Augustine, Sermones 172-178 (Classis I, de Scripturis)

is interpreted 'sheep': the shepherd was speaking to the sheep, and the sheep was afraid of the wolf. So great was the reputation of this wolf that had gone before him that the sheep did not think itself safe, not even in the hands of the shepherd. And the Lord [spoke] to him as to a trembling sheep. For he, when he had heard this, said: Lord, I have heard of this man how many evils he has done to Thy saints in Jerusalem, and now he is said to have received letters from the chief priests, that whomever he has seized he may lead away bound. Where dost Thou send me? A sheep to the wolf? But He did not heed this excuse. For He had already said to His few little sheep: Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves (Matt. 10:16). If sheep have been sent into the midst of wolves, why are you afraid to go, Ananias, to him who is no longer a wolf? You feared a wolf: but the Lord your God answers you, Out of the wolf I have made a sheep; out of the sheep I am making a shepherd.

Chapter VIII. — 9. The art of Christ the physician commended in the healing of Paul. So then, just as Saul himself, afterwards Paul, rejoices that he has attained to the mercy of God, because he was found the first, that is, pre-eminent, in sins: And yet I obtained mercy, that in me Christ Jesus might show all long-suffering, for the sake of those who are to believe in Him unto eternal life: so that all may say to themselves, If Paul has been healed, why do I despair? If by so great a physician so desperate a sick man has been healed, why shall I not apply those hands to my wounds? Shall I not hasten to those hands? That men might say this, Saul was therefore made from a persecutor an apostle (Acts 7-9). For wherever a physician comes, he seeks out someone there who is desperate, and heals him: and even if he should find someone very poor, still let him find someone desperate; he does not seek a fee there, but commends his art. Let me say, then, what I had begun. So then, just as Saul rejoices that, because he was a sinner, he was taken up and healed by Christ, and did not say, Let me remain in sin, because Christ came for my sake, not for the sake of the righteous: so you too, who had heard that Christ came for the sake of sinners, do not sleep for your own pleasure on a sweet bed; but hear Paul himself saying, Arise, you who sleep, and rise up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you (Eph. 5:14). Do not love the bed of sin. Thou hast turned all his bed in his infirmity (Ps. 40:4), was said before. Arise, be healthy, love health, and do not again through pride go from the right to the left, from the valley to the mountain, from humility to swelling. When you have been made healthy, that is, when you have begun to live righteously, ascribe it to God, not to yourself. For you were not saved by praising yourself, but by pronouncing against yourself. For if you praise yourself through pride, you will be more gravely sick. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled; and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 18:14). Turning to the Lord, etc.

Sermon 176. On three readings: of the Apostle, 1 Tim. ch. 1:15-16, A faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, etc.; of Psalm 94:6, 2, Come, let us adore, and let us fall down

before Him, etc., and of the Gospel of Luke, ch. 17:12-19, where [it tells] of the ten lepers cleansed by the Lord. Against the Pelagians.

Chapter I. — 1. Readings and chanting in the Church. Listen attentively, brethren, to what the Lord deigns to admonish us concerning the divine readings, He giving and I ministering. The first reading we heard was from the Apostle: Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to make sinners safe, of whom I am the first. But for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me Christ Jesus might show all His long-suffering, for the instruction of those who are to believe in Him unto life eternal. This we have received from the apostolic reading. Then we sang the Psalm, exhorting one another, saying with one voice and one heart, Come, let us adore, and let us fall down before Him, and let us weep before the Lord Who made us; and there let us come before His face in confession, and in psalms let us make jubilee to Him. After this the gospel reading showed us ten lepers cleansed, and one of them, a foreigner, giving thanks to his Cleanser. Let us treat of these three readings as far as time allows us, saying a little about each; and, as far as we are able to attempt it with the Lord's help, not dwelling on any one of them in such a way as to hinder the other two.

Chapter II. — 2. Thanksgiving owed by all to the physician. Original sin in little ones. Bishops the guardians of orphans. The Apostle sets before us the knowledge of thanksgiving. Remember what the last reading, the gospel, sounds forth: how the Lord Jesus praises the one giving thanks and censures the ungrateful, cleansed in the skin, lepers in the heart. What then does the Apostle say? Faithful, he says, is the saying and worthy of all acceptance. What is this saying? That Christ Jesus came into the world. To what end? To make sinners safe. What of you? Of whom I am the first. Whoever says either 'I am not a sinner' or 'I was not' is ungrateful to the Saviour. No one of men in this mass of mortals which flows down from Adam, no one of men at all, is not sick; no one is healed without the grace of Christ. What of little children, if they are sick from Adam? For they too are carried to the Church; and if they cannot run there on their own feet, they run on the feet of others, that they may be healed. Mother Church lends them the feet of others that they may come, the heart of others that they may believe, the tongue of others that they may confess: so that, since they are weighed down by the fact that they are sick through another's sinning, so, when they are healed, they may be saved through another's confessing on their behalf. Let no one, then, whisper strange doctrines to you. This the Church has always had, always held; this she received from the faith of those before her; this she guards perseveringly unto the end. For it is not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick. What need then did the infant have of Christ, if it is not sick? If it is healthy, why does it seek a physician through those who love it? If, when infants are carried, they are said to have no sin of descent at all, and they come to Christ, why is it not said in the Church to those who

bring them, Take these innocents away from here: those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are unwell; Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt. 9:12–13)? It has never been said: nor will it ever be said. Let each one, then, brothers, speak as he can for him who cannot speak for himself. The patrimonies of orphans are entrusted to bishops as a great matter; how much more the grace of little ones? The bishop protects the orphan, lest, his parents being dead, he be oppressed by strangers. Let him cry out more for the little one, for whom he fears lest he be killed by his parents: let him cry out with the Apostle, A faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world, for no other reason except to save sinners. Whoever comes to Christ has something in him to be healed: whoever has not, there is no reason why he should be offered to the physician. Let the parents choose one of two things: either let them confess that sin is healed in their little ones, or let them cease to offer them to the physician. This is nothing other than wanting to offer a healthy person to the physician. What are you offering? One to be baptized. Whom? An infant. To whom are you offering him? To Christ. Surely to Him Who came into the world? Yes, he says. Why did He come into the world? To save sinners. Therefore does the one you offer have something in him to be saved? If you say, He has; by confessing it you wipe it away: if you say, He has not; by denying it you retain it.

Chapter III. — 3. How Paul is the first of sinners. — To save sinners, he says, of whom I am the first. Were there no sinners before Paul? Certainly Adam himself at least, before all, and the earth full of sinners destroyed by the flood, and how many afterwards. How then is it true, I am the first? He called himself first, not in the order of sinners, but in the greatness of his sin. He paid heed to the greatness of his sin, and hence called himself the first of sinners; as among advocates, for example, some are called first: this man is first, not because he has more years since he began pleading cases, but because from the time he began he has surpassed the rest. Let the Apostle, then, say in another place why he is the first of sinners: I, he says, am the least of the Apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God (1 Cor. 15:9). None fiercer among the persecutors: therefore none foremost among sinners.

Chapter IV. — 4. In the healing of Paul the hope of salvation was brought to the despairing. — But I obtained mercy, he says. And why he obtained mercy, he sets out the reason: That in me, he says, Christ Jesus might show all His long-suffering, for the instruction of those who are to believe in Him unto eternal life. Christ, he says, being about to grant pardon to sinners converted to Him, even to His enemies, chose me first, the fiercer enemy; so that, when He healed me, no one among the rest should despair. Physicians do this: when they come to places where they are unknown, they choose first to treat the desperate cases; so that on them they may both exercise their kindness and commend their skill; so that everyone in that place may say to his neighbour, Go to that physician, be at ease, he heals you. And he [says], He heals me? Do you not see what I suffer? I know something similar: what you suffer, I too indeed have suffered. So Paul says to every sick man, and of himself

to one wishing to despair: He Who healed me sent me to you, and said to me, Go to that despairing man, and tell him what you had, what I healed in you, how quickly I healed it. From heaven I called, with one word I struck and threw down, with a second I raised up and chose, with a third I filled and sent, with a fourth I set free and crowned (Acts 9). Go, tell the sick, cry out to the despairing: A faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Why do you fear? why do you tremble? Of whom I am the first. I, he says, speak to you, a healthy man to the sick, one standing to those lying down, one secure to those despairing. For this reason indeed I obtained mercy, that in me Christ Jesus might show all long-suffering. He bore my disease for a long time, and so took it away; like a good physician He patiently tolerated the frenzied man, He endured me striking Him, He granted me to be struck for Him. All long-suffering, he says, He showed in me, for the instruction of those who are going to believe in Him unto eternal life.

Chapter V. — 5. Our salvation is from God, not from ourselves. The benefits of grace. Twofold confession. Do not, then, despair. You are sick: come to Him, and be healed; you are blind: come to Him, and be enlightened. And you who are healthy, give Him thanks; and you who are sick, run to Him to be healed; say, all of you, Come, let us adore, and fall down before Him, and weep before the Lord Who made us, both men and saved. For if He made us men, but we ourselves made ourselves saved, we made something better than He did. For a saved man is better than any man whatever. If then God made you a man, and you made yourself a good man, what you made is better. Do not exalt yourself above God: submit yourself to God, adore, prostrate yourself, confess to Him Who made you; for no one remakes except He Who makes, no one restores except He Who made. This is also in another psalm: He Himself made us, and not we ourselves (Ps. 99:3). Indeed, when He made you, you had nothing to do; but now that you already exist, you yourself also have something to do: run to the physician, implore the physician, Who is everywhere. And that you might implore, He stirred up your heart, and granted you to be able to implore; For it is God, he says, Who works in you both to will and to work, according to good will (Phil. 2:13). For in order that you might have a good will, His calling went before. Cry out, My God, His mercy will go before me (Ps. 58:11). That you might exist, that you might perceive, that you might hear, that you might consent, His mercy went before you. He has gone before you in all things: do you too go before His wrath in something. In what, you say, in what? Confess that you have from God all these things, whatever good you have, and from yourself whatever evil. Do not in your good things despise Him and praise yourself; do not in your evil things accuse Him and excuse yourself: that is true confession. He Who went before you in such great good things is going to come to you, and to inspect His gifts and your evils; how you have used His good gift, in this He examines you. Therefore, since in all these gifts He has gone before you, see in what you may go before the face of Him Who is to come: hear the Psalm, Let us go before His face in confession. Let us go before His face: before