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1. The passage of the holy Gospel of which we have before discoursed
to you, beloved, is fo lowed by that of today, which has just now
been read. Both the disciples and the Jews heard the Lord speaking;
both men of truth and liars heard the Truth speaking; both friends and
enemies heard Charity speaking; both good men and bad men heard the
Good speaking. They heard, but He discerned; He saw and foresaw
whom His discourse profiled and would profit. Among those who were
then, He saw; among us who were to be, He foresaw. Let us
therefore hear the Gospel, just as if we were listening to the Lord
Himself present: nor let us say, O happy they who were able to see
Him! because there were many of them who saw, and also killed Him;
and there are many among us who have not seen Him, and yet have
believed. For the precious truth that sounded forth from the mouth of
the Lord was both written for our sakes, and preserved for our sakes,
and recited for our sakes, and will be recited also for the sake of our
prosperity, even until the end of the world. The Lord is above; but
the Lord, the Truth, is also here. For the body of the Lord, in
which He rose again from the dead, can be only in one place; but His
truth is everywhere diffused. Let us then hear the Lord, and let us
also speak that which He shall have granted to us concerning His own
words.
2. "Did not Moses," saith He, "give you the law, and vet none
of you doeth the law? Why do ye seek to kill me?" For ye seek to
kill me just for this reason, that none of you doeth the law; for if
ye did do the law, ye would recognize Christ in its very letters, and
ye would not kill Him when present with you. And they answered:
"The crowd answered Him;" answered as a tumultuous crowd,' things
not pertaining to order, but to confusion; in a word, the crowd was
disturbed. See what answer it made: "Thou hast a devil: who seeks
to kill thee?" As if it were not worse to say, "Thou hast a
devil," than to kill Him. To Him, indeed, was it said, that He
had a devil, who was casting out devils. What else can a turbulent
disorderly crowd say? What else can filth stirred up do but stink?
The crowd was disturbed; by what? By the truth. For the eyes that
have not soundness cannot endure the brightness of the light.
3. But the Lord, manifestly not disturbed, but calm in His
truth, rendered not evil for evil nor railing for railing; although,
if He were to say to these men, You have a devil, He would
certainly be saying what was true. For they would not have said such
things to the Truth, unless the falsehood of the devil had instigated
them. What then did He answer? Let us calmly hear, and drink in
the serene word: "I have done one work, and ye all marvel." As if
He said, What if ye were to see all my works? For they were His
works which they saw in the world, and yet they saw not Him who made
them all: He did one thing, and they were disturbed because he made a
man whole on the Sabbath-day. As if, indeed, when any sick man
recovered his health on the Sabbath-day, it had been any other that
made such a man whole than He who offended them, because He made one
man whole on the Sabbath-day. For who else has made others whole
than He who is health itself, He who gives even to the beasts that
health which He gave to this man? For it was bodily health. The
health of the flesh is repaired, and the flesh dies; and when it is
repaired, death is only put off, not taken away. However, even that
same health, brethren, is from the Lord, through whomsoever it may
be given: by whose care and ministry soever it may be imparted, it is
given by Him from whom all health is, to whom it is said in the
psalm, "O Lord, Thou wilt save men and beasts; as Thou hast
multiplied Thy mercy, O God." For because Thou art God Thy
multiplied mercy reaches even to the safety of human flesh, reaches
even to the safety of dumb animals; but Thou who givest health of
flesh common to men and beasts, is there no health which Thou
reservest for men? There is certainly another which is not only not
common to men and beasts, but to men themselves is not common to good
and bad. In a word, when he had there spoken of this health which men
and cattle receive in common, because of that health which men, but
only the good, ought to hope for, he added as he went on: "But the
sons of men shall put their trust under the cover of Thy wings. They
shall be fully satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou
shalt give them drink from the torrent of Thy pleasure. For with
Thee is the fountain of life; and in Thy light shall they see
light." This is the health which belongs to good men, those whom he
called "sons of men;" whilst he had said above, "O Lord, Thou
shall save men and beasts." How then? Were not those men sons of
men, that after he had said men, he should go on and say, But the
sons of men: as if men and sons of men meant different things? Yet I
do not believe that the Holy Spirit had said this without some
indication of distinction. The term men refers to the first Adam,
sons of men to Christ. Perhaps, indeed, men relate to the first
man; but sons of men relate to the Son of man.
4. "I have done one work, and ye all marvel." And immediately
He subjoined: "Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision." It
was well done that ye received circumcision from Moses. "Not that it
is of Moses, but of the fathers;" since it was Abraham that first
received circumcision from the Lord. "And ye circumcise on the
Sabbath-day." Moses has convicted you: ye have received in the law
to circumcise on the eighth day; ye have received in the law to cease
from labor on the seventh day; if the eighth day from the child's
birth fall on the seventh day of the week, what will ye do Will ye
abstain from work to keep the Sabbath, or will ye circumcise to
fulfill the sacrament of the eighth day? But I know, saith He,
what ye do. "Ye circumcise a man." Why? Because circumcision
relates to what. is a kind of seal of salvation, and men ought not to
abstain from the work of salvation on the Sabbath-day. Therefore be
ye not "angry with me, because I have made a man every whit whole on
the Sabbath-day." "If," saith He, "a man on the Sabbath-day
receiveth circumcision that the law should not be broken" (for it was
something saving that was ordained by Moses in that ordinance of
circumcision), why are ye angry at me for working a healing on the
Sabbath-day?
5. Perhaps, indeed, that circumcision pointed to the Lord
Himself, at whom they were indignant, because He worked cures and
healing. For circumcision was commanded to be applied on the eighth
day: and what is circumcision but the spoiling of the flesh? This
circumcision, then, signified the removal of carnal lusts from the
heart. Therefore not without cause was it given, and ordered to be
made in that member; since by that member the creature of mortal kind
is procreated. By one man came death, just as by one man the
resurrection of the dead; and by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin. Therefore every man is born with a foreskin,
because every man is born with the vice of propagation; and God
cleanses not, either from the vice with which we are born, or from the
vices which we add thereto by ill living, except by the stony knife,
the Lord Christ. For Christ was the Rock, Now they used to
circumcise with stone knives, and by the name of rock they prefigured
Christ; and yet when He was present with them they did not
acknowledge Him, but besides, they sought to kill Him. But why on
the eighth day,unless because after the seventh day of the week the
Lord rose again on the Lord's day? Therefore Christ's
resurrection, which happened on the third day indeed of His passion,
but on the eighth day in the days of the week, that same resurrection
it is that doth circumcise us. Hear of those that were circumcised
with the real stone, while the apostle admonishes them: "If then ye
be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ is, sitting on the right hand of God; set your affection on
things above, not on things on the earth." He speaks to the
circumcised: Christ has risen; He has taken away from you carnal
desires, evil lusts, the superfluity with which you were born, and
that far worse which you had added thereto by ill living; being
circumcised by the Rock, why do you still set your affections on the
earth? And finally, for that "Moses gave you the law, and ye
circumcise a man on the Sabbath-day," understand that by this is
signified the good work which I have done, in that I have made a man
every whit whole on the Sabbath-day; because he was cured that he
might be whole in body, and also he believed that he might be whole in
soul.
6. "Judge not according to personal appearance, but judge righteous
judgment." What is this? Just now, you who by the law of Moses
circumcise on the Sabbath-day are not angry with Moses; and because
I made a man whole on the Sabbath-day you are angry with me. You
judge by the person; give heed to the truth. I do not prefer myself
to Moses, says the Lord, who was also the Lord of Moses. So
consider us as you would two men, as both men; judge between us, but
judge a true judgment; do not condemn him by honoring me, but honor me
by understanding' him. For this He said to them in another place:
"If ye believed Moses ye would certainly believe me also, for he
wrote of me." But in this place He willed not to say this, Himself
and Moses being as it were placed before these men for judgment.
Because of Moses' law you circumcise, even when it happens to be the
Sabbath-day, and will ye not that I should show the beneficence of
healing during the Sabbath? For the Lord of circumcision and the
Lord of the Sabbath is the same who is tile Author of health; and
they are servile works that ye are forbidden to do on the Sabbath; if
ye really understand what servile works are, ye sin not. For he that
committeth sin is the servant of sin. Is it a servile work to heal a
man on the Sabbath-day? Ye do eat and drink (to infer somewhat from
the admonition of our Lord Jesus Christ, and from His words); at
any rate, why do ye eat and drink on the Sabbath, but because that
what ye do pertains to health? By this ye show that the works of
health are not in any wise to be omitted on the Sabbath. Therefore
"do not judge by person, but judge righteous judgment." Consider me
as ye would a man; consider Moses as a man: if ye will judge
according to the truth, ye will condemn neither Moses nor me; and
when ye know the truth ye will know me, because I am the Truth.
7. It requires great labor in this world, brethren to get clear of
the vice which the Lord has noted in this place, so as not to judge by
appearance, but to keep right judgment. The Lord, indeed,
admonished the Jews, but He warned us also; them He convicted, us
He instructed; them He reproved, us He encouraged. Let us not
imagine that this was not said to us, simply because we were not there
at that time. It was written, it is read; when it was recited we
heard it; but we heard it as said to the Jews; let us not place
ourselves behind ourselves and watch Him reproving enemies, while we
ourselves do that which the truth may reprove in us. The Jews indeed
judged by appearance, but for that reason they belong not to the New
Testament, they have not the kingdom of heaven in Christ, nor are
joined to the society of the holy angels; they sought earthly things of
the Lord; for a land of promise, victory over enemies, fruitfulness
of child-bearing, increase of children, abundance of fruit, all
which things were indeed promised to them by God, the True and the
Good, promised to them, however, as unto carnal men, all these
things made for them tile Old Testament. What is the Old
Testament? The inheritance, as it were, belonging to the old man.
We have been renewed, have been made a new man, because He who is
the new man has come. What is so new as to be born of a virgin?
Therefore, because there was not in Him what instruction might
renew, because He had no sin, there was given Him a new origin of
birth. In Him a new birth, in us a new man. What is a new man? A
man renewed from oldness. Renewed unto what? Unto desiring heavenly
things, unto longing for things eternal, unto earnestly seeking the
country which is above and fears no foe, where we do not lose a friend
nor fear an enemy; where we live with good affection, without any
want; where no longer any advances, because none fails; where no man
is born, because no man dies; where there is no hungering nor
thirsting; where immortality is fullness, and truth our aliment.
Having these promises, and pertaining to the New Testament, and
being made heirs of a new inheritance, and co-heirs of the Lord
Himself, we have a far different hope from theirs: let us not judge
by appearance, but hold right judgment.
8. Who is he that judges not according to the person? He that loves
equally. Equal love causes that persons be not accepted. It is not
when we honor men in diverse measure according to their degrees that we
ought to fear lest we are accepting persons. For where we judge
between two, and at times between relations, sometimes it happens that
judgment has to be made between father and son; the father complains of
a had son, or the son complains of a harsh father; we regard the honor
which is due to the father from the son; we do not make the son equal
to the father in honor, but we give him preference if he has a good
cause: let us regard the son on an equality with the father in the
truth, and thus shall we bestow the honor due, so that equity destroy
not merit. Thus we profit by the words of the Lord, and that we may
profit, we are assisted by His grace.
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