Augustine, Sermones 179-184 (Classis I, de Scripturis)

evil works does, you hurl an accusation; when your Lord, your Redeemer, He Who poured out the price, enrolling you in His army, and making of His servant His brother, does not cease to admonish you, and to say, What they say, do; but what they do, do not do? For they say, He says, and do not do (Matt. 23:3). They say good things, they do evil things: you, listen to the good things, and do not do the evil things. Here you will reply: How am I to hear good things from an evil man? Do they gather grapes from thorns (Matt. 7:16)?

Sermon 180. On the words of the apostle James, Above all, do not swear, etc., chap. 5, v. 12.

Chapter I. — 1. An admonition to beware of swearing. The first reading which was recited to us today, that of the apostle James, has been offered to us for discussion, and in a certain way imposed upon us. For it has made you attentive, admonishing you that above all you should not swear. It is a difficult question. Whom would this sin not hold guilty, if to swear is a sin? For that perjury is a sin, and a great sin, no one doubts. But the Apostle, whose reading we are treating, does not say, Above all, my brothers, do not perjure yourselves; but, do not swear. There went before also a similar admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the Gospel: You have heard, He says, that it was said to those of old, You shall not perjure yourself: but I say to you, do not swear, neither by heaven, because it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, because it is the footstool of His feet; nor shall you swear by your head, because it is not in your power to make one hair white or black. But let your speech be, Yes, yes; No, no: whatever is more than this is from evil (Matt. 5:33–37). With this admonition of the Lord the aforementioned reading of the Apostle agrees so entirely that God seems to have commanded nothing else: because no other said this than He Who said through the Apostle: Above all, he says, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven, nor by the earth, nor any other oath whatever. But let your speech be, Yes, yes; No, no. Except that he added, Above all: by which he made [his hearers] very attentive, and added difficulty to the question.

Chapter II. — 2. Swearing, although employed by God, is nevertheless to be shunned by man. In how many ways perjury occurs. For we find that the saints have sworn, and first of all that the Lord Himself has sworn, in Whom there is no sin at all. The Lord has sworn, and it will not repent Him: Thou art a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisedech (Ps. 109:4). He promised eternity of priesthood to the Son with an oath. You have also, By My own self I swear, says the Lord (Gen. 22:16). And this too is an oath, I live, says the Lord (Num. 14:28). As man [swears] by God, so God [swears] by Himself. It is not therefore a sin

to swear? It is hard to say this: and since we have said that God has sworn, how blasphemous is it to say this? God swears, Who has no sin: therefore it is not a sin to swear; but rather it is a sin to swear falsely. Perhaps someone may say that an example of swearing ought not to be put forward from the Lord God. For He is God, and perhaps it befits Him alone to swear, Who cannot swear falsely. For men swear falsely either when they deceive or when they are deceived. For either a man thinks that to be true which is false, and swears rashly; or he knows or thinks it to be false, and yet swears to it as true, and none the less swears with wickedness. Now these perjuries, the two which I have mentioned, differ. Suppose a man swears who thinks true the thing he swears to: he thinks it true, and yet it is false. This man does not perjure himself from his heart; he is deceived, he holds as true what is false; he does not knowingly interpose an oath for a false thing. Take another who knows it is false, and says it is true; and he swears as though it were true what he knows to be false. Do you see how detestable a beast this is, and how it ought to be exterminated from human affairs? For who would wish this to be done? All men detest such things. Suppose another: he thinks it false, and swears as though it were true, and perhaps it is true. For example, so that you may understand: Did it rain in that place? you ask a man; and he thinks it has not rained, and it suits his business to say, It rained: but he thinks it has not rained; he is asked, Did it truly rain? Truly, and he swears: and yet it did rain there, but he does not know it, and thinks it has not rained; he is a perjurer. What matters is how the word proceeds from the mind. The tongue is not made guilty, unless the mind is guilty. But who is there who is not deceived, even if he did not wish to deceive? Who is the man upon whom deception does not steal? And yet swearing does not depart from the mouth, it is constantly practised: oaths are often more numerous than words. If a man were to examine how often he swears through the whole day, how often he wounds himself, how often he strikes and pierces himself with the sword of the tongue, what spot in him is found sound? Since therefore it is a grave sin to swear falsely, Scripture has given you a short way: Do not swear.

Chapter III. — 3. The danger of perjury in swearing. What am I to say to you, O man! Swear the truth? See, swear the truth, you do not sin: if you swear the truth, you do not sin. But man, placed among temptations, wrapped in flesh, treading earth beneath earth, while the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that thinks many things (Wis. 9:15); amid these many thoughts of yours, uncertain, fleeting, human conjectures, human deceptions, when does what is false not steal upon you, placed as you are in the region of falsehood? Do you wish then to be far from perjury? Do not swear. For he who swears can sometimes swear the truth; but he who does not swear can never swear a lie. Let God therefore swear, Who swears securely, Whom nothing deceives, from Whom nothing is hidden, Who does not know at all how to deceive, because neither can He be deceived. For when He swears, He calls Himself as witness. Just as you, when you swear, call God as witness; so He Himself, when He swears, calls Himself as witness. You, when you call Him as witness, perhaps

over your lie, you take the name of the Lord your God in vain (Exod. 20:7). So, that you may not swear a lie, do not swear. That is the narrow place. Perjury is a precipice. Whoever swears is near it; whoever does not swear is far off. He sins, and gravely, who swears falsely; he does not sin who swears truly; but neither does he sin who does not swear at all. But whoever does not swear, and does not sin, is far from sin; whereas whoever swears truly does not sin, but is near to sin. Imagine yourself walking in some place where on the right-hand side the ground is broad and you nowhere suffer any narrowness, while on the left there is a sheer drop. Where do you choose to walk? Along the edge of the ground, on the lip of the precipice, or far away from it? I think far away from it. So too whoever swears walks along the edge; and he walks on weak feet, because human ones. If you stumble, down you go; if you slip, down you go. And what receives you? The penalty of perjury. So you wanted to swear truly: hear the counsel of God, Do not swear.

Chapter IV. — 4. To swear truly is lawful; not to swear, safer. If swearing were a sin, it would not be said even in the old Law, You shall not perjure yourself; but you shall render to the Lord your oath (Lev. 19:12). For a sin would not be commanded to us. But your God says to you, If you swear, I shall not condemn; if you swear truly, I shall not condemn. But surely, if you do not swear, I shall not condemn? There are two things, He says, which I never condemn: true swearing, and no swearing; but I condemn false swearing. False swearing is ruinous, true swearing is dangerous, no swearing is safe. I know it is a difficult question, and I confess to your Charity, I have always avoided it. But now, since on the Lord's day, when a sermon was due to be delivered, this same reading was recited, I believed it had been inspired in me by God that I should treat of it. From this God willed me to speak; from this, you to hear. I beseech you not to despise it; I beseech you to make your heart steady and to change the restlessness of your tongue. It is not at all in vain, it is not without purpose, that although, as I said, I always wished to avoid this question, it has been laid upon me as a necessity, so that it may be laid also upon your Charity.

Chapter V. — 5. An oath employed by the Apostle. So that you may know that to swear truly is not a sin, we find that the apostle Paul too swore: I die daily, by your glory, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord (1 Cor. 15:31). By your glory is an oath. He does not speak as if he were saying, By your glory I die, as though your glory made me die; as if one were to say, He died by poison, he died by the sword, he died by a beast, he died by an enemy; that is, through the agency of an enemy, through the agency of a sword, through the agency of poison, and the like. He did not say By your glory in that sense. The Greek wording resolves the ambiguity. One looks into the Greek Epistle, and there is found there an oath which is not ambiguous, Νὴ τὴν ὑμετέραν καύχησιν. Wherever a Greek says Νὴ τὸν Θεόν, he swears. Every day you hear Greeks, and those of you who know Greek, Νὴ τὸν Θεόν: when he says Νὴ τὸν Θεόν, it is an oath, By God. So let no one doubt that the Apostle swore when he said, By your glory,

brethren, (and let us not think that he swore by human glory) which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. In another place there is an oath wholly certain and explicit: I call a witness upon my soul. The Apostle says, I call God as witness upon my soul that, to spare you, I have not yet come to Corinth (2 Cor. 1:23). And in another place, to the Galatians: Now the things that I write to you, behold, before God, I do not lie (Gal. 1:20).

Chapter VI. — 6. Various ways of swearing. Pay attention, I beg you, and take note: and even if the discourse is not so pleasing to you, because of the narrowness of the question, yet it is useful if it reaches your inmost hearts. Behold, the Apostle swore. Let them not deceive you who, wishing somehow to draw distinctions among oaths themselves, or rather not to understand them, say that it is not an oath when a man says, God knows, God is witness, I call God upon my soul that I speak the truth. He called upon God, says such a one, he made God a witness: did he swear? Those who say these things want nothing else than to lie when God has been called upon as witness. Is it really so, whoever you are, of depraved heart and of perverse heart: if you say, By God, you swear; if you say, God is witness, you do not swear? For what is By God, if not God is witness? Or what is God is witness, if not By God?

7. What it is to swear. And what is it to swear, if not to render a right to God, when you swear by God; to render a right to your well-being, when you swear by your well-being; to render a right to your sons, when you swear by your sons? And what right do we owe to our well-being, to our sons, to our God, if not that of charity, of truth, and not of falsehood? But it is above all when it is done by God that it is a true oath: for even when someone says, By my well-being, he binds his well-being to God; when he says, By my sons, he pledges his sons to God, so that what comes out of his mouth may come upon their head: if true, true; if false, false. Since, then, anyone who names his sons, or his head, or his well-being in an oath binds to God whatever he names, how much more when he perjures himself by God Himself? Does he fear to swear falsely by his son, and not fear to swear falsely by his God? Perhaps saying this in his mind: I fear to swear falsely by my son, lest he die; but to God, Who does not die, even if a false oath is sworn by Him, what harm befalls? You speak well indeed: no harm befalls God when you swear falsely by God; but much harm befalls you, who deceive your neighbour, to whom you bring God as witness. If you did something with your son as witness, and said to a friend or to your neighbour or to any man whatever, I did not do it, and touched the head of your son, with whom as witness you did it, and said, By his well-being, I did not do it: your son would perhaps cry out, trembling under his father's hand, yet trembling not at his father's hand but at God's, Do not, father; let not my well-being be cheap to you; you have called God upon me, I saw you, you did it, do not perjure yourself: you indeed I have as my begetter, but more do I fear both your Creator and mine.

Chapter VII. — 8. Perjury deadly to the soul. The life of the body is the soul, the life of the soul is God. But because God, when you swear by Him, does not say to you, I saw you, do not

swear, you did: but you fear lest he kill you, and you kill yourself first. Because, then, He does not say, I saw you, do you think that He has not seen? And where is what He says: I have kept silent, I have kept silent; shall I always keep silent? (Isa. 42:14). And yet He often does say, I saw you: but in another way, when He takes vengeance on the perjurer. But He does not take vengeance on all: and so men are edified by the example. I know, he swore falsely to me, and he lives. He swore falsely to you, and he lives? He swore falsely, and he lives: he swore falsely. You are deceived. If you had eyes with which to see this man's death, if you too were not deceived about what it is to die and not to die, you would see this man's death. Now attend to Scripture; and there you will find lying dead the one whom you think living. Because he walks with his feet, because he handles with his hands, because he sees with his eyes and hears with his ears, and makes sufficient use of the other functions of his members, you think him living. He lives, but it is his body: his soul, however, is dead; what is better in him is dead. The dwelling lives, the dweller is dead. How, you will say, is the soul dead when the body lives, since the body would not live unless quickened by the soul? How then is the soul dead, by which the body lives? Hear, then, and learn: the body of man is a creature of God, and the soul of man is a creature of God. By the soul God quickens the flesh; the soul itself likewise He quickens from Himself, not from itself. The life of the body, then, is the soul; the life of the soul, then, is God. The body dies when the soul departs: the soul, then, dies if God departs. The soul departs when the body is struck with a sword: and do you think that God does not depart when the soul itself is struck by perjury? Do you wish to see that he of whom you speak is dead? Read Scripture: The mouth that lies kills the soul (Wis. 1:11). But you would think God a present avenger if he who deceived you with a false oath were straightway to breathe his last. If he were to expire before your eyes, his flesh breathed its last. What is it, his flesh breathed its last? It cast out the spirit by which it was quickened. That is, it expired, the spirit by which the flesh lived having been shut out. He perjured himself, he shut out the Spirit by which the soul lived. He has expired, but you do not know it; he has expired, but you do not see it. For you see flesh lying without a soul; a wretched soul without God you cannot see. Believe, then; apply the eyes of faith. No perjurer is unpunished; absolutely no one, for his punishment is with him. If he had in his bedchamber a torturer of the flesh, he would be punished: he has in the secret place of his heart the torturer of his conscience, and is he called unpunished? And yet what do you say? He lives, he rejoices, he lives in luxury, he who swore a lie to me: why is it that you send me off to things invisible? Because God Himself also, by Whom he swore, is invisible. He swore by the Invisible, he is struck with an invisible punishment. But he lives, he says, and in a certain way teems and bubbles with luxuries. If this is so, that he teems with luxuries, that he bubbles with luxuries, these are the worms of a dead soul. In short, every prudent man who observes such luxuriating perjurers turns himself away, by the heart's sound sense of smell; he does not wish to see, he does not wish to hear. Why does that soundness turn itself away, unless because the dead soul stinks!

Chapter VIII. — 9. Why it is said that one must abstain from swearing above all. Hear then briefly, my brothers; I shall conclude the sermon, fixing in your hearts a salutary care: Above all, do not swear. Why "Above all"? If it is a great crime to swear falsely, but it is no fault to swear truly, why "Above all, do not swear"? For he ought to have said, "Above all, do not swear falsely." "Above all," he says, "do not swear." For is swearing worse than stealing? Is swearing worse than committing adultery? I do not say swearing falsely; I say swearing: is swearing worse than killing a man? Far from it. To kill a man, to commit adultery, to steal, is sin: to swear is not sin; but to swear falsely is sin. Why then "Above all"? By this word that he said, "Above all," he has made us wary against our own tongue. "Above all," he says, that you may attend to this before other things, that you may be watchful lest the habit of swearing creep up on you. He has set you, as it were, on a watchtower against yourself: "Above all," he has raised you above other things, from where you may keep watch over yourself. For he considers that you swear, "By God, by Christ, I will kill him": and this how many times a day, how many times an hour? You do not open your mouth except for such an oath. Would you be unwilling for him to say to you, "Above all," so as to make you most intent against the habit, so that you might inspect all your doings, guard most diligently every movement of your tongue, be the guardian of your bad habit, to restrain it? Hear: "Above all." You were sleeping; I prick you: "Above all," I apply thorns. What is "Above all"? Above all be watchful, above all be intent.

Chapter IX. — 10. Augustine was at one time subject to the habit of swearing. Under what condition an oath is to be used. We too have sworn freely; we had this most foul and deadly habit. I tell your Charity: from the time we began to serve God and saw how great an evil there is in perjury, we feared vehemently, and with fear we bridled a most inveterate habit. Bridled, it is held in check; held in check, it languishes; languishing, it dies away, and a good habit succeeds to the bad one. Indeed we do not tell you that we do not swear. For if we say this, we lie. As far as concerns me, I swear; but, as it seems to me, compelled by great necessity. When I see that I am not believed unless I do so, and that it is not expedient for him who does not believe me not to believe, having weighed this reasoning and balanced the consideration, with great fear I say, "Before God"; or, "God is witness"; or, "Christ knows that it is so in my mind": and I see that it is more, that is, that it is beyond "Yes, yes; No, no": but what is beyond is from evil; and if not from the evil of the one swearing, it is from the evil of the one not believing. Indeed He does not say, "If anyone does more, he is evil"; nor, "Let there be in your mouth Yes, yes; No, no; if anyone does more, he is evil"; but, "Let there be in your mouth Yes, yes; No, no: but what is beyond is from evil" (Matt. 5:37). But ask whose. But yet the very bad human habit has something else. Even when you are believed, you swear; and when no one demands it, you swear; and while people shudder, you swear; you do not stop swearing, you are scarcely kept sound from perjuring yourself. Unless perhaps you think, brothers, that if the apostle Paul had known that the Galatians believed him, he would have added

an oath and said, But the things which I write to you, behold, before God, I do not lie (Gal. 1:20). He saw there those who believed; he saw also others who did not believe. Therefore do not say, I do not swear, if perhaps it is demanded. For what you do is from evil; but [the evil] of him who demands it. For you have no way to clear yourself, and you find no way to satisfy the business that presses upon you. But it is one thing when an oath is demanded; another when it is offered: and this very thing that is offered, it is one thing when it is offered to one who does not believe; another when it is bandied about even to one who believes.

Chapter X. — 11. How one who demands an oath from another sins. Restrain, therefore, your tongue and your habit, as much as you can: not as certain people do when something is said to them: Are you telling the truth? I do not believe it. You did not do it? I do not believe it: let God judge, swear to me. And as for the very one who demands the oath, it makes a great difference whether he does not know that the other will swear falsely, or knows it. For if he does not know, and therefore says, Swear to me, so that credence may be given to him; I do not dare to say that it is not a sin, yet it is a human temptation. But if he knows that the man did it, knew that he did it, saw that he did it, and compels him to swear, he is a murderer. For the one destroys himself by his own perjury: but this one both squeezed and pressed the hand of the slayer. But when some wicked thief hears, Swear if you did not take it, swear if you did not do it, from one who does not know whether he did it: then he [says], It is not lawful for a Christian to swear; when an oath is demanded of him, It is not lawful to swear; I am a Christian, it is not lawful for me. Watch for such a man, turn yourself away from him, make as if you have dropped the business you were speaking about; mix in other talk, and you will find him swearing a thousand times, he who refused to swear once. This habit, then, of swearing daily, frequently, without cause, with no one extorting it, with no one doubting your words, turn away from yourselves, cut off from your tongues, circumcise from your mouth.

Chapter XI. — 12. The habit of swearing must be resisted with greater effort. But it is a habit, people are wont to say. It is wont to be said when I do not mean to say it. This is [what is meant by], Before all things. What is, Before all things? Be cautious above all else, be more intent on this than on other things. A greater habit demands greater attention; it is not the habit of a trivial matter. If you were doing something with your hand, you would more easily command your hand not to do it; if you had to go somewhere on foot, when sloth held you back you would rouse yourself to get up and go. The tongue has ease of motion; it is placed in a moist place; it easily slips on what is slippery. The more quickly and easily it moves, the more firmly fixed against it you must be. You will tame it if you are watchful; you will be watchful if you fear; you will fear if you reflect that you are a Christian. For swearing has so much evil in it that those who worship stones are afraid to swear falsely by stones: and do you not fear God present, God living, God knowing, God abiding, God taking vengeance on the one who despises Him? That man shuts the temple upon the stone and goes to his house: he has shut it upon his god, and yet when he is told, Swear by Jupiter, he fears the eyes of one present.

Chapter XII. — 13. To swear falsely by idols is perjury. And behold, I say to your Charity, even one who swears falsely by a stone is a perjurer. Why do I say this? Because many are deceived in this too, and think that, since that by which they swear is nothing, they are not held guilty of the crime of perjury.