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

of the passion. Already Peter, brethren, was among those who had left all things and had followed the Lord. For when that rich man was going away with sadness, and the disturbed disciples asked how anyone could at last be perfect, and the Lord consoled them, they had said to the Lord: Behold, we have left all things and have followed Thee; what then will there be for us? (Matt. 19:21–29). And the Lord told them what He would give them here, and what He would reserve for the future. Yet he was already among the number of those who had done these things. But when it came to the moment of the passion, at the voice of a single maidservant he three times denied Him with Whom he had promised that he would die.

Chapter IX.—10. To perfection and to charity one comes by the imitation of Christ. Let your Charity therefore attend: Go, He says, sell all that you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. Peter was made perfect when the Lord was already seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father; then he was made perfect and became mature. So when he was following the Lord towards the passion, he was not perfect; but when He Whom he was to follow began not to be on earth, then he was made perfect. Nay rather, you always have before you Him Whom you are to follow: the Lord set an example on earth; since He left you the Gospel, He is with you in the Gospel. For He did not lie when He said: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age (ibid. 28:20). Therefore follow the Lord. What is it to follow the Lord? Imitate the Lord. What is it to imitate the Lord? Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart. For if I distribute all my goods to the poor, and hand over my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profits me nothing (1 Cor. 13:1–3). I exhort your Charity, therefore, to charity itself; but I would not exhort you to charity except by some charity. What has been begun, then, I exhort you to fulfil; and what has been undertaken, I ask that it be brought to perfection. And I beg to be prayed for by you, that in me too may be brought to perfection what I urge upon you. For we are all imperfect, and we shall be made perfect there where all things are perfect. The apostle Paul says: Brethren, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it. He himself says: Not that I have already received, or am already perfect (Phil. 3:13, 12). And does any man dare to boast of perfection? Nay rather, let us confess our imperfection, that we may merit perfection.

Sermon 143. On the words of the Gospel of John, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go, etc. Chapter 16, verses 7-11.

Chapter One.—1. Faith in Christ is necessary for justification. The medicine for all the wounds of the soul, and the one propitiation for the offences of men, is to believe in Christ; nor can anyone at all be cleansed, whether from original sin, which he drew from Adam, in whom all sinned and became by nature children of wrath, or from the sins which they themselves, by not resisting carnal

concupiscence, but by following it and serving it in shameful deeds and crimes, they have added; unless through faith they are united and joined together to His body, Who was conceived without any carnal allurement and deadly delight, nor did His mother nourish Him in her womb in sins, and He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth (1 Pet. 2:22). For believing in Him, they become sons of God; because they are born of God through the grace of adoption, which is in the faith of Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, dearest ones, rightly does the same Lord and our Saviour name this one sin, of which the Holy Spirit convicts the world, that it does not believe in Him. "I," He says, "tell you the truth: it is expedient for you that I go. For if I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go away, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgement. Of sin indeed, because they have not believed in Me; of justice truly, because I go to the Father, and you will no longer see Me; and of judgement, because the prince of this world has been judged."

Chapter II. — 2. Why the sin of unbelief in Christ alone is the ground of conviction. Of this one sin, then, He willed the world to be convicted, that they do not believe in Him: namely, because by believing in Him all sins are loosed, He willed this one to be imputed, by which the rest are bound together. And because by believing they are born of God, and become sons of God: "For He gave," it says, "to them power to become sons of God, to those believing in Him" (John 1:12). Whoever therefore believes in the Son of God, in so far as he cleaves to Him, and himself also becomes by adoption a son and heir of God, and joint heir of Christ, to that extent he does not sin. Hence John says: "Whoever is born of God does not sin" (1 John 3:9). And therefore the sin of which the world is convicted is this, that they do not believe in Him. This is the sin of which He likewise says: "If I had not come, they would not have sin" (John 15:22). For did they not have countless other sins? But by His coming this one sin was added for those not believing, by which the rest would be held fast. In believers, however, because this one was lacking, it came about that all were forgiven to believers. Nor for any other reason does the apostle Paul say, "All have sinned, and lack the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23); so that whoever believes in Him may not be put to confusion (Rom. 9:33): as the Psalm also says, "Come to Him, and be enlightened, and your faces will not be put to confusion" (Ps. 33:6). Whoever therefore glories in himself will be put to confusion: for he will not be found without sins. He alone, then, will not be put to confusion who glories in the Lord. "For all have sinned, and lack the glory of God." Therefore, when he was speaking of the unbelief of the Jews, he does not say: "For if some of them sinned, will their sin make void the faithfulness of God?" For how could he say, "If some of them sinned," when he himself had said, "For all have sinned"? But he says, "If some of them did not believe, will their unbelief make void the faithfulness of God?" (Rom. 3:3). That he might show more expressly this sin, by which alone one is shut in against the rest, lest they be released through the grace of God. Of which one sin, through the coming of the Holy Spirit, that is, through the gift of His grace which is given to the faithful,

the world is convicted, as the Lord says, Of sin indeed, because they did not believe in Me.

Chapter III. — 3. The great gift of the Holy Spirit after Christ's ascension. But the merit of believers would not be great, nor their blessedness glorious, if the Lord were always appearing to human eyes in His risen body. The Holy Spirit, therefore, brought this great gift to those who were to believe: that Him Whom they would not see with carnal eyes they should sigh for with a mind sober from carnal desires and drunk with spiritual longings. Hence also that disciple who had said he would not believe unless he touched His scars with his hand, when, having handled the Lord's body, he cried out as if waking from sleep, My Lord and my God!, the Lord said to him, Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and have believed (John 20:25–29). This blessedness the Holy Spirit the Paraclete brought, so that, once the form of a servant which He received from the Virgin's womb had been removed from the eyes of the flesh, the purified gaze of the mind might be directed towards that very form of God in which, equal to the Father, He remained even when He deigned to appear in the flesh: so that the Apostle, filled with the same Spirit, might say, Even if we knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know [Him] (2 Cor. 5:16). For he knows even the flesh of Christ not according to the flesh but according to the spirit who recognizes the power of His resurrection, not curious by groping, but certain by believing: not saying in his heart, Who has ascended into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down; or, Who has descended into the abyss? that is, to bring Christ back from the dead. But the word is near, he says, in your mouth, that Jesus is Lord: and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom. 10:6–10). These, brethren, are the words of the Apostle, belching forth with the holy drunkenness of the Holy Spirit Himself.

Chapter IV. — 4. The righteousness of faith from the Holy Spirit after Christ's departure. Since, then, we would in no way have this blessedness, by which we do not see and yet believe, unless we received it from the Holy Spirit, it was rightly said, It is expedient for you that I go. For if I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go away, I will send Him to you. In His divinity, indeed, He is always with us; but unless He went away from us bodily, we would always see His body carnally and never believe spiritually; and justified and beatified by this faith, we might merit to contemplate with a cleansed heart that very Word, God with God, through Whom all things were made, and Who was made flesh that He might dwell in us. And if it is not by touching with the hand but with the heart that one believes unto righteousness, rightly is the world, which will not believe anything except what it sees, convicted concerning our righteousness. But so that we might have the righteousness of faith, by which the unbelieving world would be convicted, the Lord therefore says, Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will no longer see Me. As if He were saying: This will be your righteousness, that you believe in Me the Mediator, Whom you will hold most certainly to have gone, raised again, to the Father, although you do not see Him carnally; so that through Him

reconciled, you may be able to see God spiritually. Hence to the woman who bore the figure of the Church, when after the resurrection she fell at His feet, He said: Do not touch Me; for I have not yet ascended to the Father (John 20:17). This is understood to have been said mystically: Do not believe in Me carnally through bodily contact; but you will believe spiritually, that is, you will touch Me with spiritual faith, when I have ascended to the Father. For blessed are those who do not see, and believe. And this is the righteousness of faith, lacking which the world is convicted by us who do not lack it: for the just man lives by faith (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17). Whether, then, because rising again in Him, and coming in Him to the Father, we are made perfect invisibly and in justification; or because, not seeing and believing, we live by faith, since the just man lives by faith: for this reason He said, Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer.

Chapter V. — 5. The unbelief of the world is inexcusable. Nor let the world excuse itself on the ground that it is hindered by the devil from believing in Christ. For on behalf of believers the prince of the world is cast out (John 12:31), so that he no longer works in the hearts of men whom Christ has begun to possess through faith, as he works in the children of unbelief (Eph. 2:2), whom he commonly stirs up to tempt and afflict the just. For because he who used to rule within has been cast out, he wages war from without. Although, then, through his persecutions the Lord guides the meek in judgement (Ps. 24:9), yet he himself, by the very fact that he has been cast out, has already been judged. And concerning this judgement the world is convicted: because in vain does he complain of the devil who is unwilling to believe in Christ, since not only men, but also women, and boys, and girls, as martyrs have conquered the devil, who has been judged, that is, cast out, and permitted to attack from without for our exercise. But in whom did they conquer, if not in Him in Whom they believed, and Whom without seeing they loved, and through Whose reigning in their hearts they were rid of that most wicked ruler? And all this through grace, that is, through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Rightly, therefore, does the same Spirit convict the world both of sin, because it does not believe in Christ; and of righteousness, because those who were willing believed, although they did not see Him in Whom they believed, and through His resurrection hoped that they too would be made perfect in the resurrection; and of judgement, because they themselves, if they wished to believe, would be hindered by no one, since the prince of this world has already been judged.

Sermon 144. On the same words of the Gospel of John, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement. Chapter 16, verses 8-11.

Chapter One. — 1. Why the sin of unbelief alone is convicted. The Holy Spirit is called the grace of God. When our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ

was saying many things about the coming of the Holy Spirit, Whom He promised that He would send, and did send, He says among other things: He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement. And when He had said this, He did not turn His discourse to something else, but He deigned to make these very things known somewhat more expressly. Of sin indeed, He says, because they did not believe in Me; of righteousness, however, because I go to the Father; of judgement, moreover, because the prince of this world has already been judged. There arises in us, therefore, the desire to understand why He spoke of this alone, namely that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of it, as though not to believe in Christ were the only sin of men; whereas, if it is manifest that besides this unbelief there are many other sins of men, why should the Holy Spirit convict the world of this alone? Is it because all sins are held fast through unbelief and are forgiven through faith, and therefore God imputes this one above the rest, through which it comes about that the rest are not loosed, while proud man does not believe in a humble God? For so it is written: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Jas. 4:6). For the grace of God is the gift of God. And the greatest gift is the Holy Spirit Himself; and therefore He is called grace. For since all had sinned and were in need of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), because through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, in whom all sinned (ibid. 5:12), it is therefore grace, because it is given gratis. It is given gratis for this reason: because it is not rendered as a wage after an examination of merits, but is given as a gift after the pardon of offences.

Chapter II. — 2. To believe Christ and to believe in Christ are different. Of sin, therefore, the unbelievers are convicted, that is, the lovers of the world: for it is they who are signified by the name of the world. For when it is said, He will convict the world of sin, [it means] of nothing other than that they did not believe in Christ. In short, if this sin does not exist, no sins will remain, because when the just man lives by faith all things are loosed. But there is a great difference between whether someone believes Christ Himself and whether he believes in Christ. For even the demons believed that He was the Christ, and yet the demons did not believe in Christ. For he believes in Christ who both hopes in Christ and loves Christ. For if someone has faith without hope and without love, he believes that He is the Christ; he does not believe in Christ. He, then, who believes in Christ, by believing in Christ, Christ comes into him, and in a certain manner he is united into Him, and is made a member in His body. And this cannot come about unless both hope and charity are added.

3. The righteousness of which the world is convicted. What, moreover, does it mean that He says, Of righteousness, because I go to the Father? And first it must be asked, if the world is convicted of sin, why also of righteousness. For what could rightly be convicted of righteousness? Is the world convicted of its own sin, but of the righteousness of Christ? I do not see what else can be understood, since He says, Of sin, because they did not believe in Me; of righteousness, moreover, because I go to the Father. They did not believe; He goes to the Father. Theirs, therefore, is the sin, but His the righteousness. But why did He wish to name righteousness in this alone, that He goes to the Father? Is it not righteousness also that He came hither from

the Father? Or rather is it mercy that He comes from the Father to us, but justice that He goes to the Father?

Chapter III. — 4. Why it is justice that Christ goes to the Father. Thus, brethren, I judge it expedient that, in so great a depth of the Scriptures, in whose words perhaps something hidden lies concealed which ought opportunely to be opened, we should inquire faithfully, as it were together, so that we may deserve to find it to our profit. Why then does He call this justice, that He goes to the Father, and not also that He came from the Father? Is it that, because it is mercy that He comes, therefore it is justice that He goes: so that in ourselves too we may learn that justice cannot be fulfilled if we are slow to dispense mercy, seeking not the things that are our own, but also those that are others'? When the Apostle had given this admonition, he at once joined to it an example from the Lord Himself: Nothing, he says, through contention, nor through vain glory; but in humility of mind each esteeming the other superior to himself; each one attending not to the things that are his own, but also to those that are others'. Then he immediately added: Let each and every one of you feel this in yourselves which [was] also in Christ Jesus: Who, though He was in the form of God, did not consider 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 condition as a man: He humbled Himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. This is the mercy by which He came from the Father. What then is the justice by which He goes to the Father? He continues and says: Wherefore God also has exalted Him, and has given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of things heavenly, earthly and infernal, and every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:3–11). This is the justice by which He goes to the Father.

Chapter IV. — 5. Christ alone ascends into heaven. One Christ from head and members. Christ is one with the Father in one way, one with us in another. But if He alone goes to the Father, what does it profit us? Why is the world convicted by the Holy Spirit concerning this justice? And yet, unless He were going to the Father alone, He would not say in another place: No one has ascended into heaven, except He Who descended from heaven, the Son of Man Who is in heaven (John 3:13). But Paul the apostle also says: For our conversation is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). But why this? Because he likewise says: If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God; mind the things that are above, not those upon the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:1–3). How then is He alone? Is He alone for this reason, that Christ is one with all His members, as the head with its body? But what is His body, if not the Church? As the same teacher says: Now you are the body of Christ, and members in part (1 Cor. 12:27). Since therefore we had fallen, and He Himself descended for our sake, what does No one has ascended, except He Who descended mean, unless that no one ascends except one made one with Him, and joined as a member in the body of Him Who descended? So also He says to the disciples: Because