Tractate 45 (John 10:1-10)

1. Our Lord's discourse to the Jews began in connection with the man who was born blind and was restored to sight. Your Charity therefore ought to know and be advised that today's lesson is interwoven with that one. For when the Lord had said, For judgment I have come into this world; that they who see not might see, and they who see might be made blind,— which, on the occasion of its reading, we expounded according to our ability — some of the Pharisees said, Are we blind also? To whom He replied, If you were blind, you should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; [therefore] your sin remains. To these words He added what we have been hearing today when the lesson was read.

2. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. For they declared that they were not blind; yet could they see only by being the sheep of Christ. Whence claimed they possession of the light, who were acting as thieves against the day? Because, then, of their vain and proud and incurable arrogance, did the Lord Jesus subjoin these words, wherein He has given us also salutary lessons, if we lay them to heart. For there are many who, according to a custom of this life, are called good people —good men, good women, innocent, and observers as it were of what is commanded in the law; paying respect to their parents, abstaining from adultery, doing no murder, committing no theft, giving no false witness against any one, and observing all else that the law requires — yet are not Christians; and for the most part ask boastfully, like these men, Are we blind also? But just because all these things that they do, and know not to what end they should have reference, they do to no purpose, the Lord has set forth in today's lesson the similitude of His own flock, and of the door that leads into the sheepfold. Pagans may say, then, We live well. If they enter not by the door, what good will that do them, whereof they boast? For to this end ought good living to benefit every one, that it may be given him to live for ever: for to whomsoever eternal life is not given, of what benefit is the living well? For they ought not to be spoken of as even living well, who either from blindness know not the end of a right life, or in their pride despise it. But no one has the true and certain hope of living always, unless he know the life, that it is Christ; and enter by the gate into the sheepfold.

3. Such, accordingly, for the most part seek to persuade men to live well, and yet not to be Christians. By another way they wish to climb up, to steal and to kill, not as the shepherd, to preserve and to save. And thus there have been certain philosophers, holding many subtle discussions about the virtues and the vices, dividing, defining, drawing out to their close the most acute processes of reasoning, filling books, brandishing their wisdom with rattling jaws; who would even dare to say to people, Follow us, keep to our sect, if you would live happily. But they had not entered by the door: they wished to destroy, to slay, and to murder.

4. What shall I say of such? Look, the Pharisees themselves were in the habit of reading, and in what they read, their voices re-echoed the Christ, they hoped He would come, and recognized Him not when present; they boasted, even they, of being among those who saw, that is, among the wise, and they disowned the Christ, and entered not in by the door. Therefore would such also, if they chanced to seduce any, seduce them to be slaughtered and murdered, not to be brought into liberty. Let us leave these also to themselves, and look at those who glory in the name of Christ Himself, and see whether even they perchance are entering in by the door.

5. For there are countless numbers who not only boast that they see, but would have it appear that they are enlightened by Christ; yet are they heretics. Have even they somehow entered by the gate? Surely not. Sabellius says, He who is the Son is Himself the Father; but if the Son, then is there no Father. He enters not by the door, who asserts that the Son is the Father. Arius says, The Father is one thing, the Son is another thing. He would say rightly if he said, Another person; but not another thing. For when he says, Another thing, he contradicts Him who says in his hearing, I and my Father are One. Neither does he therefore enter by the door; for he preaches a Christ such as he fabricates for himself, not such as the truth declares Him. You have the name, you have not the reality. Christ is the name of something; keep hold of the thing itself, if you would benefit by the name. Another, I know not from whence, says with Photinus, Christ is mere man; He is not God. He enters not in by the door, for Christ is both man and God. But why need I make many references, and enumerate the many vanities of heretics? Keep hold of this, that Christ's sheepfold is the Catholic Church. Whoever would enter the sheepfold, let him enter by the door, let him preach the true Christ. Not only let him preach the true Christ, but seek Christ's glory, not his own; for many, by seeking their own glory, have scattered Christ's sheep, instead of gathering them. For Christ the Lord is a low gateway: he who enters by this gateway must humble himself, that he may be able to enter with head unharmed. But he that humbles not, but exalts himself, wishes to climb over the wall; and he that climbs over the wall, is exalted only to fall.

6. Thus far, however, the Lord Jesus speaks in covert language; not as yet is He understood. He names the door, He names the sheepfold, He names the sheep: all this He sets forth, but does not yet explain. Let us read on then, for He is coming to those words, wherein He may think proper to give us some explanation of what He has said; from the explanation of which He will perhaps enable us to understand also what He has not explained. For He gives us what is plain, for food; what is obscure, for exercise. He that enters not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way. Woe to the wretch, for he is sure to fall! Let him then be humble, let him enter by the door: let him walk on the level ground, and he shall not stumble. The same, He says, is a thief and a robber. The sheep of another he desires to call his own sheep — his own, that is, as carried off by stealth, for the purpose, not of saving, but of slaying them. Therefore is he a thief, because what is another's he calls his own; a robber, because what he has stolen he also kills. But he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep: to him the porter opens. Concerning this porter we shall make inquiry, when we have heard of the Lord Himself what is the door and who is the shepherd. And the sheep hear his voice: and he calls his own sheep by name. For He has their names written in the book of life. He calls his own sheep by name. Hence, says the apostle, The Lord knows them that are His. 2 Timothy 2:19 And he leads them out. And when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger do they not follow, but do flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. These are veiled words, full of topics of inquiry, pregnant with sacramental signs. Let us follow then, and listen to the Master as He makes some opening into these obscurities; and perhaps by the opening He makes, He will cause us to enter.

7. This parable spoke Jesus unto them; but they understood not what He spoke unto them. Nor we also, perhaps. What, then, is the difference between them and us, before even we can understand these words? This, that we on our part knock, that it may be opened unto us; while they, by disowning Christ, refused to enter for salvation, and preferred remaining outside to be destroyed. In as far, then, as we listen to these words with a pious mind, in as far as, before we understand them, we believe them to be true and divine, we stand at a great distance from these men. For when two persons are listening to the words of the gospel, the one impious, the other pious, and some of these are such as neither perhaps understands, the one says, It has said nothing; the other says, It has said the truth, and what it has said is good, but we do not understand it. This latter, because he believes, now knocks, that he may be worthy to have it opened up to him, if he continue knocking; but the other still hears the words, If you believe not, you shall not understand. Why do I draw your attention to this? Even for this reason, that when I have explained as I can these obscure words, or, because of their great abstruseness, I have either myself failed to arrive at an understanding of them, or wanted the faculty of explaining what I do understand, or every one has been so dull as not to follow me, even when I give the explanation, yet should he not despair of himself; but continue in faith, walk on in the way, and hear the apostle saying, And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless whereto we have already attained, let us walk therein. Philippians 3:15-16

8. Let us begin, then, with hearing His exposition of what we have heard Him propounding. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. See, He has opened the very door which was shut in His former description. He Himself is the door. We have come to know it; let us enter, or rejoice that we are already within. All that ever came are thieves and robbers. What is this, Lord, All that ever came? How so have You not come? But understand; I said, All that ever came, meaning, of course, exclusive of myself. Let us recollect then. Before His coming came the prophets: were they thieves and robbers? God forbid. They did not come apart from Him, for they came with Him. When about to come, He sent heralds, but retained possession of the hearts of His messengers. Do you wish to know that they came with Him, who is Himself ever existent? Certainly He assumed human flesh at the time appointed. But what means that ever? In the beginning was the Word. John 1:1 With Him, therefore, came those who came with the word of God. I am, said He, the way, and the truth, and the life. John 14:6 If He is the truth, with Him came those who were truthful. As many, therefore, as were apart from Him, were thieves and robbers, that is, had come to steal and to destroy.

9. But the sheep did not hear them. This is a more important point, the sheep did not hear them. Before the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He came in humility in the flesh, righteous men preceded, believing in the same way in Him who was to come, as we believe in Him who has come. Times vary, but not faith. For verbs themselves also vary with the tense, when they are variously declined. He is to come, has one sound; He has come, has another: there is a change in the sound between He is to come, and He has come: yet the same faith unites both — both those who believed that He would come, and those who have believed that He has come. At different times, indeed, but by the one doorway of faith, that is, by Christ, do we see that both have entered. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin, that He came in the flesh, suffered, rose again, ascended into heaven: all this, just as you hear verbs of the past tense, we believe to be already fulfilled. In that faith a partnership is also held with us by those fathers who believed that He would be born of the Virgin, would suffer, would rise again, would ascend into heaven; for to such the apostle pointed when he said, But we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak. 2 Corinthians 4:13 The prophet said, I believed, therefore have I spoken: the apostle says, We also believe, and therefore speak. But to let you know that their faith is one, listen to him saying, Having the same spirit of faith, we also believe. So also in another place, For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea: and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink. The Red Sea signifies baptism; Moses, their leader through the Red Sea, signifies Christ; the people, who passed through, signify believers; the death of the Egyptians signifies the abolition of sins. Under different signs there is the same faith. It is with different signs as with different words [verbs]; for verbs change their sounds through the tenses, and verbs are indeed nothing else than signs. For they are words because of what they signify: take away the meaning from a word, and it becomes a senseless sound. All, therefore, have become signs. Was not the same faith theirs by whom these signs were employed, and by whom were foretold in prophecy the very things which we believe? Certainly it was: but they believed that they were yet to come, and we, that they have come. In like manner does he also say, They all drank the same spiritual drink; the same spiritual, for it was not the same material [drink]. For what was it they drank? For they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 See, then, how that while the faith remained, the signs were varied. There the rock was Christ; to us that is Christ which is placed on the altar of God. And they, as a great sacramental sign of the same Christ, drank the water flowing from the rock: what we drink is known to believers. If one's thoughts turn to the visible form, the thing is different; if to the meaning that addresses the understanding, they drank the same spiritual drink. As many, then, at that time as believed, whether Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, or Moses, or the other patriarchs or prophets who foretold of Christ, were sheep, and heard Christ. His voice, and not another's, did they hear. The Judge was present in the person of the Crier. For even when the judge speaks through the crier, the clerk does not make it, The crier said; but the judge said. But others there are whom the sheep did not hear, in whom Christ's voice had no place — wanderers, uttering falsehoods, prating inanities, fabricating vanities, misleading the miserable.

10. Why is it, then, that I have said, This is a more important point? What is there about it obscure and difficult to understand? Listen, I beseech you. See, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself came and preached. Much more surely was that the Shepherd's voice which was uttered by the very mouth of the Shepherd. For if the Shepherd's voice came through the prophets, how much more did the Shepherd's own tongue give utterance to the Shepherd's voice? Yet all did not hear Him. But what are we to think? Those who did hear, were they sheep? Lo? Judas heard, and was a wolf: he followed, but, clad in sheep-skin, he was laying snares for the Shepherd. Some, again, of those who crucified Christ did not hear, and yet were sheep; for such He saw in the crowd when He said, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am He. John 8:28 Now, how is this question to be solved? They that are not sheep do hear, and they that are sheep do not hear. Some, who are wolves, follow the Shepherd's voice; and some, that are sheep, contradict it. Last of all, the sheep slay the Shepherd. The point is solved; for some one in reply says, But when they did not hear, as yet they were not sheep, they were then wolves: the voice, when it was heard, changed them, and out of wolves transformed them into sheep; and so, when they became sheep, they heard, and found the Shepherd, and followed Him. They built their hopes on the Shepherd's promises, because they obeyed His precepts.

11. That question has been solved in a way, and perhaps satisfies every one. But I bare still a subject of concern, and what concerns me I shall impart to you, that, in some sort inquiring together, I may through His revelation be found worthy with you to attain the solution. Hear, then, what it is that moves me. By the Prophet Ezekiel the Lord rebukes the shepherds, and among other things says of the sheep, The wandering sheep have ye not recalled. Ezekiel 34:4 He both declares it a wanderer, and calls it a sheep. If, while wandering, it was a sheep, whose voice was it hearing to lead it astray? For doubtless it would not be straying were it hearing the shepherd's voice: but it strayed just because it heard another's voice; it heard the voice of the thief and the robber. Surely the sheep do not hear the voice of robbers. Those that came, He said — and we are to understand, apart from me — that is, those that came apart from me are thieves and robbers, and the sheep did not hear them. Lord, if the sheep did not hear them, how can the sheep wander? If the sheep hear only You, and You are the truth, whoever hears the truth cannot certainly fall into error. But they err, and are called sheep. For if, in the very midst of their wandering, they were not called sheep, it would not be said by Ezekiel, The wandering sheep have ye not recalled. How is it at the same time a wanderer and a sheep? Has it heard the voice of another? Surely the sheep did not hear them. Accordingly many are just now being gathered into Christ's fold, and from being heretics are becoming Catholics. They are rescued from the thieves, and restored to the shepherds: and sometimes they murmur, and become wearied of Him that calls them back, and have no true knowledge of him that would murder them; nevertheless also, when, after a struggle, those have come who are sheep, they recognize the Shepherd's voice, and are glad they have come, and are ashamed of their wandering. When, then, they were glorying in that state of error as in the truth, and were certainly not hearing the Shepherd's voice, but were following another, were they sheep, or were they not? If they were sheep, how can it be the case that the sheep do not listen to aliens? If they were not sheep, wherefore the rebuke addressed to those to whom it is said, The wandering sheep have ye not recalled? In the case also of those already become catholic Christians, and believers of good promise, evils sometimes occur: they are seduced into error, and after their error are restored. When they were thus seduced, and were rebaptized, or after the companionship of the Lord's fold were turned back again into their former error, were they sheep, or were they not? Certainly they were Catholics. If they were faithful Catholics, they were sheep. If they were sheep, how was it that they could listen to the voice of a stranger when the Lord says, The sheep did not hear them?

12. You hear, brethren, the great importance of the question. I say then, The Lord knows them that are His. 2 Timothy 2:19 He knows those who were foreknown, He knows those who were predestinated; because it is said of Him, For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified. If God be for us, who can be against us? Add to this: 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? But what us? Those who are foreknown, predestinated, justified, glorified; regarding whom there follows, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Romans 7:29-33 Therefore the Lord knows them that are His; they are the sheep. Such sometimes do not know themselves, but the Shepherd knows them, according to this predestination, this foreknowledge of God, according to the election of the sheep before the foundation of the world: for so says also the apostle, According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4 According, then, to this divine foreknowledge and predestination, how many sheep are outside, how many wolves within! And how many sheep are inside, how many wolves without! How many are now living in wantonness who will yet be chaste! How many are blaspheming Christ who will yet believe in Him! How many are giving themselves to drunkenness who will yet be sober! How many are preying on other people property who will yet freely give of their own! Nevertheless at present they are hearing the voice of another, they are following strangers. In like manner, how many are praising within who will yet blaspheme; are chaste who will yet be fornicators; are sober who will wallow hereafter in drink; are standing who will by and by fall! These are not the sheep. (For we speak of those who were predestinated — of those whom the Lord knows that they are His.) And yet these, so long as they keep right, listen to the voice of Christ. Yea, these hear, the others do not; and yet, according to predestination, these are not sheep, while the others are.

13. There remains still the question, which I now think may meanwhile thus be solved. There is a voice of some kind — there is, I say, a certain kind of voice of the Shepherd, in respect of which the sheep hear not strangers, and in respect of which those who are not sheep do not hear Christ. What a word is this! He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. Matthew 10:22 No one of His own is indifferent to such a voice, a stranger does not hear it: for this reason also does He announce it to the former, that he may abide perseveringly with Himself to the end; but by one who is wanting in such persevering continuance with Him, such a word remains unheard. One has come to Christ, and has heard word after word of one kind and another, all of them true, all of them salutary; and among all the rest is also this utterance, He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. He who has heard this is one of the sheep. But there was, perhaps, some one listening to it, who treated it with dislike, with coldness, and heard it as that of a stranger. If he was predestinated, he strayed for the time, but he was not lost for ever: he returns to hear what he has neglected, to do what he has heard. For if he is one of those who are predestinated, then both his very wandering and his future conversion have been foreknown by God: if he has strayed away, he will return to hear that voice of the Shepherd, and to follow Him who says, He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. A good voice, brethren, it is; true and shepherd-like, the very voice of salvation in the tabernacles of the righteous. For it is easy to hear Christ, easy to praise the gospel, easy to applaud the preacher: but to endure unto the end, is peculiar to the sheep who hear the Shepherd's voice. A temptation befalls you, endure thou to the end, for the temptation will not endure to the end. And what is that end to which you shall endure? Even till you reach the end of your pathway. For as long as you hear not Christ, He is your adversary in the pathway, that is, in this mortal life. And what does He say? Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him. Matthew 5:25 You have heard, hast believed, hast agreed. If you have been at enmity, agree. If you have got the opportunity of coming to an agreement, keep not up the quarrel longer. For you know not when your way will be ended, and it is known to Him. If you are a sheep, and if you endure to the end, you shall be saved: and therefore it is that His own despise not that voice, and strangers hear it not. According to my ability, as He gave me the power, I have either explained to you or gone over with you a subject of great profundity. If any have failed fully to understand, let him retain his piety, and the truth will be revealed: and let not those who have understood vaunt themselves as swifter at the expense of the slower, lest in their vaunting they turn out of the track, and the slower more easily attain the goal. But let all of us be guided by Him to whom we say, Lead me, O Lord, in Your way, and I will walk in Your truth.

14. By this, then, which the Lord has explained, that He Himself is the door, let us find entrance to what He has set forth, but not explained. And indeed who it is that is the Shepherd, although He has not told us in the lesson we have read today, yet in that which follows He very plainly tells us: I am the good Shepherd. And although He had not said so, whom else but Himself ought we to have understood in those words where He says, He that enters in by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep. To Him the porter opens: and the sheep hear His voice: and He calls His own sheep by name, and leads them out. And when He puts forth His own sheep, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice? For who else calls His own sheep by name, and leads them hence unto eternal life, but He who knows the names of those that are fore-ordained? Hence He said to His disciples, Rejoice that your names are written in heaven; Luke 10:20 for from this it is that He calls them by name. And who else puts them forth, save He who puts away their sins, that, freed from their grievous fetters, they may be able to follow Him? And who has gone before them to the place whither they are to follow Him, but He who, rising from the dead, dies no more; and death shall have no more dominion over Him; Romans 6:9 and who, when He was manifest here in the flesh, said, Father, I will that they also whom You have given me be with me where I am? John 17:24 Hence it is that He says, I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. In this He clearly shows that not only the Shepherd, but the sheep also enter in by the door.

15. But what is this, He shall go in and out, and find pasture? To enter indeed into the Church by Christ the door, is eminently good; but to go out of the Church, as this same John the evangelist says in his epistle, They went out from us, but they were not of us, 1 John 2:19 is certainly otherwise than good. Such a going out could not then be commended by the good Shepherd, when He said, And he shall go in and out, and find pasture. There is therefore not only some sort of entrance, but some outgoing also that is good, by the good door, which is Christ. But what is that praiseworthy and blessed outgoing? I might say, indeed, that we enter when we engage in some inward exercise of thought; and go out, when we take to some active work without: and since, as the apostle says, Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, Ephesians 3:17 to enter by Christ is to give ourselves to thought in accordance with that faith; but to go out by Christ is, in accordance also with that same faith, to take to outside works, that is to say, in the presence of others. Hence, also, we read in a psalm, Man goes forth to his work; and the Lord Himself says, Let your works shine before men. Matthew 5:16 But I am better pleased that the Truth Himself, like a good Shepherd, and therefore a good Teacher, has in a certain measure reminded us how we ought to understand His words, He shall go in and out, and find pasture, when He added in the sequel, The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. For He seems to me to have meant, That they may have life in coming in, and have it more abundantly at their departure. For no one can pass out by the door — that is, by Christ — to that eternal life which shall be open to the sight, unless by the same door — that is, by the same Christ — he has entered His church, which is His fold, to the temporal life, which is lived in faith. Therefore, He says, I have come that they may have life, that is, faith, which works by love; Galatians 5:6 by which faith they enter the fold that they may live, for the just lives by faith: Romans 1:17 and that they may have it more abundantly, who, enduring unto the end, pass out by this same door, that is, by the faith of Christ; for as true believers they die, and will have life more abundantly when they come whither the Shepherd has preceded them, where they shall die no more. Although, therefore, there is no want of pasture even here in the fold — for we may understand the words and shall find pasture as referring to both, that is, both to their going in and their going out — yet there only will they find the true pasture. where they shall be filled who hunger and thirst after righteousness, Matthew 5:6 — such pasture as was found by him to whom it was said, Today shall you be with me in paradise. Luke 23:43 But how He Himself is the door, and Himself the Shepherd, so that He also may in a certain respect be understood as going in and out by Himself, and who is the porter, it would be too long to inquire today, and, according to the grace given us by Himself, to unfold in the way of dissertation.

Tractate 46 (John 10:11-13)

1. The Lord Jesus is speaking to His sheep — to those already so, and to those yet to become such — who were then present; for in the place where they were, there were those who were already His sheep, as well as those who were afterwards to become so: and He likewise shows to those then present and those to come, both to them and to us, and to as many also after us as shall yet be His sheep, who it is that had been sent to them. All, therefore, hear the voice of their Shepherd saying, I am the good Shepherd. He would not add good, were there not bad shepherds. But the bad shepherds are those who are thieves and robbers, or certainly hirelings at the best. For we ought to examine into, to distinguish, and to know, all the characters whom He has here depicted. The Lord has already unfolded two points, which He had previously set forth in a kind of covert form: we already know that He is Himself the door, and we know that He is Himself the Shepherd. Who the thieves and robbers are, was made clear in yesterday's lesson; and today we have heard of the hireling, as we have heard also of the wolf. Yesterday the porter was also introduced by name. Among the good, therefore, are the door, the doorkeeper, the shepherd, and the sheep: among the bad, the thieves and robbers, the hirelings, and the wolf.

2. We understand the Lord Christ as the door, and also as the Shepherd; but who is to be understood as the doorkeeper? For the former two, He has Himself explained: the doorkeeper He has left us to search out for ourselves. And what does He say of the doorkeeper? To him, He says, the porter [doorkeeper] opens. To whom does he open? To the Shepherd. What does he open to the Shepherd? The door. And who is also the door? The Shepherd Himself. Now, if Christ the Lord had not Himself explained, had not Himself said, I am the Shepherd, and I am the door, would any of us have ventured to say that Christ is Himself both the Shepherd and the door? For had He said, I am the Shepherd, and had not said, I am the door, we should be setting ourselves to inquire what was the door, and perhaps, mistaken in our views, be still standing before the door. His grace and mercy have revealed to us the Shepherd, by His calling Himself so; have revealed to us also the door, when declared Himself such; but He has left us to search out the doorkeeper for ourselves. Whom, then, are we to call the doorkeeper? Whomsoever we fix upon, we must take care not to think of him as greater than the door itself; for in men's houses the doorkeeper is greater than the door. The doorkeeper is placed before the door, not the door before the doorkeeper; because the porter keeps the door, not the door the porter. I dare not say that any one is greater than the door, for I have heard already what is the door: that is no longer unknown to me, I am not left to my own conjecture, and I have not got much room for mere human guess work: God has said it, the Truth has said it, and we cannot change what the Unchangeable has uttered.

3. In respect, then, of the profound nature of this question, I shall tell you what I think: let each one make the choice that pleases him, but let him think of it reverently; as it is written, Think of the Lord with goodness, and in simplicity of heart seek Him. Wisdom 1:1 Perhaps we ought to understand the Lord Himself as the doorkeeper: for the shepherd and the door are in human respects as much different from each other as the doorkeeper and the door; and yet the Lord has called Himself both the Shepherd and the door. Why, then, may we not understand Him also as the doorkeeper? For if we look at His personal qualities, the Lord Christ is neither a shepherd, in the way we are accustomed to know and to see shepherds; nor is He a door, for no artisan made Him: but if, because of some point of similarity, He is both the door and the Shepherd, I venture to say, He is also a sheep. True, the sheep is under the shepherd; yet He is both the Shepherd and a sheep. Where is He the Shepherd? Look, here you have it; read the Gospel: I am the good Shepherd. Where is He a sheep? Ask the prophet: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. Isaiah 53:7 Ask the friend of the bridegroom: Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world. John 1:29 Moreover, I am going to say something of a still more wonderful kind, in accordance with these points of similarity. For both the lamb, and the sheep, and the shepherd are friendly with one another, but from the lions as their foes the sheep are protected by their shepherds: and yet of Christ, who is both sheep and Shepherd, we have it said, The Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. Revelation 5:5 All this, brethren, understand in connection with points of similarity, not with personal qualities. It is a common thing to see the shepherds sitting on a rock, and there guarding the cattle committed to their care. Surely the shepherd is better than the rock that he sits upon; and yet Christ is both the Shepherd and the rock. All this by way of comparison. But if you ask me for His peculiar personal quality: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. If you ask me for the personal quality peculiarly His own: The only Son, from everlasting to everlasting begotten of the Father, the equal of Him that begot, the Maker of all things, unchangeable with the Father, unchanged by the assuming of human form, man by incarnation, the Son of man, and the Son of God. All this that I have said is not figure, but reality.

4. Therefore, let us not, brethren, be disturbed in understanding Him, in harmony with certain resemblances, as Himself the door, and also the doorkeeper. For what is the door? The way of entrance. Who is the doorkeeper? He who opens it. Who, then, is He that opens Himself, but He who unveils Himself to sight? See, when the Lord spoke at first of the door, we did not understand: so long as we did not understand, it was shut: He who opened it is Himself the doorkeeper. There is no need, then, of seeking any other meaning, no need; but perhaps there is the desire. If there is so, quit not the path, go not outside of the Trinity. If you are in quest of some other impersonation of the doorkeeper, bethink you of the Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit will not think it unmeet to be the doorkeeper, when the Son has thought it meet to be Himself the door. Look at the doorkeeper as perhaps the Holy Spirit: about Him the Lord says to His disciples, He shall guide you into all truth. What is the door? Christ. What is Christ? The Truth. Who, then, opens the door, but He who guides into all truth?

5. But what are we to say of the hireling? He is not mentioned here among the good. The good Shepherd, He says, gives His life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the Shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees; and the wolf catches them, and scatters the sheep. The hireling does not here bear a good character, and yet in some respects is useful; nor would he be called an hireling, did he not receive hire from his employer. Who then is this hireling, that is both blameworthy and needful? And here, brethren, let the Lord Himself give us light, that we may know who the hirelings are, and be not hirelings ourselves. Who then is the hireling? There are some in office in the church, of whom the Apostle Paul says, Who seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's. What means that, Who seek their own? Who do not love Christ freely, who do not seek after God for His own sake; who are pursuing after temporal advantages, gaping for gain, coveting honors from men. When such things are loved by an overseer, and for such things God is served, whoever such an one may be, he is an hireling who cannot count himself among the children. For of such also the Lord says: Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. Matthew 6:5 Listen to what the Apostle Paul says of St. Timothy: But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your circumstances; for I have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for you. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. Philippians 2:19-21 The shepherd mourned in the midst of hirelings. He sought some one who sincerely loved the flock of Christ, and round about him, among those who were with him at that time, he found not one. Not that there was no one then in the Church of Christ but the Apostle Paul and Timothy, who had a brother's concern for the flock; but it so happened at the time of his sending Timothy, that he had none else of his sons about him; only hirelings were with him, who sought their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. And yet he himself, with a brother's anxiety for the flock, preferred sending his son, and remaining himself among hirelings. Hirelings are also found among ourselves, but the Lord alone distinguishes them. He that searches the heart, distinguishes them; and yet sometimes we know them ourselves. For it was not without a purpose that the Lord Himself said also of the wolves: By their fruits you shall know them. Matthew 7:16 Temptations put many to the question, and then their thoughts are made manifest; but many remain undiscovered. The Lord's fold must have as overseers, both those who are children and those who are hirelings. But the overseers, who are sons, are the shepherds. If they are shepherds, how is there but one Shepherd, save that all of them are members of the one Shepherd, to whom the sheep belong? For they are also members of Himself as the one sheep; because as a sheep he was led to the slaughter.

6. But give heed to the fact that even the hirelings are needful. For many indeed in the Church are following after earthly profit, and yet preach Christ, and through them is heard the voice of Christ; and the sheep follow, not the hireling, but the Shepherd's voice speaking through the hireling. Hearken to the hirelings as pointed out by the Lord Himself: The scribes, He says, and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: do what they say; but do not what they do. Matthew 23:2-3 What else said He but, Listen to the Shepherd's voice speaking through the hirelings? For sitting in Moses' seat, they teach the law of God; therefore God teaches by them. But if they wish to teach their own things, hear them not, do them not. For certainly such seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's; but no hireling has dared to say to Christ's people, Seek your own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. For his own evil conduct he does not preach from the seat of Christ: he does injury by the evil that he does, not by the good that he says. Pluck the grapes, beware of the thorn. It is well I see that you have understood; but for the sake of those that are slower, I shall repeat these words with greater plainness. How said I, Pluck the bunch of grapes, beware of the thorn; when the Lord says, Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? That is quite true: and yet what I said is also true, Pluck the bunch of grapes, beware of the thorn. For sometimes the grape-cluster, springing from the root of the vine, finds its support in a common hedge; its branch, grows, becomes embedded among thorns, and the thorn bears other fruit than its own. For the thorn has not been produced from the vine, but has become the resting-place of its runner. Make your inquiries only at the roots. Seek for the thorn-root, you will find it apart from the vine: seek the origin of the grape, and from the root of the vine it will be found to have sprung. And so, Moses' seat was the vine; the morals of the Pharisees were the thorns. Sound doctrine comes through the wicked, as the vine-branch in a hedge, a bunch of grapes among thorns. Gather carefully, so as in seeking the fruit not to tear your hand; and while you are to hear one speaking what is good, imitate him not when doing what is evil. What they tell you, do,— gather the grapes; but what they do, do not,— beware of the thorns. Even through hirelings listen to the voice of the Shepherd, but be not hirelings yourselves, seeing you are members of the Shepherd. Yea, Paul himself, the holy apostle who said, I have no one who has a brother's concern about you; for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's, draws a distinction in another place between hirelings and sons; and see what he says: Some preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of good will: some of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel; but some also preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. These were hirelings who disliked the Apostle Paul. And why such dislike, but just because they were seeking after temporal things? But mark what he adds: What then, notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached: and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. Philippians 1:15-18 Christ is the truth: let the truth be preached in pretense by hirelings, let it be preached in truth by the children: the children are waiting patiently for the eternal inheritance of the Father, the hirelings are longing for, and in a hurry to get, the temporal pay of their employer. For my part let me be shorn of the human glory, which I see such an object of envy to hirelings: and yet by the tongues both of hirelings and of children let the divine glory of Christ be published abroad, seeing that, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached.

7. We have seen who the hireling is also. Who, but the devil, is the wolf? And what was said of the hireling? When he sees the wolf coming, he flees: but the sheep are not his own, and he cares not for the sheep. Was the Apostle Paul such an one? Certainly not. Was Peter such an one? Far from it. Was such the character of the other apostles, save Judas, the son of perdition? Surely not. Were they shepherds then? Certainly they were. And how is there one Shepherd? I have already said they were shepherds, because members of the Shepherd. In that head they rejoiced, under that head they were in harmony together, with one spirit they lived in the bond of one body; and therefore belonged all of them to the one Shepherd. If, then, they were shepherds, and not hirelings, wherefore fled they when suffering persecution? Explain it to us, O Lord. In an epistle, I have seen Paul fleeing: he was let down by the wall in a basket, to escape the hands of his persecutor. 2 Corinthians 11:33 Had he, then, no care of the sheep, whom he thus abandoned at the approach of the wolf? Clearly he had, but he commended them by his prayers to the Shepherd who was sitting in heaven; and for their advantage he preserved himself by flight, as he says in a certain place, To abide in the flesh is needful for you. Philippians 1:24 For all had heard from the Shepherd Himself, If they persecute you in one city, flee ye into another. Matthew 10:23 May the Lord be pleased to explain to us this point! Lord, You said to those whom Thou certainly wished to be faithful shepherds, and whom You formed into Your own members, If they persecute you, flee. Doest Thou, then, injustice to them, when Thou blamest the hirelings who flee when they see the wolf coming! We ask You to tell us what meaning lies hid in the depths of the question. Let us knock, and the keeper of the door, which is Christ, will be here to reveal Himself.

8. Who is the hireling that sees the wolf coming, and flees? He that seeks his own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. He is one that does not venture plainly to rebuke an offender. 1 Timothy 5:20 Look, some one or other has sinned— grievously sinned; he ought to be rebuked, to be excommunicated: but once excommunicated, he will turn into an enemy, hatch plots, and do all the injury he can. At present, he who seeks his own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's, in order not to lose what he follows after, the advantages of human friendship, and incur the annoyances of human enmity, keeps quiet and does not administer rebuke. See, the wolf has caught a sheep by the throat; the devil has enticed a believer into adultery: you hold your peace — you utter no reproof. O hireling, you have seen the wolf coming and hast fled! Perhaps he answers and says: See, I am here; I have not fled. You have fled, because you have been silent; you have been silent, because you have been afraid. The flight of the mind is fear. Thou stoodest with your body, you fled in your spirit, which was not the conduct of him who said, Though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit. Colossians 2:5 For how did he flee in spirit, who, though absent in the flesh, yet in his letters reproved the fornicators? Our affections are the motions of our minds. Joy is expansion of the mind; sorrow, contraction of the mind; desire, a forward movement of the mind; and fear, the flight of the mind. For you are expanded in mind when you are glad; contracted in mind when you are in trouble; you move forward in mind when you have an earnest desire; and you flee in mind when you are afraid. This, then, is how the hireling is said to flee at the sight of the wolf. Why? Because he cares not for the sheep. Why cares he not for the sheep? Because he is an hireling. What is that, he is an hireling? He seeks a temporal reward, and shall not dwell in the house forever. There are still some things here to be inquired about and discussed with you, but it is not prudent to burden you. For we are ministering the Lord's food to our fellow-servants; we feed as sheep in the Lord's pastures, and are fed together. And just as we must not withhold what is needful, so our weak hearts are not to be overcharged with the abundance of provisions. Let it not then annoy your Charity that I do not take up today all that I think is still here to be discussed; but the same lesson will, in the Lord's name, be read over to us again on the preaching days, and be, with His help, more carefully considered.

Tractate 47 (John 10:14-21)

1. Those of you who hear the word of our God, not only with willingness, but also with attention, doubtless remember our promise. Indeed the same gospel lesson has also been read today which was read last Lord's day; because, having lingered over certain closely related topics, we could not discuss all that we owed to your powers of understanding. Accordingly, what has been already said and discoursed about we do not inquire into to day, lest by continual repetitions we should be prevented from reaching what has still to be spoken. You know now in the Lord's name who is the good Shepherd, and in what way good shepherds are His members, and therefore the Shepherd is one. You know who is the hireling we have to bear with; who the wolf, and the thieves, and the robbers we have to beware of; who are the sheep, and what is the door whereby both sheep and shepherd enter: how we are to understand the doorkeeper. You know also that every one who enters not by the door is a thief and a robber, and comes not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. All these sayings have, as I think, been sufficiently handled. Today we ought to tell you, as far as the Lord enables us (for Jesus Christ our Saviour has Himself told us that He is both the Shepherd and the door, and that the good Shepherd enters in by the door), how it is that He enters in by Himself. For if no one is a good shepherd but he that enters by the door, and He Himself is preeminently the good Shepherd, and also Himself the door, I can understand it only in this way, that He enters in by Himself to His sheep, and calls them to follow Him, and they, going in and out, find pasture, which is to say, eternal life.

2. I proceed, then, without more delay. When I seek to get into you, that is, into your heart, I preach Christ: were I preaching something else, I should be trying to climb up some other way. Christ, therefore, is my gate to you: by Christ I get entrance, not to your houses, but to your hearts. It is by Christ I enter: it is Christ in me that you have been willingly hearing. And why is it you have thus willingly hearkened to Christ in me? Because you are the sheep of Christ, purchased with the blood of Christ. You acknowledge your own price, which is not paid by me, but is preached by my instrumentality. He, and only He, was the buyer, who shed precious blood — the precious blood of Him who was without sin. Yet made He precious also the blood of His own, for whom He paid the price of blood: for had He not made the blood of His own precious, it would not have been said, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. So also when He says, The good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep, He is not the only one who has done such a deed; and yet if those who have done so are His members, He only Himself was the doer of it. For He was able to do so without them, but whence had they the power apart from Him, who Himself had said, Without me you can do nothing? But from the same source we can show what others also have done, for the apostle John himself, who preached the very gospel you have been hearing, has said in his epistle, Just as Christ laid down His life for us, so ought we also to lay down our lives for the brethren. 1 John 3:16 We ought, he says: He made us debtors who first set the example. To the same effect it is written in a certain place, If you sit down to sup at a ruler's table, make wise observation of what is set before you; and put to your hand, knowing that it will be your duty to make similar provision in turn. You know what is meant by the ruler's table: you there find the body and blood of Christ; let him who comes to such a table be ready with similar provision. And what is such similar provision? As He laid down His life for us, so ought we also, for the edification of others, and the maintenance of the faith, to lay down our lives for the brethren. To the same effect He said to Peter, whom He wished to make a good shepherd, not in Peter's own person, but as a member of His body: Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. This He did once, again, and a third time, to the disciple's sorrow. And when the Lord had questioned him as often as He judged it needful, that he who had thrice denied might thrice confess Him, and had a third time given him the charge to feed His sheep, He said to him, When you were young, you girded yourself, and walked whither you would, but when you shall be old, you shall stretch forth your hands, and another shall gird you, and carry you whither you would not. And the evangelist has explained the Lord's meaning: But this spoke He, signifying by what death he should glorify God. Feed my sheep applies, then, to this, that you should lay down your life for my sheep.

3. And now when He says, As the Father knows me, even so know I the Father, who can be ignorant of His meaning? For He knows the Father by Himself, and we by Him. That He has knowledge by Himself, we know already: that we also have knowledge by Him, we have like wise learned, for this also we have learned of Him. For He Himself has said: No one has seen God at any time; but the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. And so by Him do we also get this knowledge, to whom He has declared Him. In another place also He says: No one knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any one the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. Matthew 11:27 As He then knows the Father by Himself, and we know the Father by Him; so into the sheepfold He enters by Himself, and we by Him. We were saying that by Christ we have a door of entrance to you; and why? Because we preach Christ. We preach Christ; and therefore we enter in by the door. But Christ preaches Christ, for He preaches Himself; and so the Shepherd enters in by Himself. When the light shows the other things that are seen in the light, does it need some other means of being made visible itself? The light, then, exhibits both other things and itself. Whatever we understand, we understand with the intellect: and how, save by the intellect, do we understand the intellect itself? But does one in the same way with the bodily eye see both other things and [the eye] itself? For though men see with their eyes, yet their own eyes they see not. The eye of the flesh sees other things, itself it cannot [see]: but the intellect understands itself as well other things. In the same way as the intellect sees itself, so also does Christ preach Himself. If He preaches Himself, and by preaching enters into you, He enters into you by Himself. And He is the door to the Father, for there is no way of approach to the Father but by Him. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5 Many things are expressed by a word: all that I have just said, I have said, of course, by means of words. If I were wishing to speak also of a word itself, how could I do so but by the use of the word? And thus both many things are expressed by a word, which are not the same as the word, and the word itself can only be expressed by means of the word. By the Lord's help we have been copious in illustration. Remember, then, how the Lord Jesus Christ is both the door and the Shepherd: the door, in presenting Himself to view; the Shepherd, in entering in by Himself. And indeed, brethren, because He is the Shepherd, He has given to His members to be so likewise. For both Peter, and Paul, and the other apostles were, as all good bishops are, shepherds. But none of us calls himself the door. This — the way of entrance for the sheep — He has retained as exclusively belonging to Himself. In short, Paul discharged the office of a good shepherd when he preached Christ, because he entered by the door. But when the undisciplined sheep began to create schisms, and to set up other doors before them, not of entrance to their joint assembly, but for falling away into divisions, saying, some of them, I am of Paul; others, I am of Cephas; others, I of Apollos; others, I of Christ: terrified for those who said, I am of Paul,— as if calling out to the sheep, Wretched ones, whither are you going? I am not the door — he said, Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? 1 Corinthians 1:12-13 But those who said, I am of Christ, had found the door.

4. But of the one sheepfold and of the one Shepherd, you are now indeed being constantly reminded; for we have commended much the one sheepfold, preaching unity, that all the sheep should enter by Christ, and none of them should follow Donatus. Nevertheless, for what particular reason this was said by the Lord, is sufficiently apparent. For He was speaking among the Jews, and had been specially sent to the Jews, not for the sake of that class who were bound up in their inhuman hatred and persistently abiding in darkness, but for the sake of some in the nation whom He calls His sheep: of whom He says, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew 15:24 He knew them even amid the crowd of His raging foes, and foresaw them in the peace of believing. What, then, does He mean by saying, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but that He exhibited His bodily presence only to the people of Israel? He did not proceed Himself to the Gentiles, but sent: to the people of Israel He both sent and came in person, that those who proved despisers should receive the greater judgment, because favored also with the sight of His actual presence. The Lord Himself was there: there He chose a mother: there He wished to be conceived, to be born, to shed His blood: there are His footprints, now objects of adoration where last He stood, and whence He ascended to heaven: but to the Gentiles He only sent.

5. But perhaps some one thinks that, as He Himself came not to us, but sent, we have not heard His own voice, but only the voice of those whom He sent. Far from it: let such a thought be banished from your hearts; for He Himself was in those whom He sent. Listen to Paul himself whom He sent; for Paul was specially sent as an apostle to the Gentiles; and it is Paul who, terrifying them not with himself but with Him says, Do ye wish to receive a proof of Him who speaks in me, that is, of Christ? 2 Corinthians 13:3 Listen also to the Lord Himself. And other sheep I have, that is, among the Gentiles, which are not of this fold, that is, of the people of Israel: them also must I bring. Therefore, even when it is by the instrumentality of His servants, it is He and not another that brings them. Listen further: They shall hear my voice. See here also, it is He Himself who speaks by His servants, and it is His voice that is heard in those whom He sends. That there may be one fold, and one shepherd. Of these two flocks, as of two walls, is the corner-stone formed. Ephesians 2:11-22 And thus is He both door and the corner-stone: all by way of comparison, none of them literally.

6. For I have said so before, and earnestly pressed it on your notice, and those who comprehend it are wise, yea, those who are wise do comprehend it; and yet let those who are not yet intellectually enlightened, keep hold by faith of what they cannot as yet understand. Christ is many things metaphorically, which strictly speaking He is not. Metaphorically Christ is both a rock, and a door, and a corner-stone, and a shepherd, and a lamb, and a lion. How numerous are such similitudes, and as many more as would take too long to enumerate! But if you select the strict significations of things as you are accustomed to see them, then He is neither a rock, for He is not hard and senseless; nor a door, for no artisan made Him; nor a corner-stone, for He was not constructed by a builder; nor a shepherd, for He is no keeper of four-footed animals; nor a lion, as it ranks among the beasts of the forest; nor a lamb, as it belongs to the flock. All such, then, are by way of comparison. But what is He properly? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God [God was the Word]. And what, as He appeared in human nature? And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us [in us].

7. Hear also what follows. Therefore does my Father love me, He says, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. What is this that He says? Therefore does my Father love me: because I die, that I may rise again. For the I is uttered with special emphasis: Because I lay down, He says,  I lay down my life,  I lay down. What is that I lay down? I lay it down. Let the Jews no longer boast: they might rage, but they could have no power: let them rage as they can; if I were unwilling to lay down my life, what would all their raging effect? By one answer of His they were prostrated in the dust: when they were asked, Whom do you seek? they said, Jesus; and on His saying to them, I am He, they went backward, and fell to the ground. Those who thus fell to the ground at one word of Christ when about to die, what will they do at the sound of His voice when coming to judgment? I, I, I say, lay down my life, that I may take it again. Let not the Jews boast, as if they had prevailed; He Himself laid down His life. I laid me down [to sleep], He says [elsewhere]. You know the psalm: I laid me down and slept; and I awaked [rose up], for the Lord sustains me. What of that — I lay down? Because it was my pleasure, I did so. What does I lay down mean? I died. Was it not a lying down to sleep on His part, who, when He pleased, rose from the tomb as He would from a bed? But He loves to give glory to the Father, that He may stir us up to glorify our Creator. For in adding, I arose, for the Lord sustains me; think you there was here a kind of failing in His power, so that, while He had it in His own power to die, He had it not in His power to rise again? So, indeed, the words seem to imply when not more closely considered. I lay down to sleep; that is, I did so, because I pleased. And I arose: why? Because the Lord sustains [will sustain] me. What then? Would Thou not have power to rise of Yourself? If You had not the power, You would not have said, I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again. But, as showing that not only did the Father raise the Son, but the Son also raised Himself, hear how, in another passage in the Gospel, He says, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And the evangelist adds: But this He spoke of the temple of His body. For only that which died was restored to life. The Word is not mortal, His soul is not mortal. If even yours dies not, could the Lord's be subject to death?

8. How can I know, you will say, that mine dies not? Slay it not yourself, and it cannot die. How, thou asks, can I slay my soul? To say nothing meanwhile of other sins, The mouth that lies, slays the soul. Wisdom 1:11 How, you say, can I be sure that it dies not? Listen to the Lord Himself giving security to His servant: Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But what in the plainest terms does He say? Fear Him who has power to slay both soul and body in hell. Here you have the fact that it dies, and that it does not die. What is its dying? What is dying to your flesh? Dying, to your flesh, is the losing of its life: dying to your soul, is the losing of its life. The life of your flesh is your soul: the life of your soul is your God. As the flesh dies in losing the soul, which is its life, so the soul dies in losing God, who is its life. Of a certainty, then, the soul is immortal. Manifestly immortal, for it lives even when dead. For what the apostle said of the luxurious widow, may also be said of the soul if it has lost its God, she is dead while she lives. 1 Timothy 5:6

9. How, then, does the Lord lay down His life [soul]? Let us, brethren, inquire into this a little more carefully. The time is not so pressing as is usual on the Lord's day: we have leisure, and theirs will be the profit who have assembled today also to wait on the Word of God. I lay down my life, He says. Who lays down? What lays He down? What is Christ? The Word and man. Not man as being flesh alone: but as man consists of flesh and soul, so, in Christ there is a complete humanity. For He would not have assumed the baser part, and left the better behind, seeing that the soul of man is certainly superior to the body. Since, then, there is entire manhood in Christ, what is Christ? The Word, I repeat, and man. What is the Word and man? The Word, soul, and flesh. Keep hold of that, for there has been no lack of heretics on this point also, expelled as they were some time ago from the catholic truth, but still persisting, like thieves and robbers who enter not by the door, to lay their snares around the fold. These heretics are termed Apollinarians, and have ventured to assert dogmatically that Christ is only the word and flesh, and contend that He did not assume a human soul. And yet some of them could not deny that there was a soul in Christ. See their intolerable absurdity and madness. They would have Him to possess an irrational soul, but deny Him a rational one. They allowed Him a mere animal, they deprived Him of a human, soul. But they took away Christ's reason by losing their own. Let it be otherwise with us, who have been nourished and established in the catholic faith. Accordingly, on this occasion I would remind your Charity, that, as in former lectures, we have given you sufficient instruction against the Sabellians and Arians — the Sabellians, who say, The Father is the same as the Son — the Arians, who say, The Father is one being, the Son is another, as if the Father and Son were not of the same substance — and also, provided you remember as you ought, against the Photinian heretics, who have asserted that Christ was mere man, and destitute of Godhead: and against the Manicheans, who maintain that He was God only without any true humanity: we may, on this occasion, in speaking about the soul, give you some instruction also in opposition to the Apollinarians, who say that our Lord Jesus Christ had no human soul, that is, a rational intelligent soul — that soul, I mean, by which, as men, we differ from the brutes.

10. In what sense, then, did our Lord say here, I have power to lay down my soul [life]? Who lays down his soul, and takes it again? Is it as being the Word that Christ does so? Or is it the human soul He possesses that lays down and resumes its own existence? Or is it His fleshly nature that lays down its life and takes it again? Let us sift each of the three questions I have suggested, and choose that which conforms to the standard of truth. For if we say that the Word of God laid down His soul, and took it again, we should have to fear the entrance of a wicked thought, and have it said to us: Then there was a time when that soul was separated from the Word, and a time, after His assumption of that soul, when He was without a soul. I see, indeed, that the Word was once without a human soul, but only so, when in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But from the time that the Word was made flesh, to dwell among us, and manhood was assumed by the Word, that is, our whole nature, soul and flesh, what more could His passion and death do than separate the body from the soul? It separated not the soul from the Word. For if the Lord died, yea, because He died (for He did so for us on the cross), doubtless His flesh breathed out that which was its life: for a short time the soul forsook the flesh, although destined by its own return to raise the flesh again to life. But I cannot say that the soul was separated from the Word. He said to the soul of the thief, Today shall you be with me in paradise. Luke 23:43 He forsook not the believing soul of the robber, and did He abandon His own? Surely not; but when the Lord took that of the other into His keeping, He certainly retained His own in indissoluble union. If, on the other hand, we say that the soul laid down and reassumed itself, we fall into the greatest absurdity; for what was not separated from the Word, was inseparable from itself.

11. Let us turn, then, to what is true and easily understood. Take the case of any man, who does not consist of the word and soul and flesh, but only of soul and flesh; and let us inquire how any such man lays down his life. Can no ordinary man do so? You may say to me: No man has power to lay down his life [soul], and to take it again. But were not a man able to lay down his life, the Apostle John would not say, As Christ laid down his life for us, even so ought we also to lay down our lives for the brethren. 1 John 3:16 Therefore may we also (if only we are filled with His courage, for without Him we can do nothing) lay down our lives for the brethren. When some holy martyr has laid down his life for the brethren, who laid it down, and what laid he down? If we understand this, we shall perceive in what sense it was said by Christ, I have power to lay down my life. Are you prepared, O man, to die for Christ? I am prepared, he replies. Let me repeat the question in other words. Are you prepared to lay down your life for Christ? And to these words he makes me the same reply, I am prepared, as he had, when I said, Are you prepared to die? To lay down one's life [soul], is, then, the same as to die. But in whose behalf is the sacrifice in this case? For all men, when they die, lay down their life; but it is not all who lay it down for Christ. And no one has power to resume what he has laid down. But Christ both laid it down for us, and did so when it pleased Him; and when it pleased Him, He took it again. To lay down one's soul then, is to die. As also the Apostle Peter said to the Lord: I will lay down my life [soul] for Your sake; that is, I will die for Your sake. View it, then, as referable to the flesh: the flesh lays down its life, and the flesh takes it again; not, indeed, the flesh by its own power, but by the power of Him that inhabites it. The flesh, then, lays down its life in expiring. Look at the Lord Himself on the cross: He said, I thirst: those who were present dipped a sponge in vinegar, fastened it to a reed, and applied it to His mouth; then, having received it, He said, It is finished; meaning, All is fulfilled which had been prophesied regarding me as, prior to my death, still in the future. And because He had the power, when He pleased, to lay down His life, after He had said, It is finished, what adds the evangelist? And He bowed His head, and gave up the spirit. This is to lay down the soul [life]. Only let your Charity attend to this. He bowed His head, and gave up the spirit. Who gave up what gave He up? He gave up the spirit; His flesh gave it up. What means, the flesh gave it up? The flesh sent it forth, breathed it out. For so, in becoming separated from the spirit, we are said to expire. Just as getting outside the paternal soil is to be expatriated, turning aside from the track is to deviate; so to become separated from the spirit is to expire; and that spirit is the soul [life]. Accordingly, when the soul quits the flesh, and the flesh remains without the soul, then is a man said to lay down his soul [his human life]. When did Christ lay down His life? When it pleased the Word. For sovereign authority resided in the Word; and therein lay the power to determine when the flesh should lay down its life, and when it should take it again.

12. If, then, the flesh laid down its life, how did Christ lay down His life? For the flesh is not Christ. Certainly in this way, that Christ is both flesh, and soul, and the Word; and yet these three things are not three Christs, but one. Ask your own human nature, and from yourself ascend to what is above you, and which, if not yet able to be understood, can at least be believed. For in the same way that one man is soul and body, is one Christ both the Word and man. Consider what I have said, and understand. The soul and body are two things, but one man: the Word and man are two things, but one Christ. Apply, then, the subject to any man. Where is now the Apostle Paul? If one answer, At rest with Christ, he speaks truly. And likewise, should one reply, In the sepulchre at Rome, he is equally right. The one answer I get refers to his soul, the other to his flesh. And yet we do not say that there are two Apostle Pauls, one who rests in Christ, another who was laid in the sepulchre; although we may say that the Apostle Paul lives in Christ, and that the same apostle lies dead in the tomb. Some one dies, and we say, He was a good man, and faithful; he is in peace with the Lord: and then immediately, Let us attend his obsequies, and lay him in the sepulchre. You are about to bury one whom you had just declared to be in peace with God; for the latter regards the soul which blooms eternally, and the other the body, which is laid down in corruption. But while the partnership of the flesh and soul has received the name of man, the same name is now applied to either of them, singly and by itself.

13. Let no one, then, be perplexed, when he hears that the Lord has said, I lay down my life, and I take it again. The flesh lays it down, but by the power of the Word: the flesh takes it again, but by the same power. Even His own name, the Lord Christ, was applied to His flesh alone. How can you prove it? Says some one. We believe of a certainty not only in God the Father, but also in Jesus Christ His Son, our only Lord: and this that I have just said contains the whole, in Jesus Christ His Son, our only Lord. Understand that the whole is here: the Word, and soul, and flesh. At all events you confess what is also held by the same faith, that you believe in that Christ who was crucified and buried. Ergo, you deny not that Christ was buried; and yet it was the burial only of His flesh. For had the soul been there, He would not have been dead: but if it was a true death, and its resurrection real, it was previously without life in the tomb; and yet it was Christ that was buried. And so the flesh apart from the soul was also Christ, for it was only the flesh that was buried. Learn the same likewise in the words of an apostle. Let this mind, he says, be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Who, save Christ Jesus, as respects His nature as the Word, is God with God? But look at what follows: But emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant; being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man. And who is this, but the same Christ Jesus Himself? But here we have now all the parts, both the Word in that form of God which assumed the form of a servant, and the soul and the flesh in that form of a servant which was assumed by the form of God. He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death. Philippians 2:6-8 Now in His death, it was His flesh only that was slain by the Jews. For if He said to His disciples, Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, Matthew 10:28 how could they do more in His own case than kill the body? And yet in the slaying of His flesh, it was Christ that was slain. Accordingly, when the flesh laid down its life, Christ laid it down; and when the flesh, in order to its resurrection, assumed its life, Christ assumed it. Nevertheless this was done, not by the power of the flesh, but of Him who assumed both soul and flesh, that in them these very things might receive fulfillment.

14. This commandment, He says, have I received of my Father. The Word received not the commandment in word, but in the only begotten Word of the Father every commandment resides. But when the Son is said to receive of the Father what He possesses essentially in Himself, as it is said, As the Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself, John 5:26 while the Son is Himself the life,there is no lessening of His authority, but the setting forth of His generation. For the Father added not after-gifts as to a son whose state was imperfect at birth, but on Him whom He begot in absolute perfection He bestowed all gifts in begetting. In this manner He gave Him equality with Himself, and yet begot Him not in a state of inequality. But while the Lord thus spoke, for the light was shining in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not, there was a dissension again created among the Jews for these sayings, and many of them said, He has a devil, and is mad: why hear ye him? This was the thickest darkness. Others said, These are not the words of him that has a devil; can a devil open the eyes of the blind? The eyes of such were now begun to be opened.

Tractate 48 (John 10:22-42)

1. As I have already charged you, beloved, you ought steadfastly to bear in mind that Saint John the evangelist would not have us be always nourished with milk, but fed with solid food. Still, whoever is hardly able as yet to partake of the solid food of God's word, let him find nourishment in the milk of faith; and the word which he cannot understand, let him not hesitate to believe. For faith is the deserving: understanding, the reward. In the very labor of intent application the eye of our mind struggles to get rid of the foul films of human mists, and be cleared up to the word of God. Labor, then, will not be declined if love is present; for you know that he who loves his labor is insensible to its pain. For no labor is grievous to those who love it. If cupidity on the part of the avaricious endures so great toils, what in our case will not love endure?

2. Listen to the Gospel: And it was at Jerusalem the Encœnia. Encoenia was the festival of the dedication of the temple. For in Greek kainos means new; and whenever there was some new dedication, it was called Encœnia. And now this word has come into common use; if one puts on a new coat, he is said encœniare (to renovate, or to hold an encœnia). For the Jews celebrated in a solemn manner the day on which the temple was dedicated; and it was the very feast day when the Lord spoke what has just been read.

3. It was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about Him, and said to Him, How long do you keep our mind in suspense? If you be the Christ, tell us plainly. They were not desiring the truth, but preparing a calumny. It was winter, and they were chill; because they were slow to approach that divine fire. For to approach is to believe: he who believes, approaches; who denies, retires. The soul is not moved by the feet, but by the affections. They had become icy cold to the sweetness of loving Him, and they burned with the desire of doing Him an injury. They were far away, while there beside Him. It was not with them a nearer approach in believing, but the pressure of persecution. They sought to hear the Lord saying, I am Christ; and probably enough they only thought of the Christ in a human way. The prophets preached Christ; but the Godhead of Christ asserted in the prophets and in the gospel itself is not perceived even by heretics; and how much less by Jews, so long as the veil is upon their heart? 2 Corinthians 3:15 In short, in a certain place, the Lord Jesus, knowing that their views of the Christ were cast in a human mould, not in the Divine, taking His stand on the human ground, and not on that where along with the assumption of humanity He also continued Divine, He said to them, What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? Following their own opinion, they replied, Of David. For so they had read, and this only they retained; because while they read of His divinity, they did not understand it. But the Lord, to pin them down to some inquiry touching the divinity of Him whose apparent weakness they despised, answered them: How, then, does David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand, till I put Your enemies under Your feet? If David, then, in spirit call Him Lord, how is He his son? Matthew 22:42-45 He did not deny, but questioned. Let no one think, on hearing this, that the Lord Jesus denied that He was the Son of David. Had Christ the Lord given any such denial, He would not have enlightened the blind who so addressed Him. For as He was passing by one day, two blind men, who were sitting by the wayside, cried out, Have mercy upon us, thou Son of David. And on hearing these words He had mercy on them. He stood still, healed, enlightened them; Matthew 20:30-34 for He owned the name. The Apostle Paul also says, Who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; Romans 1:3 and in his Epistle to Timothy, Remember that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, [He that is] of the seed of David, according to my gospel. 2 Timothy 2:8 For the Virgin Mary drew her origin, and hence our Lord also, from the seed of David.

4. The Jews made this inquiry of Christ, chiefly in order that, should He say, I am Christ, they might, in accordance with the only sense they attached to such a name, that He was of the seed of David, calumniate Him with aiming at the kingly power. There is more than this in His answer to them: they wished to calumniate Him with claiming to be the Son of David. He replied that He was the Son of God. And how? Listen: Jesus answered them, I tell you, and you believe not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me: but you believe not; because you are not of my sheep. You have already learned above (in Lecture XLV.) who the sheep are: be ye sheep. They are sheep through believing, sheep in following the Shepherd, sheep in not despising their Redeemer, sheep in entering by the door, sheep in going out and finding pasture, sheep in the enjoyment of eternal life. What did He mean, then, in saying to them, You are not of my sheep? That He saw them predestined to everlasting destruction, not won to eternal life by the price of His own blood.

5. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life. This is the pasture. If you recollect, He had said before, And he shall go in and out, and find pasture. We have entered by believing — we go out at death. But as we have entered by the door of faith, so, as believers, we quit the body; for it is in going out by that same door that we are able to find pasture. The good pasture is called eternal life; there no blade withers — all is green and flourishing. There is a plant commonly said to be ever-living; there only is it found to live. I will give, He says, unto them, unto my sheep, eternal life. You are on the search for calumnies, just because your only thoughts are of the life that is present.

6. And they shall never perish: you may hear the undertone, as if He had said to them, You shall perish for ever, because you are not of my sheep. No one shall pluck them out of my hand. Give still greater heed to this: That which my Father gave me is greater than all. What can the wolf do? What can the thief and the robber? They destroy none but those predestined to destruction. But of those sheep of which the apostle says, The Lord knows them that are His; 2 Timothy 2:19 and Whom He did foreknow, them He also did predestinate; and whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified; Romans 8:29-30 — there is none of such sheep as these that the wolf seizes, or the thief steals, or the robber slays. He, who knows what He gave for them, is sure of their number. And it is this that He says: No one shall pluck them out of my hand; and in reference also to the Father, That which my Father gave me is greater than all. What did the Father give to the Son that was greater than all? To be His own only-begotten Son. What, then, means gave? Was He to whom He gave previously existent, or gave He in the act of begetting? For if He previously existed to whom He gave the gift of Sonship, there was a time when He was, and was not the Son. Far be it from us to suppose that the Lord Christ ever was, and yet was not the Son. Of us such a thing may be said: there was a time when we were the sons of men, but were not the sons of God. For we are made the sons of God by grace, but He by nature, for such was He born. And yet not so, as that one may say, He did not exist till He was born; for He, who was coeternal with the Father, was never unborn. Let him who is wise understand: and whoever understands not, let him believe and be nourished, and he will come to understanding. The Word of God was always with the Father, and always the Word; and because the Word, therefore the Son. So then, always the Son, and always equal. For it is not by growth but by birth that He is equal, who was always born, the Son of the Father, God of God, coeternal of the Eternal. But the Father is not God of the Son: the Son is God of the Father; therefore in begetting the Son, the Father gave Him to be God, in begetting He gave Him to be coeternal with Himself, in begetting He gave Him to be His equal. This is that which is greater than all. How is the Son the life, and the possessor of life? What He has, He is: as for you, you are one thing, you have another. For example, you have wisdom, but are you wisdom itself? In short, because you yourself art not that which you have, should you lose what you have, you return to the state of no longer having it: and sometimes you re-acquire, sometimes you lose. As our eye has no light inherently in itself, it opens, and admits it; it shuts, and loses it. It is not thus that the Son of God is God — not thus that He is the Word of the Father; and not thus is He the Word, that passes away with the sound, but that which abides in its birth. In such a way has He wisdom that He is Himself wisdom, and makes men wise: and life, that He is Himself the life, and makes others alive. This is that which is greater than all. The evangelist John himself looked to heaven and earth when wishing to speak of the Son of God; he looked, and rose above them all. He thought on the thousands of angelic armies above the heavens; he thought, and, like the eagle soaring beyond the clouds, his mind overpassed the whole creation: he rose beyond all that was great, and arrived at that which was greater than all; and said, In the beginning was the Word. But because He, of whom is the Word, is not of the Word, and the Word is of Him, whose Word He is; therefore He says, That which the Father gave me, namely, to be His Word, His only-begotten Son, the brightness of His light, is greater than all. Therefore, No one, He says, plucks my sheep out of my hand. No one can pluck them out of my Father's hand.

7. Out of my hand, and out of my Father's hand. What is this, No one plucks them out of my hand, and No one plucks them out of my Father's hand? Have the Father and Son one hand, or is the Son Himself, shall we say, the hand of His Father? If by hand we are to understand power, the power of Father and Son is one; for their Godhead is one. But if we mean hand in the way spoken of by the prophet, And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Isaiah 53:1 the Father's hand is the Son Himself, which is not to be so understood as if God had the human form, and, as it were, bodily members: but that all things were made by Him. For men also are in the habit of calling other men their hands, by whom they get done what they wish. And sometimes also the very work done by a man's hand is called his hand; as one is said to recognize his hand when he recognizes what he has written. Since, then, there are many ways of speaking of the hand of a man, who literally has a hand among the members of his body; how much rather must there be more than one way of understanding it, when we read of the hand of God, who has no bodily form? And in this way it is better here, by the hand of the Father and Son, to understand the power of the Father and the Son; lest, in taking here the hand of the Father as spoken of the Son, some carnal thought also about the Son Himself should set us looking for the Son as somehow to be similarly regarded as the hand of Christ. Therefore, no one plucks them out of my Father's hand; that is, no one plucks them from me.

8. But that there may be no more room for hesitation, hear what follows: I and my Father are one. Up to this point the Jews were able to bear Him; they heard, I and my Father are one, and they bore it no longer; and hardened in their own way, they had recourse to stones. They took up stones to stone Him. The Lord, because He suffered not what He was unwilling to suffer, and only suffered what He was pleased to suffer, still addresses them while desiring to stone Him. The Jews took up stones to stone Him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? And they answered, For a good work we stone you not, but for blasphemy, and because that thou, being a man, makest yourself God. Such was their reply to His words, I and my Father are one. You see here that the Jews understood what the Arians understand not. For they were angry on this account, that they felt it could not be said, I and my Father are one, save where there was equality of the Father and the Son.

9. But see what answer the Lord gave to their dull apprehension. He saw that they could not bear the brilliance of the truth, and He tempered it with words. Is it not written in your law, that is, as given to you, that I said, You are gods? And the Lord called all the Scriptures generally, the law: although elsewhere He speaks more definitely of the law, distinguishing it from the prophets; as it is said, The law and the prophets were until John; Luke 16:16 and On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:40 Sometimes, however, He divided the same Scriptures into three parts, as where He says, All things must be fulfilled which were written in the law, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me. Luke 24:44 But now He includes the psalms also under the name of the law, where it is written, I said, You are gods. If He calls them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken: say ye of Him, whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blaspheme; because I said, I am the Son of God? If the word of God came to men, that they might be called gods, how can the very Word of God, who is with God, be otherwise than God? If by the word of God men become gods, if by fellowship they become gods, can He by whom they have fellowship not be God? If lights which are lit are gods, is the light which enlightens not God? If through being warmed in a way by saving fire they are constituted gods, is He who gives them the warmth other than God? Thou approachest the light and art enlightened, and numbered among the sons of God; if you withdraw from the light, you fall into obscurity, and art accounted in darkness; but that light approaches not, because it never recedes from itself. If, then, the word of God makes you gods, how can the Word of God be otherwise than God? Therefore did the Father sanctify His Son, and send Him into the world. Perhaps some one may be saying: If the Father sanctified Him, was there then a time when He was not sanctified? He sanctified in the same way as He begot Him. For in the act of begetting He gave Him the power to be holy, because He begot Him in holiness. For if that which is sanctified was unholy before, how can we say to God the Father, Hallowed be Your name? Matthew 6:9

10. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye will not believe me, believe the works; that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in Him. The Son says not, the Father is in me, and I in Him, as men can say it. For if we think well, we are in God; and if we live well, God is in us: believers, by participating in His grace, and being illuminated by Himself, are in Him, and He in us. But not so is it with the only-begotten Son: He is in the Father, and the Father in Him; as one who is equal is in him whose equal he is. In short, we can sometimes say, We are in God, and God is in us; but can we say, I and God are one? You are in God, because God contains you; God is in you, because you have become the temple of God: but because you are in God, and God is in you, can you say, He that sees me sees God; as the Only-begotten said, He that has seen me, has seen the Father also; and I and the Father are one? Recognize the prerogative of the Lord, and the privilege of the servant. The prerogative of the Lord is equality with the Father: the privilege of the servant is fellowship with the Saviour.

11. Therefore they sought to apprehend Him. Would they had apprehended by faith and understanding, not in wrath and murder! For now, my brethren, when I speak thus, it is the weak one wishing to apprehend what is strong, the small what is great, the fragile what is solid; and it is we ourselves — both you who are of the same matter as I am, and I myself who speak to you — who all wish to apprehend Christ. And what is it to apprehend Him? [If] you have understood, you have apprehended. But not as did the Jews: you have apprehended in order to possess, they wished to apprehend in order to make away with Him. And because this was the kind of apprehension they desired, what did He do to them? He escaped out of their hands. They failed to apprehend Him, because they lacked the hand of faith. The Word was made flesh; but it was no great task to the Word to rescue His own flesh from fleshy hands. To apprehend the Word in the mind, is the right apprehension of Christ.

12. And He went away again beyond Jordan, into the place where John at first baptized; and there He abode. And many resorted unto Him, and said, John, indeed, did no miracle. You remember what was said of John, that he was a light, and bore witness to the day. Why, then, say these among themselves, John did no miracle? John, they say, signalized himself by no miracle; he did not put devils to flight, he drove away no fever, he enlightened not the blind, he raised not the dead, he fed not so many thousand men with five or seven loaves, he walked not upon the sea, he commanded not the winds and the waves. None of these things did John, and in all he said he bore witness to this man. By lamp-light we may advance to the day. John did no miracle: but all things that John spoke of this man were true. Here are those who apprehended in a different way from the Jews. The Jews wished to apprehend one who was departing from them, these apprehended one who remained with them. In a word, what is it that follows? And many believed on Him.