Tractates (Lectures) on the Gospel of John #3

Volume III. Tractates 51 – 75

Tractate 51 (John 12:12–26)

1. After our Lord’s raising of one to life, who had been four days dead, to the utter amazement of the Jews, some of whom believed on seeing it, and others perished in their envy, because of that sweet savor which is unto life to some, and to others unto death; 2Corinthians 2:15 after He had sat down to meat with Lazarus – the one who had been dead and raised to life – reclining also at table, and after the pouring on His feet of the ointment which had filled the house with its odor; and after the Jews also had shown their own spiritual abandonment in conceiving the useless cruelty and the monstrously foolish and insane guilt of slaying Lazarus;– of all which we have spoken as we could, by the grace of the Lord, in previous discourses: let your Charity now notice how abundant before our Lord’s passion was the fruit that appeared of His preaching, and how large was the flock of lost sheep of the house of Israel which had heard the Shepherd’s voice.

2. For the Gospel, the reading of which you have just been listening to, says: On the next day much people that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet Him, and cried, Hosanna: blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord as the King of Israel. The branches of palm trees are laudatory emblems, significant of victory, because the Lord was about to overcome death by dying, and by the trophy of His cross to triumph over the devil, the prince of death. The exclamation used by the worshipping people is Hosanna, indicating, as some who know the Hebrew language affirm, rather a state of mind than having any positive significance; just as in our own tongue we have what are called interjections, as when in our grief we say, Alas! Or in our joy, Ha! Or in our admiration, O how fine! Where O! expresses only the feeling of the admirer. Of the same class must we believe this word to be, as it has failed to find an interpretation both in Greek and Latin, like that other, Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca. For this also is allowed to be an interjection, expressive of angry feelings.

3. But when it is said, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord, [as] the King of Israel, by in the name of the Lord we are rather to understand in the name of God the Father, although it might also be understood as in His own name, inasmuch as He is also Himself the Lord. As we find Scripture also saying in another place, The Lord rained [upon Sodom fire] from the Lord. Genesis 19:24 But His own words are a better guide to our understanding, when He says, I have come in my Father’s name, and you receive me not: another will come in his own name, and him you will receive. For the true teacher of humility is Christ, who humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:8 But He does not lose His divinity in teaching us humility; in the one He is the Father’s equal, in the other He is assimilated to us. By that which made Him the equal of the Father, He called us into existence; and by that in which He is like us, He redeemed us from ruin.

4. These, then, were the words of praise addressed to Jesus by the multitude, Hosanna: blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. What a cross of mental suffering must the Jewish rulers have endured when they heard so great a multitude proclaiming Christ as their King! But what honor was it to the Lord to be King of Israel? What great thing was it to the King of eternity to become the King of men? For Christ’s kingship over Israel was not for the purpose of exacting tribute, of putting swords into His soldiers’ hands, of subduing His enemies by open warfare; but He was King of Israel in exercising kingly authority over their inward natures, in consulting for their eternal interests, in bringing into His heavenly kingdom those whose faith, and hope, and love were centred in Himself. Accordingly, for the Son of God, the Father’s equal, the Word by whom all things were made, in His good pleasure to be King of Israel, was an act of condescension and not of promotion; a token of compassion, and not any increase of power. For He who was called on earth the King of the Jews, is in the heavens the Lord of angels.

5. And Jesus, when He had found a young ass, sat thereon. Here the account is briefly given: for how it all happened may be found at full length in the other evangelists. But there is appended to the circumstance itself a testimony from the prophets, to make it evident that He in whom was fulfilled all they read in Scripture, was entirely misunderstood by the evil-minded rulers of the Jews. Jesus, then, found a young ass, and sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, your King comes, sitting on an ass’s colt. Among that people, then, was the daughter of Zion to be found; for Zion is the same as Jerusalem. Among that very people, I say, reprobate and blind as they were, was the daughter of Zion, to whom it was said, Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, your King comes, sitting on an ass’s colt. This daughter of Zion, who was thus divinely addressed, was among those sheep that were hearing the Shepherd’s voice, and in that multitude which was celebrating the Lord’s coming with such religious zeal, and accompanying Him in such warlike array. To her was it said, Fear not: acknowledge Him whom you are now extolling, and give not way to fear when He comes to suffering; for by the shedding of His blood is your guilt to be blotted out, and your life restored. But by the ass’s colt, on which no man had ever sat (for so it is found recorded in the other evangelists), we are to understand the Gentile nations which had not received the law of the Lord; by the ass, on the other hand (for both animals were brought to the Lord), that people of His which came of the nation of Israel, and was already so far subdued as to recognize its Master’s crib.

6. These things understood not His disciples at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, that is, when He had manifested the power of His resurrection, then remembered they that these things were written of Him, and they had done these things unto Him, that is, they did nothing else but what had been written concerning Him. In short, mentally comparing with the contents of Scripture what was accomplished both prior to and in the course of our Lord’s passion, they found this also therein, that it was in accordance with the utterance of the prophets that He sat on an ass’s colt.

7. The people, therefore, that was with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb, and raised him from the dead, bare record. For this cause the crowd also met Him, for that they heard that He had done this miracle. The Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves: Perceive ye that we prevail nothing? Behold, the whole world is gone after Him. Mob set mob in motion. But why are you, blinded mob that you are, filled with envy because the world has gone after its Maker?

8. And there were certain Gentiles among them that had come up to worship at the feast: the same came therefore to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip comes and tells Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. Let us hearken to the Lord’s reply. See how the Jews wish to kill Him, the Gentiles to see Him; and yet those, too, were of the Jews who cried, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. Here, then, were they of the circumcision and they of the uncircumcision, like two house walls running from different directions and meeting together with the kiss of peace, in the one faith of Christ. Let us listen, then, to the voice of the Cornerstone: And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified. Perhaps some one supposes here that He spoke of Himself as glorified, because the Gentiles wished to see Him. Such is not the case. But He saw the Gentiles themselves in all nations coming to the faith after His own passion and resurrection, because, as the apostle says, Blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should be come in. Romans 11:25 Taking occasion, therefore, from those Gentiles who desired to see Him, He announces the future fullness of the Gentile nations, and promises the near approach of the hour when He should be glorified Himself, and when, on its consummation in heaven, the Gentile nations should be brought to the faith. To this it is that the prediction pointed, Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Your glory above all the earth. Such is the fullness of the Gentiles, of which the apostle says, Blindness in part is happened to Israel, till the fullness of the Gentiles come in.

9. But the height of His glorification had to be preceded by the depth of His passion. Accordingly, He went on to add, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit. But He spoke of Himself. He Himself was the grain that had to die, and be multiplied; to suffer death through the unbelief of the Jews, and to be multiplied in the faith of many nations.

10. And now, by way of exhortation to follow in the path of His own passion, He adds, He that loves his life shall lose it, which may be understood in two ways: He that loves shall lose, that is, If you love, be ready to lose; if you would possess life in Christ, be not afraid of death for Christ. Or otherwise, He that loves his life shall lose it. Do not love for fear of losing; love it not here, lest you lose it in eternity. But what I have said last seems better to correspond with the meaning of the Gospel, for there follow the words, And he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. So that when it is said in the previous clause, He that loves, there is to be understood in this world, he it is that shall lose it. But he that hates, that is, in this world, is he that shall keep it unto life eternal. Surely a profound and strange declaration as to the measure of a man’s love for his own life that leads to its destruction, and of his hatred to it that secures its preservation! If in a sinful way you love it, then do you really hate it; if in a way accordant with what is good you have hated it, then have you really loved it. Happy they who have so hated their life while keeping it, that their love shall not cause them to lose it. But beware of harboring the notion that you may court self-destruction by any such understanding of your duty to hate your life in this world. For on such grounds it is that certain wrong-minded and perverted people, who, with regard to themselves, are murderers of a specially cruel and impious character, commit themselves to the flames, suffocate themselves in water, dash themselves against a precipice, and perish. This was no teaching of Christ’s, who, on the other hand, met the devil’s suggestion of a precipice with the answer, Get behind me, Satan; for it is written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Matthew 4:7 To Peter also He said, signifying by what death he should glorify God, When you were young, you girded yourself, and walked whither you would, but when you shall be old, another shall gird you, and carry you whither you would not; – where He made it sufficiently plain that it is not by himself but by another that one must be slain who follows in the footsteps of Christ. And so, when one’s case has reached the crisis that this condition is placed before him, either that he must act contrary to the divine commandment or quit this life, and that a man is compelled to choose one or other of the two by the persecutor who is threatening him with death, in such circumstances let him prefer dying in the love of God to living under His anger, in such circumstances let him hate his life in this world that he may keep it unto life eternal.

11. If any man serve me, let him follow me. What is that, let him follow me, but just, let him imitate me? Because Christ suffered for us, says the Apostle Peter, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps. 1 Peter 2:21 Here you have the meaning of the words, If any man serve me, let him follow me. But with what result? What wages? What reward? And where I am, He says, there shall also my servant be. Let Him be freely loved, that so the reward of the service done Him may be to be with Him. For where will one be well apart from Him, or when will one come to feel himself in an evil case in company with Him? Hear it still more plainly: If any man serve me, him will my Father honor. And what will be the honor but to be with His Son? For of what He said before, Where I am, there shall also my servant be, we may understand Him as giving the explanation, when He says here, him will my Father honor. For what greater honor can await an adopted son than to be with the Only-begotten; not, indeed, as raised to the level of His Godhead, but made a partaker of His eternity?

12. But it becomes us rather to inquire what is to be understood by this serving of Christ to which there is attached so great a reward. For if we have taken up the idea that the serving of Christ is the preparation of what is needful for the body, or the cooking and serving up of food, or the mixing of drink and handing the cup to one at the supper table; this, indeed, was done to Him by those who had the privilege of His bodily presence, as in the case of Martha and Mary, when Lazarus also was one of those who sat at the table. But in that sort of way Christ was served also by the reprobate Judas; for it was he also who had the money bag; and although he had the exceeding wickedness to steal of its contents, yet it was he also who provided what was needful for the meal. And so also, when our Lord said to him, What you do, do quickly, there were some who thought that He only gave him orders to make some needful preparations for the feast-day, or to give something to the poor. In no sense, therefore, was it of this class of servants that the Lord said, Where I am, there shall also my servant be, and If any man serve me, him will my Father honor; for we see that Judas, who served in this way, became an object of reprobation rather than of honor. Why, then, go elsewhere to find out what this serving of Christ implies, and not rather see its disclosure in the words themselves? For when He said, If any man serve me, let him follow me, He wished it to be understood just as if He had said, If any man does not follow me, he serves me not. And those, therefore, are the servants of Jesus Christ, who seek not their own things, but the things that are Jesus Christ’s. Philippians 2:21 For let him follow me is just this: Let him walk in my ways, and not in his own; as it is written elsewhere, He that says he abides in Christ, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked. 1John 2:6 For he ought, if supplying food to the hungry, to do it in the way of mercy and not of boasting, seeking therein nothing else but the doing of good, and not letting his left hand know what his right hand does; Matthew 6:3 in other words, that all thought of self-seeking should be utterly estranged from a work of charity. He that serves in this way serves Christ, and will have it rightly said to him, Inasmuch as you did it unto one of the least of those who are mine, you did it unto me. Matthew 25:40 And thus doing not only those acts of mercy that pertain to the body, but every good work, for the sake of Christ (for then will all be good, because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes Romans 10:4), he is Christ’s servant even to that work of special love, which is to lay down his life for the brethren, for that were to lay it down also for Christ. For this also will He say hereafter in behalf of His members: Inasmuch as you did it for these, you have done it for me. And certainly it was in reference to such a work that He was also pleased to make and to style Himself a servant, when He says, Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto [served], but to minister [serve], and to lay down His life for many. Matthew 20:28 Every one, therefore, is the servant of Christ in the same way as Christ also is a servant. And he that serves Christ in this way will be honored by His Father with the signal honor of being with His Son, and having nothing wanting to his happiness forever.

13. Accordingly, brethren, when you hear the Lord saying, Where I am, there shall also my servant be, do not think merely of good bishops and clergymen. But be yourselves also in your own way serving Christ, by good lives, by giving alms, by preaching His name and doctrine as you can; and every father of a family also, be acknowledging in this name the affection he owes as a parent to his family. For Christ’s sake, and for the sake of life eternal, let him be warning, and teaching, and exhorting, and correcting all his household; let him show kindliness, and exercise discipline; and so in his own house he will be filling an ecclesiastical and kind of episcopal office, and serving Christ, that he may be with Him forever. For even that noblest service of suffering has been rendered by many of your class; for many who were neither bishops nor clergy, but young men and virgins, those advanced in years with those who were not, many married persons both male and female, many fathers and mothers of families, have served Christ even to the laying down of their lives in martyrdom for His sake, and have been honored by the Father in receiving crowns of exceeding glory.

Tractate 52 (John 12:27–36)

1. After the Lord Jesus Christ, in the words of yesterday’s lesson, had exhorted His servants to follow Him, and had predicted His own passion in this way, that unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit; and also had stirred up those who wished to follow Him to the kingdom of heaven, to hate their life in this world if their thought was to keep it unto life eternal – He again toned down His own feelings to our infirmity and says, where our lesson today commenced, Now is my soul troubled. Whence, Lord, was Your soul troubled? He had, indeed, said a little before, He that hates his life [soul] in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. Do you then love your life in this world, and is your soul troubled as the hour approaches when you shall leave this world? Who would dare affirm this of the soul [life] of the Lord? We rather it was whom He transferred unto Himself; He took us into His own person as our Head, and assumed the feelings of His members; and so it was not by any others He was troubled, but, as was said of Him when He raised Lazarus, He was troubled in Himself. For it behooved the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, just as He has lifted us up to the heights of heaven, to descend with us also into the lowest depths of suffering.

2. I hear Him saying a little before, The hour comes that the Son of man should be glorified: if a grain of wheat die, it brings forth much fruit. I hear this also, He that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. Nor am I permitted merely to admire, but commanded to imitate, and so, by the words that follow, If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be, I am all on fire to despise the world, and in my sight the whole of this life, however lengthened, becomes only a vapor; in comparison with my love for eternal things, all that is temporal has lost its value with me. And now, again, it is my Lord Himself, who by such words has suddenly transported me from the weakness that was mine to the strength that was His, that I hear saying, Now is my soul troubled. What does it mean? How biddest Thou my soul follow You if I behold Your own troubled? How shall I endure what is felt to be heavy by strength so great? What is the kind of foundation I can seek if the Rock is giving way? But methinks I hear in my own thoughts the Lord giving me an answer, saying, You shall follow me the better, because it is to aid your power of endurance that I thus interpose. You have heard, as addressed to yourself, the voice of my fortitude; hear in me the voice of your infirmity: I supply strength for your running, and I check not your hastening, but I transfer to myself your causes for trembling, and I pave the way for your marching along. O Lord our Mediator, God above us, man for us, I own Your mercy! For because Thou, who art so great, art troubled through the good will of Your love, Thou preservest, by the richness of Your comfort, the many in Your body who are troubled by the continual experience of their own weakness, from perishing utterly in their despair.

3. In a word, let the man who would follow learn the road by which he must travel. Perhaps an hour of terrible trial has come, and the choice is set before you either to do iniquity or endure suffering; the weak soul is troubled, on whose behalf the invincible soul [of Jesus] was voluntarily troubled; set then the will of God before your own. For notice what is immediately subjoined by your Creator and your Master, by Him who made you, and became Himself for your teaching that which He made; for He who made man was made man, but He remained still the unchangeable God, and transplanted manhood into a better condition. Listen, then, to what He adds to the words, Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Your name. He has taught you here what to think of, what to say, on whom to call, in whom to hope, and whose will, as sure and divine, to prefer to your own, which is human and weak. Imagine Him not, therefore, as losing anything of His own exalted position in wishing you to rise up out of the depths of your ruin. For He thought it meet also to be tempted by the devil, by whom otherwise He would never have been tempted, just as, had He not been willing, He would never have suffered; and the answers He gave to the devil are such as thou also ought to use in times of temptation. Matthew 4:1–10 And He, indeed, was tempted, but not endangered, that He might show you, when in danger through temptation, how to answer the tempter, so as not to be carried away by the temptation, but to escape its danger. But when He here said, Now is my soul troubled; and also when He says, My soul is sorrowful, even unto death; and Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; He assumed the infirmity of man, to teach him, when thereby saddened and troubled, to say what follows: Nevertheless, Father, not as I will, but as You will. Matthew 26:38–39 For thus it is that man is turned from the human to the divine, when the will of God is preferred to his own. But to what do the words Glorify Your name refer, but to His own passion and resurrection? For what else can it mean, but that the Father should thus glorify the Son, who in like manner glorifies His own name in the similar sufferings of His servants? Hence it is recorded of Peter, that for this cause He said concerning him, Another shall gird you, and carry you whither you would not, because He intended to signify by what death he should glorify God. Therefore in him, too, did God glorify His name, because thus also does He glorify Christ in His members.

4. Then came there a voice from heaven, [saying], I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. I have both glorified it, before I created the world, and I will glorify it again, when He shall rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. It may also be otherwise understood. I have both glorified it,– when He was born of the Virgin, when He exercised miraculous powers; when the Magi, guided by a star in the heavens, bowed in adoration before Him; when He was recognized by saints filled with the Holy Spirit; when He was openly proclaimed by the descent of the Spirit in the form of a dove, and pointed out by the voice that sounded from heaven; when He was transfigured on the mount; when He wrought many miracles, cured and cleansed multitudes, fed so vast a number with a very few loaves, commanded the winds and the waves, and raised the dead –and I will glorify it again; when He shall rise from the dead; when death shall have no longer dominion over Him; and when He shall be exalted over the heavens as God, and His glory over all the earth.

5. The people therefore that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spoke to Him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. He thereby showed that the voice made no intimation to Him of what He already knew, but to those who needed the information. And just as that voice was uttered by God, not on His account, but on that of others, so His soul was troubled, not on His own account, but voluntarily for the sake of others.

6. Look at what follows: Now, He says, is the judgment of the world. What, then, are we to expect at the end of time? But the judgment that is looked for in the end will be the judging of the living and the dead, the awarding of eternal rewards and punishment. Of what sort, then, is the judgment now? I have already, in former lessons, as far as I could, put you in mind, beloved, that there is a judgment spoken of, not of condemnation, but of discrimination; as it is written, Judge me, O God, and plead [discern, discriminate] my cause against an unholy nation. And many are the judgments of God; as it is said in the psalm, Your judgments are a great deep. And the apostle also says, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments! Romans 11:33 To such judgments does that spoken of here by the Lord also belong, Now is the judgment of this world; while that judgment in the end is reserved, when the living and the dead shall at last be judged. The devil, therefore, had possession of the human race, and held them by the written bond of their sins as criminals amenable to punishment; he ruled in the hearts of unbelievers, and, deceiving and enslaving them, seduced them to forsake the Creator and give worship to the creature; but by faith in Christ, which was confirmed by His death and resurrection, and, by His blood, which was shed for the remission of sins, thousands of believers are delivered from the dominion of the devil, are united to the body of Christ, and under this great head are made by His one Spirit to spring up into new life as His faithful members. This it was that He called the judgment, this righteous separation, this expulsion of the devil from His own redeemed.

7. Attend, in short, to His own words. For just as if we had been inquiring what He meant by saying, Now is the judgment of the world, He proceeded to explain it when He says, Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. What we have thus heard was the kind of judgment He meant. Not that one, therefore, which is yet to come in the end, when the living and dead shall be judged, some of them set apart on His right hand, and the others on His left; but that judgment by which the prince of this world shall be cast out. In what sense, then, was he within, and whither did He mean that he was to be cast out? Was it this: That he was in the world. and was cast forth beyond its boundaries? For had He been speaking of that judgment which is yet to come in the end, some one’s thoughts might have turned to that eternal fire into which the devil is to be cast with his angels, and all who belong to him – that is, not naturally, but through moral delinquency; not because he created or begot them, but because he persuaded and kept hold of them: some one, therefore, might have thought that that eternal fire was outside the world, and that this was the meaning of the words, he shall be cast out. But as He says, Now is the judgment of this world, and in explanation of His meaning, adds, Now shall the prince of this world be cast out, we are thereby to understand what is now being done, and not what is to be, so long afterwards, at the last day. The Lord, therefore, foretold what He knew, that after His own passion and glorification, many nations throughout the whole world, in whose hearts the devil was an inmate, would become believers, and the devil, when thus renounced by faith, is cast out.

8. But some one says, Was he then not cast out of the hearts of the patriarchs and prophets, and the righteous of olden time? Certainly he was. How, then, is it said, Now he shall be cast out? How else can we think of it, but that what was then done in the case of a very few individuals, was now foretold as speedily to take place in many and mighty nations? Just as also that other saying, For the Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified, may suggest a similar inquiry, and find a similar solution. For it was not without the Holy Spirit that the prophets predicted the events of the future; nor was it so that the aged Simeon and the widowed Anna knew by the Holy Spirit the infant Lord; Luke 2:25–38 and that Zacharias and Elisabeth uttered by the Holy Spirit so many predictions concerning Him, when He was not yet born, but only conceived. But the Spirit was not yet given; that is, with that abundance of spiritual grace which enabled those assembled together to speak in every language, Acts 2:4–6 and thus announce beforehand in the language of every nation the Church of the future: and so by this spiritual grace it was that nations were gathered into congregations, sins were pardoned far and wide, and thousands of thousands were reconciled unto God.

9. But then, says some one, since the devil is thus cast out of the hearts of believers, does he now tempt none of the faithful? Nay, verily, he does not cease to tempt. But it is one thing to reign within, another to assail from without; for in like manner the best fortified city is sometimes attacked by an enemy without being taken. And if some of his arrows are discharged, and reach us, the apostle reminds us how to render them harmless, when he speaks of the breastplate and the shield of faith. 1 Thessalonians 5:8 And if he sometimes wounds us, we have the remedy at hand. For as the combatants are told, These things I write unto you, that you sin not: so those who are wounded have the sequel to listen to, And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins. 1John 2:1–2 And what do we pray for when we say, Forgive us our debts, but for the healing of our wounds? And what else do we ask, when we say, Lead us not into temptation, Matthew 6:12–13 but that he who thus lies in wait for us, or assails us from without, may fail on every side to effect an entrance, and be unable to overcome us either by fraud or force? Nevertheless, whatever engines of war he may erect against us, so long as he has no more a place in the heart that faith inhabits, he is cast out. But except the Lord keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain. Presume not, therefore, about yourselves, if you would not have the devil, who has once been cast out, to be recalled within.

10. On the other hand, let us be far from supposing that the devil is called in any such way the prince of the world, as that we should believe him possessed of power to rule over the heaven and the earth. The world is so spoken of in respect of wicked men, who have overspread the whole earth; just as a house is spoken of in respect to its inhabitants, and we accordingly say, It is a good house, or a bad house; not as finding fault with, or approving of, the erection of walls and roofs, but the morals either of the good or the bad within it. In a similar way, therefore, it is said, The prince of this world; that is, the prince of all the wicked who inhabit this world. The world is also spoken of in respect to the good, who in like manner have overspread the whole earth; and hence the apostle says, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. 2Corinthians 5:19 These are they out of whose hearts the prince of this world is ejected.

11. Accordingly, after saying, Now shall the prince of this world be cast out, He added, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things after me. And what all is that, but those out of which the other is ejected? But He did not say, All men, but all things; for all men have not faith. 2 Thessalonians 3:2 And, therefore, He did not allude to the totality of men, but to the creature in its personal integrity, that is, to spirit, and soul, and body; or all that which makes us the intelligent, living, visible, and palpable beings we are. For He who said, Not a hair of your head shall perish, Luke 21:18 is He who draws all things after Him. Or if by all things it is men that are to be understood, we can speak of all things that are foreordained to salvation: of all which He declared, when previously speaking of His sheep, that not one of them would be lost. And of a certainty all classes of men, both of every language and every age, and all grades of rank, and all diversities of talents, and all the professions of lawful and useful arts, and all else that can be named in accordance with the innumerable differences by which men, save in sin alone, are mutually separated, from the highest to the lowest, and from the king to the beggar, all, He says, will I draw after me; that He may be their head, and they His members. But this will be, He adds, if I be lifted up from the earth, that is, when I am lifted up; for He has no doubt of the future accomplishment of that which He came to fulfill. He here alludes to what He said before: But if the grain of wheat die, it brings forth much fruit. For what else did He signify by His lifting up, than His suffering on the cross, an explanation which the evangelist himself has not omitted; for he has appended the words, And this He said signifying what death He should die.

12. The people answered Him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abides for ever: and how sayest Thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? And who is this Son of man? It had stuck to their memory that the Lord was constantly calling Himself the Son of man. For, in the passage before us, He does not say, If the Son of man be lifted up from the earth; but had called Himself so before, in the lesson which was read and expounded yesterday, when those Gentiles were announced who desired to see Him: The hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified John 12:23. Retaining this, therefore, in their minds, and understanding what He now said, When I am lifted up from the earth, of the death of the cross, they inquired of Him, and said, We have heard out of the law that Christ abides for ever; and how sayest Thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man? For if it is Christ, He, they say, abides for ever; and if He abides for ever, how shall He be lifted up from the earth, that is, how shall He die through the suffering of the cross? For they understood Him to have spoken of what they themselves were meditating to do. And so He did not dissipate for them the obscurity of such words by imparting wisdom, but by stimulating their conscience.

13. Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little light is in you. And by this it is you understand that Christ abides forever. Walk, then, while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you. Walk, draw near, come to the full understanding that Christ shall both die and shall live for ever; that He shall shed His blood to redeem us, and ascend on high to carry His redeemed along with Him. But darkness will come upon you, if your belief in Christ’s eternity is of such a kind as to refuse to admit in His case the humiliation of death. And he that walks in darkness knows not whither he goes. So may he stumble on that stone of stumbling and rock of offense which the Lord Himself became to the blinded Jews: just as to those who believed, the stone which the builders despised was made the head of the corner. 1 Peter 2:6–8 Hence, they thought Christ unworthy of their belief; because in their impiety they treated His dying with contempt, they ridiculed the idea of His being slain: and yet it was the very death of the grain of grain that was to lead to its own multiplication, and the lifting up of one who was drawing all things after Him. While you have the light, He adds, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. While you have possession of some truth that you have heard, believe in the truth, that you may be born again in the truth.

14. These things spoke Jesus, and departed, and did hide Himself from them. Not from those who had begun to believe and to love Him, nor from those who had come to meet Him with branches of palm trees and songs of praise; but from those who saw and hated Him, for they saw Him not, but only stumbled on that stone in their blindness. But when Jesus hid Himself from those who desired to slay Him (as you need from forgetfulness to be often reminded), He had regard to our human weakness, but derogated not in anything from His own authority.

Tractate 53 (John 12:37–43)

1. When our Lord Christ, foretelling His own passion, and the fruitfulness of His death in being lifted up on the cross, said that He would draw all [things] after Him; and when the Jews, understanding that He spoke of His death, put to Him the question how He could speak of death as awaiting Him, when they heard out of the law that Christ abides for ever; He exhorted them, while still they had in them the little light, which had so taught them that Christ was eternal, to walk, to make themselves acquainted with the whole subject, lest they should be overtaken with darkness. And, when He had said this, He hid Himself from them. With these points you have been made acquainted in former Lord’s day lessons and discourses.

2. The evangelist thereafter brings forward what has formed the brief subject of today’s reading, and says, But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him: that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Where he makes it sufficiently plain that the Son of God is Himself the arm of the Lord; not that the person of God the Father is determined by the shape of human flesh, and that the Son is attached to Him as a member of His body; but because all things were made by Him, and therefore He is designated the arm of the Lord. For as it is with your arm that you work, so the Word of God is styled His arm; because by the Word He elaborated the world. For why does a man, in order to do some work, stretch forth his arm, but because the doing of it does not straightway follow his word? And if he was endowed with such preeminent power that what he said was done without any movement of his body, then would his word be his arm. But the Lord Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God the Father, as He is no mere member of the Father’s body, so is He no mere thinkable, and audible, and transitory word; for, as all things were made by Him, He was the word of God.

3. When, therefore, we hear that the Son of God is the arm of God the Father, let no carnal custom raise its distracting din in our ears; but as far as His grace enables us, let us think of that power and wisdom of God by which all things were made. Surely such an arm as that is neither held out by stretching, nor drawn in by contracting it. For He is not one and the same with the Father, but He and the Father are one; and as equal with the Father, He is in all respects complete, as well as the Father: so that no room is left open for the abominable error of those who assert that the Father alone exists, but according to the difference of causes is Himself sometimes called the Son, sometimes the Holy Spirit; and so also from these words may venture to say, See you perceive that the Father alone exists, if the Son is His arm: for a man and his arm are not two persons, but one. Not understanding nor considering how words are transferred from one thing to another, on account of some mutual likeness, even in our daily forms of speech about things the most familiar and visible; and how much the more must it be so, in order that things ineffable may find some sort of expression in our speech, things which, as they really exist, cannot be expressed in words at all? For even one man styles another his arm, by whom he is accustomed to transact his business: and if he is deprived of him, he says in his grief, I have lost my arm; and to him who has taken him away, he says, You have deprived me of my arm. Let them understand, then, the sense in which the Son is termed the arm of the Father, as that by which the Father has executed all His works; that they may not, by failing to understand this, and continuing in the darkness of their error, resemble those Jews of whom it was said, And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

4. And here we meet with the second question, to treat of which, indeed, in any adequate manner, to investigate all its mysterious windings, and throw them open to the light in a befitting way, I think within the scope neither of my own powers, nor of the shortness of the time, nor of your capacity. Yet, as we cannot allow ourselves so far to disappoint your expectations as to pass on to other topics without saying something on this, take what we shall be able to offer you: and wherein we fail to satisfy your expectations, ask the increase of Him who appointed us to plant and to water; for, as the apostle says, Neither is he that plants anything, nor he that waters; but God that gives the increase. 1Corinthians 3:7 There are some, then, who mutter among themselves, and sometimes speak out when they can, and even break forth into turbulent debate, saying: What did the Jews do, or what fault was it of theirs, if it was a necessity that the saying of Isaiah the prophet should be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? To whom our answer is, that the Lord, in His foreknowledge of the future, foretold by the prophet the unbelief of the Jews; He foretold it, but did not cause it. For God does not compel any one to sin simply because He knows already the future sins of men. For He foreknew sins that were theirs, not His own; sins that were referable to no one else, but to their own selves. Accordingly, if what He foreknew as theirs is not really theirs, then had He no true foreknowledge: but as His foreknowledge is infallible, it is doubtless no one else, but they themselves, whose sinfulness God foreknew, that are the sinners. The Jews, therefore, committed sin, with no compulsion to do so on His part, to whom sin is an object of displeasure; but He foretold their committing of it, because nothing is concealed from His knowledge. And accordingly, had they wished to do good instead of evil, they would not have been hindered; but in this which they were to do they were foreseen of Him who knows what every man will do, and what He is yet to render unto such an one according to his work.

5. But the words of the Gospel also, that follow, are still more pressing, and start a question of more profound import: for He goes on to say, Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. For it is said to us: If they could not believe, what sin is it in man not to do what he cannot do and if they sinned in not believing, then they had the power to believe, and did not use it. If, then, they had the power, how says the Gospel, Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; so that (which is of grave import) to God Himself is referred the cause of their not believing, inasmuch as it is He who has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart? For what is thus testified to in the prophetical Scriptures, is at least not spoken of the devil, but of God. For were we to suppose it said of the devil, that he has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; we have to undertake the task of being able to show what blame was theirs in not believing, of whom it is said, they could not believe. And then, what reply shall we give touching another testimony of this very prophet, which the Apostle Paul has adopted, when he says: Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for; but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded, according as it is written, God has given them the spirit of remorse, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day?

6. Such, as you have just heard, brethren, is the question that comes before us, and you can perceive how profound it is; but we shall give what answer we can. They could not believe, because that Isaiah the prophet foretold it; and the prophet foretold it because God foreknew that such would be the case. But if I am asked why they could not, I reply at once, because they would not; for certainly their depraved will was foreseen by God, and foretold through the prophet by Him from whom nothing that is future can be hid. But the prophet, do you say, assigns another cause than that of their will. What cause does the prophet assign? That God has given them the spirit of remorse, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear; and has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart. This also, I reply, their will deserved. For God thus blinds and hardens, simply by letting alone and withdrawing His aid: and God can do this by a judgment that is hidden, although not by one that is unrighteous. This is a doctrine which the piety of the God-fearing ought to preserve unshaken and inviolable in all its integrity: even as the apostle, when treating of the same intricate question, says, What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Romans 9:14 If, then, we must be far from thinking that there is unrighteousness with God, this only can it be, that, when He gives His aid, He acts mercifully; and, when He withholds it, He acts righteously: for in all He does, He acts not rashly, but in accordance with judgment. And still further, if the judgments of the saints are righteous, how much more those of the sanctifying and justifying God? They are therefore righteous, although hidden. Accordingly, when questions of this sort come before us, why one is dealt with in such a way, and another in such another way; why this one is blinded by being forsaken of God, and that one is enlightened by the divine aid vouchsafed to him: let us not take upon ourselves to pass judgment on the judgment of so mighty a judge, but tremblingly exclaim with the apostle, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! Romans 11:33 As it is also said in the psalm, Your judgments are as a great deep.

7. Let not then, brethren, the expectations of your Charity drive me to attempt the task of penetrating into such a deep, of sounding such an abyss, of searching into what is unsearchable. I own my own little measure of ability, and I think I have some perception of yours also, as equally small. This is too high for my stature, and too strong for my strength; and for yours also, I think. Let us, therefore, listen together to the admonition and to the words of Scripture: Seek not out the things that are too high for you, neither search the things that are above your strength. Not that such things are forbidden us, since the divine Master says, There is nothing hid that shall not be revealed: Matthew 10:26 but if we walk up to the measure of our present attainments, then, as the apostle tells us, not only what we know not and ought to know, but also if we are minded to know anything else, God will reveal even this unto us. Philippians 3:15–16 But if we have reached the pathway of faith, let us keep to it with all constancy: let it be our guide to the chamber of the King, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:3 For it was in no spirit of grudging that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself acted towards those great and specially chosen disciples of His, when He said, I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. We must be walking, making progress, and growing, that our hearts may become fit to receive the things which we cannot receive at present. And if the last day shall find us sufficiently advanced, we shall then learn what here we were unable to know.

8. If, however, any one considers himself able, and has confidence enough, to give a clearer and better exposition of the question before us, God forbid that I should not be still more ready to learn than to teach. Only let no one dare to defend the freedom of the will in any such way as to attempt depriving us of the prayer that says, Lead us not into temptation; and, on the other hand, let no one deny the freedom of the will, and so venture to find an excuse for sin. But let us give heed to the Lord, both in commanding and in offering His aid; in both telling us our duty, and assisting us to discharge it. For some He has let be lifted up to pride through an overweening trust in their own wills, while others He has let fall into carelessness through a contrary excess of distrust. The former say: Why do we ask God not to let us be overcome by temptation, when it is all in our own power? The latter say: Why should we try to live well, when the power to do so is in the hands of God? O Lord, O Father, who art in heaven, lead us not into any of these temptations; but deliver us from evil! Matthew 6:13 Listen to the Lord, when He says, I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith fail not; Luke 22:32 that we may never think of our faith as so lying in our free will that it has no need of the divine assistance. Let us listen also to the evangelist, when he says, He has given them power to become the sons of God; that we may not imagine it as altogether beyond our own power that we believe: but in both let us acknowledge His beneficent acting. For, on the one side, we have to give Him thanks that the power is bestowed; and on the other, to pray that our own little strength may not utterly fail. It is this very faith that works by love, Galatians 5:6 according to the measure thereof that the Lord has given to every man; Romans 12:3 that he that glories may glory, not in himself, but in the Lord. 1Corinthians 1:31

9. It is no wonder, then, that they could not believe, when such was their pride of will, that, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, they wished to establish their own: as the apostle says of them, They have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Romans 10:3 For it was not by faith, but as it were by works, that they were puffed up; and blinded by this very self-elation, they stumbled against the stone of stumbling. And so it is said, they could not, by which we are to understand that they would not; in the same way as it was said of the Lord our God, If we believe not, yet He abides faithful, He cannot deny Himself. 2 Timothy 2:13 It is said of the Omnipotent, He cannot. And so, just as it is a commendation of the divine will that the Lord cannot deny Himself, that they could not believe is a fault chargeable on the will of man.

10. And, look you! so also say I, that those who have such lofty ideas of themselves as to suppose that so much must be attributed to the powers of their own will, that they deny their need of the divine assistance in order to a righteous life, cannot believe in Christ. For the mere syllables of Christ’s name, and the Christian sacraments, are of no profit, where faith in Christ is itself resisted. For faith in Christ is to believe in Him that justifies the ungodly; Romans 4:5 to believe in the Mediator, without whose interposition we cannot be reconciled unto God; to believe in the Saviour, who came to seek and to save that which was lost; Luke 19:10 to believe in Him who said, Without me you can do nothing. Because, then, being ignorant of that righteousness of God that justifies the ungodly, he wishes to set up his own to satisfy the minds of the proud, such a man cannot believe in Christ. And so, those Jews could not believe: not that men cannot be changed for the better; but so long as their ideas run in such a direction, they cannot believe. Hence they are blinded and hardened; for, denying the need of divine assistance, they are not assisted. God foreknew this regarding these Jews who were blinded and hardened, and the prophet by His Spirit foretold it.

11. But when he added, And they should be converted, and I should heal them, is there a not to be understood, that is, they should not be converted, connecting it with the clause before, where it is said, that they should not see with their eyes and understand with their heart; for here also it is certainly meant, and should not understand? For conversion itself is likewise a gift of His grace, as when it is said to Him, Turn us, O God of Hosts. Or may it be that we are to understand this also as actually taking place through the merciful experience of the divine method of healing, [namely this,] that, being of proud and perverse wills, and wishing to establish their own righteousness, they were left alone for the very purpose of being blinded; and thus blinded in order that they might stumble on the stone of stumbling, and have their faces filled with shame; and so, being thus humbled, might seek the name of the Lord, and no longer a righteousness of their own, that inflated their pride, but the righteousness of God, that justifies the ungodly? For this very way turned out to the good of many of them, who were afterwards filled with remorse for wickedness, and believed on Christ; and on whose behalf He Himself had put up the prayer, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Luke 23:34 And it is of that ignorance of theirs also that the apostle says, I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge: for he then goes on also to add, For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Romans 10:2–3

12. These things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory, and spoke of Him. What Isaiah saw, and how it refers to Christ the Lord, are to be read and learned in his book. For he saw Him, not as He is, but in some symbolic way to suit the form that the vision of the prophet had itself to assume. For Moses likewise saw Him, and yet we find him saying to Him whom he saw, If I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Yourself, that I may clearly see You; Exodus 33:13 for he saw Him not as He is. But the time when this shall yet be our experience, that same Saint John the Evangelist tells us in his Epistle: Dearly beloved, [now] are we the sons of God; and it has not yet become manifest what we shall be: because we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. 1John 3:2 He might have said for we shall see Him, without adding as He is; but because he knew that He was seen of some of the fathers and prophets, but not as He is, therefore after saying we shall see Him, he added as He is. And be not deceived, brethren, by any of those who assert that the Father is invisible, and the Son visible. This assertion is made by those who think that the latter is a creature, and whose understanding runs not in harmony with the words, I and my Father one. Accordingly, as respects the form of God wherein He is equal with the Father, the Son also is invisible: but, in order to be seen of men, He assumed the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men, Philippians 2:7 became visible to man. He showed Himself, therefore, even before His incarnation, to the eyes of men, as it pleased Him, in the creature-form at His command, but not as He is. Let us be purifying our hearts by faith, that we may be prepared for that ineffable and, so to speak, invisible vision. For blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8

13. Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on Him; but, because of the Pharisees, they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God. See how the evangelist marked and disapproved of some, who yet, he said, believed on Him: who, if ever they did advance though this gateway of faith, would thereby also overcome that love of human glory which had been overcome by the apostle, when he said, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Galatians 6:14 For to this end also did the Lord Himself, when derided by the madness of human pride and impiety, fix His cross on the foreheads of those who believed on Him, on that which is in a manner the abode of modesty, that faith may learn not to blush at His name, and love the glory of God more than the glory of men.

Tractate 54 (John 12:44–50)

1. Whilst our Lord Jesus Christ was speaking among the Jews, and giving so many miraculous signs, some believed who were foreordained to eternal life, and whom He also called His sheep; but some did not believe, and could not believe, because that, by the mysterious yet not unrighteous judgment of God, they had been blinded and hardened, because forsaken of Him who resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble. James 4:6 But of those who believed, there were some whose confession went so far, that they took branches of palm trees, and met Him as He approached, turning in their joy that very confession into a service of praise: while there were others, belonging to the chief rulers, who had not the boldness to confess their faith, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; and whom the evangelist has branded with the words, that they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God John 12:43. Of those also who did not believe, there were some who would afterwards believe, and whom He foresaw, when He said, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you acknowledge that I am He: but there were some who would remain in the same unbelief, and be imitated by the Jewish nation of the present day, which, being shortly afterwards crushed in war, according to the prophetic testimony which was written concerning Christ, has since been scattered almost through the whole world.

2. While matters were in this state, and His own passion was now at hand, Jesus cried, and said, as our lesson today commences, He that believes in me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me; and he that sees me, sees Him that sent me. He had already said in a certain place, My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. Where we understood that He called His doctrine just what He is Himself, the Word of the Father; and in saying, My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me, implied this, that He was not of Himself, but had His being from another. For He was God of God, the Son of the Father: but the Father is not God of God, but God, the Father of the Son. And now when He says, He that believes in me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me, how else are we to understand it, but that He appeared as man to men, while He remained invisible as God? And that none might think that He was no more than what they saw of Him, He indicated His wish to be believed on, as equal in character and rank with the Father, when He said, He that believes in me, believes not on me, that is, merely on what he sees of me, but on Him that sent me, that is, on the Father. But he that believes in the Father, must believe that He is the Father; and he that believes in Him as the Father, must believe that He has a Son; and in this way, he that believes in the Father, must believe in the Son. But let no one believe about the only-begotten Son just what they believe about those who are called the sons of God by grace and not by nature, as the evangelist says, He gave them power to become the sons of God, and according to what the Lord Himself also mentioned, as declared in the law, I said, You are gods; and all of you children of the Most High: because He said, He that believes in me, believes not on me, to show that the whole extent of our faith in Christ should not be limited by His manhood. He therefore, He says, believes in me, who does not believe in me merely according to what he sees of me, but on Him that sent me: so that, believing thus on the Father, he may believe that He has a Son co-equal with Himself, and then attain to a true faith in me. For if one should think that He has sons only according to grace, who are certainly no more than His creatures, and not the Word, but those made by the Word, and that He has no Son co-equal and coeternal with Himself, ever born, alike incommutable, in nothing dissimilar and inferior, then he believes not on the Father who sent Him, for the Father who sent Him is no such conception as this.

3. And, accordingly, after saying, He that believes in me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me, that it might not be thought that He would have the Father so understood, as if He were the Father only of many sons regenerated by grace, and not of the only-begotten Word, His own co-equal, He immediately added, And he that sees me, sees Him that sent me. Does He say here, He that sees me, sees not me, but Him that sent me, as He had said, He that believes me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me? For He uttered the former of these words, that He might not be believed on merely as He then appeared, that is, as the Son of man; and the latter, that He might be believed on as the equal of the Father. He that believes in me, believes not merely on what He sees of me, but believes in Him that sent me. Or, when he believes in the Father, who begot me, His own co-equal, let him believe in me, not as he sees me, but as [he believes] on Him that sent me; for so far does the truth, that there is no distance between Him and me, reach, that He who sees me, sees Him that sent me. Certainly, Christ the Lord Himself sent His apostles, as their name implies: for as those who in Greek are called angeli are in Latin called nuntii [messengers], so the Greek apostoli [apostles] becomes the Latin missi [persons sent]. But never would any of the apostles have dared to say, He that believes in me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me; for in no sense whatever would he say, He that believes in me. We believe an apostle, but we do not believe in him; for it is not an apostle that justifies the ungodly. But to him that believes in Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Romans 4:5 An apostle might say, He that receives me, receives Him that sent me; or, He that hears me, hears Him that sent me; for the Lord tells them so Himself: He that receives you, receives me; and he that receives me, receives Him that sent me. Matthew 10:40 For the master is honored in the servant, and the father in the son: but then the father is as it were in the son, and the master as it were in the servant. But the only-begotten Son could rightly say, Believe in God, and believe in me; as also what He says here, He that believes in me, believes not on me, but on Him that sent me. He did not turn away the faith of the believer from Himself, but only would not have the believer continue in the form of a servant: because every one who believes in the Father that sent Him, straightway believes in the Son, without whom he knows that the Father has no existence as such, and thus reaches in his faith to the belief of His equality with the Father, in conformity with the words that follow, And he that sees me, sees Him that sent me.

4. Attend to what follows: I have come a light into the world, that whosoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. He said in a certain place to His disciples, You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; that it may give light to all that are in the house: so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven: Matthew 5:14–16 but He did not say to them, You have come a light into the world, that whosoever believes in you should not abide in darkness. Such a statement, I maintain, can nowhere be met with. All the saints, therefore, are lights, but they are illuminated by Him through faith; and every one that becomes separated from Him will be enveloped in darkness. But that Light, which enlightens them, cannot become separated from itself; for it is altogether beyond the reach of change. We believe, then, the light that has thus been lit, as the prophet or apostle: but we believe him for this end, that we may not believe in that which is itself enlightened, but, with him, on that Light which has given him light; so that we, too, may be enlightened, not by him, but, along with him, by the same Light as he. And when He says, That whosoever believes in me may not abide in darkness, He makes it sufficiently manifest that all have been found by Him in a state of darkness: but that they may not abide in the darkness wherein they have been found, they ought to believe in that Light which has come into the world, for thereby was the world created.

5. And if any man, He says, hear my words, and keep them not, I judge him not. Remember what I know you have heard in former lessons; and if any of you have forgotten, recall it: and those of you who were absent then, but are present now, hear how it is that the Son says, I judge him not, while in another place He says, The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son; namely, that thereby we are to understand, It is not now that I judge him. And why not now? Listen to the sequel: For I am not come, He says, to judge the world, but to save the world; that is, to bring the world into a state of salvation. Now, therefore, is the season of mercy, afterwards will be the time for judgment: for He says, I will sing to You, O Lord, of mercy and judgment.

6. But see also what He says of that future judgment in the end: He that despises me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. He says not, He that despises me, and receives not my words, I judge him not at the last day; for had He said so, I do not see how it could have been else than contradictory of that other statement, when He says, The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son. But when He said, He that despises me, and receives not my words, has one to judge him, and, for the information of those who were waiting to hear who that one was, went on to add, The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day, He made it sufficiently manifest that He Himself would then be the judge. For it was of Himself He spoke, Himself He announced, and Himself He set forth as the gate whereby He entered as the Shepherd to His sheep. In one way, therefore, will those be judged who have never heard that word, in another way those who have heard and despised. For as many as have sinned without law, says the apostle, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law. Romans 2:12

7. For I have not, He says, spoken of myself. He says that He has not spoken of Himself, because He is not of Himself. Of this we have frequently discoursed already; so that now, without any more instruction, we have simply to remind you of it as a truth with which you are familiar. But the Father who sent me, He gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak. We would not stay to elaborate this, did we know that we were now speaking with those with whom we have spoken on former occasions, and of these, not with all, but such only whose memories have retained what they heard: but because there are perhaps some now present who did not hear, and some in a similar condition who have forgotten what they heard, on their account let those who remember what they have heard bear with our delay. How gives the Father a commandment to His only Son? With what words does He speak to the Word, seeing that the Son Himself is the only-begotten Word? Could it be by an angel, seeing that by Him the angels were created? Was it by means of a cloud, which, when it gave forth its sound to the Son, gave it not on His account, as He Himself also tells us elsewhere, but for the sake of others who were needing to hear it John 12:29? Could it be by any sound issuing from the lips, where bodily form was wanting, and where there is no such local distance separating the Son from the Father as to admit of any intervening air, to give effect, by its percussion, to the voice, and render it audible? Let us put away all such unworthy notions of that incorporeal and ineffable subsistence. The only Son is the Word and the Wisdom of the Father, and therein are all the commandments of the Father. For there was no time that the Son knew not the Father’s commandment, so as to make it necessary for Him to possess in course of time what He possessed not before. For what He has received from the Father, He received in being born, and was given it in being begotten. For the life He is, and life He certainly received in being born, while yet there was no antecedent time when life was wanting to His personal existence. For, on the one hand, the Father has life, and is what He has: and yet He received it not, because He is not of any one. But the Son received life as the Father’s gift, of whom He is: and so He Himself is what He has; for He has life, and is the life. Listen to Himself when He says, As the Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself. Could He give it to one who was in being, and yet hitherto was destitute thereof? On the contrary, in the very begetting it was given by Him who begot the life, and so life begot the life. And to show that He begot the life equal, and not inferior to Himself, it was said, As He has life in Himself, so has He also given to the Son to have life in Himself. He gave life; for in begetting the life, what was it He gave Him, save to be the life? And as His nativity is itself eternal, there never was a time without that Son who is the life, and never was there a time when the Son Himself was without the life; and as His nativity is eternal, so He, who was thus born, is eternal life. And so the Father gave not to the Son a commandment which He had not already; but, as I said, in the Wisdom of the Father, that is, in the word of the Father, are laid up all the Father’s commandments. And yet the commandment is said to have been given Him, because He, to whom it is thus given, is not of Himself: and to give that to the Son which He never was without, is the same in meaning as to beget that Son who never was without existence.

8. There follow the words: And I know that His commandment is life everlasting. If, then, the Son Himself is eternal life, and the Father’s commandment the same, what else is expressed than this, I am the Father’s commandment? And in like manner, in what He proceeds to say, Whatsoever I speak, even as the Father said to me, so I speak, let us not be taking the said to me as if the Father used words in speaking to the only Word, or that the Word of God needed words from God. The Father spoke to the Son in the same way as He gave life to the Son; not that He knew not the one, or had not the other, but just because He was the Son. What, then, do the words mean, Even as He said to me, so I speak; but just, I speak the truth? So the former said as the Truthful One what the latter thus spoke as the Truth. The Truthful begot the Truth. What, then, could He now say to the Truth? For the Truth had no imperfection to be supplied by additional truth. He spoke, therefore, to the Truth, because He begot the Truth. And in like manner the Truth Himself speaks what has been said to Him; but only to those who have understanding, and who are taught by Him as the God-begotten Truth. But that men might believe what they had not yet capacity to understand, words that were audible issued from His human lips; sounds passing rapidly away broke on the ear, and speedily completed the little term of their duration: but the truths themselves, of which the sounds are but signs, passed, as it were, into the memory of those who heard them, and have come down to us also by means of written characters as signs addressed to the eye. But it is not thus that the Truth speaks; He speaks inwardly to the souls of the intelligent; He needs no sound to instruct, but floods the mind with the light of understanding. And he, then, who in that light is able to behold the eternity of His birth, himself hears in the same way the Truth speaking, as He heard the Father telling Him what He should speak. He has awakened in us a great longing for that sweet experience of His presence within; but it is by daily growth that we acquire it; it is by walking that we grow, and it is by forward efforts we walk, so as to be able at last to attain it.

Tractate 55 (John 13:1–5)

1. The Lord’s Supper, as set forth in John, must, with His assistance, be unfolded in a becoming number of Lectures, and explained with all the ability He is pleased to grant us. Now, before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end. Pascha (passover) is not, as some think, a Greek noun, but a Hebrew: and yet there occurs in this noun a very suitable kind of accordance in the two languages. For inasmuch as the Greek word paschein means to suffer, therefore pascha has been supposed to mean suffering, as if the noun derived its name from His passion: but in its own language, that is, in Hebrew, pascha means passover; because the pascha was then celebrated for the first time by God’s people, when, in their flight from Egypt, they passed over the Red Sea. And now that prophetic emblem is fulfilled in truth, when Christ is led as a sheep to the slaughter, Isaiah 53:7 that by His blood sprinkled on our doorposts, that is, by the sign of His cross marked on our foreheads, we may be delivered from the perdition awaiting this world, as Israel from the bondage and destruction of the Egyptians; Exodus 12:23 and a most salutary transit we make when we pass over from the devil to Christ, and from this unstable world to His well-established kingdom. And therefore surely do we pass over to the ever-abiding God, that we may not pass away with this passing world. The apostle, in extolling God for such grace bestowed upon us, says: Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Colossians 1:13 This name, then, of pascha, which, as I have said, is in Latin called transitus (pass over), is interpreted, as it were, for us by the blessed evangelist, when he says, Before the feast of pascha, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should pass out of this world to the Father. Here you see we have both pascha and passover. Whence, and whither does He pass? Namely, out of this world to the Father. The hope was thus given to the members in their Head, that they doubtless would yet follow Him who was passing before. And what, then, of unbelievers, who stand altogether apart from this Head and His members? Do not they also pass away, seeing that they abide not here always? They also do plainly pass away: but it is one thing to pass from the world, and another to pass away with it; one thing to pass to the Father, another to pass to the enemy. For the Egyptians also passed over [the sea]; but they did not pass through the sea to the kingdom, but in the sea to destruction.

2. When Jesus knew, then, that His hour had come that He should pass out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end. In order, doubtless, that they also, through that love of His, might pass from this world where they now were, to their Head who had passed hence before them. For what mean these words, to the end, but just to Christ? For Christ is the end of the law, says the apostle, for righteousness to every one that believes. Romans 10:4 The end that consummates, not that consumes; the end whereto we attain, not wherein we perish. Exactly thus are we to understand the passage, Christ our passover is sacrificed. 1Corinthians 5:7 He is our end; into Him do we pass. For I see that these gospel words may also be taken in a kind of human sense, that Christ loved His own even unto death, so that this may be the meaning of He loved them unto the end. This meaning is human, not divine: for it was not merely up to this point that we were loved by Him, who loves us always and endlessly. God forbid that He, whose death could not end, should have ended His love at death. Even after death that proud and ungodly rich man loved his five brethren; Luke 16:27–28 and is Christ to be thought of as loving us only till death? God forbid, beloved. He would have come in vain with a love for us that lasted till death, if that love had ended there. But perhaps the words, He loved them unto the end, may have to be understood in this way, That He so loved them as to die for them. For this He testified when He said, Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. We have certainly no objection that He loved them unto the end should be so understood, that is, it was His very love that carried Him on to death.

3. And the supper, he says, having taken place, and the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, [Jesus] knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He has come from God, and is going to God; He rises from supper, and lays aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He pours water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. We are not to understand by the supper having taken place, as if it were already finished and over; for it was still going on when the Lord rose and washed His disciples’ feet. For He afterwards sat down again, and gave the morsel [sop] to His betrayer, implying certainly that the supper was not yet over, or, in other words, that there was still bread on the table. Therefore, by supper having taken place, is meant that it was now ready, and laid out on the table for the use of the guests.

4. But when he says, The devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him; if one inquires, what was put into Judas’ heart, it was doubtless this, to betray Him. Such a putting [into the heart] is a spiritual suggestion: and enters not by the ear, but through the thoughts; and thereby not in a way that is corporal, but spiritual. For what we call spiritual is not always to be understood in a commendatory way. The apostle knew of certain spiritual things [powers], of wickedness in heavenly places, against which he testifies that we have to maintain a struggle; Ephesians 6:12 and there would not be spiritual wickednesses, were there not also wicked spirits. For it is from a spiritual being that spiritual things get their name. But how such things are done, as that devilish suggestions should be introduced, and so mingle with human thoughts that a man accounts them his own, how can he know? Nor can we doubt that good suggestions are likewise made by a good spirit in the same unobservable and spiritual way; but it is matter of concern to which of these the human mind yields assent, either as deservedly left without, or graciously aided by, the divine assistance. The determination, therefore, had now been come to in Judas’ heart by the instigation of the devil, that the disciple should betray the Master, whom he had not learned to know as his God. In such a state had he now come to their social meal, a spy on the Shepherd, a plotter against the Redeemer, a seller of the Saviour; as such was he now come, was he now seen and endured, and thought himself undiscovered: for he was deceived about Him whom he wished to deceive. But He, who had already scanned the inward state of that very heart, was knowingly making use of one who knew it not.

5. [Jesus] knowing that the Father has given all things into His hands. And therefore also the traitor himself: for if He had him not in His hands, He certainly could not use him as He wished. Accordingly, the traitor had been already betrayed to Him whom he sought to betray; and he carried out his evil purpose in betraying Him in such a way, that good he knew not of was the issue in regard to Him who was betrayed. For the Lord knew what He was doing for His friends, and patiently made use of His enemies: and thus had the Father given all things into His hands, both the evil for present use, and the good for the final issue. Knowing also that He has come from God, and is going to God: neither quitting God when He came from Him, nor us when He returned.

6. Knowing, then, these things, He rises from supper, and lays aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He pours water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. We ought, dearly beloved, carefully to mark the meaning of the evangelist; because that, when about to speak of the preeminent humility of the Lord, it was his desire first to commend His majesty. It is in reference to this that he says, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He has come from God, and is going to God. It is He, therefore, into whose hands the Father had given all things, who now washes, not the disciples’ hands, but their feet: and it was just while knowing that He had come from God, and was proceeding to God, that He discharged the office of a servant, not of God the Lord, but of man. And this also is referred to by the prefatory notice he has been pleased to make of His betrayer, who was now come as such, and was not unknown to Him; that the greatness of His humility should be still further enhanced by the fact that He did not esteem it beneath His dignity to wash also the feet of one whose hands He already foresaw to be steeped in wickedness.

7. But why should we wonder that He rose from supper, and laid aside His garments, who, being in the form of God, made Himself of no reputation? And why should we wonder, if He girded Himself with a towel, who took upon Him the form of a servant, and was found in the likeness of a man? Philippians 2:6–7 Why wonder, if He poured water into a basin wherewith to wash His disciples’ feet, who poured His blood upon the earth to wash away the filth of their sins? Why wonder, if with the towel wherewith He was girded He wiped the feet He had washed, who with the very flesh that clothed Him laid a firm pathway for the footsteps of His evangelists? In order, indeed, to gird Himself with the towel, He laid aside the garments He wore; but when He emptied Himself [of His divine glory] in order to assume the form of a servant, He laid not down what He had, but assumed that which He had not before. When about to be crucified, He was indeed stripped of His garments, and when dead was wrapped in linen clothes: and all that suffering of His is our purification. When, therefore, about to suffer the last extremities [of humiliation,] He here illustrated beforehand its friendly compliances; not only to those for whom He was about to endure death, but to him also who had resolved on betraying Him to death. Because so great is the beneficence of human humility, that even the Divine Majesty was pleased to commend it by His own example; for proud man would have perished eternally, had he not been found by the lowly God. For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke 19:10 And as he was lost by imitating the pride of the deceiver, let him now, when found, imitate the Redeemer’s humility.

Tractate 56 (John 13:6–10)

1. When the Lord was washing the disciples’ feet, He comes to Simon Peter; and Peter says unto Him, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet? For who would not be filled with fear at having his feet washed by the Son of God? Although, therefore, it was a piece of the greatest audacity for the servant to contradict his Lord, the creature his God; yet Peter preferred doing this to the suffering of his feet to be washed by his Lord and God. Nor ought we to think that Peter was one among others who so expressed their fear and refusal, seeing that others before him had suffered it to be done to themselves with cheerfulness and equanimity. For it is easier so to understand the words of the Gospel, because that, after saying, He began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded, it is then added, Then comes He to Simon Peter, as if He had already washed the feet of some, and after them had now come to the first of them all. For who can fail to know that the most blessed Peter was the first of the apostles? But we are not so to understand it, that it was after some others that He came to him; but that He began with him. When, therefore, He began to wash the disciples’ feet, He came to him with whom He began, namely, to Peter; and then Peter took fright at what any one of them might have been frightened, and said, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet? What is implied in this Thou? And what in my? These are subjects for thought rather than for speech; lest perchance any adequate conception the soul may have formed of such words may fail of explanation in the utterance.

2. But Jesus answered and said to him, What I do you know not now, but you shall know hereafter. And not even yet, terrified as he was by the sublimity of the Lord’s action, does he allow it to be done, while ignorant of its purpose; but is unwilling to see, unable to endure, that Christ should thus humble Himself to his very feet. You shall never, he says, wash my feet. What is this never [in æternum]? I will never endure, never suffer, never permit it: that is, a thing is not done in æternum which is never done. Then the Saviour, to terrify His reluctant patient with the danger of his own salvation, says, If I wash you not, you shall have no part with me. He speaks in this way, If I wash you not, when He was referring only to his feet; just as it is customary to say, You are trampling on me, when it is only the foot that is trampled on. And now the other, in a perturbation of love and fear, and more frightened at the thought that Christ should be withheld from him, than even to see Him humbled at his feet, exclaims, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Since this, indeed, is Your threat, that my bodily members must be washed by You, not only do I no longer withhold the lowest, but I lay the foremost also at Your disposal. Deny me not having a part with You, and I deny You not any part of my body to be washed.

3. Jesus says to him, He that is washed needs not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. Some one perhaps may be aroused at this, and say: Nay, but if he is every whit clean, what need has He even to wash his feet? But the Lord knew what He was saying, even though our weakness reach not into His secret purposes. Nevertheless, so far as He is pleased to instruct and teach us out of His law, up to the little measure of my apprehension, I would also, with His help, make some answer bearing on the depths of this question: and, first of all, I shall have no difficulty in showing that there is no self-contradiction in the manner of expression. For who may not say, as here, with the greatest propriety, He is all clean, except his feet?– although he would speak with greater elegance were he to say, He is all clean, save his feet; which is equivalent in meaning. Thus, then, does the Lord say, He needs not save to wash his feet, but is all clean. All, that is, except, or save his feet, which he still needs to wash.

4. But what is this? What does it mean? And what is there in it we need to examine? The Lord says, The Truth declares that even he who has been washed has need still to wash his feet. What, my brethren, what think you of it, save that in holy baptism a man has all of him washed, not all save his feet, but every whit; and yet, while thereafter living in this human state, he cannot fail to tread on the ground with his feet. And thus our human feelings themselves, which are inseparable from our mortal life on earth, are like feet wherewith we are brought into sensible contact with human affairs; and are so in such a way, that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1John 1:8 And every day, therefore, is He who intercedes for us, Romans 8:34 washing our feet: and that we, too have daily need to be washing our feet, that is ordering aright the path of our spiritual footsteps, we acknowledge even in the Lord’s prayer, when we say, Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. Matthew 6:12 For if, as it is written, we confess our sins, then verily is He, who washed His disciples’ feet, faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, 1John 1:9 that is, even to our feet wherewith we walk on the earth.

5. Accordingly the Church, which Christ cleanses with the washing of water in the word, is without spot and wrinkle, Ephesians 5:26–27 not only in the case of those who are taken away immediately after the washing of regeneration from the contagious influence of this life, and tread not the earth so as to make necessary the washing of their feet, but in those also who have experienced such mercy from the Lord as to be enabled to quit this present life even with feet that have been washed. But although the Church be also clean in respect of those who tarry on earth, because they live righteously; yet have they need to be washing their feet, because they assuredly are not without sin. For this cause is it said in the Song of Songs, I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? Song of Songs 5:3 For one so speaks when he is constrained to come to Christ, and in coming has to bring his feet into contact with the ground. But again, there is another question that arises. Is not Christ above? has He not ascended into heaven, and sits He not at the Father’s right hand? Does not the apostle expressly declare, If you, then, be risen with Christ, set your thoughts on those things which are above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God. Seek the things which are above, not things which are on earth? Colossians 3:1–2 How is it, then, that to get to Christ we are compelled to tread the earth, since rather our hearts ought to be turned upwards toward the Lord, that we may be enabled to dwell in His presence? You see, brethren, the shortness of the time today curtails our consideration of this question. And if you perhaps fail in some measure to do so, yet I for my part see how much clearing up it requires. And therefore I beg of you to suffer it rather to be adjourned, than to be treated now in too negligent and restricted a manner; and your expectations will not be defrauded, but only deferred. For the Lord who thus makes us your debtors, will be present to enable us also to pay our debts.

Tractate 57 (John 13:6–10, SONG OF SOLOMON 5:2–3)

In what way the Church should fear to defile her feet, while proceeding on her way to Christ.

1. I Have not been unmindful of my debt, and acknowledge that the time of payment has now come. May He give me wherewith to pay, as He gave me cause to incur the debt. For He has given me the love, of which it is said, Owe no man anything, but to love one another. Romans 13:8 May He give also the word, which I feel myself owing to those I love. I put off your expectations till now for this reason, that I might explain as I could how it is we come to Christ along the ground, when we are commanded rather to seek the things which are above, not the things which are upon the earth. Colossians 3:1–2 For Christ is sitting above, at the right hand of the Father: but He is assuredly here also; and for that reason said also to Saul, as he was raging on the earth, Why do you persecute me? Acts 9:4 But the topic on which we were speaking, and which led to our entering on this inquiry, was our Lord’s washing His disciples’ feet, after the disciples themselves had already been washed, and needed not, save to wash their feet. And we there saw it to be understood that a man is indeed wholly washed in baptism; but while thereafter he lives in this present world, and with the feet of his human passions treads on this earth, that is, in his life-intercourse with others, he contracts enough to call forth the prayer, Forgive us our debts. Matthew 6:12 And thus from these also is he cleansed by Him who washed His disciples’ feet, and ceases not to make intercession for us. Romans 8:34 And here occurred the words of the Church in the Song of Songs, when she says, I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? when she wished to go and open to that Being, fairer in form than the sons of men, who had come to her and knocked, and asked her to open to Him. This gave rise to a question, which we were unwilling to compress into the narrow limits of the time, and therefore deferred till now, in what sense the Church, when on her way to Christ, may be afraid of defiling her feet, which she had washed in the baptism of Christ.

2. For thus she speaks: I sleep, but my heart wakes: it is the voice of my Beloved that knocks at the gate. And then He also says: Open to me, my sister, my nearest, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is filled with dew, and my hair with the drops of the night. And she replies: I have put off my dress; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? Song of Songs 5:2–3 O wonderful sacramental symbol! O lofty mystery! Does she, then, fear to defile her feet in coming to Him who washed the feet of His disciples? Her fear is genuine; for it is along the earth she has to come to Him, who is still on earth, because refusing to leave His own who are stationed here. Is it not He that says, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world? Matthew 28:20 Is it not He that says, You shall see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man? If they ascend to Him because He is above, how do they descend to Him, but because He is also here? Therefore says the Church: I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? She says so even in the case of those who, purified from all dross, can say: I desire to depart, and to be with Christ; nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Philippians 1:23–24 She says it in those who preach Christ, and open to Him the door, that He may dwell by faith in the hearts of men. Ephesians 3:17 In such she says it, when they deliberate whether to undertake such a ministry, for which they do not consider themselves qualified, so as to discharge it blamelessly, and so as not, after preaching to others, themselves to become castaways. 1Corinthians 9:27 For it is safer to hear than to preach the truth: for in the hearing, humility is preserved; but when it is preached, it is scarcely possible for any man to hinder the entrance of some small measure of boasting, whereby the feet at least are defiled.

3. Therefore, as the Apostle James says, Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak. James 1:19 As it is also said by another man of God, You will make me to hear joy and gladness; and the bones You have humbled will rejoice. This is what I said: When the truth is heard, humility is preserved. And another says: But the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him, and rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Let us rejoice in the hearing that comes from the noiseless speaking of the truth within us. For although, when the sound is outwardly uttered, as by one that reads; or proclaims, or preaches, or disputes, or commands, or comforts, or exhorts, or even by one that sings or accompanies his voice on an instrument, those who do so may fear to defile their feet, when they aim at pleasing men with the secretly active desire of human applause. Yet the one who hears such with a willing and pious mind, has no room for self-gratulation in the labors of others; and with no self-inflation, but with the joy of humility, rejoices because of the Master’s words of truth. Accordingly, in those who hear with willingness and humility, and spend a tranquil life in sweet and wholesome studies, the holy Church will take delight, and may say, I sleep, and my heart wakes. And what is this, I sleep, and my heart wakes, but just I sit down quietly to listen? My leisure is not laid out in nourishing slothfulness, but in acquiring wisdom. I sleep, and my heart wakes. I am still, and see that You are the Lord: for the wisdom of the scribe comes by opportunity of leisure; and he that has little business shall become wise. Sirach 38:24 I sleep, and my heart wakes: I rest from troublesome business, and my mind turns its attention to divine concerns (or communications).

4. But while the Church finds delightful repose in those who thus sweetly and humbly sit at her feet, here is one who knocks, and says: What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the house-tops. Matthew 10:27 It is His voice, then, that knocks at the gate, and says: Open to me, my sister, my neighbor, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. As if He had said, You are at leisure, and the door is closed against me: you are caring for the leisure of the few, and through abounding iniquity the love of many is waxing cold. Matthew 24:12 The night He speaks of is iniquity: but His dew and drops are those who wax cold and fall away, and make the head of Christ to wax cold, that is, the love of God to fail. For the head of Christ is God. 1Corinthians 11:3 But they are borne on His locks, that is, their presence is tolerated in the visible sacraments; while their senses never take hold of the internal realities. He knocks, therefore, to shake off this quiet from His inactive saints, and cries, Open to me, thou who, through my blood, has become my sister; through my drawing near, my neighbor; through my Spirit, my dove; through my word which you have fully learned in your leisure, my perfect one: open to me, go and preach me to others. For how shall I get in to those who have shut their door against me, without some one to open? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Romans 10:14

5. Hence it happens that those who love to devote their leisure to good studies, and shrink from encountering the troubles of toilsome labors, as feeling themselves unsuited to undertake and discharge such services with credit, would prefer, were it possible, to have the holy apostles and ancient preachers of the truth again raised up against that abounding of iniquity which has so reduced the warmth of Christian love. But in regard to those who have already left the body, and put off the garment of the flesh (for they are not utterly parted), the Church replies, I have put off my dress; how shall I put it on? That dress shall, indeed, yet be recovered; and in the persons of those who have meanwhile laid it aside, shall the Church again put on the garment of flesh: only not now, when the cold are needing to be warmed; but then, when the dead shall rise again. Realizing, then, her present difficulty through the scarcity of preachers, and remembering those members of her own who were so sound in word and holy in character, but are now disunited from their bodies, the Church says in her sorrow, I have put off my dress; how shall I put it on? How can those members of mine, who had such surpassing power, through their preaching, to open the door to Christ, now return to the bodies which they have laid aside?

6. And then, turning again to those who preach, and gather in and govern the congregations of His people, and so open as they can to Christ, but are afraid, amid the difficulties of such work, of falling into sin, she says, I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? For whosoever offends not in word, the same is a perfect man. And who, then, is perfect? Who is there that offends not amid such an abounding of iniquity, and such a freezing of charity? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? At times I read and hear: My brethren, be not many masters, seeing that you shall receive the greater condemnation: for in many things we offend all. James 3:1–2 I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? But see, I rise and open. Christ, wash them. Forgive us our debts, because our love is not altogether extinguished: for we also forgive our debtors. Matthew 6:12 When we listen to You, the bones which have been humbled rejoice with You in the heavenly places. But when we preach You, we have to tread the ground in order to open to You: and then, if we are blameworthy, we are troubled; if we are commended, we become inflated. Wash our feet, that were formerly cleansed, but have again been defiled in our walking through the earth to open unto You. Let this be enough today, beloved. But in whatever we have happened to offend, by saying otherwise than we ought, or have been unduly elated by your commendations, entreat that our feet may be washed, and may your prayers find acceptance with God.

Tractate 58 (John 13:10–15)

1. We have already, beloved, as the Lord was pleased to enable us, expounded to you those words of the Gospel, where the Lord, in washing His disciples’ feet, says, He that is once washed needs not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. Let us now look at what follows. And ye, He says, are clean, but not all. And to remove the need of inquiry on our part, the evangelist has himself explained its meaning, by adding: For He knew who it was that should betray Him; therefore said He, You are not all clean. Can anything be clearer? Let us therefore pass to what follows.

2. So, after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said to them, Know ye what I have done to you? Now it is that the blessed Peter gets that promise fulfilled: for he had been put off when, in the midst of his trembling and asserting, You shall never wash my feet, he received the answer, What I do, you know not now, but you shall know hereafter (vers. 7–8). Here, then, is that very hereafter; it is now time to tell what was a little ago deferred. Accordingly, the Lord, mindful of His foregoing promise to make him understand an act of His so unexpected, so wonderful, so frightening, and, but for His own still more terrifying rejoinder, impossible to be permitted, that the Master not only of themselves, but of angels, and the Lord not only of them, but of all things, should wash the feet of His own disciples and servants: having then promised to let him know the meaning of so important an act, when He said, You shall know afterwards, begins now to show them what it was that He did.

3. You call me, He says, Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am. You say well, for you only say the truth; I am indeed what ye say. There is a precept laid on man: Let not your own mouth praise you, but the mouth of your neighbor. Proverbs 27:2 For self-pleasing is a perilous thing for one who has to be on his guard against falling into pride. But He who is over all things, however much He commend Himself, cannot exalt Himself above His actual dignity: nor can God be rightly termed arrogant. For it is to our advantage to know Him, not to His; nor can any one know Him, unless that self-knowing One make Himself known. If He, then, by abstaining from self-commendation, wish, as it were, to avoid arrogance, He will deny us the power of knowing Him. And no one surely would blame Him for calling Himself Master, even though believing Him to be nothing more than a man; seeing He only makes profession of what even men themselves in the various arts profess to such an extent, without any charge of arrogance, that they are termed professors. But to call Himself also the Lord of His disciples – of men who, in an earthly sense, were themselves also free-born – who would tolerate it in a man? But it is God that speaks. Here no elation is possible to loftiness so great, no lie to the truth: the profit is ours to be the subjects of such loftiness, the servants of the truth. That He calls Himself Lord is no imperfection on His side, but a benefit on ours. The words of a certain profane author are commended, when he says, All arrogance is hateful, and specially disagreeable is that of talent and eloquence; and yet, when the same person was speaking of his own eloquence, he said, I would call it perfect, were I to pronounce judgment; nor, in truth, would I greatly fear the charge of arrogance. If, then, that most eloquent man had in truth no fear of being charged with arrogance, how can the truth itself have such a fear? Let Him call Himself Lord who is the Lord, let Him say what is true who is the Truth; so that I may not fail to learn that which is profitable, by His being silent about that which is. The most blessed Paul– certainly not himself the only-begotten Son of God, but the servant and apostle of that Son; not the Truth, but a partaker of the truth– declares with freedom and consistency, And though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I say the truth. 2Corinthians 12:6 For it would not be in himself, but in the truth, which is superior to himself, that he was glorying both humbly and truly: for it is he also who has given the charge, that he that glories should glory in the Lord. 1Corinthians 1:31 Could thus the lover of wisdom have no fear of being chargeable with foolishness, though he desired to glory, and would wisdom itself, in its glorying, have any fear of such a charge? He had no fear of arrogance who said, My soul shall make her boast in the Lord; and could the power of the Lord have any such fear in commending itself, in which His servant’s soul is making her boast? You call me, He says, Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am. Therefore ye say well, that I am so: for if I were not what ye say, you would be wrong to say so, even with the purpose of praising me. How, then,could the Truth deny what the disciples of the Truth affirm? How could that which was said by the learners be denied by the very Truth that gave them their learning? How can the fountain deny what the drinker asserts? How can the light hide what the beholder declares?

4. If I, then, He says, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. This, blessed Peter, is what thou did not know when thou were not allowing it to be done. This is what He promised to let you know afterwards, when your Master and your Lord terrified you into submission, and washed your feet. We have learned, brethren, humility from the Highest; let us, as humble, do to one another what He, the Highest, did in His humility. Great is the commendation we have here of humility: and brethren do this to one another in turn, even in the visible act itself, when they treat one another with hospitality; for the practice of such humility is generally prevalent, and finds expression in the very deed that makes it discernible. And hence the apostle, when he would commend the well-deserving widow, says, If she is hospitable, if she has washed the saints’ feet. 1 Timothy 5:10 And wherever such is not the practice among the saints, what they do not with the hand they do in heart, if they are of the number of those who are addressed in the hymn of the three blessed men, O you holy and humble of heart, bless ye the Lord. But it is far better, and beyond all dispute more accordant with the truth, that it should also be done with the hands; nor should the Christian think it beneath him to do what was done by Christ. For when the body is bent at a brother’s feet, the feeling of such humility is either awakened in the heart itself, or is strengthened if already present.

5. But apart from this moral understanding of the passage, we remember that the way in which we commended to your attention the grandeur of this act of the Lord’s, was that, in washing the feet of disciples who were already washed and clean, the Lord instituted a sign, to the end that, on account of the human feelings that occupy us on earth, however far we may have advanced in our apprehension of righteousness, we might know that we are not exempt from sin; which He thereafter washes away by interceding for us, when we pray the Father, who is in heaven, to forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Matthew 6:12 What connection, then, can such an understanding of the passage have with that which He afterwards gave Himself, when He explained the reason of His act in the words, If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you? Can we say that even a brother may cleanse a brother from the contracted stain of wrongdoing? Yea, verily, we know that of this also we were admonished in the profound significance of this work of the Lord’s, that we should confess our faults one to another, and pray for one another, even as Christ also makes intercession for us. Romans 8:34 Let us listen to the Apostle James, who states this precept with the greatest clearness when he says, Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another. James 5:16 For of this also the Lord gave us the example. For if He who neither has, nor had, nor will have any sin, prays for our sins, how much more ought we to pray for one another’s in turn! And if He forgives us, whom we have nothing to forgive; how much more ought we, who are unable to live here without sin, to forgive one another! For what else does the Lord apparently intimate in the profound significance of this sacramental sign, when He says, For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you; but what the apostle declares in the plainest terms, Forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye? Colossians 3:13 Let us therefore forgive one another his faults, and pray for one another’s faults, and thus in a manner be washing one another’s feet. It is our part, by His grace, to be supplying the service of love and humility: it is His to hear us, and to cleanse us from all the pollution of our sins through Christ, and in Christ; so that what we forgive even to others, that is, loose on earth, may be loosed in heaven.

Tractate 59 (John 13:16–20)

1. We have just heard in the holy Gospel the Lord speaking, and saying, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord, nor the apostle [he that is sent] greater than he that sent him: if you know these things, blessed shall you be if you do them. He said this, therefore, because He had washed the disciples’ feet, as the Master of humility both by word and example. But we shall be able, with His help, to handle what is in need of more elaborate handling, if we linger not at what is perfectly clear. Accordingly, after uttering these words, the Lord added, I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but, that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eats bread with me, shall lift up his heel upon me. And what is this, but that he shall trample upon me? We know of whom He speaks: it is Judas, that betrayer of His, who is referred to. He had not therefore chosen the person whom, by these words, He sets utterly apart from His chosen ones. When I say then, He continues, Blessed shall you be if you do them, I speak not of you all: there is one among you who will not be blessed, and who will not do these things. I know whom I have chosen. Whom, but those who shall be blessed in the doing of what has been commanded and shown as needful to be done, by Him who alone can make them blessed? The traitor Judas, He says, is not one of those that have been chosen. What, then, is meant by what He says in another place, Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? Was it that he also was chosen for some purpose, for which he was really necessary; although not for the blessedness of which He has just been saying, Blessed shall you be if you do these things? He speaks not so of them all; for He knows whom He has chosen to be associated with Himself in blessedness. Of such he is not one, who ate His bread in order that he might lift up his heel upon Him. The bread they ate was the Lord Himself; he ate the Lord’s bread in enmity to the Lord: they ate life, and he punishment. For he that eats unworthily, says the apostle, eats judgment unto himself. 1Corinthians 11:29 From this time, Christ adds, I tell you before it come; that when it has come to pass, you may believe that I am He: that is, I am He of whom the Scripture that preceded has just said, He that eats bread with me, shall lift up his heel upon me.

2. He then proceeds to say: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receives whomsoever I send, receives me; and he that receives me, receives Him that sent me. Did He mean us to understand that there is as little distance between one sent by Him, and Himself, as there is between Himself and God the Father? If we take it in this way, I know not what measurements of distance (which may God forbid!) we shall be adopting, in the Arian fashion. For they, when they hear or read these words of the Gospel, have immediate recourse to their dogmatic measurements, whereby they ascend not to life, but fall headlong into death. For they straightway say: The Son’s messenger stands at the same relative distance from the Son, as expressed in the words, He that receives whomsoever I send, receives me, as that in which the Son Himself stands from the Father, when He said, He that receives me, receives Him that sent me. But if you say so, you forget, heretic, your measurements. For if, because of these words of the Lord, you put the Son at as great a distance from the Father as the messenger [apostle] from the Son, where do you purpose to place the Holy Spirit? Has it escaped you, that you are wont to place Him after the Son? He will therefore come in between the messenger and the Son; and much greater, then, will be the distance between the Son and His messenger, than between the Father and His Son. Or perhaps, to preserve that distinction between the Son and His messenger, and between the Father and His Son, at their equality of distance, will the Holy Spirit be equal to the Son? But as little will you allow this. And where, then, do ye think of placing Him, if you place the Son as far beneath the Father, as you place the messenger beneath the Son? Restrain, therefore, your foolhardy presumption; and do not be seeking to find in these words the same distance between the Son and His messenger as between the Father and His Son. But listen rather to the Son Himself, when He says, I and my Father are one. For there the Truth has left you no shadow of distance between the Begetter and the Only-begotten; there Christ Himself has erased your measurements, and the rock has broken your staircase to pieces.

3. But now that the heretical slander has been disposed of, in what sense are we to understand these words of the Lord: He that receives whomsoever I send, receives me; and he that receives me, receives Him that sent me? For if we were inclined to understand the words, He that receives me, receives Him that sent me, as expressing the oneness in nature of the Father and the Son; the sequence from the similar arrangement of words in the other clause, He that receives whomsoever I send, receives me, would be the unity in nature of the Son and His messenger. And there might, indeed, be no impropriety in so understanding it, seeing that a twofold substance belongs to the strong man, who has rejoiced to run the race; for the Word was made flesh, that is, God became man. And accordingly He might be supposed to have said, He that receives whomsoever I send, receives me, with reference to His human nature; and he that receives me as God, receives Him that sent me. But in so speaking, He was not commending the unity of nature, but the authority of the Sender in Him who is sent. Let every one, therefore, so receive Him that is sent, that in His person he may give heed to Him who sent Him. If, then, you look for Christ in Peter, you will find the disciple’s instructor; and if you look for the Father in the Son, you will find the Begetter of the Only-begotten: and so in Him who is sent, you are not mistaken in receiving the Sender. What follows in the Gospel cannot be compressed within the shortness of the time remaining. And therefore, dearly beloved, let what has been said, if thought sufficient, be received in a healthful way, as pasture for the holy sheep; and if it is somewhat scanty, let it be ruminated over with ardent desire for more.

Tractate 60 (John 13:21)

1. It is no light question, brethren, that meets us in the Gospel of the blessed John, when he says: When Jesus had thus said, He was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Was it for this reason that Jesus was troubled, not in flesh, but in spirit, that He was now about to say, One of you shall betray me? Did this occur then for the first time to His mind, or was it at that moment suddenly revealed to Him for the first time, and so troubled Him by the startling novelty of so great a calamity? Was it not a little before that He was using these words, He that eats bread with me will lift up his heel against me? And had He not also, previously to that, said, And you are clean, but not all? Where the evangelist added, For He knew who should betray Him: to whom also on a still earlier occasion He had pointed in the words, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? Why is it, then, that He was now troubled in spirit, when He testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me? Was it because now He had so to mark him out, that he should no longer remain concealed among the rest, but be separated from the others, that therefore He was troubled in spirit? Or was it because now the traitor himself was on the eve of departing to bring those Jews to whom he was to betray the Lord, that He was troubled by the imminency of His passion, the closeness of the danger, and the swooping hand of the traitor, whose resolution was foreknown? For some such cause it certainly was that Jesus was troubled in spirit, as when He said, Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour. And accordingly, just as then His soul was troubled as the hour of His passion approached; so now also, as Judas was on the point of going and coming, and the atrocious villainy of the traitor neared its accomplishment, He was troubled in spirit.

2. He was troubled, then, who had power to lay down His life, and had power to take it again. That mighty power is troubled, the firmness of the rock is disturbed: or is it rather our infirmity that is troubled in Him? Assuredly so: let servants believe nothing unworthy of their Lord, but recognize their own membership in their Head. He who died for us, was also Himself troubled in our place. He, therefore, who died in power, was troubled in the midst of His power: He who shall yet transform the body of our humility into similarity of form with the body of His glory, has also transferred into Himself the feeling of our infirmity, and sympathizes with us in the feelings of His own soul. Accordingly, when it is the great, the brave, the sure, the invincible One that is troubled, let us have no fear for Him, as if He were capable of failing: He is not perishing, but in search of us [who are]. Us, I say; it is us exclusively whom He is thus seeking, that in His trouble we may behold ourselves, and so, when trouble reaches us, may not fall into despair and perish. By His trouble, who could not be troubled save with His own consent, He comforts such as are troubled unwillingly.

3. Away with the reasons of philosophers, who assert that a wise man is not affected by mental perturbations. God has made foolish the wisdom of this world; 1Corinthians 1:20 and the Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain. It is plain that the mind of the Christian may be troubled, not by misery, but by pity: he may fear lest men should be lost to Christ; he may sorrow when one is being lost; he may have ardent desire to gain men to Christ; he may be filled with joy when such is being done; he may have fear of falling away himself from Christ; he may sorrow over his own estrangement from Christ; he may be earnestly desirous of reigning with Christ, and he may be rejoicing in the hope that such fellowship with Christ will yet be his lot. These are certainly four of what they call perturbations – fear and sorrow, love and gladness. And Christian minds may have sufficient cause to feel them, and evidence their dissent from the error of Stoic philosophers, and all resembling them: who indeed, just as they esteem truth to be vanity, regard also insensibility as soundness; not knowing that a man’s mind, like the limbs of his body, is only the more hopelessly diseased when it has lost even the feeling of pain.

4. But says some one: Ought the mind of the Christian to be troubled even at the prospect of death? For what comes of those words of the apostle, that he had a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, Philippians 1:23 if the object of his desire can thus trouble him when it comes? Our answer to this would be easy, indeed, in the case of those who also term gladness itself a perturbation [of the mind]. For what if the trouble he thus feels arises entirely from his rejoicing at the prospect of death? But such a feeling, they say, ought to be termed gladness, and not rejoicing. And what is that, but just to alter the name, while the feeling experienced is the same? But let us for our part confine our attention to the Sacred Scriptures, and with the Lord’s help seek rather such a solution of this question as will be in harmony with them; and then, seeing it is written, When He had thus said, He was troubled in spirit, we will not say that it was joy that disturbed Him; lest His own words should convince us of the contrary when He says, My soul is sorrowful, even unto death. Matthew 26:38 It is some such feeling that is here also to be understood, when, as His betrayer was now on the very point of departing alone, and straightway returning along with his associates, Jesus was troubled in spirit.

5. Strong-minded, indeed, are those Christians, if such there are, who experience no trouble at all in the prospect of death; but for all that, are they stronger-minded than Christ? Who would have the madness to say so? And what else, then, does His being troubled signify, but that, by voluntarily assuming the likeness of their weakness, He comforted the weak members in His own body, that is, in His Church; to the end that, if any of His own are still troubled at the approach of death, they may fix their gaze upon Him, and so be kept from thinking themselves castaways on this account, and being swallowed up in the more grievous death of despair? And how great, then, must be that good which we ought to expect and hope for in the participation of His divine nature, whose very perturbation tranquillizes us, and whose infirmity confirms us? Whether, therefore, on this occasion it was by His pity for Judas himself thus rushing into ruin, or by the near approach of His own death, that He was troubled, yet there is no possibility of doubting that it was not through any infirmity of mind, but in the fullness of power, that He was troubled, and so no despair of salvation need arise in our minds, when we are troubled, not in the possession of power, but in the midst of our weakness. He certainly bore the infirmity of the flesh – an infirmity which was swallowed up in His resurrection. But He who was not only man, but God also, surpassed by an ineffable distance the whole human race in fortitude of mind. He was not, then, troubled by any outward plessure of man, but troubled Himself; which was very plainly declared of Him when He raised Lazarus from the dead: for it is there written that He troubled Himself, that it may be so understood even where the text does not so express it, and yet declares that He was troubled. For having by His power assumed our full humanity, by that very power He awoke in Himself our human feelings whenever He judged it becoming.

Tractate 61 (John 13:21–26)

1. This short section of the Gospel, brethren, we have in this lesson brought forward for exposition, as thinking that we ought also to say something of the Lord’s betrayer, as now plainly enough disclosed by the dipping and holding out to him of the piece of bread. Of that indeed which precedes, (namely), that Jesus, when about to point him out, was troubled in spirit, we have treated in our last discourse; but what I perhaps omitted to mention there, the Lord, by His own perturbation of spirit, thought proper to indicate this also, that it is necessary to bear with false brethren, and those tares that are among the wheat in the Lord’s field until harvest-time, because that when we are compelled by urgent reasons to separate some of them even before the harvest, it cannot be done without disturbance to the Church. Such disturbance to His saints in the future, through schismatics and heretics, the Lord in a way foretold and prefigured in Himself, when, at the moment of that wicked man Judas’ departure, and of his thereby bringing to an end, in a very open and decided way, his past intermingling with the wheat, in which he had long been tolerated, He was troubled, not in body, but in spirit. For it is not spitefulness, but charity, that troubles His spiritual members in scandals of this kind; lest perchance, in separating some of the tares, any of the wheat should also be uprooted therewith.

2. Jesus, therefore, was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said: Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. One of you, in number, not in merit; in appearance, not in reality; in bodily commingling, not by any spiritual tie; a companion by fleshly juxtaposition, not in any unity of the heart; and therefore not one who is of you, but one who is to go forth from you. For how else can this one of you be true, of which the Lord so testified, and said, if that is true which the writer of this very Gospel says in his Epistle, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us? 1John 2:19 Judas, therefore was not of them; for, had he been of them, he would have continued with them. What, then, do the words One of you shall betray me mean, but that one is going out from you who shall betray me? Just as he also, who said, If they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, had said before, They went out from us. And thus it is true in both senses, of us, and not of us; in one respect of us, and in another not of us; of us in respect to sacramental communion, but not of us in respect to the criminal conduct that belongs exclusively to themselves.

3. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom He spoke. For while they were imbued with a reverential love to their Master, they were none the less affected by human infirmity in their feelings towards each other. Each one’s own conscience was known to himself; but as he was ignorant of his neighbor’s, each one’s self-assurance was such that each was uncertain of all the others, and all the others were uncertain of that one.

4. Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom, one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. What he meant by saying in His bosom, he tells us a little further on, where he says, on the breast of Jesus. It was that very John whose Gospel is before us, as he afterwards expressly declares. For it was a custom with those who have supplied us with the sacred writings, that when any of them was relating the divine history, and came to something affecting himself, he spoke as if it were about another; and gave himself a place in the line of his narrative becoming one who was the recorder of public events, and not as one who made himself the subject of his preaching. Saint Matthew acted also in this way, when, in coming in the course of his narrative to himself, he says, He saw a publican named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom, and says unto him, Follow me. Matthew 9:9 He does not say, He saw me, and said to me. So also acted the blessed Moses, writing all the history about himself as if it concerned another, and saying, The Lord said to Moses. Exodus 6:1 Less habitually was this done by the Apostle Paul, not however in any history which undertakes to explain the course of public events, but in his own epistles. At all events, he speaks thus of himself: I knew a man in Christ fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows;) such an one caught up into the third heaven. 2Corinthians 12:2 And so, when the blessed evangelist also says here, not, I was leaning on Jesus’ bosom, but, There was leaning one of the disciples, let us recognize a custom of our author’s, rather than fall into any wonder on the subject. For what loss is there to the truth, when the facts themselves are told us, and all boastfulness of language is in a measure avoided? For thus at least did he relate that which most signally pertained to his praise.

5. But what mean the words, whom Jesus loved? As if He did not love the others, of whom this same John has said above, He loved them to the end John 13:1; and as the Lord Himself, Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And who could enumerate all the testimonies of the sacred pages, in which the Lord Jesus is exhibited as the lover, not only of this one, or of those who were then around Him, but of such also as were to be His members in the distant future, and of His universal Church? But there is some truth, doubtless, underlying these words, and having reference to the bosom on which the narrator was leaning. For what else can be in dicated by the bosom but some hidden truth? But there is another more suitable passage, where the Lord may enable us to say something about this secret that may prove sufficient.

6. Simon Peter therefore beckons, and says to him. The expression is noteworthy, as indicating that something was said not by any sound of words, but by merely beckoning with the head. He beckons, and says; that is, his beckoning is his speech. For if one is said to speak in his thoughts, as Scripture says, They said [reasoned] with themselves; Wisdom 2:1 how much more may he do so by beckoning, which expresses outwardly by some sort of signs what had previously been conceived within! What, then, did his beckoning mean? What else but that which follows? Who is it of whom He speaks? Such was the language of Peter’s beckoning; for it was by no vocal sounds, but by bodily gestures, that he spoke. He then, having leaned back on Jesus’ breast,– surely the very bosom of His breast this, the secret place of wisdom!– says unto Him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a piece of bread, when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the bread, Satan entered into him. The traitor was disclosed, the coverts of darkness were revealed. What he got was good, but to his own hurt he received it, because, evil himself, in an evil spirit he received what was good. But we have much to say about that dipped bread which was presented to the false-hearted disciple, and about that which follows; and for these we shall require more time than remains to us now at the close of this discourse.

Tractate 62 (John 13:26–31)

1. I Know, dearly beloved, that some may be moved, as the godly to inquire into the meaning of, and the ungodly to find fault with, the statement, that it was after the Lord had given the bread, that had been dipped, to His betrayer that Satan entered into him. For so it is written: And when He had dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the Son of Simon. And after the bread, then entered Satan into him. For they say, Was this the worth of Christ’s bread, given from Christ’s own table, that after it Satan should enter into His disciple? And the answer we give them is, that thereby we are taught rather how much we need to beware of receiving what is good in a sinful spirit. For the point of special importance is, not the thing that is received, but the person that receives it; and not the character of the thing that is given, but of him to whom it is given. For even good things are hurtful, and evil things are beneficial, according to the character of the recipients. Sin, says the apostle, that it might appear sin, wrought death to me by that which is good. Romans 7:13 Thus, you see, evil is brought about by the good, so long as that which is good is wrongly received. It is he also that says: Lest I should be exalted unduly through the greatness of my revelations, there was given to me a thorn in my flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me. For which thing I besought the Lord thrice, that He would take it away from me; and He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you: for strength is made perfect in weakness. 2Corinthians 12:7–9 And here, you see, good was brought about by that which was evil, when the evil was received in a good spirit. Why, then, do we wonder if Christ’s bread was given to Judas, that thereby he should be made over to the devil; when we see, on the other hand, that Paul was visited by a messenger of the devil, that by such an instrumentality he might be perfected in Christ? In this way, both the good was injurious to the evil man, and the evil was beneficial to the good. Bear in mind the meaning of the Scripture, Whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 1Corinthians 11:27 And when the apostle said this, he was dealing with those who were taking the body of the Lord, like any other food, in an undiscerning and careless spirit. If, then, he is thus taken to task who does not discern, that is, does not distinguish from the other kinds of food, the body of the Lord, what condemnation must be his, who in the guise of a friend comes as an enemy to His table! If negligence in the is thus visited with blame, what must be the punishment that will fall on the man that sells the very person who has invited him to his table! And why was the bread given to the traitor, but as an evidence of the grace he had treated with ingratitude?

2. It was after this bread, then, that Satan entered into the Lord’s betrayer, that, as now given over to his power, he might take full possession of one into whom before this he had only entered in order to lead him into error. For we are not to suppose that he was not in him when he went to the Jews and bargained about the price of betraying the Lord; for the evangelist Luke very plainly attests this when he says: Then entered Satan into Judas, who was surnamed Iscariot, being one of the twelve; and he went his way, and communed with the chief priests. Luke 22:3–4 Here, you see, it is shown that Satan had already entered into Judas. His first entrance, therefore, was when he implanted in his heart the thought of betraying Christ; for in such a spirit had he already come to the supper. But now, after the bread, he entered into him, no longer to tempt one who belonged to another, but to take possession of him as his own.

3. But it was not then, as some thoughtless readers suppose, that Judas received the body of Christ. For we are to understand that the Lord had already dispensed to all of them the sacrament of His body and blood, when Judas also was present, as very clearly related by Saint Luke; Luke 22:19–21 and it was after this that we come to the moment when, in accordance with John’s account, the Lord made a full disclosure of His betrayer by dipping and holding out to him the morsel of bread, and intimating perhaps by the dipping of the bread the false pretensions of the other. For the dipping of a thing does not always imply its washing; but some things are dipped in order to be dyed. But if a good meaning is to be here attached to the dipping, his ingratitude for that good was deservedly followed by damnation.

4. But still, possessed as Judas now was, not by the Lord, but by the devil, and now that the bread had entered the belly, and an enemy the soul of this man of ingratitude: still, I say, there was this enormous wickedness, already conceived in his heart, waiting to be wrought out to its full issue, for which the damnable desire had always preceded. Accordingly, when the Lord, the living Bread, had given this bread to the dead, and in giving it had revealed the betrayer of the Bread, He said, What you do, do quickly. He did not command the crime, but foretold evil to Judas, and good to us. For what could be worse for Judas, or what could be better for us, than the delivering up of Christ – a deed done by him to his own destruction, but done, apart from him, in our behalf? What you do, do quickly. Oh that word of One whose wish was to be ready rather than to be angry! That word! expressing not so much the punishment of the traitor as the reward awaiting the Redeemer! For He said, What you do, do quickly, not as wrathfully looking to the destruction of the trust-betrayer, but in His own haste to accomplish the salvation of the faithful; for He was delivered for our offenses, Romans 4:25 and He loved the Church, and gave Himself for it. Ephesians 5:25 And as the apostle also says of himself: Who loved me, and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20 Had not, then, Christ given Himself, no one could have given Him up. What is there in Judas’ conduct but sin? For in delivering up Christ he had no thought of our salvation, for which Christ was really delivered, but thought only of his money gain, and found the loss of his soul. He got the wages he wished, but had also given him, against his wish, the wages he merited. Judas delivered up Christ, Christ delivered Himself up: the former transacted the business of his own selling of his Master, the latter the business of our redemption. What you do, do quickly, not because you have the power in yourself, but because He wills it who has all the power.

5. Now no one of those at the table knew for what intent He spoke this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the money-bag, that Jesus said to him, Buy those things which we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor. The Lord, therefore, had also a money-box, where He kept the offerings of believers, and distributed to the necessities of His own, and to others who were in need. It was then that the custom of having church-money was first introduced, so that thereby we might understand that His precept about taking no thought for the morrow Matthew 6:34 was not a command that no money should be kept by His saints, but that God should not be served for any such end, and that the doing of what is right should not be held in abeyance through the fear of want. For the apostle also has this foresight for the future, when he says: If any believer has widows, let him give them enough, that the church may not be burdened, that it may have enough for them that are widows indeed. 1 Timothy 5:16

6. He then, having received the morsel of bread, went immediately out: and it was night. And he that went out was himself the night. Therefore when the night had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified. The day therefore uttered speech unto the day, that is, Christ did so to His faithful disciples, that they might hear and love Him as His followers; and the night showed knowledge unto the night, that is, Judas did so to the unbelieving Jews, that they might come as His persecutors, and make Him their prisoner. But now, in considering these words of the Lord, which were addressed to the godly, before His arrest by the ungodly, special attention on the part of the hearer is required; and therefore it will be more becoming in the preacher, instead of hurriedly considering them now, to defer them till a future occasion.

Tractate 63 (John 13:31–32)

1. Let us give our mind’s best attention, and, with the Lord’s help, seek after God. The language of the divine hymn is: Seek God and your soul shall live. Let us search for that which needs to be discovered, and into that which has been discovered. He whom we need to discover is concealed, in order to be sought after; and when found, is infinite, in order still to be the object of our search. Hence it is elsewhere said, Seek His face evermore. For He satisfies the seeker to the utmost of his capacity; and makes the finder still more capable, that he may seek to be filled anew, according to the growth of his ability to receive. Therefore it was not said, Seek His face evermore, in the same sense as of certain others, who are always learning, and never coming to a knowledge of the truth; 2 Timothy 3:7 but rather as the preacher says, When a man has finished, then he begins; Sirach 18:7 till we reach that life where we shall be so filled, that our natures shall attain their utmost capacity, because we shall have arrived at perfection, and no longer be aiming at more. For then all that can satisfy us will be revealed to our eyes. But here let us always be seeking, and let our reward in finding put no end to our searching. For we do not say that it will not be so always, because it is only so here; but that here we must always be seeking, lest at any time we should imagine that here we can ever cease from seeking. For those of whom it is said that they are always learning, and never coming to a knowledge of the truth, are here indeed always learning; but when they depart this life they will no longer be learning, but receiving the reward of their error. For the words, always learning, and never coming to a knowledge of the truth, mean, as it were, always walking, and never getting into the road. Let us, on the other hand, be walking always in the way, till we reach the end to which it leads; let us nowhere tarry in it till we reach the proper place of abode: and so we shall both persevere in our seeking, and be making some attainments in our finding, and, thus seeking and finding, be passing on to that which remains, till the very end of all seeking shall be reached in that world where perfection shall admit of no further effort at advancement. Let these prefatory remarks, dearly beloved, make your Charity attentive to this discourse of our Lord’s, which He addressed to the disciples before His passion: for it is profound in it self; and where, in particular, the preacher purposes to expend much labor, the hearer ought not to be remiss in attention.

2. What is it, then, that the Lord says, after that Judas went out, to do quickly what he purposed doing, namely, betraying the Lord? What says the day when the night had gone out? What says the Redeemer when the seller had departed? Now, He says, is the Son of man glorified. Why now? It was not, was it, merely that His betrayer had gone out, and that those were at hand who were to seize and slay Him? Is it thus that He is now glorified, to wit, that His deeper humiliation is approaching; that over Him are impending both bonds, and judgment, and condemnation, and mocking, and crucifixion, and death? Is this glorification, or rather humiliation? Even when He was working miracles, does not this very John say of Him, The Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified? Even then, therefore, when He was raising the dead, He was not yet glorified; and is He glorified now, when drawing near in His own person unto death? He was not yet glorified when acting as God, and is He glorified in going to suffer as man? It would be strange if it were this that God, the great Master, signified and taught in such words. We must ascend higher to unveil the words of the Highest, who reveals Himself somewhat that we may find Him, and anon hides Himself that we may seek Him, and so press on step by step, as it were, from discoveries already made to those that still await us. I get here a sight of something that prefigures a great reality. Judas went out, and Jesus is glorified; the son of perdition went out, and the Son of man is glorified. He it was that had gone out, on whose account it had been said to them all, And you are clean, but not all (ver. 10). When, therefore, the unclean one departed, all that remained were clean, and continued with their Cleanser. Something like this will it be when this world shall have been conquered by Christ, and shall have passed away, and there shall be no one that is unclean remaining among His people; when, the tares having been separated from the wheat, the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Matthew 13:43 The Lord, foreseeing such a future as this, and in testimony that such was signified now in the separation of the tares, as it were, by the departure of Judas, and the remaining behind of the wheat in the persons of the holy apostles, said, Now is the Son of man glorified: as if He had said, See, so will it be in that day of my glorification yet to come, when none of the wicked shall be present, and none of the good shall be wanting. His words, however, are not expressed in this way: Now is prefigured the glorification of the Son of man; but expressly, Now is the Son of man glorified: just as it was not said, The Rock signified Christ; but, That Rock was Christ. 1Corinthians 10:4 Nor is it said, The good seed signified the children of the kingdom, or, The tares signified the children of the wicked one; but what is said is, The good seed, these are the children of the kingdom; and the tares, the children of the wicked one. Matthew 13:38 According, then, to the usage of Scripture language, which speaks of the signs as if they were the things signified, the Lord makes use of the words, Now is the Son of man glorified; indicating that in the completed separation of that arch sinner from their company, and in the remaining around Him of His saints, we have the foreshadowing of His glorification, when the wicked shall be finally separated, and He shall dwell with His saints through eternity.

3. But after saying, Now is the Son of man glorified, He added, and God is glorified in Him. For this is itself the glorifying of the Son of man, that God should be glorified in Him. For if He is not glorified in Himself, but God in Him, then it is He whom God glorifies in Himself. And just as if to give them this explanation, He furthers adds: If God is glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself. That is, If God is glorified in Him, because He came not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him; and God shall glorify Him in Himself, in such wise that the human nature, in which He is the Son of man, and which was so assumed by the eternal Word, should also be endowed with an eternal immortality. And, He says, He shall straightway glorify Him; predicting, to wit, by such an asseveration, His own resurrection in the immediate future, and not, as it were, ours in the end of the world. For it is this very glorification of which the evangelist had previously said, as I mentioned a little ago, that on this account the Spirit was not yet in their case given in that new way, in which He was yet to be given after the resurrection to those who believed, because that Jesus was not yet glorified: that is, mortality was not yet clothed with immortality, and temporal weakness transformed into eternal strength. This glorification may also be indicated in the words, Now is the Son of man glorified; so that the word now may be supposed to refer, not to His impending passion, but to His closely succeeding resurrection, as if what was now so near at hand had actually been accomplished. Let this suffice your affection today; we shall take up, when the Lord permits us, the words that follow.

Tractate 64 (John 13:33)

1. It becomes us, dearly beloved, to keep in view the orderly connection of our Lord’s words. For after having previously said, but subsequently to Judas’ departure, and his separation from even the outward communion of the saints, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him;– whether He said so as pointing to His future kingdom, when the wicked shall be separated from the good, or that His resurrection was then to take place, that is, was not to be delayed, like ours, till the end of the world – and having then added, If God is glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him, whereby without any ambiguity He testified to the immediate fulfillment of His own resurrection; He proceeded to say, Little children, yet a little while I am with you. To keep them, therefore, from thinking that God was to glorify Him in such a way that He would never again be joined with them in earthly intercourse, He said, Yet a little while I am with you: as if He had said, Straightway indeed I shall be glorified in my resurrection; and yet I am not straightway to ascend into heaven, but yet a little while I am with you. For, as we find it written in the Acts of the Apostles, He spent forty days with them after His resurrection, going in and out, and eating and drinking: Acts 1:3 not indeed that He had any experience of hunger and thirst, but even by such evidences confirmed the reality of His flesh, which no longer needed, but still possessed the power, to eat and to drink. Was it, then, these forty days He had in view when He said, Yet a little while I am with you, or something else? For it may also be understood in this way: Yet a little while I am with you; still, like you, I also am in this state of fleshly infirmity, that is, till He should die and rise again: for after He rose again He was with them, as has been said, for forty days in the full manifestation of His bodily presence; but He was no longer with them in the fellowship of human infirmity.

2. There is also another form of His divine presence unknown to mortal senses, of which He likewise says, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Matthew 28:20 This, at least, is not the same as yet a little while I am with you; for it is not a little while until the end of the world. Or if even this is so (for time flies, and a thousand years are in God’s sight as one day, or as a watch in the night,) yet we cannot believe that He intended any such meaning on this occasion, especially as He went on to say, You shall seek me, and as I said to the Jews, Whither I go, you cannot come. That is to say, after this little while that I am with you, you shall seek me, and whither I go, you cannot come. Is it after the end of the world that, whither He goes, they will not be able to come? And where, then, is the place of which He is going to say a little after in this same discourse, Father, I will that they also be with me where I am? It was not then of that presence of His with His own which He is maintaining with them till the end of the world that He now spoke, when He said, Yet a little while I am with you; but either of that state of mortal infirmity in which He dwelt with them till His passion, or of that bodily presence which He was to maintain with them up till His ascension. Whichever of these any one prefers, he can do so without being at variance with the faith.

3. That no one, however, may deem that sense inconsistent with the true one, in which we say that the Lord may have meant the communion of mortal flesh which He held with the disciples till His passion, when He said, Yet a little while I am with you; let those words also of His after His resurrection, as found in another evangelist, be taken into consideration, when He said, These are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you: Luke 24:44 as if then He was no longer with them, even at the very time that they were standing by, seeing, touching, and talking with Him. What does He mean, then, by saying, while I was yet with you, but, while I was yet in that state of mortal flesh wherein ye still remain? For then, indeed, He had been raised again in the same flesh; but He was no longer associated with them in the same mortality. And accordingly, as on that occasion, when now clothed in fleshly immortality, He said with truth, while I was yet with you, to which we can attach no other meaning than, while I was yet with you in fleshly mortality; so here also, without any absurdity, we may understand His words, Yet a little while I am with you, as if He had said, Yet a little while I am mortal like yourselves. Let us look, then, at the words that follow.

4. You shall seek me: and as I said to the Jews, Whither I go, you cannot come; so say I to you now. That is, you cannot come now. But when He said so to the Jews, He did not add the now. The former, therefore, were not able at that time to come where He was going, but they were so afterwards; because He says so a little afterwards in the plainest terms to the Apostle Peter. For, on the latter inquiring, Lord, where are You going? He replied to him, Whither I go you can not follow me now; but you shall follow me afterwards John 13:36. But what it means is not to be carelessly passed over. For whither was it that the disciples could not then follow the Lord, but were able afterwards? If we say, to death, what time can be discovered when any one of the sons of men will find it impossible to die; since such, in this perishable body, is the lot of man, that therein life is not a whit easier than death? They were not, therefore, at that time less able to follow the Lord to death, but they were less able to follow Him to the life which is deathless. For there it was the Lord was going, that, rising from the dead, He should die no more, and death should no more have dominion over Him. Romans 6:9 For as the Lord was about to die for righteousness’ sake, how could they have followed Him now, who were as yet unripe for the ordeal of martyrdom? Or, with the Lord about to enter the fleshly immortality, how could they have followed Him now, when, even though ready to die, they would have no resurrection till the end of the world? Or, on the point of going, as the Lord was, to the bosom of the Father, and that without any forsaking of them, just as He had never quitted that bosom in coming to them, how could they have followed Him now, since no one can enter on that state of felicity but he that is made perfect in love? And to show them, therefore, how it is that they may attain the fitness to proceed, where He was going before them, He says, A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another John 13:34. These are the steps whereby Christ must be followed; but any fuller discourse thereon must be put off till another opportunity.

Tractate 65 (John 13:34–35)

1. The Lord Jesus declares that He is giving His disciples a new commandment, that they should love one another. A new commandment, He says, I give unto you, that you love one another. But was not this already commanded in the ancient law of God, where it is written, You shall love your neighbor as yourself? Leviticus 19:18 Why, then, is it called a new one by the Lord, when it is proved to be so old? Is it on this account a new commandment, because He has divested us of the old, and clothed us with the new man? For it is not indeed every kind of love that renews him that listens to it, or rather yields it obedience, but that love regarding which the Lord, in order to distinguish it from all carnal affection, added, as I have loved you. For husbands and wives love one another, and parents and children, and all other human relationships that bind men together: to say nothing of the blameworthy and damnable love which is mutually felt by adulterers and adulteresses, by fornicators and prostitutes, and all others who are knit together by no human relationship, but by the mischievous depravity of human life. Christ, therefore, has given us a new commandment, that we should love one another, as He also has loved us. This is the love that renews us, making us new men, heirs of the New Testament, singers of the new song. It was this love, brethren beloved, that renewed also those of olden time, who were then the righteous, the patriarchs and prophets, as it did afterwards the blessed apostles: it is it, too, that is now renewing the nations, and from among the universal race of man, which overspreads the whole world, is making and gathering together a new people, the body of the newly-married spouse of the only-begotten Son of God, of whom it is said in the Song of Songs, Who is she that ascends, made white? Made white indeed, because renewed; and how, but by the new commandment? Because of this, the members thereof have a mutual interest in one another; and if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; and one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. 1Corinthians 12:25–26 For this they hear and observe, A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another: not as those love one another who are corrupters, nor as men love one another in a human way; but they love one another as those who are gods, and all of them sons of the Highest, and brethren, therefore, of His only Son, with that mutual love wherewith He loved them, when about to lead them on to the goal where all sufficiency should be theirs, and where their every desire should be satisfied with good things. For then there will be nothing wanting they can desire, when God will be all in all. 1Corinthians 15:28 An end like that has no end. No one dies there, where no one arrives save he that dies to this world, not that universal kind of death whereby the body is bereft of the soul; but the death of the elect, through which, even while still remaining in this mortal flesh, the heart is set on the things which are above. Of such a death it is that the apostle said, For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3 And perhaps to this, also, do the words refer, Love is strong as death. Song of Songs 8:6 For by this love it is brought about, that, while still held in the present corruptible body, we die to this world, and our life is hid with Christ in God; yea, that love itself is our death to the world, and our life with God. For if that is death when the soul quits the body, how can it be other than death when our love quits the world? Such love, therefore, is strong as death. And what is stronger than that which binds the world?

2. Think not then, my brethren, that when the Lord says, A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, there is any overlooking of that greater commandment, which requires us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind; for along with this seeming oversight, the words that you love one another appear also as if they had no reference to that second commandment, which says, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. For on these two commandments, He says, hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:37–40 But both commandments may be found in each of these by those who have good understanding. For, on the one hand, he that loves God cannot despise His commandment to love his neighbor; and on the other, he who in a holy and spiritual way loves his neighbor, what does he love in him but God? That is the love, distinguished from all mundane love, which the Lord specially characterized, when He added, as I have loved you. For what was it but God that He loved in us? Not because we had Him, but in order that we might have Him; and that He may lead us on, as I said a little ago, where God is all in all. It is in this way, also, that the physician is properly said to love the sick; and what is it he loves in them but their health, which at all events he desires to recall; not their sickness, which he comes to remove? Let us, then, also so love one another, that, as far as possible, we may by the solicitude of our love be winning one another to have God within us. And this love is bestowed on us by Him who said, As I have loved you, that you also love one another. For this very end, therefore, did He love us, that we also should love one another; bestowing this on us by His own love to us, that we should be bound to one another in mutual love, and, united together as members by so pleasant a bond, should be the body of so mighty a Head.

3. By this, He adds, Shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another: as if He said, Other gifts of mine are possessed in common with you by those who are not mine – not only nature, life, perception, reason, and that safety which is equally the privilege of men and beasts; but also languages, sacraments, prophecy, knowledge, faith, the bestowing of their goods upon the poor, and the giving of their body to the flames: but because destitute of charity, they only tinkle like cymbals; they are nothing, and by nothing are they profited. 1Corinthians 13:1–3 It is not, then, by such gifts of mine, however good, which may be alike possessed by those who are not my disciples, but by this it is that all men shall know that you are my disciples, that you have love one to another. O thou spouse of Christ, fair among women! O thou who ascendest in whiteness, leaning upon your Beloved! For by His light you are made dazzling to whiteness, by His assistance you are preserved from falling. How well becoming you are the words in that Song of Songs, which is, as it were, your bridal chant, That there is love in your delights! This it is that suffers not your soul to perish with the ungodly; it is this that judges your cause, and is strong as death, and is present in your delights. How wonderful is the character of that death, which was all but swallowed up in penal sufferings, had it not been over and above absorbed in delights! But here this discourse must now be closed; for we must make a new commencement in dealing with the words that follow.

Tractate 66 (John 13:36–38)

1. While the Lord Jesus was commending to the disciples that holy love wherewith they should love one another, Simon Peter says unto Him, Lord, where are You going? So, at all events, said the disciple to his Master, the servant to his Lord, as one who was prepared to follow. Just as for the same reason the Lord, who read in his mind the purpose of such a question, made him this reply: Whither I go, you can not follow me now; as if He said, In reference to the object of your asking, you can not now. He does not say, You can not; but You can not now. He intimated delay, without depriving of hope; and that same hope, which He took not away, but rather bestowed, in His next words He confirmed, by proceeding to say, You shall follow me afterwards. Why such haste, Peter? The Rock (petra) has not yet solidified you by His Spirit. Be not lifted up with presumption, You can not now; be not cast now into despair, You shall follow afterwards. But what does he say to this? Why cannot I follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake. He saw what was the kind of desire in his mind; but what the measure of his strength, he saw not. The weak man boasted of his willingness, but the Physician had an eye on the state of his health; the one promised, the Other foreknew: the ignorant was bold; He that foreknew all, condescended to teach. How much had Peter taken upon himself, by looking only at what he wished, and having no knowledge of what he was able! How much had he taken upon himself, that, when the Lord had come to lay down His life for His friends, and so for him also, he should have the assurance to offer to do the same for the Lord; and while as yet Christ’s life was not laid down for himself, he should promise to lay down his own life for Christ! Jesus therefore answered him, Will you lay down your life for my sake? Will you do for me what I have not yet done for you? Will you lay down your life for my sake? Can you go before, who art unable to follow? Why do you presume so far? What do you think of yourself? What do you imagine yourself to be? Hear what you are: Verily, verily, I say unto you, The cock shall not crow, till you have denied me thrice. See, that is how you will speedily become manifest to yourself, who art now talking so loftily, and know not that you are but a child. You promise me your death, and you will deny me your life. You, who now thinkest yourself able to die for me, learn to live first for yourself; for in fearing the death of your flesh, you will occasion the death of your soul. Just as much as it is life to confess Christ, it is death to deny Him.

2. Or was it that the Apostle Peter, as some with a perverse kind of favor strive to excuse him, did not deny Christ, because, when questioned by the maid, he replied that he did not know the man, as the other evangelists more expressly affirm? As if, indeed, he that denies the man Christ does not deny Christ; and so denies Him in respect of what He became on our account, that the nature He had given us might not be lost. Whoever, therefore, acknowledges Christ as God, and disowns Him as man, Christ died not for him; for as man it was that Christ died. He who disowns Christ as man, finds no reconciliation to God by the Mediator. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5 He that denies Christ as man is not justified: for as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners; so also by the obedience of one man shall many be made righteous. Romans 5:19 He that denies Christ as man, shall not rise again into the resurrection of life; for by man is death, and by man is also the resurrection of the dead: for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 1Corinthians 15:21–22 And by what means is He the Head of the Church, but by His manhood, because the Word was made flesh, that is, God, the Only-begotten of God the Father, became man. And how then can one be in the body of Christ who denies the man Christ? Or how can one be a member who disowns the Head? But why linger over a multitude of reasons when the Lord Himself undoes all the windings of human argumentation? For He says not, The cock shall not crow till you have denied the man; or, as He was wont to speak in His more familiar condescension with men, The cock shall not crow till you have thrice denied the Son of man; but He says, till you have denied me thrice. What is that me, but just what He was, and what was He but Christ? Whatever of Him, therefore, he denied, he denied Himself, he denied the Christ, he denied the Lord his God. For Thomas also, his fellow disciple, when he exclaimed, My Lord and my God, did not handle the Word, but only His flesh; and laid not his inquisitive hands on the incorporeal nature of God, but on His human body. And so he touched the man, and yet recognized his God. If, then, what the latter touched, Peter denied; what the latter invoked, Peter offended. The cock shall not crow till you have denied me thrice. Although thou say, I know not the man; although thou say, Man, I know not what you say although thou say, I am not one of His disciples; you will be denying me. If, which it were sinful to doubt, Christ so spoke, and foretold the truth, then doubtless Peter denied Christ. Let us not accuse Christ in defending Peter. Let infirmity acknowledge its sin; for there is no falsehood in the Truth. When Peter’s infirmity acknowledged its sin, his acknowledgment was full; and the greatness of the evil he had committed in denying Christ, he showed by his tears. He himself reproves his defenders, and for their conviction, brings his tears forward as witnesses. Nor have we, on our part, in so speaking, any delight in accusing the first of the apostles; but in looking on him, we ought to take home the lesson to ourselves, that no man should place his confidence in human strength. For what else had our Teacher and Saviour in view, but to show us, by making the first of the apostles himself an example, that no one ought in any way to presume of himself? And that, therefore, really took place in Peter’s soul, for which he gave cause in his body. And yet he did not go before in the Lord’s behalf, as he rashly presumed, but did so otherwise than he reckoned. For before the death and resurrection of the Lord, he both died when he denied, and returned to life when he wept; but he died, because he himself had been proud in his presumption, and he lived again, because that Other had looked on him with kindness.

Tractate 67 (John 14:1–3)

1. Our special attention, brethren, must be earnestly turned to God, in order that we may be able to obtain some intelligent apprehension of the words of the holy Gospel, which have just been ringing in our ears. For the Lord Jesus says: Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, and believe [or, believe also] in me. That they might not as men be afraid of death, and so be troubled, He comforts them by affirming Himself also to be God. Believe, He says, in God, believe also in me. For it follows as a consequence, that if you believe in God, you ought to believe also in me: which were no consequence if Christ were not God. Believe in God, and believe in Him, who, by nature and not by robbery, is equal with God; for He emptied Himself; not, however, by losing the form of God, but by taking the form of a servant. Philippians 2:6–7 You are afraid of death as regards this servant form, let not your heart be troubled, the form of God will raise it again.

2. But why have we this that follows, In my Father’s house are many mansions, but that they were also in fear about themselves? And therein they might have heard the words, Let not your heart be troubled. For, was there any of them that could be free from fear, when Peter, the most confident and forward of them all, was told, The cock shall not crow till you have denied me thrice? Considering themselves, therefore, beginning with Peter, as destined to perish, they had cause to be troubled: but when they now hear, In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you, they are revived from their trouble, made certain and confident that after all the perils of temptations they shall dwell with Christ in the presence of God. For, albeit one is stronger than another, one wiser than another, one more righteous than another, in the Father’s house there are many mansions; none of them shall remain outside that house, where every one, according to his deserts, is to receive a mansion. All alike have that penny, which the householder orders to be given to all that have wrought in the vineyard, making no distinction therein between those who have labored less and those who have labored more: Matthew 20:9 by which penny, of course, is signified eternal life, whereto no one any longer lives to a different length than others, since in eternity life has no diversity in its measure. But the many mansions point to the different grades of merit in that one eternal life. For there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differs from another star in glory; and so also the resurrection of the dead. The saints, like the stars in the sky, obtain in the kingdom different mansions of diverse degrees of brightness; but on account of that one penny no one is cut off from the kingdom; and God will be all in all in such a way, that, as God is love, 1John 4:8 love will bring it about that what is possessed by each will be common to all. For in this way every one really possesses it, when he loves to see in another what he has not himself. There will not, therefore, be any envying amid this diversity of brightness, since in all of them will be reigning the unity of love.

3. Every Christian heart, therefore, must utterly reject the idea of those who imagine that there are many mansions spoken of, because there will be some place outside the kingdom of heaven, which shall be the abode of those blessed innocents who have departed this life without baptism, because without it they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Faith like this is not faith, inasmuch as it is not the true and catholic faith. Are you not so foolish and blinded with carnal imaginations as to be worthy of reprobation, if you should thus separate the mansion, I say not of Peter and Paul, or any of the apostles, but even of any baptized infant from the kingdom of heaven; do you not think yourselves deserving of reprobation in thus putting a separation between these and the house of God the Father? For the Lord’s words are not, In the whole world, or, In all creation, or, In everlasting life and blessedness, there are many mansions; but He says, In my Father’s house are many mansions. Is not that the house where we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens? 2Corinthians 5:1 Is not that the house whereof we sing to the Lord, Blessed are they that dwell in Your house; they shall praise You for ever and ever? Will you then venture to separate from the kingdom of heaven the house, not of every baptized brother, but of God the Father Himself, to whom all we who are brethren say, Our Father, who art in heaven, Matthew 6:9 or divide it in such a way as to make some of its mansions inside, and some outside, the kingdom of heaven? Far, far be it from those who desire to dwell in the kingdom of heaven, to be willing to dwell in such folly with you: far be it, I say, that since every house of sons that are reigning can be nowhere else but in the kingdom, any part of the royal house itself should be outside the kingdom.

4. And if I go, He says, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. O Lord Jesus, how can You go to prepare a place, if there are already many mansions in Your Father’s house, where Your people shall dwell with Yourself? Or if Thou receive them unto Yourself, how will You come again, who never withdrawest Your presence? Such subjects as these, beloved, were we to attempt to explain them with such brevity as seems within the proper bounds of our discourse today, would certainly suffer in clearness from compression, and the very brevity would become itself a second obscurity; we shall therefore defer this debt, which the bounty of our Family-head will enable us to repay at a more suitable opportunity.

Tractate 68 (John 14:1–3)

1. We acknowledge, beloved brethren, that we are owing you, and ought now to repay, what was left over for consideration, how we can understand that there is no real mutual contrariety between these two statements, namely, that after saying, In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you, that I go to prepare a place for you;– where He makes it clear enough that He said so to them for the very reason that there are many mansions there already, and there is no need of preparing any; – the Lord again says: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. How is it that He goes and prepares a place, if there are many mansions already? If there were not such, He would have said, I go to prepare. Or if the place has still to be prepared, would He not then also properly have said, I go to prepare? Are these mansions in existence already, and yet needing still to be prepared? For if they were not in existence, He would have said, I go to prepare. And yet, because their present state of existence is such as still to stand in need of preparation, He does not go to prepare them in the same sense as they already exist; but if He go and prepare them as they shall be hereafter, He will come again and receive His own to Himself: that where He is, there they may be also. How then are there mansions in the Father’s house, and these not different ones but the same, which already exist in a sense in which they can admit of no preparation, and yet do not exist, inasmuch as they are still to be prepared? How are we to think of this, but in the same way as the prophet, who also declares of God, that He has [already] made that which is yet to be. For he says not, Who will make what is yet to be, but, Who has made what is yet to be. Therefore He has both made such things and is yet to make them. For they have not been made at all if He has not made them; nor will they ever be if He make them not Himself. He has made them therefore in the way of foreordaining them; He has yet to make them in the way of actual elaboration. Just as the Gospel plainly intimates when He chose His disciples, that is to say, at the time of His calling them; Luke 6:13 and yet the apostle says, He chose us before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4 to wit, by predestination, not by actual calling. And whom He did predestinate, them He also called; Romans 8:30 He has chosen by predestination before the foundation of the world, He chooses by calling before its close. And so also has He prepared those mansions, and is still preparing them and He who has already made the things which are yet to be, is now preparing, not different ones, but the very mansions He has already prepared: what He has prepared in predestination, He is preparing by actual working. Already, therefore, they are, as respects predestination; if it were not so, He would have said, I will go and prepare, that is, I will predestinate. But because they are not yet in a state of practical preparedness, He says, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself.

2. But He is in a certain sense preparing the dwellings by preparing for them the dwellers. As, for instance, when He said, In my Father’s house are many dwellings, what else can we suppose the house of God to mean but the temple of God? And what that is, ask the apostle, and he will reply, For the temple of God is holy, which [temple] you are. 1Corinthians 3:17 This is also the kingdom of God, which the Son is yet to deliver up to the Father; and hence the same apostle says, Christ, the beginning, and then they that are Christ’s in His presence; then [comes] the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; 1Corinthians 15:23–24 that is, those whom He has redeemed by His blood, He shall then have delivered up to stand before His Father’s face. This is that kingdom of heaven whereof it is said, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man who sowed good seed in his field. But the good seed are the children of the kingdom; and although now they are mingled with tares, at the end the King Himself shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. The kingdom will shine forth in the kingdom when [those that are] the kingdom shall have reached the kingdom; just as we now pray when we say, Your kingdom come. Matthew 6:10 Even now, therefore, already is the kingdom called, but only as yet being called together. For if it were not now called, it could not be then said, They shall gather out of His kingdom everything that offends. But the realm is not yet reigning. Accordingly it is already so far the kingdom, that when all offenses shall have been gathered out of it, it shall then attain to sovereignty, so as to possess not merely the name of a kingdom, but also the power of government. For it is to this kingdom, standing then at the right hand, that it shall be said in the end, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom; Matthew 25:34 that is, you who were the kingdom, but without the power to rule, come and reign; that what you formerly were only in hope, you may now have the power to be in reality. This house of God, therefore, this temple of God, this kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven, is as yet in the process of building, of construction, of preparation, of assembling. In it there will be mansions, even as the Lord is now preparing them; in it there are such already, even as the Lord has already ordained them.

3. But why is it that He went away to make such preparation, when, as it is certainly we ourselves that are the subjects in need of preparation, His doing so will be hindered by leaving us behind? I explain it, Lord, as I can: it was surely this You signified by the preparation of those mansions, that the just ought to live by faith. Romans 1:17 For he who is sojourning at a distance from the Lord has need to be living by faith, because by this we are prepared for beholding His countenance. 2Corinthians 5:6–8 For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God; Matthew 5:8 and He purifies their hearts by faith. Acts 15:9 The former we find in the Gospel, the latter in the Acts of the Apostles. But the faith by which those who are yet to see God have their hearts purified, while sojourning at a distance here, believes what it does not see; for if there is sight, there is no longer faith. Merit is accumulating now to the believer, and then the reward is paid into the hand of the beholder. Let the Lord then go and prepare us a place; let Him go, that He may not be seen; and let Him remain concealed, that faith may be exercised. For then is the place preparing, if it is by faith we are living. Let the believing in that place be desired, that the place desired may itself be possessed; the longing of love is the preparation of the mansion. Prepare thus, Lord, what You are preparing; for You are preparing us for Yourself, and Yourself for us, inasmuch as You are preparing a place both for Yourself in us, and for us in You. For You have said, Abide in me, and I in you. As far as each one has been a partaker of You, some less, some more, such will be the diversity of rewards in proportion to the diversity of merits; such will be the multitude of mansions to suit the inequalities among their inmates; but all of them, none the less, eternally living, and endlessly blessed. Why is it that You go away? Why is it You come again? If I understand You aright, Thou withdrawest not Yourself either from the place You go from, or from the place You come from: You go away by becoming invisible, You come by again becoming manifest to our eyes. But unless You remain to direct us how we may still be advancing in goodness of life, how will the place be prepared where we shall be able to dwell in the fullness of joy? Let what we have said suffice on the words which have been read from the Gospel as far as I will come again, and receive you to myself. But the meaning of what follows, That where I am, there ye may be also; and whither I go ye know, and the way ye know, we shall be in a better condition – after the question put by the disciple, that follows, and which we also may be putting, as it were, through him – for hearing, and more suitably situated for making the subject of our discourse.

Tractate 69 (John 14:4–6)

1. We have now the opportunity, dearly, beloved, as far as we can, of understanding the earlier words of the Lord from the later, and His previous statements by those that follow, in what you have heard was His answer to the question of the Apostle Thomas. For when the Lord was speaking above of the mansions, of which He both said that they already were in His Father’s house, and that He was going to prepare them; where we understood that those mansions already existed in predestination, and are also being prepared through the purifying by faith of the hearts of those who are hereafter to inhabit them, seeing that they themselves are the very house of God; and what else is it to dwell in God’s house than to be in the number of His people, since His people are at the same time in God, and God in them? To make this preparation the Lord departed, that by believing in Him, though no longer visible, the mansion, whose outward form is always hid in the future, may now by faith be prepared: for this reason, therefore, He had said, And if I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. In reply to this, Thomas says unto Him, Lord, we know not whither You go: and how can we know the way? Both of these the Lord had said that they knew; both of them this other declares that he does not know, to wit, the place to which, and the way whereby, He is going. But he does not know that he is speaking falsely; they knew, therefore, and did not know that they knew. He will convince them that they already know what they imagine themselves still to be ignorant of. Jesus says unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. What, brethren, does He mean? See, we have just heard the disciple asking, and the Master instructing, and we do not yet, even after His voice has sounded in our ears, apprehend the thought that lies hid in His words. But what is it we cannot apprehend? Could His apostles, with whom He was talking, have said to Him, We do not know You? Accordingly, if they knew Him, and He Himself is the way, they knew the way; if they knew Him who is Himself the truth, they knew the truth; if they knew Him who is also the life, they knew the life. Thus, you see, they were convinced that they knew what they knew not that they knew.

2. What is it, then, that we also have not apprehended in this discourse? What else, think you, brethren, but just that He said, And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know? And here we have discovered that they knew the way, because they knew Him who is the way: the way is that by which we go; but is the way the place also to which we go? And yet each of these He said that they knew, both whither He was going, and the way. There was need, therefore, for His saying, I am the way, in order to show those who knew Him that they knew the way, which they thought themselves ignorant of; but what need was there for His saying, I am the way, and the truth, and the life, when, after knowing the way by which He went, they had still to learn whither He was going, but just because it was to the truth and to the life He was going? By Himself, therefore, He was going to Himself. And whither go we, but to Him, and by what way go we, but by Him? He, therefore, went to Himself by Himself, and we by Him to Him; yea, likewise both He and we go thus to the Father. For He says also in another place of Himself, I go to the Father; and here on our account He says, No man comes unto the Father but by me. And in this way, He goes by Himself both to Himself and to the Father, and we by Him both to Him and to the Father. Who can apprehend such things save he who has spiritual discernment? And how much is it that even he can apprehend, although thus spiritually discerning? Brethren, how can you desire me to explain such things to you? Only reflect how lofty they are. You see what I am, I see what you are; in all of us the body, which is corrupted, burdens the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weighs down the mind that muses upon many things. Wisdom 9:15 Do we think we can say, To You have I lifted up my soul, O Thou that dwellest in the heavens? But burdened as we are with so great a weight, under which we groan, how shall I lift up my soul unless He lift it with me who laid His own down for me? I shall speak then as I can, and let each of you who is able receive it. As He gives, I speak; as He gives, the receiver receives; and as He gives, there is faith for him who cannot yet receive with understanding. For, says the prophet, If you will not believe, you shall not understand.

3. Tell me, O my Lord, what to say to Your servants, my fellow-servants. The Apostle Thomas had You before him in order to ask You questions, and yet could not understand You unless he had You within him; I ask You because I know that You are over me; and I ask, seeking, as far as I can, to let my soul diffuse itself in that same region over me where I may listen to You, who usest no external sound to convey Your teaching. Tell me, I pray, how it is that You go to Yourself. Did Thou formerly leave Yourself to come to us, especially as You came not of Yourself, but the Father sent You? I know, indeed, that You emptied Yourself; but in taking the form of a servant, Philippians 2:7 it was neither that Thou laid down the form of God as something to return to, or that You lost it as something to be recovered; and yet You came, and placed Yourself not only before the carnal eyes, but even in the very hands of men. And how otherwise save in Your flesh? By means of this You came, yet abiding where You were; by this means You returned, without leaving the place to which You had come. If, then, by such means You came and return, by such means doubtless You are not only the way for us to come unto You, but wast the way also for Yourself to come and to return. For when You returned to the life, which You are Yourself, then of a truth that same flesh of Yours You brought from death unto life. The Word of God, indeed, is one thing, and man another; but the Word was made flesh, or became man. And so the person of the Word is not different from that of the man, seeing that Christ is both in one person; and in this way, just as when His flesh died. Christ died, and when His flesh was buried, Christ was buried (for thus with the heart we believe unto righteousness, and thus with the mouth do we make confession unto salvation Romans 10:10); so when the flesh came from death unto life, Christ came to life. And because Christ is the Word of God, He is also the life. And thus in a wonderful and ineffable manner He, who never laid down or lost Himself, came to Himself. But God, as was said, had come through the flesh to men, the truth to liars; for God is true, and every man a liar. Romans 3:4 When, therefore, He withdrew His flesh from among men, and carried it up there where no liar is found, He also Himself – for the Word was made flesh– returned by Himself, that is, by His flesh, to the truth, which is none other but Himself. And this truth, we cannot doubt, although found among liars, He preserved even in death; for Christ was once dead, but never false.

4. Take an example, very different in character and wholly inadequate, yet in some lit tle measure helpful to the understanding of God, from things that are in peculiarly intimate subjection to God. See here in my own case, while as far as pertains to my mind I am just the same as yourselves, if I keep silence I am so to myself; but if I speak to you something suited to your understanding, in a certain sense I go forth to you without leaving myself, but at the same time approach you and yet quit not the place from which I proceed. But when I cease speaking, I return in a kind of way to myself, and in a kind of way I remain with you, if you retain what you have heard in the discourse I am delivering. And if the mere image that God made is capable of this, what may not God, the very image of God, not made by, but born of God; whose body, wherein He came forth to us and returned from us, has not ceased to be, like the sound of my voice, but abides there, where it shall die no more, and death shall have no more dominion over it? Romans 6:9 Much more, perhaps, might and ought to have been said on these words of the Gospel; but your souls ought not to be burdened with spiritual food, however pleasant, especially as the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26:41

Tractate 70 (John 14:7–10)

1. The words of the holy Gospel, brethren, are rightly understood only if they are found to be in harmony with those that precede; for the premises ought to agree with the conclusion, when it is the Truth that speaks. The Lord had said before, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also: and then had added, And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know; and showed that all He said was that they knew Himself. What, therefore, the meaning was of His going to Himself by Himself – for He also lets the disciples see that it is by Him that they are to come to Him – we have already told you, as we could, in our last discourse. When He says, therefore, That where I am, there ye may be also, where else were they to be but in Himself? In this way is He also in Himself, and they, therefore, are just where He is, that is, in Himself. Accordingly, He Himself is that eternal life which is yet to be ours, when He has received us unto Himself; and as He is that life eternal, so is it in Him, that where He is there shall we be also, that is to say, in Himself. For as the Father has life in Himself, and certainly that life which He has is in no wise different from what He is Himself as its possessor, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself, inasmuch as He is the very life which He has in Himself. But shall we then actually be what He is, (namely), the life, when we shall have begun our existence in that life, that is, in Himself? Certainly not, for He, by His very existence as the life, has life, and is Himself what He has; and as the life, is in Him, so is He in Himself: but we are not that life, but partakers of His life, and shall be there in such wise as to be wholly incapable of being in ourselves what He is, but so as, while ourselves not the life, to have Him as our life, who has Himself the life on this very account that He Himself is the life. In short, He both exists unchangeably in Himself and inseparably in the Father. But we, when wishing to exist in ourselves, were thrown into inward trouble regarding ourselves, as is expressed in the words, My soul is cast down within me: and changing from bad to worse, cannot even remain as we were. But when by Him we come unto the Father, according to His own words, No man comes unto the Father but by me, and abide in Him, no one shall be able to separate us either from the Father or from Him.

2. Connecting, therefore, His previous words with those that follow, He proceeded to say, If you had known me, you should certainly have known my Father also. This conforms to His previous words, No man comes unto the Father but by me. And then He adds: And from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. But Philip, one of the apostles, not understanding what he had just heard, said, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us. And the Lord replied to him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have ye not known me, Philip? He that sees me, sees also the Father. Here you see He complains that He had been so long time with them, and yet He was not known. But had He not Himself said, And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know; and on their saying that they knew it not, had convinced them that they did know, by adding the words: I am the way, and the truth, and the life? How, then, says He now, Have I been so long time with you, and have ye not known me? when, in fact, they knew both whither He went and the way, on no other grounds save that they really knew Himself? But this difficulty is easily solved by saying that some of them knew Him, and others did not, and that Philip was one of those who did not know Him; so that, when He said, And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know, He is understood as having spoken to those that knew, and not to Philip, who has it said to him, Have I been so long time with you, and have ye not known me, Philip? To such, then, as already knew the Son, was it now also said of the Father, And from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him: for such words were used because of the all-sided likeness subsisting between the Father and the Son; so that, because they knew the Son, they might henceforth be said to know the Father. Already, therefore, they knew the Son, if not all of them, those at least to whom it is said, And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know; for He is Himself the way. But they knew not the Father, and so have also to hear, If you have known me, you have known my Father also; that is, through me you have known Him also. For I am one, and He another. But that they might not think Him unlike, He adds, And from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. For they saw His perfectly resembling Son, but needed to have the truth impressed on them, that exactly such as was the Son whom they saw,was the Father also whom they did not see. And to this points what is afterwards said to Philip, He that sees me, sees also the Father. Not that He Himself was Father and Son, which is a notion of the Sabellians, who are also called Patripassians, condemned by the Catholic faith; but that Father and Son are so alike, that he who knows one knows both. For we are accustomed to speak in this way of two who closely resemble each other, to those who are in the habit of seeing one of them, and wish to know what like the other is, so that we say, In seeing the one, you have seen the other. In this way, then, is it said He that sees me, sees also the Father. Not, certainly, that He who is the Son is also the Father, but that the Son in no respect disagrees with the likeness of the Father. For had not the Father and Son been two persons, it would not have been said, If you have known me, you have known my Father also. Such is certainly the case for no one, He says, comes unto the Father but by me: if you have known me, you have known my Father also; because it is I, who am the only way to the Father, that will lead you to Him, that He also may Himself become known to you. But as I am in all respects His perfect image, from henceforth ye know Him in knowing me; and have seen Him, if you have seen me with the spiritual eyesight of the soul.

3. Why, then, Philip, do you say, Show us the Father, and it suffices us? Have I been so long time with you, and yet have ye not known me, Philip? He that sees me, sees the Father also. If it interests you much to see this, believe at least what you see not. For how, He says, do you say, Show us the Father? If you have seen me, who am His perfect likeness, you have seen Him to whom I am like. And if you can not directly see this, do you not believe, at least, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? But Philip might say here, I see You indeed, and believe Your full likeness to the Father; but is one to be reproved and rebuked because, when he sees one who bears a likeness to another, he wishes to see that other to whom he is like? I know, indeed, the image, but as yet I know only the one without the other; it is not enough for me, unless I know that other whose likeness he bears. Show us, therefore, the Father, and it suffices us. But the Master really reproved the disciple because He saw into the heart of his questioner. For it was with the idea, as if the Father were somehow better than the Son, that Philip had the desire to know the Father: and so he did not even know the Son, because believing that He was inferior to another. It was to correct such a notion that it was said, He that sees me, sees the Father also. How do you say, Show us the Father? I see the meaning of your words: it is not the original likeness you seek to see, but it is that other you think the superior. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? Why do you desire to dis cover some distance between those who are thus alike? Why do you crave the separate knowledge of those who cannot be separated? What, after this, He says not only to Philip, but to all of them together, must not now be thrust into a corner, in order that, by His help, it may be the more carefully expounded.

Tractate 71 (John 14:10–14)

1. Give close attention, and try to understand, beloved; for while it is we who speak it is He Himself who never withdraws His presence from us who is our Teacher. The Lord says, what you have just heard read, The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father, that dwells in me, He does the works. Even His words, then, are works? Clearly so. For surely he that edifies a neighbor by what he says, works a good work. But what mean the words, I speak not of myself, but, I who speak am not of myself? Hence He attributes what He does to Him, of whom He, that does them, is. For the Father is not God [as born, etc.] of any one else, while the Son is God, as equal, indeed, to the Father, but [as born] of God the Father. Therefore the former is God, but not of God; and the Light, but not of light: whereas the latter is God of God, Light of Light.

2. For in connection with these two clauses – the one where it is said, I speak not of myself; and the other, which runs, but the Father that dwells in me, He does the works,– we are opposed by two different classes of heretics, who, by each of them holding only to one clause, run off, not in one, but opposite directions, and wander far from the pathway of truth. For instance, the Arians say, See here, the Son is not equal to the Father, He speaks not of Himself. The Sabellians, or Patripassians, on the other hand, say, See, He who is the Father is also the Son; for what else is this, The Father that dwells in me, He does the works, but I that do them dwell in myself? You make contrary assertions, and that not only in the sense that any one thing is false, that is, contrary to truth, but in this also, when two things that are both false contradict one another. In your wanderings you have taken opposite directions; midway between the two is the path you have left. You are a far longer distance apart from each other than from the very way you have both forsaken. Come hither, you from the one side, and you from the other: pass not across, the one to the other, but come from both sides to us, and make this the place of your mutual meeting. You Sabellians, acknowledge the Being you overlook; Arians, set Him whom you subordinate in His place of equality, and you will both be walking with us in the pathway of truth. For you have grounds on both sides that make mutual admonition a duty. Listen, Sabellian: so far is the Son from being the same as the Father, and so truly is He another, that the Arian maintains His inferiority to the Father. Listen, Arian: so truly is the Son equal to the Father, that the Sabellian declares Him to be identical with the Father. Do thou restore the personality you have abstracted, and thou, the full dignity you have lowered, and both of you stand together on the same ground as ourselves: because the one of you [who has been an Arian], for the conviction of the Sabellian, never lets out of sight the personality of Him who is distinct from the Father, and the other [who has been a Sabellian] takes care, for the conviction of the Arian, of not impairing the dignity of Him who is equal with the Father. For to both of you He cries, I and my Father are one. When He says one, let the Arians listen; when He says, we are, let the Sabellians give heed, and no longer continue in the folly of denying, the one, His equality [with the Father], the other, His distinct personality. If, then, in saying, The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, He is thereby accounted of a power so inferior, that what He does is not what He Himself wills; listen to what He also said, As the Father raises up the dead and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom He will. And so likewise, if in saying, The Father that dwells in me, He does the works, He is on that account not to be regarded as distinct in person from the Father, let us listen to His other words, Whatever things the Father does, these also does the Son likewise; and He will be understood as speaking not of one person twice over, but of two who are one. But just because their mutual equality is such as not to interfere with their distinct personality, therefore He speaks not of Himself, because He is not of Himself; and the Father also, that dwells in Him, Himself does the works, because He, by whom and with whom He does them, is not, save of [the Father] Himself. And then He goes on to say, Believe ye not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? Or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Formerly it was Philip only who was reproved, but now, it is shown that he was not the only one there that needed reproof. For the very works’ sake, He says, believe ye that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: for had we been separated, we should have been unable to do any kind of work inseparably.

3. But what is this that follows? Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. And so He promised that He Himself would also do those greater works. Let not the servant exalt himself above his Lord, or the disciple above his Master. He says that they will do greater works than He does Himself; but it is all by His doing such in or by them, and not as if they did them of themselves. Hence the song that is addressed to Him, I will love You, O Lord, my strength. But what, then, are those greater works? Was it that their very shadow, as they themselves passed by, healed the sick? Acts 5:15 For it is a mightier thing for a shadow, than for the hem of a garment, to possess the power of healing. Matthew 14:36 The one work was done by Christ Himself, the other by them; and yet it was He that did both. Nevertheless, when He so spoke, He was commending the efficacious power of His own words: for it was in this sense He had said, The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwells in me, He does the works. What works was He then referring to, but the words He was speaking? They were hearing and believing, and their faith was the fruit of those very words: howbeit, when the disciples preached the gospel, it was not small numbers like themselves, but nations also that believed; and such, doubtless, are greater works. And yet He said not, Greater works than these shall you do, to lead us to suppose that it was only the apostles who would do so; for He added, He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do. Is the case then so, that he that believes in Christ does the same works as Christ, or even greater than He did? Points like these are not to be treated in a cursory way, nor ought they to be hurriedly disposed of; and, therefore, as our present discourse must be brought to a close, we are obliged to defer their further consideration.

Tractate 72 (John 14:10–14)

1. It is no easy matter to comprehend what is meant by, or in what sense we are to receive, these words of the Lord, He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also: and then, to this great difficulty in the way of our understanding, He has added another still more difficult, And greater things than these shall he do. What are we to make of it? We have not found one who did such works as Christ did; and are we likely to find one who will do even greater? But we remarked in our last discourse, that it was a greater deed to heal the sick by the passing of their shadow, as was done by the disciples, than as the Lord Himself did by the touch of the hem of His garment; and that more believed on the apostles than on the Lord Himself, when preaching with His own lips; so that we might suppose works like these to be understood as greater: not that the disciple was to be greater than his Master, or the servant than his Lord, or the adopted son than the Only-begotten, or man than God, but that by them He Himself would condescend to do these greater works, while telling them in another passage, Without me you can do nothing. While He Himself, on the other hand, to say nothing of His other works, which are numberless, made them without any aid from themselves, and without them made this world; and because He Himself thought meet to become man, without them He made also Himself. But what have they [made or done] without Him, save sin? And last of all, He straightway also withdrew from the subject all that could cause us agitation; for after saying, He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; He immediately went on to add, Because I go unto the Father; and whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do. He who had said, He will do, afterwards said, I will do; as if He had said, Let not this appear to you impossible; for he that believes in me can never become greater than I am, but it is I who shall then be doing greater things than now; greater things by him that believes in me, than by myself apart from him; yet it is I myself apart from him, and I myself by him [that will do the works]: and as it is apart from him, it is not he that will do them; and as, on the other hand, it is by him, although not by his own self, it is he also that will do them. And besides, to do greater things by one than apart from one, is not a sign of deficiency, but of condescension. For what can servants render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards them? And sometimes He has condescended to number this also among His other benefits towards them, namely, to do greater works by them than apart from them. Did not that rich man go away sad from His presence, when seeking counsel about eternal life? He heard, and cast it away: and yet in after days the counsel that fell on his ears was followed, not by one, but by many, when the good Master was speaking by the disciples; He was an object of contempt to the rich man, when warned by Himself directly, and of love to those whom by means of poor men He transformed from rich into poor. Here, then, you see, He did greater works when preached by believers, than when speaking Himself to hearers.

2. But there is still something to excite thought in His doing such greater works by the apostles; for He said not, as if merely with reference to them, The works that I do shall you do also; and greater works than these shall you do: but wishing to be understood as speaking of all that belonged to His family, said, He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do. If, then, he that believes shall do such works, he that shall do them not is certainly no believer: just as He that loves me, keeps my commandments, implies, of course, that he who keeps them not, loves not. In another place, also, He says, He that hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who builds his house upon a rock; Matthew 7:24 and he, therefore, who is unlike this wise man, without doubt either hears these sayings and does them not, or fails even to hear them. He that believes in me, He says, though he die, yet shall he live; and he, therefore, that shall not live, is certainly no believer now. In a similar way, also, it is said here, He that believes in me shall do [such works]: he is, therefore, no believer who shall not do so. What have we here, then, brethren? Is it that one is not to be reckoned among believers in Christ, who shall not do greater works than Christ? It were hard, unreasonable, intolerable, to suppose so; that is, unless it be rightly understood. Let us listen, then, to the apostle, when he says, To him that believes in Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Romans 4:5 This is the work in which we may be doing the works of Christ, for even our very believing in Christ is the work of Christ. It is this He works in us, not certainly without us. Hear now, then, and understand, He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also: I do them first, and he shall do them afterwards; for I do such works that he may do them also. And what are the works, but the making of a righteous man out of an ungodly one?

3. And greater works than these shall he do. Than what, pray? Shall we say that one is doing greater works than all that Christ did who is working out his own salvation with fear and trembling? Philippians 2:12 A work which Christ is certainly working in him, but not without him; and one which I might, without hesitation, call greater than the heavens and the earth, and all in both within the compass of our vision. For both heaven and earth shall pass away, Matthew 24:35 but the salvation and justi fication of those predestinated thereto, that is, of those whom He foreknows, shall continue forever. In the former there is only the working of God, but in the latter there is also His image. But there are also in the heavens, thrones, governments, principalities, powers, archangels, and angels, which are all of them the work of Christ; and is it, then, greater works also than these that he does, who, with Christ working in him, is a co-worker in his own eternal salvation and justification? I dare not call for any hurried decision on such a point: let him who can, understand, and let him who can, judge whether it is a greater work to create righteous beings than to make righteous the ungodly. For at least, if there is equal power employed in both, there is greater mercy in the latter. For this is the great mystery of godliness which was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. But when He said, Greater works than these shall he do, there is no necessity requiring us to suppose that all of Christ’s works are to be understood. For He spoke, perhaps, only of these He was now doing; and the work He was doing at that time was uttering the words of faith, and of such works specially had He spoken just before when He said, The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father, that dwells in me, He does the works. His words, accordingly, were His works. And it is assuredly something less to preach the words of righteousness, which He did apart from us, than to justify the ungodly, which He does in such a way in us that we also are doing it ourselves. It remains for us to inquire how the words are to be understood, Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I will do it. Because of the many things His believing ones ask, and receive not, there is no small question claiming our attention; but as this discourse must now be concluded, we must allow at least a little delay for its consideration and discussion.

Tractate 73 (John 14:10–14)

1. The Lord, by His promise, gave those whose hopes were resting on Himself a special ground of confidence, when He said, For I go to the Father; and whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I will do it. His proceeding, therefore, to the Father, was not with any view of abandoning the needy, but of hearing and answering their petitions. But what is to be made of the words, Whatsoever you shall ask, when we behold His faithful ones so often asking and not receiving? Is it, shall we say, for no other reason but that they ask amiss? For the Apostle James made this a ground of reproach when he said, You ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. James 4:3 What one, therefore, wishes to receive, in order to turn to an improper use, God in His mercy rather refuses to bestow. Nay, more, if a man asks what would, if answered, only tend to his injury, there is surely greater cause to fear, lest what God could not withhold with kindness, He should give in His anger. Do we not see how the Israelites got to their own hurt what their guilty lusting craved? For while it was raining manna on them from heaven, they desired to have flesh to eat. Numbers 11:32 They disdained what they had, and shamelessly sought what they had not: as if it were not better for them to have asked not to have their unbecoming desires gratified with the food that was wanting, but to have their own dislike removed, and be made themselves to receive aright the food that was provided. For when evil becomes our delight, and what is good the reverse, we ought to be entreating God rather to win us back to the love of the good, than to grant us the evil. Not that it is wrong to eat flesh, for the apostle, speaking of this very thing, says, Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused which is received with thanksgiving; 1 Timothy 4:4 but because, as he also says, It is evil for that man who eats with offense; Romans 14:20 and if so, with offense to man, how much more so if to God, to whom it was no light offense, on the part of the Israelites, to reject what wisdom was supplying, and ask for that which lust was craving: although they would not actually make the request, but murmured because it was wanting. But to let us know that the wrong lies not with any creature of God, but with obstinate disobedience and inordinate desire, it was not in swine’s flesh that the first man found death, but in an apple; Genesis 3:6 and it was not for a fowl, but for a dish of pottage, that Esau lost his birthright. Genesis 25:34

2. How, then, are we to understand Whatsoever you shall ask, I will do it, if there are some things which the faithful ask, and which God, even purposely on their behalf, leaves undone? Or ought we to suppose that the words were addressed only to the apostles? Surely not. For what He has got the length of now saying is in the very line of what He had said before: He that believes in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; which was the subject of our previous discourse. And that no one might attribute such power to himself, but rather to make it manifest that even these greater works were done by Himself, He proceeded to say, For I go to the Father; and whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I will do it. Was it the apostles only that believed on Him? When, therefore, He said, He that believes in me, He spoke to those, among whom we also by His grace are included, who by no means receive everything that we ask. And if we turn our thoughts even to the most blessed apostles, we find that he who labored more than they all, yet not he, but the grace of God that was with him, 1Corinthians 15:10 besought the Lord thrice that the messenger of Satan might depart from him, and received not what he had asked. 2Corinthians 12:8 What shall we say, beloved? Are we to suppose that the promise here made, Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I will do it, was not fulfilled by Him even to the apostles? And to whom, then, will ever His promise be fulfilled, if therein He has deceived His own apostles?

3. Wake up, then, believer, and give careful heed to what is stated here, in my name: for in these words He does not say, whatsoever you shall ask in any way; but, in my name. How, then, is He called, who promised so great a blessing? Christ Jesus, of course: Christ means King, and Jesus means Saviour! For certainly it is not any one who is a king that will save us, but only the Saviour-King; and therefore, whatsoever we ask that is adverse to the interests of salvation, we do not ask in the name of the Saviour. And yet He is the Saviour, not only when He does what we ask, but also when He refuses to do so; since by not doing what He sees to be contrary to our salvation, He manifests Himself the more fully as our Saviour. For the physician knows which of his patient’s requests will be favorable, and which will be adverse, to his safety; and therefore yields not to his wishes when asking what is prejudicial, that he may effect his recovery. Accordingly, when we wish Him to do whatsoever we ask, let it not be in any way, but in His name, that is, in the name of the Saviour, that we present our petition. Let us not, then, ask anything that is contrary to our own salvation; for if He do that, He does it not as the Saviour, which is the name He bears to His faithful disciples. For He who condescends to be the Saviour of the faithful, is also a Judge to condemn the ungodly. Whatsoever, therefore, any one that believes in Him shall ask in that name which He bears to those who believe in Him, He will do it; for He will do it as the Saviour. But if one that believes in Him asks something through ignorance that is injurious to his salvation, he asks it not in the name of the Saviour; for His Saviour He will no longer be if He do anything to impede his salvation. And hence, in such a case, in not doing what He is entreated to do, His way is kept the clearer for doing what His name imports. And on that account, not only as the Saviour, but also as the good Master, He taught us, in the very prayer He gave us, what we should ask, in order that, whatsoever we shall ask, He may do it; and that we, too, might thereby understand that we cannot be asking in the Master’s name anything that is inconsistent with the rule of His own instructions.

4. There are some things, indeed, which, although really asked in His name, that is, in harmony with His character as both Saviour and Master, He does not at the time we ask them, and yet He fails not to do them. For when we pray that the kingdom of God may come, it does not imply that He is not doing what we ask, because we do not begin at once to reign with Him in the everlasting kingdom: for what we ask is delayed, but not denied. Nevertheless, let us not fail in pray ing, for in so doing we are as those that sow the seed; and in due season we shall reap. Galatians 6:9 And even when we are asking aright, let us ask Him at the same time not to do what we ask amiss; for there is reference to this also in the Lord’s Prayer, when we say, Lead us not into temptation. Matthew 6:9–13 For surely the temptation is no slight one if your own request be hostile to your cause. But we must not listen with indifference to the statement that the Lord (to prevent any from thinking that what He promised to do to those that asked, He would do without the Father, after saying, Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I will do it) immediately added, That the Father may be glorified in the Son: if you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. In no respect, therefore, does the Son act without the Father, since He so acts for the very purpose that in Him the Father may be glorified. The Father, therefore, acts in the Son, that the Son may be glorified in the Father: and the Son acts in the Father, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; for the Father and the Son are one.

Tractate 74 (John 14:15–17)

1. We have heard, brethren, while the Gospel was read, the Lord saying: If you love me, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter [Paraclete], that He may abide with you for ever; [even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and shall be in you. There are many points which might form the subject of inquiry in these few words of the Lord; but it were too much for us either to search into all that is here for the searching, or to find out all that we here search for. Nevertheless, as far as the Lord is pleased to grant us the power, and in proportion to our capacity and yours, attend to what we ought to say and you to hear, and receive, beloved, what we on our part are able to give, and apply to Him for that wherein we fail. It is the Spirit, the Comforter, that Christ has promised to His apostles; but let us notice the way in which He gave the promise. If you love me, He says, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever: [even] the Spirit of truth. We have here, at all events, the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, whom the catholic faith acknowledges to be consubstantial and coeternal with Father and Son: He it is of whom the apostle says, The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given unto us. Romans 5:5 How, then, does the Lord say, If you love me, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter; when He says so of the Holy Spirit, without [having] whom we can neither love God nor keep His commandments? How can we love so as to receive Him, without whom we cannot love at all? Or how shall we keep the commandments so as to receive Him, without whom we have no power to keep them? Or can it be that the love wherewith we love Christ has a prior place within us, so that, by thus loving Christ and keeping His commandments, we become worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit, in order that the love, not of Christ, which had already preceded, but of God the Father, may be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given unto us? Such a thought is altogether wrong. For he who believes that he loves the Son, and loves not the Father, certainly loves not the Son, but some figment of his own imagination. And besides, this is the apostolic declaration, No one says, Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit: 1Corinthians 12:3 and who is it that calls Him Lord Jesus but he that loves Him, if he so call Him in the way the apostle intended to be understood? For many call Him so with their lips, but deny Him in their hearts and works; just as He says of such, For they profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him. Titus 1:16 If it is by works He is denied, it is doubtless also by works that His name is truly invoked. No one, therefore, says, Lord Jesus, in mind, in word, in deed, with the heart, the lips, the labor of the hands – no one says, Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit; and no one calls Him so but he that loves. And accordingly the apostles were already calling Him Lord Jesus: and if they called Him so, in no way that implied a feigned utterance, with the mouth confessing, in heart and works denying Him; if they called Him so in all truthfulness of soul, there can be no doubt they loved. And how, then, did they love, but in the Holy Spirit? And yet they are commanded to love Him and keep His commandments, previous and in order to their receiving the Holy Spirit: and yet, without having that Spirit, they certainly could not love Him and keep His commandments.

2. We are therefore to understand that he who loves has already the Holy Spirit, and by what he has becomes worthy of a fuller possession, that by having the more he may love the more. Already, therefore, had the disciples that Holy Spirit whom the Lord promised, for without Him they could not call Him Lord; but they had Him not as yet in the way promised by the Lord. Accordingly they both had, and had Him not, inasmuch as they had Him not as yet to the same extent as He was afterwards to be possessed. They had Him, therefore, in a more limited sense: He was yet to be given them in an ampler measure. They had Him in a hidden way, they were yet to receive Him in a way that was manifest; for this present possession had also a bearing on that fuller gift of the Holy Spirit, that they might come to a conscious knowledge of what they had. It is in speaking of this gift that the apostle says: Now we have received, not the spirit of this world, but the spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God. 1Corinthians 2:12 For that same manifest bestowal of the Holy Spirit the Lord made, not once, but on two separate occasions. For close on the back of His resurrection from the dead He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. And because He then gave [the Spirit], did He on that account fail in afterwards sending Him according to His promise? Or was it not the very same Spirit who was both then breathed upon them by Himself, and afterwards sent by Him from heaven? Acts 2:4 And so, why that same giving on His part which took place publicly, also took place twice, is another question: for it may be that this twofold bestowal of His in a public way took place because of the two Commandments of love, that is, to our neighbor and to God, in order that love might be impressively intimated as pertaining to the Holy Spirit. And if any other reason is to be sought for, we cannot at present allow our discourse to be improperly prolonged by such an inquiry: provided, however, it be admitted that, without the Holy Spirit, we can neither love Christ nor keep His commandments; while the less experience we have of His presence, the less also can we do so; and the fuller our experience, so much the greater our ability. Accordingly, the promise is no vain one, either to him who has not [the Holy Spirit], or to him who has. For it is made to him who has not, in order that he may have; and to him who has, that he may have more abundantly. For were it not that He was possessed by some in smaller measure than by others, St. Elisha would not have said to St. Elijah, Let the spirit that is in you be in a twofold measure in me. 2 Kings 2:9

3. But when John the Baptist said, For God gives not the Spirit by measure, he was speaking exclusively of the Son of God, who received not the Spirit by measure; for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. Colossians 2:9 And no more is it independently of the grace of the Holy Spirit that the Mediator between God and men is the man Christ Jesus: 1 Timothy 2:5 for with His own lips He tells us that the prophetical utterance had been fulfilled in Himself: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He has anointed me, and has sent me to preach the gospel to the poor. Luke 4:18–21 For His being the Only-begotten, the equal of the Father, is not of grace, but of nature; but the assumption of human nature into the personal unity of the Only-begotten is not of nature, but of grace, as the Gospel acknowledges itself when it says, And the child grew, and waxed strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was in Him. Luke 2:40 But to others He is given by measure – a measure ever enlarging until each has received his full complement up to the limits of his own perfection. As we are also reminded by the apostle, Not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think soberly; according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. Romans 12:3 Nor is it the Spirit Himself that is divided, but the gifts bestowed by the Spirit: for there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 1Corinthians 12:4

4. But when He says, I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, He intimates that He Himself is also a paraclete. For paraclete is in Latin called advocatus (advocate); and it is said of Christ, We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1John 2:1 But He said that the world could not receive the Holy Spirit, in much the same sense as it is also said, The minding of the flesh is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can be; just as if we were to say, Unrighteousness cannot be righteous. For in speaking in this passage of the world, He refers to those who love the world; and such a love is not of the Father. 1John 2:16 And thus the love of this world, which gives us enough to do to weaken and destroy its power within us, is in direct opposition to the love of God, which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us. The world, therefore, cannot receive Him, cause it sees Him not, neither knows Him. For worldly love possesses not those invisible eyes, whereby, save in an invisible way, the Holy Spirit cannot be seen.

5. But you, He adds, shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and be in you. He will be in them, that He may dwell with them; He will not dwell with them to the end that He may be in them: for the being anywhere is prior to the dwelling there. But to prevent us from imagining that His words, He shall dwell with you, were spoken in the same sense as that in which a usually dwells with a man in a visible way, He explained what He shall dwell with you meant, when He added the words, He shall be in you. He is seen, therefore, in an invisible way: nor can we have any knowledge of Him unless He be in us. For it is in a similar way that we come to see our conscience within us: for we see the face of another, but we cannot see our own; but it is our own conscience we see, not another’s. And yet conscience is never anywhere but within us: but the Holy Spirit can be also apart from us, since He is given that He may also be in us. But we cannot see and know Him in the only way in which He may be seen and known, unless He be in us.

Tractate 75 (John 14:18–21)

1. After the promise of the Holy Spirit, lest any should suppose that the Lord was to give Him, as it were, in place of Himself, in any such way as that He Himself would not likewise be with them, He added the words: I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. Orphani [Greek] are pupilli [parent-less children] in Latin. The one is the Greek, the other the Latin name of the same thing: for in the psalm where we read, You are the helper of the fatherless [in the Latin version, pupillo], the Greek has orphano . Accordingly, although it was not the Son of God that adopted sons to His Father, or willed that we should have by grace that same Father, who is His Father by nature, yet in a sense it is paternal feelings toward us that He Himself displays, when He declares, I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In the same way He calls us also the children of the bridegroom, when He says, The time will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall the children of the bridegroom fast. Matthew 9:15 And who is the bridegroom, but Christ the Lord?

2. He then goes on to say, Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more. How so? The world saw Him then; for under the name of the world are to be understood those of whom He spoke above, when saying of the Holy Spirit, Whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him. He was plainly visible to the carnal eyes of the world, while manifest in the flesh; but it saw not the Word that lay hid in the flesh: it saw the man, but it saw not God: it saw the covering, but not the Being within. But as, after the resurrection, even His very flesh, which He exhibited both to the sight and to the handling of His own, He refused to exhibit to others, we may in this way perhaps understand the meaning of the words, Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you shall see me: because I live, you shall live also.

3. What is meant by the words, Because I live, you shall live also? Why did He speak in the present tense of His own living, and in the future of theirs, but just by way of promise that the life also of the resurrection-body, as it preceded in His own case, would certainly follow in theirs? And as His own resurrection was in the immediate future, He put the word in the present tense to signify its speedy approach: but of theirs, as delayed till the end of the world, He said not, you live; but, you shall live. With elegance and brevity, therefore, by means of two words, one of them in the present tense and the other in the future, He gave the promise of two resurrections, to wit, His own in the immediate future, and ours as yet to come in the end of the world. Because I live, He says, you shall live also: because He lives, therefore shall we live also. For as by man is death, by man also is the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 1Corinthians 15:21–22 As it is only through the former that every one is liable to death, it is only through Christ that any one can attain unto life. Because we did not live, we are dead; because He lived, we shall live also. We were dead to Him, when we lived to ourselves; but, because He died in our behalf, He lives both for Himself and for us. For, because He lives, we shall live also. For while we were able of ourselves to attain unto death, it is not of ourselves also that life can come into our possession.

4. In that day, He says, you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. In what day, but in that whereof He said, You shall live also? For then will it be that we can see what we believe. For even now is He in us, and we in Him: this we believe now, but then shall we also know it; although what we know even now by faith, we shall know then by actual vision. For as long as we are in the body, as it now is, to wit, corruptible, and encumbering to the soul, we live at a distance from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight. 2Corinthians 5:7 Then accordingly it will be by sight, for we shall see Him as He is. 1John 3:2 For if Christ were not even now in us, the apostle would not say, And if Christ be in you, the body is dead indeed because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Romans 8:10 But that we are also in Him even then, He makes sufficiently clear, when He says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Accordingly in that day, when we shall be living the life, whereby death shall be swallowed up, we shall know that He is in the Father, and we in Him, and He in us; for then shall be completed that very state which is already in the present begun by Him, that He should be in us, and we in Him.

5. He that has my commmandments, He adds, and keeps them, he it is that loves me. He that has [them] in his memory, and keeps them in his life; who has them orally, and keeps them morally; who has them in the ear, and keeps them in deed; or who has them in deed, and keeps them by perseverance;– he it is, He says, that loves me. By works is love made manifest as no fruitless application of a name. And he that loves me, He says, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. But what is this, I will love? Is it as if He were then only to love, and loves not at present? Surely not. For how could the Father love us apart from the Son, or the Son apart from the Father? Working as They do inseparably, how can They love apart? But He said, I will love him, in reference to that which follows, and I will manifest myself to him. I will love, and will manifest; that is, I will love to the very extent of manifesting. For this has been the present aim of His love, that we may believe, and keep hold of the commandment of faith; but then His love will have this for its object, that we may see, and get that very sight as the reward of our faith: for we also love now, by believing in that which we shall see hereafter; but then shall we love in the sight of that which now we believe.

Volume IV. Tractates 76 – 100

Tractate 76 (John 14:22–24)

1. While the disciples thus question, and Jesus their Master replies to them, we also, as it were, are learning along with them, when we either read or listen to the holy Gospel. Accordingly, because the Lord had said, Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you shall see me, Judas – not indeed His betrayer, who was surnamed Iscariot, but he whose epistle is read among the canonical Scriptures – asked Him of this very matter: Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself unto us, and not unto the world? Let us, too, be as it were questioning disciples with them, and listen to our common Master. For Judas the holy, not the impure, the follower, but not the persecutor of the Lord, has inquired the reason why Jesus was to manifest Himself to His own, and not to the world; why it was that yet a little while, and the world should not see Him, but they should see Him.

2. Jesus answered and said to him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loves me not, keeps not my sayings. Here we have set forth the reason why He is to manifest Himself to His own, and not to that other class whom He distinguishes by the name of the world; and such is the reason also why the one loves Him, and the other loves Him not. It is the very reason, whereof it is declared in the sacred psalm, Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an unholy nation. For such as love are chosen, because they love: but those who have not love, though they speak with the tongues of men and angels, have become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal; and though they had the gift of prophecy, and knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and had all faith so that they could remove mountains, they are nothing; and though they distributed all their substance, and gave their body to be burnt, it profits them nothing. 1Corinthians 13:1–3 The saints are distinguished from the world by that love which makes the one-minded to dwell [together] in a house. In this house Father and Son make their abode, and impart that very love to those whom They shall also honor at last with this promised self manifestation; of which the disciple questioned his Master, that not only those who then listened might learn it from His own lips, but we also from his Gospel. For he had made inquiry about the manifestation of Christ, and heard [in reply] about His loving and abiding. There is therefore a kind of inward manifestation of God, which is entirely unknown to the ungodly, who receive no manifestation of God the Father and the Holy Spirit: of the Son, indeed, there might have been such, but only in the flesh; and that, too, neither of the same kind as the other, nor able under any form to remain with them, save only for a little while; and even that, for judgment, not for rejoicing; for punishment, not for reward.

3. We have now, therefore, to understand, so far as He is pleased to unfold it, the meaning of the words, Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you shall see me. It is true, indeed, that after a little while He was to withdraw even His body, in which the ungodly also were able to see Him, from their sight; for none of them saw Him after His resurrection. But since it was declared on the testimony of angels, He shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven; Acts 1:11 and our faith stands to this, that He will come in the same body to judge the living and the dead; there can be no doubt that He will then be seen by the world, meaning by the name, those who are aliens from His kingdom. And, on this account, it is far better to understand Him as having intended to refer at once to that epoch, when He said, Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more, when in the end of the world He shall be taken away from the sight of the damned, that for the future He may be seen only of those with whom, as those that love Him, the Father and Himself are making their abode. But He said, a little while, because that which appears tedious to men is very brief in the sight of God: for of this same little while our evangelist, John, himself says, Little children, it is the last time. 1John 2:18

4. But further, lest any should imagine that the Father and Son only, without the Holy Spirit, make their abode with those that love Them, let him recall what was said above of the Holy Spirit, Whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and shall be in you John 14:17. Here you see that, along with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit also takes up His abode in the saints; that is to say, within them, as God in His temple. The triune God, Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, come to us while we are coming to Them: They come with help, we come with obedience; They come to enlighten, we to behold; They come to fill, we to contain: that our vision of Them may not be external, but inward; and Their abiding in us may not be transitory, but eternal. The Son does not manifest Himself in such a way as this to the world: for the world is spoken of in the passage before us as those, of whom He immediately adds, He that loves me not, keeps not my sayings. These are such as never see the Father and the Holy Spirit: and see the Son for a little while, not to their attainment of bliss, but to their condemnation; and even Him, not in the form of God, wherein He is equally invisible with the Father and the Holy Spirit, but in human form, in which it was His will to be an object of contempt in suffering, but of terror in judging the world.

5. But when He added, And the saying which you have heard is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me, let us not be filled with wonder or fear: He is not inferior to the Father, and yet He is not, save of the Father: He is not unequal in Himself, but He is not of Himself. For it was no false word He uttered when He said, He that loves me not, keeps not my sayings. He called them, you see, His own sayings; does He, then, contradict Himself when He said again, And the saying which you have heard is not mine? And, perhaps, it was on account of some intended distinction that, when He said His own, He used sayings in the plural; but when He said that the saying, that is, the Word, was not His own, but the Father’s, He wished it to be understood of Himself. For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. For as the Word, He is certainly not His own, but the Father’s: just as He is not His own image, but the Father’s; and is not Himself His own Son, but the Father’s. Rightly, therefore, does He attribute whatever He does, as equal, to the Author of all, of whom He has this very prerogative, that He is in all respects His equal.

Tractate 77 (John 14:25–27)

1. In the preceding lesson of the holy Gospel, which is followed by the one that has just been read, the Lord Jesus had said that He and the Father would come to those who loved Them, and make Their abode with them. But He had also already said above of the Holy Spirit, But you shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and shall be in you John 14:17: by which we understood that the divine Trinity dwells together in the saints as in His own temple. But now He says, These things have I spoken unto you while [still] dwelling with you. That dwelling, therefore, which He promised in the future, is of one kind; and this, which He declares to be present, is of another. The one is spiritual, and is realized inwardly by the mind; the other is corporal, and is exhibited outwardly to the eye and the ear. The one brings eternal blessedness to those who have been delivered, the other pays its visits in time to those who await deliverance. As regards the one, the Lord never withdraws from those who love Him; as regards the other, He comes and goes. These things, He says, have I spoken unto you, while [still] dwelling with you; that is, in His bodily presence, wherein He was visibly conversing with them.

2. But the Comfort, He adds, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you. Is it, then, that the Son speaks, and the Holy Spirit teaches, so that we merely get hold of the words that are uttered by the Son, and then understand them by the teaching of the Spirit as if the Son could speak without the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit teach without the Son: or is it not rather that the Son also teaches and the Spirit speaks, and, when it is God that speaks and teaches anything, that the Trinity itself is speaking and teaching? And just because it is a Trinity, its persons required to be introduced individually, so that we might hear it in its distinct personality, and understand its inseparable nature. Listen to the Father speaking in the passage where you read, The Lord said to me, You are my Son: listen to Him also teaching, in that where you read, Every man that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes unto me. The Son, on the other hand, you have just heard speaking; for He says of Himself, Whatsoever I have said to you: and if you would also know Him as a Teacher, bethink yourself of the Master, when He says, One is your Master, even Christ. Matthew 23:10 Furthermore, of the Holy Spirit, whom you have just been told of as a Teacher in the words, He shall teach you all things, listen to Him also speaking, where you read in the Acts of the Apostles, that the Holy Spirit said to the blessed Peter, Go with them, for I have sent them. The whole Trinity, therefore, both speaks and teaches: but were it not also brought before us in its individual personality, it would certainly altogether surpass the power of human weakness to comprehend it. For as it is altogether inseparable in itself, it could never be known as the Trinity, were it always spoken of inseparably; for when we speak of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we certainly do not pronounce them simultaneously, and yet in themselves they cannot be else than simultaneous. But when He added, He will bring to your remembrance, we ought also to understand that we are commanded not to forget that these preeminently salutary admonitions are part of that grace which the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance.

3. Peace, He said, I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. It is here we read in the prophet, Peace upon peace: peace He leaves with us when going away, His own peace He will give us when He comes in the end. Peace He leaves with us in this world, His own peace He will give us in the world to come. His own peace He leaves with us, and abiding therein we conquer the enemy. His own peace He will give us when, with no more enemies to fight, we shall reign as kings. Peace He leaves with us, that here also we may love one another: His own peace will He give us, where we shall be beyond the possibility of dissension. Peace He leaves with us, that we may not judge one another of what is secret to each, while here on earth: His own peace will He give us, when He will make manifest the counsels of the heart; and then shall every man have praise of God. 1Corinthians 4:5 And yet in Him and from Him it is that we have peace, whether that which He leaves with us when going to the Father, or that which He will give us when we ourselves are brought by Him to the Father. And what is it He leaves with us, when ascending from us, save His own presence, which He never withdraws? For He Himself is our peace who has made both one. Ephesians 2:14 It is He, therefore, that becomes our peace, both when we believe that He is, and when we see Him as He is. 1John 3:2 For if, so long as we are in this corruptible body that burdens the soul, and are walking by faith, not by sight, He forsakes not those who are sojourning at a distance from Himself; 2Corinthians 5:6–7 how much more, when we have attained to that sight, shall He fill us with Himself?

4. But why is it that, when He said, Peace I leave with you, He did not add, my; but when He said, I give unto you, He there made use of it? Is my to be understood even where it is not expressed, on the ground that what is expressed once may have a reference to both? Or may it not be that here also we have some underlying truth that has to be asked and sought for, and opened up to those who knock thereat? For what, if by His own peace He meant such to be understood as that which He possesses Himself? Whereas the peace, which He leaves us in this world, may more properly be termed our peace than His. For He, who is altogether without sin, has no elements of discord in Himself; while the peace we possess, meanwhile, is such that in the midst of it we have still to be saying, Forgive us our debts. Matthew 6:12 A certain kind of peace, accordingly, we do possess, inasmuch as we delight in the law of God after the inward man: but it is not a full peace, for we see another law in our members warring against the law of our mind. Romans 7:22–23 In the same way we have peace in our relations with one another, just because, in mutually loving, we have a mutual confidence in one another: but no more is such a peace as that complete, for we see not the thoughts of one another’s hearts; and we have severally better or worse opinions in certain respects of one another than is warranted by the reality. And so that peace, although left us by Him, is our peace: for were it not from Him, we should not be possessing it, such as it is; but such is not the peace He has Himself. And if we keep what we received to the end, then such as He has shall we have, when we shall have no elements of discord of our own, and we shall have no secrets hid from one another in our hearts. But I am not ignorant that these words of the Lord may be taken so as to seem only a repetition of the same idea, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: so that after saying peace, He only repeated it in saying my peace; and what He had meant in saying I leave with you, He simply repeated in saying I give unto you. Let each one understand it as he pleases; but it is my delight, as I believe it is yours also, my beloved brethren, to keep such hold of that peace here, where our hearts are making common cause against the adversary, that we may be ever longing for the peace which there will be no adversary to disturb.

5. But when the Lord proceeded to say, Not as the world gives, give I unto you, what else does He mean but, Not as those give who love the world, give I unto you? For their aim in giving themselves peace is that, exempt from the annoyance of lawsuits and wars, they may find enjoyment, not in God, but in the friendship of the world; and although they give the righteous peace, in ceasing to persecute them, there can be no true peace where there is no real harmony, because their hearts are at variance. For as one is called a consort who unites his lot (sortem) with another, so may he be termed concordant whose heart has entered into a similar union. Let us, therefore, beloved, with whom Christ leaves peace, and to whom He gives His own peace, not after the world’s way, but in a way worthy of Him by whom the world was made, that we should be of one heart with Himself, having our hearts run into one, that this one heart, set on that which is above, may escape the corruption of the earth.

Tractate 78 (John 14:27–28)

1. We have just heard, brethren, these words of the Lord, which He addressed to His disciples: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard how I said to you, I go away, and come unto you: if you loved me, you would surely rejoice, because I go unto the Father; for the Father is greater than I. Their hearts might have become filled with trouble and fear, simply because of His going away from them, even though intending to return; lest, possibly, in the very interval of the shepherd’s absence, the wolf should make an onset on the flock. But as God, He abandoned not those from whom He departed as man: and Christ Himself is at once both man and God. And so He both went away in respect of His visible humanity, and remained as regards His Godhead: He went away as regards the nature which is subject to local limitations, and remained in respect of that which is ubiquitous. Why, then, should their heart be troubled and afraid, when His quitting their eyesight was of such a kind as to leave unaltered His presence in their heart? Although even God, who has no local bounds to His presence, may depart from the hearts of those who turn away from Him, not with their feet, but their moral character; just as He comes to such as turn to Him, not with their faces, but in faith, and approach Him in the spirit, and not in the flesh. But that they might understand that it was only in respect of His human nature that He said, I go and come to you, He went on to say, If you loved me, you would surely rejoice, because I go unto the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And so, then, in that very respect wherein the Son is not equal to the Father, in that was He to go to the Father, just as from Him is He hereafter to come to judge the quick and the dead: while in so far as the Only-begotten is equal to Him that begot, He never withdraws from the Father; but with Him is everywhere perfectly equal in that Godhead which knows of no local limitations. For being as He was in the form of God, as the apostle says, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. For how could that nature be robbery, which was His, not by usurpation, but by birth? But He emptied Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant; Philippians 2:6–7 and so, not losing the former, but assuming the latter, and emptying Himself in that very respect wherein He stood forth before us here in a humbler state than that wherein He still remained with the Father. For there was the accession of a servant-form, with no recession of the divine: in the assumption of the one there was no consumption of the other. In reference to the one He says, The Father is greater than I; but because of the other, I and my Father are one.

2. Let the Arian attend to this, and find healing in his attention; that wrangling may not lead to vanity, or, what is worse, to insanity. For it is the servant-form which is that wherein the Son of God is less, not only than the Father, but also than the Holy Spirit; and more than that, less also than Himself, for He Himself, in the form of God, is greater than Himself. For the man Christ does not cease to be called the Son of God, a name which was thought worthy of being applied even to His flesh alone as it lay in the tomb. And what else than this do we confess, when we declare that we believe in the only-begotten Son of God, who, under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, and buried? And what of Him was buried, save the flesh without the spirit? And so in believing in the Son of God, who was buried, we surely affix the name, Son of God, even to His flesh, which alone was laid in the grave. Christ Himself, therefore, the Son of God, equal with the Father because in the form of God, inasmuch as He emptied Himself, without losing the form of God, but assuming that of a servant, is greater even than Himself; because the unlost form of God is greater than the assumed form of a servant. And what, then, is there to wonder at, or what is there out of place, if, in reference to this servant-form, the Son of God says, The Father is greater than I; and in speaking of the form of God, the selfsame Son of God declares, I and my Father are one? For one they are, inasmuch as The Word was God; and greater is the Father, inasmuch as the Word was made flesh. Let me add what cannot be gainsaid by Arians and Eunomians: in respect of this servant-form, Christ as a child was inferior also to His own parents, when, according to Scripture, He was subject Luke 2:51 as an infant to His seniors. Why, then, heretic, seeing that Christ is both God and man, when He speaks as man, do you calumniate God? He in His own person commends our human nature; do you dare in Him to asperse the divine? Unbelieving and ungrateful as you are, will you degrade Him who made you, just for the very reason that He is declaring what He became because of you? For equal as He is with the Father, the Son, by whom man was made, became man, in order to be less than the Father: and had He not done so, what would have become of man?

3. May our Lord and Master bring home clearly to our minds the words, If you loved me, you would surely rejoice, because I go unto the Father; for the Father is greater than I. Let us, along with the disciples, listen to the Teacher’s words, and not, with strangers, give heed to the wiles of the deceiver. Let us acknowledge the twofold substance of Christ; to wit, the divine, in which he is equal with the Father, and the human, in respect to which the Father is greater. And yet at the same time both are not two, for Christ is one; and God is not a quaternity, but a Trinity. For as the rational soul and the body form but one man, so Christ, while both God and man, is one; and thus Christ is God, a rational soul, and a body. In all of these we confess Him to be Christ, we confess Him in each. Who, then, is He that made the world? Christ Jesus, but in the form of God. Who is it that was crucified under Pontius Pilate? Christ Jesus, but in the form of a servant. And so of the several parts whereof He consists as man. Who is He who was not left in hell? Christ Jesus, but only in respect of His soul. Who was to rise on the third day, after being laid in the tomb? Christ Jesus, but solely in reference to His flesh. In reference, then, to each of these, He is likewise called Christ. And yet all of them are not two, or three, but one Christ. On this account, therefore, did He say, If you loved me, you would surely rejoice, because I go unto the Father; for human nature is worthy of congratulation, in being so assumed by the only-begotten Word as to be constituted immortal in heaven, and, earthy in its nature, to be so sublimated and exalted, that, as incorruptible dust, it might take its seat at the right hand of the Father. In such a sense it is that He said He would go to the Father. For in very truth He went unto Him, who was always with Him. But His going unto Him and departing from us were neither more nor less than His transforming and immortalizing that which He had taken upon Him from us in its mortal condition, and exalting that to heaven, by means of which He lived on earth in man’s behalf. And who would not draw rejoicing from such a source, who has such love to Christ that he can at once congratulate his own nature as already immortal in Christ, and cherish the hope that he himself will yet become so through Christ?

Tractate 79 (John 14:29–31)

1. Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, had said to His disciples, If you loved me, you would surely rejoice, because I go unto the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And that He so spoke in His servant-form, and not in that of God, wherein He is equal with the Father, is well known to faith as it resides in the minds of the pious, not as it is feigned by the scornful and senseless. And then He added, And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it has come to pass, you might believe. What can He mean by this, when the fact rather is, that a man ought, before it comes to pass, to believe that which demands his belief? For it forms the very encomium of faith when that which is believed is not seen. For what greatness is there in believing what is seen, as in those words of the same Lord, when, in reproving a disciple, He said, Because you have seen, you have believed; blessed are they that see not, and yet believe. And I hardly know whether any one can be said to believe what he sees; for this same faith is thus defined in the epistle addressed to the Hebrews: Now faith is the substance of those that hope, the assurance of things not seen. Accordingly, if faith is in things that are believed, and that, too, in things which are not seen, what mean these words of the Lord, And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it has come to pass, you might believe? Ought He not rather to have said, And now I have told you before it come to pass, that you may believe what, when it has come to pass, you shall see? For even he who was told, Because you have seen, you have believed, did not believe only what he saw; but he saw one thing, and believed another: for he saw Him as man, and believed Him to be God. He perceived and touched the living flesh, which he had seen in the act of dying, and he believed in the Deity infolded in that flesh. And so he believed with the mind what he did not see, by the help of that which was apparent to his bodily senses. But though we may be said to believe what we see, just as every one says that he believes his own eyes, yet that is not to be mistaken for the faith which is built up by God in our souls; but from things that are seen, we are brought to believe in those which are invisible. Wherefore, beloved, in the passage before us, when our Lord says, And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it has come to pass, you might believe; by the words, when it has come to pass, He certainly means, that they would yet see Him after His death, alive, and ascending to His Father; at the sight of which they should then be compelled to believe that He was indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God, seeing He could do such a thing, even after predicting it, and also could predict it before He did it: and this they should then believe, not with a new, but with an augmented faith; or at least [with a faith] that had been impaired by His death, and was now repaired by His resurrection. For it was not that they had not previously also believed Him to be the Son of God, but when His own predictions were actually fulfilled in Him, that faith, which was still weak at the time of His here speaking to them, and at the time of His death almost ceased to exist, sprang up again into new life and increased vigor.

2. But what says He next? Hereafter I will not talk much with you; for the prince of this world comes; and who is that, but the devil? And has nothing in me; that is to say, no sin at all. For by such words He points to the devil, as the prince, not of His creatures, but of sinners, whom He here designates by the name of this world. And as often as the name of the world is used in a bad sense, He is pointing only to the lovers of such a world; of whom it is elsewhere recorded, Whosoever will be a friend of this world, becomes the enemy of God. James 4:4 Far be it from us, then, so to understand the devil as prince of the world, as if he wielded the government of the whole world, that is, of heaven and earth, and all that is in them; of which sort of world it was said, when we were lecturing on Christ the Word, And the world was made by Him. The whole world therefore, from the highest heavens to the lowest earth, is subject to the Creator, not to the deserter; to the Redeemer, not to the destroyer; to the Deliverer, not to the enslaver; to the Teacher, not to the deceiver. And in what sense the devil is to be understood as the prince of the world, is still more clearly unfolded by the Apostle Paul, who, after saying, We wrestle not against flesh and blood, that is, against men, went on to say, but against principalities and powers, and the world rulers of this darkness. For in the very next word he has explained what he meant by world, when he added, of this darkness; so that no one, by the name of the world, should understand the whole creation, of which in no sense are fallen angels the rulers. Of this darkness, he says, that is, of the lovers of this world: of whom, nevertheless, there were some elected, not from any deserving of their own, but by the grace of God, to whom he says, You were sometimes darkness; but now are you light in the Lord. Ephesians 5:8 For all have been under the rulers of this darkness, that is, [under the rulers] of wicked men, or darkness, as it were, in subjection to darkness: but thanks be to God, who has delivered us, says the same apostle, from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Colossians 1:12–13 And in Him the prince of this world, that is, of this darkness, had nothing; for neither did He come with sin as God, nor had His flesh any hereditary taint of sin in its procreation by the Virgin. And, as if it were said to Him, Why, then, dost Thou die, if You have no sin to merit the punishment of death? He immediately added, But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do: arise, let us go hence. For He was sitting at table with those who were similarly occupied. But let us go, He said, and whither, but to the place where He, who had nothing in Him deserving of death, was to be delivered up to death? But He had the Father’s commandment to die, as the very One of whom it had been foretold, Then I paid for that which I took not away; and so appointed to pay death to the full, while owing it nothing, and to redeem us from the death that was our due. For Adam had seized on sin as a prey, when, deceived, he presumptuously stretched forth his hand to the tree, and attempted to invade the incommunicable name of that Godhead which was disallowed him, and with which the Son of God was endowed by nature, and not by robbery.

Tractate 80 (John 15:1–3)

1. This passage of the Gospel, brethren, where the Lord calls Himself the vine, and His disciples the branches, declares in so many words that the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 2:5 is the head of the Church, and that we are His members. For as the vine and its branches are of one nature, therefore, His own nature as God being different from ours, He became man, that in Him human nature might be the vine, and we who also are men might become branches thereof. What mean, then, the words, I am the true vine? Was it to the literal vine, from which that metaphor was drawn, that He intended to point them by the addition of true? For it is by similitude, and not by any personal propriety, that He is thus called a vine; just as He is also termed a sheep, a lamb, a lion, a rock, a corner-stone, and other names of a like kind, which are themselves rather the true ones, from which these are drawn as similitudes, not as realities. But when He says, I am the true vine, it is to distinguish Himself, doubtless, from that [vine] to which the words are addressed: How are you turned into sourness, as a strange vine? Jeremiah 2:21 For how could that be a true vine which was expected to bring forth grapes and brought forth thorns? Isaiah 5:4

2. I am, He says, the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears not fruit, He takes away; and every one that bears fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Are, then, the husbandman and the vine one? Christ is the vine in the same sense as when He said, The Father is greater than I; but in that sense wherein He said, I and my Father are one, He is also the husbandman. And yet not such a one as those, whose whole service is confined to external labor; but such, that He also supplies the increase from within. For neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters; but God that gives the increase. But Christ is certainly God, for the Word was God; and so He and the Father are one: and if the Word was made flesh – that which He was not before – He nevertheless still remains what He was. And still more, after saying of the Father, as of the husbandman, that He takes away the fruitless branches, and prunes the fruitful, that they may bring forth more fruit, He straightway points to Himself as also the purger of the branches, when He says, Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Here, you see, He is also the pruner of the branches – a work which belongs to the husbandman, and not to the vine; and more than that, He makes the branches His workmen. For although they give not the increase, they afford some help; but not of themselves: For without me, He says, ye can do nothing. And listen, also, to their own confession: What, then, is Apollos, and what is Paul? But ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollos watered. And this, too, as the Lord gave to every man; and so not of themselves. In that, however, which follows, but God gave the increase, 1Corinthians 3:5–7 He works not by them, but by Himself; for work like that exceeds the lowly capacity of man, transcends the lofty powers of angels, and rests solely and entirely in the hands of the Triune Husbandman. Now you are clean, that is, clean, and yet still further to be cleansed. For, had they not been clean, they could not have borne fruit; and yet every one that bears fruit is purged by the husbandman, that he may bring forth more fruit. He bears fruit because he is clean; and to bear more, he is cleansed still further. For who in this life is so clean as not to be in need of still further and further cleansing? Seeing that, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness; to cleanse in very deed the clean, that is, the fruitful, that they may be so much the more fruitful, as they have been made the cleaner.

3. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Why does He not say, You are clean through the baptism wherewith you have been washed, but through the word which I have spoken unto you, save only that in the water also it is the word that cleanses? Take away the word, and the water is neither more nor less than water. The word is added to the element, and there results the Sacrament, as if itself also a kind of visible word. For He had said also to the same effect, when washing the disciples’ feet, He that is washed needs not, save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. And whence has water so great an efficacy, as in touching the body to cleanse the soul, save by the operation of the word; and that not because it is uttered, but because it is believed? For even in the word itself the passing sound is one thing, the abiding efficacy another. This is the word of faith which we preach, says the apostle, that if you shall confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:10 Accordingly, we read in the Acts of the Apostles, Purifying their hearts by faith; Acts 15:9 and, says the blessed Peter in his epistle, Even as baptism does also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience. This is the word of faith which we preach, whereby baptism, doubtless, is also consecrated, in order to its possession of the power to cleanse. For Christ, who is the vine with us, and the husbandman with the Father, loved the Church, and gave Himself for it. And then read the apostle, and see what he adds: That He might sanctify it, cleansing it with the washing of water by the word. Ephesians 5:25–26 The cleansing, therefore, would on no account be attributed to the fleeting and perishable element, were it not for that which is added, by the word. This word of faith possesses such virtue in the Church of God, that through the medium of him who in faith presents, and blesses, and sprinkles it, He cleanses even the tiny infant, although itself unable as yet with the heart to believe unto righteousness, and to make confession with the mouth unto salvation. All this is done by means of the word, whereof the Lord says, Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Tractate 81 (John 15:4–7)

1. Jesus called Himself the vine, and His disciples the branches, and His Father the husbandman; whereon we have already discoursed as we were able. But in the present passage, while still speaking of Himself as the vine, and of His branches, or, in other words, of the disciples, He said, Abide in me, and I in you. They are not in Him in the same kind of way that He is in them. And yet both ways tend to their advantage, and not to His. For the relation of the branches to the vine is such that they contribute nothing to the vine, but from it derive their own means of life; while that of the vine to the branches is such that it supplies their vital nourishment, and receives nothing from them. And so their having Christ abiding in them, and abiding themselves in Christ, are in both respects advantageous, not to Christ, but to the disciples. For when the branch is cut off, another may spring up from the living root; but that which is cut off cannot live apart from the root.

2. And then He proceeds to say: As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except ye abide in me. A great encomium on grace, my brethren – one that will instruct the souls of the humble, and stop the mouths of the proud. Let those now answer it, if they dare, who, ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Romans 10:3 Let the self-complacent answer it, who think they have no need of God for the performance of good works. Fight they not against such a truth, those men of corrupt mind, reprobate concerning the faith, 2 Timothy 3:8 whose reply is only full of impious talk, when they say: It is of God that we have our existence as men, but it is of ourselves that we are righteous? What is it you say, you who deceive yourselves, and, instead of establishing freewill, cast it headlong down from the heights of its self-elevation through the empty regions of presumption into the depths of an ocean grave? Why, your assertion that man of himself works righteousness, that is the height of your self-elation. But the Truth contradicts you, and declares, The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. Away with you now over your giddy precipices, and, without a spot whereon to take your stand, vapor away at your windy talk. These are the empty regions of your presumption. But look well at what is tracking your steps, and, if you have any sense remaining, let your hair stand on end. For whoever imagines that he is bearing fruit of himself is not in the vine, and he that is not in the vine is not in Christ, and he that is not in Christ is not a Christian. Such are the ocean depths into which you have plunged.

3. Ponder again and again what the Truth has still further to say: I am the vine, He adds, you are the branches: he that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without me you can do nothing. For just to keep any from supposing that the branch can bear at least some little fruit of itself, after saying, the same brings forth much fruit, His next words are not, Without me you can do but little, but ye can do nothing. Whether then it be little or much, without Him it is impracticable; for without Him nothing can be done. For although, when the branch bears little fruit, the husbandman purges it that it may bring forth more; yet if it abide not in the vine, and draw its life from the root, it can bear no fruit whatever of itself. And although Christ would not have been the vine had He not been man, yet He could not have supplied such grace to the branches had He not also been God. And just because such grace is so essential to life, that even death itself ceases to be at the disposal of freewill, He adds, If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and wither; and they shall gather him, and cast him into the fire, and he is burned. The wood of the vine, therefore, is in the same proportion the more contemptible if it abide not in the vine, as it is glorious while so abiding; in fine, as the Lord likewise says of them in the prophet Ezekiel, when cut off, they are of no use for any purpose of the husbandman, and can be applied to no labor of the mechanic. Ezekiel 15:5 The branch is suitable only for one of two things, either the vine or the fire: if it is not in the vine, its place will be in the fire; and that it may escape the latter, may it have its place in the vine.

4. If you abide in me, He says, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. For abiding thus in Christ, is there anything they can wish but what will be agreeable to Christ? So abiding in the Saviour, can they wish anything that is inconsistent with salvation? Some things, indeed, we wish because we are in Christ, and other things we desire because still in this world. For at times, in connection with this our present abode, we are inwardly prompted to ask what we know not it would be inexpedient for us to receive. But God forbid that such should be given us if we abide in Christ, who, when we ask, only does what will be for our advantage. Abiding, therefore, ourselves in Him, when His words abide in us we shall ask what we will, and it shall be done unto us. For if we ask, and the doing follows not, what we ask is not connected with our abiding in Him, nor with His words which abide in us, but with that craving and infirmity of the flesh which are not in Him, and have not His words abiding in them. For to His words, at all events, belongs that prayer which He taught, and in which we say, Our Father, who art in heaven. Matthew 6:9 Let us only not fall away from the words and meaning of this prayer in our petitions, and whatever we ask, it shall be done unto us. For then only may His words be said to abide in us, when we do what He has commanded us, and love what He has promised. But when His words abide only in the memory, and have no place in the life, the branch is not to be accounted as in the vine, because it draws not its life from the root. It is to this distinction that the word of Scripture has respect, and to those that remember His commandments to do them. For many retain them in their memory only to treat them with contempt, or even to mock at and assail them. It is not in such as have only some kind of contact, but no connection, that the words of Christ abide; and to them, therefore, they will not be a blessing, but a testimony against them; and because they are present in them without abiding in them, they are held fast by them for the very purpose of being judged according to them at last.

Tractate 82 (John 15:8–10)

1. The Saviour, in thus speaking to the disciples, commends still more and more the grace whereby we are saved, when He says, Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear very much fruit, and be made my disciples. Whether we say glorified, or made bright, both are the rendering given us of one Greek verb, namely doxazein (δοξάζειν). For what is doxa (δόξα) in Greek, is in Latin glory. I have thought it worth while to mention this, because the apostle says, If Abraham was justified by works, he has glory, but not before God. Romans 4:2 For this is the glory before God, whereby God, and not man, is glorified, when he is justified, not by works, but by faith, so that even his doing well is imparted to him by God; just as the branch, as I have stated above, cannot bear fruit of itself. For if herein God the Father is glorified, that we bear much fruit, and be made the disciples of Christ, let us not credit our own glory therewith, as if we had it of ourselves. For of Him is such a grace, and accordingly therein the glory is not ours, but His. Hence also, in another passage, after saying, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works; to keep them from the thought that such good works were of themselves, He immediately added, and may glorify your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16 For herein is the Father glorified, that we bear much fruit, and be made the disciples of Christ. And by whom are we so made, but by Him whose mercy has forestalled us? For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Ephesians 2:10

2. As the Father has loved me, He says, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. Here, then, you see, is the source of our good works. For whence should we have them, were it not that faith works by love? Galatians 5:6 And how should we love, were it not that we were first loved? With striking clearness is this declared by the same evangelist in his epistle: We love God because He first loved us. 1John 4:19 But when He says, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you, He indicates no such equality between our nature and His as there is between Himself and the Father, but the grace whereby the Mediator between God and men is the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5 For He is pointed out as Mediator when He says, The Father – me, and I– you. For the Father, indeed, also loves us, but in Him; for herein is the Father glorified, that we bear fruit in the vine, that is, in the Son, and so be made His disciples.

3. Continue ye, He says, in my love. How shall we continue? Listen to what follows: If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love. Love brings about the keeping of His commandments; but does the keeping of His commandments bring about love? Who can doubt that it is love which precedes? For he has no true ground for keeping the commandments who is destitute of love. And so, in saying, If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, He shows not the source from which love springs, but the means whereby it is manifested. As if He said, Think not that you abide in my love if you keep not my commandments; for it is only if you have kept them that you shall abide. In other words, it will thus be made apparent that you shall abide in my love if you keep my commandments. So that no one need deceive himself by saying that he loves Him, if he keeps not His commandments. For we love Him just in the same measure as we keep His commandments; and the less we keep them, the less we love. And although, when He says, Continue ye in my love, it is not apparent what love He spoke of; whether the love we bear to Him, or that which He bears to us: yet it is seen at once in the previous clause. For He had there said, So have I loved you; and to these words He immediately adds, Continue ye in my love: accordingly, it is that love which He bears to us. What, then, do the words mean, Continue ye in my love, but just, continue ye in my grace? And what do these mean, If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, but, hereby shall you know that you shall abide in the love which I bear to you, if you keep my commandments? It is not, then, for the purpose of awakening His love to us that we first keep His commandments; but this, that unless He loves us, we cannot keep His commandments. This is a grace which lies all disclosed to the humble, but is hid from the proud.

4. But what are we to make of that which follows: Even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love? Here also He certainly intended us to understand that fatherly love wherewith He was loved of the Father. For this was what He has just said, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; and then to these He added the words, Continue ye in my love; in that, doubtless, wherewith I have loved you. Accordingly, when He says also of the Father, I abide in His love, we are to understand it of that love which was borne Him by the Father. But then, in this case also, is that love which the Father bears to the Son referable to the same grace as that wherewith we are loved of the Son: seeing that we on our part are sons, not by nature, but by grace; while the Only-begotten is so by nature and not by grace? Or is this even in the Son Himself to be referred to His condition as man? Certainly so. For in saying, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you, He pointed to the grace that was His as Mediator. For Christ Jesus is the Mediator between God and men, not in respect to His Godhead, but in respect to His manhood. And certainly it is in reference to this His human nature that we read, And Jesus increased in wisdom and age, and in favor [grace] with God and men. Luke 2:52 In harmony, therefore, with this, we may rightly say that while human nature belongs not to the nature of God, yet such human nature does by grace belong to the person of the only-begotten Son of God; and that by grace so great, that there is none greater, yea, none that even approaches equality. For there were no merits that preceded that assumption of humanity, but all His merits began with that very assumption. The Son, therefore, abides in the love wherewith the Father has loved Him, and so has kept His commandments. For what are we to think of Him even as man, but that God is His lifter up? for the Word was God, the Only-begotten, coeternal with Him that begot; but that He might be given to us as Mediator, by grace ineffable, the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

Tractate 83 (John 15:2–12)

1. You have just heard, beloved, the Lord saying to His disciples, These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be full. And what else is Christ’s joy in us, save that He is pleased to rejoice over us? And what is this joy of ours which He says is to be made full, but our having fellowship with Him? On this account He had said to the blessed Peter, If I wash you not, you shall have no part with me. His joy, therefore, in us is the grace He has bestowed upon us: and that is also our joy. But over it He rejoiced even from eternity, when He chose us before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4 Nor can we rightly say that His joy was not full; for God’s joy was never at any time imperfect. But that joy of His was not in us: for we, in whom it could be, had as yet no existence; and even when our existence commenced, it began not to be in Him. But in Him it always was, who in the infallible truth of His own foreknowledge rejoiced that we should yet be His own. Accordingly, He had a joy over us that was already full, when He rejoiced in foreknowing and foreordaining us: and as little could there be any fear intermingling in that joy of His, lest there should be any possible failure in what He foreknew would be done by Himself. Nor, when He began to do what He foreknew that He would do, was there any increase to His joy as the expression of His blessedness; otherwise His making of us must have added to His blessedness. Be such a supposition, brethren, far from our thoughts; for the blessedness of God was neither less without us, nor became greater because of us. His joy, therefore, over our salvation, which was always in Him, when He foreknew and foreordained us, began to be in us when He called us; and this joy we properly call our own, as by it we, too, shall yet be blessed: but this joy, as it is ours, increases and advances, and presses onward perseveringly to its own completion. Accordingly, it has its beginning in the faith of the regenerate, and its completion in the reward when they rise again. Such is my opinion of the purport of the words, These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be made full: that mine might be in you; that yours might be made full. For mine was always full, even before you were called, when you were foreknown as those whom I was afterwards to call; but it finds its place in you also, when you are transformed into that which I have foreknown regarding you. And that yours may be full: for you shall be blessed, what you are not as yet; just as you are now created, who had no existence before.

2. This, He says, is my injunction, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Whether we call it injunction or commandment, both are the rendering of the same Greek word, entolé (ἐντολή). But He had already made this same announcement on a former occasion, when, as you ought to remember, I repounded it to you to the best of my ability. For this is what He says there, A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. And so the repetition of this commandment is its commendation: only that there He said, A new commandment I give unto you; and here, This is my commandment: there, as if there had been no such commandment before; and here, as if He had no other commandment to give them. But there it is spoken of as new, to keep us from persevering in our old courses; here, it is called mine, to keep us from treating it with contempt.

3. But when He said in this way here, This is my commandment, as if there were none else, what are we to think, my brethren? Is, then, the commandment about that love wherewith we love one another, His only one? Is there not also another that is still greater – that we should love God? Or has God in very truth given us such a charge about love alone, that we have no need of searching for others? There are three things at least that the apostle commends when he says, But now abide faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 1Corinthians 13:13 And although in charity, that is, in love, are comprehended the two commandments; yet it is here declared to be the greatest only, and not the sole one. Accordingly, what a host of commandments are given us about faith, what a multitude about hope! Who is there that could collect them together, or suffice to number them? But let us ponder the words of the same apostle: Love is the fullness of the law. Romans 13:10 And so, where there is love, what can be wanting? And where it is not, what is there that can possibly be profitable? The devil believes, James 2:19 but does not love: no one loves who does not believe. One may, indeed, hope for pardon who does not love, but he hopes in vain; but no one can despair who loves. Therefore, where there is love, there of necessity will there be faith and hope; and where there is the love of our neighbor, there also of necessity will be the love of God. For he that loves not God, how loves he his neighbour as himself, seeing that he loves not even himself? Such an one is both impious and iniquitous; and he that loves iniquity, manifestly loves not, but hates his own soul. Let us, therefore, be holding fast to this precept of the Lord, to love one another; and then all else that is commanded we shall do, for all else we have contained in this. But this love is distinguished from that which men bear to one another as such; for in order to mark the distinction, it is added, as I have loved you. And wherefore is it that Christ loves us, but that we may be fitted to reign with Christ? With this aim, therefore, let us also be loving one another, that we may manifest the difference of our love from that of others, who have no such motive in loving one another, because the love itself is wanting. But those whose mutual love has the possession of God Himself for its object, will truly love one another; and, therefore, even for the very purpose of loving one another, they love God. There is no such love as this in all men; for few have this motive for their love one to another, that God may be all in all. 1Corinthians 15:28

Tractate 84 (John 15:13)

1. The Lord, beloved brethren, has defined that fullness of love which we ought to bear to one another, when He said: Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Inasmuch, then, as He had said before, This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you; and appended to these words what you have just been hearing, Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends; there follows from this as a consequence, what this same Evangelist John says in his epistle, That as Christ laid down His life for us, even so we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren; 1John 3:16 loving one another in truth, as He has loved us, who laid down His life for us. Such also is doubtless the meaning of what we read in the Proverbs of Solomon: If you sit down to supper at the table of a ruler, consider wisely what is set before you; and so put to your hand, knowing that you are bound to make similar preparations. For what is the table of the ruler, but that from which we take the body and blood of Him who laid down His life for us? And what is it to sit thereat, but to approach in humility? And what is it to consider intelligently what is set before you, but worthily to reflect on the magnitude of the favor? And what is it, so to put to your hand, as knowing that you are bound to make similar preparations, but as I have already said, that, as Christ laid down His life for us, so we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren? For as the Apostle Peter also says, Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps. 1 Peter 2:21 This is to make similar preparations. This it was that the blessed martyrs did in their burning love; and if we celebrate their memories in no mere empty form, and, in the banquet whereat they themselves were filled to the full, approach the table of the Lord, we must, as they did, be also ourselves making similar preparations. For on these very grounds we do not commemorate them at that table in the same way, as we do others who now rest in peace, as that we should also pray for them, but rather that they should do so for us, that we may cleave to their footsteps; because they have actually attained that fullness of love, than which, our Lord has told us, there cannot be a greater. For such tokens of love they exhibited for their brethren, as they themselves had equally received at the table of the Lord.

2. But let us not be supposed to have so spoken as if on such grounds we might possibly arrive at an equality with Christ the Lord, if for His sake we have undergone witness-bearing even unto blood. He had power to lay down His life, and to take it again; but we have no power to live as long as we wish; and die we must, however unwilling: He, by dying, straightway slew death in Himself; we, by His death, are delivered from death: His flesh saw no corruption; Acts 2:31 ours, after corruption, shall in the end of the world be clothed by Him with incorruption: He had no need of us, in order to work out our salvation; we, without Him, can do nothing: He gave Himself as the vine, to us the branches; we, apart from Him, can have no life. Lastly, although brethren die for brethren, yet no martyr’s blood is ever shed for the remission of the sins of brethren, as was the case in what He did for us; and in this respect He bestowed not on us anything for imitation, but something for congratulation. In as far, then, as the martyrs have shed their blood for the brethren, so far have they exhibited such tokens of love as they themselves perceived at the table of the Lord. (One might imitate Him in dying, but no one could, in redeeming.) In all else, then, that I have said, although it is out of my power to mention everything, the martyr of Christ is far inferior to Christ Himself. But if any one shall set himself in comparison, I say, not with the power, but with the innocence of Christ, and (I would not say) in thinking that he is healing the sins of others, but at least that he has no sins of his own, even so far is his avidity overstepping the requirements of the method of salvation; it is a matter of considerable moment for him, only he attains not his desire. And well it is that he is admonished in that passage of the Proverbs, which immediately goes on to say, But if your greed is too great, be not desirous of his dainties; for it is better that you take nothing thereof, than that you should take more than is befitting. For such things, it is added, have a life of deceit, that is, of hypocrisy. For in asserting his own sinlessness, he cannot prove, but only pretend, that he is righteous. And so it is said, For such have a deceiving life. There is only One who could at once have human flesh and be free from sin. Appropriately are we commanded that which follows; and such a word and proverb is well adapted to human weakness, when it is said, Lay not yourself out, seeing you are poor, against him that is rich. For the rich man is Christ, who was never obnoxious to punishment either through hereditary or personal debt and is righteous Himself, and justifies others. Lay not yourself out against Him, you who are so poor, that you are manifestly to the eyes of all the daily beggar that you are in your prayer for the remission of sins. But keep yourself, he says, from your own counsel [cease from your own wisdom – E.V.]. From what, but from this delusive presumption? For He, indeed, inasmuch as He is not only man but also God, can never be chargeable with evil. For if you turn your eye upon Him, He will nowhere be visible. Your eye, that is, the human eye, wherewith you distinguish that which is human; if you turn it upon Him, He will nowhere be visible, because He cannot be seen with such organs of sight as are yours. For He will provide Himself wings like an eagle’s, and will depart to the house of His overseer, from which, at all events, He came to us, and found us not such as He Himself was who came. Let us therefore love one another, even as Christ has loved us, and given Himself for us. Galatians 2:20 For greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And let us be imitating Him in such a spirit of reverential obedience, that we shall never have the boldness to presume on a comparison between Him and ourselves.

Tractate 85 (John 15:14–15)

1. When the Lord Jesus had commended the love which He manifested toward us in dying for us, and had said, Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends, He added, You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you. What great condescension! When one cannot even be a good servant unless he do his lord’s commandments; the very means, which only prove men to be good servants, He wished to be those whereby His friends should be known. But the condescension, as I have termed it, is this, that the Lord condescends to call those His friends whom He knows to be His servants. For, to let us know that it is the duty of servants to yield obedience to their master’s commands, He actually in another place reproaches those who are servants, by saying, And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say? Luke 6:46 Accordingly, when you say Lord, prove what you say by doing my commandments. Is it not to the obedient servant that He is yet one day to say, Well done, good servant; because you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things: enter into the joy of your Lord? Matthew 25:21 One, therefore, who is a good servant, can be both servant and friend.

2. But let us mark what follows. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his lord does. How, then are we to understand the good servant to be both servant and friend, when He says, Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his lord does? He introduces the name of friend in such a way as to withdraw that of servant; not as if to include both in the one term, but in order that the one should succeed to the place vacated by the other. What does it mean? Is it this, that even in doing the Lord’s commandments we shall not be servants? Or this, that then we shall cease to be servants, when we have been good servants? And yet who can contradict the Truth, when He says, Henceforth I call you not servants? and shows why He said so: For the servant, He adds, knows not what his lord does. Is it that a good and tried servant is not likewise entrusted by his master with his secrets? What does He mean, then, by saying, The servant knows not what his lord does? Be it that he knows not what he does, is he ignorant also of what he commands? For if he were so, how can he serve? Or how is he a servant who does no service? And yet the Lord speaks thus: You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants. Truly a marvellous statement! Seeing we cannot serve the Lord but by doing His commandments, how is it that in doing so we shall cease to be servants? If I be not a servant in doing His commandments, and yet cannot be in His service unless I so do, then, in my very service, I am no longer a servant.

3. Let us, brethren, let us understand, and may the Lord enable us to understand, and enable us also to do what we understand. And if we know this, we know of a truth what the Lord does; for it is only the Lord that so enables us, and by such means only do we attain to His friendship. For just as there are two kinds of fear, which produce two classes of fearers; so there are two kinds of service, which produce two classes of servants. There is a fear, which perfect love casts out; 1John 4:18 and there is another fear, which is clean, and endures forever. The fear that lies not in love, the apostle pointed to when he said, For you have not received the spirit of service again to fear. Romans 8:15 But he referred to the clean fear when he said, Be not high-minded, but fear. Romans 11:20 In that fear which love casts out, there has also to be cast out the service along with it: for both were joined together by the apostle, that is, the service and the fear, when he said, For you have not received the spirit of service again to fear. And it was the servant connected with this kind of service that the Lord also had in His eye when He said, Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his lord does. Certainly not the servant characterized by the clean fear, to whom it is said, Well done, good servant: enter into the joy of your lord; but the servant who is characterized by the fear which love casts out, of whom He elsewhere says, The servant abides not in the house for ever, but the Son abides ever. Since, therefore, He has given us power to become the sons of God, let us not be servants, but sons: that, in some wonderful and indescribable but real way, we may as servants have the power not to be servants; servants, indeed, with that clean fear which distinguishes the servant that enters into the joy of his lord, but not servants with the fear that has to be cast out, and which marks him that abides not in the house forever. But let us bear in mind that it is the Lord that enables us to serve so as not to be servants. And this it is that is unknown to the servant, who knows not what his Lord does; and who, when he does any good thing, is lifted up as if he did it himself, and not his Lord; and so, glories not in the Lord, but in himself, thereby deceiving himself, because glorying, as if he had not received. 1Corinthians 4:7 But let us, beloved, in order that we may be the friends of the Lord, know what our Lord does. For it is He who makes us not only men, but also righteous, and not we ourselves. And who but He is the doer, in leading us to such a knowledge? For we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 1Corinthians 2:12 Whatever good there is, is freely given by Him. And so because this also is good, by Him who graciously imparts all good is this gift of knowing likewise bestowed; that, in respect of all good things whatever, he that glories may glory in the Lord. 1Corinthians 1:31 But the words that follow, But I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you, are so profound, that we must by no means compress them within the limits of the present discourse, but leave them over till another.

Tractate 86 (John 15:15–16)

1. It is a worthy subject of inquiry how these words of the Lord are to be understood, But I have called you friends: for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. For who is there that dare affirm or believe that any man knows all things that the only-begotten Son has heard of the Father; when there is no one that can comprehend even how He hears any word of the Father, being as He is Himself the only Word of the Father? Nay more, is it not the case that a little afterwards, in this same discourse, which He delivered to the disciples between the Supper and His passion, He said, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now? How, then, are we to understand that He made known unto the disciples all that He had heard of the Father, when there are many things that He says not, just because He knows that they cannot bear them now? Doubtless what He is yet to do He says that He has done as the same Being who has made those things which are yet to be. Isaiah 45:11 For as He says by the prophet, They pierced my hands and my feet, and not, They will yet pierce; but speaking as it were of the past, and yet predicting what was still in the future: so also in the passage before us He declares that He has made known to the disciples all, that He knows He will yet make known in that fullness of knowledge, whereof the apostle says, But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away. For in the same place he adds: Now I know in part, but then shall I know, even as also I am known; and now through a glass in a riddle, but then face to face. For the same apostle also says that we have been saved by the washing of regeneration, Titus 3:5 and yet declares in another place, We are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is no hope; for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Romans 8:24–25 To a similar purpose it is also said by his fellow-apostle Peter, In whom, though now seeing Him not, you believe; and in whom, when you see Him, you shall rejoice with a joy unspeakable and glorious: receiving the reward of faith, even the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8–9 If, then, it is now the season of faith, and faith’s reward is the salvation of our souls; who, in that faith which works by love, Galatians 5:6 can doubt that the day must come to an end, and at its close the reward be received; not only the redemption of our body, whereof the Apostle Paul speaks, Romans 8:23 but also the salvation of our souls, as we are told by the Apostle Peter? For the felicity springing from both is at this present time, and in the existing state of mortality, a matter rather of hope than of actual possession. But this it concerns us to remember, that our outward man, to wit the body, is still decaying; but the inward, that is, the soul, is being renewed day by day. 2Corinthians 4:16 Accordingly, while we are waiting for the immortality of the flesh and salvation of our souls in the future, yet with the pledge we have received, it may be said that we are saved already; so that knowledge of all things which the Only-begotten has heard of the Father we are to regard as a matter of hope still lying in the future, although declared by Christ as something He had already imparted.

2. You have not chosen me, He says, but I have chosen you. Grace such as that is ineffable. For what were we so long as Christ had not yet chosen us, and we were therefore still destitute of love? For he who has chosen Him, how can he love Him? Were we, think you, in that condition which is sung of in the psalm: I had rather be an abject in the house of the Lord, than dwell in the tents of wickedness? Certainly not. What were we then, but sinful and lost? We had not yet come to believe in Him, in order to lead to His choosing us; for if it were those who already believed that He chose, then was He chosen Himself, prior to His choosing. But how could He say, You have not chosen me, save only because His mercy anticipated us? Here surely is at fault the vain reasoning of those who defend the foreknowledge of God in opposition to His grace, and with this view declare that we were chosen before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4 because God foreknew that we should be good, but not that He Himself would make us good. So says not He, who declares, You have not chosen me. For had He chosen us on the ground that He foreknew that we should be good, then would He also have foreknown that we would not be the first to make choice of Him. For in no other way could we possibly be good: unless, forsooth, one could be called good who has never made good his choice. What was it then that He chose in those who were not good? For they were not chosen because of their goodness, inasmuch as they could not be good without being chosen. Otherwise grace is no more grace, if we maintain the priority of merit. Such, certainly, is the election of grace, whereof the apostle says: Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace. To which he adds: And if by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. Romans 11:5–6 Listen, you ungrateful one, listen: You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. Not that you may say, I am chosen because I already believed. For if you were believing in Him, then had you already chosen Him. But listen: You have not chosen me. Not that you may say, Before I believed I was already doing good works, and therefore was I chosen. For what good work can be prior to faith, when the apostle says, Whatsoever is not of faith is sin? Romans 14:23 What, then, are we to say on hearing such words, You have not chosen me, but that we were evil, and were chosen in order that we might be good through the grace of Him who chose us? For it is not by grace, if merit preceded: but it is of grace: and therefore that grace did not find, but effected the merit.

3. See then, beloved, how it is that He chooses not the good, but makes those whom He has chosen good. I have chosen you, He says, and appointed you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain. And is not that the fruit, whereof He had already said, Without me you can do nothing? He has chosen therefore, and appointed that we should go and bring forth fruit; and no fruit, accordingly, had we to induce His choice of us. That ye should go, He said, and bring forth fruit. We go to bring forth, and He Himself is the way wherein we go, and wherein He has appointed us to go. And so His mercy has anticipated us in all. And that your fruit, He says, should remain; that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you. Accordingly let love remain; for He Himself is our fruit. And this love lies at present in longing desire, not yet in fullness of enjoyment; and whatsoever with that longing desire we shall ask in the name of the only-begotten Son, the Father gives us. But what is not expedient for our salvation to receive, let us not imagine that we ask that in the Saviour’s name: but we ask in the name of the Saviour only that which really belongs to the way of salvation.

Tractate 87 (John 15:17–19)

1. In the Gospel lesson which precedes this one, the Lord had said: You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain; that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you. On these words you remember that we have already discoursed, as the Lord enabled us. But here, that is, in the succeeding lesson which you have heard read, He says: These things I command you, that you love one another. And thereby we are to understand that this is our fruit, of which He had said, I have chosen you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain. And what He subjoined, That whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you, He will certainly give us if we love one another; seeing that this very thing He has also given us, in choosing us when we had no fruit, because we had chosen Him not; and appointing us that we should bring forth fruit – that is, that we should love one another – a fruit that we cannot have apart from Him, just as the branches can do nothing apart from the vine. Our fruit, therefore, is charity, which the apostle explains to be, Out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. 1 Timothy 1:5 So love we one another, and so love we God. For it would be with no true love that we loved one another, if we loved not God. For every one loves his neighbor as himself if he loves God; and if he loves not God, he loves not himself. For on these two commandments of love hang all the law and the prophets: Matthew 22:40 this is our fruit. And it is in reference, therefore, to such fruit that He gives us commandment when He says, These things I command you, that you love one another. In the same way also the Apostle Paul, when wishing to commend the fruit of the Spirit in opposition to the deeds of the flesh, posited this as his principle, saying, The fruit of the Spirit is love; and then, as if springing from and bound up in this principle, he wove the others together, which are joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Galatians 5:22 For who can truly rejoice who loves not good as the source of his joy? Who can have true peace, if he have it not with one whom he truly loves? Who can be long-enduring through persevering continuance in good, save through fervent love? Who can be kind, if he love not the person he is aiding? Who can be good, if he is not made so by loving? Who can be sound in the faith, without that faith which works by love? Whose meekness can be beneficial in character, if not regulated by love? And who will abstain from that which is debasing, if he love not that which dignifies? Appropriately, therefore, does the good Master so frequently commend love, as the only thing needing to be commended, without which all other good things can be of no avail, and which cannot be possessed without bringing with it those other good things that make a man truly good.

2. But alongside of this love we ought also patiently to endure the hatred of the world. For it must of necessity hate those whom it perceives recoiling from that which is loved by itself. But the Lord supplies us with special consolation from His own case, when, after saying, These things I command you, that you love one another, He added, If the world hate you, know that it hated me before [it hated] you. Why then should the member exalt itself above the head? Thou refusest to be in the body if you are unwilling to endure the hatred of the world along with the Head. If you were of the world, He says, the world would love its own. He says this, of course, of the whole Church, which, by itself, He frequently also calls by the name of the world: as when it is said, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. 2Corinthians 5:19 And this also: The Son of man came not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3:17 And John says in his epistle: We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also [for those] of the whole world. 1John 2:1–2 The whole world then is the Church, and yet the whole world hates the Church. The world therefore hates the world, the hostile that which is reconciled, the condemned that which is saved, the polluted that which is cleansed.

3. But that world which God is in Christ reconciling unto Himself, which is saved by Christ, and has all its sins freely pardoned by Christ, has been chosen out of the world that is hostile, condemned, and defiled. For out of that mass, which has all perished in Adam, are formed the vessels of mercy, whereof that world of reconciliation is composed, that is hated by the world which belongs to the vessels of wrath that are formed out of the same mass and fitted to destruction. Finally, after saying, If you were of the world, the world would love its own, He immediately added, But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. And so these men were themselves also of that world, and, that they might no longer be of it, were chosen out of it, through no merit of their own, for no good works of theirs had preceded; and not by nature, which through freewill had become totally corrupted at its source: but gratuitously, that is, of actual grace. For He who chose the world out of the world, effected for Himself, instead of finding, what He should choose: for there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace. And if by grace, he adds, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. Romans 11:5–6

4. But if we are asked about the love which is borne to itself by that world of perdition which hates the world of redemption; we reply, it loves itself, of course, with a false love, and not with a true. And hence, it loves itself falsely, and hates itself truly. For he that loves wickedness, hates his own soul. And yet it is said to love itself, inasmuch as it loves the wickedness that makes it wicked; and, on the other hand, it is said to hate itself, inasmuch as it loves that which causes it injury. It hates, therefore, the true nature that is in it, and loves the vice: it hates what it is, as made by the goodness of God, and loves what has been wrought in it by freewill. And hence also, if we rightly understand it, we are at once forbidden and commanded to love it: thus, we are forbidden, when it is said to us, Love not the world; 1John 2:15 and we are commanded, when it is said to us, Love your enemies. Luke 6:27 These constitute the world that hates us. And therefore we are forbidden to love in it that which it loves in itself; and we are enjoined to love in it what it hates in itself, namely, the workmanship of God, and the various consolations of His goodness. For we are forbidden to love the vice that is in it, and enjoined to love the nature, while it loves the vice in itself, and hates the nature: so that we may both love and hate it in a right manner, whereas it loves and hates itself perversely.

Tractate 88 (John 15:20–21)

1. The Lord, in exhorting His servants to endure with patience the hatred of the world, proposes to them no greater and better example than His own; seeing that, as the Apostle Peter says, Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps. 1 Peter 2:21 And if we really do so, we do it by His assistance, who said, Without me you can do nothing. But further, to those to whom He had already said, If the world hate you, know that it hated me before [it hated] you, He now also says in the word you have just been hearing, when the Gospel was read, Remember my word that I said to you, The servant is not greater than his lord: if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. Now in saying, The servant is not greater than his lord, does He not clearly indicate how He would have us understand what He had said above, Henceforth I call you not servants? For, you see, He calls them servants. For what else can the words imply, The servant is not greater than his lord: if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you? It is clear, therefore, that when it is said, Henceforth I call you not servants, He is to be understood as speaking of that servant who abides not in the house for ever, but is characterized by the fear which love casts out; 1John 4:18 whereas, when it is here said, The servant is not greater than his lord: if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you, that servant is meant who is distinguished by the clean fear which endures forever. For this is the servant who is yet to hear, Well done, good servant: enter into the joy of your Lord. Matthew 25:21

2. But all these things, He says, will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent me. And what are all these things that they will do, but what He has just said, namely, that they will hate and persecute you, and despise your word? For if they kept not their word, and yet neither hated nor persecuted them; or if they even hated, but did not persecute them: it would not be all these things that they did. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake,– what else is that but to say, they will hate me in you, they will persecute me in you; and your word, just because it is mine, they will not keep? For all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake: not for yours, but mine. So much the more miserable, therefore, are those who do such things on account of that name, as those are blessed who suffer such things in its behalf: as He Himself elsewhere says, Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake. Matthew 5:10 For that is on my account, or for my name’s sake: because, as we are taught by the apostle, He is made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and santification, and redemption; that, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord. 1Corinthians 1:30–31 For the wicked do such things to the wicked, but not for righteousness’ sake; and therefore both are alike miserable, those who do, and those who suffer them. The good also do such things to the wicked: where, although the former do so for righteousness’ sake, yet the latter suffer them not on the same behalf.

3. But some one says, If, when the wicked persecute the good for the name of Christ, the good suffer for righteousness’ sake, then surely it is for righteousness’ sake that the wicked do so to them; and if such is the case, then also, when the good persecute the wicked for righteousness’ sake, it is for righteousness’ sake likewise that the wicked suffer. For if the wicked can assail the good with persecution for the name of Christ, why cannot the wicked suffer persecution at the hands of the good on the same account; and what is that, but for righteousness’ sake? For if the good act not so on the same account as that on which the wicked suffer, because the good do so for righteousness’ sake, while the wicked suffer for unrighteousness, so then neither can the wicked act so on the same account as that for which the good suffer, because the wicked do so by unrighteousness, while the good suffer for righteousness’ sake. And how then will that be true, All these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, when the former do it not for the name of Christ, that is, for righteousness’ sake, but because of their own iniquity? Such a question is solved in this way, if only we understand the words, All these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, as referring entirely to the righteous, as if it had been said, All these things will you suffer at their hands for my name’s sake, so that the words, they will do unto you, are equivalent to these, You will suffer at their hands. But if for my name’s sake is to be taken as if He had said, For my name’s sake which they hate in you, so also may the other be taken for that righteousness’ sake which they hate in you; and in this way the good, when they institute persecution against the wicked, may be rightly said to do so both for righteousness’ sake, in their love for which they persecute the wicked, and for that wickedness’ sake which they hate in the wicked themselves; and so also the wicked may be said to suffer both for the iniquity that is punished in their persons, and for the righteousness which is exercised in their punishment.

4. It may also be inquired, if the wicked also persecute the wicked, just as ungodly princes and judges, while they were the persecutors of the godly, certainly also punished murderers and adulterers, and all classes of evil-doers whom they ascertained to be acting contrary to the public laws, how are we to understand the words of the Lord, If you were of the world, the world would love its own? John 15:19 For those whom it punishes cannot be loved by the world, which, we see, generally punishes the classes of crimes mentioned above, save only that the world is both in those who punish such crimes, and in those that love them. Therefore that world, which is to be understood as existing in the wicked and ungodly, both hates its own in respect of that section of men in whose case it inflicts injury on the criminal, and loves its own in respect of that other section in whose case it shows favor to its own partners in criminality. Hence, All these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, is said either in reference to that for the sake of which you suffer, or to that on account of which they themselves so deal with you, because that which is in you they both hate and persecute. And He added, Because they know not Him that sent me. This is to be understood as spoken of that knowledge of which it is also elsewhere recorded, But to know You is perfect intelligence. Wisdom 6:16 For those who with such a knowledge know the Father, by whom Christ was sent, can in no wise persecute those whom Christ is gathering; for they also themselves are being gathered by Christ along with the others.

Tractate 89 (John 15:22–23)

1. The Lord had said above to His disciples, If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent me. And if we inquire of whom He so spoke, we find that He was led on to these words from what He had said before, If the world hate you, know ye that it hated me before [it hated] you; and now in adding, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, He more expressly pointed to the Jews. Of them, therefore, He also uttered the words that precede, for so does the context itself imply. For it is of the same parties that He said, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; of whom He also said, If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also; but all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent me; for it is to these words that He also subjoins the following: If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. The Jews, therefore, persecuted Christ, as the Gospel very clearly indicates, and Christ spoke to the Jews, not to other nations; and it is they, therefore, that He meant to be understood by the world, that hates Christ and His disciples; and, indeed, not those alone, but even these latter were shown by Him to belong to the same world. What, then, does He mean by the words, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin? Was it that the Jews were without sin before Christ came to them in the flesh? Who, though he were the greatest fool, would say so? But it is some great sin, and not every sin, that He would have to be understood, as it were, under the general designation. For this is the sin wherein all sins are included; and whosoever is free from it, has all his sins forgiven him: and this it is, that they believed not on Christ, who came for the very purpose of enlisting their faith. From this sin, had He not come, they would certainly have been free. His advent has become as much fraught with destruction to unbelievers, as it is with salvation to those that believe; for He, the Head and Prince of the apostles, has Himself, as it were, become what they declared of themselves, to some, indeed, the savour of life unto life; and to some the savor of death unto death. 2Corinthians 2:16

2. But when He went on to say, But now they have no excuse for their sin, some may be moved to inquire whether those to whom Christ neither came nor spoke, have an excuse for their sin. For if they have not, why is it said here that these had none, on the very ground that He did come and speak to them? And if they have, have they it to the extent of thereby being barred from punishment, or of receiving it in a milder degree? To these inquiries, with the Lord’s help and to the best of my capacity, I reply, that such have an excuse, not for every one of their sins, but for this sin of not believing on Christ, inasmuch as He came not and spoke not to them. But it is not in the number of such that those are to be included, to whom He came in the persons of His disciples, and to whom He spoke by them, as He also does at present; for by His Church He has come, and by His Church He speaks to the Gentiles. For to this are to be referred the words that He spoke, He that receives you, receives me; Matthew 10:40 and, He that despises you, despises me. Luke 10:16 Or would ye, says the Apostle Paul, have a proof of Him that speaks in me, namely Christ. 2Corinthians 13:3

3. It remains for us to inquire, whether those who, prior to the coming of Christ in His Church to the Gentiles and to their hearing of His Gospel, have been, or are now being, overtaken by the close of this life, can have such an excuse? Evidently they can, but not on that account can they escape damnation. For as many as have sinned without the law, shall also perish without the law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law. Romans 2:12 And these words of the apostle, inasmuch as his saying, they shall perish, has a more terrible sound than when he says, they shall be judged, seem to show that such an excuse can not only avail them nothing, but even becomes an additional aggravation. For those that excuse themselves because they did not hear, shall perish without the law.

4. But it is also a worthy subject of inquiry, whether those who met the words they heard with contempt, and even with opposition, and that not merely by contradicting them, but also by persecuting in their hatred those from whom they heard them, are to be reckoned among those in regard to whom the words, they shall be judged by the law, convey somewhat of a milder sound. But if it is one thing to perish without the law, and another to be judged by the law; and the former is the heavier, the latter the lighter punishment: such, without a doubt, are not to have their place assigned in that lighter measure of punishment; for, so far from sinning in the law, they utterly refused to accept the law of Christ, and, as far as in them lay, would have had it altogether annihilated. But those that sin in the law, are such as are in the law, that is, who accept it, and confess that it is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good; Romans 7:12 but fail through infirmity in fulfilling what they cannot doubt is most righteously enjoined therein. These are they in regard to whose fate there may perhaps be some distinction made from the perdition of those who are without the law: and yet if the apostle’s words, they shall be judged by the law, are to be understood as meaning, they shall not perish, what a wonder if it were so! For his discourse was not about infidels and believers to lead him to say so, but about Gentiles and Jews, both of whom, certainly, if they find not salvation in that Saviour who came to seek that which was lost, Luke 19:10 shall doubtless become the prey of perdition; although it may be said that some shall perish in a more terrible, others in a more mitigated sense; in other words, that some shall suffer a heavier, and others a lighter penalty in their perdition. For he is rightly said to perish as regards God, whoever is separated by punishment from that blessedness which He bestows on His saints, and the diversity of punishments is as great as the diversity of sins; but the mode thereof is accounted too deep by divine wisdom for human guessing to scrutinize or express. At all events, those to whom Christ came, and to whom He spoke, have not, for their great sin of unbelief, any such excuse as may enable them to say, We saw not, we heard not: whether it be that such an excuse would not be sustained by Him whose judg ments are unsearchable, or whether it would, and that, if not for their entire deliverance from damnation, at least for its partial alleviation.

5. He that hates me, He says, hates my Father also. Here it may be said to us, Who can hate one whom he knows not? And certainly before saying, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, He had said to His disciples, These things will they do unto you, because they know not Him that sent me. How, then, do they both know not, and hate? For if the notion they have formed of Him is not that which He is in Himself, but some unknown conjecture of their own, then certainly it is not Himself they are found to hate, but that figment which they devise or rather suspect in their error. And yet, were it not that men could hate that which they know not, the Truth would not have asserted both, namely, that they both know not, and hate His Father. But such a possibility, if by the Lord’s help we are able to show it, cannot be demonstrated at present, as this discourse must now be brought to a close.

Tractate 90 (John 15:23)

1. The Lord says, as you have just been hearing, He that hates me, hates my Father also: and yet He had said a little before, These things will they do unto you, because they know not Him that sent me. A question therefore arises that cannot be overlooked, how they can hate one whom they know not? For if it is not God as He really is, but something else, I know not what, that they suspect or believe Him to be, and hate this; then assuredly it is not God Himself that they hate, but the thing they conceive in their own erroneous suspicion or baseless credulity; and if they think of Him as He really is, how can they be said to know Him not? It may be the case, indeed, with regard to men, that we frequently love those whom we have never seen; and in this way it can, on the other hand, be none the less impossible that we should hate those whom we have never seen. The report, for instance, whether good or bad, about some preacher, leads us not improperly to love or to hate the unknown. But if the report is truthful, how can one, of whom we have got such true accounts, be spoken of as unknown? Is it because we have not seen his face? And yet, though he himself does not see it, he can be known to no one better than to himself. The knowledge of any one, therefore, is not conveyed to us in his bodily countenance, but only lies open to our apprehension when his life and character are revealed. Otherwise no one would be able to know himself, because unable to see his own face. But surely he knows himself more certainly than he is known to others, inasmuch as by inward inspection he can the more certainly see what he is conscious of, what he desires, what he is living for; and it is when these are likewise laid open to us, that he becomes truly known to ourselves. And as these, accordingly, are commonly brought to us regarding the absent, or even the dead, either by hearsay or correspondence, it thus comes about that people whom we have never seen by face (and yet of whom we are not entirely ignorant), we frequently either hate or love.

2. But in such cases our credulity is frequently at fault; for sometimes even history, and still more ordinary report, turns out to be false. Yet, it ought to be our concern, in order not to be misled by an injurious opinion, seeing we cannot search into the consciences of men, to have a true and certain sentiment about things themselves. I mean, that in regard to this or that man, if we know not whether he is immodest or modest, we should at all events hate immodesty and love modesty: and if in regard to some one or other we know not whether he is unjust or just, we should at any rate love justice and abhor injustice; not such things as we erroneously fancy to ourselves, but such as we believingly perceive according to God’s truth, the one to be desired, the other to be shunned; so that, when in regard to things themselves we do desire what ought to be desired, and utterly avoid what ought to be avoided, we may find pardon for the mistaken feelings which we at times, yea, at all times, entertain regarding the actual state of others which is hidden from our eyes. For this, I think, has to do with human temptation, without which we cannot pass through this life, so that the apostle said, No temptation should befall you but such as is common to man. 1Corinthians 10:13 For what is so common to man as inability to inspect the heart of man; and therefore, instead of scrutinizing its inmost recesses, to suspect for the most part something very different from what is going on therein? And although in these dark regions of human realities, that is, of other people’s inward thoughts, we cannot clear up our suspicions, because we are only men, yet we ought to restrain our judgments, that is, all definite and fixed opinions, and not judge anything before the time, until the Lord come, and bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God. 1Corinthians 4:5 When, therefore, we are falling into no error in regard to the thing itself, so that there is an accordance with right in our reprobation of vice and approbation of virtue; surely, if a mistake is committed in connection with individuals, a temptation so characteristic of man is within the scope of forgiveness.

3. But amid all these darknesses of human hearts, it happens as a thing much to be wondered at and mourned over, that one, whom we account unjust, and who nevertheless is just, and in whom, without knowing it, we love justice, we sometimes avoid, and turn away from, and hinder from approaching us, and refuse to have life and living in common with him; and, if necessity compel the infliction of discipline, whether to save others from harm or bring the person himself back to rectitude, we even pursue him with a salutary harshness; and so afflict a good man as if he were wicked, and one whom unknowingly we love. This takes place if one, for example’s sake, who is modest is believed by us to be the opposite. For, beyond doubt, if I love a modest person, he is himself the very object that I love; and therefore I love the man himself, and know it not. And if I hate an immodest person, it is on that account, not him that I hate: for he is not the thing that I hate; and yet to that object of my love, with whom my heart makes continual abode in the love of modesty, I am ignorantly doing an injury, erring as I do, not in the distinction I make between virtue and vice, but in the thick darkness of the human heart. Accordingly, as it may so happen that a good man may unknowingly hate a good man, or rather loves him without knowing it (for the man himself he loves in loving that which is good; for what the other is, is the very thing that he loves); and without knowing it, hates not the man himself, but that which he supposes him to be: so may it also be the case that an unjust man hates a just man, and, while he opines that he loves one who is unjust like himself, unknowingly loves the just man; and yet so long as he believes him to be unjust, he loves not the man himself, but that which he imagines him to be. And as it is with another man, so is it also with God. For, to conclude, had the Jews been asked if they loved God, what other answer would they have given but that they did love Him, and that not with any intentional falsehood, but because erroneously fancying that they did so? For how could they love the Father of the truth, who were filled with hatred to the truth itself? For they do not wish their own conduct to be condemned, and it is the truth’s task to condemn such conduct; and thus they hated the truth as much as they hated their own punishment, which the truth awards to such. But they know not that to be the truth which lays its condemnation on such as they: therefore they hate that which they know not; and hating it, they certainly cannot but also hate Him of whom it is born. And in this way, because they know not the truth, by whose judgment they are condemned, as that which is born of God the Father; of a surety also they both know not, and hate [the Father] Himself. Miserable men! Who, because wishing to be wicked, deny that to be the truth whereby the wicked are condemned. For they refuse to own that to be what it is, when they ought themselves to refuse to be what they are; in order that, while it remains the same, they may be changed, lest by its judgment they fall into condemnation.

Tractate 91 (John 15:24–25)

1. The Lord had said, He that hates me, hates my Father also. For of a certainty he that hates the truth must also hate Him of whom the truth is born; on which subject we have already spoken, as we were granted ability. And then He added the words on which we have now to discourse: If I had not done among [in] them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. To wit, that great sin whereof He also says before, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. Their sin was that of not believing on Him who thus spoke and wrought. For they were not without sin before He so spoke to them and did such works among them; but this sin of theirs, in not believing on Him, is thus specially mentioned because really inclusive in itself of all sins besides. For had they been clear of this one, and believed on Him, all else would also have been forgiven.

2. But what is meant when, after saying, If I had not done among them works, He immediately added, which none other man did? Of a certainty, among all the works of Christ, none seem to be greater than the raising of the dead; and yet we know that the same was done by the prophets of olden time. For Elias did so; 1 Kings 17:21–22 and Elisha also, both when alive in the flesh, 2 Kings 4:35 and when he lay buried in his sepulchre. For when certain men, who were carrying a dead person, had fled there for refuge from an onset of their enemies, and had laid him down therein, he instantly came again to life. 2 Kings 13:21 And yet there were some works that Christ did which none other man did: as, when He fed the five thousand men with five loaves, and the four thousand with seven; when He walked on the waters, and gave Peter power to do the same; Matthew 14:25–29 when He changed the water into wine; John 2:9 when He opened the eyes of a man that was born blind, John 9:7 and many besides, which it would take long to mention. But we are answered, that others also have done works which even He did not, and which no other man has done. For who else save Moses smote the Egyptians with so many and mighty plagues, Exodus vii.-xii as when He led the people through the parted waters of the sea, Exodus 14:21–29 when he obtained manna for them from heaven in their hunger, Exodus xvi and water from the rock in their thirst? Exodus 17:6 Who else save Joshua the Son of Nun divided the stream of the Jordan for the people to pass over, Joshua iii and by the utterance of a prayer to God bridled and stopped the revolving sun? Joshua 10:12–14 Who save Samson ever quenched his thirst with water flowing forth from the jawbone of a dead ass? Judges 15:19 Who save Elias was carried aloft in a chariot of fire? 2 Kings 2:11 Who save Elisha, as I have just mentioned, after his own body was buried, restored the dead body of another to life? Who else besides Daniel lived unhurt amid the jaws of famishing lions, that were shut up with him? Daniel 6:22 And who else save the three men Ananias, Azariah, and Mishael, ever walked about unharmed in flames that blazed and did not burn? Daniel 3:23–27

3. I pass by other examples, as these I consider to be sufficient to show that some of the saints have done wonderful works, which none other man did. But we read of no one whatever of the ancients who cured with such power so many bodily defects, and bad states of the health, and troubles of mortals. For, to say nothing of those individual cases which He healed, as they occurred, by the word of command, the Evangelist Mark says in a certain place: And at even, when the sun had set, they brought unto Him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door. And He healed many that were sick of various diseases, and cast out many devils. Mark 1:32–34 And Matthew, in giving us the same account, has also added the prophetic testimony, when he says: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sickness. Matthew 8:17 In another passage also it is said by Mark: And wherever He entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought Him that they might touch if it were but the border of His garment: and as many as touched Him were made whole. Mark 6:56 None other man did such things in them. For so are we to understand the words in them, not among them, or in their presence; but directly in them, because He healed them. For He wished them to understand the works as those which not only occasioned admiration, but conferred also manifest healing, and were benefits which they ought surely to have requited with love, and not with hatred. He transcends, indeed, the miracles of all besides, in being born of a virgin, and in possessing alone the power, both in His conception and birth, to preserve inviolate the integrity of His mother: but that was done neither before their eyes nor in them. For the knowledge of the truth of such a miracle was reached by the apostles, not through any onlooking that they had in common with others, but in the course of their separate discipleship. Moreover, the fact that on the third day He restored Himself to life from the very tomb, in the flesh wherein He had been slain, and, never thereafter to die, with it ascended into heaven, even surpasses all else that He did: but just as little was this done either in the Jews or before their eyes; nor had it yet been done, when He said, If I had not done among them the works which none other man did.

4. The works, then, are doubtless those miracles of healing in connection with their bodily complaints which He exhibited to such an extent as no one before had furnished among them: for these they saw, and it is in reproaching them therewith that He proceeds to say, But now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father: but [this comes to pass] that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause [gratuitously]. He calls it, their law, not as invented by them, but given to them: just as we say, Our daily bread; which, nevertheless, we ask of God in conjoining the words Give us. Matthew 6:11 But one hates gratuitously who neither seeks advantage from the hatred nor avoids inconvenience: so do the wicked hate the Lord; and so also is He loved by the righteous, that is to say, gratuitously [gratis, freely,] inasmuch as they expect no other gifts beyond Himself, for He Himself will be all in all. But whoever would be disposed to look for something more profound in the words of Christ, If I had not done among them the works which none other man did (for although such were done by the Father, or the Holy Spirit, yet no one else did them, for the whole Trinity is one and the same in substance), he will find that it was He who did it even when some man of God did something similar. For in Himself He can do everything by Himself; but without Him no one can do anything. For Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit are not three Gods, but one God, of whom it is written, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who only does wondrous things. No one else, therefore, really himself did the works which He did among them; for any one else who did any such works, did them only through His doing. But He Himself did them without any doing on their part.

Tractate 92 (John 15:26–27)

1. The Lord Jesus, in the discourse which He addressed to His disciples after the supper, when Himself in immediate proximity to His passion, and, as it were, on the eve of departure, and of depriving them of His bodily presence while continuing His spiritual presence to all His disciples till the very end of the world, exhorted them to endure the persecutions of the wicked, whom He distinguished by the name of the world: and from which He also told them that He had chosen the disciples themselves, that they might know it was by the grace of God they were what they were, and by their own vices they had been what they had been. And then His own persecutors and theirs He clearly signified to be the Jews, that it might be perfectly apparent that they also were included in the appellation of that damnable world that persecutes the saints. And when He had said of them that they knew not Him that sent Him, and yet hated both the Son and the Father, that is, both Him who was sent and Him who sent Him – of all which we have already treated in previous discourses – He reached the place where it is said, This comes to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. And then He added, as if by way of consequence, the words whereon we have undertaken at present to discourse: But when the Comforter has come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He shall bear witness of me: and you also shall bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. But what connection has this with what He had just said, But now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father: but that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause? Was it that the Comforter, when He came, even the Spirit of truth, convicted those, who thus saw and hated, by a still clearer testimony? Yea, verily, some even of those who saw, and still hated, He did convert, by this manifestation of Himself, to the faith that works by love. Galatians 5:6 To make this view of the passage intelligible, we recall to your mind that so it actually befell. For when on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit fell upon an assembly of one hundred and twenty men, among whom were all the apostles; and when they, filled therewith were speaking in the language of every nation; a goodly number of those who had hated, amazed at the magnitude of the miracle (especially when they perceived in Peter’s address so great and divine a testimony borne in behalf of Christ, as that He, who was slain by them and accounted among the dead, was proved to have risen again, and to be now alive), were pricked in their hearts and converted; and so became aware of the beneficent character of that precious blood which had been so impiously and cruelly shed, because themselves redeemed by the very blood which they had shed. Acts 2:2 For the blood of Christ was shed so efficaciously for the remission of all sins, that it could wipe out even the very sin of shedding it. With this therefore in His eye, the Lord said, They hated me without a cause: but when the Comforter has come, He shall bear witness of me; saying, as it were, They hated me, and slew me when I stood visibly before their eyes; but such shall be the testimony borne in my behalf by the Comforter, that He will bring them to believe in me when I am no longer visible to their sight.

2. And ye also, He says, shall bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. The Holy Spirit shall bear witness, and so also shall you. For, just because you have been with me from the beginning, you can preach what ye know; which you cannot do at present, because the fullness of that Spirit is not yet present within you. He therefore shall testify of me, and you also shall bear witness: for the love of God shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Spirit, who shall be given unto you, Romans 5:5 will give you the confidence needful for such witness-bearing. And that certainly was still wanting to Peter, when, terrified by the question of a lady’s maid, he could give no true testimony; but, contrary to his own promise, was driven by the greatness of his fear thrice to deny Him. Matthew 26:69–74 But there is no such fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear. 1John 4:18 In fine, before the Lord’s passion, his slavish fear was questioned by a bond-woman; but after the Lord’s resurrection, his free love by the very Lord of freedom: John 21:15 and so on the one occasion he was troubled, on the other tranquillized; there he denied the One he had loved, here he loved the One he had denied. But still even then that very love was weak and straitened, till strengthened and expanded by the Holy Spirit. And then that Spirit, pervading him thus with the fullness of richer grace, kindled his hitherto frigid heart to such a witness-bearing for Christ, and unlocked those lips that in their previous tremor had suppressed the truth, that, when all on whom the Holy Spirit had descended were speaking in the tongues of all nations to the crowds of Jews collected around, he alone broke forth before the others in the promptitude of his testimony in behalf of the Christ, and confounded His murderers with the account of His resurrection. And if any one would enjoy the pleasure of gazing on a sight so charming in its holiness, let him read the Acts of the Apostles: Acts ii.-v and there let him be filled with amazement at the preaching of the blessed Peter, over whose denial of his Master he had just been mourning; there let him behold that tongue, itself translated from diffidence to confidence, from bondage to liberty, converting to the confession of Christ the tongues of so many of His enemies, not one of which he could bear when lapsing himself into denial. And what shall I say more? In him there shone forth such an effulgence of grace, and such a fullness of the Holy Spirit, and such a weight of most precious truth poured from the lips of the preacher, that he transformed that vast multitude of Jews who were the adversaries and murderers of Christ into men that were ready to die for His name, at whose hands he himself was formerly afraid to die with his Master. All this did that Holy Spirit when sent, who had previously only been promised. And it was these great and marvellous gifts of His own that the Lord foresaw, when He said, They have both seen and hated both me and my Father: that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. But when the Comforter has come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of me: and you also shall bear witness. For He, in bearing witness Himself, and inspiring such witnesses with invincible courage, divested Christ’s friends of their fear, and transformed into love the hatred of His enemies.

Tractate 93 (John 16:1–4)

1. In the words preceding this chapter of the Gospel, the Lord strengthened His disciples to endure the hatred of their enemies, and prepared them also by His own example to become the more courageous in imitating Him: adding the promise, that the Holy Spirit should come to bear witness of Him, and also that they themselves could become His witnesses, through the effectual working of His Spirit in their hearts. For such is His meaning when He says, He shall bear witness of me, and you also shall bear witness. That is to say, because He shall bear witness, you also shall bear witness: He in your hearts, you in your voices; He by inspiration, you by utterance: that the words might be fulfilled, Their sound has gone forth into all the earth. For it would have been to little purpose to have exhorted them by His example, had He not also filled them with His Spirit. Just as we see that the Apostle Peter, after having heard His words, when He said, The servant is not greater than his lord: if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; and seen that already fulfilled in Him, wherein, had example been sufficient, he ought to have imitated the patient endurance of his Lord, yet succumbed and fell into denial, as utterly unable to bear what He saw his Master enduring. But when he really received the gift of the Holy Spirit, he preached Him whom he had denied; and whom he had been afraid to confess, he had no fear now in openly proclaiming. Already, indeed, had he been sufficiently taught by example to know what was proper to be done; but not yet was he inspired with the power to do what he knew: he had got instruction to stand, but not the strength to keep him from falling. But after this was supplied by the Holy Spirit, he preached Christ even to the death, whom, in his fear of death, he had previously denied. And so the Lord in this succeeding chapter, on which we have now to address you, says, These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended. As it is sung in the psalm, Great peace have they who love Your law, and nothing shall offend them. Properly enough, therefore, with the promise of the Holy Spirit, by whose operation in their hearts they should be made His witnesses, He added, These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended. For when the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto us, Romans 5:5 they have great peace who love God’s law, so that nothing may offend them.

2. And then He expressly declares what they were to suffer: They shall put you out of the synagogues. But what harm was it for the apostles to be expelled from the Jewish synagogues, as if they were not to separate themselves therefrom, although no one expelled them? Doubtless He meant to announce with reprobation, that the Jews would refuse to receive Christ, from whom they as certainly would refuse to withdraw; and so it would come to pass that the latter, who could not exist without Him, would also be cast out along with Him by those who would not have Him as their place of abode. For certainly, as there was no other people of God than that seed of Abraham, they would, had they only acknowledged and received Christ, have remained as the natural branches in the olive tree; Romans 11:17 nor would the churches of Christ have been different from the synagogues of the Jews, for they would have been one and the same, had they also desired to abide in Him. But having refused, what remained but that, continuing themselves out of Christ, they put out of the synagogues those who would not abandon Christ? For having received the Holy Spirit, and so become His witnesses, they would certainly not belong to the class of whom it is said: Many of the chief rulers of the Jews believed on Him; but for fear of the Jews they dared not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. And so they believed on Him, but not in the way He wished them to believe when He said: How can you believe, who expect honor one of another, and seek not the honor that comes from God only? It is, therefore, with those disciples who so believe in Him, that, filled with the Holy Spirit, or, in other words, with the gift of divine grace, they no longer belong to those who, ignorant of the righteousness of God, and going about to establish their own, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God; Romans 10:3 nor to those of whom it is said, They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God: that the prophecy harmonizes, which finds its fulfillment in their own case: They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance: and in Your name shall they rejoice all the day; and in Your righteousness shall they be exalted: for You are the glory of their strength. Rightly enough is it said to such, They shall cast you out of the synagogues; that is, they who have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge; because, ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own, Romans 10:2–3 they expel those who are exalted, not in their own righteousness, but in God’s, and have no cause to be ashamed at being expelled by men, since He is the glory of their strength.

3. Finally, to what He had thus told them, He added the words: But the hour comes, that whosoever kills you will think that he does God service: and these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. That is to say, they have not known the Father, nor His Son, to whom they think they will be doing service in slaying you. Words which the Lord added in the way of consolation to His own, who should be driven out of the Jewish synagogues. For it is in thus announcing beforehand what evils they would have to endure for their testimony in His behalf, that He said, They will put you out of the synagogues. Nor does He say, And the hour comes, that whosoever kills you will think that he does God service. What then? But the hour comes: just in the way He would have spoken, were He foretelling them of something good that would follow such evils. What, then, does He mean by the words, They will put you out of the synagogues: but the hour comes? As if He would have gone on to say this: They, indeed, will scatter you, but I will gather you; or, They shall, indeed, scatter you, but the hour of your joy comes. What, then, has the word which He uses, but the hour comes, to do here, as if He were going on to promise them comfort after their tribulation, when apparently He ought rather to have said, in the form of continuous narration, And the hour comes? But He said not, And it comes, although predicting the approach of one tribulation after another, instead of comfort after tribulation. Could it have been that such a separation from the synagogues would so discompose them, that they would prefer to die, rather than remain in this life apart from the Jewish assemblies? Far surely would those be from such discomposure, who were seeking, not the praise of men, but of God. What, then, of the words, They will put you out of the synagogues: but the hour comes; when apparently He ought rather to have said, And the hour comes, that whosoever kills you will think that he does God service? For it is not even said, But the hour comes that they shall kill you, as if implying that their comfort for such a separation would be found in the death that would befall them; but The hour comes, He says, that whosoever kills you will think that he does God service. On the whole, I do not think He wished to convey any further meaning than that they might understand and rejoice that they themselves would gain so many to Christ, by being driven out of the Jewish congregations, that it would be found insufficient to expel them, and they would not suffer them to live for fear of all being converted by their preaching to the name of Christ, and so turned away from the observance of Judaism, as if it were the very truth of God. For so ought we to understand the reference of His words to the Jews, when He said of them, They will put you out of the synagogues. For the witnesses, in other words, the martyrs of Christ, were likewise slain by the Gentiles: they, however, thought not that it was to the true God, but to their own false deities, that they were doing service when they so acted. But every Jew that slew the preachers of Christ reckoned that he was doing God serv ice; believing as he did that all who were converted to Christ were deserting the God of Israel. For it was also by the same reasoning that they were incited to the murder of Christ Himself: because their own words on this subject have also been put on record. You perceive that the whole world is gone after him: If we let him live, the Romans will come, and take away both our place and nation. And those of Caiaphas: It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish. And accordingly in this address He sought by His own example to stimulate His disciples, to whom He had just been saying, If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; that as in slaying Him they thought they had done God a service, so also would it be in reference to them.

4. Such, then, is the meaning of these words: They will put you out of the synagogues; but have no fear of solitude: inasmuch as, when separated from their assembly, you will assemble so many in my name, that they, in very fear lest the temple, that was with them, and all the sacraments of the old law, should be deserted, will slay you: actually, in thus shedding your blood, full of the notion that they are doing God service. An illustration surely of the apostle’s words, They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge; Romans 10:2 when they imagine that they are doing God service in slaying His servants. Appalling mistake! Is it thus you would please God by striking down the God-pleaser; and is the living temple of God by your blows laid level with the ground, that God’s temple of stone may not be deserted? Accursed blindness! But it is in part that it has happened to Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles might come in: in part, I say, and not totally, has it happened. For not all, but only some of the branches have been broken off, that the wild olive might be ingrafted. For just at the time when the disciples of Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, were speaking in the tongues of all nations, and performing many divine miracles, and scattering divine utterances on every side, Christ, even though slain, was so beloved, that His disciples, when expelled from the congregations of the Jews, gathered into a congregation of their own a vast multitude of those very Jews, and had no fear of being left to solitude. Acts ii.-iv Whereupon, accordingly, the others, reprobate and blind, being inflamed with wrath, and having a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, and believing that they were doing God service, put them to death. But He, who was slain for them, gathered those together; just as He had also, before He was slain, instructed them in what was to happen, lest their minds, left ignorant and unprepared, should be cast into trouble by evils, however transient, that were unexpected and unprovided for; but rather by knowing of them beforehand, and sustaining them with patience, might be led onward to everlasting blessing. For that such was the cause of His making these announcements to them beforehand, is shown also by His words that followed: But these things have I told you, that, when their time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them. Their hour was an hour of darkness, a midnight hour. But the Lord commanded His loving-kindness in the daytime, and made them sing of it in the night: when the Jewish night threw no confusion of darkness into the day of the Christians, separated as it was from themselves; and when that which could slay the flesh had no power to darken their faith.

Tractate 94 (John 16:44–47)

1. When the Lord Jesus had foretold His disciples the persecutions they would have to suffer after His departure, He went on to say: And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you; but now I go my way to Him that sent me. And here the first thing we have to look at is, whether He had not previously foretold them of the sufferings that were to come. And the three other evangelists make it sufficiently clear that He had uttered such predictions prior to the approach of the supper: which was over, according to John, when He spoke, and added, And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. Are we, then, to settle such a question in this way, that they, too, tell us that He was near His passion when He said these things? Then it was not when He was with them at the beginning that He so spoke, for He was on the very eve of departing, and proceeding to the Father: and so also, even according to these evangelists, it is strictly true what is here said, And these things I said not unto you at the beginning. But what are we to do with the credibility of the Gospel according to Matthew, who relates that such announcements were made to them by the Lord, not only when He was on the eve of sitting down with His disciples to the passover supper, but also at the beginning, when the twelve apostles are for the first time expressed by name, and sent forth on the work of God? Matthew 10:17 What, then, is the meaning of what He says here, And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you; but that what He says here of the Holy Spirit who was to come to them, and to bear witness, when they should have such ills to endure, this He said not unto them at the beginning, because He was with themselves?

2. The Comforter then, or Advocate (for both form the interpretation of the Greek word, paraclete), had become necessary on Christ’s departure: and therefore He had not spoken of Him at the beginning, when He was with them, because His own presence was their comfort; but on the eve of His own departure it behooved Him to speak of His coming, by whom it would be brought about that with love shed abroad in their hearts they would preach the word of God with all boldness; and with Him inwardly bearing witness with them of Christ, they also should bear witness, and feel it to be no cause of stumbling when their Jewish enemies put them out of the synagogues, and slew them, with the thought that they were doing God service; because the charity bears all things, 1Corinthians 13:7 which was to be shed abroad in their hearts by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5 In this, therefore, is the whole meaning to be found, that He was to make them His martyrs, that is, His witnesses through the Holy Spirit; so that by His effectual working within them, they would endure the hardships of all kinds of persecution, and, set aglow at that divine fire, lose none of their warmth in the love of preaching. These things, therefore, He says, have I told you, that, when their time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them John 16:4. These things, I say, I have told you, not merely because you shall have to endure such things, but because, when the Comforter has come, He shall bear witness of me, that you may not keep them back through fear, and by whom you yourselves shall also be enabled to bear witness. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you, and I myself was your comfort through my bodily presence exhibited to your human senses, and which, as infants, you were able to comprehend.

3. But now I go my way to Him that sent me; and none of you, He says, asks me, Where are You going? He means that His departure would be such that none would ask Him of that which they should see taking place in broad daylight before their eyes: for previously to this they had asked Him whither He was going, and had been answered that He was going whither they themselves could not then come. Now, however, He promises that He will go away in such a manner that none of them shall ask Him whither He goes. For a cloud received Him when He ascended up from their side; and of His going into heaven they made no verbal inquiry, but had ocular evidence. Acts 1:9–11

4. But because I have said these things unto you, He adds, sorrow has filled your heart. He saw, indeed, what effect these words of His were producing in their hearts; for having not yet within them the spiritual consolation, which they were afterwards to have by the Holy Spirit, what they still saw objectively in Christ they were afraid of losing; and because they could have no doubt they were about to lose Him whose announcements were always true, their human feelings were saddened, because their carnal view of Him was to be left a blank. But He knew what was most expedient for them, because that inward sight, wherewith the Holy Spirit was yet to comfort them, was undoubtedly superior; not by bringing a human body into the bodies of those who saw, but by infusing Himself into the hearts of those who believed. And then He adds, Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you: as if He had said, It is expedient for you that this form of a servant be taken away from you; as the Word made indeed flesh I dwell among you; but I would not that you should continue to love me carnally, and, content with such milk, desire to remain infants always. It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. If I withdraw not the tender nutriment wherewith I have nourished you, you will acquire no keen relish of solid food; if you adhere in a carnal way to the flesh, you will not have room for the Spirit. For what is this, If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you? Was it that He could not send Him while located here Himself? Who would venture to say so? Neither was it, that where He was, thence the Other had withdrawn, or that He had so come from the Father as that He did not still abide with the Father. And still further, how could He, even when having His own abode on earth, be unable to send Him, who we know came and remained upon Him at His baptism; yea, more, from whom we know that He was never separable? What does it mean, then, If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but that you cannot receive the Spirit so long as you continue to know Christ after the flesh? Hence one who had already been made a partaker of the Spirit says, Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we [Him] no more. 2Corinthians 5:16 For now even the very flesh of Christ he did not know in a carnal way, when brought to a spiritual knowledge of the Word that had been made flesh. And such, doubtless, did the good Master wish to intimate, when He said, If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.

5. But with Christ’s bodily departure, both the Father and the Son, as well as the Holy Spirit, were spiritually present with them. For had Christ departed from them in such a sense that it would be in His place, and not along with Him, that the Holy Spirit would be present in them, what becomes of His promise when He said, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world; Matthew 28:20 and, I and the Father will come unto him, and will make Our abode with him; seeing that He also promised that He would send the Holy Spirit in such a way that He would be with them for ever? In this way it was, on the other hand, that seeing they were yet out of their present carnal or animal condition to become spiritual, with undoubted certainty also were they yet to have in a more comprehensive way both the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But in no one are we to believe that the Father is present without the Son and the Holy Spirit, or the Father and the Son without the Holy Spirit, or the Son without the Father and the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit without the Father and the Son, or the Father and the Holy Spirit without the Son; but wherever any one of Them is, there also is the Trinity, one God. But here the Trinity had to be suggested in such a way that, although there was no diversity of essence, yet the personal distinction of each one separately should be presented to notice; where those who have a right understanding can never imagine a separation of natures.

6. But that which follows, And when He has come, He will convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, indeed, because they believe not on me; but of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you shall see me no more; and of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged John 16:8–11; as if it were sin simply not to believe in Christ; and as if it were very righteousness not to see Christ; and as if that were the very judgment, that the prince of this world, that is, the devil, is judged: all this is very obscure, and cannot be included in the present discourse, lest brevity only increase the obscurity; but must rather be deferred till another occasion for such explanation as the Lord may enable us to give.

Tractate 95 (John 16:8–11)

1. The Lord, when promising that He would send the Holy Spirit, said, When He has come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. What does it mean? Is it that the Lord Jesus Christ did not reprove the world of sin, when He said, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin? And that no one may take it to his head to say that this applied properly to the Jews, and not to the world, did He not say in another place, If you were of the world, the world would love his own? Did He not reprove it of righteousness, when He said, O righteous Father, the world has not known You? And did He not reprove it of judgment when He declared that He would say to those on the left hand, Depart ye into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels? Matthew 25:41 And many other passages are to be found in the holy evangel, where Christ reproves the world of these things. Why is it, then, He attributes this to the Holy Spirit, as if it were His proper prerogative? Is it that, because Christ spoke only among the nation of the Jews, He does not appear to have reproved the world, inasmuch as one may be understood to be reproved who actually hears the reprover; while the Holy Spirit, who was in His disciples when scattered throughout the whole world, is to be understood as having reproved not one nation, but the world? For mark what He said to them when about to ascend into heaven: It is not for you to know the times or the moments, which the Father has put in His own power. But you shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit, that comes upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:7–8 Surely this is to reprove the world. But would any one venture to say that the Holy Spirit reproves the world through the disciples of Christ, and that Christ Himself does not, when the apostle exclaims, Would ye receive a proof of Him that speaks in me, namely Christ? 2Corinthians 13:3 And so those, surely, whom the Holy Spirit reproves, Christ reproves likewise. But in my opinion, because there was to be shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit that love Romans 5:5 which casts out the fear, 1John 4:18 that might have hindered them from venturing to reprove the world which bristled with persecutions, therefore it was that He said, He shall reprove the world: as if He would have said, He shall shed abroad love in your hearts, and, having your fear thereby expelled, you shall have freedom to reprove. We have frequently said, however, that the operations of the Trinity are inseparable; but the Persons needed to be set forth one by one, that not only without separating Them, but also without confounding Them together, we may have a right understanding both of Their Unity and Trinity.

2. He next explains what He has said of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin indeed, He says, because they have believed not on me. For this sin, as if it were the only one, He has put before the others; because with the continuance of this one, all others are retained, and in the removal of this, the others are remitted. But of righteousness, He adds, because I go to the Father, and you shall see me no more. And here we have to consider in the first place, if any one is rightly reproved of sin, how he may also be rightly reproved of righteousness. For if a sinner ought to be reproved just because he is a sinner, will any one imagine that a righteous man is also to be reproved because he is righteous? Surely not. For if at any time a righteous man also is reproved, he is rightly reproved on this account, that, according to Scripture, There is not a just man upon earth, that does good, and sins not. And accordingly, when a righteous man is reproved, he is reproved of sin, and not of righteousness. Since in that divine utterance also, where we read, Be not made righteous over-much, there is notice taken, not of the righteousness of the wise man, but of the pride of the presumptuous. The man, therefore, that becomes righteous over-much, by that very excess becomes unrighteous. For he makes himself righteous over-much who says that he has no sin, or who imagines that he is made righteous, not by the grace of God, but by the sufficiency of his own will: nor is he righteous through living righteously, but is rather self-inflated with the imagination of being what he is not. By what means, then, is the world to be reproved of righteousness, if not by the righteousness of believers? Accordingly, it is convinced of sin, because it believes not on Christ; and it is convinced of the righteousness of those who do believe. For the very comparison with believers is itself a reproving of unbelievers. And this the exposition itself sufficiently indicates. For in wishing to open up what He has said, He adds, Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you shall see me no more. He does not say, And they shall see me no more; that is, those of whom He had said, because they have believed not on me. Of them He spoke, when expounding what He denominated sin, in the words, because they have believed not on me; but when expounding what He called righteousness, whereof the world is convicted, He turned to those to whom He was speaking, and said, because I go to the Father, and you shall see me no more. Wherefore it is of its own sins, but of others’ righteousness, that the world is convicted, just as darkness is reproved by the light: For all things, says the apostle, that are reproved, are made manifest by the light. Ephesians 5:13 For the magnitude of the evil chargeable on those who do not believe, may be made apparent not only by itself, but also by the goodness of those who do believe. And since the cry of unbelievers usually is, How can we believe what we do not see? So the righteousness of unbelievers just required this very definition, Because I go to the Father, and you shall see me no more. For blessed are they who see not, and yet do believe. For of those also who saw Christ, the faith in Him that met with commendation was not that they believed what they saw, namely, the Son of man; but that they believed what they did not see, namely, the Son of God. But after His servant-form was itself also withdrawn from their view, then in every respect was the word truly fulfilled, The just lives by faith. For faith, according to the definition in the Epistle to the Hebrews, is the confidence of those that hope, the conviction of things that are not seen.

3. But how are we to understand, You shall see me no more? For He says not, I go to the Father, and you shall not see me, so as to be understood as referring to the interval of time when He would not be seen, whether short or long, but at all events terminable; but in saying, You shall see me no more, as if a truth announced beforehand that they would never see Christ in all time coming. Is this the righteousness we speak of, never to see Christ, and yet to believe in Him; seeing that the faith whereby the just lives is commended on the very ground of believing that the Christ whom it sees not meanwhile, it shall see some day? Once more, in reference to this righteousness, are we to say that the Apostle Paul was not righteous when confessing that He had seen Christ after His ascension into heaven, 1Corinthians 15:8 which was undoubtedly the time of which He had already said, You shall see me no more? Was Stephen, that hero of surpassing renown, not righteous in the spirit of this righteousness, who, when they were stoning him, exclaimed, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God? Acts 7:56 What, then, is meant by I go to the Father, and you shall see me no more, but just this, As I am while with you now? For at that time He was still mortal in the likeness of sinful flesh. Romans 8:3 He could suffer hunger and thirst, be wearied, and sleep; and this Christ, that is, Christ in such a condition, they were no more to see after He had passed from this world to the Father; and such, also, is the righteousness of faith, whereof the apostle says, Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. 2Corinthians 5:16 This, then, He says, will be your righteousness whereof the world shall be reproved, because I go to the Father, and you shall see me no more: seeing that you shall believe in me as in one whom you shall not see; and when you shall see me as I shall be then, you shall not see me as I am while with you meanwhile; you shall not see me in my humility, but in my exaltation; nor in my mortality, but in my eternity; nor at the bar, but on the throne of judgment: and by this faith of yours, in other words, your righteousness, the Holy Spirit will reprove an unbelieving world.

4. He will also reprove it of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. Who is this, save he of whom He says in another place, Behold, the prince of the world comes, and shall find nothing in me; that is, nothing within his jurisdiction, nothing belonging to him; in fact, no sin at all? For thereby is the devil the prince of the world. For it is not of the heavens and of the earth, and of all that is in them, that the devil is prince, in the sense in which the world is to be understood, when it is said, And the world was made by Him; but the devil is prince of that world, whereof in the same passage He immediately afterwards subjoins the words, And the world knew Him not; that is, unbelieving men, wherewith the world through its utmost extent is filled: among whom the believing world groans, which He, who made the world, chose out of the world; and of whom He says Himself, The Son of man came not to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He is the judge by whom the world is condemned, the helper whereby the world is saved: for just as a tree is full of foliage and fruit, or a field of chaff and wheat, so is the world full of believers and unbelievers. Therefore the prince of this world, that is, the prince of the darkness thereof, or of unbelievers, out of whose hands that world is rescued, to which it is said, You were at one time darkness, but now are you light in the Lord: Ephesians 5:8 the prince of this world, of whom He elsewhere says, Now is the prince of this world cast out, is assuredly judged, inas much as he is irrevocably destined to the judgment of everlasting fire. And so of this judgment, by which the prince of the world is judged, is the world reproved by the Holy Spirit; for it is judged along with its prince, whom it imitates in its own pride and impiety. For if God, in the words of the Apostle Peter, spared not the angels that sinned, but thrust them into prisons of infernal darkness, and gave them up to be reserved for punishment in the judgment, 2 Peter 2:4 how is the world otherwise than reproved of this judgment by the Holy Spirit, when it is in the Holy Spirit that the apostle so speaks? Let men, therefore, believe in Christ, that they be not convicted of the sin of their own unbelief, whereby all sins are retained: let them make their way into the number of believers, that they be not convicted of the righteousness of those, whom, as justified, they fail to imitate: let them beware of that future judgment, that they be not judged with the prince of the world, whom, judged as he is, they continue to imitate. For the unbending pride of mortals can have no thought of being spared itself, as it is thus called to think with terror of the punishment that overtook the pride of angels.

Tractate 96 (John 16:12–13)

1. In this portion of the holy Gospel, where the Lord says to His disciples, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now, there meets us first this subject of needful inquiry, how it was that He said a little before, All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you, and yet says here, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. But how it was that He spoke of what He had not yet done as if it were done, just as the prophet testifies that God has made those things which are still to come, when He says, Who has made those things which are still to come, we have already explained as well as we could when dealing with those words themselves. Now, however, you are perhaps wishing to know what those things were which the apostles were then unable to bear. But which of us would venture to assert his own present capacity for what they wanted the ability to receive? And on this account you are neither to expect me to tell you things which perhaps I could not comprehend myself were they told me by another; nor would you be able to bear them, even were I talented enough to let you hear of things that are above your comprehension. It may be, indeed, that some among you are fit enough already to comprehend things which are still beyond the grasp of others; and if not all about which the divine Master said, I have yet many things to say unto you, yet perhaps some of them: but what they were which He Himself thus omitted to tell them, it would be rash to have even the wish to presume to say. For at that time the apostles were not yet fitted even to die for Christ, when He said to them, You cannot follow me now, and when the very foremost of them, Peter, who had presumptuously declared that he was already able, met with a different experience from what he anticipated: and yet afterwards a countless number both of men and women, boys and girls, youths and maidens, old and young, were crowned with martyrdom; and the sheep were found able for that which, when the Lord spoke these words, the shepherds were still unable to bear. Ought, then, those sheep to have been asked, in that extremity of trial, when required to contend for the truth even unto death, and to shed their blood for the name or doctrine of Christ;– ought they, I say, to have been asked, Which of you would venture to account himself ready for martyrdom, for which Peter was still unfitted, even when taught face to face by the Lord Himself? In the same way, therefore, one may say that Christian people, even when desiring to hear, ought not to be told what those things are of which the Lord then said, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. If the apostles were still unable, much more so are you: although it may be that many now can bear what Peter then could not, in the same way as many are able to be crowned with martyrdom which at that time was still beyond the power of Peter, more especially that now the Holy Spirit has been sent, as He was not then, of whom He went on immediately to add the words, Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will teach you all truth, thereby showing of a certainty that they could not bear what He had still to say, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them.

2. Well, then, let us grant that it is so, that many can now bear those things when the Holy Spirit has been sent, which could not then, prior to His coming, be borne by the disciples: do we on that account know what it is that He would not say, as we should know it were we reading or hearing it as uttered by Himself? For it is one thing to know whether we or you could bear it; but quite another to know what it is, whether able to be borne or not. But when He Himself was silent about such things, which of us could say, It is this or that? Or if he venture to say it, how will he prove it? For who could manifest such vanity or recklessness as when saying what he pleased to whom he pleased, even though true, to affirm without any divine authority that it was the very thing which the Lord on that occasion refused to utter? Which of us could do such a thing without incurring the severest charge of rashness – a thing which gets no countenance from prophetic or apostolic authority? For surely if we had read any such thing in the books confirmed by canonical authority, which were written after our Lord’s ascension, it would not have been enough to have read such a statement, had we not also read in the same place that this was actually one of those things which the Lord was then unwilling to tell His disciples, because they were unable to bear them. As if, for example, I were to say that the words which we read at the opening of this Gospel, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God: and those which follow, because they were written afterwards, and yet without any mention of their being uttered by the Lord Jesus when He was here in the flesh, but were written by one of His apostles, to whom they were revealed by His Spirit, were some of those which the Lord would not then utter, because the disciples were unable to bear them; who would listen to me in making so rash a statement? But if in the same passage where we read the one we were also to read the other, who would not give due credence to such an apostle?

3. But it seems to me also very absurd to say that the disciples could not then have borne what we find recorded, about things invisible and of profoundest import, in the apostolic epistles, which were written in after days, and of which there is no mention that the Lord uttered them when His visible presence was with them. For why could they not bear then what is now read in their books, and borne by every one, even though not understood? Some things there are, indeed, in the Holy Scriptures which unbelieving men both have no understanding of when they read or hear them, and cannot bear when they are read or heard: as the pagans, that the world was made by Him who was crucified; as the Jews, that He could be the Son of God, who broke up their mode of observing the Sabbath; as the Sabellians, that the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit are a Trinity; as the Arians, that the Son is equal to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to the Father and Son; as the Photinians, that Christ is not only man like ourselves, but God also, equal to God the Father; as the Manicheans, that Christ Jesus, by whom we must be saved, condescended to be born in the flesh and of the flesh of man: and all others of various perverse sects, who can by no means bear whatever is found in the Holy Scriptures and in the Catholic faith that stands out in opposition to their errors, just as we cannot bear their sacrilegious vaporings and mendacious insanities. For what else is it not to be able to bear, but not to retain in our minds with calmness and composure? But what of all that has been written since our Lord’s ascension with canonical truth and authority, is it not read and heard with equanimity by every believer, and catechumen also, before in his baptism he receive the Holy Spirit, even although it is not yet understood as it ought to be? How then, could not the disciples bear any of those things which were written after the Lord’s ascension, even though the Holy Spirit was not yet sent to them, when now they are all borne by catechumens prior to their reception of the Holy Spirit? For although the sacramental privileges of believers are not exhibited to them, it does not therefore happen that they cannot bear them; but in order that they may be all the more ardently desired by them, they are honorably concealed from their view.

4. Wherefore, beloved, you need not expect to hear from us what the Lord then refrained from telling His disciples, because they were still unable to bear them: but rather seek to grow in the love that is shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto you; Romans 5:5 that, fervent in spirit, and loving spiritual things, you may be able, not by any sign apparent to your bodily eyes, or any sound striking on your bodily ears, but by the inward eyesight and hearing, to become acquainted with that spiritual light and that spiritual word which carnal men are unable to bear. For that cannot be loved which is altogether unknown. But when what is known, in however small a measure, is also loved, by the selfsame love one is led on to a better and fuller knowledge. If, then, you grow in the love which the Holy Spirit spreads abroad in your hearts, He will teach you all truth; or, as other codices have it, He will guide you in all truth: as it is said, Lead me in Your way, O Lord, and I will walk in Your truth. So shall the result be, that not from outward teachers will you learn those things which the Lord at that time declined to utter, but be all taught of God; so that the very things which you have learned and believed by means of lessons and sermons supplied from without regarding the nature of God, as incorporeal, and unconfined by limits, and yet not rolled out as a mass of matter through infinite space, but everywhere whole and perfect and infinite, without the gleaming of colors, without the tracing of bodily outlines, without any markings of letters or succession of syllables – your minds themselves may have the power to perceive. Well, now, I have just said something which is perhaps of that same character, and yet you have received it; and you have not only been able to bear it, but have also listened to it with pleasure. But were that inward Teacher, who, while still speaking in an external way to the disciples, said, I have still many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now, wishing to speak inwardly to us of what I have said of the incorporeal nature of God in the same way as He speaks to the angels, who always behold the face of the Father, Matthew 18:10 we should still be unable to bear them. Accordingly, when He says, He will teach you all truth, or will guide you into all truth, I do not think the fulfillment is possible in any one’s mind in this present life (for who is there, while living in this corruptible and soul-oppressing body, Wisdom 9:15 that can know all truth, when even the apostle says, We know in part?), but because it is effected by the Holy Spirit, of whom we have now received the earnest, 2Corinthians 1:22 that we shall attain also to the actual fullness of knowledge: whereof it is said by the same apostle, But then face to face; and, Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known; 1Corinthians 13:9, 12 not as a thing which he knows fully in this life, but which, as a thing that would still be future on to the attainment of that perfection, the Lord promised us through the love of the Spirit, when He said, He will teach you all truth, or will guide you unto all truth.

5. As these things are so, beloved, I warn you in the love of Christ to beware of impure seducers and sects of obscene filthiness, whereof the apostle says, But it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret: Ephesians 5:12 lest, when they begin to teach their horrible impurities, which no human ear whatever can bear, they declare them to be the very things whereof the Lord said, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now; and assert that it is the Holy Spirit’s agency that makes such impure and detestable things possible to be borne. The evil things which no human modesty whatever can endure are of one kind, and of quite another are the good things which man’s little understanding is unable to bear: the former are wrought in unchaste bodies, the latter are beyond the reach of all bodies; the one is perpetrated in the filthiness of the flesh, the other is scarcely perceivable by the pure mind. Be therefore renewed in the spirit of your mind, Ephesians 4:23 and understand what is the will of God, which is good, and acceptable, and perfect; Romans 12:2 that, rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the length, and breadth, and height, and depth, even to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17–19 For in such a way will the Holy Spirit teach you all truth, when He shall shed abroad that love ever more and more largely in your hearts.

Tractate 97 (John 16:12–13)

1. The Holy Spirit, whom the Lord promised to send to His disciples, to teach them all the truth which, at the time He was speaking to them, they were unable to bear: of the which Holy Spirit, as the apostle says, we have now received the earnest, 2Corinthians 1:22 an expression whereby we are to understand that His fullness is reserved for us till another life: that Holy Spirit, therefore, teaches believers also in the present life, as far as they can severally apprehend what is spiritual; and enkindles a growing desire in their breasts, according as each one makes progress in that love, which will lead him both to love what he knows already, and to long after what still remains to be known: so that those very things which he has some notion of at present, he may know that he is still ignorant of, as they are yet to be known in that life which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man has perceived. 1Corinthians 2:9 But were the inner Master wishing at present to say those things in such a way of knowing, that is, to unfold and make them patent to our mind, our human weakness would be unable to bear them. Whereof you remember, beloved, that I have already spoken, when we were occupied with the words of the holy Gospel, where the Lord says, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Not that in these words of the Lord we should be suspecting an over-fastidious concealment of no one knows what secrets, which might be uttered by the Teacher, but could not be borne by the learner, but those very things which in connection with religious doctrine we read and write, hear and speak of, as within the knowledge of such and such persons, were Christ willing to utter to us in the selfsame way as He speaks of them to the holy angels, in His own Person as the only-begotten Word of the Father, and coeternal with Him, where are the human beings that could bear them, even were they already spiritual, as the apostles still were not when the Lord so spoke to them, and as they afterwards became when the Holy Spirit descended? For, of course, whatever may be known of the creature, is less than the Creator Himself, who is the supreme and true and unchangeable God. And yet who keeps silence about Him? Where is His name not found in the mouths of readers, disputants, inquirers, respondents, adorers, singers, all sorts of haranguers, and lastly even of blasphemers themselves? And although no one keeps silence about Him, who is there that apprehends Him as He is to be understood, although He is never out of the mouths and the hearing of men? Who is there, whose keenness of mind can even get near Him? Who is there that would have known Him as the Trinity, had not He Himself desired so to become known? And what man is there that now holds his tongue about that Trinity; and yet what man is there that has any such idea of it as the angels? The very things, therefore, that are incessantly being uttered off-hand and openly about the eternity, the truth, the holiness of God, are understood well by some, and badly by others: nay rather, are understood by some, and not understood at all by others. For he that understands in a bad way, does not understand at all. And in the case even of those by whom they are understood in a right sense, by some they are perceived with less, by others with greater mental vividness, and by none on earth are apprehended as they are by the angels. In the very mind, therefore, that is to say, in the inner man, there is a kind of growth, not only in order to the transition from milk to solid food, but also to the taking of food itself in still larger and larger measure. But such growth is not in the way of a space-covering mass of matter, but in that of an illuminated understanding; because that food is itself the light of the understanding. In order, then, to your growth and apprehension of God, and in order that your apprehension may keep full pace with your ever-advancing growth, you ought to be addressing your prayer, and turning your hope, not to the teacher whose voice only reaches your ears, that is, who plants and waters only by outside labor, but to Him who gives the increase. 1Corinthians 3:6

2. Accordingly, as I have admonished you in my last sermon, take heed, those of you specially who are still children and have need of a milk diet, of turning a curious ear to men, who have found occasion for self-deception and the deceiving of others in the words of the Lord, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now, in order to the discovery of that which is unknown, while you still have minds that are incompetent to discriminate between the true and the false; and most especially on account of the obscene lewdnesses which Satan has instilled, by God’s permission, into unstable and carnal souls, for this end, that His judgments may everywhere be objects of terror, and that pure discipline may best manifest its sweetness in contrast with the impurities of wickedness; and that honor may be given to Him, and fear and modesty of demeanor assumed by every one, who has either been kept from falling into such evils by His kingly power, or been raised out of them by His uplifting hand. Beware, with fear and prayer, of rushing into that mystery of Solomon’s, where the woman that is foolish and brazen-faced, and become destitute of bread, invites the passers-by with the words, Come and make a pleasant feast on hidden bread, and the sweetness of stolen waters. For the woman thus spoken of is the vanity of the impious, who, utterly senseless as they are, fancy that they know something, just as was said of that woman, that she had become destitute of bread; who, though destitute of a single loaf, promises loaves; in other words, though ignorant of the truth, she promises the knowledge of the truth. But it is bread of a hidden character she promises, and which she declares is partaken of with pleasure, as well as the sweetness of stolen waters; in order that what is publicly forbidden to be uttered or believed in the Church, may be listened to and acted upon with willingness and relish. For by such secrecy profane teachers give a kind of seasoning to their poisons for the curious, that thereby they may imagine that they learn something great, because counted worthy of holding a secret, and may imbibe the more sweetly the folly which they regard as wisdom, the hearing of which, as a thing prohibited, they are represented as stealing.

3. Hence the system of magical arts commends its nefarious rites to those who are deceived, or ready to be so, by a sacrilegious curiosity. Hence, also, those unlawful divinations by the inspection of the entrails of slain animals, or of the cries and flights of birds, or of multiform demoniacal signs, are distilled by converse with abandoned wretches into the ears of persons who are on the brink of destruction. And it is because of these unlawful and punishable secrets that the woman mentioned above is styled not merely foolish, but also audacious. But such things are alien not only to the reality, but to the very name of our religion. And what shall we say of this foolish and brazen-faced woman seasoning, as she does, so many wicked heresies, and serving up so many detestable fables with Christian forms of expression? Would that they were only such as are found in theatres, whether as the subjects of song or dancing, or turned into ridicule by a mimicking buffoonery; and not, some of them, such as makes us grieve at the foolishness, while wondering at the audacity that could have contrived them, against God! And yet all these utterly senseless heretics, who wish to be styled Christians, attempt to color the audacities of their devices, which are perfectly ahorrent to every human feeling, with the chance presented to them of that gospel sentence uttered by the Lord, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now: as if these were the very things which the apostles could not then bear, and as if the Holy Spirit had taught them what the unclean spirit, with all the length he can carry his audacity, blushes to teach and to preach in broad daylight.

4. It is such whom the apostle foresaw through the Holy Spirit, when he said: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 2 Timothy 4:3–4 For that mentioning of secrecy and theft, whereof it is said, Partake with pleasure of hidden bread and the sweetness of stolen waters, creates an itching in those who listen with ears that are lusting after spiritual fornication, just as by a kind of itching also of desire in the flesh the soundness of chastity is corrupted. Hear, therefore, how the apostle foresaw such things, and gave salutary admonition about avoiding them, when he said, Shun profane novelties of words; for they increase unto much ungodliness, and their speech insinuates itself as does a cancer. He did not say novelties of words merely; but added, profane. For there are also novelties of words in perfect harmony with religious doctrine, as is told us in Scripture of the very name of Christians, when it began to be used. For it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians after the Lord’s ascension, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: Acts 11:26 and certain houses were afterwards called by the new names of hospices and monasteries; but the things themselves existed prior to their names, and are confirmed by religious truth, which also forms their defense against the wicked. In opposition also to the impiety of Arian heretics, they coined the new term, Patris Homousios; but there was nothing new signified by such a name; for what is called Homousios is just this: I and my Father are one, to wit, of one and the same substance. For if every novelty were profane, as little should we have it said by the Lord, A new commandment I give unto you; nor would the Testament be called New, nor the new song be sung throughout the whole earth. But there is profanity in the novelties of words, when it is said by the foolish and audacious woman, Come and enjoy the tasting of hidden bread, and the sweetness of stolen waters. From such enticing words of false science the apostle also gives his prohibitory warning, in the passage where he says, O Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane novelties of expression, and oppositions of science falsely so called; which some professing, have erred concerning the faith. 1 Timothy 6:20–21 For there is nothing that these men so love as to profess science, and to deride as utter silliness faith in those verities which the young are enjoined to believe.

5. But some one will say, Have spiritual men nothing in the matter of doctrine, which they are to say nothing about to the carnal, but to speak out upon to the spiritual? If I shall answer, They have not, I shall be immediately met with the words of the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians: I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. As unto babes in Christ I have given you milk to drink, and not meat to eat: for hitherto you were not able; neither yet now are you able; for you are yet carnal; 1Corinthians 3:1–2 and with these, We speak wisdom among them that are perfect; and with these also, Comparing spiritual things with spiritual: but the natural man perceives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him. The meaning of all this, in order that these words of the apostle may no longer lead to the hankering after secrets through the profane novelties of verbiage, and that what ought always to be shunned by the spirit and body of the chaste may not be asserted as only unable to be borne by the carnal, we shall, with the Lord’s permission, make the subject of dissertation in another discourse, so that for the time we may bring the present to a close.

Tractate 98 (John 16:12–33)

1. From the words of our Lord, where He says, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now, there arose a difficult question, which I recollect to have put off, that it might be handled afterwards at greater leisure, because my last discourse had reached its proper limits, and required to be brought to a close. And now, accordingly, as we have time to redeem our promise, let us take up its discussion as the Lord Himself shall grant us ability, who put it into our heart to make the proposal. And the question is this: Whether spiritual men have anything in doctrine which they should withhold from the carnal, but declare to the spiritual. For if we shall say, They have not, we shall meet with the reply, What, then, is to be made of the words of the apostle in writing to the Corinthians: I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. As unto babes in Christ, I have given you milk to drink, and not meat to eat: for hitherto you were not able; neither yet now are you able; for you are yet carnal? 1Corinthians 3:1–2 But if we say, They have, we have cause to fear and take heed, lest under such a pretext detestable doctrines be taught in secret, and under the name of spiritual, as things which cannot be understood by the carnal, may seem not only capable of being whitewashed by plausible excuses, but deserving also to be lauded in preaching.

2. In the first place, then, your Charity ought to know that it is Christ Himself as crucified, wherewith the apostle says that he has fed those who are babes as with milk; but His flesh itself, in which was witnessed His real death, that is, both His real wounds when transfixed and His blood when pierced, does not present itself to the minds of the carnal in the same manner as to that of the spiritual, and so to the former it is milk, and to the latter it is meat; for if they do not hear more than others, they understand better. For the mind has not equal powers of perception even for that which is equally received by both in faith. And so it happens that the preaching of Christ crucified, by the apostle, was at once to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Gentiles foolishness; and to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, the power of God, and the wisdom of God; 1Corinthians 1:23–24 but to the carnal, as babes who held it only as a matter of faith, and to the spiritual, as those of greater capacity, who perceived it as a matter of understanding; to the former, therefore, as a milk-draught, to the latter as solid food: not that the former knew it in one way out in the world at large, and the latter in another way in their secret chambers; but that what both heard in the same measure when it was publicly spoken, each apprehended in his own measure. For inasmuch as Christ was crucified for the very purpose of shedding His blood for the remission of sins, and of divine grace being thereby commended in the passion of His Only-begotten, that no one should glory in man, what understanding had they of Christ crucified who were still saying, I am of Paul? 1Corinthians 1:12 Was it such as Paul himself had, who could say, But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ? Galatians 6:14 In regard, therefore, even to Christ crucified, he himself found food in proportion to his own capacity, and nourished them with milk in accordance with their infirmity. And still further, knowing that what he wrote to the Corinthians might doubtless be understood in one way by those who were still babes, and differently by those of greater capacity, he said, If any one among you is a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandment of the Lord; but if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. 1Corinthians 14:37–38 Assuredly he would have the knowledge of the spiritual to be substantial, wherever not only faith had found a suitable abode, but a certain power of understanding was possessed; and whereby such believed those very things which as spiritual they likewise acknowledged. But let him be ignorant, he says, who is ignorant; because it was not yet revealed to him to know that which he believes. When this takes place in a man’s mind, he is said to be known of God; for it is God who endows him with this power of understanding, as it is elsewhere said, But now, knowing God, or rather, being known of God. Galatians 4:9 For it was not then that God first knew those who were foreknown and chosen before the foundation of the world; Ephesians 1:4 but then it was that He made them to know Himself.

3. Having ascertained this, therefore, at the outset, that the very things, which are equally heard by the spiritual and the carnal, are received by each according to the slender measure of his own capacity – by some as babes, by others as those of riper years – by one as milk nourishment, by another as solid food – there seems no necessity for any matters of doctrine being retained in silence as secrets, and concealed from infant believers, as things to be spoken of apart to those who are older, or possessed of a riper understanding; and let us regard it as needful to act thus, just because of the words of the apostle, I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. For even this very statement of his, that he knew nothing among them but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, 1Corinthians 2:2 he could not speak unto them as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal; because even that they were not able to receive as spiritual. But all who were spiritual among them received with spiritual understanding the very same truths which the others only heard as carnal; and in this way may we understand the words, I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as if he said, What I did speak, you could not receive as spiritual, but as carnal. For the natural man – that is, the man whose wisdom is of a mere human kind, and is called natural [literally, soulish] from the soul, and carnal from the flesh, because the complete man consists of soul and flesh – perceives not the things of the Spirit of God; 1Corinthians 2:14 that is, the measure of grace bestowed on believers by the cross of Christ, and thinks that all that is effected by that cross is to provide us with an example for our imitation in contending even to death for the truth. For if men of this type, who have no desire to be anything else than men, knew how it is that Christ crucified is made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord, 1Corinthians 1:30–31 they would doubtless no longer glory in man, nor say in a carnal spirit, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas; but in a spiritual way, I am of Christ. 1Corinthians 1:12

4. But the question is still further raised by what we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews: When now for the time ye ought to be teachers, you have need again to be taught which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and have become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that uses milk has no experience in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to them that are perfect, even those who by habit have their senses exercised to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:12–14 For here we see, as if clearly defined, what he calls the strong meat of the perfect; and which is the same as that which he writes to the Corinthans, We speak wisdom among them that are perfect. 1Corinthians 2:6 But who it was that he wished in this passage to be understood as perfect, he proceeded to indicate in the words, Even those who by habit have their senses exercised to distinguish good from evil. Those, therefore, who, through a weak and undisciplined mind, are destitute of this power, will certainly, unless enabled by what may be called the milk of faith to believe both the invisible things which they see not, and the comprehensible things which they do not yet comprehend, be easily seduced by the promise of science to vain and sacrilegious fables: so as to think both of good and evil only under corporeal forms, and to have no idea of God Himself save as some sort of body, and be able only to view evil as a substance; while there is rather a kind of falling away from the immutable Substance in the case of all mutable substances, which were made out of nothing by the immutable and supreme substance itself, which is God. And assuredly whoever not only believes, but also through the exercised inner senses of his mind understands, and perceives, and knows this, there is no longer cause for fear that he will be seduced by those who, while accounting evil to be a substance uncreated by God, make God Himself a mutable substance, as is done by the Manicheans, or any other pests, if such there be, that fall into similar folly.

5. But to those who are still babes in mind, and who as carnal, the apostle says, require to be nourished with milk, all discoursing on such a subject, wherein we deal not only with the believing, but also with the understanding and the knowing of what is spoken, must be burdensome, as being still unable to perceive such things, and be more fitted to oppress than to feed them. Whence it comes to pass that the spiritual, while not altogether silent on such subjects to the carnal, because of the Catholic faith which is to be preached to all, yet do not so handle them as, in their wish to simplify them to understandings that are still deficient in capacity, to bring their discourse on the truth into disrepute, rather than the truth that is in their discourse within the perceptions of their hearers. Accordingly in his Epistle to the Colossians he says: And though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and that which is lacking in your faith in Christ. Colossians 2:5 And in that to the Thessalonians: Night and day, he says, praying more abundantly, that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith. 1 Thessalonians 3:10 Here we are, of course, to understand those who were under such primary catechetical instruction, as implied their nourishment with milk and not with strong meat; of the former of which there is mention made in the Epistle to the Hebrews of an abundant supply for such as nevertheless he would now have had to be feeding on solid food. Accordingly he says: Therefore leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us have regard to the completion; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of the baptismal font, and of the laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. Hebrews 6:1–2 This is the copious supply of milk, without which even they cannot live, who have already indeed their reason sufficiently in use to enable them to believe, but who cannot distinguish good from evil, so as to be not only a matter of faith, but also of understanding (which belongs to the department of solid food). But when he includes doctrine also in his description of the milk, it is that which has been delivered to us in the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer.

6. But let us be far from supposing that there is any contrariety between this milk and the food of spiritual things that has to be received by the sound understanding, and which was wanting to the Colossians and Thessalonians, and had still to be supplied. For the supply of the deficiency implies no disapproval of that which existed. For even in the very food that we take, so far is there from being any contrariety between milk and solid food, that the latter itself becomes milk, in order to make it suitable to babes, whom it reaches through the medium of the mother’s or the nurse’s body; so did also mother Wisdom herself, who is solid food in the lofty sphere of angels, condescend in a manner to become milk for babes, when the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. But the man Christ Himself, who in His true flesh, true cross, true death, and true resurrection is called the pure milk of babes, is, when rightly understood by the spiritual, found to be the Lord of angels. Accordingly, babes are not to be so fed with milk as always to remain without understanding the Godhead of Christ; nor are they to be so withdrawn from milk as to turn their backs on His manhood. And the same thing may also be stated in another way in this manner: they are neither so to be fed with milk as never to understand Christ as Creator, nor so to be withdrawn from milk as ever to turn their backs on Christ as Mediator. In this respect, indeed, the similitude of maternal milk and solid food scarcely harmonizes with the reality as thus stated, but rather that of a foundation: for when the child is weaned, so as to be withdrawn from the nourishment of infancy, he never looks again among solid food for the breasts which he sucked; but Christ crucified is both milk to sucklings and meat to the more advanced. And the similitude of a foundation is on this account the more suitable, because, for the completion of the structure, the building is added without the foundation being withdrawn.

7. And since this is the case, do you, whoever you be, who are doubtless many of you still babes in Christ, be making advances towards the solid food of the mind, not of the belly. Grow in the ability to distinguish good from evil, and cleave more and more to the Mediator, who delivers you from evil; which does not admit of a local separation from you, but rather of being healed within you. But whoever shall say to you, Believe not Christ to be truly man, or that the body of any man or animal whatever was created by the true God, or that the Old Testament was given by the true God, and anything else of the same sort, for such things as these were not told you previously, when your nourishment was milk, because your heart was still unfit for the apprehension of the truth: such an one provides you not with meat, but with poison. For therefore it was that the blessed apostle, in addressing those who appeared to him already perfect, even after calling himself imperfect, said, Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. And that they might not rush into the hands of seducers, whose desire would be to turn them away from the faith by promising them the knowledge of the truth, and suppose such to be the meaning of the apostle’s words, God shall reveal even this unto you, he immediately added, Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Philippians 3:15–16 If, then, you have come to some understanding of what is not at variance with the rule of the Catholic faith, whereto you have attained as the way that is guiding you to your fatherland; and hast so understood it as to feel it a duty to dismiss all doubts whatever on the subject: add to the building, but do not abandon the foundation. And surely of such a character ought to be any teaching given by elders to those who are babes, as not to involve the assertion that Christ the Lord of all, and the prophets and apostles, who are much farther advanced in age than themselves, had in any respect spoken falsely. And not only ought you to avoid the babbling seducers of the mind, who prate away at their fables and falsehoods, and in such vanities make the promise, forsooth, of profound science contrary to the rule of faith, which we have accepted as Catholic; but avoid those also as a still more insidious pest than the others, who discuss truthfully enough the immutability of the divine nature, or the incorporeal creature, or the Creator, and fully prove what they affirm by the most conclusive documents and reasonings, and yet attempt to turn you away from the one Mediator between God and men. For such are those of whom the apostle says, Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. Romans 1:21 For what advantage is it to have a true understanding of the immutable Good to one who has no hold of Him by whom there is deliverance from evil? And let not the admonition of the most blessed apostle by any means lose its place in your hearts: If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. Galatians 1:9 He does not say, More than you have received; but, Other than you have received. For had he said the former, he would be prejudging himself, inasmuch as he desired to come to the Thessalonians to supply what was lacking in their faith. But one who supplies, adds to what was deficient, without taking away what existed: while he that transgresses the rule of faith, is not progressing in the way, but turning aside from it.

8. Accordingly, when the Lord says, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now, He means that what they were still ignorant of had afterwards to be supplied to them, and not that what they had already learned was to be subverted. And He, indeed, as I have already shown in a former discourse, could so speak, because the very things which He had taught them, had He wished to unfold them to them in the same way as they are conceived in regard to Him by the angels, their still remaining human weakness would be unable to bear. But any spiritual man may teach another man what he knows, provided the Holy Spirit grant him an enlarged capacity for profiting, wherein also the teacher himself may get some further increase, in order that both may be taught of God. Although even among the spiritual themselves there are some, doubtless, who are of greater capacity and in a better condition than others; so that one of them attained even to things of which it is not lawful for a man to speak. Taking advantage of which, there have been some vain individuals, who, with a presumption that betrays the grossest folly, have forged a Revelation of Paul, crammed with all manner of fables, which has been rejected by the orthodox Church; affirming it to be that whereof he had said that he was caught up into the third heavens, and there heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Nevertheless, the audacity of such might be tolerable, had he said that he heard words which it is not as yet lawful for a man to utter; but when he said, which it is not lawful for a man to utter, who are they that dare to utter them with such impudence and non-success? But with these words I shall now bring this discourse to a close; whereby I would have you to be wise indeed in that which is good, but untainted by that which is evil.

Tractate 99 (John 16:13)

1. What is this that the Lord said of the Holy Spirit, when promising that He would come and teach His disciples all truth, or guide them into all truth: For He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak? For this is similar to what He said of Himself, I can of my own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge. But when expounding that, we said that it might be taken as referring to His human nature; so that He seemed as the Son to announce beforehand that His own obedience, whereby He became obedient even unto the death of the cross, Philippians 2:8 would have its place also in the judgment, when He shall judge the quick and the dead; for He shall do so for the very reason that He is the Son of man. Wherefore He said, The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son; for in the judgment He will appear, not in the form of God, wherein He is equal to the Father, and cannot be seen by the wicked, but in the form of man, in which He was made even a little lower than the angels; although then He will come in glory, and not in His original humility, yet in a way that will be conspicuous both to the good and to the bad. Hence He says further: And He has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man. In these words of His own it is made clear that it is not that form that will be presented in the judgment, wherein He was when He thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but that which He assumed when He made Himself of no reputation. For He emptied Himself in assuming the form of a servant; Philippians 2:6–7 in which, also, for the purpose of executing judgment, He seems to have commended His obedience, when He said, I can of my own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge. For Adam, by whose disobedience, as that of one man, many were made sinners, did not judge as he heard; for he prevaricated what he heard, and of his own self did the evil that he did; for he did not the will of God, but his own: while this latter, by whose obedience, as that also of one man, many are made righteous, Romans 5:19 was not only obedient even unto the death of the cross, in respect of which He was judged as alive from the dead; but promised also that He would be showing obedience in the very judgment itself, wherein He is yet to act as judge of the quick and the dead, when He said, I can of my own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge. But when it is said of the Holy Spirit, For He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, shall we dare to harbor the notion that it was so said in reference to any human nature of His, or the assumption of any creature-form? For it was the Son alone in the Trinity who assumed the form of a servant, a form which in His case was fitted into the unity of His person, or, in other words, that the one person, Jesus Christ, should be the Son of God and the Son of man; and so that we should be kept from preaching a quaternity instead of the Trinity, which God forbid that we should do. And it is on account of this one personality as consisting of two substances, the divine and the human, that He sometimes speaks in accordance with that wherein He is God, as when He says, I and my Father are one; and sometimes in accordance with His manhood, as in the words, For the Father is greater than I; in accordance with which also we have understood those words of His that are at present under discussion, I can of my own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge. But in reference to the person of the Holy Spirit, a considerable difficulty arises how we are to understand the words, For He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak; since in it there exists not one substance of Godhead and another of humanity, or of any other creature whatsoever.

2. For the fact that the Holy Spirit appeared in bodily form, as a dove, Matthew 3:16 was a sight begun and ended at the time: just as also, when He descended upon the disciples, there were seen upon them cloven tongues as of fire, which also sat upon every one of them. Acts 2:3 Any one, therefore, who says that the dove was connected with the Holy Spirit in the unity of His person, as that it and Godhead (for the Holy Spirit is God) should go to constitute the one person of the Holy Spirit, is compelled also to affirm the same thing of that fire; and so may understand that he ought to assert neither. For those things in regard to the substance of God, which needed at any time to be represented in some outward way, and so exhibited themselves to men’s bodily senses, and then passed away, were formed for the moment by divine power from the subservient creation, and not from the dominant nature itself; which, ever abiding the same, excites into action whatever it pleases; and, itself unchangeable, changes all things else at its pleasure. In the same way also did that voice from the cloud actually strike upon the bodily ears, and on that bodily sense which is called the hearing; Luke 9:35 and yet in no way are we to believe that the Word of God, which is the only-begotten Son, is defined, because He is called the Word, by syllables and sounds: for when a sermon is in course of delivery, all the sounds cannot be pronounced simultaneously; but the various individual sounds come, as it were, in their own order to the birth, and succeed those which are dying away, so that all that we have to say is completed only by the last syllable. Very different from this, surely, is the way in which the Father speaks to the Son, that is to say, God to God, His Word. But this, so far as it can be understood by man, is a matter for the understanding of those who are fitted for the reception of solid food, and not of milk. Since, therefore, the Holy Spirit became not man by any assumption of humanity, and became not an angel by any assumption of angelic nature, and as little entered into the creature-state by the assumption of any creature-form whatever, how, in regard to Him, are we to understand those words of our Lord, For He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak? A difficult question; yea, too difficult. May the Spirit Himself be present, that, at least up to the measure of our power of thinking on such a subject, we may be able to express our thoughts, and that these, according to the little measure of my ability, may find entrance into your understanding.

3. You ought, then, to be informed in the first place, and, those of you who can, to understand, and the others, who cannot as yet understand, to believe, that in that substantial essence, which is God, the senses are not, as if through some material structure of a body, distributed in their appropriate places; as, in the mortal flesh of all animals there is in one place sight, in another hearing, in another taste, in another smelling, and over the whole the sense of touch. Far be it from us to believe so in the case of that incorporeal and immutable nature. In it, therefore, hearing and seeing are one and the same thing. In this way smelling also is said to exist in God; as the apostle says, As Christ also has loved us, and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Ephesians 5:2 And taste may be included, in accordance with which God hates the bitter in temper, and spews out of His mouth those who are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot: Revelation 3:16 and Christ our God says, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. There is also that divine sense of touch, in accordance with which the spouse says of the bridegroom: His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. Song of Songs 2:6 But these are not in God’s case in different parts of the body. For when He is said to know, all are included: both seeing, and hearing, and smelling, and tasting, and touching; without any alteration of His substance, and without the existence of any material element which is greater in one place and smaller in another: and when there are any such thoughts of God in those even who are old in years, they are the thoughts only of a childish mind.

4. Nor need you wonder that the ineffable knowledge of God, whereby He is cognizant of all things, is, because of the various modes of human speech designated by the names of all those bodily senses; since even our own mind, in other words, the inner man – to which, while itself exercising its knowing faculty in one uniform way, the different subjects of its knowledge are communicated by those five messengers, as it were, of the body, when it understands, chooses, and loves the unchangeable truth – is said both to see the light, whereof it is said, That was the true light; and to hear the word, whereof it is said, In the beginning was the Word; and to be susceptible of smell, of which it is said, We will run after the smell of your ointments; and to drink of the fountain, whereof it is said, With You is the fountain of life; and to enjoy the sense of touch, when it is said, But it is good for me to cleave unto God; in all of which it is not different things, but the one intelligence, that is expressed by the names of so many senses. When, therefore, it is said of the Holy Spirit, For He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, so much the more is a simple nature, which is simple [uncompounded] in the truest sense, to be either understood or believed, which in its extent and sublimity far surpasses the nature of our minds. For there is mutability in our mind, which comes by learning to the perception of what it was previously ignorant of, and loses by unlearning what it formerly knew; and is deceived by what has a similarity to truth, so as to approve of the false in place of the true, and is hindered by its own obscurity as by a kind of darkness from arriving at the truth. And so that substance is not in the truest sense simple, to which being is not identical with knowing; for it can exist without the possession of knowledge. But it cannot be so with that divine substance, for it is what it has. And on this account it has not knowledge in any such way as that the knowledge whereby it knows should be to it one thing, and the essence whereby it exists another; but both are one. Nor ought that to be called both, which is simply one. As the Father has life in Himself, and He Himself is not something different from the life that is in Him; so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself, that is, has begotten the Son, that He also should Himself be the life. Accordingly we ought to accept what is said of the Holy Spirit, For he shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, in such a way as to understand thereby that He is not of Himself. Because it is the Father only who is not of another. For the Son is born of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father; but the Father is neither born of, nor proceeds from, another. And yet surely there should not on that account occur to human thought any idea of disparity in the supreme Trinity; for both the Son is equal to Him of whom He is born, and the Holy Spirit to Him from whom He proceeds. But what difference there is in such a case between proceeding and being born, would be too lengthy to make the subject of inquiry and dissertation, and would make our definition liable to the charge of rashness, even after we had discussed it; for such a thing is of the utmost difficulty, both for the mind to comprehend in any adequate way, and even were it so that the mind has attained to any such comprehension, for the tongue to explain, however able the one that presides as a teacher, or he that is present as a hearer. Accordingly, He shall not speak of Himself; because He is not of Himself. But whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: He shall hear of Him from whom He proceeds. To Him hearing is knowing; but knowing is being, as has been discussed above. Because, then, He is not of Himself, but of Him from whom He proceeds, and of whom He has essence, of Him He has knowledge; from Him, therefore, He has hearing, which is nothing else than knowledge.

5. And be not disturbed by the fact that the verb is put in the future tense. For it is not said, whatsoever He has heard, or, whatsoever He hears; but, whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. For such hearing is everlasting, because the knowing is everlasting. But in the case of what is eternal, without beginning and without end, in whatever tense the verb is put, whether in the past, or present, or future, there is no falsehood thereby implied. For although to that immutable and ineffable nature, there is no proper application of Was and Will be, but only Is: for that nature alone is in truth, because incapable of change; and to it therefore was it exclusively suited to say, I Am That I Am, and You shall say unto the children of Israel, He Who Is has sent me unto you: Exodus 3:14 yet on account of the changeableness of the times amid which our mortal and changeable life is spent, there is nothing false in our saying, both it was, and will be, and is. It was in past, it is in present, it will be in future ages. It was, because it never was wanting; it will be, because it will never be wanting; it is, because it always is. For it has not, like one who no longer survives, died with the past; nor, like one who abides not, is it gliding away with the present; nor, as one who had no previous existence, will it rise up with the future. Accordingly, as our human manner of speaking varies with the revolutions of time, He, who through all times was not, is not, and will not by any possibility be found wanting, may correctly bespoken of in any tense whatever of a verb. The Holy Spirit, therefore, is always hearing, because He always knows: ergo, He both knew, and knows, and will know; and in the same way He both heard, and hears, and will hear; for, as we have already said, to Him hearing is one with knowing, and knowing with Him is one with being. From Him, therefore, He heard, and hears, and will hear, of whom He is; and of Him He is, from whom He proceeds.

6. Some one may here inquire whether the Holy Spirit proceeds also from the Son. For the Son is Son of the Father alone, and the Father is Father of the Son alone; but the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit of one of them, but of both. You have the Lord Himself saying, For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you; Matthew 10:20 and you have the apostle, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts. Galatians 4:6 Are there, then, two, the one of the Father, the other of the Son? Certainly not. For there is one body, he said, when referring to the Church; and presently added, and one Spirit. And mark how he there makes up the Trinity. As you are called, he says, in one hope of your calling. One Lord, where he certainly meant Christ to be understood; but it remained that he should also name the Father: and accordingly there follows, One faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Ephesians 4:4–6 And since, then, just as there is one Father, and one Lord, namely, the Son, so also there is one Spirit; He is doubtless of both: especially as Christ Jesus Himself says, The Spirit of your Father that dwells in you; and the apostle declares, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts. You have the same apostle saying in another place, But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, where he certainly intended the Spirit of the Father to be understood; of whom, however, he says in another place, But if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And many other testimonies there are, which plainly show that He, who in the Trinity is styled the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit both of the Father and of the Son.

7. And for no other reason, I suppose, is He called in a peculiar way the Spirit; since though asked concerning each person in His turn, we cannot but admit that the Father and the Son are each of them a Spirit; for God is a Spirit, that is, God is not carnal, but spiritual. By the name, therefore, which they each also hold in common, it was requisite that He should be distinctly called, who is not the one nor the other of them, but in whom what is common to both becomes apparent. Why, then, should we not believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds also from the Son, seeing that He is likewise the Spirit of the Son? For did He not so proceed, He could not, when showing Himself to His disciples after the resurrection, have breathed upon them, and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. For what else was signified by such a breathing upon them, but that from Him also the Holy Spirit proceeds? And of the same character also are His words regarding the woman that suffered from the bloody flux: Some one has touched me; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. Luke 8:46 For that the Holy Spirit is also designated by the name of virtue, is both clear from the passage where the angel, in reply to Mary’s question, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? said, The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power [virtue] of the highest shall overshadow you; Luke 1:34–35 and our Lord Himself when giving His disciples the promise of the Spirit, said, But tarry ye in the city, until ye be endued with power [virtue] from on high; Luke 24:49 and on another occasion, You shall receive the power [virtue] of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me. It is of this virtue that we are to believe, that the evangelist says, Virtue went out of Him, and healed them all. Luke 6:19

8. If, then, the Holy Spirit proceeds both from the Father and from the Son, why said the Son, He proceeds from the Father? Why, do you think, but just because it is to Him He is wont to attribute even that which is His own, of whom He Himself also is? Hence we have Him saying, My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. If, therefore, in such a passage we are to understand that as His doctrine, which nevertheless He declared not to be His own, but the Father’s, how much more in that other passage are we to understand the Holy Spirit as proceeding from Himself, where His words, He proceeds from the Father, were uttered so as not to imply, He proceeds not from me? But from Him, of whom the Son has it that He is God (for He is God of God), He certainly has it that from Him also the Holy Spirit proceeds: and in this way the Holy Spirit has it of the Father Himself, that He should also proceed from the Son, even as He proceeds from the Father.

9. In connection with this, we come also to some understanding of the further point, that is, so far as it can be understood by such beings as ourselves, why the Holy Spirit is not said to be born, but to proceed: since, if He also were called by the name of Son, He could not avoid being called the Son of both, which is utterly absurd. For no one is a son of two, unless of a father and mother. But it would be utterly abhorrent to entertain the suspicion of any such intervention between God the Father and God the Son. For not even a son of human parents proceeds at the same time from father and from mother: but at the time that he proceeds from the father into the mother, it is not then that he proceeds from the mother; and when he comes forth from the mother into the light of day, it is not then that he proceeds from the father. But the Holy Spirit proceeds not from the Father into the Son, and then proceeds from the Son to the work of the creature’s sanctification; but He proceeds at the same time from both: although this the Father has given unto the Son, that He should proceed from Him also, even as He proceeds from Himself. And as little can we say that the Holy Spirit is not the life, seeing that the Father is the life, and the Son is the life. And in the same way as the Father, who has life in Himself, has given to the Son also to have life in Himself; so has He also given that life should proceed from Him, even as it also proceeds from Himself. But we come now to the words of our Lord that follow, when He says: And He will show you things to come. He shall glorify me; for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father has are mine: therefore, said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. But as the present discourse has already been protracted to some length, they must be left over for another.

Tractate 100 (John 16:13–15)

1. When our Lord gave the promise of the coming of His Holy Spirit, He said, He shall teach you all truth, or, as we read in some copies, He shall guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. On these Gospel words we have already discoursed as the Lord enabled us; and now give your attention to those that follow. And He will show you, He said, things to come. Over this, which is perfectly plain, there is no need to linger; for it contains no question that demands from us any regular exposition. But the words that He proceeds to add, He shall make me clearly known; for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you, are not to be carelessly passed over. For by the words, He shall make me clearly known, we may understand, that by shedding abroad [God’s] love in the hearts of believers, and making them spiritual, He showed them how it was that the Son was equal to the Father, whom previously they had only known according to the flesh, and as men themselves had thought of Him only as man. Or at least that, filled themselves through that very love with boldness, and divested of all fear, they might proclaim Christ unto men; and so His fame be spread abroad through the whole world. So that He said, He shall make me clearly known, as if meaning, He shall free you from fear, and endow you with a love that will so inflame your zeal in preaching me, that you will send forth the odor, and commend the honor of, my glory throughout the world. For what they were to do in the Holy Spirit, He said that the Spirit Himself would also do, as is implied in the words, For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you. Matthew 10:20 The Greek word, indeed, which is δοξάσει, has been rendered by the Latin interpreters in their respective translations, clarificabit (shall make clearly known) by one, and glorificabit (shall glorify) by another: for the idea expressed in Greek by the one term δόξα, from which is derived the verb δοξάσει, may be interpreted both by claritas (brightness) and gloria (glory). For by glory every one becomes bright, and glorious by brightness; and hence what is signified by both words, is one and the same thing. And, as the most famous writers of the Latin tongue in olden time have defined it, glory is the generally diffused and accepted fame of any one accompanied with praise. But when this happened in the world in regard to Christ, we are not to suppose that it was the bestowing of any great thing on Christ, but on the world. For to praise what is good is not of benefit to that which receives, but to those who give the commendation.

2. But there is also a false glory, when the praise given is the result of a mistake, whether in regard to things or to persons, or to both. For men are mistaken in regard to things, when they think that to be good which is evil; and in regard to persons, when they think one to be good who is evil; and in regard to both, when what is actually a vice is esteemed a virtue; and when he who is praised for something is destitute of what he is supposed to have, whether he be good or evil. To credit vain-glorious persons with the things they profess, is surely a huge vice, and not a virtue; and yet you know how common is the laudatory fame of such; for, as Scripture says, The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who practises iniquity is blessed. Here those who praise are not mistaken in the persons, but in the things; for that is evil which they believe to be good. But those who are morally corrupted with the evil of prodigality are undoubtedly such as those who praise them do not simply suspect, but perceive them to be. But further, if one feign himself a just man, and be not so, but, as regards all that he seems to do in a praiseworthy way in the sight of men, does it not for God’s sake, that is, for the sake of true righteousness, but makes glory from men the only glory he seeks and hankers after; while those with whom his extolled fame is generally accepted think of him only as living in a praiseworthy way for God’s sake – they are not mistaken in the thing, but are deceived in the person. For that which they believe to be good, is good; but the person whom they believe to be good, is the reverse. But if, for example, skill in magical arts be esteemed good, and any one, so long as he is believed to have delivered his country by those same arts whereof all the while he is utterly ignorant, attain among the irreligious to that generally accepted renown which is defined as glory, those who so praise err in both respects; to wit, both in the thing, for they esteem that good which is evil; and in the person, for he is not at all what they suppose him. But when, in regard to any one who is righteous by God’s grace and for God’s sake, in other words, truly righteous, there is on account of that very righteousness a generally accepted fame of a laudatory kind, then the glory is indeed a true one; and yet we are not to suppose that thereby the righteous man is made blessed, but rather those who praise him are to be congratulated, because they judge rightly, and love the righteous. And how much more, then, did Christ the Lord, by His own glory, benefit, not Himself, but those whom He also benefited by His death?

3. But that is not a true glory which He has among heretics, with whom, nevertheless, He appears to have a generally accepted fame accompanied with praise. Such is no true glory, because in both respects they are mistaken, for they both think that to be good which is not good, and they suppose Christ to be what Christ is not. For to say that the only-begotten Son is not equal to Him that begot, is not good: to say that the only-begotten Son of God is man only, and not God, is not good: to say that the flesh of the Truth is not true flesh, is not good. Of the three doctrines which I have stated, the first is held by the Arians, the second by the Photinians, and the third by the Manicheans. But inasmuch as there is nothing in any of them that is good, and Christ has nothing to do with them, in both respects they are in the wrong; and they attach no true glory to Christ, although there may appear to be among them a generally accepted fame regarding Christ of a laudatory character. And accordingly all heretics together, whom it would be too tedious to enumerate, who have not right views regarding Christ, err on this account, that their views are untrue regarding both good things and evil. The pagans, also, of whom great numbers are lauders of Christ, are themselves also mistaken in both respects, saying, as they do, not in accordance with the truth of God, but rather with their own conjectures, that He was a magician. For they reproach Christians as being destitute of skill; but Christ they laud as a magician, and so betray what it is that they love: Christ indeed they do not love, since what they love is that which Christ never was. And thus, then, in both respects they are in error, for it is wicked to be a magician; and as Christ was good, He was not a magician. Wherefore, as we have nothing to say in this place of those who malign and blaspheme Christ, – for it is of His glory we speak, wherewith He was glorified in the world – it was only in the holy Catholic Church that the Holy Spirit glorified Him with His true glory. For elsewhere, that is, either among heretics or certain pagans, the glory He has in the world cannot be a true one, even where there is a generally accepted fame of Him accompanied with praise. His true glory, therefore, in the Catholic Church is celebrated in these words by the prophet: Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; and Your glory above all the earth. Accordingly, that after His exaltation the Holy Spirit was to come, and to glorify Him, the sacred psalm, and the Only-begotten Himself, promised as an event of the future, which we see accomplished.

4. But when He says, He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you, listen thereto with Catholic ears, and receive it with Catholic minds. For not surely on that account, as certain heretics have imagined, is the Holy Spirit inferior to the Son; as if the Son received from the Father, and the Holy Spirit from the Son, in reference to certain gradations of natures. Far be it from us to believe this, or to say it, and from Christian hearts to think it. In fine, He Himself straightway solved the question, and explained why He said so. All things that the Father has are mine: therefore, said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. What would you more? The Holy Spirit thus receives of the Father, of whom the Son receives; for in this Trinity the Son is born of the Father, and from the Father the Holy Spirit proceeds. He, however, who is born of none, and proceeds from none, is the Father alone. But in what sense it is that the only-begotten Son said, All things that the Father has are mine (for it certainly was not in the same sense as when it was said to that son, who was not only begotten, but the elder of two, You are ever with me; and all that I have is yours), Luke 15:31 will have our careful consideration, if the Lord so will, in connection with the passage where the Only-begotten says to the Father, And all mine are Yours, and Yours are mine; so that our present discourse may be here brought to a close, as the words that follow require a different opening for their discussion.