Augustin on John 39


Tractate XL.

40 (Jn 8,28-32.

I). Of the holy Gospel according to John, which you see in our hand, your Charity has already heard much, whereon by God’s grace we have discoursed according to our ability, pressing on your notice that this evangelist, specially, has chosen to speak of the Lord’s divinity, wherein He is equal with the Father and the only Son of God; and on that account he has been compared to the eagle, because no other bird is understood to take a loftier flight. Accordingly, to what follows in order, as the Lord enables us to treat of it, listen with all your attention.

2. We have spoken to you on the preceding passage, suggesting how the Father may be understood as True, and the Son as the Truth. But when the Lord Jesus said, “He that sent me is true,” the Jews understood not that He spake to them of the Father. And He said to them, as you have just heard in the reading, “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am, and [that] I do nothing of myself; but as the Father hath taught me, I speak these things.” What means this? For it looks as if all He said was, that they would know who He was after His passion. Without doubt, therefore, He saw that some there, whom He Himself knew, whom with the rest of His saints He Himself in His foreknowledge had chosen before the foundation of the world, would believe after His passion. These are the very persons whom we are constantly commending, and with much entreaty setting forth for your imitation. For on the sending down of the Holy Spirit after the Lord’s passion, and resurrection, and ascension, when miracles were being done in the name of Him whom, as if dead, the persecuting Jews had despised, they were pricked in their hearts; and they who in their rage slew Him were changed and believed; and they who in their rage shed His blood, now in the spirit of faith drank it; to wit, those three thousand, and those five thousand Jews1 whom now He saw there, when He said, “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am [He].” It was as if He had said, I let your recognition lie over till I have completed my passion: in your own order ye shall know who I am. Not that all who heard Him were only then to believe, that is, after the Lord’s passion; for a little after it is said, “As He spake these words, many believed, on Him;” and the Son of man was not yet lifted up. But the lifting up He is speaking of is that of His passion, not of His glorification; of the cross, not of heaven; for He was exalted there also when He hung on the tree. But that exaltation was His humiliation; for then He became obedient even to the death of the cross.2 This required to be accomplished by the hands of those who should afterwards believe, and to whom He says, “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am [He].” And why so, but that no one might despair, however guilty his conscience, when he saw those forgiven their homicide who had slain the Christ?

3. The Lord then, recognizing such in that crowd, said, “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am [He].” You know already what “I am” signifies; and we must not be continually repeating, lest so great a subject beget distaste. Recall that, “I am who am,” and “He who is hath sent me,”3 and you will recognize the meaning of the words, “Then shall ye know that I am.” But both the Father is, and the Holy Spirit is. To the same is belongs the whole Trinity. But because the Lord spake as the Son, in order that, when He says, “Then shall ye know that I am,” there might be no chance of entrance for the error of the Sabellians, that is, of the Patripassians,-an error which I have charged you not to hold, but to beware of,-the error, I mean, of those who have said, The Father and Son are one and the same; two names, but one reality;-to guard them against that error, when the Lord said, “Then shall ye know that I am,” that He might not be understood as Himself the Father, He immediately added, “And I do nothing of myself; but as my Father taught me, I speak these things.” Already was the Sabellian beginning to rejoice over the discovery of a ground for his error; but immediately on showing himself as it were in the shade, he was confounded by the light of the following sentence. Thou thoughtest that He was the Father, because He said, “I am.” Hear now that He is the Son: “And I do nothing of myself.” What means this, “I do nothing of myself”? Of myself I am not. For the Son is God, of4 the Father; but the Father is God, yet not of the Son. The Son is God of God, and the Father is God, but not of God. The Son is light of light; and the Father is light, but not of light. The Son is, but there is [One] of whom He is; and the Father is, but there is none of whom He is.

4. Let not then, my brethren, His further words, “As my Father hath taught me, I speak these things,” be the occasion of any carnal thought stealing into your minds. For human weakness cannot think, but as it is accustomed to act and to hear. Do not then set before your eyes as it were two men, one the father, the other the son, and the father speaking to the son; as any one of you may do, when you say something to your son, admonishing and instructing him how to speak, to charge his memory with what you have told him, and, having done so, to express it in words, to enunciate distinctly, and convey to the ears of others what he has apprehended with his own. Think not thus, lest you be fabricating idols in your heart. The human shape, the outlines of human limbs, the form of human flesh, the outward senses, stature and motions of the body, the functions of the tongue, the distinctions of sounds,-think not of such as existing in that Trinity, save as they pertain to the servant-form, which the only-begotten Son assumed, when the Word was made flesh to dwell among us.5 Thereof I forbid thee not, human weakness, to think according to thy knowledge: nay, rather I require thee. If the faith that is in thee be true, think of Christ as such; but as such of the Virgin Mary, not of God the Father. He was an infant, He grew as a man, He walked as a man, He hungered, He thirsted as a man, He slept as a man; at last He suffered as a man, hung on the tree, was slain and buried as a man. In the same form He rose again; in the same, before the eyes of His disciples, He ascended into heaven; in the same will He yet come to judgment. For angel lips have declared in the Gospel, “He shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.”6 When then you think of the servant-form in Christ, think of a human likeness, if you have faith; but when you think, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,”7 away with all human fashioning from your heart. Banish from your thoughts everything bounded by corporeal limits, included in local measurement, or spread out in a mass, how great soever its size. Perish utterly such a figment from your heart. Think, if you can, on the beauty of wisdom, picture to yourself the beauty of righteousness. Has that a shape? a size? a color? It has none of these, and yet it is; for if it were not, it would neither be loved nor worthy of praise, nor be cherished in our heart and life as an object of honor and affection. But men here become wise; and whence would they so, had wisdom no existence? And further, O man, if thou canst not see thine own wisdom with the eyes of the flesh, nor think of it by the same mental imagery as thou canst of bodily things, wilt thou dare to thrust the shape of a human body on the wisdom of God?

5. What shall we say then, brethren? How spake the Father to the Son, seeing that the Son says, “As the Father taught me, I speak these things”? Did He speak to Him? When the Father taught the Son, did He use words, as you do when you teach your son? How could He use words to the Word! What words, many in number, could be used to the one Word? Did the Word of the Father approach His ears to the Father’s mouth? Such things are carnal: banish them from your hearts. For this I say, if only you have understood my words, I certainly have spoken and my words have sounded, and by their sound have reached your ears, and through your sense of hearing have carried their meaning to your mind, if so be you have understood. Suppose that some person of Latin8 speech has heard, but has only heard without understanding, what I have said. As regards the noise issuing from my mouth, he who has understood not has been a sharer therein just like yourselves. He has heard that sound; the same syllables have smote on his ears, but they have produced no effect on his mind. Why? Because he understood not. But if you have understood, whence comes your understanding? My words have sounded in the ear: have I kindled any light in the heart? Without doubt, if what I have said is true, and this truth you have not only heard, but also understood, two things have there been wrought (distinguish between them), hearing and intelligence. Hearing has been wrought by me, but by whom has understanding? I have spoken to the ear, that you might hear; who has spoken to your heart for understanding? Doubtless some one has also said something to your heart, that not only the noise of words might strike your ear, but something also of the truth might descend into your heart. Some one has spoken also to your heart, but you do not see him. If, brethren, you have understood, your heart also has been spoken to. Intelligence is the gift of God. And who, if you have understood, has spoken so in your heart, but He to whom the Psalm says, “Give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments?”9 For example, the bishop has spoken. What has he said, some one asks. You repeat what he has spoken, and add, He has said the truth. Then another, who has not understood, says, What has he said, or what is it you are praising? Both have heard me; I have spoken to both; but to one of them God has spoken. If we may compare small things with great (for what are we to Him?), something, I know not what, of an incorporeal and spiritual kind God works in us, which is neither sound to strike the ear, nor color to be discerned by the eyes, nor smell to enter the nostrils, nor taste to be judged of by the mouth, nor anything hard or soft to be sensible to the touch; yet something there is which it is easy to feel,-impossible to explain. If then God, as I was saying, speaks in our hearts without sound, how speaks He to His Son? Thus then, brethren, think thus as much as you can, if, as I have said, we may in some measure compare small things with great: think thus. In an incorporeal way the Father spoke to the Son, because in an incorporeal way the Father begot the Son. Nor did He so teach Him as if He had begotten Him untaught; but to have taught Him is the same as to have begotten Him full of knowledge; and this, “The Father hath taught me,” is the same as, The Father hath begotten me already knowing. For if, as few understand, the nature of the Truth is simple, to be is to the Son the same as to know. From Him therefore He has knowledge, from whom He has being.10 Not that from Him He had first being, and afterwards knowledge; but as in begetting He gave Him to be, so in begetting He gave Him to know; for, as was said, to the simple nature of the Truth, being is not one thing and knowing another, but one and the same.

6. Thus then He spoke to the Jews, and added, “And He that sent me is with me.” He had already said this also before, but of this important point He is constantly reminding them,-“He sent me,” and “He is with me.” If then, O Lord, He is with Thee, not so much hath the One been sent by the other, but ye Both have come. And yet, while Both are together, One was sent, the Other was the sender; for incarnation is a sending, and the incarnation itself belongs only to the Son and not to the Father. The Father therefore sent the Son, but did not withdraw from the Son. For it was not that the Father was absent from the place to which He sent the Son. For where is not the Maker of all things? Where is He not, who said, “I fill heaven and earth”?11 But perhaps the Father is everywhere, and the Son not so? Listen to the evangelist: “He was in this world, and the world was made by Him.”12 Therefore said He, “He that sent me,” by whose power as Father I am incarnate, “is with me,-hath not left me.” Why hath He not left me? “He hath not left me,” He says, “alone; for I do always those things that please Him.” That equality exists always; not from a certain beginning, and then onwards; but without beginning, without end. For Divine generation has no beginning in time, since time itself was created by the Only-begotten.

7. “As He spake these words, many believed on Him.” Would that, while I speak also, many, who before this were otherwise disposed, understood and believed on Him! For perhaps there are some Arians in this large assembly. I dare not suspect that there are any Sabellians, who say that the Father Himself is one with the Son, seeing that heresy is too old, and has been gradually eviscerated. But that of the Arians seems still to have some movement about it, like that of a putrefying carcase, or certainly, at the most, like a man at the last gasp; and from this some still require deliverance, just as from that other many were delivered. This province, indeed, did not use to have such; but ever since the arrival of many foreigners, some of these have also found their way to our neighborhood. See then, while the Lord spoke these words, many Jews believed on Him. May I see also that, while I am speaking, Arians are believing, not on me, but with me!

8. “Then said the Lord to those Jews who believed on Him, If ye continue in my word.” “Continue,” I say, for you are now initiated and have begun to be there. “If ye continue,” that is, in the faith which is now begun in you who believe, to what will you attain? See the nature of the beginning, and whither it leads. You have loved the foundation, give heed to the summit, and out of this low condition seek that other elevation. For faith has humility, but knowledge and immortality and eternity possess not lowliness, but loftiness; that is, upraising, all-sufficiency, eternal stability, full freedom from hostile assault, from fear of failure. That which has its beginning in faith is great, but is despised. In a building also the foundation is usually of little account with the unskilled. A large trench is made, and stones are thrown in every way and everywhere. No embellishment, no beauty are apparent there; just as also in the root of a tree there is no appearance of beauty. And yet all that delights you in the tree has sprung from the root. You look at the root and feel no delight: you look at the tree and admire it. Foolish man! what you admire has grown out of that which gave you no delight. The faith of believers seems a thing of little value,-you have no scales to weigh it. Hear then to what it attains, and see its greatness: as the Lord Himself says in another place, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed.”13 What is there of less account than that, yet what is there pervaded with greater energy? What more minute, yet what more fervidly expansive? And so “ye” also, He says, “if ye continue in my word,” wherein ye have believed, to what will ye be brought? “ye shall be my disciples indeed.” And what does that benefit us? “and ye shall know the truth.”

9. What, brethren, does He promise believers? “And ye shall know the truth.” Why so? Had they not come to such knowledge when the Lord was speaking? If they had not, how did they believe? They believed, not because they knew, but that they might come to know. For we believe in order that we may know, we do not know in order that we may believe. For what we shall yet know, neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered the heart of man.14 For what is faith, but believing what you see not? Faith then is to believe what you see not; truth, to see what you have believed, as He Himself saith in a certain place. The Lord then walked on earth, first of all, for the creation of faith. He was man, He was made in a low condition. He was seen by all, but not by all was He known. By many was He rejected, by the multitude was He slain, by few was He mourned; and yet even by those who mourned Him, His true being was still unrecognized. All this is the beginning as it were of faith’s lineaments and future up-building. As the Lord, referring thereto, saith in a certain place, “He that loveth me keepeth my commandments; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”15 They certainly already saw the person to whom they were listening; and yet to them, if they loved Him, does He give it as a promise that they should see Him. So also here, “Ye shall know the truth.” How so? Is that not the truth which Thou hast been speaking? The truth it is, but as yet it is only believed, not beheld. If you abide in that which is believed, you shall attain to that which is seen. Hence John himself, the holy evangelist, says in his epistle, “Dearly beloved, we are the sons of God; but it is not yet apparent what we shall be.” We are so already, and something we shall be. What more shall we be than we are? Listen: “It is not yet apparent what we shall be: [but] we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him.” How? “For we shall see Him as He is.”16 A great promise, but the reward of faith. You seek the reward; then let the work precede. If you believe, ask for the reward of faith; but if you believe not, with what face can you seek the reward of faith? “If” then “ye continue in my word, ye shall be my disciples indeed,” that ye may behold the very truth as it is, not through sounding words, but in dazzling light, wherewith He shall satisfy17 us: as we read in the psalm, “The light of Thy countenance is impressed upon us.”18 We are God’s money: we have wandered away as coin from the treasury. The impression that was stamped upon us has been rubbed out by our wandering. He has come to refashion, for He it was that fashioned us at first; and He is Himself asking for His money, as Caesar for his. Therefore He says, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s:”19 to Caesar his money, to God yourselves. And then shall the truth be reproduced in us.

10. What shall I say to your Charity? Oh that our hearts were in some measure aspiring after that ineffable glory! Oh that we were passing our pilgrimage in sighs, and loving not the world, and continually pushing onwards with pious minds to Him who hath called us! Longing is the very bosom of the heart. We shall attain, if with all our power we give way to our longing. Such in our behalf is the object of the divine Scriptures, of the assembling of the people, of the celebration of the sacraments , of holy baptism, of singing God’s praise, and of this our own exposition,-that this longing may not only be implanted and germinate, but also expand to such a measure of capacity as to be fit to take in what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man. But love with me. He who loves God is not much in love with money, And I have but touched on this infirmity, not venturing to say, He loves not money at all, but, He loves not money much; as if money were to be loved, but not in a great degree. Oh, were we loving God worthily, we should have no love at all for money! Money then will be thy means of pilgrimage, not the stimulant of lust; something to use for necessity, not to joy over as a means of delight. Love God, if He has wrought in thee somewhat of that which thou hearest and praisest. Use the world: let not the world hold thee captive. Thou art passing on the journey thou hast begun; thou hast come, again to depart, not to abide. Thou art passing on thy journey, and this life is but a wayside inn. Use money as the traveller at an inn uses table, cup, pitcher, and couch, with the purpose not of remaining, but of leaving them behind. If such you would be, you, who can stir up your hearts and hear me; if such you would be, you will attain to His promises. It is not too much for your strength, for mighty is the hand of Him who hath called you. He hath called you. Call upon Him, say to Him, Thou hast called us, we call upon Thee; see, we have heard Thee calling us, hear us calling upon Thee: lead us whither Thou hast promised; perfect what Thou hast begun; forsake not Thine own gifts; leave not Thine own field; let Thy tender shoots yet be gathered into Thy barn. Temptations abound in the world, but greater is He who made the world. Temptations abound, but he fails not whose hope reposes in Him in whom there is no deficiency.

11. I have been exhorting you, brethren, to this in such words, because the freedom of which our Lord Jesus Christ speaks belongs not to this present time. Look at what He added: “Ye shall be my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” What means that-“shall set you free”? It shall make you freemen. In a word, the carnal, and fleshly-minded Jews-not those who had believed, but those in the crowd who believed not-thought that an injury was done them, because He said to them, “The truth shall make you free.” They were indignant at being designated as slaves. And slaves truly they were; and He explains to them what slavery it is, and what is that future freedom which is promised by Himself. But of this liberty and of that slavery it were too long to speak to-day.

1 (Ac 2,37 Ac 2,41 Ac 4,4.
2 (Ph 2,8,
3 (Ex 3,14).
4 De: so in what follows.
5 Chap. 1,14.
6 (Ac 1,11,
7 Chap. 1,1.
8 “Latin” here, as used by Augustin, would require to be translated “English,” to give the exact force of the illustration in an English version.-Tr).
9 (Ps 119,73,
10 Ut noverit-ut sit.
11 (Jr 23,24,
12 Chap. 1,10).
13 (Mt 17,20).
14 (Is 64,4 1Co 2,9,
15 Chap. 14,21).
16 (1Jn 3,2).
17 Or “impress;” satiaverit, or signaverit.
18 (Ps 4,6, Aug., with Vulg,. translates rbyl,x;Ahm;nŇ
 passively and indic., instead of active and imperat., as Engl. Vers.-Tr).
19 (Mt 22,21,



Tractate XLI.

41
(
Jn 8,31-36.

1. Of what follows of the previous lesson, and has been read publicly to us to-day from the holy Gospel, I then deferred speaking, because I had already said much, and of that liberty into which the grace of the Saviour calleth us it was needful to treat in no cursory or negligent way. Of this, by the Lord’s help, we purpose speaking to you to-day. For those to whom the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking were Jews. in a large measure indeed His enemies, but also in some measure already become, and yet to be, His friends; for some He saw there, as we have already said, who should yet believe after His passion. Looking to these, He had said, “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am [He].”1 There also were those who, when He so spake. straightway believed. To them He spake what we have heard to-day: “Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on Him, If ye continue in my word, ye shall be my disciples indeed.” By continuing ye shall be so; for as now ye are believers, by so continuing ye shall be beholders. Hence there follows, “And ye shall know the truth.” The truth is unchangeable. The truth is bread, which refreshes our minds and fails not; changes the eater, and is not itself changed into the eater. The truth itself is the Word of God, God with God, the only-begotten Son. This Truth was for our sake clothed with flesh, that He might be born of the Virgin Mary, and the prophecy fulfilled, “Truth has sprung from the earth.”2 This Truth then, when speaking to the Jews, lay hid in the flesh. But He lay hid not in order to be denied, but to be deferred [in His manifestation]; to be deferred, in order to suffer in the flesh; and to suffer in the flesh, in order that flesh might be redeemed from sin. And so our Lord Jesus Christ, standing full in sight as regards the infirmity of flesh, but hid as regards the majesty of Godhead, said to those who had believed on Him, when He so spake, “If ye continue in my word, ye shall be my disciples indeed.” For he that endureth to the end shall be saved.3 “And ye shall know the truth,” which now is hid from you, and speaks to you. “And the truth shall free you.” This word, liberabit [shall free], the Lord hath taken from libertas [freedom]. For liberat [frees, delivers] is properly nothing else but liberum facit [makes free]. As salvat [he saves] is nothing else but salvum facit [he makes safe]; as he heals is nothing else but he makes whole; he enriches is nothing else but he makes rich; so liberat [he frees] is nothing else but liberum facit [he makes free]. This is clearer in the Greek word.4 For in Latin usage we commonly say that a man is delivered (liberari), in regard not to liberty, but only to safety, just as one is said to be delivered from some infirmity. So is it said customarily, but not properly. But the Lord made such use of this word in saying, “And the truth shall make you free (liberabit),” that in the Greek tongue no one could doubt that He spake of freedom.

2. In short, the Jews also so understood and “answered Him;” not those who had already believed, but those in that crowd who were not yet believers. “They answered Him, We are Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be free?” But the Lord had not said, “Ye shall be free,” but, “The truth shall make you free.” That word, however, they, because, as I have said, it is clearly so in the Greek, understood as pointing only to freedom, and puffed themselves up as Abraham’s seed, and said, “We are Ahraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be free?” O inflated skin! such is not magnanimity, but windy swelling. For even as regards freedom in this life, how was that the truth when you said, “We were never in bondage to any man”? Was not Joseph sold?5 Were not the holy prophets led into captivity?6 And again, did not that very nation, when making bricks in Egypt, also serve hard rulers, not only in gold and silver, but also in clay?7 If you were never in bondage to any man, ungrateful people, why is it that God is continually reminding you that He delivered you from the house of bondage?8 Or mean you, perchance, that your fathers were in bondage, but you who speak were never in bondage to any man? How then were you now paying tribute to the Romans, out of which also you formed a trap for the Truth Himself, as if to ensnare Him, when you said, “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar?” in order that, had He said, It is lawful, you might fasten on Him as one ill-disposed to the liberty of Abraham’s seed; and if He said, It is not lawful, you might slander Him before the kings of the earth, as forbidding the payment of tribute to such? Deservedly were you defeated on producing the money, and compelled yourselves to concur in your own capture. For there it was told you, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” after your own reply, that the money-piece bore the image of Caesar.9 For as Caesar looks for his own image on the coin, so God looks for His in man. Thus, then, did He answer the Jews. I am moved, brethren, by the hollow pride of men, because even of that very freedom of theirs, which they understood carnally, they lied when they said, “We were never in bondage to any man.”

3. But to the Lord’s own answer, let us give better and more earnest heed, lest we ourselves be also found bondmen. For “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that every one who committeth sin is the servant of sin.” He is the servant-would that it were of man, and not of sin! Who will not tremble at such words? The Lord our God grant us, that is, both you and me, that I may speak in fitting terms of this freedom to be sought, and of that bondage to be avoided. “Amen, amen [verily, verily], I say unto you.” The Truth speaks: and in what sense does the Lord our God claim it as His to say, “Amen, amen, I say unto you”? His charge is weighty in so announcing it. In some sort, if lawful to be said, His form of swearing is, “Amen, amen, I say unto you.” Amen in a way may be interpreted, [It is] true [truly, verily]; and yet it is not interpreted, though it might have been said, What is true [verily] I say unto you. Neither the Greek translator nor the Latin has dared to do so; for this word Amen is neither Greek nor Latin, but Hebrew. So it has remained without interpretation, to possess honor as the covering of something hidden; not in order to be disowned, but that it might not, as a thing laid bare to the eye, fall into disrepute. And yet it is not once, but twice uttered by the Lord, “Amen, amen, I say unto you.” And now learn from the very doubling, how much was implied in the charge before us.

4. What, then, is the charge given? Verily, verily, I say unto you, saith the Truth who surely, though He had not said, Verily, I say, could not possibly lie. Yet [thereby] He impresses, inculcates His charge, arouses in a way the sleeping, makes them attentive, and would not be contemned. What does He say? “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that every one who committeth sin is the servant of sin.” Miserable slavery! Men frequently, when they suffer under wicked masters, demand to get themselves sold, not seeking to be without a master, but at all events to change him. What can the servant of sin do? To whom can he make his demand? To whom apply for redress? Of whom require himself to be sold? And then at times a man’s slave, worn out by the commands of an unfeeling master, finds rest in flight. Whither can the servant of sin flee? Himself he carries with him wherever he flees. An evil conscience flees not from itself; it has no place to go to; it follows itself. Yea, he cannot withdraw from himself, for the sin he commits is within. He has committed sin to obtain some bodily pleasure. The pleasure passes away; the sin remains. What delighted is gone; the sting has remained behind. Evil bondage! Sometimes men flee to the Church, and we generally permit them, uninstructed as they are-men, wishing to be rid of their master, who are unwilling to be rid of their sins. But sometimes also those subjected to an unlawful and wicked yoke flee for refuge to the Church; for, though free-born men, they are retained in bondage: and an appeal is made to the bishop. And unless he care to put forth every effort to save free-birth from oppression, he is accounted unmerciful. Let us all flee to Christ, and appeal against sin to God as our deliverer. Let us seek to get ourselves sold, that we may be redeemed by His blood. For the Lord says, “Ye were sold for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money.”10 Without price, that is, of your own; because of mine. So saith the Lord; for He Himself has paid the price, not in money, but His own blood. Otherwise we had remained both bondmen and indigent.

5. From this bondage, then, we are set free by the Lord alone. He who had it not, Himself delivers us from it; for He alone came without sin in the flesh. For the little ones whom you see carried in their mothers’ hands cannot yet walk, and are already in fetters; for they have received from Adam what they are loosened from by Christ. To them also, when baptized, pertains that grace which is promised by the Lord; for He only can deliver from sin who came without sin, and was made a sacrifice for sin. For you heard when the apostle was read: “We are ambassadors,” he says, “for Christ, as though God were exhorting you by us; we beseech you in Christ’s stead,”-that is, as if Christ were beseeching you, and for what? -“to be reconciled unto God.” If the apostle exhorts and beseeches us to be reconciled unto God, then were we enemies to God. For no one is reconciled unless from a state of enmity. And we have become enemies not by nature, but by sin. From the same source are we the servants of sin, that we are the enemies of God. God has no enemies in a state of freedom. They must be slaves; and slaves will they remain unless delivered by Him to whom they wished by their sins to be enemies. Therefore, says be, “We beseech you in Christ’s stead to be reconciled unto God.” But how are we reconciled, save by the removal of that which separates between us and Himself? For He says by the prophet, “He hath not made the ear heavy that it should not hear; but your iniquities have separated between you and your God.”11 And so, then, we are not reconciled, unless that which is in the midst is taken away, and something else is put in its place. For there is a separating medium, and, on the other hand, there is a reconciling Mediator. The separating medium is sin, the reconciling Mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ: “For there is one God and Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”12 To take then away the separating wall, which is sin, that Mediator has come, and the priest has Himself become the sacrifice. And because He was made a sacrifice for sin, offering Himself as a whole burnt-offering on the cross of His passion, the apostle, after saying, “We beseech you in Christ’s stead to be reconciled unto God,”-as if we had said, How shall we be able to be reconciled?-goes on to say, “He hath made Him,” that is, Christ Himself, “who knew no sin, [to be] sin for us, that we may be the righteousness of God in Him,”13 “Him,” he says, Christ Himself our God, “who knew no sin.” For He came in the flesh, that is, in the likeness of sinful flesh,14 but not in Sinful flesh, because He had no sin at all; and therefore became a true sacrifice for sin, because He Himself had no sin.

6. But perhaps, through some special perception of my own, I have said that sin is a sacrifice for sin. Let those who have read it be free to acknowledge it; let not those who have not read it be backward; let them not, I say, be backward to read, that they may be truthful in judging. For when God gave commandment about the offering of sacrifices for sin, in which sacrifices there was no expiation of sins, but the shadow of things to come, the self-same sacrifices, the self-same offerings, the self-same victims, the self-same animals, which were brought forward to be slain for sins, and in whose blood that [true] blood was prefigured, are themselves called sins15 by the law; and that to such an extent that in certain passages it is written in these terms, that the priests, when about to sacrifice, were to lay their hands on the head of the sin, that is, on the head of the victim about to be sacrificed for sin. Such sin, then, that is, such a sacrifice for sin, was our Lord Jesus Christ made, “who knew no sin.”

7. With efficacious merit does He deliver from this bondage of sin, who saith in the psalms: “I am become as a man without help, free among the dead.”16 For He only was free, because He had no sin. For He Himself says in the Gospel, “Behold, the prince of this world cometh,” meaning the devil about to come in the persons of the persecuting Jews;-“behold,” He says, “he cometh, and shall find nothing in me.”17 Not as he found some measure of sin in those whom he also slew as righteous; in me he shall find nothing. And just as if He were asked, If he shall find nothing in Thee, wherefore will he slay Thee? He further said, “But that all may know that I do the will of my Father, rise and let us go hence.” I do not, He says, pay the penalty of death as a necessity of my sinfulness; but in the death I die, I do the will of my Father. And in this, I am doing rather than enduring it; for, were I unwilling, I should not have had the suffering to endure. You have Him saying in another place, “I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again.”18 Here surely is one “free among the dead.”

8. Since, then, every one that committeth sin is the servant of sin, listen to what is our hope of liberty. “And the servant,” He says, “abideth not in the house for ever.” The church is the house, the servant is the sinner. Many sinners enter the church. Accordingly He has not said, “The servant” is not in the house, but “abideth not in the house for ever.” If, then, there shall be no servant there, who will be there? For “when” as the Scripture speaketh, “the righteous king sitteth on the throne, who will boast of having a clean heart? or who will boast that he is pure from his sin?”19 He has greatly alarmed us, my brethren, by saying, “The servant abideth not in the house for ever.” But He further adds, “But the Son abideth ever.” Will Christ, then, be alone in His house? Will no people remain at His side? Whose head will He be, if there shall be no body? Or is the Son all this, both the head and the body? For it is not without cause that He has inspired both terror and hope: terror, in order that we should not love sin; and hope, that we should not be distrustful of the remission of sin. “Every one,” He says, “that committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever.” What hope, then, have we, who are not without sin? Listen to thy hope: “The Son abideth for ever. If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed.” Our hope is this, brethren, to be made free by the free One; and that, in setting us free, He may make us His servants. For we were the servants of lust; but being set free, we are made the servants of love. This also the apostle says: “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”20 Let not then the Christian say, I am free; I have been called unto liberty: I was a slave, but have been redeemed, and by my very redemption have been made free, I shall do what I please: no one may balk me of my will, if I am free. But if thou committest sin with such a will, thou art the servant of sin. Do not then abuse your liberty for freedom in sinning, but use it for the purpose of sinning not. For only if thy will is pious, will it be free. Thou wilt be free, if thou art a servant still,-free from sin, the servant of righteousness : as the apostle says, “When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”21 Let us be striving after the latter, and be doing the other.

9. The first stage of liberty is to be free from crimes. Give heed, my brethren, give heed, that I may not by any means mislead your understanding as to the nature of that liberty at present, and what it will be. Sift any one soever of the highest integrity in this life, and however worthy he may already be of the name of upright, yet is he not without sin. Listen to Saint John himself, the author of the Gospel before us, when he says in his epistle, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”22 He alone could say this who was “free among the dead:” of Him only could it be said, who knew no sin. It could be said only of Him, for He also “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”23 He alone could say, “Behold, the prince of this world cometh, and shall find nothing in me.” Sift any one else, who is accounted righteous, yet is he not in all respects without sin; not even such as was Job, to whom the Lord bore such testimony, that the devil was filled with envy, and demanded that he should be tempted, and was himself defeated in the temptation, to the end that Jb might be proved.24 And he was proved for this reason, not that the certainty of his carrying off the conqueror’s wreath was unknown to God, but that he might become known as an object of imitation to others. And what says Jb himself? “For who is clean? not even the infant whose life is but a day’s span upon the earth.”25 But it is plain that many are called righteous without opposition, because the term is understood as meaning, free from crime; for in human affairs there is no just ground of complaint attaching to those who are free from criminal conduct. But crime is grievous sin, deserving in the highest measure to be denounced and condemned. Not, however, that God condemns certain sins, and justifies and praises certain others. He approves of none. He hates them all. As the physician dislikes the ailment of the ailing, and works by his healing measures to get the ailment removed and the ailing relieved; so God by his grace worketh in us, that sin may be consumed, and man made free. But when, you will be saying, is it consumed? If it is lessened, why is it not consumed? That is growing less in the life of those who are advancing onwards, which is consumed in the life of those who have attained to perfection.

10. The first stage of liberty, then, is to be free from crimes [sinful conduct]. And so the Apostle Paul, when he determined on the ordination of either elders or deacons, or whoever was to be ordained to the superintendence of the Church, says not, If any one is without sin; for had he said so, every one would be rejected as unfit, none would be ordained: but he says, “If any one is without crime” [E.V. blame],26 such as, murder, adultery, any uncleanness of fornication, theft, fraud, sacrilege, and others of that sort. When a man has begun to be free from these (and every Christian man ought to be so), he begins to raise his head to liberty; but that is liberty begun, not completed. Why, says some one, is it not completed liberty?Because, “I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind;” “for what I would,” he says, “that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.”27 “The flesh,” he says, “lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; so that ye do not the things that ye would.”28 In part liberty, in part bondage: not yet entire, not yet pure, not yet full liberty, because not yet eternity. For we have still infirmity in part, in part we have attained to liberty. Whatever has been our sin, was previously wiped out in baptism. But because all our iniquity has been blotted out, has there remained no infirmity? If there had not, we should be living here without sin. Yet who would venture to say so, but the proud, but the man unworthy of the Deliverer’s mercy, but he who wishes to be self-deceived, and who is destitute of the truth? Hence, from the fact that some infirmity remains, I venture to say that, in what measure we serve God, we are free; in what measure we serve the law of sin, we are still in bondage. Hence says the apostle, what we began to say, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man. “29 Here then it is, wherein we are free, wherein we delight in the law of God; for liberty has joy. For as long as it is from fear that thou doest what is right, God is no delight to thee. Find thy delight in Him, and thou art free. Fear not punishment, but love righteousness. Art thou not yet able to love righteousness? Fear even punishment, that thou mayest attain to the love of righteousness.

11. In the measure then spoken of above, he felt himself to be already free, and therefore said, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” I delight in the law, I delight in its requirements, I delight in righteousness itself. “But I see another law in my members”-this infirmity which remains-“warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.” On this side he feels Iris captivity, where righteousness has not been perfected; for where he delights in the law of God, he is not the captive but the friend of the law; and therefore free, because a friend. What then is to be done with that which so remains? What, but to look to Him who has said, “If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed”? Indeed he also who thus spake so looked to Him: “O wretched man that I am,” he says, “who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Therefore “if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” And then he concluded thus: “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”30 I myself, he says; for there are not two of us contrary to each other, coming from different origins; but “with the mind I myself serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin,” so long as languor struggles against salvation.

12. But if with the flesh thou servest the law of sin, do as the apostle himself says: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof: neither yield ye your members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin.”31 He says not, Let it not be; but, “Let it not reign.” So long as sin must be in thy members, let its reigning power at least be taken away, let not its demands be obeyed. Does anger rise? Yield not up thy tongue to anger for the purpose of evil-speaking; yield not up thy hand or foot to anger for the purpose of striking. That irrational anger would not rise, were there no sin in the members. But take away its ruling power; let it have no weapons wherewith to fight against thee. Then also it will learn not to rise, when it begins to find the lack of weapons. “Yield not your members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin,” else will ye be entirely captive, and there will be no room to say, “With the mind I serve the law of God.” For if the mind keep possession of the weapons, the members are not roused to the service of raging sin. Let the inward ruler keep possession of the citadel, because it stands there under a greater ruler, and is certain of assistance. Let it bridle anger; let it restrain evil desire. There is within something that needs bridling, that needs restraining, that needs to be kept in command. And what did that righteous man wish, who with the mind was serving the law of God, but that there should be a complete deliverance from that which needed to be bridled? And this ought every one to be striving after who is aiming at perfection, that lust itself also, no longer receiving the obedience of the members, may every day be lessened in the advancing pilgrim. “To will,” he says, “is present with me; but not so, how to perfect that which is good.”32 Has he said, To do good is not present with me? Had he said so, hope would be wanting. He does not say, To do is not present with me, but, “To perfect is not present with me.” For what is the perfecting of good, but the elimination and end of evil? And what is the elimination of evil, but what the law says, “Thou shalt not lust [covet]”?33 To lust not at all is the perfecting of good, because it is the eliminating of evil. This he said, “To perfect that which is good is not present with me,” because his doing could not get the length of setting him free from lust. He labored only to bridle lust, to refuse consent to lust, and not to yield his members to its service. “To perfect,” then, he says, “that which is good is not present with me.” I cannot fulfill the commandment, “Thou shalt not lust.” What then is needed? To fulfill this: “Go not after thy lusts.”34 Do this meanwhile so long as unlawful lusts are present in thy flesh; “Go not after thy lusts.” Abide in the service of God, in the liberty of Christ. With the mind serve the law of thy God. Yield not thyself to thy lusts. By following them, thou addest to their strength. By giving them strength, how canst thou conquer, when on thine own strength thou art nourishing enemies against thyself?

13. What then is that full and perfect liberty in the Lord Jesus, who said, “If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed;” and when shall it be a full and perfect liberty? When enmities are no more; when “death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed.” “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.-And when this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy struggle?”35 What is this, “O death, where is thy struggle”? “The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh,” but only when the flesh of sin was in vigor. “O death, where is [now] thy struggle?” Now shall we live, no more shall we die, in Him who died for us and rose again: “that they,” he says, “who live, should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again.”36 Let us be praying, as those who are wounded, for the physician; let us be carried into the inn to be healed. For it is He who promises salvation, who pitied the man left half-alive on the road by robbers. He poured in oil and wine, He healed the wounds, He put him on his beast, He took him to the inn, He commended him to the innkeeper’s care. To what innkeeper? Perhaps to him who said, “We are ambassadors for Christ.” He gave also two pence to pay for the healing of the wounded man.37 And perhaps these are the two commandments, on which hang all the law and the prophets.38 Therefore, brethren, is the Church also, wherein the wounded is healed meanwhile, the traveller’s inn; but above the Church itself, lies the possessor’s inheritance.

1 Chap. 8,28).
2 (Ps 85,11.
3 (Mt 10,22,
4 evleuqerwsei
5 (Gn 37,28,
6 (2R 24 Ez 1,1, etc.-Tr).
7 (Ex 1,14,
8 (Ex 13,3 Dt 5,6, etc.
9 (Mt 22,15-21).
10 (Is 52,3,
11 (Is 59,1-2.
12 (1Tm 2,5).
13 (2Co 5,20-21).
14 (Rm 8,3,
15 That is, “sin-offerings.” Peccata is here used to correspond to the Hebrew µŤ;a;
and jaC;j'
, which signify, the one, both trespass and trespass-offering, and the other, sin and sin-offering; indicating the thoroughness of the substitutionary idea.-Tr.
16 (Ps 88,4-5).
17 Chap. 14,30, 31.
18 Chap. 10,18).
19 (Pr 20,8-9).
20 (Ga 5,13).
21 (Rm 6,20 Rm 6,22.
22 (1Jn 1,8,
23 (He 4,15,
24 (Jb 1,2,
25 (Jb 14,4-5; according to a reading of the Septuagint.
26 (1Tm 3,10 Tt 1,6,
27 (Rm 7,13 Rm 7,15.
28 (Ga 5,17,
29 (Rm 7,22).
30 (Rm 7,23-25.
31 (Rm 6,12-13.
32 (Rm 7,18,
33 (Ex 20,17).
34 (Si 18,30,
35 (1Co 15,26 1Co 15,53-55. Struggle, “contentio.”
36 (2Co 5,15,
37 (Lc 10,30-35.
38 (Mt 22,37-40.



Augustin on John 39