happens: for that was done once, this does not cease to be done. For if we attend, we even despoil the Egyptians. For that too was not done apart from a mystery, that thing which people of less understanding dare here to accuse God of, because he ordered gold and silver and clothing to be asked of the Egyptians. These were given and taken away: those people would be thieves, had they not done it at God's command. Let your Charity attend: those people, I say, would be thieves, had they not done it at God's command. But because they did it at God's command, they were not thieves. These you no longer accuse: you are prepared to accuse God himself. To them belonged the obeying; to God belonged the counsel of commanding, who knows who ought to suffer what, who suffers what by what desert. It would be a most open and deadly parricide for Abraham, had he struck his son of his own accord. This so great a crime he did laudably, because he was obeying God's command. And what would be cruelty in a spontaneous will, became piety under God's command.

15. I want to say something about the Acts of the Apostles, shown in two Apostles, the great rams of the flock, whose birthday we celebrate on one day, Peter and Paul. When Peter was shut up in prison, an angel came to him, and, the chains loosed from his hands, ordered him to go out. He went out and followed the angel. He was freed from prison by the Lord's command, by God's authority. The next day the judge sought him for a hearing. He learned that he had departed, and ordered the keepers of the prison to be led off. The soldiers, it says, he ordered to be questioned and led off; he passed on them the sentence of the laws which he thought he was about to pass justly on Peter. What do we say? Was Peter the author of their death? Would he not be perversely pious if he contradicted the will of God and answered the angel commanding him to go out, "I will not go out, lest on my account the wretched men, the keepers of the prison, die"? It would be answered him: Leave these things to the Creator; because you are not the craftsman that a man should be born, you cannot be the judge of how he should die. But Paul, when, shut up and bound, he was singing to God, the earth being shaken and his chains relaxed, did not depart, lest the keeper of the prison should suffer something evil. For room was given to consider human justice, lest one be punished for another, when nothing was divinely commanded to the contrary. No one dies except whom God wills. The dying is left as a matter for the judge, to God, yet the desire of the murderer is condemned. For here it is not to be regarded what God has judged, but what the evil mind has desired. Through Judas the betrayer we were freed, but Judas did not bestow this on us: he wished to kill, not to free. Praise to God, condemnation to Judas; and yet Judas would not have done this unless God had permitted, who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all (Rom 8:32).

16. Therefore let no one, brothers, let no one scrutinize God. It is proud, it is ungodly, it is foolish. You, bridle your desires; do nothing with an evil mind; be ready to obey, not to harm. And so those men did, and God did. If they had committed theft, even so God had willed that those who suffered should suffer, when he permitted those who did it to suffer. Yet he would reserve punishment for the thieves and exact some temporal penalty from those who had suffered the thieves. But now those men did not do it of their own accord: God by a just judgment willed it to happen. Since, if you weigh the cause, they perhaps did not carry off another's gold, but exacted a due wage. Unjustly oppressed long in Egypt, they made bricks; for the hard works of servitude they did not go out without wages. And yet God did this for some certain cause. If we are like the people of Israel in Egypt in this world, certainly I dare say to you—for I think that I speak to you by the Spirit of God—take the gold, the silver, the clothing of the Egyptians. Their gold, their wise men; their silver, their eloquent men; their clothing, the varieties of their tongues. Do we not see all these in the Church? Does not the Church do this daily? How many wise men in the world believe in Christ! The gold is taken from the Egyptians. Saint Cyprian, whose table this is, was once either the gold or the silver of the Egyptians. But the clothing, in which in a certain way the meanings are clothed, are the various tongues. You see them migrate from Egypt to the people of God: For there are no speeches nor words whose voices are not heard (Ps 19:3 (18:4)). Here the gold, here the silver, here the clothing of the Egyptians. And we go out rich and carry our wage. For not without cause have we labored in the mud of Egypt.

17. So all things, brothers, whether those which can be expounded by us or those which cannot yet, whether those which you can understand or those which you cannot yet, whether in this way in which they have been said by us or in another better way, believe altogether that all these things happened to them in figure, and they were written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Cor 10:11). Should I, then, not be made attentive to these things? And you, any spiritual Christian—should we not be attentive, and should we say that it was done without cause that in the third plague the magicians of Pharaoh failed? Should I seek nothing here? Should I think it was done or written in vain? The magicians of Pharaoh make serpents from rods against Moses, blood from water, they make frogs, they do these things. They come to the third plague, that is, to those little flies that are called gnats, and there those fail who made serpents, who made frogs, they fail at the flies. It is not at all, it is not without cause. Knock with me. To what is this third plague contrary? To the third commandment of God, where the sabbath is commanded to the people, where rest is proclaimed, where sanctification is commended. For there it was said, Remember to sanctify the sabbath day (Exod 20:8). Finally, even in the first works of the world God makes the day, makes heaven and earth and the sea, the lights, the stars, animals from the waters, from the earth man to his own image. He makes all these: nowhere does anything sound as sanctified. These are accomplished in six days, and the seventh day of God's rest is sanctified. He does not sanctify the works, he sanctifies the rest. What shall we say? Just as to us laboring rest is generally sweeter than work, do we think it is so for God too? We ought not to think this, even if he had done it by laboring and not by commanding. God said: Let it be, and it was made (Gen 1:3). Doing it in this way, not even man himself would labor. But on that day a certain rest after all our works was commended to us, so that after our good works we might understand that we shall rest without end. For all the days there have an evening, the seventh does not. For we work with an end, we rest without end. There sanctification sounds, pertaining by a certain great mystery to the Holy Spirit. However I speak, brothers, receive me with indulgence, I beseech you, looking rather at what I attempt than at what I unfold. I know what I speak, and who I am who speak—a man, divine things to men. Behold, strive with me, labor with me, that you may rest with me. As much as the Lord grants, as much as he opens, as much as he signifies, as much as Wisdom itself intimates, showing itself cheerfully to its lovers in the ways and meeting them in all providence, the sabbath day, the rest of God, is sanctified. There sanctification first sounds. As much as it seems to me, as much as you too recognize, as much as we believe, no sanctification is divine and true except from the Holy Spirit. For not in vain is the Holy Spirit so properly called. For although both the Father is holy and the Son is holy, yet the Spirit received this as a proper name, so that the third Person in the Trinity is called the Holy Spirit. He rests upon the humble and quiet, as though in his sabbath. For this reason the number seven is also assigned to the Holy Spirit: our Scriptures indicate this well enough. Let better men see better things, and greater men greater, and let them say and unfold something subtler and more divine about this number seven. I, however, what is enough for the present, see this, I remind you to see this: that this seven-part reckoning of number is properly assigned to the Holy Spirit because on the seventh day sanctification sounds. And whence do we prove that the seven-part reckoning of number is assigned to the Holy Spirit? Isaiah says that the Spirit of God comes upon the faithful one, upon the Christian, upon the member of Christ: of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and piety, the spirit of the fear of God. If you have followed, I have run through seven things, as the Spirit of God descending to us from wisdom down to fear, that we may ascend from fear to wisdom: for the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Ps 111:10 (110:10)). So, then, the Spirit is both sevenfold and one Spirit, one in a sevenfold operation. Or do you want something more evident? Holy Scripture recalls that the feast day of Pentecost was made from weeks. You have it in the Scripture of Tobit: it evidently says that this feast day was made from weeks. For seven times seven come back to forty-nine in sum. But, as though to return to the head—for by the Holy Spirit we are gathered to unity, not scattered from unity—therefore to forty-nine is added one, the honor of unity, and they become fifty. Not without cause, then, did the Holy Spirit come on the fiftieth day, after the Lord's ascension. The Lord rises, ascends from the dead, not yet into heaven. From that resurrection, from that taking up from the dead, fifty days are counted; and the Holy Spirit came in the number fifty, as though making a birthday for itself among us. For forty days he conversed here with his disciples; on the fortieth day he ascended into heaven, and after ten days had passed there, the Holy Spirit came, as it were by the sign of the ten commandments, because no one fulfills the law except through the grace of the Holy Spirit. And so, brothers, you see manifestly that this number seven pertains to the Holy Spirit. But whoever does not cleave to the unity of Christ and barks against the unity of Christ, is to be understood as not having the Holy Spirit. For only the natural make contentions and dissensions and divisions, of whom the Apostle says, But the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:14). Then it is written also in the epistle of the apostle Jude, These are they who separate themselves—he was speaking in reproof—these are they who separate themselves, natural, not having the Spirit (Jude 19). What more manifest? What more evident? Rightly do they come, and even if believing the same things as we, yet about to receive the Holy Spirit, whom they cannot have so long as they are enemies of unity? But the Apostle compares these to the magicians of Pharaoh: Having, he says, a form of piety, but denying its power (2 Tim 3:5). By having the form of piety they did similar things, but, denying its power, they failed at the third sign.

18. But seek still further with me why they failed at the third. For they would have failed at the second, at the first, at the fourth; what does it matter where they failed who were going to fail? Why, then, at the third? But first see what I had promised, whether the apostle Paul rather compared the heretics to them: Having, he says, a form of piety, but denying its power; and these avoid. Of these are those who penetrate houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, who are led by various desires, always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim 3:5-7). For they always hear testimony about the Catholic Church, and they are unwilling to come to the Catholic Church. Always learning. For do they not always hear, In your seed shall all nations be blessed (Gen 22:18)? Do they not always hear, Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession (Ps 2:8)? Do they not always hear, All the ends of the earth shall be reminded and shall turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship in his sight (Ps 22:27 (21:28))? Do they not always hear, He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth (Ps 72:8 (71:8))? They always hear these things, but always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. See now what I promised, what the Apostle adds consequently: But as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so these too resist the truth: men corrupt in mind, reprobate concerning the faith (2 Tim 3:8). What then? But they shall not advance further (2 Tim 3:9). Rightly do they fail at the third sign, but they advance no further. Why do they not advance? For their folly shall be manifest to all, as theirs also was (2 Tim 3:9). Now see why they failed at the third sign. Remember that those who oppose unity do not have the Holy Spirit. But those three first commandments in the decalogue are understood to pertain to the love of God, so that the seven others are understood to pertain to the love of neighbor, so that by the two tables of the law and the ten commandments those two, as it were, summary commandments are held: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets (Matt 22:37-40). Let us refer, then, the three first commandments to the love of God. Which three first? The first: You shall not have other gods besides me (Exod 20:3). To which the contrary plague is water turned into blood, because the highest principle of the Creator was brought down to the simulation of flesh. The second commandment, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain (Exod 20:7), pertains, as I think, to the Word of God, who is the Son of God: For there is one God, and one Lord of ours, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things (1 Cor 8:6). Against the Word, frogs. See, against the Word, frogs, against reason, clamor, against truth, vanity. The third commandment about the sabbath, pertaining to the Holy Spirit on account of the sanctification, which first sounded in the sabbath: which we commended to you vehemently a little while ago, as much as we could. Contrary to this commandment is the restlessness in the flies born from corruption, rushing into the eyes; whence those too were called men corrupt in mind. Therefore at this third sign they failed, who, enemies of unity, did not have the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit does this as a penalty. For grace does one thing, a penalty another; for he does one thing by filling, another by abandoning. Finally, that we may now evidently be able to recognize, with the magicians of Pharaoh themselves confessing it, how the Spirit of God was named in the Gospel, let us see what name he received. The Jews, casting a reproach at the Lord, when they had said, This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub the prince of demons (Matt 12:24), he answered, If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you (Matt 12:28). Which another Evangelist narrates thus: If I by the finger of God cast out demons (Luke 11:20). What the one called the Spirit of God, the other called the finger of God. Therefore the Spirit of God, the Finger of God. Therefore the Law was given written by the finger of God, which law was given on Mount Sinai on the fiftieth day after the slaying of the lamb. The Passover being celebrated by the people of the Jews, fifty days are fulfilled after the slaying of the lamb, and the law written by the finger of God is given. Fifty days are fulfilled after the slaying of Christ, and the Holy Spirit comes, that is, the finger of God. Thanks to the Lord, who hides providently, who opens sweetly. Now see that even the magicians of Pharaoh confess this most evidently. Failing at the third sign, they said, This is the finger of God (Exod 8:19). Let us praise the Lord, the giver of understanding, the giver of the Word. If these things were not covered by mysteries, they would never be sought out zealously. But if they were not sought out zealously, they would not be found so sweetly.

Sermon 9
A Treatise of Saint Augustine on the Ten Strings
A Sermon Delivered at Chusa

1. Our Lord and God, merciful and compassionate, long-suffering and very merciful and truthful—as bountifully as he dispenses mercy in the present age, so severely does he threaten judgment in the age to come. The words I have spoken are written and are contained in the divine authorities, for The Lord is merciful and compassionate, long-suffering and very merciful and truthful (Ps 103:8 (102:8)). It greatly delights all sinners and lovers of this world that the Lord is merciful and compassionate, that he is long-suffering and very merciful. But if you love one so very merciful, fear there also the last thing he says, And truthful. For if he said nothing else but, The Lord is merciful and compassionate, and very merciful, you would, as it were, turn yourself to security and impunity and to the license of sins. You would do what you wished, you would use the world, either as much as was permitted you or as much as your lust commanded you. And if anyone, admonishing you well, were to rebuke and terrify you, that you might restrain yourself from the immoderate flow of going after your desires and abandoning your God, you would stand up in the midst of the rebuker's words, with a shameless brow, as though having heard the divine authority, and you would read from the Lord's book: "Why do you terrify me about our God? He is merciful and compassionate and very merciful." Lest people say such things, he added one word at the end, where he says, And truthful. And he shook off the joy of those presuming wrongly, and brought in the fear of those who grieve. Let us rejoice at the mercy of the Lord, but let us fear the judgment of the Lord. He spares, but he is not silent. He is silent, but he will not always be silent. Hear while he is not silent in the word, lest you have no leisure to hear when he will not be silent in judgment.

2. For now you are permitted to settle your case. Before the last judgment of your God, settle your case. There is nothing on which you may presume when he comes, nor will you bring false witnesses by whom he may be deceived, nor will you employ an advocate with fraudulent circumventions and wordy arts, nor will you in any way scheme to be able to corrupt the judge. What, then, do you do before such a judge, whom you can neither corrupt nor deceive? And yet there is something you may do. For then he himself will be the judge of your case, who now is the witness of your life. We have cried out, and we have praised. Let us settle our case. He who is the witness of your works, he himself is the witness of these voices. Let them not be empty, let them be turned to groaning. It is the time to be reconciled with the adversary quickly. So long-suffering is God, seeing daily unjust things and not punishing, yet judgment will come quickly. For after the manner of human life that is long which to God is short. But what comforts even the world itself and the human race, that it seems far off? Is it that, if the last day of the whole human race is far off, the last day of each person is far off? This I say: from Adam many years have rolled on, many years have flowed, and hereafter will flow, not indeed so many, yet up to the end of the world years will pass, as those too passed. What remains seems long, although it will not be as much as has passed, and yet from the past time that has gone by the end of the remaining time is to be hoped for. There was once a certain day that was called today. From that until this today, has not whatever was future become past? It is held as if it had not been. So will be whatever last thing remains. But let this too be long, let it be extended, as much as you have thought, as much as you have said, as much as you have imagined, as much as Scripture does not form for you but your imagining fashions; lengthen the day of judgment as much as you wish—will you nevertheless extend into the distance your last day, that is, of your life, on which you are to go out from this body? Let your old age be certain for you, if it can be. But for whom can it be? Is it not that, from the moment a man begins to be able to live, he can already also die? The possibility of death the beginning of life makes. In this earth and in the human race that one alone cannot yet die, who has not yet begun even to live. An uncertain day, then, is to be hoped for as though daily. But if an uncertain day is to be hoped for as though daily, let your case be settled with the adversary, while he is with you on the way. For this life is called the way, through which all pass. And this adversary does not depart.

3. But who is this adversary? This adversary is not the devil, for Scripture would never exhort you to be reconciled with the devil. There is, then, another adversary which a man makes for himself as an adversary. For that one, if he were the adversary, would not be with you on the way. He is with you on the way for this, that he may be reconciled with you. For he knows that unless you are reconciled on the way, he will hand you over to the judge, the judge to the officer, the officer to prison. These are the words of the Gospel; those who have read or heard them recall them with us. Who, then, is the adversary? The word of God. The word of God is your adversary. Why is it an adversary? Because it commands contrary things, which you do not do. It says to you, One is your God (Deut 6:4), worship one God. You wish, the one God being abandoned as though the lawful husband of the soul, to commit fornication with many demons, and, what is graver, not as though openly forsaking and repudiating, as apostates do, but as though remaining in your husband's house, you admit adulterers. That is, as though a Christian, you do not leave the Church, you consult astrologers or soothsayers or augurs or sorcerers. As though, an adulterous soul, you do not depart from your husband's house, and, remaining in his marriage, you commit fornication. It is said to you, Do not take in vain the name of the Lord your God (Exod 20:7), do not suppose Christ to be a creature because for your sake he took up a creature. And you despise him who is equal to the Father and one with the Father. It is said to you that you should observe the sabbath spiritually, not as the Jews observe the sabbath with fleshly idleness. For they wish to be at leisure for their trifles and luxuries. For a Jew would do better to do something useful in his field than to be seditious in the theater. And their women would do better on the sabbath day to make wool than all day long to dance shamelessly on their balconies. But to you it is said that you should observe the sabbath spiritually, in hope of the future rest which the Lord promises you. For whoever, for the sake of that future rest, does whatever he can, although what he does seems laborious, yet if he refers it to faith in the promised rest, he does not yet have the sabbath in fact, but he has it in hope. But you wish to rest for this, that you may labor, when you ought to labor for this, that you may rest. It is said to you, Honor your father and your mother (Exod 20:12). You inflict insult on parents, you who do not wish to suffer it from your children. It is said to you, You shall not kill (Exod 20:13). But you wish to kill your enemy; and perhaps you do not do it because you fear a human judge, not because you think of God. Do you not know that he is a witness of thoughts? While he lives whom you wish to die, he holds you a murderer in your heart. It is said to you, You shall not commit adultery (Exod 20:14), that is, do not go to any other besides your wife. But you demand this of your wife and are unwilling to render this to your wife. And whereas you ought to precede your wife in virtue, since chastity is a virtue, you fall under one assault of lust. And you want your wife to be the conqueress; you lie conquered. And whereas you are the head of your wife, she precedes you to God, whose head you are. Do you want your house to hang head downward? For the man is the head of the woman (1 Cor 11:3). But where the woman lives better than the man, the house hangs head downward. If the man is the head, the man ought to live better and precede his wife in all good deeds, that she may imitate the man, may follow her head. As the head of the Church is Christ, and the Church is commanded to follow its head and to walk in the footsteps of its head, so each household has the man as its head and, as it were, the woman as its flesh. Where the head leads, there the body ought to follow. Why, then, does the head wish to go where it does not wish the body to follow? Why does the man wish to go where he does not wish his wife to follow? In commanding these things, the word of God is an adversary. For people do not wish to do what the word of God wishes. And why should I say that the word of God is an adversary because it commands? I fear that I myself may be an adversary to some because I speak these things. What does it matter to me? Let him who terrifies make me strong to speak, that I may not fear the complaints of people. For those who are unwilling to keep chastity for their wives—and such abound—are unwilling that I should say these things. But, willing or unwilling, I am going to say them. For if I do not exhort you to be reconciled with the adversary, I shall remain in a quarrel with him. He who commands you to do them, himself commands us to speak them. If by not doing what he commands you to do, you are his adversaries, then by not saying what he commands us to say, we shall remain his adversaries.

4. Did I dwell long on the rest, which I mentioned above? For this we presume of your Charity, that you worship one God. This we presume of the Catholic faith which is in you, that you believe the Son of God to be equal to the Father. Nor do you take in vain the name of the Lord your God, so as to think the Son of God to be a creature. Since every creature is subject to vanity (Rom 8:20). But you believe him to be equal to the Father, God from God, the Word with God, the Word God, through whom all things were made, light from light, coeternal with him who begot him, one with him who begot him. But you believe that this Word took up a creature, took up mortality from the Virgin Mary, and suffered for us. These things we read, we believe, that we may be saved. Nor did I dwell on this, that whatever you do, you should do it for the sake of future hope. For I know that the minds of all Christians think about the age to come. For whoever does not think about the age to come, nor is a Christian for this, that he may receive what God promises at the end, is not yet a Christian. Nor did I dwell on that where the word of God says, Honor your father and your mother (Exod 20:12). For many honor their parents, and rarely do we find parents complaining of the wickedness of their children, although they are not lacking; but yet, since it so rarely happens, it had to be admonished so briefly. Nor on that where it was said, You shall not kill (Exod 20:13), did I wish to dwell. For I do not believe there is here a crowd of murderers. But that evil, creeping widely, has taken hold of more, and in it that adversary is more vehemently provoked, who therefore cries out that he may at some time be a friend. There are daily complaints, although the women themselves now do not even dare to complain of their husbands. So custom, invading all things, is observed in place of law, so that perhaps it has even been persuaded to the women that this is permitted to men, not permitted to women. For they are accustomed to hear that women have been brought to court who perhaps were found with slaves. That a man was brought to court because he was found with his maidservant, they have never heard, although it is through sin. In an equal sin not divine truth but human perversity makes the man seem more innocent. And if perhaps today someone has had a sharper wife murmuring more freely, to whom it now seemed that it was permitted to the man, and she has heard in the Church that it is not permitted to the man—if, then, he has had his wife, as we said, murmuring more freely and saying to him, "What you do is not permitted. We heard it together. We are Christians. What you demand of me, render to me. I owe you fidelity, you owe me fidelity, we both owe fidelity to Christ. And if you deceive me, you do not deceive him whose we are, you do not deceive him who bought us"—hearing these and suchlike things which he is not accustomed to, while he is unwilling to become healthy in himself, he becomes mad against me. He is angry, he curses. Perhaps he even says, "How did it happen that he came here, or that my wife went out to church on that very day?" And I believe he says this in his thought, for he does not dare to break out freely into voice, nor even before his wife alone. For perhaps if he broke out and said this, she could answer and say, "Why do you curse him to whom a little while ago you were acclaiming? Surely we are spouses. If you are at variance with your own tongue, how will you be able to live in concord with me?" We, brothers, look to your dangers, we do not attend to your wishes. For a physician too, if he attends to the wish of the sick man, never cures him. What ought not to be done, let it not be done. What God forbids, let it not be done. Whoever believes God hears from him what we say. Certainly it would be better for some who are unwilling to be corrected, that either we should not have come here if we were going to speak so, or, since we have already come, that we should not say these things.

5. The day before yesterday I remember I said to your Holiness that, if we were harpers or exhibiting something of this kind to the populace for the pursuits of your frivolity—which we now ask that you abandon—you would have held us to give you a day, and each one according to his small measure would contribute a fee to us. Why should we walk about delighted with vain songs, profiting nothing, sweet for a time, bitter afterward? For by such base songs human minds, enticed, are enervated and fall, flowing down from virtue into baseness. And on account of those very basenesses they afterward feel pains, and with great bitterness digest what they drank with temporal sweetness. Better, then, that we sing to you things bitter for a time, which afterward may grow sweet in you. Nor do we demand any fee, except that you do what we say—rather, that you not do it, if we do it. But if he who fears no one says it to all, and through whom it comes about, in his name and in the glory of his mercy, that we too fear no one, then let us all who have heard, let us all do it, let us all be reconciled with our adversary.

6. Suppose me to be a harper—what more could I sing to you? Behold, I bear a psaltery, it has ten strings. This you sang a little while ago, before I began to speak. You were my choir. Did you not a little while ago sing, O God, I will sing to you a new song, on the psaltery of ten strings I will play to you (Ps 144:9 (143:9))? Those very ten strings I now strike. Why is the voice of the psaltery of God bitter? Let us all play on the psaltery of ten strings. I do not sing this to you which you do not do. For the decalogue of the law has ten commandments. Which ten commandments are so distributed that three pertain to God, seven pertain to men. Three to God, which I have already said: One is our God, and we ought to make no likeness, and not to commit fornication after God who is one, because God Christ the Son of God is one with the Father. And therefore he ought not to be taken in vain by us, so that we think him made, that is, some creature, through whom all things were made. But because the one God himself is Father and Son and Holy Spirit, in the Holy Spirit, that is, in the gift of God, everlasting rest is promised to us. Thence we have now received a pledge. For thus the Apostle says, Who has given us the Spirit as a pledge (2 Cor 5:5). If we have received a pledge, that we may begin to be tranquil in the Lord and in our God, that we may be gentle in our God, may be patient in God, we shall also be, in him from whom we received the pledge, at rest forever. Which will be the sabbath of sabbaths, on account of that very rest pertaining to the gift of the Holy Spirit. The third commandment, then, about the sabbath, which we have spoken of, which the Jews celebrate fleshly, let us recognize spiritually. For because it is called the Holy Spirit, therefore God sanctified the seventh day, when he made all his works, as we read written in Genesis. You do not have sanctification named there, except on that day where it is said, God rested from his works (Gen 2:2). For God was not wearied, that it should be said, God rested from his works, but in that word he promised rest to you who labor. And because he made all things very good, and so it is said, God rested, that you may understand that you too after good works shall rest, and shall rest without end. For all the things above that are said, that is, the days above, have an evening. This seventh day, where God sanctified rest, has no evening. There it is said, "Morning was made, that the day itself might begin." It was not said, "Evening was made, that the day might be ended," but it was said, Morning was made (Gen 1:5), that the day might come to be without end. So, then, our rest begins as though in the morning, but it is not ended, because we shall live forever. To this hope, whatever we do, if we do it, we observe the sabbath. This is the third string of this decalogue, that is, of the ten-stringed psaltery: in three strings the commandments pertaining to him.

7. If it were said to us, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matt 22:37), and nothing were said about our neighbor, it would not be a ten-stringed instrument, but a three-stringed one. But because the Lord added, And you shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:39), and joined on, saying, On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets (Matt 22:40), the whole Law is in two commandments, in the love of God and the love of neighbor. To two commandments, then, that is, to the love of God and of neighbor, the decalogue pertains. To the first commandment three strings pertain, because God is Trinity. But to the other commandment, that is, to the love of neighbor, seven strings: how one should live among men. For the very number seven, as of seven strings, begins from the honor of parents. Honor your father and your mother (Exod 20:12). For to his parents a man opens his eyes, and this life takes its beginning from their friendship. But whoever does not show honor to his own parents, whom will he be able to spare? Honor your father and your mother. And the Apostle says, Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment (Eph 6:2). How first, when it is the fourth commandment, except because in the number seven it is first? For the love of neighbor it is first in the second table. For therefore two tables of the Law were given. For God gave his servant Moses on the mountain two tables, on which two stone tables were written the ten commandments of the law—which is the psaltery of ten strings—three on one table pertaining to God, seven on the other table to the neighbor. On the other table, then, the first is: Honor your father and your mother. The second: You shall not commit adultery. The third: You shall not kill. The fourth: You shall not steal. The fifth: You shall not bear false witness. The sixth: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. The seventh: You shall not covet your neighbor's property. These let us join to those three pertaining to the love of God, if we wish to sing on the psaltery of ten strings a new song.

8. Let your Charity attend, that I may say what the Lord suggests. The people of the Jews received the law. They did not observe these things in the decalogue. And whoever obeyed, obeyed out of fear of punishment, not out of love of justice. He carried the psaltery, he did not sing. For to the singer it is a pleasure, to the fearful a burden. Therefore the old man either does not do it, or does it out of fear, not out of love of holiness, not out of delight in chastity, not out of the temperance of love, but out of fear. For he is the old man, and the old man can sing the old song, not the new. But that he may sing the new song, let him be a new man. And how he can be a new man, hear—not me, but the Apostle—saying, Put off the old man, and put on the new (Eph 4:22, 24). And lest anyone should think, when he said, Put off the old man and put on the new, that something was to be laid down and something to be taken up when he was commanding about changing the man, he added and said, Wherefore, putting away lying, speak the truth (Eph 4:25). This is what he says, Put off the old man and put on the new. This he said: Change your ways. You loved the world, love God. You loved the trifles of iniquity, temporal pleasures; love your neighbor. If you do it out of love, you sing a new song. If you do it out of fear, you do it nevertheless, you indeed carry the psaltery, but you do not yet sing. But if you neither do it, you cast away the psaltery itself. It is better even to carry it than to cast it away. But again, it is better to sing with pleasure than to carry with a burden. Nor does one come to the new song unless already singing with pleasure. For he who carries it with fear is still in the old. And note what I say, brothers. He has not been reconciled with his adversary, who still acts out of fear. For he fears lest God come and condemn him. For chastity does not yet delight him, justice does not yet delight him, but, dreading the judgment of God, he refrains from deeds. He does not condemn the desire itself, which rages in him. What is good does not yet delight him. He does not yet have sweetness there to sing the new song, but out of the oldness he fears punishments. He has not yet been reconciled with his adversary.

9. For such people are generally tripped up by such a thought, so that they say to themselves, "If it could be, God would not threaten us, would not say through his Prophets such things as terrify people, but he would come to give pardon to all, to forgive all; he would come afterward, he would send no one into hell." Now, because he is unjust, he wants God unjust. God wants to make you like himself, and you try to make God like yourself. Let God, then, please you as he is, not as you wish him to be. For you are perverse, and you want God such as you are, not such as he is. But if he please you such as he is, you are corrected, and you direct your heart to that rule from which now, an alien, you are distorted. Let God please you such as he is, love him such as he is. He does not love you such as you are, but hates you such as you are. Therefore he has mercy on you, because he hates you such as you are, that he may make you such as you are not yet. May he make you, I said, such as you are not yet. For he does not promise you that he will make you such as he is. For you will be such as he is, but in a certain mode, that is, an imitator of God as an image, but not such an image as the Son is. For even images among men are different. The son of a man has the image of his father, and is what his father is, because he is a man as his father is. But in a mirror your image is not what you are. For your image is one thing in your son, another in the mirror. In your son your image is according to equality of substance, but in the mirror how far it is from the substance! And yet it is a certain image of you, although not such as in your son according to substance. So in the creature, the image of God is not what is in the Son, who is what the Father is, that is, God the Word of God through whom all things were made. Receive, then, the likeness of God, which through evil deeds you lost. For just as on a coin the image of the emperor is one thing and another in his son—for it is an image and an image, but it is one way impressed on the coin, held another way in the son, the image of the emperor one way on a gold piece—so you too are the coin of God, the better for this, that with understanding and with a certain life you are the coin of God, so that you may know whose image you bear and to whose image you were made, for the coin does not know that it has the image of the king. Therefore, as I had begun to say, God hates you such as you are, but loves you such as he wishes you to be, and therefore he exhorts you to be changed. Be reconciled with him, and begin first to will well and to hate yourself such as you are. Let this be for you the beginning of reconciliation with the word of God, that you begin first to hate yourself such as you are. When you too have begun to hate yourself such as you are, as God hates you such, you now begin to love God himself such as he is.

10. Attend to a sick man. The sick man hates himself sick as he is; thence he begins to be reconciled with the physician. For the physician too hates him such as he is. For therefore he wants him to be well, because he hates the feverish man, and the physician is a persecutor of the fever that he may be the deliverer of the man. So avarice, so lust, so hatred, desire, luxury, so the frivolity of spectacles, are fevers of your soul. You ought to hate them along with the physician. Thus you are reconciled with the physician, you strive with the physician, and you gladly hear what the physician commands, you gladly do what the physician commands, and, health now advancing, even the commandments begin to delight. How burdensome is food to the sick when they are being refreshed! And the sick reckon the hour of their refreshment worse than that of the onset of their illness. And yet they force themselves, being reconciled with the physician, and, however unwilling and struggling, they conquer themselves to take something. With what eagerness, when well, will they take greater things, of which, when sick, they scarcely take smaller! But whence did this happen? Because they hated their fever and had been reconciled with the physician, and physician and sick man together persecuted the fever. When, therefore, we too say such things, we hate nothing but your fevers; rather, in us the word of God itself hates your fevers, with which you ought to be reconciled. For what are we, except people to be freed along with you, to be healed along with you?

11. Now do not look at me, but at the word of God. Do not be angry at your medicine: for I have found no other way to cross over. I have come to the fifth string, I who touch the psaltery of ten strings. Was I going to pass over the fifth? Rather I am going to strike it constantly. For in it I see almost the whole human race lying, in it I see more labor. In striking it, what do I say? Do not commit adultery after your wives, because you do not want your wives to commit adultery after you. Do not go where you do not want them to follow. In vain do you try to excuse yourselves, when you say, "Do I go to another's wife? I go to my maidservant." Do you want her to say to you, "Do I go to another's husband? I go to my manservant"? You say, "It is not another's wife to whom I go." Do you want it to be said to you, "It is not another's husband to whom I go"? Far be it that she should say this. For it is better that she grieve over you than that she imitate you. For that chaste and holy woman and truly Christian, who grieves over her fornicating husband, and grieves not on account of the flesh but grieves on account of love—she is unwilling that you should do it not because she herself does not do it, but because it is not expedient for you. For if she does not do it for this reason, that you should not do it, then if you do it, she will do it. But if she owes that to God, if she owes to Christ that which you demand, and renders it because he commands, then even if the husband commits fornication, she shows chastity to God. For Christ speaks in the hearts of good women, speaks within where the husband does not hear, because he is not even worthy, if he is such. He speaks, then, inwardly and says, and consoles his daughter with words of this kind: "You are tormented by the wrongs of your husband; for what has he done to you? Grieve, but do not imitate him so as to do evil; rather let him imitate you in good. For in that which he does evil, do not think him your head, but me." For if even in that which he does evil he is the head, the body will follow its head, and both go over a precipice. But that the body may not follow its evil head, let it hold itself to the head of the Church, Christ. Owing her chastity to him, paying her honor to him, whether the husband is absent, whether the husband is present, she does not sin; because he to whom she owes it that she may not sin is never absent.

12. These things, then, my brothers, do, that you may be able to be reconciled with the adversary. Nor are the things I say bitter, or, if they are bitter, let them cure. If this draught is bitter, let it be taken. Because the inward parts are in danger, it is bitter; let it be drunk. Better a slight bitterness in the throat than an eternal torment in the inward parts. Change yourselves, then. Whoever of you were not doing this good of chastity, now do it. Do not say, "It cannot be done." It is foul, my brothers, it is shameful, that a man should say that what a woman does cannot be done. It is a wickedness that a man should say, "I cannot." What a woman can, can a man not? For what, does she not bear flesh? She was first deceived by the serpent. Your chaste wives show you that it can be done, which you are unwilling to do and say cannot be done. But perhaps you will say that she can do it more easily because there is much guarding over her: the commandment of the law, the husband's diligence, the terror also of the public laws. There is also a great defense in her modesty and shame. Many guards make a woman more chaste; let his very manliness make the man chaste. For therefore there is more guarding over a woman, because there is more weakness. She blushes before her husband; do you not blush before Christ? You are freer, because you are stronger. Because you conquer easily, therefore you are entrusted to yourself. Over her are both the diligence of her husband, and the terror of the laws, and the custom of behavior, and greater modesty. And over you is God, God only. For you easily find men like yourself, before whom you do not fear to blush, because many do it. And so great is the perversity of the human race that sometimes it is to be feared that the chaste may blush among the shameless. Therefore I do not cease to touch this fifth string, on account of that very perverse custom and ruin of the whole human race, as I said. If anyone among you commits murder—which God avert—you wish to drive him from his homeland, and at once, if it can be done, to shut him out. If anyone commits theft, you hate him and are unwilling to see him. If anyone bears false witness, you abominate him, nor does he seem to you a man. If anyone covets another's property, he is reckoned a robber and unjust. But if anyone has wallowed with his maidservants, he is loved, kindly received, the wounds are turned into jokes. But if anyone arises who says that he is chaste, that he does not commit adultery, and it is known that he does not, he blushes to approach those not like himself, lest they insult, lest they mock, lest they say he is not a man. To this human perversity has sunk, that a man bound by lust is held to be a man, and a man who is conqueror of lust is not held to be a man. Those triumphing exult, and they are not men; they lie prostrate, and they are men! If you were watching in the amphitheater, would you watch in such a way that he would seem to you the stronger who lay under the beast, than he who slew the beast?

13. But because you make light of the inner battle, and the outer battles delight you, therefore you do not wish to belong to the new song, where it is said, Who teaches my hands for the fight and my fingers for war (Ps 144:1 (143:1)). For there is a war that a man wages with himself, struggling against evil desires, bridling avarice, beating down pride, smothering ambition, slaying lust. These battles you wage in secret, and you are not conquered in the open. For this your hands are taught for the fight, and your fingers for war. This is not in your spectacles. In those spectacles the hunter is not the same as the harper; the hunter does one thing, the harper another. In the spectacle of God it is one. Touch the same ten strings, and you slay the beasts. You do both at once. You touch the first string by which one God is worshiped: the beast of superstition has fallen. You touch the second by which you do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain: the beast of the error of the abominable heresies that thought this has fallen. You touch the third string where, for the hope of future rest, you do whatever you do: the love of this world, more cruel than the other beasts, is slain. For on account of the love of this world people labor in all their business. But you, in all your good works, labor not for the love of this world, but for the everlasting rest which God promises. See how you do both at once. You both touch the strings and slay the beasts. That is, you are both harper and hunter. Do not such spectacles delight you, where we earn not the eyes of the producer, but the eyes of the Redeemer? Honor your father and your mother: you touch the fourth string so as to show honor to your parents, the beast of impiety has fallen. You shall not commit adultery: you touch the fifth string, the beast of lust has fallen. You shall not kill: you touch the sixth string, the beast of cruelty has fallen. You shall not steal: you touch the seventh string, the beast of rapacity has fallen. You shall not bear false witness: you touch the eighth string, the beast of falsity has fallen. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife: you touch the ninth string, the beast of adulterous thought has fallen. For it is one thing not to do anything of the sort besides one's wife, another not to desire another's wife. Therefore there are two commandments: You shall not commit adultery, and, You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not covet your neighbor's property: you touch the tenth string, the beast of cupidity has fallen. So, all the beasts falling, you live secure and innocent in the love of God and in human society. Touching the ten strings, how many beasts you slay! For there are many heads under these heads. On each string you slay not single beasts, but herds of beasts. So, then, you will sing the new song with love, not with fear.

14. Do not say to yourself, when perhaps you wish to do something wantonly, "I do not have a wife, I do what I will; for I do not sin after my wife." You now know your price, you now know what you approach, what you eat, what you drink—rather, whom you eat, whom you drink. Abstain yourself from fornications. Lest perhaps you say to me, "I go to the brothel, I go to a harlot, I go to a prostitute, nor do I violate that commandment which said, You shall not commit adultery, because I do not yet have a wife nor do anything after her; nor do I violate that commandment where it was said, You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. I who go to the public house, into what commandment do I run?" Do we not find a string to touch? Do we not find a string by which word to bind this runaway? Let him not run away, he has wherewith to be bound. But let him love, and there will be no binding, but an adornment. In those very ten strings we find it. For the ten commandments are referred to those two, as we have heard, that we should love God and neighbor, and those two to that one. And the one is, What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to another (Tob 4:15). There the ten are contained, there the two are contained.

15. But you say, "If I commit theft, I do what I am unwilling to suffer; if I kill, I do what I am unwilling to suffer from another; if I do not show honor to my parents when I wish it to be shown to me by my children, I do what I am unwilling to suffer; if I am an adulterer and attempt something of the sort, I do what I am unwilling to suffer—for if anyone is asked, he says: I do not want my wife to do anything of the sort; if I covet my neighbor's wife, I do not want anyone to covet mine—I do what I am unwilling to suffer; if I covet my neighbor's property, I do not want mine to be taken away—I do what I am unwilling to suffer. But when I go to a harlot, to whom do I do what I am unwilling to suffer?" What is graver, to God himself. Let your Holiness understand. For What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to another (Tob 4:15) pertains to two commandments. How does it pertain to two commandments? If you do not do to a man what you do not want to suffer from a man, it pertains to the commandment of neighbor, to the love of neighbor, to the seven strings. But if what you do not want to suffer from a man, you wish to do to God himself, what is this? Do you not do to another what you do not want to suffer? Has a man become dearer to you than God? "How, then," he says, "do I do it to God himself?" You corrupt yourself. "And whence do I do injury to God, because I corrupt myself?" Whence does he do injury to you who perhaps wishes to throw a stone at your painted panel on which panel is your image, set up idly in your house for your vain honor, neither feeling nor speaking nor seeing? If anyone throws a stone at it, does not the insult go to you? But when you corrupt in yourself the image of God, which you are, through fornications and through the dissipations of lust, you attend that you have not gone to anyone's wife, you attend that you have done nothing after your wife, you who do not have a wife. And do you not attend whose image you have violated through the unlawful lusts of fornication? Finally, God, who knows what is useful to you, who truly so governs his servants for their advantage, not for his own—for he does not need servants as a help, but you need the Lord as a help—this Lord himself, then, who knows what is useful to you, granted a wife, nothing more. This he ordered, this he commanded, lest through unlawful pleasures his temple, which you have begun to be, should collapse. Is it I who say this? Hear the Apostle: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Cor 3:16) This he says to Christians, this he says to the faithful: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone corrupts the temple of God, God will destroy him (1 Cor 3:16-17). You see how he threatens? You do not want your house corrupted; why do you corrupt the house of God? Surely you do not do to anyone what you do not want to suffer? There is, then, no way to escape. He is held who thought he was not held. For all the sins of men pertain either to the corruption of shameful deeds, or to the crimes of doing harm. Because you cannot harm God by crimes, you offend him in shameful deeds, you offend him in corruptions, in yourself you do injury to him. For you do injury to his grace, to his gift.

16. If you had a slave, you would want your slave to serve you. Serve a better Lord, your God. Your slave you did not make; both you and your slave he made. Do you want him to serve you, with whom you were made, and are you unwilling to serve him by whom you were made? Therefore, when you want your slave, a man, to serve you, and you yourself are unwilling to serve your Lord, you do to God what you are unwilling to suffer. Therefore that one commandment contains two, those two contain ten, those ten contain all. Sing, therefore, on the psaltery of ten strings a new song (Ps 144:9 (143:9)). But that you may sing a new song, be new men. Love justice: it has its own beauty. Therefore you are unwilling to see it, because you love something else. For if you loved nothing else, you would certainly see it. Why do you see it, when you demand it? Why do you praise faith, when you demand it of your slave? What a beautiful thing is faith! But it is beautiful then, when it is demanded of the slave; then it is seen, when it is sought from another. When it is demanded of you, it is not seen. Gold you see, faith you do not see. As gold shines to the eyes of the body, so faith shines to the eyes of the heart. You open the eyes of the heart to it, when you want your slave to show it to you. And if he shows it to you, you praise the slave and proclaim him and say, "I have an excellent slave, I have a great slave, I have a faithful slave." What you praise in your slave, you do not show to your Lord, and the more wickedly because you want yourself to have a better slave than God has. God commands your slave to be good toward you. As he commands your wife that, even if you commit adultery, she should not commit adultery, so he commands your slave that, even if you do not serve your God, he should serve you. But see that all this avails for your admonition, not for your ruin. For that slave, in that he serves you, who are unworthy, worthily—that is, in that he serves you, unworthy, well and faithfully, and loves you purely—that he owes to God, not to you. It is just, then, that you too should attend that you are under a Lord, to whom he too attends in serving you. Fulfill, then, what was said, What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to another (Tob 4:15). But when you say "another," attend to both, both the neighbor and God. Sing on the psaltery of ten strings, sing a new song, be reconciled with the word of God, while it is with you on the way. Be reconciled with your adversary quickly (Matt 5:25), lest you come in discord before the judge. If you do what you hear, you have been reconciled with him. But if you do not do it, you still quarrel with him, and have not yet settled it until you do it.

17. But that you may be reconciled, abstain yourselves from detestable corruptions, from detestable inquiries, from astrologers, from soothsayers, from diviners, from augurs, from sacrilegious rites; abstain yourselves, as much as you can, from frivolous spectacles. If any delights of the world creep into the soul, exercise yourselves in mercy, exercise yourselves in almsgiving, in fasts, in prayers. For by these the daily sins are purged, which cannot but creep into the soul on account of human frailty. Do not despise them because they are smaller; but fear, because they are more. Attend, my brothers. They are small, they are not great. There is no beast like a lion, to break the throat with one bite. But often even many small beasts kill. If anyone is thrown into a place full of fleas, does he not die there? They are indeed not greater, but human nature is weak, which can be slain even by the tiniest beasts. So too small sins: you attend that they are small; beware, because they are more. How tiny are the grains of sand! If more sand is put into a ship, it sinks it so that it perishes. How small are the drops of rain! Do they not fill rivers and cast down houses? Therefore do not despise these things. But you will say, "And who can be without these?" Lest you say this—because truly no one can—God, merciful, seeing our frailty, set remedies against them. What are the remedies? Of almsgiving, of fasts, of prayers: these are the three. But that you may say what is true in prayer, almsgiving must be perfectly fulfilled. What is perfect almsgiving? That from that which abounds to you, you give to him who does not have, and that whoever harms you, you forgive him.

18. But do not think, brothers, that adulteries are to be committed daily, and to be cleansed by daily almsgiving. For other greater crimes daily almsgiving does not suffice to cleanse them. It is one thing where you change your life, another where you bear your life. Those things are to be changed, so that if you were an adulterer, do not be an adulterer; if you were a fornicator, do not commit fornication; if a murderer, do not be a murderer; if you went to an astrologer and to the other sacrilegious plagues, now cease. Or do you think that these, unless they cease to be done, can be cleansed by daily almsgiving? I call those daily sins which are either easily committed through the tongue, as is a harsh word, or when someone slips into immoderate laughter, or into trifles of this kind that are daily. In things themselves permitted there are sins. With one's own wife, if the manner of intercourse due for begetting children is exceeded, it is now a sin. For to this a wife is taken: for that too the marriage tablets indicate, where it is written, For the sake of begetting children. When you wish to use your wife more than the necessity of begetting children compels, it is now a sin. And such sins daily almsgiving cleanses. In food itself, which is certainly permitted, if you perhaps exceed the measure and take more than is necessary, you sin. These that I speak of are daily, but yet they are sins, and they are not light because they are more. But because they are daily and very many, the ruin of their multitude is to be feared, even if not of their magnitude. Such sins, brothers, we say can be cleansed by daily almsgiving. But do almsgiving, and do not cease. Attend to your daily life teeming with these very sins, the small ones, I say.

19. And when you do almsgiving, do not do it proudly, nor pray as the Pharisee there. But yet what did he say there? I fast twice on the sabbath, I give tithes of all that I possess (Luke 18:12). And the blood of the Lord had not yet been shed! We have received so great a price for ourselves, and we do not even pay out as much as the Pharisee. And you have the Lord in another place openly saying, Unless your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:20). Therefore they give tithes; you, if you give a hundredth, boast that you have done something great. For you attend to what another does not do, not to what God commands you to do. You measure yourself by comparison with the worse, not by the command of the better. Not because that one does nothing, do you therefore do something great. But because there is rejoicing at certain least works of yours—because so great is your barrenness that there is rejoicing at small things—as though secure, you flatter yourselves about the least grains of almsgiving, and forget the heaps of sins. You perhaps brought forth something small, I know not what, which another either did not have or did not bring forth though he had it. Do not attend to who after you does not do it, but to what God commands you to do. Finally, why, in those worldly desires, do those whom you have surpassed not suffice you, but you wish to be rich, equal to those richer than you? You do not attend to how many poorer ones you transcend: you wish to surpass the richer. But in almsgiving a measure is observed. Here it is said, "How long now do I do it?" and there it is not said, "How many rich am I richer than?" The wants of innumerable beggars are not attended to, the later multitudes of the poor are not regarded, but the fewness of the rich who go before is set before the eyes. Why in a good work is not that Zacchaeus attended to, who gave half his goods to the poor? But we are forced to wish that at least that Pharisee be attended to, who gave tithes of all that he possessed.

20. Do not spare perishable treasures, vain treasures. Do not, under the image of piety, increase money. "I keep it for my children": a great excuse. He keeps it for his children. Let us see. Your father keeps it for you, you keep it for your children, your children for their children, and so through all, and no one is going to do the commandments of God. Why do you not rather spend everything on him who made you from nothing? He who made you, himself feeds you from the things he made, himself feeds your children too. For you do not entrust your children better to your patrimony than to your Creator. And people indeed lie. Avarice is evil. They wish to cloak themselves with the name of piety and to whitewash themselves, so that, as it were on account of their children, people may seem to keep what they keep on account of avarice. For that you may know that it generally happens so, it is said of someone, "Why does he not do almsgiving? Because he keeps it for his children." It happens that he loses one. If he was keeping it for his children, let him send his portion after him. Why does he hold it in the world, and leave him out of his mind? Render to him what is his, render what you were keeping for him. "He is dead," he says. But he has gone ahead to God, his portion is owed to the poor. It is owed to him to whom he has gone. It is owed to Christ: for to him he has gone. And he himself said, What you did to one of these least, you did to me, and what you did not do to one of these least, you do not do to me (Matt 25:40, 45). But what do you say? "I keep it for his brothers." If he were living, he would not be going to divide with his brothers. O dead faith! For your son is dead. Whatever you say, you owe to the dead what you were keeping for the living. "My son is dead, but yet I keep my son's portion for his brothers." Do you so believe that he is dead? If Christ did not die for him, he himself is dead. But if there is faith in you, your son lives. He lives entirely. He did not depart, but went ahead. With what face will you come to your son who has gone ahead, to whom, going ahead, you do not send his portion into heaven? Or cannot it be sent into heaven? It can entirely. Hear the Lord himself saying, Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven (Matt 6:20). If, then, that treasure is better kept in heaven, is it not then to be sent to your son, when, if it is sent, it will not perish? Will it be held here where it can perish, and not sent there where Christ is the keeper? Surely the things you hold here, and are unwilling to send after your son, to whom do you entrust them? To your agents and procurators. To your agents you entrust the portion of him who has gone ahead, and to Christ, to whom he has gone ahead, you do not entrust it? Is your procurator suitable to you, and Christ less suitable?

21. You see, brothers, that it is a lie that people say, "I keep it for my children." It is a lie, my brothers, it is a lie. People are avaricious. Or at least let them be forced to confess what they are unwilling, since they are ashamed to be silent about what they are. Let them pour out, let them vomit in confession what they carry. The breast is pressed by the surfeit of iniquity. Let confession vomit it out, but let it not, in the manner of a dog, return to the vomit. Be Christians. It is very little to be called a Christian. How much do you give to actors? How much do you give to hunters? How much to base persons? You give to those who kill you. For through those very exhibitions of pleasures they slay your souls. And you go mad over who gives more. If you went mad over who keeps more, you would not be endurable. To go mad over who keeps more belongs to avarice. To go mad over who gives more belongs to wastefulness. God wants you neither avaricious nor wasteful. He wants you to lay out what you have, not to throw it away. You contend over who conquers in the worse, you do not take pains over who is better. And would that you did not give over who is worse. And you say, "We are Christians." For the favor of the populace you throw away your goods, against the commands you hold your goods. Behold, Christ does not command, Christ asks, Christ is in want. I was hungry, says Christ, and you did not give me to eat (Matt 25:42). He chose to be in want for your sake, that you might have where to sow the earthly things he gave, and reap eternal life. Do not be slothful and wrongly secure. Amend your ways, redeem your sins. And when you have done these things, give thanks to God, from whom you have received the ability to live well. And so give him thanks that you do not insult those who do not yet live well, but exhort those very people by your conduct. By doing these things, you have perfect justice, as far as it can be in this life. Conducting yourselves in good works, in prayers, in fasts, in almsgiving on account of the small sins, and abstaining from those great sins, you are reconciled with the adversary, and secure you say in prayer, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). For you have something to be forgiven you daily, who have something to forgive daily. So, walking secure on the way, you will not fear the robberies of the devil, because Christ made himself the way and the great road, and leads to the homeland. There is all security, all rest, where even the very works of mercy will cease, because there will be no want of the wretched there. It will be that sabbath of sabbaths, that what we here desire, there we may find. Amen.

Sermon 10
A Treatise of Aurelius Augustine the Bishop
On the Judgment of Solomon
Between the Two Harlot Women

1. The Scripture of Kings proclaims the marvelous judgment of Solomon between two women contending over a little son. For it is written: Then there appeared two harlot women to king Solomon, and they stood in his sight. And one woman said: Take heed, my lord, I and this woman were dwelling in one house, and I gave birth in the house. And it happened on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth to a son, and we were in one place, and there was no one with us except the two of us in the house. And the son of this woman died in the night, for she lay upon him. And she arose in the middle of the night, and took my son from my side, and laid him in her bosom, and her dead son in my bosom. And I arose in the morning to give milk to my son, and he was dead: I considered him in the morning, and behold, he was not my son whom I bore. And that other woman said, No, but my son is the one who lives, and your son is the one who is dead. And she said, No, your son is the one dead, and my son is the one who lives. And so they spoke in the sight of the king. And the king said to them: You say, This is my son who lives, and her son is dead; and you say: No, but my son lives, and her son is dead. And the king said: Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword in the sight of the king. And the king said: Divide the living child into two parts, and give half of him to this one, and half of him to this one. And the woman whose son was the one living answered, and said to the king, for her womb was stirred over her son; and she said: Take heed, my lord, give her the child and do not put him to death. And this one said: Let it be neither mine nor hers; divide it. And the king answered, and said to the woman who said: Give it to her and do not put it to death, for she is its mother (1 Kgs 3:16-27). The prudence indeed of the king, granted by a divine gift, stands out marvelous in this judgment. For it was not fitting or proper that any other be judged the mother of the child than she who in a certain way conceived him again when she knew he was taken away, and was again in travail when she defended him from the false mother, and again gave birth when she did not permit him to be killed. Nevertheless, as the divine ancient Books are accustomed to intimate not only faith in the deed done, but also the mystery of the future, this Scripture is to be considered, whether it shows us something signified and figured in these two women.

2. And the two women, the Synagogue and the Church, occur at the first glance of consideration. For the Synagogue is convicted of having killed Christ, her son born of the Jews according to the flesh, while sleeping, that is, by following the light of the present life, and not understanding the manifestation of the truth in the words of the Lord; whence it is also written, Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten you (Eph 5:14). But that there were two and only two dwelling in one house signifies, not absurdly, that besides circumcision and uncircumcision no kind of religion has been found in this world, so that in the person of one woman you set up the one kind of circumcised men comprehended under the worship and law of the one God, but in the person of the other woman you understand the whole gentile world of the uncircumcised given over to the worship of idols. But both were harlots. For the Apostle says that the Jews and the Greeks are all under sin. For every soul that, abandoning the eternity of truth, delights in earthly filth, commits fornication away from the Lord. And of the Church coming from gentile fornication it is manifest that she did not kill Christ. But how she too is the mother of Christ is to be considered. Attend to the Gospel, and hear the Lord saying, Whoever does the will of my Father, he is my mother and brother and sister (Matt 12:50). Where, then, did this one sleep, not so as to smother him with sleep, but yet so that a dead one could be substituted for her and the living one taken away? Or is it perhaps this, that the very sacrament of circumcision, which among the Jews had remained now dead because they understood all of it in a fleshly way—this sacrament of circumcision, then, which did not live among the Jews, who had killed Christ, who is the life of all the sacraments (since in him is understood vitally what among the Jews is celebrated visibly)—this sacrament of circumcision, then, like a lifeless body, certain Jews wished to persuade upon the gentiles who had believed in Christ, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, saying that they could not be saved unless they were circumcised? But they persuaded this to those ignorant of the law, as though substituting a dead son in the darkness of night. Nor yet could that persuasion avail anything, except when the sleep of folly crept in some part upon the Church of the gentiles. Whom the Apostle seems to wake as though sleeping, crying out, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? (Gal 3:1) And a little after, Are you so foolish, he says, that, having begun in the spirit, you are now made perfect in the flesh? (Gal 3:3) As if he said: Are you so foolish that, whereas you first had a living spiritual work, having lost it, you afterward receive a dead alien one? For the Apostle himself says elsewhere, The spirit is life because of righteousness (Rom 8:10). And elsewhere, But to be wise according to the flesh is death (Rom 8:6). But by these and suchlike voices that mother awakes, and morning comes for her, when, with the Word of God, that is, with Christ, who was rising, that is, speaking in Paul, the obscurity of the law is enlightened. For he enlightened her when he said, Tell me, you who wish to be under the law, have you not heard the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one of the slave woman and one of the free woman: but he who was of the slave woman was born according to the flesh; but he who was of the free woman, by promise; which things are an allegory. For these are the two Testaments, one indeed from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery, which is Hagar. For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia, which is joined to that which now is Jerusalem: for she serves with her children. But the Jerusalem which is above is free (Gal 4:21-26). No wonder, then, if on account of dead works the dead one belongs to her who is below, and on account of spiritual works the living one belongs to that Jerusalem which is above. For the lower regions are below, to which the dead belong; but the higher are above, to which the living belong. By this enlightenment, as though morning being made, the Church understands spiritual grace, repelling from herself the fleshly work of the law as a dead alien thing, and claiming for herself the living faith, since the just lives by faith (Rom 1:17), which she has obtained in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and therefore, like a three-day-old son, she recognizes him for certain, nor does she suffer him to be snatched from her.

3. Now let that one cry out that the Gospel is hers, as though owed to her and generated by her. For this they said to the gentiles in that very contention, who, being of the Jews and thinking in a fleshly way, dared to call themselves Christians. For they said that the Gospel had come as though owed to their justice. But it was not theirs, which they did not know how to hold spiritually. Therefore, in that they were called Christians, glorying in an alien name, like that woman about the son whom she herself had not borne, they dared even to contend, when they themselves, from the works of the law, with spiritual understanding excluded, as though had cast out the soul from the body of their work, and, extinguishing the living spirit of prophecy, had remained at fleshly works without life, that is, without spiritual understanding. Which they desired even to substitute upon the gentiles, and from them to take away, as a living son, the Christian name. Whom the Apostle so refutes that he says that Christian grace belongs to them the less, the more they claim it for themselves as though owed, and as though by the right of works glory that it is their own. For to him who works, he says, the wage is not reckoned according to grace but according to debt. But to him who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness (Rom 4:4-5). And therefore he excludes those also from their number who, being of the Jews, had rightly believed and retained living spiritual grace. These remnants he says were made safe of the people of the Jews, when the multitude went into perdition. So then even at this time, he says, a remnant according to the election of grace has been made safe. But if by grace, then no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace (Rom 11:5-6), so that those are excluded from grace who claim the reward of the Gospel as though their own, that is, as owed and given to their works, as though the Synagogue cried out: The son is mine. But she lied. For she too had received him, but, sleeping upon him, that is, being proudly wise, had killed him. But this mother was now awake and understood that, not by her merits—for she is a harlot—but by the grace of God, a son was granted to her, namely the work of evangelical faith which she desired to nurse in the bosom of her heart. And so that one sought the glory of men in another's son; this one kept the affection of love in her own.

4. But that royal judgment between the two admonishes us of nothing else than that we should contend for the truth, and drive out hypocrisy as a false mother from the spiritual gift of the Church as from an alien living son, and not allow her to lord it over the grace granted to others, who could not keep her own. But let us do this, defending and contending, not even to the danger of division. For that sentence of the judge, when he ordered the little one to be divided, is not the cutting off of unity, but the proof of love. For the name of Solomon, as the Latins interpret it, is "peaceful." The peaceful king, then, does not tear apart the members which by unity and concord contain the vital spirit. But by threatening he finds the true mother, and by judging he separates the false. If, then, it comes to a temptation of this kind, lest the unity of Christian grace be divided, we are taught to say, "Give her the child, only let him live." For the true mother seeks not the honor of the mother but the safety of the son. Wherever he is, the sincere love of the mother will possess him more than the usurpation of the false one.

5. Likewise I see that these two women in one house signify two kinds of men in one Church: one of those in whom pretense rules, the other in whom true love reigns. So that we may altogether regard these two as two women, love and pretense. For pretense deceitfully imitates love. And therefore the Apostle guards against this, when he says, Love without pretense (Rom 12:9). For although they dwell in one house, as long as that Gospel net is in the sea, and encloses good and bad fish at once until it is brought to shore, yet each does her own works. But both were harlots, because all are converted to the grace of God from the desire of the world, nor can anyone truly glory in prior merits of justice. But that a harlot commits fornication is her own; that she has a son is God's. For all men are formed by the one God the Creator. Nor is it to be wondered at that even in the sins of men God works well. For even from the crime of Judas the betrayer our Lord worked the salvation of the human race. But there is this difference, that when God has done something good from the sin of someone, generally the sinner himself would not wish it. Not only because, when he sins, he sins not with that mind by which providence God works justice from his sin—for not with that mind did Judas betray Christ with which Christ suffered himself to be betrayed—but also because, when he has come to know that the outcome of his sin has reached something better which he himself would not wish, he grieves rather than rejoices. As if someone wishing to give poison to a sick enemy is deceived in the appearance of the medicine, and offers one thing for another, something healthful, and the sick man becomes well by the kindness of God, who wished to turn the crime of his enemy into health. Which, however, when that wicked man has come to know, he is tormented over the health of the man which was accomplished through his hands. But if a harlot gladly keeps a conceived son, and, impelled neither by lust nor by avarice of base wages, does not cast out by a draught of abortion from her womb what she had conceived, lest fecundity contradict her sinning, that desire which was flowing out into many, converted to the one gift of God, will now be named not desire but love. The son of the harlot, then, is rightly understood as the grace of the sinful woman. But from the old baseness a new man is born by the pardon of sins.

6. The Lord, then, even in the very number of his disciples, although he chose all of them from sinners, nevertheless chose first those who would persevere in love, rather than Judas the pretender. It is not indeed written in what order he was chosen, yet it is known that the good were chosen before him, and not in vain is he numbered last. And after the Lord's ascension, the Holy Spirit, according to the Lord's promise, sent down from above, was poured out upon all who were in one place. By these the Church began; they were good and loved without pretense. Afterward, then, pretense began to work in the Church, and therefore love first gave birth. But on the third day the fruit of love is greater, so that it can now be recognized by continence and justice and the expectation of things to come. But pretense, even if it gives birth, that is, even if for a short time it has rejoiced in the remission of sins, oppressed as though by the worldly sleep of desire, when, cast down from the hope of heavenly rewards, it is dashed back into earthly rest with a heavy heart, as though sleeping it smothers the pardon which by believing it had merited. But such people prefer to rejoice in the name of justice rather than in the truth, and they try, by lying, to transfer to themselves another's good work through dark deceptions, as a living son through the night. And they not only usurp the good works of others, but also lay upon others their own crimes, as though substituting a dead son.

7. But when will pretense be permitted so much that it may glory under the false name of justice, with no one forbidding, and apply to itself, for the deceitful boasting of the maternal name, the living spiritual work which it did not itself beget, and which it once had begotten in itself but extinguished by the weight of a most cruel sleep, and substitute its own crimes by laying them upon the good and innocent? When, then, will pretense so reign, except when iniquity shall abound, that is, the darkness of sins shall prevail as though in a blind night, and the love of many shall grow cold, that is, the mother of the spiritual work, like the living child, shall fall asleep? Yet because love will so grow cold as to burn more negligently—for it was not said that it shall be utterly extinguished so as not to be at all—this mother so slept as not to kill her son, but yet gave place to the frauds of pretense. But, awakened, when she sees the impiety which she herself did not do laid upon her by those who do it, and perceives that pretense dares to glory in the spiritual work of grace which she kept, that she is named a worker of iniquity but pretense the mother of the good work, she implores the help of the peaceful Judge. For Solomon is interpreted "peaceful." Whom we see to have pronounced two sentences, the first as though of one ignorant, the last of one judging with manifest knowledge. The first proposes a contest of devotion, the second gives the reward to the victor. In the first the mother is proved, in the last she nurses. In the first, weeping, she casts her seed, in the second, with exultation, she carries back her sheaves. Which pertains to the two times of the Church which the Lord Christ, the peaceful judge, governs: one that now is, the other that is to come. In this we are proved, in that we are crowned.

8. But there is no greater proof of love in the Church of Christ than when even the honor itself which seems to be among men is despised, lest the members of the little one be divided and the Christian weakness be torn apart by the rending of unity. For the Apostle says that he showed himself as a mother to the little ones in whom he had done the good evangelical work—not he himself, but the grace of God with him. For that harlot could call nothing her own but her sins, but the gift of fecundity from God. But the grace of the giver is loved the more, the more punishment was owed. And the Lord says well of the harlot, To whom much is forgiven, she loves much (Luke 7:47). So the apostle Paul says, I became a little one in your midst, as if a nurse should cherish her children (1 Thess 2:7). But when it comes to the danger by which the little one is divided, when pretense claims false honor for itself and is prepared to cut unity, let the mother despise her own honor, so long as she sees the son whole and keeps him alive, lest perhaps, while she too obstinately claims the honor owed to her own womb, she give place to pretense to divide the weak members by the sword of schism. Let the mother, love, then, say, Give her the child. Whether by occasion or by truth, let Christ be proclaimed (Phil 1:18). In Moses love cries out, Lord, either forgive them, or blot me out of your book (Exod 32:32). But in the Pharisees pretense speaks, If we let him go, the Romans will come and take away from us our nation and our place (John 11:48). For they wished to have not the truth but the name of justice, and they desired to hold the honor owed to the just through deceit. Yet pretense, reigning in them, was permitted to sit in the chair of Moses, so that it could be said by the Lord, What they say, do, but what they do, do not wish to do (Matt 23:2-3); so that, having false honor, they might nevertheless by the truth of the Scriptures nurse the little and weak ones. For pretense has its own crime, by which it extinguished, by the weight of its sleep, the new man whom it had received through the grace of the giver, but the milk of faith which it has is not its own. Because, even with the little one killed, who signifies the life being reborn, pretense, now established in evil ways, nevertheless retains in memory, as in its breasts, the words of faith and the Christian teaching which is handed on to all who come to the Church. From this milk even a false mother could pour into the little one sucking the juice of true faith nevertheless. Hence the true mother is secure, when even by pretenders in the Church her little one is nursed with the milk of the divine Scriptures of the Catholic faith, when, division being forbidden, unity is safe, and the last sentence of the judge, by which the last judgment of Christ is figured, love being proved, which for the safety of the little one and the firmness of unity yielded honor even to pretense, so that, holding the love and embrace of life-giving grace, it may enjoy the everlasting reward of the devout mother.

Sermon 11
A Treatise of Saint Augustine
On Holy Elijah and on the Patience of Job

1. The Lord our God, not wishing any of us to perish, tending his Church as his own field, seeking fruit from his trees before the time of the axe comes, when it will be necessary to cut down the unfruitful trees, does not cease to admonish us that, while it is the time and while by God's help it stands in our power, we should do good works. For when the time of working well has passed, there remains nothing but receiving. No one will say to you after the resurrection of the dead in the kingdom of God, Break your bread to the hungry (Isa 58:7), because you will find no one hungry. No one will say, "Clothe the naked," where the tunic of all will be immortality. No one will say, "Take in the stranger," where all will live in their own homeland, for now we are strangers from there. No one will say, "Visit the sick," where there is everlasting health. No one will say, "Bury the dead," where death dies. All these offices of devotion will not be necessary in eternal life, where there will be only peace and everlasting gladness. But in this time, that we may know how greatly God commends to us the works of mercy, he has made even his own saints to be in need, so that, when they here make friends of the mammon of iniquity, those friends too may receive them into the eternal dwellings. That is, so that, when the devout servants of God, while they are continually at leisure for God, sometimes are in need, those who have the riches of the world may bestow alms. As they make them partakers in earthly substance, so they will deserve to have a portion with them in eternal life.

2. This I said on account of the reading of Kings, which we heard first. Had God failed to feed his servant Elijah? Did not birds minister to him, because men were lacking? Did not a raven bring him bread in the morning and meat in the evening? God showed, then, that whence he wished and how he wished he can feed his servants. And yet, that a devout widow might be able to feed him, he made him to be in need. The want of the holy soul was turned into the abundance of the devout soul. Could not Elijah, out of God's mercy, give himself what he gave to the little jar? You see, surely, and it is manifest, that sometimes the servants of God do not have, so that those who have may be proved. And yet that widow had nothing. What was left to her was finished, and she was about to die with her sons. She went out, then, to make herself bread, to gather two sticks, and then Elijah saw her. The man of God saw her then, when she was seeking those two sticks. That woman bore the type of the Church. And because two sticks make a cross, she who was about to die was seeking that whence she might live forever. The mystery being thus foreshadowed, Elijah speaks to her what he heard. She tells her plight, says she is about to die when she has consumed what is left. Where, then, is what the Lord had said to Elijah, Go to Zarephath of Sidon; for there I have commanded a widow to feed you (1 Kgs 17:9)? You see how God commands, not in the ear but in the heart. Do we read that some Prophet was sent to that woman, and it was said to her, "Behold—the Lord says—my hungering servant is coming to you, minister to him of what you have; do not fear want; I will supply what you give"? We do not read that this was said to her. Nor do we read that an angel was sent to her in dreams and foretold that Elijah was coming hungry, and that someone admonished that woman about feeding him. But God commands in wonderful ways, who speaks by thought. We say that God commanded by speaking in the heart, by suggesting what was needful, by persuading what was useful to the rational soul, the widow woman. So too in the Prophets we read that the Lord commanded a worm to gnaw the root of the gourd. What is "He commanded," except "He prepared the heart"? By the Lord's inspiration, then, that widow woman had her heart prepared to obey. Such she had come, such she spoke with Elijah. He who was in Elijah to command, was himself in the widow to obey. Go, he says, make for me first (1 Kgs 17:13) out of your want, your riches will not fail. For the widow's patrimony was a little flour and a little oil. This little did not fail. Who has such an estate? Gladly the widow fed the hungering servant of God, because her patrimony hung on a peg. What is happier than this poverty? If here she receives such things, what will she hope for at the end?

3. I said this, that we may hope for the reward of our sowing, not in this time in which we have sown. For here we sow the harvest of good works with labor, but in the future we shall gather its fruit with joy, according to what is written: Going, they went and wept, casting their seeds; but coming, they will come with exultation, carrying their sheaves (Ps 126:6 (125:6)). For that was done for a sign, not for a gift. For that widow received here what she received for feeding the man of God. It is not great what she sowed, because she did not reap a great crop. It is temporal what she received, flour that did not fail and oil that was not diminished, until God should give rain upon the earth—as though she then began to be more in need, when God deigned to send rain. For then she was about to labor, to await the fruits of the field, to gather. But when it did not rain, her food came easily. This sign, which God bestowed on her for a few days, was a sign of the future life, where our reward knows no failing. Our flour will be God. As those did not fail through those days, so he will not fail forever. Let us hope for such a reward when we do good works, lest perhaps any of you be tempted by such a thought and say, "I will feed some hungering servant of God, that my jar may not fail, or that I may always find wine in my cask." Do not seek this here. Sow secure, your harvest will come later, will come more slowly, but when it comes, it will have no end.

Sermon 12
A Treatise Against the Manichees
On What Is Written in Job:
"And Behold, the Angels Came Into the Sight of God
And the Devil in the Midst of Them" and So on
And on What Is in the Gospel:
"Blessed Are the Pure in Heart, for They Shall See God"

1. That the Manichees, with most fraudulent deceit, lie in wait against the divine and holy old Books, we trust, dearly beloved brothers, has already been sufficiently proved to your prudence. Yet we still set their deceits before the eyes of your heart to be inspected, so that you may not only avoid them as far as concerns yourselves, but also teach others, the weak and the unlearned in the divine readings, as each of you can, to avoid and despise them. "In Job it is written," they say, "Behold, the angels came into the sight of God, and the devil in the midst of them. And God said to the devil: Whence do you come? And he, answering, said: I have come from going around the whole world (Job 1:6-7)." "Here," they say, "it is shown that the devil not only saw God, but even spoke with him. But in the Gospel he says, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). And again he says, I am the door; no one can come to the Father except through me (John 10:9; 14:6)." Then they add a reasoning, saying, "If, then, those alone who are pure in heart see God, how could the devil, with a most filthy and most unclean heart, see God? Or how does he enter through the door, that is, through Christ? Again," they say, "the Apostle attests and confirms, saying, that neither Principalities nor Powers nor Virtues knew God."

2. Their slander indeed is set forth up to this point in altogether these words, and it is truly a question to be discussed by a Christian. But the mind of those proposing that slander aims, in like manner, to twist the unlearned away from the most salutary authority of the Scriptures into believing them. But first I would wish to ask these people where Adimantus read in the Apostle—for he is the writer of such slanders—I would wish, then, that he say where he read the Apostle attesting and confirming, as he says, that neither Principalities nor Powers nor Virtues knew God, when the Lord says that even the angels of the men who believe in him daily see the face of the Father. Unless perhaps that which the apostle Paul says, We speak wisdom among the perfect, but a wisdom not of this world, nor of the princes of this world, who are brought to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which is hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew. For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:6-8)? If he was thinking of writing down this passage, why did he add Powers and Virtues, which is not said there, and take away of this world, which is said? But would that he had done this through error rather than malice. Nevertheless, even if the Apostle had spoken in this way, could the devil not on that account hear the voice of God? For it is written that he came into the sight of God; it is not written that he himself beheld God. For the princes of this world are understood either as proud men, lifted up by the vain pomp of boasting, or as the devil himself and his angels. For the Lord most plainly calls him the prince or magistrate of this world, because by the name of this world sinners are understood, whose hope is nothing except in this world. For just as a house is called bad when its inhabitants are meant, so we call this world bad when we mean those who inhabit this world in their heart, that is, whose conversation is not in heaven. For our conversation, says the Apostle, is in heaven (Phil 3:20). But all sins serve the devil, who by free choice wished to be the prince of sin: therefore he is called the prince of this world. This rule of understanding I urge you to fix in your hearts. By it the Lord will help you to discuss and resolve many things of the Scriptures, with which they bait the snares of their error.

3. Since, then, it is not written that the devil saw God, but only that he came with the angels into the sight of the Lord and heard his voice, why do these wretches strive to slander the Scriptures and pervert the unlearned about the vision of God? Wherefore this proposition of theirs is overcome by a very brief reply. For however much, with whatever loquacity, they inquire how the devil saw God, we answer: The devil did not see God. They will say, "How, then, did he speak with him?" Here indeed the blindness of their heart is to be convicted not by us but by blind men. For those who are blind in the eyes of the flesh can daily speak with those whom they cannot see. "How, then," they say, "did he come into his sight?" As a blind man into the sight of one who sees, whom he himself does not behold. And these likenesses indeed, dearly beloved brothers, are said for this, that the wickedness of fleshly men may be refuted, so that, if it can be, repelled in this way, they may turn their hearts to the gentleness of learning. For is God contained in a place, who is present to every angelic and human conscience, not only of the good but also of the wicked? But there is this difference, that he is present to good consciences as a Father, to wicked ones as a judge, since it is written, The Lord questions the just and the ungodly (Ps 11:5 (10:6)). Likewise it is written, In the thoughts of the ungodly there shall be questioning (Wis 1:9). Nor does God question more vehemently in the ears of the body than in the secret of thought, where he alone hears, he alone is heard. Do not even wicked men, when sometimes they speak the truth and are not believed, swear and say, "God is witness," and say it most truly? Where, I ask, is he witness? On the tongue, or in the heart? In the sound of the voice, or in the silence of conscience? But why do they generally fret because they are not believed, when they know they speak the truth, except because they cannot open their heart to us, where God is witness?

4. Now there are many ways by which God speaks with us. He speaks sometimes through some instrument, as through the codex of the divine Scriptures. He speaks through some element of the world, as he spoke to the Magi through a star. For what is speech, except the signification of a will? He speaks through a lot, as he spoke concerning Matthias to be ordained in the place of Judas. He speaks through a human soul, as through a prophet. He speaks through an angel, as we receive that he spoke to certain of the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles. He speaks through some vocal and sounding creature, as we read and hold that voices were made from heaven, when no one was seen with the eyes. Finally, to the man himself, not outwardly through his ears or eyes, but inwardly in the mind, God speaks not in one way, but either in dreams, as it was shown to Laban the Syrian that he should not harm Jacob his servant in anything, and to Pharaoh about the seven plentiful years and as many barren ones; or with the spirit of the man taken up, which the Greeks call "ecstasy," as to Peter praying a vessel full of likenesses of the gentiles who would believe seemed to be let down from heaven; or in the mind itself, when anyone understands the majesty or the will, as Peter himself, from that very vision, by thinking within himself, came to know what the Lord wished him to do. For no one can do this, except by recognizing it within himself, with a certain silent cry of truth sounding. God speaks also in the conscience of the good and the wicked. For no one can rightly either approve what he does well or disapprove what he sins, except by the voice of truth either praising or crying out to those same things in the silence of the heart. But truth is God: who, since he speaks to men both good and wicked in so many ways—although not all to whom he speaks in so many ways can behold his substance and nature—what man can, by conjecturing or thinking, gather how many and by what ways the same Truth speaks to the angels, whether to the good who enjoy his ineffable form and beauty by contemplating it through wondrous love, or to the wicked who, depraved through their pride and ranked by Truth itself in the lower regions, can hear his voice by certain hidden ways, although they are not worthy to see his face?

5. Wherefore, dearly beloved brothers, faithful of God and most genuine sons of our Catholic mother, let no one deceive you with poisoned foods, even if you are still to be nursed with milk. Walk perseveringly now through faith in the truth, that at the certain and opportune time you may be able to come to the sight of that same Truth. For as the Apostle says, While we remain here in the body, we are pilgrims away from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:6-7). But to the sight of the vision of the Father the Christian faith leads. Whence the Lord says, No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). In vain, then, do these people ask how the devil could come to God through Christ. For the devil cannot arrive at that blessedness of contemplation, to which the Christian faith leads those who are pure in heart (Matt 5:8). Nor yet on that account could the devil not hear the voice of God speaking, as many men too who did not believe in Christ were able to hear the voice from heaven of God saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it (John 12:28), when the Lord had said, Father, glorify your Son (John 12:28; 17:1).

6. But that it is written that the devil came into the sight of God, it is not written for this, that anyone can ever flee the sight of God, to whose eyes all things are subjected, and to whom the depth of any heart lies open, but because in the secret of the creature were done the things which Scripture narrated, therefore it is written, And behold, the angels came into the sight of God (Job 1:6), although they never depart from the sight of God. For wherever they are sent, there too the sight of God is present. But that is properly called the sight of God which human sight cannot penetrate, as are the secrets of conscience. Therefore, when we refute a liar, we do not say that he spoke in the sight of God, because he did not speak that which God beholds in his mind, to which a man cannot direct his sight. Because, then, these things were done so hiddenly that they could not be indicated to men through the holy Scriptures except by the revealing of the Holy Spirit, it is narrated that one came into the sight of God, and that there these things were done.

7. But that the devil was in the midst of the angels, if you understand good angels, so understand the devil in the midst of them as a defendant stands in the midst of the officers to be heard by the judge. For Scripture does not declare what kind of angels those were. But if in the midst of evil angels, what wonder is it that the prince and leader is surrounded by a throng of his ministers? But if you take what was said, "into the sight of God," so that those come into the sight of God who are not only beheld by him but also behold him, then it is to be understood that the devil was in the midst of them in such a way that he nevertheless did not see the God whom they themselves saw, so that God even spoke to the devil through some one of the holy angels. Nor yet is it written in the book except, God said. As also in public affairs, although the judge speaks most things through a herald, yet the judge's name, when the proceedings are written, is inserted, not also the herald's. But as some man unworthy of prophetic vision can nevertheless stand in the midst of the Prophets, so as only to hear what the Lord says through them, nor yet see what they see, so the devil too could be in the midst of the holy angels who see God, through whom he might hear the voice of God, whom he himself could not see.

8. And the contrivances of the Manichees, as far as pertains to this question, you perceive to have been resolved in many ways, so that you no longer think, dearest brothers, that the devil truly so spoke with God that he could even see the face of truth which pure hearts behold, or that he came to that contemplation of blessedness, to which no one is permitted to come except through the Lord Jesus Christ. But yet I greatly marvel at the shamelessness of these people, who wish to slander us about the vision of the divine substance, and lie that what is not written in our Scriptures, that the devil saw God, and try hence to establish such great ill-will, that whoever shudders and judges it unworthy that the devil should have seen God may be utterly turned away from the authority of the divine Scriptures by a suspicious ignorance not understanding what is written, when they themselves do not deny that our Lord Jesus Christ is God, and yet pretend that he appeared to men without the assumption of a human body.

9. When, then, the devil dared to tempt the Lord, since he saw him, what did he see? If he saw his body, then the Lord had a body, which the lost ones are unwilling to confess. But if he did not have a body, the divine substance itself lay open to the eyes of the devil. Which, if none see it except those who are pure in heart, as they themselves remind us from the Gospel, O the importunate blindness of the heretics! Why do you mendaciously charge our Scriptures, that the devil saw God, and, by denying the body of Christ, are convicted of wishing to publish his divine substance to the eyes of the devil? Or perhaps, as they are accustomed to say, did he so not have a human body, that he nevertheless showed himself as though having one? Who, then, thinks more truly and more rightly, you madmen—he who believes that God spoke with the devil, or he who believes that God not only spoke with the devil, but even lied to the devil? For Scripture recalls that certain angels appeared to human eyes. But certainly the Lord so subjected the corporeal creature to their power that he fitted it to them according to their will. Whence they too, although not born of a woman, nevertheless had a true body, which they might change from any one form into any other form according to the reason of their ministry and office, yet from a true into a true. For neither can we say of the Lord himself, when he turned water into wine, that either the water was false or the wine was false.

10. And so every body, whose nature and order is changeable, into whatever forms it has been changed at the nod of the most omnipotent Founder, nevertheless does not depart from the truth in its own kind, since by whatever variety it is changed, it does not cease to be both a body and a true body. But since these people pretend that all corporeal nature is not from God the omnipotent founder, but from some race of darkness—I know not what—we ask of them whence our Lord Jesus Christ assumed a body. For if they say that he assumed no body, what was that which appeared to human and corporeal eyes? For either it was the lie of a phantasm, which it is execrable to believe; or, if they contend that he showed his very divine substance to human eyes with no assumption of a body, and the devil too saw this, where is what they proclaim in this question with slanderous voice, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8)? But if perhaps they say that the divine and proper substance of the Lord is not such with the Father as he wished to show himself on earth with no body assumed, what else have the wretches believed but that he is changeable in places and times? For they are unwilling to read, or cannot easily understand, what is said through the Prophet, You shall change them and they shall be changed; but you are the same, and your years shall not fail (Ps 102:26-27 (101:27-28)). And what is written in the divine letters of Wisdom about Wisdom itself, Remaining in herself she makes all things new (Wis 7:27).

11. But according to their thinking, if someone says to them, "Why, then, do you wonder if God too changed the form of his divinity, so that the devil who is most filthy in heart could behold him, as it seems to you concerning Christ God?"—what they will answer I do not know. For they have never dared to say that the Father and the Son are anything but of one substance. And if they said that the Son is of another substance, it could be answered them, "Whence, then, do you know whether that old Scripture recalls that the devil spoke with the Father or with the Son?" Then we ask, "Does the devil see this sun, or does he not see it? If he sees it, how then is the sun God, which the devil sees? If he does not see it, yet wicked men see it; how then is it God which those see who are not pure in heart? Or if it too was changed in order to be seen, and is not what it is seen to be, what then if you too show one thing and are another, so that you may be able even to imitate the sun, not only to adore it?" And yet, if you ask them whether the divine substance is changeable or unchangeable, they cannot but say unchangeable, taught not by reason but confounded by shame. It remains, then, that they be forced to confess that our Lord Jesus Christ assumed a body from elsewhere, that he might appear to human eyes. And if they confess this, I ask whence he assumed it. If they say from this world, I ask whence is the body of the world itself? Immediately they answer me, "From the race of darkness." O wondrous madness! Why, then, wretches, do you fear the womb of the Virgin in the body of the Savior, and do not fear the race of demons?

12. We indeed profess that the whole nature of body is from God the omnipotent founder. And therefore from wherever our Lord assumed a body, he would assume it from his own creature. But he preferred it from a woman. For he had come to free the human creature, which fell through a woman. Whence, wishing to bring both sexes into the hope of renewal and restoration, he chose the male in which he would be born, the female through whom he would be born. But you who shudder at the chaste inward parts of the virgin, choose, I beg, whence the Lord should assume a body. You say that all body is the substance of the race of darkness. Choose, then, as I said, whence the Son of God ought to assume a body. Or have you lost the light of answering, because darkness meets you wherever you turn your eyes? "But mortal flesh," they say, "seems more unclean." Recite to them the Apostle: All things are clean to the clean (Titus 1:15). And recite against them the Apostle: But to the unclean and unbelieving nothing is clean, but both their mind and their conscience are polluted (Titus 1:15). But if they say not "more unclean" but "weaker," we agree plainly. And therefore Christ is our strength, because our weakness did not change him. Here I recognize that voice of the Prophet, You shall change them and they shall be changed; but you are the same, and your years shall not fail (Ps 102:26-27 (101:27-28)). For not only did the weakness of the flesh not change him for the worse, but by him it itself was changed for the better. This corporeal sun, which they think is not a body—so far do they not understand even what a body is, who deceitfully boast of spiritual disputations—this corporeal sun, then, only because it is a heavenly body, illuminates the earth and is not itself darkened by it; dries water and is not moistened by it; melts ice and is not chilled by it; hardens mud and is not softened by it. And our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of the Father, through whom all things were made, the Power and Wisdom of God, everywhere present, everywhere hidden, everywhere whole, nowhere enclosed, reaching mightily from end to end and disposing all things sweetly—do the unhappy ones fear that he could not so assume a man as to give life to mortal things and not be put to death by them, sanctify flesh and not be polluted by it, dissolve death and not be bound by it, change man into himself and not be changed into man? We have been compelled to dispute one thing from another, on account of the wavering and dangerous weakness of faith of certain people. But as far as concerns the proposed question, although that Scripture, by which they preferred to lie in wait rather than to be enlightened, does not prove that God was seen by the devil, yet let them themselves see how the race of darkness could see the divine substance, when before the battle in which they say good and evil were mixed, the divine substance had as yet assumed no body, so as to be able to be seen by its enemy. From which let them recognize that in vain they wish to overthrow the foundations of the Catholic faith, since they cannot prop up their ruinous fables with any supports of answers whatever.

Sermon 13
A Sermon Delivered at the Table of Saint Cyprian
On the Sixth Day Before the Kalends of June
On the Psalm Where It Is Said:
"Be Instructed, All You Who Judge the Earth"

1. Be instructed, all you who judge the earth (Ps 2:10). To judge the earth is to tame the body. Let us hear the Apostle judging the earth: I do not so fight, he says, as one beating the air, but I chastise my body and bring it into servitude, lest perhaps, preaching to others, I myself become a castaway (1 Cor 9:26-27). Hear, then, earth, the one judging the earth, and judge the earth that you may not be earth. For if you judge the earth, you will be heaven, and you will recount the glory of the Lord made in you. For the heavens recount the glory of God (Ps 19:1 (18:2)). But if you do not judge the earth, you will be earth. But if you are earth, you will belong to him to whom it was said, You shall eat earth (Gen 3:14). Let the judges of the earth, then, hear. Let them chastise the body, bridle lusts, love wisdom, conquer desire. And that they may do this, let them be instructed.

2. But this is the sum of instruction: Serve the Lord in fear and exult in him with trembling (Ps 2:11)—to exult in him, not in oneself: in him from whom is whatever you are, both that you are a man, and that you are just, if indeed you are now just. But if you think that you are indeed a man from him, but just from yourself, you do not serve the Lord in fear, nor exult in him with trembling, but in yourself in presumption. And what will happen to you, except what follows? Lest at any time the Lord be angry and you perish, it says, from the just way (Ps 2:12). For it does not say, "Lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you do not enter the just way," but, you perish from the just way. For now you seem just to yourself, by not seizing another's goods, not committing adultery, not committing murder, not bearing false witness against your neighbor, by honoring father and mother, by worshiping one God, by not serving idols and demons. From this way you will perish, if you presume these things to yourself, if you think these things are from yourself. For the unbelieving do not enter the just way; the proud perish from the just way. For what does it say? Be instructed, you who judge the earth (Ps 2:10). And lest perhaps you attribute to yourselves the strength and power by which you judge the earth, and believe it to be yours from yourselves, do not do so: Serve the Lord in fear; exult, not in yourselves in presumption, but in him in fear, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way, when his anger shall blaze up quickly (Ps 2:11-12). What, then, is to be done that we may not perish from the just way? Blessed are all who trust in him (Ps 2:12). If blessed are those who trust in him, wretched are those who trust in themselves. For cursed is every man who places his hope in man (Jer 17:5); therefore not in yourself either, because you too are a man. For if you place your hope in another man, you will be disorderedly humble. But if you place your hope in yourself, you are dangerously proud. But what is the difference? Both are ruinous; neither of these is to be chosen. The disorderedly humble is not raised up, the dangerously proud is cast down.

3. Finally, let your Holiness know that these words were said for the refuting and consuming of that thinking by which each one trusts in himself: Serve the Lord in fear and exult in him with trembling (Ps 2:11); hear the Apostle saying these same words, and explaining why the sentence was said. Behold, the words are the Apostle's: With fear and trembling work out your own salvation (Phil 2:12). "Why, then, do I work out my salvation with fear and trembling, when it is in my power to work out my salvation?" Do you wish to hear why with fear and trembling? For it is God who works in you (Phil 2:13). Therefore with fear and trembling. Because what the humble obtains, the proud loses. If, then, it is God who works in us, why was it said, Work out your own salvation? Because he so works in us that we also work. Be my helper (Ps 30:10 (29:11)). He designates himself a worker too, who calls upon a helper. "But my will," he says, "is good." I grant it, yours. But by whom was it given, by whom roused? Do not hear me, ask the Apostle: For it is God, he says, who works in you both to will—he works in you both to will—and to work, for his good pleasure (Phil 2:13). What, then, was it that you arrogated to yourself? What was it that you went proud and perished? Return to your heart, find yourself evil, and that you may be good, call upon the Good. For nothing in you pleases God except what you have from God; but what you have from yourself displeases God. If you consider your good things, what have you that you did not receive? But if you received, why do you glory as though you had not received? (1 Cor 4:7) He alone is the one who knows nothing but to give. He has no giver, who has no better. Than whom if you are inferior—rather, because you are inferior—be glad that you were made to his image, that you may be found in him, you who in yourself perished. For in yourself you could do nothing but lose yourself; you do not know how to find yourself, unless he who made you seeks you.

4. Yet let us also address those who judge the earth according to this visible and popular understanding. For kings, leaders, princes, judges judge the earth. Each one, according to the office he has received, judges the earth. But what is it that is said, "He judges the earth," except that he judges the men who are on the earth? For if you do not take "earth" properly except as that which you tread, then it was said to farmers, You who judge the earth (Ps 2:10). But further, if kings judge the earth, and whoever under kings receive power from kings, let these too be instructed, because earth judges earth, and ought to fear him who is in heaven, earth judging earth. For he judges his own equal, man judges man, mortal mortal, sinner sinner. For if that saying of the Lord should come forth into the midst, Whoever is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her (John 8:7), does not everyone judging the earth suffer an earthquake? Let us recall the chapter of the Gospel. The Pharisees, tempting the Lord, brought before him a woman caught in adultery, for which sin the penalty had been defined by the law, namely the law given through Moses the servant of God. With this deceitful and fraudulent dilemma, then, the Pharisees came to the Lord, so that if he ordered the disgraced woman to be stoned, he would lose his gentleness, but if he forbade what the law had ordered, he would be held to have sinned against the law. But just as, when they questioned him about paying tribute to Caesar, he caught them by their own mouth, asking in turn whose was the coin produced, whose image and inscription it bore—those who questioned answering that the image of Caesar was on the coin, he answered them according to their own mouth, Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's (Matt 22:21), so that he might admonish that the image of God in man is to be rendered to God just as on a coin its image is rendered to Caesar. So too in the case of this adulteress he questioned the questioners, and therefore judged the judges. "I do not forbid," he says, "that she be stoned whom the law ordered to be stoned, but I ask by whom. For I do not resist, but I require a minister of the law." Hear, finally: "Do you wish to stone according to the Law? Whoever is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her (John 8:7)."

5. But when he had heard these things, with his finger he wrote on the earth, that he might instruct the earth. But when he had said this to the Pharisees, he himself lifted up his eyes, and looked upon the earth and made it tremble. Accordingly, when he had said this, he again began to write on the earth. And they, pricked and made to tremble, departed one after another. O earthquake, where the earth was so moved that it even changed its place! When they had departed, then, the sinful woman and the Savior remained. The sick woman and the physician remained. The wretched woman and mercy remained. And looking at the woman he said, Has no one condemned you? And she, No one, Lord (John 8:10-11). But yet she was still anxious. For sinners did not dare to condemn, did not dare to stone the sinful woman, who, looking at themselves, found themselves alike. But the woman was still in great danger, because that judge too remained for her who was without sin. Has no one, he says, condemned you? And she, No one, Lord: if not even you, I am secure. To which anxiety the Lord answered with silent voice, Neither will I condemn you (John 8:11). Neither will I, although I am without sin, neither will I condemn you. From vengeance conscience held them back; toward succoring, mercy inclines me.

6. Attend to these things, and be instructed, all you who judge the earth (Ps 2:10). All, namely, because it is also to be understood thus of those of whom the Apostle says, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power except from God. And those that are, are ordained of God. Whoever resists the power, resists the ordinance of God. For princes are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. But do you wish not to fear the power? Do good, and you will have praise from it (Rom 13:1-3). And if not from it, yet out of it. For either you act justly, and the just power will praise you; or, acting justly, even if an unjust power condemns you, the just God will crown you. And through this, hold to justice, live well; and whether it condemns or absolves, you will have praise out of it. That blessed one whose blood was shed here—did he not find praise from the very power before which, and by which, he was seen to be judged? He promised confession, remained in faith, did not fear death, shed his blood, conquered the devil.

7. Therefore, that you may not be of an unjust power, whoever of you men wish to have power over men, be instructed, lest you judge perversely, and perish in soul before you destroy anyone in flesh. You wish to be a judge—you cannot by merits, or by money. I do not yet reproach this. For perhaps you desire to benefit human affairs, and you buy office that you may benefit. That you may serve justice, you do not spare money. First, for your own sake, be a judge over yourself. First judge concerning yourself, that, secure about the inner chamber of your conscience, you may proceed against another. Return into yourself, attend to yourself, examine yourself, hear yourself. There I want to prove you a sound judge, where you do not seek a witness. You wish to proceed with power so that another may tell you about another what you do not know. First judge within. Did your conscience say nothing to you about yourself? If you are unwilling to deny it, it certainly said something. I do not wish to hear what it said; you who heard it, judge. It told you about yourself what you did, what you took, what you sinned. I would like to know what sentence you pronounced. If you heard well, if you heard rightly, if in hearing yourself you were just, if you ascended the tribunal of your own mind, if you suspended yourself before yourself on the rack of the heart, if you applied the grave torturers of fear, you heard well if you so heard, and without doubt by repenting you punished the sin. Behold, you both examined, and heard, and punished. And yet you spared yourself. So hear your neighbor too, if you are instructed as the psalm admonished: Be instructed, you who judge the earth (Ps 2:10).

8. If you so hear your neighbor as you hear yourself too, you will pursue the sins, not the sinner. And if perhaps someone is hard toward correcting his sins, turned away from the fear of God, you will pursue this very thing in him, this very thing you will try to correct, this you will labor to destroy and take away, that the man may be saved, the sin condemned. For there are two names, man and sinner. God made the man, the man himself made the sinner. Let what man made perish, let what God made be freed. Do not, then, go as far as death, lest, when you pursue the sin, you destroy the man. Do not go as far as death, that there may be one to repent; let the man not be killed, that there may be one to be amended. Holding this love toward men in your heart, man, be a judge of the earth. And love to terrify, but love. If you are proud, be proud against sins, not against the man. Rage against that which displeases you even in yourself, not against him who was made just as you. From one workshop you come, you had one craftsman, one clay is your material. What do you lose by not loving him whom you judge? Since you lose justice by not loving him whom you judge. But let penalties be applied. I do not refuse, I do not forbid, but with the mind of one loving, with the mind of one cherishing, with the mind of one correcting.

9. For do you not instruct your son? And you first act so that, if it can be, he may be instructed by shame and generosity, may blush to offend his father, not fear him as a stern judge. You rejoice at such a son. But if perhaps he despises these things, you apply blows too, you strike fear into him, you inflict pain, but you seek his salvation. Many have been corrected by love, many by fear, but through the trembling of fear they came to love. Be instructed, you who judge the earth (Ps 2:10). Love and judge. For innocence is not so to be sought that discipline should perish. It is written, Whoever casts away discipline is unhappy (Wis 3:11). It can well be added to this sentence: as whoever casts away discipline is unhappy, so whoever denies discipline is cruel. I have dared to say something, my brothers, which I am compelled by the obscurity of the matter itself to expound to you somewhat more fully. I repeat what I said: Whoever casts away discipline is unhappy. This is manifest. Whoever does not give discipline is cruel. I hold it entirely, I hold it and show it: by striking, devout; by sparing, cruel. I set an example before your eyes. Where do I find one devout in striking? I do not go to others, I go to a father and son. A father even when he strikes, loves. And the boy does not want to be beaten. He despises the wish, he consults for the advantage. Why? Because he is a father, because he prepares an inheritance, because he nurtures a successor. Behold, by striking the father is devout, by striking he is merciful. Give me a man cruel in sparing. I do not depart from these persons, I set these very ones before my eyes. But if an untrained and undisciplined boy lives so as to perish, and the father overlooks it, the father spares, the father fears to offend his lost son by the harshness of discipline, is he not cruel in sparing? Be instructed, therefore, you who judge the earth (Ps 2:10), and by judging well, expect a reward not from the earth but from him who made heaven and earth.

Sermon 14
A Sermon Delivered at Carthage
In the Basilica of the New Men on a Sunday
On the Verse of the Psalm: "to You the Poor Man Is Left,
You Will Be a Helper to the Orphan"

1. We have sung to the Lord and said, To you the poor man is left, you will be a helper to the orphan (Ps 10:14 (9:35)). Let us seek the poor man, let us seek the orphan. And let it not be a wonder that I admonish us to seek what we perceive and feel to be so abundant. Are not all things full of the poor? Are not all things full of orphans? Yet among all I seek the orphan. And first it must be shown to your Charity that what we suppose is not what we seek. For those who are poor, toward whom commands and almsgivings are made by God, of whom we confess it is written, Shut up almsgiving in the heart of the poor, and it will pray for you to the Lord (Sir 29:12)—this kind of men indeed abounds, but this poor man is to be understood more deeply. This poor man is of that kind of which it was said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3). There are poor who, having no money, scarcely finding daily food, are so in need of others' resources through pity that they do not even blush to beg; if of these it was said, To you the poor man is left (Ps 10:14 (9:35)), what do we, who are not this, do? Therefore are we who are Christians not left to God? And what other hope is there for us, if we are not left to him who has not left us?

2. Learn, then, to be poor and to be left to God, O my fellow poor! He is rich, he is proud. For even in those riches which are commonly called riches, to which that common poverty is contrary—in those riches, then, nothing is so to be guarded against as the disease of pride. For he who has no money does not have very great resources, does not have wherewith to exalt himself. If, then, he who does not have wherewith to exalt himself is not praised for the fact that he does not exalt himself, let him who has be praised, if he does not exalt himself. Why, then, do I praise the humble poor man, who has nothing to be proud of? But who could bear one both destitute and proud? Praise the humble rich man, praise the rich man who is poor. Such does he wish who, writing to Timothy, says, Charge the rich of this world not to be proud in mind (1 Tim 6:17). I know what I say: charge them this. For they have riches inwardly persuading pride, they have riches in which they labor to be humble. Give me Zacchaeus, having great riches, a chief of the tax collectors, a confessor of his sins, short in stature, shorter in mind, climbing a tree that he might see the one passing by who for him was hanging on a tree; give me him saying, Half of my goods I give to the poor (Luke 19:8). But you are very rich, O Zacchaeus, very rich! Behold, you will give half; why will you keep half? Because if I have taken anything from anyone, I restore fourfold (Luke 19:8).

3. But some beggar says to me, worn out by infirmity, covered with rags, languishing with hunger, answers me and says, "To me the kingdom of heaven is owed. For I am like that Lazarus who lay full of sores before the rich man's house, whose sores the dogs licked, and who sought to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. I am more like him," he says; "ours is the kind to which the kingdom of heaven is owed, not that kind which is clothed in purple and fine linen and feasts splendidly every day. For such was that man, before whose house the poor man, full of sores, lay. And see the ends of both. For it happened that the destitute man died and was carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham. But the rich man died and was buried. For the poor man perhaps was not even buried. And what afterward? When that rich man was in torments in the lower regions, he lifted up his eyes, saw the poor man whom he had despised resting in Abraham's bosom. He desired a drop from him from whom that man had desired a crumb, and because he loved opulence, he did not find mercy. He wished to help his brothers, ever foolish, too late merciful; nothing at all that he asked did he receive. Let us distinguish, then," he says, "the poor and the rich. Why do you exhort me to understand other things? The poor are evident, the rich are evident."

4. Hear me, then, about what you have proposed, sir poor man. For when you say that you are that holy man full of sores, I fear that by being proud you may not be what you say. Do not despise the merciful rich, the humble rich and—to say more quickly what I said a little before—do not despise the rich who are poor. O poor man, be you too poor; poor, that is, humble! For if a rich man became humble, how much more ought a poor man to be humble! The poor man has nothing to be puffed up by, the rich man has something to wrestle with. Hear me, then. Be a true poor man, be devout, be humble. For if you glory in that ragged and ulcerous poverty, because such was he who lay destitute before the rich man's house, you attend that he was poor, and you do not attend to something else. "What," he says, "do I attend to?" Read the Scriptures, and you will find what I say. Lazarus was poor; he into whose bosom he was lifted was rich. It happened, it says, that the destitute man died and was carried by the angels (Luke 16:22). Whither? Into the bosom of Abraham, that is, into the secret place where Abraham was. For do not understand in a fleshly way that the poor man was lifted, as it were, into the bosom of Abraham's tunic. It was a bosom because it was a secret place. Whence it is said, Render to our neighbors into their bosom (Ps 79:12 (78:12)). What is, into their bosom? Into their secret places. What is, Render into their bosom? Torment their conscience. Read, or if you cannot read, hear when it is read, and see that Abraham was most opulent on earth, in gold, silver, household, cattle, possessions. And yet this rich man was poor, because he was humble. And he was humble: For Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6). He was justified by the grace of God, not by his own presumption. He was faithful, he worked well. He was ordered to sacrifice his son, nor did he hesitate to offer to him what he had received, from whom he had received it. He was proved to God, was established as an example of faith. He was already known to God, but he had to be shown to us. He was not puffed up as though over his good works, because this rich man was poor. And that you may know that he was not puffed up as though over his good works (for he knew that whatever he had he had from God, and gloried not in himself but in the Lord), hear the apostle Paul: For if Abraham was justified by works, he has glory, but not before God (Rom 4:2).

5. You see that, although the poor abound, we rightly seek a poor man. In a crowd we seek and scarcely find. A poor man meets me, and I seek a poor man. Meanwhile, stretch out your hand to the poor man whom you find. With your heart you seek the one you seek. You say, "I am poor like Lazarus." This humble rich man of mine does not say, "I am rich like Abraham." Therefore you exalt yourself, he humbles himself. Why are you puffed up, and do not imitate? "I," he says, "a poor man, was lifted into the bosom of Abraham." Do you not see that a rich man received the poor man? Do you not see that a rich man is the receiver of the poor man? For if you are proud against those who have money and deny that they belong to the kingdom of heaven, when perhaps in them is found the humility that is not found in you, do you not fear lest, when you are dead, Abraham say to you, "Depart from me, because you blasphemed me"?

6. Let us, then, admonish our rich, what the Apostle admonished. Not to be proud in mind, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches (1 Tim 6:17), we have been admonished. Those riches, which you think are full of delights, are full of dangers. The poor man was poor, and slept more securely; sleep came more easily to the hard ground than to the silvered bed. Attend to the cares of the rich, and compare the securities of the poor. But let this rich man hear, that he be not proud in mind nor hope in the uncertainty of riches. Let him use the world, as not using it. Let him know that he is walking a road and has entered into these riches as into an inn. Let him take refreshment, he is a traveler; let him refresh himself and pass on; he does not take with him what he found in the inn. Another will be a traveler, and he himself will have it but will not carry it off. All here will leave what here they acquired. Naked, he says, I came forth from my mother's womb; naked I shall return to the earth. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away (Job 1:21)—he has not taken away, because to you the poor man is left (Ps 10:14 (9:35))—Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, naked I shall return to the earth (Job 1:21).

7. Hear another poor man: We brought nothing into this world, but neither can we carry anything away. Having food and covering, let us be content with these. For those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and many desires, foolish and harmful, which plunge men into destruction and perdition. The root of all evils is avarice: which some, coveting, have strayed from the faith and entangled themselves in many sorrows (1 Tim 6:7-10). Who are these who have strayed from the faith and entangled themselves in many sorrows? Those who wish to become rich. Now let that ragged man answer me. Let us see whether he does not wish to become rich; let us see, let us ask him, whether he does not wish to become rich; let him answer, let him not lie. I hear the tongue, but I question the conscience. Let him say whether he does not wish to become rich. But if he does, he has already fallen into temptation and many desires, foolish and harmful. For I do not say wealth, but desires. Whence? Because he wishes to become rich. What follows? Many desires, foolish and harmful, which plunge men into destruction and perdition (1 Tim 6:9). Do you see where you are? Why do you display to me no resources, when I convict you of so great desires? Behold, now compare the two. This one is rich, that one is poor. But this one is already rich, he does not wish to become rich. This one is rich, either from his parents or from gifts and inheritances. Let us suppose, let us grant: he is rich even from iniquities. Now he does not wish to add, he has imposed a measure, fixed a limit to his desire, now in his heart he is enlisted in the service of devotion.

8. "He is rich," you say. I answer, "He is rich." Again you, the accuser, answer and say, "He is rich from iniquity." What if he makes friends of the mammon of iniquity? The Lord knew what he was saying; certainly he did not err, when he commanded, Make for yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, that they too may receive you into the eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9). What if this rich man does this? Now he ends his desire, he practices devotion. You have nothing, but you wish to become rich. You will fall into temptation. But perhaps you became very poor and very destitute, because you had some paternal property, I know not what, which sustained you, and some slander of a rival took it away. You groan, I hear, you accuse the times. What you groan over, if you could, you would do. Or do we not see, or are not all things full of daily examples? Yesterday he was groaning, because he was losing his own; today, belonging to the greater man, he seizes another's.

9. We have found a true poor man, we have found one devout and humble, not trusting in himself, a true poor man, a member of the poor man who for our sake became poor, though he was rich. See our rich man, who for our sake became poor, though he was rich (2 Cor 8:9); see that rich one: All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing (John 1:3). It is more to make gold than to have it. You are rich in gold, silver, cattle, household, lands, fruits: you could not create these for yourself. See that rich one: All things were made through him. See that poor one: The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Who can worthily think of his riches—how he makes, who is not made; how he creates, uncreated; forms, unformed; remaining, makes changeable things; eternal, makes temporal things? Who can worthily think of his riches? Let us think of his poverty, lest perhaps, being poor, we grasp even that. He is conceived in a virginal female womb, enclosed in his mother's inward parts. O poverty! He is born in a narrow lodging, wrapped in infant cloths, laid in a manger, becomes food for poor beasts of burden; then the Lord of heaven and earth, the creator of angels, the maker and founder of all things visible and invisible, sucks, wails, is nursed, grows, endures the ages, conceals his majesty; afterward is seized, despised, scourged, mocked, spat upon, buffeted, crowned with thorns, hung on wood, pierced with a lance. O poverty! Behold the head of the poor whom I seek, of which poor man we have found a true poor member.

10. Let us briefly seek the orphan, because we have grown weary in seeking the poor man. Lord Jesus, I seek the orphan, weary I seek. Answer quickly, that I may find. Call no one, he says, father on earth (Matt 23:9). The orphan on earth has found an immortal Father in heaven. Call no one, he says, father on earth. This orphan has been found. Let this orphan pray. Let us hear him and imitate him. What is his prayer? For my father and my mother have left me. My father, he says, and my mother have left me; but the Lord took me up (Ps 27:10 (26:10)). If, then, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3), to you the poor man is left. If my father and my mother have left me, but the Lord took me up, you will be a helper to the orphan (Ps 10:14 (9:35)).

Sermon 14/A
<A Sermon on the Verse of the Psalm:
your Discipline Has Directed Me Unto the End,
And Your Discipline Itself Will Teach Me>

1. Brothers, let us attend to what we have sung. From the same source the psalm was spoken, from there the psalm is proposed. With the Lord's help let us say something from what is written, and what is fresh in our voices and ears: Your discipline has directed me unto the end, and your discipline itself will teach me (Ps 18:35 (17:36)). For we ask toward what end we are directed, and what the discipline is that directs us, and what the teaching of this matter is. We wish to be directed, and perhaps we ask whither we are directed. We have heard, unto the end. But "end," when it is said, is either of consuming or of consummating. Consuming makes a thing not be, consummating makes it be perfect. Food is ended by eating, a garment is ended by weaving. Food is ended by eating, so that it is not; a garment is ended by weaving, so that it is perfect. Toward such an end, then, without doubt we seek to be directed, by which we may be perfected, not by which we may be consumed.

2. What, then, is this end, and what discipline? The end is Christ, the discipline is the law. Hear the Apostle: The end of the law is Christ, unto righteousness for everyone who believes (Rom 10:4). This, then—that we may now say it more plainly and expound what we have sung—this is, Your discipline has directed me unto the end (Ps 18:35 (17:36)), that is, your law has directed me unto the end, your law has directed me unto Christ. The Jews have the law, but it did not direct them unto the end. They came indeed to the end, because they saw Christ, but by stumbling at the final stone they transgressed, by stumbling at Christ they fell and fell outside the end. For they rejected him to whom they ought to have come. Finally, that very end became for those not believing a stone of stumbling, for those believing the cornerstone. To you, says the apostle Peter, who have believed, the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner, but to those not believing a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense (1 Pet 2:7-8).

3. Who the end is, we know; what it is to be directed unto the end, we have already spoken last Sunday. For to be directed unto the end is to come to Christ, that is, to believe in Christ. Are the same things to be repeated rather often? For you are to be reminded, not burdened. Although to say the same things to you is indeed not irksome to us, and safe for you. For we have treated this on account of those who think it suffices them to believe and love to live badly, thinking that by believing they will be saved and by living badly they will not perish. This, then, we treated, that there ought to be a difference between the faith of Christians and the faith of demons, because they too believe—they said to Christ, We know who you are (Mark 1:24). They believed Christ, but they did not believe in Christ. Whence, then, is the one who believes Christ distinguished from the one who believes in Christ? Because everyone who believes in Christ at once without doubt believes Christ, but not everyone who believes Christ at once believes in Christ. And the Son of God defined the whole work of God in this, in saying, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent (John 6:29). By what end, except himself? Do not seek an end besides himself, lest by seeking an end besides himself you be consumed, not consummated. For what is an end, except that to which we wish to come, to stand and seek nothing beyond? For if you come, but still seek, you have not yet arrived at the end. Therefore to arrive at the end is to arrive there where you say, "It is enough."

4. When Philip thought the Father alone was this, and said, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us (John 14:8), the Lord showed him that the end is God, but God the Trinity. Accordingly, when you say, "The end is Christ," you do not thereby separate God the Father, nor, when you say, "The end is God the Father," do you thereby separate Christ. He who wished, as it were, to separate, thinking that Christ was only this which he knew with his eyes, said joyfully, Show us the Father, and it is enough for us. What is, It is enough for us? There is the end of desire: we will seek nothing further; there will be our satiety, there we will say, "It is enough, I want nothing more." Why this? Because we now know you, show us the Father. For when we see you and do not see him, it is not enough for us. We rejoice that we see you, but show him, and it is enough for us: we will seek nothing more. And the Lord to him, because he himself is the end, because he himself is the one who satisfies, that he might take from him what he thought—for he thought that he did not see the Son of God, when he saw the form of a servant—said to Philip, So long a time I am with you, and you have not known me? (John 14:9) When you seek the end and do not see what you see—therefore certainly you seek the end, because you do not see that the end stands before you—Do you not believe, he says, that I am in the Father and the Father in me? (John 14:10)

5. To this we too are exhorted by the reading that follows, which today was recited from the Gospel: This is the will of the Father, that whoever sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day (John 6:40). You were seeking the end: do you seek more than eternal life? This is the will of the Father, that whoever sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day. What do we say, my brothers? For this vision what eyes do we seek? For see another definition to be shown today, like indeed to the past one, of which we have already spoken: This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent (John 6:29). And here what does he say? This is the will of the Father, as though he said, This is the work of God. For whoever does the work of God, does the will of God. This is the will of the Father, that whoever sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life. He said two things. This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent. But here he added, whoever sees and believes. The Jews saw, but did not believe: they had one, the other was lacking; how could they come to eternal life without the other? If, then, those who saw therefore did not arrive because they did not believe, we who have believed but have not seen—if those two merit eternal life, to see and to believe, and those to whom one is lacking do not arrive at the reward of eternal life—what shall we do? One was lacking to the Jews, the other to us. To them was present seeing, but believing was lacking. To us believing is present, but seeing is lacking. For according to this, that believing is present and seeing is lacking, in prophecy we have been blessed by the Lord himself, since, when Thomas, one of the twelve, felt the scars by touching them...

Sermon 15
A Sermon Delivered in the Third District
In the Basilica of Peter at Carthage
On the Verse of the Psalm:
"Lord, I Have Loved the Beauty of Your House"

1. We love the beauty of the house of the Lord, and the place of the dwelling of his glory, if we ourselves too are that. What, then, is the beauty of the house of the Lord and the place of the dwelling of his glory, except his temple, of which the Apostle says, For the temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor 3:17)? Just as, then, in handmade structures, when they are elegantly and magnificently built, our corporeal gaze is soothed, so when living stones, the hearts of the faithful, are held together by the bond of love, it is the beauty of the house of God and the place of the dwelling of his glory. Learn, then, what you ought to love, that you may be able to love. For whoever loves the beauty of the house of God, there is no doubt that he loves the Church, not in the constructed walls and roofs, not in the gleam of marbles and gilded ceilings, but in the faithful, holy people, loving God with their whole heart and with their whole soul and with their whole mind, and their neighbor as themselves.

2. But in the Christian assembly, as far as concerns participation and communion in the sacraments, they are multiplied beyond number (Ps 40:5 (39:6)). One thing, then, is the number, another those beyond the number. The number is those of whom the Apostle says, The Lord knows who are his (2 Tim 2:19). But beyond the number, since in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some indeed for honor, others for dishonor (2 Tim 2:20). The number, then, of vessels for honor; beyond the number, the vessels for dishonor. Since, then, there are these two kinds of vessels, do we doubt where the beauty of the house of God is? If, then, you wish to love, doing what you have sung, the beauty of the house of God and the place of the dwelling of his glory, seek the vessels for honor. And I do not want you to say, "I sought, and did not find." For therefore you sought and did not find, because you yourself were not what you sought. Like cleaves to like, the unlike flees the unlike. If you are a vessel for dishonor, without doubt a vessel for honor will be burdensome to you even to look at. Do you not hear how some people say of someone, He is burdensome to us even to look at (Wis 2:15)? What is burdensome to you to look at, when will it be open to you to find? For these vessels are of the inner man. Surely, when a just man has been seen, the just man is not yet recognized. The just and the unjust have the same appearance. Both are men, but not both the house of God, even if both are called Christians. Both are a vessel, but not both for honor, but one for honor, the other for dishonor.

3. Is the great house to be abandoned on account of the evil vessels? God knows how to use, that is, the Lord of the great house, both the vessels for honor and the vessels for dishonor. As it is the mark of the wicked to use even good things wickedly, so, on the contrary, it is the mark of God to use even the wicked well. How many good things the wicked use! For every creature of God is good. How do the wicked use them wickedly? As Scripture rebukes them, saying, You ask, and do not receive, because you ask wickedly, that you may consume it in your lusts (Jas 4:3). What name did these who use the good things of God wickedly receive? It follows and says, Adulterers. Whence adulterers? Do you not know that the friend of this world is constituted an enemy of God? Adulterers, it says (Jas 4:4). There are adulterous souls, there are fornicating souls: let us examine them. There are fornicating souls, in a certain way prostituted to many false gods; but adulterous souls, as though already joined in lawful wedlock, and yet not keeping the chastity of the soul for that lawful wedlock. But that I may say this more expressly, the soul of a pagan is fornicating, that of a wicked Christian is adulterous. The fornicating soul of a pagan does not have a lawful husband; prostituted through diverse demons, it is corrupted. But why is the soul of a wicked Christian adulterous? Because it neither loves chastity nor forsakes its husband. Do not, then, say, "Why are these in the house of God?" It is answered you: They are vessels for dishonor. God knows how to use them. He who created knew, since he who could create knew how to order: they have their own place in the great house. But if you ask me how God uses them well, I confess, I cannot, as a man, unfold the counsel of God. For I know how to be awestruck with the apostle Paul, who too, when he considered it, was awestruck, and, awestruck, cried out, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to him, that it should be repaid to him? For from him and through him and in him are all things: to him be glory forever and ever (Rom 11:33-36). For us consideration, admiration, trembling, exclamation, because no penetration. But for him what? Glory forever and ever. Whether of the vessels for honor or of the vessels for dishonor, to him glory forever and ever. Some he crowns, others he condemns, nowhere does he err. Some he proves, by others he proves, all he orders.

4. "What," someone says, "do evil men do in this world?" Answer me. In the goldsmith's furnace, what does the chaff do? I think the chaff is not there without cause, where the gold is purged. Let us see what things are all there: there is the furnace, there is the chaff, there is the gold, there is the fire, there is the craftsman. But those three, gold, chaff, fire, are in the furnace; the craftsman, at the furnace. Attend also to this world. The world is a furnace; the chaff, evil men; the gold, good men; the fire, tribulation; the craftsman, God. Attend and see: the gold is not purged, if the chaff is not burned. But see in this psalm, where we love the beauty of the house of God and the place of the dwelling of his glory, see there the gold, see the voice of the gold. It desires to be purged: Prove me, Lord, and test me, burn my reins (Ps 26:2 (25:2)). Prove me, Lord, and test me. Prove me, he says, Lord, and test me. He who ought to have feared the test asks for the test. Prove, he says, me, Lord, and test me. And see whether he does not seek the fire: Prove me and test me, burn my reins and my heart. Do you not fear lest you fail in the fire? No, he says. Why? Because your mercy is before my eyes (Ps 26:3 (25:3)). Behold, he says, why I securely say, Prove me, Lord, and test me, burn my reins and my heart—not because I am fit by my own strength to bear the fire of testing, but because your mercy is before my eyes. You, he says, who granted to me that I should be proved gold, will you permit me to perish in the furnace? Surely you send me to be purged, you draw me out purged. May the Lord guard your going in and your going out. See that very going out, see the entering into the furnace. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations (Jas 1:2). Behold, you have heard the entering, seek the going out. For it is easy to enter; to go out is a great thing. But do not fear: God is faithful—surely, since you had entered, you were thinking about the going out—God is faithful, who does not permit you to be tempted beyond what you can, but will also make with the temptation a way out. What is, a way out? That you may be able to endure (1 Cor 10:13). You entered, you fell in, you endured, you went out.

5. A great material for the purging of the good is the abundance of the wicked. For in the multitude of the wicked, although the good lie hidden, mixed in, the Lord knows who are his (2 Tim 2:19). Under the hand of so great a craftsman, a speck of gold cannot perish in a great heap of chaff. How much chaff there, how little gold? But do not fear; so great is the craftsman that he can purge, he cannot destroy. See the gold, the blessed Apostle, in this furnace of this world, how he is proved by dangers—that we may come to the unhonored vessels that are within, which the Lord of the great house knows how to use well. The Apostle, then, when he was being proved by dangers, what did he say? In dangers on the sea, in dangers in the desert, in dangers from my race, in dangers from the gentiles (2 Cor 11:26). These are all without. Attend within: In dangers among false brothers (2 Cor 11:26). I address, then, the gold of God, I address the vessels made for honor, I address the grains laboring in the threshing of the floor among the chaff. To you I say, whoever hears—not me, but through me: Be good, bear with the evil. I do not want you to say, "Who is good?" Rather, I want you to say even this: that however good you are, you will not be without some evil. Whence it is most rightly said, No one is good but God alone (Mark 10:18). But that good one who does good things is God. If, then, God is good who does good things, and he alone is the good maker of good things, how is he the maker of good things, if no man is good? According to his small measure, then, a man too is good in proportion. And if he were not, the Lord himself would not say, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things (Luke 6:45).

6. Be good, then, and bear with the evil. Be good simply, and bear with the evil doubly. Good, only within: for if not within, nowhere good. Be good, then, within, bear with the evil both without and within. Without, bear with the heretic, bear with the pagan. Bear also within with the evil Christian, because a man's enemies are those of his own household (Matt 10:36). Patient with many troublesome evil people within, you fret, you are indignant, as though the time of winnowing had already come. You are placed in the threshing, you are still in the threshing, the floor is still being threshed. Still the lapfuls and the sheaves, as the nations believe, are being gathered to the floor. Do you think you can be wheat alone on the floor? You err. Groan on the floor, that you may rejoice in the barn. Many evils are done by evil Christians. Those who are outside and are unwilling to be Christians find occasions for excuses. To one who exhorts him to believe, he answers these things: "Do you want me to be what this one and that one is?" And he names this one and that one. Sometimes he even says the truth. But when the truth cannot be found, what great thing is it to slander? When that one does not fear to slander, he makes another suspect what he does not see. When you hear a man saying these things, perhaps because you know your brothers to be evil, you say within yourself, "He speaks the truth." In dangers among false brothers (2 Cor 11:26). But do not fail. What that man seeks, be it. Be a good Christian, that you may convict the slanderous pagan.

7. But that one slanders even the good. He says false things, and generally he is believed. What does the gold do? On every side is chaff, fire. Put down the filth, not the faith. Be cleaner, by that very exercise be cleaner. Let him avail you who takes away what makes you filthier, not who oppresses what is gold. For if you fail, you perish in the chaff, and if you perish in the chaff, you were not gold, but pretended to be gold. The Lord knows who are his (2 Tim 2:19). But those who are evil, of whom you blush when you are among the evil who are outside, remember that they are not, in the great house where you are, a vessel for honor, but for dishonor. The Apostle instructed you, let God govern you. If there were no evil men for whom we might pray, when would it be said to us, Pray for your enemies (Matt 5:44)? Or would we perhaps wish to have good enemies? How can that be? You will not have a good enemy, unless you are evil. But if you are good, your enemy will be none but an evil one. Pray for your enemies. Therefore, you good, pray for the evil. Return to your heart, O you who are being purged in this furnace, if your voice could be, Prove me, Lord, and test me; burn my reins and my heart, because your mercy is before my eyes (Ps 26:2-3 (25:2-3)): behold, return to your heart. You are under God, you are about to pour out a prayer. There comes to your mind the one who harmed you, there comes the one who oppressed you, there comes the one who despoiled you, there comes the one who put you in prison. Come now, attend to your heart, look to your Lord. Behold your evil enemy, behold your good Lord. Your evil enemy harms you. Pray for your enemy, your good Lord says to you. Between your evil enemy and your good Lord, what will you do? Will you pray against the one, or obey the other?

8. You undertake, by the command of your Lord, to pray for that malignant enemy of yours. What will you do? The Lord has commanded, has commanded hard things, but has promised great things. What hard things has he commanded? Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you (Matt 5:44). They are hard, but on account of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways (Ps 17:4 (16:4)). Whence, by my own strength, to keep hard ways, except because your mercy is before my eyes (Ps 26:3 (25:3))? Behold, he has commanded hard things, has commanded bitter things, see what he has promised: Pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:44-45). If he said to you, Pray for your enemy that you may be a son of your father, lest your fleshly father disinherit you—who is going to leave you that which he will not carry away from here—you would fear, and would do it. To you it is promised, for these hard things, that you may be a son of the Most High. Think of the Father and recognize the inheritance. Speak, then, begin to pray for that great enemy of yours, who has done you many evils, who has heaped up many hard things upon you, begin to pray for him, and see your heart quarreling with you. In that, then, which you wish, which pleases you, in which you delight according to the inner man, you obey your Lord, and pray for your enemy, you are gold. But in that, when you have begun to pray, fleshly weakness begins to quarrel with you, that is the filth, from which God wishes to purge you in the furnace.

9. Be exercised, then, in the midst of the evil, O good man, if you are good—good not from your own, because you were evil, but from his who is never evil—be exercised in the midst of the evil. And I do not want you to say to me, "At least, if it were necessary for our exercise that there be evil men, let them be few, let the evil be few, and the good many." Do you not attend that, if they were few, they would not harm the many? Surely consider, prudent man, that if there were many good and few evil, the few evil would not dare to harm the many good. But if they did not dare, they would not exercise them. But now, because there are many evil, the few good labor among the many evil; and when there is labor there is sweat; and when there is sweat the gold is purged. Be, then, for the beauty of the house of God. Now weakness has quarreled with you in your heart. Call upon him, that you may conquer. May God be present to you, may he help who commands. Now you have become victor over your weakness, now you have taken up the spirit and the fruit of praying for your enemy. See what good there is. Compare him to yourself. He meditates temptations, you pour out prayers. He, if he harms, harms openly; what you pray for him, God knows. He does not believe, because he does not examine your heart. When, then, he openly harms, you secretly pray. In this winepress—because the Church too is compared to a winepress—see whether he who openly harms is not the dregs running through the public street. The dregs run through the public street, but the oil has hidden passages to its seat. And though it passes hiddenly, in its greatness it appears. For how many, my brothers, how many in this conflict of affairs, in the malice of this world, in this abundance of evils, have withdrawn themselves and turned to God, and bidden farewell to the world, and begun suddenly to give their goods to the poor, who a little before were seizing the goods of others! But many robbers, invaders, despoilers appear publicly: those are the dregs running through the streets. But those, one here, one there, joined in heart, the evil one being ashamed to remain doing evil, thinking on the warnings of God, mocking the hope of the world, awaiting the heavenly hope, changing loves and ways, are oil in the winepress of holiness, are a vessel for honor in the great house, are gold in the furnace, are grain in the barn. There is the beauty of the house of God.

Sermon 15/A
A Sermon Delivered at Hippo Diarrhytus in the Basilica of Margarita
On the Tenth Day Before the Kalends of October, on a Thursday
On the Response of Psalm 32:
"Rejoice in the Lord, You Just; Praise Befits the Upright"

1. To rejoice in the praise of God and to be in harmony with the praise of God by our living—this is what we are admonished by what we have just sung: Rejoice in the Lord, you just; praise befits the upright (Ps 33:1 (32:1)). For if it befits the upright, it does not befit the crooked. But those who are upright, they are also the just, to whom it is said that they should rejoice in the Lord: for praise befits them. But who are the crooked, except sinners and the unjust, who cannot rejoice in the Lord, since praise does not befit them? Rightly it is said in another psalm, But to the sinner God says: Why do you recount my justices and take up my covenant through your mouth? (Ps 50:16 (49:16)) Since praise befits the upright, and certainly the justifications of the Lord and the covenant of the Lord are there where the praise of the Lord is, rightly it is also said elsewhere, Praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner (Sir 15:9). For where it does not befit, it is not comely; and where it is comely, there it befits.

2. But who, properly, are upright men—that each one may recognize whether the praise of God is comely in his mouth—seeking the Scriptures we find in this way. A certain psalm says, How good is the God of Israel to those who are upright in heart! And it follows, But my feet were almost moved, because I was envious of the sinners, beholding the peace of sinners (Ps 73:1-3 (72:1-3)). This man confesses, not indeed his aversion and fall, but yet his danger. For he does not say that he fell, but that his feet wavered so as to fall. For he says this: How good is the God of Israel to those who are upright in heart! But my feet were almost moved. When by this word "but" he distinguishes himself from those upright in heart, he confesses that he himself was at one time not upright in heart, and therefore his feet were almost moved. Good, then, he says, is the God of Israel to those who are upright in heart. But to me at one time he did not seem good, because I was not upright in heart. But he did not dare to say, "God did not seem good to me," yet he said this. For when he says, Good is the God of Israel to those who are upright in heart; but my feet were almost moved, he shows that his feet were moved for this reason, that he did not seem good to him. But whence did God not seem good to him? A little more and my steps had been poured out. A little more, what is it? They had almost been poured out. Whence? Because I was envious of the sinners, beholding the peace of sinners. "I attended," he says, "to the sinners not worshiping God, blaspheming God, provoking God. I saw that they abound in peace, abound in happiness. And it seemed to me that God did not judge rightly, granting happiness to his blasphemers." When, then, he beheld this, that is, the happiness of the wicked, he said that his feet wavered so that God did not seem good to him. But because afterward he came to know, as he says in that very psalm, I undertook to know, and he added, This is a labor before me, why the unjust are happy, this is a labor before me, he says, until I enter into the sanctuary of God, and understand in their last things (Ps 73:16-17 (72:16-17)), that for those wicked to whom happiness is now given for a time, everlasting punishment is reserved at the last. When he had come to know this, he became upright in heart, and began to praise God in all things, both in the labors of the devout and in the very happinesses of the wicked, attending that God is a just rewarder in the last things, but now gives to some a temporal happiness for whom he reserves everlasting unhappiness at the end, and exercises some devout people in present unhappiness for whom in turn he reserves eternal happiness; and that the turns ought to be changed, as of that rich man who feasted splendidly every day, and that poor man full of sores lying at the rich man's door, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. But when both had died, the one began to be in punishment in hell, the other rested in the bosom of Abraham. And when it seemed unworthy to the rich man, and he wished a drop of water to be dripped on him from the little finger of Lazarus—desiring in turn a drop from the finger of him from whose table he had desired a crumb—he heard from Abraham the sentence of the upright God: Son, he says, remember that you received good things in your life, but Lazarus evil; but now he rests here, and you are tormented (Luke 16:25). To these last things he directed his gaze, that man entering into the sanctuary of God, to whom God did not seem good because he was envious of the sinners, beholding the peace of sinners. And recognizing the true and just judgment of God, which indeed is now carried out, but hiddenly, to be in the future at the end in manifestation, and as though with his heart corrected from its own crookedness, the rule, as it were, of God's justice being applied by which the twisted heart might be straightened, he broke out into this voice and said, How good is the God of Israel to those who are upright in heart! Now I understand him good, because I have become upright in heart. But before he did not seem good to me, because my feet wavered: For I was envious of the sinners, beholding the peace of sinners (Ps 73:3 (72:3)).

3. If, then, God now seems good to you even when he gives happiness to the wicked, about which you used to murmur against God, you have become upright in heart, praise befits you: for praise befits the upright (Ps 33:1 (32:1)). But if you are crooked, praise does not befit you. Why does it not befit you? The praise by which you praise God will not be persevering. For you praise God when it is well with you; you blaspheme God when it is ill with you. For then he pleases you when he gives happiness; but he displeases you when he chastises. You are not upright in heart, you will not be able to say that song of another psalm, I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise always in my mouth (Ps 34:1 (33:2)). For how always, if you praise then when it is well with you, but not also when it is ill with you? Because even that which is said to be ill with you is well, if you understand the Father to be a chastiser. A senseless boy generally loves the master who flatters, hates the one who strikes. But the understanding boy understands the master to be good, both when he flatters and when he strikes. For he flatters lest the boy fail, he strikes lest he perish. And so, when anyone has such a heart, that is, an upright one, so that God does not displease him, and when he does what perhaps seems to oppose him for a time, he securely praises God, because he will always praise, and truly praise befits him, and truly he faithfully sings, I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise always in my mouth (Ps 34:1 (33:2)). But he scourges every son whom he receives (Heb 12:6). What, then, do you choose: to be scourged and received, or not to be touched and not received? See what kind of son you are. If you desire the paternal inheritance, do not refuse the scourge. If you reject the scourge, renounce the inheritance. For to what does he instruct you, except that he may give you the inheritance? That you might be the heir of your father, did he not reprove you, did he not rebuke you, did he not chastise you, did he not beat you? For what purpose this? That you might succeed him in a house someday to fall and an estate someday to pass away, and gold that will not remain in this world longer than you yourself who possess the gold. For either, living, you will lose what you have, or, dying, you will leave it. For the sake of that temporal inheritance you endured the scourges of your father, and do you murmur against God instructing you, that he may give you the kingdom of heaven?

4. When, then, you are such that God pleases you, and chastising he pleases you—for either there is in you something to be corrected by the scourge, or your very uprightness is proved in the scourge—when, then, you are such, praise. For you praise securely. Why do you praise securely? Because you praise becomingly, because you praise perseveringly. For I do not fear lest you praise now and after a little while blaspheme. I do not fear lest, healthy, you praise, and, sick, you blaspheme. I do not fear lest from the mouth of the healthy the praise of God proceed, and from the tongue of the sick an astrologer or diviner be sought, an enchanter and a binder-on of diabolical remedies. I do not fear, because you have now understood that God is good even when he chastises, and you know that he who strikes a son knows also when to spare. It will befit you to praise, because you will always perseveringly praise, and the praise of God will always be in your mouth. You gladly receive the flattering Father, you gladly receive also the scourging Father. You do not run to him when he flatters, and flee from him when he scourges. For if you do this, you will be like the boy who, when he fled from his scourging father, ran into a flattering slave-dealer, and thought him good, but his own father evil, and preferred the deceits of flatteries to the truth of scourges; but by preferring he lost the inheritance, ran into bondage. Change your counsel, and make your heart upright. For God is not changed because he scourges you, but you are changeable. He does something by the change, that you, changed for the better, may receive the inheritance. For if he leaves you and neglects you, when he seems good to you, then he is greatly angry. Let your Charity attend to what the Scripture of God says in another psalm. The sinner has provoked the Lord, it says. Why has he provoked? See where it cried out about the provoked God. Certainly the sinner has provoked the Lord to greater anger: In the greatness, it says, of his anger he will not seek it out (Ps 10:4 (9:25)).

5. Holy Job, on the contrary, blessing the Lord at all times, in whose mouth was always his praise, when he was rich, blessed the Lord in his riches, doing with them all the good works that are enumerated in his book: breaking bread to the hungry, clothing the naked, taking in the stranger, and the rest, which the rich alone receive from their riches, which the rich alone gain. For they do not gain, or presume upon, the gains which they leave to their children. For they do not know who, after their death, will possess their labors. And Scripture called this vanity: But truly every living man is altogether vanity; he lays up treasure and does not know for whom he gathers it (Ps 39:5-6 (38:6-7)). Therefore the whole gain that is made from riches is the treasure of the kingdom of heaven, whence the Lord gave counsel, not that you should lose, but that you should change the place of your gold. For he does not say to you, "When you give, you lose," but, "You hold it badly on earth; in heaven I will keep it for you. Why do you fear to lose? You put it in heaven, with Christ as keeper. If the place troubles you, it will be heaven; if the keeper, it will be Christ. Why do you fear to lose?" Therefore, when Job did these things with such riches, he certainly was working, and in his very works God was praised, and he blessed the Lord in the things he had received. For truly, brothers, riches are not accused. Do you think, when you see wicked rich men, that riches are evil? Riches are not evil, but they are; riches, however, are gifts of God. Give them to a just man, and see what good he does with them. Is wine therefore evil, because someone gets drunk? Give it to a sober man using it well, and see the gift of God. So give gold to an avaricious man. That he may make more of what he has, he seeks to commit all crimes. Give gold to a just man, and see how he distributes, how he shares, how he relieves the necessities of men, by whatever means he can. Therefore not riches, but the one using riches badly, is himself evil. When, then, Job used them well, as Abraham used them well... For certainly, brothers, that beggar full of sores lying before the rich man's door was so destitute that the dogs licked his sores. So certainly we read, so it is written. And yet whither was he carried? Into the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16:22). Review the Scriptures. See whether Abraham was poor here. You will find that he had here much gold, much silver, much cattle, many slaves and estates. Therefore a poor man is lifted into the bosom of a rich man. If poverty had made his merit for him, Abraham himself would not have gone before him to rest and received him as a successor. But because that was in the poor Lazarus which was in the rich Abraham, that is, humility, devotion, the worship of God, the observance of God, neither did riches hurt the one nor poverty the other, but the merit of the one was devotion. Hence in that rich man who changed the turns badly, his riches are not reproved but his mind. For he was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted splendidly every day (Luke 16:19), and suffered a beggar full of sores to lie before his door and, proudly despising him, did not satisfy his want. What do you think the rich man, disdaining the beggar, said? "Why does this man lie here?" But rightly that tongue which despised the poor man desired a drop from his finger.

6. When, then, holy Job, as I said, had many riches, he praised God, tempted that he might be proved, proved that he might be shown. For he lay hidden not only from men, but even from the devil himself, who inspects more diligently than any man. He lay hidden, then, from him, who Job was, but he did not lie hidden from the Lord. The Prover permitted the tempter—the Prover, however, not for his own sake but for ours, that he might make manifest to us what we ought to imitate. For he did not wish to show Job to the devil himself, but through the devil to us, so that, the devil being conquered, we might have what to imitate. Therefore, all things lost, not gradually but suddenly, he said, The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. As it pleased the Lord, so it has been done. Blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). As it pleased the Lord, so it has been done. That cannot be crooked which pleased the upright. That cannot be evil which pleased the good. For good is the God of Israel to those who are upright in heart (Ps 73:1 (72:1)). Job was upright in heart, therefore praise befitted him. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. As it pleased the Lord, so it has been done. He confessed, praising, Blessed be the name of the Lord. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. There was abundance, now there is want. With me things are now changed, he is not changed. I am at one time rich, at one time poor; he always rich, always upright, always Father. Blessed be the name of the Lord. For the name of the Lord was not blessed in my abundance, and to be cursed in my want. Far be this from me. This Job said, enriched with inner riches. He had lost his whole house, but his breast was full. He had lost house, gold. He had filled his breast. God, in place of all these things he had given, was himself present. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. See how he understands the most preeminent power. Lest perhaps you wish to worship God for the kingdom of heaven, O Christian, and fear the devil for earthly goods, the whole and highest power is entirely with him. The devil wished only to harm; unless permitted, he could not. With him, then, is the power. Otherwise, if as much were permitted the devil as he wishes, which of the Christians would remain? Which worshiper of God would be left on earth? Do you not see his temples falling, his images broken, his priests turned to God? Do you not think that the devil grieves and is tormented at this? If, then, in proportion to his grief he had also the power, what Church would remain on earth? Accordingly, when holy Job, through the snares of the devil, had lost all things, he gives him no power. When he praises God he does not say, "The Lord gave, the devil has taken away," but he says, "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away." Let the devil arrogate nothing to himself. Both that I was rich was God's, and that I am poor is God's." And if he was permitted to tempt, he was not permitted to choke; but he would choke, not by holding and crushing the throat, but by shutting off the spirit. If perhaps Job, suffering the straits of tribulation, sent forth one blasphemous word from his mouth, then, choked, he would breathe his last, the spirit of life being shut off from him. This he did neither in that sudden poverty nor in that last wound.

7. For when it had been too little for the devil to have taken away all that Job possessed, he took away also the children for whom he possessed it, only his wife being left. For her alone he did not take away, and this surely knowing what he was doing. He knew Adam had been deceived through Eve. He kept her, then, rather as his own helper than as a consoler of her husband. When, then, he had taken away all those things and left one through whom he might tempt again, it was too little for him. He seeks to take away also the health of his body. And this too he was permitted to take away, so that even placed in that wound Job might praise God, upright in heart, varying in nothing, he whom praise befitted. She who was left for this came to him, and persuaded—rather, urged—blasphemy. For she said, "How many evils we suffer! Say something against God, and die." First Eve, as though invited to life by the devil, was seduced, and found death. For the devil said, You shall not die the death. And thinking she would have life, she found death, because she did contrary to the command of God, and persuaded her husband contrary to the command of God. Now the contrary: Say something against God, and die. Let it suffice Eve that she persuaded to act contrary to the command of God. She is still Eve, he is now not Adam. She filled by the devil, he corrected by the example. Job is better on the dunghill than Adam in paradise. That you may know how great a thing it is to have an upright heart, how did Job lay the devil low in that destitution, in that wound? For he answered the woman and said, You have spoken like one of the foolish women. If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things? (Job 2:10) He blessed the Lord at all times, his praise was always in his mouth. For he was upright in heart, therefore praise befitted him. If, then, you wish that praise befit you too, be upright in heart. But if you wish to be upright in heart, let God not displease you in anything. For either you see the cause why he does what he does, and, beholding the cause, you do not reprove. Or, if the cause lies hidden from you, know that he does it who can in nothing be displeasing.

8. Someone, I know not who, demolishes his house; he is reproved. If you knew the cause, perhaps you would not reprove the man doing it. Certainly we are now in this basilica, and it is narrow and has something small about it. And it pleased the master that another be made, and this is to be destroyed. Whoever perhaps sees those demolishing it, when it begins to be demolished, says, "Was there no prayer here? Was the name of God not invoked here? What do these people suffer that they demolish it?" The work displeases, because the counsel is hidden. So, then, God too does something. Why he does it, either you know and praise, or you do not know and believe, if you are upright in heart. For he himself is upright in heart who both in the very causes that he knows praises God, and in those that he does not know does not attribute folly to God. Unjustly and foolishly are you reproved, O man, governor of your own house, by one ignorant of the causes and ignorant of your counsels. And do you dare to reprove the governor of the whole world, and the creator of heaven and earth, because the wind blew and the vines withered, or a cloud arose and poured down hail? Do not reprove. He knows all his works, both to govern and to number them. You certainly could not fabricate heaven and earth, and yet, if it were permitted you, you would say to God, "Oh, if I governed, I would not do what you do." For when something done by God displeases you, would you not wish yourself to be the governor? Be ashamed. See whom you wish to succeed: a mortal the Immortal, a man God. It is better for you to yield to him than to seek to succeed him. Yield to God, because he is God. And if perhaps he has done something against your will, perhaps it is not against your advantage. How many things physicians do against the will of the sick, and yet they do not do them against their health! And a physician sometimes errs, God never. If, then, you commit yourself to a physician who sometimes errs, you commit yourself to human counsel. Not that he may apply a poultice which is mild, or a plaster from which he causes you no pain, but generally that he may burn, that he may cut, that he may take away a member belonging to you and born with you, you commit yourself to him. You do not say, "Here perhaps he errs, and I will have one less finger." You permit him to take away one finger, lest perhaps from it the whole body rot. And do you not permit God to cut, that he may take away something of your fruits, in case perhaps in that very restraint you may have discipline?

9. Therefore, brothers, be upright in heart, that is, that God may displease you in nothing. I do not say that you should not ask. Ask as much as you can in affliction. He withholds the rain, he is to be asked. But both if it rains he is to be praised, and if it does not rain he is to be praised, yet he is to be asked. For we do not say that you should not ask. For sometimes he is bent and grants to those who ask, and he wishes to grant only to those who ask. Is God arrogant, that he grants only to one who asks? But then the little soul will advance toward the greatness of God, if he comes to its aid in tribulation, so that to us, asking and in tribulation, he may give consolation. He wishes to grow sweet to us for our good, not his own. For see what an evil it is, that the world has grown sweet to you, and God who made the world is bitter. Must you not be changed? Must you not be corrected, that you may have an upright heart? Rather let the world be bitter, and God be sweet. So let the Lord our God mix bitternesses into this world, let him mix them indeed. Here to flow, to overflow, to abound with delights, to forget God, delights one. If one has anything more of money, one wishes to trifle with it, does not wish to make anything useful of it, to procure anything heavenly. One wishes to lose both the money and oneself and the others on whom one spends the money. Do you not wish, then, that God cut away the superfluous, lest from the rotten part the whole rot? He knows, then, what he does. Let us leave it to him. Only let us give ourselves to be cured, let us not offer counsel to the physician. Turned to the Lord.

Sermon 16
A Treatise of Saint Augustine the Bishop
On What Is Written:
"Who Is the Man Who Wants Life
And Desires to See Good Days?"

1. The Spirit of God, calling the human race, by commanding what we ought to do and promising what we ought to hope for, first inflames our mind toward the reward, that we may do what is commanded rather by loving the good than by fearing the evil. Who is the man, it says, who wants life and loves to see good days? (Ps 34:12 (33:13)) He is asked who this man is, as though one could be found who is not. For who does not want life? Who does not love to see good days? Hear, then, what follows, whoever you are, O man, who want and love this; hear, then, every man, what follows: Restrain, it says, your tongue from evil, and let your lips not speak guile. Turn away from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it (Ps 34:13-14 (33:14-15)). Of all these, the others above are in the commandment, the last in the reward. For that we should restrain our tongue from evil and our lips not speak guile, that we should turn away from evil and do good, and seek peace, is commanded us. But that we should pursue it is promised us. What is this peace, except that which the world does not have? What is this peace, except that which this life does not have, which in comparison with that life is not even life? For he would not say of this life, Who is the man who wants life? and exhort, by the commandments that follow, either to keep or to prolong it, as though anyone did not want even this. For this too is wished at least to be long, since it cannot be everlasting; and through it a man can come to that life, if, as he wishes it long, so he also wished it good. But how much is long in this life which will someday be ended? And what was long will be nothing, because even when it was, it did not stand still; when it was being prolonged, it was not being increased, nor did it grow by adding, because by coming it was passing away.

2. Whoever, then, you are, a lover of long life, be rather a lover of a good life. For if you wish to live badly, a long life will not truly be a good, but it will be a long evil. But see how absurd and perverse you are, when, although you confess that you love life more than your country estate, you wish rather to have a good estate than a good life. For while by gaping and coveting wickedly you obtain a good estate by defrauding, you make your life evil. Yet if it were said to you, if you were asked, whether you would rather lack a good estate by losing it, or die by an evil life, you would answer that, if you could not keep both, you were more ready that the estate be taken from you. Why, then, is life not so loved that it may also be good, which by you is preferred to all your goods even when it is evil? You certainly desire that it be long, though it be evil. Rather, make it good, and do not fear that it be short. For if, while you are anxious, it goes well, then, while you are secure, it will be quickly ended. For eternal life succeeds it, blessed without fear, long without end. Concerning that life he asks, who says, Who is the man who wants life and loves to see good days? (Ps 34:12 (33:13)) But in this life the Apostle commands us to redeem the time, since the days are evil. And what is it to redeem the time, except, when there is need, even by the loss of temporal advantages, to procure spaces of time for seeking and grasping eternal things? Whence the Lord too commands, saying, If anyone wishes to contend with you in judgment and to take your tunic, let him have your cloak also (Matt 5:40). That is, some temporal thing being lost, you may spend on quiet the time you were going to spend on litigation.

3. That, accordingly, the Spirit of God does not speak of the life and days of this time when it says, Who is the man who wants life and desires to see good days? (Ps 34:12 (33:13))—the things that follow teach. For it adds such commandments that, by obeying them, we may be able to have life and good days, that this life which we now lead and these days must generally be lost for the sake of fulfilling those same commandments. Accordingly, if we understand this life in which we now are in what was said, Who is the man who wants life? and for the sake of having this we do the commandments that are joined to it, what shall we do when someone powerful in malice has threatened us with death unless we bear false witness? For surely if we do what is here commanded, Restrain your tongue from evil, so that for the sake of this commandment we refuse the falsehood of testimony, we will seem, as it were, deceived. Because for the sake of the desire of having life we undertook to keep the commandment, and we rather lost it by keeping the commandment. But if we understand the life eternally blessed which after this one God will give to those who obey him, of which the Lord said to a certain man, If you wish to come to life, keep the commandments (Matt 19:17), then truly to the one asking, Who is the man who wants life? we will answer that we want life, if even under the very blow of the striker we keep truth in testimony, we despise death in the world, we obtain life in heaven.

4. Let us understand this of the good days. For if, for the sake of the days of the present age which are called good and are not, in the burial of the heart through heaps of feasts, in the whirlpools of luxury and wine-bibbing, in the most shameful pleasures of gluttony—if, then, for the sake of those days, as though for the sake of good days, we undertook the commandment that our lips should not speak guile, generally such days compel their lovers to speak guile, and such days are denied to those who do not speak guile. For what else is it to "speak guile," except to bring forth one thing with the lips when another is shut up in the breast? For this purpose especially the business of flatterers has blazed up, because almost always, lest they be kept from rich tables and well-furnished banquets, by flattering they do not keep silent what is false, and they are kept from these, if, loving God, they speak the truth. Therefore for the sake of those days which they think good, that these may be granted them, they speak guile, and they are denied them, if they do not speak guile. There are, then, other good days, of which we are admonished that, if we love to see them, we should restrain our tongue from evil and not speak guile. Those days are not of this age; the heaven that will pass away does not have them, but the heaven that will remain; the land of the dying does not know them, but the land of the living. Whoever has understood and loved these, let him restrain his tongue from evil; and if the terror of death compels it to evil, let his lips not speak guile; and if by falsely good days he is invited to evil, let him turn away from evil even among good things, let him do good even among evil things; let him seek peace, which is not upon the earth, and pursue it in him who made heaven and earth.

5. Accordingly, brothers, covet life and love to see good days where there will be no night, life in which an evil day is not feared, good days in which life is never ended. But if you love this reward, beware lest you refuse the work of which it is the reward. By seeking that peace, pursue it. But seek it with your hands by night before God, and you will not be deceived. For what is "with your hands," except in a good work? What is "by night," except in tribulation? What is "before God," except in purity of conscience? Living so and loving this, you will have God in contemplation, and in him life without failing, good days without darkening, peace without dissension.

Sermon 16/A
A Sermon Delivered in the Basilica of the Elders
On a Sunday, the Fourteenth Day Before the Kalends of July
On the Response of Psalm 38:
"Hear My Prayer and My Supplication, O Lord"
And on the Woman Caught in Adultery

1. It is the mark of Christians to advance daily in God and always to rejoice in God or in his gifts. For the time of our pilgrimage is very brief, and our homeland is without time. For between eternity and time there is much distance. Here devotion is acquired, there one rests. Hence, in the daily days, let us, as good merchants, know what we have gained. For we ought not only to be eager in hearing, but watchful in working. This school, in which God alone is master, seeks good disciples, not runaways but eager ones. The Apostle says, In zeal not slothful, fervent in spirit, rejoicing in hope (Rom 12:11-12). In this school, then, brothers, we learn daily. One thing we learn in the commandments, another in the examples, another in the sacraments. These are medicines for our wounds, and supports for our zeal. Just now we responded, Hear my prayer and my supplication, O Lord; give ear to—that is, perceive with the ears—my tears (Ps 39:12 (38:13)). What do you think this man is going to ask, who first desires God to be favorable to him? What will he seek from him? Let us see, let us learn. Will he perhaps ask for riches? Perhaps for some happiness in this life? Let him tell us, then, what he is going to ask, who first prays to God. For he saw that what he could not have of himself, he could have from God. For he had heard, Ask, and you will receive (John 16:24). He knew, then, what he was going to ask, who first asked God; therefore, Hear, O God, my prayer. And as though asked, "What do you want, why do you knock, why do you cry, why do you interrupt? Let me hear what you want." "What do I want? Hear my will and perfect your work. What is my will? I said, I will guard my ways, that I may not offend with my tongue (Ps 39:1 (38:2))." A hard thing this man undertakes, but he does not doubt, since he first prayed to the Lord. For he knew the teaching of Paul: Not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor 15:10).

2. I said, then, I will guard my ways (Ps 39:1 (38:2)). What ways? Earthly ones? Do we walk on the earth by the tongue? We walk on the earth either by our own feet or by another's. Either we are carried by animals, or we go by our own feet. What, then, is it? What way does this man seek, that he may not offend with his tongue? A great teaching. See, brothers. For is it that, just as in one hour we can take food and, refreshed, depart, so we can in one moment both speak and be silent? For just as we have eyes for seeing, ears for hearing, and the other senses for perceiving, so too the tongue for speaking. We have great need of the tongue. Either you are going to hear something so as to answer, or you are going to say something so as to teach. Will you say it with the eye, and not with the tongue? And if you are going to hear with the ear, you are going to answer with the tongue. What do we do with so useful a member? With it we ask God, with it we make satisfaction, with it we say praises, with it, singing with one voice in harmony, we sing to God, with it in the daily days we either become merciful when we speak with others, or give counsel. What shall we do now? Our very tongue performs a ministry for you. What do we do, that we may not offend with the tongue? Especially since it was said, Death and life are in the hands of the tongue (Prov 18:21), and again it was said, I have seen many falling by the edge of the sword, but not so as those who fell by the tongue (Sir 28:18). Again it was said, And the tongue is set among our members, which defiles our whole body (Jas 3:6). Hence again the same Lord, They have taught their tongue to speak a lie (Jer 9:5). O, they have taught it! For habit makes one speak a lie; even if you do not wish, it speaks a lie. For just as, if you turn a wheel once, then, as you have pushed it with the hand, by that very shape and roundness, or by that unstable and as it were natural course, it runs, so too our tongue need not be taught to speak a lie. For now, set going of its own accord, it runs to that toward which it can more easily be moved. You have one thing in your heart; that turns out another, sometimes from habit. What will you do? See, brothers, what scales of the heart must be made, that the tongue may bring forth something! For it is not moved of its own accord; there is within one who moves it.

3. For there is a certain force, which moves both itself and its other ministries. There is need that he be good who rules, and, helped through grace, he conquers however evil a habit. Let the minister be good, and the ministry is at rest. A soldier has arms, but if he does nothing, the arms do nothing. So too the tongue among our members—they are the arms of our soul. Of it was said, A restless evil (Jas 3:8). O, restless! Who made this evil, except the restless one? Do not be restless, and this is not evil; do not stir it, and there is nothing to stir itself. For it is not a soul, that it should move; it is a body, it lies still. Do not move it, and it is not moved. But see how you move it. It is the very one with which many, eager for frauds and serving avarice, when they begin to transact some business, cast forth the member made for the praise of God, and there blaspheme God and say, "By Christ! I bought for so much, I sell for so much." Why? I have asked you. Swear to me, for how much do you sell? I have asked you: For how much do you sell? "I sell for ten coins, for twenty coins." By Christ you swear. Swear by your eyes, swear by your children, and at that very hour the conscience trembles. O impiety of the tongue! You despised the Creator, you guarded the creature. O restless evil, full of deadly poison! With it we bless God and the Father—but God and the Father, God on account of nature, Father on account of grace; and with it we curse a man, who was made to the image of God (Jas 3:8-9). Attend, brothers, to what you carry. Behold, I say what we carry, for I too am a man with you. But let us return.

4. Hear, O God, my prayer (Ps 39:12 (38:13)). Of this sort are those Jews whom we just read of in the Gospel. Certainly the tongue led them to death. For just now we heard in the Gospel: The Jews, it says, brought a certain woman, though a harlot, to the Lord, tempting him and saying, Master, this woman was just now caught in adultery. In the law of Moses it is written that whoever is caught in adultery should be stoned: what do you say? (John 8:4-5) This the tongue said, but it did not acknowledge the Creator. These people were unwilling to pray, so as to say, Deliver my soul from the deceitful tongue (Ps 120:2 (119:2)). For they had come with guile; this is what they wished to do. For the Lord had come not to dissolve the law but to fulfill it, and to forgive sins. So the Jews said among themselves, "If he says, Let her be stoned, we will say to him, Where is it that you forgive sins? Are you not the one who says, Your sins are forgiven you (Luke 7:48)? But if he says, Let her go, we will say, Where is it that you came to fulfill the law, not to dissolve it?" See the deceitful tongue toward God. He who had come as Redeemer, not condemner (for he had come to redeem what had perished), turned away from them, as though not wishing to look at them. That turning away from them is not idle. Something is understood in this turning away. As though he said, "You bring me a sinful woman, you sinners. If you think I ought to condemn sins, I begin with you." And he who had come to grant pardon of sins says, Whoever of you knows himself to be without sin, let him first cast a stone at her (John 8:7). O answer, or rather proposition! If they had wished to cast a stone at the sinful woman, at that very hour it would again be recited, With what judgment you judge, judgment will be passed on you (Matt 7:2). You have condemned, you will be condemned. Yet those people, even if they did not acknowledge the Creator, knew their own conscience. Setting face behind face by turns, so that they would not even wish to look at one another out of confusion, from the elders—this the Evangelist said—to the least, all went out (John 8:9). For the Holy Spirit had said, All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one (Ps 14:3 (13:3)).

5. And all went out. There remained the one alone and the woman alone; there remained the Creator and the creature; there remained misery and mercy; there remained she who acknowledged her own guilt, and he who forgave the sin. For this is what he writes on the earth when he turned. For he wrote on the earth. For when man sinned, it was said to him, You are earth (Gen 3:19). To the sinful woman, then, when he gave pardon, in giving it he wrote on the earth. He gave pardon; but, when he gave pardon, raising his face to her, Has no one, he said, stoned you? And she did not say, "Why? What have I done, Lord? Am I indeed guilty?" She did not say this, but said, No one, Lord (John 8:10-11). She accused herself. They could not prove it against her, they withdrew themselves. But she confessed, whose guilt the Lord did not fail to know, but whose faith and confession he was seeking. Has no one stoned you? And she, No one, Lord. And No one on account of the confession of sins, and Lord on account of the pardon of merits. No one, Lord. I acknowledge both. Who you are I know, what I am I know. For to you I confess. For I have heard, Confess to the Lord, for he is good (Ps 118:1 (117:1)). I know my confession, I know your mercy. This man said, I will guard my ways, that I may not offend with my tongue (Ps 39:1 (38:2)). They offended by acting deceitfully; she rather absolved herself by confessing. Has no one stoned you? And she, No one, and is silent. He again writes. Twice he wrote, this we heard, twice he wrote: once in giving pardon, again in renewing the commandments. For both happen, when we receive pardon. The Emperor has signed. When the document goes forth again, as though other commandments are again given. They are those by which we first heard in the Apostle that love commanded. For first we heard that very reading. Hence the Lord himself said this, You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole strength; and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets (Matt 22:37-40).

6. Lest any of us should labor, two certain things were said: God and neighbor; he who made you, and that with which he made you. No one said to you, "Love the sun, love the moon, love the earth and whatever has been made." In these God is to be praised, the maker is to be blessed. How magnified are your works! we say; you have made all things in wisdom (Ps 104:24 (103:24)). They are yours, you have made all things. Thanks to you! But you have made us above all things. Thanks to you! For we are your image and likeness. Thanks to you! We sinned, we were sought. Thanks to you! We neglected, we were not neglected. Thanks to you! When we despised you, we were not despised; lest we should have forgotten your divinity and lost you, you took up even our humanity. Thanks to you! Where not thanks? I said, then, I will guard my ways, that I may not offend with my tongue (Ps 39:1 (38:2)). For that woman, when the charge of adultery was brought against her, received pardon, was freed. Is it burdensome to us that, through baptism, through confession, through grace, all receive pardon of all their sins? But let no one now say, "She received pardon. I am still a catechumen. I will commit adulteries, since I am going to receive pardon. Suppose me too to be one like that woman. She confessed, and was freed. Our God is good. And if I sin, I confess to him, and he will forgive me." You attend to his goodness, but consider his justice. As goodness toward pardon, so justice toward punishment. I said, then, I will guard my ways, that I may not offend with my tongue. I would like to know whether, in this time in which we minister a sermon to your Charity, no one offends with his tongue. In this time in which we are here, perhaps no one of us has spoken anything evil, but perhaps has thought something evil. Attend. I said, I will guard my ways, that I may not offend with my tongue. Say truly: I have set a guard to my mouth while the sinner stands against me (Ps 39:1 (38:2)).

7. Attend. I have set a guard to my mouth while the sinner stands against me (Ps 39:1 (38:2)). Some wicked man stands against you, reviles you, says things you do not know. Do you set a guard to your mouth. I said, I will guard my ways, that I may not offend with my tongue. Let him speak. You, hear, and be silent. For there are two things. Either he speaks the truth, or what is false. If he speaks the truth, you made him speak it. And perhaps this is mercy. For when you are unwilling to hear what you did, God who has care of you tells you through someone what you did, that, confounded by that very shame, you may at some time have recourse to the medicine. Do not, then, repay evil for evil. For you do not know who speaks to you through him. Therefore, if he says something you did, recognize that you have obtained mercy, so that you either think yourself forgotten, or judge this to have been said for your confusion. If you did not do it, your conscience is free. What do you seek? Why are you angry about what you did not do? For what if he says to you, "Thief"? "Drunkard"? Quickly have recourse within to the secrets of conscience. See yourself within. Be the judge, be the examiner of yourself. Seek there, "Where do you think I put my sins which I did?" Or if there are none, say, "I did not do it." If your conscience says to you, "I did not do it," say, This is our glory, the testimony of our conscience (2 Cor 1:12). Did your conscience say this to you? Be silent, grieve over the one saying it to you. Say even you to God, "Father, forgive him, for he does not know what he says." Pray to God for him. I said, I will guard my ways, that I may not offend with my tongue. I have set a guard to my mouth while the sinner stands against me. For do not think that you then seem holy if no one tempts you. Then you are holy when you are not moved by any reviling, when you grieve over the one speaking, when you do not care what you suffer, but yet grieve over him from whom you suffer. There is all mercy. You grieve because he too is your brother, is your member. He rages against you, he is frenzied, he is sick. Grieve over him, do not rejoice. Only rejoice over the security of your conscience. Thence grieve. For you are a man. See that you too be not tempted. For it was said, Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. Now, when it says, "Be silent," afterward, when he has grown calm, say to him, "Brother, by your salvation, why did you say to me what I did not do? You have sinned against me, I pray God for you. I indeed grant you pardon, and pray for you to my God, against whom you did injury when you sinned against me. Do not do it further, do not be proud." I do not say, Repay him, O God, who said to me what I did not do. I do not wish to say this. I have set a guard to my mouth while the sinner stands against me.

8. I became deaf and was humbled—this follows—and was silent from good things (Ps 39:2 (38:3)). I became deaf: I did not hear him speaking. How far has that soul advanced, which, even within rejoicing in its brother's error and in the security of its own conscience, does not know that it is barked at outside! What kind of soul is that, how secure, how rejoicing! This is the soul that says to God, I walked in the innocence of my heart, in the midst of your house (Ps 101:2 (100:2)). Housebreakers were knocking at the doors, but the house was sound. I became deaf and was humbled, I did not stand proud against him. And, humbled, I was silent from good things. For it was not the time that I should say anything good. For it is the time that you be silent now. After he has become sincere, speak, then he will understand. Generally sick sons have beaten their fathers. Yet they, on account of the weakness of their sons, both were beaten and wept. What affection men show to their sons, that they may not die, awaiting the salvation of their sons! "But he is not my son," you say. But he is the work of God, the image of God, the son of God. If you despise him because he is not your son, do not despise him because he is the son of God, is your brother. "Therefore I became deaf, and was humbled. I was not proud, but was silent from good things, and my sorrow was renewed (Ps 39:2 (38:3)), not over myself, but over him, because I did not do what he said. I had sorrow, but because he so said it. I had sorrow; for, having care of my brother, sorrow was renewed in me." This is the way. For this the Lord himself did, our Father, who was also called the Bridegroom. The sons of the bridegroom will not fast, he says, as long as the bridegroom is with them (Matt 9:15). He was beaten by frenzied sons, frenzied sons killed him. He prayed for them. Afterward they became sincere, they acknowledged and believed, and those who were unwilling to be cured by the physician were cured by the physician's disciple, for through Peter they were cured. For when Peter rebuked them, they said, What shall we do? Then Peter said, Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 2:37-38). Just now they raged, just now they believed. You see what weakness and health do. When they were sick, they were borne with; when they were made well, they were redeemed. Hence we too, brothers, as often as we suffer such things, let us be silent. Let us hold to those two things: either he speaks the truth, or what is false. "And if he does not say it, and I did it, what then? Because he does not say it, and I did it, it is to be wished that he say it, that I may be confounded, because I did it: this is the mercy of God. But if he says this which I did not do, let me rejoice over myself from security, let me grieve over my brother's weakness. My heart grew hot within me (Ps 39:3 (38:4)). My heart grew hot within me from the love I have toward my brother. But there is a time to speak, a time to be silent (Eccl 3:7). I could not do it just now. Hence Paul himself says, I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshly (1 Cor 3:1). Yet he spoke. How did he speak? Therefore my heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire blazes up (Ps 39:3 (38:4)). There is in me the fire of love. I have no one to whom to say that he is weak. Let me, then, humble myself. There will perhaps at some time be a time when I can say something. Yet forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). Let me forgive him that which I do not have in my conscience. It is little that I have nothing in my conscience, but let me pray for him on account of his conscience."

9. This man had now run through, I said, I will guard my ways. I will set a guard to my mouth. I was humbled, and in my meditation a fire blazes up. Suddenly here he brings forth something else, greater, and after so many struggles and great labors hear what he says: I spoke with my tongue (Ps 39:3 (38:4)). For the tongue of the soul is the very motion of the will. For just as the tongue is a motion in the body, so the will is a motion in the soul. There is the first tongue; thence it is, thence it speaks to God. For this tongue performs a ministry to men placed outside; but that tongue, which is in the motion of the will, performs a ministry to him who remains within in his temple. That is the true tongue. Whence the Lord said that those who adore him ought to adore in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). That is the true tongue. I spoke with my tongue: Make known to me, Lord, my end, and the number of my days, what it is, that I may know what is lacking to me (Ps 39:4 (38:5)). If your Holiness attends, let it first understand the sentence, and so the Lord by his mercy, with which he is always accustomed, will give us, by your prayers, that we may be able to discuss this, since it is sufficiently hard. I spoke with my tongue: make known to me, Lord, my end, and the number of my days, what it is, that I may know what is lacking to me. See what he prays: Make known to me, Lord, my end. The end, brothers, is where we tend, where we are going to remain. That we went out of our houses was for us the end of coming to church. So our journey here is ended. From here again each one has an end of returning to his house. There he ends, where he was tending. Now, then, established in this pilgrimage, we have an end where we tend. Where, then, do we tend? To our homeland. What is our homeland? Jerusalem, the mother of the devout, the mother of the living. There we tend. He himself is our end. And because we did not know the way, he himself, a citizen of that city, made himself the way. We did not know which way to go. There were on the way certain windings, I know not what, thorny, stony, altogether hard. He himself came down here first, who is there the chief; he came down seeking the citizens of that city. For we had wandered astray, and, although we are citizens of Jerusalem, we became citizens of Babylon, we became sons of confusion: for Babylon is confusion. He came down here seeking his citizens, and became our citizen. We did not know that city, that province we did not know. But because we did not come to it, he came down here to his citizens, and himself became a citizen, not by consenting, but by taking on. He came down here. How did he come down? In the form of a servant. God walked here among us as a man. For if he had been only a man, he would not have led us to God. If he had been only God, he would not have been joined to men. He took on with us the equality of our condition, having with the Father the divinity. He took on with us temporality, having with the Father eternity. Here equal with us, there equal with the Father. Our citizen came down here, and said, "What do you do here, citizens of Jerusalem? The image and likeness of God is created only in Jerusalem. The statues of God are not set up in this life. Let us labor, let us return. By what way do we return? Behold, I lay myself down for you, I become for you the way, I will be for you the end. Imitate me." Make known to me, Lord, my end. Him we believe, who is our end.

10. God the Father now speaks: "I say to you, O soul whom I made, O man whom I made, I say to you, you had ended. What had you ended? You had perished. I sent to you one to seek you, I sent to you one to walk with you, I sent to you one to pardon. Thence he walked with feet, pardoned with hands. Thence, when after the resurrection he ascended, he showed hands, side, and feet: hands, whence he gave pardon of sins; feet, with which he announced peace to the forsaken; side, whence flowed the price of the redeemed." The end, then, of the law is Christ, unto righteousness for everyone who believes (Rom 10:4). Make known to me, Lord, my end. Now your end has been made known to you of the night. How has it been made known to you? Your end was poor, your end was humble, your end was struck with blows, your end was smeared with spittle, against your end false testimony was spoken. I have set a guard to my mouth while the sinner stands against me. He himself became for you the way. Whoever says he abides in Christ ought himself to walk as he walked (1 John 2:6). He is the way. Now let us walk, let us not fear, let us not wander astray. Let us not walk outside the way. For it was said, Around the way they set scandals for me, and around the way they set a snare for me (Ps 140:5 (139:6)). And behold that mercy. Lest you fall into the snare, you have that very mercy as the way. Make known to me, Lord, my end. Behold, you have the end. Imitate Christ the redeemer: Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ (1 Cor 11:1). How did Paul imitate Christ? Attend to what he said: In hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, and the rest, down to, Who is made to stumble, and I am not on fire? (2 Cor 11:27, 29) I became all things to all, that I might gain all (1 Cor 9:22). I have set a guard to my mouth while the sinner stands against me. What are the words of Paul, brothers? Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Attend to the end. Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or nakedness, or peril? (Rom 8:35) O loving, O fervent, O running, O arriving man! What did this soul suffer? How did it burn, how did it teach? Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Distress? and the rest, down to, or the sword? What did this man suffer? And lest anyone should think that he was proud about it, he said, Brothers, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it (Phil 3:13).

11. Why this, Make known to me, Lord, my end, and the number of my days, what it is (Ps 39:4 (38:5))? How much have I to live here? Why know the day for yourself? That I may know what is lacking to me. What is lacking, but toward eternity. Now attend to Paul. After so many labors counted up, he says, I do not yet consider that I have laid hold of it (Phil 3:13). Hear him saying, What is lacking to me. Therefore let no one say, "I have now fasted much, labored much, given much. I have now done all the commandments of God. Yesterday I did, today I did." And still today will be, if you ever were. Yesterday always has a today; if you come to tomorrow, it will have a today; and if you come to ten years, there will be a today. Always say you today, What is lacking to me. For if Paul, in such great labors a heavenly soldier, if he, after such great exercise and after such great revelations, caught up to the third heaven, and heard ineffable words, and yet, lest he be exalted in the revelations, received a thorn of the flesh to humble him—who is there who can dare to say, "It is enough"? Therefore make known to me, Lord, my end. And behold, you have before you Christ the end. You have nothing more to seek. Since you have now believed, you have now acknowledged. But the matter is not in faith only, but in faith and work. Both are necessary. For even the demons believe (you have heard the Apostle) and tremble (Jas 2:19), but it does not profit them that they believe. Faith alone is little, unless works too are joined: Faith which works through love (Gal 5:6), says the Apostle. Make known to me, Lord, my end, and the number of my days, what it is. This is not said because, if each of us knew when he would die, he would resolve for himself, for example, to live well. Hence the master himself, wishing us to become anxious, is asked about the day and the hour, and says, Of that day and hour no one knows. For he was unwilling that they should know. Hence he said, nor the Son (Mark 13:32); that is, it is not expedient for you to know. For you would be negligent, not anxious. You will live the better the more anxious you are. Not that I do not know the day, for all that the Father has is mine (John 16:15). Make known to me, Lord, my end, and the number of my days, what it is. Make this known to me, that I may always be anxious, because I do not know when the thief will come, that I may know what is lacking to me.

12. There, then, brothers, let us be cautious, that we may know what is lacking to us. The temptation of Christians is the proving of Christians. For he who is tempted, it is shown to him what is lacking to him. There are two things: either it is shown to him what he has, or it is shown to him what is lacking. Abraham was tempted not that it might be shown to him what he lacked, but that it might be shown to us what we should imitate. But he was tempted in his son. What was that temptation? He longed for a son in advanced age, of whom there was now despair. Yet, when he heard the promise of God, he did not hesitate at all. He believed, received, merited, took him up. He was born, was nursed, was brought to maturity, was suckled. And it was said to him, In your seed shall all nations be blessed (Gen 22:18). He knew in what seed, for we have the testimony in the Gospel: Abraham longed to see my day, he says; and he saw it, and rejoiced (John 8:56). He knew, then. But after all those things which he had believed, he heard from God, Abraham, offer me your son as a sacrifice (Gen 22:2). He was tempted. Why? Did God not know his faith? But for our sake he deigned to show these things. For to us it is said, "Offer me a sacrifice from your purse," and we hesitate. What sacrifice? Give alms, and behold, all things are clean to you (Luke 11:41); and again, I want mercy rather than sacrifice (Hos 6:6). "Give something from your purse," it is said to you, and you tie it up. What if you were commanded about your son? Behold, about your purse you so hesitate; about your son what would you have done? That I may know what is lacking to me. I am going to say it not without sorrow and shame. Many women perhaps wish to serve God, and, if they are bold, say to their parents, "Let me go, I wish to be a virgin of God," or, "I wish to be a servant of God," and they hear, "Neither may you be saved, nor may you be saved. Truly you shall not do what you want. What I want, this you shall do." What if it were said to you, "Kill"? You are alive, eternal life is promised you, it is before you. And do you resist, and hesitate, and fight against it? Surely you are a Christian. "Why, sir, because I am a Christian, ought I therefore not to have grandchildren?" Ought you to have grandchildren? Do you know how much is lacking to you, that you fasted yesterday? Sing what this man said: Make known to me, Lord, my end, and the number of my days, what it is, that I may know what is lacking to me. For may God grant, and his mercy, that we be daily stirred, or tempted, or proved, or exercised, or that we advance. Tribulation works patience, patience proof, proof hope. But hope does not confound (Rom 5:3-5).

13. Therefore, my brothers, let us wish daily to know who we are, lest, when we are secure, afterward the day come and nothing be found of what we thought, and it be said to us, In hell who will confess to you? (Ps 6:5 (6:6)) Therefore, my brothers, let us give our effort daily to advancing in God, not sparing the perishable things which here we shall leave behind. Let us attend to the faith of Abraham, because he too was our father. Let us imitate his devotion, let us imitate his faith. If we are tempted in our children, let us not fear; if in our purse, let us not be terrified; if anything is brought upon us by the weaknesses of our body, let us place our hope in God. We are Christians, we are pilgrims. Let no one be terrified, the homeland is not here. He who wishes to have his homeland here will both lose this one, and not come to that one. As good sons, let us tend toward our homeland, that our course may be approved and brought through. Turned to the Lord.

Sermon 16/B
A Sermon on the Response of Psalm 40

1. With one voice many of us have sung, because in Christ we are one. For the people who say in the plural number, Our Father (Matt 6:9), are the same who say, I said, Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:4 (40:5)). For many wish to sin, and are unwilling that their sins be attributed to themselves. But let your Holiness attend to proud men, how they are unwilling to confess to God. For all the evils that they do they are unwilling to attribute to themselves, and they begin to say that either fortune did it or fate did it. But he says, "The devil did it," lest he say, "I did it." Let him, then, who says these things, remove them from the midst, because both fortune is a vanity of men and fate an emptiness, and whoever thinks that fate is anything himself becomes a fool. And the devil, although he is our enemy, yet trips up only the one who consents. He does not have the force of compelling, but the cunning of persuading. But if the devil, persuading evil, spoke alone, and God, teaching good things through the Scriptures, did not speak, you would have an excuse before God. You would say, "To whom was I going to consent, except to him who was speaking to me, since you were silent toward me?" But since the devil is not silent in persuading evil, and God is not silent in admonishing good, why are your ears, midway between the devil persuading evil and God commanding good, inclined to the words of the devil, and turned away from the words of God? He says to you, "Commit theft"; God says to you, "Do not commit theft." If you heard both, you would be most wicked. And yet how could you obey both, commanding different things, when God Christ cries out, No one can serve two masters (Matt 6:24)? Now see what kind of man you are, who despise God admonishing, and consent to the devil deceiving. When you do this, at least attend, and now do not do it. And when you have seen that you did wrong, confess to God, do not accuse the devil, that you may be able to say truly, I said, Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:4 (40:5)). Fate did not sin, fortune did not sin: Heal my soul, for I have sinned against you. And what shall I do? Because I have sinned, I am sick. If I am sick, heal my soul. This is to confess to the physician, and to call upon the physician. If you wish to attribute your sins to others, as I said, either to fortune or to fate or to the devil, not to yourself, and again wish to attribute your good deeds to yourself, not to God, you are perverse. For, on the contrary, whatever evil you do, you do by your own malice; whatever good you do, you do by the grace of God.

2. But see how certain men, I know not who, unwilling, turn to blasphemies, so that they wish to accuse God himself. For when one has begun to accuse fortune, because it itself compelled him to sin, and it itself sinned in him, he begins to accuse fate; it is asked of him, "What is fortune, or what is fate?" And he begins to say that the stars compelled him to sin. See how little by little his blasphemy runs to God. Who set the stars in heaven? Is it not God the creator of all? If, then, he set there such stars as compel you to sin, does he not seem to be himself the author of your sins? See how perverse you are, O man, who, when God accuses your sins, not that he may punish you, but that, those sins being punished, he may free you, you, on the contrary, by your own perversity, where you do something good attribute it to yourself, where you do something evil attribute it to God. Turn yourself, then, from this perversity. Be corrected, and begin to contradict yourself, and to speak to yourself from the contrary. For what did you say before? "The good that I do, I do; the evil that I do, God does." Rather, it is true thus: the good that you do, God does; the evil that you do, you do. By saying these things you do not sing in vain, I said, Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:4 (40:5)). For if where you do evil it is God, and where you do good it is you, you speak iniquity against God. Hear from here too what the psalm says: Do not, it says, lift up your horn on high, nor speak iniquity against God (Ps 75:5 (74:6)). For this iniquity you were speaking against God, by which you wished to attribute all good things to yourself, and all evil things to him. By lifting up the horn of pride, you were speaking iniquity against God. With humility you speak equity. What is the equity that you speak with humility? I said, Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:4 (40:5)).

3. Therefore, when that psalm had said, Do not lift up your horn on high, nor speak iniquity against God, it added at once, For neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert mountains; because God is the judge, he humbles this one and exalts that one (Ps 75:5-7 (74:6-8)). He sees two men, that is, two kinds of men. What two men, then, does he see? One being proud, the other confessing; one speaking equity, the other speaking iniquity. Who speaks equity? He who says, "I have sinned." But who speaks iniquity? He who says, "Not I sinned, but fortune sinned, fate sinned." When, therefore, you see two men, one speaking equity, the other iniquity, one humble, the other proud, do not wonder that what it says follows: For God is the judge, he humbles this one and exalts that one. And it is little, what I said: Brother, do not so speak as to attribute to yourself the good things you do, but to God the evil things. But even the good things themselves that you do, if you so attribute to God and give thanks to God for them, yet so that you exalt yourself above others who do not yet do good works, and seem to yourself as though of already perfect justice, because you do not commit murder, or do not commit adultery, or do not commit theft, or you fast, or you give alms, and you seem to yourself thence to have already perfected justice, and despise those who do not do these things, and are proud as one healthy looking at the sick, then God disapproves you. For you ought, however much you have advanced, not to attend to how far you have passed, but to what remains to you, until you both finish the way and rejoice in the homeland, exalted in the king of that homeland, who for your sake became humble.

4. Therefore two men are shown in the temple by the Lord, and the Gospel says thus: And he spoke also against those who seemed to themselves just and despised the rest, this likeness. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a publican (Luke 18:9-10). The Pharisees were, as it were, the chiefs of the Jews, either as their learned or as their holy ones; but the publicans they held to be the most worthless sinners. Both, then, went up into the temple to pray, and the Pharisee began to say, God, I give you thanks. See that from the good which he had, he gave thanks to God. But see where he is reproved, because he despised the one whom he saw to be a sinner. Therefore see the following words: I give you thanks, that I am not like the rest of men, unjust, robbers, adulterers, like this publican too (Luke 18:11). He attended to him and despised him. And he exalted himself above, and asked nothing to be given him, but only gave thanks for what he had, as though he were already perfect. And he began now to enumerate to God, as it were, his merits: I fast twice on the sabbath, I give tithes of all that I possess (Luke 18:12). He had come to the physician to be cured, and he showed his healthy members, he covered his wounds. But the publican stood afar off, nor did he dare to lift his eyes to heaven, but struck his breast, saying: Lord, be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:13). See how he did not seek not to be accused. He accused himself and beat himself. With his fist he struck his breast, his conscience with fear, and confessed to God. Let your Holiness attend how he humbles this one and exalts that one. Hear the following words of the Lord: Amen I say to you, the publican went down from the temple justified rather than that Pharisee (Luke 18:14). And as though you said, "Lord, why so?" and he said to you, For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 18:14). Having, then, this way of humility, dearest brothers, advance, abstain yourselves from all wickedness and malignity. Cleanse again and again your ways, with the help of God, to whom you confess. Turned.

Sermon 17
A Sermon on Psalm 49

1. We have sung, God shall come manifest, our God, and he shall not keep silence (Ps 50:3 (49:3)). This Scripture foretold that God Christ would come to the judgment of the living and the dead. For when he first came to be judged, he was hidden; when he shall come to judge, he will be manifest. How hidden he then was, understand from this, where the Apostle says, For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:8). But then, being questioned, he kept silence, as the Gospel relates, that the prophecy of Isaiah might be fulfilled in him, saying, As a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer was without voice, so he opened not his mouth (Isa 53:7). He shall come, then, manifest, and he shall not keep silence. For this it was said, He shall not keep silence when about to judge, because he kept silence when judged. For as far as concerns his utterances necessary to us, when did he keep silence? He did not keep silence through the Patriarchs, he did not keep silence through the Prophets, he did not keep silence through the mouth of his flesh. And now, if he were silent, would he not speak through the Scriptures? The reader ascends, but he himself does not keep silence. The expounder speaks. If he speaks true things, Christ speaks. If Christ kept silence, I too would not say these things to you. Nor did he keep silence through your mouth. For when you were singing, he himself was speaking. He does not keep silence. There is need that we hear, but with the ear of the heart, for it is easy to hear with that of the flesh. With those ears we ought to hear which the master himself sought, when he said, Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear (Matt 11:15). For who, before him, when he said these things, stood without ears of the flesh? All had ears, and few had them. Not all had ears to hear, that is, to obey.

2. How terribly he spoke through the prophet Ezekiel, I believe you applied your ear. I believe you heard how he said, To the house of Israel I send you, not to a people of another tongue do I send you. But the people are unwilling to hear you, because they are unwilling to hear me (Ezek 3:5-7). What does he show, except that God himself was speaking through the Prophet? But because in those very prophetic words we especially have been terrified—that is, the prelates whom he set to speak to his people—we first see our own face in those words. For there was shown to us, the reader sounding, as it were a mirror in which we might look at ourselves, and we have looked at ourselves. Look at yourselves. Behold, I am doing what I heard there. If you do not distinguish, he says, the just from the unjust, if you do not say to the sinner: You shall die the death, and show him so that he may withdraw from his iniquities, he indeed shall die in his sins, but his blood I will require from your hand. But if you say it, and he despises it and does not obey, he shall die in his crimes, but you shall free your soul (Ezek 3:18-19). I tell you, I free my soul. For I am placed in great—not danger, but ruin—if I keep silence. But when I have spoken and fulfilled my office, do you now attend to your own danger. But what do I want? What do I desire? What do I crave? Why do I speak? Why do I sit here? Why do I live? except with this intent, that we may live together with Christ. This is my desire, this is my honor, this is my possession, this is my joy, this is my glory. But if you do not hear me, and yet I do not keep silence, I shall free my soul. But I do not want to be saved without you.

3. Do not, then, despise, my brothers, the sins in which perhaps you have now made a habit. For every sin grows cheap by habit, and becomes to a man as though it were nothing. Hardness has now lost its pain. What is very rotten does not even hurt; what does not hurt is not to be held as sound, but to be counted as dead. Attend to what Scripture says, and there see how you ought to live. Who does not despise the sin of drunkenness? Such a sin abounds, and is despised. Now the heart of drunkards has lost feeling, has no pain, because no health either. When something is pricked and hurts, either it is sound or there is in it some hope of soundness. But when it is touched, pricked, or bound and does not hurt, it is to be held as dead, or to be cut off from the body. But sometimes we spare and know only how to speak. We are slothful to excommunicate, to cast out of the Church. For sometimes we fear lest, by that very scourge, he who is struck become worse. But will he spare, will he keep silence, whom we ought to fear? You have heard in that very psalm, my brothers, when he enumerated sins to sinners, he said, These things you did and I kept silence (Ps 50:21 (49:21)). Against this it was said, He shall come and shall not keep silence (Ps 50:3 (49:3)). By his presence he shall not keep silence. For, apart from the fact that the Lord Christ is signified as having kept silence in judgment, that there might be fulfilled in him that prophecy too which I recalled a little before—apart from this, now God himself, the Lord Christ, through himself keeps silence. For he ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, whence he is to come to judge the living and the dead. As long as he is there, until he comes, he keeps silence. His utterances we hear in the books, from his own mouth we do not hear. But you have heard his utterances from the holy Scriptures in this place; you have heard them when you remind yourselves, and perhaps converse about these matters among yourselves.

4. Do you not hear him when you commit adultery, and think you are hidden because a man does not see you? He sees you, but keeps silence. When you commit theft, you watch the eyes of the one from whom you steal, and if it is hidden from him you do it. If you see it cannot be hidden, you do not do it. If you do not do it for this reason, that you fear to be seen, you have done it within, you have done it in the heart. You are held a thief, and you took nothing. But also, if opportunity is given for fulfilling your evil deed, you steal and rejoice. Why? Because he keeps silence? Hear, then, the psalm. It admonished you, you, whoever you are, who perhaps stand here today and by night did something evil, it admonished you, it said to you, These things you did and I kept silence. You suspected iniquity, that I would be like you (Ps 50:21 (49:21)). O you people, who have these words I am about to say neither in mouth nor in heart, you are happy! Do not people daily, doing evil, or those who repent of having done well and by a perverse repentance pour out what they had milked, do they not daily say and gnaw these murmurings among themselves: "Truly, if these things displeased God, would he permit them to be done? Or would those who do them be happy on earth? We see robbers, we see oppressors of the weak, we see expellers of neighbors, we see violent invaders of boundaries, we see slanderers, and yet the powerful, the rich, happy in this earth. If God truly saw these things, if he cared about these things, would he spare them?" They add this too, which is worse: "Only the wicked please God." But should it happen that one does something good and perhaps some temptation follows, at once he has it at hand: "It is not expedient to do good. Better that one do well by doing evil." Is it little that you wish to do evil, and you also curse those doing well? These things you did, he says, and I kept silence. You suspected iniquity, that I would be like you. What is, that I would be like you? That evil pleases me as it does you—this you suspected. This you said in your heart, you did not say it to your equal, but I heard it, when you said it in your heart. What is worse, they go forth into these words, so that they do not even fear to be heard.

5. Therefore you suspected iniquity, that I would be like you. I will reprove you (Ps 50:21 (49:21)). When you do not think it, and when you do not expect it, I will reprove you. I am silent when I spare, but I will not be silent when I judge. I will reprove you. And what will I do to you when I reprove you? I will set you before your own face (Ps 50:21 (49:21)). For now when you do evil, you think you are good, because you do not wish to see yourself. You reprove others, you do not look at yourself; you accuse others, you do not think about yourself; you set others before your eyes, you put yourself behind your back. I, when I reprove you, do the contrary. I take you from your back, and set you before your eyes. You will see yourself, and you will lament yourself. There will then be no way for you to correct yourself. You despise, then, the time of mercy; the time of judgment will come. For you have sung to me in church, Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord (Ps 101:1 (100:1)). From our mouth it goes forth, everywhere the churches of Christ resound, Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord. It is the time of mercy, that we be corrected; the time of judgment has not yet come. There is room, there is space; we have sinned, let us be corrected. The way is not yet finished, the day is not yet closed, the last breath is not yet drawn. Let there not be despair, which is worse, since on account of those very human and tolerable sins, the more frequent the smaller they are, God established in the Church times of mercy to be dispensed, a daily medicine, that we may say, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12); that with these words, our face washed, we may approach the altar; that with these words, our face washed, we may communicate in the body and blood of Christ.

6. What is graver, people so despise this very medicine that they not only do not grant pardon when they are sinned against, but are unwilling even to ask it when they themselves sin. Temptation has entered, anger has crept in. Wrath has lorded it as much as it could, so that not only was the heart in tumult, but the tongue also vomited insults and accusations. Do you not see whither it has driven you? Do you not see whither it casts you down? See, correct it. Say, "I did wrong," say, "I have sinned." For you will not die when you have said it, rather you will die if you do not say it. Believe—not me, but God. What am I? I am a man, I am your equal, I bear flesh, I am weak: let us all believe God. Attend to yourselves. The Lord Christ himself says—attend to yourselves—If your brother sins, reprove him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. If he does not hear you, take with you two or three. For in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand. If he does not hear them, refer it to the Church. If he does not hear even the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican (Matt 18:15-17). A heathen is a gentile. The gentile is he who does not believe in Christ. If he does not hear even the Church, count him dead. But behold he lives, behold he enters, behold he signs himself, behold he bends the knee, behold he prays, behold he approaches the altar. Let him be to you as a heathen and a publican. Do not attend in him to these false signs of one living. He is dead. Whence does one live, how does one live, if even this medicine is despised? If I say to someone in your sight, "You did this," he will afterward answer, "How much was it? Let him admonish me within, let him say to me within that I did wrong, let me see my sin within. Why does he reprove me before the people?" What if you did it and did not correct it? What if you did it and still persevere? What if you did it, and still seem to yourself in your heart to have done well? Because he keeps silence, are you just? Because he does not now take vengeance, have you done no evil? Do you not fear, I will reprove you? Do you not fear, I will set you before your own face? (Ps 50:21 (49:21)) Do you not fear?

7. "But the judgment is far off," you say. First, who told you that the day of judgment is far off? Is it that, if the day of judgment is far off, your own day is far off? Whence do you know when it is? Have not many healthy ones fallen asleep and grown stiff in death? Do we not carry our falls with us in this flesh? Are we not more fragile than if we were of glass? For glass, though it is fragile, yet, kept, lasts a long time, and you find cups from grandfathers and great-grandfathers, in which grandsons and great-grandsons drink. So great a fragility, kept, has become aged. But we men walk fragile under so many daily falls. And if those sudden falls do not happen, yet we are not able to live long. Human life is wholly brief. From infancy to decrepit old age it is wholly brief. If Adam were still living and were to die today, what would the length of life have profited him? Add to this, that the very day, which as it were naturally grows hot with disease taken in, is uncertain. Daily people die. And those who live carry them out, celebrate the funerals, and promise themselves life. No one says, "I will correct myself, lest tomorrow I be what this man is whom I have carried out." Words please you, I seek deeds. Do not sadden me by your depraved ways, because my delight in this life is nothing but your good life.

Sermon 18
Of Saint Augustine, on the Verse of Psalm 49:
"God Shall Come Manifest"

1. For the exhorting of the minds of your Charity, receive gratefully a few things from the present psalm, which the Lord grants. Of our Lord Jesus Christ it was prophesied in this psalm, where we heard and sang, God shall come manifest, our God, and he shall not keep silence (Ps 50:3 (49:3)). For the Lord Christ himself, our God, the Son of God, at his first coming came hidden, at his second coming will come manifest. When he came hidden, he became known only to his servants; when he comes manifest, he will become known to the good and the wicked. When he came hidden, he came to be judged; when he comes manifest, he will come to judge. Finally, then, when he was being judged, he kept silence, and of his silence the Prophet had foretold, As a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer, so he opened not his mouth (Isa 53:7). But God shall come manifest, our God, and he shall not keep silence. Not as he kept silence when he was to be judged, so will he keep silence when he will be the judge. And now he does not keep silence, if there is one to hear, but it was said, Then he shall not keep silence, when they will acknowledge his voice who now despise it. For now, when the commandments of God are said, to some they become a matter for laughter. And since what God promised is not now shown, and what he threatens is not now seen, what he commands is mocked. For now the so-called happiness of this world the wicked too have; the so-called unhappiness of this world the good too have. People who believe present things and do not believe future things attend that these good and evil things of the present age are had indiscriminately by the good and the wicked. If they desire riches, they see that both the worst men and good men have riches. They see also, if they shudder at the poverty and miseries of this age, that not only the good but also the wicked labor in these miseries. And they say in their heart that God neither regards nor governs human affairs, but has altogether left us, in some innermost depth of this world, to be tossed by chances, and shows us no providence. And through this there arises in them a contempt of the commandment, because they do not see the manifestation of judgment.

2. Nevertheless, even now each one ought to attend that, when God wills, he regards and judges, he does not defer it for an hour; but when he wills, he defers. And whence this? Because if he never judged in the present, it would not be believed that God exists; if he judged everything in the present, he would reserve nothing for judgment. For to this end many things are reserved for judgment, and certain things are judged in the present, that those who are deferred may fear and be converted. For God does not love to condemn but to save, and therefore he is patient toward the wicked, that of the wicked he may make good. So the Apostle says, that the anger of God shall be revealed upon all impiety (Rom 1:18), and God will render to each according to his works (Rom 2:6). But he admonishes and rebukes the man who despises, and says, Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and long-suffering? (Rom 2:4) Because he is good to you, because he is long-suffering, because he is patient toward you, because he defers you and does not take you away, you despise, and think there is no judgment of God at all, not knowing that the patience of God leads you to repentance. But you, according to the hardness of your heart, lay up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works (Rom 2:4-6).

3. Whatever, then, a man does now he puts into a treasury, but he does not know what he will gather. As the rich who put into an earthly treasury, as it were, know what they gather, but do not know for whom they gather. For who will possess their riches after their death they utterly do not know, and sometimes their riches come to their enemies. And therefore each one defrauds himself, unwilling to eat that he may grow rich, that another may flow with and luxuriate in and squander his labors. As, then, they gather indeed knowing, but for whom they gather they do not know, so, on the contrary, in the heavenly treasury the good know what they gather, the wicked do not know what they gather. For the good man puts in the heavenly treasury all the works of mercy that he did toward the people he relieved, and he knows that the keeper is faithful who keeps for him all that he stores up. And he does not see them, but he is certain of his treasure, because neither is anything snatched away by a thief, nor invaded by an enemy, nor taken away by a foe, wicked and powerful, as though by suit, but it will always remain because it is kept by the most powerful Lord. For if people entrust their monies to a faithful servant and are secure, do they entrust their works of mercy to the powerful Lord and are anxious? They know, then, that whatever they store up, it is all safe there. Those who are faithful join faith to the power of their Lord. They believe him that he keeps it, and they find that he keeps it. For even people who gather money, do they see the very chest, or the money in the chest? They are always gathering and putting in, or burying and keeping. They do not see it, and yet, as it were, their conscience knows that it is there in that place where they put it. And perhaps a thief has already taken it, and he rejoices in vain who has stored it up emptily. But in the heavenly treasury, if we have put anything, we are both secure of the Lord's keeping, and suffer no thief at all, nor sustain any loss. But the wicked too themselves put into the treasury all their evil works, and God keeps them for them. This is what the Apostle said, You lay up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath of the just judgment of God (Rom 2:5).

4. But since whatever evil they do is kept, though they do not know it, when our God shall come manifest and shall not keep silence, he will call to himself all the nations, as he says in the Gospel, and will separate some, setting them on the right, some on the left, and will now begin to handle the treasures of both, that he may find what each has put in. Come, he says, blessed of my Father, to those who are on the right, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world (Matt 25:34). The kingdom of heaven, the everlasting kingdom, the fellowship with the angels, the eternal life where no one is born or dies, this receive. For when you put your works into the treasury, you were buying the kingdom of heaven. Receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world. He even shows them his treasures: I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was a stranger, and you took me in; I was in prison, and you came to me; I was sick, and you visited me (Matt 25:35-36). And they answer him, Lord, when did we see you placed in these necessities, and ministered to you? And he, When you did it to one of my least, you did it to me (Matt 25:40). Because, then, when you did it to one of my least you did it to me, receive what you sent, possess what you bought. For me, the keeper, you believed for this. Then he will turn also to those who are on the left, and will show them his treasures empty of good work: Go, he says, into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat (Matt 25:41-42). Or, if you found anything in this treasury, or put in anything, consider, and it will be rendered to you. But, they themselves say, we never saw you hungry. And he, When you did not do it to one of my least, neither did you do it to me (Matt 25:45). For perhaps you did not do it to me for this reason, that you did not see me walking on earth. You are so evil that, if you saw me, like the Jews you would crucify me. For today the evil men who try, if it can be, to abolish the commandments of God, who try, if it can be, that there be no Churches where the commandments of God may be preached to them—would they not kill Christ himself, if they found him living on earth? But they will dare to say, as though to one who does not know the thoughts of men, Lord, when did we see you hungry? (Matt 25:44) And he, When you did not do it to one of my least, neither did you do it to me. My least, the needy, I had set for you on earth. I, as the head, he will say, sat in heaven at the right hand of the Father, but my members labored on earth, my members were in need on earth. You would have given to my members, and what you gave would have reached the head. And you would have known that, when I set my least, the needy, on earth for you, I appointed them as porters for you to carry your works into my treasury. And you put nothing in their hands; therefore with me you found nothing.

5. Then, therefore, he will not keep silence, but will appear; therefore it was said, He shall not keep silence (Ps 50:3 (49:3)). But now the reader says it from the codex and it is despised; the expounder or disputant bishop says it from his own mouth, and it is mocked. Will it be so mocked, when it shall be said by the most powerful judge himself? Each one will receive what he did, whether good or evil. Then people will say, with a late and unfruitful repentance, "Oh, if we could live again and hear and do what we despised!" Then those will say, whom their iniquities will set over against them, as it says in the book of Wisdom, What did pride profit us, and what did the boasting of riches confer on us? All have passed away like a shadow (Wis 5:8-9). You see that they will repent, but this repentance is one of torment, not of healing. Do you wish to have a useful repentance? Have it now. For if you have it now, you will be corrected. When you have been corrected, that treasure of yours where your evil works were gathered will be poured out, and that other treasure of yours will be filled where all your good works are gathered. But perhaps, converted to God, you will die at once, and perhaps none of your works will be found in that treasury? You will plainly find your works there, because it is written, Peace on earth to men of good will (Luke 2:14). God does not note the ability, but crowns the will. He knows that you wished and could not; so he notes you, as though you had done what you wished. Therefore there is need that you be converted, lest by deferring you suddenly die, and nothing at all be found which you may have in the present and possess in the future. Turned to God.

Sermon 19
A Sermon of Saint Augustine
Delivered in the Restored Basilica
On the Day of the Games

1. Singing, we asked the Lord to turn his face away from our sins, and to blot out all our misdeeds. But you can observe, brothers, what we have heard in the same psalm: For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is ever before me (Ps 51:3 (50:5)). But it is said to God elsewhere, Do not turn your face away from me (Ps 27:9 (26:9)), to whom we have said, Turn your face away from my sins (Ps 51:9 (50:11)). Since, then, one person is both man and sinner, the man says, Do not turn your face away from me, the sinner says, Turn your face away from my sins. This, then, is said: Do not turn your face away from him whom you made, turn your face away from that which I made. Let your eye, he says, distinguish both, lest on account of the fault the nature perish. You made something, I too made something. What you made is called nature; what I made is called fault. Let the fault be healed, that the nature may be preserved.

2. My misdeed, he says, I acknowledge (Ps 51:3 (50:5)). If I acknowledge, then do you pardon. Let us live well, and, living well, let us not in the least presume that we are without sin. Let life be praised in such a way that pardon is asked. But desperate men, the less intent they are on their own sins, the more curious they are about others'. For they seek not what they may correct, but what they may bite. And since they cannot excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others. Not so did this man show us the example of praying and making satisfaction to God, saying, For my misdeed I acknowledge, and my sin is ever before me (Ps 51:3 (50:5)). This man was not intent on others' sins. He summoned himself to himself, nor did he flatter himself but penetrated himself, and descended more deeply into himself. He did not spare himself, and therefore not shamelessly asked that he might be spared. For sin, brothers, cannot be unpunished. If sin remains unpunished, it is unjust; therefore without doubt it must be punished. This your God says to you: "Sin must be punished either by you or by me." Sin, then, is punished either by the man repenting or by God judging. It is punished, then, either by you without you, or by God with you. For what is repentance, except one's own anger against oneself? He who repents is angry with himself. For if it is not done feignedly, whence comes the beating of the breast? Why do you strike, if you are not angry? When, therefore, you beat your breast, you are angry at your heart, that you may make satisfaction to your Lord. For thus too can be understood what is written, Be angry and do not sin (Ps 4:4 (4:5)). Be angry because you sinned, and, punishing yourself, do not sin. Rouse up your heart by repenting, and this will be a sacrifice to God.

3. Do you wish God to be appeased? Know what you do with yourself, that God may be appeased toward you. Attend to the same psalm; for there it is read, For if you had wished sacrifice, I would surely have given it; in holocausts you will not delight (Ps 51:16 (50:18)). Will you, then, be without sacrifice? About to offer nothing, about to appease God by no offering? What did you say? If you had wished sacrifice, I would surely have given it; in holocausts you will not delight. Go on, and hear, and say, A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise (Ps 51:17 (50:19)). The things you were offering cast away, you have found what you may offer. For you used to offer among the fathers the victims of cattle, and they were called sacrifices. If you had wished sacrifice, I would surely have given it. Those, then, you do not seek, and yet you seek a sacrifice. Your people say to you, What shall I offer, who do not offer what I used to offer? For the people themselves, as some depart and others are born, are themselves the people. The sacraments are changed, not the faith. The signs by which something was signified are changed, not the thing that was signified. For Christ a ram, for Christ a lamb, for Christ a calf, for Christ a goat—Christ is all. A ram, because he leads the flock: he was found in the thicket, when father Abraham was ordered to spare his son, yet not to depart thence without offering a sacrifice. And Isaac was Christ, and the ram was Christ. Isaac carried the wood for himself: Christ bore his own cross. For Isaac a ram, yet not for Christ a Christ. But in Isaac and in the ram, Christ. The ram was held by the horns in the thicket; ask the Jews whence then they crowned the Lord. He is a lamb: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). He is a bull: attend to the horns of the cross. He is a goat, on account of the likeness of the flesh of sin. These things were veiled, until the day should breathe and the shadows be removed (Song 2:17). In the same Lord Christ, then, not only as he is the Word, but also as he is the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5), both the ancient fathers believed, and to us they transmitted the same faith by preaching and prophesying. Whence the Apostle says, Having the same spirit of faith, because it is written, I believed, therefore I spoke (2 Cor 4:13). Having the same which they too had who wrote, I believed, therefore I spoke. Having, then, the same, he says, spirit of faith, because it is written by the ancients, I believed, therefore I spoke, we too believe, therefore we too speak. When, therefore, holy David said thus, For if you had wished sacrifice, I would surely have given it, in holocausts you will not delight (Ps 51:16 (50:18)), then those sacrifices were offered to God which now are not offered. Therefore when he sang, he prophesied, he spurned present things and foresaw future things. In holocausts, he says, you will not delight. When, therefore, you will not delight in holocausts, will you remain without sacrifice? Far be it. A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise. You have what you may offer. Do not look around for a flock, do not prepare ships and cross over to the farthest provinces whence to bring spices. Seek in your heart what is pleasing to God. The heart must be made contrite. Why do you fear lest, contrite, it perish? There you have, Create in me a clean heart, O God (Ps 51:10 (50:12)). That, then, a clean heart may be created, let the unclean be made contrite.

4. Let us be displeasing to ourselves when we sin, because sins displease God. And since we are not without sin, let us at least be like God in this, that what displeases him displeases us. In some part you are joined to the will of God, because that displeases you in yourself which he too hates who made you. He himself is your craftsman, but see yourself and blot out in yourself what is not from his workshop. For God, as it is written, made man upright. How good is the God of Israel to those who are upright in heart! (Ps 73:1 (72:1)) If, then, you are upright in heart, God will not displease you, God will be good to you, you will praise God. Altogether, both in that which he bestows and in that which he chastises, you will praise God. For he who said, How good is the God of Israel to those who are upright in heart, had looked at himself, who at one time was not upright in heart, and God displeased him. But afterward he came to his senses, and saw that God was not perverse, but that he himself had not been upright. And, recalling the times of his depravity, and present in his correction, he said, How good is the God of Israel! But to whom? To those who are upright in heart. For what of you? But my feet, he says, were almost moved, a little more and my steps had been poured out (Ps 73:2 (72:2)), that is, I almost slipped. Whence this? Because I was envious of the sinners, beholding the peace of sinners (Ps 73:3 (72:3)). Whence, then, this man's feet were moved and his steps almost slipped, since he did not keep silence, he admonished as a thing to be guarded against. He was expecting from God, according to the Old Testament, not knowing that there were signs of future things, he was expecting, then, from God the happiness of the present life, and on this earth he was seeking what God was keeping for his own in heaven. He wished to be happy here, when happiness is not here. For happiness is a good and great thing, but it has its own region. From the region of happiness Christ came, and here even he himself did not find it. He was mocked, he was reproached, he was seized, he was scourged, he was bound, he was struck with the palms, afflicted with the insult of spittings, crowned with thorns, hung on wood. At the last, the issues of the Lord are from death. In the psalm it is written [those who knew it acclaimed this]: And the issues of the Lord are from death (Ps 68:20 (67:21)). Why, then, here, O servant, do you seek happiness, where even the issues of the Lord are from death? When, therefore, that man, of whom I had begun to speak, was seeking happiness in a region not its own, and for the sake of obtaining it in this life clung to God and served him and did his commandments as he could, he saw this great thing, or as a great thing, that what he was seeking from God, and for the sake of which he was serving God, was present with those who did not serve God, but worshiped demons and blasphemed the true God. He saw and was moved, as though he had lost the fruit of his labor. This is that he was envious of the sinners, beholding the peace of sinners. Finally you have there, Behold these sinners and those abounding in the world have obtained riches. Have I then without cause justified my heart, or washed my hands among the innocent, and been scourged all the day? (Ps 73:12-14 (72:12-14)) I worship God, they blaspheme God. To them happiness, to me calamity. Where is the equity? Hence his feet were moved, hence his steps almost poured out, hence ruin near. For see to what danger he came. There he says, And I said, How does God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High? (Ps 73:11 (72:11)) See to what danger he came by seeking from God earthly happiness as a great reward. Learn, then, dearly beloved, if you have it, to despise it, and not to say in your hearts, "Because I worship God, therefore it is well with me." For you will see how you think it well with you, and that it is well also with those who do not worship God, and your steps will be moved. For either you have it while worshiping God, and you will see that one who does not worship God has such things, and therefore you will think you worship God in vain, because he too who does not worship God has happiness. Or you do not have it, and you will much more accuse God who gives it to his blasphemers and denies it to his worshipers. Learn, then, to despise earthly things, if you wish to serve God with a faithful heart. Do you have it? Do not think that you are good from it, but make yourself good from it. Do you not have it? Do not think that you are evil from it, but beware of the evil to which the good man does not come.

5. For this man, coming to his senses and reproving himself because he had begun to think wrongly of God, panting as a sinner and beholding the peace of sinners, reproving himself, then, said, For what is there for me in heaven, and what have I wished from you upon earth? (Ps 73:25 (72:25)) Now coming to his senses, now with his heart corrected, he acknowledged how much the worship of God is worth, the worship of God which he had sold off at the cheapest price, when for it he was seeking earthly happiness. He acknowledged what is owed on high to the worshipers of God, where we are commanded to have our heart, and we answer that we have our heart there. And would that we did not lie, at least at that hour, at least at that moment, at least at that point of time, when we answer. Looking back, then, and correcting his heart, he reproved himself for having once sought on earth earthly happiness as though a wage for the worship of God. But, reproving himself, he said, For what is there for me in heaven? What is there for me there? Eternal life, incorruption, the kingdom with Christ, the fellowship of angels, where there is no disturbance, no ignorance, no danger, no temptation; true, certain, fixed security. Behold, what is there for me in heaven. And what have I wished from you upon earth? What have I wished from you upon earth? What have I wished? Fleeting, perishable, flighty riches. What have I wished? Gold, the pallor of the earth; silver, the wanness of the earth; honor, the smoke of time. Behold what I wished from you upon earth. And because I saw this in sinners, my feet were moved, and a little more my steps were poured out. O how good he is to those who are upright in heart! What, then, do you seek, faithful Prophet? Gold and silver and earthly riches? Is, then, the faith of a faithful matron worth as much as that which even a harlot has? Is, then, the faith of a faithful man worth as much as that which even an actor, a charioteer, a hunter, a robber has? Far be it, my brothers, far be it that your faith be worth so much. May God turn this away from your hearts. It is not worth so much. Do you wish to know? For it Christ died. Why, then, do you seek an earthly wage, sold off to gold and coins? You do injury to the faith for which Christ died. And what is it, he says, what is it worth? Attend to him who says, For what is there for me in heaven? For he did not express what that will be. So he said, And what have I wished from you upon earth? Praising the one, casting away the other, yet he said both. What is the one? What the eye has not seen (1 Cor 2:9). What is the other? What the faithful eye does not seek. What is the one? What Lazarus full of sores found. What is the other? What the puffed-up rich man had. What is the one? What cannot perish. What is the other? What cannot be held. What is the one? Where there will be no labor. What is the other? What fear does not leave. For what is there for me in heaven? What? He himself who made heaven. The price of your faith is your God. Him you will have; he himself prepares himself as a reward for his worshipers. Consider, dearly beloved, the whole creation, heaven, earth, sea, the things that are in heaven, that are on earth, that are in the sea, how beautiful, how wonderful, how worthily and orderly arranged. Do these things move you? They move you plainly. Why? Because they are beautiful. What, then, is he who made them? I think you would blush if you saw the beauty of the angels. What, then, is the creator of angels? He himself is the reward of your faith. O you greedy, what suffices you, if God himself does not suffice you?

6. Let us, then, live well, and that we may be able to do this, let us call upon him who commanded it. Nor let us require from the Lord an earthly wage for our good life. Let us stretch out our intent toward the things that are promised. Let us put our heart there, where it cannot rot away with worldly cares. These things that occupy people pass away, these things fly away, human life upon the earth is a vapor. There come too so many and such daily dangers of this very fragile life. Great earthquakes are reported from the eastern regions. Some great cities have suddenly collapsed. Terrified, those who were at Jerusalem—Jews, pagans, catechumens—all were baptized. Seven thousand people, perhaps, are said to have been baptized. The sign of Christ appeared on the garments of the baptized Jews. These things are reported by the most steadfast account of faithful brothers. The city of Sitifis too was shaken by a most grievous earthquake, so that all, perhaps for five days, remained in the fields, and there nearly two thousand people are said to have been baptized. On every side God terrifies, because he does not wish to find what he may condemn. Something is being done in this winepress. The world is a winepress; its pressures abound. Be oil, not dregs. Let each one turn to God and change his life. The oil has a hidden way, it tends to its own secret places. Another scoffs, mocks, blasphemes, cries out through the streets: the dregs flow off. Yet the Lord of the winepress, through his workmen, through his holy angels, does not cease to work. He knows his own oil, he knows what he receives, by what weight of pressure it is strained out. For the Lord knows who are his (2 Tim 2:19). Flee the dregs, they are public and black. The Lord knows who are his. Be oil, flee the dregs. Let all who name the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity. But do not conceive hatreds, or quickly end them. For those things are not to be feared. Do you fear an earthquake? Do you fear the roaring of the sky? Do you fear wars? Fear the fever too. Suddenly, when those great things are feared, they themselves do not come, and from the side one little fever takes a man away. And if that judge finds such a one as he does not know, to whom he is to say, I do not know you, depart from me (Matt 7:23), what will happen afterward? Whither does one go? Through whom is it sought? Whence is life to be redeemed for restoring? Who is permitted to live again and amend what he did wrongly? It is finished. Few of you indeed have gathered, but if you have heard well, you abound. Let him who deceives not deceive you, for he who does not deceive does not deceive you.