Works (CSEL) 16 part 31/34

If there was anything of human fault in him, divine love burned it away; for its wings are like wings of fire. Whoever has had the fire of love here will not be able to fear the fire of the sword there. To Peter himself, who so often offered his death for Christ, He will say: 'Pass over, recline.' But he will say: 'Thou hast tested us by fire, as silver is tested by fire.' For indeed, in him whom many waters could not extinguish his love, how shall fire shut him out? But he will be tested as silver, I shall be tested as lead; until the lead melts away, I shall be burned. If nothing of silver be found in me, woe is me! I shall be thrust down into the lowest depths, or be wholly consumed like stubble.

If anything of gold or silver be found in me—not through my own deeds, but through the mercy and grace of Christ, through the ministry of the priesthood—I shall perhaps say: 'For they that hope in Thee shall not be confounded.' By that fiery sword, therefore, iniquity shall be burned away, which sits upon the leaden talent. For this reason One alone could not feel that fire, who is the righteousness of God, Christ, because He did no sin; for the fire found nothing in Him that it could consume. Finally, only the eternal gates were lifted up, that the King of glory might enter in—not one guilty of any charge. And here indeed His flesh tasted death; for otherwise it could not rise again.

What I have read, I presume to affirm; what I have not read, I reverently leave to those who know, confessing this one thing: that whatever that flesh underwent, it underwent for this purpose—that by His own footsteps He might fashion anew for others the way either of triumphing through the suffering of martyrdom, or of passing into paradise. Let no one therefore claim anything for himself, let no one boast of his merits or of his power, but let us all hope to find mercy through the Lord Jesus, since we shall all stand before His tribunal. From Him I shall ask pardon, from Him indulgence; for what other hope is there for sinners? And he who here thinks himself gold has lead, and he who thinks himself a grain of wheat has stubble that can be burned. But here many seem gold to themselves. I do not envy them;

but even gold will be tested, will be burned, that it may be proven. For so it is written: 'As gold in the furnace I shall test them.' Let them take heed, therefore, that all shall be tested. Let the many, then, who think themselves gold also pursue lowliness, that they may burn away their vices. But here there is empty boasting. Therefore to the many who think themselves masses of gold, the wiser mass of gold says: 'The furnace shall test us all.' Since, then, we are to be tested, let us so conduct ourselves that we may deserve to be approved by the divine judgment. Let us, placed here, hold fast to lowliness, so that when each of us comes to the judgment of God, to those fires which we are to pass through, he may say: 'Behold my lowliness and deliver me.' For if he be proud, if arrogant, if obstinate, he will not be able to say this.

No one, however, will say, 'Behold my pride,' but, 'Behold my lowliness,' that by its grace he may deserve to be delivered from that fire. There is, then, a lowliness of toil and weariness, and there is also a lowliness of virtue and resolution, which the righteous man holds even in favorable and prosperous circumstances and when set at ease. Broken by no labor, doubtful of the outcome of no contest, he shows a humble disposition toward all, nor does he strive to exalt his own deeds, but rather to diminish the price of his work and the merit of his worth. Hear the righteous man humbling himself: 'I,' he says, 'am the least of the apostles.'

He, a vessel of divine election, that teacher of the nations, says that he is the least, unworthy of the name of that office which he set above his own works, and claims nothing for himself, but ascribes all to the grace of God. This indeed befits the righteous. By this lowliness Abraham was named the father of faith, who, when he was admitted to divine converse, said that he was earth and clay. The Lord Himself also says: 'But I am a worm and no man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people,' when He spoke of the passion of His own body—He who sought not the things that were His own, but the things of others. The apostle wishes us to be imitators of Him, and exhorts us, saying:

'Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.' Let us, therefore, not seek nobility of birth nor riches, if we wish to follow Christ. He emptied Himself, though He was in the form of God; though He was rich, He became poor. Do not thou despise the common man because thou art noble; do not scorn the slave because thou art powerful; do not disdain the poor because thou art rich. Art thou nobler, art thou more powerful, art thou richer than Christ?

He for thy sake took up those things which thou despisest; He for thy sake humbled Himself even unto death, and the death of the cross, that He might abolish the downfall of thy pride, that what we had lost through the disobedience of the one Adam, we might recover through the obedience of the one Lord Jesus. 'Wherefore,' he says, 'God hath exalted Him and given Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, for the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father.' Consider, O man, what thou readest. The apostle did not labor to prove the power of Christ, but to proclaim His obedience, and to show how great is the grace of lowliness, how great its profit. If thou take it with simple ears, He even exalted Christ;

but Christ in that lowliness sought not the things that were His own, but the things that were thine. Receive it, then, with discerning ears: morally it profited thee, mystically it redeemed thy salvation. However thou understandest it, the salvation is thine. If thou thinkest that His lowliness profited Christ, to whom then will it not profit? If it exalted Him, whom will it not increase? The Lord and Author of all became the servant of all, and was beaten; He washed feet, He was crucified, He died. But in all these things I see no loss of His divinity; I recognize the advancement of His working. He who had nothing that could be added to His power had something that could be joined to the worship of His majesty. I dare to say: He would have lost the gift of His working, had not lowliness recovered it.

And so He indeed redeemed us, but He also acquired us for Himself. Lowliness, then, brings no loss; He who emptied Himself is full, He who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, taking the form of a servant, is in the glory of God the Father. I have received Him whom I did not know, I have come to know Him whom I did not recognize, I confess Him whom I denied. To Him I bend the knee of my body, to Him I bow the knee of my mind, Him I adore whom before I fled. We give Thee thanks, O Lord Jesus, that Thou hast created us and, having created us, hast set us over the wild beasts and the dumb animals. Greater are the gifts of Thy visitation. Thou hast honored those Thou hast taken up with fellowship in Thy majesty, saying: 'I will declare Thy name to my brethren'; for, having taken a body, Thou hast become a brother, yet hast not ceased to be Lord.

Greater is the grace of redemption. Thou hast redeemed those in peril by Thine own death, as it is written: 'It is expedient that one man should die for the people.' Thou hast raised the dead, saying: 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up'; for in that temple of the Lord's body resurrection accrued to all. Thou hast made those who rise equal to the angels, as Thou hast said: 'For they who do not marry and they who do not take wives shall be as the angels in heaven.' Lastly, Thou hast placed them at the right hand of God on that throne of the Son of Man, as Thou Thyself didst deign to say: 'From henceforth shall the Son of Man be sitting at the right hand of the power of God.' Whence the apostle, marveling at the gifts of the divine mercy, and showing at the same time that the bounty of the Father and of the Son is one, says:

'But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love wherewith He loved us.' Thou hearest, O man, in what thou oughtest to be rich—what virtues thou oughtest to have: to prove the love of God in thyself, to imitate the sweetness of heavenly charity. And he added: 'And when we were dead in sins, He made us alive together in Christ, by whose grace ye are saved; and He raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' In Christ, surely, the flesh too is honored. He, therefore, who sits at the right hand of God, was humbled for our sake, and therefore says to us: 'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart.' He did not say, 'Learn of me, for I am powerful,' but, 'because I am lowly of heart,' that thou mightest imitate Him, that thou mightest say to Him:

'Lord, I have heard Thy voice, I have fulfilled Thy commandment. Thou hast said that we should learn lowliness from Thee: we have learned it not only by Thy word, but also by Thy deed; I have done what Thou didst command: behold my lowliness.' A good athlete shows his limbs, that he may give proof of the discipline of his training. He shows his limbs also at the time when, after some harder contests, he is again compelled to compete, so that the judge, seeing his wearied body, may by no means compel him to compete. And do thou show the lowliness of thy heart, that thou mayest display the marks of virtue; show also the contests of thy heart, that thou mayest say: 'I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course,' and that the spiritual judge of the contest, seeing it, may decree the crown of righteousness, since thou hast fulfilled the law of the struggle.

There follows the second verse: 'Judge my judgment and deliver me; quicken me for Thy word's sake.' The innocent hasten to judgment and desire to be approved more quickly by the arbiter of their own innocence; this practice exists even in the world, which it has in common with the saints. But he who is righteous before God has another reason for not fearing judgment, because his cause lies before a merciful judge; before his redeemer he wishes and hopes to be acquitted quickly, for the acquittal of the saints is swift. Hence the Lord also says through Ezekiel to the angels who are the ministers of vengeance: 'Begin from my saints.' The Lord does not wish the saints to have a fellowship of judgment in common with the associates of the devil;

for the devil and his ministers shall not be scourged together with men. The punishment is set apart where the guilt also differs. And therefore in another place the Scripture says: 'It is time that judgment begin from the house of God.' For those on whom He has mercy He chastises swiftly, that they may not be afflicted longer by the expectation of judgment to come, nor be wasted more lengthily by the wretched lot of their guilt, so that each one may repay even his sins twofold, by which at last he may be acquitted. For the punishment of the guilty is a kind of acquittal of their offenses. We see in this world the guilty, bound with the fetters of chains, led along in the appearance of a pitiable procession, and sometimes the innocent suffer this, so that it would be more tolerable to die than to undergo such torments.

Those conscious of their own uprightness desire indeed to be heard; even those who are pressed by grave crimes desire to dispatch the penalty of death by speed, that they may gain some shortening of their punishments. There is hope also from the mercy of the judge. By the very exile the bars of the prison are harsher, nor is return forever cut off for all the banished. If a human examination accomplishes this, how much more is the judgment of Christ to be sought by all! The judgment of the devil is deferred, that he may be forever among the punishments, forever bound by the chain of his own wickedness, and may himself in perpetuity sustain the judgment of his own conscience.

Therefore that rich man in the Gospel, although a sinner, is pressed by the torments of punishment, that he may escape more quickly; but the devil is shown to have by no means come to judgment, by no means yet to be subjected to punishments—except those which, conscious of so many crimes, he himself pays through perpetual fear, lest at any time he be secure. Nay, that I may speak more truly, the saint comes to judgment, the impious does not come, since the impious do not rise in judgment. The one asks that he be acquitted, the other that, after being restrained, he be released; but he who did not believe is not judged, but is himself punished by the judgment of his own impiety. Under those emperors, the barbarians guilty of crime are not punished for what they committed in their own nation, because they are not subject to them.

but they are held as enemies under a graver title, who without inquiry into a private crime are punished. So also Christ chastises His own whom He loves, but consigns strangers, as if bound by a general condemnation of impiety, to eternal punishment; for the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed. And yet the prophet modestly teaches by his own example that even he who distrusts his own works may nevertheless hope for a more merciful sentence on account of the word. One desires to live for the sake of riches, another for the sake of his children. This man asks to be quickened for the sake of the word of God, as Simeon awaited the coming of the Lord; whence, receiving the Lord in the temple, he said:

'Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation,' affirming that he had no other desire for living than to see Christ. Finally, he saw, and asked to be loosed from the bonds of the body. We can also understand: 'Judge my judgment'—as though our cause concerning our judgment is to be pleaded more gravely than concerning our error; for to one who errs pardon is more easily granted than to one who wickedly judges another. For it is necessary that the same form of judgment return upon thee which thou thinkest should be decreed against another. There follows the third verse: 'Salvation is far from sinners, because they have not sought out Thy righteous statutes.' For those whose judgment is late, their salvation is far off;

but they themselves are the authors of their own peril, who have not drawn near to the Lord. Therefore they have become far off, because by their own will they have separated themselves from the grace of salvation; salvation has not fled from them, but they have fled from salvation who have removed themselves far away. He came to the Jews, but they did not receive salvation. How did they not receive it? Hear: Jesus is salvation, Jesus is called the Son of Man; the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost, but the Jews demanded that a robber be released to them, and repudiated Jesus. But who is it that makes himself far from the Lord, except he who does not seek out His righteous statutes? But he who does seek out the righteous statutes is near, cleaves to God. And therefore to those who seek the righteous statutes of God the apostle says:

'You who were once far off are made near by the blood of Christ.' The blood of Christ is righteousness; finally He Himself says to John: 'Suffer us to fulfill all righteousness.' There follows the fourth verse: 'Thy mercies are very many, O Lord; according to Thy judgments quicken me.' Although salvation is far from sinners, yet let no one despair, because the mercies are many. Those who perish by their own sin are freed by the mercy of the Lord: 'I will have mercy,' He says, 'on whom I shall have mercy.' He appeared openly to those who did not seek Him, He called those who fled, He gathered the ignorant, He offered Himself to the passion for all. Is He not, then, exceedingly merciful?

For the mercy of man is toward his neighbor, the mercy of the Lord is toward all flesh, that all flesh might ascend to God, having been granted that mercy of the Lord. But how is it that, when he has said the mercies of the Lord are many, he asks to be quickened according to His judgments—especially when he himself elsewhere says: 'Enter not into judgment with Thy servant'? But that is one judgment, the judgment of the benefits of Christ, to which we cannot make answer—for who can render the debt of nature, the debt of salvation and grace?—and another judgment, by which we are assessed according to the estimation of our frailty. Yet in this very judgment, judgment is coupled with mercy, so that the truth of the judgment is tempered by the mercy of the Lord. Or perhaps, because he had said:

'Judge my judgment,' he therefore added that the mercies of the Lord are exceedingly many; for it is a grievous thing to judge concerning another. Whence also it is written: 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.' For since each one is conscious of his own sins, how can he judge concerning another's sin? Let him judge concerning another's error who has nothing in himself that he himself condemns; let him judge who does not do the same things which he thought should be punished in another, lest, when he judges another, he himself pronounce sentence against himself; let him judge who is led to pronounce by no hatred, no offense, no levity. Thou hast heard today what the true and just judge spoke: 'I can,' He says, 'do nothing of myself.'

Certain heretics were wont to raise questions from this passage, as though the Son were weak who did nothing of Himself, as though even according to His divinity He were subject and submitted to the Father's command; and they do not perceive that by this very thing the unity of divine power is rather proved, where they think there is a distance of power between the Father and the Son. The Son does nothing of Himself, because through the unity of operation neither does the Son act without the Father, nor the Father without the Son. Finally, the Father says to the Son: 'Let us make man after our image and likeness,' affirming that the operation is common where the counsel is common. What does He make without wisdom who made all things in wisdom, as it was read: 'Thou hast made all things in wisdom'? Finally, Wisdom said:

'When He made the heavens, I was with Him, and I was the one in whom He delighted'; and the Evangelist says: 'All things were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing,' that he might teach that the Son is not only the maker of all things, but also a partner in the Father's operation. Yet I think that this passage seems to be referred to the form of judgment; for the Gospel is not only the teaching of faith, but also the instruction of morals and the mirror of just conduct. I find in the Gospel that the Lord Jesus undertook the affections and offices of many, that He might teach how we ought to conduct ourselves in these offices. He undertook the person of a shepherd and said:

'The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep,' and therefore for the rational flock He did not refuse the passion of His body, that, placing the weary sheep upon the shoulders of His cross, He might restore it by the performance of that loving burden. He undertook the person of an advocate; for we have Him as our advocate with the Father. He passed the night in prayer for us, that He might form us by His own example as to how we ought to entreat pardon for our sins. For He did not pass the night in prayer as one who could not otherwise reconcile the Father to us, but to show what kind of advocate He ought to be, what kind of priest—that not only by day but also by night he ought to stand as an intercessor for the flock of Christ.

Or did He need the help of obtaining, who could Himself do what He asked, even as He Himself said: 'I go to the Father, and whatsoever ye shall ask of Him in my name, this will I do'? Finally He says elsewhere, when He was raising Lazarus: 'I knew that Thou always hearest me'; nor did He pass the night as one who was weak, who knew that He was always heard, and He cried: 'Lazarus, come forth.' The resurrection spoke, death withdrew. He also undertook the affection of an accused man and stood before the judge as a defendant, nor did the Lord of all disdain the meanness of the governor. Being interrogated, He was silent, showing that the defense of innocence lies not in the clamor of the voice nor in the assertion of forensic advocacy, but in the integrity of conscience, and that the salvation of the body is not to be sought, but the purity of the soul.

Finally, He who acquitted Susanna when she was silent, offered Himself to death: in that case, that no one should despair; in this, that He might not refuse the sacrifice for the redemption of all. Beaten at last, He did not revile, He did not strike back, and the Lord of heaven and earth laid aside all zeal for vengeance and uttered a voice of lowliness, saying: 'If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why dost thou strike me?' As one weak, He deplored the injury of the blow, and, though He could avenge Himself, He chose rather to complain than to take vengeance. Therefore here too He undertook the person and the purpose of a judge, saying: 'I can do nothing of myself.'

For a good judge does nothing of his own discretion and according to the purpose of his domestic will, but pronounces according to the laws and statutes, obeys the decrees of the law, does not indulge his own will, brings nothing prepared and premeditated from home, but as he hears, so he judges, and decides as the nature of the case stands. He complies with the laws, he does not oppose them; he weighs the merits of the case, he does not change them. Learn, judges of the world, what disposition you ought to keep in judging, what sobriety, what sincerity. The Lord of all says: 'I can do nothing of myself.' Elsewhere I read: 'He cannot deny Himself.' He cannot—surely not through weakness, but through integrity; not through an impossibility of doing, but through the strict observance of judging.

What cannot He who can do all things, except what He wills not to be able to do? He wills not to be able to condemn, He wills not to be able against faith, He wills not to be able against truth. Hear at last His own words, why He cannot do anything of Himself: 'As I hear,' He says, 'I judge'—that is: I do not decree from my own power what is pleasing, but from the religious scruple of judging what is just; and therefore my judgment is true, because I do not indulge my own will, but equity. Hear what the heavenly judge says: 'I can do nothing of myself; as I hear, I judge.' And Pilate said to the Lord Jesus: 'I have power to release thee, and I have power to crucify thee.' Thou usurpest, O man, a power which thou hast not.

since God denies that He has it, who has power over all things. Hear what righteousness says: 'I can do nothing of myself.' Hear what the judge of equity asserts: 'As I hear, I judge.' Hear what the judge of iniquity speaks: 'I have power to release thee, and I have power to crucify thee.' By thine own, by thine own voice, O Pilate, art thou bound; by thine own sentence art thou condemned. For thou didst deliver the Lord to be crucified for the sake of power, not for the sake of equity; through power thou didst release the robber, but didst slay the Author of life. Yet not even that power didst thou have from thyself which thou assertest that thou hast. Finally the Lord Jesus says to thee: 'Thou wouldest have no power against me at all, unless it were given thee from above.' It is an evil power for what is harmful to be permitted;

that power is of darkness—to see the truth, but to spurn it. Hear what the true judge speaks: 'I seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.' He speaks as a man, He teaches as a judge, since he who judges ought not to obey his own will, but to keep what belongs to the laws. Appoint a judge over this world: can he go against the form of an imperial rescript? Can he exceed the norm of an Augustan definition? How much more ought we to preserve the form of divine judgment! Christ says: 'I seek not my own will'—that is, the will of man, which is either directed by hatred, or strained by partiality, or bent by favor, or corrupted by the lie of others—for every man is a liar.

'But the will,' He says, 'of Him who sent me'—that is: I came to teach the form of divine knowledge, that in judging the guarding of truth may be more at heart than obedience to one's own will. Here too, then, is not weakness of power, but the expressed form of righteousness. Just, therefore, is the judgment of the Son of God, because it is according to the will of God, not according to the affection of man. For God is full of mercies, and His mercy is with judgment and His judgment with mercy; He neither shows mercy without judgment nor judges without mercy. Finally it is written: 'His mercy is in the balances.' But the sons of men are deceitful in the balances, that they may deceive.

God therefore examines and weighs the minds of each, and as He gives grace according to measure, that it may not be beyond measure, so according to measure He gives mercy. Whence He says: 'Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. With the same measure that ye have measured, it shall be measured to you again.' Likewise the works of each are weighed in the balance, so that, if good outweighs evil, the recompense of reward may be granted; if sins outweigh virtues, a sadder punishment may bind the guilty. This thou hast expressed in the letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul saying: 'Some men's sins are manifest, going before to judgment, but some men's they follow after. Likewise also the good deeds are manifest, and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden.'

All things, therefore, are done by the Lord our God with a certain measure and weight. 'Who placed,' He says, 'the rocks in the balance?' And above: 'Who has measured the water with His hand and the heaven with His palm?' He who examines our things assuredly bestows His own things examined, and decrees all things with the balance unimpaired. He weighs mercy, He weighs vengeance; in both there is a fixed weight and a fitting measure. Whence David also says: 'And Thou shalt give them to drink in tears by measure,' lest without the moderation of measure they should be burdened by the heaping up of punishment and not be able to endure it. And in another place the same prophet says: 'A cup of unmixed wine, full of mixture, is in the hand of the Lord, and He hath inclined it from this to that; yet its dregs are not emptied out.' And Jeremiah says:

'Babylon is a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, by which the nations were made drunk'—that is: the punishment was paid by the nations, that they should no longer exult, because they had vexed the people of God with most bitter plundering. The meaning, therefore, of David's verse is this: the punishment which is owed to the impious is prepared and full, which the Lord inclines upon the faithless; yet by His mercy He does not deign to pour it out even to the dregs, lest they should be unable to bear the fullness of the torment. He inclines the cup, then; He does not empty it. That He inclines it belongs to censure; that He does not empty it, to mercy. Therefore the Lord our God tempers even judgment with mercy. For who of us can subsist without the divine compassion? What can we do worthy of the heavenly rewards?

Which of us so rises up in this body that he lifts his soul on high, to cleave unceasingly to Christ? By what merit, after all, is it granted to a man that this corruptible flesh should put on incorruption and this mortal should put on immortality? By what labors, by what wrongs are we able to lift up our sins? The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to come. Therefore it is not according to our merits, but according to the mercy of God, that the form of the heavenly decrees goes forth upon men. There follows the fifth verse: 'Many that persecute me and afflict me; yet from thy testimonies I have not declined.' It is no great thing if you then do not decline from God's testimonies, when no one assails you, no one persecutes you.