Augustine, Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John

of the leaves? Does he do any such thing within? But who does this? Hear the husbandman, the Apostle, and see what we are, and hear the inner Master: I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase: neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters; but God Who gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:6–7). This, then, we say to you: whether we plant or whether we water by speaking, we are not anything; but He Who gives the increase, God, that is, His anointing which teaches you concerning all things.

TRACTATE IV.

On what follows, And He is true, and is no liar; as far as this, For this the Son of God was manifested, that He might undo the works of the devil. Chap. II, vv. 27-29, and chap. III, vv. 1-8.

1. You remember, brethren, that yesterday's reading ended at this: that you have no need that anyone should teach you, but the anointing itself teaches you concerning all things. And this, as I am sure you remember, we expounded to you thus: that we who speak from outside to your ears are like workmen applying cultivation to a tree from outside, but we cannot give the increase, nor form the fruits: but unless He Who created you, and redeemed, and called you, dwelling in you through faith and His Spirit, speak to you within, we make our din to no purpose. Whence does this appear? Because, though many hear, what is said does not persuade all; but only those to whom God speaks within. And He speaks within to those who give Him place: and those give place to God who give no place to the devil. For the devil wishes to dwell in the hearts of men, and to speak there all things that avail for seduction. But what does the Lord Jesus say? The prince of this world is cast out (John 12:31). Cast out from where? Outside heaven and earth? Outside the fabric of the world? No, but outside the hearts of believers. The invader being cast out, let the redeemer dwell; because He Who created, Himself redeemed. And the devil now attacks from outside; he does not conquer him who possesses within. And he attacks from outside by sending in various temptations: but he does not consent, to whom God speaks within, and the anointing of which you have heard.

2. And it is true, he says, that same anointing; that is, the very Spirit of the Lord Who teaches men cannot lie. « And is no liar. As He has taught you, abide in it. And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He shall have been manifested we may have confidence in His sight, that we may not be confounded by Him at His coming. » You see, brethren: we believe in Jesus Whom we have not seen: those who saw, who handled, who heard the word from His own mouth, announced Him; and that they might persuade the human race of these things, they were sent by Him; they did not dare to go of themselves. And whither were they sent? You heard when the Gospel was read, Go, preach the Gospel to every creature that is under heaven (Mark 16:15). Everywhere, therefore, the disciples were sent,

with signs and prodigies bearing witness, so that they might be believed, because they spoke the things they had seen. And we believe in Him Whom we have not seen, and we await Him as one Who is to come. All who await Him in faith will rejoice when He comes: those who are without faith will blush when that which they do not now see has come. And that confusion will not be of one day and pass away, as those are wont to be confounded who are found in some fault, and are mocked by men. That confusion will carry the confounded over to the left, that they may hear, Go into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). Let us abide, therefore, in His words, that we may not be confounded when He comes. For He Himself says in the Gospel to those who had believed in Him: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. And as if they had said, With what fruit? And you shall know, He says, the truth, and the truth has made you free (John 8:31–32). For now our salvation is in hope, not yet in reality: for we do not yet hold what has been promised, but we hope for it as to come. But He Who promised is faithful; He does not deceive you: only do not you faint, but wait for the promise. For truth does not know how to deceive. Do not you be a liar, professing one thing and doing another: keep you faith, and He keeps His promise. But if you have not kept faith, you have cheated yourself, not He Who promised.

3. If you know that He is just, know that everyone who does justice is born of Him. Our justice now is from faith. Perfect justice is not, except in the Angels; and scarcely in the Angels, if they be compared with God: yet if there is any perfect justice of the souls and spirits which God created, it is in the Angels, holy, just, good, turned aside by no fall, falling through no pride, but abiding always in the contemplation of the Word of God, and holding nothing else sweet but Him by Whom they were created; in them is perfect justice: but in us it has begun to be from faith, according to the Spirit. You heard when the Psalm was read, Begin to the Lord in confession (Ps. 146:7). Begin, it says: the beginning of our justice is the confession of sins. You have begun not to defend your sin: already you have begun justice; but it will be perfected in you when nothing else will delight you to do, when death shall be swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:54), when no concupiscence shall tickle, when there shall be no wrestling with flesh and blood, when there shall be the crown of victory, the triumph over the enemy; then will justice be perfect. Now we are still fighting: if we are fighting, we are in the arena; we strike, and we are struck: but who shall conquer is awaited. And he conquers who, even in what he strikes, presumes not on his own strength, but on God Who urges him on. The devil alone fights against us. If we are with God, we conquer the devil: for if you fight alone with the devil, you will be conquered. He is a practised enemy: how many palms [has he]? Consider whither he has cast us down: that we might be born mortal, he first cast our very origin down out of paradise. What then is to be done, since he is practised? Let the Almighty be invoked against the practised devil. Let Him dwell in you Who cannot be conquered, and you will securely conquer him who is accustomed to conquer. But whom [does he conquer]? Those in whom God does not dwell. For, that you may know, brethren, he despised

Adam, placed in paradise, [despised] the precept of God, and raised up his neck, as though desiring to be in his own power, and unwilling to be subject to the will of God; and he fell from that immortality, from that blessedness (Gen. 3:6). But a certain man already practised, born mortal, while he sat on the dunghill, rotting with worms, conquered the devil: Adam himself also conquered, and that in Job himself; because Job was of his race. Adam, then, defeated in paradise, conquered on the dunghill. When he was in paradise, he listened to the persuasion of the woman, which the devil had put into her: but when he was on the dunghill, he said to Eve, You have spoken as one of the foolish women (Job 2:10). There he lent an ear; here he gave an answer: when he was glad, he listened; when he was scourged, he conquered. Therefore see what follows, brethren, in this Epistle; because it commends this to us, that we should indeed conquer the devil, but not of ourselves. If you know that He is just, it says, know that everyone who does justice is born of Him: of God, of Christ. And because it said, Is born of Him, it exhorts us. Now therefore, because we are born of Him, we are perfect.

4. Hear: Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called sons of God, and should be [such]. For those who are called and are not, what does the name profit them where the thing is not? How many are called physicians who do not know how to heal? How many are called watchmen who sleep the whole night? So many are called Christians, and are not found [so] in deeds; because they are not what they are called, that is, in life, in morals, in faith, in hope, in charity. But what have you heard here, brethren? « Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called sons of God, and should be [such]. For this [reason] the world does not know us, because it has not known Him, and the world does not know us. » The whole world is Christian, and the whole world is impious; for throughout the whole world are the impious, and throughout the whole world the pious: the one do not know the other. How do we suppose that they do not know them? They mock those who live well. Attend and see, for perhaps they are among you too. Each one of you who now lives piously, who despises worldly things, who does not wish to go to the shows, who does not wish to make himself drunk as if by solemn custom, and, what is more grave, to become unclean with the patronage of holy days to cover it; whoever will not do these things, how is he mocked by those who do them? Would he be mocked if he were recognized? But why is he not recognized? The world does not recognize him. Who is the world? Those who inhabit the world, as a house is said [when] its inhabitants [are meant]. These things have often been said already, and we do not repeat them to you so as to weary you. Now when you hear the world [spoken of] in a bad sense, understand by it only the lovers of the world; because they inhabit it by love, and by that through which they inhabit it they have deserved to have the name. For this [reason] the world has not known us, because it has not known Him. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself also walked [among men]; He was God in the flesh; He lay hid in weakness. And why was He not known? Because He reproved all sins in men. They, loving the delights of sins, did not recognize God: loving

what the fever urged, they did injury to the physician.

5. What then of us? Already we are born of Him; but because we are [so] in hope, Dearly beloved, it says, now we are sons of God. Already now? What is it, then, that we await, if we are already sons of God? And it has not yet, it says, been manifested what we shall be. But what else shall we be than sons of God? Hear what follows: « We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; because we shall see Him as He is. » Let your Charity understand. A great thing: « We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; because we shall see Him as He is. » Now attend to what is called Is. You know what is so called. That is called Is which not only is so called, but truly is; it is unchangeable; it abides always, knows not how to be changed, is corrupted in no part: it neither advances, because it is perfect; nor fails, because it is eternal. And what is this? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). And what is this? Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God (Phil. 2:6). In this manner, Christ in the form of God, the Word of God, the Only-begotten of the Father, equal to the Father, the wicked cannot see. But according to that by which the Word was made flesh, the wicked too will be able [to see Him]: for in the day of judgement the wicked too will see Him; for He will so come to judge as He had come to be judged. In that very form a man, but God: for cursed is everyone who puts his hope in man (Jer. 17:5). A man He came to be judged, a man He will come to judge. And if He will not be seen, what is it that is written, They shall look on Him Whom they pierced (John 19:37)? For of the impious it is said that they will see, and will be confounded. How will the impious not see, when He will set some on the right, others on the left? To those set on the right He will say, Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom: to those set on the left He will say, Go into the eternal fire (Matt. 25:34, 41). They will see, but the form of a servant: the form of God they will not see. Why? Because they are impious; and the Lord Himself says, Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8). Therefore we are to see a certain vision, brethren, which neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it gone up into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9): a certain vision, a vision surpassing all earthly beauties, of gold, of silver, of groves and fields, the beauty of sea and air, the beauty of sun and moon, the beauty of the stars, the beauty of the Angels, surpassing all things; because from it all things are beautiful.

6. What then shall we be, when we see this? What has been promised us? We shall be like Him; because we shall see Him as He is. The tongue has sounded as it could; let the rest be thought upon in the heart. For what did even John himself say in comparison with Him Who is, or what can be said by us men, far unequal to His merits? Let us return, therefore, to that anointing of His, let us return to that anointing which teaches within what we cannot speak; and since you cannot see now, let your task lie in desire. The whole life of a good Christian is holy desire. But what you desire, you do not yet see; but by desiring you are made capable,

so that when that which you are to see has come, you may be filled. For just as, if you wish to fill some hollow, and you know how great is that which will be given, you stretch the hollow, whether of a sack or of a wineskin or of any thing: you know how much you are going to put in, and you see that the hollow is narrow; by stretching you make it more capacious: so God, by deferring, stretches the desire; by the desiring He stretches the soul; by stretching He makes it capacious. Let us desire, therefore, brethren, because we are to be filled. See Paul stretching out his hollow, so that he may be able to receive what is to come. For he says: Not that I have already received, or am already perfect: brethren, I do not reckon myself to have laid hold. What then are you doing in this life, if you have not yet laid hold? But one thing: forgetting the things that are behind, stretched out towards those that are before, I follow according to intention to the palm of the heavenly calling (Phil. 3:13–14). He said that he was stretched out, and he said that he followed according to intention. He felt himself too small to receive that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it gone up into the heart of man. This is our life, that we be exercised by desiring. But holy desire exercises us just so far as we shall have cut our desires off from the love of the world. We have said already at some time, Empty what is to be filled. You are to be filled with good: pour out the evil. Suppose that God wishes to fill you with honey: if you are full of vinegar, where will you put the honey? What the vessel was carrying must be poured out: the vessel itself must be cleansed; it must be cleansed, even with labour, with scouring, that it may become fit for something. Let us say honey, let us say gold, let us say wine; whatever we say of that which cannot be said, whatever we wish to say, is called God. And when we say God, what have we said? Are these two syllables the whole of what we await? Whatever therefore we have been able to say is beneath it: let us stretch ourselves out towards Him, that when He comes He may fill us. For we shall be like Him; because we shall see Him as He is.

7. And everyone who has this hope in Him. You see that he has set us in hope. You see how the apostle Paul agrees with his fellow apostle: By hope we have been made safe. But hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he hope for it? For if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it through patience (Rom. 8:24–25). Patience itself exercises desire. Do you abide, for He abides: and persevere in walking, that you may arrive; because that towards which you tend will not move away. See: And everyone who has this hope in Him makes himself chaste, as He also is chaste. See how he has not taken away free will, in that he said, makes himself chaste. Who makes us chaste but God? But God does not make you chaste against your will. Therefore in that you join your will to God, you make yourself chaste. You make yourself chaste, not from yourself, but from Him Who comes to dwell in you. Yet because you do something there by the will, therefore something is attributed to you also. But it is attributed to you for this reason, that you may say as in the Psalm, Be Thou my helper, forsake me not (Ps. 26:9). If you say, Be Thou my helper, you are doing something: for if you do nothing, how does He help?

8. Everyone who commits sin commits iniquity also.

Let no one say, Sin is one thing, iniquity another: let no one say, I am a sinful man, but I am not unjust. For everyone who commits sin commits iniquity also. Sin is iniquity. What then do we do about our sins and iniquities? Hear what he says: And you know that He was manifested to take away sin; and in Him there is no sin. He in Whom there is no sin, He came to take away sin. For if there were sin in Him also, it would have to be taken away from Him; He would not take it away. Everyone who abides in Him does not sin. In so far as he abides in Him, so far he does not sin. Everyone who sins has not seen Him, nor known Him. A great question, this: Everyone who sins has not seen Him, nor known Him. It is no wonder. We have not seen Him, but we are to see Him; we have not known Him, but we are to know Him: we believe in Him Whom we have not known. Or perhaps we have known Him by faith, and not yet known Him by sight? But in faith we have both seen and known. For if faith does not yet see, why are we called enlightened? There is an enlightenment through faith, there is an enlightenment through sight. Now, while we are pilgrims, we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). Therefore our justice too is by faith, not by sight. Our justice will be perfect when we see by sight. Now let us not abandon that justice which is from faith, since the just man lives from faith (Rom. 1:17), as the Apostle says. Everyone who abides in Him does not sin. For everyone who sins has not seen Him, nor known Him. He who sins does not believe: but if he believes, as far as pertains to his faith, he does not sin.

9. Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does justice is just, as He also is just. When we have heard that we are just, as He also is, ought we to think ourselves equal to God? You ought to know what as means: for a little while ago he said, he makes himself chaste, as He Himself is chaste. Is our chastity, then, already matched and equal to the chastity of God, and our justice to the justice of God? Who would say this? But as is not always said of equality. As, for example, when this ample basilica has been seen, if someone wishes to make a smaller one, but yet in proportion to its measures, so that, for example, if this one is broad by a single [measure] and long by a double, he too makes his broad by a single and long by a double: he seems to have made it as this one is. But this one has, for example, a hundred cubits, that one thirty: and it is as this, and it is unequal. You see that as is not always referred to parity and equality. For example, see how much [difference] there is between a man's face and the image [of it] in a mirror: a face in the image, a face in the body; the image in imitation, the body in truth. And what do we say? Why, as there are eyes here, so also there: as ears here, so there also are ears. The thing is unequal; but as is said with respect to likeness. We too, therefore, have the image of God; but not that which the Son, equal to the Father, has; yet we too, according to our small measure, if we were not as He, would be called like in no respect. He makes us chaste, therefore, as He Himself is chaste; but He is chaste by eternity, we chaste by faith: we are just as He Himself is just; but He in that very unchangeable perpetuity, we just by believing in Him Whom

we do not see, that we may at some time see. And when our justice shall have been made perfect, when we shall have been made equal to the Angels, not even then will it be made equal to Him. How far, then, is it from Him now, when not even then will it be His match?

10. He who commits sin is of the devil; because the devil sins from the beginning. Is of the devil: you know what he means: by imitating the devil. For the devil made no one, begot no one, created no one: but whoever has imitated the devil, as though born of him, becomes a son of the devil by imitating, not properly by being born. How are you a son of Abraham? Did Abraham beget you? In the same way as the Jews, sons of Abraham, not imitating the faith of Abraham, were made sons of the devil: they were born of the flesh of Abraham, and did not imitate the faith of Abraham. If, then, those who were born of him were disinherited, because they did not imitate him, you who were not born of him are made a son, and you will thus be a son by imitating. And if you have imitated the devil, since he showed himself proud and impious against God, you will be a son of the devil, by imitating; not because he created you, or begot you.

11. For this the Son of God was manifested. Come now, brethren: all sinners are born of the devil, in so far as they are sinners. Adam was made by God: but when he consented to the devil, he was born of the devil; and he begot all such as he was. We are born with concupiscence itself; and before we add our own debts, we are born of that condemnation. For if we are born with no sin, why is it that people run with infants to Baptism, that they may be loosed? Therefore attend, brethren, to two births, Adam and Christ: there are two men; but one of them is a man who is man, the other of them a man Who is God. Through the man who is man we are sinners: through the man Who is God we are justified. That birth cast down to death; this birth raised up to life: that birth drags sin with it; this birth frees from sin. For this reason Christ came as man, that He might loose the sins of men. For this the Son of God was manifested, that He might undo the works of the devil.

12. The rest I commend to your Charity, lest I burden you. For this is the very question in the solving of which we labour: that we call ourselves sinners; for if anyone has said that he is without sin, he is a liar. And in the Epistle of John himself we find, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. For you ought to remember the earlier [words]: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). And again in what follows you hear, He who is born of God does not sin: He who commits sin has not seen Him, nor known Him: Everyone who commits sin is of the devil. Sin is not from God. Again it frightens us. How are we born of God, and how do we confess ourselves sinners? Are we going to say that we are not born of God? And what, then, do these Sacraments do in infants? What did John say? He who is born of God does not sin. John himself said again, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. A great