Augustine, Sermones 121-127 (Classis I, de Scripturis)

its friendship, it is deceitful, it makes God an enemy. Quickly, in a single temptation, a man offends God and becomes an enemy. Nay rather, he does not become an enemy then; but then he is revealed to have been an enemy. For when he loved and praised, he was an enemy; but neither did he himself know it, nor did others. Temptation comes, the vein is touched, and the fever is revealed. Therefore, brethren, love of the world and friendship of the world make men enemies to God. And it does not deliver what it promised; it is a liar, and it deceives. Hence men do not cease to hope in this world, and who attains to all that he hopes for? But whatever he attains to, that which he has attained to at once grows cheap to him. Other things begin to be desired, other dear things are hoped for: and when these have come, whatever comes to you grows cheap. Hold fast therefore to God, because He never grows cheap, because nothing is more beautiful. For these things grow cheap for this reason, because they cannot stand, because they are not what He is. For nothing suffices you, O soul, except He Who created you. Whatever else you lay hold of is wretched: because He alone can suffice you Who made you after His own likeness. In this very utterance it was said, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us (John 14:8). There alone can there be security: and where there can be security, there in a certain manner will be an insatiable satiety. For you will neither be sated so as to wish to depart, nor will anything be lacking so that you suffer as it were want.

Sermon 126. On the words of the Gospel of John, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. Chapter 5, verse 19.

Chapter I. — 1. Faith ought to precede understanding. Believers first seek the hidden and secret things of the kingdom of God, so that these may make them understanding. For faith is a step towards understanding; understanding, however, is the reward of faith. The prophet says this openly to all who over-hastily and preposterously demand understanding and neglect faith. For he says: Unless you believe, you will not understand (Isa. 7:9, according to the LXX). Faith itself, therefore, has a certain light of its own in the Scriptures, in Prophecy, in the Gospel, in the apostolic readings. For all these things which are read out to us for the time being are lamps in a dark place, that we may be nourished until the day. The apostle Peter says: We have a more certain prophetic word, to which you do well to attend as to a lamp in a dark place, until the day dawns and the day-star rises in your hearts (2 Pet. 1:19).

2. It is perverse to be unwilling to believe anything except what you see. You see therefore, brethren, how perverse they are and how faulty in their haste, who like an unripe conception seek abortion before birth; who say to us, Why do you bid me believe what I do not see? Let me see something, that I may believe. You bid me believe while I do not see: I want to see, and by seeing to believe, not by hearing. Let the prophet say: Unless you believe, you will not understand. To ascend

is what you want, and you forget the steps. Surely this is perverse. O man, if I could already show you what you might see, I would not be urging you to believe.

Chapter II.—3. From the creatures which are seen we must rise up to the Creator, Who is not seen. Faith, then, is, as has been defined elsewhere, the substance of those who hope, the conviction of things which are not seen (Heb. 11:1). If they are not seen, how are they proven to exist? For whence are these things which you see, if not from that which you do not see? Certainly you see something, so that you may believe something, and from that which you see you may believe what you do not see. Do not be ungrateful to Him Who made you see, whereby you may believe what you cannot yet see. God gave you eyes in the body, reason in the heart; rouse the reason of the heart, raise up the inner dweller of your inner eyes, let him take up his windows, let him look upon the creation of God. For there is someone within who sees through the eyes. For when at some time you are thinking in me, with the dweller within turned away, you do not see the things that are before your eyes. For the windows stand open in vain when he who looks out through them is absent. So it is not the eyes that see, but someone sees through the eyes: raise him up, rouse him. For it has not been denied to you: God made you a rational animal, set you above the beasts, formed you after His own image. Ought you to use them thus, like a beast, only to see what you may add to your belly, not to your mind? Raise up, then, your rational gaze, use your eyes like a man, consider the heaven and the earth, the adornments of the heaven, the fruitfulness of the earth, the flights of birds, the swimming of fish, the power of seeds, the order of the seasons: consider the things made, and seek the Maker; look at what you see, and seek Him Whom you do not see. Believe in Him Whom you do not see, on account of these things which you see. And lest you think it is by my speech that you have been exhorted, hear the Apostle saying: For the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen through the things that have been made (Rom. 1:20).

Chapter III.—4. Christ worked unaccustomed miracles so that the Maker might be recognized also in the everyday things which had grown cheap. You were setting these things aside, and you did not consider them as a man, but as an irrational animal. The prophet cried out to you, and cried out in vain: Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding (Ps. 31:9). You were seeing these things, then, and setting them aside. The daily miracles of God had grown cheap not through their ease but through their constancy. For what is more difficult to understand than that a man is born, that he who was departs by dying into hidden places, and he who was not comes forth by being born into public view? What so marvellous, what so difficult to understand? Yet for God easy to do. Marvel at these things, wake up: you know how to marvel at unaccustomed things; are they greater than those you have been used to seeing? Men marvelled that our Lord God Jesus Christ fed so many thousands from five loaves (Matt. 14:17–21); and they do not marvel that through a few grains the lands are filled with crops. Men saw water that had been made wine, and they were astounded (John 2:9, 11): what else happens to rain through the root of the vine? He Himself made the one, He Himself the other: the one so that you may be fed, the other so that you may marvel. But both are to be marvelled at, because they are the works of God. Man sees unaccustomed things and marvels:

whence is the man himself who marvels? where was he? whence did he come forth? whence the form of his body? whence the distinction of his members? whence this beautiful bearing? from what beginnings? from what contemptible ones. And he marvels at other things, though he himself, the marveller, is a great miracle. Whence, then, are these things which you see, if not from Him Whom you do not see? But, as I had begun to say, because these things had grown cheap to you, He Himself came to do unaccustomed things, so that even in the accustomed things themselves you might recognize your Maker. He came to Whom it was said, Renew signs (Ecclus. 36:6): to Whom it was said, Make wonderful Thy mercies (Ps. 16:7). For He was bestowing them; He was bestowing them, and no one marvelled. So the Little One came to the little ones, the physician came to the sick, He Who could come when He willed, return when He willed, do whatever He willed, judge as He willed. And this which He willed is justice itself; and what He wills, I say, is justice itself. For what He wills is not unjust, nor can what He does not will be just. He came to raise a dead man, to give a man back to the light before people who marvelled, He Who was in the light, Who daily brings forth to the light those who did not exist.

Chapter IV. — 5. The miracle of the birth from a virgin displayed in Christ. He did these things, and was despised by many, who paid heed not to how great the things He did were, but to how small He was: as though saying among themselves, These things are divine, but this is a man. So you see two things, divine works and a man. If divine works cannot be done except by God, see whether God is not hidden in the man. Attend, I say, to what you see, believe what you do not see. He has not deserted you Who called you to believe: although He bade you believe that which you cannot see, yet He did not leave you seeing nothing from which you might believe what you do not see. Are they small signs, are they small indications of the Creator, the creation itself? He came besides, He did miracles. You could not see God, you could see a man: God was made man, so that in one you might have both what you would see and what you would believe. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). You hear, and you do not yet see. Behold He comes, behold He is born, behold He proceeds from a woman, He Who made male and female. He Who made male and female was not made through male and female. For perhaps you were going to despise Him Who was born; you do not despise the manner in which He was born: for He always was before He was born. Behold, I say, He took up a body; He was clothed with flesh, He came forth from the womb. Do you see now? now, I say, do you see? I ask about the flesh, but I show the flesh: you see something, and you do not see something. Behold in the very birth, behold there are already two things, both what you may see and what you may not see; but so that through that very thing which you see, you may believe what you do not see. You had begun to despise, because you see Him Who was born: believe what you do not see, that He was born of a virgin. How tiny is He, someone says, Who was born? But how great is He Who was born of a virgin? And He Who was born of a virgin brought you a temporal miracle: He was not born of a father, that is, of a human father, and He was born of flesh. But let it not seem impossible to you, because He was born

through a mother alone, He Who made man before father and mother.

Chapter V. — 6. By the miracle of Christ's birth we are moved to believe in God the Word. So He brought you a temporal miracle, so that you might seek and marvel at Him as eternal. For He Who as a bridegroom came forth from His chamber (Ps. 18:6), that is, from the virginal womb, where a holy marriage was made, the Word and flesh; He brought, I say, a temporal miracle: but He Himself is eternal, He is coeternal with the Father, He is the One Who in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He made for you that by which you might be healed, so that you might be able to see what you did not see. What you despise in Christ is not yet the contemplation of one healed, but the medicine of one sick. Do not hurry towards the vision of the healthy. The Angels see, the Angels rejoice, the Angels are fed and live: neither does that on which they are fed fail, nor is their food diminished. On lofty thrones, in the regions of the heavens, in those things which are above the heavens, the Word is seen by the Angels, and there is rejoicing: and it is eaten, and it remains. But so that man might eat the bread of Angels, the Lord of the Angels was made man. This is our salvation: medicine for the sick, food for the healthy.

7. It must be explained how the Son does the things He has seen the Father doing. And He was speaking to men, and was saying what you have heard: The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. Is there now, do we think, anyone who understands? Is there now, do we think, anyone in whom the eye-salve of the flesh is of profit for gazing in some fashion upon the splendour of the divinity? He has spoken; let us also speak: He, because He is the Word; we, because [we speak] of the Word. But why do we [speak] in some fashion of the Word? Because [we were made] to the likeness of the Word through the Word. So far, then, as we grasp, so far as we are able to be partakers of that ineffability, let us also speak, and let no one contradict us. For our faith has gone before, so that we say, I believed, on account of which I have spoken (Ps. 115:10). I speak, then, what I believe: whether I also see in some fashion, He sees better; this you cannot see. But when I have spoken, he who sees what I say, whether he believes that I too see what I have said, or does not believe it, what is that to me? Let him see sincerely, and let him believe what he wishes about me.

Chapter VI. — 8. The error of the Arians concerning the Lord's words. — The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. Here the error of the Arians rises up: but it rises up so as to fall; because it is not humbled so as to rise. What is it that has moved you? You want to call the Son lesser. For you have heard, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. You want the Son to be called lesser on this account: I know this, I know, this has moved you: believe that He is not lesser; you cannot yet see it, believe; this is what I was saying a little while ago. But how, you will say, am I to believe against His own words? He Himself says, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. Attend also to what follows: For whatever things the Father does, these same the Son also does: He did not say, Such things. Let Your Charity attend a little, lest you make a din for yourselves. There is need of a tranquil heart, of pious and devout faith, of an attention

that is religious: look not to me, the little vessel, but give your attention to Him who places the bread in the little vessel. Attend, then, for a little. For in those things which we said above, exhorting you to faith, so that the mind imbued with faith might be capable of understanding, what was said sounded festive, joyful, easy; it gladdened your minds; you followed, you understood what I said. But what I am about to say, I hope that some will understand; yet I fear that not all will understand. And since God has set before us, through the reading of the Gospel, the matter of our speaking, and we cannot avoid what the Master has set before us, I perhaps fear that those who will not have understood, who will perhaps be the greater number, may think that I have spoken to them in vain; but nevertheless, for the sake of those who will have understood, I do not speak in vain. Let him who understands rejoice; let him who does not understand bear it patiently: what he does not understand let him bear, and let him wait in order to understand.

Chapter VII. — 9. He refutes the Arians. He rejects their carnal sense. What the Father has made, He has made only through the Son. He does not, then, say, Whatever the Father does, such things the Son does: as though the Father did some things and the Son others. For He seemed, as it were, to have said this when He said above, The Son does nothing of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. Pay attention: there He does not say, Except what He has heard the Father commanding; but, Has seen, He says, the Father doing. If, then, we consult the carnal understanding, or rather sense, it has, as it were, set before itself two craftsmen, the Father and the Son: the Father making with nothing seen, the Son making having seen the Father. This is still a carnal view. Nevertheless, in order that we may understand the things that are higher, let us not turn away from these lower and humbler things. First let us set something before our eyes in this way: let us suppose that there are two carpenters, a father and a son. The father made a chest, which the son could not make unless he saw the father making it; he observed the chest which the father made, and he made another chest like it, not the same one. I put off for a little the words that follow, and now I question the Arian: Is this how you understand it, as I have set it out? The Father made something, and when the Son saw the Father making it, He too made something like it? For is this what the words by which you have been moved seem to sound? For He does not say, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has heard the Father commanding; but He says, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. See, if you understand it thus: the Father made, and the Son observed, so that He too might see what He should make; but He would make some other such thing, such as the Father had made. This which the Father made, through whom did He make it? If not through the Son, if not through the Word, you have run into blasphemy against the Gospel. For all things were made through Him (John 1:3). Therefore what the Father had made, He had made through the Word; if He had made it through the Word, He had made it through the Son. Who is the other who observes, in order to make some other thing which he has seen the Father making? You are not accustomed to say that the Father has two sons: there is one, the Only One, begotten of Him. But through His mercy, He is alone as regards divinity, and not alone as regards the inheritance. The Father has made co-heirs for His Only One: not those whom He begot of His own substance as He begot Him, but those whom He adopted from His household through Him.

For we have been called to the adoption of sons, as holy Scripture testifies (Eph. 1:5).

Chapter VIII. — 10. The Father does not do some things and the Son others, but the Trinity does the same works. What then do you say? The Only One Himself speaks: the only-begotten Son Himself speaks in the Gospel: the Word Himself has made words for us, we have heard Him saying, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. So the Father has already done [it], that the Son may see what He is to do: and yet the Father does nothing except through the Son. Surely you are disturbed, heretic, surely you are disturbed: but you are disturbed as one who has taken hellebore, that you may be healed. Now you cannot find yourself; your opinion and your carnal view, as I suppose, you yourself also condemn. Put the eyes of the flesh behind you, lift up whatever you have in your heart, if you have anything, gaze upon divine things. You hear indeed human words through a man, through the Evangelist; through the Gospel you hear human words, as a man: but concerning the Word of God you hear, so that you may hear human things and recognize divine things. The Master stirred [us] up, that He might instruct; He sowed a question, that He might arouse attention. The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. It would have followed that He should say, For whatever things the Father does, such things the Son does. He does not say this: but, Whatever things the Father does, these same things the Son also does. The Father does not do some things and the Son others: for all things that the Father does, He does through the Son. The Son raised Lazarus (John 11): did the Father not raise him? The Son gave light to the blind man (ibid. 9): did the Father not give him light? The Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. It is a Trinity: but one operation, one majesty, one eternity, one co-eternity, and the works of the Trinity are the same. The Father does not create some men, the Son others, the Holy Spirit others: one and the same man the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit create; and the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, creates.

Chapter IX. — 11. The Trinity of persons and the unity of the Godhead. You note the plurality of persons, but recognize the unity of the Godhead. For on account of the plurality of persons it was said, Let Us make man in Our image and likeness. He does not say, Let Me make man, and watch when I make him, so that you too may be able to make another. Let Us make, He says; I hear plurality: in Our image; again I hear plurality. Where then is the singleness of the Godhead? Read what follows: And God made man (Gen. 1:26–27). It is said, Let Us make man; and it is not said, The gods made man. The unity is understood in what was said, God made man.

12. The sense of Christ's words is to be searched out by those first imbued with right faith. Where then is that carnal attention? Let it be confounded, hidden, destroyed: let the Word of God speak to us. Now as devout, now as believers, now imbued with faith and having gained some merit of understanding, let us turn ourselves to the Word Himself, to the fountain of light, and let us say together: Lord, the Father has made the same things as Thou; for whatever the Father makes, He makes through Thee. We have heard that Thou art the Word in the beginning: we have not seen, but we believe. There we have heard consequently that all things through Thee

were made. All things, then, that the Father does, He does through Thee. The same things, then, Thou doest as the Father. Why is it that Thou didst wish to say, The Son cannot do anything of Himself? For I see a certain equality of Thee with the Father, in that I hear, Whatever the Father does, these same things the Son does: I recognize the equality, here I understand, here I grasp as far as I can: I and the Father are one (John 10:30). What is it, that Thou canst not do anything, except what Thou seest the Father doing? What is this?

Chapter X. — 13. The difficulty of understanding these words arises from not understanding the seeing of the Word Himself. Perhaps He may say to me, nay, may He say to us all: For this that I said, The Son cannot do anything except what He has seen the Father doing: how do you understand My seeing? what is My seeing? Set aside for a little the form of a servant, which He took up for your sake. For indeed in that form of a servant our Lord had eyes and ears in the flesh, and that human form, such as we too bear, was of the same shape of body, the same outlines of limbs. That flesh had come from Adam: but He was not that Adam. So the Lord, walking whether on land or on sea, as it pleased Him, as He willed, because whatever He willed He could; He looked upon what He willed: He cast His eyes, He saw; He turned away His eyes, and He did not see; behind Him was one who followed, before Him was one who was to be seen; with the eyes of the body He saw what was before Him. But from the Divinity nothing was hidden. Set aside, set aside, I say, for a little the form of a servant: behold the form of God, in which He was before the world came to be; in which He was equal to the Father: through him receive this and understand what he says to you, Who, when He was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God (Phil. 2:6). There behold Him, if you can; so that you may be able to see what His seeing is. In the beginning was the Word. How does the Word see? Does the Word have eyes, or do our eyes find themselves in Him, and eyes not carnal, but the eyes of pious hearts? For blessed are the clean of heart, since they shall see God (Matt. 5:8).

14. In Christ the form of a servant was shown to mortals, the form of God was kept for the blessed. You behold Christ, man and God: He shows you the man, He keeps God for you. And see that He keeps God for you, Who shows Himself to you as man. He who loves Me, He says, keeps My commandments: he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him. And as if it were said, What will You give him, whom You love? And I will show, He says, Myself to him. What is this, brethren? He whom they were already seeing promised that He would show Himself to them. To whom? To those by whom He was seen, or to those by whom He was also not seen? Speaking thus, He says to a certain apostle, who sought to see the Father, so that it might suffice him, and who said, Show us the Father, and it suffices us. And He, standing before the eyes of the servant, in the form of a servant, keeping the form of God for the eyes of one deified, says to him: So long a time I am with you, and you have not known Me? He who sees Me sees the Father also (John 14:21, 8, 9). You seek to see the Father, see Me: you see Me, and you do not see Me. You see what I took up for you, you do not see what I kept for you. Hear the commandments, cleanse your eyes. Because he who loves Me keeps My commandments, and I will love him. As to one keeping My commandments, and as to one healed through those commandments