Augustine, Sermones 289-292 (Classis III, de Sanctis)

For He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. Go now, and air your riches: vaunt yourself, and say, I am rich. How rich? If I will, I am just; if I do not will, I am not just. It is in my power to be just, and not to be just. Do you not hear in the Psalm, Those who trust in their own strength (Ps. 48:7)? So God gave you flesh, God gave you sense, God gave you a soul, God gave you a mind, God gave you understanding: do you give yourself justice? What is flesh, what are the senses, what is the soul, what is the mind, what is understanding without justice? Will not all these, if they lack justice, avail for punishment? Are you then so rich that, while God has given you the lesser things, you give yourself the greater? Wickedly rich, rich man who must be emptied; if indeed you have what you said you have: What do you have that you did not receive (1 Cor. 4:7)? Not even from that proud and rich Pharisee have you learned to give thanks to the Lord for the things you said you have.

Sermon 291. On the Birthday of John the Baptist, 5.

1. The birth of John wonderful because of Christ. What day we are celebrating today there is no need to tell you, since all of you heard it when the Gospel was read. Today we have received holy John, the Lord's forerunner, son of a barren woman announcing the Son of a virgin, yet a servant announcing the Lord. For since God made man was to come through a virgin, a wonderful man went before Him from a barren woman: so that, when the wonderful man says he is unworthy to loose the strap of His sandal, God made man may be recognized. Marvel at John as much as you can: what you marvel at profits Christ. It profits Christ, I say, not because you bestow anything on Christ, but so that you may make progress in Christ. Marvel, then, at John as much as you can. You have heard something to marvel at. He is announced by an angel to his father, a priest: the angel takes away the voice of the father who does not believe; he remains mute, awaiting his tongue at the birth of his son. A barren woman conceived, an old woman conceived too: a twofold unfruitfulness, barrenness and age. It is said by the angel what he will be: what is said is fulfilled in him; and, what is most to be marvelled at, he is filled with the Holy Spirit while still from his mother's womb. Then, when holy Mary comes, he leaps in the womb; and the one he could not greet with words, he greets with movements. He is born, he gives his father a voice; the father, speaking, gives the son a name: all marvel at so great a grace (Luke 1). For what else but grace? Where did this John merit God? Where did he merit God before he existed to merit Him? O grace freely given!

2. From the greatness of John the majesty of Christ is to be understood. All marvel, they are astounded, and by the movement of their heart they say, so that there might be written for us what should be read: What, do you think, will this child be? For the hand of the Lord is with him. What, do you think, will this child be? He exceeds the bounds of human nature. We know children: but, what, do you think, will this child be? Why do you say, What, do you think, will this child be? For the hand of the Lord is with him? That the hand of the Lord is with him

we already know; but what he will be, we do not know. Certainly he will be very great who began so great. What will he be, who, so small, is so great? What will he be? Human weakness grows dull, the hearts of all who consider it tremble: What, do you think, will this child be? He will be great: but what will He be Who will be greater than he? This one will be very great: but what will He be Who will be greater than this great one? If he who has only now begun to be will be so great, what will He be Who was? But what have I said, Who was? Before John, Zacharias too was; much more, before John, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were. Before John, certainly, heaven and earth were. What will He be Who was in the beginning? For in the beginning, which is before John and before every man, God made heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1). But do you ask through what He made them? In the beginning God did not make the Word, but the Word was: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was, not a word of any sort, but the Word was God. All things were made through Him. And in the last time He Who was was made, so that what He had made might not perish. What, do you think, will this child be? For the hand of the Lord is with him. If the child will be so great because the hand of the Lord is with him, what is the hand of the Lord itself? For Christ is the hand of the Lord, the Son of God is the hand of God, the Word of God is the hand of God. For what is the hand of God, if not that through which all things were made? What, do you think, will this child be? For the hand of the Lord is with him. O human weakness, what will you do with the judge, you who hesitate so over the herald? But here too, what have I said? I return to the consideration of human custom. And what have I said? I said herald, I said judge, and the herald: a man, and the judge a man. What was apparent I have said; what lay hidden, who could have said? The Word was made flesh (John 1:1, 2, 14): yet the Word was not turned into flesh. The Word was made flesh by receiving what He was not, not by losing what He was. Behold, we have marvelled at the birth of His herald, which we celebrate today; but let us see Him for whose sake it came about.

3. The angel sent to Zacharias and to Mary. How the prayer of Zacharias was heard. The angel Gabriel came to Zacharias, not to Elisabeth his wife, the mother of John: the angel Gabriel came, I say, to Zacharias, not to Elisabeth. Why? Because John was to come to be in Elisabeth through Zacharias. Therefore the angel, announcing that John would come by being born, did not come to the receptacle of the womb, but to the source of the seed. He announced the future son of both, but he announced it to the father. For John was to come from the union of male and female. Behold, again the same Gabriel came to Mary, not to Joseph: to her from whom that flesh was to begin, from whom it was to have its beginning, to her the angel came. But how did the angel foretell the future son to the father, the priest Zacharias? Do not fear, he says, Zacharias, your prayer has been heard. For what, my brethren, had that priest entered into the Holy of Holies for this reason, to pray to the Lord for sons? Far from it! Someone says: How do you prove this? For Zacharias did not disclose what he had asked. There is one thing that I say briefly: If he had sought a son, he would have believed it when it was announced. The angel says that a son would be born to him, and he does not believe? Had he really asked for this? Who asks

without hope? or who does not believe in hope? If you do not hope, why do you ask? if you hope, why do you not believe? What then? Your prayer, he says, has been heard: for behold, Elisabeth will conceive, and will bear you a son. Why? Because your prayer has been heard. If Zacharias were to say, Why? did I ask for this? Surely the angel would neither be deceived nor deceive, when he said? Your prayer has been heard: for behold, your wife is going to give birth. But why was this said? Because he was sacrificing for the people: the priest was sacrificing for the people, the people were awaiting Christ; John was announcing Christ.

4. Mary blessed among women. And the very same angel says to the Virgin Mary: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you: already He is with you Who will be in you. Blessed are you among women. Holy Scripture testifies that by an idiom of the Hebrew tongue all females are customarily called women: lest perhaps those who are not accustomed to hearing the Scriptures should be surprised or scandalized. The Lord says plainly in a certain place of the Scriptures, Set apart the women who have not known a man (Num. 31:17, according to the Septuagint). Finally, call to mind our very origin: when Eve was made from the side of the man, what does Scripture say? He took a rib from him, and built it into a woman (Gen. 2:22). Already she is called woman, taken indeed from the man, but not yet joined to the man. So then, when you hear from the angel, Blessed are you among women, take it as if it were said in our manner, Blessed are you among females.

5. The question of Zacharias and of Mary alike, the mind unlike. The resolve of virginity. A son is promised to Zacharias, a son is promised also to holy Mary, and she too says almost the very words that Zacharias had said. For what had Zacharias said? Whence is this to me? For I am an old man, and my wife is barren, and advanced in her days. And what did holy Mary say? How shall this be? A like voice, an unlike heart. Let us hear the like voice with the ear, but let us learn the unlike heart from the angel's pronouncement. David sinned, and, rebuked by the prophet, he said, I have sinned: at once it was said to him, Your sin is forgiven you (2 Sam. 12:13). Saul sinned, and, rebuked by the Prophet, he said, I have sinned: and his sin was not forgiven him, but the wrath of God remained upon him (1 Sam. 15:30, 35). What is this, except that the voice was alike, the heart unlike? For man is a hearer of the voice, God an inspector of the heart. So in those words of Zacharias the angel saw that there was not faith, but doubt and despair; the angel showed it, by taking away his voice, by condemning his unbelief. But holy Mary: How shall this be, since I do not know a man? Recognize the resolve of the virgin. If she were going to lie with a man, would she say, How shall this be? For if it were to happen in the way it usually happens with all infants, she would not say, How shall it be? But she, mindful of her resolve, and conscious of her holy vow, because she knew what she had vowed, by saying, How shall this be, since I do not know a man?, since she did not know that this could happen, that sons should be born except to women married and lying with their husbands, which she herself had resolved to know nothing of, by saying, How shall this be?, asked about the manner, did not doubt concerning the omnipotence of God. How shall this be? What is the manner in which this shall be? You announce

a son to me, you have my mind ready, tell me the manner. For the holy virgin could have feared, or at any rate not known, the counsel of God, how He wished her to have a son, as though He had disapproved of the virgin's vow. For what if He were to say, Marry, be joined to a husband? God would not say that; for He accepted the virgin's vow, as God [does]. And He accepted from her what He Himself had given. Tell me then, messenger of God, How shall this be? See the angel knowing, and her asking, not distrusting. Since then he saw her asking, not distrusting, he did not refuse to instruct her. Hear how: your virginity shall remain; only believe the truth, keep your virginity, receive integrity. Since your faith is whole, your integrity too will be untouched. Then hear how this shall be: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you. Such a shade knows not the heat of lust. Therefore, because the Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; because you conceive by faith, because by believing, not by lying with a man, you will have [a child] in your womb: therefore the Holy One who will be born of you shall be called the Son of God.

6. Mary by grace the mother of the Son of God. What are you, who are afterwards to give birth? Whence did you merit it? Whence did you receive this? Whence shall He who made you be made in you? Whence, I say, comes to you so great a good? You are a virgin, you are holy, you have vowed a vow; but much is what you have merited, nay rather much is what you have received. For whence did you merit this? He who made you is made in you; He through Whom you were made is made in you: nay rather, He through Whom heaven and earth were made, through Whom all things were made, the Word of God is made flesh in you, by taking on flesh, not by losing divinity. And the Word is joined to flesh, and the Word is coupled with flesh; and the bridal chamber of so great a marriage is your womb; and of so great a marriage, I say, that is, of the Word and the flesh, the bridal chamber is your womb: whence the bridegroom Himself comes forth from His bridal chamber (Ps. 18:6). Conceived, He found you a virgin; born, He leaves you a virgin. He gives fruitfulness, He does not take away integrity. Whence comes this to you? I seem to be questioning a virgin impudently, and as it were striking her modest ears importunately with this voice of mine. But I see the virgin abashed, and yet answering, and admonishing me: Do you ask me whence this comes to me? I am abashed to answer you about my good; hear the angel's own greeting, and recognize in me your salvation. Believe Him in Whom I believed. Do you ask me whence this comes to me? Let the angel answer. Tell me, angel, whence comes this to Mary? I said it already, when I greeted her: Hail, full of grace (Luke 1:28).

Sermon 292. On the Nativity of John the Baptist, 6.

In which there is disputation against the Donatists.

Chapter I. — 1. Why the nativity of John is celebrated, and not that of others. The solemnity of today's day calls, with such great expectation, for a solemn sermon. Therefore, with the Lord's help, we shall serve to you what He has given, recalling and keeping in mind the office of our

service, that we may speak not as masters but as ministers; not to disciples but to fellow disciples; for not to servants either, but to fellow servants. For we have one Master, Whose school is on earth and Whose chair is in heaven: Whose forerunner John was born, the day of whose nativity is handed down as today, and is celebrated today. This we have received by the tradition of our elders, this we hand on to those who come after us, with a devotion they should imitate. So it is the Nativity of John, not the Evangelist but the Baptist, that we celebrate today. With this first point laid down, a question arises that must not be passed over: why do we celebrate the Nativity, the day on which John came forth from the womb, rather than that of any apostle or martyr or prophet or patriarch? If we are asked, what shall we answer? As far as it seems to me, as far as occurs to the mediocrity of my powers, this is the reason: the disciples of the Lord were born, and, brought on by the advance of age to more capable years, were taken up into discipleship; afterwards their faith clung to the Lord, but the nativity of none of them served the Lord. Let us call to mind the Prophets too, let us recall the Patriarchs: they were born men, and, filled with the Holy Spirit as their age advanced, they prophesied Christ; they were born, so that they might afterwards prophesy. But the very nativity of John prophesied the Lord Christ, Whom, once conceived, he greeted from the womb.

Chapter II. — 2. Why John, so great a man, was not among the disciples of the Lord, but had disciples alongside the Lord. The proud words of the Donatists. With this question solved as best we could, let us approach another, according to the strength the Lord may give. For another question arises, somewhat more abstruse, as it seems to me, and more laborious to search out, in which your attention will help me greatly, and your prayer to the Lord on behalf of my littleness. This John, excelling in such great grace that, as has been said, he greeted the Lord even from the womb, not yet by speaking but by leaping for joy; whose grace towards God was already manifest even then, when his flesh was enclosed within flesh: this John, then, is not found among the disciples of the Lord, but is rather found to have had disciples alongside the Lord. What is this? Who is this man? So great a man, what so great a man? how great, so great a man? Yet he did not follow the Lord among the disciples, and disciples followed him: far be it from me to say, against the Lord; but nevertheless as it were apart from the Lord. Christ had disciples, John had disciples: Christ taught, John taught. What more shall I say? John baptized, Christ baptized. I say more here concerning baptism: Christ was baptized by John. Where are those who are puffed up concerning the ministry of Baptism with the arrogance of a swollen animosity? Where are the voices lacking humility, lifted up with pride, "I baptize, I baptize"? What would you have said, had you been found worthy to baptize Christ? Now, as your Holiness observes, a great reason has begun to appear and stand out, why both Christ was to be sent by the Father, and John was to be sent ahead by Christ. John was sent first, but as a judge is preceded by his attendants. Christ was created a man later, but Christ God created John. John, then, was indeed a perfect man, and

whose grace was commended so greatly that the Lord Himself said of him, Among those born of women none has arisen greater than John the Baptist (Matt. 11:11). This man, then, so great, recognizes the Lord, great in the small: a man recognizes Him Who, being God, had come as a man. For if among those born of women, that is, among men, none has arisen greater than John the Baptist, whoever is more than John is not only man but also God. It was fitting, therefore, that this man, so great, should both have disciples of his own and, together with his disciples, acknowledge Christ the master of all. For what greater testimony to the truth is there than to acknowledge, by humbling himself, Him Whom he could have envied through rivalry? He could have been thought the Christ, and did not wish it; he could have been reckoned the Christ, and did not wish it. Men said, when they were deceived about him: Is this perhaps the Christ? He answered what he was not, so that he might remain what he was. For it was by this that Adam, having fallen, lost what he was, because he usurped what he was not. This great man called this to mind, but as the least in comparison with the little Christ: he knew this, he called this to mind, and he held to it; because he was intent on recovering what that man had lost. This man, then, as I have said, the great John, to whom the Lord bore such testimony, whom the Truth so commended as to say, Among those born of women there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptist, could have been believed to be the Christ; nay, he was already believed to be the Christ by those who were being deceived on account of his greatness: and they would have died in that error, had they not been corrected by him when he confessed. He answered, therefore, those who thought so, and said: I am not the Christ (John 1:20). As if he were saying: Certainly you are so deceived to my honour; and certainly by thinking this you add great praise to me: but I ought to acknowledge myself, so that He may be able to forgive you in your error. For if what he was not were falsely supposed, it would truly be cut off by Him Who was.

Chapter III. — 3. Christ, that He might teach the way of humility, was baptized and became incarnate. John, then, was sent ahead so that he might baptize the humble Lord. For the Lord willed to be baptized on account of humility, not on account of iniquity. Why was the Lord Christ baptized? The Lord Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, why was He baptized? Find out why He was born, and there you will find why He was baptized. For there you will find the way of humility, which you do not tread with a proud foot: unless you walk it with a humble foot, you will not be able to arrive at the height to which it leads. He was baptized for your sake, Who came down for your sake. See how great a one became so small: Who, though He was in the form of God, did not reckon it robbery to be equal to God. For it was not robbery, but it was by nature the equality of the Son with the Father. If John had wished himself to be thought the Christ, it would have been robbery for him. Therefore He did not reckon it robbery to be equal to God. For He was, and He was without robbery; coeternal, He was born from eternity. Nevertheless He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil. 2:6–7); that is, taking the form of a man. Who, though He was in the form of God, had not received the form of God: therefore, though He was in the form of God, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. Thus He received what He was not, so as not to lose what He was. Remaining God, He assumed man. He received the form of a servant, and God became man, by Whom as God man was made.

Chapter IV. — See, therefore, what majesty, what power, what loftiness, what equality with the Father came for our sake to the clothing of the form of a servant: and understand that way of humility [taught] by so great a master; since it is more that He willed to become man than that He willed to be baptized by a man.

4. Why He willed to be baptized by John. John, therefore, I say, baptizes Christ, the servant the Lord, the voice the Word. For remember: I am the voice of one crying in the desert; and remember that The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:23, 14). John, therefore, I say, baptizes Christ, the servant the Lord, the voice the Word, the creature the Creator, the lamp the sun; but the sun Who made this sun; the sun of Whom it was said, The sun of justice has risen for me, and healing in His wings (Mal. 4:2). Of Whom the ungodly, repenting too late, at the end in the judgement of God, will say: What has pride profited us? or what has the boasting of riches brought us? All those things have passed away like a shadow: and with the shadows [pass] those who followed shadows. Therefore, they say, we have strayed from the way of truth, and the light of justice has not shone for us, and the sun has not risen for us (Wis. 5:6–8). Christ has not risen for those by whom Christ has not been acknowledged. That Sun of justice is without cloud, without night; He does not rise for the wicked, He does not rise for the ungodly, He does not rise for unbelievers. For this bodily sun in the sky He makes to rise daily upon the good and the wicked (Matt. 5:45). The creature, therefore, as I said, baptized the Creator, the lamp the sun: and the baptizer did not exalt himself, but subjected himself in baptizing. For to Him as He came to him he said: Thou come to me to be baptized? I ought to be baptized by Thee. A great confession, and a safe profession of the lamp in humility. If it were to exalt itself against the sun, it would quickly be put out by the wind of pride. This, therefore, is what the Lord foresaw, what the Lord taught by His baptism. One so great willed to be baptized by one so small; to put it briefly, the Saviour by one to be saved. For John remembered, perhaps, some sickness of his own, great as he was. For whence else, I ought to be baptized by Thee? Surely the Lord's Baptism is salvation: because salvation is the Lord's (Ps. 3:9). For vain is the salvation of men (Ps. 59:13). Why then, I ought to be baptized by Thee, if he had no need to be healed? But wonderful is the medicine in the very humility of the Lord: the one was baptizing, and the Other was healing. For if Christ is the Saviour of all men, especially of the faithful (1 Tim. 4:10): it is an apostolic and true statement that Christ is the Saviour of all men: let no one say, I have no need of a saviour. Whoever says this does not humble himself before the physician, but perishes in his disease. If He is the Saviour of all men, then of John too: for John was not other than a man. A great man indeed, but a man nonetheless. He is the Saviour of all men: and so the other acknowledges his Saviour. For it is not that Christ was not John's Saviour. He himself does not say this, who humbly confesses, saying: I ought to be baptized by Thee. And the Lord: Allow it now, let there be fulfilled all

righteousness (Matt. 3:14–15). What is "all righteousness"? He commended righteousness by humility: the heavenly Master and true Lord commended righteousness to us above all by humility. For that He was baptized belonged to humility; and therefore, being about to do what belonged to humility, He said: Let all righteousness be fulfilled.

5. The Donatists wrongly transfer the passage of the Gospel about the tree and its fruit to the minister of Baptism. He foresaw that many would puff themselves up over the ministry of Baptism, and would say, "I baptize"; and, "Such as I am who baptize, such do I make the one whom I baptize." Whence do you prove this? "I prove it," he says. By what testimonies? "By those of the Gospel," he says. Let us hear some new evangelist or other against the ancient Baptist. By what testimonies of the Gospel, then, do you prove that such as you are, such you make him whom you baptize? "Because it is written," he says, "A good tree makes good fruits. I recite what is written, I bring forward the Gospel: A good tree makes good fruits, a bad tree makes bad fruits (Matt. 7:17)." I recognize the Gospel: but you, as far as I judge, do not recognize yourself. And so that I may bear with you patiently for a while, explain what you are saying; for the moment, take it that I have not understood. Tell me to what these testimonies pertain, how they help towards solving a question of this kind about Baptism. "The good tree," he says, "is the good baptizer." "The good tree," he says, as they put it, "the good tree," he says, "is the good baptizer; its good fruit is the one who is baptized by him: for the fruit will be good then, if he has been a good tree." What do you say of Christ and John? Wake up, rouse yourself, the brilliance of the plain truth dazzles your eyes; see what was set before us earlier; read the Gospel: John baptized Christ. Are you going to say that John is the tree, Christ the fruit? Will you call the creature the tree, and the Creator the fruit? The Lord Christ willed to be baptized by John for this reason: not so that through baptism He might be free of iniquity, but so that He might shut the mouth of iniquity. Behold, he who baptizes is the lesser; he who is baptized, am I to say, is the better? Perhaps this is too much for me to understand. Return to men, look at both as men. Ananias baptized Paul. Paul was better than Ananias. Never was fruit better than the tree. For the tree brings forth the fruit; it is not brought forth by the fruit.

6. The Donatists are convicted of boasting themselves in place of Christ. Do you not see what you are taking upon yourself? The Lord Himself says: Many will come in My name saying, I am the Christ (Matt. 24:5). Many who went astray and led astray have come in the name of Christ; we have heard none saying, "I am the Christ." Countless heretics have come, all in the name of Christ, that is, they came cloaked in the name of Christ, they came whitewashing a mud wall with a splendid name, and we have heard no one saying, "I am the Christ." What then? Did the Lord not know what He foretold? Or rather did He rouse us from sleep to understand these very hidden things, to the opening of the hidden thing, so that we might search and knock, so that what is covered might be opened to us, and, the covering opened, we might be let down to the Lord, so that, like that paralytic, we might be worthy to be healed by the Lord (Mark 2:3–12)? We certainly find these men saying, "I am the Christ": not in these words, but, what is worse

made. Not the audacity of those words. For who listens to them? Who, deceived, admits such foolish things to his ears or to his heart? If the one who is going to baptize him should say to him, I am Christ, he turns his face away from him, abandons the man's manifest arrogance, and seeks the grace of God. So then he does not [say], I am Christ, in that way. But since in another way [he does say], I am Christ, see how. Christ heals, Christ cleanses, Christ justifies: man does not justify. What is it to justify? To make just. As to mortify is to make dead, to vivify to make alive, so also to justify is to make just. Behold, a certain baptizer from the side, not entering through the door but climbing down over the wall; not a shepherd and guardian, but a thief and a robber; from the side he says, I baptize. If as a minister, I venture [to allow it]: do not add; whatever is more than this is from evil (Matt. 5:37). And yet he adds, he does not hesitate. What does he add? I justify, I make just. For this is [to say], I am the good tree; let whoever wishes to be good fruit be born from me. Listen a little, if you admit [it] wisely; they are few words, and unless I am mistaken, they are clear. You then justify, you make just? Then, he says, let him whom you justify believe in you. Say it, dare to say, Believe in me, you who do not hesitate to say, You are justified by me. He is troubled, he wavers, he makes excuses. For what need is there, he says, that I should say to him, Believe in me? Believe in Christ, I say. You have hesitated, you have doubted: you have deigned to come down somewhat to us. You have confessed something by which you may be healed. You have said something right, by which your other crooked things may be corrected. Listen now not to me, but to yourself. For certainly you do not dare to say, Believe in me. Far be it, he says. And yet you dare to say, I justify you. Listen, and learn that, for the same reason that you do not dare to say, Believe in me, for that reason you ought not to dare to say, I justify you. The Apostle speaks, to whom you will yield, to whom, willing or not, you are subject. For [you are subject] not to the Apostle as to a man, but to Him of Whom the Apostle says, Do you wish to have proof of Him Who speaks in me, Christ (2 Cor. 13:3)? Hear then not the Apostle, but Christ through the Apostle. What does the Apostle say? To him who believes in Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness (Rom. 4:5). Attend, I beseech you; see how plain it is, how open it is: To him who believes in Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. Whoever believes in Him Who justifies the ungodly, Who makes the ungodly godly: whoever, then, believes in Him Who justifies the ungodly, Who makes just him who was ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. Now say, if you dare, I justify you. See how I have answered you from the Apostle: If you justify me, I will believe in you; for to him who believes in Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. Do you justify me? I will believe in you. For if you justify me, I shall be believing in him who justifies me, that is, who justifies the ungodly: I believe without anxiety, because my faith is reckoned as righteousness. If then you do not dare to say, I justify you; nay, if you do not dare to say, Believe in me: beware now of saying, I justify you. O lost one, I have found you; do not destroy both me and yourself.

7. How the passage of the Gospel about the tree and the fruit is to be understood. For as to what you put forward about the tree and the fruit, I put to you something by way of examples, so that you may learn to understand what was said: A good tree makes good fruits, and a bad tree makes bad fruits. For I understand it thus, as the Lord Himself also explains it. What is: A good tree makes good fruits (Matt. 7:17)? A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things; and a bad man out of the bad treasure of his heart brings forth bad things (Matt. 12:35). He set down men as the trees, He set down their acts as the treasures. Of what sort the man is, such are the acts he has. If he is a good man, he has good acts; if he is a bad man, he has bad acts: a good man cannot have bad acts, nor a bad man have good acts. What is plainer? What is clearer? What is more open? But now you make yourself the good tree, you who baptize, and you make the fruit him whom you baptize, so that of what sort you are, such may he be. Far be it from him; and see how perversely you understand. There is among you someone, or there was at some time, an adulterer, even a secret one. But what I do not know, he says, does not defile me. I am not treating of that; that is another question: I want to say something about Baptism, for this is what we have taken up. He is a secret adulterer: therefore he is a feigner; not a feigned adulterer, but a true adulterer, a feigned chaste man. This adulterer, then, is a feigning man, and all the more feigning because he lies hidden; for if he were an open adulterer, he would no longer be feigning: this adulterer, then, the Holy Spirit will surely flee. For the sentence pronounced is plain: For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee the feigner (Wis. 1:5). Since, then, this man is a secret adulterer, he certainly baptizes. Behold, I see a man baptized by a secret adulterer: a fruit is born; where is the good tree? He has been baptized, he is innocent, the remission of sins has been effected in him; therefore the ungodly has been justified, a good fruit is born: I ask, from what tree? Speak, answer me: that tree is a secret adulterer, it is a bad tree; if this fruit is of this tree, it is a bad fruit. It is the Lord's sentence: A bad tree makes bad fruits. You will answer, in order to commend this fruit as good, that it was not born of that tree. For it is not because you do not know that tree to be bad that it is therefore not bad: it is the worse the more it is unknown. For it is the more unknown the more it hides its deed with abandoned cunning. For if he were an open adulterer, he would at least be curable by confession. A very bad tree, and yet behold, a good fruit. Whence was it born? Or perhaps it was not born? It was born, you say. I ask whence: what are you going to say? Whence was this one born? There is nothing he can say except: Of God; I do not know whether he is going to say anything other than: From God. If he said this of all, and did not, though he is a bad tree, by feigning show himself good and make himself worse, he would say of all that they are born from God; he has the plain sentence of the Gospel: He gave them power to become sons of God, who were born not of flesh, not of blood, not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God (John 1:12–13). Return, then, to this one: was he born of God? Of God. Why is this one of God? Because a good fruit could not be born of a bad tree. A chaste baptizer is a good tree, he is not a feigner; a truly chaste man has baptized, a good fruit from a tree

Behold, this one too is a good fruit: from what tree was he born? Say "from a bad one", if you dare. "I do not dare," he says. So he too is from a good one? "From a good one." From which good one? "From God." And the other? "From a chaste man." Pay attention a little: let us understand what we are saying. This one, baptized by a chaste man, was born a good fruit from a good tree, that is, from a good man. That one, baptized by a hidden adulterer, was born from a bad tree a fruit, what kind? Good. That cannot be. If the fruit is good, then change the tree. You confess that this fruit is good and that man bad, because he is a hidden adulterer: change the tree for this fruit. "I have changed it," you say: "that is why I said, From God." Now compare these two who were born: a manifest chaste man baptized that one; a hidden adulterer baptized this one: that one was born of a man, this one of God. So this one was more happily born of the hidden adulterer than that one of the manifest chaste man.

8. From the words of John and of the Apostle he refutes the Donatists. Better, then, that you listen to John, O heretic; better that you, a runner-back, listen to the forerunner; better that you listen to the humble man, O proud one; better that you listen to the burning lamp, O extinguished lamp. Listen to John, when people came to him: "I indeed baptize you in water." You too, if you would recognize yourself, are a minister of water. "I," he says, "baptize you in water; but He who will come is greater than I." How much greater than you is He? "Whose shoe-strap I am not worthy to untie." How much would he have humbled himself, if he had called himself worthy? He did not even say that he was worthy to untie the strap of His shoe. He it is Who baptizes in the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16, and John 1:27, 33). Why do you put yourself in the place of Christ? He baptizes in the Holy Spirit. Therefore He justifies. What do you say? "I baptize in the Holy Spirit, I justify." Surely you do not say, "I am the Christ"? Surely you are not one of those of whom it was said, Many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ (Matt. 24:5)? You are caught: and would that you might at least be found caught, you who, uncaught, had perished. It is good to be caught in the nets of truth to be food for the great king. Do not, then, go on saying, "I justify, I sanctify": lest you be convicted of saying, "I am the Christ." Say rather what the friend of the bridegroom says, not one who would boast of himself in place of the bridegroom: Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters; but God Who gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:7). Listen also to the very one we are dealing with, the friend of the bridegroom. Certainly he had, as it were, disciples alongside Christ, and was not a disciple of Christ: listen to him confessing himself a disciple of Christ. See him among the disciples of Christ, and the more certain the more humble; the more humble the greater he is. See him doing what is written, The greater you are, the more humble yourself in all things, and you will find grace before God (Sir. 3:20). He has already said, I am not worthy to untie the strap of His shoe: but in this he did not show himself a disciple. He Who comes from heaven, he says, is above all (John 3:31): and we have all received of His fullness (John 1:16). So he too was among the disciples, he who was gathering disciples alongside Christ. Hear him confessing himself a disciple more openly: He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears Him (John 3:29). And therefore

stands, because he hears Him. He stands and hears; because if he does not hear, he falls. Rightly does that man say, To my hearing Thou wilt give exultation and gladness. What is "to my hearing"? To hear Him, not to wish to be heard in His place. And so that we might know that in the fact that he hears Him he commends humility: when he had said, To my hearing Thou wilt give exultation and gladness, he immediately added, and the humbled bones shall exult (Ps. 50:10). So he stands and hears Him. The humbled bones shall exult, because the lofty are broken. Let no servant, therefore, take to himself the power of the Lord. Let him rejoice that he is in the household, and if he is set over it, let him bring out food for his fellow servants in due time (Matt. 24:45); but food on which he himself may also live, not so that they may live off him. For what is it to bring out food in due time, if not to bring out Christ, to praise Christ, to commend Christ, to preach Christ? This is to bring out food in due time. For so that Christ Himself might be the food of His beasts, when He was born He was laid in a manger.