Sermones Ad Populum. Sermonum Quorundam Ex Fragmentis

Fragments of Certain Sermons of Saint Aurelius Augustine Which Are Still Desired, Found in the Collections of Eugippius, Bede, Florus, and John the Deacon of the Roman Church. From a Sermon Against the Pelagians, in Eugippius, volume 2, chapter heading. Urbanus the bishop. The error of the Pelagians: that temptations can be overcome by the power of free will, and that the Lord's Prayer does not deal with temptations to sin. Those two passages, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors," and "Lead us not into temptation" (Matthew 6 and 13), when they are objected to the Pelagians, what do you think they reply? I shuddered, my brothers, when I heard it. I indeed did not hear it with my own ears, but our holy brother and fellow bishop Urbanus, who was a presbyter here and is now bishop of Sicca, when he had returned from the city of Rome and had contended there with someone holding such views, or reported that he had contended, when he was pressed by the weight of the Lord's Prayer—for he was pressing him and saying, "If it is in our power not to sin, and it is in our power to overcome all temptations to sin by the strength of our will alone, why do we say to God, 'Lead us not into temptation'?" What do you think he replied? "We ask," he said, "God that He not lead us into temptation, lest we suffer some evil which is not in our power: lest I fall from a horse, and lest I break my foot, lest a bandit kill me, and things of this sort.

For he says, "I do not have these things in my power: for to overcome the temptations of my sins, if I wish, I can, but I cannot even with God's help." I. The wicked heresy is refuted from the prayer commended by Christ and used on behalf of Peter. You see, brothers, how wicked the heresy is; you see how you all shudder at it: beware lest you be caught. For I know the cunning and evasions of impious men turned away from the truth, and because they have already fallen into their own opinions, unwilling to be defeated; see, I beseech you. For behold, he found something to say, that we say, "Do not lead us into temptation," lest something happen to us which we do not have in our power according to the temptation of the body. Was it for this reason, then, that the Lord said, "Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation" (Matt. 26:41)? Was he saying this: "Watch and pray, lest you break your foot, or lest your head ache, or lest you incur loss"? He was not saying that. But what was he saying? What he said to Peter: "I prayed for you that your faith might not fail" (Luke 22:32). "I prayed," he says, "for you," God says to man, the master to the servant, the teacher to the disciple, the physician to the sick: "I prayed for you." What? "That it might not fail." What? Your hand? Your foot? Your eye? Your tongue, from some paralysis, that is, a dissolution of the limbs? No; but, "that your faith might not fail." According to these people, we have it in our power that our faith does not fail.

The prayers of the Church prove that the help of grace is necessary for us not to sin. Why is God prayed to on our behalf, to grant us what these men say we ought not to ask from the eternal majesty, but have in our power? Our blessings, my brothers, the blessings we make over you, they empty, they nullify, they dash to the ground. You hear me, I believe, my brothers, when I say, "Turned to the Lord, let us bless his name; may he grant us to persevere in his commandments, to walk in the straight path of his teaching, to please him in every good work," and other such things. "Absolutely," they say, "all this is placed in our own power." Therefore we wish such things for you in vain. Let us defend both ourselves and you; lest we bless without cause, and you subscribe "Amen" without cause. My brothers, your "Amen" is your subscription, your consent, your assent. Let not some of them condemn both us and you; let us defend ourselves from the Apostle Paul: let us see if he wished such things for his people as we pray over you. Hear what he said in a certain place. I say a brief thing. What do you say, O new heretic, whoever you are who hear me, if you are present? What do you say? That we have not sinning in our power in such a way that we can fulfill this without the help of divine grace; do you say this? "This," he says. Therefore we have in our power not to sin without the help of God? "Clearly," he says, "our free will suffices for this.

What then does the Apostle mean when he writes to the Corinthians, "We pray to God that you do nothing evil" (2 Cor. 13:7)? You have heard, you have listened, you have understood; and because it is perfectly clear, you have without doubt grasped what the Apostle prayed. "We pray," he says, "to God that you do nothing evil." He could have said: We warn you not to do anything evil; we teach you not to do anything evil; we command you, we order you. If he had said that, he would indeed be speaking truly, because our will does do something: for our will does nothing, but it alone does not suffice. Yet he preferred to say, "We pray," in order to commend grace itself: so that they might understand that when they do nothing evil, they avoid evil not by their own will alone, but by God's help they fulfill what is commanded. By a command, free will is shown; by a prayer, the help of grace is shown to be necessary. Therefore, brothers, when a command is given, recognize the will's choice: when what is commanded is prayed for, recognize the benefit of grace. For you have both in the Scriptures: both command and prayer are given; what is commanded is what is prayed for. See what I mean. A command is given so that we may understand. How is it commanded that we understand? "Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding" (Ps. 31:9). You have heard that it is commanded; ask, so that you may be able to fulfill what is commanded. How, you ask, do I ask? Hear the Scripture. What has been commanded to you? "Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding.

Because it has been commanded, you have recognized the will: hear that it is prayed for, so that you may recognize grace. "Give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments" (Ps. 118:73). It has been commanded that we have wisdom: because it has been commanded, I read it. Where does it command, you say? Listen: "You who are unwise among the people and foolish, at length be wise" (Ps. 93:8). Now what does that say? You see how God commands us to be wise. Therefore, is wisdom within our power? I have already said, I have heard the command, I have recognized the will: hear the prayer, so that you may be able to recognize grace. Concerning wisdom, therefore, which has been commanded to us, let us hear what the Apostle James says: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives abundantly to all" (James 1:5). Continence is commanded to us. Where is it commanded? The Apostle to Timothy: "Restrain yourself" (1 Tim. 5:22). It is a command, a precept; it must be heard, it must be done: but unless God helps, we remain. We indeed strive to do it by will, and the will exerts some effort: let power not presume, unless weakness is helped. For indeed it has been commanded: "Restrain yourself." Hear another passage of Scripture: "And when I knew," he says, "that no one can be continent unless God grants it; and this itself was a part of wisdom, to know whose gift this was. And what," he says, "did I do? I approached the Lord, and I prayed" (Wis. 8:21). What need is there to run through many things, my brothers?

Whatever is commanded to us must be prayed for so that it may be fulfilled: but not in such a way that we abandon ourselves, and like sick people lie supine, and say, "Let God rain food upon our faces"; so that we wish to do nothing at all; and when the food has been rained upon our mouth, we also say, "Let God swallow for us." We too must do something, we must strive, we must endeavor; and in that which we have been able to do, give thanks; in that which we have not been able to do, pray. When you give thanks, you take care lest you be condemned as ungrateful: but when you ask for what you do not yet have, you take care lest you remain as a guest, because you are hindered. 5. Objection of the Pelagians. How Pelagius was absolved. Therefore consider these things, my brothers, whoever has approached you and said to you: "What then do we do, if we have nothing in our power unless God gives everything? Therefore God will not crown us, but will crown himself." Now you see that it comes from that vein: it is a vein, but it contains poison; for it has been struck by a serpent, it is not healthy. For this is what Satan does today, how through the poisons of heretics he casts out of the Church, just as then through the poison of the serpent he cast out of paradise. Let no one say that he was absolved by the bishops: the confession was absolved, but the correction itself is absolved. Because those things which he said before the bishops seemed catholic: but those things which he wrote in his books, the bishops who absolved him did not know; and perhaps he was corrected.

We must not despair of a person who perhaps has preferred to join himself to the Catholic faith and has fled to its grace and help; perhaps this has happened: yet it is not a heresy that is absolved, but a person denying heresy, etc. From a Sermon on the Passion of the Lord, in the Collection of Bede and Florus on Romans 5. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son; much more reconciled, we shall be safe in His life (Rom. 5). Therefore Christ died for the impious. And Christ is God. How will the just man not reign, found in the life of God, when, lest he perish, the impious man was sought by the death of God? For in the life of God we shall be safe, because in our life we perished. But when we hear both the life of God and the death of God, let us discern from what source each comes. For He brought us life, but He received death from us: yet not according to His own merit, but for our sake. Likewise from a Sermon on the Passion of the Lord, Bede and Florus on Romans 12.

He who exalts himself will be humbled; and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 18:14). Therefore, when the Apostle admonishes us not to be high-minded, but to agree with the humble (Rom. 12:16), let him consider, if he can, into what a precipice of pride a man is hurled if he does not agree with a humble God; and how pernicious it is for a man to bear impatiently what a just Lord has willed, if God patiently bore what an unjust enemy willed. Likewise from a Sermon on the Passion, Bede and Florus on Romans 15. Therefore, Christ, the King of the Jews, under whose gentle yoke even the Gentiles were brought to salvation, because greater mercy was granted to them. The Apostle himself shows this more clearly where he says, "For I say that Christ was a minister of circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the Fathers; but the Gentiles glorify God for mercy" (Rom. 15:8-9). For it was not due that the bread of the children be taken away and thrown to the dogs, unless the dogs, humbled to gather the crumbs which they saw falling from their masters' table, were through that very humility exalted and made men, so that they might merit to approach that same table.

Also from a Sermon on the Passion, Bede and Florus on Galatians 6. Let us therefore also glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which we are crucified to the world, and the world to us (Gal. 6:14). Concerning this cross, we would not blush to place it on the forehead itself, that is, on the dwelling-place of modesty. Also, from a Sermon on the Passion, Bede and Florus on Ephesians 4. For the old man is not, as some think, the body, and the new man the soul: but the body is the outward man; the soul, the inward. This oldness and newness are worked out in the inward man. For when the Apostle said, Put off the old man, and put on the new, he did not command that the body be laid aside, but that life be changed for the better. He taught this, finally, by way of consequence; for, wishing to explain what he had said, he says, Therefore, laying aside falsehood, let each one speak the truth with his neighbor (Eph. 4:22-25).

From a Sermon on the Resurrection of the Lord, Bede and Florus on Romans 6. For that he died, he died once to sin; but that he lives, he lives to God. Thus also consider yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus. This is the sacrament in which those who are baptized experience the passing away of the old life and the beginning of the new. Hence the same author says: Therefore we are buried with him through Baptism into death; so that just as Christ rose from the dead, we also may walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:10–11). Through this sacrament let us recognize that we are dead to sin with Christ and live to righteousness in Christ. On the cross is the pain of confessors; in the tomb, the rest of the absolved; in the resurrection, the life of the just. From a Sermon on the Octave of Easter, among the *Collectanea* of John the Deacon on Genesis, not yet published. Gen. ch. 1, v. 3. Light was made.

And God said, "Let there be light," and light was made, etc. By the name of light, through allegory, we understand all the just and faithful to be called, as the Apostle says: "You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord" (Ephesians 5:8). But this light was made. There was, however, the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9), which was not made, but born of God. That light was not made, but through the uncreated light, light was made. So also the firmament: just as light was made by the shining God, so the firmament was made by the firm God. And we find that the firmament in the Church ought to be understood as the authority of the divine Scriptures. And therefore light first, then firmament; because Scripture was made through just men, and unless they were first justified, so that they might be light, Scripture could not be propagated, so that it might become a firmament between waters and waters, a middle between the lower peoples of men and the higher peoples of Angels. Why? Because Angels do not desire to make progress from Scriptures, therefore they are not under the firmament, under the authority of Scriptures; for they contemplate the form of divinity and wisdom. But we are rightly under the firmament, to whom the will of God is opened through the authority of Scriptures, etc.

The sea and the dry land. The grass of the pasture. i. We see the earth, we see the sea; they are the works of God. Those things lie beneath our eyes, those others lie beneath our intellects. Those things are known to our flesh, those others are known to our mind. What is the dry land in the Church? Every soul thirsting for God is called dry land. For the waters were separated, and the dry land appeared. This sea is the world, and the evil are the bitter waters; they were separated and gathered into one gathering, that is, predestined to one end, toward which God directs all whom He separates from the saints. But God separates; for man cannot separate these things: and the dry land appears through the separation. Place two men together; one desires a spectacle, the other a church. Joined in body, they are separated by desires. That one belongs to the bitter water, this one appears as dry land. How do we prove that this land, which signifies men desiring good things, is dry? The Psalm said to God: "My soul is like land without water for you" (Ps. 142:6), my soul thirsted for you. It thirsts, it is dry; it is separated from the waters of the sea. Let it not pay attention because it is not yet separated in body: desire has already made the separation. Some desire God, others desire the world. What, then, does the dry land thirst for? Rain from heaven, rain from the clouds, rain from the Scriptures, rain from the firmament. But when it desires rain, it desires sweet water, separated from the bitter water. But God knows that the dry land desires; for it lies hidden and in secret.

The desires of the sea, that is, secular desires, are apparent. If someone desires money, he is moved toward that money, he wants to acquire it; because money is a visible thing, his desire is apparent. But whoever desires God, his desire is hidden; because God, whom he desires, is hidden: He is within, a hidden thing. He thirsts, indeed, and is dry; but he is apparent to the eyes of God. And He did not omit fruit; He immediately said, "Let the earth bring forth the grass of pasture." Let the earth bring forth on the very day on which it was made dry. That dry land could not long remain without fruit. Let us also hear the word of God: and let the earth bring forth the grass of pasture, that is, the good works of mercy, concerning which Isaiah says, "Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the homeless into your house," etc. (Isaiah 58:7). Therefore, the firmament is the Scripture of God: the luminaries in the firmament are the understanding of the Scriptures: the lights in the sky, the intellect in the Scriptures. Do you wish to attain the heavenly light? First be the earth yielding fruits, that is, let the works of mercy come first: for after the works of mercy comes the illumination of that light which you desire, etc.

The greater light and the lesser light. But God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the sky, and let them divide the day and the night." The Evangelists are the lights, the Scripture of God is the firmament. But the Gospel, which has testimony from the Law and the Prophets, is the lights in the firmament of the sky. A little one in the Church, however, cannot yet take solid food, but is content with milk, which signifies the lesser light and the stars. And therefore the greater light pertains to the power of day, the lesser light to the power of night. As long as men are carnal and cannot contemplate that wisdom through which all things were made, they are in the night: but He did not abandon the night; He provided faith. For God did not abandon the night; He gave it its lights. The day seeks the sun; the sun suffices for it. The moon and stars were given to the night; they illuminate it; and when the moon does not shine upon the earth, that light which is in the air comes from the stars. Hence it happens that we go out at night and see trees; and if we do not discern them clearly, we nevertheless see them somehow by the light of the stars: and therefore when the clouds are thick, the light of the stars is also taken away, and then a man is under the open sky as he is inside a room. Therefore the night also has its own light. Let us see what the Apostle says in those gifts, in those spiritual endowments: "To each one is given a manifestation of the Spirit for usefulness." How is it given? To one, indeed, is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge (1 Cor. 12:7, 8).

Who understands what difference there is between the speech of wisdom and the speech of knowledge has understood what difference there is between the greater light and the lesser light. Let us hear the speech of wisdom: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word; this was in the beginning," etc. Those who comprehend, it is day, the sun shines for them; but unless they first came from night, they did not come to the light; for "darkness was upon the face of the deep, and God said, 'Let there be light.'" Let no one say that it began from light. For we are all justified from being sinners. Let those who can, therefore, grasp what I have said about the Gospel. But they say to me, "We did not understand what 'In the beginning was the Word' means." If, therefore, it is still night, pay attention because the Word took on flesh, and made for you, as it were, a nocturnal light. For "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:1, 2, 3, 14). And in the bush God speaks through the angel to Moses. Hear where the speech of wisdom is. "What are you called?" said Moses; "how shall I announce you to the people? If it is said, 'Who sent you?' what shall I say?" Hear the speech of wisdom: "You shall say to the children of Israel, 'He who is sent me to you.'" Who can grasp "He who is"? Colors, however, are not. Who truly is? He who does not pass away, who always remains unchangeable. But this is food for the great, this is the sun of the day. And as if Moses said to him, "I am still night, illuminate the night." "I will say something that night can grasp, I will say something that the little ones can retain: 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'

Therefore, "I am who I am" (Exod. 3:14) is said for the power of the day: "I am the God of Abraham" for the power of the night. Faith dispensed in time shines in the night: wisdom always remaining shines in the day. It nourishes in the night, so that we may proceed into the day. The stars, then, are the other gifts. Because when it had been said, "To one is given the speech of wisdom," like the sun in the power of the day: "to another is given the speech of knowledge," like the moon in the power of the night: it also gives stars—to one the gift of healings, to another prophecy, etc. The reptiles of living souls. The power of the sacrament is charity. God said: "Let the waters produce the reptiles of living souls, and the birds." And the waters produced fish, and great whales, and the birds of the sky. And God saw that it was good, etc. Let us therefore see what the Scriptures say. Light through light, the just through the Word. The firmament of the sky, the solid foundation of the Scriptures. The waters beneath the firmament, the earthly people: the waters above the firmament, the heavenly people. The dry land separated from the waters of the sea, souls thirsting for God from the multitude of the world's sins. The earth sprouts grass for fodder and fruit-bearing trees, the works of mercy. The lights in the firmament of the sky, the preachers of the Word, the Evangelists and Apostles, spiritual gifts. Let us therefore attend to the lights going around the whole world, and see how the waters produce the reptiles of living souls. The Evangelists run about, men are evangelized. Therefore, the reptiles of living souls are understood as the Sacraments. Why?

Because the Sacraments are necessary for this: that the Gentiles may be evangelized, and that men may be separated from the Gentiles; that is, that the waters may produce those bitter ones, and that they may become sweet fish. For it is a great thing; no one can taste the water of the sea, but they eat fish: they are born in bitterness, and they thrive. Those are the sweet Sacraments, which have been sent throughout the whole world. But reptiles are said to be of living souls: not yet a living soul. Why? Because it is somewhat thick for understanding. You have just heard, when the lesson was being read, that Simon Magus was baptized, and he did not put aside his evil mind (Acts 8:13-23): he had the form of the Sacrament, he did not have the power of the Sacrament. Hear what the Apostle says about the impious: "Having," he says, "the form of piety, but denying its power" (2 Tim. 3:5). What is the form of piety? The visible Sacrament. What is the power of piety? Invisible charity. Hear the power of piety: "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have charity, I have become like a sounding brass," etc. "And if I have this and that, but do not have charity, I am nothing" (1 Cor. 13:1-3). For the Sacraments are holy and great: but a man is nothing if he does not have charity. Therefore, the power of the Sacrament is charity. Which charity the heretic does not have, even when I find the form of the Sacrament with him. So when a heretic comes to me, I defer to the form of the Sacrament, so that I do not rebaptize: but I restore the power of the Sacrament, so that I may instill the root of charity.

Therefore, that will be the living soul, which the earth produces, so that it may be a living soul, already possessing the power of the Sacrament. This, then, is what was said: "Let the waters produce reptiles of living souls," etc. The creation of living souls. The living soul. Piety, virtue. Charity. Man made in the image of God. God also said, "Let the earth produce a living soul in its own kind," etc. On the sixth day God said, "Let the earth produce a living soul": not reptiles of living souls, but a living soul. And the earth produced all cattle, and beasts, and serpents, and whatever creeps upon the earth. And God saw that it was good. And God said, on that same sixth day, when the earth brought forth the living soul, "Let us make man in our image and likeness," etc. We have said that God made light, that is, all the faithful: He made a firmament in the world, a heaven between the waters and the waters; He made a firmament in the Church, the authority of the Scriptures between the peoples of the Angels, to whom this is not necessary, and the peoples of men, who would seek God there: God made in the world the separation of the sea from the dry land; God made in the Church the separation of the Gentiles from His servants: the dry land thirsts for rain; men in the Church thirst for heavenly rain: the earth produced the grass of pasture and fruit-bearing trees; men in the Church also produce works of mercy: lights are made in the heaven, the greater light, the word of wisdom; the lesser light, the word of knowledge: the stars, gifts of healings, the faith of prophecy, etc.; all these are in the firmament of the heaven.

When, therefore, they began to walk and to travel throughout the whole world, the waters generated, that is, from the Gentiles there arose the reptiles of living souls, the holy Sacraments; and consecrated men having a form: for the form of the Sacrament is in a man, and sometimes the power of the Sacrament follows immediately, but now on the earth which is separated; therefore the earth produces a living soul. And indeed, brothers, it is necessary to be a living soul. The brothers have received Baptism; let the power follow the form. Let Baptism not be for judgment, but for salvation. It was for judgment for Simon Magus, for salvation for Peter. Let us see, therefore, what is the living soul which the earth produced. Consider a man; he has a body, he has a soul. In that soul itself he has many motions similar to beasts; and he has something else, which beasts do not have. What motions does he have similar to beasts? To eat and to drink, to sleep and to be awake, and to beget. Are these not common to us with beasts? Whoever has cast these motions into luxury has a dead soul, not a living soul. How do we prove this? Hear the Apostle: "But she who lives in delights, though living, is dead" (1 Tim. 5:6). What is it to live in delights, except to release those motions of the soul, which we have in common with cattle, into pleasures and immoderate lusts, into gluttony, into drunkenness, into fornication, into sleepiness? Those who live thus live in delights; but they are living dead.

If, however, all these affections are restrained, and these motions are held in check for the sake of chastity and continence, the earth produces a living soul; which, because it was dead in pleasures, remains that, once restrained from pleasures, it may begin to live and possess the virtue of piety. What, then, is the virtue of piety? Charity toward God and neighbor. Whoever has charity restrains through faith all lusts, all desires, all motions of his soul which he holds in common with beasts; he will be a living soul. And it follows that man is now formed in the image and likeness of God. He is formed, however, when all those things which have been spoken are concluded in that man. For, just as God made the light, it was said concerning man in the Church: and He made the firmament, on account of man the authority of the Scriptures: and He separated the waters from the earth, the Gentiles from the believers: and the earth sprouted the grass of pasture, the works of mercy: and the lights in the sky, the holy Evangelists in man: and the earth produced the reptile of living souls, the Sacraments; and this in men: afterwards it produced the living soul, the restraints of all lusts; and this in man. Join all these things to the understanding; and man is made in the image and likeness of God. Pay attention to how we prove that. For concerning each individual thing He said, God saw that it was good. But when He made a better thing, He did not see that it had become better. But in man Himself He concludes all things which were made, and it was said, God saw all things which He made, and behold, they were very good.

He had been speaking for some time about each individual thing, that they were good; when man was made, he named them all. It is understood that each of those individual things is found in man. Do you seek light in man? You find faith. Do you seek a firmament? You find the authority of the Scriptures. Do you seek the separation of waters? You find the faithful separated from the Gentiles. Do you seek the sprouting of grass and fruit-bearing trees? You find good works, works of mercy. Do you seek the lights of the sky? You find the Evangelists. Do you seek the creeping things of living souls? You find the Sacraments. Do you seek a living soul? You find continence. Do you seek man in man? You find the image and likeness of God. From a Sermon on the Fiftieth Day of the Resurrection, Florus on 1 Corinthians 1. The Lord Christ humbled himself, that we might learn to be humble: he was conceived containing all things, he was born begetting all things, he died giving life to all things: but after three days he rose again, and ascended into heaven, and placed the human flesh he had taken up at the right hand of the Father. It is wonderful, brothers, and this is what the impious refuse to believe; it is wonderful that a man rose again in the flesh, and ascended into heaven with the flesh: but it is much more wonderful that the whole world believed such an incredible thing. What is more incredible: that God did such things, or that the world was able to believe? What, if we also consider the very manner in which the world believed? Even that is truly perceived as divine, and is found to be very wonderful.

People uneducated in the liberal arts, and altogether unpolished as far as the teachings of the world are concerned—not skilled in grammar, not armed with dialectic—Christ sent very few fishermen with the nets of faith into the sea of the world. What am I saying, very few? He sent twelve; and yet through them he filled the Churches with every kind of fish in such a way that very many even of the wise men of the world, to whom the shameful cross of Christ seemed disgraceful, now mark it on their foreheads; and that which they thought should be blushed at, and with which they insulted us, they place on the citadel of modesty. From a Sermon on the Apostle Paul, on the conversion of a certain pagan named Faustus, Florus to Rom. 14. We can neither see nor show a man's heart. God says, "What is open is for you; what is hidden is for me." The Apostle Paul says, "Brothers, do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes and illuminates the hidden things of darkness, and will reveal the thoughts of hearts; and then praise will be for each one from God" (1 Cor. 4:5). You cannot inspect the heart of a new Christian. What, can you inspect the heart of an old Christian? You will say, "But he believed out of necessity." It could also be said of him of whom we were speaking a little while ago, who was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man (1 Tim. 1:13). For a certain necessity was also imposed on him: he was struck down by a heavenly voice; so that he might have light, he lost light. Threaten whatever you will, and give as much as you will to any man: what is sweeter than this light?

Yet unless Paul had lost that [life], he would not have received the eternal one. He believed out of necessity. What did he fear? Let someone tell me what he feared. Bleating sheep? Sheep can bleat, but they cannot bite. He could have noticed, even in the very bleating of the sheep of God, the glory of God, and feared the judgment of God. He was roused, as it were, from a kind of sleep, so that he might consider that what was predicted about Christ was being fulfilled in Christ, that the name of Christ had such power, that the glory of God prevailed so greatly. Therefore, I say briefly to your Charity; I address the Church of God, I address the people of God: If he believed, you have found; if he feared, you have conquered. Meanwhile, brothers, as far as what men can do, let us not usurp for ourselves what has not been granted. The Apostle says: "Receive the weak in faith, not in judgments of thoughts" (Rom. 14:4). Let us not usurp for ourselves the judging of others' thoughts; but let us offer our own thoughts to God, even concerning those about whom we perhaps doubt something. Perhaps their very newness doubts something. Love the doubter all the more abundantly: by your love, cure the doubt from the heart of the weak. See the inner face, over which you may rejoice; entrust the heart to God, for whom you may pray. Know that he is abandoned by evil men, and is to be taken up by you. Love the man more than you formerly hated the error. Thus Christ came to heal the sick, as we heard in the Gospel: "For there is no need of a physician for the healthy, but for those who are ill" (Matt. 9:12).

And what man is there who, when he has lost one sheep, does not leave the ninety-nine in the mountains and go to seek the one that perished, and when he finds it, rejoices over it? Thus my Father rejoices more over one penitent than over ninety-nine just who have no need of penance (cf. Matt. 18:12-14 and Luke 15:4-7). So indeed Christ came to heal the sick, so he knows how to take merciful vengeance on his enemies. Those who perhaps are grieved in spirit for his partners in error are angry for a time; later they may perhaps imitate them. Therefore, brothers, we commend him to your prayers, to your love, to your most faithful friendship, and to your reception of his weakness. As you go before, so he follows: teach the good way; let him find the good in you. Now that he is a Christian, let him discern the difference between what he left behind and what he found. His life and his zeal for the faith of Christ will be proven by later times; but now, my brothers, it was not necessary, it was not the counsel of the shepherds to repel the one knocking, to delay the one seeking. To wish to judge the secrets of the heart and not to accept the manifest voice was neither our counsel nor our intention. For we know how that merciful avarice of God threatens, seeking gain everywhere from his money, and saying to the lazy servant who wishes to judge what he did not see and who grows sluggish in gathering the Lord's profits: 'Worthless servant, I condemn you from your own mouth.'

You called me a man of ill omen, reaping where I did not sow, gathering where I did not scatter: you knew my greed, then. You would give my money to the money-changers; I, coming, would exact it with interest (Luke 19:22-23). Therefore we could do nothing but disburse the Lord's money. That exactor will be not only his, but of all of us. Let us therefore fulfill the office of the disburser, not usurp the place of the exactor. And so, my brothers, keep the work of God in mind: you sought one thing, you were arranging another, you have found another. We commend the work of the Lord, we sow among fellow servants. Let us love in it more what our Lord has done than what we wished to do. For his works are better. And we have heard his great and devoted voice: I do not want a majorate, I want to be a Christian. Rejoice, exult, more than you hated, love. Commend the work of Christ to prayers: show a faithful, pious mind, friendly to the beginnings of the old man. For what does it matter that you already see an advanced age? The Lord's hour comes to the vineyard, about to receive equal wages, etc.

From a Sermon on the Nativity of Saint Quadratus, Bede not yet published on 2 Corinthians 4. The blessed apostle Paul employed a testimony from the Scriptures, in which he commended to us the glory of the martyrs. "Because of which it is written," he says, "I believed, because of which I spoke." And we believe, because of which we also speak (2 Cor. 4:13). For if they had only believed, and had not spoken, they would not have suffered. By believing they grasped life, and by speaking they found death; but a death in which the corruptible body would be sown, and incorruption would be reaped. This meaning, that is, that we believe because of which we also speak, the same apostle explained elsewhere thus: "With the heart belief is given for righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made for salvation" (Rom. 10:10). From a Sermon on the Three Rods, Bede and Florus on 1 Corinthians 1. But why the Lord first chose the ignoble, the few, the inexperienced and unpolished, when he had before his eyes a great crowd, in comparison indeed with those poorer ones fewer, but in their own kind many rich, noble, learned, wise, whom he later also gathered, the Apostle explains the sacrament: "God chose the weak of this world, to confound the strong; and the foolish of this world, God chose, to confound the wise; and the ignoble of this world, God chose, and those which are not, that is, are not counted, so that those which are might be emptied out" (1 Cor. 1, and 28). For he had come to teach humility, and to overcome pride.

The humble God had come: He would in no way here first seek the lofty, who had come so humble. First, because He chose to be born of that woman who was betrothed to a craftsman. He did not, therefore, choose noble birth, lest nobility in this land grow proud. He did not even choose to be born in a very large city, but was born in Bethlehem of Judaea, which is not even called by the name of a city. Even today the inhabitants of that place call it a village: so small, so insignificant, it is almost nothing, were it not ennobled by the ancient nativity of the Lord Christ. He therefore chose the weak, the poor, the unlearned: not because He abandoned the foremost, the rich, the wise, the noble; but if He were to choose those foremost themselves, they would seem to be chosen by merit of their riches, by merit of their possessions, by merit of their birth, and, puffed up by these things, they would not receive the salvation of humility, without which no one can return to that life from which we would not have fallen except through pride.

Again, from a Sermon on the Three Rods, Bede not yet published on 1 Thessalonians 2. I have become a little one in your midst, like a nurse cherishing her own children (1 Thess. 2:7). Therefore he did not say, “Mother,” because sometimes mothers are either too delicate or love their children less, and when they have given birth, they hand them over to others to be nursed. Again, if he had only said, “Like a nurse cherishing,” and had not added, “her own children,” it would seem that he had received them to be nursed as if another had given birth. And he called himself a nurse, because he nourished; and he called them his own children, whom he himself had begotten, saying: “My children, whom I bring forth again, until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). But he brings forth, as the Church brings forth in her womb, not from her own seed. From a Sermon on the Good of Marriage, Bede and Florus on 1 Corinthians 7. Whoever can accept it, let him accept it (Matt. 19:12). “But I cannot,” he says. “You cannot? I cannot.” Let a certain nurturing authority of the Apostle receive you, so that if they do not contain themselves, they may marry. Let something be done, whereby pardon may be reached. Let it pertain to pardon, lest one rush into eternal punishment. Let what is lawful be done, whereby what is not lawful may be forgiven. This indicates what follows: “I would rather they marry than burn” (1 Cor. 7:9). He conceded, I say, something to incontinence because he feared a greater thing: he feared eternal punishments, he feared what awaits and remains for adulterers.

Even this, that married people, overcome by lust, use each other beyond the necessity of procreating children, I place among those things for which it is daily said, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors" (Matt. 6:12). From a Sermon on what is written, Matt., ch. 16, v. 24, "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself": Bede not yet published on 1 Thess. 5. "Reprove the restless, console the faint-hearted," etc. When a man sees someone living wickedly, and perhaps giving something to the Church, and does not reprove him, he flees in spirit. What is "to flee in spirit"? To fear. Fear is an interior flight. Why does he fear? Because he is a hireling. Lest perhaps that man take the reproof badly, and not give what he usually gives. He sees the wolf coming, that is, the devil breaking the neck of the wicked man; and he flees in spirit, refrains from useful reproof, full of fear. But he who is a pastor, and has care for the sheep, does not abandon him, and does what the Apostle says, "Reprove the restless, console the faint-hearted," etc. Therefore let no one think himself a pious pastor, or one who calls himself a pastor, because he does not return evil for evil, when he rather returns evil for good. For that man, even if he is a wicked sinner, gives to the Church from his own goods; but he returns evil for good to him, from whom he withholds reproof.

But since all this must be done out of love, and sometimes people consider those who correct them to be their enemies, therefore after saying, "Reprove the restless," he added, "console the faint-hearted." For perhaps someone begins to falter and becomes disturbed because of the reproof; then you must console. "Support the weak," lest they fall through weakness. If infirmity has made them stagger, let charity receive them in its bosom. And after saying these things, he added at the end, "See that no one returns evil for evil to anyone" (1 Thess. 1:15). Therefore reproof is not evil, if it is given. But the good sheep, when corrected by its overseer, what does it say? "The just man will correct me with mercy" (Ps. 140:5). From a sermon on what the Lord said, Luke 11:10, "Ask and you shall receive": Bede not yet published on 2 Cor. 12. We find that the wicked have asked and received, and the good have asked and not received. For what is worse than demons? And yet they asked for pigs and received them (Matt. 8:31-32). And we find that God did not fulfill the desire of the Apostles, but fulfilled the desire of the demons. What then shall we say, except that the Lord knows who are his (2 Tim. 2:19), and of them everyone who asks receives? But a scruple remains concerning the Apostle; for he himself was not among those who are his, who spoke this sentence, "The Lord knows who are his." Therefore all who are his ask and receive. But we ask: what?

For those things which are sought for the sake of this temporal life are sometimes beneficial, sometimes harmful; and when God knows they are harmful, He does not give them to His desiring and powerful ones: just as a physician does not give whatever a sick person has asked for; and out of love He refuses what He would grant out of lack of love. Therefore He hears all His own for eternal salvation; He does not hear all for temporal desire, and for this reason He does not hear them for this, so that He may hear them for that. Finally, consider the very words themselves. When he did not receive what he had asked the Lord for three times, He said to him: "My grace is sufficient for you; for virtue is perfected in infirmity" (2 Cor. 12:9). Why do you desire from me that the sting of the flesh, which you have received, be removed from you, lest you be puffed up in your revelations? Surely you ask for this because you do not know what is good for you. Trust the physician: what he has applied is harsh, but useful; it causes pain, but it brings forth health. Virtue is perfected in infirmity. Therefore endure infirmity, if you desire health: endure infirmity, if you desire perfection, because virtue is perfected in infirmity.

From a sermon on the words of the Apostle, "There is no struggle for us," etc. Bede and Florus on Ephesians 6. Let there be no struggle for us against flesh and blood. For it is not only man who persecutes you, but the devil through him; and before he harms you in body, he kills you in heart. Let there be no struggle for us against flesh and blood; men against men, who are flesh and blood: but against principalities and powers, the rulers of these darknesses (Ephesians 6:12); because just as Christ governs and rules those who are light, so the devil hurls and incites those who are darkness to every evil. Therefore the Apostle exhorts us, that we should not pray against the evil man, but against the devil who works with him; and let us do whatever we can, so that the devil may be expelled and the man freed. For just as if someone in battle, from the opposing side, comes armed and sitting on a horse, you do not become angry at the horse, but at the rider; and you desire, as much as you can, to strike the rider and possess the horse: so it must be done with evil men; and we must labor with all our strength not against them, but against him who instigates them; so that when the devil is conquered, that unhappy man whom he had begun to possess may be freed.

From the same sermon, Bede and Florus on 1 Corinthians 12. He who says he abides in Christ ought to walk as he walked (1 John 2:6). What is this way in which Christ walked? What else is it but charity, of which the Apostle says, "I show you an even more excellent way" (1 Corinthians 12:31)? Therefore, if we wish to imitate Christ, we must run along that same way which Christ, even while hanging on the cross, deigned to walk. For he was fixed on the cross, and running the way of charity, he prayed for his persecutors. Indeed, he said: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). And so let us also continually pray for all our enemies, that the Lord may grant them amendment of character and forgiveness of sins. From a sermon, What a bishop ought to be, and where Paul reproves Peter: Bede not yet published, on 1 Timothy 3.

Therefore the bishop must be irreprehensible (1 Tim 3:2). Who denies this? But if the bishop must be irreprehensible, does it follow that the Christian ought to be reprehensible? "Bishop" is a Greek name; in Latin it can be rendered "superintendent" or "visitor." We are bishops, but we are Christians with you. We are called specifically from visitation; all of us in common from anointing. If the anointing is common, the struggle is common. Why then do we visit, if there is nothing good that we see in you? From a sermon on the Sabbath, Florus on 2 Corinthians 3. But when he has turned to God, the veil is removed. The veil, not Moses, is set aside: the veil, not the law. Observe how the Lord came, and the veil is set aside: when he hung on the wood, the veil was rent. A great mystery! O ineffable sacrament! The transgressors of the law crucified him, and the secrets of the law lay open. Was not that cross the key of the Lord? It held, and it unlocked what was closed. But the Jews, even with the veil rent, still have their faces covered. But we, says the Apostle, with unveiled face contemplating the glory of God, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:16, 18).

From a sermon on the Kalends of January against the pagans, John the deacon on Leviticus. The Apostle Peter says to the Church, which is the body of Christ: "Holy people, a royal priesthood" (1 Pet 2:9). At that time a single priest was anointed; now all Christians are anointed. The king was anointed, and the priest was anointed; the rest were not anointed. The Lord bore both persons, not in figure, but already in truth, both king and priest. On account of this, the Apostle says of the Lord Himself: "Who was made from the seed of David according to the flesh" (Rom 1:3). Behold, therefore, the royal lineage. Thus Christ is said to be from the seed of David on account of Mary, because she was from the seed of David. But what lineage was in Mary? It is written in the Gospel that the priest Zacharias had a wife, Elizabeth, from the daughters of Aaron. Therefore from the priestly lineage, because the whole tribe of Levi itself. Moreover, it is said in the Gospel to the virgin Mary by the angel: "Your kinswoman Elizabeth" (Luke 1:36). Therefore, if Elizabeth, one of the daughters of the priest Aaron, was a kinswoman of Mary, it is not doubted that the virgin Mary belonged not only to the royal but also to the priestly blood. For this reason, in the Lord according to the man He assumed, both persons, royal and priestly, are present. Therefore, at that time, in figure, two were anointed, king and priest, because this was fulfilled in our Head, of whom it is manifest that we, the whole Church, are the body. Hence we are rightly called a royal and priestly lineage.

From a sermon on the Kalends of January against the pagans, John the deacon, same place. In those old sacraments, that one Lord our Jesus Christ was prefigured. One priest entered the Holy of Holies; but the whole people stood outside. Surely now, when bishops are assisting at the altar, you are not outside, but inside? At that time, one priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year. The year signifies all time. Therefore, once in all time, one priest entered the Holy of Holies—not the figurative one, but the true one, beyond the veils of the heavens—our one priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, rising from the dead, offering himself for us. He entered, and he is there. But the people still stand outside with us: we have not yet risen to go to meet Christ and to remain always within with him, when he will say to the good servant, "Enter into the joy of your Lord" (Matt. 25). Therefore, what was then prefigured by the one priest alone entering the Holy of Holies and the people standing outside is now fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ alone entering beyond the secrets of the heavens, and the people still groaning outside, saved in hope, awaiting the redemption of their body, which will take place at the resurrection of the dead.

For that same high priest offers our prayers, who offered himself as a sacrifice for us. He it is who leads us, interposing himself not to block, but to direct; not to separate, but to reconcile; not to hinder, but to break through hindrances. He is the one pontiff and one priest, who was prefigured in the ancient priests of God. Therefore a priest without bodily blemish was sought, because he alone lived without the stain of sin even in mortal flesh. For what was prefigured in their body was signified in his life as something to come.