Tractate 12 (John 3:6-21)

1. We observe, beloved, that the intimation with which we yesterday excited your attention has brought you together with more alacrity, and in greater number than usual; but meanwhile let us, if you please, pay our debt of a discourse on the Gospel Lesson, which comes in due course. You shall then hear, beloved, as well what we have already effected concerning the peace of the Church, and what we hope yet further to accomplish. For the present, then, let the whole attention of your hearts be given to the gospel; let none be thinking of anything else. For if he who attends to it wholly apprehends with difficulty, must not he who divides himself by diverse thoughts let go what he has received? Moreover, you remember, beloved, that on the last Lord's day, as the Lord deigned to help us, we discoursed of spiritual regeneration. That lesson we have caused to be read to you again, so that what was then left unspoken, we may now, by the aid of your prayers in the name of Christ, fulfill.

2. Spiritual regeneration is one, just as the generation of the flesh is one. And Nicodemus said the truth when he said to the Lord that a man cannot, when he is old, return again into his mother's womb and be born. He indeed said that a man cannot do this when he is old, as if he could do it even were he an infant. But be he fresh from the womb, or now in years, he cannot possibly return again into the mother's bowels and be born. But just as for the birth of the flesh, the bowels of woman avail to bring forth the child only once, so for the spiritual birth the bowels of the Church avail that a man be baptized only once. Therefore, in case one should say, Well, but this man was born in heresy, and this in schism: all that was cut away, if you remember what was debated to you about our three fathers, of whom God willed to be called the God, not that they were thus alone but because in them alone the figure of the future people was made up in its completeness. For we find one born of a bond woman disinherited, one born of a free woman made heir: again, we find one born of a free woman disinherited, one born of a bond woman made heir. Ishmael, born of a bond woman, disinherited; Isaac, born of a free woman, made heir: Esau, born of a free woman, disinherited; the sons of Jacob, born of bond women, made heirs. Thus, in these three fathers the figure of the whole future people is seen: and not without reason God says, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this, says He, is my name forever. Exodus 3:6, 15 Rather let us remember what was promised to Abraham himself: for this was promised to Isaac, and also to Jacob. What do we find? In your seed shall all nations be blessed. Genesis 22:18 At that time the one man believed what as yet he saw not: men now see, and are blinded. What was promised to the one man is fulfilled in the nations; and they who will not see what is already fulfilled, are separating themselves from the communion of the nations. But what avails it them that they will not see? See they do, whether they will or no; the open truth strikes against their closed eyes.

3. It was in answer to Nicodemus, who was of them that had believed on Jesus, that it was said, And Jesus did not trust Himself to them. To certain men, indeed, He did not trust Himself, though they had already believed on Him. Thus it is written, Many believed in His name, seeing the signs which He did. But Jesus did not trust Himself to them. For He needed not that any should testify of man; for Himself knew what was in man. Behold, they already believed on Jesus, and yet Jesus did not trust Himself to them. Why? Because they were not yet born again of water and of the Spirit. From this have we ex horted and do exhort our brethren the catechumens. For if you ask them, they have already believed in Jesus; but because they have not yet received His flesh and blood, Jesus has not yet trusted Himself to them. What must they do that Jesus may trust Himself to them? They must be born again of water and of the Spirit; the Church that is in travail with them must bring them forth. They have been conceived; they must be brought forth to the light: they have breasts to be nourished at; let them not fear lest, being born, they may be smothered; let them not depart from the mother's breasts.

4. No man can return into his mother's bowels and be born again. But some one is born of a bond woman? Well, did they who were born of bond women at the former time, return into the wombs of the free to be born anew? The seed of Abraham was in Ishmael also; but that Abraham might have a son of the bond maid, it was at the advice of his wife. The child was of the husband's seed, not of the womb, but at the sole pleasure of the wife. Was his birth of a bond woman the reason why he was disinherited? Then, if he was disinherited because he was the son of a bond woman, no sons of bond women would be admitted to the inheritance. The sons of Jacob were admitted to the inheritance; but Ishmael was put out of it, not because born of a bond woman, but because he was proud to his mother, proud to his mother's son; for his mother was Sarah rather than Hagar. The one gave her womb, the other's will was added: Abraham would not have done what Sarah willed not: therefore was he Sarah's son rather. But because he was proud to his brother, proud in playing, that is, in mocking him; what said Sarah? Cast out the bond woman and her son; for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. Genesis 21:9-10 It was not, therefore, the bowels of the bond woman that caused his rejection, but the slave's neck. For the free-born is a slave if he is proud, and, what is worse, the slave of a bad mistress, of pride itself. Thus, my brethren, answer the man, that a man cannot be born a second time; answer fearlessly, that a man cannot be born a second time. Whatever is done a second time is mockery, whatever is done a second time is play. It is Ishmael playing, let him be cast out. For Sarah observed them playing, says the Scripture, and said to Abraham, Cast out the bond woman and her son. The playing of the boys displeased Sarah. She saw something strange in their play. Do not they who have sons like to see them playing? She saw and disapproved it. Something or other she saw in their play; she saw mockery in it, observed the pride of the slave; she was displeased with it, and she cast him out. The children of bond women, when wicked, are cast out; and the child of the free woman, when an Esau, is cast out. Let none, therefore, presume on his birth of good parents; let none presume on his being baptized by holy men. Let him that is baptized by holy men still beware lest he be not a Jacob, but an Esau. This would I say then, brethren, it is better to be baptized by men that seek their own and love the world, which is what the name of bond woman imports, and to be spiritually seeking the inheritance of Christ, so as to be as it were a son of Jacob by a bond woman, than to be baptized by holy men and to become proud, so as to be an Esau to be cast out, though born of a free woman. Hold ye this fast, brethren. We are not coaxing you, let none of your hope be in us; we flatter neither ourselves nor you; every man bears his own burden. It is our duty to speak, that we be not judged unhappily: yours to hear, and that with the heart, lest what we give be required of you; nay, that when it is required, it may be found a gain, not a loss.

5. The Lord says to Nicodemus, and explains to him: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Unless a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Thou, says He, understandest a carnal generation, when you say, Can a man return into his mother's bowels? The birth for the kingdom of God must be of water and of the Spirit. If one is born to the temporal inheritance of a human father, be he born of the bowels of a carnal mother; if one is born to the everlasting inheritance of God as his Father, be he born of the bowels of the Church. A father, as one that will die, begets a son by his wife to succeed him; but God begets of the Church sons, not to succeed Him, but to abide with Himself. And He goes on: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. We are born spiritually then, and spirit we are born by the word and sacrament. The Spirit is present that we may be born; the Spirit is invisibly present whereof you are born, for you too must be invisibly born. For He goes on to say: Marvel not that I said to you, You must be born again. The Spirit blows where it lists, and you hear its voice, but know not whence it comes, or whither it goes. None sees the Spirit; and how do we hear the Spirit's voice? There sounds a psalm, it is the Spirit's voice; the gospel sounds, it is the Spirit's voice; the divine word sounds, it is the Spirit's voice. You hear its voice, and know not whence it comes, and whither it goes. But if you are born of the Spirit, you too shall be so, that one who is not born of the Spirit knows not, as for you, whence you come, or whither you go. For He said, as He went on, So is also every one that is born of the Spirit.

6. Nicodemus answered and said to Him, How can these things be? And, in fact, in the carnal sense, he knew not how. In him occurred what the Lord had said; the Spirit's voice he heard, but knew not whence it came, and whither it was going. Jesus answered and said to him, Are you a master in Israel, and know not these things? Oh, brethren! What? Do we think that the Lord meant to taunt scornfully this master of the Jews? The Lord knew what He was doing; He wished the man to be born of the Spirit. No man is born of the Spirit if he be not humble, for humility itself makes us to be born of the Spirit; for the Lord is near to them that are of broken heart. The man was puffed up with his mastership, and it appeared of some importance to himself that he was a teacher of the Jews. Jesus pulled down his pride, that he might be born of the Spirit: He taunted him as an unlearned man; not that the Lord wished to appear his superior. What comparison can there be, God compared to man, truth to falsehood? Christ greater than Nicodemus! Ought this to be said, can it be said, is it to be thought? If it were said, Christ is greater than angels, it were ridiculous: for incomparably greater than every creature is He by whom every creature was made. But yet He rallies the man on his pride: Are you a master in Israel, and know not these things? As if He said, Behold, you know nothing, you are a proud chief; be born of the Spirit: for if you be born of the Spirit, you will keep the ways of God, so as to follow Christ's humility. So, indeed, is He high above all angels, that, being in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant, being made into the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man: He humbled Himself, being made obedient unto death (and lest any kind of death should please you), even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:6-8 He hung on the cross, and they scoffed at Him. He could have come down from the cross; but He deferred, that He might rise again from the tomb. He, the Lord, bore with proud slaves; Matthew 11:30 the physician with the sick. If He did this, how ought they to act whom it behooves to be born of the Spirit! — if He did this, He who is the true Master in heaven, not of men only, but also of angels. For if the angels are learned, they are so by the Word of God. If they are learned by the Word of God, ask of what they are learned; and you shall find, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The neck of man is done away with, only the hard and stiff neck, that it may be gentle to bear the yoke of Christ, of which it is said, My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:30

7. And He goes on, If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not; how shall you believe, if I tell you heavenly things? What earthly things did He tell, brethren? Unless a man be born again; is that an earthly thing? The Spirit blows where it lists, and you hear its voice, and know not whence it comes, or whither it goes; is that earthly? For if He spoke it of the wind, as some have understood it, when they were asked what earthly thing the Lord meant, when He said, If I told you earthly things, and you believe not; how shall you believe, if I tell you heavenly things?— when, I say, it was asked of certain men what earthly thing the Lord meant, being in difficulty, they said, What He said, The Spirit blows where it lists, and its voice you hear, and know not whence it comes, or whither it goes, He said concerning the wind. Now what did He name earthly? He was speaking of the spiritual birth; and going on, says, So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Then, brethren, which of us does not see, for example, the south wind going from south to north, or another wind coming from east to west? How, then, know we not whence it comes and whither it goes? What earthly thing, then, did He tell, which men did not believe? Was it that which He had said about raising the temple again? Surely, for He had received His body of the earth, and that earth taken of the earthly body He was preparing to raise up. They did not believe Him as about to raise up earth. If I told you earthly things, says He, and you believe not; how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things? That is, if you believe not that I can raise up the temple cast down by you, how shall you believe that men can be regenerated by the Spirit?

8. And He goes on: And no man has ascended into heaven, but He that came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven. Behold, He was here, and was also in heaven; was here in His flesh, in heaven by His divinity; yea, everywhere by His divinity. Born of a mother, not quitting the Father. Two nativities of Christ are understood: one divine, the other human: one, that by which we were to be made; the other, that by which we were to be made anew: both marvellous; that without mother, this without father. But because He had taken a body of Adam, — for Mary was of Adam, — and was about to raise that same body again, it was an earthly thing He had said in saying, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But this was a heavenly thing, when He said, Unless a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he shall not see the kingdom of God. Come then, brethren! God has willed to be the Son of man; and willed men to be sons of God. He came down for our sakes; let us ascend for His sake. For He alone descended and ascended, He who says, No man has ascended into heaven, but He who came down from heaven. Are they not therefore to ascend into heaven whom He makes sons of God? Certainly they are: this is the promise to us, They shall be equal to the angels of God. Matthew 22:30 Then how is it that no man ascends, but He that descended? Because one only descended, only one ascends. What of the rest? What are we to understand, but that they shall be His members, that one may ascend? Therefore it follows that no man has ascended into heaven, but He who came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven. Do you marvel that He was both here and in heaven? Such He made His disciples. Hear the Apostle Paul saying, But our conversation is in heaven. Philippians 3:20 If the Apostle Paul, a man, walked in the flesh on earth, and yet had his conversation in heaven, was the God of heaven and earth not able to be both in heaven and on earth?

9. Therefore, if none but He descended and ascended, what hope is there for the rest? The hope for the rest is this, that He came down in order that in Him and with Him they might be one, who should ascend through Him. He says not, And to seeds, says the apostle, as in many; but as in one, And to your seed, which is Christ. And to believers he says, And you are Christ's; and if Christ's, then are Abraham's seed. What he said to be one, that he said that we all are. Hence, in the Psalms, many sometimes sing, to show that one is made of many; sometimes one sings, to show what is made of many. Therefore was it only one that was healed in the pool; and whoever else went down into it was not healed. Now this one shows forth the oneness of the Church. Woe to them who hate unity, and make to themselves parties among men! Let them hear him who wished to make them one, in one, for one: let them hear him who says, Be not ye making many: I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. But neither he that plants is anything, neither he that waters; but God that gives the increase. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 They were saying, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas. And he says, Is Christ divided? Be in one, be one thing, be one person: No man has ascended into heaven, but He who came down from heaven. Lo! We wish to be yours, they said to Paul. And he said to them, I will not that you be Paul's, but be His whose is Paul together with you.

10. For He came down and died, and by that death delivered us from death: being slain by death, He slew death. And you know, brethren, that this death entered into the world through the devil's envy. God made not death, says the Scripture, nor delights He in the destruction of the living; but He created all things to be. But what says it here? But by the devil's envy, death entered into the whole world. Wisdom 1:2 To the death offered for our entertainment by the devil, man would not come by constraint; for the devil had not the power of forcing, but only cunning to persuade. Had you not consented, the devil had brought in nothing: your own consenting, O man, led you to death. Of the mortal are mortals born; from immortals we have become mortals. From Adam all men are mortal; but Jesus the Son of God, the Word of God, by which all things were made, the only Son equal with the Father, was made mortal: for the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

11. He endured death, then; but death He hanged on the cross, and mortal men are delivered from death. The Lord calls to mind a great matter, which was done in a figure with them of old: And as Moses, says He, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that every one who believes in Him may not perish, but have everlasting life. A great mystery is here, as they who read know. Again, let them hear, as well they who have not read as they who have forgotten what perhaps they had heard or read. The people Israel were fallen helplessly in the wilderness by the bite of serpents; they suffered a great calamity by many deaths: for it was the stroke of God correcting and scourging them that He might instruct them. In this was shown a great mystery, the figure of a thing to come: the Lord Himself testifies in this passage, so that no man can give another interpretation than that which the truth indicates concerning itself. Now Moses was ordered by the Lord to make a brazen serpent, and to raise it on a pole in the wilderness, and to admonish the people Israel, that, when any had been bitten by a serpent, he should look to that serpent raised up on the pole. This was done: men were bitten; they looked and were healed. Numbers 21:6-9 What are the biting serpents? Sins, from the mortality of the flesh. What is the serpent lifted up? The Lord's death on the cross. For as death came by the serpent, it was figured by the image of a serpent. The serpent's bite was deadly, the Lord's death is life-giving. A serpent is gazed on that the serpent may have no power. What is this? A death is gazed on, that death may have no power. But whose death? The death of life: if it may be said, the death of life; ay, for it may be said, but said wonderfully. But should it not be spoken, seeing it was a thing to be done? Shall I hesitate to utter that which the Lord has deigned to do for me? Is not Christ the life? And yet Christ hung on the cross. Is not Christ life? And yet Christ was dead. But in Christ's death, death died. Life dead slew death; the fullness of life swallowed up death; death was absorbed in the body of Christ. So also shall we say in the resurrection, when now triumphant we shall sing, Where, O death, is your contest? Where, O death, is your sting? 1 Corinthians 15:54 Meanwhile brethren, that we may be healed from sin, let us now gaze on Christ crucified; for as Moses, says He, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believes in Him may not perish, but have everlasting life. Just as they who looked on that serpent perished not by the serpent's bites, so they who look in faith on Christ's death are healed from the bites of sins. But those were healed from death to temporal life; while here He says, that they may have everlasting life. Now there is this difference between the figurative image and the real thing: the figure procured temporal life; the reality, of which that was the figure, procures eternal life.

12. For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him may be saved. So far, then, as it lies in the physician, He has come to heal the sick. He that will not observe the orders of the physician destroys himself. He has come a Saviour to the world: why is he called the Saviour of the world, but that He has come to save the world, not to judge the world? You will not be saved by Him; you shall be judged of yourself. And why do I say, shall be judged? See what He says: He that believes in Him is not judged, but he that believes not. What do you expect He is going to say, but is judged? Already, says He, has been judged. The judgment has not yet appeared, but already it has taken place. For the Lord knows them that are His: He knows who are persevering for the crown, and who for the flame; knows the wheat on His threshing-floor, and knows the chaff; knows the good grain, and knows the tares. He that believes not is already judged. Why judged? Because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.

13. And this is the judgment, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. My brethren, whose works does the Lord find to be good? The works of none: He finds the works of all evil. How is it, then, that some have done the truth, and have come to the light? For this is what follows: But he that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. In what way have some done a good work to come to the light, namely, to Christ? And how have some loved darkness? For if He finds all men sinners, and heals all of sin, and that serpent in which the Lord's death was figured healed them that were bitten, and on account of the serpent's bite the serpent was set up, namely, the Lord's death on account of mortal men, whom He finds unrighteous; how are we to understand that this is the judgment, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil? How is this? Whose works, in fact, are good? Have You not come to justify the ungodly? But they loved, says He, darkness rather than light. There He laid the emphasis: for many loved their sins; many confessed their sins; and he who confesses his sins, and accuses them, does now work with God. God accuses your sins: and if you also accuse, you are united to God. There are, as it were, two things, man and sinner. That you are called man, is God's doing; that you are called sinner, is man's own doing. Blot out what you have done, that God may save what He has done. It behooves you to hate your own work in you, and to love the work of God in you. And when your own deeds will begin to displease you, from that time your good works begin, as you find fault with your evil works. The confession of evil works is the beginning of good works. You do the truth, and come to the light. How is it you do the truth? Thou dost not caress, nor soothe, nor flatter yourself; nor say, I am righteous, while you are unrighteous: thus, you begin to do the truth. You come to the light, that your works may be made manifest that they are wrought in God; for your sin, the very thing that has given you displeasure, would not have displeased you, if God did not shine into you, and His truth show it you. But he that loves his sins, even after being admonished, hates the light admonishing him, and flees from it, that his works which he loves may not be proved to be evil. But he that does truth accuses his evil works in himself, spares not himself, forgives not himself, that God may forgive him: for that which he desires God to forgive, he himself acknowledges, and he comes to the light; to which he is thankful for showing him what he should hate in himself. He says to God, Turn away Your face from my sins: yet with what countenance says it, unless he adds, For I acknowledge mine iniquity, and my sin is ever before me? Be that before yourself which you desire not to be before God. But if you will put your sin behind you, God will thrust it back before your eyes; and this He will do at a time when there will be no more fruit of repentance.

14. Run, my brethren, lest the darkness lay hold of you. Awake to your salvation, awake while there is time; let none be kept back from the temple of God, none kept back from the work of the Lord, none called away from continual prayer, none be defrauded of wonted devotion. Awake, then, while it is day: the day shines, Christ is the day. He is ready to forgive sins, but to them that acknowledge them; ready to punish the self-defenders, who boast that they are righteous, and think themselves to be something when they are nothing. But he that walks in His love and mercy, even being free from those great and deadly sins, such crimes as murder, theft, adultery; still, because of those which seem to be minute sins, of tongue, or of thought, or of intemperance in things permitted, he does the truth in confession, and comes to the light in good works: since many minute sins, if they be neglected, kill. Minute are the drops that swell the rivers; minute are the grains of sand; but if much sand is put together, the heap presses and crushes. Bilge-water neglected in the hold does the same thing as a rushing wave. Gradually it leaks in through the hold; and by long leaking in and no pumping out, it sinks the ship. Now what is this pumping out, but by good works, by sighing, fasting, giving, forgiving, so to effect that sins may not overwhelm us? The path of this life, however, is troublesome, full of temptations: in prosperity, let it not lift us up; in adversity, let it not crush us. He who gave the happiness of this world gave it for your comfort, not for your ruin. Again, He who scourges you in this life, does it for your improvement, not for your condemnation. Bear the Father that corrects you for your training, lest you feel the judge in punishing you. These things we tell you every day, and they must be often said, because they are good and wholesome.

Tractate 13 (John 3:22-29)

1. The course of reading from the Gospel of John, as those of you who are concerned for your own progress may remember, so proceeds in regular order, that the passage which has now been read comes before us for exposition today. You remember that we have expounded it, in the preceding discourses, from the very beginning of the Gospel, as far as the lesson of today. And though perhaps you have forgotten much of it, at least it remains in your memory that we have done our part in it. What you have heard from it about the baptism of John, even though you retain not all, yet I believe you have heard that which you may retain. Also, what was said as to why the Holy Spirit appeared in the shape of a dove; and how that most knotty question was solved, namely, what was that something in the Lord which John did not know, and which he learned by means of the dove, while already John knew Him, since, as Jesus came to be baptized, he said to Him, I ought to be baptized by You, and You come to me? when the Lord answered him, Suffer it now, that all righteousness may be fulfilled. Matthew 3:14

2. Now, therefore, the order of our reading obliges us to return to that same John. The same is he who was prophesied of by Isaiah, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare a way for the Lord, make His paths straight. Isaiah 40:3 Such testimony gave he to his Lord and (for the Lord deemed him worthy) his friend. And the Lord, even his friend, did also Himself bear witness to John. For concerning John He said, Among them that are born of women, there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptist. But as He put Himself before John, in that wherein He was greater, He was God. But he that is less, says He, in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Matthew 11:11 Less in age; greater in power, in deity, in majesty, in brightness: even as in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In the preceding passages, however, John had given testimony to the Lord, in such wise that he did indeed call Him Son of God, but said not that He was God, nor yet denied it: he was silent as to His being God, not denied that He was God; but yet he was not altogether silent as to His being God, for perhaps we find this in the lesson of today. He had called Him Son of God; but men, too, have been called sons of God. He had declared Him to be of such excellence, that he was not himself worthy to loose the latchet of His shoe. Now this greatness gives us much to understand: whose shoe-latchet he was not worthy to loose, he than whom none greater had arisen among them that are born of women. He was more, indeed, than all men and angels. For we find an angel forbidding a man to fall at his feet. For example, when in the Apocalypse an angel was showing certain things to John, the writer of this Gospel, John, terrified at the greatness of the vision, fell down at the angel's feet. But said the angel, Rise; see that you do it not: worship God, for I am your fellow-servant, and the brethren's. Revelation 22:8-9 An angel, then, forbade a man to fall down at his feet. Is it not manifest that He must be above all angels, for whom a man, such that a greater than he has not risen among them that are born of women, declares himself to be not worthy to loose the latchet of His shoe?

3. John, however, may say something more evidently, that our Lord Jesus Christ is God. We may find this in the present passage, that it is perhaps of Him we have been singing, The Lord reigned over all the earth; against which they are deaf who imagine that He reigns only in Africa. But let them not suppose that it is not of Christ it is spoken when it is said, God reigned over all the earth. For who else is our King, but our Lord Jesus Christ? It is He that is our King. And what have you heard in the same psalm, in the verse just sung? Sing praises to our God, sing praises: sing praises to our King, sing praises. Whom he called God, the same he called our King: Sing praises to our God, sing praises: sing praises to our King, sing praises with understanding. And that you should not understand Him to whom you sing praises to reign in one part, he says, For God is King of all the earth. And how is He King of all the earth, who appeared in one part of the earth, in Jerusalem, in Judea,walking among men, born, sucking the breast, growing, eating, drinking, waking, sleeping, sitting at a well, wearied; laid hold of, scourged, spat upon,crowned with thorns, hanged on a tree, wounded with a spear, dead, buried? How then King of all the earth? What was seen locally was flesh, to carnal eyes only flesh was visible; the immortal majesty was concealed in mortal flesh. And with what eyes shall we be able to behold the immortal majesty, after penetrating through the structure of the flesh? There is another eye, there is an inner eye. Tobias, for example, was not without eyes, when, blind in his bodily eyes, he was giving precepts of life to his son. Tobit iv The son was holding the father's hand, that the father might walk with his feet, while the father was giving the son counsel to walk in the way of righteousness. Here I see eyes, and there I understand eyes. And better are the eyes of him that gives counsel of life, than his who holds the hand. Such eyes Jesus also required when He said to Philip, Am I so long time with you, and you have not known me? Such eyes He required when He said, Philip, he that sees me, sees the Father. These are the eyes of the understanding, these are the eyes of the mind. It is for that reason that the psalm, when it had said, For God is King of all the earth, immediately added, Sing praises with understanding. For in that I say, Sing praises to our God, I say that God is our King. But yet our King you have seen among men, as man; you have seen Him suffering, crucified, dead: there was in that flesh something concealed, which you might have seen with eyes of flesh. What was there concealed? Sing praises with understanding. Do not seek to see with the eyes what is beheld by the mind. Sing praises with the tongue, for He is among you as flesh; but because the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, render the sound to the flesh, render to God the gaze of the mind. Sing praises with understanding, and you see that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

4. Now let John also declare his witness: After these things came Jesus and His disciples into the land of Judea; and there He tarried with them, and baptized. Being baptized, He baptized. Not with that baptism with which He was baptized did He baptize. The Lord, being baptized by a servant, gives baptism, showing the path of humility and leading to the baptism of the Lord, that is, His own baptism, by giving an example of humility, in not Himself refusing baptism from a servant. And in the baptism by a servant, a way was prepared for the Lord; the Lord also being baptized, made Himself a way for them that come to Him. Let us hear Himself: I am the way, the truth, and the life. If you seek truth, keep the way, for the way and the truth are the same. The way that you are going is the same as the whither you are going: you are not going by a way as one thing, to an object as another thing; not coming to Christ by something else as a way, you come to Christ by Christ. How by Christ to Christ? By Christ the man, to Christ God; by the Word made flesh, to the Word which in the beginning was God with God; from that which man ate, to that which angels daily eat. For so it is written, He gave them bread of heaven: man ate the bread of angels. What is the bread of angels? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. How has man eaten the bread of angels? And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

5. But though we have said that angels eat, do not fancy, brethren, that this is done with teeth. For if you think so, God, of whom the angels eat, is as it were torn in pieces. Who tears righteousness in pieces? But still, some one asks me, And who is it that can eat righteousness? Well, how is it said, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled? The food which you eat carnally perishes, in order to refresh you; to repair your waste it is consumed: eat righteousness; and while you are refreshed, it continues entire. Just as by seeing this corporeal light, these eyes of ours are refreshed, and yet it is a corporeal thing that is seen by corporeal eyes. Many there have been, when too long in darkness, whose eyesight is weakened by fasting, as it were, from light. The eyes, deprived of their food (for they feed on light), become wearied by fasting, and weakened, so that they cannot bear to see the light by which they are refreshed; and if the light is too long absent, they are quenched, and the very sense of sight dies as it were in them. What then? Does the light become less, because so many eyes are daily fed by it? Your eyes are refreshed, and the light remains entire. As God was able to show this in the case of corporeal light to corporeal eyes, does He not show that other light to clean hearts as unwearied, continuing entire, and in no respect failing? What light? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. Let us see if this is light. For with You is the fountain of light, and in Your light shall we see light. On earth, fountain is one thing, light another. When thirsting, you seek a fountain, and to get to the fountain you seek light; and if it is not day, you light a lamp to get to the fountain. That fountain is the very light: to the thirsting a fountain, to the blind a light. Let the eyes be opened to see the light, let the lips of the heart be opened to drink of the fountain; that which you drink, you see, you hear, God becomes all to you; for He is to you the whole of these things which you love. If you regard things visible, neither is God bread, nor is God water, nor is God this light, nor is He garment nor house. For all these are things visible, and single separate things. What bread is, water is not; and what a garment is, a house is not; and what these things are, God is not, for they are visible things. God is all this to you: if you hunger He is bread to you; if you thirst He is water to you; if you are in darkness, He is light to you: for He remains incorruptible. If you are naked, He is a garment of immortality to you, when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. All things can be said of God, and nothing is worthily said of God. Nothing is wider than this poverty of expression. You seek a fitting name for Him, you can not find it; you seek to speak of Him in any way soever, you find that He is all. What likeness have the lamb and the lion? Both is said of Christ. Behold the Lamb of God! How a lion? The Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. Revelation 5:5

6. Let us hear John: Jesus baptized. We said that Jesus baptized. How Jesus? How the Lord? How the Son of God? How the Word? Well, but the Word was made flesh. And John also was baptizing in Ænon, near to Salim. A certain lake, Ænon. How do we know it was a lake? Because there was much water there, and they came and were baptized. For John was not yet cast into prison. If you remember (see, I say it again), I told you why John baptized: because the Lord must needs be baptized. And why must the Lord be baptized? Because many there would be to despise baptism, that they might appear to be endowed with greater grace than they saw other believers endowed with. For example, a catechumen, now living continently, might despise a married person, and say of himself that he was better than the other believer. That catechumen might possibly say in his heart, What need have I to receive baptism, to have just what that other man has, than whom I am already better? Therefore, lest that neck of pride should hurl to destruction certain men much elated with the merits of their own righteousness, the Lord was willing to be baptized by a servant, as if addressing His chief sons: Why do you extol yourselves? Why lift yourselves up because you have, one prudence, another learning, another chastity, another the courage of patience? Can you possibly have as much as I who gave you these? And yet I was baptized by a servant, you disdain to be baptized by the Lord. This is the sense of to fulfill all righteousness.

7. But some one will say, It were enough, then, that John baptized only the Lord; what need was there for others to be baptized by John? Now we have said this too, that if John had baptized only the Lord, men would not be without this thought, that John had a better baptism than the Lord had. They would say, in fact, So great was the baptism of John, that Christ alone was worthy to be baptized therewith. Therefore, to show that the baptism which the Lord was to give was better than that of John, — that the one might be understood as that of a servant, the other as that of the Lord, — the Lord was baptized to give an example of humility; but He was not the only one baptized by John, lest John's baptism should appear to be better than the baptism of the Lord. To this end, however, our Lord Jesus Christ showed the way, as you have heard, brethren, lest any man, arrogating to himself that he has abundance of some particular grace, should disdain to be baptized with the baptism of the Lord. For whatever the catechumen's proficiency, he still carries the load of his iniquity: it is not forgiven him until he shall have come to baptism. Just as the people Israel were not rid of the Egyptians until they had come to the Red Sea, so no man is rid of the pressure of sins until he has come to the font of baptism.

8. Then there arose a question on the part of John's disciples with the Jews about purifying. John baptized, Christ baptized. John's disciples were moved; there was a running after Christ, people were coming to John. Those who came to John, he sent to Jesus to be baptized; but they who were baptized by Christ were not sent to John. John's disciples were alarmed, and began to dispute with the Jews, as usually happens. Understand the Jews to have declared that Christ was greater, and that to His baptism people ought to have recourse. John's disciples, not yet understanding this, defended John's baptism. They came to John himself, that he might solve the question. Understand, beloved. And here we are given to see the use of humility, and, when people were erring in the subject of dispute, are shown whether John desired to glory in himself. Now probably he said, You say the truth, you contend rightly; mine is the better baptism, I baptized Christ Himself. John could say this after Christ was baptized. If he wished to exalt himself, what an opportunity he had to do so! But he knew better before whom to humble himself: to Him whom he knew to have come after himself by birth, he willingly yielded precedence by confessing Him. He understood his own salvation to be in Christ. He had already said above, We all have received out of His fullness; and this is to confess Him to be God. For how can all men receive of His fullness, if He be not God? For if He is man in such wise that He is not God, then Himself also receives of the fullness of God, and so is not God. But if all men receive of His fullness, He is the fountain, they are drinkers. They that drink of a fountain, both thirst and drink. The fountain never thirsts; it has never need of itself. Men need a fountain. With thirsty stomachs and parched lips they run to the fountain to be refreshed. The fountain flows to refresh, so does the Lord Jesus.

9. Let us see, then, what answer John gives: They came unto John, and said to him, Rabbi, he that was with you beyond Jordan, to whom you bore witness, behold the same baptizes, and all men come to him: that is, What do you say? Ought they not to be hindered, that they may rather come to you? He answered and said, A man cannot receive anything, unless it be given him from heaven. Of whom, think you, had John said this? Of himself. As a man, I received, says he, from heaven. Note, my beloved: A man cannot receive anything, unless it be given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ. As much as to say, Why do you deceive yourselves? See how you have put this question before me. What have you said to me? 'Rabbi, he that was with you beyond Jordan, to whom you bore witness.' Then you know what sort of witness I bare to Him. Am I now to say that He is not the same whom I declared Him to be? And because I received somewhat from heaven, in order to be something, do you wish me to be empty of it, so as to speak against the truth? 'A man cannot receive anything, unless it be given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ.' You are not the Christ; but what if you are greater than He since you baptized Him? I am sent: I am the herald, He is the Judge.

10. But hear a far stronger, a far more expressive testimony. See ye what it is we are treating of; see ye that to love any person in place of Christ is adultery. Why do I say this? Let us attend to the voice of John. People could be mistaken in him, could think him to be the person he was not. He rejects the false honor, in order to hold the truth complete. See what he declares Christ to be; what does he say himself is? He that has the bride is the bridegroom. Be chaste, love the bridegroom. But what are you, who sayest to us, He that has the bride is the bridegroom? But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. The Lord our God will help me in proportion to the tumult of my heart, for it is full of sadness, to utter the grief I feel; but I beseech you by Christ Himself to imagine in thought what it will not be possible for me to utter; for I know that my grief cannot be expressed with befitting impressiveness. Now I see many adulterers who desire to get possession of the bride, purchased at so great a price, loved while deformed that she might be made fair, having been purchased and delivered and adorned by such an one; and those adulterers strive with their words to be loved instead of the bridegroom. Of that One it is said, This is He that baptizes. John 1:33 Who is he that goes forth from us and says, I am he that baptizes? Who is he that goes forth from us and says, That is holy which I give? Who is he that goes hence and says, It is good for you to be born of me? Let us hear the friend of the bridegroom, not the adulterers against the bridegroom; let us hear one jealous, but not for himself.

11. Brethen, return in thought to your own homes. I speak of carnal, I speak of earthly things; I speak after the manner of men, for the infirmity of your flesh. Many of you have, many of you wish to have, many, though you wish not to have, still have had wives; many who do not at all wish to have wives, are born of the wives of your fathers. This is a feeling that touches every heart. There is no man so alien from mankind in human affairs as not to feel what I say. Suppose that a man, having set out on a journey, had commended his bride to the care of his friend: See, I pray you, you are my dear friend; see to it, lest in my absence some other may perchance be loved in my stead. Then what sort of a person must he be, who, while the guardian of the bride or wife of his friend, does indeed endeavor that none other be loved, but if he wishes himself to be loved instead of his friend, and desires to enjoy her who was committed to his care, how detestable must he appear to all mankind! Let him see her gazing out of the window, or joking with some one somewhat too heedlessly, he forbids her as one who is jealous. I see him jealous, but let me see for whom he is jealous; whether for his absent friend or for his present self. Think that our Lord Jesus Christ has done this. He has committed His bride to the care of His friend; He has set out on a journey to a far country to receive a kingdom, as He says Himself in the Gospel, Luke 19:12 but yet is present in His majesty. Let the friend who has gone beyond the sea be deceived; and if he is deceived, woe to him who deceives! Why do men attempt to deceive God — God who looks at the hearts of all, and searches the secrets of all? But some heretic shows himself, and says, 'Tis I that give, 'tis I that sanctify, 'tis I that justify; go not to that other sect. He does well indeed to be jealous, but see for whom. Go not to idols, says he — he is rightly jealous; nor to diviners,— still rightly jealous. Let us see for whom he is jealous: What I give is holy, because it is I that give it; he is baptized whom I baptize; he whom I baptize not is not baptized. Hear the friend of the bridegroom, learn to be jealous for your friend; hear His voice who is He that baptizes. Why desire to arrogate to yourself what is not yours? Is he so very absent who has left here his bride? Do you not know, that He who rose from the dead is sitting at the right hand of the Father? If the Jews despised Him hanging on the tree, do you despise Him sitting in heaven? Be assured, beloved, that I suffer great grief of this matter; but, as I have said, I leave the rest to your thoughts. I cannot utter it if I speak the whole day. If I bewail it the whole day, I do not enough. I cannot utter it, if I should have, as the prophet says, a fountain of tears; and were I changed into tears, and to become all tears, were I turned into tongues, and to become all tongues, it were not enough.

12. Let us return and see what this John says: He that has the bride is the bridegroom; she is not my bride. And do you not rejoice in the marriage? Yea, says he, I do rejoice: But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the voice of the bridegroom. Not because of my own voice, says he, do I rejoice, but because of the Bridegroom's voice. I am in the place of hearer; He, of speaker: I am as one that must be enlightened, He is the light; I am as the ear, He is the word. Therefore the friend of the Bridegroom stands and hears Him. Why stands? Because he falls not. How falls not? Because he is humble. See him standing on solid ground; I am not worthy to loose the latchet of His shoe. You do well to be humble; deservedly you do not fall; deservedly you stand, and hear Him, and rejoicest greatly for the Bridegroom's voice. So also the apostle is the Bridegroom's friend; he too is jealous, not for himself, but for the Bridegroom. Hear his voice when he is jealous: I am jealous over you, said he, with the jealousy of God: not with my own, nor for myself, but with the jealousy of God. Why? How? Over whom are you jealous, and for whom? For I have espoused you to one husband, to present a chaste virgin to Christ. Why do you fear, then? Why are you jealous? I fear, says he, lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve by his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the chastity which is in Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:2-3 The whole Church is called a virgin. You see that the members of the Church are various, that they are endowed with and do rejoice in various gifts: some men wedded, some women wedded; some are widowers who seek no more to have wives, some are widows who seek no more to have husbands; some men preserve continence from their youth, some women have vowed their virginity to God: various are the gifts, but all these are one virgin. Where is this virginity, for it is not in the body. It belongs to few women; and if virginity can be said of men, to few men in the Church belongs a holy integrity even of body; yet one such is a more honorable member. Other members, however, preserve virginity, not in body, but all in mind. What is the virginity of the mind? Entire faith, firm hope, sincere charity. This is the virginity which he, who, was jealous for the Bridegroom, feared might be corrupted by the serpent. For, just as the bodily member is marred in a certain part, so the seduction of the tongue defiles the virginity of the heart. Let her who does not desire without cause to keep virginity of body, see to it that she be not corrupted in mind.

13. What shall I say, then, brethren? Even the heretics have virgins, and there are many virgins among heretics. Let us see whether they love the Bridegroom, so that this virginity may be guarded. For whom is it guarded? For Christ. Let us see if it be for Christ, and not for Donatus: let us see for whom this virginity is preserved: you can easily prove. Behold, I show you the Bridegroom, for He shows Himself. John bears witness to Him: This is He that baptizes. O you virgin, if for this Bridegroom you preserve your virginity, why do you run to him who says, I am he that baptizes, while the friend of the Bridegroom tells you, This is He that baptizes? Again, your Bridegroom possesses the whole world; why, then, should you be defiled with a part of it? Who is the Bridegroom? For God is King of all the earth. This your Bridegroom possesses the whole, because He purchased the whole. See at what price He purchased it, that you may understand what He has purchased. What price has He given? He gave His blood. Where gave He, where shed He, His blood? In His passion. Is it not to your Bridegroom you sing, or feignest to sing, when the whole world was purchased: They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones: but they themselves considered me, they looked upon me, they divided my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast lots? You are the bride, acknowledge your Bridegroom's vesture. Upon what vesture was the lot cast? Ask the Gospel; see to whom you are espoused, see from whom you receive pledges. Ask the Gospel; see what it tells you in the suffering of the Lord. There was a coat there: let us see what kind; woven from the top throughout. What does the coat woven from the top signify, but charity? What does this coat signify, but unity? Consider this coat, which not even the persecutors of Christ divided. For it says, They said among themselves, Let us not divide it, but let us cast lots upon it. Behold that of which the psalm spoke! Christ's persecutors did not rend His garment; Christians divide the Church.

14. But what shall I say, brethren? Let us see plainly what He purchased. For there He bought, where He paid the price. Paid it for how much? If He paid it only for Africa, let us be Donatists, and not be called Donatists, but Christians; since Christ bought only Africa: although even here are other than Donatists. But He has not been silent of what He bought in this transaction. He has made up the account: thanks be to God, He has not tricked us. Need there is for that bride to hear, and then to understand to whom she has vowed her virginity. There, in that psalm where it says, They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones; wherein the Lord's passion is most openly declared — the psalm which is read every year on the last week, in the hearing of the whole people, at the approach of Christ's passion; and this psalm is read both among them and us — there, I say, note, brethren, what He has bought: let the bill of merchandise be read: hear ye what He bought: All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship in His sight: for the kingdom is His, and He shall rule the nations. Behold what it is He has bought! Behold! For God, the King of all the earth, is your Bridegroom. Why, then, would you have one so rich reduced to rags? Acknowledge Him: He bought the whole; yet you say, You have a part of it here. Oh, would that you were well-pleasing to your Spouse; would that you who speaks were not defiled, and, what is worse, defiled in heart, not in body! You love a man instead of Christ; love one that says, 'Tis I that baptize; not hearing the friend of the Bridegroom when he says, This is He that baptizes; not hearing him when he says, He that has the bride is the Bridegroom. I have not the bride, said he; but what am I? But the friend of the Bridegroom, who stands and hears Him, rejoices greatly, because of the Bridegroom's voice.

15. Evidently, then, my brethren, it profits those men nothing to keep virginity, to have continence, to give alms. All those doings which are praised in the Church profit them nothing; because they rend unity, namely, that coat of charity. What do they? Many among them are eloquent; great tongues, streams of tongues. Do they speak like angels? Let them hear the friend of the Bridegroom, jealous for the Bridegroom, not for himself: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I have become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 1 Corinthians 13:1

16. But what say they? We have baptism. You have, but not yours. It is one thing to have, another to own. Baptism you have, for you have received to be baptized, received as one enlightened, provided you be not darkened of yourself; and when you give, you give as a minister, not as owner; as a herald proclaiming, not as a judge. The judge speaks through the herald, and nevertheless it is not written in the registers, The herald said, but, The judge said. Therefore see if what you give is yours by authority. But if you have received, confess with the friend of the Bridegroom, A man cannot receive anything, unless it be given him from heaven. Confess with the friend of the Bridegroom, He that has the bride is the Bridegroom; but the friend of the Bridegroom stands and hears Him. But O, would you stood and hear Him, and not fall, to hear yourself! For by hearing Him, you would stand and hear; for you will speak, and your head is puffed with pride. I, says the Church, if I am the bride, if I have received pledges, if I have been redeemed at the price of that blood, do hear the voice of the Bridegroom; and I do hear the voice of the Bridegroom's friend too, if he give glory to my Bridegroom, not to himself. Let the friend speak: He that has the bride is the Bridegroom; but the friend of the Bridegroom stands and hears Him, and rejoices greatly because of the voice of the Bridegroom. Behold, you have sacraments; and I grant that you have. You have the form, but you are a branch cut off from the vine; you have a form, I want the root. There is no fruit of the form, except where there is a root; but where is the root but in charity? Hear the form of the cut-off branches; let Paul speak: Though I know all mysteries, says he, and have all prophecy, and all faith (and how great a faith!), so as to remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

17. Let no man tell you fables, then. Pontius wrought a miracle; and Donatus prayed, and God answered him from heaven. In the first place, either they are deceived, or they deceive. In the last place, grant that he removes mountains: And have not charity, says the apostle, I am nothing. Let us see whether he has charity. I would believe that he had, if he had not divided unity. For against those whom I may call marvel-workers, my God has put me on my guard, saying, In the last times there shall arise false prophets, doing signs and wonders, to lead into error, if it were possible, even the elect: Lo, I have foretold it to you. Mark 13:22-23 Therefore the Bridegroom has cautioned us, that we ought not to be deceived even by miracles. Sometimes, indeed, a deserter frightens a plain countryman; but whether he is of the camp, and whether he is the better of that character with which he is marked, is what he who would not be frightened or seduced attends to. Let us then, my brethren, hold unity: without unity, even he who works miracles is nothing. The people Israel was in unity, and yet wrought no miracles: Pharaoh's magicians were out of unity, and yet they wrought the like works as Moses. Exodus 7:12 The people Israel, as I have said, wrought no miracles. Who were saved with God — they who did, or they who did not, work miracles? The Apostle Peter raised a dead person: Simon Magus did many things: there were there certain Christians who were not able to do either what Peter did or what Simon did; and wherein did they rejoice? In this, that their names were written in heaven. For this is what our Lord Jesus Christ said to the disciples on their return, because of the faith of the Gentiles. The disciples, in truth, themselves said, boasting, Behold, Lord, in Your name even the devils are subject to us. Rightly indeed they confessed, they brought the honor to the name of Christ; and yet what does He say to them? Do not ye glory in this, that the devils are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Luke 10:17 Peter cast out devils. Some old widow, some lay person or other, having charity, and holding the integrity of faith, forsooth does not do this. Peter is the eye in the body, that man is the finger, yet is he in the same body in which Peter is; and if the finger has less power than the eye, yet it is not cut off from the body. Better is it to be a finger and to be in the body, than to be an eye and to be plucked out of the body.

18. Therefore, my brethren, let no man deceive you, let no man seduce you: love the peace of Christ, who was crucified for you, while He was God. Paul says, Neither he that plants is anything, neither he that waters, but God who gives the increase. 1 Corinthians 3:7 And does any of us say that he is something? If we say that we are something, and give not the glory to Him, we are adulterers; we desire ourselves to be loved, not the Bridegroom. Love ye Christ, and us in Him, in whom also you are beloved by us. Let the members love one another, but live all under the Head. With grief indeed, my brethren, I have been obliged to speak much, and yet I have said little: I have not been able to finish the passage; God will help us to finish it in due season. I did not wish to burden your hearts further; I wish them to be free for sighs and prayers in behalf of those who are still deaf and do not understand.

Tractate 14 (John 3:29-36)

1. This lesson from the holy Gospel shows us the excellency of our Lord Jesus Christ's divinity, and the humility of the man who earned the title of the Bridegroom's friend; that we may distinguish between the man who is man, and the Man who is God. For the Man who is God is our Lord Jesus Christ, God before all ages, Man in the age of our world: God of the Father, man of the Virgin, yet one and the same Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Son of God, God and man. But John, a man of distinguished grace, was sent before Him, a man enlightened by Him who is the Light. For of John it is said, He was not the Light, but that he should bear witness of the Light. He may himself be called a light indeed, and rightly so; but an enlightened, not an enlightening light. The light that enlightens, and that which is enlightened, are different things: for even our eyes are called lights (lumina), and yet when we open them in the dark, they do not see. But the light that enlightens is a light both from itself and for itself, and does not need another light for its shining; but all the rest need it, that they may shine.

2. Accordingly John confessed Him: as you have heard that when Jesus was making many disciples, and they reported to John as if to excite him to jealousy, — for they told the matter as if moved by envy, Lo, he is making more disciples than you,— John confessed what he was, and thereby merited to belong to Him, because he dared not affirm himself to be that which Jesus is. Now this is what John said: A man cannot receive anything, unless it be given him from heaven. Therefore Christ gives, man receives. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him. He that has the bride is the Bridegroom; but the friend of the Bridegroom, who stands and hears Him, rejoices greatly because of the Bridegroom's voice. Not of himself did he give himself joy. He that will have joy of himself shall be sad; but he that will have his joy of God will ever rejoice, because God is everlasting. Do you desire to have everlasting joy? Cleave to Him who is everlasting. Such an one John declared himself to be. Because of the Bridegroom's voice, the friend of the Bridegroom rejoices, not because of his own voice, and stands and hears. Therefore, if he falls, he hears Him not: for of a certain one who fell it is said, And he stood not in the truth; John 8:44 this is said of the devil. It behooves the Bridegroom's friend, then, to stand and to hear. What is it to stand? It is to abide in His grace, which he received. And he hears a voice at which he rejoices. Such was John: he knew whereof he rejoiced; he did not arrogate to himself to be what he was not; he knew himself as one enlightened, not the enlightener. But that was the true Light, says the evangelist, that lightens every man coming into this world. If every man, then also John himself; for he too is of men. Moreover, although none has arisen among them that are born of women greater than John, yet he was himself one of those that are born of women. Is he to be compared with Him who, because He willed it, was born by a singular and extraordinary birth? For both generations of the Lord are unexampled, both the divine and the human: by the divine He has no mother; by the human, no father. Therefore John was but one of the rest: of greater grace, however, so that of those born of women none arose greater than he; so great a testimony he gave to our Lord Jesus Christ as to call Him the Bridegroom, and himself the Bridegroom's friend, not worthy however to loose the latchet of the Bridegroom's shoe. You have already heard much on this point, beloved: let us look to what follows; for it is somewhat hard to understand. But as John himself says, that no man can receive anything, unless it be given him from heaven, whatever we shall not have understood, let us ask Him who gives from heaven: for we are men, and cannot receive anything, except He, who is not man, give it us.

3. Now this is what follows: and John says, This my joy therefore is fulfilled. What is his joy? To rejoice at the Bridegroom's voice. It is fulfilled in me, I have my grace; more I do not assume to myself, lest also I lose what I have received. What is this joy? With joy rejoices for the Bridegroom's voice. A man may understand, then, that he ought not to rejoice of his own wisdom, but of the wisdom which he has received from God. Let him ask nothing more, and he loses not what he found. For many, in that they affirmed themselves to be wise, became fools. The apostle convicts them, and says of them, Because that which is known of God is manifest to them; for God has showed it unto them. Hear ye what he says of certain unthankful, ungodly men: For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are seen, being understood by the things that are made, His eternal power likewise, and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. Why without excuse? Because, knowing God (he said not, because they knew Him not), they glorified Him not as God, nor were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened: professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Romans 1:19-22 If they had known God, they had known at the same time that God, and none other, had made them wise; and they would not then attribute to themselves that which they did not have from themselves, but to Him from whom they had received it. But by their unthankfulness they became fools. Therefore, what God gave freely, He took from the unthankful. John would not be this; he would be thankful: he confessed to have received, and declared that he rejoiced for the Bridegroom's voice, saying, Therefore this my joy is fulfilled.

4. He must increase, but I must decrease. What is this? He must be exalted, but I must be humbled. How is Jesus to increase? How is God to increase? The perfect does not increase. God neither increases nor decreases. For if He increases, He is not perfect; if He decreases, he is not God. And how can Jesus increase, being God? If to man's estate, since He deigned to be man and was a child; and, though the Word of God, lay an infant in a manger; and, though His mother's Creator, yet sucked the milk of infancy of her: then Jesus having grown in age of the flesh, that perhaps is the reason why it is said, He must increase, but I must decrease. But why in this? As regards the flesh, John and Jesus were of the same age, there being six months between them: they had grown up together; and if our Lord Jesus Christ had willed to be here longer before His death, and that John should be here with Him, then, as they had grown up together, so would they have grown old together: in what way, then, He must increase but I must decrease? Above all, our Lord Jesus Christ being now thirty years old, does a man who is already thirty years old still grow? From that same age, men begin to go downward, and to decline to graver age, thence to old age. Again, even had they both been lads, he would not have said, He must increase, but, We must increase together. But now each is thirty years of age. The interval of six months makes no difference in age; the difference is discovered by reading rather than by the look of the persons.

5. What means, then, He must increase, but I must decrease? This is a great mystery! Before the Lord Jesus came, men were glorying of themselves; He came a man, to lessen man's glory, and to increase the glory of God. Now He came without sin, and found all men in sin. If thus He came to put away sin, God may freely give, man may confess. For man's confession is man's lowliness: God's pity is God's loftiness. Therefore, since He came to forgive man his sins, let man acknowledge his own lowliness and let God show His pity. He must increase, but I must decrease: that is, He must give, but I must receive; He must be glorified, but I must confess. Let man know his own condition, and confess to God; and hear the apostle as he says to a proud, elated man, bent on extolling himself: What have you that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you glory as if you did not receive it? 1 Corinthians 4:7 Then let man understand that he has received; and when he would call that his own which is not his, let him decrease: for it is good for him that God be glorified in him. Let him decrease in himself, that he may be increased in God. These testimonies and this truth, Christ and John signified by their deaths. For John was lessened by the Head: Christ was exalted on the cross; so that even there it appeared what this is, He must increase, but I must decrease. Again, Christ was born when the days were just beginning to lengthen; John was born when they began to shorten. Thus their very creation and deaths testify to the words of John, when he says, He must increase, but I must decrease. May the glory of God then increase in us, and our own glory decrease, that even ours may increase in God! For this is what the apostle says, this is what Holy Scripture says: He that glories, let him glory in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:31 Will you glory in yourself? You will grow; but grow worse in your evil. For whoever grows worse is justly decreased. Let God, then, who is ever perfect, grow, and grow in you. For the more you understand God, and apprehendest Him, He seems to be growing in you; but in Himself He grows not, being ever perfect. You understood a little yesterday; you understand more today, will understand much more tomorrow: the very light of God increases in you: as if thus God increases, who remains ever perfect. It is as if one's eyes were being cured of former blindness, and he began to see a little glimmer of light, and the next day he saw more, and the third day still more: to him the light would seem to grow; yet the light is perfect, whether he see it or not. Thus it is also with the inner man: he makes progress indeed in God, and God seems to be increasing in him; yet man himself is decreasing, that he may fall from his own glory, and rise into the glory of God.

6. What we have just heard, appears now distinctly and clearly. He that comes from above, is above all. See what he says of Christ. What of himself? He that is of the earth, is of earth, and speaks of the earth. He that comes from above is above all — this is Christ; and he that is of the earth, is of earth, and speaks of the earth — this is John. And is this the whole: John is of the earth, and speaks of the earth? Is the whole testimony that he bears of Christ a speaking of the earth? Are they not voices of God that are heard from John, when he bears witness of Christ? Then how does he speak of the earth? He said this of man. So far as relates to man in himself, he is of earth, and speaks of the earth; and when he speaks some divine things, he is enlightened by God. For, were he not enlightened, he would be earth speaking of earth. God's grace is apart by itself, the nature of man apart by itself. Do but examine the nature of man: man is born and grows, he learns the customs of men. What does he know but earth, of earth? He speaks the things of men, knows the things of men, minds the things of men; carnal, he judges carnally, conjectures carnally: lo! It is man all over. Let the grace of God come, and enlighten his darkness, as it says, You will lighten my candle, O Lord; my God, enlighten my darkness; let it take the mind of man, and turn it to its own light; immediately he begins to say, as the apostle says, Yet not I, but the grace of God that is with me; 1 Corinthians 15:10 and, Now I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me. Galatians 2:20 That is to say, He must increase, but I must decrease. Thus John: as regards John, he is of the earth, and speaks of the earth; whatever that is divine you have heard from John, is of Him that enlightens, not of him that receives.

7. He that comes from heaven is above all; and what He has seen and heard, that He testifies: and no man receives His testimony. Comes from heaven, is above all, our Lord Jesus Christ; of whom it was said above, No man has ascended into heaven, but He that came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven. And He is above all; and what He has seen and heard, that He speaks. Moreover, He has a Father, being Himself the Son of God; He has a Father, and He also hears of the Father. And what is that which He hears of the Father? Who can unfold this? When can my tongue, when can my heart be sufficient, either the heart to understand, or the tongue to utter, what that is which the Son has heard from the Father? May it be the Son has heard the Word of the Father? Nay, the Son is the Word of the Father. You see how all human effort is here wearied out; you see how all guessing of our heart, all straining of our darkened mind, here fails. I hear the Scripture saying that the Son speaks that which He hears from the Father; and again, I hear the Scripture saying that the Son is Himself the Word of the Father: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The words that we speak are fleeting and transient: as soon as your word has sounded from your mouth, it passes away; it makes its noise, and passes away into silence. Can you follow your sound, and hold it to make it stand? Your thought, however, remains, and of that thought that remains you utter many words that pass away. What say we, brethren? When God spoke, did He give out a voice, or sounds, or syllables? If He did, in what tongue spoke He? In Hebrew, or in Greek, or in Latin? Tongues are necessary where there is a distinction of nations. But there none can say that God spoke in this tongue, or in that. Observe your own heart. When you conceive a word which you may utter — For I will say, if I can, what we may note in ourselves, not whereby we may comprehend that — well, when you conceive a word to utter, you mean to utter a thing, and the very conception of the thing is already a word in your heart: it has not yet come forth, but it is already born in the heart, and is waiting to come forth. But you consider the person to whom it is to come forth, with whom you are to speak: if he is a Latin, you seek a Latin expression; if a Greek, you think of Greek words; if a Punic, you consider whether you know the Punic language: for the diversity of hearers you have recourse to various tongues to utter the word conceived; but the conception itself was bound by no tongue in particular. Whilst therefore God, when speaking, required not a language, nor took up any kind of speech, how was He heard by the Son, seeing that God's speaking is the Son Himself? As, in fact, you have in your heart the word that you speak, and as it is with you, and is none other than the spiritual conception itself (for just as your soul is spirit, so also the word which you have conceived is spirit; for it has not yet received sound to be divided by syllables, but remains in the conception of your heart, and in the mirror of the mind); so God gave out His Word, that is, begot the Son. And you, indeed, begettest the word even in your heart according to time; God without time begot the Son by whom He created all times. Whilst, therefore, the Son is the Word of God, and the Son spoke to us not His own word, but the word of the Father, He willed to speak Himself to us when He was speaking the word of the Father. This it is that John said, as was fit and necessary; and we have expounded according to our ability. He whose heart has not yet attained to a proper perception of so great a matter, has whither to turn himself, has where to knock, has from whom to ask, from whom to seek, of whom to receive.

8. He that comes from heaven is above all; and what He has seen and heard, that testifies He; and His testimony no man receives. If no man, to what purpose came He? He means, no man of a certain class. There are some people prepared for the wrath of God, to be damned with the devil; of these, none receives the testimony of Christ. For if none at all, not any man, received, what could these words mean, But he that received His testimony has set to his seal that God is true? Not certainly, then, no man, if you say yourself, He that received His testimony has set to his seal that God is true. Perhaps John, on being questioned, would answer and say, I know what I have said, in saying no man. There are, in fact, people born to God's wrath, and thereunto foreknown. For God knows who they are that will and that will not believe; He knows who they are that shall persevere in that in which they have believed, and who that shall fall away; and all that shall be for eternal life are numbered by God; and He knows already the people set apart. And if He knows this, and has given to the prophets by His Spirit to know it, He gave this also to John. Now John was observing, not with his eye — for as regards himself he is earth, and speaks of earth — but with that grace of the Spirit which he received of God, he saw a certain people, ungodly, unbelieving. Contemplating that people in its unbelief, he says, His testimony, who came from heaven, no man receives. No man of whom? Of them who shall be on the left hand, of them to whom it shall be said, Go into the everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. Who are they that do receive it? They who shall be at the right hand, they to whom it shall be said, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which is prepared for you from the beginning of the world. He observes, then, in the Spirit a dividing, but in the human race a mingling together; and that which is not yet separated locally, he separated in the understanding, in the view of the heart; and he saw two peoples, one of believers, one of unbelievers. Fixing his thought on the unbelievers, he says, He that comes from heaven is above all; and what He has seen and heard, that He testifies and no man receives His testimony. He then turned his thought from the left hand, and looked at the right, and proceeded to say, He that received His testimony has set to his seal that God is true. What means has set to his seal that God is true, if it be not that man is a liar, and God is true? For no human being can speak any truth, unless he be enlightened by Him who cannot lie. God, then, is true; but Christ is God. Would you prove this? Receive His testimony and you find it. For he that has received His testimony has set to his seal that God is true. Who is true? The same who came from heaven, and is above all, is God, and true. But if you do not yet understand Him to be God, you have not yet received His testimony: receive it, and you put your seal to it; confidently you understand, definitely you acknowledge, that God is true.

9. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God. Himself is the true God, and God sent Him: God sent God. Join both, one God, true God sent by God. Ask concerning them singly, He is God; ask concerning them both, they are God. Not individually God, and both Gods; but each individual God, and both God. For so great is the charity of the Holy Spirit there, so great the peace of unity, that when you question about them individually, the answer to you is, God; when you ask concerning the Trinity, you get for answer, God. For if the spirit of man, when it cleaves to God, is one spirit, as the apostle openly declares, He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit; 1 Corinthians 6:17 how much more is the equal Son, joined to the Father, together with Him one God! Hear another testimony. You know how many believed, when they sold all they had and laid it at the apostles' feet, that it might be distributed to each according to his need; and what says the Scripture of that gathering of the saints? They had one soul and one heart in the Lord. Acts 4:32 If charity made one soul of so many souls, and one heart of so many hearts, how great must be the charity between the Father and the Son! Surely it must be greater than that between those men who had one heart. If, then, the heart of many brethren was one by charity, if the soul of many brethren was one by charity, would you say that God the Father and God the Son are two? If they are two Gods, there is not the highest charity between them. For if charity is here so great as to make your soul and your friend's soul one soul, how can it be then that the Father and the Son is not one God? Far be unfeigned faith from this thought. In short, how excellent that charity is, understand hence: the souls of many men are many, and if they love one another, it is one soul; still, in the case of men, they may be called many souls, because the union is not so strong. But there it is right for you to say one God; two or three Gods it is not right for you to say. From this, the supreme and surpassing excellency of charity is shown you to be such, that a greater cannot be.

10. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God. This, of course, he said of Christ, to distinguish himself from Christ. What then? Did not God send John himself? Did he not say himself, I am sent before Him? And, He that sent me to baptize with water? And is it not of John that it is said, Behold, I send my messenger before You, and he shall prepare Your way? Malachi 3:1 Does he not himself speak the words of God, he of whom it is said that he is more than a prophet? Then, if God sent him too, and he speaks the words of God, how do we understand him to have distinctly said of Christ, He whom God has sent speaks the words of God? But see what he adds: For God gives not the Spirit by measure. What is this, For God gives not the Spirit by measure? We find that God does give the Spirit by measure. Hear the apostle when he says, According to the measure of the gift of Christ. Ephesians 4:7 To men He gives by measure, to the only Son He gives not by measure. How does He give to men by measure? To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of wisdom according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another kinds of tongues; to another the gift of healing. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gift of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 1 Corinthians 12:8-30 This man has one gift, that man another; and what that man has, this has not: there is a measure, a certain division of gifts. To men, therefore, it is given by measure, and concord among them makes one body. As the hand receives one kind of gift to work, the eye another to see, the ear another to hear, the foot another to walk; nevertheless the soul that does all is one, in the hand to work, in the foot to walk, in the ear to hear, in the eye to see; so are also the gifts of believers diverse, distributed to them as to members, to each according to his proper measure. But Christ, who gives, receives not by measure.

11. Now hear further what follows: because He had said of the Son, For God gives not the Spirit by measure: the Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand, He added, has given all things into His hands, that you might know also here with what distinction it is said, The Father loves the Son. And why? Does the Father not love John? And yet He has not given all things into his hand. Does the Father not love Paul? And yet He has not given all things into his hand. The Father loves the Son: but as father loves, not as master loves a servant; as the Only Son, not as an adopted son. And so has given all things into His hand. What means all things? That the Son should be such as the Father is. To equality with Himself He begot Him in whom it was no robbery to be in the form of God, equal to God. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. Therefore, having deigned to send us the Son, let us not imagine that it is something less than the Father that is sent to us. The Father, in sending the Son, sent His other self.

12. But the disciples, still thinking that the Father is something greater than the Son, seeing only the flesh, and not understanding His divinity, said to Him, Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us. As much as to say, We know You already, and bless You that we know You: for we thank You that You have shown Yourself to us. But as yet we know not the Father: therefore our heart is inflamed, and occupied with a certain holy longing of seeing Your Father who sent You. Show us Him, and we shall desire nothing more of You: for it suffices us when He has been shown, than whom none can be greater. A good longing, a good desire; but small intelligence. Now the Lord Jesus Himself, regarding them as small men seeking great things, and Himself great among the small, and yet small among the small, says to Philip, one of the disciples, who had said this: Am I so long time with you, and you have not known me, Philip? Here Philip might have answered, You we have known, but did we say to You, Show us Yourself? We have known You, but it is the Father we seek to know. He immediately adds, He that has seen me, has seen the Father also. John 14:8-9 If, then, One equal with the Father has been sent, let us not estimate Him from the weakness of the flesh, but think of the majesty clothed in flesh, but not weighed down by the flesh. For, remaining God with the Father, He was made man among men, that, through Him who was made man, you might become such as to receive God. For man could not receive God. Man could see man; God he could not apprehend. Why could he not apprehend God? Because he had not the eye of the heart, by which to apprehend Him. There was something within disordered, something without sound: man had the eyes of the body sound, but the eyes of the heart sick. He was made man to the eye of the body; so that, believing on Him who could be seen in bodily form, you might be healed for seeing Him whom you were not able to see spiritually. Am I so long time with you, and you know me not, Philip? He that has seen me, has seen the Father also. Why did they not see Him? Lo, they did see Him, and yet saw not the Father: they saw the flesh, but the majesty was concealed. What the disciples who loved Him saw, saw also the Jews who crucified Him. Inwardly, then, was He all; and in such manner inwardly in the flesh, that He remained with the Father when He came to the flesh.

13. Carnal thought does not apprehend what I say: let it defer understanding, and begin by faith; let it hear what follows: He that believes in the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him. He has not said, The wrath of God comes to him; but, The wrath of God abides on him. All that are born mortals have the wrath of God with them. What wrath of God? That wrath which Adam first received. For if the first man sinned, and heard the sentence, You shall die the death, he became mortal, and we began to be born mortal; and we have been born with the wrath of God. From this stock came the Son, not having sin, and He was clothed with flesh and mortality. If He partook with us of the wrath of God, are we slow to partake with Him the grace of God? He, then, that will not believe the Son, on the same the wrath of God abides. What wrath of God? That of which the apostle says, We also were by nature the children of wrath, even as the rest. Ephesians 2:3 All are therefore children of wrath, because coming of the curse of death. Believe on Christ, for you made mortal, that you may receive Him, the immortal; and when you shall have received His immortality, you shall no longer be mortal. He lived, you were dead; He died that you should live. He has brought us the grace of God, and has taken away the wrath of God. God has conquered death, lest death should conquer man.