Augustine, Sermones 59-70 (Classis I, de Scripturis: de Evangelio Matthaei)

Sermon 68. Again on the words of the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11:25, I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, etc.

Chapter I. — 1. The wise and prudent, from whom the mysteries are hidden. We have heard the Son of God saying, I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. What does He confess to Him? In what does He praise Him? Because Thou hast hidden, He says, these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Who are the wise and prudent? Who the little ones? What did He hide from the wise and prudent, and reveal to little ones? By the wise and prudent He means those of whom Paul says: Where is the wise man? where the scribe? where the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world (1 Cor. 1:20)? Even now perhaps you still ask who these are. Perhaps they are those who, disputing much about God, have said false things; puffed up with their own teachings, they were quite unable to find and know God, and in place of God, Whose substance is incomprehensible and invisible, they thought that God was the air, the ether, that God was the sun, that God was something that stands out on high in creation. For, attending to the magnitudes and beauties and strengths of creatures, they stopped there; they did not find the Creator.

2. No amount of knowledge profits if knowledge of God is lacking. The book of Wisdom reproves them, where it is said: For if they were able to have so much power that they could assess the world, how did they not more easily find its Lord (Wis. 13:9)? They stand accused, spending their time and the labours of their disputations in searching out and in a certain way measuring creation: they investigated the courses of the heavenly bodies, the distances between the stars, the paths of the celestial bodies, so that by certain calculations they arrived at such knowledge that they could predict an eclipse of the sun, an eclipse of the moon; and when they predicted it, it came to pass, on that day and at that hour, so much and in such a part, as great a part as they had foretold. Great industry, great skill. But there they searched for the Creator, Who is set not far from them, and did not find Him. Had they found Him, they would have Him with them. Most fittingly, then, and most rightly have they been accused, who were able to investigate the numbers of the stars and the intervals of the seasons, to know and predict the eclipses of the luminaries: rightly have they been accused, since they did not find Him by Whom these things were made and ordered, because they neglected to seek Him. But you, do not care greatly if you are ignorant of the circuits of the stars and the numbers of the heavenly or earthly bodies. See the beauty of the world, and praise the counsel of the Creator. See what He made, love Him Who made it: hold to this above all. Love Him Who made it: for He made you yourself, His lover, after His own image.

Chapter II. — 3. The truth is not to be held back in iniquity.

Therefore, since it is a marvel that from such wise men, occupied about creatures, who were willing to seek the Creator only negligently and were not able to find Him, those things were hidden of which Christ said, Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent: it is more marvellous that wise and prudent men were caught out, even those who were able to know. For, he says, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all the impiety and injustice of men, who hold back the truth in iniquity. You perhaps ask what truth they hold back in iniquity? Because what is known of God is manifest in them. Whence is it manifest? He goes on, and says: For God has manifested it to them. Do you still ask how He manifested it to those to whom He did not give the law? How then? For His invisible things, from the constitution of the world, are perceived, being understood through the things that have been made. There were, then, certain men, not like Moses the servant of God, not like the many prophets, beholding and understanding these things, aided by the Spirit of God, which Spirit they drew in by faith, drank with the throat of piety, and belched forth with the mouth of the inner man. Not such, then; but there were others, unlike them, who through this creation were able to arrive at understanding the Creator, and to say of the things that God made: Behold, the things He made He governs and holds together; He Himself who made them fills with His presence these things which He made. They were able to say this. For Paul too mentioned these very men in the Acts of the Apostles: where, when he had said of God, For in Him we live and move and are; since he was speaking among the Athenians, where those most learned men had arisen, he added at once, As also certain men among you have said (Acts 17:28). It is no light thing that they said: That in God we live and move and are.

Chapter III. — 4. Why the wise of this world are without excuse. Why, then, are they unlike? why reproached? why rightly accused? Hear the words of the Apostle which I had begun to speak: The wrath of God, he says, is revealed from heaven upon all impiety, that is, of those also who did not receive the law: upon all the impiety and injustice of men, who hold back the truth in iniquity. What truth? Because what is known of God is manifest in them. By whose manifesting? For God manifested it to them. How did He manifest it? For His invisible things, from the constitution of the world, are perceived, being understood through the things that have been made; His everlasting power also and divinity. Why did He manifest it? That they may be without excuse. If He manifested it so that they may be without excuse, why then are they culpable? Because, knowing God, they did not glorify Him as God.

Chapter IV. — 5. To glorify God and to give thanks are the same. What is it that you say, They did not glorify Him as God? Nor did they give thanks. Is this, then, to glorify God, to give thanks to God? It is indeed. For what is worse than if, created to the image [of God], you should be ungrateful when you have come to know God? This is exactly it, this is to glorify God: to give thanks to God. The faithful know where and when it is said, Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. But who gives thanks to God, except one who has his heart lifted up to the Lord? Therefore those are culpable who are inexcusable,

because, knowing God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor did they give thanks. But what then? But they became vain in their thoughts. Why did they become vain, unless because they were proud? Smoke too vanishes by rising on high, while fire shines the more and is strengthened by taking hold lower down. They became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. Even smoke, though it is higher than the fire, is dark.

Chapter V. — 6. From the proud mysteries are hidden, but to little ones they are revealed. Then attend to what follows, and see on what the whole matter hangs: For, saying that they were wise, they became fools (Rom. 1:18–22). By their arrogating to themselves what God had bestowed, God took away what God had given. Therefore He hides Himself from the proud, He Who through the creature had made known none but Himself to those who were diligently searching out the Creator. Well, then, does the Lord say, Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent: whether from those who by manifold disputations and most skilful inquiry arrived at the investigation of the creature, but by no means came to know the Creator; or from those who, knowing God, did not glorify Him as God and give thanks, and could not see perfectly or to their salvation, because they were proud. Thou hast hidden these things, therefore, from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. To what little ones? To the humble. Say, upon whom does My Spirit rest? Upon the humble, and the quiet, and the one who trembles at My words (Isa. 66:2). Peter trembled at these words; Plato did not tremble. Let the fisherman hold fast what the most noble disputant lost. Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Thou hast hidden [them] from the proud, and hast revealed [them] to the humble. What are these things themselves? For when He said this, He was not attending to heaven and earth and, as it were, pointing them out with His hand when He said "these things". For who does not see these? The good see them, the wicked see them: for He makes His sun rise upon the good and the wicked (Matt. 5:45). What, then, are these things? All things have been delivered to Me by My Father (Matt. 11:27).

Sermon 69. On the words of the Gospel of Matthew, chap. 11:28-29, Come to Me, all you who labour and are burdened, etc.

Chapter One. — 1. Whence this labour comes. We have heard in the Gospel that the Lord, exultant in spirit, said to God the Father: I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Yes, Father, for so it has been pleasing in Thy sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father: and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal [Him]. In crying out we labour, in listening you labour. Let us therefore hear Him Who follows on and says: Come to Me, all you who labour. For why do we all labour, unless because we are mortal men, fragile, weak, carrying vessels of clay which cause straits for one another? But if the vessels of the flesh are straitened, let there be widened

the spaces of charity. Why then does He say, Come to Me, all you who labour, if not so that you may not labour? Indeed His promise is ready to hand: since He called those who labour, they might perhaps ask with what reward they were called: And I, He says, will refresh you.

2. Humility the foundation of the spiritual building.—Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me: not to fashion the world, not to create all things visible and invisible, not to work miracles in the world itself and raise the dead; but that I am meek and humble of heart. You wish to be great: begin from the least. You are thinking of constructing a great building of loftiness: think first of the foundation of humility. And however great a mass of building each one wishes and plans to set on top, the greater the building will be, the deeper he digs the foundation. And the building indeed, when it is being constructed, rises up into the heights; but he who digs the foundation is pressed down to the depths. So the building too is humbled before its loftiness, and the summit is raised up after the humbling.

Chapter II. — 3. The vision of the God Who sees is promised to us. What is the summit of the building to be constructed which we are labouring at? Where is the top of the edifice to reach? I say it quickly: right up to the sight of God. You see how lofty it is, how great a thing it is, to behold God. Whoever desires it understands both what I say and what he hears. The sight of God is promised to us, of the true God, of the supreme God. For this is the good: to see Him Who sees. For those who worship false gods see them easily; but they see those who have eyes and do not see. But to us is promised the vision of the God Who lives and sees, so that we may long to see that God of Whom Scripture says: He Who planted the ear, will He not hear? He Who formed the eye, does He not consider? Does He then not hear, Who made for you that by which you hear? And does He not see, Who created that by which you see? Well does He say beforehand in the same Psalm, Understand then, you who are senseless among the people; and you fools, be wise at last (Ps. 93:9, 8). For many do evil for this reason, that they think they are not seen by God. And it is indeed hard for them to believe that He cannot see; but they think He does not wish to. Few are found of such great impiety that there is fulfilled in them what is written, The fool has said in his heart, There is no God (Ps. 13:1). That madness belongs to few. For just as great piety belongs to few, so great impiety likewise belongs to few. But what I am saying, the crowd says: 'Look, does God now think about that, to know what I do in my house, and does God care what I wish to do in my bed?' Who says this? Understand, you who are senseless among the people; and you fools, be wise at last. Since you are a man, because you labour if you are to know all the affairs of your house, and all the words, all the deeds of your servants are to concern you, do you think that God too labours in this way to attend to you, He Who did not labour to create you? Does He not direct His eye upon you, He Who made yours? You did not exist, and He created you so that you might exist: does He not care for you now that you exist, He Who calls the things that are not as though they were (Rom. 4:17)? So do not promise yourself this. Whether you will or not, He sees you; and there is nowhere to hide yourself from His eyes. For if you ascend into heaven, He is there; if you