Monday of the 5th Sunday of Pascha

"Blessed," it says, "are the poor." Not all the poor are blessed, for poverty is neutral. The poor can be either good or evil, unless, perhaps, the blessed pauper is to be understood as he whom the prophet described, saying, "A righteous poor man is better than a rich liar." Blessed is the poor man who cried and whom the Lord heard. Blessed is the man poor in offense. Blessed is the man poor in vices. Blessed is the poor man in whom the prince of this world finds nothing. Blessed is the poor man who is like that poor Man who, although he was rich, became poor for our sake. Matthew fully revealed this when he said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." One poor in spirit is not puffed up, is not exalted in the mind of his own flesh. This beatitude is first, when I have laid aside every sin, and I have taken off all malice, and I am content with simplicity, destitute of evils. All that remains is that I regulate my conduct. For what good does it do me to lack worldly goods, unless I am meek and gentle?

Let us see how St. Luke encompassed the eight blessings in the four. We know that there are four cardinal virtues: temperance, justice, prudence and fortitude. One who is poor in spirit is not greedy. One who weeps is not proud but is submissive and tranquil. One who mourns is humble. One who is just does not deny what he knows is given jointly to all for us. One who is merciful gives away his own goods. One who bestows his own goods does not seek another's, nor does he contrive a trap for his neighbor. These virtues are interwoven and interlinked, so that one who has one may be seen to have several, and a single virtue befits the saints. Where virtue abounds, the reward too abounds.… Thus temperance has purity of heart and spirit, justice has compassion, patience has peace, and endurance has gentleness.

But being about to utter His divine oracles, He begins to rise higher; although He stood in a low place, yet as it is said, He lifted up his eyes. What is lifting up the eyes, but to disclose a more hidden light?

Now Luke mentions only four blessings, but Matthew eight; but in those eight are contained these four, and in these four those eight. For the one has embraced as it were the four cardinal virtues, the other has revealed in those eight the mystical number. For as the eighth 1 is the accomplishment of our hope, so is the eighth also the completion of the virtues. But each Evangelist has placed the blessings of poverty first, for it is the first in order, and the purest, as it were, of the virtues; for he who has despised the world shall reap an eternal reward. Now can any one obtain the reward of the heavenly kingdom who, overcome by the desires of the world, has no power of escape from them? Hence it follows, He said, Blessed are the poor.

In that He says, Blessed are the poor, thou hast temperance; which abstains from sin, tramples upon the world, seeks not vain delights. In Blessed are they that hunger, thou hast righteousness; for he who hungers suffers together with the hungry, and by suffering together with him gives to him, by giving becomes righteous, and his righteousness abideth for ever. In Blessed are they that weep now (Ps. 112:9.), thou hast prudence; which is to weep for the things of time, and to seek those which are eternal. In Blessed are ye when men hate you, thou hast fortitude; not that which deserves hatred for crime, but which suffers persecution for faith. For so thou wilt attain to the crown of suffering, if thou slightest the favour of men, and seekest that which is from God. Temperance therefore brings with it a pure heart; righteousness, mercy; prudence, peace; fortitude, meekness. The virtues are so joined and linked to one another, that he who has one seems to have many; and the Saints have each one especial virtue, but the more abundant virtue has the richer reward. What hospitality in Abraham, what humility, but because he excelled in faith, he gained the preeminence above all others. To every one there are many rewards because many incentives to virtue, but that which is most abundant in a good action, has the most exceeding reward.

(in Ps. 33.) But not every one oppressed with poverty is blessed, but he who has preferred the commandment of Christ to worldly riches. For many are poor in their possessions, yet most covetous in their disposition; these poverty does not save, but their affections condemn. For nothing involuntary deserves a blessing, because all virtue is characterized by the freedom of the will. Blessed then is the poor man as being the disciple of Christ, Who endured poverty for us. For the Lord Himself has fulfilled every work which leads to happiness, leaving Himself an example for us to follow.

And he, lifting his eyes towards his disciples, said, Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. And although he speaks generally to all, yet he more specifically lifts his eyes towards the disciples, so that to those who perceive the word with the attentive ear of the heart, he may more broadly reveal the light of inward savor. This is similar to what Matthew says: And when he sat down, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit (Matt. V). For those to whom he opens his mouth while sitting on the mountain to hear lofty things, he directs his eyes standing in the plain, so that they may plainly understand what they have heard. Therefore, blessed are the poor. Certainly not all, but only those who regard all the heights of the present age as nothing, even if they may seem lofty. Who are rightly deemed worthy of the gift of the heavenly kingdom, because they are found to be stripped of the desire for human delight. Such poverty as King David, declaring the poverty he endured, said: But I am poor and needy. And elsewhere, not only considering earthly things as trivial, but even the heavenly ones for the Lord's sake, saying: For what is there for me in heaven, and what have I desired on earth besides thee (Psalm LXXII)? Soon, when he had fixed the anchor of his hope, he manifests by adding: But for me it is good to cling to God, to put my trust in the Lord God. Otherwise, some in the most wretched condition of poverty, both here lack the joys of the world due to the scarcity of things, and there lack the kingdom of God due to the wickedness of their deeds.

And although He speaks in a general way to all, yet more especially He lifts up His eyes on His disciples; for it follows, on his disciples, that to those who receive the word listening attentively with the heart, He might reveal more fully the light of its deep meaning.

Concerning the promise of the beatitudes, note that he promises four things, namely the kingdom, which consists in participation in divine power; fullness, which consists in the taste of divine goodness; laughter, which consists in the contemplation of divine truth; and a great reward, which consists in the duration of eternity. And these four are designated in Ephesians three: "That you may be able," he says, "to comprehend with all the Saints what is the length, breadth, height, and depth"; the length of eternity, the breadth of goodness, the height of power, and the depth of wisdom or truth. Moreover, he promises these four things to four kinds of merits that raise us to God and build up our free will. For the kingdom of wealth is promised to those who despise temporal goods, such as are the poor; the banquet of abundance to those who desire spiritual things, and these are called the hungry; the laughter of delight to those who detest the evils of sin, and these are called the weeping; the multitude of reward to those who endure the evils of punishment, and these are the patient. In these four is enclosed the perfection of the human will with respect to a twofold good and with respect to a twofold evil.

First, therefore, he promises to the poor the kingdom of wealth on account of their contempt of temporal things, and such were the disciples, and therefore he says: And he, lifting up his eyes upon his disciples, said: Blessed are the poor, etc. By lifting up his eyes he calls them blessed, because "the eyes of the Lord are upon the just," and especially upon the poor: Ecclesiasticus eleven: "There is a man who is feeble and in need of recovery, lacking in strength and abounding in poverty, and the eye of the Lord looked upon him for good." Moreover, he calls these poor blessed because they are prepared for beatitude. And therefore he adds: For yours is the kingdom of God, which indeed is very great. For in the Psalm: "Your kingdom, O Lord, is a kingdom of all ages." This he says belongs to the poor, because the poor are its heirs, according to that passage in James two: "Has not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom which God has promised to those who love him?" "Better therefore is the poor man who walks in his simplicity than the rich man who twists his lips and is foolish," Proverbs nineteen.

And note that he says is in the present tense, either on account of the certainty of the promise, or also because the truly poor now in a certain way begin to be kings, according to that passage in 2 Corinthians 6: "As having nothing and yet possessing all things." "For their deep poverty has abounded unto the riches of simplicity," as is said in 2 Corinthians 8. Whence the evangelical or voluntary poor are now to be reckoned as already blessed, not wretched. Seneca: "No one is born rich: whoever comes forth into the light is commanded to be content with bread and milk." "No one is poor amid these things: among which if anyone has enclosed his desire, he will be able to contend with Jupiter concerning happiness." And note that he begins from poverty, because, as Ambrose says there, "poverty is the first parent of virtues, because he who has despised worldly things will merit eternal things," an imitator of that poor one "who, though he was rich, became poor for our sake," 2 Corinthians 8.

Of poverty--the affliction which actually or potentially includes all other afflictions--I would not dare to speak as from myself; and those who reject Christianity will not be moved by Christ's statement that poverty is blessed. But here a rather remarkable fact comes to my aid. Those who would most scornfully repudiate Christianity as a mere "opiate of the people" have a contempt for the rich, that is, for all mankind except the poor. They regard the poor as the only people worth preserving from "liquidation", and place in them the only hope of the human race. But this is not compatible with a belief that the effects of poverty on those who suffer it are wholly evil; it even implies that they are good. The Marxist thus finds himself in real agreement with the Christian in those two beliefs which Christianity paradoxically demands--that poverty is blessed and yet ought to be removed.

After the ordination of the Apostles, the Saviour directed His disciples to the newness of the evangelical life.

In the Gospel according to St. Matthew it is said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, that we should understand the poor in spirit to be one of a modest and somewhat depressed mind. Hence our Saviour says, Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart. But Luke says, Blessed are the poor, without the addition of spirit, calling those poor who despise riches. For it became those who were to preach the doctrines of the saving Gospel to have no covetousness, but their affections set upon higher things.

But when the celestial kingdom is considered in the many gradations of its blessings, the first step in the scale belongs to those who by divine instinct embrace poverty. Such did He make those who first became His disciples; therefore He says in their person, For yours is the kingdom of heaven, as pointedly addressing Himself to those present, upon whom also He lifted up His eyes.

The poor have many other vices, but, at least, they are never realistic. The poor are melodramatic and romantic in grain; the poor all believe in high moral platitudes and copy-book maxims; probably this is the ultimate meaning of the great saying, "Blessed are the poor." Blessed are the poor, for they are always making life, or trying to make life like an Adelphi play.

There remains always this great boast, perhaps the greatest boast that is possible to human nature. I mean the great boast that the most unhappy part of our population is also the most hilarious part. The poor can forget that social problem which we (the moderately rich) ought never to forget. Blessed are the poor; for they alone have not the poor always with them. The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it.

But in a deeper sense, as they who partake of bodily food vary their appetites according to the nature of the things to be eaten; so also in the food of the soul, by some indeed that is desired which depends upon the opinion of men, by others, that which isessentially and of its own nature good. Hence, according to Matthew, men are blessed who account righteousness in the place of food and drink; by righteousness I mean not a particular but an universal virtue, which he who hungers after is said to be blessed.

The phrase "lift up your eyes" occurs in many places in Scripture. By this expression, the divine Word admonishes us to exalt and lift up our thoughts. It invites us to elevate the insight that lies below in a rather sickly condition and is stooped and completely incapable of looking up. For instance, it is written in Isaiah, "Lift up your eyes on high and see. Who has made all these things known?"The Savior too, when he is about to deliver the Beatitudes, lifts up his eyes to the disciples and says "blessed" are such and such.

"Wherefore, girding up your loins," "serve the Lord in fear" and truth, as those who have forsaken the vain, empty talk and error of the multitude, and "believed in Him who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and gave Him glory," and a throne at His right hand. To Him all things in heaven and on earth are subject. Him every spirit serves. He comes as the Judge of the living and the dead. His blood will God require of those who do not believe in Him. But He who raised Him up from the dead will raise up us also, if we do His will, and walk in His commandments, and love what He loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness, covetousness, love of money, evil speaking, false witness; "not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing," or blow for blow, or cursing for cursing, but being mindful of what the Lord said in His teaching: "Judge not, that ye be not judged; forgive, and it shall be forgiven unto you; be merciful, that ye may obtain mercy; with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again;" and once more, "Blessed are the poor, and those that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God."

"Then Caiaphas attempted to impugn the doctrine of Jesus, saying that He spoke vain things, for He said that the poor are blessed; and promised earthly rewards; and placed the chief gift in an earthly inheritance; and promised that those who maintain righteousness shall be satisfied with meat and drink; and many things of this sort He is charged with teaching. Thomas, in reply, proves that his accusation is frivolous; showing that the prophets, in whom Caiaphas believes, taught these things much more, and did not show in what manner these things are to be, or how they are to be understood; whereas Jesus pointed out how they are to be taken. And when he had spoken these things, and others of like kind, Thomas also held his peace."

But even now you have the Lord's sayings, as examples taking away from you all excuse. For what is it you say? "I shall be in need." But the Lord calls the needy "happy." "I shall have no food.

"Blessed are the needy" (for no less than this is required for interpreting the word in the Greek, "because theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Now this very fact, that He begins with beatitudes, is characteristic of the Creator, who used no other voice than that of blessing either in the first fiat or the final dedication of the universe: for "my heart," says He, "hath indited a very good word.

"Blessed are the needy, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven." "He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted.

To a Christian believer it is irksome to wed a believer inferior to herself in estate, destined as she will be to have her wealth augmented in the person of a poor husband! For if it is "the pour," not the rich, "whose are the kingdoms of the heavens," the rich will find more in the poor (than she brings him, or than she would in the rich).

Purify yourself with your tears. Wash yourselves with mourning. If you weep for yourself, another will not weep for you.… One who is a sinner weeps for himself and rebukes himself, that he may become righteous, for just people accuse themselves of sin. Let us pursue order, because it is written, "Set in order love in me." I have laid down sin. I have tempered my conduct. I have wept for my transgressions. I begin to hunger. I hunger for righteousness. The sick, when he is seriously ill, does not hunger, because the pain of the illness excludes hunger. What is the hunger for righteousness? What is the bread of which it is said, "I have been young and am old, and I have not seen the righteous man forsaken, nor his seed begging bread"? Surely one who is hungry seeks increase of strength. What greater increase of virtue is there than the rule of righteousness?

If you propose a choice between these two things, which is better, to laugh or to cry? Is there anybody who wouldn't prefer to laugh? Because repentance involves a beneficial sorrow, the Lord presented tears as a requirement and laughter as the resulting benefit. How? When he says in the Gospel, "Blessed are those who cry, because they shall laugh." So crying is a requirement, laughter the reward, of wisdom. He wrote laughter to mean joy. He did not mean howling with laughter but jumping for joy.

(Hom. de Grat. act.) But He promises laughing to those who weep; not indeed the noise of laughter from the mouth, but a gladness pure and unmixed with aught of sorrow.

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Matthew explains what it means to hunger, that is, to thirst for righteousness. He teaches us very clearly that we should never consider ourselves sufficiently righteous, but should always love and even burn for daily progress in righteousness. The Psalmist, burning with desire for heavenly things, shows that perfect satisfaction cannot come in this age but in the future, saying: As for me, I shall appear in righteousness before your face; I shall be satisfied when your glory is revealed (Psalm 17:15). It can also simply be understood: Blessed are you who hunger now, who discipline your body and make it a slave (1 Corinthians 9:27), who give yourselves to the word in hunger and thirst (2 Corinthians 11:27), because you will then enjoy the fullness of heavenly joys.

Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Those who weep not for the losses of temporal goods but for the detriment of spiritual virtues will be consoled by eternal bliss. Here we are commanded not only to weep for our own sins but also for the sins of our neighbors. If we love them as ourselves, we must consequently rejoice at their progress and grieve at their failings; and not only grieve but be moved to tears. Thus Samuel and David mourned the sin and death of Saul. Thus the Lord Himself wept over the sinful city, and, moved with compassion for the grieving sisters, wept over Lazarus, whom He was to resurrect by His divine majesty, showing human pity first. Mystically, this signifies that those who are dead in sin should be mourned by their neighbors so that they may revive. The promise that those who weep now will laugh should not be understood childishly; in the language of Scripture, laughter signifies inner exaltation and joy of the mind. As Sarah said: God has brought me laughter (Genesis 21:6). And in Job it is said: The lips of the truthful shall be filled with laughter. By these names, as I said, the inward joy of the soul is depicted.

That is, blessed are ye who chasten your body and subject it to bondage, who in hunger and thirst give heed to the word, for then shall ye receive the fulness of heavenly joys.

Plainly instructing us, that we ought never to account ourselves sufficiently righteous, but always desire a daily increase in righteousness, to the perfect fulness of which the Psalmist shows us that we can not arrive in this world, but in the world to come. I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall be made manifest (Ps. 17:15.). Hence it follows, For ye shall be filled.

Secondly, he promises to those who hunger the banquet of abundance on account of the desire for spiritual things: and this he indicates when he adds: Blessed are you who now hunger, namely for the food of justice, according to what is said in the Gloss on Matthew 5. For you shall be satisfied, through the banquet of abundance. Ambrose: "He who hungers seeks an increase of strength," according to that passage in Ecclesiasticus 24: "Those who eat me will hunger still more, and those who drink me will thirst still more." Those hunger for justice who can say with Jesus that word in John 4: "My food is to do the will of my Father." Those also hunger for justice who for love of justice willingly endure hunger: and these can say with the Apostle that word in 1 Corinthians 4: "Even unto this hour we hunger and thirst." Such were those holy Fathers, of whom in Hebrews 11 it is said that "they went about in sheepskins, destitute, afflicted, tormented," etc. Such shall be satisfied by the Lord, because, Revelation 7, "they shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, nor shall the sun fall upon them, nor any heat, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall rule them." And this will be in the divine glory, according to what is said in the Psalm: "I shall be satisfied when your glory shall appear"; and again: "They shall be inebriated with the abundance of your house, and you shall give them to drink of the torrent of your pleasure." And so is fulfilled that word in 1 Kings 2: "The hungry were filled." Nor is this surprising, because, Isaiah 25, "the Lord of hosts shall make for all peoples on this mountain a feast of vintage, of rich things full of marrow, of refined vintage"; and again, according to that word of the Psalm: "He fed them with the fat of wheat, and from the rock he satisfied them with honey."

Third, he promises the laughter of joy to those who weep on account of repentance for the evil of sin, when he adds: Blessed are you who now weep, namely for evils committed, as Hezekiah, "turning to the wall," "wept with great weeping," as is said in Isaiah thirty-eight; as also Peter, of whom in Matthew twenty-six after the denial it is said that "going out he wept bitterly"; and Job thirty: "My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those who weep." Or for the sins of others, as David over Saul, II Kings one; so Christ over Jerusalem, below in chapter nineteen: "Seeing the city, he wept over it." Or: you now weep, namely for the miseries of others: Job thirty: "I wept once over him who was afflicted"; Romans twelve: "Weep with those who weep." Or: You who now weep, for escaping the temptations of sins and their consequences: in Judges two it is said that "when the Angel of the Lord spoke to the children of Israel, they lifted up their voice and wept. And the name of that place was called the place of weepers—or of tears." And this place is the state of the present life, which lasts only until now. And therefore he says: You who now weep: I Peter one: "Though now for a little while, if need be, you are made sorrowful in various temptations, that the testing of your faith, much more precious than gold which is tried by fire, may be found unto praise," etc. Or: You who now weep, namely from desire for eternal things, and this is the proper understanding: John sixteen: "You shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and you shall be sorrowful; but your sorrow shall be turned into joy"; and the Psalm: "My tears have been my bread day and night, while it is said to me daily: Where is your God?" To these he says: you are blessed, because you shall laugh, with a spiritual laughter, which consists in the joy of the mind through the contemplation of truth: Job eight: "Your mouth shall be filled with laughter, and your lips with rejoicing"; for it is said in Proverbs thirty-one: "Strength and beauty are her clothing, and she shall laugh in the last day." This laughter shall be over one's own goods and those of others, according to what is said of Sarah in Genesis twenty-one: "The Lord has made laughter for me, and whoever hears of it will laugh with me."

After having commanded them to embrace poverty, He then crowns with honour those things which follow from poverty. It is the lot of those who embrace poverty to be in want of the necessaries of life, and scarcely to be able to get food. He does not then permit His disciples to be fainthearted on this account, but says, Blessed are ye who hunger now.

But poverty is followed not only by a want of those things which bring delight, but also by a dejected look, because of sorrow. Hence it follows, Blessed are ye that weep. He blesses those who weep, not those who merely drop tears from their eyes, (for this is common to the believing and unbelieving, when sorrow befals them,) but rather He calls those blessed, who shun a careless life, mixed up with sin, and devoted to carnal pleasures, and refuse enjoyments almost weeping from their hatred of all worldly things.

(de Beat. orat. 4.) But in a deeper sense, as they who partake of bodily food vary their appetites according to the nature of the things to be eaten; so also in the food of the soul, by some indeed that is desired which depends upon the opinion of men, by others, that which is essentially and of its own nature good. Hence, according to Matthew, men are blessed who account righteousness in the place of food and drink; by righteousness I mean not a particular but an universal virtue, which he who hungers after is said to be blessed.

(ubi sup.) For to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness He promises abundance of the things they desire. For none of the pleasures which are sought in this life can satisfy those who pursue them. But the pursuit of virtue alone is followed by that reward, which implants a joy in the soul that never faileth.

(Hom. 18. ad pop. Ant.) But godly sorrow is a great thing, and it worketh repentance to salvation. Hence St. Paul when he had no failings of his own to weep for, mourned for those of others. Such grief is the source of gladness, as it follows, For ye shall laugh. For if we do no good to those for whom we weep, we do good to ourselves. For he who thus weeps for the sins of others, will not let his own go unwept for; but the rather he will not easily fall into sin. Let us not be ever relaxing ourselves in this short life, lest we sigh in that which is eternal. Let us not seek delights from which flow lamentation, and much sorrow, but let us be saddened with sorrow which brings forth pardon. We often find the Lord sorrowing, never laughing.

For even if you suppose that the promises of the Creator were earthly, but that Christ's are heavenly, it is quite clear that heaven has been as yet the property of no other God whatever, than Him who owns the earth also; quite clear that the Creator has given even the lesser promises (of earthly blessing), in order that I may more readily believe Him concerning His greater promises (of heavenly blessings) also, than (Marcion's god), who has never given proof of his liberality by any preceding bestowal of minor blessings. "Blessed are they that hunger, for they shall be filled." I might connect this clause with the former one, because none but the poor and needy suffer hunger, if the Creator had not specially designed that the promise of a similar blessing should serve as a preparation for the gospel, that so men might know it to be His.

Meanwhile the promise of fulness to the hungry is a provision of God the Creator. "Blessed are they that weep, for they shall laugh." Turn again to the passage of Isaiah: "Behold, my servants shall exult with joy, but ye shall be ashamed; behold, my servants shall be glad, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart.

"Blessed are they that hunger, for they shall be filled." I might connect this clause with the former one, because none but the poor and needy suffer hunger, if the Creator had not specially designed that the promise of a similar blessing should serve as a preparation for the gospel, that so men might know it to be His.

"Blessed are they that weep, for they shall laugh." Turn again to the passage of Isaiah: "Behold, my servants shall exult with joy, but ye shall be ashamed; behold, my servants shall be glad, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart.

How unworthy, also, is the way in which you interpret to the favour of your own lust the fact that the Lord "ate and drank" promiscuously! But I think that He must have likewise "fasted" inasmuch as He has pronounced, not "the full; "but "the hungry and thirsty, blessed: " (He) who was wont to profess "food" to be, not that which His disciples had supposed, but "the thorough doing of the Father's work; " teaching "to labour for the meat which is permanent unto life eternal; " in our ordinary prayer likewise commanding us to request "bread," not the wealth of Attalus therewithal.

Do you also rejoice when ye suffer such things, for ye shall be blessed in that day.

Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they separate you, and reproach you. He who for the sake of the wealth of the inheritance of Christ in the saints, for the sake of the bread of eternal life, and for the hope of the heavenly joys, desires to suffer weeping, hunger, and poverty, is blessed. But much more blessed is he who does not fear to keep these virtues amidst adversities. For although men may hate with a wicked heart, they cannot harm the beloved heart of Christ. Let them separate and expel from the synagogue, Christ will find and strengthen. Let them reproach the name of the Crucified, He Himself raises the dead with Him and makes them sit in the heavenly places (Ephesians II).

And they will cast out your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. The name he says signifies the name of Christians, which, as far as their memory goes, has very often been erased and cast out by the Gentiles and Jews, with no longer any cause for hatred except for the Son of Man, because, evidently, believers would want to make the name of Christ their own surname; and therefore the persecutors of the highest name are, not unjustly, marked by the name of men. Blessed (He says) are you when men hate you, teaching them that they will be harassed by men, but will be blessed beyond men.

He then who on account of the riches of the inheritance of Christ, for the bread of eternal life, for the hope of heavenly joys, desires to suffer weeping, hunger, and poverty, is blessed. But much more blessed is he who does not shrink to maintain these virtues in adversity. Hence it follows, Blessed are ye when men shall hate you. For although men hate, with their wicked hearts they can not injure the heart that is beloved by Christ, It follows, And when they shall separate you. Let them separate and expel you from the synagogue. Christ finds you out, and strengthens you. It follows; And shall reproach you. Let them reproach the name of the Crucified, He Himself raises together with Him those that have died with Him, and makes them sit in heavenly places. It follows, And cast out your name as evil. Here he means the name of Christian, which by Jews and Gentiles as far as they were able was frequently erased from the memory, and east out by men, when there was no cause for hatred, but the Son of man; for in truth they who believed on the name of Christ, wished to be called after His name. Therefore He teaches that they are to be persecuted by men, but are to be blessed beyond men. As it follows, Rejoice ye in that day, and weep for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven.

Fourth, he promises to those who suffer the greatness of the reward on account of endurance in the evil of punishment, when he adds: Blessed shall you be, when men shall hate you, namely with respect to the act of the heart. Most fittingly he says: men, that is, those who are animal-like and bestial, because "man, when he was in honor, did not understand: he was compared to senseless beasts and was made like unto them"; First Corinthians 3: "Whereas there is among you jealousy and contention, are you not carnal, and do you not walk according to man"? according to that man, namely, of whom it is said in Sirach 28: "Man reserves wrath for man." These hate the servants of Christ: Proverbs 19: "The brothers of the poor man hate him"; and Matthew 10: "You shall be hated by all men for my name's sake."

With respect to the act of deed he adds: And when they shall separate you, namely by casting you out of the synagogues, according to that passage in John 9: "The Jews had already conspired that if anyone should confess him to be the Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue," and thus would be separated from others in reproach, even from his own household members, just as the Lord foretold would come to pass for his disciples: Matthew 10: "I have come to set a man against his father"; and afterward it is added: "And a man's enemies shall be those of his own household."

With respect to the act of the mouth he adds: And shall reproach you, reviling you, and shall cast out your name as evil, by defaming; First Peter 4: "If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you shall be blessed"; James 2: "They blaspheme the good name that has been invoked over you," because they call good evil, according to that passage in Matthew 5: "They shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." And because not just any punishment makes a Martyr unless the proper cause is present, therefore he adds: On account of the Son of Man: First Peter 3: "If you suffer anything for the sake of justice, you shall be blessed," that is, for the sake of Christ, "who was made by God wisdom and justice and sanctification." And for this threefold justice Paul wished to suffer; Acts 21: "I am prepared not only to be bound, but also to be killed in Jerusalem for the sake of Christ Jesus."

And, "Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, when they shall separate you, when they shall cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake;" if we do not detest our persecutors, and undergo punishments at their hands, not hating them under the idea that we have been put to trial more tardily than we looked for; but knowing this also, that every instance of trial is an occasion for testifying.

Which things must all now be considered by us, that no one may desire anything from the world that is now dying, but may follow Christ, who both lives for ever, and quickens His servants, who are established in the faith of His name. For there comes the time, beloved brethren, which our Lord long ago foretold and taught us was approaching, saying, "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things they will do unto you, because they have not known the Father nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them." Nor let any one wonder that we are harassed with constant persecutions, and continually tried with increasing afflictions, when the Lord before predicted that these things would happen in the last times, and has instructed us for the warfare by the teaching and exhortation of His words. Peter also, His apostle, has taught that persecutions occur for the sake of our being proved, and that we also should, by the example of righteous men who have gone before us, be joined to the love of God by death and sufferings. For he wrote in his epistle, and said, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is thing happened unto you; but as often as ye partake in Christ's sufferings, rejoice in all things, that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached in the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the name of the majesty and power of the Lord resteth on you, which indeed on their part is blasphemed, but on our part is glorified." Now the apostles taught us those things which they themselves also learnt from the Lord's precepts and the heavenly commands, the Lord Himself thus strengthening us, and saying, "There is no man that hath left house, or land, or parents, or brethren, or sisters, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive sevenfold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting." And again He says, "Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and shall separate you from their company, and shall cast you out, and shall reproach your name as evil for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold your reward is great in heaven."

But how can they follow Christ, who are held back by the chain of their wealth? Or how can they seek heaven, and climb to sublime and lofty heights, who are weighed down by earthly desires? They think that they possess, when they are rather possessed; as slaves of their profit, and not lords with respect to their own money, but rather the bond-slaves of their money. These times and these men are indicated by the apostle, when he says, "But they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and in perdition. For the root of all evil is the love of money, which, while some have coveted, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." But with what rewards does the Lord invite us to contempt of worldly wealth? With what compensations does He atone for the small and trifling losses of this present time? "There is no man," saith He, "that leaves house, or land, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, but he shall receive seven fold even in this time, but in the world to come life everlasting." If we know these things, and have found them out from the truth of the Lord who promises, not only is not loss of this kind to be feared, but even to be desired; as the Lord Himself again announces and warns us, "Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall cast you out, and shall speak of your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake! Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in heaven."

What hope and reward remains for the righteous and for martyrs after the conflicts and sufferings of this present time, The Holy Spirit shows and predicts by Solomon, saying: "And although in the sight of men they suffered torments, yet their hope is full of immortality. And having been troubled in a few things, they shall be in many happily ordered, because God has tried them, and has found them worthy of Himself. As gold in the furnace, He hath tried them; and as whole burnt-offerings of sacrifice, He hath received them, and in its season there will be respect of them. They will shine and run about as sparks in a place set with reeds. They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the peoples; and their Lord shall reign for ever." In the same also our vengeance is described, and the repentance of those who persecute and molest us is announced. "Then," saith he," shall the righteous stand in great constancy before such as have afflicted them, and who have taken away their labours; when they see it, they shall be troubled with a horrible fear: and they shall marvel at the suddenness of their unexpected salvation, saying among themselves, repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit, These are they whom we had sometime in derision and as a proverb of reproach. We fools counted their life madness, and their end to be without honour. How are they numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints! Therefore have we erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness hath not shined unto us, and the sun hath not risen upon us. We have been wearied in the way of unrighteousness and perdition, and have walked through hard deserts, but have not known the way of the Lord. What hath pride profited us, or what hath the boasting of riches brought to us? All these things have passed away like a shadow." Likewise in the cxvth Psalm is shown the price and the reward of suffering: "Precious," it says, "in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. In the cxxvth Psalm also is expressed the sadness of the struggle, and the joy of the retribution: "They who sow," it says. "in tears, shall reap in joy. As they walked, they walked and wept, casting their seeds; but as they come again, they shall come in exultation, bearing their sheaves." And again, in the cxviiith Psalm: "Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they who search His testimonies, and seek Him out with their whole heart." Moreover, the Lord in the Gospel, Himself the avenger of our persecution and the rewarder of our suffering, says: "Blessed are they who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And again: "Blessed shall ye be when men shall hate you, and shall separate you, and shall expel you, and shall revile your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in heaven." And once more: "Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." Nor do the rewards of the divine promise attend those alone who are reproached and slain; but if the passion itself, be wanting to the faithful, while their faith has remained sound and unconquered, and having forsaken and contemned all his possessions, the Christian has shown that he is following Christ, even be also is honoured by Christ among the martyrs, as He Himself promises and says: "There is no man that leaveth house, or land, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, but shall receive seven times as much in this present time, and in the world to come eternal life." In the Apocalypse also He says the same thing: "And I saw," saith he, "the souls of them that were slain for the name of Jesus and the word of God." And when he had placed those who were slain in the first place, he added, saying: "And whosoever had not worshipped the image of the beast, neither had received his mark upon their forehead or in their hand; "all these he joins together, as seen by him at one time in the same place, and says, "And they lived and reigned with Christ." He says that all live and reign with Christ, not only who have been slain; but even whosoever, standing in firmness of the faith and in the fear of God, have not worshipped the image of the beast, and have not consented to his deadly and sacrilegious edicts.

Of the benefits of martyrdom. In the Proverbs of Solomon: "The faithful martyr delivers his soul from evils." Also in the same place: "Then shall the righteous stand in great boldness against them who have afflicted them, and who took away their labours. When they see them, they shall be disturbed with a horrible fear; and they shall wonder at the suddenness of their unhoped-for salvation, saying among themselves, repenting and groaning with distress of spirit, These are they whom some time we had in derision, and in the likeness of a proverb; we fools counted their life madness, and their end without honour. How are they reckoned among the children of God, and their lot among the saints! Therefore we have wandered from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness has not shined upon us, and the sun has not risen upon us. We have been wearied in the way of iniquity and of perdition, and we have walked through difficult solitudes; but we have not known the way of the Lord. What hath pride profited us? or what hath the boasting of riches brought to us? All these things have passed away as a shadow." Of this same thing in the cxvth Psalm: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Also in the cxxvth Psalm: "They who sow in tears shall reap in joy. Walking they walked, and wept as they cast their seeds; but coming they shall come in joy, raising up their laps." Of this same thing in the Gospel according to John: "He who loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall find it to life eternal." Also in the same place: "But when they shall deliver you up, take no thought what ye shall speak; for it is not ye who speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." Also in the same place: "The hour shall come, that every one that killeth you shall think he doeth service to God l but they shall do this also because they have not known the Father nor me." Of this same matter, according to Matthew: "Blessed are they which shall suffer persecution for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Also in the same place: "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him which is able to kill the soul and body in Gehenna." Also in the same place: "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him also will I confess before my Father which is in heaven; but he who shall deny me before men, him also will I deny before my Father which is in heaven. And he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved." Of this same thing, according to Luke: "Blessed shall ye be when men shall hate you, and shall separate you (from their company), and shall drive you out, and shall speak evil of your name, as wicked, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice in that day, and exult; for, lo, your reward is great in heaven." Also in the same place: "Verily I say unto you, There is no man that leaveth house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, and does not receive seven times as much in this present time, but in the world to come life everlasting." Of this same thing in the Apocalypse: "And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar of God the souls of them that were slain on account of the word of God and His testimony. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And unto every one of them were given white robes; and it was said to them, that they should rest still for a short time, until the number of their fellow-servants, and of their brethren, should be fulfilled, and they who shall afterwards be slain, after their example." Also in the same place: "After these things I saw a great crowd, which no one among them could number, from every nation, and from every tribe, and from every people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb; and they were clothed with white robes, and palms were in their hands. And they said with a loud voice, Salvation to our God, that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb. And one of the elders answered and said to me, What are these which are clothed with white robes? who are they, and whence have they come? And I said unto him, My lord, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they who have come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sitteth upon the throne shall dwell among them. They shall neither hunger nor thirst ever; and neither shall the sun fall upon them, nor shall they suffer any heat: for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall protect them, and shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of life; and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes." Also in the same place: "He who shall overcome I will give him to eat of the tree of life, which as in the paradise of my God." Also in the same place: "Be thou faithful even unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Also in the same place: "Blessed shall they be who shall watch, and shall keep their garments, lest they walk naked, and they see their shame." Of this same thing, Paul in the second Epistle to Timothy: "I am now offered up, and the time of my assumption is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. There now remains for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me in that day; and not only to me, but to all also who love His appearing." Of this same thing to the Romans: "We are the sons of God: but if sons and heirs of God, we are also joint-heirs with Christ; if we suffer together, that we may also be magnified together." Of this same thing in the cxviiith Psalm: "Blessed are they who are undefiled in the way, and walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they who search into His testimonies."

The Lord mentioned persecution already, even before the apostles had been sent on their mission. The Gospel anticipated what would happen. So he forewarns them for their benefit, that even the assault of things grievous to bear will bring its reward and advantage to them. They shall scold you, he says, as deceivers do, and try to mislead you. They shall separate you from them, even from their friendship and society. Let none of these things trouble you, he says. What harm will their intemperate tongue do a well-established mind? The patient suffering of these things will not be without fruit, he says, to those who know how to endure piously. It is the pledge of the highest happiness. Besides, he points out for their benefit, nothing strange will happen to them, even when suffering these things. On the contrary, they will resemble those who before their time were the bearers to the Israelites of the words that came from God above. These prophets were persecuted. They were sawn in two. They perished slain by the sword. They endured blame unjustly cast on them. He would have them also understand that they shall be partakers with those whose deeds they have imitated. They shall not fail in winning the prophet's crown, after having traveled by the same road.

The Christian who has advanced by means of good discipline and the gift of the Spirit to the measure of the age of reason experiences glory and pleasure and enjoyment that is greater than any human pleasure. These come to one after grace is given to him, after being hated because of Christ, being driven, and enduring every insult and shame in behalf of his faith in God. For such a person, whose entire life centers on the resurrection and future blessings, every insult and scourging and persecution and the other sufferings leading up to the cross are all pleasure and refreshment and surety of heavenly treasures. For Jesus says, "Blessed are you when men reproach you and persecute you and, speaking falsely, say all manner of evil against you; for my sake rejoice and exult because your reward is great in heaven."

I beg you to remember in your entire present contest the great reward laid up in heaven for those who are persecuted and reviled for righteousness' sake. Be glad and leap for joy on account of the Son of man, just as the apostles once rejoiced when they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for his name.

Now since Christ, as soon as He entered on His course, fulfilled such a ministration as this, He is either, Himself, He who predicted His own coming to do all this; or else if he is not yet come who predicted this, the charge to Marcion's Christ must be a ridiculous one (although I should perhaps add a necessary one), which bade him say, "Blessed shall ye be, when men shall bate you, and shall reproach you, and shall cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake." In this declaration there is, no doubt, an exhortation to patience.

If the tongue's bitterness break out in malediction or reproach, look back at the saying, "When they curse you, rejoice." The Lord Himself was "cursed" in the eye of the law; and yet is He the only Blessed One.

For the Jews persecuted the prophets even to death.

(Hom. 6. in Hex.) Again, great has sometimes a positive signification, as the heaven is great, and the earth is great; but sometimes it has relation to something else, as a great ox or great horse, on comparing two things of like nature. I think then that great reward will be laid up for those who suffer reproach for Christ's sake, not as in comparison with those things in our power, but as being in itself great because given by God.

Rejoice in that day, and exult. For behold, your reward is great in heaven. This command can be fulfilled not by anyone suffering, but by him who suffers solely with a view to the heavenly reward. Thus, amidst the hatred of hearts, amidst the insults of tongues, amidst the very hands of persecutors, one can remain with an equally, or even more joyful heart. Not to this are those like us capable, but those who went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were deemed worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus (Acts V). Therefore, whoever endures many adversities on earth for Christ, will receive many gifts in heaven from Christ. However, how many javelins of words did the false prophets endure from Elijah, who, mocking them, said: Shout with a louder voice: For Baal is a god, perhaps he is talking, or he is in an inn, or on a journey, or certainly he is sleeping, so that he must be awakened (1 Kings XVIII). What a great massacre did those who were eight hundred and fifty in number suffer when they were all killed! But because Baal and not Christ was the cause, neither did the mocked ones rejoice, nor did the slain ones deserve a palm, but an eternal punishment.

For such things their fathers did to the prophets. He encouraged well by example, because those who speak the truth usually suffer persecution. Nevertheless, the ancient prophets did not fail in their preaching of truth out of fear of persecution. It should be noted indeed that just as Matthew, through the eight beatitudes he set forth, insinuates the eighth as the perfection of our hope dedicated to the glory of the resurrection, so Luke embraces the four cardinal virtues. For blessed are the poor, who are restrained from the enticements of the world through temperance. Blessed are the hungry, who, reminded by their own hunger, show mercy to the hungry, and themselves show mercy through justice as much as they can. For the alms which we give to Christ, not out of our own, but as His, the Psalmist rightly testifies as being called justice, saying: He has distributed to the poor; his justice endures forever (Psalm 111). For it is justice when we give what is rightfully due to each, owing no one anything except to love each other. Blessed are those who, through prudence, discern good from evil, who mourn for what is transitory, and long for what is eternal. Blessed are those who, through fortitude of faith, are able to endure all hardships. Thus, those who are not yet able to ascend the pinnacle of consummate virtue, are to be cherished with the blessedness of general perfection. So that, progressing gradually from good to better, while they willingly listen to the Lord who stands on the plain, they may someday ascend to Him who sits on the mountain in sublimity. For those whose hearts He is still taming and instructing, He addresses them as one standing, which is the position of laboring. But those He finds ready and teachable from long spiritual exercise, He, in the freedom and dignity of the teacher, seated as the peaceful Savior, imparts mystical things of the higher realms. This difference in spiritual progress is beautifully expressed in the attire of the Israelite people. Where all the common folk, using whatever garments, are commanded to make for themselves fringes of blue in the four corners of their garments. Priests are to have four garments, distinguished in wonderful variety by as many mystical colors. And high priests are to bear both what the priests have and four other kinds of garments, of the same colors, but with greater dignified grace, interspersed with glittering gold, and bearing the name of the patriarchs and of the Lord Himself. To explain or even to merely present these details pertains to the diligence of its own work.

They who speak the truth commonly suffer persecution, yet the ancient prophets did not therefore from fear of persecution turn away from preaching the truth.

Thus he gladdens the patient through reward, when he adds: Rejoice and exult: behold, your reward is great in heaven: rejoice, namely from recompense: Romans twelve: "Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation." Which was fulfilled in Acts five: "The Apostles went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." This, moreover, the consideration of reward brings about; Jeremiah thirty-one: "Let your voice cease from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work." A reward, I say, great, because "great peace have they that love your law" etc., as it is said in the Psalm: and perpetual, because it is in heaven; Wisdom five: "But the just shall live forever, and their reward is with the Lord." And this is what Bede says: "Amid the hatreds of hearts, amid the reproaches of tongues, amid the hands of persecutors, dwell with a more joyful heart in contemplation of the heavenly reward." And because this work is most arduous, namely to rejoice in tribulations: therefore he not only promises a reward, but adds an example, when he continues: For according to these things did their fathers do to the Prophets: according to what is said in Matthew twenty-three: "You are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of those who killed the Prophets"; and Acts seven: "Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. Which of the Prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One." He sets these forth as an example on account of their constancy: James, last chapter: "Take as an example, brothers, of patience, labor, and long-suffering, the Prophets"; who were not moved from the truth on account of scourges. Whence concerning Elisha, Sirach forty-eight: "In his days he did not fear the prince, and in power no one overcame him, nor did any man surpass him." All these evils the Prophets endured on account of the reward, which they promise to others: Sirach thirty-six: "Give a reward, O Lord, to those who wait for you, that your Prophets may be found faithful." Whence that eminent Prophet John, after all the tribulations of the Church, adds at the end of Apocalypse twenty-two: "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to each one according to his works."

Whence note that divine Scripture intimates to us the difference of rewards according to the diversities of merits. Whence there is found a reward that is safe, a reward that is great, worthy, full, timely, swift, faithful, abundant, perpetual. The reward is safe for the Angels who minister to us; great is given to prelates or those who preside; worthy, to the obedient; full, to the contemplatives; timely is given to workers; swift, to those making progress; faithful, to those who bring to perfection; much or abundant, to those who suffer; but perpetual, to those who persevere. Whence concerning the safe reward of the Angels, because the ministry which they exercise toward us is not defrauded of its prize, it is said in Tobit 5: "Seek some faithful man who may go with you, his reward being safe," says Tobias. Concerning the great reward of those who preside, it is said in Genesis 15 to Abraham, who bears the type of prelates: "I am your protector, and your reward exceedingly great." Concerning the worthy reward of the obedient, it is said in Esther 16: "Let all know that those who obey the Persians faithfully receive a worthy reward for their fidelity." Concerning the full reward of the contemplatives, it is said to Ruth, in chapter 2, who bears the type of contemplatives who relinquish all things for God, and is also interpreted as sheep, or seeing, so that the contemplative soul may be called sheep on account of the gentleness of affection, but seeing on account of the illumination of the intellect; whence Boaz says to her: "May you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, to whom you have come and under whose wings you have taken refuge." Concerning the timely reward of workers, it is said in the last chapter of Sirach: "Work your work while there is time, and He will give you your reward in His time." Concerning the swift reward of those making progress, it is said in Sirach 11: "The blessing of God hastens toward the reward of the just." Concerning the faithful reward of the perfect, such as preachers and the like, it is said in Proverbs 11: "To the one sowing justice, a faithful reward." Concerning the abundant reward of those who suffer or those who struggle, it is said here and in Matthew 5: "For behold, your reward is abundant in the heavens." Concerning the perpetual reward indeed, which befits those who persevere, Sirach 18: "Do not be afraid to be justified even unto death, for the reward of God remains forever." Thus therefore, according to the diversities of merits, the differences of rewards are appropriated; and so "God will render to the just the reward of their labors," Wisdom 10.

He then fortifies His disciples against the attacks of their adversaries, which they were about to suffer as they preached through the whole world; adding, For in like manner did their fathers to the prophets.

Great and little are measured by the dignity of the speaker. Let us enquire then who promised the great reward. If indeed a prophet or an apostle, little had been in his estimation great; but now it is the Lord in whose hands are eternal treasures and riches surpassing man's conception, who has promised great reward.

(in lib. de Logic c. 49.) Those things which may be measured or numbered are used definitely, but that which from a certain excellence surpasses all measure and number we call great and much indefinitely; as when we say that great is the longsuffering of God.

It remains for us, lest ancient times may perhaps have had the sacrament (exclusively) their own, to review the modern Christian system, as though, being also from God, it might be different from what preceded, and besides, therefore, opposed thereto in its code of rules likewise, so that its Wisdom knows not to murder her own sons! Evidently, in the case of Christ both the divine nature and the will and the sect are different from any previously known! He will have commanded either no martyrdoms at all, or those which must be understood in a sense different from the ordinary, being such a person as to urge no one to a risk of this kind as to promise no reward to them who suffer for Him, because He does not wish them to suffer; and therefore does He say, when setting forth His chief commands, "Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The following statement, indeed, applies first to all without restriction, then specially to the apostles themselves: "Blessed shall ye be when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, for my sake.

Has falsehood indeed found something to say, and should not truth find its fitting reply? Let us hear what they say: let us hear what they hear. "We have one Father," they say, "even God. Then said Jesus unto them, If God were your Father, ye would [doubtless] love me; for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but He sent me." Ye call God Father; recognize me, then, as at least a brother. At the same time He gave a stimulus to the hearts of the intelligent, by touching on that which He has a habit of saying, "I came not of myself: He sent me. I proceeded forth and came from God." Remember what we are wont to say: From Him He came; and from whom He came, with Him He came. The sending of Christ, therefore, is His incarnation. But as respects the proceeding forth of the Word from God, it is an eternal procession. Time holds not Him by whom time was created. Let no one be saying in his heart, Before the Word was, how did God exist? Never say, Before the Word of God was. God was never without the Word, because the Word is abiding, not transient; God, not a sound; by whom the heaven and earth were made, and which passed not away with those things that were made upon the earth. From Him, then, He proceeded forth as God, the equal, the only Son, the Word of the Father; and came to us, for the Word was made flesh that He might dwell among us. His coming indicates His humanity; His abiding, His divinity.

(Tr. xlii. 8) This then is the eternal procession, the proceeding forth of the Word from God: from Him It proceeded as the Word of the Father, and came to us: The Word was made flesh. (c. 1:14) His advent is His humanity: His staying, His divinity. Ye call God your Father; acknowledge Me at least to be a brother.

"Jesus said to them: If God were your father, you would surely love me," as your brother, because the spirit of adoption is the spirit of love; Romans eight: "You have received the spirit of adoption of sons, in which we cry: Abba, Father." "For I proceeded from God," namely as Son by generation; "and I came," into the world through the incarnation, and just as I was begotten by him, so also I was sent; whence: "neither did I come of myself, but he sent me." I did not come by my own authority; Hebrews five: "Christ did not glorify himself to be made high priest"; on the contrary, Jeremiah twenty-three: "They ran, and I was not sending them"; likewise Exodus four: "I beseech you, Lord, send whom you are about to send." And yet you do not love me; and this he proves by asking them.

The Lord does not hereby take away the power of any to be ranked among the sons of God, but shows rather to whom will pertain the boast of it, and that it will be found rather in the saints, and convicts the insulting Jew of being mad. For I (saith He) am sprung the One and True Son by Nature, from God the Father that is; and all are adopted, formed after Me and mounting up unto My Glory, for images are always after their archetypes. How can ye then (He says) at all be numbered among the children of God, who are minded not only not to love Him Who beamed forth from God and transfashions unto His own Form those who believe on Him, but do even dishonour Him, not in one way but in many? and they who receive not the Image of God the Father, how will they be at all formed after Him? Besides it is lawful (He says) not to any chance persons without blame to call God their Father, but those in whom the beauty of piety towards Him shall flash forth,----those I deem and none other will it befit. I have come from Heaven to counsel you things most excellent, and My Word invites you to the being formed after God. But if it be verily your aim and longing to have God as your Father, surely ye would have loved Me your Guide and Teacher on such a path, Who give you the opportunity of likeness to the One and True Son, Who through the Holy Ghost render conformed to Himself those who receive Him. For he (He says) who altogether boasteth of ownness toward God, how would he not love Him That is of God? how (tell me) will he honour the tree who foolishly loatheth the fruit that is its offspring? Either therefore, He saith, make the tree good and his fruit good, or make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. If therefore the Tree (i. e. God the Father) be Noble and ye know how to draw the Splendour thereof on your own heads, why loved ye not the Fruit that is of Him, believing It to be such as He is? The verse before us therefore hath at once a bitter reproof of the Jews (for it shows them to be liars, for when they essay to call God their Father, they are far away from the virtue that pertains to those who are called to this, because they love not Him Who is of God by Nature) and at the same time it profitably brings in the mention of His own Ineffable Generation, that they might be caught in impiety in this too, calling Him ill-born and bastard. For if the saying, I proceeded forth from God, signifies His Ineffable and Eternal Generation from the Father; adding I am come, [He shews] His appearance in this world with Flesh. And surely one will not say that God the Word then first beamed forth from God the Father, when He became Man (for so it seemed to some of the unholy heretics) but he will rather take it as is meet and will conceive of it piously. For not because He joined the words, (I mean I proceeded forth and I am come) will the Word of the Father be co-eval in time with the Birth of the Flesh, but to each of the things indicated will we keep its proper meaning. For we believe the first Generation of the Word conceived of as from God to be without beginning and above mind; wherefore it hath been set forth first in the words, I proceeded forth from God; the second, i. e., that after the Flesh, for neither have I come of Myself but He sent Me. I was Incarnate as you, that is, I became Man, in the Good Pleasure of God the Father came I in this world to declare to you the things of God and to tell to those who know not, what it is that pleases Him. But ye loved not (He says) Him Who from the Divine counsel was revealed to you as Saviour and Guide. How then will ye any more be called children of God, or how will ye gain the grace of ownness with Him, if ye honour not Him That is of Him? It is likely that the Lord again means something by this and aims by such words also to silence the people of the Jews who are vainly yelping at Him. And what it is that is intended we will briefly say. |645

Many among the Jews esteeming no whit the Divine Fear, but admiring and accepting only honours from men, and overcome by base lucre, dared to prophesy, speaking out of their own heart and not out of the Mouth of the Lord, as it is written. And verily the Lord of all Himself chid them saying, I sent not the prophets, I spake not to them yet they prophesied; yea, He threatened to do dread things to them crying out, Woe unto them that prophesy out of their their own heart and see nothing at all. Such an one was that Shemaiah who to the words of Jeremiah opposed his own lie and having taken the yokes of wood and shattered them, said, Thus saith the Lord, I will shatter the yoke of the king of Babylon. Since then when our Saviour Christ says, But now ye seek to kill Me a man who have told you the truth which I heard of God, the Jews began to murmur, and not knowing Who He is in truth, to imagine that He is some false prophet and to be therefore hardened, so as to even dare to revile Him, and so angrily desire to kill Him as even to press on to do it:----profitably does He again terrify them, saying that He came not of Himself as was the wont of them who prophesy falsely, but was sent by God, that by the same He both putting aside the reputation of being a false prophet and teaching that they will incur no slight doom, who not only dishonour Him that has been sent by God the Father, but also dare to devise murder against Him, might cut short their unbridled daring.

This then for what is before us. But it is probable that the heretic will make what has been said the food of his innate impiety. He will haply accuse the Essence of the Only-Begotten and will deem that it is in lower case than the Father's because of His saying that He had been sent by Him. But let such an one consider the mode of the economy but now spoken, and remember Paul crying aloud of the Son, Who being in the Form of God thought it not robbery to be Equal with God, but emptied Himself taking servant's form, made in the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself made obedient unto death. But if He hath of His own will humbled Himself, the Father, that is, consenting and Co-willing it, what accusal will He have, going through the whole mode of the Economy unto its consummation, in any reasonable way? But if because of His saying that He has been sent, you deem that the Son lies in lower case than the Father, how (tell me) doth He That is in lower case, according to thy unlearning, work in all exactitude the things of God? For where does the lesser show itself in Him who possesses perfectly all that belongs to His own Progenitor and the fullest God-befitting Authority? Therefore He will not be conceived of as less on account of being sent, but being God of God by Nature and verily, since Himself is the Wisdom and Power of the Father, He is sent to us as from the sun the light which is spread abroad from it, in order that He might make wise that which lacks wisdom, and that thus at length that which was weak might be lifted up through Him and strengthened unto the knowledge of God the Father and recovered unto all virtue. For all things most fair beamed on the human race through only Christ. There is therefore nothing at all of servile kind in Christ, but it belongs only to the form of the flesh: but God-befitting is His Authority and Power even all, even though the language meetly conformed to the measure of lowliness take human fashion.

The Son of God here was not condemning the devout confidence of those who combine their confession that he is true God, the Son of God, with their own claim to be God's children. What he is condemning here is the rash presumption of the Jews in claiming God for their Father when they did not love the Son: "If God were your Father, you would surely love me; for I proceeded from God." … His proceeding is obviously different from his coming, for the two are mentioned side by side in this passage: "For I proceeded and came from God." In order to elucidate the difference between "I proceeded from God" and "I came," he further explains, "I did not come on my own, but he sent me." These words tell us that he is not the source of his own existence. They also tell us that he has proceeded forth a second time from God [in the incarnation] when he was sent by him. But when our Lord says that those who called God their Father ought to love him because he has proceeded from God, there he means that his being born of God was the reason why he should be loved. This proceeding carries back our thoughts to the incorporeal birth, for their claim that God was their Father was supposed to be evident in their loving Christ who was begotten from God. For when the Son says, "Whoever hates me hates my Father as well," this my is an assertion of his relationship to the Father that no one else has.… No one can worship the Father except those who love the Son. For the one and only reason that he gives for loving the Son is his origin from the Father, not by his advent [i.e. his incarnation] but by his birth [i.e., his eternal generation]. And love for the Father is only possible for those who believe that the Son is from him.

(vi. de Trin. c. 30) It was not that the Son of God condemned the assumption of so religious a name; that is, condemned them for professing to be the sons of God, and calling God their Father; but that He blamed the rash presumption of the Jews in claiming God for their Father, when they did not love the Son. For I proceeded forth, and came from God. To proceed forth, is not the same with to come. When our Lord says that those who called God their Father, ought to love Him, because He came forth from God, He means that His being born of God was the reason why He should be loved: the proceeding forth, having reference to His incorporeal birth. Their claim to be the sons of God, was to be made good by their loving Christ, Who was begotten from God. For a true worshipper of God the Father must love the Son, as being from Godf. And he only can love the Father, who believes that the Son is from Him.

(lib. v. ibid.) In what follows, He teaches that His origin is not in Himself; Neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me.

"What sayest thou? Ye have God for your Father, and do ye blame Christ for asserting this?" Seest thou that He said that God was His Father in a special manner? When therefore He had cast them out of their relationship to Abraham, having nothing to reply, they dare a greater thing, and betake themselves to God. But from this honor also He expelleth them, saying, "If God were your Father, ye would love Me; for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do ye not understand My speech? Even because ye cannot hear My word."

"Why do ye not understand My speech?" Since they were always doubting, saying, "What is it that he saith, 'Whither I go ye cannot come'?" therefore He telleth them, "Ye do not understand My speech," "because ye have not the word of God. And this cometh to you, because that your understanding is groveling, and because what is Mine is far too great for you." But what if they could not understand? Not to be able here means not to be willing; for "ye have trained yourselves to be mean, to imagine nothing great." Because they said that they persecuted Him as being themselves zealous for God on this account He everywhere striveth to show that to persecute Him is the act of those who hate God, but that, on the contrary, to love Him is the act of those who know God.

If, then, the [conditional] proposition is true, "If God were your father, you would love me," it is clear that the [conditional] contrary to this is also true: If you do not love me, God is not your Father. God is not the Father, therefore, of those who do not love Jesus. And there was a time when Paul did not love Jesus. There was a time, then, when God was not Paul's Father. Paul, therefore, was not a son of God by nature, but later he became a son of God.

Now, at what other time does God become one's father than at the time one keeps his commandments? It is because of these commandments that one who was not formerly a son of the father in heaven becomes his son, when the Father leads the one who becomes his son to regeneration, and is called "Father."

But when one compares the condition that resulted from having taken up the form of a servant after he had emptied himself with that former condition of the Son, you will understand how the Son has proceeded from God and has come to us, and [how he] has come out, as it were, of the one who sent him, even if, in another manner, the Father has not left him alone but is with him, and is in the Son just as also the Son is in the Father. For unless you understand that the Son is in the Father in a different way than he was before he proceeded from God, it will seem contradictory that he has both proceeded from God and, after he has proceeded from God, is still in God.

I think these words were spoken because there were some who came without being sent by the Father. Jeremiah teaches of such people who promise some teaching or prophecy, where it is written, "I did not send these prophets, yet they ran."

Since He excluded them from kinship with Abraham, they rose even higher, calling God their Father. He reproached them as murderers, but they, defending themselves, say that they are avenging God, and for this reason they form a counsel against Him. Therefore the Lord, showing that they are not championing God's cause, but by their very design wish to kill Him, and are not children of God, as they supposed, but rather opponents of God, says: "If God were your Father, you would love Me." For I came down from God into the world, that is, I appeared in the flesh. I am not an opponent of God. I came from Him. Therefore, by rising up against Me, you are enemies of God.

Next (v 42), our Lord refutes their opinion: first we see the sign of being a child of God; secondly, the reason for this sign is given (v 42); and thirdly, we see that the Jews lack this sign (v 43).

With respect to the first it should be noted that above he had said that the sign of being a child according to the flesh was in the exterior actions that a person performs; but here he places the sign of being a child of God in one's interior affections. For we become children of God by sharing in the Holy Spirit: "you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship" (Rom 8:15). Now the Holy Spirit is the cause of our loving God, because "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Rom 5:5). Therefore, the special sign of being a child of God is love: "Be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love" (Eph 5:1). Therefore he says, If God were your Father, you would love me: "The innocent and the right in heart," who are the children of God, "have clung to me" (Ps 24:21).

Then (v 42) he gives the reason for this sign. First, he states the truth; secondly, he rejects an error (v 42b).

The truth he asserts is that he proceeded and came forth from God. It should be noted that all friendship is based on union, and so brothers love one another inasmuch as they take their origin from the same parents. Thus our Lord says: you say that you are the children of God; but if this were so, you would love me, for I proceeded and came forth from God. Therefore, any one who does not love me is not a child of God.

I say I proceeded from God from eternity as the Only Begotten, of the substance of the Father: "From the womb before the daystar I begot you" (Ps 109:4); "In the beginning was the Word" (1:1). And I came forth as the Word made flesh, sent by God through incarnation. "I came from the Father," from eternity, as the Word, "and have come into the world" when I was made flesh in time (16:28).

He rejects an error when he says, I came not of my own accord. And first, he rejects the error of Sabellius, who said that Christ did not have his origin from another, for he said that the Father and the Son were the same in person. In regard to this he says, I came not of my own accord, i.e., according to Hilary, I came, not existing of myself, but in a way as sent by another, that is, the Father. Thus he adds, but he sent me: "God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law" (Gal 4:4). Secondly, he rejects an error of the Jews who said that Christ was not sent by God, but was a false prophet, of whom we read in Jeremiah (23:21): "I did not send the prophets, yet they ran." And in regard to this he says, according to Origen, I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Indeed, this is what Moses prayed for: "O, my Lord, send, I pray, whom you will send" (Ex 4:13).

"Why," He says, "do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word." And so they could not understand, because they could not hear. And whence could they not hear, but just because they refused to be set right by believing?

(Tr. xlii. 9) And they could not hear, because they would not believe, and amend their lives.

"Why," he says, "do you not recognize my speech?" namely by believing in me. The reason for this was hatred, "because you cannot hear my word," on account of hatred and envy; Wisdom two: "He is grievous to us to behold."

What we have oftentimes said we say again for profit to the readers: for there is no harm in our discourse going very frequently through what may profit. It is the custom then of our Saviour Christ not altogether to accept from those who disbelieve Him, the word that boiled up from their tongue, but to look rather on the hearts and reins, and to make His replies to the thoughts that were yet revolving in the depth of their hearts. For man who knows not the thoughts that are in another, will needs admit the uttered word, but God not so; for He knowing all things, takes the thought for the voice. When then the Lord said to the Jews that He had come not of Himself, like them who of their own mind and not of the Divine Spirit advance to prophesy, but that He was sent by God, they again imagine, or reason among themselves, or secretly whispering one to another said, Many Prophets have spoken the things of God and brought words from the Spirit unto us, but we find nought among them of such sort as is in this man's words. For He bears us wholly away from the worship after the Law and removes us to some other polity and introduces to us a strange transition of life. Dissonant therefore manifestly and irreconcileable is His Discourse with that of those of old. Since He beheld them thinking (as is likely) these things, shewing that He is by Nature God and knoweth the counsels of the hearts, He takes hold of it and says, Why do ye not understand My Speech? because ye cannot hear My Word. I am not ignorant (He says) that ye cannot comprehend My Speech, or doctrine; but I will tell you the reason and will clearly set before you what is the hindrance. Ye cannot hear My Word. He says, ye cannot, convicting them of impotence unto perfect good, because of their being fore-mastered by their passions. For the love of pleasure unnerves the mind, and the unbridled tendency towards evil yet weakening the sinew of the heart, renders it feeble and most spiritless to the power of performing any virtue. Being therefore fore-weakened by tendencies to vice and tyrannized by your own passions ye cannot, He says, hear My Word. For right are the ways of the Lord, as it is written, and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall become impotent in them. Akin to this will you find that too which was in another place said to the Pharisees, How can ye believe which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that, cometh from the only God? for verily in this their not being able to believe shews the voluntary weakness of their understanding or that their mind has been before overcome of vainglory. And we find again that that is true of the Jews which has been spoken by the voice of Paul, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Since therefore they were natural, they deemed that He was foolishness Who was inviting them to be saved, and was teaching them the path of an excellent conversation, and directing them full well unto the power of pleasing God who delighteth in virtue, to whom be all honour, glory, might, for ever and ever. Amen.

First then, we must acquire the ability to hear the divine word so that subsequently we may also be able to know the whole teaching of Jesus. For it is possible that, though one previously could not hear Jesus' word, he attains the ability to hear it, because one cannot hear until his hearing is healed by the Word who says to the deaf, "Be opened."

(tom. xx. 18. [Nic.]) First then, that virtue must be sought after, which hears the divine word; that by degrees we may be strong enough to embrace the whole teaching of Jesus. For so long as a man has not had his hearing restored by the Word, which says to the deaf ear, Be opened: (Mark 7:34) so long he cannot hear.

(tom. xx.) And this seems to be the same mistake, as if one said, that an eye which saw right was different in kind from an eye which saw wrong. For just as in these there is no difference of kind, only one of them for some reason sees wrong; so, in the other case, whether a man receives a doctrine, or whether he does not, he is of the same nature.

Why do you not understand My speech, do not comprehend and do not grasp what I am saying? Without doubt, for no other reason than that you cannot hear My word, that is, you do not want to. For "cannot" is used in place of "do not want to." As long as envy and murderous intent dwell in you, how can you listen to what I am saying?

He shows that they lack this sign when he says, Why do you not understand what I say? For as was stated above, to love Christ is the sign of being a child of God; but they did not love Christ; therefore it is obvious that they did not have this sign. That they do not love Christ is shown by the effect of love: for the effect of loving someone is that the lover joyfully hears the words of the beloved; thus we read: "Let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet" (Song 2:14). And again, "My companions are listening for your voice; let me hear it" (Song 8:13). Therefore, because they did not love Christ, it seemed tedious to them even to hear his voice: "This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?" (6:60); "The very sight of him is a burden to us" (Wis 2:15).

It sometimes happens that a person is not glad to hear the words of another because he cannot weigh them and for that reason does not understand them, and so he contradicts them: "Answer, I beseech you, without contention—and you shall not find iniquity on my tongue" (Job 6:29). Therefore he says, Why do you not understand what I say? You question what I mean, as "Where I am going, you cannot come" (8:21). I say that you do not understand because you cannot bear to hear my word, i.e., your heart is so hardened against me that you do not even want to hear me.

Our Lord being the truth, and the Son of the true God, spoke the truth; but the Jews, being the sons of the devil, were averse to the truth; and this is why our Lord says, Because I tell you the truth, ye believe not.

Do not admit less evidence to convict any one than that of three witnesses, and those of known and established reputation; inquire whether they do not accuse out of ill-will or envy: for there are many that delight in mischief, forward in discourse, slanderous, haters of the brethren, making it their business to scatter the sheep of Christ; whose affirmation if thou admittest without nice scanning the same, thou wilt disperse thy flock, and betray it to be devoured by wolves, that is, by demons and wicked men, or rather not men, but wild beasts in the shape of men—by the heathen, by the Jews, and by the atheistic heretics. For those destroying wolves soon address themselves to any one that is cast out of the Church, and esteem him as a lamb delivered for them to devour, reckoning his destruction their own gain. For he that is "their father, the devil, is a murderer." He also who is separated unjustly by thy want of care in judging will be overwhelmed with sorrow, and be disconsolate, and so will either wander over to the heathen, or be entangled in heresies, and so will be altogether estranged from the Church and from hope in God, and will be entangled in impiety, whereby thou wilt be guilty of his perdition: for it is not fair to be too hasty in casting out an offender, but slow in receiving him when he returns; to be forward in cutting off, but unmerciful when he is sorrowful, and ought to be healed.

Someone may object that the words of the Lord about the devil [here] … are to be understood as if he was not only a murderer from the beginning of the human race when human beings, whom he could kill by his deceit, were made; but also that he did not abide in the truth from the time of his own creation and was accordingly never blessed with the holy angels. Instead he refused to submit to his Creator and proudly exulted as if in a private lordship of his own. In this way he was deceived and deceiving.… But they do not notice that the Lord did not say, "The devil was naturally a stranger to the truth" but "The devil did not remain in the truth." By this, he meant us to understand that the devil had fallen from the truth in which, if he had remained, he would have become a partaker and would have remained in blessedness along with the holy angels.…They suppose [according to 1 John 3:8] that the devil was made with a sinful nature, but they misunderstand the passage; for if sin is natural, it is not sin at all. And how do they answer the prophetic proofs—either what Isaiah says when he represents the devil under the person of the king of Babylon, "How you are fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" or what Ezekiel says, "You were in Eden, the garden of God …" where it is meant that he was at some point without sin? For a little after, it is still more explicitly said, "You were perfect in your ways." And if these passages cannot be interpreted properly in any other way, then we must understand by this passage also, "He did not remain in the truth," that he was once in the truth but did not remain in it. And from this passage, "The devil has sinned from the beginning," it is not that he sinned from the beginning of his created existence; rather, sin began in him, and he was the beginning of sin.

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." How were the Jews the children of the devil? By imitation, not by birth. Listen to the usual language of the Holy Scriptures. The prophet says to those very Jews, "Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite." The Amorites were not a nation that gave origin to the Jews. The Hittites also were themselves of a nation altogether different from the race of the Jews. But because the Amorites and Hittites were impious, and the Jews imitated their impieties, they found parents for themselves, not of whom they were born, but in whose damnation they should share, because following their customs. But perhaps you inquire, Whence is the devil himself? From the same source certainly as the other angels. But the other angels continued in their obedience. He, by disobedience and pride, fell as an angel, and became a devil.

"He was a murderer from the beginning." This it is that explains, "the lusts of your father ye will do." "Ye seek to kill me, a man that telleth you the truth." He, too, had ill-will to man, and slew man. For the devil, in his ill-will to man, assuming the guise of a serpent, spoke to the woman, and from the woman instilled his poison into the man. They died by listening to the devil, whom they would not have listened to had they but listened to the Lord; for man, having his place between Him who created and him who was fallen, ought to have obeyed the Creator, not the deceiver. Therefore "he was a murderer from the beginning." Look at the kind of murder, brethren. The devil is called a murderer not as armed with a sword, or girded with steel. He came to man, sowed his evil suggestions, and slew him. Think not, then, that thou art not a murderer when thou persuadest thy brother to evil. If thou persuadest thy brother to evil, thou slayest him.

"And he stood [abode] not in the truth." Therefore he was in the truth, and fell by not standing in it. And why "stood he not in the truth"? "Because the truth is not in him;" not as in Christ. In such a way is the truth [in Him], that Christ Himself is the Truth. If, then, he had stood in the truth, he would have stood in Christ; but "he abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him."

"When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." Hear and understand. I shall not send thee far away [for the meaning]; understand it from the words themselves. It is not every one who tells a lie that is the father of his lie. For if thou hast got a lie from another, and uttered it, thou indeed hast lied in giving utterance to the lie; but thou art not the father of that lie, because thou hast got it from another. But the devil was a liar of himself. He begat his own falsehood; he heard it from no one. As God the Father begat as His Son the Truth, so the devil, having fallen, begat falsehood as his son.

(Tr. xlii. 10) Here we must guard against the heresy of the Manichæans, who hold a certain original nature of evil, and a nation of darkness with princes at their head, whence the devil derives his existence. And thence they say our flesh is produced; and in this way interpret our Lord's speech, Ye are of your father the devil: viz. to mean that they were by nature evil, drawing their origin from the opposite seed of darkness.

(Tr. xlii. 11) The Jews then were children of the devil by imitation, not by birth: And the lusts of your father ye will do, our Lord says. Ye are his children then, because ye have such lusts, not because ye are born of him: for ye seek to kill Me, a man that hath told you the truth: and he envied man, and killed him: he was a murderer from the beginning; i. e. of the first man on whom a murder could be committed: man could not be slain, before man was created. The devil did not go, girt with a sword, against man: he sowed an evil word, and slew him. Do not suppose therefore that you are not guilty of murder, when you suggest evil thoughts to your brother. The very reason why ye rage against the flesh, is that ye cannot assault the soul.

(xi. de Civ. Dei, c. 13) But it will be objected perhaps, that if from the beginning of his existence, the devil stood not in the truth, he was never in a state of blessedness with the holy angels, refusing, as he did, to be subject to his Creator, and therefore false and deceitful; unwilling at the cost of pious subjection to hold that which by nature he was; and attempting in his pride and loftiness to simulate that which he was not. This opinion is not the same with that of the Manichæans, that the devil has his own peculiar nature, derived as it were from the opposite principle of evil. This foolish sect does not see that our Lord says not, Was alien from the truth, but Stood not in the truth, meaning, fell from the truth. And thus they interpret John, The devil sinneth from the beginning, (1 John 3:8) not seeing that if sin is natural, it is no sin. But what do the testimonies of the prophets reply? Isaiah, setting forth the devil under the figure of the prince of Babylon, says, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! (Ezek. 28:13) Ezekiel says, Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Which passages, as they cannot be interpreted in any other way, show that we must take the word, He stood not in the truth, to mean, that he was in truth, but did not remain in it; and the other, that the devil sinneth from the beginning, to mean, that he was a sinner not from the beginning of his creation, but from the beginning of sin. For sin began in him, and he was the beginning of sin.

(xi. de Civ. Dei, c. xiv) Or when our Lord says, The truth is not in him, He intends it as an index: as if we had asked Him, how it appeared that the devil stood not in the truth; and He said, Because the truth is not in him. For it would be in him, if he stood in it. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

(Tr. xlii. s. 12, 13) Some have thought from these words that the devil had a father, and asked who was the father of the devil. This is the error of the Manichæans. But our Lord calls the devil the father of a lie for this reason: Every one who lies is not the father of his own lie; for you may tell a lie, which you have received from another; in which case you have lied, but are not the father of the lie. But the lie wherewith, as with a serpent's bite, the devil slew man. had no source but himself: and therefore he is the father a lie, as God is the Father of the truth.

(de Quæst. Nov. et Vet. Test. 2, 90) Or thus: The devil is not a singular, but a common name. In whomsoever the works of the devil are found, he is to be called the devil. It is the name of a work, not of a nature. Here then our Lord means by the father of the Jews, Cain; whom they wished to imitate, by killing the Saviour: for he it was who set the first example of murdering a brother. That he spoke a lie of his own, means that no one sins but by his own will. And inasmuch as Cain imitated the devil, and followed his works, the devil is said to be his father.

But ignorance of yourself begets pride in you in this way: when your deceived and deceiving thought falsely tells you that you are better than you are. This indeed is pride, this is the beginning of all sin, when you are greater in your own eyes than before God, than in truth. And therefore he who first sinned this great sin (I speak of the devil), of him it was said that he stood not in the truth, but is a liar from the beginning; because what he was in his own thought, he was not in truth. What if he had disagreed with truth in this, that he thought himself lesser and lower than the truth held him to be? His ignorance would without doubt excuse him, and he would not at all be reckoned proud, nor would his iniquity be found so much to be for hatred, as his humility perhaps for grace.

"You are of your father the devil." Here, having shown that they are not children of God, he shows that they are children of the devil, so that all their glory may be emptied. He proposes: "You are of your father the devil": the word "of" does not indicate generation there, but imitation of example; Ezekiel sixteen: "Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite"; and First John three: "He who commits sin is of the devil."

He proves this, because they imitate him; whence: "you want to do the desires of your father." These are the desires about which First Timothy, last chapter, says: "Many useless and harmful desires, which plunge men into ruin and perdition." He shows that they imitate him in two things, namely in murder and lying: in lying there is the crookedness of the intellect, in murder of the affection. Therefore he says: "He was a murderer from the beginning," that is, after the beginning of the human race; because he led the first man to death by promising life and denying death: "You shall not die at all, he said," Genesis three, and Wisdom two: "God created man imperishable, but by the envy of the devil death entered the world," etc. And in this you imitate him; as was said above, you want to kill me. You also imitate him in lying: whence he says: "And he did not stand in the truth": rather, he fell into falsehood and vanity; Isaiah fourteen: "How have you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who rose in the morning"? "Because truth is not in him." For on account of the sin of pride he did not recover: Ezekiel twenty-eight: "You have been brought to nothing and shall not be forever." "When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own," because he has it from himself, with no other suggesting it. "But he is a liar and his father," that is, of lying: Job, second to last chapter: "He is king over all the children of pride." Augustine says: "The father of lying is the devil, the father of truth is God. Depart from the father of lying and run to the father of truth; embrace the truth, that you may receive freedom." The children of this father are all liars, who hate the truth. And such were the Jews; and the Lord proves this, that they hate the truth.

Likewise, it is asked concerning what he says: "You are of your father the devil." From this the Manichaean argues that the Lord is not the maker and creator of evil men.

To this Augustine responds that "father" here is used not of one who begets by origin, but by imitation. Similarly, the preposition "from" does not here denote origin in first being, but in second being. Hence Augustine: "Here they are called sons not by being born, but by imitating." Adam did not wish to imitate God by obeying, and he imitated the devil by consenting to sin.

Likewise, an objection is raised concerning what he says: "He was a murderer from the beginning."

From this the Manichaean objects that the malice of the devil has no beginning, and thus it seems that there are two principles: one of good and another of evil.

I respond: It must be said that this passage is explained in five ways.

In one way thus: he was a murderer from the beginning, because just as the Word was in the beginning, because he had no beginning.

But this is heretical and is refuted by the text: for it does not say "in the beginning," but "from the beginning."

Another exposition is that from his very beginning he was made evil, as the Psalm seems to say: "This dragon which you formed to sport with him."

And this is heretical, because just as it is impossible that the supremely hot should make cold, so too that the supremely good should make evil; and that verse of the Psalm and similar passages are to be understood after the fact.

The third exposition is this: he was a murderer from the beginning, that is, immediately after the beginning, because the interval between creation and the fall was brief; and therefore it is added: "He did not stand in the truth," because he did not persevere.

The fourth exposition is this: a murderer from the beginning not his own, but of the human race; hence Augustine: "Man could not have been killed unless man had been made."

The fifth is this, that a murderer from the beginning, because in the same instant he began to exist from God and to be evil from himself, just as our soul, which is infused into the body.

The first two are heretical; the next two are catholic; the last is doubtful and tending toward the heretical, although it is not heretical; and therefore it is not commonly held.

Likewise, an objection is raised concerning what he says, that the devil is the father of lies.

Therefore, since every sin is a lie, it seems that there is one principle of sin.

I respond: It must be said that one should not posit a first evil that is first in the genus of being, as though it were not from another; but one should posit a first evil before which no other evil preceded; and this is indeed the origin of subsequent evils, not always by efficient causation, but by occasion and by suggestion. Therefore he says: "He is a liar and the father of it," namely of lying.

The devil is called "thief and robber;" having mixed false prophets with the prophets, as tares with the wheat. "All, then, that came before the Lord, were thieves and robbers;" not absolutely all men, but all the false prophets, and all who were not properly sent by Him. For the false prophets possessed the prophetic name dishonestly, being prophets, but prophets of the liar. For the Lord says, "Ye are of your father the devil; and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it."

Nor ought we, beloved brethren, only to observe and understand that we should call Him Father who is in heaven; but we add to it, and say our Father, that is, the Father of those who believe-of those who, being sanctified by Him, and restored by the nativity of spiritual grace, have begun to be sons of God. A word this, moreover, which rebukes and condemns the Jews, who not only unbelievingly despised Christ, who had been announced to them by the prophets, and sent first to them, but also cruelly put Him to death; and these cannot now call God their Father, since the Lord confounds and confutes them, saying, "Ye are born of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. For he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him." And by Isaiah the prophet God cries in wrath, "I have begotten and brought up children; but they have despised me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood me. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with sins, a wicked seed, corrupt children! Ye have forsaken the Lord; ye have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger." In repudiation of these, we Christians, when we pray, say Our Father; because He has begun to be ours, and has ceased to be the Father of the jews, who have forsaken Him. Nor can a sinful people be a son; but the name of sons is attributed to those to whom remission of sins is granted, and to them immortality is promised anew, in the words of our Lord Himself: "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever, but the son abideth ever."

Having with reason led them off from their kindred with Abraham and convicted them of having unlikeness to him in their manners, and of being far removed from piety toward God Himself, and yet moreover having explained the reason of their not being able to be obedient to His speech, He again shows who will rather be more fittingly and properly termed their father. Ye therefore, He says, are of your father the devil, whom He says was also a murderer in the beginning and that he abides not in the truth and is a liar; and that his father was a liar, whom in what follows He defined clearly who he is : for the mighty force itself in their brevity of the words before us has much obscurity and specially needs accurate scrutiny. For deep is the discourse about this, and not clear I ween to the many. For as to the meaning which can readily be got, it allots to the Jews no other father than Satan who fell from heaven. But that which is put next about the father allotted them, that he is a liar just as his father also, troubles us, yea rather compels us to fresh doubt2 not a little. For whom (if we think reasonably) can we imagine to have been father to the devil, or what other before him fell to whom he that comes after can be compared in likeness and manner ? for no one will show us such a reading as this in the holy and Divine Scriptures; and in no wise is that to be received as truth which is not told in the Divinely-inspired Scriptures. For every spirit that is reckoned among devils as a child of the devil is called Satan according to what is said by our Saviour Christ, If then Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself: yet have we heard of one surpassing the rest and above them, him to whom it is somewhere said by the Prophet Ezekiel, Thou art the seal of likeness and crown of beauty begotten in the delight of the Paradise of God, every precious stone hast: thou put on. Whom else then shall we unblamed suppose existed, after whom this one was formed, in likeness I mean as to vice? for some of the elder expositors, citing what is now before us, say that that ancient Satan who is conceived of as being the chief of all the other devils was bound by the Might of God and cast into Tartarus itself there to pay the penalty of what he had done in outrage against God, and that some other appeared after him, coming nothing short of the abominations of his father, and they affirmed that of him it was that the Saviour says that he was a murderer from the beginning and that he is a liar, as his father.

But unless we had much considered it in our minds, we should with reason have readily accepted this, but now this one thing above all suffers us not to approve inconsiderately. For at the time of the Saviour's Advent, the tyranny of the devil was receiving the beginning of its fall and the wicked and unclean spirits were being sent orth into the deep. And verily the devils would come and openly beg Him, that He would not command them to go forth into the deep. And we remember that they made a great outcry about this, saying, Let us alone, what have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? we know Thee Who Thou art, The Holy One of God, art Thou come hither to torment us before the time? For that our Lord Jesus Christ having come among us would waste them away and manifoldly vex them, they themselves too knew full well, finding much talk of Him among those in Israel, yet found fault as though He had come not in His season, in this too acting tyrannically and perversely accusing the time of the Advent. But they say before the time, as though in no wise tormented in any other time, but looking for one, the time of the Advent, in which they were unquestionably to undergo what they are expecting. And to this we say besides, If, he being bound according to their distinction, some other deceived Adam, and does not yet cease from the madness whereof he is accused, the first one will be wholly blameless as regards us, and this account will free him from all blame, and neither hath he slain any, nor deceived nor lied, nor yet will it be justly said to him by God, As raiment stained in blood shall not be clean, so neither shalt thou be clean, because thou destroyedst My land and slewest My people. If therefore we grant that that he whom they say is the first is wholly without any share in the above enumerated evil deeds, whom shall we decide that the second after him imitated, or after whom was he formed who surpassed in wickedness his leader, and had the deeper impress of that one's villainy?

And it were I suppose not unreasonable that we searching out this matter should go through fuller proofs, but we think it superfluous to put forth too much energy for what needs not: we will therefore go on to another thought and accurately search who it was that Christ allotted to the Jews as their father of like manner and disposition, so that for his father might reasonably be enrolled an evil spirit, that prince of evil, i. e. Satan. He brings them up therefore to Cain who first of all men loved not Him who chastised him by reproofs, but was set forth as the beginning of envy and murder and craft and lying and deceit, next to that Satan whose son he is rightly said to be, inasmuch as he receives in himself the whole impress of that one's wickedness. For as God is the Father of every holy and righteous person, being Himself the beginning of the holiness and righteousness of all:----in the same way I deem will Satan be reasonably styled father of every wicked person, himself being the author of all wickedness. But since we have said that Cain was given to the Jews as their father, to Cain again Satan, come let us following out our own words clearly show that Satan first of all reared his neck at God's reproofs, then both deceived and lied and lastly through envy committed murder: and having shown that Cain was of like manner and disposition with him, we in the third place bring down our argument to the Jews who possess complete the image of the wickedness that is in him.

Satan therefore despising his own principality and greatly longing after what was above his own nature, and not keeping the limit of his position, was borne down and fell, thereby convicted by God and taught the measure of his nature. But nothing profited thereby by reason of his ill counsel, he sickened of a worse disease, by no means looking to the duty of amending his own disposition, but minded to abide in steadfast perversity. But when the first man was formed by God, according to the book of Moses, and was in Paradise, yet keeping the commandment given him, that I mean about the Tree, Satan was first kindled to envy, and in that his transgression and disobedience were blamed by the first-created, while they were as yet keeping the commandment given them, he was eager by much-intriguing deceits to draw them away unto disobedience. And knowing that they would waste away if they made light of the commands of the Great King, he persuades them to do this, encompassing with the uttermost ills those who had nothing injured him. For that a deed of devilish deceit and envy was the transgression in Adam and the death that through it sprang upon him, the very nature of the thing will itself teach us, and the saying of the all-wise Solomon will make clear to us speaking on this wise, God made not death, but through envy of the devil came death into the world.

Herein then is his part, let now Cain come in to us and stand before us. For he was the first-born of Adam, an husbandman by occupation, and next after him came Abel, but he was a shepherd of sheep. But since the law of nature called them to offer sacrifice to God, implanting untaught the knowledge of the Creator (for all good things have been sown and infused in our nature by God): Cain offered of the fruit of the ground, as it is written, but Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof; and God had respect unto Abel and to his gifts but unto Cain and to his offerings He had not respect. And Cain was very vexed and his countenance fell. And the Lord God said unto Cain, Why wert thou vexed and why did thy countenance fall? If thou offeredst well but dividedst not aright, didst thou not sin? be still. Then to Abel, Unto thee shall be his resort and thou shalt rule over him. Therefore Cain was blamed for dividing not aright his offering, Abel was rightly deemed worthy of praise and honour, which was to Cain food of envy. For he was exasperated at the correcting reproofs, just as Satan was, then swelling with unrighteous envy, as we said, he goes after his brother in guile, already devising the unholy murder. For, it says, Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go over unto another field better than this, and inviting as though to enjoyment and tender grass him who was utterly unconscious, he savagely murdered him, and first of all laid him dead on the ground, thinking (it seems) that he would surely win all wonder, having no longer any to surpass him. And having slain him, he told a lie; for when |655 God says. Where is Abel thy brother? he says, I know not, and out of his exceeding folly added in heat, Am I my brother's keeper? For it says that he well-nigh said thus, Thou who crownedst him unjustly what good didst Thou, his Keeper, do him? Thou seest then and that clearly that the whole likeness of the devil's wickedness was accurately finished in him, and the conformation of his manners moulded after an equal and like fashion.

Let our discourse therefore go forward to the impiety of the Jews, and putting around them the likeness of Cain's villainy, let us show that they essayed those things against Christ, which he did against Abel, that rightly and fitly he may be termed their father. Therefore first-born was Cain, as we have said, first-born again among the children of God by adoption was Israel, as was said to Moses, Israel is My first-born. And he hath brought of the produce of the ground an offering unto God, but to his offerings He had not respect, as it is written. For more earthly was Israel's worship of the law, as has been said, by bullocks and sheep and fruits of the earth, nor does God accept this. For to what purpose, He saith, cometh there to Me incense from Sheba and cinnamon from a far country? and by the voice of Isaiah too He openly crieth, Who required this at your hand? After Cain cometh the righteous Abel to sacrifice of the sheep. For after the service according to the law, and at the consummation of the Prophets came Christ the verily Righteous, bringing not fruits of the earth for a sacrifice to God the Father, but for the life and salvation of all offering to Him Himself as an immaculate Victim for an odour of a sweet smell. For God the Father dismissing as more earthly the worship after the Law, had respect to the sacrifice of our Saviour Christ. The word, had respect to means Delighted in. What followed? Cain was rebuked for not dividing aright, and when blamed was sick of envy, and hastens headstrong unto murder. And God was admonishing in His Son the people of the Jews, was asking of them better things for offering, bidding them transform the worship according to the Law unto spiritual fruit-bearing, and urging them to transfashion the Letter unto truth: but they reproved are angry, and are smitten with the paternal envy, and unrighteously plot murder against our Saviour Christ. Cain deceived Abel, and taking him into the field displayed him dead: the Jews likewise as far as in them lay deceived Christ, sending the traitor in the guise of a friend, who coming to Him to betray Him saluted Him deceitfully saying, Hail Master. And they too took Him into the plain, i. e., they destroyed Him without the gate. For without the gate did Christ suffer because of us and for us. Thou seest then how they are found to be in no way like Abraham or those who were really of him, but bear the image of their own fitly and really belonging father, and madly sick with wickedness conformed and akin to his, they rightly hear, ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do; he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in, him; when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar just as was his father. And I, because I tell you the truth, ye believe Me not. The aim of the discourse looks to the father of the Jews who was brought forward and exhibited, I mean Cain, but it spreads out more generally. For not at that man's life does He bound the force of what He says, but puts it round about every one who is like him, allotting what is said of one individually to every one who is like him. For when (He says) Cain or other liar like him utters a lie, he utters it as of his own kin. For learning what he has from his rulers and him who hath given him the beginning of wickedness, he making the lie his own as some natural acquisition imitates his own father, for he utters a lie. Wherefore (He saith) since he had for his father one who delighted in lies, he is led on as by natural laws to the ignobility of his grandfather and father and shows forth in himself their villainy, and making the depravity of his ancestors the very clearest image of his own manners and ways, surely brags of his own ill.

Since then this is even so and the wickedness of elders engraven on those of like manners with themselves, causes them to be styled their children, what is it that hinders you from believing Me even when I tell you the truth, that I of a surety am sprung of a True Father, and (as I said before) I proceeded forth from God and am come? For if a person tells lies because he has a liar for his father and utters them thence as from his own kindred, how is it not of necessity that I too speaking the truth must be conceived to have been surely begotten of a True Father and not (as YE blasphemously surmised) from one of the earth who was of fornication and unlawful union?

Such words then will the Lord have used to the Jews. But we must know that in respect of men or of rational spirits in manners and habits is seen the kinness which they may have one to another [and] to the father of all wickedness the devil: in regard of the Only-Begotten this is taken only as an image of this which is before us 2: for by Him it [i. e., the relationship] is full exactly limned, for His Connaturalness with the Father is Natural and Essential. For being of Him in truth, possessing all that is His with Natural Property and the acme of likeness in ail things, He is seen the Form and Image and Impress of Him Who begat Him. Since therefore the Father is True, Truth of a surety is He too That is of Him, i. e., the Christ.

But the Son derives shape from the Father after a mode ineffable, and unspeakable, and unchangeable; (that is,) in such a manner as Moses says that tire colours of the conceived (kine) flowed from the rods which were fixed in the drinking-troughs. And in like manner, again, that capacities flowed also from the Son into Matter, similarly to the power in reference to conception which came from the rods upon the conceived (kine). And the difference of colours, and the dissimilarity which flowed from the rods through the waters upon the sheep, is, he says, the difference of corruptible and incorruptible generation. As, however, one who paints from nature, though he takes nothing away from animals, transfers by his pencil all forms to the canvas; so the Son, by a power which belongs to himself, transfers paternal marks from the Father into Matter. All the paternal marks are here, and there are not any more. For if any one, he says, of those (beings) which are here will have strength to perceive that he is a paternal mark transferred hither from above, (and that he is) incarnate-just as by the conception resulting from the rod a something white is produced,-he is of the same substance altogether with the Father in heaven, and returns thither. If, however, he may not happen upon this doctrine, neither will he understand the necessity of generation, just as an abortion born at night will perish at night. When, therefore, he says, the Saviour observes, "your Father which is in heaven," he alludes to that one from whom the Son deriving his characteristics has transferred them hither. When, however, (Jesus) remarks, "Your father is a murderer from the beginning," he alludes to the Ruler and Demiurge of matter, who, appropriating the marks delivered from the Son, generated him here who from the beginning was a murderer, for his work causes corruption and death.

If any one preaches the one God of the law and the prophets, but denies Christ to be the Son of God, he is a liar, even as also is his father the devil, and is a Jew falsely so called, being possessed of mere carnal circumcision. If any one confesses Christ Jesus the Lord, but denies the God of the law and of the prophets, saying that the Father of Christ is not the Maker of heaven and earth, he has not continued in the truth any more than his father the devil, and is a disciple of Simon Magus, not of the Holy Spirit. If any one says there is one God, and also confesses Christ Jesus, but thinks the Lord to be a mere man, and not the only-begotten God, and Wisdom, and the Word of God, and deems Him to consist merely of a soul and body, such an one is a serpent, that preaches deceit and error for the destruction of men. And such a man is poor in understanding, even as by name he is an Ebionite.

Moreover, since God rules over men and him too, and without the will of our Father in heaven not even a sparrow falls to the ground, it follows that his declaration, "All these things are delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give them," proceeds from him when puffed up with pride. For the creation is not subjected to his power, since indeed he is himself but one among created things. Nor shall he give away the rule over men to men; but both all other things, and all human affairs, are arranged according to God the Father's disposal. Besides, the Lord declares that "the devil is a liar from the beginning, and the truth is not in him." If then he be a liar and the truth be not in him, he certainly did not speak truth, but a lie, when he said, "For all these things are delivered to me, and to whomsoever I will I give them."

He had indeed been already accustomed to lie against God, for the purpose of leading men astray. For at the beginning, when God had given to man a variety of things for food, while He commanded him not to eat of one tree only, as the Scripture tells us that God said to Adam: "From every tree which is in the garden thou shalt eat food; but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, from this ye shall not eat: for in the day that ye shall eat of it, ye shall die by death;" he then, lying against the Lord, tempted man, as the Scripture says that the serpent said to the woman: "Has God indeed said this, Ye shall not eat from every tree of the garden?" And when she had exposed the falsehood, and simply related the command, as He had said, "From every tree of the garden we shall eat; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die:" when he had [thus] learned from the woman the command of God, having brought his cunning into play, he finally deceived her by a falsehood, saying, "Ye shall not die by death; for God knew that in the day ye shall eat of it your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." In the first place, then, in the garden of God he disputed about God, as if God was not there, for he was ignorant of the greatness of God; and then, in the next place, after he had learned from the woman that God had said that they should die if they tasted the aforesaid tree, opening his mouth, he uttered the third falsehood, "Ye shall not die by death." But that God was true, and the serpent a liar, was proved by the result, death having passed upon them who had eaten. For along with the fruit they did also fall under the power of death, because they did eat in disobedience; and disobedience to God entails death. Wherefore, as they became forfeit to death, from that [moment] they were handed over to it. ...For they died who tasted of the tree; and the serpent is proved a liar and a murderer, as the Lord said of him: "For he is a murderer from the beginning, and the truth is not in him."

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do: he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth: when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own."

He had driven them out of their relationship to Abraham, and when they dared greater things, He then addeth a blow, telling them that they not only are not Abraham's children, but that they are even children of the devil, and inflicting a wound which might counterbalance their shamelessness; nor doth He leave it unsupported, but establisheth it by proofs. "For," He saith, "to murder belongeth to the wickedness of the devil." And He said not merely, "ye do his works," but, "ye do his lusts," showing that both he and they hold to murder, and that envy was the cause. For the devil destroyed Adam, not because he had any charge against him, but only from envy. To this also He alludeth here.

"And abode not in the truth." That is, in the right life. For since they continually accused Him of not being from God, He telleth them that this also is from thence. For the devil first was the father of a lie, when he said, "In the day that ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened," and he first used it. For men use a lie not as a thing proper, but alien to their nature, but he as proper.

These words make it very clear that one is not a child of the devil as a result of creation, nor is anyone said to be a son of God because he was so created. It is also clear that one who was previously a child of the devil can become a child of God. Matthew also reveals this when he records that the Savior spoke as follows: "You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, you shall love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may become children of your Father who is in heaven." For note that by [obeying] the commands, "Love your enemies" and "Pray for those who persecute you," he who previously was not a child of the Father in heaven subsequently becomes his child.

For such is the meaning of the words "You will to do your father's desires." But we must say in reference to these matters that the devil desires, let us say, that this boy be corrupted, and that this woman commit adultery and that these men visit prostitutes. By the power of these desires, [the devil] makes the desire to do the things that he wishes to effect serve him so that, according to this, one could say that the one [i.e., the devil] who causes the prostitution or adultery practices prostitution and commits adultery even before the human becomes involved. And you will say the same thing also about every sin, that is to say, the devil does not desire money, but he desires to make people lovers of money and passionately desirous of material things. And those who love money, even if all they do is wish for it, will to carry out this desire of his.

If we do the works of God and wish to do his desires, we are children of God. But if we do the works of the devil and wish to do what he desires, we are of our father the devil. Let us pay attention, then, not only to what we do but also to what we desire. For even to wish to do the desires of the devil is sufficient to be his child. Perhaps this is why the words "You wish to do the desires of your father" are added after the statement "You do the works of your father," so that we may learn that even if we merely wish to do what the devil desires, we will still be called the children of the devil.

But notice also the statement "In Adam all die, and in Christ all shall be made alive." … By observing these words you will perceive the life of man according to the image. And when you have understood what his life is, you will perceive in what manner the murderer killed the living man, and that he will correctly be called a murderer, not because he killed some particular individual but because he killed the whole race insofar as "in Adam all die."

And the reason why truth is not in him is that he has been deceived and accepts lies, and he has himself been deceived by himself. On this basis he is considered to be worse than the rest of these who are deceived, since they are deceived by him, but he creates his own deception himself.

If one carefully considers human nature, which is not easily purified of false teachings, one sees that, as "everyone is a liar," not everyone has stood in the truth. If someone is not a liar and has stood in the truth, he is not an ordinary person but is like those to whom God says, "I have said, 'You are gods, children of the Most High.' " … But when the Holy Spirit or an angelic spirit speaks, it does not speak from its own resources but from the Word of truth itself and from wisdom. This is made clear in the Gospel according to John below where Jesus teaches about the Paraclete, saying, "He will receive from me and will declare it to you." Whenever the lie speaks, however, it speaks from its own resources.… We then who are human beings should hurry and flee with all our strength to become "gods" since, to the extent that we are human, we are liars, just as the father of the lie is a liar.

(tom. xx. 21.) Consider too; it was not one man only that he killed, but the whole human race, inasmuch as in Adam all die; so that he is truly called a murderer from the beginning.

(tom. xx. 22.) There is only one way of standing in the truth; many and various of not standing in it. Some try to stand in the truth, but their feet tremble and shake so, they cannot. Others are not come to that pass, but are in danger of it, as we read in the Psalms, My feet were almost gone: (Ps. 72) others fall from it. Because the truth is not in him, is the reason why the devil did not stand in the truth. He imagined vain things, and deceived himself; wherein He was so far worse than others, in that, while others are deceived by him, he was the author of his own deception. But farther; does the truth is not in him, mean that he holds no true doctrine, and that every thing he thinks is false; or that he is not a member of Christ, who says, I am the truth? (c. 14:6) Now it is impossible that any rational being should think falsely on every subject and never be even ever so slightly right in opinion. The devil therefore may hold a true doctrine, by the mere law of his rational nature: and therefore his nature is not contrary to truth, i. e. does not consist of simple error and ignorance; otherwise he could never have known the truth.

(tom. xx. 23.) Note however; this word, liar, is applied to man, as well as to the devil, who begat a lie, as we read in the Psalm, All men are liars. (Ps. 111) If a man is not a liar, he is not an ordinary man, but one of those, to whom it is said, I have said, Ye are Gods. (Ps. 81) When a man speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; but the Holy Spirit speaketh the word of truth and wisdom; as he said below, He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. (c. 16:15)

I should wish, my dearest brethren, always to receive the glad account of your sincere love and peace, so that the signs of your welfare might be promoted in turn by the dissemination of our letters among you, if our ancient enemy should give us quiet and deliverance from his attacks; who was a liar from the beginning,

If, on the contrary, it had been only the Son of God, most likely I should never have condescended to deal with Him." However, he is himself a liar from the beginning, and whatever man he instigates in his own way; as, for instance, Praxeas.

When Satan, he says, speaks lies and similar words, he does not use those of others but his own. He is the father of falsehood because he generated it and was the first to use it by speaking to Adam when he substituted certain words in place of others. The expression "He is a liar and the father of it" signifies that he is a liar and the father of lies. In other words, the devil not only generated lies. He was also the first to introduce them and to use them.

He said "you cannot hear My word" instead of "you do not want to." Then He gives the reason why they did not want to hear: that they have their own father, namely the devil. Although you madly ascribe yourselves as children to God, as your father, your deeds testify that the devil is a more natural father to you. "You want to carry out his desires." He did not say "deeds," but "desires," showing that they are very inclined toward lying and murder, two kinds of evil which are very characteristic of the devil. "He was a murderer from the beginning." Therefore you also, seeking to kill Me, liken yourselves to him who murdered Adam. "He did not stand in the truth," but is the father of lies. And you, when you lie about Me and say that I am not from God, do not stand in the truth, do not abide in My word; you are children of him who begot the lie. For he slandered God to men as well, when he told Eve that He had forbidden them the tree of the knowledge of good and evil out of envy. Likewise he slandered men to God, for example Job, saying that Job did not honor God for nothing. People, when they lie, make use of what is, as it were, another's falsehood. But the devil employs falsehood as his own property, for it is his offspring; and the liar in the proper sense and the father of lies is he himself. He said to Eve: "In the day that ye eat thereof, ye shall be as gods" (Gen. 3:5). But they (Adam and Eve) received death.

For he accused God to man, saying to Eve, But of envy He hath forbidden you the tree: and to God he accused man, as in Job, Doth Job serve God for nought? (Job 1:9)

After showing that the Jews had a certain spiritual origin, and after rejecting the origin they presumed they had, our Lord here gives their true origin, ascribing their fatherhood to the devil. First, he makes his statement; secondly, he gives its reason; and thirdly, he explains this reason.

He says: You do the works of the devil; therefore, you are of your father the devil, that is, by imitating him: "Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite" (Ez 16:3).

Here one must guard against the heresy of the Manicheans who claim that there is a definite nature called "evil," and a certain race of darkness with its own princes, from which all corruptible things derive their origin. According to this opinion, all men, as to their flesh, have come from the devil. Further, they say that certain souls belong to that creation which is good, and others to that which is evil. Thus they said that our Lord said, you are of your father, the devil, because they came from the devil according to the flesh, and their souls were part of that creation which was evil. But as Origen says, to suppose that there are two natures because of the difference between good and evil seems to be like saying that the substance of an eye which sees is different from that of an eye that is clouded or crossed. For just as a healthy and bleary eye do not differ in substance, but the bleariness is from some deficient cause, so the substance and nature of a thing is the same whether it is good or has a defect in itself, which is a sin of the will. And so the Jews, as evil, are not called the children of the devil by nature, but by reason of their imitating him.

Then when he says, and your will is to do your father's desires, he gives the reason for this, for their being of the devil. It is like saying: you are not the children of the devil as though created and brought into existence by him, but because by imitating him your will is to do your father's desires. And these desires are evil, for as he envied and killed man - "through the devil's envy death entered the world" (Wis 2:24) - so you too envy me and "you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth" (8:40).

Then when he says, he was a murderer from the beginning, he explains the reason he gave. First, he mentions the characteristic of the devil that they imitate; secondly, he shows that they are truly imitators of that (8:45).

With respect to the first it should be noted that two sins stand out in the devil: the sin of pride towards God, and of envy towards man, whom he destroys. And from the sin of envy towards man, because of which he injures him, we can know his sin of pride. And so first, he mentions the devil's sin against man; secondly, his sin against God, he did not stand in the truth.

His sin of envy against man lies in the fact that he kills him. So he says, he, that is, the devil, was a murderer from the beginning. Here it should be noted that the devil kills man not with the sword, but by persuading him to do evil. "Through the devil's envy death entered the world" (Wis 2:24). First, the death of sin entered: "The death of the wicked is very evil" (Ps 33:22); then came bodily death: "Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin" (Rom 5:12). As Augustine says: "Do not think that you are not a murderer when you lead your brother into evil." However, it should be noted with Origen, that the devil is not called a murderer with respect to only some particular person, but with respect to the whole race, which he destroyed in Adam, in whom all die, as we read in 1 Corinthians (c 15). Thus he is called a murderer because that is a chief characteristic, and he is so indeed from the beginning, that is, from the time that a man existed who could be killed, who could be murdered; for one cannot be murdered unless he first exists.

Then when he says, he did not stand in the truth, he mentions the devil's sin against God, which consists in the fact that he turned away from the truth, which is God. First, he shows that he is turned from the truth; secondly, he shows that he is contrary to the truth: when he lies, he speaks according to his own nature. As to the first he does two things: first, he shows that the devil is turned from the truth; secondly, he explains what he has said, because there is no truth in him.

He says, he did not stand in the truth. Here it should be noted that truth is of two kinds, namely, the truth of word and the truth of deed. The truth of word consists in a person saying what he feels in his heart and what is in reality: "Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor" (Eph 4:25); "He who speaks truth from his heart, who does not slander with his tongue" (Ps 15:3). The truth of deed, on the other hand, is the truth of righteousness, i.e., when a person does what befits him according to the order of his nature. Concerning this it says above: "He who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God" (3:21). Speaking of this truth our Lord says, in the truth, namely, the truth of righteousness, he did not stand, because he abandoned the order of his nature, which was that he be subject to God, and through him acquire his happiness and the fulfillment of his natural desire. And so, because he wanted to obtain this through himself, he fell from the truth.

The statement, he did not stand in the truth, can be understood in two ways. Either he never had anything to do with the truth, or that he once did, but did not continue in it. Now never to have anything to do with the truth of righteousness has two meanings. One is according to the Manicheans, who say that the devil is evil by nature. From this it follows that he was always evil, because whatever is present by nature is always present. But this is heretical, for we read: "God made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them" (Ps 146:6). Therefore, every being is from God; but everything which is from God, insofar as it is, is good.

Consequently, others have said that the devil was created good in his nature by God, but became evil in the first instant by his own free choice. And this opinion differs from that of the Manicheans who say that the devils were always and by nature evil, whereas this opinion claims that they were always evil by free choice.

Someone might suppose that since an angel is not evil by nature but by a sin of his own will - and sin is an act - it is possible that at the beginning of the act the angel was good, and at the end of the evil act he became evil. For it is plain that the act of sin in the devil is subsequent to his creation, and that the terminus of creation is the existence of an angel; but the terminus of the act of sin is that he is evil. Consequently, according to this explanation, they conclude that it is impossible that an angel be evil in the first instant in which the angel came to exist.

But this explanation does not seem to be sufficient, because it is true only in motions that occur in time and that are accomplished in a successive manner, not in instantaneous motions. For in every successive motion the instant in which an act begins is not the one in which the action is terminated; thus, if a local motion follows upon an alteration, the local motion cannot be terminated in the same instant as the alteration. But in changes that are instantaneous, the terminus of a first and of a second change can occur together and in the same instant. Thus, in the same instant that the moon is illumined by the sun, the air is illumined by the moon. Now it is clear that creation is instantaneous, and likewise the act of free choice in the angels, since they do not go through the weighings and discoursings of reason. Thus, in the case of an angel there is nothing to prevent the same instant from being the terminus of creation (in which he was good), and the terminus of a free decision (in which he was evil). Some admit this, although they do not say that it so happened, but that it could have so happened. And they base themselves on the authority of Scripture, for under the figure of the king of Babylon it is said of the devil: "How have you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who did rise in the morning?" (Is 14:12); and under the person of the king of Tyre it says: "You were in the pleasures of the paradise of God" (Ez 28:13). Accordingly, they say that he was not evil at the first instant of his creation, but that he was once good, and fell through his free choice.

But it must be said that he could not be evil at the first instant of his creation. The reason for this is that no act is sinful except insofar as it is outside the nature of the voluntary agent. But in order of acts, the natural act is first: thus in understanding, first principles are understood first, and through them other things are understood; and in willing, we likewise first will the ultimate perfection and ultimate end, the desire for which is naturally in us, and on account of this we seek other things. Now that which is done according to nature is not sin. Therefore, it is impossible that the first act of the devil was evil; consequently, at some instant the devil was good. But he did not stand in the truth, i.e., he did not remain in it. Concerning the statement from 1 John (3:8): "The devil has sinned from the beginning," one may say that he did indeed sin from the beginning in the sense that once he began to sin he never stopped.

Then when he says, because there is no truth in him, he explains what he has said. And this explanation can be understood in two ways. In one way, according to Origen, so that it is an explanation of the general by the particular, as when I explain that Socrates is an animal by the fact that he is a man. It is then like saying: he did not stand in the truth, but fell from it, and this because there is no truth in him. Now there are two classes of those that do not stand in the truth: some do not stand in the truth because they are not convinced, but waver: "My feet had almost stumbled, my steps had well nigh slipped" (Ps 73:2); others, on the other hand, because they have entirely recoiled from the truth. And this was the way the devil did not stand in the truth, but turned away from it in aversion.

But is there no truth at all in him? For if there is no truth in him, we would not understand himself or anything else, since understanding is concerned only with things that are true. I answer that there is some truth in the evil spirits, just as there is something true. For no evil utterly destroys a good thing, since at least the subject in which evil is found is good. Thus Dionysius says that the natural goods remain intact in evil spirits. Thus there is some truth in them, but not the fulfilling truth from which they have turned, namely, God, who is fulfilling truth and wisdom.

In a second way, this explanation is understood as a sign, as Augustine says. For it seems that he should rather have said the converse, namely, "there is not truth in him, because he did not stand in the truth." But just as a cause is sometimes shown by its effect, so our Lord wished to show that the truth was not in him because he did not stand in the truth; for truth would have been in him had he stood in the truth. A similar pattern of speech is found in "I cried because you heard" (Ps 16:6): as if to say that it is evident that I cried because you heard me.

Then he shows that the devil is contrary to the truth, when he lies, he speaks according to his own nature. First, he makes this point; secondly, he explains it.

The contrary of truth is falsity and a lie. The devil is contrary to the truth because he speaks a lie. Thus he says, he lies. Here we should note that, God excepted, whoever speaks on his own speaks a lie; although not everyone who speaks a lie speaks on his own. God alone, when speaking on his own, speaks the truth, for truth is an enlightenment of the intellect, and God is light itself and all are enlightened by him: "the true light that enlightens every man" (1:9). Thus he is truth itself, and no one speaks the truth except insofar as he is enlightened by him. So Ambrose says: "Every truth, by whomsoever spoken, is from the Holy Spirit." Thus the devil, when he speaks on his own, speaks a lie; man, too, when he speaks on his own, speaks a lie; but when he speaks from God, he speaks the truth: "Let God be true though every man be false" (Rom 3:4). But not every man who tells a lie speaks on his own, for sometimes he gets this from someone else, not indeed from God, who is truthful, but from him who did not stand in the truth and who first invented lying. So in a unique way when the devil tells a lie, he is speaking on his own: "I will go forth and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all prophets" (1 Kgs 22:22); "The Lord mingled" (that is, allowed to mingle) "a spirit of error in their midst" (Is 19:14).

He explains this statement when he says, for he is a liar and the father of lies. The Manicheans did not understand this, and placed some kind of procreation in the evil spirits, with the devil as their father. They said that the devil "is a liar and his father." It should not be understood this way, as our Lord said that the devil is a liar and its father, the father of lies. Not everyone who lies is the father of his lie. As Augustine says, "If you have learned a lie from someone else and you repeat it, you have indeed lied, but you are not the father of that lie." But the devil, because he did not learn from someone else the lie by which he destroyed humankind as with poison, is the father of the lie, just as God is the father of truth. The devil was the first to invent the lie, namely, when he lied to the woman: "You will not die" (Gen 3:4). Just how true this statement was, was proved by the outcome.

Here we should note that the book Questions of the New and Old Testament takes the words you are of your father the devil, and applies them to Cain, in the sense that one is called a devil who performs the works of the devil, and you are imitating him; hence you are of your father the devil, that is, of Cain, who did the work of the devil, and you are imitating him. Cain "was a murderer from the beginning," because he killed his brother Abel. And he "did not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him." This is obvious because when the Lord asked him, "Where is Abel your brother?" he said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" (Gen 4:9). Thus he is a liar. But the first explanation is better.

"But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me," and thus you hate the truth: the Psalm: "O sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart?" And because they could say: we do not disbelieve on account of hatred of truth, but of iniquity: therefore he adds.

"And because I tell you the truth, ye believe Me not." What kind of consequence is this? "Having no charge against Me, ye desire to kill Me. For because ye are enemies of the truth, therefore ye persecute Me. Since had this not been the reason, ye would have named your charge." Wherefore He added, "Which of you convinceth Me of sin?" Then they said, "We be not born of fornication." Yet in fact many of them were born of fornication, for they practiced unbefitting unions. Still He doth not convict them of this, but setteth Himself to the other point. For when He hath proved them to be, not of God, but of the devil, by all these signs, (for to do murder is of the devil, and to lie is of the devil, both which ye do,) then He showeth that to love is the sign of being of God.

We must question how he says, to people who believe in him, "because I speak the truth, you do not believe in me." Consider whether it is possible to believe in someone in one particular aspect but not to believe in another aspect. For instance, one could believe that Jesus was crucified in Judea in the time of Pontius Pilate but not believe that he was born of the Virgin Mary. This one believes and disbelieves in the same person. Take, as another example, those who believe in the Jesus who performed the recorded wonders and signs in Judea but who do not believe in the Son of the one who made heaven and earth. These believe and disbelieve in the same one.…It is likely that they believed in him on the basis of what was seen because of his marvelous deeds, but they did not believe in his deeper sayings.… You see this even in the present, that there are many people who marvel at Jesus whenever they consider the story about him but who no longer believe when a teaching that is deeper and greater than their capacity is disclosed to them, but instead suspect it to be false.

But you do not believe Me, because I speak the truth. Having nothing to accuse Me of other than the truth, you rise up against Me for this very reason, as sons of the father of lies.

After mentioning some characteristics of the devil, he then shows that the Jews are imitating these. Our Lord ascribed two kinds of evil to the devil, murder and lying. He reproved them before for their imitation of one of these, namely, murder: "Now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth" (8:40). Then passing from this, he reproves them for turning away from the truth: first, he shows that they are turned away from the truth; secondly, he rejects a certain reason they might give for this (v 46); thirdly, he concludes to the true reason for their being turned away from the truth (v 46b).

He says first: It was said that the devil is a liar and the father of lies, and you are imitating him because you do not wish to adhere to the truth. Thus he says, If I tell the truth to you you do not believe me; "If I tell you, you will not believe" (Lk 22:67); "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe me, etc." (3:12). And Isaiah complains: "Who has believed what we have heard?" (Is 53:1).

For we shall show that Christ did not teach the nations impiety, but delivered ignorant and wretched men from those who most wickedly wronged them.

"Which of you convicts me of sin?" As if to say: no one can. On this account it is said in reproof in Job fifteen: "You reprove with words him who is not equal to you." Why then do you not believe me? "If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?" This is certainly not on account of my fault, but your malice; and this he proves.

If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?

He goes often through the selfsame words, when He sees that they understand nought: for this too is a thing most befitting for teachers, not to shrink from manifoldly revolving the instruction which at the first was not taken in, in order that it may be fixed in the souls of the hearers. When therefore the liar (He says) speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar just as his father:----why do ye reasoning and acting not conformably to what I say, not believe Me, albeit I say the truth, [imagining] that I am therefore speaking apart from the truth, seeing that I am even so True as is the Father also? It is (I suppose) likely that He is convicting the Jews of being therefore infirm in the power of containing the words of the truth, because they are not sons of the truth. To no purpose do they falsely call God their Father, saying, We have One Father, God. For God (He says) being wholly Truth, rejoices in the truth and wills them that worship Him, to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. And the children of the truth receive willingly what is of kin to them, i. e., the Truth. But YE when I tell you the truth do therefore not believe, because ye are not children of the truth. Some such thing does the Lord seem to me to be saying to the Jews, as one will easily see if one adapt the speech to another person. For let one for example of sober character say to an unbridled son or servant or neighbour, If I seem to thee to be of sober character shunning fornication and putting the thought thereof as far from me as possible, why disbelievest thou and givest no credence when I say that it is a foul and polluted deed? One would not I suppose say that he said this, looking for an answer to his question, but whereby he shows him unbelieving clearly convicts him that he rejoicing in licentiousness does not admit the speech that would amend him.

Thus then shall we conceive as to the Jews likewise, when Christ says, If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me? for the form of such questions has an affirmation alongside of them and ever annexed, from the very questions themselves; yea rather (may one say) the question largely convicts them. For we convict those who are asked of having the sickness of being without what ourselves possess. But note how He says, not absolutely nor generally, why believe ye Me not? but hath added YE, hinting at those who were wont more fiercely to disbelieve, and indicating that there were some there who had haply a nobler mind, and did not preserve in their ways the accurate impress of Cain's stubbornness, but were even now going forward to being even enrolled among the children of God. For I say that we must not think that all the Jews were utterly immersed in untempered folly, but that some having a zeal of God, as Paul saith, yet not according to knowledge, did therefore delay a little as to the faith. But in those who were thus disposed we shall blame, as much looking unto wrath and intemperately kindled unto bloodthirstiness, the unholy scribes and Pharisees in particular, to whom will more fitly pertain the, Why do YE not believe Me, Christ as it were attributing to them as their own, boundless unbelief. For they were they who are the leaders and who persuade their subjects to go along with their profane-nesses. Rightly therefore are they accused as having taken away the key of knowledge, and neither entering in themselves, and hindering others. The YE therefore has its more especial application to the rulers.

Which of you convinceth Me of sin?

The question is not that of one who looketh to be convicted, but rather of One Who takes away and utterly denies the possibility of Very God Who beamed forth of God, falling into sin: for Christ did no sin. For all sin takes its rise from the turning aside from the better unto that which is not so, and is produced in those whose nature it is to turn and who are recipient of change unto what they ought not. For how will he be conceived to even sin who knows no turning nor is recipient of change to ought that is not convenient, but rather is steadfast in His own innate Good, and that not from another but from Himself? The Lord then enquires of the Jews if they can at all convict Him of sin. And the word used for this will go through every transgression universally: but connecting it fitly with what is before us, we say that He does not at present ask it of every sin and do this as fearing to be convicted, but we consider it in this way, that since He was ever zealous to shame the sin of the Jews, He would not have endured by this question to incite them to again accuse Him of those things of which they before said, For a good work we stone Thee not but for blasphemy, and because Thou, being a Man, makest Thyself God: and besides that they should bring forward the breach of the sabbath in regard to which He was judged to have exceedingly transgressed. By sin therefore He at present means falsehood. For if (He says) I am never yet convicted of being untrue, why are ye minded to disbelieve Me who ever speak the truth, and tell you of a surety that I am sprung of the Very Father and know not falsehood? Give therefore give to faith unhesitatingly to hold that I am surely True when I say of Myself, I proceeded forth from God and am come, of you that your father is the devil, for ye lie and desire to kill just as he doth. But He convicts them profitably of desiring to kill Him, cutting short thereby their attempts. For sin exposed often blushes, and after a sort withdraws, finding no way of going forward and persisting: but if it think that it lies hid, it is ever the more lifted up and with unchecked impetus creeps on to basest consummation.

We must not think that all the Jews were utterly immersed in ill-tempered foolishness. Rather, some had "a zeal for God," as Paul said, "but it was not yet enlightened," and these therefore delayed a little regarding the faith. But regarding those who were thus disposed we shall blame the unholy scribes and Pharisees … whose boundless unbelief stirred the others to wrath and intemperately kindled them to bloodthirstiness. For the scribes and Pharisees were the leaders and the ones who persuaded their subjects to go along with their sacrilege. It is fitting therefore that they are accused as having "taken away the key of knowledge," and neither entering themselves, they hinder others. Therefore, when Christ says, "Why do you not believe me?" he is primarily speaking against the leaders.

Consider, dearest brothers, the gentleness of God. He had come to forgive sins, and yet he said: "Which of you can convict me of sin?" He did not disdain to show by reasoning that he was not a sinner, he who by the power of his divinity could justify sinners.

(Hom. xviii. in Evang.) Observe here the condescension of God. He who by virtue of His Divinity could justify sinners, deigns to show from reason, that He is not a sinner.

He truly assumed a body; for "the Word was made flesh," and lived upon earth without sin. For says He, "Which of you convicteth me of sin?" He did in reality both eat and drink.

Now, so far as the literal meaning is concerned, the text also involves the Savior's boldness, since no man could say with the confidence that he had not sinned, "Which of you convicts me of sin?" It is only our Lord "who did not sin," "who has been tempted in all things like as we are, without sin." He is the only one able to address these words to all who have ever known him. Now, I understand the words "which of you" to be said not only to those present but also to the whole human race, as if we were to understand it to mean: Who of your race? Or, what sort of person will be able to convict me of sin? But be assured: there is no one.

(tom. xx. in Joan. s. 25.) A bold speech this; which none could have had the confidence to utter, but he Who did no sin; even our Lord.

They themselves called themselves sons of God. He says: "If you are sons of God, you certainly ought to hate the sinner. If you can convict Me, whom you hate, of sin, then obviously you hate Me justly. But if no one can convict Me openly, you hate Me for the truth." For what truth? Without doubt, for the fact that He called Himself the Son of God, which is completely true.

As if to say: If ye are the sons of God, ye ought to hold sinners in hatred. If ye hate Me, when ye cannot convince Me of sin, it is evident that ye hate Me because of the truth: i. e. because I said I was the Son of God.

The reason which the Jews might allege for their unbelief is that Christ is a sinner, for it is not easy to believe a sinner even when he is telling the truth. Thus we read: "But to the wicked God says: 'What right have you to recite my statutes?'" (Ps 50:16). So they might have said: We do not believe you since you are a sinner.

Accordingly, he excludes this reason when he says, Which of you convicts me of sin? As if to say: You have no good reason for not believing me when I speak the truth, since you can find no sin in me: "He committed not sin; no guile was found on his lips" (1 Pt 2:22).

According to Gregory, we are invited to consider the mildness of God, who did not consider it beneath himself to show by rational grounds that he who can justify sinners by the power of his divinity is not a sinner: "If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant, when they brought a complaint against me; what then shall I do when God rises up?" (Jb 31:13). We should also honor the unique greatness of Christ's purity, for as Chrysostom says, no mere man could have confidently said, Which of you convicts me of sin? Only God, who had no sin, could say this: "Who can say, 'I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin?'" (Prv 20:9) - this is like saying: No one but God alone. "They have all gone astray, they are all alike corrupt; there is none that does good, no, not one," except Christ (Ps 14:3).

Next, he concludes to the real reason they have turned away from the truth. First, he mentions the reason; secondly, he rejects their rejoinder (v 48). As to the first he does three things: first, he asks a question; secondly, he begins with a reasonable starting point; thirdly, he draws from his conclusion.

First, he says: Since you cannot say that you do not believe me because I am a sinner, one can ask why if I tell the truth, you do not believe me, since I am not a sinner? This is like saying: If you cannot convict me, whom you hate, of sin, it is obvious that you hate me because of the truth, that is, because I say that I am the Son of God: "A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion" (Prv 18:2).

"He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God." Here, again, it is not of their nature as men, but of their depravity, that you are to think. In this way they are of God, and yet not of God. By nature they are of God, in depravity they are not of God.

(Tr. xlii. 16) Apply this not to their nature, but to their faults. They both are from God, and are not from God at the same time; their nature is from God, their fault is not from God. This was spoken too to those, who were not only faulty, by reason of sin, in the way in which all are: but who it was foreknown would never possess such faith as would free them from the bonds of sin.

"He who is of God hears the words of God," First John four: "He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us"; but you do not hear, and why? "Therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God," but rather of the devil: Sirach three: "A good ear will hear wisdom with all desire"; on the contrary, the Jews did not hear: Acts seven: "Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit."

Likewise, it is asked concerning what he says: "He who is of God."

Some have drawn strength for the error that good spirits are from God materially.

It is answered to them that it is erroneous to say that God is the matter of anything, since he is most simple.

But then an objection is raised: because if "from" denotes there an origin and efficient cause, and we are all from God, then we all hear the word of God.

Likewise, did not they themselves hear?

I respond: As has been said above, "from" denotes origin not with respect to primary being, but with respect to secondary being, which is the being of grace and of guilt, and this indeed according to conformity and imitation. Whence the meaning is: "he who is from God," through conformity of will, "hears the words of God," with the ear of the heart, not of the body, because in that way even the wicked hear.

We must here understand that certain are of God, not as though begotten of His Essence (for that were foolish), nor yet according to what is said through Paul, All things are of God (for since He is Creator and Maker of all things who giveth being to all, the Divine Paul saith that all things are of Him): but it will not harmonize so to understand it here, for all are of God, both bad and good, in so far as He is Creator of all. He says therefore that he is of God who by virtue and a right conversation is related to God, and accounted worthy of kinness to Him, in that He deigns to enrol such among His children. He therefore, He says, that is of God will receive most readily and gladly the Divine words (for that which is of kin and own is always dear) but he that is not of God, i. e., he who in no wise prizes relationship with Him, will not most gladly hear the Divine words: for neither will good easily inexist the bad, nor will longing for virtue be to them a thing worth fighting for, since their mind has been filled with the extremest depravity and looks to only its own will.

But when Christ says, He that is of God heareth God's words, let no one think that He is bidding us to give the Divine voice entry in merely our bodily ears. For who that is, even though he be a thoroughly bad man, will not surely hear the voice of him who speaketh, if he have not by some disease lost his hearing? But the word heareth, He here puts instead of Consents, believes and lays up in his mind, as it is said in the book of Proverbs, The wise will receive commandments in his heart. For that of the unwise or despisers the word borne about, like some meaningless sound and like some din that annoys to no purpose, forthwith departs from the recipients: but into the heart of the prudent like some generous soil it sinks in.

Full wisely does now the Lord, convicting the madness of the Jews and showing that they blaspheme without restraint, say that His words are the words of God. For He reinstructs them (He says) to think more becomingly of Him and not to deem that of Joseph or any other of those on the earth did He of a truth spring, but to believe that of the Essence of God the Father He hath appeared God of God. Which they indeed understanding are annoyed and burn with hotter wrath, adding iniquity to their iniquity, as it is written, through those things whereby they insult Him yet more.

But what follows is very terrifying: "He who is of God hears the words of God; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God." For if he who is of God hears the words of God, and whoever is not of him cannot hear his words, let each one ask himself whether he perceives the words of God in the ear of his heart, and he will understand where he is from. The Truth commands us to desire the heavenly homeland, to crush the desires of the flesh, to shun the glory of the world, not to covet what belongs to others, and to give away what is our own. Therefore let each one of you consider within himself whether this voice of God has taken hold in the ear of his heart, and he will recognize that he is already of God. For there are some who do not deign to receive the precepts of God even with the ear of the body. And there are some who indeed receive them with the bodily ear, but embrace them with no desire of the mind. And there are some who gladly receive the words of God, so that they are even moved to tears of compunction, but after the time of weeping they return to iniquity. These certainly do not hear the words of God, who scorn to put them into practice by their deeds. Therefore, dearest brothers, call your life back before the eyes of your mind, and with profound consideration fear what sounds from the mouth of Truth: "Therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God."

(ut sup.) Let him then, who would understand God's words, ask himself whether he hears them with the ears of his heart. For there are some who do not deign to hear God's commands even with their bodily ears; and there are others who do this, but do not embrace them with their heart's desire; and there are others again who receive God's words readily, yea and are touched, even to tears: but who afterwards go back to their sins again; and therefore cannot be said to hear the word of God, because they neglect to practise it.

"Why do ye not understand My speech?" Since they were always doubting, saying, "What is it that he saith, 'Whither I go ye cannot come'?" therefore He telleth them, "Ye do not understand My speech," "because ye have not the word of God. And this cometh to you, because that your understanding is groveling, and because what is Mine is far too great for you." But what if they could not understand? Not to be able here means not to be willing; for "ye have trained yourselves to be mean, to imagine nothing great." Because they said that they persecuted Him as being themselves zealous for God, on this account He everywhere striveth to show that to persecute Him is the act of those who hate God, but that, on the contrary, to love Him is the act of those who know God.

But how came it into their thoughts to betake themselves to God? He had shown them unworthy of Abraham; desiring therefore to escape this charge, they mounted higher. For when He reproached them with murder, they said this, making it, as it were, a kind of excuse for themselves that they were avenging God. Therefore He showeth that this very thing is the act of men opposing God. And the, "I came forth," showeth that He was from thence. He saith, "I came forth," alluding to His arrival among us. But since they would probably say to Him, "Thou speaketh certain things strange and new," He telleth them that He was come from God. "And therefore with good reason ye hear them not, because ye are of the devil. For on what account would ye kill Me? What charge have ye to bring against Me? If there be none, why do ye not believe Me?" Thus then having proved them to be of the devil by their lying and their murder, He showeth them also to be alien from Abraham and from God, both because they hated One who had done no wrong, and because they would not hear His word.

(tom. xx. 24.) But how is this said to the Jews who believed on Him? Consider: a man may believe in one sense, not believe in another; e. g. that our Lord was crucified by Pontius Pilate, but not that He was born of the Virgin Mary. In this same way, those whom He is speaking to, believed in Him as a worker of miracles, which they saw Him to be; but did not believe in His doctrines, which were too deep for them.

"He who is of God hears the words of God." Therefore, if you too were sons of God, you would not turn away from Me, the Son of God, who came down from heaven and exalts the words of God.

He then begins with a reasonable and true starting point, saying, he who is of God hears the words of God. For we read in Sirach (13:15): "Every creature loves its like." Therefore, whoever is of God, to that extent possesses a likeness to the things of God and clings to them. Thus, he who is of God gladly hears the words of God: "Every one who is of the truth hears my voice" (18:37). The word of God ought to be heard gladly by those, above all, who are of God, since it is the seed by which we are made the children of God: "He called them gods to whom the word of God came" (10:35).

He draws his conclusion from this saying, the reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. This is like saying: The reason for your unbelief is not my sin, but your own wickedness; as Sirach (6:20) says: "She seems very harsh to the uninstructed."

Augustine says about them that as to their nature, they are of God, indeed; but by reason of their vice and evil affection they are not of God. For this statement was made to those who were not just sinful, for this was common to all; it was made to those of whom it was foreknown that they would not believe with that faith by which they could have been set free from the chains of their sins.

It should be noted, as Gregory says, that there are three degrees of being badly disposed in one's affections. Some refuse to physically hear God's precepts. Of these we read: "Like the deaf adder that stops its ear" (Ps 58:4). Others hear them physically, but they do not embrace them with the desire of their heart, since they do not have the will to obey them: "They hear what you say, but they will not do it" (Ez 33:32). Finally, there are those who joyfully receive the words of God and even weep with tears of sorrow; but after the time of crying is past and they are oppressed with troubles or allured by pleasures, they return to their sins. An example of this is given in Matthew (c 13) and Luke (c 8), where we read of the word being choked by cares and anxieties. "But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they are not willing to listen to me" (Ez 3:7). Consequently, a sign that a person is of God is that he is glad to hear the words of God, while those who refuse to hear, either in affection or physically, are not of God.

(Tr. xliv. 1. 2) And to imitate His patience first, if we would attain to His power. But though being reviled, He reviled not again, it was incumbent on Him to deny the charge. Two charges had been made against Him: Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil. In reply He does not say, I am not a Samaritan: for Samaritan means keeper; and He knew He was a keeper: He could not redeem us, without at the same time preserving us. Lastly, He is the Samaritan, who went up to the wounded, and had compassion on him.

(Tr. xliii. 3) Then after being so reviled, all that He says to vindicate His glory, is, But I honour My Father: as if to say, That you may not think Me arrogant, I tell you, I have One, Whom I honour.

(Tr. xliii. 3) As if to say, I do my duty: ye do not do yours.

"Jesus answered." Here the second point is touched upon, namely the patient response, because he does not respond to the whole insult but to a part. Whence he says: "I do not have a demon," by whose power I would perform works for my own glory; "but I honor my Father," who is in heaven, because he did all things for the glory of the Father, according to that word of the Apostle in First Corinthians 10: "Do all things for the glory of God." "And you have dishonored me," by inflicting insult, and consequently you have also dishonored the Father; above in chapter 5: "He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him."

Likewise it is asked: since two things had been objected against him, why did the Lord respond only to one?

Gregory responds that "he denied the one and by his silence consented to the other. For Samaritan is interpreted as guardian, and he himself was the guardian, of whom the Psalm says: Unless the Lord guard the city," etc.

It is answered in another way that it was certain that he was born of the Jews; therefore it was not necessary for him to respond, because it was evidently false.

In a third way it is answered that the charge of being a Samaritan touched upon his own dishonor, but the charge about a demon touched upon divine dishonor and was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, about which Matthew twelve speaks, and it detracted from the glory of the Father. Therefore the Lord taught us to endure our own reproaches, but not divine ones. And this is clear from his response: "I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father."

Gentle is the word, but nevertheless very pointed. For most emphatically does He say, I have not a devil, and putting Himself in contradistinction to them, He shows that He is free from their railing and that it is true of them. For unless themselves had a devil, they would (it is likely) have shuddered at calling Him possessed Who was attested to them by His Deeds as God. Most excellently therefore does He say, I have not, transferring the speech to them and allotting it rather to them by reason that so it was in truth. I therefore have not (He says) but YE the devil, and I honour My Father, saying that I am God and have beamed forth of God and affirming that I knew not sin. For it needed, it needed that He Who is of God be God and that He Who is of Him Who knoweth not sin should be beheld such as He of Whom He is. But if (as is necessary the opposite should be) refusing to offend you, I had not used such splendid language (for God would not be honoured if conceived of as having a Son not God) the Father (He says) would not have been honoured if He had been called the Father of one who falls into sin. Hence in witnessing most excellent things to Myself, I in no wise (He says) blaspheme as ye suppose, but rather honour My Father. I honour Him in another way too (for I say with justice of you that ye are not of God, since neither is it right that they who have come to this pitch of wickedness and are drenched in all villainy should say that they are of God. For He honours and deems worthy of kin to Him not the liar and railer and blasphemer and haughty and insolent, nor yet one whose wont it is to seek to kill unjustly, but the gentle and meek and pious and godly and good. Hence in this way too do I honour the Father, putting forth from kinness with Him those who are condemned for utter wickedness; and YE again dishonour Me doing this, and attack the praise that belongs to the Father that ye may be caught, blaspheming not only against the Son, but now against Him too. For if I by witnessing of Myself things most excellent, honour My Father, he will surely (He says) dishonour Him, who clothes Him That is of Him with the deepest reproaches. On all sides therefore is Christ consistent with His own words, and clearly shows that He is God by Nature, and whereby He says that the Father is honoured when the kinness to Him of the multitude of the unholy is thrust off, by this doth He say that the Jews are in all respects alien to God: for what more unholy than they who say those things?

But having received such an insult, let us hear what the Lord responds: "I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you have dishonored me." For since "Samaritan" is interpreted as "guardian," and he himself is truly the guardian of whom the Psalmist says: "Unless the Lord guards the city, in vain do those who guard it keep watch"; and to whom it is said through Isaiah: "Guardian, what of the night? Guardian, what of the night?" — the Lord did not wish to answer: "I am not a Samaritan"; but rather, "I do not have a demon." For indeed two things were charged against him: one he denied, the other he conceded by remaining silent. For he had come as the guardian of the human race; and if he had said that he was not a Samaritan, he would have denied that he was a guardian. But he kept silent about what he acknowledged, and patiently repelled what he heard falsely spoken, saying: "I do not have a demon." In these words, what else is confounded but our pride? For if it is provoked even slightly, it returns more savage injuries than it received: it does the evils it can, and threatens even those it cannot do. Behold, the Lord receiving an injury does not grow angry, does not answer with insulting words. If he had wished to respond to those saying these things: "You have a demon," he would certainly have spoken the truth, because unless they had been filled with a demon, they could not have spoken such perverse things about God. But having received the injury, Truth did not wish to say even what was true, lest he should seem not to have spoken truth, but to have returned insult when provoked. From this matter, what is suggested to us except that at the time when we receive insults from neighbors out of falsehood, we should also keep silent about their true evils, lest we turn the ministry of just correction into weapons of fury? But because whoever uses zeal for God is dishonored by wicked men, the Lord provided us an example of patience in himself, when he says: "But I honor my Father, and you have dishonored me."

(Hom. xviii. in Evang.) See; when God suffers a wrong, He does not reply reproachfully: Jesus answered, I have not a devil. An intimation this to us, that when reproached by our neighbours falsely, we should not retort upon them by bringing forward their evil deeds, however true such charges might be; lest the vehicle of a just rebuke turn into a weapon of rage.

(Hom. xliii. 3) As all who have zeal toward God are liable to meet with dishonour from wicked men, our Lord has Himself set us an example of patience under this trial; And ye do dishonour Me.

Let us imitate him, since he also was an imitator of Christ. If he, with enemies, who went even to the length of murder and slaughter, said nothing offensive to them, what pardon shall we deserve, who in reviling and abuse become infuriated, calling our enemies villains, detestable wretches? Just as Christ also said: I have not a devil, but I honor My Father: but ye do dishonor Me.

The statement "And you dishonor me" follows these words and is addressed to those who have dishonored him and said to him, "Are we not correct in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" They thought that their incorrect statement was correct. For they denounced the Savior because they thought incorrectly that he was a Samaritan and had a demon. But we must think that the statement "And you dishonor me" was made not only to those at that time but also to those who always dishonor him by what they do contrary to the upright word of God. It was made by those who dishonor Christ, who is justice, by the unjust things they do.… "You dishonor me" would also be said to anyone who despises wisdom, since Christ also is wisdom.

Thus they insult Him, yet He accepts their insults without malice. However, when they call themselves sons of God, He strongly rebukes them, standing up for the truth; but when He Himself is insulted, He does not defend Himself. By this He teaches us also to stand up for the glory of God and to bear meekly the insults that concern ourselves, just as He Himself meekly says: "I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father." How does He honor the Father? By defending Him and not allowing murderers and liars to call themselves sons of the Savior and the Truth. "You," He says, "dishonor Me because I honor My Father, whom you revile, since you falsely claim that He is your father. But even if I do not avenge Myself and endure the insults, do not think that this insult will remain unavenged. There is a Father who will punish for such an insult inflicted upon Me because I defend Him and do not allow you to call yourselves His sons."

He honoured the Father, by revenging Him, and not suffering murderers or liars to call themselves the true sons of God.

Then when he says, Jesus answered: I have not a demon, our Lord rejects the response of the Jews. Now they had taxed Christ with two things, that he was a Samaritan and that he had a demon. Concerning the first, our Lord makes no apology, and this for two reasons. First, according to Origen, because the Jews always wanted to keep themselves apart from the Gentiles. But the time had now come when the distinction between Jews and Gentiles was to be removed, and everyone was to be called to the way of salvation. Accordingly, our Lord, in order to show that he had come for the salvation of all, made himself all things to all men, more so than Paul, so that he might win all (cf. 1 Cor 9:22); and so he did not deny that he was a Samaritan. The other reason was that "Samaritan" means "keeper," and because he especially is our keeper, as we read, "He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep" (Ps 121:4), so he did not deny that he was a Samaritan.

But he did deny that he had a demon, saying, I have not a demon. First, he rejects the insult; secondly, he reproves the insulters for their obstinacy (v 49b). As to the first he does two things: first, he rejects the insult; secondly, he shows that the opposite is true, I honor my Father.

It should be noted with respect to the first that when correcting the Jews our Lord often spoke harshly to them: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees" (Mt 23:14), and many other instances are recorded in Matthew. But there is no record that our Lord spoke harsh or injurious words in answer to their harsh words or deeds against himself. Rather, as Gregory said, God accepted their insults, and did not answer with insulting words, but simply said, I have not a demon. And what does this suggest to us if not that when we are falsely attacked by our neighbor with railing words, we should keep silence, even about his abusive words, so as not to pervert our ministry of correcting in a just manner into a weapon of our anger. However, while we should not value our own goods, we should vindicate the things that are of God. As Origen says, Christ alone is capable of claiming, I have not a demon, for he has nothing, either slight or serious, of the devil in him; thus he says: "The ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me" (14:30). "What accord has Christ with Belial?" (2 Cor 6:15).

He supports his stand by saying the opposite: but I honor my Father. Now the devil hinders honor being given to God; therefore, any person who seeks God's honor is a stranger to the devil. Thus, Christ, who honors his Father, that is, God, has not a demon. Furthermore, it is a proper and singular mark of Christ that he honor his Father, as we read: "A son honors his father" (Mal 1:6). And Christ is most singularly the Son of God.

Next he reproves the impudence of those insulting him. First, he reproves them; secondly, he rejects the supposed reason for their reproof; and thirdly, he foretells their deserved condemnation.

He says first, I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. This is like saying: I do what I ought, but you do not do what you ought. Indeed, by dishonoring me you dishonor my Father: "He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him" (5:23).

"And I," said He, "seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth." Whom does He wish to be understood but the Father? How, then, does He say in another place, "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son," while here He says, "I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth"? If, then, the Father judgeth, how is it that He judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son? ...Similarly now said the Lord Christ, "I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth." How is there "one that seeketh and judgeth"? There is the Father, who discerns and distinguishes between my glory and yours. For ye glory in the spirit of this present world. Not so do I who say to the Father, "Father, glorify Thou me with that glory which I had with Thee before the world was." What is "that glory"? One altogether different from human inflation. Thus doth the Father judge. And so to "judge" is to "discern." And what does He discern? The glory of His Son from the glory of mere men; for to that end is it said, "God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows." For not because He became man is He now to be compared with us. We, as men, are sinful, He is sinless; we, as men, inherit from Adam both death and delinquency, He received from the Virgin mortal flesh, but no iniquity.

(Tr. xliii. 4) Meaning of course the Father. But how is it then that He says in another place, The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. (c. 5:22) Judgment is sometimes put for condemnation, whereas here it only stands for trial: as if to say, There is one, even My Father, who distinguishes My glory from yours; ye glory after this world, I not after this world. The Father distinguishes the glory of the Son, from that of all men: for that He has been made man, does not bring us to a comparison with Him. We men have sin: He was without sin, even when He was in the form of a servant; for, as the Word which was in the beginning, who can speak worthily of Him?

"I do not seek my own glory." Here the third point is touched upon, namely the reason for the patient response. For he was not responding in order to glorify himself; but he endured their insult, not because it was true, but because he did not care about glory; on account of which he says: "I do not seek my own glory," and therefore I do not respond to your insult; Jerome: "He who does not seek glory does not feel insult." Therefore I do not care about the insult inflicted, but nevertheless do not think yourselves free from fault and from fitting retribution; whence he says: "There is one who seeks and judges," namely the Father, who seeks the glory of the Son; below in chapter 12: "And I have glorified and will glorify again"; "and judges": as if to say: I reserve it to his judgment. Gregory: "The Son reserves the insults inflicted upon him to the judgment of the Father, so that he may surely teach us how patient we ought to be, since he who judges does not yet wish to avenge himself."

Likewise it is asked about what he says: "There is one who seeks and judges."

On the contrary: Above in chapter five: "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son."

I respond: There is a judgment of condemnation and of discernment: the first is treated above, the second is found here.

Herein is that seen to be clearly true which is said through Peter of the Saviour, Who when He was reviled reviled not again, suffering He threatened not but delivered Himself to Him That judgeth righteously. For see how He hearing things of all the worst and cruellest from those who are impiously raging against Him (and this full oft) He abides in His own gentleness, and in no wise departs from what beseems Him, for our ensample doing this too, that we zealous to follow His Footsteps might not be caught in rendering railing for railing, nor ought else of evil for evil, but might rather overcome evil with good.

I therefore seek not My glory (He says) and this not as though He were proffering to those who so willed the insulting of Him as a thing free from peril, nor yet as inciting any to go readily unto this impiety is He seen to say this, but He signifies rather thus: I am come (He says) not to make glory from you My business, nor desiring at all honour or fame: for being in the form of God the Father I have abased Myself and have for your sakes become Man as you. And He Who disdained not to take servant's form, when He might have remained in equality with God the Father and had the full enjoyment of things above mind and speech, how will He be deemed to be seeking glory from any and not rather to be enduring voluntary disgrace for others' good?

Our Lord here is either saying this, or in another way too we will suppose that He seeketh not His own glory. For it being in His Power to punish immediately those who insult Him and to demand satisfaction for their blasphemy as behaving ungodly against the Very Lord of all:----He bears calmly what is grievous and endures to that extent as not so much as to desire to grieve by a mere word the haughty ones, yet in order that blasphemy against God may not seem a beaten track to any, needs does He, forbidding them to advance thereto, straightway oppose as a barrier, the Father's wrath. For though the Son be longsuffering and do not forthwith take vengeance for His own glory, the Father (He says) will not be forbearing, for He will be an Avenger and will rise up against the insulters, not as though taking the part of another nor as though He were pleased to grieve in behalf of one of the saints insulted and deemed it became Him thus to do, but as though the sin reached up unto Him (for there is nought at all intervening between the Father and the Son, as far I mean as identity of Essence, even though either be conceived of as existing separately). For therefore does our Lord Jesus Christ too elsewhere say, He that honoureth not the Son neither doth he honour the Father. For the Son hath in Himself Naturally the Father Co-glorified and Co-existing, the Father again hath in Himself the Son partaker of His Essence, so too of His glory in every thing. The wretched Jews therefore will be punished for their blasphemy against the Lord and Son, impious against the whole Consubstantial and Holy Trinity and grieving in the Son the Nature that is King of all.

Every one therefore who at all practiseth piety must therefore shun in ought offending the good God. For not because He doth not immediately bring His Anger on those who offend against Him, must we therefore be supine. For He is Good, not bringing on His Anger every day, yet if we turn not, He will whet His sword, as it is written, and will bend against us His Bow, wherein are the instruments of death, that is to say, every form of shame and intolerable trouble.

But what we should do in such matters, he still admonishes us by example, when he adds: "But I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks and judges." We know certainly that it is written that the Father has given all judgment to the Son, and yet behold the same Son, receiving injuries, does not seek his own glory. He reserves the insults inflicted for the Father's judgment, so that he might surely intimate to us how patient we ought to be, since he who judges does not yet wish to avenge himself.

(ut sup.) How we are to take injuries, He shows us by His own example, when He adds, I seek not Mine own glory, there is one that seeketh and judgeth.

"I seek not Mine own glory." "These things," He saith, "I have spoken to show that it becometh not you, being murderers, to call God your Father; so that I have spoken them through honor for Him, and for His sake do I hear these reproaches, and for His sake do ye dishonor Me. Yet I care not for this insolence; to Him, for whose sake I now hear these things, ye owe an account of your words. For 'I seek not Mine own glory.' Wherefore I omit to punish you, and betake Myself to exhortation, and counsel you so to act, that ye shall not only escape punishment, but also attain eternal life."

God, who gave his own Son for us, seeks the glory of Christ in each of those who have received him. He will find it in those who attend to themselves and work out the opportunities for virtue that have been implanted in them, but he will not find it in those who are not such. When he does not find it, he will judge those in whom he does not find the glory of his own Son and will say to them, "Because of you my name is continually blasphemed among the nations."

There is One who seeks My glory, and not only seeks it, but is also able to judge and punish those who offend Me without cause. Often someone seeks redress for an offense, but cannot himself judge. But the Father both seeks the glory of the Son and is able to judge. Therefore He also said: "There is One who seeks and judges." What love for mankind! He is offended, yet leaving the seeking of His own glory and vengeance to the Father, He turns to exhortation and teaching, and in this way does good to those who insult Him. So too must we repay our enemies.

But they could say: You are too severe, you are too concerned for your own glory, and so you reprove us. He rejects this, and speaking as man, says, I do not seek my own glory. For it is God alone who can seek his own glory without fault; others must seek it in God: "Let him who glories, glory in the Lord" (2 Cor 10:17); "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing."

But does not Christ as man have glory? He does indeed, and it is great in every respect, because, although he does not seek it, nevertheless, there is One who seeks it, that is, the Father; for we read: "Thou dost crown him with glory and honor" (Ps 8:5), referring to Christ in his human nature.

Not only will he seek my glory in those who accomplish works of great virtue, but he will punish and condemn those who speak against my glory; thus he adds: and he will be the judge. This, however, seems to conflict with the statement above (5:22): "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son." I answer that the Father does not judge anyone apart from the Son, because even that judgment which he will make concerning the fact that you insult me, he will make through the Son. Or, one might say that judgment is sometimes taken for condemnation, and this judgment the Father has given to the Son, who alone will appear in visible form in judgment, as has been said. Sometimes, however, it is understood as meaning to distinguish one from another; and this is the way it is used here. Thus we read: "Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause" (Ps 42:1). It is like saying: It is the Father who will distinguish my glory from yours, for he discerns that you glory in the world; and he sees the glory of his Son, whom he has anointed above his fellows and who is without sin. But you are men with sin.

But what sayest Thou, O Lord, of Thyself? "Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." Ye say, "Thou hast a devil." I call you to life: keep my word and ye shall not die. They heard, "He shall never see death who keepeth my word," and were angry, because already dead in that death from which they might have escaped.

(Tr. xliii. 10, 11) See is put for experience. But since, about to die Himself, He spoke with those about to die, what means this, If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death? What, but that He saw another death from which He came to free us, death eternal, the death of the damned, which is shared with the devil and his angels! That is the true death: the other is a passage only.

"Amen, amen I say to you." The Lord has shown that through his teaching there is liberation from the blindness of error and the servitude of sin; here now he shows that through it there is liberation from the damnation of death. First, against those reviling, he shows the efficacy of his word; second, against those arguing, he shows his excellence; third, to those marveling, his eternity; fourth, to those persecuting, his patient humility.

There is set forth, then, first the commendation of the doctrine of Christ in this, that those who keep it are snatched from death, and this without any doubt: therefore he says: "Amen, amen, I say to you," that is, I Jesus assert this in truth: "If anyone keeps my word, he shall never taste death." This observance is through the keeping of the commandments; Ecclesiastes 8: "He who keeps the commandment shall experience no evil"; and Wisdom 6: "The keeping of the laws is the consummation of incorruption. And incorruption makes one to be near to God." And such a one does not taste death through experience, namely eternal death, although he may see it, according to that saying of Isaiah last chapter: "They shall go out and see the corpses of men who have transgressed against me"; Matthew 16: "There are some standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

But it is asked here: since the Jews were scandalized and did not understand the Lord, because they understood only in a carnal manner, why is it that the Lord did not cease from preaching?

I respond: It must be said that the Lord spoke in such a way that they could have understood spiritually, but by the just judgment of God they were blinded; nor did he cease from preaching, because, as Gregory says, "when the perversity of the wicked increases, preaching ought not to be diminished, but increased."

He shows that it is superfluous to array long defences against those who are wont to delight in blaming; for He bends Himself to what was necessary, I mean the calling through faith unto eternal life, and all but bidding farewell to those who had through their unlearning grieved Him, He kneads up His own discourse with a sort of art. For having before said of God, He that is of God heareth God's words, He immediately says, If a man keep My word, showing that He is by Nature God and hence teaching that no further reach of impiety yet remains to the Jews when they have said that He hath a devil Who giveth eternal Life to those who will keep His word. For will He not be known by this too to be God by Nature? for to what other will pertain the being able to quicken for ever them who hear His words, save to Him Who is God by Nature?

The Divine word is kept, when a man does not transgress the Divine Commandment but is instant and does without delay that which is bidden and is in no wise accused of sloth in the Divine laws. But note again how great exactitude the words have, for He does not endure to say, If a man hear My Word, but, If a man keep My Word. For there receive into their ear the word of God, not men alone holden in sin, but also the unhallowed band itself of the devils: and verily Satan the chieftain of them all, when he daring to tempt in the wilderness our Lord Jesus Christ, kicking against the pricks by reason of his much ferocity of character, did set before Him the Divine word also, saying. It has been written That He shall command His Angels respecting Thee to guard Thee in all Thy ways. Therefore not in mere hearing is the word of salvation, nor in only learning is life, but in keeping what was heard, and as a certain rule and guide of life was He setting before [them] the Divine word. He says that the sure keeper of His words shall not see death for ever, not surely as taking away death in the flesh, but as God not accounting that death is death, for to Him nought is dead, in that His it is both to bring to the birth that which is not and easily to quicken that which when so wrought has decayed. Or He says that the saints shall not see death in the age to come, which age will strictly and more truly be conceived of as not having an end like this of ours; and He says that they who have kept His Divine Word, shall not see death during that age, not as though any should die after the Resurrection, for the death of all has been undone in the death of Christ and the might of decay brought to an end, but by death He means (as is like) being punished for ever. And you may learn this, viewing what Himself has said above: for Verily (He says) I say to you, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, he that disobeyeth the Son shall not see life: albeit all shall rise again and shall hasten anew unto life, both faithful and faithless. For by no means is the Resurrection partial, but equally to all, so far at least that all must live again.

How then will he that believeth not the Son not see life, albeit all look to rise again? it is then manifest to every body that it is Christ's wont to call life, a long living in gladness and glory which refuseth to draw to a close, and this is treasured up in hope for the saints. As therefore He says that he which disobeyeth the Son shall have |668 no sight of life albeit all look to live again, meaning here not the life of the body, but calling by this name the hope prepared for the saints: in the same way He says that the brave and intrepid keeper of His Divine words shall not see death for ever, not surely signifying hereby the death of the body, but the punishment prepared for the sinners. For as in the former joy is indicated through the word life, so here too punishment through saying death.

But when the perversity of the wicked increases, preaching must not only not be broken off, but even increased. The Lord admonishes us of this by his own example, who after being said to have a demon bestowed the benefits of his preaching more generously, saying: "Amen, amen, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall not see death forever." But just as it is necessary for the good to become even better through insults, so the reprobate always become worse from benefit. For having received the preaching, they say again: "Now we know that you have a demon." For since they had clung to eternal death, and did not see the same death to which they clung, while they looked only at death of the flesh, they were blind to the word of Truth.

(Hom. xviii. in Evang.) As the perversity of the wicked increases, preaching so far from giving way, ought even to become more active. Thus our Lord, after He had been accused of having a devil, imparts the treasures of preaching in a still larger degree: Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death." Here He speaketh not of faith only, but of a pure life. Above He said, "shall have everlasting life," but here, "shall not see death." At the same time He hinteth to them that they could do nothing against Him, for if the man that should keep His saying should not die, much less should He Himself.

For what is that death that has come into the world through sin if it is not the last enemy of Christ that will be destroyed? And what is that death that passed to all people because all have sinned if it is not this very death that also reigned from Adam to Moses? Now Moses, that is, the law, continued until the sojourn of our Lord Jesus and ruled by one man's transgression through that one man, until those who have received the abundance of grace and righteousness should reign in life through the one Christ Jesus. Whoever, then, has kept the word of the Only Begotten and Firstborn of creation will never see this death, since it is the nature of the Word to prevent death from being seen. And this is how we must understand the words "If anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." It is as if he who speaks these words had given those who hear them light as a gift and said, If anyone keeps this light of mine, he will never see darkness.

"If anyone keeps My word," that is, joins to faith a pure life as well (for only he truly keeps the Lord's teaching who also has a pure life), such a person shall not see the death by which sinners die, being delivered in the age to come to endless torment and falling away from the true life. At the same time, He lets them know that if the one who keeps My word does not die, then all the more so do I not die. Why then do you want to kill Me, over Whom death has so little power that I even grant true life to others? For although believers die bodily, they are alive in God.

Above, our Lord had promised two things to his followers: liberation from darkness and the attainment of life, saying, "He who follows me does not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (8:12). The first of these has been treated above; so we are now concerned with the second, the obtaining of life through Christ. First, he states the truth; secondly he counters its denial by the Jews (v 52).

It should be noted that although Christ had been loaded down with insults and criticisms, he did not stop his teaching; indeed, after being accused of having a demon, he offers the benefits of his teachings more generously, saying: Truly, truly, I say to you, if any one keeps my word, he will never see death. He is here giving us an example that when the malice of wicked men increases, and those that are converted are abused with insults, preaching, so far from being curtailed, should be increased: "And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words" (Ez 2:6); "the gospel for which I am suffering and wearing fetters like a criminal. But the word of God is not fettered" (2 Tim 2:9).

In this statement our Lord does two things: he requires something, and he promises something. What he requires is that his words be kept, if any one keeps my word - for the word of Christ is the truth. Therefore, we should keep it, first of all, by faith and continual meditation: "Do not forsake her, and she will keep you" (Prv 4:6); secondly, by fulfilling it in action: "He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me" (14:21).

What he promises is freedom from death; thus he says, he will never see death, that is, experience it: "They who act by me (i.e., by divine wisdom) shall not sin; they who explain me shall have life everlasting" (Sir 24:30). Such a reward suits such merit, for life everlasting consists especially in the divine vision: "This is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent" (17:3). Now the seedbed and source of this vision comes into us by the word of Christ; "The seed is the word of God" (Lk 8:11). Therefore, just as a person who keeps the seed of some plant or tree from being destroyed succeeds in obtaining its fruit, so the person who keeps the word of God attains to life everlasting: "Keep my statutes and my ordinances by doing which a man shall live" (Lev 18:5).

(cont. Maximin. ii. 12.) For if He has aught less in His power than the Father has, then all that the Father has, are not His; for by begetting Him the Father gave power to the Son, as by begetting Him He gave all things which He has in His substance to Him whom He begot of His substance.

(De Trin. i. 8.) And because their substance is inseparable, it is enough sometimes to name the Father, sometimes the Son, nor is it possible to separate from either His Spirit, who is especially called the Spirit of truth.

(De Trin. vii. 3.) The Father is revealed by the Son, that is, by His Word. For if the temporal and transitory word which we utter both shows itself, and what we wish to convey, how much more the Word of God by which all things were made, which so shows the Father as He is Father, because itself is the same and in the same manner as the Father.

(Quæst. Ev. i. 1.) When He said, None knoweth the Son but the Father, He did not add, And he to whom the Father will reveal the Son. But when He said, None knoweth the Father but the Son, He added, And he to whom the Son will reveal him. But this must not be so understood as though the Son could be known by none but by the Father only; while the Father may be known not only by the Son, but also by those to whom the Son shall reveal Him. But it is rather expressed thus, that we may understand that both the Father and the Son Himself are revealed by the Son, inasmuch as He is the light of our mind; and what is afterwards added, And he to whom the Son will reveal, is to be understood as spoken of the Son as well as the Father, and to refer to the whole of what had been said. For the Father declares Himself by His Word, but the Word declares not only that which is intended to be declared by it, but in declaring this declares itself.

A beginning should be made from the center, that is, from Christ. For He Himself is the "Mediator between God and men," holding the central position in all things. Hence it is necessary to start from Him if a man wants to reach Christian wisdom, as it is proved in Matthew: for "no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and him to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him."

In this manner it is possible to find in the illumination of mechanical art, whose entire intention is directed toward the production of artifacts. In which we can perceive these three things, namely the generation and incarnation of the Word, the order of living, and the covenant of God and the soul. And this, if we consider the origin, the effect, and the fruit; or thus: the art of working, the quality of the artifact produced, and the usefulness of the fruit derived.

If we consider the origin, we shall see that the artificial product proceeds from the artisan by means of a likeness existing in his mind, through which the artisan conceives before he produces, and then produces as he has planned. Moreover, the artisan produces an exterior work conformed to the interior exemplar as closely as he can; and if he could produce such a product that would love and know him, he would certainly do so; and if that product were to know its maker, this would be by means of the likeness according to which it proceeded from the artisan; and if it had darkened eyes of knowledge, so that it could not raise itself above itself, it would be necessary, in order that it might be led to knowledge of its maker, that the likeness through which the product had been produced should condescend to that nature which could be grasped and known by it.

By this manner understand that from the supreme Artisan no creature proceeded except through the eternal Word, "in whom He disposed all things," and through whom He produced not only creatures having the nature of a vestige, but also of an image, so that they might be assimilated to Him through knowledge and love. And since through sin the rational creature had the eye of contemplation clouded over, it was most fitting that the eternal and invisible should become visible and assume flesh, in order to lead us back to the Father. And this is what is said in John fourteen: No one comes to the Father except through me; and Matthew eleven: No one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. And therefore it is said the Word was made flesh. Considering therefore the illumination of mechanical art with respect to the production of the work, we shall behold therein the Word begotten and incarnate, that is, the Divinity and the humanity and the integrity of the whole faith.

But "no one is good," except His Father. It is this same Father of His, then who being one is manifested by many powers. And this was the import of the utterance, "No man knew the Father," who was Himself everything before the coming of the Son. So that it is veritably clear that the God of all is only one good, just Creator, and the Son in the Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen.

The one who sees the Son, who has the image of the Father in himself, sees the Father himself.… These things are to be understood in a manner befitting to God. He said, "Everything has been handed down to me" so that he might not seem to be a member of a different species or inferior to the Father. Jesus added this in order to show that his nature is ineffable and inconceivable, like the Father's. For only the divine nature of the Trinity comprehends itself. Only the Father knows his own Son, the fruit of his own substance. Only the divine Son recognizes the One by whom he has been begotten. Only the Holy Spirit knows the deep things of God, the thought of the Father and the Son.

So that it might not be supposed that anything in him is less than what is in God, Jesus said that everything was entrusted to him by his Father, that he alone was known to his Father and that his Father was known to him alone or to one to whom he himself had wished to reveal his Father. By this revelation Jesus showed that the same essence of both Father and Son existed in their knowledge of each other. One who could know the Son would also know the Father in his Son, because everything was handed down to him from the Father. Moreover, nothing else was handed down than what was known to the Father in the Son alone, but the things that belonged to the Father were known to be revealed in the Son alone. Thus in this mystery of mutual knowledge it is understood that nothing else existed in the Son than what was known to be in the Father.

Or that we may not think that there is any thing less in Him than in God, therefore He says this.

And also in the mutual knowledge between the Father and the Son, He teaches us that there is nothing in the Son beyond what was in the Father, for it follows, And none knoweth the Son but the Father, nor does any man know the Father but the Son.

For this mutual knowledge proclaims that they are of one substance, since He that should know the Son, should know the Father also in the Son, since all things were delivered to Him by the Father.

The Father entrusts. The Son receives. What is entrusted? All things have been entrusted to the Son, but this does not mean cosmically heaven and earth and the elements and the rest of nature which God himself made and established. Rather, it refers personally to the people who have access to the Father through the Son and who were formerly rebellious but afterward began to know God.

(Verse 27.) Everything has been handed over to me by my Father. And understand mystically the One who hands over the Father and the One who receives the Son. Otherwise, if we want to feel according to our weakness, when the one receiving starts to have, the one giving will start to not have. However, everything that has been handed over to Him does not mean the heavens and the earth, and the elements, and the rest that He Himself made and created: but those who, through the Son, have access to the Father, and who previously were rebellious, began to feel God afterwards.

And no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal. Let Eunomius be ashamed of claiming to have such knowledge of the Father and the Son as they have of each other. But if he persists in this and consoles himself in his madness because it follows, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal. It is one thing to know by the equality of nature what you know, and another by the dignity of the revealer.

For if we conceive of this thing according to our weakness, when he who receives begins to have, he who gives begins to be without. Or when He says, All things are committed to him, He may mean, not the heaven and earth and the elements, and the rest of the things which He created and made, but those who through the Son have access to the Father.

Let the heretic Eunomius therefore blush hereat who claims to himself such a knowledge of the Father and the Son, as they have one of anothera. But if he argues from what follows, and props up his madness by that, And he to whom the Son will reveal him, it is one thing to know what you know by equality with God, another to know it by His vouchsafing to reveal it.

For since He had said, "I thank Thee, because Thou hast hid them, and hast revealed them unto babes;" to hinder thy supposing that as being Himself deprived of this power, and unable to effect it, so He offers thanks, He saith, "All things are delivered unto me of my Father." And to them that are rejoicing, because the devils obey them, "Nay, why marvel," saith He. "that devils yield to you? All things are mine; All things are delivered unto me."

But when thou hearest, "they are delivered," do not surmise anything human. For He uses this expression, to prevent thine imagining two unoriginate Gods. Since, that He was at the same time both begotten, and Lord of all, He declares in many ways, and in other places also.

Then He saith what is even greater than this, lifting up thy mind; "And no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, but the Son." Which seems indeed to the ignorant unconnected with what went before, but hath full accordance therewith. As thus: having said, "All things are delivered unto me of my Father," He adds, "And what marvel," so He speaks, "if I be Lord of all? I who have also another greater privilege, the knowing the Father, and being of the same substance." Yea, for this too He covertly signifies by His being the only one who so knew Him. For this is His meaning, when He saith, "No man knoweth the Father but the Son."

And see at what time He saith this. When they by His works had received the certain proof of His might, not only seeing Him work miracles, but endowed also in His name with so great powers. Then, since He had said, "Thou hast revealed them unto babes," He signifies this also to pertain to Himself; for "neither knoweth any man the Father," saith He, "save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is willing to reveal Him;" not "to whomsoever He may be enjoined," "to whomsoever He may be commanded." But if He reveals Him, then Himself too. This however He let pass as acknowledged, but the other He hath set down. And everywhere He affirms this; as when He saith, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

And thereby he establishes another point also, His being in harmony and of one mind with Him. "Why," saith He, "I am so far from fighting and warring with Him, that no one can even come to Him but by me." For because this most offended them, His seeming to be a rival God, He by all means doth away with this; and interested Himself about this not less earnestly, but even more so, than about His miracles.

But when He saith, "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son," He means not this, that all men were ignorant of Him, but that with the knowledge wherewith He knows Him, no man is acquainted with Him; which may be said of the Son too. For it was not of some God unknown, and revealed to no man, that He was so speaking, as Marcion saith; but it is the perfection of knowledge that He is here intimating, since neither do we know the Son as He should be known; and this very thing, to add no more, Paul was declaring, when he said, "We know in part, and we prophesy in part."

Since the Lord Jesus Christ sent the apostles to preach, (our rule is) that no others ought to be received as preachers than those whom Christ appointed; for "no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Nor does the Son seem to have revealed Him to any other than the apostles, whom He sent forth to preach-that, of course, which He revealed to them.

With regard, however, to the Father, the very gospel which is common to us will testify that He was never visible, according to the word of Christ: "No man knoweth the Father, save the Son." For even in the Old Testament He had declared, "No man shall see me, and live.

With us, however, the Son alone knows the Father, and has Himself unfolded "the Father's bosom.

Wherefore? Because "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world" and, "I am the way: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me; " and, "No man can come to me, except the Father draw him; " and, "All things are delivered unto me by the Father; " and, "As the Father quickeneth (the dead), so also doth the Son; " and again, "If ye had known me, ye would have known the Father also.

He exults in spirit when He says to the Father, "I thank Thee, O Father, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent." He, moreover, affirms also that to no man is the Father known, but to His Son; and promises that, as the Son of the Father, He will confess those who confess Him, and deny those who deny Him, before His Father.

In His preceding words, He said to the Father, "Father, Thou hast revealed." Lest you think that He Himself does nothing and that everything is of the Father, He says, "All things have been given to Me and both the Father and I have the same authority." And when you hear "given" do not think that means given as to a servant or a subordinate, but rather as bestowed upon a son. It is because He was begotten of the Father that those things were given to Him. For if He were not begotten and yet were of the same essence as the Father, those things need not have been given to Him because He would have already possessed them. See what He says: all things have been given, not by a master, but by My Father. As, for example, when a handsome child is born of a handsome father, the child says, "I have been given, that is, I have inherited, my father's beauty." He says something great, "There is nothing marvelous in My being the Master of all things since I possess something even greater, that is, to know the Father, and knowing Him, to reveal Him to others." Consider, then: He said, above, that the Father has revealed the mysteries to babes, and here, that the Son reveals the Father. You see, then, the single power of the Father and the Son, since both the Father and the Son reveal.

All things have been delivered to me by my Father. He had given thanks to the Father, because he revealed his secrets to little ones. But someone might suppose that he himself could not reveal; hence he excludes this: first, he touches on the greatness of his own power; secondly, he invites people to himself, as though saying, "I am powerful" (v. 28).

First, he does two things: first, he states that he is equal to the Father; secondly, he applies it spiritually to what he said (v. 27b).

He says, therefore: Someone could ask whether he can do all things. He answers that all things have been delivered to me by my Father. But note the equality, although the origin is from the Father, which is against Sabellius. But what is meant by all things? This can be explained in three ways:

All things, i.e., above every creature, as below (28:18): "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Or all things, i.e., the elect and predestined, who have been given in a special way: "Yours they were and you have given them to me" (Jn 17:6). Likewise, all things, namely, intrinsic, i.e., every perfection of the godhead: "As the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son to have life in himself" (Jn 5:26). And we should not understand this in a bodily sense, because if he gave, he also kept it for himself. This explanation is Augustine's and Hilary's.

But someone could ask: How did he give? Therefore, he tells how, when he says, from my Father. Hence he received this by generation. And no one knows the Son except the Father. Now he adapts his statement in a specific way to his proposition not only that he is equal to the Father but also consubstantial. From the substance of the Father exceeds all understanding, since the very essence of the Father is said to be unknowable, as is the essence of the Son. Hence there the equality is noted and Arius answered, who said that the Father is invisible but the Son visible. And no one knows the Son except the Father. But what is this? Did not the saints know? It must be said that they knew him by attaining their goal or by faith, but not by comprehending. But does not the Holy Spirit know? Yes. But it should be noted that limiting statements are sometimes added to the essential divine names and sometimes to the personal names. And when they are added to the personal names, they do not exclude that which is the same by nature; hence terms added to the Father do not exclude the Son. Hence where it says, "honor and glory to the immortal King, the invisible and only God" (1 Tim 1:17), the others of the same nature are not excluded. Similarly, when he says, no one knows..., the Holy Spirit is not excluded, for he is the same in nature. But when he says, no one knows, it means no man except the Son. And thus it is shown that the Father knows the Son. But this is contrary to Origen. For the Son knows by comprehension. Therefore, because he knows perfectly and is knowable, he has the power to reveal, as the Father has; hence he says, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. For manifestation is by means of a word: "Father, I have manifested your name to men..." (Jn 17:6) and (1:18): "No one has ever seen God." But he knew him; therefore, he could manifest him. Consequently, what he had said of the Father he attributed to himself. For he had said, You have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to little ones. The Son also can do this, in as much as he has the same power.

Whence do we all thus labour, but that we are mortal men, bearing vessels of clay which cause us much difficulty. But if the vessels of flesh are straitened, the regions of love will be enlarged. To what end then does He say, Come unto me, all ye that labour, but that ye should not labour?

As to the other one, about the burden of our sins being intolerable, it might be clearer if we said 'unbearable', because that still has two meanings: you say 'I cannot bear it,' when you mean it gives you great pain, but you also say 'That bridge will not bear that truck' — not meaning 'That bridge will feel pain,' but 'If that truck goes on to it, it will break and not be a bridge any longer, but a mass of rubble.' I wonder if that is what the Prayer Book means; that, whether we feel miserable or not, and however we feel, there is on each of us a load which, if nothing is done about it, will in fact break us, will send us from this world to whatever happens afterwards, not as souls but as broken souls.

It would be a bold and silly creature that came before its Creator with the boast "I'm no beggar. I love you disinterestedly". Those who come nearest to a Gift-love for God will next moment, even at the very same moment, be beating their breasts with the publican and laying their indigence before the only real Giver. And God will have it so. He addresses our Need-love: "Come unto me all ye that travail and are heavy-laden," or, in the Old Testament, "Open your mouth wide and I will fill it."

Stand apart from the inclination to love sin and to love the flesh. Turn to deeds worthy of praise. Draw near to me, so that you may become sharers of the divine nature and partakers of the Holy Spirit. Jesus called everyone, not only the people of Israel. As the Maker and Lord of all, he spoke to the weary Jews who did not have the strength to bear the yoke of the law. He spoke to idolaters heavy laden and oppressed by the devil and weighed down by the multitude of their sins. To Jews he said, "Obtain the profit of my coming to you. Bow down to the truth. Acknowledge your Advocate and Lord. I set you free from bondage under the law, bondage in which you endured a great deal of toil and hardship, unable to accomplish it easily and accumulating for yourselves a very great burden of sins."

(Mor. xxx. 15.) For a cruel yoke and hard weight of servitude it is to be subject to the things of time, to be ambitious of the things of earth, to cling to falling things, to seek to stand in things that stand not, to desire things that pass away, but to be unwilling to pass away with them. For while all things fly away against our wish, those things which had first harassed the mind in desire of gaining them, now oppress it with fear of losing them.

He calls to Him those that were labouring under the hardships of the Law, and those who are burdened with the sins of this world.

(Verse 28, 29.) Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. The weight of sin is heavy, and the prophet Zacharias testifies, saying, iniquity sits upon a talent of lead (Zacch. 5). And the Psalmist laments: My iniquities have overwhelmed me (Psalm 38:4). Certainly, it invites those who were oppressed under the heavy yoke of the Law to the grace of the Gospel.

That the burden of sin is heavy the Prophet Zachariah bears witness, saying, that wickedness sitteth upon a talent of lead. (Zech. 5:7.) And the Psalmist fills it up, Thy iniquities are grown heavy upon me. (Ps. 38:4)

Next, having brought them by His words to an earnest desire, and having signified His unspeakable power, He after that invites them, saying. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Not this or that person, but all that are in anxiety, in sorrows, in sins. Come, not that I may call you to account, but that I may do away your sins; come, not that I want your honor, but that I want your salvation. "For I," saith He, "will give you rest." He said not, "I will save you," only; but what was much more, "I will place you in all security."

"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Thus, "be not afraid," saith He, "hearing of a yoke, for it is easy: fear not, because I said, 'a burden,' for it is light."

And how said He before, "The gate is narrow and the way strait?" Whilst thou art careless, whilst thou art supine; whereas, if thou duly perform His words, the burden will be light; wherefore also He hath now called it so.

But how are they duly performed? If thou art become lowly, and meek, and gentle. For this virtue is the mother of all strictness of life. Wherefore also, when beginning those divine laws, with this He began. And here again He doeth the very same, and exceeding great is the reward He appoints. "For not to another only dost thou become serviceable; but thyself also above all thou refreshest," saith He. "For ye shall find rest unto your souls."

Even before the things to come, He gives thee here thy recompense, and bestows the prize already, making the saying acceptable, both hereby, and by setting Himself forward as an example. For, "Of what art thou afraid?" saith He, "lest thou shouldest be a loser by thy low estate? Look to me, and to all that is mine; learn of me, and then shalt thou know distinctly how great thy blessing." Seest thou how in all ways He is leading them to humility? By His own doings: "Learn of me, for I am meek." By what themselves are to gain; for, "Ye shall find," saith He, "rest unto your souls." By what He bestows on them; for, "I too will refresh you," saith He. By rendering it light; "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." So likewise doth Paul, saying, "For the present light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

And how, some one may say, is the burden light, when He saith, "Except one hate father and mother;" and, "Whosoever taketh not up his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me:" and, "Whosoever forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be my disciple:" when He commands even to give up our very life? Let Paul teach thee, saying, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" And that, "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." Let those teach thee, who return from the council of the Jews after plenty of stripes, and "rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ." And if thou art still afraid and tremblest at hearing of the yoke and the burden, the fear comes not of the nature of the thing, but of thy remissness; since if thou art prepared, and in earnest, all will be easy to thee and light. Since for this cause Christ also, to signify that we too must needs labor ourselves, did not mention the gracious things only, and then hold His peace, nor the painful things only, but set down both. Thus He both spake of "a yoke," and called it "easy;" both named a burden, and added that it was "light;" that thou shouldest neither flee from them as toilsome, nor despise them as over easy.

But if even after all this, virtue seem to thee an irksome thing, consider that vice is more irksome. And this very thing He was intimating, in that He said not first, "Take my yoke upon you," but before that, "Come, ye that labor and are heavy laden;" implying that sin too hath labor, and a burden that is heavy and hard to bear. For He said not only, "Ye that labor," but also, "that are heavy laden." This the prophet too was speaking of, when in that description of her nature, "As an heavy burden they weighed heavy upon me." And Zacharias too, describing her, saith she is "A talent of lead."

And this moreover experience itself proves. For nothing so weighs upon the soul, and presses it down, as consciousness of sin; nothing so much gives it wings, and raises it on high, as the attainment of righteousness and virtue.

And mark it: what is more grievous, I pray thee, than to have no possessions? to turn the cheek, and when smitten not to smite again? to die by a violent death? Yet nevertheless, if we practise self-command, all these things are light and easy, and pleasurable.

But whatever I may say, my speech will present no such proof as the actual trial. Wherefore I would there were present here with us some one of those who have attained unto that summit of self-restraint, and then you would know assuredly the delight thereof; and that none of those that are enamored of voluntary poverty would accept wealth, though ten thousand were to offer it.

But would these, say you, ever consent to become poor, and to cast away the anxieties which they have? And what of that? This is but a proof of their madness and grievous disease, not of anything very pleasurable in the thing. And this even themselves would testify to us, who are daily lamenting over these their anxieties, and accounting their life to be not worth living. But not so those others; rather they laugh, leap for joy, and the wearers of the diadem do not so glory, as they do in their poverty.

Again, to turn the cheek is, to him that gives heed, a less grievous thing than to smite another; for from this the contest hath beginning, in that termination: and whereas by the former thou hast kindled the other's pile too, by the latter thou hast quenched even thine own flames. But that not to be burnt is a pleasanter thing than to be burnt, surely plain to every man. And if this hold in regard of bodies, much more in a soul.

And whether is lighter, to contend, or to be crowned? to fight, or to have the prize? and to endure waves, or to run into harbor? Therefore also, to die is better than to live. For the one withdraws us from waves and dangers, while the other adds unto them, and makes a man subject to numberless plots and distresses, which have made life not worth living in thine account.

And if thou disbelievest our sayings, hearken to them that have seen the countenances of the martyrs in the time of their conflicts, how when scourged and flayed, they were exceeding joyful and glad, and when exposed upon hot irons, rejoiced, and were glad of heart, more than such as lie upon a bed of roses. Wherefore Paul also said, when he was at the point of departing hence, and closing his life by a violent death, "joy, and rejoice with you all; for the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me." Seest thou with what exceeding strength of language he invites the whole world to partake in his gladness? So great a good did he know his departure hence to be, so desirable, and lovely, and worthy of prayer, that formidable thing, death.

But that virtue's yoke is sweet and light, is manifest many other ways also; but to conclude, if you please, let us look also at the burdens of sin. Let us then bring forward the covetous, the retailers and second-hand dealers in shameless bargains. What now could be a heavier burden than such transactions? how many sorrows, how many anxieties, how many disappointments, how many dangers, how many plots and wars, daily spring up from these gains? how many troubles and disturbances? For as one can never see the sea without waves, so neither such a soul without anxiety, and despondency, and fear, and disturbance; yea, the second overtakes the first, and again others come up, and when these are not yet ceased, others come to a head.

Or wouldest thou see the souls of the revilers, and of the passionate? Why, what is worse than this torture? what, than the wounds they have within? what, than the furnace that is continually burning, and the flame that is never quenched?

Or of the sensual, and of such as cleave unto this present life? Why, what more grievous than this bondage? They live the life of Cain, dwelling in continual trembling and fear at every death that happens; the kinsmen of the dead mourn not so much, as these do for their own end.

What again fuller of turmoil, and more frantic, than such as are puffed up with pride? "For learn," saith He, "of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Because long-suffering is the mother of all good things.

Fear thou not therefore, neither start away from the yoke that lightens thee of all these things, but put thyself under it with all forwardness, and then thou shalt know well the pleasure thereof. For it doth not at all bruise thy neck, but is put on thee for good order's sake only, and to persuade thee to walk seemly, and to lead thee unto the royal road, and to deliver thee from the precipices on either side, and to make thee walk with ease in the narrow way.

Since then so great are its benefits, so great its security, so great its gladness, let us with all our soul, with all our diligence, draw this yoke; that we may both here "find rest unto our souls," and attain unto the good things to come, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might, now and ever, and world without end. Amen.

Now poverty is a light thing to those who possess it, and if a man were to call the poverty which is for the sake of God "riches," he would call it rightly, and even as it is. Therefore our Lord also lifted a heavy yoke from His disciples in that He made them destitute of the riches of the world, saying, "Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and are laden with heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." And who are these, unless it be those who are wearied by the superfluities of riches, and who bear the heavy yoke of the cares and anxieties of the world? And what weariness is so oppressive as this? For when thou hast come to enjoy thyself, thou art the more tired. The care for human riches is a path which hath no ending in this life, for however far a man may travel along it, it lengtheneth out before his footsteps, and there is nothing which breaketh it except death. And when a man hath gathered together riches and mammon that he may enjoy himself, and live daintily and luxuriously, his enjoyment is weariness, and if the enjoyment of the world be weariness, what shall weariness itself be called? And if the enjoyments and luxuries are heavy labours, what shall labour itself be called? For the world is heavy in all its conversation, but because of the love thereof they who carry its burdens perceive them not, and they stumble therein like blind men, but discern it not, and though they carry heavy burdens, they are light unto them, and they weary and exert themselves painfully after the merchandise of loss, but know not that it is loss. And because our Lord saw them in this empty labour, He cried unto them, saying, "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest, for in your weariness there is no rest. But your weariness begetteth weariness, and your labour bringeth forth labour, and your riches gather together poverty, and your rest is tribulation, and your enjoyment is affliction, and your refreshing is toil; for the path of the desire of riches which ye have trodden of your own freewill hath no end; but if ye will come to Me by My road it will come to an end."

(non occ.) I will not only take from you your burden, but will satisfy you with inward refreshment.

Come, He says, not with the feet, but with the life, not in the body, but in faith. For that is a spiritual approach by which any man approaches God; and therefore it follows, Take my yoke upon you.

We are naturally obliged to state our opinion clearly to such people, and to reply: O, you! Why do you reason to your own perdition rather than your salvation? And why do you pick out for yourselves the obscure passages of inspired Scripture and then tear them out of context and twist them in order to accomplish your own destruction? Do you not hear the Savior crying out every day: "As I live … I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live" [Ezekiel 33:11]? Do you not hear Him Who says: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" [Matthew 3:2]; and again: "Just so, I tell you, there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents" (Luke 15:7, adapted)? Did He ever say to some: "Do not repent for I will not accept you," while to others who were predestined: "But you, repent! because I knew you beforehand"? Of course not! Instead, throughout the world and in every church He shouts: "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Come, He says, all you who are burdened with many sins, to the One Who takes away the sin of the world; come all who thirst to the fountain which flows and never dies. - "Second Ethical Discourse"

He calls all mankind, not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles. By those "that labour" understand the Jews, who follow the strict observances of the law and labor in the occupation of fulfilling the commandments of the law. Those who are "heavy laden" are the Gentiles, who are oppressed by the burden of sins. To all these does Christ give rest. For to believe, to confess, and to be baptized, what labor is it? Is it not, rather, rest? For here in this life you are unburdened of the things which you did before your baptism, and there in the next life rest awaits you.

Come to me, all you... Come to my blessings. First, the invitation; secondly, the need for the invitation; thirdly, its utility. He says, therefore: Come to me. This is also the word of Wisdom: "Come to me, you who desire me, and eat your fill of my produce" (Sir 24:19). Hence, draw near to me, you untaught, because I want to communicate myself. But what is the need? Because without me men labor too much: all you who labor. In a special way this can be applied to the Jews, because they labored under the yoke of the Law and commandments, as it says in Acts (15:10): "This is a burden which neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear." Likewise, in general, to all who labor on account of human frailty: "I am poor and acquainted with labors from my youth" (Ps 88:15). And are heavy laden, namely, with sins: "My iniquities weigh like a burden too heavy for me" (Ps 38:4).

And what shall we get, if we come to you? I will give you rest [refresh you]. "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink" (Jn 7:37). Then he explains the invitation: first, he explains; secondly, he assigns the reason (v. 30). Having presented the invitation and its purpose, he now wants to explain what that invitation is, when he says, take my yoke upon you. But what is this? You say that you want to refresh us and lift our labor from us, and in the same breath you tell us to carry a yoke? We believed that it would not involve a yoke. Yes, without the yoke of sin: "For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken" (Is 9:4). Not that you are without God's law, but without the yoke of sin: "Let us cast off from us their yoke" (Ps 2:3); "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled, because of your iniquity" (Hos 14:1); "Freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness" (Rom 6:18).

You are to "take my yoke upon you, and learn from me." You are not learning from me how to refashion the fabric of the world, nor to create all things visible and invisible, nor to work miracles and raise the dead. Rather, you are simply learning of me: "that I am meek and lowly in heart." If you wish to reach high, then begin at the lowest level. If you are trying to construct some mighty edifice in height, you will begin with the lowest foundation. This is humility. However great the mass of the building you may wish to design or erect, the taller the building is to be, the deeper you will dig the foundation. The building in the course of its erection rises up high, but he who digs its foundation must first go down very low. So then, you see even a building is low before it is high and the tower is raised only after humiliation.

Not to create a world, or to do miracles in that world; but that I am meek and lowly in heart. Wouldest thou be great? Begin with the least. Wouldest thou build up a mighty fabric of greatness? First think of the foundation of humility; for the mightier building any seeks to raise, the deeper let him dig for his foundation. Whither is the summit of our building to rise? To the sight of God.

When grace, justice, and wisdom have been perfectly attained, one ascends to the summit of evangelical perfection, which Christ Jesus taught by word and example, who specially professed himself the master of humility, in Matthew 11: Learn from me, etc. For humility is the gateway of wisdom, the foundation of justice, and the dwelling place of grace.

Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and conceit. Still less do unprejudiced readers. Christ says that He is 'humble and meek' and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings.

He holds forth the inducements of a pleasant yoke, and a light burden, that to them that believe He may afford the knowledge of that good which He alone knoweth in the Father.

And what is more pleasant than that yoke, what lighter than that burden? To be made better, to abstain from wickedness, to choose the good, and refuse the evil, to love all men, to hate none, to gain eternal things, not to be taken with things present, to be unwilling to do that to another which yourself would be pained to suffer.

[Daniel 4:10] "'I saw, and behold there was a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was very great...'" It was not only of Nebuchadnezzar, King of the Chaldeans, but also of all impious men that the prophet says: "I beheld the impious man highly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon" (Psalm 37:35). Such men are lifted up, not by the greatness of their virtues, but by their own pride; and for that reason they are cut down and fall into ruin. Therefore it is good to follow the teaching of our Lord in the Gospel: "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29). But as for the fact that, according to Theodotion, he mentions his kutos or height - or else his kureia, as he himself later renders it, that is to say, his dominion (a word we have translated as "his appearance") - those same detractors of the historicity of this passage slanderously assert that Nebuchadnezzar's dominion never possessed the entire world. He did not rule over the Greeks or barbarians, or over all of the nations in the north and west, but only over the provinces of the East; that is to say, over Asia, not over Europe or Libya. Consequently all these slanders require to be understood as attributable to the devil, for actually we ourselves should accept all this as spoken by way of hyperbole, having in view the arrogance of the impious king, who in Isaiah (chap. 14) makes as great a boast as this, claiming that he possesses the very heaven itself, and the whole earth besides, as if it were a nest full of birds' eggs.

Such a spirit as this let us too acquire, and whatever we may suffer we shall bear it easily, and before the Kingdom, we shall reap here the gain accruing from lowliness of mind. Thus "learn," saith He, "of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Therefore in order that we may enjoy rest both here and hereafter, let us with great diligence implant in our souls the mother of all things that are good, I mean humility. For thus we shall be enabled both to pass over the sea of this life without waves, and to end our voyage in that calm harbor; by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might for ever and ever. Amen.

Seest thou how everywhere practice is required, and the proof by works? "For by their fruits," saith He, "ye shall know them." And what commends our own life? Is it indeed a display of miracles, or the perfection of an excellent conversation? Very evidently it is the second; but as to the miracles, they both have their origin from hence, and terminate herein. For both He that shows forth an excellent life, draws to Himself this gift, and he that receives the gift, receives it for this end, that he may amend other men's lives. Since even Christ for this end wrought those miracles, that having made Himself thereby credible, and drawn men unto Him, He might bring virtue into our life. Wherefore also He lays more stress of the two on this. For He is not at all satisfied with the signs only, but He also threatens hell, and promises a kingdom, and lays down those startling laws, and all things He orders to this end, that He may make us equal to the angels.

And why say I, that Christ doth all for this object? Why, even thou, should one give thee thy choice, to raise dead men by His name, or to die for His name; which I pray thee, of the two wouldest thou rather accept? Is it not quite plain, the latter? and yet the one is a miracle, the other but a work. And what, if one offered thee to make grass gold, or to be able to despise all wealth as grass, wouldest thou not rather accept this latter? and very reasonably. For mankind would be attracted by this more than any way. For if they saw the grass changed into gold, they would covet themselves also to acquire that power, as Simon did, and the love of money would be increased in them; but if they saw us all contemning and neglecting gold, as though it were grass, they would long ago have been delivered from this disease.

Seest thou that our practice has more power to do good? By practice I mean, not thy fasting, nor yet thy strewing sackcloth and ashes under thee, but if thou despise wealth, as it ought to be despised; if thou be kindly affectioned, if thou give thy bread to the hungry, if thou control anger, if thou cast out vainglory, if thou put away envy. So He Himself used to teach: for, "Learn of me," saith He, "for I am meek and lowly in heart." He did not say, "for I fasted," although surely He might have spoken of the forty days, yet He saith not this; but, "I am meek and lowly in heart." And again, when sending them out, He said not, "Fast," but, "Eat of all that is set before you." With regard to wealth, however, He required of them great strictness, saying, "Provide not gold, or silver, or brass, in your purses."

And all this I say, not to depreciate fasting, God forbid, but rather highly to commend it. But I grieve when other duties being neglected, ye think it enough for salvation, having but the last place in the choir of virtue. For the greatest thing is charity, and moderation, and almsgiving; which hits a higher mark even than virginity.

The yoke of Christ is Christ's Gospel, which joins and yokes together Jews and Gentiles in the unity of the faith. This we are commanded to take upon us, that is, to have in honour; lest perchance setting it beneath us, that is wrongly despising it, we should trample upon it with the miry feet of unholiness; wherefore He adds, Learn of me.

We must learn then from our Saviour to be meek in temper, and lowly in mind; let us hurt none, let us despise none, and the virtues which we have shown in deed let us retain in our heart.

The yoke of Christ is humility and meekness. For he who humbles himself before all men has rest and remains untroubled; but he who is vainglorious and arrogant is ever encompassed by troubles as he does not wish to be less than anyone but is always thinking how to be esteemed more highly and how to defeat his enemies. Therefore the yoke of Christ, which is humility, is light, for it is easier for our lowly nature to be humbled than to be exalted. But all the commandments of Christ are also called a yoke, and they are light because of the reward to come, even though for a time they appear heavy.

Take, therefore, my yoke, namely, the gospel lessons. And he says, yoke, because just as a yoke fastens and joins the necks of oxen, so the doctrine of the gospel fastens the people to its yoke. And what is that? Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart. The whole Law consists in two things: meekness and humility. By meekness a man is rightly ordered to his neighbor; hence Psalm 132 (v. 1): "Remember, O Lord, David and all his meekness." By humility he is rightly ordered to himself and to God: "Upon whom will my spirit rest except on the calm and meek" (Is 66:2)? Hence humility makes a man capable of God. He had also said, "and I will refresh you." What is this refreshment? You will find rest for your souls. For the body is not refreshed, as long as it is afflicted, and when it is not afflicted any more, it is said to be refreshed. And just as hunger is to the body, so desire is to the mind; hence the achievement of desires is refreshing: "Who satisfies your desire with good" (Ps 103:5). And this rest is a rest of the soul: "I have labored little and found for myself much rest" (Sir 51:27). The meek are not at rest this way in the world; hence they will find eternal rest, namely, the fulfillment of desires.

If the yoke is easy and the burden light, why did he call "the way" "narrow"? It is narrow to the careless, for to the zealous the Lord's tasks are light. For even if they involve bodily suffering for a little while, yet the one who is now nourished with good hopes is the devout one who easily bears these pains.

So then they who with unfearing neck have submitted to the yoke of the Lord endure such hardships and dangers, that they seem to be called not from labour to rest, but from rest to labour. But the Holy Spirit was there who, as the outward man decayed, renewed the inward man day by day, and giving a foretaste of spiritual rest in the rich pleasures of God in the hope of blessedness to come, smoothed all that seemed rough, lightened all that was heavy. Men suffer amputations and burnings, that at the price of sharper pain they may be delivered from torments less but more lasting, as boils or swellings. What storms and dangers will not merchants undergo that they may acquire perishing riches? Even those who love not riches endure the same hardships; but those that love them endure the same, but to them they are not hardships. For love makes right easy, and almost nought all things however dreadful and monstrous. How much more easily then does love do that for true happiness, which avarice does for misery as far as it can?

Both harder and easier than what we are all trying to do. You have noticed, I expect, that Christ Himself sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard, sometimes as very easy. He says, 'Take up your Cross'—in other words, it is like going to be beaten to death in a concentration camp. Next minute he says, 'My yoke is easy and my burden light.' He means both. And one can just see why both are true.

Teachers will tell you that the laziest boy in the class is the one who works hardest in the end. They mean this. If you give two boys, say, a proposition in geometry to do, the one who is prepared to take trouble will try to understand it. The lazy boy will try to learn it by heart because, for the moment, that needs less effort. But six months later, when they are preparing for an exam, that lazy boy is doing hours and hours of miserable drudgery over things the other boy understands, and positively enjoys, in a few minutes. Laziness means more work in the long run. Or look at it this way. In a battle, or in mountain climbing, there is often one thing which it takes a lot of pluck to do; but it is also, in the long run, the safest thing to do. If you funk it, you will find yourself, hours later, in far worse danger. The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing.

It is like that here. The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead.

Joseph asked Poemen, 'How should we fast?' Poemen said, 'I suggest that everyone should eat a little less than he wants, every day.' Joseph said to him, 'When you were a young man, didn't you fast for two days on end?' He said to him, 'That's right, I used to fast three days on end, even for a week. But the great hermits have tested all these things, and they found that it is good to eat something every day, but on some days a little less. They have shown us that this is the king's highway, for it is easy and light.'

Therefore let everyone who wants life and desires to see good days put down the yoke of iniquity and malice. The prophet says, "Let us burst their bonds and thrust their yoke from us." For unless one throws behind the yoke of iniquity, that is, the spark of all vices, one cannot take up the agreeable and light yoke of Christ. But if the yoke of Christ is so agreeable and light, how is it that divine religion seems so harsh and bitter to some people? It is bitter to some because the heart that has been tainted by earthly desires cannot love heavenly things. It has not yet come to Christ, so that it can take up his yoke and learn that he is gentle and humble of heart. Hence we observe, my dearest friends, from the teaching of our Lord, that unless a person is gentle and humble of heart, he or she cannot bear the yoke of Christ.

(Mor. iv. 33.) What burden is it to put upon the neck of our mind that He bids us shun all desire that disturbs, and turn from the toilsome paths of this world?

(Verse 30.) For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. How is the Gospel lighter than the Law, when in the Law murder is condemned, but in the Gospel anger is condemned? In what way is the grace of the Gospel easier, when in the Law adultery is punished, but in the Gospel lust is punished? In the Law there are many precepts, which the Apostle teaches cannot be fully fulfilled (Acts 15). In the Law, works are required, and whoever does them shall live. In the Gospel, the will is sought, and even if it does not have the desired effect, it does not lose the reward. The Gospel commands what we are able to do: that we do not desire, namely, this is within our power. When the law does not punish the will, it punishes the effect, so that you do not commit adultery. Imagine a virgin prostitute in persecution. This virgin is accepted according to the Gospel, since she does not sin by her own will, but she is rejected in the Law as if corrupted.

And how is the Gospel lighter than the Law, seeing in the Law murder and adultery, but under the Gospel anger and concupiscence also, are punished? Because by the Law many things are commanded which the Apostle fully teaches us cannot be fulfilled; by the Law works are required, by the Gospel the will is sought for, which even if it goes not into act, yet does not lose its reward. The Gospel commands what we can do, as that we lust not; this is in our own power; the Law punishes not the will but the act, as adultery. Suppose a virgin to have been violated in time of persecution; as here was not the will she is held as a virgin under the Gospel; under the Law she is cast out as defiled.

But how is Christ's yoke pleasant, seeing it was said above, Narrow is the way which leadeth unto life? (Mat. 7:14.) That which is entered upon by a narrow entrance is in process of time made broad by the unspeakable sweetness of love.

And so they upbraid the discipline of monogamy with being a heresy; nor is there any other cause whence they find themselves compelled to deny the Paraclete more than the fact that they esteem Him to be the institutor of a novel discipline, and a discipline which they find most harsh: so that this is already the first ground on which we must join issue in a general handling (of the subject), whether there is room for maintaining that the Paraclete has taught any such thing as can either be charged with novelty, in opposition to catholic tradition, or with burdensomeness, in opposition to the "light burden" of the Lord.

How is it then that he himself demands a high degree of strictness? He answers, "You have not yet had experience of things that are mine, and for this reason you think this way. But if you would take up my yoke and would believe in those things I give, you would find the greatest difference between the things that are from me and those that are from Moses. From me there is great, patient endurance and kindness. Seeing such a weight of sins—murders and self-love and things more unnamable than these—I am longsuffering and bear with those who do these things, not despising them but waiting for them to repent. If ever they should repent and change their ways, I immediately forgive them, not remembering their former acts. But the law of Moses is not like this. When you sin, it immediately punishes the sinner. It knows no repentance. It promises no remission. When I make demands about the covenant, I am not so much preoccupied with investigating the things that happened. For me, it is enough that a soul choose what is good with a genuine resolution. But the law goes overboard, both adding more punishments to the smaller ones and cursing the transgressors. Therefore my yoke is good on account of forgiveness, and my burden is light because it is not a collection of customs and various observances but decisions of the soul."

But do not wonder if I invite you to a yoke, because my yoke is not a burden. Why? For my yoke is easy and delightful: "How sweet are your words to my taste!" (Ps 119:103). And my burden is light. And these can be referred to two things: by the yoke the oxen are held, but the burden is carried; hence the yoke is referred to the negative precepts, the burden to the affirmative.

But this seems to be false, because the burden of the New Law seems very heavy, as was said above (5:21): "You have heard that it was said of old: You shall not kill. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to the judgment." So it seems that it is a heavier burden: "Narrow is the way, which leads to life." Likewise the Apostle in 2 Corinthians (11:23): "In many labors." Hence the yoke seems most burdensome. Therefore, three things must be considered: the effect of the teaching, the act and the circumstances. And in all three it is light.

The doctrine of Christ is light in its effect, because it changes the heart, in as much as it makes us love not temporal but spiritual things. For the person who loves temporal things finds it more a burden to lose a little than a person who loves spiritual things to lose much. The Old Law did not forbid those temporal things; therefore it was painful to lose them. But now, even though it is burdensome in the beginning, after a while it is light: "I will lead you in the paths of uprightness. When you walk, your steps will not be hampered" (Pr 4:11). Likewise, in regard to its act, the Law imposed a burden of external acts. But our law is solely in the will; hence Romans (14:17): "the kingdom of God is not food and drink." Again, the law of Christ brings joy; hence Romans (14:17): "Justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Likewise, in regard to circumstances there are many adversities; hence "All who desire to lead a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" (2 Tim 3:12). But they are not burdensome, because they are seasoned with the condiment of love; for when a person loves someone, it is not a burden to suffer anything for him. Hence love makes easy all difficult and impossible things. Therefore, if one loves Christ properly, nothing is difficult for him; consequently, the New Law does not impose a burden.