Augustine, Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John

call you a Christian, what does the name profit you where the thing is not found? « But whoever has the goods of the world, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his bowels from him; how can the love of God abide in him? » And it follows: « Little children, let us not love in word only and with the tongue, but in deed and in truth. »

13. I think a great and necessary secret and mystery has been made plain to you, my brethren. What charity avails, all Scripture commends; but I do not know whether anywhere it is commended more than in this Epistle. We ask you and beseech you in the Lord both to hold in memory the things you have heard, and to come attentive and to listen attentive to the things that are still to be said, until the Epistle itself is finished. And open your heart to the good seeds: root out the thorns, lest what is sown in you be smothered, but rather let the crop grow; and let the husbandman rejoice, and prepare a barn for you as for wheat, not a fire as for chaff.

TRACTATE VI.

On the words, And by this we know that we are of the truth; as far as, And this is the Antichrist of whom you have heard, etc. Chap. III, vv. 19-24, and chap. IV, vv. 1-3.

1. If you remember, brethren, yesterday we closed our sermon at this sentence, which without doubt ought to have remained and ought to remain in your heart, since it was the last thing you heard: « Little children, let us not love in word only and with the tongue, but in deed and in truth. » Then it follows: « And by this we know that we are of the truth, and before Him we persuade our heart: for if our heart thinks ill of us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. » He had said, « Let us not love in word only and with the tongue, but in deed and in truth: » we are asked in what deed and in what truth he is recognized who loves God, or who loves his brother. He had already said above how far charity is made perfect; which the Lord too says in the Gospel, Greater charity than this no one has, than that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13): and this man had said, As He laid down His life for us, we too ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. This is the perfection of charity; and a greater cannot be found at all. But since it is not perfect in all, and he in whom it is not perfect ought not to despair, if it is already born so as to be perfected: and surely if it is born it must be nourished, and brought by certain nourishments of its own to its proper perfection. We sought the beginning of charity, where it begins, and at once we found it there: If anyone has the goods of the world, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his bowels against him; how does the love of the Father abide in him (I John 3:16, 17)? Here, then, this charity begins, brethren: that a man give of his superfluities to one in need, set in some straits; that from what he has in abundance for the time being he free his brother from temporal tribulation. This is the beginning of charity. If you nourish it, thus begun, with the word of God and the hope of the life to come, you will come to that perfection, that you are ready to lay down your life for your brethren.

2. But since many such things are done by those who seek other things, and who do not love the brethren, let us be called back to the testimony

of conscience. Whence do we prove that many such things are done by those who do not love the brethren? How many in heresies and schisms call themselves martyrs! They seem to themselves to lay down their life for their brethren. If they laid down their life for the brethren, they would not separate themselves from the whole brotherhood. Again, how many there are who for the sake of boasting bestow much, give much; and seek nothing there but human praise and popular glory, full of wind, made firm by no stability! Since, then, there are such, where shall brotherly charity be proved? because he willed it to be proved, he also says in admonition: Little children, let us not love in word only and with the tongue, but in deed and in truth. We ask, In what deed, in what truth? Can there be a plainer deed than to bestow on the poor? Many do this from boasting, not from love. Can there be a greater deed than to die for the brethren? This too many wish to be thought to do, from boasting, to win a name, not from the bowels of love. It remains that he loves his brother who persuades his own heart before God, where God alone sees, and questions his heart whether he truly does this for love of the brethren; and the eye that penetrates the heart, where man cannot look, bears him witness. Therefore the apostle Paul, since he was ready to die for the brethren, and said, I myself will be spent for your souls (II Cor. 12:15): yet since God saw this in his heart, not the men to whom he spoke, he said to them, But to me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man's day (I Cor. 4:3). And he himself showed too in a certain place that these things are wont to be done from empty boasting, not from the firm ground of charity: for he says, when he was speaking in commendation of charity itself, If I distribute all my goods to the poor, and deliver my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profits me nothing (I Cor. 13:3). Can anyone, then, do this without charity? He can. For those who have not charity have divided unity. Look there, and you will see many bestowing much on the poor; you will see others ready to undergo death, so that when the persecutor holds back they throw themselves headlong: these without doubt do this without charity. Let us be called back, then, to conscience, of which the Apostle says: For this is our glory, the testimony of our conscience (II Cor. 1:12). Let us be called back to conscience, of which the same says: But let each one prove his own work, and then he will have glory in himself, and not in another (Gal. 6:4). Let each one of us, then, prove his own work, whether it flows from the vein of charity, whether the branches of good works sprout from the root of love. But let each one prove his own work, he says, and then he will have glory in himself, and not in another: not when another's tongue bears him witness, but when his own conscience bears it.

3. This, then, he commends here. By this we know that we are of the truth, when we love in deed and in truth, not in words and with the tongue only: and before Him we persuade our heart. What is, before Him? Where He sees. Whence the Lord Himself in the Gospel: Take care, He says, not to do your righteousness before men, in order to be seen

by them: otherwise you will have no reward with your Father Who is in heaven. And what is, Let not your left hand know what your right hand does (Matt. 6:1, 3), unless that the right hand is a pure conscience, the left the desire of the world? Many through desire of the world do many wonderful things; the left hand works, not the right. The right hand ought to work, and with the left not knowing, so that the desire of the world does not mingle itself in when we do some good from love. And where do we know this? You are before God: question your heart: see what you have done, and what you sought in it; your salvation, or the windy praise of men. Look within: for man cannot judge one whom he cannot see. If we persuade our heart, let us persuade it before Him. For if our heart thinks ill of us, that is, accuses us within, that we do not do with the right mind what is to be done; God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. You hide your heart from man; hide it from God if you can. How will you hide it from Him, to Whom it was said by a certain sinner fearing and confessing: Where shall I go from Thy spirit? and from Thy face where shall I flee? He sought where he might flee, to escape the judgement of God, and did not find it. For where is God not? If I ascend, he says, into heaven, Thou art there: if I descend into hell, Thou art present (Ps. 138:7, 8). Where are you going to go? where will you flee? Do you want to hear counsel? If you want to flee from Him, flee to Him. Flee to Him by confessing, not from Him by hiding: for hide you cannot, but confess you can. Say to Him, Thou art my refuge (Ps. 31:7); and let love be nourished in you, which alone leads to life. Let your conscience bear you witness that it is from God. If it is from God, do not want to boast of it before men; for neither do the praises of men raise you to heaven, nor do their reproaches put you down from there. Let Him see Who crowns; let Him be witness by Whose judgement you are crowned. God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

4. Most beloved, if our heart does not think ill of us, we have confidence towards God. What is, if our heart does not think ill of us? If it answers us truly that we love, and that there is true-born love in us: not feigned, but sincere; seeking a brother's salvation, expecting no profit from a brother except his salvation. We have confidence towards God; and whatever we ask, we shall receive from Him, because we keep His commandments. Therefore not in the sight of men, but where God Himself sees in the heart. We have confidence, then, towards God; and whatever we ask, we shall receive from Him: but, because we keep His commandments. What are His commandments? Must it always be repeated? A new commandment I give you, that you love one another (John 13:34). It is charity itself He speaks of, charity itself He commends. Whoever, then, has brotherly charity, and has it before God, where God sees, and whose heart, questioned under just examination, answers him nothing else than that the true-born root of charity is there, from which good fruits come forth; he has confidence with God, and whatever he asks he will receive from Him, because he keeps His commandments.

5. A certain question meets us: that not this man or that, or you or I, who, if I ask something of the Lord

to our God, and do not receive it, anyone can easily say of me, He has not charity; and it can easily be said of any man of this time; and let anyone think what he will, man of man: those who raise the greater question are none but those men who are known to have been saints when they wrote, and to be with God now. Who has charity, if Paul had it not, who said, Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged; you are not straitened in us (II Cor. 6:11, 12); who said, I will be spent for your souls (II Cor. 12:15): and so great was the grace in him that it was made manifest that he had charity? Yet we find that he asked, and did not receive. What do we say, brethren? It is a question; be attentive to God. This too is a great question. As concerning sin, where it was said, He who is born of God does not sin (I John 3:9), we found that this sin is to violate charity, and that this was properly marked out in that place: so now too we ask what he meant. For if you attend to the words, it seems plain; if to the examples, it is obscure. Nothing is plainer than these words: « And whatever we ask, we shall receive from Him; because we keep His commandments, and do the things that please Him in His sight. Whatever we ask, » he says, « we shall receive from Him. » He has straitened us exceedingly. For there too he would straiten us if he spoke of every sin: but we therefore found a way of expounding the place, because he spoke of a certain sin, not of every one; but of a certain sin which everyone who is born of God does not commit: and we found that this certain sin is the violation of charity. And we have a plain example from the Gospel, when the Lord says, If I had not come, they would not have sin (John 15:22). What then? had He come to innocent Jews, since He speaks thus? So if He Himself had not come, they would not have sin? Did the presence of the physician, then, make the man sick, and not take away the fever? Who, even a madman, would say this? He came only to cure and heal the sick. Why then did He say, If I had not come, they would not have sin, unless because He wished a certain particular sin to be understood? For there was a certain sin the Jews would not have had. What sin? That by which they did not believe in Him, by which they despised Him when present. As, then, He spoke there of sin, and it does not follow that we understand every sin, but a certain sin: so here too not every sin, lest it be contrary to that place where he says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (I John 1:8); but a certain particular sin, that is, the violation of charity. But here he has bound us more tightly: If we ask, he said, if our heart does not accuse us, and declares in the sight of God that true love is in us; whatever we ask, we shall receive from Him.

6. Now, then, I have said to Your Charity, brethren, let no one attend to us. For what are we? Or what are you? What, but the Church of God, which is known to all? And if it pleases Him, we are in it; and let us who abide in it by love persevere there, if we wish to show the love we have. Yet what evil are we to think of the apostle Paul? Did he himself not love

the brethren? Was there not with him the testimony of his conscience in the sight of God? Was there not in Paul that root of charity from which all good fruits came forth? What madman would say this? Where, then, do we find that the Apostle asked and did not receive? He says himself: Lest I be lifted up by the greatness of the revelations, there was given me a goad of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me: for which reason I asked the Lord three times that He would take it away from me; and He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you; for power is made perfect in weakness (II Cor. 12:7–9). See, he was not heard so that the angel of Satan should be taken away from him. But why? Because it did not profit him. So he was heard unto salvation who was not heard unto his will. Let Your Charity know a great mystery; which we commend to you for this reason, that it may not fall from you in your temptations. The saints are heard in all things unto salvation; they are always heard unto eternal salvation: that is what they desire; for according to this they are always heard.

7. But let us distinguish the hearings of God. For we find some not heard unto their will, heard unto salvation: and again we find some heard unto their will, and not heard unto salvation. Distinguish this; hold fast the example of him who was not heard unto his will, but heard unto salvation. Hear the apostle Paul; for God showed him that very hearing unto salvation: My grace, He says, is sufficient for you; for power is made perfect in weakness. You have asked, you have cried, three times you have cried: the very thing you cried I heard the first time, I did not turn away My ears from you; I know what I am doing: you want the medicine by which you are burned taken away; I know the sickness by which you are weighed down. So this man was heard unto salvation, unto his will he was not heard. Whom do we find heard unto their will, not heard unto salvation? Do we find, think we, some worthless man, some ungodly man heard by God unto his will, not heard unto salvation? If I set forth the example of some man, perhaps you will say to me: You call him wicked, but he was righteous; if he were not righteous, he would not be heard by God. I am going to put forward one of whose wickedness and ungodliness no one doubts. The devil himself asked for Job, and received him (Job 1:11, 12). Have you not heard here too, of the devil, that he who commits sin is of the devil (I John 3:8)? Not because the devil created him, but because he imitates the devil. Was it not said of him, He did not stand in the truth (John 8:44)? Is he not that ancient serpent who through the woman gave the first man poison to drink (Gen. 3:1–6)? Who also kept the woman for Job for this reason, that through her the husband might not be consoled, but tempted (Job 2:9). The devil himself asked that the holy man be tempted, and received it: the Apostle asked that the goad of the flesh be taken away from him, and did not receive it. But the Apostle was heard more than the devil. For the Apostle was heard unto salvation, though not unto his will: the devil was heard unto his will, but unto damnation. For the one was granted to be tempted for this, that, he being proved, the other might be tormented. But this, brethren, we find not only in the old Books, but also in the Gospel. The demons asked of the Lord, when He was driving them out of a man, that they might be allowed to go

into the swine. Could not the Lord have told them not even to go there? For had He not willed it, they were not going to rebel against the King of heaven and earth. Yet for the sake of a certain mystery and by a certain dispensation He let the demons go into the swine (Luke 8:32), to show that the devil rules in those who lead the life of swine. Were the demons heard, then, and the Apostle not heard? Or rather let us say what is truer: Nay, the Apostle was heard, the demons were not heard. Their will was done, his health was made perfect.

8. According to this we ought to understand that God, even if He does not give to our will, gives to our salvation. For what if you ask for something that harms you, and the physician knows that it harms you? For the physician does not fail to hear you when perhaps you ask for cold water, and if it does good, he gives it at once; if it does no good, he does not give it. Did he not hear, or rather did he hear unto health, because he went against your will? Let charity, then, be in you, brethren; let it be in you, and be secure: and when what you ask is not given you, you are heard; but you do not know it. Many have been given into their own hands to their own harm: of whom the Apostle says, God gave them up to the desires of their heart (Rom. 1:24). Someone asked for a great deal of money; he received it to his own harm. When he had it not, he feared little; he began to have it, and was made the prey of one more powerful. Was he not heard to his own harm, who wished to have that for which he would be hunted by a robber, whom poor no one hunted? Learn to ask God in such a way that you commit it to the physician to do what He knows. Do you confess the disease, let Him apply the medicine. Do you only hold fast charity. For He wants to cut, He wants to burn; if you cry out and are not heard in the cutting, in the burning and tribulation, He knows how far the corruption goes. You now want Him to draw back His hands, and He attends to the depth of the wound; He knows how far He is to go. He does not hear you unto your will, but He hears you unto health. Be certain, then, my brethren, that what the Apostle says is true: For what we should pray for as we ought, we do not know; but the Spirit Himself intercedes with groanings unutterable, for He Himself intercedes for the saints (Rom. 8:26, 27). What is, The Spirit Himself intercedes for the saints, but charity itself, which has been wrought in you by the Spirit? For therefore the same apostle says: The charity of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us (Rom. 5:5). Charity itself groans, charity itself prays; against it He Who gave it does not know how to shut His ears. Be secure, let charity ask; and there are the ears of God. What you want is not done, but what is expedient is done. Therefore whatever we ask, he says, we shall receive from Him. I have said already, if you understand it unto salvation, there is no question: if not unto salvation, there is a question, and a great one, which makes you a slanderer of the apostle Paul. Whatever we ask, we shall receive from Him; because we keep His commandments, and do the things that please Him in His sight. In His sight: within, where He sees.

9. And what are those commandments? This, he says, is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another. You see that this is the commandment, you see that whoever acts against this commandment commits the sin

commits, which everyone who is born of God is without. As He gave us commandment: that we love one another. And whoever keeps His commandment: you see that nothing else is enjoined on us but that we love one another: And whoever keeps His commandment will abide in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit Whom He has given us. Is it not manifest that the Holy Spirit works this in a man, that there be love and charity in him? Is it not manifest, what the apostle Paul says: The charity of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us? For he was speaking of charity, and was saying that in the sight of God we ought to question our heart. But if our heart does not think ill of us: that is, if it confesses that whatever is done in a good work is done from love of a brother. There was added also what he says when speaking of the commandment: This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another. And he who does His commandment abides in Him, and He in him. By this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit Whom He has given us. For if you find that you have charity, you have the Spirit of God to understand by: for it is a very necessary thing.

10. In the first times the Holy Spirit fell upon those who believed; and they spoke with tongues they had not learned, as the Spirit gave them to utter. They were signs fitted to the time. For it was fitting that the Holy Spirit be signified thus in all tongues, because the Gospel of God was to run through all tongues in the whole world. That was signified, and it passed. Is it expected now of those on whom the hand is laid that they may receive the Holy Spirit, that they speak with tongues? Or when we laid the hand on these infants, did each of you watch whether they would speak with tongues; and when he saw that they did not speak with tongues, was any of you of so perverse a heart as to say: These have not received the Holy Spirit; for had they received Him, they would speak with tongues as was done then? If, then, the witness of the presence of the Holy Spirit is not given now through these miracles, whence is it given, whence does each man know that he has received the Holy Spirit? Let him question his heart: if he loves his brother, the Spirit of God abides in him. Let him see, let him prove himself before the eyes of God; let him see whether there is in him the love of peace and unity, the love of the Church spread through the whole world. Let him not mind that he loves only the brother whom he sees before him: for many of our brethren we do not see, and in the unity of the Spirit we are joined to them. What wonder that they are not with us? We are in one body, we have one Head in heaven. Brethren, our eyes do not see each other; as it were, they do not know each other. Do they not know each other in the charity of the body's bond? For, that you may know that they know each other in the union of charity: when both are open, the right cannot look at anything that the left does not look at. Direct the right one's ray without the other, if you can. They meet together, they are directed together; their aim is one, their places are different. If, then, all who love God with you have one aim with you, do not mind that in the body you are separated in place; you have fixed the gaze of the heart together on the light of truth. Therefore if you wish to know that you have received the Spirit,

question your heart; lest perhaps you have the sacrament, and have not the power of the sacrament. Question your heart: if love of your brother is there, be secure. There cannot be love without the Spirit of God: for Paul cries, The charity of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.

11. Most beloved, do not believe every spirit. Because he had said, By this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit Whom He has given us. But how the Spirit Himself is known, attend: Most beloved, do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God. And who is it that proves the spirits? He has set before us a difficult thing, my brethren: it is good for us that he himself should tell us how we may discern. He is going to tell; do not be afraid: but first see, attend; see that from here is drawn out that over which the vain heretics raise their slanders. Attend, see what he says: Most beloved, do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God. The Holy Spirit was called by the name of water in the Gospel, when the Lord cried and said: If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink: he who believes in Me, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly. But the Evangelist set out of what He spoke: for he goes on to say, Now this He said of the Spirit Whom those who were to believe in Him were to receive. Why did the Lord not baptize many? But what does he say? For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:37–39). Since, then, they had Baptism, and had not yet received the Holy Spirit, Whom the Lord sent from heaven on the day of Pentecost, the glorification of the Lord was awaited so that the Spirit might be given. And before He was glorified, and before He sent Him, He yet invited men to prepare themselves to receive the water of which He said, He who thirsts, let him come and drink; and, He who believes in Me, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly. What is, rivers of living water? what is that water? Let no one ask me; ask the Gospel. Now this He said, it says, of the Spirit Whom those who were to believe in Him were to receive. The water of the Sacrament, then, is one thing; the water that signifies the Spirit of God is another. The water of the Sacrament is visible; the water of the Spirit invisible. The one washes the body, and signifies what is done in the soul: through that Spirit the soul itself is cleansed and fed fat. He is the Spirit of God, Whom the heretics cannot have, nor any who cut themselves off from the Church. And whoever do not openly cut themselves off, but have been cut off through iniquity, and are tossed about within like chaff, and are not grain, do not have this Spirit. This Spirit was signified by the Lord by the name of water: and we have heard from this Epistle, Do not believe every spirit; and those words of Solomon bear witness, Keep yourself from strange water. What is water? The Spirit. Does water always signify the Spirit? Not always: but in some places it signifies the Spirit, in some places it signifies Baptism, in some places it signifies peoples, in some places it signifies counsel. You have it said in a certain place, Counsel is a fountain of life to those who possess it (Prov. 16:22). So through different places of the Scriptures the name of water [signifies] different

signifies. Now, however, you have heard the Holy Spirit [spoken of] under the name of water, not from our interpretation, but from the testimony of the Gospel, where it says: "But this He said of the Spirit which those who were to believe in Him were to receive." If, then, the Holy Spirit is signified by the name of water, and this Epistle says to us, "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God," let us understand that from this it was said, "Abstain from strange water, and do not drink from a strange fountain" (Prov. 9:18, according to the Septuagint). What is "do not drink from a strange fountain"? Do not believe a strange spirit.

12. There remains, then, the test by which it may be proved that it is the Spirit of God. He has indeed set down a sign, and this perhaps a difficult one; let us see, nevertheless. We are going to return to that charity; it is charity that teaches us, because it is itself the anointing. Yet what does he say here? "Test the spirits, whether they are of God: for many false prophets have gone out into this world." Already there are all the heretics and all the schismatics. How, then, do I test the spirit? It follows: "By this is the Spirit of God known." Lift up the ears of the heart. We were labouring, and saying, Who knows? Who discerns? See, he is about to tell the sign. "By this is the Spirit of God known: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God: and this is the antichrist, of whom you have heard that he is to come; and now he is in this world." Our ears are, as it were, lifted up to discern the spirits; and we have heard something of such a kind that by it we nonetheless do not discern. For what does he say? "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God." Is the spirit, then, that is among the heretics of God, because they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? Here perhaps they now rise up against us and say: You do not have the spirit from God; but we confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh: and he has denied that those have the Spirit of God who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Ask of the Arians: they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Ask of the Eunomians: they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Ask of the Macedonians: they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Question the Cataphrygians: they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Question the Novatians: they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Do all these heresies, then, have the Spirit of God? Are they, then, not false prophets? Is there, then, no deception there, no seduction there? Certainly they are antichrists, who went out from us, but were not of us.

13. What, then, do we do? By what do we discern? Attend; let us go together in heart, and knock. Charity itself keeps watch, for it is charity that will knock, charity that will open: presently you will understand, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Already above you have heard that it was said, "He who denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, this is the antichrist" (I John 2:19, 22). And there we asked who denies it, since neither do we deny it, nor do they deny it. And we found that some deny it by deeds (above, Tractate III, nn. 7–9); and we brought in the testimony of the Apostle, who says, "For they profess that they know God, but in deeds they deny Him" (Tit. 1:16).

So, then, let us now also seek in deeds, not in the tongue. Which is the spirit that is not of God? He who denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. And which is the spirit that is of God? He who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Who is it that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? Come, brethren, let us attend to works, not to the noise of the tongue. Let us ask why Christ came in the flesh, and we find those who deny that He has come in the flesh. For if you attend to tongues, you will hear many heresies confessing that Christ has come in the flesh: but the truth convicts them. Why did Christ come in the flesh? Was He not God? Is it not written of Him, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1)? Did He not Himself feed the angels, and does He not Himself feed the angels? Did He not so come hither that He did not withdraw from thence? Did He not so ascend that He did not abandon us? Why, then, did He come in the flesh? Because it was needful that the hope of resurrection be shown to us. He was God, and He came in the flesh; for God could not die, flesh could die; therefore, then, He came in the flesh, that He might die for us. But in what manner did He die for us? "Greater charity than this no one has, than that he lay down his life for his friends" (ibid. 15:13). Charity, therefore, brought Him to the flesh. Whoever, then, does not have charity denies that Christ has come in the flesh. Here, now, question all the heretics: Did Christ come in the flesh? He came; this I believe, this I confess. No, you deny it. How do I deny it? You hear that I say it. No, I convict you that you deny it. You say it with the voice, you deny it with the heart; you say it in words, you deny it in deeds. How, you say, do I deny it in deeds? Because Christ came in the flesh for this, that He might die for us. He died for us for this, that He taught much charity: "Greater charity than this no one has, than that he lay down his life for his friends." You do not have charity, because for your own honour you divide unity. From this, then, understand the spirit that is of God. Knock, touch the earthen vessels, lest perhaps they be cracked and ring badly: see whether they sound whole, see whether charity is there. You take yourself away from the unity of the whole world, you divide the Church by schisms, you tear apart the body of Christ. He came in the flesh to gather together: you cry out for this, to scatter. That, then, is the Spirit of God which says that Jesus has come in the flesh: which says it not with the tongue but with deeds; which says it not by sounding but by loving. But that is not the spirit of God which denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh: it too denies it not with the tongue but with the life; not in words but in deeds. It is manifest, then, by what we may know the brethren. Many are within as if within; but no one is outside unless he is truly outside.

14. So much so, that you may know that he referred it to deeds: "And every spirit," he says, "that dissolves Christ, [saying He has] come in the flesh, is not of God." To dissolve is understood of deeds. What did he show you? He who denies; because he said, "dissolves." He came to gather, you come to dissolve. You wish to tear apart the members of Christ. How do you not deny that Christ has come in the flesh, you who break apart the Church of God, which He gathered?