Beloved, believe not every spirit.

 1 John 4:1 Because he had said, In this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given us. But how this same Spirit is known, mark this: Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they be from God. And who is he that proves the spirits? A hard matter has he put to us, my brethren! It is well for us that he should tell us himself how we are to discern them. He is about to tell us: fear not: but first see; mark: see that hereby is expressed the very thing that vain heretics taunt us withal. Mark, see what he says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they be from God. The Holy Spirit is spoken of in the Gospel by the name of water; where the Lord cried and said, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believes in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. John 7:37-39 But the evangelist has expounded of what He said this: for he goes on to say, But this spoke He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him should receive. Wherefore did not the Lord baptize many? But what says he? For the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Then seeing those had baptism, and had not yet received the Holy Ghost, whom on the day of Pentecost the Lord sent from heaven, the glorifying of the Lord was first waited for, so that the Spirit might be given. Even before He was glorified, and before He sent the Spirit, He yet invited men to prepare themselves for the receiving of the water of which He said, Whoso thirsts, let him come and drink; and, He that believes in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. What means, Rivers of living water? What is that water? Let no man ask me; ask the Gospel. But this, says it, He said of the Spirit, which they should receive that should believe in Him. Consequently, the water of the sacrament is one thing: another, the water which betokens the Spirit of God. The water of the sacrament is visible: the water of the Spirit invisible. That washes the body, and betokens that which is done in the soul. By this Spirit the soul itself is cleansed and fed. This is the Spirit of God, which heretics and all that cut themselves off from the Church, cannot have. And whosoever do not openly cut themselves off, but by iniquity are cut off, and being within, whirl about as chaff and are not grain; these have not this Spirit. This Spirit is denoted by the Lord under the name of water: and we have heard from this epistle, Believe not every spirit; and those words of Solomon bear witness, From strange water keep far. What means, water? Spirit. Does water always signify spirit? Not always: but in some places it signifies the Spirit, in some places it signifies baptism, in some places signifies peoples, Revelation 17:15 in some places signifies counsel: thus you find it said in a certain place, Counsel is a fountain of life to them that possess it. Proverbs 16:22 So then, in various places of the Scriptures, the term water signifies various things. Now however by the term water you have heard the Holy Spirit spoken of, not by an interpretation of ours but by witness of the Gospel, where it says, But this said He of the Spirit, which they should receive that should believe in Him. If then by the name of water is signified the Holy Spirit, and this epistle says to us, Believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they be of God; let us understand that of this it is said, From strange water keep far, and from a strange fountain drink not. What means, From a strange fountain drink not? A strange spirit believe not.

There remains then the test by which it is to be proved to be the Spirit of God. He has indeed set down a sign, and this, belike, difficult: let us see, however. We are to recur to that charity; it is that which teaches us, because it is the unction. However, what says he here? Prove the spirits, whether they be from God: because many false prophets have gone out into this world. Now there are all heretics and all schismatics. How then am I to prove the spirit? He goes on: In this is known the Spirit of God. Wake up the ears of your heart. We were at a loss; we were saying, Who knows? Who discerns? Behold, he is about to tell the sign. Hereby is known the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God: and this is the antichrist, of whom you have heard that he should come; and even now already is he in this world.

 1 John 4:2-3 Our ears, so to say, are on the alert for discerning of the spirits; and we have been told something, such that thereby we discern not a whit the more. For what says he? Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, is of God. Then is the spirit that is among the heretics, of God, seeing they confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh? Aye, here perchance they lift themselves up against us, and say: You have not the Spirit from God; but we confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh: but the apostle here has said that those have not the Spirit of God, who confess not that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Ask the Arians: they confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh: ask the Eunomians; they confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh: ask the Macedonians; they confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh: put the question to the Cataphryges; they confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh: put it to the Novatians; they confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Then have all these heresies the Spirit of God? Are they then no false prophets? Is there then no deception there, no seduction there? Assuredly they are antichrists; for they went out from us, but were not of us.

What are we to do then? By what to discern them? Be very attentive; let us go together in heart, and knock. Charity herself keeps watch; for it is none other than she that shall knock, she also that shall open: anon you shall understand in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Already you have heard that it was said above, Whoso denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, the same is an antichrist. There also we asked, Who denies? Because neither do we deny, nor do those deny. And we found that some do in their deeds deny; and we brought testimony from the apostle, who says, For they confess that they know God, but in their deeds deny Him. Titus 1:16 Thus then let us now also make the enquiry in the deeds not in the tongue. What is the spirit that is not from God? That which denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. And what is the spirit that is from God? That which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Who is he that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? Now, brethren, to the mark! let us look to the works, not stop at the noise of the tongue. Let us ask why Christ came in the flesh, so we get at the persons who deny that He has come in the flesh. If you stop at tongues, why, you shall hear many a heresy confessing that Christ has come in the flesh: but the truth convicts those men. Wherefore came Christ in the flesh? Was He not God? Is it not written of Him, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God? John 1:1 Was it not He that did feed angels, is it not He that does feed angels? Did He not in such sort come hither, that He departed not thence? Did He not in such sort ascend, that He forsook not us? Wherefore then came He in the flesh? Because it behooved us to have the hope of resurrection shown unto us. God He was, and in flesh He came; for God could not die, flesh could die; He came then in the flesh, that He might die for us. But how died He for us? Greater charity than this has no man, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 Charity therefore brought Him to the flesh. Whoever therefore has not charity denies that Christ has come in the flesh. Here then do you now question all heretics. Did Christ come in the flesh? He did come; this I believe, this I confess. Nay, this you deny. How do I deny? You hear that I say it! Nay, I convict you of denying it. You say with the voice, deniest with the heart; sayest in words, deniest in deeds. How, do you say, do I deny in deeds? Because the end for which Christ came in the flesh, was, that He might die for us. He died for us, because therein He taught much charity. Greater charity than this has no man, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You have not charity, seeing you for your own honor dividest unity. Therefore by this understand ye the spirit that is from God. Give the earthen vessels a tap, put them to the proof, whether haply they be cracked and give a dull sound: see whether they ring full and clear, see whether charity be there. You take yourself away from the unity of the whole earth, you divide the Church by schisms, you rend the Body of Christ. He came in the flesh, to gather in one, you make an outcry to scatter abroad. This then is the Spirit of God, which says that Jesus has come in the flesh, which says, not in tongue but in deeds, which says, not by making a noise but by loving. And that spirit is not of God, which denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; denies, here also, not in tongue but in life; not in words but in deeds. It is manifest therefore by what we may know the brethren. Many within are in a sort within; but none without except he be indeed without.

Nay, and that you may know that he has referred the matter to deeds, he says, And every spirit, qui solvit Christum, which does away with Christ that He came in the flesh, is not of God. A doing away in deeds is meant. What has he shown you? That denies: in that he says, does away (or, unmakes). He came to gather in one, you come to unmake. You would pull Christ's members asunder. How can it be said that you deny not that Christ has come in the flesh, who rendest assunder the Church of God which He has gathered together? Therefore you go against Christ; you are an antichrist. Be thou within, or be thou without, you are an antichrist: only, when you are within, you are hidden; when you are without, you are made manifest. Thou unmakest Jesus and deniest that He came in the flesh; you are not of God. Therefore He says in the Gospel: Whoso shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:19 What is this breaking? What this teaching? A breaking in the deeds and a teaching as it were in words. Thou that preachest men should not steal, do you steal? Romans 2:21 Therefore he that steals breaks or undoes the commandment in his deed, and as it were teaches so: he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, i.e. in the Church of this present time. Of him it is said, What they say do ye; but what they do, that do not ye. Matthew 23:3 But he that shall do, and shall teach so, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. From this, that He has here said, fecerit, shall do, while in opposition to this He has there said solverit, meaning non fecerit, shall not do, and shall teach so— to break, then, is, not to do— what does He teach us, but that we should interrogate men's deeds, not take their words upon trust? The obscurity of the things compels us to speak much at length, chiefly that that which the Lord deigns to reveal may be brought within reach even of the brethren of slower understanding, because all were bought by the blood of Christ. And I am afraid the epistle itself will not be finished during these days as I promised: but as the Lord will, it is better to reserve the remainder, than to overload your hearts with too much food.

So is this world to all the faithful seeking their own country, as was the desert to the people Israel. They wandered indeed as yet, and were seeking their own country: but with God for their guide they could not wander astray. Their way was God's bidding. For where they went about during forty years, the journey itself is made up of a very few stations, and is known to all. They were retarded because they were in training, not because they were forsaken. That therefore which God promises us is ineffable sweetness and a good, Isaiah 64:4 as the Scripture says, and as you have often heard by us rehearsed, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man. 1 Corinthians 2:9 But by temporal labors we are exercised, and by temptations of this present life are trained. Howbeit, if you would not die of thirst in this wilderness, drink charity. It is the fountain which God has been pleased to place here that we faint not in the way: and we shall more abundantly drink thereof, when we have come to our own land. The Gospel has just been read; now to speak of the very words with which the lesson ended, what other thing heard ye but concerning charity? For we have made an agreement with our God in prayer, that if we would that He should forgive us our sins, we also should forgive the sins which may have been committed against us. Matthew 6:12 Now that which forgives is none other than charity. Take away charity from the heart; hatred possesses it, it knows not how to forgive. Let charity be there, and she fearlessly forgives, not being straitened. And this whole epistle which we have undertaken to expound to you, see whether it commends anything else than this one thing, charity. Nor need we fear lest by much speaking thereof it come to be hateful. For what is there to love, if charity come to be hateful? It is by charity that other things come to be rightly loved; then how must itself be loved! Let not that then which ought never to depart from the heart, depart from the tongue.

Now, says he, are you of God little children, and have overcome him:

 1 John 4:4 whom but Antichrist? For above he had said, Whosoever unmakes Jesus Christ and denies that He has come in the flesh is not of God. Now we expounded, if you remember, that all those who violate charity deny Jesus Christ to have come in the flesh. For Jesus had no need to come but because of charity: as indeed the charity we are commending is that which the Lord Himself commends in the Gospel, Greater love than this can no man have, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 How was it possible for the Son of God to lay down His life for us without putting on flesh in which He might die? Whosoever therefore violates charity, let him say what he will with his tongue, his life denies that Christ has come in the flesh; and this is an antichrist, wherever he may be, wherever he have come in. But what says the apostle to them who are citizens of that country for which we sigh? You have overcome him. And whereby have they overcome? Because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in this world. Lest they should attribute the victory to their own strength, and by arrogance of pride should be overcome, (for whomsoever the devil makes proud, he overcomes,) wishing them to keep humility, what says he? You have overcome him. Every man now, at hearing this saying, You have overcome, lifts up the head, lifts up the neck, wishes himself to be praised. Do not extol yourself; see who it is that in you has overcome. Why have you overcome? Because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world. Be humble, bear your Lord; be the beast for Him to sit on. Good is it for you that He should rule, and He guide. For if you have not Him to sit on you, you may lift up the neck, may strike out the heels: but woe to you without a ruler, for this liberty sends you among the wild beasts to be devoured!

These are of the world.

 1 John 4:5 Who? The antichrists. You have already heard who they be. And if you be not such, you know them, but whosoever is such, knows not. These are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world hears them. Who are they that speak of the world? Mark who are against charity. Behold, you have heard the Lord saying, If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your trespasses. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14-15 It is the sentence of Truth: or if it be not Truth that speaks, gainsay it. If you are a Christian and believest Christ, He has said, I am the truth. This sentence is true, is firm. Now hear men that speak of the world. And will you not avenge yourself? And will you let him say that he has done this to you? Nay: let him feel that he has to do with a man. Every day are such things said, They that say such things, of the world speak they, and the world hears them. None say such things but those that love the world, and by none are such things heard but by those who love the world. And you have heard that to love the world and neglect charity is to deny that Jesus came in the flesh. Or say if the Lord Himself in the flesh did that? If, being buffeted, He willed to be avenged? If, hanging on the cross, He did not say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do? Luke 23:34 But if He threatened not, who had power; why do you threaten, why are you inflated with anger, who art under power of another? He died because it was His will to die, yet He threatened not; you know not when you shall die, and do you threaten?

We are of God.

 1 John 4:6 Let us see why; see whether it be for any other thing than charity. We are of God: he that knows God hears us; he that is not of God hears not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and of error: namely by this, that he that hears us has the spirit of truth; he that hears not us, has the spirit of error. Let us see what he advises, and let us choose rather to hear him advising in the spirit of truth, and not antichrists, not lovers of the world, not the world. If we are born of God, beloved,

 1 John 4:7 he goes on— see above from what: We are of God: he that knows God hears us; he that is not of God hears not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and of error: aye, now, he makes us eagerly attentive: to be told that he who knows God, hears; but he who knows not, hears not; and that this is the discerning between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error: well then, let us see what he is about to advise; in what we must hear him— Beloved, let us love one another. 1 John 4:7 Why? Because a man advises? Because love is of God. Much has he commended love, in that he has said, Is of God: but he is going to say more; let us eagerly hear. At present he has said, Love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not knows not God.

 1 John 4:7-8 Why? For God is love [Love is God]. What more could be said, brethren? If nothing were said in praise of love throughout the pages of this epistle, if nothing whatever throughout the other pages of the Scriptures, and this one only thing were all we were told by the voice of the Spirit of God, For Love is God; nothing more ought we to require.

Now see that to act against love is to act against God. Let no man say, I sin against man when I do not love my brother, (mark it!) and sin against man is a thing to be taken easily; only let me not sin against God. How do you not sin against God, when you sin against love? Love is God. Do we say this? If we said, Love is God, haply some one of you might be offended and say, What has he said? What meant he to say, that Love is God? God gave love, as a gift God bestowed love. Love is of God: Love IS God. Look, here have ye, brethren, the Scriptures of God: this epistle is canonical; throughout all nations it is recited, it is held by the authority of the whole earth, it has edified the whole earth. You are here told by the Spirit of God, Love is God. Now if you dare, go against God, and refuse to love your brother!

In what sense then was it said a while ago, Love is of God; and now, Love IS God? For God is Father and Son and Holy Ghost: the Son, God of God, the Holy Ghost, God of God; and these three, one God, not three Gods. If the Son be God, and the Holy Ghost God, and that person loves in whom dwells the Holy Ghost: therefore Love is God; but IS God, because Of God. For you have both in the epistle; both, Love is of God, and, Love is God. Of the Father alone the Scripture has it not to say, that He is of God: but when you hear that expression, Of God, either the Son is meant, or the Holy Ghost. Because while the apostle says, The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us: Romans 5:5 let us understand that He who subsists in love is the Holy Ghost. For it is even this Holy Spirit, whom the bad cannot receive, even He is that Fountain of which the Scripture says, Let the fountain of your water be your own, and let no stranger partake with you. Proverbs 5:16-17 For all who love not God, are strangers, are antichrists. And though they come to the churches, they cannot be numbered among the children of God; not to them belongs that Fountain of life. To have baptism is possible even for a bad man; to have prophecy is possible even for a bad man. We find that king Saul had prophecy: he was persecuting holy David, yet was he filled with the spirit of prophecy, and began to prophesy. 1 Samuel xix To receive the sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord is possible even for a bad man: for of such it is said, He that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself. 1 Corinthians 11:29 To have the name of Christ is possible even for a bad man; i.e. even a bad man can be called a Christian: as they of whom it is said, They polluted the name of their God. Ezekiel 36:20 I say, to have all these sacraments is possible even for a bad man; but to have charity, and to be a bad man, is not possible. This then is the peculiar gift, this the Fountain that is singly one's own. To drink of this the Spirit of God exhorts you, to drink of Himself the Spirit of God exhorts you.

In this was manifested the love of God in us.

 1 John 4:9 Behold, in order that we may love God, we have exhortation. Could we love Him, unless He first loved us? If we were slow to love, let us not be slow to love in return. He first loved us; not even so do we love. He loved the unrighteous, but He did away the unrighteousness: He loved the unrighteous, but not unto unrighteousness did He gather them together: He loved the sick, but He visited them to make them whole. Love, then, is God. In this was manifested the love of God in us, because that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we may live through Him. As the Lord Himself says: Greater love than this can no man have, that a man lay down his life for his friends: John 15:13 and there was proved the love of Christ towards us, in that He died for us: how is the love of the Father towards us proved? In that He sent His only Son to die for us: so also the apostle Paul says: He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how has He not with Him also freely given us all things? Romans 8:32 Behold the Father delivered up Christ; Judas delivered Him up; does it not seem as if the thing done were of the same sort? Judas is traditor, one that delivered up, [or, a traitor]: is God the Father that? God forbid! Do you say. I do not say it, but the apostle says, He that spared not His own Son, but tradidit Eum delivered Him up for us all. Both the Father delivered Him up, and He delivered up Himself. The same apostle says: Who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20 If the Father delivered up the Son; and the Son delivered up Himself, what has Judas done? There was a traditio (delivering up) by the Father; there was a traditio by the Son; there was a traditio by Judas: the thing done is the same, but what is it that distinguishes the Father delivering up the Son, the Son delivering up Himself, and Judas the disciple delivering up his Master? This: that the Father and the Son did it in love, but Judas did this in treacherous betrayal. You see that not what the man does is the thing to be considered; but with what mind and will he does it. We find God the Father in the same deed in which we find Judas; the Father we bless, Judas we detest. Why do we bless the Father, and detest Judas? We bless charity, detest iniquity. How great a good was conferred upon mankind by the delivering up of Christ! Had Judas this in his thoughts, that therefore he delivered Him up? God had in His thoughts our salvation by which we were redeemed; Judas had in his thoughts the price for which he sold the Lord. The Son Himself had in His thoughts the price He gave for us, Judas in his the price he received to sell Him. The diverse intention therefore makes the things done diverse. Though the thing be one, yet if we measure it by the diverse intentions, we find the one a thing to be loved, the other to be condemned; the one we find a thing to be glorified, the other to be detested. Such is the force of charity. See that it alone discriminates, it alone distinguishes the doings of men.

This we have said in the case where the things done are similar. In the case where they are diverse, we find a man by charity made fierce; and by iniquity made winningly gentle. A father beats a boy, and a boy-stealer caresses. If you name the two things, blows and caresses, who would not choose the caresses, and decline the blows? If you mark the persons, it is charity that beats, iniquity that caresses. See what we are insisting upon; that the deeds of men are only discerned by the root of charity. For many things may be done that have a good appearance, and yet proceed not from the root of charity. For thorns also have flowers: some actions truly seem rough, seem savage; howbeit they are done for discipline at the bidding of charity. Once for all, then, a short precept is given you: Love, and do what you will: whether you hold your peace, through love hold your peace; whether you cry out, through love cry out; whether you correct, through love correct; whether you spare, through love do you spare: let the root of love be within, of this root can nothing spring but what is good.

In this is love— in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into this world, that we may live through Him.— In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us:

 1 John 4:9-10 we did not love Him first: for to this end loved He us, that we may love Him: And sent His Son to be the Atoner for our sins: litatorem, i.e. one that sacrifices. He sacrificed for our sins. Where did He find the sacrifice? Where did He find the victim which he would offer pure? Other He found none; His own self He offered. Beloved, if God so loved us we ought also to love one another.

 1 John 4:11 Peter, says He, do you love me? And he said, I love. Feed my sheep.

No man has seen God at any time:

 1 John 4:12 He is a thing invisible; not with the eye but with the heart must He be sought. But just as if we wished to see the sun, we should purge the eye of the body; wishing to see God, let us purge the eye by which God can be seen. Where is this eye? Hear the Gospel: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8 But let no man imagine God to himself according to the lust of his eyes. For so he makes unto himself either a huge form, or a certain incalculable magnitude which, like the light which he sees with the bodily eyes, he makes extend through all directions; field after field of space he gives it all the bigness he can; or, he represents to himself like as it were an old man of venerable form. None of these things do you imagine. There is something you may imagine, if you would see God; God is love. What sort of face has love? What form has it? What stature? What feet? What hands has it? No man can say. And yet it has feet, for these carry men to church: it has hands; for these reach forth to the poor: it has eyes; for thereby we consider the needy: Blessed is the man, it is said, who considers the needy and the poor. It has ears, of which the Lord says, He that has ears to hear let him hear. Luke 8:8 These are not members distinct by place, but with the understanding he that has charity sees the whole at once. Inhabit, and you shall be inhabited; dwell, and you shall be dwelt in. For how say you, my brethren? Who loves what he does not see? Now why, when charity is praised, do ye lift up your hands, make acclaim, praise? What have I shown you? What I produced, was it a gleam of colors? What I propounded, was it gold and silver? Have I dug out jewels from hid treasures? What of this sort have I shown to your eyes? Is my face changed while I speak? I am in the flesh; I am in the same form in which I came forth to you; you are in the same form in which you came hither: charity is praised, and you shout applause. Certainly ye see nothing. But as it pleases you when you praise, so let it please you that you may keep it in your heart. For mark well what I say brethren; I exhort you all, as God enables me, unto a great treasure. If there were shown you a beautiful little vase, embossed, inlaid with gold, curiously wrought, and it charmed your eyes, and drew towards it the eager desire of your heart, and you were pleased with the hand of the artificer, and the weight of the silver, and the splendor of the metal; would not each one of you say, O, if I had that vase! And to no purpose ye would say it, for it would not rest with you to have it. Or if one should wish to have it, he might think of stealing it from another's house. Charity is praised to you; if it please you, have it, possess it: no need that you should rob any man, no need that you should think of buying it; it is to be had freely, without cost. Take it, clasp it; there is nothing sweeter. If such it be when it is but spoken of, what must it be when one has it?

If any of you perchance wish to keep charity, brethren, above all things do not imagine it to be an abject and sluggish thing; nor that charity is to be preserved by a sort of gentleness, nay not gentleness, but tameness and listlessness. Not so is it preserved. Do not imagine that you then love your servant when you do not beat him, or that you then love your son when you give him not discipline, or that you then love your neighbor when you dost not rebuke him: this is not charity, but mere feebleness. Let charity be fervent to correct, to amend: but if there be good manners, let them delight you; if bad, let them be amended, let them be corrected. Love not in the man his error, but the man: for the man God made, the error the man himself made. Love that which God made, love not that which the man himself made. When you love that, you take away this: when you esteem that, you amend this. But even if you be severe at any time, let it be because of love, for correction. For this cause was charity betokened by the Dove which descended upon the Lord. That likeness of a dove, the likeness in which came the Holy Ghost, by whom charity should be shed forth into us: wherefore was this? The dove has no gall: yet with beak and wings she fights for her young; hers is a fierceness without bitterness. And so does also a father; when he chastises his son, for discipline he chastises him. As I said, the kidnapper, in order that he may sell, inveigles the child with bitter endearments; a father, that he may correct, does without gall chastise. Such be ye to all men. See here, brethren, a great lesson, a great rule: each one of you has children, or wishes to have; or if he has altogether determined to have no children after the flesh, at least spiritually he desires to have children:— what father does not correct his son? What son does not his father discipline? And yet he seems to be fierce with him. It is the fierceness of love, the fierceness of charity: a sort of fierceness without gall after the manner of the dove, not of the raven. Whence it came into my mind, my brethren, to tell you, that those violaters of charity are they that have made the schism: as they hate charity itself, so they hate also the dove. But the dove convicts them: it comes forth from heaven, the heavens open, and it abides on the head of the Lord. Wherefore this? That John may hear, This is He that baptizes. John 1:33 Away, you robbers; away, you invaders of the possession of Christ! On your own possessions, where you will needs be lords, you have dared to fix the titles of the great Owner. He recognizes His own titles; He vindicates to Himself His own possession. He does not cancel the titles, but enters in and takes possession. So in one that comes to the Catholic Church, his baptism is not cancelled, that the title of the commander be not cancelled: but what is done in the Catholic Church? The title is acknowledged; the Owner enters in under His own titles, where the robber was entering in under titles not his own.

Love is a sweet word, but sweeter the deed. To be always speaking of it, is not in our power: for we have many things to do, and various businesses draw us different ways, so that our tongue has not leisure to be always speaking of love: as indeed our tongue could have nothing better to do. But though we may not always be speaking of it, we may always keep it. Just as it is with the Alleluia which we sing at this present time, are we always doing this? Not one hour, I do not say for the whole space of it, do we sing Alleluia, but barely during a few moments of one hour, and then give ourselves to something else. Now Alleluia, as you already know, means, Praise ye the Lord. He that praises God with his tongue, cannot be always doing this: he that by his life and conduct praises God, can be doing it always. Works of mercy, affections of charity, sanctity of piety, incorruptness of chastity, modesty of sobriety, these things are always to be practiced: whether we are in public, or at home; whether before men, or in our chamber; whether speaking, or holding our peace; whether occupied upon something, or free from occupation: these are always to be kept, because all these virtues which I have named are within. But who is sufficient to name them all? There is as it were the army of an emperor seated within in your mind. For as an emperor by his army does what he will, so the Lord Jesus Christ, once beginning to dwell in our inner man, (i.e. in the mind through faith), uses these virtues as His ministers. And by these virtues which cannot be seen with eyes, and yet when they are named are praised— and they would not be praised except they were loved, not loved except they were seen; and if not loved except seen, they are seen with another eye, that is, with the inward beholding of the heart— by these invisible virtues, the members are visibly put in motion: the feet to walk, but whither? Whither they are moved by the good will which as a soldier serves the good emperor: the hands to work; but what? That which is bidden by charity which is inspired within by the Holy Ghost. The members then are seen when they are put in motion; He that orders them within is not seen: and who He is that orders them within is known almost alone to Him that orders, and to him who within is ordered.

For, brethren, you heard just now when the Gospel was read, at least if you had for it the ear not only of the body but also of the heart. What said it? Take heed that you do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them. Matthew 6:1 Did He mean to say this, that whatever good things we do, we should hide them from the eyes of men, and fear to be seen? If you fear spectators you will not have imitators: you ought therefore to be seen. But you must not do it to the end you may be seen. Not there should be the end of your joy, not there the goal of your rejoicing, that you should account yourself to have gotten the whole fruit of your good work, when you are seen and praised. This is nothing. Despise yourself when you are praised, let Him be praised in you who works by you. Therefore do not for your own praise work the good you do, but to the praise of Him from whom you have the power to do good. From your self you have the ill doing, from God you have the well doing. On the other hand, see perverse men, how preposterous they are. What they do well, they will needs ascribe to themselves; if they do ill, they will needs accuse God. Reverse this distorted and preposterous proceeding, which puts the thing, as one may say, head downwards, which makes that undermost which is uppermost, and that upwards which is downwards. Do you want to make God undermost and yourself uppermost? You go headlong, not elevatest yourself; for He is always above. What then? You well, and God ill? Nay rather, say this, if you would speak more truly, I ill, He well; and what I do well from Him is the well-doing: for from myself whatever I do is ill. This confession strengthens the heart, and makes a firm foundation of love. For if we ought to hide our good works lest they be seen of men, what becomes of that sentence of the Lord in the sermon which He delivered on the mount? Where He said this, there He also said a little before, Let your good works shine before men. Matthew 5:16 And He did not stop there, did not there make an end, but added, And glorify your Father which is in Heaven. And what says the apostle? And I was unknown by face unto the Churches of Judea which were in Christ: but they heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past, now preaches the faith which once he destroyed. And in me they glorified God. Galatians 1:22-24 See how he also, in regard that he became so widely known did not set the good in his own praise, but in the praise of God. And as for him, in his own person, that he was one who laid waste the Church, a persecutor, envious, malignant, it is himself that confesses this, not we that reproach him therewith. Paul loves to have his sins spoken of by us, that He may be glorified who healed such a disease. For it was the hand of the Physician that cut and healed the greatness of the sore. That voice from heaven prostrated the persecutor, and raised up the preacher; killed Saul, and quickened Paul. For Saul was the persecutor of a holy man; thence had this man his name, when he persecuted the Christians: 1 Samuel xix afterward of Saul he became Paul. What does the name Paulus mean? Little. Therefore when he was Saul, he was proud, lifted up; when he was Paul, he was lowly, little. Thus we say, I will see you paulo post, i.e. after a little while. Hear that he was made little: For I am the least of the apostles; and, To me the least of all saints, he says in another place. So was he among the apostles as the hem of the garment: but the Church of the Gentiles touched it, as did the woman which had the flux, and was made whole. Matthew 9:20-22

Then, brethren, this I would say, this I do say, this if I might I would not leave unsaid: Let there be in you now these works, now those, according to the time, according to the hours, according to the days. Are you always to be speaking? Always to keep silence? Always to be refreshing the body? Always to be fasting? Always to be giving bread to the needy? Always to be clothing the naked? Always to be visiting the sick? Always to be bringing into agreement them that disagree? Always to be burying the dead? No: but now this, now that. These things are taken in hand, and they stop: but that which as emperor commands all the forces within neither has beginning nor ought to stop. Let charity within have no intermission: let the offices of charity be exhibited according to the time. Let brotherly love then, as it is written, let brotherly love continue. Hebrews 13:1

But perchance it will have struck some of you all along, while we have been expounding to you this epistle of blessed John, why it is only brotherly love that he so emphatically commends. He that loves his brother, says he: and, a commandment is given us that we love one another. Again and again it is of brotherly love that he speaks: but the love of God, i.e. the love with which we ought to love God, he has not so constantly named; howbeit, he has not altogether left it unspoken. But concerning love of an enemy, almost throughout the epistle, he has said nothing. Although he vehemently preaches up and commends charity to us, he does not tell us to love our enemies, but tells us to love our brethren. But just now, when the Gospel was read, we heard, For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans this? Matthew 5:46 How is it then that John the apostle, as the thing of great concern to us in order to a certain perfection, commends brotherly love; whereas the Lord says it is not enough that we love our brethren, but that we ought to extend that love so that we may reach even to enemies? He that reaches even unto enemies does not overleap the brethren. It must needs, like fire, first seize upon what is nearest, and so extend to what is further off. A brother is nearer to you than any chance person. Again, that person has more hold upon you whom you know not, who yet is not against you, than an enemy who is also against you. Extend your love to them that are nearest, yet do not call this an extending: for it is almost loving yourself, to love them that are close to you. Extend it to the unknown, who have done you no ill. Pass even them: reach on to love your enemies. This at least the Lord commands. Why has the apostle here said nothing about loving an enemy.

All love, whether that which is called carnal, which is wont to be called not dilectio but amor: (for the word dilectio is wont to be used of better objects, and to be understood of better objects:) yet all love, dear brethren, has in it a wishing well to those who are loved. For we ought not so to love, nor are we able so to love, (whether diligere or amare: for this latter word the Lord used when He said, Petra, amas me? Peter, do you love me?) we ought not so to love men, as we hear gluttons say, I love thrushes. Thou ask why he loves them? That he may kill, that he may consume. He says he loves, and to this end loves he them, that they may cease to be; to this end loves he them, that he may make away with them. And whatever we love in the way of food, to this end love we it, that it may be consumed and we recruited. Are men to be so loved as to be consumed? But there is a certain friendliness of well wishing, by which we desire at some time or other to do good to those whom we love. How if there be no good that we can do? The benevolence, the wishing well, of itself suffices him that loves. For we ought not to wish men to be wretched, that we may be enabled to practise works of mercy. You give bread to the hungry: but better it were that none hungered, and you had none to give to. Thou clothest the naked: oh that all were clothed, and this need existed not! Thou buriest the dead: oh that it had come at last, that life where none shall die! Thou reconcilest the quarrelling: oh that it were here at last, that eternal peace of Jerusalem, where none shall disagree! For all these are offices done to necessities. Take away the wretched; there will be an end to works of mercy. The works of mercy will be at an end: shall the ardor of charity be quenched? With a truer touch of love you love the happy man, to whom there is no good office you can do; purer will that love be, and far more unalloyed. For if you have done a kindness to the wretched, perchance you desire to lift up yourself over against him, and wishest him to be subject to you, who hast done the kindness to him. He was in need, you bestowed; you seem to yourself greater because you bestowed, than he upon whom it was bestowed. Wish him your equal, that you both may be under the One Lord, on whom nothing can be bestowed.

For in this the proud soul has passed bounds, and, in a manner, become avaricious. For, The root of all evils is avarice; 1 Timothy 6:10 and again it is said, The beginning of all sin is pride. Sirach 10:15 And we ask, it may be, how these two sentences agree: The root of all evils is avarice; and, The beginning of all sin is pride. If pride is the beginning of all sin, then is pride the root of all evils. Now certainly, the root of all evils is avarice. We find that in pride there is also avarice, (or grasping;) for man has passed bounds: and what is it to be avaricious to go beyond that which suffices. Adam fell by pride: the beginning of all sin is pride, says it: did he fall by grasping? What more grasping, than he whom God could not suffice? In fact, my brethren, we read how man was made after the image and likeness of God: and what said God of him? And let him have power over the fishes of the sea, and over the fowl of the heaven, and over all cattle which move upon the earth. Genesis 1:26 Said He, Have power over men? Have power, says He: He has given him natural power: have power over what? over the fishes of the sea, the fowl of the heaven, and all moving things which move upon the earth. Why is this power over these things a natural power? Because man has the power from this; that he was made after the image of God. And in what was he made after God's image? In the intellect, in the mind, in the inner man; in that he understands truth, distinguishes between right and wrong, knows by whom he was made, is able to understand his Creator, to praise his Creator: he has this intelligence, who has prudence. Therefore when many by evil lusts wore out in themselves the image of God, and by perversity of their manners extinguished the very flame, so to say, of intelligence, the Scripture cried aloud to them, Become not ye as the horse and mule which have no understanding. That is to say, I have set you above the horse and mule; you, I made after my image, I have given you power over these. Why? Because they have not the rational mind: but you by the rational mind art capable of truth, understandest what is above you: be subject to Him that is above you, and beneath you shall those things be over which you were set. But because by sin man deserted Him whom he ought to be under, he is made subject to the things which he ought to be above.

Mark what I say: God, man, beasts: to wit, above you, God; beneath you, the beasts. Acknowledge Him that is above you, that those that are beneath you may acknowledge you. Daniel 6:22 Thus, because Daniel acknowledged God above him, the lions acknowledged him above them. But if you acknowledge not Him that is above you, you despise your superior, you become subject to your inferior. Accordingly, how was the pride of the Egyptians quelled? By the means of frogs and flies. Exodus viii God might have sent lions: but a great man may be scared by a lion. The prouder they were, the more by the means of things contemptible and feeble was their wicked neck broken. But Daniel, lions acknowledge, because he was subject to God. What the martyrs who were cast to the wild beasts to fight with them, and were torn by the teeth of savage creatures, were they not under God? Or were those three men servants of God, and the Maccabees not servants of God? The fire acknowledged as God's servants the three men, whom it burned not, neither hurt their garments; Daniel 3:50 and did it not acknowledge the Maccabees? 2 Maccabbees vii It acknowledged the Maccabees; it did, my brethren, acknowledge them also. But there was need of a scourge, by the Lord's permission: He has said in Scripture, He scourges every son whom He receives. Hebrews 12:6 For think ye, my brethren, the iron would have pierced into the vitals of the Lord unless He had permitted it, or that He would have hung fastened to the tree, unless it had been His will? Did not His own creature acknowledge Him? Or did He set an ensample of patience to His faithful ones? You see then, God delivered some visibly, some He delivered not visibly: yet all He spiritually delivered, spiritually deserted none. Visibly He seemed to have deserted some, some He seemed to have rescued. Therefore rescued He some, that you may not think that He had not power to rescue. He has given proof that He has the power, to the end that where he does it not, you may understand a more secret will, not surmise difficulty of doing. But what, brethren? When we shall have come out of all these snares of mortality, when the times of temptation shall have passed away, when the river of this world shall have fleeted by, and we shall have received again that first robe, that immortality which by sinning we have lost, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, that is, this flesh shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality; 1 Corinthians 15:44-49 the now perfected sons of God, in whom is no more need to be tempted, neither to be scourged, shall all creatures acknowledge: subjected to us shall all things be, if we here be subjected to God.

So then ought the Christian to be, that he glory not over other men. For God has given it you to be over the beasts, i.e. to be better than the beasts. This have you by nature; you shall always be better than a beast. If you wish to be better than another man, you will begrudge him when you shall see him to be your equal. You ought to wish all men to be your equals; and if by wisdom you surpass any, you ought to wish that he also may be wise. As long as he is slow, he learns from you; as long as he is untaught, he has need of you; and you are seen to be the teacher, he the learner; therefore you seem to be the superior, because you are the teacher; he the inferior, because the learner. Except you wish him your equal, you wish to have him always a learner. But if you wish to have him always a learner, you will be an envious teacher. If an envious teacher, how will you be a teacher? I pray you, do not teach him your enviousness. Hear the apostle speaking of the bowels of charity: I would that all were even as I. 1 Corinthians 7:7 In what sense did he wish all to be his equals? In this was he superior to all, that by charity he wished all to be his equals. I say then, man has past bounds; he would needs be greedy of more than his due, would be above men, he that was made above the beasts: and this is pride.

And see what great works pride does. Lay it up in your hearts, how much alike, how much as it were upon a par, are the works it does, and the works of charity. Charity feeds the hungry, and so does pride: charity, that God may be praised; pride, that itself may be praised. Charity clothes the naked, so does pride: charity fasts, so does pride: charity buries the dead, so does pride. All good works which charity wishes to do, and does; pride, on the other hand, drives at the same, and, so to say, keeps her horses up to the mark. But charity is between her and it, and leaves not place for ill-driven pride; not ill-driving, but ill-driven. Woe to the man whose charioteer is pride, for he must needs go headlong! But that, in the good that is done, it may not be pride that sets us on, who knows? Who sees it? Where is it? The works we see: mercy feeds, pride also feeds; mercy takes in the stranger, pride also takes in the stranger; mercy intercedes for the poor, pride also intercedes. How is this? In the works we see no difference. I dare to say somewhat, but not I; Paul has said it: charity dies, that is, a man having charity confesses the name of Christ, suffers martyrdom: pride also confesses, suffers also martyrdom. The one has charity, the other has not charity. But let him that has not charity hear from the apostle: If I distribute all my goods to the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3 So then the divine Scripture calls us off from the display of the face outwardly to that which is within; from this surface which is vaunted before men, it calls us off to that which is within. Return to your own conscience, question it. Do not consider what blossoms outwardly, but what root there is in the ground. Is lust rooted there? A show there may be of good deeds, truly good works there cannot be. Is charity rooted there? Have no fear: nothing evil can come of that. The proud caresses, love is severe. The one clothes, the other smites. For the one clothes in order to please men, the other smites in order to correct by discipline. More accepted is the blow of charity than the alms of pride. Come then within, brethren; and in all things, whatsoever ye do, look unto God your witness. See, if He sees, with what mind ye do it. If your heart accuse you not that you do it for the sake of display, it is well: fear ye not. But when you do good, fear not lest another see you. Fear lest you do it to the end that you may be praised: let the other see it, that God may be praised. For if you hide it from the eyes of man, you hide it from the imitation of man, you withdraw from God His praise. Two are there to whom you do the alms: two hunger; one for bread, the other for righteousness. Between these two famishing souls:— as it is written, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled: Matthew 5:6 — between these two famishing persons you the doer of the good work art set; if charity does the work by occasion of the one, therein it has pity on both, it would succor both. For the one craves what he may eat, the other craves what he may imitate. You feed the one, give yourself as a pattern to the other; so have you given alms to both: the one you have caused to thank you for killing his hunger, the other you have made to imitate you by setting him an example.

Show mercy then, as men of merciful hearts; because in loving enemies also, you love brethren. Think not that John has given no precept concerning love of our enemy, because he has not ceased to speak of brotherly love. You love brethren. How, do you say, do we love brethren? I ask wherefore you love an enemy. Wherefore do you love him? That he may be whole in this life? What if it be not expedient for him? That he may be rich? What if by his very riches he shall be blinded? That he may marry a wife? What if he shall have a bitter life of it? That he may have children? What if they shall be bad? Uncertain therefore are these things which you seem to wish for your enemy, in that you love him; they are uncertain. Wish for him that he may have with you eternal life; wish for him that he may be your brother: when you love him, you love a brother. For you love in him not what he is, but what you wish that he may be. I once said to you, my beloved, if I mistake not: There is a log of timber lying in sight; a good workman has seen the log, not yet planed, just as it was hewn from the forest, he has taken a liking to it, he would make something out of it. For indeed he did not love it to this end that it should always remain thus. In his art he has seen what it shall be, not in his liking what it is; and his liking is for the thing he will make of it, not for the thing it is. So God loved us sinners. We say that God loved sinners: for He says, They that are whole need not the Physician, but they that are sick. Matthew 9:12 Did He love us sinners to the end we should still remain sinners? As timber from the wood our Carpenter saw us, and had in His thoughts the building He would make thereof, not the unwrought timber that it was. So too you see your enemy striving against you, raging, biting with words, exasperating with contumelies, harassing with hatred: you have regard to this in him, that he is a man. You see all these things that are against you, that they were done by man; and you see in him that he was made by God. Now that he was made man, was God's doing: but that he hates you, is his doing; that he has ill-will at you, is his doing. And what do you say in your mind? Lord, be merciful to him, forgive him his sins, strike terror into him, change him. You love not in him what he is, but what you wish him to be. Consequently, when you love an enemy, you love a brother. Wherefore, perfect love is the loving an enemy: which perfect love is in brotherly love. And let no man say that John the apostle has admonished us somewhat less, and the Lord Christ somewhat more. John has admonished us to love the brethren; Christ has admonished us to love even enemies. Mark to what end Christ has bidden you to love your enemies. That they may remain always enemies? If He bade it for this end, that they should remain enemies, you hate, not lovest. Mark how He Himself loved, i.e. because He would not that they should be still the persecutors they were, He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Luke 23:34 Whom He willed to be forgiven, them He willed to be changed: whom He willed to be changed, of enemies He deigned to make brethren, and did in truth make them so. He was killed, was buried, rose again, ascended into heaven: sent the Holy Ghost to His disciples: they began with boldness to preach His name, they did miracles in the name of Him that was crucified and slain: those slayers of the Lord saw them; and they who in rage had shed His blood, by believing drank it.

These things have I said, brethren, and somewhat at length: yet because charity was to be more earnestly commended to you, beloved, in this way was it to be commended. For if there be no charity in you, we have said nothing. But if it be in you, we have as it were cast oil upon the flames. And in whom it was not, perchance by words it has been kindled. In one; that which was there has grown; in another, that has begun to be, which was not. To this end therefore have we said these things, that you be not slow to love your enemies. Does any man rage against you? He rages, you pray; he hates, you pity. It is the fever of his soul that hates you: he will be whole, and will thank you. How do physicians love them that are sick? Is it the sick that they love? If they love them as sick, they wish them to be always sick. To this end love they the sick; not that they should still be sick, but that from being sick they should be made whole. And how much have they very often to suffer from the frenzied! What contumelious language! Very often they are even struck by them. He attacks the fever, forgives the man. And what shall I say, brethren? Does he love his enemy? Nay, he hates his enemy, the disease; for it is this that he hates, and loves the man by whom he is struck: he hates the fever. For by whom or by what is he struck? By the disease, by the sickness, by the fever. He takes away that which strives against him, that there may remain that from which he shall have thanks. So do thou. If your enemy hate you, and unjustly hate you; know that the lust of the world reigns in him, therefore he hates you. If you also hate him, you on the other hand render evil for evil. What does it, to render evil for evil? I wept for one sick man who hated you; now bewail I you, if you also hate. But he attacks your property; he takes from you I know not what things which you have on earth: therefore do you hate him, because he puts you to straits on earth. Be not straitened, remove to heaven above; there shall you have your heart where there is wide room, so that you may not be straitened in the hope of life eternal. Consider what the things are that he takes from you: not even them would he take from you, but by permission of Him who scourges every son whom He receives. Hebrews 12:6 He, this same enemy of yours, is in a manner the instrument in the hands of God, by which you may be healed. If God knows it to be good for you that he should despoil you, He permits him; if He knows it to be good for you that you should receive blows, He permits him to smite you: by the means of Him He cares for you: wish that he may be made whole.

No man has seen God at any time. See, beloved: If we love one another, God will dwell in us, and His love will be perfected in us.

 1 John 4:12 Begin to love; you shall be perfected. Have you begun to love? God has begun to dwell in you: love Him that has begun to dwell in you, that by more perfect indwelling He may make you perfect. In this we know that we dwell in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

 1 John 4:13 It is well: thanks be to God! We come to know that He dwells in us. And whence come we to know this very thing, to wit, that we do know that He dwells in us? Because John himself has said this: Because He has given us of His Spirit. Whence know we that He has given us of His Spirit? This very thing, that He has given you of His Spirit, whence do you come to know it? Ask your own bowels: if they are full of charity, you have the Spirit of God. Whence know we that by this you know that the Spirit of God dwells in you? Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. Romans 5:5

And we have seen, and are witnesses, that God has sent His Son to be the Saviour of the world.

 1 John 4:14 Set your minds at rest, you that are sick: such a Physician has come, and do ye despair? Great were the diseases, incurable were the wounds, desperate was the sickness. Do you note the greatness of your ill, and not note the omnipotence of the Physician? You are desperate, but He is omnipotent; Whose witnesses are these that first were healed, and that announce the Physician: yet even they are made whole in hope rather than in the reality. For so says the apostle: For by hope we are saved. hope, not the reality. But he that rejoices in hope shall hold the reality also: whereas he that has not the hope, shall not be able to attain unto the reality.

Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him and he in God. Now we may say it in not many words; Whosoever shall confess; not in word but in deed, not with tongue but with the life. For many confess in words, but in deeds deny: And we have known and believed the love which God has in us.

 1 John 4:16 And again, by what have you come to know this? Love is God. He has already said it above, behold he says it again. Love could not be more exceedingly commended to you than that it should be called God . Haply you were ready to despise a gift of God. And do you despise God? Love is God: and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God dwells in him. Each mutually inhabites the other; He that holds, and he that is holden. You dwell in God, but that you may be holden: God inhabites you, but that He may hold you, lest you fall. Lest haply you imagine that you become an house of God in such sort as your house supports your flesh: if the house in which you are withdraw itself from under you, you fall, but if you withdraw yourself, God falls not. When you forsake Him, He is none the less; when you have returned unto Him, He is none the greater. You are healed, on Him you will bestow nothing; you are made clean, you are new-made, you are set right: He is a medicine to the unhealthy, is a rule for the crooked, is light for the bedarkened, is an habitation for the deserted. All therefore is conferred on you: see that you imagine not that ought is conferred upon God by your coming unto Him: no, not so much as a slave. Shall God, forsooth, not have servants if you like not, if all like not? God needs not the servants, but the servants need God: therefore says the Psalm, I have said unto the Lord, you are my God. He is the true Lord. And what says it? For of my goods You have no need. Thou needest the good you have by your servant. Your servant needs the good he has by you, that you may feed him; you also need the good you have by your servant, that he may help you. You can not draw water for yourself, canst not cook for yourself, canst not run before your horse, canst not tend your beast. You see that you need the good you have by your servant, you need his attendance. Therefore you are not a true lord, while you have need of an inferior. He is the true Lord, who seeks nothing from us; and woe to us if we seek not Him! He seeks nothing from us: yet He sought us, when we sought not Him. One sheep had strayed; He found it, He brought it back on His shoulders rejoicing. Luke 15:4-5 And was the sheep necessary for the Shepherd, and not rather the Shepherd necessary for the sheep?— The more I love to speak of charity, the less willing am I that this epistle should be finished. None is more ardent in the commending of charity. Nothing more sweet is preached to you, nothing more wholesome drunk by you: but only thus if by godly living ye confirm in you the gift of God. Be not ungrateful for His so great grace, who, though He had one Only Son, would not that He should be alone a Son; but, that He might have brethren, adopted unto Him those who should with Him possess life eternal.

You remember, beloved, that of the epistles of John the apostle the last past remains to be handled by us and expounded to you, as the Lord vouchsafes. Of this debt then we are mindful: and you ought to be mindful of your claim. For indeed this same charity, which in this epistle is chiefly and almost alone commended, at once makes us most faithful in paying our debts, and you most sweet in exacting your rights. I have said, most sweet in exacting, because where charity is not, he that exacts is bitter: but where charity is, both he that exacts is sweet, and he of whom it is exacted, although he undertakes some labor, yet charity makes the very labor to be almost no labor, and light. Do we not see how, even in dumb and irrational animals, where the love is not spiritual but carnal and natural, with great affection the mother yields herself to her young ones when they will have the milk which is their right: and however impetuously the suckling rushes at the teats, yet that is better for the mother than that it should not suck nor exact that which of love is due? Often we see great calves driving their heads at the cow's udders with a force that almost lifts up the mother's body, yet does she not kick them off; nay, if the young one be not there to suck, the lowing of the dam calls for it to come to the teats. If then there be in us that spiritual charity of which the apostle says, I became small in the midst of you even as a nurse cherishing her young ones; 1 Thessalonians 2:7 we love you the more when you are exacting. We like not the sluggish, because for the languid ones we are afraid. We have been obliged, however, to intermit the continuous reading of this epistle, because of certain stated lessons coming between, which must needs be read on their holy days, and the same preached upon. Let us now come back to the order which was interrupted; and what remains, holy brethren, receive ye with all attention. I know not whether charity could be more magnificently commended to us, than that it should be said, Charity is God.

 1 John 4:16 Brief praise, yet mighty praise: brief in utterance, mighty in meaning! How soon is it said, Love is God! This also is short: if you count it, it is one: if you weigh it, how great is it! Love is God, and he that dwells, says he, in love, dwells in God, and God dwells in him. Let God be your house, and be an house of God; dwell in God, and let God dwell in you. God dwells in you, that He may hold you: you dwell in God, that you may not fall; for thus says the apostle of this same charity, Charity never falls. How should He fall whom God holds?

Herein is our love made perfect in us that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world.

 1 John 4:17 He tells how each may prove himself, what progress charity has made in him or rather what progress he has made in charity. For if charity is God, God is capable neither of proficiency nor of deficiency: that charity is said to be making proficiency in you, means only that you make proficiency in it. Ask therefore what proficiency you have made in charity, and what your heart will answer you, that you may know the measure of your profiting. For he has promised to show us in what we may know Him, and has said, In this is love made perfect in us. Ask, in what? That we have boldness in the day of judgment. Whoso has boldness in the day of judgment, in that man is charity made perfect. What is it to have boldness in the day of judgment? Not to fear lest the day of judgment should come. There are men who do not believe in a day of judgment; these cannot have boldness in a day which they do not believe will come. Let us pass these: may God awaken them, that they may live; why speak we of the dead? They do not believe that there will be a day of judgment; they neither fear nor desire what they do not believe. Some man has begun to believe in a day of judgment: if he has begun to believe, he has also begun to fear. But because he fears as yet, because he has not yet boldness in the day of judgment, not yet is charity in that man made perfect. But for all that, is one to despair? In whom you see the beginning, why do you despair of the end? What beginning do I see? (do you say.) That very fear. Hear the Scripture: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Well then, he has begun to fear the day of judgment: by fearing let him correct himself, let him watch against his enemies, i.e. his sins; let him begin to come to life again inwardly, and to mortify his members which are upon the earth, as the apostle says, Mortify your members which are upon the earth. Colossians 3:5 By the members upon earth he means spiritual wickedness: for he goes on to expound it, Covetousness, uncleanness, Ephesians 6:12 and the rest which he there follows out. Now in proportion as this man who has begun to fear the day of judgment, mortifies his members which are upon the earth, in that proportion the heavenly members rise up and are strengthened. But the heavenly members are all good works. As the heavenly members rise up, he begins to desire that which once he feared. Once he feared lest Christ should come and find in him the impious whom He must condemn; now he longs for Him to come, because He shall find the pious man whom He may crown. Having now begun to desire Christ's coming, the chaste soul which desires the embrace of the Bridegroom renounces the adulterer, becomes a virgin within by faith, hope, and charity. Now has the man boldness in the day of judgment: he fights not against himself when he prays, Your kingdom come. Matthew 6:10 For he that fears lest the kingdom of God should come, fears lest his prayer be heard. How can he be said to pray, who fears lest his prayer be heard? But he that prays with boldness of charity, wishes now that He may come. Of this same desire said one in the Psalm, And you, Lord, how long? Turn, Lord, and deliver my soul. He groaned at being so put off. For there are men who with patience submit to die; but there are some perfect who with patience endure to live. What do I mean? When a person still desires this life, that person, when the day of death comes, patiently endures death: he struggles against himself that he may follow the will of God, and in his mind desires that which God chooses, not what man's will chooses: from desire of the present life there comes a reluctance against death, but yet he takes to him patience and fortitude, that he may with an even mind meet death; he dies patiently. But when a man desires, as the apostle says, to be dissolved and to be with Christ, Philippians 1:23-24 that person, not patiently dies, but patiently lives, delightedly dies. See the apostle patiently living, i.e. how with patience he here, not loves life, but endures it. To be dissolved, says he, and to be with Christ, is far better: but to continue in the flesh is necessary for your sakes. Therefore, brethren, do your endeavor, settle it inwardly with yourselves to make this your concern, that you may desire the day of judgment. No otherwise is charity proved to be perfect, but only when one has begun to desire that day. But that man desires it, who has boldness in it, whose conscience feels no alarm in perfect and sincere charity.

In this is His love perfected in us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Why shall we have boldness? Because as He is are we also in this world. You have heard the ground of your boldness: Because as He is, says the apostle, are we also in this world. Does he not seem to have said something impossible? For is it possible for man to be as God? I have already expounded to you that as is not always said of equality, but is said of a certain resemblance. For how do you say, As I have ears, so has my image? Is it quite so? And yet you say so, as. If then we were made after God's image, why are we not so as God? Not unto equality, but relatively to our measure. Whence then are we given boldness in the day of judgment? Because as He is, are we also in this world. We must refer this to the same charity, and understand what is meant. The Lord in the Gospel says, If you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not the publicans this? Matthew 5:44-46 Then what would He have us do? But I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you. If then He bids us love our enemies, whence brings He an example to set before us? From God Himself: for He says, That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. How does God this? He loves His enemies, Who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust. If this then be the perfection unto which God invites us, that we love our enemies as He loved His; this is our boldness in the day of judgment, that as He is, so are we also in this world: because, as He loves His enemies in making His sun to rise upon good and bad, and in sending rain upon the just and unjust, so we, since we cannot bestow upon them sun and rain, bestow upon them our tears when we pray for them.

Now therefore concerning this same boldness, let us see what he says. Whence do we understand that charity is perfect? There is no fear in charity.

 1 John 4:18 Then what say we of him that has begun to fear the day of judgment? If charity in him were perfect, he would not fear. For perfect charity would make perfect righteousness, and he would have nothing to fear: nay rather he would have something to desire; that iniquity may pass away, and God's kingdom come. So then, there is no fear in charity. But in what charity? Not in charity begun: in what then? But perfect charity, says he, casts out fear. Then let fear make the beginning, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fear, so to say, prepares a place for charity. But when once charity has begun to inhabit, the fear which prepared the place for it is cast out. For in proportion as this increases, that decreases: and the more this comes to be within, is the fear cast out. Greater charity, less fear; less charity, greater fear. But if no fear, there is no way for charity to come in. As we see in sewing, the thread is introduced by means of the bristle; the bristle first enters, but except it come out the thread does not come into its place: so fear first occupies the mind, but the fear does not remain there, because it enters only in order to introduce charity. When once there is the sense of security in the mind, what joy have we both in this world and in the world to come! Even in this world, who shall hurt us, being full of charity? See how the apostle exults concerning this very charity: Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Romans 8:35 And Peter says: And who is he that will harm you, if you be followers of that which is good?— There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. 1 Peter 3:13 The consciousness of sins torments the heart: justification has not yet taken place. There is that in it which itches, which pricks. Accordingly in the Psalm what says he concerning this same perfection of righteousness? You have turned for me my mourning into joy: You have put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; to the end that my glory may sing to you, and that I be not pricked. What is this, That I be not pricked? That there be not that which shall goad my conscience. Fear does goad: but fear not: charity enters in, and she heals the wound that fear inflicts. The fear of God so wounds as does the leech's knife; it takes away the rottenness, and seems to make the wound greater. Behold, when the rottenness was in the body, the wound was less, but perilous: then comes the knife; the wound smarted less than it smarts now while the leech is cutting it. It smarts more while he is operating upon it than it would if it were not operated upon; it smarts more under the healing operation, but only that it may never smart when the healing is effected. Then let fear occupy your heart, that it may bring in charity; let the cicatrice succeed to the leech's knife. He is such an Healer, that the cicatrices do not even appear: only put yourself under His hand. For if you be without fear, you can not be justified. It is a sentence pronounced by the Scriptures; For he that is without fear, cannot be justified. Sirach 1:28 Needs then must fear first enter in, that by it charity may come. Fear is the healing operation: charity, the sound condition. But he that fears is not made perfect in love. Why? Because fear has torment; just as the cutting of the surgeon's knife has torment.

But there is another sentence, which seems contrary to this if it have not one that understands. Namely, it is said in a certain place of the Psalms, The fear of the Lord is chaste, enduring forever. He shows us an eternal fear, but a chaste. But if he there shows us an eternal fear, does this epistle perchance contradict him, when it says, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear? Let us interrogate both utterances of God. One is the Spirit, though the books two, though the mouths two, though the tongues two. For this is said by the mouth of John, that by the mouth of David: but think not that the Spirit is more than one. If one breath fills two pipes [of the double-flute], cannot one Spirit fill two hearts, move two tongues? But if two pipes filled by one breathing sound in unison, can two tongues filled with the Spirit or Breathing of God make a dissonance? There is then an unison there, there is a harmony, only it requires one that can hear. Behold, this Spirit of God has breathed into and filled two hearts, has moved two tongues: and we have heard from the one tongue, There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear; we have heard from the other, The fear of the Lord is chaste, enduring for ever. How is this? The notes seem to jar. Not so: rouse your ears: mark the melody. It is not without cause that in the one place there is added that word, chaste, in the other it is not added: but because there is one fear which is called chaste, and there is another fear which is not called chaste. Let us mark the difference between these two fears, and so understand the harmony of the flutes. How are we to understand, or how to distinguish? Mark, my beloved. There are men who fear God, lest they be cast into hell, lest haply they burn with the devil in everlasting fire. This is the fear which introduces charity: but it comes that it may depart. For if you as yet fear God because of punishments, not yet do you love Him whom you in such sort fear. You do not desire the good things, but are afraid of the evil things. Yet because you are afraid of the evil things, you correct yourself and beginnest to desire the good things. When once you have begun to desire the good, there shall be in you the chaste fear. What is the chaste fear? The fear lest you lose the good things themselves. Mark! It is one thing to fear God lest He cast you into hell with the devil, and another thing to fear God lest He forsake you. The fear by which you fear lest you be cast into hell with the devil, is not yet chaste; for it comes not from the love of God, but from the fear of punishment: but when you fear God lest His presence forsake you, you embrace Him, you long to enjoy God Himself.

One cannot better explain the difference between these two fears, the one which charity casts out, the other chaste, which endures for ever, than by putting the case of two married women, one of whom, you may suppose, is willing to commit adultery, delights in wickedness, only fears lest she be condemned by her husband. She fears her husband: but because she yet loves wickedness, that is the reason why she fears her husband. To this woman, the presence of her husband is not grateful but burdensome; and if it chance she live wickedly, she fears her husband, lest he should come. Such are they that fear the coming of the day of judgment. Put the case that the other loves her husband, that she feels that she owes him chaste embraces, that she stains herself with no uncleanness of adultery; she wishes for the presence of her husband. And how are these two fears distinguished? The one woman fears, the other also fears. Question them: they seem to make one answer: question the one, Do you fear your husband? She answers, I do. Question the other, whether she fears her husband; she answers, I do fear him. The voice is one, the mind diverse. Now then let them be questioned, Why? The one says, I fear my husband, lest he should come: the other says, I fear my husband, lest he depart from me. The one says, I fear to be condemned: the other, I fear to be forsaken. Let the like have place in the mind of Christians, and you find a fear which love casts out, and another fear, chaste, enduring for ever.

Let us speak then first to these who fear God, just in the manner of that woman who delights in wickedness; namely, she fears her husband lest he condemn her; to such let us first speak. O soul, which fearest God lest He condemn you, just as the woman fears, who delights in wickedness: fears her husband, lest she be condemned by her husband: as you are displeased at this woman, so be displeased at yourself. If perchance you have a wife, would you have your wife fear you thus, that she be not condemned by you? That delighting in wickedness, she should be repressed only by the weight of the fear of you, not by the condemnation of her iniquity? You would have her chaste, that she may love you, not that she may fear you. Show yourself such to God, as you would have your wife be to you. And if you have not yet a wife, and wishest to have one, you would have her such. And yet what are we saying, brethren? That woman, whose fear of her husband is to be condemned by her husband, perhaps does not commit adultery, lest by some means or other it come to her husband's knowledge, and he deprive her of this temporal light of life: now the husband can be deceived and kept in ignorance; for he is but human, as she is who can deceive him. She fears him, from whose eyes she can be hid: and do you not fear the face ever upon you of your Husband? The countenance of the Lord is against them that do evil. She catches at her husband's absence, and haply is incited by the delight of adultery; and yet she says to herself, I will not do it: he indeed is absent, but it is hard to keep it from coming in some way to his knowledge. She restrains herself, lest it come to the knowledge of a mortal man, one who, it is also possible, may never know it, who, it is also possible, may be deceived, so that he shall esteem a bad woman to be good, esteem her to be chaste who is an adulteress: and do you not fear the eyes of Him whom no man can deceive? thou not fear the presence of Him who cannot be turned away from you? Pray God to look upon you, and to turn His face away from your sins; Turn away Your face from my sins. But whereby do you merit that He should turn away His face from your sins, if you turn not away your own face from your sins? For the same voice says in the Psalm: For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is ever before me. Acknowledge, and He forgives.

We have addressed that soul which has as yet the fear which endures not for ever, but which love shuts out and casts forth: let us address that also which has now the fear which is chaste, enduring for ever. Shall we find that soul, think you, that we may address it? Think you, is it here in this congregation? Is it, think you, here in this chancel? think you, is it here on earth? It cannot but be, only it is hidden. Now is the winter: within is the greenness in the root. Haply we may get at the ears of that soul. But wherever that soul is, oh that I could find it, and instead of its giving ear to me, might myself give ear to it! It should teach me something, rather than learn of me! An holy soul, a soul of fire, and longing for the kingdom of God: that soul, not I address, but God Himself does address, and thus consoles while patiently it endures to live here on earth: You would that I should even now come, and I know that you wish I should even now come: I know what you are, such that without fear you may wait for my advent; I know that is a trouble to you: but do you even longer wait, endure; I come, and come quickly. But to the loving soul the time moves slowly. Hear her singing, like a lily as she is from amid the thorns; hear her sighing and saying, I will sing, and will understand in a faultless way: when will you come unto me? But in a faultless way well may she not fear; because perfect love casts out fear. And when He has come to her embrace, still she fears, but in the manner of one that feels secure. What does she fear? She will beware and take heed to herself against her own iniquity, that she sin not again: not lest she be cast into the fire, but lest she be forsaken by Him. And there shall be in in her— what? The chaste fear, enduring for ever. We have heard the two flutes sounding in unison. That speaks of fear, and this speaks of fear: but that, of the fear with which the soul fears lest she be condemned; this, of the fear with which the soul fears lest she be forsaken. That is the fear which charity casts out: this, the fear that endures for ever.

Let us love, because He first loved us.

 1 John 4:19 For how should we love, except He had first loved us? By loving we became friends: but He loved us as enemies, that we might be made friends. He first loved us, and gave us the gift of loving Him. We did not yet love Him: by loving we are made beautiful. If a man deformed and ill-featured love a beautiful woman, what shall he do? Or what shall a woman do, if, being deformed and ill-featured and black-complexioned, she love a beautiful man? By loving can she become beautiful? Can he by loving become handsome? He loves a beautiful woman, and when he sees himself in a mirror, he is ashamed to lift up his face to her his lovely one of whom he is enamored. What shall he do that he may be beautiful? Does he wait for good looks to come? Nay rather, by waiting old age is added to him, and makes him uglier. There is nothing then to do, there is no way to advise him, but only that he should restrain himself, and not presume to love unequally: or if perchance he does love her, and wishes to take her to wife, in her let him love chastity, not the face of flesh. But our soul, my brethren, is unlovely by reason of iniquity: by loving God it becomes lovely. What a love must that be that makes the lover beautiful! But God is always lovely, never unlovely, never changeable. Who is always lovely first loved us; and what were we when He loved us but foul and unlovely? But not to leave us foul; no, but to change us, and of unlovely make us lovely. How shall we become lovely? By loving Him who is always lovely. As the love increases in you, so the loveliness increases: for love is itself the beauty of the soul. Let us love, because He first loved us. Hear the apostle Paul: But God showed His love in us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us: Romans 5:8-9 the just for the unjust, the beautiful for the foul. How find we Jesus beautiful? You are beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips. Why so? Again see why it is that He is fair; Beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of men: because In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1 But in that He took flesh, He took upon Him, as it were, your foulness, i.e. your mortality, that He might adapt Himself to you, and become suited to you, and stir you up to the love of the beauteousness within. Where then in Scripture do we find Jesus uncomely and deformed, as we have found Him comely and beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of men? where find we Him also deformed? Ask Esaias: And we saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness. Isaiah 53:2 There now are two flutes which seem to make discordant sounds: howbeit one Spirit breathes into both. By this it is said, Beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of men: by that it is said in Esaias, We saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness. By one Spirit are both flutes filled, they make no dissonance. Turn not away your ears, apply the understanding. Let us ask the apostle Paul, and let him expound to us the unison of the two flutes. Let him sound to us the note, Beauteous in loveliness surpassing the sons of men.— Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Philippians 2:6-7 Let him sound to us also the note, We saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness.— He made Himself of no reputation, taking upon Him the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and in fashion found as man. He had no form nor comeliness, that He might give you form and comeliness. What form? What comeliness? The love which is in charity: that loving, you may run; Song of Songs 1:4 running, may love. You are fair now: but stay not your regard upon yourself, lest you lose what you have received; let your regards terminate in Him by whom you were made fair. Be fair only to the end He may love you. But do you direct your whole aim to Him, run to Him, seek His embraces, fear to depart from Him; that there may be in you the chaste fear, which endures for ever. Let us love, because He first loved us.

If any man say, I love God.

 1 John 4:20 What God? wherefore love we? Because He first loved us, and gave us to love. He loved us ungodly, to make us godly; loved us unrighteous, to make us righteous; loved us sick, to make us whole. Ask each several man; let him tell you if he love God. He cries out, he confesses: I love, God knows. There is another question to be asked. If any man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. By what do you prove that he is a liar? Hear. For he that loves not his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he sees not? What then? Does he that loves a brother, love God also? He must of necessity love God, must of necessity love Him that is Love itself. Can one love his brother, and not love Love? Of necessity he must love Love. What then? Because he loves Love, does it follow that he loves God? Certainly it does follow. In loving Love, he loves God. Or have you forgotten what you said a little while ago, Love is God?

 1 John 4:8, 16 If Love is God, whoso loves Love, loves God. Love then your brother, and feel yourself assured. You can not say, I love my brother, but I do not love God. As you lie, if you say, I love God, when you love not your brother, so you are deceived when you say, I love my brother, if you think that you love not God. Of necessity must you who lovest your brother, love Love itself: but Love is God: therefore of necessity must he love God, whoso loves his brother. But if you love not the brother whom you see, how can you love God whom you see not? Why does he not see God? Because he has not Love itself. That he does not see God, is, because he has not love: that he has not love, is, because he loves not his brother. The reason then why he does not see God, is, that he has not Love. For if he have Love, he sees God, for Love is God: and that eye is becoming more and more purged by love, to see that Unchangeable Substance, in the presence of which he shall always rejoice, which he shall enjoy to everlasting, when he is joined with the angels. Only, let him run now, that he may at last have gladness in his own country. Let him not love his pilgrimage, not love the way: let all be bitter save Him that calls us, until we hold Him fast, and say what is said in the Psalm: You have destroyed all that go a-whoring from You — and who are they that go a-whoring? They that go away and love the world: but what shall you do? He goes on and says:— but for me it is good to cleave to God. All my good is, to cling unto God, freely. For if you question him and say, For what do you cling to Him? And he should say, That He may give me— Give you what? It is He that made the heaven, He that made the earth: what shall He give you? Already you are cleaving to Him: find something better, and He shall give it you.

For he that loves not his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he sees not? And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loves God love his brother also.

 1 John 4:20-21 Marvellous fine talk it was, that you said, I love God, and hatest your brother! O murderer, how do you love God? Have you not heard above in this very epistle, He that hates his brother is a murderer? 1 John 3:15 Yea, but I do verily love God, however I hate my brother. You verily do not love God, if you hate your brother. And now I make it good by another proof. This same apostle has said, He gave us commandment that we should love one another. How can you be said to love Him whose commandment you hate? Who shall say, I love the emperor, but I hate his laws? In this the emperor understands whether you love him, that his laws be observed throughout the provinces. Our Emperor's law, what is it? A new commandment give I unto you, that you love one another. John 13:34 You say then, that you love Christ: keep His commandment, and love your brother. But if you love not your brother, how can you be said to love Him whose commandment you despise? Brethren, I am never satiated in speaking of charity in the name of the Lord. In what proportion you have an insatiable desire of this thing, in that proportion we hope the thing itself is growing in you, and casting out fear, that so there may remain that chaste fear which is for ever permanent. Let us endure the world, endure tribulations, endure the stumbling-blocks of temptations. Let us not depart from the way; let us hold the unity of the Church, hold Christ, hold charity. Let us not be plucked away from the members of His Spouse, not be plucked away from faith, that we may glory in His coming: and we shall securely abide in Him, now by faith, then by sight, of whom we have so great earnest, even the gift of the Holy Spirit.