Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus VII-XII

Christ received a body from Adam, but did not draw sin from Adam; He took from there a bodily temple, not the iniquity which is to be driven out of the temple. That very flesh, however, which He drew from Adam (for Mary is from Adam, and the Lord's flesh from Mary), the Jews crucified; and He was going to raise up in three days that very flesh which they were going to kill on the cross: they destroyed a temple built in forty-six years, and He raised it up in three days.

13. We bless the Lord our God, Who has gathered us together for spiritual joy. Let us always be in humility of heart, and let our joy be with Him. Let us not be puffed up by any prosperity of this world, but let us know that our happiness does not exist except when these things have passed away. For now, my brothers, let our joy be in hope: let no one rejoice as if in a present thing, lest he stick fast on the way. Let all joy be from future hope, let all desire be for eternal life. Let all sighs pant for Christ: let Him alone, the most beautiful, Who loved even the ugly that He might make them beautiful, be desired; let there be running to Him alone, let there be groaning to Him; and let those who will the peace of His servant always say, Let the Lord be magnified (Ps. 34:27).

Tractate 11.

From what is written, Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, on the feast day, many believed in His name; as far as this, Unless someone has been reborn of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Chapter 2, verses 23-25, and chapter 3, verses 1-5.

1. Opportunely the Lord has arranged for us the order of this reading on today's date: for since we have undertaken to consider and treat the Gospel according to John in order, I believe Your Charity has noticed. It has therefore opportunely come about that today you should hear from the Gospel that Unless someone has been reborn of water and the Spirit, he will not see the kingdom of God (John 3:5). For it is time for us to exhort you who are still catechumens: you who have so believed in Christ that you still carry your sins. But no one will see the kingdom of heaven weighed down with sins; for unless they have been forgiven someone, he will not reign with Christ: but they cannot be forgiven except to him who has been reborn of water and the Holy Spirit. But let us notice how all the words stand, so that those who are sluggish may find here with what eagerness they must hasten to lay down their burden. For if they were carrying some heavy load, either of stone, or of wood, or even of some gain, if they were carrying grain, if wine, if money, they would run to lay down their burdens; they carry a load of sins, and they are sluggish to run. One must run so that this load may be laid down; it presses down, and it sinks.

2. See, you have heard that when the Lord Jesus Christ was in Jerusalem at the Passover, on the feast day, many believed in His name, seeing His signs which He was doing. Many believed in His name: and what follows? But Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them (John 2:23–24). What then does this mean, They believed in His name; and, Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them? Or perhaps they had not believed in Him, and were pretending to have believed, and therefore

Jesus did not entrust Himself to them; But the Evangelist would not say, Many believed in His name, unless he were bearing true testimony to them. A great thing, then, and a wondrous thing: men believe in Christ, and Christ does not entrust Himself to men. Especially since He is the Son of God, He certainly suffered willingly; and if He had not willed it, He would never have suffered; for if He had not willed it, He would not even have been born: but if He had willed only this, that He should merely be born and not die, [it would have been so]; and whatever He willed, He would have done; for the Son of the almighty Father is almighty. Let us prove it from the facts themselves. For when they wanted to seize Him, He departed from them; the Gospel says: And when they wanted to throw Him down from the brow of the mountain, He departed from them unharmed (Luke 4:29–30). And when they came to arrest Him, already sold by Judas the traitor, when that man supposed he had it in his power to hand over his master and Lord; there too the Lord showed that He suffered by will, not by necessity. For when the Jews wanted to arrest Him, He said to them: Whom do you seek? And they said: Jesus of Nazareth. And He: I am He. When this word was heard, they went backwards and fell (John 18:4–6). In that He threw them down by answering, He showed His power; so that in that He was arrested by them, He might show His will. Therefore that He suffered was of mercy. For He was delivered up for our offences, and rose again for our justification (Rom. 4:25). Hear His own words: I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it up again: no one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself, that I may take it up again (John 10:18). Since, then, He had such great power, since He proclaimed it in words and showed it in deeds, what does it mean that Jesus did not entrust Himself to them, as though they would do Him some harm against His will, or would do something to Him against His will, especially since they had already believed in His name? And of these very people the Evangelist says, They believed in His name, and of them he says, But Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them. Why? Because He knew all men, and because He had no need that anyone should bear testimony about man; for He Himself knew what was in man. The craftsman knew better what was in his work than the work itself knew what was in itself. The Creator of man knew what was in man, which the created man himself did not know. Do we not prove this from Peter, that he did not know what was in himself when he said, With Thee even unto death? Hear that the Lord knew what was in man: You with Me even unto death? Amen, amen I say to you, before the cock crows, you will deny Me three times (Matt. 26:33–34, and Luke 22:33–34). Man, then, did not know what was in himself; but the Creator of man knew what was in man. Yet many believed in His name, and Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them. What do we say, brethren? Perhaps what follows will show us what the mystery of these words means. That men had believed in Him is manifest, it is true: no one doubts it, the Gospel says it, the truthful Evangelist testifies to it. Likewise that Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them, this too is manifest, and no Christian doubts it: for this too the Gospel says, and the same truthful Evangelist testifies to it. Why then did those men believe in

His name, and Jesus did not entrust Himself to them? Let us look at what follows.

3. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, Nicodemus by name, a ruler of the Jews: he came to Him by night, and said to Him, Rabbi. You already know this, that Rabbi means teacher. We know that You have come from God as a teacher: for no one can do these signs that You do, unless God be with him (John 3:1–2). So this Nicodemus was one of those who had believed in His name, seeing the signs and wonders that He was doing. For above, [the evangelist] said this: Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, on the feast day, many believed in His name (John 2:23). Why did they believe? He goes on and says, seeing His signs that He was doing. And what does he say about Nicodemus? He was a ruler of the Jews, Nicodemus by name: he came to Him by night, and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher. So this man too had believed in His name. And on what ground had he believed? It follows, For no one can do these signs that You do, unless God be with him. If then Nicodemus was one of those many who had believed in His name, let us now attend, in this Nicodemus, to why Jesus did not entrust Himself to them. Jesus answered, and said to him: Amen, amen I say to you, unless one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). To those, then, does Jesus entrust Himself, who have been born anew. See, those men had believed in Him, and Jesus did not entrust Himself to them. Such are all catechumens: they already believe in the name of Christ, but Jesus does not entrust Himself to them. Let your Charity attend and understand. If we say to a catechumen, Do you believe in Christ? he answers, I believe, and signs himself: already he bears the cross of Christ on his forehead, and he is not ashamed of the cross of his Lord. See, he has believed in His name. Let us ask him, Do you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink the blood of the Son of Man? He does not know what we are saying, because Jesus has not entrusted Himself to him.

4. Since, then, Nicodemus was of that number, he came to the Lord: but he came by night; and this perhaps bears on the matter. He came to the Lord, and he came by night: he came to the light, and he came in darkness. But those reborn of water and the Spirit, what do they hear from the Apostle? You were once darkness; but now light in the Lord: walk as children of light (Eph. 5:8): and again, But we who are of the day, let us be sober (1 Thess. 5:8). Those, then, who have been reborn were of the night, and are of the day: they were darkness, and are light. Now Jesus entrusts Himself to them, and they do not come to Jesus by night as Nicodemus did, they do not seek the day in darkness. For such men now also profess [Him]: Jesus has drawn near to them, He has wrought salvation in them: for He Himself said: Unless one eat my flesh and drink my blood, he shall not have life in himself (John 6:54). And because the catechumens have the sign of the cross on their forehead, they are already of the great house; but let them become sons instead of servants. For they are not nothing who already belong to the great house. But when did the people of Israel eat the manna? When they had crossed the Red Sea. And what the Red Sea signifies, hear the Apostle: Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that all

our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. To what purpose did they pass through the sea? as though you were asking him; he went on and said, And all were baptized through Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor. 10:1–2). If, then, the figure of the sea availed so much, how much will the reality of Baptism avail? If what was done in figure brought the people, once carried across, to the manna, what will Christ bestow in the truth of His baptism, when His people have been carried across through Him? Through His baptism He carries the believers across, all their sins being slain, like enemies in pursuit, just as in that sea all the Egyptians perished. Whither does He carry them across, my brothers? whither does Jesus carry them across through Baptism, Jesus whose figure Moses then bore, who carried them across through the sea? whither does He carry them across? To the manna. What is the manna? I am, He says, the living bread, Who came down from heaven (John 6:51). The faithful receive the manna, having now been carried across through the Red Sea. Why the Red Sea? granted it is a sea, why also red? That Red Sea signified the baptism of Christ. Whence is the baptism of Christ red, unless because it is consecrated by the blood of Christ? Whither, then, does He bring the believers and the baptized? To the manna. See, I say manna: it is known what the Jews received, that people Israel, it is known what God had rained upon them from heaven; and the catechumens do not know what Christians receive. Let them blush, then, because they do not know; let them pass through the Red Sea, let them eat the manna: so that, as they have believed in the name of Jesus, so Jesus may entrust Himself to them.

5. Therefore attend, my brothers, to what he answers who came to Jesus by night. Although he came to Jesus, yet because he came by night, he still speaks out of the darkness of his flesh. He does not understand what he hears from the Lord, he does not understand what he hears from the light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9). The Lord has already said to him, Unless one is born anew, he will not see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus says to Him: How can a man be born when he is old? The Spirit speaks to him, and he savours of the flesh. He savours of his own flesh, because he does not yet savour the flesh of Christ. For when the Lord Jesus had said, Unless one eats My flesh and drinks My blood, he will not have life in him, some who were following Him were scandalized, and said among themselves, This is a hard saying; who can listen to it? For they thought that Jesus was saying this, that they could cut Him up like a lamb, cook Him and eat Him: shrinking from His words, they went away, and followed Him no longer. Thus the Evangelist speaks: And the Lord Himself remained with the twelve: and they [said] to Him, Lord, see, those men have left Thee; and He, Do you too wish to go away? wishing to show that He was necessary to them, not that they were necessary to Christ. Let no one think to frighten Christ when he is told to be a Christian, as though Christ will be more blessed if you become a Christian. It is good for you that you be a Christian: for if you do not become one, it will be no harm to Christ. Hear the voice of the Psalm: I said to the Lord, Thou art my God, since Thou hast no need of my goods (Ps. 15:2). Therefore Thou art my God

since Thou hast no need of my goods. If you are without God, you will be less; if you are with God, God will not be greater. He is not greater because of you, but you are less without Him. Grow, therefore, in Him; do not withdraw yourself, as though He would fail. You will be refreshed if you approach; you will fail if you withdraw. He remains whole when you approach, He remains whole also when you fall away. When, therefore, He had said to the disciples, Do you also wish to go away? Peter, that rock, answered with the voice of all, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. The flesh of the Lord had a good savour in his mouth. But the Lord explained to them and said, It is the Spirit that gives life: when He had said, Unless anyone eats My flesh and drinks My blood, he will not have life in himself, lest they should understand carnally, It is the Spirit, He said, that gives life, but the flesh profits nothing: the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life (John 6:54–69).

6. This spirit and this life that Nicodemus did not savour, he who had come to Jesus by night. Jesus says to him: Unless anyone has been born anew, he will not see the kingdom of God. And he, savouring his own flesh, in whose mouth the flesh of Christ did not yet have savour: How, he says, can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? He knew of only one birth, from Adam and Eve; of the birth from God and the Church he did not yet know: he knew only those parents who beget unto death; he did not yet know those parents who beget unto life: he knew only those parents who beget successors; he did not yet know those who, ever living, beget those who will abide. Since, then, there are two births, he understood one. One is of earth, the other of heaven; one is of the flesh, the other of the Spirit; one is of mortality, the other of eternity; one is of male and female, the other of God and the Church. But these two are each single; neither the one can be repeated, nor the other. Nicodemus rightly understood the birth of the flesh: so do you too understand the birth of the spirit, as Nicodemus understood the birth of the flesh. What did Nicodemus understand? Can a man enter anew into his mother's womb and be born? So, whoever tells you to be born again spiritually, answer what Nicodemus said: Can a man enter again into his mother's womb and be born? I have already been born of Adam; Adam cannot beget me again: I have already been born of Christ; Christ cannot beget me again. As the womb cannot be repeated, so neither can Baptism.

7. He who is born of the Catholic Church is born as if of Sarah; he is born of the free woman: he who is born of heresy is born as if of the bondwoman, but of the seed of Abraham. Let your Charity mark how great a mystery [this is]. God testifies and says, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Were there not other patriarchs? Was there not, before these, holy Noah, who alone in the whole human race, with his whole household, was found worthy to be delivered from the flood, in whom and in whose sons the Church was prefigured? With wood bearing them they escape the flood (Gen. 7:7). Then afterwards great men whom we know, whom holy Scripture

commends, Moses faithful in all his house (Num. 12:7). And those three are named, as though they alone had merited Him: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this is My name for ever (Exod. 3:6, 15). A great mystery! The Lord is able to open both our mouths and your hearts, so that we may speak as He has deigned to reveal, and you may grasp as is expedient for you.

8. These three, then, are the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You already know that the sons of Jacob were twelve, and from them came the people Israel: for Jacob himself is Israel, and the people Israel is twelve tribes, belonging to the twelve sons of Israel. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, three fathers, and one people. Three fathers as at the beginning of the people; three fathers in whom the people was prefigured: both the former people itself and the present people. For in the people of the Jews the people of the Christians was prefigured. There the figure, here the truth: there the shadow, here the body, as the Apostle says, Now these things befell them in figure. It is the voice of the Apostle: They were written, he says, for us, upon whom the end of the ages has come (1 Cor. 10:11). Let your mind now run back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In these three we find free women bearing, and maidservants bearing too: we find there the offspring of free women, we find there also the offspring of maidservants. The maidservant signifies nothing good: Cast out, it says, the maidservant and her son; for the son of the maidservant shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. The Apostle recalls this; and in those two sons of Abraham, the Apostle says, there was a figure of the two Testaments, the Old and the New. To the Old Testament belong the lovers of temporal things, the lovers of the world: to the New Testament the lovers of eternal life. Therefore that Jerusalem on earth was a shadow of the heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of us all, which is in heaven: and these are the Apostle's words (Gen. 21:10; Gal. 4:22–30). And about that city from which we are on pilgrimage you know many things, you have already heard many things. But we find a wonderful thing in these births, that is, in these offspring, in these generations of free women and maidservants, namely four kinds of men: in which four kinds is fulfilled the figure of the future Christian people, so that it is not surprising that in the case of those three it was said, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For in all Christians, brethren, pay attention, either the good are born through the bad, or the bad are born through the good, or the good through the good, or the bad through the bad: beyond these four kinds you cannot find any. I shall repeat these things again: take note, retain them; shake out your hearts, do not be sluggish: grasp, lest you be caught, how there are four kinds of all Christians. Either the good are born through the good, or the bad are born through the bad, or the bad through the good, or the good through the bad. I think it is plain. The good through the good: if both those who baptize are good, and those who are baptized believe rightly and are rightly numbered among the members of Christ. The bad through the bad: if both those who baptize are bad, and those who are baptized approach God with a double heart and do not keep those morals which they hear in the Church,

so that there may be no chaff there, but wheat. For how many they are, your Charity knows. The good through the bad: sometimes an adulterer baptizes, and he who is baptized is justified. The bad through the good: sometimes those who baptize are holy; those who are baptized are unwilling to keep the way of God.

9. I think, brethren, that what we are saying is known in the Church and made plain by daily examples; but let us consider these things in our earlier fathers, because they too had these four kinds. The good through the good: Ananias baptized Paul (Acts 9:18). What of the bad through the bad? The Apostle speaks of certain preachers of the Gospel, of whom he says that they were wont to proclaim the Gospel not purely, whom he tolerates in the Christian fellowship, and he says, What then? provided that in every way, whether by pretext or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, in this too I rejoice (Phil. 1:18). Was he malevolent, and did he rejoice at another's evil? But because the truth was preached even through the bad, and Christ was preached through the mouths of the bad, if these men baptized any like themselves, the bad baptized the bad; if these men baptized such as the Lord admonishes when He says, What they say, do; but what they do, do not do (Matt. 23:3), the bad baptized the good. The good baptized the bad, as Simon Magus was baptized by the holy Philip (Acts 8:13). These four kinds, then, are known, my brethren. See, I repeat them again: hold them, count them, mark them; beware of what is bad, hold to what is good. The good are born through the good when the holy are baptized by the holy; the bad through the bad, when both those who baptize and those who are baptized live wickedly and impiously; the good through the bad, when those who baptize are bad, and those who are baptized are good; the bad through the good, when those who baptize are good, and those who are baptized are bad.

10. How do we find these things in those three names, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? We take the bondwomen as standing for the bad, the free women for the good: free women bear good sons; Sarah bore Isaac (Gen. 21:3): bondwomen bear bad sons; Hagar bore Ishmael (Gen. 16:15). We have in Abraham alone both that kind when the good come through the good, and that kind when the bad come through the bad. Where are the bad through the good figured? Rebecca, the wife of Isaac, was free: read, she bore twins; one was good, the other bad. You have Scripture saying openly with the voice of God, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Mal. 1:2–3; Rom. 9:13). These two Rebecca bore, Jacob and Esau: one of them is chosen, the other rejected; one succeeds to the inheritance, the other is disinherited. God does not make His people out of Esau, but He makes it out of Jacob. One seed, yet those conceived were different: one womb, yet those born were different. Did not the free woman who bore Jacob bear Esau too? They struggled in their mother's womb, and it was said to Rebecca, while they struggled there, Two peoples are in your womb (Gen. 25:22–24). Two men, two peoples; a good people, a bad people: but yet they struggle in one womb. How many bad there are in the Church, and one womb carries them, until they are separated at the end: and

the good cry out against the bad, and the bad cry back against the good, and in the womb of one both struggle. Will they always be together? At the end there is a going forth into the light; the birth that is figured here in a sacrament is made manifest; and then it will appear: Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.

11. So now we have found, brethren, both good from good, Isaac from the free woman; and bad from bad, Ismael from the bondwoman; and bad from good, Esau from Rebecca. Where shall we find good from bad? Jacob remains, so that in the three patriarchs the completion of these four kinds may be rounded off. Jacob had wives who were free, he had also bondwomen: the free women bear, the bondwomen also bear, and the twelve sons of Israel come to be (Gen. 29, 30, 35). If you count all of those from whom they were born, not all were from free women, not all from bondwomen; but yet all were from one seed. What then, my brethren? Did those who were born of bondwomen not possess the land of promise together with their brothers? We find there good sons of Jacob born of bondwomen, and good sons of Jacob born of free women. Birth from the wombs of bondwomen did them no harm, since they acknowledged their seed in their father, and consequently they held the kingdom with their brothers. As therefore among the sons of Jacob it did not harm those who were born of bondwomen, so as to prevent their holding the kingdom and receiving the land of promise on equal terms with their brothers; their birth from bondwomen did not harm them, but the father's seed prevailed: so whoever are baptized by bad men seem as it were to be born of bondwomen; but yet, because they are of the seed of the word of God, which is figured in Jacob, let them not be saddened: they will possess the inheritance together with their brothers. Let him therefore be secure who is born of good seed; only let him not imitate the bondwoman, if he is born of a bondwoman. Do not imitate the bad, proud bondwoman. For why did the sons of Jacob born of bondwomen possess the land of promise with their brothers, whereas Ismael, born of a bondwoman, was driven out from the inheritance? Why, unless because he was proud, they humble? He raised up his neck, and wished to lead his brother astray, playing with him.

12. There is a great sacrament there. Ismael and Isaac were playing together; Sara saw them playing, and said to Abraham: Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. And when Abraham was saddened, the Lord confirmed to him the saying of his wife. Here now the sacrament is manifest, because that event was in labour with something or other that was to come. She saw them playing, and says: Cast out the bondwoman and her son. What is this, brethren? For what harm had Ismael done to the boy Isaac, in that he was playing with him? But that playing was a mocking; that playing signified deception. For let your Charity attend to a great sacrament. The Apostle calls it persecution; that very playing, that very game, he calls persecution: for he says, But as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also now; that is, those who are born according to the flesh persecute those who are born according to the spirit. Who are those born according to the flesh? Lovers of the world, lovers of the age. Who are those born according to the spirit? Lovers of the kingdom of heaven, lovers of Christ, those who long for eternal life,

worshipping God freely. They play, and the Apostle calls it persecution. For after the Apostle had said these words, And just as then he who had been born according to the flesh persecuted him who [was born] according to the spirit, so also now; he followed on and showed what persecution he meant: But what does Scripture say? Cast out the maidservant and her son; for the son of the maidservant shall not be heir with my son Isaac (Gen. 21:9–12; Gal. 4:29–30). We ask where Scripture says this, so that we may see whether some persecution of Isaac by Ishmael went before it: and we find that this was said by Sarah when she saw the boys playing together. The play which Scripture says Sarah saw, this the Apostle calls persecution. Those, then, persecute you more who lead you astray by mocking you: Come, come; be baptized here, here you have the true baptism. Do not play; there is one true [baptism]; that one is a mockery: you will be led astray, and that persecution will be grievous for you. It would have been better for you to win Ishmael over to the kingdom; but Ishmael does not want it, because he wants to play. Hold fast, you, to the inheritance of the father, and hear: Cast out the maidservant and her son; for the son of the maidservant shall not be heir with my son Isaac.

13. These men even dare to say that they are accustomed to suffer persecution from Catholic kings, or from Catholic princes. What persecution do they endure? Affliction of the body: yet if they have ever suffered it, or how they have suffered it, let them themselves know, and let them consult their own consciences; still, it is affliction of the body that they have suffered: the persecution which they inflict is graver. Beware when Ishmael wants to play with Isaac, when he flatters you, when he offers another baptism: answer, I already have Baptism. For if this baptism is true, he who wants to give you another wants to mock you. Beware the persecutor of the soul. For if the party of Donatus has at some time suffered something from Catholic princes, it has suffered according to the body, not according to the mockery of the spirit. Hear and see in these very deeds of old all the signs and indications of things to come. Sarah is found to have afflicted Hagar the maidservant: Sarah is the free woman: after the maidservant began to grow proud, Sarah complained to Abraham, and said, Cast out the maidservant; she has raised her neck against me. And as though it were being done by Abraham, the woman complained about Abraham. But Abraham, who was held to the maidservant not by a lust for misusing her but by the duty of begetting, since Sarah had given him the means of receiving offspring, said to her: Behold your maidservant, use her as you will. And Sarah afflicted her severely, and she fled from her face. Behold, the free woman afflicted the maidservant, and the Apostle does not call that persecution; the servant plays with the master, and he calls it persecution: that affliction is not called persecution, and that play is called persecution. What does it seem to you, brethren? Do you not understand what has been signified? So, then, when God wills to stir up the powers against heretics, against schismatics, against the scatterers of the Church, against those who blow upon Christ in contempt, against the blasphemers of Baptism, let them not wonder; for God stirs them up, that Hagar may be beaten by Sarah. Let Hagar know herself, let her lower her neck: for when, humbled, she was departing from her mistress, an angel met her and said, What is it, Hagar, maidservant

of Sarah? When she had complained about her mistress, what did she hear from the angel? Return to your mistress (Gen. 16:5–9). For this, then, she is afflicted, that she may return. And would that she would return; for her offspring, like the sons of Jacob, will hold the inheritance with the brothers.

14. But they are amazed that the Christian authorities are stirred against the detestable scatterers of the Church. Should they not, then, be stirred? And how would they render account to God for their rule? Let Your Charity attend to what I say: that it belongs to the Christian kings of this world to want their mother the Church, from whom they were spiritually born, to be at peace in their times. We read the visions of Daniel and his prophetic deeds. Three boys praised the Lord in the fire: King Nebuchadnezzar marvelled at the boys praising God, and at the fire harmless around them; and when he had marvelled, what did King Nebuchadnezzar say, he who was neither a Jew nor circumcised, he who had set up his own statue and had compelled all to worship it? Yet, moved by the praises of the three boys, when he saw the majesty of God present in the fire, what did he say? "And I will set forth a decree to all tribes and tongues in all the earth." What sort of decree? "Whoever shall speak blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall go to destruction, and their houses to perdition" (Dan. 3). See how a foreign king rages, lest the God of Israel be blasphemed, because He was able to deliver three boys from the fire: and are they unwilling that Christian kings should rage, when Christ is blown upon, He by Whom not three boys, but the whole world together with the kings themselves, is delivered from the fire of hell? For those three boys, my brothers, were delivered from a temporal fire. Is He not the very God of the Maccabees, Who is also the God of the three boys? These He delivered from the fire: those failed in body in fiery torments, but persevered in spirit in the commandments of the law. These were openly delivered, those were secretly crowned (2 Macc. 7). It is a greater thing to be delivered from the flame of hell than from the furnace of human power. If, then, King Nebuchadnezzar praised and proclaimed and gave glory to God, because He delivered three boys from the fire, and gave such great glory that he sent a decree through his kingdom, Whoever shall speak blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall go to destruction, and their houses to perdition: how should these kings not be stirred, who consider not three boys delivered from the flame, but themselves delivered from hell, when they see Christ, by Whom they were delivered, blown upon in Christians, when they hear it said to a Christian, Say that you are not a Christian? Such things they want to do, and yet they are unwilling at least to suffer such things.

15. For see what sort of things they do, and what sort of things they suffer. They kill souls, they are afflicted in the body: they cause everlasting deaths, and they complain that they endure temporal ones. And yet what deaths do they suffer? They bring forward to us some martyrs or other of theirs in persecution. See, Marculus was thrown down from a rock: see, Donatus of Bagai was cast into a well. When did the Roman authorities decree such punishments, that men should be thrown down headlong? But what do our people answer? What