Augustine, Sermones 138-145 (Classis I, de Scripturis)

of holy men and holy women He has, who utterly despise the world. That flock has grown so much that it has even driven superstitions out of that place. So, to pass over how by its growth it put to flight from there all the superstition of idols which had been strong there: I accept what you say, O evil companions; I accept it entirely, I agree that Africa is in the south, and that Africa is signified in what was said, Where dost Thou pasture, where dost Thou lie down in the south? But you too, pay equal attention to this: these words are still the bride's, not yet the bridegroom's. It is still the bride who says, Tell me, Thou Whom my soul has loved, where Thou pasturest, where Thou liest down in the south, lest perhaps I become as one veiled. Deaf and blind one, if you see Africa in 'the south', why do you not understand a woman in 'veiled'? Tell me, she says, Thou Whom my soul has loved. Certainly she is addressing a man when she says, Whom it has loved. Just as, if it said, Tell me, you whom [feminine] my soul has loved, we would understand that the bridegroom was saying these things to the bride: so when you hear, Tell me, Thou Whom my soul has loved, where Thou pasturest, where Thou liest down, add at that point that what follows also belongs to her words, in the south. I ask where Thou pasturest in the south, lest perhaps I become as one veiled over the flocks of Thy companions. I hear it entirely, I accept what you understand concerning Africa; in 'the south', it is itself signified. But the Church of Christ, as you understand it, overseas addresses her bridegroom, fearing to fall into the African error. O Thou Whom my soul has loved, tell me, teach me. For I hear that in the south, that is, in Africa, there are two parties, nay rather many cuttings-off. Tell me then where Thou pasturest, which sheep belong to Thee, which fold there Thou biddest me love, to which I ought to join myself. Lest perhaps I become as one veiled. For they mock me as though I were hidden, they insult me as though I were lost, as though I existed nowhere else. So lest I become as one veiled, as one hidden, over the flocks, that is, over the congregations of heretics, of Thy companions, the Donatists, the Maximianists, the Rogatists, and the other plagues that gather outside and therefore scatter; I beg Thee, tell me whether I should seek my Shepherd there, so that I do not run into the whirlpool of rebaptism. I exhort you, I beseech you by the holiness of such a marriage: love this Church, be in such a Church, be such a Church; love the good Shepherd, a husband so beautiful, deceiving no one, wishing no one to perish. Pray also for the scattered sheep: let them too come, let them too acknowledge, let them too love, that there may be one flock and one shepherd. Turning to the Lord, etc.

Sermon 139. On the words of the Gospel of John, I and the Father are one. Chapter 10, verse 30.

Chapter One. — 1. How Christ is the Only One of God the Father. The Lord God, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, born of God the Father without any mother, and born of a virgin mother without a human father,

you have heard what He said: I and the Father are one. Receive this thus, believe it thus, so that you may deserve to understand. For faith ought to precede understanding, so that understanding may be the reward of faith. For the prophet said most plainly, Unless you believe, you will not understand (Isa. 7:9, according to the Septuagint). What therefore is preached simply is to be believed; what is subtly disputed is to be understood. First of all, then, to imbue your minds through faith, we preach to you Christ, the only Son of God the Father. Why is Only added? Because He whose Only Son He is has many sons by grace. All the other saints, therefore, are sons of God by grace, He alone by nature. Those who are sons by grace are not what the Father is. In short, none of the saints has dared to say what that Only Son said, I and the Father are one. Is He not our Father too? If He is not our Father, how do we say when praying, Our Father Who art in heaven (Matt. 6:9)? But we are sons whom He made sons by His will, not whom He begot as sons from His nature. He begot us too, indeed, but in the way it is said, as adopted, begotten by the kindness of the one adopting, not by nature. In short, we have been called this also because God called us into the adoption of sons (Eph. 1:5): we are adopted men. He is called the Only One, the Only-begotten, because He is what the Father is; but we are men, God is the Father. Since, therefore, He is what the Father is, did He not say, and say truly, I and the Father are one? What is, we are one? We are of one nature. What is, we are one? We are of one substance.

Chapter II. — 2. The Son of God and the Father are of one substance. Perhaps you do not quite understand what of one substance is. Let us labour; that you may understand, may God help both me speaking and you listening: me, that I may say the things which are true and suited to you; you, before all things and above all, that you may believe; then, that you may understand as best you can. What, then, is of one substance? Let me apply likenesses for you, so that what is less understood may become clear by an example. For instance, God is gold, His Son too is gold. If likenesses are not to be given from earthly things to heavenly ones, how is it written, But the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4)? Therefore whatever the Father is, this the Son is too: as I said, for example, the Father is gold, the Son is gold. For he who says, The Son is not of the same substance as the Father, what else does he say but, The Father is gold, the Son is silver? If the Father is gold and the Son is silver, the only Son has degenerated from the Father. A man begets a man: of what substance the father is who begets, of the same substance is the son who is begotten. What is, of the same substance? That one is a man, and this one is a man: that one has a soul, and this one has a soul: that one has flesh, and this one has flesh: what that one is, this one is too.

3. The objection of the Arians. But the Arian heresy answers me and says. What does it say to me? Pay attention to what you have said. What did I say? That a son of man is to be compared with the Son of God. Clearly he is to be compared, but not, as you think, as to what is proper to each, but as to likeness. But you, say what you wish to make of this. Do you not see, it says, that the father who begot is greater, and the son who was begotten is lesser? How then do you say, tell me: how

therefore do you say that the Father and the Son are equal, God and Christ, when you see that when a man begets a son, the son is lesser and the father is greater? Wise man, in eternity you inquire after times; where there are no times, you look for ages. When the father is greater and the son lesser, both are temporal: the one grows because the other grows old. For a man who is a father did not, as I said, beget one lesser by nature, but by age. Do you wish to know that he did not beget one lesser by nature? Wait, let him grow, and he will be equal to his father. For even a little boy, by growing, arrives at the stature of his father. But you say that the Son of God was born lesser in such a way that He never grows and never arrives, even by growing, at the greatness of His Father. So then a son of man, born of a man, is born in a better condition than the Son of God. How? Because he grows, and arrives at the stature of his father. But Christ, as you say, was born lesser precisely so that He should remain lesser, and not even an increase of age is to be awaited. So then you say that there is a diversity in nature. But why do you say this, unless because you will not believe the Son to be of the same substance as that of which the Father is? At the very least, first confess that He is of His substance, and then call Him lesser. Consider a man: he is a man. What is his substance? He is a man. What of him whom he begets? He is lesser, but he is a man. The age is unequal, the nature is equal. You too, say: What the Father is, this the Son is, but the Son is lesser. Say it, take a step, say 'of the same substance, but lesser', and you arrive at 'equal'. For you come not a little nearer, you draw not a little closer to the truth, whereby you would confess Him equal, if you have confessed Him of the same substance even though lesser. But He is not of the same substance, that is what you say. So since you say this, it is gold and silver: what you say is just as if a man were to beget a horse. For a man is of one substance, a horse of another. If then the Son is of another substance than the Father, the Father has begotten a monster. For when a creature, that is, a woman, gives birth to what is not a man, it is called a monster. But in order that it be no monster, he who is born is what he is who begot; that is, man and man, horse and horse, dove and dove, sparrow and sparrow.

Chapter III. — 4. How great a blasphemy it is to say that the Son of God is of another substance. To His creatures He has granted that they beget what they are. God has granted to His creatures, to mortal creatures, to earthly ones He has granted, has given, that they beget this which they are; and do you think that He could not keep this for Himself, He Who is before the ages? Would He Who has no beginning in time beget a son not the same as He Himself is, would He beget a degenerate? Hear how great a blasphemy it is to say that the only Son of God is of another substance. Certainly, if it is so, He is degenerate. If you say to some son of man, 'You are degenerate', how great an insult is it? And how is a son of man called degenerate? For instance, his father is brave, he is timid and cowardly. Whoever sees him and wishes to rebuke him, bearing in mind that his father is a brave man, what does he say to him? Go on then, degenerate.

What is "degenerate"? Your father was a brave man, and you tremble with fear. He to whom this is said is degenerate by vice, equal by nature. What is "equal by nature"? He is a man, which his father also is. But the one is brave, the other cowardly; the one bold, the other timid: yet man and man. By vice, therefore, he is degenerate, not by nature. When you say that the only Son, the one Son of the Father, is degenerate, you are saying nothing other than that He is not what the Father is: and you do not say that, having already been born, He became degenerate; but that He was begotten [so]. Who could bear this blasphemy? If they could see this blasphemy with any eyes at all, they would flee from it and become catholics.

Chapter IV. — 5. The Arians falsely honour the Father through injury to the Son. But what shall I say, brothers? Let us not be angry with them: but let us pray for them, that the Lord may give them understanding; for perhaps they were born into this. What is "they were born into this"? What they hold, they received from their parents. They put lineage before truth. Let them become what they are not, so that they may be able to keep what they are: that is, let them become catholics, so that they may be able to keep what they are as men: so that God's creature may not perish in them, and God's grace may be added. For they think that they honour the Father through insult to the Son. When you say to him, "You blaspheme": he answers, "Why do I blaspheme?" "Because you say that the Son is not what the Father is." And he says to me: "No, it is you who blaspheme." "Why?" "Because you want to make the Son equal to the Father." I want to make the Son equal to the Father; is He some stranger? The Father rejoices when I make His only Son equal to Him: He rejoices, because He does not envy. And God, because He does not envy His only Son, therefore begot that which He Himself is. You do injury both to the Son and to the Father Himself, in whose honour you wish to insult the Son. For surely you say that the Son is not of the same substance precisely so as not to do injury to His Father. I quickly show you that you do injury to both. How, he says? If I say to someone's son, "Degenerate, you are not like your father: degenerate, you are not what your father is," the son hears it and is angry, and says: "Was I, then, born degenerate?" The father hears it, and is angrier still. And what does he say in his anger? "Did I, then, beget a degenerate son? Then if I am one thing and have begotten another thing, I have begotten a monster." What does it mean, then, that when you wish to pay deference to one through injury to the other, you do injury to both? You offend the Son, but you will not appease the Father. When you honour the Father out of insult to the Son, you offend both the Son and the Father. From whom do you flee? To whom do you flee? When the Father is angry with you, do you flee to the Son? What does He say to you? "To whom do you flee, Whom you have made degenerate?" When the Son is offended, do you run to the Father? He too says to you: "To whom do you flee, Whom you said had begotten a degenerate?" Let this suffice you; hold this, commit this to memory, write this down in your faith. And that you may understand it, pour out prayers to God the Father and the Son, Who are one.