1. When the reading was read from the book entitled The Acts of the Apostles (Acts 5:1-11), you noticed what happened to those who, having sold a piece of land, kept back part of the price of the land and laid it at the feet of the apostles as though it were the whole price. They were rebuked, and both at once breathed their last, the man and his wife. To some this rebuke seemed too severe, that people should die on account of money kept back from their own property. The Holy Spirit did not do this out of greed; rather, the Holy Spirit thus punished a lie. For you heard the words of the most blessed Peter, who said, While it remained, did it not remain your own, and after it was sold, was it not in your power (Acts 5:4)? If you did not wish to sell, who would have forced you? If you wished to offer half, who would have demanded the whole? For if half was to be offered, half ought to have been declared. Half for the whole—this is the lie that had to be punished. Yet do not regard this rebuke as severe, brothers, this temporal death. And would that the punishment had gone only this far! For what great thing happens to mortals who are going to die in any case? But through their temporal punishment God willed his discipline to be known. We must believe, however, that after this life God spared them, for great is his mercy. Now concerning the deaths that come as punishment, the apostle Paul says in a certain place, rebuking those who were mistreating the body and blood of Christ, For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and some have fallen asleep (1 Cor 11:30)—that is, as many as suffices to impose discipline. Many among you have fallen asleep, that is, have died. For they were being scourged by the Lord; they fell sick and died. And after these words he added, For if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged by the Lord. But when we are judged, we are rebuked by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world (1 Cor 11:31-32). What, then, if something like this happened to this man and his wife? They were rebuked by the scourge of death, that they might not be punished with eternal torment.

2. Let your Charity attend only to this, that if it displeased God for them to withhold part of the money they had vowed to God—and that money, surely, was needed for human use—how angry is God when chastity is vowed and not rendered, when virginity is vowed and not rendered? For it is vowed for the use of God, not for the use of human beings. What do I mean when I say "for the use of God"? That out of holy persons God makes himself a house, makes himself a temple, in which he may deign to dwell; and surely he wills his temple to remain holy. So to a consecrated virgin about to marry one may say what Peter said about the money: Did not your virginity remain your own while it remained, and before you vowed it, was it not in your power? But whoever does this, vows such things and does not render them, let them not suppose that they are rebuked with temporal deaths, but condemned to eternal fire.

1. 1. Before last Sunday, I recall that I became a debtor to your Holiness for certain questions proposed from the Scriptures. Now, as far as the Lord deigns to grant, it is time to pay, lest we remain longer in debt for anything except love alone, which is always paid and always owed. We had said that we must inquire about the vision of Peter, what that vessel means—like a sheet let down from heaven by four corners, in which were all the four-footed creatures of the earth, and creeping things, and birds of the air (Acts 10:11-12); and what was said to Peter by the divine voice, Kill and eat (Acts 10:13); and that this was done three times and taken up.

2. 2. Against those, indeed, who suppose that gluttony was commanded to Peter by the Lord God, it is easy to argue. First, because even if we wish to take literally what was said, Kill and eat, to kill and eat is not a sin; rather, the sin is to use immoderately the gifts of God, which he bestowed for human use.

2. 3. For the Jews had received certain animals that they might eat, and certain ones from which they were to abstain; and the apostle Paul shows that they received this as a sign of things to come, saying, Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath, which is a shadow of things to come (Col 2:16-17). And so in the times of the Church he now says in another place, All things are clean to the clean, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense (Rom 14:20). For there were those, at the time the Apostle was writing this, who ate meats to the offense of certain weaker persons. For the sacrificial flesh of those beasts which the soothsayers offered was then sold in the market, and many of the brothers abstained from eating meats, lest even unknowingly they should run into that flesh of which a sacrifice had been made to idols. Hence in another place the same Apostle, that the conscience might not tremble with fear, says, Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no question on the ground of conscience. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof (1 Cor 10:25-26). And again, If one of the unbelievers invites you, and you wish to go, eat whatever is set before you, raising no question on the ground of conscience. But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience' sake (1 Cor 10:27-28). Therefore, in these matters everything clean or unclean is established not in the contact of the flesh, but in the purity or the stain of the conscience.

3. 4. Hence a liberty was given to Christians that was not given to the Jews. For all the animals that the Jews were forbidden to eat are signs of things, and, as has been said, shadows of things to come. Just as that circumcision signifies the circumcision of the heart, which they bore in the flesh and rejected in the heart, so too those foods are precepts of mysteries and signs of things to come. For instance, it was written for them that they should eat those animals that chew the cud and have a divided hoof, but should not eat those that lack either both or one of these (Lev 11:3; Deut 14:6): by this are signified certain people who do not belong to the fellowship of the saints. For the divided hoof pertains to conduct, the chewing of the cud to wisdom. Why does the divided hoof pertain to conduct? Because it slips with difficulty. For a slip is a sign of sin. And how does chewing the cud pertain to the teaching of wisdom? Because Scripture says, A desirable treasure rests in the mouth of the wise, but a foolish man swallows it down (Prov 21:20). So whoever hears and through negligence becomes forgetful, as it were swallows down what he has heard, so that it no longer has any savor in his mouth, burying the very hearing of it in forgetfulness. But whoever meditates on the law of the Lord day and night (Ps 1:2) chews the cud, as it were, and on a kind of palate of the heart delights in the savor of the word. So this which was commanded to the Jews signifies that those who are either negligent hearers, or have evil conduct, or are blameworthy in both faults, do not belong to the Church, that is, to the body of Christ, to the grace and the fellowship of the saints.

4. 5. So too the other precepts of this kind given to the Jews are shadowy significations of things to come. After our Lord Jesus Christ, the light of the world, came, they are read only so that they may be understood, not also so that they may be observed. A liberty was therefore given to Christians not to act according to this empty custom, but to eat what they will, with moderation, with blessing, with thanksgiving. So perhaps it was also said to Peter, Kill and eat, so that he might no longer hold to the observances of the Jews; yet it was not the gluttony of the belly and foul voracity that was commanded him.

5. 6. But that you may understand this to have been shown in a figure, there were creeping things in that vessel. Could Peter possibly eat serpents? What, then, does this signification mean? That vessel signifies the Church; the four corners by which it hung, the four parts of the world, throughout which the catholic Church is stretched, spread everywhere. Whoever, therefore, wishes to go off into a part and be cut off from the whole does not belong to the sacrament of the four corners. But if he does not belong to the vision of Peter, neither does he belong to the keys that were given to Peter. For from the four winds, God says, his saints will be gathered at the end (See Matt 24:31), because now the gospel faith is spread abroad through all those four quarters. Those animals, then, are the nations. For all the nations that were unclean, in their errors and superstitions and lusts, before Christ came, were made clean at his coming, their sins forgiven. Hence, after the forgiveness of sins, why should they not be received into the body of Christ, which is the Church of God, whose person Peter bore?

6. 7. For Peter appears in many places in the Scriptures to bear the person of the Church, most of all in that place where it was said, To you I hand over the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven (Matt 16:19). Did Peter receive these keys, and Paul not receive them? Did Peter receive them, and John and James not receive them, and the rest of the apostles? Or are these keys not in the Church, where sins are forgiven every day? But because in this signification Peter bore the person of the Church, what was given to him alone was given to the Church. Therefore Peter bore the figure of the Church; the Church is the body of Christ. Let it therefore now receive the nations, already made clean, to whom sins have been forgiven; whence Cornelius, a gentile man, and those who were gentiles with him, sent to him. The almsgiving that was accepted had cleansed him in a certain measure; it remained that, like clean food, he should be incorporated into the Church, that is, into the body of the Lord. But Peter was hesitant to hand over the gospel to the gentiles, because those who had believed from the circumcision were forbidding the apostles to hand over the Christian faith to the uncircumcised, and were saying that they ought not to come to a share in the gospel unless they had received circumcision, which had been handed down to their fathers.

7. 8. That vessel, then, removed this hesitation; and so after that vision he was admonished by the Holy Spirit to go down and go with those who had come from Cornelius, and he went. For Cornelius and those who were with him were reckoned among those animals that had been shown in the vessel; yet God had already cleansed them, since he had accepted their alms. They were therefore to be killed and eaten, that is, the past life in which they had not known Christ was to be slain in them, and they were to pass over into his body, as into the new life of the fellowship of the Church. For Peter himself, when he had come to them, briefly recalled what had been shown him in that vision. For he said, You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner; but God has shown me that I should call no man common or unclean (Acts 10:28). And this God indeed showed when that voice sounded, What God has cleansed, you must not call unclean (Acts 10:15). And afterward, coming to the brothers in Jerusalem, when some were in an uproar because the gospel was being handed over to the gentiles, to restrain their agitation he recalled this same vision (Acts 11:1-18); and unless it pertained to the same understanding, it would not have needed to be recalled.

8. 9. Perhaps it may also be asked why it was a linen sheet in which those animals were. Surely not without cause. For we know that the moth does not consume linen, which corrupts other garments. Let each one shut out from his heart the corruptions of evil desires, and so be established incorruptibly in faith, that he may not be penetrated by depraved thoughts as by moths, if he wishes to belong to the sacrament of that sheet, by which the Church is figured.

9. 10. Why was it let down from heaven three times? Because all those very nations, which belong to the four parts of the world through which the Church is scattered—the Church that the four corners by which that vessel was bound together signified—are baptized in the name of the Trinity. Believing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, they are made new, that they may belong to the society and communion of the saints. The four corners, then, and the threefold lowering also show the number twelve of the apostles, as if three were assigned to each of the four. For four times three makes twelve. Enough, I think, has been treated concerning this vision.

10. 11. Another question had been deferred by us: why the Lord, in that very sermon which he delivered on the mountain, said to his disciples, Let your works shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:16). And a little later in that same sermon he says, Beware of practicing your righteousness before men, in order to be seen by them (Matt 6:1); and, Let your alms be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you (Matt 6:4). The doer often wavers between these two precepts and does not know which to obey, when surely he wishes to obey the Lord, who commanded both. How will our works shine before men, that they may see our good deeds, and how again will our almsgiving be in secret? If I wish to observe the one, I offend against the other; if I observe the other, I sin against this. So both passages of Scripture must be so harmonized that the divine precepts may be shown to be unable to be contrary to one another. For this conflict that seems to be in the words seeks the peace of the one who understands. Let each have concord with the word of God in his heart, and there is no discord in Scripture.

11. 12. Consider, then, a man giving alms in such a way that no one whatever knows of it, if it can be done—not even the one to whom it is given—so that, avoiding even his eyes, he rather puts down what the other may find than holds out what he may take. What more can he do to hide his almsgiving? Surely this man runs into that other saying and does not do what the Lord says, Let your works shine before men, that they may see your good deeds. No one sees his good deeds; he invites no one to imitate them. The rest will be barren, so far as it lies in him, while they suppose that what God commanded is done by no one, if people act in such a way that their good works are not seen—when there is greater mercy shown toward the one to whom an example of good imitation is set before him than toward the one to whom food for refreshing the body is held out. Consider another flaunting and parading his alms before the people, wanting nothing else in them than to be praised; let his works shine before men. You see that he does not offend against that precept, but he offends against the other, where the Lord says, Let your alms be in secret. Whoever is such a man even grows slack if some ungodly persons arise who perhaps reproach what he does. He hangs upon the tongue of those who praise; he is like the virgins who do not carry oil with them. For you know of the five foolish virgins who did not carry oil with them, and the others, the wise, who did carry oil with them. The lamps of all were burning, but some had not with them the means to feed that light, and were so distinguished from those who had it that the ones were called foolish, the others wise (Matt 25:1-13). What, then, is it to carry oil with oneself, but to have the conscience of pleasing God by good works, and not to place there the limit of one's joy, in the praise of people who cannot see the conscience? For a person can see what he does, but God sees with what intention he does it.

12. 13. Let us therefore set before us someone keeping both precepts, obedient to both. He holds out bread to the hungry, and he holds it out before those whom he wishes to make his imitators, imitating also the Apostle who says, Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (1 Cor 11:1). So he holds out bread to the poor man, manifest in the deed, devout in heart. Whether he seeks his own praise there, or the glory of God, no human being sees, no human being judges; yet those who with kindly zeal are ready to imitate believe that the good they see being done is also done with a devout spirit, and they praise God, by whose precept and gift they see such things being done. His work therefore appears, that people may see and glorify the Father who is in heaven; but its effect is in the heart, so that his almsgiving may be in secret, and the Father who sees in secret may reward him. This man kept the measure he owed, despising no precept, but fulfilling both. For he took care that his righteousness should not be done before men—that is, that it should not have its limit there, in being praised by men—since he wished not himself, but God, to be praised in his good work. And because that intention is within, in the conscience itself, his almsgiving was done in secret, that the One from whom nothing is hidden might repay him. For who can show his heart to people when he acts, so as to display with what intention of mind he acts?

13. 14. For the very words too, brothers, were carefully chosen by the Lord. Notice how he speaks: Beware of practicing your righteousness before men, in order, he says, to be seen by them. If he placed the limit there, where he said, in order to be seen by them, that limit is blameworthy and culpable—to wish to do good only up to human praise, seeking nothing further from it. Whoever, therefore, acts only in order to be seen by people is rebuked by the Lord in this saying. But there, where he commands our good deeds to be seen, he did not place the limit so that people should merely see a person and praise a person; rather, he passes on to the glory of God, so that the doer's intention may be carried all the way to that. Let your works shine, he says, before men, that they may see your good deeds; but you must not seek this. What, then? He adds and says, and let them glorify, he says, your Father who is in heaven. If you seek this, that God may be glorified, do not fear to be seen by people. Even so your almsgiving is within, in secret, where he alone whose glory you seek sees that you seek this. Hence the apostle Paul, after he was thrown down as a persecutor of the gospel and raised up as a preacher, says, I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea that were in Christ. They only heard it said, "He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once ravaged"; and in me, he says, they magnified God (Gal 1:22-24). He did not rejoice that the man who had received was recognized, but that God who had given was praised. For he himself said, If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ (Gal 1:10). And yet in another place he says, Just as I too please all men in all things. And this is a similar question. But what does he add? Not seeking, he says, what is profitable to me, but to many, that they may be saved (1 Cor 10:33). This is what he says in that other place, And in me they magnified God; what the Lord too says, That they may glorify your Father who is in heaven. For then they are saved, when in the works they see done through people they glorify the One from whom people received these things.

14. 15. Two questions remain; but I fear that I am a burden to those already weary, and again I fear to defraud those still hungry. Yet I remember what I have paid and what I owe. For it remains to see what this means, Let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing (Matt 6:3); and concerning the love of an enemy, why it seemed to the ancients that license was given to hate their enemies, whose love is commanded to us. But what am I doing? If I treat these matters briefly, perhaps I shall not be understood as I ought; if at greater length, I fear that I may weigh you down more with the burden of the sermon than I relieve you with the fruit of the exposition. But surely, if you understand less than enough, I still hold myself a debtor, that at another time these things may be more fully treated. Yet now they ought not to be so left that nothing at all is said about them. The left hand is the carnal desire of the soul, the right hand the spiritual love of the soul. If, then, when anyone gives alms, he mingles in the desire for temporal advantages, so that he seeks something of that sort in the work, he mingles the conscience of the left hand with the works of the right. But if with simple love and a pure conscience before God he helps a person, looking to nothing else than to please the One who commands these things, his left hand does not know what his right hand does.

15. 16. But concerning the love of an enemy the question is harder, nor can it be settled with such brevity. But when you hear it, pray for us; and perhaps the Lord God will quickly grant what we think to be difficult. For we live from one storehouse, since we are in one family. So what we think to be deep within the hidden place, perhaps he who promises sets at the threshold, that it may most easily be given to those who ask. The Lord Christ himself loved his enemies; for hanging on the cross he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). Stephen followed his example, when stones were being thrown at him, and said, Lord, do not hold this sin against them (Acts 7:60). The servant imitated the Lord, that no servant might be slothful and suppose this to be a deed that could be done by the Lord alone. If, then, it is too much for us to imitate the Lord, let us imitate the fellow servant. For we are all called to the same grace. Why, then, was it said to the ancients, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy (See Matt 5:43)? Because perhaps even to them what was said was true; but to us it is said more plainly, according to the dispensation of the times, through the presence of him who saw what was to be hidden from some and revealed to others. For if we have an enemy whom we are never commanded to love—and that is the devil—then You shall love your neighbor, the man; and hate your enemy, the devil. But because among human beings themselves enmities often arise, in the souls of those who through unbelief give place to the devil and become his vessels, that he may work in the sons of distrust (See Eph 2:2)—and yet it can happen that a person leaves off his malice and turns to the Lord; and while he still rages, while he still persecutes, he is to be loved, and one must pray for him and do him good—thus you will both fulfill the first precept, to love your neighbor, the man, and hate your enemy, the devil; and the second, to love your enemies, the men, and pray for those who persecute you.

16. 17. Unless perhaps you suppose that Christians at that time did not pray for Saul, the persecutor of Christians. Perhaps that voice of Stephen the martyr was heard for his conversion. For he was in that number of his persecutors, and guarded the garments of those who stoned him (See Acts 7:58; 8:1). The same Paul, writing to Timothy, also says, I urge first of all that supplications, exhortations, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high places, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life (1 Tim 2:1-2). He commanded, then, that prayer be made for kings; and at that time kings were persecuting the churches. But those whom they persecuted as they prayed for them, they now defend, their prayers having been heard for them.

17. 18. Do you wish, then, to keep that precept of the ancients as well? Love your neighbor, that is, every human being. For all of us, born of the first two parents, are surely neighbors. Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who commands us to love our enemies, testified that on those two precepts the whole Law and the Prophets depend: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind; and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:37-40). He commanded nothing there about the love of an enemy. Do these two precepts, then, not contain the whole? Far from it. For when he says, You shall love your neighbor, there are all human beings, even if they are enemies; because, even according to spiritual kinship, you do not know what, in God's foreknowledge, a person is to you who seems for the time to be your enemy. For since the patience of God leads him to repentance, perhaps he will come to know and will follow the One who leads. For if God himself, who knows who are going to persevere in sins, who are going to abandon righteousness and slip irrevocably into iniquity, nevertheless makes his sun rise on the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45)—inviting them surely to repentance through his patience, so that those who neglect his goodness may experience his severity in the end—with how much solicitude ought a man to be ready to be reconciled, lest perchance, not knowing what someone will be, when he looks upon his present enmities, he hate the one with whom he will reign in eternal happiness? Fulfill, then, the first precept: love your neighbor, every human being; and hate your enemy, the devil. Fulfill the second too. Love your enemies, but the men; pray for those who persecute you, but for the men; do good to those who hate you, but to the men.

18. 19. If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink; for in doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head (Rom 12:20; Prov 25:21-22). Here too there is a question. For how does anyone love a person whom he wants to burn with coals? But if it is understood rightly, there is no contention. For it is said of those laying-waste coals that are given to a man against a deceitful tongue (See Ps 120 (119):3-4). For when anyone does good to an enemy, and, not overcome by his evil, overcomes evil with good (Rom 12:21), very often the other will repent of his enmities and be angry with himself for having injured so good a man. And that burning itself is repentance, which, like coals of fire, consumes his enmities and his malice.

1. 1. Your Charity noticed, along with us, when the book of the Acts of the Apostles was read, that Paul spoke to the Athenians, and was called a sower of words by those who mocked the preaching of the truth (See Acts 17:18). It was said, indeed, by mockers, but it is not to be rejected by believers. For he was truly a sower of words, but a reaper of morals. And we too, though so small and by no means to be compared with that excellence, sow the words of God in the field of God, which is your heart, and look for a rich harvest from your morals. Yet as to the reason we are admonished to speak to your Charity, which is contained in this very reading, we urge you to attend more closely, in case, with the help of the Lord our God, we may say something which cannot easily be understood by all unless it be said, nor, once it has been understood, ought to be despised by anyone.

1. 2. He was speaking at Athens. The Athenians were renowned with great fame above other peoples in all literature and learning. It was the very homeland of the great philosophers. From there a varied and manifold learning had spread itself through the rest of Greece and the other lands of the world. There the Apostle was speaking; there he was proclaiming Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, but to the gentiles folly; yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:23-24). How great a danger it was to proclaim this among the proud and the learned, it is for you to consider. And so, when his discourse was finished and the resurrection of the dead had been heard—which is the chief faith of Christians—some mocked, but others said, We will hear you again about this. Nor were there lacking those who believed, and among them is named a certain Dionysius the Areopagite, that is, a leading man of the Athenians (for the Areopagus was the name of the council of the Athenians); and a certain noble woman, and others (Acts 17:32-34). So as the Apostle spoke, that crowd became threefold, arranged by certain degrees in a remarkable distinction: of mockers, of doubters, of believers. Some, as we heard written, mocked, and some said, "We will hear you again about this"—these were the doubters; some believed. Between the mockers and the believers, the doubters are in the middle. He who mocks falls; he who believes stands; he who doubts wavers. We will hear you again about this, they say: it is uncertain whether they were going to fall with the mockers or stand with the believers.

2. 2. Yet did that sower of words labor in vain? Truly, if he had feared the mockers, he would not have reached the believers; just as that gospel sower whom the Lord mentions (for surely Paul was that sower), if he were afraid to scatter seed, lest some fall on the path, some among the thorns, some on rocky ground (See Matt 13:3-8), could never have brought the seed even to the best soil. Let us too sow, let us scatter; prepare your hearts, give fruit.

2. 3. This too, if your Charity remembers, we heard when it was read, that some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conferring with the Apostle (Acts 17:18). Who the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers are or were—that is, what they thought, what they held to be true, what they pursued in their philosophizing—many of you doubtless do not know; but since we are speaking at Carthage, many do know. Let them therefore now help us as we are about to speak to you. For it pertains very much to the matter, what I think must be said. Let both those who do not know and those who do know hear us; let those who do not know be instructed, those who do know be reminded; let the one learn, the other recognize anew.

3. 4. First hear, in general, the common pursuit of all the philosophers, in which common pursuit they had five divisions and differences of their own opinions. In common, all the philosophers, by studying, inquiring, disputing, and living, sought to lay hold of the happy life. This was the one cause of philosophizing; but I think that even this the philosophers have in common with us. For if I should ask you why you have believed in Christ, why you have become Christians, every person truly answers me: For the sake of the happy life. The desire of the happy life, then, is common to philosophers and Christians. But where so harmonious a thing can be found—there is the question, and then the discernment. For to desire the happy life, to will the happy life, to covet, to long for, to pursue the happy life, I think belongs to all human beings. Hence I see that I have said too little in calling this desire of the happy life common to philosophers and Christians; for I ought to have said, common to all human beings, indeed to all, both good and evil. For the one who is good is good in order to be happy; and the one who is evil would not be evil unless he hoped that thereby he could be happy. About the good the question is easy, that they seek the happy life and are good for that reason. About the evil, perhaps some doubt whether they too seek the happy life. But if I could question the evil set apart and distinguished from the good, and say, Do you wish to be happy? no one would say, I do not wish it. Take, for example, a thief; I ask him, Why do you steal? "That I may have," he says, "what I did not have." Why do you wish to have what you did not have? "Because it is wretched not to have." If, then, it is wretched not to have, he reckons it happy to have. But in this he is shameless and errs, because he wishes to become happy by evil. For it is good for all to be happy. Whence, then, is that perverse man? Because he seeks good and does evil. What, then, does he seek? Why does the desire of the evil aspire to the reward of the good? The happy life is the reward of the good; goodness is the work, happiness is the reward. God commands the work, sets forth the reward; he says, Do this, and you shall receive this. But that evil man answers us, "Unless I do evil, I shall not be happy." As if someone should say, "I do not arrive at the good unless I am evil." Do you not see that good and evil are contraries? You seek good and do evil? You run in the contrary direction; when do you arrive?

4. 5. Let us therefore leave these men; perhaps it will be opportune to return to them when we have finished what we have undertaken about the philosophers. For I do not think it was without cause, by the divine providence itself disposing, that through people who did not know it something great was done: that, although there were very many sects of philosophers in the city of Athens, none conferred with the apostle Paul except the Stoics and the Epicureans. For when you have heard what they hold in their sects, you will see how not in vain it came about that of all the philosophers these alone conferred with Paul. For he could not choose for himself those to whose disputing he should reply; but the divine wisdom that governs all things set these before him, in whom nearly the whole cause of the philosophers' dissension consisted. Briefly, then, I say: let the unlearned believe us, let the learned judge of us. I think that I dare not lie when the unlearned are my hearers and the learned my judges—most of all because I am saying something about which both the learned and the unlearned can judge truly alike. This, then, I say first: that a human being consists of soul and body. Here I do not ask that you believe, but I ask you too to judge. For I do not fear that in this saying anyone may judge ill of me who knows himself. A human being, then, as no one doubts, consists of soul and body. This substance, this thing, this person who is called a human being seeks the happy life; and this you know—I do not insist that you believe, but I admonish you to recognize. A human being, I say—that is, this thing which is not small, surpassing all cattle, all birds, all swimming creatures, and whatever bears flesh and is not a human being; a human being, then, consisting of soul and body—but not of just any soul, for cattle too consist of soul and body; a human being, then, consisting of a rational soul and mortal flesh, seeks the happy life. Unless, when a human being has come to know what makes the happy life, he holds to it, follows it, claims it for himself, takes it if it is in his power, asks for it if it is hard to obtain, he cannot be happy. The whole question, then, is what makes the happy life. Now set before your eyes the Epicureans, the Stoics, and the Apostle—which I could also put thus: the Epicureans, the Stoics, the Christians. Let us first question the Epicureans: what makes the happy life? They answer: The pleasure of the body. Here now I ask that you believe, because I have judges. For whether the Epicureans say this, hold this, you do not know, because you have not read those writings; but there are those here who have read them. Let us return to the questioning. What do you say, Epicureans—what makes the happy life? They answer: The pleasure of the body. What do you say, Stoics—what makes the happy life? They answer: The virtue of the soul. Let your Charity attend with me: we are Christians; we are disputing among philosophers. See why only those two sects were procured to confer with the Apostle. There is nothing in a human being that pertains to his substance and nature except body and soul. Of these two, in the one—that is, in the body—the Epicureans placed the happy life; in the other—that is, in the soul—the Stoics placed the happy life. So far as concerns the human being, if the happy life is to be his from himself, nothing remains but body and soul. Either the body is the cause of the happy life, or the soul is the cause of the happy life; if you seek more, you depart from the human being. These, then, who placed the happy life of the human being within the human being, could place it nowhere else but either in the body or in the soul. Of those who placed it in the body, the Epicureans held the chief place; of those who placed it in the soul, the Stoics held the chief place.

5. 6. See, here they are, conferring with the Apostle; whether the Apostle has anything more, or whether he had necessarily to agree with one of these two sects, so that he too should place the cause of the happy life either in the body or in the soul. Paul would never place it in the body, for this is no great thing—since even they place the cause of happiness least of all in the body, who think better of the body. For the Epicureans think this same thing of both body and soul, that each is mortal. And what is graver and more detestable, they say that the soul is dissolved after death sooner than the body. For "still," they say, "after the spirit is breathed out, while the corpse remains and the lineaments of the limbs last for a while, the soul, as soon as it has gone out, like smoke scattered by the wind, is dissolved." Let us not wonder, then, that they placed the highest good—that is, the cause of happiness—in the body, which they felt themselves to possess better than the soul. Would the Apostle do this? Far be it that he should place the highest good in the body. For the highest good is the cause of happiness; rather, the Apostle grieved that some of the number of Christians had chosen the opinion of the Epicureans—not of men, but of pigs. For from this number were those who were corrupting good morals by evil conversations and saying, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die (1 Cor 15:32; Isa 22:13). The Epicureans conferred with the apostle Paul; there are Christian Epicureans too. For what else are they saying who say daily, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die? To which this belongs: "There will be nothing after death, for our life is the passing of a shadow." For they said within themselves, reasoning not rightly, among other things, Let us crown ourselves with roses before they wither; let there be no meadow that our luxury does not pass through; let us everywhere leave the signs of our merriment, for this is our portion, and this is our lot (Wis 2:8-9).

6. 7. If we rebuke this more sternly, if we resist these desires more vehemently, they will say also what follows: Let us oppress the poor righteous man (Wis 2:10). And yet, even set in this place, we do not fear to say: Do not be Epicureans. Consider indeed that which was said by these who spoke not rightly, For tomorrow we shall die; but we shall not die in every way, for there remains after death what follows death. The companion of the dying will be either life or punishment. Let no one say, Who has returned here from there? That rich man in purple wished to return late, and could not be permitted. Thirsting, he sought a drop, who had despised the hungry poor man (See Luke 16:19-31). Let no one, then, say, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. If you wish to say, For tomorrow we shall die, I do not forbid it; but say something else first. The Epicureans, indeed, as though they were not going to live after death, as though they had nothing else but what delights the flesh, say, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. But Christians, who are going to live after death—and rather to live happily after death—let them not say, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die; but hold to what is said, For tomorrow we shall die, and say: Let us fast and pray, for tomorrow we shall die. I add plainly something else, I add a third thing, nor do I pass over what must especially be observed: that from your fasting the hunger of the poor man may be satisfied, or, if you cannot fast, rather feed the one by whose being filled pardon may be granted you. Let Christians, then, say: Let us fast and pray and give, for tomorrow we shall die. Or if they wish to say two things, I choose that they say, Let us give and pray, rather than, Let us fast and not give. Far be it, then, that the Apostle should place the highest good of the human being—that is, the cause of happiness—in the body.

7. 8. But with the Stoics perhaps the struggle is not unbecoming. For see, when they are asked where they place that which effects the happy life—that is, what makes the happy life in a human being—they answer, not the pleasure of the body, but the virtue of the soul. What of the Apostle? Does he agree? If he agrees, let us agree. But he does not agree; for Scripture calls back those who trust in their own virtue (See Jer 17:5). The Epicurean, therefore, placing the highest good of the human being in the body, places his hope in himself. But the Stoic too, placing the highest good of the human being in the soul, placed it indeed in the better thing of the human being; yet he too placed his hope in himself. But both the Epicurean and the Stoic are human beings. Cursed, then, is everyone who places his hope in man (Jer 17:5). What, then? With the three now set before our eyes—the Epicurean, the Stoic, the Christian—let us question each one. Tell me, Epicurean, what makes a person happy. He answers: The pleasure of the body. Tell me, Stoic. The virtue of the soul. Tell me, Christian. The gift of God.

8. 9. And so, brothers, as it were before our eyes the Epicureans and Stoics conferred with the Apostle, and by their conference taught us what we ought to reject and what we ought to choose. The virtue of the soul is a praiseworthy thing: prudence, discerning evil and good; justice, distributing to each his own; temperance, restraining the lusts; fortitude, bearing hardships with an even mind. A great thing, a praiseworthy thing; praise it, Stoic, as much as you can; but say: From where do you have it? It is not the virtue of your soul that makes you happy, but he who gave you virtue, who breathed into you the willing and bestowed the being able (See Phil 2:13). I know that perhaps you are going to mock me, and you will be among those of whom it is written that they mocked Paul (See Acts 17:32). If you are the path, I sow, for I am a sower of words according to my small measure. What was your reproach is my office. I sow; what I sow falls on you as on hard ground. I am not slothful; and I find good ground. What shall I do to you? You have been rebuked, and rebuked by a divine oracle. You are among those who trust in their own virtue; you are among those who place their hope in man. Virtue delights you; a good thing delights you; I know, you thirst; but you cannot make virtue flow for yourself. You are dry; if I show you the fountain of life, perhaps you will deride it. For you say within yourself, "Am I going to drink from that rock?" The rod approaches, and water flowed (See Exod 17:5-6; Num 20:11). For the Jews, indeed, ask for signs; but you, Stoic, are not a Jew; I know, you are a Greek; and the Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified (1 Cor 1:22-23). The Jew is scandalized, the Greek scoffs. For to the Jews a stumbling block, but to the gentiles folly; but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks—that is, to Paul himself from Saul, and to Dionysius the Areopagite, and to such as these and such as those—Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:23-24). Now you do not mock the rock; recognize the rod, the cross; Christ, the fountain; and if you thirst, drink virtue. Be fed at the fountain; perhaps you will belch forth thanksgivings; what you have from him you will no longer give to yourself, but in your belching you will cry out, I will love you, O Lord, my strength (Ps 18:1 (17:2)). Now you will not say, The virtue of my soul makes me happy. You will not be among those who, knowing God, did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened; for claiming to be wise, they became fools (Rom 1:21-22). For what is it, claiming to be wise, but to have from oneself, to suffice for oneself? They became fools; deservedly fools. True folly is false wisdom. But you will be among those of whom it is said, O Lord, they will walk in the light of your countenance, and in your name they will rejoice all the day, and in your righteousness they will be exalted; for you are the glory of their strength (Ps 89:15-17 (88:16-18)). You were seeking virtue; say, O Lord, my strength. You were seeking the happy life; say, Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord (Ps 94:12 (93:12)). For blessed is the people whose joy is not the pleasure of the flesh, whose strength is not its own; but blessed is the people whose God is the Lord himself (Ps 144:15 (143:15)). This is the homeland of happiness, which all desire; but not all rightly seek it. But let us not contrive for ourselves a way to such a homeland, as it were out of our own heart, and devise wandering paths; from there came also the Way.

8. 10. For what does the happy man will—what does he will but not to be deceived, not to die, not to grieve? And what does he seek? To hunger more and to eat more? What if it is better not to hunger? No one is happy except the one who lives forever without any fear, without any deception. For the soul hates to be deceived. How much the soul naturally hates to be deceived can be understood from this: that those who laugh in a deranged mind are wept over by the sane; and a man surely chooses to laugh rather than to weep. If these two are set before him—Do you wish to laugh or to weep?—who is there who answers anything but: To laugh? Again, if these two are set before him—Do you wish to be deceived or to hold the truth?—every person answers: To hold the truth. And he chooses both to laugh and to hold the truth; of those two, laughter and weeping, To laugh; of these two, deception and truth, To hold the truth. But truth, most invincible, so prevails that a man chooses to weep in a sane mind rather than to laugh in a deranged one. There, then, in that homeland, truth will be, deception and error nowhere. But there will be truth, and there will be no weeping. For there will be a true laughing too, and a rejoicing in the truth, because there will be life. For if there is grief, there will not be life; nor is everlasting and immortal torment to be called life. Therefore the Lord, not calling the existence the ungodly are going to have life—although they are going to live in fire, and do not end their life, lest they end their punishment, for their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched (Isa 66:24; Mark 9:48)—yet was unwilling to call it life, but called this life which is happy and eternal. Hence, when that rich man asked the Lord, What good thing shall I do that I may attain eternal life (Matt 19:16)? he himself indeed named eternal life as nothing but happy life. For the ungodly will have eternal life, but not happy, because it is full of torments. So that man said, Lord, what good thing shall I do that I may attain eternal life? The Lord answered him concerning the commandments. The man said, All these I have done. But when he answered concerning the commandments, what did he say? If you wish to come to life (Matt 19:17). He did not say to him: happy; because a wretched existence is not even to be called life. He did not say to him: eternal; because where there is fear of death, it is not even to be called life. Therefore that life which is worthy of this name, to be called life, is none but the happy; and it is not happy unless it is eternal. This all desire, this we all desire—truth and life; but to so great a possession, to so great a happiness, by what way does one go? The philosophers built for themselves ways of error; some said, This way; others, Not this, but this. The way lay hidden from them, because God resists the proud (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5). It would lie hidden from us too, had it not come to us. Therefore the Lord says, I am the way. Slothful traveler, you were unwilling to come to the way; the Way came to you. You were seeking by what way you might go: I am the way. You were seeking where you might go: I am the truth and the life (John 14:6). You will not go astray when you go to him, through him. This is the teaching of Christians, by no means to be compared with, but incomparably to be preferred to, the teachings of the philosophers—to the uncleanness of the Epicureans, the pride of the Stoics.

1. 1. The divine reading that was recited from the Epistle of the apostle Paul, whenever it is read, makes us fear lest, being misunderstood, it give occasion to people who are looking for occasion. For people are prone to sin, and scarcely hold themselves back. So when they hear the Apostle saying, For I do not do the good that I will, but the evil that I hate, that I do (Rom 7:15.19), they do evil, and, as though displeased with themselves for doing evil, they suppose themselves to be like the Apostle, who said, For I do not do the good that I will, but the evil that I do not will, that I do. So sometimes it is read, and then it lays upon us the necessity of discoursing, lest people, taking the wholesome food amiss, turn it into poison. Let your Charity, then, be attentive, until I tell you what the Lord shall grant; so that where you perhaps see me laboring in the difficulty of some obscurity, you may help me by the affection of your devotion.

1. 2. First, then, recall what by God's favor you are accustomed to hear: that the life of the righteous man in this body is still warfare, not yet triumph. But of this warfare there will one day be a triumph. So the Apostle uttered both the voices of warfare and the voices of triumph. The voices of warfare we have just heard: For I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do. But if I do what I hate, I agree with the law, that it is good. To will lies near at hand for me, but to accomplish the good I do not find. But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members (Rom 7:15-16.18.23). When you hear "fighting against," when you hear "taking captive," do you not recognize warfare?

2. 2. The voice of triumph, then, is not yet here; but because it is to come, the same Apostle teaches you, saying, This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality—there is the voice of triumph—then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. Let those who triumph say, Where, O death, is your struggle (1 Cor 15:53-55)? We shall say it, then; one day we shall say it; and that "one day" will not be far off. For there does not remain as much of this age as has already been taken away. This, then, we shall say one day. But now, in this warfare, lest this reading should be a trumpet of the enemy, not ours, by which he may be roused, not by which he may be conquered—attend, I beseech you, my brothers, and you who are fighting, fight. For those who are not yet fighting will not understand what I say; those who are already fighting will understand it. My voice is in the open, yours will be in silence. First recall what he wrote to the Galatians, by which this can well be expounded. For he says, speaking to the faithful, speaking to the baptized, to whom surely in the holy washing all sins had been forgiven—yet speaking to these, but speaking to those who are fighting, he says, But I say: Walk by the Spirit, and do not accomplish the desires of the flesh. He did not say, "do not have them," but, do not accomplish them. Why this? It follows, and he says, For the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are opposed to one another, that you may not do what you will. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are no longer under the law (Gal 5:16-18)—surely, but under grace. If you are led by the Spirit; what is it to be led by the Spirit? To consent to the Spirit of God commanding, not to the flesh desiring. Yet it desires and resists; and it wills something, and you do not will it; persevere, that you may not will it.

3. 3. Yet your desire toward God ought to be such that there be not even that desire which you resist. See what I have said: your desire toward God, I say, ought to be such that there be no desire at all which you must resist. For you resist, and by not consenting you conquer; but it is better not to have an enemy than to conquer one. This enemy will one day not exist. Turn your mind to the voice of triumph, and see whether it will exist. Where, O death, is your struggle? It will not be. Where, O death, is your sting (1 Cor 15:55)? You will seek its place and not find it. For this is not—what you most ought to hear—this is not, as the Manicheans rave, as it were another nature. It is our weakness, it is our defect. It will not be elsewhere, set apart, but it will be nowhere, healed. Therefore, do not accomplish the desires of the flesh. It would indeed be better to fulfill what the law said, You shall not covet (Exod 20:17; Rom 7:7). This is the fullness of virtue, the perfection of righteousness, the palm of victory: You shall not covet. Since this cannot now be fulfilled, let at least that be fulfilled which holy Scripture likewise says, Do not go after your desires (Sir 18:30). It is better not to have them; but since they are there, do not go after them. They do not want to go after you; do not go after them. If they should want to go after you, they will not be; for they will not rebel against your mind. They rebel; rebel back. They fight; fight. They assail; assail back. Only see to this: that they do not conquer.

4. 4. See, I will set forth something from this, from which you may understand the rest. You know that there are sober people; they are fewer, but they exist. You know too that there are drunkards; they abound. A sober man has been baptized; so far as concerns drunkenness, he has nothing to fight against; he has other desires to fight against. But that you may understand about the rest, let us set in the midst the contest of one enemy only. A drunkard has been baptized; he heard, and heard with fear, that among the other evils by which the kingdom of God is shut off from people living badly, drunkenness too was mentioned; for where it was said, Neither fornicators, nor those who serve idols, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves, there was added, nor drunkards, etc., shall possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9-10). He heard, and feared. He was baptized; all the things in which he was drunk are forgiven him; there remains the adversary, habit. So the reborn man has something to fight against. All his past vices are forgiven him; let him watch, be vigilant, fight, lest at some time he become drunk. So that desire for drinking rises up, tickles the mind, brings dryness into the throat, lies in wait for the senses; it even wants, if it can be done, to penetrate the wall itself, to reach the one shut within, to drag him captive. It fights; fight back. Oh, if only it did not exist! If it came in by an evil habit, it will die by a good habit; only do not satisfy it, do not glut it by yielding, but kill it by resisting. Yet as long as it exists, it is an enemy. If you do not consent to it, and are never drunk, it will be less and less every day. For your submission is its strength. For if you yield to it and become drunk, you give it strength. Is it against me, and not against you? I admonish from the higher place, I speak, I proclaim; what evil is going to befall drunkards, I announce beforehand. There is no reason for you to say, I did not hear; there is no reason for you to say, God requires my soul at the hand of the one who was silent to me. But you labor, because by an evil habit you yourself made for yourself a strong adversary. You did not labor to nourish it; labor to conquer it. And if you are less than fit against it, ask God. Yet if it has not conquered you—though your own evil habit has wrestled with you, if it has not conquered you—you have done what the apostle Paul says, Do not accomplish the desires of the flesh. The desire arose by its tickling, but it was not accomplished by drinking.

5. 5. What I have said of drunkenness, this I say of all vices, this of all desires. For with some we are born, others we have made by habit. Now on account of those with which we are born, infants are baptized, that they may be loosed from the guilt of their origin—not of an evil habit, which they did not have. Therefore we must always fight, because that very desire with which we are born cannot be ended as long as we live; it can be lessened daily, it cannot be ended. On account of it this body of ours is called the body of death. Of it the Apostle says, For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man. But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members (Rom 7:22-23). This law was born when the first law was transgressed. Then was this law born, I say, when the first law was despised and transgressed. What is the first law? The one the human being received in paradise. Were they not naked, and not ashamed (Gen 2:25)? Why were they naked and not ashamed, except because there was not yet a law in the members fighting against the law of the mind? The human being did a deed to be punished, and found a motion to be ashamed of. They ate against the prohibition, and their eyes were opened. What then? Did they before wander in paradise with closed or blind eyes? Far from it. For how did Adam impose names on the birds and beasts, when all the animals were brought to him (Gen 2:19-20)? On those on which he imposed names, if he did not see them? Then it is said, The woman saw that the tree was pleasing to the eyes to look upon (Gen 3:6). So they had open eyes; and they were naked, and were not ashamed. But their eyes were opened to something they had never felt, something they had never dreaded in the motion of their body. Their eyes were opened to gaze upon it, not to see; and because they felt something shameful, they took care to cover it. They sewed together, it says, fig leaves, and made themselves girdles (Gen 3:7). What they covered, there they felt it. See whence original sin is drawn; see whence no one is born without sin. See why the Lord did not wish to be conceived in this way, whom a virgin conceived. He loosed it who came without it; he loosed it who did not come from it. Hence one and one: one to death, one to life. The first man to death, the second man to life. But why was that man to death? Because he was only man. Why is this man to life? Because he is God and man.

6. 6. The Apostle, then, does not do what he wills; for he wills not to covet, and yet he covets; so he does not do what he wills. Did that evil desire drag the Apostle, subjugated, to fornication and adultery? Far from it. Let no such thoughts rise into our heart. He wrestled, he was not subjugated. But because he did not want even to have this against which he wrestled, he therefore said, I do not do what I will. I do not wish to covet, and I covet. So I do not do what I will; yet I do not consent to the desire. For otherwise he would not say, Do not accomplish the desires of the flesh, if he himself accomplished them. But he set before your eyes his own struggle, that you might not fear your own. For if the blessed Apostle had not said this, when you saw a desire stirred in your members, to which you did not consent—yet, when you saw it stirred, you would perhaps despair of yourself and say, If I belonged to God, I would not be moved thus. See the Apostle fighting, and do not make yourself despair. I see another law, he says, in my members, fighting against the law of my mind. And because I do not want it to fight—for it is my flesh, it is my very self, it is a part of me—I do not do what I will, but the evil that I hate, that I do; because I covet.

7. 7. What good, then, do I do? Because I do not consent to the evil desire. I do good, and I do not accomplish the good; and the desire, my enemy, does evil, and does not accomplish evil. How do I do good and not accomplish good? I do good when I do not consent to the evil desire; but I do not accomplish good, so as not to covet at all. And again, how does my enemy do evil and not accomplish evil? It does evil, because it stirs an evil longing; it does not accomplish evil, because it does not drag me to evil. And in this warfare is the whole life of the saints. What now shall I say of the unclean, who do not even fight? Subjugated, they are dragged along; nor are they dragged, since they follow willingly. This, I say, is the battle of the saints; and in this warfare a person is always in peril, until he dies. But in the end—that is, in the triumph of that victory—what is said? Rather, what does the Apostle say, already foretasting the triumph? Then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your struggle? The voice of those who triumph. Where, O death, is your sting? But the sting of death is sin (1 Cor 15:54-56); by whose stinging death was wrought. Sin is like a scorpion: it stung us, and we died. But when it is said, Where, O death, is your sting?—by which sting you were made, not which you made; when, therefore, it is said, Where, O death, is your sting?—surely it will not be, because sin will not be. But the sting of death is sin. Against sin the law was given. But the power of sin is the law (1 Cor 15:56). How is the law the power of sin? It came in, that the offense might abound (Rom 5:20). How is this? Because before the law the human being was a sinner; the law being given and transgressed, he became also a transgressor. People were held guilty by sin; the law being given, they were made more guilty by transgression.

8. 8. Where is hope, but in what follows: Where sin abounded, grace abounded the more (Rom 5:20)? Therefore that soldier, in a way most practiced in this warfare—so practiced that he was even a leader—when he labored in this warfare against the enemy, and said, I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members, a foul law, a wretched law, a wound, a rottenness, a sickness—added, Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death (Rom 7:23-24)? And help came to him as he groaned. How did help come? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord will free you from the law of this death—that is, from the body of this death—the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:25). When will you have a body in which no desire will remain? When this mortal puts on immortality, and this corruptible puts on incorruption, and it will be said to death, Where, O death, is your struggle? and it will not be: Where, O death, is your sting? and it will be nowhere (1 Cor 15:53-55). What now? Hear: So then I myself serve the law of God with the mind, but the law of sin with the flesh (Rom 7:25). I serve the law of God with the mind, by not consenting; but the law of sin with the flesh, by coveting. And with the mind the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin. And I delight in this, and there I covet; but I am not conquered; it tickles, lies in wait, knocks, tries to drag: Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? I do not wish always to conquer; but I wish at some time to come to peace. Now then, brothers, keep this measure: serve the law of God with the mind, but the law of sin with the flesh—but out of necessity, because you covet, not because you consent. Sometimes this desire so lies in wait for the saints that it works in those asleep what it cannot in those awake. Whence did you all cry out, but because you all recognized it? It is shameful to linger here, but let it not be irksome to pray to God about it. Let us turn to the Lord, etc.

1. Your Charity ought to remember that I discoursed to you on a most difficult question from the Epistle of the apostle Paul, where he says, For I do not do the good that I will, but the evil that I hate, that I do (Rom 7:15.19). Those of you, then, who were present, remember; be present now in mind, that you may build upon what you heard. For there follows the reading that has been recited today, which the reader began here: God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and from sin condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit (Rom 8:3-4). But the words that were read then, and not treated, are these that follow: So then I myself serve the law of God with the mind, but the law of sin with the flesh. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death. For what was impossible for the law, in which it was weakened through the flesh (Rom 7:25-8:3). And there follows what was read today: God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. The difficulty is not in obscure meanings, when the spirit helps. May he therefore help us, as you pray; for the very desire by which you wish to understand is a prayer to God. From him, then, you must look for help. For we, like peasants in a field, work on the outside. But if there were none who worked on the inside, neither would the seed be fixed in the earth, nor would the top spring up in the field, nor would the shoot be strengthened and reach the trunk; nor would branches, nor fruit, nor leaves be born. So the Apostle himself said, distinguishing the work of the workers and of the Creator, I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. And he added, So neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase (1 Cor 3:6-7). If God does not give the increase within, this sound is empty to your ears. But if he does give it, what we plant and water has some value, and our labor is not empty.

2. I have already told you that what the Apostle says is to be taken thus: I serve the law of God with the mind, but the law of sin with the flesh; so that you permit the flesh nothing more than the longings without which it cannot be. But if you consent to the evil longings, and do not wrestle against them, conquered you will lament; and it is to be wished that you lament, lest you also lose the very sense of grief. As much, then, as lies in our prayers, in our will, in our supplication, when we say, Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (Matt 6:13), this surely we desire: that not even those evil longings themselves should arise from our flesh. But as long as we live here, we are not able to bring it about. On account of this he says, But to accomplish the good I do not find (Rom 7:18). What do I find to do? Not to consent to the evil longing. To accomplish I do not find: that is, not to have an evil longing. It remains, then, in this warfare, that with your mind not consenting to the evil desires you serve the law of God, but with your flesh coveting, yet you not consenting, you serve the law of sin. The flesh does its longings; do you also do yours. Its longings are not crushed, not extinguished by you; let it not extinguish yours; that in the struggle you may labor, not, conquered, be dragged along.

3. There follows, then, and the Apostle says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). Even if they have the desires of the flesh, to which they do not consent; even if the law in their members fights against the law of their mind, and wishes to take the mind captive; yet because through the grace of Baptism and the washing of regeneration the very guilt with which you were born has been loosed, and whatever you previously consented to of evil desire—whether by any shameful deed, or any crime, or any evil thought, or any evil speech—all has been blotted out in that fountain, into which you entered a slave, from which you came out free; because, then, these things are so: There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is now none; before there was. By one, all into condemnation (See Rom 5:16.18). This evil generation had wrought, but this good regeneration wrought. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2). It is present in your members, but does not make you guilty. You have been freed from it; free, fight; but see that you are not conquered, and become a slave again. You labor by fighting, but you will rejoice by triumphing.

4. But I told you—and you ought especially to remember this—lest, perchance, on account of this struggle, without which a human being cannot exist (even one who lives righteously; rather, it is the one who lives righteously who is in it, for the one who does not live righteously does not fight, but is dragged along)—lest, then, you suppose on this account that there are, as it were, two natures from diverse principles, as the Manicheans rave, as though the flesh were not from God. That is false; both are from God. But human nature deserved this within itself as a result of sin. It is therefore a sickness; it is healed, and it ceases to be. The discord that now exists between spirit and flesh labors for the sake of concord; the spirit labors in order that the flesh may agree with it. Just as if in one house a man and his wife have a quarrel between them, the husband must labor to tame the wife. Let the wife, once tamed, be subject to the husband; the wife being made subject to the husband, let there be peace in the house.

5. But when he had said, The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2), he set before us these laws themselves to be understood. Look at them, and distinguish them; this distinction is necessary enough for you. The law, he says, of the spirit of life—behold, one law: has freed you from the law of sin and death—behold, another law. And there follows, For what was impossible for the law, in which it was weakened through the flesh (Rom 8:3)—behold, a third law. Or perhaps this is one of the two? Let us inquire and, with the Lord's help, see. What did he say about that good law? The law of the spirit of life has freed you from the law of sin and death. He did not say that this law was powerless to accomplish anything: The law of the spirit of life has freed you, he says, from the law of sin and death. That good law has freed you from this evil law. For what is the evil law? I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members (Rom 7:23). Why is this too called a law? With perfect rightness. For it was done most justly that the man who was unwilling to obey his Lord should have his own flesh disobey him. Above you is your Lord, below you is your flesh. Serve the higher, that the lower may serve you. You despised the higher; you are tormented by the lower. This, then, is the law of sin, which is also the law of death. For through sin came death. On the day you eat, you shall die the death (Gen 2:17). This law of sin, then, drags the spirit and strives to subjugate it. But I delight in the law of God according to the inner man (Rom 7:22). And through this comes that struggle, and in that very contest it is said, I serve the law of God with the mind, but the law of sin with the flesh. The law of the spirit of life has freed you from the law of sin and death (Rom 7:25-8:2). For how did the law of the spirit of life itself free you? First of all, it gave the forgiveness of sins. For this is the law of which it is said to God in the Psalm, And in your law have mercy on me (Ps 119 (118):29). The law of mercy, the law of faith, not of works. What, then, is the law of works? You have already heard the good law of faith: The law of the spirit of life has freed you from the law of sin and death. You have heard too the other law, of sin and death. For what was impossible for the law, in which it was weakened through the flesh. This law, then, named in the third place, somehow does not fulfill anything, as it were; but that law of the spirit of life fulfilled it, because it freed you from the law of sin and death. So this law, named in the third place, the very Law that was given to the people through Moses on Mount Sinai, is called the law of works. It knows how to threaten, not to help; to command, not to aid. It is the one that said, You shall not covet. Hence the Apostle says, I would not have known coveting, unless the law said, You shall not covet. And what did it profit me that the law said, You shall not covet? Sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me (Rom 7:7.11). I was forbidden to covet, and I did not fulfill the commands, but was conquered. Before the law I was a sinner; the law being received, I became a transgressor. For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

6. And so, he says, the law indeed is holy. This law too, then, is good (for the Manicheans reproach it as well, just as they do the flesh). Of it the Apostle says, And so the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Far from it! But sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good. These are the Apostle's words; see and attend. And so the law indeed is holy. What is so holy as You shall not covet? The transgression of the law would not be evil unless the law itself were good. For if it were not good, it would not be evil to transgress an evil thing. But because it is evil to transgress it, therefore it is good. What is so good as You shall not covet? The law, then, is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. How he satisfies, how he drives it home! He cries out, as it were, against the slanderers. What do you say, Manichean? Is the law that was given through Moses evil? "It is evil," they say. O monsters! O effrontery! You said once: It is evil. Hear the Apostle saying, The law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Will you be silent at last? Did that which is good, he says, then become death to me? Far from it! But sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good. And here too, through what is good; thus he accuses the guilty party in such a way that he does not depart from the praise of the law. Through what is good, he says, it worked death in me. Through what good? The commandment. Through what good? The law. How did it work death? That sin might appear; that sin, sinning through the commandment, might become beyond measure. Hence: beyond measure. When he sinned without the commandment, it was less; when he sins through the commandment, he exceeds the measure. For when someone is not forbidden, he thinks he does well. Forbidden, he begins to be unwilling to do it; he is conquered, dragged, subjugated; it now remains for him to call upon grace, because he could not keep the law.

7. And through this, that law of which it was said, For the law of the spirit of life has freed you from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2), is the law of faith, the law of the Spirit, the law of grace, the law of mercy. But that law of sin and death is not the law of God, but of sin and death. But that other law, of which the Apostle says, The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good (Rom 7:12), is the law of God, but of works, the law of works; the law of works, which commands but does not help; the law that shows you sin, but does not take it away. By one law sin is shown to you, by another it is taken away. There are two Testaments, the Old and the New. Hear the Apostle saying, Tell me, you who wish to be under the law, have you not read the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. But he who was by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, while he who was by the free woman was born through the promise; which things are an allegory. For these are the two Testaments: one indeed on Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery, which is Hagar (Gal 4:21-24)—the slave of Sarah, who was given to Abraham, and bore Ishmael the slave. The Old Testament, then, pertaining to Hagar, bears children for slavery. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother (Gal 4:26). Therefore the children of grace are children of the free woman; the children of the letter are children of the slave woman. Seek the children of the slave woman: The letter kills. Seek the children of the free woman: But the Spirit gives life (2 Cor 3:6). The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death, from which the law of the letter could not free you. For what was impossible for the law, in which it was weakened through the flesh (Rom 8:2-3). For your flesh was rebelling, your flesh was subjugating you; it heard the law, and only stirred up your coveting the more. The law of the letter, then, was weakened through the flesh; and through this it was impossible for the law of the letter to free you from the law of sin and death.

8. God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom 8:3)—not in the flesh of sin. In flesh indeed, but not in the flesh of sin. All the rest of the flesh of all human beings, then, is the flesh of sin; his alone is not the flesh of sin, because concupiscence did not conceive him, but grace; yet it has the likeness of sinful flesh, whence it could also be nourished, and hunger, and thirst, and sleep, and grow weary, and die. In the likeness of sinful flesh God sent his Son.

9. And from sin he condemned sin in the flesh. From what sin? What sin? From sin he condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. Now let that righteousness of the law be fulfilled in us; now let that righteousness which is commanded be fulfilled in us through the Spirit who helps; that is, let the law of the letter be fulfilled in us through the spirit of life: who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit (Rom 8:3-4). From what sin, then, did the Lord condemn what sin? I see, I do indeed see what sin he condemned, I see it plainly: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). What sin? Every sin; he condemned all our sin. But from what sin? He himself had no sin; of him it is said, He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth (1 Pet 2:22; Isa 53:9). None at all, neither by inheriting nor by adding; he had no sin, neither of origin nor of his own iniquity. The virgin demonstrates his origin; and his holy manner of life sufficiently shows that he did nothing for which he was worthy of death. So he says, Behold, the prince of this world comes (signifying the devil), and in me he will find nothing. The prince of death will find no reason to kill me. And why, then, do you die? But that all may know that I do the will of my Father, let us go from here (John 14:30-31). And he went on to the suffering of death, a voluntary death, not of necessity but of choice. I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down and take it up again (John 10:18). If you marvel at the power, understand the majesty. As God speaks, so Christ speaks.

10. From what sin, then, did he condemn sin? Some have understood it and reached a sense not to be condemned. Yet what the Apostle meant, so far as it seems to me, they could not at all track down. They said something not bad, however; this I tell you first, and then what seems to me, and what divine Scripture itself shows to be most true. When they were troubled: From what sin did he condemn sin? Did he have sin? this they said: From sin he condemned sin, from a sin not his own; yet from sin he condemned sin. If, then, not from his own, from whose? From the sin of Judas, from the sin of the Jews. For whence did he shed his blood for the forgiveness of sins? Because he was crucified by the Jews. By whose betrayal? Judas's. When the Jews killed him, Judas betrayed him. Did they do well, or did they sin? They sinned. Behold from what sin he condemned sin. It was well said, and truly said, that even from the sin of the Jews Christ condemned all sin, because, as they persecuted him, he shed the blood by which he blotted out all sin. Yet see what the Apostle says in another place: For Christ, he says, we perform an embassy, as though God were exhorting through us; we beseech you for Christ—that is, as though Christ besought you, on his behalf we beseech you—be reconciled to God. And there follows, Him who knew no sin. God to whom we beseech you to be reconciled, him who knew no sin—that is, Christ God, that Christ who knew no sin—he made sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor 5:20-21). Can the sin of Judas here be understood, the sin of the Jews, the sin of any other person, when you hear, Him who knew no sin he made sin for us? Who? Whom? God made Christ, God made Christ sin for us. He did not say: He made him a sinner for us; but, he made him sin. If it is wicked to say that Christ sinned, who could bear that Christ is sin? And yet we cannot contradict the Apostle. We cannot say to him: What is it you are saying? For if we say this to the Apostle, we say it to Christ himself. For he says in another place, Or do you wish to receive proof of him who speaks in me, Christ (2 Cor 13:3)?

11. What, then, is it? Let your Charity attend to a great and deep mystery. You will be blessed if you have loved the understanding of it and have reached the beloved object. Truly, truly our Lord Christ, Jesus our Savior, our Redeemer, was made sin, that we might be the righteousness of God in him. How? Hear the law. Those who know it know what I am saying; and those who do not know, let them read it, or hear it. In the law even the sacrifices that were offered for sins were called sins. You have it that, when a victim was brought for sin, the law says, Let the priests place their hands upon the sin—that is, upon the victim for sin. And what else is Christ but a sacrifice for sin? Just as Christ also, he says, loved you and handed himself over for you, an offering and sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness (Eph 5:2). Behold from what sin he condemned sin: from the sacrifice that he became for sins, from that he condemned sin. This is the law of the spirit of life that has freed you from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2). For that other law, the law of the letter, the law that commands, is indeed good—the commandment holy and just and good—but it was weakened through the flesh, and what it commanded could not be fulfilled in us. Let another law, then, as I had begun to say, show you sin, and another take it away; let the law of the letter show sin, let the law of grace take sin away.

1. 1. We have heard, and have answered in concord, and have sung to our God with harmonious voice, Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach out of your law (Ps 94:12 (93:12)). If you grant silence, you will hear. Wisdom finds no place where there is no patience. We speak, but God instructs; we speak, but God teaches. For he is not called blessed whom a man teaches, but whom you instruct, O Lord. We can plant and water; but it is God's to give the increase (See 1 Cor 3:6-7). He who plants and he who waters works on the outside; he who gives the increase aids on the inside. What reading from the Epistle of the holy Apostle has been set before us to speak on—how difficult, how full of hidden places, how perilous (if it is not understood, or is misunderstood)—I think, brothers, indeed I know, that you heard, since it was recited along with us; and you wavered, if you noticed; or if some of you did understand, you saw without doubt how arduous it is. This reading, then, and that whole passage of the Apostle's Epistle, troublesome and obscure but wholesome to those who understand, we have undertaken, with the help of God's mercy, to expound by discoursing. I know that we are debtors to your Charity; I feel that you are the collectors. As we pray that you may grasp these things, so do you pray that we may be able to unfold them to you. For if our prayer agrees, God will both make you fit hearers and make us most faithful payers of this debt.

2. 2. For when we were in the flesh, says the Apostle, the passions of sins, which were through the law, were at work in our members, so as to bear fruit for death (Rom 7:5). Here the Apostle seems (which, for those who do not understand, is the first and great peril) to rebuke and blame the law of God. Someone says: Far be this from the mind of any Christian whatever; who, even though mad, would dare suspect this of the Apostle? And yet, my brothers, these words, misunderstood, have furnished tinder for the madness of the Manicheans' fury. For the Manicheans say that the law given through Moses was not given by God, and contend that it is contrary to the gospel. And when one deals with them, they try, by these testimonies of the apostle Paul which they do not understand, to convict—what shall I call them?—Catholics who do not understand, or rather who are negligent. For it is no great thing, if one wishes to be diligent, after the slanders heard from the heretic, at least to consider in the codex the context of the reading. And if he does this, he will at once find there the means to refute the talkative adversary, the means to lay low the enemies and rebels against the law. For even if he is slow to understand the words of the Apostle, the praise of the law of God is plainly expressed there.

2. 3. See first, and notice. For when we were in the flesh, he says, the passions of sins, which were through the law, were at work. Here now the Manichean raises his neck, lifts up his horns, attacks you, makes his charge: Behold, he says, the passions of sins, which were through the law. How is the law good, through which the passions of sins are in us and are at work in our members, so as to bear fruit for death? Read, go a little further, hear it all patiently, even if not understandingly. For this which he says, The passions of sins, which were through the law, were at work in our members, is much for you to understand; but first be with me a praiser of the law, and then you will deserve to become one who understands. You have a closed heart, and you accuse the key? Behold, meanwhile, let us set aside a little what we do not understand, and come to the praise of the law which is plain. The passions, he says, of sins, which were through the law, were at work in our members, so as to bear fruit for death. Now therefore we have been freed from the law of death, in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter (Rom 7:5-6). Still he seems to charge, blame, condemn, detest the law; but only to those who do not understand. For when he says, When we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were through the law, were at work in our members, so as to bear fruit for death. Now therefore we have been freed from the law of death, in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter, he seems, as it were, to accuse and blame the law. He himself saw this; he saw, he felt that he was not understood, and that the thoughts of people were being stirred against the obscurity of his words; he felt what you might say, he felt what you might say in objection; and he wished to say this first, so that you might not find anything to say.

3. 4. What, then, shall we say? he says. This follows: What, then, shall we say? Is the law sin? Far from it (Rom 7:7)! With one word he absolved the law, condemned the accuser of the law. You were bringing forth the authority of the Apostle against me, O Manichean, and saying to me, as you reproached the law: Behold, hear the Apostle, read the Apostle: The passions of sins, which were through the law, were at work in our members, so as to bear fruit for death. Now therefore we have been freed from the law of death, in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter. You boasted, you cried out, you said: Hear, read, see; you had said these things, and now, turning your back, you wished to go. Wait, I have heard you, hear me; rather, neither I you nor you me, but let us both together hear the Apostle, who frees himself and binds you. What, then, shall we say? he says. Is the law sin? This you were saying: The law is sin, this indeed you were saying. Behold, you heard what you were saying; hear what you should say. You were saying that the law of God is sin, when, blind and improvident, you reproached it. You erred; Paul saw your error. What you were saying, he himself said. What, then, shall we say? Is the law sin? Do we say what you were saying? Is the law sin? Far from it! If you followed the authority of the Apostle, weigh the word, and take counsel from it. Hear: Is the law sin? Far from it! Hear: Far from it! If you follow the Apostle, if you value his authority highly, hear: Far from it! and let what you thought be far from you. What, then, shall we say? What shall we say? That because I said, The passions of sins, which were through the law, were at work in our members, so as to bear fruit for death; because I said, We have been freed from the law of death, in which we were held; because I said, Let us serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter: Is the law sin? Far from it! Why, then, Apostle, did you say all those things?

4. 5. Far be it that the law be sin: But, he says, I did not know sin except through the law. For I would not have known coveting, unless the law said, You shall not covet (Rom 7:7). Now then I ask you, Manichean, now I ask you, answer me. Is the law evil that says, You shall not covet? Not even some lustful and worthless person would answer me this. For even shameful people themselves blush when they are reproached; and when they are among the chaste, they do not dare to be wanton. If, then, you say that the law is evil which says, You shall not covet, you wish to covet with impunity; you accuse the law because it strikes at lust. My brothers, if we did not hear the Apostle saying, Is the law sin? Far from it! but only recalling the words of the law, where it was said, You shall not covet; even though he did not praise the law, yet we ought to praise it—to praise it, and to accuse ourselves. Behold the law, behold from above the divine trumpet cries out to man, You shall not covet. You shall not covet: reproach it if you can; do it, if you cannot reproach it. You have heard, You shall not covet; you do not dare to reproach it. Because what it said is good, You shall not covet; it is evil to covet. The law blames the evil, the law forbids you from your own evil. Therefore the law blames the evil of coveting, the law forbids you from your own evil. Therefore do what the law commands, do not do what the law forbids, do not covet.

5. 6. But what does the Apostle say? I would not have known coveting, unless the law said, You shall not covet. For I was going after my coveting, and I ran where it dragged, and reckoned its allurements—soft and pleasant with carnal sweetness—a great happiness. For the sinner is praised, says the law, in the desires of his soul; and he who does unjust deeds is blessed (Ps 10:3 (9:24)). You find a person pursuing his carnal cravings, giving himself wholly as a slave to them, snatching at pleasures on every side, fornicating, getting drunk; I say no more—fornicating, I say, getting drunk. I have named these things, which are committed lawfully, but not by the laws of God. For who was ever brought before a judge because he entered a harlot's brothel? Who was ever accused in the public tribunals because, wanton and unclean, he dissolved himself among his lyre-girls? Who, having a wife, ever found a charge brought against him because he debauched his maidservant? But in the forum, not in heaven; in the law of the world, not in the law of the Creator of the world. The lustful, unclean, and wanton man is called happy because he abounds in pleasures, enjoys delights. And if he even gluts himself with wine, if he drinks measures without measure, it is too little that he finds no charge—he even receives the name of a brave man, the more worthless the more unconquered under the cup. When these things are praised, and it is said, He is happy, he is great, all is well with him; and not only is this not thought to be a sin, but it is even thought to be either a gift of God, or at least a sweet, pleasant, and lawful good: the law of God comes forth and says, You shall not covet. That man who thought it a great good, and reckoned it great happiness, not to deny his coveting what he could, but to follow where it dragged—he hears, You shall not covet; and he recognizes that it is sin. God spoke, man heard. He believed God, he saw his sin; what he thought good, he came to know was evil; he wished to bridle his coveting, not to go after it, he restrained himself, he tried, he was conquered. He who was before ignorant of his own evils became learned, and he is the worse for being conquered; he began to be not only a sinner, but also a transgressor. For he was a sinner even before; but before he heard the law, he did not know that he was a sinner. He heard the law, he saw the sin; he tried to conquer, he was overcome and laid low; he became a transgressor of the law too, who was before an ignorant sinner. This is what the Apostle says: Is the law sin? Far from it! But I did not know sin except through the law. For I would not have known coveting, unless the law said, You shall not covet.

5. 7. But sin, taking occasion, worked in me through the commandment every kind of coveting (Rom 7:8). The coveting was less when, before the law, you sinned without care; but now, with the barriers of the law set against you, the river of coveting was as it were checked a little, not dried up; but, the force that was leading you growing greater against no barriers, it overwhelmed you when the barriers were broken. Your coveting was less when it stirred your lust; but it is "every kind" when it transgresses even the law. Do you wish to know how great it is? See what it broke through: You shall not covet. No man said it; God said it; the Creator said it; the eternal Judge said it; it was no ordinary person who said it. Do, then, what he said. You do not do it? Beware of the one who said it as he judges. But what can you do, O man? You did not conquer for this reason: because you presumed upon yourself.

6. 8. Attend, then, now to the earlier words, which seemed obscure: For when we were in the flesh. Attend to the words we called the earlier ones, where the reading began that seemed obscure: For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were through the law (Rom 7:5). Whence are they "through the law"? Because we were in the flesh. What is, "Because we were in the flesh"? We were presuming upon the flesh. For surely the Apostle who was speaking had not already gone out of this flesh, nor was he speaking to those who had already gone out of this flesh by death? Not at all; but according to the manner of this life, both he who was speaking and those to whom he was speaking were in the flesh. What, then, is, When we were in the flesh, but: When we presumed upon the flesh, that is, relied upon ourselves? For it was said to man, and said of men, All flesh shall see the salvation of God (Luke 3:6; Isa 40:5). What is, All flesh shall see, but: Every man shall see? And what is, The Word was made flesh (John 1:14), but: The Word was made man? For it was not that the Word was flesh, and there was no soul there; but by the name of flesh man was signified, in that which is read, The Word was made flesh. Therefore when we were in the flesh—that is, when we dwelt in the desires of the flesh, and placed all our hope there, as it were in ourselves—the passions of sins, which were through the law, were increased through the law. For by forbidding they made a transgressor of the law, because the one who was made a transgressor did not have God as helper. They were at work, then, in our members, so as to bear fruit—for whom, but for death? If the sinner was to be condemned, what hope has the transgressor?

7. 9. Therefore, O man, your coveting conquered you; it conquered you because it found you in an evil place; it found you in the flesh, and so conquered you. Move away from there; why are you terrified? I did not tell you to die. Do not be terrified because I said: Move away from the flesh. I did not tell you to die; rather, I dare to say, I told you to die. If you have died with Christ, seek the things that are above (See Col 3:1-3). Living in the flesh, do not be in the flesh. All flesh is grass, but the Word of the Lord remains forever (Isa 40:6.8; 1 Pet 1:24-25). Let the Lord become your refuge. Coveting presses, urges you, has received great strength against you, has been made greater by the law's prohibition; you suffer a greater enemy: let the Lord be your refuge, a tower of strength against the face of the enemy (See Ps 61:3 (60:4)). Do not, then, be in the flesh; be in the spirit. What is it to be in the spirit? To place your hope in God. For if you place your hope in the very spirit by which you are a man, again your spirit slips back into the flesh, because you did not give it to the One from whom it might hang. It does not contain itself, if it is not contained. Do not remain in yourself; transcend even yourself; place yourself in the One who made you. For if you have hope in yourself, when the law is received you will be a transgressor. The enemy finds you stripped of refuge, attacks you; beware lest perchance he seize you, like a lion, and there be no one to deliver you (See Ps 7:2 (7:3)). Attend to the words of the Apostle praising the law, accusing himself, making himself guilty under the law, and perhaps transfiguring your person in himself, and saying to you: I did not know sin except through the law. For I would not have known coveting, unless the law said, You shall not covet. But sin, taking occasion, worked in me through the commandment every kind of coveting. For without the law sin was dead. What is, was dead? It lies hidden, does not appear at all; as though buried, it is not known. But when the commandment came, sin revived (Rom 7:7-9). What is, revived? It began to appear, began to be felt, began to rebel against me.

8. 10. But I died. What is, I died? I became a transgressor, and the commandment that was unto life was found by me. See that the law is praised, the commandment that was unto life. For what kind of life is it, not to covet? O sweet life! Sweet indeed is the pleasure of coveting—it is true, nor would people pursue it unless it were sweet. The theater, the spectacle, the wanton harlot, the most shameful little song—these are the sweet things of coveting; sweet indeed, pleasant, delightful: but the unjust have told me of delights, but not like your law, O Lord (Ps 119:85 (118:85)). They are pleasant, they are sweet, they are delightful; but hear better things: The unjust have told me of delights, but not like your law, O Lord. Happy the soul that is delighted with delights of this kind, where it is stained by no shamefulness, and is purified by the serenity of truth. But whoever is delighted by the law of God, and so delighted that it conquers all the delights of wantonness, let him not arrogate this delight to himself: The Lord will give sweetness (Ps 85:12 (84:13)). Which shall I name? Lord, give me that sweetness, or that other? You are sweet, O Lord, and in your sweetness teach me your righteous decrees (See Ps 119:68 (118:68)). In your sweetness teach me, and you do teach me. Then I learn so as to do, if in your sweetness you teach me. But as long as iniquity flatters and iniquity is sweet, truth is bitter. In your sweetness teach me: that truth may be sweet, that by your sweetness iniquity may be despised. Truth is far better and sweeter, but to the healthy bread is sweet. What is better and more excellent than the heavenly bread? But only if iniquity does not blunt the teeth. For Scripture says, As an unripe grape is harmful to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so is iniquity to those who use it (Prov 10:26). What does it profit that you praise the bread, if you live badly? What you praise, you do not eat. When, then, you hear the word, when you hear the word of righteousness and truth, and praise it; it is far more praiseworthy if you do it. Do, then, what you praise. Or will you say: I wish to, but I am not able? Why are you not able? Because there is no health. Whence did you lose your health, but because by sinning you offended the Creator? Therefore, that you may eat his bread, which you praise, with sweetness—that is, with health—say to him, I said, O Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:4 (40:5)). Therefore, he says, the commandment that was unto life was found by me to be unto death (Rom 7:10). For before he was a sinner unknown to himself; he became a manifest transgressor. Behold, that which was unto life was found by him to be unto death.

9. 11. But sin, he says, taking occasion, deceived me through the commandment, and through it killed me (Rom 7:11). So it happened first in paradise: It deceived me, he says, taking occasion through the commandment. See the serpent whispering to that woman. He asked her what God had said: she answered, God said to us, Of every tree that is in paradise you shall eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. If you eat of it, you shall die the death. This is God's commandment. The serpent, on the contrary: You shall not, he says, die the death. For God knew that on the day you eat, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods (Gen 3:1-5). Taking occasion, then, sin deceived me through the commandment, and through it killed me. By the sword you were carrying, the enemy killed you; with your own arms he conquered you, with your own arms he slew you. Take up the commandment: know that it is arms, not by which it may kill you, but by which the enemy may be killed by you. But do not presume upon your own strength. See little David against Goliath, see the small one against the huge one; but presuming in the name of the Lord. You come to me, he says, with shield and spear; I, in the name of the almighty Lord (1 Sam 17:45). Thus, thus; not otherwise: by no means otherwise is the enemy laid low. He who presumes upon his own strength is laid low before he fights.

10. 12. See, however, dearly beloved, see again and again that the apostle Paul, against the fury of the Manicheans, is a most open praiser of the divine law; see what he adds: And so the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good (Rom 7:12). Can it be praised more richly? A little before, by that word which he said, Far from it! he had defended it from a charge, not praised it. It is one thing to defend from a charge brought, another to proclaim with due heralding. The charge brought was: What, then, shall we say? Is the law sin? The defense: Far from it! With one word truth is defended, because great is the authority of the Apostle defending. Why should he defend at length? It suffices. Far from it! Or do you wish, he says, to receive proof of him who speaks in me, Christ (2 Cor 13:3)? But now: And so the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

10. 13. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Far from it! Because death is not good. But sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good (Rom 7:13). The law is not death, but sin is death. But he had said a while before, Without the law sin was dead. Where I had admonished you that was dead, he said, means: it lies hidden, concealed, does not appear. Now see how truly it was thus said: Sin, he says, that it might appear as sin. He did not say, That it might be; because it was even when it did not appear. Sin, that it might appear as sin. What is, That sin might appear? Because I would not have known coveting, unless the law said, You shall not covet. He did not say, I did not have coveting; but, I did not know coveting. So here too he does not say, That sin might be; but, That sin might appear, it worked death in me through what is good. What death? That the sinner, or sin, might become beyond measure through the commandment. Note: the sinner beyond measure. Why beyond measure? Because now there is also transgression. For where there is no law, neither is there transgression (Rom 4:15).

11. 14. See, then, brothers, see that the human race flowed from that first death of that first man. For through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, and so it passed into all men (Rom 5:12). It passed—note the word that you heard; consider, see what is it passed. It passed: hence even the little child is guilty; he has not yet committed sin, but he has inherited it. For that sin did not remain in its source, but passed; not into this one or that one, but passed into all men. The first sinner, the first transgressor, begot sinners liable to death. The Savior came from the Virgin to heal them. Because he came to you, not by the way by which you came; for he was not from the concupiscence of male and female, not from that bond of concupiscence. The Holy Spirit, it says, will come upon you. This was said to the Virgin, said to one fervent with faith, not aflame with the concupiscence of the flesh: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you (Luke 1:35). Who could have such an overshadowing while aflame with the ardor of lust? Because, then, he came to you not by the way by which you came, he frees you. Where did he find you? Sold under sin, lying in the death of the first man, inheriting the sin of the first man, having the guilt before you could have a will. Behold where he found you, when he found you a little child. But you have passed beyond the age of a little child: behold, you have grown, you have added many things to the first sin; you have received the law, you have stood forth a transgressor. But do not be anxious: Where sin abounded, grace abounded the more (Rom 5:20). Let us turn to the Lord, etc.

1. 1. Yesterday's reading from the Epistle of the holy apostle Paul, you who were present at the sermon, heard; today's recited reading follows it. That difficult and perilous passage is still under treatment, which, with the help of our Lord—so far as you help me with devout affection toward him—we have undertaken to expound and untangle according to the strength he deigns to give. Let your Charity grant me patience, so that if, on account of the obscurity of the matters, I have a difficult discourse, I may at least have an easy voice. For if both are difficult, there is much labor; and would that the labor be not in vain. But that our labor may profit, let your hearing be patient. That the Apostle does not blame the Law, we satisfied our hearers yesterday, as I think. For there he says, What, then, shall we say? Is the law sin? Far from it! But I did not know sin except through the law. For I would not have known coveting, unless the law said, You shall not covet. But sin, taking occasion through the commandment, worked in me every kind of coveting. For without the law sin was dead—that is, it lies hidden, does not appear. But I was alive once without the law; but when the commandment came, sin revived. But I died, and the commandment that was unto life was found by me (for what is so pertinent to life as You shall not covet?) to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me (Rom 7:7-11); it terrified coveting, did not extinguish it; terrified, did not suppress it; it made fear of punishment, not love of righteousness. And so, he says, the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Far from it (Rom 7:12-13)! For the law is not death, but sin is death. What, then, from the occasion of the commandment? But sin, that it might appear as sin (for it was hidden when it was said to be dead) worked death in me through what is good; that, transgression being added, the sinner, or sin, might become beyond measure through the commandment; because transgression would not be added to sin if there were no commandment. For in another place the same Apostle says openly, For where there is no law, neither is there transgression (Rom 4:15). What, then? Why do we doubt that the law was given for this purpose, that man might find himself out? For when God did not forbid evil, man lay hidden from himself; he did not find out his own feeble strength except when he received the law of prohibition. He found himself out, then; he found himself out among evils. Where does he flee from himself? For wherever he flees from himself, he follows himself. And what does it profit him to have knowledge of himself, once found out, when conscience wounds him?

2. 2. He speaks, then, in this reading too, which has been recited today, the one who has found himself out. We know, he says, that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I do, I do not know. For I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do (Rom 7:14-15). Here it is asked with great care who is to be understood—whether the Apostle himself who was speaking, or whether he transfigured some other person in himself, whom he was touching in himself, as he said in a certain place, But all these things I transfigured in myself and Apollos for your sake, that in us you might learn (1 Cor 4:6). If, then, the Apostle is speaking (which no one doubts), and when he says, I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do, speaks not of another but of himself; what are we to understand, my brothers? Did the apostle Paul, for instance, not wish to commit adultery, and yet commit adultery? Did he not wish to be greedy, and yet was greedy? But who of us would dare clothe himself in such blasphemy as to think this of the Apostle? Perhaps, then, it is some other person; perhaps it is you, or you, or that man, or I. If, then, it is one of us, let us hear it as though about ourselves, and let us not be angry but correct ourselves. But if it is he himself—for perhaps it is he himself too—let us not so understand what he said, I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do, as though he wished to be chaste, and was an adulterer; or wished to be merciful, and was cruel; or wished to be devout, and was ungodly. Let us not take it in this sense: For I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do.

3. 3. But in what sense? I wish not to covet, and I covet. What did the law say? You shall not covet (Rom 7:7). The man heard the law, recognized the fault: he declared war, he found captivity. But perhaps some man, not the Apostle. What, then, do we say, my brothers? Did the Apostle have no coveting in his flesh which he would have wished not to have, to which, nevertheless, as it existed, tickled, suggested, solicited, blazed up, tempted, he did not consent? I tell your Charity: if we believe that the Apostle had no infirmity of coveting at all against which he struggled, we believe a great deal of him; and would that it were so. For we ought not to envy the apostles, but to imitate the apostles. Yet, dearly beloved, I hear the Apostle himself confessing that he had not yet reached such a perfection of righteousness as we believe to be in the angels; whose angelic equality we hope for, if we reach what we will. For what else does the Lord promise us in the resurrection, where he says, In the resurrection of the dead they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; for they will not begin to die, but will be equal to the angels of God (Matt 22:30; Luke 20:36)?

3. 4. So someone says: And how do you know that the apostle Paul did not yet have the righteousness and perfection of an angel? I do no injury to the Apostle, I believe none but the Apostle, I seek no other witness; I do not hear the one who suspects, I do not care for the one who praises too much. Tell me, holy Apostle, about yourself, where no one doubts that you are speaking of yourself. For where you said, I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do (Rom 7:15), there are those who say that you transfigured some other person in yourself—one laboring, failing, conquered, captive. Tell me about yourself, where no one doubts that you are speaking of yourself. Brothers, says the Apostle, I do not reckon that I have laid hold of it. And what do you do? But one thing: forgetting what is behind, stretching out to what is ahead, according to my intention, he says—not according to perfection; according to my intention I press on toward the palm of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus. Above he had already said, Not that I have already received it, or am already perfect (Phil 3:13-14.12). Still it is objected and said: The Apostle said these things because he had not yet reached immortality, not because he had not yet reached the perfection of righteousness. So he was already as righteous as the angels are, but not yet immortal as the angels are. "Just so," they say, "just so it is exactly." You just now said: He was as righteous as the angels are, but not yet immortal as the angels are. So he already held the perfection of righteousness, but by pressing on toward the heavenly palm he was seeking immortality.

4. 5. Tell us, holy Apostle, some other, plainer passage—not where you seek immortality, but where you confess infirmity. And here it is now whispered, now objected. I seem to myself to hear the thoughts of certain people, and here it is said to me: It is true, I know what you are going to say: he confesses infirmity, but of the flesh, not of the mind; he confesses infirmity, but of the body, not of the soul; but in the soul there is perfect righteousness, not in the body. For who does not know that the Apostle was indeed frail in body, mortal in body, as he says, We have this treasure in earthen vessels (2 Cor 4:7)? What, then, have you to do with the earthen vessel? Say something about the treasure. If he had anything less, if there was something that could be added to his gold of righteousness, let us find it. Let us hear the man himself, lest we be thought injurious. And lest by the greatness of my revelations, the Apostle says, in the greatness of my revelations I be exalted. Surely here you recognize the Apostle as having a greatness of revelations, and fearing the precipice of pride. So that you may know that even the Apostle himself, who wished to save others, was still being cured; that you may know that he too was still being cured; if you value his honor highly, hear what the physician applied to him for his swelling; hear not me, hear him. Hear him confessing, that you may perceive him teaching. Hear: And lest by the greatness of my revelations I be exalted. Behold, can I now say to the apostle Paul: Lest you be exalted, holy Apostle? You—lest you be exalted, must it still be guarded against? You—lest you be exalted, must it still be feared? You—lest you be exalted, must medicine still be sought for this infirmity?

5. 6. "What do you say to me?" he says. And you—hear what I am; and do not be high-minded, but fear (See Rom 11:20). Hear how the little lamb enters where the ram is so endangered. Lest by the greatness, he says, of my revelations I be exalted, there was given to me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me (2 Cor 12:7). What swelling did he fear, who received so biting a poultice? Now then say that there was as much righteousness in him as there is in the holy angels. Or does perhaps even a holy angel in heaven, lest he be exalted, receive a sting, an angel of Satan, by whom he may be buffeted? Far be it to suspect this of the holy angels. We are human beings; let us recognize the holy apostles as human beings—chosen vessels, but still frail; still sojourning in this flesh, not yet triumphing in the heavenly homeland. Therefore, since he asked the Lord three times that this sting be taken from him, and was not heard according to his will, because he was heard for his health (See 2 Cor 12:8-9), perhaps he speaks not unfittingly where he says, But we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal (Rom 7:14).

5. 7. The Apostle, then, is carnal—he who said to others, You who are spiritual, instruct such a one in a spirit of gentleness—he addresses others as spiritual, and is himself carnal? But what did he say even to those spiritual ones, because they were not yet in heavenly and angelic perfection, were not yet in the security of that homeland, but dwelt in the anxiety of this pilgrimage? What did he say to them? Certainly he called them spiritual: You, he says, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted (Gal 6:1). Behold, the one he has already called spiritual, he feared for him the frailty of temptation, by which the spiritual one could be tempted, if not from the mind, surely from the flesh. For he is spiritual, because he lives according to the spirit; but he is still in part carnal, in the mortal part: the same one is spiritual and the same one carnal. Behold the spiritual: I serve the law of God with the mind. Behold the carnal: But the law of sin with the flesh (Rom 7:25). The same one, then, is both spiritual and carnal? The very same, plainly; as long as he lives here, so it is.

6. 8. Do not wonder, whoever you are, whoever yields and consents to carnal cravings—you who either think them good, for the satisfying of lust to the full, or at least already see them to be evil in such a way that you nevertheless consent by yielding to them, and follow where they lead, and perpetrate the evils they suggest: you are wholly carnal. You, you, whoever you are who are such, are wholly carnal. But if you indeed covet what the law forbids when it says, You shall not covet; yet keep another thing which the law likewise commands, Do not go after your desires (Sir 18:30); you are spiritual in mind, carnal in flesh. For it is one thing not to covet, another not to go after your desires. Not to covet belongs to the wholly perfect; not to go after your desires belongs to the one fighting, wrestling, laboring. Where the battle rages, why is victory despaired of? When will there be victory? When death will be swallowed up in victory. For then it will be the voice of one triumphing, not the sweat of one fighting. What will that voice of one triumphing be, when this corruptible will have put on incorruption, and this mortal will have put on immortality? You see the victor, hear the one exulting, await the one triumphing. Then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your struggle? Where, O death, is your sting (1 Cor 15:54-55)? Where is it? Behold, it was, and is not. Where, O death, is your struggle? Behold the struggle of death: I do not do what I will. Behold the struggle of death: We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal. If, then, the Apostle speaks of himself; if I say it, I do not affirm it; if the Apostle says it: We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal; for in mind spiritual, in body carnal: when wholly spiritual? When the animal body is sown, the spiritual body will rise (1 Cor 15:44). Now, then, while the struggle of death rages, I do not do what I will: in part spiritual, in part carnal; in the better part spiritual, in the lower part carnal. Still I contend, I have not yet conquered; it is a great thing for me not to be conquered. I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do. What do you do? I covet. Even though I do not consent to the coveting, even though I do not go after my desires; yet I still covet: and surely even in that part I am present.

7. 9. For it is not that I am in the mind and another is in the flesh. But what? So then it is I myself: because I am in the mind, I am in the flesh. For there are not two contrary natures, but from both there is one man; because there is one God, by whom man was made. So then it is I myself, I myself, serve the law of God with the mind, but the law of sin with the flesh (Rom 7:25). With the mind I do not consent to the law of sin; yet I would not wish there to be any law of sin in my members. Because, then, I would not wish it, and yet it is there, I do not do what I will: because I covet, and I do not will it, I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do. What do I hate? To covet. I hate to covet, and yet I do it with the flesh, not with the mind: What I hate, that I do.

7. 10. But if I do what I do not will, I agree with the law, that it is good (Rom 7:16). What is this: If I do what I do not will, I agree with the law, that it is good? You would agree with the law if you did what it willed: you do what the law hates; how do you agree with the law? Precisely: If I do what I do not will, I agree with the law, that it is good. How? Because the law commands, You shall not covet. What do I will? Not to covet? By willing what the law wills, I agree with the law, that it is good. If the law said, You shall not covet, and I willed to covet, I would not agree with the law, and would stand wholly apart from it by that perversity of will. For if, the law saying, You shall not covet, I willed to covet, I do not agree with the law of God. What now? What do you say, O law? You shall not covet. And I do not will to covet, I too do not will it; what you do not will, I do not will; therefore I agree, because what you do not will, I do not will. My infirmity does not fulfill the law; but my will praises the law. Therefore, if I do what I do not will, I agree with the law for this reason: because I do not will what it does not will, not because I do what I do not will. For the very doing is coveting, not consenting to the coveting: lest anyone now seek for himself in the Apostle an example of sinning, and give a bad example. I do not do what I will. For what does the law say? You shall not covet. And I do not will to covet, and yet I covet; although I do not give assent to my coveting, although I do not go after it. For I resist, I turn away my mind, I refuse it arms, I hold back my members; and yet what I do not will happens in me. What the law does not will, I do not will with the law; what it does not will, I do not will: therefore I agree with the law.

8. 11. But because I am in the flesh, I am in the mind; but I am more in the mind than in the flesh. For because I am in the mind, I am in that which rules; for the mind rules, the flesh is ruled; and I am more in that by which I rule than in that in which I am ruled. Because, then, I am more in the mind: But now it is no longer I that work it. But now, what is it? But now, already redeemed, I who was before sold under sin, having now received the grace of the Savior, so that with the mind I delight in the law of God, it is not I that work it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that there does not dwell in me. Again, then, in me; hear what follows: that is, in my flesh, anything good. For to will lies near at hand for me. I know. What do you know? That there does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh, anything good (Rom 7:17-18). A while before you had said, What I do, I do not know (Rom 7:15). If you do not know, how do you know? Now you say, I do not know; now you say, I know; how I am to understand this, I do not know. Or is this what I understand? For where he says, What I do, I do not know, he said, "I do not know" in the sense of: I do not approve, I do not accept, it does not please me, I do not consent, I do not praise. For Christ too will not be ignorant of those to whom he is going to say, I do not know you (Matt 7:23; 25:12). I understand this too, plainly: For what I do, I do not know; because what I do not do, I do not know. For it is not I that work it, but the sin that dwells in me. Therefore I do not know it: because it is not I that do it, just as it was said of the Lord, Him who knew no sin (2 Cor 5:21). What is, knew no sin? Did he then not know what he convicted? did he not know what he punished? If, then, he did not know what he punished, he punished unjustly. But because he punished justly, he knew what he punished. And yet he knew no sin, because he had committed no sin. For what I do, I do not know: for I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do. But if I do what I do not will, I agree with the law, that it is good. But now, grace having been received, it is no longer I that work it; the mind is free, the flesh captive. It is not I that work it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that there does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh, anything good.

9. 12. For to will lies near at hand for me, but to accomplish the good does not (Rom 7:18). To will lies near at hand, to accomplish does not. He did not say, to do; but, to accomplish. For you do not do nothing. Coveting rebels, and you do not consent; another's wife delights you, and you do not assent, you turn away your mind, you enter into the inner chamber of the mind. You see coveting making a din outside, you pronounce sentence against it, cleansing your conscience. I do not will, you say, I do not do it. Suppose it delights me, I do not do it, I have something else in which to delight. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man (Rom 7:22). Why do you, my flesh, make an uproar? Why do you tumultuously suggest foolish delights, temporal, fleeting, vain, harmful, and tell them to me as it were chattering? The unjust have told me of delights. From there comes this coveting too. It tells me of delights, but not like your law, O Lord (Ps 119:85 (118:85)). For I delight in the law of God: not from myself, but from the grace of God. You, coveting, make an uproar in the flesh, you do not subject the mind to yourself. In God I will hope; I will not fear what the flesh may do to me (See Ps 56:4 (55:5)). It is against me—that is, with the mind not consenting—that the flesh makes its uproar. In God, he says, I will hope; I will not fear what the flesh may do to me. As neither another's, so neither my own. Does he, then, who does these things within himself do nothing? He does much: it is a great thing that he does, but yet he does not accomplish it. For what is it to accomplish? Where, O death, is your struggle (1 Cor 15:55)? Therefore, to will lies near at hand for me, but to accomplish the good does not.

9. 13. For I do not do the good that I will, but the evil that I do not will, that I do. And he repeats: But if I do what I do not will—that is, I covet—it is no longer I that work it, but the sin that dwells in me. I find, then, a law for me wishing to do good (Rom 7:19-21). I find the law good; the law is good, the law is something good. How do I prove it? Because I wish to fulfill it. I find, then, a law for me wishing to do good; because evil lies near at hand for me. And this for me. For my flesh is not another's, nor is the flesh of another substance, nor is the flesh from another principle, nor is the soul from God and the flesh from the race of darkness. Far from it! Sickness fights against health. The half-alive man lies in the way, is still being cured, all his sicknesses are healed (See Luke 10:30-34; Ps 103:3 (102:3)). I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do. But if I do what I do not will, I find, then, a law for me wishing to do good, because evil lies near at hand for me. What evil?

10. 14. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man. I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members (Rom 7:22-23); captive, but from the flesh; captive, but in part. For the mind fights against, and delights in, the law of God. For so we ought to understand it, if the Apostle is speaking of himself. If, then, the mind does not consent to sin as it tickles, suggests, flatters; if the mind does not consent, since it has within other delights of its own, in no way to be compared with the delights of the flesh: if, then, it does not consent, and there is in me something dead and something alive, death still contends, but the living mind does not consent. Is that death not in you? Does that which is dead not pertain to you? Still there is for you a struggle. What, then, is to be hoped for from this?

10. 15. Wretched man that I am: even if not in mind, yet in flesh a wretched man. For man is not in the mind, and not man in the flesh. For who ever hated his own flesh (Eph 5:29)? Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death (Rom 7:24)? What is this, brothers? It is as though he wishes to be without a body. Why do you hasten? If your intention is only this, to be without a body; death will come at some time, and the last day that arrives will, without doubt, free you from this body of death. Why do you groan as over a great matter? Why do you say, Who will free me? You speak as a mortal, you speak as one about to die. The separation of the mind from the flesh will come at some time: because of the brevity of life it is never far off; because of daily mischances, when it will be, you do not know. Whether, then, you hasten or delay, all human life is short: why do you groan as over a great matter, and say, Who will free me from the body of this death?

11. 16. And he adds, The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:25). Will pagans, then, who do not have the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, not die? Will they not at some time, on the last day, be loosed from the flesh? Will they not on that day be freed from this body of death? Why do you wish to ascribe it as a great thing to the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, that you will be freed from this body of death? The Apostle answers you, if we have grasped his meaning—rather, since with the Lord's help we have without doubt grasped it; the Apostle answers you and says: I know what I am saying. You say that pagans are freed from this body of death, because the last day of this life will come, and they will be loosed for a time from this body of death. There will come a day too, when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice; and those who have done good will come forth to the resurrection of life; behold, freed from this body of death. Those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29): behold, they have returned to this body of death. This body of death returns to the ungodly man, nor will he ever be loosed from it. Then there will not be eternal life, but eternal death, because eternal punishment.

12. 17. But you, O Christian, pray as much as you can, cry out and say, Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? It is answered to you: You are made secure, not concerning yourself, but concerning your Lord; you are made secure concerning your pledge. Hope, with Christ, for the kingdom of Christ; you already hold the pledge, the blood of Christ. Say, say, Who will free me from the body of this death? that it may be answered to you, The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:24-25). For you will not be freed from this body of death in such a way that you do not have this body. You will have it, but no longer of this death. It will be the same, and it will not be the same. It will be the same, because it will be the same flesh; it will not be the same, because it will not be mortal. Thus, thus you will be freed from the body of this death, so that this mortal will put on immortality, and this corruptible will put on incorruption (See 1 Cor 15:53). By whom? Through whom? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. For through one man came death, and through one man the resurrection of the dead. As in Adam all die; hence comes your groaning. In Adam all die: hence comes your groaning, hence your contending with death, hence this body of death. But as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:21-22). Made alive, having received an immortal body, where you may say, Where, O death, is your struggle (1 Cor 15:55)?, you will be freed from this body of death; yet not by your own power, but by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us turn to the Lord, etc.

1. When the apostle Paul was being read, we heard what goes on in a human being; and each one, considering himself, found that the Apostle spoke truly. For he said that he does not do what he wills, but what he hates, that he does. And he said, If I do what I do not will, I agree with the law, that it is good (Rom 7:16); because what I do not will, the law too does not will; what the law forbids me to do, this I do not will to do: but what I do not will, this . . . there is in me something else that fights against my will. And he said, For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man: but I see another law fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members (Rom 7:22-23). Behold what goes on in a human being. But see what he said in what follows: Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:24-25).

2. Let each person, then, attend to himself; for in his Epistle Paul has set up a mirror in which every person may see himself. What the law commands delights our mind; and what the law forbids delights our flesh; and our mind and our flesh contend; the mind contends for the law, the flesh against the law; and one man walks about with the quarrel that goes on within him. In one man there is a quarrel: the tongue is silent, and within there is an uproar. I set before you something where you may see this better. A man sees another's wife, and covets her. He attends to the law, which says, You shall not commit fornication; and what does the man's mind say within? The law has spoken well, the law has said a great thing, it loves chastity; and the flesh is delighted by iniquity. A quarrel has arisen in the man. Let the two conquer the one; let the two—the law and the mind—conquer the contradicting flesh. But see what the mind itself said: I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members (Rom 7:23). So the mind is conquered by the flesh. Let it call on the help of the Savior, and it will escape the snare of the deceiver. For see what the Apostle said. What sort of man was the Apostle, how great and strong an athlete of God! Yet he would be led captive, if the Crucified did not come to his aid. So, when he was in peril, what did he say? Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death, that I may not do iniquity, which delights my flesh? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:24-25).

3. Christ, then, watches you as you fight. Your conscience is the theater, where two contend, the mind and the flesh. The mind consents to the law, the flesh contradicts the law; and it wishes to rein in the flesh. A great struggle: but the One who watches you fighting can help you in your peril. For if you were in a wrestling match with some man, you would strike him and he would strike you; and a man would watch you, to see which of you would win. Whoever was going to win would receive the prize. This is what the man would have to say to you: Whichever of you wins will receive this. He was ready to crown the winner; but could he help the one in difficulty? But now the One who watches you is Christ; cry out to him, when you labor, that you may conquer; for your flesh too contends, to its own harm, that it may conquer. For if two men contend and make a wrestling match, whichever of you wins would be crowned. But in this struggle, if the mind wins, it frees both soul and flesh; if the flesh wins, both are sent into hell. So the flesh contends to its own harm, and wishes to conquer to its own harm. It is granted to the flesh to be conquered, lest it be punished in eternal fire.

4. The Psalm we sang agrees with this too, as we said: Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice (Ps 130:1-2 (129:1-2)). This is the depth where the flesh contends against the mind. For if the mind wins, both are lifted up from it on high; even the conquered flesh is lifted up there, because it is conquered to its own good. Just as in a house, when an evil wife contends with a good husband, she wins to her own harm and is conquered to her own good. For if the evil wife wins, the house becomes perverse, when a bearded man serves an evil woman. But if the evil wife is conquered, she begins to serve a good husband; the woman herself becomes good, because she serves a good husband. So it is too with our flesh, like an evil wife conquered, because it is conquered to its own good. That he may be called on for help who joins the two and crowns both, therefore out of this depth we cry to our Lord, as we said in the Psalm. For if we conquer, and do not consent to the evil desires of our flesh, afterward the flesh will rise again; and there you do not find evil desires with which to contend. For now you find evil desires against which to fight: and it is said to you: Conquer, and you are crowned. And what is it for you now to conquer? Not to consent to evil desires. For can you not have those evil desires? But to conquer is . . . not to consent. But when we have received back the flesh on the day of resurrection, the flesh itself is changed, becomes immortal; and you no longer find a desire with which to wrestle . . . in which you may be crowned. And when you are on high with your flesh, do you cry out of the depth, where you were quarreling against your flesh?

5. And that woman who cried out after the Lord, the Canaanite—how she cried out! Her daughter was suffering from a demon: because the flesh does not consent to the mind, it was possessed by the devil. If she cried out so much for her daughter, how much ought we to cry out for our flesh and our soul? For you see what she obtained by crying out. For at first she was despised; for she was a Canaanite, of an evil race, where idols were worshiped. But the Lord Jesus Christ was walking in Judea, from where the patriarchs were, from where the Virgin Mary was, who bore Christ; and that nation alone worshiped the true God, did not worship idols. So when some Canaanite woman appealed to him, he was unwilling to hear her. He despised her for this reason, because he knew what he was keeping in store; not that he himself denied the benefit, but that she, by persevering, might obtain it. So his disciples said to him: Lord, now send her away, give her an answer: you see that she cries out after us, and is wearisome to us. And he said to his disciples, I was sent only to the sheep that were lost of the house of Israel (Matt 15:23-24). I was sent to the Jewish nation, where I was to seek the sheep that had been lost. There were other sheep among other nations, but Christ had not come to them; because they did not believe in the presence of Christ, but believed the gospel of Christ. So he said, I was sent only to the sheep; so in his presence he chose the apostles. And of these sheep was Nathanael, of whom he said, Behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile (John 1:47). Of these sheep was that great crowd which carried branches before the Lord's donkey and said, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (Matt 21:9). Those sheep of the house of Israel had been lost, and had recognized the shepherd present, and had believed in Christ present. So when she was in distress, she was being put off along with the gentile sheep. When she had heard this, which the Lord said to his disciples, she persevered in crying out, and did not give up. And the Lord to her: It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. He made her a dog: why? Because she was of the gentiles, who worshiped idols: for dogs lick stones. It is not good to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs. And she did not say: Lord, do not make me a dog, for I am not a dog; but rather said: You speak truly, Lord, I am a dog. From where she recognized the reproach, from there she deserved the benefit; for where iniquity was put to distress, there humility was crowned. Yes, Lord, you speak truly: but even the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters. And then the Lord: O woman, great is your faith; let it be done to you as you wish (Matt 15:26-28). A while ago a dog, now a woman, changed by her barking. She was longing for the crumbs falling from the table: suddenly she found herself reclining at the table. For when he says to her, Great is your faith, he now counted her among those whose bread he was unwilling to throw to the dogs.

6. What do all these things teach us, but that, when what we ask of God is good, we should persevere in praying until we receive it through the longing of one who sighs for it? For God puts off those who ask in order to exercise those who long. But we ought to ask for eternal life with great groanings—here a good life, and afterward eternal life; because you ought to ask of God even the good life, that he may help your will. If he does not help, you remain conquered; you will begin to be led captive, if that does not come to your aid which was said: Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:24-25). Two things, then, let us securely ask: in this age, a good life; in the age to come, eternal life. As for other things, we do not know whether they are useful to us. A man asks of God that he may take a wife; how does he know whether he takes her to his own good? A man asks of God that he may acquire riches; how does he know whether the poor man slept secure, and, made rich, dreams of robbers? He does not know, then, what among all the things this world has is useful to him. But he securely asks for a good life and for eternal life; here, that he may merit God; there, that he may be crowned by God. But what is a good life? To love God with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with the whole mind, and to love one's brother as oneself. Let us, then, love our God, let us love one another in his unity, let us have peace in him, and love among ourselves; so that, when our Lord Christ himself comes . . . we may be able to say: Lord, with your help we have done what you commanded; in your mercy may we receive what you promised.

1. 1. Yesterday's reading of the holy Apostle was concluded at the point where it was said, So then it is I myself who serve the law of God with the mind, but the law of sin with the flesh (Rom 7:25). In this conclusion the Apostle showed that he had said what he had said above—It is no longer I that work it, but the sin that dwells in me (Rom 7:17)—for this reason: because he was not working it with the mind, by consenting, but with the flesh, by coveting. For he calls this by the name of sin, whence all sins arise, that is, carnal coveting. For whatever there is of sins in words, in deeds, in thoughts, they arise only from evil craving, they arise only from unlawful delight. If, then, we resist this unlawful delight, if we do not consent to it, if we do not furnish our members as arms; sin does not reign in our mortal body. For sin first loses its reign, and so it perishes. In this life, then, as far as concerns the saints, it loses its reign; in the other, it perishes. For here it loses its reign, when we do not go after our cravings; but there it perishes, when it will be said, Where, O death, is your struggle (1 Cor 15:55)?

2. 2. So when the Apostle had said, I serve the law of God with the mind, but the law of sin with the flesh—not by giving his members for the committing of iniquities, but only by coveting, and yet not giving a hand to unlawful coveting: so when he had said, I serve the law of God with the mind, but the law of sin with the flesh, he went on and said, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 7:25-8:1). For those who are in the flesh there is condemnation; for those who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. Lest you should think this would be only afterward, he therefore added now. Wait for that afterward—that there may not even be in you a coveting against which you must contend, with which you must struggle, to which you must not consent, which you must bridle and tame; wait for that afterward, because it too will not exist. For if that which contends with us from the mortal body will exist even afterward, Where, O death, is your struggle? will be false. Let us know, then, what is to be afterward. For then shall come to pass what is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your struggle? Where, O death, is your sting? For the sting of death is sin; but the power of sin is the law (1 Cor 15:54-56). Because by the prohibition the desire was increased, not extinguished. The law gave power to sin, only by commanding through the letter, not by aiding through the spirit. Therefore then this will not be; but what now? You ask what is now? What he said also a little before: But now it is no longer I that work it (Rom 7:17)—there too now. What is, it is not I that work it? I do not consent, I do not assent, I do not decide, it always displeases me; I hold back my members. And this is a great thing: since coveting is from the flesh, and the members of the body pertain to the flesh, when sin—that is, the coveting of the flesh—does not reign, the mind has more right to hold back the members of the flesh, lest they be given as arms of iniquity, than the coveting of the flesh itself has to stir the members of the flesh. So there is the coveting of the flesh, and the members of the flesh; yet the mind, because it has dominion—provided it be helped from above, lest, when we give it too much against the grace of God, we make it not a king but a tyrant—the mind, then, has such power, so rules when it is ruled, that of the members of the flesh itself, against the coveting of the flesh itself, it can do what the Apostle says, Let not sin, then, reign in your mortal body, to obey its desires; nor present your members as arms of iniquity to sin (Rom 6:12-13).

3. 3. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). Let them not be anxious if they are tickled by unlawful covetings; let them not be anxious that there still seems to be a law in the members fighting against the law of the mind. For there is no condemnation. But for whom? Even now, for whom? For those who are in Christ Jesus. And where is that saying of which he spoke a little before, I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin which is in my members (Rom 7:23)? But he said me from the flesh, not from the mind. Where, then, is that law, if there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus? For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. For the law—not that one on Mount Sinai through the letter; for the law—not that one in the oldness of the letter; but, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, has freed you from the law of sin and death. For that you delight in the law of God according to the inner man, whence would you have it, unless the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus freed you from the law of sin and death? Therefore, human mind, do not ascribe it to yourself, do not be too proud—rather, do not be proud at all, O human mind, that you do not consent to the desires of the flesh, that the law of sin does not cast you down from the citadel: The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:1-2). That law did not free you of which it was said above, That we serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter (Rom 7:6). Why did that law not free you? Was it not itself written by the finger of God? Is not the finger of God understood to be the Holy Spirit? Read the Gospel, and see that where one evangelist says, the Lord saying, If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God (Matt 12:28), another says, If I cast out demons by the finger of God (Luke 11:20). If, then, that law too was written by the finger of God—that is, by the Spirit of God; by which Spirit the magicians of Pharaoh, defeated, said, This is the finger of God (Exod 8:19)—if, then, it too, indeed since it too was written by the Spirit of God, that is, the finger of God, why is it not said of it, For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus?

4. 4. The law that is called the law of death—the law of sin and death is not that law which was given on Mount Sinai. The law of sin and death is that of which he says, groaning, I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind (Rom 7:23). But that law is the very one that was called, And so the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. And he added, Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Far from it! But sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good; that the sinner, or sin, might become beyond measure through the commandment (Rom 7:12-13). What is, beyond measure? That transgression be added. That law was therefore given, that infirmity might be found out. It is too little, this—not only that it be found out, but also that it be increased, and that even so a physician might be sought. For if the disease were slight, it would be despised; if the disease were despised, the physician would not be sought; if the physician were not sought, the disease would not be ended. Therefore, where sin abounded, grace abounded the more (Rom 5:20); which blotted out all the sins it found, and supplied aid to our will as it strove not to sin; so that our will itself might be praised not in itself, but in God. For in God we will be praised all the day (Ps 44:8 (43:9)); and, In the Lord my soul will be praised; let the meek hear, and be glad (Ps 34:2 (33:3)). Let the meek hear: for the proud and the contentious do not hear. Why, then, is it not the law written by the finger of God which gives this help of grace of which we speak? Why? Because it was written on tablets of stone, not on the fleshly tablets of the heart (See 2 Cor 3:3).

5. 5. In short, my brothers, in a great mystery see the concord, see the distance; the concord of the law, the distance of the people. The Passover is celebrated among the old people, as you know, by the slaying of a lamb with unleavened bread; where the slaying of the sheep signifies Christ, and the unleavened bread the new life, that is, without the oldness of leaven. Hence the Apostle says to us, Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened; for Christ our Passover has been sacrificed (1 Cor 5:7). The Passover, then, was celebrated among that old people, not yet celebrated in the shining light, but in the signifying shadow; and fifty days after the celebration of the Passover, as one who wishes will find by counting, the law is given on Mount Sinai, written by the finger of God. The true Passover came, Christ is sacrificed; he makes a passing over from death to life. For "Passover" is interpreted in Hebrew as "passing over"; which the Evangelist expressed, saying, But when the hour came for Jesus to pass over from this world to the Father (John 13:1). The Passover, then, is celebrated, the Lord rises again, makes a passing over from death to life, which is the Passover; and fifty days are counted, and the Holy Spirit comes, the finger of God.

6. 6. But see how it was there, and how it was here. There the people stood far off, there was fear, there was no love. For they feared so much that they said to Moses, You speak to us, and let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die (Exod 20:19). So God came down, as it is written, on Sinai in fire; but terrifying the people who stood far off, and writing with his finger on stone (See Exod 19:18; 31:18), not on the heart. But here, when the Holy Spirit came, the faithful were gathered together in one place; nor did he terrify on a mountain, but entered into the house. From heaven, indeed, a sound was suddenly made, as of a violent blast being borne; it sounded, but no one was terrified. You have heard the sound, see also the fire; for on the mountain too there were both, both fire and sound; but there also smoke, here a serene fire. There appeared to them, says Scripture, divided tongues, as of fire. Surely not terrifying from afar? Far from it! For it sat upon each one of them, and they began to speak in tongues, as the Spirit gave them to utter (Acts 2:2-4). Hear the tongue speaking, and understand the Spirit writing, not on stone, but on the heart. The law, then, of the spirit of life, written on the heart, not on stone; in Christ Jesus, in whom the truest Passover was celebrated, has freed you from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2). For that you may know that this is the most evident distance between the Old and New Testaments—whence the Apostle also says, Not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart (2 Cor 3:3)—the Lord says through the Prophet, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will complete over the house of Jacob a new testament, not according to the testament that I established with their fathers, on the day when I took their hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. Then, showing the very difference plainly: Giving, he says, my laws into their hearts; into their hearts, he says, I will inscribe them (Jer 31:31-33; Heb 8:8-10). If, then, the law of God be written in your heart, that it may not terrify from without, but soothe within; then the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2).

7. 7. For what was impossible for the law. For this follows in the reading of the Apostle: What was impossible for the law. And lest the law itself be blamed, what did he add? In which it was weakened through the flesh. For the law commanded, and did not fulfill; because the flesh, where there was no grace, resisted most unconquerably. And the law was weakened through the flesh, because the law is spiritual; but I am carnal (Rom 7:14). How, then, would the law aid me, commanding through the letter, and not giving grace? It was weakened through the flesh. What did God do, since this was impossible for the law, and it was weakened through the flesh? God sent his Son. Through what was the law weakened, and on account of what was this impossible for the law? It was weakened through the flesh. What, then, did God do? Against the flesh he sent flesh; rather, also for the flesh he sent flesh. For he slew the sin of the flesh, he freed the substance of the flesh. God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom 8:3). In true flesh indeed, but not in the flesh of sin. But what is, in the likeness of sinful flesh? That is, that it was flesh, true flesh. And whence the likeness of sinful flesh? Because from sin comes death: death is surely in all sinful flesh; of which the Apostle says, That the body of sin might be destroyed (Rom 6:6). Because, then, death is in all sinful flesh: but both are there, both death and sin, in the rest of flesh. In sinful flesh there are both death and sin; in the likeness of sinful flesh there was death, and there was not sin. For if it were sinful flesh, and were paying the penalty of death by the desert of sin, the Lord himself would not say, Behold, the prince of the world comes, and in me he will find nothing (John 14:30). Why, then, did he kill me? Because what I did not seize, I was then paying back (Ps 69:4 (68:5)). Plainly, what he did about the tribute, this he did about death. The tribute was demanded, the didrachma: Why, it was said, do you and your disciples not pay the tribute? He called Peter to him and said to him, The kings of the world, from whom do they demand tribute? From their sons, or from strangers? It was answered, From strangers. Therefore, he said, the sons are free. Yet, lest we give them offense, go to the sea, cast a hook, and the first that comes up—that is, the firstborn from the dead—open, he said, its mouth, and you will find there a stater—that is, two didrachmas, four drachmas; because a didrachma, that is, two drachmas, was demanded per head. You will find there a stater, that is, four drachmas; give it to them for me and you (Matt 17:24-27). What is, for me and you? Christ himself, Peter, the Church of Christ; the four Gospels of the Church. The mystery lay hidden: yet Christ paid a tribute not owed. So too he paid death: he did not owe it, and he paid it. Unless he had paid what was not owed, he would never have freed us from the debt.

8. 8. What, then, was impossible for the law, which made a transgressor, because the mind, not yet convicted, had not sought the Savior; in which it was weakened through the flesh, God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and from sin condemned sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3). How, then, did he not have sin, if from sin he condemned sin? We have already expounded this to you at one time, but let those who remember recognize it; let those who did not hear, hear it; let those who have forgotten, recall it. In the law a sacrifice for sin was called sin. The law constantly mentions this; not once, not twice, but very often the sacrifices for sins were called sins. Such a sin was Christ. For what shall we say? Did he have sin? Far from it! He did not have sin, and he was sin. He was sin, I said, according to that understanding, because a sacrifice for sin. Hear that he was sin in this way—hear the Apostle himself. Speaking of him, he says, Him who knew no sin. I was expounding this very saying to you when I said these things: Him, he says, who knew no sin—that is, our Lord Jesus Christ—God the Father made him who knew no sin sin for us; him, this same Christ who knew no sin, God the Father made sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor 5:21). See two things: the righteousness of God, not ours; in him, not in us. Hence those great saints, of whom the Psalm says, Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. And as though it were said in that very Psalm, where it was said, Your righteousness—for not their righteousness, but, Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. For I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where my help will come; but not from the mountains: For my help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Ps 121:1-2 (120:1-2)); therefore when he had said, Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, as though it were asked, Why, then, are others born who do not belong to the righteousness of God? he added, Your judgments are like a great deep (Ps 36:6 (35:7)). What is, like a great deep? It is deep, impenetrable, inaccessible to human striving. For the riches of God are unsearchable; his judgments unsearchable, his ways untraceable (See Rom 11:33). Therefore here too: God sent his Son, on account of the foreknown, and the predestined, to be called, to be justified, to be glorified: that the mountains of God may say, If God is for us, who is against us (Rom 8:31)? God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and from sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us (Rom 8:3-4). It was not fulfilled of itself; it was fulfilled through Christ. For he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (See Matt 5:17).

9. 9. But how is the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us, or how is it fulfilled in us, or in which of us? Do you wish to hear in which of us? Who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit (Rom 8:4). What is it to walk according to the flesh? To consent to carnal covetings. What is it to walk according to the spirit? To be aided by the spirit in the mind, and not to obey the covetings of the flesh. Thus, then, the law is fulfilled in us, the righteousness of God is fulfilled in us. For now, meanwhile, this is fulfilled: Do not go after your desires (Sir 18:30). After your desires—when you hear this, understand the unlawful ones. Do not go after your desires ought to be fulfilled out of our will, aided by the grace of God; it ought to be fulfilled, Do not go after your desires. For whatever that coveting of the flesh did in us of past sins, whether in deeds, or in words, or in thoughts, all was blotted out by holy Baptism; one act of forgiveness blotted out all the debts. There remains, then, the conflict with the flesh: because the iniquity has been blotted out, but the infirmity remains. The delight of unlawful coveting is within, it tickles; fight, resist, do not consent; and here is fulfilled, Do not go after your desires; because even if at some time they creep up and usurp for themselves the eye, the ear, the tongue, the flitting thought, even so let us not despair of our salvation. Therefore we say daily, Forgive us our debts (Matt 6:12). The righteousness, he says, of the law might be fulfilled in us.

10. 10. But in which of us? Who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For those who are according to the flesh savor the things of the flesh; but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For the prudence of the flesh is death; but the prudence of the spirit is life and peace. For the prudence of the flesh is hostile to God. For it is not subject to the law of God: for neither can it be (Rom 8:4-7). What is, for neither can it be? It is not that man cannot, not that the soul cannot, not, finally, that the flesh itself—because it is a creation of God—cannot; but the prudence of the flesh cannot; the vice cannot, not the nature. Just as if you said: Limping is not subject to walking straight; for neither can it be. The foot can, but limping cannot. Take away the limping, and you will see walking straight. But as long as the limping is there, it cannot; so as long as the prudence of the flesh is there, it cannot. Let there be no prudence of the flesh, and man can. The prudence of the spirit is life and peace. So, then, that which he says, The prudence of the flesh is hostile to God, do not take as though this hostile thing could harm God. It is hostile by resisting, not by killing. But it harms the one in whom the prudence of the flesh is; because the vice harms the nature in which the nature is. But medicine was found for this reason, that the vice might be driven out, and the nature healed. So the Savior came to the human race, found no one healthy, and therefore the great physician came.

10. 11. He said this for this reason: that the Manicheans, wishing to introduce another nature of evil against God, think their error somewhat aided by this testimony of the Apostle, and suppose it was said as it were of nature, because it was said, It cannot, it is hostile to God: for it is not subject to the law of God, for neither can it be (Rom 8:7); and they did not notice that it was not said of the flesh, it cannot; not said of man, it cannot; not said of the soul, it cannot; but of the prudence of the flesh. This prudence is a vice.

11. 11. Do you wish to know what is, To savor according to the flesh? It is death (Rom 8:6). But that one and the same man, the same nature established by the Lord, the true and good God, yesterday savored according to the flesh, today savors according to the spirit; the vice has been driven out, the nature healed. For as long as that prudence of the flesh existed, it could in no way be subject to the law of God. For as long as limping is present through the vice, there can in no way be walking straight. But the vice being healed, the nature is restored. You were once darkness; but now you are light in the Lord (Eph 5:8).

11. 12. See, then, what follows: But those who are in the flesh—that is, those who trust in the flesh, who follow their covetings, who dwell in them, who delight in their pleasures, who place the happy and blessed life in their delights, these are in the flesh—cannot please God. For it was not said, But those who are in the flesh cannot please God, as though it were said: While men are in this life, they cannot please God. Did the holy patriarchs, then, not please? Did the holy prophets, then, not please? Did the holy apostles, then, not please? Did the holy martyrs not please, who, before they laid down the body by suffering, by confessing Christ, not only despised pleasure, but also bore even pains most patiently? They pleased, but they were not in the flesh. They carried the flesh, they were not carried by the flesh. For already it had been said to the paralytic, Take up your bed (Matt 9:6). Those, then, who are in the flesh, as I have said, as I have already expounded—not by living in this age, but by consenting to the covetings of the flesh—cannot please God.

12. 13. In short, hear him resolving the question without any doubt. He was surely speaking while living in this body; and yet he added, But you are not in the flesh. Do you suppose there is anyone here among us to whom it was said? Behold, he said it to the people of God, he said it to the Church; he was writing to the Romans, indeed, but he said it to the whole Church of Christ; but he said it to the wheat, not to the chaff; he said it to the hidden lump, not to the apparent stubble. Let each one recognize it in his own heart. We speak to the ears, we do not see consciences; yet, according to what we have said above, I reckon that in the name of Christ there are in the people of Christ those to whom it was said, But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit: if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you (Rom 8:9). You are not in the flesh, because you do not do the works of the flesh by consenting to the covetings of the flesh; but you are in the Spirit, because according to the inner man you delight in the law of God; and this is, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. For if you presume upon your own spirit, you are still in the flesh. If, then, you are not in the flesh, it is that you may be in the Spirit of God; for then you are not in the flesh. For if the Spirit of God withdraws, by its own weight the spirit of man rolls back into the flesh, returns to carnal deeds, returns to worldly covetings; and the last state of that man will be worse than the first (See Luke 11:26). So, then, have free choice in such a way that you implore help. You are not in the flesh—and this from your own strength? Far from it! Whence, then?

13. 13. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his (Rom 8:9). Let not the needy and vitiated nature, then, stretch itself out, boast, arrogate to itself its own virtue. O human nature! O Adam, when you were healthy, did you not stand, and did you rise by your own strength? If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ: for it is the same Spirit of God that is the Spirit of Christ; for it is of both the Father and the Son: If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, let him not deceive himself, he is not his.

13. 14. Behold, with the help of his own mercy, we have the Spirit of Christ; from the very love of righteousness, by whole faith, catholic faith, we recognize that the Spirit of God is within us. But what of that mortal flesh? What of the law in our members fighting against the law of the mind? What of that groan, Wretched man that I am? Hear: But if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness (Rom 8:10). Must we then despair of the body, dead because of sin? Is there no hope? Does it so sleep that it does not rise again (See Ps 41:8 (40:9))? Far from it! The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Sadness remains concerning our body. But no one ever hated his own flesh (Eph 5:29). We see how anxiously the burial of the dead is cared for. The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Now you were saying, for consolation: I would indeed wish my body too to be in life; but since it cannot be, let at least my spirit be, let at least my soul be. Wait, do not be anxious.

14. 15. For if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you; he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies (Rom 8:11). What do you fear? Why are you anxious even for the flesh itself? A hair of your head will not perish (Luke 21:18). Adam by sinning condemned your bodies to death; but Jesus, if his Spirit is in you, will also give life to your mortal bodies; because he gave his own blood for your salvation. Do you doubt that the promise will be paid, you who hold such a pledge? Thus, then, O man, there will not be that struggle of death; thus will be fulfilled what was said, Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? Because Christ Jesus, if his Spirit dwells in you, will also give life to your mortal bodies. Thus you will be freed from the body of this death, not by not having a body, or by having another; but by no longer dying. For if he had not added, of this death, and had said, Who will free me from the body? perhaps error would be suggested to human thought, and it would be said: You see that God does not wish us to be with a body? From the body, he says, of this death. Take away death, and the body is good. Let death, the last enemy, be taken away, and my flesh will be my friend forever. For no one ever hated his own flesh. Even if the spirit covets against the flesh, and the flesh covets against the spirit (Gal 5:17); even if there is now a quarrel in this house, the quarreling husband seeks not the ruin, but the concord of his wife. Far from it! My brothers, far be it that the spirit, by coveting against the flesh, should hate the flesh. It hates the vices of the flesh, it hates the prudence of the flesh, it hates the struggle of death. Let this corruptible put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality; let the animal body be sown, let the spiritual body rise (See 1 Cor 15:53.44); and you will see full and perfect concord, you will see the creation praising the Creator. If, then, the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you; he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, on account of his indwelling Spirit who dwells in you (Rom 8:11); not on account of your merits, but on account of his gifts. Let us turn to the Lord, etc.

1. 1. The loftiness of the word of God exercises study, it does not deny understanding. For if everything were closed, there would be nothing whereby obscure things might be revealed. Again, if everything were uncovered, there would be nothing from which the soul might receive nourishment and have the strength by which it could knock at the closed things. In the earlier apostolic readings, which we expounded to your Charity as far as the Lord deigned to help, we suffered much labor and anxiety. We had compassion on you, and were anxious both for ourselves and for you. But as far as I reckon, the Lord helped both us and you; and the things that seemed utterly most difficult he deigned to untangle through us in such a way that no question remained which might disturb a devout mind. For an ungodly mind hates even understanding itself; and a person, sometimes with a too perverse mind, fears to understand, lest he be compelled to do what he has understood. Of such the Psalm says, They would not understand, that they might do good (Ps 36:3 (35:4)). But you, dearly beloved, because it is good to think well of you, demand understanding; God demands fruit. For good understanding, as it is written, belongs to all who do it (Ps 111:10 (110:10)). Yet this which remains and was recited today, although it does not have such difficulty as the earlier passages had, which we have now, as we could, with the Lord's help, carried across, nevertheless requires your attention; for it is, as it were, a conclusion, on account of the things that were said in the earlier readings, where there was labor lest perchance the Apostle be made guilty, as it were, of all sins by saying, For I do not do what I will (Rom 7:15). Then, lest the law should seem either able to suffice for a man having free choice, even if no further divine help were extended, or be believed to have been given in vain, the reason too was stated why the law was given: because it too was given as a help, but not as grace is.

2. 2. For it was given, as we have already expounded—and you ought to hold it, and we ought to commend it to you more vehemently and diligently—it was given that man might find himself out, not that the disease might be healed, but that, the disease growing through transgression, a physician might be sought. And who is this physician, but the one who said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick (Matt 9:12)? Whoever, then, does not confess the Creator, denies in his pride the Author. But whoever denies his own sickness judges the Savior superfluous. Therefore, both in our nature let us praise the Creator, and on account of the vice which we inflicted on ourselves, let us seek the Savior. And how do we seek the Savior? That he may give a law? It is too little: For if a law had been given that could give life, righteousness would surely be from the law (Gal 3:21). If, then, a law was not given that could give life, why was it given? It follows, and he shows why it was given: because even so it was given as a help, lest you should think yourself healthy. If, then, a law had been given that could give life, righteousness would surely be from the law. And as though we asked, Why, then, was it given? But Scripture, he says, has shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe (Gal 3:22). When you hear of the one who promises, wait for the one who fulfills. Human nature was fit, through free choice, to wound itself; but, now wounded and injured, it is not fit, through free choice, to heal itself. For if you wish to live intemperately so as to fall sick, you do not need a physician for this; you suffice for your own ruin. But when, acting intemperately, you have begun to be sick, you cannot free yourself from the sickness in the way you were able, through intemperance, to plunge yourself into the sickness. And yet the physician prescribes temperance even to the healthy. The good physician does this; he does not wish to be necessary to the sick. So too the Lord God deigned to prescribe temperance to man, created without vice; which if he had kept, he would not afterward have desired a physician for his disease. But because he did not keep it, he became feeble, he fell; being feeble, he created feeble ones—that is, being feeble, he begot feeble ones. And yet in all who are born feeble God works what is good, forming the body, giving life to the body, providing nourishment, giving his rain and his sun upon the good and the evil; there is no reason why either the good or the evil should accuse the good. Moreover, he was unwilling to leave the human race, condemned by his just judgment, in everlasting destruction: but he sent also a physician, sent a Savior, sent one who would heal freely; it is too little to say one who would heal freely—who would even give a reward to those healed. Nothing can be added to this benevolence. Who is there who says: Let me heal you, and I give you a reward? He did most excellently. For he knew that he, rich, had come to the poor: and he heals the sick, and gives to the healed, and gives nothing other than himself. The Savior is the help of the feeble, the same Savior is the prize of the healed.

3. 3. Therefore, brothers, of which you were admonished today, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh (Rom 8:12). For to this we have been helped, for this we have received the Spirit of God, for this also in our labors we ask daily help. The law, by threatening the one who does not fulfill what it commands, makes him be under itself; these are under the law, not under grace. The law is good, if one uses it lawfully (1 Tim 1:8). What, then, is it to use the law lawfully? Through the law to recognize one's own disease, and to seek divine help for health. Because, as I have said, and it must often be said: If the law could give life, righteousness would surely be from the law (Gal 3:21), and no Savior would be sought, nor would Christ come, nor would he seek with his blood the lost sheep. For so the same Apostle says in another place, For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died in vain (Gal 2:21). What, then, is the usefulness of the law, and what its help? That Scripture has shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. And so the law, he says, was our pedagogue in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:22.24). From this comparison, attend to the matter of which I speak. The pedagogue does not lead the boy to himself, but to the master; but when the boy, well instructed, has grown up, he will not be under the pedagogue.

4. 4. Treating of these matters, the Apostle in another place too (for he commends this very constantly; but would that not to the deaf), he commends this constantly, commending faith to the gentiles, because by faith they obtain help to fulfill the law—not through the law, but obtaining through faith the strength to fulfill it; for this the Apostle constantly says and commends these things, on account of the Jews, who gloried in the law, and thought the law sufficient for their own free choice; and through this, because they thought the law sufficient for their own free choice, being ignorant of the righteousness of God—that is, the righteousness given by God from faith—and wishing to establish their own, as if fulfilled by their own strength, not obtained by crying faith, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God, as he says. For the end of the law is Christ, he says, unto righteousness for everyone who believes (Rom 10:3-4). So when he treats of this, he raised an objection to himself: What, then, of the law? As if: What is the usefulness of the law? He answered, It was placed for the sake of transgression. This is what he says elsewhere, The law crept in, that the offense might abound. And there what did he add? But where the offense abounded, grace abounded the more (Rom 5:20). Because in the lighter sickness the help of medicine was despised: the disease grew, and a physician was sought. What, then, of the law? It was placed for the sake of transgression; whereby the neck of the proud might be humbled—of those who ascribe much to themselves, and arrogate so much to their own will that they think their free choice able to suffice for righteousness: which free choice, when it was in entire liberty, that is, in paradise, showed its strength, showed how much it could do, but for falling, not for rising. The law, then, was placed for the sake of transgression, until the seed should come to whom it was promised, ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator (Gal 3:19).

5. 5. But a mediator is not of one; God, however, is one (Gal 3:20). What is, A mediator is not of one? Because a mediator is surely between two. If God is one, and a mediator is not of one; between what and God do we seek a mediator? Because a mediator is not of one, but God is one. Between what and what the mediator is, we find by the Apostle himself saying, For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5). If you did not lie fallen, you would not have a mediator as necessary; but because you lie fallen and cannot rise, God as it were extended to you his arm as a mediator. And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed (Isa 53:1)? Let no one, then, say: Since we are not under the law, but under grace, therefore let us sin, therefore let us do what we wish. Whoever says this loves sickness, not health. Grace is medicine. Whoever wishes always to be sick is ungrateful to the medicine. Therefore, brothers, the help having been received, the divine aid extended to us from above, the arm of the Lord, and the help, the Holy Spirit, extended to us by that arm of the Lord, we are debtors not to the flesh, to walk according to the flesh (Rom 8:12). Because faith cannot work well except through love. For this is the faith of the faithful, lest it be the faith of demons; for the demons too believe, and tremble (Jas 2:19). That, then, is the praiseworthy faith, that is the true faith of grace, which works through love (Gal 5:6). But that we may have love, and from it may be able to have good action, can we give it to ourselves, when it is written, The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5)? Love is so much the gift of God that God is called love, the apostle John saying, God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16).

6. 6. Therefore, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die (Rom 8:12-13). Not because the flesh is evil: for it too is a creation of God, and created by the same one by whom the soul too was; neither this nor that is a part of God, but both this and that are a creation of God. The flesh, then, is not evil; but to live according to the flesh is evil. God is supremely good, because he supremely is, who says, I am who am (Exod 3:14). God, then, is supremely good; the soul is a great good, but not the supreme good. But when you hear, God is supremely good, do not suppose it said of God the Father only, but of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For this Trinity is one, and is one God, and is supremely good. So plainly is God one that when you are asked about that Trinity, you answer this: lest perhaps, when you have heard, God is one, you suppose that the Father himself is the Son, that he himself is the Holy Spirit. It is not so: but he who is the Father in that Trinity is not the Son; he who is the Son in that Trinity is not the Father; he who is the Holy Spirit in that Trinity is neither the Son nor the Father, but the Spirit of the Father and likewise the Spirit of the Son. For he is the one Holy Spirit of both the Father and the Son, coeternal with the Father and the Son, consubstantial, equal. This whole Trinity is one God, supremely good. But the soul, as I said, is created by the supreme good, yet is not the supreme good, but a great good. Likewise the flesh is neither the supreme good nor a great good, but nevertheless a small good. The soul, then, is a great good, but not the supreme good; living between the supreme good and the small good—that is, between God and the flesh, lower than God, higher than the flesh—why does it not live according to the supreme good, but live according to the small good? This is said more plainly: Why does it not live according to God, but live according to the flesh? For it is a debtor not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. The flesh ought to live according to it, not it according to the flesh. Let it live according to that by which it lives. Surely let each thing live according to that whence it lives. Whence does your flesh live? From your soul. Whence does your soul live? From your God. Let each of these live according to its own life. For the flesh is not its own life; but the soul is the life of the flesh. The soul is not its own life; but God is the life of the soul. The soul, then, which ought to live according to God—for it is not a debtor to the flesh, to live according to the flesh: that, then, which ought to live according to God, if it lives according to itself, fails; does it live according to the flesh and prosper? But then the flesh lives rightly according to the soul, if the soul lives according to God. For if the soul, I do not say according to the flesh, but according to itself, as I said, should wish to live; I am going to tell you what it is to live according to itself: for it is good that you know this, and very wholesome.

7. 7. There were philosophers of this age, some of whom thought there was no happiness except to live according to the flesh, and placed the good of man in the pleasure of the body. These philosophers were called Epicureans, from a certain Epicurus, their author and master, and those others like them. But there were others, proud, as it were removing themselves from the flesh and placing all the hope of their happiness in their own soul, who placed the highest good in their own virtue. The affection of devotion in you has recognized the voice of the Psalm: you know, you are aware, you have recognized how they were mocked in the holy Psalm: Those who trust in their own virtue (Ps 49:6 (48:7)). Such were the philosophers who were called Stoics. Those living according to the flesh, these living according to the soul; neither those nor these living according to God. Therefore, when the apostle Paul had come to the city of the Athenians, where these disciplines of the philosophers were fervent with zeal and contention, as is read in the Acts of the Apostles—where I rejoice to anticipate our sermon by your recognizing and recalling, as it is written there, Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers conferred with him (Acts 17:18): those living according to the flesh conferred with him, those living according to the soul conferred with him; he, living according to God, conferred with them. The Epicurean said: To enjoy the flesh is good for me. The Stoic said: To enjoy my own mind is good for me. The Apostle said: But to cleave to God is good for me. The Epicurean said: Happy the man whose enjoyment is the pleasure of his flesh. The Stoic said: Rather, happy the man whose enjoyment is the virtue of his soul. The Apostle said: Happy the man whose hope is the name of the Lord (Ps 73:28 (72:28); Ps 40:4 (39:5)). The Epicurean errs: for it is false that the man is happy whose enjoyment is the pleasure of his flesh. The Stoic too is deceived: for it is false, and utterly most lying, that the man is happy whose enjoyment is the virtue of his soul. Happy, then, the man whose hope is the name of the Lord. And because those are vain and lie: And he has not looked, it says, upon vanities and lying follies (Ps 40:4 (39:5)).

8. 8. Therefore, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, like the Epicureans. But even if the soul should wish to live according to itself, it will be carnal; it savors the flesh, it does not rise from the flesh. For there is no way for one to rise from there who does not take hold of the arm extended to him as he lies fallen. For if you live according to the flesh. For where it was said, What can man do to me? there it was said, What can the flesh do to me (See Ps 56:11 (55:12); 56:4 (55:5))? For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. Not by that death, when one goes out of the body; for by that death you will die even if you live according to the spirit: but by that death of which the Lord in the Gospel terribly says, Fear him who has power to destroy both soul and body in the hell of fire (Matt 10:28). If, then, you live according to the flesh, you will die.

9. 9. But if by the spirit you put to death the actions of the flesh, you will live (Rom 8:13). This is our work in this life, to put to death the actions of the flesh by the spirit; daily to afflict, lessen, bridle, slay them. For how many things, as we make progress, no longer delight us which delighted us before? When, then, it delighted and was not consented to, it was being put to death; because it now no longer delights, it has been put to death. Trample the dead, pass on to the living; trample the one lying fallen, struggle with the one resisting. For one delight is dead, but another lives: and that one, while you do not consent, you put to death; when it begins not to delight at all, you have put it to death. This is our action, this is our warfare. In this contest, when we struggle, we have God as spectator; in this contest, when we labor, we ask God as helper. For if he himself does not help us, we shall be able—I do not say to conquer—but not even to fight.

9. 10. So when the Apostle had said, But if by the spirit you put to death the actions of the flesh, you will live—that is, those covetings of the flesh, not to consent to which is great praise, not to have which is perfection: if you put to death by the spirit these diseased actions of the flesh, which have the struggle of death—you will live. Here now it must be feared lest anyone again presume upon his own spirit to put to death the actions of the flesh. For not only is God spirit: but your soul too is spirit, and your mind is spirit. And when you say, I serve the law of God with the mind, but the law of sin with the flesh (Rom 7:25); because the spirit covets against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit (Gal 5:17). Therefore, lest you presume upon your own spirit to put to death the actions of the flesh, and perish by pride, and resistance be made to you, proud, and grace not be granted to you, humble; for God resists the proud, but to the humble he gives grace (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5).

10. 10. Lest, then, perchance this pride should arise in you, see what follows. For when he had said, If by the spirit you put to death the actions of the flesh, you will live, lest here the human spirit should exalt itself and boast itself fit and strong for this work, he added and said, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Rom 8:14). Why, then, did you now wish to exalt yourself, where you heard, If by the spirit you put to death the actions of the flesh, you will live? For you were going to say: This my will can do, this my free choice can do. What will? What free choice? Unless he rules, you fall; unless he raises you up, you lie fallen. How, then, by your own spirit, when you hear the Apostle saying, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God? Do you wish to lead yourself, to be led by yourself to putting to death the actions of the flesh? What does it profit you that you will not be an Epicurean, and will be a Stoic? Whether you are an Epicurean, or a Stoic, you will not be among the sons of God. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Not those who live according to their own flesh, not those who live according to their own spirit; not those who are led by the pleasure of the flesh, not those who are led by their own spirit; but, As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

11. 11. Someone says to me: Then we are led, we do not lead. I answer: Rather, you both lead and are led; and then you lead well, if you are led by the good one. For the Spirit of God who leads you is a helper to you as you lead. The very name "helper" prescribes to you that you yourself too do something. Recognize what you ask; recognize what you confess, when you say, Be my helper, do not forsake me (Ps 27:9 (26:9)). Surely you call upon God as helper. No one is helped if nothing is done by him. For as many, he says, as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God: not by the letter, but by the Spirit; not by the law commanding, threatening, promising, but by the Spirit exhorting, enlightening, helping. We know, says the same Apostle, that for those who love God all things work together for good (Rom 8:28). If you were not a worker, he would not be a co-worker.

11. 12. But here keep watch strongly, lest perchance your spirit say: If the cooperation of God and the help of God withdraws, my spirit does this; even if with labor, even if with some difficulty it can, yet it can fulfill it. As if someone should say: We arrived indeed by oars, but with some labor; oh, if we have wind, we arrive more easily. Not so is the help of God, not so is the help of Christ, not so is the help of the Holy Spirit. Plainly, if it is lacking, you will be able to do nothing good. You do indeed act with him not helping, by free will, but badly. For this your will, which is called free, is fit, and by acting badly becomes a condemnable slave. When I say to you, Without the help of God you do nothing, I say nothing good. For toward acting badly you have free will without the help of God; although that is not free. For by whom anyone has been overcome, to him also has he been assigned as a slave (2 Pet 2:19); and, Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin; and, If the Son frees you, then you will be truly free (John 8:34.36).

12. 13. Believe this plainly, that you so act with a good will. Because you live, surely you act. For he is not a helper if you do nothing: for he is not a co-worker if you work nothing. Yet know that you so do good that the ruling Spirit is the helper; who, if he is lacking, you can do nothing good at all. Not as certain people have begun to say, who were at one time constrained to confess grace; and we bless God, because at least at one time they said this; for by coming nearer they will be able to make progress, and to arrive at that which is truly right. Already, then, they say that the grace of God is a help, for doing things more easily. For these are their words: "For this," they say, "God gave his grace to people, that what they are commanded to do through free choice they might be able to fulfill more easily through grace." By sail more easily, by oar more laboriously: yet one goes by oar too. By beast more easily, on foot more laboriously: but yet one arrives on foot too. It is not so. For the true Master, who flatters no one, deceives no one, the truthful teacher and likewise Savior, to whom the most troublesome pedagogue led us; when he spoke of good works—that is, of the fruits of the branches and shoots—did not say: Without me you can indeed do something, but more easily through me; did not say: You can do your fruit without me, but more abundantly through me. He did not say this. Read what he said: the Gospel is holy, the proud necks of all are subdued. It is not Augustine who says these things, it is the Lord who says them. What does the Lord say? Without me you can do nothing (John 15:5). Now then, when you hear, As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God, do not let yourselves down. For God does not so build his temple out of you as out of stones that have no motion of their own: they are lifted, they are placed by the builder. Living stones are not like this: And you, like living stones, are built up into a temple of God (1 Pet 2:5). You are led, but run also yourselves; you are led, but follow; because when you have followed, that will be true, that without him you can do nothing. For it is not, he says, of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy (Rom 9:16).

13. 14. Perhaps you were going to say: The law too suffices for us. The law gave fear: and see what the Apostle added on this, when he said, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God; because when they are led by the Spirit of God, they are led by love—for the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5)—he went on to add, For you have not received a spirit of slavery again unto fear (Rom 8:15). What is, again? As under the terrifying, most troublesome pedagogue. What is, again? As on Mount Sinai you received a spirit of slavery. Someone says: The spirit of slavery is one, the spirit of liberty another. If it were another, the Apostle would not say, again. The same Spirit, then, but on the tablets of stone in fear, on the tablets of the heart in love. Now, the day before yesterday, you who were present heard how the voices, the fire, the smoke on the mountain terrified the people set far off (See Exod 19:16-18); but how, when the Holy Spirit came—the same finger of God—on the fiftieth day after the shadow of the Passover, how it came and sat in fiery tongues upon each one of them (See Acts 2:1-4). Now, then, not in fear, but in love; that we may be not slaves, but sons. For whoever still acts well only because he fears punishment does not love God, is not yet among the sons; but would that he at least fear punishment. Fear is a slave, love is free; and, so to speak, fear is the slave of love. Lest the devil possess your heart, let the slave go before in your heart, and keep the place for the mistress who is to come. Do, do it even from fear of punishment, if you cannot yet from love of righteousness. The mistress will come, and the slave will depart; because perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). For you have not received a spirit of slavery again unto fear. It is the New Testament, not the Old. The old things have passed away, and behold, all things have been made new; but all things are from God (2 Cor 5:17-18).

14. 15. In short, what follows? What, then, have we received—as though you were saying that: But you have received the Spirit of the adoption of sons, in whom we cry: Abba, Father (Rom 8:15). A master is feared, a father is loved. You have received the Spirit of the adoption of sons, in whom we cry: Abba, Father. This cry is of the heart, not of the throat, not of the lips; it sounds within, it sounds to the ears of God. With closed mouth and unmoving lips, Susanna cried out with this voice (See Dan 13:35; 13:42-44). But you have received the Spirit of the adoption of sons, in whom we cry: Abba, Father. Let the heart cry, Our Father who are in heaven (Matt 6:9). Why, then, not only Father? What does Abba, Father mean? For if you ask what Abba is, it is answered to you: Father. For "Abba" in Hebrew is "father." Why did the Apostle wish to put both? Because he saw the cornerstone, which the builders rejected, and it has become the head of the corner (Ps 118:22 (117:22); Matt 21:42)—not called the cornerstone without cause, except because it receives in a kiss each wall coming from a different direction. On one side circumcision, on the other uncircumcision, as far from each other and between themselves as they are far from the corner; but as near to the corner, so surely near to each other; but in the corner joined together between themselves. For he himself is our peace, who made both one (Eph 2:14). Therefore, on one side circumcision, on the other uncircumcision, the concord of the walls, the glory of the corner. You have received the Spirit of the adoption of sons, in whom we cry: Abba, Father.

15. 16. What a thing it is, if the pledge is such! Indeed, it is to be called not a pledge, but an earnest. For a pledge, when it is put down, is taken back when the thing itself has been returned. But an earnest is given out of the very thing that is promised to be given; so that when the thing is returned, what was given is completed, not changed. Let each one, then, attend to his own heart, whether from the inmost marrow of the heart and with sincere love he says, Father. It is not now asked how great that love itself is, whether great, or small, or middling; whether it even exists at all, I ask. If it is born, by lying hidden it grows, by growing it will be perfected, perfected it will remain. For when perfected it does not sink into old age, and from old age come to death; it will be perfected for this: that it may remain eternal. For see what follows. We cry: Abba, Father. The Spirit himself gives testimony to our spirit that we are sons of God (Rom 8:15-16). Not our spirit gives testimony to our spirit that we are sons of God; but the Spirit of God, the earnest, gives testimony for that thing which has been promised to us. The Spirit himself gives testimony to our spirit that we are sons of God.

15. 17. But if sons, then heirs also. For not as sons in vain. This is the reward: And heirs. This is what I was saying a little before, that our physician both gives us health, and deigns moreover to bestow a reward. What is that reward? An inheritance. But not as is the inheritance of a man, a father. For he leaves it to his sons, he does not possess it with his sons; and yet he makes much of himself, and desires that thanks be given to him, because he wished to give what he cannot take away. For would he take it with him as he died? I think that if he could, he would have left nothing here to his sons. The heirs of God are heirs in such a way that God himself is our inheritance, to whom the Psalm says, The Lord is the portion of my inheritance (Ps 16:5 (15:5)). Heirs indeed of God; if this is too little for you, hear, that you may rejoice the more: Heirs indeed of God, but co-heirs of Christ (Rom 8:17). Let us turn to the Lord, etc.

1. 1. As your Holiness remembers that the Apostle said, dearly beloved brothers, In hope we have been saved. But hope, he says, that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom 8:24-25). Hence the Lord our God himself admonishes us to offer you an exhortatory and consolatory sermon—he to whom it is said in the Psalm, You are my hope, my portion in the land of the living (Ps 142:5 (141:6)). He himself, I say, who is our hope in the land of the living, bids that we address you in this land of the dying; that you may look not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Cor 4:18). Because, then, we hope for what we do not see, and wait for it with patience; rightly is it said to us in the Psalm, Wait for the Lord, act manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, and wait for the Lord (Ps 27:14 (26:14)). For the promises of the world always deceive; but the promises of God never deceive. But because the world seems about to give here what it promises—that is, in this land of the dying, in which we now are; while God is going to give us what he promises in the land of the living—many grow weary of waiting for the truthful one, and are not ashamed to love the deceiver. Of such Scripture says, Woe to those who have lost endurance, and have turned aside into crooked ways (Sir 2:14.16). For even to those who act manfully and, with strengthened heart, wait for God, the sons of everlasting death do not cease to make insults, flaunting their temporal delights, which for a time sweeten their throats, but afterward they will find them more bitter than gall. For they say to us: Where is what is promised to you after this life? Who has returned here from there and shown that the things you believe are true? Behold, we rejoice in the abundance of our pleasures, because what we see, we hope for; but you are tormented in the labors of continence, by believing what you do not see. Then they add what the Apostle mentioned, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. But see what he himself warned must be guarded against: Evil conversations, he says, corrupt good morals. Be soberly righteous, and do not sin (1 Cor 15:32-34).

2. 2. Beware, then, brothers, lest by such conversations your morals be corrupted, your hope overthrown, your patience unnerved, and you turn aside into crooked ways. Rather, being gentle and meek, keep the right ways, which the Lord teaches you; of which the Psalm says, He will direct the gentle in judgment, he will teach the meek his ways (Ps 25:9 (24:9)). For patience in the labors of this life, without which the hope of the future life cannot be kept, no one can perpetually retain except the gentle and meek; who do not resist the will of God, whose yoke is easy and burden light (See Matt 11:30), but who believe God, and hope in him, and love him. For thus, being gentle and meek, you will not only love his consolations, but will also bear his scourges like good sons; so that, since you hope for what you do not see, you may wait for it with patience. So act, so walk. For you walk in Christ, who said, I am the way (John 14:6). Learn how to walk in him, not only by his word, but also by his example. For the Father did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all (Rom 8:32); surely not unwilling, nor refusing, but equally willing; because the will of the Father and of the Son is one according to the equality of the form of God, in which, since he was, he did not consider it robbery to be equal to God; and singularly obedient, according to which he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (See Phil 2:6-7). For he himself loved us, and handed himself over for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness (Eph 5:2). So, then, the Father did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all, that the Son himself too might hand himself over for us.

3. 3. Handed over, then, was that Most High one, through whom all things were made; handed over, on account of the form of a servant, to the reproach of men and the abjection of the people, to insult, to scourges, to the death of the cross, he taught us by the example of his passion with how great patience we should walk in him; and he strengthened us by the example of his resurrection as to what we ought to hope patiently from him. For if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom 8:25). We hope indeed for what we do not see; but we are the body of that head, in whom what we hope for is already accomplished. For of him it was said that he is the head of the body, the Church, the firstborn, himself holding the primacy (Col 1:18). And of us it is written, But you are the body of Christ and members (1 Cor 12:27). But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience, secure; since he who rose again is our head, he keeps our hope. And because before he rose our head was scourged, he strengthened our patience. For it is written, For whom the Lord loves he rebukes; and he scourges every son whom he receives (Heb 12:6; Prov 3:12). Let us therefore not fail under the scourge, that we may rejoice in the resurrection. For so true is it that he scourges every son whom he receives, that he did not spare even his Only-begotten, but handed him over for us all. Looking, then, on him who was scourged without the desert of sin, who died for our offenses and rose again for our justification (See Rom 4:25), let us not fear to be cast away when scourged; but rather let us be confident that we will be received when justified.

4. 4. For although the fullness of our joy has not yet come, yet not even now are we left without joy; because in hope we have been saved. Therefore the Apostle himself, who says, If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom 8:25), says in another place, Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation (Rom 12:12). Having, then, such a hope, let us use much boldness (2 Cor 3:12); and let our speech be seasoned with salt, that we may know how we ought to answer each one (See Col 4:6). For it must be said to those who, having lost—or never having taken up—endurance, dare even to insult us as we wait for the Lord (because, hoping for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience), when they ought rather to imitate us: Where are your delights, for which you walk in crooked ways? We do not say: Where will they be, when this life has passed away; but now: Where are they? Since today has taken away yesterday, and tomorrow will take away today, what of the things you love does not run by and fly away? What does not flee almost before it is grasped, since of this very day not even an hour can be retained? For the second is shut out by the third, just as the first was shut out by the second. Of that one hour itself, which seems present, nothing is present: for all its parts and all its moments are fleeting.

5. 5. Why does a man sin, if he is not blinded when he sins—or if only he would take heed when he sins? He could see that pleasure, soon to pass away, is desired without prudence; or, when it has passed, is thought on with repentance. You mock us because we hope for eternal things which we do not see; while you, subject to the temporal things that are seen, do not know what kind of day will dawn for you tomorrow—which, often hoping it good, you find evil; nor, if it is good, will you be able to hold it lest it flee. You mock us because we hope for eternal things; which, when they have come, will not pass away; because they themselves do not come, but always remain; but we shall come to them, when, by the Lord's way, we have passed through these things that pass away. But from you temporal things never cease at some time to be hoped for, and yet, hoped for, they often deceive you; nor do they cease to inflame you as they come, to corrupt as they arrive, to torment as they pass away. Are they not the very things that, when coveted, burn; when obtained, become worthless; when lost, vanish away? We too use them according to the necessity of our pilgrimage; but we do not fix our joys in them, lest, as they slip away, we be undermined. For we use this world as though not using it (See 1 Cor 7:31), that we may come to the one who made this world, and remain in him, fully enjoying his eternity.

6. 6. But what is it that you say: Who came here from there, and who has shown men what goes on in the underworld? And here too he closed your mouth who raised a dead man on the fourth day (See John 11:39-44), and, no longer to die, rose on the third day, and before he died told what kind of life receives the dying—as one from whom nothing was hidden—both in the poor man at rest and in the rich man burning (See Luke 16:19-31). But those do not believe these things who say: Who has returned here from there? They wish to seem about to believe, if one of their parents should come back to life. But cursed is everyone who places his hope in man (Jer 17:5). Therefore God, made man, willed to die and rise again; that both what was to come for man might be shown in man's flesh, and yet it might be believed of God, not of man. And surely the Church of the faithful, spread throughout the whole world, is now before their eyes. Let them read that it was promised, so many ages ago, to one man, who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations (See Rom 4:18; Gen 17:5). What, then, was promised to Abraham alone, believing, we now see fulfilled; and do we despair that what is promised to the whole believing world will come? Let them now go and say, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die (1 Cor 15:32). They say they will still die tomorrow, but truth, while they say these things, finds them already dead. But you, brothers, sons of the resurrection, citizens of the holy angels, heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ, beware of imitating those who tomorrow die by breathing their last, and today are buried by drinking. But, as the same Apostle says, lest evil conversations corrupt your good morals, be soberly righteous, and do not sin (1 Cor 15:33-34); walking the narrow but sure way that leads to the breadth of the heavenly Jerusalem, which is our eternal mother; most firmly hope for what you do not see, patiently wait for what you do not yet have; because you most faithfully hold Christ, the truthful one who promises.

1. 1. We have heard the blessed Apostle exhorting and confirming us, when he said to us, If God is for us, who is against us (Rom 8:31)? But for whom God is, he showed above, where he says, But those whom he predestined, these he also called; and those whom he called, these he also justified; and those whom he justified, these he also glorified. What, then, shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us (Rom 8:30-31)? God for us, to predestine us; God for us, to call us; God for us, to justify us; God for us, to glorify us. If God is for us, who is against us? He predestined us before we were; he called us when we were turned away; he justified us when we were sinners; he glorified us when we were mortal. If God is for us, who is against us? Against those predestined by God, called, justified, glorified, whoever wishes to be an adversary, let him prepare himself, if he can wage war against God. For where we have heard, If God is for us, who is against us? none harms us but the one who conquers God. And who is there who conquers the Almighty? Whoever wishes to struggle against him harms himself. This is what Christ cried from heaven to Paul, still Saul: It does not profit you to kick against the goad (Acts 9:5). Let him rage, let him rage as much as he can; he who kicks against the goad—does he not rage against himself?

2. 2. But in these four notable things which the Apostle commended, which pertain to those for whom God is—that is, predestination, calling, justification, glorification—in these four things, then, we ought to consider what we already have, and what we still await. For in those things we already have, let us praise God the giver; in those we do not yet have, let us hold him as debtor. For he became a debtor, not by receiving anything from us, but by promising what it pleased him. For in one way we say to a man, You owe me because I gave to you; and in another way we say, You owe me because you promised me. When you say, You owe me because I gave to you, a benefit proceeded from you, but lent, not given. But when you say, You owe me because you promised me, you gave nothing, and yet you demand. For the goodness of him who promised will give, lest faith be turned into malice. For he who deceives is evil; but do we say to God, Repay me, because I gave to you? What did we give to God, when all that we are, and what good we have, we have from him? We gave him nothing, then. There is no way for us to demand God as debtor by these words, especially as the Apostle says to us, For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him (Rom 11:34-35)? In that other way, then, we can demand of our Lord, so as to say: Pay what you promised, because we have done what you commanded; and this you did, because you helped us as we labored.

3. 3. Let no one, then, say: God called me for this reason, because I worshiped God. How would you have worshiped, if you had not been called? If God called you for this reason, because you worshiped God, then you first gave, and he repaid you. Does not the Apostle take this saying from you, when he says, Or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him? But behold, when you were called, you at least already existed. How would you be predestined, except when you did not exist? What did you give to God, when you, who might give something, did not exist? What, then, did God do, when he predestined one who did not exist? What the Apostle says: He who calls the things that are not as though they were (Rom 4:17). If you already existed, you would not be predestined; unless you were turned away, you would not be called; unless you were ungodly, you would not be justified; unless you were earthly and abject, you would not be glorified. Who, then, has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him? For from him, and through him, and in him are all things. What, then, do we render? To him be glory (Rom 11:35-36). Because we did not exist when we were predestined; because we were turned away when we were called; because we were sinners when we were justified; let us give thanks to God, lest we remain ungrateful.

4. 4. But we had proposed to consider, of these four things, what we have already attained, what we still await as to be obtained. For we have already been predestined, even before we existed. We have been called, when we were made Christians. So this too we already have. Justified—what? What is, justified? Do we dare to say that we already have this third thing? And will there be any of us who dares to say: I am righteous? For I think this is what "I am righteous" means: "I am not a sinner." If you dare to say this, John meets you: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). What, then? Do we have nothing of righteousness? Or do we have it, but do not have all of it? Let us seek this, then. For if we have something, and do not have something; let what we have grow, and what we do not have will be fulfilled. For behold, people have been baptized, all their sins have been forgiven them, they have been justified from their sins; we cannot deny it: yet there remains the struggle with the flesh, there remains the struggle with the world, there remains the struggle with the devil. But whoever struggles sometimes strikes, sometimes is struck; sometimes conquers, sometimes is slain; how he comes out of the arena is watched. For if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Likewise, if we say that we have nothing of righteousness, we lie against the gifts of God. For if we have nothing of righteousness, we do not even have faith; if we do not have faith, we are not Christians. But if we have faith, we already have something of righteousness. That something—do you wish to know how great it is? The righteous lives by faith; the righteous, I say, lives by faith (Rom 1:17; Hab 2:4); because he believes what he does not see.

5. 5. The fathers, the holy rams, the leaders, the apostles, when they announced him, not only saw with their eyes, but even handled with their hands; and yet the Lord, keeping for us the gift of faith, to one of his disciples handling, feeling, seeking the truth with his fingers and finding it, crying out, My Lord and my God; the Lord and God himself said, Because you have seen, you have believed. And looking upon us who were to come, Blessed, he said, are those who have not seen and have believed (John 20:28-29). We have not seen, we have heard, and we have believed. We have been foretold blessed, and do we have nothing of righteousness? The Lord came in the flesh to the Jews, and was killed; he did not come to us, and was received. A people I did not know served me, at the hearing of the ear it obeyed me (Ps 18:43-44 (17:44-45)). We are that people, and do we have nothing of righteousness? We surely have it. Let us be grateful for what we have: that what we do not have may be added, and that we may not lose what we have. So this third thing too is already at work in us. We have been justified: but this very righteousness, as we make progress, grows. And how it grows I will say, and as it were confer with you; so that each one of you, now established in this very justification—having, namely, received the forgiveness of sins through the washing of regeneration, having received the Holy Spirit, making progress from day to day—may see where he is, may draw near, make progress, and grow, until he is consummated, not so as to be ended, but so as to be perfected.

6. 6. A man begins from faith; what pertains to faith? To believe. But let this faith still be distinguished from the unclean spirits. What pertains to faith? To believe. But the apostle James says, The demons too believe, and tremble (Jas 2:19). If you only believe, and live without hope, or do not have love: The demons too believe, and tremble. What great thing is it, if you say that Christ is the Son of God? Peter said this, and heard, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah; the demons said this, and heard, Be silent. To him, blessed, it is said, Because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in heaven (Matt 16:16-17). But they hear, Be silent (See Mark 1:24-25; Luke 4:34-35); and they say this same thing, and are driven off. It is one voice: but the Lord questions the root, not the flower. Hence it is said to the Hebrews, Lest any root of bitterness, springing up, cause trouble, and through it many be defiled (Heb 12:15). First, then, distinguish your faith from the faith of a demon. By what do you distinguish it? The demons said this fearing, Peter loving. Add, then, hope to faith. And what is hope, but from some goodness of conscience? And to hope itself add love. We have a way that surpasses all, the Apostle saying, I show you a way that surpasses all: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become like sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal (1 Cor 12:31-13:1); and he enumerates the other good things, and confirms that without love they profit nothing. Let these, then, remain: faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love. Pursue love. Distinguish, then, your faith. You are already among the predestined, called, justified. The apostle Paul says, Neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith. Say still more, Apostle, add, distinguish; because the demons too believe, and tremble; so add and distinguish, for the demons believe, and tremble at what they hate. Distinguish, Apostle, and circumcise my faith, and distinguish my cause from an unholy nation (See Ps 43:1 (42:1)). He plainly distinguishes, he distinguishes, he circumcises. And, faith, he says, that works through love (Gal 5:6).

7. 7. Let each one, then, my brothers, look at himself within, weigh himself, test himself in all his deeds, his good works, which he does with love, not expecting a temporal reward, but the promise of God, the face of God. For whatever God promises you is worth nothing apart from God himself. God would not satisfy me at all, unless he promised me himself, God. What is the whole earth? What is the whole sea? What is the whole heaven? What are all the stars? What is the sun? What is the moon? What is the host of angels? I thirst for the Creator of all these: him I hunger for, him I thirst for, to him I say, For with you is the fountain of life (Ps 36:9 (35:10)). He says to me, I am the bread that came down from heaven (John 6:41). Let my pilgrimage hunger and thirst, that my presence may be satisfied. The world smiles with many things—beautiful, strong, varied: more beautiful is he who made them, stronger and more glorious he who made them, sweeter is he who made them. I shall be satisfied when your glory is made manifest (Ps 17:15 (16:15)). If, then, faith that works through love is in you, you already belong to the predestined, called, justified: let it grow, then, in you. For faith that works through love cannot be without hope. But when we have come, will faith still be there? Will it be said to us: Believe? Surely not. We shall see him, we shall contemplate him. Beloved, we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. Because it has not yet appeared, therefore faith. We are sons of God, predestined, called, justified; we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. Now, then, faith, before it appears what we shall be. We know that when it has appeared, we shall be like him. Is it because we believe? No. Why, then? Because we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).

8. 8. What of hope? Will it be there? Hope will no longer exist, when the reality is present. For hope itself is necessary for the pilgrimage; it is what consoles on the way. For the traveler, when he labors in walking, bears the labor for this reason: because he hopes to arrive. Take from him the hope of arriving, and at once the strength of walking is broken. Therefore the hope that is here too pertains to the righteousness of our pilgrimage. Hear the Apostle himself: Awaiting the adoption, he says, we ourselves groan within ourselves still (See Rom 8:23). Where there is groaning, that happiness cannot yet be spoken of, of which Scripture says, Toil and groaning have passed away (Isa 35:10). Therefore still, he says, we groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body. Still we groan. Why? For in hope we have been saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For if anyone sees it, why does he hope? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom 8:24-25). In this patience, then, the martyrs were crowned; they longed for what they did not see, they despised what they bore. In this hope they said, Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? Or distress? Or persecution? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or the sword? For on account of you. And where is the one for whose sake? For on account of you, he says, we are put to death all the day (Rom 8:35-36). On account of you. And where is, Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed (John 20:29)? Behold where he is, he is in you, because faith itself too is in you yourself. Or does the Apostle deceive us, who says that Christ dwells through faith in our hearts (Eph 3:17)? Now through faith, then through sight: now through faith, as long as we are on the way, as long as on pilgrimage. For as long as we are in the body, we are on pilgrimage away from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:6-7).

9. 9. If this is faith, what will sight be? Hear what it will be: That God may be all in all (1 Cor 15:28). What is, all? Whatever you sought here, whatever you held for great here, he himself will be to you. What did you want here, what did you love? To eat and drink? He himself will be your food, he himself will be your drink. What did you want here? The frail, passing health of the body? He himself will be your immortality. What did you seek here? Riches? Greedy one, what suffices for you, if God himself does not suffice? But what did you love? Glory, honors? God will be your glory: to whom even now it is said, My glory, and the lifter up of my head (Ps 3:3 (3:4)). For he has already lifted up my head. Our head is Christ. But why do you marvel? Because the head and the other members will be lifted up; then God will be all in all. In this way we believe, in this way we hope: when we have come, we will hold; and there will then be sight, not faith: when we have come, we will hold, and there will then be the reality, not hope. What of love? Surely it too exists now, and then will not be? If we love by believing and not seeing, how shall we love by seeing and holding? Therefore love will be, but it will be perfect; as the Apostle says, Faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor 13:13). Having this, and nourishing it in us, secure, with his help persevering in him, let us say, Who will separate us from the love of Christ? until he himself shows mercy, he himself perfects. Tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or peril? Or the sword? For on account of you we are put to death all the day, we are reckoned as sheep for the slaughter. And who endures it? Who bears all things? But in all these things we conquer. By what? Through him who loved us (Rom 8:35-37). Therefore, If God is for us, who is against us (Rom 8:31)?

1. 1. Yesterday a sermon was prolonged about our justification, which is ours from the Lord our God, we ministering, he granting, you hearing. And although in this life we are laden with the burden of corruptible flesh, surely not without sin—for if we say that we have no sin, we lead ourselves astray, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8)—yet that we have been justified according to the manner of our pilgrimage, living from faith until we enjoy sight, was made clear, as I reckon, to your Charity. We begin, then, from faith, that we may come to sight; we run the way, we seek the homeland. On pilgrimage our soul says, For before you is all my desire, and my groaning is not hidden from you (Ps 38:9 (37:10)). But in the homeland there will be no place for praying, but only for praising. Why will there be no place for praying? Because nothing is lacking. What is here believed, there is seen; what is here hoped for, there is held; what is here asked for, there is received. Yet there is some perfection in this life, to which the holy martyrs attained. And therefore ecclesiastical discipline holds, as the faithful know, that when the martyrs are recited at the altar of God in that place, prayer is not made for them; but for the rest of the commemorated dead prayer is made. For it is an injury to pray for a martyr, to whose prayers we ourselves ought to be commended. For he contended against sin even to blood. But to certain ones, still imperfect, and yet justified in part, the Apostle says to the Hebrews, For you have not yet fought to blood, contending against sin (Heb 12:4). If, then, they had not yet fought to blood, without doubt some did fight to blood. Who fought to blood? The holy martyrs, surely; of whom the reading from the holy apostle James was just now heard. Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations (Jas 1:2). It is said to those now perfect, who can even say, Test me, O Lord, and try me (Ps 26:2 (25:2)). Knowing, he says, that tribulation works patience; but patience has a perfect work (Jas 1:3-4; Rom 5:3).

2. 2. For righteousness is to be loved; and in this loving of righteousness there are degrees of those making progress. The first is that all the things that delight not be preferred to the love of righteousness. This is the first degree. What do I mean by what I said? That among all the things that delight you, righteousness itself should delight you more; not that other things do not delight, but that it should delight more. For some things naturally delight our infirmity, as food and drink delight the hungry and thirsty; as this light delights us, which is poured from heaven when the sun has risen, or which shines from the stars and the moon, or which on earth is kindled by lamps consoling the darkness of the eyes; a tuneful voice and a most sweet song delights, a good odor delights; whatever pertains to some pleasure of the flesh delights our touch too. And all these things, which delight us in the senses of the body, some are lawful. For these great spectacles of nature delight the eyes, as I said; but the spectacles of the theaters also delight the eyes. These are lawful, those unlawful. A sacred psalm sweetly sung delights the hearing: but the songs of actors also delight the hearing. This lawfully, that unlawfully. Flowers and spices delight the sense of smell, and these are a creation of God; but the incense on the altars of demons also delights the sense of smell. This lawfully, that unlawfully. Food not forbidden delights the taste; but the banquets of sacrilegious sacrifices also delight the taste. This lawfully, that unlawfully. Conjugal embraces delight; the embraces of harlots also delight. This lawfully, that unlawfully. You see, then, dearly beloved, that in these senses of the body there are lawful and unlawful delights. Let righteousness so delight that it conquers even the lawful delights; and to that delight by which you are lawfully delighted, prefer righteousness.

3. 3. Let us set before our eyes, for the sake of what I said, an example of a contest. I ask whether you love righteousness; you will answer: I love it. Which you would not answer truly, unless it delighted you in some measure. For nothing is loved but what delights. Delight in the Lord, Scripture says (Ps 37:4 (36:4)). But the Lord is righteousness. For you ought not to fashion God for yourself as it were an idol. God is like things invisible; and those things in us are better which are invisible. Faith is better than the flesh, faith is better than gold, and faith is better than silver, than money, than estates, than household, than riches; and all these are seen, faith is not seen. To which, then, shall we suppose God more like, the visible, or the invisible? The precious, or the cheap? Let me speak of cheaper things. You have two servants, one deformed in body, another most beautiful; but the deformed one faithful, the other unfaithful. Tell me which you would love more: and I see that you love the invisible. What then, when you love more the faithful servant, though deformed in body, than the beautiful unfaithful one—have you erred, and preferred ugly things to beautiful? Surely not: but you have preferred more beautiful things to ugly. For you despised the eyes of the flesh, and raised up the eyes of the heart. You questioned the eyes of the flesh, and what did they report to you? This one is beautiful, that one ugly. You rejected them, you disapproved their testimony; you raised the eyes of the heart upon the faithful servant and the unfaithful servant; you found this one ugly in flesh, that one beautiful; but you pronounced and said: What is more beautiful than faith? What more deformed than unfaithfulness?

4. 4. Therefore, above all pleasures—that is, above even lawful delights—righteousness is to be loved. For if you have inner senses, all those inner senses are delighted with the delight of righteousness. If you have inner eyes, see the light of righteousness: For with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we shall see light (Ps 36:9 (35:10)). Of that light the Psalm says, Enlighten my eyes, lest I ever sleep in death (Ps 13:3 (12:4)). Likewise, if you have inner ears, hear righteousness. Such ears he sought who said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Matt 11:15). If you have an inner sense of smell, hear the Apostle: We are the good odor of Christ to God in every place (2 Cor 2:15). If you have an inner taste, hear: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet (Ps 34:8 (33:9)). If you have an inner touch, hear what the bride sings of the bridegroom: His left hand is under my head, and his right hand will embrace me (Song 2:6).

4. 5. Let us, then, as I had begun to say, set forth an example of this contest. Let us see, my brothers, who he is; I ask, and let him answer what I am about to say, whether righteousness so delights him that he prefers it to the other delights pertaining to these senses of the body. Behold, your gold delights you, it delights your eyes: it is a beautiful metal, most gleaming, it delights. It is beautiful, I do not deny; for if I denied it beautiful, I would do injury to the Creator. The tempter comes, then, and says to you: I take your gold away, unless you give false testimony for me; but if you give it, I add to your gold. Two delights contend in you: now I ask you which you prefer, which delights you more, gold or truth, gold or true testimony. Or does this one gleam, and that one not gleam? Faith is sought in true testimony. Gold gleams, faith does not gleam? Blush, have eyes; what you loved in your servant, render to your Lord. For a while ago, when I asked about your two servants—one deformed and faithful, the other beautiful and unfaithful—which you would love more, you answered me justly, and preferred what was to be preferred. Return into yourself, because now the matter concerns you yourself. Surely you loved the faithful servant. Is your Lord unworthy to have you as a faithful servant? And what great thing did you promise to your faithful servant? That you might love him much, the highest reward of liberty. What great thing did you promise to your faithful servant? Temporal liberty. Do we not see many in service not in want, and free men begging? And you demanded faith from the one to whom you promised liberty: and you do not keep faith with the One who promises you eternity!

5. 6. It would be long to run through each of the bodily senses; but what I have said of the eyes, understand of the rest; and prefer to the delight of the flesh the delight of the mind. For unlawful pleasures delight your flesh; let the invisible, beautiful, chaste, holy, tuneful, sweet righteousness delight your mind, so that you are not driven to it by fear. For if you are driven to it by fear, it does not yet delight you. You ought not to sin, not from fear of punishment, but from love of righteousness. Hence the Apostle says, I speak in human terms because of the infirmity of your flesh. For just as you presented your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification (Rom 6:19). What did I say? I speak in human terms: I say what you can bear. When you presented your members to iniquity for perpetrating shameful deeds, were you led by fear, or invited by delight? What do you say? Answer us, for even you who now live well perhaps once lived badly. When you were sinning, you delighted in your sins; did fear lead you to sinning, or the sweetness of sin? You will answer: Sweetness. Does sweetness lead to sin, and fear thrust toward righteousness? Test yourselves, examine yourselves. Let him who threatens take the gold: righteousness is sweeter, righteousness is brighter. Let him who promises not give the gold: righteousness is to be preferred to gold, to be preferred by delighting; it is more gleaming, brighter, sweeter, more pleasant. Now then, if anyone tests himself, and has overcome in this contest, he has heard the Apostle saying, I speak in human terms because of the infirmity of your flesh. Without doubt he spared their infirmity; and he tried to say something more agreeable to the less fit.

6. 7. Behold, he says, I say this which you can grasp; you presented your members to unlawful delights, you were led by the sweetness of sins to do them; let the sweetness and the pleasantness of righteousness lead you to right deeds; love righteousness as you loved iniquity. Righteousness is worthy that it obtain from you that you present to it what you presented to iniquity; this is, I speak in human terms—that is, what your infirmity can still bear. What, then, did the Apostle hold back? What did he defer to say? What he deferred, I will say, if I can. Weigh righteousness and iniquity; is righteousness only as worthy as iniquity was worthy? Is this to be loved as that was loved? Far be it that it be so—and yet would that it were even so. Therefore more? More, entirely. In iniquity you followed pleasure; for righteousness bear pain. In injustice, I say, you followed delight; for righteousness bear pain; this is "more." Behold some shameless young man of slippery age, by enticing sweetness cast his eyes on another's wife, loved her, desires to attain her; yet he seeks to lie hidden: for he so loves the pleasure that he more fears the pain. Why does he seek to lie hidden? He fears to be caught, bound, brought in, shut up, led out, tortured, killed. Fearing all these things, in that craving of his sweetness he seeks a hiding place; he watches for the husband's absence, he fears to find the very helper of his shameful deed, because he dreads to involve himself with a witness. And we see that he is led by sweetness: but that sweetness is not so great that it conquers even the fear and pain and dread of punishments. Give me beautiful righteousness, give me the beauty of faith; let it come forth into the midst, let it show itself to the eyes of the heart, let it breathe fervor into its lovers. Now it is said to you: Do you wish to enjoy me? Despise whatever else delights you, despise it for me. Behold, you have despised it; that is too little for it: This is human, on account of the infirmity of your flesh. It is too little that you despise whatever delighted you: despise whatever terrified you; despise prisons, despise chains, despise the rack, despise torments, despise death. These you have conquered, me you have found. In both degrees prove yourselves lovers of righteousness.

7. 8. We find, perhaps, some who prefer the delight of righteousness to the pleasures and delight of their own body: but one who, for its sake, would despise punishments, pains, and death—do you suppose there is anyone among you? Let us at least think on what we do not dare to profess. What do we think on? Where do we think on it? Thousands of martyrs lie before our eyes, themselves the true and perfect lovers of righteousness. Of them it was said, Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations; knowing that the testing of your faith works patience; but patience has a perfect work (Jas 1:2-4). What can be added, that it may have a perfect work? He loves, he burns, he is fervent; he tramples all the things that delight, and passes on; he comes to the harsh, the dreadful, the savage, the threatening; he tramples, breaks through, and passes on. O to love, O to go, O to perish to oneself, O to attain to God! He who loves his soul will lose it; and he who loses his soul for my sake will find it unto eternal life (John 12:25). So the lover of righteousness must be armed, so the lover of invisible beauty must be armed. What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach upon the housetops (Matt 10:27). What is, What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light? What I say and you hear in the mind, speak with boldness. And what you hear in the ear, preach upon the housetops. What is, you hear in the ear? You hear in secret; because you still fear to profess and confess. What, then, is, preach upon the housetops? Your houses are your bodies; your houses are your flesh. Climb upon the roof, trample the flesh, and preach the word.

8. 9. But first, my brothers, lament what you were, that you may be able to be what you are not yet. This of which I speak is great. And whence is it great to us? It is highest, perfect, best; whence is it to us? Hear whence it is to us: Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration (Jas 1:17). From there comes what good we have, from there what we do not yet have. You do not have it? Ask, and you will receive (John 16:24). If you, says the Savior, if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him (Matt 7:11)? Let every person, then, examine himself, and whatever good he finds in himself that pertains to our justification, let him give thanks to the one who gave it; and by giving thanks to the one who gave, let him ask of him also what he has not yet given. For you do not advance in receiving while he fails in giving. However capacious the throat, however capacious the belly you bring, the fountain overcomes the thirsty.

1. The solemnities of the holy martyrs are exhortations to martyrdoms, that it may be a delight to imitate what it is a delight to celebrate. To this the holy Scripture, fresh in our ears, exhorts and in a way kindles us, the Apostle saying, Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written: For on account of you we are put to death all the day, we are reckoned as sheep for the victim (Rom 8:35-36). Then follow other things that seem violent unto separation, in which, nevertheless, he gives victory, lest we be separated from the one who is not separated from us. For on account of these straits and impending pressures, the faithful promiser and benign giver deigned to promise us that he would be with us even to the consummation of the age (Matt 28:20). For I am certain, he says, that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor power, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature—for he could not name everything—will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:38-39). And so that he might render us most strong in hope and confidence against all the temptations of this age, lest we be separated from Christ—because our strength in no way suffices if we are forsaken by divine help—he said above, If God is for us, who is against us (Rom 8:31)? The Apostle, having briefly mentioned certain things that seem to assail the Christian faith by raging, lest such things separate us from the love of Christ, armed us to endure all things for Christ.

2. But because not only the things that rage try to separate, but also the things that flatter, just as we have been armed by the apostolic words against the things that try to separate us from Christ by raging, so we have been armed by the Lord Christ himself against the things that strive to seduce us by flattering. For it is to be feared lest perchance one whom the cruel sword does not separate, carnal affection may separate. Therefore, against those things too that assail our faith by flattering, lest they take by storm what they assail, let us hear the Lord saying, If anyone comes to me and does not hate father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and moreover his own soul, he cannot be my disciple. And he who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:26-27). The Lord mentioned both: what is sweet by enticing, so as to deceive, and what is hard by threatening. For against the flatteries of deception, from carnal affection, he says, If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife, children, and the rest; but against those things that, by roaring and terrifying, turn one away from faith, by the one name of the cross he fortifies us, built up and armed. He who does not, he says, carry his cross and follow me—that is, who does not bear (for this is what "carry" is) all the bitter and hard things in this age, as it were a cross, and follow me, cannot be my disciple.

3. Now then, let us set the martyr of Christ in the midst, between those who threaten and those who flatter; both doors are knocked at, by which one enters to the heart: desire and fear. At the door of desire knock father, mother, wife, children, brothers: all are alluring, sweet, pleasant. But are they sweeter than God? are they more pleasant than Christ? If you do not believe, taste and see how sweet the Lord is (Ps 34:8 (33:9)). At the door of fear knock threats, fury, reproaches, and finally the very pains of the body, which no one can fail to feel by despising them. For if he despises money, he suffers losses, not pains. All this lies in the soul of the one despising: he does not torment you who takes from you what you do not love. But you love money: you fear the one who threatens losses, and he does not torment you, but you have tormented yourself, because you have engrafted yourself onto pains. For the root of evils is greed, which some craving have strayed from the faith and engrafted themselves onto many pains (1 Tim 6:10). He threatens losses: the one who finds you not greedy finds you free; you have laughed at him as empty-handed, because you did not engraft yourself. So too the other things which by wholesome teaching we learn to despise, we are admonished not to love, that in temptations we may be found free. To which liberty that apostolic reading exhorts us, where it says, And let those who use this world be as those who do not use it (1 Cor 7:31), that they may have the use of liberty, not the affection of desire. For the figure of this world passes away. I wish you to be without anxiety (1 Cor 7:31-32).

4. But there remains the infirmity of the flesh, which each of us, as long as he lives in this age, cannot estrange from himself. What do you do? When the flesh is pricked, will the heart not grieve? It is a wound of infirmity, until it takes on the garment of immortality. There the great struggle is. With the will turned away from money, the martyr of God stands secure against those who terrify with losses. "Let him take," he says, "what I do not love—where do I feel it?" He threatens exile, but threatens one by whom only the heavenly homeland is longed for. This Christian, wherever he goes, is a pilgrim. He threatens reproaches. He has something to answer: This is our glory, the testimony of our conscience (2 Cor 1:12). He threatens dishonor. How great is honor that passes away! A man threatens dishonor, but the Lord of men promises eternal honor. All these things being despised, liberty is safe. But what of the flesh? The soul remains with its garment, and with that garment which nothing but death strips off. Now the man—that is, the soul—is pressed from close by, from the infirmity of his own flesh. Therefore the words of the Lord in the magnificent Psalm seem—rather, are understood—to be those of one hanging on the cross, where almost the gospel is recited, where it was said, They have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones. But they themselves looked upon me, they divided my garments among themselves, and over my garment they cast lots (Ps 22:16-18 (21:17-19)). They are the words of one already suffering, already hanging on the cross, and yet it is said there, Do not depart from me, for tribulation is near (Ps 22:11 (21:12)). If you understand near as "of an approaching time," they will not be the words of one hanging on the cross: tribulation was already present, if he was hanging. But why was it said, it is near? It is already in the flesh. Nothing is nearer to the soul than the flesh which it carries. Other things are outside, are called external, because they are outside. When the flesh is tormented, the soul is knocked at from close by.

5. These things are grave, but in all things we more than conquer through him who loved us (Rom 8:37). But why do we conquer even in these? Because if God is for us, who is against us (Rom 8:31)? Therefore the Lord deigned by the name of the cross to signify all things terrible, hard, bitter, intolerable, and savage. For even among the kinds of death there is nothing more intolerable than the cross. Indeed, it was added with great weight by the same Apostle, when he commended to us the humility of the Lord; for he says, He did not consider it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man (Phil 2:6-7). How great the humiliation of the Lord, to become a man! But hear further. Behold, he was humbled, because he was made a man. What more? He humbled, he says, himself, made obedient unto death—not only unto a human birth, but even unto death. Have you anything to add to this? "I have," he says: but the death of the cross (Phil 2:8). Looking on this end of the Lord, the most bitter of all, he called by the name "cross" all the things that the Christian flesh suffers when rightfully, for his name, the faith has endured them. For faith suffers nothing; rather, it makes even the sufferings bearable. Instructed, then, on both sides, and having both doors of desire and fear fortified, desiring nothing more than what God promises, fearing nothing more than what God threatens, we repel both those who flatter and those who threaten.

6. But someone stands up and raises a question for us and says: "All the bitter things, all the hard things, all the savage and harsh-to-endure things are indeed to be borne for the faith of Christ, to be borne entirely; but it troubles me that he who among his precepts placed the first precept for loving one's neighbor: Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may be well with you (Eph 6:2; Exod 20:12); and when the Apostle mentioned this as a great thing, the Lord says to me, If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother (Luke 14:26). To which shall I listen? Which of these shall I accept? How shall I obey the one commanding me to honor father and mother, and likewise the one commanding me to hate father and mother? Is he not one and the same who commands both, or—as certain vain people suppose—is it one who gave the law and another who propagated the Gospel, since in the law it is written, Honor father and mother, in the Gospel, Whoever does not hate father and mother?" Far from it! He himself is both the giver of the law and the propagator of the Gospel; he himself, entirely. Recognize the Lord: lest he command contrary things, he distributed the precepts according to the times. For if you think that the precept commanding us to honor father and mother, because it is read earlier in the Old Testament, is contrary to the gospel precept, in that same Old Testament something is written like what we just now heard read in the gospel. He who says to father and mother, "I do not know you," and who does not acknowledge his own children, he has kept my testament (Deut 33:9). How similar, how twinned, how equal it is recognized to be. Therefore one Lord commands both, but let us distinguish the times.

7. The martyr is armed for the crown, and father and mother come flattering, to hinder what God promises, promising a vain inheritance and taking away the eternity of light. Here plainly do not acknowledge those who hold you back; rather, hate the father here, out of devotion hate such a one, that he may not remain such. So father, so mother, so children, so brothers, so the wife—in whom is the greater question, when it has come to this point—hate even her, if she too tries to hinder you. Beware of Eve: then she is not your member, but the ministry of the serpent. You who unwisely heard her first voice, and did not profit by experience, but the very wife, to hinder the martyr husband from the crown, by feminine wiles prescribes to the husband as it were from the law and from the very Gospel. "Hear," she says, "the precept." What precept? "What God has joined, let not man separate (Matt 19:6). Hear plainly, do not scorn it. What God has joined, let not man separate." But see that the wife does not separate you from God. "But what he has joined, man ought not to separate." Ought human affection to separate man from God himself? And where will be what you just now heard, Who will separate us from the love of Christ (Rom 8:35)? Here, then, do not fear: man does not separate what God has joined, but God separates the one trying to separate. Do not, then, listen to the wife saying to you, "I am your member, behold, you are a member." Answer: "If my member were rotting, and by rotting were trying to make the whole body waste away, would it not be cut off by the physician? Do I not hear the Lord and true physician himself saying, For it is profitable for you that one of your members perish, rather than that your whole body go into hell (Matt 5:29)?" Answer, then, with the law well understood, against the one who uses the law badly. For the serpent does nothing great, attempts nothing great in wishing to deceive you about the law through Eve—the serpent who deceived the first Adam without law. For he saw you now feeding on the law, and sets a snare in your food. But say, My eyes are always toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the snare (Ps 25:15 (24:15)). So in this peril too, where you are tempted about the law, let your eyes be toward the Lord, because he too was tempted by the same serpent about the law.

8. For when the Lord, to set us an example of contest and victory, deigned to be tempted by the devil, just as he deigned to be crucified by the ungodly, in the first temptation—for we read that there were three—he answered from the law the devil who said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves (Matt 4:3); he, from the law: Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God (Matt 4:4; Deut 8:3). Again, in another temptation: Worship me prostrate, and I will give you these things; and he, from the law: It is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve (Matt 4:9-10; Deut 6:13). But when that cunning serpent saw himself twice repulsed from the law, he stretched a third snare from the law: "Throw yourself," he said, "down from the pinnacle of the temple, if you are the Son of God." And at once, to the instrument of the law, that he might fight from where he had been overcome: "For it is written," he said, "He has commanded his angels concerning you, that they bear you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone (Matt 4:6; Ps 91:11-12 (90:11-12)). Because, then," he said, "if you are the Son of God, the angels receive you lest you be harmed, throw yourself down and prove to us what you are." Surely here, because the devil dared to put his hand to the law, did the Lord take his hand from the law? Here too, from the same law, he wounded the enemy, laid him low, made him go off confounded. For he said, It is written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God (Matt 4:7; Deut 6:16). And here too, then, when you see the wife trying to hinder you from martyrdom, reciting the law to you and saying, "What God has joined, let not man separate," recite there too the law of the Gospel: Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children (Luke 14:26).

9. Do not, then, be angry, wife. The one at whom you are angry here, in this cause, because he hates you, also hates the father in this cause, also hates the mother. But it is too little for the wife, because it is written, A man will leave father and mother and will cleave to his wife (Gen 2:24; Matt 19:5). For if the parents—that is, father and mother—say to the son, "If your wife does not wish to stay with us, you stay with us, and dismiss her," let the wife take up this precept and fight, prescribe to the husband and say from the law of God, "Rather, dismiss them and do not dismiss me. For I recite, A man will leave father and mother and will cleave to his wife." You have recited, you have understood, you have conquered; plainly no one doubts that father and mother trying to separate the son from his wife are to be dismissed, that the wife not be deserted. But attend, woman, if you deign to be faithful, and do not disdain to hear a word of faith, attend: from where you have conquered, allow yourself there to be conquered. Behold, we restrain your father-in-law and your mother-in-law, the father and mother of your husband, who begot him, who nourished him, who brought him to this age at which he might become your husband; we wholly restrain and rebuke them by divine authority, and we have said: "Do not wish to separate the son from his wife on your account, for he is better separated from you than from her. If it can be done, all be together. But if this cannot be done, it is better that he be with her than with you without her." We have pleaded your cause. You have conquered in this judgment: allow yourself to be conquered in another, because there too we plead your cause. We have faithfully pleaded the cause of your flesh: ought we to abandon the cause of your everlasting salvation? Learn. The father and mother of your husband did not separate you from your husband: do not separate your husband from your God.

10. There fornication is more to be feared, in that chastity which the soul owes to God; there fornication is more to be feared, which the Apostle feared when he said, I have betrothed you to one husband, to present a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve in his craftiness, so too your minds be corrupted from the chastity of God which is in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 11:2-3). You see that there too chastity is demanded. Why do you not wish to be separated from your husband? Lest you have the necessity of fornication? But in your husband's martyrdom you ought to fear nothing. For he being crowned and translated from human affairs to divine, you will be a widow; if you marry, you will not be a fornicatress. But perhaps as the wife of a martyr you blush to marry further. Behold, your husband being crowned, let your faith also be safe. Do not drag your husband from the embrace of the spiritual marriage. There too chastity is demanded, and more there because greater there, more there because eternal there. You have destroyed everyone who fornicates away from you (Ps 73:27 (72:27)). For what else do you do, that your husband may be overcome by your flatteries, but that there be no virtue in him? In whom there will be no virtue, how badly off will your husband be! He is overcome, crushed, made effeminate by your flatteries: how will he be your husband, who will no longer be a man? For what do you do, but that he yield to your flatteries, despise the precepts of God, deny Christ, sacrifice to idols? Behold, the one whose flesh you seek—his soul fornicates; behold, he hears, You have destroyed everyone who fornicates away from you. But you wish him to cleave to you and be separated from God: hear what follows: You have destroyed everyone who fornicates away from you; but for me to cleave to God is good (Ps 73:27-28 (72:27-28)). Hear your husband armed with faith, hurling against your iniquity the darts of righteousness: I am certain, he says, that neither death nor life, nor angel nor principality, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:38-39). Perhaps here you say: "But in all these he did not name the wife." In all these, you say, he did not name the wife. Deceitful one, the apostolic power kept watch even against you by adding, nor any other creature. Or will you perhaps dare to say that you are not a creature? If you are a creature—rather, because you are a creature—neither will you separate the one whom no creature will separate.

11. Thus we have spoken as though men were hastening to martyrdoms and being hindered by their wives: let us console the weaker sex too. How many women have been crowned and were not overcome by men flattering unmanfully! Whence was Perpetua made perpetual, but because . . . perpetual? Whence was Felicity capable of so great felicity, but because temporal infelicity did not terrify her? Therefore, lest women too in this cause be seduced by the flatteries of men, let Perpetua be regarded by them, let Felicity be regarded, and let perpetual felicity be held.

12. Therefore let father and mother not be angry in such a cause, nor wife, nor children, nor brothers; and if they will be angry, it is added: hate moreover your own soul (See Luke 14:26). In this cause, then, you love your wife badly, you who are commanded even to hate your own soul. For what does it profit, he says, a man, if he gain the whole world, but suffer the loss of his soul (Matt 16:26)? And yet you are commanded to hate it too, lest it too seduce you, wishing to be here, wishing always to cleave to this flesh, unwilling to migrate to better things; hate such a soul, that you may not have such a one. For what else does it whisper within, in the people whom the peril of persecution tempts, but "Deny, live: you will do penance afterward"? It is the soul: it wishes to perish. Hate it as it wishes to perish. Do not permit it to perish; chastise, rebuke, form it, call God to your aid. For it withers from you and fails amid the perils of this life, with the eyes of faith not straight it contemplates eternal life: lift it up by exhortation and say, Why are you sad, my soul, and why do you disturb me? Perhaps it will answer you: "Because I am weak." Then you have what follows: Hope in the Lord, he himself will be your virtue, he himself will be your firmness. Hope in the Lord, for I will confess to him—I will not deny him, for I will confess him. But you, soul, were murmuring, "Deny him." I will confess to him: the salvation of my countenance and my God (Ps 42:5 (41:6)). Therefore he who loves his soul, let him lose it here, that he may find it unto eternal life (See John 12:25). Therefore do not listen to those whispering contrary things, neither father nor mother, nor wife, nor children, nor your own soul.

13. Let the wife be heard, with fear of conjugal separation, only as long as she does not advise anything by which God is offended. Thus all the degrees will keep their order: excellent virginity, widowhood following, marriage third, none without reward. Let virgins think on Mary, widows on Anna, the married on Susanna. All have their rewards, and from all these degrees the martyrs have by no means been lacking. The husband fears, at the moment of martyrdom, lest his wife be an Eve to him; the wife too fears, at the moment of martyrdom, lest her husband be a serpent to her. But let no one listen to anyone advising anything against God. Let carnal affection be valid up to this point; let the infirmity of the flesh not transcend the spiritual wall: let it be below, because it is below. Let the soul, subject to God, lead the flesh; let the soul not be seduced away from God into the dominion of the flesh: that is perverse. You wish to have the chief place in your house, much more does God in his. Hold and meditate on these things, imitate them in all the solemnities of the martyrs, and the God of peace will be with you (Phil 4:9). Let us turn to the Lord . . .

1. The divine readings, which feed us spiritually, admonish what we should dispense to you as you wait and attend, and that, as it were from the Lord's storehouse, of which we are the dispensers, we should set something before the hungry. The apostolic reading has been declared to us in these words, which your Holiness recalls with us: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how incomprehensible are his judgments, and untraceable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him? For from him and through him and in him are all things; to him be glory unto ages of ages, amen (Rom 11:33-36). But that the Apostle might exclaim, and as if terrified by a certain depth of the judgments of God might say, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, he had said above, God has shut up all in sin, that he might have mercy on all (See Rom 11:32). After this sentence, then, where he says, God has shut up all under sin, that he might have mercy on all—because truly there is something deep in this, that men were first made manifestly guilty in their own conscience, so that they could be helped, confessing—he exclaimed, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Where is the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God? In this, that God has shut up all in sin, that he might have mercy on all. By what sin? Of unbelief. For he used this word: God has shut up, he says, all in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all. May the Lord our God himself be present, then, whose riches the Apostle, praising them, exclaims over, and deign to impart to us something of those hidden and deep riches of his, so that what we feel to be inexplicable we may in some way speak—not so as to explain it, but so as to commend the inexplicable things. For the Apostle seems, by a certain human infirmity, to have as it were failed in explaining what he rejoiced in beholding. He saw something that the tongue could not explain, he beheld in the heart that for which he was less fit in words, and he did not find how to make us attentive to what he saw, except by exclaiming and lifting up our hearts, saying, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God; that our hearts, lifted up, might be directed to him whose riches, seeing, he exclaimed over, not to the mouth of the feeble dispenser who could not explain those riches. This, then, according to our small measure, may we have done, and may we have directed your hearts to him whose we all are, and under whom, one Master, we are all fellow-disciples in this school, where are the riches of God, where is the depth of the riches, and where are his unsearchable judgments and untraceable ways, because he has shut up all in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all.

2. He who has shut up all in unbelief seems to be angry, but he who has mercy on all is calm. Therefore the Apostle's passage agrees with the Psalm: God, you have repulsed us and destroyed us, you were angry and have had mercy on us (Ps 60:1 (59:3)). Hear the one who is angry and shows mercy. God has shut up all in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all. What did the Lord our God wish to do? First to be angry, to repulse, to humble, and afterward to help, to call back the one turned away, to hear the one turned back, to aid the one heard, to change the one aided, to crown the one changed. Join other testimonies of the Scriptures. The voice itself of a certain one man laboring on this earth—that is, of Adam himself, of the human race (which human race, nevertheless, the second man from heaven did not abandon, that, having first been earthly, afterward they might become heavenly (See 1 Cor 15:47-49); for because they were humbled, hence earthly; because cast down, hence earthly; because repulsed, hence earthly; but because he who repulsed and cast down and humbled had mercy on us, hence heavenly)—let us hear, then, the voice of that same man saying elsewhere, Before I was humbled, I offended (Ps 119:67 (118:67)). Groaning in his lowliness, he acknowledged his sin; he ascribed iniquity to himself, righteousness to God. For what does he say? Before I was humbled—which is the punishment that God inflicted—I, he says, offended. Lest God who humbled me seem unjust, my offense came first, my humiliation followed. The Lord my God is therefore a just judge (See Ps 7:11 (7:12)). For I would not come to this humiliation, unless I first offended. And because his very humiliation seems indeed to sound of the wrath of God the judge, but pertains to mercy, hear the voice of the same one elsewhere: It is good for me, he says, that you have humbled me, that I may learn your righteous decrees (Ps 119:71 (118:71)). Let your charity attend to what he says: Before I was humbled, I offended. In his punishment he seems to groan, in his fetters to sigh, in this mortality and earthly infirmity to seek the help, by confessing, of the one he had offended by sinning. For these words sound thus: Before I was humbled, I offended—that is: I do not impute my humiliation to you, my God: I did what is wicked, you did what is just.

3. With these words agree those words that we sang. For he who says, God, you have repulsed us and destroyed us, the same says, Before I was humbled, I offended. For you heard that God repulsed; you heard that God cast down—that is, threw down from the height to the earth. You heard it. Seek the cause why God did this: Before I was humbled, I, he says, offended. You have heard your preceding offense and the consequent righteousness of God; hear that even that very righteousness of God, which humbled you, indicates not only the severity of a just judge, but also the clemency of one who has mercy. For he says, as I said a little before, It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your righteous decrees. What then, my brothers? Was God angry when he humbled, or did he have mercy? If the humiliation profited us nothing, let it be attributed to excessive severity of God; which, if it were so, we could not complain of his injustice. For let the sinner pay back his desert; let the proud and unjust man not flatter himself; let him first find out what he deserves, that he may so come to know what God has bestowed. Does the heart of any sinful man, then, dare to announce to itself anything but punishment, anything but most just penalty? Or if punishment has followed a man's iniquity, can it be said to the just judge, "You did wrong to condemn the sinner"? Let us, then, sinners, announce this to ourselves, let us so confess in our punishments both our offenses and the righteousness of our God: for thus we shall deserve, in our very punishment, to find the mercy of God. This, dearly beloved brothers, no one finds, except the one who has first humbled himself. And because I am going to speak as I can, I do not think any of you will understand what I am going to say, unless he first suppresses the smoke of pride, by which the eyes of the mind are darkened, so that the mercy of God in the very punishment cannot be understood.

4. But first see this in daily life itself—for from there you can have a way to understanding, because he did not forsake the mortality of men—by certain similitudes in their very deeds, that it may be shown to us that a punishment can be inflicted mercifully. What shall I say? You discipline your servant, and in giving discipline surely, in the very thing in which you seem to punish, you have mercy—but I do not say "to your servant": perhaps you are so angry with your servant that you hate him. You ought not to be so, if you are a Christian; you ought not to be so, if you consider that you are a man; you ought not to be so, if you consider that "servant" and "master" are indeed different names, but "man" and "man" are not different. You ought not so to persecute with hatred the sinning servant. But because men are accustomed to be so, let us reject this similitude, and let us set up a son. No one can do anything but love his sons: for a man is not to be praised who loves his son. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have, says the Lord, do not the tax collectors do this (Matt 5:46)? How much more sons, whom men beget as successors to themselves. No one at all can, by the very right of nature, hate the one he has begotten. Nor is a man to be praised in that which is found in a beast. No one praises a man for loving his sons. You find this not only in gentle cattle: the ferocity of lions grows gentle toward their young, tigers love their young, serpents warm their eggs and nourish their cubs. If, then, the things that seem savage and harsh in creation do not keep their harshness and savagery toward those they beget, what great thing does a man do in loving his son? But I said these things, brothers, that you may see, from the example of sons, that there can be a punishment of one who has mercy, from that thing which no one can hate. Someone sees his son going into pride, exalting himself against his father, claiming for himself more than he ought, wishing to dissolve into delightful trifles, wishing to squander what he does not yet possess; and that one, while he does this, is glad, laughing, rejoicing, exulting; but the father restrains him by rebuke, punishment, scourges, takes away the laughter, brings on weeping, seems to have taken away a good and brought on an evil—see what he took away: gladness; see what he brought on: groaning—and yet, if he had let that gladness go unpunished, he would be cruel; because he forced him to weeping, he is found merciful. If, then, the father who forces to weeping is found merciful, why do we not understand that our Creator too could do what we sang: God, you have repulsed us and cast us down? But why this? Surely not unto destruction, not unto perdition? Hear what follows: You were angry and have had mercy on us (Ps 60:1 (59:3)). Why is he justly angry with you? Join it, since we said, Before I was humbled, I offended. What does it profit you that you were repulsed and cast down? It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your righteous decrees (Ps 119:71 (118:71)).

5. Let us now turn our mind back to that apostolic saying: God has shut up all in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all (See Rom 11:32). The first sin of man was pride: so we read in Genesis, so we find in another Scripture. What do we read in Genesis? That man, created and formed, was placed in paradise under a certain law, under a certain commandment (See Gen 2:15-17); the commandment imposed on him showed him this: that he was made great in such a way that he had a greater above himself. God, therefore, commanded that humility always be retained by man subject to him—that is, that the humility of man, established under God, be kept. Man was indeed made in the image of God and, as is written in another place, he gave him the power of holding all things: all things were under him, but above him was the one who made all things. So, then, man ought to have attended to the things that were under him in such a way that he attended more to the one who was above him; for cleaving to the higher, he would possess the lower more securely; but departing from the higher, he would be made subject to the lower. Just as if we set up three men: one man having a servant, having also a master—as it often happens that servants with savings have servants. Attend: he has a servant, he has a master; he is under one, he is over another; he is higher than the servant, lower than his master. We set up a third, the servant of the servant; the first, the master of the master; the middle, both servant and master: the master of his servant and the servant of his master. That third is nothing but a servant, that first is nothing but a master, that middle is both servant and master. But he securely possesses his servant, if he has not offended his master. And we have indeed spoken of three men: all are of the same kind, all subsist from the same substance and nature. Not so those three: God, and man, and the creature lower than man. For of another kind, and not of the same substance, are the founder and the founded, the maker and the made, the craftsman and the work, the creator and the creation. But the things that have been created are indeed all called, in general, created; but they differ in natures and orders and merits and places. For first are spiritual things and afterward carnal—the very things that God founded, that God made. Spiritual things have the first place, corporeal the last. But the human mind is something spiritual, where the likeness and image of God is imprinted; but corporeal are all the things that we perceive to lie under the senses of the body: they are known to all, they are seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched; hard, soft, hot, cold, rough, smooth—all these are called corporeal, they are lower. Above all these man is established, but according to the mind, according to the intellect, according to that which is made in him in the image and likeness of God. For God is not circumscribed and enclosed by a corporeal form, so as to have a back on one side and eyes on another; but he is a certain light—nor such as we see with the eyes, nor if you enlarge this which we see with the eyes, spreading it out through the fancy of your thoughts, and make fields of light and mountains of light and trees of light, flitting about through the vanities of your thoughts. Do you wish to understand spiritual light? Seek out whereby you understand.

6. Understand, I say, that very light by which you understand. What did I say? You see white and black with the bodily eyes, you are helped from without by the light either of the sun, or the moon, or a lamp, or some little fire. Moreover, if that light from without did not help your eyes, your eyes would lie open in vain and be called eyes without cause. But what in you lies open and is sound—that is, the eye—and what is brought to its aid from without—that is, the light—and what it is for the seeing of which you are helped—that is, colors and shapes—you know and distinguish. This we have said of the eyes. You hear voices, you know whereby you hear. The eyes do not hear, but neither do the ears see. Something is lacking to the eyes for perceiving voices, and something is lacking to the ears for perceiving colors. But to you none of these is lacking, because through the eyes you see, through the ears you hear. You know, then, the things that smell, and you know what member to bring near whereby you may perceive an odor. For you do not bring the ear near to perceive the sweetness of an odor, but you bring near that which God created in you for smelling. Nor, when you wish to taste some dish, do you put it to the ears or the eye: you know there is no sense there distinguishing flavors. And do you wish to perceive whether something is hard or soft, cold or hot? You know that with your whole body you can perceive contact. These things you know. Good. Attend to that inner thing: who is this one within to whom all these senses report what men perceive? For these are as it were instruments, these are as it were subjected to servitude. The inner perceiver is a certain commander to whom these messengers report whatever they find outside. But that inner one, who distinguishes all these things, is surely higher than all these things. So the eye has what it may see, the ear what it may hear, the nostrils what they may smell, the mouth what it may taste, the hand what it may touch, and has the mind nothing that it can behold through itself? The mind indeed perceives white and black, but with the eyes reporting; it perceives in voices the tuneful and the harsh, but with the ears reporting; it perceives in odors the sweet-smelling and the foul-smelling, but with the nostrils reporting; it perceives sweet and bitter, but with the mouth reporting; it perceives hard and soft, but when the touching hand has reported. Can it, then, with the body reporting, perceive things so many and various, and is it through itself not fit to perceive anything, with no member of the body reporting to it? Seek, then, what it perceives through itself, and you will find where the image of God is. White and black it perceived through the eyes, tuneful and discordant the ears reported. And, not to run again through each of these things that lie near the body, the members of the body reported. The just and the unjust—do the eyes report it? The mind distinguishes the just and the unjust and says, "This is just, this is unjust." Seek who reported it. If righteousness is a color, the eyes reported it; if righteousness is a sound, the ears reported it; if it is an odor, the nostrils reported it; if a flavor, the mouth reported it; if it is hardness or softness, the hand reported it. If it is none of these, who reported it, but the inner light? This nature, then, this substance which you see to be excellent—of which, if I wished to speak more fully, time would not suffice—a certain inner thing, a certain divine thing, was made in us in the image and likeness of God, is above all corporeal things, and was so made that all corporeal creation, subject to it, should serve it; but yet the mind itself is not God. For if it were God, would it have sinned? For God is unchangeable. But our mind, because it was created, because it was made, is not what God is. It is changeable. We see even now its very changes. It is wise, it is foolish; it remembers, it forgets; it wills, it does not will; it is delighted, it is saddened. These changeabilities do not fall upon God, who is above the mind, and is the creator of the mind.

7. But nevertheless all this which I have spoken of is above the body, is below God, below the master and above the servant. These are the three things of which I was speaking a little before. If, then, three men, though all are men, are ordered by a certain condition of this life, so that one of them is only a master, another of them is only a servant, and another of them is both servant of the master and master of the servant, how much, do you suppose, and how much more easily and more distinctly has the whole creation been ordered? The nature and substance of the mind placed under God, the nature of the whole body placed under the mind. But as I was saying: then he securely possesses his servant, if he has not offended his master; so that mind, if by a certain pride, by which it wished to be of its own power, it had not offended its master, the whole nature of the body would always be subject to it as a servant. But because by pride it offended the Lord, the creation of the body, which had been given into its service, became to it a torment of punishment, a torment of retribution. For now the mind is tortured by the difficulty of the body, when before it had dominion over the whole nature of the body. Just as if that man—for from here you better grasp the more illustrious similitude, because this very thing, that we understand with difficulty, pertains to the punishment by which we were humbled: from custom we give some illustrations. Set those three servants again before your eyes, because you understand this with difficulty, though it is more distinct; for those things are more distinct in proportion as they are more diverse: for God is far other than the mind, and the mind far other than the body. But in those three it is man, and man, and man. The nature is not diverse, but condition makes the order; yet because those are in our custom, we more easily understand them than the things that are more distinct. Now, then, understand this which we say. Make that middle one—because he is a servant in such a way that he is also a master; he is a master in such a way that he is also a servant: servant of the higher, master of the lower—make him, then, to have offended his master. By what did he offend? By a certain pride. For he considered that he too had a servant, and dared to exalt himself against his master, in the very thing by which he seemed to have his servant in his power. He raised himself against his master; his master commanded that he be beaten by his own servant. For that master of the master was the master of both. For that servant did not have his own servant in his power as much as the master of both had both. For when could he despise that master, no one's servant, so as not to beat his own master, when the more powerful master of both commanded it? Our God commanded, then, because we offended him, that we be tormented by our own body; and our body was made mortal, and we began to suffer punishments from there whence we dared to be proud against the Lord. So now we are beaten by our own servant. We are tortured in the torments of our flesh; the Lord humbled us, that we might be flogged by the servant.

8. But why did he humble us, that we might be flogged by the servant? Because we first offended: Before I was humbled, I offended (Ps 119:67 (118:67)). Placed, then, under the lash of your servant, cry out to the Lord your God, and say to him, It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your righteous decrees (Ps 119:71 (118:71)). What righteous decrees of yours? That, just as I have the body as a servant, you too have me as a servant. And just as I demand that the body obey me, so I ought to have obeyed you. Therefore from this I have learned your righteous decrees, as though the Lord were speaking to me from above and saying: "O wicked servant, at least now, set in this humiliation, acknowledge whom you offended, and to whom you were subject. Surely you are tortured by your own servant: you have a body and you wish it to obey you in all things, you wish that when you raise your hand, the hand follow; when you raise your foot, the foot follow. And although I wished you to be beaten by your servant, your servant still serves you." For when we wish to walk and to move the body to another place, we command the feet, and they obey; we command the eye to see, when we wish to behold something: it does not contradict us, it turns, it reports to us. We bring the ear near to sounds, at once it reports what sounds; we lift the hand to handle something, it does not resist. For in that the body serves us, it indicates that we are its masters; but in that it resists us, it indicates that we have a Master. But let us see in what your body does not obey you. For example, you can walk ten miles, you wish twenty: it does not obey. You can walk fifty miles, you wish sixty: it does not obey. You wish to stay awake two nights: it obeys in part, in another part it does not obey. You wish to move the hand to lift something: you lift something; you try at something else: it does not obey. Add so many tormenting difficulties of its infirmity and corruption, which cannot be numbered, and consider how the body, in that which is corrupted, weighs down the soul (See Wis 9:15). In that, then, which serves you, it shows that you are its master; but in that which resists you, it admonishes you to serve your Lord. Therefore say to your Lord, It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your righteous decrees. How do you learn his righteous decrees? So that now you do not disdain to serve your Lord, just as you wish your body to serve you. And you now begin to serve your Lord, and your body does not yet serve you as you wish. For you believe, who were unbelieving, you follow the precepts of your Lord, you walk the way, but righteousness is not yet perfect in you: therefore obedience is not yet perfect in your servant; there still remains something of bitterness, lest this world grow sweet to you, and you not long for your Lord who made the world.

9. Cry out from the ends of the earth to him, O Church spread throughout the world, say in the Psalm, From the ends of the earth I have cried to you, while my heart was in anguish (Ps 61:2 (60:3)). These things are written in the Psalm: On a rock you have exalted me, you have led me, for you have become my hope (Ps 61:2-3 (60:3-4)). For God exalted us on a rock. On what rock? But the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4), says the Apostle. And how was our hope made there? Because our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we were made, is himself the Word of God, through whom all things were made (See John 1:3). He took flesh from the lump of our mortality, and took on death, which pertained to the punishment of sin—not sin, but out of the mercy of freeing us from sin he handed over his own flesh to death. For he was not handed over unwilling; he would not have been crucified, unless he had handed himself over. For even that Judas handed him over, he handed over the willing one. Yet the merit of Christ's will is not imputed to Judas, but the merit of his own greed. For when he handed over the Lord, he did not consider our salvation, but his own avarice and his own perfidy. For Judas handed him over, Christ handed himself over, the Father of Christ handed him over. They all seem to have done one thing. They did one thing, but did not do it with one intention. The Father handed over the Son out of mercy, the Son handed over himself out of that very mercy, Judas handed over the master out of perfidy. There seems to be no difference between handing over and handing over, but between mercy and perfidy there is the greatest difference. How did the Father hand him over? Hear the Apostle: He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all (Rom 8:32). How did the Son hand himself over? The same Apostle says of the Lord himself, Who loved me and handed himself over for me (Gal 2:20). He handed over this flesh, then, to be killed, that you might not fear anything for your flesh. He showed in his resurrection after three days what you ought to hope for at the end of the age. He leads you, then, because he has become your hope. You walk now to the hope of resurrection; but unless our head had first risen, the other members would not find what they should hope for.

10. What then, my brothers? Although, even before the Lord suffered, his body served him as a master—for he was not bound to the body as though for retribution, as though for punishment, so as to be beaten by the servant as we are; but if he wished to suffer anything in his body, he suffered it by will and power, not by necessity and want, as he himself said, I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again: no one takes it from me, but I myself lay it down (John 10:18). Great, then, is the power in him; yet what he wished to suffer in the flesh he showed there, that you suffer deservedly. He suffered undeservedly, you suffer deservedly. But that you may endure what you suffer deservedly, he who suffered undeservedly consoles you. Endure, then, what you suffer, until your mortality passes away. Therefore your kingdom comes by certain measures of time; he renders what he promised, because in himself he has already shown that he rose. For he rose after three days; he wished to rise first and to show us what we ought to hope for at the end. We thought the flesh was going to perish; therefore he wished to take flesh from no other source than that from which we too had flesh. For if he took it from elsewhere, we would say: "The flesh could rise, which was taken from elsewhere. Was it taken from where we were taken?" He indeed did not admit to the mother the company of a man, because he was the only Son of God. Because he had the Father above, on earth he sought nothing but a mother. He showed us that what he created is not evil: he created male and female, he created both (See Gen 1:27). But because man had been seduced through a woman, women could despair of themselves, unless that sex were honored through the Virgin Mary. He chose to be born of a woman; it was fitting to take on a man, to be born a man. But not only had God created the man, he had created the woman too. Women could, as I said, despair of themselves and say that they did not pertain to the mercy of God, because through a woman the man was deceived; he deigned to be born of a woman, taking on a man, and honored the sex; he showed himself the founder of both sexes, and afterward the liberator. For because through a woman death was prepared for the man by the serpent, life was announced to the men themselves through women. For the women first saw the rising Lord and announced it to the men, the apostles. Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, showed us in his flesh what we ought to hope for at the end. He humbled us, then, that we might learn his righteous decrees.

11. Now then, let us return humbled, we who were cast down proud. For the whole cause of our mortality, the whole cause of our infirmity, the whole cause of all our torments, all difficulties, all hardships in this age which the human race suffers, is nothing but pride. You have Scripture saying, The beginning of all sin is pride (Sir 10:13). And what else does it say? The beginning of man's pride is to apostatize from God (Sir 10:12). If pride seems to you a small evil, at least tremble at apostatizing from God. Moreover, if you tremble at apostatizing from God, cast down the cause of apostatizing. For pride made man apostatize from God. Because, then, this is the head of all our diseases—for we are sick in this life. Just as a skilled physician, when he sees a man languishing with various diseases, does not attend to the proximate causes and leave the origin of all the causes—for if he treats the proximate causes while the source of the diseases is preserved, the derivations of calamity return, and he seems to heal for a time, but does not heal thoroughly; but that physician is found most skilled who gathers well all the causes of all the diseases, and whatever he finds to be the first cause, from which all those various things seem to have arisen like branches, he cuts the root, and the whole forest of pains is cut down—so the Lord Jesus Christ (why is he called Savior, and who said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick (Matt 9:12)) came to the sick, because the sick could not come to him; he sought those not seeking him, he turned himself to the infirm, he suffered many things, he endured to be killed by the blind, that he might heal their eyes by his very death—he did all these things, and because he saw pride to be the cause of all our diseases, by his humility he healed us.

12. Do not, then, deride the humility of Christ. For many pagans deride it because Christ came humble—and would that pagans alone!—and many heretics who call themselves Christians. It is foul to them that Christ was born of a woman; it is foul to them that he was fastened to the cross and wounded, and that those wounds were true that he received, and those nails were true that were driven in; it is foul to them and they say: "He simulated all those things, he feigned them and did not endure them." Did truth, then, free you by a lie? Were you laboring under a lie, and were you healed by a lie? How can it be? But whoever says these things show what kind of masters they themselves are. For if the Lord rose and offered to his doubting disciple his hands to be felt and the scars to be handled, the disciple saying, "I will not believe, unless I put my fingers into his side" (See John 20:25), he showed himself not only to be seen with the eyes but also handled with the hands; but he, when he handled the scars, found expressed the truth and exclaimed, My Lord and my God (John 20:28). If, then, Christ deceived, will you tell the truth? How shall I hear you, tell me. Do you wish me to hear you as a master? "As a master," he says to me. What do you say to me, what do you teach me? "I teach you," he says, "that Christ was not born of a woman, and did not have true flesh, and that death was not true, nor those wounds true, and if not true wounds, then not true scars." And I, on the contrary, have learned from the gospel about the Lord Jesus Christ, who, when the disciple doubted, offered him his scars. Surely he could have risen without scars, who could heal the eyes of one born blind. But why did he wish to bring the testimony of the scars? Because the testimony of the scars of the body was the medicine of the wounds of the mind. What, then, will you teach me: that those things were false, and Christ simulated all these things, and the disciple, deceived by falsity, exclaimed, My Lord and my God? If, then, he wished to make a man sound by falsity, how do I know whether you tell me the truth or lie? For you do not think it a crime to lie, when you try to set before me Christ as the author of a lie. For I will say to you: You lie, and you to me: "Far from it, I do not lie." You lie outright. "Far be it from me to lie." This you will say to me, that I may believe you. For tell me, "I lie," and I want to know whether I will believe you anything. But that I may believe you anything, you will say to me, "Far be it that I lie." Why did you say, "Far be it that I lie," unless you think it a crime to lie when you teach? What, then, you think a crime for yourself, this you assign to Christ? Therefore let human deceits depart: as it is written in the gospel, so Christ came. Let not the humility of Christ be foul to you; that humility is foul to pride. Do not be proud, and the humble Christ will not be foul to you.

13. The Apostle says, All things are clean to the clean. But to the unclean and unbelieving nothing is clean, but both their mind and conscience are polluted (Titus 1:15). With a chaste heart say: "A woman conceived, a virgin conceived." By faith she conceived, a virgin conceived, a virgin gave birth, a virgin remained. Believe all these things, and let those inner parts not seem unclean to you. For even if that flesh had been altogether unclean, Christ, coming to the flesh, would cleanse the unclean, and would not become unclean from the unclean. See the humility of your Lord: if it makes you shudder, you are proud. Humility makes the proud man shudder. As you are proud, so force yourself, that the cup of your swelling may not make you shudder. For when you are proud, you swell; you are not great. If you swell, drink the cup, that your inner parts may subside, that you may be able to be sound. This cup the physician has tempered for you, that you may drink. The physician himself has tempered the chalice for you: drink the bitter chalice, if you wish to be sound. Do you not see that you swell, do you not see that your inner parts are not sound? You think yourself great, and you swell. This is not greatness, but disease. Do you wish to be free of disease, do you wish to be free of swelling? Drink the chalice of humility. He tempered it for you who came to you humble. And lest you doubt to drink it, the physician drank first—not because it was necessary for the physician, but to take away the doubt from the sick. Do not, then, despise the humility by which you are healed. The head of all diseases is pride. To heal the head of all diseases came he who deigned to become the head of the Church. The head of all diseases being taken away, you will be sound. Humble yourself and you will be sound, and you will say more securely, It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your righteous decrees (Ps 119:71 (118:71)). For you raised yourself up and were humbled. Humble yourself and you will be raised up, because God resists the proud, but to the humble he gives grace (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5). Therefore, then, God has shut up all in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all (See Rom 11:32).

14. Man withdrew from God, followed his own covetings, loosened the reins: by wandering, roaming, he reached even the worship of idols. The very nation of the Jews, which worshiped one God, had grown proud, had grown proud and gone into iniquity. God, wishing to show them that they are weak, wishing to show them that they lie under the frailty of their own flesh, because that craving which was drawn from the lineage of their parents still remained in them, gave them the law and commandments, just and good and holy, as the Apostle says, And so the law indeed is holy, and the commandment just and holy and good. Did that which is good, he says, then become death to me? Far from it! But sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good (Rom 7:12-13). See how he called good that very law which had been given to the Jews. He called it good, because God had given it. And truly he had commanded all good things in the decalogue. Or was there perhaps something evil in: You shall not steal, you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not bear false witness, and the rest, you shall not covet your neighbor's property (Exod 20:13-17)? For even if you have not stolen, but only coveted, the laws do not hold you in the forum, but God holds you in judgment. Attend, therefore, brothers: the law was given to the Jews, weak but proud. They began to try to do the righteous deeds of the law and to be cast down by their own covetings, and they were made guilty, who before were unjust, but were not guilty of the law, were not transgressors. Hence the Apostle says, For where there is no law, neither is there transgression (Rom 4:15). When the law is given, the one who acts against the law, although he does what he was doing, yet when he was doing this without the law, he was a sinner, he was not a transgressor; but when he now does it with the law received, he is not only a sinner, but also a transgressor. Because, then, he is not only a sinner, but also a transgressor, that is fulfilled which the Apostle says, But the law crept in, that the offense might abound (Rom 5:20). But why did the offense abound? For this is, God, you have repulsed us and cast us down. But it follows and he says, But where the offense abounded, grace abounded the more. Because, then, the offense abounded, we rightly say, God, you have repulsed us and cast us down, you were angry. But because grace abounded the more, we rightly add, And you have had mercy on us (Ps 60:1 (59:3)). Let not the Jews, then, say, "We are something." For God has shut up all in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all (See Rom 11:32).

15. Let us, then, dearly beloved brothers, know our life, our Lord Jesus Christ; let us hold the medicine of our pride, the humility of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us believe in him, let us hope wholly from his mercy, who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all (Rom 8:32); and when perhaps we make progress in his righteous decrees, let us not be proud and despise the rest, but let us attend, on the road of righteousness, not to how much we have traversed, but to how much remains for us to accomplish; and let us groan everywhere, and let us groan as long as we are pilgrims, because our joy will not be except in the homeland, when we have been made equal to the angels (See Luke 20:36). As long as we are in the body, we are on pilgrimage away from the Lord. Why are we on pilgrimage away from the Lord? For we walk by faith, he says, not by sight (2 Cor 5:6-7). Faith is to believe what you do not see; sight is to see what you had believed. When, then, sight comes, that flame of love will be keener, because what you longed for absent, you embrace present; what you believed absent, you see present. And if God believed is sweet, what will he be when beheld? When, then, all these things are ended which still torment us on account of the remnants of our sins, then there will be the fullness of righteousness, then, joined to the angels, we shall sing the everlasting hymn "alleluia": the praise of God without ceasing will be ours, nor will hunger drive us from it, for the body does not hunger except that which is corrupted and weighs down the soul (See Wis 9:15); nor will we thirst nor grow weak nor grow old nor sink into sleep nor be tired by any weariness, but such as the bodies of the angels are, such will our flesh be in the resurrection of the dead (See Luke 20:36). Do not wonder that this flesh will be heavenly bodies in the resurrection of the dead. Consider that, before we existed, we were nothing, and from that believe what we shall be when we have risen. Let each one consider himself: before he was born, what was he, where was he, where did he lie hidden? All this distinction of the body—ears, eyes, face, the spirit animating the whole mass of the body—where were all these things? Surely in the secret of nature, surely where they were not seen. They came forth from there, God formed you who did not exist. What great thing is it for God to make an angel from a man, who from mud made man (See Gen 2:7)? What were you? and you are a man; you are a man, and will you not be an angel? An angel is made from a man more closely than a man is made from what you were. What is more wonderful, he has done in you; what remains, will he not do?

16. It is needful that you believe, and that your faith not forsake Christ, not forsake the gospel, not forsake his promises. Understand that all the things that are written are nearly accomplished, few are those that remain. This Church, which you see spread throughout the whole world, a little while ago did not exist. A few years ago you were pagans, now you are Christians; your parents served demons, before the temples were full of those burning incense, now the Church is full of those praising God. How suddenly has God changed human affairs! Before all these things were, the writings were read, were believed and were not seen; now we see those things that our elders read. If, then, such great things have been fulfilled, will the few that remain not come? Believe strongly that they will come, brothers, because even all these things that have already come, came in no other way than as they were written and foretold before they came. Many thousands of years ago, when it was said to Abraham, In your seed all nations will be blessed (Gen 22:18), it was said to one man, In your seed all nations will be blessed; he considered himself one, and this seed, and his wife now an old woman and worn out with old age itself, and it was said to him not only, "There will be a seed from you"—which, if it alone were said, what more wonderful?—it was too little to say to one already worn out with old age, "You will have a son": In your seed, he says, all nations will be blessed. God said wonderful things, said impossible things, but easy for himself (See Luke 1:37). That one man believed what he did not see, and we see it; what he believed has been displayed to us—rather, has been rendered to us, what has been displayed in us. For from the seed of Abraham came Isaac, and from Isaac Jacob, and from Jacob the people of the Jews, and from the people of the Jews David, and from the seed of David the virgin Mary, and from the virgin Mary the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore in the seed of Abraham all nations will be blessed, because all nations are blessed in Christ. Behold, now there has been displayed to us what was promised to him. God, then, almighty and faithful, displayed what he promised to one man: will he not display what he promised to all? My brothers, let your faith be built up, let your hope be strengthened. He did not deceive one man; can he deceive the world? He has displayed to one man the world full of Christians; he will display the world living forever with Christ his Son.

17. Holding these things, brothers, understand that the Church is not in a part, but is in the whole. Christ bought the whole, he gave his blood for the whole: the whole world has Christians, the unity of Christ is the Church. Without cause the heretics quarrel with the Church of Christ: it is too little that they wished to be disinherited; they also slander the heirs. Lead them in unity to the whole; let them not seduce you to a part. If you follow them, you will go to a part; if they hear you, they will come to the whole: they themselves are conquered to their own gain. For Christ bought the whole when he hung on the cross, my brothers: the commerce of Christ, the passion of Christ; there he bought us where he was crucified. For there he poured out his blood, our price, there where it was foretold in the Psalms as still to come. See how many years before it was foretold: They have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones; but they themselves looked and gazed upon me, they divided my garments among themselves and over my garment they cast lots (Ps 22:16-18 (21:17-19)). All these things can scarcely be distinguished, whether they are heard in the Psalm or recited from the gospel. Are they not, just as they are sung in the Psalm, so read in the gospel: They have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones? There Christ bought us, where all his bones were numbered; where his hands and his feet were pierced with nails, there he bought us. For there he poured out his blood, which is our price. In that very Psalm is understood what he bought. Do you wish to know? Ask the very Psalm. What did Christ buy, hanging on the tree? For after a few verses it says, All the ends of the earth will remember and be turned to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship in his sight (Ps 22:27 (21:28)). Why will they worship? Because the kingdom is his, and he will rule over the nations (Ps 22:28 (21:29)). As though it were answered why—who is this to whom all the ends of the earth will be turned and in whose sight all the families of the nations will worship? Because, it says, the kingdom is his, and he will rule over the nations. Why is it his? Because he himself bought it.

18. Now the enemy possessor breaks in, and this under the name of Christ. He can divide some of the garments of Christ; that tunic no one will divide, which was woven from the top. They divided, it says, my garments among themselves, and over my garment they cast lots (Ps 22:18 (21:19)). And the evangelist says, There was there a certain tunic woven from the top, and those who crucified the Lord said among themselves, Let us not divide it, but cast lots over it (John 19:23-24). It was not placed in the division, that tunic was beyond division. Why was that tunic beyond division? Because it was woven from the top. It was signified why what was woven from the top did not deserve to be divided. What is it that is woven from the top? Whence it is said to us, "Lift up your hearts." And so the one who has his heart on high cannot be divided into parts, because he will belong to that tunic which cannot be divided. Therefore, my brothers, that tunic fell by lot to our Lord Jesus Christ himself, because his lot is his inheritance. And since it was his inheritance, he bought it. But those who were divided can belong to the other garments of Christ, because he is clothed with all. All who believe in him are in some way his clothing. But whoever seek earthly honors, temporal advantages, bodily fancies, are not woven from the top, because they desire worldly things. They, then, can be divided. But that tunic which is woven from the top cannot come into division. Rejoice that you belong to it, you who are shoots of the catholic Church. Ask your heart whether you seek from Christ nothing but the kingdom of heaven: not vain things, not temporal things, not bodily images, not the things that delight in this age and on this earth. When you have asked yourselves, your conscience answers you that you have your "heart on high." And if you have your "heart on high," you are woven from the top; if you are woven from the top, you cannot be divided.

1. We have been admonished by the Apostle that he who glories, let him glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31; 2 Cor 10:17); and to that Lord we have sung, In your righteousness rescue me, and deliver me (Ps 31:1 (30:2)). This, then, is to glory in the Lord, to glory not in one's own, but in his righteousness. But this righteousness lay hidden from those who glory in their own righteousness. And this vice appeared most of all in the Jews, refusing the New Testament and remaining in the old man. In vain and unfruitfully had they read and sung in their codices, In your righteousness rescue me. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish their own, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3). Let no one, then, glory as if in his own righteousness, even if he is righteous. For to the one glorying in his own righteousness it is said, For what do you have that you have not received (1 Cor 4:7)? Therefore he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. For what is more secure than to glory in him of whom no one at all can be put to shame? For if you glory in a man, something can be found in a man—rather, many things can be found in a man—over which the one who glories in him may be put to shame. But when you hear that one must not glory in man, surely not in yourself either: for you are not a non-man. If, then, you glory in yourself, you glory in a man; and this is more foolish and more execrable. For if you glory in some righteous man or other wise man, that one in whom you glory does not glory in himself; but if you glory in yourself, you are not wise, not righteous; but if one ought not to glory in a wise man, much less ought one to glory in a foolish one. But he who glories in himself glories in a foolish man. For by this very thing he is convicted as foolish, because he glories in himself. Therefore, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. Nothing is safer, nothing more secure. If you can, you have something to lay hold of; glorying in the Lord you will not be put to shame. For nothing of reproach can be found in him in whom you glory. And through this, he too who did not say, In my righteousness rescue me, but, In your righteousness rescue me, first said this: In you I have hoped, O Lord; let me not be put to shame forever (Ps 31:1 (30:2)).

2. For is there anything else in which the Jews erred, or by what other vice were they made exiles from gospel grace, except that one of which the Apostle was not silent, which I mentioned a little before? I bear witness, he says, to them, that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge (Rom 10:2). Where he praised, he also reproached. Whence, then, are they faulty? Because, although they have a zeal for God, it is not according to knowledge. And as though we should consult the Apostle and say: What do you mean by what you said, Not according to knowledge? What is this knowledge which they do not have, who nevertheless have a zeal for God? What knowledge do they not have—do you wish to hear? Attend to what follows: For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish their own, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3). If, then, you have a zeal for God, and wish to have it according to knowledge, and to belong to the New Testament, to which the Jews could not belong for this reason, because they had a zeal for God not according to knowledge; acknowledge the righteousness of God, and do not wish to establish this very righteousness as your own, if you have any; if you live well, if you do the precepts of God, do not think it your own; for this is to wish to establish one's own righteousness. Acknowledge from whom you received it, and you have what you received. For you do not have what you have not received. But if you have received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it (1 Cor 4:7)? For when you glory as if you had not received it, you glory in yourself; and where is, He who glories, let him glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31)? Hold the gift, but acknowledge the giver. When the Lord promised that he would give his Spirit, If anyone thirsts, he said, let him come to me, and drink. He who believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from his belly (John 7:37-38). Whence is this river in you? Recall your former dryness. For unless you had been dry, you would not have thirsted; if you had not thirsted, you would not have drunk. What is, If you had not thirsted, you would not have drunk? Unless you had found yourself empty, you would not have believed in Christ. Before he said, Rivers of living water will flow from his belly, he first said, If anyone thirsts, let him come and drink. Therefore you will have a river of living water, because you drink; you do not drink, if you do not thirst; but if you were thirsting, why did you wish to glory as if from your own river? Therefore, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.

3. And I, he says, brothers, coming to you, came not in loftiness of word or wisdom, announcing to you the mystery of God. He also says, Did I say that I knew anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1 Cor 2:1-2)? And if he knew this alone, there is nothing he did not know. It is a great thing to know Christ crucified; but before the eyes of little ones he set as it were a wrapped-up treasure. Christ, he says, crucified. How much does this treasure have within? Then in another place, when he feared for certain people, lest by philosophy and empty deceit they be seduced from Christ, he promised the treasure of the knowledge and wisdom of God in Christ. Beware, he says, lest anyone seduce you by philosophy and empty seduction, according to the elements of the world, not according to Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:8.3). Christ crucified, the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Do not, then, he says, be deceived by the name of wisdom. To this wrapping call yourselves; pray that this may be unwrapped for you. Foolish philosopher of this world, what you seek is nothing; what you do not seek is something. What does it profit that you thirst much, and trampling pass by the fountain? You despise the humility, because you do not understand the majesty. For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:8). Jesus Christ, he says, crucified. I did not say that I knew anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified; his humility, which the proud deride, that there may be fulfilled in them, You have rebuked the proud; for cursed are those who turn aside from your commandments (Ps 119:21 (118:21)). And what is his commandment, but that we believe in him, and love one another? In whom should we believe? In Christ crucified. What pride does not wish to hear, let wisdom hear. His commandment is that we believe in him. In whom? In Christ crucified. This is his commandment, that we believe in Christ crucified. This entirely; but that proud one, with stiff neck, swollen throat, exalted tongue, puffed cheeks, derides Christ crucified. Cursed, then, are those who turn aside from your commandments. Why do they deride, but because they see a cheap little garment wrapped around the outside, and do not see the treasure lying hidden within? He sees the flesh, sees the man, sees the cross, sees the death, and despises these things. Wait, do not pass by, do not scorn, do not insult. Wait, search; perhaps there is something within that will greatly delight you. If you should find what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has ascended into the heart of man (1 Cor 2:9; Isa 64:4). The eye sees the flesh; there is beneath the flesh what the eye does not see. Your ear hears the voice; there is there what the ear has not heard. There has ascended into your heart, as it were from earthly thoughts, a man crucified and dead; there is there what has not ascended into the heart of man. For accustomed thoughts ascend into our heart: It ascended, it says, into the heart of Moses to visit his brothers (Acts 7:23; Exod 2:11); this is the human condition. And when the disciples doubted about the Lord himself, and said among themselves, when they suddenly saw him risen: It is he, it is not; it is flesh, it is a spirit; he says this to them, Why do thoughts ascend into your heart (Luke 24:38)?

4. Let us seek, then, if we can, not what can ascend into our heart, but where our heart may deserve to ascend. For he will deserve to be glorified in the one who reigns, who has learned to glory in the one who was crucified. Hence the Apostle himself, seeing not only where to ascend, but also by what way to ascend—for many have seen where, and have not seen by what way; they have loved the homeland of the heights, but have been ignorant of the way of humility—the Apostle, then, knowing, and thinking, and premeditating, not only where, but also by what way: Far be it from me, he says, to glory, except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ (Gal 6:14). He could have said, In the wisdom of our Lord Jesus Christ; and he would say the truth; he could have said, In the majesty; and he would say the truth; he could have said, In the power; and he would say the truth; but he said, in the cross. Where the philosopher of the world blushed, there the Apostle found the treasure; not by despising the cheap wrapping, he came to the precious thing wrapped within. Far be it from me, he says, to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. You have taken up a good burden, there is the whole of what you sought; and you have shown what great thing lay hidden there. What kind of help? Through whom, he says, the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal 6:14). When would the world be crucified to you, unless for you were crucified the one through whom the world was made? Therefore, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31). In what Lord? In Christ crucified. Where there is humility, there is majesty; where there is infirmity, there is power; where there is death, there is life. If you wish to attain to those things, do not despise these.

5. You heard in the Gospel about the sons of Zebedee. They sought the heights, asking that one of them sit at the right hand of so great a head of the household, the other at the left. They were indeed seeking a great loftiness, great; but because they put after it the "by what way," Christ calls them back from where they wished to go to that by which they ought to go. For to those seeking so great a loftiness, what did he answer? Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink (Matt 20:22)? What chalice, but of humility, but of suffering? Which he was going to drink, and, transforming our infirmity into himself, he says to the Father, Father, if it can be, let this chalice pass from me (Matt 26:39). Transforming into himself those very ones who refused to drink such a chalice, and sought the heights, neglecting the way of humility: Can you drink, he says, the chalice that I am going to drink? You seek Christ on high; return to the crucified. You wish to reign and to glory in the seats of Christ; first learn to say, Far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal 6:14). This is the Christian teaching, the precept of humility, the commendation of humility, that we glory in nothing but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For it is no great thing to glory in the wisdom of Christ; it is a great thing to glory in the cross of Christ; whence the ungodly man insults you, thence let the devout man glory; whence the proud insults, thence let the Christian glory. Do not blush at the cross of Christ; therefore you have received that very sign on your forehead, as it were on the seat of shame. Recall your forehead, that you may not dread another's tongue.

6. The sign of the Old Testament is circumcision in the hidden flesh, the sign of the New Testament is the cross on the free forehead. For there is concealment, here revelation; that is under a veil, this in the face. For as long as Moses is read, a veil is placed over their heart. Why? Because they have not passed over to Christ. For when you have passed over to Christ, the veil will be taken away (2 Cor 3:15-16); so that you who had circumcision in the hidden place may carry the cross on the forehead: But we, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image, he says, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18). Do not ascribe this to yourself, do not think it yours, lest, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish your own, you not be subject to the righteousness of God. Pass over, then, to Christ, O you who glory in circumcision. For you wish to have glory in what you are ashamed to show. It is a sign, it is true, it was commanded by God; but it is a sign of concealment. For the New Testament was veiled in the Old; the Old Testament is revealed in the New. Therefore let the sign pass from the hidden to the manifest, and let that begin to be on the forehead which lay hidden under the garment. For that Christ was foretold in that sign, who can doubt? Hence the knife of stone: but the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). Hence the eighth day of circumcision, and the Lord's day of resurrection. Therefore the Apostle, passing over from there, coming from there—passing over, that is, to Christ, that the veil might be taken away—knew whence to glory. But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For what had he said before? For neither do those who are circumcised keep the law; but they wish you to be circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh (Gal 6:13). What of you, Apostle? Transfer the sign to the forehead. But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here I have, he says, what I was ignorant of. The New Testament came, what was concealed was revealed. Those who sat in the shadow of death (See Isa 9:2; Matt 4:16), light has risen for them. What was concealed was revealed to them; what lay hidden is in the open. The Rock himself came, circumcised us all in spirit, and fixed the sign of his humility on the forehead of the redeemed.

7. Now let glorying be in the cross of Christ; let us not be ashamed of the humility of the Most High. How long the distinction of foods, and the circumcision of the flesh? Whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame (See Phil 3:19). To them future things were foretold; now let them be believed as done. Let us not be ungrateful to him who came, if we waited for him to come. But whence are the Jews exiles, aliens, fugitives from this grace? Because they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. What knowledge? Being ignorant, he says, of the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish their own (Rom 10:2-3); not holding God except in precepts, and supposing that by their own strength they could fulfill the precepts, they avoided the help. For Christ is the end of the law—the perfection of the law is Christ—unto righteousness for everyone who believes (Rom 10:4). And what does Christ do? He justifies the ungodly. For by believing in him who justifies the ungodly—not the godly, but the ungodly; making godly the one he finds ungodly: to the one, then, who believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness. For if Abraham was justified by works, as though he himself did it, as though he himself bestowed this on himself, he has glory, but not before God (Rom 4:5.2). But he who glories, let him glory in the Lord; and let him say securely, In your righteousness rescue me, and deliver me. For he rescues and delivers those who hope in him; who do not ascribe to their own strength what they have received. For this very thing is of wisdom, to know whose gift it is (Wis 8:21). Who said this? He who asked God to give him continence. What righteousness, what particle of righteousness can be fulfilled without some continence? For it is a delight to sin; for if it were no delight, it would not be done. But righteousness delights less, or does not delight, or delights less than is fitting. Whence this, but from the sicknesses of the soul? Bread is loathed, and poison delights. Whence will this sickness be healed, I beseech you? Is it from ourselves and through ourselves? We who were all fit to wound ourselves, which of us is fit to cure what he did? So too in sins themselves, who does not wound himself when he wishes? But not everyone, when he wishes, heals himself. Let the soul, then, be devout, let it be faithfully Christian, let it not be ungrateful to grace. Let the physician be acknowledged: the sick man never heals himself.

1. 1. When the Apostle was read, we heard him rebuking and restraining human lusts, and saying, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I, then, take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Far from it (1 Cor 6:15)! He said, then, that our bodies are members of Christ; since Christ is our head, in that he was made man for us, the head of whom it was said, He himself is the Savior of our body. But his body is the Church (See Eph 5:23). If, then, our Lord Jesus Christ took up only a human soul, his members would be only our souls; but because he took up a body too, through which he is also our head—we who consist of soul and body—surely our bodies too are his members. If, then, each one craving to fornicate became cheap to himself, and despised himself in himself; let him not despise Christ in himself; let him not say: I will do it, I am nothing: All flesh is grass (Isa 40:6). But your body is a member of Christ. Where were you going? Return. To where were you craving as it were to hurl yourself? Spare Christ in yourself, acknowledge Christ in yourself. Shall I, then, take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? For a harlot is one who consents with you to adultery; and perhaps she herself, a Christian woman, takes the members of Christ and makes them members of an adulterer. You despise Christ in one another, and do not acknowledge your Lord, nor consider your price. But what kind of Lord is he, who made his servants his brothers? But it was too little to make them his brothers, unless he made them his members. Has so great a dignity, then, become cheap? Because it was bestowed so kindly, is no honor rendered to it in return? If it were not bestowed, it would be longed for; because it is bestowed, is it despised?

2. 2. But these our bodies, which the Apostle says are members of Christ, on account of the body of Christ which he took from the kind of our body; these our bodies, then, the same Apostle says are a temple in us of the Holy Spirit, whom we have from God. On account of the body of Christ, our bodies are members of Christ; on account of the indwelling Spirit of Christ, our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Which of these do you despise in yourself? Christ, of whom you are a member? Or the Holy Spirit, of whom you are a temple? The harlot herself, who consents with you to evil, you do not dare perhaps to bring into your bedroom, where you have your conjugal bed; but you seek some abject and foul place in your house, in which to wallow foully. You show honor, then, to the bedroom of your wife, and do not show honor to the temple of your God? You do not bring in the unchaste woman where you sleep with your spouse, and you yourself go to an unchaste woman, when you are the temple of God? I think the temple of God is better than the bedroom of your wife. For wherever you go, Jesus sees you; who made you, and redeemed you when lost, and for you, dead, died. You do not acknowledge yourself; but he does not turn his eyes from you—not to help, but to punish. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears to their prayers. At once he went on and terrified those who gave themselves an evil security, who said to themselves: I will do it; for God does not deign to attend to me doing such foul things. Hear what follows, attend to whose you are; since wherever you go, Jesus sees: But the face of the Lord is upon those who do evil, to destroy their memory from the earth (Ps 34:15-16 (33:16-17)). But from what earth? Where it is said, You are my hope, my portion in the land of the living (Ps 142:5 (141:6)).

3. 3. For perhaps the evil, the unjust, the adulterer, the unchaste, the fornicator rejoices that he does it, and grows old while in him lust does not grow old, and says within himself: Surely it is true, But the face of the Lord is upon those who do evil, to destroy their memory from the earth. Behold, I have now grown old, who from my earliest age until this present day commit such things, I have buried many chaste men before me, I myself led to the grave the funerals of many chaste young men, and, unchaste, I have outlived the chaste. What is it that is said, that the face of the Lord is upon those who do evil, to destroy their memory from the earth? There is another earth where there is no unchaste man, there is another earth in the kingdom of God. Do not err; neither fornicators, nor those who serve idols, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers will possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9-10). This is, he will destroy their memory from the earth. For many committing such things place hope for themselves; on account of those who, living in ruin, place hope for themselves in the kingdom of God, to which they will not come, it was said, He will destroy their memory from the earth. For there will be a new heaven and a new earth, which the righteous will inhabit. There the ungodly, there the evil, there the most worthless are not allowed to dwell. Let him who is such now choose where he longs to dwell, while there is time that he may be able to be changed.

4. 4. For there are two dwellings; one in eternal fire, the other in the eternal kingdom. Suppose that in the eternal fire this one will be tormented in one way, that one in another; yet they will be there, there all will be tortured; this one less, that one more. For it will be more tolerable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for another city (See Matt 11:24); and some go around sea and land to make one proselyte, and when they have made him, they make him a son of hell twice as much as they are themselves (See Matt 23:15). Suppose that some twofold, others single; suppose that some more, others less; there is no region there where you may choose a place for yourself. Whatever milder torments are there, they are worse than what you dread in this age. Consider how you tremble if someone slanders you, lest you be sent to prison; and do you yourself live badly against yourself, that you may be sent into fire? You tremble, you are troubled, you grow pale, you run to the church, you long to see the bishop, you roll at his feet. He asks why. Free me, you say. What is going on? Behold, this man slanders me. And what is he going to do to you? Lord, I am shaken; Lord, I am being sent to prison; have mercy on me, free me. Behold how prison is feared, how confinement is feared; and the burning of hell is not feared! Finally, when calamity increases, and pressure rages more fiercely, and rages even to death, when it seems good to a man that he not die, not be killed, all cry out that help must be given, all aids are implored: come to the aid, run, for the sake of the soul. The whole heightening of the calamity is that it is said, for the sake of the soul. Help must indeed be given, nor must aid be denied to this fear; what can be done must be done, by him who can.

5. 5. Yet I wish to question the one in peril, and moving my inmost feelings by this word; since he says, Run, for the sake of the soul. I easily answer him: I indeed run for the sake of your flesh; would that you would run for the sake of your soul. And know that I run for the sake of your body, not for the sake of your soul. I would rather hear Christ saying true things than you murmuring out of a false fear. For the Lord himself says, Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul (Matt 10:28). Surely you wish me to run for the sake of your soul; behold, the one you fear, and under whose threats you grow pale, cannot kill your soul; he rages as far as the body; do not you rage against your soul. By him it cannot be killed, by you it can; not by a lance, but by a tongue. The enemy who strikes you ends this life: but the mouth that lies kills the soul (Wis 1:11). From these things, then, which in this time men fear, let them gather what they ought to fear. For he fears prison, and does not fear hell? He fears the torturers of the questioning, and does not fear the infernal angels? He fears temporal torment, and does not fear the punishments of the eternal fire? Finally, he fears to die for a little, and does not fear to die forever?

5. 6. That one who is going to kill you, whom you fear, whom you shudder at, whom you flee, from fear of whom you are not allowed to sleep, and if you see him in dreams when you sleep, you are terrified—what is he going to do to you? He is going to shut out your soul from your flesh; see where your soul, shut out, may go. For he cannot kill your flesh in any other way except by shutting out your soul from there, by which your flesh lives. For by the presence of your soul the flesh lives, and as long as your soul is present in your flesh, your flesh must necessarily live. But the one who seeks your death wishes to cast out from your flesh your life, by which your flesh lives.

6. 6. Do you suppose there is not some life by which your soul itself lives? For the soul is a certain life, by which your flesh lives. Do you suppose there is no other life by which your soul itself lives? Or, just as your flesh has a life—the soul by which your flesh lives—does your soul itself too come to have some life of its own? And just as the flesh, when it dies, breathes out the soul, its life; so the soul too, when it dies, breathes out some life of its own? If we find what this life is—not of your body, which is your soul, but the life of the life of your body, that is, the life of your soul; if we find it, then concerning this death by which you fear that your soul may be cast out of the flesh, I think you ought rather to fear that death, lest the life of your soul be cast out from your soul. Briefly, then, I will say it—and why am I held by many words? The life of the body is the soul, the life of the soul is God. The Spirit of God dwells in the soul, and through the soul in the body, so that our bodies too are a temple of the Holy Spirit, whom we have from God. For the Spirit comes to our soul; because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom 5:5); and he possesses the whole who holds the principal part. For in you that has the rule which is better. God, holding what is better—that is, your heart, your mind, your soul—surely through the better possesses also the lower, which is your body. Let the enemy, then, rage, let him threaten death, let him do it if it is permitted, let him shut out the soul from your flesh; let your soul not shut out from itself its own life. If you rightly lament, and think you say pitiably to your powerful enemy: Do not strike, spare my blood; does God not say to you, Have mercy on your soul, pleasing God (Sir 30:24)? Your soul perhaps says: Ask him not to strike; for I dismiss you. For if he strikes, I cannot remain with you. Ask him not to strike, if you wish me not to dismiss you. Who says to you, if you wish me not to dismiss you? You yourself; for you who speak are a soul. If, then, he strikes the flesh, you flee, you go out, you migrate, earth lies in earth. Where will be what animated the earth? What was given to you by the breath of God, where will it be? If it did not breathe out its own life, that is, its God, it will be in the one it did not lose, it will be in the one it did not shut out from itself. But if you obey the infirmity of your soul, which says to you, He strikes, and I dismiss you; do you not fear God saying to you, You sin, and I dismiss you?

7. 7. From a vain fear let us take a useful fear. The fear of all men fearing to lose temporal things—men who are going to migrate at some time, and who tremble to migrate, wishing always to put off what they cannot keep from being taken away—is vain. This fear of men is vain; and yet it exists, and is vehement, and cannot be resisted. Hence men are to be reproached, hence rebuked, hence lamented, hence mourned: fearing to die, and doing nothing else but to die later. Why do they not bring it about that they not die? Because whatever they do, they do not bring it about that they not die. But can they do anything by which they may bring it about that they never die? In no way. Plainly, whatever you do, however much you keep watch, wherever you flee, whatever fortifications you seek, with whatever riches you ransom yourself, with whatever cunning you deceive the enemy, you do not deceive the fever. For you do nothing else, that you may not die soon by the enemy, except that you may die later sometime by the fever. You have something to do, that you may never die. If you fear death, love life. Your life is God, your life is Christ, your life is the Holy Spirit. You do not please him by acting badly. He does not inhabit a ruinous temple, he does not enter a filthy temple. But groan to him, that he may cleanse the place for himself; groan to him, that he may build a temple for himself; what you destroyed, let him construct; what you laid waste, let him reform; what you cast down, let him raise up. Cry to God, cry within, cry where he hears; for there too you sin, where he sees; cry there, where he hears.

7. 8. And when you have corrected your fear, and begun to fear usefully—not temporal torments, but the punishments of the eternal fire—and therefore have not been an adulterer (for this is what we were speaking of, on account of the Apostle, who said, Your bodies are members of Christ); when, then, you have begun not to be an adulterer because you fear to burn in the everlasting fire, you are not yet to be praised; not indeed so to be grieved over as before, but yet not yet to be praised.

8. 8. For what great thing is it to fear punishment? It is a great thing—but to love righteousness. I question you, and I find you out. Look at my question that sounds aloud, and make about yourself the question that is silent. I say to you, then: When, overcome by lust, you have a consenting partner, why do you not commit adultery? And you will answer: Because I fear hell, I fear the punishment of the eternal fire, I fear the judgment of Christ, I fear the fellowship of the devil, lest I be punished by him and burn with him. What? Shall I say: You fear badly? Just as I said to you about the adversary, that he sought to kill your body. For there I rightly said: You fear badly, your Lord made you secure, saying, Do not fear those who kill the body. Now, when you say to me: I fear hell, I fear to burn, I fear to be punished forever; what shall I say? You fear badly? You fear in vain? I dare not, since the Lord himself, having taken away fear, added fear; and he said, where he said, Do not fear those who kill the body, and afterward have nothing they can do; but fear him who has power to kill both body and soul in the hell of fire; yes, I tell you, fear him (Luke 12:4-5). When, then, the Lord struck fear, and struck it vehemently, and by repeating the word doubled the threat, shall I say: You fear badly? I will not say these things. Fear plainly, you fear nothing better; there is nothing you ought more to fear. But I question you: If God did not see you when you do it, nor would anyone convict you in his judgment, would you do it? Look at yourself. For you cannot answer all my words; look into yourself. Would you do it? If you would do it, then you fear punishment, you do not yet love chastity, you do not yet have love; you fear in a servile way; it is dread of evil, not yet love of good. But fear nevertheless, that this dread may guard you, that it may lead you to love. For this fear, by which you fear hell, and therefore do not do evils, restrains you; and so it does not allow the inner soul, willing to sin, to do so. For fear is a kind of guard, like the pedagogue of the law; it is the letter that threatens, not yet the grace that helps. Yet let this fear guard you, while you do not act through fearing, and love will come; it enters into your heart, and as much as it enters, so much does fear go out. For fear was working that you not do it; love works that you not wish to do it, even if you could commit it with impunity.

9. 9. I have said what you should fear, I have said what you should seek. Pursue love, let love enter; admit it, by fearing to sin, admit the love that does not sin, admit the love that lives well. As that one enters, as I had begun to say, fear begins to go out. The more that one enters, the less fear there will be. When that one has wholly entered, there will be no fear; because perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Love enters, then, it drives out fear. But it too does not enter unaccompanied. It has with it its own fear, which it itself introduces; but that chaste fear, remaining unto the age of the age (See Ps 19:9 (18:10)). Servile fear is that by which you fear to burn with the devil; chaste fear is that by which you fear to displease God. Consider, dearly beloved, and question human affections themselves. A servant fears to offend his master, lest he command him to be flogged, command him to be put in fetters, command him to be shut in prison, command him to be ground down in the mill. Fearing these things the servant does not sin; but when he perceives that the eyes of his master are absent, and has no witness by whom he can be convicted, he does it. Why does he do it? Because he feared punishment, he did not love righteousness. But a good man, a just man, a free man (for only the just man is free; for everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin (John 8:34)) is delighted by righteousness itself; and if he could sin without a witness, he fears a witness, even God; and if he could hear God saying to him: I see you when you sin, I will not condemn you, but you displease me; that one, unwilling to displease the eyes of the father, not of a fearsome judge, fears—not lest he be condemned, not lest he be punished, not lest he be tortured; but lest he offend the joy of the father, lest he displease the eyes of the one who loves. For if he himself loves, and perceives the Lord who loves him, he does not do what displeases the one who loves him.

10. 10. Attend to slippery and dishonorable lovers; if anyone, out of love for a woman, wanton and worthless, dresses himself otherwise than as she pleases, dresses himself otherwise than as it pleases his beloved, or adorns himself otherwise than as it pleases her. She has said: I do not want you to have such a cloak; he does not have it; if in winter she says to him: I love you in the mantle; he chooses to shiver rather than to displease. Surely she whom he displeases is not going to condemn him? surely not to send him to prison? surely not to bring in torturers? This alone is feared there: I will not see you; this alone is trembled at there: You will not see my face. If an unchaste woman says this, and terrifies; does God say it, and not terrify? Surely very much; but only if we love. But if we do not love, we are not terrified by that; but are we terrified as slaves, by fire, by hell, by the most atrocious threats of Tartarus, by the most heightened angels of the devil and their punishments? Let us at least be terrified by that. If we love that less, let us at least fear those things.

11. 11. Therefore let there be no fornications. You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone corrupts the temple of God, God will corrupt him (1 Cor 3:16-17). Marriages are lawful; require nothing more. For no great burden has been imposed. On virgins a greater love has imposed a greater burden. The virgins were unwilling to do what was lawful, that they might please the more him to whom they devoted themselves. They aspired to that greater beauty of their heart. What do you command? As though they should say: What do you command? That we not be adulteresses, is this what you command? By loving you, we do more than you command. Concerning virgins, says the Apostle, I have no precept of the Lord. Why, then, do they do this? But I give counsel (1 Cor 7:25). But those loving women, to whom earthly marriages had become cheap, who did not long for earthly embraces, so accepted the precept that they did not refuse the counsel; that they might please more, they adorned themselves more. For the more the adornments of this body—that is, of the outer man—are sought, the greater are the losses of the inner; but the less the adornments of the outer man are sought, the more the inner man is adorned with beautiful morals. Hence Peter too says, Adorning themselves not in braided hair. For when he had said, Adorning themselves, what else but these visible adornments would be supposed by the carnal? At once he took away from thought what desire was seeking. Not, he says, in braided hair, nor gold, nor pearls, nor costly garment; but that hidden man of the heart, who is rich before God (1 Pet 3:3-4). For God would not give riches to the outer man and leave the inner needy; he gave invisible riches to the invisible, and adorned the invisible invisibly.

12. 12. Eager for these adornments, the maidens of God, the holy virgins, neither sought what was lawful, nor consented to what they were forced to. For many overcame even the opposing attempts of their own parents by the fire of heavenly love. The father was angry, the mother wept; she did not care, before whose eyes was set the one beautiful in form above the sons of men (Ps 45:2 (44:3)). For she desired to be adorned for him, that she might take wholly his care. Because she who is married thinks of the things of the world, how to please her husband; but she who is unmarried thinks of the things of God, how to please God (1 Cor 7:34). See what it is to love. He did not say: She thinks how not to be condemned by God. For this fear is still that servile one, the guard indeed of the wicked, that they may abstain from evils, and by abstaining may be worthy to admit love into themselves. But those women think not how they may not be punished by God, but how they may please God, by inner beauty, by the comeliness of the hidden man, by the comeliness of the heart, where they are naked to his eyes; naked within, not without; whole both within and without. Let virgins at least teach the married men and women not to go into adultery. They do more than is lawful; let those not do what is not lawful.

1. The question from the Epistle of the blessed apostle Paul to the Corinthians, where he says, Every sin that a man commits is outside the body; but he who fornicates sins against his own body (1 Cor 6:18), I do not know whether it can be resolved with full clarity, although, by the Lord's gift, something can probably be said about it: so deep is it. For when, earlier in the same Epistle, the Apostle said, Do not err; neither fornicators, nor those who serve idols, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor the rapacious will possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9-10); and a little after, Do you not know, he says, that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I, then, take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Far from it. Or do you not know that he who cleaves to a harlot is one body? For they will be, he says, two in one flesh. But he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication (1 Cor 6:15-18); and there he added, Every sin that a man commits is outside the body; but he who fornicates sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple in you of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a great price; glorify and carry God in your body (1 Cor 6:18-20); when, then, he had first enumerated many and horrible sins of men in this passage, to whom the kingdom of God will not be given, which nevertheless can be perpetrated by men only through the body—which body, indeed, of the faithful now, he says is a temple of the Holy Spirit whom we have from God; and the very members of our body he affirms to be members of Christ; arguing about which and as it were questioning, he says, Shall I, then, take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? and he answers himself, Far from it! Let him still add and say, Do you not know that he who cleaves to a harlot is one body? For they will be, he says, two in one flesh; but he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit; and let him conclude, Flee fornication; yet he himself goes on and says, Every sin that a man commits is outside the body; but he who fornicates sins against his own body; as though indeed those sins which he enumerated, saying, Do not err; neither fornicators, nor those who serve idols, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor the rapacious will possess the kingdom of God—all these crimes and shameful deeds, can they be done or carried out only through the body? What man of sound head would deny this? For this whole passage the Apostle was pleading and defending on account of the body itself, now bought with a great price—that is, the precious blood of Christ—made by the Lord a temple of the Holy Spirit, that it not be polluted by such shameful deeds, but rather be kept inviolate as a dwelling of God. Why, then, did he wish to add this, from which a difficult question would arise—that is, to say, Every sin that a man commits is outside the body; but he who fornicates sins against his own body; when both fornication itself, or other sins of this kind which are done only through the body, most like to baseness and fornication, are carried out and exercised only through the body itself? For what? Can anyone (to be silent about the others mentioned above) be a thief, or a drunkard, or a reviler, or rapacious, outside the operation of this body? Although neither idolatry itself nor greed itself could come to its own use and enjoyment apart from the service of this body. What is it, then: Every sin that a man commits is outside the body; but he who fornicates sins against his own body? First, because a man established in this body, whatever he can iniquitously covet by the mind alone, cannot be said to do outside this body, since it is plain that he does this by carnal sense and carnal prudence, still encompassed by this body. For even what is written in the Psalm, The fool has said in his heart, There is no God (Ps 14:1 (13:1)), the same blessed apostle Paul could surely not separate from a corporeal work, in that place where he says, We will all stand before the tribunal of Christ, that each may receive according to the things he did through the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor 5:10). Because, namely, only when established in the body could the ungodly man say, There is no God. Not to mention that in another Epistle the same Teacher of the Gentiles says, But the works of the flesh are manifest; and he goes on: Which are fornications, uncleannesses, debaucheries, sorceries, enmities, contentions, jealousies, animosities, dissensions, heresies, envies, drunkennesses, and the like; of which I foretell you, as I have foretold, that those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21). For do not those other things which he interposed there—jealousies, animosities, dissensions, envies, heresies—seem to us to be done outside the body? And yet the Teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth attributes these to the works of the flesh. What is it, then: Every sin that a man commits is outside the body; and naming only one sin, of fornication, he says, But he who fornicates sins against his own body?

2. It appears, therefore, to anyone, however slow and dull, how difficult this question is; on which, if the Lord deigns to shed a little light and reveal it to our devout intention, we shall be able to say something reasonably. For the blessed Apostle, in whom Christ was speaking, seems either to have wished to heighten the evil of fornication above all other sins, which, even if they are committed through the body, yet do not make the human soul so bound and liable to carnal concupiscence as, in the work of bodily fornication alone, the immense force of lust makes the soul mingle with the body itself, and as it were be glued and bound to it as one; so much so that at that very moment and experience of so great a shameful deed a man is permitted to think or attend to nothing else but what addicts the mind to itself, the mind which the very submersion, and as it were absorption, of lust and carnal concupiscence holds captive and subjects; so that this seems to be what was said, But he who fornicates sins against his own body; because then the heart of the fornicating man becomes properly and intimately a slave of the body, especially at the time of that most wicked operation itself; so much so that the Apostle himself, wishing more emphatically to commend that this evil must be guarded against by men, said, Shall I, then, take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? and, abhorring and detesting it, answered, Far from it! Or do you not know, he says, that he who cleaves to a harlot is one body? For they will be, he says, two in one flesh. Could this be said of any other crimes whatever of men? For in any other crimes the human soul is free both to do some one of them, and at that very time to be stretched out elsewhere in thought; which in the very work and time of fornication is not permitted to the soul, to be free to think of anything else. For the whole man is so absorbed by the body and in the body itself that he can no longer be said to be his own soul; but the whole man at once can be said to be flesh, and a spirit going and not returning (See Ps 78:39 (77:39)). So, then, we can understand that every sin that a man commits is outside the body; but he who fornicates sins against his own body; so that the Apostle seems, as I said, to have wished so to heighten the evil of fornication, that in comparison with this fornication he reckoned all other sins, whatever they be, to be held outside the body; and said that by this one evil of fornication alone one sins against one's own body, because by a greater ardor of lust, than which there is none higher, the pleasure of the body itself holds him a slave and makes him captive.

3. Let these things be said of the special fornication of this body. But because in the sacred Letters fornication is censured and named not only specially, but also generally; let us try, with God's help, to say something probable about this too. The general fornication, then, is openly manifested in the Psalm, where it is said, For behold, those who make themselves far from you will perish; you have destroyed everyone who fornicates away from you (Ps 73:27 (72:27)). Where, subsequently, he added how this general fornication can be escaped and fled, saying, But for me to cleave to God is good (Ps 73:28 (72:28)). So that from there we may easily notice that this is the general fornication of the human soul, by which anyone, not cleaving to God, cleaves to the world. Hence the blessed apostle John says, If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15). And the apostle James says, Adulterers, do you not know that the friendship of this world is enmity with God (Jas 4:4)? Briefly, then, it has been defined that he cannot have the love of God who has the love of the world; and that he is an enemy of God who wishes to be a friend of the world. To this also pertains what the Lord says in the Gospel, No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will bear with the one and despise the other. And he concludes, You cannot serve God and mammon (Matt 6:24). This, then, is the general fornication of the soul, as has been said, containing in itself absolutely all things, by which one does not cleave to God while cleaving to the world; so that we may also be able to understand, according to this general fornication, what the Apostle says, Every sin that a man commits is outside the body; but he who fornicates sins against his own body. Because, if the human soul does not fornicate, by cleaving to God, and by not cleaving to the world, whatever other sins, utterly foreign to carnal concupiscence, a man may incur, on account of the very frailty of mortality, whether by ignorance, or negligence, or forgetfulness, or not understanding, this is what was said, Every sin that a man commits is outside the body; because no sin of corporeal or temporal concupiscence can be found here; whence rightly any such sin seems to be said to be outside the body. But if the worldly man, cleaving to the world, makes himself far from God, by fornicating away from God himself, he sins against his own body; because by corporeal concupiscence the human soul is dragged into temporal and carnal things by carnal sense and prudence, and is distracted, serving the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed unto the ages.

4. Thus, then, as far as it seems to me, with faith preserved, the evil of both fornications—both the special and the universal—can be understood in this one passage of so great and so mighty a Teacher, where he says, Every sin that a man commits is outside the body; but he who fornicates sins against his own body; so that either a heightening was made by the Apostle of this special fornication, by which one is rightly understood to sin against one's own body, because nowhere is the whole man so addicted to the pleasure of the body itself, and ineffably or inevitably fixed to it, that in comparison with this so great an evil, the other sins seem to be outside the body, even if they are exercised through the body. Just as a certain force of imperious lust, belonging to fornication alone, subjects the man to its own condition, and makes him the worst chattel of his own body, especially at the time of that most unclean operation itself; so that, beyond what he is doing in the body itself, the human mind is not free either to think or to attend to anything else. But if the Apostle also wished to signify the general fornication, on account of which he seems to have said, Every sin that a man commits is outside the body; but he who fornicates sins against his own body; it is to be taken and understood thus: that anyone who, while not cleaving to God, cleaves to the world, loving and coveting all temporal things, is rightly said to sin against his own body—that is, given over and subjected to the whole carnal concupiscence, as it were a complete slave of the creature, estranged from the Creator himself, through that pride which is the beginning of all sin, of which the beginning of pride is, as it is written, to apostatize from God (Sir 10:12-13). From which evil of general fornication anyone who is free, whatever other sin he may incur as a man still corruptible and mortal, let this be understood to be outside the body—that is, foreign to the evil of all corporeal and temporal concupiscence, to be, as has often been said, outside the body. For only by the evil of carnal and general concupiscence does the soul in all things fornicate away from God, as though bound and fettered by corporeal and temporal desires and delights, and sin against its own body, serving whose universal concupiscence it is bent toward the world and estranged from God; which is, as has been said, The beginning of man's pride is to apostatize from God. On account of which evil of general fornication that must be guarded against, the blessed John admonishes, saying, Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world; for the things that are in the world are the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the ambition of the age, which is not from the Father, but from the world. And the world passes away, and its concupiscence. But he who does the will of God remains forever, as he remains forever (1 John 2:15-17). This love of the world, then, which contains in itself the universal concupiscence of the world, is the general fornication, by which one sins against one's own body; in that the human soul unceasingly serves all corporeal and visible and temporal desires and pleasures, abandoned and forsaken by the very Creator of all things.

1. It is good to speak of love to those who love it, by which whatever is loved is loved well. For according to the Apostle there is in love a most surpassing way. It was just now read, we heard: I show you a surpassing way. Then he related many gifts, and indeed excellent ones, not to be lightly esteemed; yet he said that they profit men nothing, who do not have love. Among the gifts he mentioned: to speak with the tongues of men and of angels; to have all prophecy, all knowledge, all faith, so as to move mountains; to distribute all one's goods to the poor, to hand over one's body to be burned (See 1 Cor 12:31; 13:1-3). All these are great and divine things, but only if they are set in the foundation of love, and rise from the root of love. But that many of these gifts were in many who did not have love, we would not dare to say, unless we were taught by examples—not of any men whatever, sought from anywhere, but from the holy Scriptures themselves, in which whoever does not have faith cannot have love. But among the chief things that were named, either prophecy or faith appears there as great. What, then, of the rest? If anyone having prophecy profits nothing by it, if he does not have love, and anyone having faith cannot reach the kingdom of God unless he has love, what shall we say of the rest? To speak with tongues—what is that compared to prophecy and faith? To distribute all one's goods to the poor—what is that compared to prophecy? And to hand over one's body to be burned? Very often rash and headstrong people do this. Therefore those two are the great things there, about which it is truly to be wondered at, if we can find any man having prophecy and not having love, or having faith and not having love.

2. Of prophecy the book of Kingdoms gives us an example. Saul was a persecutor of holy David. When he was persecuting him, and sent satellites to seize him for punishment, those who were sent to lead David away to be killed found him among the prophets, where was also holy Samuel, the son of the barren Anna, whom she had asked from the Lord to conceive, had received from the Lord, and had given, once born, to the Lord. At that time, then, in which David was, there was Samuel, that most excellent of the prophets; for by him David was anointed. So when David was suffering persecution from Saul, he fled to Samuel, just as now, for example, one who perhaps suffers some persecution outside flees to the Church. So he had fled there, where there was not only Samuel, the most excellent of all the prophets, but also many other prophets. Among them, when they were prophesying, came those sent by Saul, who, as I said, were to seize him for death. The Spirit of God leaped upon them, and those who had come to lead a holy and just man of God to the sword, and to drag him from the midst of the prophets, began to prophesy; suddenly filled with the Spirit of God, they were made prophets. Perhaps this was due to the innocence of these men; for they had not come of their own will to seize him, but were sent by their king. And perhaps they had indeed come to that place where David was, but were not going to do what Saul commanded; perhaps they too were going to remain. For these things happen even today. Sometimes an officer is sent by a great power to seize someone from the church; he does not dare to act against God, and, lest he himself incur the sword, he remains there where he was sent to seize. So someone, wondering, might say that these became prophets suddenly because they were innocent; the prophecy itself bore witness to their innocence. Those sent came, but were not going to do what that evil man commanded. Let us believe this of these. Others were sent; and the Spirit of God leaped upon them too, and they too began to prophesy. Let us count these too with the former by the merit of innocence. A third group was sent; this happened to them too. Let them all have been innocent. When they delayed, and what Saul commanded was not done, he himself came too. Surely he too was not innocent? Surely he too was not sent by some power, and not perverse by his own will? And yet the Spirit of God leaped upon him too, and he began to prophesy (See 1 Sam 19:18-24). Behold, Saul prophesies, having prophecy, but not having love. He was made a kind of vessel, to be touched by the Spirit, not to be cleansed by the Spirit.

3. For the Spirit of God touches some hearts unto prophesying, and yet does not cleanse them. And if it touches and does not cleanse, is the Spirit itself perhaps defiled? For it belongs to the divine substance to touch all things, to be nowhere defiled. Nor wonder, if this light which is poured from heaven, touching all unclean things scattered everywhere, is nowhere darkened by the unclean. Nor only this which comes from heaven, but even that which is sent from a lamp touches whatever you lead the light to; and perhaps whoever passes through a sewer, he himself, if he touches it, is polluted; but if he carries a lamp, the splendor of the lamp passes over all things, nowhere contracts a stain. If God could grant this to corporeal lights, can he himself, the true and eternal and unchangeable light, be anywhere defiled? Or can the light of God be lacking anywhere, of which it was said, It reaches mightily from end to end, and disposes all things sweetly (Wis 8:1)? It touches, then, what it wishes, and cleanses what it wishes; it does not cleanse whatever it touches, but touches what it cleanses. The Spirit, then, did not cleanse Saul, the persecutor of God, but yet touched him unto prophesying. Caiaphas, the chief priest, was a persecutor of Christ; and yet he spoke prophecy, when he said, It is expedient that one man die, and the whole nation not perish. The Evangelist, following, expounded the prophecy and said, But this he did not say of himself, but, since he was high priest, he prophesied (John 11:50-51). Caiaphas prophesied, Saul prophesied; they had prophecy, but did not have love. Did Caiaphas have love, who persecuted the Son of God, whom love led to us? Did Saul have love, who persecuted the one by whose hand he had been freed from his enemies, not only envious, but also ungrateful? Therefore we have proved that there can be in someone prophecy, and not love. But prophecy cannot profit such men, according to the Apostle: If I do not have love, he says, I am nothing (1 Cor 13:2). He did not say: Prophecy is nothing, or faith is nothing; but: I myself am nothing, if I do not have love. Having great things, he is nothing; though he have great things, he is nothing; for those great things which he has, he has not unto help, but unto judgment. It is not a great thing to have great things, but to use great things well is a great thing; but he does not use them well who does not have love. For one does not use anything well except a good will; the will cannot be good where love is not.

4. What of faith? Do we find someone having both faith and not having love? There are many who believe and do not love. Nor need men be enumerated; we find that the demons believed what we believe, and did not love what we love. For when the apostle James was arguing against those who thought it sufficed for them to believe, and were unwilling to live well—which is not done except from love (for the good life pertains to love, nor can one having love live badly; because this very living well is nothing else than to be filled with love)—when, then, certain people boasted that they had believed in God, and were unwilling to live well, and fittingly to so great a faith as they had received, he compared them to demons, saying, You, he says, say that God is one. You believe well; but the demons too believe, and tremble (Jas 2:19). If, then, you only believe, and do not love, you still have something in common with the demons. Peter said, You are the Son of God; and it was said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in heaven (Matt 16:16-17). We find that the demons too said, What have we to do with you, Son of God (Matt 8:29)? The apostles confess the Son of God, the demons too confess the Son of God; the confession seems equal, the love unequal. They believe and love; those believe and fear; love awaits a reward, fear punishment. Therefore we find that anyone can have even faith, and not have love. Let no one, then, boast of any gift of the Church, if perhaps he is eminent in the Church by some gift attributed to him, but let him see whether he has love. For the same apostle Paul spoke, and enumerated many gifts of God in the members of Christ, which is the Church; and he said that proper gifts are attributed to each member, and that it cannot happen that all have one gift. Nor yet will anyone remain without a gift; Apostles, he says, Prophets, Teachers, interpreters, speakers in tongues, those having powers of healings, those having helps, governings, kinds of tongues (1 Cor 12:28). These things were said; and we see some things in some, other things in others. Let no one, then, grieve that what he sees granted to another is not granted to himself; let him have love, let him not envy the one who has it, and with that one he has what he does not have. For whatever my brother has, if I do not envy it, and have loved it, it is mine. In myself I do not have it, but in him I have it; it would not be mine, if we were not in one body and under one head.

5. The left hand, for example, has a ring in the body, and the right does not; has it then remained without adornment? Look at the individual hands, and you will see one has it, the other does not; look at the framework of the body, to which both hands cleave, and see that the one which does not have it, has it in the one which has it. The eyes see where one goes, the feet go where the eyes look ahead; nor can the feet see, nor the eyes walk. But the foot answers you: I too have light, but not in myself, but in the eye; for the eye does not see for itself, and not see for me. The eyes too say: We too walk, not in ourselves, but in the feet; for the feet do not carry themselves and not carry us. The individual members, then, distributed to their individual and proper offices, carry out what the soul commands; yet all, set in one body and holding unity; nor do they arrogate to themselves what the other members have, if perhaps they do not have those members; nor do they think foreign to themselves what they have together in one body. Finally, brothers, if some trouble befall any member of the body, what members will deny it their help? What seems so extreme in a man as the foot? And in the foot itself, what so extreme as the sole? And in the sole itself, what so extreme as the very skin, by which the earth is trodden? Yet this extreme thing is so held by the framework of the whole body, that if in that very place a thorn is trodden on, all the members run together to the aid of pulling out the thorn; at once the knees are bent, the spine is curved—not the one that was pricked, but the one that holds the whole back; one sits down, that the thorn may be pulled out; now sitting down, that this may be done, belongs to the whole body. How tiny is the place in trouble! So small a place is it, as much as a thorn could prick; and yet the trouble of that extreme and tiny place is not abandoned by the whole body; the other members feel no pain, and in that one place all feel pain. Hence the Apostle himself gave an example of love, exhorting us so to love one another as the members in the body love one another: If one member suffers, he says, the other members suffer with it; and if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice together. You are the Body of Christ and members (1 Cor 12:26-27). If the members love one another which have a head on earth, how ought the members to love one another whose head is in heaven? Surely they do not even love one another, if they are forsaken by their head; but since that head is so the head, and is so exalted, and so set in heaven at the right hand of the Father, that yet he labors on earth—not in himself, but in his members—so that he says at the end, I was hungry, I thirsted, I was a stranger, when it is said to him, When did we see you hungry and thirsty? and as though he answers: I, the head, was in heaven, but on earth my members thirsted—finally he says, When you did it to one of my least, you did it to me, and again, to those who did not do it, When you did not do it to one of my least, neither did you do it to me (Matt 25:40.45)—to this head we are joined only through love.

6. For thus, brothers, we see the individual members acting their own work in their offices, so that the eye sees but does not work; the hand works but does not see; the ear hears but does not see or work; the tongue speaks but does not hear or see; and although they are individually distinguished and separated in their offices, yet bound together by one framework of the body, they have something common in all. The offices are diverse, the health is one. This, then, is in the members of Christ what health is in the members of the body—love. The eye is placed in a better location, on high, and as it were set on a citadel for counsel, whence it may look out, whence see, whence point out; great honor in the eyes, both in location, and in a more ardent sense, and in agility, and in a certain power that the other members do not have. Accordingly men very often swear by their eyes rather than by any other member. No one has said to another: I love you as my ears; and the sense of the ears is next and nearest to the eyes. What shall I say of the rest? Daily men say: I love you as my eyes. And the Apostle, signifying that greater love is held in the eyes than in the other members, when he said that he was loved by the Church of God, said, For I bear you witness, that, if it could be done, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me (Gal 4:15). Nothing, then, in the body is loftier than the eyes and more honored; and nothing in the body perhaps more extreme than the smallest toe of the foot. Since these things are so, yet it is more profitable in the body to be a toe, and to be sound, than to be an eye, and in disturbance to be bleary; for health, which is common to all the members, is more precious than the offices of individuals. So you see in the Church a small man having some small gift, and yet having love; another perhaps eminent in the Church by some greater gift, and yet not having love. Let that one be the extreme toe, let that one be the eye; that one belongs more to the framework of the body, who could obtain health. Finally, it is troublesome to the rest of the body, whatever is sick in the body; and effort is indeed given by all the members, that what is sick may be healed, and very often it is healed. But if it is not healed, and conceives so great a rottenness that it cannot be healed, it is taken thought for all the members that it be cut off from the framework of the body.

7. Let some Donatus, then, have been as it were an eye in the body, let it have been so; we do not know what he was, but let him have been wholly such as he is said to be; what did the excellence of his honor and glory profit him? He could not keep health, because he did not have love. Finally, these men are so rotted that they had necessarily to be cut off; and those whom they say they have are worms of rottenness; cut off, they are worms, nor can they admit health. For a member admits health only as long as it is not cut off from the body; for from the other sound parts health flows to the place of the wound; but when the member where the wound is has been cut off, by what way and whence health may come to it is not found. Therefore they are compared to cut-off shoots, and the gospel reading runs together with the apostolic reading. For there too the Lord, that we might abide in him, commended to us most of all nothing but love: I am, he says, the vine, you are the shoots, my Father is the husbandman. Every shoot that bears fruit in me, he prunes it, that it may bear more fruit; but the one that bears no fruit in me, he will cut it off (John 15:1-2.5). Fruit comes from love itself, because fruit comes only from the root. But the Apostle says, That, rooted and grounded in love (Eph 3:17). There, then, is the root, whence all fruit rises. He who has begun to dissent from the root, although he seems to remain a while, has either been cut off secretly, or is even openly to be cut off; for in no way can he bear fruit. They were once in unity. They were cut off. Whence were they cut off? From unity. But you, they say, are cut off. What shall we do? I say: You are cut off; you say: You are cut off. Let God judge. Have we then deferred the question and sent it to the judgment of God? Plainly not. In many matters we do this, where the sentence of God does not yet appear; but where it does appear, let us use it, not defer it. I bring forth Scripture, and I see who is cut off from where. For if Scripture bore witness to the party of Donatus, to some Church established in some part of the world, as the party of Donatus is established in the part of Africa, let them say we are cut off, and let them say they are rooted. But if Scripture bears witness only to the Church spread throughout the whole world, why do we seek a man as judge of our suit? We have God; he does not yet preside in judgment, he already presides in the Gospel.

8. Crispinus the heretic has just now been judged. But what does he say? Surely I was not overcome by a gospel sentence? Thus asserting that he was not conquered, because the proconsul judged against him, not Christ. If, then, he holds the judgment of a man of little account, why did he appeal from the proconsul to the emperor? He himself demanded the judgment of that very proconsul; he himself said: Hear me, I am not a heretic. The one whose judgment you demanded, does his judgment displease you? Why? Because he judged against you. If he judged for you, he would judge well; because he judged against you, he judged badly. Before he judged, he was a good judge, to whom you said: I am not a heretic, hear me. But the proconsul judged, he says, according to the laws of the emperors, not according to the laws of the Gospel. Granted he did so, granted the proconsul judged according to the laws of the emperors; if, then, the emperors judge badly against you, why did you appeal from the proconsul to their judgment? Were the laws of the emperors already against you, or not yet? If not yet, the proconsul did not judge according to them; if they already were, will the emperors judge for you against their own laws? Then I ask you: These laws of the emperors which are against you—what happened? Teach me. For it is manifest, and not denied, that there are many laws of the emperors against them. Whence did this happen? Whence was this done? Did we perhaps persecute, and say many evil things to the emperors about you? This indeed they say to those whom, wretched and unskilled, they deceive. For they utterly conceal the cause, as it was conducted at that time, from those they wish to deceive. But, however much they conceal it, it is dug out, laid open, made public, brought to the knowledge even of the unwilling and the refusing. Closing their eyes, and unwilling to see the light, let the light itself strike them. Let them not be permitted to dissemble manifest things; let them not be permitted to be turned from things open; let them not be permitted to cover the plain. Let us press them with manifest truth. You demanded the emperor's judgment. You lie, he says. The public records exist. The Donatists themselves of the party of Majorinus, who was first ordained against Caecilian, went to the proconsul Anulinus at that time, and delivered accusatory documents in the name of Caecilian, sealed in leather, saying that they had against Caecilian the crimes which they had written in that document, and asking that he send their very accusation to the imperial court, to the emperor. There exists the report of the proconsul Anulinus writing to the emperor Constantine, that men of the party of Majorinus came to him with documents about the accusation of Caecilian, asking that he send those same documents to the emperor; and he says he did what they asked. The emperor wrote to bishop Miltiades and Mark, transferring to them the ecclesiastical case, and removing it from himself. In the same letters the emperor writes that he had sent the documents sent by Anulinus; and in those very letters it is not known what those documents are, but in the report of Anulinus it is learned, which today is contained in the public codices. Then the same Constantine writes to Anulinus, that he direct the parties to Rome for the episcopal judgment. Anulinus too reports at the end that he had sent the parties. You, then, went to those before the emperor; you brought the cause of the Church to a human power. He was better than you: for you brought it to the emperor, he to the bishops. The cause was pleaded in the episcopal judgment, they accusing first. Sentence was given for Caecilian. They, not content with the ecclesiastical judgment, began to murmur, again went to the same emperor, after the episcopal judgment seeking an imperial judgment. He gave another ecclesiastical one at Arles; from that judgment too they appealed to the emperor himself. Overcome by their importunity, he himself too wished to take up the cause and examine it. He took it up, examined it, judged Caecilian most innocent; and now all the orders of the emperors are against them. What wonder? The one whose judgment you demanded, do you dare to refuse his sentence? Why did you wish to bring the judgment to him? Did you have a Church in Africa; did you not have one in the whole world? But where were they going, who had already cut themselves off from it? They no longer cleaved to the Church; but the emperor cleaved to it, to whom the judgment was brought. Accordingly he most gently wished the bishops to judge; and afterward he yielded to them, that he himself too should judge. Hence the laws are against you; see whether they are not against you. First you yourselves were there; you the first accusers, you the last appellants, you the final murmurers. Yet surely, he says, was I overcome from the Gospel? You were overcome by that judgment which you yourself chose.

9. But we do not refuse the sentence of the Gospel: plainly, even if he did not say it, we would read it, we would dig it out, we would show it. Let the Gospel be recited; let us see where the Lord Jesus Christ says the Church is. Surely both our ears and our hearts ought to be open to him; let us hear him, let him tell us where the Church is. If he says his Church is in Africa, let us all flow together into the party of Donatus; if he says his Church is in the whole world, let the cut-off members return to the body; for the branches are not so broken that they cannot be grafted in again. You have the apostle Paul saying, But you say: The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well. They were broken off because of unbelief; but you stand by faith. Do not be high-minded, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you (Rom 11:19-21). For the Jews were broken off, as natural branches, and the gentiles were grafted in, as a wild olive into the olive. From these grafted branches, and from this grafted wild olive, we all are partakers of the olive. But, just as the Apostle had threatened the proud branches of the wild olive, such these men have become by being proud, that with those natural ones cut off before, they too by pride deserve to be cut off. But what does the Apostle say? And they, he says, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in (Rom 11:23); and you, if you do not remain in faith, will be cut off. Let no one, then, be proud in the vine, let no one despair apart from the vine: if you are proud in the vine, watch that you not be cut off; if any are placed apart from the vine, let them not despair, let them dare to be grafted in. For they are not to be grafted in by their own hand. For he says, God is able to graft them in again (Rom 11:23). Let them not say: And how can it be done, that a cut-off thing, a broken branch, be grafted in again? You rightly say it cannot be done, if you ask human ability, not if you ask the divine majesty. For what? What has already been done by the Lord, can any of the husbandmen do it? He took a wild olive and grafted it into an olive; and the wild olive grafted into the olive gave not bitter berries, but the olive. Let someone do this: let him graft a wild olive into an olive; he will see nothing come forth but the berries of the wild olive. God, then, was able—not to graft the olive into the wild olive, but to graft the wild olive into the olive, and to make the wild olive a partaker of the fatness of the olive, so that, stripped of its bitterness, it might be clothed with fatness; and will he not be able to graft you, cut off through pride, by humility? You exhort me well, he says, but first show me cut off; lest perhaps you ought to exhort yourself to come to me, not me to be grafted into you. I dare to say: Hear me; and yet I fear to say: Hear me; for I fear lest he despise a man. Rather, I exhort that he despise a man; for if he despised a man, he would not be of the party of Donatus; for Donatus was a man. Therefore, if we speak our own words, let us be despised; if we speak the words of Christ, let him be heard, who is not heard in vain, and not despised in vain; for he is heard unto reward, not heard unto punishment. Let us hear him: let the Lord himself tell us.

10. He showed the Church in innumerable places; but yet let me mention some one. After the resurrection, you know, brothers, he showed himself to his disciples, demonstrated his scars, offered himself to be handled, not only to be seen. But they, holding and handling and recognizing, yet still hesitated for joy, as the Gospel teaches us, which it is fitting to believe, which it is wicked not to believe. But the Lord, to those still hesitating for joy and doubting, brought firmness from the Scriptures, and said, These things I said to you, while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms about me. Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said to them: Because so it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise on the third day, and that repentance and the forgiveness of sins be preached in his name through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:44-47). There you are not, there I am. Why do you await a man to judge about you from a tribunal? Hear Christ from the Gospel. Through all nations, he says, beginning from Jerusalem. Are you there? Do you commune with all nations? Do you commune with that Church which is spread through all nations, beginning from Jerusalem? If you commune, you are there, you are in the vine, you are not cut off; for that is the vine which grew and filled the whole world, the body of Christ, the Church of Christ, whose head is in heaven. But if you commune only with Africans, and from Africa you secretly send, where you can, men to console pilgrims, do you not find that you have remained in a part, cut off from the whole? What did you say in the proconsul's judgment? I am a Catholic. It is his own voice; it is recited from the Acts. Catholic, hold the whole; for "holon" is "whole," and hence the Church was called Catholic, because it is throughout the whole. Surely it was not called "according to a part," and not Catholic? For "meros" is "part," "holon" is "whole"; from the Greek word it was called "Catholic," "according to the whole." Do you, then, commune with the universal? No, he says. Then you are in a part; how are you a Catholic? There is much difference between the whole and a part, whence "Catholic" takes its name. For you took your name from the party of Donatus; the Catholic took its name from the whole world. But we say it is in the universal, and does God perhaps not say so? I have mentioned the Gospel, I have recited from the Gospel. Through all nations, he says, beginning from Jerusalem. Did it not come from there to Africa? For if it began from Jerusalem, by filling all things it came to you, not by drying up. Who is there who says: A stream was led from a fountain, that it might come to me; it dried up on the way, and reached me? If it dried up on the way, by what way did it reach you? Surely by filling all things it reached you. Ungrateful stream, why do you blaspheme the fountain? Unless it flowed, you would not be filled. But I fear lest you have dried up; for every stream cut off from the fountain must necessarily dry up. From dryness they speak harsh things against the Church; they would speak gentle things, if they were watered. I am a Catholic. What is, "Catholic"? A man from Numidia? I ask at least the Greeks. "Catholic" is surely not a Punic word, but a Greek word; seek an interpreter. You err deservedly in language, you who do not agree with all languages.

11. When the Spirit came from heaven and filled those who had believed in Christ, they spoke in all tongues; and this was the sign, at that time, of having received the Holy Spirit, if anyone spoke in the tongues of all. Is the Holy Spirit not now given to the faithful? Far be it that we believe this, otherwise we will have no hope. And they too surely confess that the Holy Spirit is given to the faithful; and we say this, we believe this, we assent that this happens most of all and only in the Catholic Church. But let them be Catholics, there the Holy Spirit is given; let us be Catholics, here the Holy Spirit is given; now let us not ask what difference there is, who are Catholics; it is manifest that the Holy Spirit is given. Why do those who receive the Holy Spirit not now speak in the tongues of all, except because then in a few was figured what would afterward be shown in all? For what did the Holy Spirit foretell, moving the hearts of those whom it then filled, and teaching them all tongues? Scarcely does a man learn two or three, either through teachers, or through the regions in which he dwells, by some habit; at most three or four tongues. They spoke in all tongues, who were filled with the Holy Spirit; and indeed they spoke suddenly, not learning them gradually. What, then, did the Spirit then show? Tell me, why does it not now do this, except because by signifying something it did it? What did it signify, but that the Gospel would be in all tongues? I dare to say, the Church too now speaks in all tongues; for in all tongues it cries out the Gospel; and what I was just now saying about the members, this I say of the tongues too. And just as the eye says: The foot walks for me, so the foot too says: The eye sees for me; so I too say: My tongue is Greek, my tongue is Hebrew, my tongue is Syriac; for one faith holds all, for one framework of love encloses all. What was demonstrated through the Lord, this was foretold before through the Prophets: Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Ps 19:4 (18:5); Rom 10:18). Behold how far the Church has grown, which is called Catholic from the whole. And see that all tongues went through all lands: There are no speeches nor words whose voices are not heard (Ps 19:3 (18:4)).

12. This Church, then, I hold, you do not hold it; if, therefore, you are cut off, acknowledge whence you are cut off. Return, and be grafted in, lest you wither and be cast into the fire. The Prophets speak, the Apostles speak, the Lord speaks of the Church spread throughout the whole world: against you all these pronounce sentence. From the proconsul to the imperial judgment: from the Gospel, to where? Or perhaps to Donatus? Will Donatus judge against Christ, or does Christ judge Donatus? What will Donatus say to you? I preached my Christ from Africa. What will he say? Or: I set myself in Christ's place, and I succeeded Christ? It remains for him to say this, because he dared to cut men off from the body, because he succeeded Christ. Behold the sentence of Christ, behold the Gospels. Through all nations, he says, beginning from Jerusalem. It began from Jerusalem: there the Holy Spirit came; there the apostles were, when it came upon them; thence the Gospel began to be preached, thence to be spread through all nations, thence afterward it came to Africa. To where it came afterward, did it forsake them? Rather it did not forsake, if they are not unwilling. For we too are Africans; surely the Gospel which came to Africa remains here among Catholic Africans, just as it remains among all nations. For through all nations too there are heretics, some there, some here; and the Africans who are among those nations are not known. They were cut off from the vine. For the Catholic Church knows all; they themselves do not know themselves. For the vine, from which the shoots are cut off, knows all the shoots, both those that remain in it and those that are cut off from it. For the Catholic Church is spread everywhere. Those shoots, where they were cut off, there they remained; they could not reach other parts and still other parts. But that Church, spread everywhere, everywhere holds its own, everywhere laments the cut-off; it cries to all, that they return and be grafted in. Its cry is not heard, but yet the breasts of love do not cease to flow with exhortation. It is anxious for the cut-off; it cries in Africa to the Donatists, it cries in the East against the Arians, against the Photinians, against others and still others. For because it is spread everywhere, everywhere it finds those against whom to cry; because they were in it, and were cut off from it. The shoots began to be fruitless, and were cut off; if they do not remain in unbelief, they will again be grafted in. Hear these things, brothers, with fear, that you not be proud; with love, that you may even pray for them. Let us turn to the Lord.

1. We have heard the Apostle saying to us, We perform an embassy for Christ, exhorting you to be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20). He would not exhort us to be reconciled, unless we had been enemies. Therefore the whole world was an enemy to the Savior, a friend to the one who took it captive; that is, an enemy to God and a friend to the devil. And the whole human race, like that woman, was bent down to the earth. Now one who understands these enemies cries out against them and says to God, They have bent down my soul (Ps 57:6 (56:7)). The devil and his angels bent down the souls of men to the earth—that is, that, prone to the things that are temporal and earthly, they should not seek the things above. For surely the Lord says this of that woman, whom Satan had bound, behold, for eighteen years; and it was now fitting that she be loosed from her bond on the sabbath day. But they slandered him who raised her up. Who, but the "bent ones"? Since even the very things which God had commanded they regarded, not understanding, with an earthly heart. For they celebrated the sacrament of Baptism carnally, they did not see it spiritually.

1. We know, brothers, and with sure love we are confident that you congratulate us when you see righteousness in us. For it is consequent that, when the holy ones of God see just priests, they rejoice in their shepherds and in turn gladden them by their own morals. This too we have just now sung to the Lord our God, with one voice and one heart: Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your holy ones exult with exultation (Ps 132:9 (131:9)); seeing them clothed with righteousness, with true joy and wholly entire love, with no flattery, they will rejoice. That you may exult with exultation, then, you holy ones of God, we must be clothed with righteousness and offer you an example unto every good work. But you who wish to rejoice in us, pray for us. For righteousness must be put on, as we sang. And who gives this garment, but he who, after error and ruin, brought forth the first robe for the younger son (See Luke 15:22)? For by the very fact that righteousness is commended as a kind of garment, he signified this: that we do not have it from ourselves . . .

2. (the leaf being torn, the text is missing, of which a small fragment was preserved by Bede) A bishop, then, must be irreproachable (1 Tim 3:2). Who denies this? But since a bishop must be irreproachable, does it become a Christian to be reproachable? "Bishop" is a Greek name, but in Latin it can be called "overseer" or "visitor." We are bishops, but with you we are Christians. We are properly called from the visitation, in common all from the anointing. If the anointing is common, the struggle too is common. But why do we visit, if there is nothing good that we may see in you?

3. . . . be found. If we wished this, if by a headlong fall and rashness we dared this, surely we would be terrified by today's reading. For we all heard, when the epistle of the apostle Paul to the Galatians was read, When Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was reproachable (Gal 2:11). Peter was reproachable, and shall I dare to profess myself without any reproach at all? Shall I, a weak sheep, not be afraid of this whirlpool, when I see the ram that dries the fleeces in peril? He himself raised himself strongly from this whirlpool; if I fall in, who will find me? I will avoid, then, the swelling of this wave, I will not throw myself in, I will not hurl myself down, even if I were wholly conscious that nothing could be found in me by men for which I might be reproached. The eyes of God are one thing, the eyes of that one another, to whom it was truly said, No living thing will be justified in your sight (Ps 143:2 (142:2)). And yet Peter, as we just now heard when it was read, was reproached even by men. Hence the Christian mind ought to be wholly foreign to this rashness, lest it dare to profess a life of such a kind in which not even men may find what they can reproach. Let even a man reproach, if there is something to reproach; let him plainly reproach; if I take it badly, let him reproach twice. For Peter brought it about that he was reproached once, when the reproacher was borne by him with an even mind; he did not give an example, as Christ did, of every kind of perfection, but he gave an example of complete humility. He took with an even mind the one reproaching him—not preceding, but following him in the apostolate. Let the apostle Paul grant pardon: what he did is easy; what Peter did is difficult. We live among human affairs, we are surrounded by daily experiences: I have often seen a man reproaching, I do not know whether I have ever seen one bearing a reproacher with an even mind. Paul, then, more sincerely, but Peter more wonderfully. But I do not know whether it is even more sincere to know another's fault than gladly to acknowledge one's own.

4. But it troubles some that Peter is said to have been reproached; it troubles them and they dispute; but they are not to be despised, if it is not their own presumption that troubles them, but love of Peter. They are unwilling to believe that he was truly reproached; they think this was simulated, shadowed forth before the eyes of men. "Within," they say, "one thing was being done, another was being shown to the people." O man, you fear the fault of one: do you not wish me to fear the deceit of both? Out of love of Peter you do not believe him reproached. You do not believe him reproached out of love of Peter; I believe him reproached out of love of Paul and Peter. I do not wish to believe of the apostles that they did one thing within and held forth another to the people. We are bishops, we follow their footsteps as far as our strength allows: I do not wish it to be permitted us to deceive you. If one thing is done within, another is held forth to the people, what holiness is not to be feared? We neither wish to deceive you nor to be deceived by you. For if you think that we deceive you, and we think that you deceive us, where is the love that believes all things? Love, he says, believes all things (1 Cor 13:7). It believes that it may be kept, not that it may be deceived.

5. "But answer: What did Paul reproach in Peter?" What but what he himself said, he himself wrote? He himself committed the epistle to memory, he himself propagated it to posterity to be read in the Church. What do I believe more securely in the divine books, if I do not believe what is written in that epistle? It is an apostolic epistle, it is a canonical epistle, it is Paul's epistle, who labored more than all of them—yet not he, but the grace of God with him (See 1 Cor 15:10). Therefore it is an epistle of the grace of God. And if we recall who spoke in him, it is an epistle of Christ. Or do you wish, he says, to receive proof of him who speaks in me, Christ (2 Cor 13:3)? Hear and fear. Proof, he says, not a figment. But if you think this too little, hear the very preacher, even the witness-caller to God. What he was intimating he began thus to relate, as though foreseeing that there would be certain disputers: But what I write, he says, to you, behold, before God I do not lie (Gal 1:20). Does he, then, so calling God to witness, lie, when [you] without God's witnessing—the mouth, he says, that lies kills, not the body, but the soul (Wis 1:11)? I beg you: do not so love Peter that you kill Paul; I beg you: let not Paul be killed in soul for Peter's sake—they were together killed in the flesh for Christ's sake. And again you ask and say to me: "What did Paul reproach in Peter?" Again I answer you: This Paul reproached in Peter, what he said and wrote. Under the witness-calling of God Paul related that he had reproached Peter: what do you ask of me? The epistle is read to all: recall it with me. When Peter had come, he says, to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was reproachable. For before certain came from James, he ate with the gentiles. But when they had come, he withdrew himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision, and the rest of the Jews too feignedly consented to him, so that even Barnabas was led into their pretense (Gal 2:11-13). Behold, you have heard what Paul reproached in Peter. Let us expound it, and I will do this with the Lord's help, that you may understand. For I will do it not on your account, but on account of those who hear both me and you.

6. The sacraments of the Jews—namely, circumcision, the resting on the sabbath, the avoidance of certain foods, and other such things—were given by God, written in the law, commanded by God as a figure of times to come. These were not like the abominable sacrileges of the gentiles, these were not like the sacrifices of demons, this was not as the worship of idols. God had commanded this through Moses to his people—the one God, the true God, that God who said, I am who am (Exod 3:14). But after the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law (Gal 4:4); for he too was circumcised (See Luke 2:21). But of a woman, a virgin—for by the custom of Hebrew speech, unless even a virgin were called a woman, Eve would not first be formed into a woman (See Gen 2:22-23). After, then, in the fullness of time God sent his Son, made of a woman—through whom he made the woman—made under the law—through whom he gave the law—that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal 4:4-5)—the shadows began to be unnecessary, the light having come; yet not because they were unnecessary were they now sacred things to be condemned, like the sacrileges of the gentiles. It was not to be said to a Jew, "Do not circumcise, because you have believed in Christ," as it was to be said to a pagan made a Christian, "Do not sacrifice to idols, because you have believed in Christ." For if you set up two things—the sacrifice of the pagans and the sacrament of the Jews—of these one was never necessary, always pernicious; but the other was at one time necessary, afterward not necessary, but for those who then received the Gospel from the Jews not yet pernicious. Since, then, even those sacraments of the Jews were after the coming of Christ no longer necessary, but through them had been foretold the one through whom they would be unnecessary, they were to be ended with honor, not rejected with horror. Since these things were so, the apostle Paul, who had been especially sent to preach the gospel to the gentiles (See Gal 2:8-9), ought to take especial care, by his vow, that the salvation of the gentiles not be hindered by the sacraments of the Jews. Therefore, Christ speaking in him (See 2 Cor 13:3), God breathing and revealing in him, he decreed at that time, in the newness of the Gospel, to forbid no Jew then from these sacraments, to compel no gentile to these sacraments. Thus he judged those things—as it were paternal funerals soon to be abolished, now as it were bodies without the soul of prophecy, to be led with respect as it were to the tomb—and yet, because they were unaccustomed and dead, by no means to be imposed on gentile shoulders.

7. What sin, then, was there at that time in those sacraments, for which Peter was reproached, attend, and help our strength to break and resolve so great a mass of a question, which then agitated the apostles themselves—for which we are perhaps less fit—but help us: I beseech you. You have indeed heard many things, but as though new hear what you more wish to hear, and I, standing, speak to you and grow weak. Surely, since the question is as it were set before you anew, to this our narrative seems to pertain. For now the one who a little before was questioning me, before I expounded by narrative what I wished—what Paul reproached in Peter—made more cautious by my narrative, says this: "If at that time abstinence from such sacraments was not imposed on those who had come from among the Jews, and the observance of such sacraments was not imposed on the gentiles, Peter, who did such things, came from among the Jews; how did Paul rightly reproach him?" I say, brothers, what the very words indicate. Paul was not reproaching this in Peter, that he observed the Jewish sacraments, but that he imposed them on the gentiles. For a Jew who then believed in Christ, if he wished to observe them, was not forbidden; if he did not wish, he was not compelled. But of the gentiles, whoever had believed, when would he wish to be circumcised, when he heard that this was not necessary to salvation? Perhaps the Jews themselves would scarcely be circumcised, unless infants suffered this. But what was it to compel the gentiles to observe these sacraments, in which we said Peter was reproached by Paul—perhaps if anyone asks, what was the very compelling? Were they held unwilling, bound and circumcised? Far from it! What, then, was it to compel, what do we suppose, but to say to them: "You will not be able to be saved, unless you observe those legal precepts, as the Jews do"? For with this condition set forth, because they were seeking salvation and it was said to them that they could not otherwise reach salvation, they were compelled unwilling to observe those sacraments—not because they loved these, but because they desired salvation.

8. That moderation, then—that neither the Jews be forbidden nor the gentiles compelled—was kept by the apostles and decreed by a council. For when this question agitated many, troubled many, they assembled at Jerusalem, and with all the apostles and elders of the Church gathered—that is, the presbyters and all the preachers of the Gospel and the heads of the churches—by common council, the Lord surely inspiring, it was established that neither the Jews be forbidden from these things, nor the gentiles compelled to these things (See Acts 15:1-29). That this is written in the Acts of the apostles, many recall; let those who do not recall it read it. That measure, then, was most temperate, most religious, most cautious. If they commanded those things to be at once rejected, just like the sacrifices of idols, the true God who had commanded them would not be believed to be God. This, then, Paul reproached in Peter, not because he himself observed these things, but because he was driving the gentiles to them. How was he driving them? By consenting, though feignedly, to those who said that the gentiles were not otherwise saved unless they observed the Jewish sacraments. This too is written in the Acts of the apostles, it is related in the same book: There came, it says, to Antioch certain from James—that is, from Jerusalem—Jews, namely, who had now believed in Christ, and they said to the brothers from the gentiles who came: "You cannot otherwise be saved, unless you observe the legal precepts" (See Acts 15:1). This is to compel: to say that they cannot otherwise be saved.

9. Against this the apostle Paul warred with most ardent zeal. That stone of dreadful pressure he was removing, that the wretched gentiles might at some time rise again as if from the tomb of Lazarus (See John 11:38-44). For if he reproached this observance, not the compulsion, he would even reproach himself. For he himself too took these things up and celebrated certain Jewish sacraments with the Jews in the temple at Jerusalem; but, as one coming from among the Jews, he observed these things; he did not compel the gentiles to them. Paul, coming from among the Jews, the evangelist of the gentiles, both the decreer and the fulfiller of the holy counsel of the apostles, showed rather by his own example what had pleased the Holy Spirit in such a question, what it had decreed and established. For James said to him, now established at Jerusalem: "Many," he says, "think that you are opposed to the legal precepts of the fathers and are a foe and enemy of the law. What, then, is it? Hear me. There are here certain who have come to take up purification: be purified with them, that all may know"—it was not said, "that all may suppose": for devotion was commanded, not pretense suggested—"that all," he says, "may know that you are a zealot of the law and of the observances of the fathers" (See Acts 21:20-24). This Paul did as a Jew from among the Jews, yet not that he might be justified by those sacraments, but that he might not be thought to condemn them.

10. Therefore he did this too. For he also circumcised Timothy, born of a Jewish mother, on account of the scandal of the Jews (See Acts 16:1-3)—Timothy willing, not compelled—that through him too he might show that he did not condemn those things, but did not impose them on the gentiles as necessary to salvation. But after he circumcised Timothy with this indifference which I have often commended, and which I think is now aptly understood by you, certain ones from among the Jews, who did not put off that old skin and therefore wished the gentiles to be circumcised, because they said that without those sacraments there could be no salvation for them. Whence even a heresy was made: for even today there are certain who both believe in Christ and circumcise their sons—that is, believing that without those sacraments they cannot have salvation. When, then, by this indifference of devotion, not by necessity, he had circumcised Timothy, certain of these, as I said, placing salvation there—which displeased Paul, for which he reproached Peter—began to boast, to deceive others, that Paul too held this. They said: "What we too say, this he too believes, that without these sacraments there can be no salvation. For if he does not believe this, why did he circumcise Timothy?" When Paul, who had done this by liberty, not by necessity, on account of the scandal of the Jews, not on account of the salvation of Timothy, had heard this, he saw that they had taken occasion for another preaching and for stirring up an evil suspicion against Paul, and he was unwilling to circumcise Titus (See Gal 2:3). But it appears why he willed the one, why he was unwilling for the other. He willed the one on account of the scandal of the Jews, he was unwilling for the other on account of the occasions of those who believed badly.

11. And see in his epistle how evidently and clearly he commends this. But neither Titus, he says, though he was a Greek—as Timothy was—was compelled to be circumcised (Gal 2:3). And as though it were said to him: "Why was Titus not compelled to be circumcised, when Timothy, though similarly a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised?" Why? Do you wish to hear? On account of the false brothers smuggled in, who had crept in to spy out our liberty (Gal 2:4). In circumcising Timothy, then, there was not necessity, but liberty; but in Peter, necessity was reproached, not liberty. On account of, he says, the false brothers smuggled in, who had crept in to spy out our liberty, that they might bring us into slavery. That they might bring us, he says, into slavery, by making out of liberty a necessity, to whom we did not yield in subjection even for an hour, he says. For what reason? That the truth of the Gospel might remain among you (Gal 2:4-5). What is the truth of the Gospel? That the Jew was then not to be forbidden, the gentile not to be compelled; that the sacraments of the Jews were not to be condemned for the Jews, not to be imposed on the gentiles. What is the truth of the Gospel? That salvation can be reached through Christ without those sacraments. This those denied, to whom Peter feignedly consented. And therefore it is added, Those other Jews feignedly consented, so that even Barnabas was led into their pretense. But when I saw, he says, that they were not walking rightly toward the truth of the Gospel (Gal 2:13-14), as he says there, That the truth of the Gospel might remain among you. You hear the truth commended everywhere, and you suspect deceit everywhere—so everywhere, even among the apostles. He saw, then, that they were not walking rightly toward the truth. He saw, over this, that they thought those sacraments were necessary to the gentiles for their salvation. This is not the truth of the Gospel. These things were no longer necessary to salvation: perhaps at one time, when they foretold that Christ would come. The knife of stone was once necessary, before the Rock itself came (See 1 Cor 10:4).

12. I, when I saw, he says, that they were not walking rightly toward the truth of the Gospel, said to Peter before all. I said to Peter: Paul to Peter, the lesser to the greater, the follower to the one preceding; and I said both to Peter and before all: great boldness, but great patience in that one. Since you have made us attentive, let us hear what you said to Peter, Paul, and where. Let us understand what you did, what you arranged, since you nowhere wished to be a liar. I said, he says, to Peter before all: "If you, being a Jew"—what is, "being a Jew"? to whom it was lawful to observe those things indifferently—"live in the manner of the gentiles and not in the manner of the Jews"—because before certain came from James, he ate with the gentiles—"if you, being a Jew, live in the manner of the gentiles and not in the manner of the Jews," it ought to follow and to say: "How do you now keep the Jewish sacraments?" He did not say this, but where he was reproachable, whence these things were stirred up, for which he had zeal toward God, because he was striving to remove an impediment from the Gospel, this he said with boldness, this he said before all: "If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of the gentiles, how do you compel the gentiles to Judaize?" (Gal 2:14) "You compel", he says, "to Judaize". I have already said how: by consenting to those who said that the gentiles could not otherwise have salvation, "you compel the gentiles to Judaize." This Paul did not do, when he undertook purifications with certain ones; he did not compel the gentiles to Judaize when he circumcised Timothy according to that indifference, because both circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing (1 Cor 7:19); he did not compel the gentiles to Judaize. And lest he be thought to compel, he did not circumcise Titus; Paul did not compel the gentiles to Judaize. This he himself did not do, and therefore this he rightly reproached in Peter, because he himself did not do it.

13. But let me suppose that he himself did this, although it is not found, not proven; I say this not according to my own view, but according to certain people, that I may speak for the time being: let us suppose that Paul did this which Peter did, and that Paul reproached this in Peter which Paul himself had also done: both would more easily be corrected, than that the detestable moth—that is, a lie or the suspicion of a lie—should creep into us, like a malignant little worm to gnaw at every letter of Scripture, to be feared lest it persuade us that Paul lied in any way in his canonical epistle, which he commends to the Church spread by posterity. I beg you: fear this evil; let us all fear, lest afterward we all lament in vain. This is no light evil: I warn you, fearing I terrify. Pardon my anxiety: we speak to you more rarely than you wish. They whisper, those who find your ears ready when they wish—we are not permitted to speak to you except rarely and from this place—I do not say malignant in mind, I do not do them injury, but beware of those who err, and so deal with them that they themselves rather be corrected, not that you be depraved by them. For when they say these things to you: "Peter did this feignedly, Paul reproached him feignedly; Paul did not write truly in his epistle that Peter was reproachable; Paul did not write truly in his epistle that he saw them not walking rightly toward the truth of the Gospel; Paul did not write truly in his epistle that Peter compelled the gentiles to Judaize, but all was feigned"—what truth will we retain, what page will we not hold suspect of falsehood?

14. Behold, we men are pressed by the most evident authority, and scarcely yield to truth thundering and flashing! Where shall we go? What shall we do, when perhaps I say to someone, "It is good to marry, but better not to marry, as the apostle Paul wrote," if the condemner of marriages says to me: "Plainly Paul condemned marriages, but he wrote this feignedly, since the truth itself could not be borne by the weak; because continence is laboriously imposed, therefore he said: It is good to marry, for he knew it was evil to marry"? Whence do you prove that Paul lied, where he says, He who gives in marriage does well (1 Cor 7:38)? "Whence do I prove it?" he says: "just as he lied where he says, When I saw that he was not walking rightly toward the truth of the Gospel—for Peter was not walking rightly toward the truth of the Gospel—; just as I said to Peter before all: If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of the gentiles and not in the manner of the Jews, how do you compel the gentiles to Judaize?—for Peter did not really compel the gentiles to Judaize. As, then, Paul said these things feignedly, so too, when he saw that the excellence of virginity could not be borne by carnal men, he said, He who gives in marriage does well. He was doing one thing, holding forth another." If these things are so, where shall we go? What oracles shall we consult? For the divine utterances committed to the canonical Scriptures ought to be to us truly as oracles. Is deceit to be feared there, where truth is found, where truth is presumed? I beseech you: foresee this little worm, that you may guard against it; do not admit it to the cabinet of your heart. If you admit it, unless you quickly shake out the cloths, you will find nothing whole there.

15. I have said what I reckoned must be said with great anxiety; long I have held your Charity, long has anxiety for you held me. All the things written in the holy canonical books, we who dispute and write books write far otherwise—we write by making progress, we learn daily, we dictate by searching, we speak by knocking. Surely I do not rest, as much as I can, where I can be useful to the brothers, both by speaking and by writing. I admonish your Charity, from me, even concerning me: do not wish to hold the book or disputation of anyone's discussion as canonical Scripture. In the holy Scriptures we learn to judge; in our own writings we do not disdain to be judged. That indeed is to be chosen, and this rather to be wished of the two: that in writing or speaking we say true things, that we nowhere err. But because this is difficult to fulfill, therefore there is another, the firmament of the canon—as it were the heaven where the luminaries of the Scriptures are set, as it were between the waters and the waters, between the peoples of the angels and the peoples of men: those above, these below. Let us hold Scripture as Scripture, as God speaking; let us not seek there an erring man. For not in vain was the canon established in the Church: this is the office of the Holy Spirit. If anyone, then, reads my book, let him judge me: if I have said something reasonable, let him follow not me, but reason itself; if I have proved this by a most evident and divine testimony, let him follow not me, but the divine Scripture. But if he wishes to reproach something that I have said rightly, he does not act rightly; but I am more angry with such a praiser of mine, who takes my book as canonical, than with the one who reproaches in my book even what is not to be reproached. I beg you: although I see you attentive and almost most fresh, as though you had only just begun to listen, yet I do not wish to say anything more, that you may firmly hold this last thing I have said. Let us turn to the Lord, etc.

1. 1. If we consider, brothers, what we were before the grace of the Lord, and what we began to be through the grace of the Lord; surely we find that just as men are changed for the better, so too the places of the lands which before were against the grace of God are now dedicated to the grace of God. For we, as the Apostle says, are the temple of the living God; concerning which God says, I will dwell in them, and walk about (2 Cor 6:16). But the images that were here knew how to be fixed, they did not know how to walk. But the presence of the majesty walks about in us, if it finds the breadth of love. Exhorting us to this the Apostle says, Be enlarged, do not be drawing the yoke with unbelievers (2 Cor 6:13-14). If we are enlarged, God walks about in us; but that we may be enlarged, let God himself work it. For if love makes the breadth, which knows no straits; see that God makes for himself breadth in us, the Apostle himself saying, The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5). On account of this breadth, I say, God walks about in us.

2. 2. Just now, when the Apostle's Epistle was recited, we heard: Walk by the Spirit, and do not accomplish the desires of the flesh. For the flesh covets against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are opposed to one another, that you may not do what you wish (Gal 5:16-17). He was speaking to the baptized: but he was still building the temple of God, he was not yet dedicating it. See, my brothers, how, when those earthly places themselves are turned to the better, some are torn down and broken, others changed to better uses; so we too are. The works of the flesh were in us. You heard them when they were mentioned: But the works of the flesh are manifest, he says, which are fornications, uncleannesses, the service of idols, sorceries—not kindly deeds, that is, not so named from good things, but from poisons—contentions, enmities, heresies, envies, drunkennesses, and the like; these are to be cast down, not changed: which I foretell, he says, you, as I have foretold, that those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21). These things in us are to be broken like idols. But the very members of our body are to be turned to better uses, so that what served the uncleanness of desire may serve the grace of love.

3. 3. But see what he said, and attend diligently. We are workers of God, the temple of God is still being built. In its head it is already dedicated; since the Lord rose from the dead, death conquered, mortality consumed, he ascended into heaven; because the Psalm of the dedication of the house was written about him. Therefore after the passion he says, You have turned my mourning into joy for me, you have torn my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; that my glory may sing to you, and I be not pricked (Ps 30:11-12 (29:12-13)). That dedication, then, was made after the passion in the resurrection. So our building too is now being made through faith, that the dedication itself too may be made through the final resurrection. Finally, after that Psalm of the dedication of the house, where the raising up of our head is shown, there is another Psalm after it, not before it, whose title reads thus: When the house was being built after the captivity (Ps 96 (95) title). Recall the captivity, where we were before, when the devil possessed the whole world as a lump of unbelievers. On account of this captivity the Redeemer came; he poured out his blood, our price: his blood poured out, he blotted out the instruments of our captivity. The law, says the Apostle, is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin (Rom 7:14). Before, sold under sin, but afterward freed by grace. After that captivity, the house is now being built; and that it may be built, the gospel is preached. For so the Psalm itself begins: Sing to the Lord a new song. And lest you think this house is built in one corner, as the schismatics or heretics build, attend to what follows: Sing to the Lord, all the earth (Ps 96:1 (95:1)).

4. 4. Sing to the Lord a new song: against the old song, the New Testament, because first the Old Testament; the new man, that the old man be put off. Put off, he says, the old man with his acts; and put on the new, who was created according to God in righteousness and the holiness of truth (Eph 4:22.24). Therefore: Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing, and build; sing, and sing well. Announce day from day his salvation; announce day from day his Christ. For what is, his salvation, but "his Christ"? For this salvation we prayed in the Psalm: Show us, O Lord, your mercy, and give us your salvation (Ps 85:7 (84:8)). The ancient righteous longed for this salvation, of whom the Lord said to the disciples, Many wished to see what you see, and could not (See Luke 10:24; Matt 13:17). And give us your salvation. The ancient righteous said this: Give us your salvation; may we see your Christ while we live in this flesh. May we see in the flesh him who frees us from the flesh; may the flesh come that cleanses the flesh; may the flesh suffer, and redeem the soul and the flesh. And give us your salvation, O Lord. In this longing was that holy old man Simeon; in this longing, I say, was that holy old man, well-deserving of God, Simeon; without doubt he too said, Show us, O Lord, your mercy, and give us your salvation. In this longing, in such prayers, he received an answer that he would not taste death unless he had seen the Christ of the Lord. Christ was born, that one was coming, this one was going; but until that one came, this one was unwilling to go. Now mature old age was shutting him out, but sincere devotion was holding him back. But when he came, when he was born, when he saw him carried in his mother's hands, and his devout old age recognized the divine infancy; he took him in his hands and said, Now, Lord, you dismiss your servant in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation (Luke 2:29-30). Behold whence he said, Show us, O Lord, your mercy, and give us your salvation. The longing of the old man was fulfilled, the old age of the world itself declining. He himself came to an old man, who found the world old. Therefore, if he found the world old, let the world hear: Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Let the oldness be destroyed, let newness rise.

5. 5. Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord. See the contest of the builders. Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Announce well—which in Greek is "evangelize." What? Day from day. What day from day? His salvation. What day from day? Light from light, the Son from the Father, his salvation. Announce among the nations his glory, among all peoples his wonders (Ps 96:2-3 (95:2-3)). Behold how the house is built after the captivity. He is terrible above all gods. Above what gods? For all the gods of the nations are demons; but the Lord made the heavens (Ps 96:5 (95:5)). He made the holy ones, he made the apostles. For the heavens declare the glory of God. There are no speeches nor words whose voices are not heard. Their sound went out into all the earth (Ps 19:1.3-4 (18:2.4-5)): because all the earth sings the new song.

5. 6. Let us hear, then, the Apostle too, the architect of the Master: As a wise architect, he says, I laid a foundation (1 Cor 3:10). Let us hear, then, this architect, constructing some new things, casting down some old. Walk by the Spirit, he says—this is the new construction; and do not accomplish the desires of the flesh—this is the destruction of the old. For the flesh, he says, covets against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are opposed to one another, that you may not do what you wish (Gal 5:16-17). For you are still being built, you are not yet being dedicated. That you may not do what you wish.

6. 6. For what do you wish? That there be no desires at all of evil and unlawful delights. What holy person would not wish this? But he does not bring it about: as long as one lives here, this is not fulfilled. For the flesh covets against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are opposed to one another, that what you wish to do—that there be in you no desires at all of unlawful things—you cannot. What, then, remains? Walk by the Spirit; and, because you cannot bring it about that you consume the desires of the flesh, do not accomplish the desires of the flesh. You ought indeed to wish to consume them, to end them, and to extirpate them utterly in every way; but as long as they are in you, and there is another law in your members fighting against the law of your mind, do not accomplish the desires of the flesh. For what do you wish? That there be no desires of the flesh at all. They do not permit you to fulfill what you wish; do not you permit them to fulfill what they wish. What do you wish? That they not exist at all. But they exist. The flesh covets against the spirit: let the spirit covet against the flesh. That you may not do what you wish—that is, that there be not in you the very desires of the flesh; nor let them do what they wish, so that you accomplish their work. If it is not wholly yielded to you, do not you yield either. Let the battle first be equal, that at some time there may be victory.

7. 7. For indeed, without doubt, my brothers, it will be; let us believe, let us hope, let us love—there will at some time be victory, in the dedication of the house which is now being built after the captivity. For the last enemy, death, will be destroyed, when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality. Premeditate the words of those who triumph: Where, O death, is your struggle (1 Cor 15:54-55)? This is the voice of those who triumph, not of those who fight. But the voice of those who fight is: Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled, and my soul is troubled exceedingly; and you, O Lord, how long (Ps 6:2-3 (6:3-4))? See the one laboring in the contest. And you, O Lord, how long? What is, How long? Until you prove that I am helping. For if I helped quickly, you would not feel the struggle; if you did not feel the struggle, you would as it were be proud of your own strength; and through this pride you would never reach victory. It was indeed said, While you are still speaking I will say: Behold, here I am (Isa 58:9); but God both is present when he delays, and what he delays is present, and by delaying is present; lest, by fulfilling a too-hasty will, he not fulfill perfect health.

8. 8. For he was not absent, my brothers, from the apostle Paul, who, when he was contending, feared lest he be exalted. In the greatness, he says, of my revelations, lest I be exalted. See him contending in the conflict, not yet triumphing in security. In the greatness of my revelations, lest I be exalted. Who says, Lest I be exalted? O terror, O trembling! Who says, Lest I be exalted? When his words are so blunting of elation, so suppressing of swelling, and he says, Lest I be exalted? It is too little that he says, Lest I be exalted; see the medicine that he says was applied to him. Lest I be exalted, he says, there was given to me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan. O poison, which is not cured but by poison! There was given to me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me (2 Cor 12:7). The head was beaten, lest the head be exalted. O antidote, which is as it were made from the serpent, and therefore called "theriac"! For that serpent persuaded pride. Taste, and you will be like gods (See Gen 3:5); this is the persuasion of pride. Whence he fell, thence he cast down. Deservedly, then, the venom of the serpent is healed by the serpent. What does the Apostle say? For which I asked the Lord three times that he take it from me. Where is, While you are still speaking I will say: Behold, here I am? For which, not once, but again and a third time, I asked the Lord. Did he not then too say, And you, O Lord, how long? But surely, because he delayed, was he therefore not present, and was it false, While you are still speaking I will say: Behold, here I am? For what? When the physician gives what you desire, is he present; when he cuts, is he not present? Do you not under the physician's instrument cry out for him to spare; and because he is more present, he cuts more? Finally, that you may know he was present, see what he answered to the one asking three times. He said, he says, to me: My grace is sufficient for you; for power is perfected in infirmity (2 Cor 12:8-9). I, he says, know; the best physician. I, he says, know into what swelling that goes which I wish to heal. Be still, let me apply what I know. My grace is sufficient for you: your will is not sufficient for you. These were surely the words of one contending, and in the contest in peril, and asking for divine help.

9. 9. But what will be the words of one triumphing? The words of one contending, while the house is being built: the words of one triumphing, when the house is at last dedicated. Where, O death, is your struggle? Where, O death, is your sting? But the sting of death is sin (1 Cor 15:55-56). Thus the Apostle said these things, as though he were already there. Finally, after these words, which it is agreed are about the future reception, not the present conflict; since he says, Then shall come to pass; it is not happening now, but then shall come to pass. What shall then come to pass? The saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your struggle? Where, O death, is your sting? Then it shall come to pass that the sting of death be nowhere, that sin can nowhere be found. Why do you hasten? Then it shall come to pass, then it shall come to pass. Let humility deserve it in you, that it may then come to pass in you; lest pride not permit that it even then come to pass in you. Then it shall come to pass. Now meanwhile, while you fight, while you labor, while you are in peril, say, say, Forgive us our debts (Matt 6:12). Say it utterly while you fight, say it, say it truly, say it from the soul: If we say that we have no sin, we lead ourselves astray. You will be your own devil. We lead ourselves astray, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). For we do not say a true thing, by saying that we have no sin; since here we are not without sin. Let us, then, say the truth, that at some time we may find security. Let there be truth in the fight, that security may be gained in victory. Then it shall come to pass: Where, O death, is your sting? For the sting of death is sin.

10. 10. But you presume on the law, because the law was given to you, and a precept was given to you. It is good for you that the Spirit give you life, lest the letter kill. I wish that you may will; but it is not enough that you will. You must be helped, that you may will fully, and fulfill what you will. For do you wish to see what the commanding letter avails without the Spirit helping? There he said it. When it was said, Where, O death, is your sting? But the sting of death is sin; he at once added, But the power of sin is the law (1 Cor 15:55-56). What is, The power of sin is the law? Not by commanding evils, or by forbidding goods: rather indeed by forbidding evils and commanding goods. But the power of sin is the law: because, the law, he says, crept in, that the offense might abound. What is, that the offense might abound? Because where there was no grace, the prohibition increased the desire; and when one presumes as it were on one's own power, a great vice was made. But what did grace do? Where sin abounded, grace abounded the more (Rom 5:20). The Lord came: all that you drew from Adam, all that you added by your own depraved morals, he forgave all, blotted out all; he taught prayer, promised grace; he declared the contest, came to the aid of the laborer, crowned the victor. And so, says the Apostle, the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Far from it! But sin, that it might appear as sin (Rom 7:12-13). For when you were not forbidden, it was there; but it did not appear. For I would not have known coveting, he says, unless the law said, You shall not covet. Sin, then, taking occasion, deceived me through the commandment, and through it killed me (Rom 7:7.11). Behold what is, The letter kills (2 Cor 3:6).

11. 11. If, then, you wish to escape the threatening law, flee to the helping Spirit. For what the law commands, faith hopes for. Cry to your God, that he help you. Do not remain guilty under the letter, but let God help you by his Spirit: lest the proud Jew be like you. For when the sting of death was sin, and the power of sin the law; what would human infirmity do, in which the will was wearied? To will, he says, lies near at hand for me; but to accomplish the good I do not find (Rom 7:18). What, then, would it do? Behold, the sting of death is sin, behold, the power of sin is the law. But the law crept in, that the offense might abound. For if the law could give life, righteousness would surely be from the law. But Scripture has shut up all things under sin (Rom 5:20; Gal 3:21-22). How did it shut up? Lest you wander, lest you be cast headlong, lest you be drowned; the law made bars for you, that, not finding by what way to go out, you might fly together to grace. But Scripture has shut up all things under sin, that the promise. He who promises, promises what he does, not what you do. If you were going to do it, God would be a foreteller, not a promiser. But Scripture, he says, has shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe (Gal 3:22). Hear: might be given. Why are you proud? Hear: might be given. For what do you have that you have not received (1 Cor 4:7)? Therefore, because the sting of death is sin, but the power of sin the law; and this from the good providence of God, that men might be shut up under sin, and seek a helper, seek grace, seek God, not presume on their own power; therefore here too, when he had said, But the sting of death is sin, but the power of sin is the law; why do you fear? Why do you labor? Why do you sweat? Hear what follows: But thanks be to God, who gave us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:57). Surely you do not give yourself the victory? Thanks be to God, who gave us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

12. 12. Therefore, when you have begun to labor, fighting against the desires of the flesh, walk by the Spirit, call upon the Spirit, seek the gift of God. And if the law in the members fights against the law of your mind from the lower part—that is, from the flesh—and holds you captive under the law of sin; this too will be amended, this too will pass into the rights of victory. Only cry out, only call. One ought always to pray, and not to fail (Luke 18:1). Call utterly, call for help. While you are still speaking, he says, behold, here I am (Isa 58:9). Understand afterward, and you hear him saying to your soul, I am your salvation (Ps 35:3 (34:3)). When, then, the law of the flesh begins to fight against the law of the mind, and to lead you captive in the law of sin which is in your members; say in praying, say in confessing, Wretched man that I am. For what else is man? What is man, that you are mindful of him (Ps 8:4 (8:5))? Say, Wretched man that I am; because unless the Son of man had come, man would have perished. Cry out in your straits, Who will free me from the body of this death? where the law in my members fights against the law of my mind. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man (Rom 7:24.22). Who will free me from the body of this death? If you say this faithfully, if humbly; most truly it is answered, The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:25). Let us turn to the Lord . . .

1. That we dare to speak to you, faith brings about, by which we believe that you pray for us. For I know that we are in your hearts to die together and to live together (See 2 Cor 7:3); to this hope the affection of your love nourishes us. And so, what the Lord shall grant, I beseech you to deign to hear gladly.

2. We heard the apostle Paul, when his epistle was read, admonishing by apostolic authority and saying, Walk by the Spirit, he says, and do not accomplish the desires of the flesh; for the flesh covets against the spirit, but the spirit covets against the flesh; for these are opposed to one another, that you may not do what you wish (Gal 5:16-17). He set before our eyes a certain warfare, in which the flesh and the spirit so contend that we do not do what we wish; and since the concupiscence of the flesh must be subjected to the command of God, he gave a discourse to those set in the contest, and said, Walk by the Spirit, and do not accomplish the desires of the flesh. Fight, he says, bravely, and conquer—not a foreign nature rebelling against you, but the concupiscence that reigns in your members. I see, says the Apostle, another law in my members (Rom 7:23). It assails, assail back; it rebels, restrain it; do not yield your members, and it does not kill your soul. Let not sin reign, he says, in your mortal body, nor present your members as arms of iniquity to sin (Rom 6:12-13). Deny concupiscence its arms, and your victory prevails. Fight, labor; no athlete is crowned without sweat. You are set in the stadium and in the contest, in the struggle; against your spirit the concupiscence of the flesh fights. The flesh covets against the spirit, and the spirit covets against the flesh. The flesh suggests lust, let the spirit command chastity; the flesh inflames to anger, let the spirit command mercy. Set in this contest, when you do not give to the rebelling concupiscence your members, which were arms of iniquity to sin, they become arms of righteousness to God (See Rom 6:13).

3. Therefore, dearly beloved, walk by the Spirit, and do not accomplish the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16). Set in this fight, do not presume on the strength of your free choice; for the adversary conquers you. Implore the help of the grace of God, and then you conquer the concupiscence of the flesh rebelling against you. But perhaps you are already conquered, and you will say perhaps: I am already conquered, concupiscence already holds arms against me, sin already reigns in my mortal body to obey its desires. Cry out, and say with Paul, Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? I delight in the law of God according to the inner man; but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin which is in my members (Rom 7:24.22-23). So great a teacher of the field is led captive; what do I do, captive and weak? Implore, then, the help of grace; it will be answered to you, and it will be said, The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Who will free me, he says, from the body of this death? O Manichean, he said from the body of this death, not from the captivity of that nation. The grace, he says, of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. O Pelagian, through Jesus Christ, he says, our Lord, not through our free choice.

4. And so, dearly beloved, if we live by the spirit, let us also follow the spirit. Let us not become desirous of vainglory (Gal 5:25-26). You heard the apostolic reading: Walk by the Spirit, and do not accomplish the desires of the flesh; for the flesh covets against the spirit, but the spirit against the flesh: but these are opposed to one another, that you may not do what you wish. And so, if you are led by the Spirit, you are no longer under the law. The works of the flesh, he says, are manifest, which are fornications, uncleanness, debauchery, the service of idols, sorceries, enmities, contentions, jealousies, animosities, dissensions, heresies, envies, drunkennesses, carousings, and the like, he says; of which I foretell you, as I have foretold, that those who do such things will not possess the kingdom of God (Gal 5:18-21). Kill in yourselves the concupiscence of the flesh with the help of God's grace: despise the works of the flesh, love the fruit of the spirit. For the fruit of the spirit is joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, continence (Gal 5:22-23). Do these things, and be in these, and the God of peace will be with you (See Phil 4:9).

1. Recall the reading of the apostolic epistle that mentions: Brothers, he says, if a man is overtaken in any offense, you who are spiritual, instruct such a one in a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. For he who thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, seduces himself. But let each one prove his own work, and then he will have glory in himself alone, and not in another. For each one will bear his own burden. But let the one who is catechized in the word share in all good things with the one who catechizes him. Do not err, God is not mocked; for what a man sows, that will he also reap; for he who sows in the flesh, from the flesh will reap corruption; but he who sows in the spirit, from the spirit will reap also eternal life. But in doing good let us not grow weary: for in its own time we shall reap untiringly. And so, while we have time, let us work good toward all, but most of all toward those of the household of faith (Gal 6:1-10).

2. Thus far it was recited from the Apostle's epistle: thus far I have been to you as a reader. But, my brothers, if the reader is understood, for what is a disputant necessary? Behold, we have heard, we have understood: let us do, and let us live. And what need is there to burden your memory? hold these things, and from there think on them. Or does it perhaps trouble any of you how that is to be understood which he says, Bear one another's burdens; and a little after he says, Each one will bear his own burden? For you say in your hearts—those of you, however, who noticed this: How do we bear one another's burdens, if each one will bear his own burden? How will each one bear his own burden, if we bear one another's burdens? I confess, it is a question. Knock, and it will be opened to you (Matt 7:7); knock by attending, knock by studying, knock also for us by praying, that we may say something worthy of you; thus by knocking you help us, and quickly this question will be resolved. Would that, as quickly as it is resolved, each one might as effectively do what he understood! In the weight of infirmity we bear one another's burdens; in the reckoning of devotion each one will bear his own burden. What is it I have said? All men—what are we but men, and through this weak, and not at all without sin? For in this we bear one another's burdens. For if you grow weary at your brother's sin, and he at yours, you neglect one another, and you truly commit a great sin. But if what he cannot bear, you bear, and what you cannot bear, he bears, you bear one another's burdens; and because you bear one another's burdens, you fulfill the most sacred law of love. For this is the law of Christ; the law of love is the law of Christ. He came for this reason, because he loved us; and there was nothing he might love, but by loving he made us lovable. You have heard what is, Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. What, then, is, Each one will bear his own burden? Each one will render an account for his own sin; no one will render an account for another's sin. Each one has his own case; he will render to God his own account. But even the very superiors, who render an account for the flocks of Christ, render an account for their own sin, if they neglect the flocks of Christ.

3. Therefore, brothers, if a man is overtaken in any offense, you who are spiritual—whoever you are who are spiritual—instruct such a one in a spirit of gentleness. And if you cry out, within love. You exhort, you flatter, you rebuke, you rage; love, and do whatever you wish. For a father does not hate his son: and yet a father, if there is need, flogs his son; he inflicts pain, that he may guard his health. This, then, is, In a spirit of gentleness. For if a man is overtaken in any offense, and you say: It does not pertain to me; and I say to you: Why does it not pertain to you? and you answer me: Because each one will bear his own burden; I will answer you: Surely you gladly heard, and understood: Bear one another's burdens. Therefore, if a man is overtaken in any offense, you who are spiritual, instruct such a one in a spirit of gentleness. For his own sin he himself will render an account, because each one will bear his own burden; but if you neglect his wound, you will render a bad account for the sin of your negligence; and through this, if you do not bear one another's burdens, you will have a bad account in that each one will bear his own burden. Do this, that you bear one another's burdens, and God spares you in that each one will bear his own burden. For if you bear another's burden, when he is overtaken in any offense, so as to instruct him in a spirit of gentleness, you will come to that place where you heard, Each one will bear his own burden; and with a good conscience you say to God, Forgive us our debts (Matt 6:12). Therefore, brothers, remember: If a man is overtaken in any offense . . . Do not take it in passing: A man. For he could have said: If anyone is overtaken, if whoever is overtaken; he did not say this, but said, A man. But it is very difficult that a man not be overtaken in some offense: for what is man?

4. But those spiritual ones, whom he admonished to instruct in gentleness the man who has been overtaken by an offense, perhaps said in their hearts: Let us bear the burdens of those who are overtaken by offenses; because we do not have anything in ourselves that they could bear. Hear, that you ought not to be secure, the following words; see: Looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Lest the spiritual be proud, lest they exalt themselves; although, if they are spiritual, they will not exalt themselves; I fear lest they exalt themselves for this reason, because they are carnal; yet let even the spiritual one attend, lest he too be tempted. For is he not a man because he is spiritual? Because he is spiritual, does he not carry a corruptible body that weighs down the soul (Wis 9:15)? Because he is spiritual, has he ended this life, which is wholly a temptation upon the earth (Job 7:1)? It is well said to him, wholly well: Looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. And when he had admonished those—that is, the spiritual—he at once brought in that general sentence: Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2). What is, one another's? Let the carnal bear the burden of another carnal one, let the spiritual bear that of another spiritual one. Bear one another's burdens, do not neglect one another's sins. Among those with whom you have confidence, reprove; among those with whom you have not confidence to reprove, admonish; and if this is necessary, that no one sin, pray, ask. Or have I perhaps humbled you, because I said, ask? Hear the Apostle: But commanding, he says, we also ask, that you not receive the grace of God in vain (See 2 Cor 6:1). The physician, if he finds strength in the sick man, rebukes; but if he does not find strength, and fears lest under the bitterness of the rebuke he perhaps fail, he supplicates, asks, that he may hear, do, and live. It is agreed, then, that the Apostle said this—Bear one another's burdens—because he had admonished the spiritual one, and had said, Looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted; lest this spiritual one arrogate so much to himself as to think that he has no burden which ought to be borne up by another.

5. Hear him again, on account of pomposity, on account of swelling, on account of puffing-up, hear him again: He who even thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, seduces himself (Gal 6:3). It could not be said better: he seduces himself. The devil is not to be accused in all things; for sometimes the man himself is his own devil. For why is the devil to be guarded against? Surely for this reason, lest he seduce you. Are you not, then, your own devil, when you seduce yourself? What then? But let each one prove his own work, and then he will have glory in himself alone, and not in another (Gal 6:4). When you do something good, if it pleases you for this reason, because another praises you; but if another did not praise you for it, you would fail in doing a good work, destitute of the voices of the praiser, you have glory in another, not in yourself. If he praises, you do it; if perhaps your good work displeases a foolish man, you do not do it. Do you not see men pouring out their goods to actors, and holding out nothing to the poor man, how they are praised by the mouths of many? Is what they do therefore good, because they are praised? Wake up at last: The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul. You all cried out, because you know the holy Scripture from which we mentioned the testimony; let those who do not know it hear too. The holy Scripture said, the holy Scripture foretold: For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who does unjust deeds is blessed (Ps 10:3 (9:24)). Now then, if the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who does unjust deeds is blessed, seek praisers. Evil desires tear you apart; commit iniquities daily to fulfill your desires, and seek praisers. Believe me, you will find none but flatterers or seducers. How flatterers, how seducers? I must render an account of my words. Flatterers are those who know you do evil, and yet praise you; but those who praise you doing evil for this reason, because they think what you do is good, are not flatterers, because they praise from the soul, but are seducers, because by the frequency of their praises they seduce you to do those evils, and do not allow you to breathe. For going thus into the empty winds, you think what you do is good: you cast away your goods, you empty your house, you leave your children naked. Those praises made you mad: you run, you move your hands, you receive applause, you put it to your mouth; you pour out your house, and you gather wind. How, you say, are those my seducers, who praise me from the soul? They are your seducers for this reason, because by erring they were first their own. Will he then labor to put ladders up to you, so as not to seduce you, who seduces himself? Therefore the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who does unjust deeds is blessed. Beware of such a praiser, avoid a blesser of this kind. Rather, do good yourself. But, you will say, I will displease that man, if I do it. And displease him, and please God; for if you displease him, and please God, you will have glory in yourself, and not in another. But the evil detract from the good, and the lovers of this age curse the despisers of the age, speak reproaches, seek what to reproach; as soon as something evil is said, they at once believe it: if something good is said, they are unwilling to believe; and your heart is troubled, so that you fail in doing good, because no praiser or flatterer or deceiver has been found, and the testimony of your conscience does not suffice you, in the theater of your breast, under the eyes of God. Why are you troubled, I beseech you, why are you troubled? Because many evil things are said about me. Is this what you say? You would not be troubled in the ship of your heart, unless Christ slept there.

6. You heard, when the Gospel was read, a great storm broke out, and the ship was tossed, and was being covered by the waves (See Matt 8:24). Why? Because Christ was sleeping. When does Christ sleep in your heart, except when you forget your faith? The faith of Christ in your heart is as Christ in the ship. You hear reproaches, you are wearied, you are troubled: Christ sleeps. Awaken Christ, awaken your faith. You have something to do even when troubled; awaken your faith. Let Christ wake, and speak to you: Do reproaches trouble you? Which did I not first hear for you? This Christ says to you, thus your faith addresses you; hear it, and see that it thus addresses you; unless perhaps you have forgotten that Christ suffered for us (See 1 Pet 2:21), and before he suffered such great evils for us, he heard reproaches. He cast out demons, and it was said to him: You have a demon (See John 8:48). Of him it was said through the Prophet, The reproaches of those who reproach you fell upon me (Ps 69:9 (68:10)). Awaken Christ, then, and he will say to you in your heart, When men detract from you, and say all evil against you for my sake, rejoice and exult, for your reward is abundant in heaven (Matt 5:11-12). Believe what was said, and a great tranquillity comes to be in your heart. If, then, a man thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he seduces himself; but let each one prove his own work, and then he will have glory in himself, and not in another. Whether he praise or reproach, you have glory in yourself, because your glory is your God in your conscience; and you will be like the wise virgins, who carried oil with them in vessels, so as to have glory not in another, but in themselves. For those who did not carry oil with them begged from them, and their lamps were going out, and they said, Give us of your oil (Matt 25:8). What is, Give us of your oil, but: Praise our works, because our conscience does not suffice us? What seemed obscure in the apostolic reading, as the Lord granted, I have expounded. The rest is plain: it does not seek an expositor, but a doer. But that we may do what we have heard, let us ask him without whose help we can do nothing good; since he himself said to his disciples, Without me you can do nothing (John 15:5). Let us turn to the Lord . . .
Truly I say to your Charity, that we cannot bear the longing for our own and their complaints even by letters; but because this which you ask the holy old man too has now commanded, I thus conclude the sermon. The birthday of blessed Cyprian is surely now drawing near; on account of that solemnity you wished to be violent in keeping me here: therefore, we who are eager for the word, it is good that we fast also in body.

1. 1. Truth, through the Apostle, admonishes us all to bear one another's burdens; and in the very thing in which he admonishes us to bear one another's burdens, he shows with what fruit we do it, adding and saying, And so you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2); which will not be fulfilled, unless we bear one another's burdens. What these burdens are, and how they are to be borne—since indeed we all according to our strength ought to strive to fulfill the law of Christ—with the Lord's help I will try to show. What I have proposed to demonstrate, remember to demand; and when I have rendered it, do not ask for it. This I have proposed to demonstrate, the Lord helping my intention and your prayers for me: what the burdens are which the Apostle commands us to bear for one another, and how they are to be borne. If we do this, that wherein he placed the fruit will of its own accord follow—that we may fulfill the law of Christ.

1. 2. Someone says: Did the Apostle, then, speak obscurely, that you should try to expound what these burdens are, or how they are to be borne for one another? There is there a question which forces us to distinguish the burdens. For in the very passage of the reading you have it set down there: But each one will bear his own burden (Gal 6:5). Now then it occurs to your minds: If each one will bear his own burden, how does he say, Bear one another's burdens (Gal 6:2)? Unless the burdens are to be distinguished, lest the Apostle be thought to speak things contrary to himself. For not far off, not in another Epistle, not in this very one far above or below; but in that very place, so that the same words are contiguous to one another, he set down both: both that each one will bear his own burden, and what he admonished and exhorted, that we bear one another's burdens.

2. 3. There are, then, some burdens in which each one bears his own, nor does one bear it with another, nor cast it on another; and there are other burdens in which you rightly say to a brother: I bear it with you, or: I bear it for you. If, then, distinction is needed, the understanding is not easy. Against those, therefore, who thought that a man could be contaminated by another's sins, the Apostle answered, Each one will bear his own burden. Likewise, against those into whom negligence could creep through this, so that, made as it were secure that they would not be contaminated by another's sins, they would care to correct no one: Bear one another's burdens (Gal 6:5.2). It was briefly said, and briefly distinguished; and, as far as I reckon, it did not impede the manifestation of the truth. For you both heard briefly, and quickly understood. I did not see your hearts; but I heard the voices, witnesses of the heart. Now then, as it were secure about what has been understood, let us at last discourse more broadly; not that what is to be understood may be insinuated, but that what has been understood may be commended.

2. 4. The burdens which each one bears as his own are sins. To men carrying these packs of detestable burdens, and sweating in vain under them, the Lord says, Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matt 11:28). How does he refresh those burdened with sins, but by the forgiveness of sins? The preacher of the world, from a certain watchtower of lofty authority, cries out: Hear, human race; hear, sons of Adam; hear, laborious and unfruitful race: I see your labor, see my gift. I know, you labor and are burdened; and, what is more wretched, you bind pernicious packs to your shoulders; in addition, what is worse, you ask that burdens be added to you, not laid down.

3. 5. Which of us can in a short time discuss the multiplicity and variety of these packs? Yet let us mention a few of them, and from these conjecture the rest. See a man burdened with the pack of greed, see him sweating under this pack, panting, thirsting, and by laboring adding to the pack. What do you await, O greedy one, embracing your burden, and binding an evil pack under your shoulders with the chains of desire? What do you await? Why do you labor? Why do you gape? Why do you covet? Surely to satisfy greed. O empty vows and most worthless deeds! Do you await, then, to satisfy greed? It can press you, you cannot satisfy it. Or is it perhaps not heavy? Have you under this pack lost even your senses? Is greed not heavy? Why, then, does it rouse you from sleep, which sometimes does not even allow you to sleep? And perhaps you have with it another burden, of laziness, and these two most worthless burdens, fighting with one another, press you and tear you apart. For they do not command equal things, do not order similar things. Laziness says: Sleep; greed says: Get up. Laziness says: Do not endure cold days; greed says: Bear even storms at sea. The one says: Rest; the other does not allow you to rest. It commands not only: Go forth; but also: Sail across the sea, seek lands you do not know. Goods must be carried to India; you do not know the language of the Indians, but the speech of greed seems intelligible. You will come unknown to the unknown; you give, receive, buy, carry; having been in peril you arrived, with perils you return, you cry out, tossed at sea by a storm: God, free me. Do you not hear him answering: Why? Did I send you? Greed commanded you to acquire what you did not have; I commanded you, without labor, before your door, to give to the poor man what you had. It sent you to the Indians to bring back gold; I set Christ at your door, from whom you might buy the kingdom of heaven. You labor at the command of greed, at my command you do not labor. We both commanded; you did not hear me: let the one you obeyed free you.

4. 6. How many carry these packs? How many, set under those very packs, cry out to me as I now speak against them? With their packs they entered, with their packs they go out; greedy they came in, greedy they depart. I labored by speaking against those packs. If you cry out, lay down what you carry. Finally, do not listen to me; listen to your Emperor crying out, Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened. For you do not come, unless you cease to labor. You wish to run to me, but with heavy packs you cannot. Come, he says, to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matt 11:28). I give pardon of past sins, I will take away what pressed your eyes, I will heal what harmed your shoulders. I will indeed take away the packs, but I will not let you go empty of packs: I will take away the evil packs, and impose good ones. For when he had said, And I will refresh you; he added, Take my yoke upon you (Matt 11:29). Desire had subjugated you badly, let love subjugate you wholesomely.

4. 7. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me (Matt 11:29). If any human teaching whatever has become cheap to you, learn from me. Christ the master cries out, the only Son of God, the only truthful one, the true one, the truth cries out: Learn from me. What? That in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and all things were made through him (John 1:1.3)? Can we learn this from him—to fashion the world, to fill the heaven with lights, to order the alternations of day and night, to bid the times and ages to run their course, to grant power to seeds, to fill the earth with animals? The heavenly master commands us to learn none of these things: those he does as God.

5. 7. But because this one deigned to be both God and man, in that which is God, hear that you may be recreated; in that which is man, hear that you may imitate. Learn, he says, from me; not to fashion the world, and create natures; nor those other things which this hidden God, manifest as man, did; nor does he say: Learn from me to drive fevers from the sick, to put demons to flight, to raise the dead, to command the winds and the waves, to walk upon the waters; nor does he say this: Learn from me. For these things he gave to certain of his disciples, to certain he did not give them: but this, Learn from me, he says to all; from this precept let no one excuse himself: Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart (Matt 11:29). Why do you hesitate to bear this pack? Is this pack heavy—humility and devotion? Is this pack heavy—faith, hope, love? For these make humble, these make gentle. And see that you will not be burdened, if you hear him. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matt 11:30). What is, it is light? What if it has weight, but less? Has greed more, righteousness less? I do not wish you to understand it thus. This pack is not the weight of one burdened, but the wings of one about to fly. For the birds too have the packs of their feathers. And what do we say? They carry them, and are carried. They carry them on earth, they are carried by them in heaven. If you wish to show mercy to a bird, especially in summer, and say: This poor little bird is burdened by its feathers, and you take away this burden; it will remain on the earth, the one you wished to help. Carry, then, the feathers of peace, take the wings of love. This is the pack, thus the law of Christ will be fulfilled.

6. 8. The burdens are distinguished. See now, some greedy man enters; you know him as greedy, he stands with you, and you are not greedy; but even merciful, you give to the poor man what you have, you do not gape after the things you do not have; you hear the Apostle saying, Command the rich of this world not to be proudly wise, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in the living God, who furnishes us all things abundantly to enjoy; let them be rich in good works, give easily, share, treasure up for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of the true life (1 Tim 6:17-19). You heard, you acknowledged, you learned, you held, you did it. Do what you do, do not grow slack, do not cease. He who perseveres to the end, this one will be saved (Matt 10:22). You did good to a man, the man is ungrateful; do not repent of having done good, lest by repenting you pour out what you fulfilled by showing mercy; say in your heart: This one does not see for whom I did it, but he sees on whose account I did it; because this one, if he saw, if he were not ungrateful, would profit himself rather than me. Let me hold to God, from whom what I do is not hidden; not only what I do, but even what I do in my heart; let me hope in him as the repayer, who does not seek a witness of my deed. You are such; and perhaps among the people of God there stands beside you a greedy plunderer, gaping after others' goods. Whom you know to be such, and he is faithful, or rather called faithful, you cannot drive him from the Church, you have no avenue to correct him by chastising and rebuking, he is going to approach the altar with you; do not fear: Each one will bear his own burden. Remember the Apostle, that you may approach secure: Each one will bear his own burden. Only let him not say to you: Bear it with me. For if you wish to share greed with him, the burden will not be lessened, but two will be weighed down. Let him carry his own pack, then, and you yours: since, when your Lord shook off such a pack from your shoulders, he imposed another; he shook off that of desire, imposed that of love. Therefore, according to his own desires each one bears his own pack, the evil man an evil one, the good man a good one.

7. 9. Turn now to that precept too: Bear one another's burdens (Gal 6:2). For you have the pack of Christ; whence you may bear with another his own burden. He is poor, you are rich; his burden is poverty; you do not have such a burden. See lest perhaps, when the poor man appeals to you, you say: Each one will bear his own burden. Here hear the other precept: Bear one another's burdens. Poverty is not my burden, but is the burden of my brother. See lest riches be your greater burden. For you do not have the burden, poverty, but you have the burden, riches. If you attend well, it is a burden. He has one burden, you another. Carry with him, and let him carry with you, that you may bear one another's burdens. What is the burden of poverty? Not to have. What is the burden of riches? To have more than is needed. Both he is burdened, and you are burdened. Carry with him not-having, let him carry with you having-more; that your packs may be made equal. For if you give to the needy, you lessen for him, the not-having one, his burden, which was not-having; if you give to him, he begins to have; the burden which is called not-having is lessened for him; he too lessens your burden, which is called having-more. Two of you walk the way of God in the pilgrimage of this age: you carried great superfluous provisions, but he had no provisions; he cleaved to you, desiring to be your companion; do not neglect, do not despise, do not abandon. Do you not see how much you carry? Give some of it to the one carrying nothing and having nothing, and you will both help your companion and relieve yourself. The apostolic sentence has been sufficiently, as I reckon, expounded.

7. 10. Let them not sell you smoke who say: We are holy, we do not carry your packs, therefore we do not commune with you. These greater men carry the packs of division, they carry the greater packs of cutting-off, the packs of schism, the packs of heresy, the packs of dissension, the packs of animosity, the packs of false testimonies, the packs of slanderous accusations. These packs we have tried, and we try, to lay down from the shoulders of our brothers. They love holding them to themselves, they are unwilling to be smaller, because they have swelled with those very packs. For even one who lays down a pack that he carried on his neck becomes as it were smaller; but he has laid down weight, not stature.

7. 11. But I, you say, do not commune in others' sins. As if I said this to you: Come, commune in others' sins. I do not say this, I know what the Apostle says; but I say this. On account of others' sins, if they were true, and were not rather yours, you would not desert the flock of God, mixed with sheep and goats; you would not abandon the Lord's threshing-floor as long as the chaff is being threshed; you would not break the Lord's nets as long as they draw good and bad fish to the shore. And how, you say, would I bear one whom I know to be evil? Would you not rather bear him, than bear yourself out? Behold how you would bear him: if you attended to the Apostle saying, Each one will bear his own burden; this sentence would free you. For you would not share greed with him, but you would share with him the table of Christ. And what would harm you, if you shared with him the table of Christ? The Apostle says, For he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself (1 Cor 11:29). To himself, not to you. Of course, if you are a judge, if you have received the power of judging by ecclesiastical rule, if he is accused before you, if he is convicted by true evidence and witnesses, restrain, rebuke, excommunicate, degrade. So let toleration keep watch, that discipline does not sleep.

8. 12. But Caecilian was condemned, they say. Condemned? By whom? First in his absence, then by traitors—innocent. These things were alleged, inserted into the records, proved. They tried indeed to weaken the strength of the truth, and strove, as much as they could, to becloud its serenity with the mists of empty prosecutions. The Lord was present, his serenity conquered their mists. And see how, not knowing it, they absolved the Church of the whole world, in whose communion we rejoice, whatever sort we are in it. We protect, defend, hold not ourselves, but that Church, defending the Lord's threshing-floor; for the Lord's threshing-floor I cry out. What sort I am in it, I do not wish you to care; I await the winnowing-fan (See Matt 3:12). I do not wish, I say, that you care for this; or if you wish to care, do not care with strife, that you may be able to heal the brothers. Care for the chaff, if you can; but do not abandon the wheat, if you cannot care for the chaff. Sometimes even grains are shaken from the Lord's threshing-floor along with the chaff; meanwhile even grains, but not far off. But there are good workers, they go around the threshing-floor, and the things shaken outside they draw with certain cleansing tools and recall onto the threshing-floor, even if by drawing, even if by forcing. The cleansing tools are these worldly laws. Recall, draw the wheat even with the earth, lest on account of the earth the wheat perish. Caecilian was condemned, they say. He was condemned once in absence, three times absolved present. We answered them; and we admonished men, untaught, as briefly as we could, about their own deeds, and said: Why do you recite against Caecilian the council of seventy bishops, pronouncing sentences against an absent man? More were pronounced by the council of the Maximianists against the absent Primian. We said: Caecilian was condemned absent by those, Primian was condemned absent by these. As these do not prejudge the absent Primian, so neither could those prejudge the absent Caecilian.

9. 13. What do you think they answered in this strait? For what would they say? By what would they escape, enclosed in the nets of truth? That they might violently break these nets, what did they say briefly and absolutely for us? And indeed many things, and nearly all for us, as the records will indicate, which your Charity is now to read as they are set forth. But in this place I ask you, and beseech you through Christ, that you hold it, say it, always have it in your mouth. For no briefer, surer, clearer sentence could be brought forth for us. What, then, did he say, when we objected this: Thus these do not prejudge Caecilian, as neither those Primian? And that defender of theirs: Neither does a cause prejudge a cause, nor a person a person. O answer brief, clear, true! For he did not know what he said; but, like Caiaphas, since he was high priest he prophesied (See John 11:51): Neither does a cause prejudge a cause, nor a person a person. If neither a cause prejudges a cause, nor a person a person, then each one bears his own pack. Let him now go and object Caecilian to you; not to you, any man whatever, but let him object Caecilian to the whole world itself. When he does this, he objects an innocent man to innocent men. Plainly the records will indicate most clearly. Caecilian was cleared. But suppose him not cleared, suppose him found criminal; hear your own voice from the whole world: Neither does a cause prejudge a cause, nor a person a person. Heretical soul, incurable, animated, when you pronounce sentence against yourself, why do you accuse the judge? If I corrupted him, to judge for me; who corrupted you, to condemn yourself?

10. 14. Would that they think on these things at some time, even late, even with their animosity subsiding; that they return to themselves, question themselves, examine themselves, answer themselves, for the truth not fear those to whom they have sold falsehood for so very long. For they fear to offend those very people; they blush before human infirmity, and do not blush before the most invincible truth. Surely they fear this, lest it be said to them: Why, then, did you deceive us? Why did you seduce us? Why did you say so many evil and false things? They ought to answer, if they feared God. It was human to err, it is devilish to remain in error through animosity. It would indeed be better if we never erred; but let us at least do the second-best thing, to amend the error at some time. We deceived, because we were deceived; we preached false things, who believed those who preached false things. Let them say to their own: Together we erred, together let us withdraw from the error. We were leaders to you to the pit, and you followed when we led to the pit; and now follow when we lead to the Church. They could say these things; they would say them to the indignant, say them to the angry, and at some time even those would lay aside their indignation, would love unity at least late.

10. 15. Yet let us, brothers, be patient toward them. They are in fever and swelling, the eyes that we are treating. I do not say that we should cease to treat them; but that we should not provoke them by insults to greater bitternesses; let us render the reason gently, let us not exult proudly over victory. For the servant of the Lord ought not to quarrel, the Apostle says, but to be gentle to all, teachable, patient, with modesty rebuking those who think differently; lest perhaps God give them repentance, and they recover from the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive according to his will (2 Tim 2:24-26). Bear patiently, then, if you are sound, bear patiently, in proportion as you are sound. For who is perfectly sound? When the just King sits on his throne, who will boast that he has a clean heart, or who will boast that he is clean from sin (See Prov 20:8-9)? Therefore, as long as we are such, we owe this to ourselves, that we bear one another's burdens. Let us turn to the Lord, etc.

1. There are those who think that alms are to be given only to the righteous, but that to sinners such things ought not to be given. In this error the sacrilegious Manicheans hold the first place, who believe that in any food whatever the members of God are held mingled and bound, which they reckon must be spared, lest they be polluted by sinners and entangled in more wretched knots. This madness is perhaps less worthily refuted than it offends the sense of all the sound, if it is merely set forth. But some, thinking nothing of the sort, suppose for this reason that sinners are not to be fed, lest we strive against God, whose indignation is declared in them, as though by this he could even be angry with us, because we wish to help those whom he wishes to punish. They even bring forward testimonies of the holy Scriptures, where we read, Give mercy, and do not receive a sinner, and to the ungodly and sinners render vengeance. Do good to the humble man, and do not give to the ungodly. For the Most High too hates sinners, and to the ungodly will render vengeance (Sir 12:4-6). Not understanding how these words are to be taken, they clothe themselves in a detestable cruelty. Hence we ought, on this matter, brothers, to address your Charity, lest by a perverse thought you not consent with the divine will.

2. That mercy is to be imparted to all, Paul the apostle teaches most openly, saying, Untiringly, he says, while we have time, let us work good toward all, but most of all toward those of the household of faith (Gal 6:9-10). Whence indeed it appears clearly enough that in works of this kind the righteous are to be preferred. For whom else should we understand as those of the household of faith, when elsewhere it is openly set down, The righteous lives by faith (Rom 1:17; Hab 2:4)? Yet to other men too, even sinners, the bowels of mercy are not to be shut, not even if they bear a hostile mind against us, our Savior himself saying and admonishing, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Matt 5:44; Luke 6:27). Nor is this passed over in silence in the Old Books. For there it is read, If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink (Prov 25:21), which the Apostle too used in the New (See Rom 12:20).

3. Nor are the things we set down above for this reason false, because they too are divine precepts: Give mercy, and do not receive a sinner (Sir 12:4). For those things were said for this reason: that you should not do good to any sinner because he is a sinner, but that you should do good to the one who hates you, not because he is a sinner, but because he is a man. So you will keep both precepts, neither slack to take vengeance, nor inhuman to help. For everyone who rightly rebukes a sinner—what else does he wish, but that he not be a sinner? He hates, then, in him what God too hates, so that what man made may be destroyed, and what God made may be freed. For man made the sin, but God made the man himself. And when we say these two names, "sinful man," they are surely not said in vain. Because he is a sinner, rebuke him; and because he is a man, have mercy. Nor will you wholly free the man, unless you persecute the sinner. To this office all discipline keeps watch, as it is fitting and suited to each one who governs—not only to the bishop governing his people, but also to the poor man governing his house, the rich man governing his household, the husband governing his wife, the father governing his offspring, the judge governing his province, the king governing his nation. All these, when they are good, surely wish well to those they govern, and according to the power imparted by the Lord of all, who governs even those who govern, they give effort that those whom they govern may both be preserved as men, and perish as sinners. So they fulfill what is written, Give mercy and do not receive a sinner—lest they wish that to be saved in him which is that he is a sinner; and to the ungodly and sinners render vengeance—and in this, that the very thing by which they are ungodly and sinners be blotted out in them; do good to the humble man, on account of this, that he is humble, and do not give to the ungodly, on account of this, that he is ungodly, for the Most High too hates sinners, and to the ungodly will render vengeance (Sir 12:4-6)—who nevertheless, because they are not only sinners and ungodly, but also men, makes his sun rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45). Thus mercy is to be shut to no man, impunity for no sin is to be relaxed.

4. Hence, then, it is especially to be understood how almsgiving is not to be despised which is bestowed on any poor by the right of humanity, since indeed the Lord relieved the want of the poor even from those purses which he filled from the wealth of others (See Luke 8:3; John 13:29). But if perhaps someone says that neither those weak and beggarly persons whom the Lord rather commanded to be invited (See Luke 14:13), nor those to whom he was accustomed to distribute from the purses, were sinners; and therefore it does not follow that, on account of these gospel testimonies, even sinners are commanded to be received or fed by the merciful; let him attend to what I have already mentioned above—that surely those are sinners and most of all wicked who hate and persecute the Church, of whom, nevertheless, it is said, Do good to those who hate you (Luke 6:27). And this is built up by the example of God the Father, who makes his sun rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45). Let us not, then, receive sinners because they are sinners, but yet let us treat those very ones, because they are also men, with human consideration. Let us persecute in them their own iniquity, let us have mercy on the common condition. And so, untiring, while we have time, let us work good toward all, but most of all toward those of the household of faith (Gal 6:9-10).

1. 1. We have heard the Apostle, we have heard the Psalm, we have heard the Gospel; all the divine readings agree, that we place our hope not in ourselves, but in the Lord. I ask, says the Apostle, that you not be weakened in my tribulations for you, which is your glory (Eph 3:13). I ask, he says, that you not be weakened—that is, that you be not weakened, when you hear that I suffer tribulations for you; for this is your glory. He asks them, then, not to be weakened; which he would not do, unless he wished to rouse their will. For if they answered: Why do you ask of us what we do not have in our power? would they not seem to themselves to have given a just answer? And yet the Apostle, unless he knew there was in them a consent of their own will, where they too did something, would not say, I ask. And if he said, I command, unless he knew that they could apply their will to his command, in vain would this word proceed from his mouth. But again, knowing that without God's help the will of man is weak, not only lest they say: We have no choice of will, did he say, I ask; but also lest they say: The choice of will is enough for us, see what he added: For this reason. For what reason, but that which he had said above, I ask that you not be weakened in my tribulations for you, which is your glory? Because, then, you have the choice of will: I ask. But because the choice of will is not enough to fulfill what I ask: For this reason I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named. That he may give you (Eph 3:14-16). What: give you? What I ask of you, I ask that he give you. For I ask of you, on account of the choice of will: I ask that he give you, on account of the help of his majesty.

2. 2. But we have anticipated the Apostle's words. Perhaps you still await to hear—you who do not hold in memory the text of this reading—whether the Apostle really bends his knees to the Father for them, that he may give them what he said to them: I ask. Remember, then, what he asked of them. I ask that you not be weakened in my tribulations for you: this he asks of them. Now see what he asks for them: I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he may give you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power. What else is this, but not to be weakened? To be strengthened with power, he says, through his Spirit (Eph 3:14-16). This is the Spirit of grace. See what he asks. This he asks of God, which he demands of men; because, that God may be willing to give, you too ought to fit your will to receiving. How do you wish to receive the grace of the divine goodness, you who do not open the bosom of your will? May he give, he says, you. For you do not have it, unless he give it you. May he give you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit. For if he gives you to be strengthened with power, there he will give you not to be weakened. That Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts, in the inner man. May he give you all this. Rooted and grounded in love, that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints (Eph 3:16-18). To comprehend what? May he give you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your inner man through faith, and so, rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints: what? What is the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth (Eph 3:18). "Height" indeed in the Latin language signifies both: both what is upward has the name of "height"; and what is deep downward has the name of "height." Therefore the translator rightly rendered: for what is high upward, to say "height"; for what is high downward, to say "depth."

3. 3. What is it, then, my brothers? I will expound this to you. Perhaps if it were easier for anyone—what then? Because the breadth, length, height, and depth, these four things which the Apostle names, I am less fit either to comprehend or to set forth, shall I pass over this? Or shall I perhaps knock, and, that I may set forth something wholesome for you, be helped by your prayers? Why do you range in heart, O Christian man, through the breadth of the earth, the length of times, the height of heaven, the depth of the abyss? When do you comprehend these things, either with the mind or with the body? That is, either by thinking or by gazing with the eyes of the flesh, when do you comprehend these things? Hear the Apostle himself saying to you, But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal 6:14). And let us too glory in it, or because we lean upon it. In it let us all glory, O good brothers, in it let us glory. There perhaps we shall find the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth. For by these words of the Apostle the cross is in a way set before our eyes. For it has breadth, in which the hands are fixed; it has length, in that the wood is led from there down to the earth; it has also height, in that, from the very crossbeam in which the hands are fixed, it rises somewhat, where the head of the crucified is placed; and it has depth, that is, what is fixed in the earth and is not seen. See the great sacrament. From that depth which you do not see rises all that you see.

4. 4. Where, then, is the breadth? Turn yourself to the life and morals of the saints, who say, Far be it to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We find in their morals the breadth of love; whence the Apostle himself admonishes them, saying, Be enlarged, do not be drawing the yoke with unbelievers (2 Cor 6:13-14). And because he himself was broad, who exhorted them to breadth, hear what he says: Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians; our heart is enlarged (2 Cor 6:11). Breadth, then, is love, which alone works well. Breadth makes God love a cheerful giver (See 2 Cor 9:7). For if one suffers straits, he will give sadly: if he gives sadly, what he gives perishes. There is need, then, of the breadth of love, lest whatever good you do perish. But since the Lord says, Where iniquity abounds, the love of many will grow cold (Matt 24:12); give me also the length. What is the length? He who perseveres to the end, this one will be saved (Matt 10:22). This is the length of the cross, where the whole body is stretched out; where, as it were, one stands, by which standing one perseveres. If, then, you seek—you who glory in the cross—to have the breadth of the cross, have the virtue of working well. If you wish to have the length of the cross, have the long-suffering of persevering. But if you wish to have the height of the cross, know what you hear, and where you hear: Lift up your heart. What is, Lift up your heart? There hope, there love: from there seek virtue, there await the reward. For if you work well, and give cheerfully, you seem to have breadth. If in those same good works you persevere to the end, you seem to have length. But if you do not do all these things on account of the heavenly reward, you will not have height; and that will then be neither breadth nor length. For what is it to have height, but to think of God, to love God; and to love freely God himself the helper, himself the spectator, himself the crowner, himself the bestower of the reward; finally, to reckon him himself the reward, to await nothing else from him but himself? If you love, love freely: if you truly love, let the one you love be himself the reward. Or are all things dear to you, and is he cheap who founded all things?

5. 5. That we might be able to do these things, the Apostle bent his knees for us, surely for this reason, that it might be given to us. For the Gospel too terrifies: To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom, but to them it is not given. For he who has, to him it will be given. But who has, to whom it will be given, but the one to whom it has been given? But he who has not, even what he has will be taken from him (Matt 13:11-12). But who has not, but the one to whom it has not been given? Why, then, was it given to that one, and not given to that one? It does not irk me to say it: this is the depth of the cross. From some depth of the judgments of God, which we cannot scrutinize and contemplate, comes all that we can. From some depth, I say, of the judgments of God, which, unsearchable, we cannot contemplate, we cannot scrutinize, comes all that we can. What I can, I see: whence I can, I do not see; except that even this I see thus far, that I know it is from God. But why this one, and not that one; it is too much for me, it is an abyss, it is the depth of the cross; I can cry out in wonder, I cannot demonstrate by disputation. What can I cry out about this depth? How magnified are your works, O Lord (Ps 92:5 (91:6))! The gentiles are enlightened, the Jews are blinded. Some little children are washed in the sacrament of Baptism, but some little children are left in the death of the first man. How magnified are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are made exceedingly deep! And it follows, The imprudent man does not know, and the fool does not understand these things (Ps 92:5-6 (91:6-7)). What does the fool and imprudent man not understand? That it is even deep. For if the fool does not understand, and the wise man understands, it is not exceedingly deep. But if the wise man understands that it is deep, the fool does not understand that it is even deep.

5. 6. Therefore many, seeking to render a reason for this depth, have gone off into fables of vanity. Some have said that souls sin above in heaven, and according to their sins are directed to bodies according to their deserts, and are shut up there as it were in fitting prisons. They went after their own thoughts; wishing to dispute about the depth of God, they were drowned in the depth. For the Apostle meets them, wishing to commend grace, and he chose those twins in the womb of Rebecca, and says, For when they were not yet born, nor had done anything good or evil (Rom 9:11). See how he took from vain men the fancies of a sojourn of souls before the body in heaven. For if they had already sojourned there, they had already done something good or evil, and were thrust down to earthly bodies according to their deserts. If it please, let us contradict the Apostle, who said, Not yet born, nor having done anything good or evil. But because, on account of the Apostle's evident sentence, the catholic faith rejects this—that souls live and sojourn first in the heavens, and there take on the deserts of the bodies they are to receive—these newcomers now do not dare to say it.

6. 7. But what do they say? Some of them, as we have heard, dispute thus: Plainly, they say, all men die according to their own deserts, because they have sinned; for there would be no death but coming from sin. It is indeed most well and truly said: There would be no death but coming from sin. But I, when I hear this, praise it for this reason, because I look to that first death and the sin of that first man. For I hear the Apostle: As in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:22). Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death; and so it passed into all men, in whom all sinned (Rom 5:12). For all were one. Do I hear you, then, saying that the death of man is from sin? No, he says. And what do you say? God now creates every man immortal. A wonderful novelty. What do you say? Plainly, he says, God creates every man immortal. Why, then, do little infants die? For if I say, Why do grown men die? you will say to me: They sinned. So I will not dispute about the age of the older: the infancy of little ones I will cite as a witness against you. They do not speak, and they convict; they are silent, and they prove what I say. Behold, infants are surely innocent in their own works, having with them nothing but what they drew from the first man; for whom therefore the grace of Christ is necessary, that they may be made alive in Christ, who died in Adam; that, because they were stained by generation, they may be cleansed by regeneration. These very ones, then, I will cite as witnesses. Answer me: Why do they die, if all men are born immortal, and because they sin, therefore they die? What do you suppose could be said? What ears could bear it? They too sinned. Where did they sin? I ask you, when did they sin? how did they sin? They do not know what good and evil is. Do they receive sin who do not grasp a precept? Prove to me that infants are sinners; what you said, truly because you forgot what you were, prove to me the sins of infants. Or do they sin because they weep? Because by movements as of dumb animals they repel discomforts, take pleasures, do they therefore sin? If those movements are sins, they become greater sinners in Baptism; because when they are baptized, they struggle most vehemently. Why is sin not imputed to them in so great a struggle, except because there is as yet no choice of will?

6. 8. But I say something else: These, because they were born, as you reckon, sinned. For if they did not sin, you say, they would not die. What do you say of those who die in the womb? O strait! They too, he says, sinned, therefore they die. Do you lie, or are you deceived? The Apostle contradicts you: Not yet born, nor doing anything good or evil (Rom 9:11). I hear the Apostle rather than you: I believe the Apostle rather than you: Not yet born, nor doing anything good or evil. But if you refute this testimony, go rather to those wanderings, and say: Because they sinned in heaven, and from there are cast down into bodies. I do not say it, he says. Why do you not say it? Because the Apostle says, Not yet born, nor doing anything good or evil. If, then, you do not accuse them in heaven, why do you accuse them in the womb? To both the Apostle answers, and answers those who say, They sinned in heaven; and answers those who say, They sinned in the womb, because those words avail for both, which say that, before they were born, they did nothing either good or evil. Why, then, do they die? And here too am I to hear you, and not rather the Teacher of the Gentiles?

7. 9. Tell me, Paul the apostle, why do they die? Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death; and so it passed into all men, in whom all sinned (Rom 5:12). Behold, the first man made the whole lump damnable: let him come, let him come, our Lord, the second man; let him come, let him come; let him come by another path, let him come through a virgin; let him come living, let him find the dead: let him die, that he may help the dying, transfer the dead to life, redeem the dead from death, keep life in death, slay death from death. This grace alone is for the little ones, alone for the grown; alone it frees the small with the great. Why this one, and why that one; why not this one and that one; do not seek of me. I am a man: I notice the depth of the cross, I do not penetrate it; I am terrified, I do not scrutinize it. His judgments are unsearchable, his ways untraceable (Rom 11:33). I am a man, you are a man; a man was he who said, O man, who are you to answer back to God (Rom 9:20)? A man said it, said it to a man. Let man hear, lest man perish, on whose account God became man. In this depth of the cross, then, in this so great obscurity of things, let us hold to what we have sung: let us not presume on our own strength, let us not arrogate anything in this question to the powers of our little wit: let us say the Psalm, with the Psalm let us say, Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me (Ps 57:1 (56:2)). Why? Because I have virtue by which I may earn you? No. Why? Because I bear the choice of will, whence my merit may go before your grace? No. But why? Because in you my soul trusts (Ps 57:1 (56:2)). A great knowledge, this confidence. Let us turn to the Lord . . .

1. That this sentence which the Apostle said, Putting away lying, speak the truth (Eph 4:25), is not contrary to that sentence which was said in the Psalm, Every man is a liar (Ps 116:11 (115:11)), if the Lord gives understanding, we will briefly expound. What, then, is, Putting away lying, speak the truth; and, Every man is a liar? Does God, through the Apostle, command impossible things? No. What, then, does he command? I dare to say it—but receive it as said without offense, because I say it about myself too: God commands this, that we be not men. For if I said, God commands you not to be men, you would perhaps take it harshly; and so I joined myself in, lest anyone be angry.

2. For I say more to your Holiness: we find the Apostle as it were objecting it to men as a charge, that they are men; for rebuking them he said this. Just as we, angry, say to someone: You are a beast; so he, rebuking them under the lash of the Lord's discipline, objected to men that they were men. What did he wish them to become, to whom it was a charge that they were men? For since there is among you, he says, jealousy and contention, are you not carnal, and walk according to man? For when one says: I indeed am of Paul; but another, I of Apollos; are you not men (1 Cor 3:3-4)? Reproaching and rebuking, he says, Are you not men? What, then, did he wish them to become, but what is said in the Psalm, I said, you are gods, and sons of the Most High (Ps 82:6 (81:6))? This indeed God said: for to this he calls. But what does he add? But you will die like men, and fall like one of the princes (Ps 82:7 (81:7)). And there the reproach is objected, when it is said, But you will die like men. For Adam is a man, and not a son of man; but Christ is the Son of man, and God. To lying belongs the old man—that is, Adam; to truth the new man, the Son of man, that is, Christ God. If you put away lying, strip off Adam; if you speak the truth, put on Christ; and the things that are now set down in the Scriptures will not be contrary to you. Because the Apostle too, admonishing that the old man be stripped off and the new put on, says, Putting away lying, speak the truth. And the Psalm admonished and lamented those who, unwilling to strip off Adam and put on Christ, desired to be not new men, but only men, to whom it is said, Are you not men? and on whom falls what was said, Every man is a liar.

3. If you wish to be a man, you will be a liar. Do not wish to be a man, and you will not be a liar. Put on Christ, and you will be truthful; so that the things you speak may be not your own as if your own, and established by you, but of the truth that illuminates and enlightens you. For if you are stripped of light, you will remain in your darkness, and you will be able only to speak lies. For the Lord himself says, He who speaks a lie speaks of his own (John 8:44); because every man is a liar. He who speaks the truth, then, speaks not of his own, but of God's. Not indeed in such a way that we say he speaks things foreign to himself; for they become his own, when he loves what he receives, and gives thanks to the one who gave. For if the illumination of truth be taken from a man, he will remain as it were naked of the garment of light, and will be able only to speak lies. For this will remain in him, what is written in the Psalm, Every man is a liar.

4. There is, then, no reason for anyone to slander, and say to me: I will lie, because I am a man. For I too will say most confidently: Do not be a man, that you may not lie. Then, he says, I will not be a man? Surely not. For that you may not be a man, you have been called to this by him who became a man for your sake. Do not be indignant. For it is not said to you that you may not be a man so as to be a beast, but that you may be among those to whom he gave the power to become sons of God (See John 1:12). For God wishes to make you a god; but not by nature, as is the one whom he begot; but by his gift and by adoption. For just as he, through humanity, was made a partaker of your mortality; so he, through exaltation, makes you a partaker of his immortality. Give thanks, then, and embrace what has been given, that you may deserve to enjoy fully that to which you have been called. Do not be Adam, and you will not be a man. If not a man, surely not a liar; because every man is a liar. And when you have begun not to lie, do not ascribe it to yourself and be exalted, as if it were your own; lest by the wind of pride, like a lamp kindled from elsewhere, you be extinguished, and remain again in your lie. Do not, then, lie, brothers. For you were once old men; you have come to the grace of God, you have been made new men. Lying belongs to Adam, truth to Christ. Putting away, then, lying, speak the truth (Eph 4:25), so that this mortal flesh too, which you still have from Adam, with the newness of the spirit going before, may itself deserve renewal and change at the time of its resurrection; and so the whole man, deified, may cleave to the perpetual and unchangeable truth.

1. 1. You heard the Apostle when he was read; rather, we all heard him saying to us, See how you walk cautiously; not as the unwise, but as the wise; redeeming the time, for the days are evil (Eph 5:15-16). Two things make the days evil, brothers: malice and misery. Through the malice of men and the misery of men the days are led as evil. Otherwise these days, so far as concerns the spaces of the hours, are ordered; they lead their turns, they conduct the seasons; the sun rises, the sun sets, the seasons pass. To whom are the seasons troublesome, if men are not troublesome to one another? Therefore two things make the days evil, as I said: the misery of men and the malice of men. But the misery of men is common; malice ought not to be common. For from the time Adam fell, and was expelled from paradise, there were never days but evil. Let us question these children who are born, why they begin from weeping, who could also laugh. He is born, and at once he weeps; after I know not how many days he laughs. When he wept being born, he was a prophet of his own calamity; for tears are witnesses of misery. He does not yet speak, and already he prophesies. What does he prophesy? That he will be in labor, or in fear. And if he lives well and is righteous, surely, set in the midst of temptations, he will always fear.

2. 2. What does the Apostle say? All who wish to live devoutly in Christ will suffer persecution (2 Tim 3:12). Behold, because the days are evil, the righteous cannot live here without persecution. Those who live among the evil suffer persecution. All the evil persecute the good—not with sword and stones, but by their life and morals. Did anyone persecute holy Lot in Sodom? No one was troublesome to him; and yet he lived among the ungodly, and among the unclean, proud, blasphemers, he suffered persecution, not by being beaten, but by their living evilly. Whoever you are who hear me, and do not yet live devoutly in Christ, begin to live devoutly in Christ, and you prove what I say. Finally, when the Apostle mentioned his perils: In perils, he says, at sea, in perils on rivers, in perils in the desert, in perils from robbers, in perils from false brothers (2 Cor 11:26). The other perils can be quiet, but perils from false brothers have not known how to be quiet until the end of the age.

2. 3. Let us redeem the time; for the days are evil. Perhaps you await from me to know what it is to redeem the time. I am going to say what few hear, few bear, few approach, few do; yet I will say it, since the very few who are going to hear me live among the evil. To redeem the time is this: when someone brings a suit against you, lose something, that you may be free for God, not for suits. Lose, then; from what you lose is the price of the time. Surely when, for your necessities, you go forth to the marketplace, you give coins, and you buy yourself bread, or wine, or oil, or wood, or some furnishing; you give and you receive, you lose something, you gain something; this is to buy. For if you lose nothing, and have what you did not have, either you found it, or received it as a gift, or acquired it by inheritance. But when you lose something to have something, then you buy; what you have is bought; what you lose is the price. As, then, you lose coins to buy yourself something; so lose coins to buy yourself quiet. Behold, this is to redeem the time.

3. 4. There is a well-known Punic proverb, which I will indeed say to you in Latin, because you do not all know Punic. For it is an old Punic proverb: The plague seeks a coin; give it two, and let it take itself off. Does this proverb not seem born of the Gospel? For what else did the Lord say than: Redeeming the time, when he said, If anyone wishes to contend with you in judgment, and to take away your tunic, let him have your cloak too (Matt 5:40)? He wishes to contend with you in judgment, and to take away your tunic, he wishes to call you away from your God by suits; you will not have a quiet heart, you will not have a tranquil mind, you will be overturned by your thoughts, you will be irritated against your very adversary. Behold, you have lost the time. How much better, then, that you lose a coin, and redeem the time? My brothers, in your cases and your business, when they come to us to be judged, if I say to a Christian man that, for redeeming the time, he should lose something of his own; with how much greater care and confidence ought I to say that he should give back what is another's? For I hear both as Christians. Now that slanderous man, who wishes to make a case against another, and to take from him either as a settlement, rejoices at these words. The Apostle said: Redeeming the time, for the days are evil. So I make a slander against that Christian: willy-nilly, he gives me something to redeem the time, because he has heard the bishop. Tell me, if I am going to say to him: Lose something, that you may be at peace; shall I not say to you: Slanderer, lost son of the devil, why do you strive to take away others' goods? You have no case, and you are full of slander. If, then, I say to him: Give him something, that he may withdraw from the slander; where will you be, who will have money from slander? That one, who redeems the time from you to avoid slander, here endures evil days; but you who feed on slanders, here will have evil days, and after these you are going to have worse ones on the day of judgment. But perhaps you laugh at this, because you seize money. Laugh, laugh, and despise; let me pay out, there will come one to exact.

1. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood; because not only does a man persecute you, but the devil through him, and before he harms you in the body, he kills you in the mind. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, men against men, who are flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, the rulers of these darknesses (Eph 6:12); because, as Christ governs and rules those who are light, so the devil casts down and instigates to every evil those who are darkness. This, then, the Apostle exhorts us: that we pray not against the evil man, but against the devil who works with him, and do whatever we can, that the devil be driven out and the man be freed. For just as, if against someone set in battle from the adversary's side an armed man comes sitting on a horse, he is angry not at the horse but at the rider, and as much as he can, he desires to do this—to strike the rider and possess the horse; so it must be done concerning evil men, and we must labor with all our strength not against them, but against the one who instigates them, so that, while the devil is conquered, that unhappy one whom he had begun to possess may be freed.

2. He who says that he abides in Christ ought himself also to walk as he walked (1 John 2:6). What is this way in which Christ walked? What is it but love, of which the Apostle says, I show you a yet more surpassing way (1 Cor 12:31)? If, then, we wish to imitate Christ, we ought to run by that very way by which Christ, even hanging on the cross, deigned to walk. For he was fixed on the cross, and, running the way of love, he supplicated for his persecutors. Finally he said thus: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). And let us too, then, continually supplicate this for all our enemies, that the Lord grant them an amendment of morals and the forgiveness of sins.

1. 1. By the readings, the songs, and the divine sermons, and—what is the chief thing—by his grace, may the Lord build up your heart; that what you hear as true, you may hear not unto judgment, but unto reward. He will do this, since he who promised is able also to do it. So Abraham believed, giving glory to God, whence also believing most fully that what he promised he is able also to do (See Rom 4:20-21). Great is our joy; he promised us to Abraham; we are the sons of the promise. For when it was said to Abraham, In your seed all nations will be blessed (Gen 22:18), we were promised. Therefore he himself made us sons of the faith of Abraham, who is able to do what he promised. Let no one say: I did it. For God does not promise, and you do it. But it can rightly be said that what you promise, God does. For you are weak, you are not almighty. When, then, you promise, unless God does it, your promise is empty. But the promise of God does not depend on you, but on him. But I, you say, believed. I grant it. You say true: you believed, but you did not give yourself faith. But whence did you believe, except from faith? Faith in you is the gift of God.

2. 2. Hear the Apostle himself, the disputant of faith, and the great defender of grace; hear him saying, Peace to the brothers, and love with faith (Eph 6:23). He said three great things: Peace, love, faith. He began from the end, he ended at the beginning. For the beginning is in faith, the end in peace. For that by which we believe is faith itself. But the faith of Christians ought to be such, not of demons. For, as the apostle James says, The demons too believe, and tremble (Jas 2:19). And the demons said to Christ, You are the Son of God, we know who you are (See Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34); are they therefore going to reign with the Son of God? Far from it! The faith of demons, then, is to be distinguished from the faith of the saints. Plainly it is to be distinguished, vigilantly and diligently. For Peter too said this to the Lord asking, Who do you say that I am? You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And the Lord: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah (Matt 16:15-17). O Lord, the demons too said this to you; why are they not blessed? Why? Because the demons said it out of fear, Peter out of love. Therefore the beginning is from faith. But by what kind of faith? That which the Apostle defined: Neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith. Tell me, what faith? That which works through love (Gal 5:6). This faith the demons do not have, which works through love; but only the servants of God, only the holy ones of God, only by faith the sons of Abraham, only the sons of love, the sons of the promise; therefore it was said, and love. Those three things were said by the Apostle: Peace to the brothers, and love with faith. Peace to the brothers. Whence peace? And love. Whence love? With faith. For if you do not believe, you do not love. The Apostle said, then, thus beginning from the end and coming to the beginning: Peace, love, with faith. Let us say: Faith, love, peace. Believe, love, reign. For if you believe and do not love, you have not yet distinguished your faith from those who trembled and said, We know who you are, the Son of God. Therefore do you love; because love with faith itself leads you to peace. What peace? True peace, full peace, solid peace, secure peace; where there is no plague, no enemy. That peace is the end of all good desires. Love with faith; and if you say it thus, you say it well: Faith with love.

3. 3. The Apostle, then, mentioned great goods: Peace to the brothers, and love with faith; great goods. But let him say whence these goods are; whence they are, from us, or from God? If you say: From us, you glory in yourself, not in God. But if you have learned what the same Apostle says, That he who glories, let him glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31); confess that peace, love with faith, is yours only from God. But you answer me: You say this, prove what you say. I prove it; I will call the Apostle himself as witness. Behold, you have it; the Apostle said, Peace to the brothers, and love with faith. He himself said it. What did he himself say? See, it follows: Peace to the brothers, and love with faith, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 6:23). What, then, do you have that you have not received? But if you have received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it (1 Cor 4:7)? For if Abraham gloried, he gloried from faith. What is full and perfect faith? That which believes all our goods to be from God, and faith itself. Again the Apostle says, I obtained mercy. O confession! He did not say: I obtained mercy, because I was faithful; but, that I might be faithful, I obtained mercy (1 Cor 7:25).

4. 4. Let us come to his beginnings, let us see Saul raging, let us watch him furious, let us watch him panting with hatreds, and thirsting for blood. Let us watch him, brothers; a great spectacle. Behold, after the killing of Stephen, after the blood of God's witness was poured out by stones, where he kept the garments of those who stoned him, so that even in their hands he might stone, then were dispersed the brothers who had been gathered at Jerusalem; and he, raging—for whom it was too little to have seen and shed the blood of Stephen—received from the chief priests authority to go to Damascus, and whatever Christians he found there, to lead them away bound. And he was going. This was the way of Paul, whose way was not yet Christ; still Saul's, not yet Paul's. He was going. What did he have in his heart? What, but evil? Give me his merits. If you seek merits, they are of condemnation, not of liberation. He was going, then, to rage against the members of Christ, going to shed blood, going to be a wolf about to be a shepherd; so he was going. For he could not go otherwise to the things for which he was going. And as he thus walks, thinks, pants for slaughter; while anger leads his feet, hatred moves his members, while he goes on and walks, the chattel obeys cruelty; and behold, a voice from heaven: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me (Acts 9:4)? Behold why he said, I obtained mercy, that I might be faithful. He was unfaithful; it is too little—he was, in that very unfaithfulness, cruel; but he obtained mercy, that he might be faithful. What will you say to God saying: I wish this? Therefore, Lord, the one who did so great things, who desired to do so great evils against your saints, you reckon worthy of such mercy? I wish this. Or is your eye evil, because I am good (Matt 20:15)?

5. 5. Have faith; but that you may have faith, pray with faith. But you could not pray with faith, unless you had faith. For nothing prays but faith. For how will they call upon him in whom they have not believed? Or how will they believe him whom they have not heard? But how will they hear without a preacher? Or how will they preach, if they are not sent (Rom 10:14-15)? Therefore we speak, because we have been sent. Hear us, hear him through us. So, someone says, we call upon God, that he give us to persevere in these goods which we have, and add the goods we do not have. The faith that asks, then, went before. Surely God gives all. For that he might give to me, I asked; that I might ask, I first believed. Therefore I gave to myself what I believed, and God gave what, believing, I prayed for. The question is resolved—for it is no small one. I see you saying this: that you first gave something to God, that he might give the rest to you. For you gave him your faith and your prayer. And where is what the Apostle says, For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him (Rom 11:34-35)? Behold what kind you wish to be. Did you, then, first give to God, and give this which God did not give to you? Did you find from where you might give? O beggar man, whence did you have it? Whence, then, would you give? Did you have anything? For what do you have that you have not received (1 Cor 4:7)? Therefore you give to God from God's; from what he gave to you, he receives from you. For your beggary, unless he had first given, would remain most empty.

6. 6. Hear whence you may prove this more evidently. Behold, you, because you believed, received; what do we say of those who have not yet believed, as Saul was, who had not yet believed? But he received that he might believe; after he believed in Christ, then he began to call upon Christ. From him he received that he might believe, and by believing call upon him, and by calling upon him receive the rest. What do we suppose, brothers? Saul, before he believed, did those who had believed pray for him, or not? Let it be said to me, if they did not pray for him, why did Stephen say, Lord, do not lay this sin against them (Acts 7:60)? Prayer was made both for him and for other unbelievers, that they might believe. Behold, they did not yet have faith, and by the prayers of the faithful they received faith. They did not yet have what they might offer to God; because they had not yet obtained mercy, that they might be faithful. Finally, after this Saul was converted, struck down and raised up by one voice—struck down the persecutor, raised up the preacher; after he began to evangelize the faith which he once ravaged, what did he say of himself? But I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only heard that he who once persecuted us now evangelizes the faith which he once ravaged; and in me they magnified God (Gal 1:22-24). Surely he did not say: And in me they magnified me? And in me, who evangelized the faith which I once ravaged, they did not magnify me, but God. Therefore he himself brought it about that Saul, his old tunic laid down—ragged with sins, bloody with slaughters—that, with this tunic laid down, he might receive the tunic of humility, and from Saul become Paul.

7. 7. What is "Paul"? "Least." For I am the least of the apostles (1 Cor 15:9). Behold what "Paul" is. For "Paul" in Latin is "little." So we speak when we say: After a little ("paulum") I see you; a little after ("paulo post") I do that. What is "a little after"? A small while after; after a little, after a small while. Why, then, Paul? Because little. Little, because last. For I am, he says, the last of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God (1 Cor 15:9). You say well; whence you ought to have been condemned, from him you received whence you ought to be crowned. From whom did you receive, whence you ought to be crowned? From whom did he receive? Do you wish to hear? Do not hear me, hear him: I am not, he says, worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God; but by the grace of God I am what I am. Therefore what you were, you were by your own iniquity; what you are, you are by the grace of God. And his grace, he says, was not empty in me. Behold, he evangelizes the faith which he once ravaged; nor is that grace empty in him, who says, It was not empty in me, but I labored more than all of them (1 Cor 15:10). Watch out, you have begun to raise yourself up. Where are you, Paul? Surely you were little. I labored more than all of them. Tell me, whence? For what do you have that you have not received (1 Cor 4:7)? At once he looked back; and when he had said, I labored more than all of them; as though he were terrified at his own words, he at once subjected himself, humble Paul: Yet not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor 15:10).

7. 8. Therefore, my brothers, that you may know that faith too is ours from the Lord God, pray for those who have not yet believed. If anyone has an unbelieving friend, I advise him to pray for him. Is there really need for me to advise him? The husband is a Christian, the wife is an unbeliever; does he not pray for his wife, that she may believe? The wife is a Christian, the husband is an unbeliever; does the religious woman not pray for her husband, that he may believe? When he who prays prays this; what does he pray, but that God give him faith? Therefore faith is the gift of God. Let no one exalt himself, let no one arrogate to himself, as though he had given himself something. He who glories, let him glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31).

1. 1. Let your Holiness direct your ears and mind to the apostolic reading, helping us by your affection before the Lord our God, that the things he deigns to reveal to us we may be able to set forth to you fittingly and wholesomely. So when it was read, you heard the apostle Paul saying, For we are the circumcision, who serve the Spirit of God (Phil 3:3). I know that very many codices have: Who serve God in spirit. But as far as we could examine, more Greek copies have this: Who serve the Spirit of God. But the question is not there. For both are manifest, and agreeable to the rule of truth, since we both serve the Spirit of God, and serve God not in the flesh, but in the spirit. For he serves God in the flesh who hopes to please God by carnal things. But when even the flesh itself is subjected to the spirit for good works, we serve God in the spirit; because we tame the flesh, that the spirit may obey God. For the spirit rules, the flesh is ruled; nor does the spirit rule well, if it is not ruled.

1. 2. When, then, he says, We are the circumcision; see what he wished to be understood in that circumcision, which was given in the signifying shadow, which was removed when the light came. But why did he not say: We have circumcision; but: We are the circumcision? take it that the Apostle wished to say this: We are righteousness. For circumcision is righteousness. But he commends what he says more by saying that we are righteousness than by saying that we are righteous; yet so that when he says we are righteousness, we understand the righteous. For we are not that unchangeable righteousness of which we have been made partakers; but just as it is said: There is great youth there, for many young men; so righteousness is said, that the righteous may be understood. Hear this very thing more evidently, the same Apostle saying, That we, he says, may be the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor 5:21). That we may be righteousness—not our own, but God's; received from him, not assumed from ourselves; imparted, not usurped; given, not snatched. For to a certain one it was robbery to be equal to God; and because he sought robbery, he found ruin. But our Lord Jesus Christ, since he was in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to God. For to one whose nature was equality with God, it was not robbery. But yet he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil 2:6-7), that we might be the righteousness of God in him. For if he avoided poverty, we would not be free of poverty. For he became poor, though he was rich; that by his poverty, as it is written, we might be enriched (2 Cor 8:9). What will his riches do for us, whose poverty makes us rich? The Apostle, then, did not deny you circumcision, but expounded it; he held forth the light, removed the shadow.

2. 3. We are, he says, the circumcision, who serve God in spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in the flesh (Phil 3:3). He looked at certain ones trusting in the flesh; they were the ones who gloried in the circumcision of the flesh. Of whom he says in another place, Whose God is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame (Phil 3:19). Understand the circumcision, and be the circumcision; understand, and be: For good understanding, but to all who do it (Ps 111:10 (110:10)). Surely not in vain was the infant commanded to be circumcised on the eighth day (See Gen 17:12), except because the rock by which we are circumcised was Christ. For the people was circumcised with knives of stone (See Josh 5:2): but the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). Why, then, on the eighth day? Because in the weeks the same is both first and eighth. For when the seven days are completed, one returns to the first. The seventh is ended, the Lord buried; one returns to the first, the Lord raised up. For the Lord's resurrection promised us the eternal day and consecrated for us the Lord's day. That which is called "the Lord's" seems properly to pertain to the Lord; because on that day the Lord rose again. The rock has been restored, let them be circumcised who wish to say, For we are the circumcision. For he was handed over for our sins, and rose again for our justification (Rom 4:25). Your justification, your circumcision, is not from you. By grace you have been saved through faith; and this not from yourselves, but it is the gift of God; not from works (Eph 2:8-9). Lest perhaps you say: I earned it, and therefore I received it. Do not suppose that you received it by earning, you who would not earn it, unless you had received. Grace went before your merit; not grace from merit, but merit from grace. For if grace is from merit; you bought it, you did not receive it freely. For nothing, he says, you will save them (Ps 56:7 (55:8)). What is, For nothing you will save them? You find nothing in them whence to save, and yet you save. You give freely, you save freely. You go before all merits, that your gifts may follow my merits. Plainly you give freely, you save freely, you who find nothing whence to save, and find much whence to condemn.

3. 4. We, then, he says, are the circumcision, who serve the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:3). He who glories, let him glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31). And do not trust in the flesh. And what is it to trust in the flesh? Hear, he says. Although I, he says, have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has confidence in the flesh, I more (Phil 3:4). Do not suppose, he says, that I despise what I do not have. What great thing is it, if an abject, plebeian, ignoble man despises nobility, and then exhibits a true humility? Although I, he says, have confidence even in the flesh. Therefore I teach you to despise it, since you see that I have what I despise. If anyone else thinks he has confidence in the flesh, I more.

3. 5. And hear the confidence in the flesh: In the circumcision of the eighth day; that is, not a proselyte, not a newcomer to the people of God, not circumcised as a grown man, but a Jew born of Jewish parents, I have the circumcision of the eighth day. Of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, according to the law a Pharisee (Phil 3:5). There were certain leading men, as it were set apart for Jewish nobility, not mingled with the contemptible commons, who were called Pharisees. For this word is said to be interpreted as a kind of separation, as in the Latin language one says "egregius" ("distinguished"), as it were separated from the flock ("grex"). But there were Israelites—that is, of the race of Israel—even those who had been separated from the temple. But there remained at the temple the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. The tribe of Levi in the priests, the tribe of Judah the royal one, and the tribe of Benjamin—this alone remained at Jerusalem and at the temple of God, when that separation was made under the servant of Solomon (See 1 Kgs 11:26; 12:20-21). Do not, then, take lightly what he says, of the tribe of Benjamin; cleaving to Judah, not withdrawing from the temple. A Hebrew of Hebrews, according to the law a Pharisee, according to zeal persecuting the Church (Phil 3:5-6). Among his merits he mentions that he was a persecutor: according to zeal, he says. What zeal? I was not, he says, a lazy Jew; whatever there was that seemed adverse to my Law, I bore impatiently, I pursued sharply. This is nobility among the Jews; but with Christ humility is sought. Therefore there he is Saul, here Paul. "Saul" is a name derived from Saul. Who Saul was, you know; his stature was chosen, tall. So Scripture describes him, that he was taller than all, when he was chosen to be anointed as king (See 1 Sam 9:2; 10:23-24). Paul was not so, but became Paul. For "Paul" is little, therefore "Paul" is small. Therefore: According to zeal, he says, persecuting the Church. Hence let men understand what kind I was among the Jews, I who persecuted the Church of Christ out of zeal for ancestral traditions.

4. 6. He adds: According to the righteousness that is in the law, having been without complaint (Phil 3:6). Your Charity knows that Zechariah and Elizabeth were said to have walked without complaint in all the justifications of the Lord. Walking in all, says Scripture, the justifications of the Lord without complaint (Luke 1:6). Behold, this is what our Paul too was, when he was Saul. In the law he walked without complaint; and that which in him was without complaint, this made a great complaint about him. What, then, do we suppose, brothers—is it evil to be without complaint according to the righteousness that is in the law? If it is evil to be without complaint according to the righteousness that is in the law; then is the law something evil? But we have the same Apostle saying, And so the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good (Rom 7:12). If the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good; how can it not be good to conduct oneself without complaint according to the righteousness that is from the holy law? how can it not be holy? Or is it perhaps holy? Let us hear the Apostle himself; see what he says: The things that were gains to me, these I reckoned losses for the sake of Christ (Phil 3:7). He calls them his losses, and counts among his losses that he was without complaint in the righteousness that is in the law. But yet, he says, I also reckon all things to be losses on account of the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. I attend, he says, to my praises, I compare them to the surpassing greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. For that I thirst, this I despise. This is too little: On account of whom I reckon, he says, all things not only to be detriments, but I even considered them to be dung, that I might gain Christ (Phil 3:8).

5. 7. A greater question has arisen, O Paul! If you conducted yourself without complaint according to the righteousness that is in the law, and you count this among your detriments, your losses, your dung, that you may gain Christ, did that righteousness, then, keep you from Christ? I beseech you, expound this a little. Let us rather say to God, that he may enlighten us too, by whom he himself was enlightened who wrote this Epistle to us, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God (See 2 Cor 3:3). You see, dearly beloved, how arduous, how difficult it is to understand this; when it is agreed that the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good; and it is agreed entirely among the faithful catholics—so that no one dissents, except one who does not wish to be a catholic—that this law was given only by the Lord our God; that to conduct oneself without complaint according to that righteousness which is in the law was an impediment to the Apostle, that he should not come to Christ; and that he did not come to Christ, unless he had counted that which he was without complaint according to the righteousness that is in the law among his losses and detriments and dung. Let us follow, then, and approach a little, lest perhaps in the very words of the Apostle something may dawn on us, whence this obscurity may be removed and resolved. Detriments, he says, I believed all these things, and considered them dung, that I might gain Christ (Phil 3:8). Attend, I beseech you. I considered these losses, detriments, dung—among which I also mention that I was without complaint according to the righteousness that is in the law. I considered, then, all these things detriments and dung, that I might gain Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law (Phil 3:8-9). You who have anticipated the exposition with your understanding, suppose yourselves as it were swift on the road, walking with slower companions. Let speed be somewhat restrained, lest the slower companion be abandoned. That I may gain Christ, he says, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law. If he had said my own, why did he add from the law? For if it is from the law, how is it yours? Did you impose the law on yourself? God gave the law, God imposed the law, God commanded you to obey his law. If the law did not teach you how you ought to live, how could you have righteousness without complaint according to the law? if you have it according to the law, how do you say, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, which is from God (Phil 3:9)?

6. 8. Now then I will say it as I can; let him reveal it better who possesses you, let him grant both understanding and affection. For he will grant the effect, if he grants the affection. For this is what I wish to say: when the law of God is set forth—for it said, You shall not covet; when the law of God is set forth, then, apart from those carnal sacraments which were shadows of things to come; when the law of God is set forth, whoever fears it, and supposes that he can fulfill it by his own strength, and does what the law commands, not loving righteousness, but fearing punishment; that man is indeed without complaint according to the righteousness that is from the law; he does not steal, does not commit adultery, does not bear false witness, does not commit murder, does not covet his neighbor's property; he can do this, perhaps he can; whence? From fear of punishment. Although the one who does not covet from fear of punishment, I think still covets. By the immense terror of arms and weapons, and perhaps of a surrounding multitude or one coming to meet it, even a lion is called back from its prey; and yet the lion came, the lion returns; it did not seize the prey, it did not lay aside its malice. If you are such, it is still righteousness, the righteousness by which you take counsel for yourself not to be tortured. What great thing is it to fear punishment? Who does not fear it? What robber, what criminal, what wicked man? But this is the difference between your fear and the robber's fear: the robber fears the laws of men, and therefore commits robbery, because he hopes to deceive the laws of men; but you fear his laws, fear his punishment, whom you cannot deceive. For if you could deceive, what would you not do? Therefore your evil concupiscence too is not taken away by love, but pressed down by fear. The wolf comes to the sheepfold; by the barking of the dogs love does not take away, but fear presses down. The wolf comes to the sheepfold; by the barking of the dogs and the shout of the shepherds the wolf returns from the sheepfold; yet it is always a wolf. Let it be turned into a sheep. For the Lord does even this; but it is his righteousness, not yours. For as long as you have your own, you can fear punishment, not love righteousness.

7. 8. Therefore, my brothers, does iniquity have its delights, and righteousness not have them? Does evil delight, and good not delight? It delights entirely; but: The Lord will give sweetness, and our land will give its fruit (Ps 85:12 (84:13)). Unless he first give sweetness, our land will have nothing but sterility. This righteousness, then, the Apostle coveted, was delighted; he was mindful of God, and was delighted (See Ps 77:3 (76:4)); his soul coveted, and grew hot for the courts of the Lord (See Ps 84:2 (83:3)); and all the things he held for great became cheap, became losses, detriments, dung.

7. 9. For hence too came that he persecuted the Church, according to zeal for ancestral traditions (See Gal 1:14); thence it came, because he was establishing his own righteousness, not seeking the righteousness of God. For see by what he was persecuting the Church. What, then, shall we say? the same Apostle says in another place: That the gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, laid hold of righteousness. But what? The righteousness that is from faith. But the gentiles who did not pursue righteousness—that which is from the law, as their own, which comes from fear of punishment, not from love of righteousness; because they did not pursue righteousness, laid hold of righteousness; but the righteousness that is from faith. But Israel, he says, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not arrive at the law of righteousness. Why? Because not from faith (Rom 9:30-32). What is, Because not from faith? He did not hope in God, did not ask it of God, did not believe in him who justifies the ungodly (See Rom 4:5); he was not like the tax collector casting his eyes to the ground, striking his breast, and saying, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:13). Therefore: Pursuing the law of righteousness, he did not arrive at the law of righteousness. Why? Because not from faith, but as if from works. For they stumbled on the stone of stumbling (Rom 9:31-32). Behold whence Saul was persecuting the Church. For when he persecuted the Church, he stumbled on the stone of stumbling. The humble Christ lay on the earth; in heaven indeed he himself was too, that flesh of his lifted up, raised from the dead; but unless Christ also lay on the earth, he himself would not cry to Saul, Why do you persecute me (Acts 9:4)? Therefore that one lay, because he preferred humility; this one stumbled, because he did not see. And all this not-seeing, whence was it? From the swelling of pride. What is, From the swelling of pride? As it were from his own righteousness. From the law indeed, but his own. What is, From the law? Because in the precepts of the law. What is, His own? As it were from his own strength. Love was lacking, the love of righteousness, the love of the love of Christ. And whence love to him? Fear alone possessed him, but kept a place in the heart for the love to come. When he raged, raised up, boastful, glorying among the Jews themselves that according to zeal for ancestral traditions he persecuted the Church; when he seemed to himself lofty, he heard from above the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ, already sitting in heaven, and still commending humility: Saul, he said, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad (Acts 9:4; 26:14). I could let you go; for you would be vexed by my prickings, I would not be broken by your kicks; but I do not let you go. You rage, and I have mercy. Why do you persecute me? For I do not fear you, lest you crucify me again; but I wish you to acknowledge me, lest you kill not me, but yourself.

8. 10. The Apostle, then, shuddered, struck down and laid low, raised up and instructed. For there was fulfilled in him: I will strike, and I will heal. For he did not say: I will heal, and I will strike; but: I will strike, and I will heal (Deut 32:39). I will strike you, and I will give you myself. Thus, laid low, he shuddered at his own righteousness, in which he was surely without complaint, praiseworthy, great, as it were glorious among the Jews; he considered it detriments, believed it losses, reckoned it dung, that he might be found in him not having his own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, which is, he says, from God (Phil 3:9). But of those who stumbled on the stone of stumbling, what does the same Apostle say? Because not, he says, from faith, but as if from works. Because they, as if by their own righteousness, stumbled on the stone of stumbling; as it is written: Behold, I place in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of scandal; and he who believes in him will not be put to shame (Rom 9:32-33). For he who believes in him will not have his own righteousness which is from the law, although the law is good; but he will fulfill the law itself, not by his own righteousness, but by that given from God. For so he will not be put to shame. For love is the fullness of the law (Rom 13:10). And whence is this love poured out in our hearts? Surely not from ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (See Rom 5:5). Therefore they stumbled on the stone of stumbling, and the rock of scandal. And he says of them, Brothers, the good will indeed of my heart, and my supplication to God for them is unto salvation. The Apostle supplicates for unbelievers, that they may believe; for the turned-away, that they may be converted. You see that not even conversion itself is without the help of God. My supplication, he says, to God for them is unto salvation. For I bear witness that they have a zeal for God (Rom 10:1-2). So he too had it; he had a zeal for God. But how did he have it? How did they have it: But not according to knowledge. What is this: Not according to knowledge? For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish their own (Rom 10:2-3). Whence this man, corrected, says, Not having my own righteousness. They wish to establish their own; it still delights them to lie in the dung. I do not have my own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness from God; the righteousness, I say, from God, who justifies the ungodly.

9. 11. Take yourself away, take, I say, yourself from yourself, you impede yourself; if you build yourself, you build a ruin. Unless the Lord build the house, in vain have they labored who build it (Ps 127:1 (126:1)). Do not, then, wish to have your own righteousness. Surely it is from the law, surely it is from the law; surely God gave the law, and because the righteousness is from the law, let it not be yours. The apostle Paul speaks; let not those who love their own righteousness slander me. Behold where you have him: open, read, hear, see. Do not wish to have your own righteousness; the Apostle reckons it dung, although it is from the law, yet because it is one's own. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish their own, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3). Do not suppose that because you are called a Christian, you therefore cannot stumble on the stone of stumbling. Whose grace you disparage, on him you stumble. It is less to stumble on Christ hanging on the cross than on Christ sitting in heaven. Let there be righteousness, but let it be from grace, let it be to you from God; let it not be your own. Let your priests, he says, be clothed with righteousness (Ps 132:9 (131:9)). A garment is received, it is not born with the hair; cattle are clothed from their own. This the apostle Paul preaches: let it be to you from God. Groan, that you may obtain it; weep, that you may obtain it; believe, that you may obtain it. He who, he says, calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom 10:13; Joel 2:32). Or do you suppose it was said thus: He who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved; because from a fever, or a plague, or gout, or some pain of the body? Not so, but will be saved, will be righteous. Because: Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. He expounded it when he said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt 9:12-13).

10. 12. See, then, what follows. And that I may be found, he says, in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law; although from the law, yet my own: but that which is through the faith of Christ; which is obtained from God, which is from God, the righteousness in faith, to know him, and the power of his resurrection (Phil 3:9-10). It is something great, to know the power of Christ's resurrection. Do you suppose this is great, because he raised up his own flesh? Did he call this the power of his resurrection? Will there not also be our resurrection at the end of the age? Will not this our corruptible also put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality? Will it not be that, just as he rose from the dead, and now does not die, and death will no longer have dominion over him (See Rom 6:9); so we too—more wonderfully, so to speak? For his flesh did not see corruption, ours is restored from ashes. It is indeed great, because he went before in example, and gave us what we might hope for; but this is not the only thing for the one who was speaking of righteousness not his own, but that which is from God, and there named the power of Christ's resurrection; acknowledge there your justification. For from his resurrection we are justified, as though we were circumcised by the rock. Therefore he began from there: We are the circumcision. Whence the circumcision? From the rock. What rock? Christ. How? On the eighth day. As the Lord rose on the Lord's day.

11. 13. This justification, then, my brothers, let us both have insofar as we have it, and increase it insofar as we are deficient, and perfect it when we come there, where it will be said, Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting (1 Cor 15:55)? But all from God; yet not as though sleeping, not as though we should not strive, not as though we should not will. Without your will the righteousness of God will not be in you. The will indeed is none but yours, the righteousness none but God's. The righteousness of God can be without your will, but it cannot be in you apart from your will. It has been shown what you ought to do; the law commanded: Do not do this, not that; do this and that. It has been shown to you, commanded to you, opened to you; if you have a heart, you understood what you should do; ask that you may do it, if you know the power of Christ's resurrection. For he was handed over for our offenses, and rose again for our justification (Rom 4:25). What is, for our justification? That he may justify us, that he may make us righteous. You will be the work of God, not only because you are a man, but also because you are righteous. For it is better to be righteous than for you to be a man. If God made you a man, and you make yourself righteous; you do something better than God did. But God made you without you. For you did not bring any consent, that God might make you. How did you consent who did not exist? Therefore he who made you without you, does not justify you without you. He made you, then, not knowing it; he justifies you willing it. Yet he himself justifies, lest it be your own righteousness, lest you return to losses, to detriments and dung, to be found in him not having your own righteousness, which is from the law, but the righteousness through the faith of Christ, which is from God; the righteousness from faith, to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings (Phil 3:9-10). And this itself will be your power; the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ will be your power.

11. 14. But what will be: in the fellowships of the sufferings of Christ, if there is no love? Are not robbers found, tortured, with such fortitude of body that some of them not only refused to betray their accomplices, but did not even deign to confess their own names; amid the torments, amid the tortures, their sides dug out, and their limbs almost destroyed, their mind remained in a most wicked obstinacy? See, then, what they loved. Yet they could not do these things without great love. But the lover of God is not so. God is not loved except from God. That one loved I know not what else of the flesh, like a man. Whatever he loved—he loved his associates, he loved the consciousness of his crimes, he loved glory in misdeeds; whatever he loved, he loved much, who could be tortured and could not fail. If, then, that one could not—who could be tortured, could not fail; if, then, that one could not endure such things without love; neither will you be able to share in the sufferings of Christ without love.

12. 15. But I ask, by what love? Let it not be cupidity, but let it be love. For if, he says, I hand over my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:3). That the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ may profit you, let love be present. Whence have you love? O most beggarly weakness, whence have you the love of God? Do you wish me to show you whence it is to you? Question the Lord's storehouse itself. For if the love of God is in you, you will share in the sufferings of Christ and you will be a true martyr. In whom love is crowned, he will be a true martyr. Whence, then, is it to you? We have this treasure in earthen vessels, says the Apostle himself, that the eminence of the power may be God's, and not from us (2 Cor 4:7). Whence, then, have you love, except because it has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5)? Behold, for this groan. Despise your own spirit, receive the Spirit of God. Let not your spirit fear lest, when the Spirit of God begins to dwell in you, it suffer straits in your body. When the Spirit of God begins to dwell in your body, it will not for that reason shut out your spirit; do not fear. If you receive some rich man into your lodging, you suffer straits; you do not find where you may stay yourself, where a bed may be prepared for him, where the wife, where the children, where the household. What do I do, you say? Where do I go? Where shall I migrate? Receive the rich Spirit of God; you will be enlarged, not straitened. You enlarged my steps beneath me: you say. To your guest you will say, You enlarged my steps beneath me (Ps 18:36 (17:37)). When you were not here, I suffered straits; you filled my cell, and you did not shut me out, but my straits. For when he says, The love of God has been poured out, that very pouring out signifies breadth. Do not, then, fear straits, receive this guest; and let him not be a guest as of those passing by. For he does not give by departing: coming, let him dwell in you, and he has given. Be his, let him not forsake you, let him not migrate from there; hold him entirely, and say to him, O Lord our God, possess us (Isa 26:13).

13. 16. Therefore for this, he says, let us have the righteousness which is from God, to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, conformed to his death. For we have been buried, he says, with Christ through Baptism into death; that as Christ rose from the dead, so we too may walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4). Die, that you may live; be buried, that you may rise again. For when you have been buried and have risen again; then it will be true: Lift up your heart. What I have said has been savory. Surely this sermon would not be savory, unless there were in you an inner sweetness? Conformed, he says, to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead (Phil 3:10-11). He was speaking of righteousness, the righteousness that is from the faith of Christ, the righteousness that is from God, and so he carried it all through. And when he sought righteousness, saying, That I may be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but the righteousness which is from the faith of Christ, which is from God; he now says, If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. Why did you say, If by any means I may attain? Not that I have already received it, or am already perfect; but I follow, if by any means I may lay hold, in which I was also laid hold of by Christ Jesus. His righteousness has gone before me, let mine follow him. But then mine will follow, if it is not mine. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have already received it, or am already perfect. They began to wonder, who heard the Apostle saying this: Not that I have already received it, or am already perfect. What is it that he had not yet received? He had faith, he had virtue, he had hope, he burned with love, he worked virtues, he preached most unconquerably, he bore all persecutions, patient in all, loving the Church, bearing in his heart the care of all the churches; what had he not yet received? Not that I have already received it, or am already perfect. What is it that you say? You say it, and we wonder; you say it, and we are amazed. For we know what we hear; what do you say? Brothers, he says. What is it that you say? What do you say? I do not reckon that I have laid hold of it (Phil 3:13). Do not, he says, be deceived about me; I know myself more than you. If I know what is lacking to me, I know what is present. I do not reckon that I have laid hold of it myself. But one thing; this I do not reckon that I have laid hold of. I have many things, and one thing I have not yet laid hold of. One thing I have asked of the Lord, this I will seek. What did you ask, or what do you seek? That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. For what? That I may contemplate the delight of the Lord (Ps 27:4 (26:4)). This is the one thing which the Apostle said he had not yet laid hold of; and as much as was lacking to him, by so much he was not yet perfect.

14. 17. You remember, my brothers, that gospel reading where two sisters received the Lord, Martha and Mary. Surely you recall it: Martha was occupied in much ministry and busied about the care of the house; for she had received the Lord and his disciples into her lodging. She busied herself with every most devout care, lest the holy ones should suffer any wrong with her. So when she was occupied about much ministry, Mary her sister sat at the feet of the Lord, and heard his word. The other, indignant in her labor, because she saw her sister sitting and caring nothing for her labors, appealed to the Lord: Does it please you, Lord, she said, that my sister has left me, and behold I labor so much in ministry? And the Lord: Martha, Martha, you are occupied about much. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken from her (Luke 10:38-42). You the good, but she the better. You the good (for it is good to be occupied in the service of the saints), but she the better. Finally, what you chose passes away. You minister to the hungry, you minister to the thirsty, you minister beds to those who will sleep, you offer a house to those who wish to dwell in it; all these things pass away. There will be a time when no one will hunger, no one thirst, no one sleep. Therefore your care will be taken from you. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken from her. It will not be taken; she chose to contemplate, she chose to live by the word. What will the life from the Word be, without word? Now she lived by the Word, but with the word sounding. There will be a life from the Word, with no word sounding. The Word itself is life. We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). This was the one thing, that she might contemplate the delight of the Lord. This we cannot do in the night of this age. In the morning I will stand before you, and contemplate (See Ps 5:3 (5:4)). Therefore: I, he says, do not reckon that I have laid hold of it. But one thing (Phil 3:13).

15. 18. What, then, do I do? Forgetting what is behind, stretching out to what is ahead, according to my intention I follow. Still I follow: toward the palm of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:13-14). Still I follow, still I make progress, still I walk, still I am on the way, still I stretch myself out, I have not yet arrived. Therefore if you too walk, if you stretch yourself out, if you think on the things that are to come; forget the past, do not look back at it, lest you remain there where you have looked back. Remember Lot's wife (See Luke 17:32; Gen 19:26). As many of us, then, as are perfect, let us be of this mind. He had said: I am not perfect, and he says, As many as are perfect, let us be of this mind. I do not reckon that I have laid hold of it. Not that I have already received it, or am already perfect; and he says, As many as are perfect, let us be of this mind. Perfect, and not perfect; perfect travelers, not yet perfect possessors. And that you may know that he calls them perfect travelers; those who now walk on the way are perfect travelers; that you may know he said travelers, not dwellers, not possessors; hear what follows: As many of us, then, as are perfect, let us be of this mind. And if you are of any other mind, lest perhaps it creep upon you that you are something. But he who thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, seduces himself (See Gal 6:3). And he who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know (See 1 Cor 8:2). Therefore: And if you are of any other mind, as little ones; that too God will reveal to you. But in what we have arrived, in it let us walk (Phil 3:15-16). So that God may reveal to us even what we are of another mind about, and in what we have arrived, let us not remain in it, but in it let us walk. You see that we are travelers. You say: What is it to walk? I say briefly: To make progress; lest perhaps you not understand, and walk more lazily. Make progress, my brothers, examine yourselves always without deceit, without flattery, without indulgence. For there is not someone within with you before whom you may blush and boast of yourself. He is there, but one to whom humility is pleasing; let him prove you. Prove yourself too, you yourself. Let what you are always displease you, if you wish to arrive at what you are not yet. For where you have pleased yourself, there you have remained. But if you say: It is enough; you have perished too. Always add, always walk, always make progress; do not remain on the way, do not go back, do not turn aside. He remains, who does not make progress; he goes back, who returns to the things from which he had already withdrawn; he turns aside, who apostatizes. Better does the lame man go on the way than the runner off the way. Let us turn to the Lord, etc.

1. All the divine readings are so connected with one another, as though they were one reading; because they all proceed from one mouth. There are many mouths of those carrying out the ministry of the word; but there is one mouth of him who fills the ministers. We heard the apostolic reading, and perhaps something troubles someone in what is written there: According to the righteousness that is from the law, having been without complaint. The things that were gains to me, these I reckoned losses for the sake of Christ. Then he goes on and says, Not only losses, but I even considered them to be dung, that I might gain Christ, and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but the righteousness which is from the faith of Jesus Christ (Phil 3:6-9). For how did he consider it dung and losses, to conduct himself without complaint according to the righteousness that is from the law? For who gave the law? Did not he himself send the law before, who afterward came with forgiveness to those guilty of the law? But we believe that he came with forgiveness to those whom the law held guilty. But did the law hold guilty those who conducted themselves without complaint according to the righteousness that is from the law? If, then, the Lord brought forgiveness and pardon of sins to those guilty of the law, did he not bring it to the apostle Paul, who says he conducted himself in the law without complaint? But let us hear him in another place: Not from the works, he says, which we did, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration (Titus 3:5). And again: Who before was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy (1 Tim 1:13), and the rest. By the one he establishes that he conducted himself in the law without complaint; by the other he confesses that he was such a sinner, that every sinner may for this reason not despair of himself, because Paul deserved forgiveness.

2. See, brothers, and consider the force of this saying, how the apostle Paul considers it losses and dung, where he says he conducted himself without complaint. By this a fulfiller of the law, by this guilty of the law, at one and the same time, before Baptism, before grace. But not without cause does he say it is losses; lest harmful thoughts creep in, that the apostle Paul said this because one gave the law, another the Gospel; as the Manichean with perverse mind thinks, and the other heretics, who said that the giver of the law which was given through Moses was one, but the bestower of gospel grace another; that one indeed an evil God, this one a good God. What wonder, brothers? In the obscurity of the law, as it were at closed doors, they suffered darkness; because they did not knock with devotion. We find the same Paul at one time saying most openly that the law is good (See Rom 7:12); which yet he says was given for this, that sin might abound; and that sin abounded for this, that grace might superabound (See Rom 5:20). For men presumed on their own strength, and by doing whatever they reckoned was lawful for them, they sinned against the hidden law of God. Hence this manifest law was promulgated to those who did not at all seem guilty to themselves. The law was given to them, not to heal, but to prove them sick. The law ran before the physician, that the sick man, who thought himself healthy, might find himself sick; and it said, You shall not covet (Exod 20:17). And because before the law was given there was not yet transgression: For where there is no law, he says, neither is there transgression (Rom 4:15); before, one sinned without the law; but the law being given, after one sinned, one sinned more, because one sinned with transgression. Man found himself conquered by his own desires, which by an evil habit he was nourishing against himself; who also had been propagated from Adam with the bond and obligation of sin. Hence the Apostle says, We too were once by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:3). Hence it is that he says not even a one-day-old infant is clean from sin (See Job 14:4-5 LXX); not from what he committed, but from what he contracted.

3. Hear the Psalm speaking inner things, and singing the more secret things of our sins. For in the person of the human race it is said to Christ, Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil before you. He says this not in the person of David alone, but in the person of Adam, from whom is the human race. For hear what follows: Against you, he says, only have I sinned, and done what is evil before you; that you may be justified in your words. It is said to Christ; whence do we understand this? Hear what follows: And conquer when you are judged (Ps 51:4 (50:6)). God the Father was not judged, God the Holy Spirit was not judged; we find none but the Son alone judged, in that flesh which he deigned to take from our lump; not from the manner of the concupiscence of man and woman; a virgin believed, a virgin conceived, a virgin gave birth, a virgin remained. And therefore it is said, And conquer when you are judged. For he was judged, and conquered; because he was judged without sin. It was a matter of patience to undergo the judgment, not of guilt. Many innocent persons are judged, but in the very cases they plead. For as to the rest, they are not without sin; because, just as before men one is made a doer, so before God a thought is a sin. Your deed before the eyes of God is your thought. The witness of the deed is the judge himself; the accuser of the deed is conscience itself. Therefore that one was judged truly innocent, and therefore conquered. For he alone conquered, not over the judge Pontius Pilate, nor over the raging Jews; but over the devil himself, who scrutinizes all our sins with the diligence of envy.

4. And what does the Lord Jesus say of the devil himself? Behold, the prince of this world comes. It has often been said to your Charity that this world is called the sinners. And why are sinners called by the name of the world? Because by love of the world they dwell in the world. For those who do not love the world do not dwell in what they do not love. Our, he says, way of life is in heaven (Phil 3:20). If, then, he who loves God dwells in heaven with God; he who loves the world dwells in the world with the prince of the world. And so all the lovers of the world, they themselves are the world; the dwellers in the world, not in the flesh, which all the just are, but in mind, which only sinners are, whose prince is the devil. Just as a house is called the dwellers in the house; according to which manner of speaking we say a marbled house is bad, and a smoky house is good. You find a smoky house, which good people dwell in, and you say: A good house. You find a marbled and paneled house, which the wicked possess, and you say: A bad house, calling "house" not the walls and the receptacles of bodies, but the dwellers themselves. So Scripture called the dwellers in the world "the world," by the concupiscence of love, not by the conduct of the body. Therefore: Behold, he says, the prince of the world comes, and in me finds nothing. In him alone the devil found nothing. And as though it were said to him: Why, then, do you die? There follows: But that all may know that I do the will of my Father, rise, let us go from here (John 14:30-31). He rises, and goes to the passion. Why? Because I do the will of my Father. On account of this unique innocence, then, the Psalm says, Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil before you; that you may be justified in your words, and conquer when you are judged (Ps 51:4 (50:6)); because he found nothing evil in you. But why did he find it in you, O human race? Because it follows and says, For I was conceived in iniquity, and in sins did my mother conceive me (Ps 51:5 (50:7)). David says this. Seek whence David was born; you will find from a lawful wife, from no adultery. According to what propagation, then, does he say, I was conceived in iniquity; except because there is there something of the propagation of death, which everyone draws with himself who is born of the union of man and woman?

5. Each one, then, having concupiscence, let him attend to the law saying, You shall not covet; he finds in himself what the law forbids, and becomes guilty of the law. But finding in himself that to which he is subjected, let him now begin to say, I delight in the law of God according to the inner man; but I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members (Rom 7:22-23). He has come to know himself sick, let him implore the physician: Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? Let the physician answer: The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:24-25). The grace of God, not your merits. Why, then, did you say that you conducted yourself in the law with righteousness without complaint? Attend: he said without complaint of men. For there is a certain righteousness which a man can fulfill, so that no man complains of a man. For it says, You shall not covet another's property. If you do not seize another's, there will be no complaint of men. So at some time you covet, and do not seize. But the sentence of God is over you, because you covet; you are guilty of the law, but in the eyes of the lawgiver. You live without complaint: why, then, these losses? why this dung? This knot is somewhat tighter; but he who is wont will untie it. But this, not I alone by devout submission, but all of us, let us deserve by devout intention. Whatever the Jews did, by which men would not complain, and their conduct in the law would be without complaint, they ascribed to themselves, and assigned that very righteousness according to the law to their own strength; they could not fulfill it, but they did it insofar as they could; by ascribing it to themselves, they did not even fulfill this devoutly.

6. Therefore he says that this is to fulfill the law: that is, "not to covet." Who that lives can do this? Let the Psalm help us, which was just now sung: Hear me in your righteousness (Ps 143:1 (142:1)); that is, not in mine. If he said: Hear me in my righteousness; he would as it were call it a merit. He does indeed in some places call it his own righteousness too; but here he distinguishes better, because even when he calls it his own, he says it is given; as we say, Give us this day our daily bread (Matt 6:11). How, ours; how, give? Therefore here, speaking more distinctly, he says, Hear me in your righteousness. And it follows, And do not enter into judgment with your servant. What is, Do not enter into judgment with your servant? Do not stand with me in judgment, exacting from me all that you commanded, exacting all that you ordered. For you will find me guilty, if you enter into judgment with me. There is need, then, he says, for me of your mercy rather than of your most clear judgment. Why, then, Do not enter into judgment with your servant? It follows, and he says, Because no living thing will be justified in your sight (Ps 143:2 (142:2)). For I am a servant: why do you stand with me in judgment? I will use the mercy of the Lord. Why? Because no living thing will be justified in your sight. What did he say? As long as one lives in this life, no one has been justified—but in the sight of God. Not without cause did he add, in your sight; except because someone can be justified in the sight of men, so that this too is fulfilled, According to the righteousness that is from the law, having been without complaint (Phil 3:6), in the sight of men. Refer it to the sight of God: No living thing will be justified in your sight.

7. What, then, shall we do? Let us cry out: Do not enter into judgment with your servant (Ps 143:2 (142:2)). Let us cry out: Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:24-25). This Psalm, then, we have heard, this Apostle we have heard; because, when that righteousness comes according to which the angels live, when that righteousness comes where there will be no concupiscence, from there let each one measure himself, what he is now, and what he will be then; and he will find, in comparison with that righteousness, that this is losses and dung. But whoever thinks that he can now fulfill righteousness, when he has lived well and innocently according to the probability of human estimation, has remained on the way; he does not desire better, because he thinks he has fulfilled it; and ascribing it most of all to himself, he will be proud. And the humble sinner is better than the proud righteous man. Therefore he says, And that I may be found in him not having my own righteousness which is from the law, as the Jews thought; but the righteousness which is from the faith of Christ Jesus. Then he goes on and says, If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead (Phil 3:9.11). There he believed he would fulfill righteousness—that is, that he would have full righteousness. In comparison with that resurrection, the whole life we lead is dung. Hear the Apostle still more openly saying, If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the just; not that I have already received it, or am already perfect. And he goes on then: Brothers, I do not reckon that I have laid hold of it (Phil 3:11-13). How does he compare righteousness to righteousness, salvation to salvation, faith to sight, pilgrimage to the city?

8. See how he fulfills this: Brothers, I do not reckon that I have laid hold of it. But one thing. What is one thing, but to live by faith, in hope of eternal salvation, where there will be full and perfect righteousness, in comparison with which the things that are to pass away are losses, and the things that are to be rejected are dung? What, then? But one thing: forgetting what is behind, stretching out to what is ahead, according to my intention I follow toward the palm of the heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:13-14). And to those who could presume on their own perfection: As many of us as are perfect, let us be of this mind. A while ago he had said he was imperfect, but now perfect. Why, except because this is the perfection of man, to have found that he is not perfect? As many of us as are perfect, let us be of this mind. And if perhaps you are of any other mind, that too God will reveal to you (Phil 3:15); that is, so that, if you prove yourselves justified in some progress of the soul, by reading the Scriptures, and by finding what the true and perfect righteousness is, you may find yourselves guilty, and by the longing for things to come condemn the present, and live by faith and hope and love; and understand that what you still believe, you do not yet see; what you still hope for, you do not yet hold; what you still desire, you do not yet fulfill. But if the love of pilgrims is such, what will the love of those who see be? Therefore the one who taught the righteousness of God, and did not establish his own, cried out from the Psalm, Hear me in your righteousness. And do not enter into judgment with your servant; because no living thing will be justified in your sight (Ps 143:1-2 (142:1-2)).

9. Concerning this life it is said to Moses, No one has seen the face of God, and lived (Exod 33:20). For one must not live in this life so as to see that face. One must die to the world, that we may live to God forever. Then we shall not sin, not only by deeds, but not even by concupiscences, when we shall see that face, which conquers all concupiscences. For it is so sweet, my brothers, so beautiful, that, it being seen, nothing else can delight. There will be an insatiable fullness, no loathing; we shall always hunger, we shall always be filled. Hear those two sentences from Scripture: Those who drink me, says Wisdom, will still thirst; and those who eat me will still hunger (Sir 24:21). But lest you suppose that there will be want and hunger there, hear the Lord: He who drinks of this water will not thirst forever (John 4:13-14). But you say: When will it be? Whenever it will be, yet wait for the Lord, await the Lord, act manfully, and let your heart be strengthened (See Ps 27:14 (26:14)). Surely there does not remain as much as has been accomplished? Look from Adam to the present day, how many ages have rolled by, and behold, now they are no more. A few days, in a way, remain; for so must one speak of what remains in comparison with the ages gone by. Let us exhort one another, let him exhort us who came to us, who ran the way, and said: Follow; who ascended first into heaven, that the head from the loftier places might come to the aid of the other members laboring on earth; who said from heaven, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me (Acts 9:4)? Therefore let no one despair; what was promised will be rendered to us at the end; there that righteousness will be fulfilled.

10. You have heard the Gospel agree with these sayings. It is the will, he says, of the Father, that all that he has given me should not perish, but have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day (John 6:39-40). Himself on the first day, us on the last day. The first day belongs to the head of the Church. For our day, Christ the Lord, has no setting. The last day will be the end of the age. I do not wish you to say: When will this be? For the human race it will be far off, for each man it will be near; because the last day is each one's day of death. For when you have gone out from here, you will be received according to your merits, and you will rise to receive what you did. Then God will crown, not so much your merits as his own gifts. Whatever he gave you, if you have kept it, he will recognize it. Now, then, brothers, let our desire be only in heaven; let it be only for eternal life. Let no one please himself, as one who has lived justly here, and compare himself to those who live badly, like the Pharisee who justified himself (See Luke 18:11), who had not heard the Apostle: Not that I have already received it, or am already perfect (Phil 3:12). Therefore he had not yet received what he desired. He had received the pledge, so he said: Who gave us the pledge, the Spirit (2 Cor 5:5). The thing whose pledge it was, to this he desired to come; a certain participation, but it differs. Now we participate in one way, then we will participate in another. Now through faith, through hope, in the same Spirit; but then it will be sight, it will be the reality; but the same Spirit, the same God, the same fullness. He who cries to the absent will display himself to the present; he who calls the pilgrims will nourish and feed them in the homeland.

11. Christ has been made the way for us, and do we despair of arriving? This way cannot be ended, cannot be cut off, cannot be corrupted, nor besieged by rain, nor by floods, nor by robbers. Walk secure in Christ, walk; do not stumble, do not fall, do not look back, do not remain on the way, do not withdraw from the way. Only guard against all these things, and you have arrived. When you have arrived, then now glory in this; not in yourself. For he who praises himself does not praise God, but turns himself away from God; just as one who wishes to withdraw from the fire—the fire remains hot, but he grows cold; just as one who wishes to withdraw from the light—if he withdraws, the light remains bright in itself, but he is darkened. Let us not withdraw from the warmth of the Spirit, from the light of the truth. We have now heard the voice, but then we shall see face to face. Let no one please himself, let no one insult another. Let us all so wish to make progress, that we do not envy those who make progress, do not insult those who fail; and there will be fulfilled in us with joy what was promised in the Gospel: And I will raise them up on the last day (John 6:40).

1. The Apostle commands us to rejoice, but in the Lord, not in the world. For whoever wishes to be a friend of this world, as Scripture says, will be reckoned an enemy of God (Jas 4:4). But just as a man cannot serve two masters (See Matt 6:24), so no one can rejoice both in the world and in the Lord. These two joys differ much from one another, and are wholly contrary. When one rejoices in the world, one does not rejoice in the Lord; when one rejoices in the Lord, one does not rejoice in the world. Let joy in the Lord conquer, until joy in the world is ended. Let joy in the Lord always increase: let joy in the world always be lessened, until it is ended. These things are not said for this reason, that while we are in this world we ought not to rejoice; but that, even set in this world, we may now rejoice in the Lord. But someone says: I am in the world; surely if I rejoice, I rejoice there where I am. What then? because you are in the world, are you not in the Lord? Hear the same Apostle speaking to the Athenians, and in the Acts of the Apostles saying of God and of the Lord our Creator, In him we live, and move, and are (Acts 17:28). For he who is everywhere, where is he not? Did he not exhort us to this? The Lord is near, be anxious about nothing (Phil 4:5-6). It is a great thing that he who ascended above all the heavens is near to those who dwell on earth. Who is this one far off and near, but the one who by mercy was made near to us?

2. For the whole human race is that man who lay on the road half-alive, left by robbers, whom the priest and the Levite passing by despised, and to whom the Samaritan, passing by, came near to cure and help. But to relate this, whence did the occasion arise? A certain man, asking what are the best and highest precepts in the law, he advised that there are two: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But the man: And who is my neighbor? And the Lord related: A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He showed him in a way to be an Israelite. And he fell among robbers. When they had stripped him and inflicted grievous blows on him, they left him on the road half-alive. The priest passed by, surely a neighbor by race, he passed by the one lying there. The Levite passed by, this one too a neighbor by race, he too despised the one lying there. The Samaritan passed by, far off by race, near by mercy, and did what you know (See Luke 10:25-37). In which Samaritan the Lord Jesus Christ wished himself to be understood. For "Samaritan" is interpreted "Guardian." Therefore rising from the dead, he dies no more, and death will no longer have dominion over him (Rom 6:9); because he who guards Israel does not sleep, nor slumber (Ps 121:4 (120:4)). Finally, when the Jews blasphemed with such great reproaches, they said to him, Do we not say truly that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon (John 8:48)? When, then, two reproachful words were objected to the Lord, and it was said to him, Do we not say truly that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon? he could answer: I am neither a Samaritan, nor do I have a demon; but he answered, I do not have a demon (John 8:49). What he answered, he refuted; what he kept silent about, he confirmed. He denied that he had a demon, who knew himself to be the expeller of demons; he did not deny himself to be the guardian of the weak. Therefore the Lord is near; because the Lord was made near to us.

3. What is so far off, what so remote, as God from men, the immortal from mortals, the just from sinners? Not far in place, but in unlikeness. For we are accustomed to speak thus too, when we say of two men, when their morals are diverse: That one is far from that one. Even if they stand side by side, even if they dwell more closely, even if they are bound by one chain; the devout is far from the ungodly, the innocent far from the guilty, the just far from the unjust. If this is said of two men, what of God and men? Since, then, the immortal and just one was far from us, as from mortals and sinners, he came down to us, that that far-off one might become near to us. And what did he do? Since he himself had two goods, and we two evils; he two goods: righteousness and immortality; we two evils, iniquity and mortality: if he had taken on both our evils, he would have been made our equal, and would need a liberator along with us. What, then, did he do, that he might be near to us? Near—not what we are, but near us. Attend to two things: he is just, he is immortal. In your two evils, one is fault, the other is punishment: the fault is that you are unjust, the punishment is that you are mortal. That he might be near, he took on your punishment, he did not take on your fault: and if he took it on, he took it on to blot it out, not to commit it. Just and immortal, far from the unjust and mortal. A mortal sinner, you were far from the just immortal one. He was not made a sinner, as you are; but he was made mortal, as you are. Remaining just, he was made mortal. By taking on the punishment and not taking on the fault, he blotted out both the fault and the punishment. Therefore the Lord is near, be anxious about nothing (Phil 4:5-6). Even though he ascended in body above all the heavens, he did not withdraw in majesty. He is everywhere present, who made all things.

4. What is the joy in the world? To rejoice over iniquity, to rejoice over baseness, to rejoice over disgrace, over deformity. Over all these the world rejoices. All of which would not exist, unless men had willed them. Some are things that men do, others things they suffer, and which, even unwilling, they bear. What, then, is this world, and what is the joy of the world? I say, brothers, briefly as I can, as far as God helps; hastily, briefly I say it. The gladness of the world is unpunished wickedness. Let men live luxuriously, fornicate, fool around at the spectacles, glut themselves with drunkenness, befoul themselves with baseness, suffer no evil: and behold the joy of the world. Let those evils which I have mentioned not be chastised by famine, nor by the fear of war, nor by any fear, nor by any disease, nor by any adversities; but let all be in abundance of goods, in peace of the flesh, in the security of an evil mind: behold, see the joy of the world. But God does not think as a man does: God's thought is one thing, man's another. It is of great mercy not to leave wickedness unpunished; and lest he be forced in the end to condemn to hell, now he deigns to chastise with the scourge.

5. For do you wish to know how great a punishment no punishment is—yet not to the just man, but to the sinner, for whom there is temporal punishment, lest eternal succeed? Do you wish, then, to know how great a punishment no punishment is? Question the Psalm: The sinner has provoked the Lord. He cried out vehemently, he attended, he considered, he cried out: The sinner has provoked the Lord. Why, I beseech? what did you see? But the one who cried out this saw the sinner living luxuriously with impunity, doing evil, abounding in goods, and cried out: The sinner has provoked the Lord. Why did you say this? For what did you see? On account of the greatness of his wrath he will not seek it out (Ps 10:4 (9:25)). Understand, Christian brothers, the mercy of God. When he chastises the world, he does not wish to condemn the world. On account of the greatness of his wrath he does not seek it out. For this reason he does not seek it out, because he is greatly angered. His wrath is great. By sparing he rages, but justly he rages. For there is severity, as it were a "savage truth." If, then, he sometimes rages by sparing, it is good for us that he come to our aid by chastising. And yet, if we consider the deeds of the human race, what do we suffer? He has not dealt with us according to our sins (Ps 103:10 (102:10)). For we are sons. Whence do we prove this? The Only-begotten died for us, lest he remain one. He who died one was unwilling to be one. For the only Son of God made many sons of God. He bought himself brothers by his blood, he proved himself by being rejected, redeemed by being sold, honored by being injured, gave life by being killed. Do you doubt that he will give you his goods, who did not disdain to take on your evils? Therefore, brothers, rejoice in the Lord, not in the world: that is, rejoice in truth, not in iniquity; rejoice in the hope of eternity, not in the flower of vanity. So rejoice: and wherever, and however long you are here: The Lord is near, be anxious about nothing (Phil 4:5-6).

1. 1. The blessed Apostle admonishes us that concerning those who sleep—that is, our dearest dead—we should not be saddened, like the rest who have no hope, namely the hope of resurrection and of eternal incorruption. For Scripture's most truthful custom calls them "those who sleep," so that, when we hear "those who sleep," we may by no means despair that they are going to wake. Hence too it is sung in the Psalm, Surely he who sleeps will not also rise again (Ps 41:8 (40:9))? There is, then, concerning the dead, in those who love, a certain sadness in a way natural. For nature, not opinion, shudders at death. Nor would death befall man, except from the punishment which a fault preceded. Wherefore, if the animals which were so created that each dies in its own time flee death, love life; how much more man, who had been so created that, if he had been willing to live without sin, he would live without end? Hence, then, it is necessary that we be sad when those whom we love forsake us by dying; because, even though we know that they do not leave us to remain forever, but go before us a little to be followed, yet death itself, which nature flees, when it seizes the beloved, saddens in us the very affection of that love. Therefore the Apostle did not admonish us not to be saddened; but, not like the rest who have no hope. We are saddened, then, in the deaths of our own by the necessity of losing them, but with the hope of receiving them again. Thence we are anguished, hence we are consoled; thence infirmity afflicts, hence faith refreshes; thence the human condition grieves, hence the divine promise heals.

2. 2. Accordingly, the pomps of the funeral, the trains of the obsequies, the sumptuous diligence of burial, the opulent construction of monuments, are some sort of solaces of the living, not aids of the dead. But by the prayers of the holy Church, and the saving sacrifice, and the alms which are distributed for their spirits, there is no doubt that the dead are aided; so that the Lord deals with them more mercifully than their sins deserved. For this, handed down from the fathers, the whole Church observes: that for those who have died in the communion of the body and blood of Christ, when they are commemorated in their place at the very sacrifice, prayer is made, and it is mentioned that it is offered for them too. But when, for the sake of commending them, works of mercy are celebrated, who can doubt that they are supported—those for whom prayers are not vainly presented to God? It is by no means to be doubted that these things profit the dead; but only such as lived before death in such a way that these things could be useful to them after death. For those who went out of their bodies without the faith that works through love (See Gal 5:6), and without its sacraments, in vain are offices of this kind of devotion bestowed on them by their own; for, while they were here, they lacked its pledge, either not receiving the grace of God, or receiving it in vain (See 2 Cor 6:1), and treasuring up for themselves not mercy, but wrath (See Rom 2:5). Therefore no new merits are acquired for the dead when their own do something good for them, but these consequent things are rendered to their preceding merits. For it was brought about only while they lived here, that these things should aid them somewhat, when they had ceased to live here. And therefore each one, ending this life, can have after it nothing but what he deserved in it.

2. 3. Let the devout hearts of the dear, then, be permitted to be saddened over the deaths of their own with a healable grief, and let them pour out consolable tears for the mortal condition; tears which the joy of faith should quickly check, by which the faithful are believed, when they die, to go away from us a little, and to pass over to better things. Let fraternal services console them too, whether those that are shown at funerals, or those that are applied to the grieving, lest there be the just complaint of those who say, I waited for one to grieve with me, and there was none; and for comforters, and I found none (Ps 69:20 (68:21)). Let there be, according to one's strength, care for burying and for constructing tombs: because these too are reckoned among good works in the holy Scriptures; nor only in the bodies of the patriarchs and other saints, and in the human corpses of any persons lying dead; but even in the body of the Lord himself, those who did these things were proclaimed and praised. Let men fulfill these offices of the last duty toward their own, and these soothings of their human mourning. But those things which aid the spirits of the dead—oblations, prayers, distributions—let them bestow much more observantly, urgently, abundantly for them, who love their own, dead in the flesh, not in the spirit, not only carnally, but also spiritually.

1. When we celebrate the days of our dead brothers, we ought to have in mind both what is to be hoped and what is to be feared. For according to this it is to be hoped, since precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones (Ps 116:15 (115:15)); but according to this it is to be feared, because the death of sinners is most evil (Ps 34:21 (33:22)). And therefore, on account of hope: The just will be in eternal memory; on account of fear: He will not fear an evil hearing (Ps 112:6-7 (111:6-7)). For there will be a hearing than which none is worse, when it will be said to those on the left, Go into the eternal fire (Matt 25:41). From this evil hearing the just man will not fear. For he will be at the right hand among those to whom it will be said, Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom (Matt 25:34). But in this life, which is led in the middle, before the highest goods and before the highest evils, in the midst of middling goods and evils—that is, on neither side of the highest; because both whatever goods there are here for man are, in comparison with the eternal goods, nothing; and whatever evils a man experiences in this life are, in comparison with the eternal fire, not even to be compared—in this middle state of life, then, we ought to hold what we have now heard from the Gospel: He who believes, he says, in me, though he die, lives. He both proclaims life, and does not deny death. He who believes in me, though he die, lives. What is, though he die, lives? Though he die in body, he lives in spirit. Then he adds: And whoever lives and believes in me will not die forever (John 11:25-26). Surely though he die—how, if he will not die? But though he die for a time, he will not die forever. So this question is resolved, so that the words of truth are not contrary to one another, and can instruct the affection of devotion. Therefore, though we are going to die in body, we live if we believe.

2. But our faith is most especially distinguished from every faith of the gentiles in the resurrection of the dead. For this they wholly do not receive: because they have not wherein to receive it. For the will of man is prepared by the Lord, that it may be a receptacle of faith (See Prov 8:35 LXX). The Lord says to the Jews, My word does not find room in you (John 8:37). Therefore it finds room in those in whom it finds what to take in. For in those the word that takes in finds what to take in, whom God by promising does not deceive. For he who seeks the lost sheep (See Luke 15:4) both knows the one he seeks, and where to seek it, and how to gather its scattered members, and to restore it to one health, and so to restore it that he loses it no more. Let us console one another, then, in these our sayings too. The human heart can avoid grieving over a dear one who has died; yet the human heart is better healed when it grieves than made inhuman by not grieving. Mary cleaved to the Lord, and grieved over her dead brother. But why do you wonder that Mary grieved then, when the Lord himself wept? But it may move anyone, how he wept over the dead man whom he himself commanded immediately to live (See John 11:33-44). He did not weep over the dead man, whom he himself raised; but over the death which man procured for himself by sinning. For if sin had not gone before, without doubt death would not have followed. Therefore the death even of the body followed, which the death of the soul preceded. The death of the soul preceded by forsaking God, and the death of the body followed by the soul's forsaking. By the former it forsook willing, by the latter it was forced to forsake unwilling. As though it were said to it: You withdrew from him whom you ought to have loved, withdraw from what you loved. For who wishes to die? Surely no one: and so wholly no one that it was said to blessed Peter, Another will gird you, and carry you where you do not wish (John 21:18). If, then, there were no bitterness of death, there would not be the great fortitude of the martyrs.

3. Therefore the Apostle too says, Concerning those who sleep, I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, that you not be saddened, like the gentiles too, who have no hope. He did not only say, that you not be saddened; but, that you not be saddened thus, as the gentiles, who have no hope. For it is necessary that you be saddened: but where you are saddened, let hope console you. For how are you not saddened, where a body which lives from the soul becomes lifeless, the soul departing? He who walked lies still, he who spoke is silent, the closed eyes take in no light, the ears open to no voice: all the offices of the members have come to rest; there is no one to move the steps for walking, the hands for working, the senses for perceiving. Is this not the house which some invisible dweller was adorning? He who was not seen has departed, what is seen with grief has remained. This is the cause of sadness. If this is the cause of sadness, let there be the consolation of this sadness. What consolation? That the Lord himself, at a command and at the voice of an archangel, and at the last trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first: then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air. Is this too for a time? No; but what is it? And so we will always be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:13.16-17). Let sadness perish, where there is so great a consolation; let mourning be wiped from the mind, let faith drive out grief. In so great a hope it is not fitting that the temple of God be sad. There dwells the good Consoler, there the Promiser who does not deceive. Why should we lament a dead person long? Because death is bitter? Through it the Lord too passed. Let these few things suffice for your Charity: may he console you more abundantly who does not migrate from your heart; but may he so deign to dwell, that he may also deign to change us in the end. Let us turn to the Lord, etc.

1. 1. We heard the blessed apostle Paul saying, A human saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first (1 Tim 1:15). A human saying, then, and worthy of all acceptance. Why human, and not divine? Without doubt, unless this human saying were also divine, it would not be worthy of all acceptance. But this saying is human and divine in the way that Christ himself is both man and God. If, then, we rightly understand that this saying is not only human, but also divine; why did the Apostle prefer to say "human" rather than "divine"? Without doubt, since he would not lie if he said "divine," not without cause did he prefer to say "human." He chose this, then, by which Christ came into the world. For he came by that whereby he was man. For by that whereby he was God, he was always here. For where is God not, who said, I fill heaven and earth (Jer 23:24)? Christ surely is the power and wisdom of God; of whom it is said, It reaches mightily from end to end, and disposes all things sweetly (Wis 8:1). Therefore: He was in this world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him (John 1:10). He both was here, and came; he was here by his divine majesty, he came by human infirmity. Because, then, he came by human infirmity, therefore, proclaiming his coming, he said, A human saying. The human race would not be freed, unless the Word of God deigned to be human. For a man too is called "humane" who shows himself a man, and most of all who receives a man into his lodging. If, then, he is called humane who receives a man into his house, how humane is he who received a man into himself?

2. 2. Therefore: A human saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim 1:15). Attend to the Gospel. For the Son of man came to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:10). If man had not perished, the Son of man would not have come. Therefore man had perished, God came as man, and man was found. Man had perished through free will: God came as man through liberating grace. Do you ask what free choice avails for evil? Recall the sinning man. Do you ask what God-and-man avails for help? Attend in him to liberating grace. Nowhere could it be so shown how much the will of man, usurped through pride, avails for avoiding evil without the help of God; it could not be expressed more and more manifestly than in the first man. And behold, the first man perished, and where would he be, unless the second man had come? Because that one too was man, therefore this one too is man, and therefore a human saying. Plainly nowhere does the kindness of grace and the liberality of the omnipotence of God so appear as in the man, the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus. For what do we say, my brothers? I speak to those nourished in the catholic faith, or won to catholic peace. We know and hold that the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, insofar as he was man, is of that nature of which we too are. For our flesh and his flesh are not of another nature, nor our soul and his soul of another nature. He took on this nature, which he judged was to be saved. He had nothing less in nature, but he had nothing in fault. A pure nature, but not only human. There was God, there was the Word of God. And just as you, one man, are soul and flesh; so he, one Christ, is God and man. Will anyone, then, dare to say that our nature in that Mediator first earned God through free choice, and so deserved to be taken up, so as to be man and God, one Christ Jesus? Behold, we can say that by our virtues, by our morals, by the conduct of our life we earned to be made sons of God: we can say: We received a precept; if we keep it and live well, we will be received into the number of the sons of God. Did he too first live as a son of man, and by living well become the Son of God? From there he began, and there he started, and by being taken up he was made. For the Word was made flesh, that it might dwell among us (John 1:14). The Word of God, the only Son of God, assumed the soul and flesh of a man, not first earning it for himself, nor laboring by his own virtue to attain that sublimity, but wholly freely. For nothing went before that taking up: by being taken up he was made. A virgin conceived: before the conception of the virgin was there a man-mediator? Surely he was not first just. For how was he just, who did not even exist? A virgin conceived, and by the taking up of man it began there. Rightly it was said, We saw his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). You love your free will, you are going to say to your father, Give me my substance which belongs to me (Luke 15:12). Why do you entrust yourself to yourself? He can better keep you, who could create you before you were. Acknowledge Christ, then; he is full of grace. This he wishes to pour into you, with which he is full; this he says to you: Seek my gifts, forget your merits; for if I sought your merits, you would not come to my gifts. Do not exalt yourself, be small, be Zacchaeus.

3. 3. But you are going to say: If I am Zacchaeus, I will not be able to see Jesus because of the crowd. Do not be sad, climb the tree on which Jesus hung for you, and you will see Jesus. And what kind of tree did Zacchaeus climb? A sycamore. In our regions it is born either nowhere at all, or rarely perhaps somewhere; but in those parts there is much of this kind of tree and fruit. "Sycamores" are called certain fruits like figs; yet they differ somewhat, which those who have seen or tasted can know. Yet as far as the interpretation of the name indicates, "sycamore" is interpreted in Latin "foolish figs." Now see my Zacchaeus, see him, I beseech you, wishing to see Jesus in the crowd, and not able. For he was little, the crowd was proud; and the crowd itself, as a crowd is wont, was hindering itself from seeing the Lord well; he climbed up from the crowd, and saw Jesus with the crowd not hindering. For the crowd says to the humble, to those walking the way of humility, to those forgiving God their wrongs, to those not seeking vengeance on their enemies—the crowd insults, and says: Unavenged one, who cannot avenge yourself. The crowd hinders that Jesus be seen: the crowd, glorying and exulting when it can avenge itself, hinders that he be seen who hanging said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). Wishing to see him, then, Zacchaeus, in whom the person of the humble was figured, did not attend to the hindering crowd; but climbed the sycamore, as it were a tree of foolish fruit. For we, says the Apostle, preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block: attend to the sycamore: but to the gentiles folly (1 Cor 1:23). Finally the wise of this world insult us about the cross of Christ, and say: What kind of heart do you have, who worship a crucified God? What kind of heart do we have? Surely not yours. The wisdom of this world is folly with God (See 1 Cor 3:19). For we do not have your heart. But you say our heart is foolish. Say what you wish: let us climb the sycamore, and see Jesus. For you cannot see Jesus for this reason, because you blush to climb the sycamore. Let Zacchaeus lay hold of the sycamore, let the humble man climb the cross. It is too little if he climb; lest he blush at the cross of Christ, let him fix it on his forehead, where the seat of shame is: there entirely, there in the member where one blushes, let it be fixed whence one does not blush. I think that you laugh at the sycamore: and it made me see Jesus. But you laugh at the sycamore, because you are a man: but the foolishness of God is wiser than men (See 1 Cor 1:25).

4. 4. And the Lord saw Zacchaeus himself. He was seen, and saw; but unless he had been seen, he would not see. For whom he predestined, these he also called (See Rom 8:30). He himself it is who said to Nathanael, as it were already helping the Gospel by his testimony and saying, Can anything good be from Nazareth? the Lord to him: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you (John 1:46.48). You know whence the first sinners, Adam and Eve, made themselves girdles. When they sinned, they made themselves girdles from fig leaves and covered their shameful parts: because what shamed them they did by sinning. Therefore, if the first sinners made themselves girdles, from whom we draw our origin, in whom we had perished, that he might come to seek and to save what had perished—they made them from fig leaves to cover their shameful parts; what else was said: When you were under the fig tree, I saw you; except, you would not come to the cleanser of sin, unless he had first seen you in the shadow of sin? That we might see, we were seen; that we might love, we were loved. My God, his mercy will go before me (See Ps 59:10 (58:11)).

4. 5. Now then the Lord, who had received Zacchaeus in his heart, deigned to be received into his house; and he said, Zacchaeus, hurry down, for in your house I must remain. He reckoned it a great benefit to see Christ. He who thought it a great and ineffable benefit to see him passing by, suddenly deserved to have him in his house. Grace is poured in, faith works through love; Christ is received into the house, who already dwelt in the heart. Zacchaeus says to Christ, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore fourfold. As though he said: Therefore I keep half for myself, not that I may have it, but that I may have whence to restore. Truly behold what it is to receive Jesus, to receive him into the heart. For there Christ was, he was in Zacchaeus, and of him he was saying to himself what he heard from his mouth (See Luke 19:5-8). For so the Apostle says, That Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts (Eph 3:17).

5. 6. Now then, because he was Zacchaeus, because he was a chief of the tax collectors, because he was a very great sinner; that crowd, as it were healthy, which was hindering the seeing of Jesus, wondered, and reproached that Jesus had entered the house of a sinner. This was to reproach that the physician entered the house of a sick man. Because, then, Zacchaeus was mocked as a sinner—but he was mocked, when healed, by the mad—the Lord answered those who mocked, Today salvation has been made for this house. Behold why I entered, salvation has been made today. Surely, if the Savior had not entered, salvation would not have been made in that house. Why, then, do you wonder, sick man? Call Jesus, you too, do not seem healthy to yourself. He is sick with hope who receives the physician: he is sick to despair who in madness strikes the physician. What madness, then, is his who kills the physician? But how great the goodness and power of the physician, who from his own blood made a medicine for his mad slayer? For he who had come to seek and to save what had perished did not without cause say, hanging, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). They are mad, I am the physician: let them rage, I bear it patiently; when they have killed me, then I will heal. Let us, then, be among those whom he heals. A human saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim 1:15): the great, the small, to save sinners. The Son of man came to seek and to save what had perished (Luke 19:10).

6. 7. Whoever says that infancy has nothing for Jesus to save denies that Christ is Jesus to all the faithful infants. Whoever says, I say, that infancy has nothing in it for Jesus to save, says nothing else than that Christ the Lord is not Jesus to the faithful infants—that is, to infants baptized in Christ. For what is "Jesus"? "Jesus" is interpreted "Savior." Jesus is the Savior. To those he does not save—by their having nothing in them for him to save—he is not Jesus. Now if your hearts can bear that to some baptized persons Christ is not Jesus, I do not know whether your faith can be recognized as sound by the rule. They are infants, but they become his members. They are infants, but they receive his sacraments. They are infants, but they are made partakers of his table, that they may have life in themselves. What do you tell me: He is healthy, he has no defect? Why do you run with him to the physician, if he has no defect? Do you not fear lest he say to you: Take away from here the one you think healthy? The Son of man came only to seek and to save what had perished. Why do you bring him to me, if he had not perished?

7. 8. A human saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world (1 Tim 1:15). Why did he come into the world? To save sinners. There was no other cause why he came into the world. Not our good merits, but our sins led him from heaven to earth. This is the cause why he came, to save sinners. And you will call, he says, his name Jesus. Why will you call his name Jesus? For he will save his people from their sins (Matt 1:21). You will call his name Jesus. Why Jesus? what is the reason for this name? Hear why: For he will save his people. Whence? From their sins. His people from their sins. Do little ones not belong to this people, whom Jesus will save from their sins? They belong plainly, they belong, my brothers. So have it in your heart, so believe, with this faith carry the little ones to the grace of Christ; lest, if you do not have this faith in your heart, you kill with your tongue those for whom you answer. Plainly, brothers, whoever does not run with the little one with this faith pretends. He is healthy, he has nothing evil, he has no defect; but I will take him to the physician. Why? Because it is the custom. Do you not fear lest the physician say to you: Take him away with you; those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick (Matt 9:12).

8. 9. I would commend to your Charity the cause of those who cannot speak for themselves. Let all the little ones be considered as it were orphans, even those who have not yet buried their own parents. The whole number of the predestined—the people of God—seeks the little ones a guardian, which awaits the Lord the Savior. The whole lump of the human race that poisoner struck in the first man; no one passes from the first to the second except through the sacrament of Baptism. In little ones born and not yet baptized let Adam be recognized: in little ones born and baptized and through this reborn let Christ be recognized. He who does not recognize Adam in little ones born will not be able to recognize Christ in the reborn either. But why, they say, does a man now baptized, faithful, with sin now forgiven, beget one who is with the sin of the first man? Because he begets him by the flesh, not by the spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh (John 3:6). And if our outer man, says the Apostle, is corrupted, yet the inner is renewed from day to day (2 Cor 4:16). By that which in you is renewed, you do not beget the little one: by that which in you is corrupted, you beget the little one. You have been born, and reborn, that you may not die forever: he as yet only born, not yet reborn. If you, by being reborn, live, allow him too to be reborn and live; allow, I say, that he be reborn, allow that he be reborn. Why do you contradict? why do you try by new disputations to break the ancient rule of faith? For what is it that you say: Little ones do not have any original sin at all? What is it that you say, but that they should not come to Jesus? But Jesus cries out to you, Let the little ones come to me (Matt 19:14; Luke 18:16). Let us turn to the Lord, etc.

1. 1. What was just now read from the holy Gospel, this the apostle Paul too says, whose words are these: A faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first (1 Tim 1:15). There was no cause for Christ the Lord to come, except to save sinners. Take away diseases, take away wounds, and there is no cause for medicine. If the great physician came from heaven, a great sick man was lying throughout the whole world. That sick man is the human race. But not all have faith (2 Thess 3:2). The Lord knows who are his (2 Tim 2:19). The Jews were proud, they exalted themselves, they were high-minded, they thought themselves righteous, and they moreover accused the Lord for gathering sinners. Those, then, who were proud and high-minded were left on the mountains, they belong to the ninety-nine. What is, they were left on the mountains? They were left in earthly fear. What is, they belong to the ninety-nine? They are on the left, not on the right. For ninety-nine are counted on the left; add one, and one passes to the right. For he came, as he himself says in another place, The Son of man came to seek and to save what had perished (Luke 19:10). For all had perished: from the time the one sinned, in whom was the whole, the whole perished. But one came without sin, who would save from sin. But those, by being proud—which is worse—were both sick and believed themselves healthy.

2. 2. Those are more dangerously sick who have lost their mind to fevers. They laugh, and the healthy weep. For the frenzied man laughs; but he is not healthy. Moreover, one who is of sound mind weeps over the frenzied man laughing. First, if you set these two before someone: Which is better, to laugh or to weep? who would not choose for himself to laugh? Finally, on account of the wholesome grief of penitence, the Lord placed in weeping the duty, in laughter the benefit. How? When he says in the Gospel, Blessed are those who weep, for they will laugh. Therefore in weeping is the duty, in laughter is the reward of wisdom. For he placed laughter for joy, not cackling, but exultation. So if you set these two before someone, and ask which of them is better, to laugh or to weep, every man does not wish to weep, and wishes to laugh. Moreover, if you add persons to these affections, and so set it forth with persons: Which is better, for a frenzied man to laugh, or a healthy man to weep? a man chooses for himself weeping with health rather than laughter with madness. So much does the health of the mind avail, that it is chosen even with mourning. Those, then, who thought themselves healthy were much more dangerously and desperately sick; and by that very sickness by which they had lost their minds, they even struck the physician. It is too little to say they struck him: I will say it all; they not only struck him, but even killed him. But he, even while he was being killed, was a physician, he was being beaten, and he was healing; he bore with the frenzied man, nor did he forsake the sick man: he was held, he was bound, he was struck with blows, he received the blows of a reed, he was mocked, he was insulted, finally he was heard, condemned, hung on the wood, on every side raged at; and he was a physician.

3. 3. You recognize the frenzied; recognize the physician too. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). They raged with lost minds, and by raging poured out the physician's blood; but he made from his very blood a medicine for the sick. For not truly in vain did he say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. A Christian prays, and is heard; does Christ pray, and is not heard? For he who hears with the Father, because he is God, how is he not heard as man, which he was made for us? Plainly he was heard. There they were, there they raged; of them were those who reproached him and said, Behold, he eats with tax collectors and sinners (Matt 9:11). They were in that very people, by whom the physician himself was being killed, and in whose blood an antidote was being prepared for them too. For since the Lord poured out not only blood, but even spent his very death for the confection of the medicine; he rose again to demonstrate the example of resurrection. By his patience he suffered, to teach our patience; and in his resurrection he demonstrated the reward of patience. Likewise, as you know, and we all confess, he ascended into heaven, then from him the Holy Spirit was sent, having been promised before. For he had said to his disciples, Sit in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). So his promise came too, the Holy Spirit came, filled the disciples, they began to speak in the tongues of all nations: a sign of unity went forth in them. For then one man was speaking in all tongues; because the unity of the Church was going to speak in all tongues. Those who heard were astonished. For they knew that the men had been unlearned, of one tongue only; and they marveled and were amazed that men of one tongue, or at most two, were speaking in the tongues of all nations: they were suspended in amazement, they lost their elation, they were made from a mountain into valleys. Now if they are humble, they are valleys; what you pour into them they take in, they do not let go. If water comes upon a height, it runs down and flows off: if water comes to a hollow and low place, it is both taken in and stands. Such were those now; they were amazed, they marveled, they had lost their savagery.

4. 4. Finally, as Peter spoke to them, they were pricked, and there was fulfilled in them what the Psalm had foretold: I was turned to misery, while a thorn was driven in (Ps 32:4 (31:4)). What is the thorn? The pricking of penitence. So you have the very words of Scripture in the Acts of the Apostles: They were pricked in heart, and said to the Apostles: What shall we do? Why did they say, What shall we do? We know what we have done: what shall we do? As far as concerns our deed, it is despair of salvation: let there be, then, in your counsel, if it can be, some hope of health. We know what we have done, tell us what we should do. What is it that we have done? For we did not kill just any man; and we would have done much evil if we had killed any innocent man. We chose a robber, we killed the innocent; we chose a dead man, we killed the physician; tell us: what shall we do? And Peter: Do penance, and let each of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 2:37-38); that you may pass over from the ninety-nine to the hundred: because, when you were ninety-nine, you did not think penance necessary for yourselves, and you moreover insulted the Lord gathering sinners and wishing to make them penitent. Now, then, pricked, because you have come to know your sin, do penance, and let each of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; let him be baptized in the name of him whom you killed without crime: and your sins are forgiven you. They were led back into hope: they grieved, they groaned, they were converted, they were healed. They were the very ones: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).

5. 5. Let each one, then, dearly beloved, when he hears that the Lord Jesus Christ came not for the sake of the righteous, but for the sake of sinners, not love to be a sinner; lest perhaps he say in his heart: If I am righteous, Christ does not love me; if I am a sinner, he loves me: because he came down for the sake of sinners, not for the sake of the righteous. For he answers you: If you have recognized the physician, why have you not feared the fever? Surely the physician comes to the sick man, it is agreed: but for this reason the physician comes to the sick man, that he may not be always sick. What, then, do we say? what do we pronounce? what do we define? Does the physician love the sick man, or the healthy? He loves what he wishes to make; not what he finds. To the sick man indeed he comes, to the healthy he does not come: do not attend to the fact that he comes to the one, and does not come to the other; for he loves the healthy more than the sick. For, that you may know that he loves the healthy more than the sick; would he do what he hated?

5. 6. Therefore attend to the apostle Paul: A faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first (1 Tim 1:15). He said: of whom I am the first. How was he the first? Were there not so many Jewish sinners before him? Were there not sinners in the human race before him? Was no one before him, among all men, held by sin? Was Adam not before him, who first sinned, and cast us all headlong into death? What is, of whom I am the first? For that for which he came, I am the first? But this is not true either. Peter was chosen first, Andrew first, the other apostles first; you are the last apostle; how do you say, of whom I am the first? Therefore, the last apostle, the first sinner. And how the first sinner? Peter sinned before you, when he denied the Lord himself three times (See Matt 26:69-75). I do not wish to say that he too, unless he had been found a sinner, would not have passed from the left to the right.

6. 7. What, then, is, of whom I am the first? Because I am worse than all. Therefore he wished "the first" to be understood as the worse. Just as among craftsmen, whoever wishes to build, what does he say? Who is the first builder here? who is the first workman? Or if he wishes to be cured: Who is the first physician here? He surely does not ask who is first in age, or who is first in profession; but who is first in skill. Just as those are first in skill, so this one is first in iniquity. Why is Paul first in iniquity? Recall Saul, and you will find out. You attend to Paul, you have forgotten Saul: you attend to the shepherd, you have forgotten the wolf. Is he not the one for whom, to stone Stephen, one hand was not enough, and he kept the garments of others? Is he not the one who persecuted the Church everywhere? Is he not the one who received letters from the chief priests? Because it was too little for him to persecute the Christians who were in Jerusalem; but he wished to come to other places, where he might find them, and bind them, and bring them to be punished. Was he not, while making the journey, breathing and panting for slaughter, struck from heaven, and, thunderstruck, did he not hear the voice of the Lord unto salvation? While he walks, he is laid low; that he may see, he is blinded. He himself, then, is the one who was first a persecutor, none was worse than he.

7. 8. Hear something whence you may understand more. The Lord Christ himself was speaking to Ananias, when that one was already laid low, already raised up; and he said to him, Go to that street, there you will find Saul of Tarsus in Cilicia, speak to him. For he saw the man Ananias coming in to him, and baptizing him. He heard the name of Saul, and trembled between the hands of the physician himself. But what is sweeter—whence Saul was named, I believe you recall, and on account of those who do not recall, let me mention it. Saul was that persecutor of David. In David Christ was, in David Christ was prefigured, in Saul Saul was prefigured: as it were David to Saul from heaven, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me (Acts 9:4)? "Ananias" is interpreted "Sheep": the shepherd was speaking to the sheep, and the sheep feared the wolf. So great a fame of this wolf had gone before, that the sheep did not think itself safe, not even between the hands of the shepherd. And the Lord to him, as to a trembling sheep. For when he had heard this, he said, Lord, I have heard about this man how great evils he did to your holy ones in Jerusalem, and now it is said that he received letters from the chief priests, that whomever he found he might lead bound (Acts 9:13-14). Where do you send me? a sheep to a wolf? But he did not hear this excuse. For he had already said to his few little sheep, Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves (Matt 10:16). If the sheep have been sent into the midst of wolves, why do you tremble to go, Ananias, to one who is no longer a wolf? You feared the wolf; but the Lord your God answers you: From a wolf I have made a sheep; I make from a sheep a shepherd.

8. 9. Therefore, just as Saul himself, afterward Paul, gives thanks that he came to the mercy of God, because he was found first—that is, eminent—in sins: And yet I obtained mercy, that in me Christ Jesus might show all his long-suffering, for the sake of those who would believe in him unto eternal life (1 Tim 1:16); so that all may say to themselves: If Paul was healed, why do I despair? If by so great a physician so desperate a sick man was healed, why will I not fit those hands to my wounds? why will I not hasten to those hands? That men might say this, for this reason Saul was made from a persecutor an apostle. For wherever the physician comes, he seeks someone there in despair, and heals him: and even if he finds a most poor man, yet let him find a desperate one; there he seeks not a fee, but commends his art. Let me say, then, what I had begun. Just as Saul gives thanks to Christ that he, a sinner, was taken up and healed, nor said: Let me remain in sin, because for my sake Christ came, not for the sake of the righteous; so too you, who had heard that Christ came for the sake of sinners (See 1 Tim 1:15), do not sleep for yourself in the sweet bed; but hear Paul himself saying, Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you (Eph 5:14). Do not love the bed of sin. You have turned all his bed in his infirmity (Ps 41:3 (40:4)), it was said before. Rise, be healthy, love health, and do not again through pride go from the right to the left, from the valley to the mountain, from humility to swelling. When you have been made healthy—that is, when you have begun to live justly—ascribe it to God, not to yourself. For not by praising yourself were you made safe, but by pronouncing against yourself. For if you praise yourself through pride, you will be more gravely sick. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled; and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:11; 18:14). Let us turn to the Lord, etc.

1. As to what the Lord deigns to admonish from the divine readings, hear attentively, brothers, he giving, I ministering. We heard the first reading, of the Apostle: A faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. But for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me Christ Jesus might show all his long-suffering, for the instruction of those who would believe in him unto eternal life (1 Tim 1:15-16). This we received from the apostolic reading. Then we sang the Psalm, exhorting one another, with one voice, one heart, saying, Come, let us adore and prostrate ourselves before him, and weep before the Lord who made us: and there, let us come before his face in confession, and in psalms let us shout for joy to him (Ps 95:6.2 (94:6.2)). After these, the gospel reading showed us ten lepers cleansed, and one of them, a foreigner, giving thanks to his cleanser. These three readings, as far as we can for the time, let us treat, saying a few things of each; and, as far as we can strive, with the Lord's help, not so lingering on any of them as to bring hindrance to the other two.

2. The Apostle sets before us the knowledge of thanksgiving. Remember what the last gospel reading sounds, how the Lord Jesus praises the one giving thanks, reproves the ungrateful—cleansed in skin, lepers in heart. What, then, does the Apostle say? A faithful, he says, saying, and worthy of all acceptance. What is this saying? That Christ Jesus came into the world. For what? To save sinners. What of you? Of whom I am the first (1 Tim 1:15). He who says either: I am not a sinner, or: I was not, is ungrateful to the Savior. No one of men in that lump of mortals which flows from Adam, no one at all of men is not sick, none healed without the grace of Christ. What of little children, if they are sick from Adam? For they too are carried to the Church; and if they cannot run there on their own feet, they run on others' feet, that they may be healed. Mother Church lends them others' feet that they may come, others' heart that they may believe, others' tongue that they may confess: so that, since they are weighed down because they are sick by another's sinning, so, when these are healthy, by another confessing for them they may be saved. Let no one, then, whisper to you foreign doctrines. This the Church always had, always held: this it received from the faith of the elders; this it perseveringly guards to the end. Since those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick (See Matt 9:12). What, then, did the infant have need of Christ for, if he is not sick? If he is healthy, why does he seek the physician through those who love him? If, when infants are carried, they are said to have no sin of inheritance at all, and they come to Christ; why is it not said to those who bring them, in the Church: Take away from here these innocents: those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners (See Matt 9:12-13)? It has never been said: but neither will it ever be said. Let each one, then, brothers, speak what he can for the one who cannot speak for himself. The patrimonies of orphans are commended to bishops as a great thing; how much more the grace of little ones? The bishop guards the orphan, lest, his parents being dead, he be oppressed by strangers. Let him cry out the more for the little one, for whom he fears lest he be killed by his parents; let him cry out with the Apostle: A faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world, for no other cause, but to save sinners (1 Tim 1:15). He who comes to Christ has something to be healed in him: he who does not have it, there is no cause why he should be offered to the physician. Let the parents choose one of two things: either let them confess that sin is healed in their little ones, or let them cease to offer them to the physician. This is nothing else than to wish to offer a healthy person to the physician. What do you offer? One to be baptized. Whom? An infant. To whom do you offer? To Christ. Surely to him who came into the world? Yes, he says. Why did he come into the world? To save sinners. Therefore the one you offer has something in him to be saved? If you say: He has, by confessing you blot it out; if you say: He does not have it, by denying you keep it.

3. To save sinners, he says, of whom I am the first. Were there not sinners before Paul? Surely at least Adam himself before all, and the earth full of sinners destroyed by the flood, and afterward how many. Whence is it true, I am the first? He said himself first, not by the order of sinners, but by the greatness of his sin. He attended to the greatness of his sin, whence he called himself the first of sinners; just as among advocates, for example, the first are spoken of: this one is first, not because he has more years since he has been pleading cases; but because, from when he began, he surpassed the rest. Let the Apostle say in another place, then, whence he is the first of sinners: I am, he says, the last of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God (1 Cor 15:9). No one fiercer among the persecutors: therefore no one first among the sinners.

4. But I obtained, he says, mercy. And why he obtained mercy, he sets forth the cause: That in me, he says, Christ Jesus might show all his long-suffering, for the instruction of those who would believe in him unto eternal life (1 Tim 1:16). Christ, he says, going to give pardon to sinners converted to him, even to his enemies, chose me first, a fiercer enemy; that, when he healed me, no one among the rest might despair. Physicians do this: when they come to those places where they are unknown, they first choose the desperate cases to cure; that in them they may both exercise benevolence and commend their skill; so that each one in that place may say to his neighbor: Go to that physician, be secure, he heals you. And he: He heals me? Do you not see what I suffer? I know something similar: what you suffer, I too have suffered. So Paul says to each sick man, and to one wishing to despair of himself: He who cured me sent me to you, and said to me: Go to that desperate one, and tell him what you had, what I healed in you, how quickly I healed it. I called from heaven, with one voice I struck and cast down, with another I raised up and chose, with a third I filled and sent, with a fourth I freed and crowned (See Acts 9:3-19). Go, tell the sick, cry out to the desperate: A faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. What do you fear? why do you tremble? Of whom I am the first. I, he says, speak to you, healthy to the sick, standing to those lying down, secure to the despairing. For this reason I obtained mercy, that in me Christ Jesus might show all his long-suffering. He long bore my disease, and so took it away; like a good physician he patiently tolerated the frenzied man, bore me striking him, granted me to strike for his sake. All his long-suffering, he says, he showed in me, for the instruction of those who would believe in him unto eternal life.

5. Do not, then, despair. You are sick, come to him, and you are healed: you are blind, come to him, and you are enlightened. And you who are healthy, give him thanks: and you who are sick, run to him to be healed; all of you say, Come, let us adore and prostrate ourselves before him, and weep before the Lord who made us (Ps 95:6 (94:6))—both men, and saved. For if he made us men, but we ourselves made ourselves saved; we did something better than he. For a saved man is better than just any man. If, then, God made you a man, and you made yourself a good man; what you did is better. Do not exalt yourself above God: submit yourself to God, adore, prostrate yourself, confess to him who made you: because no one re-creates but the one who creates, no one remakes but the one who made. This too in another Psalm: He made us, and not we ourselves (Ps 100:3 (99:3)). Indeed, when he made you, you had nothing to do; but now that you are, you too have something to do; that you may run to the physician, implore the physician, who is everywhere. And that you might implore him, he roused your heart, and granted you to be able to implore; For it is God, he says, who works in you both to will and to work, for his good will (Phil 2:13). Because, that you might have a good will, his calling went before. Cry out, My God, his mercy will go before me (Ps 59:10 (58:11)). That you might exist, that you might perceive, that you might hear, that you might consent, his mercy went before you. It went before you in all things: do you too go before in something—his wrath. In what, you say, in what? Confess that you have all this from God—whatever good you have, from yourself whatever evil. Lest in your goods you despise him, praise yourself; lest in your evils you accuse him, excuse yourself: this is the true confession. He who in such great goods went before you is going to come to you, and to inspect his gifts and your evils; he inspects how you have used his good. Therefore, because in all these gifts he went before you, see in what you may go before the face of him who is to come; hear the Psalm: Let us come before his face in confession. Let us come before his face: before he comes, let him be appeased; before he is present, let him be reconciled. For you have a priest through whom you can appease your God, and he himself is, with the Father, God to you, who is man for your sake. So you will shout for joy in the Psalms, coming before his face in confession. Shout for joy in the Psalm: coming before his face in confession, accuse yourself; shouting for joy in the Psalm, praise him. By accusing yourself, and praising him who made you; he will come who died for you, and will give you life.

6. Hold this, persist in this. Let no one be variegated, let no one be a leper. Inconstant doctrine, not having one color, signifies the leprosy of the mind: and this Christ cleanses. Perhaps you were variegated in something, and you looked, and changed your opinion for the better; and what was variegated was made of one color. Do not ascribe it to yourself, lest you be among the nine who did not give thanks. One gave thanks, the rest were Jews; that one was a foreigner, he signified the foreign nations, that number gave Christ his tithe. To him, then, we owe what we are, that we live, that we understand: that we are men, that we have lived well, that we have understood rightly, to him we owe. Nothing is ours but the sin we have. For what do you have that you have not received (1 Cor 4:7)? You, then, most of all who know what you hear—the heart to be cured of disease, cleansed of variegation—set it on high, and give thanks to God.

1. A bishop, then, must be irreproachable (1 Tim 3:2). Who denies this? But since a bishop must be irreproachable, does it become a Christian to be reproachable? "Bishop" is a Greek name, but in Latin it can be called "overseer" or "visitor." We are bishops, but with you we are Christians. We are properly called from the visitation, in common all from the anointing. If the anointing is common, the struggle too is common. But why do we visit, if there is nothing good that we may see in you?

1. The theme of our sermon is the apostolic reading. We brought nothing, he says, into this world, but neither can we take anything away: but having food and covering, with these we are content. For those who wish to become rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge men into destruction and perdition. For the root of all evils is greed, which some craving have strayed from the faith, and engrafted themselves onto many pains (1 Tim 6:7-10). A worthy matter to make you attentive to hear, and us prompt to speak. By these words greed is set before our eyes: it is accused, let it not be defended; rather, accused, let it be condemned, lest its defender be condemned with it. But somehow greed so acts in the hearts of men that all—or, to speak more truly and cautiously, nearly all—say in words that it is guilty, and in deeds wish to have it received as a guest. Many said against it many and great and grave and true things—poets and historians and orators and philosophers, and every kind of letters and professions said many things against greed. But it is a great thing not to have it, and much more not to have it than not to be silent about its vices.

2. But what is the difference between philosophers, for example, accusing greed, and the Apostles accusing the same thing? What is the difference? If we attend, we learn something that nothing has as its own but the school of Christ. Behold what I just mentioned: We brought nothing into this world, but neither can we take anything away, having food and covering with these we are content—many said this. This too: The root of all evils is greed—there were those who said it. But what follows, none of them said: But you, O man of God, flee these things; pursue rather righteousness, faith, love, with those who call upon the name of the Lord from a pure heart (1 Tim 6:11; 2 Tim 2:22). Such things none of them said. Far from the rattling cheeks is the solidity of devotion. Wherefore, dearly beloved, since there are outside our society those who both accused greed and despised it; lest they seem great to us or men of God, therefore: But you, O man of God. Lest they be in any way compared, we ought first to distinguish and hold this—that we do what we do on account of God. For if the worship of the true God be taken away, any lover of greed whatever is rejected. Yet the truer rule of devotion ought to strike upon us a greater care. For it is base, and exceedingly shameful and grievous, if worshipers of idols were found tamers of greed, and the worshiper of the one God be subjugated by greed, and become the chattel of greed, whose price is the blood of Christ. The Apostle added, and said to Timothy, I testify before God who gives life to all things, and Christ Jesus who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate, the good confession (you see how far this is from them) that you keep the commandment irreproachable until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his own times the blessed and only Powerful one will show, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in inaccessible light, whom no man has seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and glory unto ages of ages (1 Tim 6:13-16). Of this household we have been made, into this household we have been adopted; his sons we are, not by our merits, but by his grace. It is too grave, and too horrible, that greed should hold us on earth; when we say to him, Our Father, who are in heaven (Matt 6:9). By the longing for him let all things become cheap; and let the things among which we were born not be born to us, because for his sake we were reborn. Let these be for the use of necessity, not for the affection of love: let them be like the lodging of a traveler, not like the estate of a possessor. Refresh yourself and pass on. You are making a journey, attend to the one to whom you come, because great is he who comes to you. By departing from this road, you make place for the one coming; this is the condition of lodgings; you yield, that another may succeed. But if you wish to come to the most secure place, let God not withdraw from you, to whom we say, You have led me through the paths of your righteousness, for the sake of your name (See Ps 23:3 (22:3)): not for the sake of my merit.

3. The road of mortality, then, is one thing, the road of devotion another. The road of mortality is common to all who are born, the road of devotion is not common to all; for that one all the born walk; this one only the reborn. To that one belong to be born, to grow, to grow old, to die. On account of this food and covering are necessary. Let the provisions of this road be sufficient. Why do you burden yourself? Why do you carry so much on a short road—not what may help you to finish this road, but rather what may, when this road is finished, more grievously burden you? For it is too pitiable, what you wish to happen to you: you burden yourself, you carry much, money presses you on this road, and after this road greed presses you. For greed is an uncleanness of the heart. You take nothing out of this world that you loved: but you take the vice you loved. If you perseveringly love the world, he who made the world does not find you clean. Let there be, then, for temporal use a moderate amount of money, let there be a provision for the journey, with that limit established which is written: Without love, he says, of money a sufficient measure is enough for present needs (See Heb 13:5). See before all what he prefixed: Without love, he says; so put your hand to it that you loosen your heart from it. For if you wish to bind your heart with love of money, you engraft yourself onto many pains; and where will be, But you, O man of God, flee these things (1 Tim 6:11)? For he did not say: Leave them, and forsake them; but: Flee, as from an enemy. You were seeking to flee with the gold; flee the gold: let your heart flee, and the use is secure. Let there be no cupidity, yet let devotion not be lacking; there is something for you to do with gold, if you are the master of the gold, not the slave. If you are master of the gold, you do with it what is good: if you are a slave, it does with you what is evil. If you are master of the gold, the clothed one praises the Lord because of you: if you are a slave of the gold, the stripped one blasphemes God because of you. But cupidity makes you a slave, love makes you free. Hence a slave, if you do not flee. But you, O man of God, flee these things. In this matter, if you do not wish to be a slave, be a fugitive.

4. You have heard what to flee, you have also what to pursue. For you do not flee in vain, or so leave that you lay hold of nothing. Pursue, then, righteousness, faith, devotion, love (1 Tim 6:11). Let these make you rich. These riches are within: the thief does not come to them, unless an evil will gives him place. Fortify the inner chest—that is, the conscience. These riches no robber, no most powerful enemy, no rushing enemy or barbarian, finally no shipwreck will be able to take from you; from which, if you come out naked, you come out full. For he was not truly empty, although he seemed to have nothing outside, who said, The Lord gave, 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). Praiseworthy fullness, immense riches: empty of gold, full of God; empty of every transitory possession, full of his Lord's will. Why do you seek gold with such great labors and pilgrimages? Love these riches, and now be filled; their fountain is not hidden, if the heart lies open; the key of faith opens the heart, and both opens and cleanses where you may put it. Do not seem narrow to yourself: your riches, your God, when he enters, he himself will enlarge.

5. Therefore, without love of money a sufficient measure is enough for present needs. Why present needs? Because we brought nothing into this world, neither can we take anything away (1 Tim 6:7): therefore present needs, not future. But what is it that deceives a man toward the reckoning of greed? What if I live long? He who gives life, does he not give whence you may live out your life? Finally there are incomes: why is a treasure too sought? Something comes in from business, something from craft, something from a price: let it suffice, let it not be treasured up; lest, where you put your treasure, there your heart too remain, and, that it may be on high, you hear in vain, and answer falsely. For when you answer that most sacred word and subscribe with your voice, are you not within accused by your very heart? However pressed and oppressed, does your heart not say to you within: You put me under the earth, why do you lie? Does it not say to you: Am I not there, where your treasure is? Therefore you lie. Or does he lie who said, For where your treasure is, there will your heart be too (Matt 6:21)? You say: It will not be there. Truth says: It will be there. But it will not be there, because I do not love. Prove it by deeds. You do not love, but you are rich. You attend well indeed, and you distinguish yourself; from the one who is rich, you distinguish the one who wishes to be rich. For there is much difference between being rich and wishing to be rich. It is a just distinction, it cannot be denied. There it is means, here it is cupidity.

6. For the Apostle himself does not say: Those who are rich, but: Those who wish to become rich, who wish to become so, fall into temptation and a snare, and many harmful desires: by wishing to become so, not by being so. Therefore he says, desires. For there is desire in a man who wishes to attain what he does not have. For no one desires what he has. Greed is indeed insatiable; and yet even in those who have much, there is to be spoken of a desire, not of what they have, but of what they wish to have. He has this estate, he desires to have another which he does not have; but when he has had this too, he will desire another; yet he will not desire what he had, but what he did not have. By wishing, then, to be rich, he desires, burns, thirsts, and, as if by the disease of dropsy, by drinking more thirsts more. A wonderful similitude this is in the disease of the body: a greedy man is wholly a dropsy in the heart. For dropsy in the flesh is full of fluid, is endangered by fluid, and is not satisfied by fluid: so the dropsy in the heart, the more it has, the more it lacks. When it had less, it wished less, rejoiced in fewer things, was gladdened by tiny coffers: but because it has been filled, it has been distended, has been made most abundant (inheritances come daily); it drinks and thirsts. If I have this, I will be able to have that; I can little, because I have little. When you have this too, you have more to wish: want has been increased, not power.

7. But I do not love, he says, what I have, that I may have my heart on high. I plainly agree; if you do not love, your heart can be on high. For why should not a free heart be on high? But see whether you do not love: report it faithfully to yourself, not accused by me, but questioned by yourself. Plainly, he says, I do not love: I am indeed rich, but because I now am, and do not wish to be, lest I fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge a man into destruction and perdition: a grave evil, horrible, dangerous, deadly—I now am, he says, rich, I do not wish to be. You are now rich? Now, he says. You do not wish to be? No, he says. If you were not, would you be unwilling? I would be unwilling, he says. Now, then, because you are, and the word of God found you rich outside, made you rich within, receive what was said to the rich. For this which was said in these words—We brought nothing into this world, but neither can we take anything away: having food and covering, with these we are content. For those who wish to become rich fall into temptation, and the rest; those who wish, he says, to become rich—was said as it were to the poor. Did these words of the Apostle find you poor? Say them, and you are rich; say in your heart, from your heart: I brought nothing into this world, but neither can I take anything away; having food and covering, with these I am content. For if I wish to become rich, I will fall into temptation and a snare. Say it, and stand where you were found. Do not engraft yourself onto many pains; lest, when you wish to strip yourself, you be torn. But were you found rich? There are other words too, which let us recite: let not the one found rich think nothing was said to him. To the same Timothy the Apostle speaks, but speaks to a poor man. For Timothy was poor, as Paul was. What, then, is he going to say to Timothy on this matter, to a poor man, that may pertain to those who are found rich? Hear what: Command, he says, the rich of this world: for there are rich of God too; and the true rich are none but the rich of God, such as Paul himself was, who said, For I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content (Phil 4:11). Give me a rich man of the world who says this: I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content: but the greedy man is not content. Therefore: command, he says, the rich of this world. What shall I tell them? Do not wish to be rich? They are now found rich: let them hear what was said to them, where it is the chief point, not to be proudly wise. For this riches are had and much loved. A nest of pride is gathered, where it may be nourished and grow; and what is worse, it will not, but remain. Therefore before all, not to be proudly wise. That a man may understand, be wise, consider himself mortal, and the equal of a poor mortal. For the earth received both naked, death awaits both, the fever fears neither. The poor man has it on an earthen bed, but neither does the rich man frighten it away as it comes by a silver couch. Therefore: Command the rich of this world not to be proudly wise. Let them acknowledge the poor as their equals: the poor are men and men too; the garment is unlike, but the skin is alike: and if a rich dead man is embalmed with spices, there will not be no rottenness, but only later; it rots later—does it not rot? But let us suppose both do not rot: yet both do not feel it. Command the rich of this world not to be proudly wise. Let them not be proudly wise: and truly they will be such as they wish to seem: without love they will possess, they will not be possessed.

8. But see what follows: Not to be proudly wise, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches (1 Tim 6:17). You love gold; make it, if you can, certain, that you may not fear to lose it. You have gathered means; give yourself, if you can, security. Nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches. It comes, it goes away; now it was, now it perishes, now it is feared lest it perish. Let them not, then, hope in the uncertainty of riches. He took away hope from there. Where did he fix it? But in the living God. There fix your hope, there the anchor of your heart, that the storm of this age may not tear you from there and destroy you: in the living God, who furnishes us all things abundantly to enjoy (1 Tim 6:17). If all things, how much more himself? And truly he himself will be to us all things to enjoy. For it does not seem to me said, Who gave us all things abundantly to enjoy, except himself. For it seems one thing to use, another to enjoy. For we use according to necessity, we enjoy according to pleasantness. Therefore he gave these temporal things to use, himself to enjoy. If, then, himself, why was it said all things, except because it is written, That God may be all in all (1 Cor 15:28)? Therefore there the heart for enjoying, that the heart may be on high. Loosen yourself from here, but bind yourself there: it is dangerous for you in these storms to remain without a bond.

9. Not to hope in the uncertainty of riches: yet not nowhere, but in the living God, who furnishes us all things abundantly to enjoy (1 Tim 6:17). What is so "all things" as he who made all things? For these all things would not be made by him, unless he knew them. Who would dare say: God made this which he did not know? He made what he knew. He had it, then, before he made it: but he had it in wondrous ways, not as he made it, temporal and transitory, but as a craftsman makes. He has within what he works outside. There, then, are all things—chief, immortal, indefectible, permanent—and God himself all in all: but to his holy ones, to his just ones, he himself will be all in all. He himself, then, suffices, alone suffices, of whom it was said, Show us the Father, and it suffices us; but, so long a time, he says, I am with you, and you have not known me? He who has seen me has seen the Father too (John 14:8-9). God is all—Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Deservedly he alone suffices. If we are greedy, let us love him. If we desire wealth, let us desire him. He alone will be able to satisfy us, of whom it was said, Who satisfies your desire with good things (Ps 103:5 (102:5)). Does this not suffice the sinner? Does this so great, so great a good not suffice the sinner? By wishing to have more, he lost all: because the root of all evils is greed (1 Tim 6:10). And in Adam himself the root of all evils was greed. For he wished more than he received, because God did not suffice him. Deservedly through the Prophet he rebukes the sinful soul fornicating away from him, and says, You reckoned that, if you departed from me, you would have something more. But just as that younger son—behold, you have fed swine; behold, you have lost all; behold, you remained in want, and late, weary, you returned (See Luke 15:13-19). Now understand that what the Father was giving you, he himself kept more safely: You reckoned that, if you withdrew from me, you would have something more. O sinful soul, filled with fornications, made foul, made colorless, made unclean, and yet loved! Return, then, to the beautiful one, that you may return to beauty: return, and say to him who alone suffices you, You have destroyed everyone who fornicates away from you (Ps 73:27 (72:27)). What, then, suffices, but what follows? But for me to cleave to God is good (Ps 73:28 (72:28)). Therefore the heart on high, not on the earth, not in the most beggarly treasure, not in a place of rottenness. For the root of all evils is greed. And in Adam himself the root of all evils was greed. For he wished more than he received, because God did not suffice him.

10. Attend, then, O rich man, to what you are to do with what you have. You are no longer proudly wise: rightly. You do not hope in the uncertainty of riches: most excellently. But you hope in the living God, who furnishes us all things abundantly to enjoy: praiseworthily. Do not, then, be slothful in the things that follow: Let them be rich in good works. Let us see these, and what we do not see, let us believe. You said: I have gold, but I do not love it; but the not-loving is within you; if I deserve anything of you, prove it to me too; what you do not hide from your God, prove it to your brother too. Whence, he says, shall I prove it? From what follows: Let them be rich in good works, give easily. Be rich for this, that you may give easily. For the poor man wishes to give, and cannot: with him there is difficulty, with you facility. Let this profit you, that you are rich, because when you wish to do it, at once you do it. Give easily, share. Do they lose it? Treasure up for themselves a good foundation for the future. And lest we love that very gold and silver and estates, and the things that seem beautiful in the means of men, even in that age, and desire such things there, when it is said to us: Migrate there, put your treasure there: he admonished us against carnal thoughts, and said, That they may lay hold of the true life (1 Tim 6:18-19); not gold, which remains on earth, not perishable means, not transitory goods, but the true life. How, then, do we migrate, when this does not pass over there, nor will we have there what we transfer from here? In a way the Lord our God wishes us to be merchants, he makes exchanges with us: what abounds here we give, what abounds there we receive; just as very many make merchandise for shipment: they give one thing in one place, and where they come they receive another. For example, he says to his friend: Receive from me gold here, and give me oil in Africa; and he migrates and does not migrate: he has already transferred what he gave, but he did not receive this. He receives what he desires. Such is this exchange, my brothers, as our trade is. What do we give, and what do we receive? We give what we cannot carry with us, even if we wished, and which therefore perishes. Here let what is less be given, that what is greater may be found there. We give earth, and receive heaven; we give temporal things, and receive eternal; we give perishable things, and receive immortal; finally we give what God gave, and receive God himself. Let us not, then, be slothful in this exchange of things, in this rich and ineffable commerce. Let it profit us that we are here, let it profit us that we were born, let it profit us that we are on pilgrimage. Let us not return destitute.

11. Let not the moth of evil thought enter the chest of the heart. Let it not be said: I will not give, lest tomorrow I have nothing. Do not think much about future things: rather, think much about future things, but about the far-off future: Let them treasure up, he says, for themselves a good foundation for the future, that they may lay hold of the true life. Nor in such a way as the Apostle said: that there be refreshment for others, but for you distress, but from what each one has (See 2 Cor 8:13.12). Only do not love, keep, treasure up, lean upon what is stored; this is to hope in uncertain things. How many rich men slept rich, and rose up poor. For on account of these thoughts, when he had said, Without love a sufficient measure of money is enough for present needs, on account of the evil thoughts that say: If I do not have a treasure, who will give to me, when I begin to be in want? Then: There abounds whence I may live, there suffices whence I may live; but what, if a slander strikes me: whence shall I redeem myself? what, if it be necessary for me to litigate: whence shall I lay out expenses? (as long as you can narrate and reckon all the evils that can befall the human race, very often one calamity disturbs the reckoning of the one counting, and the whole that was being counted not only perishes, but will not even remain in the fingers)—therefore against that little worm of thought, against that malignant moth, God set in his Scripture, as certain perfumes are wont to be set on garments, lest they be moth-eaten. What? You were thinking lest you lack on account of this and that, and you were counting many calamities. Did you not fear one great one? Attend to what follows: Without love a sufficient measure of money is enough for present needs, for he himself said: I will not leave you, I will not forsake you (Heb 13:5); you feared I know not what evils, therefore you were reserving money: hold me as your surety. This God says to you. Not a man, not your equal or you yourself, but God says to you, I will not leave you, I will not forsake you. If a man promised, you would believe; God promises, and do you doubt? He promised, wrote it, made the bond: be secure. Read what you hold, you hold the bond of God, you have held the debtor himself, from whom you asked that your debts be released. Amen.

1. 1. When the Epistle of the blessed Apostle was read about the appointing of bishops, it surely reminded us to look upon ourselves; and it reminded you not to judge us; most of all because we all heard the last sentence of the passage of the recent gospel reading: Do not judge according to persons, but judge a just judgment (John 7:24). So in judging, no one takes on another's person, if he does not take on his own. The blessed Apostle says in a certain place, I do not so fight as one beating the air; but I chastise my body and bring it into servitude; lest perhaps, preaching to others, I myself be found rejected (1 Cor 9:26-27). By his fear he terrified us. For what will the lamb do where the ram trembles? Among the many things, then, by which the Apostle wrote what kind a bishop ought to be, we heard this too, on which now perhaps it may suffice to speak and discourse. For if we try to examine each one, and discourse on each as is fitting, neither do our strengths suffice for speaking, nor yours for hearing. What, then, is it I wish to say, if he who terrified me help me? Among other things he says that a bishop ought to be powerful in sound doctrine, that he may be able to refute those who contradict. It is a great work, a grave burden, a steep slope. But: I will hope, he says, in God, for he will free me from the snare of the hunters, and from the harsh word (See Ps 91:3 (90:3)). For there is no cause that makes the dispenser of God more slothful to refute those who contradict than the fear of the harsh word.

2. 2. First, then, what it is to refute those who contradict, as the Lord grants, I will expound to you. Those who contradict are not to be understood in one way. For very few contradict us by speaking; but many by living badly. When does a Christian dare to say to me that it is good to seize others' goods; since he does not dare to say that it is good tenaciously to keep his own? For did that rich man, whose region had yielded a crop, and who did not find where to put his fruits, and rejoiced that he had found the plan of pulling down the old storehouses and building new and larger ones, that he might fill them, and say to his soul, Soul, you have many goods for much time, be glad, rejoice, be filled—did that rich man, then, seek others' goods? He was arranging to gather his own fruits, taking counsel where to put them, thinking not about anyone's neighboring fields, nor of a disturbed boundary, nor of a despoiled poor man, nor of a circumvented simple man, but only about gathering his own. Hear what he heard who tenaciously kept his own; and from this understand what awaits those who seize others'. So when he reckoned that he had found a most prudent plan—of casting down the old narrow storehouses, and building new and larger ones, and gathering and storing all his fruits, not coveting and seizing others'—God said to him, Fool; where you seem wise to yourself, there a fool. Fool, he says, this night they demand your soul from you; these things which you have prepared, whose will they be (Luke 12:18-20)? If you keep them, they will not be yours; if you distribute them, they will be yours. Why, he says, do you store up what you are going to leave behind? Behold, the fool was rebuked for storing up badly. If he is a fool who stores up his own, find a name for him who takes another's. If the storer of his own is sordid, the seizer of another's is ulcerous. But not such an ulcerous one as the one who lay before the rich man's gate, and whose ulcers the dogs licked. For that one was ulcerous in body; the seizer, in heart.

3. 3. Perhaps someone may answer and say: It was not a very great punishment for that man, to whom God said, Fool. God does not say Fool the way a man says it. Such a word of God against anyone is a judgment. For is God going to give the kingdom of heaven to fools? But to those to whom he is not going to give the kingdom of heaven, what remains for them but the punishment of hell? We seem to conjecture this: let us see it openly and manifestly. For that rich man too, before whose gate lay the most poor ulcerous man, was not called a seizer of others' goods. There was a certain rich man, it says, who clothed himself in purple and fine linen, and feasted splendidly every day. A rich man, it says, there was; it did not say: A slanderer; it did not say: An oppressor of the poor; it did not say: A seizer of others' goods, or an informer, or a receiver; it did not say: A despoiler of orphans; it did not say: A persecutor of widows; none of these, but: There was a certain rich man. What is great about that? He was rich, he was rich from his own. Whom had he robbed? Or would he perhaps rob, and the Lord be silent about him, and take on his person, if he hid his crimes—he who says to us, Do not judge according to persons? If, then, you wish to hear the crime of that rich man, do not seek more than you hear from the Truth. He was rich; he clothed himself in purple and fine linen, and feasted splendidly every day. What, then, was his crime? An ulcerous man lying before the gate, and not helped. For this was said openly of him, that he was unmerciful. For surely, dearly beloved, if that poor man lying before the gate had received sufficient bread from the rich man, would it be said of him that he desired to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table? On account of this inhumanity alone, by which he despised the poor man lying before his gate, and did not fittingly and worthily feed him, he died and was buried; and when he was in torments in the underworld, he lifted up his eyes, and saw the poor man in the bosom of Abraham (See Luke 16:19-23). And why should I linger on more? He desired a drop, who did not give a crumb; he did not receive by a just sentence, who did not give out of cruel greed. If, then, this is the punishment of the greedy, what is the punishment of the seizers?

4. 4. But the seizer of others' goods says to me: I am not like that rich man. I make love-feasts, I send food to those bound in prison, I clothe the naked, I receive strangers. Do you think you give? Do not take, and you have given. The one to whom you give rejoices; the one from whom you take weeps; which of these two will the Lord hear? You say to the one to whom you give: Give thanks because you have received. But the other on the other side says to you: I groan, from whom you took. And you have kept nearly the whole, and given him a little. If, then, you had given to the needy what you took from another—but God does not love such works. God says to you: Fool, I commanded you to give, but not of another's. If you have, give of your own; if you do not have what to give of your own, it is better to give to no one than to despoil others. The Lord Christ is going to say, when he sits in his judgment, and has separated some to the right and others to the left, to those who worked well, Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom; but to the barren, who worked nothing good toward the poor: Go into the eternal fire. And what is he going to say to the good? For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat, and the rest. And they will answer him: Lord, when did we see you hungry? And he to them: When you did it to one of my least, you did it to me. Understand, then, fool, you who wish to give alms from plunder, that whenever you feed a Christian, you feed Christ; when you despoil a Christian, you despoil Christ. Attend to what he is going to say to those on the left: Go into the eternal fire. Why? For I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat; I was naked, and you did not clothe me (Matt 25:34-43). Go. Where? Into the eternal fire. Plainly, go. Why? I was naked, and you did not clothe me. If, then, into the eternal fire goes the one to whom Christ is going to say: I was naked, and you did not clothe me; what place in the eternal fire will he have to whom he is going to say: I was clothed, and you despoiled me?

5. 5. Here perhaps, to escape this voice, lest Christ say to you: I was clothed, and you despoiled me; with your habit changed, you think of despoiling a pagan, and clothing a Christian. And here too Christ will answer you—rather, now he will answer you through his servant, some minister of his; Christ will answer you and say: Even here spare my losses. For when, as a Christian, you despoil a pagan, you hinder him from becoming a Christian. Here too perhaps you will still answer: I do not inflict punishment out of hatred, but rather out of love of discipline; therefore I despoil the pagan, that by this harsh and wholesome discipline I may make him a Christian. I would hear and believe, if what you took from the pagan, you gave to a Christian.

5. 6. We have spoken against the one vice of plundering, by which human affairs are everywhere laid waste; we have spoken, and no one contradicts us. For who dares contradict the most open truth by speaking? Therefore we do not do what the Apostle admonished, we do not refute those who contradict; we address the obedient, we instruct those who praise; we do not refute those who contradict. But they do not contradict by tongue, but by life. I admonish, he plunders; I teach, he plunders; I command, he plunders; I rebuke, he plunders; how does he not contradict? Let me say, then, what I think suffices on this matter. Abstain, brothers, abstain, sons, abstain from the habit of plundering; and you who groan under the hands of plunderers, abstain from the desire of plundering. Another is powerful, and plunders; you groan in the hand of the plunderer; because you cannot plunder, therefore you do not do it. Have the power, and there I will praise the desire subdued.

6. 7. Holy Scripture calls blessed the one who did not go after gold; who could transgress, and did not transgress; who could do evils, and did not do them (Sir 31:8.10). But you say: I never denied another's deposit. Because perhaps no one entrusted you anything; or perhaps he entrusted it, but entrusted it before witnesses. Tell me, did you return it, when from one man alone, you alone, where God had been between you, received it? If you returned it then, if to the dead man who entrusted it, to the ignorant son you returned it; then I will praise you, because you did not go after gold; because you could transgress, and did not transgress; because you could do evils, and did not do them. If perhaps you found in the road another's purse of gold pieces, where no one saw you, and without any delay you returned it to him whose it was. Come, brothers, return to yourselves, inspect yourselves, question yourselves, answer yourselves truly, and judge yourselves not according to persons, but judge a just judgment. Behold, you are a Christian, you frequent the church, you hear the word of God, you are most gladly moved by the reading of the word of God. You praise the one treating it, I seek the one doing it; you, I say, praise the one speaking, I seek the one doing. You are a Christian, you frequent the church, you love the word of God, and gladly hear it. Behold, in what I propose, examine yourself in it, weigh yourself in it, ascend in it the tribunal of your mind, and set yourself before yourself, and judge yourself; and if you find yourself depraved, correct yourself. I propose, then. God says in his law that a thing found must be returned (See Exod 23:4; Deut 22:1-3); God says in his law, which he gave to the first people, for whom Christ had not yet died, that a thing found, as another's, must be returned; if anyone, for example, finds in the road another's purse of gold pieces, he ought to return it. But he does not know to whom? Ignorance does not excuse him, if greed does not rule.