Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus VII-XII

was done I do not know: yet what do our people report? That they threw themselves down, and brought the authorities into ill repute. Let us recall the custom of the Roman authorities, and let us see whom we ought to believe. Our people say that they threw themselves down: if those who now throw themselves from rocks with no one pursuing them are not the very disciples of these men, let us not believe it: what wonder, if they did what they are accustomed to do? For the Roman authorities never used such punishments. For could they not kill openly? But those who wished to be venerated as dead men found no more notorious death. Finally, whatever that is, I do not know. And if you have suffered bodily affliction, O party of Donatus, from the Catholic Church, you have suffered as Hagar from Sarah; return to your mistress. A necessary point has indeed detained us somewhat longer, so that we were by no means able to expound the whole text of the Gospel reading. Brethren, let this suffice your Charity for the present, lest what has been said be driven out of your hearts by the saying of other things. Hold fast these things, say such things, go forth there aflame, kindle the cold.

Tractate XII. From that passage of the Gospel, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, etc., as far as, But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they have been done in God. Chapter 3, verses 6-21.

1. From the fact that yesterday we made your Charity attentive, we perceive that you have gathered more eagerly and in greater numbers: but meanwhile let us render to the Gospel reading, in its order, the sermon owed to it, if it please you; afterwards your Charity will hear about the peace of the Church, both what we have done and what we hope is still to be done. Now therefore let the whole attention of the heart be borne towards the Gospel; let no one think of anything else. For if he who is wholly present scarcely grasps it, does not he who divides himself through various thoughts pour out even what he had taken in? Now your Charity remembers that on the Lord's Day just past, as far as the Lord deigned to help, we discoursed on spiritual regeneration (In the preceding Tractate): which reading we have had read to you again, so that what was not said then we may complete in the name of Christ, with your prayers assisting.

2. Spiritual regeneration is one, just as carnal generation is one. And what Nicodemus said to the Lord, he said truly, that a man cannot, when he is old, return again into his mother's womb and be born. He indeed said that a man, when he is old, cannot do this, as if, were he an infant, he could. For he cannot at all, whether fresh from the womb or already of advanced age, return again into the maternal womb and be born. But just as for carnal birth a woman's womb avails for bearing once; so for spiritual birth the womb of the Church avails, that each one may be baptized once. Therefore, lest anyone perhaps say, But this man was born in heresy, and that man was born in schism; all these things were cut away, if you remember, by what was discussed with you concerning our three fathers, whose God He wished to be called, not because they were the only ones, but because in them alone was fulfilled the completeness of signifying the future people. For we find born of

the son of the bondwoman disinherited, the son of the free woman heir: again we find the son of the free woman disinherited, the son of the bondwoman heir. Born of the bondwoman and disinherited, Ishmael (Gen. 21:10); born of the free woman and heir, Isaac (Gen. 25:5); born of the free woman and disinherited, Esau (Gen. 27:35); born of bondwomen and heirs, the sons of Jacob (Gen. 49). In those three fathers, therefore, the figure of the whole future people was discerned: and not without reason God said, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this, He said, is My name for ever (Exod. 3:6, 15). Let us rather remember what was promised to Abraham himself: for this was promised to Isaac, this was promised also to Jacob. What do we find? In your seed shall all nations be blessed (Gen. 22:18). Then one man believed what he did not yet see: men see, and are blinded. What was promised to one has been fulfilled in the nations: and those who are unwilling to see even what has been fulfilled are separated from the communion of the nations. But what does it profit them that they are unwilling to see? They see, whether they will or not; open truth strikes even closed eyes.

3. The answer was given to Nicodemus, who was one of those who had believed in Jesus, and yet Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them. For to certain people He did not entrust Himself, though they had already believed in Him. Thus you have it written: "Many believed in His name, seeing the signs which He was doing. But Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them. For He had no need that anyone should bear witness concerning man; for He Himself knew what was in man" (John 2:23–25). See, those men were already believing in Jesus, and Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them. Why? Because they had not yet been reborn of water and the Spirit. Hence we have exhorted, and do exhort, our brothers the catechumens. For if you question them, they have already believed in Jesus: but because they do not yet receive His flesh and blood, Jesus has not yet entrusted Himself to them. What are they to do, so that Jesus may entrust Himself to them? Let them be reborn of water and the Spirit; let the Church bring forth those with whom she is in labour. They have been conceived; let them be brought forth into the light: they have breasts by which to be nourished; let them not fear that, once born, they will be suffocated; let them not withdraw from their mother's breasts.

4. No man can return into his mother's womb and be born again. But was someone or other born of a bondwoman? Did those who were then born of bondwomen return into the womb of free women, so as to be born anew? The seed of Abraham was in Ishmael also; and that Abraham might beget a son of the bondwoman, his wife was the author of it. He was born of the man's seed, and not of the womb, but solely by the wife's consent (Gen. 16:2–4). Was he then disinherited because he was of the bondwoman? If he was disinherited for this reason, that he was born of a bondwoman, no sons of bondwomen would be admitted to the inheritance. The sons of Jacob were admitted to the inheritance: Ishmael, however, was disinherited not because he was born of a bondwoman, but because he was proud towards his mother, proud against his mother's son; for his mother was Sarah rather than Hagar. The womb of the one was lent, the will of the other was added; Abraham would not have done what Sarah did not wish: he was therefore rather the son of Sarah. But because he was proud against his brother, and proud in playing, because in mocking; what does Sarah say? Cast out the bondwoman

and her son; for the son of the handmaid shall not be heir with my son Isaac (Gen. 21:9–10). So it was not the handmaid's womb that cast him out, but the servile neck. And if a free man is proud, he is a slave; and, what is worse, a slave of a bad mistress, of pride itself. Therefore, my brothers, answer the man that a man cannot be born again; answer with assurance that a man cannot be born again. Whatever is done again is mockery; whatever is done again is play. Ishmael plays: let him be sent out. For Sarah noticed them playing, says Scripture, and said to Abraham, Cast out the handmaid and her son. The boys' play displeased Sarah; she saw the boys playing at something new. Do not those who have sons wish for this, to see their sons playing? She saw, and disapproved. She saw something or other in the play: she saw mockery in that play, she noticed the slave's pride; it displeased her, she cast him out. The wicked born of handmaids are sent out, and Esau, born of the free woman, is sent out. So let no one presume because he is born of good parents; let no one presume because he is baptized by holy men. Let him who is baptized by holy men still beware lest he be not Jacob but Esau. This, then, brothers, I would say: it is better to be baptized by men seeking their own things and loving the world, which is what the name of handmaid signifies, and spiritually to seek the inheritance of Christ, so as to be like a son of Jacob by a handmaid, than to be baptized by holy men and to be proud, so as to be Esau, who must be sent out, although born of the free woman. Hold fast to these things, brothers. We do not flatter you; let none of your hope be in us: we do not cajole ourselves, nor you; each one carries his own burden. Ours it is to speak, lest we be judged ill; yours it is to hear, and to hear with the heart, lest what we give be demanded back from you; nay rather, that when it is demanded, profit may be found, not loss.

5. The Lord speaks to Nicodemus and explains to him: Amen, amen I say to you, unless one has been reborn of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. You, He says, understand a carnal generation when you say, Can a man go back into his mother's womb? It is of water and the Spirit that he must be born, for the sake of the kingdom of God. If he is born for the sake of the temporal inheritance of a human father, let him be born from the womb of a carnal mother; if for the sake of the everlasting inheritance of God the Father, let him be born from the womb of the Church. A father who is going to die begets through his wife a son who is to succeed him; God begets of the Church sons who are not to succeed Him but to abide with Him. And it follows: What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Spiritually, then, are we born, and in the spirit we are born by word and sacrament. The Spirit is present that we may be born: the Spirit from Whom you are born is present invisibly, because you too are born invisibly. For it follows, and He says: Do not wonder that I said to you, you must be born anew: the Spirit breathes where He wills, and you hear His voice, but you do not know whence He comes or whither He goes. No one sees the Spirit: and how do we hear the voice of the Spirit? A Psalm sounds: it is the voice of the Spirit; the Gospel sounds: it is the voice of the Spirit; the divine word sounds: it is the voice of the Spirit. You hear His voice, and you do not know whence He comes,

and whither He goes. But if you too are born of the Spirit, you will be such that one who is not yet born of the Spirit does not know of you whence you come and whither you go. For this is what He went on to say: So is everyone also who is born of the Spirit.

6. Nicodemus answered and said to Him: How can these things be done? And indeed, [taking it] carnally, he did not understand. In him was happening what the Lord had said: he was hearing the voice of the Spirit, and did not know whence it had come and whither it was going. Jesus answered and said to him: You are a teacher in Israel, and you do not know these things? O brethren, what then, do we think the Lord wished as it were to mock this teacher of the Jews? The Lord knew what He was doing; He wished him to be born of the Spirit. No one is born of the Spirit unless he be humble: for humility itself makes us be born of the Spirit; for the Lord is near to the contrite of heart (Ps. 33:19). That man was puffed up with his teacher's office, and seemed to himself to be of some importance, because he was a doctor of the Jews: He puts down his pride, so that he may be born of the Spirit; He mocks him as one untaught; not because the Lord wishes to appear superior. What great thing is it, God compared with a man, truth compared with falsehood? Must it be said, can it be said, is it to be thought that Christ is greater than Nicodemus? If it were said that Christ is greater than the Angels, it would be laughable: for incomparably greater than every creature is He through Whom every creature was made. But He harasses the man's pride: You are a teacher in Israel, and you do not know these things? As if saying: Behold, you know nothing, proud ruler; be born of the Spirit: for if you are born of the Spirit, you will keep the ways of God, so as to follow the humility of Christ. For thus is He high above all the Angels, because, though He was in the form of God, He did not think it robbery to be equal to God; but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man: He humbled Himself, made obedient unto death (and lest any kind of death should please you), even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:6–8). He was hanging, and was mocked. He could have come down from the cross; but He put it off, so that He might rise again from the tomb. The Lord bore with proud servants; the physician with the sick. If He [did] this, what [must] those [do] who must be born of the Spirit? If He [did] this, the true teacher in heaven, not of men only, but also of Angels. For if the Angels are taught, they are taught by the Word of God. If they are taught by the Word of God, seek whence they are taught; and you will find: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). The neck is taken from a man, but the rough and hard one, so that the neck may be gentle for carrying the yoke of Christ, of which it is said: My yoke is gentle, and My burden is light (Matt. 11:30).

7. And there follows: If I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe, how, if I tell you heavenly things, will you believe? What earthly things did He tell, brethren? Unless a man be born again: is that earthly? The Spirit breathes where it will, and you hear its voice, and do not know whence it comes and whither it goes: is that earthly? For if He were speaking of this wind, as some have understood it, when they were asked what earthly thing

the Lord said, when He says, If I have spoken earthly things to you, and you do not believe, how, if I speak heavenly things, will you believe? So when some were asked what earthly thing the Lord had spoken, they were put in difficulty and said that what He says, The Spirit breathes where He wills, and you hear His voice, and you do not know whence He comes or whither He goes, He said about this wind. For what did He call earthly? He was speaking of spiritual generation: going on, He said, So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Then, brothers, which of us does not see, for example, the south wind going from the south to the north, or another wind coming from the east to the west? How then do we not know whence it comes and whither it goes? What earthly thing, then, did He speak which men did not believe? Was it what He had said about raising up the temple? For He had received His body from the earth, and He was preparing to raise up that very earth, taken up in an earthly body. He was not believed when He was going to raise up earth. If I have spoken earthly things to you, He says, and you do not believe, how, if I speak heavenly things, will you believe? That is: if you do not believe that I can raise up the temple thrown down by you, how will you believe that men can be regenerated through the Spirit?

8. And there follows: And no one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven. Behold, He was here, and He was in heaven: He was here in the flesh, He was in heaven in His divinity; indeed, everywhere in His divinity. Born of a mother, not withdrawing from the Father. Two nativities of Christ are understood: one divine, the other human; one through which we were to be made, the other through which we were to be remade; both wonderful: the former without a mother, the latter without a father. But because He had received His body from Adam, since Mary was from Adam, and He was going to raise up that same body, He had spoken something earthly: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (John 2:19). But He spoke something heavenly: Unless one has been reborn of water and the Spirit, he will not see the kingdom of God (ibid. 3:5). Come, brothers: God willed to be a son of man, and He willed men to be sons of God. He descended for our sake; let us ascend for His sake. For He alone descended and ascended, who says this: No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven. Are those, then, whom He makes sons of God not going to ascend into heaven? Plainly they are going to ascend: this is the promise to us, They will be equal to the angels of God (Matt. 22:30). How then has no one ascended except He who descended? Because one descended, one ascended. What of the rest? What is to be understood, except that they will be His members, so that one may ascend? Therefore there follows: No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven. Do you wonder that He was both here and in heaven? Such did He make His disciples. Hear the apostle Paul saying, But our way of life is in the heavens (Phil. 3:20). If the man Paul the apostle walked in the flesh on earth and lived his life in heaven, could the God of heaven and earth not be both in heaven and on earth?

9. If, then, no one except He has descended and ascended, what hope is there for the rest? This is the hope for the rest: that He descended for this reason, that in Him and with Him they might be one,

who were going to ascend through Him. He does not say, And to seeds, says the Apostle, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ. And to the faithful he says: But you are Christ's; and if Christ's, then you are the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:16, 29). What he called one, this he said we all are. Therefore in the Psalms sometimes many sing, to show that out of many one is made; sometimes one sings, to show what is made out of many. That is why one was healed in that pool (John 5:4), and whoever else went down was not healed. So this one commends the unity of the Church. Woe to those who hate unity and make parties for themselves among men! Let them hear him who wished to make them one in the One unto the One; let them hear him saying, Do not make yourselves many: I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase; but neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:6–7). They were saying: I am of Paul, I of Apollo, I of Cephas. And he: Is Christ divided? (ibid. 1:12–13). Be in One, be one thing, be one person: No one ascends into heaven except He who descended from heaven. See, we want to be yours, they said to Paul. And he: I do not want you to be Paul's, but be His whose Paul is, together with you.

10. For He descended and died, and by that very death He freed us from death: slain by death, He slew death. And you know, brethren, that this death entered into the world through the envy of the devil. God did not make death, Scripture says; nor does He rejoice, it says, in the destruction of the living: for He created all things that they might be (Wis. 1:13–14). But what does it say there? But by the envy of the devil death entered into the world (ibid. 2:24). To the death offered him by the devil man would not have come brought by force: for the devil did not have the power of compelling, but the cunning of persuading. Had you not consented, the devil would have brought in nothing: your consent, O man, led you to death. From a mortal mortals were born; from immortals we were made mortals. From Adam all men are mortal: but Jesus, the Son of God, the Word of God, through Whom all things were made, the only one equal to the Father, was made mortal; for the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:13–14).

11. So He took on death, and hung death upon the cross; and from that very death mortals are freed. What was done in figure among the ancients the Lord recalls: And as, He says, Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but may have eternal life. A great sacrament, and those who have read it know it. Then let those hear who have not read it, or who perhaps have forgotten what they read or heard. The people of Israel were being laid low in the desert by the bites of serpents; there was a great slaughter of many deaths: for it was the blow of God correcting and scourging, that He might instruct. There was shown a great sacrament of a thing to come, as the Lord Himself testifies in this reading, so that no one can interpret otherwise than what the Truth itself indicates about itself. For it was said to Moses by the Lord that he should make a bronze serpent, and lift it up on wood in the desert, and admonish the people of Israel that if anyone had been bitten by a serpent, he should look upon that serpent lifted up on

the wood. It was done: men were bitten, they looked, and they were healed (Num. 21:6–9). What are the biting serpents? Sins, from the mortality of the flesh. What is the serpent lifted up? The death of the Lord on the cross. For because death came from a serpent, it was figured by the likeness of a serpent. The bite of the serpent was deadly, the death of the Lord life-giving. The serpent is looked upon, that the serpent may have no power. What is this? Death is looked upon, that death may have no power. But whose death? The death of life: if it can be said, the death of life; nay, because it can be said, it is wonderfully said. But shall what had to be done not have to be said? Should I hesitate to say what the Lord deigned to do for me? Is not Christ life? And yet Christ was on the cross. Is not Christ life? And yet Christ died. But in the death of Christ death died; for life, having died, slew death, the fullness of life swallowed up death: death was swallowed up in the body of Christ. So we too shall say in the resurrection, when, now triumphant, we shall sing, Where, death, is your contention? Where, death, is your sting (1 Cor. 15:54–55)? Meanwhile now, brothers, that we may be healed from sin, let us gaze upon Christ crucified; for as Moses, He says, lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but may have eternal life. Just as those who gazed upon that serpent did not perish from the bites of the serpents, so those who gaze in faith upon the death of Christ are healed from the bites of sins. But they were healed from death to temporal life; here, however, He says, that they may have eternal life. For this is the difference between the figurative image and the thing itself: the figure afforded temporal life; the thing itself, of which that was the figure, affords eternal life.

12. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world may be saved through Him. So, as far as lies with the physician, He came to heal the sick man. He destroys himself who will not observe the physician's instructions. The Saviour came to the world: why was He called the Saviour of the world, except that He might save the world, not that He might judge the world? You do not wish to be saved by Him; you will be judged by yourself. And why do I say, you will be judged? See what He says: He who believes in Him is not judged; but he who does not believe: what do you expect Him to say, except, is judged? Already, He says, he has been judged. The judgement has not yet appeared, but the judgement has already been made. For the Lord knows who are His: He knows who are to remain for the crown, who are to remain for the flame; He knows on His threshing-floor the wheat, He knows the chaff; He knows the crop, He knows the tares. He who does not believe has already been judged. Why judged? Because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.

13. And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil. My brothers, whose good works did the Lord find? No one's: He found the works of all to be evil. How then did some do the truth, and come to the light? For this too follows: But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they have been done in God. How

some did a good work, so that they might come to the light, that is, to Christ? And how did some love the darkness? For if He found all men sinners, and heals all from sin, and that serpent in which the death of the Lord was prefigured heals those who had been bitten, and the serpent was lifted up on account of the serpent's bite, that is, the death of the Lord on account of mortal men, whom He found unrighteous; how is this to be understood: This is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light: for their works were evil? What is this? For whose works were good? Did You not come to justify the ungodly? But they loved, He says, darkness rather than light. There He placed the weight: for many loved their sins, many confessed their sins: for whoever confesses his sins, and accuses his sins, already acts with God. God accuses your sins: if you too accuse them, you are joined to God. There are, as it were, two things, man and sinner. What you hear called man, God made: what you hear called sinner, man himself made. Destroy what you have made, so that God may save what He made. You must hate in yourself your own work, and love in yourself the work of God. But when what you have done begins to displease you, from there your good works begin, because you accuse your evil works. The beginning of good works is the confession of evil works. You do the truth, and you come to the light. What is "You do the truth"? You do not stroke yourself, you do not coax yourself, you do not flatter yourself; you do not say, I am righteous, when you are unrighteous, and you begin to do the truth. And you come to the light so that your works may be made manifest, because they have been done in God; because this very thing, that your sin displeased you, would not displease you unless God shone upon you, and His truth showed it to you. But he who, even when warned, loves his sins hates the light that warns him and flees from it, so that his evil works which he loves may not be reproved. But he who does the truth accuses his evils in himself; he does not spare himself, he does not pardon himself, so that God may pardon: for what he wants God to pardon, he himself acknowledges, and he comes to the light; and he gives thanks to it because it has shown him what he should hate in himself. He says to God, Turn away Thy face from my sins: and with what face does he say it, unless he says again, For I acknowledge my wrongdoing, and my sin is before me always (Ps. 50:11, 5)? Let that be before you which you do not want to be before God. But if you put your sin behind you, God will turn it back before your eyes; and He turns it back then, when there will no longer be any fruit of repentance.

14. Run, lest the darkness overtake you (John 12:35), my brothers: wake up to your salvation, wake up while there is time; let no one be held back from the temple of God, let no one be held back from the work of the Lord, let no one be called away from continual prayer, let no one be defrauded of his accustomed devotion. Wake up, therefore, while it is day: the day shines, Christ is the day. He is ready to pardon, but to those who acknowledge [their sins]; but to punish those who defend themselves, and boast that they are righteous, and think themselves to be something, when they are nothing. But he who walks in His love and in His mercy, even when freed from those deadly and great sins, such as are crimes, murders, thefts, adulteries; on account of those which seem to be small sins

of the tongue, or of thoughts, or of immoderation in things permitted, does the truth of confession, and comes to the light in good works: since many small sins, if they are neglected, kill. Small are the drops that fill rivers; small are the grains of sand; but if much sand is laid on, it presses down and crushes. The bilge-water that is neglected does what the onrushing wave does: little by little it enters through the bilge; but by entering for a long time and not being bailed out, it sinks the ship. And what is bailing out, but to act by good works so that sins may not overwhelm us, by groaning, by fasting, by giving, by forgiving? But the journey of this world is troublesome, it is full of temptations; in prosperity let it not puff you up, in adversity let it not break you. He who gave you the happiness of this world gave it for your consolation, not for your corruption. Again, He who scourges you in this world does it for your amendment, not for your damnation. Bear with a father who instructs, lest you feel a judge who punishes. These things we tell you daily, and they must be said often, because they are good and wholesome.